Week 14 brings us to 1974
The movies I turned down were:
Herbie Rides Again
The Bears And I
Castaway Cowboy
I settled on The Island At The Top Of The World.
I have never seen it, or heard of it. So I was excited to take a look.
Island comes in at 93 minutes which is good, it does not over stay it's welcome. It is the story of Sir Anthony Ross, played by Donald Sinden, who puts together an expedition on a flying vehicle sort of like a blimp, to go search for his son. His son was lost in the Artic, kidnapped by vikings, who were trying to protect their way of life. No outsiders. The group on the trip with Sir Anthony are: Prof. Ivarsson played by David Hartman (yes that David Hartman); Captain Brieux played by Jacques Marin; and Oomiak played by Mako.
The movie is a very good adventure. Suitable for the whole family ( Warning: there is shooting at whales which is undisney like these days). The look of the movie is pretty good. The ship looks "cool". They rely on Matte paintings, however it looks believeable (there is one seen at the 1:13 mark that is real bad however and you may laugh).
Some fun and not so fun facts (not many this time):
Donald Sinden is known more in England appearing on many TV shows over there.
Mako is very interesting. He just died in 2006. He had a part in 151 titles, either by acting or doing voice work. He was in many movies that you may have seen: Memoirs Of A Geisha; Seven Years In Tibet; Pearl Harbor 2001. He got an Oscar Nomination for The Sand Pebbles in 66. The strange thing is, a lot of his roles were of him playing up his Asian descent and going after the US. However in real life, in the early 50's he was a US soldier.
There is an actress in this movie who is Sweedish by the name of Erik Silju. She was very pretty,is good in the small part she has and is believable. People who watch this movie are going to ask the same things: who is she and what happened to her? Sadly I came up empty.
One last note on David Hartman. looking around on different sites, he gets criticized for being stiff in this role. I disagree, I think he is perfect. He is pretty much our narrator, he has a great voice, he does well explaining things and pushing the story forward.
Also if you decide to watch this, look under special features, there is a nice 5 minute short on the making of the movie. Also a good photo gallery. I am not a big fan of "making of's". I prefer just getting lost in the magic of a movie and not knowing how they did this or that. However, here it is pretty neat to see before CGI.
I waffled between 3 1/2 and 4 for this movie. It is billed as an adventure, and it comes through as that. For that reason I would give it 4 Mickeys out of 5.
I have a tough choice next week for 1975. Stay tuned.
Have a peaceful week.
The movies I turned down were:
Herbie Rides Again
The Bears And I
Castaway Cowboy
I settled on The Island At The Top Of The World.
I have never seen it, or heard of it. So I was excited to take a look.
Island comes in at 93 minutes which is good, it does not over stay it's welcome. It is the story of Sir Anthony Ross, played by Donald Sinden, who puts together an expedition on a flying vehicle sort of like a blimp, to go search for his son. His son was lost in the Artic, kidnapped by vikings, who were trying to protect their way of life. No outsiders. The group on the trip with Sir Anthony are: Prof. Ivarsson played by David Hartman (yes that David Hartman); Captain Brieux played by Jacques Marin; and Oomiak played by Mako.
The movie is a very good adventure. Suitable for the whole family ( Warning: there is shooting at whales which is undisney like these days). The look of the movie is pretty good. The ship looks "cool". They rely on Matte paintings, however it looks believeable (there is one seen at the 1:13 mark that is real bad however and you may laugh).
Some fun and not so fun facts (not many this time):
Donald Sinden is known more in England appearing on many TV shows over there.
Mako is very interesting. He just died in 2006. He had a part in 151 titles, either by acting or doing voice work. He was in many movies that you may have seen: Memoirs Of A Geisha; Seven Years In Tibet; Pearl Harbor 2001. He got an Oscar Nomination for The Sand Pebbles in 66. The strange thing is, a lot of his roles were of him playing up his Asian descent and going after the US. However in real life, in the early 50's he was a US soldier.
There is an actress in this movie who is Sweedish by the name of Erik Silju. She was very pretty,is good in the small part she has and is believable. People who watch this movie are going to ask the same things: who is she and what happened to her? Sadly I came up empty.
One last note on David Hartman. looking around on different sites, he gets criticized for being stiff in this role. I disagree, I think he is perfect. He is pretty much our narrator, he has a great voice, he does well explaining things and pushing the story forward.
Also if you decide to watch this, look under special features, there is a nice 5 minute short on the making of the movie. Also a good photo gallery. I am not a big fan of "making of's". I prefer just getting lost in the magic of a movie and not knowing how they did this or that. However, here it is pretty neat to see before CGI.
I waffled between 3 1/2 and 4 for this movie. It is billed as an adventure, and it comes through as that. For that reason I would give it 4 Mickeys out of 5.
I have a tough choice next week for 1975. Stay tuned.
Have a peaceful week.