Brewster McCloud (1970)

 With the recent passing of Bud Cort, I figured I'd never have a better excuse to finally watch this somewhat devicive Robert Altman film. The directors follow up to the hugely successful 'M*A*S*H', he went in a very different direction, high concept, dry, satire-ish and kind of mystical, 'Brewster McCloud' has a tone unique to its self. Bud Cort is an orphan who lives in a fallout shelter in the Houston Astrodome, where with the assistance of the mysterious Sally Kellerman, he works to construct a set of working wings based on the works of Leonardo DiVinci and the Wright Brothers. He also might be a serial killer.

A string of murders, in which the victims are always found with bird droppings on them, prompts the Mayor of Huston (William Windall) to bring in a high profile, celebrity detective from San Francisco to solve the case. The detective is played by Altman regular Micheal Murphy and is a play on the Shaft/Dirty Harry detective trops of the time, this character could have his own movie.

Eclectic cast includes a 29 year old Stacy Keach under heavy make up as the elderly third Wright Brother; John Schuck as one of the countless cops he played; Jenny Salt as a young woman with a crush on Brewster; the Wicked Witch herself Margret Hamilton as the wife of the owner of the Astrodome; René Auberjonois as the films ornithologist narrator; and Shelly Duvall with an 'introducing' credit as Brewster's flighty tour guide love interest (the Duvall film persona came fully formed). Music from John Phillips of 'The Mamas and the Papas'. 

I think I'm going to need to wait a bit and then watch this movie again to fully digest it. I liked it, if I had to sum the movie up in one word I'd go with 'playful'. Even among Altman's mass of ideocentric film output, this proto-'Nashville' may be his most ideocentric. ***1/2

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)

 A kind of meta Comedy from the 'War on Terror' era. Quasi-mockumentery style film has Albert Brooks (who also wrote and directed), playing a version of himself sent to the Indian sub-continent by a government commission, to better our understanding of Muslims by learning what makes them laugh. While not a Muslim, my laughter here was limited principly to the tee-pee and "underground Pakastaini comedians" scenes. The topper joke was Brooks causing an international incident due to both India and Pakastain assuming he must be a spy. I admire the idea of this movie, it's certainly off the beaten path, but in execution it mostly flat. *1/2

Revenge of the Gweilo (2015)

Turns out '"Gwelio" is a Chinese term for a foreigner, particularly a westerner; learning that was the highlight of this movie for me. Nathan Hill takes on Chinese gangsters after they kill his Chinese fiancee. This is a standard Nathan Hill Aussie action / boob's film. I think I've gotten everything I can get from these. Don't plan to watch another. *

Star Trek Voyager Season 1 episode Guide for Beginners

Episodes 1 & 2 'The Caretaker"

Voyager would be at least a little hard to understand without this pilot movie, which introduces our main characters, gives us some background information and sets up the general concept for the show. The survivors of the Federation Starship Voyager team with the surviving crew of a rebel Maquie ship, after they are both sucked to the otherside of the galaxy by a sporositian life form known as 'The 'Caretaker', who is trying to cross breed in order to provide a replacement to his self appointed role as a kind of God/provider figure to a race known as the Ocampa, after his people accidentally make the surfice of their planet uninhabitable, forcing them to live underground. 

The Caretaker is unable to succeed at his mission, leaves the underground Ocampa with a 5 year energy supply and dies. The Alpha Quandrant crews team up and sacrifice the Maquis ship in order to destroy the Caretaker's orbital array (which might have gotten them home), to prevent a Kazan sect (vaugly Klingon like Indian/street gangs surrogate aliens) from using it to genocide the Ocampa. Voyager then begins its trip home from the Delta Quadrant, which would take an estimated 70 years to accomplish. Along the way they will continue to explore the galaxy and search for a means to get them home faster. This pilot is mid tier, but does a good job with the necessary set up.

Main Characters

Captin Kathryn Janeway - Captian of the Federation Starship Voyager. From a Starfleet family, native of Indiana.

