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Frankenstein Unbound | 
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Director: Roger Corman
Actors: John Hurt, Raul Julia, Nick Brimble, Bridget Fonda, Catherine Rabett
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $6.23
You Save: $8.75 (58%)
New (43) Used (22) from $5.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 56682
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 85
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 2236756
UPC: 024543267560
EAN: 0024543267560
ASIN: B000G6BLXS
Theatrical Release Date: November 2, 1990
Release Date: September 5, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Order with confidence - Every single package is shipped with insurance, and domestic packages have Delivery Confirmation. We will email you a confirmation with tracking information before we ship. Many individual CD's and DVD's get upgraded to first class mail to get to you quickly.
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Product Description
Joseph Buchanan is a brilliant scientist conducting implosion experiments in the year 2031. His humanitarian goal is to develop a weapons system that will not destroy all life on Earth but the results are catastrophic! The very core of time and space is fractured and Buchanan finds himself thrust into 19th century Geneva.He meets fellow scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein whose own monstrous experiment has gone haywire killing his brother and threatening the entire village. Frankenstein's creature is even more horrible than the world ever imagined-and now Dr Frankenstein is determined to use Buchanan's scientific knowledge to create its mate!System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY UPC: 024543267560 Manufacturer No: 2236756
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
Great Movie August 14, 2008
This was a really fantastic movie, i only got it for the Michael Hutchence cameo, but the movie in whole was Fantastic, very interesting, great storyline.
 Total Surprise March 16, 2008
Finding this in a video store's buy-two-get-three bargain bin I was expecting the usual Roger Corman cheesepot of silliness and sheer fun. I instead found a very legitimate work which is in some ways just as worthy of respect as Coppola's take on Dracula.
Don't let the first very stiff fifteen minutes fool you - once the story moves back in time everything ascends to another creative level. Clever script, beautiful sets in the lush Italian countryside, very good special effects and above all two exceptional performances from John Hurt and the much missed Raul Julia, who is entirely convincing as Doctor Frankenstein.
These two fine actors could have camped it up, or at the very least walked through their roles. Instead they bring significant passion to the screen. Unbound may also deliver the best post-Karloff rendition of the Monster, especially in the last scene of the film.
But... no telling of this tale by any director or cast can match the depth or atmosphere of the James Whale classic, nor can anyone plunge to the subdued depth of hair raising terror that Boris Karloff brought to his character. That monster's first appearance in the doorway still ranks in my book as one of the most frightening images in the history of cinema.
 "Science is your religion" January 13, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The first time I watched this film, I was rather disappointed, expecting one of Roger Corman's usual grade-B outings on steroids (now that he was back in the director's chair for the first time in 30 years). It was just different enough that I watched it again later and I was hooked.
SPOILER: Some reviewers have compared this film to Kenneth Branaugh's Frankenstein. I suppose it was inevitable as Branaugh's movie outright stole from this one the brilliant concept of Victor creating the monster's mate from the body of his murdered Elizabeth. Frankenstein Unbound, though low-budget, has a wry wit, understated yet sincere performances, and a smoothly flowing directorial style while Branaugh's movie has electric eels(!), a rather gay porn-like creation scene(with lots of mineral oil), and Robert....Deniro....talking....slowly.
Many people seem to be under the misconception that the monster in Shelley's original novel was supposed to be likeable, that it was really a good guy underneath the weird appearance and it was just misunderstood. This simply isn't true. The monster starts out innocent but once it matures, it becomes a bitter, hateful killer out to destroy all those that Victor loves. Frankenstein was a horror story. The monster is a ghastly specter haunting Victor into the grave and only after Victor's death does a faint echo of the monster's former self sadly re-emerge long enough for it to lament over what its done and immolate itself. This film's monster played by Nick Brimble is the most faithful to the original source out of any movie version. Childlike while searching for understanding, it is in the process of becoming bitter and murderous when our hero played by John Hurt stumbles upon the proceedings after traveling time from 2031 to turn-of-the-century (19th, that is) Switzerland.
