Continuing with our Chuck Heston theme this week, here is arguably his most famous movie, the classic Planet of the Apes. Heston plays Col Taylor who is put into hibernation for a trip deep into space. He awakes to find that his ship has crashed on a planet where apes have evolved to dominate the planet and enslave man. It also stars Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter. The original script was written by Rod Serling.
Another Heston movie that was released on Blu-Ray this week. Post apocalyptic tale of an Earth in turmoil in 2022. All natural food sources are extinct. People must live on water rations and a mysterious food called soylent. A detective (Heston) investigates the murder of the President of the company that makes soylent and discovers the food's terrifying secret.
This movie is being released on DVD today, so I thought I'd showcase the movie ad. In this movie, Heston plays identical twin prospectors isolated in the Canadian woods searching for hidden gold. A couple show up looking for a lost colleague, stumble upon the brothers, and are mistaken by the crazy twins as claim jumpers trying to steal their gold. It is Heston's last directorial effort and Kim Basinger's second feature role.
Over on Strange Kid's Club I talk about some of the DVDs released this week. Included is a compilation of four Michael J Fox comedies. They are all pretty good so I thought I'd finish out the week with ads for all Michael J Fox movies.
Here's an ad for a great little Michael J Fox movie called The Frighteners. It was written and directed by none other than Peter "Lord of the Rings" Jackson. It's much darker than your typical Fox movie. Fox plays an architect whose wife is killed. The trauma leaves him with the ability to see and talk to the dead. He works with three ghosts as a "Psychic Investigator". Fox sends the ghosts to haunt houses which he then cons people into having him remove the spirits...for a price. Fox's character then discovers that some evil spirit is killing people and only he can see who will be next.
This movie is darkly funny. I really enjoy it. Fox is great in this. There is also a great cameo by R Lee Ermey who pretty much reprises his role from Full Metal Jacket (but as a ghost). The most fun performance, though, is by "The Reanimator" himself, Jeffrey Combs. Combs plays Milton Dammers. Dammers is an undercover agent sent to pin the string of killings on Fox's character. However, Dammers just came off an assignment where he was undercover with a cult and his behavior is...erratic, to say the least. This movie is really good. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
Doc Hollywood is more along the lines of your typical Fox movie. I still enjoy it, though. It's got a great cast with Fox like Woody Harrelson, Bridget Fonda, George Hamilton, Julie Warner and Bernard Hughes. Fox plays a doctor on his way to his dream job in California. He crashes his car in Grady, SC and becomes stranded while his car is fixed. "City boy in the country" humor ensues.
Over on Strange Kid's Club I talk about some of the DVDs released this week. Included is a compilation of four Michael J Fox comedies. They are all pretty good so I thought I'd finish out the week with ads for all Michael J Fox movies.
Here is the ad for one of my favorite Michael J Fox movies and one I feel is underrated.
Over on Strange Kid's Club I talk about some of the DVDs released this week. Included is a compilation of four Michael J Fox comedies. They are all pretty good so I thought I'd finish out the week with ads for all Michael J Fox movies.
Here is the ad for The Hard Way starring Michael J Fox and James Woods. Fox plays movie star Nick Lange who wants to branch out into police dramas. He decides to follow around NY police detective John Moss to "learn the ropes". Hijinks ensue.
I love both of these guys. Woods and Fox are both fantastic and I just enjoy watching this movie. Yes it's cliche, but the actors make it work.
Fox's character stars in a popular movie, The Smoking Gunn, in which he plays supercop Joe Gunn. Watch the fake in-movie trailer for Smoking Gunn II below:
Over on Strange Kid's Club I talk about some of the DVDs released today. Included is a compilation of four Michael J Fox comedies. They are all pretty good so I thought I'd finish out the week with ads for all Michael J Fox movies.
