Coyote v. Acme

 

A combo cartoon plus live action like Space Jam or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  Those were big in the 90s but it seems there was no room at the inn for this famously shelved premise.  But the I.T. is too good, so we have a creative premise about Wile E. Coyote seeing a T.V. Ad ("Have you been injured?" and he seeks the legal services of Kevin Avery (Will Forte) in Albuquerque.

It basically  becomes a version of Better Call Saul set in the same high desert of New Mexico (which is a good thing!).  The same dime store office, tan suit, down on his luck, going up against the Apple of Albuquerque and its attorney (John Cena).

Some fun pranks but nothing you haven't seen before.  Worth a look!

2024 - a year of sequels

 Thinking of all the movies this year that have been popular, there have been a LOT of repeats:

I just watched Alien:  Romulus (Alien 6 +)

Already this years there was Dune 2

Mad Max 4

And Twister 2

Upcoming is

Gladiator 2

Beetlejuice 2

Joker 2

Interesting I have not seen the original of Twister, Gladiator, Beetlejuice or Joker.  Just forgot!

And over on Netflix

Beverly Hills Cop 4  

Also to be watched, but as I found with Alien, you can't go back to 1979 again.  I think I'll remember how good Beverly Hills Cop in 1984 was.

Alien: Romulus

 Alien was one of the first R rated movies that I saw at age 14.  Back then you had to sneak into the theater.  Also I walked to the theater but that's another story.  That was the Summer of 1979.

It's a long time since then, so the plot was a little fuzzy.   A group of astronauts gets mysterious ill and an alien bursts out of the chest of one of them and terrorizes the crew until only Ripley is surviving to kill it.

Such a good premises that it has continued all these years later.

Alien:  Romulus is more like a version of Total Recall or Blade Runner, whereby workers on a foreign planet are seeking to escape.  One of the workers has a brother who is a "Replicant" or an artificial person.  They steal a spaceship with the help of their R2D2 and land, predictably, in a haunted space station, whereby aliens terrorize the crew until only Rain is surviving to kill it.

A lot of call backs to the other movies.  Directed by Feyd Alvarez,  and starring Cailee Spaeny (not Cailey Fleming as I thought!) 

*** of 5

Twisters

 Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones star in this reboot of the 1996 action movie Twister.  A star turn for both of them.

Kate is an aspiring meterologist from Oklahoma who witnesses a tragic weather event.  While she tries to distance herself her old friend Javi (Anthony Ramos) comes back to invite her to spend a week chasing storms to see if they can prevent future ones. 

Along the way they encounter Tyler who has a very different persona than the prototypical weather man.  A predictable clash of personality, a big event to bring them together, and it ends with a nice bow tied around it.

Great special effects by ILM and produced by Steven Spielberg, it's a nice homage to the 90s action movie genre and a worth successor to Twister.

* * * * *

Longlegs

 Remember the big spider the Daddy Longlegs?  A catchy thing to say for a kid.  And also a catchy name for a serial killer.

Maika Monroe is FBI Agent Lee Harker, a new agent.  She proves herself to have good instincts and is assigned to the Longlegs case where the killer has left a list of messages in code.  

We see flashes of Longlegs played by Nicolas Cage dressed in a Joker-type facepaint.   He has long hair and has an androgenous look.   His hair, face, and clothes are all a greyish white, making it hard to tell his age.

Harker is paired with an older FBI Agent Carter (Blair Underwood, from L.A. Law) and they try to figure out who is Longlegs.  Ultimately in the final showdown, they do figure it out.

The movie is set in the mid 90s before the Internet, so the missing person is more apt to stay hidden (Searching for Sugar Man).  The tools used are relatively primitive for modern crime fighting - no cell phone towers, no location tracking)

Billed as a horror movie, it's more of a mystery thriller.  Very much influenced by The Silence of the Lambs and even its predecessor Manhunter (1986).

Interesting that the writer and director Osgood Perkins is the son of the original Psycho Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates).

A creative and complicated plot which will leave many questions after watching.

* * * * of 5

Mad Max (1979)

 A low budget movie that paid big dividends.  Definitely influenced a lot of 80's action movies like The Terminator and Die Hard.

Introducing a new star Mel Gibson, who plays Max, a highway patrolman in Outback Australia.  When  he busts a motorcycle gang, they seek revenge on his fellow officers and then come for his family.  

Max goes rogue to fight back.  Many sequels ensue. 

Dune: Part 2

 Dune: Part 2 (2021) directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Blade Runner 2049) is a soaring  interplanetary story that deserves a big screen watch.  The book Dune published in 1965 is regarded as an inspiration to the Star Wars story and the comparison is apt:

• An Emperor striving for  galactical domination by control of the trade routes

• A conflict between two related families

• An epic showdown between the two sides

Here’s a recap of Dune: Part 1 (2021).  Paul Atredies (Timothee Chalamet) is an exceptional child, the son of the Caladan planetary leader, Duke Leto Atredis (Oscar Isaac) and Lady Jesssica (Rebecca Ferguson), who is a member of the mystical order of the Bene Gesserrit.   The legend is that the Bene Gesserrit will bear a son who will become a great leader.    

