nevins-1

It's true, things were harsh back in the 70s, what with all the overpopulation and the corruption, plus the lousy food, made only bearable by the nice performances of the actors, including a farewell performance from Edward G. Robinson.

Charleton Heston of course is incredible. He gets all the best lines in so many movies. Who could forget: "It's a madhouse! A madhouse!" from Planet of the Apes!? (You think I'm kidding but I'm not! I'm completely serious! I LOVE that line! I mean, how many times have YOU ever wanted to just stand up and scream 'It's a madhouse! A madhouse!' in the middle of your everyday life?! And Charleton Heston GOT TO SCREAM IT, my friends, yes he did!) I will of course spare you his oft-quoted line from Soylent Green, given that it will spoil the movie for those who, unbelievably, have never heard it before.

All kidding aside, this is a great movie, even if you know the ending already. Aside from a few very obvious technological anachronisms, such as the 'asteroids' video game at the start of the film, the sci-fi is handled quite well, being mostly low-key as it is...

Also, if I'm not mistaken, this is where the band Green Day got their name. An early shot zooms in close on a poster which reads "Soylent Green Day," with the final two words looming ominously in the camera for long enough that a clever punk rocker might have appropriated the phrase for his anti-establishment purposes...

Mostly I love the soundtrack to this movie, though the general idea is great and the story is fun too. Really the villain is quite wonderful, especially when he runs over all those people with his car while going on a joyride! The survival nut also has a classic line: "I gotta PROTECT myself!" This movie is totally cheesy, but AWESOME, if you are into fantasy adventure and stuff like that. I just watched the 10th anniversary director's cut and I'm not sure how much the extra footage really adds to the story. At times it feels like a made-for-TV movie. But back to the villain. The Kurgan is the BEST. He is totally fun and full of life, evil, etc. He will make you shiver as he taunts the nuns in the church. It is TRULY a shame that they made any sequels to this movie. I HAVE NOT WATCHED ANY OF THEM SEQUELS and probably neither should you. Again, back to the villain: the skull helmet he wears in the first fight scene is incredible looking. How'd they get the horse to kick like that? The establishing shot at sunset before MacCleod's death scene, set to bagpipe music, though a quick little snippet, is also quite good shot, and beautiful. Lots of little subtle things in this film to enjoy, despite the fact that it's basically just a low-brow entertainment fantasy flick. The opening wrestling sequence with the crane shot is particularly intense. Also nice to show the wrestlers, a great counterpoint to the quest of the immortals, the humans jabbering away like monkeys, wearing confederate flags, bashing each other with their drunken fists, etc. While in the background, unbeknownst to all the ignorant apes (us humans), the true struggle goes on...

This movie is one of my personal all time favs! I've loved it ever since my buddies and I, fresh from playing Dungeons and Dragons back in the early eighties, convinced a friend's parent to rent it for us from the video store! This movie ROCKS! It's got blood, guts, orgies, philosophy, and SEX! Sure, it's a bit ham-fisted at points, but what the heck, it's SUPPOSED to be hamfisted! It's about a BARBARIAN, fer cryin' out loud! Despite the low-brow appeal, much of this film is still artfully done. I particularly enjoy the pacing of the scene where Conan and his comrades kill the giant snake in the temple. The eye of the snake as it slowly awakens, set to the haunting temple music, still haunts me to this day! Lots of people talk trash about Arnold, but honestly, he was perfect for this role. His accent only adds to the barbaric qualities of our protag, Conan! James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom is NOT TO BE MISSED! Those of the hippie persuasion be warned! This movie was partially written by Oliver Stone, and he lays waste to the hippie myth! Thulsa Doom's followers are the naive and foolish flower children, many of them sons and daughters of the nobility, who have been tricked into believing in 'nothingness.' One might make the case that this film inaugurated the backlash against the sixties, arriving as it does on the cusp of the eighties and the Reagan era! The excesses of the sixties become the fodder for our ridicule in this 'little gem' of a film...

