Category Archives: Movies

Movies

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), A (Mildly) Belated *Sorta* Review…

Well…

Spider-Man: Far From Home. The second Tom Holland starring Spider-Man film.

Very popular among both audiences and critics where, according to rottentomatoes.com, it boasting an incredible 90% positive for the critics and 95% positive to audiences.

Which means that a miniscule 10% of professional critics didn’t like the film and, of the audiences that showed their opinions, only 5% didn’t like it.

Man, sometimes it feels lonely being in the minority.

But before I get into that, here’s the movie’s trailer:

Now the reason this is a Sorta review is because I didn’t see the entire film.

I know, I know… how can you review it if you didn’t see the whole damn thing?

Welp, here’s the thing:

A few months ago I tried very hard to watch the film start to end and the opening 40-50 minutes were so godawful to me that I simply couldn’t watch them without shutting it off.

Multiple times.

I would watch, say, 10 minutes before it proved too much for me and off the movie went. Then, perhaps even the very next another day, I’d try again, this time going through another 10-15 minutes before -once again- shutting it off. I did this in total some three or four days more or less in a row and, to put it bluntly: That first half of the movie proved almost completely unwatchable to me.

The plot goes like this: Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) class is going on a European field trip and Parker is hoping to express his love to “MJ” (Zendaya) while his friends and rivals and two teachers chaperoning them all have their own adventures.

Slowly, oh so very slowly, it is revealed there’s a danger in Europe and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) wants Spider-Man to look into it while he tries to advance his romantic life and “enjoy” the field trip.

Turns out there’s a new super-powered being, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) who claims to come from another world that was destroyed by this threat coming to Earth.

But, for those familiar with the comic book character, its pretty obvious there’s much more to him than meets the eye.

It was, again in my opinion, painful to watch. The humor was beyond obvious and groan-inducing. The set up toward the danger moved along at a snail’s pace.

Those opening scenes proved simply too much for me and, after 3-4 attempts at getting through the first hour of the film, I gave up and thought that was that.

Not everything works for you as a viewer and, while I have absolutely nothing against the vast number of people who loved the film (good for you!), I just couldn’t do it.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago.

While flipping through the channels I found one of them showing Spider-Man: Far From Home and it was, I’m assuming, from roughly the point where Spider-Man first realizes Mysterio is actually a villain and the web-slinger has his first major fight against him.

While the sour feelings I had toward the film’s first half lingered, I nonetheless decided to watch and…

…it wasn’t bad.

Not at all!

So I kept watching, catching roughly the last 40 plus minutes of the film and found that section was pretty exciting stuff with some really great CGI effects.

Ladies and gentlemen: I really liked what I saw!

…but…

It didn’t diminish my very negative feelings toward the film’s first acts.

Though I haven’t seen the entire film (there are probably some 20 or so minutes of the middle section I have yet to see), I find myself with some really contradictory feelings about Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The first parts are and IMHO remain absolutely dreadful. The conclusion, on the other hand, is quite exciting and very much worth catching.

Perhaps this is the first review where I’ll say: If you’re like me and are interested in seeing the film and find the first parts not to your liking, then fast forward the film and watch its conclusion.

That part is quite good!

Movies

Omega Doom (1996) A (Apocalyptically Belated) Review

Ah, Rutger Hauer.

Probably one of the bigger influences on my creative works through the 1980’s. The character of B’taav, the Independent who is one of the protagonists in my Corrosive Knights series, was based on Rutger Hauer and French actor Jean Marais…

Amazon.com: The Last Flight of the Argus (Corrosive Knights Book 2) eBook: Torre, E. R.: Kindle Store

I loved his appearances -brief yet stunning as it was- in Blade Runner, which will probably be viewed as his seminal role. But he was so great in The Hitcher, Ladyhawke, and Nighthawks.

He was also great, IMHO, in lesser films like Wanted: Dead or Alive and Split Second.

If you go over to Mr. Hauer’s IMDb page, you’ll find a massive 175 acting credits to his name. Looking over the many works he did post 2000, it was clear that though he remained quite active and in demand, his greatest days were behind him before he passed away in 2019.

