The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, I am Legend - Triple Feature!

That's right folks, triple feature. These movies aren't exactly masterpieces, but boy did I have fun with this bunch.

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Fig 1: The first Neville chooses to steal a Ford wagon over a sports car, the other Nevilles cannot resist the temptation of the Ford Mustang.

The vampires taunt him, "MOR-gan…we’re going to kill you MOR-gan…" I wonder if the extras who played vampires decided on this awkward enunciation, sort of like Kramer and George practicing "these PRETZELS are MAKING me thirsty!" on Seinfeld.

This movie looked so bad, that it easily could have been made the year the novel came out, ten years earlier and still would look sub-par for its time. The edits are terrible, the B&W color balance is muddy, sound and visual effects awful. It's interesting to note that it was filmed by an Italian production company and filmed in Italy, even though the setting is LA. The film has only a couple American cars in it the rest are typical 60's Italian/European cars. When Neville pulls up to the lab in his Chevy, we see the only other American car, the Ford wagon that we later see in the dealership. In that shot what looks like a Fiat 500 passes by, these cars are shown again in a later shot at the fire pit.

Not that I know anything about this actor's other performances, but Vincent Price really hammed it up in this one. To make things worse, the vampires barely pose a threat. We learn that Dr. Morgan is immune to them, but also they are simply ineffective, the most passively lurking foes I've seen on screen. Morgan extinguishes these vampires by driving wooden steaks into them with the conviction and savagery that I might exhibit whilst trying to hang a picture frame without hammering my own thumb.

However even with the obvious faults of this movie, the plot is just too irresistible for me to simply dismiss the flick for entertainment purposes. I have an affinity towards any doomsday survivor plots, going back to when I used to watch the original Twilight Zone (1959) episodes. Similar to TZ, the movie addressed the theme of alienation and the "us and them" societal views from the both point of view of humans and the zombies. Even the most heavy handed acting and writing had me captivated simply because they deal in fantasy.

Another notable part of this film is that its the only retelling of I am Legend that remains true to the idea that being the survivor just isn't fun. As in the book, Morgan doesn't have time in the day to do anything but carve wooden steaks to kill off zombies or maintain his food supply. Between that and hauling the dead off in a station wagon to be burned, it's constant backbreaking labor. Meanwhile in the other two films, the survivor is able to indulge the audience's expectation of all the fun things you might be able to do after the apocalypse.

If the movie achieves anything, it serves as a great timepiece in the three part history of screen adaptations on I am Legend. Which brings us to our next film...

The Omega Man (1971)

Fig. 2: The last man to wear a hat that silly, at that angle, got everyone stranded on a three hour tour. This does not help Neville's image as a vampire vanquisher.

This movie opens with a similar sequence of shots as its predecessor, only with a stark contrast...and no I don't mean the quality-it's Charlton Heston, abruptly stopping his sweet ride du jour (a '68 Pontiac Catalina ) to abruptly whip out a machine gun and obliterate a foe through a window. Right from the onset the film establishes that Heston is not here to #$*! around and play handyman with some wooden stakes, and drive around in a jalopy station wagon.

Here are my notes:

-The vampires are back! Only they are funky zombies with sunglasses and big hair this time! And they are organized into a multi-cultural organization called "The Family". They are the victims of biochemical warfare between Russia, China and the US, instead of plague.

-The theater scene hints at this theme of war when it shows the Woodstock concert with the hippie who says"...if we can't all live together and be happy, if you have to be afraid to walk out in the street...what kind of a way is that to go through this life?" Nice touch.

-Why does Charlton Heston have silly looking costumes? I've only seen two of his sci-fi movies so far, this and Soylent Green, and in both he has had really silly costumes. In this movie, I'm referring to his ridiculous hat, which makes him look like Skipper's (from Gilligan's Island) long lost alcoholic brother. (see Fig. 1)

-(SPOILER ALERT) The way Neville dies is so unlikely, all he would have to do to avoid a harpoon thrown from a balcony is step to the side.

-The head zombie Matthias says "Neville can't see in the dark, anymore than we can see in the light." I beg to differ, the zombies aren't just blind but repelled entirely by light, wheras Neville can get by in the darkness.