The cannibalistic orgy rites of the cultists will particularly shock (or titillate) the uninitiated! Sensitive (read 'homosexual') cultists are also thrashed (actually beaten) by Mr. Conan, so be warned -- this is not a film for the politically correct or faint-of-heart...

If you are into swords and sorcery, I heartily recommend this film! If you are into high-brow social commentary, you might be offended, so don't bother!

I'm giving 10s to all of Stuart Gordon's Cthulhu genre films...

I love these things. I worship the world of Lovecraft. It is so amoral and dark. Such a fun escape from our own moral viewpoint.

Who cannot be disturbed by the beautiful ending to this beautiful film? You are the monster which you seek to destroy! You are the monster which you fear! YES! YOU! A MONSTER! BREATHE THROUGH YOUR GILLS! If you can filter out the mercury, maybe you might have a chance...

The skinning scene was quite horrific, but honestly, compared to his earlier films, the gore was very restrained until the end...

Amazing the way the tentacle girl is horrifying on dry land, but at the end, in the water, she somehow becomes truly beautiful...

I will say my only complaint is some rather sloppy digital effects, particularly the tentacles that shoot out the girl's mouth the second time we see her. Sloppy. The first time we see her, with the sharp teeth, that was quite good, but the tentacles were just obviously digital...

But then again, I didn't like the dinosaur stampede in KING KONG so maybe I just don't like digital.

If you like this one, look for his earlier features: RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND.

This movie is a heap of fun. I just wish I could find the unrated version. The video store near my house didn't bother to note on the box that their version was the R-rated version, not the unrated version. Ah, serves me right for leaving New York City. What's the problem people!? Can't stand a little reverse necrophilia!? The dead trying to make love to the living? Too much for you?! Stuart Gordon -- I would love to meet him. All his other movies are great. Just saw Dagon the other night. I was profoundly disturbed...is this real? Or only a dream? Can someone wake me up? Is death real? Are you afraid of death?! I certainly am. I used to not think about it that much. Only the pain really, that was what scared me. But now I think about just the idea of NOTHINGNESS. It's perhaps not so scary if you believe in God or Quantum Physics...but still...Brian Yuzna (the producer) co-wrote Honey I Shrunk the Kids...how scary is THAT!!!?

With only 64 comments on this movie...now 65 I guess, the point seems obvious that it is less than memorable.

I like Ferrara though, and liked this movie as a young person when it came out, so I felt like adding my two cents.

First of all, I'm surprised no one commented on the obvious racial subtext of this movie.

Frank WHITE.

All (or at least most) of his henchmen are BLACK.

He fights off a YELLOW mobster and an Italian.

I'm not sure what color Italians are, but needless to say, this movie is strangely about RACE. The performance art sequence near the beginning of the film provides further evidence in this direction: a uniformed cop on stage whips a black man who eventually breaks free from his chains...

Didn't anyone else notice this? As it is, though I'm sure there's a point here, I'm not sure Ferrara makes it. Again, I offer as evidence the mere 64 previous posts, not one of which mentions race as an issue in this film.

Sure, Frank WHITE is a Robin-Hood-type character, but don't MOST white people imagine they are doing good, even when they are doing bad? (And in case you're wondering, yes, I'm a white boy.)

I tried to watch this movie again recently, but the slick violence which seduced me as a young man failed to satisfy my older self, so I turned it off half-way through...

Walken is brilliant as always, but still, a movie like this makes me wish that some connected screenwriter would pen a masterpiece where Walken gets to play a completely normal and average guy, like the everyday father of some teenage girl or something, who gives her fatherly advice while he's eating his cornflakes, or something like that, just to throw people...

Again, a strong film from Ferrara, with incredible performances from Christopher Walken and Lili Taylor.

A bit 'holier-than-thou,' ...

