Review - Send Help

There's something called nominative determinism - your name can influence who you are in life. If your last name is Baker you may become a chef. Usain Bolt’s name may have encouraged him to go as fast as lightning. And Linda Liddle, the main character of Sam Raimi’s Send Help, is a meek, awkward, and clueless marketing exec. Her company’s CEO just passed and his son (Bradley, played by Dylan O’Brien) is taking over. One of his first orders of business is passing over Linda (Rachel McAdams) for a promotion in favor of his frat buddy. The company knows that Linda is valuable, however, so she goes on their business trip to Thailand. The company plane runs into trouble, however, and Linda and Bradley wind up as the only survivors on a deserted island. 

 

Fandango

There’s plenty to like here. Director Sam Raimi is back making an R rated horror film after 26 years. He’s brought frequent collaborator Danny Elfman with him to do the score. McAdams, on her second go-round with Raimi after Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and Dylan O’Brien are capable leads. In fact, McAdams and O’Brien do some excellent work in a particular campfire scene where they're sharing some past trauma that really lets them shine.

But. I didn’t love this movie. Trust me, no one is more upset about that than me. Raimi and his muse Bruce Campbell (who may or may not have a cameo in the film) served as my entryway into horror.

The movie revolves around two obnoxious characters...that’s the long and the short of my problems with it. There are definitely times where Linda and Bradley seem to be evolving, but I was ultimately left wanting more in the character department. Granted, Liddle’s cringey awkwardness is most felt in the beginning of the film, but it never quite goes away. And Bradley is just downright frustrating considering some of his actions.

As for Raimi, his signature stuff (over the top gore, extreme closeups) mostly just felt shoved into the film. Raimi didn’t write this, as opposed to Drag Me To Hell (now that’s a Raimi movie), so that probably explains it.

The film does have a few twists and plot turns, so if that’s your thing, you might get a bit more mileage here. You’ll have to check out the film to see what they are, and if Linda rises above her name.

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Review - Five Nights at Freddy's 2

What does it mean when you can’t tell if a movie is bad, or if you’re just not familiar with the property’s lore?

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is the sequel to the 2023 adaptation of the popular video game franchise about a Chucky-Cheeese-esque restaurant and its creepy animatronics. I watched the original film without having played Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) at all and being very minimally aware of the game in general. I've since played a bit of the OG game. I don't think it helped at all.

Reddit

The movie starts in the ‘80s at a party at the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location. There we witness the murder of a young girl named Charlotte. The parents at the party are unrealistic and unhelpful when Charlotte initially notices a young boy being abducted (this trope happens way too often). The movie then flashes forward to the present to continue the story of Mike (Josh Hutcherson).

FNAF 2 can be intense and eerie at times, particularly the beginning. A marionette character is a creepy addition. The gameplay from the original game focuses on simply flipping through different CCTV security channels at the restaurant to track the evil animatronics. It’s nerve-wracking, as the characters pop up at random. Why then, did they not recreate this in this film?

I've always been a bit on the fence about Josh Hutcherson but I think he's finally won me over. Mike isn’t a particularly complex character as far as horror films go, but that’s fine.

One of my biggest problems with the film is the logic, or lack thereof. For instance, why are the Freddy Fazbear's locations closed but still around? How is Abby (Piper Rubio), Mike’s young sister, able to ride her bike around town so fast? Does she have a rocket bike? Or are we to believe the Freddy locations are that close together? Most notably, there’s a Michael character in addition to Hutcherson’s Mike, and he also works at a Fazbear’s. Giving different characters similar names is a no-no, but there may be some sort of in-world reason for it? Again, I’m not sure if it’s bad writing or just the lore.

This film also doubles the “Scream” factor, with Matthew Lillard’s antagonist returning in a dream and now Skeet Ulrich appearing in a brief role. I was expecting the two horror alums to somehow share some screen time but it didn't happen. Another cast highlight is Wayne Knight as Abby’s teacher Mr. Berg. His character gets attacked towards the end of the film and suddenly I was nine years old again watching him get eaten in Jurassic Park. 

At the end of the day, I would watch more of these. They’re harmless and definitely have a fun vibe. I may try to play some more of the games, to catch up on that lore if nothing else.

Film Review: Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye (English Dub)

Does trauma hold as much power as a ghost?

Dan Da Dan is a Japanese horror manga, anime, and film series involving the world of the supernatural with high school protagonists.  Season one of the anime is available to stream on Netflix, with the second season set to premiere on July 3.  The first film, First Encounter, which is a collection of the first season’s initial three episodes, debuted in 2024. Evil Eye similarly is the first three episodes of the second season. 

IMDb

Some quick backstory on the first season, which the beginning of Evil Eye also covers. High schoolers Momo (Abby Trott), Okarun (AJ Beckles) and an expanding cast of characters populate the show. Momo would normally not be caught together with the nerdy and alien obsessed Okarun in high school society, but a random encounter brings them together and, subsequently, they devise a plan for Momo to investigate an abandoned hospital (reportedly an alien hotspot) and for Okarun to check out an allegedly haunted tunnel. The season plays out with Momo and Okarun questing, surviving supernatural attacks, and being joined by other characters.

Evil Eye picks up with Momo and Okarun joining their friend Jiji (Aleks Le) in his hot springs town to investigate his supposedly haunted house. 

Does Evil Eye feel like three episodes of a show? Yes and no. The film doesn’t hide that it’s for the fans, but it does a good job of leading into the new story.  It does obviously leave off on a cliffhanger but several big budget films have done that recently, namely Dune, Dune: Part 2, and Wicked. In short, fans of the show and casual viewers should both find plenty to like.

But fans of the show should definitely not be disappointed - the animation is as stunning as ever, the English voice work is still charming, and the characters are their compelling usual selves. The horror is on display as well, with creepy visuals, a not-quite-right haunted house (and its landlords) and a downright heartbreaking and disturbing backstory for the titular "Evil Eye" antagonist. 

