Transylvania 6-5000 Review
Transylvania 6-5000 Review
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Nathan:
Hello everyone and welcome to another special installment of Monstermaster13’s reviews, i’m Monstermaster13 from the time when zombies weren’t used as love-interests in teen monster movies. Guess what? It’s September! And do you know what that means?
That is right my dear children of the night...it’s time for the Monstermaster13 Halloween Spooktacular countdown. All through September and October, I will be highlighting horror movies, horror comedies and anything horror related in general. So be prepared for lots of screams, scream queens, monsters, and all things that dare to go bump in the night! Buwahaha! *lightning and thunder is heard*
And what could be a better movie to kick it all off, than the underrated comedy classic Transylvania 6-5000. No, this has nothing to do with the Bugs Bunny short of the same name apart from the title.
Released on November 8th, 1985 - this film is directed by Rudy De Luca who also wrote the scripts for several of Mel Brook’s movies. I first heard of this movie thanks to James Rolfe when he reviewed it for Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness Camp Cult back in October 2010, and you know how much I love James Rolfe’s work.
The title of this movie is a clever pun on the song Pennsylvania 6-5000, and speaking of songs..it has a very catchy theme tune that is very hard to find, almost as hard to find as the soundtrack to the Jay Leno/Pat Morita buddy cop movie Collision Course (Leno himself personally regrets being in that movie though, even though I liked it).
This movie stars Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr as a pair of reporters who get instructed by their boss to go to Transylvania to get a story about the monster simply known as Frankenstein, of course they can’t believe their ears when they hear this. I like how they play around with the classic horror cliches, like how people think Frankenstein is the name of the monster (it’s the name of the scientist who made him NOT the creation itself) among others.
Including the bit with the mad scientist where someone asks him if he needs lightning to bring his creation to life and he responds with: “Lightning? I HATE LIGHTNING! I HATE IT! I work with all this other shit!”.
Once the two reporters go to Transylvania, they go to a tavern and inquire about Frankenstein, which causes a rather hilarious reaction.
How do the townspeople react? Weell...the townspeople all laugh at them like it’s one big joke - yep, they find it hilarious - heck, even the town’s mayor played by Jeffrey Jones who later played Charles Deitz in Beetlejuice (1988) thinks they are joking. He then mentions several other monsters including Dracula, The Blob, Creature From The Black Lagoon, and Godzilla, yes - they know how silly it is.
What I think makes it unique is that this movie is self-aware and that is what I love about comedies like these, especially horror comedies. You just gotta love a movie that makes fun of itself like that!
But of course no monster comedy would be complete without the monsters, we have ourselves a ‘Frankie/Adam’ type monster, a mummy, a werewolf, a contortionist bent into a pretzel shape, two hunchbacked servants, a mad scientist (of course), and a sultry vampiress played by Geena Davis. And oh booy, is she a hottie! I think it’s to do with that costume, it’s very Vintage Vampire meets Elvira!
Interestingly enough, it is around this time that Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were a couple, having also appeared in Earth Girls Are Easy and one year later The Fly directed by David Cronenberg.
Oh...and remember when my furry friend the Werebelushi reviewed UHF and pointed out that Stanley was played by Michael Richards before he was Kramer on Seinfeld? Well...Michael Richards is also in this movie as well. He plays the butler Fejos who is always being random and wacky and doing all kinds of hilarious pranks and jokes.
And well...he cracks me up in this movie! He’s just so silly. I love all the jokes he pulls and I love his funny accent. *imitating Fejo’s accent* Ah, is good...yeah? Is funny! Trust me, if you loved him in UHF and Seinfeld, you’ll love him here.
This movie is underrated and definitely worth watching if you like monster movies or comedies with supernatural themes in them. I especially like how the monsters technically aren’t monsters, they’re just people with various different conditions.
As of right now, the whole movie is available to watch on Youtube, just type in Transylvania 6-5000. You can also if you prefer get this on a dvd giftset with another great horror comedy Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark.
I heavily reccomend this movie if you are looking for a laugh this halloween along with Young Frankenstein and Dracula: Dead And Loving It. I give it ten out of ten give it two monstrous clawed thumbs up.
