SMURFS is Smurfy, but not super-Smurfy. There are some surprisingly clever visual gags and it is family-safe (nothing objectionable or polemical), but it never leans into nostalgia for the original Saturday morning cartoon. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.
New Age hokem is always a headache, but that will be especially true for Henry Samsa. His
terminally ill wife Catherine made him promise to bury her in the woods with
acorns embedded within her body, so she could blossom into a tree, or something
like that. Instead, he brings her back to civilization for a proper burial, so
now she is apparently haunting him in director-screenwriter Seobald Krebs’ Bury
Me When I’m Dead, which releases today on VOD.
Samsa
has a lot to brood over and brood and brood and brood. He cheated on his wife
with their floral shop employee Rebecca Gregor, but she let him off the hook
for that. She only asks for her natural burial (which probably violates
multiple laws, as well as health and environmental regulations). However, her
powerful father, Gary Higdon, secretly lays down the law with Samsa—bring her
body home, or else. So he does, but Higdon does the “or else” anyway.
Basically,
Higdon financially ruins Samsa out of spite. To make matters worse, the
bereaved husband starts having visions that lead him to suspect his wife is
haunting him. However, it is a subtle, quiet haunting. At least Samsa never turns into a
bug, like his Kafkaesque namesake.
Remember
when horror movies were fun? Clearly, Krebs aimed for an “elevated” “post-horror”
kind of vibe, but the results are acutely angsty and often downright dreary. This
is no Don’t Look Now, not by a long shot. Honestly, watching this film
felt like homework.
Ryosuke Yoshii is the kind of reseller who has a one-star rating on ebay (or it is fictional
equivalent). Yet, people still buy from him. Big surprise—they often regret it.
Unfortunately for him, some of his disgruntled suppliers and buyers start
getting organized “in real life” in director-screenwriter Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud,
which opens tomorrow in New York.
It is
easy to see why Yoshii has so much bad karma from the first transaction Kurosawa
depicts. Having commissioned a run of counterfeit medical devices, Yoshii
renegotiates for a fraction on the Yen, because it would cost the small
workshop more to have them carted away as rubbish. Then he sells the entire run
to desperate buyers, even though they are worthless.
These sharp
practices led to the creation of a large network of online haters. Starting to
feel the heat, Yoshii uses his next big score to relocate to the countryside. Nevertheless,
Yoshii fears some of his shadowy stalkers followed him to the boonies.
Increasingly paranoid, Yoshii’s emotional withdrawal pushes away his girlfriend
Akiko. He also fires his new assistant, Sano, but the former protégé remains
loyal to Yoshii, for reasons that are never fully explained. Dano also happens
to have a certain set of skills, honed during his previous employment as a
Yakuza enforcer.
Eventually,
Cloud morphs into a reasonably effective stalker-payback thriller. Nevertheless,
it is remarkable how far this film coasted on Kurosawa’s reputation, including
its selection as Japan’s international Oscar submission. Most viewers who are
unaware of its pedigree would assume it is merely a small, grungy exploitation
movie, because that is exactly how it presents itself. Indeed, this film is
small in scope and rather shallow. However, the concluding action sequence is admittedly
lean, mean, and relentlessly tense.
DC has the most iconic superheroes, because nobody has greater symbolic resonance than
Superman—not even Batman. Yet, DC’s super-villains are even more iconic than Marvel's. Two
people won Oscars for portraying the Joker, Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix.
Frankly, it should have been three—Jack Nicholson was robbed. Lex Luthor is up
there too. Generally speaking, Gene Hackman was not a science fiction or comic
book kind of guy, but all his obits prominently mentioned his portrayal of
Luthor. Alas, all good super-villainy must come to an end, apparently even for
Luthor. His death appears imminent unless his virtuous nemesis finds a way to
save him in Mark Waid’s Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor,
illustrated by Bryan Hitch, which is now on-sale.
This
Superman story is probably better than the new movie and it is certainly more
daring. Yet, it addresses some of the same themes. The bald baddie’s latest
mecha-suited afront to decency was really just a ruse. His true purpose was to
extort Superman’s assistance in seeking a cure for his terminal condition—naturally
the result of his latest round of reckless Kryptonite experiments.
Superman
believes if he refuses any request for help, even from pond-scum like Luthor,
he will slowly lose Earth’s trust—not immediately, but over time. At this point,
only Lois Lane gets that. Regardless, off Superman goes, whisking Luthor to the
Fortress of Solitude, Atlantis, Paradise Island, and the Legion of Superheroes
in the 31st Century, in search of a cure for the rare disease eating
away at his sworn enemy. Of course, he still suspects this is all just a trap, which
it is—but its not Luthor’s.
With this film, Kiyoshi Kurosawa joined the company of Michael Haneke (Funny Games),
Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge), George Sluizer (The Vanishing), and
Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch). All have helmed remakes of their films in
different languages. Admittedly, Japanese can still be heard in Kiyoshi’s new
take on his 1998 dark thriller, but French is the primary language—logically
so, since it is set in and around Paris. Weirdly, one of the major themes was
lost in translation, but human nature remains just as dark and brutish as ever
in Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path (2024), which has its East coast premiere
tomorrow, as part of the 2025 Japan Cuts.
Schlubby,
grieving Albert Bacheret and straight-arrow psychiatrist Dr. Sayoko Mijima are a
mismatched odd couple, but they are about to pull off the daring daylight
abduction of Laval, a prominent attorney. He should have been more discerning
in his choice of clients.
Viewers
deduce relatively quickly that Laval represented “The Circle,” an organ-trafficking
cult that murdered Bacheret’s young daughter. Tormented by grief and guilt,
Bacheret now only lives for revenge. However, as the trail leads the duo to
high-ranking members of the Circle, Bacheret grows wary and apprehensive. He
understands just how dangerous they are, because he once worked for them. Right,
that’s awkward.
