We are now about three weeks away from the conclusion to the Star Wars saga with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Episode IX.  Even though a bit of the polish has come off the series for some because of the divisiveness of The Last Jedi, I am still very much looking forward to the conclusion of this saga.

In order to prepare for the movie, I wanted to watch the films prior to the final episode and it makes it easy with Disney + available.  Since I have already done Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope for Doc’s Classic Movies Reviewed, I decided to start with the second Star wars movie in chronological order, The Empire Strikes Back.

In sense, I believe that the creators of Star Wars have been chasing Empire ever since it came out in 1980 because it is such a brilliant movie.  It is the best of the Star Wars films, period.  I know there are some who may not agree with that statement, but I have it firmly on top of my best Star Wars movies list.

It is such a dark time for our heroes.  The Rebellion is in trouble.  Han is preparing to go face Jabba the Hut.  Luke is struggling to become a Jedi.  The Empire is hot on their trail.  Vader has some kind of jones for Luke.

Yet there is joy in the little things.  Han and Leia are discovering their love, even if it is a rocky trip to get there.  Luke and Han are cementing their bromance as Han saves Luke from freezing to death on the ice planet of Hoth.  We meet Yoda and Lando.  The relationships in the film are note perfect and develop throughout the hardships that surrounded them.

Of course, we have some of the most iconic confrontations, not just in Star Wars canon, but in movie history.  The whole “I love you“… “I know” bit is a perfect encompassing of the Han & Leia relationship (which was an ad-lib by Harrison Ford).  And, of course, the iconic “I am your father” line blew the mind of everybody watching.  I remember when I first saw it as a eleven year old, I did not believe it to be true.  Even after searching my feelings, I could not comprehend that Vader was Luke’s father.

The feeling of defeat is all over this film, setting us up for a rousing return in Episode VI.  I plan on watching The Return of the Jedi next, perhaps tomorrow.  Then, I will go back to the prequels, something I have not done since seeing them for the first time.  Perhaps they will hold more for me this time through.

As for The Empire Strikes Back, it is one of the great movies around and a member of the EYG Hall of Fame.

Holy cow.  It had been a long time since I saw Disney’s Pinocchio and I did not remember just how dark this thing was.

Man, this animated film was scarier than many of the horror movies that came out this year.

Legitimately, the scene where Pinocchio was turning into the donkey, especially the spot where the shadow was being shown was frightening. The entire sequence with the whale Monstro was as intense of a stretch as yo are going to have in an animated film.  The wicked creatures such as Stromboli, Honest John, and the Coachman never get any comeuppance for their foul deeds.

I am 100% certain that there were several nightmares induced from this film.

There is also a good message here about doing the right thing and not lying, but it is all encompassed with the nightmare juice.

I really enjoyed it.

Of course, I would not recommend you show your 8-year old this movie.  Wait until they are a little older.  But Pinocchio is an iconic film with some of the most well-known Disney songs of all time, including “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

Pinocchio was naive as could be, believing just about anything these characters told him.  One of those “born yesterday” things.  But his bravery in face of the raging Monstro helped lead him to becoming a real boy.

The animation for 1940 was beautiful and added to the entire presentation.  Considered one of the greatest animated movies of all time.

My Disney Plus Binge continues and this gave me an opportunity to rewatch something I have only seen once, in the theaters, before the sequel comes out this coming weekend.

I saw Frozen just the one time in the theater and it was not my favorite experience.  I was not a huge fan of the movie, but I disliked the situation much more.  I was in a sold-out theater crammed full of little kids making things remarkably uncomfortable.  There are times when an uncomfortable viewing experience can affect the perception of a movie.  I know I had terrible situation all around me watching The Croods and I disliked that movie.  When I watched Dunkirk, I did not like the film because of how the sound made me feel physically.

So I pulled up Frozen on Disney Plus, since Frozen 2 is out this weekend, and watched it. I have to say, I still did not find it that great.  I did like the parts with Elsa and the conclusion was decent, but much of the dialogue felt immature and there was not a lot of depth to the story.

I especially liked how the trope of true love’s kiss is twisted here, avoiding the typical cliche that goes along with many of these fairy tales.  That ending with Anna saving Elsa was an awesome switch on the trope.

The music is a mixed bag.  While I find “Let it Go” to be a top notch song, much of the remainder of the soundtrack is forgettable.

