Reviews

A movie that should be added to the Library of Congress. This WAS 2020. And despite what the Conservatives are saying about this brilliant mockumentary/documentary hybrid, it pokes fun of Biden and his supporters too. I watched it twice to absorb it all. Wickedly fun, hysterical, and sharp. The Idiocracy of the decade.

Engaging, extremely entertaining B-movie film noir released by Columbia home video in 1993, and then after being discovered by critics, landed in art house theaters a year later. Columbia also made those hidden B-movie masterpieces of the 1950s like Murder by Contract, The Line Up, and Nightfall, which were restored and released on DVD in several volumes a few years back. The plot of RRW is pure noir: a drifter comes to a small town, is mistaken for a hit man, accepts money to kill a cheating wife, and double crosses the man who hired him. It's an alternate take on the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, which this movie is a cousin of. Nic Cage, two years before his acting breakthrough and launching of his second career (courtesy of Leaving Las Vegas) makes a suitable noir male hero, complete with a cigarette always dangling from his mouth. Dennis Hopper is typically scummy as he would be in many of his post Blue Velvet films, J.T. Walsh at his slippery best as the one who mistakes Cage as the hit man, and Lara Flynn Boyle is the suitable femme fatale. The finale of the movie has a nifty turn of the cliche as well. A movie worth seeking out, and while you do that, check for John Dahl's The Last Seduction, which repeated the "video release first, art house theaters second" pattern of RRW.

Bad reviews here must be from the super hero movie crowd suffering from so much ADD that any five minute stretch without a CGI, quickly edited video game like action sequence is torture akin to Alex being strapped to a movie theater chair with his eyes clamped open.

For those who appreciate a slow burning science eventuality film, with superb visuals, it's one of the best theater experiences of the year. On par with Interstellar, and even 2001.

1 star reviewers can always cue in line for Spider-Man 50 next month.

This movie seems to get rapturous praise from a segment of the population, a segment I suspect that has never seen a Stephen King adaptation made prior to 2014. I never fell in love with the book the way that many others have, and was not expecting much from this adaptation. I got what I expected. Let's see.....a group of early teens calling themselves the "Loser's Club" bullied by psychopathic older teens....The Body/Stand by Me. Sadistic parents who the Losers Club have to contend with every night....Carrie. A creepy abandoned mansion that overlooks the town and is the center of the evil....Salems' Lot. An evil plaguing a small Maine time...take your pick of any King adaptation (from Pet Sematary to Needful Things to The Mist). And just to make sure the Loser's Club is politically correct, we have an African American teen and a Jewish teen. At 2 hours and 15 minutes, the film fails to develop many characters clearly. It prefers to dwell on set pieces. It all seems to be a set up for "Chapter 2." This apparently is the most successful horror film of all time. I'll stick with pre 2014 King adaptations. Except perhaps Maximum Overdrive......

Tarantino is getting older and his movies are becoming a bit more reserved. Following the much-maligned "Hateful Eight," Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood is a treat, especially for movie buffs familiar with the history of the summer of 1969 in Hollywood. Some have commented on the lack of pure "QT" dialogue that made his other movies so entertaining (along with the stories and action). Others have complained about the length of this movie. You need to enter this world, and not only the worlds of the two leads (played by DiCaprio and Pitt, and they are both relaxed - for the most part - and hilarious i spots). You are transported to Hollywood, August 1969. And Tarantino gets everything right, from the look of Hollywood at the time, the movie marquees, the music, the clothes, the attitudes. Like some of this other films, the movie takes many liberties with historic events. The last shot of the film allows audiences to fill in the blanks as to what happens next. For those who love slow-burn movies, and Tarantino, this movie is a must-see. I've seen it twice and could see it again tomorrow.