Aurelien
Ferenczi’s adapted screenplay remains largely faithful to Hiroshi Takahashi’s
original, but it transforms the distraught father’s accomplice from a math
teacher into a doctor. As a result, the mathematical motifs all go out the
window.
While
that character change might trouble admirers of the 1998 film, Ko Shibasaki’s powerhouse
portrayal of Mijima is definitely the remake’s greatest asset. She is quiet,
but her presence is electric. Frankly, Damien Bonnard is completely outclassed
as the basket case, Bacheret.
In Chinatown and The Two Jakes, it is water and oil that fuel corruption.
Now, money from green energy greases palms and fills dirty pockets. Except,
maybe it isn’t all that green. When a solar energy magnate is assassinated, the
cops assume it is an antisemitic hate crime, but his rabbi suspects government
land use and energy regulation might be the true motivations for Alan Rosner’s
murder in Salvador Litvak’s Guns & Moses, which releases Friday in
theaters.
Rabbi
Mo Zaltzman lacks a proper Temple, but he has thriving community in the southern
California town of High Desert. Rosner pledged to fund a permanent home for the
High Desert congregation, but he will be quickly cut down by an assassin’s
bullet.
Suspicion
quickly and conveniently falls on Clay Gibbons, a young, troubled skinhead, who
had menaced the Rabbi’s storefront community center. It all looks pretty done
and dusted to the cops but Rabbi Zaltzman really believed he was starting to
reach Gibbons, so he starts digging. He finds the deceased was deeply enmeshed
in schemes involving environmental impacts statements (both phony and legit),
as well as contested scrub land possibly needed by the state’s eternally
under-construction light rail.
Rabbi
Zaltzman turns out to be a very appealing amateur sleuth and Rosner’s solar-panel
farm shines as a cinematic location. However, Litvak and co-screenwriter (and
wife) Nina Litvak cannot match the clever plotting of Harry Kemelman’s Rabbi
David Small novels. The character is strongly drawn and relatable, but the
mystery/thriller business is about as complex as an episode of a 1970s network
TV detective show.
Nevertheless,
the Litvaks and company make some serious points that are very much oof our current
moment. Indeed,it is quite significant to watch Rabbi Zaltzman reluctantly agree
to arm himself. Yet, this is a very real-life experience for many Jewish
Americans, especially in light of recent attacks in DC and Boulder. The title
is no joke.
In
fact, Litvak stages several highly satisfying shootouts. The action is nicely
realized, but the cast really lands the film. Mark Feuerstein quite charmingly portrays
the Rabbi’s fatherly corniness, as well as his earnest and devout faith. He wears
well over the course of the film and maybe even warrants a follow-up. He also
develops nice chemistry with Alona Tal, as Hindy Zaltzman.
What's the quickest way for a documentarian to sell out for an easy paycheck? True
crime, of course. Tessa Fowler needs money to pay for lawyers, so she figures
it was a lucky break when she discovers the Upstate house she rented might have
been the scene of a murder. However, viewers know better right from the start
of director-screenwriters Dennis Cahlo & Bethany Watson’s The Trouble
with Tessa, which premieres tomorrow on Screambox.
It
sounds like Fowler and her producer, Aaron Slotzsky, exposed a lot dirt on a progressive
politician, because they are now taking heat, even from friends and colleagues,
because their subject was supposedly “on the right side of history.” He is also
suing for defamation. To get away from the constant harassment and process
servers, Fowler rented a farm house in the quaint little village of Lowery,
because it was the only hideout she could rent on such short notice—for good
reason, we soon suspect.
Lowery
is a weird place, with more rules and regulations than a Catholic boarding
school. It also has an earlier curfew. The locals are also quite odd, in manners
that are both intrusive and standoffish. She should be looking to leave fast. Instead,
she starts nosing around the town’s buried history after a box of bizarre video
and audio tapes practically leaps into her hands during the closing minutes of
the pilot episode.
As
Fowler starts investigating, she discovers the town is weirder than she originally
thought, in profoundly suspicious ways, like the fact that the town newspaper archive
in the Lowery library is heavily redacted. However, she finally gets a local to
start dishing a little, thanks to the liberal application of booze.
Unfortunately,
only two episodes were provided for review. That is a shame because it is
really only just getting started. It is especially frustrating, because those
two episodes are enormously grabby and intriguing. Frankly, at this point, it
isn’t even clear if Trouble s truly horror or more of a Twin Peaks-ish
mystery, but either way, Cahlo and Watson solidly establish Lowery as a strange
and sinister place.
ChaO has a much more modern sensibility than THE LITTLE MERMAID, regularly delivering surprisingly sly and outlandish visual gags. Yet it never strays too far from its central romance. Quite charming and satisfying for anime fans. CIINEMA DAILY US Japan Cuts '25 review up here.
If an Old West gunslinger traveled forward in time to 1950’s Hollywood, he would
probably find steady work as a stuntman. It would be a lot harder for him in
today’s film industry. That is also true for Kosaka Shinzaemon. He was, and remains
a real deal samurai from the Aizu Domain, who somehow traveled forward in time
to the Kyoto Uzumasa studio, where most of the Japanese entertainment industry’s
Jidaigeki samurai dramas have been filmed. It is a whole new era for him, but
he retains some adaptable skills in director-screenwriter Jun’ichi Yasuda’s A
Samurai in Time, which screens as part of the 2025 Japan Cuts festival.
