Blog Archives
Cruisin’
My Favorite Daughter and Hijo came over last night for reasons. They wanted to give see a movie. When they said which movie they were going to go see, they asked if the Mrs and I wanted to join them.
Rather than spend time looking up showtimes and heading to the theater, we chose to stay home, make popcorn, and curl up on the couches. Honestly, I’m enjoying this way of seeing new movies.
Between the MCU, Star Wars, and their own originals, other movie producers need to sit up and start paying attention. Disney has been doing movies right.
I’d seen the trailers for Jungle Cruise months ago, like everyone else. I thought it looked fun, but had no idea where they were going with it. Having been on the ride numerous times over the years, there isn’t much of a story there. Atmosphere, yes. Story, no. Just a lot of bad puns.
Oh, and this movie has bad pins. So many. The entire first act of the film expands on the ride before the story begins. And don’t let the beginning get past you. The initial cruise sets up the rest of the movie.
Dwayne Johnson is the same actor in every movie. This time he gets to play a Spaniard. I didn’t have any idea where the plot was headed until about halfway through the movie. This is a rare feeling for me and allowed me to enjoy the ride this movie took us on.
It’s almost a Pirates of the Caribbean meets Jungle Cruise. Great story, beautiful effects, lots of action. I mean, a movie with a plot! So refreshing.
We had a great time watching this one. I dont think they left room for a sequel, but I could be wrong.
Had a dream last night.
I’m a vivid dreamer. I also remember many of my dreams. Some almost as much as they could be memories they’re do detailed in my mind. I know not everyone does this and I’m giving strong consideration to making some of my video ‘stories’ from dreams I’ve had.
For example, last night, I dreamed I was in a pool. Not just any pool, but a massive underground pool. Think an old bathhouse from back in the day, except people were wearing swim suits and the water wasn’t cloudy. Dark, but not cloudy. I was there with the Mrs and My Favorite Daughter. There was laughing and echos of voices in the underground area. Each pillar was carved with various scenes of ancient times and different gods from different eras and areas. That wasn’t the strange part. The weirdest part was something was in the water with us and only I was seeing it. Every time I’d point out the large shape, it’d disappear. It wasn’t quick, but quite slow.
Finally it swam up to us. It was a sea turtle. We fed it some greens and it swam away. That’s where I woke up.
These are the kinds of dreams I have and this is one of the most normal dreams I’ve had.
The rest of the day, spent the day resting, relaxing, coughing, and watching TV with the Mrs. We saw The Tomorrow War and for all the bad reviews I’ve seen, I thought it was a good movie. I had some issues with the monsters, but it got explained well. I also thought there was some good foreshadowing. I think I watched most of this movie as a writer because of the bad reviews I’d seen and was looking for some major plot holes. All in all, I was happy with the movie.
Tremors…4
Much like Sharknado, when I saw the first Tremors movie, I thought it was a fun movie, but never expected it to become a franchise. I’ve been wrong before and I’m confident I’ll be wrong again.
Unlike Sharknado, I missed the initial release. After watching the first 4 movies, this series fell off my radar. This happens.
Then I saw there was a Tremors marathon and there was a 5th movie in the series out. Wait. What? A 5th movie? And that’s only the movies that were shown on the marathon. There are 7 movies in this series! How’d I manage to miss so many?
Now, I’ll be honest. Much like Sharknado, these movies aren’t high-brow entertainment nor as they intended to be. But unlike Sharknado, these movies have a certain lore and history and are internally consistent. Sharknado threw everything at the wall and if someone laughed, it made it into the movie.
Say what you will about the Tremors movies. They tell pretty good stories. Sure, they’re a little hokey, but for the first 4 that I’ve watched, they’re stayed true to that lore and have pretty good stories to tell. Nothing groundbreaking or earth shattering that will make you jump up and binge them all (like I did), but so far, they all tell a good, almost continuing story.
