LastManOnEarth Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: I Am Legend
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Warner Brothers », Theatrical Reviews »
''When I started in movies, I said, 'I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.' The biggest movie stars make the biggest movies, so (my producing partner James Lassiter and I) looked at the top 10 movies of all time. At that point, they were all special-effects movies. So Independence Day -- no-brainer. Men in Black -- no-brainer. I, Robot -- no-brainer.'' -- Will Smith, Entertainment Weekly, "Hollywood's 50 Smartest," Nov. 28, 2007
And that's a fairly loaded turn of phrase, because to many movie fans, 'no-brainer' better describes the scripts and direction of Independence Day, Men in Black and I, Robot than it does the decision to star in them. And before seeing I Am Legend, a third Hollywood version of Richard Matheson's 1954 book following in the footsteps of 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man, the specter and spectacle of Smith's track record in big-budget science fiction loomed like a dark cloud. I walked into I Am Legend cautious and underwhelmed, with Smith's past genre efforts in mind; I staggered out of I Am Legend impressed and enthused and a little wrung-out after a well-executed and perfectly pitched demonstration of brute-force big-money horror-action film making. I'm hesitant to say how well I Am Legend will endure the test of time, but while you're watching it, you're caught in an iron grip, moved and manipulated and carried away by film makers who know exactly how to make you sink into our seat with dread. I shivered and tensed throughout I Am Legend, and at the end of the credits, I was dumbstruck to learn it was PG-13; it felt far more gripping and grim and upsetting than that rating would suggest.
Retro Cinema: The Last Man on Earth
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Retro Cinema »
Come this Christmas, I Am Legend, a science fiction horror film starring Will Smith and based on a novel by Richard Matheson, will be hitting theaters. This will make three adaptations for Matheson's novel, the last being 1971's The Omega Man, which starred Charlton Heston. The book was first adapted for the 1964 film The Last Man on Earth, a bleak post-apocalyptic nightmare starring Vincent Price. While still taking a few liberties with the source material, the Price film is easily the more faithful of the two, and this Italian/British co-production has been a personal favorite for years.
The film opens with a series of shots depicting a city with no citizens. A few bodies lie here and there, but otherwise the streets are empty. The Marquee in front of a church reads "The End Has Come." The camera moves into a residential neighborhood and into the home of Dr. Robert Morgan (Price), the titular last man on earth whose sanity is hanging by a thread. Each night Morgan's house is assaulted by vampire-like creatures, the after effects of the global plague that has wiped out mankind. The creatures are bloodthirsty but weak and are only dangerous in numbers.
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