A Quick Retrospective on Philip J. Cook, Filmmaker-at-large!

The big difference between one of Philip J. Cook‘s early films, like Despiser, to a recent one, namely Ghost Planet, is in how well he can blend in the special effects. He uses a blue/green screen for most of his wide angle shots, and these days, they’re in those closeups too! With modern-age computer technology, he can truly create those exotic worlds, and while his skills as a storyteller haven’t changed much, what makes his films unique is that he will micromanage. That is, he’s an auteur.

Although most of his tales are populated with characters in familiar roles, I can’t fault him for his choices after watching more than these two works. He wants to make his works accessible. What I’m recognising from Despiser reminds me of Buckaroo Banzai and I had to check out the bonus features first before attempting to watch the film. They’re quite good at getting me primed at what to expect instead of tuning it out.

When this older film concerns Gordon (Mark Redfield) figuring out his life in Purgatory, whether he can return to what was is challenging. He lost his job, his wife is leaving him and his soul is awaiting judgement! Who he meets includes Nimbus, a devout soldier (Doug Brown), Tomasawa, a Japanese kamikaze pilot (Frank Smith), Charlie, a British firefighter (Tara Bilkins) and Jake, the Cowboy (Michael Weitz). Since he fell into this world “by accident,” they think he is the key to returning to whence they came.

However, with an even crazier force simply known as The Despiser coming after them all, it’s either fight or take flight, and hide until the hunt is over! This movie is an overly ambitious idea ahead of its time, and I was amused at finding Trolls acting like their true Norwegian selves (not the DreamWorks property), as miscreants than anything else!

Had this movie been made in this modern day, the effects of work would not look so amateurish. Virtual worlds can easily be crafted now and look photo-realistic. Back then, the resources to create them were limited, and required suspension of belief. Nowadays, due to the advances of technology, some overlays are seamless. While Cook doesn’t fully take advantage of this availability, there’s still a bit of a low budget feel to his films.

As for Ghost Planet, I believe it borrows on another concept which isn’t as common–humans are out to find tech from an unknown age (or other civilization) and hope what they can dig up can help their cause. It’s a watchable film with better attention to detail on the SPFX work, but sadly, it’s not all that memorable. Had it lived up to my desire of having ghosts floating around, I might have been more interested. At least both films are love letters to the era of the pulps.

Overall, I’m more impressed he’s still churning out movies, and I’ll have to see Malice when I have time. Although the FX work is no different from his other works, the performances and concept look strong and I’ll have to pick up the box set. According to IMDB. “The Writers Guild of America has hot-listed this film as ‘the Web’s Most Cutting Edge New Media Content.’ It can be viewed on online, but I’m want a home video release of The Malice Trilogy (Amazon link).”

Philip J. Cook’s Malice Trilogy Trailer