Tarzan The Ape Man (1933) 7.5 of 10

Tarzan And His Mate (1934) 8.5 of 10

Revisited these classics. The first film, while it helped launch the whole Tarzan phenomena and set the template isn't as enjoyable as the sequel and not simply because of Maureen O'Sullivan's costume in the latter. For one thing, the audio is very crackly and at times its hard to make out the dialogue in the early going, and also O'Sullivan is just a tad too hysterical and stagy in the scenes with her father at the beginning and then later in her first scenes with Tarzan. It's in the second film where O'Sullivan's better qualities acting wise shine now that she's playing the self-confident Jane who's chucked it all. Plus, the action sequences are much better than in the first film.

TARZAN AND HIS MATE may be the definitive Tarzan movie -- pre-code nudity and violence, an engaging story and plenty of fun.

AndyDursin wrote:TARZAN AND HIS MATE may be the definitive Tarzan movie -- pre-code nudity and violence, an engaging story and plenty of fun.

My mom and people her age used to balk at the risque movies which started emerging in the 70s with "In my day that would never have been permitted!" But before their day, it's amazing what was permitted in some of those pre-code movies.

What happened in society that prompted this sudden prudishness?

Paul MacLean wrote:

AndyDursin wrote:TARZAN AND HIS MATE may be the definitive Tarzan movie -- pre-code nudity and violence, an engaging story and plenty of fun.

My mom and people her age used to balk at the risque movies which started emerging in the 70s with "In my day that would never have been permitted!" But before their day, it's amazing what was permitted in some of those pre-code movies.

What happened in society that prompted this sudden prudishness?

Great question! Wikipedia claims:

"The Hollywood studios adopted the code in large part in the hopes of avoiding government censorship, preferring self-regulation to government regulation and the enforcement of the Production Code led to the dissolution of many local censorship boards."

TARZAN AND HIS MATE was produced right when the Code was going into effect, and for many years, the nudity and violence was trimmed out. Thankfully they found the footage and restored it back in the '80s. For an early '30s film it is remarkably candid and fun.

-The Last Starfighter (1984): 6.5/10

Another film from my formative 80's days I'm just getting around to now, this is a supremely corny and goofy effort aimed squarely at overly sensitive kids who probably found Star Wars a little too intense. It does generate a fair amount of good-natured warmth, and I'll take that over the fashionable, humor-deficient "grittiness" that infuses even summer blockbusters these days, but it's terminally mild, with jokes that are more silly than genuinely funny. And the "state-of-the-art" CGI in the space battle sequences, which must have been a wow for the Pac-Man generation, look laughably outdated by today's standards. Like Tron, it has an important place in the history of special effects, but as a movie, it's little more than an amiable curiosity, given a tremendous boost by Craig Safan's rousing score. Remember when we got film music this good at least a dozen times per summer? Nowadays a score like Last Starfighter would stick out like a sore thumb. I'd probably like this more if I had a built-in Nostalgia Buffer to cushion my expectations.

I respectfully disagree on LAST STARFIGHTER.

The romance in the film is highly appealing; Robert Preston's engaging supporting turn gives it a dose of humanity; and all of the characters are thoroughly likeable. Lance Guest and Catherine Mary Stuart, plus Dan O'Herilhy, really did some fine work in the movie. IMO it's not a classic (nobody ever said it was), but it's really good fun, even today...certainly more so than the humorless and sterile TRON (which has no humanity, romance, humor or developed characters in it at all; it's strictly a "hardware movie," even though I appreciate its technical achievements and Wendy Carlos' terrific score).

I admit I was the right audience for LAST STARFIGHTER at the time, it's true -- but I wasn't an "overly sensitive kid who didn't like STAR WARS." A lot of critics liked it too -- including Gene Siskel who included it on this classic GUILTY PLEASURES episode on Siskel & Ebert (which I uploaded myself)...and you can stick around where Roger Ebert defends "Tarzan the Ape Man" with Bo Derek (now that one I DON'T agree with him with!):

http://siskelandebert.org/video/27RDMKK ... sures-1987

With Bo's version you can defend the poster at least.

Airport '77 (1977) 7 of 10

-Lucky me, I still have my 1992 recording of the TV cut which is the only version of the film worth watching. I saw it so many times on NBC's many airings in the 80s that the first time I saw the theatrical cut on DVD it was like watching half a film! Unlike other Universal expanded films for TV of the 70s, all of the footage from "Airport '77" was shot during production and it fleshes out the narrative completely (though I'll admit something this long plays good only on TV and would have bored people on the big screen). It's the best of the Airport sequels with less of the stupidity that was in 75 and 79 respectively. It's also pretty much Jimmy Stewart's swan song since he did next to nothing after his cameo in this.

The Last Starfighter was something of a "B-movie" -- the work of rookie filmmakers, and not in league with the Star Wars or Star Trek films, but I agree it had genuine heart and ripping good action sequences. The CGI effects were very innovative for the time, and the romantic angle is also very touching (and to be honest more believable than any of the boy/girl relationships in either the SW or ST movies).

With Bo's version you can defend the poster at least.

Now THAT is true!



Here's an earlier poster I don't ever recall seeing before...

Paul MacLean wrote:The Last Starfighter was something of a "B-movie" -- the work of rookie filmmakers, and not in league with the Star Wars or Star Trek films, but I agree it had genuine heart and ripping good action sequences. The CGI effects were very innovative for the time, and the romantic angle is also very touching (and to be honest more believable than any of the boy/girl relationships in either the SW or ST movies).

Perfectly said Paul!

I'm going to pull out the Blu-Ray tonight -- thanks MJ!

AndyDursin wrote:

With Bo's version you can defend the poster at least.

Now THAT is true!



Here's an earlier poster I don't ever recall seeing before...

Fix the links, Andy!

AndyDursin wrote:

With Bo's version you can defend the poster at least.

Now THAT is true!



Here's an earlier poster I don't ever recall seeing before...

Fix the links, Andy! (not visible on my browser)

Weird...they show up here! lol

Anyone else not see them?? Help Eric!!

Yes, especially since it is a great poster! Too bad Bo never wore that bikini in the film (lots of publicity pix of her in it though).

Might just be an Internet Explorer issue.

Exactly what it is -- an Internet Explorer problem. Works in Chrome and Firefox.

I wonder if there's something in IE that can be toggled to get the pictures to load.