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UNTIL DAWN Feels Like A Long Lost Dark Castle Film, And I’m Here For It!
David F Sandberg’s new film, Until Dawn, Based On The 2015 Game, Feels Like Something Pulled From 2004, In All The Best Ways.
Video Game films are the new hot ticket. The continued success of Mario, Sonic, and now Minecraft have given us a glimpse into what will be the new hottest IPs moving forward. Looking to jump on that bandwagon, Sony has thrown their own IP into the ring with Until Dawn. Based on the 2015 branching narrative survival horror game (read; interactive digital movie) of the same name, Until Dawn is one of the few modern video game adaptations aimed at adult viewers.
So, the question is; is it any good? Lucky for you, Until Dawn beats the video game curse* and is a damn good time at the movies!
Now, to get this out of the way up top; Until Dawn is really related to the 2015 game in name only. The plot is a completely new one; 5 friends travel the backroads in search of the missing sister of Clover (Ella Rubin). In their search, they are caught in a bad storm, and hunker down in an old, abandoned bed & breakfast. Once the sun sets, though, they quickly find themselves fighting off all kinds of evil nastiness, usually dying within a few minutes of their encounter. Then, the clock winds back, and they restart the night, a new foe searching for them, their only means of escape being surviving until dawn.
It’s a familiar setup, for sure; part Cabin in The Woods part Groundhogs Day (even though, strangely, the film dead stops to make sure to explain that, no, it’s not like Groundhogs Day). But, constantly changing elements in the nights and in the friends’ relationship keep the encounters feeling fresh, even as we continuously re-live the same night, over and over.
Those constant nightly changes are where Until Dawn and director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle Creations) really shines. Each night, a new type of horror attacks the friends, always keeping them, and us, on our toes. There ends up being a lot of space for possibilities, such as masked killers (the closest this comes to being like the game), demonic possession, kaiju creatures, and even explosive worm larvae (a genuinely great, and unexpected, kill scene).
What really works best for Until Dawn, for me, is its overall aesthetic and tone. From start to finish, this feels like something pulled directly from the early ‘00 era, specifically the Platinum Dunes/Dark Castle style. Everything is dark and brooding, the world looking sinister night or day. If I had to pinpoint it even further (being an expert on that era of horror), I’d say this specifically has the vibe of the House of Wax remake. As someone who grew up on those films, it is both pretty awesome seeing horror look like that again, but also a bit existentially terrifying realizing this film is emulating a film from 20 years ago.
Where the film wavers a bit in quality, though, is in some of the relationship politics. There’s a whole bit in the 2nd act where there is this focus on “never leave a friend behind”. Perfectly fine, sure, but it leads into this real weird out of character moment, where one of them is essentially sacrificed due to proposing a different plan of escape? It really comes out of nowhere, and is never really brought up again, even though the whole group survives like another 10 nights together. It also has a real abrupt ending; when the credits started to roll, I was genuinely caught off guard.
If the above seems nitpicky, it’s because that’s really all I have that’s critical about Until Dawn. It feels like a horror film built out of my memories of childhood horror favorites, so this just checked off all my boxes pretty easily. Sure, it is in no way like the game, but, the game is also just a 10-hour interactive movie; I’ve already seen that, I’m excited to have seen something new.
Either catch it in theaters now, or make sure to make time for it next Halloween; it’s a perfect addition to the season’s festivities!
*The quality curse isn’t lifted until the genre gets its The Dark Knight.
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THE SURFER Gives Audiences One of Nicolas Cage’s Best Performance in Years
For the unnamed central character played by Oscar winner Nicolas Cage in director Lorcan Finnegan’s (Nocebo, Vivarium, Without Name) latest film, The Surfer, nostalgia doubles as prison and poison. Despite the obvious signifiers and markers of material success and class status, including a new Lexus, a state-of-the-art smartphone, and a bespoke linen suit, Cage’s Australian-born, American-raised character wants nothing more than to repurchase the beachfront property once owned by his family and take his teen son (Finn Little) surfing.
Almost immediately, however, surfing becomes a near-unobtainable pleasure, blocked by local bully-boys and their men’s rights leader, Scally (Julian McMahon), an overturned, self-styled guru born to generational wealth with an entitled, prickish attitude to match. While Scully and his crew keep the beach clear of non-locals, using a combination of threats, intimidation, and violence, Cage’s character unwittingly slips into the kind of all-encompassing existential rut that would give Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot) pause: To leave the parking adjoining the beach would mean to accept not just a temporary defeat, but at least in the surfer’s irrational mind, a permanent one.
So he stays (and stays), repeatedly calling his mortgage broker and bank lender, hoping to scrounge up an extra $100K to close the deal on his former home. That home, overlooking the beach and filled with hazy, long-ago memories of a once stable home life, exists firmly in the past, but for the surfer, his former home seems to have a magical, even talismanic nature: Repurchase the family home and reconnect with his estranged son and soon-to-be ex-wife.
For Cage’s character, however, even as the goal retreats into the distance, his stubbornness gets the better of him. He refuses to leave and in refusing to leave, subjects himself to all manner of degradations, both at the hands of Scully and his feral cult and through time and the elements, the loss of those aforementioned signifiers and markers of material success and class status: His phone dies, his wallet disappears, followed by his car, then his jacket and shoes. Sunbaked and sunburned, the surfer turns into a reflection of the bum he encountered in the film’s opening moments.
By turns a deftly written, cringe-inducing descent into the central character’s psychological disintegration, an exploration, if not an outright dissection, of masculinity in all its toxic forms, and the dissolution of the unstable line between subjective and objective reality, The Surfer not only exceeds expectations, especially for Cage’s variable, late-career choices, but as a ceaselessly engaging example of a man-in-crisis sub-genre as well-directed as it is acted and written.
Working from an original screenplay written by Thomas Martin (Prime Target, White Widow, Ripper Street), Finnegan relies heavily on a self-conscious mix of old-school filming techniques, heightening the surfer’s increasing isolation from the world and people around him through long camera lenses, fast, ‘70s-style zooms, and repeated shots of Australian wildlife, the last to suggest the surfer’s unwanted devolution into a primal state of nature, one where Hobbesian one-against-all colors every interaction between the surfer and the locals.
