Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

The original 1984 Ghostbusters film is essentially revered by members of my generation. (Though within the last month I showed it to my teenage niece and nephew for the first time, their response was lukewarm, to them 'Ghostbusters' was no 'Back to the Future' or 'The Goonies'.) That film is very much an example of lightning in a bottle, a product of a very specific grouping of talented individuals at a specific place and time; attempts to recapture that magic on film have been wanting. 

The 1989 sequel is largely a beat for beat redo of the first film and now mostly ignored now, while the 2016 reboot with female leads generated huge backlash even before it was released. I frown on the misogyny that prompted much of that films premature condemnation, yet concur with the subsequent critical consensus that the movie turned out to be pretty bad. So my expectations for 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' were guarded, even with the talented Jason Reitman, son of the original films director Ivan Rittman, directing and co writing. 

So now that I've seen it I must say I was surprised to find 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' to be satisfactory. It's not great, it's not on par with the original film, but it is good and works better as a companion piece then 'Ghostbuster II'.

The plot concerns Egon Spangler's estranged daughter and her children inheriting an Oklahoma farm following the ghostbusters passing (actor Harold Ramis who played Egon passed away in 2014). The change of local from the big city and the young cast of 'junior ghostbusters' (thankfully the film does not use that phrase) is a nice mild twist on the urban thirty-somethings of the first film. 

The movie leans heavily on plot elements and homages to the original film, including Elmer Bernstein's memorable score. There were times when this was all a little much and I desired more originality. The ending lays the schmaltz on real thick. 

Yet I liked these characters, I liked that seating. The derivative elements were made to mostly work, I've gone back and forth on how much this movie ties into the story of the first one, and if they should have tried for a completely fresh story, but I get the comfort factor and its done well enough that at the end of the day it works, though under lesser hands it could have easily been a disaster. 

So yeah, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a satisfying sequel, they've finally broke the curse. ***

The Vast of Night (2019)

 I really enjoyed this movie, it made what was old new again. The film it reminded me the most of is 'Close Encounter's of the Third Kind', and 'The Vast of Night' really does that kind of sense of awe alien movie better then any film since at least 'Contact'. 

I loved the late 1950's small town New Mexico setting, this movie has a just wonderful sense of atmosphere and of place, you even get a decent sense of the relative locations of things due to the long walk sequence near the beginning, and that incredible tracking sequence around mid way through.  

The 'Twilight Zone' homage sequences, I didn't hate them but I didn't love them, maybe mildly distracting with the fuzzy black and white. 

When the whole screen goes dark so you can just hear the caller on the radio, so unexpected, but it works. From the expansive visuals to nothing, like an alien eye expanding and contracting. 

The simple characters, how they feel true to the time an place. The social commentary is nicely subtle, it's not overly judging, it's showing you how things were. I love the way Mad Men would do that as well. 

I liked the lead girl, I thought she was a fine and interesting character, the radio guy I also liked, but he was more of a generic lead type then she was. 

A lot of the back story or implied backstory, that was neat. 

The whole idea of everyone being at the small town basketball game, and the way that was shot, just wonderful. 

How everyone know each other, that was just great. 

This is a movie that has long talkie sequences of people telling you stories not showing them, it would seem to go against all cinematic storytelling conventions, especially sci-fi, yet it worked. 

The ending worked for me to, completely set up, yet somehow I didn't see it coming.  

***

Finch (2021)

 The new Tom Hank's vehicle 'Finch' reminded me of a lot of movies while watching it, Wall-E, Silent Running, I Am Legend, The Road, The Martian, Twister, Cast Away, Rain Man, Nomad, Short Circuit, The Book of Eli, yet it never equals the sum of any of it's parts. A derivative uninspired work, and while Hanks gives a typically fine performance I simply don't want to see him a depressing post apocolyptic story. The film is 60% through by the time it really gets going, has only two sequences worth much of anything, and tries way too hard in pouring on the cheap sentimentalism at the end, it simply wasn't earned. Technically competent and little more. *1/2

Hawaii (1966)

 Epic film based on portions of James A. Michener's 900+ page epic about our then recent 50th state. It is essentially the story of how a missionary becomes a Christian. Arriving on the islands in 1819 with his wife (Julie Andrews) a very puritanical Max von Sydow comes in time to actually love the local people. He changes from trying to shape them into white folk, to trying to protect them from the same. Quite beautiful in both story and scenery, the film is also a shockingly harsh indictment of cultural genocide, especially given that this film comes out of 1960's Hollywood. I was very impressed. ****

The Warriors (1979)

