Midweek Mention... The Island of Dr Moreau

The Island of Dr Moreau

Dan: Okay,

Sidey: We are recording. Dan, me and you look at us. We don't even have

Dan: what? I haven't got any headphones. I haven't got any microphones in front of me. Look at what easily is Microphones. So like 1980s

Reegs: Yeah. I'm old school now. I've been left behind by technology.

Dan: So the quality of this recording is brought to you thanks to side's investment in the the new DBR three hundreds.

Sidey: Did you, I might threes. Yeah.

Reegs: Flashing blue there, is that right?

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah, that, because I think it's, that just means something. As long as you've got the red, continuous red, LED, it means it's recording.

It might also be looking to pair with something. But don't worry about that Apple.

Dan: that Apples and pairs.

So we'll just same to us.

Sidey: so there was chat on the group about island week, whenever we did that and whenever this goes out and I foolishly, 'cause I was distracted, saw that there was some talk about. Dr.

Monroe

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: you said we'd watched it.

Reegs: No,

Sidey: and I'd always, I'd always wanted to see it because it's got a sort of

Dan: I [00:01:00] thought you said we'd done it.

That's why I chose this. I

Sidey: got a, it's got a whiff of notoriety about it. 'cause it was a trouble production and a big flop and it's, I think I'm gonna say that it is Marlon Brando's last film.

And.

Stuff. So

there's, it is based on a book by HG Wells. Yeah. And there have been previous stabs that are making So if you know what the story is, it is this Dr. Row characters like a mad scientist character. Yeah. And he has created

it? Yeah. He's created this kind of human animal hybrid.

So if you know that, you are like, okay, so how are they gonna show that in the film? 'cause we're in the nineties here.

Reegs: Yeah.

prosthetics and, yeah.

Sidey: And so we, when we joined the film, it's David Euless, although I think he's going by a different name in this or around this time he was, anyway there is a raft in the sea, so we don't, they, they, him and two other people have survived a plane [00:02:00] crash.

We don't get to see the plane crash, even though this is a $40 million film. No, no plane crash.

Dan: And, and to be fair, you've watched. This one, you didn't watch this at all. And the one that I was thinking had you and McGregor in it called the island or

Sidey: No, that's the

Reegs: That's

Bay Mageddon.

Sidey: Yeah.

Dan: Right. So we could have all been watching three different films if we'd have bothered to watch any at all.

Sidey: No, this one is this is, this is the sci-fi sort of thing. So yeah. So there's three people on the yacht, on the yacht, on the life raft. And we're introduced to them being about. A week or so into their survival on the high seas.

And they're fighting over the last water ration. And I could have sworn that one of these was Val Kilmore. 'cause I knew he was in this fucking looks just like him. And the guy that's not David Felis.

They're fighting and one goes over and is killed. And the other one who's trying to get back on and still fighting for the war, David Hugs kills him.

And I was like, oh, that can't be. And anyway, the next thing you [00:03:00] see is he's like delirious dying in the, in the heat on the ocean. I know he sort of looks up in a boat who's and Val Km was there and rescues him. So it wasn't was just some guy that looks

Dan: They just got an actor that looked just like Val

Sidey: It's all quite

Dan: Val Kilmer was in

Sidey: So the, the originally. This was gonna be directed by a guy called Richard Stanley, who had fought for four years to have this made. And he was sacked two days into filming and replaced by

Dan: wow. Why would

Sidey: Franken Heimer, or whatever the guy's name is, who did Ronan

Reegs: mm-hmm.

Sidey: Competent, you know,

Dan: got

Sidey: So you'd expect more from this. Yeah. Anyway, they go, he's told he's on the boat and he's been given like a blood transfusion and being told all this stuff about, yeah, we'll get you to safety. And the crew are all, he doesn't know what they're saying. They're all from somewhere. They look kind of maybe Cambodian or something like that.

But ILM is like, don't worry, we'll, we'll get you like to wherever you need to go. And then they pull up to this desert island and he says, actually, there's a radio on here. So, get onto the island and, we'll [00:04:00] sort you out. Yeah. And he is also got this massive cage full of rabbits okay.

It is immediately taken. And so the

Reegs: actual rabbits or?

Sidey: yeah, they're alive. He kills one right in front of him, and I thought, I think they might have actually killed a rabbit there. Cool.

Reegs: Oh my God. I,

Sidey: I maybe they probably did. I guess you're not allowed to do that. But it was very convincing. The most convincing bit of the film actually, he's taken into Monroe's.

