Category Archives: Movies

Movies, TV

6 Famous Television Gags…

…we’ll never see again:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-famous-television-gags-well-never-see-again/

Pretty funny stuff…and very truthful.  Time marches on and what was once acceptable or maybe even possible can become obsolete or very politically incorrect.

I recall watching the DVD of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 a few years back and listening to the director’s commentary.  When we reached this sequence presented in the first minute twenty seconds (which, in the clip below, features another person’s take on the chilling music originally created by Mr. Carpenter):

…Mr. Carpenter noted that the sniper scenes could not be used today as they were a little too strong for the current moral/movie standards.  I suspect this has changed as I recall a similar sniper type sequence in the recently released Tom Cruise film Jack Reacher.

Hmmm…having listened to the “remade” music above, I had to listen to the original from the movie:

This is perhaps my second favorite John Carpenter music theme, coming damn close to the one found on Escape From New York:

Pardon the thread drift within my own blog! 😉

Movies

Gravity (2013) a (right on time!) review

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One of the most anticipated films, post-summer, has to be the Alfonso Cuaron directed, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney starring Gravity.  My own interest was high following seeing a few of the released clips from the film, depicting a mind-boggling amount of space destruction.

By the time the film was released a couple of days ago, the reviews were incredibly good.  As of today, Gravity is scoring a remarkably high 98% positive among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a slightly lower -yet still quite impressive- 90% positive among audiences.  Yet I’ve noticed rumblings in various sites from people who felt the movie was a let down, a beautiful visual spectacle that featured a decidedly less impressive story.  Are they being contrarians…or do they have a point?

To begin, Gravity’s effects are among the very best I’ve ever seen in film.  The movie is, if nothing else, a visual spectacle and if you’re going to see it, please go see it in the largest available movie theater screen possible (I caught it on IMAX 3-D, but unfortunately not at the biggest IMAX theater screen around these parts…for whatever reason, that particular theater chose not to air the film).

The movie’s opening sequence, approximately thirteen or so uninterrupted/uncut minutes showing us Earth, then the shuttle and its astronauts -and our introduction to Ms. Bullock’s Ryan Stone and Mr. Clooney’s Matt Kowalski- achieves what it sets out to do: Give us a sense of the wonder of being in outer space.  This one long sequence concludes with one of the two biggest effects showpieces of the film: High speed debris hitting the shuttle and sending Stone flying away, helpless and lost in the cosmos.

Stone is soon rescued by Kowalski and the film follows the two as they try to make their way back to some kind of safety.

I’ll stop there because I don’t want to get too spoilery.  However, I will say this:  Not all those who criticized the film’s story were simply being contrarian.  The fact is that in the end Gravity features a very simple story which some people far more clever than me noted was little more than “Open Water in space”.

Does that make the film bad?  Not really.

However, the simplicity of the story eventually made me realize the movie is -let’s face it- all about those wonderous effects.  Yes, there are some very tense sequences and both Ms. Bullock and Mr. Clooney acquit themselves very well in the film (Ms. Bullock in particular took on a dramatic role the likes of which I’ve never seen her do before, and she’s quite terrific).  Yet there isn’t all that much there there and that fact was bound to impact my overall feelings for the film.

That is not to say Gravity is a high-tech visual “bust”.  It is an exciting and interesting -if mildly limited- film that nonetheless is very worthy of your time…even if one could have hoped for perhaps a little more meat on those terrific visual bones.  On a scale of one to five stars, with five stars being a bonafide classic, I would easily give Gravity 4 stars.

Therefore, with some mild reservations, I highly recommend catching it.

Movies

World War Z (2013) a (mildly) belated review

On the surface and just before it was released, World War Z (I’ll refer to it as WWZ from here on) looked like a disaster in the making.

First, you had a modern zombie film that, completely against the grain, choose to go PG-13.  A very daring choice, considering that ever since the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead ushered in the modern movie zombie, showing ample amounts of gore appeared to be one of the stronger elements present in all these films.

