Ramsey and Hunter’s conflicting philosophies are put to the ultimate test under the direst possible circumstances. They’re already on high alert thanks to a Russian separatist group that has taken control of a nuclear missile battery. The Alabama is ordered to fire its nukes to stop the seemingly imminent attack. But this already-dire situation is … Read more
[LIGHTS DIM; VIDEO STARTS PLAYING] Many of my favorite films have endings that most people would consider unhappy. But I don’t. To me, the only ending that makes me unhappy is the wrong ending. “The Parallax View,” the 1974 paranoid thriller starring Warren Beatty as a renegade reporter investigating the murder of a United States senator, has … Read more
“Day One” takes its sweet time getting to the inciting incident (alien invasion) and instead sets up the plight of its heroine Sam, a terminal cancer patient spending her final days in a Brooklyn hospice that seems to be populated mainly by seniors. Sam is played by Lupita Nyong’o, an expert at reaction-driven horror performances, having played … Read more
A side note, but not really: In 1990, thanks to the release of Philip Kaufman’s Henry Miller-Anias Nin biopic “Henry and June,” another MPAA rating was added, the NC-17. This meant no children under 17 were admitted at all unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. This was mainly about sex, although violence was also taken into … Read more
We’re continuing on the theme of psychedelic Sean Connery movies; this one as empty-headed as “Zardoz” is bristling with philosophical intrigue but twice as beautiful. This is the singular work of Russell Mulcahy, the genius behind Razorback, Ricochet, and the creator of the modern music video. I love Russell Mulcahy with all my heart; I’m such … Read more
There’s also a Max-like figure played by Tom Burke who becomes important for a couple of chapters and whose bond with Furiosa is fascinatingly portrayed as something more akin to a couple of pack animals bonding than as a couple of human lovers. Of course, he dies a gruesome death. There are a lot of gruesome … Read more
“Ultraman: Rising” is what the old-time studio bosses used to call “an audience picture”–meaning you get a lot more out of it if you see it with an audience. Especially the audience for which it was designed: in this case, young children who like watching baby creatures act like misbehaving baby humans, and adults who game for a … Read more
The roster of IFs gets more populous as the movie goes on, giving Krasinski a chance to cast a lot of his famous friends in voice parts, including Steve Carell as Blue, a fuzzy giant who’s actually purple; Emily Blunt as a unicorn; and Bill Hader as a banana who works as a water aerobics instructor … Read more
(2) It establishes the relationship between gods and mortals in ancient mythology. which (to wildly oversimplify) goes something like: “These are super-beings, but they have the tangled psychology of the mortals that they toy with, and you can never fully understand why they obsess over certain things; it’s just how they are, and they don’t quite understand … Read more
On the 7th of June, I’ll be 35 years old. If we’re being very optimistic, this isn’t exactly the start of middle age, but I don’t know what else to call it. I’ve been paying attention to the news and the weather lately, and they haven’t been putting me in a great mood. So with mortality’s … Read more