It was
a dark a stormy night. Frankly, Shinzaemon really didn’t notice the stormy part
until he started clashing swords with Yamagata Hikokuro, a rival from the Choshu
Domain. Suddenly, a flash of lightning strikes and there he is on the Kyoto
backlot. Confusingly, half the people look normal, but the rest appear to wear
strange foreign garb. He is a bit of a bull in a China shop, but Yuko Yamamoto,
a conscientious young assistant director looks out for the presumed amnesia
case.
Thanks
to her, he finds a place to stay at the nearby shrine frequently used as a
location. He also starts apprenticing with Sekimoto, a master of
stunt-performer swordplay. Sekimoto warns his new apprentice that Jidaigeki
productions just aren’t as popular as they used to be. Nevertheless, Shinzaemon
becomes a regular stunt performer on Yamamoto’s series, because he just looks
so authentic. In fact, he even draws the attention of Kyoichiro Kazami, a
veteran movie star, hoping to reinvigorate the Jidaigeki genre. Indeed, Kazami
shows a particular interest in Shinzaemon.
Samurai
in Time might remind
genre fans of Ken Ochiai’s loving tribute to Jidaigeki extras, Uzumasa Limelight,
with good reason. Ochiai’s star, longtime Jidaigeki bit-player Seizo Fukumoto was
originally cast as Sekimoto, before his unfortunate passing. Instead, his “junior”
colleague, Rantaro Mine, plays the role with the kind of dignified gravitas Fukumoto
brought to Limelight. So yes, the two films would pair nicely.
It is
that time of year again, so start boiling water for a steaming hot cup of Nong
Shim noodles (the kind of sponsor a festival can be proud to have). The
Fantasia International Film Festival is back, bringing plenty of cinematic
weirdness to Montreal. Every year, they find out-of-the-blue discoveries as
well as eagerly awaited genre releases. Once again, you can look forward to
coverage here and also at Cinema Daily US.
Fantasia
regularly programs wonderful and weird discoveries in science fiction, horror,
and Asian cinema. However, their animation selections might be particularly of
interest to many Ciinema Daily readers. For instance:
All
You Need is Kill represents
the first anime adaptation of the Japanese science fiction novel and manga that
previously inspired Edge of Tomorrow, with Tom Cruise.
ChaO
offers a fresh take
on human-mermaid romance that is vastly different from The Little Mermaid,
but will still charm fans of the Disney classic.
Maya,
Give Me A Title is
a wonderfully charming tribute to art and parenting, from Michel Gondrey.
The
first four episodes of the new manga adaptation of the macabre manga Nyaight
of the Living Cat also screen, because everyone loves uncanny cats and
executive producer Takashi Miike.
Everyone
also digs dystopian cats too, so festival-goers can partake of Tamala 2030:
A Punk Cat in Dark, the long-awaited, yet unexpected sequel to Tamala A
Punk Cat in Space.
Those are just a few
promising selections. There is always plenty of good stuff to watch at
Fantasia, so keep an eye out for reviews.
In the future, AI will take a huge bite out of psychics’ séance business. If you have unresolved
questions for your late loved ones, like emotionally stunted Sakuya Ishikawa,
just download their data and ask the resulting AI construct. Of course, more input
results in a better model, so Ishikawa requests the data from the close friend
he never knew his mother had. Ironically, the mystery woman might (or might
not) also be his tragic high school crush. Consequently, Ishikawa will have a
lot to process himself in Yuya Ishii’s The Real You, which had its North
American premiere at the 2025 Japan Cuts.
There
was something Akiko wanted to tell Ishikawa, but he was too busy to listen.
Then she died, apparently throwing herself into the swelling river one stormy
night. Ishikawa tried to save her, but instead, he suffered a year-long coma.
When he woke up, the government cut him a check, because unbeknownst to Ishikawa,
his mother enrolled in a voluntary euthanasia program, much like that depicted
in Plan 75.
Tormented
by guilt and uncertainty, Ishikawa uses his savings to commission a virtual
figure (VF) of his mother. It is through the company’s research that he learns
of Ayaka Miyoshi. Strangely, she bears an unlikely resemblance to a high school
classmate, whose misfortune indirectly led to Ishikawa’s downfall (through
circumstances that Ishii teases out agonizingly slowly).
Regardless,
Ishikawa invites the homeless Miyoshi to temporarily move into the apartment he
shared with his mother, out of filial loyalty (and perhaps other reasons). He
starts to get some kernels of truth from Akiko’s VF, but it is unclear whether
he can handle the truth.
Awkwardly,
The Real You consists of two thematically-distinct halves, one of which
is much more compelling than the other. Ishikawa’s halting attempts to better
understand his late mother are often poignant and fascinating, even though they
revisit some of the terrain explored in the vastly superior Marjorie Prime.
Unfortunately,
Ishii devotes equal or greater time to Ishikawa’s travails as a “real avatar,” essentially
a live-streaming gig-worker, who are regularly forced to humiliate themselves
and possibly even commit crimes, to satisfy the whims of their clients.
Frankly, these sequences violate existing laws and any remaining remnant of
common sense. They are also blatantly manipulative and cringe-inducingly
didactic.
In the vintage Universal Monster movies, Dracula definitely had a daughter (Gloria
Holden), but it is rather ambiguous whether Count Alucard (Lon Chaney, Jr.) in Son
of Dracula was truly his son, or in fact, Dracula himself. Regardless, Joe
Hill’s short story makes it clear his longtime nemesis had two sons. Unfortunately,
they are both rather disappointingly not chips off the old block in Natasha
Kermani’s Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story, which opens today in
theaters.
After
the “troubles” in London, Abraham Van Helsing relocated to California’s rural
Central Valley, with his new wife, Mina, whom he saved from vampires. That is a
bit of shocker, right? Imagine Lily-Rose Depp marrying Willem Dafoe in Nosferatu.
