Frank Herbert's Children of Dune-Too Much Compression

This is the follow up to the SciFi Channel's adaptation of Dune, the classic science fiction epic by Frank Herbert.  Interestingly, both this mini-series and it's predecessor were both highly rated, but Skiffy, due to some changes in management, no doubt, did not seek to follow up on this and went the mass pandering route they did.  It is a creative desert they only recently have begun emerging from again.

"Imagine Greater", does not mean wrestling and reality TV.  That is "follow the leader" with the flimsiest of genre skins at best.

Anyway...

This one does continue the story of Paul Atreides (Alec Newman) who has become Maudib, leading the Fremen of Arrakis on a campaign across the known universe.  They have been taking planets left and right, raising the flag of Maudib far and wide.  Originally full of promise at its utterance, the name of Maudib becomes a curse on the lips of some.  Paul has taken to wandering among his people in disguise, listening to what they have to say and he has begun to believe that what started as a well needed change in the galactic order has begun to rot at its core.  But power tends to have its own momentum so he is at something of a loss as to what to do about it.  Machinations about him move, like the workings of House Corrino, and eventually, Chani gives birth to his children, son Leto II and daughter Ghanima.  Duncan Idaho reappears as a Tleilaxu ghola (a kind of golem/clone but breaks his programming in the assassination plot.  Eventually, Paul disappears and becomes a legend, some believing he is now a wandering prophet amongst the people.  Alia, his sister, the Abomination, brought into being when Paul's mother Jessica consumed the Water of Life when she was with child, takes over as regent.  She seems to be destabilizing, however.  With all those elements in play, and more to come, time is ripe for chaotic change in the galaxy.

This was an epic undertaking, and IMO, mini-series are one of the best approaches to adapting this material.  Now, Dune Messiah is a relatively short book compared to Dune or Children of Dune.  Still, that is a bit of an odd choice to mash the two together.  Despite that, and what seems a bit more of a reduced budget for special effects, they did bring this chapter of the Dune saga to life.  I especially note Alec Newman as Paul and his effective portrayal of Paul in his wandering prophet period.  Also, Daniella Amavia made a great Alia.  Her dance background made her grace as a fighter totally believable, and her natural charisma translated well as Alia descended into madness. 

I have to note Steven Berkoff as Stilgar.  Though he is decent, he did not compare to Uwe Ochsenknecht, who played him in Dune the mini-series.  I have no idea why they did not bring him back, but to not do so was a mistake.

Worth getting, especially if you are fan of this story.  Skiffy, more like this, please.

Mirror, Mirror-No Seven Years of Bad Luck Here

 

 

 

 

Fairy tales, that subset of fantasy that, in a post Disneyfication landscape, has for the longest time meant tame and kid-friendly.  Interestingly, though, Disney has been broadening it's audience for years, seeking a more adult audience as well as a general one, even with fairy tale characters, as witnessed by the show Once Upon A Time.  However, those characters aren't owned by Disney, leaving others to take their own cracks at those legends when the spirit moves them.  Such is the case with Mirror, Mirror, a spin on the classic Snow White tale.

 

 

First off, we have the Evil Queen, played with a sense of nasty fun by Julia Roberts, who, though a dabbler in magick, manages her magical talent as wrecklessly as her kingdom.  Hence, she is warned by her underlings, both natural and supernatural, that her powers are stretched to their maximum and a reckoning is coming, sooner or later.  Like a classic dictator, she engages in any means fair or foul to secure her throne and to pursue her whims.  The king has vanished and his legitimate heir apparent, Snow White (Lilly Collins), is kept out of sight and out of mind. 

 

Prince Andrew Alcott (Armie Hammer) an unmarried royal from a rich neighboring kingdom makes an appearance in the court and the Queen sees him as her golden opportunity to shore up her rule and  resources as well as sait her libedo.  When the Prince is seen enjoying the company of Snow White, she banishes snow and fakes her death.

 

Snow ends up finding herself falling in with a bunch of dwarves who have a side gig as bandits.  They eventually take her in, due to her friendly nature and cooking accumen.  In return, they begin teaching her fighting and banditry.  As secrets become unraveled in the kingdom, Snow becomes ready to fight the fight she must, physically, politically and magically.

 

I don't know why this one didn't do so well at the box office.  I haven't met a lot of people who enjoyed it.  In yet another mysterious year where somehow cinematic storytellers were pursuing similar themes (yes, fairy tales are a rage right now, but TWO Snow White films), this one was the clear underdog.  But with a great cast, sumptuous visuals perfect for it's fairy tale atmosphere and a story that was clearly written with a sense of fun and a cast that put forth that spirit, it deserved more than it got in the way of praise.

 

So I shall give it.   Mirror, Mirror, good flickage, my lovelies.  I'm not even a big fan of the films of director Tarsem Signh.  He's known for visually stunning and mindbending movies like The Cell and The Fall. The narrative here is much more straightforward than what he usually does, and this is fine.  Visually, there is no mistaking this rendition of Snow White for any other.

 

Again, good flick.



The Serpent And The Rainbow-The Voodoo That I Do

I have a fetish for women's armpits.  Gonna just throw that one out there.  Besides being a fervent big boob guy (natural, please), I've always enjoyed women's underarms.  Don't ask me why, but it goes back as far as I can remember.  When a lady shows off her pits in a movie or TV show, it has always stuck in my memory.  Two films especially stood out with such.  Right in the middle of a sex scene, usually early on, in the first Phantasm as well as Serpent and the Rainbow, the female protagonist in the throes of ecstacy, or sometimes just doffing her upper garment, shows off her armpits.  I remember that in my one previous viewing, the female protagonist, a doctor played by Cathy Tyson, lifts her arms to the heavens in ecstacy.  Ah, yes, sexy.  Saw her lovelies, too.  Now, for some reason I remember it being in the middle of a voodoo ritual.  Twas not the case.  Just lovemaking, the first instance of such between her character and the ethnobotanist/anthropologist Dennis Alan, played by Bill Pullman.

