Didn’t expect to have a news round up so soon after the last one, but several major announcements came out over the past two weeks too good to sit on. Let’s get to them.
Showtime announces Twin Peaks to return in 2016.
David Lynch is involved through Lynch/Frost Productions. No word on whether the new series is a reboot or a continuation, but will be a limited series, with nine episodes. The big problem with the original series was that the network wanted more even after the mystery was solved. The nine episode limited series will let Lynch tell the story he wants.
Ghostbusters reboot confirmed.
This isn’t the sequel Dan Aykroyd has been pushing for. Paul Reig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, will be working on a gender-flipped reboot. Joining Reig is writer Katie Dippold, who has worked on Parks and Recreation and The Heat. Will it work? Depends on audience reception, really. The original Ghostbusters was second only to Beverly Hills Cop in terms of popularity in 1984 and both movies took advantage of music videos to get noticed.
LeCarré’s The Night Manager being turned into a limited BBC series.
John LeCarré’s spy thriller will star Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston in the BBC adaptation. No word on who the actors will play yet.
Lost Sherlock Holmes film turned out to be misclassified.
A 1916 silent film adaptation of Holmes thought lost turned out to be mis-filed by Cinematique Français decades ago. This isn’t the 1914 A Study in Scarlet that the BFI was looking for, as reported last month, but an American film made in Chicago by William Gillette. The BFI is excited over the find. A Study in Scarlet is still being sought.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy being adapted.
The three books in the trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars, will be adapted for SpikeTV by Vince Geradis, a co-executive producer of A Game of Thrones. Robinson will be on board as consultant.
World Wide Dredd.
A seven-part Judge Dredd web series has been announced by Adi Shankar, producer of 2012’s Dredd. Shankar has been working on a project featuring the Dark Judges. The news follows the Day of Dredd campaign to get a sequel to the 2012 movies done.
The LEGO Movie spin-off announced.
LEGO Batman will be getting his own movie. Will Arnett will return to voice LEGO Batman while Chris McKay, animation supervisor for The LEGO Movie will be the director. Release date is expected to be 2017. I am now wondering how well LEGO Batman will fare compared to Superman vs Batman, and would not be surprised if the LEGO version did better.
This past week has been rough on me, not giving me the time to properly review what I wanted. I’ll throw open the floor to questions, though, and I’ll start with one of mine: What do you want to see reviewed?
Let’s round up those tidbits and see what’s going on.
NBC drops a house on Emerald City.
NBC’s entry to the 2015-16’s Wizard of Oz lineup has had its plug pulled and water poured on the corpse. Emerald City was going to be The Wizard of Oz as seen through a the lens of A Game of Thrones. Disagreements between NBC and showrunner Josh Friedman launched the suborbital house drop. Friedman will shop Emerald City around.
Chloë Moretz says Kick-Ass 3 dead due to piracy. Screen Rant says, not so fast.
Kick-Ass 2 broke even in the US with overseas markets adding to its total take. Moretz, who played Hit-Girl, believes that piracy was a factor in the low take. Screen Rant counters with a 29% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a factor that the R-rated movie wasn’t that good to start.
Blade Runner 2 has a script.
Sir Ridley Scott has confirmed that the Blade Runner 2 script is done and will have Harrison Ford back. Filming has not been scheduled; Prometheus 2, with its March 2016 release date, may cause a delay in the filming of Blade Runner 2.
Museum of London and the BFI need help finding Sherlock Holmes.
The 1914 film A Study in Scarlet, the earliest known Sherlock Holmes adaptation, is the second oldest on the BFI‘s Most Wanted list. If found, contact sherlockholmes at bfi.org.uk or use the #FindSherlock tag on Twitter.
The Greatest American Hero getting reboot movie.
The creators of The LEGO Movie are adapting the Stephen J. Cannell series as a TV series on Fox. The original series featured an inner-city school teacher who finds a super suit but loses the instruction manual.
Patrick Warburton to return as The Tick.
Amazon will be making new episodes of the series. Fox had aired nine episodes of the live-action adaptation of the Ben Edlund comic in 2001, with an animated series running on the same network earlier from 1994 to 1997. The Tick – comic, animated, and live-action – was a parody of superheroes.
Stan Lee confirms Black Panther movie.
During a panel at Fan Expo Canada, held in Toronto, Stan Lee let slip that the Black Panther will have a movie. Marvel’s plans are to have a movie with all their heroes.
Casting has begun for Ghost in the Shell live action adaptation.
Margot Robbie, seen in The Wolf of Wall Street has been cast in the American live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.
Neil Gaiman’s “Hansel & Gretel” graphic novel to become movie.
Juliet Blake, producer of The Hundred-Foot Journey, has picked up the rights to Gaiman’s as yet unreleased graphic novel retelling “Hansel & Gretel”. The graphic novel should be out in October.
AMC orders companion series to The Walking Dead.
The so far untitled new series will take a look at what’s happening elsewhere during the zombie apocalypse. AMC has released few details beyond that. The Walking Dead also returns for a fifth season this fall.
Warner Bros. has Legion of Superheroes movie in pre-pre-production.
So far, just rumours that a Legion of Superheroes movie is coming, but Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy may have put some fear into Warner. Legion began in 1958 centred on Super-Boy but evolved to stand on its own. The team has appeared in live-action before, being featured in the Smallville episode “Legion”.
Fox to air series based on Neil Gaiman’s take on Lucifer.
Countering NBC’s Constantine, Lucifer will follow the titular devil, based on Gaiman’s work in Sandman and Milton’s Paradise Lost. The fallout from the show should be impressive, especially over at FOX News.
CBS picks up Supergirl series.
The Warner produced Supergirl TV series has been picked up by CBS, allowing the The Eye to join the other broadcast networks in superhero shows. Fox has Gotham, the Batman prequel. NBC has Constantine. CW has the ongoing Arrow and the new kid Flash. ABC is reaping fortune by having the same owner as Marvel – Disney – and both Agents of SHIELD and new series Agent Carter.
Deadpool movie confirmed.
The Merc with the Mouth will finally get the movie people have been wanting. Fox announced that the movie will be released February of 2016. Ryan Reynolds will return to play the character. Filming has not yet started, and the announcement of the Deadpool movie has bumped the Assassin’s Creed movie off Fox’s release schedule completely.
Real Genius being turned into a TV series.
The 80s movie, Real Genius, which starred Val Kilmer, is getting remade as a sitcom. Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions is one of the studios on board with the reboot.
