Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994)

A now 73 year old Charles Bronson returns as Paul Kersey, now back in New York and living under a fake name courtesy of the Witness Protection Program, he's teaching architecture at a university (seems like a place he might run into old colleagues, but what the hay) and dating Lesley-Anne Down whose 33 years his junior and has a 12ish year old daughter. Down is a well known fashion designer whose ex husband Michael Parks is a sadistic mobster who still has his hands in her business. Parks, not knowing who Bronson really is, makes the mistake of killing Lesley-Anne, and as this is a Death Wish movie you know what happens next. Bronson is long in the tooth, but I'd be lying if I said some of those revenge deaths weren't fun to watch. This film comes close to rivaling 'Death Wish 3' in terms of ridiculousness and camp, but if you see just one Death Wish movie it should still be number 3. 'Death Wish 5' is still better then it should be. *1/2

The Living Idol (1957)

 Part rather slow and abstract horror movie, and part travelog, 'The Living Idol' boasts some gorgeous color photography of 1950's Mexico, both urban and the jungle. The plot concerns Liliane Montevecchi, the daughter of a Mexican archeological worker whose father is killed under unusual circumstances. Following his death Liliane is taken in by James Robertson Justice, a European archeologist whose lived in Mexico for decades, and his native wife Sara Garcia, both of whom she's known her whole life. 

Liliane's dads (accidental?) death occurs during the visit of a family friend, Yankee photo journalist Steve Forrest, who Liliane has been in love with since she was eight. Liliane makes this known to Steve, but Steve thinks she's too young (I think her character is supposed to be around 18). Steve leaves to cover the Korean War and says they'll talk about it when he gets back. 

It is several years before Steve makes it back to Mexico, Liliane is now a college student and James is teaching at the university. In the interim James has becoming increasing obsessed with an Aztec legend about a fearsome Jaguar God who demands human sacrifice. Steve determines that James may not be so sane anymore and that Liliane might be in danger. 

This movie is beautiful to look at, top notch cinematography, lovely locations and people, I just wish they'd done more with the story, it  lacks the heft to properly compliment the visuals. **1/2

 

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022)

The Gen Z children of rich parents decide to wait out a hurricane in Pete Davidsons dad's mansion (I guess this is supposed to be Florida) and have a party.  Amandla Sternberg, recently out of rehab, arrives unexpectedly with her new (and decidedly not rich) girlfriend Maria Bakalova. So Maria is the audience surrogate character, she quickly notices tensions within the friend group and mostly tries to keep a low profile. 

To pass the time the group decides to play a 'guess the murderer' party game called 'bodies, bodies, bodies', but then the actual dead bodies of group members start to turn up and the friends quickly find themselves turning on each other, and trying to determine who the real murder is. I hesitate to say more then that concerning the plot, it took a bit to get going but I really enjoyed this movie, it surprised me. ***

High Treason (1929)

British sci-fi film was released in talkie and silent versions, I saw the talkie version. Set in the future year of 1940, 'High Treason' posits a future where the Western World is divided chiefly between two federated states, 'The United States of Europe' compressing that continent, Africa, Britain and its Common Wealth; and the Empire of the Atlantic States, comprising North and South America save for the Dominion of Canada. So the boarder between Canada and the old United States is the most tense in the world, there are skirmishes there, chiefly related to rum running because apparently America is still under prohibition. We see these reported on the television news. 

A prominent peace advocate, as this movie was made at a time when prominent peace advocates were a thing, tries to hold Europe back from the brink of war, but then there is a terrorist attack on the Chunnel (yes this film predicted the Chunnel) and war seams inevitable. The peace advocate, whose daughter is dating a higher up in the European military (I made the decision not to bother with the names of the characters and the obscure actors who played them), may need to commit some titular 'High Treason' to stop it. 

He does commitment that treason, but owns it and consents to his execution, taking one for the geo political team. It's dry, but its short (95 minutes for the talkie), and there is some decent model work for the time. A curio. *1/2 

Breezy (1973)

 In the film 'Licorice Pizza' - which is set in 1973 - a plot element involves the making of a thinly veiled version of 'Breezy' called 'Rainbow'. In addition, having now watched 'Breezy' I can better see a number of aspects of that film embedded in the later films DNA, including an age gap romance and a similar California setting. 

'Breezy' was the third film directed by Clint Eastwood, after 'Play Misty For Me' and 'High Planes Drifter', in fact characters in this film go to see 'High Planes Drifter' in a theater. 'Breezy' is a character study/ romance film in which an imbittered, divorced, real estate agent played by a 55 year old William Holden, slowly, and against his better judgment, falls in love with a free spirted 17 year old who goes by "Breezy" and is played by a very lovely 20 year old Kay Lenz.

The film somewhat lessens the ick factor of the pairing by making "Breezy" not a run away, but rather an orphan who finished school early then set out on her own. She's the manic-pixie-dream-girl type, very charming, and she's the one who actively pursues Holden, picking him like a stray cat might pick an owner. 

While Kay Lenz is beguiling (side note: Eastwood started in a film called 'The Beguiled' two years before making this movie), it's Holden who makes the film work. I read one reviewer point out the honesty in his performance and I'd second that, you believe him, the positive changes Breezy's presence brings out in him seem real and earned. The whole film has a understated quality that keeps it from feeling excessively exploitive, even as it makes sure to show off Kay Lenz's body. Without going into them I also wanted to mention the film has a number of good side characters and side plots, these provide counter point to the main narrative and provide further emotional shading and backstory for the leads. 

This is one of those films I didn't plan on finishing, just wanted to get a taste of it given the 'Licorice Pizza' connection. However, the movie reeled me in, and was surprisingly emotionally affective. To those who can get past the premise, I recommend. ***

 

The Final Conflict aka The Omen III (1981)

 The last entry in the feature film 'Omen Trilogy' is a disappointment even compared to its middling predecessors. Damien is now a grown up played by Sam Neill, whose mostly waisted in this. 32 years of age and heading his family conglomerate, he takes a step back from day to operations to assume his father's old post as the US Ambassador to Great Britian (a vacancy having been conveniently opened up for this job via the forces of darkness). The forces of light are back too, mostly monks and priests, they have relocated the sacred daggers which are the only instruments capable of killing the Anit-Christ. Several assassination attempts fail. 

There are also story points concerning the impending second coming of Christ, but in a break with prevailing doctrine apparently Jesus is coming back as an infinite again (so he can grow up to face a sixty-something Anti-Christ?)  But Jesus won't have to be the one to end the Anti-Christ's reign, which will prove to be short and low key, as he is to be felled by a single mother that he recently started dating. This film lacks the scale which would seem to go with such a cosmic story, there's a few decent set pieces, but its mostly people talking in rooms and Damien raging in front of a crucifix which he keeps just to rage in front of. This was silly, rather cheap looking, and really bad. *

Damien: Omen II (1978)

 'Damien: Omen II' is of course a sequel to the 1976 film 'The Omen', a film that is considered a classic but that I thought was middling. I think this was middling as well, but in some ways, I found it more interesting than its predecessor, in part because the first film has worked its way into the collective consciousness, so I felt like I'd kind of seen it even before I saw it. 

This movie follows a young pubescent Damien coming to the realization that he is to be the Anti-Christ, something that he is legitimately upset about at first, but which he comes to embrace. Damien also learns of a conspiracy of people dedicated to helping him, including an instructor at his military school and the number 2 official at his uncle's multi-national conglomerate. 

After his parent's deaths in the first movie Damien is taken in by his father's brother. We learn that the Thorne family run a multinational conglomerate, and that while Gregoy Peck was able to use his privileges to have a prominent diplomatic career, his brother William Holden took over the family business. Holden seems a decant enough guy, but when approached by representatives of a 'conspiracy of light' dedicated to stopping Damien, he just refuses to see his nephew's evilness (despite all the people around him that conveniently wind-up dead) until it might be, and in fact is, too late. 

Some interesting ideas here, but similar themes are tackled more interestingly in other films from around the same time, such as 'The Fury' (1978) and 'The Visitor' (1979). The movie also fails to take advantage of a plot twist they seemed to be setting up, in which Holden's wife Lee Grant knew that Damien was to be the Anti-Christ the whole time. **

The Burning (1981)

 'The Burning' is an early 80's slasher film using the New York City area urban legend of "Cropsey" as a jumping off point. Here Cropsey was the grounds keeper of a summer camp who was horribly disfigured by a fire caused by a prank against him gone wrong. After five years in the hospital, undergoing ultimately unsuccessful skin grafts, the disfigure and embittered Cropsey decides to seek his vengeance on campers and their councilors. 

It is in effect a pretty standard type 80's slasher film, but I thought one of the better done ones. It hits all the expected beats, the fairly large cast of characters are mostly well fleshed out and distinct, and its got a decent gimmick with Cropsey making his kills via a pair of pruning shears. This is also of note as the first movie produced by the notorious Harvey Weinstein, who is also one of three people listed under story by credit, the actual screenplay was co written by his brother Bob Weinstein. You can see a little of Harvey in a couple of the characters. 

This movie also boasts an unusual amount of future stars in the cast, including Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander and Fisher Stevens. The film under performed at the time owing to the slasher glut of the early 80's, but has since gained a cult following. There has never been a sequel or a remake. Again this is a pretty standard horror, but I thought the cast was unusually good and so I enjoyed it more then most films of this type. I would even say its better then any of the 'Friday the 13th' films. ***

Piranha 3D (2010)

 A few years back I watched 'Piranha DD' confusing it with 'Piranha 3D'. Turns out 'Piranha DD' is the sequel to 'Piranha 3D', which could loosely be construed as the 3rd film in a franchise going back to a couple of Roger Corman films in the 70's and 80's, if you ignore the 1995 Piranha reboot. 

