The Haunted Palace (1963): adapted by Charles Beaumont from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe and the H.P. Lovecraft novel The Case of Charles Dexter Ward; directed by Roger Corman; starring Vincent Price (Charles Dexter Ward/ Joseph Curwen) Elisha Cook, Jr. (Cheaplaughs), and Lon Chaney, Jr. (Simon): Delightful romp from Roger Corman loosely adapts H.P. Lovecraft's The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and quotes the eponymous Edgar Allan Poe poem.
Vincent Price plays both an evil 18th-century sorcerer and his late 19th-century descendant whose body the sorcerer needs to possess in order to finish his nefarious plan involving some extremely rapey elder gods. It's set in New England, which doesn't explain one character's bargain-basement Irish accent. Alas, the adaptation doesn't include the "essential salts" of Lovecraft's superior, weird original. Recommended.
The Fast and the Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019): written and directed by a Vic-20 computer; starring Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs), Jason Statham (Shaw), Vanessa Kirby (Shaw's Sister), and Idris Elba (Slumming It for Money): Basically a Roger Moore-era James Bond movie that has suffered grievious brain damage.
At this point in his career, Jason Statham's charisma has no gas left in the tank. Dwayne Johnson, so jacked he's cartoonishly bulbous, goes full-camp. Idris Elba actually seems to be doing something called 'acting.' Vanessa Kirby is intermittently charming as Statham's sister. Ryan Reynolds wanders through as a CIA agent who seems to be channeling Deadpool. Occasional ridiculous fun can't outweigh the tediousness of most of the writing. Not recommended.
Good Boys (2019): Produced though not written or directed by Seth Rogen and the other folks who brought you Superbad, this is basically a middle-school Superbad, sort of. There are some genuine laughs, but it's all a bit thin and ends with an interminable slog of sentimentality. Still, an adequate time-filler -- the most shocking thing about it is how innocuous it all is. Lightly recommended.
The Masque of the Red Death (1964): adapted by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell from stories by Edgar Allan Poe, including "Hop Frog" and "The Masque of the Red Death"; directed by Roger Corman; starring Vincent Price (Prince Prospero), Hazel Court (Juliana), Jane Asher (Francesca), and Skip Martin (Hop Toad):
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." - Poe, "The Masque of the Red Death."
Low-budget horror impresario Roger Corman got more money than he ever had before for this loose adaptation of a couple of Edgar Allan Poe stories. Further aided by British film credits and leftover sets from Becket, Corman made his horror masterpiece. It certainly didn't hurt that the great cameraman and later director Nicholas Roeg was cameraman for the movie.
Above all, the movie looks great. The set design and costumes are impressively bright, fanciful, and intermittently bleak when we visit the blasted heaths of the medieval Spanish countryside.
Set some time during the Middle Ages in Catalan, The Masque of the Red Death focuses on the sinister, Satan-worshiping local lord of the manor, Prince Prospero. The plague of the Red Death has fallen upon the countryside. So Prospero retreats to his castle with his favoured nobles and entertainers. And with a pure and virtuous peasant girl he has kidnapped, along with her lover and her father.
Prospero derives entertainment from the debasement and murder of those around him. The virtuous peasant girl (played solidly by Hazel Court) is someone to 'break.' But her faith in God impresses him, in part because of how seemingly misplaced that faith is in the plague and poverty and violence ravaged country side.
And so begins the Masque of the Red Death, the worst costume ball ever, at least from a survival standpoint. The Red Death isn't simply a disease -- it's a being. And it has promised deliverance to the peasant girl and doom for Prince Prospero and his guests. Prospero has faith that Satan will protect him. We'll see how that goes.
The Masque of the Red Death is a great and poignant spectacle, capped with a couple of show-stopping scenes. Back to back. I guess the second scene would have to be a show-stop-maintaining scene, as the show is already stopped. Vincent Price is magnificent as Prospero, a truly awful being with a certain bleak and oily charm. Skip Martin is also good as Poe's vengeful jester-dwarf Hop Toad. Highly recommended.
21 Jump Street: based on the television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Patrick Hasburgh, written by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill; directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller; starring Jonah Hill (Schmidt), Channing Tatum (Jenko), Brie Larson (Mollie), Dave Franco (Eric), Rob Riggle (Mr. Walters) and Ice Cube (Captain Dickson) (2012): Hilarious comedy reboot of the not-so-good 1980's TV series that introduced Johnny Depp and Richard Grieco to the world. Cops pretend to be teenagers and bust crimes at a high school. What could go wrong?
Almost obsessively filthy-mouthed, the movie makes good use of Jonah Hill's weirdly earnest nebbish personality by setting it off against Channing Tatum's seemingly dumb but well-meaning jock. They weren't friends in high school, but they become so in police academy. And now they're assigned to take down the suppliers of a dangerous new super-drug at a local high school. Will they also purge the demons that have haunted them since senior year?
Ice Cube swears and fulminates as the captain. Dave Franco stirs up echoes of the early, burn-out charm of his older brother James. Actors from the TV series make surprise cameos. Hill again shows his gift for slapstick, but Tatum also demonstrates comic timing and physical prowess. Who knew he was funny? Oh, and a guy gets his dick shot off. Also, Korean Jesus. Recommended.
The Raven: written by Richard Matheson, based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe; directed by Roger Corman; starring Vincent Price (Craven), Peter Lorre (Bedlo), Boris Karloff (Scarabus), Jack Nicholson (Rexford Bedlo), Hazel Court (Lenore) and Olive Sturgess (Estelle Craven) (1963): Screenwriter Richard Matheson is an American treasure for his short stories, novels, and screenplay work, pretty much all in the thriller, horror, and fantasy genres. You can look him up.
Here, he takes Edgar Allan Poe's poem and turns it into a horror-comedy about dueling wizards (Karloff and Price), a snivelling second banana (Lorre), and a shockingly young Jack NIcholson as a young romantic lead. The wizard's duel is witty and surprisingly good-looking given the technical and budgetary limitations the film faced. Roger Corman's direction is relatively sharp. The acting is pretty much all first-rate, with Karloff uncharcteristically loose and funny as the nefarious Scarabus.
Price is great as he usually was. Holy crap, though, The Raven really highlights his height -- Price, an uncharacteristic-for-Hollywood 6'4" towers over 5'11" Karloff and dwarfs the 5'5" Lorre. Everyone seems to be having a good time, and Matheson even sneaks in a reference to The Day the Earth Stood Still, a movie he had nothing to do with. The only creepy moments involve the really nice make-up design on a couple of corpses. And by 'nice', I mean 'grotesque.' Recommended.
