AndyDursin wrote:
It is a blast of fun, Carpenter with a full studio budget for one of the few times in his career and working at the top of his talents. Shame it didn't connect with the general public, but it was a different era back then.
Even to this day, movies that mix & match genres as blithely as Big Trouble usually can't be marketed correctly, because they have material that will appeal to a WIDE audience spread, and not in a complimentary "something for everyone!" way. The recent film I can think of that mixed comedy, martial arts action and overall quirkiness in a similar manner -- and got slapped down at the box office for it -- was Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, another film I love to death but is hard to get people to watch because it's impossible to adequately explain just what the hell it's about, let alone how many weird tonal and stylistic shifts it goes through. Everyone I've sat down to watch Scott Pilgrim with me has come away enjoying it, but it usually takes a half-hour of acclimation until they settle into the movie. I'm sure back in '86, the studio execs at Fox were anticipating some straight Indiana Jones-style adventure film, and were probably aghast when they finally saw it all put together. Still, movies like this are what the VHS and cable TV aftermarkets were made for (see also Carpenter's The Thing)...it usually takes a few lazy afternoon viewings before it "clicks" and you suddenly find yourself genuinely laughing at stuff you just thought was weird and awkward before.
The latest trip down Sci-Fi Memory Lane finds those damned extraterrestrials returning to Earth to finish what they started in 1996 – back when director Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day” became one of the most popular films of the decade. Twenty years later, the long lines have dissipated, and likely most of the enthusiasm among movie-goers faced with yet another belated re-quel (part remake, part sequel) that at least carries its predecessor’s sense of humor along with it.
To his credit, Emmerich – reuniting here with long-time producing partner Dean Devlin for the first time since “The Patriot” – has cobbled together an agreeable enough continuation set in a bizarre “alternate Earth” where the countries of the world have united since extinguishing the initial threat, and alien tech has made things like space conquest and intercontinental travel a piece of cake.
Scientist Jeff Goldblum is now working in a high-level cabinet position for current president Sela Ward, while old Pres Bill Pullman is haunted by visions of aliens past – or is it present? The arrival of a new extraterrestrial ship immediately sends off a mental signal to Pullman’s Thomas Whitmore, while military commander William Fichtner leads a squadron of young hotshots into orbit to combat the menace. These include Thor’s brother, Liam Hemsworth, as well as his estranged buddy Jessie Usher, playing the son of Will Smith, whose now-deceased character makes a number of cameos…in a photograph. While “the kids” take the fight directly to the skies, more fun is had on the ground in Area 51 where Goldblum’s character partners with a former flame/colleague (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Brent Spiner’s returning Dr. Brakish in trying to crack an enigmatic sphere and decipher a message that may just be from a different group of aliens altogether.
“Independence Day: Resurgence”’s weakest attributes come through its attempts to shoehorn in characters and references to its predecessor, especially early on. Were cameos from Vivica A. Fox and the late Robert Loggia absolutely necessary? Perhaps some of Fox’s work was left on the cutting room floor (the film runs two hours, shockingly lean for an Emmerich film), but either way, the overly contrived set-up comes off feeling like “Sequelitis” while leaving massive plot holes in its wake (like how or why Hemsworth decides to go and pick up Goldblum’s party for a trip to the moon). Even the central disaster sequence doesn’t have nearly the impact of the original’s big-ticket destruction moments, though Goldblum amusingly notes the aliens still “like the landmarks.”
Then again, perhaps Emmerich felt that belaboring the destruction, and blowing up the planet a second time, wasn’t worth all the trouble – and that’s where “Resurgence” has some tricks up its sleeve. The climax is deliriously amusing as Goldblum, his forever-meddling dad (a returning Judd Hirsch) and a school bus full of kids try and swerve away from the alien’s queen in a crisply-executed chase sequence that’s easily the film’s most entertaining set-piece. No less enjoyable, though, are simply seeing old pros Goldblum and Spiner (given much more to do here) having a good time, rolling their eyes as they attempt to save the world – again – in a throwback genre exercise.
“Resurgence” does feel as if it had been overly “massaged” in the editing room, with Emmerich and Devlin trying to cram a handful of different characters and storylines into a single two-hour film (with a wide-open tag for another sequel). Still, their positive messages, noble intentions – most of the characters who survive have completed arcs – and the film’s disarming sense of humor make it a perfectly serviceable summertime diversion…nothing more, nothing less.