Ferrara seems to want all grad students and their advisers to pay for the sins of Western civilization...Auschwitz, South America turned into a 'mud puddle,' etc.

For me that's not so important. I think Western civilization more than makes up for its sins....ala Monty Python in _Life of Brian_: 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' Well, the roads, the aqueducts, medicine, etc.

However, despite his overly moralistic tone, I think Ferrara scores big with this film. The final scene where the vampires dine on the grad school committee is satisfying for anyone who has a grudge against authority (i.e. almost everyone), and ranks along with the bar massacre from _Near Dark_ for awesome vampire massacre scenes...

If you're a fan of Ferrara, vampires, Lili Taylor, or just a grad student, you ought to really appreciate this film.

Personally, I love this film, but it's a slow wind-up.

Fulci looks death square in the face, and doesn't blink.

The payoff, however, comes only in the finale of the film, which otherwise is slow and difficult to get through.

The face-off with the zombie at the end is quite brutal, and Fulci's use of live maggots works to great effect.

The idea itself is quite good, a different spin on the vampire: A doctor searching for immortality finds himself turned (perhaps unwittingly) into a zombie, who must subsist on body parts stolen from the living.

The way in which the boy 'escapes' says a lot about death and dying. Beyond a doubt the boy is killed, since he escapes at the end of the film with the help of a ghost. However, it seems a more pleasant alternative for both the boy, and for the audience; both are spared the actual horror of the young child's death...

In a sense, Fulci argues a philosophical point, namely that acceptance of death is beautiful, and that refusing to submit to the natural processes of life, i.e. death itself, can only lead to horror...

If you can overlook this movie's obvious flaws, such as the babysitter cleaning up the blood, this picture is well worth it for fans of horror and zombie films alike.

...I felt it deserved a higher rating, so I thought I'd vote and comment.

This movie is certainly one of the best films of the 90s, and is most definitely one of Ferrara's best efforts.

The disintegration of character, followed by redemption, makes this a movie which clearly has a moral center, despite the fact that it shamelessly depicts so much violence towards, and degradation of, the human soul.

The idea of a crack-smoking, gambling addicted police detective is incredibly powerful in and of itself, and Ferrara's depiction is greater than the sum of its parts, precisely because the detective in question attempts some form of redemption in the end...

Also, thumbs up for the courage to put some full-frontal Keitel on the screen! This is a truly shocking moment, and furthermore a completely REAL moment...

Anyone who has been in the depths of depression and/or drug abuse can identify with the lieutenant's moment of existential horror, standing in front of himself completely naked, and over the edge, etc.

Dirty Harry never went so far, did he?

I understand this is an art film. If you are not into art films, than perhaps this film is not for you. If you have an inclination for the sublime, than by all means, SEE THIS MOVIE!

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE, DO NOT READ THIS COMMENT!!! GO OUT RIGHT NOW AND RENT THIS FILM, OR BETTER YET, FIND A SHOWING AT A LOCAL ARTS THEATER AND GO SEE IT ON THE BIG SCREEN! THIS MOVIE IS A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE THAT MUST BE SEEN! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET, I INSIST, STOP READING NOW! IF YOU CONTINUE READING, AND THEN GO SEE THIS MOVIE, IT WILL BE LIKE SEEING CITIZEN KANE AND KNOWING WHAT "ROSEBUD" MEANS ALREADY! GOT IT?!

It's a slow wind up, but the last scene of this movie makes it all worthwhile. If someone asked me what is a truly great movie, I would name this film without hesitation. It's a pity that many Americans have an aversion to foreign films. It's a pity that more people have not seen this masterpiece. The depth of emotion conveyed in the final moments of this film must be seen to be believed. I only wish that more filmmakers managed to convey the intensity of that one moment as the boy stands on the beach and sees the ocean for the first time. The contrast between that one moment and all of his previous existence, sad and oppressive as it is, completely overwhelms me.