Horror Express (1972) Dir. Eugenio Martin Around the start of the 20th century, a British scientist finds a well-preserved specimen of an early man in China. He arranges for his find to be taken back to Europe with him on a train. From the very start of the voyage, death seems to follow his shipment around, until even he has to acknowledge that some dark power resides within the ancient remains. This is a kookie and quirky little horror film. Though it is a Spanish production, the presence of Lee and Cushing (as well as the visual style and use of miniatures) gives this a distinct Hammer Horror style. So a Paella Horror film? (I'll get me coat). This movie is loosely based on the same short story that also inspired John Carpenter's "The Thing" as well as the earlier "The Thing from Another World". This is certainly not Lee or Cushing's best work but there are still some moments in there which should go in their extended pantheon. None more so than Cushing's delivery of the line, "Monster? We're British, you know!". For Cushing, this was a film made at a tragic time in his life, shortly after his wife's death and supposedly Lee had to convince him not to walk out on the film shortly after it went into production.
Triple Threat (2019) Dir. Jesse V. Johnson A mercenary group attacks a prison camp to free their leader. In the process, they murder almost everyone at the site, including the wife of one of the Indonesian soldiers guarding the camp. After he starts tracking down the men responsible to exact revenge, he finds their trackers and local guides, two men who were also betrayed by the mercenaries and also want revenge. The trio of them foil an attempted assassination on a wealthy heiress who has angered the local crime families by donating part of her vast inheritance to combat corruption and organized crime. This leads to a cat and mouse game between the mercs who have to kill the woman and her three unlikely protectors. A fairly middling exercise in martial arts/action film-making. It's interesting that whilst "The Raid" franchise has made Iko Uwais something of an international star, he has rarely matched the quality and intensity of his performances in those movies. I guess the closest thing I've seen in that regard was his work in "The Night Comes of Us". This isn't of that quality and is occasionally somewhat silly. On the other hand, I cannot totally hate a goofy action movie that does both a "Predator" and "Terminator" homage in two separate scenes.
Finally got round to watching this because I head so many good things about it. Lack of dialogue is obviously super unique and I can see why this horror has a certain cult status. My main beef was with the "kryptonite" plot resolution and that the world building makes no apparent sense. Plot issues (Move your mouse to reveal the content) Plot issues (open) Plot issues (close) It's obvious to anyone that the creatures can be distracted by noise. So why not just use a noise maker to lure them? I mean they even have a rocket system to distract them. And then they can apparently be easily killed with a shotgun. But the Dad's cheat sheet stuff by his radios seemed to say they couldn't be simply shot? Seems a bad plot hole IMO Also - building a sound proof bunker or finding one seems like the first thing you'd do?
Well that became the plot device of the money being lost step by step I looked up that $1m in $100 bills weighs only about 10kg So each person could seemlngly carry at least US$2m with little trouble plus other kit? What seemed absurd was trying to transport 100m on foot
Via youtube... Iain Sinclair: London Overground, a documentary/travelogue directed by prolific documentarian John Rogers, who accompanies Sinclair on a thirty or so mile walk around London to examine the cities transformation into a venue of global capital. Basically a movie version of a book by the same title.
The Highwaymen (2019) Dir. John Lee Hancock In 1934, at the height of Bonnie and Clyde's crime spree, Texas Governor "Ma" Ferguson allows the reinstatement of two former Texas Rangers, both now retired, to join the manhunt on the famous pair of criminals. Plagued by self-doubt about their abilities and guilt about the morality of their past actions respectively, the two men nevertheless prove to have more success with their old-fashioned ways than many of the other, more modern lawmen who are trying to track down the same criminals. An interesting film, which can almost be perceived as the inverse image of Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde". This film is not at all interested in glamorizing the famous criminals. In fact, it is not interested in them full stop, apart from showing the cold-blooded nature of their crimes (occasionally merely in its aftermath and other times just focusing on the brutality of them). For the longest time, the audience is even deprived a front-on shot of either Parker or Barrow. Instead the entire focus is on the two lawmen, played ably by Costner and Harrelson. This is essentially a buddy cop movie/road movie centered around two old cops. The production values are good and there is some talent in the supporting cast too (Kathy Bates as "Ma" Ferguson and Thomas Mann as the young lawmen who helps them identify Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow).
