Revenge of Frankenstein, The (1958)

The Revenge of Frankenstein is the first sequel in the Hammer Frankenstein series, and it's a great one. Dr Frankenstein has managed to escape the guillotine and starts up his medical practice in Germany, building a new body in his free time which eventually wreaks havoc on the town. The acting is top-notch. Peter Cushing plays Dr (Franken)stein as a driven, obsessed scientist with a hint of sympathy. While the monster isn't all that intimidating, instead of being just a lumbering brute, he is actually somewhat well-articulated until something goes wrong. The mood is really great in this one, evoking a more gothic feel through dim lighting and strategic shadows. Although the film only runs 86 minutes, it manages to add quite a few complex layers to the Frankenstein ethos.

8/10

Quatermass Xperiment, The (1955) aka The Creeping Unknown

The Quatermass Xperiment is a sci-fi film that is a cut above the typical 50s sci-fi fare. The film is a what-is-it-and-how-do-we-kill-it style alien invader movie that manages to build very effective suspense and has some really great special effects. Running only 78 minutes, the film is lean, wasting no time getting to the meat of the picture. My one problem was the character of Dr. Quatermass. He's callous and rude, boldly shoving people out of his way to get what he wants in the name of science. He doesn't seem to care about anything. On top of that, he's a hard-boiled American throwing his weight around in the land of the Brits. Does the man respect anything? More importantly, does he learn anything?

7/10

Brides of Dracula, The (1960)

The first sequel in the Hammer Horror Dracula series is a mediocre one. While running only 85 minutes, I felt the film had a significant amount of filler. Dracula is dead, but one of his previous victims begins to prey upon pretty girls and creates several brides. This vampire Baron looks ridiculous with his golden blonde hair and his pretty boy looks... not at all intimidating. The brides have ghoulish white makeup done on their faces that looks incredibly fake. The lead actress has a pretty thick French accent that gets pretty annoying. The cinematography, sets, art direction, and color are all great, and there is also a very effective staking sequence, but what saves this film from being a complete mess is the presence of Peter Cushing, who salvages about as much of the film as he can.

6/10

Fly, The (1986)

Possibly the best remake in film history, Jeff Goldblum gives a stellar performance in one of the greatest horror films ever. The story was made infamous in the 1958 Vincent Price B-movie--a scientist merges himself with a common housefly through a teleporter device--and the 1986 film adds nothing but improvements. It updates the plot for modern audiences and augments the elements of fear, tragedy, and loss of humanity while ignoring the campier elements of the original. The Fly is full of gross-out moments and has some great motion-control effects, but don't mistake it for a spectacle film. The Fly focuses primarily on the characters, and the special effects are a nice bonus.

9/10

Final Countdown, The (1980)

No, not the Europe album. The Final Countdown (1980) is a war / sci-fi film starring Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen that will appeal to military fetishists for the military demonstrations (planes taking off, planes landing, planes flying, rescue missions, reconnaissance missions) take up about 70% of the on-screen time. The USS Nimitz encounters a bizarre storm and is time warped to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film brings up many intriguing questions about paradoxes with time travel, but unfortunately none of them are further explored or answered, they are unexplainably returned to present day, and no one learns anything.

6/10

Batman Forever (1995)

Val Kilmer plays Batman in this silly installment of the 80s-90s Batman franchise. While the film has many flaws and a good number of the performances are questionable at best, Val Kilmer is my favorite Batman. The writing is absolutely atrocious, and the film is laden with too many gadgets, but the camera-work and lighting are very stylish and well-executed. The art direction is really fantastic. Some of the special effects have dated poorly, but a good majority of the animated or miniature effects still look good. The film is still pretty entertaining if you can stand the embarrassing performance from Jim Carrey and to a lesser extent Tommy Lee Jones. One major disappointment was saving the best song (Kiss From a Rose) for the butt-end of the credits.

5/10. The film is highly entertaining, but there are just too many cringe-worthy moments for me to justify giving it anything higher.

Unlawful Entry (1992)

Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta star in this very engaging psychological thriller. Kurt plays a well-to-do businessman that becomes the brunt of some pretty chilling harassment problems. From that description, you wouldn't think this film is scary, but believe me, it is! It's not a Halloween scary, but a slow-burn something-like-this-could-happen-to-you scary. Kurt plays his part well enough, as do the other supporting actors, but the real meat is Ray Liotta's performance as the cop that Kurt and wife befriend. It's a little predictable, but the film definitely plays its predictability well, dragging you into one unsettling scene after the next.

