You Happy Puppet (Possum, 2018)

Possum is the tale of a disillusioned puppeteer who lives with his stepfather. He decides he must rid himself of the puppet that he keeps in a bag. But the puppet keeps returning to him.

This film has a constant state of sadness. It is less scary and more creepy. The puppet is super disturbed looking. Like a spider with a human head.

Honestly, I am not sure if I liked this film or not. It feels like someone captured depression in a bottle and then trapped it within film.

It moves at a quiet pace, relying on the dreadful creepiness that questions if the puppet is truly a living evil or if Philip is just broken from reality. Is someone messing with him? It may be so. This is a dark and bleak film, that is unrelenting in its gloom.

April 7, 2019 0

Cops and Demons (Deliver Us From Evil, 2014)

Opening in Iraq, some soldiers discover a strange cave. Inside they encounter something unnatural. The film then picks up with Ralph Sarchie a few years later. He is giving mouth to mouth to what is revealed to be an infant…unsuccessfully.

Sarchie is a man dealing with facing a very dark world that has tested his faith and left him feeling hopeless and empty. His partner (Community’s Joel McHale) takes a lighter view of life and his wife would like him to open up and be a part of their life.

When Sarchie find himself facing a set of crimes with seemingly impossible to explain aspects, he gets connected to Father Mendoza. The Priest is familiar with one of their suspects, Jane. He becomes Sarchie’s educator in the spiritual world.

Like the Conjuring films, Deliver Us From Evil is based on the stories of a real guy. Ralph Sarchie is now retired, but became a Catholic Demonologist. Not unlike Ed and Lorraine Warren, it is pretty hard not to believe that their stories are a bit…exaggerated. And I have no doubt that Derrickson and screenwriter Paul Harris Boardman take liberties.

Sean Harris makes for a freaky victim of possession and I am a fan of Eric Bana who gives Sarchie a rough and weary edge.McHale brings some comedy, but he also proves himself capable in the drama. Olivia Munn does not get a ton to do, but she has a nice scene with Bana where he pours out his sense of futility about the world…sharing all the thinks he has kept bottle up inside to protect her.

Yeah, the films finale gets a little crazy, but Derrickson knows what he is aiming for (a horror movie with a tale of redemption) and mostly hits the mark with a dramatic and entertaining film.

October 16, 2018 0

You Know Ethan (Mission: Impossible: Fallout, 2018)

The Mission Impossible franchise is kind of…well, a weird one. I thought the first one was okay…but the second film was a mess. J.J. Abrams streamlined things a bit and made an improvement with the third film. Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie directed the fourth and fifth installments…and these turned out to be the most entertaining films of the franchise. With the sixth film, Fallout, McQuarrie is the first director to return to the franchise.

The actions of the previous film have had an impact on the world terrorism scene. Ethan, Luthor and Benji lost weapons grade plutonium on a mission, and their attempt at cleanup ends up being overseen by the CIA who assign their top agent and assassin Walker to join the IMF. Angela Bassett’s Erika Sloane states that the IMF is like a scalpel, but she prefers a hammer.

Full of twists and turns, McQuarrie keeps the action going and strives to avoid being to predictable, though some of the tropes of the franchise seem unavoidable. Nobody stops the secret weapon five minutes before the countdown will end…because where is the drama in that?

Cruise does not show any signs of quitting, and he manages to keep up a convincing performance as an action hero within the franchise. Hunt is portrayed as the guy who has the small picture in mind allowing his higher ups focus on the bigger picture. Two different characters inform Ethan that he pretty much cares about the individual lives so they don’t have to.

Cruise, Rhames and Pegg have good comedic chemistry and play well together as a team. He and Rebecca Ferguson have a good tension, but thankfully, Ilsa continues to have an agency beyond a potential love interest. The film manages to make every character feel pretty important, and saving the day falls on all of their shoulders.

I really enjoyed the film…but here is my one caveat regarding the Mission:Impossible Franchise. I have enjoyed the films…but find them hard to remember. I remember I liked them. I just do not really remember much about them later. I wonder if Fallout will continue this trend.

September 1, 2018 0

The Hunter or the Hunted? Pt 5 (Prometheus, 2012)

Resurrection seemed to kill the franchise. But after two Alien vs Predator films, Ridley Scott became very annoyed and wanted to right the ship. Kind of. The vaguely titled Prometheus would be set before Alien, but it was not a direct prequel. Rather, it would be Alien Adjacent. This certainly made for an intriguing idea, and trailers showed a lot of hints of the unfamiliar future with brief glimpses of familiar sites.

The final product is an imperfect attempt at an epic tale. Borrowing heavily from Erich Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods, Prometheus opens with a gorgeous and vast shot of lakes and mountains. We travel along this landscape until we come upon a “man”. He is tall and muscular, with marble like skin. A large spaceship (which is the same type of ship from the first Alien where the eggs are discovered) is leaving him behind. He drinks a strange black drink and instantly his body starts to break down and he falls into the water, his DNA dispersing.

If you are not sure what Chariots of the Gods is, it was a book in the 70’s that claimed that all religion and technology we know today was the result of guidance from extra-terrestrials who were revered as Gods. Prometheus takes this a step further, positing that mankind was created by these aliens. They become known as “the Engineers” in the film. Considering that Scott completely ignores the Alien vs Predator films, I am surprised he pretty much steals this concept from them.

The film leaps to the future, where we meet Elizabeth Shaw and her fellow archeologist (and boyfriend) Charlie. They have been traversing the globe comparing various ancient sites, specifically the artwork of cultures from all over the world that share common themes. They believe they have assembled the coordinates to a home world of “The Engineers”. A crew is assembled by dying Peter Weyland to visit the planet. They are told he will be dead by the time they arrive.

Once on the planet, the crew discovers an ancient ship with bodies of the engineers and holograms of them running from some threat. Many poor choices are made and everything goes wrong.

The film gives us all sorts of “almosts”. Almost a facehugger. Almost an Alien. Almost the planet from Alien. The film has grand attempts to explore themes of faith, diety, humanity and creation. A lot of this focus is on Shaw and the Synthetic David. David is one of the more interesting characters…he is also both sympathetic and disturbing.

The ending is a massive storm of confusion and destruction, in which Shaw becomes determined to discover why the Engineers have chosen the course they chose in relation to humanity.

Prometheus is gorgeous to watch, which breath taking visuals. It is a stunning and spectacular feats with a strong cast, including Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender. Fassbender especially shines as synthetic David.

But the story seems only half cooked. They have ideas at play that never meet fruition. The unanswered questions seem allowable, as the film was clearly left open for a follow-up. With Prometheus, we have a film that is not terrible but not quite great. And if it was part one, it might even be a great start and set up. But, that was not not meant to be. Instead we are left with an incomplete story.

June 1, 2017 0