 'The Warriors' is a rather stylized film about delegates from the various street gangs of New York, attending a big pow-wow at which a charismatic leader, who might have united them is assassinated. One gang, based in Coney Island called The Warriors is framed for this, and the film chronicles their desperate night flight 27 miles through the city to the safety of home. It's an unusual piece that I'm surprised a major studio green lit, but it worked out the film made $22.5 million box office off a $4 million budget. The only other film I could think of that was kind of like this was 1984's 'Streets of Fire', turns out they had the same director, Walter Hill. **1/2 

Local Hero (1983)

 Along with Danny Boyle, Bill Forsyth is that rare director who had success with films set in contemporary Scotland. Forsyth had a sleeper hit in 1981 with 'Gregory's Girl', a kind of Scottish proto- Napoleon Dynamite. As result of how well that movie did the director had a fair bit of added leeway in making his next project, he chose to tackle something that was then very much an issue in contemporary Scotland, the oil boom. 

Peter Riegert plays "Mac" MacIntyre, a mid level executive working at Knox Oil & Gas in Houston, Texas. "Mac" had some success the previous year negotiating oil leases in Sonora, Mexico, and that combined with his Scottish last name (though he later revels to a work friend that his ancestry is actually Hungarian and changed their name to MacIntyre upon immigrating, thinking it sounded more American) leads his bosses to send him to Scotland to negotiate the purchases of a small village, bay, and surrounding area for construction of a new refinery, and distribution point for oil coming from their rigs in the North Atlantic. 

In Scotland "Mac" is joined by a local Knox employee played by future Dr. Who Peter Capaldi. The two travel to the idyllic village of Ferness and meet various eccentric locals, most of whom are thrilled by the prospect of selling their land, making a bunch of money and moving on. But of course there is one stubborn and vital hold out. 

A charming film, full of charming sights and characters that cause "Mac", who had been living a very superficial life, to question what he's been doing with it. This is paralleled by a plot line concerning the corporate big boss Mr. Happer (Burt Lancaster) who travels to Ferness when negations, stall and finds this place might hold the key to personals dreams far beyond mere oil exploration. 

I really enjoyed watching this film and know that it is going to warrant return viewing. It's also inspired me to look into other of Mr. Forsyth's films, he had something to say, he was no one hit wonder. A kind, lightly melancholy Capraesque meditation on what really matters. ***1/2

Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

 I watched this because it was free on Prime. My experience watching the original 'Friday the 13th' last year was that it underperformed even my low expectations. As a result my expectations where even lower for the sequel, but were modestly exceeded. This movie I think knew what was more then the previous film, the pacing also improved, I am still surprised how slow the original film was. That all being said this ain't no good movie either. *1/2 

Clifford (1994)

'Clifford' is that film where a 40 year old Martin Short plays an obnoxious 10 year old boy. The movie was actually filmed in 1990 but got held up in release by the collapse of Orion Pictures. A notorious bomb both with critics and audiences, Roger Ebert who hated the movie said it might actually be worth seeing because it fails in such a unique way. So I went in with extremely low expectations, which this movie easily surmounted. Sure the film is stupid, and makes all sorts of strange creative decisions, but honestly I laughed a lot. I thought the framing story strange and likely tacked on, and the ending even more bizarre then the bizarreness that proceeded it. However when Clifford is driving Charles Grodin to breakdown, it worked for me. Mary Steenburgen and Dabney Coleman play lazily to type, but if you approach the film as intentional self satire it has an odd charm. I'm gonna give it **. 

The Card Counter (2021)

 Like writer/director Paul Schrader's last work 'First Reformed', I went into 'The Card Counter' knowing next to nothing about it, and like the directors previous film that really worked for me, so I'm only going to give you some basics. 

The movie stars Oscar Isaac as a former U.S. Army private who spent 8 1/2 years in a military prison for his role in the torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. During that time he taught himself how to count cards, and now makes a living traveling across country and applying this advantage in casinos. He has made it a creed to only play for small stakes, but this changes when he encounters a young man played by Tye Sheridan, who has a kind of connection to his past. The movie also features Williem Dafoe and Tiffany Haddish, the latter I was only vaguely familiar with but I thought she really worked in this. 

