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H O M E P A G E
JANE'S MOVIE WORLD:
JANE'S MUSIC WORLD:
MUSIC TRIBUTES: JANE'S ART WORLD: |
Established 1999
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Now is the time to bare my
soul. What follows are some
odd ball movie loves of mine - sort of my junk food of movie viewing.
TRADER
HORN: One of the first of the African adventure movies, which wouldn’t be
considered very P.C. by today’s standards, since the very white goddess played by
Edwina Booth (pictured here) rules a whole tribe of natives. (The legend has been that
Edwina developed a terrible allergy to light after making this movie and hid in her house
for the rest of her life.) The best part of the movie is that it featured some real
footage of Africa (much of which was later used in Tarzan and other similar movies)
TARZAN: There is only one Tarzan and Jane and they are: Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. "Tarzan, the Ape Man" was the first. Their best was the sequel, "Tarzan and His Mate", which was pretty sexy for the time. They added Boy in "Tarzan Finds a Son". Great fun and action, though, also not very P.C.
CONGO: Fake gorillas, fake volcano, good gross out scenes, corny dialogue and acting. What can I say, it’s got it all.
THE MUMMY and THE MUMMY RETURNS : I love the two pictures in the series with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. It has action, good special effects, and funny characters and I love the Egyptian storyline. Just a lot of fun to watch.
| I am also a sucker for Time Travel
Movies. Some of my favorites are: THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: Kirk Douglas is the captain of a modern day carrier who lands in the Pacific as the Japanese are ready to attack Pearl Harbor. THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: Two soldiers are brought from the World War II army into modern times by a scientific experiment. TIME AFTER TIME: Jack the Ripper (well played by David Warner) is transmitted to modern California and is pursued by H.G. Welles. TIMECOP: Jean-Claude Van Damme saves the world from the evil Ron Silver (he is also a great bad guy in "The Arrival" sci-fi movie.) TIME MACHINE: Back to the future by H. G. Welles. Which three books did he take when he went forward in time to restore the world?? TRANCERS: Tough cop named Jack Deth from the future comes back to get the guy who is killing the predecessors of his current leadership, thus destroying it. (Wonder if we can hire him to go back a couple generations to take care of some politicians??) |
| Alien Movies: ALIEN NATION: Fresh look at aliens on earth (with some moral commentary), with a fine performance as one by one of my favorite performers, Mandy Patinkin. THE ARRIVAL: The aliens are definitely different in this one. Neat story, and you can to see Ron Silver being a great bad guy again. But, I knew it was fiction since Charlie Sheen played a scientist. *BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED: A sweet story of tiny little alien vessels that visit an old apartment building that is scheduled to be torn down. Heavy on cute, but performances by those old pro’s Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy keep it anchored. GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH: John Glover and Christopher Lee are hysterical in this goofy, funny satire of the first movie. V: Yes, a mini-series, but this one had some nice performances and creepy aliens and a story line that had obvious connections to Nazi's and the Halocaust. I remember people discussing the mouse-eating aliens at work and all being pretty grossed out. |
| Action/Adventure: THE BLACK ROSE: Tyrone Power in a medieval adventure that takes him from Norman England to the far East. Orson Welles is interestingly cast as Genghis Khan ELEPHANT WALK: Definitely one of the pictures that Elizabeth Taylor would like to forget. She replaced Vivien Leigh, who became mentally ill during the filming, but who is still seen in the already filmed distant shots. It is corny and awful and a lot of fun to watch. OCEAN’S 11: The definitive Rat Pack movie. I thought I was pretty grown up when I was allowed to see it as a young teenager, but when I took a recent re-look at it, I was surprised by the strong supporting acting of Dean Martin and Peter Lawford. Pretty clever caper movie. Eee-Oh-ee-lev-en!! REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS...: A good action adventure where the main character is a cop who is retrained to be a martial arts warrior for a secret society. Joel Grey plays his Korean teacher in a bemusing role (for which he was Oscar-nominated). Watch a man run on water!! ROMEO IS BLEEDING: Lena Olin plays it all out as the all-time most evil movie villainess. Gary Oldman gives hot support as the cop on the take. |
| Disaster Movies: TWISTER: Yeah, I know, I am a sucker for special effects. Actually saw this one twice in the theaters. I guess its the fact that this a natural phenomenon that gets me along with the well-done work. And Helen Hunt gives a natural performance that anchors the movie. TOWERING INFERNO: Bad acting, stupid story line, lots of special effects. But, you get close-ups of Paul Newman's and Steve McQueen's blue eyes, so it's not all bad. EARTHQUAKE: Bad acting, stupid story line, lots of special effects (where have I heard that before?) But, you do get to see LA destroyed, so it's not all bad. VOLCANO and DANTE'S PEAK: Came out the same year and both have cornball story lines, awful performances, and some good special effects of volcanic action in the U.S. |
