31 Days of Halloween 2018: Satan's Slaves

2017, Joko Anwar (Ritual) -- Shudder

OK, this is weird. I did not know that this movie was a remake of a 1980 movie of the same name, but it explained why the movie decided to take place in the 80s. What do you mean, Toasty? Lots of horror movies choose to be set in other periods. What I mean is that usually a current movie chooses a previous time period in order to reflect something of that time period. Some want to draw upon something that era held dear, such as television psychics. Some are just period, as haunted Victorian houses are just a thing. And some like the lack of ubiquitous technology. This one, unless I am lacking in my understanding of culture in Indonesia in the 80s, just chose to be retro, with no real tie to the past beyond the origin movie. No matter, it worked.

This is a complicated movie about a dying matron and the family losing everything in their care of her. It begins with the death of said matron, and how the family deals with her death, in both the release of the burden of taking care of her and the additional financial difficulty it adds. But everyone is dedicated as family should be. But things start getting weirder, with apparitions and poltergeist attacks. Rini, the daughter, starts digging into the family's past to discover a connection to a strange cult of Satanic worshippers.

I imagine much of the impact of this movie depends on remembering its originator, but to the foreign eye and it all being new, it still held up mostly to me. It was eerie and mixed the ghost and cult aspects well, dispensing with many of the tropes I expected. It reminded me of many of the horror movies from this blog's heyday (do we have one?) which were drawing upon the styles of horror movies in the 80s, but only thinly so. It did not depend on them but remembered them fondly.

31 Days of Halloween 2016: Paranormal Activity 3

2011, Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman (Catfish) -- download

Somewhere in our hunt for horror movies, Marmy found posts that stated this was the best movie of the series, maybe the best horror movie of that year. Yeah, they were wrong. Very wrong.

Sorry, but i don't remember the original supposedly ground-breaking found-footage horror movie, that started the whole "nice suburban haunted house" idea. I do remember it was all jump scares, and the only thing that lent any actual scariness to it, was that the direction made the family, and the footage, very authentic. Once you really establish the mundanity of a situation, even the most benign scare can have weight.

And that is the only bank these movies have.

This one takes place in the 80s, when one of the girls from the first one was just a kid. Younger daughter Kristi has an imaginary friend who lives in the toy closet upstairs. Things start to get weird when the invisible "friend" starts asking weird things of Kristi, things not even she is sure she wants to do.

Meanwhile mom's BF and his brother are setting up cameras around the houses because they think it would be cool to catch whatever is going on. What they do catch is completely unsettling and the brother just runs away. Mom is upset, but never actually watches the footage. She is entirely dismissive of the whole thing, despite the evidence something fucking weird is going on. Y'know classic Sceptical Character trope.

The best scare of the movie is the floating blanket ghost child thing. It works well when see through the eyes of not-so-hidden camera, but from the ghost's point of view. Who was he scaring? If he never allows anyone to actually see him being clever, what is the point? Until he gets to messing around in the kitchen, the baby sitter is not even scared. I get it, it is a staple of horror movies, where we see things that scare us but the affected character is oblivious. But, this was just annoying.

Speaking of annoying. After filling out two thirds of the movie with the idea of an imaginary ghost friend demon thing and its connection to the youngest daughter, the movie spills headlong into some sort of ancient, family witch connection. This is where a tolerable jump-scare movie just got 70s silly. But it was probably tying together connections hinted at in the other movies.

Meh.

The Watcher in the Woods

1980, d. John Hough, Vincent McEveety -- DVD

An elderly woman has given up her estate home to live in the smaller servants quarters in the British countryside.  A family moves into the house, but Mrs. Aylwood, looking at their teenage daughter, is reluctant.  Something about Ellie disturbs the old woman.  Jan, for her part, is likewise unsettled.  Then strange things begin to happen.  Glass cracks, mirrors shatter, wind howls, lighting strikes, horses run wild.  Voices.  Jan's little sister, Ellie begins hearing voices.  There's something wrong in the woods, and a mystery. 

The Watcher in the Woods is a particular subgenre of film that doesn't really exist anymore.  It's an all-ages suspense/mystery.  These were quite prominent in the 1980s,  before frightening children seemed to fall out of favor.  But Watcher isn't horror as it was becoming at that time, it's not gore and disturbing scenes, it's the thrilling intensity of the unknown. 

Watcher is a bit of a cult film, but obviously not one of the larger ones, since I hadn't heard of it until recently. It's a Disney horror movie, and that intones almost a certain level of cheese, which early moments with Bette Davis as Mrs. Aylwood seem to uphold. But it doesn't take long for the rather earnest tone of the film to win over the viewer and invest them in the mystery that Jan investigates (and seeming supernatural abilities she appears to manifest)  Once one mystery is revealed, the film keeps the viewer rapt as there's still another to discover in order to bring about a resolution.

The finale of the film comes in multiple varieties.  The first brings a happy ending, revealing the supernatural to actually be something more cosmic in design.  It's blindsidingly bizarre and yet absolutely, fantastically 1980 in its execution.  Though enjoyable, the ending skips over addressing some rather important consequences of the events that transpired...what is the fallout on the people who were involved, now that they know what they know?

The DVD has three alternate and extended endings.  The first is shorter, and darker.  It keeps more in the spirit of the horror aspect of the movie, foregoing the cosmic bait and switch.

A second ending pads out the one that accompanies the feature, with more special effects, and a visit to "the Other World".  With more time, it has a more logic to it, however it's less satisfying in a way, it feels more disjointed and separate from what came before.

A third ending, the original ending when the film was rushed into theatres, was reshot to exclude the unfinished special effects.  As a result it's very disjointed and virtually breaks the movie.

Three of these four endings actually work well enough though.  Like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" the film is kind of made better for having all these alternate ways of interpreting what happened.  It allows the audience to have a more visual ending, a darker ending, or one that allows the viewer to use more of their imagination.

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this, but I rather loved it.  It's not campy like I was expecting, and it fuels my jones for 80's aesthetic quite nicely.  It may not be classic cinema, but it is thoroughly entertaining.

I Saw This!! Kids stuff

In this I Saw This!!:
TMNT
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids
Enchanted

---

TMNT - 2007, Kevin Munroe - blu-ray

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blew up just at the tail end of my adolescence, when I was about 11 or 12 or so when peer pressure was starting to take hold and make me feel silly for watching cartoons, reading comics and playing with toys.  I didn't abandon these things that I quite loved, but if it was exceptionally juvenile, like, say, talking turtles who know martial ars, well it was too goofy for me to take up. 

I was a rather adamant anti-Ninja Turtle guy, the characters were cheesy and they very concept itself seemed like it was designed by a four-year-old.  Plus, Ninja Turtles had dethroned He-Man and superheroes and Star Wars as the boys' franchise-du-jour and that just rankled me.

