Hi
I just watched this last night and I thought John P. Ryan's performance was excellent and very sad, he had a great presence, (he reminded me of a serious Bill Murray)he was much greater and had much depth than the surface of the silly story line. I liked him in this.
[deleted]
I was thinking while watching the film that he was working hard with poor script and direction. A couple of times it looks like he's crying for real.
shareYea I saw that too. I think if they made a more serious story tackling the subject mater of disability in small children with John P Ryan as the father in the film, it would of been heart braking and good.
But the scene which sticks most in my memory is where his boss cruelly sacks him from his job, seeing him as defective and useless for bringing offspring like that into the world and John P Ryan looking and acting like a destroyed man.
he was amazing, lended great gravitas to the film...showing the range of emotions a parent would go through in such an ordeal, superb.
share..."A couple of times it looks like he's crying for real."
That's because he WAS crying for real.
And yes, he puts in a great performance.
agree. everyone's good (the acting in larry cohen in larry cohen movies is usually uncommonly good considering the b movie stories, see "q, the winged serpent" and "god told me to") but john p. ryan was a cut above.
share[deleted]
I agree he was absolutely Excellent!!!
shareThis movie literally traumatized me when I was a kid but, it was my own doing: I begged, whined and cried until my mom was like "Okay, lets go see it." I think she knew the movie was going to scare the absolute crap out of me...so she let me have my way to teach me a lesson: Careful what you wish for. I was maybe 10 or 11 when this happened.
When we left the theatre my mind was racing. I was scared of the dark. Branches scraping the siding of our house. Pregnant family members... I was a wreck.
But, this movie always stuck with me. Became one of those "things" that kinda shaped my childhood--along with millions of other "things."
Recently re-watched it. It's held up remarkably well.
If Ridley Scott could dig down deep, so deep as to tap what made "Alien" so fantastically amazing...I'd love to see him redo this movie.
I am usually totally against reboots and remakes and whatnot because Hollywood ruins all the older movies with the modern demographic studies aimed at maximum profitability.
BUT, that being said; I'd love to see "It's Alive" and "Phantasm" redone. With good actors, a good director and respect for the originals.
someone remade it a few years ago
shareYeah.
shareIt's on TCM this morning and am seeing it for the first time. He is very believable, more so than the rest of the cast.
shareYes, he was very good. I wish Michael Moriarty would have been as good in the third movie. I felt so bad for Ryan's character. I didn't think the storyline was silly, but felt that the writers should have gone into more detail as to why the baby would kill some people and not others.
shareAgreed, he's the type of actor that makes anything he's in better. In a much smaller part I loved him as NASA's pitchman in The Right Stuff.