The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -- 1981 -- NR

This is a 6-part serial that appeared on BBC and then was on PBS for a little bit. Personally, I could swear I watched this when I was younger, but I didn't remember any of it when I saw it again. This version was based on the radio plays which eventually spawned the book.

The first four episodes were pretty good. It had a really good flow, decent pacing, some clever and funny gags and jokes, we were getting into the characters and their situations, and the fourth episode even ended on a good cliff hanger. After four episodes, I'm thinking this is a very funny, off the wall series. I was enjoying every moment. And then they apparently ran out of ideas.

Episode five dragged horribly. There was no direction for the characters to take and for the most part nothing at all happened. Finally, they escaped in some kind of ship, but it still didn't indicate any direction or goal for the characters. 

Episode six wasn't much better. Still no direction. Two of the main characters disappeared into oblivion; no clue what happened to them. And then our heroes end up in a Planet of the Apes situation on Earth to live out their days knowing it was going to be destroyed in two million years. How they got that far back in time is never explained.

So it had a really good start, but as soon as stuff got introduced, it got dropped and never returned to. I'm not even sure what the point was of the series. Usually, if a series has a beginning and end, they are striving towards a specific goal, but this one got lost in the shuffle...in fact, I don't even know if it had one. 

However, we did get the question to the answer of 42 for the menaing of life, the universe, and everything. What is it? Hm, should I make you suffer through the 6 episodes of the series to find it?

Time Bandits -- 1981 -- PG

A group of short robbers have stolen a map that allows them to travel through time and space via "holes" in the fabric of time. They want to use this to steal valuable things, but the Supreme Being is on their tail wanting the map back. They inadvertently kidnap a boy who helps them on their adventures.

This film was written by Monty Python alums Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, and then directed by Terry Gilliam. The Python influence is extremely obvious throughout the film as each time serves as a tableau sketch in time-honored Python style. The film has some extremely funny moments, as could be expected, and other moments that are just silly, as could also be expected. A ton of classic Python moments carry over from their earlier films, notably their apparent love of medieval settings, people being hit for no apparent reason, and a character who blows up others by pointing (remember "Tim" from the Holy Grail?). They even brought in John Cleese to get half the Python team in this movie.

It flows well, has plenty of conflict between the theives and the boy as well as a fair amount of compassion and respect as they move along. 

While their travel to the dark tower is a little contrived as well as the conflict as they reach it a bit forced, the pace does keep up and the visuals are great for the time. The ending does leave something to be desired as it leaves us wanting for something, despite the idea of "no one listens to their kids" playing out graphically.

Overall, the picture is a good watch if you don't might the ridiculous and occasionally irreverent humor that the Monty Python crew is notorious for. It moves quickly and was written with kids in mind, so it works well also for those short attention spanned tykes too.

Friday the 13th Part 2 -- 1981 -- R

I've been intending to subject myself to this one for some time, and so last night, I pulled it out and gave it a viewing. Before we hit the main titles, we were in cliche city, but I can't help but wonder whether at the time, they were cliches, or whether this was the series to establish the cliches.

Cliche #1: False scare followed by false sense of security. Our heroine from Part 1 walks into the kitchen to find (gasp!) an open window. She approaches this open window cautiously before (zing!) a kitten jumps through. She sighs with a laughs. Kittens aren't scary. My thought: a kitten didn't open the window.

Cliche #2: Kill off the survivor(s) from the previous movie. They love doing this. Nightmare 3 saw three survivors, and the first thing Nightmare 4 did was wipe them all out. Well, one person survived Crystal Lake in Part 1, and she was wiped out before the main titles.

The first thing that concerned me in this one was when we got this long montage of flashbacks to film #1, which is probably the only reason we had the survivor from film #1 at all, though she did get pretty high billing. But when the first 10 minutes of a film that doesn't make the 90 minute mark are flashbacks to the last one, you gotta have some concern as to the thinness of the plot you're getting into.

After the main titles (geez, four paragraphs and we haven't got past the main titles yet), we meet more teens who want to get out to somewhere around Crystal Lake. There's apparently a counselor training center out there now that is far away from the Camp featured in part 1. But...

Cliche #3: Perform action that services the plot, but makes no other logical sense. ...these people park on one side of the street and run across the street and a half a block back to a pay phone. Why? So their vehicle could be towed without them noticing. I'm thinking: why not park next to the pay phone? Because then they could hear the tow truck coming. Then again, the building the parked next to might have actually had a phone attached to it; it was too far away to notice.

