The Paramount Vault

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014), Creed (2015), April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Documentary about low budget production house The Cannon Group, with particular focus on its halcyon days of the 1980's. Incorporated in 1967 The Cannon Group started its existence producing English language versions of Swedish soft-core porn movies, along with the occasional non pornographic film. In 1979 the company was acquired by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who the previous year had produced the biggest hit in the history of the Israeli box office, a teen sex comedy called Lemon Popsicle, and desired to turn their attention to the larger international market. Under Golan and Globus leadership The Cannon Group expanded rapidly, producing a staggering number of low budget films, peaking at 43 movies in 1986 alone. The cousins vision for the company proved too ambitious and expansion too fast however, financially over extended Golan left the company in 1989 and the group folded altogether in 1994. However during its 1980's hay day The Cannon Group was extremely successful, and more or less launched the careers of Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Electric Boogaloo takes its name from the subtitle of Cannon's Breakin' 2, the 1984 sequel to their hit breakdancing movie also of 1984 Breakin, which I think says a lot about how this company operated. The documentary is essentially a survey course on The Cannon Group in the 1980's, highlighting some of their better known and more infamous films, as well as interviews with Cannon veterans both in front of and behind the camera. There are some rather amusing stories here, with the larger then life Menahem Golan at the front of many of them. If movie making is by its vary nature a kind of confidence game, there were few finer confidence men, hence film makers, then Golan and Globus. ***

Creed (2015)

Technically this is Rocky VII, only it's a Rocky movie where Rocky is a supporting character rather then the lead. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, who had a big critical and box office success with his 2013 indie drama Fruitvale Station. The young director could have done basically whatever he wanted for a follow up project and he chose to do a Rocky movie. The reason for this was in part because as a child Coogler had grown up on the Rocky franchise with his father being a huge fan of the film series. In Creed Coogler reunites with his Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan to tell the story of Adonis "Donnie" Johnson, the illegitimate son of the Apollo Creed who died before he was born (see Rocky IV).

Orphaned early Adonis was tracked down and adopted by Apollo's widow Mary Ann (Phylicia Rashad) and raised in affluence, college educated and with a promising future in finance Adonis struggled with his relationship to his deceased father, took up prize fighting part time in Mexico and in the course of the film gives up steady employment to pursue boxing full time. Enlisting the help of an at first reluctant Rocky Balboa (Stallone indispensably again reprising his greatest role) Adonis ends up with an unexpected opportunity to fight the raining champ for the world lightweight championship, in a parallel in reverse on the original Rocky. Like all Rocky movies the film ends in an excellent fight sequence. This film is a worthy continuation of the franchise and adds a new take on what has become a classic story. I must add that I quite liked Tessa Thompson as the love interest. ***

April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

Done in a flash animation style and feeling like a combination of Persepolis and Tin-Tin, April and the Extraordinary World is set primarily in a steam punk version of 1930's and 40's Paris and tells the story of young April Franklin who loses her scientist parents in a strange explosion and spends years searching for her lost grandfather. Oh and she has a talking cat named Darwin, and is relentlessly pursued by a cop voiced by Paul Giamatti, and there are mysterious forces searching for the secret of something called 'The Ultimate Serum', and France wants to go to war over Canada because they (the French) are almost out of trees, and there's a Dickensian young thief, and Albert Einstein, and a walking house, and a lot of other crazy crap and its pretty fun. I am looking forward to showing this to the niece and nephews. ***

Sing Street (2016), X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Sing Street (2016)

Directed by John Carney, best known for his awarded winning 2007 musical feature Once, Sing Street tells the story of Dublin teenager (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) who forms a band with a group of misfits in order to win the heart of the girl of his dreams (Lucy Boynton), while his parents troubled marriage falls apart around him. Set in 1985, which apparently was a time of widespread economic malaise in Ireland, the film is appropriately gray and urban but without being too gritty. Often poignant this endearing coming of age film is infused with an eighties nostalgia and quirky but realistic feeling characters. Like Once there is a joyousness here about making music that is just infecting. In addition to a great assortment of period hits the original music for the film is just great, yet very unlike the folkie sound that was the earlier films signature. I will be seeking out this soundtrack. Deserving of becoming a sleeper hit Sing Street is one of the best films I have seen so far this year. ****

=================================================================

With X-Men: Apocalypse come out soon I thought that I would try to catch up with the films in this series. Now X-Men has never been among my favorite franchises, I thought the first one was okay, rather liked the second one, but as with seemingly most viewers found the third film wanting. So accordingly I hadn't seen an X-Men film since X-Men III in the theater back in 2006. The franchise spawned a series of Wolverine origins films centering around Hugh Jackman's breakout character, and then a series of prequels which I was a little surprised to find really rejuvenated this property for me.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