Yet, for years, they made it work. Of course, Van Helsing never really gave up
his undead-hunting ways. Perhaps that is a good thing, because they can both
sense vampire activity in the Valley, which she would be particularly
susceptible to, as a survivor of vampiric blood-sucking.
On the
other hand, it will be hard to explain to their sons, Max and Rudy. It sounds
crazy, perhaps even psychotically murderous. Van Helsing needs his sons’ trust,
but his cold demeanor and secretive ways always kept his sons at arm’s length.
Instead, most of their love was saved for their suddenly ailing mother.
Although
subtitled “A Dracula Story,” the Count is only present in memory and perhaps by
suggestion. Consequently, anyone hoping for a traditional vampire movie will be
disappointed. Kermani intentionally capitalizes on the ambiguity of Hill’s
story to create a psychological thriller rather than an undead horror movie. That
approach works for a while (probably even the entire first and second acts),
but there comes a time to fish or cut bait. Yet, Kermani continues to play
is-he-or-isn’t-he games, well past that point.
Nevertheless,
the early scenes are impressively evocative and suggestive, thanks in part to
the constrained aspect ratio (more-or-less Academy Ratio) and Julia Swain’s
dusty, sun-dappled cinematography, which gives the film a vibe akin to Jan
Kroell’s pioneer films and Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns.
This Blockbuster hasn’t aged day in the fifty years since it first released. That’s
because the shark doesn’t care what kind of smart phone you carry or whether
you drive an EV. You’ll still taste the same once you get into the water. It
inspired one under-appreciated sequel and two truly terrible bombs, but the
original will always be the greatest shark movie of all time. For the golden
anniversary, cast, crew, fans, and the Benchley family look back on the film’s
production and sensational reception in Laurent Bouzereau’s Jaws @ 50: The
Definitive Inside Story, which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.
Surely,
everyone has seen the film, or at least knows the music (duly discussed by John
Williams). Unfortunately, primary cast-members Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and
Murry Hamilton (the sleazebag mayor) are no longer with us, while Richard
Dreyfuss was either unavailable or considered too canceled. However, viewers
hear extensively from Steven Spielberg and author Peter Benchley’s surviving
family.
Fittingly,
Bouzereau starts with the book, which was a hit even before the film released. In
fact, the studio adapted the publisher’s jacket art for the movie poster” the
iconic giant shark ominously rising beneath an oblivious swimmer paddling above
the waterline. Believe me, that never happens for publishing houses.
Frankly,
despite the documentary’s suggestions otherwise, Benchley’s novel was not
particularly well reviewed at the time and has not critically appreciated over
time. Nevertheless, Spielberg offered his services after reading a galley and accepted
the job when the first director pulled out. Unfortunately, when the book became
such a runaway bestseller in mass market, the studio moved up production,
leaving little time for the construction of the notorious mechanical shark.
According to the surviving crew, that is why “Bruce” constantly broke down.
Jaws
@ 50 is
considerably more fun than most behind-the-scenes docs or DVD extras (which
Bouzereau is no stranger to), in large part because of the sharks, real and
animatronic. It also chronicles an incredibly stressful shoot that Spielberg
feared might end his career. Mind-blowingly, Bouzereau documents the set visits
from his famous filmmaker friends, like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and John
Milius, who came to offer encouragement.
The
reminiscences also take on a family vibe from the Benchleys, who later became
active shark conservationists, and Martha’s Vineyard locals, who played many
roles on both sides of the camera. In fact, only eight cast-members came from
outside the island. One of whom was Susan Backlinie, who sadly passed away last
year, but fortunately Bouzereau incorporates footage of her discussing her role
of Chrissie Watkins, the shark’s first victim during the memorable prologue.
Wearing a cursed tiara sounds unlucky for a bride, so she ought to be grateful to a
pair of thieves trying to steal it. Her gangster father doesn’t see it that
way. Emilio Villegas calls himself a businessman, but his chief of security
previously worked for the Russian FSB, so you do the math. They deal with
thieves outside the law—fatally—so the stakes are high. Unfortunately, trust remains
an issue for the former partners-turned-lovers-turned-reluctant partners again
in creator-writers Veronica Marza, Pablo Roa, and Fernando Sancristobal’s six-episode
Spanish-series Suspicious Minds, which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.
As she explains in flashbacks, Amber fell for Rui during their last job. That
was a big no-no, but it aided their cover, as a couple participating getting
hitched during an Elvis and Marilyn-themed group wedding in Vegas. They score down
went like clockwork, but the getaway turned ugly. Amber assumed Rui died in a
hail of bullets, so she decided to steal the “Tiara of St. Agatha” as a tribute.
She invested months serving as the tutor-minder of Villegas’s entitled son
Edgar, to befriend his older sister Lucia, who will be wearing the Tiara during
her wedding on Esperanza, Villegas’s private South Pacific island.
Yet, just when is about to crack the safe, Rui interrupts. Instead of grabbing the
tiara, Amber takes on a new, old partner. She is less than thrilled, because
she knows Rui betrayed her, even though he accuses her of the same. Awkwardly, they
only barely elude the seriously scary Judith Milenkovic, so she knows someone
is out to steal her boss’s tiara. Consequently, they must take on further
partners, including Julio, the Villegas family’s majordomo and wedding
director, as well as young Edgar, who hopes to teach his inattentive father a lesson.
Suspicious
Minds sometimes descends
a little too far into goofiness, especially when depicting clueless Lucia and
her oddball fiancé, Jaume. However, each instalment features plenty of clever
scheming, conning, and daring sleight of hand. Basically, the tone hits similarly
to a vintage Remington Steele episode, but slightly sillier.
Regardless,
co-leads Alex Gonzalez and Silvio Alonso make it all quite watchable, as
eye-candy with decent rom-com chemistry. Alonso’s charismatic screen presence
sometimes outshines Gonzalez, but they generally play off each other well.
