-
KILLING GUNTHER Is The Worst Kind Of Bad Movie
… A Comedy That Is Relentlessly Devoid Of Laughs
There are so very many ways for a movie to be bad. A swing and a miss. A reach beyond grasp. Ideas that worked better on the page than on the screen. The list goes on. I submit that perhaps the very worst experience available to a viewer in all of film watching is sitting through a comedy film which is profoundly unfunny. The thing about comedies is that often all they’re offering is laughs. Sure, many are creative, or visually compelling, or filled with characters we love. But laughs are what you pay admission for. Perhaps more importantly, laughs are what the filmmakers and actors are all aiming for. There are few things more cinematically painful than watching a cast work really hard to make you laugh and fail with consistency. That’s the experience that Killing Gunther offers, and it is a rough watch.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the cover of the Killing Gunther Blu-ray. He’s in the trailer of the movie. He’s even an executive producer on the film. The entire movie is about the pursuit and assassination of his character, Gunther. He probably has a grand total of 7 minutes of screen time. And they’re the last 7 minutes. Those 7 minutes? They’re by far the best 7 minutes of this mercifully short and suffocatingly unengaging comedy film. Arnold seems to be having a blast mocking the young assassins attempting to best him at his game (and sporting another hip old guy hairstyle a la his killer coif in Sabotage). Arnold breathes life (though not outright laughs) into the film when he finally arrives, but this is far too little, far too late.
And it’s not as though I’m an Arnold Schwarzenegger apologist. I am a fan and go out of my way to check out his films, but I’ve had very little love for recent projects like Terminator Genisys or Aftermath. Arnold was actually the very worst part of The Expendables 2, with an overreliance on his “classic” one-liners. It just happens that Arnold is by far the best thing in Killing Gunther and is the only redemptive element of this entire film. The fault for the dreadfulness of this film simply doesn’t lie at Arnold’s feet.
Having not watched an episode of Saturday Night Live in probably twenty years, I’m not at all familiar with Killing Gunther writer/director/star Taran Killam. Apparently he’s married to Cobie Smulders, who he probably hired on the cheap to do him a solid and appear in this film. I guess he’s also in 12 Years A Slave?! Regardless, it was painful to watch him as lead assassin Blake in Killing Gunther. His character is devoid of any interesting characteristics, he tries too hard to sell comedy bits that just aren’t there, and, it seems both Blake and Killam drag their friends along for an ill fated project.
I’m sure many of the other cast are up and coming names in the world of comedy, though the only ones I recognize are SNL alum Bobby Moynihan and the wonderful Allison Tolman (Fargo, Barracuda). Regardless, none really have an opportunity to showcase their talents with this lifeless script. The idea is that these assassins have all hired a documentary crew in order to capture on film the elimination of Gunther, the world’s greatest assassin. So you have Blake and crew talking to the documentary crew ala The Office. You have a variety of different traps and plans go awry as our bumbling assassins (who never even remotely feel like anything other than a gaggle of comedians improving together) try to murder Arnold… who is never actually seen on screen for an interminably long period of time. It’s gruelingly tiresome and shockingly poorly realized.
Hung on a documentary-style approach that is tired and dated, relying on improv bits that are painfully unfunny, stretching out a premise that maybe could have worked as a short but fails spectacularly as a feature, there’s absolutely no way to recommend Killing Gunther to really anyone except Arnold Schwarzenegger completists. And even then, I’d argue that just watching the final 7 minutes or so of the film, once Arnold actually shows up on screen, would be a vastly superior experience to suffering through the whole film.
The Package
I honestly don’t have anything nice to say about Killing Gunther. The movie looks cheap and ugly. It has some deleted scenes and bloopers on the disc, but I’d have to be getting paid to watch the scenes that DIDN’T make it into this movie. Avoid Killing Gunther and just pick up Terminator 2 on 4K UHD this week.
And I’m Out.
Killing Gunther is now available on Blu-ray from Lionsgate.
-
PLATOON LEADER & SOLDIER BOYZ: A Dudikoff Double Feature
Kino Releases A “Fans Only” Michael Dudikoff Blu-ray 2 Pack
This image is the highlight of this entire package. And totally misrepresentative of the film! I adore Cannon Films. And their ilk. Stuff like American Ninja is my cinematic bread and butter. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus are probably the two most rock star film producers of my entire life. So yes, I’d someday like to have seen every last Cannon Films production. I generally try and take the opportunity to see a new one (to me) whenever that chance arises. So when Kino announced they were releasing a Michael Dudikoff 2-pack that included Platoon Leader, a Cannon film, I was pretty much destined to cover it.
Michael Dudikoff was the titular American Ninja for Cannon Films. But aside from that role (which is seared into my childhood mind), I really only knew him as the star of the car-action TV series Cobra. Otherwise Dudikoff’s filmography was largely unknown to me back in his heyday. I’ve since taken in all of the canonical American Ninja movies, and even checked out the more dramatic River Of Death not too long ago. He’s not a great actor, but he’s a pretty face in the James Dean mold, and he represents an era and a kind of film I love beyond all reason. I was very much looking forward to taking a deeper dive into his filmography with this double feature. That anticipation was… ill advised.
Platoon Leader (1988)
Proving himself to be a much better actor than fellow Cannon star Chuck Norris could ever dream to be, Dudikoff headlines Platoon Leader as Jeff Knight, a fresh-from-the-Academy Lieutenant sent to Vietnam, where he’ll have to learn to graduate from the school of hard knocks.