The third act was pretty solid, but the first couple of acts were considerably weaker.  In retrospect, this felt like a film that would do a pretty good job of building a world and creating characters for the next movie.  Maybe Frozen 2 will really be a knock out.

Back to the Disney Plus Binge with an animated film that came at the outer edge of the Disney renaissance of films during the 1990s.  After Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King, there were some other animated movies that were not as widely accepted or beloved.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of those, unfairly.

This film is the Disney adaptation of the classic Victor Hugo novel of the same name.  Paris 16th century.  Quasimodo (Tom Hulce) spends his days in the bell towers of Notre Dame, at the whim of his master, the wicked Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay), who, unbeknownst to Quasi, killed the hunchbacks mother when Quasi was but a baby and only spared the baby with the hopes of one day using him in his quest to kill all gypsies.

When gypsy girl Esmeralda (Demi Moore) showed up Frollo, he set upon a mission to find her no matter what.  Quasimodo had fallen for Esmeralda and had helped her escape from his master’s clutches a couple of times.  Along with the help of the noble Captain of the Guard, Phoebus (Kevin Kline), the trio hoped to prevent Frollo’s mad scheme to kill Esmeralda and rid Paris of all the gypsies.

This film is way better than people give it credit for as it is criminally underappreciated.  It is certainly the darkest of the Disney “renaissance” of films, and it has one of the worst antagonists (by which I mean cruelest and wickedest.  He is actually quite the awesome villain) around in Judge Frollo.  Tony Jay’s voice talents is perfect for the voice of the monstrous man.

There are a ton of major themes running through The Hunchback of Notre Dame, including the acceptance of those who are different than we, the fanaticism of religion, and the dangers of genocide.

There are also laughs to be had in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The three gargoyle friends of Quasimodo (Jason Alexander, Mary Wickes and Charles Kimbrough) provides some typical Disney sidekick humor.

There is a definite vibe of Beauty and the Beast combined with Aladdin in this movie, but that does not make this subpar.  The action is top notch and the animation was as good as any during the time period.

Some may think that it is too violent and adult for little kids, and that may be true, but it is a compelling and dramatic animated movie nonetheless.

The Disney Plus Binge continues this Sunday morning with the classic Disney animated film Fantasia.

Fantasia is a piece of art, seamlessly blending together the skillful animation of the time with classical music from all-time great composers.  Disney is able to show that stories can be told in many different manners, not necessarily by words.

The artistic images in Fantasia are, even by today’s standards, beautiful and speak to the audience on their own.  When combined with the music, Fantasia brings these tales to life.

Of course, the most iconic of the parts of Fantasia is the Sorcerer’s Apprentice section, featuring Mickey Mouse magically recruiting brooms to help him carry water only to see that “magic always has a price.”

The greatest of classical composers were used in the soundtrack, mostly being performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Composers included Beethoven,  Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky.

The “Soundtrack” section of the movie was another one of my favorite parts of the film, again showing how sound can be shown in more than one manner.

Fantasia is a beautifully constructed animated film that brings together music and art in a wonderful way.  It shows how story can be expressed with music and is an inspiration of the future of music videos.

Browsing through the movies available to choose for the Disney Plus Binge, I saw that the lovely Mary Poppins Returns was available, and I thought, what a better film to continue the binge with than the original classic, Mary Poppins.

Julie Andrews stars as Mary Poppins, the greatest of all magical, flying nannies and Dick Van Dyke as Bert, the amazingly nimble, rubbery dancing chimney sweep.

Based upon the book series by P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins is filled with music and dance, animation mixed with live-action and some of the cleverest writing on screen.

Mary Poppins arrived because of a need in the Banks family.  At first glance, it appeared that Mary Poppins was there to help save the children, but in the end, we learn that she was there to bring Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) back into his family with his children.

The music is splendid and I can remember as a child being thrilled with it.  I can remember having “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” as a spelling word.  The dance routine of the chimney sweeps in “Chim Chim Cheree” and “Step in Time” is a masterpiece.  Julie Andrews shows off her beautiful voice in what was her feature film debut in which she would win the Academy Award.

Pure magic.  Practically perfect.

My second film in the Disney Plus Binge is an old childhood favorite of mine.  I used to love Don Knotts and Tim Conway and I remember watching the movies starring The Apple Dumpling Gang in the theaters.

The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again is the sequel to the original film and it brings us back into the bumbling and chaotic world of Otis and Theodore.

