I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

Cover of I Married a Monster From Outer Space

director: Gene Fowler, Jr.

actors: Tom Tryon (Bill) and Gloria Talbott (Marge)

screenplay:  Louis Vittes

tagline:  The Bride Wore Terror!

Newlywed Marge is disturbed that her husband Bill has had a personality change since their marriage.  She’s also distressed that they can’t conceive a child, despite a year’s effort.  Unbeknownst to her, her husband’s body has been taken over by an alien.

I usually like B sci-fi movies pretty well but the story and themes here seemed unfocused beyond ‘marriage is bad.’  They could have used the setup as a metaphor for human sexuality, gender norms, marriage, infertility, and so on.  It could have been awesome cheesy fun but it wasn’t.  There were some good moments, nonetheless. The alien husband standing in the lightning is an iconic image, and I was happy to see it. The scene with the [spoiler] human popcicles in the alien ship [spoiler end] was eerie and fun.   The paternalistic gynecologist Marge goes to see was unnerving but not meant to be.   I was on the side of the aliens 100% – the humans in this movie were prissy and smug.

links

Badmovies.org link

Popmatters link

Science fiction, horror and fantasy film review link

Monster Hunter link

Spider-Girl comics

Image via Wikipedia

I read three of these  Spider-Girl comics and didn’t enjoy them much.  I’m not a fan of superhero comics anymore and they have to be something special to win me over. The artwork by Pat Olliffe is loose and scrappy and works for the story.  I didn’t have any problems with it, except in A Touch of Venom.   The script was so-so too.  There were awkward quips and the whole family dynamic was unpleasant and not especially compelling.  The best story was A Touch of Venom.

Bedeviled by Tom DeFalco & Pat Olliffe

Spider-Girl encounters Crazy Eight and Dark Devil who put her through her paces.

A Touch of Venom by Tom DeFalco & Pat Olliffe

Spider-Girl encounters Venom who threatens her family.  The most involving of all the three stories, since her relationships with her family were believeable.  The artwork on the penultimate page was just annoying.  It was supposed to be an emotional turning point for the characters involved but each panel featured two alternating images.

Fun ‘n’ Games with the Fantastic Five by Tom DeFalco & Pat Olliffe

Spider-Girl gets mixed up with the Fantastic Five and characters from an alternate universe (the regular one), which made reading it confusing.

LINKS

Wikipedia

Comics.org

Comic Book Database

Comic Book Resources

Newsarama

Marvel.com

Movies I Watched in March 2010

I’m sad to watch the final episode of  My Name is Earl.  I didn’t like the episodes in which he was in prison or was in a coma much. But the rest of them were stupendously funny.  Joy and Randy were my favorite characters but Patty the Daytime Hooker comes in a close second.  I do hope that the creator Greg Garcia makes something else because I would quickly become a fan of his.

Though dated,  I enjoyed the Batmania documentary, and I learned a few things from it too.

Alice in Wonderland was so-so, although I liked the costumes.  The conclusion annoyed me.  I don’t understand why some forms of imaginations were privileged over others.  A friend pointed out that the movie was generally opposed to relationships and it’s true.  Every single relationship is consumed with lies, bitterness, misunderstandings or domination by cruelty.  I was annoyed that it was so easy for Alice to go off on her own to be a business woman in Victorian England.  There were women who did do adventurous and amazing things at that time but it was at an immense cost – sometimes life threatening.  It cheapens what they did, as if women who didn’t become business women were stupid and lazy.  Also,  was there really an ending of colonialism, yay? Oh, dear.  likeawhisper had similar thoughts, and has a lot of other interesting points to make.

When Batman Beyond first aired, I didn’t have the time to watch it but now I’m enjoying the series a lot.  I am disappointed not to find one of those obsessive fan sites detailing trivia about each episode but this one is pretty good: World’s Finest.

1. My Name is Earl 4:4
2. Batmania from Comics to Screen (1989)
3. House 2:5
4. Charmed 3:6
5. Batman Beyond 2:2
6. Il Mare (2000)
7. Alice in Wonderland (2010)
8. Batman Beyond 2:3

Books I read in March 2010

Short month of blogging there. Mixed bag here but at least I read some full novels this month.

Picture Books

Not a Box about a rabbit/child who is playing with a box and becomes increasingly annoyed with the staid viewpoint of the adult questioner. It’s funny and impertinent.  Diary of a Spider is light-hearted tale of a girl spider and her daily life.  Really Rabbits is about housekeeping bunnies and is adorable with a kind of low-key humor.The Snowglobe Family is about a family of humans and a family living within the snowglobe.  It is an unusual story and done well, I thought.  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is bittersweet and beautiful and is really a short story for adults.  I can’t imagine a kid liking it.

Chapter Books

I did like the few facts about hockey that wriggled into Don’t Sit on My Lunch.

Graphic Novels

Fun & Games with Fantastic Five had an annoying concept, in a parallel universe, Mary Jane and Peter Parker have a super daughter.  Touch of Venom – the story had Venom taking over Spider-Girl’s father and attacking her which was much better.  However, there were obvious short-cuts in the artwork and that dragged it down.

I liked Witch – these are cute stories with top-notch Disney art.  Peach Fuzz was best when focused on the ego-centric ferritt.

Teen and Adult Novels

Criss Cross was a bit stagnant but I think that was the point of the book and Artemis Fowl had an ending that cheated.

I really liked Peeps – the chapters on parasites were fun.  Watch Your Back – the kid is introduced in this one which made it extra fun.