In this case, my last such endeavor took a bit longer than I expected, thanks to a termite issue and work having to be done on both the front and back of my place, which made it way too noisy to write at times. On top of that, the weather has been pretty unpredictable over the last couple of months. For the record, they've basically wrapped things up, save a little painting. We'll still have to get the exterminators out here for a final spray after they're done, but the worst of it is over, thank God.
Anyway, now that I've finished my look at Tarantino's oeuvre, it's time to move back into my old format again- at least until I tackle another franchise or director or whatever. But before I do that, I wanted to do a quick recap of the films I've seen in the meantime. There's quite a few, so I'm going to split it into two articles, so I can get it done this week and be back on track next week, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Let's get it started! 😃
Whereas his first film was a clever look at race filtered through the horror genre, this more ambitious endeavor is more concerned with all of us- the leads just so happen to be mostly black. Not that, mind you, Peele doesn't feature a few biting slivers of the differences between us, in the sense of black America, versus them, in the sense of white America, but overall, race takes a back-burner to a more comprehensive "other" here, as in the "Haves" vs. the "Have-Nots."
I don't want to get too far into spoiler territory- the less you know, the better- but if you've seen even the posters, much less the trailer, then, at the very least, you know that the film deals with doppelgängers, aka "doubles" of people that are often up to no good, perhaps most recently the focus of David Lynch's Twin Peaks- more so the revival than the original, though that element was still present there as well.
Here, the main focus is on Adelaide Wilson (Black Panther's Lupita Nyong'o, in fine form), who had a spooky encounter with her own double as a child- or so she thought- when she visited a theme park in Santa Cruz, California, and wandered off on her own and into a funhouse. After said encounter, she's rattled to her core, and her parents are convinced something bad happened to her. Her psychiatrist suggests she take on a hobby, which, in her case, is dancing, and eventually Adelaide recovers.
Fast forward a few decades and Adelaide is now an adult, married with two kids. Against her better judgment, she agrees to spend a vacation back in Santa Cruz, staying in her late parents' lake house. There, they spend some time with married friends Josh and Kitty Tyler (Tim Heidecker, of "Tim and Eric" fame, and Elisabeth Moss, of The Handmaid's Tale, both in fine comedic form), while Adelaide tries her best to shake off the bad feeling she has about being back in Santa Cruz again.
Naturally, she's right to feel that way, as things almost immediately go off the rails that very evening, when a creepy family approaches their home, which is soon revealed to be Adelaide and her family's evil doubles. Things proceed from there, as the nefarious quartet seek to torment and possibly kill their "normal" twins and take their place permanently. Will Adelaide and her family be able to think on their feet and defeat the evil would-be usurpers? You'll just have to see for yourself.
Peele does an amazing job planting clues and symbols for what's to come that reward future viewings even more so than Get Out, and that's saying something. A lot of thought went into this project, much more so than your typical horror flick, which is why Peele is one of the most important voices in the genre in ages. I'm really glad, as a longtime horror fan, to see him sticking with the genre, at least in the short term, with other projects including the nifty reboot of The Twilight Zone and the forthcoming Lovecraft Country.
Us is arguably even better than Get Out and, like that film, was a huge success at the box office. It's always nice to see original horror succeed, as a fan, rather than the umpteenth remake or sequel. Peele is undeniably a studied fan of the genre, as evidenced by the thorough documentaries included on the DVD/Blu-Ray, in which he runs down his influences for the film, which includes some unexpected source material- note a certain film on VHS visible in the opening scene on the shelf. Us certainly deserves a place on your shelf, too.
Speaking of sequels, Happy Death Day 2U is one of the rare sequels that actually lives up to its predecessor. The original- see review here- was a pleasant surprise that caught me off-guard. At first, I thought it was another run-of-the-mill slasher with unlikable characters you couldn't wait to see get killed, but then, it proved to be a clever, funny, black comedy that was equal parts slasher movie and Groundhog Day, with some great twists along the way.
The sequel, not content to simply be more of the same, instead takes its inspiration from the Back to the Future series- mainly the second installment- and opens up the storyline to include alternate realities and quantum physics and the like. Heady stuff for a horror movie, and you might not want to think too hard on the logic of it all, but it's nonetheless a fun ride that's more comedy than slasher this time around, but not in a bad way.
As horror fans know, horror-comedies are a tricky beast that's hard to pull off, but HDD2U effectively manages to do just that, for a sequel that's faster, funnier and might even win over people that don't normally go for such things. A key part of that is the cast, which is a lot of fun and skews even further towards likable this time around, anchored by the destined-to-be-a-big-star Jessica Rothe. Her character's exasperation for having to go through all of this yet again is palpable and she milks it for all its worth, in one of the best comedic turns I've seen all year to date.