This film is the origin of the X-Men, with the stories action taking place primarily in the year 1962 the films period setting really added a lot to this for me, it made the old new again so to speak. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender successfully take over Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen's respective Professor X and Magneto roles as younger men. These characters much referenced earlier relationship from the previous films is satisfactorily fleshed out, as is the backstory for a number of other characters, as well as the introduction of several new ones. The character of Mystique takes up a much more central place in the franchise starting with this film, including new backstory. I wonder how much the part was built up around its actress Jennifer Lawrence as she becoming an increasingly big deal at the same time these new X-Men films were made. Though this kind of thing can be corny I did like the way historical events were integrated into this film, including its Cuban missile crises climax. ***

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

The already jumbled seeming timelines of this franchise start to get really confused in this movie. Based on the classic Days of Future Past storyline from the comics, which I remember as perhaps the strongest arc of the 1990's animated series (from which I gained most of my X-Men knowledge), is here tweaked in quite a few places but better executed then I had expected. In an apocalyptic 2020's where mutants are being hunted to extension by robotic Sentinels, the near immortal Wolverine has his consciousness sent back into his own body in 1973 in an attempt to alter a key historical event and avoid this dark future. The event that Wolverine has to stop is the assassination of military scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) by Mystique at the Paris Peace Conference that brought a formal end to the Vietnam War. It seems Trasks' execution by a mutant will lend a credibility to the anti-mutant feeling he sought to excite, and in time lead to the Sentinel program which will threaten the existence of mutants in the 21st century. To put a stop to Mystique Wolverine enlists of the aid of the younger Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr from the previous film, as well as a number of other mutants including Nicholas Hoult's Beast and Evan Peters' Quicksilver. Canadian voice actor Mark Camacho appears as President Nixon. This films shows an utter contempt for the later chronology of the series, and especially so for the events of X-Men III, which it essentially ignores. I'm typically a stickler for chronology but I didn't like X-Men III so this movie gets a pass, also it was rather fun. ***

We will see shortly if this winning streak is continued with X-Men: Apocalypse.

VHS WASTLAND

Drive (2011), The Big Short (2015), The Nice Guys (2016)

I didn't set out to but I've ended up having a sort of mini Ryan Gosling marathon over the last the nine days or so, so let's do a quick run through the films.

Drive (2011)

Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by James Sallis, Drive stars Gosling as a never named character who is a full time auto mechanic, part time stunt driver and part time getaway driver for higher. Gosling's character is a man of few words and seemingly no real interests outside of cars and driving them, that is until he meets a young mother (Carey Mulligan) and her son (Kaden Leos) who live in the same apartment as him. He befriends these two and there is an obvious attraction between him Mulligan, but she has a husband in prison who gets out about midway through the film. Carey's husband (Oscar Isaac) owes some 'protection money' from his time in prison to some nefarious types, and Gosling aggress to help him as his get away driver on one final job. Needless to say things don't go as planed. This movie is a curious blend, a character piece in the body of a exploration movie plot, yet it manages to navigate this bizarre hybrid with aplomb under the hand of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. All of the actors in this do a great job and you will likely be surprised by the fact that Albert Brooks plays a badass, and manages to pull it off. Bryan Cranston also appears as Goslings boss and best friend. ***1/2

The Big Short (2015)

Gosling is part of the ensemble cast in this best picture Oscar nomine from last year. The Big Short is a look at the 2008 collapse of the U.S. housing bubble through the (mostly) true stories of a handful of people who saw it coming, and ended up making a lot of money off of it. This plot description might make you expect to hate these people, but for the most part they are rather sympathetic characters and horrified by the mess made of the mortgage market from the greed and short sightedness of others. Gosling plays Jared Vennett, a bond salesman at Deutsche Bank and probably the most self interested of the bunch. Vennett stumbles upon the existence of the bubble after he learns second hand that a Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale in probably the best of the many strong performances in the film), a California based neurologist turned hedge fund manger has convinced a number of big banks and financial houses to let him bet against the historically secure housing market. Vennett takes this information to a hedge fund manager and committed pessimist named Steve Eisman (Steve Carell) and eventually this information makes its way to others including two wizkid investors who enlist the aid of apocalyptic minded retired securities trader Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to make a profit off it.

