- Published on
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So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 2022 (in the United Kingdom), The Haunting Of The Tower Of London enjoyed its initial release both on DVD and digital. Written and directed by Charlie Steeds, the film starred Richard Rowden, Tim Cartwright, Jake Watkins, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"When the remains of two murdered Princes are discovered at the Tower of London, a troubled Priest must put his beliefs aside to befriend a mysterious prisoner, who has supernatural powers to communicate with the dead. Together they must solve the mystery of who murdered the Princes, as prisoners in the castle dungeon meet their bloody fates at the hands of the Princes' ghosts, who continue to haunt the Castle seeking their revenge."
-- EZ
On this day in 2022 (in the United Kingdom), The Haunting Of The Tower Of London enjoyed its initial release both on DVD and digital. Written and directed by Charlie Steeds, the film starred Richard Rowden, Tim Cartwright, Jake Watkins, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"When the remains of two murdered Princes are discovered at the Tower of London, a troubled Priest must put his beliefs aside to befriend a mysterious prisoner, who has supernatural powers to communicate with the dead. Together they must solve the mystery of who murdered the Princes, as prisoners in the castle dungeon meet their bloody fates at the hands of the Princes' ghosts, who continue to haunt the Castle seeking their revenge."
-- EZ
- Published on
site update
So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 2020 (in the United Kingdom), audiences in attendance (virtually) of the Soho Horror Film Festival were treated to the theatrical debut of Vampire Virus. Written (in part) and directed by Charlie Steeds, the film starred Natalie Martins, Derek Nelson, Jessica Alonso, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A young woman contracts a deadly virus after an unusual sexual encounter, and soon develops a taste for human blood."
-- EZ
On this day in 2020 (in the United Kingdom), audiences in attendance (virtually) of the Soho Horror Film Festival were treated to the theatrical debut of Vampire Virus. Written (in part) and directed by Charlie Steeds, the film starred Natalie Martins, Derek Nelson, Jessica Alonso, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A young woman contracts a deadly virus after an unusual sexual encounter, and soon develops a taste for human blood."
-- EZ
- Published on
site udpate
So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 1973 (in Spain), Vengeance Of The Zombies (aka La rebelión de las muertas, aka Revolt Of The Dead Ones) came to life theatrically. Directed by León Klimovsky from a story by Paul Naschy, the film starred Naschy alongside Romy, Mirta Miller, Maria Kosty, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"An Indian mystic uses magical chants to raise women from the dead, then sends them out to perform revenge killings for him."
-- EZ
On this day in 1973 (in Spain), Vengeance Of The Zombies (aka La rebelión de las muertas, aka Revolt Of The Dead Ones) came to life theatrically. Directed by León Klimovsky from a story by Paul Naschy, the film starred Naschy alongside Romy, Mirta Miller, Maria Kosty, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"An Indian mystic uses magical chants to raise women from the dead, then sends them out to perform revenge killings for him."
-- EZ
- Published on
site update
So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 1996 (in the U.S.), the good people of New York City, New York were treated to the exclusive theatrical premiere of the Science Fiction / Comedy Multiplicity. Directed by Harold Ramis from a story by Chris Miller, Mary Hale, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel, the film starred Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Zack Duhame, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A family man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do takes advantage of the opportunity to have himself cloned."
-- EZ
On this day in 1996 (in the U.S.), the good people of New York City, New York were treated to the exclusive theatrical premiere of the Science Fiction / Comedy Multiplicity. Directed by Harold Ramis from a story by Chris Miller, Mary Hale, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel, the film starred Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Zack Duhame, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A family man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do takes advantage of the opportunity to have himself cloned."
-- EZ
- Published on
site update
So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 2017 (in the U.S.), the home video release of Land Shark proved to consumers that maybe all that fuss about fretting when it was safe to go back in the water was damn overrated! Written and directed by Mark Polonia, the film starred Sarah French, Peter Baldo, Elissa Dowling, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"Lucinda Regis, Director of Development at MALCO Oceanic Research, becomes the target of a dangerous killer after unraveling a sinister plot to inject sharks with human DNA."
-- EZ
On this day in 2017 (in the U.S.), the home video release of Land Shark proved to consumers that maybe all that fuss about fretting when it was safe to go back in the water was damn overrated! Written and directed by Mark Polonia, the film starred Sarah French, Peter Baldo, Elissa Dowling, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"Lucinda Regis, Director of Development at MALCO Oceanic Research, becomes the target of a dangerous killer after unraveling a sinister plot to inject sharks with human DNA."
-- EZ
- Published on
So many movies ... so much to celebrate!
On this day in 2005 (in the U.S.), Dark Water enjoyed its first theatrical screening ever when it was released for an exclusive premiere event for the good people of New York City, New York. Directed by Walter Salles from a story by Kôji Suzuki, Hideo Nakata, Takashige Ichise, and Rafael Yglesias, the film starred Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, and others. According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building, where they are targeted by the ghost of a former resident."
For the record:
At the 2006 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, Dark Water received an impressive four nominations in the categories of 'Best Score,' 'Best Screenplay,' 'Best Supporting Actor,' and 'Best Actress.'
Editor's Note:
Just for clarity's sake, it's worth mentioning that 2005's Dark Water is a remake of the 2002 Japanese feature of the same name.
-- EZ
On this day in 2005 (in the U.S.), Dark Water enjoyed its first theatrical screening ever when it was released for an exclusive premiere event for the good people of New York City, New York. Directed by Walter Salles from a story by Kôji Suzuki, Hideo Nakata, Takashige Ichise, and Rafael Yglesias, the film starred Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, and others. According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"A mother and daughter, still wounded from a bitter custody dispute, hole up in a run-down apartment building, where they are targeted by the ghost of a former resident."
For the record:
At the 2006 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, Dark Water received an impressive four nominations in the categories of 'Best Score,' 'Best Screenplay,' 'Best Supporting Actor,' and 'Best Actress.'
Editor's Note:
Just for clarity's sake, it's worth mentioning that 2005's Dark Water is a remake of the 2002 Japanese feature of the same name.
-- EZ
- Published on
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“In 2063, desperate for a solution to save humanity from a global holy war, the world's governing bodies establish a fierce martial-arts tournament to determine a champion whose faith will govern humanity and restore peace for the future.”
Don’t let your eyes fool you, folks: when everything you see tells you that you’re watching a B-Movie, then you’d better believe it!
Now, that isn’t intended as any insult because – let’s all be perfectly honest with one another – there are a great many B-Movies out there that cultures around the world embrace and embrace mightily. Though the prospects may not seem so promising today, who knows what the next generation or the one after that might think about a feature as – ahem – as bland and uninteresting as Absolute Dominion (2025) is to us today. It hits a lot of cultural buttons, making statements about combat, religion, politics, family, etc., and yet it kinda/sorta fails to really stake out any central message other than always bet on the underdog. That alone might be a sentiment worth saving the picture for our grandchildren or our grandchildren’s grandchildren, so I’ll say what I think and leave this one’s prospects for the future to those yet to come.
