Wednesday Double Feature – Fighting Yourself

by on April 10, 2019 at 9:22 am
Posted In: Test

While randomly going through Scarecrow’s science fiction section I settled on the theme that I chose to refer to as “fighting oneself.” When I say this I mean this I mean it literally. I’m talking about the completely fanciful scenario where there is another version of you, and for whatever reason they have it in for you.

Wednesday Double Feature - Fighting Yourself - The One

In the first film on my list, James Wong’s The One, multiple dimensions exist. In this setting, if any version of you dies the rest of you get that version when Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) accidentally discovers this, he goes on an inter-dimensional killing spree to “become a god”. Now the last of his alternate selves must fight to survive. 

When I first heard of this film I was fascinated. It had one of my favorite tropes in science fiction, and Jet Li kicking ass. So you can understand  I was disappointed. This film was really bad. I’ve heard that it was originally intended to star Dwayne Johnson but that only excuses so much. Neither the script or the story are any good, the rules of the setting makes no sense, and the quality of the action scenes waste Jet Li’s talents completely. Frankly, it’s so bad I can’t even consider it entertaining fluff. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Fighting Yourself - Fighting yourself

In the next film on my list,   Rian Johnson’s Looper, time travel is discovered 55 years from now. It immediately becomes illegal, but that doesn’t stop shady criminals from using it. Now they appear to be using it almost exclusively to dispose of bodies. The victims are transported to the past where an assassin (well… the script calls them assassins, but really, that’s giving them way too much credit, they are barely executioners) is waiting to kill them and dispose of their body afterward. (After all, how can killing someone who doesn’t exist yet be illegal?) The executioners are paid in silver bars. The catch is that this technology is so illegal, the future mob needs to destroy ALL of the evidence. That includes the executioners if they are still alive in the future. They are captured and sent to the past where. This closes the “loop”. For this they are paid in gold bars. The assassins can can run if they want but in thirty years the future mob will catch them. 

Joe ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of these executioners. He’s doing fairly well. On one job, his older self (Bruce Willis) is sent. The older Joe manages to escape. Now Joe has to hunt his older self in order to close the loop while being hunted by his superiors who are trying to do the same thing. 

I liked this film. It’s smart, with a good script and a plot that kept me interested all the way through. Regrettably, when I put on my science fictions snob hat, I see too many unanswered questions. What are the rules of time travel? How was the arrangement with the future mob and the present mob created? How are the executions scheduled? Why is mob executions the only thing the mob use time travel for? And so on…

Because of this it was impossible to love this film.

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Wednesday Double Feature – Acid Westerns

by on April 3, 2019 at 9:10 am
Posted In: Prose, Rhapsodies

This week for my film selection I picked up a sub-genre that I’d never heard of, the Acid Western. The Acid Western tries to grasp the symbolism and myth of the west in such films as Shane or The Searchers while embracing the cynicism of the spaghetti western and “conjure up a crazed version of autodestructive white America at its most solipsistic, hankering after its own lost origins”.

Wednesday Double Feature - Acid Westerns - Keoma

The first film on my list was Enzo G. Castellaria’s Keoma. Keoma Shannon (Franco Nero) is a half breed ex soldier who has been wandering the desert. He arrives in his home town that is being torn apart by fear of plague and death, controlled by a petty tyrant allied with Keomo’s hated half-brothers. Can Keoma save the town? 

I was initially interested in this film because I heard it was a western version of Bergman’s Seventh Seal. And while for the most part the similarities are subtle enough that you’ll only notice if you are explicitly looking for them, this was still a very interesting film. I liked the visuals that are filmed in a sepia filter that reminded me of old colored prints. The editing was also fascinating. This is especially apparent how Castelleria handles flashbacks. This is especially apparent in the gripping opening scene. (which is awesome for other reasons) An old woman (who may or may not be Death) who is talking to Keoma turns away to look at what turns out to be a past. Such scenes have you committed to watching the entire film.

However much of this was dragged down by far too many talking head close-ups during dialogue and near obsession with slow-motion whenever a bad guy was shot. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Acid Westerns - Blueberry

The next film on my list, Jan Kounen’s Blueberry (called Renegade in the States), an adaptation of the comic by the late great Jean Giraud, AKA Moebius, tells the story of John Blueberry (Vincent Cassel ). A man who was raised by Indians and is now the Marshall of a small western town. When a villain from his past returns it is his job to stop them while protecting both his town and the nearby Indian community.

Despite my love of Moebius’s work I’ve only ever seen a few pages of Blueberry so I have absolutely no idea how close to the original material this is. For the most part, this was a very… pretty film. However the longer it went the less sense it made. To the point that it ended with a twenty-minute long drug-fueled hallucination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk6Fmmm45Jg
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Wednesday Double Feature – Alien Comedies

by on March 27, 2019 at 9:12 am
Posted In: Test

It seems like a good idea at the time. Last week’s selection was kind of depressing. Therefore I decided to clear my palate I wanted some light, fluffy comedies. Regrettably, I did not plan ahead enough to go into the particulars. All I knew was I wanted to do some form of comedy I had not done before. So I was browsing in Scarecrow’s comedy room, hoping to get something resembiling inspiration and I stumbled over Paul on the shelves. So I decided to do comedies about Alien encounters. 