-Why does the assistant head zombie use a gun to try and kill Neville? Isn't their whole organization against any technology?

-The Simpsons Halloween Special VIII had a short called "The Homega Man" which spoofed the movie. This is where I first learned of the movie, and what got me watching all three.

This movie was clearly more put together, the quality of the production is much greater than the first. It still has really dated corny elements, such as when one black zombie calls Neville a "honky."

I am Legend (2007)

Fig 3: Filming on location at Union Square was the least challenging, because hippies aren't awake to start the drum circle until the afternoon.

Unlike many movies filmed in famous cities, this movie separates itself from the others by offering an unsparing look at New York City. The shots of the city were so comprehensive and realistic, it was eerie. The film did not work around any of the more challenging locations (Times Square, the Flatiron district, the Brooklyn Bridge, Union Square, see: Fig 3), instead offering very convincing post-apocalyptic scenery. Its no surprise that I had seen the filming location before I had even heard of the movie when I was on the Manhattan Bridge on a Q train, and saw the lights and set at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. (Apparently it cost $5 million to shoot there). Considering all of the overgrown flora, non-native fauna (deer, lions), and all the wrecked cars that were strewn all around, I'm not even sure how it was done, or what was real and what was CG. As for Will Smith, he was great in it, though the flashback scenes with his family felt a little too much like Independence Day or I, Robot all over again. I'm starting to get used to the idea that when the world ends, Will Smith will be the one to save me. Thankfully, the script did not have him spouting off impeccably timed corny one-liners. One major disadvantage of this movie that will retain fans of the old over the new, is it did not have the interesting rivalry of the different societies that is at the heart of the novel and the Last Man on Earth. We do not at any point see things from the zombie's point of view, they are simply mad writhing and screeching monsters. In the other two movies Neville is regarded as a powerful and threatening monster to the zombies/vampires, a legend among them. In this movie, the "legend" refers to the sacrifice Neville gave for uninfected survivors. Quite a contrast to the Omega man, where the zombies actually hold court on a tribune.

Here are some things that are consistent between movies:

-(I am Legend and Omega Man) Neville decorates his apartment with famous works of art that he's presumably stolen from local museums. In I am Legend we see artwork from the Modern Museum of Art. I love the implication that Neville would risk the outside and make it a priority to have these works.

- (All three) Neville uses a map of the city sectioned off to mark and make sure he's obliterated every last vampire/zombie.

- (All three) Vampires/zombies cannot handle the light, and Neville is immune to them (for different reasons in each)

-(All three, SPOILER ALERT) Neville dies in all three (though I am Legend has an alternate ending where he doesn't)

Watching these movies was a great opportunity to see how film has evolved over the years. Not only is the technology better, but the movies expect more of audiences in their ability to understand and draw conclusions from visual information, editing, and plot lines, and it works. I feel having sat through the first two adaptations, that I was able to enjoy I Am Legend much more had I not. The movie stands alone as a good film, but the context was the most enjoyable part of this experience.

Top Ten Films of 2007 by: Anthony Benedetto

10. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
9. Lars and the Real Girl
8. I'm Not There
7. Gone Baby Gone
6. Grace is Gone
5. Into the Wild
4. Michael Clayton
3. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
2. Juno
1. No Country for Old Men

Honorable Mentions: The Amateurs (Which sat on the self for a couple years, and focuses on a bunch of would be film makers that venture into porn.) and 1408. (Which was a really solid horror film.) American Gangster is a solid film with great performances. Grindhouse Double Feature was a Highlight to this year, and a joy to see in theatres. The fake movie ads were the best part, but when the films were split for DVD it lost some of its thrill.

Worst Film of 2008:
In The Valley of Elah: There is a cancer on American Cinema and its name is Paul Haggis. Never in my life have I seen so many good actors who were wasted. (Wait maybe in the 2005 winner for Best Picture, Crash.) Also the film has so many pointless scenes they could have all ended up on the cutting room floor.


