Director: Jim Sharma; Screenplay: Jim Sharman & Richard O'Brien; Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky
Cast: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick
based on original musical play by Richard O'Brien
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the controversial and unconventional 70s cult movie with kick-ass transvestites, awesome dancing numbers, oversexed characters and unexplainable madness.
The story starts out with newly engaged couple Brad and Janet being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a flat tire and no help what so ever. To make matters worse, the sky was pouring rain and practically pitch black outside. Without having anything better to do, they decided to go out and find help in the castle they had driven by earlier. The castle in the woods looks like La Casa de Frankenstein but regardless to that Brad and Janet knock on the door anyway. It is the bizarre and eerie lair of Doctor Frank-N-Furter - the sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania, as he kindly calls himself. Brad and his fiancé just wanted to use the phone to call help, but instead they were dragged into a wacky Oompa Loompa dancing frenzy, as Benni referred to the Transylvanians. Everything that came after was a strange journey from reality to insanity and it was effing brilliant in our humble opinion.
It was scary and remarkable weird, but the utter madness in it was entertaining and it kept you watching the movie with your mouth hanging open the entire time. Normally I hate musicals, as does Benni, but in this case we made an exception and decided that RHPS was no ordinary musical. During the time we were watching it, we forgot just how much we both dislike movies with mindless singing and dancing, such as Grease or HSM. The movie is also blessed with strong and theatrical performances and quite catchy musical numbers from the colorful cast.
The innocent and naive heroine Janet, played by the gifted Susan Sarandon, was an odd thing to watch. She started out as the blushing bride, but as the story unfolded, she grew wilder. We both agreed that she did an excellent role.
But our favorite performance was from the magnificent genius Tim Curry. He was the devious and twisted mad scientist meets drag queen on overdrive Frank-N-Furter. We absolutely loved Tim Curry in RHPS. He owned every moment and stole every scene with his mischievous smile and devilish grin. Not to mention the flamboyant behavior and interesting choice in clothing. Everything about it was refined and complete as opposed to being cheap and overly ridiculous. A big applause to Tim Curry for his staggering role.
But we can't leave out other great appearances from Riff Raff, the creepy hunchback with cowboy boots, played by Richard O'Brien and the crazy vixen-like domestic Magneta, played by Patricia Quinn. Also the storyteller, who Benni found to be creepy as well. Although not all things were as sugary. Brad was rather wearisome and dull and didn't really serve his purpose and Frank's creation Rocky was like a blond Tarzan with a flat stomach and little brain capacity.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show climbed very high in our 'Top movie' list. Overall the movie offered sheer craziness and hilarious moments with the addition of outrageous characters and beautiful cinematography. There aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe RHPS, so to get the feeling into your bones you'd just have to be in it. It was addicting, mind-blowing and somewhat kinky and perverted, but still classy and tasteful. I can summarize our opinion on The Rocky Horror Picture Show in just three words - W E L O V E D I T.
written by Frank
links: IMDb
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Don't get hot and flustered about musicals (You can't judge movie musicals on the basis of lame crap such as High School Musical, though the 1978 Grease I'd defend even though there are many that are much better). Rocky Horror is fun, but Tim Curry is the show and something is lost when you don't see it as part of the cult, audience participation experience. As a standalone movie, it lacks a lot and has slow bits. For some of the best movie musicals, you have to go old. My personal choice for the best typical movie musical remains 1952's Singin' in the Rain with Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor. See it if you haven't.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we're going to do a musical for a long time. But about Rocky we loved the limitless sense of craziness and the ridiculous concept of it all. Sure, it was weak in some parts but in a mash of all things standard we'd hate it to fall into the cracks of "attempt to make a decent movie."
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