Monthly Archives: February 2014

Movies

Riddick (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Back in the year 2000, many critics and fans expressed enthusiasm over the just released sci-fi action suspense film Pitch Black.  Starring the then pretty much unknown Vin Diesel (his two biggest roles up to that point were Private Carpazo in Saving Private Ryan and the voice of the Iron Giant in that animated movie), the movie was relatively low budget and, admittedly, felt like it owed a great debt, story-wise, to both Alien and Aliens.  Nonetheless, the film delivered an entertaining tale with characters who weren’t easy to pin down.

The movie was so successful it spawned video games, an animated feature, and an ambitious 2004 sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick.  Unfortunately, that movie may well have been a little too ambitious for its own good.  While Pitch Black was a more small scale and “intimate” monster movie, The Chronicles of Riddick attempted to create a HUGE space opera on the level of Dune, complete with a large cast of characters, political intrigue, back-stabbing, etc. etc.

After that film’s release and the subsequent critical drubbing and disappointing box office it received, it appeared the character of Riddick would grace the screen no more.

But Vin Diesel’s star was on the rise and I suspect the incredible success of the last few Fast and Furious movies gave investors enough confidence to allow Mr. Diesel and director/writer David Twohy another go around with Riddick.

Released in 2013, Riddick, the third film in the series, wisely chooses to draw the space opera stuff so prevalent in The Chronicles of Riddick waaay down, though there is no attempt to ignore the events of that film.  In fact, after Riddick’s start, we find via flashbacks that our favorite anti-hero’s current predicament (he’s heavily injured and stranded on a desert planet with considerable hostile wildlife) were a direct result of things that happened to him after/because of The Chronicles of Riddick.  By the end of that film, Riddick was the king of a group of dark mages.  At the start of Riddick, he was unceremoniously dumped and abandoned by the same group on this planet and must now survive.

Without getting too SPOILERY, the first part of the film involves Riddick doing just that: Recovering from his injuries while figuring out how to move from the more dangerous zone he’s in to another within the planet.  However, he soon realizes a massive danger is about to be unleashed and uses a distress beacon he finds in an abandoned trapper’s shelter to summon two groups of Mercs to the planet.  Both are hunting for Riddick yet each group has their own unique reasons why.  Meanwhile, the danger Riddick knows is coming arrives, and soon everyone is fighting for their survival.

In reading the reviews of the film, I found there are those who were very positive about the first third or so of Riddick -the lone survivor section- and critical of the later part of the film.  Many felt this part of the film was little more than a re-tread of Pitch Black.  I can’t argue the point.  However, to me Riddick worked in spite of the less than original second half and that was because Mr. Twohy knows how to carefully build suspense.  Unlike others recent action films, Riddick is almost old fashioned in its presentation.  Other than one ludicrous scene involving a balanced machete, it doesn’t feature the more ridiculous ADHD “action” effects that I found so hard to swallow in movies like, yes, Fast and Furious 6.  Further, Riddick keeps the characters interesting throughout.

For example, I found the character of Lockspur (Raoul Trujillo), the leader of the second group of Mercs to be very intriguing.  Until the movie’s end, we weren’t quite sure which way he would go.  Similarly, the character of Dahl (fan favorite Katee Sackhoff) was a two-fisted delight.  I especially enjoyed the way she treated the leader of the first Merc squad.  Finally, Diaz (WWE star Dave Bautista) was yet another intriguing character who showed several shades of gray…as well as a black deviousness.

Please note, though, that I saw the “unrated director’s cut” and not the theatrical version of the film.  I’m not sure what the differences are or even if they make much of a difference at all.

Regardless, I enjoyed Riddick and I’m pleased to hear that because of the success of the home video release there may be a fourth film in the works.  Hopefully, Mr. Diesel and Twohy has some interesting ideas for this upcoming film and, even more hopefully, they’ll be allowed a bigger budget to show it.  Only, please don’t go the route of Chronicles of Riddick, ok?

Recommended.

Music

10 Best Drummers of All Time…

…at least according to Green-Label.com:

http://green-label.com/sound/10-best-drummers-time/s/10-best-drummers-time/

As with most lists, I suspect readers/fans will find some they agree with (Kieth Moon of the Who, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin) with others they don’t agree with.

I was intrigued and delighted that Stewart Copeland of the Police was included in the list as I’ve always felt he was a large reason for that band’s success.  Yes, front man/lead singer Sting was a hell of a charismatic presence and was responsible for much of their output, but Copland’s drum work really keep the songs moving, something that later Sting solo efforts lacked, at least IMHO.

Which, of course, brings us to the “missing” drummers, people you personally feel should have been on the list but weren’t included.

To this list, I would add heavy metal band Anthrax’s drummer Charlie Benante.  This man could well be one of the loudest and fastest drummers out there…After hearing this album way back when, I couldn’t help but wonder how Mr. Benante didn’t lose his arms while making this album!