Next, there were reports WWZ went way over budget and strong rumors emerged that the studio was unhappy with the final product.  This produced a secondary rumor, that director Marc Foster and star/producer Brad Pitt had a falling out.  Eventually, we learned a whole new ending was belatedly made for the feature.  Finally, when WWZ approached its formal release, the early commercials showed us zombie attacks that looked way too obviously CGI…and somewhat silly to boot.

So when the film finally was released last summer, there was little wonder many figured we were looking at a potential mega-bomb.

Such proved not to be the case.

Indeed, World War Z became one of the bigger box office successes of the typically busy summer movie season, and while I remained skeptical, I was happy to give the film a try.

Would I fall in with all the others who enjoyed it?

In a word: Yes.

Granted, it remains strange to watch a zombie film that features almost no blood and absolutely no guts at all.  In lieu of this, WWZ tries -and for the most part succeeds- in instead being a large global adventure with several tense action setpieces.  The set up is simple and not all that different from all the other hundreds of zombie films out there:  A zombie plague has hit the world and live humans are becoming an endangered species.  These zombies, unlike those in almost all the other zombie films, are much, much quicker than any seen before.  Worse, these speed demons act like ravenous ants and are as a group single minded in their pursuit of living flesh.

Finally, infection is quick as well.  If you are bitten, you have roughly ten seconds before becoming a zombie yourself.  Therefore cities and countries fall very quickly and it is up to Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) a one time “hot zone” investigator for the UN, to figure out how to stop -or at least slow- the zombie invasion.

We first meet Lane and his wife and two daughters as they make their way into New York City.  They wind up experiencing first hand the zombie plague and barely make it out of the city with their lives.  It is during this first attack that we are presented with a first hand/first person look at Lane’s powers of observation when he realizes how long it takes before a person becomes infected.  We will come back to his observations again, and this proves to be a very clever bit as it allows us to effectively enter Lane’s mind and see the world as he does.

There’s little need to get into the specifics of the plot.  Suffice it to say that Lane travels around the world seeking the key to solve the zombie dilemma.  Each visit presents Lane with allies and dangers and each is, in my opinion, handled well.  WWZ, in the end, is a film that gets going quickly and never stops yet manages to stir sympathy for Lane’s plight and his fear for not only his family’s survival, but that of humanity itself.

Yes, one can quibble and say the film goes overboard in showing Lane’s near supernatural ability to survive  The criticism is valid…Lane does manage to survive some pretty long –very long- odds in his quest.  Yet in Brad Pitt we have a hero worth rooting for, a quiet, intelligent family man whose mission is one everyone can sympathize with and hope for his ultimate success.

World War Z may not be your typical zombie film but there is plenty there to enjoy…even if you aren’t a big fan of CGI zombie hordes.  Recommended.

Movies

The Fog (1980) a (incredibly) belated review

Before you ask: No, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen the original 1980 John Carpenter directed film (The Fog would be remade, to much derision, in 2005…I haven’t seen that version as of yet).  However, in watching the new Shout Factory Blu Ray release, it might as well be the first time I’ve ever seen the film.

The sound and images are that good.

The first (and I believe only) time I ever saw The Fog was in the early 1980’s and probably via VHS tape.  Back then the idea of “letterboxing” images was years away and, therefore, I saw a cut down view of the film.  I also recall the image quality was pretty dreadful.  In fact, if you check out the extras on the Shout Factory release and click on the old promo made for the film (Tales From the Mist), in the opening minute you’ll basically see the type of image I saw way back when.  Needless to say, count me among those who was delighted with the new, most excellent presentation.

As far as the movie itself, I recall liking -but not loving– The Fog.  Now, with this pristine presentation and the proper widescreen view, would I enjoy the film more?  Or has time dulled whatever horror edge the film once had?

Happily, the answer is a resounding “no”.

I’m a fan of many of John Carpenter’s films.  I absolutely love Assault on Precinct 13.  I also love Escape From New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble In Little China.  While slasher films aren’t generally my cup of tea, I also enjoyed Halloween.

It was after the incredible success of the original Halloween that Mr. Carpenter was asked to follow it up with another horror film.  He wound up making The Fog but, unlike Halloween, theatrical success was mild, if not outright disappointing.  Nonetheless, there are those who feel The Fog is a far better overall accomplishment than Halloween.