The antagonist's tragic backstory does a good job of not just representing his own trauma, but that of the town and our heroes. The townsfolk have been complicit in the villain’s suffering, and their misdeeds are quite literally built one on top of one another. So too does the trauma get passed down to the town’s families, eventually affecting Jiji.

January and February 2020 (or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Blogging Again")

Hi there. I'm doing a post for TV and films I'm looking forward to / will be watching in Q1 2020 (really just January and February). This is also to finally share a schedule for Fear of Better Films (see below) for the recent future! If you'd like to participate just let me know! By the way, this post was written/edited super quick and sloppy. Just gotta finally get it done! That's kind of my 2020 motto...

January

The Outsider - January 12

Nora from Queens - January 22

Picard - January 23

February

Birds of Prey - February 7

Hunters - February 21

The Invisible Man - February 28

Honorable Mentions

NOS4A2 (I started this a while back and will finish it soon)
Joker (never saw it in the theater...I'll probably watch it this weekend)

So on to Fear of Better Films.

I wrote about this a bit in my post in October but I've started a new system of watching movies (God what's wrong with me) called Fear of Better Films. I watch the first 15 minutes of three different movies and then finish the one (at least) I like best. It probably goes without saying but I started this because of the plethora of good looking films out there (the word DEARTH popped into my head instead of plethora but that's the opposite of what I meant. Really wanted to use DEARTH though...).

I might start doing a more structured schedule (not sure what I even mean by that) but for now, here are the next few rounds I've randomly selected.

• Round 3
• The Pool
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Days of Thunder
• Round 4
• Take Shelter
• My Week with Marilyn
• The Dead Don't Die
• Round 5 
• Only God Forgives
• The Discovery
• Rachel Getting Married
• Round 6 
• Guava Island
• Late Night
• The Last Black Man in San Francisco
• Round 7
• mid90s
• Major League
• P2
• Round 8
• In The Shadow of the Moon
• Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot
• Earthquake Bird

By the way, almost all of those are available on streaming services (here in the states, anyway). I started at round 3 above because I did a few official rounds (and many unofficial) before that. And if you'd like to join along for any of these rounds, just let me know. I'm curious to see if others would decide on the same films I do. Happy Watching!

October 2019

I seem to have an unwritten rule these days: Don't Write Anything on Your Blog.

But I'm breakin' that rule, baby.

I've been percolating a watchlist of horror films for this month, October, the best time of the year. Some are new (to me), and some will be rewatches. Check out my list, some of which I've already gotten to:

Full Watch

• Brightburn
• Child’s Play (2019)
• Crawl
• Little Monsters
• Pet Sematary ('19)
• The Burning
• Tigers Are Not Afraid

TV

• Castle Rock Season 2 
• Creepshow 

Fassbender Double Feature

• Eden Lake (I've heard it's great/underrated)
• The Snowman (I've heard it's terrible)

Rewatch

• Insidious
• The Blair Witch Project Franchise

Fear of Better Films

So I need to explain this a bit. Lately I've been watching the first 10 minutes of three different films. Whichever one (at least) I like the best gets finished. I'll be approaching a lot of the films on my list like this. I've randomly picked the combatants. And I'm actually upping each chunk to 15 minutes - I feel like that's a better amount of time. 

• Psycho II vs. Eye See You vs. The Hills Have Eyes ('77)
• Winner: Psycho II
• The Rezort vs. Cooties vs. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
• Winner: Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
• Malevolent vs. The Vault vs. Wolf Creek
• Apostle vs. Julia's Eyes vs. The Blackcoat's Daughter
• The Endless vs. The Green Inferno vs. You Might Be The Killer
• Zombie vs. Black Christmas ('74) vs. Head Count
• Hell House LLC vs. In The Tall Grass vs. Mayhem
• Slice vs. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House vs. In the Shadow of the Moon
• Kill List vs. Revenge vs. The Gallows
• The Silence vs. The Babysitter vs. Stage Fright

I obviously won't get to all of these but I'll have fun trying...

Countdown to Avengers 4: Captain Marvel

We've gone and done a fourth installment of Countdown to Avengers! That's right, I teamed up with CT, Pax, and Jay to tackle Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel. Let's finish all this with a look at that last one, with some backup from Pax at Cavalcade of Awesome. You can check out all our other posts here.

SPOILERS FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL AHEAD!

Marvel.com

From IMDb:

"Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races."

I'm not sure where to begin with Captain Marvel, Brie Larson's foray into the MCU and the Infinity Saga's penultimate installment (or is it?). I wanted and want to love it. And I basically do, mostly thanks to Larson as the amnesiac superhero Carol Danvers.

But there are flaws. The film takes a while to get going and yet at the same time it zips around and fast forwards when it wants to. A - pretty big - negative for me is that I don't particularly remember a great action sequence. The film's by no means boring in that respect but if we're judging it by thrills and chills there's nothing that stands out. The dog fight towards the end - before Carol gets her powers - was fun, but that could be in any movie. The end when she's taking out tons of Kree ships? It's cool, but it's kind of one-sided. But I'm quibbling here and tons of others enjoyed the film's action.

Sam Jackson was great and it was wonderful to have his Nick Fury back in a big way. I think a big draw of the film was Jackson and the record setting use of Marvel's de-aging tech that's been used to roll back the clock on Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr., Kurt Russell and others. He really connected this film to the others in one of the biggest ways possible. It being a prequel really sets it as part of the universe as well. A young Coulson (Clark Gregg) had a similar effect. We get some other tie-ins to the MCU here, namely an unexpected appearance by the Tesseract.

I'd heard going in that Ben Mendelsohn as Talos was great. He was both a compelling villain and - spoiler alert - a standout ally when that reveal came. His roles as both alien and shapeshifter breathed a bit of uniqueness into the MCU.

The story was a little different than what we're used to in the MCU. It was life as usual for "Kree" warrior Danvers until a mission leads her to Earth. We get her piecing her history there back together and the jumbled storyline was fun. A scene where her enemies use tech to scan her memories was particularly unique and memorable. The film both developed some backstory for the MCU and plotted a course for the future and the supporting characters, particularly Jude Law's mentor-to-Carol character, were fun.