Directed by fellow Cannon alum and brother to Chuck himself, Aaron Norris does an adequate job with a very paint-by-the-numbers script adapted from James R. McDonough’s original book. Bizarrely, I personally worked under Aaron Norris for a brief time when film festival ActionFest existed. Norris was a co-founder of the festival. He’s a massively amiable guy prone to bear hugs and big dreams. Between watching a ton of Chuck Norris films (and side-eying his current political stances), being a Cannon Films mega-fan, and having worked with Aaron Norris, I feel like I was potentially even more aware of the dreams being reached for with this film. As much as Cannon loved making exploitative films, they also had their eyes on awards-worthy drama. Runaway Train is a wonderful example of Cannon Films reaching for the skies and achieving lift off. It’s also well known that Chuck and Aaron lost a brother in the Vietnam war. So Platoon Leader probably meant a lot to those crafting the film.
And it’s totally fine. Dudikoff turns in the best performance of his career by a substantial margin. Norris captures the Vietnam vibe pretty authentically. The trouble is that the entire movie just feels rote. There’s absolutely no surprises. Nor is there really much of a hook. I guess the “point” is that leaders are made on the battlefield and not in the classroom. Or that being “in the shit” is what truly makes the man. The problem is that the viewer never for one second believes that Lt. Knight won’t become the man his men need him to be. It’s all very pre-determined and becomes a fairly dry watch with little to cause one to invest in the drama, while also eschewing lots of the Cannon Films trademark excess. At least Cannon films from 1988 looked and felt like real movies, with legitimate cameras and set design.
At worst, it’s boring. At best, it’s sincere!
Soldier Boyz (1995)
Where Platoon Leader was sincere without a great hook, you can probably guess at Soldier Boyz’ hook based solely on its name. That’s right: Dudikoff is going to team up with some minorities for a little “urban” action. Right from the tagline (“A dirty half dozen, only twice as deadly”), Soldier Boyz wears its inspirations (and its quintessential 1990s-ness) on its sleeve. Dudikoff is some kind of retired career soldier who is working to rehabilitate hardened prisoners. When some suits need him for “one last job”, he violates probably two dozen federal laws and brings a bunch of convicts (each a different racial profile/makeup) with him out into the jungle to rescue a kidnapped girl and maybe get their sentences commuted.
Gloriously R-rated, Soldier Boyz is really only watchable as a companion piece to Platoon Leader. Exploitative and laced with humor, violence for entertainment, and a nice villain turn from Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, it is both a perfect counterpoint to Platoon Leader and also not really worth watching at all. There’s a little less of an air of prestige coming off of this one, what with it not being a Cannon film and coming a decade later than its counterpoint in this double feature. The only real appeal is the silliness of the premise, the stereotypes depicted in blatant ways, and the distasteful language and violence sprinkled throughout.
I probably had a better time with Soldier Boyz, but it’s unquestionably the worse-made and more dated of the two films.
The Package
This Michael Dudikoff double feature is strictly for the Dudikoff and Cannon apologists of the world. It’s a couple of hella deep cuts that even this reviewer, an avowed Cannonite, can’t really recommend (at least as a purchase). Kino did a perfectly good job of pairing up a couple of titles that feel right together, and they look better than either of those movies probably ever have before. They’re just cinematic footnotes of interest to likely a very narrow audience.
And I’m Out.
The Platoon Leader / Soldier Boyz Blu-ray double feature is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
-
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY: Prestige 4K UHD
An Action Masterpiece In Peak Home Video Viewing Format
Terminator 2 exists among an elite class of all-time great action cinema. The debate will forever rage between which film among the first two Terminators is the greatest. I side towards T2 for highly subjective reasoning. First and foremost being that my older sister took me to see it in theaters in 1991 when I was virtually the exact same age as the T-1000’s target in the film: Eddie Furlong’s John Connor. I was absolutely smitten and forever altered by that theatrical experience (thanks cool older sister). Obviously the years rolled on and revisiting both The Terminator and T2 remained a cinematic joy each and every viewing. Fans can make convincing cases for either of the two films being “better”. My sense is that taking a peacemaker track is the way to go with assessing the two films: Terminator is the better horror film, and T2 is the better action film. If you lean towards action as your genre of preference, as I do, then T2 takes the clear lead as the most rewatchable and iconic of the two.
Inarguably one of the greatest sequels ever made, Terminator 2 builds itself upon a few key ideas that upend the audience’s expectations and work like gangbusters with industry-altering technological execution. In the first film, self-aware machines have taken control of the future and are extinguishing the human race after setting off a nuclear holocaust. The human resistance to the machines is led by John Connor, so the machines send a killer robot back in time to kill Connor’s unsuspecting future-mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton). They also send back human soldier Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who does battle with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic villainous Terminator. It’s an unrelenting thrill ride and an uncompromising vision executed on a limited budget. Terminator 2 takes the key characters from the first film and alters them in ingenious ways, giving them import and purpose which lends weight to the visually spectacular and propulsive plotting of this blockbuster.
As the frightened “everywoman” in Terminator, Linda Hamilton’s Sarah can only react to the insanity that befalls her as Reese and the T-800 battle to protect and destroy her, respectively. Here, she’s transformed into a soldier willing to grab fate by the balls and destroy anything that would threaten her son. Hamilton physically and mentally transforms into a fascinating mother-warrior that remains one of cinema’s all-time toughest heroines, with agency and motivations specific to her plight. Despite her son John Connor being the primary target of the time travelling cyborgs in this installment, Sarah remains the de facto main character, getting all the narration of the film in her voice, heard through her character’s perspective.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s iconic villain from the first film is transformed into a hero in T2. This was risky and ill-advised, but executed so successfully that cultural skepticism around this bold idea has basically faded out of existence. The writing and character dynamics at play, with a young John Connor initially believing that his institutionalized mother was crazy and that none of her judgment day rhetoric was true, make Arnold’s Terminator character all the more fascinating here. I (somewhat controversially) believe that Edward Furlong more than holds his own in his big screen debut as John Connor. All the drama centers around the life and death of John Connor, and Furlong’s vulnerability and rebellious charm prove a perfect foil to Arnold’s killer robot assigned to protect and obey John. James Cameron and William Wisher manage to write a touching and meaningful character arc for an emotionless robot, and it’s brilliant.