-I have been on a Broadway musical history binge of late, organizing old material of cast performances on 50s-60s TV shows and other things and along the way popped this in. "Annie" was the first musical I ever saw on Broadway when I was nine in 1978. I saw the second Annie, Shelley Bruce and then when I went back later that year, Sarah Jessica Parker had taken over the role. I think its hard to state just how much this show became a big national phenomena at the time and represented probably the last time a Broadway musical became such a national phenom in the way that other shows of the 50s-60s had (and "Annie" was a throwback to that style of old-fashioned Broadway structure which had vanished in the 70s in the age of rock musicals and "concept" musicals). Everyone *knew* who Andrea McArdle was, and how much were we hearing "Tomorrow?" If you were nine years old you *really* heard it a lot since it became a big thing in school concerts etc. so there was no escaping the phenom.
-We used to have an 8-track player in those days and the "Annie" cast recording along with the "Star Wars" soundtrack were the two 8-tracks I remember listening to whenever I could get a turn at it. I knew the whole score practically by heart even if I didn't really get the meaning of some of the songs (more on that later). So as a result, even though I didn't see "Annie" again after that second time (it ran another five years) I felt like I "knew" the show so that when I read about the movie and all the changes in songs and settings that were going to take place, I didn't see it at the time! And when I did see it a few years later on VHS, I was underwhelmed.
-Of course as I grew older, I soon realized the whole game of political subversion that Annie's book writer, Thomas Meehan and lyricist-director Martin Charnin were playing with the property. That was when I learned that Harold Gray the original creator of the strip had been a staunch critic of FDR and used the strip as a vehicle for satiric observations about the New Deal. And here was Meehan in particular, deliberately subverting that and rewriting the politics of "Annie" in his own image by making Annie the key to getting Warbucks to change philosophy and come up with the creation of the New Deal. The thing that's amusing is how no one at the time seemed to think this tampering with someone else's creation was somehow objectionable on general principle, even though as someone noted in a more recent article, if you took a musical of "Doonesbury" (and yes, I know there was one in the 80s) and changed the politics so that Nixon or Reagan were now the heroes of the protagonist, the uproar would be tremendous! But that kind of inconsistency I guess is to be expected.
-The funny thing is that this 1999 Disney produced TV version of the musical, which basically gives us a Cliffs note version of the original Broadway book (which was not recognizable at all in the movie; in that one, Miss Hannigan improbably reforms at the end!), proves how "Annie" was a show that didn't need a dumb political subtext and just gives us the things that made the show a deserved success on Broadway. The appeal of "Annie" was how at its core, it was a heartfelt story of yearning and searching for the simple joy of a family and a family's love and seeing it come true in the end. That was why audiences loved "Annie" and why I as a kid could enjoy things without realizing the meaning behind songs like "We'd Like To Thank You Herbert Hoover" or "New Deal For Christmas". This TV version might be a bit streamlined too much to fit a two hour time slot and there are some changes made toward the end, but all in all I found it was a nice way to be reintroduced to the property after a number of years. Kathy Bates gets top billing as Miss Hannigan (and is appropriately nasty) and we have Broadway veterans like Victor Garber, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth (plus a great cameo by original Annie Andrea McArdle in the "NYC" number as "Star to Be"). Happily, the politics are gone from this telling as FDR only appears briefly at the end and we are spared the aforementioned "New Deal For Christmas" for the finale (we also don't get the Herbert Hoover number which was even jettisoned from some of the later Broadway revivals). It has none of the bloated excess of John Huston's disaster either. This is the one I'd recommend showing to kids to see if musical theater in the more classic vein (as opposed to the musicals that are taken from Disney films) might ever be of interest to them.
-An appropriate choice I felt for the week before July 4 with its Middle America quality, outstanding score and also seeing Robert Preston in one of the greatest musical comedy performances preserved ever. Meredith Willson's composing skills had been overshadowed by his visibility as a TV/radio personality in the 40s and 50s (he spent three years as the music leader on the Burns and Allen radio show where if you can believe it, he got the jokes that were too dumb for even Gracie!) but then he proceeded to write a great musical because it was about the one thing he knew best, his Iowa background (this is why his subsequent musicals were never as successful. "Unsinkable Molly Brown" succeeded more due to its star, Tammy Grimes, than the strength of the material). The results were a Broadway success that even beat out "West Side Story" for the Best Musical that year. The film version wisely kept Preston even though he'd never had a starring role this big in films.
Sherlock Holmes (1916) 6.5 of 10
-The rediscovery of this lost silent movie was big news because finally, we could see for the first time William Gillette, the man credited with creating the whole template for actors in how to portray Sherlock Holmes, in the part. The quality of the presentation is excellent and the restoration team deserves kudos for the work done in bringing it back to us.