Neil Blomkamp's follow up to District 9 is another science fiction/action hybrid that contains social commentary aplenty. District 9 was praised (or condemned by the right wing) as being a statement against Apartheid-like policies still being practiced in the world by countries like Israel. Elysium rattled the cages of the right wing media when it came out (Limbaugh ordered his listeners to boycott the movie and Matt Damon). The science "eventuality" in this movie must have hit too close to home. A not-so-distant Earth, basically destroyed by nuclear and global warming, where the lower 98% lives and works in jobs that serve the top 2%? This is not an unlikely scenario in a nation where we have greedy narcissistic failed businessmen and Evangelical science-denying crazies controlling the Government. The top 2% have evacuated the planet to live in a deluxe space station that looks upon a dying planet. Again, not hard to believe - especially given the recent news about the elite planning to colonize both the moon and Mars. The action in the film concerns the plight of the disenfranchised to get to Elysium in order to use their high tech medical device that cures all types of cancer (a device only for the top 2%, of course). A psychopathic agent of the space station on Earth is called into action to stop them, especially the radiation-infected former worker played by Damon who leads the group. Sharlto Copley plays the deranged Earth-based protector of Elysium and it is a truly frightening performance. He is all-out insane and provided with all weaponry needed to stop the heroes. Copley also played the hero of District 9 and his transformation into a Van Demme-esque physical presence with no morals and a psychotic urge to not only eliminate Damon and co., but also take over Elysium with this goons, creates one of the best action film villains of the decade. Great entertainment, whether you watch it for action escapism, its social commentary, or both.

I saw this in the theater in the summer of 1987 and was expecting a run-of-the-mill "Terminator" clone. Much to my surprise, it was a lot more. There is plenty of action, including a high "murder pleasure" ratio where villains we despise get what's coming to them, sometimes in the most grisly fashion. It also has elements of a superhero movie (today it's still above and beyond the 70+ superhero movies that have been made since 2002). But there is more to it than stylish action. This was Paul Verhoeven's first American film. His career since has had its ups and downs, but his first American film remains his masterpiece. It's also darkly funny, so much in fact that some critics have called this a black comedy. The notion of a corporation taking over an entire police force in a troubled city like Detroit (played by Dallas in this movie) does not seem far-fetched at all in America 2019. "Good business" is all that matters, police officers perishing be damned. A movie I fire up at least once a year and the best action movie of the 1980s, bar non.

In 1975, this film felt like science fiction. In 2019, we now realize it was prophetic. Many audiences enjoyed this movie because of the Rollerball matches, which are played on motorcycles and predated the brutality of the Mad Max films by half a decade. Rollerball itself is a hybrid of hockey, basketball, and roller derby. The National Anthem played before each match has been replaced with the "Corporate Anthem." Since wars have been outlawed, the battles are played out on the Rollerball rink. Much has been already written about the depiction of unregulated capitalism in this movie. Viewing this in the United States in 2019, it is spot on. Corporations now have more rights than human beings, thanks to democracy-killing acts like Citizens United. Laws that protect American consumers from monopolies are being gutted by a President who is a failed businessman. The corporation owns all humans, and most have surrendered their souls to this. Jonathan E., played by James Caan in what I think is his best performance (very understated and sympathetic), quietly rebels and when the Corporation (personified by John Houseman's character) catches on, they vow to break him. The ending is grim but appropriate. In a film containing brutal sports violence (I would say the violence at today's hockey games comes close to the violence in this movie), the most disturbing scene involves millionaires high on drugs and killing three beautiful pine trees with a flame gun. This is the Dominionist Evangelical mindset ("GOD put all plants and animals and the water and air on the planet HE created for HUMANS to have dominion over") mixed with "who gives a f--k, we're rich" Oligarchy. And the U.S. is well on its way. Not science fiction. This is science eventuality.

I've been saying for years that Hollywood would never touch the right wing Evangelical cult that has been secretly controlling Washington DC for decades. NetFlix deserves kudos for finally bringing this into living rooms. Perhaps the (s)election of Donald J. Trump and his "God will build us a new planet if we destroy this one" Vice President Pence inspired NetFlix to dive into the book and make this documentary. As a documentary, the style is OK. I'm not sure if I like the merging of recreated events with the historical footage. I think a Ken Burns approach may have worked better. This country is not a JudeoChristian Theocracy. We have something called Separation of Church and State. Running the country based on Old Testament fairy tales is akin to Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia running their countries based on the Koran. Religion in politics is recipe for disaster. As we in the United States are experiencing now, with Evangelicals calling a narcissistic failed businessman the "chosen one." Great job NetFlix. A documentary, despite its flaws, that everyone in this country should see.