THE FLY II
That's a fly? That doesn't look like a fly.
Man, now I'm gonna have to review Cronenberg's film; it's the only Fly flick I haven't done!
This is actually the very first Fly movie I saw, way back when it was a new release. About a week after that, I saw the guy who played Dr. Sheppard, Frank C. Turner, in a production of The Black Bonspiel Of Wullie MacCrimmon. (don't ask)
It's five years after the events of Cronenberg's film, and Veronica Quaife has squeezed out Seth Brundle?s filthy loinspawn (tossing a quarter over to Jason). He's Martin, and he's expected to grow to adult size in five short years! He's smart, he's friendly, he never needs to sleep (lucky bastard). And it's a good bet that by the end of the movie, he'll turn into a fly.
He's being raised in a private lab, where they're also doing experiments with his dad's telepods. They even try running a loveable pooch that the kid befriends through there - the result is actually quite depressing. Really, this bothered me for months after I first saw this. I'm a little crustier these days, but I still have to admit to it having affected me. Anyway, the guy who owns the lab is named Bartok (Lee Richardson, delightfully mixing in fatherly gentility with complete slimy nastiness) - you can tell he's bad news because he tells his staff "You will answer to me, and I in turn will answer to no one but God." When Martin grows to "adulthood" (played by Eric Stoltz, underplaying well into invisibility as always), he finds a love interest in a fellow techhead (Daphne Zuniga, foxy as always), gets a "private" room of his own, and tries to complete his father's work on the telepods. Then he starts realizing that neither his seemingly benevolent surroundings - nor himself - are quite what he's always believed they were.
Filmed in Burnaby, B.C., I can't right now add this to the very, very short list of good things to come out of that much-hated town, may it sink into the sea. (this list presently consists of Devin Townsend and Deep Rising) It's not bad, really, but I can't really look y'all in the eye and recommend it.
Center stage are Chris Walas's creature effects, and they are quite the sight (never mind that the resulting creature doesn't even remotely look like a fly) (I suppose Martin's only a quarter Fly, unlike dad, who was half Fly). I remember seeing somebody (probably Walas himself) stomping around on those reverse-bending Fly legs on some "making of..." TV show. After seeing that, I totally wanted a pair. Lots of great gore and slime too, with a face-vomiting (that fly-puke is rather corrosive) and one unlucky bastard gets his head squished under an elevator. That crushed head is pretty much the only real link (other than the flyification of the central character) that this movie has to George Langelaan?s original short story.
But like I said, that all takes center stage, and that's where the film's chief problem lies, I think. The story leading up to the grue is compelling - I very much enjoyed seeing Martin discover things about his gilded cage, and his heritage. Cronenberg's film was great for gore and slime, but what made it a classic was its human components and the ordeals of each character. This one pretty much drops the human element entirely once it goes into monster-movie mode. I've nothing against gore and slime - or even gore and slime at the expense of character. But I do have to object to it when the characters have already been well established and thoughtfully drawn. These people were going places; once the slime starts flyin', they come to a dead stop. The script's credited to no fewer than four guys (Frank "The Shawshank Redemption" Darabont, Mick "The Stephen King house director" Garris, and those Wheat boys).
John Getz, the only returnee from Cronenberg's film, steals the show with his one scene. Man, you guys thought that thread of bear puns was bad...
Simon Fraser University, which you may have frequently seen passed off as FBI headquarters in previous seasons of The X-Files, features prominently here, with its weird, futuro-Aztec, suicide-inducing architecture. (I've been told that this and two other Universities designed by the same guy are the three Canadian campuses most frequently suicided at) (I know, I can't believe everything I hear - 'specially from that girl, little miss "I want to spend the rest of my life with you" - but hey, a good story's a good story) That's a seriously weird fucking place, I must say.
Overall, this comes in fourth of the five Fly films. Not really all that distinguished, but substantially better than it could have been, and probably better than you've heard. Extra points, though, for the astonished "meow" this little kitten squeaks out when he's put through the pods.