Up front, everything about the picture gives it the narrative structure of, say, a lazy man’s Mortal Kombat, a 1995 flick that saw the fate of the world at large resting in the hands of combatants from opposing dimensions facing off in the brackets to end all brackets. Dominion doesn’t span nearly as far – instead of the galaxy being at risk, this one centers chiefly on our Big Blue Marble – and it puts our future squarely in the hands of humans alone. Rather than throwing down against champions with special powers or multiple limbs, Dominion requires that the major and minor religions around the world select one combatant to represent their respective faith; and then – presumably – whoever wins gets to determine what belief system will govern these united nations until the same time next year when it all takes place yet again. I think it’s all meant to be a bit dystopian in tone, but the fact that we’re never really treated to what affect these tournaments have on Planet Earth suggests that maybe not even writer/director Lexi Alexander wanted to put that much thought into it.
Indeed, Dominion tries very hard to muster up the likes of such recent societal spectacles as The Hunger Games (2012), The Maze Runner (2014), or even Allegiant (2016), but when your production budget can only afford – ahem – actor, comedian, and podcaster Patton Oswalt for name and face recognition, the future doesn’t look so bright that you’re likely wear shades. At this price point, you’ll be lucky if you can afford them! Bill & Ted alumnus Alex Winter shows up in a small role (also with producer responsibilities); and while actress Julie Ann Emery isn’t exactly a household name hers was a face I recognized. The two of them do the best they can – Winter as a thoughtful scientist responsible for engineering Sagan Bruno (played by Désiré Mia) to be the lean, mean, and somewhat Christian fighting machine while Emery mostly chews scenery as the resident matriarch/badass trying to save civilization from chaos – but so little of the plotline evolves organically that neither gets the traction required to evoke true emotional possibilities.
As I said above, Sagan is the genetically perfect specimen who has been assembled and psychologically programmed to represent … well … let’s call it ‘Anti-Faith.’ Emerging from a conglomerate run by scientists and big thinkers, he’s meant to be society’s wild card within the tournament, showing that spirituality and religion are no longer needed in order to be considered among the best of the best. Well, the central MacGuffin here is that Sagan privately finds himself plagued by brief periods of catatonic blackout in which – believe it or not – he thinks he’s hearing the voice of God. (This gets a bit confusing in the second half when even he admits it may all be an auditory hallucination.) Naturally, this is meant to give his character the dimension it needs beyond simply serving as a brawler; but Mia’s skills in that respect are – ahem – really sorely lacking. In fact, so many folks alongside the relative screen newcomer wind up mumbling their dialogue through a great deal of the picture, so much so that I’m hoping that producers asked for the salaries of the sound crew to be returned.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“In 2063, desperate for a solution to save humanity from a global holy war, the world's governing bodies establish a fierce martial-arts tournament to determine a champion whose faith will govern humanity and restore peace for the future.”
Don’t let your eyes fool you, folks: when everything you see tells you that you’re watching a B-Movie, then you’d better believe it!
Now, that isn’t intended as any insult because – let’s all be perfectly honest with one another – there are a great many B-Movies out there that cultures around the world embrace and embrace mightily. Though the prospects may not seem so promising today, who knows what the next generation or the one after that might think about a feature as – ahem – as bland and uninteresting as Absolute Dominion (2025) is to us today. It hits a lot of cultural buttons, making statements about combat, religion, politics, family, etc., and yet it kinda/sorta fails to really stake out any central message other than always bet on the underdog. That alone might be a sentiment worth saving the picture for our grandchildren or our grandchildren’s grandchildren, so I’ll say what I think and leave this one’s prospects for the future to those yet to come.
Up front, everything about the picture gives it the narrative structure of, say, a lazy man’s Mortal Kombat, a 1995 flick that saw the fate of the world at large resting in the hands of combatants from opposing dimensions facing off in the brackets to end all brackets. Dominion doesn’t span nearly as far – instead of the galaxy being at risk, this one centers chiefly on our Big Blue Marble – and it puts our future squarely in the hands of humans alone. Rather than throwing down against champions with special powers or multiple limbs, Dominion requires that the major and minor religions around the world select one combatant to represent their respective faith; and then – presumably – whoever wins gets to determine what belief system will govern these united nations until the same time next year when it all takes place yet again. I think it’s all meant to be a bit dystopian in tone, but the fact that we’re never really treated to what affect these tournaments have on Planet Earth suggests that maybe not even writer/director Lexi Alexander wanted to put that much thought into it.
Indeed, Dominion tries very hard to muster up the likes of such recent societal spectacles as The Hunger Games (2012), The Maze Runner (2014), or even Allegiant (2016), but when your production budget can only afford – ahem – actor, comedian, and podcaster Patton Oswalt for name and face recognition, the future doesn’t look so bright that you’re likely wear shades. At this price point, you’ll be lucky if you can afford them! Bill & Ted alumnus Alex Winter shows up in a small role (also with producer responsibilities); and while actress Julie Ann Emery isn’t exactly a household name hers was a face I recognized. The two of them do the best they can – Winter as a thoughtful scientist responsible for engineering Sagan Bruno (played by Désiré Mia) to be the lean, mean, and somewhat Christian fighting machine while Emery mostly chews scenery as the resident matriarch/badass trying to save civilization from chaos – but so little of the plotline evolves organically that neither gets the traction required to evoke true emotional possibilities.
As I said above, Sagan is the genetically perfect specimen who has been assembled and psychologically programmed to represent … well … let’s call it ‘Anti-Faith.’ Emerging from a conglomerate run by scientists and big thinkers, he’s meant to be society’s wild card within the tournament, showing that spirituality and religion are no longer needed in order to be considered among the best of the best. Well, the central MacGuffin here is that Sagan privately finds himself plagued by brief periods of catatonic blackout in which – believe it or not – he thinks he’s hearing the voice of God. (This gets a bit confusing in the second half when even he admits it may all be an auditory hallucination.) Naturally, this is meant to give his character the dimension it needs beyond simply serving as a brawler; but Mia’s skills in that respect are – ahem – really sorely lacking. In fact, so many folks alongside the relative screen newcomer wind up mumbling their dialogue through a great deal of the picture, so much so that I’m hoping that producers asked for the salaries of the sound crew to be returned.
Furthermore, Dominion remains heavily weighted down by the fact that it’s utterly and patently predictable, probably because it relies so heavily on stealing ideas that have already been done before in the aforementioned theatrical Young Adult novel adaptations. Literally, everything in here has been done before, leaving the end result so strikingly unoriginal and uninspired I would be surprised to see it subject to copyright violations, starting with the gaily-flamboyant broadcasting personnel down to the scheming control booth know-nothings. Aside from the only real unique twist – that being of our leading clone kinda/sorta discovering he might have a soul – the story progresses exactly as anyone expects. One by one, the competitors are dispatched, and Sagan learns that there are a few challengers he can still trust outside the squared circle … or circled square … it’s a little of both here. Yes, eventually, he makes it to the Big Event … and, yes, it ends precisely the way you suspected it would, although Alexander sadly leaves it up to you and me to figure out how much of Sagan’s holiness was real or simply a product of our own hopeful imagination.