Of course, direction and writing mean almost nothing without the performances to support and/or elevate both. In that respect, Cage more than delivers, reining in the usual excesses that have often led to criticism, justified and unjustified alike. Over the course of The Surfer’s running time, the title character spectacularly unravels in classic Cage fashion, fighting a losing battle against the humiliation, contempt, and ostracism levied in his general direction. Cage, however, gives him just enough layering and nuance to make his self-created predicament a deeply sympathetic one. It’s also one of Cage’s best performances in years.
The Surfer opens theatrically in North America on Friday, May 2nd, via Roadside Attractions.
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Enlist With The New STRIPES 4k To Keep The World Safe For Democracy…And Meet Girls.
STRIPES, The comedy classic from Ivan Reitman, comes to 4k in both a theatrical and extended cut!
“Today’s army needs men of courage… honesty… integrity… ambition. Instead, they got John Winger”, and, today, you can get Stripes on 4k!
Released in 1981, Stripes follows two down-on-their-luck losers, John (Bill Murray) and Russell (Harold Ramis), who decide to enlist in the Army. What ensues is a classic ‘80s blue collar comedy, as the two privates slack their way through basic training, and then across the Soviet Union in an experimental tank.
Stripes is an interesting time capsule, in many different ways. It was Ivan Reitman’s 2nd comedic feature as a director. After spending most of the ‘70s directing exploitation films and producing David Cronenberg’s early films, Reitman turned his eye towards comedy. Stripes very much feels like a testing ground for Ghostbusters; following blue collar nitwits who joke their way through serious situations.
Stripes isn’t as tight as Ghostbusters, for sure. Its structure is real weird, feeling like two films stitched together in the center, with the 2nd half, when they go to Italy, feeling like a sequel to the first half (it’s also missing the coked-out paranoid conspiracy brain of Aykroyd that Ghostbusters had).
Stripes is also a pretty classic example of the comedy style of the era. Just like its contemporaries, like Animal House and Porky’s and about a hundred others, Stripes is built on two things; jokes and boobs. More than a few times the film dead stops to give us some full frontal nudity. Sometimes it makes sense in the context of the scene, like the guys going out to a bikini mud wrestling club. Other times, it’s just a cutaway to the captain watching a group of co-eds in the shower from a telescope. For those who grew up watching these, with friends and sometimes awkwardly with fathers, there is a weird type of nostalgia there. For others, it might be a bit jarring.
One of the most interesting things I find about Stripes, though, is the era it was made in in regards to the military. There was a real small amount of time there, from like ‘78 to ‘83, where the US military was fair game for mockery. Vietnam was an absolute quagmire, and by ‘78, the immediate painful memories had begun to fade, and a generation of new comedians (too young for the draft) had come up through, looking to give a good rib poking to Uncle Sam. Stripes is a perfect example; Bill Murray runs circles around his drill sergeant, Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates; really sucks he died in ‘82, feels like he was on the edge of being a recurring actor in this era of comedy), the upper command is presented as naive idiots, And the entire squadron are easily able to get away with everything and anything.
The army of Stripes is a joke that everyone is kind of embarrassed by, what with their rigid rules and expectations. Underneath it all, though, I think there is a bit of shame; shame at what we had done to ourselves in Vietnam, and a wanting to regain some pride, even if it is in mockery of the old ways. Murray illustrates it best in his speech: “We’re Americans, you know what that means? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts! Here’s proof: his nose is cold! But there’s no animal that’s more faithful, that’s more loyal, more loveable than the mutt.”
Specs:
Stripes has never looked better, with this pristine 4k that still retains the grit of the original print, making sure that New York, Camp Arnold, and Europe all have that same look. The sound is also fantastic, thanks to the Dolby Atmos (I could very much feel it during “Rubberband Man” when they first walk in the mud wrestling club, the beats reverberating off my teeth!).
This release also includes the extended version, that restores 18 minutes of footage, also presented in 4k. It’s not just a few extended scenes here and there; there are whole scenes added back in, making for a totally different movie.
If you’re looking for even more features, the 4k disc also includes a two part on-camera reunion between Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman (“40 Years Of Stripes With Bill & Ivan”), as well as a theatrical trailer. On the Blu disc, you can also find a commentary with Ivan Reitman and Dan Goldberg, 11 additional deleted and extended scenes, a 1983 Cut-For-TV version of the film, and the Stars and Stripes Documentary.
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Stripes has kind of fallen between the cracks when it comes to popular comedies of the early ‘80s. Sandwiched between behemoths like Animal House, CaddyShack and Ghostbusters, Stripes has become viewed as a bit of comedic scratch pad, as some of the best from the era seem to be working out their comedic personas here. But, for those who look fondly back on this era of comedy, Stripes is an absolute trip worth the ride. -
Garland & Mendoza Craft A Harrowing Anti-War Film In WARFARE
Source: IMDb Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland snuck a violent, harrowing anti-war film into their big budget Iraq War epic.
Warning: Spoilers for WARFARE below.
It has all the dressings of a patriotic classic; a story about military bravery against the odds, a cast that looks like the cover of “Tiger Beat”, a director who he himself was a Navy SEAL, and the film based on his real life experiences. On paper, this sounds like a film built in a lab for the “Red, White, & Blue; these colors don’t run” crowd.
So, it was with great, traumatic surprise that director’s Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza had actually created one of the most visceral and upsetting anti-war films of all time.
Taking place in near real time over a day in Ramadi, Iraq in 2006, WARFARE follows a group of Navy SEALS as they are attacked, and subsequently evacuated, from a small home. In the short time that they are there, they are bombed, shot at, injured to a gruesome degree, and left broken in the back of retreating rolling armor.