Even still, I bloody know all about the Ninja Turtles.  As a geeky teen, even if you didn't like something you still had to know it.  By the late 1990's (and my 20's) I decided to give up on this quest of knowing all things geek, as with the burgeoning internet started to reveal all manner of geeky thing I had not time, nor money, nor access to.  I mossed out on the last Ninja Turtle movie, and the 2000' revival with the female turtle, Venus, and yes, this rather larger budgeted cgi animated feature meant for an audience that had grown up with the property.

It's set after the Turtles' defeat of Shredder and the gang has split.  Leonardo spends his time haunting a rainforest, Michaelangelo is a kids party rent-a-dude, Donatello is in tech support and Raphael spends his nights as a vigilante.  There's a lot of tension between the brothers and when Leo returns from his excursion, things only get worse.  Not a good time for them all to be fighting as a centuries-old prophecy is about to come true as an unstoppable army from the past, resurrected by an immortal, is about to invade New York.

Truth told it's a decent film, surprisingly mature without alienating a younger audience completely, but I still can't see fit to care all that much about it.  My daughter has become a huge Ninja Turtles fan somehow which explains how we came to watch it, and she quite enjoyed it, though certainly not as much as the current TV show  (which this movie is one iteration removed from).  The animation, for a feature, is on par with what's considered television animation today, so it's acceptable but not incredible.

Honey, I Shrunk The Kids - 1989, Joe Johnston - netflix

I was surprised to learn that this film came out in 1989.  I thought I was a bit younger (like 9, versus 13) but that doesn't make it any less a crucial film from my childhood.  Despite the unruly title and the looming Disney moniker, this is a flat-out great family movie.  Watching it with fresh eyes (I can't even guess how long it's been since I last saw it, 20 years or more) I was overjoyed by how much it holds up.  Stylistically it's a product of its time, but the adventure is absolutely timeless.  It's a unapologetic rehash of The Incredible Shrinking Man, but it's tribute to the sci-fi classic is what makes it so good.  The use of practical effects take the everyday world and make it alien terrain with countless dangers, recognizable but unfamiliar at the same time.  Blades of grass are like trees, a drop of water like a five-foot water balloon, an and the deadliest creature you could face (until a scorpion comes along)... it's like Avatar without all the bullshit.

The cast of kids here are amazing, playing into their archetypes of popular girl, thoughtful loner, bratty bully, and science geek, but naturally revealing a deeper side as their harrowing adventure across their backyard progresses, and ultimately respect, if not something more.  Meanwhile, the parents (Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, Marcia Strassman, Kristine Sutherland) all have their own issues to deal with when their kids seeming disappear.  Moranis is the perfect grounding force for a movie like this... he's got an easy charm, a hint of mania always percolating underneath.  Frewer, meanwhile, does a hot head like no one else, but is able to layer it with something resembling humanity.

Director Joe Johnston does a phenomenal job of making the 1-inch-tall world and the normal-side world interact, and gaining appropriate measure of the difference between the two.  Sure the sets look like sets and the props look like props, but it's all charming rather than obvious.  Unless you really want to resist, it's easy to buy into the conceit and follow along for the ride.  I'm anxiously anticipating Edgar Wright's Ant-Man motion picture which, hopefully, will feature much of this kind of spirit of adventure and not get too bogged down in tying a world of heroes and villains into the Avengers/Marvel universe.

And I dare you not tear up just a little when poor Anty bites it.

Enchanted - 2007, Kevin Lima - netflix

Something about Enchanted racking up three nominations in the Best Song category at the 2008 Oscars really put a hate-on for me towards this film.  I don't know what it was, partly that I was pulling so strongly for Once's "Falling Slowly" to take the win, but also not only did I hate the film, but also Amy Adams for no discernible reason, and it took me years (basically until she turned up in the The Muppets) to finally warm up to her (thankfully I did, because she's literally in every movie made now).  Also, let's face it, it's a princess movie (a Disney princess movie no less!) starring Patrick Dempsey at the height of his "McDreamy" phase which was about as laughable and annoying a moniker ever created. 

Oh, that moment in the trailer where A-OK-as-a-prince James Marsden (Cyclops!) starts to sing "I've been dreaming..." and then gets plowed into by a blur of bicycles, I have to admit I laughed, but still, no further love.  I forgot about enchanted for the past 5 years, until my daughter started to get into princess stuff (she's still a Ninja Turtles freak, but the peer pressure to be into princess things as a girl is hard to escape), so I wanted to direct her to more respectable princess-y things.  Enchanted, which seemed to be somewhat of a arch presentation of the typical Disney Princess story would certainly be more palatable.  

I have to say, in all honestly, I loved Enchanted, and far more than my daughter actually did.

The film opens in an animated fairy tale land, "Andalasia", where our heroine, Giselle (Adams), lives in a glorified tree house with a myriad of forest creatures as friends and happy workers.  Life is good, but despite her furry friends, she dreams of romance.  Likewise, Prince Edward (Marsden), quite content to hunt giant ogres, still longs to have his heart filled.  As fate has it in Disney fables, the two meet, fall in love immediately, and are to be wed the very next day.  Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) will not tolerate her step-son's fanciful whim, mainly because she is only Queen until the Prince is married.  She disguises herself as a hag and pushes Giselle into a wishing well which acts as a portal between the animated world and the real one.  Giselle emerges in New York City where it's painfully obvious how out of place she is in her sweeping princess wedding gown, and how unlike this city is to her fantasy homeland...full of technology and noise and rudeness.

Despite his common sense, divorce attorney and all-round practical guy Robert (Dempsey) helps her out, even letting her crash at his apartment at his daughter's behest.  Robert's about to enter into a practical engagement with his girlfriend (played by Frozen's Idina Menzel, although strangely she doesn't sing), but naturally Giselle is going to win him over.  But Prince Edward hasn't given up on his bride-to-be and along with the Queen's toady, Nathaniel (Timothy Spell), and Giselle's chipmunk friend Pip, they enter the real world as well in search of.   Nathaniel takes every effort to keep Edward from finding Giselle despite Pip's every interference (being unable to talk in the real world is a definite hindrance to him), and, at the Queen's behest, even endeavors to poison the young woman.  Eventually the Queen herself must get involved, leading to a climactic showdown where it's Giselle that must save Robert, and not the other way around.

It's a film that delightfully explodes the "princess myth" with reality creeping in at every turn, threatening to beat the upbeat out of Giselle.  But as much as the film pops the bubble of fairy tale romance, it doesn't deny the wonder of fantasy and rewards proactivity and optimism, instead of succumbing to negativity and pessimism.  Though not nearly as successful as the 90's Disney heyday, Enchanted still marks itself as an integral turning point in positive princesses on screen.  The Disney princesses to follow (Rapunzel in Tangled, Anna and Elsa in Frozen, and, to an unfortunately lesser extent Merida in Brave) would all be stronger, more independent, more self-realized characters than those of the past, being the hero of their own stories and not be utterly reliant upon a male supporting character to rescue them.