As one might guess, the door is left open to yet another sequel, but I like the direction the next one seems to be headed in, and, for once, I actually look forward to seeing what the filmmakers come up with next, which is more than I can say for most horror sequels. Well done, everyone, and a Happy Death Day 2U, too.
And now, sadly, for an example of how NOT to do a horror movie. This completely unnecessary remake, which brings very little to the table, might have been promising, had it the courage of its convictions. For one thing, it has a great cast that includes the normally excellent Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), horror regular Amy Seimetz (You're Next, The Sacrament), award-winning actor John Lithgow (Raising Cain, Blow Out) and promising newcomer Jeté Laurence (TV's Younger, Sneaky Pete).
It also has directing duo Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, of the well-received Starry Eyes, going for it, both hardcore Stephen King fans, as are screenwriters Matt Greenberg (1408, Halloween H20) and Jeff Buhler (The Prodigy- more on that one in a minute- and The Midnight Meat Train). Alas, all concerned forgot the golden rule: if it ain't broke, don't try fixing it.
Had all concerned managed to keep the one big twist the film had going for it under wraps, they might have at least had one surprise going for them, in terms of knocking fans of the original off-balance, but, unfortunately for them, the idiots in charge of marketing blew that for everyone in the trailer, leading would-be fans with plenty of time to nitpick the negatives of such an approach so that, by the time the film actually arrived in theatres, many were already predispositioned to hate it even more than they inherently were before.
I suppose I won't ruin the big twist for those who are still blissfully unaware- I had already sworn off trailers before this, but damned if someone else didn't ruin it for me on a podcast I listen to, so I won't be listening to that podcast anytime soon- at least if I know them to be dealing with a film I know nothing about. (To be fair, like I said, it's more the marketing department's fault than anyone else.)
What I will say is that the twist, though clever in the moment, has disastrous repercussions moving forward that all but ruin the film's chances of setting itself apart from the much-beloved original. The ending in particular, which is also different from the book in more than a few ways, seems to be trying to outdo the film version of The Mist, which notoriously tweaked the novella's original ending to make it even darker, remarkably enough.
Here, it's just laughable, not to mention nonsensical- why would the mother, knowing things are awry back home, even bring her other kid along in the first place? (She did not, in the original.) But no, this version had to be different. Boy, did they make some terrible changes here, from having Rachel outright kill her sister Zelda, thus fucking up one of the film's surefire scares in a needless way, to making Jud a stooge that heeds the Pet Sematary's every beck and call. Lithgow also doesn't even bother attempting a Maine accent, one of the most endearing elements of Fred Gwynne's OG performance.
The last time someone so thoroughly botched a remake was probably A Nightmare on Elm Street, I think, but this may even be worse than that, and that's saying something. Even Clarke and Seimetz, usually good in most everything, seem to be sleepwalking their way through this one, literally. Where's the overwhelming grief? The dazed conviction in one's actions? If you'd have ever told me that freaking Dale Midkiff would capture the nuance of such things better than Jason Clarke, I'd have told you that you were off your rocker, but yet, here it is. Eminently skippable, unless you're a glutton for punishment.
Let's put it this way- if he wants to partner with that cute girl in lab class, you better let him. And if the beloved family pet turns up missing... well, let's just say that it having run away would have been a better outcome. After a certain point, obviously, the kid's behavior becomes too much to ignore, so the mother (Taylor Schilling, of Orange is the New Black) takes him to a specialist, in hopes of leveling out his temperament with some assistance of a pharmaceutical nature.
Instead, she refers her to a "different" sort of therapist (Colm Feore, The Umbrella Academy), who is convinced that past people's "spirits" can be reincarnated in present people's bodies, if an available vessel is nearby- as the mother's son happened to be the night a local serial killer was captured and killed. The therapist warns mom that, if the spirit stays put too long, it can override her son's own soul and take over completely if she doesn't figure out what he wants- typically some unfinished business that led the spirit to become restless in the first place.
Naturally, the mom is skeptical, but rapidly worsening behavior leads her to take radical action, which leads to some nasty stuff going down. Writer Jeff Buhler may have fumbled the ball with his work co-scripting Pet Sematary, but his dark side serves him well here, as The Prodigy refreshingly embraces the darkness for a down-and-dirty tale of the supernatural that isn't afraid to go full dark, no stars, as Stephen King might say.
