Category: Opinion

Update to The Gateway

Okay kids. I apologize, I had intended to announce the hiatus I was on. I blew it. I have a project that is taking me longer than I expected or hoped. But October begins tomorrow and that means I gotta watch a lot of horror movies and write about them. Tomorrow will kick things off with a cult film that I had never actually seen until a couple weeks ago.

The Main Theme this month will be the films of Wes Craven. The Nightmare movies and the People Under the Stairs were reviewed a few years ago…so this will focus on the remaining horror films.

You would have thought I would have come up with a clever nickname for October after several years of this. Maybe next year?

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Did Not Plan That

I was not intentionally meaning to fo the entire month of April without a single post. I apologized for that.  I am still playing catch up on films that I missed before the theaters all closed.

As someone whose job already allowed me to work from home, I still have the schedule I have always had, so the lock down has not resulted in actual additional free time to devote to my creative endeavors.

But I am going to be getting more stuff up this month, starting Monday.

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My Favorite Films of 2019 (Favorites, 2019)

So, I decided to go with a list of fifteen films on my list of favorite films for the year. I missed Parasite in theaters and so have not yet gotten to see it and I have not seen 1917 since it does not go into wide release until Friday.

  1. Knives Out
    Rian Johnson’s Knives Out was the most fun I had in the theater this year. I loved this movie. Original characters in a story that pays homage to classic whodunnits, it is filled with nothing but terrific performances with some fun twists. Johnson has announced a new Benoit Blanc mystery and I am excited.
  2. Jojo Rabbit
    You could never make Blazing Saddles today.  Comedy is too hard in today’s woke environment said Joker director Todd Phillips. Boo hoo, folks. Taika Waititi tells the tale of a young boy so dedicated to the Nazi cause, his imaginary best friend is Hitler.  A surprisingly funny and touching film, Jojo Rabbit is a gem.
  3. Little Women
    I have never read the book, nor seen any of the prior adaptions. But this movie worked so well. Gerwig and her cast weave together a beautifully engaging film.
  4. Uncut Gems
    Adam Sandler’s best performance since Punch Drunk Love, the Safdie Brothers give an intense story of human greed and misery.
  5. Midsommar
    Ari Aster does it again. Where Hereditary was full of darkness, Midsommar attempts the rare choice of a well lit horror. Tense, unnerving and a tad goofy, this film is terrific.
  6. A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood
    While not flawless, this film is a beautiful exploration of love and forgiveness through the eyes of a heartbroken cynic who meets the beloved Mr. Rogers. Marielle Heller makes some beautiful choices (such as imitating the television show’s models for transitions).
  7. Dolemite Is My Name
    Eddie Murphy gives a great performance here.  The movie itself manages to be a crass love letter to Rudy Ray Moore, a man determined to make it against a world that seems to not be interested in his success.
  8. Ford vs Ferrari
    Really enjoyed this supposed “Dad Movie”.  Genius in the face of corporate roadblocks push the drama here.  The racing scenes are exciting and the film is inspirational.
  9. The Lighthouse
    I still do not know what to make of the film, but it is so visually beautiful, I still think about it.
  10. Us
    Some people got really hung up on the “how does it work” aspect. But honestly, Jordan Peele’s followup to Get Out had my attention from the beginning and just never lost me.
  11. Avengers Endgame
    Technically, I think Infinity War was the better movie…but this one was so much more satisfying.
  12. the Irishman
    While I think this has some great performances, I was not nearly as pulled into this one as I hoped. It was good, but was not my favorite Scorsese film. I know a lot of people praised this as a great triumph, but honestly, part of me feels like those folks felt obligated to really hype the film over the silly Scorsese/Marvel brouhaha.
  13. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
    Fun film from Tarantino, not his greatest film, but entertaining and great performances.
  14. John Wick 3: Parabellum
    The weakest of the three films, but still an amazing feat of action choreography and enjoyable performances.
  15. Ad Astra
    A thoughtful Sci-Fi film with Brad Pitt as a detached astronaut on a mission to discover if his presumed dead father may still be alive. Beautiful visuals and a quiet pace make this a solid sci-fi film.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Doctor Sleep- I am almost tempted to switch out John Wick 3 for this one.  Doctor Sleep was a real surprise.

Ready or Not- This was just a fun and ridiculous horror film.

Spider-Man: Far From Home- I enjoyed this one a lot. Mysterio was a cool villain and it was nice to see a villain we had not seen before. Plus, the mid credit scene.

Klaus- A beautiful little animated film.

Godzilla: King of Monsters- I had a blast with this one.

Shazam!- This is a fun movie. I had a great time.

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Welcome to October!

Well… the last couple of Months got away from me. It seems every August tends to slip away and my Septembers go silent.  This year I have started trying my hand at selling art and August and September saw me run into some crunch. I was at the Crypticon Minneapolis Convention. I had some prints to sell and some original art.

