Word: monsters
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Branagh apparently spent more time pumping iron and tousseling his locks for the film than planning its direction. The film is almost destroyed by poor editing. Victor Frankenstein's comically bad dialogue with his monster and his fiancee is drawn out painfully. We can't bear to listen to gems like the monster's vow, "Frankenstein, I will have my revenge!" or Frankenstein's lament, "What have I done?" Yet the opening sequences, where his strange passion for dark science and his devotion to his family should be established, leave us with the dizzying sensation that we are watching...
Robert De Niro has the nasty task of undergoing 12 hours of makeup to become a monster who looks like a sloppily assembled Freddy Kruger, Branagh apparently can't sew, either. De Niro does make the monster into a sympathetic human-like character, but that character bears a striking resemblance to Robert De Niro with a lisp under several pounds of latex. John Cleese and Tom Hulce are welcome diversions from Branagh's well-oiled chest...
...overall ineptness of the narration and dialogue in "Frankenstein," and its strangely schizophrenic nature should not keep audiences away. The film is certainly worth seeing, since, like its monster, it is gruesome on the surface, but wants honestly to redeem itself. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is powerful enough to make even "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein an enjoyable film. And just wait till you see its beating heart...
...story "to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." Her Frankenstein has kept generations of readers up in the nights since, but perhaps no group more than the film makers. Kenneth Branagh's new film, "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", is yet another rebirth of the monster that has tested the pulse of our fears in versions ranging from animated cartoons to an X-rated Andy Warhol film...
Branaugh's latest vision--De Niro slathed in what appears to be Freddy Kruger's discarded latex--demands comparison to Boris Karloff"s popular 1931 interpretation of the monster. The Brattle Theatre's current series, "The Monster Within," provides an opportunity to re-examine Karloff's nifty neck bolts, and several films inspired by Mary Shelley's myth. Each presents a version of Shelley which contributes in various ways to our understanding of her classic work...