Here (2024)

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

 In 'The Midnight Meat Train' Bradley Cooper is a photographer who snaps a picture of a beautiful woman at a New York subway station, only to later learn he was the last person to see her before she disappeared. Cooper becomes obsessed with the disaperance and the actual butcher he thinks did the lady in. His trip down that rabbit hole leads him to find a patern of disapernces going back to at least 1911. Soon he's dragged his girlfriend Leslie Bibb and his best friend Roger Bart into the investigation with him, he also comes to suspect that the police department is in on what's going on.

The film effectively invokes the vibe of slimey early 80's urban horror from 'Manniac' to 'Varity' to 'CHUD'. The films director Ryuhei Kitamuar is Japanese and the influence of Asian horror films is felt as well. An hour and 43 minutes in length I think the movie would have benefited from being 10 to 15 minutes shorter. Still the film is fairly effective and I really appreciated the effort to do something different from the standard American horror fair of the Dubya era. **1/2

No Stranger Than Love (2015)

 In 'No Stranger Than Love' Allison Brie is Lucy Sherrington, beloved, small town Connecticut art teacher. Seemingly all the men in town are smitten by Lucy, though she is extremely polite in turning down their advances, none of the quirky locals are doing it for her; Save Clint Cobern, the gym teacher and football coach, played by Colin Hanks, who is really giving off 80's comedy Tom Hanks vibes in this. They like each other but Clint is married, after three years of sexual tension at work they decide to have an affair. Moments before they are set to consummate things, a hole into a bottomless black void opens up in Lucy's floor landing Clint in a sort of floating purgatory. Lucy can hear Clint but not see him and the pair set about trying to find a way to get him back on Tera firma. 

In the mean time a debt collector played by Justin Chatwin shows up in town to collect gambling debts from Clint, so when the coach disappears locals assume the visitor did him in. Only Lucy and Justin know he didn't, things are made more complicated when the two of them starts falling in love.

Heavy on the quirky, whimsy and metaphysical, yet still extremely lite on substance. One can tell what they were going for, a kind of Gilmore Girls on acid, but it just dosen't work. Way too self aware and more absurd than funny, the movie falls into its own hole to the bottomless black void. *1/2

Dinner in America (2020)

 'Dinner in America' hits on something magical, profane but magical. You put two very different and expertly played characters together, Kyle Gallner as a punk rock Pyro and Emily Scaggs as a possibility autistic pet store employee still living at home; improbably these two are just wonderful on screen together. Low budget indie is original and unexpected, a delight full of surprises and exquisitely ploted. A movie that shows that you can do alot with a little if your creative enough. ***1/2

Winchester (2018)

 "Winchester Mystery House", I've been their twice; grandparents lived in San Jose. Sarah Winchester, widow and heir to the Winchester Rifle Company, thought the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles were instructing her to build a large, rambling mansion, ultimately seven stories, around 100 rooms. The building had many eccentricity's, stairwells that lead to no where, doorways that open onto precipice's', their is alot of ghost story potential here, especially as it was filmed in part at the actual house. To bad the story is dull and cliche, good actors like Jason Clark, Sarah Snook and Helen Mirran aren't given much to work with. Still it made a bunch of money, $44 million of $3.5 million. *

The Giant Claw (1957)

 Low budget sci-fi flick from Columbia in which a giant, silly looking, vulture like bird appears in Canadian air space, attacks commercial and military aircraft, and generally creates havoc. Some scientists, military officers and a beautiful woman defeat the thing in 75 minutes of run time. I spent the film ruminating about how it's events would have effected the world, one conclusion I came up with is that there would be no Big Bird on Seseme Street. *1/2

American Dharma (2018)

 'American Dharma' closes a kind of trilogy in which director Errol Morris interviews former high ranking administration officials, officials with not great reputations owing to disasters they helped oversee. While in 'Fog of War' Robert MacNamara agonizes over his role in the Vietnam War, and in 'The Unknown Known' Donald Rumsfield seems genuinely perplexed that Iraq didn't work out, in 'American Dharama' Steve Bannon calmly explains that he was right all along.

Major criticisms of this film focus on hos well Bannon comes off, and a sense that Morris didn't push him as hard as those previous interview subjects. Both Morris and myself I think were caught a little off guard, by how charming Bannon can be, how reasonable he can sound. Bannon of course, a film lover (as is made evident throughout the picture, as he discusses keynote films for his world view), know how to act.  He has placed himself firmly in a reasonable gear, as reasonable as a rabid, provaction prone, political apocolyptisist can sound, which is shockingly reasonable.

Like the 2016 election Bannon takes something that should have been a resounding lose for him, and turns it into a sort of narrow win. While Morris raises critiques a plenty to Bannon, the calm way he dismisses them serves him rather well. Something of a missed opertunity, but still a reveling portrait of how Bannon sees himself and would like to be seen. ***

The Love Witch (2016)

 Man, there's alot going on here, both stylistically and in terms of subtext. I can't do it justice, but Kyle Kallgren can, check out his video The Love Witch's Subtle Cinematic Subversion. ***1/2

Halloween 6 (1995)

 'Halloween 6' is Paul Rudd's first movie, he plays a grown up Tommy Doyle, a character from the first movie. He is one of the too many characters, who are hard to all remember and keep straight, not to mention their interrelationships, the passage of time and all the lore. Still there is an okay movie in here somewhere, too bad it got wrecked in the horrible editing. This movie would have been  almost impossible to follow without the aid of IMDB plot synopsises, because much of the plot isn't really communicated well, if at all. Not as bad as 4, but still poor. *

Curse of the Puppet Master (1998)

 Kind of a soft reboot. The owner of a museum of curiosities now has the puppets, he's trying to duplicate the formula that brings them to life. In the process he sacrifices a couple of assistants, local law enforcement is suspicious of his involvement in strange deaths and disappearances; in an interesting choice the movie decides to make the sheriff unsympathetic, he's right that the museum owner is up to something, but he's also an asshole. The soul of a man nicknamed tank ends up in a tank puppet. Very abrupt end... **

Dollman vs Demonic Toy's (1993)

 I suppose this one is pretty self explanatory. Tim Thomerson from 'Dollman' and Tracy Scoggins from 'Demonic Toy's' team up to prevent said evil playthings in another attempt to provide their evil master with a human body to inhabit. They are joined in their efforts by Melissa Behr, a leggy blond nurse who was shrunken to doll size in another movie, 'Bad Channels' (1992). It's a kind of B movie Avengers. Making generous use of footage from its three feeder movies, it's still only about an hour in length. **

Demonic Toys (1992)

 A sting operation against some gun runners goes bad; officer Tracey Scoggins partner and lover is killed, she tracks fleeing suspects to a toy watehouse. Inside the warehouse they discover demonically possessd toy's, Scoggins, a teen girl, a Korean war veteran security guard and a chicken delivery drivers must fight the toy's, while the spirit of Tracey's unborn son must fight a demon to prevent possession of his fetal body. This sounds cooler then it is in execution, still **

Dollman (1991)

 Tim Thomerson is an alien cop who tracks a villainous explosives expert to Earth, but things are complicated by the fact that everything here is 6 times bigger then on his world, so he's only 13 inches tall. Dollman must defeat the fugitive, take on a gang that is terrorizing the south Bronx, in the process helping a single mom, her son and vastly strengthening the neighborhood watch. If this were given a bigger budget and Dollman was played by someone like Rutger Hauer this might have been something. *1/2

Puppet Master 5 (1994)

 A corporation seeks the secrets of the puppets. The head evil demon comes to our world to finish what his minons couldn't. The spirit of Toulon finally finds peace, maybe. *

Puppet Master 4 (1993)

 A demon from another realm sends puppet demons to our world to sabatoges experiments into artifical intelligence. A young genius becomes the new puppet master. A psychic goes comatose and the new puppet masters turn coat friend is murded in his car. *1/2

Puppet Master 3 (1991)

 'Puppet Master 3' is a popular favorite, and probably the best in the series, I don't anticipate any subsequent entry being better then this. A prequel that contradicts some established lore, but gives us origin stories for several of the puppets. Set in 1941 Germany we find this version of Andre Toulon us

Puppet Master II (1990)

 A group of researchers go to the old hotel, they fair little better then the psychics. We now have a new puppet with a flame thrower, who joins the others in successfully resurrecting the old puppet master Toulon, who is less successful in resurrecting his wife, unless you consider incarnating her in a life size puppet a success. On par with the first. *1/2

Megalopolis (2024)

 'Megalopolis' is bad. Shockingly, pedanticly, even amateurisly bad. That Francis Ford Coppla, responsible for 'The Godfather', 'The Conversation' and 'Apocalypse Now' could write, direct and produce this... well cognitive decline comes to mind, but also the dangers many creative people can get into when no one is restraining them. 

Coppola first started working on the ideas for 'Megalopolis' shortly after finishing 'Apocalypse Now', and has been tinkering with it for roughly 45 years. Never able to attract studio interest, Coppala self financed this $120 million behemoth, selling a winery to be able to afford it. He assembled a truly impressive ensemble cast ranging form old hands like Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, to newer, less conventional casting choices like Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza, the latter one of the few performers in the piece to come out of this disaster undeminished.

A parable, as the opening credits inform us, it is set in an alternate version of New York City called New Rome, and the Roman touches are present throughout the film in the form of names, costumes and even plot points. Storys of ancient Rome and Shakespeare are major influences here. While there are many plots going on, the principle one revolves around a riverly between a brilliant architect played by Adam Driver, and the city's mayor played by expert villian Giancarlo Esposito, one further complicated when Esposito's daughter Nathalie Emmaual starts dating Driver. Also Driver has the ability to stop time, and the new environmentaly friendly and supper adaptable building material he developed was fashioned out of materializing his late wife's despair. Or something like that, this movie is really weird.

Coppala seems to see his movie as delivering profound and important warnings about the dangers of environmental degradation, run away captlilism and political polarization. However his treatment of these subjects are very surfacy and uninsightful. The film is convinced of its own greatness, which to put it nicely is unearned. It wants to think of its self as vaugly populist, but shows no intreast in the proletariat, all of its characters are elites and in a particularly pronounced example of tonedefness has as it's ultimate moral, that the good elites will save us from the bad elites. 'Megalopolis' is a mess.