Commander Chakotay - Former captain of the Maquis ship; Native American, former Starfleet officer, he takes the position of the ships first officer after the death of Commder Cabot.

Belanna Torres - Half Klingon, half Latina, second year Starfleet Academy drop out, fmr Maquis. Takes over as chief engineer after the death of her predecessor.

Tom Paris - Lt, fmr Starfleet (from a  Starfleet family, who was courtmarshled for a covert up, joined the Maquis, was captured on his first mission, and was on Voyager to earn a sentence reduction by helping Voyager find the missing Maquis ship. Takes over as ships main pilot after the death of his predecessor.

Harry Kim - Koren/American operations officer, recent academy graduate on his first assignment. Grew up in South Carolina, kind of a Boy Scout, plays the clarinet.

Lt Tuvok - A black Vulcan, cheif of security, very proper and by the book, confidant of Janeway, he had been undercover for Starfleet on the Maquis ship. 

'The Doctor' - Emergency Medical Holographic Program, intended for short term use, he must take over the position as the ships doctor after the death of his predecessor. Confined by his holographic projectors to the ships sick bay.

Neelix - Talaxin trader, native of the Delta Quadrant who joins Voyager as a guide owning to his knowledge of this area of space and his outgoing demeanor. He will also become the ships cook and self appointed moral officer.

Kes - Young Ocampa woman in a romantic relationship with Neelix (for some reason). She will train as a nurse under the ships doctor, and will assist with hydroponic farming on the ship as she grew up working in that field on the Ocampa home world. Mildly telepathic. Ocampa only live about nine human years, at the start of the series she is about two.

Episode 3 'Parallax'

Various adjustment pains as the crews integrate. Belanna becomes chief engineer after impressing the Captian in handling the threat possed by a quantum singularly. Kes is put in charge of setting up the ships hydronic gardens, Paris becomes the Doctors assistant, and Kes gets the Doctor to thinking how he might adjust to long term useage/start thinking of himself as a person. Introduction of Seska, a Bajoran Maquis who is hidding a big secret that will be explored over the next two seasons.

The Outfit (1973)

 This movie should really be better known. This very competently handled, well paced and beautifully looking film, is loaded with details to savor; 'lived in' looking shooting locations, the aging debris of a 1940's story updated to a 1970's setting. It is a caper/revenge story come ensemble character study, with a top flight and eccentric cast of characters including Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, and Robert Ryan, with cameo appearances from character actors of the black and white era, including Timothy Carey (in the kind of slimey roll he excelled at), Elisha Cook Jr. (as a cook), Marie Windsor (always welcome) and former B tier leading lady Jane Greer. I started this on a whim, not expecting to finish it, but it really pulled me in. An unexpected surprise. ***1/2

The Marvels (2023)

 Sequel to 'Captian Marvel', ect all MCU fair. 'The Marvels' teams Brie Larson up with characters from two related Disney+ shows, played by Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. It's a mess of a movie that drops the viewer into the middle of several on going story lines, with little by way of context. There is a flashback sequence that gives you in condensed form, what was probably intended as the plot for a second stand alone 'Captian Marvel' movie, which would likely have been more interesting then this IP loaded and over stuffed hour and 45 minutes. Still it's watchable, and no character is given enough screen time to really get on your nerves. **

The Blackcoats Daughter (2015)

 Osgood Perkins writers and directs this horror/mystery about dark goings on at a private, religious girls boarding school in the Ameican north east. Solid cast includes Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, Emma Roberts, James Remar and Lauren Holly. Unsettling, Osgood Perkins is a little dark for my taste, but this movie is well put together and takes it story seriously. Shades of "The Exorcist'. ***

Angelica (2015)

 Set in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries in England, a mother tells her daughter (both played by Jena Malone) the true story of her father's disapernce. Psychological, myster-thriller with supernatural overtones is a clever deconstruction of the "hysterical woman" arch type of the era portrayed. Sadly the actual story is not on par with the ideas explored. **1/2