Yes, she had sexy armpits.  And boobs.

But despite the scene not being one of voodoo ritual, voodoo ritual is what you get in this film by horror master Wes Craven.  Based on a book by the same name published three years earlier, this film shows Pullman's character being drawn to Haiti on consignment by a corporation to obtain a sample of the legendary zombie powder of voodoo legend, on the idea it can revolutionize anesthetic procedures, save lives, and make said corporation a truckload of cash.  Even before Alan comes to Haiti, he finds himself pursued by a sense of approaching evil, supernatural menace, though he also apparently finds his spirit animal/guardian, a jaguar.

But off to Haiti he goes, finding a land in turmoil, buried in mysticism, and where the normal laws of science and civilization seem to have a tenuous at best grasp on reality.

I have to admit, watching Craven's ouvre of late, I'm not the biggest fan.  His dialogue seems ham fisted, his characters are flat and obvious and the threats are too obvious, they don't play with your mind nearly as much.  This is not the case with Serpent.

From the start, there is the question of mind vs. reality, and the intriguing idea that the two aren't nearly as far apart as we like to believe in Western culture.  Also, the political instability angle in Haiti was important, though background in the narrative.  Alan wasn't just up against "powers and principalities", he was up against a very real flesh and blood threat.  And, unlike on the spiritual plane, where Dargent Peytraud, Captain of the Haitian secret police was simply an evil and powerful sunovabitch, in the "real world", he was a hard man doing a tough job in a nation on the verge of coming apart.

Makes the evil a little harder to dissect.

Subtlety not often seen in a horror film, much less a Wes Craven flick.  This was a darn good horror film and possibly Craven's best.

Byzantium-Yes, There Are Good Vampire Movies Still

I'll say this for director Neil Jordan.  You take a look at his resume, he doesn't look like a horror director.  But he is one on atmosphere, also very plain in his other excellent vampire film, the great adaptation of Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire, starring Tom Cruise as Lestat.   He does return to the vampire genre with Byzantium, and his touch with atmospherics as well as narrating tales of flesh eating immortals wafting down through history has not lost it's touch.  If you are looking for overly sentimental vampires acting like creepy teenagers, this is not your movie.  If you are looking for an over the top actioner with vampiric superheroes, this is also not your film.  This one is about blood sucking immortals trying to make it in the world of mortals.  Sure, they may be immortal and individually far more than a match for any mortal, but piss off the masses and set them with a mind to murder...well, out come the pitchforks and torches.

 

 

 

That is the world of Clara and Eleanor Webb, a mother and daughter vampire pair who have been drifting through the world for a few centuries.  Clara had Eleanor when she was a human prostitute in the Napoleonic era.   Later, she received her dark gift through guile and seeing her moment (the vampires in this world limit the gift to males) and later, when she had her chance, brought ther daughter over as well.  Eventually, they drift into seaside London and find a hotel that has seen better days, occupied by one man.  They wend his way into his graces and Clara decides to open up the old prostitution business to make use of all these rooms.  Eleanor goes to school, writes gothic, biographical stories about her life as a vampire and meets a boy she likes.  All this while, the police are tracking them, and they fear this fraternal vampire order is as well.

 

But even for immortals, there comes a time where the children need to fly from the nest and fend for themselves.

 

Moody without being dreary.  Thoughtful without being pretentious.  Taking it's premise seriously without being full of itself, Byzantium is a good vampire flick that offers some new looks as well as old tropes, beautifully shot and you actually care about these characters and their fates.

 

Good one.

The Howling-Some Monsters Just Want to Join The Burbs

Take one future movie Mom (Dee Wallace who will play Elliot's maternal unit in ET), playing Karen White, a TV news anchor investigating a serial killer case.  Her encounter with the killer leaves her traumatized, which begins to affect both her work and her relationship with her husband.  She consults with a shrink who was advising on the killer case, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick McNee), who advises a stay for her and her husband to relax, a place called The Colony.  She goes and begins mixing with the folksy, eccentric folks there, but quickly begins to get a vibe that there is more to this place than meets the eye.

See,  there be werewolves out.  Some believe that they can temper their wild natures and coexist with humans in the modern world.  Some are of the opinion, why bother? 

And there it is, a modern werewolf tale.  Not limited to the full moon, these shapeshifters can shift whenever they wish.  They have the silver bullet and fire weaknesses, but when in human guise, you can't tell who they are and that they want to eat your face.

The wild vs the civilized.  A rational person realizes and is at peace with both.  We were savage before we were civilized and one only has to go to the news to see that the savage, the wild, lives with us still, bursting out in all sorts of unhealthy ways.

This film is honest about that.

A werewolf classic.  Don't know why it took me so long to see it.

PS.  The werewolf transformation sequences in here are good, especially considering the era.  Though the ones to be seen in An American Werewolf in London as well as Michael Jackson's Thriller are better.  This film is still the gods.

Frankenstein's Army-I Don't Recommend Enlisting

I've another dose of indie film here, but one that again shows you just what a subjective pastiche the horror genre can be.  I've no doubt there will be crowd that will totally get off on Frankenstein's Army.  I'm just not in that crowd.  Let me explain...

Done in the "found footage" style, though as my good friend Mike Watt of Happy Cloud Pictures (check out his stuff, such as Resurrection Game and Feast of Flesh), the film stock is NOT anything like what you saw out of the era, such as color and level of resolution and how the lights look (but hey, if it was in black and white, you wouldn't have all the GOREGOREGORE!!)...anyway... 

It is World War 2, the Eastern Front.  A squad of Soviet infantry operating behind the lines stumbles across what looks like some kind of lab.  After finding disturbing clues that the Germans shelled their own real estate, they turn the power on and find the damn place crawling with clockwork creatures that are a combo of madcap mechanics and corpsely flesh.  Slowly, they begin to lose numbers to these things, as they get closer to the source of the mystery...Dr. Frankenstein, the one who made the monster, had a grandson.  And the kid is bugfrick nuts.