The only problem with this plan was I had seen nearly every single movie that remotely fit that description. ( And not many of them are very good anyway) 

Wednesday Double Feature - Alien Comedies - The Creature That Wasn't Nice

The film I finally I chose, Bruce Kimmel’s The Creature That Wasn’t Nice, more frequently marketed as Naked Space, because it stars Leslie Nielsen, despite being filmed about four years before any of the Naked Gun series came out. Since I like Leslie Nielsen’s films no matter how dumb they frequently are, I decided to take a chance. Like I said it seems like a good idea at the time. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A band of intrepid space explorers land on a planet, unintentionally bring back an Alien sample, sample grows into huge slavering monster, runs amok in the ship killing everybody. The monster is killed by the last remaining crew members. 

There really isn’t anything I can say to defend this film. This isn’t direct to video bad, it’s watch on Mystery Science Theater 3000 bad. The performances are wooden, the script is nonexistent, and most of the time they’re not even trying with sets or anything to convince us of the setting. I’ve seen low budget fan films with bigger budgets.

There are a few scenes that save it from being pure torture. Most notably the monster singing “I want to eat your face“ and the clueless idealist of a ship scientist’s (as the son of a scientist, one of my least favorite clichés in science fiction) reaction to the song. Leading one of the others to ask him if he’d even listened to the lyrics. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Alien Comedies - Paul

The next film on my list, and  the film that inspired this double feature,  Greg Mottola’s Paul written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost with Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen, tells the stories about Graeme and Clive, a pair of British comics and alien enthusiasts (Peg and Frost) who have come to the states to attend Comic-Con. on the way home, they rent a motorhome and take a road trip through UFO country. On the way, they run into Paul, (Voiced by Rogen) the original gray alien who’s just busted out of Area 51. Paul is a bit of a jerk but a nice guy, and apparently all of the alien mythology of the twentieth century is based around him. 

Now our heroes find themselves being chased by Government agents, hillbillies and religious fanatics to get Paul home before it’s too late. 

My basic reaction to this film was Meh. I normally like just about anything that Simon Peg and Nick Frost are in. They don’t disappoint playing wide-eyed outsiders in the United States for the first time. Paul is quite convincing with good animation and texture and with Seth Rogen’s performance, you are almost fooled. ( Provided you believe in aliens) Beyond that, it’s just your standard by the numbers buddies on the road film. It’s good for something to watch on the background, but for the most part, there’s not much to recommend it. 

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Wednesday Double Feature – Graphic Novels and the Irish Mob

by on March 20, 2019 at 9:13 am
Posted In: Test

Last week was the Emerald City Comic Con. So in its honor, I thought I’d do something comic related. However since I’ve seen all but the absolute worst of most of the genre, I went for some adaptations of some of the lesser known graphic novels. By sheer coincidence, this weekend was St. Patrick’s Day and both of these were graphic novels featuring the Irish Mob.

Wednesday Double Feature - Graphic Novels and the Irish Mob - History of Violence

The first film I watched, David Cronenberg’s History of Violence, based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, tells the story of Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) a well-liked member of the community in a small town in Indiana, where he owns a popular diner. One day the the diner is robbed us by two extremely brutal criminals. In self-defense Stall kills them with relative ease. This turns him into a reluctant hero of the community and puts him on the national news. Regrettably, the coverage is watched by members of the Irish Mob who recognize him as a gangster named Joey Cusack and come to investigate. 

Being a fan of both Mortensen and Cronenberg I was relatively disappointed by this film. I was expecting something a bit more cerebral study of redemption but instead they went all Rambo at the end. 

In the end what makes this film interesting is the effect of the revelation on Tom’s past on his family. For the most part Cronenberg fumbles. Though the final scene of the film nearly saves it.

The next film I on my list, Sam Mendes’s Road to Perdition, based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. Tells the story of Michael SullivanJr. (Tyler Hoechlin) a young boy growing up in relatively idealistic life for a lower-class Irish family in the Depression. One day he sneaks into his fathers car and discovers what his father does for a living. Micheal Sr (  Tom Hanks). turns out to be the enforcer for the mob and Micheal Jr. Ends up witnessing a “conversation” that goes very wrong. The snowballs with his father’s employers trying to kill the to silence them but ends up killing Michael Jr. ’s mother and brother instead. 

Now his father and he are on the run, with his father gunning (literally) for revenge. 

This film lived up to its reputation it was very well done. The original graphic novel was intended to be a prohibition era version of the manga, Lone Wolf and Cub and for everyone familiar with Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s classic this is very apparent, (though Micheal Jr. Is far too old to be the prop the character he’s based on is.)

For the most part, this was a wonderfully intense and unsentimental adaptation of the source material with fantastic performances from Hanks as well as supporting cast that includes Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig. In fact, the only sticking point as an adaption is the relatively happier ending.