While Paul is being tested by the Bene Gesserrit, the opposing House Harkonnen seeks to kill Duke Leto Atredis but agrees to spare Paul and Lady Jessica, who make their way to the planet Arrakis.  They encounter the natives, the desert dwellers known as the Fremen, led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem).  Stilgar believes that Paul could be the Lisam Al Garib, the long awaited savior, and so he takes Paul and Lady Jessica under the Fremen protection.  

As Part 2 begins, House Harkonnen seeks to take control back of Arrakis now that Duke Leto Atredis and Paul appear to be out the way.  There are a lot of stars in Part 2  that were not in Part 1:  Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan) , Austin Butler (Feyd-Rautha), Christopher Walken (Emperor Shaddam IV)   Plus we have returning:  Josh Brolin (Gurney), Javier Bardem (Stilgar), Dave Bautista (Rabban), Stellan Skarsgard (Baron Harkonnen) with larger roles than before.

gly accepted into the Fremen tribe. 

As Part 2 continues, Paul learns the ways of the Fremen to survive in the desert.  He proves his worth by fighting alongside Chani (Zendaya) against raiders.    Chani grudgingly goes along with Stilgar to allow Paul into the tribe.  Stilgar, recognizing that the planet needs a Reverend Mother from  the Bene Gesserrit, convinces Lady Jessica to ascend to that role, otherwise she is of no use to them.  In a final test, Paul shows that he is a real Fremen by riding a sandworm. 

 Ultimately Paul and Feyd-Rautha square off in a duel to the death.  But is that the end or just a new beginning?  Who will control the valuable spice, or tame the inhospitable planet, which before it was named Arrakis, was called…. Dune.

Confused?  Good!  It’s a  complex plot, based on a 600 page science fiction book weaving an interplanetary story with many references to both Chrisitanity and Islam.   And there is a lot of material to acknowledge:  5 book sequels, one 1984 movie directed by David Lynch and one 3 part TV miniseries (2000) in those Pre- Netflix days.

Stay tuned for the expected Part 3, whereby Paul’s unborn sister Alia, may shed more light on the future.  As I would expect the last dying words of the book’s author Frank Herbert (1920-1986) to be, “I’ll tie this all together somehow.”

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

 Who would have thought we'd still be watching the original stars?  If they're not dead, then their children are there.  That's the premise of this sequel to a sequel.  Having missed the setup of Ghostbusters:  Afterlife, it took a bit to catch up.  Phoebe (McKenna Grace, Paige from Young Sheldon) is the (androgenous) daughter of the dearly departed Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler) and she keeps busting ghosts with her family including a "stepfather/teacher" Gruberman (Paul Rudd).

Light fare, but it made me feel kind of old! 

Dune (1984)

 

Anyone But You

 A fun Rom-Com, very reminiscent of My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

Great scenery of Sydney - Australia and Sweeney.    She might be the next Michelle Pfeiffer.

Origin

 A think-piece, it's a movie about writing a book, specifically the author's journey in writing "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent" by Isabella Wilkerson.

Directed by Ava Duvernay, it's kind of a modern day Roots, with an interwoven story between America, Germany and India.

Can't figure that out?  "Good" as one of my former professors used to say when someone said "I don't understand".

It all comes together in a furious bout of writing inspiration.  End credits announce that it was a best seller in 2020.  So you can be forgiven if you had not heard of it.

Leave the World Behind

 It’s a classic Chicken and the Egg problem:  Is this movie significant because it was Executive Produced by Barack and Michelle Obama?  Or is it because of its A-List casting?  Academy Award winners Julia Roberts andMahershala Ali star, plus  Ethan Hawke and of course, Kevin Bacon.

For starters, what does it mean to be an Executive Producer?  Traditionally, it means an outsized financial investment in the film’s budget, with the promise of a return on that investment.  Alternatively, it is more of an honorary title, likely to compensate for some nonfinancial support in making the movie.  My guess is that the second choice is most accurate.

The President and First Lady support ties into the subject matter of the End of the World story.

Julia Roberts (Amanda) and Ethan Hawke (Clay) are a White married couple and decide on a whim to go on vacation from New York City to the Hamptons.  After they check into their rented McMansion with their two children, the first night they get a knock at the door from two Black people, father George (Mahershala Ali) and daughter Ruth (Myha’la Herrold).  The racial dynamics are bubbling at the top of the movie.  George announces that he is the owner of the home and needs to stay there.  Amanda refuses, and barely believes the story.  But they compromise and six people are now uneasily in the house.