The end result is a little bit The Exorcist (demonic-type spirit partially possesses an innocent, and will completely take over if not expelled in time), a little bit Child's Play (a recently dead serial killer is revived in the body of something else- or, in this case, someone else) and a healthy dose of hellspawn horror tales like The Omen and The Bad Seed. It may not be all that original, but it's engaging enough, the cast is solid and there are enough clever twists to make it worthwhile.
By my count, at least the third movie with the same title and premise in so many years, Escape Room is only really notable by virtue of the third time being the charm, in terms of box office success, grossing over a whopping $155 million on a mere $9 million budget. Needless to say, a sequel is coming next year, warranted or not.
It does have a decent genre cast going for it, including Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Jones, True Blood), Tyler Labine (Invasion, Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil), Taylor Russell (Falling Skies, Lost in Space), Logan Miller (Would You Rather, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse) and Yorick van Wageningen (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).
However, their characters mostly fall into the unlikable category, so you can probably figure out who will be left standing in the end, if anyone. Okay, someone is, or there probably wouldn't be a sequel. Regardless, the resulting film is basically a warmed-over, PG-13-rated Saw. Basically, a Saw movie for people who can't handle- or are too young to see- an actual Saw movie. So, yeah, hardcore gore fans need not apply.
I suppose it's watchable enough, and some of the set design is clever- I dug the upside down room and the cabin in the snowy woods parts- but overall, it's all too predictable and ridiculous to take very seriously, and not in a fun, so-bad-it's-good kind of way, either. Basically, it's a meh from me.
Speaking of meh, there's The Meh- uh, make that The Meg, the latest in a long line of Jaws rip-offs. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional such film- love both the original and the more recent Piranha films, and Open Water, The Shallows and 47 Meters Down were all engaging enough. But this particular flick is more of an action movie in disguise, a la Deep Blue Sea or something like that.
It stars professional tough guy Jason Statham- see what I mean?- as a former rescue diver with a semi-shady past who comes out of drunken retirement to go back into the fray once again to save his ex (Jessica McNamee, The Loved Ones), who is trapped way down below with a massive shark keeping her at bay. The mission succeeds, but not without complications- namely, said shark follows them back to civilization to terrorize everyone within the general vicinity, including a bunch of Chinese tourists in a nearby beach resort.
I suppose it's all good, stupid fun, and points to whoever hired Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) as one of the leads, and both Ruby Rose (Orange is the New Black) and Li Bingbing (Transformers: Age of Extinction) are hella easy on the eyes, but overall, it's kind of predictable and more than a little stupid. Maybe not SyFy Creature Feature-level stupid, but that's kind of the problem. It's neither so-bad-it's-good nor surprisingly entertaining, so the end result is yeah, just sort of meh. Oh well.
Also known as The Take, which is the title I saw it under- I assume because the filmmakers thought Americans wouldn't know what the hell Bastille Day was (probably a safe assumption), this solid-if-unspectacular little action-thriller isn't anything to jump up and down about, but it's a relatively engaging time-waster that features a decent cast and enough memorable scenes to recommend, I suppose.
Idris Elba, an actor with cool to burn- he's firmly in Luther mode here- plays Sean Briar, a tough, no-nonsense CIA agent who is tasked with capturing a seeming bomber, Michael Mason (Richard Madden, Game of Thrones), who is actually a pick-pocket that picked the wrong pocket to rob- or rather, the wrong shopping bag, in this case. After investigating the bag and seeing there's nothing more than a teddy bear, a phone and some random crap, he takes the phone and tosses the bag, only to have it explode seconds later.
Insisting his innocence- of the bombing, that is, not of stealing- he and Briar form an unlikely partnership to hunt down the woman with the bag, and, in turn, who put her up to planting the bomb that was never planted where it was supposed to be, ironically, because she was scared someone might get hurt. (The building she was supposed to put it in was supposed to be vacant- it wasn't, hence her backing out.)
As par for the course for such movies, there are a few decent twists and turns, and the Paris setting makes for some nice location shooting, with some scenic action sequences throughout the streets of the famed city. Elba makes for a solid straight man to Madden's more wily thief, and the two have a nice, easy rapport that makes for a fun watch, garnering a few unexpected laughs along the way.
There's also an eye-catching nude scene at the beginning courtesy of Stéphane Caillard, which I won't deny was what put my ass in the seat early on when I stumbled upon it during a free Skinemax preview. Nice to see that Cinemax is still living up to its old nickname after all these years. Still, the scene may have got me watching, but the movie itself kept me watching, in spite of the late hour, so there's that.
Well, that's all for now. Join me later in the week for another round of mini-reviews, as I continue to tackle all the movies I've been watching as of late. Thanks, as always, for reading! 😀
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