-Gillette himself has a presence that makes it possible to see for the first time that Basil Rathbone and everyone else was indeed dealing with his shadow when they took over the part. The movement, the look that we associate with Holmes in a dramatic context (especially the dressing gown and pipe which where his innovations) is there and its fascinating to watch.
-The story though is a different matter since Gillette's play represented his vision on how to play Holmes rather than Doyle's. He did this with Doyle's full blessing as a famous telegram from Doyle that went, "marry him, kill him do whatever you wish" made clear so as a result this is a story that most traditional Holmes fans who have never seen Gillette's play performed (I don't think it's had a major production since the 1940s or 50s) will not easily relate to. Dr. Watson is a fairly minor figure in the tale. There is no Inspector Lestrade or Mrs. Hudson (we get instead a page boy named Billy to show visitors in and Doyle himself would later add this character to some of this final stories written after the play debuted). And of course the most shocking detail of all is a Holmes who falls madly in love with the damsel in distress and is given a romantic ending! The plot borrows elements from "A Scandal In Bohemia" but IMO overcomplicates things by having a pair of secondary villains at the outset before Professor Moriarty is brought into the proceedings. You have to be prepared for the fact that you're not seeing a traditional Holmes tale as we understand it or even a traditional Holmes for that matter! Once you get past that it is easier to follow but the end results are to be more appreciated for the fact that the film exists and not for the greatness of the film itself.
Not my kind of film, but it was another "classic" I'd never seen which I thought I ought to familiarize myself with.
Well, that was a waste of time. It's hard to believe this film was actually released the same year as Star Wars. While both pictures certainly galvanized movie-goers in 1977, Star Wars, nearly forty years on, remains as fresh and entertaining as the day it premiered, its visual and esthetic (and musical) style unchanged throughout six sequels -- and still current in 2016. In contrast, Saturday Night Fever is hilariously dated. The disco culture, so pervasive and "with it" in the late 70s, was ultimately very short-lived, and although a couple of good tunes did emerge out of that period (who can resist "Disco Inferno"? ) most of the trappings of the disco era -- not just the songs, but the clothing fashions and overall attitudes -- look ridiculous today.
Moreover, there are no likable characters in this film. Travolta's character is a vain, narcissistic jerk, who exploits a female friend (who is in love with him) for his sexual pleasure, while his "real" love interest is just as stuck-up and conceited as he is. The film also has some unintentionally funny moments, in particular the scene where Travolta's friend falls off the George Washington Bridge.
The best thing I can say about Saturday Night Fever is that it is an interesting relic of a short-lived era. Its primary appeal is that it serves as an opportunity to tell younger viewers "Yes, people actually dressed like that in the 70s."
Still, without Saturday Night Fever we'd have never gotten Arthur Fiedler's final (and unintentionally funny) album with the Boston Pops...
Flashdance (7.5/10)
Again, not my kind of movie, but I figure if I'm paying for Netflix I may as well view its movie offerings (however slight they may be). However I have to say I found this film surprisingly appealing. Not "great" by any means, but enjoyable, touching and attractively visualized.
It's astonishing to consider that Flashdance and Saturday Night Fever are separated by only six years; the style of these films is so disparate that younger, modern viewers could be forgiven for assuming they were made ten (if not fifteen) years apart. More curiously, Flashdance is in some ways a remake of SNF -- it likewise centers on a young, urban, working class protagonist with dreams of success as a dancer. But Flashdance is by far the better film. For starters, Jennifer Beals' character is much more likable than Travolta's, and easier to identify with. She is more modest, and insecure about herself and her abilities, more compassionate, more respectful towards her elders, and makes more of effort to realize her dreams. (Plus Jennifer Beals in a ripped sweatshirt and leg warmers is a lot nicer to look at than John Travolta in a leisure suit and platform shoes.)
Flashdance is not without its moments of 80s pop culture goofiness, but it is a much-less dated film than SNF, and drenched in that gorgeous "British advertising" visual style of the 80s (which typified the work of director Adrian Lynne, as well as Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, etc.). Lynne is also a much more gifted visual stylist than John Badham, and conjures some indelible imagery in this film (Who can deny Beals' warm-up to "Maniac" is one of the most unforgettable sequences of the 80s?).