Honestly, I kept hoping for some spark to elevate the mundanity of the entire presentation. Effects work – what there is – is nothing to “write home about,” and the performances all tend to be very low key and uninspired. One would think that a script involving, say, the various passions of the Christ, Allah, Bill Gates, and/or whoever else might be High and Mighty would be a bit more enthusiastic, but there’s not an ounce of authentic belief anywhere to be seen in this 100-minute running time. Hell, even the scientists don’t seem all that scienc-y! Alexander’s inability to effectively frame shooting scenes also doesn’t help viewers get inspired by any of the imagery: I lost count of the number of close-ups wherein the actor or actress were staged so far out of center that I wasn’t sure what I was to be looking at. All of this is plagued by so much amateurish cinematography I began to wonder myself if maybe that was an act of God.
Minimally, I show up to a fight movie because of the fisticuffs, but even on that front Dominion underperforms. What looks like some major martial arts match-ups boil down to many wrestling-style moves, pitting this somewhere closer to mixed martial arts than I think many will expect. But when you see the brawlers ducking away well before their opponents’ kicks are in the air? Well, that assures me that it’s all been so choreographed and rehearsed that the adrenaline rush viewers get from a real fight wasn’t important to be preserved. This one falls flat … with a resounding thud … whether that was scripted or not.
Absolute Dominion (2025) was produced by Ajnabi Productions, Blumhouse Television, and Trouper Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Giant Pictures (is my best guess). As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I’ll admit that it’s very difficult to find much position to say about the sights and sounds, given that nothing is handled with any degree of excellence much less competence. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas … there’s nada. But maybe – in this case – that’s not so awful.
Alas … only Mildly (very mildly) Recommended.
Though I held back laughs where none were clearly intended, I still expected to be humbly entertained by Absolute Dominion (2025), and I just wasn’t. Performances are bland – as are pretty much all of the fights – and there’s absolutely no last significance to anything here that’s scripted for the small cast of players. Far too much of the world requires heavy, heavy exposition by the people in it; and I grew tired of waiting for them to fill me in enough so that I could sufficiently care about who they were, what they were doing, and what the real stakes were. A big miss, one that will likely be the answer to no one’s prayer.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Allied Vaughn provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Absolute Dominion (2025) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Honestly, I kept hoping for some spark to elevate the mundanity of the entire presentation. Effects work – what there is – is nothing to “write home about,” and the performances all tend to be very low key and uninspired. One would think that a script involving, say, the various passions of the Christ, Allah, Bill Gates, and/or whoever else might be High and Mighty would be a bit more enthusiastic, but there’s not an ounce of authentic belief anywhere to be seen in this 100-minute running time. Hell, even the scientists don’t seem all that scienc-y! Alexander’s inability to effectively frame shooting scenes also doesn’t help viewers get inspired by any of the imagery: I lost count of the number of close-ups wherein the actor or actress were staged so far out of center that I wasn’t sure what I was to be looking at. All of this is plagued by so much amateurish cinematography I began to wonder myself if maybe that was an act of God.
Minimally, I show up to a fight movie because of the fisticuffs, but even on that front Dominion underperforms. What looks like some major martial arts match-ups boil down to many wrestling-style moves, pitting this somewhere closer to mixed martial arts than I think many will expect. But when you see the brawlers ducking away well before their opponents’ kicks are in the air? Well, that assures me that it’s all been so choreographed and rehearsed that the adrenaline rush viewers get from a real fight wasn’t important to be preserved. This one falls flat … with a resounding thud … whether that was scripted or not.
Absolute Dominion (2025) was produced by Ajnabi Productions, Blumhouse Television, and Trouper Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Giant Pictures (is my best guess). As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I’ll admit that it’s very difficult to find much position to say about the sights and sounds, given that nothing is handled with any degree of excellence much less competence. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Alas … there’s nada. But maybe – in this case – that’s not so awful.
Alas … only Mildly (very mildly) Recommended.
Though I held back laughs where none were clearly intended, I still expected to be humbly entertained by Absolute Dominion (2025), and I just wasn’t. Performances are bland – as are pretty much all of the fights – and there’s absolutely no last significance to anything here that’s scripted for the small cast of players. Far too much of the world requires heavy, heavy exposition by the people in it; and I grew tired of waiting for them to fill me in enough so that I could sufficiently care about who they were, what they were doing, and what the real stakes were. A big miss, one that will likely be the answer to no one’s prayer.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Allied Vaughn provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Absolute Dominion (2025) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
- Published on
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the kind of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation, but the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.”
On the one hand, The Stuff is a movie difficult to love because the vast majority of it is shrouded in ambiguity. Though we know where The Stuff comes from, there’s never any explanation for why it exists. Though we see people and animals eating it, we’re never quite assured of exactly what its doing to those bodies and minds. Though there are strong suggestions that it’s somehow taking over our brains, the script lacks any cogent explanation of what its motivation or end strategy could possibly be. While undoubtedly Cohen scores points about commercialism and consumerism throughout the 90-minute running time, we’re still left with the somewhat tired and predictable cautionary ‘be careful what you wish for’ moral of the story; and – ahem – haven’t we been here before?
On the other hand, The Stuff rather effectively throws barb after barb about just how crass and uninformed we’ve become as a society. So long as something looks good, tastes great, and maybe even helps us get through the day, we’ll put damn near anything into our tummies, never once really stopping to consider the long much less the short-term effects. Because Cohen’s done this kind of thing before – 1976’s God Told Me To distressingly skewers those who engage in blind faith as well as savages religious extremism as a means to an end – I suspect that’s territory he felt most comfortable with in delivering the final cut of The Stuff to theaters, so be thankful that – minimally – the central goal is achieved.
However, I’ve read (and heard, now) that the writer/director initially delivered a much longer cut to New World Pictures that apparently studio executives balked at. From what I understand, Cohen completed something he describes as “more dense and sophisticated” when all the suits were hoping for was a traditional Horror effort. (This being the mid-1980’s and Horror statistically always being a safe bet if it had a strong narrative hook, who could blame them?) Frankly, I’d love to see what ended up on the cutting room as this completed endeavor tastes more like one of those semi-addictive concoctions the auteur is lampooning: it’s far too light, it’s far too sugary, it goes down way too easily, and it’ll likely be forgotten when the next big thing comes along.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A delicious, mysterious goo that oozes from the earth is marketed as the newest dessert sensation, but the tasty treat rots more than teeth when zombie-like snackers who only want to consume more of the strange substance at any cost begin infesting the world.”