And that is what it comes down to.  The Soviet soldiers reveal great inhumanity all along the campaign trail and you really didn't feel that much for the bastards, considering their callousness as in no real way balanced out.  Frankenstein is WAY crazier than his grandfather, who really was just too ambitious for his own good.  However, it really doesn't lend well to the movie plots.  Sure, he's throwing these monsters together but it is not clear what his goal is.  As Mr. Spock once said, "Madness has no motive, or reason.  But it may have a goal."  But this guy, he mumbles some stuff, but it frankly makes no sense, not even in an insane kind of way.  Finally, sure, the critters were the work of "genius" in the way they operated at all, but they made no sense.  Just crazy patchworks, not really effective at combat.  The Russians lost their lives not due to the lethal effectiveness of the monsters, just these "hardened soldiers" played horror movie stupid to the hilt.

The movie was really just an exercise in gore and mayhem.  If that is the way you like your horror, this might do you.  But, if you like a point, interesting characters, a reason for being re. the villainy and if you are going to go "found footage", authenticity, you will be out on all counts.

Pass.

Computer Chess-Game Over. Shall We Play Again?

Ah, the early nineteen eighties, the beginning of the personal computing era, pre-Windows.  Horn-rimmed baby geniuses were whipping their creations for all they were worth to build the future.  Build it, they did.  Long term, I firmly believe that it will be something cool, even wonderful.  But right now, baby is still in it's terrible twos and we are cleaning up the poopy as we try to figure out just what it is we have wrought and just what sort of adult will it grow into. 

This little indie scifi thinker was made in that era, when those fellas were doing said driving, in this case, at a convention where they showed off chess programs.  They would play the computers against each other and the best program would square off against a chess champion waiting to best the winner.  This is before Deep Blue and the idea that a computer program could beat a human chess player was unthinkable.

Unkept hair and awkward social presences, check.  Sheer computer passion and genius?  Check.  Hot lady geek just waiting for a moment to remove glasses and top (neither happens, though if it had, it would have been glorious), check.

Big machine mystery?  Oh, heck yeah.

Problem is, they didn't fill the intervening space with characters I felt interested in or compelled by.  The central dilemmas, I could not care less about.  Mostly, I felt a little awkward by anything not completely computer related.

Yes, the mystery was there, but unlike, say, PI, which had a similar premise but a far more interesting execution, this one failed to really build on it's premise and just kind of left me cold.

Yeah, that was weird at the end, but a whole lot of not much to get to it.

Try again.

Man of Steel-Not As Gritted Up As Some Might Think...

Marvel Studios began a bold gamble that many believed it would...should have failed before now.  No way that any studio could begin a full interpretation of a broad comic book universe to the big screen and have the larger non-comic reading public care.  No way they could kick it off with a secondary character.  No way, no way.  Shows that both Hollywood executives and the masses aren't visionaries.  Those sorts generally aren't the cutting edge, frontiersman types.

Well, that frontier has been established.  DC Comics would like to do something similar with its characters.  They have had greater success than Marvel with animation, but when it comes to silver screen live action, of late, unless it begins with "Bat" and ends with "Man" (or "Dark Knight"), they've found the road slow going.  But this summer, they decided to revisit Superman, post Nolan-Dark Knight, to hopefully kick off suck a cinematic universe.  And it would seem, they have succeeded fantastically, as the box office worldwide rewarded their efforts to the tune of  $662,845,518, a handsome profit on a budget of around 225 mil.  Not quite Dark Knight numbers, but easily enough to go ahead with their attempt.

I'm just going to say out front, from my second viewing on Blu Ray, I love this film.  It is a very different interpretation of Superman, Man of Steel.   I mean, it is still recognizable as Superman.  Kal-El, of the House of El, son of Jor-El and Lara, is sent away from his homeworld before its destruction.  General Zod, leader of Krypton's military, tries to stage a coup and winds up getting banished to the Phantom Zone.  He vows vengeance.  Little Kal crashes in the American Midwest and is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent and grows up in Smallville.  After a loving but challenging at times childhood, given his alien heritage, he eventually leaves home to try to find himself.  His activities eventually attract the attention of an intrepid journalist, Lois Lane, and eventually, Zod is revived and he comes calling.

Some have called this "dark and gritty".  I don't think it is necessarily dark.  It more reflects the tension of what it would be like if an alien with godlike powers did indeed show up in our midst, how we might react at first until he proved himself to us.  Further, how much more difficult it would be if destruction came in his wake, seeminly due to his presence.  But Henry Cavil really nails the compassion and the desire to do good.  "I'm not your enemy."  He goes out of his way to aid those in peril.  He experiences joy at learning some of the more fun aspects of his powers, such as flight.

The rest of the cast is solid, too.  Amy Adam's Lois is brassy and tough without being obnoxious.  Lawrence Fishburn's Perry White is tough, but compassionate, a shepperd hearding cats, ie a major metropolitan newspaper staff.  The Kents are terrific, especially Kevin Kostner as Jonathan.  I've heard some complain that he didn't hit the role with the unabashed, unapologetic idealism that previous versions of him did.  I disagree.  I think he successfully portrayed a good man in incredibly difficult circumstances trying to advise his son who is a being in entirely unprecedented circumstances.  Trying to give him strong values while impressing him with the unfortunate aspects of parts of reality in this world.

Director Zack Scnyder forgoes lots of his usual hooks, like stylish slo-mo to more emotionally ground this tale, make it more matter of fact, which is all to the good.  So when things do go superpowered and beyond normal human movement, it has more of an impact, yet seems more human than some of his other work.  It is a stylish choice that succeeds.

Also, there's lots of little Easter eggs for long time Superman fans, of the comics, Smallville and previous films.