With Tremors 4, The Legend Begins, we don’t get so much of a glimpse of where they graboids came from, but rather the first time they’re encountered in “Rejection”. A town renamed to “Perfection”. It’s a simple story, there’s character growth, and with any horror-type movie, death along the way. Sure, most of the characters are cardboard cutouts, but there’s something about sitting down and watching a movie with a simple plot. I’m looking at you who watch all those Hallmark movies!
At any rate, it’s fun to see Michael Gross, after all these years, still in these movies. I plan to make my way through all of them, seek out the short-lived TV series, and pilots.
What’s your take on the Tremors series? Seems, much like Sharknado, it’s a love ’em or hate ’em series.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
GOJIRA!
As a kid, I loved watching Japanese monster movies. I’m sure I’m not alone saying that Godzilla was my favorite. Followed closely by Gamera. There’s something about giant monsters and giant robots battling with little care for the destruction they’re waging on the cities and landscape around them.
There’s also a special charm in the creation of these monsters. From radiation, to G-Cells leaking into space, to genetic manipulation. It needs little explanation beyond that and, presto! Monsters! As a kid, you don’t need much in the way of explanation.
I think that’s what makes these movies so enjoyable.
Tonight I watched Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla. I might have seen this one, but I don’t recall any of it. This one is filled with a carefree attitude toward science in favor of getting monsters to battle. There’s almost no explanation on where things came from or why. Just, hey, a giant crystal in space that bonded with Godzilla’s cells and you have SpaceGodzilla.
How much more of an explanation do you need?
This was one movie that, if you’re concerned with dialog, you need to pay attention to because half the dialogue is in Japanese and you’ll need to read the subtitles. Honestly, all you need to do is watch the action to get what’s going on and know there’s not much else going on.
It’s a fun ride and I’m glad I spent the time watching it.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Birds of Prey
I’ve watched most of the DC movies. I don’t know why I subject myself to them. They look nice, but the stories are always awful. It’s almost as if the person working on the story read the wiki page, thinks they know the highlights of the characters and throws something together the night before.
This one is different. It’s got a simple plot, there are flashbacks that fill things in. I guess you could say the story makes sense.
I’ve never been a big fan of the DC Comics. Not sure why. This movie, for me, is the best DC movie I’ve seen as far as the story goes. Good cast, decent effects.
But there’s something about this one I can’t nail down. Someday I may figure it out.
If you liked it, and the DC movies, I’m glad. I’d never deny someone a movie that makes them happy. For me, this one was alright. Perhaps it’s because the Suicide Squad movie (for me) was so awful despite having an all-star cast.
/me shrugs
Godzilla Vs Kong: Why don’t people love this movie?
I’ve seen number of reviews with a multitude of complaints about Godzilla vs Kong. It’s getting panned and, honestly, I don’t understand why.
What I mean is, if you’ve seen the previous movies, you know it’s not high-brow entertainment. It isn’t doing more than it intends to do. On top of that, there are still many nods to the original material. and previously established story lines. I was happy they even kept the same actors from the previous movies (Godzilla: King of Monsters and Kong: Skull Island).
That said, there wasn’t much of a plot in any of these movies. There’s a simple set up, one-dimensional characters, and we’re off to the races. Lots of fighting, TON of destruction, and you’ve got a movie. It’s, to be, brilliant in its simplicity.
For me, this movie is much like watching Pacific Rim. I can turn off my brain for a couple of hours and enjoy the ride. I am not expecting much and this movie did more than I thought it would. It was silly good fun that made me remember just how terrible the Godzilla movies were from when I was a kid, yet they kept things simple and went for incredible graphics.
I’m not sure what others were expecting from this movie to cause them to get unhappy with it, but I think it’s getting a bad rap. This isn’t a movie like Avatar which promised so much and was little more than Pilgrims vs Indians where the Indians win (and for me, failed hard at plot by trying to be more than it was). It’s a fun film that keeps the franchise going and I’m hoping for more movies like this in the future.