In 'Piranha 3D' an earthquake opens up an underwater fissure connecting an Arizona surface lake to an unground lake and thus releasing a species of piranha thought extinct for 2 million years. The first person killed by these piranha is Richard Dreyfus in a rowboat singing "Show Me the Way to Go Home", and the person who explains the "science" to the audience is Christopher Lloyd in 'Doc Brown' mode. This movie likes its references. 

The lake into which the piranha are released is a popular spring break destination, and you guessed it, this happens during spring break. The action in the film centers around 3 or 4 groups; local law enforcement and family centered around sheriff Elisabeth Shue, a 'Girls Gone Wild' codded porn shot centered around Jerry O'Connell, and a geological survey team centered around Adam Scott (guess which one of these three center spokes survives).

Somewhat to my surprise there are moments when I felt a genuine sense of horror during the course of this film, something that wasn't the case with the sequel. Also, unlike the sequel the script here is actually pretty tight, it's a legit if often comic disaster movie. My favorite bit was probably the piranha eating all the flesh off a bikini clade babe and then the breast implants floating upward.  ***

The Haunted Palace (1963)

'The Haunted Palace' is the 6th entry in director/producer Roger Corman's "Poe Cycle" of the 1960's (a total of eight Edgar Allen Poe inspired works were released by Corman between 1960 and 1964).  The titles source material, Poe's 1839 Poem 'The Haunted Palace' is short on plot, so this is supplemented by grafting on the story from H.P. Lovecraft's 1927 novella 'The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'; making this the first feature film based on a Lovecraft story. 

In 1765 Arkham, Massachusetts local rich guy Vincent Price is burned at the stake (actually he's tied to a tree and then set on fire), for being a warlock and seducing local woman via magic. 110 years later in 1875, a descendent of the dead warlock also played by Price arrives in town to claim his inheritance. The 18th century Price lived in a century's old castle or palace, which he had bought in Europe then had re assembled brick by brick in the new world. 

The new 19th century Price is actually a pretty good guy, by his evil great grandfathers ghost initiates a psychic link between the two via his old portrait. 18th century Price slowly takes control of 19th century Price's body, and with the help of two fellow warlocks, one of which is played by Lon Cheney Jr., he proceeds to get revenge on the descendants of the people who killed him. In a typically Cormanesque cost saving measure the decedents of the villagers in the opening 18th century sequence are played by the same actors in the 19th century bulk of the film. 

The films okay and by Corman standards better than usual. The 18th century Price had cursed the decedents of the Arkham villagers with having an unusual number of deformities among them, so we have an excuse for some reasonably good make up and prosthetic work. The hero of the film turns out to be the town doctor played by Frank Maxwell, he takes a reasonable course between the superstition of the towns folk and the early skepticism of 19th century Price. Maxwell save's Price's life at the end, but the film concludes with the implication that his ancestors ghost is still hanging around inside of him. Actress Debra Paget, 22 years Price's junior, plays his wife in the film, she is still alive at 93 years of age. **

Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

 'Halloween: Resurrection' aka 'Halloween 8' is a sort of soft reboot that ended up not producing any direct sequels. The story does away with Jamie Lee Curtis's Lauire Strood in the first 10 minutes or so, Micheal finally gets her and I can see how this would be very unsatisfying to devotes of the franchise. But as the films use of the word "resurrection" in the title implies, this movie is not so much concerned with the past, as it is with trying pump new life into a series that was nearly a quarter century old by this point. 

This movie has more African American characters in it then it any of the previous films and attempts to exploit the then relatively recent arrival of 'reality TV' in its plot. A group of Haddonfield University students (since when did Haddonfield have a university), are locked overnight in the Meyers house on Halloween for a live stream reality show; there a cameras planted throughout the house and each 'contestant' has a head mounted camera with them. This proves to be especially usefully as the online friend of one of the contestants is able to use information gathered by the cameras, as well as an early texting feature, to communicate the location of Mike Meyers when he inevitably shows up.

This isn't a very good movie, but what I enjoyed about it most seeing it for the first time now is just what an artifact of its time it is. This is a very 2002 movie in the casting, in the music, in the reality show and period internet elements of the story. This is really a pretty generic slasher, but adding in a nostalgia kick for the period in which it was made, and in which I was also in college, made it rather enjoyable. **

Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)

 'Return of the Killer Tomatoes' is (appropriately) the first sequel to the 1978 horror-spoof-adventure-comedy 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'. Made by some of the same folks who did the original there are a number of returning characters, as well as additional characters, all/most of whom would appear in the 1990 - 91 Fox Kids animated series 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'. I was a big fan of this cartoon during its initial Saturday Morning run, and foremost among the things that fascinated me about it was it's absurd, slapstick humor and an in-joke, self-referential vibe that I couldn't fully understand. 

Well, I can understand that more now as the series is a more or less direct sequel to this movie. This movie however is not for kids, with cruder humor and (I kid you not) a direct tie-in to Playboy Magazine. The cartoon series does some retconning and ages down a number of the characters, but a slightly pervy undertone remained. 'Return of the Killer Tomatoes' is not a good movie, it ironically has a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score.  However, I'm glad I saw it, as it unraveled some of a childhood mystery. *1/2

Fun facts: 

Film featured a young George Clooney. 

A 5th 'Killer Tomatoes' movie is due to hit theaters later this year. 

Alice, Darling (2022)

 Alice (Anna Kendrick) goes for a weeklong vacation at her friend Wummi Mosaku's cabin to celebrate the birthday of mutual friend Kaniehtilo Horn. The three have known each other since elementary school but hadn't seen much of Alice lately. owing to all the time she has been spending at work and with her new artist boyfriend Charlie Carrick. Over the course of the vacation Wummi and Kaniehtilo notice strange behavior from Alice, a nervous fidgetiness, excessive time on her phone, her generally being less fun and more irritable. When Alice starts talking about cutting the vacation short and leaving before Kaniehtilo's birthday, Kaniehtilo takes and hides her keys and cellphone to force her to stay. Cut off from the outside world Alice starts acting more like her old self, and revels that her relationship with the seemingly charming Charlie is not as ideal as it appeared to be. Then Charlie shows up at the cabin. 

This generally understated Canadian production has a nice, unhurried pace, is reflective and enjoyably small scale. Star Anna Kendrick reports having once been in a relationship like this, and the film is a rumination on how otherwise smart and independent women can become trapped in abusive relationships. While Charlie is not a physically abusive man, he is imposingly tall and emotionally manipulative and had slowly been stripping away at Alice's sense of self-worth. Alice was afraid that Charlie wouldn't "let her" go on the birthday trip, so she lied and told him she was traveling for work. When Charlie figures this out, he is upset, yet when he shows up uninvited at the cabin he puts on a show of being understanding. With Alice reverting to subservient behavior, it's up to Wummi and Kaniehtilo to figure out how to best get Alice out of her bad situation. 

The film also contains a counterpoint B plot about a local young woman who has gone missing. At several points in the movie Alice and friends encounter search parties and even assist them for a time. The uncertain fate of the missing girl parallels the uncertain fate of Alice. Once the missing girl's fate is finally reveled, it becomes make or break time for Alice's future as well. ***

Death Line (1972)

A couple of college students, American Alex Campbell (David Ladd, brother of one of the films executive producers, Alan Ladd Jr.) and Brit Patricia Wilson (Sharon Gurney), are returning from a date late one night, and notice a seemingly well to do man lying unconscious on the stairs leading out of the subway station. Alex doesn't want to get involved, but Patricia insists they tell someone, so they tell a policeman, but by the time they get back to where they saw the man he's gone. Alex had taken a peek at the man's wallet, so passed the name on to the police. The local Inspector (Donald Pleasence) is initially uninterested in the report (as there's no body, and no missing person reported), but when a check is run on the name and it is discovered to belong to a holder of the Order of the British Empire, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defense, the inspector becomes much more interested. 

The film follows the Inspector and his associates in the investigation, the couple who first found the man, and his murderer. Christopher Lee stops by in a camo role (which he agreed to do for scale as he had never worked with Pleasence before and wanted to) as a member of MI5 who shews the Inspector away from the case. But whatever secret goings on the missing man was involved with turn out to be unrelated to his disappearance. 

The "twist'' of the film is that the missing man (James Cossins) was knocked unconscious and later retrieved by a cannable (Hugh Armstrong). The station in question is located near a long-abandoned tube line that had collapsed in on itself during construction, back in the Victorian era. At that time, it was standard practice not to dig the dead workers out as it was deemed not worth the effort. Here however a number of the male workers and for some reason some women survived the collapse, and again for some reason they didn't dig themselves out and return to the world but formed a small colony that survived for eighty-odd years, picking off as needed fellow members of the lower classes to eat. This apparently didn't attract attention because those that the cannibals picked off were deemed unimportant by the police and upper classes. The class commentary here is heavy handed. 

The colony was at last down to one member, and because by chance he abducted someone deemed important (who was down there trying to hire a prostitute), the larger mystery finally came to light. The killer was essentially a caveman, who could communicate only in grunts and slivers of English that had survived underground. The "good guys" kill him in the end, but projecting forward this case would have become a tabloid sensation and prompted investigations into the better part of a century's worth of crappy police work. 

So yes, the mystery proves to be silly, but the film does a good job of maintaining tension and boasts some interesting characters. For me the most interesting by far is Pleasance's Inspector Calhoun, there is a lot of implied backstory to the character and Pleasance elevates  

him with the particularities of his performance. He's a man who given his age would almost certainly have served in The War. He lives alone and apparently never married, he's very particular about his tea, is kind of a grump, has some sort of ongoing beef with Lee's MI5 character, and as an investigator, I'd give him a B -. 

