Tag Archives: Oley Sassone

The Fantastic Four (1994, directed by Oley Sassone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s not that bad.

Produced by Roger Corman and made for a budget of only a million dollars, the very first film version of The Fantastic Four is best known for having never been released.  Stan Lee always claimed that the film was never meant to be released and that it was only made so that German producer Bernd Eichinger could hold onto the rights for the characters.  Eichinger has always said that he wanted to release the flm and it was Avi Arad, the future founder of Marvel Studios, who asked him not to because he felt a low-budget B-movie would damage the Marvel brand.  Arad has said that Eichinger is telling the truth and considering the reception that Albert Pyun’s Captain America received, I can understand why Arad was concerned.

Though the film was never officially released, bootleg copies are out there.  I’ve seen the movie a few times and I watched it again last night.  Watching it, I was reminded that The Fantastic Four is not as bad as people say.

It’s an origin story.  Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) flies into space with his girlfriend Sue (Rebecca Staab), her annoying kid brother Johnny (Jay Underwood), and Reed’s best friend Ben (Michael Bailey Smith).  Cosmic comet rays lead to them developing super powers.  Reed can stretch.  Johnny can burst into flame.  Sue can turn invisible.  Ben turns into a creature with orange, rocky skin.  On Earth, they battle both the evil Doctor Doom (Joseph Culp) and the Jeweler (Ian Trigger) for possession of a powerful diamond.

The low budget is obvious and the script isn’t great, with the Jeweler being a truly unimpressive villain.  (Unlike Doctor Doom, the Jeweler was created specifically for this movie.)  But the movie still has more genuine heart than the future big-budget Fantastic Four films. Alex Hyde-White plays Reed as being brilliant but self-absorbed.  Sue is a thankless role but Rebecca Staab does her best.  Jay Underwood is annoying as Johnny but Johnny was annoying in the comic books as well.  This version of The Fantastic Four is the only movie, so far, to capture and stay true to the spirit of the characters.

This is especially true when it comes Michael Bailey Smith’s performance as Ben Grimm.  More than either Jamie Bell or Michael Chiklis, Smith realistically portrays Ben’s bitterness over knowing that he will never be able to return to his former life.  Of all the film versions of the Fantastic Four, this is the only one that adequately captures both the look and the personality of The Thing.  He become a real person and not just an actor in a rubber suit.  This movie is also the only one, so far, to really do a decent job of portraying Dr. Doom’s megalomania.  It’s interesting that the film that Marvel didn’t want released is the one that stays true to the original comic book.

The Fantastic Four will be joining the MCU in 2025.  Ironically, considering that Marvel Comics started with the Fantastic Four, they’ll be among the last of the major characters to get an MCU film.  There’s hope that the new Fantastic Four will reverse the MCU’s declining fortunes.  I’ve been skeptical ever since I heard the Silver Surfer was going to be played by Julia Garner but hopefully, I’ll be wrong.  Galactus is one of the great Marvel villains and I hope the new Fantastic Four will do him justice.  When people are watching the massively hyped, big budget, CGI-heavy version of The Fantastic Four, I hope at least some will remember the low-budget version that could barely afford a single special effect and I hope they’ll remember that it wasn’t that bad.

Music Video of the Day: It’s In The Way That You Use It by Eric Clapton (1986, directed by Oley Sassone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s music video of the day was written for Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money.  The video mixes clips of Clapton performing the song with scenes taken from the film.  This use to be a very popular format on MTV, back when MTV played videos and every movie was advertised with a music video.

Director Oley Sassone is perhaps best-known for directing the never released 1996 Fantastic Four for Roger Corman.

Enjoy!

Cinemax Friday: Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes (1994, dir by Oley Sassone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Sam Deitz (Leo Rossi) is back to hunt one last serial killer in this, the last of the Relentless films.

This time the killer is a boring nonentity.  He’s not as interesting as the killers played by Miles O’Keeffee or William Forsythe.  Nor is he as unintentionally funny as the one played by Judd Nelson in the first Relentless film.  Instead, he’s just your run-of-the-mill religious fanatic, killing sinners and performing rituals.  His trademark is that he only kills the person that he wants to kill.  Anyone else who might be around is just taken out with a stun gun.  That’s a boring if considerate trademark.

Deitz is assigned to track down the killer, along with his new partner, Jessica Pareti (Colleen Coffey).  While Deitz is trying to solve the case, he’s also having to deal with his rebellious teenage son (Christopher Pettiet).  Between this film and the last, Deitz’s ex-wife died and now Deitz is a single father.  He and his son barely know each other.  Deitz tries to keep his son under control while all his son wants to do is spend time with his girlfriend, Sherrie (Lisa Robin Kelly).

Relentless IV is the least interesting of the Relentless film.  It’s so trapped by the now-stale Relentless formula that not even the casting of Famke Janssen as a possible femme fatale can save it.  Janssen is a psychiatrist who is connected not only to one of the victims but possibly to the killer as well.  She and Deitz are obviously attracted to each other and Deitz is torn between that attraction and treating her like a possible suspect.  The relationship between Deitz and the doctor has potential but it keeps getting sidetraced by scenes of Deitz trying to deal with his teenage son and it never really lives up to what it could have been.  Janssen is beautiful and Rossi gives a typically good performance but watching the film, it’s obvious that there wasn’t much left to do with the character of Detective Sam Deitz.

Direct-to-video mainstay Oley Sassone directs in a flat and unmemorable manner and the entire film just seems tired.  When the best your serial killer can do is kill someone with a Campbell’s soup can, you know you’re running on empty.  There would not be a Relentless V.  Hopefully, Sam Deitz finally found some peace and figured out how to balance being an intense New Yorker with living in laid back California.

Music Video of the Day: Broken Wings by Mr. Mister (1985, directed by Oley Sassone)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A man drives through the desert in a Thunderbird.  A hawk perches in a church.  An unknown couple dance the tango.  The beach awaits.  Yes, this is the video for Mr. Mister’s Broken Wings.

The video was directed by Oley Sassone, who later directed episodes of Hercules and Xena..  According to Sassone, “The subtext of the story and what I wanted the audience to feel was our hero’s own backstory in his mind. The tango dancers, juxtaposed with the images of him getting lost while driving, tossing a map and instead following the hawk overhead was, symbolically, his own soul, his own voice deep inside telling him to carry on – to lead him to a new path, a new beginning.”  Personally, I have always thought this song was about someone struggling to recover from a bad breakup.

Broken Wings is a song that epitomizes the mid-1980s so it’s not surprising that it’s also included on the Vice City: Grand Theft Auto soundtrack.  Getting chased the a police helicopter while listening to Mr. Mister is a surreal experience.