8/10

Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The (1920)

Silent horror film classic starring Conrad Veidt and a bunch of German actors who were famous in the 20s about a carnival where one Dr Caligari reveals a fortune-telling somnambulist named Cesare after which mysterious murders ensue. One of the first film examples, and probably still one of the best examples, of German Expressionism in film, Caligari is creepy, stylish, and fascinating. Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss both give excellent performances as Cesare and Caligari, respectively. For something so old, it's unbelievable how fresh it still is. Despite the technical shortcomings of the early silent era, the film overcomes things like a static camera and distanced framing by having one of the most unique sets of all time. One thing to note: while the KINO on Video DVD seems to have the best image quality, the score is godawful.

8/10

Dead Heat (1988)

Imagine a buddy cop action movie. Imagine it with zombies. Now imagine one of the buddy cops is also a zombie. Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo (gag!) star in exactly that. The film makes up for its low production values with charm, energy, and creativity abound by throwing in really fun and funny action scenes, an interesting plot, a cameo by Vincent Price, and some inspired (but not necessarily good) special effects. The film is directed by the excellent editor Mark Goldblatt (editor of such greats as The Terminator, Commando, T2, and Starship Troopers). If you've got 80 minutes to kill, Dead Heat is loads of fun.

7/10

Shakedown (1988)

Peter Weller and Sam Elliott star in this lawyer/cop buddy action film. The action scenes were fun, but they couldn't make up for the boring dramatic scenes involving Peter Weller and his love life. Unbelievable and unimportant character development combined with some really terrible writing make Shakedown a film that could have been fun but failed miserably. The score was apparently "realized" by some dude so I figured some thought went into it, but it just seemed like the concept album version of a generic 80s action score. Which is to say that it sucked. Also of note: the final scene involves an airplane flying dangerously close to the World Trade Center. Scary.

5/10

7 Faces of Dr Lao (1964)

Tony Randall hits a grand slam in this surprisingly charming George Pal fantasy film. Dr Lao is a crafty old Chinese doctor who sets up a circus in the Old West town of Abalone. Through his circus he helps many of the town's citizens to see life from a different perspective. The film is sometimes heavy-handed, but often touching. It's worth watching for Randall's performance(s) alone. George Pal manages to reign in his self-indulgence for special effects somewhat and lets the characters take the stage. The makeup effects are wonderful, including Tony Randall's Asian makeup. One of the most distinct things about this movie, though, is the musical score which perfectly combines Asian-sounding styles with the sounds of the Old West. Great fantasy film for the whole family.

9/10

Power, The (1968)

George Pal produced this ambitious science fiction thriller starring George Hamilton and Michael Rennie. The film starts off strong, but unfortunately it becomes very muddy. The film is a sci-fi who-dunnit as the scientists are gradually murdered off by one of their own who happens to be telekinetically-endowed, but the film bites off more than it can chew. The mid-section sags horribly, with many scenes being confusing or redundant. The ending is both confusing and dissatisfying. Conceptually, the film is excellent, and the acting is good. The musical score is oddly invasive with use of a zither throughout. What starts as a distinct musical decision soon becomes annoying as the same theme is repeated often. For 1968, the special effects are well-done but sometimes out of place or random. George Pal tends to err on the side of self-indulgence, and The Power is no exception.

5/10

Shadow, The (1994)

Mildly entertaining adventure with excellent art direction. The atmosphere and visuals are quite good, employing lots of fog, dramatic lighting, and numerous matte paintings to give the film the feel of a 1930s pulp comic. Unfortunately, the characters are developed to barely functioning levels, the acting is pretty terrible, and the plot is idiotic. Contains CG moments that may be as bad as the Reptile effects from Mortal Kombat (1995). The film could have been a lot better than it actually was, but if you like watching Alec Baldwin give menacing looks, this is a must see!

6/10

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1968)

Peter Cushing stars as Dr Frankenstein in the fifth outing of the Hammer Frankenstein series. Cushing plays a brute, contradicting his other somewhat sympathetic portrayals of Dr Frankenstein. The monster is not disfigured and speaks coherently. While it is commendable that the film tries to distance itself from the formulaic nature of Frankenstein films, it just detracted from my enjoyment of the picture. That and a very dissatisfying ending make this film a weak installment of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein franchise.

5/10

Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

Campy horror flick, but highly entertaining. Groovy teens looking for kicks get suckered by their friend Johnny Alucard (hello?!) into resurrecting Dracula. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee reprise their roles as [the ancestor of] Van Helsing and Dracula respectively. Good-looking young actors (look especially for Caroline Munro who went on to be a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me), Cushing and Lee, a great jazzy disco-style score (with lots of gothic score elements still there), and an enormous helping of cheese make this a fun vampire flick. Ultimately, this is a hip installment of the Hammer Horror series that is an example of how silly teens and gothic horror should mix.

7/10