He can “leap tall buildings in a single bound,” because the flying business was not
yet fully established in the comic books when Fleischer Studios first animated
Superman. Some of his greatest enemies are absent for the same reason. However,
animation allowed them to depict the Man of Steel battling more powerful foes
than the early 1950s TV series could ever hope to realize. Consequently, the
Fleischer shorts (Produced by Max and directed by Dave) greatly shaped the
development of the Superman franchise in ways that remain evident today.
The Fleischer Superman shorts might even be the best Superman films screening
this week in theaters when a selection of five shorts starts playing tomorrow
at the Museum of the Moving Image and the entire restored Fleischer run screens
Sunday at the Culver Theater.
In the
Oscar-nominated Superman, we learn Clark Kent grew up in an orphanage
rather than with Jonathan and Martha, so what alternate Earth does that make
this? Regardless, the eponymously titled film quickly establishes the recurring
theme of technology running amuck when a mad scientist tries to extort Metropolis
with his electrothansia ray. Of course, Los Lane blunders into his lair first,
so Superman must rescue her while saving the city. For the time, this was
eye-popping stuff, rendered in exotic color. The art deco design continues to
influence the look of the franchise, especially Superman: The Animated
Series.
Mad
scientists continue to conduct themselves in a dangerous and anti-social manner
in The Mechanical Monsters. This time, an evil genius dispatches his
platoon of robots on a crime spree throughout Metropolis. By contemporary standards,
the 9 to 10 minutes Fleischer shorts tell relatively simple stories, but it is
hard to get much more satisfying than watching Superman smash an army of
robots.
It is fortunate
Superman is “more powerful than a locomotive,” because he must corral a runaway
train in Billion Dollar Limited. The train in question is a gold bullion shipment
to the U.S. Mint. Although Superman’s adversaries are entirely human, he must
perform feats of strength that would not be possible for George Reeves.
The
Arctic Giant is an
absolute Superman classic. It is also a kaiju movie that predates the original
Japanese Godzilla by twelve years. Through negligence and Lois lane’s
distraction, a dinosaur frozen in ice thaws out, allowing it to rampage through
Metropolis. Frankly, the dino-kaiju is kind of cute, but that is part of the
film’s charm, Regardless, even the Salkind films could not have credibly
created this kind of spectacle.
Investigating cold cases should help prevent future crimes, in a “broken windows” kind
of way, because if someone got away with murder once, they will presumably be
more likely to kill again. Nevertheless, Det. Renee Ballard’s assignment to the
Cold Case division was unambiguously intended as a punishment. Yet, several of
her cold cases turn out to be very hot in creators Michael Connelly &
Michael Alaimo’s 10-episode first season of Ballard, which premiers
tomorrow on Prime Video.
Ballard
had a conflict with her ex-partner Det. Robert Olivas that he won. Banished to
the Cold Case squad, she and fellow squad member, formerly retired Reserve Officer
Thomas Laffont, close their first case during the prologue, but the messiness
leaves them even more in the doghouse. Frankly, Captain Bercham only wants them
investigating one case, the unsolved murder of the younger sister of the city
councilman Jake Pearlman, who allocated the funds for their department. He
clearly thinks Ballard works for him and wants results yesterday. However, Pearlman
learns to respect her dedication and instincts when Ballard discovers his
sister was murdered by an unknown serial killer.
Naturally,
Bercham wants to transfer the case back to Homicide, but Ballard’s team has
Pearlman’s confidence and has been running conspicuous circles around her old
colleagues. As a further complication, Ballard has another season-long case
that she must keep close to her vest: a cold case murder that leads to a cabal
of crooked gun-running cops in league with a nasty drug cartel. Besides her
team, Ballard only trusts retired Det. Harry Bosch, a sporadic guest-star, who
anchors the series to the Bosch-verse.
Titus
Welliver’s infrequent but significant appearances are a fun bonus, but Maggie Q
more than carries the series as the title character. Frankly, her intensity
level might even eclipse Welliver’s and she is almost aa cool. She also comes
into the series with massive action cred, which serves her well. Connelly,
Alaimo, and the rest of their writers’ room really put Ballard through wringer,
but she handles all the angst quite convincingly.
Maggie
Q also develops nice chemistry with her team, notably including the
recognizable John Carroll Lynch playing it largely straight as Laffont, and
Michael Mosley, as reserve officer Ted Rawls, whose stock rises considerably as
he earns Ballard’s confidence. Similarly, Noah Bean delivers another memorable supporting
turn, navigating the councilman’s surprisingly dramatic arc. Amy Hill probably comes
the closest to comic relief as “Tutu,” but the grandmother-granddaughter relationship
is appealingly affectionate.
Lt. Beth Davis and Det. Jack Larsen should be a great team when it comes to
sleuthing out stalkers, because she is being stalked and he is a stalker (but
not hers). At least that is how it looks during the pilot of Maggie Q’s 2014
procedural. She carried it well, but it was considered a little too intense for
network TV—maybe not surprisingly so, since it was created by Kevin Williamson,
the screenwriter of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Unfortunately,
it is hard to compare it with her new series, Ballard, since it currently
is not available for streaming, but it certainly showed Maggie Q could credibly
portray a driven police investigator.
Frankly,
Davis might have even more baggage than Ballard. The pilot only hints at her
backstory, but judging from the way she secures her apartment each night, she
clearly intends to be ready for an intruder. Ironically, handling stalkers is her
job as the leader of the LAPD’s Threat Assessment Unit (TAU). Unfortunately,
she often gets called into cases much too late, like the woman whose stalker
immolates her during the prologue. That was a rough start that earned the
series a reputation for brutality, especially by network standards.
