Movie Review: The Lost World (1925)

The Lost World (1925) directed by Harry O. Hoyt from the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Professor Challenger (Wallace Beery) has returned to London with tales of a South American plateau where dinosaurs have survived and are still roaming around. He has no proof (his canoe tipped over dumping all his documents and samples) so the academic and scientific communities mock him. He does not take well--he's a brilliant scientist but also has (and this is a quote in the movie) "the temperament of a gorilla." He especially hates the press, which makes things awkward for Ed Malone (Lloyd Hughes), a low-level reporter who wants to impress his girlfriend by doing something brave and death defying. Getting an interview with Challenger would be frightening enough, but Ed goes the extra step and volunteers to go on a trip to South America. One of Challenger's comrades was trapped on the plateau and the friend's daughter Paula (Bessie Love) wants to go back immediately to rescue her dad. Ed is friends with Sir John Roxton (Lewis Stone), a famous hunter who is also friends with Challenger. They convince Challenger to take on Ed and they convince Ed's newspaper to finance the voyage, which at least will have the human interest story of rescuing Paula's father, even if there aren't any dinosaurs. The movie then gets to that South American plateau which is full of dinosaurs.

This classic silent film was the first adaptation of Doyle's novel of the same name. It is mostly faithful to the book, with an extra love interest added in the shape of Paula. She has a few too many "shocked and fearful" reactions as they confront various creatures but she also has more character too. The effects are by the same specialist that would go on to make King Kong, so they are top-notch for a hundred years ago. The story is fun though in the following century plenty of other films have copied the same story beats, so the plot is very familiar. There is a mildly annoying blackface character but his role is quite small. There's also a lovable comic-relief monkey named Jocko (played by Jocko, go figure), another recurring cliche that probably originated in this film. 

Recommended--this is a classic from the silent era and is the source for a lot of big-monster cinema that has come after it.

I watched this on Kanopy, which has two different versions with two different soundtracks. I watched the Flicker Alley edition, which has the restoration from 2016 (1 hour, 44 minutes) with a fairly standard orchestral soundtrack. 

Tire Park at Patapsco State Park

On the last day of spring break (Easter Monday), I took the kids to the Tire Park at the Hilton area of Patapsco Valley State Park. They have a nominal fee for entering ($2 for a car) but we only had a five-dollar bill, so we overpaid (though I did make a note to myself so I can go in one other time without paying!).

The playground is made up of used tires, mostly imbedded in the ground. The kids ran around and played on them. A couple of lines of tires are set up as running courses. After they raced each other, they wanted to race me. They did one-on-one races with me. I felt it was a little unfair, having to run twice in a row while they had breaks in between each race. On the other hand, my longer legs were a benefit here.

Before I got dragged in

A lot of other kids were there (mostly younger), so my kids were selective about where they played. Seemingly everyone selected out of this particular piece of equipment:

Unused!

Some tires were stacked together to make little forts, though the tires were on their rims, leaving holes to go in and out.

View into a tire fort

My kids' favorite thing here was the tire swing. They had me push them while the both rode.

Making a face for the camera

Making two faces for the camera

After a while, they wanted to ride individually. First, big sister pushed little brother around (a not uncommon occurrence). 

Ready to let go!

Pushed with all her might

Then they traded positions.

All his might might not be enough

We had a fun time. My children especially appreciated that the nature center was closed so no education happened on the last day of their school break.

At least they could appreciate the art

I did find a geocache while we were there, so we got our money's worth. At least we will when we visit one and half times more.

Book Review: Scum of the Earth by Alexander C. Kane

Scum of the Earth by Alexander C. Kane

Ezra Barker is an assistant to The Senator, the woman in charge of a section in the middle of what used to be the United States. The Merg, a hostile alien race, came and conquered. They are now extracting any and all valuable resources from the planet (which they call "Merg 12") with the promise that they will leave behind a human utopia when they are done. Barker is a collaborator who signed on early to save his own skin. He's really good at his job, handling paperwork and scheduling and managing minor situations for The Senator. His life is disrupted by two things. The Merg have a "visitor" coming and he is assigned to review safety procedures for the route from the landing site to the heart of Zero City (formerly known as Chicago). His other disruption is a woman who brushes her hair in a window across the street from his apartment. She lives in a workers' tenement, so she probably has unenviable mine work. He is smitten with her though she is completely unaware.

