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!
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...
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.
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?
➖➖➖
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.
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!
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.
While this might be the shortest clip we've ever featured, I think it's more than worthy. In Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a thief who develops a taste for late night freelance photojournalism.
In this teaser alone, Gyllenhaal is fantastic. He manages to be charming, creepy, and frighteningly intense in less than a minute. If his character seems like a "hungry coyote", that's exactly what he was going for.
Obviously central to this teaser is his speech. Gyllenhaal apparently memorized the entire film like a play, which, I guess you'd have to if you've gotta say this particular spiel over and over again. The teaser itself is special - it's got footage of his speeches from the movie, but it also has some stuff shot just for the teaser. He never sits behind the news desk like that or talks directly into the camera. After seeing this teaser, you just have to wonder what the hell this movie is. It does a great job of hinting at the kind of demented tone but doesn't tell you too much. Gyllenhaal would go on to win awards and nominations for his role and director and writer Dan Gilroy nabbed an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.
Drag Me To Hell holds a special place in my heart. I'm a pretty big fan of director Sam Raimi's body of work, including The Evil Dead and Spider-Man franchises, along with random stuff like Darkman. So Drag Me To Hell was a treat for me. I even remember seeing this and Up the same night. The film - which followed our heroine Christine (Alison Lohman) as she tried to fight off a gypsy curse - had solid scares and atmosphere and Raimi of course nailed it.
The scene below - which is literally the end of the film, so, spoilers - finds Christine having supposedly dealt with the gypsy curse that's plagued her throughout the film. She reunites with her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) and it's here we see the bond between these two characters really shine through. Christine admits to Clay that her troubles throughout the film were maybe a little bit her fault, but Clay tells Christine that she's a good person. I should note here that I don't care much for Alison Lohman in this role. I think Christine maybe needed to be a little meaner to make what inevitably happens to her make sense. Justin Long, however, is fantastic as Clay. Long has a charm and an earnestness and genuineness. I had an idea for a sequel starring his character - Save Me From Hell. Pretty self explanatory: Clay figures out what happened to Christine and somehow goes down to hell to save her. Admit it - it would be pretty amazing to see Raimi's depiction of hell.
Anyway, with the fake happy ending over, Clay pulls out the cursed button (Christine was supposed to return it to the gypsy's grave to avoid hell but she accidentally left her with Clay's coin instead) and Christine, shocked, falls on the tracks. Not only is a train speeding towards her, but a hole appears under her and demons reach out, pulling her down to hell ("Holy shit, it's actually happening!" everyone watching the movie for the first time thought) as her body begins to decay and burn. Clay tries to save Christine, selflessly reaching down for her, but the train rolls over her. Justin Long completely nails the reaction of a man who just had to watch the love of his life get pulled down to hell. Tears streaming down his face, he glances one last time at what's got to be the most ominous button of all time. One can only hope he started planning his rescue mission right then and there.
Happy October! A recent rewatch of 28 Days Later confirms it's still a great film. It holds up. Even the sequel (28 Weeks Later) is pretty great. The cast of that one in particular is kind of a who's who of folks that made it big (Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, Idris Elba). Anyway, Days came out around that zombie resurgence a few years ago, along with Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead. In fact, now that I look, it appears that Days kicked this craze off, or at least lead the pack in the '00s (maybe Resident Evil helped?).
There's still talk of another film that would make the series a trilogy. And why not? Zombies are still popular, based off The Walking Dead alone.
Our scene this week might be the film's scariest. Our group of heroes (played by Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, and Megan Burns) must drive through a tunnel on their way to a supposed safe zone they've heard about in messages over the radio. After driving up and over a blockage in the tunnel they of course get a flat tire. While stopping to change it, a mysterious sound gives way to a flood of rats which are, you guessed it, fleeing from the infected.
I love the immediate dreadful atmosphere and tension after they stop to fix the car, along with the mysterious sound and then the awful image of rats crawling all over Hannah (Burns). But the best part is the nail-biting tension of the group changing the tire while zombies bear down on them. Car repair has never been so terrifying.
What's your favorite scene from 28 Days Later?
Would you like to see a third "28" film? What would the plot be?
This weekend is a big one for Game of Thrones - Sunday marks the season 7 finale. What will happen with Dany and Jon? Will everyone come together to fight the White Walkers, or will Cersei blindside everyone? I personally can't wait to find out, but let's jump back a bit for this week's scene.
