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Movies

This Is The End (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard.

Now this is a tough one to grade.

On the one hand, there were many scenes in This Is The End, the Seth Rogen/James Franco/Jay Baruchel/Danny McBride/Jonah Hill/Craig Robinson film that had me laughing out loud…

…yet there were an equal number of moments that tested my patience.  Eventually I had more than my fill of the movie and turned it off perhaps a half hour before its end (no pun intended!).

Once I shut the film off, I didn’t think I’d return to it.  That’s how tired I was of the whole thing.

Nonetheless, I knew there wasn’t much left to see so I decided to finish the film off.  Lo and behold, I greatly enjoying the movie’s climax/last act.  I’m certain the one day rest away from the film greatly helped as I found these parts fun and very funny.

The moral of the story?  Watch This Is The End in at least two sittings.

So that’s the crux of the movie’s problem:  While quite humorous at times, the film feels way, waaaay too long at 107 minutes.  The film’s concept, by the way, is this: Seth Rogen and his Hollywood friends play Looney Tune versions of themselves and while partying at actor James Franco’s house the Apocalypse hits Earth and their numbers dwindle as they ineptly fend for themselves.

Had the boys brought a good editor with them, s/he might have trimmed down the film’s excesses while sharpening the admittedly funny jokes and giving us an overall better product.

A good example of this is the sequence involving Emma Watson beating the boys up and stealing their food/water supplies.  This sequence, as presented in its abbreviated form in the theatrical trailer below, is hilarious.  In the movie, we get this extended -and not as funny- bit where the boys let Emma Watson back into James Franco’s house and then get into a discussion of the fact that she’s the only female in this house full of men…and of course the dialogue gets into the potential for one or more of them getting the urge to rape her.  Emma overhears this conversation and this is why she ultimately splits.

But the joke, to my mind, works better in the abbreviated form of the trailer: Emma breaks into the house, intimidates and beats the boys up before stealing their supplies and they lament the fact that they got their asses kicked by “Hermione”.

As I said before, the film does have its share of very humorous sequences.  The problem is the film is way too overindulgent and could have used more judicious pruning.  A shame.  Had the film run perhaps 90 minutes or so it might have been far better.

Movies

Europa Report (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Heard about this low budget thriller a while back and was intrigued by what critics said, specifically that this was a “realistic” thriller involving an expedition to Europa.  For those unfamiliar with Europa, it is one of Jupiter’s moons and a source of great scientific curiosity.  The moon has ice on its surface and liquid water below and, therefore, may well have some kind of life forms within.

Anyway, I was intrigued.  Would the film live up to the critic’s kind words?

To this I would say yes.  For the most part.

Europa Report is a “found footage” type film.  We watch the story unfold in “real” time (to a degree) via cameras positioned within the spacecraft as well as “contemporaneous” statements by the people behind the mission, one that we are clued in from the very beginning met a very bad end.

The ship features an international crew (the best known of the actors playing the crew, to me at least, is Michael Nyqvist, who made a villainous turn in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and was Mikael Blomkvist in the European version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy).

The group’s trip to and eventual arrival and exploration of Europa -and the mysteries they encounter there- form the backbone of the story.  I don’t want to get into too many spoilers, but suffice to say the mission encounters plenty of problems on their way to discovering if Europa contains life forms.

The film is a very low budget affair but manages to get a maximum for its money, at least in the early going.  The effects are way more than adequate for the space flight and even the arrival on Europa.  Unfortunately, as the movie closes in on its climax the small budget hurts the film’s revelations.  I suspect the screenplay asked for more than the budget could effectively show, and while director Sebastian Cordero did a pretty good job with what he had, there came a time when the movie demanded more spectacle and it simply couldn’t deliver.

It was also during the later half of the the film that I realized…well, this might get into SPOILER material, so I’ll get into it after the trailer below…

Still there?  SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Ok, so after the astronauts reach Europa I come to the realization that this film, like The Blair Witch Project and a few other “found footage” thrillers I had seen before, was building up to a final, shattering image as its conclusion.  I was even more certain I knew what that image would involve.  And, when it came, I was disappointed.

That final image, meant to fill us with equal parts awe and terror, was simply…ordinary.  The image wasn’t bad, mind you, but I’ve seen far more chilling and startling effects in many movies and video games.

Too bad.

In the end, I do recommend the film, but with the caveat that this is a low budget affair and that low budget does hurt the overall product.

Movies

Iron Man 3 (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Robert Downey Jr. returns as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Iron Man 3 (I’ll refer to it as IM3 from here on out).  After the general disappointment with 2010’s Iron Man 2 and the euphoria over 2012’s The Avengers, would this film be a keeper?

To my mind, yes…and no.  No, no, no.

Robert Downey Jr. remains an absolute joy to watch and absolutely commands the screen and our attention with his continuing quirky characterization of Stark/Iron Man.  This alone makes the film worth watching.  Then again, Mr. Downey Jr.’s take on Tony Stark made the far more meandering Iron Man 2 eminently watchable as well.

