John Kenneth Muir

Collectible of the Week: Interplanetary Star Fortress (Sears; 1979)

thinkatron — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:29:00 +0000

In the years following Star Wars (1977), outer space-related toys flooded the American toy market. Many of these toys were what collectors today uncharitably term “knock-offs,” meaning that the toys don’t originate with a license like Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, or Buck Rogers in the 25th Century…but from an incredible simulation.

In other words, these toys didn’t belong to a specific set, but could easily co-exist with the other sets in terms of size and general “look” and vibe.

And – I have to admit it — I have a sort of crazy obsession for these knock-offs or so called “generic” play sets. I guess it’s because as a kid ,the knock-off toys offered me an opportunity to put my Jedi Knights, Starfleet Officers, or Directorate Agents into “new” adventures; ones that didn’t come specifically from any movie or TV episode.

A few months ago, I featured the Star Base Command Tower here, a glorious generic space play set. Today, I wanted to remember another such toy from the same epoch, one offered only through the Sears Catalog back in the day: the Interplanetary Star Fortress.

It seems like an alien concept in the era of the Internet, but getting a Sears Catalog near Christmas every year was an incredible experience for kids back then. I remember eagerly getting my hands on the catalog (after my sister was finished looking at Jordache jeans…) and leafing through the toy section, absolutely agog at the new toys being offered up for sale. I remember one year, my Mom purchased for me the Star Wars Cantina, complete with Blue Snaggletooth. The next year (I think…), I got this Interplanetary Star Fortress from the catalog. And I loved it.

Alas, mine isn’t in great shape anymore, as you can likely detect from the photos I’m providing. If I’m correct, this particular set was sold through the “wish list” Sears Catalog for only two-years running, both in 1979 (when it was coupled with Mego’s Buck Rogers line) and in 1980 (when it was paired with Kenner’s The Empire Strikes Back toys.)

Basically, the toy is a giant laminated cylinder that “unfolds” (after turning a metal clasp) to reveal a kind of secret military base inside an asteroid crater. Some of the detailing inside the crater looks like a landing platform, for instance.

On the outside of the cylinder, there’s some groovy Star Wars era space art featuring astronauts, laser blasts, and flying saucers, plus the logo.

You can’t see it on my photos, because I’m missing pieces at this point, but the set also originally came with a shuttle pod and a plastic gun turret that could sit atop the cylinder “mountain.”

You can see, I hope, those particular items from the catalog photo below. Regardless, my memory is that the shuttle pod had engines painted on the bottom, and a hatch that could open up on the side of the thing. The photo below shows the Mego Buck Rogers figures inhabiting the base.

Finally, I think the Interplanetary Star Fortress also came with a strap, so you could carry the folded-up cylinder around with you in the back yard. And certainly, it was large enough to hold quite a few Star Wars figures, or their like.

I’d love to get my hands on one of these Sears “knock off” play sets in decent condition, or with the missing parts from my set. Right now, my five year old son, Joel, uses The Interplanetary Star Fortress as the headquarters for the Predacons in his Beast War battles…

I’ll Be Back!

thinkatron — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:15:00 +0000

Well, I missed Friday’s Burton Brief (on Big Fish) because of the holiday and graduate school responsibilities, but I hope to resume the series by doubling up this week with reviews of both Big Fish and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Thank you for all your patience, and I’ll be back to blogging shortly.

Ken Russell (1927 – 2011)

thinkatron — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:35:00 +0000

“Your senses will never be the same.”

- Absolute truth in advertising, from Ken Russell’s Tommy (1975)

The press is now reporting the untimely passing of legendary English film director, Ken Russell, one of the greatest visual artists in the history of the medium. As U.S.A. Today writes, ”Russell was a fiercely original director whose vision occasionally brought mainstream success, but often tested the patience of audiences and critics.”

If audiences and critics were indeed tested, it so because Russell knowingly, brilliantly, and persistently pushed the boundaries of decorum and convention in narrative film.

With films such as 1971′s classic, The Devils, Russell demonstrated his seemingly unquenchable penchant for coupling incendiary story content (involving religion) with blazing, unforgettable imagery.

Not everyone was amused. U.S.A. Today is correct that many critics dismissed Russell’s canon as somehow being excessively visual (or “stylish”), a ridiculous complaint of a director toiling in a visual medium.

Although he did not consider himself a horror director, Russell very much set the path of 1980s genre cinema with early and distinctive ”rubber reality” efforts such as Altered States (1980), as well as Gothic (1986) and the satirical The Lair of the White Worm (1988).