The next film will introduce Batman to the DC cinematic universe, and rumor has it we will also get Lex Luthor (though not as the primary villain, all the better) and maybe even Wonder Woman.

I for one can't wait.

Octopussy-I Spent Many A Time Spinning that Rita Coolidge 45 on Turntable...

...I sure did.  "All  Time High", I like that song, always have.  The tune has it's haters amongst the Bond fans, but I sure am not one of them.  Maybe it is because I was exposed to it in my coming of age years, but screw it, I like it, like the opening animation of Octopussy it is set to, etc etc.  It just works. 

It is no secret I'm not a fan of the Moore era overall.  Recently, however, I've been reviewing the Moore era, and though it is still decidedly inferior and too...Adam West-ish, it still produces some good stories, despite the jokes, the double takes and the "family friendliness" of the films in a franchise where "family" really has no place.  But anyway...

This film, like most Bond films, involves a plan within a plan, with a Soviet general, the hawkiest of hawks, Orlov, in hoc with an Afghan prince-in-exile (The USSR was engaged in an occupation of Afghanistan at the time), supplying the prince, a collector of treasures, with Russian goods.  Khan, in return, gave him replicas, which Orlov was intending to use in a plot to use the fake treasures to hide a bomb, detonate it at a US Air Force in Europe air show, sparking WWIII, without the knowledge of his comrades, making it look like the US was aggressing, giving the Russians an excuse to pour across the Fulda Gap.

Yeah, long, convoluted, typical of cinematic Bond, especially of the era.  Geopolitical trappings, really to set up 007 to do what he does.  Go to someplace exotic (India), score with hot chicks (Octopussy, played by Maude Adams, as well as a few of her henchewomen) and trade bon mots with Q and the sidekicks and heavies that share his adventures.

And really, this film does it ok.  There are a few groaner moments that are unbecoming of the legendary British agent with a licence to kill.  But fortunately, they are few in number.  For the Moore era, this is one of the good ones.  Not the best by far, but worth having in the library.

The Conjuring-Some People Can Do Horror Flicks

 

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I love me some horror.  When it comes to horror stories, however, especially cinematic horror, I'm fussy, picky.  I have supremely high standards, which relatively few horror movies come to.  I want atmosphere.  I want to experience genuine chills.  I want my mind played with.  Blood is ok, even necessary, but in itself accomplishes nothing.  And, I want characters I care about, that engage me, that convince me of their humanity.  In fact, I would say the last element is one of the most critical.  For, when the dying starts, if these people were just carboard lambs for the slaughter, who cares when they die?

 

 

This film is directed by James Wan, an up and coming young director from Malaysia who has made his bones in horror.  He seems to understand horror filmmaking.  In fact, you listen to the commentary, you see he is big on atmosphere.  He especially is big on the soundscape, the mood set by the sound used to create the proper feel, so when the scares come, they are genuine.

 

 

This film is based on a case by a couple of veteran paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren.  Ed is a Navy vet, former police officer and self trained "demonologist".  Lorraine is a psychic.  And, though what they do takes a toll, they believe they have a calling and continue this pursuit.  In this case, which took place in 1971, a family is haunted in a farm house by an entity that targets the mother in the family.  Eventually, it is found out the spirit is the shade of a witch who tried to sacrifice her children to Satan and later hung herself.  It is also mentioned the house contains other spirits, but her's is the most powerful and malevolent.

 

 

The Warrens bring their team in and during an investigation in which several strange events are experienced, an exorcism is conducted. 

 

Now, I tend to take paranormal phenomenon seriously.  So the case of the Warrens, which I previously was unaware of, brings in a fascinating angle.  However, the question is, does The Conjuring work first and foremost as a horror film?  I'm pleased to say, yes, it does.  The cast is mostly unknowns, at least to me.  But they are all engaging and well written, so I felt for their plight.  The only actor I recognized is Ron Livingston, Peter from Office Space as well as an astronaut in the one season wonder, Defying Gravity.

 

But indeed, this one is one of mood, creating that genuine suspense, that of fear.  When the strange things begin happening...you feel it.

 

Good flick.

Destroy All Monsters-or Even Godzilla Had His Roger Moore Period...

 

That's the thing about periods during Toho Studios' prolific production, is that sheer demand created great supply in the giant monster epics turned out.  Naturally, monsters will be a draw for the kiddies and the studios, not being complete morons, will start aiming films more for a general audience.

The original Godzilla, released in the 1950s, is an anti-nuclear cautionary tale filmed in grim black and white.  It details the tale of a mutant dinosaur woken up by atomic detonations in Japan and subsequently goes to do what giant monsters do, that is, reduce the value of real estate with a quickness.  As time when on, the rationale for Godzilla's rampages took on additional dimensions besides a form of nuclear protest.  The idea for kaiju, these giant monsters, the ones native to Earth, took on almost an elemental nature.  They are creatures intended to either signal that the elements of Earth are out of balance, or are agents intended to restore the same.  Godzilla is one of these key balancers, even more is his flame throwing giant turtle cousin, Gamera, friend of all children.

Interesting thing, though, as time went on, Godzilla took on more of a "family friendly" image, as more and more kids and families made up Godzilla's audience.  From 1954's atomic powered rampaging engine of destruction, Godzilla gradually turned into a staunch hero, only there to occasionally give stupid, slow learning humans a smack.  He even had a "cute" son. 

Destroy All Monsters is pretty much a kaiju wrestlemania.  Several of the main recurring monsters in Tojo's stable have been relocated in a preserve called "Monsterland".  It is explained that the island is escape proof, having devices tailored to each individual beastie to keep them from exercising in wanderlust.  There is plenty of food, so that motivation isn't one for wandering, nor do they have a reason to try to eat each other.  So you have the unlikely scenario of Godzilla (and son), Rodan, Mothra, and others happily occupying this island under the watchful eyes of their leaders.