Frankly,
the pilot shows an inclination the straddle the boundary dividing dark serial
killer/stalker thrillers from horror that should have appealed to Williamson’s fans.
Indeed, the episode’s primary case is seriously creepy. Awkwardly, instead of resolving
the second case, wealthy college weirdo Perry Whitley only shifts his obsessive
attention in an inconvenient direction.
SQUID GAME season 3 devises even bigger and wilder sets and even more macabre and imposing games. It devises what fans expect, but the character deaths are especially soul-crushing. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.
Michelangelo is often called a “Renaissance Man,” but he lived well into the Reformation.
Fittingly, some of the talking heads dub his The Last Judgement a great
work of Reformation art, because it is all about sinners burning you know where.
Maybe even Savonarola would have approved—but probably not. Of course,
Savonarola was very much a part of the Renaissance Era, if not its spirit.
Indeed, the violence he unleashed fits right in with dual themes of
director-producer Emma Frank’s three-part Renaissance: The Blood and the
Beauty, which premieres tomorrow on PBS.
Poor
Botticelli and Donatello might feel left out, because Frank largely focuses on Michelangelo’s
professional rivalries with Da Vinci and Raphael. Clearly, Frank favors Team
Michelangelo, since she incorporates dramatic monologues performed by Charles
Dance, in the persona and costume of Michelangelo, adapted from the artist’s
own writings. Indeed, Michelangelo had to compete against Da Vinci’s lofty
reputation and Raphael’s political acumen, but he outlasted them both.
Frank
and company frequently remind viewers of the dangers that came with living in
the late 1400s, but that should not come as a great revelation to anyone who
watched CW’s Leonardo. After all, both Da Vinci and Michelangelo secured
good paying patronage work designing arms and fortifications.
Although
wider in scope, The Blood and the Beauty feels a lot like Ken Burns’ Leonardo da Vinci, but with less impressive experts. Weirdly, Frank assembles a
number of filmmakers and a “sex historian” (spare us, please) to compliment usual
suspects like Walter Isaacson. (Burns’ film also features more distinctive
music and narration, thanks to the contributions of Keth David and Caroline
Shaw.)
It might be the “Summer of Superman,” but Krypto has been the biggest winner from the
trailer release. If you think he is cute there, check out Krypto All In #1.
Every panel fully capitalizes on his adorableness, while still telling a
dramatic story. Hopefully, Ryan North and Mike Norton can sustain that high
quality. At this point, most viewers probably still know Krypto best from this
animated film. He is a bigger Krypto, but he probably had to be, since he is
voiced by The Rock in Jared Stern & Sam J. Levine’s DC League of Super-Pets, which has a special family screening this Tuesday at Look Cinemas.
Originally
in the comics, Krypto landed on Earth after Superman. In League of Super
Pets, he jumped into the escape-craft with Kal-El (in far and away the
cutest scene of the film). Of course, they grow up to be Superman and Krypto,
inseparable superhero buddies, protecting Metropolis from villains like Lex
Luthor. However, Krypto feels like Lois Lane is on the verge of breaking up the
band, like an animated Yoko Ono.
Ironically,
it is not Luthor who renders Superman and Krypto powerless. It will be his
literal guinea pig, Lulu, whom Krypto rescued from Luthor’s lab. However, Lulu
did not want to be rescued, because she absorbed Luthor’s villainous persona.
Consequently, she works on her evil scheme to refine Orange Kryptonite from the
animal shelter, where she is imprisoned with Ace the Boxer, Merton the turtle, PB
the potbellied pig, and Chip, the squirrel, who really shouldn’t be in a domestic
adoption shelter, but whatever. Together, they all gain superpowers as a result
of Lulu’s Kryptonite super-charge.
Krypto
got off on the wrong paw with Ace and his pals, because he is not good with
other pets. However, they all start to grow on each other. Krypto also promises
to hook them up with nice farm homes in Smallville. Unfortunately, Lulu
acclimates to super-villainy much quicker than the Super Pets adjust to
super-heroism.
League
of Super-Pets is
undeniably kid-friendly and amusing, but sometimes maybe in ways that are a
little too silly for fans of the DC Animated Universe, which this film is not a
part of. Arguably, the talking animal business drives the film rather than their
roles within the DC Universe. Obviously, Krypto has an honored place in the
Universe and Ace is also an established member of the Bat-Family. Chip and
Merton have precedent but they are very loosely based on their namesakes, while
PB and Lulu are entirely original.
The
best moments capture the human-animal bond shared by Superman and Krypto, who are
nicely voiced by John Krasinski and The Rock. Conversely, Kevin Hart is a lot
as Ace—sometimes too much. Natasha Lyonne and Vanessa Bayer are almost as much
as Merton and PB. However, there are some standout guest voices, notably
including Keanu Reeves as Batman (that one makes a lot of sense, right?),
Alfred Molina as Jor-El, and Keith David as Dog-El, Krypto’s father, whose
hologram provides some of the best jokes for hardcore DC fans.
For decades, the giant squid attack in Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea was fondly remembered as the peak of American kaiju-making. The new
“reconceived” series held back the massive cephalopod for two full episodes. At
least they do not make viewers wait much longer in “What Lies Beneath,” this week’s
episode of creator James Dormer’s Nautilus, which airs tomorrow on AMC/AMC+.
There
is an unwelcome East India Company “stowaway” aboard the Nautilus, but the only
crewmember smart enough to expose him is young Blaster’s dog, Archie. However, Nemo
has more pressing issues than a barking dog, like the depth charges from the
Company’s Dreadnaught battleship at the end of the previous episode, and the giant
squid they stirred up at the start of “What Lies Beneath.”