Also risky was the idea to introduce a newer, sleeker Terminator that is technologically superior to Arnold’s T-800 in every way. Again upending expectations established from the first film, the relentless pursuer and symbol of unstoppable power from the first film is now the underdog, making the survival of our human characters even more suspect. Robert Patrick’s liquid metal T-1000 is a perfect big screen villain teamed against another perfect big screen villain. Movie magic fires on all cylinders to bring the T-1000 to life. From a pitch perfect and iconic performance by Patrick (physically smaller and than Schwarzenegger but somehow twice as threatening), to the envelope-pushing visual effects from Stan Winston’s team that recreate a sentient liquid metal being in an utterly convincing way, the T-1000 is perhaps the biggest risk taken by James Cameron and team, and it’s the ingredient that most cements T2 as a spectacle for the ages.
Almost 30 years old at this point, watching Terminator 2 in 2017 feels like an exhilarating and fresh experience that’s never quite been equaled. Action set piece after set piece ratchets up the tension and spectacle (both practical and digital) masterfully. Well written and fleshed out characters carve a real path through an interesting sci-fi journey of AI future wars and time travel quandaries. None of the three feature films or tv series that came after this installment have been able to introduce such new and fresh ideas to the Terminator mythology or formula, and none had the balls to take as many risks as this film did, either.
The Package
My sincere hope is that James Cameron has such a good time remastering this film for ultra high definition that he will keep going and bring some of his long awaited featured like The Abyss and True Lies into the world of ultra high definition (or even high definition, for that matter). Probably one of the most perfect home viewing experiences of my life, this 4K UHD transfer is simply mind-blowingly beautiful. Watching an utter masterwork of visual wonder on a brand new transfer that brings the movie into the 21st century spectacularly was a transcendent viewing experience that brought on goosebumps on multiple occasions. Bells and whistles can’t make a bad movie good, but seeing a great movie meticulously restored is the stuff of film geek heaven. 4K UHD enthusiasts must pick up this disc as soon as possible.
Featuring a new hour-long documentary, you do get a pretty substantial new doc to sink your teeth into as a Terminator fan who has probably purchased this title in upwards of 3 formats already. You also get the Blu-ray, which I believe includes all the features of the “Skynet Edition” Blu-ray release, including bonus features, multiple cuts of the film, etc. This home video release was done in conjunction with the 3D theatrical re-release of the film done in 2017. I find it a little weird that this release doesn’t include a 3D home version of the film, but that doesn’t impact me as I have no home 3D set up and feel no desire to jump into that realm.
If you dive into the Blu-ray disc, this release has loads of content. The 4K disc mostly just provides you with the film itself. This will be one of my prize physical media possessions and comes with my highest recommendation.
And I’m Out.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is now available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Lionsgate.
-
Two Cents: God Help Us, We Watched THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL
The horror. Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
Sometimes people make mistakes.
Next Week’s Pick:
We’ve celebrated the holiday season with bloody action and…whatever this is, so let’s ring in the Yuletide with a more traditional family favorite.
The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet feature produced after the passing of Jim Henson, and the film’s success went a long way to assuring fans and creatives both that the Muppets could continue to enthrall and delight audiences even with the innovator and voice artist behind so much of the characters’ indelible magic was gone.
Buoyed by a completely deadpan performance by Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, and a host of new songs crafted by Paul “Swan from motherfucking Phantom of the Paradise” Williams, The Muppet Christmas Carol remains widely beloved, with a couple generations holding it up as the definitive rendition of Charles Dickens’ venerable morality play.
Submissions can be sent to TwoCents@Cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday.
Our Guests
The Star Wars Holiday Special is objectively bad. Even in the context of campy, kitschy variety shows that were apparently so popular in the 1960s/70s this TV special must be considered a failure. The framing domestic story, introducing us to Chewbacca’s family just before an important holiday, had potential. But it’s the returning Star Wars cast members who are the real draw, and in giving us the first new scenes with those characters the Holiday Special drops the ball. Luke appears to have several layers of makeup caked onto his face. Leia’s odd singing to the tune of John Williams’ ‘Star Wars Theme’ must have been entirely fueled by drugs, and Harrison Ford’s performance as Han Solo plays like a preview of his monotone, deliberately botched voiceovers for the theatrical cut of Blade Runner. And while James Earl Jones *did* record new lines, all of the Darth Vader footage used is actually a recontextualized deleted scene from Star Wars.
The other thing that utterly tanks this special is its painfully slow pacing. The aforementioned plot is interrupted repeatedly by musical numbers and other performances that bring the story to a halt. Such is the nature of variety shows, but because most of these sequences are not particularly good it makes the interruptions feel even longer. Bea Arthur’s cantina musical number feels like it must be at least two or three hours long. And also, unless a human character happens to be around, the story is propelled (awkwardly) by un-subtitled Wookiee growls. It’s really rough going. But hey — it’s got the first (animated) appearance of Boba Fett, and that’s gotta count for something? Actually, no. It’s not worth it (unless you happen to get the Rifftrax version, because that’s pretty fun). (@T_Lawson)
The Team
Someone put this on at my birthday party one year, and it ruined my birthday. The following year was also perhaps the worst year of all time. Prince and David Bowie died, Suicide Squad hit theaters, and Donald Trump was later elected President of the United States. The Holiday Special is a curse. (@daviddelgadoh)
The Star Wars Holiday Special has a reputation for being basically unwatchable. The seemingly hyperbolic slams on its awfulness are actually far too kind. It’s fucking garbage. I tried to watch it several times this week and barely made it halfway through.
