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John Charet’s Take On: Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

by John Charet

Creator/writer Rod Serling’s iconic 1960’s science-fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone easily ranks as one of the best TV shows of all-time, but what made it so timeless lied in its ability to give us stories that could freak us out, scare us or make us think philosophically and politically all in equal measures. On the contrary, Twilight Zone: The Movie comes off as a hit and miss affair that is typical of at least half the number of anthology films out there. The finished result consists of four different segments (one original story and three adaptations of already existing episodes) by four different directors which in this case were John Landis, Steven Spielberg (both of whom served as co-producers), Joe Dante and George Miller. As others have noted elsewhere, the high and low points actually do come from where you least expect them to in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the film’s reputation has been partly tainted due to an infamous offscreen tragedy that occurred during filming on one of the segments and because of this, it is hard to talk about the movie without bringing up aspects of it on occasions.

The film opens with an entertaining prologue and it stars Dan Aykroyd as a hitchhiker and Albert Brooks as the driver. During the drive on the highway, the two begin a conversation regarding their favorite Twilight Zone episodes and climaxes with Aykroyd playfully telling Brooks “you wanna see something really scary” and the result is terrifying in a rather darkly humorous way. This tongue-in-cheek approach to the four segments we are about to see is a refreshing way to start the movie. Filling in for the late Rod Serling to perform voice-over duties for the title introduction and the subsequent four episodes is the late Oscar-nominated actor Burgess Meredith (Rocky), who had also guest starred on a few episodes of The Twilight Zone as well.

As with the opening prologue, segment number one entitled “Time Out” was directed and written by John Landis. Unlike the succeeding three segments of the film, this one is an original story. This morality tale is basically about a repulsive bigot forced to experience what it is like to be a victim of racial hatred. During the course of it all, he is mistaken as a Jewish citizen by the Nazis during the Holocaust circa the 1940’s in Nazi-occupied France or Germany, an African-American by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the Rural South during the 1950’s and a Vietnamese person by US soldiers during the 1960’s conflict between the United States and Vietnam. This segment is perhaps the most notorious due to the highly publicized freak helicopter accident that killed the segment’s lead actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese-American children during the filming of what was supposed to be a massive special effects sequence involving a ton of explosions. Either way, the result still comes off to me as a heavy-handed and largely uninspired episode that can’t help but feel tasteless and unpleasant in the wake of the aforementioned tragedy.

Director Steven Spielberg’s remake of “Kick the Can” concerns a gentle elderly magical stranger (Scatman Crothers) offering a group of retirement home residents the chance to feel like little kids again (both physically and emotionally). Not much can be said about this surprisingly dull entry other than being appallingly sappy and lazily directed. In terms of direction, it looks as If Spielberg sleepwalked his way through it and yelled action at the beginning of a scene and yelled cut when the scene was over remaining uninterested in getting a satisfactory result. In addition, the overall tone suffers from an inability to connect to the moods of the other three segments. In other words, it feels as If their is no good reason for this segment to exist at all here. Aside from being the worst episode of the film, it also goes down as the ultimate low-point in Spielberg’s career as a filmmaker.

Beginning with Director Joe Dante’s remake of “It’s a Good Life”, Twilight Zone: The Movie starts to pick up a considerable amount of steam. Dante is not so much interested in remaking it as he is in re-inventing it here as a wildly imaginative live-action cartoon. As in the original episode, an unintentionally evil little boy named Anthony (played this time by Jeremy Licht) uses his telekinetic powers to enslave his family into a constant state of happiness (phoned in or not) and If you try standing up to him, he will banish you away. One of the two big differences in this version is that Anthony is depicted here as a child obsessed with cartoons and his love of them is clearly evident in how the house is designed and decorated (for example, every room has a TV set with a cartoon showing 24/7). Also unlike the other one, we are introduced to an out-of-town school teacher named Helen Foley (Kathleen Quinlan), who Anthony decides to treat (or trap) as a guest (or surrogate mother) in his home. I really enjoyed this segment’s clever in-joke references to cartoons (Warner Bros. or otherwise) as well as the delightfully demented sense of dark humor that is on display throughout via the cartoon-like special effects. The tacked on happy ending (which was more downbeat in the 1961 version) serves as the only drawback to an otherwise satisfying tale.