On the one hand, The Stuff is a movie difficult to love because the vast majority of it is shrouded in ambiguity. Though we know where The Stuff comes from, there’s never any explanation for why it exists. Though we see people and animals eating it, we’re never quite assured of exactly what its doing to those bodies and minds. Though there are strong suggestions that it’s somehow taking over our brains, the script lacks any cogent explanation of what its motivation or end strategy could possibly be. While undoubtedly Cohen scores points about commercialism and consumerism throughout the 90-minute running time, we’re still left with the somewhat tired and predictable cautionary ‘be careful what you wish for’ moral of the story; and – ahem – haven’t we been here before?
On the other hand, The Stuff rather effectively throws barb after barb about just how crass and uninformed we’ve become as a society. So long as something looks good, tastes great, and maybe even helps us get through the day, we’ll put damn near anything into our tummies, never once really stopping to consider the long much less the short-term effects. Because Cohen’s done this kind of thing before – 1976’s God Told Me To distressingly skewers those who engage in blind faith as well as savages religious extremism as a means to an end – I suspect that’s territory he felt most comfortable with in delivering the final cut of The Stuff to theaters, so be thankful that – minimally – the central goal is achieved.
However, I’ve read (and heard, now) that the writer/director initially delivered a much longer cut to New World Pictures that apparently studio executives balked at. From what I understand, Cohen completed something he describes as “more dense and sophisticated” when all the suits were hoping for was a traditional Horror effort. (This being the mid-1980’s and Horror statistically always being a safe bet if it had a strong narrative hook, who could blame them?) Frankly, I’d love to see what ended up on the cutting room as this completed endeavor tastes more like one of those semi-addictive concoctions the auteur is lampooning: it’s far too light, it’s far too sugary, it goes down way too easily, and it’ll likely be forgotten when the next big thing comes along.
For what it’s worth, that’s the real shame to all of The Stuff.
Under Cohen’s direction, the shortened version is still a modestly entertaining feature. Certainly, it’s not big, bold, and brash the way a typical studio Hollywood blockbuster might approach the subject matter; but it’s still clinically efficient in smaller, restrained ways. Though the film is easily plagued with some subpar effects work and maybe a few schlocky if not nonsensical performances, there remains a short but loud parade of ideas. The script comments on many, many aspects of social structures be they family structures, government oversight, addiction, individuality, conformity, and more. Some of the observations could’ve used a bit more depth – that’s usually the case when social commentary enters the more mainstream efforts of Horror – but the remarks are still there … and they’re quite prescient.
Thankfully, Arrow Films is righting that wrong with this 2025 release, a two-disc set that includes both the theatrical version as well as that pre-release edit that allegedly was located in 2021. Having just sat through both, I can assure you that – unquestionably – the longer film (just under two hours) is the better incarnation of this story. Yes, it still kinda/sorta misses the boat in clarifying precisely where The Stuff comes from; but the additional scenes do flesh out the relationships between the principle characters, give some greater subtext to actions taking place, and – in minor ways – just how pervasive the effects the horrifically delicious goo is on the afflicted. As can happen with some yarns, it does run a bit long in certain sequences; and, yet, I’d rather watch something closer to what the storyteller intended than a shortened studio edit almost every time it’s offered.
David ‘Mo’ Rutherford (played by Michael Moriarty) is a former FBI Agent turned industrial espionage specialist who is among the elite of the elite at his craft. When the ice cream industry suddenly finds itself losing to its competition in the dessert industry to a newly-launched delicacy called, simply, ‘The Stuff,’ they’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on the recipe in hopes that they’ll find some evidence to bring the new supplier to its knees. Naturally, Rutherford takes the case, thinking that such an exposé should be easy pickings for a man of his talents. Lo and behold, he finds only an endless trails of unanswerable questions upon his first inspection, forcing him onto the less conventional path of seducing the company’s marketing genius Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci) in order to get closer to his ultimate goal. It doesn’t take long before even she realizes things are amiss; and she willing joins him in the quest to expose her employer for dealing with one of the most dangerous creations ever sold in stores!
Under Cohen’s direction, the shortened version is still a modestly entertaining feature. Certainly, it’s not big, bold, and brash the way a typical studio Hollywood blockbuster might approach the subject matter; but it’s still clinically efficient in smaller, restrained ways. Though the film is easily plagued with some subpar effects work and maybe a few schlocky if not nonsensical performances, there remains a short but loud parade of ideas. The script comments on many, many aspects of social structures be they family structures, government oversight, addiction, individuality, conformity, and more. Some of the observations could’ve used a bit more depth – that’s usually the case when social commentary enters the more mainstream efforts of Horror – but the remarks are still there … and they’re quite prescient.
Thankfully, Arrow Films is righting that wrong with this 2025 release, a two-disc set that includes both the theatrical version as well as that pre-release edit that allegedly was located in 2021. Having just sat through both, I can assure you that – unquestionably – the longer film (just under two hours) is the better incarnation of this story. Yes, it still kinda/sorta misses the boat in clarifying precisely where The Stuff comes from; but the additional scenes do flesh out the relationships between the principle characters, give some greater subtext to actions taking place, and – in minor ways – just how pervasive the effects the horrifically delicious goo is on the afflicted. As can happen with some yarns, it does run a bit long in certain sequences; and, yet, I’d rather watch something closer to what the storyteller intended than a shortened studio edit almost every time it’s offered.
David ‘Mo’ Rutherford (played by Michael Moriarty) is a former FBI Agent turned industrial espionage specialist who is among the elite of the elite at his craft. When the ice cream industry suddenly finds itself losing to its competition in the dessert industry to a newly-launched delicacy called, simply, ‘The Stuff,’ they’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on the recipe in hopes that they’ll find some evidence to bring the new supplier to its knees. Naturally, Rutherford takes the case, thinking that such an exposé should be easy pickings for a man of his talents. Lo and behold, he finds only an endless trails of unanswerable questions upon his first inspection, forcing him onto the less conventional path of seducing the company’s marketing genius Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci) in order to get closer to his ultimate goal. It doesn’t take long before even she realizes things are amiss; and she willing joins him in the quest to expose her employer for dealing with one of the most dangerous creations ever sold in stores!
Moriarty makes for a likable though occasionally confusing lead. The actor has mastered the art of the Southern drawl, and he uses it expertly in order to get Mo into the good graces of those he encounters, be it corporate executives, government operatives, and even the loose cannon of a U.S. militia commander – Col. Malcolm Spears (Paul Sorvino) – he needs to bring The Stuff’s distribution system down. The last is a somewhat convenient development – the kind that could’ve used a bit of foreshadowing to make it feel a bit less forced – but it’s handled with a healthy dose of comedy, clearly signaling on even Cohen’s part that not a great deal of this is to be taken seriously. The Stuff is satire – not necessarily comic in origins – and it uses a few laughs to make the breadth of the whole affair work.
