Day: January 18, 2008

Worst In Show: Review for "Plan 9 from Outer Space"

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The movie that was helmed as the worst film ever made is truly that. Ed Wood’s Citizen Cane of bad movies, Plan 9 from Outer Space, is the worst film I have ever seen. Yes, that includes The Dukes of Hazzard. Aliens from outer space (duh!) have come to Earth to rase dead bodies to get our attention (and with the look of Vampira and a wrestler, they did). Bela Lugosi, friend of Wood, played the old man zombie, tough he died two days into filming. They hired another person to play his part and hold a cape over his face. At the end, some cops get into the alien ship and the alien commander gives a speech that sounds like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth on crack. The settings are dreadful (the graveyard building where they have the coffin of the dead body is so squalid, it looks like a bookshelf), the special effects horrible (the flying saucers are merely miniatures attached to string swinging in front of the camera, the aliens’ planet looks obscene), and the dialogue benine (“The flying saucer looked like a giant cigar.”). The acting is terrible, but looking at all this evidence, I think to myself, “I guesse that’s what you get with Ed Wood.” The faces of the wrestler zombie looks hysterical, as if he is in mighty pain, and Vampira arms are as stiff and huge as a tree stump. But the atrocities are very funny, looking back then and now and all the progress we’ve made from that in film making (even though this was made in the 1950s).  I think the saddest fact is that Wood was trying to be serious.

Grade: F

This entry was posted in comedy, Horror.

Crune Struck: Review for "Music and Lyrics"

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PoP! band mate Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) is little hard on his luck. While his ex-partner from the band, who co-wrote the songs, is a huge star, Alex is stuck performing for parties and reunions, etc. When a very Britney Agulaira-esque pop star, Cora, asks him to write a song for her, he knows he can come up with the melody, but all he needs is the lyrics. His flower girl, Sophie (charming Drew Barrymore) is really a nobody, but is an excellent lyricist. Together the create a ditty that’s sweet and cute. Sure, it’s not exactly Best Picture material, but it’s very charming and Grant and Barrymore light the screen with their charisma. The songs are a little cliche, but are altogether fun. Cora, however, is a Buddhist with an overactive sexual imagination for her songs (“Buddha’s Delight”? It’s far dirtier than it already sounds.) A little risque if you ask me, but no matter. It’s cute and frilly, the perfect date movie. Hugh Grant is great as an English pop star, and Drew Barrymore is cute. Her smile just lights up the screen. Though not Best Picture material, it is good for what it is. It has very good songs such has “Love Autopsy” and “A WAt Back Into Love”.

Grade: B+


This entry was posted in comedy, musical, romantic.