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WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021) 5/10
Anyone who reckons it's real easy to get a spoofy horror film right, after watching stuff like AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and SHAUN OF THE DEAD, need think again.
This one is obviously inspired by previous Edgar Wright films (it apes his quick-cut edits and jokey situations and characters/dialogue) such as SHAUN and HOT FUZZ, but fails at making all the disparate elements work.
It looks good, with a nice wintry feel and atmosphere and some of the jokes are okay, but the longer it goes on, the more annoying and stupid it becomes. I'd pretty much given up caring by the end.
The score isn't bad either (by Anna Drubich) but lacks anything memorable to recall, beyond its stalking/shock moments sounding cool in the film.
A totally bang average 95 minutes of celluloid.
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MONSTER HUNTER (2020) – 6/10
“Captain Artemis” (Milla Jovovich) and her five loyal soldiers are a two-vehicle “rat patrol” for the United Nations, doing peace-keeping in some forlorn desert land. They are swept up in a massive electrical storm that comes out of nowhere, which hurtles them into some other dimension, equally as barren. This new world is populated by enormous monsters with incredible power, which kill off Artemis’ companions in short order. She must fight to survive, along with another sole human whom she comes across, and names “Hunter” (Tony Jaa).
Since Artemis and Hunter don’t speak the same language, communication is limited, but after some initial distrust and hostility, they band together for the common purpose of destroying the monsters and aiding Artemis in returning to her world. Except for the beginning and ending 20 minutes, the film is a two-person show. Toward the end of their journey, the pair come across another group of humans, led by “The Admiral” (Ron Perlman), who once commanded a sailing ship that ploughed through the sands.
This film is based on the popular Japanese video game of the same name, created in 2004 by Capcom. As you might expect, it’s the special effects that take over the film, and while they are above video game quality, in concept they are nothing that hasn’t been seen before. Paul W.S. Anderson, who is familiar with directing monster films (ALIEN VS. PREDATOR) and wife Milla Jovovich’s video game films (the RESIDENT EVIL series), helms this film competently.
The picture says all it has to say in an hour and a half (plus 10 minutes of credits). It ends with the main trio going off to battle more monsters, in the hopeful start of a franchise. But the $60 million production received mediocre reviews and was a flop at the worldwide box office, grossing just $42 million, so no further films have been forthcoming.
The poster says that Paul Haslinger’s score was released by Milan, but that never happened. Sony (owner of the film’s distributor Screen Gems) put it out as a download only. It’s standard percussive action stuff.
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Posted: |
Mar 7, 2024 - 10:18 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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DUNE: Part Two (2024) – 7/10
There was only one surprise to be had in DUNE: Part Two—a “Luke, I am your father”-type reveal that takes place about two-thirds through the film. Other than that, all goes according to formula. “Paul” (Timothée Chalamet) proves himself as a warrior to the Fremen and is accepted as one of them after he harnesses and rides a giant sandworm. Later we are shown how the Fremen use the worms as a means of transportation, although we never see how the women and children are able to get onto them.
Paul and “Chani” (Zendaya) get romantically involved, although Chani still harbors doubts about Paul’s intentions regarding her people. Evil “Baron Harkonnen” (Stellan Skarsgård), the killer of Paul’s father, has a new champion in nephew “Feyd-Rautha” (Austin Butler) who proves his mettle in the arena against three opponents. That sequence is filmed in black-and-white for reasons unknown—perhaps to highlight the near albino skin tones of the Harkonnen people. Meanwhile Paul is leading raids against the Harkonnen spice mining operations and traveling to southern Arrakis to declare himself the “Muad'Dib,” to rally the multitudes to the big battle against the Harkonnenn.
We still have the Bene Gesserit coven of old women lurking about, and Paul’s mother “Lady Jessica” (Rebecca Ferguson) is promoted to Reverend Mother of the group. Their presence seems to tie in to Paul’s rise to become ‘messiah” of the Fremen, in a plotline that drags in snatches of the Christ and Mohammad stories.
The film’s look has even less color variety than the first installment, since it all takes place on the same sandy planet. Zimmer’s score doesn’t elevate the routine action much. I’m always amused at these sci-fi films that mix their weaponry—laser guns and broadswords. At least STAR WARS used lightsabers.