There is some type of 9/11 or “End of the World” or Disturbance in the Force activity occurring in the background.  Phones, internet, GPS are down and thus information is scarce.  Who can believe what?   There are many elements of conflict:  Black v. White, Rich v. Poor, Prepared v. Unprepared, Knowledge v. Ignorance.

The movie is a very Alfred Hitchcock mystery, with elements of The Birds (1963) (an unknown force acting against the protagonists), Vertigo (1958) (nothing is as it seems) and North By Northwest (1959) (no safety even in a rural area).  Many unusual camera angles add to the disorientation.

The fact that a former President is involved suggests that some of the ideas have a kernel of truth to them.  In that respect, various plot points seem “Ripped from the Headlines.” 

Is it all that much different from other End of the World movies like 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)  or This is The End (2013)?   It certainly approaches the topic from a more News angle than a Science Fiction angle.  But which is it?  The good news is:  there is no right answer.  

**** of 5

Freud's Last Session

 When your priest invites you to a movie, you'd better go.  This imaged mashup of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, a prominent 20th Century writer on Christianity is an interesting, if stilted conversation.

Freud as the title notes is the star, played by the real life star Anthony Hopkins.  Lewis (Matthew Goode)is the more reserved one, but he bears his own scars from his Great War experience, coupled with the setting on the eve of World War II.

Lot of Nazi imagery to add some drama to this otherwise psychoanalytic approach.  Dark and Dull.

Similar to another Anthony Hopkins historical two man movie, The Two Popes.

The Boys in the Boat

 Based on an excellent book by Daniel James Brown, it's the story of the Universtiy of Washington crew team, who went to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and won gold.  A scrappy underdog story, with the patina of history.  Directed by George Clooney.

Not as good as the book in that it left out the aspects of Lemi Riefenstahl the German Nazi propagandist, the relation between Joe and his family and the depression era aspect that overshadowed the story.

Five Nights at Freddy's

 It's always fun to go into a movie with very little knowledge about what to expect.    This was styled as a horror movie genre, but in the context of a kid's pizza parlor.  Lest you think it's an original premise, it's based on a video game of the same concept.

Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is an unemployed single, tasked with taking care of his 12 year old sister.  When offered a nighttime security job at an abandoned pizza parlor, Freddy Fasbender's, he has little choice but to take it.  When he is there he finds out that the animatronic robots have a life of their own, populated by mysterious ghosts.  Along the way, Mike has to face his own ghosts that he has carried for years.

This is a fun 80s/90s period piece with Freddy's as a good stand in for Chuck E. Cheese.  There are some scary parts but the movie seems to have a good heart.

* * * *

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

 Forget any other concert film you have seen, this one beat them all.  

Highest level video and audio you can imagine.  Feels like you are right there.   Good closeups and camera angles.

In a monologue, she says "I wanted to make a show that showcased ALL my albums"  But that would be 3.5 hours long!  "Yes, and it's going to be called the Eras Tour"  Dream it and it will happen.

She's come a long way from a teenager in country music, and I am sure has a lot higher to go.

* * * * * 

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

 I had heard this talked of as modern classic, but I thought it was a very uninteresting subject.  Leonard Di Caprio is .. "Jordan Belfort"?  Who cares!

So as a result, the movie had to be over the top with depictions of cocaine, prostitutes, orgies and cash thrown in the air to rain down.

Maybe it was new and different 10 years ago, but this was pretty boring for my tastes.  Hard to take any of it seriously.

Basically a ripoff mashup of Wall Street and Goodfellas.  Even the 80s decor seemed fake.

* * of 5

The Aviator (2004)

 Directed by Martin Scorcese, it's a biopic of Howard Hughes, who in his time was a combination of Elon Musk and the Most Interesting Man in the World.  He had an unlimited budget and exceeded it.  He spent his money on women, airplanes and movies... wasted the rest!

The most fun parts for me were his famous girlfriends, Jean Harlow (Gwen Stefani), Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).

Starring Leonardo Di Caprio and John C. Reilly.

*****

Dumb Money

 Based on true events, it's another adaption of a Ben Mezrich book about the Game Stop short squeeze in 2020 ending January 2021.  You will of course recognize his other movies:  21 and The Social Network.

Retail traders emboldened by boredom, lockdown and Reddit found value in $GME as well as an opportunity to Stick It to the Man.  Hilarity ensues.

Starring Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, America Fererra, and Nick Offerman.

Oppenheimer

 Writer/director Christopher Nolan weaves his usual time travel into this historical story by jumping around various years of the life of Robert Oppenheimer.

Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh

Very creative way to take a 1000 page nonfiction book, American Prometheus, and turn it into something very different for the mass market.

There are 3 distinct acts - first, the introductory years which is where Albert Einstein comes in, then the Building process which is the classic training academy, and finally an interesting twist in act 3.   Almost like a final courtroom scene, reminiscent of Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Interesting use of black and white photography as well as the Anti-Semitism of the day.

4 stars * * * *