Is it?  I suppose it depends on what you look for in horror.  While Halloween falls in the “slasher” category of horror, The Fog belongs in the more cerebral wing.  It is a slow burn film with almost no “gory” elements.  In some ways, it reminded me in tone to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining or The Haunting.

In The Fog you have an old fashioned (even for its original release date!) ghost story set in a sleepy Californian fishing town of San Antonio Bay.  The town is on the verge of celebrating its one hundredth anniversary.  On the day before the event, strange things start to occur, and Father Malone (Hal Holbrook) discovers a hidden journal in his church walls, one written by his distant relative and one of six founders of San Antonio Bay.

The journal reveals the town’s six founding members made an agreement with a band of unfortunates suffering from leprosy to allow them a share of their land to live in.  The agreement, however, was a trick.  The six founders didn’t want the lepers…they wanted to steal their leader’s money.

During a heavy fog, the lepers approached the town in their ship.  The six townspeople lured them into rocks with a phony guiding light and the ship sank with all aboard.  Afterwards, the six conspirators picked up the gold and that was that…

…Until one hundred years later when the fog returns and, with it, the spirits of the dead.

Including the role of Father Malone, The Fog features five main characters.  Adrienne Barbeau is Stevie Wayne, owner and disc jockey of the town’s local radio station.  Jamie Lee Curtis is Elizabeth Solley, a free spirited hitchhiker who happens to come into town at the wrong time.  Her real life mother, Janet Leigh, is Kathy Williams, the town’s mayor.  Finally, you have Tom Atkins as Nick Castle, a local who picks Elizabeth up (in all senses of the word).

If the film stumbles in any way, it is the sudden -and a little hard to swallow- attraction between the very young Jamie Lee Curtis and the far older Tom Atkins’ character.  Even in the wild world of movie fantasy, that couple never really looked right, at least IMHO.

Still, this is only one small element and in no way torpedoes the rest of the film.  What makes The Fog work is the sustained eerie atmosphere (no pun intended) John Carpenter and company build around the coming, and eventual arrival, of the evil fog and its ghostly -and revenge seeking!- inhabitants.

In conclusion, The Fog is a great film and certainly one worth revisiting.

Movies

12 Movies that are just as good as the books they are based on…

…at least according to The Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/movie-book_n_3989541.html

Whenever a discussion is offered regarding movies that are as good as (or better) than the books they are based on, there always two that always appear:  The Godfather and Jaws.

I suspect this is the case because while both books were very popular, there are few who consider them “classics” in the literary sense…while both films are clearly considered classics in their medium (and there are those who feel The Godfather is the single best film ever made!).

Moving beyond those two, I’m among those who feels that The Shining is a far, far better film versus the novel.  That’s not to say that I feel the novel is “bad”, it certainly isn’t…but to me the film managed to hit this creepy little switch in your brain that almost no other horror films have been able to do.  The Shining is an immersive work, one that guides you into its terror from the opening frame and keeps you there, admiring its beauty while knowing there is a jet black heart beating below its surface.

Think I’ll give it another look real soon! 😉

Movies

The Philadelphia Experiment (2012) a (mildly) belated review

As you get older, you’re sometimes surprised to see remakes of films you enjoyed in your youth.  Especially films that might be, for the most part, forgotten by many.

Back in 1984, Michael Pare and Nancy Allen starred in The Philadelphia Experiment, a sci-fi romance involving a top secret experiment conducted on a battleship during World War II.  The experiment attempted to create an invisibility cloak around the battleship but instead sent it into the “present” of 1984, where Pare’s time-traveling sailor goes on the run avoiding shadowy government types while romancing Nancy Allen’s character.

It has been many, many years since I’ve seen this 1984 film but I recall having positive feelings about it.  Then, much to my surprise, I found The Philadelphia Experiment was remade and shown on the SyFy network last year!

So, is it worth your while?

If you’re a fan of the original film like I am, you’ll be curious enough to give it a try.  If you do, you may find some good here…though there is plenty of bad as well.

On the plus side, this film does more than simply re-shoot the original film’s script.  There are new ideas presented and while some don’t work very well there are interesting bits here and there.  I especially liked the idea of the WWII battleship appearing in different locations and causing some big problems.

