The Island of Dr Moreau

[Lithification 5]

This small marvel of a film with Marlon Brando at the absolute bottom of his career must be seen to be believed in. It hurts the heart, while the laughter flows in a never-ending stream. This is a Marlon Brando's (R.I.P.) acting funeral. It's not a pretty sight, and at the same time very sad, but I still can not stop laughing at the result. Director John Frankenheimer (R.I.P.) also meets his bottom with this film. AND RON PERLMAN IS IN IT! Enjoy!

 

Best regards!

[claptrap 0]

yeah, i second this. val kilmer's and david thewlis's performances should also be noted, as they are bonkers.

[lamb 0]

I joined the forums just to suggest this movie. It has EVERYTHING.

 

Marlon Brando in a caftan

 

Little people

 

Animal-human hybrids in sneakers

 

As a result of this movie, Marlon Brando won the most prestigious award of his career, a worst supporting actor Razzie.

 

More than "How did this get made?", one wonders how such a group of talented actors (Brando, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, David Thewlis, Ron Perlman) managed to make a movie that was so mind-bogglingly bad.

 

If you need more convincing, read this:

 

http://sabotagetimes...d-of-dr-moreau/

[seanotron 2307]

This is a great choice. It is mesmerizing in its terribleness.

[AdamMeier 5]

This is a great choice for HDTGM. I wish there was an in depth book about what went wrong in production. This movie had a lot of talent attached and it is so awful.

[AdamMeier 5]

For a good time, read some of the trivia for this movie on IMDB. My favorite: Fairuza Balk tried to escape the production but was caught on the airport and sent back to the set.

[Ghost_Host_999 1]

This would be an extremely fun episode. If for no other reason to get the reaction to the WTF moment of not only Brando's stay-puft costuming, but also the weird creepy puppet that's his little sidekick.

[PhillipMedoc 648]

I think this would make a good episode because, honestly, how the fuck did it get made? Talk about development hell. Richard Stanley (who made some interesting 90s sci-fi movies) wrote the original screenplay and was the director before he was fired by the Weinsteins. Apparently Stanley's script is out there on the tubes and is considerably different from the final product. The transition between directors along with executive meddling made things awkward for everyone involved. Not to mention other things going on at the same time like Brando's daughter committing suicide, Val Kilmer going through a divorce, etc.

 

For a good time, read some of the trivia for this movie on IMDB. My favorite: Fairuza Balk tried to escape the production but was caught on the airport and sent back to the set.

I didn't know about that. I had heard that Richard Stanley managed to sneak back on the set as an extra.

 

Interesting quotes from an 1996 EW article on Kilmer:

As Richard Stanley, who directed Kilmer for three days in The Island of Dr. Moreau before being fired, recalls, ''Val would arrive, and an argument would happen.'' Says John Frankenheimer, who replaced Stanley: ''I don't like Val Kilmer, I don't like his work ethic, and I don't want to be associated with him ever again.'' And Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher calls his onetime star ''childish and impossible.''

 

One last bit, the rather well-regarded "industrial" band Einsturzende Neubauten are on the soundtrack. I used to be a big fan and was pretty stunned when one of their songs started playing, I think it's when Fairuza Balk's first shows up or one of her dancing scenes.

[seanotron 2307]

Worth noting that this was made during the 'feeding him his lines through an earpiece' stage of Brando's career.

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

I agree this movie would be perfect

 

[jarrycanada 2483]

. AND RON PERLMAN IS IN IT! Enjoy!

 

Best regards!

Ron perlman is in it, why didn't you just say so to begin with.. LOL

 

I like Ron Perlman he's a good guy, he was on nerdist podcast not to long ago, every entertaining.

[ZestyMordant667 2]

Pretty surprised they haven't done this one yet. It's perfect.

[Johnny Unusual 525]

remember liking it when it came out, but I had bad taste before I turned 18 (and even then...) I kind of need to rewatch it.

 

[RyanSz 3140]

I would love to see these bloopers.

 

From IMDB:

 

Marlon Brando wore a small radio receiver to aid him remembering his lines. Co-star David Thewlis claimed "He'd be in the middle of a scene and suddenly he'd be picking up police messages and Marlon would repeat, 'There's a robbery at Woolworths'."

[seanotron 2307]

Matthew Broderick talks about Brando getting his lines on an earpiece as early as The Freshman, so apparently that was a normal thing for him at this point.

[thestray 361]

I haven't seen this since I was very young, and I remember liking it, bu

remember liking it when it came out, but I had bad taste before I turned 18 (and even then...) I kind of need to rewatch it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QagEozqPZs

 

Same. I feel like I liked pretty much anything with special effects makeup and prosthetics. I just liked looking at the animal people. I'd definitely revisit this film as an adult if they did an episode on it.

[denimgremlin 1179]

just rewatched this at work tonight. 100% agree with everything in this thread, this movie is full on coo coo bananas.

 

one of the things that made me laugh out loud was i forgot that the scene in Austin Powers 2 when dr evil is playing piano and mini me is sitting on the piano playing a tiny piano is a reference to this movie, the fact that that exact same thing happens in this movie and is ten times more insane and not played for laughs is mind boggling.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

Bump because this movie remains just as insane and the opposite of good as ever, but also because a documentary on the madness has been made. Color me interested.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/08/21/lost-soul-island-of-dr-moreau/

 

Poster:

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2014/08/21/lost-soul_674x1026.jpg

 

[Bob Drillboids 181]

Bump again, given the upcoming theatrical release of the doc. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/88379/lost-soul-doomed-journey-richard-stanleys-island-dr-moreau-gets-trailer-release-news/

[RyanSz 3140]

That documentary looks amazing, but why did Kilmer have so much pull if he was the third character in the movie behind Brando and Thewlis. If anything, Kilmer and Thewlis should have switched roles as Kilmer's last three movies were Tombstone, Batman Forever, and Heat, while Thewlis just came off Dragonheart which barely broke even and James and the Giant Peach which was an ensemble piece. Hell, Kilmer was even second billed and on the poster while the protagonist of the movie was nowhere to be mentioned.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

That documentary looks amazing, but why did Kilmer have so much pull if he was the third character in the movie behind Brando and Thewlis. If anything, Kilmer and Thewlis should have switched roles as Kilmer's last three movies were Tombstone, Batman Forever, and Heat, while Thewlis just came off Dragonheart which barely broke even and James and the Giant Peach which was an ensemble piece. Hell, Kilmer was even second billed and on the poster while the protagonist of the movie was nowhere to be mentioned.

 

 

This documentary is going to be wonderful. They did switch roles, Val was cast as Thewlis's role but then demanded that his role be cut out of significant amount of the film. Rather then do that they recast the role with David Morrow, who later quit. It then ended up going to Thewlis, who i'm sure was on a very short list of actors who'd want to sign up to join what im sure was already widely regarded as a fucking disaster of a film.

 

He had so much pull he managed to do what Nic Cage tried to do on Trespass and switched from hero to villain mid-filming.

[Mitchaltogether 3]

I need to know June's opinion of this movie.

 

I feel like this is the "danger" she was warning us about in Monkey Shines.

[SlidePocket 707]

This movie's going to be the new episode!

[Darbler Cheesegarbler 1110]

With all of the crazy shit that happened in production, I'd love to see a dramatized version that follows John Cusack playing Richard Stanley. I'm going to rewatch the movie and also try to watch the documentary before we get this episode of HDTGM. Here's the trailer for the doc: