Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

 In 'Death Wish 4' Kersey is back in LA, he's a working architect again, shows he has a type with a second love intreast whose a reporter, and also like her predecessors a much younger blond (Kay Lenz). Paul's said to been with his current love interest for about 2 years, has become something of a father figure to her teenage daughter Dana Barron. Well wouldn't you know it but Dana dies in a drug overdose from the crack cocaine. So Bronson gets to work vigilanting again; at the request of a old newspaperman who tells him his daughter died from the crack, Paul sows seeds of chaos in an effort to start a gang war between the two biggest drug suppliers in LA. When leaders of those two parties meet for a summit, Paul ensures it ends in a blood bath taking out the leadership of both sides. Only then does he learn that the old newspaper man was actually the leader of a third drug syndicate using Paul to take out his competition. Needless to say this too must be avenged. 

Lots o action, lots o violence. Further complication arises when Paul is persued by two cops, one clean and one dirty. Tuvok from Star Trek: Voyager is in this, as is a young Danny Trahoe, whom Bronson blows up. I admit I've found these films to be surprisingly satisfying, they really found their metter, and play almost like R rated serial TV. **1/2

Death Wish III (1985)

 'Death Wish III' is the movie in which the franchise goes full Cannon. Over the top, grimmey, violent, 80's action camp. Kersey has spent the years since the 2nd film traveling around the country fighting crime. He goes to a  run down New York City neighborhood to visit an old Korean War buddy. When he gets to the man's place he finds him fatally injured, he dies just before the cops get there and arrest Kersey for the murder. Ed Lauter is the police chief now, he knows who Kersey is and what he has done, but instead of fighting him he offers to work with him. Kersey can fight to clean up his late friends comically crime riden neighborhood, provided he keeps a low profile and periodically briefs the cheif on his efforts. Kersey takes the deal.

Paul goes back to his friends neighborhood, befriends a resident and friend of that firend, Martin Balsam, who had served with their mutual buddy in WWII. Kersey makes friends in the neighborhood, fights crime, including through use of violent 'Home Alone' style traps. Bad things happen to his friends, Balsam's taxi meter repair shop is burnt down, two of the wives in the building are murdered, including a pre Star Trek Counslar Troi (Bill from the Bill and Ted movies is also in this as a gang member). Kersey's blond social worker romantic interest, the lovely cheekboned Deborah Raffin is also killed by the gang.

The last act of the film is a bonkers riot/gang war, wherein Paul uses a World War II machine gun to take on the badies and unit the otherwise law abiding populace to take the law into their own hands. This last bit goes on for about a half and hour, they blow up or burn whole buildings down as part of this sequence, which is amazingly long. In the end the gang is largely decimated, its evil leader blown up by a bazooka, and the surviving gang members leave. Kersey himself leaves shortly after.

This movie is pretty wild, it also can be enjoyed without having watched the first two films, it stands on its own. This is a fun bad movie which gave me strong signs of rewatchability. **1/2.

Death Wish 2 (1982)

 The original 1974 film 'Death Wish' was intriguing. Liberal, mild mannered architect Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) becomes a violent, vengeful vigilante after his wife is murdered and daughter traumatized in a gang rape. The first film has authorities discovering that Kersey is the killer, but agreeing to let him go if he stops what he's doing an quitley leaves town. That movie ends with Kersey relocating to Chicago with the intimation that he will continue his crime fighting there.

Cannon Films, which I think you could safely call an explotation house, acquired the rights to make Death Wish sequels, the first coming out in 1982 and set roughly 4 to 5 years after the events of the first film. Paul's Chicago stay has ended and he has again relocated. He is now in LA, working on a building project for a radio station, has a reporter girlfriend (Jill Ireland, Bronson's real life wife at the time), and has brought his daughter out to California for treatment, she is making progress and has finally started talking again, though not at any great length.

Kersey's wallet is stollen by a group of hoods, including a young Laurence Fishburn, who go to his house, knock him out, rape and murder the family maid, kidnap and rape his daughter, who is then killed trying to escape. This sets Kersey off on revenge mode again, he procedes to hunt down and kill the responsible gang members. The LAPD reaches out to the NYPD for help given their experience with a remarkably similar vigilante some years before. They send Lt. VIncent Gardenia from the first film out to stop Kersey, but in the end he joins forces with his target in order to stop a gun deal, the Lt is killed in action. Shortly after that Kersey kills the last of the gang members, but his reporter girlfriend figures our he's the vigilante and leaves him, though she never turns him in.

'Death Wish II' has a particularly mean, roughly first third, the remainder of the film is alternately okay and pretty good. Uneven but this is a better film then I'd expected it expect it to be. **

Paddington 2 (2017)

 Some years ago the movie 'Paddington 2' made waves by surpassing 'Citizan Kane' as the most positively reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes. That 'Paddington 2' was transformingly good became something of a cultural meme, one of the funnier gags in the 2022 movie 'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent' is built around this. So the only real reason I watched the original Paddington was so I could watch this sequel. All the buildup may have muted the impact, I really liked Paddington 2 but I haven't joined its cult.