Until meddling aliens who look perfectly human show up.  Their plan is to create a perfect "scientific" society on Earth. So, to execute their plan, they intended to release all the inmates of Monsterland to wreck some cities to set the stage of their social engineering.

Yeah.

Don't analyze it too deeply.  It really is just what it is to throw all these monsters in one place to give them an excuse to knock heads.  WrestleMania, kaiju style.  That is really all it is.  Nothing deeper.

Though Tojo realized at points, like Eon and James Bond, as well as DC and Batman (Adam West), that making such a primal, elemental character too family friendly, too "safe", really isn't true to the character or really, not where you get the best stories.

So eventually, they bring back the danger, the risk.

But...it is what it is.  Destroy All Monsters.  For fans of kaiju, it doesn't completely suck.  For everyone else, it may be good for a laugh.

Did I Offend You? If That Is All You Have To Complain About, Praise The Lord...

Facebook is an interesting animal.  It is the electronic equivalent of a public thoroughfare.  It is a town square, complete with bulletin boards, soap box speeches, overheard conversations, street preaching, barkers, stump speeches and so forth.  Yes, there are privacy settings for when you want your palaver to be restricted to a certain huddle.  And yes, unscrupulous sorts seek to peer into your huddle, mostly try to sell you stuff, but also for other more nefarious reasons. But...though it is merely an electronic facsimile, it is...life.  Where human speech and human thought happen.

Here's a reality check.  Life, real life, real thought, is not safe, is not clean, is not child safe.  It is the real thought/speech life where real humans interact.  And adults aren't just a bunch of people clustered with toddlers seeking to shield them from the more unsavory aspects of the real world.  To childproof it, as it were.  The public thoroughfare is not build around your sensitivities, hangups and sacred cows.  And there are those who carry various battle scares and seek to avoid references to things that tempt their souls, be it sex, booze or whatever.  But those things are also a legit part of human discourse and can be discussed in an "adult" manner.

Real life is not about anyone's sensibilities.  Life is just life.  There are those of it who want to discuss it from one perspective, whatever it is.  And we often do it in the public thoroughfare.  Some are troubled by "brazen" honesty and a disregard for sacred cows.  And that's ok.  Be troubled.

I'm just going to suggest the public thoroughfare may not be for you.

Or, think of it like a big Gallagher show and wear a raincoat.  Because wherever you are in the social media space, it is all the front row.

Pacific Rim-Bottom Line, Giant Robots Fighting Giant Monsters Are Cool...

Guilermo Del Toro is an amazing director.  He has the mind of an indie storyteller with things unique to say and the heart of a true, blue fanboy.  He loves the things of the imagination and desires to play with those toys on the cinematic stage.

When I was a lad, one of my favorite toys was a two foot tall Shogun Warrior.  Mattel put these out and one Christmas, I and my brother both received one.  Mine was Great Mazinga, while Chip got Raydeen.  We had many a battle with them.  I don't think my love for robots started there, as that goes further back.  But giant fighting mecha, this is where that started.  Mattel also released a Godzilla, and though I played with that one, never owned him.  That's where it got started, and later, when shows came out featuring giant anthropomorphic fighting machines, like Robotech, or games like Battletech, I was, and still am, all over it.

Interestingly, giant monsters have long dominated cinema, but giant fighting robots have not.  They have featured in Kaiju tales, but Mr. del Toro is the first filmmaker to give them the big budget film treatment alongside city demolishing monsters, unleashing them in his multi-million cinematic sandbox.

The scenario is this.  In the present day or near future, Kaiju, giant monsters, emerge from the bottom of the Pacific ocean.  A dimensional gateway has opened there and a monster came through.  The first was stopped with conventional forces, planes, tanks, ships and troops, after much destruction.  All was well after but the rebuilding, until another emerged.  Humanity quickly realized this was not over.  This was ongoing, and present weapons were not sufficient.  So the Jaeger program was developed, giant humanoid combat machines, each piloted by at least two operators.  These weapons pushed back and for awhile, held the line.  But the monsters kept coming through.  The powers that be had not figured out a way to shut the portal and they kept getting more powerful.

Our key figures in this tale include Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnan), a veteran Jaegar pilot who left the program after his mecha Jipsy Danger was critically damaged in combat that killed his brother, while they were mentally joined (that's how pilots control and carry the load of Jaeger maneuvering). His new partner, eventually, is the lovely, agile and formidable Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), a couple of crazy scientists and Ron Pearlman rocking some awesome shoes.  And there's Idris Alba, playing General Stacker Pentacost, commander of the Jaeger program, playing a character that reminds me a lot of Edward James Olmos' take on William Adama in Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica.

Those are our players, and the stage is the world.  The pieces are in place and the finale awaits.  And that is the thing about Mr. del Toro's vision.  With Pacific Rim, he didn't just create a full fledged salute to cinema and sandboxes of old.  He made a statement.  A horror and Lovecraft fan, he came out and said, "I love HP Lovecraft's stories, but disagree with his conclusions.  The end is not inevitable and the inbetween moments do matter."  Yes, they do.  And that is optimism for our age, optimism we really need.

Well put, Mr. del Toro.

I love this movie.

Prince of Egypt-Kinda Bold, Kinda Deep, Especially For a Family Targeted Cartoon

Ok, just dropping this off on the forward curve of Front Street here, but I'm not the biggest fan of DreamWorks Films.  Unlike most Pixar films, where there is a serious attempt to tell entertaining tales with characters that have some depth and reason to the way they are, to put in recognizable layers to their tales that those watching can call life, most DreamWorks films seem to be a pastiche of pop culture references/clichés and maudlin sentiment attempting to dress up as emotional depth.  There are exception to the rule, however, and they are a pleasant surprise when they pop up.