Source: IMDb The first half hour or so is a lead up to this attack. We watch this group of SEALs, played by actual a cadre of up-and-coming young men men (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Michael Gandolfini, and Patrick Melton, to name a few), as they survey a target from a home they have “commandeered”. Quickly, it becomes clear that they’ve been spotted, as they start to watch men in the distance group up in preparation for attack. The SEALs remain calm, radioing back and forth with command in a bored monotone, not really viewing the amassed men as a threat, believing they hold the superiority, both in fire power and will.
But, after a grenade is dropped into their snipers nest, they find themselves rattled. The calls become a bit more frantic as they call for armored support, and try to secure their air support back. Men dash between rooms, trying to source the rest of their missing gear, while the injured sniper (Cosmos Jarvis) tries to regain his bearings.
Source: IMDb But still, they remain focused, knowing what their objective is, even if they start to become frustrated with one another, snapping at each other over missing equipment and at the translators for not understanding them.
But, then, the armored support arrives, and normalcy, even violent normalcy, seems to be near.
Then, in a theater-shaking shock of sound, an IED goes off, and WARFARE becomes a horror film.
Men lie in pieces in the streets, their humanity stripped into ground meat and dead eyes. Those that have survived scream into the enveloping dust; not for retribution or out of defiance, but in utter and horrifying pain, terrified and confused.
Source: IMDb While WARFARE in its 1st act is about the boredom that can accompany war (the constant waiting, the chain of command slow down on orders, the inventory checking) the 2nd and 3rd act is about the absolute terror of actual combat. The SEALs are dropped into constant gunfire mere moments after the IED goes off, as they attempt to retreat both themselves and their wounded back into the home. From there, the soundscape of WARFARE is pure hell; it is just the constant pings and blasts of bullets hitting the side of the house, the confused and desperate calls into command for any kind of support, and the stomach churning screams of agony from the wounded.
There is nothing romantic, nothing cool, about this battle. No scenes of tactical gunfights or military hardware doing massive damage. The shooting is done sporadically, chaotically, machine gun fire blasted into the side of a wall, suppressing fire just to keep the bullets from the other side from coming for a few seconds. Even the big hardware, the “show of force”, is nothing more than a low level fly over, kicking up dust and causing a sonic boom. It is used consistently throughout the film, to no real effect; the bullets come flying a few seconds later.
Source: IMDb Garland hasn’t forgotten his genre roots, though. The constant tension, the constant fighting feels like something out of a nihilistic siege film. The two films I kept coming back to in my mind as I watched were Assault On Precinct 13, as we watch faceless enemies blasting away, with nothing for those inside to do to stop it, and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as we watch a group of “normal” people (normal in the sense that they are normal for a battlefield) get dropped into a meat grinder that starts to unravel their psyche the longer it goes.
There are no heroes in WARFARE either. In almost all “anti-war” war films, they still portray the soldiers as stalwart men, willing to lay down their lives for their brothers in arms, still following a romantic ideal we have about war and those that fight it.
This is not the men of WARFARE. Once the battle begins, they all begin to unravel. Some quickly, such as those in shock, such as Ray (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), who keeps coming in and out of shock while administering pressure on a wound, nearly killing the soldier in the process. For others, it comes on slow, like Erik (Will Poulter), the commander of the team, who begins to realize that he is unraveling as the fight goes on, no longer in a headspace to lead, finding himself sitting on a bed, completely lost. Even when one SEAL attempts to muster their spirits, shouting “we’re frogmen; act like it!”, he is quickly shouted down by the frustrated and scared majority, none of them wanting to hear it.
Source: IMDb By films end, another group of armored carriers arrive at the house, and under orders, begin shelling all the nearby homes. It is indiscriminate destruction, blind firing in the hopes that they can get a few seconds to run to safety. In a mad dash, they sprint for the carriers, the doors closing behind them, as they are wheeled out of the battle zone, leaving the road quiet once again.
What was it all for? The mission the SEALs are on is never specified, and they take no progressive steps towards anything. They watch as an angry mob forms around them, nothing else. The home they occupy? Stolen in the night, broken into with a sledgehammers and the families held at gunpoint. What did they achieve? Nothing, beyond survival.
While many have painted this as a film that says “nothing”, what it actually illustrates is the fact that the war in Iraq was literally about “nothing”; the mission these men were on meant nothing, the deaths that occurred meant nothing, and the resources used to pull them out of their situation meant nothing.
Source: IMDb This is not a story of heroes, or of bravery against adversity. This is a story of a group of (highly trained) kids, losing their minds in the desert as they try to navigate constant gunfire and the sounds of their wounded crying and screaming in the next room while they hold their shredded limbs.
Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland crafted a film about what war actually is; monotony, boredom and terror. And we sent thousands of our youth, men and women, into the desert to experience that, with many never getting to experience anything after that terror.
WARFARE is true warfare, in all its ugliness and cruelty and pointlessness.
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Two Cents Sinks Below The Waves and Raises the Tension With CRIMSON TIDE
This week, the Two Cents crew dive into 1995’s Crimson Tide, where Hackman goes toe-to-toe with a young and hungry Denzel Washington over the fate of the world.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
Almost a full month in our Hackman retrospective, and I can’t help but feel like he may have been the absolute best to ever do it. A craftsman, through and through, he seemed to kick down the doors of Hollywood in the early ’70s, a true and remained a marquee name all the way up to his retirement in the early 2000’s. It didn’t matter if he was in a prestige drama or a junky action film, Hackman gave exactly 100% in each and every performance, and, a few weeks months since his passing and a few decades since his retirement, you can still feel the absence of his presence and ability in the industry.
The Pick: Crimson Tide (1995)
Crimson Tide is a film that, for many people, kind of falls between the cracks when it comes to discussing Gene Hackman. The ’80s & ’90s were a hectic time for Hackman’s career, as he usually acted or stared in multiple movies a year. But, Crimson Tide is something special in Hackman’s career; an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with one of the greatest rising stars of the time, Denzel Washington.