I’m curious to see how Captain Marvel fits into the Avengers. In the comics she and Tony have a civil war so that will be interesting. We see her a bit in trailers and the Infinity War credits scene but it's not much to go on. Much has been made about Captain Marvel vs. Thanos - almost as much as Ant-Man vs. his butt. We'll see how powerful she - and the rest of the remaining Avengers - are.

As a side note, there's been an extreme amount of hate directed towards Brie Larson. Like, weird mind boggling, purest-sense-of-the-word-troll kind of hate. I thought about taking a deep dive into that here (and how I don't get it), particularly focusing on oddly obsessive YouTube videos, but I'll spare everyone.

3.5/5

Extra Thoughts from Pax:

This movie is important for what it is and I appreciate that.  For my wife and my daughter and for the other adorable girl that was in my theater wearing the Captain Marvel uniform while she watched the movie.  For that this movie has my undying support.

I think the first half of this movie is kind of a jumbled mess.  It gains more focus by the end, but that first part is really confusing to sit through.  I don’t think the filmmakers they got for this particular movie stuck the landing.  Despite that, I'm actually really looking forward to Captain Marvel’s return in Endgame.  I’m really looking forward to how the Russo Brothers and Markus/McFeely meld this character into the MCU because I think she could be pretty great.  Scratch that, I think she’s *going* to be really great in Endgame.  It’s just tough to see it here in her solo movie.

This movie really leans *hard* on the fact that it takes place in the 90s, and that’s not a criticism.  I loved all of that; the Windows 95 references, Blockbuster Video, the pager.  It's fun, the effects look great.  I loved seeing young Fury and Coulson.  Loved the Flurken.    I appreciate what this movie has now done, even if I didn’t totally love it.  But I very much look forward to the place Captain Marvel will have in the MCU from this point on.

Countdown to Avengers 3: Black Panther

Can you believe that we’re doing a third installment of Countdown to Avengers? It seems like it was only yesterday that we teamed up with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome to tackle all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films (and then some) that lead up to The Avengers. Believe it or not, we’re back, and now we’ve got Jay from Life Vs. Film along for the ride as well. 

Marvel

And now we've come to the end. We're looking at the last film before Infinity War. That's right, Infinity War is out THIS WEEK so Jay and I are looking at the phenomenal Black Panther. Let's go back to Wakanda! Mandatory spoiler warning!

This is getting pretty ridiculous. The MCU movies are starting to change the fabric of society. I'm sure Marvel would have made four Black Panthers by now if they knew it would have been such a cultural, critical, and financial success. Black Panther serving as the final standalone film before Infinity War is an interesting choice (coincidence?). The isolated Wakanda opening up to the rest of the world is kind of a metaphor for the MCU opening up and connecting its various characters even more than they already have.

? via IMP Awards

Black Panther follows one of the newer recruits of the MCU, King T'Challa, (Chadwick Boseman) as he tries to fill the shoes of his recently departed father. T'Challa's trying to balance everything that's happening in Wakanda and fully take on the mantle of king when his long lost cousin Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (Anthony B. Jordan) comes along with plans to start a worldwide revolution.

So there's no way I can say Black Panther is a bad film. Simply due to the talent on display and behind the scenes, Black Panther is a very, very good movie. However, it's not my personal favorite MCU film for various reasons. A reason that springs to mind: the whole maglev vibranium train fight at the end sort of seemed taken out of a crummy X-Men movie.

A broader criticism I have for the film is about its villains. Or rather, how they relate to Black Panther. Kilmonger was killed off - bad move. It'd be like if they killed Loki in the first Thor movie (which I guess they sort of did and brought him back so it's possible Kilmonger could return).

It's revealed that T'Challa's father essentially killed his own brother and left his son on his own in America. I felt like this was a big controversy but wasn't handled as such. T'Challa didn't really seem to want to fix or even address this injustice. After he had essentially killed Kilmonger he thought about saving him. You would have thought there would have been one instance of T'Challa saying, "Hey, what my dad did was wrong, I want to fix this." I also don't get killing off Klaue (Andy Serkis). You killed both awesome Black Panther villains. Why? Also, I was kind of hoping T'Challa would have a cool scene where he had to prove himself and survive after his initial fight with Kilmonger. But M'Baku's (Winston Duke) people just kind of save him. And we don't even see that! They just reveal that he's alive.

Like any MCU film there are connections to other Marvel movies. Even though Black Panther is sort of an insulated film (it's literally taking place in a hidden, isolated country) we have some connective tissue. Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) plays a big role in the movie so that's a bit of a connection to Civil War. We also get to see - in a post credits scene - that Bucky (Sebastian Stan) has come out of his self-imposed cryogenic hibernation at the end of Civil War and seems to be doing better...under the care of Shuri (Letitia Wright), no less.

It's always fun to speculate how a stand alone character will fit in with the rest of the Avengers. In this case, we've already seen Black Panther side by side with a lot of the other Avengers, but it was pretty limited (even though his role was not) and in the context of fighting. I've really tried to avoid trailers for Infinity War but it looks like a large part of the movie is set in Wakanda and Black Panther is taking on a leader role. I'm looking forward to some sort of interaction between Black Panther and Bucky. The last time we saw them together they were trying to kill each other. I think Black Panther has the potential to lead the Avengers in future films. I'm not sure if that's happened before or if it's canon, but that would be cool.

Extra Thoughts from Jay:

Every time I think the title Black Panther, I can't help but flip it in my head to Plaque Bantha, so I keep imagining a film about a giant woolly horned beast from Star Wars desperately needing to see his dentist, but I highly doubt that film would be one of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time internationally, which Black Panther now is. In fact, within the MCU it's only currently being beaten by the two Avengers movies, making it the highest grossing standalone character film, which is pretty damn impressive given I'd never even heard of the eponymous character before Captain America: Civil War.