Now, this was both an interesting and bold choice, to make a musical animated feature based on a high profile story out of a book of holy text that is held in high regard by more than one major world faith.  But that is what they did and that gets points for brass right off the bat.  Surprisingly, only two countries banned it outright, Malaysia and the Maldives.  Other than that blip, no real controversy surrounding it.

The story is the one you know.  Egypt's Pharoh (voiced by Patrick Stewart), orders the deaths of all the infants in the Hebrew slave population due to advice given him by his court.  His mother sets baby Moses afloat on the Nile and he is found by the the Egyptian queen and raised as one of the royal family of  Egypt.  And that's where it starts.  The story here humanizes the characters a bit more, showing more familial and friendship relations than what were spelled out in the book of Exodus.  He grows up with Ramses, the prince regent as a brother, and the movie depicts them engaging in brotherly hijinks.  Later, during one caper, Moses runs into Miriam and Aaron, his Hebrew brother and sister, voiced respectively by Sandra Bullock and Jeff Goldblum, who inform him of his real heritage.  Moses in conflicted, but when he finds an Egyptian guard abusing a slave, he intervenes and accidentally kills the man.  Running from a murder charge, he retreats into the desert.

Eventually, he will embrace his Hebrew heritage, and with a charge from God, will seek to free his people from Egyptian bondage, running up against his adopted brother, Ramses.

I LOVED this story.  Not only is it a more human connected tale of Exodus, showing not only familial and friendship connections between the characters, but the Pharoah had more depth, he just wasn't a moustache twirling villain.  The depiction of God and the supernatural elements was more sublime and cosmic, but though an animated feature, it was less "cartoony" than The Ten Commandments, though I would have made different choices in choosing God's voicing in the burning bush scene, though what they did was effective.

This is a  great movie which received awards.  It deserved them.

Europa Report-Exploring the Final Frontier on an Indie Budget...

I'm just going to say out front, this is an AMAZING film about space exploration.  Reportedly shot with a budget under ten million (hard figures are hard to come by).  Helmed by Ecuadorian director Sebastián Cordero,  This films depicts a private sector expedition to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.  Europa is an ice covered world with what looks like a body covering ocean underneath.  The expedition seeks to see what, exactly, lies beneath in this ocean.  This idea is forward thinking, considering both interest in Europa and current efforts of the private sector in advancing space exploration.

The crew is an international bunch, though the actors playing them are mostly unknown, at least to an American audience.  The only one I knew of was Sharlto Copley, veteran of director Neil Blomkamp's films as well as playing HM Murdock in the theatrical version of the A-Team.  Here, he's playing astronaut James Corrigan, junior Engineer on this expedition.  But they are all good and quite credible as idealistic and enthusiastic astronauts ready to confront the unknown and expand mankind's horizons.

The visuals are nothing less than stunning.  If you know what you are looking for, you can see where the money is saved, such as using limited interior shots, being conservative about what is shown on Europa and the like.  But what is shown, is dazzling.  It is every bit as impressive as other similar films depicting space travel on a similar level, such as Apollo 13, Mission to Mars, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Deep Impact, and the like. 

The really interesting hook is that they give away the end of the story right at the beginning, the expedition falling afoul of fate.  The movie is a review of the footage recovered from the mission, piecing together what happened.  Nonetheless, like most good stories, the journey is the important part, at least as important as the destination.

This is a journey well worth considering, especially if you love a tale about space exploration within the confines of science as we know it at this time.

Fire In The Sky-No Matter How Much Weirdness The Universe Throws At You, Small Town Silliness and Domestic Stress Conspire to Ground You...

 

 

 

If aliens in our universe have some kind of "prime directive" limiting interference, then perhaps small towns are exceptions to that rule.  Because, based on Fire In The Sky as well as other tales of encounters with UFOs and alien entities, many of those are in small towns or other isolated locales.  And said locals seem to have one of three reactions.  There are a few believers or those willing to give experiencers the benefit of the doubt.  There are those who do not believe and further, often think those who encountered the strange are up to some kind of shenanigans.  And then, there are those who could not care less about these strange encounters, as there are still bills to pay, kids to feed, lawns to mow.  Besides, people are talking...

 

Fire In The Sky came out in 1993, based on a an incident of alleged alien abduction from the mid-70s.  Travis Walton, played by D.B. Sweeney is out with his friend Mike Rogers (Robert Patrick) as well as some other friends on an evening of carousing and letting off steam.  Driving out in the woods in Rogers' pickup, they see a strange light in the woods, at first seeming like a fire.  As they get closer, they begin to doubt that theory. When they finally set eyes on what appears to be responsible, a strange craft hovering above a clearing, they don't know what to make of it.  Walton decides to get out of the truck, walk up under the craft and yell at it.  In response, the craft hits him with some kind of beam, sending him to the ground, unmoving.  Rogers and crew panick and drive away.  Though Rogers, overcome with guilt at leaving his friend, insists on driving back alone.   He finds both craft and Walton gone.  As Rogers and the others struggle with the aftermath, they have to put up with disturbed townspeople, distraught family members and suspicious law enforcement authorities.  They go through a battery of tests to try to absolve themselves of suspicion, including a lie detector test, which they pass.

 

Then, one day, Walton reappears, naked and traumatized, physically and mentally.  Eventually, his memories returns, and the tale he tells...

 

It is a good story, and pretty standard, horrific abuction affair, with Walton seemingly subject to torturous examinations and experiments, purpose unknown.  Interesting that later, Walton is quoted when asked why they let him go, he says, seemingly half joking, "I don't think they liked me."

 

One thing that I did note about this story, and I have noted in a wide range of encounters with phenomenae outside the norm, it is often more trouble than it seems to be worth, as most people don't react well to things beyond every day experience.  Not only do humans not like things which seem to disturb assumed and fastly wedded to assumptions about "reality" and how things work...regardless of the "reality" of the phenomenon, life still has to go on and it doesn't take well to being disrupted.

