Monarch of the Moon

This serial spoof is a hoot from beginning to end. If you are a fan of the old Saturday Matinée serials, you will most likely enjoy this, as I did. I rented this from Blockbuster,and ended up buying it. All the clichés are intact, and the actors play their (ridiculous) characters with extreme earnestness. The cinematography includes scratches and fading at times, to give the impression of age. This must have been an interesting experience in movie theaters, as each episode ends with "continued next week", and the following episode recaps what you just saw. There are plenty of laughs, but perhaps you need to be a serial fan to "get" all of the references.

My boy and some of his buddies made an agent/SciFi thriller when they were about 13 or 14 ... they had one camera, no money, and little time, but lots of enthusiasm and tinfoil, and the product was not very painful to watch if you belonged to the family. "Monarch of the Moon" is even better! No, seriously - although the low budget is clearly visible (sometimes in a painful way), "Monarch of the Moon" manages to circumvent most traps such productions use to fall into. The sets and FX are cheap but have a consistent quality and look; and the pacing is quick - no scene feels drawn-out.

The only trap they fell into is bad acting - if you're spoofing something so inherently funny as those old serials, the best thing you can do is try to catch the tone and play it straight - it doesn't get funnier by deliberate bad acting. And a minor gripe: The sound mix could use some fine-tuning. Bot overall, a charming mix of spoof and nostalgia which stays entertaining from start to finish.

Last night, we watched the first episode of this new 6-episode serial that is s'posed to be an homage to 1940s serials.

It turns out that it's actually a Naked Gun-type spoof of serials (at least, it is based on the first episode) that has some impressive things in it, but which to me if it were an actual WWII serial would be one of the worst.

Blane Wheatley is the chain-smoking hero the Yellow Jacket, who can fly and control actual yellow jackets. Monica Himmelheber is his chain-smoking secretary/girlfriend, and she's the best thing in the episode (there's a running gag involving her being bonked on the noggin that is the only thing I found amusing here). Kimberly Page is the Dragonfly, a femme fatale Japanese agent who speaks like The Craw on Get Smart. There's a lot of references to "Japs" and "Krauts" and Y.J. has a professor-sidekick who is dull, which is supposed to be humorous.

The DVD comes with both color and B&W versions; oddly, they both look awful. The B&W looks like the color has simply been turned off, and the color looks like a B&W that's been colorized. Neither are satisfying, but after sampling both we chose the latter for episode one.

Stay tuned.

I wasn't expecting much when I started to view Monarch of the Moon, I am a fan of the classic serials of the 1940's & 1950's so I thought I'd give it a try.

I mean how good could it be for a low budget film? ...as it turns out very good indeed. True it had a low budget ($75,000), but the acting, writing, and even the effects added up to a great film.

Our hero Cal (AKA The Yellowjacket), an army fighter pilot who, while captured and tested on by the Nazis, gained the super power to communicate with yellow jackets. A power that the government now uses on secret missions. Cal along with his team (the scientist, an air head of a secretary, his alcoholic pilot buddy, and the boy scout) must stop the axis powers from destroying America. Oh yes, the axis powers have forged an alliance with The Monarch of the Moon, who supplies them with advanced technology.

I'd have to say that my favorite character was Cal's arch-nemesis: The Dragonfly. As with all Asian bad guys that appeared in the old serials she is played by a caucasian actress, Kimberly Page, who nails the character. Very exotic and very evil. The included commentary track tells how the director wanted her to play the character straight, no humor at all, while the other actors play very over-the-top. This combination works very well, and The Dragonfly comes out as the most remembered character.

The DVD set includes the original version of the film, along with a black & white version (for us purists out there), and a commentary track. The 2nd DVD is the teams first film "Destination Mars!".

Comedies, even spoofs, are more difficult to make than most people realize. and when it comes to spoofing an old film style, most professional directors fail. Mel Brooks succeeded with "Young Frankenstein" but failed with "High Anxiety" and "Silent Movie". Others have failed spoofing the old 40's serials, the only exception being a movie that is not truly a spoof of the serials, but yet is funny and exciting: "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

"Monarch of the Moon" is another attempt to spoof the Flash Gordon, Batman and Zorro type serials from days gone by. Its obvious that these people love the genre and had a lot of fun making this, but, for the most part,it doesn't work. The main deficits in the film are slow pacing and a mix of acting styles and skills. Some of the actors are playing their roles fairly straight (Yellow Jacket, the Bear Scout kid and Dragonfly for example), while others are spoofing stereo-types (his drunken sidekick) while yet some others are playing it for silly slapstick (the secretary). Individually, many of these work, but together in a film, they clash against each other. Additionally, the script can't decide how far to go in the spoof and sometimes steps too close to absurdity and is occasionally derisive of the genre. There are a couple of funny lines and a few good performances, but for a seemingly long, slow-paced film . . .its not enough.

One does have to compliment all involved for their effort and for the detail they gave to the project. Good costuming, good CG, good makeup and good sets. The music score is okay as written, but is apparently performed on less-than-great synthesizers and so has a cold, distant, unexciting feel.

Worth seeing for those of us who are budding, low budget filmmakers, but I'm not 100% sure that it was worth the 20 bucks for the DVD.