This is another movie I didn't expect to finish, just wanted a taste of it. However, it proved interesting enough to catch me and hold my attention for its 87 minutes. Smarter than it needed to be, its exploitation far that is just enough off the expected path to be memorable. **1/2 

Entrapment (1999)

 Sorry, can't say I liked this one much, though I probably would have liked it more had I seen it closer to when it came out. A 29 year old Catherine Zeta-Jones is an insurance investigator who is really a thief herself. She arranges things to give her boss a reason to send her after a famous thief played by a 68 year old Sean Connery. Tasked to stop him, she really plans to team up with him for a series of daring robbery's, culminating with a night time break-in at the Petronas Towers in Malaysia as the world rings in the new Millennium.

The sexyness of the April - December couple was really played up at the time. I thought the plot was really basic and pretty uninteresting. Though the extended heist sequence at the end is very well done and frankly made me feel dizzy and scared. However for the most part this felt like a mah of a movie, for me the chemistry of the leads just wasn't enough to carry this blah and ridiculous, auto pilot of a 90's action movie. *1/2

Dr. Minx (1975)

 'Dr. Minx' is a sexploitation film helmed by the Iraq born exploitation auteur Howard Advedis (born Hikmet Labib Avedis), who I know from 'The Teacher', in which TV's 'Dennis the Menace' Jay North sleeps with his teacher. 'Dr. Minx' opens with Dr. Carol Evans (Edy Williams) in bed with Gus Dolan (William Smith). Gus was an employee at her late husbands construction firm, said late husband had passed away in a work accident three months before and Carol has just sold the firm, the affair between the two started prior to his death. With the firm now sold Gus thinks it would be a good time for the two of them to get married and share in the bounty. Carol doesn't want to rush things, Gus says 'then why did you have me kill your husband'. Carol says she didn't know it wasn't an accident, that she didn't want her husband killed and kicks him out of the house.   

Carol doesn't have much time to ruminate on these revelations, she has a shift at the hospital. On the way to the hospital she happens upon a bike accident, and takes the victim Brian Thomas (Randy Boone) and his dorky friend David Brown (Harvey Jason) to the hospital (these two are supposed to be high school students on summer vacation, though both actors are in their 30's (though look early to mid 20's)). Brain's injuries are minimal, but he's going to have to stay in the hospital a couple of days, they notify his parents.

David has noticed how sexy Dr. Evans is, so he shows up at her house that night with the pretense of checking on his friends condition. Carol is amused by his moxy, so while in her sexy robe invites him in for a little bit and they talk, but no more then talk, David leaves disappointed. While Dr. E isn't interested in David, she is interested in his friend Brian, and upon his release invites him over to her house for some follow up, so he doesn't have to go all the way to back to the hospital, wink, wink. Brian will find his visits with the doctor more satisfying then David did. 

Carol and Brian's relationship is complicated by the fact that its statutory rape, David's jealousy, and Gus's efforts to blackmail her. Gus shows up one night (this forces Brian to hide) and claims to have audio tape of Cindy telling him to kill her husband. Cindy says she said no such thing, but agrees to meet Gus at his house the next day and see what he does have. 

Brian tags along in case things go south; he hides in the car, then sneaks out to spy on them through the sliding back door. Carol accuses Gus of doctoring the tape, there is a short struggle and then Brian comes in and in a panic shoots Gus dead. The two put Gus's body in the back of the car, and then burry him in Carol's backyard. Only David, still perving on Carol, see's this, he later puts pressure on Brian to turn Carol in or he'll tell the police where the body is buried. So Carol and Brian have to move the body again, so by the time David convinces the sheriff to come investigate, there's no corpse there (the sheriff tells the youth to stop bothering nice Dr. Evans). 

So having to move the body again, (Carol has a place out in the county she wants to dump it (this movie is filmed and set in California)), necessitates a spur of the moment trip, which necessitates crafting a late excuse for Brian's parents; which they don't believe and send David out to the country to bring him home, and on and on, escalation after escalation, and you won't be surprised to find this ends in further tragedy.  

I didn't intent to finish this, I just wanted to watch a little bit of the "hot doctor" movie. But as you can tell there is a lot going on here and it sucked me in. Edy Williams is gorgeous, and while no one here is a great actor, they are good enough. The plot is constantly unfolding new information and complications and it covers a lot of ground in just 94 minutes. I was never bored. It's always nice to encounter an exploitation film that is better then it needed to be, and I'd class this movie in that category. Rough around the edges, but compelling. ***

The Fury (1978)

Spoilers

 'The Fury' is Brian De Palma's rather on point adaption of the 1976 John Farris novel of the same name, published by Playboy Press. Kirk Douglas is Peter Sandza, a successful businessman who has been raising his son alone abroad since the death of his wife. He plans to change that however, leaving his long time employer with plans to move back to the States and get a proper education for his (late teens?, the actor is in his early 20's) son on how to handle his vaguely referenced 'special abilities'. They are at a beach resort in Israel saying goodbye to Peter's business associate and best friend John Cassavetes, but they are betrayed by him, a terrorist attack on the resort was set up with the express purpose of killing Peter. Peter's son Robin (Andrew Stevens) is spirited away before the bad guys learn that he survived. Peter then begins his quest to locate and rescue his son. 

Robin was abducted by the CIA, who Cassavetes secretly worked for. The youth had begun manifesting psychic and telekinetic powers which he doesn't know how to use, the CIA wants to train him as an asset. For a time Robin is kept at a once legitimate psychiatric facility, The Paragon Institute in Chicago, which the CIA has taken over, to the growing chagrin of the main doctor there played by an endearing Charles Durning. After several escape attempts Robin is relocated to a remote mansion facility (in Virginia?), where they assign a sexy doctor (Fiona Lewis, who had modeled for Playboy) to keep him sexually satisfied and under control. 

Meanwhile Chicago private school girl Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving) has begun manifesting psychic/telekinetic abelites of her own, she agrees to a stay at The Paragon Institute for further testing. Durning quickly discovers that her powers are legitimate, but wants to pretended they are not to keep her out of CIA custody. Peter meanwhile is hiding out in Chicago and has initiated a sexual relationship with a nurse at Paragon (Carrie Snodgress) to get the inside dope. Carrie advises Peter of the CIA's plans to move Gillian to another facility, and the two engineer an escape in which Carrie is killed. 

Peter and Gillian are now on the run together and make their way to the mansion facility with the intent of freeing Robin. Robin however has mentally deteriorated in custody, becoming more violent and moody as his powers increase. The escape attempt will leave 2 of the three of them dead. 

There is some 'Carrie' here, there is some 'X-Men', I bet it makes more sense in the book, as details in the movie are slim and imply more then is fleshed out. It feels like there is story missing, though at the same time the uncertainties of the film help it to keep your attention as you try to piece things together. There are some good set pieces here, it's well enough paced, though the narrative bifurcates between Douglas and Irving and we see so little of Robin between the beginning and end of the film, that his character changes feel jarring and unexplained. On the whole this is a pretty good supernatural horror/mystery in the De Palma tradition. ***

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

 

In his first film (fourth over all) after making the movie that made his name, 'Mean Streets', Martin Scorsese left a dirty, night time New York, for the sunny daylight stretches of the desert south west in 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'. This dark comic character study, became the unexpected source material for a much more light hearted situation comedy called 'Alice', which ran on CBS for 9 seasons and 202 episodes.  

Our Alice here is an excellent as usual Ellen Burstyn. Alice Hyatt (nee Graham) grow up near Monterey, California with aspirations of becoming a professional singer, she got as far as performing regularly at a local club, where she meet Donald Hyatt (Billy Green Bush) who charmed her into marriage and relocated her to his home town in New Mexico. More then a decade later she is a housewife in a somewhat abusive marriage with an 11 year old son called Tommy (Alfred Lutter), who while generally not mean spirited is more then a little bit of a trial, bratty, short sighted and selfish as kids that age often are.

Alice's husband works as a delivery driver for Coca Cola, and is killed in a rather bloody traffic accident. Not well off to begin with, after the expenses of the funeral Alice and her son head off to California with their meager belongings. They decide to stay for a time in Phoenix and try to raise some money. Alice is able to talk her way into a singing job at a bar and becomes an unexpected success, though the job doesn't pay much she attracts the attention of a younger man (Harvey Keitel) who seduces her into a relationship, but turns out to be an already married psycho. Alice and son flee the city, then the car breaks down near Tuscon.

Alice gets a job as a waitress at a dinner populated by colorful characters such as Vic Tayback (who would return for the series), Valerie Curtin and an especially memorable Diane Ladd. Tommy falls under the bad influence of a very young Jodie Foster and Alice is - at first reluctantly - romanced by a divorced rancher played by Kris Kristofferson.

Wry, grounded and bittersweet 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' is  solid, affective and endearingly rambling, with flawed characters who very much don't know what they're doing, and who we root for in no small part because of this. Scorsese shows early on a willingness to try new things and is a natural at a story which might seem out of his wheelhouse. I was impressed. ****

Rolling Thunder (1977)

Spoilers

'Rolling Thunder' is another movie that Tarantino talks about at length in his Cinema Speculation book. It's 1973 and William Devane is Air Force Major Charles Rane, he is returning to his home in San Antonio after seven years as a POW in North Vietnam. One of Rane's best friends from the POW camp, Army Master Sargent Johnny Vohden (Tommy Lee Jones) is returning on the same plane as him, he lives in El Paso and they promise to visit each other. 