The film's use of traditional animation in its opening sequence (when Disney has otherwise long abandoned the form) and then throughout in tandem with live action sequences is its strongest stylistic choice, which pays off from moment one (the change in aspect ratio a nice touch).  Even Pip, the chipmunk, transitions into the real world as an animated rodent (in the vein of the live action chipmunk or Smurfs movie) but his character serves as the best shorthand for how the two worlds differ.  Where I should detest this little uncanny valley rodent, I loved how he played out in the film, ever frustrated by this world.

If there's any negative aspect to the film, it's the surreality of Nathaniel adapting to the real world (able to don any manner of disguises such as hot dog vendor or pizzeria waiter) without any sort of self-awareness.  It's the one leap the film continually makes that just doesn't make sense within its own fantasy logic.  So much more could have been done with all of the characters adjusting to the real world...it's understandable how the shamelessly self-involved prince is kind of oblivious to it, but Nathaniel should really be at odds with his new surroundings.  It's not a minor quibble, it's a flaw of the film, but one I can look past to enjoy the plentiful better moments.

American Hustle

2013, David O. Russell

At this point I'm a few years and a few Oscars behind on David O. Russell's career.  I need to take a step back into Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter and I think I need another couple of runs through I Heart Huckabees.  I've heard little but good things about his previous award-bait efforts, and likewise the early buzz on American Hustle was that it was another solid contender for best American film of 2013.  The trailers looked funky and the cast a dynamic collision of those previous two films, all built around a true story in early 80's, post-disco decor.  It was all wood paneling, permed hair and flowing rayon.

The promise of American Hustle was the fun of watching swindlers swindle, at first for their own benefit, but then for the good of the people.  But that promise (or premise rather) didn't quite pan out so much.  Christian Bale is the film's lead as Irving Rosenfeld, a confident and cautious lifelong huckster, owning a chain of legit dry cleaning and window replacement operations, as well as making some solid coin on the side with loan fraud.  He meets and connects immediately with Amy Adams' Sydney Prosser, whose convincing (for 1980) fake British accent they use to draw even more suckers into the scam.  Their partnership is romantic as well as enterprising, but the hitch is Irving's wife and stepson, the former (Rosalyn, played by Jennifer Laurence) who has him in a vice grip of twisted emotions and the latter who he refuses to lose in divorce.

But things only become more complicated when Sydney gets a little to eager with a deal that Irving is uncomfortable with, and she gets busted by eager FBI upstart Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).  DiMaso uses Irving's emotional ties to Sydney to get him to cooperate in a hustle of his own, which starts out as taking down other notable shysters in New York and quickly balloons into taking down corrupt politicians through entrapment.  Richie's key focus is on New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), with his eyes constantly wandering to Sydney.

The "hustle" of American Hustle is as much an emotional one as a monetary one, if not moreso.  The romantic manipulations of Sydney, Richie, and Rosalyn make it very difficult to trust anything that they're doing, but through it all Irving rarely lies about how he feels in any given moment or about anyone.  With Sydney and Richie, running a con is an act, but Irving's mantra is you have to live it and believe it.   Part of the trouble, though, is as a viewer one is never quite certain where you are at any time with anyone other than Irving.  Is it a testament to the cast's acting ability that they can act believable when they're acting in character, and equally act somewhat unbelievable when they're in character as their character?  Cooper particularly excelled at looking somewhat shaky when running a con, but I'm still not certain that's a good thing.  Was it an acting choice on his part to convey that he's "in charater" as his character, or was it just his character getting close to blowing his cover?

As much as Bale was the POV center of the film, and was excellent in conveying the mounting weight of the operation, both physically and emotionally on him, he also seemed to be slightly out of step with the rest of the movie tonally.  There was a darkly comedic bent to the film that seemed to subvert so much of the weightiness, but Bale seemed almost incapable of joining in.  Scenes between him and Renner were amazing, though, and likewise Cooper and Adams managed to navigate the tonal shifts within a scene expertly, but it was Jennifer Laurence who destroyed the screen.  She got to be the loose canon, slightly unhinged, a bit scatterbrained, and very, very sly, Rosalyn was built to be a scene stealer and Laurence took every bit.  It was unfortunate then that the relationship between her and Bale seemed off.  Arguably it was supposed to feel off, but there was absolutely no chemistry between them, and the obvious age gap was left ignored.

There were a couple supporting MVPs, the first being Louis CK as Ritchie's boss in the FBI whom Ritchie pushes around with a furious vigor.  The arc that plays out between the two could have supported a film on it's own, it was hilarious and delightful.  CK talks frequently about how mediocre an actor he is, but he definitely undersells himself, particularly in the sad sack department.  The second MVP is a cameo that's best left unspoiled.

I thought the acting was universally phenomenal in American Hustle, with incredible sets and wardrobes, a real feast in many regards, but in the end I didn't love the film.  I found it meandering too often and its plot more convoluted than necessary with the stakes seemingly ever-changing and not all that clear.  Beyond that, as great as the acting was, the characters weren't easy to invest in.  Outside of CK and Renner's roles, which were victims in a sense, the main quartet never seemed to demand that you root for them, and it leaves it feeling a hollow experience.  It's close to an amazing film with somewhat of a bum story.

Double Oh...16: License To Kill

1989, John Glen

License To Kill Preamble: As I said last time, Dalton should really be my Bond.  But the only thing that attracted me to License To Kill as a 13-year-old was my surging libido, and seeing Carey Lowell in that sheer top on the License To Kill poster that appeared in comic books in 1989.  I knew Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto by name for a time because of that poster.   My sole interest in the film was these two gorgeous women, though I'm not certain I knew who was who.  I guess I was just embarrassed by my lust, ashamed maybe, thinking that everyone would know why I wanted to see the movie, that my cinematic viewing intentions were impure... so I never wound up seeing it.

When Skyfall came out there were countless "ranking Bond" articles on line and in print, and what I noticed was that some reviewers and critics felt The Living Daylights was the better of the two Dalton films, and others were on the side of License To Kill, and with disparity, not like they were side-by-side in rankings.  Many critics though this one was too dark, and having Bond go rogue made it less a credible Bond film.