And battle, they did! this is just a brawl of raw acting power, start to finish, as the two actors with mirrored abilities take big, dramatic swings at each other. It might not have gotten the same attention as other Hackman performances, both from audiences and award bodies, but this is an absolute A-tier performance, where Hackman allows himself to be a bit showy in his capabilities. Incredibly excited I was able to get this in under the wire, and can’t wait to see what the rest of the Cinapse team thought.
The Team:
Spencer Brickey
Crimson Tide has always felt overlooked to me. Be it in the conversation of best Tony Scott films, or best ‘90s action films, or even best performances in both Hackman’s and Washington’s careers. But, after what has to be a rewatch in the double digits for me, I can’t help but feel like this is something completely and utterly special; a tense, propulsive action film that is mostly just two of our greatest actors shouting at each other in a room.
This is essentially a feature length boxing match, with Hackman and Washington going all 12 rounds. Hackman was never a showy actor, but here he is firing on all cylinders, giving us the full works of Hackman’s ability; smarm, charm, and the thunder. His back and forth with Washington is filled with immense tension, right from the first conversation about horses. Hackman is domineering and cheeky, and escalates with fury the minute Washington questions him (Hackman’s delivery of “now, SHUT THE FUCK UP” is such a shocking tonal change that it still catches me off guard after all these viewings).
Washington is no slouch, though. A younger mirror image in many ways, he easily goes toe-to-toe with Hackman, able to be both charming and intimidating in the same breath. He is the anti-war voice against Hackman’s hawkish nature, the two of them giving each other no more than surface level niceties, a frustration bumbling under the surface.
These two titans, one on the back half of an illustrious career, and the other ascending to his peak, came together in 1995 to not only give us a no-holds-barred show from two of our greatest, but to also create one of the best anti-war films of all time. Tony Scott gets maligned as an “all fluff, no substance” director, but Crimson Tide is a perfect example of Scott’s true strength as a director; being able to give actors the space and tools necessary to put on a clinic. That is why Crimson Tide is a bonafide action classic.
Ed Travis
“You were right, and I was wrong” – Hackman’s Ramsey to Washington’s Hunter
A feat of cinematic perfection in terms of the escalation of tension, Crimson Tide utilizes every major tool the medium has to offer to spin an impeccable thriller. Michael Schiffer and Richard P. Henrick’s script lays out the stakes effectively and then presents a perfect scenario to test and strain the system for delivering nuclear warheads from a submarine. The specifics of the situation are intricate, but flawlessly laid out in order to make us root for Denzel’s character, yes… but also to see Hackman’s characters’ motivations, and to find they’re fairly sound as well. It’s a tale of mutiny and high stakes, where everyone is doing the best they can to do their duty to their country. Unlike last week’s Unforgiven, where there really were no heroes, Crimson Tide really doesn’t have villains. It’s got Denzel’s unstoppable force meeting Hackman’s immovable object, and the collision is explosive. These performers going toe-to-toe are another element of the perfection of escalation here. And then you’ve got that Hans Zimmer score, Chris Lebenzon’s editing, and of course, the glorious direction of Mr. Tony Scott. Craftsmen of the highest order, top to bottom, crafted what can only be described as one of the greatest submarine thrillers ever made.
What most fascinates me, however, is the finale. Hackman and Denzel have come to blows, drawn weapons on one another, screamed at the top of their lungs. But in the end, neither is a villain, even if Hackman is clearly an asshole. Yet, when it turns out that Denzel was right, their final communication only partially received WAS an order to stand down, and not an order to launch nukes that would bring about armageddon, Hackman has the dignity and decency to own up to his mistake. What an honor and privilege it feels like to watch a provocative and compelling military drama in which, at the end of the day, leaders own their mistakes and shortcomings, and step aside when they’re defeated, to entrust leadership to the next generation. Hackman’s final words “You were right, and I was wrong”… even if they are followed by an ongoing conversation about horses between the two leads, is music to my ears in an era where leaders seem to be rewarded for passing blame, never admitting defeat, and lying their way to victory. Hackman may be a son of a bitch here, but much like his Little Bill from Unforgiven, he comes by it honestly and has the dignity to admit defeat and concede; and it’s music to the ears of this weary American.
Brendan Agnew
Crimson Tide is a minor miracle of a film in that it retains almost all of its powerful tension and thrills no matter how many times you’ve seen the film. This was one of the later Tony Scott films I came to, already being familiar with Top Gun and Enemy of the State, but almost immediately became a comfort watch even above other enjoyable Bruckheimer productions of the ‘90s. Not only is the cast a who’s who of superstars and character actor greats, but there’s also the thrill of seeing faces like a pre-LotR Viggo Mortensen rubbing shoulders with Denzel Washington.
But the electric and often antagonistic charisma between Washington and Gene Hackman is the engine that powers this, and it never stops going once the movie introduces them to each other. A lesser film would have had both men being prickly and heated with each other from the start, but Scott and his actors sculpt a carefully considered relationship of mutual respect in spite of differences of generation and school of thought, only to see it fall apart in front of us. It’s a film sold on the promise of these two legends tearing into each other, but they’re so enjoyable to watch get along that you don’t really want that to happen.
Then there’s the entire 2nd half of the film where nuclear war is hanging over everyone’s head as well as potential mutiny and hostile submarines. Between Scott’s (restrained but still dynamic) direction and the snappy script, not only does the film make even hushed conversations feel like rollicking set pieces, but the added bits of color (however much they’re obviously Tarantino punch-ups at times) make the crew feel like real people rather than job titles and jargon. This feels like a lot of incredibly talented people confidently hitting every single mark, and balances world-ending stakes with a scope that never extended further than the torpedo tubes. Arguably Scott’s best movie, and one of Hackman’s best roles of this period in his career.
Austin Vashaw
Military chain of command is something we tend to take for granted, even in movies, but when it breaks down, it can mean major problems.
I think the most intriguing aspect of Crimson Tide is that the Captain and XO played by Hackman and Denzel, who find themselves on different sides of a power struggle in a nuclear submarine cut off from the world, are essentially both correct and working from valid points of view (at least until Gene unforgivably lets his dog piss all over the place, then later pulls a gun on Aragorn). The real stakes aren’t really even as much about whose derived authority is more valid, as that making the wrong choice will trigger a nuclear catastrophe.