Villa compound thing. And he is told, don't fucking leave here. Okay, don't walk around. Just stay here. And he is like, okay. He is looking around and Dr. Rose a, a Nobel Prize winner. And he's, he's known in this world. He is known. And if you, this, what's his name? His name is Edward Douglas. Two first names.

I never like that. And he is sort of asking, and he is, you've given us a bit of exposition that he's this world renowned scientist, but he's gone missing somewhere. He is just like a recluse. And

he is just, he is given all this cryptic sort of stuff about don't fucking walk around. It's not. [00:05:00] Quite safe.

Don't worry, you'll be fine. We'll just stay here in the end. He is curious, gets the better of

Dan: it always does, doesn't it? People's curiosity. He

finds

Sidey: this kind of makeshift lab where there's a fucking shit load of animals. Not just the

Reegs: funny, there was some cat based

metaphor,

Sidey: this other shit going on. And he pi around the corner and he sees, now I've got this written 'cause it's fucking bizarre.

the medical staff, there's ba, there's a birth happening on a table. And it's clearly not human because we see the female lying on her back. But there's others like, you know, like a, like pigs tits. There's loads of them. It's a human La Lama hybrid. Yeah. Giving birth. Wow.

And the doctors who are attending to the birth are also

Reegs: Human llama?

Sidey: I don't know. And

Dan: human gorilla has been

Sidey: going into the film, I knew that

it was bad, or it is known to be bad, but I didn't know where. At what point? It's really early that you start to see

Dan: how

Sidey: the [00:06:00] hybrids. Yeah.

And it looks like. Really shit.

Yeah. The, the original plan Cats bad. It was, that's basically the comparison I was making the entire way through the film. Is this as bad as Kaz? I don't think it's as bad as Kaz. But he totally freaks the fuck out and he meets Dr. Monroe's daughter, which is far.

Reegs: ru bulk.

Sidey: And she's like, come with me.

I can get you out here. Just, you just need, we need to go now. She takes him out into the jungle and they come across this human cheetah hybrid who is disgruntled and there's some really bad CGI of it, jumping over a river and then up some rocks and they find someone else who is, so, you're supposed to remember the name of this one, cgi.

That one is CGI when it moves, but it's

Dan: obviously in the nineties

tied

Sidey: with, you know, in team America where they stick like beard hair.

Dan: Yeah.

Sidey: that guy,

Reegs: That's

Sidey: honestly, it's like that. And this, then they meet a guy, a human, something hybrid. It's hard to tell what the animals are, who's got a baseball bat.

And she [00:07:00] said, oh, well we'll follow this guy. And it's all over the place because clearly they just had to piece together what they had at the end of the production. And he goes into the mutant village. And these, these are all loyalists to Murrow. But then he goes, he ends up going back to, so Moreau then appears.

Is

Dan: there, is there much Brando?

Sidey: Yeah. Well he appears now, it's the first time we meet him and he is whiteface, he's com. He's in a

Reegs: I've seen pictures of it

Sidey: You know, when Homer gets really fat in the,

Reegs: Yeah, exactly.

Sidey: wearing a mumu. It's all white. And his paint, his skin is all painted white. And he is in this white bizarre hat thing.

Like, like in the popemobile as well. He's there and he is in this sort of definite sort of deity, sort of

Dan: religious

figure.

Sidey: And they all worship him. And there's, there is a pre, Ron Perman plays this sort of like, half man half. Like Ram has got a big

Reegs: he looks sort of like an animal already

Dan: I, I I guess you're just like, [00:08:00] it's a chance to work with Brando.

Yeah. I'll be a half man. Half Ram.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: and he.

there

are, there is mutterings of descent and he has them all under control. They're all, when they're birthed or when they come to be, they are, they have a, an implant, a cell that's implanted chip that he can cause them pain.

If they have a rise up, he can, like, I

Dan: beat them down if I

Sidey: I can take it away. And so he, he sort of like, he uni's character, then goes to dinner with him and he's like, this is completely fucked up. Like, what the fuck is going on? And he is like, no, they're my children. They're all my children, and I'm just creating this, this didn't say master race, but this, this perfect race where there's no strife and no one gets

Reegs: a utopia out of animal

Sidey: completely messed up and everything. Look, it honestly looks so amateur. It really looks

Reegs: I know I've seen pictures of the sets and stuff.

Some of it looks like school play level, like Yeah. Set design.

Sidey: It's sort of, some of it has the look and [00:09:00] feel of labyrinth and dark crystal,

Dan: right?

Sidey: but not in a good

Reegs: done by the people who do the battle of flowers

Sidey: But like stuff that didn't make the cut, you know, it was like, this isn't actually good enough. We can't show this. And so we get to meet three of the children that still.