After he does the route inspection, he has more knowledge than is good for him, so the Merg plan to eliminate him. But the woman drops her brush out her window, giving him the chance to meet her. Once they are together on the street, a car drives up and kidnaps him. She was part of the resistance movement that needs him for their next big plan involving, you guessed it, the visitor.

The story has a tricky balancing act giving a rather undesirable hero sympathy. He's intelligent and a survivor, skills that have put him on the anti-humanity side, though all the rhetoric from the Merg is about how great things are and will be once they have left. After being kidnapped, he's pretty quick to help out the resistance though the woman has no interest in him at all. 

Enough side characters are thrown in to keep things interesting and to present different ways of collaborating and resisting. The Senator is a typical politician, telling people what they want to hear and generally being able to read a situation and charm/persuade people and Merg to do her bidding. Some lower-level cops are fully invested in the Merg propaganda, making them natural antagonists to Barker and the resistance. The resistance characters are a loose collection of people with varying degrees of competence and commitment. 

The characters have a lot of Orwellian "double think" going on. The Senator is described as able to believe two contradictory ideas are true at the same time. Others believe in the Merg's promises or in their own ability to make a bad situation better, even when they have almost no control over what happens to them. Even though the book is very comedic, it sneaks in some more serious ideas about how people deal with the worst situations, often in very different ways. I found it surprisingly satisfying as a comedy and a drama about an alien invasion.

Recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #358. Check it out!

TV Review: Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (2025)

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (2025) created by Alain Chabat based on the comics by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

This CGI-animated short series (5 episodes that are 30-40 minutes each) tells the tale of another attempt by Caesar's Romans to take over the last independent village in Gaul. The Romans haven't conquered it because the village druid, Panoramix, has invented a potion that temporarily gives the villagers superhuman strength. One villager, Obelix, fell into a pot of potion as a child and permanently has super-strength. He's a menhir merchant, selling large stones (like the ones at Stonehenge). The villagers are tough and regularly beat any legion that comes to conquer.

The Roman plan is two-fold. First, they kidnap Panoramix so the villagers won't have the potion. Second, they get one of the other Gaulish chiefs to challenge village chief Vitalstatistix. The Gauls have an ancient law that one chief can challenge another to combat and whoever is victorious becomes chief of both villages (the titular Big Fight). Without the potion, Vitalstatistix (a chubby little fellow) is sure to lose. Caesar himself comes from Rome to witness the ultimate triumph of the Romans.

The story is based on one of the original comics by Goscinny and Uderzo, but this version throws in a lot of other stuff. The flashback story of Obelix's accident is shown. The big fight at the end has the Romans building an arena and fun fair for the event, enabling them to make fun of sports commentators and Disneyland. The creators of the show throw in some new characters with punny names, like Tenmillionclix (whose name gets changed to Tenmillionviyus to be more Roman), Annabarbera, and Fastanefurius. The usual puns and comic interactions work really well with the animated style. This series captures the fun and entertaining spirit of the original comics.

The series was made in French and I watched with subtitles but there is an English-dubbed version. As I write (June 2025), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Recommended, highly for Asterix fans.

Book Review: God's'Dog Vol. 2 by J. Pageau et al.

God's'Dog Volume 2: Warrior written by Jonathan Pageau and Matthieu Pageau, adapted and drawn by Matthew Sheean and Jesse White

See my review of the first volume here!

The pilgrims continue their journey to Jerusalem but have to contend with their uneasy relationship with Reprobus, the talking dog-headed creature that some think is a monster and some think is redeemable. The issue becomes important as more is revealed about the Skins of Adam, an ancient relic that George, the leader of the pilgrimage, has. The relic has great power and he needs to choose the next person to carry the Skins. At first, one of his fellow soldiers was his choice. But as Reprobus becomes more civil, perhaps he could be the caretaker? 

New artists take over but the style is close enough to the original to be recognizable and consistent. The storytelling bounces back and forth from exposition-heavy to image-heavy. And from the main story to the back story about the Skins. The balancing act is tricky but works here. Readers get another cliffhanger ending, so hopefully the next volume comes out soon.