Both actors are tremendous here, with a relatively young Denzel serving as the new upstart to Hackman’s grizzled old guard, in a crackling relationship that sizzles with tension, anger, and defiance, but also some moments of tremendous warmth and mutual respect. If there’s one thing that our revisit to Hackman’s catalog has impressed on me, it’s his range – he’s a great screen asshole, but can also be pretty charming too, and here we get to see him demonstrate both.
Keep your eyes peeled for supporting turns from future stars Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, and Steve Zahn. And mad props to Tony Scott for sneaking in a surprise Jason Robards!
Goodbye to a Great: TWO CENTS Celebrates Gene Hackman
We’ve passed the midpoint in our titanic selection of some of the late, great Gene Hackman’s biggest and best performances. Feel free to join us in discussing these upcoming entries!
May 5 – The Conversation – (Prime Video – 1 hour 53 minutes)
May 12 – Enemy of the State – (Prime Video – 2 hours 12 minutes)
May 19 – The Royal Tenenbaums – (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 50 minutes)
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THUNDERBOLTS* Recaptures What Made the MCU Special
An unlikely crew delivers an unlikely triumph.
(L-R): John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour) in Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 MARVEL. It really shouldn’t work. On paper, the ouroboros that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe is no better exemplified than Thunderbolts*. A movie starring exactly one established marque MCU character (Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barned, aka the Winter Soldier) alongside a collection of supporting characters from a slew of films that range from “pretty good” (Ant-Men and the Wasp), to middling (Disney+’s The Falcon and Winter Soldier) to outright bad (Black Widow). It is a film that requires a significant amount of homework and makes no effort to hold your hand or get you up to speed. It should not work.
But in reality, it is the best film to come out of the MCU since the criminally underrated Eternals, serving as a reminder of what made these movies so special in the first place. It is a film with both big ideas and big set pieces in equal measure, that never squanders its heart for its spectacle. In many ways it respects its viewers by having the patience to put pieces into place before knocking down the dominoes for a thrilling and surprising climax. It fulfills the promise of being a fun romp of a superhero adventure, focusing on some unlikely and uncertain heroes, without ever looking down on them or the audience. It’s the perfect encapsulation of what made the MCU work in the first place.
This newest adventure centers around an unlikely crew. Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has been poking around the corners of the MCU for a while now, but we discover now that she has been elevated to the role of CIA. She also has been running shadowy operations as a member of the mysterious OXE Corp, the kind of off the books work that would certainly raise some eyebrows for a Department of Defense administrator to be involved in. However, in the aftermath of Brave New World, increased scrutiny has led to de Fontaine to be impeached, meaning she has to clean up the mess left behind by OXE.
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2025 MARVEL. This also means she has to cut off a few loose ends, mostly the black ops agents who had been doing her wet work for her. This includes Yelene Belova (Florence Pugh, phenomenal), the Black Widow’s haunted sister, John Walker (Wyatt Russell) the disgraced second Captain America, Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) the intangible assassin known as Ghost, and the Taskmaster (Antonio Dreykov). By attempting to sic each agent on each other, she doesn’t take into account the one wrinkle: what if these anti-social murderers all decided to work together?
The specifics of how this all plays out is most of the fun of Thunderbolts*, so best to not get too bogged down in the plot nitty gritty, such as how Bucky Barnes and the Red Guardian (David Harbour, the heart of the film) fold into the adventure. Nor would it be wise to talk too much about the mysterious man known only as Bob who de Fontaine takes a strong interest in recovering. And there is that pesky asterisk. Whatever could that mean?
All shall be revealed, and in perfectly paced time, but suffice to say that the reveals both satisfy and surprise without ever feeling gimmicky. It’s a movie that is filled with moments that are very spoilerable, but it never feels gimmicky or cheap. Rather, it is a film that builds its own suspense and stakes, one that tells a complete story while also taking seriously what came before, as well as laying groundwork for future films. When it hits the final act, the emotional core of the film comes to the surface through some of the film’s most striking visuals. It’s the whole package, and one that validates the ongoing existence of films like this.
Will Thunderbolts* “save” the MCU? Does the MCU deserve saving, in a post-Sinners world? Those answers remain to be seen, mostly because the House of Ideas mostly seems to have sent it out as an afterthought in comparison to Fantastic 4. But if this film can be seen as a reclaiming of what made the MCU so successful in the first place, outside of lowest common denominator nostalgia porn, then at least the old tune got played one more time.
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THUNDERBOLTS* – Marvel is BACK Baby! (Spoiler Free!)
The MCU’s been struggling with a bit of an identity crisis since closing up the Infinity Saga, while trying once again recreate and recapture the storytelling and characters that made the studio the must-see box office juggernaut it was. Since then it’s been a deluge of TV and film, that were chasing that same pre-Thanos high to no avail, but I think they’ve finally got it. Instead of a roster of established or wanna be heroes, Thunderbolts* has the MCU following a group of established rogues on the fringes, which in the early days was exactly what the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and Black Widow were. It’s a back to basics approach, that really helps to not only develop this new team, but finally give fans something to care about again.
Thunderbolts* has Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in the midst of a government Impeachment hearing, and looking to destroy any and all evidence of her unethical dealings/developments with The OXE Group. Allegra has been stalking in the shadows of the MCU for the last few years, like Nick Fury once was, but instead of collecting the “Earth’s mightiest heroes” for good, she’s been collecting the cast offs for her black ops – the failed Captain America John Walker ( Wyatt Russell), the Black Widow who’s okay with a lot of red in her ledger (Florence Pugh), another Black Widow who can master anyone’s fighting style (Olga Kurylenko) and an assassin that can quantum shift (Hannah John-Kamen). We begin the film with Yelena (Florence Pugh) having a bit of an existential/moral crisis about being an assassin – when she takes her final gig for Valentina before planning to try to take the path of her sister and go hero.