Now from the above description this sounds like it should be as dry as hell, but it isn't, its very compelling and watchable, even at over two hours in length. This is in large part due to the creative directing of Adam McKay, a maker of Will Ferrell comedies who somehow managed to get the tone for this just right. One of the ways that McKay injects an unexpected life into this film, and helps explain some of the more complicated economic plot points necessary for understanding what's happening on screen, is that he periodically takes a break in the action and has various celebrities
such as Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez explain them straight to the audience. This is a very clever and surprisingly original idea. The Big Short works on all cylinders, is both very entreating and informative. I would rank this after Spotlight as the second best film of last year. ****

The Nice Guys (2016)

I really expected more out of this after its much advertised 96% fresh Rotten Tomato's rating. The Nice Guys is a buddy action comedy set in 1977 Los Angeles and concerns an enforcer for hire(Russell Crowe) who, after a period as opinionates, teams with a faltering private detective (Gosling) and his persistent 13 year old daughter (Angourie Rice) to solve the murder of a porn star and the disappearance of a young woman. I love detective stories and things set in the 1970's, and Crowe and Gosling are great actors, but turn out to be only okay at comedy. This movie was often pretty flat, too many of the films best comic moments were given away in the trailers, the film seldom made me laugh but still held my interest, though I don't think it really found its grove until pretty late in the proceedings. Thinking back on it now though I suspect that its one of those movies that will be more enjoyable on second viewing then it was on first. Not remarkable in many ways, but in others, such as the climax, well executed. I'll have to see it again some time. ***

Talking Heads Live in Rome

Steve Jobs (2015), Captian America: Civil War (2016), Fedora (1978)

Steve Jobs (2015)

Another Steve Jobs movie? No thanks I'm not interested, I didn't see the other one. A Steve Jobs movie directed by Danny Boyle, written by Aaron Sorkin and staring Michael Fassbender? Okay I'm interested. The movie is constructed as a three act play, in fact the screenplay could probably be preformed more or less as is on the stage. Each act takes place behind the scenes just before major Job's backed product lunching's in 1984, 1988, and 1998. There are several through lines devoted to major and often strained relationships in Job's (he was a difficult man) personal and professional lives, with his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniack (well cast Seth Rogen), mentor John Sculley (played by Sorkin favorite Jeff Daniels) and several others. Kate Winslet plays a slightly composited version of Joanna Hoffman, a member of Job's inner circle who had retired by the time of the final product lunch depicted in the film. The dialogue and performances in this are great, though the proceedings would probably seem dry to many. The movie has that look of slightly lens flair lighting which I associate with director Danny Boyle, but in tone, substance, structure, dialogue, cast and pretty much everything else this is Sorkin's movie. Behind the scenes and 'great men' that's what Sorkin is interested in, as well a stylized dialogue of course. This wasn't really a subject I was that interested in but the movie really sold me. Again I'm sure a lot of people would find this movie boring, but for me its ***1/2

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

This movie is a lose adaptation of a Marvel Comics storyline from about 10 years ago that was a big enough deal that even though I'm not much of a comics guy I was well aware of it. There have now been roughly a dozen feature length movies set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I have seen all of them, and in all fairness and respect they have become a little old. That is the nature of comic books I suspect, mostly variants on the same handful of themes and arc types. These movie always have to have X number of battle sequences, in  X number of exotic locations, a little bit of soap operay relationship stuff, and episodically build into one another. Oh yeah and quips and cameos, can't forget the quips and cameos. It's all right, it enjoyable enough, but its not all that filling and I don't have the sense that these movies are capable of surprising or impressing me much anymore, which is something many of the earlier films in the MCU managed to do. I'm going to be nerd unpolitic here and say that I honestly enjoyed Batman v Superman more, in part because I hadn't seen the DC people do this kind of stuff on film before, and because the ending of that movie I wasn't expecting (at least not that early in the DCU). Still Civil War had it's moments, I quite like Ant-Man, and liked the new Spiderman as well as the unexpected casting for Aunt May. Still for me this is the weakest of the Captain America franchise, which I think is the strongest branch of the MCU franchise, or maybe its that I'm just bitter at the lack of Hayley Atwell in this one. None the less ***

Fedora (1978)

