Welcome back gang. Got a whole new slew of shit for the taking. It was a pretty solid week overall. Hit a sad low from a usual source of greatness, but got an all new high from a legend and a source of sadness from a once great legend. In between we got some solid little flicks in between. It’s another wide ranging week for you cats, so enjoy the ride.
Batman: Gotham Knight (August 23rd, 2015)
Directors: Various
Starring: Kevin Conroy
Well, we’ve finally reached a DC animated movie I don’t really care for and of course it’s a movie that just goes full anime. And not even in the studio trying to make it looks anime inspired or homage it. They straight up get anime directors and let them just make anime Batman stories. This is an anthology, so it’s not crazy to say that not all the stories work. But this one, almost none of them work thanks to the shit ass art style they decided to work in, with those even shifting from short to short based on the directors vision. There’s only two that are even close to visually appealing and they till come close to not really doing it for me. All the stories, minus the first, have good stories to work with. And the voice acting is pretty solid. But fucking eh, I just hate anime. Really badly. The style sucks. And don’t even try to make this work as a property that’s set in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, because that’s just nonsense and doesn’t make sense. The world than Nolan built in those two and the world in this don’t match up at all tonally or stylistically, with Killer Croc making that connection all but impossible. I was sadly disappointed with this release but I can hopefully say that I’ve found the low point thus far from DC animated and what will stay the low point.
Rating: 6.5/10
Dolls (August 23rd, 2015)
Director: Stuart Gordon
Starring: Cary Lorraine, Ian Patrick Williams, Guy Rolfe, and Stephen Lee
I’ve seen three movies and a short from Stuart Gordon, and the man doesn’t repeat himself. Which is even weirder because 2 of those movies and the short were Lovecraft adaptations. This right here is the lone non Lovecraft and it is a solid little horror flick, a nice late night horror flick to enjoy and have a good laugh. It’s funny for me because I know someone with a real issue with dolls and this will just demolish someone with doll fears. For me, I enjoyed it for what it was. It’s not particularly scary but there’s some good moments of camerawork that are pretty cool. It’s a little (I’m sorry) slasher movie in a manor and it’s really cool. There’s also some humor within it too so it’s not a misery trip. Not as blackly comedic as Re-Animator though. The acting is fine for the genre and the violence is well done. It won’t make any converts to the genre though, so only if this is in your wheelhouse is it something to seek out.
Rating: 8/10
The Hole (August 26th, 2015)
Director: Joe Dante
Rating: 8/10
Matinee (August 27th, 2015)
Rating: 10/10
JFK (August 29th, 2015)
Rating: 9/10
Top Movies
1. Matinee
2. JFK
3. Dolls
4. The Hole
5. Batman: Gotham Knight
Director: Joe Dante
Starring: Chris Massoglia, Nathan Gamble, Haley Bennett, and Teri Polo
This is the first flick Joe Dante was able to make after the disaster that Looney Tunes: Back In Action was. Sadly it took 7 years to get it made, but at least he got to make it. He could have just regressed from the game after being constantly beaten up, the way John Carpenter did. I wish I could say it was as glorious a return to the field as George Miller with Fury Road, but it thankfully isn’t a bad movie either. It isn’t as strong as Carpenters return with The Ward, and that wasn’t a classic either. This really feels like it’s a warm up for Dante, just something to stretch his legs as it had been a few year even since doing Masters of Horror on Showtime. The story itself isn’t bad or anything, it just isn’t fresh and isn’t really done with a twist. It kinda lurches along with an amiable charm. It hits its stride at the end when the entity that haunts them comes at them hard, peaking with a fight between a child and a puppet clown. That just fits in Dantes style and he hits it well. It’s a bit like a Twilight Zone episode stretched out. Which is fine, but it doesn’t really fly to big heights. I’m glad I saw it to continue the Dante trek, but it is sadly the lowest in his history after Small Soldiers.
Director: Joe Dante
Starring: John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, and Lisa Jakub
As my run of Dante movies comes very close to an end (I’m only missing 3 movies at this point), I thought the height of the mans filmography had already passed me with Gremlins 2. But, while this isn’t my favorite movie of his, this is very easily in the competition. It’s in complete opposition to Gremlins 2 in tone, even though it isn’t a dour movie. It has humor in a big way, but it isn’t the meta cartoon that Gremlins 2 was. This is a movie set during the Cuban Missile Crisis in a small town in Southern Florida. Our main character is Gene (Fenton), a young boy who just moved to town. His father is in the Navy and is one one of the boats down by Cuba. Kid is a big horror movie buff, and this movies version of a William Castle happens to be coming to town with a new movie. The man is Lawrence Woolsey (Goodman). And Goodman makes the man a good hearted enough guy who tries to hustle for money more than for his craft. The town, tense from the threat of nuclear extinction, essentially flocks to the theater as a way to forget the real life horror at their doors. This is a great, beautiful, and funny movie about coming of age during hard times and as a love letter to cinema. Dante’s love of movies and horror comes out in full force here, sending up the old monster movies of his youth with a loving reverence. The movie is funny to boot, albeit in different ways than other Dante movies. It’s got a lot of heart, more similar to Innerspace than Gremlins. This movie just hit all the buttons for me, and I’m really glad I saw it later in the Dante run. Now I just need a big deluxe Blu Ray release, ideally from Shout Factory and I’ll be set.
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland
What happened to Oliver Stone? The dude was one of the most interesting directors working for a good stretch of time. Whether you liked his movies is another thing, but the man didn’t rest on his laurels. It’s been way too long since the man has been worth a single damn. And watching this movie makes it even more sad that he fell apart, cause this is a hell of a movie. Following one mans trek to find out the truth about the JFK assassination, this is quite the epic. It’s full of a lot of bullshit, but no one was claiming this was a documentary. No, this is fiction at the highest order. Using a lot of bs to make a point. And that is about fighting the system. Even if everyone says your crazy and that it’s wrong to speak against the system, if something doesn’t seem right you need to fight. Because if you don’t, the system will crush you down without you realizing it. It may be a little too long, but that may just be that I saw the directors cut. But still, it didn’t feel too long. Just some trimming. It’s an epic of corruption at the highest order and paranoia. And everything in it nails that home and Stone does maybe the best directing he’s ever done. Costner is great in the role, giving a little twinge of insanity to make us doubt the good ole boy conviction he has that this is a coup. The supporting cast is great, some of whom playing very against type. This is a powerful movie with some all time scenes. Fuck, I miss Stone.
Top Movies
1. Matinee
2. JFK
3. Dolls
4. The Hole
5. Batman: Gotham Knight
- Tom Lorenzo
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