EPISODE 110 — The Island of Dr. Moreau

[Jesse Carrigan 119]

There is an episode of Batman the Animated series called Tiger Tiger, that is an adaptation of the book that is so much better then this thing.

 

I remember seeing that one as a young boy. It has haunted me since (in a good way...I think).

[Jesse Carrigan 119]

 

Also also he was in The Brotherhood of the Wolf which is SO GOOD

 

And of course, another candidate for a HDTGM movie, the 1993 capoeira-martial-arts-troubled-high-schoolers-drug-lords epic Only the Strong.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

 

And of course, another candidate for a HDTGM movie, the 1993 capoeira-martial-arts-troubled-high-schoolers-drug-lords epic Only the Strong.

Capoeira, you say?

 

[klemjohansen 748]

the best part of Hercules in New York is that they found a way to repurpose the mandalinish/zitherific The Third Man soundtrack.

 

Edit: Holy shit at 33 minutes in I think you can hear the director off camera say "scream" to the actress to get her to scream.

 

Also this movie is Crocodile Dundee with muscles

[Spinoza 3]

Omission: What was with Dr. Moreau's nobel prize being for inventing velcro? Was this improvised from Val Kilmer? This makes no sense at all - it clearly says "For Gen-Manipulation" on the nobel prize and that it was awarded in 1989. Velcro was invented in the 40s and has nothing to do with "gen-manipulation". Why was this an acceptable answer to what he won a nobel prize for? Was this supposed to be a joke? Were they seriously unable come up with anything better and just decided to leave this in? Considering the entire movie is about Dr. Moreau doing genetic manipulation on animals/humans, it seems reasonable that he would have won a nobel prize for something related to that rather than for inventing velcro.

 

Hah, I didn't even read the "for gen-manipulation" part, but was still quite puzzled because velcro is not the kind of thing you would be likely to receive a Nobel prize for. Not because it's not interesting, but there's simply no specific prize it would fit with. Physics or chemistry are both quite unlikely.

 

But here's an idea, perhaps it's some sort of joke about gene splicing? the two sides of the double helix sort of join together like velcro... it's a stretch but there's plenty of craziness in this movie already.

 

And I do think there are lots of attempts in the script to make this movie mean something. It's interesting to see that it has a super defensive fandom on IMDB. I listened to the podcast first and saw the movie afterwards, I wonder if I would have picked up on how uninterested Kilmer and Brando were in making the movie work otherwise. Still, I actually cursed the movie when it was over... the demise of Balk is just ludicrous. Hanged off-screen? Why? And then there's this raft we never see Douglas build? Why? And only a nice old apeman is present to see him leave? Why?

 

The ambiguous nature of Moreau could actually work IMO. But then some of the other pure humans should be less ambiguous. We do not know anything about Douglas, we have no idea what his frame of reference is. When he picks the lock, it seems both pretty crafty and that he is being rather rash without a follow-up to that first part of his escape. But since we no absolutely nothing about his background, it's hard to judge his actions.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling here. It's hard to be coherent about this movie.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

 

And of course, another candidate for a HDTGM movie, the 1993 capoeira-martial-arts-troubled-high-schoolers-drug-lords epic Only the Strong.

Fuck. Yes. I've been a fan of this one since forever, and I'm sure it's been brought up elsewhere. One of my favorite parts that sticks out in my mind is at the end, when they're celebrating or something, and all the kids are demonstrating their impressive skills, except for one dude that MAYBE just does a cartwheel.

[nateslice 13]

Paul and June were wondering why it's "bad" for the animal-people to rebel over wanting to be "what they are".

 

I think I have an answer for that.

 

The animal-people can't continue to be what they are without frequent treatment. Without this treatment, they'll revert back to being plain ol' animals.

 

To continue to be animal-people and have freedom, they'd basically have to enslave humans who have the knowledge of how to maintain their status.

 

They couldn't trust other animal-people with this duty, even if they had the knowledge themselves, because, well, ask any nurse... doctors are the worst patients. An animal-person entrusted with the duty of keeping other animal-people stable would probably eventually forget to keep up his own treatments, and he'd lose the necessary knowledge as a result.

 

The animal-people would thus be forced to enslave human scientists to keep them as they are, because humans are naturally stable in their specialized skill levels, and so evolutionary regression would not be a concern.

 

"Freed" animal-people would therefore be forced to bring back slavery in order to maintain their sentience.

[freeagent 329]

I was watching this show Myth Hunters on Netflix a couple of months ago. Richard Stanley is featured in the Holy Grail episode (i think it was that one). apparently he is did some sort of documentary on the search for it? this guy interests me to no end though.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

I was watching this show Myth Hunters on Netflix a couple of months ago. Richard Stanley is featured in the Holy Grail episode (i think it was that one). apparently he is did some sort of documentary on the search for it? this guy interests me to no end though.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing that. After watching Lost Soul, I'm fascinated by him, too. I'll have to check that show out!

[Disgustipater 30]

 

Hah, I didn't even read the "for gen-manipulation" part, but was still quite puzzled because velcro is not the kind of thing you would be likely to receive a Nobel prize for. Not because it's not interesting, but there's simply no specific prize it would fit with. Physics or chemistry are both quite unlikely.

