Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I saw I Am Legend last night. Good movie overall. A bit short, but makes for some good discussion with friends who saw it.

The Cloverfield trailer is up...looks great!! That and AVP:R are the two big draws for me in the next couple months.

How was Will Smith in it? It looks like this might be his first chance to play a role in a movie of that genre where he doesn't have to act like the Will Smith he's been for the last decade or so.

The only thing that bugs me is that they chose NYC instead of Compton. And the animal attacks in the preview look pretty bad. And how was the actor who played the main vampire, if his role was still in it? I guess if Neville lives in a high rise in NY, that would make it somewhat hard to have vampires outside the door...

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW





Will Smith did a pretty good job of acting in this one. Definitely not the same character he's been playing in Bad Boyz, MIB, and Independence Day.

This movie really doesn't follow the book or Omega Man very closely. In fact, "The Family" are basically reduced to superhuman zombies as opposed to vampires who can think, although there are a few scenes which show they can think (they set a trap for Neville).

The animal scenes were decent. In some parts it was hard to tell they were CGI-based (the lions looked CGI but the deer were convincing). The mutated dogs were pretty cool looking. The rats however, looked pretty fake. The guy who played the main mutant (Mathias I think in Omega Man) was basically a cgi-character and had no true identity throughout the movie. Sometimes it was hard to tell who he was or if he was even in a scene. The mutants basically all looked alike, with the exception of "Ruth" (who really isn't called that and is captured by Neville).

The part that disappointed me the most was the ending...too abrupt!

Thats how I felt about the novel.

Here was a point where an entirely new set of circumstances were set up for Neville and a very interesting concept was built and then it ends.

I will probably see the movie though since I am a sucker for apocalyptic genre stuff. My favorite Twilight Zone was "All the Time in the World" where the man who always reads survives the end of the world and discovers a library, but then breaks his glasses. Sick genius.

ha! I remember that one! Almost as memorably visceral as the earwig episode (but that may have been Outer Limits - or Night Gallery).

Welcome to the Dojo Tinlantern BTW. I'm sure you'll like it here.

Tinlantern wrote:

My favorite Twilight Zone was "All the Time in the World" where the man who always reads survives the end of the world and discovers a library, but then breaks his glasses. Sick genius.

I think that was Time Enough at Last, starring the great Burgess Meredith. He was in so many movies and guest starred in a lot of TV series. My favorite was Of Mice and Men. He play George. I saw him on stage once, though I can't remember what it was.

Yes! Time Enough at Last is correct! Burgess Meredith was so perfect and timid. Of course, I remember him from Rocky.

So many talented people, it would have been great to see them on stage. I always wanted to go see Vonnegut before he died. I heard he gave great lectures. Or Peter Sellers.

Another Twilight episode that scared me as a kid (besides the Terror at 20,000 Ft.) was the one where this woman kept having surgery done to make her look beautiful. But she was beautiful until at the end it was revealed she lived in world where everyone was disfigured.

Tinlantern wrote:
Another Twilight episode that scared me as a kid (besides the Terror at 20,000 Ft.) was the one where this woman kept having surgery done to make her look beautiful. But she was beautiful until at the end it was revealed she lived in world where everyone was disfigured.

That was Donna Douglas in a very dramatic role. A far cry from Ely Mae Clampet on the Beverly Hillbillies.

The Twilight Zone that scared me was Talky Tina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj1Xn3VB ... ed&search=

Especially with Kojak.

"My name is Talky Tina . . . and you better be good to me."

"Of course, we all know dolls can't really talk, and they certainly can't commit murder. But to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian. Especially a doll like Talky Tina who did talk and did commit murder, in the misty region of the Twilight Zone."

The one where the everyone in the town is afraid the boy who can turn people into a jack-in-the-box was good too.

Peace, maka

Maka wrote:The Twilight Zone that scared me was Talky Tina:


The one where the everyone in the town is afraid the boy who can turn people into a jack-in-the-box was good too.

Yeah, Telly Savalas with hair, and starring June Foray as the voice of Talking Tina.

The other one was old friend Billy Mumy ("Danger, Will Robinson!"). He used to be a regular at San Diego. He even played in the band Seduction of the Innocent with Mel Ferrar, Max Allan Collins, and Steve (the coolest bass player in the world) Leialoha.

Maka wrote:The Twilight Zone that scared me was Talky Tina:

"My name is Talky Tina . . . and you better be good to me."

"Of course, we all know dolls can't really talk, and they certainly can't commit murder. But to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian. Especially a doll like Talky Tina who did talk and did commit murder, in the misty region of the Twilight Zone."

The one where the everyone in the town is afraid the boy who can turn people into a jack-in-the-box was good too.

Weren't both of those parodied in Simpsons Halloween episodes? In one of the stories, Homer gets an evil Krusty the Klown doll that tries to kill him. I had assumed that it was a parody of the Child's Play movies, but it might also be a parody of "Talky Tina."

I think you're right, and they totally did the jack in a box one. I have a perfect picture of Homer swinging back and forth on his spring trying to do some "parenting" to the vindictive Bart. heh heh (still doesn't beat the Poe / raven one tho' - nevermore!)

I caught a screening two days ago. Will Smith does a decent job at what essentially amounts to a one-man show, and some of the sequences set in a deserted New York look incredible. There's a wonderfully eerie atmosphere going on for a while.

The last forty minutes, however, are simply awful.

Ben wrote:I caught a screening two days ago. Will Smith does a decent job at what essentially amounts to a one-man show, and some of the sequences set in a deserted New York look incredible. There's a wonderfully eerie atmosphere going on for a while.

The last forty minutes, however, are simply awful.

Probably the most accurate review of the film I've read anywhere. The last 40 mins are especially disappointing for anyone who has read and enjoyed the Richard Matheson's novella.

The film makers seem to concentrate on the 'legend' piece being the last man on the planet rather being a legendary monster, a la Dracula, the Boogeyman, etc.. The books twist for was what made it a classic rather than a potboiler.

Also fairly worrying is the fact that the message appears to be that Science will a) destroy us b) science will not cure anything c) the only way to be cured (or in this case find the cure) is blind faith in the ability to see the 'voice of God'.

It seems to me to be reflecting the increasingly endemic view of science and faith being mutually exclusive and that either one is right or wrong.