What did you think? Let me know.
Until Next Time!
Stay Awesome!
Movie Review: Blobs, Blobs, and more Blobs
Steve McQueen’s biggest snafu was when he decided to get paid for The Blob instead of taking a share of the profits (something movies stars like Robert Downey are doing). He could have made a lot of money because this movie gained such a cult following over the years. Released in 1958 the movie has only gotten more popular to where even My Favorite Daughter knows about the Blob. How has it held up over the years?
Quite well, I’d say. Sure it’s dated with things like telephones attached to lines and kids hot rodding and getting stopped by the police. That’s to be expected with anything from the 50s. The plot is quite simple: something crashes to Earth near a small town (I don’t think it’s ever identified) and some yokel finds it and starts to get eaten by the jelly inside. The kids try to explain what’s happening to the police, but the police think it’s just a prank until the monster gets so big rolling around and eating people up.
The kids discover that it’s afraid or harmed by the cold and the town arrives with every CO2 fire extinguisher to freeze the monster. It’s transported off to the Artic where it’ll remain frozen forever. The End? We could have only hoped.
Larry Hagman (RIP) thought it would be great fun to do the Blob 2, the son of Blob, a sequel to the original, and still loved, Blob movie of 1958. And why not? The premise is there. The monster was scary enough. The plot was almost exactly the same as the original. How could they go wrong?
Well, I don’t think any of the actors, from Burgess Meredith, to Dick Van Patten, or any of the others that starred in the movie took it serious. It was filled with much over acting, heavy camp in some scenes, and just poor movie production.
I had a hard time with the premise that a pipeliner from Alaska (or somewhere in the North) found this sample and took it home to keep in his freezer until it could be delivered to the proper scientists. That was a bit of a stretch ( like a glob of jelly digesting people isn’t?). I think the movie wanted to be campy, but the acting was so bad that it came across more as a farce. It could have been a lot better, but just didn’t live up to the original. Still, they manage to freeze the thing on a not-yet-opened ice rink to save the day. The End?
Sadly we get The Blob in 1988. Yes, the original was so good and we have much better technology, so why not do another version of the movie? A ReMake before remakes were overdone. Okay, I’m still game. I mean, I still enjoyed the original, shy not give the 1988 version a shot, right?
Again we’re still in a generic small town, but a little bigger than the original. There seemed to be a budget for extras, better effects, and it was the 30th anniversary. How could this go wrong? Right? I mean, seriously. Horror movies were a big thing in the 80s.
The movie was far better than Beware! The Blob. That’s for sure. It had a similar plot as the original, better suspense, some halfway decent acting. I think the movie lacked a soul, but other than that it wasn’t all bad. The effects were designed to gross you out. Unlike the previous two versions, the blob came across as more of an intelligence even if it was still an unthinking mass of jelly. So how do the kids save the day? Well, unlike 1958 using fire extinguishers and 1972 using an ice rick, in 1988 they had a far better method. Apparently this small town has a high demand for liquid nitrogen and they blow up a liquid nitrogen truck. The End?
At this time we can say the Blob has been put to rest. Yes, there were rumblings of a new relauch of the classic movie, but thankfully that’s been put to rest. As far as I know there are no talks of starting this all over again. The budget would be too high and I don’t think there would be an audience for it. I know I’d wait for it on netflicks rather than see it in the theater.
Maybe I should write my own sequel to the original Blob. Hmmm… now there’s something to think about.
Movie Review: I didn’t loop for Looper
Maybe I’m getting overly cynical in my old age. Maybe I’ve come to expect more from Hollywood than just a good concept. Maybe I don’t think Hollywood gives its audience any credit for being able to spot plot holes in movies and question where the writer was when making certain decisions.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Looper is a movie about a time travel. In one aspect. It’s only one way travel. I was fine with that. Loopers are paid assassins (in our future) that kill people sent from far into the future. Their job is to kill and dispose of corpses. Attached to the ‘hit’ is their pay. Okay, I’m fine with that. Works for me.
