31 Days of Halloween 2018

The Skeptic (2009)  What can you say? This is an example of expectation of a title being something that it turns out not to be. First off Writer Director Tennyson Bardwell, it is hard to believe that is a real name and if it is he really should be a playwright. Second what appeared to be a story about Bryan Becket (Tim Daly) as a skeptical lawyer forced to face his past and some ghosts when he inherits his Aunts house. Estranged from his wife Robin (Andrea Roth) he moves into the house and soon has what seem to be paranormal experiences. Being the hard nose realist he believes himself to be he looks for common explanations to the strange events. When that does not seem to work we get a abbreviated appearance by Zoe Saldana as Cassie a psychic who helps Bryan get in touch with the spirits in the house. Still the big turn in this film is the repressed memories he has about childhood abuse that all come spilling out in the final act. The film really feels like each act is a separate film. The horror is missing through most of it and when you do get some creepiness it is muted by the characters disbelief. The first act is the drama of his breakup of his wife and his moving into the creepy house. During this act Bryan is a disbeliever looking for answers to the house. The subplot that the house is being left to an institute doing ESP research allows for the inclusion of the Cassie character.  The second act is him coming to terms that maybe there is something more to the house outside of his rigid world view. The spirited Cassie allows him to open to the possibility that ghost may be involved and that maybe his memory of events from his past are just a wall built to protect his psyche. The third act bring the realization of repressed memories and his abuse in that very house by his Mother. So we pivot again to the real world and away from the supernatural only in the last scene to reverse course before the film comes to an end. Bland acting on Daly's part never quiet reflects the bubbling pressure of the character arc. Side characters seem contrivances who only each play a small role and then are never seen again. In the first act Roth, in the second coworker Sully (Tom Arnold) in the third family friend and doctor, Dr. Shepard (Edward Herrmann) and family minister Father Wymond (Robert Prosky). So in the end I just did not dig this movie too much. It was not quiet a ghost movie, not quite personal journey past abuse.

