Movie Review
‘The Fly’ gets stuck in its own ointment
If there was an Academy
Award in the “Best Slime and
Ooze" category, David Cronen
berg’s “The Fly” would easily
walk away with an Oscar. The
movie is filled with body parts
decaying, fly barf, fly barf dis
solving body parts, fly baby
abortions and exploding fly
body parts.
Cronenberg has always gone
for flashy and gory effects. His
films “Scanners” and “Video
drome” were filled with blood,
gore, guts, sadism and explod
ing bodies, making the viewer
spend most of his time turning
away from the screen instead of
trying to follow the story line.
Cronenberg redeemed himself,
however, by toning down the
blood and guts for “The Dead
Zone,” probably the best filmed
version of a Stephen King novel
since Stanley Kubrick’s “The
Shining.”
In the original version of
“The Fly,” made in 1958 with
David Hedison and Vincent
Price, a scientist (Hedison) in
vents a machine that can tele
port a man from one place to
another. During his first trip
through the machine, the scien
tist fails to notice that a fly has
entered the teleport chamber
with him. When the scientist
comes out of the other end, he
has the fly’s head and one fly
arm, and the fly has his head
and one human arm. It was not
a great day for science.
In the new movie, scientist
Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum)
makes the same mistake Hedi
son did 28 years earlier. Only
this time, Brundle and the fly
don’t exchange heads and arms
—instead, their DNA is spliced
together. At first, Brundle no
tices no changes except an in
crease in strength and an insa
tiable appetite for sugar and
sex. He enjoys his new abilities,
but there are some problems.
His back begins to sprout weird,
fly-like hairs. Then his face be
gins to break out with one of the
worst cases of acne in history.
His fingernails fall out. Then his
ear falls off. Before long Brun
dle has filled his medicine chest
with the body parts that have
fallen off. The movie becomes
nothing more than a disgusting
display from the special effects
department as Seth Brundle be
comes “Brundlefly. ”
Jeff Goldblum, whose pre
vious credits include “Into the
Night,” “The Big Chill,” “The
Right Stuff,” “Silverado” and
the 1979 re-make of “Invasion
of the Body Snatchers,” gives a
fine performance as the eccen
tric scientist Brundle. Some of
his wry comments about his
transformation provide a little
comic relief in the face of the
horror. The only problem is that
Goldblum is so covered with
makeup, it’s hard for his talents
to shine through.
Genna Davis, who starred on
television’s “Buffalo Bill” and
“Sara,” plays Veronica Quaife,
a reporter who is sent to get the
story of Brundle’s new inven
tion and ends up falling in love
with him. Davis handles her role
with all the range and emotion
of a Barbie doll.
As a special effects movie,
“The Fly” is marvelous. But as
a movie about people, “The
Fly” is a failure. Cronenberg
has decided that gore is more
popular than an intelligent story
about people caught up in a
horrible situation and has con
centrated on the gore to bring in
the bucks.
—Review by Karl Pallmeyer
Album Reviews
“So”
Peter Gabriel
Geffen Records
★★★★★ (five out of five)
It has taken 11 years and five
albums for Peter Gabriel to
achieve the commercial respect
he deserves.
Gabriel Genesis helped start
back in the late 60s. His bizarre
lyrics, unique stage prescence
and powerful voice were the fo
cal point of the band until his
surprise departure in 1975.
Genesis, under the leadership
of Phil Collins, went on to be
come extremely successful, but
Gabriel’s solo career wasn’t as
bright.
“So,” Gabriel’s fifth album of
original music, marks a high
point in his solo career. Al
though “So” is less experimen
tal than most of his recent work,
he still uses the various themes
and rhythms he has borrwed
from African tribal music. This
time, however, he has toned
down the sounds to make them
more accessible to the pop mu
sic world.
“Sledgehammer” has done
fantastically well on the charts
for the past couple of months.
“Sledgehammer” is an irresisti
ble dance track with lyrics filled
with sexual innuendoes. Some
how Gabriel is able to sing
about sledgehammers,
bummper cars, honey bees and
steam trains without turning the
song into a tasteless exercise in
male chauvinism.
The mood becomes quieter
for “Don’t Give Up,” a gentle
ballad that features a duet with
Gabriel and Kate Bush. “That
Voice Again,” co-written with
producer David Rhodes is
made to sound eerie by L.
Shankar’s violin.
So far, “So” has been Ga
briel’s most popular album. He
has also been getting massive
play on the radio and MTV. Ga
briel’s tour is bound to sell out
almost anywhere he goes. Will
success go to his head? I don’t
think so. “Big Time” is a satrical
song about someone who
makes it big and starts to do all
the “star” things. I doubt if Ga
briel will allow himself to be
come like the character in his
song.
—Review by Karl Pallmeyer
“Invisible Touch”
Genesis
Atlantic Records
*V2 (one and a half out of
five)
Genesis has produced some
good music since its inception in
the late 60s, but what the band
is doing now is too boring to
mention. “Invisible Touch” is
an uninspired album that hardly
even hints at the enormous tal
ent the band has to offer.
The title track is a nice little
song that is already a huge hit.
It’s one of those songs that you
like the first 200 times you hear
it but then starts to get old. “To
night, Tonight, Tonight,” with
its techno-pop video game syn
thesizer beat, is destined to be
the next hit. It’s nice that they
put these songs back to back so
that you don’t have to listen to
all of the album to hear the hits.
The music for “Land of Con
fusion” sounds almost like a rap
song but Collins doesn’t rap. It
would probably be embarassing
if he did. “Anything She Does”
is a syntho-pap dance song with
a chorus that sounds suspi
ciously like “Invisible Touch,”
“Throwing It All Away” is yet
another Collins’ moan about
losing his wife while “The Bra
zilian,” an instrumental, shows
that the band can still play to
gether if they want to.
Genesis has become a lot
more popular with the general
public now that they are more
accessible but some of us prefer
the old style.
—Review by Karl Pallmeyer
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