Microreview [film]: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

Look! A creature that survived 90,000,000 years! Kill it!

In some ways, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is the perfect 1950s creature feature. It’s not great, but it’s certainly not terrible, and it checks all the boxes:

• Military shenanigans? Yep.
• Atomic bomb? Indeed. 
• Cheesy sets? Covered in snow, no less. 
• Stop-motion monster? We wouldn’t be here talking if it didn’t. 

The plot’s pretty standard fare. The military tests an atomic bomb above the Arctic Circle — Why? Who knows? — and unwittingly unleashes a dinosaur that had been frozen in a sheet of Arctic ice for 90 million years. The only survivor of an avalanche caused by the dinosaur isn’t believed after he recovers from his injuries, but finds an unlikely ally in a lady paleontologist from “the university.” Just in time, too, as the dinosaur begins making its way down to the States, snacking on lighthouses and fishing boats along the way. Naturally, the response to discovering the sole surviving prehistoric creature of its kind is to blast it to smithereens. It's a 1950s American sci-fi movie, after all. There is a bit of a rationale thrown in, cribbed from War of the Worlds, in reverse. But still. There isn't a character in the film who advocates, even just to play devil's advocate, not blasting this dinosaur into the stone age. See what I did th— yeesh. That was a bad idiom/pun combo, even for me.

Where the movie shines is in the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen. Sure, his masterwork was much later, arguably the skeleton army in Jason and the Argonauts or Medusa in Clash of the Titans, and perhaps his greatest character animation was in 20 Million Miles to Earth, but the animation here is still breathtaking, particularly in the finale — which inexplicably takes place at a roller coaster. Yep. At a roller coaster. This sequence alone is worth the price of admission.

Just a couple more things I'd like to point out with this one. The first is that yes, Lee Hunter (played by Paula Raymond) is a woman and actually a paleontologist. She is Dr. Elson's assistant, but his research assistant, not his personal or executive assistant. Yes, she brings out the coffee when she and the hero, Nesbitt, are trying to identify the dinosaur from sketches of known extinct species, but she's really a scientist. She gets a small monologue about it, even. This is remarkable in a 1950s sci-fi film. There are always women present, but they're wives, or girlfriends, or helpless stowaways, or occasionally a reporter. And it's not a trivial matter that I bring this up. My daughter walked through the room while I was watching this and asked what was going on in the aforementioned dinosaur sketch scene, and what followed was something like this:

Me: That guy there saw a dinosaur and the paleontologist there is trying to help him figure out what kind.
My daughter: She's a paleontologist?
Me: Yep.
My daughter: Huh. I'm going to need to watch this one.

"Did the monster look like this concept drawing our art director made?"

 The second thing I'd like to bring up is the predominance of the military in almost all of these movies. I had always assumed the prevalence of the military and military exercises in the whole 1950s sci-fi scene had to do with a) the prevalence of inexpensive military stock footage, and b) Cold War fears about The Bomb, but this movie was just uninteresting enough in parts for my mind to wander. I wondered if it didn't also have to do with the residual effects of World War II, where the lives of the vast majority of the audience for these films were directly and profoundly shaped by military action. This movie went into production about seven years after VJ Day. Not enough time to forget, and not enough time for a new generation to be the primary driver of movie ticket sales. I don't know the answer, and probably scholarly books have been written on the topic, but since the main character, Nesbitt, was clearly a foreign-born, non-military scientist who was along on this mission for scientific, rather than tactical reasons, the rub there was a little closer to the surface (only a very little closer) than in most of the contemporary genre films where every male lead looked like some All-American quarterback who had just missed going pro.