I do not know If every anthology film believes in this rule, but Twilight Zone: The Movie has wisely decided to save the best episode for last. Director George Miller’s remake of the classic episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” not only stands out as the absolute greatest segment of the whole film, but it also happens to be the only one of the four entries that truly measures up in quality to its source while improving upon it at the same time. As with William Shatner’s performance in the original TV episode, John Lithgow is perfectly casted here as an easily frightened airline passenger, who sees a gremlin outside his window, but is unable to convince everyone else on board of it’s existence. Unlike the 1963 version, this one is made even scarier not only due to the gremlin’s truly menacing appearance, but also because this creature actually intends to wreck havoc whereas any harm caused by the monster in the original could debatably be seen as unintentional. Similar to how George Miller directed his (as of today) four Mad Max movies (all of which I absolutely adore), the result moves at such an exhilarating pace, that If you blink, you might miss something that is awesomely bizarre. A prime example here is when the eyes of our protagonist bulges for a split second after seeing the gremlin (for the very first time) leaning on his glass window from the outside. If anything else, this entry arguably serves as the perfect reason to watch Twilight Zone: The Movie as a whole.

If I were to be asked what are the greatest horror anthology movies ever made, my answer would be Ealing Studios Dead of Night (1945), Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963), George A. Romero’s Creepshow (1982), Romero and Dario Argento’s Two Evil Eyes (1990) and John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper’s Body Bags (1993). As a whole, Twilight Zone: The Movie is uneven and in terms of overall quality, it has more in common with 1968’s Spirits of the Dead than those first five titles I mentioned. Similar to Roger Vadim’s “Metzengerstein” (very good) and Federico Fellini’s “Toby Dammit” (great) from that previously mentioned adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe tales, Joe Dante’s remake of “It’s a Good Life” and George Miller’s remake of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” both serve as the strongest of the film’s four segments. As to where the segments of John Landis and Steven Spielberg fit in, let me just say that those episodes do here what Louis Malle’s adaptation of “William Wilson” did for Spirits of the Dead. To put it in other words, Landis original tale “Time Out” and Spielberg’s remake of “Kick the Can” come off as the two weakest entries within the film’s four episode format.

Echoing the popular opinion shaped by many (It not all) viewers of this film, the most surprising thing about Twilight Zone: The Movie is that the most satisfying episodes come from two fairly low-profile directors of the day (Joe Dante and George Miller) while the biggest disappointments were delivered by the more well-known ones of the time, which in this case were John Landis and Steven Spielberg. The comedic horror aspects (visual or otherwise) of director Joe Dante’s three previous low-budget films (1976’s Hollywood Boulevard, 1978’s Piranha and 1981’s The Howling) is on display here in his remake of “It’s a Good Life”, which serves as Dante’s first assignment for a major Hollywood studio. One of the many fun things to watch here is the appearances of actors Kevin McCarthy, a pre-Simpsons Nancy Cartwright and cameos by Billy Mumy (who played Anthony in the original) and Dante and Roger Corman regular Dick Miller. A year later, Dante would score box-office gold for the same studio with the horror comedy Gremlins (1984). Australian filmmaker George Miller’s Mad Max films easily ranks for me as four of the countless numbers of masterpieces within the action genre and I similarly view his remake of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” as one of the many finest examples of short cinematic horror within an anthology format. If anything else, Dante and Miller seemed to have more enthusiasm for the project compared to Landis and Spielberg. Speaking of Landis, the prologue he directed and wrote is superior to his actual segment.

As I implied earlier, “Time Out” (The segment John Landis directed and wrote exclusively for the film) would have still came off as shockingly uninteresting with or without the offscreen freak accident that killed its lead actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese-American children. Nevertheless, the controversy surrounding it still bothers me and for me, this is what lowers the overall quality of Twilight Zone: The Movie as a whole to that of a mixed bag as opposed to something good If not great. In the wake of this tragic incident, director Steven Spielberg ended his friendship with Landis as a result. Rumor has it that prior to the tragedy, Spielberg was going to remake “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” but because it was a dark tale involving paranoia and children out late at night with potentially dangerous special effects, Spielberg axed that idea. I can’t confirm with 100 percent certainty that it is true, but If it was, their is no denying that it would have been infinitely better than his remake of “Kick the Can.” Spielberg is usually a master at generating sentiment, but here it just comes off as an insulting parody. Nevertheless, it has been reported that when he directed this segment, Spielberg’s enthusiasm for the project had dimmed to zero due to what had happened on the Landis segment.

