Synopsis

Here are three cartoons that Paul McCartney backed and scored. They are all lovinglycrafted, even if they don’t always work at the narrative level. “Tropic Island Hum” and “Rupertand the Frog Song” are the weakest (though again, they look stunning). They are little more thanvisually lush excuses to set up underwhelming musical numbers (which tend to reinforce theimpression that McCarney is a creatively spent force in this department). The former apes thelook of classic musical shor...s of the 40s, but has little of the loosey-goosey energy of its models.The latter, which revives a character from a popular British children’s comic strip, doesn’t goanywhere much with this revival. The middle film, “Tuesday,” on the other hand, is a delight.One night, a multitude of frogs levitates on lily pads, and the gently surreal image is played out toits fullest. That this piece is taken from a children’s book, and so the narrative arc was not left toMcCartney and his team, may account for its being so much better than its companions.McCartney also does a number of the voices here, to rather uneven effect.

It appears that Fox is having a hard time keeping a good thing going when it comes to the Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection. The Volume One boxed set included five discs, Volume Two included four discs, and the group of films that are generally being referred to as Volume Three don’t come in a box at all, but are only available for individual sale. I understand the logic, however, as these latest films aren’t exactly Marilyn Monroe star vehicles. Yes, she appears in all of them, but she is certainly not a feat...red performer. Once I saw a few of these films, I appreciated the fact that these discs aren’t being pushed as the next volume of the Diamond Collection in the strictest sense. True, she is the only performer featured on the covers, and the artwork matches the theme of the other titles in the series, but as I said earlier, they are not available in a boxed set, and the text on the back of the box clearly states that she holds only a minor role.

So, this is not really a Marilyn Monroe film. OK, so what exactly is this film about? In a nutshell, it deals with corporate idiocy, which is a topic that I am all-too-familiar with in my real life. The basic story goes that Grandpa gets fired from his job, because there is a company policy that prohibits workers over the age of 65 from being employed by the company. The directive comes from the parent company of a partnership of a subsidiary of the company that owns the stock of this other company… well, you get the gist of it. Anyway, so Grandpa passes himself off as the president of the whole conglomerate, and essentially hires himself back. His views on business catch on, he is found out, and hilarity ensues.

Synopsis

Due to the clumsy snake-repelling tactics of novelist William Katt, the passengers of anAfrican river boat find themselves stuck on Snake Island. They don't realize they're in trouble, atfirst, taking time out to party and dance, but soon their numbers stuck being cut down. It seemsthat the snakes on this island have become very smart and are single-minded in their goal ofcleansing the island of humans

Synopsis

Tribes in the Amazonian rain forest have been sabotaging American oil concerns in an effortto preserve their home. Heroine Gabrielle Anwar is reporting on what is supposed to be asuccessful compromise, but finds herself in the middle of a war. It seems the compromise is alie, and the State Department is using Rutger Hauer and his mercenaries to ethnically cleanse thelocals with genetically modified killer bees. As if this weren’t enough, a case of bees winds up ona plane. Among the...passengers is Anwar’s estranged husband Craig Sheffer, and he is sooncaught up in the struggle to survive the escaped bees in-flight attack.

Synopsis

Lance Henriscksen has no luck. He loses his job as FBI bomb disposal guy after the bombhe's trying to deal with goes boom. A year later, heading up a private security firm in Munich, thesame terrorists screw his life again. This time, they've set multiple nukes to go off all overEurope. The detonator is contained somewhere in the terrorist leader's body, and it will betriggered if he dies. The solution? Shrink Henricksen and team to nano-level and inject them intothe wounded terror...st's body to find and disarm the detonator.

I applaud any film that dares to push at the boundaries that envelop it, be those boundaries artistic, traditional or cultural. That is precisely what is so much fun about many Criterion Collection titles. They have a complete disregard for the filmmaking conventions and social morays of their time, and instead the director creates exactly what he wants, convention be damned.

Marilyn Monroe movies, however, have never really fit into that category. In fact, she was notoriously typecast as the sexy dumb blon...e throughout her career. Though the majority of her films are undeniably entertaining, they aren’t exactly cutting-edge cinema. We’re Not Married, however, comes very close.