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to the TCM Greatest Classic Films collections. The version of this film that I have is part of a "Sci-Fi Adventures" set released under that banner. These collections, if you haven't seen them or have skipped past them in the stores, feature four classic films bundled together for about $20. I have this collection and a Cary Grant collection. There are many, many others — Astaire & Rogers, Musicals, Horror, Best Picture Winners, collections built around particular actors, etc. These are all good-quality transfers and discs with special features (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms has three mini-documentaries about the film, Ray Harryhausen, and Willis O'Brien), and they're really a gem if you're into classic films.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 for that sweet Ray Harryhausen animation; +1 for a female lead who's actually a scientist;

Pentalties: -1 for, let's say charitably, a "lack of self-awareness" regarding the knee-jerk decision to just straight-up try to kill something older than the human race

Cult Film Coefficient: 7/10. It's not the best 50s sci-fi movie you'll see, but it'll scratch the itch.

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather, flock together since 2012, Emmy-winning producer, no-good musician, and sometime animator.

Microreview [film]: Kung Fury

Swedish steel.

Like Turbo Kid, which I reviewed last week, Kung Fury is a parody of/homage to the low-rent action films of the '80s. Only this one's much heavier on the irony. See, for example, the plot:

Sometime in the early 1980s, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Kung Fury and his partner Dragon apprehend a red ninja in a back alley, but Dragon is sliced in half by the ninja while Kung Fury is suddenly struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, giving him extraordinary kung fu powers that enable him to defeat his foe. Years later in 1985, after defeating a rogue arcade machine robot, Kung Fury quits the force when he is assigned to partner with Triceracop, fearing that he would lose another partner in the line of duty. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", enters the timeline and remotely guns down the police chief and attacks the precinct through a mobile phone. Intent to avenge the chief, Kung Fury has computer whiz Hackerman send him back in time to kill Hitler in Nazi Germany. A glitch in the system, however, sends him back into the Viking Age. After Kung Fury meets the Viking valkyries Barbarianna and Katana, the Norse god Thor sends him to Nazi Germany for him to finish his job.

Or consider the fact that Kung Fury (Sandberg) opens the doors to his Lamborghini Countach by shooting it. Or the scene where two Nazi guardsmen argue, in fake German (it's really Swedish) over who has the more Aryan mustache. Or the VHS glitch effects that periodically reappear. Or the fucking amazing Mitch Murder soundtrack, which features David Hasselhoff on vocals:

Indeed, Kung Fury may be the ultimate film for that certain kind of person who both seeks out a certain kind of ironic humor and enjoys a bit of '80s nostalgia--ironically, of course. For others Kung Fury may lay the insanity on a bit thick. Personally, I thought it was funny as hell, but also noted that, in comparison to Turbo Kid (and the comparison is inevitable), it's a pretty superficial film. And that was even more apparent second time I watched it, when all the surprises had already been sprung. 

At the same time, Kung Fury is only 30-minutes long, which is just about perfect for what is, in essence, a superbly well done one-note symphony. Oh, and Kung Fury's partner, Triceracop? Yes, he is an anthropomorphic triceratops--something that remains thankfully unexplained. 

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 for the concept of Triceracop; +1 for the amazing soundtrack: +1 for TOTAL INSANITY.

Penalties: -1 for the moment when the joke starts to get a bit old. 

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10. "Well worth your time and attention."


***

POSTED BY: The G--purveyor of nerdliness, genre fanatic and Nerds of a
Feather founder/administrator, since 2012.

Reference: Kung Fury, directed by David Sandberg [Laser Unicorns/Lamprey, 2015]

Holiday Gift Guide (for Girls?) - Tia and Vance

Here at Nerds of a Feather, we're big believers in women in the sciences and the science fictions. And since I have three daughters, the oldest of whom is actively building up her nerd cred more and more, I pitched co-contributor Tia the idea of doing a gift guide for girls that goes in a totally different direction than your mainstream pink-and-princesses type guides we all see everywhere this time of year. The gifts that follow, then, are not really gender-specific, but we hope that if you're shopping for a special kid with an interest in nerdy things, regardless of their chromosomes, these will give you some ideas.

Gift Guide - Vance

I bestow upon you earned knowledge. Each of the gifts below has been kid-tested in my own home, so I've seen these things in action in grubby little kid paws, and pronounce them winners.

