planktonrules

"Successful Thawing of Mr. Moro" is a frustrating short film. On one hand, it's made well and has an interesting premise. On the other, it's so incomplete and ends too quickly. Now this might be okay...perhaps the filmmakers wanted to show off a plot idea in order to get funding for a full-length movie. Regardless, it really is frustrating to watch as the film just ends abruptly.

A man has his partner in the basement...encased in a suspended animation capsule. He's apparently been there for 43 years...and now the phone rings and the voice at the other end says there is a cure for the man in the ice box...and they're ready to thaw him. But his partner isn't thrilled...and he isn't sure he wants his partner thawed after all...and then the short film ends.

As I said, the idea is cool but without any explanation or resolution, it's also frustrating to watch.

I loved "Escape from New York". Sure, it was pretty silly in spots...but it was a great cult film. However, I never got around to seeing its sequel, "Escape from LA"...mostly because the reviews were dreadful and the film lost a ton of money. Well, almost thirty years later, I finally got around to seeing it...and I could easily see why folks disliked it. The plot is too similar to that of "Escape from New York" and the CGI was terrible...even for 1996. Its one plus is the abundance of interesting guest appearances, though too many of them (such as Bruce Campbell's) ended almost as soon as they started!

In this dystopian future (not too much unlike our present in 2025), the world is fragmented and the President is an immoral man who shields himself in godliness. Now, not only New York is a giant prisoner-run complex, but the same has happened to Los Angeles. It seems the big earthquake struck...and now it's an island populated with the dregs of society and run by a guy named Cuervo Jones. However, Jones has obtained the 'black box'...through which he can control nukes and he intends to use them. So, once again, Snake Plissken is drafted to help...help or else die from a poison the 'good guys' injected into him.

Yes, the plot is so much like "Escape from New York" and you'd think with all the intervening years they'd come up with a more original story. But the computer generated graphics of the earthquake and more are just awful. I saw it on a huge home TV...and it could have only looked worse on a theater screen! Now I am not saying that CGI should look great (heck, it was made in 1996), but if they look that bad they should have used practical effects. It just makes everything look cheap. Together, the story and 'special' effects do a lot to ruin the movie despite some occasionally good acting.

Overall, this is a tedious film...which is a shame as Snake Plissken is a great character and I really wanted to love it.

"Lights of New York" was quite an important film. After all, despite many referring to "The Jazz Singer" as the first talking picture, it was essentially a silent film with a few bits of dialog and some singing. But here, there's dialog throughout...and folks back in 1928 must have been impressed. That being said, it sure didn't ager very well...though I don't blame the actors nor filmmakers.

The story is about a couple of rubes who are used by bootleggers. And, after fleecing the guys of their savings, they and their mob boss implicate them for the murder of a cop! How does it all end? Well...the ending sure seemed to come out of left field!

This film has VERY stilted acting and dialog...which is normal for sound films from this period. The sound technology was new and primitive and moving about the set or going outside for shots was tough as they still hadn't perfected using sound for either. Additionally, it's very slow and the ending a bit out of left field. Still, being the first all-sound gangster picture...it is worth seeing even with its many deficiencies.