Anyway, they get the truck back and start driving out to Crystal Lake where...

Cliche #4: Cliche #3 happens to get some exposition out. ...they are stopped by a log in the road so the girl can wander into the woods and locate a sign for Camp Crystal Lake so they can talk about it. Of course, the branch was there deliberately, and I'll give that one to them. It was the wandering into the woods that I thought was bizarre, much less randomly locating this sign.

Moving on, we get to this center where no one can act, and all the dialogue sounds like it is being performed by a troupe of high schoolers. We easily idenitify the one we're going to see naked at some point, get some acquaintance with the ones who will die at some point, and traveling through this tripe, we really don't care about them either. Some effort is made to develop some of them, but none of them really get to the point where we can feel for them.

Cliche #5: Long expository sequence where the previous film is recounted and the current one is setup. This happens around a campfire with a ghost story of sorts. Instead of getting the question mark of who is possibly doing this, we learn right from the beginning that legend has it that Jason Voorhees, the boy who drowned, wanders the wilderness searching for prey. It got old really, really fast. Possibly because we are already familiar with it, but expository sequences like this are done in nearly every horror sequel assuming no one watched the last one, I guess. It ends with a scare with a mask and spear, and we are left knowing that this is going to come back to haunt us later.

Two of the characters insist on going to where the first film happened, even though it is (of course) forbidden. I'm not sure whether to classify this as a cliche or not. I rolled my eyes at the insistance, but can't say whether it happens a lot because I could see myself being curious about it if I were in the area. Anyway, they run across this sheriff who turns them into their boss at the training camp. I mention this sheriff because...

Cliche #5: Long chase ends with the demise of the chaser. As soon as the sheriff followed the mystery character into the woods, we knew he was toasted. He kept chasing and kept chasing and kept chasing, and I'm thinking that the chasee is gone, just go home. Does he go home? Nope. He keeps going until...

Cliche #6: Entering a house that isn't your own without being invited. ...he finds a shack in the woods and goes right on in. He explores this handmade hut and of course, bites it there. It's a setup for later, but could have been done better to avoid the cliche.

Cliche #7: Get rid of all the characters you don't want to kill off. Who wants to go to town? That said it all for me. Everyone who isn't going to die is leaving. In Scream, we had a big party and everyone left except the leads to find the principal hanging from the goalposts. So the ones who have received the least character setup all go to town with the exception of three who are the heads of the training thing. I was actually kind of surprised that these left, but figured they'd all return later anyway. I was part right.

Ok, insert long chase sequences, and hacking up of the pointless characters, and you get the majority of the rest of the film. For one of these kills, we get...

Cliche #8: Go into an area calling someone's name and never look behind you. ...a guy goes out the door because he heard a noise and thinks its his girl. He goes out the door calling her name over and over. He goes one direction (facing away from the entry to the area), and never turns around. He's hit, of course, and never sees it coming.

Once everyone left behind was killed, the two heads returned (strangely, the first character idenitifed by name stayed in town to not meet his end; maybe a future sequel). These two discovered blood everywhere and a lot of unanswered questions since there were no bodies.

Well, throw in a really, really long chase sequence where our girl runs through rooms and the forest, etc. She comes at Jason with a chainsaw, and could have finished him off but...

Cliche #9: The opportunity to finish off the villain is available, but the hero/heroine doesn't take it. ...she doesn't. She threatened him. He stumbles and fell face down over a table or something. The chainsaw was running and she had the advantage. Run that thing through his back, and we are short one horror series. What does she do? Drops it and runs.

So more long chasing until she ends up at the shack our sheriff found where she pulls something very clever and very well setup. This was probably the best part of the movie right here, and likely the only reason the movie can be considered decent.

Then more fighting and they defeat Jason with a machete to the shoulder. Wait...the shoulder? Who dies from wounds in the shoulder? Yeah, that collarbone is broken, but I doubt it will stop him, though he is sure motionless. Run him through, whack him in the head or something...do they? See cliche #9 and smack forehead again.

Final scare and out.

This one did have the occasional suspenseful moment, and those moments were fairly well done. They were overshadowed, however, by torrents of stupidity, cliches, and poorly developed characters. They were here to get killed and unless you were taking notes, you won't even remember their names.

I will say the variation on why they were at Crystal Lake was decent and believable; they did avoid the original camp, and why not build elsewhere on the lake? Makes sense to me. Who knew that this Jason freak would claim ownership of the whole lake and not just the camp? So for a good point, I'll give them that.