The heist is a popular plot, from the lone hobbit sneaking into a dragon’s lair to a well-planned robbery with military precision. The core requirements for a heist are the thieves, the target, and the victim. To play up the thieves, either the victim is engaged in a a shady business or the target is a supposedly impossible to break into location. With the original Ocean’s 11, it was a mix of the two.
Released in 1960, Ocean’s 11 featured Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, who essentially decided to make a movie together for the fun of working together. The work they chose was Ocean’s 11, based on the story by George Clayton Johnson, who also wrote Logan’s Run. The story was published the same year as the movie’s release, and appears that film and book were meant to compliment each other. This creates an interesting situation.
I haven’t read the book.
Normally, I would, but it was while watching Ocean’s 11 that I discovered it, too, was an adaptation. That said, for the purposes of the review, I’ll just focus on the movie. If I can find the book, I’ll take another look at Ocean’s 11 with an eye on the movie being the adaptation.
Back to the movie, Ocean’s 11 starred Frank Sinatra, as mention, as Danny Ocean, a former sergeant in the 82nd Airborne. He is offered a job by Mr. Acebos to perform the heist of a lifetime, the robbing of five Las Vegas casinos on New Year’s Eve. Ocean pulls together his former squadmates in a manner similar to Seven Samurai, giving the audience time to meet each characters, including his former lieutenant, played by Peter Lawford, squadmate turned entertainer, played by Dean Martin, squad’s driver Josh Howard, played by Sammy Davis, Jr, and electrician Tony Bergdorf, played by Richard Conte. Bergdorf initially refuses the job; he’s just fresh out of San Quentin and wants to spend time with his son. However, a visit to the doctor reveals that he has cancer, so Bergdorf agrees so he can get money to help his son’s future. Bergdorf does warn that his luck is sour and could cause problems for the rest of the team.
At the time of filming, January 11, 1960, Las Vegas wasn’t the neon-lit monument to gambling that it is today. The Strip, where the five casinos Ocean was going to hit, was only on one side of the road; the other side was desert. Hotel rooms were separate from the casinos, and the entertainment areas were more intimate. The five casinos, the Sahara, the Riviera, the Desert Inn, the Sands, and the Flamingo were the main casinos in town. None had the surveillance then that they have today; electronic cameras watching everywhere, electric access control, and fail safes that locked down the cash are innovations that came after Ocean’s 11.
Ocean introduces the plan to hit the five casinos. Howard gets a city sanitation garbage truck and is the one who will pick up the loot. The remainder of the 11 split into teams of two; each team infiltrates, in one form or another, one of the five casinos. Harmon performs at one while others, like Borgdorf and Peter Rheimer, played by Norman Fell, dress the part of employees. The insiders spray paint that can only be seen under black light with special glasses, marking the areas that they’ll need to go to get the cash. Explosives are set at an electrical tower and in each of the casinos’ backup generators, ensuring the lights will be out long enough. At the stroke of midnight, as “Auld Lang Syne” plays, the lights do go out and the casinos robbed. The loot is placed into bags that are then dropped in the garbage where Howard picks them up.
Borgdorf’s luck sours as he tries to get to the rendez-vous with Ocean and Harmon. His health takes a turn for the worse and he drops dead in the confusion. Police have been called by the casinos, stretching out the officers to the point where roadblocks are set up to search cars that are leaving. Howard gets stuck in one, but is told to keep going. The stolen cash rides off in the garbage truck under the noses of the police.
The next day, Mr. Acebos reads the paper and has a good laught; millions have been stolen from the casinos and cannot be found. In Vegas, Ocean’s crew tries to figure out their next move. When Borgdorf’s wife is seen, they get the idea to have the money leave with him in his coffin. A late night break-in at the mortuary later, the loot is placed in with Borgdorf, with $10 000 ($79 268.36 today) kept aside for his son. Borgdorf’s wife, though, decides that she doesn’t want to transport the body for burial and has the funeral in Vegas, followed by a cremation. The commentary for the film, provided by Frank Sinatra, Jr, indicated that the ending had been changed from the original in the story. While the money did get burned in the original story, the ending featured a plane crash instead. Jack Warner, CEO of Warner Bros, didn’t like the end implying that Ocean and his crew died and ordered a new one written.
In the time between the release of Ocean’s 11 in 1960 and Ocean’s Eleven in 2001, both security and Las Vegas itself had changed greatly. Vegas, while still in the middle of the desert, grew. Casinos and hotels merged into one building, the space for shows increased, the sheer amount of square footage dedicated to gambling expanded, and the nighttime was lit as bright as day from the lights along the Strip and other gambling locations. Security embraced the silicon chip, allowing for computer controlled access, cameras in every possible location, background checks on employees becoming the norm, and laser grids. The heist pulled off in 11 would not be possible in Eleven.
The remake, Ocean’s Eleven brought together several of Hollywood’s biggest stars together. This time around, George Clooney played Danny Ocean. Instead of being a veteran of World War II, Clooney’s Ocean is a con man getting out of prison after a job ended badly for him. First thing he does is build a small bankroll through gambling, then he recruits Rusty Ryan, played by Brad Pitt. Just as 11 and Seven Samurai, Eleven shows the recruiting of the team. Instead of fellow veterans, the new Danny rounds up nine more criminals, from grifters to contortionists to even a demolitions expert to rob the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand, three of the most profitable casinos in Vegas at the time. The three are also run by Terry Benedict, played by Andy Garcia, a vindictive man who doesn’t settle for just re-arranging kneecaps when he can destroy a life instead.
The group studies the floorplan of the casinos and the central vault, planning on completing the heist during a championship boxing match. The expected take is over $150 million. Eleven shows the work the team does to set up the theft, from determining the timetables of guards and cash pick up to Benedict’s personal routine. The latter is assigned to Linus, played by Matt Damon, who finds out Benedict has a girlfriend whose name Lunus can’t discover. Rusty, however, does know her name – Tess Ocean, Danny’s ex-wife.
In the original 11, the heist was a challenge, rob five casinos at once during their busiest time. In Eleven, the stakes are more personal, at least for Ocean. Rusty tries to have Danny sit the heist out, but Ocean has other ideas. The plan continues, despite small problems that get in the way, including Benedict having security follow Danny. Ocean’s team take advantage of the confusion, helped by Basher, played by Don Cheedle, and his EMP bomb taking out the power during the boxing match.
