Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's “Island of Dr. Moreau” (2014)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Purely Joyful Movie!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

LOST SOUL is a documentary exploring the making of an infamous film, namely 1996's THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU which was begun by cult director Richard Stanley and ended up being completed by Hollywood veteran John Frankenheimer. It feels a little like the behind-the-scenes craziness you see chronicling the relationship of Herzog and Kinski in cinema, for example. Stanley himself is the overriding figure here, extensively interviewed as he talks about his vision for the movie and the chaos that ensued. He's obviously an erudite figure who knows his stuff, which makes the disasters that ensued the more puzzling. I would have preferred more behind-the-scenes footage from the film itself, but the interviews and clips we do see are well assembled. I find it a pity that Ron Perlman and David Thewlis don't feature and aren't made mention of, but the stuff we learn about Brando and Kilmer's behaviour is priceless and Fairuza Balk is a good sport.

If you're a fan of documentaries about the making of films, have I got a movie for you! I remember going to see the last remake of H.G. Wells' novel, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" in the summer of 1996, fairly excited about it- being a fan of the novel and the film adaptation from the 1970's with Burt Lancaster/Michael York, and also excited with Marlon Brando in the title role. This was one of Val Kilmer's first post- "Batman Forvever" starring vehicles as well. So I was a bit surprised to see- who, David Thewlis-??- in the lead role of the hero, Val in a supporting role, Brando phoning (literally LOL) in his performance, and OMG- what a god-AWFUL heaping pile of s**t movie!! LOL Now, after seeing this movie, I know why! LOLDirector Richard Stanley first made a name for himself having directed the early '90s sci-fi flick, "Hardware", and it was a pet project and lifelong dream of his to do a faithful big-screen adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel like me he had been a fan of since he was a kid. As Brando and Kilmer got involved, the project escalated into what would be his first big-budget studio picture, and everything went to hell in a handbasket! I was never sure about all those rumors I heard about Kilmer- but this film confirmed it since he was referred to more than once as a "prep school bully". And Brando!- OMG- let's just say he's right up there with his own category of cray-cray!IODM was eventually taken away from Stanley- he was booted off the set, and New Line Studios handed over the reigns to veteran filmmaker, John Frankenheimer, who was always the director I had associated with this movie. He was an "old school" director who hadn't had much experience with sci-fi, and didn't really get along with ANY-one in the movie! I read at Wikipedia on Kilmer's last day of shooting he said- "get that bast**d off my set!" LOL And you'll see where Mike Myers' inspiration for his character "Mini Me" came from- thanks again, Marlon! LMAO Well, for anyone interested in the back-story of this movie, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this doc., and I will say you will too! Now streaming at Netflix....

Behind the scenes chronicle of how clash of vision, bad creative decisions, lack of interest and really bad weather plagued the disastrous production of the infamous 1996 remake of "The Island of Dr. Moreau".This film is great because it not just talks about the film, but also the career of Richard Stanley and how it went off the rails. Following genre cult classics like "Hardware" and "Dust Devil", Stanley could have been the biggest thing in horror. However, because of his experience here, he has done relatively little in the last twenty years.I love that they have Tim Sullivan commenting on the "identity crisis" of New Line. Sullivan is not credited, so how much he was on set I do not know. But having talked to him myself in the past, he is extremely knowledgeable. From the vantage of a production assistant, he saw a lot of great movies get made before making his own.Fairuza Balk is nice to have here. Her career went downhill after the 1990s, though not necessarily because of this film. It would be nice to see her make a comeback. David Hudson, the Buffalo Man, offers a nice point of view from the natives.And, of course, we find that Val Kilmer is a total diva. Fortunately, his career has taken a complete dive and he is now seen largely as a joke. Unfortunately, if he was wise, he invested his earnings and never has to work again.

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) **** (out of 4) If you watch enough movies, eventually you're going to see something that takes you by complete surprise. You can hear about how bad or crazy a movie is but there are certain examples that just stick in your mind because once you've seen the movie in question you realize that you really have seen something that's so bad that you have to sit there for days if not weeks wondering how it went so wrong. That happened to me in 1996 when I walked out of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. Being a major Marlon Brando fan, it was a thrill getting to see him on the big screen but what was on that screen went down in infamy and here's a documentary explaining the craziness.Director David Gregory is one of the best people out there when it comes to making DVD/Blu-ray shorts so throwing him into the feature world is something great for movie fans. This documentary is so perfectly done that it plays just like a real drama, a tragedy and then finally a hilarious comedy. We start off hearing from Richard Stanley who talks about his original ideas for the film and we see that he clearly has a great vision for the story. Then, we see that there's something off when he begins to talk about calling on witch doctor's to "help" the film. From here we learn just about every bit of the production details from how the film was originally meant to be made for $8 million but then Brando came on board, which had the budget go higher so then they needed a star so Val Kilmer was brought on and soon the original director was gone and replaced by maverick John Frankenheimer.LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU is without question one of the best documentaries that you're ever going to see when it comes to explaining the behind-the-scenes of a troubled production. However, to be fair, this here wasn't just a troubled production because you're going to learn that the entire thing seemed to be cursed and you can't help but wonder why the entire film wasn't dropped early in the production but then you learn that perhaps someone just wanted to see how crazy it could get. Things turn even worse when you hear that even Brando and Kilmer wanted the production to fail and some of the stories are just downright crazy. There are so many wild and crazy stories told about the production of this movie by the time it's over you can easily see why the actual movie turned out so bad.There are way too many highlights in this film so picking out one or two to put the spotlight on is rather hard. Again, being a die-hard Brando fan, finding out what was going on with the white face paint and the ice bucket on his head were hilarious. Hearing about how the fired Stanley managed to get back onto the set and work as an extra was just astounding. What's the best is the fact that so many people came back and were willing to talk about the troubled production and be honest about it. Of course, Brando and Kilmer weren't available but Fairuza Balk is on hand as his New Line's Robert Shaye and of course Stanley plays a big part here. There's also some of the original producers to discuss the problems and the honesty of everyone involved is what makes the drama of the film work so well.Of course, as the craziness continues and just gets weirder, the film pretty much turns into a comedy because you have to laugh at everything that was going on. Gregory has once again created a wonderful little gem and one hopes that his talents will see for more feature-length documentaries because he's one of the best out there and LOST SOUL is so great that it actually makes me want to go back and what that train-wreck of a film that was THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.