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Wednesday Double Feature – Richard Lester and The Beatles

by on March 13, 2019 at 8:43 am
Posted In: Test

This week I decided after watching a handful of heavy dramas and satires, I really need some light, inconsequential fluff to clear my palate. To do this I decided to watch some of the fluffiest thing I could think of, Richard Lester’s Beatles films. 

I’ve been a fan of the Beetles forever, back before the days of iTunes, when “Day in the Life” played on the car radio my day was complete. Along with the music I also liked the personalities of the band themselves, or at least the personas they created for the public to see, Paul, the Cute One, John, the Surly one, George, the Quiet one and… Ringo.  Who better to present this than the offbeat perspective of the wonderful Richard Lester?

Wednesday Double Feature - Richard Lester and The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

In the first film on my list, A Hard Days Night, It’s a typical day in a half for the Beatles. They run away from their fans, ride on a train, do a recording, run away from fans, and when they have some fun running around on the grass. 

Oh yes, Paul’s grandfather is hanging out with them and causing trouble. 

This was a fun film about absolutely nothing. It’s just the Beatles meandering through life. Lester does some wonderful jobs with camera angles which makes the film especially engaging. The whole thing feels incredibly realistic, which makes every time the magical realism occurs (like John disappearing in the bathtub, it comes as a surprise. Or where the heck did their instruments come from when they’re playing a song in the trains mailroom) All and everything comes down to Ringo, who comes off as the odd man out. For all I said about the separate Beatle’s personalities, as far as the movie is concerned, the main three are mostly interchangeable and it’s Ringo’s bumbling that holds the plot along. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Richard Lester and The Beatles - Help!

The second film, Help! Has much more of a plot. A not quite Thuggee cult led by Leo McKern is performing a human sacrifice. However, they can’t carry it off because their victim does not have the sacred ring that is mandatory for the ceremony. It turns out she’s mailed it to England to the finger of Ringo. Now the cultists need to get their ring back, and if they can’t get it, they might as well sacrifice Ringo instead. 

This film was a lot more surreal than Hard Day’s Night with what passes as a plot consisting of putting the Beatles into a sixties James Bond film. It’s about as wonderfully ridiculous as that sounds.

Also Leo McKern makes a great Bond villain.

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Wednesday Double Feature – Stocks and Bonds

by on March 6, 2019 at 10:27 am
Posted In: Test

I wanted to call this week’s Scarecrow selection white-collar crimes, but since none of the things mentioned it these films were technically illegal, I decided to just call it stocks and bonds. 

Wednesday Double Feature - Stocks and Bonds - The Big Short

Starting with the bond side, the first film on my list, Adam McKay’s The Big Short tells the story of the lead up to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 the people who saw it coming… and cashed in. 

I really liked this film. All of the performances were fantastic, most notably Christian Bale as the eccentric investor Michael Burry who first sees the problem and the potential of the upcoming disaster, Steve Carell as Jake Baum, a cynical hedge fund manager who discovers the looming threat by accident and feels obligated to be canary in the coal mine while still getting some of his own, And finally Ryan Gosling as  Deutsche Bank salesman Jared Vennett, who narrates the whole story, breaking the fourth wall with gleeful cynicism 

Best of all was the storytelling in general. While this is almost entirely based on a true story, most of the names have been changed and when something in the plot deviates from the truth, the characters will turn to the camera and tell you exactly how different it is from the actual story. Every time we have to deal with the complex and boring arcana of the brokerage world (and the film makes it clear that this is the reason they get away with most of this.) They provide metaphors to explain everything (my favorite is when economist Richard Thaler and Selena Gomez demonstrating how the bubble will burst by showing an entire casino betting on whether Selena will win a hand of blackjack)

Frankly this film is going into my Rhapsodies bibliography Micheal Burry is way too much like Brian (minus the hyperactivity)

Now for stocks.

Wednesday Double Feature - Stocks and Bonds - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I had heard a lot about Oliver Stone’s Wallstreet, over the years. With Micheal Douglas’s  Gordon Gekko becoming almost the personification of corporate greed, it became so ubiquitous that I even had an economics professor who paraphrased the “greed is good” quote. (Though admittedly he changed the context to make it sound a little less psychotic) So I was looking forward to seeing if it lived up to its reputation. 

Regrettably, I discovered why one should not rush when grabbing the first disk that says “Wallstreet” on the Oliver Stone shelf, because when I got home I was very disappointed to discover what I had was the sequel, Wallstreet: Money Never Sleeps. 

The film opens with Gekko coming out of prison for insider trading. He supposedly has seen the error of his ways… He even wrote a book about it. Meanwhile, his daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan)is engaged to an up and coming young broker named Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) However when his mentor commits suicide after a hostile takeover of the firm, He seeks Gecko’s advice.

This was hard to watch. It mostly assumed the viewer would be aware of the original film and suffers if you weren’t. After that, it felt as if it could never make up its mind whether it was a satire or a drama. Despite these problems, it’s held up by Stone’s craft… but even this falls flat with a clumsy attempt at giving the film a happy ending.

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