I’ll summarize it with my 9 year old son’s comments just before I shut it off for the third time…
“Dad, can we watch anything else? This is awful!” (@ThePaintedMan)
The Star Wars Holiday Special is of course known today (if it is known at all) as a raging piece of shit, the kind of misstep that could very well have strangled the saga in its crib had it caught on. That the special only aired once and then for decades existed almost entirely as a mythical idea floating in the ether of the fan-verse before the Internet allowed the…‘joys’ found within to spread like a plague on the back of rats, that has to be one of the saving graces of George Lucas’ entire media empire.
But what’s really shocking isn’t that the special is bad, but the way in which it is bad. Believe me, I was on. board. for a schlocky, camp romp through bargain basement reproductions of Star Wars sets while original cast members and new guest stars, alike only in being coked to the gills for the entirety, struggled through cue cards laden with impossible-to-pronounce names and jargon that could only be the product of a bunch of hack comedy writers of 1970’s television trying to reproduce the already highly-affected nature of a George Lucas screenplay. Bring on the delightful failure.
But along with being impossibly boring and long, The Holiday Special is also a true and profound bummer, going ALL IN on the fascistic and oppressive nature in a way that none of the actual features really do. There’s a pervasive melancholy to giant chunks of this interminable bullshit, and it makes the insane, desperate gropes for laughs that you see during the various Harvey Korman comedy numbers all the more off-putting and unfunny. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh, what a nightmare.
Also Chewbacca’s Dad totally watches softcore porn right in the middle of this for, like, no reason. What the f, guys.(@TheTrueBrendanF)
Once venerated alongside Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four as the Holy Grail for geeky VHS traders scouring tape mailing clubs and stinky sci-fi convention side-rooms in search of degraded, oversaturated dubs, The Star Wars Holiday Special has lost the aura of rarity in the age of ye olde Internet, available in a version struck from broadcast tapes and deinterlaced for your viewing pl — well, for your viewing. (The Fantastic Four, on the other hand, actually fares well compared to some of the big budget versions that followed).
I tried to watch this last year and lasted about 20 minutes, which is 5 minutes longer than Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas, so it’s got that going for it.
It’s actually difficult to express just how bad this is. Despite appearances by the original cast, it somehow manages to be a cavalcade of boredom with awful musical and interpretive dance acts laboriously sandwiched between glimpses of Chewbacca’s family, bearing awful adjectives for names like Lumpy and Itchy (that stupidly parallel the nickname “Chewie” rather than the imaginatively alien “Chewbacca”).
The sole saving grace is the animated segment which, while not actually that great, at least delivers a specific aesthetic that immediately brings Heavy Metal to mind. Even this is hopelessly dumb in context, a Rebel propaganda cartoon watched by Chewie’s idiot son LITERALLY while stormtroopers are raiding his house, searching for Rebel propaganda. (@VforVashaw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJDAmBQ1u2g
Next week’s pick:
-
Other Worlds Austin 2017: BEYOND SKYLINE: Insanely Ambitious Sci-Fi
Frank Grillo & Iko Uwais Fist Fight Aliens, So…
Beyond Skyline had its Texas Premiere as the opening night film of Other Worlds Austin 2017. You can read my write up of the festival here. It is set for a Dec. 15th US release.
I don’t know what the budget was on writer/director Liam O’Donnell’s Beyond Skyline. I can guarantee it was much smaller than a Marvel film. I can also guarantee it was much smaller than than the size of O’Donnell’s ambition for the project. I mean this as a compliment. The concept of a film having a “reach beyond its grasp” is loaded, I know. But the idea very much applies to this guns-blazing sci-fi action film. While occasionally messy, overly ambitious, and bulging at its seams, Beyond Skyline is bursting with energy, resourcefulness, and glorious on screen imagery and violence.
O’Donnell was co-writer and producer of 2010’s Skyline. That film did little to implant itself in my memory. I recall it looking pretty slick for a lower-budget film, having a glowing blue beam that had something to do with its aliens, and… not much else. That said, my sense was that it made a bunch of money off of what was a very limited budget. I remember it being hailed as a sort of proto-Blumhouse model of a film which maximized its resources to create spectacle on a budget. That kind of thing is something I greatly admire as more and more dollars are poured into studio blockbusters but not a shred more imagination.
Beyond Skyline feels like a filmmaker playing with the tools of movie magic and actually having a good time in the process. In all honesty nothing about a Skyline sequel felt urgent, necessary, or even desirable in my mind. Then O’Donnell added Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais to the cast. You don’t do that unless you have some serious ideas about the action and physicality of your film. This was all it took to make Beyond Skyline a highly anticipated film for me. Granted, I’m an easy lay when it comes to these guys. I love them and the projects they tend to get involved with. So is Beyond Skyline just a bunch of earth-bound badasses stabbing aliens to death in hand to hand combat? I would have been okay with that. But no, it’s going for a lot more.
There is a real visceral, grounded quality to the hand to hand action of Beyond Skyline. But it’s also a sweeping sci-fi epic, and goes to all kinds of crazy places in that regard. Perhaps the most iconic element of Skyline was the blue light beam. Look into the light, and get sucked right up into the alien mothership, never to be seen or heard from again. Huge clouds of human beings being sucked into the sky is a cool visual, and an effective gag. This is the kind of alien invasion story where we’re outmatched in virtually every way. And these aliens have very unpleasant things in store for us. Beyond Skyline will show us exactly what kinds of body horror these aliens want to inflict upon us, and it’s just gloriously R-rated.
