Billy Barty
Occupation
Actor
Legend Review
OK
Seventeen years after its release, noted film tinkerer Ridley Scott has returned to his entry in the fantasy genre, Legend, which has been subject to as many scathing one-star reviews as it has five-star ones. Why the disparity? The movie is enchanting and has moments of magic, but it's an utter train wreck, overwhelmed by cheesy special effects, dialogue writ insanely large, and a kind of goofy plot.
To wit: This is a movie about a Puck-like character named Jack (Tom Cruise, before he hit it really big) who wages war against the Lord of Darkness, a demon seeking to create eternal night in his fantasy kingdom by marrying the local princess (Mia Sara) and killing the last of the unicorns. A quest naturally follows, with the goal of saving the princess -- and along the way, the world.
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Willow Review
Excellent
George Lucas and Ron Howard both love high adventure and, apparently, Hobbits.
Unfortunately, making a real version of Lord of the Rings is fraught with problems, as some directors know, so Lucas and Howard teamed up on an original short dude-goes-on-epic-adventure tale, this time having a "Nelwyn" named Willow (ex-Ewok Warwick Davis) finding a baby in a river, whom he must then protect from the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh), who is seeking the baby to destroy her thanks to the classic she-will-grow-up-to-destroy-me prophecy. Willow teams up with a half-crazed human named Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), rescues a shape-changed sorceress, battles a two-headed dragon (allegedly named "Eborsisk" after a certain powerful pair of film critics) and converts the evil queen's daughter (Joanne Whalley) from the dark side, all in two short hours.
Continue reading: Willow Review