{"id":7868,"date":"2012-01-11T23:59:17","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T04:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2790"},"modified":"2012-01-11T23:59:17","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T04:59:17","slug":"just-dont-go-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7868","title":{"rendered":"Just Don’t Go There…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still sick with this cold thing, and while not a full-blown monster, it\u2019s the more stealth version: exhausted, pounding headaches, and pounding headaches. Did I mention pounding headaches?<\/p>\n

The plus side is when not holding my cranium until the Advil kicks in, I can do things, so in addition to more tests with the camera, there was cooking silver beet soup, which may not be heavy on protein, but is almost as soothing as chicken soup (of which I have none because I never replenished the chicken stock that had to be turfed when the fridge died a few months ago. But that\u2019s another story for another cold day).<\/p>\n

When Henry Frankenstein decided it was worth risking everything to create his monster, he pretty much deserved everything that ensued; had he stuck to studying mould \/mold on cheddar cheese as original planned, he and Elizabeth would\u2019ve wed, and the two could\u2019ve started their own firm, beating Kraft and Black Diamond to the finish line as the dominant cheese manufacturer.<\/p>\n

But no, Henry wanted to play with dead things, reanimate them into something better than reconstituted beef, and move on to a bride for his all-singing \/ all-dancing creation, losing everything he was destined to enjoy had he stayed on the straight & narrow path of orange cheese products.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The theme of wanting to create a vision from spare parts and goo pushed Jeffrey Franken (idiosyncratic James Lorinz) to reconstitute dead love Elizabeth (hot Patty Mullen) into a better bride. Yes, Elizabeth was mulched by an experimental robotic lawnmower, but Jeffrey still had her head and arm, and her discombobulated status gave Jeffrey a prime opportunity to improve upon his beloved\u2019s flawed parts by getting better ones from hookers in New York City, and so begins the story of Frank Henenlotter\u2019s awesomely warped Frankenhooker <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1990), which gets its Blu-ray release from Synapse Films. The review\u2019s up, and you\u2019ll find some details regarding the different extras between the Synapse release and the British Arrow edition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Also uploaded is a review of Ralph Nelson’s bullshit cautionary tale \u00a0Embryo<\/strong> (1976), another example of why sometimes eggheads just shouldn’t go ‘there’ \u2013 the middle ground between light and dark \u00a0immorality, between science good and bad, of things and ideas and really wrong feelings.<\/p>\n

Nelson may have earned an Emmy Award (Playhouse 90\u2019s Requiem for a Heavyweight<\/strong>) and directed the Oscar-winning hit Lilies of the Field <\/strong>(1963), but by the seventies he had slipped, and Embryo <\/strong>was a peculiar effort to recapture the moral arguments of earlier & better films, if not the tragic relationships within one of his best: Charley <\/a><\/strong>(1968), where a slow-witted man becomes smart due to some brilliant experimental work by eggheads, and then starts to regress.<\/p>\n

That film\u2019s final scene is a real slammer, but the sadness & desperation of Charly<\/strong> is constantly bungled in Embryo <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1976), right down to the finale where star Rock Hudson realizes Barbara Carrera (who\u2019s frequently nekkid) has done something really bad.<\/p>\n

Whereas Frankenhooker<\/strong> is out on Blu, Embryo<\/strong> is a classic public domain DVD title, which means finding a clean widescreen copy is near impossible, unless TCM perhaps airs one. I\u2019ve reviewed the Diamond Entertainment DVD, and you\u2019ll probably be simpatico with my frustrations with Nelson\u2019s clunky film, and Diamond\u2019s absolutely wretched transfer.<\/p>\n

Really: the label deserves to be smacked hard with the Idiot Stick for ever thinking they could improve upon a garbage U-matic transfer from 1942.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nuff said.<\/p>\n

More to follow shortly, including details of some great stuff coming very soon to the TIFF Bell Lightbox.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just uploaded: reviews of Synapse Films’ snappy new Blu-ray of Frank Henenlotter’s classic Frankenhooker, and a similar themed Frankenstein riff, Ralph Nelson’s Embryo (1976). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1006,1003,1007,547],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-22U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}