It’s Tough to Be a Bug

This is probably the best 3D short film I’ve ever seen. You have to see it in the special theaters at Disney’s Animal Kingdom or California Adventure, because it is tailored to those venues and wouldn’t make sense anywhere else. The show begins before you ever enter the theater, as you descend into an anthill and while waiting in the lobby of the underground bug “playhouse,” you can read ... Read more »

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Me and a few friends made two pilgrimages to the Cinerama Theater in Houston when I was in high school. The first time was to see How the West Was Won (we actually went twice), and the second was for this. By then they had abandoned the three-strip process that was so widescreen that actors on one side seemed to be looking across you when facing actors on the ... Read more »

It’s Trad, Dad!

It’s Trad, Dad! (1962) I’ve wanted to see this film for many, many years. It was Richard Lester’s first feature film, released in the US as Ring-a-Ding Rhythm! I guess most Beatlemaniacs (I am one) know that what influenced John Lennon to want Lester to direct the first Beatles film was that he was a fan of a short that Lester made in 1960 with Peter Sellers and ... Read more »

It’s a Wonderful World

A pretty good screwball comedy starring Jimmy Stewart and Claudette Colbert, written by Ben Hecht and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Jimmy is a P.I. whose client is a real idiot, accused of murder which he didn’t do. Jimmy hides him out, they are caught, Jimmy is sentenced to prison, the client sentenced to death. Jimmy escapes, is forced to take Colbert hostage (it’s okay, they fall in love after ... Read more »

It Came From Beneath the Sea

I wish I had a “slimy” typeface to use here, because the title was shown with the letters IT dripping slime! (Actually I did find a font called “snot,” but I doubt it would show up in text.) This is the story of a giant radioactive octopus that terrorizes first the US Navy and then the whole San Francisco Bay Area, and it stars (in addition to Ray Harryhausen’s slimy giant octopus) Kenneth ... Read more »

It Came From Outer Space

It’s a little surprising, considering his reputation as the SF poet in his later years, how many really pulpish SF films Ray Bradbury was involved in as a younger man. Someone else is listed as the screenwriter here, but it’s said that pretty much all the dialogue is Ray’s. And it’s not bad dialogue, but what are you expecting out of a movie like this? It’s one of the smarter ones from ... Read more »

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

Beyond space? I have no idea where that might be. I mean, space is pretty big. Whenever you get anywhere, there’s still a hell of a lot of it left.

But in this case the “Terror” comes from Mars, in the form of one of the cheesier monsters ever to haunt the drive-ins of the 1950s. (Not the cheesiest. That would have to be the one from Robot Monster, which ... Read more »

Island of Love

You could see this as The Music Man, Part II. Except that there’s no singing and dancing, the setting is the Greek islands instead of Ioway, there’s no boys’ band, it’s in the late 20th century and not the early part, and … okay, all it has in common with that film is Robert Preston and a big scam. Actually, not so much Preston as Professor Harold Hill. It’s the ... Read more »

Island of Lost Souls

The island in question is that of Dr. Moreau, created by H.G Wells in 1896. I was expecting a shoddy creature-feature, of the sort we’ve been watching a few of lately, but I was surprised. This is a well-written, well-mounted production. The photography is first-rate, with wonderful use of shadows. Some entire scenes are shot with faces in shadow, like in the newsroom in Read more »

Invitation to the Dance

I’m guessing Gene Kelly was really hot after An American in Paris in 1951 and Singin’ in the Rain in ’52. Because he brought them his pet project. An all-dance movie. Three separate stories. No dialogue. True ballet. Kelly would direct and choreograph it. I can almost see the frozen smiles on the faces of the studio execs at MGM. But ... Read more »