 

Good film about this kind of thing, though. And I've interviewed DB Sweeney on the air.  Great interview, nice guy, and he sent me hooah coins to promote another film of his, Two Tickets to Paradise, also a good film, a guy-centric road trip.

 

Check them both out.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The American Astronaut-The Old West Meets C.S Lewis's Space Trilogy Through The Eyes of Johnny Rotten

Imagine a diesel-punk era where pioneers, brigands, pirates and other roughneck sort ply the planets in the solar system seeking their fortunes.  Everything seems dirty and tired and technology looks like it can be repaired and jury-rigged using no more than Tim Allen's tool belt.  One such ship is piloted by Samuel Curtis (Cory McAbee, who directed and wrote this film as well as provided the music through his band, the Billy Nayer Show. Did I mention this thing was also a musical)?   Curtis ends up taking a commission from an acquaintance, the Blueberry Pirate, to find a new King for the women of Venus, who need a replacement king to propagate their race. Also, he runs afoul of an old foe, Professor Hess, and does other typical space adventure things, like participate in a dance competition.

Yep, this one is a strange one, filmed in black and white and using an approach that accentuates it's feel by a combo of world weary matter-of-factness to all the odd things in the setting, yet all clearly having fun at the absurdity of the situation. 

Don't try to "logic" this one out, a scientifically and technologically consistent universe isn't the point here.  It is all about mood, feel, strangeness and kind of a flip of the bird to more "self important" space operas, though these guys are clearly fans of the genre. 

If you dig science fiction comedy like Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The Stainless Steel Rat or Bill The Galactic Hero, this one should do ya fine.

Much Ado About Nothing-Or, Like The Avengers, Only Everyone Talks Like Thor...

I'm not going to pretend I'm a Shakespeare expert.  I most certainly am not.  I guess you could call me a 'spear late bloomer.  I do know enough about The Bard to know he is referred to as The Bard, and that my favorite play is MacBeth, and that to declare Romeo and Juliet his worst play is not an unreasonable position to take on his body of work.  I've so much work ahead of me and I suppose my ultimate test would be to be cast in a stage production.  Like some people desire to train to run marathons, this would be my marathon, I suppose.

I don't expect to ever be fortunate enough to participate in a Shakespeare production helmed by Joss Whedon.  I'll be blessed beyond expectation to be someday involved in one of his productions in any capacity.  But, in the meantime, being a fan of all things Whedon, it is my joy to take in his take on the work of The Bard.

Joss recognizes his audience is a smart, literate one, but not necessarily as grounded in da 'speare as he is.  So opening with a mostly silent scene with Alexis Denisof (Benedic) and AmyAcker (Beatrice), it hauntingly hearkens back to their chemistry as Wesley Windham-Price and Winnifred Burkel, and then opens up on a kitchen scene with rapid fire Elizabethan dialogue, but it is over relatively simple matters and allows you some time to get acclimated to it, kind of like slow rising after a deep dive to allow any linguistic gases that may cause pain in the vascular system to disappate safely and allow you to get in this tale.

Oh so many Whedon players are in here.  It is almost easier to point out the cast members who haven't worked with Joss before.  But Clark Gregg is in there playing Leonato, governor of Messina.  Nathan Fillion, who is an ass, is a modern cop version of Chief Constable Dogberry.  Fran Kranz plays a scheming Claudio.  Sean Maher is in there, Tom Lenk is in there, and more.

The black and white noir feel in the modern day, though the characters staying the same is an interesting touch.  It is Shakespear.  It is not for everyone.  But if you can develop a taste for it, you will find this take tasty indeed.

The Aviator-Money Buys You A Whole Lotta Eccentric

Howard Hughes.  An enigmatic figure in American history, innovation and entrepreneurship if there ever was one.  If he wanted to, he could have made a living as a modest tycoon making industrial parts in Texas and that would be that.  But the man had a vision and was propelled on by forces he could not resist.  Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio captured this high velocity personality in the film The Aviator.

After getting a glimpse of him as a child and the psychological seed planted by his mother that would grow into a crippling mental monstrosity in his adulthood, we see him in California at the age of 22, combining his interests in cinema and aviation to make the film Hell's Angels.  You see his drive and his willingness to put resources at work to achieve his vision.  The film is a hit and he later goes onto make other films, including  exercising his engineering skills in support and display of a woman's frontal assets, shown at it's puchritudinal peaks upon the prow of one Ms. Jane Russel in The Outlaw.   He also pursues his interest in aviation, designing cutting edge aircraft, and in the process, founding Hughes Aircaft to pursue these designs. 

Being a reckless, maverick personality who marched to his own beat and his commercial interests bumping up against other powerful interests, naturally, they take aim at him, questioning his design work under the accusation of being a war profiteer and also of being a deviant (his showcasing of boobs in some of his films).  But none of this was enough to bring him down.  His own inner demons would be that which laid him low.

This was an amazing film and touches on so many of what makes America great and at the same time an extremely contradictory culture.  We celebrate entrepreneurs and those that take risks.  But those that deviate too far from the approved cultural paths, we then want to take down.  We celebrate the capitalist, but capitalists themselves often play alpha wolf games with each other which aren't good for their businesses or for the culture at large.

And, we are uncomfortable when people in plain public view flout convention, even though we deify individualism.

Howard Hughes was in many ways the inspiration of Tony Stark, Iron Man of Marvel Comics.  He is an American figure worth visiting again and again, whose legacy goes far beyond this film.  But...this film is a great primer to start, for those who want to learn more.

I Know What I Saw-And Remember, Watch The Skies, Everywhere...

Many people think of the UFO phenomenon as a recent thing, but truthfully, humans have been seeing strange things in the sky since we've been looking up.  Long before Kenneth Arnold saw his flying saucers, people have been recording strange aerial phenomena.  Most of it is explainable.  But...there is always a percentage of these objects which defy explanation.  Now, the skeptic might be inclined to brush it off, but modern skepticism seems to have become less about facts and more about idealogy and defense of a world view.  That is the point of this documentary, one of several produced by filmmaker James Fox. 

