Mike Hodges
26 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
He also makes a lot of funny references to great movies like “Star Wars” and “Raiders” as well as cheesy ’80s movies like “Flash Gordon” (a Universal Pictures release) even bringing in Sam Jones, Flash Gordon himself, for a hilarious party sequence.
It also is full of the show's rapid nonlinear asides and obscure pop-culture references, including Sam Jones of the B-movie "Flash Gordon" in a cameo similar to Mike Tyson's in "The Hangover."
MacFarlane, who directed and co-wrote the screenplay with "Family Guy" writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, infuses "Ted" with a scattershot energy similar to what he brings to the small screen, with a handful of cutaway flashbacks, abundant pop culture references, an epic night of partying with "Flash Gordon" (1980) star Sam Jones and a hotel-room brawl presented with "Bourne"-like intensity.
The film also throws in lots of cameos (i.e., Ryan Reynolds !), pro-forma digs at current celebrities (Taylor Lautner) and such outmoded 1980 cultural references as " Flash Gordon " and an old jingle for Mounds and Almond Joy.
There's a heavy dose of '80s nostalgia that's capped off by repeated references to the 1980 camp classic Flash Gordon and features the star of that movie, Sam Jones, in costume (at age 58).
Fans of Family Guy will recognise other familiar faces and voices in supporting roles, along with MacFarlane's signature political incorrectness and constant pop-culture references (including a recurring jab at the 1980 shocker Flash Gordon).
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Directed by Lana Wachowski
influenced by Flash Gordon (1980)
Visuals Themes Characters
These influences include, but are not limited to: Moebius; David Lynch’s Dune; entry-level critiques of capitalism; the 1980 Flash Gordon movie; Brazil, which gets both a dialogue reference (“27b-stroke-6”) and a Terry Gilliam cameo; spiritual transmigration; personal transformation; transhumanism.
Jupiter Ascending achieves a doofy grandeur from time to time, borrowing heavily from Dino De Laurentiis and Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon with a gee-whiz sense of wonder.
Lana and Andy Wachowski, directors/writers/fabulators of the Matrix trilogy and Cloud Atlas return with an old-fashioned space opera that borrows heavily from the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels and cartoonist Alex Raymond’s Thirties-era Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
It has the murky colors and helmet-clad design of Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon, the wishful awe of Close Encounters, the artistic density of Ridley Scott (or Lisa Frank, for that matter), and of course, the operatic grandeur and sympathy of George Lucas.
Just look at 1980's enjoyably goofy Flash Gordon - or last year's Guardians of the Galaxy , for that matter.
Think Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless in the 1980 camp classic "Flash Gordon" meets Steve Carell’s John du Pont in "Foxcatcher."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Directed by James Gunn
influenced by Flash Gordon (1980)
Visuals
Gunn has cited Mike Hodges’s giddily beautiful Flash Gordon (1980) as a crucial inspiration , but I wouldn’t say Flash Gordon is packed with character.
This is consistent with the kitschfests that inspired the Guardians aesthetic: 1980s science-fiction delights such as Flash Gordon , Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension .
The whole thing recalls Mike Hodges’ 1980 cult classic Flash Gordon from a visual standpoint, a comparison I do not make lightly and mean as a major compliment, the relaxed devil-may-care style suiting Gunn’s wild child sensibilities perfectly.
The production design is likewise problematic, created with the kind of colourful artifice that recalls the operatic kitsch of the 1980 movie Flash Gordon .
It somehow worked, thanks to Waititi’s gleeful B-movie energy that reminded me of the 1980s era of Flash Gordon.
Like Ragnarok before it, the film captures the cosmic essence of “Thor” creators Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby to the point that I feel fairly confident that a structure in an early scene is an homage to Flash Gordon (1980) (or vice versa).
And he has to, because the pair’s script is rather laughable, a melodramatic hodgepodge of ideas liberally borrowing from influences as varied The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars , Flash Gordon , Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra and any number of Ray Harryhausen event spectacles ranging from 1958’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad , to 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts , to 1981’s Clash of the Titans .
Where's Flash Gordon 's Brian Blessed when you really need him?