Essentially a father-son story, Grillo’s Mark character is a tough cop on leave after the loss of his wife. He picks up his son Trent (Jonny Weston) from the station after being arrested for some kind of criminal behavior. The strained father and son are en route on the subway when the alien attack begins. A small team of survivors battle from street to street in order to try and find a way to safety. From there things just get NUTS, with sequences inside the alien ships, globetrotting over to what I believe is supposed to be Thailand in the film, where we meet our (Indonesian) stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. This mid-budget movie has the audacity to be a big sci-fi effects film loaded with both digital and practical creatures, weapons, spaceships… and a practical, physical action film. Throw some time shifting non-linear stuff in there for good measure, too. There’s brains being pulled out of skulls, intense birth sequences, alien implant weapons… it’s just flat out insanity. And it’s a great time at the movies.
I’m certain there will be many who don’t care for the film. The gore and sci-fi alone will turn off many. And it tries to cover too much ground. On top of being a father-son story, it’s also a ragtag group of survivors story, a John Connor-style rise of a resistance leader story, and a giant alien invasion story. It’s packed to the gills and only runs 105 minutes. It’s all well and good that some folks won’t appreciate any of this. But I do. I enjoy the ambition. I relish the glee with which O’Donnell expanded his sci-fi universe and used every tool in his kit from his digital effects background to shoot for the stars. It’s not some kind of pure home run that every last film fan should rush to go see. But it is more invigorating and visceral than the barrage of superhero movies being pumped into our eyeballs on the daily. And it’s less bloated too. By putting Grillo and Uwais in starring roles, Beyond Skyline takes advantage of the irreplaceable physical abilities of real human movie stars. Then it goes to the other extremes and designs giant space creatures and ships and weapons the likes of which we generally only see in mega-budget blockbusters. It pushes boundaries in the physical and the digital and shows that fun can be had in both realms, in the same movie, without breaking the bank.
I’m at the point where I’ll follow Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais virtually anywhere they want to take me. And if Skyline didn’t make Liam O’Donnell a name to watch out for, Beyond Skyline certainly did. A similarly low budget and ambitious film called Monsters led to a filmmaker named Gareth Edwards being tapped to direct Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I’d love to see O’Donnell getting the attention he deserves for Beyond Skyline. Of course, I’d rather that attention be an offer for an even higher budget to keep expanding this tale versus being whisked up into the risk-free franchise model that studios peddle.
For now, check out Beyond Skyline. Fret not over whether you’ve seen the first, or even whether you didn’t care for the first. Come for Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais stabbing aliens, stay for writer/director Liam O’Donnell playing like a kid in a candy shop.
And I’m Out.
-
OTHER WORLDS AUSTIN Sci-Fi Film Festival Levels Up For Year Four
Central Texas Sci-Fi Fans Need To Get With This Festival
Austin’s own sci-fi film festival, Other Worlds Austin, has been making a name for themselves over the past several years. Featuring an annual festival and year-round screenings at the Flix Brewhouse, a town filled with film festivals still has plenty of room for the passionate programming this festival brings.
Having attended the very first festival prior to the birth of my first child, I’ve been itching to get back. For one thing, I had a really good time at the first festival. For another, the folks who run Other Worlds Austin are great people I’m happy to support. I’d also never yet been to North Austin’s Flix Brewhouse.
But in all honesty, the element which made this year an absolute must for me was simple: the programming. By its nature, Other Worlds Austin is shining a spotlight on underseen and underappreciated science fiction films. They’re curating for us, as all festivals do. In turn, it’s highly likely we won’t have heard of many of the films they are screening. And that’s totally okay. This year, however, OWA put together a killer track of beloved films that fit right into their wheelhouse. Repertory screenings of Event Horizon (20th Anniversary Screening) and Disney’s The Black Hole were exciting titles that I couldn’t ignore when they released their lineup.
It was the opening night film, however, which made OWA 2017 a must-attend event for me: Beyond Skyline. On name and franchise alone, I honestly couldn’t have cared less about this movie. Barely remember Skyline. Had no latent desire to see a sequel. But then the cast was announced. Frank Grillo headlining? The Raid’s Iko Uwais also starring? Welp, guess this just became one of my most highly anticipated films of the year! I’ll write up my thoughts on that film in a separate piece, but regardless this was a very fun and high profile selection for Other Worlds Austin to program as its opening night title. OWA simply lined up a program in 2017 that I could not miss.
My time at the festival will be limited thanks to real life and working over the weekend. But having attended a number of smaller film festivals over the years, I can confidently say that Other Worlds Austin is the real deal. Flix Brewhouse is a solid home for a festival of their size, offering lots of the amenities you’d find at an Alamo Drafthouse such as in theater food and beer service. It’s pretty far north, but not so far as to deter Austin-based sci-fi fans from taking part. Organized and efficient, I picked up my badge without a hitch, mingled at the opening party with ease, and had a great experience revisiting Event Horizon and enjoying a post-film Q&A with scribe Philip Eisner. The presentation of the film was top notch and everything ran with the smoothness one would expect of a professional film festival.
I’m legitimately bummed that I can’t take part in the full festival all weekend long, and am glad some friends and other press will be there experiencing/covering the festival in more detail than I’ll be able to. In four short years Other Worlds Austin have established a brand new film festival in a town packed with fests (no small feat), grown into a new and improved venue, and assembled a can’t miss slate of programming. Are you a central Texas sci-fi fan? Then what are you doing?! You’ve got to check out Other Worlds Austin.
And I’m Out.