Ocean’s Eleven is a great example of how the progress of time affects a remake. In 1960, most Americans would either be a veteran or know of one, from either World War II or the Korean War. In 2001, without compulsory enlistment, there weren’t as many veterans of the Gulf War and the Vietnam War was almost thirty years in the past. A squad of veterans breaking into an installation better guarded than Fort Knox would take a direct approach. A team of grifters and con men, on the other hand, uses a more delicate touch. With the leaps in security technology, the heist had to become more sophisticated; the weak spot is always the human element.
The march of history may change the details from 11 to Eleven, but the core element remains; the heist by a team dedicated to pulling off the impossible. The gathering of the team, the showing of the preparation, and the actual theft were in both films. The biggest change comes from what happened to the money. In /11/, Ocean’s squad ran the heist as a challenge, with Duke Santos coming in late as the opposition. As a result, cinematic karma required that the money be lost; Ocean’s squad had dirty hands. Only Bergdorf’s son, the innocent, got to keep any of the stolen cash. Meanwhile, in /Eleven/, while several of Ocean’s recruits were along because of the challenge, Danny’s goal was to cause financial harm to Terry Benedict, the greater evil. Thus, the money got split amongst the Eleven and Tess found out exactly what type of person Benedict was.
Next week, the September news round up.
There are movies that become the go-to source for adaptations. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one such film. In Seven Samurai, a village gets overrun by an army of bandits, intent on abusing the farmers and taking their crops for their own purposes. The farmers send three men to find ronin, masterless samurai to help defend the village. The men find seven: the experienced Kambei, his young disciple Katsushiro, his friend Shichiroji, the strategic Gorobei, good-willed Heihachi, the taciturn master swordsman Kyuzo, and the poser Kikuchiyo. Kikuchiyo follows, despite attempts to drive him away. As the samurai train the farmers and prepare fortifications, Katsushiro meets Shino, the daughter of one of the men sent to find the ronin, and begins a relationship with her.
Shortly before the bandits are due to return, two of their scouts are found and killed and a third captured. After questioning, the location of the bandits’ camp is revealed. A pre-emptive strike on the camp sees it burned down, but at the cost of Heihachi’s life. The bandits attack the village and run into the new fortifications and farmers trained to fight back. After a battle inside the village, the bandit chief is defeated, though several of the samurai died in the fighting, and the famers are able to plant a new crop.
Seven Samurai was one of the first movies to show the recruiting and gathering of the heroes into a team, a trope that’s commonplace today, appearing in The Guns of Navarone, Marvel’s The Avengers, and the pilot of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Seven Samurai became Japan’s highest grossing movie after its release. Naturally, it was ripe for being brought across the Pacific Ocean to be remade in Hollywood. John Sturges took the story and placed it in the Old West with the 1960 film, The Magnificent Seven. The samurai became gunslingers who get hired by a farming village in Mexico to protect it from marauding bandits.
The plot of The Magnificent Seven parallels Seven Samurai. The gunslingers, veteran Chris, hotheaded Chico, Chris’s friend Harry, drifter Vin, hard luck Bernardo, cowboy Britt, and outlaw Lee, train the farmers in using guns and defending themselves. Chico falls for Petra, one of the villagers, while Bernardo gets to know three children. The bandits attack and take heavy losses, forcing them to retreat. However, Chico learns that the bandits will return; they have no food and need the village’s supply. The gunslingers move out to surprise the bandits, but are surprised themselves to find the bandit camp empty. Calvera, the bandit leader, returned to the village and, with the gunslingers gone, the villagers put him in charge out of fear. The gunslingers are chased off. After a debate, the group, with the exception of Harry, decide to return to the village to fight Calvera and his bandits. When the gunfight erupts, the villagers join the gunslingers. Harry returns in time to prevent Chris from being shot, but is shot fatally himself. Calvera is shot, the bandits are defeated, and the surviving gunmen go on with their lives.
The Magnificent Seven performed well in Europe but not well in the US. The European success allowed for three sequels and several similar films, including the Italian sword-and-sandals film The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (I sette magnific gladiatori) in 1983 and the 1980 space opera, Battle Beyond the Stars.
By 1980, science fiction on the silver screen had transformed. Gone were the B-movies with cheap effects like Them. Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both released in 1977, raised audience expectations of special effects, as did 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1978’s Battlestar Galactica, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture and 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. A green-screened ant made to look the size of an office tower would not do. At the time, CGI wasn’t even a pipe dream; TRON wouldn’t be out until 1982 and The Last Starfighter wasn’t released until 1984. All the effects had to be practical, which could get expensive. Roger Corman, producer of Battle Beyond the Stars, never started a movie that he knew wouldn’t make money.
The king of exploitive B-movies, Corman has a reputation of being cheap. While George Lucas was able to make Star Wars with a budget of $11 million, Corman’s was just $2 million, or twice that of Sharknado. With that princely sum, the crew of Battle Beyond the Stars had to make all the sets, costumes, starship interiors, and starship exteriors, and make sure all that met expectations. The art director, Jim Cameron, had a task in front of him. That very same Jim Cameron would go on to create movies such as The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar.
The plot of Battle Beyond the Stars should be familiar by now. Akira, a pacifist planet, is visited by Sador, played by John Saxon. A warlord with an army of mutants called the Malmori, Sador threatens the world into submission with the threat of his flagship’s main gun, the Stellar Converter. The Stellar Converter does exactly what it says on the tin; it converts planets into stars. Sador gives Akira a few days to decide its fate, then leaves, leaving behind a two-man starfighter to watch the world. Realizing that there’s little the inhabitants of Akira can do, the council sends young Shad off to recruit mercenaries and purchase guns to teach the Akirans how to fight. Shad heads off in a former corsair ship, the property of the last warrior of Akira, and the ship’s computer, Nell. Shad’s education is too much to overcome when the Malmori ship fires on him; he cannot shoot back. However, the ship also has speed and can outrun the Malmori fighter.
Young Shad’s first stop is at Dr. Hephaestus’ station, where he hopes he can purchase weapons. The station appears deserted when he arrives, though. Shad lands his ship and enters. He is brought to Nanelia, Hepaestus’ daughter and only other living being on the station. She takes Shad to Hepaestus, whe the good doctor explains that Shad will be remaining to become Nanelia’s companion and lover. Shad turns down the offer and breaks out of the station. Nanelia, taken with the young man, assists in the breakout and follows a short while later. The two split up, Shad to look for mercenaries and Nanelia to wait in the Lambda Zone for him.