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Doug Bradley and Me

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Ashley Laurence and I

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Caroline Munro, Joshua Kennedy and myself

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Insert “Floating” joke here.

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Christopher Mihm’s table…

Here is some samples of artwork I had.  There were prints…

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some original art…

I am going to GalaxyCon here in Minnesota next month and I am trying to get a few more prints ready to go.

Add to this, Christopher Mihm (a local film maker and friend) cast me in a supporting role in his film that is in Post Production, the Phantom Lake Kids in the Beast Walks Among Us. I am also going to be appearing his film that follows, That Which Lurks in the Dark. If you want a refresher, I went through Chris’ films back in 2017.  I have held back on reviews since I have gotten more interconnected to Mihm’s film making.  I may do some write ups to talk about experiences and feelings on the films, but as Chris is a friend, I want my bias to be clear.

So, what is the plan for October? I probably will not be having quite the same past output as previous Octobers.  But there will be more than one review this month.  One of my themes will be “Less Talked About Gems”. Good little horror films I rarely see talked about.  I also am going to get some reviews of recent films (Ready or Not and Haunt, for example) and a few…non-gems.

 

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Xed Out (Commentary)

So, it turns out that the Marvel plans to recast all the X-Men when they do finally bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe they will be recasting the team. All New, all different.

Well, except Deadpool. Marvel is not stupid.

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This should not be shocking. But what has shocked me is that I have seen a fair number of people express hopes that this would not happen…like it was not a forgone conclusion. Both Dark Phoenix and the New Mutants have been delayed multiple times.  Fox does not seem to have much faith int he films, to the point that there is talk that the New Mutants might end up debuting on Hulu. Which is…disappointing.

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Once Disney and Fox had their deal, people kept talking like Hugh Jackman was going to charge in and slice up Thanos in Endgame.  Spoiler…he totally does!

Not really. But for some reason, people assumed the Phase Four setup would include bringing in known actors in roles they made in the Fox Movies.  I would have chalked this up to wishful thinking, but some people feel like Marvel and Disney are really slighting the X-Men Franchise.

But the truth is that there is little reason to have even considered the likelihood of just bringing over the existing cast. Our first example of Marvel bringing someone into the MCU from an existing franchise was Spider-Man.

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But they did not just carry over Andrew Garfield. They introduced a new actor and cast entirely. And it made sense.  A new Spider-Man allowed them to fit him into the Universe without dealing with old baggage.

And there is a lot of X-Men Baggage.

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The first X-Men film, directed by Bryan Singer, was generally well received.  It’s standout had been the most controversial casting, Hugh Jackman asa Wolverine.  The cast did okay, and Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan won audiences over with their portrayals.

The second film was a step up, playing with its themes far more effectively and stronger performances all around. But then, Singer left for Superman and was replaced by Brett Ratner.  It borrowed from various storylines, including Dark Phoenix and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men storyline revolving around a cure for the mutant gene.  And while it has its moments, (the sequence with a young Angel desperately cutting off his wings deserved to be in a much better film) it was a sharp decline for the franchise.

It did not help that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was…another low point.  It was decided that they would try and reboot the series, but more of a soft reboot.  A new film was going to focus on the friendship of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr. They would assemble the very first team of the X-Men.

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First Class introduced the Hellfire Club, Moira McTaggert, Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost to the franchise (well, a different Emma Frost). For the most part, it is a terrific film. Emma Frost left a lot to be desired, but Shaw was a great Villain. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender gave excellent performances. Heck, if you ignore the absurd use of Darwin, it is almost a perfect film. I mean, the early portion of the film has a great “Magneto Nazi Hunter” storyline.

The followup was meant to bring the storylines together. Featuring both the original and newer casts, Days of Future Past is quite good. And so the rebooted franchise seeme to have found its footing.

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But then came Apocalypse, and the cracks began to show. One of those big cracks was the conceit introduced in the second film of the McAvoy and Fassbender era…ten year jumps between films.  First Class was set in 1962.  Days of Future Past sent Wolverine to 1973 and Apocalypse took place in 1983. The next film is taking place in the 90’s.  First Class introduced an eighteen (or there abouts) Havok.  Like in the comics, he is the brother of Cyclops. Cyclops was not introduced until X-Men Apocalypse (along with Jean Grey, Storm, Angel and Nightcrawler). We meet Cyclops as a high school student in 1983. This makes Havok about 20 years older than his younger brother. But the actors are only about six years apart, and it is painfully clear.

The time jumps meant they could catch up to the present in a few films…but they also mean Fassbender and McAvoy are playing characters over 60 and it is painfully obvious they are nowhere near that.

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And really…the franchise keeps floundering.  Both Last Stand and Apocalypse make big misteps and are generally not a whole lot of fun. Nor is X-Men Origins.

And the standouts are rare. X2, First Class, Logan and the 2 Deadpools have been the best the franchise has had to offer.  And they are all great, but not worth trying to port an entire franchise over for.  Deadpool makes some sense, because they can blow off the change with a joke.  Having to come up with some Endgame related blended universe babble is just not necessary.

