ROBERT BERRY'S
WEIRD MOVIE STUFF #14

(Now ribbed, for her pleasure)


WARNING:  This issue contains more information about the STREET FIGHTER
          MOVIE than your sanity and common sense may handle.



WEIRD MOVIE QUOTES OF THE DAY  (sorry, more Bobcat stuff)

"I made POLICE ACADEMY III because I felt there were so many unanswered
 questions in the first two."
        -Bob Goldthwait, on his participation in this epic film saga

"I get the film roles that Chevy Chase turns down."
        -Bob Goldthwait commenting on his remarkable film career

  • There's an urban legend that the Japanese release of KING KONG vs GODZILLA had a completely different ending with their country's giant lizard winning instead. In truth, King Kong wins in both the USA and Japanese release, but the footage was edited somewhat, and music from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was placed in.

  • Bob Goldthwait once remarked on Alex Bennett's SF Bay Area radio show that while working on the critically praised POLICE ACADEMY series, he spoke with Micheal Winslow, the noise-making guy, who seriously preached and felt that the POLICE ACADEMY series would be like the James Bond saga, going on forever.

  • In SUPERMAN III, which of course starred Christopher Reeve, but also Richard Pryor and Robert Vaughn, notice the scene where Supes is flying to Vaughn's hideout, while being targeted by a high tech computerized missle tracking system. If you listen carefully (and are a geek), you'll notice that this state o' the art computer system, uses sounds from the ultra advanced ATARI 2600 PAC MAN game, which is considered one of the most awful arcade translations anywhere.

  • When FF Coppola released BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, sales of the original book went up, but there was actually a separate novel adapting the movie itself which was based on BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA THE FILM. Try asking for this one at a library without driving the librarian batty!

  • While preparing for his role as a carpenter in the upcoming film version of Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE, Daniel Day Lewis actually spent a lot of time assisting with the on-location set building.


    VIDEO GAME MOVIES...YOU PLAYED THE GAME NOW SEE THE MOVIE and Vice Versa

    For some reason, somebody once thought that movies based on video games were a good idea. HA! THINK AGAIN!

    TRON
    This Jeff Bridges film is memorable if for no other reason than being one of the first movies to used advanced (and at the time INFINITELY expensive) computer animations. An evil computer takes wants to take over the world. Everybody's fave early 80's group JOURNEY wrote some new songs for the soundtrack. An ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT at the time reported that the millions of quarters sucked in by the arcade game TRON made more money than the film itself.

    SUPER MARIO-BROTHERS
    John Leguizamo, Bob Hoskins, and Dennis Hopper star in this bizarre film, that's pretty bad, but twisted enough to look at and scratch your head in wonder for a while. This one pretty much put the nail in the coffin of video game films for a while. At one point this was actually being pitched as a Danny DeVito pic, but he decided on BATMAN FOREVER instead. Perhaps if they made this movie a little more DONKEY KONG.

    STREET FIGHTER: THE MOVIE
    The great Peter Sellers' last movie was THE FIENDISH PLOT of DR FU MANCHU, considered among many to be his worst. Raul Julia said goodbye to the world in this debacle, which may not have been his worst (see GUMBALL RALLY), but was bad enough. Witness the fine fightin'/"actin'" stylins' of Jean Claude Van Damme and singer Kylie Minogue (the Austrailian Debbie Gibson who wowed the world with her "LOCOMOTION" cover) The licensing of the STREET FIGHTER II franchise is such where the "II" roman numerals need to remain on all dolls, posters, and even video game sequels, regardless of what generation it is, and up to the last minute, this film was almost going to be released as STREET FIGHTER II: THE MOVIE, which would have made it the first movie with a "II" that wasn't a sequel.

    (An interesting aside:  In "The Golden Age" of comic books, many titles
 would start out with Issue #2, as #1 issues were considered a risk, while
 a second issue would prove the title was somewhat established.  The
 first issue of "THE HUMAN TORCH" (1940) is an early example.)
    MORTAL KOMBAT
    Haven't seen it, but from those who have, say it's a lot of good fightin' fun. The marketing campaign was pretty funny on the radio, claiming that after such debacles as MARIO and STREET FIGHTER, this would emerge as "The Best Video Game Movie EVER!!!" It was #1 for at least the first 2 weeks of release, giving star Christopher Lambert his first big hit in a long long highlander time.

    Other films that sort of fall into this genre include THE LAST STARFIGHER, EVILSPEAK, ELECTRIC DREAMS, and JOYSTICK.


    WEIRD MOVIE SPOTLIGHT Whatever Happened to THE FANTASTIC FOUR

    Longtime Marvel Comics super-hero staple THE FANTASTIC FOUR was actually made into a full-length feature film, and was shelved indefinitely by the production company just days before the official premiere. Why, you may ask? Let me tell you, it's a tricky tale.

    The production company that owned the rights to make a FF film, spent many years just sitting on the property. Due to a clause in their contract, they had to make something by a certain date, or they would lose all rights completely. Enter Roger Corman, master of the low budget film.

    Corman's company was approached to make a FF movie for an amount under $3 million dollars. After creating some appropriately fantastic costumes for the main characters, (largely unknowns), and some creative special effects using home computers and the like, a relatively decent finished product was reached, considering what they had to work with $$ wise. Just as the film was completed, and even tours among sci-fi conventions of the key players, the movie was pulled.

    It seemed that a better deal was made to produce a $40 million of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the production company didn't want a chintzy version floating around on there, even on video. Supposedly Disney is going to pump some money into it, with Christopher Columbus directing. Meanwhile, the film is in movie limbo, the only visible traces of it are a sneak preview on the direct to video CORMAN gem CARNOSAUR.

    Thanks for your time...

    Send comments, corrections, and perfume scented hankies to:

    Robert A. Berry
    4019149@mcimail.com

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