The reality, sadly, is that even in the later 1980’s Mr. Hauer was beginning to appear in lower budgeted films, some of which were …uh… questionable in quality.

In 1996 he appeared in the film Omega Doom, which some consider the absolute nadir of Mr. Hauer’s starring films. Here’s the movie’s trailer:

Let me start by saying until yesterday I never saw this film. Further to that, my understanding is that the film is related, perhaps obliquely, to the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Cyborg. This is because the movie’s director, Albert Pyun, was behind both films as well as a few others set in the Cyborg universe.

Anyway, let’s get this out of the way: The film is quite terrible.

It features a meandering plot which directly lifts -or rips off, depending on how kind you want to be about it- Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars.

The plot is that in a post-apocalyptic world, the sole survivors are robots that were built to destroy humans. The robots have formed their own “tribes” and fight against each other but one robot, Hauer’s Omega Doom (yeah, that’s the character’s name!) sustained an injury to his head which made him lose his original murderous programming. He’s effectively become a “good guy” who roams the apocalyptic world and happens to stumble upon a small town which has two robot sides -who would normally be fighting against each other- living in a weird uneasy truce. There’s also a bartender and a robot “head” being kicked around.

Omega Doom enters this town and, like Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars, he will work both sides against each other. But the story is presented almost incoherently and at the end two prominent characters introduced early on simply disappear, never to be seen again.

What happened?

Further, the movie’s effects are mostly amateurish at best and downright embarrassing at worst. Oddly enough, I would have been more forgiving had the film been released in the 1980’s rather than 1996.

…and yet…

The acting in the film is actually pretty damn good. Much better than one would think.

Then there’s Rutger freaking Hauer.

He’s very good in a role that, as I mentioned before, is essentially a re-tread of Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo and Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars. Don’t get me wrong: He doesn’t necessarily goes outside his comfort zone yet he’s got his charisma going and is an intriguing presence.

As I also mentioned, most of the small cast around Mr. Hauer are pretty damn good as well.

Anna Katarina is very sympathetic as the Bartender who wishes all the violence would stop. Likewise, Norbert Weisser is fun as the “Head”, a decapitated robot head that is battered around but is helped by Hauer’s Omega Doom.

The other actors -and there aren’t that many!- playing the various villains are also quite good.

One can’t help but wonder if the film had a better budget and stronger effects along with a more polished script this movie might have a far better reputation than it does.

As it stands, though, I can’t recommend Omega Doom to anyone out there other than big fans -like me- of Rutger Hauer.

Movies

Adding Product Advertisements Into Old Films…?

Ran across this fascinating article by Jonty Bloom and presented on bbc.com:

How product placements may soon be added to classic films

The upshot of the article is that computer graphics have advanced to such a degree that it is possible to digitally “place” products into old works that didn’t have them.

The article uses as an example the classic sequence involving Steve McQueen jumping his motorcycle in The Great Escape, and noting that at this point in time they could digitally add a billboard in the background of that sequence advertising… whatever the company paying wants to advertise.

It’s not limited to “just” old movies. Even current films could show different advertisements depending on which country they’re showing them.

As horrified of the concept as I am, I have to admit its ingenious as well: Its another way a studio can profit from an older release!

Having said that, this bit from the article intrigued me the most:

Product placement in films is almost as old as the movie industry itself. The first example of the phenomenon is said to be the 1919 Buster Keaton comedy The Garage, which featured the logos of petrol firms and motor oil companies.

Wow…!

I never really considered how far back product placement might go and its intriguing that it may go back as far as 1919…!

I suppose this newest development is simply a sign of the times and… its too bad yet not unexpected.

Movies

Premium Rush (2012) a (very) Belated Review

There was a time when I would have described myself as something of a movie snob. I enjoyed the hell out of watching films, mind you, but I was the sort of fan who would nitpick all the faults I’d see in films, even the ones I adored.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve mellowed out considerably. As an author, I know the hard work that goes into making something and I know that as a creator you simply can’t do everything you want with whatever work you’re involved in. Sometimes, you may be a victim of a time crunch. Other times, you simply miss out on something that others may notice (the dreaded not quite seeing the forest for the trees cliche). Other times you did the best you could and need to let a project go -you can literally spend your whole life revising and revising and revising a work if you let yourself.