The film ends with a lot of things unresolved, so I was surprised to read that Part Three has yet to be given the green light. The $190 million production ($25 million more than Part One) has taken in $200 million in its first week, so after promotion costs are considered, it will take another week or two to get into the black. A decision on Part Three will probably come within a month or two.
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Posted: |
Mar 10, 2024 - 3:06 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE FIRST CIRCLE (1973) – 7/10
This film is based on the 1968 novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, which gets its title from Dante’s The Divine Comedy and its description of the first circle of Hell. The novel and film depict the lives of the occupants of a research and development bureau made of Gulag inmates located in the Moscow suburbs. Many of the prisoners are technicians or academics who have been arrested in Joseph Stalin's purges following the Second World War. Unlike inhabitants of other Gulag labor camps, these prisoners were adequately fed and enjoyed good working conditions; however, if they found disfavor with the authorities, they could be instantly shipped to Siberia.
In this case, the prisoners are working to develop a secure telephone for Stalin—one that cannot be tapped by the West. Despite the restrictions under which they live, they are able to enjoy a few books, some smuggled-in vodka, and one inmate pursues an illicit romance with one of the female lab supervisors. In a side story, a Russian diplomat phones a Russian doctor in Paris to warn him not to share a new Soviet-developed medicine with a Western colleague, because the KGB has him under surveillance. From that point on, the diplomat lives in fear of being arrested.
The film is best at showing the pettiness of the authorities in the Soviet bureaucracy and the fear of denunciation and of failure to please Stalin that even the highest officials must endure. The picture is a Danish-West German coproduction, filmed in English. Roman Palester provides only the briefest of scores. Ukrainian Aleksander Ford wrote and directed this, his penultimate film, in a career that began in 1929.
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Posted: |
Mar 13, 2024 - 11:38 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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FUGITIVE GIRLS (1974) – 5/10
Five women escape a minimum-security correctional institute and set out after the loot hidden by one of them after the bank robbery she assisted. Along the way, they elude pursuing bloodhounds, come across a hippie encampment, hijack a car and rape its driver, and menace a couple in a farmhouse.
This cheapjack film was shot entirely at a deserted Boy Scout camp outside of L.A. to avoid any expensive studio sets. The action scenes are ineptly choreographed by director A. C. Stephen, particularly a fight between the girls and four motorcycle dudes, where we’re supposed to believe that the girls beat them all senseless. More believable are scenes where “Kat” (Talie Cochrane), the tough leader of the girls, clobbers an old man (played by cult filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr.) over the head with a telephone, or topples a man in a wheelchair.
There are several versions of the film around, some under the title of 5 LOOSE WOMEN, ranging from 84 to 96 minutes, depending upon how long they let the sex scenes run. The film has a stock music score.
The poster artist took a lot of creative license in depicting scenes from the film, which has no helicopters, guard towers, or women shooting store clerks, even in the 96-minute version of the film that I viewed. And other than some cross words being exchanged, there are no fights between the women. But there is plenty of other girl-on-girl action, which the poster does not depict.
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Posted: |
Mar 15, 2024 - 3:43 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT (2022) – 8/10
Nicolas Cage stars as himself in this action comedy about a divorced actor who is trying to keep his career going past its expiration date. After losing out on a major role, a $600,000 luxury hotel bill forces him to accept a $1 million offer to spend a few days in Spain as a celebrity guest attending the birthday bash of rich businessman and Cage superfan “Javi Gutierrez” (Pedro Pascal). Naturally, Javi has a screenplay that he’d like Cage to look at. But Javi’s business may be drug smuggling, and when Cage is contacted by CIA agent “Vivian” (Tiffany Haddish) and told that Javi has kidnapped the daughter of a Spanish presidential candidate, he is tasked with going undercover to spy on Javi.
If you dislike Nicolas Cage, then no amount of Cage making fun of his own over-the-top movie persona is going to appeal to you. But he does a pretty good job of it here, going so far as to having imaginary conversations with his younger self, who is constantly telling him to snap out of his doldrums. Eventually, Cage’s ex (Sharon Horgan) and teenage daughter (Lily Mo Sheen) get caught up in the action.