-
WOLF WARRIOR 2: Wu Jing’s Mixed Bag Of A Box Office Sensation
Glorious Box Office Numbers Do Not A Great Film Make
In the opening moments of Wolf Warrior 2, director and star Wu Jing’s super soldier character Leng Feng swan dives off the side of a boat being ambushed by pirates, and proceeds to foil the siege entirely underwater. It’s a bravura action set piece unlike virtually anything audiences have ever seen before. It’s also by far the best sequence of the entire movie, resulting in an action blockbuster that constantly feels like it’s not living up to its potential.
Wolf Warrior was apparently a big enough hit to warrant an even bigger sequel. That film, with Cinapse favorite Scott Adkins playing the western heavy, swung wildly from comedy to nationalism to brutal fight film. It felt manic and had a sophomoric sense of humor, as well as a reach beyond its grasp regarding visual effects and set pieces. The overall premise of a kind of Chinese Rambo is an admirable one that I’ll absolutely grant Wu Jing. I just wish he’d been able to execute the film better.
Wolf Warrior 2 is, by all accounts, a better film than its predecessor. With a more, ahem, “lone wolf” approach, Leng Feng finds himself kicked off of the special forces team and relocated to Africa. There in Africa, Feng gets embroiled in an international incident involving a small army of mercenaries led by the villainous “Big Daddy” (the indomitable Frank Grillo). There’s a plague-like disease involved, an African kid sidekick, some drone warfare, and a general reverence for the superiority of Chinese character, strength, will power, and so on.
I actually kind of like the jingoism of these films. It’s naked and right there for all to see. Rambo was no different at a certain point in time, and I don’t begrudge a whole nation enjoying a morale boost from their on-screen heroes. Leng Feng doesn’t have any superpowers… he’s just the fastest, strongest, and smartest soldier on the field. So good on China for having an ultra modern, big screen, larger-than-life hero for their very own. It clearly connected with Chinese audiences as the film earned an unprecedented $800 million and change from international markets (some $600 million or more of that being from China’s box office alone). Wolf Warrior 2 is a gargantuan box office phenomenon that most westerners will never even hear about. And I love that part of this story.
I just wish Wolf Warrior 2 were a better movie to back up that exciting box office. There is a fair amount of fun to be had. Frank Grillo is always game for looking tough and fighting even tougher. The aforementioned opening sequence was a jaw-dropper. There’s a pretty fun tank battle towards the climax that feels ripped right out of a 1980s American action film (sans some dicey CGI). There’s also a cartoonish level of gore and over the top moments like a missile being deflected by a spring-frame mattress. It’s a remarkably gleeful hard-R, especially considering so much Chinese cinema playing it so safe for state funds and to avoid censorship. Heck, even writing all that stuff out is giving me some fond memories of glimpses of fun within the film.
But ultimately, despite its outsized box office haul, the film still looks cheap fairly often. And it’s not directed with the panache that perhaps someone with more experience behind the camera could have brought which double-duty-pulling Wu Jing couldn’t quite muster. Sometimes using the screen name Jacky Wu, Wu Jing has been crushing big screen action roles for many years now. A lead in both of the SPL and/or Killzone films puts him pretty high on my list of exciting fight performers to watch. And with the outsized hit that Wolf Warrior 2 has become, I expect his star will continue to rise in the coming years. I welcome that wholeheartedly; I’d just love to see his skill as a director and his ability to realize the set pieces that his high aspirations shoot for come to a greater fruition with more experience and budgetary clout.
American audiences only contributed some $2 million to the overall global box office haul for this juggernaut of a blockbuster, so it’s quite likely that most in the US are unfamiliar with the Wolf Warrior franchise. Anyone who’s super into military action will probably get a kick out of this movie, although highly nationalistic ‘Muricans might have much more of a problem with the Chinese chest thumping than I did. Fans of the first film, or fans of Wu Jing, will almost certainly get their money’s worth checking this film out either on Blu-ray via the Well Go USA release or on a VOD service of their choice. I’ll keep an eye out for future Wu Jing projects, but my hope is that he’ll keep pushing the envelope and deliver a more consistent and cohesive package of madcap military mayhem.
The Package
Occasionally looking sleek and expensive, Wolf Warrior 2 ricochets back and forth between a visually arresting film and a janky-looking CGI slog. Blu-ray is a perfectly acceptable format on which to experience this overstuffed film, though with a light array of bonus features, checking this film out on VOD might scratch that action itch just as nicely. The disc includes a few bonus featurettes that are nothing to write to write home about.
If you’re like me, you were absolutely going to seek out and see the film no matter what. I don’t want to dissuade anyone who is in that same boat. Check it out, have fun where you’re able, and don’t expect a game changer along the lines of the recently-released Well Go title The Villainess. Just let Wu Jing take you on his unbalanced and wacky ride and take from it what you can.
And I’m Out.
Wolf Warrior 2 hits Blu-ray on Dec. 12th from Well Go USA Entertainment.
-
ACTS OF VENGEANCE: Antonio Banderas Takes a Vow of Vengeful Silence
Reigning DTV Action King Isaac Florentine Takes A Turn For The Earnest
I go out of my way to watch Isaac Florentine films. The maestro behind the Undisputed sequels who more or less discovered and amplified the career of Scott Adkins, Florentine appears to be the living spirit of Golan & Globus’ Cannon Films. (Only in this embodiment Cannon Films is a genuinely nice guy and formidable karate expert himself). Florentine makes some legitimately great action films amidst the limitations and constraints of today’s modern direct to video market. He’s part of a group of artists and career filmmakers who are hungry to prove themselves through this medium and who take each opportunity they get and attempt to elevate the art form of the direct to video genre film.