While trying to figure out where to go next, Shad is alerted to a long-haul starship being attacked by jackers who are trying to hijack the cargo. The pilot of the ship, Space Cowboy, sends off a distress call. Shad moves in, finding a loophole in his code of conduct, but still cannot bring himself to shoot someone in the back. Despite being on manual, Nell destroys one of the jackers, getting the attention of the other three. With the jackers now facing him, Shad shoots them all down, getting the thanks of Cowboy as he escorts the transport to the next port of call. Sador, however, got there first and uses the Stellar Converter on the world, destroying it. The cargo of weapons, fully paid for, needs to go somewhere, and Akira is much closer than Earth. After a bit of persuasion, Cowboy agrees to help teach the Akirans how to use the guns.
Shad heads back out, still looking for mercenaries. He runs into a white, glowing UFO, and is brought on board. The crew of the ship is Nestor, a being and race that has multiple facets but one mind. Nestor is bored and, on hearing of the plight of Akira, agrees to help for no payment at all. The experience would be payment enough. Shad then find Gelt, an assassin who is so well known in the galaxy that there is no place for him left to live. Gelt has immense wealth, more than anything Akira could offer, but Gelt only has two desires; a meal and a home. After leaving Gelt, Shad is challenged by a small ship, one faster and more maneuverable than his own. After a brief mock battle, the pilot, St-Exmin, a space valkyrie, tags along, hoping to find a battle worthy of her. Meanwhile, in the Lambda Zone, Nanelia is taken prisoner by Cayman, a reptilian being who is intent on selling her to the highest bidder. Nanelia explains why she was there and, hoping that Cayman would be more interested in being paid as a mercenary, mentions Sador. Cayman agrees to join her, the only payment being Sador’s head.
Seven ships return to Akira, where plans are drawn and fortifications created to defeat Sador and his mutants. There would be only one chance to destroy Sador and his Stellar Converter; the ship has to drop its force field long enough to let the weapon fire. In that moment, one of the mercenaries could open fire in that precise shot to destroy the weapon and possibly Sador’s flagship. Sador returns, launching starfighters to deal with the ragtag fleet, but the recruited mercenaries are too much for the mutants to handle. On the surface of Akira, Cowboy leads the defense, holding off Sador’s ground troops.
After the first wave of fighting, Gelt has been mortally wounded, forced down after a collision with a Malmori fighter. Shad orders his people to bury Gelt with a meal, fulfilling his end of the deal. One of the Nestors allows himself to be captured. Sador’s top interrogator, known for keeping a victim alive through the incredible agony, starts torturing the Nestor. Having no pain resistance, Nestor quickly succumbs to the torture and dies, becoming Dako’s first premature death. Sador orders Nestor’s arm grafted on to him, replacing his damaged one. The remaining Nestors manipulate the arm, trying to slit Sador’s throat. Dako manages to take away the knife and remove the arm.
In retaliation, Sador resumes the attack, this time to get in position to use the Stellar Converter. The mercenaries meet him head on, but the force field on the flagship is too much. Ship after ship is destroyed, but St-Exmin manages to fly her tiny ship into the Stellar Converter’s bay, damaging it before going out in a blaze of glory herself. With the Stellar Converter out of action, Sador wants to personally deal with the last of the mercenary ships and its pilot. The last ship, Nell, has Shad and Nanelia on it. A nuclear blast wipes Nell’s memory, resetting it to when the last Akiran warrior was young. When Nell gets caught in a magnetic net to be drawn within Sador’s flagship, Shad uses the net to help accelerate, landing within the vessel while setting Nell to self destruct. Nell, still not all there, has Shad and Nanelia get into a lifepod for launch. The countdown is awkward, but Nell hits zero. The explosion starts a chain reaction through Sador’s ship, destroying it. Akira is saved.
As mentioned, Battle Beyond the Stars was a low budget movie. Despite that, the effects, while showing their age, don’t look as old as they should be. While Corman kept costs down by using interns and film school students, those very same people were able to come up with solutions and sets on the fly, staying up late and overnight as needed. Corman had bought a lumber yard to use as a stage, but kept the old sign up. There were people who came in to purchase lumber who were hired to build sets. Meanwhile, the big-name stars, George Peppard and Robert Vaughn, were placed in memorable scenes but weren’t used throughout the movie, allowing Corman to only pay for the days they were on set. Richard Thomas, being in the midst of wrapping up his role of John-Boy on The Waltons, was looking for a different type of movie from what he had done in the past. He still had money coming in from The Waltons, so could take a cut in pay, allowing him to be in most scenes. Editing pulled together the various shots, especially during the climactic battle, creating a movie that leaves viewers on the edge of their seat, helped by a soundtrack by James Horner. Elements of the music would appear later in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan*.
Battle Beyond the Stars is not a simple remake of The Magnificent Seven or Seven Samurai. Just as The Magnificent Seven brings the samurai drama into the Old West, Battle Beyond the Stars brings both the Western and the samurai drama into space. Yet, the core, the threatened people needing outside help to fend off a villain, remains in each instance. The gathering of the warriors, whether ronin, gunslinger, or mercenary pilot, remains intact. While there are some minor changes, the warriors are recognizable no matter the version. Battle Beyond the Stars‘ Shad, The Magnificent Seven‘s Chico, and Seven Samurai‘s Katsushiro are the same character, just transposed to a new setting. Helping with this is Robert Vaughn’s characters in both The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars; Lee and Gelt are both wanted and too recognizable to appear in public. St-Exmin and Kikuchyo fill the same role. For a B-movie exploiting the popularity of Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars took efforts to be recognizable as Seven Samurai as a space opera and succeeded.
Next week, Ocean’s Eleven.
* While The Wrath of Khan‘s soundtrack is distinct from Battle Beyond the Stars, Horner’s style can be heard in both, particularly in the use of the call of the hunting horns.
Marvel, being one of the Big Two with DC Comics, has a large number of heroes in its stable. Many got their start during the 1960s, when the threat of nuclear war was a palpable threat but the power of the atom was being harnessed for beneficial means. Characters from this time featured a brush with radiations, from Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining power to Professor Xavier taking in the children of the atom to become his X-Men. The focus of the review, Daredevil, was splashed as a young boy by radioactive waste leaking from a barrel*. The waste destroyed his sight but amplified his other senses, allowing him to see using a form of radar. The sight isn’t perfect; small details can’t be made out nor can he determine colour, but the power allows him to target opponents.
