Clash of the Titans (No Rating)
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So much concern over whether little kids should see Texas chainsaw-handlers, the top of Lucy Liu's skull, or Jesus H. Christ himself getting hacked to bloody ribbons. But does anyone care that youth consumption of black-hat/white-hat, hero-versus-villain movies might turn a kid into a concocter of Axes of Evil, into a child who sees the world with the same Manichean, Matlock-esque starkness as our 43rd president? Would it really be worse for your tyke to empathize with Travis Bickle or Tony Montana than with Frodo or Luke Skywalker? These were the thoughts filling my head during the emptiness of this 1981 action film, in which Harry Hamlin as Perseus gives John Edwards a little competition for the title of "Breck Girl." (Shirtless and confused throughout, Hamlin gives off vibes that are equal parts gay porn and L.A. Law.) Former FX titan Ray Harryhausen and his collaborators took elements of Greek mythology and panfried them to make an initially touching, then yawn-inducing salute to their brand of '50s "fantasy" corn. The Joseph Campbell-ish journey of the would-be heroic Perseus is an excuse for the filmmakers to trot out various brand-name British stage giants (Claire Bloom, a visibly embarrassed Maggie Smith, Lord Olivier himself) playing Immortals who stand... perfectly... still...at ...all ...times, and to create stop-motion scorpions, a Medusa, a dragonlike thing, and a dreadful R2-D2-ish mechanical owl. I'm reminded of the title of a coffee-table book of photos of skateboard kids: Fuck You, Heroes! (Matthew Wilder)
Review by Matthew Wilder
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