There’s also some fun in seeing Michael Pare appear in this remake, though his character is far from the “hero” of the piece.

BUT…

This is a SyFy original movie and if you’re familiar at all with SyFy original movies, then you know they share one thing in common:  Their budgets are one very small step above being non-existent.  This should be pretty evident in the “special” effects found in the trailer above.  In a movie like this one, which features some pretty crazy things the audience has to accept as happening, you need effects that at the very least look plausible.  There isn’t any “big” effect in the film that doesn’t look like what it is: A cheap computer graphic.

Secondly, and concurrently, the movie’s script is very ambitious and attempts to create a sense of world-wide threat.  Yet in total we have only about eight or so major characters (including a small cameo by Malcolm McDowell…perhaps that’s where the bulk of the budget went!), which again makes one realize this is a film made on a micro-mini-budget.

In the end, I can’t recommend 2012’s The Philadelphia Experiment except to those, like me, who have some nostalgia toward the original and are curious to see this new iteration.  This is a no-budget film with some genuinely clumsy effects and at times amateurish direction (check out the way our heroes get past a military roadblock…its a real howler).

Too bad.  With a more decent budget, this could have been a far better film.

Movies

Gone too soon…

A while back I posted an entry regarding the last (and often least) final works of some famous actors (you can read this here).  What follows below is a sobering list of actors who died while filming either a TV show or movie:

http://madamenoire.com/287846/gone-too-soon-actors-who-died-while-filming-a-movie-or-tv-show/

Coincidentally enough, a couple of days ago I reviewed the 1940 Tyrone Power film The Mark of Zorro (read this here).  His death could easily have made the above list as he died of a heart attack in the middle of filming Solomon and Sheba.  Mr. Power had the lead role and, it was reported afterwards, had filmed almost the entire feature before his untimely death.

I read that because the studio stood to gain insurance money from their star’s death and his inability to complete the film, his final work was essentially hidden away and/or destroyed.  Yul Brynner took over Mr. Power’s role and the film was “remade” with him in the lead.  However, Tyrone Power can supposedly still be seen in the movie’s crowd scenes…an eerie reminder of what might have been.

Movies

The Mark of Zorro (1940) a (incredibly) belated review

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Saw this film a very long time ago, when I was a child.  Didn’t remember all that much about it, other than perhaps the famous climactic sword fight between Tyrone Power’s Don Diego Vega (aka The Zorro) and Basil Rathbone’s Captain Pasquale, still considered by many the best sword fight ever put to film.

But considering the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro (itself a “modernization” or remake/reworking of the 1920 Douglas Fairbanks film of the same name, which was a big inspiration for the creation of Batman) is among the earlier examples of “super hero” movies, I was interested in giving it another try…

So, how did this 70 plus year old film fare?

Pretty well indeed.

Most people, I suspect, are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Zorro, even if it may be through parallels with the character of Batman, which we’ll get to momentarily.  The setting is early, Spanish controlled California.  Young Don Diego Vega is in a Spanish school and returns to California to find that his father has been dumped from his Mayoral job and replaced with a man of considerably less virtue.  The Mayor and his right hand man, Captain Pasquale, are heavily taxing the poor citizens and generally running roughshod over the entire county.

Don Diego Vega quickly realizes he needs to do something to rid the territory of these evil characters.  To that end, he sets a plan in motion.  Because few remember him from before he left to Spain, he acts to all those around like a -let’s be blunt here- fey/homosexual pretty boy (though no one comes right out and says he’s “gay”, it is heavily implied!).  But by night, of course, Diego dons his Zorro disguise and mounts his trusty black Stallion and is off fighting the corrupt forces behind power, his ultimate goal to restore the town to its previous ways.

The above paragraph gives you the parallels between Zorro and Batman.  Bruce Wayne is presented not unlike Don Diego Vega, though the heavily implied homosexuality present in the movie isn’t quite as present in the comic book (though you can find it hinted at in some of the very early stories).  Nonetheless, both display the “spoiled party boy” elements.  Moving on, the mask and flowing capes are very similar and the black steed could easily be a proto-Batmobile.  Both characters share a desire to fight corruption as well, although the Zorro’s focus is government corruption versus Batman’s more “street” level crime fighting.