Congrats to Josh Brolin:
I haven't heard much about him since watching The Goonies as a kid. It was made offical this year that he was a pretty good actor. Appearing in the Oscar winner for Best Picture, No Country for Old Men. He managed to be the star of that film. Then good supporting roles in American Gangster and Planet Terror. I can forgive him for appearing in In the Valley of Elah which he is one of the several good actors wasted.

The Best Heath Ledger Film You've Never Seen

Heath Ledger's biggest box-office hit is only a few months but his best performance was rarely seen. He looks amazing as the Joker in The Dark Knight. A little foregin film shot shot a few years ago exposes the amazing talent the actor had. The film is called "Candy". The actor plays a heroin addict who goes through three stages. (Heaven, Earth and Hell.) The actor shows such raw intense emotions as the main character of the film. If you haven't seen this film run out and find a copy. It is sad that we will never get to see more from this talented young actor, who died way too soon.

Anthony Benedetto

2001, A Space Odyssey

Writing about this movie, I hope not to cover some well-trodden ground with it. It is obviously a classic, and I do believe in the contributions it has made to film history. That being said, I'll offer some more personal notes, starting with a quote that pretty much sums up my relationship with this film:

"To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art."

Leo Tolstoy penned this in his essay "What is Art?" and this model of ideal art is exactly how this movie grabs me. (which is amazing because it also is a formalist achievement, which is contradictory to Tolstoy's theory on art)

This movie really chills me to the bone, much like a horror movie should, but usually doesn't. The world of this movie is so eerie and convincing that the loneliness of the movie transmits directly to me, a powerful example of the phenomenon Tolstoy writes of. I'm embarrassed by how much anxiety this movie causes me, in fact I long delayed my second viewing of this movie because I'm really just too affected by it to go at it alone. Watching it during the week that all other occupants of this house are away on vacation was really a mistake, I've really been more nervous at night. Somehow I get to sleep though, but not before watching a little Dr. Katz before bed!

Here are my notes:

-It's interesting how the interiors in the movie have seating for several people, yet the spaces are only occupied by a few people at a time. Discovery 1 (the ship used for the Jupiter mission) has much more seating than seemingly necessary, even taking into account the other three astronauts whom never leave their hibernation pods. The civilian space-liners also are oddly empty, with the exception of Dr. Floyd, who is outnumbered by the surrounding flight attendants.

-I didn't realize it until now, but this movie can really be characterized as having two distinct parts (eventhough it techinically has several chapters and an intermission), very similar to what Full Metal Jacket is notorious for. I'm referring mostly to the change in protagonist from Dr. Floyd to David Bowman.

-It never occurred to me until I read the synopsis of the novel, that Bowman actually turns into the energy that we see on screen. (though Kubrick encouraged any interpretation to the film, and doesn't weigh in on it himself). I always assumed we were seeing in Bowman's point of view. Which I suppose puts a great importance on the shots we see of his eyes blinking, maybe to re-enforce that we aren't seeing his point of view. The novel also describes Dave as morphing into an immortal energy form and master of the universe, who doesn't know what to do with his immortality.

-Oddly, I had no idea when viewing this movie on the 21st, that Arthur C. Clarke had died on the 19th. So, let this post be a tribute to Mr. Clarke, may he rest in peace.

Bee Movie

Something has always been oddly stiff about Dreamworks animations. Not that I wouldn't love to be a part of creating them, they are magnificent by any standard, and the modeling and effects are top notch. (just to differentiate, all the characters, scenery, textures, and effects are done in separate teams, and animation teams bring life to them). However in comparison to the powerhouse animation teams at Pixar, the actual animation that takes place in these worlds is really some how, well, less animated. Leave it to a blue fuzzy monster and a fish to change the way I look at animation.

Anyway that BEE-ing said, I liked this movie. I subscribe to the obvious Seinfeld bias. I love his humor, and it doesn't tire on me, bee or not. It may not have (as Josh noted) the clear moral compass and narrative of a Pixar film, but it excels in other ways.

Here are my notes:

-One odd thing is the extent to which the bees have human things within their hive. Why should they drive around in cars? Why can't they just fly, like bees? Some humanisms work better on bees than others apparently.