Villains: Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) is a drug lord introduced in the film's prologue whipping his girlfriend, Lupe, after catching her with one of his minions.  He's the main villain of the picture, a major wheeler dealer and a very ruthless individual.  Bond is introduced in the prologue in the back of a limo with Felix Leiter and his buddy Sharkey, all decked out in tuxes on the way to Felix's wedding.  They're flagged down by a DEA helicopter as Felix has been integral in taking down Sanchez and they're making their move.  Bond tags along.  Gunfire and one plane/helicoper chase later, Sanchez is captured, and Felix makes it off to his wedding, credits roll.
But, atypical for a Bond film, the story continues, as Sanchez is interrogated by head DEA Agent Ed Killifer (Everett McGill from Twin Peaks), but offers millions to anyone who frees him.  Killifer takes the bait and aids in Sanchez's escape.  This leads to Sanchez getting revenge on Felix by kidnapping him (his goons, it's insinuated, raped and killed his bride) and dumping him into a shark tank where Felix survives but loses an arm and a leg.  Bond snaps and is out for blood.  Killifer faces the same fate as Felix.
Sanchez takes off from Florida to his home in the Republic of Isthmus where he has the President in his pocket and is perhaps its most affluent citizen, owning both the Bank of Isthmus and its major casinos.
Sanchez is a major player in the drug world and is looking to expand his international operations.  He finances a televangelist, Professor Joe Butcher (Wayne Newton), whose broadcast is used as middleman for buying and selling.  His operation is large, with partners all over, for different purposes.
Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe) is an exotic fish exporter as well as fish farmer, and he uses his explorations in international waters as a cover for transporting Sanchez's drugs into the US.  Bond manipulates their partnership and meets his grisly end at Sanchez's bidding in a pressure chamber (an effect used a year later in Total Recall).
Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke) is a young businessman who is partnered with Sanchez in managing his illicit import/export business and the televangelical operation.  He's ill equipped to handle things when they start going south.
Heller (Don Stroud) is Sanchez's head of security, a former US Army Colonel but he's also set to betray Sanchez (by stealing a quartet of stinger missiles Sanchez plans on using to target US passenger planes and blackmail the DEA into backing off)
Dario (Benicio Del Toro... very, very young and lean) is one of Sanchez's many henchmen, but is the most prominent of them, and made unique by his prominent gold tooth.

Whilst Sanchez starts out as a straight forward bad guy drug lord, he starts to adopt more typical Bond-Villain traits as the film moves on.  He's a man of honor, he makes a deal and keeps his word.  Loyalty is of utmost importance, so you know, a serious guy.  But he's also got a diamond collared iguana because all Bond villains have to have an exotic pet.  Late in the picture we get to see his secret lair, an elaborate and exotic, remotely located temple, using the televangelical religion as cover for his drug processing operation (where they blend the drugs with gasoline rendering them untraceable during transport).  It has a giant hatch on the front courtyard that raises up to reveal a helipad underneath.  It's a delightful surprise when it's revealed.  Davi might not make for the most eccentric villain but he's a formidable one for sure.

Bond Girls: Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes) is Felix's tragic bride.  I had to wonder given their first scene together whether Bond and Della ever had a thing (as she does kiss him oddly passionately).  She's of the "women in refrigerators" sort, where she's killed brutally and tragically to inspire the hero.  Shame, though, Barnes is charming.
Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto) is Sanchez's unfaithful girlfriend.  She hates him but fears him.  She's not strong enough to outright leave him, but seeks often to undermine him or lash out at him.  She's all to ready to help Bond out when he turns up and actually seems to plausibly be able to kill Sanchez.  She's smart enough to deceive her man and his men when she needs to but she's also rather unnecessary in the film overall.  She serves more as a romantic foil for Pam than a true romantic interest for Bond.  She professes she loves him, but she's just like Kara from The Living Daylights where she's infatuated with the man rescuing her.
Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) - is introduced as one of Felix's informant, when Bond keeps Felix's appointment at a rough dockside bar.  She's first introduced in a tank top and kevlar vest, tough talking, smart, suspicious and packing a shotgun.  She's an ex-army pilot and very capable in a fight, which is needed when Bond engages Dario and Sanchez's men in a bar brawl.  They escape harm, narrowly on a boat, and as we all know, being on a boat with a woman is like Viagra to Bond.  But Pam is sexually aggressive which seems to catch Bond pleasantly by surprise.  Bond encourages her to help fly him to Isthmus, and she decides to stay and help where he irks her by calling her his executive assistant.  She cleans up very nicely when she makes a reappearance at the bank after a shopping trip, and later is an absolute, jaw dropping knockout at the Casino.  I wager in this sequence she looks better than any Bond Girl (or any Bond himself), ever.  It's unfortunate that Bond keeps warning her off from helping him as she's a capable fighter, pilot and marksman.  She should be more active in the action than she is (arguably as active as any Bond femme previous though)

The film ends with an unfortunate moment of ridiculous melodrama straight out of a John Hughes high school dramedy, as Lupe passionately kisses Bond whilst Pam watches on, then runs away.  But Bond has eyes more for Pam than Lupe (I guess having slept with them both, he's made a choice), and he jumps over a balcony into a pool, in a grand romantic gesture, to profess his...I dunno... desire to bang her again.  Cue the 80's slow jam (Patti La Belle's "If You Ask Me To"...really).  There's an insinuation early in the film when Della gives Bond her garter that he's unwilling to fall in love again, but he catches the garter anyway, foreshadowing that he may wed once more.  It would be interesting to know what the next Dalton Bond film would have been, and whether Carey Lowell was to return, she's a suitable match for Bond, Pussy Galore done right as a romantic interest for Bond.

One more note, while Caroline Bliss' Moneypenny made a solid debut in the previous installment, her role here was restricted to sitting behind a desk, pouting to M over her concern for the rogue James.  I'm assuming she sends Q to Bond, but it's not explicit so the scene is almost entirely extraneous.

Theme/Credits: Gladys Knight sings the theme song which features heavily a horn drop from Goldfinger, and it's actually a pretty cracking Bond theme.  It's not perhaps the most memorable theme song, but it's strong, with gravitas and a sweeping sense of both danger and romance. It feels both of its time as well as somewhat timeless as all the better Bond themes do.  Beyond the redundant horn drop it doesn't have a genuine hook but it's effortlessly listenable and nothing off-putting.
The credit sequence, Maurice Binder's last, is a few steps ahead of some of his previous efforts, but once again it seems to miss the plot of the film (there's a casino reference) but it seems more focused on dancers, models and photography, none of which have any bearing on the film.  Still thanks to Knight's track, it's one of his more alluring sequences, particularly the final shot of the sequence with a sultry model in repose, gun resting on her hip.  It's a nice note for Binder to go out on after 27 years.