That being said at least 'Megalopolis' is an interesting mess, a passion project that is both patronizing and, as far as I can tell, completely sincere. I was almost never bored, it's a pretty entertaining train wreck with some bonkers moments which I rather enjoyed. As the film ended I had a big grin on my face, what I had just seen should not exist, so I found real amusement in the fact that through shear  hutzpah it does. *1/2

Puppet Master(1989)

 'Puppet Master' is the first in a surprisingly longlived franchise, 15 films in total with the most recent being from 2022. Low budget horror series was conceived for the direct to video market of the 1980's and thrived there. This first film was unexpectedly slow, the plot concerns a group of sometimes competitive psychics who converge on a sprawling old seaside hotel, in search of an ancient Egyptian scroll that had been used by an old puppet master to bring some creepy looking marionette's to life in the years before World War II. Those dolls are still conscious and when released from their hidding place proceed to kill. This killing spree dosen't start until around half way through the movie and is not as intense or creative as I'd anticipated. The practical effect tiny assaians are by far the highpoint and the draw here. Needless to say there are plenty of kinks that must get at least partially worked out in subsequent films, or perhaps the standards for direct to video horror are just that low. *1/2

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

 'Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice' is the long delayed and frankly unnecessary sequel to 1988's 'Beetlejuice'. We pick up with the Dietz family decades on, both returning characters and new additions, I found the family dynamics here my favorite part of the film. Of course Beetlejuice returns to complicate things, but he has to compete with a crowded field of arguably too many storylines, this movie is nearly 2 1/2 hours long. Despite being seemingly assembled from a grab bag of unfinished ideas, it's not just a rehash of the first film, avoids making big mistakes and has a good share of amusing moments. Not the disaster it might have been, 'Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice' is perfectly fine, which probably makes it seem better then it really is. For me it just eeks out a *** rating.

Species II (1997)

 The crew of the first maned mission to Mars are infected with alien DNA and bring it back to Earth. Micheal Madison and Marg Helgenberger use a sort of "declawed" clone of Natasha Henstridge to track the infected and prevent the alien presence from spreading. More nudity and gore then the first film, a few fun cameos, but genrally weaker then the original. *1/2

Species (1995)

 A response to a SETI message provides a formula for a clean burning fuel, as well as instructions on how to combine alien and human DNA. The government co opts SETI, and a secret team lead by Ben Kingsley follow the recipe they are provided and produce a being who quickly escapes, transforms into the gorgeous Natasha Henstridge and sets out to find a mate and begin repopulating our planet with hybrids. Kingsley leads a team consisting of scientists Alfred Molina and Marg Helgenberger, government assasian Micheal Madsen and empath Forest Whitaker, as they tract the alien from a Utah lab to the streets of LA, with the survival of mankind potentially at stake. 

I was surprised how decent this was and how much I enjoyed it. Make no mistake this is very much a B movie of both the sci-fi and explotation varity. Despite fairly two deminsonal characters the film choses to play it straight and works because of that. **1/2

Lousy Carter (2023)

 The new Bob Byington film. 'Lousy Carter' (David Krumholtz) got his nickman from his lousy performance on the high school golf team. It is now 25 years since high school graduation, once a promising animated filmmaker, now teaching literature at a small college, with a dying mother, semi estranged sister and still not married, Lousy's lousy life gets even lousyer when he is told he has six months to live. Carter decides 'what the hell' and proceeds to burn bridges, career and personal, telling only an ex girlfriend that he is dying.

Dry, dark comedy is both short and layered, with an interesting cast of supporting characters (including Martin and Starr Olvia Thirlby), the film is deceptively well structured, with a suppressing amount of subtlety, it benefits from repeat viewing. At times a sort of ensemble character study, I love Byington's casting, especially of his female characters, Jocelyn DeBoar, Trieste Kelly Dunn and new comer Luxy Banner all shine with minimal screen time. ***

The Girl Next Door (2004)

 'The Girl Next Door' is a film of which it can reasonably be asked, how did this get made? Emile Hirsch is a bookish California high school senior, whose life gets much more complicated when porn star Elisha Cuthbert movies in next door. This is one of those movies that acts like it wants it both ways, porn is bad as Cuthbert wants to stop doing it, but has self worth issues and keeps getting pulled back in, but also porn is fun, let's secretly film a porn movie in our high school during prom.

This is an odd piece, it would be interesting to see what the original concept was and follow it through the various drafts that lead to the final product, a story of inconsistent character motivations, baffling morals, and a last act which laughs manically at cohesion and offers one of the more credulity straining resolutions I've seen in film. It's not good, but its more then watchable and at times fascinatingly bad. I'm gonna cop out as well and give this **.

Timecop (1994)

 In 'Timecop' Jean-Claude Van Damme is a timecop, a temporal security officer working for the U.S. government in the year 2004 policing unauthorized time travel. Ron Silver is a U.S. Senator running for president who is using time travel to make money on the stock market. Mia Sara is Jean-Claude's late wife, who was killed in 1994 on the orders of Senator Silver, as part of a botched attempt to take out Van Damme before he started his investigation that would lead to Silver. Spoilers don't matter in 'Timecop'. 

I wanted to see this when I saw the trailers back in 94, but I was 14 and it was rated R. So 30 years later I finally got around to it and I guess you could say it was worth the wait, because I rather enjoyed 'Timecop', it meet all my (low) expectations for a vaugly smart, pretty well structured, decent action movie with time travel hijinks. It is what a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie is meant to be, an off brand Schwarzenegger movie. ***

Whoopee! (1930)

 Eddie Cantor stars in 1930 film adaptation of his hit 1928 musical 'Whoopee!', in which he sings, among other songs, his signature tune, 'Makin Whoopee'. Cantor is a New York hypochondriac staying at ranch in the southwest, who ends up in what I guess you'd call a "Love pentagon" as it involves five people. Movie was filmed in the two strip technicolor process so it looks fadded and pastel. Modern audiences should be aware there is blackface and alot of Indian jokes in this. Overall though I found funny and well paced. ***

Palmy Days (1931)

 I had never seen an Eddie Cantor movie before, the singer/comedian of prohibition times who is still the only person to have a Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon made in thier likeness. In the films first five minutes we have an artdeco bakery, chorus girls in slinky, stylized bakers outfits, a clearly coded gay character and a musical production number titled "Bend Down Sister". So we are clearly in pre code times.

Cantor plays a fake psychics assistant who is mistaken as an efficency expert and tries to go straight, all while pursuing one girl, being persued by another, and threatened by gangsters in league with the fake psychic. The whole film has a rather Looney Tunes air about it, fast paced, kentic and pretty funny. This got me interested in seeing more Cantor movies. ***

Hardcore Henry (2015)

 'Hardcore Henry' is a first person shooter game as motion picture. Ironically it's not based on any existing video game, though it turns out to have a good portion of lore all it's own. In the film you are Henry, recently resurrected as a cyborg and as a consequence temporarly mute. The whole film is your point of view, you are the camera. Your wife, the comely Haley Bennett, is abducted at the start of the picture by a telekinetic bad guy named Akan. You spend the movie traveling through action set piece levels as you try to rescue your beloved, assisted in this by a number of bio-mechanical, avatar clones of Sharlo Copley, who in effect becomes the films lead character, or at least the one with the most screen time. 

A movie with this first person conceit was going to be made eventually, and while the film can't sustain its roughly 90 minute running time, parts of this do work rather well and it's fun as a novelty. If they never make another film like this again, I'm fine with that. **1/2

The Favorite (1989)

 'The Favorite' aka 'Intimate Power', is a low rent, seedy but want to be pseudo-classy, Swiss-American co-porduction based on a novel written (I am not making this up) by a Greek royal, based on a legend that Naksidil Sultan, the preferred consort of two consecutive Ottoman sultans, murderer of a third and mother of a fourth, was actually Aimee du Buc de Rivery, a French heiress and relative of Josephine Bonaparte, who was supposedly lost at sea in 1788 at the age of 19.

The story has Aimee abducted by pirates who sell her to the Sultan, who at first she resists but then comes, reportedly, to love. Presumably this was less of a problem with the Sultans much younger nephew who succeeded him. The film has the good fortune to have Amber O'Shea in the lead, an at best mediocre actress whose career never amounted to much, but who the camera just loves.

This a pretty ridiculous movie, which gets most of its production value out of location shooting and somehow getting F. Murry Abraham to play the first Sulton and the capable Jack Smight (Harper, No Way to Treat a Lady, Airport 1975) to direct. Trash with a pedigree, but watchable. *

Anything Else (2003)

 Hey, I watched a movie all the way through off live TV, I can't remember the last time I did that. A comedy from Woody Allen's weak turn of the Milleniaum period, 'Anything Else' is a comedy about a comedy writer (Jason Biggs (who was remarkably at a period in his career where he was a viable Woody Allen lead)), whose once passionate relationship with his girlfriend Christina Ricci is cooling off, much to his (totally understandable) dismay. Biggs is the obvious Woody Allen surrogate here, a point brought home by giving him an older comedy writer mentor figure played by Allen, where the first time you see them together they a wearing basically the same outfit. Allen's not stretching any muscles here in either the writting or directing departments, it's the kind of generic-ish, oddly out of time fair, he could have made with just about the same script in 1983, 2003 or 2023 (for the latter just add smartphones). Still, pleasant enough. **

Megamind (2010)

 'Megamind' is a surprisingly good DreamWorks (computer) animated movie about a supervillian named Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell), who after the unexpected defeat of his nemesis Metro Man (voice of Brad Pitt) decides he might actually want to be a good guy, after spending some time (in disguise) with the lady reporter he's always been abducting as bait (voice of Tina Fey). I enjoyed this, but the film has been overshadowed in the zeitgeist by the similar but more successful 'Despicable Me', which came our that same year. ***

Battlefield Earth (2000)

 After seeing the better then expected 'Jupiter Ascending', I decided to watch another famously bad, over bloated sci-fi spectical turned box office bomb, 'Battlefield Earth'. Unlike 'Jupiter', 'Earth's reputation is truly warranted. Based on the novel of the same name by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, set 1,000 years into an alien occupation of our planet, there are two stories told 1) an anemic and well past credulity straing tale of a human rebellion lead by Barry Pepper and  2) power jockying amongst the mid-level alien management overseeing the occupation, lead by John Travolta. These slow, awkward and not particularly interesting stories end in one of the more ridiculous climaxes I've ever seen in a film. This is a truly odd movie full of all sorts of odd, directing, editing a especially acting choices. A film that honestly begs the question, how did this get made? *