The Sentinel (1977)  It's a strange thing how there are some movies that despite all the negative reviews and comments that they are still your favorites. This film was panned when it came out, too slow, too derivative, religiously offensive. It may be that those things but I think it also is creepy and well written. The novel by Jeffrey Konvitz was adapted to a screenplay by he and Director Michael Winner about a portal from hell in Brooklyn that is guarded by a priest/nun to keep the evil where it belongs. Of course it is a bit more complex that that. The guardian must be a condemned soul who has then chosen God. So the Church, when a new guardian is needed, funnels a person who has attempted suicide to the building, they are the condemned for the attempt but can be redeemed if they become the new guardian. Demons in Hell knowing that a chance to break through haunt the apartment building attempting to make the chosen one choose death over God. This is where our story begins. The old priest Father Halliran (John Carradine) must pass on his duties. The Church through realtor Miss Logan (Ava Gardner) find a young model Alison Parker (Christina Raines) to the building making the amazing apartment too good to be true for $400 a month. She is a conflicted girl having attempted suicide twice. Traumatized by a horrid wealthy Father (Fred Stuthman), deceased but still haunting her with memories his sexual antics and events that precipitated her first suicide attempt. The seventies, and 80s for that matter seemed fixated on the idea of mental illness being caused by seeing your parents in sexual situations. So many slasher killers had this hang up and here it is again where finding your dad in bed with a couple naked ladies having a good time can make a teen try to take her own life.
  I like the writing in this film when it comes to that idea. It certainly informs the character Alison. She is noncommittal to her boyfriend Michael (Chris Sarandon) suggestion to live together or possibly marry. It comes directly from her living with her lecherous father and that his unfaithful marriage informs her sensibilities. She does not want to be like her Mother who when asked why she stayed in the relationship said that she had no place to go. Maybe also she senses something in Michael that may be like her father, for he is not all smiles and love. We learn his secrets before the end of the film and they are not small. So instead of moving in with him she takes the bottom floor of the apartment building where Father Halliran lives on the fifth. A dream come true for the price.
  She starts to meet the neighbors, Mr Chazen (Burgess Meredith) alight with energy and a bit nosy like the Castevets in Rosemary's Baby. Gerde Engstrom (Sylvia Miles) and her lover Sandra (Beverly D' Angelo), the Clotkins and the Stinnets as well as Mrs. Clark. You don't really get to know these characters mainly just Chazen who interacts the most with Alison. SPOILER: They are manifestations from hell sent to drive Alison to suicide, each a murderer condemned to hell for eternity. There is though a scene with Engstrom and Sandra that was most talked about at the time but fits with Alison's uncomfortable relationship with sexuality. She is visiting them and Engstrom leaves the room to get the coffee. Sandra then masturbates in front of  Alison never saying a word to her. When she cums she smells her hands which I thought was a great and strange choice by the actress. We get to see the shear uncomfortable reaction and the quick departure from the apartment, but more it is a trigger to Alison's teen years with her suicide attempt.
  Strange dreams, fainting spells, and noises upstairs are having an effect on Alison. In an attempt to ease her anxiety she asked the realtor about her neighbors and is told that she and Father Halliran are the only residents in the building. But she went to the other's apartments it is not possible. Miss Logan shows her the other apartments, not furnished as Alison remembers them and with cobwebs and different furniture. Her hold on reality starts to slip at this point. Michael tries to help her but he has his own secondary story involving the death of his wife, a private dick who works for him and some cops that don't want to leave her death a cold case suicide. Still he moves the plot along after Alison starts seeing only a latin phrase in a book in one of the abandoned apartments. "Tibi sortu cursus Tuum vigilia que severa munus"  which in Google translate is "The function of which is strict, the course of your watch, and you get lots of" but that could just be a poor translation, what the film gives us is
"To thee thy course, Thy lot is given charge and strict watch, To this happy place no evil thing approach or enter."  which is similar to the Milton from Paradise Lost, “Gabriel, to thee thy course by lot hath given Charge and strict watch that to this happy place No evil thing approach or enter in."
All of this to point the audience to the fact that there is a doorway to hell in the building and that Alison is chosen to be the next to defend it.
  What is a slow burn for most of the film really ramps up in the third act. Alison could go either way and on the day she is to decide the neighbors are back and with friends to try to drive her mad. The final scenes where she is being pursued through the apartment building filled with circus freaks, her father, her dead neighbors is just great. While most people probably don't dig this film I really do and think everyone should watch it. Alison is put in the position of either choosing death or receiving the mantle from Father Halliran and it is just great. I love the idea of this story, that there could be a gate to hell somewhere and that whatever church has to have a guardian to keep the world safe. I could totally get behind a remake of this film, like the idea in The Nun where perpetual prayer is needed to keep the demon in the convent. That could be the new version for a remake of this film. Where are you James Wan?!

Summer Movies 2013 part 1

Summer Movies - We are having our second good stretch of warm weather here in New England marking the start of summer. Of course we all know that the Summer movie releases start out in May, trying to get a jump on the competition, each hoping to be that next great blockbuster. So which one do you give your money to. How much does the trailer affect weather you see the film? Is the actress or the actor the reason you plop down your $12 (or so)? With so much hype with many of these films can they ever live up to the lofty expectation they themselves set so high? I generally avoid the summer glut of big budget high action films but I have to say this year I have already been dragged into several. Here are some thoughts on the ones I have seen.
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)- I really resisted this film after having long talks with friends about the difference between an actor playing a role and an actor playing a portrayal of another actor. Star Trek falls into this later category with several characters being beloved and expectations being high and the current actors mimicking the characters played by the other people in the original series. It a tricky game being played by the film makers here.You have some guys playing a role like Chris Pine as Kirk, or Zoe Saldana as Uhura you can't accuse them of mimicry because his playing of Kirk is so different from William Shatner that he can be said to be playing Kirk as he Chris Pine sees the character. On the other hand Spock and Bones played by Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are merely acting the way they have seen Leonard Nemoy and DeForest Kelley did the roles in the past. Is it honest acting like an existing character? I found it bothered me more this time than in the first film where it was sort of novel. Also because this is the route they took the actors are stuck playing those roles that way if the franchise continues. Then there is Simon Pegg as Scotty who has been written into the films as comic relief. He is just a caricature of the Scotty character from the original series played by James Doohan. So with trepidation my daughter and I went in to see the latest installment. They are relaunching a universe with a rabid fan base so in some ways need to keep many of the Star Trek elements in place. While at the same time they are taking the storyline in a completely different direction. They want to use the history created by the original series while at the same time rewriting it. In the end I think they win because they are making money. This film is a giant action film and it is pulling in the money, as of  June 23rd $216,611,000 (USA). The story brings back a classic Star Trek character to play the bad guy but in doing so completely trashes the history of the television series. On one hand selling this film on the shoulders of the series but then saying we should ignore the history that took place on that series. So we have our bad guy. Then there are several real problems in the film. One is that it was incredibly predictable the trail of clues needed to make the film flow were too obvious and thus there really was no big turn in the film. The question posed by the film is when a person conducts an act of terror and destruction, one in which loved ones were lost, is it at that point acceptable to go find and kill the perpetrator of that crime? Of course that question was answered well before the final sequences of the film, really by the end of the second act. Then the third act ends up creating more problems for the future of the series instead of just solving the problems of the film. Primarily is the frozen people with the magical blood which saves Kirk but leave a whole lot of questions that I won't go into here. When the film was done and the lights went up in the theater, my daughter looks over to me and says "Well that sort of sucked." I am not going to say that myself, to an extent I was entertained. I was annoyed at times with the characters and the strange dialog where characters argue during the most life threatening times, and really pissed at the comic relief of the film. It really is one of my biggest pet peeves about action movies since the 80s, it seems every one of them feels the need to relieve tension with some sort of comedy bit. At least for me it just takes all the edge of your seat tension and throws it away, taking me out of the film. I hate that and wish it would stop. Star Trek: Into Darkness works as a Summer film but it certainly has its flaws.