Anyway, long story short, the 2012 film Premium Rush was on yesterday on one of the premium cable stations and I started watching it and damned if I didn’t find it interesting enough to keep watching it through.

Here’s the movie’s trailer:

Let me state up front: This is a popcorn film through and through. There’s no intention, by the actors, producers, directors, and screenwriters, to make something deep which explores the human condition.

The story involves Wilee (as in Wile E. Coyote) a bike courier (Joseph Gorden-Levitt, enjoyable as our protagonist) versus Bobby Monday, a corrupt cop (Michael Shannon, not quite chewing all the scenery and never presented as too terribly evil… but evil enough) who hides his true identity behind the phony name Forrest J. Ackerman (a nice, though coming out of nowhere in-joke for movie fans).

Wilee is hired to deliver a letter and Bobby Monday very much needs to intercept it and get his hands on it.

The movie involves the efforts by both to take care of this McGuffin letter.

I won’t get into too many spoilers about what the letter has -this is explained, naturally, in the course of the movie- but suffice to say there’s a noble reason to deliver the letter and an evil reason by our corrupt cop to get his hands on it.

The movie could have been dark, presenting the villain as an out of control killer and New York as a slaughter ground for bike couriers, but instead decided to go for a much lighter presentation. The film is amiable, surprisingly so, and the interactions between Wilee and Bobby Monday are often semi-humorous, though the tension is always there.

The only debit I’d place on the film is that, like the Road Runner cartoon character Wilee’s name is based on, there isn’t much “there” there. The plot is pretty simple, the various characters’ motivations too, and by the time the story unfurls, one can’t help but feel the movie would -and maybe should- have been much shorter. To expand the time, the film often goes back in time to fill us in on events which led to where we are “now”. At times its interesting though at times these little past interludes feel like they break up the movie’s momentum.

The director/co-writer of the film is David Koepp, who is perhaps best known for screenplays rather than direction. Among the movies he’s written screenplays for are Jurassic Park, Carlito’s Way, Mission Impossible, and the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man. Most recently he directed the suspense/horror film You Should Have Left with Kevin Bacon. He does a decent job here, clearly showing us the action and immersing us in this version of New York City, full of people and buildings and cars… plenty of obstacles your average bike courier has to deal with.

Again, while the film may not be a masterpiece of cinema, its a pleasant enough time killer with a pleasant cast of characters. You could do far worse than spend a quiet afternoon watching Premium Rush.

Movies

Movie Theaters… will they ever return as before?

If you’ve read my posts for any length of time, you know I’m a huge movie fan.

I’ve been into movies since I first saw, likely when I was not much older than 5 or 6 years old, the Steven Spielberg directed film Duel when it first aired on TV way, waaaaaaaaay back in/around 1971 (I saw it in Canada, where we were living at the time, and I don’t know if it aired on the same night as it did in the U.S.)…

Anyway, that film -which until many years later I didn’t know was actually directed by Spielberg!- initiated my lifelong love of movies.

The theater experience is a wonderful one. Going to see a movie on a large screen, the sound system and images filling your senses… it’s immersive, beautiful stuff.

But since the rise of COVID-19, that’s been pretty much it for films being shown in theaters.

The movie companies, which had -and still have!- several films they wanted to release, held back, hoping the pandemic would go away so they could resume their business. Time passed. More time passed, and eventually, some films were released.

Tenet, the Christopher Nolan time traveling thematic remake of the Bond film Thunderball was released after a while to theaters but based on some of the things I’ve read, it might have proven to be too soon a release.

There was also Wonder Woman 1984 waiting to be released and pushed back frequently, until Warner Brothers and their HBO Max service decided to show it there for people who subscribe to it. They showed the film there for something like a month before it was yanked for home video purchase/rent. Similarly, the Godzilla vs King Kong film I believe was just released to the streaming service as well and, soon, the James Gunn directed Suicide Squad will follow a similar path.

This is not to mention the Zack Snyder Justice League film, which was essentially “restored/finished” solely for the HBO Max service.