Back in season five, Dany was ruling over Meereen. In the scene below, a rebellion by the Sons of the Harpy interrupts a match in the fighting pits, in which Dany's once and future advisor Jorah Mormont was a combatant. Dany and co. will try to get away, but they get forced into the middle of the arena. All will seem lost, with Dany seemingly resigning herself to her fate, until a dragon's screech silences the attack.
Drogon's screech coming out of nowhere, his sudden appearance and his attack on the Sons of the Harpy never fail to give me chills. But this scene is chock full of great moments. It goes so quickly from Jorah prevailing in the pit to saving Dany from the SotH (man those masks are creepy) and then the Drogon attack, it's enough to make your head spin.
Drogon. Rips. And. Burns. So. Many. Bad guys. And then Dany herself finally gets in on the action after her dragon takes a few spears to the neck. The fact that she pulls a spear out of Drogon and he doesn't burn her alive is a testament to her control over the animal. His roar in her face and the subsequent tender moment is great.
Of course, after this, Dany goes on to conquer her enemies in Meereen and elsewhere. Hopefully she'll continue to do so on Sunday.
It's our 200th Favorite Scene Friday! To mark the occasion, we recorded a very special audio commentary FSF! Jay and I were joined by Lindsay Street and Nick Rehak from French Toast Sunday, two veteran FSFers. We checked out the Chestburster scene from Alien, surely one of the most classic bits from any horror/sci-fi film. And Alien: Covenant is so hot right now.
Spoiler alert for Alien: Covenant! Alien: Covenant recently hugged the collective faces of the world. What was your favorite scene? I guess for me it was the David and Walter stuff? And, less interesting, the David and Walter fight? Other than that, nothing really stands out to me as a "favorite". That's obviously not a good sign. I'll tell you what was not my favorite scene (or rather, not my favorite part of an otherwise awesome scene) the Engineers that David wipes out. They really didn't look like the Engineer(s) from Prometheus. And why the f*ck were they all just standing around like idiots? Aren't they geniuses? I did like the Xenomorph stuff, of course. Or is it Protomorph?
I enjoyed the Neomorph infections when they were first starting to happen. I like when two or more separate groups of people are on walkie talkies together in a film. I think there's a term for that. Something about establishing the reality/geography of a film? Anyway, here's the trailer to refresh your memory.
Ridley Scott seems hell bent on making Alien films until he dies. But instead of producing the endless Prometheus/Covenant sequels that are apparently in the pipeline, why not adapt the phenomenal Alien: Isolation, a video game that follows Amanda Ripley*, daughter of original Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). That's right, Alien: Isolation insists Ripley's daughter got into some xenomorph shenanigans of her own.
You see, when we meet Amanda at the beginning of Isolation, she's already been looking for her long-missing mother, working for the Weyland-Yutani company on the edges of fringe space. The company approaches Amanda with an offer: they've found the black box from the Nostromo, Ripley's ship from Alien, and they want Amanda on the mission. Amanda sets off to recover the flight recorder and winds up on Sevastopol, a sprawling space station. It's there that she finds trouble worthy of the Alien franchise.
And with that, here are some specific reasons a hypothetical Alien: Isolation movie is great.
It's Alien on Steroids
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was essentially a bigger, "better" remake of A New Hope, and that's okay. In fact, Alien: Isolation could do the same thing for Alien. The game is a jacked up version of Alien in that it has a plot similar to the original film (a Ripley vs. an alien), but it's on a giant space station with a larger cast of characters. There's even an android threat to deal with, but it's cranked up to 11. And speaking of androids...
Possible Michael Fassbender Connection A member of Amanda's crew is an android named Samuels. Anthony Howell portrays the 'droid in the game - and he does a fine job - but how cool would it be to feature Michael Fassbender in the role? That would connect this film not just to Alien, but to Fassbender's Prometheus and Alien: Covenant as well. This would even continue the trend of Fassbender's android characters having different names in each film.
It's Scary
The game is terrifying. One thing that connects Isolation with its Alien roots is that no one really knows about the alien. There's a terrifying quality in Alien because the creature just comes out of nowhere. Same here. All of the subsequent Alien films featured Ripley dealing with a creature she - and the audience - already knew about. This would reset that.