Amos and Theodore left the coziness of their friends home to make their mark on history and to find their own wealth.  Unfortunately for them, they immediately stumbled upon a bank robbery for which they were blamed.  Marshal Woolly Bill Hitchcock (Kenneth Mars), one of the fastest guns in the west, attempted to arrest the Apple Dumpling Gang only to have them accidentally out gun him.  This sent Hitchcock on a insane path to recapture Amos and Theodore.

The pair wound up in the army at a fort with Harry Morgan in charge.  Before too long, the slapstick of Amos and Theodore led to the fort being burned to the ground.

The way Amos and Theodore constantly wind up in trouble, despite their own intentions, carries the joke through the film.  Totally incompetent, the Apple Dumpling Gang still gains a reputation for their overcoming of Hitchcock.

Don Knotts and Tim Conway are experts in physical comedy and some of the stuff here, while not truly possible, is always fun.  The fact that these two idiots are as lovable as they are really endears them to the audience, while driving the other characters out fo their minds.

Most of the story is silly, and that is really the purpose of these films.  They are meant to highlight the skills of Knotts and Conway and they do that extremely well.  Sure the film is not ever going to be an award winner, but as a nice Saturday evening with the family, watching Disney +, well, you could do worse than The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.

Over the next several weeks, I will be diving head first into the next binge here at Doc’s Classic Movie Reviewed with a trip through the new streaming service Disney +.  As I was perusing the list of movies available, I came across one that I did not know fell under the Disney umbrella, but one that I always enjoy… Whoopi Goldberg’s star vehicle named Sister Act.

Lounge singer Dolores (Goldberg) witnesses her mob boyfriend Vince (Harvey Keitel) kill a snitch and she runs to the police.  The detective Eddie (Bill Nunn), knowing that the police had been having issues keeping witnesses alive, decided to hide Dolores away in a convent until it was time for trial.

However, Dolores did not take immediately to the life of a nun as she clashed with Mother Superior (Maggie Smith).  It was not until Dolores found herself sent to sing in the horribly sounding choir that she found her footing, turning the failing choir into a dynamic musical sensation.

Sure the story of Sister Act is ridiculous and illogical, but that is beyond the point.  It is a fun and entertaining film, featuring Goldberg in, what could have been, her greatest comedic role.  And the musical numbers are all great.

Maggie Smith brings her formidable weight to Mother Superior.  Playing the old school nun who struggled with the new progressive ways of “Sister Mary Clarence”, Smith creates a strong balance opposite Whoopi.

The whole Harvey Keitel storyline was clearly the weak point of the story, as every scene of Whoopi Goldberg in the convent was magic and engaging.

Sister Act is certainly a fun time.  I have watched clips of the songs, especially the “Hail Holy Queen” performance and I have enjoyed seeing the full movie once again.

Was there ever a better casting job than whomever hired Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Robert E. Howard classic character, Conan the Barbarian?

The Cimmerian Conan searches for revenge on a cult leader (James Earl Jones) for the death of his parents and much of his village when Conan was but a young and impressionable boy.  On the path to vengeance, Conan encounters battles with men and monsters as well as encounters with the world’s females, including his great love, Valeria (Sandahl Bergman).

There is an epic feel to Conan the Barbarian and it helped to launch the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The shots and images of the lands were beautiful and helped to infuse this with more than just a story of swords and sorcery.

Sure, Schwarzenegger has limited dialogue, but his physical performance is top notch and brings Conan to life.  Truthfully, every other chance to bring Conan to the big screen has not been successful.

The score of the film is remarkable too.   Basil Poledouris was brought on by his friend, director John Milius and the soundtrack makes the lack of dialogue less important.  The music stands out here.

It is also weird to see James Earl Jones appear as the villainous Thulsa Doom, but he brings a certain gravitas to the film, as does Max von Sydow as King Osric.

This film has its moments and may not be the greatest film made, but it owns some of the wildest quotes around.

“Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women!”

What else can you need?

The final night of October means Halloween and, for EYG, the final night of the October Horror Binge.  And we end the month with a trend setting film from 1999 called The Blair Witch Project.

One of the eeriest aspects of The Blair Witch Project was the speculation that this was more than just a movie.  The set up of the film made it feel like it could be real, and that made things all just a little bit creepier.

