the audience applauded

hyped garbage

Absolutely the worst movie.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I heard about this documentary when I was researching for a piece on the original 30s film with Charles Laughton for the WBD crew and forthcoming book. Not particularly relevant but sounded interesting. And indeed it is, funny too and very well put together. Richard Stanley, whose Dust Devil, I enjoyed, came across as a very likeable and charismatic guy with plenty to say about his desire to make the film and the torturous process it turned out to be. I almost want to see the finished film now but the horror stories of Brando and Kilmer are somewhat off putting. Highly recommended for anyone who has seen the finished film or anybody interested in the film process, particularly when the location is in such an inhospitable place and there are so many extras with extravagant costumes/make-up - plus the truly horrendous sounding blokes with over inflated egos.

A documentary about the making of the abomination known as "The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)". Great stuff about the absolute chaos of production of the movie. From actors with huge egos (Val Kilmer, Marlon Brando) through problematic location and people getting fired, to absolute crazy behavior that is like taken from a mad house movie.If you liked documentaries like "Lost in La Mancha (2002)" and "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)" which tell the story of some crazy movie productions, you're going to love this one. Incidentally, there are quite a few more connections between "Dr. Moreau" and "Apocalypse Now", which are mentioned in this documentary.

This documentary is an engrossing story about unconventional talent, young ambition and the perils of big-budget film making. I recommend watching The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996) before viewing this film. It will give things context, but it's also an example of a so-bad-it's-fun movie.The majority of the documentary is an exercise in sharing war stories from a film set plagued with problems. The strangest events are recalled and people weigh in on how things went so wrong and how the trouble could have been prevented, or at least lessened. There is a good number of interviewees and they range from producers to actors to crew members. Director Richard Stanley, of course, takes center stage.Although it has flaws, such as failing to mention David Thewlis, this is definitely a good watch for fans of similar documentaries like Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991), Lost in La Mancha (2002) and Jodorowsky's Dune (2013).

Maybe one of the things I'm missing, are sound bits from a few more players (actors), like Ron Pearlman, who also was in the original movie. You were expecting Val Kilmer not to take part in this (although he was asked of course). But those things are not really that important, especially considering how great the movie is built and edited. The mayhem that ensued seems to have been inevitable in some sense, but is still very gripping.There is faults on more than one set of shoulders and maybe the other movie might not have been a better "Island of Dr. Mureau" movie than the one we finally got. But it most definitely would have been crazier (yes it's possible) and might have given a very creative guy some power to fulfill his other visions. A man suffice to say that sort of was not ready for that big a project of course.And this duality and all the gray areas (plus all those great anecdotes, hoping there will be a few more on a future disc release without them having to cut anything out of the movie we had the pleasure watching at Frightfest) in the movie, make it great. Fun and light and over before you know it ...