-I've seen enough of the Discovery Channel's How its Made to recognize the influences taken from a real candy manufacturing line on the fictional honey making process. Yeah, I know a lot of useless crap!

-The bee job seeking desk is surprisingly like signing up for classes on our school's online system, eSims.

-Why the hell does Barry know what box kite is the instant he sees one after leaving the hive? Most humans wouldn't know a box kite from any other.

-Patrick Warburton (The Tick, David Putty) does a lot of yelling! It's a little much. His voice must be so hoarse between voicing for this and Family Guy.

-Renee Zellweger is much more pleasant when we don't have to see her in the flesh. Oooh burn.

-I love the allusion to The Graduate, but they for got the most fun part, the match cut! In the case of the graduate, the match cut was Ben on floaty raft, to Ben on Mrs. Robinson.

-Ray Liotta also does mostly yelling. He didn't even break out his angry voice that much for Goodfellas.

-Chris Rock's role was terrible. And Roger Ebert says its the only redeeming thing about the movie. Interesting.

-Remember Jerry Seinfeld's real Larry King appearance? It was really awkward and uncomfortable, in contrast to Barry's appearance. (now that I watch it again, I think it would seem different with the aid of a laughing studio audience)

-"Honeyburton and Hunron!" made me giggle.

So those are my notes, for all those who liked Ratatouille much better, I will taking a look at that movie soon.

The Project

Being a media junkie, and being a former collector/pack rat, I'm familiar with taking things to absurd levels. Enter: DVD Backup software. It took me a few years, but I finally found the right software, and I'm archiving DVDs at full quality (an average of 7 gb for each disc) like a madman.

WHY? Well, the first reason is, because I can, now that I've got the tools! But also, I have not seen any movies. If you mention it, odds are I haven't seen it. So part II of this project is to see all these movies that I've missed throughout the years. I'm very much like The Janitor in Scrubs, watching movies like The Sixth Sense years after they've come out, and everyone has spoiled the ending the next day at work. So, an important thing to note is I am writing this movie blog with no authority on movies.

I'll let you use your imagination as to where the source DVDs come from, perhaps my collection of discs that I bought from Costco way back when ;-).
Anyway, 5 terrabytes of HD space later, I have a massive list of DVDs to watch, which I am attacking in no particular order, though I do occasionally group related movies together.

One thing that I have realized from this experience is that its hard to avoid an accidental relation between all the movies I've seemingly been picking at random. For instance, I have watched five Robert Altman movies and five Ridley Scott movies within only a couple months. That's a lot of unscripted dialog and fireball explosions.

Incidentally, I do not have a memory for numbers, I have a great database called DVD Profiler
(think iTunes for DVDs) that keeps track of everything. So I will throw out some other quick numbers:

873 Total number of DVD discs that I know I want to archive. (includes box sets)
441 DVD discs in my collection so far.
UPDATE 7/22 - 607 DVDs have been archived.

432 discs left on the wanted list. (every movie I could think of and some TV eps)

54 movies I have watched so far.
10 hard drives storing the discs (boy it gets hot in here!)
4 months ago I started this project.
0 discs are backed up on an alternate hard drive.

So there you have it, the absurdity of the project in numbers. As for 10 hard drives, I'm really not sure what I will do in the summer. 6 of those hard drives are in one PC case which I have not taken steps to cool at all. This may soon turn into a tragic cautionary blog, who knows!

Cereal

I eat a lot of cereal. A lot a lot. I also watch a lot of movies. So naturally I associate the two. In fact often when I see movies, especially old ones with that crackling and popping sound, I'm reminded of the food I like to eat when I watch a movie. This is very inconvenient when I'm at the mercy of concessions at the theater. This blog would be called dinner and a movie, except I don't know how to cook, and sure can't offer you any recipes in between breaks, such as the case is for the TBS Show.

So, I am finally starting up a place to store all of my thoughts on movies. This is in conjunction with my DVD archiving and viewing project, which I will explain in post II. I hope to incorporate other regular posters into this blog, and I already have a few invites in mind.