Marcovicci – while good – is a bit underwritten, and some of this simply comes from the fact that more often than not the parts of females get a bit restricted to being central victims in the Horror genre. Cohen’s a smart enough storyteller to give her a bit more to do; and yet the film is also plagued with a few moments that has her kinda/sorta flirting in order to accomplish what she needs and even uncharacteristically falling in love far too quickly with the available wealthy adult male that Rutherford is. Still, the lady hits her marks nicely, so much so that I’m a bit surprised she never found wider employment in movies. I’ve read that she’s reserved her talents a bit more in professional nightclubs and the like, so perhaps these few screen stops were all she had time for. That’s our loss.
Furthermore, The Stuff rounds out the leads with newcomer Scott Bloom occupying the role of young Jason, a child inevitably separated from his family once they’ve been consumed by their dependence upon The Stuff. His is a very solid B-storyline that eventually blends into the main source of the action roughly at the picture’s midpoint: as a budding young adventurer, he joins forces with Mo and Nicole mostly because he can serve as a first-person witness to the dangers of the digestible narcotics available in grocery stores. Indeed, he spends his half of the flick waging a one-man campaign – erm … one-kid campaign? – trying to alert those around him to the growing threat but – as he’s a child – he gets no one to listen. Still, once The Stuff knows that Jason is out there, even that delirious gunk will stop at nothing to mesmerize the boy.
As an ensemble, each character has a part to play, and Cohen truly balances the whole shebang out quite nicely. The 1980’s being what they were theatrically it wasn’t uncommon for younger actors and actresses to find themselves much more centerstage in genre productions; and The Stuff – as a film – definitely fits into the era as one more example of young and old working collaboratively to save the day. Sure, some of it can play a bit cringey by comparison to modern efforts; but it’s all swallowed quite well (snicker snicker) here because it’s more comic than treacherous. Mind you: The Stuff wants to rattle your brain, but it never appears in any form that I couldn’t chuckle at afterward. What can I say? I just have issues taking food threats that seriously.
Marcovicci – while good – is a bit underwritten, and some of this simply comes from the fact that more often than not the parts of females get a bit restricted to being central victims in the Horror genre. Cohen’s a smart enough storyteller to give her a bit more to do; and yet the film is also plagued with a few moments that has her kinda/sorta flirting in order to accomplish what she needs and even uncharacteristically falling in love far too quickly with the available wealthy adult male that Rutherford is. Still, the lady hits her marks nicely, so much so that I’m a bit surprised she never found wider employment in movies. I’ve read that she’s reserved her talents a bit more in professional nightclubs and the like, so perhaps these few screen stops were all she had time for. That’s our loss.
Furthermore, The Stuff rounds out the leads with newcomer Scott Bloom occupying the role of young Jason, a child inevitably separated from his family once they’ve been consumed by their dependence upon The Stuff. His is a very solid B-storyline that eventually blends into the main source of the action roughly at the picture’s midpoint: as a budding young adventurer, he joins forces with Mo and Nicole mostly because he can serve as a first-person witness to the dangers of the digestible narcotics available in grocery stores. Indeed, he spends his half of the flick waging a one-man campaign – erm … one-kid campaign? – trying to alert those around him to the growing threat but – as he’s a child – he gets no one to listen. Still, once The Stuff knows that Jason is out there, even that delirious gunk will stop at nothing to mesmerize the boy.
As an ensemble, each character has a part to play, and Cohen truly balances the whole shebang out quite nicely. The 1980’s being what they were theatrically it wasn’t uncommon for younger actors and actresses to find themselves much more centerstage in genre productions; and The Stuff – as a film – definitely fits into the era as one more example of young and old working collaboratively to save the day. Sure, some of it can play a bit cringey by comparison to modern efforts; but it’s all swallowed quite well (snicker snicker) here because it’s more comic than treacherous. Mind you: The Stuff wants to rattle your brain, but it never appears in any form that I couldn’t chuckle at afterward. What can I say? I just have issues taking food threats that seriously.
The Stuff (1985) was produced by Larco Productions. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found the provided sights-and-sounds to this restoration very good, but there are a few sequences with a great deal of grain. (I’m well aware that this is owed to issues with the source material, but it’s still worth mentioning.) Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? This is Arrow, so it’s a wonderful collection. In order to be fair, I’m doing the reliable copy-and-paste from the company’s previously published press release with a few observations to follow:
DISC ONE - 4K BLU-RAY
DISC ONE - 4K BLU-RAY
- NEW4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE by Arrow Films
- DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- Original lossless English 1.0 mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by writers and critics David Flint and Adrian Smith
- Archival audio commentary by writer/director Larry Cohen
- Can't Get Enough of The Stuff: Making Larry Cohen's Classic Creature Feature, a documentary featuring Larry Cohen, producer Paul Kurta, actress Andrea Marcovicci, mechanical makeup effects artist Steve Neill and critic Kim Newman
- Enough is Never Enough, a newly edited featurette featuring previously unseen interviews with director Larry Cohen and producer Paul Kurta, originally shot for the 2017 documentary King Cohen
- 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street, a feature-length documentary exploring the history of New York City's infamous 42nd Street, with first-hand accounts from an array of filmmakers, including Larry Cohen
- Trailers and TV spots
- King Cohen trailer
- Image gallery
- An early, pre-release cut of the film featuring over 30 minutes of additional footage and a different music score, exclusively remastered by Arrow Films
- High-Definition presentation
- Original lossless English 1.0 mono audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Barnes
- Illustrated collector's booklet featuring writing on the film by Joel Harley and a new essay by Daniel Burnet
I have heard Cohen on a commentary track before, but he seemed a bit quite here. Some of this might be owed to the reality of having his work kinda/sorta butchered in the truncated and inferior theatrical release, but I’d be remiss if I failed to mention he occasionally sounds uninterested. Flint and Smith’s commentary starts good, but somewhere around the midpoint the two seem to lose focus, and their conversation spirals into areas that, too, I just find all that relevant. Frankly, the documentaries were much more entertaining even though they, too, travel the gamut a bit, addressing this film as well as other Cohen-related efforts. It’s a great assortment nonetheless, and I encourage those of you seriously interested to pick up this release.
Also, as I’m only provided a copy of the discs themselves, I cannot speak to the efficacy of the associated booklets, artwork, inserts, and whatnot. In those instances, I always caution readers with the old adage: “Buyer beware.”
Recommended.
1985’s The Stuff is an oddity even amongst the many works of Larry Cohen. To me, it feels a bit more commercial than some of everything else he did; but it never quite rises to the level of a reputable B-Movie production except when dealing with that sugary concoction for which all of this madness is titled. Because so much of it just grazed the target, it’s hard to give this as strong an endorsement as I think others will. While it’s the perfect late-night movie – the kind of thing you find on a channel and tune in more as a curiosity than anything else – it still lacks that something extra – a key scene, a bigger performance, or some special effects wizardry – to make it extraordinary. There’s probably a cult following out there somewhere regardless, and I think Arrow’s release might whet their appetite for a bit more of The Stuff.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films and MVD Entertainment provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray copy of The Stuff (1985) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Also, as I’m only provided a copy of the discs themselves, I cannot speak to the efficacy of the associated booklets, artwork, inserts, and whatnot. In those instances, I always caution readers with the old adage: “Buyer beware.”
