John Huston! Shelley Winters! Henry Fonda!
Horrid special effects, even worse performances, and
…a giant, blood-lusty cephalopod!! I give you…
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, 1986
At the time I watched King Solomon’s Mines, I thought it was as bad as a movie could be. I was wrong.
King Solomon’s Mines, 1985
One might assume that a film starring Richard Chamberlain, Herbert Lom and John Rhys-Davies would be a winner on star power alone. One might also assume that a ready-made, in-jar mixture of peanut butter and jam would be a wondrous thing.
One would be wrong. Oh so very wrong.
Please click to embiggen and revel in the pure shittiness of this poster.
Orca – The Killer Whale
In keeping with our recent “Maritime Mayhem” kick, J and I watched cult favourite Orca: The Killer Whale (1977). I had seen the film previously (albeit a loooong time ago) so I was prepared for it to be bad. I was not, however, prepared to be mentally raped by the monumental stupidity presented within its 90 minute running time.
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Jaws 3-D
Hot on the heels of Friday the 13th – Part III – 3D, J and I headed out to see Jaws 3-D with Dead Robot and Sharkboy at the Fox Theatre in the Beaches, Toronto. Screened on the last night of their 3D Festival, the audience for the film was far more animated than that gathered for F13-III. It made watching a film so bad that it can only be compared to drinking hot, steaming liquid shit for 1 hour and 40 minutes, one of the most enjoyable film-going experiences of recent memory.
Jaws 3-D
Friday the 13th – Part III – 3D
..in 3D!
This past week, I had the pleasure (dubious as it may seem) of witnessing screenings of Friday the 13th – Part III 3D and Jaws 3-D, arguably the biggest hitters in the short-lived revival of 3D cinema in the early to mid-1980s. Both were projected in their original 3D format at the Fox Theatre in The Beaches, Toronto.
Friday the 13th – Part III 3D
The Split Diopter
I created this blog to be a sub-site of my personal blog, The Fortress of Solitude, and focus more directly on films (and possibly television).
In case anyone is curious, the term “split diopter” refers to a camera lense that has a portion of it covered by a filter, usually to provide two focus points within one shot, or piece of film.
The current header is an example of such a shot from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) in which William Shatner (in foreground) is in focus along with the background (on the right). If you look closely, the fuzzy line in the center marks the “split” part of the split diopter (pictured above). Below is another example from The Andromeda Strain (1971)
