The Island (1980)

[cleanshirt 1]

The people who made 1980s the Island were not without talent: Michael Ritchie directed Downhill Racer and the Candidate, classic Redford vehicles form the 70s; Peter Benchley wrote the novel Jaws and co-wrote Speilberg's screenplay; and Michael Caine was such a fine actor he could actually convince you that face -- British by way of a bulldog's rectum -- he calls a face was actually attractive. On paper at least, the Island had a lot going for it.

 

Unless of course that paper contained any portion the Island's screenplay.

 

A gift given to me by insomnia,the Island is, hands down, the bat-shittiest movie I've ever had the pleasure of watching. It's aged badly, in a way not too dissimilar from how DW Griffith movies have aged badly. But it's also the product of a clearly deranged imagination, one not bound by any convention of genre, but instead driven by a mix of the Freudian and the freaky, the Oedipal and the awful.

 

Following the plot ever further into the ether of its own fever dream provides its own peculiar pleasures -- in describing it, I would only be depriving you. But if you need more enticement I'll tell you a few things it involves: The Bermuda Triangle; retarded pirates; eugenics; even gun control law!

 

It truly is one of the oddest, the most bizarre, the most fantastically misbegotten pieces of art I've ever consumed. I encourage everyone to put this movie into their bodies.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

The people who made 1980s the Island were not without talent: Michael Ritchie directed Downhill Racer and the Candidate, classic Redford vehicles form the 70s; Peter Benchley wrote the novel Jaws and co-wrote Speilberg's screenplay; and Michael Caine was such a fine actor he could actually convince you that face -- British by way of a bulldog's rectum -- he calls a face was actually attractive. On paper at least, the Island had a lot going for it.

 

Unless of course that paper contained any portion the Island's screenplay.

 

A gift given to me by insomnia,the Island is, hands down, the bat-shittiest movie I've ever had the pleasure of watching. It's aged badly, in a way not too dissimilar from how DW Griffith movies have aged badly. But it's also the product of a clearly deranged imagination, one not bound by any convention of genre, but instead driven by a mix of the Freudian and the freaky, the Oedipal and the awful.

 

Following the plot ever further into the ether of its own fever dream provides its own peculiar pleasures -- in describing it, I would only be depriving you. But if you need more enticement I'll tell you a few things it involves: The Bermuda Triangle; retarded pirates; eugenics; even gun control law!

 

It truly is one of the oddest, the most bizarre, the most fantastically misbegotten pieces of art I've ever consumed. I encourage everyone to put this movie into their bodies.

 

I would love to see this one covered by the crew. Left out of the original post: Ritchie also directed Fletch and the Bad News Bears. And the fact that the writer wrote Jaws is just amazing.

 

This one is high on my list for HDTGM to tackle. There's talk of pirates and inbreeding, so multiple opportunities for Jason to make some clutch comments.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

[NathanGordon 1096]

It's aged badly, in a way not too dissimilar from how DW Griffith movies have aged badly.

I don't think you've ever seen a DW Griffith film. Maybe you meant a different director.

 

Michael Caine is a well respected actor but also the 70s/early 80s equivalent of Samuel Jackson, a guy who will lend his onscreen charisma to literally any movie with a decent paycheck. Let's not forget what he said about HDTGM's own Jaws 4: "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"

 

There were so many wild scifi/occult/horror thrillers that came out the tail end of the 70s and well into the following decade. The whole era has the mark of genre novelists like Peter Benchley, Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, etc. It was a great time for genre fiction, and these books were insanely popular in the way that stuff like Gone Girl or Stieg Larsson are today.

 

I'll have to check this out; never seen it, but it sounds like the kind of film classic MST3K used to cover.

[JeremiahHall 0]

I have never seen the movie, but I did read the book. If you get the chance, it is well worth the read.

[IRONicmerMAN 391]

Bump. I just watched this one again. It's a slow build to utter nonsense. It had a $22 million budget back in 1980, and I have no idea where the money went. The easy answer is cocaine...

 

I'm just not sure it's fun bad, though the boat fighting scene is pretty epic. Then there's this...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNM7PmOkBxE