Another scary part of the game is hiding from the alien. Amanda has some weapons and tools, but, just like in Alien, the creature is basically unstoppable, so cowering in a locker until it goes away is a requirement. The movie can't be all hiding, so maybe include one or two hiding scenes. Perhaps even make those scenes first person, which would be sort of found-footage-ish in a cool way.
There's even the aforementioned android element. In fact, there's a ton of them, and they're more like a basic model, with creepy, featureless faces and they're not the friendliest.
Franchise Potential
Alien: Isolation definitely leaves room for more Amanda Ripley adventures. Not to bring up that other sci-fi saga again, but the Alien franchise could be Fox's new Star Wars. In fact, forget franchise, this could kick off a shared universe.** Fassbender could serve as the Sam Jackson of the series. This film would even have a Rogue One vibe going on...sort of an "inbetweenquel" about a character only briefly mentioned in another film.***
I'm really hoping Fox is already working on all this. Alien Day is coming up again on April 26, so maybe an announcement is incoming.
*Andrea Deck voices Amanda in the game. It would be awesome if she reprised the role in this film.
**Let Neill Blomkamp make his Alien 5 film with Sigourney Weaver. The film obviously wouldn't make sense considering the events of Alien 3, but this year's Logan proved you can do alternate timeline films.
***So, you're right, Amanda is only mentioned in the director's cut of Aliens. But while we're on that topic, it's interesting to note that that film would have you believe that Amanda lived a humdrum life on Earth while her mom drifted in space between Alien and Aliens. Or, at least, Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) chose not to mention Amanda's adventures. In reality, the folks behind Isolation were probably just taking some liberties with the character. When Amanda's information was mentioned in Aliens in 1986, that was probably true at the time. It makes Ripley's story that more tragic and sets up her mother/daughter relationship with Newt. On the other hand, we could now take it to mean that Weyland-Yutani was totally lying to Ripley's face about Amanda. It wouldn't have been the first time they did something sinister. Ret-conning Weyland-Yutani into covering up the Amanda/Sevastopol disaster makes perfect sense, and makes the franchise even more interesting.
Rat Film is a documentary about rats and the people involved with them in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. Maybe? It's probably best to refer to the film's official synopsis:
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. "Rat Film" is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them--to explore the history of Baltimore. "There's never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it's always been a people problem".
There were many times throughout the film when I wondered just what was going on, as it also touches on a weird 3D game/map, systemic racism and segregation ("Isn’t it nice to think that when it rains, the whole city gets wet?”), and different elements of crime scene investigations. But it’s somehow all this and more and still compelling, gross (I felt physically ill at one point - the highest praise you can give to art?), surreal, insightful, existential, and weird. It’s like filmmaker Theo Anthony set out to make a documentary about rats and ended up deftly covering a lot more. The film doesn't suffer because of this. If anything, the film's disjointed plot is a big appeal.
The most interesting part of Rat Film for me was seeing different rat catchers (and lovers) from different walks of life and how they relate with the rodents. One character - a rat specialist with the City of Baltimore - was particularly insightful, pondering for the film about life, God, and the afterlife. And rats, of course.
4 Out Of 5 Stars
Rat Film is playing at Sun-Ray Cinema as part of their Sleeping Giant Fest. The documentary screens on Friday, March 31 at 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday, April 2 at 5:25 p.m.
A man and a woman burst out of a dark house in the middle of the night, with two attackers hot on their trail. The man survives, but the woman isn’t so lucky. She meets a grisly end, and a hooded figure - looking like a KKK member with a triangle sewn over his face - watches from the shadows as the assailants set off after the man. The Void goes on to follow Daniel Carter, (Aaron Poole) a police officer who takes the survivor to an on-the-verge-of-closing-due-to-fire-damage hospital. Once there, Carter must deal with insanity, murder, cultists (the hooded figure has quite a few friends), and otherworldly monsters.
The stylish and Lovecraftian The Void seems like someone put the films of John Carpenter and Clive Barker in a blender and then tried to strangle you with the power cord (in a good way). You’ll sense elements of Carpenter’s The Thing and Prince of Darkness and Barker’s Hellraiser (I think there’s a scene late in The Void that’s a direct homage to a bit in this film) and Lord of Illusions. A good story unfolds in The Void as well, something that can get lost in a movie like this in favor of zaniness for the sake of zaniness. In fact, there’s prequel-levels of backstory hinted at in the film, something lesser films wouldn't make time for.