It's clear from the Infinity War trailers that the events - or at least, the locations - of Black Panther are integral to the future of the Avengers, with Wakanda presumably being the location of the Soul Stone. This decision must have been made prior to Black Panther's release, so I'm guessing Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel team are all giving themselves pretty smug pats on the back given how successful Black Panther was, and how many guaranteed ticket sales that'll grant them for Infinity War. Those back-pats are entirely deserved though, as BP is an awesome movie. It features many of the best antagonists of the franchise so far in the forms of Andy Serkis' Klaue, Winston Duke's M'Baku and of course Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger, has some awesome action - I cannot wait to see the casino fight and ensuing chase again - incredible production design, supporting characters, music, visuals, dammit, everything is just great. To date it's the only Marvel film that I've only seen once, but that's going to change pretty damn soon, I assure you.

Countdown to Avengers 3: Doctor Strange

Can you believe that we’re doing a third installment of Countdown to Avengers? It seems like it was only yesterday that we teamed up with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome to tackle all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films (and then some) that lead up to The Avengers. Believe it or not, we’re back, and now we’ve got Jay from Life Vs. Film along for the ride as well.

Whereas that first series of ours was special, this one will be even more epic. It heralds the end - or, at least, the beginning of the end - of this current manifestation of the MCU. Infinity War releases in a matter of days so, without further adieu...2016’s Doctor Strange. Mandatory spoiler warning!

“...Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who’s a threat to Hydra!” - Jasper Sitwell, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

With this mention in an excellent installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the MCU's Doctor Strange was born. The character was and is exciting for me because he's among the crop of new Avengers (who doesn't want to see a New Avengers Movie featuring Ant-Man and The Wasp, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and others?). I also was (and am) a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, so I was happy with the casting.

Paul Shipper via IMP Awards

Going into Doctor Strange, I thought quite a bit about the 2007 cartoon movie, Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, which explored the character's origin story. That movie really showed me that a superhero's beginning could still be fun. Interestingly, something the live action film didn't touch on was the death of Strange's sister and how it affected him. Although I'm not sure if that's canon and it may have made the film too sad.

The plot in a nutshell: Cumberbatch's Strange is an arrogant and talented surgeon who loses his skills after a car accident essentially destroys his hands. He ultimately travels the globe and to Kamar-Taj to try to fix his hands. He winds up embroiled in a war of sorcery, however.

I do like what they tried to do with Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo vis-à-vis making him more of a heroic character, but ultimately he’s a villain and I think he’ll be the main antagonist in the sequel. Maybe they'll go with a sort of reluctant villain as opposed to a mustache twirling incarnation, but the post credits sequence would not suggest that. Put simply, he loses his mind. He just seems disillusioned and heartbroken the last time we see him in the main film, but then when we see him in the post credits scene he's essentially murderous and maniacal.

The film mostly delivered on Strange's potential. The movie in general may be a bit of a "style over substance" situation for me. It had a cool look (one of the Crown Jewels in the film has to be the sequence where The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) sends Strange on a trip through space, which is his first glimpse of magic in the film) but generic villains, for instance.

Like any MCU film, Strange is rife with connections to other Marvel films. There's a theory about the phone call Strange has just before his accident and the fact that the injuries listed might be mentions of other heroes, particularly Captain Marvel (I have a feeling this isn't the case, however). Wong mentions The Avengers and that's huge, of course. Towards the end Wong also mentions that The Eye of Agamotto is an Infinity Stone, which may be the biggest mention, particularly since Strange later meets Thor, who's been on a journey to find the stones. This scene where Strange meets Thor is great fun and would go on to become part of the immensely successful and popular Thor: Ragnarok. There was some speculation at one point that he would even join Thor and Hulk on the main adventure.

I'm really looking forward to Strange meeting the other Avengers. He wasn't in Civil War and he's only met Thor. We know via the trailers he meets Bruce Banner and Tony Stark and the three of them, along with Wong, gear up to fight someone. We see him interacting with Peter Parker (Spider-Man if you use his made-up name) and Star-Lord. It will be interesting if we get a Sherlock reference between Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. We see him being tortured a bit in the trailer and I wonder if that leads to a cool rescue mission on his behalf. See my comments below for some very spoilers thoughts on how Doctor Strange and elements from his films might factor into Infinity War and other MCU films.

Extra Thoughts from CT:

The first time I saw this movie, I came away not overly impressed. But a second viewing really turned it around for me. Not a character I ever connected much with when reading the comics, but one I still liked when he would guest star in books I read.

Strange was mentioned in a throwaway reference during Captain America: Winter Solider which in retrospect, now seems a little odd that a surgeon would be mentioned of all people. I mean, there might be famous surgeons out there, but when you list a set of random high profile people, I would guess a surgeon would not be on your list. Still, despite his arrogance, even then, Hydra had pegged him as a threat. They saw something in him that no one else did for a few years.

As we move closer to Avengers: Infinity War and the conclusion of this phase, we know that the Time stone will certainly play a role. Speculation has suggested we will see some major time travel as a part of the plot for these next Avengers movies. I have not delved into that territory more than what I just mentioned though. Still, it wouldn't surprise me. Time travel is a major plot device that has yet to really be explored in the MCU. Dr. Strange just barely scratched the surface of it.

Also worth noting that even though we see this movie set up plot points for eventual sequels, there is no confirmation of a Dr. Strange 2 yet. Which is surprising to me, but also puts Strange on the potential chopping block as a character to get killed. Personally, I hope not. I think a nice set of three or so Dr. Strange movies would be good. I would love for him to still be active when the FF characters get grafted in (I'm speaking very hopefully) and we see the Real Defenders in a movie together: Dr. Strange, Hulk and Silver Surfer (Namor being the other prominent member but who knows what's up with him).

Spoiler Thoughts:

The Time Stone might come into play in having something to do with Captain America. Also, and I thought this was confirmed, but I think Doctor Strange will wind up being another mentor for Peter in Spider-Man: Homecoming 2.