One fascinating aspect of Twilight Zone: The Movie is that the late Richard Matheson (who had wrote some episodes of The Twilight Zone) serves as the screenwriter for the three adapted segments. He was famous for writing stories that dabbled in the fantasy, horror and science-fiction genre. Spielberg’s version of “Kick the Can” was written by Matheson with fellow sci-fi writer George Clayton Johnson (who wrote the 1962 story) and Melissa Mathison (both recently departed). In fact, Mathison is credited here as “Josh Rogan.” Matheson adapted “It’s a Good Life” and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by himself. The former was based on Jerome Bixby’s 1961 Twilight Zone story and the only flaw of the 1983 version is the out-of-place happy ending that prevents it from remaining equal to the original. As far as the latter is concerned, he not only adapted one of his own episodes, but he also expanded upon his 1963 Twilight Zone story in interesting ways.

All in all, the question that arises lies into whether or not Twilight Zone: The Movie equals, uniquely interprets or surpasses Rod Serling’s 1960’s television series of the same name in terms of quality? As far as the individual segments are concerned, the answer is yes and no. Joe Dante’s episode succeeded only in the first two areas, but mostly the second thing. George Miller was able to accomplish all three of those tasks with his segment. On the other hand, John Landis and Steven Spielberg failed miserably to do any of those things with their entries. Taken as a whole however, Twilight Zone: The Movie (unsurprisingly) can not hold a candle to the original TV show.  No doubt, the tragic accident that occurred during the filming of the Landis segment did play a role, but for me, that was a disappointment to start out with. Shocking considering that “Time Out” was the only story of the four that was not adapted from an existing episode. With the exception of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’, the two other adapted segments is either a hugely entertaining re-imagination that come close to measuring up (“It’s a Good Life”) or a half-hearted remake that remains inferior to its earlier source (“Kick the Can”). Nevertheless, the good does help outweigh the bad (If only slightly) thanks to the prologue I mentioned earlier. In summing up Twilight Zone: The Movie altogether, I would say that it satisfies and disappoints in equal measures.

-Star Ratings for the Individual Segments-

–Prologue (Director: John Landis)-
(Cast: Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks)
* * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *)
-Segment #1: Time Out (Director: John Landis)-
(Cast: Vic Morrow)
* 1/2 (Out of * * * *)
-Segment #2: Kick the Can (Director: Steven Spielberg)-
(Cast: Scatman Crothers)
* (Out of * * * *)
-Segment #3: It’s a Good Life (Director: Joe Dante)-
(Cast: Kathleen Quinlan)
* * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *)
-Segment #4: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Director: George Miller)-
(Cast: John Lithgow)
* * * * (Out of * * * *)

-Star Rating for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) as a Whole-
* * 1/2 (Out of * * * *)

My Favorite Andre Techine Films (New)

by John Charet

* * * * (Out of * * * *)

1.   Wild Reeds (1994)

2.   The Bronte Sisters (1979)

3.   The Witnesses (2007)

4.   Unforgivable (2012)

5.   Thieves (1996)

6.   My Favorite Season (1993)

7.   I Don’t Kiss (1991)

8.   Strayed (2003)

9.   The Girl on the Train (2009)

10. Alice and Martin (1998)
(I saw it on an old VHS tape)

11. Rendez-vous (1985)

12. Barocco (1976)

13. In the Name of my Daughter (2014)

14. Hotel America (1981)

15. Changing Times (2004)

16. The Scene of the Crime (1986)

I Have Been Selected as an Alternate Nominee for a fan-made version of The Liebster Award!

by John Charet

A regular visitor of this site nicknamed JW of the website entitled “Film & Nuance” has nominated me for his alternate version of the “Liebster Award” which according to a blog post on it has nominated me for it. Click on this link for more info: https://filmandnuance.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/liebster-award-2/ This award seems to be one of those recognizes excellence in film blogging or lack thereof. Win or lose, I just want to give a big thank you to him for nominating me because it encourages me to believe that my blog is worth reading despite the fact that a majority of it consists of lists of my favorite films by various directors 🙂 While I am happy to be recognized, I personally feel that their are more deserving candidates than myself. For me, just seeing various people (bloggers or not) visiting this site and either leaving a positive comment or just liking a post is a significant achievement for me alone because it really shows that people find my blog interesting 🙂 Anyway, since I am a nominee, I have given 11 questions below (click on the above link) to answer since it is rule for all of the nominees 🙂

 

1.) What is your favorite hobby other than blogging(if it already is)? And why do you love it so much?
I love to go swimming because the water feels relaxing 🙂 I also love to watch tons of films via Blu-ray/DVD or just seeing them in the theater.