The One I Love (2014)

 Struggling couple Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss are sent by their marriage counselor Ted Dansen, to a retreat where they encounter better versions of themselves in the form of physical duplicates who embody idealized versions of each other; can their marriage survive the competition? CIeaver and unique, I loved the ending. ***1/2

The Brood (1979)

 We are in 1970s Toronto and the marriage of Art Hindle and Samantha Eggers is in deep trouble. Samantha has checked herself into doctor Oliver Reed's clinic, to undergo a new form of therapy known as "psychoplasmics". Samantha thinks Reed's a genius, Art suspects he'a a quack. Their five year old daughter dosen't know what to think but misses her mom. Then the murders start. 'The Brood' is best viewed unspoiled, but Cronenberg seems to be back on track after the disappointing 'Rabid'. ***1/2

Rabid (1977)

 This is essentially a less good version of 'Shivers', but with the outbreak originating in a Quebec clinic that specializes in reconstructive surgery. An experimental skin graft on a motor cycle accident victim, leads to a vampirestic plague that is similar to rabies. Was Cronenberg satrizing himself here? I can't tell. **

Shivers (1975)

 Early, Canadian made, David Cronenberg body horror film, produced by Ivan Reitman of all people. An intelligent, vinerally spread parasite, runs amuke among the swingers of a high end condo complex just outside of Montreal. Now if Roger Corman made this movie, I'd probably enjoy it, but it would be like a ** movie. Cronenberg elevates this into a piece of darkley, satirical art I felt genuinely invested in. ***1/2

Caligula (1979): The Ultimate Cut (2023)

 'Caligula' was a notorious, bloated, deboched epic whose production history became legendary. Disowned by its writer, it's principle director and stars, in part because the producers edited (additional) hard core pornography into the film for theatrical release. 'The Ultimate Cut' seeks to return the film to something closer to what the filmmakers thought they were making at the time. This is essentially a completely different film, constructed entirely form alternate takes, there is not a frame of the original film present.

Now this is the only cut of the film (of which their are several) which I have seen. I find it hard to know just what to make of the thing. It's not good, it's very lengthy, very talkie, very sexual and kind of boring. This should have been an epic, but outside of a single coliseum scene, it feels like a pornographic film made by the BBC. Helen Mirren is in this (alot of Helen Mirren), Peter O'Toole and Malcom McDowell. I broke this up into three roughly hour long parts. It was a slog, especially that last hour. I'm not sure exactly what was had in mind, but this film appears to be unsalvagable. * 

Wise Blood (1979)

 John Huston directing, based on a novel by Flannery O'Connor, and staring a young Brad Dourf in a stand out performance. Wise Blood' tells the story of "Hazel "Haze" Motes is a 22-year-old veteran of an unspecified war and a preacher of the Church of Truth Without Christ, a religious organization of his own creation, which is against any belief in God, an afterlife, sin, or evil. Hazel comes across various characters such as teenager Sabbath Lilly Hawks, who is madly in love with him; her grandfather Asa Hawks who is a conventional sidewalk preacher, and pretends to be blind; and a local boy, Enoch Emery, who finds a "new" Jesus at the local museum in the form of the tiny corpse of a shrunken South American Indian." - Wikipedia.

This movie takes a turn about X - minutes in and becomes shockingly dark. There is alot going on in this picture, but most of it understated, most of it implied. There's the surfice and there is the sub floor, once that subfloor is broken into and made plain.... This is one of those film adaptations that feels more like a visual book then it does a movie. If that dosen't make sense now, it may well after you watch it. ****

Warfare (2025)

 Based on a true story of Navy Seals pined down in Ramdi, Iraq in 2006, this movie did nothing for me. On a technical level there is nothing to complain about, but it felt slow, I was bored, there were no stand out characters, I felt in no way invested. Perfect movie to try out the new, one and only true movie rating system: Good Movie, I Didn't Like It. 