Tom Gormican co-writes and directs his second film with this picture, and he seems comfortable behind the camera. The film has a high quotient of fun, and received good notices. The $30 million production was a weak performer at the box office however, with a $29 million worldwide gross. Lionsgate released Mark Isham’s active score as a download.
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Posted: |
Mar 17, 2024 - 12:27 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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HITMAN (2007) – 7/10
As the credits roll, we see children (most likely orphans) being trained as assassins by some unknown academy/monastery. Flash forward to today, and one of those assassins, known only as “Agent 47” (Timothy Olyphant), has been hired by a group known as 'The Organization' to kill the President of Russia. He easily accomplishes this, only to find himself ensnared in a political conspiracy, in which he is pursued by both Interpol agent “Mike Whittier” (Dougray Scott) and the Russian military. To add to his burden, rather than kill the only witness to his assassination, “Nika Boronina” (Olga Kurylenko), he takes her in tow as he treks across Russia and Eastern Europe.
The film has plenty of action, and Olyphant does well in his role of the taciturn killing machine with a heart, and sense of justice. Directed by Xavier Gens, the film is based on the video game series of the same name. And as is par for the course with video game-derived films, there is a dearth of plot and character nuance. After some initial confusion as to who was actually killed in the assassination, the story moves from point A to point B to point C in a straight-line fashion. It’s just a shoot-em-up, but a well-executed one, in which you can generally follow the action. So, thanks for small favors.
Some consideration was given to using Jesper Kyd’s music from the video game for the film, but ultimately Geoff Zanelli provided the score, which was released by La-La Land. It’s mainly standard action stuff, but also includes two versions of “Ave Maria” and some Eastern European color in the quieter moments. The $24 million production was blasted by the critics, but was a box office hit, grossing $101 million worldwide.
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Imaginary - (2024) - 8/10
A Good chiller: A woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him. Upon time it gives her little adopted child several influential tasks to see if loyalty is key to friendship or will lead to sinister events!
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Posted: |
Mar 19, 2024 - 11:30 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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CABRINI (2024) – 7/10
In 1887, Sister Maria Francesca Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna), founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, asks Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) to send her to do missionary work in China. But the Pope, taking note of all the Italians immigrating to America, tells her to “Go West, not East.” So, in 1889, Cabrini lands in New York, along with six other sisters. She is immediately told to return to Italy by New York’s Irish Archbishop Michael Corrigan (David Morse). But she instead convinces him to give her a small stipend to open an orphanage, with the proviso that she not solicit funds from any non-Italians. Over time, she is able to overcome the prejudice against the Italian immigrants, expand the orphanage, and even open an immigrants’ hospital, winning over New York Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) to her cause.
This is the true story of the woman who became known as Mother Cabrini, who eventually established 67 missionary institutions to serve the sick and poor—long before government agencies provided extensive social services—in major American cities and in countries throughout Latin America and Europe. Today, dozens of churches, hospitals, and schools bear her name. She became a U.S. citizen in 1909 and died in 1917 at age 65. In 1946, she became the first American to be canonized as a saint, and in 1950, Pope Pius XII named Frances Xavier Cabrini as the patron saint of immigrants.
This biopic sticks very closely to the facts of Cabrini’s life. It tends to downplay the Roman Catholic religious aspects, except in Cabrini’s dealings with Church officials, instead opting for a more general feeling of spirituality in showing her work among the poor. The cast is first rate, with Italian actress Cristiana Dell'Anna, whom I haven’t seen before, strongly supported by character actors Morse, Lithgow, and Giannini. Director Alejandro Monteverde also directed last year’s independent hit SOUND OF FREEDOM, which grossed $250 million.
Angel Studios, which produced SOUND OF FREEDOM for $15 million, likely felt it could splurge on CABRINI, giving it a reported budget of $50 million. CABRINI does an excellent job of recreating the New York City of the late 1800s. It’s an excellent physical production. However, at 142 minutes, the film becomes a bit repetitive.
Gene Back provides what may be considered a traditional orchestral score, and the film’s end credits feature a song sung by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and his daughter Virginia. The soundtrack is available as a download. CABRINI grossed $13 million in its initial two weeks of release.
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