The story elements involving the trial and execution of the girl accused of murdering Victor's little brother are more faithfully lifted from Mary Shelley's novel than any film version yet. Where most directors, apparently envious of the ingenious twists on the concept spun by the Hammer films, repeatedly try to re-invent the story, Frankenstein Unbound uses a straigh-forward version of the story, perhaps because there is enough of a new twist with the time-traveling protagonist. Hurt's character's means of dealing with his new reality and the villagers' reaction to him are rather fun. Raul Julia is composed and elegant as Frankenstein with just a hint of madness. The chemistry between the cast-members is great, Bridget Fonda is excellent as Mary Shelley, and the computerized future-car is actually an italian concept-car called the Aztec, which I read about in a car magazine shortly before seeing this film. The opening reference to Albert Einstein's witnessing of an A-bomb test, the children's "funeral" for their old bicycle, and the dream sequences are full of symbolism of the story's themes: the pandora's box of knowledge, once opened, can never be closed again/ the more things change, the more they stay the same/ the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the finale, I really felt for the monster as he was being destroyed by John Hurt's character who, now full of bombast and judgement, is now the monster and says, "I am Frankenstein", referring to his own creation of a device which has destroyed the earth as we know it.
No, this film is definitely not for the gum-chewing crowd, but if you want to experience something low-key but different, give this one a try.
monsters May 11, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
very interesting movie. I like the details throughout the movie that fell in place at the end of the story.
"The madness of possibility" January 4, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Corman's "Frankenstein Unbound" is a masterpiece; as such, it will always be misunderstood, thus underestimated, by cultural illiterates. The title itself presupposes familiarity with Romantic literature: it is an ironic reference to P.B. Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound"--a major verse drama that expressed visionary optimism, the poet's belief that mankind's future would be incomparably bright (liberated from tyranny, superstition, and all manner of age-old errors). In contrast, "Frankenstein Unbound" paints an extremely bleak picture of the future--presenting a world that is dominated and eventually wrecked by misguided (or unguided) science. In brief, the future resembles the past--only worse!
At the center of this pessimistic world-vision stands Dr. Joe Buchanan (ably played by John Hurt)--a brilliant scientist who develops an atrocious weapon that can tear open the fabric of time and space. Inevitably Buchanan becomes a victim of his own creation, which transports him from 2031 Los Angeles to 1817 Switzerland. There he meets his natural counterpart--Victor Frankenstein (Raul Julia), an archetypal scientist being victimized by his own ungovernable creation. Cold, amoral intellect seems to unite past and future, Frankenstein and Buchanan--thus suggesting the speciousness of "progress."
The film's pessimism would be unmitigated if it were not for the presence of Mary Shelley (splendidly portrayed by Bridget Fonda). The author of "Frankenstein," Mistress Shelley appears as a young unpublished writer drawing inspiration for her great novel from her shrewd observations of Frankenstein himself. She deduces that the man has created an inhuman murderer. Further, as a true visionary she helps guide Buchanan to a proper understanding of things. She intuits that divine purpose, not accident, brought Buchanan to 19th century Geneva: his mission is to stop Frankenstein, whose monstrous experiment she terms "an abomination in the eyes of God." Enlightened, inspired, fascinated by the sheer insight of Mary Shelley, Buchanan follows her directive; he confronts Frankenstein and his creature in a fantastic duel set in the remote future's frozen wasteland. This battle makes for exciting, beautifully atmospheric cinema, which cries out to be seen! Descriptions can't begin to do it justice.
Romantic vision is likewise evident in the film's two monsters--Frankenstein's creation and Buchanan's time-space warp. The latter manifests as a freakishly shaped storm-cloud; Mary's husband Percy Bysshe Shelley (Michael Hutchence) is shown to be fascinated by the thing: no doubt he is using it as a model for his poem "The Cloud." As for Frankenstein's monster--played by Nick Brimble, he is ghastly, nightmarish. This macabre rendering is clearly in sync with Mary Shelley's original novel, rather than the overrated productions of 1930's Hollywood.
The musical score of "Frankenstein Unbound" is also outside provincial/Hollywood traditions, though well within the mainstream of serious music: it is a relentless orchestral dirge composed by Carl Davis. In its overwhelming power this score recalls the symphonic style of Gustav Mahler. Well-crafted, infinitely expressive.
To recapitulate: as a superb work of film-art, "Frankenstein Unbound" constantly refers to other works of art that occupy the same universe of Romantic imagination. While its depth and subtlety will repay many viewings, the film's greatness will never be accessible to culturally deprived dunces. "Frankenstein Unbound" is simply beyond the powers of the Many, for whom I've some invaluable advice: stay focused on network TV.
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