Not only inspired by, but a veritable sequel of, "Twilight Zone - the Movie", is this trilogy of fantasy-adventure tales called "Amazing Stories". This video was released as a selection of episodes from the television series.
Steven Spielberg again joins the team (you may remember his "Sunnyvale Rest Home" segment from "Twilight Zone") with an entry called "The Mission". An American flight crew take their lucky charm, the belly gunner, with them on his 24th mission, even though that number is believed to be bad luck. This is quite an emotional and stirring narrative that unfortunately ends with a rather implausible, though fantastic, whimper. Kevin Costner, Casey Siemaszko and Kiefer Sutherland are all very good, as is the support (may have inspired "Memphis Belle").
"Mummy Daddy" is a humorous tongue-in-cheek comedy about an actor who gets a call that his wife has begun labour and so takes off in full mummy costume to go to the hospital. When he gets lost in the swamps where they were filming, and the real mummy, "Ra Amin Kha", is set loose, director William Dear provides enjoyable laughs.
Finally Robert Zemeckis presents what is the weakest of the three shows, "Go to the Head of the Class", a macabre but fairly impotent tale about two young students who cast a spell on the English teacher they despise, only to be horrified when they discover they've killed him. Their subsequent effort at resurrecting him has bizarre results. Stan Winston's f/x and Christopher Lloyd's performance are both fun.
Overall a reasonable 110 minutes entertainment, but hardly classic fantasy.
Tuesday, July 12, 1994 - Video
Steven Spielberg again joins the team (you may remember his "Sunnyvale Rest Home" segment from "Twilight Zone") with an entry called "The Mission". An American flight crew take their lucky charm, the belly gunner, with them on his 24th mission, even though that number is believed to be bad luck. This is quite an emotional and stirring narrative that unfortunately ends with a rather implausible, though fantastic, whimper. Kevin Costner, Casey Siemaszko and Kiefer Sutherland are all very good, as is the support (may have inspired "Memphis Belle").
"Mummy Daddy" is a humorous tongue-in-cheek comedy about an actor who gets a call that his wife has begun labour and so takes off in full mummy costume to go to the hospital. When he gets lost in the swamps where they were filming, and the real mummy, "Ra Amin Kha", is set loose, director William Dear provides enjoyable laughs.
Finally Robert Zemeckis presents what is the weakest of the three shows, "Go to the Head of the Class", a macabre but fairly impotent tale about two young students who cast a spell on the English teacher they despise, only to be horrified when they discover they've killed him. Their subsequent effort at resurrecting him has bizarre results. Stan Winston's f/x and Christopher Lloyd's performance are both fun.
Overall a reasonable 110 minutes entertainment, but hardly classic fantasy.
Tuesday, July 12, 1994 - Video