Altered States, in particular, remains something of an unheralded masterpiece, one which Roger Ebert termed “the movie that Ken Russell was born to direct.” It’s a tale laden with symbolic dream sequences and bizarre but memorable Christian-based hallucinations. In this case, Russell utilizes such strange and unsettling imagery to portray a psychedelic, metaphysical quest: one man’s spiritual chase after life’s great truths.

Outside the genre, Russell also directed arguably the greatest rock opera of the disco decade, 1975′s Tommy, another project that succeeds almost entirely based on Russell’s ability to convey a story in terms of sound and visual fury, without aid of conventional dialogue.

Some of the set-pieces in Tommy — namely one involving sultry Ann Margret in chain mail writhing on the floor in an ocean of baked beans — remain unsurpassed so far as imaginative visualization.

Among Russell’s other films are Women in Love (1969), the utterly crazy Lisztomania (1975), the wicked Crimes of Passion (1984), which starred a mad, mad, mad Anthony Perkins, and last but not least, the bracing Whore (1991).

With Russell’s passing at the age of 84, let the re-examination of this singular film talent begin in earnest. This remains the finest way to remember his unique work in film, and to celebrate an artist’s life.

The Cult-TV Faces of: The Hang Out

thinkatron — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

Identified by Hugh: The Club Creole from V: The Series.

Identified by Michael Falkner: Ten Forward in Star Trek: The Next Generation (“The Child.”)

Identified by Indiephantom: Twin Peaks.

Identified by Hugh: Nightmare Cafe

Identified by Michael Falkner: Quark’s, Deep Space Nine.

Identified by Michael Falkner: Sandrine’s, Star Trek: Voyager.

Identified by Hugh: The Bronze on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Identified by Will: Quake on Charmed.

Identified by Michael Falkner: Caritas on Angel.

Identified by Michael Falkner: The Talon on Smallville.

Identified by Hugh: Merlotte’s on True Blood.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

thinkatron — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:01:00 +0000

Sci-Fi Wisdom of the Week

thinkatron — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

“There’s a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost. The ship has sailed and only a fool would continue. Truth is, I’ve always been a fool.”

- Big Fish (2003)

From the Archive: Home Sweet Home (1980)

thinkatron — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

“A little craziness never hurt anyone…”

- Dialogue from Home Sweet Home (1980)

In honor of the approaching holiday, today I’m looking back at a really terrible horror film that I first encountered while writing Horror Films of the 1980s (2007).

Conveniently, it’s both Thanksgiving-themed and a turkey.

Advertised with the ad-line “The Bradleys won’t be leaving home. Ever,” Home Sweet Home (1981) is the not-so-riveting story of a deranged serial killer and his holiday rampage.

Said serial killer is portrayed by Body by Jake’s (1988) gleeful Jake Steinfeld. The enthusiastic exercise guru – also known for his music label, “Don’t Quit Music” — plays this muscular madman as a cackling, bulging-eyed freak. This looney killer has the tattoo “home sweet home” emblazoned on his fist, and was incarcerated for eight years over the bludgeoning death of his parents.

In one of the film’s first scenes, this hyperactive, super-fit killer takes PCP by injecting it into his tongue, guns his car engine rowdily, and then runs over a little old lady crossing the street.

Lots of maniacal, silent-movie-style, villlainous cackling over that. Unfortunately, Jake has no moustache to twirl.

Meanwhile, at a Southern California ranch, the unconventional Bradley family is preparing for a holiday that may or may not be Thanksgiving. Let’s see: there’s a turkey. There’s a celebratory meal. There’s a family gathering. And there are guests. But no one mentions Turkey Day by name. The VHS box does it for us.

Anyway — for some reason — the obnoxious Bradley son, charmingly named “Mistake,” is dressed as a mime for the occasion. He’s a practical joke-playing mime, no less. And did I mention, Mistake also dabbles in the electric guitar?

Unfortunately, the mime is one of the last characters to die in Home Sweet Home, meaning the audience must endure Mistake’s lame antics for a very long time before the movie arrives at his fateful, and wholly-deserved electrocution.

The holiday meal with the Bradley family promises to be an unusual one too, not just because Mistake is a mime and because an uninvited serial killer is on his way, but because one of the invitees “won’t drink anything,” since “she hates to go to the bathroom.” WTF? You know, I don’t particularly like going to the bathroom either. I think I’ll stop drinking too. I didn’t realize it was that simple…

And did I mention that some crack cops are on the case, investigating the murders and pursuing the body-builder killer? The classy cops gawk at one character’s overripe breasts after stopping her for speeding, and share this colloquy:

“Did you see that chick with the big bazooms?”