If you are familiar with Paul Schrader's work you probably have some idea of where this movie is going, but it's extremely well played, subtle, and kept me guessing. I went out to see this film on very short notice, and it proved to be the most pleasant surprise I've had at the theater all year. ****

Words on Bathroom Walls (2020)

 'Words on Bathroom Walls' is a coming of age film about an aspiring cook and high school senior dealing with the onslaught of schizophrenia, which in his case includes the visual hallucinations of people played by AnnaSophia Robb among others. Solid supporting cast includes Molly Parker as the supportive mother, Walter Goggins as the perspective step father, and Andy Garcia effectively cast against type as a sympathetic priest. Taylor Russell is quite winning as the young man's love interest, but lead Charlie Plummer makes the whole thing work and anchors the film, he's going to have a great career. I think of this as a lesser, but still good, 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'. ***

The French Dispatch (2021)

 The anthology film, a feature length presentation consisting of a number of shorts built around a common theme has long been out of style. A relic, these kind of films were most common in the 40's and 50's, and subsequently mostly used to repackage episodes of horror TV shows in the 80's, or to introduce short works from multiple directors like in 'New York Stories' or 'Lumiere and Company'. In 2018 The Coen brothers brought an auteur approach to the format and produced 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs', the anthology western I didn't know I wanted.

Wes Anderson now takes a crack at it with 'The French Dispatch', which manages simultaneously to be both the most visually fun work of a famously visually fun director (I include his two stop motion films in this assessment) as well as to my mind his most Oscar worthy screenplay. 

The (fictional) film concerns the 1975 final issue of an English language France based periodical called 'The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun.' This magazine grew out of the weekend supplement of a small town Kansas newspaper and the first overseas trip of its publishers son, who fell in love with the place, set up shop and turned his little curio into a world wide publishing success. 

The framing story has the magazines founder (played by Bill Murry) passing away, and per the instructions of his will the magazine is to put out one final issue. The movie consists of 5 vignettes said to comprise the contents of that issue, an obituary of the founder publisher, a travel log of Ennui, France where the magazine is published, and three feature stories, one concerning an eccentric artiest, the other a martyred 60's student radical, and the last the kidnapping of a police commissionaires son. 

Your eyes will pop, there is so much going on, it's really worth seeing on a big screen, there are so many little bits of business happening, often in the periphery, which might get lost or be hard to spot on a smaller screen. The film goes back and forth between color and black and white, there is also an animated sequence. The set design, and visual compositions are fantastic. The content is generally amusing to laugh out loud funny, but contains moments of melancholy. 

The travel log portion is so fast and compact that it's the one I most want to go back and watch again, I'm sure I missed a lot. However the sequence about the artist (Benicio del Torro) and his muse (Lea' Seydoux) is probably the strongest, with the student radical piece being the most like the directors earlier work and the kidnapping piece most like his children's films. The large cast is wonderful, a nice mix of returning favorites from the directors stock company, and other recognizable faces who wanted in on a Wes Anderson film. I found this a thoroughly satisfying time at the movies, and one of the best films of the year. ****

The Star Trek Project: Next Gen Season 7

 Highlights and such for season 7 

Episode 2 "Liaisons"

Picard is stranded on a planet while the Enterprise hosts two eccentric ambassadors.  

Episodes 4 & 5 "Gambit Parts I and II "

The last two parter until the season final. 

Episode 6 "Phantasms" 

Data has nightmares. 

Episode 11 "Parallels" 

Worf finds himself hopping around alternate realities.  

Episode 13 "Homward" 

Story concerns Worf's human foster brother. 

Episode 14 "Sub Rosa" 

I don't care for this one myself, but given your recent "romance novel kick" I thought you should watch it. 

Episode 15 "The Lower Decks" 

Episode is seen from the point of view of 4 junior officers. Episode is the inspiration for the animated Star Trek series also titled "The Lower Decks". 

Episode 16 "Thine Own Self" 

An amnesic Data amongst a renaissance era people, also Troi gets a promotion.

Episode 18 "Eye of the Beholder" 

A mysterious suicide.  

Episode 19 "Genesis" 

The crew starts devolving into earlier life forms.

Episode 20 "Journey's End" 

Wesley Crusher's swan song. 

Episode 22 "Bloodlines" 

Picard learns he may have a son. Also episode ties into a first season episode I had you watch. 

Episode 24 "Preemptive Strike" 

Ro's final appearance, also good introduction to 'the Maquis' who will be important on both Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager. 

Episodes 25 & 26 "All Good Things... Parts I & II"

One of the best series finales in the history of television. 

 

Spencer (2021)

Five years ago the Chilean director Pablo Larrain made the excellent but under seen 'Jackie', a film about Jackie Kennedy in the days immediately following the assassination of her husband Jack. Larrain returns to similar territory with 'Spencer' a film about the late princess Diana (whose maiden name was Spencer in case you forgot) covering Christmas Eve through Boxing Day 1991. 

Kristen Stewart has gotten a lot of attention for this role which she should because she is excellent in it. I was a bit skeptical at first when I heard she had been cast, she is an American known for her long brown locks, but she really transforms into Diana here, at times they look so similar it's kind of creepy (much of the trick I think is capturing the very specific hairstyle she had). 