(L-R): Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) in Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL. This lands her in a vault with all of Valentina’s other assassins, who were all hired to kill the other, cleaning up the last of her loose ends. What instead happens however, is the group is quick to realize the boss’ plan and decide to band together to kill her new home base at the newly renovated Stark Tower. The first half of the film is essentially a bottle episode that forces the Thunderbolts, named after Yelena’s pee-wee soccer team who never won a game – to come together and trust one another just enough to team up. This soul searching is enabled by a failed OXE Grove test subject Bob (Lewis Pullman), who is freed during the battle and thanks to his ability to delve into the mind with a touch – gives the filmmakers an uncontrived way to showcase how each of the Thunderbolts are struggling with their own demons, enabling the audience to connect with them.
The film smartly casts aside the idealistic principles of the MCU, which just don’t work in this post snap world for a new world of anti-heroes who are united by their aspiration to be save the day. For my money Florence Pugh’s Yelena and her “Father” Red Guardian (David Harbour) have been two of the brighter spots of the post Thanos films. Here the father/daughter dynamic is touching as ever, as Harbour supplies the narrative with some much needed levity. I was honestly caught off guard with just how hard Pugh and Wyatt Russell go with their performances, which explore the emotional cost of a life in black ops and wet work; which this film does NOT shy away from. Sebastian Stan eventually enters the fold, after cementing his rehabilitation from being the Winter Soldier in the years since Black Panther, being the ideal leader for this group of misfits.
Thunderbolts* is a great mix of super hero action and soul searching drama that really manages to tug at your heartstrings, as we get to see all these fan favorites finally step from the darkness into the light. So is the MCU back? Given the one-two punch of the Thunderbolts* (which was great) and Fantastic Four (which looks to be equally intriguing) it just might be. I will say I haven’t been this excited for an MCU film like Fantastic in quite some time. But that said, Thunderbolts* has the MCU finally turning out the kind of intriguing character studies through the prism of the superhero action spectacle that once dominated the box office. The fan-service however, has been dialed back in favor of emotional weight and character development and I think cutting those ties and focusing solely on this group was the best thing they could have done.
It’s ironic that by the end of the film, the Thunderbolts manage to save not only New York, but in the process the MCU with one of the most complex and nuanced takes on the superhero team up since the first Avengers film. Yes, it’s that DAMN good!
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HAVOC is Visceral Powder Keg
Gareth Evans’ long delayed take on Heroic Bloodshed – Havoc finally hit Netflix last week. After being announced early in 2021 the film was postponed, thanks to not only reshoots (I’ve got a theory on that later!), but actor’s strike and his A-List star’s busy schedule — who delivers something a bit unexpected here. It might be the cause for the film’s rather divisive reception, as Hardy is not the expected reluctant hero or even a charming anti-hero. Havoc is about as grimy as an action film comes, this is visible thanks to not only the characters morality, but the film’s grainy visuals, and the dirty snow clinging to everything in sight. Transpiring during the days leading up to and after Christmas, the film has something to say about the lengths families will go to take care of their own during this tense season.
Tom Hardy plays Patrick Walker, a broken down, dirty cop, and not the cool kind either. He’s estranged from his family and firmly in the pocket of crooked mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumon (Forest Whitaker), who’s about to take the unnamed Gothan-like city. When Beaumon’s son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) is thought to be behind the death of local Triad boss, Tsui (Jeremy Ang Jones) due to a heist gone terribly wrong, Patrick is charged by his father to find Charlie before Tsui’s mother known here simply as “Mother” and her team of assassins do. Patrick, who is already too far down this road of corruption knows he’s a dead man either way, but thanks to the holiday season is willing to put his life on the line for one last time for the possibility of proving to his wife there is something of the righteous man she married left.
Of course given Gareth Evans’ reputation the action in this film is just dialed up to 11, in set pieces that are complex as they are brutal. 45s are traded in for automatic assault weapons with endless clips that shred through human bodies of both the guilty and the innocent. It’s not not violence for violence’s sake, but Gareth using hyperviolence to show how fragile life is and how this blind emotional violence affects everyone around it. It’s not pretty, but that’s the point. The clear breakout in Havoc is Mother’s right hand – Michelle Waterson who plays a nameless shorthaired assassin who always seems to get the best of Hardy for better or worse. For what she lacks in dialog, she more than makes up for with the anxiety she induces whenever she appears on screen.
Like Fury Road, Hardy’s character is neither the incitier of this narrative, a point of connection for the audience or sympathetic for that matter, and I think that’s where this film loses so many people. He is just a man, who because he doesn’t fear death, ultimately embodies it. The closest thing we get to a protagonist is Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) Patrick’s rookie Homicide partner who is thrust head first into this corrupt world, and who is not sure who she should trust. That being the case, peppered throughout the film are these moments of raw human connection between these heavys who all believe they are all trying to do the right thing by their family. This all comes into focus in a conversation between Mother and Lawrence, when they both talk about how they’ve both somehow failed their children and how this crusade for both parties is a chance at not letting their children down one last time…
Given the bleak nature of the film, I would wager to bet the reshoots were flashbacks that hope to offer some explanation as to how Patrick lost his soul, but that’s not important here. The important part is, how far these people who have all failed their children by putting them on a course far more dangerous than their own, are willing to go for that chance at their own redemption – whether it be a corrupt cop, a corrupt mayor or a Triad boss. But like the gritty world of Havoc, it doesn’t end well for any of those involved and it manages to do so while delivering an action set piece in a cabin that will make any hard-core action fan’s head spin. Gareth Evans’ ability to seamlessly combine that emotionality with that high level of violent action, is what makes Havoc a film that will no doubt prove there are few in action with these kinds of chops. Havoc is a visceral, powder keg of a film whose emotional gut punches hit as hard as its action.
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HAVOC: Too Many Tired Dirty Cop Cliches, Too Little Ass Kicking
Gareth Evans return to action is muddled by too many cliches and wooden performances, with action scenes that are a little too hectic and disjointed for their own good.