Board Games

The two most popular games in my house this year have been Labyrinth and King of Tokyo. Labyrinth is a board game made up of moving tiles that you can shift on your turn in order to create a path to the next piece of treasure you must collect. It's fun, and a wonderful exercise in spatial reasoning. In King of Tokyo, you are a monster battling other monsters for control of Tokyo. What's not to love?
Labyrinth from Amazon King of Tokyo at Amazon

Batman

I loved the 1960s Batman TV series when I was a kid, but in a new world that includes sprawling effects spectacles like The Avengers, I wasn't sure how the campy antics of Adam West and Burt Ward would go over. I needn't have worried. All three girls come from wherever they are in the house to dance when they hear the theme song begin, and all those "Pow"s "Biff"s and "Zowie"s have been tremendous fun for somebody who just learned to read. Now the complete series is available on disc for the first time, and even comes packaged with a snazzy die-cast Batmobile.
Amazon

Monster Feet

My eldest daughter loves monsters and Godzilla. Somebody gave her some pink monster-feet house shoes, which are fine, but she and I both prefer the Godzilla feet slippers she has. Seeing a little kid walk around the house in these things is simply the best. It's the best.
Amazon


Gift Guide - Tia

Dealing with Dragons: Book One of the Enchanted Forrest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

This was my all time favorite book growing up. It’s about an improper princess named Cimorene, who doesn’t behave as a princess ought to. She tries to learn fencing and cleaning and magic and Latin…all subjects that are denied to princesses. But uncovering her parents’ plan to force her into an arranged marriage is the last straw and Cimorene skips town, eventually finding herself in the company of some dragons. She volunteers to be the dragons’ “captive,” a position she thoroughly enjoys, despite all the annoying rescue attempts by knights in shining armor.

I think I loved this book so much because it was different than all the other princess stories. I was condemned to Catholic school as I kid, so I could fully relate to being expected to act a certain way and not being able to learn anything cool. I can’t speak for the trilogy as a whole, because I never even knew there was more than one book until recently, but Dealing with Dragons is a story that will live in a little girl’s heart forever (well mine at least).
Amazon.



Harry Potter Gryffindor Jersey

This is the all time most awesome Harry Potter shirt EVER! When I finally made it to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this summer, I was so overwhelmed with nerdiness I couldn’t handle it. Not to mention, the Diagon Alley expansion was finished but not open to the public yet, so I had to deal with that crushing blow at the same time. Talk about mixed feelings. I’m not going to lie, I did contemplate jumping the fence. There was only one guard on duty and I know I could have outrun him. But anyway, I saw so many little folks rocking this top around Orlando and it was fantastic. It’s not your typical flimsy T-Shirt, it has a little more substance to it and even some embroidery. I opted not to buy myself one while I was there and purchased a wand instead, a decision I regret. At a recent Harry Potter festival in Philadelphia I saw a mother-daughter duo sporting these matching HP jerseys and it was to die for. Universal Studios.

National Geographic Archaeology Kit: Pyramid Dig

Lets face it. Archaeology is cool, mythology is cool, and digging in the dirt is really, really cool. I worked as an archeologist for a time and was the only girl on the field crew (i.e., dirt diggers). All the other girls at the company worked in either administration or as researchers. If you ask me, we need more girls in the dirt digging department. This Ancient Egypt archaeology set looks like so much fun, and may be just the type of thing to get more of today’s youth interested in history and digging. It comes with a little chisel, brush, hammer, mummy, and sarcophagus. It even has directions on how to mummify an apple! Be aware though, this kit contains choking hazards, so make sure that the recipient of this gift isn’t one to eat non-food items.  Amazon.  

(Editor's note: Tia and I had overlapping gift recommendations, although mine involved digging up dinosaur bones, not ancient civilizations. Both are super cool. Here's the T-Rex skeleton dig we have here. - V)