Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2017)

I don’t remember a lot of specific details from my childhood.  I remember having an Atari 2600.  I even remember liking a few of the games, such as Super Breakout.  Similarly, there were things about the Commodore 64 that I recall.  I think I may still have a few of the floppies lying around somewhere.

One thing I remember is playing with the He-Man toys and watching the cartoon as a child.  I don’t really remember that much about the show other than a few details, like Prince Adam being the alter ego and his mother being from Earth.  Since Netflix has the series available streaming, I might go back and have a look at a few of the episodes.

Power of Grayskull is a documentary that covers the basic history of the franchise.  The characters were first envisioned as toys, which came with small booklets containing comics.  There wasn’t much continuity between them, but the toys were popular.  Then, came the Saturday-morning cartoon.  And a movie.  And several other cartoon series.  The franchise has been around for a while..

I felt that the documentary dragged a little in the beginning, which covered the original toys and cartoon.  Part of this is probably because I already watched The Toys That Made Us, another Netflix production.  The episode covering He-Man seemed to have a lot of the same information at a third the running time.  Power of Greyskull went into more detail, but I didn’t really feel like I learned that much more.

For instance, there were interviews with Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, both of whom were in the live-action movie.   Other people involved with the movie also talked about why Battlecat and Orko didn’t make appearances.  It’s sort of like a sampling of DVD commentaries about different aspects of the franchise.

Someone who hasn’t seen anything about He-Man before might enjoy this.  The main advantage for me was getting to see artwork, but I don’t know if that’s going to be enough for everyone.  If you only have a passing interest in He-Man, I’d recommend watching The Toys That Made Us, instead.  You get about the same detail at a third the time.

IMDb page

The Prophet (2014)

Almitra is a bit of a troublemaker.  She should be in school, but spends her time taking stuff from local vendors.  This doesn’t earn her any points with the local vendors or her mother.  Kamila is trying to do the right thing and to raise her daughter to do the same, which is what makes it so frustrating.  When Almitra skips school to follow Kamila, Kamila has no choice but to bring the young girl with her to work.

She leaves Almitra with Halim, a uniformed guard who has his own guardhouse and everything.  What kind of job does Kamila have that she has to pass by a guardhouse?  She’s a housekeeper for a man named Mustafa.  Well, technically she works for the government, who is keeping Mustafa under house arrest.  Mustafa is a bit of a troublemaker, too.  He paints and writes, but his subject matter tends to make the government nervous.

Shortly after Kaila and Almitra arrive, Halim’s sergeant shows up; Mustafa is given his freedom, provided that he board a ship and return to his homeland.  Halim and The Sergeant escort Mustafa to the shore where the ship is waiting.  Along the way, they meet several townspeople, who all greet Mustafa as a great man.

Throughout the movie, Mustafa tells people various stories or goes off on tangents.  For instance, he tells Almitra how he’s free, despite being imprisoned, because he can travel with his mind.  Each story is animated differently from the main story, but is narrated by Mustafa.  As the movie progresses, you get the sense of why this guy is so well liked.

The movie is an animated movie released by Gkids in the United States.   It does have a PG rating, though.  There is some violence and what IMDb has listed as sensual images.  I also think small children probably wouldn’t understand what a political prisoner is or why Mustafa is being kicked off the island.  I don’t recall anything that would be objectionable for teens and above.

I had heard of Gibran before seeing this movie, which is what prompted me to watch it.  The movie is based on The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.  I’m not sure of how much the movie resembles the book.  This is one of the few cases, though, where I would want to check it out of the library.  Most novels translate well to the screen, as this did.  I do think there would also be something to be gained by reading the book.  I would imagine that there were parts of the book that could not be adapted to the screen.

I usually try to think in terms of who would like a movie rather than who should avoid it.  However, this one is a little more difficult to place.  I don’t have many other movies to compare it to.  It’s also the kind of movie that will probably speak to people differently.  I’m not sure if it would be available at Redbox or at most libraries.  It is available streaming on Netflix, which would make it easy for users of the service to watch.  If you can, I would recommend it.  Just make sure you’re not doing anything else during the movie.  It deserves your full attention.