What about the movie resonated with so many viewers? I think it's sweetness, humor, lovable characters, and I think on a subconscious level how damn well constructed it was, every set up pays off, there's no fat on this thing. While viewing it reminded me at times of an odd assortment of movies from 'It's a Wonderful Life' to 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' to the 1973 Vincent Price cult horror classic 'Theater of Blood'.

Brendan Gleeson and Hugh Grant's performances were standouts in a top flight cast. I also enjoyed little cameo type appearances by the likes of Jessica Haynes. So very enjoyable and sweet, and while I can appreciate it, I sadly wasn't awed. ***1/2

Paddington (2014)

 In 'Paddington' Paddington, a small talking bear from darkest Peru, movies in with a middle class family in London, and Nicole Kidman tries to have him stuffed and mounted in a museum. My only real experience with Paddington the character was watching stop motion type shorts featuring him back in my Pre-K years. They were pleasant, affiable, understated, this Paddington is those things too. Likable and sweet, but not set the world on fire good. ***

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

 Nope I'd never seen this, my 'South Park' phase was 2002 - 2004. It's interesting to note in the films 25th anniversary year that 'South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut' was originally intended as a series wrap up, however the shows now been on the air for about 28 years. Very much a product of its time, how to evaluate this? I enjoyed the hutzpa of making this a musical, a foul mouthed musical; I enjoyed even more how well it works as a musical, even Stephen Sondheim acknowledged this. At just shy of 90 minutes it's the perfect length not to outstay it's welcome, and it really brought me back to a more juvenile mindset. Frankly, I enjoyed the break. ***

Montana Story (2021)

 Estranged half siblings Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague reunite at the Montana ranch where they grew up, their abusive father being in a coma and not expected to live long. An old horse and a Kenyan male nurse help brother and sister work through a painful past. Very good central performances, I knew Haley Lu Richardson was an excellent actress but wasn't familiar with Owen Teague, I hope to see more work from both of them. The supporting characters are also unusually well realized. The film looks beautiful, wonderful shots of Big Sky Country. 'Montana Story' feels like it was adapted from a novela, but was actually written for the screen. Came in not really sure what I was getting, but left very impressed. ***1/2

Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

 'Venom 3' is easily the best Venom movie because it cares the least. Tasked with wrapping up Tom Hardy's contract, it's like the writers room just spitballed ideas that sounded fun and strung them together with a weak plot. Wouldn't it be cool if Venom and Brock were hanging off the side of a commercial airliner? Wouldn't it be fun if they meet a hippy family? Wouldn't it be fun if they went to Vegas? How about Venom and Mrs Chen dance to an ABBA song (Dancing Queen of course). Turns out these things are kind of fun. There is no Michelle Williams this time but we do get Juno Temple, plus the final action sequence is set at Area 51. I had fun and can imagine myself watching this movie a bunch more times, which is more then I can say for the others. Still I can't exactly call the movie "good", so I'm going with **1/2

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

 The 'Birds of Prey' are an all female vigilante group from the DC comics, with Harley Quinn being it's best known member. What I liked most about this is that it feels more like a crime movie then a comic book movie. We have an attractive female cast with Ewan McGregor doing good work as a legitimately unhinged villian. However, this is an origin story movie so the girls aren't all together until the end, I'd have been intrigued to see where they might have gone with a sequel had the DCEU not been decommissioned. **1/2

Here (2024)

 Robert Zemeckis famously loves his gimmicks and playing with new technologies in his visuals, he has ample opertunites for both in his new film 'Here'. 'Here' takes a single spot of ground in what is now New Jersey, and with one single camera angle (save the films closing shot) tells the story of what happened there over a vast scope of time. We see dinosaurs, the ice age, American Indians and an illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin. The bulk of the narrative however is set in a home built on that spot in 1900 and 4 families, one of which stays two generations, who live there over roughly one and a quarter centuries.

The story is not told entirely in chronological order, and as this is based on a graphic novel we occasionally have insert panels showing us happings at the same location in different times. The most screen time by far goes to the Young family who lives there from roughly 1945 to 2010, genertion one presided over by husband and wife Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly, generation two husband and wife Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, in a belated reteaming from Zemeckis's 'Forrest Gump'.

Critics and to a lesser extent audience's have not loved 'Here', it has 36% and 58% respective positive ratings from those groups on Rotten Tomatoes. I however liked this movie, I feel similarly about this as I do the movie 'Hardcore Henry', which is shot entirely in first person like a video game; someone was going to make movies with these conciets eventually, but we only really need one of each.

The characters are reasonably investiable 'every man' types and I am partial to multi generational sagas and seeing the scope of time presented in film and literature. Though most memorable for its visuals the story of 'Here' is really more literature then "movie" in type. It can be surifacey, it can feel condensed, and it can go out of its way to work in fads and other dated references. However, there is something powerful in its central idea of showing one place over a long period of time, and there is a scatering of workable joy and pathos throughout. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen because there will be nothing quit like it in theaters again. ***

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