Matt Murdoch was the only child of “Battling Jack” Murdoch, a former pro fighter who got mixed up with organized crime to make ends meet. Matt’s mother was missing, presumed dead. After the accident, as Jack tried to go straight, Matt tested out the extent of his new found abilities. Unfortunately for Jack, there is no retirement plan from the mob. Matt soon became an orphan, but he was determined to be there for people who needed help. Murdoch worked his way through law school, and teamed up with Franklin “Foggy” Nelson to work in the old neighbourhood, Hell’s Kitchen. Where Matt Murdoch, lawyer, couldn’t get justice, Daredevil could. Along the way, Daredevil made a few enemies, including the Kingpin, who controlled crime in New York City, and Bullseye, the Kingpin’s assassin. Ben Ulrich, reporter for the Daily Bugle, was more thorn than enemy, but her did deduce that Matt Murdoch was Daredevil.
/Daredevil/ was created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, with Jack Kirby providing the character’s original yellow and red costume, later replaced by an all red costume. While Lee was the first writer on the title, others followed, including John Romita, Sr, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and Frank Miller. Miller’s run in the 1980s was key to increasing the title and the character’s popularity, introducing a film noir style to the comic. Once given the reigns as writer, Miller changed Daredevil’s backstory, altered the personalities of the supporting cast and rogues gallery, and revitalized the title. The introduction of Elektra and her relationship and romance with Daredevil occurred under Miller’s watch.
For the 2003 film, Daredevil, script writer Mark Steven Johnson dug heavily into Frank Miller’s run on the comic. This is where I need to make an aside, to set up the remainder of the review. The version used for this review was the director’s cut, not the theatrical release. A featurette on the DVD goes into detail about the differences between the two. The theatrical release was mandated by the studio to be a PG-13 rated action film running under 100 minutes (actual runtime was 103 minutes) and included a romance between Elektra and Murdoch that was consummated onscreen. The director’s cut restored at least a half-hour’s worth of footage, including scenes between Matt and Foggy, a subplot about an innocent man accused of murdering a prostitute that led to a link through to the Kingpin, and Murdoch’s use of a sensory deprivation chamber to get peace. The cut also removed the love scene, showing Matt having to leave Elektra because of heroing business, and changing the plot, according to Johnson, from a “you stole/killed my girlfriend” ending to becoming a hero. The director’s cut has a total runtime of 133 minutes and received an R-rating from the MPAA.
The biggest change in the movie with the director’s cut was the feel of the movie. While there was still action, the changes brought the movie towards film noir, the same style that Frank Miller used during his tenure with the comic. The story starts in media res as Daredevil drops into a Catholic church. He explains what is happening, putting most of the movie as a flashback, starting with how he got the powers, how he lost his father, Jack “The Devil” Murdoch, to a mob hit, how he became the Man Without Fear. The first appearance of Daredevil is after Matt loses a case trying to prosecute a rapist; in costume, Murdoch tracks down the rapist and ensures that justice is served. Ben Ulrich, a reporter for the New York Post** specializing in urban legends***, has been following Daredevil sightings, trying to track down the elusive being. That night, Murdoch hears the murder of a young woman just before he seals himself inside his sensory deprivation chamber.
The next morning, Matt and Foggy meet for breakfast. Both notice an attractive woman enter the diner. Matt tries to get her interest, using his blindness as an opening for an introduction. When the woman leaves without telling Matt her name, he follows her to a playground. Naturally, the woman is annoyed at being followed and tries to show Matt the error of his ways, forcefully. They trade martial arts moves, nothing to injure the other, enough to first dissuade then to impress the other. Elektra Nachios gives Matt her name, but not her number or address; she’ll find him.
Afterwards, Matt rushes to the courthouse to meet with Foggy and their new client, a young man accused of murdering the woman Murdoch had heard overnight. Matt, able to hear the young man’s heartbeat, is reassured that the man is innocent and takes on the case. Meanwhile, the Kingpin, already upset about a leak in his organization, has to deal with a partner who wants to retire, Nicholas Nachios. The Kingpin calls in his best assassin, Bullseye. Bullseye has a power; he always hits his target, no matter what he throws.
An evening soiree later, Nicholas Nachios leaves in a rush, Elektra following. Matt detected the father’s elevated pulse and follows as Daredevil. He sees Bullseye take out the bodyguards and jumps into the fight to protect father and daughter. One of the first actions he has is to block a thrown missile from hitting Nachios. Or, as Bullseye put it, “He made me miss.” The fight ends when Bullseye hurls Daredevil’s baton at Nachios. An explosion makes it impossible for Daredevil to see the baton properly with his radar sense and the baton impales Nachios, killing him.
Elektra sees to her father’s funeral, then continues her training. She was never in a good place to see the fight and blames Daredevil for killing her father. Elektra manages to track down Daredevil; Bullseye tracks them both. In the major fight sequence of the film, Bullseye injures Daredevil and kills Elektra****. The flashback catches up to the beginning of the film as Bullseye enters the church to finish the job he started. During the fight, Matt discovers the identity of the Kingpin and that he was responsible for his father’s murder. Defeating Bullseye, Daredevil leaves the church to confront the Kingpin.
As mentioned, the movie uses the Frank Miller run on Daredevil to the point where Miller gets a cameo as well as Stan Lee. The film noir style is used for effect, giving the movie a grittier feel and setting up the sense of loss Murdoch has with Elektra. The acting holds up; Ben Affleck is able to be both Matt Murdoch and Daredevil, while Jennifer Garner makes Elektra memorable despite a lack of screen time. The main problem is pacing. Frank Miller’s run covered four years, a lot to pack into a two hour, fifteen minute movie. The director’s cut does involve most of the character’s supporting cast in one way or another, but there are moments where the film drags a little and where it feels rushed. A movie may have been the wrong format for the story told; a mini-series or a short TV series might have worked better, but wouldn’t have had the pull that a feature film does. It’s not even a case of too much story; the theatrical release managed to cut a subplot without too many issue. However, a longer format, one that could develop relationships, both beneficial and adversarial, would have helped.
Next week, Battle Beyond the Stars.
* The same radioactive waste then spilled into the sewers of New York and on to four adolescent turtles. Really.
** The Daily Bugle is considered to be part of Spider-Man’s mythos, and Sony has the rights to that part of Marvel while Twentieth Century Fox had the Daredevil rights, since reverted back to Marvel.