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

 A somewhat infamous flop, The Wachowski's world building heavy, sci-fi space opera come retelling of CInderella, 'Jupiter Ascending' is not as bad as it's reputation would suggest. This is not to say that it's particularly good, but I can see what it was going for and kind of admire the attempt. I think with a few more go throughs on the script and some recasting (particularly Mila Kunis, pretty but not a good actress (though Chaning Tatum can stay)), you might actually have something here. **1/2

Miss Stevens (2016)

 Miss Stevens (Lily Rabe) is a somewhat melancholy California English teacher, chaperoning a small group of students (notebly Lili Reinhardt and Timothee Chalamet) for an out of town drama competition. I didn't do drama in high school but I did speech and debate, and this movie rings true to the experience of the weekend tournament trip. There's the drama inherent to high school kids, all the more so to one's of a performative temperament, there's the bureaucracy of the tournaments, the sometimes absurd compition, the close quarters, romantic tensions and the sheer exhaustion. The whole cast is good with Chalamet and Rabe the standouts, Rabe inparticular giving a fine performance as a hurting soul navigating the emotional boundaries she must keep with her students. ***

Predestination (2014)

 'Predestination' was not the movie I thought I was getting. This 2014 Australian production is based on a 1959 short story by science fiction legend Robert A. Heinline, and stars Ethan Hawk and a pre 'Succession' Sarah Snook. Ostensibly about a time traveling cop, the bulk of the films first 50 minutes is devoted to a protracted transsexual origin story, which makes me curious how true to the original story this adaptation is. I was surprised by what I got, this is smart, pretty hard sci-fi in a retro-homage style. ***

Naked Souls (1996)

 More then just souls are naked in 'Naked Souls'. This is seriously one of the worst movies I've ever seen, badly written, badly shot, badly edited. Badly acted too, particularly leads Brian Krause and (infamously) Pamela Anderson, as scientist boyfriend and neglected artist girl friend, whose forte is casting busts of women's torso's. Boyfriend is working with wealthy benefactor David Warner (who along with Dean Stockwell in a bit part constitute this movies good actors) on a process for transferring memories. Warner however double crosses Krause and uses his technology to steal the younger man's body. Also there is a serial killer of busty women, so Pamela's in danger. Some times laughably bad, but mostly just awkward and embarrassing. *

Twisters (2024)

 My dad was a big disaster movie fan, he took the family to see 'Twister' in the theater in 1996 and was actually watching the movie (which he'd seen many times) about 3 hours before his unexpected death in 2014. So I more or less had to see 'Twisters', a lose sequel/ soft reboot of the earler film. Like the original film there is a midly interesting love triangle at the center, various quirky side characters and a number of tornado related action sequences and set pieces. Really the story is pretty blah, concerning the interactions between some weather scientists and tornado chasing YouTubers, but those action sequences are worth seeing on a big screen. Also I'll give Daisy Edger-Jones a free pass on anything she does, for she is above it all. ***

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)

 The story of the thrupel who created the most successful female comic book character of all time, Wonder Woman. Professor William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) and his wife psychologist Elizabeth Holloway Marston (Rebecca Hall) co-creators of the polygraph machine, were joined by their Harvard teaching assistant Olivia Bryne (Bella Heathcote), the niece of Planed Parenthood founder Margret Sanger, in a three way emotional and sexual partnership that produced four children (two by each woman). 

Elizabeth and Oliva stayed together for 43 years after Marston's death from cancer in 1947, Oliva would pass aged 86 in 1990 while Elizabeth died three years later at the age of 100. The movie chronicals the three's relationship and how William based various aspects of the Wonder Woman character on aspects of their life together, including a bondage fetish along with the polygraph birthing the "lasso of truth". 

They were an odd bunch even by today's standards, but they managed to make their relationship a reasonably functional one. Williams DISC theory of interpersonal relationships (dominance, inducement, submission and compliance) comes across as pseudoscience now, but he really seemed to believe in it. ***

The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

 'The House That Dripped Blood' is a rather disappointing British horror anthology movie based on short stories by 'Psycho' author Robert Block. Staring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt and Denholm Elliot, and held together by each tale of terror occurring to tenants of the same cursed property. With the arguable exception of the last story, everything here holds to a well worn and not all that interesting path. A bore, perhaps the best thing about it is that John Pertwee based his performance as a popular horror movie actor on fellow cast mate Christopher Lee. *1/2

Nothing but the Night (1973)

 Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing appeared in a whopping 24 movie's together, but typically as opponents, seldom were their characters on the same side. An exception to this is the 1973 mystery/horror film 'Nothing but the Night', in which they play respectively a police inspector and a forensic pathologist. The two are working together to solve the mystery of a slew of deaths among the board members of a charitable trust. Not to give too much away but this movie has a Shaymalan type twist ending that almost, but dosen't quite, land. It's also far too slow getting there, but I was intrigued enough to sit through it, the 84 minute run time feels longer then it really is. **

Drawn into the Night (2022)

 'Drawn into the Night' is basically a re-issue of the 2010 film 'A Lure: Teen Fight Club', but with all of the nudity cut out. Teenaged girls are abducted and forced to fight to the death at an underground "fight club". That this movie was pieced together from an existing film might help explain some odd pacing issues and that some plot points are never really explained, or that could just be because it's a low budget horror film. Think of the plot as a mixture of 'Mean Girls', '21 Jump Street' and season 6 of 'American Horror Story'. *

Smiley Face (2007)

 A very stoned Anna Faris has various mis adventures over the course of a long day in Los Angeles. Midly entertaining trip also features an earlyish screen appernce by John Krasinski and bit parts for a couple of future Glee regulars. **

Getaway (2013)

 When I first saw previews for 'Getaway', I thought it seemed as though producers had drawn three names at random out of a hat and wrote a movie around them. Finally seeing the flick more then a decade later that initial assessment still feels kinda true. Ethan Hawke is an American racecar driver whose Bulgarian wife is kidnapped by a nefarious group headed by Jon Voight. Voight instructs Hawke to perform various reckless activities through the streets of Sofia or else his wife will be killed.

 Selena Gomez is the owner of the car that Voight's crew has rigged up with camera equipment to monitor things. In trying to retrieve her car she ends up stuck with Hawke, who at first she gives a hard time but later comes to sympathize with. Also Gomez's character is improbably the daughter of a sort of mob banker and poses extensive automotive and computer skills; I never bought it.

 With better hands at the writting and directing this might have been a fun movie, there's certainly potential there. What we get instead is a very unexciting action movie lacking in real characters and stakes. It's a go through the motions kind of film, which feels more like it was made as part of some sort of tax scheme then as a legitimate movie.*

The Arrival (1996)

 For whatever reason when I think of 1996's 'The Arrival' the first thing that comes to mind is a Letterman sketch from the time the film came out. Letterman critizes the films dialogue, we cut to a clip of one of the movies floppy headed aliens and hear dubbed over the scene the words "I've got a flop, flop, floppy head." Dave then claims that all the kids are gonna be quoting this line.

Ironically the scene they used for that gage contains one of two effects shots that hasn't dated horribly (the other being the collapse of a giant satellite dish). While the visuals often come across as goofy the story is played pretty straight, with Charlie Sheen improbably cast as a SETI type scientist who uncovers evidence that aliens might already be here on Earth. 

Of course aliens are here and Sheen sets out to uncover what they're up to. This is one of those mysteries that's not reallty a mystery, because the audiance figures out what the plan is long before the lead pieces it together. The aliens are trying to terraform our planet to be more like their's, the time it takes Sheen to realize this is a little above par compared to the annoyance level of how long it takes Laurence Olivier to figure out that the escaped Nazi's are cloning Hitler's in 'The Boys from Brazil'. Still its nice to see science fiction ideas played resonably straight and reasonably smart in a 90's action thriller. While such a story would be underwhelming today; I'm going to graciously see it through 90's lenses and award ***

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

 Long anticipated reteaming of Ryan Reynolds Deadpool and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, after the disappointing 'X-Men Origin: Wolverine' (2009). Of course Jackman's Wolverine meet a noble end in 2017's 'Logan', but this is a Deadpool movie and the vastly overused "multiverse" is in play now, so they cheat. I didn't really mind that though, the multiverse explotation here isn't grating as it's been in some other Marvel projects, plus the Deadpool movies are notoriously lose in continuity standards.

All this can be said to miss the point, in that what the Deadpool films have that many recent Marvel films seem to be missing, is a sense of fun and irreverence. Reynolds plays up the meta humor while Jackman plays it straight, even has a good arc, these two conflicting styles work here, a disconnect that might be Jaring in another film can be good-naturedly shrugged off. While the movie is often crude and playfully smug, that's what Reynolds franchise is and I found it still reasonably enjoyable. That being said I hope this is the last of these. ***

The Last Detail (1973)

The late Oscar winner Hal Ashby directs from a screenplay co-written by future Oscar winner Robert Towne (recently deceased as of this writting) from the 1970 novel 'The Last Detail' by (the still living) Darryl Ponicsan (perhaps best known for this and his novel 'Cinderella Liberty' which was also made into a film). 

Signalman 1st Class Jack Nicholson and Gunner's Mate 1st Class Otis Young are given a full week to transport 18 year old Seaman Randy Quaid from Virgina to the brig in Rhode Island. The awkward and naive young man has been courtmartiled and sentenced to 8 years for the attempted robbery of $40 from a charity donation box. Nicholson and Young seeing this as the injustice it is, decide to stretch out the journy and show Quaid one more good time before being locked up by getting him drunk and getting him laid.  

Not one of Ashby's great movies, though at times nearly so. Also featuring Clifton James, Carol Kane and a pre SNL Gilda Radner in a small role. There is a subplot about faddy meditation groups that is wonderfully dated. ***

Monte Carlo (2011)

 Recent high school graduate Selena Gomez travels with her older best friend Katie Cassidy and her step sister Leighton Meester on a dream vacation to France. While abroad Selena is mistaken for an identical looking snooty British heiress and ends up taking her place in Monte Carlo for a week of fundraising activities for a children's charity, an event her self involved double bailed on for a last minute trip to New York. While aboard Selena and her comrades each get to have at least one love interest.