That

actually work. They're ser they, they're in servitude. They, they sort of attend to Brando, his house.

Reegs: Does he have sex with any

Sidey: But they're on side? No, but there is an a scene coming up and there is a little fella who plays like a mini me, like

Reegs: Oh, is Van Troyer?

Sidey: No, but it's, you'd actually recognize the guy. He plays a little piano while Brandon plays the big piano, and it's so, they actually linger the camera on so you can see that they're not, they're clearly not playing.

Reegs: he's just dead in it. Who

Sidey: who gives a fuck? We're just gonna do what we do.

just

Dan: absolutely dialed this in by the sounds of

Reegs: Well, but we didn't talk on air, did we?

About the backstory to

Sidey: the, the backstory is that there was really trouble production. Trouble productions. Cost went like through the roof.

And then Brando had a terrible [00:10:00] tragedy where his daughter killed herself, and so he just went missing. Yeah. And then Val Kilmer and him were just being pricks. And when the director got the sack. He ha Val Kilmer hated Frankenheimer, whoever the guy's name was. And then Brando and him would, would refuse to be the first on set.

So they just wouldn't show. They wouldn't, when Brando did eventually turn up and he also refused to learn any of the lines.

Reegs: Yeah. So

Sidey: So they would do this thing where didn't

Reegs: literally anything you can imagine that could go

Sidey: wanna be the first on set. So they would do this game of chicken where they wouldn't.

Neither would be the first to get outta the trailer. And then, so Brando had a transmitter where he was being fed his lines or he would just improvise them. And at some, at some point they would just pick up like the police channel and he'd go, there's been a robbery at somewhere.

And

so just chaos, just like as much chaos

Dan: as you

could've introduction. But you've gotta, you've gotta think about like the, the guys that have writing the checks here, making the decisions and saying.[00:11:00]

You don't, if, if some guy's been given like two years you said, or you know, building up to this film and he is got Brando on side, he is got Val Kilmer, he's got two days before shooting you, you sack him for, for someone else, I dunno what he's said or what he's done or you know, but you just think

Sidey: the trouble with it is like, Brando Brando's Best days were a long, long since, you know, gone.

But

Dan: he's, you know, he's the reason why Val Kilmer and. Any other actor would be, want to be part of it because

Reegs: oh, so they drove a truckload of money to their houses it sounds

Dan: a, any actor wants to be in a film with

Sidey: to round off the film though, what happens is the daughter has been, so he's, he's not just getting animals and mutating 'em, he's getting humans and impregnating them and stuff.

So she is turning feline. But there is a plot strand to cure her using Edwards. DNA but that has destroyed Val kil then. So what happens is the, [00:12:00] the animals get fed up of being this chip being activated and to keep them in line. So some of them realize that they can take them out and they, they found so they're not allowed to kill, and they find one of the rabbits half eaten and they realize that actually some of them have taken the chip out.

And they, they've gone feral and so we then get to see a bunch of

Dan: them will fell

Sidey: full feral. It, it goes full pantomime in the, what has been largely human cast with a smattering of terrible prosthetic. It goes, they're the, they are the leads now. So

Reegs: the thing you want to happen least in the movie happens.

Sidey: they rise up and kill Brando, probably not even halfway through the film. He is cannibalized by his children. And then there's the uprising where they take over

Dan: I wonder if he just did that to get out the film.

Sidey: That one of my favorite s is where, so as they're killing, they, they rip off Brando's limbs and David Theus fires a gun at them.

And then he drops it and runs off and they pick up the guns and they find there's, so for a [00:13:00] vegan, like this sort of supposed to be Ute world, there's an armory and they find all these machine guns and stuff, but there. Like cloven animals and they're holding the rifle,

right?

So there's one of 'em that's holding a machine gun, and he is just got a, a hoof and then he is firing.

I'm like, how the fuck is he

Reegs: How's that working? Yeah.

Sidey: Which really made me laugh. So they have this big uprising. Val Kier completely loses it. His character's called. Montgomery, he completely loses it. He's just running it as like, he's just getting pissed at sitting on a throne whilst all the mutants are having an agy around him, but they kill him.

Reegs: Is he a mutant? What is he? He, is he her person?

Sidey: just, he's just a fucking lunatic. His role, they had to change his role as well because when the new guy came on, he renegotiated his contract and said, I'm gonna be on set 40% less than I'd originally done.

So they had to drastically change his role, which I think is why he dies quite early on. Then Brando's daughter in the film, she is becoming more and more feline. It is, her and Theists are on the run and all the new mutants are rising up. And there's this, there's a [00:14:00] battle scene where they attack them too.

