From Beyond (1986) - Review

From Beyond (1986)

For true horror fans, you know you will at the very least be entertained when the names Jeffrey Combs and H.P. Lovecraft are involved in the same movie. Combs has been a cult horror actor since his work on “Re-Animator” and as for Lovecraft, well his stories have seem to be a default set for cheesy horror movies for sometime. Combs; reteaming with “Re-Animator” director, Stuart Gordon, provides another interesting horror movie with some equally interesting special effects.

Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffery Combs) and Dr. Edward Pretorius (Ted Sorel) are experimenting with a machine that taps into the pineal gland to stimulate the sixth sense. As one would expect with this kind of movie, unexpected results occur. Tapping into a biological state somehow open up another dimension where weird creatures exist. A creature who is only referred to as ‘He” or “Him” kills Pretorius who goes crazy right before hand. Tillinghast also goes a bit crazy and cuts power to the machine. Crawford is arrested for the murder of his colleague. He is thought to be schizophrenic because talking about flying worm creatures and monsters eating people’s heads sound a bit far fetched to some people. But not to Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton)! Dr. McMichaels, who looks like she is just once step from “if she only tosses off her glasses and lets down her hair in slow motion she’ll turn into a buxom beauty, works on trying to cure schizophrenics by experimenting on them and she believes Crawford and Pretorius might have found the cause of this mental disease. The science is at least there and a bit interesting. Heck, it’s more convincing than the effects of drinking man pineal juices in “The Leech Woman”!

Katherine convinces Crawford to recreate the experiment to prove to the DA that he didn’t murder Dr. Pretorius. Escorting them on their adventure to 666 Benevolent Street (of course!) is a cop named Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree who you might know as the black cop from “Dawn Of The Dead”). Officer Bubba loves to make really unfunny jokes and laugh annoyingly at them. However, it’s nice to see a character in an “everyone but the audience thinks he’s crazy” be open minded about the main character’s innocence.

Not to give too much away, but the trio recreate the experiment, meet the creature who has taken on the personality of the S&M junkie (sure why not?) Dr. Pretorius, start to transform their own third eye which makes you see is pixilated Predator vision, and begin changing.

Grade – C-

The story is good, but not great. There is some decent science but there is definitely no common sense with any of the characters. Crawford can be forgiven somewhat since he has gone through a traumatic experience that has left his mind a little fragile. However Katherine and Bubba don’t have any excuses. Combs isn’t as fun as he was in “Re-Animator”, being demoted to more of a second banana who looks like a pouting puppy dog. Crampton has a Dr. Christmas Jones (“The World Is Not Enough”) meets “She’s All That” vibe going on and her development as a character is not very believable, especially when she breaks out the skimpy leather S&M suit (which fits her perfectly). Foree is a little annoying at first but at least he’s not a stereotypical “what the heck was that?!” cop-in-a-horror-movie character.

The visual effects are what makes this movie though. The unsung visual artists and puppeteers are wonderful. The main bady is definitely creepy and sticky looking. The appearance is definitely reminiscent of “The Thing” (1982). The transformation Combs undergoes is well done and creepy. Probably an overlooked effect that is very well executed is the third eye symbiot. It is very organic and doesn’t feel too puppet-like. The creatures and visual effects definitely are the driving force of the movie.

I would probably call this movie the poor man’s “Altered States”. Good but not great. Somewhat likeable but annoying characters. Creepy monsters, good practical effects, and a lot of blood, slime, and other goo. A good movie for a cheesy creature feature movie night.

An Evening With Kevin Smith 1 + 2 - Review

An Evening With Kevin Smith and An Evening With Kevin Smith 2 - Evening Harder

I'm a big, big fan of Kevin Smith's work. His writing and story settings are genius; not to mention he's a geek. "Clerks", "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", "Dogma", "Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back", "Jersey Girl", "Clerks 2", and the soon to be release "Zack And Miri Make A Porno" make up the body of his directorial work. I love each film and his commentaries for all the DVDs make owning one DVD seem like you're getting two. My writing of these two movies is more directed at the casual fans who like some of Smith's films but haven't watched everything else he's done.

This will be a somewhat shorter review because these two movies are about Kevin Smith, with guest appearances by Jason Mewes and a few others, standing in front of a group of college kids (AEWKS 1) and a Canadian and English audience (AEWKS 2) and answering questions and sharing stories.

For most any other director this would be dull and an episode of "Inside The Actor's Studio" would be sufficient. However, with a writing genius that Kevin Smith is whose movies are based mostly around dialog, this is a fascinating set of films.

The worst part about these movies are actually the fans/questioners themselves. You have to give Smith a lot of patients not to choke a few of the people out who act like complete morons. Instead, he uses witty banter to make fun of the really bad ones.