There's nothing original about 'Monte Carlo', it is assembled from clichés, story tropes and parts of other movies. However, as an exercise in story assembly it is very well done, balancing the narratives of its three leads, paying off on its set ups and allowing each protagonists to arc. Perhaps it was the mood I was in, but I enjoyed this movie, I even kind of cared about these people. In hind sight I know it's probably just so-so but I'm gonna go high on this movie and give it ***

Longlegs (2024)

  Spoiler-ish

'Longlegs', the new horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the son of 'Psycho' star Anthony Perkins, has been getting good critical notices and has already taken in more then five times what it cost to make. So I was curious and decided to give it a try.

The movie 'Longlegs' has been most often compared to is 'The Silence of the Lambs' and I think that is appropriate because this movie really wants to be that movie. Set in mid 1990's Oregon, Maika Monroe is a young FBI agent (who may be mildly psychic) on the trail of "The Longlegs Killer', a memorably creepy serial murder (who may have supernatural abilities of his own) played by Nicolas Cage under heavy makeup.

The films got a creepy vibe and a strong sense of horror movie structure, playing mildly with conventions. Monroe does some good work playing her character (though the words never spoken) as autistic. While Cage's portrial is very odd. I was mostly with this movie till the last 20-25 minutes or so, but that ending, that would be Shaymalan twist, too neat, "save Martha" ending, really rubbed me the wrong way. 

Blair Underwood was good as the senior FBI agent until near the end, then he breaks character and while this is explained I found it unsatisfying. Kiernan Shipka lays it on too thick in her cameo role and I did not like Alica Witt in this, I'm usually fine with her but I'd have recast her part. There were too many horror movie tropes being brought together at the end and it just made me mad. I liked the set up, I just wish there had been a better payoff. So most of the movies *** but that ending is *, so I'm reluctantly going with a ** rating. My high hopes were disappointed. 

The Tattered Dress (1957)

 Scrolling through a list of videos I came across a movie called 'The Tattered Dress' staring Jeff Chandler. After Chandler had died Esther Williams wrote in her memoir that while she was dating Chandler she once arrived home unexpectedly to find the tall, manly actor in one of her dresses. So a film called 'The Tattered Dress' staring Jeff Chandler struck me as funny. So I started the movie not intending to finish it but became interested enough in the story to see it through.

Chandler plays a high profile, very successful New York lawyer who travels to Nevada to defend a husband and wife acussed of murdering a man who had once been a football hero in his small town, all as part of a love triangle thing. We know the two committed the murder because we see them do it at the start of the film, so a movie where the lead is a guilty parties lawyer intrigued me, what's the story gonna be?

Well Chandler gets the couple off early in the film. To be honest I don't get how he won the case and for reasons that would take too much typing for me to explain right now. So he wins the case, mostly as the result of humiliating local sherif Jack Carson on the stand. Shortly after this Chadler is indicted for bribing a juror to get that verdict, which we quickly find out he did not do, the poor woman has been blackmailed into a revenge scheme by the sheriff. So now Chandler must defend himself with the odds stacked against and learn a lesson about not being such an asshole lawyer. Pretty good, but really something that seems more like it should be a TV movie then a feature film. **1/2

Nightfall (1956)

 Another Jacques Tourneur film (Night of the Demon). 'Nightfall' is a great looking movie, sleek at 79 minutes, stylishly written by future Oscar winner Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night). Perhaps the only film noir to be set partially in Wyoming, the vacationing Aldo Ray, a commercial artist from Chicago, finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, he winds up on the run for a murder he didn't commit. On the lamb he aquires a love interest, a model even, played by Ann Bancroft. Brian Keith and Rudy Bond are in pursuit, they think Aldo has "their" money. James Gregory is an insurance investigator for the bank, Jocelyn Brando has a small part as his wife. A possible influence on The Coen Brothers 'Fargo'? Westen/Noir hybrid is arguably a minor gem. ***

The Harder They Fall (1956)

 'The Harder They Fall'; Humphrey Bogarts final film role, released in May of 1956 Bogart died from cancer in January 1957. Based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Bud Schulberg and capably directed by Mark Robson. Bogart is a former sports columnist in need of money, tasked by an unscrupulous Rod Steiger with promoting good natured but slow witted Argentinian boxer Mike Lane. Bogaet tries to keep as much of his integrity as he can and do right by Lane, knowing that the end goal is for him to lose the world championship fight. Really solid work from Bogart, he could be proud to go out on this one. ***

Hellfighters (1968)

In 'Hellfighters' John Wayne and Jim Hutton travel the world fighting oil fires. Sounds exciting dosen't it? Well Univeral Studios apparently decided it should be mostly dull, talkie and heavy on the relationship drama, in effect putting out this movies fire. Of course there are some exciting moments, as well as the requisit John Wayne bar fight, but this movie could have been much much better. Vera Miles and Kathrine Ross play our leads love interests, both are wasted in their roles. *1/2

Freeway (1996)

 After 'Guncrazy', 'Freeway' makes for an unexpected Matthew Bright double feature, I didn't realize before hand that both films had the same director. Bright, whose work I was not previously familiar with, has some definite recurring themes and motifs for his films, which have a B movie quality, but a B movie helmed by a very good director, like an Edward G. Ulmer B movie.

While 'Guncrazy' was a pretty straight forward love story/ crime drama, 'Freeway' is more of a black comedy. A 20 year old Reese Witherspoon plays 16 year old Vanessa, a Texas native now living in California. Her mother and stepfather have been arrested again so she decides to make a trip to the home of a grandmother she's never meet, the hope being she will take her in so as to avoid ending up in the foster system again. On the way to grandma's her care breaks down and she is picked up by a seemingly very nice youth councilor named Bob Wolverton played by Kefier Southerland. This movie is a sort of revisionist take on the story of Little Red Riddinghood, which should give you a good sense of where it is going.

Like 'Guncrazy' the dynamic between the two central characters is what magnitizes the flick. Southerland as he alternates between a nice guy with a bit of a limp, to a psychopath whose hard to kill. Witherspoon's Vanessa is book dumb, barley literate, but street smart and pugnacious, these two are worthy advisories. The film also sports a plethora of interesting minor characters played by a host of talented actors including Dan Hedaya at his most restrained and Brittany Murphy at her most odd, as well as Bokeem Woodbine, Conchita Ferrell, Amanda Plumber and Brooke Shields. There is a kind of playfully surreal rawness here, which may be a new experience. Not for everyone but I was rather impressed with it. ***

Guncrazy (1992)

 In 'Guncrazy' parolie James LeGros and teenager Drew Barrymore wind up in love and on the run through the California desert. Lose remake of the 1950 classic 'Gun Crazy' is better then it has any right to be owing to the engaging chemistry between the leads and some good supporting work from the likes of Bily Drago and Micheal Ironside. ***

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

 'Hundreds of Beavers' is a unique cinematic artifacts; part silent comedy, part Looney Toon and part old school video game. An indie film shot and set in Wisconsin,  the story concerns an applejack maker turned fur trapper Ryland Brickson Cole Tews who must face off against hundreds of Beavers to win the hand of his beloved (Olivia Graves). There's some of director Guy Maddin here, as well as The Red Green Show. It's the kind of film that's hard to conceive of but hard not to like. Do yourself a favor and at least watch the trailer. ***1/2

Blood Father (2016)

 In 'Blood Father' Mel Gibson plays a divorced, ex con, tattoo artist two years sober, whose run away daughter Erin Moriarty shows up out of the blue, some dangerous men on her tail. Gibson both protects and reestablishs his relationship to said daughter and Moriarty and he play well off each other. The bad men after Erin are in the employee of a Mexican drug cartiel whose heir apperentDiago Luna, she shot while trying to keep him from executing another woman. This is old school action fun with Gibson demonstrating that, somehow, he has retained his old charm; a fine actor. Surprisingly enjoyable, though not exactly ground breaking. Micheal Parks monologes alone are worth seeing this for. ***

Edge of Darkness (2010)

 When Mel Gibson's daughter is murderd in front of him, is it because of the man's decades on the Boston PD, or is it related to her work for a shadowy defense contractor? Well of course it's the latter. Conspiracy tinged revenge thriller has a handful of first rate Gibson moments, but the majority of the thing is drab and mediocre.**

Curse of the Demon (1957)

 'Curse of the Demon' is the American cut of the  British horror film 'Night of the Demon'. A Wheatlyesque tale; folk horror adjacent. Directed by Jacques Tourner, a Frenchman who had directed some of producer Val Lewton's best remembered horror movies, such as 'Cat People' and 'I Walked with a Zombie', as well as 'Out of the Past', a canonical Film Noir with Robert Mitchum which I didn't particularly care for the one time I saw it, but have been meaning to revisit.

Only mildly creepy, but well shot; the demon effect is memorable. The film approaches things largely from a psychological angle, which I liked, but by the end our lead is saying to his love interest "You're right, maybe it's better not to know". That lead is played by Dana Andrews and I wish they had cast someone else because I found him hard to buy as a psychology professor. Andrews is in England for a parapsychology conference but his principle British colleague dies in a mysterious accident hours before Andrews plane arrives.

Andrews teams up with the dead man's niece, a kindergarten teacher played by Peggy Cummins, essentially the opposite of the character she played in her best known film 'Gun Crazy'. A local cult leader played by Niall MacGinnis had cursed the man shortly before his death and subsequently curses Andrews. I liked the way McGinnis chose to play the character, more likable then menacing, as well as pretty generous, you can get why people might follow him; why we never actually see him with his followers feels a real oversight. A reasonably smart film, just different enough to be memorable. ***

MaXXXine (2024)

 Spoilers for the whole trilogy, though mostly mild.

'MaXXXine' concludes Ti West and Mia Goths 'X' trilogy. While the earler films 'X' and 'Pearl' were low budget affairs featuring small groups of characters mostly around the same farm, 'Maxxine' is much more expansive. Here West has more of a budget, a larger cast including established stars such as Kevin Bacon and Lily Collins, and more locations, including the Universal backlot as the Universal backlot.