The Seventh Victiam (1943)

 Val Lewton produced Horror/Noir, has Kim Hunter in her film debut, mount a search for her missing sister Jean Brooks, who has ran afowl of Satanists. Also staring Tom Conway and Hugh Beaumont. How Lewton, usually a master of understated horror, can produce Satanists so dull is the real mystery of the story. *1/2

The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

 Bio-pic, musical about the Shaker leader Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), who lead her followers from Britain to the New World in the late 18th century. A handsome looking, reflective type of film, its a sympathetic portrait, but dosen't shy away from the religious excess of the movement, known for ecstatic dancing, communal living and celibacy. Of particular intrest is Lewis Pullman as Ann's devoted younger brother William, who dies of injuries sustained when locals try to drive the pacificst group from one of their New World settlements. ***1/2

Remineciance (2021)

 Noir infused sci-fi mishmash of better movies ('Blad Runner', 'Minority Report', 'Inception' ect) has Hugh Jackman operating a service that allows people to re experience their own memories. Rebecca Ferguson is the fem fatal customer who obsesses Jackman and Thandiwe Newton is his Girl Friday. The film is set in the near future in the partially flooded cities of New Orleans and Miami, this looks cool, while everything else about the movie is blah. *1/2

Song Sung Blue (2025)

 Bio-pic about Neil Diamond (Hugh Jackman) and Patsy Cline (Kate Hudson) impersonators who marry, and go on to regional fame in 1990's Wisconsin. Heartfelt and refreshingly small scale production is a lot of things we don't see that much in contemporary studio financed films; it's about blue collar, traditional, normal looking people and treats them with genuine sympathy and affection. It feels almost like a movie from an alternate universe. More films with this tone and attitude would be appreciated. A simple pleasure of a movie. ***

Bitter Desire (2025)

 Police detective Nathan Hill requires 2 months physical therapy after injuring himself apprehending a crime king pin. The crime king pin requires of his girlfriend revenge on Hill, so she takes the place of his physical therapist so as to ruin Hill's marriage? Feels heavily padded at 71 minutes, so uninteresting side characters are given too many lines and shots are regularly held for unnervingly long periods of time. This movie is really bad. * 

Private Obsession (1995)

 90's errotic thriller. A poplar model played by Shannon Whirry is abducted and held prisoner by obsessed fan Lee Frost; but she gets the better of him about 1 hr 35 minutes in. **1/2

Jasper (2011)

 Nathan Hill, Ozzie action flick / oggle the women picture. PI Hil was about to retire but decides to take one last case for an attractive woman. I saw this a week or two ago and can remember almost nothing about it. I wrote down **

2025 Films

Ranking the 2025 films I have seen from best to worse. Hard to believe my top 3 are all horror movies.

Weapons 

Frankenstein 

Sinners 

The Phonican Scheme

One Battle After Another 

28 Years Later

I Saw the TV Glow

Thunderbolts* 

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Companion 

Mission Impossible; The Final Reckoning 

Superman

The Thursday Murder Club

Another Simple Favor

G20

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

 This is the Katherine Heigl / Alexis Blidel lesbin wedding movie; with the emphasis being on Heigle and her family. That 3 out of 4 of Katherine's parents and siblings (way to go brother) couldn't figure out that she was a lesbian, seems pretty dense. Watching this 2015 film is an interesting artifact to examine a decade later, but Katherine's family's reactions to the news seem more like something out of 2005 or even 1995. But they are a fairly conservative, reasonable religious bunch, and they do live in Cleveland. Tom Wilkinson's performance as Katherine's dad is a real highlight, while Grace Gummers lawn care subplot seems an odd choice. **1/2

The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (2023)

 I love that the title of this movie dosen't make any sense until the final minutes of the film. The Venture Brothers movie gives us one last look at the lore rich world of the TV show, it also tackles some lose threads from the series, teases an answer to the mystery of who Hank and Dean's birth mother is, but then choses not to tell us. The film does make cannon what should have been pretty obvious concerning the relationship between Dr. Rusty Venture and his arch nemesis The Monarch. ***