Here's the ad for The Secret of My Success which is included on the aforementioned DVD collection. Michael J Fox plays Brantley Foster. A well educated kid from Kansas who moves to New York to make it big. When he finds it hard to get a job, he visits his uncle who happens to be CEO of a major corporation. His uncle gives him a spot in the mail room. Brantley falls for a beautiful executive and decides to pose as an executive to woo her. Oh, and while wooing the executive, Brantley starts having sex with his aunt.
This is actually a pretty funny movie. Michael J Fox is charming as ever and his aunt is ballsy and hilarious. The movie is also populated with TONS of 80s actors like SuperGirl herself, Helen Slater. Fox's aunt is played by Margaret Whitton who played the evil Indians owner Rachel Phelps in Major League. You'll also see Christopher Murney who played Eddie Arcadian in The Last Dragon and Fred Gwynne who was Herman Munster in The Munsters and the judge in My Cousin Vinny. Finally, in the opening credit sequence you see four models turn their heads rapidly. Cindy Crawford is the third model to turn her head.
This movie shows up on TNT a lot as a "New Classic". I watch it whenever I get the chance. It's still funny and I just enjoy watching Fox at the height of his powers (just two years after Back to the Future and two years before Back to the Future II).
The first and only Go Bots movie, Battle of the Rock Lords, opened 25 years ago today on Mar 21, 1986. Although it opened several months before the original Transformers movie (Aug 8), the latter had been in production for the last two years.
I talk a little bit about the 25th anniversary here.
See the trailer for Go Bots: Battle of the Rock Lords:
Here's the intro to the Challenge of the Go Bots TV show:
This is the sequel to the 1982 sword and sorcery epic, The Beastmaster. This movie has become infamous for how bad it is. Marc Singer returns as Dar, who is forced to travel through time to present day Earth to stop his evil brother (who he didn't have in the first film) from stealing a nuclear weapon and returning to destroy their native land.
Yes, this movie is every bit as bad as the below trailer would have you believe. It's shocking enough this sequel was greenlit, but they also made a Beastmaster 3. As a TV movie. With Marc Singer. And it involves another brother we are only now just hearing about.
Watch the Beastmaster 2 trailer:
For grins and giggles, here's 6 minutes of the Beastmaster 3 TV movie:
Here is an ad for the 1982 fantasy classic, The Beatmaster. It starred Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn.
Singer played Dar, the son of a king who is hidden at birth from a bloodthirsty priest who killed the king to usurp the throne. When he is grown, Dar discovers he has the ability to communicate directly with animals and begins a journey to avenge his father's death.
This movie has become a sensation on cable TV. It has produced a "dubious in quality" sequel as well as a "not half bad" TV series focusing on the further exploits of Dar. Marc Singer did appear in the Beastmaster sequel as Dar, as well as make a few guest appearances on the TV show.
This is an ad for The Shootist from 1976. It was John Wayne's final role. The movie also starred, Lauren Bacall, Jimmy Stewart and a very young Ron Howard.
John Wayne plays an aging gunslinger dying of cancer. He travels to a small town to live out his final days. His presence in the town, however, stirs up certain residents, including an idolizing small boy.
Here's a 1980 ad for two comedies; Neil Simon's Seems like Old Times and 9 to 5.
The first movie on the left is Seems like Old Times which starred Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Charles Grodin and Robert Guillaume. Chase plays Hawn's writer ex-husband who is kidnapped and forced to rob a bank. He seeks the help of Hawn who is a public defender and the current wife of an attorney. Hijinks and hilarity ensue. It is actually a pretty funny movie featuring classic Chevy Chase one liners.
On the right is 9 to 5 starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman. I think everyone knows what this movie is about by now. Coleman plays the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot boss and Jane, Lily and Dolly his underlings. They hatch a scheme to trap Coleman in his house and take over the company. When they do, productivity and sales soar. But how long can they keep it up?