Six years after the events of 'X', Maxine (Goth) is an established porn personality living in Los Angeles. As she nears 33 Maxine has her sights set on more legitimate film work, having landed an audition for the lead in a big budget horror sequel titled 'The Puritan II'. But Maxine's past seems to be following her as an increasing number of her friends wind up brutality murderd. The police in the form of detectives played by Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale are uncertain if these deaths are the work of the then active serial killer the 'Nightstalker', or if they are the work of some copycat.

I think the intimacy and small scale of the first two films were a major part of their appeal, here there is just too much. Too many  characters, too many ideas too little explored. This movie would have been well served cutting it's characters, plots and ideas down by about a third, allowing what's left more time to breath. I would have enjoyed more time with Giancarlo Esposito's character for example, or flesh out some of the victims more so they matter more to us.

West seems intoxicated with the things he had the freedom and budget to do here, recreating 1985 LA to near 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' levels. Playing a drinking game with the various film references he drops throughout could make one very drunk. The film does have the difficulty of establishing a new killer, after the mass murderer of the first two films has been killed off. What they come up with did have it's groundwork layed, if obliquly in 'X'. However I found the end of this film to be it's weakest part. So a disappointment, but I'm still glad a risk was taken with this project. **1/2

Sleeping Beauty (2011)

 The 2011 Australian film 'Sleeping Beauty' is not another remake of the classic fairytale story, but rather an examination of the objectification of the female body and a character study of Emily Browning's Lucy. The first and so far only film directed by the novelist Julia Leigh, 'Sleeping Beauty' is done in a very clinical style, largely muted emotional responses from the characters, very formal, often static framing of shots and I suppose of characters. The film reminded me alot of the work of Stanly Kubrick, principly 'Eyes Wide Shut' and David Lynch, principly the 2017 revival of Twin Peaks and the character of Laura Palmer, across her various incarnations.

Lucy is a very Laura Palmer type character, enigmatic and with a lot going on in her life, ranging from the sweet, to the mundane to the disturbing. We learn what we learn of Lucy in pieces spreed throughout the run time of the film. She is a college student, has an alcoholic and trying mother, she is apperntly short on money and works multiple jobs to get by. Her employments rang from making copies and cleaning tables to working as a high end call girl. She drinks and does hard drugs but tells a potential employer her worst vice is the occasional cigarette. Here roommates (including a pre Succession Sarah Snook) kick her out over rent issues, but she then movies herself and her meager belongings into what looks like a rather high end apartment. She goes out and solicits sex, sometimes aggressively and possibly without payment, at other times she is much more coy. In one scene she only agress to sleep with a customer because he wins three consecutive coin tosses. Later we see her literally burn money.

Lucy's closest relationship seems to be with a character named Birdman (Ewan Leslie), whom she knows through an old boyfriend and to whom she appears to have a great deal of affection. She stops to visit him regularly in the small apartment where he is slowly dying of unspecified causes, she brings him food and vodka, they playfully talk about getting married.

Lucy takes a job at a mansion which is some kind of exclusive club. At first her role is to serve champaign to rich old men while wearing only lingerie. The 22 year old's, short, thin, porcelain doll looks, her "unique beauty" as one character calls it, is well received and earns her an offer of promotion. This new position simply requires her to take a concoction of sleeping pills and well, just sleep. The catch is she must sleep naked in a room with a paying client, always an old man. That client can do anything they like with her short of penetration. We see what a number of these clients do, ranging from simple snuggling, to verbal and physical abuse, to one big man who just likes to pick up and hold the whispy young woman. There is a lot of fondling. 

Lucy likes the good pay for easy work, but becomes increasingly obsessed with what happens to her during these sessions, after she discovers a cigarette burn on the nap of her neck (after which the club changes its rules to anything short of penetration and leaving a mark). Lucy decides to sneak a small camera in one night to see what is done to her, what she sees...

The film constantly caresses Browning, who is almost always center frame and who spends a good deal of the film in underwear or naked. This frankly for me was the films principle inducement, but the movie is art, it is clearly saying much, even when it's not all exactly clear what. It's a puzzle of movie, where the riddles are what is this mysterious club and who is Lucy? A hypnotic film that is an odd mix of feminist critique and prurience. It probably warrants a second watch. ***

Polite Society (2023)

 Anglo-Pakistani sisters Ria (Priya Kansara) and Lena (Ritu Arya) are close, Lena wants to be an artist while Ria hopes to be a stunt woman. When a discouraged Lena falls for and gets engaged to handsome and successful geneticist Salim (Akshay Khanna), who wants to move her with him to Singapore, Ria trys everything she can think of to break the couple apart. It is not until she has seemingly resigned herself to the situation that Ria discovers that Salim and his mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha) have a nefarious secret purpose for the match. Ria and her schoolmates team up to rescue Lena and expose the sinister plot into which she has fallen, if Ria can use her stunt skills in so doing so much the better.

There is some Tarantino here, some 'Everything, Everywhere, All at Once' and some 'Scooby-Doo', among other things. The story is okay and the relationship between the sisters really works, as does the films multiculturalism and eclectic soundtrack. Despite some genuine creativity and talent the film can't quite transcend being a pastich of its influences. A worthy effort but still **1/2

Saban's Power Rangers (2017)

 'The Breakfast Club' become superheros in this "gritty" update of the campy 90's children's TV series. Elements just don't mesh here and it's all played excessively by the book and safe. Where's the fun? * 

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024)

 'Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1' is the start of a series of epic westerns helmed by Kevin Costner, which are projected to run from 2 to 4 parts, depending on how these early chapters do. I saw a matinee showing with about a half dozen baby boomer couples in the audience, so the appeal of this project may not be demographicly diverse; though it was the old school 'event western' aura of the project that drew me to it.

Covering the years 1859 - 1863 and set in multiple western states and territories, the film encompasses several story lines, including a wagon train, a fronter military outpost, and several small towns including the titular Horizon, a settlement struggling to establish its self in Apache territory; a high point of the film is an Indian siege on that community which may be the best such sequence I've ever seen in a western.

Clocking in at 3 hours and 1 minute, the films length and pacing may be an irritant to some viewers, but I found its willingness to take its time and develop its character's charming. I like and feel invested in a good number of them and am excited for the sequel which comes out in August. The films tones and motifs are generally conservative and conventional, but historical truths such as prejudice against Chinese people and divisions among the Indians are acknowldged and given screen time, there are positively depicted black characters as well

There are of course multiple romances in the picture, from Jena Malone and Micheal Angarano, Sam Worthington and Sienna Miller (who I've never liked more in a role) to 69 year old Kevin Costner and 37 year old Abbey Lee, I'll just leave that there without further comment.

It's a beautiful looking film, effective soundtrack, I felt most of the storylines got sufficent screen time though on occasion it did feel like there were scenes missing, for example two characters got rather close really quick, it felt like that should have been developed more. 'Horizon' isn't for all palettes, but I thought it did what it set out to do with a real steady hand and had some moments well worth seeing on a big screen. ***

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

 'Wes Craven's New Nightmare' is a sort of "dry run" for the kind of self referential meta horror the writer/director would more or less perfect with 'Scream' (and some of) it's sequels. Heather Langenkamp, the final girl from the 1st Nightmare on Elm street movie, plays a version of herself, 10 years after the first film she is persued by the fictional Freddy Kruger  somehow trying to physically incarnet himself. Robert England, John Saxon and Wes Craven all appear as themselves (and sometimes their characters). The creepy little boy from 'Pet Semitary' is in this as well. The film would have resonated stronger 30 years ago when it was breaking new ground, but is still pretty solid. ***

The Tarnished Angels (1957)

Deciding to take a break from the color melodramas that had made him a force in American film making of the 1950's, Douglas Sirk decided do a black and white adaptation from William Faulkner's novel Pylon, which turns out is also a melodrama. Taking 3 of the 4 stars of his previous years hit 'Written on the Wind', substituting Jack Carson for Lauren Bacall.

Set in 1930's Louisiana, Rock Hudson plays a newspaper reporter trying to do a feature story on husband and wife daredevils Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, only to be dragged into the dysfunctional three way relationship between them and their mechanic Jack Carson, who might be the real father of the couples son.

While there are good things in the movie, especially a couple of legitimately unnerving flight sequences, I couldn't tell how earnest I was supposed to take this whole thing. That is an issue I've encountered before with Sirk's films, sometimes a second viewing imparts a totally different reading then the initial watch. So in time it would probably be worth taking a second look, I may end up loving it, but on first brush I found it rather overdone in some places and undercooked in others. **1/2

Pirahana 3DD (2012)

 'Pirahana 3DD' is the sequel to the 2010 film 'Pirhana 3D', which I have not seen and frankly forget about until mid way into this movie. Both films were part of a low level 3D craze active at the time, gimmicky shots intended to be seen in 3D lose something in flate presentation. Despite being hacky, curvey is still a better descriptor of this movie then flat, plentiful boob's are on display as the films title implies.

Christopher Lloyd, Ving Rhames and Paul Scheer play carry over characters from the first film, survivors of a pirahana attack on a spring break resort. In this movie the pirahana get to terrorizing David Koechner's water park, after he cuts corners by piping in water from a underground lake, home to a species of agressive cold water pirahana thought extinct for 2 million years. 

The films eye candy includes Megan Tandy, Katrina Bowden and Danielle Panabaker, the latter involved in a love triangle with shallow cop Chris Zylka and nice guy water park employee Matt Bush. The film at times gets surprisingly surreal and includes an extended cameo of David Hasselhoff as himself, ultimately tickled by the chance to be a real life guard. *1/2

Pirahana (1995)

 This 'Pirahna' is a dull remak of the much more entertaining 1978 Roger Corman production of the same name. I was surprised by just how lifeless this movie felt. A pre pubescent Mila Kunis plays lead character Willam Kitt's daughter. *

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

 While I'd watched good chunks of this before I had never seen it in full; I think I'd have enjoyed this most had I watched it around the age of 12. Stephen King wrote and directed this adaptation of one of his short stories, though I've read one critic describe the film as having been directed by Cocaine, something which King would own up to now.

