Make Peace with The Last Chase

Futuristic sets always intrigue me when I watch a science fiction film. The futuristic set designs used in sci-fi films from the 1970’s and early 80’s are especially visually appealing. Logan’s Run, for example, is an overwhelmingly visual experience. The story is very good in that film, however, the true reason I love Logan’s Run is the look of the film—that great 1976 vision of the future.
The 1981 film, “The Last Chase” features some similar set pieces. One of the most hypnotic sets in the film is the circular, below floor-level computer station Ben Gordon as Morely sits in, in which he monitors the escape from society Lee Majors and his young friend, Chris Makepeace make in Lee Majors’ race car. Why are Lee Majors and Chris Makepeace trying to escape from society? Wouldn’t you try? I don’t know if I’d take either one of those guys---Lee Majors is probably a cool guy---but I sure would try.
In “The Last Chase,” Lee Majors plays Franklyn Hart, an ex-race car driver who has lived through a future United States society in which cars no longer exist. Gasoline no longer exists either, so it kind of follows that cars would not exist in a car-less society. Chris Makepeace (Meatballs, My Bodyguard) plays a young boarding school student named Ring, who is also a computer hacker. It is very interesting to see the work of a computer hacker being portrayed in a film from 1981, the very early days of computing as we now know it. Franklyn and Ring share the same view of their society in which one may not travel cross-country by car. I think this would piss me off as well. I love taking road trips across the country and seeing what is out there.
Franklyn and Ring escape the containment of their society and drive West towards California. The whole reason for their cross-country journey appears to simply be in defiance of the state of their car-less society. The government enlists the help of former Air Force pilot, J.G. Williams, played by Burgess Meredith (The Penguin on tv’s Batman, Rocky, Rocky 2, Rocky 3), to help capture the pair of drivers. Like Franklyn Hart, Williams enjoys the chance to fly his old airplane again. What happens during the rest of the film, you will have to see for yourself.
Sammy Snyders from “The Pit” makes a brief, yet always welcome, appearance. Alexandra Stewart plays Lee Majors' love interest in the second half of the film. She is absolutely stunning.
I enjoyed “The Last Chase.” It does have a few problems with tone. For instance, there is a very brief orgy scene in the first half-hour. What??? There is only a small bit of nudity—you see a few butts and a glimpse of boobies. Later in the film, Majors and Makepeace’s characters form a nice bond similar to what one may find in a family film. Imagine if “Back to the Future” and a very brief scene in a strip club with full nudity. Sing to yourself, “One of these scenes is not like the others…” The first half hour feels like a good science fiction film, but the final hour and fifteen minutes are of that family film variety mixed with a bit of apocalyptic future thrown in. It’s not the desolate, desperate kind of apocalypse as in “Mad Max” or the great 1983 Robert Ginty/Persis Khambatta film, “Warrior of the Lost World.” The locations in Canada and northern Arizona are beautiful, so at least the scenery has not changed. That does make sense, seeing that in the future portrayed in the film, there should less pollution to ruin the natural beauty of these settings.
The point of “The Last Chase” seems to be that life without gasoline or oil and the vehicles in which they go---cars and planes would be a life without adventure. I agree with this notion. There are few greater experiences than driving at your own pace across any given country. At the same time, lack of dependence on gas and oil to fuel our vehicles would be nice. No political rant here, but a greater emphasis on high-performing electric cars would be nice. Chase down “The Last Chase.” It is well worth an hour and 45 minutes of your time.

The Best Red Soda

The best soft drink ever, Cheerwine, is now sold at all Cracker Barrel locations around the country. Cracker Barrel is selling the glass bottles of Cheerwine for $1.29 apiece. The North Carolina based drink is sold all over North and South Carolina, Georgia, and parts of Tennessee. Now, those of us fortunate enough to have a Cracker Barrel nearby will be able to get us some.......Cheerwine. This is a good day for America.

