Ale-Aba Look for ridiculous in everything !

                             I AM LEGEND                 (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)      CAPSULE: Richard Matheson's classic horror novel      I AM LEGEND comes to the screen with CGI and lots      of guns, most of which work against rather than      for the story.  Will Smith plays Robert Neville      robbed of most of his anguish and his advancing      madness.  Some of the visual images are nice, but      this is a story that needs to be made on a low      budget to really work.  Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or      6/10  If one were to choose the Great British Horror Novel it would  likely be DRACULA or perhaps FRANKENSTEIN.  The Great American  Horror Novel would probably be Richard Matheson's 1954 I AM  LEGEND.  Stephen King acknowledges the debt he owes to I AM  LEGEND and to Matheson in general.  This short novel reverses the  conditions of DRACULA.  In this story there is a single human in  a world full of vampires.  By day Robert Neville hunts vampires  as they avoid the sunlight.  At night the tables are turned as he  barricades himself in his house and the vampires try to break  their way in or tempt him outside and into their clutches.  What  has left the world in this state was an all-consuming pandemic.  A deadly plague has ripped through the human race, killing all  but one man.  However, while the plague appeared to bring death,  it did not really.  Instead it put its victims into something  deeper than a catatonic sleep.  After a period of time they rise  up again with many of the classic characteristics of vampires.  The flashbacks are rich in some very basic human fears.  One is  the fear of disease and of being its victim.  The other is the  fear of not being its victim, losing all ones loved ones and  being left alone.  And I suppose we all have some revulsion of  the dead made even worse with the fear they will arise.  Prior to the current film version there were two others.  The  first was an American/Italian co-production starring Vincent  Price, called in the United States THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964).  Charlton Heston starred in a 1971 version en_title_d THE OMEGA MAN.  The latter was in my opinion terrible and very different from the  novel.  The first version was fairly faithful to the book _base_d  on Matheson's screenplay, though Matheson _object_ed to changes and  used a pseudonym.  The novel and the first adaptation inspired  George Romero to do the similar story NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD  (1968) and hence all zombie films owe their inspiration to the  original Matheson novel.  The novel was one of the first sources  to suggest the idea that vampires were not supernatural beings  but diseased humans.  One of the virtues of the story as a source  for film is its minimalism.  It requires no special effects and  only minimal makeup effects.  This undoubtedly was an attraction  for Romero.  The makers of the Italian version seem to have  realized this.  THE OMEGA MAN went in for exaggerated makeup for  the infected and big action scenes, some involving large guns.  The new version I AM LEGEND starring Will Smith also has its guns  and action.  And in this version the infected turn into rabid  CGI-animated monsters that are a far cry from anything a virus  could likely produce.  It is a little hard for me to evaluate the new film version  without comparing it to the book and to THE LAST MAN ON EARTH.  The new film version (directed by Francis Lawrence) does not take  full advantage of the story but does have some original and very  nice touches.  The premise is that Robert Neville (played by Will  Smith) is the only human left in Manhattan and maybe the world.  In this version it is a human-made plague from a virus originally  intended to cure cancer.  The plague seems to kill people, but  then brings them back as monsters.  Neville wants to turn these  vampires human again by nullifying the infection.  But he is  being slowly driven insane by his extreme loneliness, his  memories of the loss of his family, and this unending regimen of  hunting vampires by day, and being hunted by them at night.  For me Will Smith is out and out wrong for the role of a man with  such mental anguish.  He does not have the range to play someone  mentally breaking down.  Smith seems to have gotten into physical  shape to play Neville as an action hero, a complete misreading of  the novel.  Smith's never has much chance to get as lonely as the  character in the book.  Though much of the film he has a dog for  companionship and talks to her like she is a sidekick.  He also  talks to mannequins, which is probably a symptom of his solitude,  but it is treated very lightly.  We see not the pain that Neville  feels but instead his spirit of soldiering on.  Francis Lawrence's directing of the screenplay by Mark  Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman have spiced the story up with  battles and chases through dark buildings, sadly dumbing down the  concept.  There are hints that the infected might be intelligent,  but it never goes much beyond their setting the same sort of  traps for Neville that he had previously set for them.  The story  is so distorted that the infected seem to be little more than  fierce animals and no longer capable of having legends.  So when  for the first time a film takes the _title_ of the novel, it is  given a different meaning.  What is nice about the film is its  visualization of Manhattan abandoned for three years and already  in the process of being reclaimed by nature.  Perhaps the biggest problem of this film is the size of its  budget.  The best versions of I AM LEGEND, namely THE LAST MAN ON  EARTH and arguably NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were made in black  and white for pocket change and were much more effective because  of that.  The real problem with I AM LEGEND it that there is just  too much money on that screen.  Most of it just ruins the tone.  I would rate I AM LEGEND a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.  The  film leaves the way open for a sequel.  Warner may already  working on II AM LEGEND.  We see in the film a 2009 billboard  suggesting that Warner Brothers, who produced this film, will  then be releasing a film that brings together Superman and  Batman.  I am surprised they will take that long to make that  one.  For those interested in seeing the original film version THE LAST  MAN ON EARTH, it has fallen into public domain and is very  available in a low-quality transfer in what must be a dozen  different DVD horror film collections.  There are higher quality  transfers available at higher prices.  For those highly tolerant  there is even a free low-resolution version on line at the URL  below.  Since this was a minimalist film and not a highly visual  one, it does not suffer too badly from the low-quality  reproductions.  <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1663597729999672400  Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/_title_/tt0480249/                                         Mark R. Leeper                                         This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it                                         Copyright 2007 Mark R. Leeper