Favorite Scene Friday! Bullitt: Just Keep Driving

Steve McQueen is the actor-of-the-month over at the LAMB, so I'm taking a moment to celebrate one of the best moments from one of his less good movies. Bullitt isn't terrible, but if it wasn't for the central chase sequence I don't think many people would discuss it today, so you can be damn sure that's the scene in question this week.

Bullitt painting by Arthur Benjamins

If you're unfamiliar with the plot, I'll take a stab at it: Steve McQueen plays Lt. Frank Bullitt of the San Francisco Police Department. He is tasked with protecting a star witness over the weekend, but events occur that require said witness to be hidden somewhere, with only Frank and his team knowing the location. As such, a couple of men (seen in the clip, known to me as "Stern Face" and "Glasses") are sent to follow Frank to see where he goes, in the hope that it'll lead to the witness' whereabouts. This is what happens next:

I only really want to follow on that first segment as being the best scene, as the entire chase goes on for at least another 7 minutes, but for the sake of not depriving you here's the rest of it too:

OK, now you've got that out of your system (did you count the hub-caps? Go back and count the hub-caps) let's get back to that first segment. The key moment occurs at 2:14, when Frank, having quite easily slipped his tail, appears in their rear-view mirror, turning the tables and making the hunters the hunted. It's an ingenious and wonderful manoeuvre, and is filmed beautifully, with the camera in the back seat of the villains' car, the mirror nonchalantly positioned in the centre - because that's where it would be anyway, given we're looking out the windscreen with them for Frank's car - and then it just appears in the mirror, popping up and saying "Gotcha!". I think the zoom in goes a little too far to accentuate the reveal, but only a little.

The whole chase uses the streets and hills of San Francisco perfectly, weaving in and out of traffic, utilising the sharp right angle corners to crash and screech all over the road, all the while tormenting those roaring, guttural engines and trashing the chassis on the bumps. The entire scene has no dialogue, it's all about the concentrated expressions and wheelmanship on display.

I'd argue it amongst the best car chases of all time - I previously looked at another contender from The French Connection - but this might just beat it, at least in terms of longevity. I like the temporary satisfied smirk Glasses gives to Stern Face when he thinks they've gotten away, when Frank stopped to check a crashed motorcyclist was alright. I love the use of the mirror outside of the reveal too, allowing us to see the face of the driver and/or passenger as well as the road ahead, just perfect.

What's your favorite movie car chase?

Favorite Scene Friday! Groundhog Day: Déjà vu

Having finally featured Rick and Morty for Escape-athon last week, it seems we're going with a "I can't believe this hasn't been featured for FSF before!" trend. It's particularly surprising since we at one point did a series on scenes featuring Bill Murray, star of today's featured film. We actually have a good reason for not featuring Groundhog Day before, however...the last time the holiday fell on a Friday was all the way back in 2007, long before we started this blog.

Matt Ryan

Groundhog Day, the film about Phil Connors (Murray) reliving the titular holiday over and over in
Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, is many things rolled up into a nice, neat package. It's an amazing Bill Murray showcase. It's a classic romantic high concept comedy. It popularized the time loop subgenre of science fiction that's been utilized in film and even in TV, as recently as Star Trek: Discovery. The film has really aged into a modern classic, going as far as spawning a Broadway play that Bill Murray famously saw two days in a row (it sadly didn't last).

Our scene this week is the first time Phil relives Groundhog Day. Murray's immediately and effortlessly a smug asshole, but Phil starts to get the sense of something wrong. He quickly goes to the window and sees the day unfolding just as it had the day before. I love that little bit of unsettling music that plays along with that.

Groundhog Day is pretty much wall-to-wall great actors/characters. "Porkchop" - played by Ken Hudson Campbell - is one such character. Billed as "Man in Hallway" his little scream when Phil pushes him up against the wall is perfect. His terrified expression when Phil finally walks away is great as well. This whole bit's great because Phil and the viewer really start to get a sense of the strangeness happening.

Even better than Porkchop, however, is Mrs. Lancaster, played by Angela Paton (sad to learn she just passed away in 2016). Her effortlessly charming "No, but I can check with the kitchen," is one of the best things in this scene.

With all that said, enjoy the scene. Looks like the next Friday Groundhog Day isn't until 2024.

What's your favorite scene from Groundhog Day?

What day would you love to relive over and over? 

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Bonus!

Here's a little recommendation...I recently watched Happy Death Day - a horror version of Groundhog Day, essentially - and it was amazing. The horror genre works so well with the time loop premise so I wonder why it's not used more often. Check out the trailer below.

Escape-athon 2018 Review: The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones was a huge blind spot for me. It’s safe to say that I’m a decent Peter Jackson fan. I loved all the The Lord of the Rings films. I trudged through all the The Hobbit films. I’ve even seen Dead Alive. But for some reason the appeal of The Lovely Bones wasn’t enough to get my butt in the seat opening weekend back in 2009. Beyond that, interest dropped off and stayed dropped off. Turns out I wasn't missing much. Spoiler alert! 

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In the film, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is murdered by George Harvey (Stanley Tucci). Her family has to move on and Susie observes from beyond the grave.

The main problem with this film for me is that the afterlife scenes - aka, the whole point of the movie - just felt kind of off and disconnected from the rest of the film. They lacked weight and purpose. I actually wrote in my notes that I was somehow more interested in what was happening on Earth. Going in, I expected the heaven scenes would really be the crown jewel of the film. That said, I think it's a testament to how nasty Tucci's character is and how much you want to see him get justice in the end. Tucci makes Harvey absolutely chilling and disgusting.

Surprisingly, one little detail that nagged at me was the cornfield. If you haven't seen the film, Tucci's character builds a sort of secret pit in the neighborhood cornfield and that's where he murders Susie. The problem was, it kind of seemed to be everywhere. It was right next to the school and not far from the Salmon household. Seeing a map actually helped...because it was actually directly connecting the school and the neighborhood.