This is the End (2013) - My family almost never agrees on a movie to see as a group, with my wife Elisa preferring uplifting films or heart felt romantic comedies. My daughter on the other hand likes more teen oriented fair with some action and horror on occasion. I usually stick to horror but love science Fiction and also see an action film when I am in the mood. So when we all bent a bit and agreed to see this silly comedy it was a rare event. The story centers around the relationship between Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel who were both on Freaks and Greeks together at the turn of the century. In fact several of the players were on that show including James Franco and Jason Segel but the story centers on the gap in the friendship between Rogen and Baruchel since Rogen became more famous and moved to Los Angeles. They all end up at a party at James Franco's house and comedy ensues. Then there is the whole fact that the world is ending and its the book of revelation end of the world. The supporting cast is excellent including Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, and Emma Watson the comedy is funny and rude. As with all comedy there are bits that hit and ones that miss. There really is no predicting, will the audience find the cumming all over the house argument funny? How about Michael Cera as coke head? What about the uncomfortable relationships between Jay and the "new " friends Rogen has? We all laughed at parts of this film and I think the consensus was that it was pretty funny most of the time. Taken for what it is, a funny relationship, end of the world movie with some commentary on the shallow nature of Hollywood relationships and how success changes existing friendships.

World War Z (2013) - I just saw this yesterday so of all the films here this is the one where my thoughts are most raw. This is a Brad Pitt vehicle all the way, most of the actors are far less known than him and the story focuses strictly on him and the red shirts that happen to be with him in each sequence. This is an end of the world scenario where a virus immediately infects people bitten by an infected person. We start the film with Gerry Lane (Pitt) and his family, wife Karin (Mireille Enos) and daughters Constance (Sterling Jerins) and Rachel (Abigail Hargrove) as they experience the outbreak in Philadelphia. The action pieces in the beginning of the film are worth the price of admission as the family first flees Philly and then is rescued at the last second from the roof of an apartment building in Newark NJ.  Gerry a field investigator for the UN is needed to try to figure out the origin of the virus that is quickly decimating the major cities of the world and beyond. The secondary story is that of Gerry not wanting to leave his family at the end of the world but also knowing the best way to keep them safe is to figure this thing out. So off he goes on a world wind tour of Korea, Israel, and Great Britain before finally having some resolution. Now each place has its action scenes with the Korean one making no sense to me, the Israel one pissing me off and the WHO facility in Great Britain being inevitable. My primary problem comes with the Korean one where they fly in looking for patient zero, the entire sequence takes place at night in the rain and even with the time constraints placed by the virus it seem really poor decision making to me to not wait until daylight to do their business. Instead they risk the entire operation and lose there primary virus doctor, Andrew Fassbach (Elyes Gabel) in an incredibly unintentially funny way. On top of that they introduce a decent character Capt Speke (James Badge Dale) give him a bit of personality, just to kill him off, bastards. 
  Gerry is the luckiest person on the planet, getting his family out of two major cities during the outbreak, Surviving the silly night time maneuver in Korea, surviving the crazy CGI filled swarming of Israel, living through an outbreak on a plane and then recovering from injuries when the planes crashed to make it to the WHO facility, then avoiding 80 zombies and figuring out how to fight back against the plague using himself as the Guinea pig. Over the course of the film he still finds time to check in with his family. What a guy! Now don't get me wrong this is not a bad movie director Marc Forster seems to know how to do action and it is pretty compelling throughout. He is a competent director with impressive credits including Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner and Quantum of Solace. I will certainly give this film another viewing when it comes out on DVD.