Here's an ad for the thriller Deathtrap starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon. It's directed by Sidney Lumet. Caine plays an aging mystery writer who gets sent a brilliant play by one of his former students (Reeve). Caine lures the student to his home under the guise of discussing the play but he has every intention of killing the young man and submitting the play as his own.
This is actually a very good movie. Essentially a one set, three act, five character setup with lots of twists and turns. Very fun. And Reeve was at the height of his fame having just finished Superman II and gearing up to film Superman III. He took this job because it had nothing to do with Clark Kent or Superman.
Here's the ad for From the Hip starring Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, John Hurt, Ray Walston and David Allen Grier. This movie was written by David E Kelly who is famous for creating Ally McBeal, LA Law, The Practice and Doogie Howser, MD. It was directed by Bob Clark who is famous for directing Porky's and A Christmas Story.
Judd Nelson stars as Robin "Stormy" Weathers, a lawyer that uses over the top theatrics to win cases. His antics get him a promotion at his firm and the job of defending a school teacher accused of murder. Should he he play it by the book or continue his unorthodox behavior to win the case?
Here's an ad for the 1954 epic spectacular, Prince Valiant starring Robert Wagner, Janet Leigh and James Mason. This was one of the first released Cinescope movies.
Wagner plays Valiant, the son of an exiled king who travels to Camelot to become a Knight of the Round Table. Along the way he discovers a conspiracy to overthrow Arthur.
Finishing western week with a double feature of movie ads.
Duel in the Sun from 1946 (this ad, however, is from a re-release in 1954) stars Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Walter Huston, Lionel Barrymore, Butterfly McQueen and Harry Carey (not that Harry Carey). Jennifer Jones plays half-breed Pearl Chavez who moves to a distant relative's ranch in Texas after her father is hanged for killing her unfaithful mother and lover. At the ranch, Pearl butts heads with the ranch owner and scandalously entertains the attentions of his womanizing younger son, Lewt. The movie garnered the nickname "Lust in the Dust" for it's highly sexualized characterizations of Pearl and Lewt's relationship.
This movie was produced and sometimes directed by David O Selznik. He envisioned it as a big budget, hugely epic western in the same vein as his previous Gone with the Wind. He got his way as production delays and the hiring/firing of 7 different directors caused the movie's run time to balloon up to 26 hours and the production cost to reach a then unheard of $6 million.
Lust in the Dust from 1985 was a cheesy comedy western. It starred Tab Hunter, Divine and Cesar Romero. John Waters was originally asked to direct but he turned it down because he didn't write the script. The movie took its title from Duel in the Sun's tongue-in-cheek production nickname. The movie is about a bunch of unscrupulous characters searching for buried treasure in the old west.
Take a look at the hilarious taglines in this ad. Ninfa: The hooker with the chest of gold.Hardcase Williams: They called him garbage wrapped in human skin. I think those get across the tone of the movie quite nicely.
If you look under Lust in the Dust, you'll see also playing is Rustler's Rhapsody, which is another comedy western and one of my favorites. However, I didn't get to that ad this week. Some other time.
Here's a little movie that Harrison Ford did in between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. It also stars Gene Wilder as a rabbi who travels to the Old West.
It's western week this week, so I'm looking at all western movie ads.
Here's an ad for the Tom Selleck vehicle Quigley Down Under. It's a great little movie with lots of humor and an awesome turn by Alan Rickman (as usual). This movie is just a lot of fun. I'm torn on Laura San Giacomo, though. I don't know if she helps or hinders the movie. Some days I hate her and some days I don't mind her.
I've been reading a bunch of westerns lately, so I'm in a western mood. This week is going to be western week.
Here's an ad for The Quick and the Dead from 1995. It was directed by Sam Raimi and starred Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio with appearances by Lance Henrickson, Keith David, Tobin Bell, Gary Sinise and Pat Hingle.
Sharon Stone is ostensibly the star of the movie, however she's the least interesting character as well as the worst acted. When you watch this movie you watch it for Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. It's amazing and one of my favorites.