Loopers are eventually ‘retired’ and this is called ‘closing the loop’. Eventually their future self is sent back and they must kill their future self. I was also fine with this. They get a golden payday. All is good.
Our protagonist says “Most loopers aren’t forward thinkers.” This means that most of these loopers are dullards that figure there’s no way out for them and accept their fate. Partying, doing drugs, etc. I’m still on board. So far it was a good ride. There are even TKs in this future the loopers live in. People with telekinetic ability. Wonderful. I’m 100% into this movie at this point.
One of the loopers fails to close his loop. He lets the guy get away. “Letting your loop run.” This is a very bad thing. All sorts of things can go wrong. At this point I’m still on board. The looper boss (a guy sent back from the future that set all this up) has this loop closed the hard way. Basically by kill both the present and future person. Not a pretty sight.
Then our protagonist is supposed to close his loop. In one scene he sees himself failing, but then succeeds, but he knows how to get away. It’s like a future flashback. Very cool the way they did this. I got it. It was creepy. It made a weird sort of sense. Even now I still get chills thinking about this concept.
The future version starts to see how things are changing. He experiences the memories because now things are changing. His goal is to save not only his life, but the life of his wife who he’d seen killed. Brilliant! There’s some maniac in the future that’s screwing everything up and closing all the loops. Present protag needs to kill future protag. The ‘boss’ is after both of them because as we know, letting the loop run is a bad thing. Awesome!
The future self somehow got knowledge of where this future bad guy came from. He knows the birthdate and hospital. He’s going to save the future by killing this kid.
Wait a minute. What?
This little flashback is weird. I kind of got it, but it felt like it came out of the blue. I was still okay. Future protag was remembering things present protag was doing and was able to avoid him and beat him. I was still okay. Future protag could see the effects of his actions on the future and take steps to make sure things went the way he wanted. This was getting a little twisted, but I figured things would work out. Let’s see where this goes.
Present protag ends up with one of the addresses of the kids that future protag is out to kill. By coincidence he ends up on the farm where the one kid future protag needs to kill to save the future. He likes the mom and the kids seems alright, so he’s out to protect them.
Meanwhile future protag doesn’t see any of this and has no memory even though he could remember everything else that had happened to future protag. <sigh>. So he kills one kid. Then the second kid is the son of present protag’s girlfriend. Kills that one as well even though present protag is with the one kid that needs to be killed. Well, I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry and just kill them all off, eh?
Of course we get to the paradoxical climax. Future protag is kills the girl and misses the kid. Present protag is too far away to do anything. Even though he’s been able to make corrections because of this loop that creates the future bad guys, he sees only one way to close this loop. Rather than know what he’s going to cause happen, he kills himself.
Okay, seriously? This guy was a forward thinker. He was able to change his present and future multiple times by seeing the result of his actions. But in the end when all is known, he kills himself? Why? He knows all he needs to do is kick the drug habit, not lead the life future self led, and presto, all is fixed. Perhaps he can even prevent being caught and brought back to the past. There are so many other options than killing himself.
I was on board with this movie right up until the end. I found the ending weak and lacking imagination. It felt like an easy way out from having to explain anything. It left me with the big question of why, if future protag can see how the action play out and remembers everything and present protag can make changes to the timeline was killing himself the ONLY option?
Now I understand that we don’t want another Groundhog Day type of movie (that was brilliant in its own right) but this all could have been accomplished better with multiple loops of trying to solve the riddle. Much like the original Time Machine where the time travelers keeps going back in time to save his fiancée only to realize that there’s no way to change the past once its written and the futility of his efforts lead him to other discoveries. Present protag could have done more or seen that no matter what he did, death was the only solution. How did he know that by killing himself the kid still wouldn’t grow up to be a monster in the future? We didn’t see that option play out or any other option. Why did future protag not see what was happening and realize?
