KinoLivres
  • Blog
  • Index
    • Auteurs
    • Ratings
  • Adaptations
  • Chronology
  • Gurglings
  • Touchpoints
  • Contact
  • Rating Scale

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), directed by John Frankenheimer

12/16/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
+1/2

Truly awful film, based, vaguely, on the H. G. Wells novel of the same name. Unlucky plane crash survivor (David Thewlis) is picked up in the Java Sea and taken to a small island where a mad doctor with a God complex (Marlon Brando) mixes human and animal DNA in a quest to create a race of "superior" beings. Goes downhill the moment Brando appears, his face, hands and arms covered in pasty white cream, as if an allergy to sunlight were in any way relevant to his character or the story. (As metaphor for the need for him to do his work "in the dark," it is overkill of the highest order.) "The" story, in fact, is a misnomer: screenwriters Richard Stanley and Ron Hutchinson try to tell too many stories, one of which is an ironic mirror of their "accomplishment": even as the film devolves into incoherence, Moreau's horrible creations, without regular injections, regress to their disordered animal states. Meanwhile, the beast creatures chafe at their subjugation, and the survivor, in an idea cribbed not from the book but from the first adaptation of the book, The Island of Lost Souls, meets a beautiful woman (Fairuza Balk) with whom he develops a personal relationship. And then there's Montgomery, Moreau's all but superfluous assistant, played by Val Kilmer. A self-indulgent crazy-quilt of a movie, redeemed only by a few pretty pictures along the way.

2 Comments
bookstooge
12/16/2016 06:46:16 pm

On that cover, is that "Pope" Brando?

Reply
Brian
12/17/2016 09:12:11 am

Did I mention how awful this was?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    KinoLivres

    Books. Movies. Mostly.

    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All
    1 Star
    2 Star
    3 Star
    4 Star
    5 Star
    Action
    Book
    Comedy
    Comics
    Crime
    Detective
    Drama
    Fantasy
    History
    Horror
    Movie
    Musical
    Mystery
    Paranormal
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Thriller
    True Crime
    Western
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.