We are getting our second attempt at the Dark Phoenix cinematically, and it does not look promising. It would be best and smartest to simply let the Fox films come to a close.  Let us see a bright new start.  A fresh new class.

 

(Also…it would be nice to just distance the films from Singer as much as possible.)

 

 

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Tripping Further

Welcome to March! I have been contemplating this feature for awhile. Since I see a lot of films on Blu-Ray, streaming and 4k Ultra HD Blu-Ray, I plan to review some releases covering not just the film itself, but the full release. I plan to focus this a bit on older films hitting 4k for the first time.

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I will explore the special features, the picture and audio quality.  Is it worth it? What is included? Does the film benefit from the higher resolution?  I hope anyone reading will enjoy and appreciate these reviews and will find them helpful if they are unsure about buying a certain film. Especially in a case where they might be double (or quadruple) dipping.

The first review will be dropping in the next few days.

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My Favoritest Flicks of 2018

The movies I dug in 2018.

  1. Annihilation: A phenomenal feast for the eyes and mind…this quiet and slow burn body horror film drew me in from the first frame. Truly great and imaginative Sci-Fi.annihilation
  2. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse: Great characters, great story and some of the most inventive looking animation I have had the joy of soaking in, this film lives up to the hype. People are telling you it is that good because it is that good. I have seen it twice in the theaters. This is usually something I reserve for films I felt strongly (positive or negatively) about, but seem to be out of line with the majority. This time? It was all to just enjoy it all over again.  Sony has raised the bar with animation and super-hero movies in a single movie.spider-verse
  3. Sorry to Bother You: Boots Riley’s darkly hilarious satire of race and class starts out seemingly setting a high bar with its creative visual approach, only to take a totally bizarre out of left field twist. Brilliant and unexpected.
  4. Hereditary: Another slow burn film, this time in horror. Unflinching at times, much of the film explores grief and loss in the face of ongoing tragedy and questions the very nature of evil. at times, it seems to be maybe a film where we are watching a family collapse and lose it’s grip on reality…until maybe it is not.
  5. BLACKkKLANSMAN: While not a perfect film, it is one that manages to look at a moment of history and see it reflected in today.  The film is pretty blatant in this, sometimes to the point of seeming a little to on the nose.  But it is a funny, dramatic and engaging film with great performances.blackkklansman
  6. Black Panther: Ryan Coogler gave us one of Marvel’s strongest films to date. It carried through some of T’Challa’s lessons learned in Civil War and gave him an interesting challenge. The film effectively blended the super-hero and super-spy genres, with a great cast of characters I look forward to revisiting.
  7. Crazy Rich Asians: Like Black Panther, this was a film in part hyped up due to it being rare. The first Hollywood film with a pre-dominantly Asian cast in about 25 years. And so there was a real push to prove the masses would see the movie, as well as Asian Americans. Luckily, the film brought more than a need to succeed to the table. Sure, it is a pretty generic plot…but the jokes land more than they fail. The cast is terrific and engaging (and this being a Hollywood film, largely very attractive) and the film is entertaining.  Crazy_Rich_Asians
  8. Mission Impossible: Fallout: It is not often that a Franchise gets better with age, but Mission Impossible has managed to become more interesting as they go…starting around the third film. The core group of characters all have chemistry and the new additions are solid.Mission_Impossible_fallout_bathroom
  9. Avengers: Infinity War: This one was kind of a tough call. It is clearly a film that ended in the middle of the story.  And there are some good arguments against the film…but I still liked this one. The film balanced its various storylines quite effectively, the character interactions were, at times, golden. It had a villain with a terrible but identifiable plan. We will see if Endgame alters my feelings at all.
  10. Won’t You Be My Neighbor: Mister Rogers was a formative and unique part of the PBS landscape for generations. A challenge to colder views on masculinity that told children that they matter simply for who they were, Fred Rogers spoke to kids as people. He knew they had questions and needed answers, and that shielding them from some of the darker parts of our world was insufficient.  I miss Fred Rogers. I wish we had more men like him.
  11. Bumblebee: How the hell did a Transformers movie crack my top ten? The movie had a heart, some great human characters and well executed special effects.  A smaller cast of Transformers allowed for Bumblebee to shine.Bumblebee Trailer screen grab Credit: Paramount Pictures

 

My runners up? Ocean’s 8 was a terrific entry in the heist franchise. Aquaman was a fun film, but was edged out by Bumblebee. Teen Titans Go was fun, but it was largely cotton candy…and just cannot compete with Spider-Man. I enjoyed Ralph Breaks the Internet…it was cute. Ant-Man and the Wasp was a nice pallet cleanser after Infinity War.  For the most part, I enjoyed Solo and Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom. And I enjoyed the Incredibles 2, which was a decent follow up to the original.

well, Onward to 2019!!!

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