Tuesday, June 30, 2009

"RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!" part 2

Part 2 of my capsule review of some of the coolest films ever.

"Mysterious Island" 1961

Ray gets back into the game but all he can muster is giant crabs!

...and the dreaded...giant chickeny-turkey-thingy!

In 1992 Ray was awarded the "Gordon E. Sawyer Award" for "technological contributions (which) have brought credit to the industry". Tom Hank was the presenter and he (and I paraphrase) said, "Film scholars always argue which is the greatest film ever made. 'Casablanca' or 'Citizen Kane'. I of course know it was 'Jason and the Argonauts'."
I have to agree. Welllll, maybe "The Incredibles".

"Jason and the Argonauts" 1963 (the year I was born)

Ooooooooh, now we're talkin'! Giant bronze colossus! Bitchin'!

...and he upped the ante with a sword fight with 5 skeletons...OUTSIDE no less!

"First Men in the Moon" 1964

This covers the gamut. 19th century space capsules!

...telepathic moon people...

...and giant caterpillars!

"One Million Years B.C." 1966

OK...so some of the dinosaurs here were just lizards with spines stapled to their backs...

...but there were some cool stop motion dinosaurs too.

But of course the really amazing animation performed in this film...

...was Raquel Welch. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

"The Valley of Gwangi" 1969

Cowboys and Dinosaurs! It doesn't get much better than that!

Cowboys and Dinosaurs in Mexico? With James Franciscus? Now you've topped yourself!

"The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" 1974
More Sinbad fun!

Cyclopian Centaurs!!!

Mmmmmmmmm. Early "spank bank".

"Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" 1977

I know what you're thinking. How does stop-motion Sinbad circa 1977 compete with Star Wars?
How about Golden Minotaurs?

Giant Walruses?

Big fuzzy saber-tooth tigers?

Say what you will. It was cooler than Ewoks.

"Clash of the Titans" 1981

This was a mixed bag. Lawrence Olivier...good idea. Burgess Merideth...good idea. Harry Hamlin...creepy.
This guy?...he and his animated counterpart...good idea.

This guy?...the Ewoks are coming....creepy.

Good idea.

Great Idea! The Kraken has been released!!!!

Thanks Ray!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One Million hours later and you still ROCK Ray Harryhusen! your the MAN or should we call you RAYBAD!

Search This Blog