Another thing that bothered me was the photo rolls. First and foremost, wouldn't the cops have taken them? Susie's dad (Mark Wahlberg) slowly develops all the rolls of film that Susie had used before her death, apparently one roll a month. Why would you parse it out like that? I would think you'd want to develop them immediately because the odds of finding the killer would go down the longer you wait. Unless he wasn't doing it to track the killer?

Another MVP here is Rose McIver playing Susie's sister. She had a bit of a subplot of suspecting the neighbor George Harvey, which leads to a very tense scene finding a secret book Harvey hid in his house that documents his crimes.

At the end nothing really happens. Harvey gets away and it's years later before he...graphically falls to his death. There's no justice for the family. I guess that's the point the movie was trying to make. That's kind of it. I don't think we really even get a final definitive heaven scene from Susie. So that's it, it's kind of middling for me at the end of the day. Part of me really likes it and I love that I finally crossed it off my list, but it's definitely not, in my opinion, Jackson's best work.

2.5 out of 5 Stars

Favorite Scene Friday! Rick and Morty: Keep Summer Safe

Where to begin with Rick and Morty? Its quality? Its mass appeal? Szechuan sauce? Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's pop culture darling is so popular that it's got folks like yours truly starting Facebook groups just to discuss it with friends and like-minded fans. I actually can't believe we haven't written about it for FSF yet.

Taylor Rose

This week's scene - the last in this year's Escape-athon series - is the start of the "Keep Summer Safe" bit from Season 2's "The Ricks Must Be Crazy". It starts innocently enough. Rick, Morty, and Summer are in an alternate universe to catch a Ball Fondlers movie and eat some of the multiverse's best ice cream. Their ship is dead however, and it's definitely not the quantum carburetor.

This scene almost plays like a Rick and Morty greatest hits album. Alternate realities. Rick insulting Morty. Burping. The setup for an insane, sci-fi adventure. And that setup definitely pays off - "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" is one of the show's best episodes. But what this scene really sets up is the amazing B plot. Rick doesn't want to leave Summer unattended (due to the giant, telepathic spiders of course), so he instructs the ship to "Keep Summer safe." It goes to some insane lengths to do so.

Some of the smaller details of this scene really shine. The mention of "11 9/11s". The fact that flashlights are taped to the ship in lieu of headlights. "That was my daughter's pediatrician!"

This bit is truly the tip of the iceberg, as the ship's actions to keep Summer "safe" progressively lead to worse scenarios. It gets real dark. Summer becomes a party to murder and mayhem in the name of safety and she probably would have been better off with the spiders.

What's your favorite scene from Rick and Morty?

Would the best ice cream in the multiverse make up for giant, telepathic spiders? 

Countdown to Avengers 3: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Can you believe that we’re doing a third installment of Countdown to Avengers? It seems like it was only yesterday that we teamed up with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome to tackle all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films (and then some) that lead up to The Avengers. Believe it or not, we’re back, and now we’ve got Jay from Life Vs. Film along for the ride as well. 

Whereas that first series of ours was special, this one will be even more epic. It heralds the end - or, at least, the beginning of the end - of this current manifestation of the MCU. So we’ll be looking at at least one MCU film a month until Infinity War releases in May. First up...2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Mandatory spoiler warning!

Marvel

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Looking back on Avengers: Age of Ultron, maybe it deserved the mixed reviews it received from critics. Let's see...it definitely suffered from sequel bloat. The plot was basically the same as the first Avengers. You could argue that the film yet again suffers from that "Marvel has a villain problem" situation. Others have definitely pointed these problems out, but the fact remains. Personally, I particularly remember some hate about how Black Widow was handled and I’m pretty sure returning director Joss Whedon quit Twitter over this whole movie. All that said, this film could have been a lot worse, and there was a lot to live up to. Considering all that, Whedon more or less pulled it off.

Basically, post The Winter Soldier, The Avengers have reunited to take down Hydra and the film opens on the team attacking Baron Von Strucker’s (Thomas Kretschmann) base in Sokovia to steal back Loki’s scepter from the first Avengers movie. This all, believe it or not, leads to the birth of the titular villain, the devious A.I. Ultron.

There was definitely a lot going on in this movie...almost too much. Consider for example that Thor goes off on his own at one point on a fact finding mission to learn more about the Infinity Stones. At the end he even actually leaves to go find the Stones. It explains why he wasn't around for Civil War. Maybe it's something that could have been emphasized a bit more, but I probably just wasn't paying attention/didn't appreciate it.

Some of the film's highlights for me were the Black Widow/Hulk stuff. It was nice to see their relationship develop past their meeting in India and their shenanigans in the first film. Speaking of the Hulk, I also enjoyed his fight with Iron Man's Hulk Buster, but I do think they could have maybe injected a little seriousness into that fight. It never really felt like Tony was in danger at any point. It would have been cool if maybe Hulk pried the suit open a little bit. The lack of danger and consequence is a bit too much.

There’s a ton of connections to the other films littered throughout this movie. Almost too many to mention (and dozens of other folks have already done it). It opens with the team trying to retrieve the scepter from the first film, which went missing after Shield fell in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thor hits Captain America's shield to produce a shockwave like in The Avengers, but here it's like a combo attack move. Falcon shows up in this so it's another nice throwback to The Winter Soldier.

We get some action from the Iron Legion at the beginning, which are more or less an extension of all of Iron Man’s suits from Iron Man 3. Although he did blow all of those up, but I guess it was just sort of foreshadowing an Iron Man suit army. Despite their destruction, it leads to the Legion and ultimately Ultron.

This flick was not only setting up Civil War - Cap and Tony’s wood chopping scene - it also laid a lot of ground work for Infinity War. Tony has a premonition of the aftermath of the team fighting Thanos, and there’s obviously a lot of talk about the Infinity Stones - and we SEE an Infinity Stone in the form of Vision’s forehead stone.

The team now inhabits Avengers Tower, formerly Stark Tower. We basically saw this foreshadowed at the end of The Avengers, with all the letters of "Stark" - except for the "A" - having fallen off the building.