Getting back to the movie, it moves along at a breakneck pace, setting up each situation quickly while presenting the audience with new information.  Don Diego Vega’s decision to a) act fey and b) become the Zorro is never really dealt with in anything approaching a deeper psychological way…he does what he does because that’s what he does.  This is not a “heavy” film in any way, it is quick moving popcorn entertainment.  This extends, it would appear, to the Zorro’s costume as well.  There are a few sequences where Zorro wears his standard mask, one that covers the upper half of his head…while there are also a couple of sequences where he wears a mask that covers the lower half of his head!

 versus 

Why?  Who knows.  The mask inconsistency, like the decision to act fey, is never really addressed in the movie itself.

Regardless, the different masks do not in any way mean the film is a sloppy work.  You get plenty of well created action, adventure, and, the cherry on top of the pie, romance.  Don Diego’s attraction to the lovely Lolita Quintero (Linda Darnell) provides that extra spice to an already great film, as does his relationship with the character’s more wicked aunt (and wife of the corrupt Mayor), Inez Quintero (Gale Sondergaard).

If the film has one fault, it is that the excellent duel between Don Diego Vega and Pasquale, a duel audiences were waiting for from the moment the two characters first laid eyes on each other, happens a little too early into the film.  In fact, it occurs just before the movie’s actual climax, which is a curious and somewhat disappointing choice.  Perhaps Pasquale and Vega should have had two duels, the first before the climax (with Vega in disguise as Zorro) and the second when his identity is exposed.

Ah well, its a small complaint.  Despite its age, The Mark of Zorro is a fun action/adventure film that is well worthy of your time.  Recommended.

Movies

Oblivion (2013) a (mildly) belated review

The ever energetic (39 actor credits since 1981, many if not most of them starring roles…does the guy ever rest!?) Tom Cruise is Jack Harper in the sci-fi action adventure/mindbender Oblivion.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski of Tron: Legacy fame, a film that despite some beautiful visuals, I didn’t like.  Oblivion, in my opinion, features both better visuals and a far, far better story than Tron: Legacy.  But are both elements enough to recommend the film itself?

…yeah…with some reservations.

For much of the first half, Oblivion is a two person drama.  Jack and his companion Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are the last two humans on Earth.  Sixty years before, we are told by Jack in the opening narration, the Earth faced alien invaders that, in the ensuing war, destroyed the Moon before being defeated.  Because of this destruction and subsequent radical change in gravity, Earth’s environment was wrecked and the planet rendered uninhabitable.  The human survivors moved on to a Moon in Saturn and it is Jack and Victoria’s job to watch over massive machines left behind sucking all the water from the planet to make energy to take to those off-world survivors.

With me so far?

Ok, so Jack and Victoria live on this isolated and very elegant “home” and Jack goes out now and again in a cool aircraft to check up on the machines and fix whatever is broken while avoiding the “scabs” left over planet side, apparently alien machines still fighting the war that ended so many years before.

During this section of the film we are also informed that Jack and Victoria have received “memory wipes”, though it is never made clear why this was deemed necessary (one of the film’s many small writing glitches, IMHO).  Nonetheless, Jack starts having vague memories of being with a woman (Olga Kurylenko) in pre-apocalypse New York and on top of the Empire State Building.

How are these memories possible if Earth was destroyed over sixty years before?

As far as the story description, and for the sake of not getting into any spoilers, I’ll stop there.  Suffice it to say, the mystery of Jack’s memory as well as that of the scabs serve to propel the film’s plot along.  The trailer, presented below, does spoil more than a little of these mysteries so if you know nothing at all about the film and want to be surprised, you may want to avoid it.

Having said that, Oblivion starts off and moves along quite well for this first half and a little beyond…well into many of its subsequent revelations.  However, there does come a point where all this plot and information -and mild to large improbabilities- threaten to derail the film.