Movie: It's odd to me that so many reviewers criticize this film for not being Bond-like enough.  For me, overall, the film feels exceptionally Bond-like, with its broad range of locations, bigger action sequences, more convolution in its storytelling.  But the story itself, with Sanchez's heavily networked drug operation, and the side elements, like Bond interfering in both Pam's mission from Felix and the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau's multi-year operation lend a naturalness to this Bond picture that most don't have until the Daniel Craig years.  This, even more than On Her Majesty's Secret Service, feels like a template for the Craig movies.  Dalton has settled in the role tangibly here, and the tone also seems more in line with Dalton's desired portrayal of the role.  It's a darker Bond, he's angry and out for revenge.  He tells M off and goes rogue.  He gets downright nasty when he sees what Krest's men have done to Sharkey.  Bond even acknowledges that he's a dangerous man to aide, that he gets people killed.  There are lighter moments in the picture (Newton's repetition of "Bless your heart" to Pam as she slights him are great), but it's not camp, like the cello case toboggan sequence of The Living Daylights.
  It's tremendously enjoyable, and engaging, though I feel it could use tightening, as frequently I would check the timestamp and marvel at how long the film had been running and how long it still had to go.  Even still, the many deleted scenes on the blu-ray actually help fill out some of the puzzling parts of the story film (Sharkey's death, the arrival of Heller and Truman-Lodge) and characters.
  It features some of John Glen's best action sequences (the mountainside tanker truck chase is amazing) and some genuine classic Bond moments.  It also features Q helping Bond out (going a bit rogue himself) and it's a highlight for that character.  It's also the best Bond movie to be shot in America by far, feeling less like a British cinema's interpretation of America (as it has before in Goldfinger and A View To A Kill) and more like typical American movie.

Q-Gadgets:
Explosive alarm clock
Plastic explosive toothpaste tube with cigarette igniter.
Camera gun with optical palm reader that only works for Bond.
X-ray Polaroid camera with laser flash
Rappelling cummerbund
Radio rake

Despite the fact that Q is featured here more prominently as a character than ever before, its use of gadgets feels much more natural, less forced than most Bond films.  Some gadgets turn up without any prior set-up, or they play a role other than their intended use.

Classification (out of 01.0): 00.8, I really, really liked this one, in spite of its clunkiest parts.  When it was wrapping up I felt disappointed, cheated even, that there isn't another Dalton Bond available.  He was really making the role uniquely his and I think a third film would have solidified the darkest, edgiest, most dangerous Bond, and he would be more favourably remembered.  People who malign this one are the same people who poop on Quantum of Solace, they're both a lot better than they get credit for, they're just different.  For me, I think Bond works best when it knowingly plays with its conventions rather than adheres to them.

Double Oh...15: The Living Daylights

d. John Glen

Double Oh Preamble: IT'S BEEN 8 months since I last wrote one of these, when the last Moore seemed like a perfect break point.  But I took a break and never got back to it, and now IT'S BEEN a little over a year since I started this Bond project and the Chrismas holidays is the perfect time to get back on the horse.

Since last I wrote, a podcast on the Nerdist Network called James Bonding has been engaging my Bond brain with in-depth analysis of each Bond film, starting at either end (so Dr. No, then Skyfall, then From Russian With Love, then Quantum of Solace and so forth) and as they enter the Christmas break they too have only done 14 episodes, with all of the Moore and Dalton's untouched, and with Goldeneye next on tap.  Beyond James Bonding, I've also taken to reading the Titan Books collection of the James Bond newspaper strips (Casino Royale and The Man With The Golden Gun as well as part of Goldfinger), so even though I haven't been watching the films, I've still been heavily Bond-engaged.

The Living Daylights Preamble: Timothy Dalton should be my Bond.  The Living Daylights hit theatres when I was 11 and I recall all the Entertainment Tonight hype (I was an avid ET viewer as a child) surrounding Dalton's taking over the role.  I was exposed to a lot of Bond propaganda and promo materials at the time, including comic book ads and TV trailers, but what I recall most about it was how uninteresting it seemed.  I was a sci-fi and superhero kid and straight action to me, at the time, seemed rather mundane.  As we've covered in previous Double Oh's, I really only saw bits and pieces of Bond in my childhood, and it wouldn't be until Brosnan came in that I would garner any real excitement or interest in the franchise.  I recall that Dalton was received as a disappointing consolation Bond since Remington Steele would not let Brosnan out of his contract to take the role, and also that critical reception of The Living Daylights and License To Kill were less than amorous.  Even when I started being a little more interested in Bond in the Brosnan years, I still had little interest in the Dalton era.  Even more than Lazenby, who has the fortune of being in one of the best Bond films, Dalton's two-film run (which collapsed the series for 6 years) has been highly maligned.  Now, I'm keen to dive in.


Villains: Necros (Adreas Wisniewski) enters the film first as the Milkman Assassin, taking out a milkman and using the disguise to enter a heavily guarded estate where the British secret service is holding a Russian defector.  Necros isn't a totally murder-happy assassin, though, he kills when needed, and uses explosive milk to make his getaway.  At first he appears to be a Russian agent, but it turns out he just a very highly skilled mercenary.  He's not the most intimidating of Bond adversaries, but he's obviously dangerous, perhaps an equal to Bond in combat, though decidedly not as erudite.  In the end, he begs Bond for his life, pleads with him, and screams in abject terror when Bond cuts him loose from the back of the Hercules aircraft.  It's actually a very harsh sequence, and not something we're at all used to in a Bond movie.

Pushkin (John Rhys Davies) is the New Head of the KGB, and an enemy only in that he is Russian.  The defector, Georgi Koskov tells MI-6 that Pushkin is looking to start a special agent war by assassinating American and British special agents, but this is a lie.  Bond is given the task of assassinating Puskin, but, on his instincts he investigates further and ends up colluding with Pushkin to fake his death and draw the real enemies out.  Pushkin is almost like a General Gogol figure here, though Gogol does put in a cameo in the epilogue (his sixth and final Bond appearance)

Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) is an apparent friend of Bond (Georgi gives Bond a big hug when he sees him, and Bond goes to extra expense to ensure he's fed well), a Russian defector who initiates the plot of the film.  Bond saves him from assassination upon exiting a Czeck symphony performance, exfiltrates him through the transsiberian pipeline into Austria (where he's flown to Britain in a VTOL jet, which I guess were quite new and exciting at the time).  He tells his British hosts that Pushkin is starting a war (though his words bring doubt) and shortly thereafter he's retrieved but not taken back to Russia... turns out Pushkin actually was to have him arrested for embezzling state funds.  Pushkin is actually working with an arms dealer, fanning the Cold War into all-out war for profit.  He's a bit of a putz, and not in any way intimidating, sort of a grand schemer who thinks himself smarter than he is.

Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) is the arms dealer, an affluent man-child who thinks of weapons as toys and thinks all men should have them.  His home is a curated museum featuring a hall of dictators, shrines to weapons of war, and elaborate dioramas of famous battles.  He's only in two scenes in the film so he's not a prevalent villain, and in the final confrontation, though armed to the teeth, he's hardly a match for Bond.