While Vohden returns to an enthusiastic family, Rane returns to a son (Jordan Gerler) who was only a baby when he left and thus doesn't remember him, and a wife (Lisa Blake Richards) who in his absence has become romantically involved with a friend of Rane's, local Deputy Cliff Nichols (Lawrason Driscoll). Lisa wants a divorce, and Charles, who is seemingly almost disinterested in his wife aggress, though he insists on regular contact with his son. The couple decide to wait a respectable amount of time before announcing their separation.

In the weeks after Major Rane's return he discovers that he has become something of a local celebrity, and while he is not entirely comfortable with this he decides to act gracefully. He is presented with a brand new Cadillac convertible from a local dealership, as well as 2,555 silver dollars, one for each day of his captivity. Rane is presented with his silver dollars by local beauty Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes, who gives arguably the best performance in a film full of strong performances). Linda considers herself something of a Major Rane groupie, a term she has to explain to him because it developed while he was in captivity. Linda makes sure to arrange bumping into the Major, and while not exactly encouraging this, he doesn't discourage it either. 

Major Rane attends one of his son's little league games, but leaves before it is over and returns home. Upon entering the house he is captured by a gang of four men who insists he hand over the silver dollars he has hidden. Rane refuses, and the robbers grind off one of his hands in the garbage disposal. His wife and son return, and his son knows where he hid the silver dollars so retrieves them and hands them over to the crooks. The bad guys then kill the Major's wife and son in retaliation for the mans stubbornness.  

Rane misses his wife and son's funeral as he is still in the hospital recovering. There he is fitted with a  hook to replace his lost hand, and is visited by Linda, Master Sargent Vohden, his air force psychologist (Dabney Coleman) and Deputy Nichols, who thinks that Rane is holding back information about the killers. 

After Rane is released form the hospital he convinces Linda to accompany him on a trip to Mexico. Linda thinks that Rane just needs to get away for a bit owing to all the trauma, but in reality Rane plans to use snippets he remembers from the killers conversations to track them down and avenge the death of his son (and notably not the death of his wife). Linda is not happy when Rane uses her as bait to get information, but aggress to stay with him. Meanwhile Deputy Nichols has figured out what Rane is doing, puts out an APB on the Cadillac and mounts a pursuit, not to stop him, but to join him. 

After killing or wounding some of the men, Rane is able to figure out where their leader is staying. He recruits Vohden (who feels disconnected from his family and their trivial concerns (I want to point out here that Vohden doesn't have any kids, just an often oblivious wife, in-laws and an elderly father)) to go with him to Mexico to kill. Rane drops Linda off, who immediately calls the police, but it's too late and they don't arrive until after Rane and Vohden's final bloody standoff at a seedy hotel in Ciudad Juarez.  

'Rolling Thunder' is a powerful, reflective, and despite its violence, understated rumination on the legacy of the Vietnam War. Over its 100 minute run time it becomes several different types of movies, and handles its transitions remarkably well. It is the story of broken men trying to hang onto their dignity. Rarely has such extreme violence in a film felt so well woven with its emotional texture. It's something of a masterpiece and sadly a largely forgotten one. I can see why Tarantino likes it so much. ****

Flaming Star (1960)

 In his book 'Cinema Speculation' Quinton Tarantino commented that this is the movie that convinced him that Elvis could have been a really good actor, if he hadn't gotten stuck making the cheese that Colonel Parker liked, because it was cheap and made easy money. 'Flaming Star' is not an "Elvis movie" in the Parker sense, rather it is a movie with Elvis in it. It's a decent, though in no way remarkable film; Elvis sings two songs in the first 10 minutes or so (a concession to Parker) but its a straight pulp western story after that.

Set in 1870's Texas, Elvis plays Pacer Burton, the son of one of the earliest ranchers in the area Sam 'Pa' Burton (John McIntire) and an Indian princess who he calls Neddy (Dolores del Rio). Packer has an older half brother named Cliff (Steve Forrest) from Sam's previous marriage, Cliff's mother had died and Sam married Neddy shortly after moving to the area in the 1850's. Accordingly the Burtons social circles bridge the native Americans and the newer white settlers. Things in the area were mostly peaceful for a very long time, but with increasing white settlement and the subsequent loss of land the local Indians start to attack unwanted settlers. Elvis is torn between two worlds, with the Burtons trying to keep natural as long as possible, but that proves to be untenable.

It's a good movie, well paced, interesting enough story, Elvis is understated outside, but inside he gets to seething. A young Barbara Edan is a local girl both brothers like, but Elvis's "half cast" status means her pa is not keen on him. Again, this is a satisfactory pulp western tale, with interesting interpersonal character dynamics for the genre. Elvis show promise here, that was never realized. ***

Pilgrimage (2017)

 I started this a couple times and couldn't get into. I decided to give it one more chance and power through. The film has got a very slow first half and gets more interesting in the second. Set in early 13th Century Ireland, the film concerns a group of monks (including John Lynch and Tom Holland) as well as their mute servient (Jon Bernthal) tasked with escorting their holiest relic to Waterford so it can be sent to Rome for use in the 5th Crusade (I think the plan is to take it into battle, but maybe the plan is to sell it).

On the way they encounter people who want to steal the relic, and there are battles, and interpersonal conflicts and peoples faith is tested, and the last 10 minutes of the movie is the best 10 minutes of the movie. I suspect this story would have made a more interesting read, then a watch. Nice period grit, and I apricated that this is the kind of story we don't get much in film, but I just wasn't able to sink with this movie and really enjoy it. **

Hot Spur (1968)

This feels like an Italian film, but I'm not for sure on that as there is remarkably little information about this movie online. It's a boobs, gore and guns exploration film (mostly the former). Set in the old west, near Mexico, the lead character is a Mexican stable hand named Carlos, who doesn't say much. After a prolog where he attempts and fails to stop a rape, Carlos ends up employed at the same ranch as the rapists. The ranch owner is an asshole, and his wife is trying to sleep with all the stable hands, except for Carlos as he (as this movie keeps reminding us) is Mexican. The boss fires Carlos as he thinks he has the hots for his Mrs. Shortly after being fired Carlos kidnaps the rancher's wife while she is out horseback riding. He ties her up and keeps her in a abandoned cabin. He explains that he intends to use her as bait, as he has been systemically hunting down and murdering the men who raped his sister when he was a kid, with the ranch owner being the last living participant in that childhood shattering event. This movie is slow and really takes its time with the nude scenes, every woman in this movie you end up seeing nude, often more than once. Far duller than it should be. * 

Nightwatch (1997)

Ewan McGregor is in his senior year at a California law school. He gets a job as a night watchman at a medical building that houses the local morgue (I hesitate to call it a hospital because there are no overnight patients). McGregor took the job because it would give him the opportunity to study, however he soon starts having weird experiences, including possible hallucinations. Nick Nolte is the chief investigator on a series of prostitute murders; he and McGregor strike up a friendship after one of the murder victims is brought in late at night. Also going on in McGregor's life is a somewhat strained relationship with his girlfriend Patrica Arquette, who comes from money, and an increasing odd one with his best friend Josh Brolin, who he discovers (despite dating Lauren Graham) is seeing prostitutes and has sexual kinks related to power imbalances. Brad Dourif and John C. Reilly also have small rolls. 

A remake of a hopefully better Danish film, 'Nightwatch' is going for a Stephen King vibe, but its lesser King, a stinker. This is a suspense movie with little suspense, a thriller with few thrills, a character piece with flat characters. It does a decent job at atmosphere, and there are pieces of a good film here, but the movie feels tossed together and disjointed. A talent bomb. *1/2  

Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

'Remarkably Bright Creatures' is based on a bestselling book. A book in which a wise old octopus named Marcellus (here voiced by Alfred Molina) comments upon --- and later managers to get himself involved in --- the somewhat melodramatic goings on outside his tank, chiefly involving two of his caretakers at a Pacific coast aquarium. Played by Salley Field and Lewis Pullman, she's a widow, whose only child has also died and she's working mostly to keep busy, he is a van dwelling aspiring musician who is working because he needs the money. They live in one of those quirky towns populated by quirky residents, including Colm Meany, Joan Chen and Kathy Baker. There's a mystery or two, both leads get love interests and it's cozily pleasant. The material is perfectly suited to a modestly budgeted Netflix film and a mildly heartening 111 minutes. ***

The Criminal Code (1931)

 Boris Karloff and Peter Bogdanovich watch some of this movie in the 1967 film 'Targets'. Directed by Howard Hawks and based on a 1929 play of the same name by Martin Flavin, Columbia Pictures would go on to adapt this an additional two times as 1938's 'Penitentiary' and 1950's 'Convicted'. Phillips Holmes accidentally kills a man in a bar fight he did not initiate, district attorney Walter Huston believes him, feels its a bad brake, and is confident that if he were the defense attorney he could get him off; however, as DA he justifies to himself that it is his job to get convictions so he gets him convicted and sentenced to a dozen years. Huston has political aspirations he intends to build on a strong record as DA, to his disappointment some six years later he losses the gubernatorial race and winds up being appointed prison warden as a sort conciliation prize, or perhaps as a perverse joke by the winning administration. Many people in that prison were put there by Huston and they are not happy that he has been put in charge. Things get restive. 

Huston had more or less forgotten about Holmes, but a kindly prison doctor brings him to the new wardens attention, stating that he has been treating hardened criminals for years and that Holmes is not one, and shouldn't be there. Persuaded, Huston goes to bat for early release and in the mean time makes him his official chauffer, allowing Holmes to spend some time outside the prison, and inadvertently creating a situation in which he and the wardens daughter Constance Cummings can fall in love. 