2.) What are your top 3 movies of all time? And your worst 3?
This had become a very tough question for me. This is not so much due to the fact that I love a lot of films, but it is because I am pretty much a firm believer in the “Auteur theory” which you can read more about on wikipedia (click on this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory). At the same time though, If one were to ask me what my top 10 favorite films of all-time were, I would probably feel unsatisfied since for me that is a limited number 🙂 Since I talk about filmmakers a lot on this site though, I will say that as of now, my top 3 favorite filmmakers of all-time are: Robert Altman, Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa. As with all of my favorite directors, I have more than 3 favorites, but here goes. My top 3 favorite Robert Altman films would be: Nashville (1975), Short Cuts (1993) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971). My top 3 favorite Alfred Hitchcock films would be: The Birds (1963), Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958). My top 3 favorite Akira Kurosawa films would be: Throne of Blood (1957), Ikiru (1952) and Rashomon (1950). Luis Bunuel is another favorite, but I have not had the time to rank his films despite the fact that I ranked his films already (I plan on updating it again). I know this answer is more complicated, but I hope I at least provided a fascinating one. As for my top 3 worst films of all-time, their is plenty but here are some worthy candidates: Forrest Gump (1994), Titanic (1997), American Beauty (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). I know that was more than three, but I could not resist. What do they all have in common? They have all won the prize for Best Picture sadly. As for worst filmmakers or overrated ones, I would rather not say.

3.) If you had a chance to rewind life to any point in your life, would you? If yes, then to which point in your life? If no, why not?
Probably when I first started the blog back in 2012 because between than and late May of 2015, I seemed to have written glowingly about some films that I now have mixed emotions about (i.e. Boyhood, Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel). That and their are some directors I listed, who are no longer favorites (please note that the names you see in My Greatest Film Directors of All-Time list right now is on-going and I do not mean them).

4.) Name your most anticipated 2016 movies?
As of April 2016, the most anticipated film for me is director Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG which opens this summer in late June/early July I believe. After the back-to-back disappointments of Lincoln (2012) and last year’s Bridge of Spies, I hope this is a return to form especially since the screenwriter of The BFG is the late Melissa Mathison (who also wrote the screenplay to Spielberg’s E.T.).

5.) Recall your favourite childhood memory or a particular instance where you felt overjoyed?
For me, this one can be applied to both childhood and adulthood and that deals with family and friend activities. One example is social gatherings involving friends and family because their is this pure joy that comes out of it due to being with a group of people who either love you (i.e. your family) and those who love to hang out with you (i.e. your friends). 🙂

6.) If you could be any character from any movie/tv series/book, who would you be? And why?
I do not know If their is a character from any movie/tv show/or book that I would want to be because let’s face it their lives are probably as complicated as ours 🙂 Nevertheless, I have always saw myself as a really nice person and the legendary late leading actor Jimmy Stewart was a lot like that. To put it in other words, I had always wanted to be like Jimmy Stewart even though he is a real actor and person and not a character from fiction.

7.) Would you rather lead a safe, conventional and routine life or a life bound only by your own rules? Why?
That is kind of a difficult question because I do live by my own rules, but my own rules come off as worthy as those to a mild-mannered person like myself. Now this is just me speaking, I can not speak for others who live by their own rules because each person who chooses that method does not live by the same rules I do. Since I did describe myself as mild-mannered though, does that mean it is a code word for safe and conventional? 🙂

8.) What are the collectibles (e.g. posters, toys, figurines, plushies etc)/ objects do you have and are most proud of? It could be movie/book related or anything really.
The collectible I am proud of is my Cryptkeeper doll 🙂 Do you remember that great horror anthology show that ran on HBO from 1989-1996 (I own all the seasons on DVD) called Tales from the Crypt? That and every single Blu-ray/DVD that I own 🙂

9.) Walking in the park or walking in the city?
I love to walk in both the park and city areas 🙂

10.) If you could be fluent in one other language, what would it be?
I always wanted to learn how to speak Japanese because I have always been fascinated by Japanese culture and four of my many favorite filmmakers of all-time are Japanese: Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguichi and Shohei Imamura. 