Last edited by Paul MacLean on Fri May 12, 2023 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
-Jaws (1975): 10/10
-Jaws 2 (1978): 8/10
Finally picked up the second film on Blu-Ray today (the rest of the sequels can fornicate themselves ), and -- even watched back-to-back with the original, as I did this afternoon and evening -- holds up surprisingly well as far as gratuitous, "just make it happen" sequels go. I haven't sat down and watched this since...jeez, probably the letterboxed laserdisc around twenty years ago. The crisp new HD transfer makes a case for this as a superior follow-up to a movie that probably never should have been sequelized in the first place (to this day I'm amazed that Universal didn't hand off E.Two. to another filmmaker when Spielberg balked at another)...while it's every bit as absurd as the second Die Hard to accept the "same thing happening to the same guy twice!" scenario of another marauding Great White shark terrorizing Amity, director Jeannot Szwarc nevertheless generates a good deal of tension from the shark setpieces and holds together the in-between character stuff admirably. While Roy Scheider may have been "forced" to do the movie to fulfill a studio contract, he nevertheless anchors the movie as a more haunted, slightly crazed Chief Brody, and while the core group of lunchmeat teens are all generic "types", they're a far more likable bunch than the hateful characters that populated the Friday The 13th slasher crap of the 80's that Jaws 2 pretty much anticipated (hello, Keith Gordon!). And, of course, there's John Williams' sensational score (his first sequel effort), which brims with rousing sea shanties and terse horror stingers and makes the whole film work. Shame that Universal couldn't have left well enough alone and stopped here (or else gone with their Jaws 3, People 0 spoof idea, considering how the third and fourth movies were basically comedies anyway). It's also funny how the Jaws and Superman franchises had an oddly similar evolution (or devolution, as it were)...a classic original, a better-than-expected sequel that was started by one director and re-shot by another, a terrible-but-pretty-funny third movie (both released in 1983) and a catastrophically awful "What were they THINKING?!" fourth entry (both released in 1987).
Monterey Jack wrote:...while it's every bit as absurd as the second Die Hard to accept the "same thing happening to the same guy twice!" scenario of another marauding Great White shark terrorizing Amity, director Jeannot Szwarc nevertheless generates a good deal of tension from the shark setpieces and holds together the in-between character stuff admirably. While Roy Scheider may have been "forced" to do the movie to fulfill a studio contract, he nevertheless anchors the movie as a more haunted, slightly crazed Chief Brody, and while the core group of lunchmeat teens are all generic "types", they're a far more likable bunch than the hateful characters that populated the Friday The 13th slasher crap of the 80's that Jaws 2 pretty much anticipated (hello, Keith Gordon!)
Despite the "implausible" premise, I think Jaws 2 is honestly as good a film as the original, and -- I'll say it -- in some ways I actually like it better. I think Jaws 2 is a "warmer" movie, with more emotional resonance. I have to disagree that the teenagers in Jaws 2 are just "generic types". I find they have fairly distinctive characters (as far as can be developed in this type of film), and even well-defined character arcs (i.e. the obnoxious kid who hates Shawn in the early scenes, only to later rescue him and reveal a kind and protective instinct as he comforts and holds Shawn close).
Also, in the first Jaws, Brody, Hooper and Quint more or less know what they are getting into. The kids in Jaws 2 are totally unprepared for what befalls them, which invests their plight with a much-greater level of paranoia and suspense. The viewer is able to identify with their ordeal, as these kids have been well-established in the first half of the film, and we grow to know them over the course of an hour (unlike Chrissy, the Kitner kid, or the guy in the boat -- who are killed-off just moments after their introduction).
I would certainly never rate "Jaws 2" as better but it holds up at least thanks to Scheider's presence and the overall sense of style and production values. It's too bad that the best humanizing touch for Murray Hamilton's Mayor Vaughn was cut from the film (but restored to TV) which shows him as the lone vote not to fire Brody.
I agree Eric, that sequence should not have been excised.
When I was growing up, I identified much more strongly with JAWS 2 than the original, simply BECAUSE of all the kids. And even now, I find them appealing -- whoever did the (re)casting really did an outstanding job given that half of them (including Ricky Schroeder) were sent packing when the Hancock version was shut down.
It may not be a "classic," but for me, it's an all-time favorite, and it's certainly a very entertaining film. Scheider has an "edge" that Brody didn't have the first time around -- you can say it's because it's character has progressed, you could say it was because Scheider didn't want to be there, but either way, his performance is especially compelling. The interplay with him and Lorraine Gary -- as much as the two of them disliked one another -- feels genuine, which is a real testament to both actors. I also liked that Jeffrey Kramer had more to do as Hendricks (he wasn't even IN the Hancock version), and of course Williams' score is marvelous.
Add another genre effort from my formative years that I had not seen until now. I would have seriously dug this had I seen it as a kid, and even now as an old man, it's pretty neat, a 50's sci-fi homage (boasting "contemporary" 80's trappings that are every bit as nostalgic now) with fine visual effects, engaging performances (I'm a sucker for 80's Nancy Allen ), and a wonderful John Addison score that's both a tip of the hat to that 50's sci-fi "sound" (theremins aplenty) and boasting a rapturous orchestral conclusion as good as any effort by Williams, Horner or Goldsmith from the period. Don't know how I missed this back in the day, but the Twilight Time Blu thankfully preserves this in great condition for a new generation to discover.
