Jan 21
The Land Before Time comes with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as executive producers. According to Jon Cawley, the two originally wanted Don Bluth’s animated feature to not feature voices. Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment wanted to do something with dinosaurs, but the goal was to resemble the dynamics of the “Rites of Spring” sequence from Disney’s Fantasia. Instead, the film grew to include voices and became the children’s movie we know it as today.
Gary K. Wolf’s Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is the core of the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This picture, directed by Robert Zemeckis, is the example of what can happen when a good idea meets outstanding execution. I hadn’t seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit since it first came out, so checking in to this colourful, exciting world again was a treat.
The film is important for a number of reasons. Some credit it for giving Disney the boot to the ass it needed to kick off its second golden age of animation. It’s also notable for bringing cartoon legends from the Disney and Warner Bros. fold together on screen. And, perhaps more obviously, it is rightly celebrated for integrating live action with animation in perhaps as seamless a way as possible. Watching it today, it’s hard to imagine a work of this size happening to such a level of elegance again.
I wanted to like Child’s Play on some level, I really did. The idea of possessed doll committing all sorts of violent acts is something that should really work nicely as a sort of cheesy splatstick, but director Tom Holland simply lets too many opportunities slip through his fingers. It doesn’t help that the acting is abysmal.
We have Don Mancini to thank (or blame) for the creation of the Child’s Play storyline. He would go on to write and work on the rest of the Chucky sequels, too, and is involved in the upcoming 2011 reboot of the franchise. He even directed 2004’s Seed of Chucky, handling operations when the series finally swung towards the horror comedy that serves the concept well. The first movie in the series, though, just starts things off on the wrong foot.
Errol Morris is one of my favourite filmmakers. The Thin Blue Line is one of his most compelling pieces of work, which is saying a lot when you consider masterpieces like The Fog of War and Gates of Heaven. Morris’ insatiable curiosity has been the catalyst for his creative process and his ability to delve into stories without intruding on them is what sets him apart from other documentary filmmakers. His style is undeniable and incredible.
The Thin Blue Line is concerned with the 1976 murder of a Dallas police officer during a traffic stop. Morris has apparently originally planned to do a movie about prosecution psychiatrist Dr. James Grigson, also known as Doctor Death because of his testimony leading to 100 death sentences. After hearing Grigson talk about Randall Dale Adams, Morris became sceptical about the official line of events from a particular crime and The Thin Blue Line was born.
May 1
This 1988 John Landis comedy is the first motion picture in which Eddie Murphy took on various roles in the same film. It’s also a hell of a funny movie and settles in nicely as one of the better comedies of the 80s. Of course, Landis previously worked with Murphy on the 1983 picture Trading Places and had developed a considerable working relationship with the actor that had evolved with time. Landis famously claimed Murphy was “the pig of the world” but still enjoyed working with him on this picture.
Landis claimed that the performance given by Murphy in Coming to America was one of the best the actor had ever given and he might be right. Part of the magic of this movie is that Eddie is able to showcase a broad spectrum of his comic capabilities. He essentially plays a straight lead, too, and makes the character such a nice, likeable guy that we can’t help but root for him throughout the movie.