The end was a mash of the end scene playing out once. Mom dies, kid rides off on a train and becomes the future bad guy. The memory loop would have impacted future protag just like it affected present protag. He could have ended the loop right there, but present protag saw it all play out when future protag was the one who would have seen the effects of his actions and been able to stop it. Not present protag.
I sighed. I mumbled. I groaned. I was happy with the movie right up until the ending. This movie could have ended a thousand different ways. They picked one of the ways that, in the end, I felt cheated. However, I will watch this movie again. Perhaps more than once. Twelve Monkeys had a similar loop just like this movie, but that one the present protag had no idea it was future protag that died and could do nothing to change the course of events. He could only realize at the last moment as he died what all the events meant and how they played out.
I love me some time travel. I’ll give this one a second chance. Perhaps there’s something I missed. Perhaps I’m being too cynical. Perhaps I just need to detach my brain when I watch a movie. There is a lot of good in the movie, I just wish it had ended differently. Not a strong finish to a strong movie.
That’s my opinion. What’s yours?
Until Next Time!
WOO WOO!
Movie Review: The Blob (1958)
Hey, you know that Steve McQueen guy. He’s the one that was made famous by the Blob! That movie must have made him millions over the years. Right? Odd fact, he made $3000 for that flick. He had a choice of contracts. Get $3000 up front or get a piece of the action. He was broke and really needed the money and $3000 looked like a lot for a film that would likely be just another 1950s monster movie. So he took the money and figured that’d be the end of it. If only he would have had Robert Downey’s foresight to take a cut of the profits.
So I haven’t seen this movie in years. I mean a very long time. Perhaps better than 10 years, but I honestly don’t recall the last time I watched it. I know I had seen the remake far more recently. I know there is also a Blob II (the return of the blob, Beware! The blob, the film the J.R. shot, and other titles) but I have never seen that one. Being that it was shot by Larry Hagman I feel that at some point I need to watch it.
As a Viewer: This movie spends a good deal of time letting us get to know our main characters. It’s a good slow build up and we get the police involved with our main characters before anything of import happens during the evening while the kids are out. The kids just take an old man to the doctor. What’s going to go wrong? The kids go back and Steve (yes, his character had the same name which I found humorous) witnesses the doc getting killed by something.
The fun continues as the blob goes through a mechanic (yes, they used to work late at night), the grocery store Steve’s dad owns, and finally into the movie theater where the other kids are watching a spooky movie. It’s hard to get a good handle on what time it is during the movie because Steve and Jane are at home and in bed and need to sneak out while other kids are at the movie. I got a little confused.
They run away from the blob and Jane’s younger brother shows up, fires his cap gun at the blob, and hides in the diner where the owner is just shutting down for the evening. Yes, before the movie crowd gets out. Hmmm, strange time to shut down, but oh well. Steve, Jane, the younger brother, and the diner owner are all trapped inside the diner. They head to the basement for safety. There they discover the blob hates the cold. Steve yells upstairs (he’d been on the phone with the police) and tells them the good news. They collect up all the CO2 fire extinguishers in town and hold the beast at bay until the military can arrive and drag the thing off to the arctic where it’ll remain froze forever.
As a Writer: I liked how the movie didn’t just jump in and BAM! Monster! BAM! Dead teenagers! BAM! Action! Instead if had kids doing what kids did in those days. Cruising, parking, going to the picture show, and talking with other kids. Parents were parents and kids listened. Well, kind of. Except for the sneaking out part. The police didn’t just write the kids off but did police stuff and came up inconclusive and based on the kids involved determined it was all a prank. Given the time the movie was shot there wasn’t any instant communication so they had to wait until morning to verify stories. Everything fit and made a sort of sense.
It’s hard to pick anything apart on this movie. It was fairly tight (everything took place in an evening) and even though it’s all during the night, it’s hard to tell at what time of the evening it’s taking place.
