SHOCK digs into the vaults for this vintage Leonard Maltin review of Tobe Hooper’s LIFEFORCE.
Following our popular re-posts of classic Siskel & Ebert reviews in which the dearly departed duo make sport of slasher movies, we opted to further explore other notable mainstream critics and their irate, often theatrical thrashings of not just violent horror films, but all movies that defy conventions.
This round, lets look at Leonard Maltin.
At least two generations of burgeoning film fans cite Maltin as a major part of their formative movie education. Before IMDB and Wikipedia made it easy to source facts, Maltins annually updated TV Movies and Video Guide book was our bible, an informative reference tome that listed alternate titles (always a help when studying European genre films), principal cast members, release dates, running times and what home video formats the pictures were available in. It was an essential component of obsessive cinema study.
But with the good, genre film lovers also had to endure the idiotic and this lifelong horror junkie often punched walls when stumbling upon reviews that decimated movies I knew were brilliant. Classics like Fulcis THE PSYCHIC and ZOMBIE or Cronenbergs THE BROOD were slapped with the dreaded BOMB rating while pablum like DON JUAN DE MARCO got three stars. Even more insulting was when Maltin and his team of editors would scribble positive reviews for noted masterpieces like TAXI DRIVER and BLUE VELVET and stick them with a barely passing 2 stars, citing their general unpleasantness as reasons for the near-flunk. BLUE VELVET and TAXI DRIVER unpleasant? You dont say! Perhaps Maltin was disappointed to learn there wasnt a musical number embedded in the middle of Dennis Hoppers asthma-attack-rape of Isabella Rossellini, who knows
Maltin did the same thing for Tobe Hoopers 1985 sense-smasher LIFEFORCE.
The review that sat for years in the now discontinued Maltin book series was one of those 2-star reviews that actually praised the film for its audacity. It was a giddy appraisal that ran down LIFEFORCEs best qualities, citing the fact that it is a kitchen sink mash up of every known genre laced together by the presence of a nude space vampire. And yet, he didnt have the courage to bump it up to an above average star rating.
Thats generally how critics have long treated horror; like something to be ashamed of, despite how much they enjoy or admire the film.
Now, Maltin became famous not just because of his books, but due to his presence on ratings-darling TV show ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, where he long-served as house critic.
So then, witness Maltins over-the-top on air review of LIFEFORCE. Its an expansion of the capsule review that ended up in the book. He clearly LOVED the movie and yet
Well, youll see.
And stick around for ET host Leeza Gibbons’ pre-Rotten Tomatoes smackdown of LIFEFORCEs box office prospects