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

 Following many of the same beats as 'Way of Water', the Avatar films are becoming increasingly episodic, but do still feel like they are building to something, and the world building remains interesting. Oona Chaplin's secondary villian is a real psychopath; I love Cameron's decision to make sure the Chaplin family is represented in the newish world of film he's making. ***

The Debt Collector (2017)

 Low budget Australian action film has a literal debt collector take out the priests who abused him as a child, unforseen blow back from these killings results in white supremacists and the mob trying to kill him. Not a great or even very good movie, but the filmmakers use their limited resources well and this was a reasonabley entertaining watch. **1/2

Naughty Girl (1956)

 Fine example of the Bridgett Bardot sub genra, where she causes the male characters all kinds of trouble, but they are so happy just having her around that they don't complain much. Co-written by the 21 year old starlet's then husband Roger Vadim, plot concerns a night club, a forging scheme, assumed identities and fantasy dance numbers. Really good at what it is. ***1/2

The Inglorious Bastards (1978)

 Tarantino borrowed this movie's title for his far better known film. Italian made explotation picture set shortly after D-Day, has a group of American solders bound for trial on charges ranging from petty theft to disorderly conduct, freed when a German straffing attack kills their guards. They set out for the Swiss boarder sixty miles away, and proceed to take out Germans while in route to freedom; before stumbling on a secret Allied mission that could use their help. Fun, rather watchable. ***

Sweet Sixteen (1983)

 As she approaches her 16th birthday, Texas girl Melissa Morgan finds the men in her life mysteriously dying off. I waited too long after watching to write this review and I don't remember much about the movie, other then I liked it well enough, my one note on the film said I give it ***

Samurai Cop (1991)

 Action/crime movie concerns a cop (Robert Z'Dar), who is also a Samurai, loaned out by the LAPD to the San Diego PD for a case that also involves a Samurai. Cult film is notable for how everything in it just feels off, the acting, the story, the sets, the action sequences, the dialouge, the effects, EVERYTHING in this movie is not quite right, producing an uncanny oddness that gets you through the film. Still not sure what to make of it. *1/2

Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

 It's August, 1943, and Chloë Grace Moretz shows up in her WAC uniform at a New Zealand airstrip, with a closely held carrying case and orders to accompany a bomber crew on a supply mission to Samoa. The crews reaction to haveing a female aboard with them is at first mixed, but Chloe will prove her worth, as the  plane finds itself attacked by the Japanese on the outside, and actual bat-like Gremlins within; which is to say nothing about the complications that arise when the contents of her case are made known. There is alot about this film that is ridiculous, but the movie is so action packed, tense and harried,  that I found it an absolute joy to watch. I can't think of another feature film that has Gremlin show up in the World War II setting from which they gained their fame. Film leaves room for a sequel, which I'd love to see, but doubt ever gets made. ***

7 Days (2021)

 It's March of 2020 and Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan, are Indian-American young people set up by their mothers on a bind date via an online matchmaking service. The date is middling, and is interrupted by text messages advising them that a lock down has started. Karan lives some distance away and can't get a hotel room, or a rental car and Geraldine dosen't have a car, so they have little choice but to quarantine together.

 They are very different people, Karan is an engineering researcher, a mommas boy and very traditional, while Geraldine is very westernized, she dosen't want to get married, but goes on dates as a condition of her mother paying the rent. At first the two clash, then Geraldine gets Covid as the result of leaving the house for a few hours to get away from Karan, who must then try to nurse her back to health. Close quarters bring understanding and perhaps these two young people are more compatible then they first thought. A warm and endering little film. ***

Crawlspace (1986)

Klaus Kinski is a doctor, and the son of a Nazi doctor. He keeps up his father's work, experimenting with the attractive female tenants of the apartment building he owns. He uses the venting system as a "crawlspace" for access. This move ain't good, but the behind the scenes stories, some of them are pretty wild. *