The situation in the prison remains tense, and a stoolie tips the administration off to a planed prison break, in the process of foiling which a particularly well liked prisoner is killed. A cell mate of that man, played by the aforementioned Karloff, plans revenge. Huston sends his daughter away to visit family; the stoolie is killed, the circumstances of which lead the warden to believe that Holmes knows who did it. Holmes does, but adhering to the prisons unwritten 'criminal code' he refuses to rat him out. Huston threatens to rescind Holmes early release, leans hard on the poor man and ends up sending him to solitary confinement. When his daughter gets back and confesses her love for Holmes, Huston lets him out of solitary. Karloff interprets this as meaning that Holmes sold him out and makes plans to shank him, leading to the films climax. 

This is one of the better prison films of its time, dated, kind of silly in places, but still rather watchable. ***

The Outfit (1973)

 There was a chapter about this movie in Tarantino's Cinema Speculation, which is why I watched it. Adapted from the 1962 novel The Hunter, this feels both timeless and like a throw back to the FDR era. Robert Duvall gets out of prison for a robbery of 5ish years before, very shortly there after attempted hits are made on him, and his partner Joe Don Baker, and a successful one on Duvall's brother, the three perpetrators involved in that bank job (I guess there wasn't enough evidence to convict the other two).  Come to find out that that bank they hit was a mob front, so mob boss Robert Ryan decided to wait until all 3 were available to attempt and extract revenge. This backfires as Duvall and Baker successfully go after various mob operations, so eventually Robert Ryan decides to make a peace offering to end it. However Ryan double crosses them, so the war escalates and I really enjoyed enjoyed the ending. Smart and unhurried, everything you could want from a heist/revenge movie, done with sophistication and confidence. Deserves to be a classic. ****

Stay Away, Joe (1968)

 Elvis Pressly plays a Navajo Lothario, in this low plot comedy in which multiple actors, including Elvis and Burgess Meredith, sport red-face. Story threads include Elvis's sister trying to make a mixed race engagement work, and Elvis trying to get a lethargic bull to mate with his father's government subsidized cattle heard. The film ends with the collapse of a tenement house played for laughs. This might be Elvis's worst movie, extremely bad. *

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

 Clint Eastwood directed crime-drama, adapted from John Berendt's 1994 "non fiction novel", inspired by a 1980's Savannah, Georgia murder trial. Scanning through reviews I read someone comment that Eastwood directed this movie 'as a tourist would'. I think that is true, but I also think it is to the movies benefit. That this decent murder plot is filtered through a reading of Savannah as Mecca for eccentrics, is what makes it memorable and fun to watch. A remarkably queer friendly for the 90's, let alone Clint Eastwood. ***1/2

Zulu (1964)

A 30 year old Micheal Cain gets an "Introducing" credit, in this middle tier epoch about the 1879 'Battle of Rorke's Drift', in which a small detachment of Welsh solders, some army corp of engineers, and hospital patients successfully held a Swedish mission station from thousands of attacking Zulu's. A little slow, but for the most part pretty involving. A very early 60's take on 19th century British imperialism, they don't make them like this anymore. ***

Bad Education (2019)

 HBO film is based on a true story of rampant embezzlement in a high end Long Island school district at the turn of the Milleniaum. Impressive large cast and unusually well crafted screenplay. Very impressive multi layerd performance by Hugh Jackman as the district superintendent, who is both a lying and corrupt asshole and an extremely talented educator and administrator. ***1/2

The Tin Star (1957)

 Bounty hunter and former sheriff Henry Fonda, mentors a young sheriff (Anthony Perkins) in how to handle outlaws and mobs; while taking a fancy to widow Betsy Palmer and her young mixed race son (Michel de Carvalho). Not the most original of material, but director Anthony Mann elevates it, as he was often known to do. ***

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

 The last three Tom Holland Spider-Man films got progressively flasher and more ridiculous; where as 'Brand New Day' successfuly turns the page to something closer to emotional gravity (relatively speaking) of the Sam Rami Spiderman films of the 00's (Spiderman III somewhat excepted). The films tie-ins to expanded MCU characters are well handled and feel less forced then they often do, and this is one of the better put together and executed of the post Endgame MCU output. This one is worth going to the theater for. ***

The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

 By the book, but well handled action/war movie, set as the Allies ready to drive the remaining Germans from France and bring the war home to the fatherland. When I saw that both Ben Gazara and Robert Vaughn were in this movie, I knew one of them was going to be playing an asshole. Turns out the role of the movies principle asshole switches from Gazara to Vaughn about half way through. **1/2

A Hard Day's Night (1964)

 Surpassed my expectations, once you sink with its odd tones, there may have been no better band vehicle in the history of film, then 'A Hard Days Night' was for The Beatles. ****

Eagle Eye (2008)

 This movie is ridiculous, so many improbabilitys, all orchestrated by a practically literal God-Machine. This movie is also a lot of fun, it took 20 minutes or so, but once I realized the movie takes its self just seriously enough, that I'm not expected to take it seriously, I enjoyed it. ***

Bulliet (1968)

 This movie has a great reputation and actually lived up to the hype. Two very memorable chase sequences, one of which I didn't really know about. That director Peter Yates choses to give us so many little moments, like focusing on the doctors trying to save a shooting victiam, or lingering longer then normal on a crowed of witnesses, that combined with the solid or better performances of the whole cast. It's an iconic movie for a reason. ****

Duplicity (2025)

 This another, made for streaming, Tyler Perry produced relationship thriller movie, which is actually crazier then 'Divorce in the Black', if not as fun. **

Divorce in the Black (2024)

 I have watched the unhinged opening funeral scene multiple times over the last year or so, but I had to be in a specific (legally enhanced) mood to sit through this thing. Yes, it's a bad movie, is the perfectly understandable assessment with which most of its viewers have apparently arrived. But viewed another way, this overwrought, cliche ridden, boarderline simple minded relationship thriller, was really fun to watch. The movies bad husband character played by Cory Hardict dosen't seem that bad at first, by around half way through he's just shy of a Batman villian. Megan Good is sympathetic-ish and gorgeous to look at; I'm kind of upset to learn that she married a post assault conviction Johnathan Majors last year. The exaggerated stylizations of Tyler Perry continue to unexpectedly work from me. **1/2

Band of Robbers (2015)

 Tom and Huck by way of Fargo. At times kind of irritating, but Stephen Lang sure understood the assignment. **

The Day Time Stopped (1980)

 This movie is most interesting when it's stop motion aliens and monsters aren't on screen. A family consisting of an older couple (both has been stars there for name recognition), their younger son, and older married daughter with her husband and young daughter, commence their first weekend in their new desert vacation home, and are quickly overcome with strange phenomena that threaten to rip a hole in reality it's self. Started out okay, but gets very ridiculous and New Agey. *1/2

The Odyssey (2026)

 I was not particularly interested in seeing an 'Odyssey' movie, but I'm always interested in a new Christopher Nolan movie. I saw The Odyssey and I loved it. It's about post traumatic stress syndrome, but it's also about the Death of Western Civilization and how much of that Civilization would you be willing to sacrifice to try and save the whole, and at what point do you go so far that it might not be worth saving and you need to start over. Which makes it about the most topical movie you could possibly make right now. ****

Project Hail Mary (2026)

 A human and an alien scientist must work together to find a cure to a type of infection killing stars. Competently done, but too cute and pat for my taste. **

Tunnel Vision (1976)

 A series of parody skits, supposedly representing a television networks typical broadcast day, within a framing device of a congressional hearing. I like my media satire dry and close to mimicry in style, this movie fulfills that, but it's still a type of material better in small doses. **1/2

Narrow Margin (1990)

 Los Angeles district attorney Gene Hackman must get mob murder witness Ann Archer, across Canada by train, while avoiding multiple hit men. Solid for what it is, would've made a great early 90s Blockbuster rental for my fam, if it wasn't rated R. This is a remake of a 1952 film I haven't seen called 'The Narrow Margin", but is similar in plot to a 1941 film which I have seen called 'Sleepers West'. ***

Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976)

 Former preacher Marjoe Gortner and soon to be Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, cavort around New Mexico and Texas in better then expected crime spree flick, featuring Lynda Carter nudity. **

Outbreak (1995)

 Uneven medical thriller about the outbreak of an Ebola-like virus in a northern Califorina town, improbably has more helicopter scenes then any other movie I can think of. I'd wanted to see this for more then 30 years and was disappointed; 2011's 'Contagion' does this kind of thing better, but at the same time is even slower. **

Sheep Detectives (2026)

 Combination of 'Babe' and 'Midsummer Murders', two genre types that you wouldn't think would work well together, but here they do. Remarkably well constructed screen play. ***

Carbon Copy (1981)

 Businessman George Segal finds out he has a black son and everyone over reacts. Major misfire was a major flop, and got seemingly everything wrong except the casting of a young Denzel Washington, who gets an "Introducing" credit. *

Happy Happy Joy Joy (2020)

 Documentary on the troubled production of hit 90's cartoon show 'Ren & Stimpy', as well as it's troubled creator John Kricfaluci. Very informative. ***

Miller's Girl (2024)

 Prime example of "High Tash". Jenna Ortega is the daughter of rich, absentee parents, who is just starting her senior year at a middle Tennessee public high school. Jenna is passionate about literature, and bemoans that she is not very interesting; she aspires to be a writer but fears she dosen't have anything to write about. After the idea is jokingly planted in her mind by a friend, Jenna sets out to seduce and ruin the life of her English teacher Martin Freeman, a failed author with one unsuccessful book to his credit. 

