Bananas About Movies

Dreamscape

Monkeyboy — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:26:12 +0000

High concept movies always seem to come in twos. And sure enough, in 1984, about three months before A Nightmare on Elm Street was released, Dreamscape emerged.

Drive

Monkeyboy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:54:50 +0000

Can the Oscars give out awards to items of clothing? They should. Because Drive's silk jacket with a scorpion on the back would win Best Supporting Actor.

Cowboys and Aliens

Monkeyboy — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:40:06 +0000

Although based on a comic book, the idea for the film came first, the then unreleased comic being an integral part of the original pitch to Hollywood execs. I suppose, kind of a rough storyboard that you could actually buy in the shops.

Lifeforce

Monkeyboy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:15:57 +0000

Lifeforce is based on a book called The Space Vampires, by Colin Wilson. As the film's credits roll, you might be mistaken for thinking it was actually based on a book called The Sexy Nude Space Vampires. I know I was. The sexy nude space vampire is a young Mathilda May, prowling the streets of London and the surrounding area with her boobs out.

X-Men: First Class

Monkeyboy — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:30:06 +0000

They're a funny lot these X-Men. Their world is one where people discover that they have some sort of crazy power or strength that's beyond that of a normal human being. They're called mutants. And I suppose as the mutant army grows...

Moon

Monkeyboy — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:18:17 +0000

This is a film that's taken me two attempts to watch it. The first time, I found myself dozing, so switched it off, ironically right before it starts to get really good. Not that anything before that point, before the big reveal, is rubbish. Far from it. I guess, as much as I try to fight it, being fed on a diet of fast paced, CGI fuelled, blockbusters creates certain expectations.

Contagion

Monkeyboy — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:27:25 +0000

The virus seems almost polite in the way it kills. A bit of dizziness, a tickly cough, and then foam specked lips, before a camera gets pushed up in your dead face for a wide eyed close up.

The Man From Hong Kong

Monkeyboy — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:03:52 +0000

Touted as Australia's first ever martial arts movie (not sure if it was the last), The Man From Hong Kong was also Lazenby's first movie in a three picture deal with Chinese power house, Golden Harvest.

Went the Day Well?

Monkeyboy — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:41:43 +0000

Doesn’t everyone love a film where Fritz takes a jolly good pasting? Okay, so the second world war ended over sixty years ago, but every time the damn sausage eaters beat us at football, it’s a small comfort to know that we gave Hitler a swift kick in his one and only testicle.

Soylent Green

Monkeyboy — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Soylent Green is set in the year 2022. Back in 1973, that must’ve seemed pretty futuristic, and yet close enough for the movie’s grim message to strike fear into the hearts of a cinema going public. In some ways, it must also have been very reassuring. No matter that the world, fifty years down the line, would turn to shit. The 1970s man about town could tug his little cap over his fringe, run a finger across a smoothly pressed collar, pull a comb through his grizzled sideburns, and tie his neckerchief just so, secure in the knowledge that his fashion sense would never fail him.