So highly do I esteem Isaac Florentine, that I was personally saddened to hear that his wife had recently passed away after battling illness. Sure, he’s an entertainer creating a product for his fans to enjoy. But his work means so much to me that I tend to appreciate him on a human level, and genuinely felt for he and his family amid their loss. And you better believe I was fascinated to hear about his most recent project, Acts Of Vengeance, dedicated to his wife Barbara. In the film, Antonio Banderas’ silver-tongued and perpetually distracted defense lawyer Frank Valera takes a vow of silence and trains as a vigilante in order to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter.
Acts of Vengeance is the kind of film where the hero reads books and takes certain quotes and implements them into his martial arts training regimen. It’s a book-action film? The story is broken into chapters accompanied by quotes from Marcus Aurelius, and the camera often dramatically zooms onto a page to reveal a sick quote. The page might even be blood-spattered. No joke. But while Antonio Banderas definitely trained for this film, did a bunch of his own fight and stunt work, and convincingly becomes a pretty badass Dad-action hero, Acts Of Vengeance really isn’t an outright action movie.
Taking a decidedly earnest tone, the film wears its heart on its sleeve and one can’t ignore the previous career of Florentine or the recent loss of his wife when experiencing it. It’s a marrying of the tough guy mindset of action cinema with a journey of grief and philosophical change. Now, don’t let me get to sounding too deep here, because there’s very little moral complexity going on here. What there is, however, is a unique spin on the well-trodden vigilante justice formula, executed by one of the best in the DTV business.
Valera taking a vow of silence makes for some interesting challenges as the film is forced to silence its star and the biggest marquee name on the project. Formerly (and superiorly) entitled Stoic, this is a film that’s more or less about Banderas becoming a warrior monk and solving the murders of his wife and child. The solving of the mystery is so telegraphed as to be almost humorous, so there’s little tension there. You can look at the cover of the Blu-ray and figure out who the killer is. But the journey to get there is more interesting than lots of more straight up revenge cinema. The conclusion to the final battle (which is wonderfully captured by Florentine and his eye for action) is surprising, however, and reflects a more spiritually enlightened take on the revenge narrative.
All this said, you do come here for the action. And it’s sparing here. The film does that thing where it kicks off in Act IV or so, just to give you a sweet taste of the mute-hyper-aware-revenge-ninja that Banderas is going to become, and then does an almost literal stop, record-scratch, “You’re probably wondering how I got here” deal, before settling into a more traditional linear narrative. Movies in this market need to give you that action up front, I guess, but it felt pretty blatant. Also Banderas ends up narrating a lot of the film for his silent character. With that being the case, the audience doesn’t quite experience the silence that Valera is benefitting from and being changed by. It would have been cool if the film could have pulled off a real deafening sense of silence while watching it.
Eventually Valera does become an almost Force-sensitive mute fighter, and all that stuff is pretty satisfying. Perhaps the most fun the movie has is with a German Shepard who is initially supposed to attack Valera and who becomes aware of Frank’s spiritual power through his silence. Unwilling to attack him, this dog ultimately adopts Valera and helps him solve the murders. It’s incredibly endearing and gets at the power of a non-verbal relationship better than anything else in the film. (And I’m not even a dog person).
Throw in literally one scene with Robert Forster, and several scenes with Karl Urban and Paz Vega, and Acts Of Vengeance doesn’t quite rise above its DTV trappings, but certainly does an estimable job of taking you on a satisfying journey. Go in expecting more crime drama than flying spin kicks, and you may enjoy yourself.
I tend to value earnestness, and enjoyed watching one of my favorite action filmmakers continue on with his work even after a personal tragedy and choose to address and wrestle with that loss in the film he’s sharing with us. While the spiritual insights may not be as nuanced as, say, the emotional catharsis of 2017 prison therapy documentary The Work, they’re heartfelt and higher minded than most anything else you’ll find on the DTV playing field.
The Package
There’s a bonus feature. It’s nice. You also get a Digital HD code for the film. Since this title got no real theatrical release, VOD or Blu-ray are really the only way you’ll be able to see it. Buying the disc gets you a bonus feature and a physical copy, but there’s not much more to the package. Seek this movie out if you’re a diehard Isaac Florentine fan like I am, but VOD is probably just as satisfying as Blu-ray.
And I’m Out.
Acts Of Vengeance is now available from Lionsgate Home Video
-
LE SAMOURAÏ: Melville’s Crime Masterpiece Hits Criterion Blu-ray
Alain Delon’s Eyes Have Never Been So Blue
Minimal and breathtaking, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai features an icy and smoldering lead performance from one of the most beautiful human beings to ever grace the big screen: Alain Delon.
Much like in my recent reviews of Blade Runner 2049 and Atomic Blonde, my thoughts on Le Samourai turn quickly to style as the film’s most defining characteristic. Opening with a quiet tableau of a shot, Melville sets the tone immediately for the isolated and ice cold experience we’re about to have. Assassin Jef Costello (Delon) lives by the Bushido code. Austere, principled, thorough, Costello’s apartment as depicted in the opening shot contains little beyond a quietly chirping bird, the bed on which he lays motionless, and a slowly undulating cloud of cigarette smoke belying that this is, indeed, a motion picture. Told with a visual efficiency, this softly tweeting bird and threadbare apartment aren’t just indicators of the kind of person Jef is, but will play a major role in the journey through the coolest criminal underbelly imaginable, which we’re about to travel through.
Paris in the late 1960s is nothing if not cool as hell. Every adult and small child is smoking cigarettes, listening to jazz music in basement clubs, and conducting organized crime in back rooms whilst wearing perfect hats and coats. It’s into this environment that Jef carries out a doomed hit on a club manager that results in an eye witness (Cathy Rosier as a nameless pianist for whom Jef falls quietly in love), his employers turning on him, and a trip before a police lineup. Being stone cold as he is, Jef has lined up a two-tiered alibi which holds up under increased scrutiny from a dogged police commissioner (Francois Perier), including an instance of the nameless pianist mysteriously covering for him after witnessing the killing. The plotting is minimal, the pacing is languid, and the exposition is non-existent.