This is a portrait of very sad and frustrated woman, and while the movie very effectively evokes time and place it is not over-wedded to the historic particulars. The film even calls itself a 'parable' in its opening moments, Diana gets away with some things here I don't she really could have. The film dramatizes the internal process of Diana coming to some decisions about her life that would result in her ultimate divorce from Charles and break from the royal family, and in time her death. 

The actors who play the other royals look sufficiently like them, though the best supporting parts go to the likes of Timothy Spall and Sally Hawkins, whose characters appear to have been created for the screenplay. One aspect of the film I really liked were the young princes and Diana's relationship with her sons, which at times seemed to be all that was keeping her going. ***1/2

Dune (2021)

 Director Denis Villeneuve's new cinematic rendering of Frank Herbert's class 1965 novel' Dune' does a whole lot right. First off, it doesn't try to tell the whole story, the plan is for one more film to finish up the first book then maybe subsequent ones for the later novels. So it is structured very well, the writing is top notch. The movie boosts a well known cast that is actually well cast, everyone seems up to their roles. Visually it's sumptuous, David Lean in Space. 

The movie does space politics and space religion better then anything I've seen in a long while (Babylon 5), and is first rate space Shakespeare. It is what Star Wars has aspired to, and largely failed to be post 'Return of the Jedi'. 

The only complaints I have from my viewing experience is that the showing I attended turned out to be subtitled, which I wasn't expecting and found a little distracting towards the visuals that I wanted to concentrate on. The movie also evoked little in the way of emotional reaction, the two principle characters are pretty closed off emotionally, so I don't 'love' these people yet, but think that could be coming with the sequel. 

Now as a sort of mild spoiler I will tell you what the single greatest thing about this movie is. This is $165 million dollar sci-fi epic that DOSEN'T end with another big battle scene. So refreshing. ***1/2 

Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women (1968)

 The 1962 Soviet sci-fi film 'Planeta Bur' (Planet of Storms) had been repackaged by Roger Corman once before, splicing in footage of Faith Domergue and Basil Rathbone and released in 1965 as 'Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet'. In 1968 'Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women' added to the original Russian film around 10 minutes of skimpily dressed women including Mamie Van Doren, all shot by a young Peter Bogdanovich who also provides voice over narration. The film is pretty bad with most of the entertainment value derived from the awkward dubbing. *1/2

Idaho Transfer (1973)

Directed by but not staring Peter Fonda, 'Idaho Transfer' is an unusual science fiction film whose reputation has probably been bolstered some by it's not always being readily available. There was a prolonged copyright issue shortly after the films original release when it's production company went under. 

Filmed chiefly in southern Idaho (Craters of the Moon, Bruno Sand Dunes), it's story concerns college freshman being 'transferred' from 1973 to 2029. Sometime between those two years there was a massive ecological disaster and some rouge scientists (possibly from ISU or the INEEL) have taken to sending teenagers from the present to the future. Teenagers are sent because for the some reason the process that can send people back and forth between those two points in time, damages the kidneys of people over 20. Also at first the presumable purpose of sending the young people would be to repopulate the world, but then we learn the time travel process also renders them sterile, so they are really sent forward in time to try and guide the mentally retarded inhabitants of the future by teaching them things, and encouraging selective breading among them. 

An interesting premise done in an odd stilted style featuring a cast primarily of non actors. The movie it reminded me of stylistically more then anything was 'Primer' (2005). While I liked the understated time travel effect, the movie never really seems to get going, feeling at least semi improvised. Also I'm still undecided as to it's WTF ending. **

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)

Taken from the memories of Woodward's 'Deep Throat' himself, 'Mark Felt: The Man Who Took Down the White House' is the famed Watergate leakers story the way he would want it told, and because of that it's wanting. The movie shy's away from the man's at best mixed motivations for doing what he did, so you never feel like your getting the whole story. Done basically as a procedural, Liam Neeson's performance as the man is closed off, which is both the way he probably really was, as well as an obstacle to figuring out who he truly was behind that. Well cast, this movie is unfortunately a bore. *1/2 

Knute Rockne, All American (1940)

Hmm, turns out the "K" is pronounced. Best remembered for its short appearance by Ronald Reagan as "The Gipper", 'Knute Rockne, All American' is a hagiographic account of Norwegian born Notre Dame University football star turned coach Knute Rockne. Though ably played by Pat O'Brien I didn't find the movie all the interesting, I'm not a football guy, though I can apricate that the film felt like something of a watershed to many a sports minded Catholic. For a far better inspiring sports movie from around the same time see 'Pride of the Yankees'. **