Review: King Cohen
If you know me at all or follow me on Twitter (@fookthis), you know I love Larry Cohen. I think he’s a genius and I’ll watch anything with this name attached. One of my favorite films of all time is his Q: The Winged Serpent (1982). When I heard about this doc being made, I was excited for it. Although I love his movies, I’m not an expert on the man like some people, so I was really looking forward to learning a lot when I eventually got to see it.
Flash forward to this weekend, when I had to chance to. Because Cohen has been working in the business since the early 60s, there is a whole hell of a lot to cover. And, unfortunately, for me anyway, that was my only issue with the movie. I know this sounds like blasphemy but it just felt too long. About an 80 minutes in I started looking at the clock, there was still almost another 30 minutes to go. I know, I know, I should be wanting to absorb every single nugget of information coming out of this film. But after 90 minutes, I was ready for it to be over. Again, I bet I’m the only person with issue, I recognize that. I’ll berate myself in your honor.
Having said all that, I did enjoy learning about the production of movies like Bone, Q, The Stuff, and It’s Alive. Michael Moriarty and Yaphet Kotto are two of my favorite actors so hearing from them was great. Also, let’s be honest, a little sad, too. It’s a reminder that the actors/filmmakers we love are here for a limited time only so we should celebrate them while we can.
If you love Larry Cohen and his films, of course you should watch this. It goes through his oeuvre (look it up kids) pretty thoroughly. Watching Fred Williamson with his ever present cigar disputing the stories Cohen tells about stunts is worth the price of admission. So, yes, catch this if you can and why not throw on a Cohen film this Halloween season. I guarantee you won’t regret it.