The films gimmick concerns the radiation from a rouge comet bringing diesel trucks and other man made machines to homocidel life. The story centers on a group of folks including Emilio Estevez and Yardley Smith, taking shelter in a road side North Carolina truck stop (what no Maine?). The movie is best remembered for its moderately graphic carnage and a diesel truck sporting a sort of large hood ornament that looks like The Green Goblin.

More interesting then the film its self is contemplating the effects this week of mechanical terror would have on humanity. A good percentage of the population dead; universal PTSD; major damage to the manufacturering sector and mass conversions to the Amish. *1/2

Please Stand By (2017)

 An autistic woman (Dakota Fanning) runs away from her San Fransico group home to deliver a Star Trek script to Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles. Fanning's good but the movie is nothing special. Toni Collette is Fanning's councilor, Alice Eve her sister and Patton Oswalt a policeman who speaks Klingon. **

My Tutor (1983)

 From Crown International Pictures, the studio you went to when your project was a little too questionable for AIP or Roger Corman, comes 'My Tutor'. Teenager Matt Lattanzi (later the first Mr. Olivia Newton-John) has two goals for his summer, pass that make up French exam and loss his virginity, tutor Caren Kaye may be the answer to both problems.

The kind of sex comedy that has no problem with ripping off a woman's dress and showing plenty of both boob's and gyrating aerobics students. As they say 'The kind of movie you can't make today', and maybe that's for the best. This is very much the male fantasy vehical with the 30 year old Caren telling the newly deflowered 18 year old Matt thats he's a 9 1/2 out of 10 in the sack. 

A young Crispin Glover in probably the most "normal" role I've seen him in is Matt's nerdy friend, whose own quest to get laid proves less successful. The movie pretends to have a moral when Matt's tutelage under Caren finally gives him the courage to stand up to his father Kevin McCarthy and ask out his high-school crush Amber Denyse Austin. **

Escape from Germany (2024)

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Medium Spoilers

'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' is the 4th in Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silvers reboot of the 1960's and 70's film franchise about a future Earth ruled over by talking apes. Conceived as a trilogy of trilogies following human and ape characters over the course of generations, 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' begins its second trilogy, though given its underperformance at the box office its an open question whether we'll ever see the conclusion of this Saga.

Set "many generation"s" after the events of the first trilogy, which saw apes get smart and humans get dumb as the result of a mutating virus. Our lead characters is Noah (Owen Teague) a young ape living in a village of apes who train hawks to hunt for them, located not far from the ruins of Los Angeles, California. There is a lot of plot here but surfice it to say a tribe of agreesive apes decimate and carry away the survivors of Noah's villiage, he alone escaping. On his quest to free his family and friends Noah runs across an orangutan monk named Raka (Peter Macon, who at first I thought was Samuel L. Jackson) and an unusually bright young human woman they name Nova (Freya Allen, who was born 5 days before 9/11, thus making me feel old). The pair of apes are really surprised when they learn that this mere human can talk, her name is Mae and that she is not the only human capable of speech.

The rest of the movie revolves around Noah's quest to free his people from Proximus Ceaser (Kevin Durand), a nefarious ape trying to build his Kingdom, and Mae's mysterious mission to recovery a valuable remnant from human civilization. 

This film is VERY good. Well paced, interesting characters, intriguing ideas, engaging action sequences. There are also alot of Easter eggs to previous Planet of the Apes films spread throughout. Of course we have alegorucal  comments on human short comings, these films both old and new are good at bringing those out. Such as how the original Ceaser's (Andy Serkis) teachings of love and co existence have been perverted by later "followers" into an ideological of conquest and hate; more then a  little on the nose, but I still like it.

Each of the films in this current series keeps improving on the others and I think 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' is the best done and most intriguing of these films since the 1968 original. A near flawless screenplay where everything pays off, and a engrossing movie watching experience. I'm going there and giving 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' ****

Leprechaun 2 (1994)

 Warwick Davis is back, while identical looking he seems to be a different character, in the first film the Leprechaun was 600 years old in 1993, in this film he is 2000 years old in 1994. While still possessive of "me gold", in this film his focus is on securing a bride from the descendents of a man who tricked him a thousand years prior. 

He focuses on Bridget (Shevonne Durkin) a teenager living in Los Angeles, California. Her orphaned boyfriend Cody (Charlie Heath) and his conman guardian (Sandy Baron) think they can con the Leprechaun and save Bridget, one guess who dies in the process.

More gruesome and mildly more clever then the first film, the movie just kind of ends before resolving some major plot threads. Cody's probably going to prison for murders committed by the Leprechaun. *1/2

Leprechaun (1993)

 The first in a surprising prolific franchise, 'Leprechaun ' stars Warwick Davis as the title character and he is fucking serious when it comes to his gold. A pre star Jennifer Aniston is famously in this, I thought she probably had a minor part that was pumped up in advertising subsequent to her becoming a star, however she is second billed behind Davis and is essentially the lead. 

24 year old Aniston plays spoiled Cali girl Tory, reluctantly spending the summer in North Dakota at the run down house her father bought and is remodeling. It's the paint crew pops hired that end up aiding Tory in the fight against the Leprechaun, 10 years boxed up and pissed at the properties previous owner who stole and hid his gold. Said gold is found by 2 of the paint crew, a boy of about twelve and a mentally slow man of intellect less then 12, this paring reminded me of 'Critters'.

The film is not scary and parts of it play almost like a family adventure film. Warwick is committed however and seems to be having fun. Mostly the movie is kind of blah, nothing to write home to Ireland about. *1/2

Furiosa (2024)

 'Furiosa' aka 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' is a prequel/origin story film for Furiosa, the breakout character from the 2015 movie 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. In the earler film Furiosa was played by Charlize Theron, in this film she is played chiefly by Anya Taylor-Joy. The 2015 film was an anarchic feast of cinema strangeness and 80% a prolonged gonzo car chase through the desert, comparatively speaking 'Furiosa' is reflective.

Which is not to say 'Furiosa' lacks hyperactive set pieces, but that it is more concerned with character and world building then it's forebear. We learn much of the triangle of waste land trade (the franchise is set in a post apocalyptic Australia for those who didn't know) between the food producing Citadel and the straight forward products of Gas Town and Bullit Town.

Furiosa is abducted as a child from a relatively functional place of green and plenty and ends up at The Citdal, her captures having all died before they could reveal the location of her home. She grows up in The Citdal disguising her self as a boy before her skills on the convoy circuit are discovered. Through the years she dreams of two things, returning home and killing Dr. Dementus, the leader of the gang whose members kidnapped her as a child. While Taylor-Joy gives a strong performance with minimal dialogue, Chris Hemsworth chews the scenery and MVP's the movie as Dementus, almost unrecognizable in a prosthetic Roman nose.

This took a bit to get going but I was throughly enjoying it by the end, though it can't compete with 'Fury Road' in spectical. It also can't compete with 'Fury Road' in box office, 'Furiosa' has been a fiscal disappointment. This means we likely won't get a backstory film for Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) the breakout character of this film. So much the pity. ***

The Lusty Men (1952)

 Despite its awkward title, Nicholas Ray's 1952 neo western 'The Lusty Men' is well respected, boasting a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film tells the story of a has-been rodeo rider (Robert Mitchum) coaching an up and commer  (Arthur Kennedy) and in the process falling in love with his pupils wife (Susan Hayward).

Done in a semi-documentary style and filmed on location in eight different western states, the film is all in on authenticity. The three central players are supported by a small host of vivid character parts, including the memorable Burt Mustin in the biggest feature film part I'd ever seen him play. Also of note on that front are Frank Faylon and Maria Hart.

Of the central three Arthur Kennedy is by far the weakest, though he's still good and has a charming smile. Mitchum has an admirable subtily in this, you immediately sympathize with him, but he comes to show a more manipulative side and I went back and forth on what I thought of his character several times, which is much of the point of the movie. Susan Hayward gives the movies stand out performance however as a practical minded girl doing her best to support her husband's passion, against her better judgment. She conveys real substance, a quite thinker who is still subject to her own strong emotions. They keep Hayward dressed down for most of the picture so when you see her in finery and makeup near the end of the movie the effect is extra stunning. I find it amusing that the advertisements for this black and white picture make such a point of Miss Hayward's being a redhead. 

I confess this movie took me awhile to get into, I remember at about the half way point admiring the film but wondering why people loved it so much, by the end I understood. A film of some subtlety and a world worn artistry seldom seen in a studio picture of its time. ***1/2

I Want You (1951)

 As it's name would seem to imply 'I Want You' is a recruiting poster of a movie. Concerning its self with the extended Greer family and their associates in Non Specific Town U.S.A. The general subject matter and the  presence of Dana Andrews in the cast ties the film thematically with 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946). While the earler film was about the end of one war (the second world) this one is about the beginning of another (Korea).

It is the specture of WWII hanging over the precedings that gives the film it's more powerful moments. Sarah Greer (Mildred Dunnock) having lost one son in war fears for her draft elegable youngest (Farley Granger), as does Walter Baldwin, a widower whose only child Martin Milner joined the army days before the war broke out. There is also the war bride next door neighbor whose descriptions of life during the blitz are lost on Dana Andrews 5 year old son.

All the characters in this film, save maybe Dana's Andrews old war buddy turned Colonel Jim Bakus, are flawed. The film does a good job of conveying its characters mixed reactions to the new war with some nuance. Again the spector of 'Another war? Already?' is keenly felt. So when the film bulldozes over all this for the pat ending I was disappointed, though it probably couldn't have ended any other way. Kudos though for trying to get some legit drama through the propaganda. **1/2

Burn (2019)

An unstable clerk named Melinda (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) is the wild card in an attempted gas station robbery along the Ohio interstate. Fargo-esque, low budget indie goes in some unexpected directions; though I found the first half stronger then the second.  **1/2

The Explosive Generation (1961)

 High school students rally to the defence of hip teacher William Shatner when he is suspended for taking their questions about sex seriously. Also staring Patty McCormick of 'The Bad Seed' fame, a young Beau Bridges, the Chief from 'Get Smart' and both Peter Virgo Jr. and Sr. Kind of dull at times but the last 30 minutes are pretty fun. **1/2

Hot Pursuit (2015)

 Unfunny comedy staring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vegara as, respectively, a police officer and witness on the lamb in Texas after a misunderstanding. Real misfire of a flick, it's got the basic structure down, including scenarios with interesting potential, but it's just not funny. *

Salvador (1986)

 'Salvador' is based on the account of photo journalist Richard Boyle's at times harrowing experiences covering a civil war in El Salvador in 1980 - 81. James Woods gives a solid performance as the rather flawed Boyle. Micheal Murphy plays the Carter appointed ambassador to the country as a very honorable man. There is a scene of the rape and murder of foreign add works made all the more horrible as we have come to know and really like one of them. Co-written and directed by Oliver Stone, this is very much up his alley. ***1/2.

