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Post by emperordorkin on Feb 12, 2004 11:52:14 GMT -5
Joel & the 'bots do some very funny riffing on this, but quite honestly, this is actually a really cool trippy movie on its own.
The premise is really creepy, Nigel Davenport & Michael Murphy are pretty good respected actors, and the super-sized ant photography is amazing. I love the scene where the vengeful ant fries the praying mantis.
Its a shame the great Saul Bass didn't make another attempt at directing a full-length film.
What do you guys think?
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Post by Miss Interoceter on Feb 12, 2004 12:29:23 GMT -5
I think it has a much more interesting premise for a bug movie than most of the others do. Something usually causes the bugs in other movies to do what they do. Nuclear testing, electric shock, rabbits given the wrong test serum, etc. But it's never said (that I remember anyway) why the ants go on the offensive. I think the only thing that makes it fail as a movie, is the ending. The ants kill all these people and somehow they're assumed into the colony? Become ants? That doesn't work for me. And with the VO work by Michael Murphy at the end I expected to see an ant at a tiny typewriter pounding out the story of his life. And I thought the shots of huge ants and all the magnified stuff though cool to a point, went on far too long. Good premise, bad follow through. First KTMA ep I saw, too!
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Post by Pete on Feb 12, 2004 12:35:21 GMT -5
I just watched Phase IV for the first time a few days ago. You're right, I was surprised at how cool the movie was, even without the riffing.
It kinda felt like a zombie movie to me. Except the ants weren't completely mindless. Like zombies, the ants were easy to kill individually, but en masse, they were virtually unstoppable. The ending was rather disappointing: ambiguous and rather pretentious. That's why it belongs on MST3K, I guess.
Overall, it was one of the least ridiculous films they have done. And that girl in the movie was pretty hot too.
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Post by Bart Fargo on Feb 12, 2004 15:48:51 GMT -5
Personally, I was throughly confused and very lost at the end of the first time I watched Phase IV. It took me three or four viewings of the film to understand it all.
Mayo Simon, the writer of this film, also wrote "Marooned" a.k.a. Space Travelers. He was also a writer on "The Man From Atlantis." The later is a TV series best known for being canceled.
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Post by ImCherokeeJack on Feb 12, 2004 20:39:49 GMT -5
I remember reading once that this was the film that really made Joel realize that he had something special. That's probably why when he left the show, he made his first Website an "ant" site. When you entered it, you became an ant and had to crawl through various tunnels to navigate. I don't know if the site is still up. It's been years since I visited it.
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Feb 12, 2004 22:58:22 GMT -5
I'm going to agree with the thoughts that Phase IV wasn't such a bad movie (at least not when compared to the other movies that they had to watch). Someone pointed out how it's never really explained why the ants go on the offensive, and that finally made me realize why this movie's always seemed so familiar: it's like The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock! And the only difference between the two that I can really see? This movie ended with the ants winning, Alfred's movie ended without a true resolution.
Maybe that's why Phase IV isn't thought highly of/why The Birds is thought highly of. Same basic story, but only Alfred chose not to end it.
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