Back in 2011, an action film out of Indonesia rocked the film world. The Raid was unlike anything anyone had seen before, moving like a runaway freight train, filled with gunfights, hand to hand fighting, and gallons of blood and gore. Introducing the world to the martial art of Silat, action fans saw fighting that moved at blistering speeds and caused maximum damage. The Raid quickly became the de facto capital A “Action Film” of the 2010’s, inspiring dozens of films and filmmakers. There is no John Wick without The Raid.
And, there is no The Raid without director Gareth Evans. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, Evans was poised to be the new king of action cinema. But, after the quick follow up of The Raid 2, Evans seemed to disappear from the scene. Besides a detour to folk horror with the uneven The Apostle, and writing/directing the first few episodes of Gangs of London, Evans had all but disappeared from the genre that he helped steer.
The Raid (Source: IMDb) Now, nearly 15 years after The Raid, Evans has returned with Havoc. After all these years, has Evans once again struck gold?
Not really! Havoc is a film that touches upon Evans strength as a filmmaker here and there, but is mostly dragged down by his deficiencies. Havoc follows crooked detective Walker (Tom Hardy, doing his grumbliest voice yet!) who, after discovering that the son of mayoral candidate and Walker’s dirty handler Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker) was involved in a Triad massacre, he must go rogue to find the boy before the Triads, or his former partners-turned-enforcers, do.
If any of this sounds familiar, such as the dirty cop finding redemption, or gang of rogue cops doing the mob’s dirty work, or gang wars started because of misleading information, it’s because you’ve probably seen this exact movie played out in like a 100 different VOD films. There’s nothing even close to original here, feeling more like a pastiche of every dirty cop cliche from the last 30 years. Which also means it’s pretty obvious where this is going about 5 minutes in, which makes a lot of the “investigating” scenes a bit of a slog.
But, hey; The Raid is literally just “cops need to get to the top of a building”. There’s nothing complicated or narratively deep about that! If you’re here to watch a Gareth Evans movie, you’re here to see some absolutely jaw dropping action. So, does Havoc at least deliver on that front?
Again, not really! The action in Havoc is edited to absolute hell, shifting into some sort of modern era “shaky cam” style, where the camera follows every hit, with 1-3 second intervals between cuts. In theory, it seems like it would be a fun, impactful way to shoot it, but in practice, it’s an exercise in motion sickness. What seems to be happening here, if I could be so bold, is Evans is used to shooting with former martial artists and stunt professionals; people who can make the action look fluid and real at full speed. My guess is that Evans isn’t used to shooting classically trained actors selling punches, which gives us these constant cuts to try and bring the intensity up. Either way, it is disorienting.
But, then, for a 10 minute stretch in the 3rd act, it all comes together. Walker has to defend against dozens of faceless bad guys in a small cabin in the middle of the woods, and, all of a sudden, Havoc feels like the bastard child of John Woo and Sam Raimi. Gun fire blasts through every surface, looking closer to cannon fire. Walker moves from gun to gun, picking up rifles off the ground, emptying them into some poor schmucks chest, before finding another one amongst the rubble. Several motherfuckers are ripped to pieces by hooks once the gunfight turns hand to hand. The camera swoops and zooms with perfect precision, Evans showing that he has cinematic gunfighting down to a science.
I found myself grinning ear to ear, thinking the rest of the 3rd act would move at this insane pace. But, sadly, the Grand Guignol bloodshed ends, and we kinda just putter to the end with a real tired “redemption” arc.
There are other merits to Havoc, for sure, though. The way it is shot and presented is real fucking weird, but in a very interesting way. The world of Havoc is more like a video game than a real place. After racking my brain, the best comparison I could come to was that Havoc seems like it exists in the Max Payne universe; a dirty, grungy world that feels like a hyper stylized version of the “Fear City” era of NYC. Everyone is either dirty on the inside or the outside.
This feeling of a video game world is even more magnified by the CGI. Every single car scene, be it a chase or just driving from point A to point B, is digitally created, and has a video game energy about it, with cars moving at unnatural speeds, blasting through snowy streets at NASCAR velocity. It’s all a bit jarring at first, feeling like a cheap corner cutting measure, but once it is clear that it is a style choice, there is something very unique about how it adds character to the world.
Still, even the stuff that does work doesn’t really make up for what doesn’t. Havoc sags, much more than a film that’s under 2 hours should, with performances that are stereotypical at best, wooden at worst (Timothy Olyphant puts in a world class “bare minimum for a paycheck” performance here). The energy that we saw in The Raid is still here in the action scenes, but the focus is all over the place, the tightly shot/edited fights we saw in 2011 turning into a jumbled mess here (outside of the perfect cabin scene). The even bigger problem is that Evans really hasn’t gotten any better at all the non-action stuff, creating a real paint-by-the-numbers crooked cop story that just sinks the rest of the interesting stuff at play here.
Sure, The Raid was an absolute game changer. But, since 2011, we’ve seen the rise of more than a few players in the action space. Chad Stahelski created an international hit with the John Wick series, utilizing the same sort of fast paced but clearly shot action that The Raid had popularized only a few years prior. In Indonesia, Timo Tjahjanto has made a name for himself taking up the silat mantle, creating a murderers row of top tier action films (The Night Comes For Us is arguably The Raids equal in action set pieces). Hell, even VOD has upped their game, with the works of filmmakers such as William Kaufman and Jesse V. Johnson really driving up the quality of the VOD action space.
This is all to say that the genre has shifted and changed and grown since The Raid. Unfortunately, with Havoc, It appears Evans hasn’t done much growing as a filmmaker since then.
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GANDHI: A World Event Still Stuns in 4K
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Absolutely stunning in most every regard imaginable, Richard Attenborough’s 1982 Best Picture Oscar Winner Gandhi lives up to its marketing tagline of being a “world event”. And while it almost threatens to reduce the accomplishment of the film, not to mention the sainted subject of the film, it’s nigh upon impossible to discuss Gandhi without viewing it through the lens of today’s burgeoning authoritarian times and applying the wisdom of one of the greatest leaders of modernity to the stupidity and tragedy of our current vacuum of authentic leadership. Forgive me if any of my reflections on the film appear reductive, but as the film and the man at the center of it inspired me, confounded me, and convicted me, I couldn’t help but yearn for leaders like Mohandas K. Gandhi to emerge today, and to feel that I myself must sacrifice more as well.