I Use Hanger 18 For My Nice Blue Shirt

I have now seen "Hangar 18" three times, however, it is only now after my third viewing that I have fully discovered what an underrated movie we have in our midst. In this 1980 film, Gary Collins and James Hampton play astronauts who, while on a mission in space, witness an alien spacecraft being destroyed by one of the astronaut spacecraft's rockets. The alien spacecraft lands in far eastern Arizona. One of the residents of the small town in which it lands witnesses the landing and, of course, nobody believes him---except the two astronauts who witnessed the same spacecraft be fired upon.
The two astronauts travel across Arizona to try to find the spacecraft and anyone who has any information about it. Unfortunately, the astronauts are chased by government bad guys who do not want the nation to find out about an alien spacecraft landing on Earth. I guess they are afraid the astronauts will inform the media, but it is never discussed in the film whether they will or not. The motivation of the astronauts seems simply to make sure that their story about what happened in space is believed. They also want to be cleared of the death of the third member of their team who was beheaded while outside of the spacecraft and was hit by either rocket fire or flying debris.
So....3 astronauts in space, 1 is killed when a rocket hits an alien spacecraft, the same alien spacecraft lands in eastern Arizona, the 2 remaining astronauts want to clear their name and make sure their superiors do not think they are spacey....ha, ha? The government tries to silence the astronauts, random sex scene between astronaut and alien informant...wait, not this movie...it's....another one...don't worry about it...bad reception...I'm going through a tunnel....bru...and I...arth...vietime...cheese...
I enjoyed "Hangar 18." It was retitled "Invasion Force" when it first aired on network television around 1982, NBC to be specific. There isn't really an invasion or an invasion force in the movie, but, there is Robert Vaughn. I enjoyed the actors in the film, especially Gary Collins, known mostly for hosting various television events in the 70's and 80's, James Hampton as the other astronaut, and, as always, Robert Vaughn. Collins and Hampton have some occasional bits of humor as does Darren McGavin (The Night Stalker) as the astronauts' supervisor. Robert Vaughn plays a government official who wishes to keep the entire alien spacecraft landing a secret from the public so the man he works for will be elected president in the upcoming election. Vaughn, as mentioned, is always welcome.
"Hangar 18" does not have a whole lot of action or special effects. It is what you might refer to as "talky." The talkiness, however, moves the action of the film along very well and the acting in it does a lot to convey the emotions of the characters effected by events in the film. At times, it plays like a tv-movie, but that is not a bad thing. I found myself wishing that this could have been developed into a weekly series. For anyone interested, there was an NBC series during the 1977-78 season called "Project UFO" which followed two government officials investigating alien sightings around the country. It was produced by Jack Webb (Dragnet, Adam-12).
Seek out "Hangar 18." It is available for streaming on Netflix. Since I liked "Hangar 18," I am going to try to find the previous 17 Hangar movies. I will report on these as soon as I can.

The Mystery of Jared-Syn Revealed

For some reason, I find fascinating those early 80's 3-D movies which all seemed to be released in 1983. The list includes Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, Treasure of the Four Crowns, Spacehunter, The Man Who Wasn't There, and the rarely seen Silent Madness. Also on that list was Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, a film well worth 78 minutes of your time.
Ok, it's not great, but I found watching the 3-D effects and imagining what they would have been like to see back in 1983 entertaining. Of course, these 80's 3-D movies were known to have had poor quality 3-D effects, but if what they tried and threw at the audience did work, they likely would have been entertaining. Avatar, for instance, had an unoriginal story and unappealing characters, however the modern 3-D effects in that film made it one of my more memorable film viewing experiences.
For this reason alone---interesting 3-D effects overshadowing lack of story and/or characterization---I endorse watching any of those early 80's 3-D films. I have seen Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, Parasite, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Friday the 13th Part 3. I can endorse these films as well for the same reason.
These films, even though I have not seen a majority of them in 3-D, contains the element, as I have stated, of imagining what it would have been like to watch them in a good 3-D process. I find the random zooming in on a tree branch for the effect of the branch poking into the audience, as is seen in Metalstorm, strangely entertaining. As well, in Metalstorm, you get various weapons being thrown at or being drawn towards the audience. Glass also flies at the audience at various times.
The story of Metalstorm is simple. A young woman's father is killed by the bad guy, Jared-Syn. I had always wondered what Jared-Syn was. It turns out it is the bad guy. Anyway, Jared-Syn has nefarious designs on controlling some sort of ore, mineral, magic crystal or some such. The hero of the film, Dogen, played by Jeffrey Byron, offers to help the young woman--I guess I can give you her name--Dhyana avenge her father's death. Dhyana is played by Kelly Preston, who also appeared in Mischief and Space Camp. Helped by Rhodes (Tim Thomerson) and Hurok (Richard Moll), Dogen seeks out the evil Jared-Syn in hopes of avenging the damsel, Dhyana. Again, in one of these 3-D films, story is not king.
There was enough humor from Tim Thomerson (Trancers) and Richard Moll who, of course, played Bull in Night Court and more famously, Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, in Savage Journey, to maintain my interest through a vanilla story.
Remember, vanilla still tastes good, it just does not make your mouth say, "Wow!" In the same way, the story in a film like Metalstorm is not awful, it just is not terribly interesting. However, those previously mentioned 3-D effects or attempts kept me into it. If you watch Metalstorm through the Netflix instant streaming service, you may ask yourself as I did, is the Universal logo at the beginning of the film from the original print of the film or was it tacked on recently. It is a hybrid of their new logo and their 70's-early 90's logo. It does state that Universal is "An MCA Company," so it may be an original logo. I know this will be the topic of heated debate among my scores of readers, so please----no violence.