While Iron Man 2 was meandering and felt out of focus, IM3 moves like lightning, hitting us with something new and interesting every few seconds while giving us plenty of Mr. Downey Jr.’s characterization.  Thing is, as great as the ride is, the moment IM3 was over and you find yourself thinking about the story that just play out…the more of a mess you realize it is.  Ironically enough, IM3 wound up hitting me almost the same way as fellow 2013 summer blockbuster Star Trek Into Darkness did:  I enjoyed it while it played out, but afterwards was left decidedly less impressed.

Now, in the interests of not spoiling anything, I’ll stop here and get into story details in a second.  The short review is this:  Iron Man 3 is an incredibly entertaining “popcorn” film that most people should enjoy.  Just don’t think -or focus!- too much about the story.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Still here?  Ok, let’s get to this.

The movie begins with a flashback to 1999 and a science convention where a then much wilder/partying Tony Stark simultaneously meets up with an off-putting (and geeky) Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and a beautiful Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall).  Stark ditches Killian, who wants investors for some high tech he’s developing, while one-night stand bedding Hansen.  But not before she reveals she is working on a formula to re-grow plant limbs.  Naturally, these two elements are important for what follows…

Fast forward to today and a mysterious terrorist named the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) appears on TV claiming credit for several mysterious -and gruesome- explosions he claims to have set off around the world.  He is now targeting the United States and it is increasingly clear the Mandarin’s endgame involves the President of the United States himself.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is an emotional mess and is experiencing anxiety attacks -or perhaps even post traumatic stress- related to his experiences in The Avengers movie.  At one point, he tells his lover Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), he’s a “hot mess”.

Past and present collide when Killian reappears, much handsomer than before, still seeking an investment in his company.  Meanwhile, Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is nearly killed in another of the Mandarin’s explosions while following one of Killian’s henchmen.  This leads Tony Stark to personally call out the Mandarin through the media.

That day, Hansen shows up at Tony Stark’s home to warn him that she thinks her boss -Killian- works for the Mandarin.  Stark’s home is assaulted at that moment and Potts, Stark, and Hansen barely make it out alive while the home is destroyed.

Ok, so the plot is a little convoluted to this point but it makes a certain logical sense.  It is roughly after this opening that things start to go a little…bonkers.

I don’t want to go over every beat and element of the film that follows and assume those still reading have already seen the film.  Thus, the problems start:

Why exactly were the badguys in that small town where the mysterious (apparently non-Mandarin) explosion took place?  Didn’t the explosion happen a long while before?  And if so, why didn’t they take away all evidence beforehand and not the very moment Tony Stark is there?

While in that town, Tony Stark winds up downloading some incriminating video over the net.  Were the badguys really stupid enough to leave material accessible -though granted thanks to high level encryption- over the net showing their criminality?

While I don’t mind the reveal of who the Mandarin really was -on the contrary, I think it was a very clever bit- it also is hard to believe that there could be someone that dumb out there willing to go along with that plan, knowing their face would subsequently be public enemy number one.  Seriously?

Then there’s the character of Maya Hansen.  She’s good, she’s bad, then she’s good again.  I don’t mind shifty characters, provided their allegiances/betrayals make sense.  Hansen’s first “modern” time appearance, however, involved her almost becoming a victim of the Mandarin’s attack on Tony Stark’s home.  But if, as we later find, she was bad all along (and was aligned with the Mandarin), why would she choose to endanger her life that way?  Likewise, why did the Mandarin’s forces attack knowing she was there?  Couldn’t they have timed the attack for the moment after she left the home and was away from mortal danger?

But all these above problems pale compared to this:  Pepper Potts being kidnapped by the villain who sadistically shows off this fact, via video, to Tony Stark.  Instead of simply torturing and/or killing Potts before Stark, the villain instead injects her with his formula…which makes her, like the other villains, a superpowered creature capable of kicking major ass.

Seriously?!

Can you not see the…uh…wrongheadedness of doing this?  Can the villain not see how a superpowered Pepper Potts just might –might!!!!– come back to bite him in the proverbial ass?!  (Note: She does)

I could go on (trust me, there’s more!) but I really don’t want to engage in overkill.

My initial comments remain:  IM3 is a fun “popcorn” film that whizzes by and entertains…provided you don’t think about it too much.  Otherwise, your opinion may suffer.

Movies

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) a (incredibly) belated review

There are certain movie posters from the past that have stuck with me.  The poster for Jaws is certainly a classic…

Jaws

Though I’m not huge fan of the film (one of the very few, I admit), this one is pretty memorable, too (I know, I know, I’m a master of understatement)…

Star Wars

I could go on and on, but I’ll get to the point:  There is another movie poster that is perhaps not as memorable to the general public yet has stuck with me for many years, and that is the one of the (for the most part) forgotten 1978 Faye Dunaway starring film The Eyes of Laura Mars…

Eyes of Laura Mars

Unfortunately, the graphic above doesn’t quite do the poster justice as it looks way too dark.  Other images I’ve found online (check them out here) tend to overly lighten up Ms. Dunaway’s face, so this is about as close to the original piece as I could find.

