Forbidden Zone
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.18 You Save: $10.77 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Forbidden Zone
Movie Review: Warning! COLORIZED!
Summary: 4 Stars
It hurt to give this wonderful film only four stars, since it's definitely a five-star movie. But nowhere in the description of this item does it mention that it's been colorized, and is not the glorious black-and-white version I watched dozens of times from the front row of the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
After receiving the DVD and finding out it had been monkeyed with, I returned to the product page and actually had to click on the "See larger image" link to make out the words "In Color for the first time!" I ended up purchasing another version that was spared the abomination Ted Turner hath wrought.
I have since read, in reference to this DVD, that Richard Elfman had originally intended to have the movie hand-tinted in Asia before being released, but didn't have the funding. If this is indeed true, then good for him and I'm glad he has finally gotten his vision on the screen. But frankly this smacks of revisionism. It reminds me of the desperate justifications Spielberg made for his unforgivable digital vandalism of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."
Think about it: this is a film shot on a nonexistent budget, literally using cardboard sets, starring mostly unknown actors and featuring music that was either composed by the director's brother or so old it was in the public domain. Hand-tinting a movie is an insanely expensive and time-consuming process; even during the silent era when labor was cheap it was rarely done, and generally reserved for films expected to make boatloads of money.
My suspicion is that "Forbidden Zone" was colorized simply because the producers wanted to sell more copies, and far too many people are morons that refuse to watch anything in black-and-white. I hope I'm completely wrong about this, and Richard Elfman really DID dream of having every frame of his twisted epic carefully painted by hand.
Like pan-and-scan and "full frame" versions of wide-screen films, colorization is spitting in the face of the cinematographer and should not be tolerated. I ended up not returning the color version because I wanted the filmmakers to have the money and there's the chance that the colorization was planned, but if it hadn't been this particular movie I would have sent it back without a second thought. The movie itself is absolutely fantastic and everyone involved should be showered in gold. But be aware that it's NOT the version that premiered at Filmex in 1980.
Movie Review: My guilty pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
FORBIDDEN ZONE (1982) was colorized with the approval of director Richard Elfman, who in a bonus feature on this LEGEND FILMS disc admits that he originally envisioned having a master print hand-tinted by Chinese ladies.
This is one of those bizarre pictures that folks of a certain age (such as myself) used to watch while under the influence of illegal substances, and like a good buzz, it's most enjoyable for an hour; then the pleasure wears off.
There's so much here that I'm fond of: The Yiddishe Charleston, a human chandelier, Danny Elfman's superb rendering of Minnie the Moocher, his moody piano during the Fausto and Doris dinner scene, Bim Bam Boom, Squeezit, a demented Swinging the Alphabet, Froggy, The Kipper Kids, Pico and Sepulvida, Flash Hercules, Witch's Egg-- yet this all takes place within that first 60 minutes. From the torture scene on the movie fast loses momentum and in fact seems to grope for an ending. When we reach the final "big number" my reaction is always the same: embarrassment for having indulged the latent teenager in me.
Yes I'll undoubtedly watch FORBIDDEN ZONE in the future and will surely come away from the experience feeling guilty all over again. But I so LOVE that first hour!
(One star off of five for peaking too soon.)
Movie Review: Grows on you
Summary: 4 Stars
In the 80s I tried to watch this, but could not make it through. Now it is pretty fun. Guess they were ahead of their time. Watch this, then watch Nightmare Before Christmas. Amazing slightly the crazy dial was adjusted to make a mainstream hit.
Ir woukd have heloed if the opening credits had pointed out that this is based on a Paris stage show.
Movie Review: Forbidden Zone Movie Review from The Massie Twins
Summary: 2 Stars
Wavering on the very border of artistic and vulgar, Richard Elfman's cult classic Forbidden Zone strives to be in the same realm as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. If there is such a genre as "atypic psychosexual horror musical," both films would fall into that category. Forbidden Zone is a collection of shocking oddities, catchy tunes, and eccentric characters all dumped into patchwork sets and spontaneous musical song and dance sequences. Needless to say, you have to know what you're getting into before giving this film a shot.
Huckleberry Jones, a local pimp, narcotics dealer and slum lord stumbles upon a door in his basement that leads to the sixth dimension - the Forbidden Zone - where King Fausto (Hervé Villechaize) and his jealous queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) rule over an assortment of lunatic minions.
The Hercules family buys the uncanny house and soon curious daughter Frenchy (Marie Pascale-Elfman) wanders into the Forbidden Zone, only to become a prisoner and fancy for the disloyal king. The queen learns of his infatuation with the new concubine and arranges her death - so it's up to Frenchy's family to rescue her. Her brother Flash is a reasoning yet easily sidetracked man-child, Gramps is a speechless, overweight clog that has to be tied down to the dinner table, and Pa is a tar pit worker who no longer values life. Aside from Frenchy's doltish family, abused chicken boy Squeezit also decides to come to her aid.
Forbidden Zone is a movie that must be watched with an open mind, or a hankering for the most bizarre characters and events fused with song and dance ever to jolt the big screen. A frog-headed servant (literally), excessive use of bright colored makeup, drugs, machineguns, blood, transvestites, blackface, talking chickens, constant nudity, a human chandelier, and random aberrant sexual activities comprise this outrageous film. Prisoners in Cell 63 are forced to wear Mickey Mouse hats, composer Danny Elfman makes an appearance as Satan, heads are lopped off, ears are sliced off in Reservoir Dogs fashion, and the Princess is always half-naked. "Weird" can't possibly cover all of the peculiarities that frequent the sixth dimension.
Spontaneous dance routines, unruly sound effects, lip-synching, stop motion animation with live action characters, superimposition, fast paced music, traditional animation and painted backgrounds are standard methods of storytelling in Forbidden Zone. Oftentimes the film is so abnormal that it's hilarious, but most of the time it's just plain crass. If you can make it through the opening scene, in which Gramps unexpectedly vomits into the lap of Flash, it's safe to say you'll be prepared for the appalling singularities that follow.
- Mike Massie