Perhaps the biggest problem of this film is the size of its budget.  The best versions of I AM LEGEND, namely THE LAST MAN ON EARTH and arguably NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were made in black and white for pocket change and were much more effective because of that.  The real problem with I AM LEGEND it that there is just too much money on that screen.  Most of it just ruins the tone. Fuck tone. Tone doesn't break box office records. CGI LIONS break box office records.

                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)      CAPSULE: Richard Matheson's classic horror novel      I AM LEGEND comes to the screen with CGI and lots      of guns, most of which work against rather than      for the story.  Will Smith plays Robert Neville      robbed of most of his anguish and his advancing      madness.  Some of the visual images are nice, but      this is a story that needs to be made on a low      budget to really work.  Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or      6/10  If one were to choose the Great British Horror Novel it would  likely be DRACULA or perhaps FRANKENSTEIN.  The Great American  Horror Novel would probably be Richard Matheson's 1954 I AM  LEGEND.  Stephen King acknowledges the debt he owes to I AM  LEGEND and to Matheson in general.  This short novel reverses the  conditions of DRACULA.  In this story there is a single human in  a world full of vampires.  By day Robert Neville hunts vampires  as they avoid the sunlight.  At night the tables are turned as he  barricades himself in his house and the vampires try to break  their way in or tempt him outside and into their clutches.  What  has left the world in this state was an all-consuming pandemic.  A deadly plague has ripped through the human race, killing all  but one man.  However, while the plague appeared to bring death,  it did not really.  Instead it put its victims into something  deeper than a catatonic sleep.  After a period of time they rise  up again with many of the classic characteristics of vampires.  The flashbacks are rich in some very basic human fears.  One is  the fear of disease and of being its victim.  The other is the  fear of not being its victim, losing all ones loved ones and  being left alone.  And I suppose we all have some revulsion of  the dead made even worse with the fear they will arise.  Prior to the current film version there were two others.  The  first was an American/Italian co-production starring Vincent  Price, called in the United States THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964).  Charlton Heston starred in a 1971 version en_title_d THE OMEGA MAN.  The latter was in my opinion terrible and very different from the  novel.  The first version was fairly faithful to the book _base_d  on Matheson's screenplay, though Matheson _object_ed to changes and  used a pseudonym.  The novel and the first adaptation inspired  George Romero to do the similar story NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD  (1968) and hence all zombie films owe their inspiration to the  original Matheson novel.  The novel was one of the first sources  to suggest the idea that vampires were not supernatural beings  but diseased humans.  One of the virtues of the story as a source  for film is its minimalism.  It requires no special effects and  only minimal makeup effects.  This undoubtedly was an attraction  for Romero.  The makers of the Italian version seem to have  realized this.  THE OMEGA MAN went in for exaggerated makeup for  the infected and big action scenes, some involving large guns.  The new version I AM LEGEND starring Will Smith also has its guns  and action.  And in this version the infected turn into rabid  CGI-animated monsters that are a far cry from anything a virus  could likely produce.  It is a little hard for me to evaluate the new film version  without comparing it to the book and to THE LAST MAN ON EARTH.  The new film version (directed by Francis Lawrence) does not take  full advantage of the story but does have some original and very  nice touches.  The premise is that Robert Neville (played by Will  Smith) is the only human left in Manhattan and maybe the world.  In this version it is a human-made plague from a virus originally  intended to cure cancer.  The plague seems to kill people, but  then brings them back as monsters.  Neville wants to turn these  vampires human again by nullifying the infection.  But he is  being slowly driven insane by his extreme loneliness, his  memories of the loss of his family, and this unending regimen of  hunting vampires by day, and being hunted by them at night.  For me Will Smith is out and out wrong for the role of a man with  such mental anguish.  He does not have the range to play someone  mentally breaking down.  