Without giving too much away these are some of the things that bothered me:  Why is it so difficult for Jack to talk -to actually have a conversation- with Victoria?  Why is she so different from him, memory-wise (Wouldn’t it have been intriguing if she, like him, had some odd memories popping up in her head)?  Why were Jack and Victoria -two people!- even necessary on the planet, given the ultimate revelations?  Toward the film’s climax and conclusion, why was it necessary, other than to create some suspense for the viewers, for Jack to place person X into a cryogenic chamber before flying off?

These are just off the top of my head.  And while there is some damage to the overall film, it isn’t bad enough to invalidate and destroy it.  I do wish the movie could have been simplified rather than made progressively more and more complicated.  At one point, it felt like I was watching a season’s worth of a sci-fi series rather than a movie.

Despite this, I recommend Oblivion.  Just be aware that sometimes less is more.

Movies

The Numbers Station (2013) a (mildly) belated review

I like actor John Cusack.  He’s been in a number of very good films but even when the film isn’t all that good -given the amount of movies he’s been involved in during his very long career, there were bound to be clunkers here and there- he always seems to rise above and rarely fails to give an engaging performance.

So when I spotted The Numbers Station, a 2013 film starring Mr. Cusack on instant view on Netflix, I decided to give it a whirl.  I knew little about the film other than it never reached theaters and, because of this, I didn’t expect all that much.  Was I in for some major disappointment?

Not really.

To begin with, The Numbers Station is a very low budget thriller.  There are maybe fifteen people in total during the film’s runtime that appear on screen.  Other than a single exploding car, there are no other “big” special effects.

The movie’s premise is that in this age of easy access to computer data, top secret black ops units employ short radio bursts composed of nothing more than a series of numbers (the codes) to get their next assignments.

These assignments are, it is implied, “dirty” works that usually involve assassination.

At the start of the film we meet Emerson Kent (John Cusack) and Grey (Liam Cunningham).  They sit in a car talking to each other when a coded message arrives.  After deciphering it, Kent temporarily leaves his partner (and getaway driver) and walks into a sparsely populated bar.  He chats with the bartender, who we find once worked for the agency but ran away from it several months before.  Kent allows the man to have one last drink before killing him.  Kent then takes out the two bouncers/bodyguards but cannot kill the fourth man in the bar.  This man manages to get away, but Kent has the license plate numbers of his car.

Thanks to this information, Kent and Grey locate the man’s home.  Kent goes into the house and kills the man.  He is then surprised when his teenage daughter appears.  Kent cannot get himself to kill her and his partner Grey winds up doing this.  Thanks to this “botched” job, Kent is no longer viewed as having the “right stuff” for his special ops unit.

Fast forward a few months and we find Grey has moved up in the agency while Kent is on the outside trying to get back in.  Thanks to Grey, he is given a second chance, only Instead of being offered his old assassination job, he’s assigned to watch over the other end of the numbers operation.  He is to be the security guard to Katherine (Malin Akerman), one of the agency’s code readers.  Katherine makes and sends out the numbers from a secure bunker while Kent guards her.  When their shift is over, another duo (also woman and man) replacements them.  It is clear this duo is a couple and equally clear Katherine is trying to socialize with Kent, though he wants nothing to do with this.

The second day of their shift all appears normal, but they soon find that the bunker has been breached and there are signs that the duo that preceded them may have met a grisly end.  Trapped inside the bunker, they have to find a way out while determining if a phony assassination order was sent by their predecessors.

Ok, so there you have the setup and, yes, once again we’re dealing with a “siege” type film.  There are other interesting elements thrown in but before you get your hopes up too high, let me say this:  The Numbers Station is hardly a “must see” film.  What it is is a modest thriller that painlessly killed a couple of hours without making you feel like you completely wasted your time.

There are two things that work against the film and, of those, the low budget is the biggest and worst element.  Without giving too much away, we have our two leads being held in the bunker by a decidedly small –very small- force on the outside.  It’s hard to get worried about their prospects of survival when facing such an ultimately insignificant force.  The second thing working against the film is that Katherine is a really underwritten character.  While Malin Ackerman does a decent job playing the character, there is very little to her other than a damsel in distress.

Still, if you’re like me and have a bit of time to kill, you could do worse than catch The Numbers Station.