Of course, the film is not real.  It just was one of the films that helped to start the “found footage” craze.  The film looked to have been filmed by the characters themselves on a hand held camera which increased the suspense and the psychological terror as we see and hear what these three student film makers would go through.

The story was that these three young filmmakers went into the woods of Maryland to shoot a documentary about a local legend called the Blair Witch.  As they head into the woods, they begin to have major problems. They get lost.  They get hungry.  And eventually, thy start turning on each other as they appear to be stalked by something in the woods.

We follow the attempts of the trio to find their way home, all the while knowing that they would never be found again.  There were some extremely successful scares in the film considering there was almost no gore or any clear shots of the witch.  The film builds its tension inside the heads of the three filmmakers and slowly drives them into a state of psychological terror.

There may be too many scenes of the characters just yelling for each other, but it certainly lent an uneasy level of realism to the project.  The conclusion of the film is as nerve-wrecking as anything you will see and yet you may have no idea what you are looking at.  It is a well done third act to a film that had many iconic moments.

While the concept may not have supported the length of film that it was, The Blair Witch Project succeeds much more than it does not in creating what feels like a wild fantasy in the woods of Maryland.  It is just real enough to make you wonder.. could this be true?  The marketing of the film is one of the greatest of all time and that is why, twenty years later, people still know The Blair Witch Project.

Thus ends the October (which actually started in September) Horror Binge.

I had no idea what Army of Darkness would be.

I watched it and I am still not sure exactly what Army of Darkness was.

All I know is this is the Ash Williams that I fell in love with during Ash vs. the Evil Dead TV show in all his over-the-top, campiness, weird comedic humor goodness.

The character of Ash has come a long way since the original Evil Dead film.  Along the way, he became a kick ass hero with a chainsaw, a robotic hand and a boomstick.  All the while being played with a cheeky goodness by the one and only Bruce Campbell.  I said it before, but Bruce Campbell is the only actor that could get away with this kind of role.

Ash, at the end of Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn, found himself transported to a different time and plopped down in the middle of a war with humans and the Deadites where he must retrieve the Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon, in order to get back home.

Sam Raimi had changed this trilogy from a cabin in the woods horror film to a horror/comedy that appeared to owe a lot of its inspiration to the original Clash of the Titans.  The effects looked very much like the 1981 sword and sandals monster fest which was a personal favorite of mine as a youth.

Ash now is the character that I knew from Ash vs. the Evil Dead TV show from Starz.  This was where I was truly introduced to Ash and it was interesting watching how he developed over these three movies into that character.

Groovy.

While this is more of an action/adventure sci-fi epic than horror, there are still traces of the horror genre in Raimi’s third film of the trilogy.  It is ridiculously funny and silly much of the time, but it is intended to be this way.  I am not sure how I would have felt if I had not seen Ash vs. the Evil Dead first and then went backward to the trilogy, but, after already loving this character, Army of Darkness is a awesome end to the film series.

And the October Horror Binge rolls on…

With October coming to a close quickly, the October Horror Binge will conclude soon as well.  So this morning I watched another of the horror classics from the mid 1970s, The Omen.

Gregory Peck brought his all to the role of Ambassador Robert Thorn, whose wife Kathy (Lee Remick) gave birth to a stillborn child.  A priest named Father Spiletto (Martin Benson) brought Thorn another child whose mother had died in childbirth and gave him to Thorn to raise in place of their lost son.  His wife would never need to know.

It does not take long to find out that the boy, Damien (Harvey Stephens), is more than just another young child.  He is evil incarnate. He is the son of the devil.

The Omen is an iconic horror film that has been an inspiration to many films since.  This is the film that helped create the sub-genre of horror known as evil children.  Think of all the evil children movies over the years and wonder where they would be if not of The Omen.

Gregory Peck is exceptional in this movie and helps bring a credibility to the project.  He plays this completely serious and that helps what could have been a silly storyline elevate into more than that.  And much depended on the performance of Harvey Stephens to pull this off and he is tremendously eerie and creepy as the Anti-Christ child Damien.

The film is excellent at creating the tone and mood that will have audiences on the edge of their seat, despite a relatively slow build to this point. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is very effective in building that tension and of punctuating each moment with emotion and energy.

The ending of the film is every bit as chilling as any horror film you will see.

The Omen is one of the greats in horror genre.

