At The Movies with Bryan, the Wannabe Filmmaker

1) Overlords of the UFO (1976) Dir: G. Brook Stanford One of the most insane pieces of film making ever committed to celluloid. It’s really hard to describe Overlords of the UFO, because it rarely makes any sense.  There is a five minute section devoted to show casing Uri Geller’s amazing “psychic” abilities; he bends a couple of keys and restarts a couple of watches. How does this relate to the subject of UFOS?  Well, apparently Geller witnessed a UFO a few years earlier. There are very little facts on display, but endless speculation which we are assured is “some of the best.”  Here are just some of the highlights: 1) A simulated conversation between to airline pilots as they discuss UFOs. This is achieved through stock footage of an airplane and voice overs. 2) Footage of an obviously fake UFO trailing after a commercial airliner. 3) The Uri Geller sequence. 4) A letter from NASA that reads, "It is not in our charter to investigate the UFO." 5) The Spa

What is Ming the Merciless doing in a Batman movie? Playing a gun toting miner, of course. This is one of many surprises that pop up in the 1943 movie serial Batman.  Ming was played by the great character actor, Charles Middleton, and it’s rather amusing to see him in a rather incidental role as opposed to the main villain (which was his specialty). He turns up just long enough to be blown up in a mine explosion.                 Batman was the first screen adaptation of the comic book and, as a result, it’s a rather raw take on the character; he is not the dark, brooding vigilante that we know today, but rather a fairly jovial and extremely fallible super hero.  In the Christopher Nolan adaptations, Batman is able take out the villain’s henchmen without breaking a sweat, but in this serial he is constantly getting his ass handed to him. The biggest flaw of this Batman is that he is pure impulse; he almost never takes the time to scope out the area and strategize a plan for capt

I am not a religious person, yet I absolute enjoy biblical epics.  There are two primary reasons for this: 1)       Nostalgia. I grew up in a Christian home and watching The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur was an Easter tradition in my family. The Ten Commandments had far greater appeal for me as a kid, because it was the more colorful of the two movies.  2)       Spectacle.  Biblical epics are rarely great pieces of art, in fact, for all their moralizing they tend to be a bit hollow. The really appeal in these films in this the spectacle on display; the exotic locations, huge sets, big casts, and, most important of all, the larger than life characters. Biblical epics are essentially super hero movies set ancient times; the only difference is that instead of taking on colorful super heroes, the protagonists in these films are often pitted against tyrannical rulers.  In The Ten Commandments, it was Moses vs. Rameses. In Ben-Hur, it was Judah Ben-Hur  vs. the Roman Massala.

How does Stephen Sommers manage to get quality actors to star in his movies? This is a question that has often puzzled me. Sommers is, at best, a poor man's Steven Spielberg. It is clear he has spent a lot of his time studying Spielberg's movies, but has learned very little from them. The Mummy is one of those rare films where an excellent cast is able to salvage a ridiculous screenplay and make it immensely entertaining. In fact, the cast is so good that they often make  Sommers look like a competent director. It's no coincidence that the The Mummy is the best (and only good) movie Sommers ever made. The Mummy is a remake of the 1932 classic starring the great Boris Karloff, but whereas that film was a tragic, supernatural romance, Sommers' version is an adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones. There is tons of action, but very little scares.  In fact, the weakest aspect of the film is the mummy itself, as played by Arnold Vosloo. Vosloo actually has a pret