| Author | Message | ||
     Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
I'm just out of a depression bout but not quite yet (that's usually X-mas effect on me.) In the meantime, I chanced upon "The Last Man on Earth" DVD, the Italian rendition of Matheson's novel, Vincent Price playing there as the eponym character. In spite of Matheson declaring Price as miscast there, Price is certainly more of a Legend than Will Smith in the "I am Legend" movie. Whereas the latter version is nauseatingly CGI, the former is floppingly flat making Price gigantic by contrast. However, Charlton Heston's one from the same novel stands at the lowest, imho. Have a nice New Year's Eve, all of You! And a Happy New Year, of course! Ciao! Giancarlo | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Aw, sorry to hear about the depression, Giancarlo - but glad you're coming out of it nicely. I must admit, I haven't tried any of the film adaptations of that Matheson classic. It's one of those books where I don't think any adaptation could do it justice, and I don't want to spoil my nightmarish visions from reading the book. Anyway, a very Happy New Year to you too, Giancarlo!  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
It's been years since I've seen the Price version, but I'm such a fan of Price, a film is always skewed in his favor. I seem to remember the film having its own scary fear and energy and dread, being pretty good, but then losing its way the moment he meets the girl, to the end of the film.... *Sigh*.... Are there any actors LIKE Vincent Price anymore? Will there ever be any again?  Now I'M post-Xmas depressed! | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
No more Vincent-Prices, alas, not even looming at the horizon. I suppose someone tried to cast players like Robert Englund or Sarah Michelle Gellar as new icons of cinematic Horror but they become miserably insignificant when compared to the Price-Steele (Barbara) dyad. Bette Davis, though not a "genrified" actress, is a marvelous third when cast in black thrillers such as Aldrich's. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
And when they couldn't get Betty, they used Joan (Crawford) - or both (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE). I've coincidentally been lamenting the loss from cinema of the likes of a Joan Crawford from the world of actresses - there's none comparable around now, and even the greats (Meryl Streep, say) can't, ultimately, stand up to the likes of her. I recently saw two Crawford "trashy" pics - the Joan-patented soap-arc of FLAMINGO ROAD, and surely the sources-of-the-Nile for all future camp, TORCH SONG. And yet, both are sheer candy-high enjoyment... made luminous by the very presence of Joan. Just as Price sublimates almost any film he's in, and the others. But who is there now?! Actor or actress. Who am I overlooking? | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.236.168.107 |
Interesting points. I think it's a perception that the Stars of Old--Cary Grant's another--are too freakish and untouchable for today's tastes. Apparently, today's moviegoers prefer their movie stars more "relatable" and more like "real" people . . . or so Hollywood's marketing wisdom goes. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
More like real people?? Like Brad Pitt and Anjgelina Jolie et al are "real"... with their surgically enhanced physiques and increasingly plastic looking faces | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.9.16.50 |
My personal view is that Price was one of the towering greats of horror. He covered almost all branches of the genre, from the sumptuously Gothic like MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH to the really bleak and nasty stuff like WITCHFINDER GENERAL. But my favourite period of his was his British early 70s era, with classics like THE ABOMINABLE DR PHIBES and THEATRE OF BLOOD. In the hands of almost everyone else, those movies would have been seen as gory, nasty nonsense, but Price camped them up just sufficiently to turn them into fun romps, which, while you wouldn't quite call them comedies, are certainly not to be taken seriously. Twice I've tried to pitch similar horror/comedy ideas to modern producers, and twice I've had more or less the same response: "The problem is, Paul, we haven't got a Vincent Price." A sad but indeniable truth. Still, we could also go for a narcissistic leading man like Will Smith, and a shedload of CGI mutants. (It still amazes me that, on entering the cinema to watch I AM LEGEND, a concierge had thoughtfully been posted at the door to warn everyone that this movie is "really, really frightening". I can only assume my wife and I went into the wrong unit. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
'The Omega Man' 9/10 'The Last Man On Earth' 7/10 'I Am Legend' 6/10 ...imho. | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.170.27.218 |
'The Omega Man' 9/10 'The Last Man On Earth' 7/10 'I Am Legend' ... imo. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I enjoyed I AM LEGEND. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
I also enjoyed I AM LEGEND. While not at all in line with the book, Smith's performance is much nearer that of the novel than the other movie versions. But CGI crapness and a half-nod towards the novel's ending spoiled it for me. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.6 |
The CGI is awful. Totally screwed the film up, in my opinon. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
I find Geoffrey Rush to be the potential new vincent-pricean style actor. He played as such in two roles only, thus far, in "The House on the Haunted Hill" remake and the "Pirates of Caribbean" serial. But it was his protean impersonation in "Call me Peter" that made me fantasize how good he could be as a "pricean hero". | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I watched 'I Am Legend' again over Christmas and was slightly more impressed on the small screen than the first time I saw it. But it's still easily the weakest of the three versions with some of the most terrible CGI effects I've seen. The Charlton Heston one is the most compelling, with the best lead performance and most kinetic energy to it, while the Vincent Price one is flawed by flat direction and lack of atmosphere, but Price and some effective sequences lift it above the Will Smith one imo. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
I liked I Am Legend, too - perhaps Smith's best role and performance. But yes, harmed very much by the cartoon monsters. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.24.98 |
...and by the ending. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Ah yes - rushed AND sort of random. But it's one I can watch again because the good points are so good they do outweigh the bad. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Exactly, Tony... Btw, the original filmed ending (catch it on Youtube) is much better. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Time for someone to finally say what the biggest redeeming factor of 'I Am Legend' is, despite its momentous flaws... the performance of the dog. Do I lie? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Ooh, I thought it was the atmosphere - I could have done with him meandering about that weird place for the duration of the film. But yes, I did like the dog. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
The first half of the movie was excellent, apart from the CGI deer and lions, but it was the dog that gave that film its heart - and particularly that scene imho. Will Smith was okay but a bit too everyman in the role for my liking... he lacked the personality that Heston & Price brought to the part. |