Stuck in a middle seat on a 6.5 hour flight, I turned to the best distraction available in the on-flight entertainment options: This movie has one of my favorite digressions ever, the stage show version of their lame excuse "Put That Thing Back Where It Came From - Or So Help Me!" That animators took the time and the studio spent the money to make that is one of my favorite random things ever.
Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019) Dir. Sam Liu In the 31st century, the Legion of Super-Heroes find themselves under attack. The trio of assailants fight their way to the very heart of their headquarters and steal a time travel device which they use to travel back to the 21st century. In a desperate attempt to stop them, Starboy travels back with them and briefly traps them in their time machine after their arrival. Unfortunately the superhero suffers from a mental illness for which there is no cure in the 21st century and one of the symptoms of his disorder is memory loss. Thus within moments of his arrival he is already starting to forget what his mission is. At the same time, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz is going through a crisis of confidence and anxiety herself, whilst the rest of the Justice League are soon dealing with the trio of 31st century interlopers. Another entry into the DC/WB animated movie series. A very good one at that. The story is entertaining and told in a crisp manner, the animation is quite good (perhaps the best any of these movies have looked in 4-5 years) and the voice cast is terrific (old reliable performers like Kevin Conroy and Susan Eisenberg along with relative newcomers like Diane Guerrero).
Bumblebee (2018) Dir. Travis Knight With the Autobots being overrun and Cybertron falling into the hands of the Decepticons, the remaining Autobots scatter around the universe, with the intention of gathering on Earth eventually. To make the planet a safe haven for their arrival, Optimus Prime sends Bumblebee ahead to secure our world and protect it from any possible Decepticon incursions. He arrives on the planet in the 1980s and ends up in the possession of Charlie, a troubled and freshly bereaved teenaged girl who is still trying to get over her father's sudden passing. She finds an unlikely friend in the robot, until the arrival of two Decepticons hoping to force the location of Optimus Prime out of Bumblebee complicate their lives. This was surprisingly good! It's by far the best of the Transformer films (I realize this is faint praise). Mostly thanks to the fact that director Travis Knight along with screenwriter Christina Hodson have created the first human characters in the franchise that the audience truly will care about. Ably brought to life by Hailee Stanfield's very good lead performance. On top of that, the movie can also boast a terrific 1980s soundtrack. As well as just the right amount of nostalgic scenes (besides the soundtrack we get nods to movies like "The Breakfast Club", scenes that are reminiscent of the work of John Hughes and the early scenes of Charlie bringing Bumblebee into her home and life mirror similar scenes from Steven Spielberg's "E.T."). The expectation created by the utterly soulless Michael Bay movies makes it almost hard to believe that a Transformers film can be this charming and occasionally touching. I wouldn't call this movie as good as Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant" but the very best moments of Charlie and Bumblebee's friendship did remind me of it a little bit.
Black Panther (2018) This opened really slowly - it wasn't until the Korean segment that things actually started (and I really liked the Korean segment - it had a James Bond feel to it). The end flagged as well, and it's for the same reason the beginning didn't connect - the beginning was pageantry and ritual; the end was a brawl with sticks and scythes. It's all old thinking. It is habitual and it is stereotype and most of all it is expected. This could have been some far-out space-is-the-place Afrofuturism, but this was Thor: The Dark World all over again. Technology changes people. These people somehow never changed. The theme was questioning old assumptions, but they only went so far and failed to question the biggest and worst assumptions of all - power transferred by heredity, trial by combat, absolute rule. It's Wakanda's reign by monarchs that caused all the problems in the first place. And even from a meta perspective it's a problem. The sublime moments in the film are Killmonger's quiet times (his vision, after he got the spear in the chest). Those were such great moments. Erik was such a great character. Maybe I'm just being American.
