Word: tarzans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tarzan the Ape Man--Friday at 1:25, 4:25 and 8:05 p.m.; with Flesh Gordonat...
...shame that this movie is so bad, because, as remakes of old serials go, this one certainly has potential--certainly as much as Superman did. But because of director-cinematographer John Derek's egomaniacal insistance that his wife always remain on screen, the story of Tarzan is lost. We never see the legendary plane crash which brought the baby Tarzan to the jungle; we don't see him learning how to survive in the wilds or forging his bonds of friendship with the animals. In the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, jungle adventure was the main feature. Jane was simply...
...version, Jane is the overriding presence, and Tarzan serves merely as window dressing. The result is that the movie can never approach the level of excitement or adventure reached in earlier versions. And this is inexcusable. Considering the potential laid open by modern cinematic tenchnology. Tarzan should only improve. Not that Jane should be reduced to the traditional helpless female role--obviously there is room for the '80s mentality--but the new movie lacks even a healthy interaction between Tarzan and Jane. Miles O'Keefe's Tarzan never says a word, he just grunts a lot, and, of course, periodically...
...interactions are with Jane, so Harris must cope with the unenviable task of bouncing his lines off Bo, which is like bouncing a casaba melon off cement. Nevertheless, he is successful at times, and provides the film's few entertaining moments. It is hard to say if Tarzan would have been a good movie even with a better actress playing Jane, somebody with style and grace. Julie Christie for instance, or (a few years ago) Katherine Hepburn. That it would be a better film is certain. The role of stoic-woman-against-all-odds-in-the-wilderness requuces more than...
...STANDS, Tarzan, the Ape Man is a misleading title for the movie. Tarzan has very little to do with anything. Something like Bo Derek Takes Off Her Shirt in Exotic Places would be much more appropriate. She takes off her shirt to swim in the Great Inland Sea, she takes off her shirt to swim with Tarzan, she takes off her shirt to get painted chalk-white by restless natives. And rumor has it that she even took off her shirt to wrestle with an alligator, but, alas, that scene was left on the cutting room floor by censors...