But don’t get me wrong, there is definitely zaniness. There's a great atmosphere, thanks to the nearly abandoned hospital and the creepy woods surrounding it. There’s plenty of weird, bloody, and spacey visions to be had, and there’s some great creature effects on display. The Void boasts some very unique horror and gross-out images that are guaranteed to stay with you after the film ends. Writers/directors Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski have extensive backgrounds in art and makeup, so it’s no surprise the visuals here are great. I also noticed some stellar sound design happening - creatures sound both like monsters from another world AND the poor folks they’ve sprouted from. And the third act features the film’s hospital setting sounding more like our heroes are on a creaking ship that’s about to sink into the mouth of hell.
Every actor in the film is solid, with Poole standing out particularly as a man in completely over his head as reality turns on him. Kenneth Welsh also shines as a doctor and leader of the hospital's skeleton crew. If I can fault the film for anything, a specific theme of loss may have been used so much that it somehow gets confusing. But the movie more than makes up for this with its visuals and atmosphere.
4 Out Of 5 Stars
The Void is playing at Sun-Ray Cinema as part of their Sleeping Giant Fest. The film screens at 9:10 p.m. on Friday, March 31 and 9:40 p.m. on Saturday, April 1.
We have left 2016 behind. 2016, a figurative dumpster fire, but almost as if it were some alternate reality where the Grand Canyon was turned into a giant landfill through some sort of federal legislation. That big of a dumpster fire. 2017 is upon us. Let us look ahead and dream. Like last year, superhero films have been excluded and I've only gone "in depth" on my Top 5. Without further ado, here are the 10 upcoming films I'm most looking forward to.
10. Dunkirk (July 21)
'Nuff said: Christopher Nolan's first feature-length film since 2014's Interstellar.
9. War for the Planet of the Apes (July 14)
'Nuff said: Ape shenanigans are always great.
8. The Masterpiece (?)
'Nuff said: Adaptation of "The Disaster Artist", which is a behind the scenes look at The Room.
7. The Girl with All the Gifts (?)
'Nuff said: Fresh zombie flick.
6. Kong: Skull Island (March 10)
'Nuff said: Ape shenanigans are always great.
5. Alien: Covenant (May 19)
Let me get this out of the way: Prometheus sucked. Here's my review. Covenant could be the proper Alien prequel we've been wanting. Plus, while Prometheus did fall short of expectations, it at least left off on an interesting note, and I'm wondering what's become of David the android (Michael Fassbender) and Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace). Oh, and I recently completed the video game Alien: Isolation, and it's seriously renewed my interest in the Alien mythos and franchise.
4. Ghost in the Shell (March 31)
I haven't seen the original but I'm hoping to fix that. Despite the uproar surrounding ScarJo's casting (and that whole weird digital yellow face controversy) I'm definitely excited for this. It looks amazing.
3. Blade Runner 2049 (October 6)
I'm a huge fan of the original Blade Runner. Here's hoping they can recapture that film's look and tone. Harrison Ford's last two revival projects were a miss (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and a hit (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) respectively, so it'll be in interesting to see what this turns out to be.
2. Baby Driver (August 11)
Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors. It's always hard waiting for one of his projects, and we've been waiting oh so long after he pulled out of Marvel's Ant-Man. But we don't have to wait much longer for Baby Driver, which will be more of a thriller compared to his other films, from what I've heard. Sounds like the trailer and the movie are gonna be awesome.
1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 15)
I'm surprised this is my #1 but there ya go. The Star Wars renaissance has been going great and I'm not immune to its spell. That said, The Force Awakens was basically a remake of A New Hope, so I'm hoping this is a truly original film with some unexpected surprises.
Sometimes, nostalgia can make all the difference. Films can become dated. It happens. That's where nostalgia comes in. You can overlook terrible stuff because you loved it as a kid. But what if you're just seeing an old film for the first time? What if that film is surprisingly good for the most part, but one dated aspect sort of ruins it?
Explorers is a 1985 movie about three friends, Ben Crandall (Ethan Hawke), Wolfgang Muller (River Phoenix), and Darren Woods (Jason Presson) who stumble upon a technique to create a force field bubble they can control with their computer. They use it to pilot a DIY craft around their sleepy town. Aliens abduct them, however. More on them later.