The minimalist story feels like a once salacious  stage play in the tradition of 'The Children's Hour', which flirts, teases and implies but never quite crosses the uncrossble line. Fine performances make the movie watchable, but it's never as deep and probing as it wishes it were. A meta tale about cliche and failed writers, that gilds a trawdry story to demonstrate the pain of not quite measuring up, and ironically succeeds in so doing. **1/2

Housekeeping (1987)

 'Housekeeping' is based on the award winning 1980 Marilynne Robinson novel of the name same and both adapted and directed by Bill Forsyth, a master of both melancholy and whimsy and my favorite Scottish director. Set in northern Idaho during the 1950's, the story follows sisters Ruth and Lucille (played as teenagers by Sarah Walker and Andrea Burchill, both give impressive and understated performances).

The two girls are deposited in a small mountian town with a grandmother they don't know, just before their mother abandons them to commit suicide. The two are raised by this loving grandmother until she dies, then briefly taken care of by two great aunts, before their mother's sister Sylvie (Christine Lahti (I'm always happy to see her)) is more or less forced to take over their care.

Sylvie is a kind, pleasant woman, but deeply eccentric, a horder, with little sense of time and decorum, she is cagey about her past and no doubt suffers from various mental illnesses. The whole movie is about growing up in a family that is haunted by the specter of mental illness, and how the two girls very different reactions to their aunt eventually drives them apart. The film is beautiful and muted, contrasting the gorgeous exteriors of the mountians with the troubled interiors of people with deeply held feelings they don't know how to process. ***1/2

Disclosure Day (2026)

 'Disclosure Day' is (hopefully the final iteration) of "That movie" that Spielberg has been making off and on for nearly 50 years. It is the spiritual successor of 1977's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and a highly condensed version of 'Taken', a generation spanning mini series about alien abduction produced by Spielberg that came out in 2002. The film principly follows two likable protagonists, an on the run former government tech expert played by (newish commer) Josh O'Connor, and a Kansas City weather lady played by Emily Blunt. These two are central players in a plot by renagade government agents, and extraterrestrials, to reveal the presence of aliens on Earth going back at least 79 years, which has been covered up by the United States government, quasi governmental agencies and even....

It's a tight, efficient movie, with some good set pieces, good mood pieces, and some time spent contemplating the implications of extraterrestrial existence on organized religion and other matters. Our current "post-truth zeitgeist" is a theme running under the film, but not as explicitly as the post 9/11 imagery in Spielberg's 2005 remake of 'The War of The Worlds'.

The movie has it weaker/shakeir bits, not everything lands and it's somewhat uneven, but it's truely Spielbergian moments and flirting with wonder made it an enjoyable watch and kept me with it throughout. I do wonder however, how well it will fair on a rewatch. The movie felt like it came out about a decade too late, if this had been released close to as is during the Obama years, I think it would have been widley embraced. The movie is getting alot of crap on YouTube, but I'd still recommend it. This is the weakest of the directors four films about aliens, but even a meh Spielberg movie is better then most theatrical releases of today. ***

Sins of Youth (1975)

Also known as "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious", this Italin explotation film is essentially a meaner and more graphic, unauthorized remake of the 1958 Otto Preminger film 'Bonjour Tristesse'. Both films are set in Europe and concern a love triangle between a wealthy older man, his 20ish blond daughter, and the middle aged red head he wants to marry. Heck, Dagmar Lassander even looks a bit like Deborah Kerr, and both movies have the same ending. 

Getting to that ending their are some noticeable differences, including that the perspective step-mother/ step-daughter pair seem to want to fuck each other. There are some artie stylistic elements, but this is still Euro-trash, soft core stuff. At an hour and 16 minutes it's about the perfect length for what it is. **

Demonoid (1981)

  I heard Quentin Tarantino recommended this on a podcast as one of the better entries in the "crawling hand" sub genra of horror movies. Samantha Eggers travels to Mexico where her husband Roy Jensen has invested most of his money in a 300 year old silver mine, but is having trouble getting his superstitious local workers to go very far inside.

 Jensen and Eggers go down deep to prove to the workers that it's safe, they find what looks like a hidden temple inside and take a hand shapped silver container out with them. They were not able to open the container but that night the cursed hand inside gets out, it attacks Roy and possesses him and then the old hand crumbles into dust.

The next day Jensen goes to the mine, hurrangs most of the workers to go inside, then detonates explosives killing and trapping miners inside, he then flees the country. Eggers eventually catches up with him in Las Vegas where a seemingly magical betting streak has attracted a lot of attention. Jensen soon ends up dead, but the spirit of the evil hand proceeds to jump bodies in an effort to get back to and punish Samantha, as she was one of the people who released it from the cave.

Jensen's body is shipped home to California and buried. Eggers tries to convince a skeptical old priest played by Stuart Whitman (who principly worked in Westerns and low budget horror fare) of the reality of the cursed hand. It takes a bit, but Whitman becomes convinced and it's up to him and Samantha to defeat the hand for good. And they do... or do they?

Odd but fun, both tight and all over the place at 92 minutes. **

Weird: The Al Yankovich Story (2022)

 This is a satirical, faux bio-pic of "Weird" Al Yankovich made by Funny or Die for Roku and starting Daniel Radcliff in the lead; the real Al Yankovich was also involved in the production and plays a record producer. There are many recognizable faces in cameo parts throughout, it is essentially one long skit but holds together remarkably well. Reminiscent of a personal favorite of mine: "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story". Evan Rachel Wood does a very good Madonna. **1/2

Golden Exits (2017)

 After a bad breakup, Emily Browning travels from Australia to New York City to work as an intern for archivist Adam Horovitz. Adam Horivitz's current project is archiving the papers of his recently departed father in law (notably the film never tells us what the father in law did for a living, other then that he was apparently a reasonably significant figure in that field, at least in the NYC area). 

Chloe Sevigny is Adam Horovitz's wife, Adam Horovitz cheated on Chloe years ago, he's been pretty contrite since, but Chloe is having trouble fully letting it go. Chloe's sister Mary-Louise Parker low level hates Adam, Adam thinks she's a bitch, a sentiment shared by Mary-Louise Parker's personal assistant Lily Rabe. Lily Rabe in turn vents about this to her sister Lio Tipton, who is married to Jason Schwartzman who is the son of a friend of Emily Browning's mother, and Emily Browning has had a crush on him since she was little and is hoping to reconnect now that she is in New York working for Adam Horovitz, whose good friend Craig Butta is also friends with Jason Schwartzman.

You get the picture, a spidersweb network of soap opera style inter relationships. On occasion the film flirts with semi profound themes. It also makes most of its characters pretty unlikable, trys to shed new contextual light on some of them late in the film, but it dosen't quite work since they've been so unlikable. It has a few moments, but never quite congeals into anything of lasting substance. **

Backrooms (2026)

 Backrooms: Directed by the 20 year old Kane Parsons and based on his web series of the same name, which in turn was inspired by... a meme? The concept of liminal space? The fact that furniture store basements can be creepy? (For this last one I recommend a visit to the Sterling Furniture Comapny in Sugarhouse Utah.)

In San Jose, California in the year 1990, furniture store owner Chiwetel Ejiofor, while investigating the cause of a power drain that has been impacting his utilities bill, discovers a portal to a vast labyrinth that is a kind of Bizaro version of his store. He becomes obsessed with this and eventually convinces some of his employees, as well as his therapist Renate Reinsve to go inside. That experience proves to be something that can not be recommend.

I do however recommend this film. It very successfully balances the surreal discomforts of its horror movie plot, with the psychological discomforts of its two very flawed protagonists. On a budget of only $10 million it has already grossed over $221 million at the box office, making it one of the stand out successes of yet another lackluster year at the movies (It's June and this is the first 2026 release that made me want to actually go to the theater) and makes Kane Parsons the youngest person to have ever directed a blockbuster film. ***

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)

 This is the sequel to 1985's 'Return of the Living Dead', which it's self was an early example of a meta-sequel, in this case to 1968's 'Night of the Living Dead'. The comic chemistry between James Karen and Thom Matthew's was a great strength of the first film, but those characters die there in, so the actors are brought back as different characters with the same dynamic.

The first films A plot is largley replicated in the B plot here, but the first films B plot is replaced by a very different A plot; so the movie does a good job of staying true to what worked in the original, without being too much of remake/rehash, a problem with many an 80s/90s sequel. Still this isn't on the level of the 85 film, though I found it mostly enjoyable all the same. **

Slam Dance (1987)

 'Slam Dance": Hong Kong born American indie director Wayne Wang working from a script by Charlie McFadden from the Criters movies.  Amadeus himself Tom Hulce is a Far Side-esquse newspaper cartoonist who seems to enjoy his job, but chiefly uses it to finance his passion for painting. He has a young daughter who he loves, played the ill fated Judith Barsi, he's married to but separated from her mother Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, whose also an artist. 

The couple is separated largely because of Tom's tendency to sleep around. One of the women he's been sleeping with is Virgina Madson. When Virginia Madson is found dead, Tom is a chief suspect. Detective Harry Dean Stanton is on the case, he quickly determines that Hulce is not the killer, but that Virginia's death is related to a sex scandal involving powerful congressional representative Bobby Nye and corruption inside his own police department.

'Slam Dance' starts out as mostly a character study, but then slowly develops into a murder mystery, with Virgina Madson not turning up dead until roughly a half hour in. I thought the movies change in emphasis worked for it, because their is really not enough here for either a 100 minute character study or a 100 minute mystery, but plenty for a hybrid of the two. The film has one very good twist in it, though the denouncement is only so-so. ***

Washington Square (1997)

 Adaptation of the 1880 Henry James novel of the same name. Long ago and several times since, I've watched 'The Heiress', a 1949 film based on a stage adaptation of the novel. That movie stars Olivia de Havilland as the titular Heiress, Ralph Richardson as her stern father, and Montgomery Clift as the first man to show a romantic interest in her, and to whom she becomes romanticly obsessed. 