Recommendation: Overall this is a fun movie regardless of the time it was shot. Yes, it’s late 50s, but a lot of what happens it still easy to follow. It was made in a timeless fashion that hasn’t deteriorated much over the years. It’s a simple plot, but one that holds up. If you’ve never seen this movie, I’m sure you already know what happens and it’s still fun to watch it all unfold. If you saw this movie and think you remember it, watch it again. I had forgotten a lot of the events in the movie.
Given today’s global warming trend I’m surprised a remake or sequel isn’t in the works. Seems like this would be a great fit for today’s movie goers. I’d go see it. Maybe I should write it! Hey, not there’s an idea!
Movie Review: Spiderman (May contain spoilers)
Yes, yes. I was one of those detractors that said “It’s too early for a reboot.” I huffed, I puffed, and no one listened. Even though I liked the first two Spiderman movies, I really didn’t like the third and the more I thought about it the first two were okay at best. With the way they’ve gone with the more recent Marvel movies (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America) I was hopeful that the Spiderman reboot would follow in their footsteps and do more character development rather than plot development. I’ve seen too many movies that rush things for the sake of plot rather than let the story unfold in a way that makes more sense.
As a Viewer: This movie takes its time unfolding. It’s not as slow as the start of Captain America, but it does take a good amount of time to build up the characters in the film and their relationships. We get some insight to Peter’s parents (something we haven’t seen much of even in the comics) and Flash Thompson is a big jerk that we’ve grown to know over the years. One of my favorite things is that we get Gwen Stacey. For those who’ve read the comics over the years, Gwen was Peter’s first true love (let’s not talk about Betty Brant). I was disappointed in the first Spiderman movies when they moved straight on to Mary Jane. So this was my first happy surprise.
I wasn’t disappointed that they went, again, with the genetically modified spider. The original was radio active, but I got over that with the first movie. This one made far more sense and Peter’s being at Oscorp made more sense. Gwen working there was a little confusing, but it made enough sense that I didn’t mind. The movie took a good long time to get Peter into his spiderman costume and his hunt for Ben’s killer leading him down the path he went made more sense than the original comic where he found the guy and that was that. In fact this piece never gets resolved and I wonder if that will be revisited in later movies. I’m hopeful.
Dr. Conners. The Lizard. There were some parallels between him and the Green Goblin in the first movie, but the Lizard was done so much better AND *MAJOR SPOILER* He isn’t killed. It always bothered me that in the super hero movies they felt the need to kill off the main villain. Only at the end do we get a glimpse of Norman Osbourne and throughout the movie we keep hearing how he’s close to death. This leads me to believe that we’ll be seeing more of him in the next movie. I’ve also heard rumblings that we’ll be getting a Venom movie in the future as well. I can only hope they stick with it this time and let things play out slower in the movies and build better. Based on how well things went with all the other Marvel movies and the build up to the Avengers, I think they’ve found a winning formula.
As a Writer: This movie stunk on ice.
Ok, I’m kidding. I had a blast watching this movie. As I’ve noted above they did a great time building up the characters and you actually cared when someone died. It wasn’t flash, bang, dead and you didn’t even know who died or why and it didn’t matter to the story much at all. In the reboot things take their time and with a tight plot and good characterization we get a movie that’s well laid out and leads you from a logical beginning to a mostly logical conclusion. Why can’t we get a regular movie like this instead of movies like Avatar and Prometheus?
Recommendation: If you ever read a Spiderman comic as a kid this is the movie you’ve been waiting years for. This one finally got (in my mind) it right. Even if you haven’t read a spiderman comic in your life, this is still a good movie that will do the slow build up and then leave you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what’s going to happen next. No one is safe. Peter is a reckless teen and his actions, although well intended, don’t always have the desired outcome. That adds a little bit of reality to the movie and helps with the suspension of disbelief even when the life a street with cranes in a matter of minutes (the only thing that annoyed me about the movie).
Go see it. You’ll enjoy it.
J.R. Murdock 