*** In a missed shout out, Ulrich mentions that there are no alligators living in the sewers of New York City. He never said a word about turtles. The alligator may have been the Spider-Man villain, the Lizard, if Fox had the Spider-rights instead of Sony.
**** Or apparently kills. She gets better for the spin-off movie, Elekctra.
Since the series first aired in 1966, Star Trek has made inroad into not just geek culture but global culture. It is rare to find anyone unfamiliar with the concepts of the series and unable to name at least one Captain. The show’s prominence and tropes also make it ripe for parodies. Each series and movie in the Trek franchise has been fodder for humourists. The franchise even was featured as the first review here at Lost in Translation.
Fan films are getting less expensive to make. With CGI, many effects that would be too expensive to do practically, like crashing a car or blowing up a model starship, now just needs a skilled artist. The camera equipment needed has also fallen in price while becoming digital and smaller. The Canadian low-budget horror movie Manborg was made for around Cdn$1000 and featured extensive green-screening and stop-motion animation. The Four Players used limited sets and CGI in four separate shorts featuring the characters from Super Mario Bros. Today, it is very possible to equal the effects of the big screen with inexpensive software coupled with skill and talent.
Star Wreck started as a series of shorts on YouTube. Five friends in a two-room apartment used blue-screening technology to digitally add the sets needed. Outdoor sets were found in the Finnish outdoors. The sixth, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, received a budget sliightly under 14 000 Euros and a feature-length DVD release. The version watched for this review was the Imperial Edition. Star Wreck followed the exploits of the CPP Potkustartti, or as the subtitles call it, the CPP Kickstart*, her captain, James B. Pirk, and her crew, including Commander Info, an android, and Commander Dwarf, a Plingon. The end of Star Wreck V saw Pirk, Info, and Dwarf stranded on Earth in the early 21st Century, trying not to change the course of history.
In the Pirkinning begins with Pirk drunk and tired of being stuck in a primitive era. He reunites with Info and Dwarf and, armed with the knowledge of where the Vulgar (Vulcan) ship that made first contact is, starts working to build a new Kickstart. Unfortunately, the man who contacted the Vulgars, Johnny Cochbrane (Zefram Cochrane), sold the ship to the Russians. Pirk takes his crew, all two of them, to a Russian nuclear facility and convinces them to overthrow capitalism to bring back the Soviet Union. Among those working at the facility is Sergey Fukov** (Chekov), an ancestor of one of Pirk’s former crewmen. Sergey also worked at Chernobyl, where he had accidentally turned off the wrong cooling unit instead of the unit in his quarters.
With his newly Soviet Russian army, Pirk convinces President Ulyanov to assist in the building of the new CPP Kickstart. With control of the Russian army and the new Kickstart and her sleds (shuttlecraft), Pirk overthrows Ulyanov, declares himself Emperor, invades Europe and then the United States. No country can withstand the invasions, which is sold via propaganda as liberating the invaded nations. The P-Fleet is built, with all vessels having twist drives (warp drives), shove engines (impulse drives), twinklers (phasers), and light balls (photon torpedoes). Too bad the P-Fleet was built by the Russians; the maximum speed the ships can maintain is Twist Factor 2.
Another problem Emperor Pirk faces is the overpopulation of Earth. He sends the P-Fleet out to scout for new worlds to colonize. Most of the close ones aren’t suitable for human life, as the expendable redshirts would attest to if they hadn’t died demonstrating the lack of suitability. However, the CPP Kalinka, commanded by Sergey Fukov, discovers a maggot hole (worm hole) from which an alien ship emerges. Following Pirk’s General Order 3, the instant destruction of any alien vessel, Fukov orders the alien vessel destroyed. After investigating the wreckage, though, it turns out the occupant was human.
The P-Fleet arrives at the maggot hole to investigate and, if needed, to conquer any worlds beyond for colonization. The Kalinka is ordered into the maggot hole, Pirk figuring that the rust bucket and her captain would be no major loss to the P-Fleet. Instead, Fukov reports back that the inside of the maggot hole changes colour. The rest of the fleet enters the hole and spots two larger alien vessels that use a signal to exit. Pirk’s crew figures out what the signal was and uses it to exit as well.
At this point, the breadth of science fiction knowledge of the creators is shown. There’s a space station, the Babel 13 (Babylon 5), sitting near the hopgate (jump gate). When negotiations break down with Commander Jonny Sherrypie (Commander John Sheridan), Pirk orders the P-Fleet to strike. The resulting battle is something that many pre-CGI filmmakers could only dream about. The P-Fleet has the early advantage, with their twinklers and light balls, but once ships like the Backgammon (Agamemnon) get in range, they open fire. The ships from the Trek part of the parody have special effects similar to what was seen in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The Babylon 5 portion, though, use special effects that wouldn’t be out of place on the original series. The resulting scene is one that should be studied as an example of how to get details right.
During the battle, the Excavator, commanded by Psy-Co (Psy Corp) officer Festerbester (Alfred Bester) appears and targets the P-Fleet’s flagship, mainly because Pirk’s ship is the only one with enough light balls to continue the battle. Festerbester is portrayed by the same actor playing Fukov, just as Walter Koenig played both Chekov and Bester. The battle is decided by a twist core split resulting in an explosion that destroys both the Kickstart and the Excavator.
The difficulty in reviewing In the Pirkinning is not just working out how well the parody captures the essence of both Star Trek and Babylon 5, but dealing with watching a foreign language film relying on subtitles. There is a culture gap between Finland and Canada that Star Wreck demonstrates. The treatment of Russians was the first indication of the difference between Finnish and Canadian humour. The subtitles assisted; whenever a Russian spoke, ze subtitles bekame a form of accent as the Russians happily overthrew kapitalism to bring back kommunism. The subtitles for the unintelligible Scottish engineer were just as unintelligible.
It was obvious while watching In the Pirkinning that the cast and crew knew their science fiction, that they had watched both Trek and B5. Sherrypie’s penchant for long-winded speeches, the entire mirror universe vibe of Emperor Pirk’s P-Fleet, the dual role of Fukov and Festerbester, the exploding plasma consoles on the Kickstart all show the level of detail and knowledge. The parody still respects the original works even while poking fun. Only a fan could get both series well enough to parody without being mean-spirited. Some of the details may have been lost in translation***, but, overall, the parody managed to pull together two distinct TV series and keep their tone while adding to the work.