The undersea
action is nicely rendered and their deliverance is rather clever, even if it
stretches credulity. Unfortunately, the rest of “Beneath” reverts to the same stilted
mistakes of the first two episodes. A new bad guy will be introduced, the “White
Rajah.” He looks promising, because the great Richard E. Grant portrays him,
but this time, he hardly seems to enjoy his villainy. Instead, Grant’s scenery-chewing
appears to give him indigestion.
Superman is often presumed an invicible, well, "superman," but the DC Animated films have done a great job humanizing him. A a result, they represent some of the best superhero movie of the last 20 years. For those eqagerly awaitnng the new movie, my survey of DC Animated Superman fiolms concludes at CINEMA DAILY US here.
Perhaps the unlikeliest action sequence in this film is based on a real-life event,
in which Private Channing Moss survived the impact and injuries from an unexploded
Taliban RPM that struck his abdomen with full force. It hardly needs to be
said, but don’t try that at home. It also depicts the potentially catastrophic
consequences when Islamist terrorists try to exploit the porous southern
border, but surely we have fixed all those problems in the time since this film
first released in 2012, right? Regardless, the courage and dedication of the
U.S. Navy SEALs and Special Combat Crewmen remain a source of national pride.
Many of the dedicated real-life Navy SEALs and Crewmen played fictionalized
versions of themselves in Mouse McCoy & Scott Waugh’s Act of Valor,
which makes fitting viewing for the Fourth of July weekend, when it airs on El
Rey Rebel.
It starts
in the Philippines, with the assassination of the American ambassador, who was
instrumental in coordinating anti-terror alliances. It was perpetrated by the pro-terror
alliance of Chechen Islamist terrorist Mohammad “Yuri” Abu Shabal and his old pal,
“Christo” Troykovich, an international smuggler-money launderer. Operating out
of failed states like Somalia, they are training suicide bombers to infiltrate
the United States from Mexico, with specially designed vests would not set off
metal detectors.
SEAL
Team 7’s Bandito Platoon only learns of the evil plan from intel gathered after
they rescue CIA Officer Lisa Morales from Christo’s thugs. Suddenly, their
mission extends and expands. That is rather inconvenient for Chief Dave Nolan
and his close friend, Lt. Rorke James Engel, who is due for leave in anticipation
of his son’s birth. Yes, that kind of happy news never bodes well in movies, does
it.
Since
real deal SEAL were involved in Act of Valor right from its inception,
the action sequences are highly realistic and consequently very intense. Rorke
Denver and Dave Hansen develop some nice comradery as Engel and Nolan. Beyond
them, the rest of the SEALs have little character development or even identifiable
personality types. However, pro-thesps Roselyn Sanchez and Nestor Serrano look
and sound smart and snappy together as Morales and her colleague, CIA Officer
Walter Ross. Indeed, it is refreshing to watch a film that considers the CIA part
of the good guys.
Netflix's ATTACK ON LONDON: HUNTING THE 7/7 BOMBERS adddresses important subjects, like the extremist-Islamist roots of terrorism and the questionable official agency oversight (pre- and post-bombings), but it is undermined by the inappropriate tabloid true crime-like presentation. EPOCH TIMES review up here.
In Batman Ninja, the time-traveling Dark Knight had to channel Toshiro Mifune
in a Chanbara adventure. This time, he must find his inner Takeshi Kitano or
Ken Takakura. Batman and the extended “Bat family” are back in their proper Bat-time,
but history has changed. Japan is now a land of Yakuza clans, much like the planet
of Chicago gangsters in Star Trek’s “A Piece of the Action” episode. Unfortunately,
the alternate Justice League has also gone full Yakuza in Junpei Mizusaki &
Shinji Takagi ‘s animated Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, which premieres
today on HBO or Max, or whatever.
Batman
and Robin (his son, Damien) returned to the right world, but Japan no longer
exists. Instead, an alternate Japan was created in a sort of liminal zone that
only the Bat family (also including the former Robins, Nightwing, Red Hood, and
Red Robin) can see, because they traveled through the previous time vortex, or
something like that. This Japan is entirely governed by Yakuza, with the Hagane
Clan on top, thanks to their super-powered enforcers.
Sarcastically
dubbed the “Yakuza League” by Robin, they consist of Bari, Ahsa, Zeshika, and
Karaku, the evil Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Superman, as you might
surmise from their Katakana-rendered names. However, Daiana Amazone is still
good and just, thanks to the power of this Japan’s analog to Paradise Island.
Even
allied with Daiana, Batman might look outmatched, considering the League’s powers
remain the same. However, he believes he holds certain advantages. For one
thing, this League has never fought anyone with remotely equivalent powers, so
they aren’t used to slugging it out in a real fight. Batman has also had
long-standing contingencies to take down his fellow JLA teammates, “just in
case” the need arose. That revelation does not completely shock his son. Not at
all, really.
The
first act plays out somewhat hectically and rushed, but Mizusaki, Takagi, and
screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima really settle down and deliver a darned good
Batman story thereafter. Arguably, they show the value of guile and “family,” which
turn out to be superior to superior to brute force. For genre fans, there are
also a lot of knowingly hip Yakuza details.
This movie predicts that in the post-apocalyptic near-future, the most valuable commodity
will be fertile agricultural land—exactly the sort of American farmland China
has been buying at an alarming rate. The Freemans’ farm happens to be in
Canada, but there is no way they would have ever sold, even in better days,
because the family went through so much to get it. Unfortunately, outlaw gangs
keep trying to steal it. The latest prospective claim-jumpers will be the most
savage in R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres, which opens today in theaters.