It belongs in an era where the cheesiness of Flash Gordon (1980) and Masters of the Universe (1987) miraculously garnered a cult following.
Rather, Wrath of Man feels like a British crime movie from the 1970s or early 1980s, more akin to Get Carter or The Long Good Friday in its sense of quiet, dissolute brutality mixed in with an effort to keep the viewer in the dark.
There are scenes and images that recall everything from Flash Gordon (1980) to Die Hard (1988).
Among its many resonances, Drive reminded me of Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, another tale of a driver teetering between innocence and cruelty; of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, with their nameless, laconic protagonists and meticulous buildups to spasms of sudden violence; of the original 1971 Get Carter and its intoxicating pitilessness; of Halloween in its use of—well, you'll see.
Despite the comic-book trappings, it’s essentially a muscle-man-out-of-time movie, much like Flash Gordon was back in 1980, with the way-more charismatic Jason Momoa standing in for Sam J.
This has bits of Star Wars (1977) and Flash Gordon (1980) mixed together.
Sure, the story is silly--how could it not be?--but neither he nor his co-writers Mark Andrews and the great novelist Michael Chabon are able to bring any sense of fun to the proceedings in the way that the makers of the immortal 1980 take on the equally iconic "Flash Gordon" did.
Standing somewhat apart from today's blockbusters-of-the-week, it hews more closely to such nostalgia-tinged projects as 1980's Flash Gordon and 1991's The Rocketeer, narratively simple adventure yarns that charmingly worked their straightforward delineations of good and evil into no-frills fun.
“Flash Gordon,” in 1980, presented its space-jock hero as a delicious beefcake joke (the fact that you could scarcely tell whether Sam J. Jones was an actor or a high-school gym teacher was part of it).
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Directed by J.J. Abrams
influenced by Flash Gordon (1980)
Visuals
Stylistically, everything is intact here - from the Flash Gordon style screen fades and wipes to the clunk and whirr of that battered hardware.
After the failed attempt on his life, Riddick struggles to survive on an unfamiliar, barely habitable planet filled with wild alien dogs, impressively terrifying amphibious scorpion-like monsters and equally unimpressive-looking pterodactyl-like vultures, all on a desert CGI landscape that's a cross between Georges Méliès' 1902 silent classic "A Trip to the Moon" and the 1980 cheese fest "Flash Gordon."
If memory serves, this is more or less the same beginning as in the original movie serialization of "Flash Gordon," back in 1936.
The new Blu-ray comes with all the special features from the special edition DVD released a couple years ago, including an interview with comic artist Alex Ross, a look at the screenwriter and the first episode of the 1936 “Flash Gordon” serial.
As with the (more brazenly sexy) European 1960s fantasies Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, also based on comics, there’s practically no attempt at realism, with extravagant Arabian-Nights costumes, Oz-like creature f/x, crayon-box sets, and sparkler-trailing model spaceships inspired directly by the iconic 1930s strips and serials.
…it’s Star Wars as close to its pulpy Flash Gordon-y roots as it’s ever been…
If Star Wars always felt more than a cool hybrid of Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers and Kurosawa…
…as the Doctor skis into the Rani’s bone palace, Flash Gordon style…
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Directed by Cathy Yan
influenced by Flash Gordon (1980)
Visuals
Like some surreal mashup of Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon , Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy , Johnnie To’s The Heroic Trio and Rachel Talalay’s Tank Girl , much of the motion picture moves at such a brazen, unapologetically fevered pace I found it difficult to catch my breath.
With a splendid and largely British cast headed up by Michael Gambon, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, and Jeremy Northam (as Novello), it's hard to single out any one individual performance but Maggie Smith (as the sniping Countess of Trentham), "Croupier"'s Clive Owen (as a manservant with a difficult past), Helen Mirren (as Mrs. Wilson the head housekeeper), and Ryan Philippe (sporting a convincing Scottish brogue) are all worthy of attention.
As Lady Sylvia takes lascivious interest in visiting valet Denton, staid Mrs. Wilson makes note of withdrawn visiting valet Parks (Clive Owen, "Croupier") and Sir William dips into his own household staff, the household bustles and snobbery reigns.