When first watching that movie as a somewhat naive twenty something, I figured that since this was the beautiful Olivia de Havilland plainiffed in dress and make up, this was going to be an Ugly Duckling story in which Clift saw the true beauty in her and would ultimately rescue her form a hard hearted father. I was wrong, Clift was basically an opertunist, who saw the plan, naive and not too bright girl as a ticket to worldly fortune. When it becomes clear to him that her father will dis-inherit her should they wed, he abandons her, leaving her to grow into a wealthy but imbittered woman. 

The 1997 'Washington Square' is an expanded, deeper and more nuanced version of the same story. It is 'The Heiress', but up a full point on the Richter Scale; with the novel promising to do more of the same but even more so, I think I need to read it. This film casts Jennifer Jason Leigh as Catherine (so it still has the 'she's too pretty to be plain' misdirect thing de Havilland had in the earlier film), Albert Finney as her father and Ben Chaplin in the Monty Clift part. 

The film starts with Catherine's birth, her mother dies in childbirth and Albert Finney was so deeply in love with her, that having lost her in exchange for such a plan, dull and simple minded daughter is something he can never reconcile to, so he keeps her at a distance. Catherine meanwhile is desperate to be loved, and showers her father with affection that he can only manage to return in a muted fashion. When she meets Ben Chaplin's Morris Townsend at a party, and he continues to see and persue her their after, Catherine is lost in the romantic fantasy of it all, the kind of love she'd long yearned for but never really expected to have, now seems at her doorstep. Her father however sees in Morris only a lazy, unworthy chissler after his money. Yet he also sees his daughter as unworthy of great love. So which of these are the deciding factor in his denying her what will likely be her only shot at passionote love in life.

There are subplot concerning Catherine's two aunts, who are both interesting people, one of whom is played by Maggie Smith. But that father daughter relationship is just fascinating, layered, tragic. Not all that much really happens in 'Washington Square' at a plot level, but on an emotional level it's just devastating. Unobtrusively directed by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, the film was well received by critics but a box office flop, making $1.9 million off a $15 million budget. This is, appropriately, a highly literary film, and one I highly recommend to those of that inclination. ***1/2

Wasted on the Young (2010)

 Oliver Ackland and Adelaide Clemons are students at a private Australian high school; they like each other but they're shy and kind of dance around it. Before the potential couple can get together, Oliver's step brother, and uber-popular king of the school Alex Russll, drugs her and he and his buddies rape her. It takes Adelaide a little while to realize what happend, she wants to go through channels and get Alex suitably punished, realizes he's too well connected, so threatens him with a gun, he taunts her that her life will be ruined if she shoots him, so she kills herself in front of a crowd at school. Oliver then plots a fatal revenge against his step brother.

Heavy stuff. Kind of stylized; unusual and sometimes confusing editing. Their aren't no adults shown in the film, just the teenage characters. Add the Australian setting and the whole thing seems kind of 'Off'. It's an after school special as explotation film. But it's very oddness makes it something of a hypnotic watch. ***

Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997)

 I saw 'Alien' (1979) back in the 90's and I've since seen two of the prequel films, otherwise this is a vastly under consumed franchise for me, especially given its prominence. Well it's seemingly all on HBO Max at the moment, so I thought I'd check some of these boxes off.

I rewatched 'Alien', it holds up, then on to 'Aliens' in which James Cameron took over from Ridley Scott. The movie does a better then anticipated job of wrapping up lose threads from the first film (the cat lives), takes some time getting started, adds some space marines, and gives us one of the most solid third acts in action movie history. ****

'Alien 3' was more devicive then it's predecessors, but I really liked David Fincher's take, very solid screenplay, took some unexpected directions, who could have anticipated prisoners turned warrior monks? ***1/2

'Alien: Resurrection'. Ripley dies at the end of the third one, but a successful franchise can not be stopped. Ripley finds herself brought back as a clone roughly 200 years after the events of the last film, as part of that damned corporations obsession with finding a way of monitizing the deadly xeniomorph via their weapons division. This isn't on the level of the first three, but I appreciated that the Ripley clone is allowed to develop into a character distinct from the original. ***

I got about 15 minutes into 2004's 'Alien vs Predator' before decideding it wasn't worth my time, too bland for its own good, not even an interesting failure. The one thing I'll give it is that by having the Weyland Corporation first encounter the xenomorph in the early 21st century, it's obsession with the creatures in the subsequent films makes a little more sense. But I've seen too many Paul W. S. Anderson films to feel like I'm missing anything here. 

Juror # 2 (2024)

Clint Eastwood directing in his assured, lean but thoughtful style, the best moral quandry film I've seen in awhile. 'Juror # 2' stars Nicholas Hoult as an expectant father who fails in his attempts to get out of jury duty. Once empanald he realizes he may have inadvertently caused the death for which an innocent man is being prosecuted. He wants to do the right thing, but when his lawyer friend Keifer Sutherland advises him that if he steps forward he'll go to prison, Nicholas attempts to stear the jury, which starts out 10 - 2 in favor of conviction, towards an acquittal. Very well done, a solid cast including Zoey Deutch, J. K. Simmons, Toni Collette, Amy Aquino, Leslie Bibb, and Clint's daughter Francesca Eastwood as the dead woman. This movie feels like it's from 30 years ago, but in a good way.  ***1/2

The East (2013)

 Brit Marling co-wrote and stars in 'The East', in which she plays an employee of a private security firm who goes undercover to infiltrate an anarchist collective/ eco terrorist group. The time she spends with them weighs on her thinking and changes some presectives. This is a very smart movie and there were times when I was expecting the obvious, then it went in unexpected directions. I was really impressed. It's sociological character study meets 1970s style conspiracy thriller. ****

The Stone Creek Killer (2025)

 In a small Minnesota town two teenage girls go missing, a professional 'psychic' shows up to help, and the girls bodies a found ritualisticly displayed, the sheriff and the only two other officers on the force face what appears to be a serial killer. Filmed on location with a largely no name cast, in 10 days for $300,000, 'The Stone Creek Killer' is bland, "filler" "entertainment". It is also what comes from my mother, my sister and me selecting a movie based on what could get consensus as an acceptable choice. * 

I also watched the Irish mini-series 'The Dublin Murders' this trip and that was great. Watch that, skip this. 

Drowning Mona (2000)

 Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), the most hated resident of Verplanack, New York (a real small town, that was largely not happy with its portral in this movie) dies in what at first seems like an accident, but may have been murder. Sheriff Danny DeVito has no shortage of suspects, including Mona's son, her husband, the husband's mistress, and DeVito's perspective son in law, who had a buisness dispute with the woman. Great cast includes William Fitchner, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Afflick, and an SNL era Will Farrell as the town's sex addict funeral director. I found it quirky, likeable, unchallanging, and enjoyably small scale. **1/2

Sugar Cookies (1973)

 An arty, erotic crime thriller produced by a young Oliver Stone. Director George Shannon murders his star actress/ lover Lynn Lowery as part of an errotic game. His casting director, friend and sometimes lover Mary Woronov helps him to cover it up; but she then proceeds to hatch a plan to bring him down with the unwitting aid of a woman she finds who looks just like the lady he killed, also played by Lynn Lowery. Pretty nihilistic stuff, some social commentary, lots of boobs. **1/2

Paranoia (1969)

 Also known as 'Orgasmo', 'Paranoia' is a Gialo film which features actress Carrol Baker (still with us at 94) going nude as an American widow who travels to her late husband's Italin villia to recuperate after his death. While there her life is slowly taken over by step siblings who use their sexual wilds, to slowly turn her into a reclusive drunk, who they then try and manipulate into suicide. Pretty racey and decades ahead of its time in depicting bi-sexuality.  ***

The Lady in Red (1979)

 This is a lose adaptation of the life of Polly Hamilton, a farm girl with musical aspirations, who becomes a prostitute and later the girlfriend of John Dillnger. Pamela Sue Martin, a child star who played Nancy Drew in the early 70's, closes out the decade in a much more adult role. Pulpy explotation fair from Roger Corman's New World Pictures has some surprisingly big names involved, from screen writer John Sayles, composer James Horner, to actors Louise Fletcher and Christopher Lloyd. For what this is, it's unusually good. ***

Sisters (1972)

Brian De Palma's Hitchcock tribute is a horror - thriller - mystery, or more concisely a Gailo film. Reporter Jennifer Salt witnesses Margot Kidder commit a murder, but the police don't believe her. Kidder is a former conjoined twin whose sister died as a result of their separation surgery. Periodically Kidder is possed, more psychologically then supernaturally, by her dead sister who is very vengeful. Movie works surprising well for the most part, but I still can't make sense of the last 15 minutes or so. ***1/2

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012)

 Filmed for 3D, you can notice by virtue of gimmicky camera work. This is the movie that actually has Adelaide Clemons in it, she plays a high school version of the girl from the first movie. Somehow Mom got her out of the Upside Down, she now lives with Dad, again played by Sean Bean, I think the only casting carry over from the first film. They move around alot and change names because they are affriad of the cult? Anyway the cult sends Jon Snow to befriend Adelaide and trick her back to Silent Hill, but they give up on him and just kidnap her dad. Jon Snow switches sides, trys to keep Adelaide from going but she goes and then nothing worth remembering happens because I can hardly remember anything from this movie I watched a week ago. Oh, Sean Bean is rescued and Malcom McDowell plays a crazy blind man. This movie was not worth the effort. *

Silent Hill (2006)

 Adelaide Clemens is in the second Silent Hill movie, I like her so I wanted to watch that, so I decided to watch the first movie so I could understand the second one better. Mistake? Any understanding I garnerd was minimal.