Avatar (2010) Science Fiction

Avatar (2009) - James Cameron's computer generated animated film about a soldier who goes native on a distant planet called Pandora. Jake (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic marine is recruited to take his twin brothers spot in the Avatar project. Avatars are lab grown bodies that appear like the local natives, the Na'vi, Jake being a twin can make the neuro connection to his brother's and soon in learning the ways of the Na'vi and feeding intelligence back to the military.
When the corporation move prematurely on the Na'vi home tree, Jake must choose sides and does just that. A mix of people and animation I found the world beautiful but also distracting. I have never really been able to get into movies with a lot of animation and I had that problem again. I thought that Cameron did a great job but in the end it just is not my thing.

The story itself was a bit silly, having the rock the mining company is after being called Unobtainium. The story just a moral play about respecting native cultures vs the exploitation of their resources. A mix of native American and eastern philosophies the Pandora, Na'vi connection is nothing really original. As I think about this review I really don't want to dislike the film. It really does hit many of the points of good storytelling. I am sure for people who can get into anim,ated characters this may have seemed really refreshing. I on the other hand am more like thinking the movie was a bit Disney for my liking. The humans in the story are secondary characters and since I just can't seem to connect to cartoons I am not impressed.
Rating (7.1)

Star Trek (2009) Sci-Fi / Action

Star Trek (2009) - Director J. J. Abrams creates an alternate timeline where Star Trek can live without all the baggage of the past while still respecting those past stories. After some origin stories for Kirk and Spock we get into the meat.

In this time travel tale we see an alternate version of how the crew comes together in Star Fleet. All ending up at the academy and then after a crisis calls the cadets to service early to the starship Enterprise. There was plenty of lore for Trekies and a compelling story of revenge to create a good action movie.

In this one I do not need to complain about the certain outcome because frankly I was too occupied with my geeking out about the crew to feel the inevitable success and tidy wrap up of the story. I was taken out a couple time by the silly comedy bits thrown in to break up what was a fairly tense story. First was Kirk getting on the Enterprise with the help of McCoy who injects him with a vaccine that will make him seem sick so McCoy can take him to sickbay. The Mickey Mouse hands and other symptoms were dumb. It happens just when the tension needs to be ramping up and cuts that in a negative way. There is also a sequence when Scotty is transported into a cooling tank and Kirk frantically tries to get him out as he travels the tubes holding his breath. It is played for comedy but I did not like the timing. Nero (Eric Bana ), a Romulan who in the future watched his planet destroyed by a supernova and blames Future Spock for not acting quickly enough to stop it. Both Future Spock and Nero are pull into the impossibly quick to develop Black hole that the Supernova becomes and are transported back in time instead of obliterated by the pressures of entering a black hole. Nero has a plan to destroy Vulcan to punish Spock by making sure he is in a position to watch but not stop it. The story was decent enough and the pacing was excellent a real tribute to Abrams. The cast was very capable and captured the essence of the original characters without over doing it.

Kirk (Chris Pine)- Right on as the younger more rebellious James T Kirk. I loved at the end when he nailed an imitation of the William Shatner Kirk entering the bridge.

Future Spock (Leonard Nemoy) - This is Spock, All Hail Spock!
Currant Spock (Zachary Quinto) - Played nicely with a bit more emotion which is appropriate in the Spock timeline and besides he is banging Uhura, that's bound to illicit some emotion.

Uhura (Zoe Saldana) - More outfront than in the series and well played. I liked that her confrontation of Spock about ship assignment she won with logic very appropriate.

Scotty (Simon Pegg) - Too tiny a role. Real shame.

Bones McCoy (Carl Urban) - The most right on portrayal that was living and breathing McCoy. It was just a joy to watch.

Checkov (Anton Yelchin) - eh, mostly just okay.
Sulu (John Cho) - Okay I guess, did you know Sulu fences?

Rating (8.2)