Not so much about the skeptical position on this subject, though it is mentioned.  The point is the sheer level of sane, sober professional types, especially those who know about things in the sky, have intimate knowledge about what flies as far as human knowledge goes and have a good idea what is outside those boundaries.  Others, like police officers and the like, are trained at observation and accurately recalling what they have seen.

James Fox has a series of documentaries out about this, along these lines.  This one especially notes a case dealing with a formation of lights belonging to a wedge shaped object soaring above the cityscape of Phoenix, Arizona.  I remember this case being reported on CNN.

This is some amazing stuff.  If you buy into the phenomenon or are at least open to some amazing stories, this is worth your time.

Blue Steel-Packing Heat in a Man's World

Blue Steel is a 1990 star vehicle directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring the lovely Jamie Lee Curtis as rookie NYPD police officer Megan Turner.  You see her at her Academy graduation ceremony and later, interactions with family and men, and all seem a bit disconcerted about the idea of a pretty young woman being an armed, trained police officer.  Now, I remember police shows and films from the 70s and 80s and it seemed like America was still getting used to the idea of female police officers, that the idea was still a novelty and the culture was still adjusting.  Part of me is thinking that this film, directed by a woman who portrays strong, competent, heroic women in her works, is kind of the tail end of this cultural adjustment.  Her family is concerned about her choice of careers.  Men flirting with her then blanch and bail when they find out she's a gun toting warrior babe.  Now, me, I find such sexy, and I think I always have, once I figured out what "sexy" meant.

Anyway, Officer Turner happens on a robbery happening at a convenience store.  The robber (Tom Sizemore) turns his gun on Megan and she has to shoot him.  One store patron, a broker played by Ron Silver, nicks the robbers dropped gun.  The missing pistol causes Turner problems, and those problems are compounded when the broker begins shooting people in the street.  NYPD internal affairs begins investigating Turner, represented by Detective Nick Mann (Clancy Brown).  And though she goes through many trials, the truth does begin to emerge. 

This is a gritty police drama and has less stylish flourish in both it's shooting style as well as language than we are used to getting from Ms. Bigelow.  It is as if she played this one purposely low key as to emphasize both it's street feel and a more "true to life" vibe.  Turner, though being a trained cop, is just a normal woman doing a job and trying to live her life and doing her best with some crazy, crazy circumstances.

It is all low key, until the firefight at the end, then that's when it all hits the fan.

Good flick.

Voices of a Distant Star-Can Love Cross Light Years?

Imagine enlisting into a future military fighting a war against an offworld threat.  You are a warrior in a space going fleet.  You plunge into the inky black depths of space and to the surface of alien worlds in ships and mecha fighting suits to meet the enemy on it's grounds and defeat it.  You started out with fear and uncertainty.  But your training carried you through your first encounters and experience along with fortitude carries you on.  The thing that matters to you the most, though, is a voice that is increasingly heard from less and less as the light years stretch out between you and the home you left.  Though it takes years, though, the one you love, though it now takes years to hear from him...he continues to assure you he remains.  His love remains.  He is concerned later that you will arrive back home still relatively young and he may be an old man.  But...still, he waits.  His voice still reassures you from a home that is distant in space and memory.

Japanese anime is full of clichés. But every now and then, you get a new creation in the medium that plays with ideas you have not seen done much in it, or most other mediums.  This little gem is an example, playing with Einsteinian time dialation with the age old dilemma of a soldier going to war, yet leaving a special loved one behind.  Will they stay true to you?  Will you survive to return to them?  Will there still be anything to return to, or will time and experience wear away what you once had?  The uncertainties of war are tough enough.  But for those in love, that love is indeed a double edged sword.  If that love stays strong, your fighting spirit is indomitable.  But should it falter...it becomes a blade through the heart, reaching inside you in a way the enemy never could.

Is it worth it?  I'm still wagering most warriors would say yes.

Upstream Color-Right On That Line Between Profound and Opaque

In 2004, a small indie film director named Shane Carruth brought to the world a science fiction film called Primer.  This time travel tale took a very different approach to the subject and thought the concepts it was dealing with were easy for any science fiction fan to understand, the narrative was quite convoluted.  This was intentional for the feel the writer was going for, with it's tale of a twisted timestream.

Upstream Color is his sophomore effort.  Released in 2013, this science fiction story is even more convoluted.  Not from the sheer number of variables in play, like Primer, but due to both the alien-ness of the concepts at play and his intentionally vague approach to spreading out the narrative.  From the excellent music, to the minimalist script to the non-linear narration, this tale of people caught up in what appears to be the life cycle of a strange life form and dealing with the side and after effects of the same is very, very difficult to follow.

Kris is a graphics designer who works hard and is seemingly in control.  Due to inadvertent exposure to one stage of the life form, she finds herself susceptible to suggestion and ends up getting financially ruined.  A mysterious scientist/pig farmer "cures" her of the contagion, but her life has been irrevocably altered. Drifting about, she meets Jeff, another who has been exposed to this life form.  The two of them come together and slowly find love as they seek to put their lives back together and find themselves still caught up in the mysterious life cycle of the organism, in ways no one understands.

Many have speculated that Carruth seeks to be obscure on purpose, that he disdains the idea of mass acceptance of his work, that he is making science fiction purely for the art set.  I'm not sure if that is actually true.  To me, it seems he just belongs in the same subset of abstract idea driven films like Richard Kelly, Richard Linklater and David Lynch.  He has a particular style, he is about ideas, but more to the point, he is about symbols, spirit and mood.

He is not for everyone, certainly not the masses, who like plots simple and delivered with 'splosions.  But even though this film is more difficult than Primer (I almost gave it a bad review until I had more time to think about it), for this this film is for, this film will be for them.