Bond Girls:
Linda (Bell Avery aka Kell Tyler), seen at the end of the opening sequence, in which Bond takes out the assassin killing 00-agents during a training exercise, Bond lands on her yacht, with precision timing, just after she tells a friend on the phone "If only I could meet a real man".  Bond borrows the phone and tells home office he'll be back in an hour, she looks at him lustfully and offers him a dring, and he restates "Better make that two".  She's inconsequential, but it's a classic Bond moment, perfectly played.  It's really the only quip Dalton handles well.

Kara Milovy (Maryam D'Abo) is Georgi's girlfriend and a professional cellist.  Georgi enlists her to pretend to assassinate him to aid in his defection to Britain, in the hopes that she will be killed in the process, but Bond, on instinct, recognizes she's not a professional assassin and pulls his shot.  After Georgi is recovered from the Brits, Bond seeks her out, helping her elude the KGB (at one point sledding down the mountain in her cello case, using her Stradivarius as a directional rudder), and then proceeds to wine and dine her, having figured out Georgi's deception.  She spends the bulk of the movie as Bond's attache and general plot point, but in the final act she actually takes action and instigates the big battle in the final sequence.  She punches some dudes, drives a jeep chasing after Bond on a plane, and then winds up flying the plane.  D'Abo plays Kara as a bit naive and clingy, with the trauma of almost getting killed numerous time having created an unhealthy...erm...bond with Bond.  Not the worst Bond girl, but generally just not much of a character.

With a new Bond, we also get a new Moneypenny, played by Caroline Bliss.  She's decked out in total 80's style... the hair, the glasses, the make-up, the blouse...still quite fetching, and way more sultry than Lois Maxwell's Moneypenny.  She's not a behind-the-desk Moneypenny and seems a bit more engaged in the operations, doing research and providing intel to Bond.

Rosika (Julie T. Wallace) works at the transsiberian pipeline, and is Bond's ally in exfiltrating Georgi through the tunnel.  I thought Rosika was awesome.  She's of the sterotypical burly Russian woman build, sporting a dower hairstyle and frumpy coveralls, we're initially not supposed to see her as anything but that... but as Bond engages the unit that will allow Georgi to traverse the pipeline, she goes off to take care of the guy monitoring the pipeline (she holds a heavy socket wrench in her hand when she says this).  She enters the control room and partially unzips her coveralls, revealing her cleavage and totally seduces the controller by mashing his face into her chest.  Alarms go off but he doesn't even hear them.  I totally believe that, in Rosika's backstory, she became an ally of Bond after they had a tryst where she rocked his world like it'd never been rocked before.  Rosika, definitely one of the most unexpected, and one of my favourite Bond girls.



Theme/Credits:  The Living Daylights title song performed by one-hit wonders A-Ha hints of Duran Duran's A View To A Kill theme, heavy synth rhythm, but it's thoroughly uninspiring and unmemorable.  Even more though, it sounds like they're pulling from Simple Mind's Don't You Forget About Me.



The credits are equally dull.  Instead of the usual nude silhouettes, we're provided with fully-lit shots of women in various swimwear and body paint in clunky poses, such as relaxing on the lip of a champagne glass (while obviously taking direction from off screen... this, people, is the reason why they silhouette the models... they can rarely act).  Mourice Binder, who had been doing the credits since Dr No, had seemingly given up with this one.  I guess he got tired of topless women on trampolines (though there's still a bit of that here too).  There's nothing interesting or remotely alluring about these title sequences and they convey little about the film (I'm confused why there's so much water imagery).


Movie: It was interesting to see that the film took place, in part, in Afghanistan, particularly since at the time it was the Russians the Afghanis were retaliating against.  It's after Georgi and Necros capture Bond that they take him to a Russian base there. It's probably the best reasoned keeping-Bond-alive moment as Georgi uses turning Bond in as Pushkin's murderer (and also turning Kara in as a defector) as leverage to return to Russia and perhaps be pardoned for his embezzling scandal.  With Q-gadgets Bond and Kara make their escape from prison with an Afghani rebel leader, Kamran Shah, who brings them along on an opium deal the Snow Leopards are making with Georgi.  It was a little shocking to me how blatantly the film aligned these people who wanted to liberate Afghanistan from Russian with the opium trade, but also did so with a sense of honesty that didn't marginalize their fight or why they were doing it.  Georgi's rationale for the drug deal is a little thinner, but it seemed he needed it to pay Whitaker back.

Overall, though, the Living Daylights is quite linear for a Bond film, and all the plot threads tie together with some Bondisms (time out to romance, the woman, some over-the-top action bits) tossed in to Bondify the works.  I was actually impressed with how the film unfolded, as so often Bond plots seem ancillary to the set pieces or are overly convoluted to the point of obfuscation. Here is a very plot driven film that feels akin to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where that film sat in the shadow of Connery, this one sits in the shadow of Moore. There may be a few minor plotholes or gaps in logic (and some terrible Russian accents) but overall it's a solid story.

The characters are less exciting though and it's what drags the film down from being one of the more memorable Bond.  Dalton seems more keen on action and drama than romance and comedy, so some great one liners only elicit a chuckle where the big laughs should be.  I think Dalton wanted his Bond to be like Craig's Bond is today, very serious and heavy, to steer away from the camp of Moore, but the screenwriters still wrote this like a Moore script and it's at odds with the performance.  The bad guys are farcical, and the Bond girls are largely forgettable.  Credit to the film to making them less objectified, but at the same time they forgot to give them any real personalities (beyond Rosika of course, she's amazing).


Q Gadgets:
A "Ghetto blaster" rocket launcher
Rake-dar (rake as radar)
Key ring stun gas/plastic explosive, plus keys that open 90% of the world's locks (comes in very handy)
Binocular glasses
Laser hubcaps, missiles, retractible spiked tires, ski outriggers, rocket boost on the Aston Martin.  A nice car that Bond self-destructs

Classification (out of 01.0): 00.6, though one of the better told stories, it's just not that exciting.

Double Oh...13: Octopussy (1983)

d. John Glen


Octopussy preamble: Well... ugh?  This was the first James Bond film, I'm pretty sure, to be made into a video game.  I certainly remember the advertisements for the video game prominently displayed in comic books of the time.  Octopussy, and it's risque-sounding title, has been embedded in the public consciousness since the film debuted, and generally referred to in a derogatory way, as if to say it's a franchise low and the height of ridiculousness in Bond (particularly in Roger Moore's oeuvre, which has no shortage of ridiculousness) and that's not far off.  It came out in competition with Never Say Never Again and even though it's not official, I think I'd prefer to see the latter.

