Movies Watched The Week of 5/3 - 5/9

Welcome back gang.  We gots a new entry for ya ass, and it’s alright.  It’s an almost disappointingly average week, with an utter awful lowpoint in the mix.  But overall, a good week.  And while I can’t write it up due to an embargo, I saw a movie this week that you can see on the other website come Friday, May 15th.  So sit back and try to enjoy.  And wait patiently to see the word come out about the new release.

Chillerama (May 3rd, 2015)

Directors: Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin, and Tim Sullivan

Starring: Richard Riehle, Joel David Moore, Ray Wise, and Adam Rifkin

All anthology movies have a weak entry in them.  VHS 2 had the robot eye short.  The Twilight Zone Movie had Spielbergs short about old people.  But I haven’t seen an anthology with an entry so bad as to poison what came before and what came after it.  This isn’t a serious movie.  It’s filled to the brim with super childish humor and taboo/offensive material in such a delirious way as to be fun and not offensive.  But Tim Sullivans entry is so bad on every level, that the movie sank a whole lot.  It’s the second entry in a 4 entry film.  The first entry is from Rifkin, and while that isn’t perfect it has a dedication to the ridiculous and bodily fluid humor that it is a bit charming in its low key shittiness.  And the two after it by Green and Lynch are real solid and pick up the slack but not enough to really make the whole good.  Sullivans is that bad and amateurish.  Greens is a goofy little throwback to the Nazi genre of grindhouse movies with a really Jewish sense of humor about it in such an over the top way.  And Lynch takes on the zombie genre in such a fucked up and different way as to be jaw dropping.  And he has a little joke movie within the movie that is so childish that you can’t help but laugh.  I wish I could recommend this more.  But Sullivan really just fucked this movie up completely.

Rating: 7/10

Mission Impossible (May 4th, 2015)
Director: Brian DePalma
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, and Jean Reno

It’s really crazy to think that it’s been close to 20 years since this movie came out and that the franchise is still kicking.  Because while it’s not a bad movie by any stretch, it just doesn’t have the hook that most spy movies do.  That and MI2 was so not well received that everyone just assumed it was over with.  And luckily for us the series became fluid, with each director coming on and making it feel different than the last.  So here, we got a DePalma movie. Not too into shootouts and guns, but more about the tech and cool shots and real tension and an over the top story.  It feels much in line with DePalama.  The story is kinda too convoluted for its own good and some of the character beats aren’t fleshed out to well that by the end, you’re left wondering why they did what they did.  Cruise isn’t bad in it, but he is trying to play a character that isn’t there on the script where he essentially would just be playing movie star in the sequels. But DePalmas craft keeps the movie going, especially in the iconic scene with Cruise hanging from a ceiling in that white room which is just tension and quiet.  It’s a crackerjack scene and makes the movie.  The climax is cool too, even with some typical wonky 90s cgi work. But it has Tom Cruise blow up a helicopter and get exploded towards a speeding train.  So it’s fine.  Since the series is basically one offs with no real continuity, this is lower on the scale for watchability. Really only for the context of the series, much like Dr. No.  But it’s solid enough and makes for a fun watch.  

Rating: 8/10

Play Misty For Me (May 6th, 2015)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, and John Larch

Here we got the debut of Clint in the directors chair.  And it’s a pretty solid little picture, rough around the edges but a movie that actually influenced things to come.  See kids, this was the movie that introduced the crazy stalker movies that would include the most famous of them Fatal Attraction.   As a debut, it is rough around the edges.  Some obvious audio issues, a little lagging in the pace, and some whatever moments in the performance area.  But it does a good job with the idea of a swinging dick dj (Clint) getting in too deep with the crazy lady fan of his (Walter) while trying to further his career and reignite his relationship with his ex (Mills).  There’s some real tense, wild moments in it.  He even kinda does some real early shaky cam in an attack scene, that’s kinda surprisingly bloody.  And being a 70s movie, it’s got some stereotypical black and gay characters that give it that nice little 70s spice.  The resolution is just so gloriously insane that it made me cackle.  I’d suggest this to folks, since it started a pretty strong career behind the camera for the icon. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Invaders From Mars (May 8th, 2015)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Hunter Carson, Karen Black, Timothy Bottoms, and Laraine Newman

Tobe Hooper, the man with the most ridiculous of careers.  He came out of the gate with a masterpiece, a game changer in the horror field with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  And after that, almost nothing he’s made has been really good.  He’s got his movies that have some goofy entertainment to be had.  And we can get into the debate that he directed Poltergeist, despite all the rumors and the feeling while watching it that Spielberg directed it.  But despite his almost abject failure to make a success without the air of Spielbergian influence, you gotta give him credit in that he pretty much never repeated himself. He went so off base with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 that you gotta respect the audacity to just make a sequel in a different genre completely.  Even this movie here, Invaders From Mars, could have been an easy Poltergeist/Amblin ripoff.  But instead he goes with the tone of an old 50s sci fi drive in flick, full of goofy performances and silly plot turns and weird monster effects.  And it is just a good, goofy little movie that won’t really stick with you but entertains you while in the moment.  Aside from the kid being an utter chore to watch and a just awful twist ending, it’s a good time.  And if you ever wanted to watch Nurse Ratched get eaten by a giant martian testicle, this is the movie for you.  This is a solid entry in Hoopers three movie run with Cannon films, but it is at the bottom because it can’t match the sheer lunacy of Lifeforce or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. 

Rating: 7.5/10





Top Movies

1. Play Misty For Me
2. Mission Impossible
3. Invaders From Mars
4. Chillerama

- Tom Lorenzo