At over 3 hours in length, Gandhi is presented across 2 4K UHD discs in this steelbook release of the classic film. Nothing feels quite so epic as having to split a film across 2 pieces of physical media, which often happened in those double VHS days. Perhaps one of the most astounding things about the Oscar winning script from John Briley, however, is how incredibly propulsive it feels. Gandhi’s life more than justifies the epic runtime, and the story covers nothing of his childhood, but rather picks up as he first embarks on civil disobedience as a young man and lawyer practicing in South Africa. It may feel like standard biopic faire today, but covering decades of a remarkable life by capturing the sort of “essence” of a man who became a legend and brought an end to British colonial rule in India works like gangbusters here. Sometimes there are just people talking in a room, but the conversations are of consequential import. Other times there are sequences of absolute grandeur, featuring tens of thousands of extras, shot on location in India by cinematographer Billy Williams, who also took home an Oscar for his work. The length of the film, the scope of the film, the scale of the project, all seem daunting and borderline impossible, but modern day viewers shouldn’t be intimidated. It all goes down gloriously, enthrallingly, inspiringly. This isn’t homework cinema, it’s power for the people.
Despite its massive scale and scope, Gandhi was apparently highly controversial to create, was championed by Richard Attenborough for decades before it was completed, and didn’t have an exorbitant studio budget behind it. And yes, there’s always been some controversy around the casting of Ben Kingsley as Gandhi and the general whiteness and Britishness of many who made the film. Those are worthy concerns in an era where we’re regressing dramatically in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, when looking back on a completed work from 1982 that took home 8 Oscars and was nominated for 11, one must acknowledge that any controversy or scepticism aside, the film made a massive impact and stands as a powerful work that speaks prophetically across the ages. Of course, it’s Gandhi himself who will continue to make Empire’s quake, but this film adaptation of his life brings him to the masses in a profoundly digestible and artful way.
Brigadier: You don’t think we’re just going to walk out of India!
Gandhi: Yes. In the end, you will walk out. Because 100,000 Englishmen simply cannot control 350 million Indians, if those Indians refuse to cooperate.
As a Jesus guy, myself, I’m deeply moved by the concept of self sacrifice in leadership, of laying down one’s life for a cause, of non-violence holding a deeper power than coercion and threats and extermination. At my core I’m simply moved by the theology and depth of character and authenticity required by individuals such as Jesus, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. to topple empires through profound self sacrifice, non-cooperation, and moral clarity that when concentrated, lays bare the inherent weakness of cruel empire.
One of the most powerful sequences depicted in the film doesn’t even involve Gandhi himself, but when throngs of his followers push to enter a factory where they’re being barred from work, they simply line up and walk, non-violently, into the path of British soldiers who brutally club them. Wave after wave of brave Indians symbolically approach the British Empire asking only to work, to govern themselves, to live. They’re met with batons, beaten and broken. But they keep coming, proving Gandhi’s point that the Indians simply cannot be controlled when they’re uncooperative and brave. As Martin Sheen’s western reporter character Vince Walker observes this stunning display, he reports to the world “Whatever moral ascendancy the West once held was lost here today. India is free, for she has taken all that steel and cruelty can give and she has neither cringed nor retreated.”
So yes, the film shows us the stunning wisdom, selflessness, and consistent authenticity of Gandhi the human being, embodied with incredible physicality, wit, and passion by Kingsley. And it grounds us in the context in which the events took place, giving a sense of why England would be so reticent to relinquish control of their Empire, but also the moral depravity that Empire engenders, not the least of which is a massacre depicted right in the middle of the film, which is terrifying and heart-rending, and which further proves that India simply cannot and will not be controlled by a foreign Empire that kills them.
But the film, and its subject, also reach out, beyond their time and context, speaking prophetically to us, today. This 1982 film feels achingly salient as we gear up once again to battle against division and hatred and scrounge around desperately for tools that can work against seemingly impervious powers. Mahatma Gandhi was both a mortal man, who would die if he didn’t eat, and through his profound self sacrifice also became a never ending symbol and prophet, who convicts and haunts us, and whose profound tactics will continue to provide a roadmap to freedom for our generation and for civilizations that follow.
“Gandhi: Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.”
The Package
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment This is an absolutely resplendent film that pops off of its 4K UHD disc directly into your heart. Kingsley’s Gandhi is both human and larger than life. India is shot with a scope and grandeur that’s nothing less than majestic. Maybe I’m throwing around too many superlatives here, but Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi feels like a remarkable accomplishment to the cinematic artform that is here done enormous justice with a prestigious package packed to the gills with bonus features.
DISC DETAILS & BONUS MATERIALS (From Sony)
4K ULTRA HD DISCS
- Feature presented across two discs in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, fully restored from the original camera negative
- English Dolby Atmos + English 5.1 + English 2.0
- Special Feature:
- Theatrical Trailers
FEATURE BLU-RAY DISC™
- Feature presented in high definition
- English 5.1
- Special Features:
- Introduction & Commentary with Director Richard Attenborough
- Gandhi’s Legacy: Feature-Length Picture-in-Graphics Track
SPECIAL FEATURE BLU-RAY DISC™
- Special Features:
- Sir Ben Kingsley Talks about Gandhi
- Vintage Newsreel Footage
- In Search of Gandhi
- Reflections on Ben
- Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad
- The Funeral
- Looking Back
- Shooting an Epic in India
- Designing Gandhi
- From the Director’s Chair
- The Words of Mahatma Gandhi
- The Making of Gandhi Photo Montage
And I’m Out.
Gandhi returns to 4K Ultra HD Disc via Limited Edition Steelbook from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 4/29/25