Glass (2019) Dir. M. Night Shymalan 19 years after the events of "Unbreakable", David Dunn is still doling out vigilante justice, using the superpowers he discovered thanks to Mr. Glass. His now adult son is supporting this endeavor, even though he is concerned about the increased police attention his father's actions have yielded. At the same time, Kevin Wendell Crumb and his many personalities still continue their crime spree, with the Beast repeatedly kidnapping young women to brutally murder them. This puts him onto the radar of David Dunn. After an initial confrontation, both of them are arrested and brought to a mental asylum, where a seemingly sympathetic Doctor will attempt to cure them from their delusion of possessing superpowers. Also at the hospital is Mr. Glass himself, a long-term inmate whose drug regimen has him in a seeming near catatonic state. I'm not sure how I feel about this film. I think "Unbreakable" was a terrific movie (possibly still underrated and definitely slightly ahead of its time) and I liked "Split" for being a decent effort following a series of less than great outings for M. Night Shyamalan. I know that a cameo in that movie already suggested that it shared a universe with "Unbreakable", but the merging of the two stories feels like less than the sum of its parts and that's an understatement. I don't think this is terrible, just ultimately disappointing, especially since the cast is terrific. James McAvoy repeats his "Split" tour de force in playing the many personalities of his character with conviction and aplomb. Sarah Paulson is always great. Anya Taylor Joy has too little to do but still manages to convince in what are the movie's most emotional scenes. Sam Jackson is Sam Jackson. But the material leaves us wanting, especially as the third act quickly unravels into silliness.
The London Perambulator, a documentary film revolving around walks in and around London directed by John Rogers (2011) based on a 1925 book by the same title by an author I've never heard of named James Bone. EDIT: Holy crap: the book is in the library at my wife's college!
Buster's Mal Heart (2016) Buster is a bearded mute hermit that lives in empty vacation homes somewhere in the Midwest, possibly Montana where this was filmed. He may or may not also be a bearded sailor lost at sea for years. Before that he was Jonah, a night manager at a hotel barely scraping an existence with his wife and small daughter. How he got from one to the other... well, that's a matter of debate. Is this some conspiracy-laden sci-fi? Faintly religious magical realism? Just a unreliable narrator breaking apart? You can't really tell. But at least it looks nice and gives off the emotion of being meaningful while it's doing its nothing. Rami Malek is great, as would be expected because the film's similar to Mr. Robot in more ways than one.
On Netfix: The probably nearly true story of the hunt-down and slaughter of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, media darlings and psychopaths. 20,000 people attended Bonnie's funeral in Dallas. 3.5 stars. (PS: I missed the up-thread post) One other thing: BG neglects to note that the retirement of the two Texas Rangers was sort of forced.
The Wind (2018) Dir. Emma Tammi Lizzie and Isaac are a married couple of settlers who live in a very remote area of the American frontier. Their life is briefly improved by the settlement of another young couple in a nearby, formerly vacant cabin. Unfortunately this does not last very long as the wife dies in an apparent suicide, taking her unborn son with her in the process. These happenings greatly unsettle Lizzie, who has long believed some strange evil presence is plaguing the area. With Isaac accompanying the now widowed neighbor into town for a couple of days to get his affairs in order, this leaves Lizzie and her quickly fraying mind alone at their homestead. Though there are some issues with this movie - mostly the non-linear structure which adds very little to thee experience - I still very much enjoyed this. It's another rare entry in one of my favorite subgenres of cinema: horror western. I don't really understand why not more of these are made, since the western frontier setting and its innate sense of isolation and dread seems like such a tailor-made universe for horror. This also boasts a good performance by Caitlin Gerard as Lizzie, who is required to act alone and with next to no dialogue for decent swathes of this film and never makes it any less than compelling to watch.
I think the real situation was a bit more complex than it is made out in the movie. Many retired before they were put out to pasture because they did not want to serve under a female Governor. From the mouth of Frank Hamer himself: "When they elected a woman governor, I quit."
Outlaw King (2018) Dir. David MacKenzie Following the execution of William Wallace, Sir Robert the Bruce decides to break the vow of fealty he made to King Edward following his participation in the rebellion and he becomes the leader of a new rebellion as well as the newly anointed king of Scotland. After his first battle against the British is a disaster, he has to flee and rebuild his army, during which time a lot of his allies and family fall upon very hard times. This did not get the greatest of reviews upon its release, which is why I hadn't gotten around to watching it yet. Though not great, it was better than expected. I'll let Gennaro Gattuso explain. Pine's lead performance is fine and some of the widescape shots of the Scottish countryside are gloriously beautiful. In general, all of the stuff that was shot on location looks great. The terrific Florence Pugh is giving too little to do as Elizabeth de Burgh. It's main issue though is the editing. I have read that this is already an improved cut of the film after David MacKenzie's longer cut did very poorly with test audiences. Yet this edit is still quite weird, both in terms of its narrative arc and what it devotes attention to. It also makes the climactic battle as well as its aftermath arrive at a weird time (it all feels a bit rushed).