Stay tuned for more spooktacular halloween reviews with me, your monstrous host - Monstermaster13. Because we are only getting started. Buwahaha! Hit it! *the theme from Transylvania 6-5000 plays as a montage of monster movies is shown*
-------------------------------
Nathan:
Hello everyone and welcome to another special installment of Monstermaster13’s reviews, i’m Monstermaster13 from the time when zombies weren’t used as love-interests in teen monster movies. Guess what? It’s September! And do you know what that means?
That is right my dear children of the night...it’s time for the Monstermaster13 Halloween Spooktacular countdown. All through September and October, I will be highlighting horror movies, horror comedies and anything horror related in general. So be prepared for lots of screams, scream queens, monsters, and all things that dare to go bump in the night! Buwahaha! *lightning and thunder is heard*
And what could be a better movie to kick it all off, than the underrated comedy classic Transylvania 6-5000. No, this has nothing to do with the Bugs Bunny short of the same name apart from the title.
Released on November 8th, 1985 - this film is directed by Rudy De Luca who also wrote the scripts for several of Mel Brook’s movies. I first heard of this movie thanks to James Rolfe when he reviewed it for Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness Camp Cult back in October 2010, and you know how much I love James Rolfe’s work.
The title of this movie is a clever pun on the song Pennsylvania 6-5000, and speaking of songs..it has a very catchy theme tune that is very hard to find, almost as hard to find as the soundtrack to the Jay Leno/Pat Morita buddy cop movie Collision Course (Leno himself personally regrets being in that movie though, even though I liked it).
This movie stars Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr as a pair of reporters who get instructed by their boss to go to Transylvania to get a story about the monster simply known as Frankenstein, of course they can’t believe their ears when they hear this. I like how they play around with the classic horror cliches, like how people think Frankenstein is the name of the monster (it’s the name of the scientist who made him NOT the creation itself) among others.
Including the bit with the mad scientist where someone asks him if he needs lightning to bring his creation to life and he responds with: “Lightning? I HATE LIGHTNING! I HATE IT! I work with all this other shit!”.
Once the two reporters go to Transylvania, they go to a tavern and inquire about Frankenstein, which causes a rather hilarious reaction.
How do the townspeople react? Weell...the townspeople all laugh at them like it’s one big joke - yep, they find it hilarious - heck, even the town’s mayor played by Jeffrey Jones who later played Charles Deitz in Beetlejuice (1988) thinks they are joking. He then mentions several other monsters including Dracula, The Blob, Creature From The Black Lagoon, and Godzilla, yes - they know how silly it is.
What I think makes it unique is that this movie is self-aware and that is what I love about comedies like these, especially horror comedies. You just gotta love a movie that makes fun of itself like that!
But of course no monster comedy would be complete without the monsters, we have ourselves a ‘Frankie/Adam’ type monster, a mummy, a werewolf, a contortionist bent into a pretzel shape, two hunchbacked servants, a mad scientist (of course), and a sultry vampiress played by Geena Davis. And oh booy, is she a hottie! I think it’s to do with that costume, it’s very Vintage Vampire meets Elvira!
Interestingly enough, it is around this time that Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were a couple, having also appeared in Earth Girls Are Easy and one year later The Fly directed by David Cronenberg.
Oh...and remember when my furry friend the Werebelushi reviewed UHF and pointed out that Stanley was played by Michael Richards before he was Kramer on Seinfeld? Well...Michael Richards is also in this movie as well. He plays the butler Fejos who is always being random and wacky and doing all kinds of hilarious pranks and jokes.
And well...he cracks me up in this movie! He’s just so silly. I love all the jokes he pulls and I love his funny accent. *imitating Fejo’s accent* Ah, is good...yeah? Is funny! Trust me, if you loved him in UHF and Seinfeld, you’ll love him here.
This movie is underrated and definitely worth watching if you like monster movies or comedies with supernatural themes in them. I especially like how the monsters technically aren’t monsters, they’re just people with various different conditions.
As of right now, the whole movie is available to watch on Youtube, just type in Transylvania 6-5000. You can also if you prefer get this on a dvd giftset with another great horror comedy Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark.
I heavily reccomend this movie if you are looking for a laugh this halloween along with Young Frankenstein and Dracula: Dead And Loving It. I give it ten out of ten give it two monstrous clawed thumbs up.
Stay tuned for more spooktacular halloween reviews with me, your monstrous host - Monstermaster13. Because we are only getting started. Buwahaha! Hit it! *the theme from Transylvania 6-5000 plays as a montage of monster movies is shown*
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