| Comedies: BABY’S DAY OUT: Very slapstick and silly, but there is something about that baby having his adventures out on his own in the world that works for me. BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE: Kim Novak plays a sexy witch who literally puts a spell on James Stewart to get him to love her. She ends up losing her heart (and witching abilities) to him. Has funny supporting performances by Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and Hermione Gingold. BINGO: Very much a shaggy dog story. Just sit back and enjoy the silliest as a dog runs into all sorts of adventures while he searches for his boy owner who has moved across the country. CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: John Belushi in a surprisingly sweet love story of opposites attracting with Blair Brown. HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID: There is something about a fifty-foot two-year old taking over Las Vegas that tickles my funny bone. Take about the terrible twos! THE INVISIBLE WOMAN: A 40's comedy version of what would happen if a woman took a treatment to be invisible. John Barrymore is very amusing doing a take off of his brother, Lionel. JUNIOR: Arnold Schwarzenegger as an expectant mother? I can't help it - he makes me giggle as he goes through the stages of the pregnancy, showing his "soft" side. Emma Thompson is also very amusing as the clutzy scientist who is the other parent of the baby. MAKING MR. RIGHT: Love between a robot and a woman? Well, it happens in this smart, funny little film between John Malkovich , who plays his role in a innocent manner, and Ann Magnuson, who plays a slick public relations expert, who needs help in her everyday life. NADINE: Shock, Kim Bassinger can play a comedic part well!! Set in 50's Texas, has a nice atmospheric texture to the slight story of a woman who accidentally views a murder. THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS: "Oh, my god, George." If you’ve seen it, I need say no more. Funny Neil Simon story of a couple from Ohio who barely survive a day in New York. Critics hate it, but it tickles me for its excesses. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS: George C. Scott thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes, Joanne Woodward plays his psychiatrist, Dr. Watson. His family wants his money, she wants love. Its daffy and sweet and one of my all-time favorite "little movies". REAL GENIUS: Val Kilmer makes an otherwise dopy movie about young genius into something funny with an impish sense of humor. |
| Ghost: CANTERVILLE GHOST: Adopted from the Oscar Wilde story, the picture is set in England during WWII. Charles Laughton plays the cowardly ghost, Margaret O'Brien is adorable as his descendent, and Robert Young is challenged to do the heroic dead that ends the ghost's haunting. It is very 40's and features a cute swing dance number. THE HAUNTING: Is a truly chilling story of the supernatural where you never see any apparitions, but will get scared out of your wits. It has excellent performances by Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. GHOST: A huge success when it came out, but a movie that I didn't like at first. I have come to have affection for the sweetness and warmth of the love story and the special effects. THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES: An unusual and well-done Abbott and Costello comedy the revolves around Lou Costello and Majorie Reynolds becoming ghosts during the Revolutionary War after being charged with treason. While they haunt the new tenants of the house they were condemned to, they search for proof of their innocence. THE UNINVITED: No trick ending to this story of a haunting of a house purchased by Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey, who plays his sister. Just a nice old-fashioned ghost story. |
| Musical: LADY IN THE DARK: Not a fashionable musical now, but I have strong memories of seeing this as a girl and enjoying Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland in it. She plays a lady who has trouble reconciling her work with her need for love and is undergoing psychoanalysis to get cured, but romance with Ray "fixes" her. Ah, if life could be that simple. SCROOGE: This a musical version starring Albert Finney in the title role that I think is better than its reputation. I enjoy the music and the sets and costumes are luscious. (Give it a try at Christmas and while you’re shopping with the crowds, you can sing along with Scrooge, "I hate people.".) |
| Sci-Fi/Mystical: THE FURY: Definitely overdone sci-fi of young people with extra-ordinary psychic abilities. But, for me it works with lots of scary scenes that build up to a big finish. THE SEVENTH SIGN: Demi Moore saves the world! Yeah, it is pretty bad, but entertaining trash. And Jurgen Prochnow brings a resigned sadness as the angel whose melancholy job is to break the seals of each sign of the end. (And once and for all, she wasn’t really pregnant during the filming, that’s a costume stomach.) SOYLENT GREEN: I have always found this story to be a disturbing, but probable view of our future. The addition of a wonderful, memorable performance by Edward G. Robinson in his Oscar-nominated performance makes for me a movie that has stayed with me since I first saw it. TREMORS: I love the off-beat humor of this tale of monster worms terrorizing a small southwestern town. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are an amusing pair of handymen who battle the creatures. WILLOW: Special effects with a mystical story. I thought that Warrick Davis gives a sweet performance as the father who becomes a wizard to protect the savior baby from the evil witch |