11.) Why did you start blogging?
I started to blog back in 2012 because all of my friends said that I should start a blog because my knowledge of film was and still is pretty extensive. So I took the bull by the horn and with a little help from different people, I was able to start this blog up. I owe them a considerable amount of credit because without them, this site would not be possible. Despite the fact that I have written posts that are mostly lists, I hope to go beyond that and write a blog entry that reads like a review or an essay on a genre or filmmaker or something like that. Prior to 2015, visitors on this website was climbing but slowly but last year I started to get more likes on my blog entries and from visitors from all over America and abroad. As long as people have encouraging things to say about my blog and as long as they love what I type, I will remain very happy with this site 🙂 For me that is more satisfying than winning any type of blogging contest 🙂

Those are the answers to my questions. Now I have to let JW know I have the answers up and running on the new blog entry 🙂 If all of you readers are hoping that I win the contest I appreciate it, but as I implied numerous times in this post, I am just happy with the people who come and visit this site and like my posts as well as leaving encouraging replies 🙂

On the Side: My Favorite Elaine May Films

by John Charet

To the average joe, people probably only remember female director/writer Elaine May as  the female partner of the late Mike Nichols in their comedy tour “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May.” At least I believe that is the title? When the two parted their own ways, they each began their directing careers respectively. Here is where the big difference comes in; almost everybody has seen Nichols films, but hardly anyone can remember a May film. This is highly unfortunate because in many ways and despite only four directed films on her resume, May is actually the superior filmmaker. Even though I was no fan of Mike Nichols films (may he rest in peace), I am not trying to bash him as a person or even as a director (though I always found them uninteresting), he was probably a great man at heart. Let us get back to Elaine May though. Her first film, A New Leaf (1971) was originally intended to be a dark romantic comedy drama running a maximum of 180 minutes long, but Paramount head Robert Evans took it away from her and edited it down to 104 minutes. Who knows If the original version still exists (lead actor Walter Matthau reportedly preferred this version), but it still works and Elaine May’s Golden Globe nominated performance is still truly hilarious. In 1972, she was hired to direct The Heartbreak Kid based on a story by Neil Simon. This film opened to both critical and commercial acclaim and Mikey & Nicky followed in 1976. As with A New Leaf, this crime drama staring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk had a troubled production history and according to reports, she was fired and then re-hired quickly. As with her first film, this one was a commercial failure despite critical acclaim. Speaking of production problems, the expensive comedy Ishtar was released in 1987 and was notorious even before it’s release due to cost overruns and mistreatment of the press. The film stared Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as two bad songwriters who get a singing gig to Morocco and end up involved in political turmoil. Unlike her first three films, Ishtar was not only just a commercial bomb, but it was also a critical failure as well. The film does have it’s defenders though; Jonathan Rosenbaum has come to it’s defense ever since it’s initial release in 87. Sadly, May has not directed another film since than though she has written screenplays for her former partner Mike Nichols; The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998). Reportedly, director Stanley Donen is preparing a new film with a script by Elaine May (or is she directing?) and all I can tell you is I hope it actually happens because May did not deserve to be treated so horrible by Hollywood. Now without further ado, I have compiled a list of my favorite films by director/writer May below.

* * * * (Out of * * * *)

1.   A New Leaf (1971)
Despite being edited from 180 minutes to 104, A New Leaf still remains a truly witty and subtly observational romantic comedy drama. Aside from being her first feature, Elaine May also co-stars as the woman that Walter Matthau’s character (a soon to be ex-millionaire) tries to marry in order to con her with hilariously disastrous results.

2.   Mikey & Nicky (1976)
As with A New Leaf, Mikey & Nicky is another film where Elaine May found herself clashing with Paramount Pictures over. Fired and then re-hired right away, the film has two versions. Either way, this is a deeply fascinating crime drama taking place over one night that deals with a hood (John Cassavetes) trying to get help from one of his fellow buddies (Peter Falk) in repaying a debt to the mob.

3.   The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Elaine May’s biggest commercial success to date is also the only one that garnered Oscar nominations; Eddie Albert and Jeannie Berlin garnered Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress respectively. Based on a Neil Simon story, Charles Grodin stars as a newly married Jewish New Yorker, who while on a Miami honeymoon with his wife (Berlin), sets his eyes on an ingenue (Cybill Shepherd) and follows her all over to her hometown of Minnesota. As in all of May’s films, the result is typically hilarious.

* * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *)

1.   Ishtar (1987)
A notorious flop due not only to it’s critical and commercial failure, but also to it’s costly delays, numerous re-shoots and mismanagement of the press. Nevertheless, it still manages to be laugh out loud funny. The plot has two bad song writers (Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman) hired to perform a gig in Morocco, but end up getting embroiled in political turmoil with a mysterious woman (Isabelle Adjani) catching their eyes. In some ways, this plays out like May’s version of a Hope/Crosby comedy for the 1980’s. Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is stunning as always and Paul Williams intentionally bad songs are frequently hilarious. Former Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s defense of this film has arguably incited more people to come out and defend it as well.