Next week, Daredevil.
* For ease, I will stick to the English translation, mainly to keep the pun of the name.
** Pronounced exactly as you’re thinking.
*** So to speak. *cough*
Welcome to Lost in Translation’s news round-up, looking at information about upcoming adaptations, remakes, and reboots.
Warner reschedules Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice
Warner Bros blinked and moved their movie to March 25, 2016, so that it wouldn’t be in direct competition with Marvel’s Captain America 3. That moves the film to outside the summer blockbuster months, but may gain a bit with March Breaks in high schools.
Babylon 5 getting a feature film reboot.
J. Michael Stracysnki has announced that he will be writing the script for the reboot film. JMS was the creator of the TV series, and is hoping to get Warner Bros. to fund the film. If not, then Studio JMS will provide the funding. No other details are known.
John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War becoming TV series Ghost Brigades.
The pilot script is still being developed, but SyFy will be airing the series. Scalzi has a FAQ and an interview with one of the scriptwriters, himself. This is in addition to the Redshirts TV series on FX.
Shazam movie confirmed; Dwayne Johnson has undisclosed role.
Dwayne Johnson may play either Captain Marvel (get it right, CBC!) or Black Adam, but he didn’t say which. However, one of his favourite characters is Black Adam.
Casting announced for Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.
Benedict Cumberbatch has been named as the voice of Shere Khan in the Warner Bros.’ version of The Jungle Book. This should not be confused with Disney’s remake, which will have Idris Elba as the tiger.
Phineas and Ferb to have Hallowe’en special.
Sure, most of Disney’s properties have Hallowe’en specials. None had Simon Pegg or Nick Frost recreating their roles from Shaun of the Dead until now. The pair will join the rest of the cast from Phineas and Ferb in a so-far undisclosed story. The writing for the cartoon targets the entire family and has been known to throw in references to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the past.
Power Rangers movie has release date set.
Lionsgate has set June 22, 2016, as the release date for Power Rangers. Now all they need to do is film it. Cast and director have not yet been named.
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life to be adapted for TV.
Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield, who commanded the International Space Station during Expedition 35, will have his book adapted for television. ABC has picked up the rights and will have Col. Hadfield as a consulting producer on the pilot.
Minority Report in development for TV series.
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television may be adapting his movie Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Minority Report”. The series is expected to focus on the PreCrime unit from the movie.
A small change in plans. With the passing of Robin Williams, it seemed to be fitting to look at something of his. A look at his filmography, though, shows a large number of potential reviews, from Popeye to Good Morning, Vietnam, based on Adrian Cronauer’s experiences on Armed Forces Radio, to The Birdcage, a remake of the French-Italian film La Cage aux Folles, and to Insomnia, a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name. A wealth of possibilities to choose from showcasing his range as an actor. However, one of his iconic roles channelled his stand-up comedy – Disney’s Aladdin.
The part of the Genie in Aladdin was written specifically for Williams, but he almost turned down the role. It wasn’t until he saw one of his stand-up routines animated with the Genie did he accept. The result was animated magic. Williams almost stole the movie as the Genie. And while the part was written for him, Williams performed his manic improv throughout the movie.
The original story of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp” is a folk tale from the Middle East, passed down through oral tradition before being recorded in writing. The tale was added to 1001 Arabian Nights by translators in the 18th Century, becoming one of Scheherazade’s stories keeping her alive. Aladdin, according to the tale, was recruited by a sorcerer to enter a cave filled with traps to retrieve a special oil lamp. To help, the sorcerer gave Aladdin a magic ring. Stuck in the cave, Aladdin rubs his ring, summoning a djinn who helps him escape with the lamp. At home, he cleans up the lamp, summoning a more powerful djinn. The new djinn helps Aladdin become rich and marry Badroulbadour, the Emperor’s daughter, despite her being betrothed to the vizier. The sorcerer finds out about what has happened, though, and tricks Badroulbadour into trading for the lamp. Aladdin tracks down the sorcerer with the help of the djinn of the ring. After a fight, Aladdin triumphs, retrieves the lamp, and returns to Badroulbadour.
Disney’s Aladdin follows the general story closely. There are a few changes. The sorcerer and the vizier were rolled into Jafar, the Grand Vizier, and there was just the one Genie. There was no room for a second Robin Williams in the movie. The Emperor’s daughter received a name change, from Badroulbadour to Jasmine. While Badroulbadour means “the full moon of full moons”, an name implying great beauty, the name doesn’t flow naturally to an English audience, thus Jasmine. The story was moved from the far east to the fictional sultanate of Agrabah, a land with classic Arabic stylings. The changes are minor, though. The core of the story still focuses on Aladdin and his dream to become rich. Disney added a few morals to the film, but again the story could absorb the additions with no loss to the core.
With the main plot already handled, other subplots were added. The Genie wants freedom. “Phenominal cosmic power! Itty bitty living space.” Robin Williams turned in a performance that made the Genie larger than life but still human. He took a character with absolute cosmic power and made him funny, made him sympathetic, made him memorable.
Disney’s Aladdin works as an adaptation. It only adds to the story, not removing anything from the core of the tale of “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp”. Robin Williams, though, added to the story, using his talents to entertain, thrill, and enchant a new generation. He will be missed.
The hijinks of the proverbial fish out of water has been the source for many works in entertainment. The idea of taking someone from his or her element and then dropping them in an entirely new setting has great comic potential. Even Shakespeare has used the device, in such works as A Midsummer’s Night Dream and As You Like It. The latter even had the dichotomy of country and city life, one of the first being The Beverly Hillbillies.
The Beverly Hillbillies had a simple premise, as explained in its theme song – Jed Clampett, played by Buddy Ebsen, finds oil on his land, gets rich, and buys a home in Beverly Hills. Being a dirt poor farmer, Jed never saw modern conveniences. His family, Ellie Mae, Jethro, and Granny, played by Donna Douglas, Max Baer, Jr, and Irene Ryan, weren’t much better; Granny didn’t take to the advances like Jed had, like motor cars. Having a big cement pond, known to most people as a pool, was a source of amazement. Fortunately, Jed had the help of his financial advisor and next door neighbour Milburn Drysdale, played by Raymond Bailey, and his secretary, Jane Hathaway, played by Nancy Kulp. Episodes revolved around the cultural conflict between the Clampetts and the Drysdales, ascerbated by schemes by either Jethro or Drysdale. Jethro’s scheming was more to get the pretty girls of Beverly Hills; Drysdale’s scams involved using Jed’s money to get richer. Not everyone had a conflict. Jane Hathaway was friendly with the Clampetts, even with Granny, and Ellie Mae soothed some rough patches by being her charming self.