Director Billy Wilder's penultimate film is based on a novella by the writer and actor Tom Tryon. The film is often viewed as a companion piece of sorts to one of Wilder's best known and most iconic features, Sunset Blvd. Though made nearly thirty later Fedora's connections to Sunset Blvd are multiple, not least that they star the same leading man, William Holden. Both films are about reclusive female super stars of an earlier era, both stars live in creepy old mansions and are cared for by strangely protective handlers, and both characters lives are changed forever upon chance encounter with representatives of present day Hollywood played by William Holden. In Sunset Blvd Holden plays a down on his luck writer, in Fedora he plays a down on his luck producer who travels to a Greek island where the reclusive Garbo like star known only as Fedora spends part of each year. The mystery at the heart of Fedora is both more conventional in form and stranger in content then that of Sunset Blvd. Though this movie, which has a reputation of being one of the directors weaker films, has a stronger then I'd expected introduction, the resolution is rather long and exposition heavy, though that may have been unavoidable given the nature of its story. This film is only a shadow of its earlier thematic cousin, but its certainly watchable and an intriguing companion piece, Wilder looking back not at a Hollywood before his time like in Sunset Blvd, but at the Hollywood of early in his career seen from near the end of his career.  Also given that this was the first straight drama the autor had made since the late 1950's, in a way its impressive that it turned out as well as it did. **1/2

Risen (2016), Double Indemnity (1973), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Risen (2016)

Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) is a world weary Roman Tribune stationed in 1st century Palestine who arrives back in Jerusalem (after putting down a Passover timed Jewish insurrection in the hinterland) just in time to see Jesus of Galilee die on the cross. When the body of the reputed Messiah disappears the next day, Clavius is put in charge of the investigation to determine who removed the body from the tomb and to get it back, least this apparent fulfillment of prophecy stir further unrest in the troubled province. Risen is the type of 'tale of the Christ' film Hollywood has been making since near its beginning, and like too many a biblical epic it is often slow and boring. What sets Risen apart however is that it is in essence a cop movie, and if you approach it as such it is much more enjoyable then it otherwise would be. Clavius is a jaded long time cop, Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) his grumpy chief and Lucius (Tom Felton, better known as Draco Malfoy) his rookie partner. In course of the story the cops visit the 'scene of the crime', interrogate various witnesses, employ a snitch, and even bust into a brothel in search of a prostitute (María Botto as Mary Magdalene). The film has a gritty realistic look, and the performances are generally good, though it all but inevitably stretches things out too long and its resolution is of course a pious one, I think it may have been more effective if it had left things more ambiguous. Still as Christian targeted theatrical release go, likely one of the best to come out this year. **1/2

Double Indemnity (1973)

Included as a bonus feature in Universals special edition DVD release of the classic 1944 Billy Wilder film, this remake of Double Indemnity gives one the rarish opportunity to both experience a different take on the classic story, as well as to watch a 1970's TV movie. This version uses a surprising amount of dialogue form the originally film, which sometimes plays funny given that its been updated to a then contemporary setting. Samantha Eggar seems like she may be giving less to the proceedings then her costar Richard Crenna, who almost pulls of his dated and stylized dialogue. Lee J. Cobb is as a perfect a replacement as you could hope for in Edward G. Robinson's part. Not nearly as good as the original, but it's still enjoyable, though I'm sure it helps that they cut the thing down to 1hr 15minute run time. **1/2

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

I remember that my brother saw this movie in the theater with a friend of his when it first came out and that I was kind of jealous because I had wanted to see it to. Well 22 1/2 years later I finally got around to viewing Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and it's pretty good. The film is a kind of  midquel to the  early 90's Batman: The Animated Series, which was still in production at the time and in my opinion one of the highest quality children's TV series ever made. This movie uses much the same voice cast as the series and tells what for the time is a pretty sophistic story for an animated film, this being long before all those direct to DVD animated comic adaptations we see now days.

The story has to deal with a new villain called The Phantasm and the reintroduction of Bruce Wayne's lost love Andrea Beaumont into his life, she occupies a kind of similar role to that of the Rachel Dawes character in Nolan's Batman films. The film had a surprising amount of critical love at the time and since, but it under performed at the box office and is now largely forgotten. The Nostalgia Critic recently did a review on this (which came out a few days after I watched this by the way) in which in argues that Phantasm can be considered arguably the best Batman movie as far as its characterization of Batman goes, and he actually has a point there. (see video here) I didn't love the movie but I did like it, and if anything it made me want to watch some of The Animated series again, that was a great show. Worth it for the interested, I image this would have been more impressive at the time it came out, subsequently a lot of what this movie does for Batman has been done other places. **1/2.

