Month: June 2000

Run You Chicken, Run…

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CHICKEN RUN summed up in one word: GO SEE THIS FRICKEN’ MOVIE! all right, that’s five words, but I’m sure you get the picture. CHICKEN RUN is one of the best movies that has been released this year and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s one of those rare films that both kids and adults will love, for entirely different reasons.

At it’s essence, CHICKEN RUN is a World War 2 prison camp drama, except that the allied soldiers have been replaced with chickens and the Nazi guards are the farmer Mr. Tweedy, his wife, Mrs. Tweedy, and their two dogs.

The chickens, lead by the total optimist Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) spend their days eating and laying eggs. The chickens do have one major price to pay for their seemingly good life: they are killed and turned into food when they can no longer deliver on eggs.

Ginger spends her days coming up with different escape plans, but spends her nights locked away when the escape plans are discovered by Mr. Tweedy or his dogs. The chickens are on the brink of giving up and accepting their lot in life when Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson) seemingly flies in from the dark agreeing to teach the chickens how to fly, and thereby escaping the farm, in trade for them hiding him from a circus owner looking for his main attraction: Rocky the Flying Chicken.

What ensues is Rocky trying to teach the Ginger and the chickens how to fly and the chickens developing a sense of “hope”. Hope that they will escape from the farm and go someplace better. Unfortunately for the chickens, Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) has decided to switch the farm from producing eggs into producing chicken pies. Unless the chickens can figure a way to escape, all will be turned into pies.

Even though the basic story of CHICKEN RUN is one that has been around for awhile (the dark stranger comes into town promising something that he can’t really deliver on, but somehow pulls it off in the end) I really liked how director Nick Park handled the whole story. Don’t expect the typical Disney movie here, a chicken dies by getting it’s head chopped off, abet off screen, at the start of the movie and there are many references to death and sex.

Right from the start, I was drawn in by the movie. My attention never wavered from the screen as the story unfolded before me. I never thought that the movie was running too long or that scenes should be cut. The best parts of the movie were the multiple homage’s to other movies. From Rocky and Ginger escaping from the chicken pie machine mimicking the beginning of INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC to Rocky’s jump across the prison camp wire that was a lot like Steve McQueen’s more famous motorcycle jump in THE GREAT ESCAPE, the homage’s were numerous and usually funny.

Go see this movie and I’m sure you’ll like it as much as I did. Even if X-MEN is a horrible movie later this summer, the summer of 2000 won’t be a wash out: I saw CHICKEN RUN and I loved it.

If I had to rate this movie, I’d give it a ten out of ten. I wasn’t expecting much going into the theater but sure took a lot out when I left. I can’t wait for this movie to come out on DVD, so that I can watch it again, and again and again…

Dream of the Big, Huge Turtle

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by Michael Summers

For nearly two decades, I was obsessed with a late 70s made-for-TV movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes. If you asked me to tell you more, I wouldn’t be able to. There was a big white house on a cliff by the sea, a childhood romance and a coral (I think) necklace. That’s all I remember. And for years, the only one who could corroborate that I had indeed seen this movie was my sister.

Like most people who have claimed to see things, we were subjected to a healthy amount of disbelief. We were also treated like idiots.

“Have you ever seen this movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes?”

 “Oh, yeah. That’s Gamera.”

We knew Gamera, and that wasn’t Gamera. A sort of validation did not come until a few years ago, when a late night talk about obscure movies with a group of friends revealed a kindred soul.

“Have you ever seen this late 70s made-for-tv movie about this giant turtle. . .”

“. . . and a GIRL WITH GLOWING GREEN EYES!”

We stared at each other in wonder and relief, like the characters in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS who discover that someone else shares this obsessive dream about Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Unfortunately, this revelation didn’t fill in any blanks. No title. No plot details. Just a name. Jenny. Who Jenny was and whether or not her eyes glowed was still a mystery. But we did agree that whoever had directed the video for TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART in the mid-80s was also haunted by this
flick.

It wasn’t until late 1998 that I discovered the title: THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, aka IT CAME UP FROM UNDER THE DEPTHS. And the girl with glowing green eyes was indeed named Jennie, not Jenny. It was Bert who found the title for me. I described the movie, he did maybe 10 minutes of research, and there it was. A 1978 made-for-TV movie starring Burl Ives, Carl Weathers, and Connie Selleca.

I thought that then it would just be a matter of time before a copy of the flick was in my grubby hands. A quick check at all the usual places came up with nothing. THE BERMUDA DEPTHS, aka IT CAME UP FROM UNDER THE DEPTHS, wasn’t available on video. I discovered that it had been aired at least twice, in August ’79 and in August ’80. I discovered it had been given a run on Polish television as late as Summer 1998. I discovered that it wasn’t totally, utterly impossible to find an old used copy of the movie — in French.

And on the Internet, where nothing is deemed too small and obscure to care about, I discovered a host of lost souls who were haunted by this movie about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes. People wondering if they were the only ones who had seen this movie. People willing to buy used copies probably taped on a Betamax. People wondering if the movie will ever be released to video again. . .

I doubt it will be. But I’ve made a vow. I will see THE BERMUDA DEPTHS again. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure it’s terrible. In fact, if it turns out to be any good, I’ll be surprised. But who knows? For people to remember that set of images for so long, and not much else about the movie they came from, is a pretty strong testament, especially for a made-for-TV-movie.