Masters of the Universe (1987)

I didn’t watch a lot of Saturday-morning cartoons as a kid, mostly because I liked to sleep late.  I do remember two:  Thundercats and He-Man.  I was able to rent one of the Thundercats DVDs from Netflix, but returned it after the first episode.  It didn’t really hold up that well.  Perhaps some memories are better left as memories.

A few months ago, I saw a cover for Men’s Fitness with Dolph Lundgren.  The only thing I knew him from was the live-action Masters of the Universe (He-Man) movie.  I knew that I probably wouldn’t want to bother with the series, but the movie might be worth it.  It would only be a matter of time before Netflix had it streaming.  Lo and behold, Netflix started streaming Masters of the Universe recently.  Despite a few complaints, I remembered liking the movie as a kid.  What could go wrong?

The story starts with He-Man, Duncan and Teela talking about how Castle Grayskull has been taken over by Skeletor.  His plan is to take its power and rule the universe as evil overlord.  How is this possible?  Simple:  He’s tricked Gwildor into making a Cosmic Key that can transport the user and/or friends to any point in space and time.  Skeletor can send his troops to any planet and take it over.  In the process of stopping Skeletor, He-Man, Gwildor, Duncan and Teela are transported to Earth, promptly losing the Cosmic Key.  They don’t have much time to stop Skeletor, who has sent several mercenaries to find and capture He-Man.  Yeah, that’s pretty much the plot in a nutshell.

You know how movies meant for kids now have something for adults?  (How nice that the writers thought of the people who are paying for the tickets.)  Masters of the Universe wasn’t made with that consideration in mind.  The movie was designed to sell the toy line.  This is really where my perspective has changed over the years.  The movie was great for a kid that enjoyed the cartoon and would probably sit through anything that stayed moderately true to the cartoon.

That’s really where my complaints were.  They didn’t have He-Man change from his alter ego, Adam.  They also totally left out Battle Cat and Orko.  In fact, I thought Gwindor was supposed to be a version Orko.  That much I understood.  I could see not wanting to have a floating, vaguely ghost-like character due to budget concerns.  It could also be difficult to have a talking cat in the movie or to have Adam transform into He-Man, as per the TV series.  The $17 million budget was huge for them.  The director had to fight to get a decent ending.

This is one of those movies that I would totally understand if modern audiences skipped.  My watching it was pure nostalgia.  I knew Courteney Cox and Robert Duncan McNeill were in it.  There was also Billy Barty (Noodles MacIntosh from UHF) playing Gwildor.  I also recognized James Tolkan and Frank Langella.  Still, the main draw was having watched both this and the cartoon as a child.  I honestly feel bad for any parent that was dragged to see this.

I think the big drawback was the plot.  It was very underdeveloped to the point where I think the studio was using the characters as a draw.  this came across more as a bad in joke.  There were a few lines that were delivered like you were supposed to know the back story or were a reference to the TV show.  (Think “I have the power!”)     Instead of a standalone movie, like many of today’s movies based on TV shows, it seemed like the finale to a TV show that was cancelled.  (Speaking of which, a planned sequel was scrapped due to the studio losing the movie rights.  Legend has it that the proposed script became Cyborg with Jean-Claude Van Damme.)

The story seems to rely too heavily on cliché.  How is it that as soon as Skeletor locks in on the Cosmic Key, it moves?  Why is it that when anyone finds something of great importance, they instantly assume it’s something else and immediately start playing with it?  It’s amazing that Kevin didn’t send the entire planet into an alternate dimension or something.  I’ve also noticed that the main evil guy always gets really crappy henchmen.  Here’s a guy that took over a planet no problem, but he can’t find someone to do a simple search and retrieval.