I first saw the film many moons ago, probably right around the time it was released in the late 1970’s or shortly thereafter in the very, very early 1980’s.  There were bits and pieces of the movie I remembered, the bloody murders, the sleazy kinkiness (this movie, to my then very young mind, featured an awful lot of nudity!), and the general dreaminess/nightmarish tone.  Other than that, the image of that movie poster was what I recalled the best.

Until yesterday, when I gave the film a whirl for the first time in over thirty years.

The movie’s story (brought to you by John Carpenter!) involves controversial fashion photographer Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) “seeing” crimes as they are committed through the eyes of a serial killer…a serial killer who is targeting her friends and associates.

The movie starts with just such a killing as “seen” through the killer’s/her eyes.  In this scene the killer looks through an advanced copy of a book featuring Mars’ work and finds his target, the publisher.  She is killed with an ice pick and Laura Mars is introduced, waking up from a sleep with those violent images going through her mind.

Unsure what if anything they mean, she heads out to a well attended, glitzy art gallery showing off her latest work and promoting this upcoming book.  Here we find that Laura Mars’ photography is very controversial as it includes very sexy images merged with very violent images.  Laura Mars wanders the floor of the gallery and bumps into John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones in one of his very early movie roles), a New York detective who, she will find out shortly, is investigating the death of the publisher of her book.  We are also given a glimpse of the many people in her life, all of whom could be the mysterious killer…

Shocked that her publisher is indeed dead, Laura Mars abruptly leaves the show.  Shortly afterwards and during a wild daytime photography shoot on the streets of New York, Laura Mars has another vision.  She rushes away from the shoot and arrives at her friend’s house…but it is too late.  Her friend becomes another victim of the serial killer Laura Mars can “see” through.

I won’t go into too many more details of the plot, but suffice it to say that some of the shocks I felt upon first seeing this film way back when are much more muted today.  Upon re-seeing it I realized the movie was very much an American version of the Italian Giallo horror/thriller.  This definition, presented in the Wikipedia, effectively defines The Eyes of Laura Mars:

Giallo films are generally characterized as gruesome murder-mystery thrillers that combine the suspense elements of a Hitchcock film with scenes of shocking horror featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork, and often jarring musical arrangements. The standard plot, used in countless films, involves a mysterious, black-gloved psychopathic killer who stalks and butchers a series of beautiful women. The killings are invariably violent and gory, including throat-slashings and decapitations. These murders often occur when the victim is most vulnerable (showering, taking a bath, or scantily clad). The literary whodunit element is retained, while being filtered through Italy’s longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. There are also stories that involve supernatural forces, ghostly spirits, etc. Giallo films often include liberal amounts of nudity and sex, with several actresses becoming strongly associated with the genre such as Edwige Fenech, Barbara Bach, Daria Nicolodi, Barbara Bouchet, Suzy Kendall, Ida Galli, and Anita Strindberg.

Gialli typically introduce strong psychological themes of madness, alienation and paranoia.

Check…check…and check.

The Eyes of Laura Mars is all that, though in comparison to some of the better Giallo films out there, isn’t quite on their level.  Nonetheless, it is a stylish film that is very much of its time, offering an intriguing look at a far more sleazy New York than most may find today.  And because the film is about fashion, we also get to see plenty of late 1970’s fashion trends, and they’re a hoot!  The music is also very much of its time, featuring some memorable disco songs, including “Let’s All Chant”.

As for the plot and the identity of the mysterious killer, it is pretty easy to figure out.  With the very second killing most of the suspects are at Laura Mars’ side when she experiences her “vision”.  Given that her “visions” are concurrent with the actual crimes, all those around her are thus eliminated as suspects in one quick swoop and we are left with only two possibilities…and one of those suspects is so strongly presented as likely to be the killer that you immediately discount him for that very reason…and therefore all is revealed.

The Eyes of Laura Mars was directed by Irvin Kershner and his work here apparently so intrigued George Lucas that it is rumored he hired him to direct The Empire Strikes Back on the basis of this movie.  Mr. Kershner manages to retain a good level of tension but sometimes the acting is really over done to an almost comical soap opera level.  Still, despite its age the film is very watchable if not a “classic”.

In the end, The Eyes of Laura Mars is what it is, an American Giallo complete with blood, murder, sex, and psychology, along with a delicious late 1970’s visual vibe.  If those elements alone intrigue you, you could do far worse than spend a bit of time with Laura Mars.

One little note:  Actor Tommy Lee Jones, intriguingly enough, has appeared in two films written, but not directed, by John Carpenter:  The Eyes of Laura Mars and the 1986 thriller Black Moon Rising.  He has yet to appear in any film John Carpenter has directed!

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

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

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.