Recommended.
1985’s The Stuff is an oddity even amongst the many works of Larry Cohen. To me, it feels a bit more commercial than some of everything else he did; but it never quite rises to the level of a reputable B-Movie production except when dealing with that sugary concoction for which all of this madness is titled. Because so much of it just grazed the target, it’s hard to give this as strong an endorsement as I think others will. While it’s the perfect late-night movie – the kind of thing you find on a channel and tune in more as a curiosity than anything else – it still lacks that something extra – a key scene, a bigger performance, or some special effects wizardry – to make it extraordinary. There’s probably a cult following out there somewhere regardless, and I think Arrow’s release might whet their appetite for a bit more of The Stuff.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films and MVD Entertainment provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray copy of The Stuff (1985) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
- Published on
Believe it or not, there are a good handful of reasonably prominent genre films that – over the years – the readership have ‘taken me to task’ over.
No, I’m not going to start this review out my naming them, though I suspect a few of them might manage to creep in before all is said and done. To clarify, my position has never been – nor will it ever be – that I don’t like these motion pictures: rather, it’s that I personally don’t see any substantive reason for them to have received the amount of praise they have or that I’m a bit befuddled by conclusions some in the critical and academic community reached by watching the same thing I did. Though it’s sometimes easy to chalk these disagreements up to just differences of opinion, I can still cite some individual cases where a person of some acclaim – maybe even someone I find myself often agreeing with – just praises a certain film to the point of naming it one of the most significant Science Fiction or Fantasy or Horror productions he’s (or she’s) ever seen; this inevitably forces me to put on a look of sheer confusion – if not exasperated astonishment – as the only form of response. Yes, sometimes it is that mystifying … and I’m of a mindset that it shouldn’t be.
Now, yes, I am talking briefly here about Dark City (1998), but even that admission requires an honest clarification: when speaking about the feature written (in part) and directed by Alex Proyas, I’m usually addressing my complaints to the originally released theatrical edit, one which I’m quite sure has been a bit universally panned over the years. In fact, I distinctly recall a fair number of my educated betters emerging from their respective screenings feeling a bit lost with the plot of one man finding out that he might be the very center of a microcosmic universe (after all); and yet their opinions have changed somewhat dramatically when presented with the Director’s Cut finally given license roughly a decade later. All well and good – opinions can change when we’re given more to digest – and, true, Proyas’ return feels like it was conceived as a fuller meal on almost all counts.
Still … here’s the thing: at the end of the viewing, none of the significant questions I had after watching the original flick were really addressed … so pardon me if I’m still over here standing on my soapbox claiming that Dark City remains one of Science Fiction’s biggest missed opportunities at true, cinematic greatness.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
No, I’m not going to start this review out my naming them, though I suspect a few of them might manage to creep in before all is said and done. To clarify, my position has never been – nor will it ever be – that I don’t like these motion pictures: rather, it’s that I personally don’t see any substantive reason for them to have received the amount of praise they have or that I’m a bit befuddled by conclusions some in the critical and academic community reached by watching the same thing I did. Though it’s sometimes easy to chalk these disagreements up to just differences of opinion, I can still cite some individual cases where a person of some acclaim – maybe even someone I find myself often agreeing with – just praises a certain film to the point of naming it one of the most significant Science Fiction or Fantasy or Horror productions he’s (or she’s) ever seen; this inevitably forces me to put on a look of sheer confusion – if not exasperated astonishment – as the only form of response. Yes, sometimes it is that mystifying … and I’m of a mindset that it shouldn’t be.
Now, yes, I am talking briefly here about Dark City (1998), but even that admission requires an honest clarification: when speaking about the feature written (in part) and directed by Alex Proyas, I’m usually addressing my complaints to the originally released theatrical edit, one which I’m quite sure has been a bit universally panned over the years. In fact, I distinctly recall a fair number of my educated betters emerging from their respective screenings feeling a bit lost with the plot of one man finding out that he might be the very center of a microcosmic universe (after all); and yet their opinions have changed somewhat dramatically when presented with the Director’s Cut finally given license roughly a decade later. All well and good – opinions can change when we’re given more to digest – and, true, Proyas’ return feels like it was conceived as a fuller meal on almost all counts.
Still … here’s the thing: at the end of the viewing, none of the significant questions I had after watching the original flick were really addressed … so pardon me if I’m still over here standing on my soapbox claiming that Dark City remains one of Science Fiction’s biggest missed opportunities at true, cinematic greatness.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.”
Before I delve into the intricacies of what makes an effort like Dark City as brilliant and equally as flawed as it is, let’s make one point certain: films like it are why those of us who love watching, thinking, and writing about them to do what we do. In other words, we see things in these adventures. Sometimes, we identify with the characters. In other cases, we are intrigued by the world as presented and are even willing to take great strides to understand it. In other ways still, there’s something in the picture’s primary message that resonates with us – rings like a bell or reverberates like a jackhammer – causing watchers to embrace it when even stronger stories in similar territory fall flat. Because both watching and interpreting such tales is so personal experience, I can even point to instances (few but they’re out there) wherein I cannot sensibly explain why a flick moves me the way it does. What can I say? I’m human after all!
On this scale, Proyas’ Dark City falls somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen it enough to know both what works aesthetically as well as cerebrally. I’ve certainly read enough about it to grasp where I believe the writer/director wanted it to go and maybe even his impressions of how successfully it achieved what he set out to do. And, yes, by ingesting the latest Arrow Films’ release – which is loaded with Arrow’s incredible assortment of odds and ends – I’ve probably thought enough about it to make up my own mind of its occasional genius being thwarted equally by (you guessed it!) its own occasional genius that I should have more to say about it.
However, I don’t. I just don’t.
Dark City is a film I like but, immeasurably, don’t quite understand. Under Proyas’ direction, it’s astonishingly efficient, and yet I’m not convinced it really says anything deeper than ‘be careful what you wish for.’ Damn near everything about the production is perfect – or as darkly pristine as was fully intended – but when I reach those closing scenes I’m still baffled with how I, as a viewer, am to be happy with the lead character choosing to live in a prison of his own making versus a prison of someone else’s design.
Or is that it? That I’m not supposed to be happy?
“A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.”
Before I delve into the intricacies of what makes an effort like Dark City as brilliant and equally as flawed as it is, let’s make one point certain: films like it are why those of us who love watching, thinking, and writing about them to do what we do. In other words, we see things in these adventures. Sometimes, we identify with the characters. In other cases, we are intrigued by the world as presented and are even willing to take great strides to understand it. In other ways still, there’s something in the picture’s primary message that resonates with us – rings like a bell or reverberates like a jackhammer – causing watchers to embrace it when even stronger stories in similar territory fall flat. Because both watching and interpreting such tales is so personal experience, I can even point to instances (few but they’re out there) wherein I cannot sensibly explain why a flick moves me the way it does. What can I say? I’m human after all!