Disney, on the other hand, has several features, perhaps the biggest being the Black Widow film, held back for a hopeful theatrical release. There’s also the latest and perhaps last Daniel Craig James Bond film, No Time To Die, which is also in the can and awaiting its eventual release.

Are people -and especially the movie companies- when the pandemic is over going to resume their previous policy of releasing films to theaters and waiting a few months before releasing them to their streaming services before doing the home video sales/rentals? And if there is at least a comparable amount of money to be made by releasing these films to their streaming services and making money via streaming subscriptions, would they be as interested in the continuing the theater experience?

I recall many years ago when the Tim Burton directed Batman film was released to theaters and did incredible business. Back then, it would take sometimes a year or so before a film eventually was released to home video but Warner Brothers turned around and released the video version of the film in a matter of months following the end of its theatrical run, and they made even more money off the box office hit that it was.

This prompted other companies to release their theatrical films faster and faster to home video, to the point where it takes maybe two or three months following a theatrical run that one has the film available for home video.

But now, with the simultaneous releases of films to theater (though one wonders just how many people risk going to see them then) and streaming, will studios realize they can make more simply streaming the films themselves? After all, this way they have full control over how many people actually see the film upon its initial release and, given the increasingly sophisticated home theater equipment, people may prefer to see it in their home initially anyway.

Now that the proverbial toothpaste is out of the tube, can it be pushed back in?

Could this mean trouble for the theater business?

This is, obviously, all speculation on my part. I have no idea if the movie companies made decent money off their simultaneous streaming/theater presentations of movies. I don’t know but they most certainly do,

If streaming films -and getting the money for their subscription streaming service- proves at least as profitable to movie making companies, why would they keep sending films to theaters?

Understand, I hope the theaters survive, but the reality is that things like book stores, video rental stores, and music stores existed only as long as they made a profit. The moment they didn’t, they began disappearing.

If this is to happen with theaters, then they too are unfortunately gone.

Movies, TV

Jessica Walter (1941-2021)

A couple of days ago came the very sad news of the passing of actor George Segal and yesterday came the equally sad news of the passing of another great actor, Jessica Walter.

Jessica Walter dead: Veteran actor starred on 'Arrested Development' - Chicago Sun-Times

Jessica Walter’s been around for a very long time, her first roles on television appearing in the early 1960’s, and has an incredible number of roles over her career, the most recent of which were the acerbic Lucille Bluth, the matriarch of the Bluth household in the hilarious series Arrested Development, and as the voice of Mallory Archer in the equally hilarious cartoon series Archer. The later role, quite frankly, was an extension of the Lucille Bluth role and featured an equally acerbic and borderline alcoholic character whose self-interest is as pathological as it is laugh out loud funny.

But her roles weren’t all comedic, and she made an especially chilling spurned one-night stand in Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, the 1971 film Play Misty For Me. The film was essentially reworked/remade in the film Fatal Attraction…

She left behind a very long list of roles and had a very healthy career.

She will very much be missed.

Movies, TV

George Segal (1934-2021)

Sad news came out yesterday of the passing of actor George Segal.

He isn’t one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but he’s had quite the career in both film and TV, the latest work being in the TV comedy series The Goldbergs.

What intrigued me about Mr. Segal is that he seemed so comfortable in both comedies and dramas.

He was terrific in “serious” roles such as King Rat, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and The Terminal Man.

But he was also great in comedies such as The Hot Rock opposite Robert Redford…

…as well as the original Fun With Dick and Jane, opposite Jane Fonda…

As well as the wonderful comedy The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, opposite Goldie Hawn…

A very talented man who left behind a very long, and fascinating, career worth of enjoyable work.

He will be missed!

Movies

Radius (2017) A Mildly Belated Review

In spite of the Coronavirus and the fact that I’m at home more than out nowadays, its tough to carve out the free time to watch films and, frankly, it frustrates me to no end having so many other things to do and not have that free time for myself.

Now and again I’ll go over the “sales” over on VUDU and check out which films I can get digitally for very low prices. I suppose its the digital/web equivalent of searching through the $5 bins of DVDs from yesteryear.