Operation Moonbase (1953)

 Cold War shenanigans surrounding efforts to establish a U.S. moonbase in the futuristic year of 1970. 'Operation Moonbase' is pretty archtypel of the sci-fi films of its era, but it  manages to do a few things of note, it does creative camera trick on a space station where all surfaces are floors if you have magnetic boots, it also plays some with gender roles, we have a female mission commander and a female American president. The film ends with a wedding on the moon. **

Alien Hunt (2024)

 Recently the folks at RedLetterMedia picked an example of what Mike calls "Tubi trash", semi at random and encouraged viewers to rent it so as to really mess with the movies metrics and have an obscure, low budget, throw away Sci-fi action flick jump unexpectedly towards the top of the rental charts. So I did my part, rented and even watched this film that Mike and Jay have made clear they have no intention to watch themselves.

"Trash" is a good descriptor for 'Alien Hunt' because it's such a disposable kind of film. Shot and set principally in "Cottenwood, Tennessee", three siblings and a friend go on a deer hunting trip to a cabin they haven't been to "since dad died". In that interim some renegade National Guard had set up a lab in a cave where they work to create hybrid human/alien solders from DNA they get out of ancient eggs.

The film makers demonstrate that they've seen movies before and can do a reasonably proximity of one. There is some base level competence in the structure and writting of the thing, with better actors and a bigger budget this could approach real mediocrity. Derivative and as safe and cheap as they could make it. I honestly can't tell how tounge in check this was meant to be, were they failing to reach what they were striving for, or was the unexceptionalness kind of the point. It is at least watchable, which is something of an accomplishment for a movie like this. *1/2

Jigsaw (1949)

 A fair number of propagandistic anti communist film were made in the late 1940's and early 1950's, most on a slim budget. What sets 'Jigsaw' apart, while it shares many of the tropes of these films and was clearly done on the cheap, is that it's an anti Right wing fanaticism film. 

Franchot Tone is a crusading (New York?) ADA out to quash a pseudo patriotic hate group that he believes responsible for a number of deaths, including a close friend. Jean Wallace is the "honeypot" the group sends to distract him.

Interguing enough as an idea, but this film is really bad. Cheap looking, poorly edited, unnecessarily confusing and featuring some very over rought and hysterical acting. The film inexplicably sports many A list actors in cameo roles, including Marlene Dietrich, Henry Fonda and John Garfield; Hollywood liberals who presumably signed on because of the films messaging. 

As intrigued as I was it was kind of hard to sit through, even at a very modest 72 minute run time. *1/2

Knock on Any Door (1949)

 About a year ago when I was reading a biography of director Nicholas Ray,  I looked for this movie and couldn't find it anywhere. The other day I stumbled upon it, free on Prime.

This early Ray film was based on the novel of the same name by Willard Motley, who did not like Ray's version of his story. However, it is significant that 'Knock on Any Door' was only the second time (the first being Frank Yerby's 'The Foxes of Harrow' in 1947) that a Hollywood movie had been adapted from a novel by a black writer. Interestingly there is only one black character in the movie, I am uncertain about the racial make up in Motley's novel.

Here we have two protagonists, John Derek ( future husband of Bo) given an Introducing credit and effective as Nick Romano, a young man of the slums channeled into crime by his circumstances (despite being at hart a decent fellow), and Humphrey Bogart as Andrew Morton, a man who came from a similar background to Nick's but managed to pull himself up and become a lawyer. Andrew wants to help Nick get his life on track, an interest that intensifies after he marries Nick's former social worker (Susan Perry).

The film is of the sympathetic to hoodlums sort, befitting some psychological trends of the time and serving as a forerunner for Ray's most famous work 'Rebel Without A Cause'. There is a court room framing device for the backstory that consitues most of the picture, which then shifts to focus on the actual trial. Nick is accused of killing a cop and his guilt or innocence of the crime is kept uncertain till the end of the film, resulting in a strong monologe scene for Bogart.

The film moves from a middling social issues picture/ muted knock off of a Cagney movie, to a fairly impressive psychological character study, at least for it's time. Nick gains much audience sympathy through his relationship with a simple, sweet young woman from a similar economic background, Emma (played by Allene Roberts (who I knew from the mystery picture 'The Redhouse' (1947) where she is love interest to a character named Nate)), is the kind of girl who just brings out a man's protective instincts. Her fate proves very central to the story.

A solid film which ably keeps it ambitions suited to its glorified B movie status. Ray was very skilled at the casting of secondary parts and there are some great authentic faces on screen. Nic Ray's second picture made, and first released, it marked him early as a young artist to reckon with. ***

Red Rocket (2021)

 'Red Rocket' is a film by director Sean Baker, who made one of my favorite films of a couple of years back 'The Florida Project'. Like that film, 'Red Rocket' is about people living on the margins, which makes Baker something of an American equivalent of the English filmmaker Mike Leigh. 

Our lead character is "Mikey Saber" (Simon Rex) a has been pornstar who returns to his hometown on the Texas gulf course, presumably to reconcile with his estranged wife (Bree Elrod) but princably because he can't think of anything else to do. Effectively unemployable on account of his past line of work, Mikey becomes a drug dealer, another of his previous professions. Mikey is pretty good at this job, he now has a strong cash flow, his wife's coming around, he even has the admiring friendship and occasional free chauffer serives of his neighbor Ethan Darbone.

However, Mikey becomes smitten with the 17 year old redhead (Suzanna Son) who works the counter at the donut shop where he does much of his dealing. He charms her and slowly works to open her to the idea of doing porn, thinking this young beauty might be his ticket back to the adult film industry. Mikey is not honest with the girl, nicknamed "Strawberry" about his true circumstances, but he's not really honest with anybody, a perpetual fiber and exagertor. Mikey is living multiple lives and has a number of balls (schemes) in the air. He is simply not smart enough to pull all this off, so as the movie goes on you keep waiting to see which shoes will drop and drop they will. 

Made for around a million dollars and featuring a mix of professional actors and locals, this a grungy film about the displaced and the underclass. Set in the summer of 2016 against the backdrop of the presidential election, 'Red Rocket' is a subtlety rumative piece, almost a kind of folk filmmaking. These are the kinds of characters you don't see in film that often and there is something really true about them. ***

Drugstore June (2024)

 I recently became a fan of the comedian Esther Povitsky, so when I learned that she was to be the lead in a film I knew I had to see it. I will start by saying 'Drugstore June' is not for all tastes, it's an incredibly idiosyncratic film that only Povitsky could make. She plays June Fine, a variation on her wider comic persona. June is a Millennial stereotype as well as an extremely individual person. The world she lives in, a small Illinois town populated by fellow comedians and a couple of unexpected casting choices, I found a delight to visit.

This is a film dense with dry humor, almost every line of dialogue is on at least some level funny. June is of indeterminate age, still living at home with her parents and brother. She is self obsessed, a social media and sugar junkie, still desperately in love with her ex boyfriend of two years Davey. Davey is played by Haley Joel Osment and it is an ongoing joke how this unexceptional looking fast food manager is somehow admired by everyone who knows him and is considered a real catch.

June hopes to get Davey back from his fiance Miranda Cosgrove. She at one point wants to be deputized and literally arrest him in order to spend time with him. You see the drugstore where June works for her very tolerant employer Bobby Lee has been robbed. June thinks that she can somehow solve the case and this will somehow get Davey back. She sets out on her own investigation, interacts with a bunch of colorful characters and in the end, against all odds, somehow...

I won't spoil it.

There are so many funny and telling details, quarks of personalities and the way people interact. June's propensity to speak in clichés, her strange obsessions, such as 20 years trying to convince the family doctor Bill Burr to diagnose her as on the autism spectrum, she's both off putting and oddly endering. I've watched this three times and it's funnier each time. Again not for all tastes, but for me this is a new favorite. ***

Carry on Emannuelle (1978)

 Well, after 15 years I finally finished that Grindhouse movie set I bought at Boarders Books and Music. Tarantino chose to close it up in a kind of meta fashion with movie #20. 'Carry On Emmanuelle' is the 30th in the series of 'Carry On' films, bawdy sex comedies of the Benny Hill school which spanned from 1958's 'Carry On Sargent' to 1992's 'Carry On Columbus'. I'd heard of these but never seen one before, I was aware they spoofed all kinds of topics. What they are saterizing here are the 'Emmanuelle' films, a series of internationally successful French erotic dramas featuring a sexually adventures woman named Emmanuelle.

Here Emmanuelle (the lovely Suzanne Danielle) is married to the newly appointed French ambassador to England (Kennth Williams). The ambassador is impotent so his wife seeks her pleasure with the household staff and various big wigs who visit, including the Prime Minister. Larry Dann, a recurring player in these since the 50's, is an obsessive one night stand of Emmanuelle's who documents her hanky panky resulting in a massive public sex scandle remiscent of the real life "Profuma Affair" of 1960's British politics. 