On this scale, Proyas’ Dark City falls somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen it enough to know both what works aesthetically as well as cerebrally. I’ve certainly read enough about it to grasp where I believe the writer/director wanted it to go and maybe even his impressions of how successfully it achieved what he set out to do. And, yes, by ingesting the latest Arrow Films’ release – which is loaded with Arrow’s incredible assortment of odds and ends – I’ve probably thought enough about it to make up my own mind of its occasional genius being thwarted equally by (you guessed it!) its own occasional genius that I should have more to say about it.
However, I don’t. I just don’t.
Dark City is a film I like but, immeasurably, don’t quite understand. Under Proyas’ direction, it’s astonishingly efficient, and yet I’m not convinced it really says anything deeper than ‘be careful what you wish for.’ Damn near everything about the production is perfect – or as darkly pristine as was fully intended – but when I reach those closing scenes I’m still baffled with how I, as a viewer, am to be happy with the lead character choosing to live in a prison of his own making versus a prison of someone else’s design.
Or is that it? That I’m not supposed to be happy?
John Murdoch (played by Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a hotel room next to the body of a dead woman bearing a curious sigil carved into her flesh. Doing the only thing a man utterly confused to find himself in such a predicament might do, he flees the scene of the crime only to realize slowly over the course of his flight that nothing about this place, his person, or his circumstance makes any sense. Initially, he’s thinking he’s suffered some mental breakdown fueled by marital difficulties with his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly); and only the willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the city’s chief detective – Inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) – is enough to grant John the leeway to pull back the layers of mystery surrounding (literally) everything in this tortured existence. His realization will present world-changing opportunities no one ever predicted possible.
The problem with searching for answers to questions only few hold is that, ultimately, some will pay a high price for risking to fly so close to the sun. Yes, that’s a cautionary warning most of us know, but it doesn’t stop Bumstead from going in cahoots with Murdoch. Eventually, he pays dearly; and it’s his demise that fundamentally underscores where I struggled with this particular City. In his death, we learn that – gasp! – none of this is real. Not the city. Not the identities. Nothing. It’s all being heavily manipulated at the hands of The Strangers, an alien race seeking to understand nothing more than ‘the human soul’ because they believe that grasping such concepts as humanity and individuality will somehow ‘cure’ their own looming extinction. Somehow – though it’s never explicitly explained – these aliens believe that playing with life and death will grant them the ability to – ahem – transcend both.
Erm … what?
Precisely how they can chase this rabbit endlessly down whatever hole it runs is their ability to tune.
Tuning – as best as I’ve settled on the concept as presented – is the Strangers’ talent to reshape reality into whatever construct they desire. If they need a door, then they simply imagine one; and it appears. If they need a new building, then they use their psychic abilities to bend and twist existing matter into this new edifice. While the process is demonstrated once or twice in the film, there’s still so very little information provided that, essentially, I pretty much mark it down as ‘the movie’s required magic,’ the kind of storytelling trickery that does anything whenever and wherever the script necessitates. Though we’re shown it has limitations (i.e. their machinery can manufacture whatever is needed from small objects to massive skyscrapers, but it requires individual Strangers to physically step into the City and position people and their possessions along with memory injections to accomplish these existential rewrites), the true extent of ‘tuning’ – much less its origins or its evolution from their species to Murdoch – is never quite clarified. Indeed, once Murdoch is brought into the realm of the The Strangers, he’s suddenly found telekinesis on the menu; and he puts this new gift to great use in deconstructing their world more vividly than they ever did his.
The problem with searching for answers to questions only few hold is that, ultimately, some will pay a high price for risking to fly so close to the sun. Yes, that’s a cautionary warning most of us know, but it doesn’t stop Bumstead from going in cahoots with Murdoch. Eventually, he pays dearly; and it’s his demise that fundamentally underscores where I struggled with this particular City. In his death, we learn that – gasp! – none of this is real. Not the city. Not the identities. Nothing. It’s all being heavily manipulated at the hands of The Strangers, an alien race seeking to understand nothing more than ‘the human soul’ because they believe that grasping such concepts as humanity and individuality will somehow ‘cure’ their own looming extinction. Somehow – though it’s never explicitly explained – these aliens believe that playing with life and death will grant them the ability to – ahem – transcend both.
Erm … what?
Precisely how they can chase this rabbit endlessly down whatever hole it runs is their ability to tune.
Tuning – as best as I’ve settled on the concept as presented – is the Strangers’ talent to reshape reality into whatever construct they desire. If they need a door, then they simply imagine one; and it appears. If they need a new building, then they use their psychic abilities to bend and twist existing matter into this new edifice. While the process is demonstrated once or twice in the film, there’s still so very little information provided that, essentially, I pretty much mark it down as ‘the movie’s required magic,’ the kind of storytelling trickery that does anything whenever and wherever the script necessitates. Though we’re shown it has limitations (i.e. their machinery can manufacture whatever is needed from small objects to massive skyscrapers, but it requires individual Strangers to physically step into the City and position people and their possessions along with memory injections to accomplish these existential rewrites), the true extent of ‘tuning’ – much less its origins or its evolution from their species to Murdoch – is never quite clarified. Indeed, once Murdoch is brought into the realm of the The Strangers, he’s suddenly found telekinesis on the menu; and he puts this new gift to great use in deconstructing their world more vividly than they ever did his.
Because Proyas and his skilled technicians render this so spectacularly, I think most folks simply overlook the fact (via these cinematic distractions) that none of it really makes sense happening physically. Sure, when it’s pretty, why stop and ask how it works? Indeed, 1999’s The Matrix – a picture that many compare endlessly to Dark City – opted to do the same thing within consciousness instead of the real world, making the task much simpler and understandable. There, human participants were all linked into a hive-mind existence; and they could similarly interact with one another whilst still being observed or monitored by the aliens who were using their human bodies for the bio-electricity they provided while contained with ‘the Matrix.’ Likewise, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) and the rebels found ways around their overlords’ control, much in the same way Murdoch ‘discovers’ this latest skill within himself. Still, using this same concept of reshaping reality but in the physical world truly required that Proyas do a bit more (in my opinion), and the picture scores poorly in that respect.
Additionally, Neo rose to the challenge of defying the conventions of his world with the goal of saving all of what remained of humanity from enslavement. Drawing that parallel to Murdoch’s task kinda/sorta comes up significantly short because, instead, he chooses to keep those still living within the prison of our aggressor’s construction. Yes, he’s torn down a wall or two. Yes, he’s turned up the lights. Yes, he’s obviously eliminated the invasion tinkering of the overlords even though we were never really shown such incessant tampering as producing ill effects on them. But it’s still a prison … no? The only significant difference – so far as this simple mind can determine – is that he’s become the warden. While it’s suggested that he’s restoring free will to survivors near and far (at least, that is what I take the metaphor of his Shell Beach destination to stand for), a case could be made that they already had free will to a small degree within their thematic incarceration. All that was truly lost was their respective ever-changing identities: choice never seemed to be in short supply.