Recap of movies I watched on the back of a plane headrest. Props to Delta for having decent options for this that I haven't had in while as most airlines just assume you're going to watch movies on your phone. Bad Times at the El Royale ~ D. Goddard Feels like one of the many Tarantino knock-offs of 20 years ago. Neither bad nor good, it is relatively entertaining. Good airplane movie. Mission Impossible: Fallout ~ C. McQuarrie Not sure what sequel # this is or how many of the previous releases I've seen. Indistinguishable from the others. Maybe a bigger screen would have made the effects stand out? Not a great airplane movie. The Favourite ~ Y. Lanthimos Delightfully weird and horrifying. The performances really are terrific. Good move whether on an airplane or not. Oceans 8 ~ G. Ross Maybe too derivative of the previous Oceans movies. Okay for a plane, but not really good. John Wick 2 ~ C. Stahelski Rewatched this. I remembered that there was a young kid behind me about half-way through, so maybe not the best to watch on a plane.
Escape Room (2019) Dir. Adam Robitel Five total strangers each receive a puzzle box containing an invitation to an escape room. Shortly after their arrival at the venue, it is revealed that these escape rooms are unlike any other, in that all of the participants are playing for their survival as increasingly more dangerous and challenging rooms are presented to them. Pretty basic horror thriller that borrows from stuff like "Cube" and the "Saw" franchise, as well as sharing many plot elements with a recent movie of the same name. Not a terrible watch but too cliché to really recommend watching it. Deborah Ann Woll (most famous for her turn on "Daredevil" and "The Punisher") is the stand-out among the cast.
The Fly (1958) Dir. Kurt Neumann François and André Delambre co-own and run an electronics factory in Montréal. It has made them both wealthy and André has put some of that wealth into his inventions. One night, François gets a confused phone call from his sister-in-law Helene in which she informs him of the fact that she has killed her husband, André. François' disbelief is turned into shock when he discovers, after calling a police inspector he is acquainted with, that her account is truthful. They find André's half-crushed remains within a sheet metal press inside of the Delambre factory and Helene is deemed to have been insane during the murder of her husband. A few weeks later, François pressures his sister-in-law into telling him what really happened, which leads to her talking about the invention her late husband had been working on for the last months of his life: a device which could move matter from one pod to another instantaneously. Yet as his success in improving on this machine increased, so did the risks he was willing to take. I had only ever seen the David Cronenberg remake of this, never the original. The original film is good in its own right, but very different. Obviously the prosthetics and make-up are more impressive in the 1980s feature and the entire AIDS subtext of that film is quite logically missing in the 1958 movie. But for its time, this was well done. Vincent Price is predictably good and they manage to maintain the suspense by holding off for a long time in showing the hybrids new form.
Doctor Strange (2016) Doctor Strange is an incredibly arrogant and self-centered ass who drives his bazillion dollar Lamborghini terribly and then crashes. What a satisfying movie. Oh wait, it's not over. Because Western medicine was not able to fix his broken hands, he turns to magic, a force he is familiar with as he was able to pull a (diamagnetic) copper covered (diamagnetic) lead bullet infused with (diamagnetic) antimony out of a gunshot victim using a magnet. It turns out he is a natural at this magic thing which of course he is because this is a comic book movie and I don't know what I was expecting. My bit of fun aside I actually liked Doctor Strange. It was visually stunning, if occasionally too dark and close, and better yet each scene was more inventive and spectacular than the last. Magic has that problem of being completely f-ing arbitrary, so this film did well to create a particular magical look and style, but unfortunately not a structure of limitations and costs. But most importantly I am very, very in favor of movies that end with a negotiated compromise instead of one side being bludgeoned to submission by the other, and I can forgive a lot in any movie that does that. Heck, it made me like Matrix Revolutions.