|
Hot Picks
| |
|
Forbidden Zone
USA 1980
produced by
Marie-Pascale Elfman, Richard Elfman, Gene Cunnignham (executive) for Hercules Films
directed by Richard Elfman
starring Hervé Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Matthew Bright, Virginia Rose, Gene Cunningham, Phil Gordon, Hyman Diamond, Viva, Joe Spinell, Sugar Bear, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Herman Bernstein, Danny Elfman, Ken Corrone, Richard Elfman, David Erikson, Nicholas James, Gisele Lindley, Joe Munro, Kedric Wolfe
written by Richard Elfman, Matthew Bright, Nicholas James, Nick L. Martinson, music by Danny Elfman, performed by The Oingo-Boingo, additional vocals supplied by Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker, Miguelito Valdez, The Boulevard Stoppers, animation by John Muto
review by
Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
Fed up with life and school, and driven by curiosity, young Frenchy
Hercules (Marie-Pascale Elfman) enters the Forbidden Zone/Sixth Dimension
through a door that curiously enough can be found in the basement of the
Hercules-home. In the Forbidden Zone, she soon attracts the attention of
the King (Hervé Villechaize), who makes her his favourite concubine ...
much to the dismay of the Queen (Susan Tyrrell), naturally. Meanwhile
back on earth, Frenchy's brother Flash (Phil Gordon) and Grampa (Hyman
Diamond) start worrying about the girl and go after her ... but are
promptly captured by the evil Queen and thrown into a septic tank ...
but somehow survive, get out of the tank and on their way to save
Frenchy again, they meet the Forbidden Zone's ex-Queen (Viva). In the
meantime, the Queen has captured /and imprisoned Frenchy, and when the King eventually helps her to escape, she is promptly recaptured. Eventually,
more and more people from normal earth get sucked into the Forbidden
Zone, like Frenchy's dad (Gene Cunningham), who has just accidently blown
up the tar factory he works at, and now prefers being imprisoned in the
Zone to leading a meaningless life on earth, nerdy Squeezit (Matthew Bright), who desperately wants to save Frenchy, but this only
results in getting his head cut off by the devil (Danny Elfman), and of course Frenchy's mom (Virginia Rose), who
comes to the rescue without the first idea what's going on ... This
film is pretty much madness! Sure, its plot is feeble as can be and the
resolution is pretty much drawn out of a hat rather than worked towards,
but that's totally besides the point as Forbidden Zone is a wild blend of
mainstays from vintage musicals, 1930's cartoons, pulp and serial
mainstays, rather contemporary Monty
Python-esque irreverent humour (though you'll have to excuse
some low brow fart jokes), a healthy touch of surrealism, and of course a
rather non-sensical approach to it all ... and it's all done in cardboard
sets somewhat reminiscent of those seen in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
and accompanied by a musical mix somewhere in between jazz classics and
chansons of yesteryear from all around the world and new wave pop of a
pre-bombast Danny Elfman and his Oingo Boingo. Well, that description
alone should convince you the film is a very wild melange, and expecting
anything but a highly unlikely movie/cinematic experiment will probably
leave you disappointed - but if you can accept utter weirdness, then this
one was tailor-made for you!!!
|
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Forbidden Zone at adultvideouniverse.com
