The Fly. David Cronenberg. 1986.

This may have been the first Cronenberg movie I watched as a teenager. It’s got Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis! Just based on that, it’s the perfect movie to watch as a teenager.

I remember nothing else about this movie, so I’m excited to re-watch it.

This is the second of Cronenberg’s not very productive descent into big-budget American movies. I mean, just ponder this career:

After doing a rapid fire schedule, there’s about three years between his movies as he gets bigger budgets and better distribution: Three years between The Dead Zone and The Fly, two to Dead Ringers, and three to Naked Lunch.

Cronenberg’s previous movie , The Dead Zone (based on a script rewritten five times), totally sucked, and this would seem like a further descent into mainstream hell: A remake of a 50s B movie sci-fi movie.

But this low expectation set-up apparently allows Cronenberg to return to his obsessions: The body and how yucky it is. But it’s not just that: It’s got a lot of the old Cronenberg touches everywhere. It’s got the silent, awkward scenes and the proper creepy atmosphere and the really gross bodily transformations.

I’m not quite sure what I think of this movie now. There’s really not happening, or tension. The movie is Goldblum slowly turning into a horrible-looking monster, and it’s all shown clearly on the screen. There’s no skulking in the shadows for Cronenberg.

And Cronenberg playing a gynaecologist in a dream sequence is pretty on the nose.

So good it had to have two logos!

Nice do.

But it’s nothing a little car accident can fix.

The Dead Zone. David Cronenberg. 1983.

Oh, this studio title thing brings back memories:

Mostly of cheap 80s movies, though, so my expectations are immediately lowered.

I have seen this movie before, but the only thing I remember about it is Christopher Walking emoting in a house for some reason or other. And the movie being not very good; kinda the only Cronenberg movie I watched at the time that I thought was really lame.

Or perhaps I wasn’t aware of Cronenberg yet? Yes, that sounds true: I probably watched this because it was a Stephen King movie. I’d probably seen Shining and Christine already, and then this… which is not like those.

I don’t quite understand what Cronenberg is doing here. It’s a slow, ponderous movie with zero depth. There’s nothing interesting about these characters at all. Christopher Walken is a good actor – duh – but there’s nothing here to do. He can be stoic and silent or he can be shouty, but his character has the emotional depth of a grape.

Except the efforts the hairdressers take with his ever-changing hair.

This is such a bad movie. What happened? After the masterful (but not very respectable) Videodrome, Cronenberg felt like he had to make a movie by the big studio’s rules to get to the next budget rung? This is produced by Dino de Laurentiis, so that it’s crappy isn’t a surprise, but how did de Laurentiis make Cronenberg shed his entire personality and sleep-walk though this… dreck?

Wikipedia has the production story, but the most interesting thing is this:

Before Christopher Walken was cast as Johnny Smith, Bill Murray was considered for the role.

Just imagine!

And!!!:

In an interview on the Dirty Harry DVD set, director John Badham said that he was attached to direct the film at one stage, but pulled out as he felt the subject matter was irresponsible to display on screen.

What!? The Dirty Harry guy thought the script was irresponsible? Hm, oh yeah, it has that ending: Our Hero has visions and decides to kill presidential candidate… and that’s the sane thing to do.

I guess.

This bluray has a pretty good “making of” documentary. Cronenberg says “In order to be faithful to the book, you have to betray the book.”

The Pass. Ben A. Williams. 2016.

Well, this is a strange one. After half an hour I was beginning to wonder whether this was going to be just to very skimpily clad footballers in a hotel room.

But it’s not.

This does make me wonder whether this was originally a stage play?

[time passes]

I have to admit, at the start I was really sceptical, but it grew on me as it went on. It’s so straightforwardly (tee hee) a filmed play, and while the plotline isn’t very convincing, the performances from Russell Tovey, Arinzé Kene and Lisa McGrillis are gripping.

But the third act… not even the actors could redeem that.