I knew very little about Explorers going in. I just knew kids went to space. It seemed far fetched, even for an '80s film. So I was really pleasantly surprised by the weird tech bubble technique. Instead of the kids somehow blasting off into orbit, they found a physics defying force field technology that actually seemed pretty smart.
So is Explorers a good movie? Just barely. The linchpin scene - the encounter with the aliens - kind of ruins it. Where to begin with the aliens. While they probably looked great by '80s standards (and they don't look terrible now) they're rubbery and goofy. One (Robert Picardo) is sort of like a Jim Carrey-esque/non stop jokes/impressions-up-the-wazoo kind of guy. It turns out the aliens are kids, so it's a parallel with our heroes. The movie as a whole is incredibly '80s. The kids use walkie talkies. They bike places. There are bullies and crushes to deal with. Luckily, the three leads are capable actors.
This might explain the alien business, or maybe it's a testament to how good the rest of the film is, but the powers at be behind the movie went to director Joe Dante and forced him to release the film much earlier than he wanted. Who knows what we would have gotten had he been allowed to finish.
This Friday, Jay's Favorite Scene Friday will kick off Escape-athon 2017! Why are we starting this year's celebration essentially two weeks late? What can I say, I'm kind of a garbage person in term's of blogging and podcasting lately. I haven't posted anything here since October. I have two episodes of a new podcast recorded just SITTING there. Our logo still features Batman V. Superman, which is almost a year old for cripes sake! I just can't seem to get motivated. But hopefully that changes this month.
So yeah, Jay will kick off Escape-athon and we'll have a few more guests sharing fantasy and/or sci-fi scenes this month. ALSO, in the not-being-a-garbage-person department, I'm hoping to watch and review some fantasy and sci-fi films this month that I've never seen. Speaking of, can you help me pick which movies to watch and/or review? Click here and see below for a crude image I screengrabbed from Letterboxd, rather than making an actual collage or something (garbage person here):
The Purge takes place in a world where, one night a year, all crime is legal. The film focuses on the Sandin family. Father James (Ethan Hawke) - who works for a security company and has sold everyone in their posh neighborhood their security systems - mother Mary (Lena Headey) and two kids, Charlie and Zoey.
On the night of the purge, Charlie lets in a man who's been targeted for murder by a group of purgers. Zoey's older boyfriend also sneaks into the house before lockdown. He claims he's there to simply talk to James (the father has an issue with the age difference in the relationship) but we find out his intentions aren't really what they seem. All this leads to the Sandin family fighting to stay alive on purge night.
The biggest problem with this movie for me is that every character is near insufferable. Ethan's James is kind of smug. Lena Headey is kind of bland. The kids are super annoying. But I guess maybe this was intentional.
Something that also annoyed me is that, sure, everything is legal on Purge Night. But it seems like most people who purge put a lot of thought and planning into their activities. Couldn't these people be held accountable for conspiracy to commit...whatever? I don't remember hearing or reading anything that would explain this away. There was some type of announcement that (certain? all?) politicians are immune but that's all I really remember.
The bad guys also get really bent out of shape about people infringing on their right to purge or something like that. But...everything is legal and nothing is illegal, so the "right to purge" kind of goes out the window?
All in all, this was a decent horror/thriller, but nothing to get too worked up over.
Here we are, kicking off our month of October horror scenes once more. But if you'll permit me, I'd like to make it even more epic by finally starting "Favorite Trailer Friday", in which we share one of our favorite previews, something I've been meaning to do for a while. The trailer in question is the very, very graphic, very NSFW Red Band trailer for 2013's Evil Dead.
I love how this starts out. It's so memorable and one of the reasons I saved it for this feature. That first creepy image of the cabin along with the rain sets the perfect tone, and it's a bit of a different format, being more of a scene than a trailer at the beginning. And Jane Levy's performance as Mia is perfectly creepy and standout. Her plea to her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) to get her away from the cabin is chilling.
The trailer then becomes a pretty standard, well, trailer, with creepy shots of the film set to an explanation from Mia that she thinks an evil force from the woods has followed the siblings and their friends back to the cabin. The trailer proceeds to get extremely bloody and intense (this is a Red Band trailer after all), so anyone squeamish should turn away now. Lastly, the iconic image of Deadite Mia poking her head out from the basement has gotta be my favorite part of the trailer. The "We're Gonna Get You" rhyme is apparently nowhere to be found in the theatrical cut.