I came late to the greatness that was Starz’s series, Ash vs. the Evil Dead, but once I found it, I watched every over the top minute of the blood soaked, cornball horror series.  So with the October Horror Binge having one week remaining, I decided to revisit the movie origin of EYG Hall of Fame character Ash Wiliams.

And while Ash made his first appearance in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, the character whom would eventually become the Ash we know and love truly took shape in the sequel to that movie, Evil Dead 2:  Dead By Dawn.

Evil Dead 2 is truly a mix of horror and comedy, unlike anything seen before.  I remember not being the greatest fan of the original Evil Dead movie, this sequel really takes the genre and turns it upside-down.  There are some expertly designed scares here, but also some amazing campy moments that seem to work beautifully together.

Of course, everything with Ash depends on the unbelievable Bruce Campbell.  Campbell brings a devilish, overextravagant style with which he has become synonymous.  This material simply does not work without Campbell’s over expressive facial features and his ability to deliver silly lines of dialogue with complete sincerity.

This is the film where Ash loses his hand, gains the chainsaw and starts becoming the monster fighter that he is in the epic series.  And that is just great.

The ending of this movie is a huge cliffhanger that leads directly into Army of Darkness, Raimi’s next in the Evil Dead trilogy.  He had successfully taken the gore-fest of the original Evil Dead film from cabin-in-the-woods horror genre to comedic horror effortlessly.  Few characters worked better in this surroundings as Ash Williams.

Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn is a lot of fun and it knows what it is.  It is a serious story that knows how to not take itself too serious, which is something that many movies cannot accomplish.

I needed a palate cleanser after watching The Exorcist today, so I watched Michael J. Fox’s horror/comedy The Frighteners for the October Horror Binge.  Do you know what?  That film was way creepier and more intense than I remembered it being.

I always liked The Frighteners even though it was considered one of Michael J. Fox’s less successful films after his huge trilogy with the Back to the Future films.  It did not make a lot of money, but the special effects for the time were quite well received and hold up today.

Fox is former architect Frank Bannister, whose wife was killed by a vengeful spirit and he gained a psychic ability to see spirits.  His wife’s death sent Frank on a spiral, to the point where he was using his ability to scam people as an exorcist of evil spirits.

However, the same dark spirit that killed his wife has returned to town and has begun killing again, making it look as if perfectly healthy people were falling over dead with heart attacks.  Frank, though, begins to see people with numbers on their foreheads, indicating who is the next victim.

I had not known that Peter Jackson, famed director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy,  had directed this little gem.  It showed what Jackson could do with CGI ghosts and battles before the jaunt into Middle Earth.

Some of the humor of the film felt a little forced and the tone of the movie did bounce around some.  The character of the FBI agent Milton Dammers (Jeffrey Combs) seemed to be a strange addition to the storyline.  He was a twitchy Fed who did not really serve to do anything much to push the story along.  I would have liked to see that character re-imagined and added into the mix in a different manner.

And the eventual killer was pretty obvious, but there was a neat little twist at the end that worked, for the most part.

This was a fun film that worked more than it didn’t and contains the always charming Michael J. Fox in a role slightly different than we are used to seeing him in.  I enjoyed The Frighteners more than most.

Bringing out the big guns now.

Perhaps one of the scariest, most iconic horror movies ever made is next in the October Horror Binge, and it is one that I am happy I watched in the middle of the afternoon.  I can only imagine what this would be like watching in the dark at night.

The Exorcist is one of those movies that everyone knows about and has transcended the genre of horror into the lexicon of pop culture.  There are so many scenes in this movie that have been parodied or imitated that it is somewhat difficult to watch the original without thinking about these examples.  To illustrate, when finished with The Exorcist, I pulled up the clip from Whose Line is it Anyway featuring the Scene to Rap on the Exorcist.

This movie became the first horror movie to be nominated for a best Picture Academy Award and has been the top grossing horror film of all time until recently when it was unseated by It.

This is the story of a young girl Regan (Linda Blair) who become possessed by a demon and her desperate mother (Ellen Burstyn) tried to find someone who would help them.  After exhausting the medical community, she turned to the church and Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller).  He brought in another priest Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) who has more experience in the ritual.

William Friedkin directed the film, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, which was based on the last known Catholic sanctioned exorcism in the United States.  Many of the specific details were changed, but much of the story is represented well in the movie.

No doubt, The Exorcist shook up the movie going public when it was released in 1973 and it has been creating a stir ever since.  It is as iconic a movie as you are going to find.