For me, I still see the prison at the end of Dark City, a symbol that functionally not all that much is changed despite the revolution one man waged almost entirely on his own. For all intents and purposes, humanity remains well within the cage. We’re reminded of it even in those closing scenes wherein the alien station is depicted as a kinda/sorta island floating in space. Beyond those walls, no man can travel. Proyas showed us that with Bumstead’s floating body. Doesn’t this imply that even individuality has limitations? Doesn’t this mean that Murdoch really only let folks out of one prison so that they could endure another? Isn’t a cage always a cage, no matter who holds the keys to unlock the door?
Additionally, Neo rose to the challenge of defying the conventions of his world with the goal of saving all of what remained of humanity from enslavement. Drawing that parallel to Murdoch’s task kinda/sorta comes up significantly short because, instead, he chooses to keep those still living within the prison of our aggressor’s construction. Yes, he’s torn down a wall or two. Yes, he’s turned up the lights. Yes, he’s obviously eliminated the invasion tinkering of the overlords even though we were never really shown such incessant tampering as producing ill effects on them. But it’s still a prison … no? The only significant difference – so far as this simple mind can determine – is that he’s become the warden. While it’s suggested that he’s restoring free will to survivors near and far (at least, that is what I take the metaphor of his Shell Beach destination to stand for), a case could be made that they already had free will to a small degree within their thematic incarceration. All that was truly lost was their respective ever-changing identities: choice never seemed to be in short supply.
For me, I still see the prison at the end of Dark City, a symbol that functionally not all that much is changed despite the revolution one man waged almost entirely on his own. For all intents and purposes, humanity remains well within the cage. We’re reminded of it even in those closing scenes wherein the alien station is depicted as a kinda/sorta island floating in space. Beyond those walls, no man can travel. Proyas showed us that with Bumstead’s floating body. Doesn’t this imply that even individuality has limitations? Doesn’t this mean that Murdoch really only let folks out of one prison so that they could endure another? Isn’t a cage always a cage, no matter who holds the keys to unlock the door?
Because Dark City ends with the questions beginning, this is why I think it’s still arguably one of the better genre films to emerge from the late 1990’s. As imperfect as I see its message, it’s exactly the kind of feature that prompts alert viewers to evaluate it as a work of art, ponder the mysteries of existence, and wonder how all of the pieces of their own universe could inevitably fit together. At least, it’s smart enough to know where to leave them: where I disagree with most is that I still feel I deserved to know a bit more about it.
Dark City (1998) was produced by New Line Cinema, Time Warner, Mystery Clock Cinema, and Alex Proyas. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert … just wow. Seriously, it ought to be a crime for a picture to look and sound as good as this one does. It’s fabulous throughout. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I said above, Arrow never disappoints, and this two-disc assortment has multiple commentary tracks along with a heady assortment of behind-the-scenes extras that cineastes love to spend time with. “Impressive” doesn’t even begin to describe this collection.
Strongly Recommended.
Look: just because I sound like I’m disappointed in a film doesn’t necessarily mean that I dislike it, and nothing could be further from the truth as it applies to Dark City. Proyas and his obviously talented cast and crew did a masterful job delivering something worth watching not once, not twice, not thrice, but over and over and over again even if one ultimately winds up going absolutely nowhere in the process. John Murdoch’s awakening happens with so little explanation – as does any attempt within the film to rationally explain how any of this world-building, world-shifting, and world-tuning is possible – that I’m just poorly invested in it. What does work? Well, damn near everything! The production details, the performances, the twists, the turns, the pacing! Everything! It’s just that centrally and critically flawed premise that will forever bug the crap out of me; and it’s a sentiment I’ve never been able to overcome. Still … it’s a solid thumbs up … a feature that deserves to be embraced with all of its storytelling flaws.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Dark City (1998) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Dark City (1998) was produced by New Line Cinema, Time Warner, Mystery Clock Cinema, and Alex Proyas. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert … just wow. Seriously, it ought to be a crime for a picture to look and sound as good as this one does. It’s fabulous throughout. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? As I said above, Arrow never disappoints, and this two-disc assortment has multiple commentary tracks along with a heady assortment of behind-the-scenes extras that cineastes love to spend time with. “Impressive” doesn’t even begin to describe this collection.
Strongly Recommended.
Look: just because I sound like I’m disappointed in a film doesn’t necessarily mean that I dislike it, and nothing could be further from the truth as it applies to Dark City. Proyas and his obviously talented cast and crew did a masterful job delivering something worth watching not once, not twice, not thrice, but over and over and over again even if one ultimately winds up going absolutely nowhere in the process. John Murdoch’s awakening happens with so little explanation – as does any attempt within the film to rationally explain how any of this world-building, world-shifting, and world-tuning is possible – that I’m just poorly invested in it. What does work? Well, damn near everything! The production details, the performances, the twists, the turns, the pacing! Everything! It’s just that centrally and critically flawed premise that will forever bug the crap out of me; and it’s a sentiment I’ve never been able to overcome. Still … it’s a solid thumbs up … a feature that deserves to be embraced with all of its storytelling flaws.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Dark City (1998) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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So many movies ... so little time ...
On this day in 1977 (in the U.S.), the good people of Bismarck, North Dakota were treated to the exclusive theatrical debut of Ruby. Directed by Curtis Harrington from a story by George Edwards, Steve Krantz, and Barry Schneider, the film starred Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Roger Davis, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"Sixteen years after Ruby Claire's gangster boyfriend was shot and killed by four associates, a series of gruesome murders takes place at the drive-in movie theatre she now owns. Meanwhile, the behaviour of her mute daughter Leslie is becoming increasingly strange and a visiting psychic claims that forces from beyond are out for revenge."
For the record:
To the film's credit, Ruby garnered a wee bit of attention from a screening on the film festival circuit.
-- EZ
On this day in 1977 (in the U.S.), the good people of Bismarck, North Dakota were treated to the exclusive theatrical debut of Ruby. Directed by Curtis Harrington from a story by George Edwards, Steve Krantz, and Barry Schneider, the film starred Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Roger Davis, and others.
According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:
"Sixteen years after Ruby Claire's gangster boyfriend was shot and killed by four associates, a series of gruesome murders takes place at the drive-in movie theatre she now owns. Meanwhile, the behaviour of her mute daughter Leslie is becoming increasingly strange and a visiting psychic claims that forces from beyond are out for revenge."
For the record:
To the film's credit, Ruby garnered a wee bit of attention from a screening on the film festival circuit.
-- EZ