Anyway, a week or two ago I spotted the film Radius (2017) among those on sale and I had never heard of it.

At all.

However, VUDU is clever in that when you hover your pointer over any movie you see its ratings and Radius, I saw when my pointer was over it, had a very high 93% positive rating.

That, along with the bargain basement price it was available at and its intriguing premise, were enough to make me purchase the film.

Here’s Radius’ trailer:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=AJuv-Gl6wP4%3Fcontrols%3D0

So intrigued I was with the film’s positive rating and some of the critical reactions I read about it that I made myself some time to *gasp* actually sit down and watch it yesterday, which I did.

And I must say, I’m very impressed.

To begin, Radius is an extremely low budget film. I say this without the intention of being snarky or demeaning, but the film features a car crash -an element central to the movie’s plot- and the folks who made the film couldn’t show us said car crash and instead had to use camera tricks to simulate a crash happening by showing the car’s passengers reactions.

This is not a bad thing, mind you, only that I point this out because if there are any glaring faults I found in this film, they are a result of the film’s very low budget.

The plot, as much as I’m willing to reveal, involves Liam (Diego Klattenhoff, perhaps best known nowadays for his role in the long running TV show The Blacklist) awakening from a car crash. He’s bloodied and confused and finds himself in a very rural area.

He is all alone and walks down the road, following signs to a small (very small!) town and shortly before arriving there a car drives near him, he waves it down, and the car moves to stop for him… but goes on, very slowly, nearly running him down before its momentum is stopped.

Liam, unsure what is happening, approaches the car and finds the female driver within is dead and her eyes are a milky white.

What follows is the mystery of what is happening around Liam and, eventually, how he comes to know another person, Jane (Charlotte Sullivan), who we will find is also intricately involved in the mystery surrounding Liam.

If you noticed -and I don’t see how you couldn’t!- I’m not giving away many details at all.

This is a unique film whose story -and the many mysteries surrounding it- unfolds in an extremely satisfying manner. You think you have a grasp of what’s going on only to get another piece of the puzzle which takes you in another direction, then another, then another.

It all leads up to a shattering climax which reveals everything, and makes you re-examine everything as well.

This is not a perfect film and I suspect it would have benefitted from a little more budget, though not necessarily so they could show the initial car crash. I feel like the movie’s climax could have used a little more *umph*, that they were a little more restrained than they needed to be.

But these are incredibly small quibbles for what is truly a miracle of sorts: An extremely low budget film that presents a rock solid script filled with unfolding mysteries that not only keep your attention but truly take you on a trip into the unknown.

Highly recommended.

Movies

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

We are only two days away from the March 18th debut of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a movie I don’t think I need spend too much time explaining (though I will a little later on), and I find it curious that the average of early reviews by the professional film critics -111 of them at this moment- gives the film a very healthy 77% positive rating…

Rotten Tomatoes – Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)

Now, having noted this high rating average, there is a chance that as more reviews arrive, this average will drop… though its certainly also possible we might see it rise as well.

What intrigues me is that unlike the previous two Snyder directed DC movies, Man of Steel (56% positive among professional film critics) and especially Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (28% positive among professional film critics), so far this movie seems to be trending quite positively and those who like it really do like it.

I’ve noted before I’m a fan of Batman v Superman, though I would quickly add -and have done so ad nauseum– that the version I like is the Extended/Director’s cut versus the theatrical cut which, while I didn’t hate, was revealed to be pretty butchered when the extended cut came out.

I found plenty of people, though, who had a visceral hate against the film and Mr. Snyder’s “take” on these various beloved DC characters. In part I was certain this was because they hadn’t bothered with the Extended Cut, but in truth I felt the two films were still close enough that those who hated the film in its cut up version may like the Extended Cut a little more -it is much more coherent- but if you didn’t like the story to begin with, you won’t like it told a little better.

Nonetheless, I was certain BvS was a film that over time and once the harsh emotions died down a little, people might come back to reassess and realize there’s more there than meets the proverbial eye.

Well, then came its sequel, Justice League, and the tragedy of Zack Snyder’s daughter committing suicide which led to him leaving the film before it was done.