Since Home Sweet Home is incompetently shot, written and acted, one might hope that the violence Jake ultimately inflicts on the Bradley family would at least prove entertaining. But it isn’t (well, except for the death of the mime, to be fair…). One character dies when she falls over and cracks her head against a rock. Can you really blame Ole Jack for that? Another character gets his head crushed under the hood of a car.

Home Sweet Home exhibits the familiar flaw of the worst slasher films, meaning that the killer is always positioned right where he should be in order to kill the one character who happens to be left alone at any given moment. You might accept that level of expertise from a Michael Myers or a Jason…but by Jake Steinfeld? I just can’t ascribe supernatural abilities to this guy. Enthusiasm, gung-ho inspiration, yes. Boogeyman capabilities…no.

Mere words can’t truly convey how irrevocably horrible this movie is. So Happy Thanksgiving, caveat emptor, and…gobble, gobble.

New Book Reviews for Horror Films of the 1990s

thinkatron — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:33:00 +0000

Horror Films of the 1990s — my third “horror films of” decade book – has been racking up some great early reviews, and I wanted to call your attention to a few of ‘em as Black Friday approaches (hint, hint, nudge, nudge):

From Dread Central: “If you are at all familiar with the previous works John Kenneth Muir did on horror films of the 70s and 80s, then you should be excited that you can now add the 90s to your library…he has created an invaluable research book that horror fans NEED on their shelves (along with his books on the films of the 1970s and 1980s).. Rated: 4 1/2 out of 5.”

From The Thunder Child: ”Fans of the horror genre will find much to enjoy in these pages. John Kenneth Muir’s writing is entertaining as well as informative, and will enable you to revisit each of your favorites with a somewhat different persective than usual…Such a detailed overview will also be of interest to the movie historian as well as the horror aficionado.”

From Joseph Maddrey at Movies Made Me: “…Horror Films of the 1990s proves that John Muir is a master of explaining why horror films remain vital.”

From the Archive: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Pangs"

thinkatron — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

Many horror and sci-fi TV programs boast a Halloween-themed episode — like Star Trek’s “Catspaw” — or even a Christmas episode, such as Millennium’s heartfelt “Midnight of the Century.”

But in broad terms, relatively few cult TV programs boast Turkey Day editions in their episode rosters.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) remains a notable exception to that rule. During its generally-underrated fourth season, this WB series from creator Joss Whedon presented a funny and involving Thanksgiving installment titled “Pangs.”

The episode – penned by Whedon and Jane Espenson, and directed by Michael Lange – first aired on November 23, 1999.

Hard to believe that’s already twelve years ago…

In this particular installment Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scooby Gang investigate a murderous demon after the buried Sunnydale Mission — believed destroyed in the earthquake of 1812 – is accidentally unearthed.

Or rather, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) discovers the mission by falling into a hole during the dedication and ground-breaking ceremony of U.C. Sunnydale’s new and expensive “cultural center.”

Unfortunately, by breaking into the sealed subterranean chamber, Xander accidentally releases the vengeful spirit of a Chumash warrior named Hus (Tod Thawley).

Hus’s Native American people suffered imprisonment, forced labor and terrible disease when the white man arrived from Europe and quickly populated the American continent. Now, the demon’s first order of business is “re-creating the wrongs” done to his native people all those years and centuries ago.

Translated, this means that the demon gives Xander malaria, smallpox and syphilis. “I am vengeance,” declares Hus. “I am my people’s cry.”

As Buffy tracks down the vengeful and murderous Hus, she also broaches another challenging undertaking.

She prepares a traditional, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal at Giles’ apartment.

In particular, Buffy recalls the happy holidays from her youth and – during her first year away at college – desires to recreate that experience.

Buffy talks meaningfully and wistfully in the narrative about the “sense-memory” of Thanksgiving that occurs every time she smells a roasted turkey.

The socially-minded Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is upset, however, because she believes Thanksgiving is really just a celebration of “one culture wiping out another.” It’s a “sham,” Willow complains, upset.

Buffy’s response? Perhaps it is a sham…but it’s a sham “…with yams.”

Giles (Anthony Head) and the recently neutered Spike (with a behavior-modification chip in his noggin) are bothered by Willow’s unflattering description of the autumnal holiday. They both see the situation more plainly. “You had better weapons…and you massacred them,” Spike (James Marsters) tells Willow of the Native-American population.

Simple as that. Or is it?

The debate raises an important question. Is it right for Buffy to “slay” Hus when he has a legitimate grievance against our ancestors?

What’s worse, isn’t he right to be upset that — on his people’s former land – the conquering people are now building a “cultural center,” in effect a celebration of the genocide of the indigenous folks?

What remains so terrific and funny about “Pangs” a full decade later is that Buffy’s attempt to host a happy holiday dinner is undercut at every turn by these grave philosophical disagreements in her family, a unit which certainly does include the demonic Spike at this point.

