Horror Hotel Cinema - Invaders from Mars (1953)

I've been reading a novel by Robert McCammon this past week, called BOYS LIFE. It's an exceptional book that details with pinpoint accuracy the bittersweet endurance test that is 'coming of age'. I can't recommend the book to you folks enough. It really is beautiful to behold. Anyway, this ain't about that, this is about this...

There's a chapter in the book in which two of its young heroes attend a local cinema where, along with their peers, they are terrified out of their minds by a film that plays on the most dreaded of childhood fears...the mistrust of our parents. The book goes into the film in great detail, and it really did set a fire under my ass to revisit this age-old classic and see if it stands the test of time. I did, and it does.

Classic science-fiction, 50's paranoia, a kid in fear of his family, and a hell of a fine time at the Hotel Cinema. Kick back, hop in yer time machine, and prepare yourself for...INVADERS FROM MARS!

Oh, and read that book already.

Review : Men in Black 3 (2012)

 

Director:

Barry Sonnenfeld

Writers:

Etan Cohen, Lowell Cunningham (Malibu comic)

Stars:

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin
 
Agent J travels in time to MIB's early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history. 

I gotta be honest with you, I cant remember a great deal about the original MEN IN BLACK. I vaguely remember it being watchable, and having a groovy closing scene feauring universes inside universes, but I was a card carying X-FILES kid, and the comedic vibe the film shot for really twisted my melons the wrong way. See, for me, 'Men in Black' were serious fucking business. People to be feared. Not least because I lived in constant fear they'd fuck up my plans of heading to 'Devil Mountain' and having my ass abducted off this war rock we call 'Earth'.

A film that painted these dark and mysterious bastards in comedic tones was not something my none-more-serious persona was willing to accept. So MEN IN BLACK sorta pissed me off. That said, it was a fun film, if you could get over the handling of the subject matter and that godawful Will Smith song that came as part of the package. It was what it was...throwaway Hollywood fluff. Nothing more, nothing less.

I never saw the sequel. I own it, (dont ask me how), but I never got round to watching it.