Traffik Cone via AMP

Now in this series of ours, we'd normally talk about how the main character from the film in question will fit into the upcoming Avengers movie. But not only is this not a stand alone film, there’s a subsequent film - Civil War - that features most of the team, so you can’t even say how the whole team will behave once they’re reunited.

But I'll speculate a little anyway. Will there be two teams in Infinity War? Iron Man's team and Cap's team from Civil War and they all have to come together? Not to mention The Revengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. They've all been scattered so it'll be interesting to see them all join up together. Although I have to wonder if there will even be a unified team in Infinity War. It may just be these different factions doing their own missions. An Avengers Army (what else can you call it if this is a war?) would truly be awesome, however. But we might have to wait for that.

There was no way Avengers: Age of Ultron was going to live up to The Avengers and the sheer joy of seeing all the characters meet up for the first time. At the end of the day, Age of Ultron is just a good MCU film, not a great one. There were better films before it, and there have been better films since. But it had a lot to accomplish, so maybe we’re unfair to the film.

Favorite Scene Friday! Inception: Spinning Around

It's January here on To The Escape Hatch (and everywhere else too, I guess) so we are of course holding our annual celebration of fantasy and science fiction, the Escape-athon. For my submission I'm also involving the LAMB's Acting School, who are currently focusing on Joseph Gordon Levitt. The Venn diagram of JGL and fantasy doesn't feature too many movies in the intersection (it's pretty much this and Looper), but fortunately one that does appear is one of my favourite movies of the past decade, Inception.

Inception by Chris Skinner

To date Inception is my favourite of Christopher Nolan's films. It's that rarest of creatures - a hugely successful summer tentpole that's also wholly original and incredibly complex, whilst remaining vastly entertaining. If you're unfamiliar, it follows a team of "extractors" - people who enter dreams to extract information - who are hired to perform the first successful inception, wherein they plant an idea that the target will believe to be their own. In order to accomplish such a task the team - led by Leonardo DiCaprio, and comprised of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao and Ken Watanabe - must enter deep into the subconscious of their target (Cillian Murphy), meaning once inside the first dream they must then enter a second and third level of dream to really make the idea stick. Unfortunately for the team, any events that occur within the dream above will take effect on the dream below. This is best shown in today's clip. Here, Yusuf (Rao) is charged with protecting the team in the first dream, but has hit a spot of bother with their target's in-dream security, and is having to evade them in a car chase, with the rest of the team asleep in his van. This impacts upon Arthur (Gordon-Levitt), who is undertaking a similar task in the second level of dream, where he is protecting the sleeping team in a hotel room unaccustomed to taking place in the mind of someone in a fast, often not upright vehicle. In the video, the fight sequence starts at about 0:45. Let's take a look:

I like how the dream effects build up in intensity. Arthur first suspects something is up when a light tremor occurs as Yusuf begins to drive the van erratically. Colliding with a motorcyclist causes the hallway to lurch to one side, at this point to Arthur's benefit as one attacker begins to gain the upper hand whilst a second aims a shot. The real danger is shown when a sharp turn causes the first goon to be launched the length - now height - of a hallway, presumably to severe injury if not worse, whilst Arthur is fortunate enough to merely be thrown into a wall. Then comes the money shot, the long corridor scuffle that sees JGL and the stunt man (apologies, I don't know his name) to traverse all four walls/floors/ceilings in a sequence that is frankly a little nauseating to think about. Having them fall into a room full of general hotel paraphernalia is a nice touch, with all the objects flying around adding to the chaotic nature of the fight. And then it ends, with a single shot and Arthur, ever the level-headed professional, checking the gun and discarding it immediately.

As fight sequences go, that's a pretty unique and ambitious one, even more so when you take into account that it was all shot practically, with Gordon-Levitt and various stunt men roaming around a giant rotating centrifuge with the camera locked to it, so although it appears like the fighters are the ones constantly spinning it's actually the corridor itself. If you remove the fantastical elements it becomes a fairly straightforward scene - our hero fights off nameless goons in a hotel hallway, crashing into a room before they all try to reach a gun first - but the ingenuity and innovation required elevate this scene to greatness. I'm not saying it wouldn't be impressive and noteworthy had everything on screen been created digitally, but credit must be given for the hundreds of people involved in overcoming a seemingly endless amount of obstacles to achieve what is ultimately a very short scene that doesn't even involve many major characters. Apparently it took 2 weeks to rehearse and another 3 weeks to actually shoot, but it is absolutely worth it.

What's your favorite Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie moment?

Favorite Scene Friday! Godzilla: Let Them Fight

Our FSF this week - which kicks off Escape-athon 2018 - comes from Nick from French Toast Sunday!

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I’m a big Godzilla fan. I had a VHS boxset back in the '90s and early '00s with all the classics. As a child, I watched Godzilla battle it out with Rodan and Mothra (before they became allies) and his greatest foes King Ghidorah and Mechagodzilla. Hell, I even have a soft spot for when he battled Biollante, who was essentially a giant plant. Godzilla still kicked its ass up and down Osaka, but I digress. I was beyond excited for 2014’s Godzilla as it was a return to form for the franchise. A slow build where we catch glimpses of the monster, a meandering plot that really doesn’t matter, and a culmination of a massive fight. Sign. Me. Up. Every. Time.

Godzilla Official Movie Site

Gareth Edwards' take on Godzilla took me back to my childhood with one single scene. As the military attempts to simultaneously remove a warhead and bomb the MUTO's nest, Godzilla appears on the streets of San Francisco ready for battle. He approaches and delivers his signature roar and just starts throwing his weight around. The King of the Monsters just manhandles the MUTO for several city blocks, taking it to task. This puny creature is no match, but it’s really never that easy. WHAM! A second MUTO appears, catching Godzilla off guard. The two MUTOs begin ganging up on him and it looks like it’s game over for our antihero. Another curveball! The MUTOs' nest explodes, diverting their attention to the now burning eggs of what could have been their young.