It isn’t all about style, however. Costello is a compelling-if-borderline-mute lead character whose actions are fascinating and confounding to behold. As this is a tragic tale, we see just enough of Jef to understand the code by which he lives, the lengths to which he will go to conduct his business above reproach, and then we see him go against those refined instincts as the inevitability of the conclusion looms large. All that we learn about Jef is through his actions as there’s extremely sparse dialog. We must lean in to Le Samourai to draw meaning from it, which is a function of the style of the film, yes, but also an exhibition of Melville’s mastery of the medium, and a sign of his respect for his audience.
Beyond even the fascinating character work exhibited in Jef, there are flares of surrealism injected into Le Samourai that keep you thinking. With such a grounded approach to story, it stands out when the killings actually take place in the film. Edited with quick cuts, these sequences are disorienting as compared to the rest of the film. Also intentionally anachronistic, Jef is shown to be explicitly not holding a gun when his victims pull on him. Yet through editing Jef is able to get the drop on both of his victims. I’m still not sure if this flourish is intended to amplify Jef into god-like killer status (he’s able to triumph over his targets even when they draw first), or to disorient the viewer, or to indicate something broken and missing from the soul of our protagonist? Either way, this break from reality indicates the level of control Melville has over his story and over our experience of it as a viewer.
Like the rest of the story, the ending refuses to force feed the audience any attempts at an overt meaning or takeaway. We can read into the story what we like. Did Jef sacrifice his principles to protect a woman he loves? Or did his reliance on the code of the samurai bring him to a conclusion that was otherwise inevitable? Was the modern technology and dogged determination of the Commissioner just too much for the ancient creed by which Jef lived? We’re left thinking about all of these things and more as Melville concludes his tale and sends us back into the decidedly less suave surroundings of modern America circa 2017.
The Package
A feat of aesthetic wonder, Le Samourai is one of the most muted color films you’ll ever see. Blacks, browns, greys, and austere locations display a sense of icy cool so intentional that is makes the jazz music throughout feel anachronistic. Delon’s vibrantly blue eyes are the most popping colors in the entire film. And boy does this Criterion release ensure that your heart will skip a beat at those blue eyes. Melville doesn’t display an effortless cool here, but rather a cool that clearly came as a result of hard work and intention. Le Samourai will live eternal because it sets a standard for cool that will be referenced and alluded to as long as there are assassins and criminals in our cinema. Criterion takes an absolutely gorgeous aesthetic experience and brings it new life through its HD transfer, and one hopes there will be a receptive new audience for this masterful crime tale.
Bonus Features
- New HD Digital Restoration
- Liner notes from David Thompson (film scholar), filmmaker John Woo, and excerpts from Melville on Melville
- Interviews with Melville authors and experts Rui Nogueira and Ginette Vincendeau
- Archival Interviews with: Jean-Pierre Melville, Alain Delon, Francois Perier, Nathalie Delon, and Cathy Rosier
And I’m Out.
Le Samourai is now available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection
-
DESERT HEARTS Lands on Criterion
The 1985 indie romance will sweep you off your feet.
It’s 1959 and English professor Vivian (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to divorce her husband. She resides at a ranch owned by Frances (Audra Lindley, Three’s Company, Cybill) and meets a young sculptor named Cay (Patricia Charbonneau). The relationship between Cay and Vivian — and Frances’s interactions with the two — is at the center of director Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts.
Cay and Vivian fall for each other amidst colorful desert vistas and smoky, crowded casinos — all captured by cinematographer Robert Elswit, who would go on to collaborate with Paul Thomas Anderson and film recent additions to the Mission: Impossible series. Desert Hearts is an intimate and quiet romance with slow action — except for a sequence wherein Elswit and Deitch configured a way to shoot Cay driving backwards while conversing with Frances and Vivian in their car in the opposite lane.
Charbonneau’s Cay seduces Vivian with her Natalie Wood eyes and openly flirtatious nature. Shearer as Vivian walks off the train to Reno as stiff as a poker, so brittle she just might break. “I want to be free of who I’ve been,” she tells her Nevada lawyer. In her six weeks at the ranch we see the start of her slow reinvention and self-discovery.
There’s a keen yearning between Cay and Vivian before any first moves are made. This desire — along with careful direction and support from Deitch — fills their love scenes with tenderness and awe. Outside sounds, such as planes flying overhead and church bells chiming, accompany a sensual scene in a hotel, as if to emphasize that such wonder and deep affection is possible in the real world.
Elswit’s cinematography and the production design by Jeannine Oppewall create a true sense of place, down to the last detail. Songs from the period by Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and others reinforce the setting. What still seems refreshingly modern is Cay’s frankness about her sexuality. Deitch made Desert Hearts to celebrate a love between women and not punish them for it (as so many previous films tended to). This beautifully restored print, now available on Blu-ray from Criterion Collection, gives a new generation an opportunity to appreciate this seminal independent film.
Special features in this Criterion release include:
- A conversation between director Donna Deitch and Jane Lynch about the impact made by Desert Hearts
- Interviews with lead actresses Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau about how they came to work on the project and their experience during filming
- A commentary track (from 2007) by director Deitch
- A conversation led by Deitch with DP Robert Elswit and production designer Jeannine Oppewall
- Excerpts from a ‘90s era documentary about Canadian author Jane Rule, who wrote Desert of the Heart (includes a surprise appearance by Margaret Atwood!)