The acting was somewhat decent.  Langella was best as Skeletor.  For those that have seen the Back to the Future movies and Top Gun, Tolkan was pretty much what you’d expect as Detective Lubic.  (Is it too much to ask that he call someone a slacker?)  Most of the rest of the acting is about what you’d expect of an 80s movie based on a toy line.  I’m not saying it’s bad, but a lot of it wasn’t memorable.

One of the advantages of Netflix streaming is that I didn’t have to wait for a disc.  The downside is that I couldn’t get any features.  I might rent the disc just to be able to see some of the commentary.  (Much of the information I get is through IMDb.)  I guess nostalgia is a funny thing.

There’s supposed to be another live-action movie coming out.  I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a sequel, a remake or a reboot, but I’m not sure how I’d feel about it.  I imagine it would be similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, which is also currently available streaming.  Perhaps some memories are better left as memories.

IMDb page

Robot and Frank = Abort Fond Rank [Robot & Frank (2012)]

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Frank Weld used to be a burglar.  He’s what’s called a second-story man.  (Basically, he’d try to gain entry using unconventional means, like through a second-story window.)  He’s retired now and somewhat forgetful.  He can remember where he lives, but seems to forget that a favorite restaurant of his closed and is now a beauty shop.  His son, Hunter, visits every week, but is worried about him.  Enter, Robot, an unnamed robot that’s meant to serve as Frank’s personal assistant.

Yes, robots are usually given names, but Frank is understandably upset about his gift.  He doesn’t want this machine telling him what to eat, when to wake up and how to spend his free time.  This changes when Frank realizes that Robot knows the law, but doesn’t understand it.  He can define breaking and entering, but doesn’t realize that he’s not supposed to do it.  This means that Frank can use Robot to break into a library and steal a book.

You wouldn’t think that a book would be worth stealing, even if it is an antique copy of Don Quixote, but the library is being made into a community center.  (The movie is set in the near future; books have become obsolete.)  He wants to steal it to impress the librarian, Jennifer.  Frank and Robot go on to burglarize the home of a pretentious developer and his wife.  This draws the attention of the police, mostly because the developer doesn’t seem to like Frank.  It’s up to Frank and Robot to do what they can to foil the police.

When I saw the page for the movie on Netflix, I figured it was one of these odd-couple buddy-type movies where the two grow closer to each other, or at least Frank comes to accept the robot.  Robot points out several times that he’s really the sum of his programming.  Anything else is in service to his primary directive of keeping Frank healthy.  (This leads to a dilemma: Does Frank wipe Robot’s memory or risk getting caught?)

There’s also the issue of worrying about a parent that has deteriorating health.  Frank’s memory is going.  Hunter doesn’t like the prospect of leaving his father home alone, but the alternative is a ‘brain center’, which is basically a nice way of saying nursing home for people with mental issues.  The solution is Robot, but even that has issues.  Frank’s daughter, Madison, has moral objections to having robotic help.

I found the premise to be very interesting.  It’s a problem that we’ve all had to worry about if we have older relatives, making the story relatable.  Frank’s memory loss isn’t to the point where he’s a joke.  It’s not a string of forgetful-old-man jokes.  Also, the robot does seem to mimic human behavior quite well, to the point that you can accept it as a character.  When Frank leans back against a wall to avoid being seen, Robot does the same.  It also has the ability to learn what Frank likes and is even able to negotiate.  Robot is aware that Frank may be caught and sent to prison, but is also aware that his cognitive health is getting better now that he has purpose.

There’s also not a lot of futuristic stuff.  Frank lives in a normal house with some moderately advanced technology.  (He has a flat-screen TV with the ability to have a video conference.  Cell phones look like transparent iPhones.)  It doesn’t try to oversell us on the futuristic stuff.  The two recurring reminders of that are the presence of the robot and the looming absence of the library.

I think most of all, it’s a simple story.  If you’re looking for something without a lot going on or things you might miss, this is a good movie to watch.  I’d like to get a friend or relative to watch this only because I’d like to talk about it with someone.  There are aspects of the ending that might leave you wondering. 

IMDb page

Official Site (Japan)

'Robot & Frank' Trailer HD