What's your favorite part of this trailer?
What are some of your other favorite horror trailers?
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is generally considered to be the best Star Trek movie. And not just of the original crew films. The Next Generation, the reboots, fan films...whatever, it's the greatest. A Trek convention a few years ago even voted it the best. It's got heart, action, and adventure - it's just really good. But at the core of what makes this film so great is the friendship between William Shatner's James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy's Spock.
Whether Khan is your favorite Trek film or not, I'd be surprised if this week's scene isn't one of your favorites. After fighting against Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew for the entire film, the titular Khan (Ricardo Montalban, reprising his role from the original series) is defeated, but he's seemingly taking his adversaries out with him. The Enterprise is dead in the water, and the Genesis device - technology with the capability of terraforming planets - is set to go off and destroy anything in the vicinity. Spock, however, has fixed the warp core so that the Enterprise can escape the formation of the Genesis planet in the nick of time. But the radiation from the process has doomed him.
For me, the reasons why this scene is one of the greats are almost uncountable. Shatner's frantic “Spock!” once he's able to talk to his friend is heartbreaking. And I hope it's not too weird that I love how Spock fixes his jacket before he turns around to face Kirk. You've gotta keep your uniform looking good around your superior officer, right?
This scene reminds me of how quotable Spock is. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” and “I have been and always shall be your friend,” are iconic lines. And of course, "Live long and prosper." Can we also appreciate that Shatner really acts in this scene? He gets a lot of guff for the "Shatner-esque" way that he talks, but I think he’s great here. The subtle shift in his expression when he notices Spock's face is perfect. The "No," he utters when Spock collapses against the glass is spoken by someone who just watched his best friend die. And Kirk collapses as well, against the other side of the glass, staring off in shock. Frankly, Shatner's "the most human" line (the way his voice breaks on "human" always gets me) during the funeral is really the highlight of this entire scene. It showcases Shatner's acting, reminds us of Spock's humanity - even though he was half Vulcan - and reinforces Kirk and Spock's iconic friendship.
What's your favorite scene from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?
We don't feature scenes from TV all that often for Favorite Scene Friday. In fact, I think we've only highlighted clips from True Detective, Breaking Bad, Community, Seinfeld, and Arrested Development. It's my humble opinion, but I think all of those can be considered some of the best TV shows ever made. So for a show to get featured for FSF, it's gotta be good.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend follows Rebecca Bunch (national treasure Rachel Bloom), a New York attorney who abruptly quits her job and moves to California to pursue a relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Josh Chan (crazy, right?). That's exactly what we see here - Rachel breaks into song, hops on a plane (in animated form, no less) and winds up in her crush's hometown. And that's what this particular musical number is about: the very strip-mally West Covina, California, the so called "Pride of the Inland Empire". It's quick to see that West Covina, while not necessarily worse than New York, isn't any better. Unless you've moved there for love (and/or are insane). The dirty sidewalk appears beautiful to Rebecca and noisy traffic is merely the sounds of "a bustling town". But as "West Covina" points out, Rebecca's kind of in denial about why she left New York. Josh "just happens to be" in West Covina, Rebecca explains - a place she moved to because she wanted to change her life.
Not only is there lots to be heard in this scene for the obvious reasons, there's lots of great visual details. Notice that Rachel's hair is straight when she's in New York and when she arrives in California it's a bit curlier. Her dress has also become bedazzled. There's also the bits in New York where Rachel blocks some letters in a sign for goulash so that it spells gosh and then the same thing happens for Josh.
There are so many other great, funny and weird things in this scene. The anime wigs. The visit to the strip club (I guess she was expecting Josh to be there for some reason?). The exchange between Rachel and one of the movers, whom Rachel speaks to in English and then in Spanish. And then there's the big dance number at the end. The marching band getting cut is a great callback to earlier in the scene, as is the giant pretzel. And the "Only two hours from the beach!" line is a running gag referencing the fact that, for a California town, West Covina really isn't that close to the beach at all. It's just one of the many great running gags in the show.
I won't lie, this is probably the biggest musical number of the entire season. I think the pilot had a bigger budget because the show was originally produced for Showtime. But that doesn't mean the rest of the songs are bad. In fact, they're all pretty great and unique. So check out Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It just happens to be great.
What's your favorite scene from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?