Video game adaptation movies are rarly good, that held for this flick. They went all out on atmosphere, story and acting were afterthoughts. Movie is largley boring/confusing, though I found the climax entertaining as it was pretty nuts. 

What's it about: Nice Ohio couple adopt a little girl named Sharon. Sharon has repeated nightmares where she is in Hell, she sleep walks out of the house and trys to throw herself in a local gorge. Family trys to get their daughter help, but none of it works, so Mom figures out daughter was born in a West Virginia town named 'Silent Hill'. Against husband's wishes wife takes daughter to Silent Hill to try and get answers.

Only Silent Hill is closed down, abandoned, the roads closed off. In the middle 70's a fire started in the coal mines that ran under the town, so town evacuated. Question, if this happend in the Nixon era how was a little girl of the Dubya era born there? Question is never really answered. Though it probably has to do with the religious cult that still exists in Silent Hill and view her as a kind of religious figure to be sacrificed or venerated or both, this is also not made clear.

Also Silent Hill seems to be in a kind of pocket dimension, an anex of Hell. The people that live their seem to think the whole world has decended into the same apocalyptic reality in which they dwell, though their is some devision within the cult and a number of its members have been semi banished. Also there is a cloud of darkness that I think can eat people? When it shows up the cult sounds old warning sirens and people take shelter. This is all just a portion of the overcrowded and often unclear mythology of Silent Hill. 

In the end mother and daughter escape the town, but are still stuck in the pocket dimension which is misty and kind of like The Upside Down in Stranger Things. It's a mess of a movie, with a small scattering of elements that kind of work. * 1/2

Delinquite Shool Girls (1975)

 Three escaped mental patients have a grand time at a girls boarding school, until stumbling upon its karate class. This is basically a series of comic vinetes of various levels of crudity, losely tied together by a minimal plot. For what it is, it's about as good as you could expect it to be. **

Mister Roberts (1955)

 When I was a middle schooler I saw the navy comedy 'Ensign Pullver' and really liked it; but I didn't see the movie to which it was a sequel, 'Mister Roberts' until the last few weeks. Based on a hit Broadway play 'Mister Roberts' is a comedy/drama set mainly on a Navy supply ship during the closing months of World War II. It mixes humor and poignatncey well and has a first rate cast including Henry Fonda as the title character the ships first officer, James Cagney as the asshole captain, William Powell in his final screen role as the ships wise doctor (though the actor lived into the 1980s), and Jack Lemmon who won an Oscar as the good natured, but scheming and lazy Ensign Pullver; non of these actors returned for the 1964 sequel, with Burl Ives, Walter Mathieu and Robert Walker Jr. taking over the latter 3 roles respectively. I rewatched 'Ensign Pullver' after this and it's pretty fun, but 'Mister Roberts' is by far the superior movie. ***1/2

Long Shot (2019)

 A recently unemployed journalist (Seth Rogan), gets a job as a speech writer for a Secretary of State with presidental ambitions (Charlize Theron), who was also his next door neighbor growing up and his childhood crush.  Guess what happens? I thought this romantic comedy/political fable struck the right balance, a pleasant/ boarderline endering watch. Rogan and Theron have a surprising chemistry. Also staring Bob Odenkirk as the sitting president, a former actor who played the president on a success TV series, and Andy Serkis under heavy makeup as basically Roger Ailes. ***

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.

Episode 4 'Tme and Again'

This is a time paradox episode, feels rather NextGen. A roughly 21st century level civilization is messing around with an unstable power source which causes the destruction of their world; only maybe it wasn't them, maybe it was Voyager attempting to rescue Janeway and Paris when they are slung back in time about 36 hrs after visiting the now uninhabited planet to investigate what happed to it? Kes's extrasensory perception start to manifest in this episode, a hold over from her ancestors 500 generations back. By the end of the episode the time paradox is resolved, the alien civilization saved, and Kes is the only member of the crew to retain some sense of what happend. Here they seem to be preparing Kes to serve in something similar to Deanna Troi's role on NextGen, though if memory serves this use of Kes's character is largely abandoned, leaving Kes the most underused character on Voyager.

Episode 5 "Phage"

Neelix takes it upon himself to start being the ships cook, he also insists on being part of an away mission searching for dilithium on a small planetiod. Turns out the diilthaum signature was a trap from a race called the Vidiian's, who will be a recurring species over the first few seasons. The Vidiians where once a noble race, whose species has been plauged by a highly adaptive virus called the "Phage". Think leprosy, it breaks down the organs so periodically they need to be replaced, they try to harvest from corpses where they can but are not above stealing from living beings. They steal Neelix's lungs, the doctor creates a set of holographic lungs as temporary solution, but ineffect it's an Iron lung situation which keeps Neelix immobile in sick bay (much to the Doctor's annoyance, he's a terrible patient). Voyager tracks down the Vidiian's who have already altered and implanted the lungs into one of their own. With their suppior medical technology the Vidiian's are able to adapt a lung donaited by Kes as a replacement for Neelix's. 

Episode 6 "The Cloud"

Voyager encounters what they first think to be a nebula, but it turns out to be a space organism as big as a solar system. They accidentally injure it, but they are successful in repairing the damage. The crew continue to adjust to their isolation, and their limited power supplies. introduction to the Chez Sandrine holodeck program, a recreation of a bar in Marseilles, France that Lt. Paris used to hang out in; this becomes in the early seasons a communal gathering place for the crew during off hours. Chakotay starts teaching Janeway about American Indian spirituality and she meets her spirit guide, a salamander (Voyager is an odd show). 

Episode 7 "Eye of the Needle"

Voyager discovers a small, collapsing wormhole just big enough to transport through and it leads to the Alpha Quandrant. That's good. However, the other end of the wormhole is in Romulan space and 20 years in the past, during the Romulans isolationist period. That's bad. Voyager does make contact with a noble spirited Romulan scientist who agress to transmit messages from the crew to Starfleet 20 years hence. That's good. However a consultation with ships records show that said scientist died 4 years before Voyager got sucked to the Delta Quadrant. That's bad. Subplot involves The Doctor providing Kes medical training and deciding he wants a name. The Doctor's search for a name becomes a continuing storyline in the early part of the shows run. 

Episode 8 "Ex Post Facto"

This is a murder mystery episode. Tom Paris is accused and convicted of the murder of a Banean scientist who was assisting Voyager with enhancing their navigation systems. He was apparently having an affair with the man's trophy wife. The Banean punishment for such offenses is implanting the victims final memories in the perpetrator who is then forced to relive them every 14 hours. Tuvok investigates through interviews and mind meld, he discovers that the memory engrams where alternated to make Tom look like the murderer and encoded with the doctors research; the plan being to have the Numiri (with whom the Baneans are at war) abduct Paris and steal said research. Tuvok is able to use the trophy wife's stranger hating little dog, to prove that the doctor who implanted the memories was the Banean traitor. Said false memories are removed from Paris and Voyager goes on its way.

Episode 9 "Emanations"

Voyager detects the presence of an undiscovered element in the ring system of an uninhabitable planet. Early indications show this element may have helpful uses for the resource poor ship, so they send Chakotay, Torres and Kim on an away mission. On one of the asteroids they find in caves many alien corpses encased in cocoon like fiberious shrouds (the new element), this proves to be a bioproduct of the decay of the alien bodies. Chakotay convinces Janeway that as this is a burial site they should leave the bodies and new element un touched. Before they can leave however Ensign Kim is sucked into a "subspace vacuole",  the same phenomenon that has been transporting the corpses to the asteroids, and has now stated depositing bodies on Voyager.

Kim awakes in a sort of 'funeral pod' on an alien world, it is not clear where exactly he is in the galaxy, but it seems to be a great distance from Voyager. Kim meets members of a species that call themselves the Vhnori. The Vhnori have a tradition where elderly, infirm and seriously ill or injured members of their species have their lives taken in these funeral pods, in facilities located around their world on spots where these subspace vacuole's seemingly naturally accure. These Vhnori do not believe in an amorphous soul, but rather that their dead must be physically transported to their afterlife or be lost forever. The Vhnori apparently have not had contact with Alien worlds and believe that Kim has for unknown reasons come from their after life, and his claims to have come from a Starship must be delusions brought on by his journy from the afterlife.

While the Vhnori are deciding what do with Kim, he befriends a crippled Vhnori who has come to end his life so as to not be a burden on his family. Kim inadvertently causes this man to have a faith crises and he decides he dosen't want to die. Similarly the Voyager crew precipitates a faith cries in a Vhnori woman, who was only "mostly dead" when deposited the ship, and who The Doctor brings back to life in order to get more context to aid the crew in retrieving the lost Mr. Kim. The Vhorni woman is killed once more in a failed attempt to transport through the vacuole, they deposit her (and the other bodies placed on Voyager) onto an asteroid and leave her dead this time. While Kim takes the place of the Vhorni male in a funeral pod, using the vacuole to get back to Voyager where he is resurrected by The Doctor. The Vhorni male meanwhile makes his way to some remote mountains where he has some friends willing to take care of him; This had been his preference all along, but the man's wife feared the location was too remote and that he'd die without access to a funeral pod. So ineffect this Mr. Vhorni faked his death to get away from his nagging wife. 

This episode has a good, fairly hard sci-fi story, and an interesting take on questions of life and death..