Audiences and critics were exhausted of this series by 1978, the film scores only 17% on Rotton Tomatoes and they didn't make another one of these until 1992, which would turn out to be the last. However I enjoyed this, I'll take lower tier Bristish spoof over lower tier American spoof almost any day. Suzanne Danielle is quite enchanting, she sells the thing, if they hadn't cast her right I can see this film being kind of awful. **

Mad Max (1979)

 Yep, I'd never seen this. The first in Frank Miller's 'Mad Max' series, this is essentially an origin story for Mel Gibson's iconic character. The film is set mid-apocolypse, society is slowly breaking down from gas shortages and ecocide. Agreesive motorcycle gangs roam the country, there is still a police force and they a leather clad for some reason. Max is an effective cop but he leaves the force to protect his family after earning the ire of a particularly vicious gang. This is not enough however and they track him down, resulting in the incident that makes him so mad. This is pretty solid, the slow collapse of the society is unsettling. The franchise would go the way of Rambo with the first film being very reflective and ethically gray, while later entries focus more on action spectical. ***

High School Hitch Hickers (1973)

 We are finally nearing the end of the Grindhouse set. Listed on the box as 'High School Hitch Hickers' but on the screen as 'Schoolgirl Hitchhiker's' our leads are in their 20's and never hitchhike. This is a French production. Dark haired girl and blonde are bisexuals on a hiking trip who chance upon an abandoned villa (great location). They decide to spend the night but later find the place is used as a hide out by a group of criminals, French Ben Gazzara, French Maude Adams and French Tom Savani. There's a lot nudity from the leads. Airy film with a lose vibe and not much to it. However there is something about the obvious dubing and odd acting and musical decisions that kind of worked for me. **

Demon Witch Child (1975)

 Again from the Grindhouse set, the double feature companion piece to 'The Children' is 'Demon Witch Çhild', an Italin knock off of 'The Exorcist'. Staring Marian Salgado (who had dubbed Linda Blair in the Italian release of 'The Exorcist') as a pubescent girl possessd by the ghost of a satanic witch. All in all this is not that bad, it's hoaky, the variations on the 'Exorcist' often amusing, once or twice kind of disturbing stuff happens. The second half of the film is better then the first. This is also Italy substituting for The United States, which is always entertaining. **

The Bad Sister (1931)

 'The Bad Sister' is the screen debut of the ill fated Sidney Fox, dead at 34 from a probable suicide. The Broadway star Fox is second billed behind Conard Nagel and before Bette Davis (also her film debut) and Humphrey Bogart. The diminutive Miss Fox (4'11) is the spoiled (middle?) daughter of a prominent small town Ohio family, whose hottie ways are humbled when she falls for a con man (Bogart). This film is perfectly fine melodrama based on Booth Tarkington's 1913 novel 'The Flirt', which had been filmed twice before as a silent. Fox dominates the film, though the supporting cast is good, especially Davis who I prefer in nice girl parts like this. The ending here is definitely one of its time. ***

I Used to Go Here (2020)

 Living in a small Chicago apartment, her engagement recently broken and her debut novel under performing, Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs) accepts an invitation to return to her alma mater Southern Illinois University for a book reading and some student mentoring. A sort of coming of middle age story, the woes of the professional writer is overdone territory, but this low key story sets its sights on the appropriate levels of pathos and humor. Fine central performance from Gillian Jacobs who I'm always happy to see. ***

Tabloid (2010)

 The oddness of Joyce McKinny can not be done justice in a short review, but film maker Errol Morris captures her strangeness in the documentary 'Tabloid'. McKinny was the central figure in a major tabloid story of 1970s England, when with the help of a friend she abducted her Mormon missionary "fiancé" for a weekend of sex in a rented Devon cottage. People seeing things from different perspectives is a major theme of this work, McKinny's narratives can not exactly be trusted, but she seems to really believe them. A decades later development in McKinny's life, also rather strange and unexpected, is perfect coda to the whole surreal buisness of this former beauty queens life. ***

The Children (1980)

 We are back to the Grindhouse DVD set for a film I wasn't expecting much from but was kind of impressed with. In 'The Children' a school bus passes through a toxic cloud accidentally released from a nearby power facility. The result is that the children on board become zombies whose hands burn and disfigure, since most people wouldn't refuse the hug of a lost child they do alot of damage.

So the basic premise is a different enough rif on the zombie cliche to be interesting, but the film really successeds, despite its small budget, in its sense of place and characters. Nice regional flavor here, small town New England but most of the houses seem rather upscale, commuter community to NYC or Hartford perhaps. There is some local color in the form of the general store owner and some middle aged twins who are ultimately deputized. I liked the sheriff, he is rather deferential to the more high income residents, part of his job is keeping them happy and this complicates the investigation for him some. A lot of the films on this DVD set can be kind of hard to sit through, but this one wasn't which was a nice surprise. **1/2

High School Hellcats (1958)

 I'm developing a bit of a theme apparently. 'High School Hellcats' is another female juvenile delinquent movie from the 50's, more professionally made then 'The Violent Years' but lacking the same crazy energy (though Susanne Sidney is pretty crazy). Yvonne Lime (like Jean Moorehead before her also still alive at 89) is the new girl in town. Aggressively recruited by her schools female "gang" "The Hellcats", Yvonne's a good girl at heart but susceptible to peir pressure and experiencing problems at home. The romantic interest of a coffee shop employee and night school student (Brett Halsey, also still alive and 90), may be her salvation from the troubles beseting her. A lean 70 minutes. **

Civil War (2024)

With a $50 million budget 'Civil War' is the most expensive film yet to come out of A24, a production company that has made a name for its self with modestly budgeted art house and horror films. While not so modestly budgeted 'Civil War' is both an art house film and a horror movie, among other things. The British writer/director Alex Garland's take on a worst case scenario of where America's political polarization could take us, a second Civil War. 

In an effort not to alienate half his audience Garland is vauge on the details and the political lines that define the films military conflict. What we do know is that we are in the neighborhood of 14 months into the war which seems to have been triggered by an incumbent president taking a third term. The president is played by Nic Offerman, cast against type he is a tyrant but we never learn what his politics are, if he's a Democrat a Republican or something else. The country has split at least five ways (Alaska's status is murkey), with breakaway confederatesions made out of north westerly states and the deep south, as well as Texas and California seceding individualy, but combing military forces to take on the corrupt federal government.

Our protagonists are a group of four journalists on a roundabout trip from New York City to D.C. for an interview with the president. Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura are respectively a war photographer and reporter working for Reuters, their companions are Stephen McKinley Henderson of The New York Times and Cailee Spaeny as a young freelance photographer. This quartet are our surrogates on a road trip odyssey across a balkanized Ameica. Along the way they find fear, atrocities, refugees and in some places a disconcerting normalcy in the face of it all. 

Reporters and journalism are of course central to our current discourse of polarization, but the ones here seem pretty old school, functionally detached observers, who still struggle at times with their human reactions to what they see around them. Their journy climaxes with (not a spoiler it's in the trailers) a military seige of Washington D.C.

The films succeeds at being unsettling, at times horrifying, it brings what we are used to seeing in other parts of the world home. The central characterizations are reasonably good, the films well shot, well scored and the climatic battle delivers on a number of levels. What the film lacks is much of anything to say about why we are so polarized and what if anything we can do about it. It's content to be a kind of national 'scared straight'video, rather then engage in any substantial analysis. Still this is a very zeitgeisty film that takes a refreshing number of risks. ***

The Violent Years (1956)

Knoxville, Tennesse native and playboy centerfold (still kicking at 89) Jean Moorehead plays the leader of a quartet of delinquent high school girls who run amuke in 'The Violent Years'. They rob gas stations, make out with guys, deface school property for communist agitators, steal a sweater, kill a few people, stay out past curfew and Jean rapes a guy. All this because busy and overindulgence parents don't spend enough time with her. Low budget explotation film that pretends to be redeemed by a tough love message for parents (who aren't exactly the target audiance) was written by an uncredited Ed Wood, this might actually be his best script. Rather bad, but also pretty watchable. **

Wicked Little Letters (2023)

 Recently I went to the theater with plans to see a movie I wasn't entirely in the mood for. When I got there I noticed another movie that was starting sooner, one I know practically nothing about. After glancing at it online and finding it contained several actors I liked and had a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score, I decided to take a risk and see it. That I was the only person in the theater wasn't the best of signs, but I found 'Wicked Little Letters' to be nicely low key and reasonably pleasant. 

Based on a true story that happened in England circa 1920. A devout Methodist spinster (Olivia Coleman) living with her aged parents (Timothy Spall plays her dad) begins receiving vile and profane anonymous letters. The chief suspect is her neighbor, an Irish single mother with a notoriously foul mouth (Jessie Buckley). The Irish woman is arrested and spends some time in prison before being bailed out by friends prior to her trial. After her release more and more locals begin receiving similar vile and insulting letters and the whole thing becomes a national news story. A female police officer (Anjana Vasan), whose superiors don't take her seriously, dosen't believe Jessie Buckley wrote the letters and sets out to prove her innocence.

You probably get where this is going, but it has a lite charm in getting there and a real cozy mystery vibe to it. But also alot of swearing.

 This is a movie with some post racial casting, for example actress Anjana Vasan is Singaporian ethnically, but her being a racial minority is not relevant to the plot; this is an alternate version of 1920 where racism isn't a thing, but sexism is. I don't have a problem with this except that it throws off my subtext radar, when in a period piece film you don't immediately know if a characters race is a plot point you need to pay contextual attention to, or if it's not relevant.

'Wicked Little Letters' feels more like something that would be on Masterpiece Theater then a theatrical feature, but it's an interesting enough obscure historical story with good performances from the four principle leads. **1/2

Hitler's Hollywood (2017)

 During the years of the Third Reich (1933-1945) approximately 1,200 feature films were made in Nazi Germany. 'Hitler's Hollywood' is a survey course documentary on that output. Only around a hundred or so of these films were overt propaganda in nature, German studios, principly UFA, made comedies, musicals, historical epics, melodramas, detective pictures, even science fiction. The production quality of these, for the most part, was quite high, Hollywood levels.

Unlike Hollywood German cinema of this period lacked much in the way of autore filmmakers, men of distinctive vision and style, whose work had subtext, most of these figures like Fritz Lang and Douglas Sirk fled the Nazi's. What German cinema did have was a star system, and like Hollywood many of these players were foreign born. Kristina Soderbaum was one of the most popular actresses in Germany, a Swede she fit the blond, blue eyed, Aryan ideal and stared in all of the films made by her director husband Viet Harlan during the war, these were mostly melodrama's. In one film, I don't believe Harlan directed this one, Soderbaum's character is raped by a Jew, thus promoting anti semitism to German audiences.

This is a fascinating documentary, a look at a weird, parallel Hollywood. Many of these films look to be pretty good. I had only seen two of the movies featured, 'Triump of the Will' and a version of the Titanic story, but I'd be honestly intrigued to see more. German actor Udo Kier's English language narration is solid, though the white subtitle text was sometimes hard to read against black and white film. An impressive and informative documentary. ***1/2