Suddenly, the greatest thing happens. I had waited for this moment (for all my life) since the film was announced and nearly jumped out of my seat in excitement. As the MUTO inspects its nest, we get the slightest grumble and a pool of blue light. We see the light increase and form a spiky trail. It’s climbing up the back of Godzilla, winding up, whirring up, grinding up. At its apex, Godzilla draws his breath and unleashes his atomic breath. A blast of blue nuclear energy burns the MUTO, weakening it, and leaving it defenseless for Godzilla’s final blows. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the win just yet, but he just might. SPOILERS, Godzilla unleashes the atomic breath again in the film and I was filled with just as much joy if not more. But that’s another favorite scene for another Friday.

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What's your favorite scene from 2014's Godzilla?

Are you excited for Godzilla to take on King Kong in 2020's appropriately named Godzilla vs. Kong?

Favorite Scene Friday! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Orinoco Flow

Beware Spoilers!

Welcome to the final Favorite Scene Friday of 2017! We're really starting to get into some colder weather, so what better way to celebrate than with a scene from a film where cold, bleak weather is practically a character in the film? Hell, one of the taglines is "What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw.". It's from a fairly recent thriller - 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Millennium series - first a Swedish book series, then a Swedish film series and then a stalled American film series, is soon to be rebooted yet again in the form of anther American film, The Girl in the Spider's Web. Director Fede Alvarez is at the helm with The Crown's Claire Foy playing the part of computer hacker and general bad ass Lisbeth Salander, the titular girl (I kind of thought Alvarez should reteam with Jane Levy, his star from the Evil Dead reboot and Don't Breathe). Quite excited for this film, actually - it's due October of next year.

Yannis Ger/AMP

But we're not here to talk about that film - it's TGWTDT we're worried about. My God, this thing really came out all the way back in 2011? It seems like yesterday. We reviewed it, actually - back when we did that sort of thing.

The film follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he investigates a missing person's case. During the course of the investigation he teams up with Salander (the underappreciated Rooney Mara). Our scene takes place towards the end of the film, after Blomkvist has been abducted by Stellan Skarsgård's Martin Vanger, who, it's been revealed, is the film's villain. One of the highlights of this scene is surely Skarsgård. He's sort of detached but chillingly intense at the same time.

It's really an interesting back and forth between Craig and Skarsgård. Fear. Boredom. Aggression. More boredom. The scene really kicks into gear when Vanger puts a bag over Blomkvist's head. The bag over the head is so simple but so chilling. Just look at that screen grab below for Pete's sake.  It's intense for two reasons - seeing Daniel Craig (or anyone) like that is very disturbing, but then director David Fincher also lets us see through his character's eyes. I'm not sure which is worse.

Vanger is sort of going through the motions when he realizes - while opening Blomkvist's fly - that he's never had a man down in his torture chamber before. But then it's back to business until Lisbeth shows up. And it's so cathartic when she whacks him with that golf club.

Lastly, if you happened to read that review, you may have noticed that even back then we were particularly affected by the choice of Orinoco Flow, which, by the way, Daniel Craig randomly picked from his iPod behind the scenes. I'll probably never be able to listen to this song the same way again.

What's your favorite scene from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

What's your favorite installment in The Millennium Series, be it the books, the original films, or the American remake?

Favorite Scene Friday! The Dark Knight Rises: Victory Has Defeated You

This week's scene is by Nick from French Toast Sunday!

While The Dark Knight Rises may not be my favorite Batman film, it does feature my favorite Batman scene. When Batman meets Bane for the first time, I get chills. Even re-watching this scene for this post, the chills were still there. The fear was still there, the worry was still there. There’s no other way to put it, Batman gets his ass handed to him in every possible way. It’s not just his spirit that gets broken, but his back too. The Scarecrow tested his drive and motivations in Batman Begins while the Joker tested his morals and dedication in The Dark Knight. But in The Dark Knight Rises, Bane breaks him down mentally and physically in ways we’ve never seen nor imagined.

StudioKxx via AMP

As soon as Catwoman lures Batman into a trap and the cage closes behind him, he’s already lost. The film’s score is gone, there is no ambient music. Instead, we’re frozen as Bane’s voice echoes throughout the chamber. Immediately, Batman’s identity is compromised. Then his suit and abilities are compromised with Bane taunting him that his suit has cost him strength, and that his victories have made him weak. As many hits as Batman can land, he just can’t stop Bane. Bane takes hit after hit but continues to bombard Batman with powerful blows. The Caped Crusader is no match for Bane. We can tell Batman is growing weak, crying out in anger; something he didn’t do before in his previous fights. Batman was in control, but now he has none. He’s signaling the end, he just doesn’t realize it yet.

But the end does come when Bane has beaten him down and broken down all of his tricks. No smoke bombs and fear of the dark can stop Bane. Can anything at this point stop Bane? Cold and calculated, Bane shows Batman why he’s there: to take away Batman’s toys. Batman watches, in pain through a broken cowl, as Bane’s henchmen plunder through his armory. Now usually at this point in a movie, the villain explains his dastardly plans but miraculously, the hero saves the day via Chekhov’s gun and/or great dramatic irony that ruins said dastardly plans. But that doesn’t happen here. Instead we get a defeated Batman get pushed even further into this well of pain by having his back broken. (As someone who read the Knightfall series, this is something I never thought I’d see in theatres on the big screen.) Batman’s back breaks, cue the score, cut to Bane carrying the broken mask of Batman tossing it away like a candy bar wrapper.

Our hero has suffered the greatest possible defeat and is left with nothing. It’s here that he must rebuild himself and take back his beloved city on his own. There is a moment where it feels like Batman is not coming back. Bane is our savior now, and nothing or no one can save us. We all know what happens from here, but upon first viewing, and sometimes subsequent viewings, there is a feeling of true loss. A feeling that the bad guy might actually win… again.

What's your favorite scene from The Dark Knight Rises?