The topic turns overtly political after a fashion, and everyone who has ever returned home for a family holiday knows that politics is the source of much indigestion at real-life gatherings, at real-life holiday feasts.

In-laws who hold different viewpoints are suddenly thrust together for a meal at the same table – and there’s usually alcohol involved too – and boy, the sparks can really fly.

The philosophical discussion underlining “Pangs” concerns a question not unfamiliar to most of us in modern American culture. Can a wrong in the past be repaired by a wrong in the present?

This idea has been discussed much, especially near the end of Clinton’s second term, specifically in relation to America’s ignoble history of slavery. Are modern Americans — folks living right now — to blame for their ancestors’ misdeeds several generation ago? In terms of the Native American genocide, the same question is raised.

And if reparations forced upon a blameless current generation aren’t particular just either, does a simple apology to the families of the wronged feel like enough? Is that the best we can muster?

Obviously, there are no simple answers to such deep questions of American history, but I love how Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes the context of Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings and then makes the dramatis personae debate the conflicted nature of the holiday, each according to his or her own personal beliefs.

Nobody is bad. Nobody is evil (well, nobody besides Spike…). Everyone just boasts a different perspective on what remains a controversial subject.

Here – treading deeper into the quagmire — some hurtful comments are even made about a “minority” living in Buffy’s modern, diverse Sunnydale: demons. Xander lays down the law, and it sounds perilously like bigotry. “You don’t talk to vengeance demons, you kill them!” he stresses, angry and sick.

Well, of course, this remarks hurts Anya’s (Emma Caulfield’s) feelings. She’s a demon after all. they? Not all of them are evil, are they? What about Oz? What about Angel? And on and on. Is killing them on sight the answer?

Finally, Hus and a “raiding party” of demons arrive at Buffy’s Thanksgiving meal, and there’s a colossal battle between the Slayer and a demon she has zero interest in killing. Buffy would prefer to offer an apology, rather than fisticuffs. To the direct-minded Spike, however, this approach is folly. “You exterminated his people,” he reminds Buffy of Hus. An apology ain’t gonna cut it.

Finally, Buffy does fight with lethal force, and the implication seems to be that some hurts, some breaches, just can’t be resolved peaceably.

Ultimately, even the politically-correct Willow feels like something of a hypocrite. When the Native-American demon spirits attack, she’s among those who pick up shovel and fight for their lives. As we all would under the same circumstances.

But the coda in “Pangs” involves a hope for the future instead of a conflict over the past. In the episode’s last scene, the threat of Hus is nullified and Buffy and her friends (including Spike) sit down together – demon and human – for an enjoyable “family” feast.

In some way, this final image of an ad-hoc, modern American family consisting of a demon, two vampires, two Brits, a Valley girl, a witch (and lesbian) and a construction worker seems to get at the point of the narrative’s debate. Just the fact that these diverse folk break bread at the same table may provide the key to healing old, historical wounds.

Perhaps enemies old and new must share a Thanksgiving table, a special meal together, and start fresh. Build new, better memories. Let go of the angers of the past, even if they are justified. Otherwise, as Hus learns, the only possible future is death. At least breaking bread, and passing the cranberry sauce, is a start.

As Xander happily notes at the conclusion of “Pangs,” it’s the perfect Thanksgiving in Sunnydale after all: “a bunch of anticipation, a big fight, and now we’re all sleepy…”

The Cult-TV Faces of: High School Sweethearts

thinkatron — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:01:00 +0000

Identified by Dr. Howard Margolin: Tony (Michael Pare) and Rhonda (Faye Grant) in The Greatest American Hero.

Identified by Dr. Howard Margolin: Robin (Blair Tefkin) and Brian (Peter Nelson) in “V.”

Identified by David Colohan: Nova (Amanda Wyss) and Trace (Tony O’Dell) in Otherworld.

Identified by David Colohon: James (James Marshall) and Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) in Twin Peaks.

Identified by Dr. Howard Margolin: Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Angel (David Boreanaz) in Buffy.

Identified by Dr. Howard Margolin: Max (Jason Behr) and Liz (Shiri Appleby) in Roswell.

Identified by Dr. Howard Margolin: Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Lana Lang (Kristen Kruek) in Smallville.

Identified by Hugh: Veronica (Kristen Bell), Duncan (Teddy Dunn), Lilly (Amanda Seyfried) and Logan (Jason Dohring) in Veronica Mars.

Identified by David Colohan: Caitlin (Linsey Godfrey) and Miles (Carter Jenkins) in Surface.

Identified by Hugh: Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) in The Vampire Diaries