And she used hanged. You just see the, the silhouette of her hanging from a rafter. And I thought, oh, well, she's gonna like fully mutate or something and escape. No, it's dead. And it, it culminates with the

Reegs: So Brando's daughter in real life committed suicide and in the movie she also is killed in a way that strongly resembles suicide.

Sidey: Yeah. Which is fairly tasteless. And then it, it basically culminates with the lead of the re the rising up of the mutants saying that he wants to be known as the God. And Edward Douglas, David Theorist's case saying, yeah, but, and it, he looks around and they, they basically got.

All the population of the mutants at gunpoint. And this is, you know, so they've replaced Brando with his chip, with them, with guns and they're no better. And he is saying, okay, you can, you can be the God, but are you the number one God? And he's like inferring that all his mates with machine guns will just gun him down and they'll wanna be top dog.

And so he just turns the gun on [00:15:00] them and they just shoot each other. But it is bad prosthetic. You know, costume puppet people shooting each other. I mean, it

Dan: I kind of wanna see it just to see how bad

Sidey: it so has to

Dan: I, I'm curious.

Sidey: It's not,

Dan: I'm not sure I could watch the whole thing, but

Reegs: only about 90 minutes,

Sidey: it's 90 minutes. It fairly breezy. They basically all kill all the, all the violent ones that have taken the chips. Act like happy enough. Kill each other. One of the leader one who's been shot and wounded but isn't dead, he can't go on. He just walks into a building, it's on fire and kills himself.

That's how that ends.

And then we just cut, like immediately cut to a scene on the beach where. Edward Douglas is, has built a raft. He's got an outboard on it somehow, but no fuel. And he is just going to go off into the ocean and he leaves one pearlman's guy, the shaman guy saying, he's like, look, we're just, we are what we are.

We're just gonna be mutants.

this island, Just we just

let's not fight it. Let's

Dan: island of Dr. Ru two. We don't

Sidey: to see him to heal us. [00:16:00] We're just, we're gonna be mutants and David's again, don't worry, I'll come back. I'll be back. And he like, don't bother dickhead. So he fucks off. And all I could think was. He's not wearing a hat. He's going out onto the ocean to like, he doesn't have mat, no cartography. He doesn't know where the fuck he's going. With one out tiny little, like look like a 50 seat sea with no extra fuel. How the fuck's he gonna get away? He's not wearing a hat. That's all I can think of is like, why aren't you wearing a hat?

Be sun safe. That's all I'm saying. Just be sun safe. Yeah. And it ends and you're thinking, oh my god.

Reegs: how

Sidey: like the ceiling for this film, I dunno if it could ever have been good, even if it hadn't had like, such a troubled production. I just don't know if it could

Reegs: if there was ever a

Sidey: It has since made its money.

I'm, I'm told by the internet

Reegs: Well, it's become a cult favorite,

Sidey: 40 million. It's taken 49. Yeah.

Dan: You, you've you've read the book, you've, you know the story Reed,

Sidey: I haven't read the book, but there is also a Alan Moore and Alan Moore at Graphic novel [00:17:00] adaptation. It was really good in three parts. really enjoyed that.

Reegs: I, think it's animal hybrid. People rarely work on screen.

Sidey: It does in the mic bush,

Reegs: Yeah, but only for comedy value

Sidey: know, you have to sh like, so for this you have to show less. Yeah. Because they look so preposterously bad.

Reegs: Is it like Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz style,

Sidey: or

It's not much better than that.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. That's, that's where my mind has been going.

Sidey: The machine gun firing with the hoof honestly

Reegs: That's brilliant. Yeah. That's brilliant.

Sidey: I,

I, would like give it a strong recommend for everyone to see. It just does need to be seen.

Reegs: Yeah, I sort of want to see it. I might put it on in the

Sidey: Yeah. You could second screen it for sure. You could definitely second screen this. You can watch it on

Reegs: Prime

at the moment, isn't it?

Sidey: No, the, the, there's a fifties version. You're not just called, there's a

fifties

version I think, which is better. I can't remember which is moment on Disney plus or something else.

But yeah, it is [00:18:00] one, it is one like, and it's quite breezy. It like it does rattle through. I remember cats being a real chore to sit through and it wasn't funny. This is, they've still got it. Like it's quite amusing. Yeah.

Dan: Yeah. It's always strange when they become these,

Sidey: You do, you do watch it and think, I could probably chuck something together that was not right as bad as this,

Dan: as bad as this. Yeah.

Sidey: So overall I'm giving it a strong recommend.

Reegs: giving that a strong recommend.

Dan: Well,

it's enough for me. I'll go watch it