Villains: Ugh, here we go
- Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) is an Afghan prince in exile.  He's got gobs of money, a thirst for competition (gabmling) and is a renowned sportsman (of the hunting kind, not ball-playing).  You can bet that, at one point, he hunts Bond for sport, on elephant-back no less.
- General Orlov is renegade in the Soviet military.  He has grand plans on how Russia can dominate much of Europe, bringing it's filthy communist and socialist practices across half the globe.  Of course, the coalition of communism seemed to think these tactics would be inviting major retaliation from the US, so they shoot it down.  Orlov has other plans, funding his own communist revolution by selling off fakes of many of Russias treasures, using a traveling circus to aide in his smuggling and terrrorism.  He has a good plan conceptually, but exceptionally convoluted in the execution.
- Turban guy, Gobinda.  He's a mammoth of a man.  Not as freakish as Jaws, but very brawny.  Like Jaws, though he's exceptionally tough and strong (though not superhumanly so).
- Sawblade guy ("Thug with Yo-yo"), he's not even given a proper name, but he has this really funky (and as far fetched as Oddjob's bowler) yo-yo that's a giant saw blade.  I serious doubt it would do any real damage in real life (though it would probably not feel nice if you got hit with it).
- Mishka und Grishka are the carnie knife twins.  They're a throwing act who have expert skills with knives.  They're kind of small, and quite one-trick, so they're never much of a threat.

Bond Girls: There's two main Bond girls, Octopussy (Maud Adams back in her second Bond girl role) and Magda (Kristina Wayborn).  Octopussy is a smuggler (not the first, and not the last Bond will get with) in league with Khan and is also a circus owner/operator/performer.  She's wowed by the money and the Russian trinkets passing through her hands, completely unaware of the intent behind the smuggling.  She has a past with Bond, in that her father was a rogue MI-6 agent, and Bond was tasked to bring him in, but wound up killing him in the process.  Strangely, Octopussy doesn't hate him and seems to have had a long-time crush/fascination with him.  But, overall, there's very little to Octopussy, particularly for a main character, there's certainly no personality and dull chemistry between her and Moore.
   Magda is one of Octopussy's girls (the bulk of Octopussy's circus are girls), she's seen early on paired with Kamal Khan, leading one to think they're together, and there's a bit of a fake-out when Bond encouter's Octopussy's girls, thinking at first it's Kahn's harem.  When Bond makes Kahn aware that he has the original Faberge Egg, Magda allows herself to be seduced, sleeps with Bond and takes the egg (a very Bond thing to do), escaping out the balcony window in an acrobatic twirl of cloth.   One can tell later that Magda isn't all that taken with Bond.
   After learning that Khan betrayed her, all of Octopussy's girls mount a major assault on Khan's palace, doing lots of flipping and acrobatics, very little of which looks particularly threatening.  Of James Bond raid sequences this is the weakest of the lot.  Very cheap looking.  It starts off kind of empowering, watching these karate-chopping, high-kicking, cartwheeling women unconvincingly bust up some of Khan's goons, but then Octopussy gets captured and Bond and Q (!?) have to save the day in a hot air balloon (what?).  So much for empowerment.

Credits/Theme: Rita Coolidge sings "All Time High" over some of the cheesiest opening credits of the series.  I don't know what this era of Bond's obsession with trampolines is, but how many is this in a row now where the silhouettes are bouncing into the air?  The women are out of silhouettes in this one frequently, leading to some blatant nipple exposure (which I guess is why it's not on youtube?).  Somehow taking the women out of silhouette greatly reduces the sexiness and ups the cheese factor, mostly by having them smile and react to the lazers tracing across their bodies.  The lazers were perhaps at the time very advanced, but they look really corny now.
As for "All Time High", I don't hate it, but it's rather bland.

Bond: In the cold open, Bond once again fails at his infiltration.  I'm sensing a pattern here, that Bond doesn't really care about having or maintaining a cover.  Bond shows off some slight-of-hand capabilities, as he swaps out the recovered fake Faberge egg (he also shows off his expert eye, as he spits off his knowledge of Russian dynasty heirlooms, and spies the egg is a fake) for the real one during the auction (it shocked me that the auctioneers would allow them to handle the merchandise).  Bond's letching seems really gross in this one as he still thinks he's quite the Lothario.  I imagine the younger women of Octopussy's gang find him kind of unsettling.  At one point Octopussy offers James a job with her, but he affirms that he's a company man.

Movie: This is really one of the worst of the lot.  In a fruitless bid to try and hone in on Indiana Jones territory, Bond goes to India, fights on top of trains, eats a sheep's face, and searches for treasure (at least initially). It's overly convoluted in a thoroughly unpleasant way, to the point that one doesn't really care at all about the intricacies of its story.  The script lays the double-entendres on thick and sloppy, they're overall not very creative and Moore delivers most of them with an eye roll.  It's shocking how director John Glen can come off of one of the smartest of the Bond films and go right to the dumbest.  The circus/carnival motif is something that has appeared a few times throughout the Bond films, I wonder what that association is all about.  There have been a lot of painful, groan-inducing moments in Moore's Bond repertoire, but I think the swinging on the vines with the Tarzan jungle call is about as bad as they get.  That Bond also wastes precious minutes applying a clown costume and clown make-up then must stumble through a circus crowd seems more stupid than inventive.  Surely Bond, number one secret agent guy, can think of a better way to get into a circus tent than floppy shoes, especially since, as we've established, he's the goddamn worst at infiltrating. 

Q-gadgets: there's a mini jet plane hiding in a horse trailer that ejects out of the back end of a horse. (Blue screening in the flying sequence is some of the best in the series but then some of the worst later on).  In Q's lair, there's some Indian-themed apparatus, like a killer door, and a climbing rope that comes out of a snake charming basket.
Bond is given a fountain pen that contains a bug & receiver & metal dissolving acid in a pen
In very progressive thinking, Bond's wristwatch has LCD color TV in it
Bond infiltrates Khan's palace via a crocodile-shaped submersible (and later appears to be eaten by it when he escapes).

Classification (out of 01.0): 00.2 (it really is one of, if not the worst Bond movie.  The gauntlet has been thrown down, Die Another Day)

Beyond the Black Rainbow

2010, Panos Cosmatos

'80's fetishists take note, here's the ultimate in retro-styled boutique filmmaking, a film so in tune with a very specific type of genre storytelling it actually feels authentic.  Director Panos Cosmatos has said of his film that he wanted to recreate what horror films were like in his mind as a child after only seeing the box covers at the video store.  I know exactly what he's talking about.  I remember seeing the cover to the laserdisc of Iceman and still have a vivid impression of what that film was based on that one glimpse of a picture, and yet I've never seen it or even read up on it since.  The mind of the young will roam wildly to places adults would never think to go outside of a fever dream or hallucinogenic trip.