All that aside, Smith is able to steer the conversation into some very interesting and hilarious stories. If you know Kevin Smith and are a fan or listened to his podcast he does with Scott Mosier called SModcast, you know Smith holds nothing back from his fans. He has an opinion on most things and if there is something Smith believes is sacred I have yet to hear him utter, "I won't talk about that" or "That's pretty private". The man will talk about anything and it's amazing how some of the really perverted stories or items of knowledge you might not want to know about a person let alone a very talented director are incredibly funny.

The following are just A FEW topics covered on AEWKS 1 and 2 that make it a must watch:

AEWKS 1
- Writing a Superman script and why "Wild Wild West" sucked so much
- A story of singer Prince that makes you thankful you are not famous like that
- The first time Kevin had sex with his hot wife
- How Smith writes and how he finds material
- Protesting your own movie can be fun - we need more glitter!

AEWKS 2
- There can be only one Holy Trilogy - "Star Wars" Vs. "Lord Of The Rings"
- Backlash received from the first "An Evening With..." DVD
- How becoming a father has/hasn't changed Smith's life and the shows kids watch
- Shooting his wife for Playboy
- Kevin Smith Vs. The Media and how Hollywood really works

For me to quote anything from the DVDs would be taking things out of context and not fun at all. Smith uses his golden potty mouth and sexual references to tell very interesting stories and jokes.

Grade - A+

I have watched both 1 and 2 multiple times now and I still laugh just as hard. I can't wait for the third DVD to be released. Kevin Smith has the patience to deal with the audience questioners where as I would have to smack a lot of them. He does a great job steering the conversation but also expanding and digressing into other stories. How he has so many funny stories and how he can tell them so well is a testament to just how good his film are. The Prince story told in the first movie is, I think, the best story so far. Also the crude humor that I usually don't go for is hysterical. The only negative thing I can say about 1 and 2 is that Jason Mewes is almost a worthless surprise guest. He misses both his cues to come out on stage for both movies and he seems like he doesn't want to be there or add anything worthwhile at all. That aside, if Kevin Smith taped every Q&A he did and put it out on DVD, I would own every single one of them and watch them multiple times. Pick these movies up to be entertained by a talented director, a funny storyteller, and a Hollywood director that will tell anyone, anything they want to know about him.

The Next DVD Review

If you listened to our "Iron Man" Film Geeks episode (Episode 13 - Iron Geek - http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-14391/TS-109712.mp3?dl=1), you know that we were recently contacted by a Lionsgate representative, Shawn Williams. He expressed interest in my (Patrick's) reviews, especially with the "Fear" review. He then asked if I'd be willing to watch a promotional DVD that Lionsgate was promoting and telling my readers about it. We here at Film Geeks would like to once again express our humility and thanks to Shawn Williams and the Lionsgate crew for allowing us the opportunity to bring to you our take on their movie.

Before I get to the review there are just a few things I want to cover since this is my first time reviewing a movie for a group in particular, rather than writing for just my own purposes.

First of all, this review will be different than what you are use to reading. It will be more in-depth, have more pictures, and cover the entire DVD rather than just the movie itself. Are we giving this movie special treatment? Yes we are. We were culled from many and asked to give our honest opinion on the film. We were also sent a copy of the DVD free of charge without so much as a written agreement to say anything whatsoever. If any other company, group, individual, or anyone at all would have done this same thing, we would feel just as honored to do a write up on the movie whether we liked it or not.

So if you are anyone who wants to promote a movie, please feel free to contact us at film.geeks@yahoo.com . You can be independent or Harvey Weinstein himself and you will get the special treatment from us like you will read shortly. That also includes any other movie we have already done a review for. We'd also like to set up promotions for our Film Geeks podcast that we do weekly at the following link - http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/14391 . This would be a great benefit for you to get your movie or promotional material out to movie fans and it would work beneficially for us as well. Again, you can contact us at the email provided above.

Second of all, in wanting to be as crystal clear that I can be I want to make one thing certain to all. Just because we are treating people who give us free DVD special treatment in the way we review movies we are going to be just as fair with them as we are with all other movies. If we don't like a movie, you will hear about it. If we loved it, you will hear about it. If we thought it was so-so, you will hear about it. You will hear what the Film Geeks think no matter what, just in greater detail. However, we will do it without bias or bribery. What you will read will be our honest opinion of the movies we cover, just as you always have been. We thank the people who allow us to write a review of their movies, but we will remain true to our journalistic, and geekic, principles that we hold. Good, bad, or ugly, you will know what we truly think about these movies.

So enjoy the following and keep watching the skies!

- Patrick Studabaker