The series ran for nine years, from 1962 until 1971, switching from black and white to colour in its fourth season. Despite negative reviews from critics, The Beverly Hillbillies was a ratings hit, being the number one show in its early years. Even when it was cancelled, it was in the top third of TV series on the air. CBS, however, bowed to pressure from advertisers who wanted a younger audience and cancelled many of its shows with a heartland theme in what became known as the Rural Purge. Along with The Beverly Hillbillies, other long runners cancelled included Green Acres, Mayberry RFD, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Hee Haw, making way for new series All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and M*A*S*H, shows that reflected the social mood of the early 70s. Rural series would return, such as The Dukes of Hazzard in 1979, but they wouldn’t dominate the airwaves as before. The Beverly Hillbillies had a reunion movie in 1981, catching up on where the characters went over the decade since cancellation.
The Beverly Hillbillies did make an impact on the mind space of audiences. Even if someone hadn’t seen the show, difficult in the age of syndication, the theme song could easily become an earworm. Even “Weird Al” Yankovic would make reference to the show, releasing the song “The Beverly Hillbillies/Money for Nothing” as part of the soundtrack for 1989’s UHF. Jed Clampett represented the rags-to-riches dream, something that appeals to a wide audience. Naturally, a TV series that had such a wide audience was ripe for being adapted as a feature film.
In 1993, that’s exactly what happened. The Beverly Hillbillies was released by Twentieth Century Fox, introducing the Clampetts to the big screen. Casting was a strong point for the adaptation, with a number of comedians and comic actors playing the major characters. Taking over the role of Jed was Jim Varney, best known for playing the character Earnest in the various ads and movies. Meanwhile, Cloris Leachman played Granny, Lily Tomlin portrayed Jane Hathaway, and Dabney Coleman was Mr. Drysdale. Rounding out the cast were Diedrich Bader as Jethro and Erika Eleniak as Ellie Mae.
The movie starts in the Tennesee Smoky Mountains, showing the Clampetts at home. Ellie Mae fends off a bear to get wild honey for dinner while Ol’ Jed’s out hunting for food. The hunt is straight from the TV series’ title credits, with crude oil bubbling out where Jed’s missed shot discovers the patch. The first ten minutes of the movie is spent recreating the events of the opening credits, including the theme song, which has one small change. In the original series, Jed’s farm was worth $96 million, in 1962 dollars. The oil crises of the 70s, in 1973 and in 1979, occurred after The Beverly Hillbillies had been cancelled. A barrel of oil, worth $2.85 in 1962, was worth $16.75 in 1993. The movie Jed didn’t become a millionaire; he became a billionaire, and the theme song was modified to reflect the change.
While the hills of the Smoky Mountains might not have changed for Jed between 1962 and 1993, Los Angeles had. Culture shock occurred using the modern LA. The iconic image of the Clampetts in their old truck on the LA freeways remained, but the reaction to it by drivers changed. Jethro’s truck caused a traffic jam, and while drivers may have fumed in 1962, things got ugly in the early 90s. Shooting incidents between drivers on the freeways hit the news. The movie picked up on it, and one irate passenger in a car that Jethro had cut off was quite willing to express his anger with the aid of a pistol until Jed trumped him with his own shotgun.
Meanwhile, Mr. Drysdale is trying to make things welcoming for Jed’s money and for Jed. His assistant, Woodrow Tyler, played by Rob Schneider, also has plans for Jed’s money, plans require Jed to not have it. Tyler and his partner in embezzlement, Laura Jackson, played by Lea Thompson, hatch a scheme when they find out that Jed is looking for a wife to help refine tomboy Ellie Mae. Laura becomes French etiquette teacher Laurette Voleur, despite not speaking French, to infiltrate the Clampett estate and woo Jed. Granny discovers the plot while making a batch of her special brand of medicine, known to Revenue Agents as “moonshine”, but Laura and Woodrow kidnap her to have her committed to a retirement home. Miss Hathaway suspects something is up, but is unable to get Jed, who has seen Granny disappear before a wedding before, or the police involved. Jane turns to one of LA’s top private detectives, Barnaby Jones, played by Buddy Ebsen himself, to locate Granny and get her back to the estate before Jed commits to a terrible mistake.
While Jed’s the subject of several matchmakers, other subplots are also playing out. Ellie Mae heads off to high school, with Morgan Drysdale, played by Kevin Connolly, showing her around. The high school allowed the film to contrast the Clampetts with the residents of Beverly Hills. The bullies took travellers’ cheques and wire transfers, there was a cappucino vendor in the hallway before class, the girls all had cell phones*. One girl even had a FAX machine in her Porsche. In a movie that could have relied on, “Hey, look at them yokels,” humour, Ellie Mae’s subplot turns the culture shock around, adding the audience’s own shock and expectations to the mix.
One of the movie’s main strengths is that it respects the characters from the TV series. While there is some fun poked at Jethro’s lack of smarts, that element existed in the original. Jed is still the calm, wise centre of the family, doing what he can for his loved ones despite his lack of education. And, even with the lack of education, Jed is portrayed as a smart man. The contrast comes from Woodrow Tyler, an educated man without wisdom.
The cast was well chosen. Talented comedic actors who understood the role plus promising young actors presented the script well. The actors suited the roles. Dabney Coleman was ideal as Mr. Drysdale. Cloris Leachman channelled Irene Ryan as Granny. Diedrich Bader turned in a dual role, as Jethro and as his sister, Jethrine, just as Max Baer did in the original series, without turning Jethrine into a charicature. The script captured the feel of an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, right down to using the closing theme at the end. Tropes that haven’t been used in some time, like the speeding of the film during especially frenetic scenes, were in use as they would have been in the TV series.
The cast and crew showed great respect to the original material and actors. The film played out like an episode of the TV series, taking advantage of the 92 minute running time to add scenes of culture shock on the part of the Beverly Hills locals. In short, The Beverly Hillbillies movie was an almost perfect adaptation of the original show.
Next week, Ocean’s 11
* Today, that’s a given. In 1993, cell phones were mostly used for business purposes, and usually by the higher executives instead of the rank and file. The critical people usually had pagers when they had to be on call.