Another one: Ringo Starr from the Beatles.  He did some great work in songs like these:

and…

Movies

You’re Next (2011) a (mildly) belated review

While not necessarily a big fan of all her many literary works, I’m very much impressed with Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None.  Originally published in 1939 under the far more politically incorrect title Ten Little Niggers and subsequently re-titled Ten Little Indians before finally being called And Then There Were None, this is the late Ms. Christie’s all time best selling novel.  It involves a group of people brought together on a remote island under various guises, all of which were tailored for them.

Once on this remote island, they realize that the stories they were offered to get them to the place were in fact lies, and that they must now stay on that island and await the return in a couple of days of a boat to pick them up.  In time they find a nursery rhyme and ten Indian figurines.  When the first of them die, they realize the person’s death matched the first death described in the rhyme…and they also find the figurine that matched this death broken.

So a countdown begins…who is the murderer among them and who is the next to die?  And, in the end, who, if anyone, will survive?

As good as the book is, I felt the first theatrical version of it, made in 1945, made some great improvements to what was a pretty grim novel.  In the movie, we had a genuine heroine and hero, something that was absent from Ms. Christie’s book.  I also thought the resolution played out a little better in the film.

Having said that, both the novel and film are terrific and, I believe, have been the source of inspiration to many, many works that followed.  Certainly the concept of a group of people gathering together at an isolated place and then getting picked off one after the other has been used in many works.  It certainly was somewhere in the back of my mind when I wrote Chameleon.

Which brings us to the 2011 film You’re Next.  The story involves the wealthy husband/wife patriarchs of a large family arranging a get together of themselves, their sons and daughters and their lovers for the weekend in a remote mansion…and the hell that breaks loose when a group of mask wearing individuals attack and start killing them off.

When this movie was originally released to the film festival circuit, it received positive word of mouth and I was curious to see it.  Eventually it was picked up and released to theaters, though to a limited run.  It wasn’t until yesterday that I finally got a chance to see it.

Was it worth the wait?

Unfortunately, the answer to me was a resounding “no.”

You’re Next is an at times clever, at times very gory (in fact, a little too gory for my taste) experience.  It also attempts to be a mystery before turning into a black comedy.  Unfortunately, all those shifts in tone hurt rather than helped.  The opening bit with the family meal and first attack on them are probably the film’s highlight, though one can also find a bit of pleasure in the butt-kicking and very resourceful heroine (played by Sharni Vinson) who isn’t about to let these masked killers get her.

Unfortunately, the film is too often gory and sadistic.  Considering the ultimate revelation of what it was all about, very much unnecessarily so.  I don’t want to get into spoilers, but given the plot behind the whole thing, there had to be a far easier way of accomplishing what was needed to accomplish, right?  Stealthy attacks would have accomplished what was needed instead of a big frontal attack that insured everyone was scurrying around from the word go.

Really, really silly if you think about it.

The bottom line is this: if you’re in the mood for a mystery featuring characters getting picked off one after the other, read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None or watch the 1945 film version.  It’s far better than spending the same amount of time with You’re Next.

General

Superbowl LXVIII

Did you hear about yesterday’s exciting Superbowl?  How the Seahawks pulled it off on the last few seconds to beat the Broncos?

Yeah, right.

It was one of those games where the very first play by the Broncos effectively told viewers what we were in for…

There was talk/analysis that the more veteran Broncos with multiple players who had already experienced at least one Superbowl would have the edge over the far younger Seahawks, a team of which not one single players had so much as come close to a Superbowl before this year.

Yet it turned out to be completely the opposite.  It appeared Denver and their players were jittery from the get go, perhaps only too aware of the magnitude of the event while the far younger Seahawks just played hard.  And the Bronco’s jitters quickly turned into a nightmare and, for them, a blowout.

As a fan of neither team, after it became all too apparent this game was over before the end of the first quarter, I was hoping at least the commercials would offer entertainment.

Sadly, that proved not to be the case either.

The only commercial I thought was genuinely clever and funny was the Stephen Colbert two part pistachio one…and that was more for the second, unexpected commercial that followed the more blah (as it turned out, on purpose) first one…

The surprise is what made it so appealing, and I’m not sure watching the two side by side this way reflects the cleverness.

As for other commercials, there were a couple of somewhat humorous ones (the Doritos one, the Audi commercial with the mutant doberhauhau and a very funny cameo by Sarah McLachlan) along with a whole bunch of very weird ones (the Bob Dylan one really sticks out, as does the Danica Patrick one where she was wearing a muscle suit(!) yet barely showed her in it, the Arnold ping-pong one).

I’m threatening to slip into complaining/whining mode but in the cold light of morning, I regret wasting all that time yesterday.

But that’s what makes sports what it is.  Unscripted entertainment means you never know if you’re going to see something amazing (the Heat’s Ray Allen corner 3 to tie what looked like a championship win for the Spurs and turned out to be the impetus for the Heat to eventually win the series) or something absolutely boring like yesterday.