 

But here's an idea, perhaps it's some sort of joke about gene splicing? the two sides of the double helix sort of join together like velcro... it's a stretch but there's plenty of craziness in this movie already.

I immediately took his velcro answer to mean, "Mind your own damn business." There's no hidden meaning, it's just something you obviously wouldn't win a noble prize for.

[potsmaster 36]

We really need a mini-episode of the Mantzoukas take on The Island of Dr Moreau. I imagine he has lots to say about pig lady sex orgies

[grog1138 60]

I know this was a few weeks ago and we want to move on from this horrible movie but, I stumbled upon something today for all you Star Wars fans. Azazello, the dog man with the dreads. The one who killed Fairuza Balk's character is Jango Fett.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0607325/?ref_=tt_cl_t6

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I know this was a few weeks ago and we want to move on from this horrible movie but, I stumbled upon something today for all you Star Wars fans. Azazello, the dog man with the dreads. The one who killed Fairuza Balk's character is Jango Fett.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0607325/?ref_=tt_cl_t6

That also puts him in "Barb Wire".

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Guys! The documentary on this hits Netflix on July 14 in the US!

[DrFancyPants 13]

booya! the documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau is going to be available for streaming on netflix starting July 14th!

 

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Well, the documentary is up on Netflix now. I'm about 35 minutes in though, and it is borrrrrrrrrrrring

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Well, the documentary is up on Netflix now. I'm about 35 minutes in though, and it is borrrrrrrrrrrring

Really? I loved it. Richard Stanley is crazy as hell.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

Really? I loved it. Richard Stanley is crazy as hell.

It is so, so dry, and while some of the information is interesting, the presentation isn't. I guess I was expecting it to be a bit lighter and for the people telling the stories to be a bit more animated, because ultimately, this is a movie that really wasn't important in any way, shape, or form that's just notable for being a nightmare of a production. There's a half hour left, Frankenheimer's just shown up, and they're now getting into the actual shooting of the film, so maybe it'll pick up. It's missing a lot of the people that we WANT to hear from though...

[Lando 2019]

I'm still going to watch it, but I had been hoping for a cross between My Best Friend Klaus Kinski and Some Kind of Monster.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I'm still going to watch it, but I had been hoping for a cross between My Best Friend Klaus Kinski and Some Kind of Monster.

I was hoping for some "Best Worst Movie", because c'mon, this sounds like it SHOULD be nothing but two straight hours of people going "Holy shit, and then THIS happened...".

[Lando 2019]

That is one of the things I enjoy about Some Kind of Monster. They just happened to be recording a documentary while Metallica recorded one of the worst albums of all time and nobody told them that it may have been a bad idea.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

That is one of the things I enjoy about Some Kind of Monster. They just happened to be recording a documentary while Metallica recorded one of the worst albums of all time and nobody told them that it may have been a bad idea.

That said, did you ever see "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica" where the opposite happened? Oh, they were on their way up for sure, but they weren't the Stones or anything, and they ended up making one of the most comprehensive "making of"/"rise to superstardom" documentaries ever made.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

My biggest problem of the documentary is that its largely sets up the premise that if Richard Stanley had just gotten to film the film he wanted to make it would have been an amazing movie.

 

I completely disagree with that premise. His original ideas for the movie were even more fucking insane than this movie turned out to be.

 

The movie should have never been greenlit with Stanley as director. He just should have written the screenplay. He had no experience working a production that large before and was far too eccentric and frankly way up his own ass.

[Lando 2019]

That said, did you ever see "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica" where the opposite happened? Oh, they were on their way up for sure, but they weren't the Stones or anything, and they ended up making one of the most comprehensive "making of"/"rise to superstardom" documentaries ever made.

 

I have not seen that one and I will definitely have to. I like Anvil: The Story of Anvil as something of a counterpoint of SKOM

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

My biggest problem of the documentary is that its largely sets up the premise that if Richard Stanley had just gotten to film the film he wanted to make it would have been an amazing movie.

 

I completely disagree with that premise. His original ideas for the movie were even more fucking insane than this movie turned out to be.

 

The movie should have never been greenlit with Stanley as director. He just should have written the screenplay. He had no experience working a production that large before and was far too eccentric and frankly way up his own ass.

Yeah, the whole first part leading up to his dismissal isn't all that interesting. I mostly liked the history of the Moreau property, like its various adaptations, as I grew up reading and watching all the HG Wells stuff, but since Stanley never really amounted to much, it doesn't work as an effective "What If...?". The movie, no matter how successful or not successful it would have been, was inconsequential in the overall scheme of things, and if it would have been anyone else steering the ship from the beginning, it probably would have been just as much of a clusterfuck. I'll take this opportunity again to mention "Jodorowsky's Dune", which in its failure created much of the sci-fi that I love. If it would have happened, it may not have set the world afire, but it would have tied up the talents that went on to make "Alien" after "Dune" fell through, which also made the career of Ridley Scott. It also could have affected the fate of "Star Wars", so you've got nearly 40 years worth of cinematic history possibly being rewritten. The '96 "Island of Dr. Moreau" could disappear from the history and no one would notice.