La résurrection de Frankenstein

Frankenstein Unbound is one of those movies that is almost impossible to categorize. Part horror, part science fiction, part fantasy, and part comedy. And what is even more interesting is the cast of all stars. Roger Corman is able to put all of these together to form a truly mesmerizing film that you will never forget.

It is in the future. John Hurt plays Dr. Joe Buchanan, a slightly mad scientist who has developed a weapon for the government that harness's the power of a black hole. In the process, he has inadvertently created a worm hole that might destroy the world. On his way home from work, Buchanan is sucked into the hole and sent back in time to Europe 1812. It is here he meets Victor Frankenstein (played wonderfully by Raul Julia) and discovers that the story of Frankenstein's Monster is in fact a true story.

I believe what makes this movie so much fun is that as serious as the story appears to take itself it is actually rather humorous. Most of the scenes with the Monster in them are actually laugh out loud funny. There are a few scenes with the monster that just need to be seen to be fully understood as most of the movie is quite a bleak comedy. The ending to the movie is truly one of the bleakest endings I have ever seen.

For a Roger Corman film this is really well done. John Hurt and Raul Julia really compliment each other in this movie. It is too bad that Bridget Fonda and Jason Patric didn't have bigger roles in the movie as their characters are fascinating as well.

Well, I certainly enjoyed this film. I have watched it countless times throughout the years and I still have not grown tired of it. For me, truly a timeless film that I will watch many more times. 9/10

The film narrates how a scientist (John Hurt) of the future is become into a time traveller . Thus , he accidentally returns 1816 and nearly a lagoon Swiss he meets Lord Byron (Jason Patrick), his lover Mary Shelley (Bridget Fonda) and Percy Shelley ; but also Baron Frankenstein (Raul Julia) and his monster (Nick Brimble). The Baron has created a terrifying monster and cannot ultimately control him but he develops a taste for a bride and he begins a killing spree .The monster is really horrifying , he's vengeful and craving of blood.

A sci-fi movie version of the legendary terror story. Lots of horror images and the picture's entertaining with no being too creepy . Good performances from John Hurt and Raul Julia and great supporting cast as Jason Patrick, Bridget Fonda, Nick Brimble, and with several powerful sequences . Besides, the film has great loads of blood and gore , the filmmaker retains a fascination with the decapitated members. Some typical elements as the monster's bride, the madness and electric storm on the tower remain still in similar way. Excellent atmosphere provided by professional cinematographers as Armando Nannuzzi and Michael Scott. Film is based on Brian Aldiss novel (Artificial intelligence A. I.). The motion picture was regularly directed by Roger Corman, in fact there are gaps as well as flaws in the plot and results to be a little slow-moving. Rating : 5.5/10. Average but amusing.

With the recent passing of John Hurt, I decided to take another look at his movie "Frankenstein Unbound", despite the fact that I remembered that it disappointed me greatly when I first saw it as a teenager more than twenty five years ago.

Sadly, my opinion upon seeing the movie again wasn't that much more positive than when I first saw it. The best that I can say about it is that the acting is pretty good (especially by Hurt and Raul Julia), and the movie does bring up some ideas and themes that are intriguing and full of promise. But in the end, the movie puts far too much on its plate, and most of these good ideas and themes are either not fully explored or are treated in a pretty disappointing fashion.

As the movie's director (and co-writer of the screenplay), Roger Corman has to shoulder much of the blame for the above problem. But another problem he generates is that often that there is a matter- of-fact feeling to what we are seeing. The tone is aloof and lacking enough conviction and power that could grab an audience. It doesn't help that the production values are highly inconsistent, with the movie wavering between a fairly slick look and feel to one that comes across as cheap and shoddy.

To sum up, it doesn't take long upon watching the movie to figure out why 20th Century-Fox didn't give it much of a theatrical release, and why Corman to date has not sat in the director's chair again after this movie. If you want to see a John Hurt movie or a Roger Corman movie, there are much better choices out there.

I first saw this little known early ninties title on HBO not long after its release. I must say I found it to be quite memorable, with excellent performances by John Hurt and Raul Julia as well as Bridget Fonda. I love the 1800 settings in Geneva (actually filmed in Italy) and the way Hurt slipped back in time and found where he was. (according to his car "we are alone") so cool. The monster was real creepy and he actually talks. All in all, a very good movie I highly recommend. As of this writing, its not out on DVD that I am aware of but if it does come out, it will definately be worthy of my collection.

I have to admit, I enjoyed this film, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. This is only the second Roger Corman film I've seen so far, and therefore I can only really compare it to the other film I saw by him, The Terror. I can clearly recognize the directing style, and basic film-making style, but I must say that this is better than The Terror. The plot is pretty good, and fairly interesting, and more original than most other films dealing with Frankenstein. It has a decent enough pace; I wasn't bored for the 90 minutes it lasted. The script is fairly good too, a good twist on the original Frankenstein story, though I guess some fans of the original story wouldn't like the various changes. The acting is good enough, both John Hurt and Raul Julia gives pretty good performances, and the rest of the cast is decent. The characters are fairly well-written and credible. The film has a fairly bad name, it seems; yes, the monster does look more like the result of genetic mutation or something similar, rather than a creature built together by human bodies, and, arguably, the film has several violent scenes that seem to be there mainly to add violence rather than substance to the film, but apart from that, the film is pretty good, at least worth a watch, if only one watch. The effects are decent enough, at least for a film from 1990. The makeup effects and such were also pretty good, I must say that the monster's face, especially the eyes, did send a chill through my spine, the first time he was shown. I liked the various science fiction aspects of the film, and the social commentary was very good, too. The ending was a little weird, but it was a fairly good climax. All in all, a decent enough science fiction/horror drama, and worth one watch, if you can catch it for free. I recommend it to fans of Roger Corman and open-minded fans of Frankenstein and/or horror films in general; just be prepared that it won't be an incredible or very memorable film, just an entertaining 90 minutes, if you're into violent movies without any real purpose. 6/10