Smith seems to have gotten into physical  shape to play Neville as an action hero, a complete misreading of  the novel.  Smith's never has much chance to get as lonely as the  character in the book.  Though much of the film he has a dog for  companionship and talks to her like she is a sidekick.  He also  talks to mannequins, which is probably a symptom of his solitude,  but it is treated very lightly.  We see not the pain that Neville  feels but instead his spirit of soldiering on.  Francis Lawrence's directing of the screenplay by Mark  Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman have spiced the story up with  battles and chases through dark buildings, sadly dumbing down the  concept.  There are hints that the infected might be intelligent,  but it never goes much beyond their setting the same sort of  traps for Neville that he had previously set for them.  The story  is so distorted that the infected seem to be little more than  fierce animals and no longer capable of having legends.  So when  for the first time a film takes the _title_ of the novel, it is  given a different meaning.  What is nice about the film is its  visualization of Manhattan abandoned for three years and already  in the process of being reclaimed by nature.  Perhaps the biggest problem of this film is the size of its  budget.  The best versions of I AM LEGEND, namely THE LAST MAN ON  EARTH and arguably NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were made in black  and white for pocket change and were much more effective because  of that.  The real problem with I AM LEGEND it that there is just  too much money on that screen.  Most of it just ruins the tone.  I would rate I AM LEGEND a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.  The  film leaves the way open for a sequel.  Warner may already  working on II AM LEGEND.  We see in the film a 2009 billboard  suggesting that Warner Brothers, who produced this film, will  then be releasing a film that brings together Superman and  Batman.  I am surprised they will take that long to make that  one.  For those interested in seeing the original film version THE LAST  MAN ON EARTH, it has fallen into public domain and is very  available in a low-quality transfer in what must be a dozen  different DVD horror film collections.  There are higher quality  transfers available at higher prices.  For those highly tolerant  there is even a free low-resolution version on line at the URL  below.  Since this was a minimalist film and not a highly visual  one, it does not suffer too badly from the low-quality  reproductions.  <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1663597729999672400  Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/_title_/tt0480249/                                         Mark R. Leeper                                         This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it                                         Copyright 2007 Mark R. Leeper I agree, I think that Vincent Price's The Last man on Earth is a brilliant, and a big budget version of it would kinds kill the atmosphere of the movie.

                             I AM LEGEND                 (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)  I hope I wouldn't listen to anything about this movie or even what critic has to say because I don't give a damn.  I know the storyline. I know the plot. I know the CGI monster. I know the black man Will Smith acting. I would not want to watch again. It's boring. It's way too cliche. I don't give damn about what you think of this movie. It has nothing  to do with my life whether you like it or not because I'm simplying trashing your garbage movie review.

 It's way too cliche. I don't give damn about what you think of this movie.  It has nothing  to do with my life whether you like it or not because I'm simplying trashing your garbage movie review. Well, of course it is not my film.  If it was it would have been more of a personal film and not so much an action piece.  Richard Matheson did not like the original Italian version, but I doubt the story will get a better adaptation. I would like to recommend a film that has more to do with your life, but of course, you keep that very private. Take care and thanks for the comments.

 It's way too cliche. I don't give damn about what you think of this movie.  It has nothing  to do with my life whether you like it or not because I'm simplying trashing your garbage movie review. Well, of course it is not my film.  If it was it would have been more of a personal film and not so much an action piece.  Richard Matheson did not like the original Italian version, but I doubt the story will get a better adaptation. I would like to recommend a film that has more to do with your life, but of course, you keep that very private. Take care and thanks for the comments.