Reviews

"Cassandra's Dream" was worse than I was told by our leading critics after Venice. I saw it at an exhibitor's preview where critics were allowed in: there were two people left at the end of the screening, me (and I have mobility problems) and an exhibitor who had agreed to give me a lift, and abused me all the way home for making him sit though it.

Has it been reedited since then? That was late last year.

There's not a heck of a lot more I can add to pad this out to 10 lines.

The acting was fine.

The Cinematography excellent.

The script stank, which was the problem.

Could somebody please tell us down under if this debacle was changed before release, as it appears to have been from the other posts? At the moment, it is headed for direct for DVD release later this year here, which would be a pity if the film was improved.

"Howard The Duck" rewards repeat viewing, believe it or not. The music score does seem to grow on one, to the point where I went and (with great difficulty) found a copy of the soundtrack, and the acting does appear to be better - I suspect the "Heaven's Gate" effect here, where in 1986 we were watching the negative publicity, but now we are just watching the film.

The strange nature of the film - half adult/half kid pic - remains, but now seems both endearing and entertaining, rather than irritating. The acting does appear far better than first thought, with Lea Thompson and Jeffrey Jones both giving excellent performances.

Certainly, it does not appear so bad today as to deserve to destroy the careers of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (which, of course, it did do back in '86).

Strange the effect of time on the one piece of celluloid!