Mr. Snyder finished the principle photography and reportedly had a assembly cut of the film shown to producers and was in the process of getting the special effects done when he left. Joss Whedon came in and Warner Brothers reported (falsely) that all he was doing was some “reshoots” to finish off the film. Alas, it turned out he essentially re-did the film and that was what was released in 2017.

I nonetheless thought the film was “OK” but not necessarily great while many other Snyder fans, those who loved Man of Steel and BvS, wanted to see what Snyder did versus what Whedon released.

Remarkably, the Snyder fan base started many petitions to have the so-called “Snyder Cut” of the film be released.

There were those who snorted there was no Snyder Cut, that the film was simply bits and pieces in some unassembled state (which goes against the fact that an assembled cut of the material done was indeed shown to the Warner Brothers producers). There were others that snorted the Snyder fans were idiots to think there was some complete version of the film sitting in the Warner Brothers vaults.

Truthfully, I don’t recall anyone who wanted the Snyder Cut released say the film was somehow completed when Snyder left, but… well… whatever.

With the HBO Max streaming service needing some kind of big hit, the folks at Warner Brothers looked around and realized they had themselves just that… provided they front the money to truly finish off the film.

Zack Snyder, of course, was willing to go along but this time around, he wanted to have control over the final cut and its release. He agreed to do the project and -incredibly!- did so without being paid. Mind you, I strongly suspect he’ll receive some kind of compensation based on how many views the film has, but nonetheless… this is something!

So now we’re at the end of things and the imminent release of the film and I wonder if my prediction that people would come around to BvS, and thus Snyder’s take on the DC characters, is somewhat coming true with this more positive view of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

I haven’t seen the film, so I truly have no idea.

But I will.

Maybe not on the 18th and maybe not until it is available on regular home media, but I’ll give it a look.

Who knows?

In spite of all the tragedy involved, perhaps this movie will prove to be a terrific addition to the Superhero movie genre.

UPDATE: It is now March 18th, the date of the release of ZSJL, and out of curiosity I checked out the latest ratings for the film over at Rottentomatoes.com and….

The average rating from critics remains at 77% positive though we now have 142 reviews. This represents 31 more reviews from when I originally posted above.

I don’t know how many more critic reviews are going to pop up. Generally, popular films such as Avengers: Endgame wind up with quite a few critical reactions. That film sits with 538 reviews while the original Justice League (the Joss Whedon theatrical cut released in 2017) has 400 reviews.

Given this number, I’m expecting now that ZSJL is formally released there will be more critical reactions and it wouldn’t shock me if the ratings go down.

Wonder Woman 1984 began with a high positive rating but over time the average of the film’s critical ratings slipped. At this moment and with 423 ratings, that movie sits among critics at a mediocre 59% positive. Worth noting that audience reactions are far more positive and lie at 78%. I have yet to see the film so I can’t really say whether I personally feel that rating is accurate… for me!

Anyway, just a matter of curiosity to me.

When I get the chance, I’ll check out ZSJL and see if the film was worth the fuss… and the wait!

Movies

Yaphet Kotto (1939-2021)

Sad news to read today about the passing of actor Yaphet Kotto.

He had a very long career, his first appearance on IMDb being in 1964, but will most likely be remembered for two really big roles, that of Kananga, the suave main villain who meets a particularly gruesome end in the first Roger Moore James Bond film Live and Let Die…

Dr Kananga (@KanangaSanMon) | Twitter

And, of course, Parker, who along with Ripley was one of the more charismatic members of the crew of the Nostromo in Alien…

Alien - Parker | Alien 1979, Alien character, Alien

This, of course, were but two roles in a very long career, which also included roles in The Running Man opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, Midnight Run, and the wonderful TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Not very long ago I also got to see him in one of his earlier very big theatrical roles, in the brutal 1972 crime film Across 110th Street (you can read my review here) which no doubt must have led to his getting the villainous role in Live and Let Die, as a few of the African American actors in that movie wound up in the Bond film.

What a wonderful, fascinating talent. His roles were varied and interesting and, truthfully for me, he will be missed.