God's Not Dead (2014), The Jungle Book (2016), Harper (1966), True Romance (1993)

God's Not Dead (2014)

What to say about God's Not Dead? How about if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. The films thesis, as reflected in the altered Nietzsche quote that serves as its title, is to alter a quote from Mark Twain 'Reports of God's death are greatly exaggerated'. The films takes on liberalism, and secularism, the educational establishment and atheism. I think there are people involved in the production who might have had some idea that this would serve as an outreach film to persuade the unbelievers, but in reality this is a preaching to the choir movie. Your not likely to win adherents to your cause when all you do is attack your potential converts. Unbelievers in this movie are hit by cars or stricken with cancer, the one Muslim man in the film is manipulative and controlling and later beats his daughter. There is a sympathetic exchange student from China, but he is depicted as a naïve sort who upon encountering what are apparently the first arguments for the existence of God he has ever heard quickly becomes a Christian.

This film is ostensibly about arguments for or against the existence of God, as the plot centers around a Christian college kid who must engage in a series of three debates against his philosophy professor in order to pass a class after he refuses to write the words God is Dead on a piece of paper and sign his name to it. The arguments made about God in the film are none to deep and obviously the deck is stacked in terms of who will come out victorious. Full of clichéd characters this is a surprisingly mean spirited film that is not really about atheist vs. theist, but about a sub group of particularly agitated Evangelical Christians vs. everybody else. Even many who would agree with this films underlying assertion have taken issue with the ways by which its filmmakers have chosen to make its point. *

The Jungle Book (2016)

Disney's big budget live action resurrections of their classic animated properties continues with The Jungle Book, though with the amount of CGI in this film I almost hesitate to call it 'live action'. Disney's 1967 animated film is the medium through which my generation, and a generation or two before and after me chiefly came to know Kipling's stories of the man cub Mowgli and the animal denizens of the Indian jungle. On the surface there is little reason to remake this, especially given how self consciously evocative of the early Disney film this movie is, but this new/old Jungle Book really works. It's a great family film, a timeless story, perfectly paced, playful, well cast (Christopher Walken's King Louie is inspired and worth the price of admission alone) and frankly amazing looking. I saw this in 3D on an IMAX screen and it was awe inspiring visually, it's hard to believe that there are apparently no actual animals in this movie. Jon Favreau is a talented director, and you might not guess that if all you really knew him from was his supporting role in the Iron Man films, a couple of which he actually directed. A lot of movies you don't need to see on the big screen but this one you really should. ***

Harper (1966)

This was the first screenplay by the great William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride) to be made into a film. Adapted from the 1949 Ross Macdonald novel The Moving Target, Harper is a great little detective film, complete with that old fashioned noir vibe but with a 1960's shine added to it. Paul Newman plays detective Lew Harper (in the source material the detective's name is Lew Archer) a PI hired by a millionaires wife (Lauren Bacall) to find her oft unfaithful and now missing husband. Harper's search sends him to various So Cal locations including a swanky hotel, a jazz club, the dock's and a hill top hippie "temple", where he interacts with colorful characters played by the likes of Shelley Winters, Robert Wagner, Storther Martin, Julie Harris, and Harold Gould. Janet Leigh plays Harper's wife, and Arthur Hill his friend. Largely forgotten 60's beauty Pamela Tiffin also appears, and she is really cute. Newman is having a fun time here playing a detective who easily adapts different personas, and sometimes accents, to get the information he needs. The pace is relaxed and the tone often playful, with a resolution not to be spoiled. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and so did audiences of the time, the film made $12 million box office on a $3.5 budget. It even spawned a sequel nine years later called The Drowning Pool, which sadly is not available via Netflix. I hardily recommend this one. ***1/2

True Romance (1993)

Tony Scott directing from a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino in a film very reminiscent of Wild at Heart, that being the David Lynch film which I actually didn't like. Like Wild at Heart from three years earlier this film is a story of an Elvis obsessed misfit (Christian Slater) who crosses country with a lovesick blond (Patricia Arquette) and becomes mixed up with some very unsavory characters (Gary Oldman, James Gandolfini). Though the movie was made before Tarantino was that well known and his writing style then considered particularly fresh, watching this for the first time now it feels really old hat. I heard once that Tarantino insists on directing his own screenplays in part because he doesn't like what other directors do with his work, if that is the case this movie has got to be one of the reasons. Perhaps Tarantino is the only person who can really pull off directing a Tarantino screenplay because something about this movie didn't work for me. I thought it was uneven with the first two thirds being kind of a drag, while the last third felt a little crowded but generally satisfying. The climax of the film is classic Tarantino. The movies cast is large and loaded with good performances from the likes of Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Saul Rubinek, and even Bronson Pinchot. Brad Pitt has an amusing cameo role as a stoner roommate. While some of the parts were great the whole just didn't come together for me, or rather it just didn't blow me away like I hopped it would. I'm going to be generous to the film however, even though to quote a character from early in the story this "isn't my cup of tea" I can recognize some quality in the blend. ***