Interesting about Scheider and Gary. I hadn't read about the two of them disliking each other in any of the books (in contrast to how Shaw was giving Dreyfuss a hard time which got a lot of write-up). Gary was not a very good actress (Jaws: The Revenge shows how she owed what breaks she got due to her husband being a Universal exec) but in the Jaws films she did rise to the occasion (I certainly can not picture Linda Harrison in the part, and Zanuck wanted his then wife in it).
They dislked one another apparently. There's a comment in the Jaws 2 book from her that says as much, especially on the second film where she said he was miserable and awful to everyone working on the film (threw punches with Jeannot Swarzc, was rude to some of the kids who were in the cast, etc.). She said all of the love the two shared onscreen was the product of acting and that off screen it was the total reverse of that relationship.
-The annual tradition continues, and this is the second year I've used the blu-ray boot that restored *all* of the LD footage in the best quality cut I can see with that material. The only flaw in this classic for me is Blythe Danner's Martha Jefferson. It should have been Betty Buckley.
Anastasia (1956) 5.5 of 10
-I picked this up from Twilight Time along with their release of "Hound of The Baskervilles." My motivation was to familiarize myself with the source material so I could also by extension study a flop 1965 musical based on the property "Anya" that I recently got the cast recording of (Kritzerland put that out). I have to admit, this is not a very interesting story. Yul Brynner wants to use Ingrid Bergman to get money but in the end, I'm supposed to believe he's had a change of heart about the whole thing? Just didn't ring true. And are he and "Anna" running off together? They don't make that clear. While they made use of some beautiful Copenhagen locations for a couple scenes and also some elaborate interior settings, the dialogue betrays too much of a one-set play that hasn't been expanded properly (especially in Helen Hayes' final line, "Tell them the play is over.") Bergman is good, but truthfully I would have voted for Deborah Kerr for "The King And I" over her instead for best actress.
Still, movies like this are what the VHS and cable TV aftermarkets were made for (see also Carpenter's The Thing)...it usually takes a few lazy afternoon viewings before it "clicks" and you suddenly find yourself genuinely laughing at stuff you just thought was weird and awkward before.
) most of the trappings of the disco era -- not just the songs, but the clothing fashions and overall attitudes -- look ridiculous today.
), and -- even watched back-to-back with the original, as I did this afternoon and evening -- holds up surprisingly well as far as gratuitous, "just make it happen" sequels go. I haven't sat down and watched this since...jeez, probably the letterboxed laserdisc around twenty years ago. The crisp new HD transfer makes a case for this as a superior follow-up to a movie that probably never should have been sequelized in the first place (to this day I'm amazed that Universal didn't hand off E.Two. to another filmmaker when Spielberg balked at another)...while it's every bit as absurd as the second Die Hard to accept the "same thing happening to the same guy twice!" scenario of another marauding Great White shark terrorizing Amity, director Jeannot Szwarc nevertheless generates a good deal of tension from the shark setpieces and holds together the in-between character stuff admirably. While Roy Scheider may have been "forced" to do the movie to fulfill a studio contract, he nevertheless anchors the movie as a more haunted, slightly crazed Chief Brody, and while the core group of lunchmeat teens are all generic "types", they're a far more likable bunch than the hateful characters that populated the Friday The 13th slasher crap of the 80's that Jaws 2 pretty much anticipated (hello, Keith Gordon!). And, of course, there's John Williams' sensational score (his first sequel effort), which brims with rousing sea shanties and terse horror stingers and makes the whole film work. Shame that Universal couldn't have left well enough alone and stopped here (or else gone with their Jaws 3, People 0 spoof idea, considering how the third and fourth movies were basically comedies anyway). It's also funny how the Jaws and Superman franchises had an oddly similar evolution (or devolution, as it were)...a classic original, a better-than-expected sequel that was started by one director and re-shot by another, a terrible-but-pretty-funny third movie (both released in 1983) and a catastrophically awful "What were they THINKING?!" fourth entry (both released in 1987).
), and a wonderful John Addison score that's both a tip of the hat to that 50's sci-fi "sound" (theremins aplenty) and boasting a rapturous orchestral conclusion as good as any effort by Williams, Horner or Goldsmith from the period. Don't know how I missed this back in the day, but the Twilight Time Blu thankfully preserves this in great condition for a new generation to discover.