The Night They Raided Kinski's

The fact that Klaus Kinski is in a given movie makes that film instantly watchable. Such was my mentality as I began watching the 1986 film, "Crawlspace." In a role unlike any other Kinski performance, he portrays a slightly insane man who appears to be at the edge of sanity. Kinski's Dr. Karl Gunther, in "Crawlspace," is a bit more subdued than his earlier performances in "Android," "Fitzcarraldo," and "Woyzeck." Those three films are magnificent, especially the Werner Herzog directed "Fitzcarraldo" and "Woyzeck."
Dr. Gunther is more reminiscent of Kinski's character in the 1980 slasher film, "Schizoid," in which he plays a psychiatrist. In "Crawlspace," Dr. Karl Gunther, a former head surgeon at the National Hospital in Argentina, has since become the landlord of a boarding house to young women. A boarding house for young women would never occur to me as the setting for a horror film. He will not rent out rooms to men. He would rather watch women through the air vents in their rooms rather than men, and, to be quite honest, I don't blame him. As one may expect, strange things are going on in this boarding house.
The lead female performance---the Adrienne King from Friday the 13th/Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween---is supplied by Talia Balsam, daughter of the fine actor, Martin Balsam, who you may remember from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Catch-22," "The Anderson Tapes," or as Murray Klein, Archie Bunker's business partner on "Archie Bunker's Place."
Talia Balsam has appeared on several television programs including playing opposite her father on "Archie Bunker's Place" in a 1980 episode and has recently appeared on "Mad Men." In "Crawlspace," Balsam's character is named Lori. Being female, Lori is able to successfully procure a room in Dr. Gunther's boarding house. At least three other young women live in the boarding house, one of whom sings a terrible song, the title of which and any lyrics from I have successfully washed from my memory. I almost always love and appreciate the bad, awkwardly placed song in a low-budget movie, like in "The Alien Factor" or "Star Crystal," as that is like getting extra fries at the bottom of a McDonald's or Burger King bag. Unfortunately, this time, the song is so bad and the placement is so unromantic that it fails.
Despite this bad song, "Crawlspace" has a lot to offer. Aside from Kinski's performance which is, as usual, memorable, especially in a scene in which his character tears up as he is confronted with his father's past, the film features a woman, who at first I thought was a man, in a box-sized cage, mice, a cute kitty, and a line usually reserved for a porno film, "I think I'm about to come."
The last 15 minutes of the film slow down a bit as Kinski does not "act" as much in the final reel, inasmuch as he has to perform physically. I will always try to not give much away when discussing any given film, so I will abstain from any further mention of how the film concludes, other than my analysis that the conclusion is not as satisfying as what precedes it, something lots of men have certainly heard before.
In a Kinski film, I want to see him perform. For the first hour of the film, he certainly does so, and for this reason, not so much the plot of the film, which is not groundbreaking, especially by 1986, I recommend this film. "Crawlspace" is a film for a Klaus Kinski fan, not necessarily for a horror film fan. There are not enough surprises, gore effects, or anything else horror-related to make this film distinctive. Having said that, as I have established, if you enjoy watching Klaus Kinski perform, he does so enough in "Crawlspace" to make it worth watching. I give "Crawlspace" 3 out of 4 gray mice.

By the End of This De-cade....

I have a goal. It is not a terribly inmpressive goal, however, it is one I intend to complete by the end of this summer, and if not then, then by the end of this de-cade. I have quite a few movies in my Netflix instant streaming queue. I have hand-selected 37 of these films which I intend to watch in the next 4 months. I feel I should be taking greater advantage of the instant streaming function of Netflix, especially since most of the movies in the "Harris 37" are not on dvd and some have never been released on vhs. So, now--here is the announcement the entire nation has been waiting for---I give you...................................The........................................................................................................................Harris 37!

1. Crawlspace—Klaus Kinski-1986
2. At Long Last Love-1975
3. Dogtooth-2010
4. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea—1976
5. The Thing with Two Heads
6. Someone I Touched—TV movie-1975
7. The Lawyer—TV movie-1971
8. Brass—TV movie—1986
9. In Search of Historic Jesus
10. The 400 Blows
11. High Ballin’—1978
12. Keaton’s Cop
13. Citizen’s Band—1976
14. Deadhead Miles—1971
15. The Evictors—1979
16. The Man Who Fell to Earth—1986 TV movie remake
17. Bwana Devil
18. Disaster on the Coastliner—1979 TV movie
19. And Your Name is Jonah—1979 TV movie
20. Act of Vengence—1974
21. The Norseman—1978-Lee Majors
22. Arabian Nights—1974—Pier Paolo Pasolini
23. The Virgin Spring
24. Octaman—1972
25. Tokyo Gore Police
26. Trust—1990
27. Steppenwolf—1974
28. The Capture of Bigfoot—1979-Bill Rebane
29. Monster Camp—2007 doc.
30. Johnny Got His Gun—1971
31. Porcile—1969—Pier Paolo Pasolini
32. Oedipus Rex—1967—Pier Paolo Pasolini
33. New Year’s Evil—1980
34. Golden Needles—1974—Joe Don Baker
35. The House of God—1980
36. R.O.T.O.R.—1988
37. Popcorn—1991

A Record

I like this. It is the back of the "The Way I Feel" album by Leonard Nimoy. I like his version of "If I Had a Hammer." Wouldn't you love making love to Leonard Nimoy?