Beyond the Black Rainbow begins in 1983 with a videocassette, a square-boxed introduction to a fictional research institute that completely nails the ethereal sensibilities of the time, droning synthetics, pixelated sterile video effects, random images of nature, metered and low-speaking talking heads.  The intent on the part of the in-context maker is to seem progressive (nonsense terminology emblazened across the screen in primitive digital scrawl), but the filmmaker's goal is obvious.  That stuff is creepy as hell.  Though 8mm and vintage reel-to-reel handheld filmmaking has long been adopted by the modern mainstream as providing a sense of familiar warmth, the VHS or Beta age has now become a staple of science fiction and horror, because of tracking issues and fidelity loss associated with magnetic tape.  The glitches and the textural aspects to tape, both in visual and audio aesthetic seem to be the perfect starting point for establishing "creepy" or "ominous" and have been used to expert effect by shows such as Fringe and Lost.

Beyond the tape, Cosmatos presents a sterile, 80's "futuristic" environment, a concrete and plexiglass facility that's sparsely decorated, highlighted with only flat colors painted with hi-gloss finishes.  It's seemingly inhabited by only a handful beings:  A teenaged "patient", Elena;  her doctor, Barry Nyle; the nurse, Margot; the institute's barely lucid, aged founder Dr. Mercurio Aboria, and the curious non-human entities, the Sentionauts (their exact purpose I'm not entirely clear).  The film labors over Dr. Nyle's meetings with Elena.  He's after something from her, but what it is we're not too sure.  Margot, meanwhile has stumbled across a note book that looks like a disturbed and deviant field guide of sorts.  Dr. Aboria is either senile or purposefully kept in a state of dementia by Dr. Nile, while at home, Dr. Nile and his wife are utterly disconnected.

It's apparent that Elena has some sort of psychic ability, but it is kept tempered by a geometric crystal kept deep in the facility.  Dr. Nile will adjust the "volume" on the crystal to control Elena, but her powers seem to be evolving beyond the crystal's complete control.  Of course, all of this makes it sound like it's a delicious set-up to some sort of Carrie-like freak-out or Hanna-like action set-piece, but it's not.  Cosmatos' film moves at an extremely deliberate pace from the onset, reliant as much on the sound design and the atmospheric, plodding synth score from Black Mountain's Jeremy Schmidt as it does any sense of story or character.

I was constantly peeling off influences on this film as I watched it.  Early Michael Mann like Thief and Manhunter (as resonant as they were in Nicolas Winding-Refn's Drive), and Cronenberg's Videodrome, moreover his 70's Montreal horror (this is a Vancouver-based one), somehow innately Canadian yet transcending any stereotypes.  Mann's The Keep's smoky, monochromatic aesthetic and its Tangerine Dream score stick out the most, but perhaps that's because The Keep feels like a smoky, monochromatic dream I had back in the late 90's the one and only time I saw it.  Additionally the film recalls the soundtracks of John Carpenter, the grotty feel to his 70's and 80's work, as well as the cold cleanliness of Kubrick's genre work, like 2001, The Shining and the dementia of A Clockwork Orange or Roger Avery's Killing Zoe (or the far less known Frankenstein riff, Mr. Stitch).  I couldn't help but feel the same unerring sense of equally heightened intensity and detachment as Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void, which in many ways feels like a sister film.  They're both mood-based head trips that require you to succumb or freak out.

Cosmatos' film is so purposeful, fulfilling so closely his intent.  It's a challenge to view for sure, since it's not a logical film.  There's no story or clearly defined reason for it, and it's overlong by at least 15 minutes (a paring back of long establishing shots could accomplish this without sacrificing much or any of the story, though it may hasten the mood), so it's definitely not going to appeal to everyone, or most.  But I was awed by Cosmatos' conviction to style and his attention to the filmmaking details.  Whenever I felt my attention waning, something visually would draw me back.  It's an incredibly strong debut picture, with a very clear vision and sense of self. 

"I think sometimes a film can’t even be seen for what it really is during the era that it’s made. So, a lot of these films have become an interesting works of art just by aging."

[Panos Cosmatos quote link]

Super 8

2011, JJ Abrams -- netflix

There's over a month's worth of distance between me and Super 8 right now, which means that the film is hardly fresh in my mind, and I'm having difficulty remembering exactly what I thought of it.  Most of what I'm left with is a vague impression of being underwhelmed.  I like JJ Abrams, I like what he does with genre material, making it big and thoughtful.  The man isn't necessarily a visionary, I don't think he ever truly breaks new ground, but he's just really damn good at what he does.  With Super 8, he attempted to replicate "that Spielberg touch" from the late-'70's through early-'80's, and nailed it right on the head, which may, in fact, be the reason why I was left unimpressed by the picture.

Truth is, I understand how amazing a filmmaker Spielberg is, and yet I'm not all that excited by most of his output.  In recent years, it's been his inability to close out a film without a lengthy, and unnecessary fourth act, but even in most of his older films, I don't really connect with what he's doing.  Spielberg has definite technical proficiency, a prodigal way with the camera, and an understanding of the language of cinema that few other directors do, and for some reason I find the results kind of lackluster.  I understand his language, I just don't get too excited by what he has to say.

So with Abrams replicating the Spielberg formula in this film so precisely (but with more lens flares), I have the same detachment I had (still have) with E.T., Close Encounters, the Indiana Jones films and Jaws (yes, darling, even Jaws), all films Abrams cribbed from for Super 8.  The story seems like a different take on the set-up of another Abram's production, Cloverfield, but taking a completely different turn with the giant monster angle.  In which a group of ambitious teens make their own Super 8 movies, and happen to be filming at the scene of a massive train derailment (immediately stretching the limits of disbelief by having the train miss the kids and their car but decimate everything else around them) which lets loose a (seemingly) malevolent alien life form.

The focus of the film, in true Spielberg-ian style is as much on the characters and their drama as the events happening around them.  The kids have their own romantic and strained friendship drama, while also having tremendous parental drama.  Meanwhile, the town sheriff tries to figure out what's what when the military seems to be all too tight lipped about the situation.  Of course it's up to the kids to figure it all out, and they do, and a hopeful ending for all results.  

It's quite formulaic, this movie, but it's Spielberg's formula, as viewed through the lens of JJ Abrams, thus the quality level is damn high.  It's a great looking picture with solid acting, top notch effects, grand score, but truly it feels familiar, almost like I've seen it before.  There's not a lot of surprises as the story unfolds, and, for me at least, not a lot of excitement.  The character drama, which is what should set this apart from the typical summer blockbuster fare, seems if not at odds with the scope of the film, then at least uncomplimentary.

I didn't hate it.  I didn't love it.  I don't dislike it.  I don't really like it either.  Just a mild, tepid, neutral reaction.