It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
The Italian Job (1969)
The Italian Job (2003)
Italian Turtles (2023)
An Itch in Time (1943)
The Fire Within (2002)

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)

Something has killed nearly the entire crew of a Mars exploration vessel, leaving only one survivor. He tells a spectacular story of a hostile alien that did all the killing, but nobody believes him, and he’s taken aboard the next ship to bring him back to Earth, to face murder charges. But somehow, that hostile alien makes its way onto the ship, and instead of a quiet voyage back to Earth the crew is being killed one by one.

The film takes place entirely on that claustrophobic ship, which looks both believable and cool. The science isn’t obviously ridiculous, and even with a no-star cast the acting is good enough to almost forget it’s acting.

You’re right — that plot is similar to 1979’s Alien, and the writers of that movie undoubtedly watched this movie. Alien is better, of course, but considering that this was made in the 1950s, it’s very accomplished and deserves to be seen.

As with most low-budget sci-fi, the space alien (everyone calls it “the monster”) is just a guy in a rubber suit, but it’s an impressively gruesome rubber suit, accompanied by fearsome space growling.

Bonus points for making the ship’s doctor a woman, fully competent, not a joke, not used for sex appeal, and not a stereotyped screamer.

Written by Jerome Bixby (The Man from Earth), this is sci-fi from before I was born, but it is still white-knuckle stuff that’s smart, scary, and recommended.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

The Italian Job (1969)
and The Italian Job (2003)

Being an old movie aficionado, usually I watch the originals and eschew the remakes, but I saw the 2003 remake of The Italian Job when it came out, and somehow hadn’t seen the 1969 original until tonight.

Both are heist movies, with Mini-Coopers driving up- and down stairs, and kooky but elaborate car chases. The getaway involves hacking into the city’s computer network to manipulate traffic lights, causing a big ol’ traffic jam to thwart the police. Other than that and the characters’ names, there aren’t too many similarities between the two films.

The original is drenched in cool, over the top from the opening shots of an inventively choreographed murder & instant funeral in a Lamborghini coffin. Michael Caine stars, as a smart but conceited criminal who, soon as he’s sprung from prison, says, “Take me to my tailor.”

The story is ludicrous and never makes sense, even in a world of ludicrous heist movies, but it’s fun. Noël Coward and Maggie Blye co-star. Benny Hill plays the computer mastermind. The only black guy in the cast the only incompetent member of the heist team, hmmm.

The film had an opulent budget, and lets us see several expensive and snazzy new sports cars inarguably totaled on camera. And it all leads to an ending I’d describe as surreal or sarcastic, and unsatisfactory. But I enjoyed getting there.

34 years later, Mark Wahlberg steps in for Michael Caine, and Seth Green for Benny Hill. Need I say, these are not improvements.

The cast is more of an ensemble — Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Donald Sutherland. As rejiggered, the plot makes more sense than the original, but it’s less fun and takes no chances.

It tries to replicate the original’s coolness through pulsing music, including a poor cover of Pink Floyd, played twice, but skips the original’s intrinsics of camerawork, performance, and setting. And speaking of setting, this Italian Job takes place in Los Angeles, not Turin, so it’s not even Italian.

It’s an OK piece of fluff, but if you must see one Italian Job, see the one made in Italy.

Verdict: YES, and YES I guess.

♦ ♦ ♦

Italian Turtles (2023)

Kevin and Peter have created four cartoon superheroes beloved by kids and geeks, and now they’re trying to sell executives on making a weekly TV show based on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This 9-minute short is the story of that pitch meeting, built around the concept that these executives won’t understand the appeal of adolescent anthropomorphic crime-fighting turtles.

I am familiar with and have enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I certainly understand the appeal, but I don’t understand the appeal of this short.

Verdict: MAYBE.

♦ ♦ ♦

An Itch in Time (1943)

Porky Pig has a pet dog, and the dog has a flea, and this Looney Tunes short provokes several laughs, and then ends with a suicide joke without a trigger warning.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

The Fire Within (2002)

Katia and Maurice Krafft were nuts about volcanoes, and spent years chasing and filming eruptions and lava flows, etc. Maurice’s first volcano was Stromboli, and hey, I was there just a few weeks ago, watching Islands of Fire. Small world!

In an entire town deeply covered in smoking ash, Maurice walks atop what looks like charcoal, and pokes his head into the second-story window of a house where the first floor will never be seen again. This documentary is loaded with knockout imagery like that, served alongside wry, ominous narration, over an absolutely appropriate soundtrack of opera.

Written, directed, and narrated by Werner Herzog, this was almost entirely filmed by Katia and Maurice themselves, before they got too close to their last volcano, and evaporated into a wisp of smoke.

The mountains and volcanoes were here before any of us, and will remain long after we’re gone. We are here for but an infinitesimal speck of time — and most of us are barely here even for that, as we go through our humdrum human lives. Not content to be barely here, Katia and Maurice Krafft were extremely here, and now they’re gone, but what they left behind (and what Herzog has done with it) is magnificent.

Verdict: BIG YES.

11/24/2025

If you can’t find a movie I’ve mentioned, or you have a recommendation, please drop me a note.

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.

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