Recommended.

Movie Review: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

An American Werewolf in London (1981) written and directed by John Landis

Two young Americans, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), are hiking in northern England when they are attacked on the moors by a beast. The locals don't admit what's really going on, even though David is killed and Jack is sent off to a London hospital. Jack finally wakes up three weeks later. He's told they were attacked by a lunatic, which he flatly denies. Jack starts having horrible dreams and waking visions of a slowly decomposing David, who tells him he's become a werewolf and needs to commit suicide or else he will kill others. Also, David cannot move on to the afterlife until the line of werewolves is destroyed (the creature that attacked them was killed by the local villagers). Jack has a hard time dealing with all this, though not a hard enough time that he doesn't start flirting with one of the hospital nurses, Alex (Jenny Agutter). She takes him in when he's released from the hospital and they have sex at her apartment. But the full moon is coming soon, and the pressure from the dreams and from David's reappearances starts to mount.

The movie is a classic because of the comic tone and the famous transformation scene when Jack turns into a werewolf in Alex's well-lit living room. It's a harrowing sequence and still looks great even 45 years later. Landis is able to balance the tone of the film, blending the horror pretty tightly with the comedy. Jack may not know if he is crazy or actually a werewolf but viewers remember the title so we know how doomed he is. Side characters like his doctor and his family (not sure why they couldn't make it to England in three weeks to see their comatose son?) throw some humor and pathos into the story. His nightmarish life is rough but compelling. 

Recommended, though this is not kid-friendly: in addition to the extended sex scene between Jack and Alex, the movie ends with a confrontation at a London adult theater. For some reason, they have to show what's on the screen though it is completely unnecessary.

Theater Review: Puffs by Matt Cox Presented by Pasadena Theatre Company

Puffs: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic written by Matt Cox and Presented by Pasadena Theatre Company June 6-8, 13-15 2025

As Harry Potter fans, we were intrigued to see this performance somewhat near our home. The play is about the Harry Potter Hogwarts saga, but seen from the view of the Hufflepuffs...you know, the nice student house that doesn't really excel at anything. Their most famous member was Cedric Diggory, who came to an unfortunate end in the middle of the saga. As the play is not canonical Harry Potter lore, names have been changed to protect from lawsuits. More importantly, they are changed for comic effect, because this is definitely a light-hearted look at all the shenanigans that went on at a Certain School of Magic and Magic.

The parody is quite fun. The main character here is Wayne, an orphan boy from New Mexico who gets a letter from an owl inviting him to an exclusive British school. Wayne's uncle quickly explains a lot of stuff he hasn't been told. Wayne show up and is sorted by the hat into the Puffs, not the Braves, Smarts, or Snakes. He's okay with this because it is just exciting to be a wizard and to have this fantastic fate. Surely he will be a hero! Another American, Oliver, is a math wiz, which gives him no advantages whatsoever at a school of actual wizardry. Megan is a British girl who insists she has not been properly sorted and should be with the Snakes since her mom is in magical prison for consorting with that guy they can't talk about. The story loosely follows the seven years of school at Hogwarts as this trio has a lot of encounters with Harry, who is a bit full of himself and always robs any glory that might shine on the Puffs, including not coming in last place in the house cup tournament.

The show is not entirely a comedy. The main theme is about how background or seemingly unimportant people have lives and can be significant too. Wayne, Oliver, and Megan all have ambitions (encouraged by a magic mirror that shows them what they desire) that are frustrated but they learn to shift their expectations and grow as characters through the course of the play. This bit of grounding gives the play something more to it than just an extended Saturday Night Live skit. The audience cares about the characters so the big battle at the end, with a lot of deaths, has more to it than comic elements.

My family enjoyed the play a lot. The amateur production is bolstered by the company's longevity (45 years!) and borrowed sets and props from another local production. The actors do well at their jobs though we felt Cedric should have had more presence and charm than the actor delivered. The plot moved along nicely, providing a story while skewering bits of the books and the movies.

Recommended, though obviously it will be hard to see this production if you are not local to Annapolis and are not reading this review in a timely manner. But if a production shows up in your area, give it a try!