While everyone is harping on the 'terrible' FACULTY ads, I'd like to comment on a trailer that I know for a fact is going to hurt the hell out of the box office of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. Ok, call me biased, but I love giant monkey movies. Whether it be Son of Kong, King Kong or Konga, I've seen em all. There's a part of me that still harbors the unspoken saying that John Landis' best film was SCHLOCK, but hey, that's just me. (I saw it on a double bill with STAR WARS as a young boy and I think Star Wars rubbed off a bit in my memories). HOWEVER, Mighty Joe Young, or at least the print I saw a long time ago on the Disney lot, well... it kicked ass. The expressive face of Joe is quite honestly the best work in Rick Baker's AMAZING career. And all my pent up hostilities about the work he did in Dino DeLaurentis' King Kong have been erased. It had some problems back then, but there were reshoots to get rid of a lot of that stuff and I'm unsure if it still remains. I guess I'll see soon, I'm supposed to see the latest print this week. Here's the review....
Just caught a sneak preview of RKO/Disney's remake of Might Joe Young. Disney hosted it at the Norris Theater(USC Cinema School's theater/lecture hall), with tickets being distributed at the LA Comic Book & Sci-Fi Expo taking place across the street at the Shrine. Terrific film, much better than I'd anticipated. Ron Underwood was at the convention, and he spoke before the screening of the film as well. Nice guy, kind of Mark Hamill-ish. Talked about some differences between the original and the remake, and the scene with Ray Harryhausen.
I've been interested in seeing the flick since your positive review a while ago. I thought the first trailer was adequate, a little annoying at times, but it didn't diminish my interest. However, the second trailer(you know, the "In the tradition of Disney Holiday Family Adventure..." one) made me rather sick to my stomach. It seemed to showcase all of the cheesier lines and scenes, and completely turned me off to the film. When I heard that there was going to be a screening, I almost didn't go. However, lack of a car made my options rather limited(I had a choice of three movies I'd already seen which were playing at the local commercial theater), and I really felt like seeing a movie, so I opted for Joe.
I was rather pleasantly surprised. By no means the first film anyone should see this Christmas(I'd choose The Thin Red Line, persoanlly), but still, for a Traditional Disney Holiday Family Adventure, it was entertaining and rather well-crafted.
I won't get into plot(it's rather predictable in any case), but I have to say the screenplay (credited to Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner) was well written, and the lines that seemed corny in the trailer come off well in the film. Most of the reviewers on your page tend to credit a lot of things in a screenplay to the director(try and remember that almost any deliberate action in a film is written into the script -- hopefully -- before principle photography), and that would be a real shame in the case of this film. There are plenty of little character touches written into the film, which make it that much more enjoyable. For example, the scene in which Charlize Theron's character is in her room at the LA nature perserve, and all the digital clocks are unprogrammed, blinking 12:00; or the skeet shooting gallery at the palisades, where oblivious humans emulate the poachers, shooting wild animal targets, including gorillas.
The acting was decent; that is to say, none of the actors stood out negatively. The real standout character, of course, is Joe. Rick Backer deserves the Academy award for his work on the film; Joe is the most realistic cgi-animatronic creation I've seen to date. The levels of emotion expressed by his eyes alone makes him tangible.
However, not all of the fx were as effective. The forced perspective, used countless times, rarely felt real and kept interrupting the film visually. I'm not complaining, though, I still enjoyed the film. Ron Underwood mentioned that DreamQuest Images and ILM had raised the bar on cgi furry animals, and I have to agree, if only for the fact that I couldn't tell which shots were cgi. I assume most of the long shots of Joe were computer-rendered, but except for that last shot of Joe, I couldn't tell.
Underwood's direction and composition were excellent, as was the editing. The cinematography was identical to most other big studio films, but I blame that on the studio(I think Godzilla is going the last action film with a lot of shadow for a while).
Well, I have to recommend this film if only to see Joe. Fans of the original will no doubt find fault in much of the current version, but the one thing that carries through in both films is the character of Joe. A living, breathing creature, he is as sympathetic as he ever was.
Call me Grendel2357