Viewers
can see from the prologue Hailey Freeman and her family know how to protect
what is theirs. That is why her ideologically-charged home-schooling curriculum
makes absolutely no sense. They are preppers, through and through. A vague
semblance of community persists, maintained by shortwave radio, but each week
another farm goes dark. Freeman is not inclined to stick her neck out for anyone,
but her son Emanuel has teenaged hormones and not a girl his age in sight. Not surprisingly,
when he secretly spies Dawn enjoying a swimming hole during a scavenging trip,
she makes quite an impression.
Unfortunately,
the latest batch of marauders attacking family farms are particularly nasty, in
ways similar to The Road. They aren’t just stealing food. They’re
hunting it too. Is Dawn one of the cannibals or is she a post-apocalyptic
normie? Emanuel probably wouldn’t be the best to judge.
At its
core, 40 Acres is largely a prepper survival thriller in the tradition
of Homestead and One Second After, but with casting and cosmetic
stylistic changes made to appeal to diversity-conscious film fest audiences.
Yet, it hits the same notes and offers the same takeaways as every previous
prepper shoot-out. Basically, it boils down to: expect the worse and prepare
yourself, first and foremost, by heavily arming your family.
Yet, by
the standards of the genre, 40 Acres (an obvious reference to Union Gen.
Tecumseh Sherman’s promise of reparations, which actually never mentioned the
mule) is quite well made and surprisingly grabby.
The
cast is consistently strong, especially Danielle Deadwyler, who maybe delivers
a career best performance as the exhaustingly intense Freeman matriarch.
Michael Greyeyes nicely compliments her as Freeman’s second husband, who projects
a reassuring calm, but is really just as fiercely protective. Arguably, Elizabeth
Saunders makes it all watchable with her scene-stealing comic relief (until stuff
gets even more dire), as Freeman’s ex-marine crony, Augusta Taylor.
Did Superman immediately display superpowers as a child or did he grow into them? It
depends on which Earth, which multiverse, or which narrative continuity you
might be reading. DC Comics can be downright Schrodinger-esque. Two
contradictory events can be true at the same time. It just depends on where you
look. In this graphic novel for young readers, Superman had powers at age eight,
but don’t call him Superboy in Rob Justus’s Superman’s Good Guy Gang,
which just released.
Superman
has all his grown-up powers, but he doesn’t believe it is cool to hang out with
six-year-olds like little Lex Luthor. Instead, he forms a “Good Guy Club” with
Guy Gardener and Hawkgirl, even though she’s not a guy. In fact, negotiating
their name is a highly fraught business. Some also might question Gardener’s “good
guy” credibility. However, his atrocious bowl-cut makes more sense at that age.
Regardless,
the trio must band together to fight the renegade milk-shake-making robot
Luthor innocently created to get Superman’s attention. As it happens, Justus
somewhat follows the trend of some of the recent Superman comics, by inviting
sympathy for Luthor. Arguably, he might just be the most likable character.
It is the only rock & roll subgenre that has largely been instrumental. Yet,
ironically, its most popular artists are considered phonies by the real fans, because
of their vocal harmonies. They would be the Beach Boys. Surf musicians might
have played for beach bums, but virtuoso guitar work was always part of
package. The original Surf music pioneers look back on Surf culture’s early
1960s heyday in director-cinematographer Thomas Duncan’s documentary, Sound
of the Surf, which releases today on VOD and DVD.
Its
closest cousins were garage rock and punk rock, but the founding Surf music
musicians had two major influences. Not surprisingly, 1950s instrumental rock guitarists
like Duane Eddy and Link Wray were significant musical role models. However, most
of the Surf music veterans have more to say about jazz artists, especially big
band drummer Gene Krupa.
In fact, jazz musician Tom Morey, who also invented the Morey bogie board, expressly
compares jazz and surfing, because both require improvisation. Alas, nobody
discusses Bud Shank by name, but his soundtracks for Bruce Brown’s surfing
documentaries are duly acknowledged. Regardless, jazz collectively gets its
full due.
Dick
Dale claims the title as the original Surf music guitarist for himself and
pretty much everyone Duncan interviewed agrees with him. Indeed, Dale had some
of the biggest Surf hits, including his reverb heavy arrangement of “Misirlou,”
which became popular again thanks to Pulp Fiction. Eddie Bertrand,
co-founder of the Belairs and Eddie & the Showmen represents a
not-so-distant second.
Yet,
one of the more prominent voices turns out to be Kathy Marshall, who gets her
overdue credit for her contributions to the Surf music scene. Technically, she
never recorded commercially, but she performed regularly with Eddie & the
Showmen and the Blazers, even though she was still a teenager. Plus, viewers
also hear from Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman, a.k.a. the real “Gidget,” whose father
wrote the novel the film and TV series were based on, building on her accounts
of her new surfer friends.
In this film, the two heroic protagonists of Masamune Shirow’s Appleseed franchise
sort of get the DC treatment. They are the same characters fans know and love,
but they now have a new narrative continuity—familiar, but slightly different.
It is also sort of a prequel, but Briareos is already a cyborg—and partly on
the fritz. Unfortunately, the world is also still mostly destroyed, especially
the post-apocalyptic New York City, or perhaps it is just post-Mamdani. Regardless,
hope is in short supply, until Briareos and his comrade-life partner Deunan decide
to go out and find some in Shinji Aramaki’s anime feature, Appleseed Alpha,
which starts streaming today on Tubi.
WWIII bombed
out Times Square, yet the jumbotron remains, broadcasting old, pointless propaganda.
Some people still call the City home, including the cyborg gangster, Two Horns (because
of his Viking-like headpiece). Unfortunately, Deunan owes Two Horns money, so she
and Briareos must complete dangerous assignments, like that of the opening prologue,
to pay off the debt.
Rather
ominously, the two former soldiers suspect Two Horns has been setting them up
for failure. Yet, they have little choice, because Two Horns’s maintenance guy is
pretty much the only game in the post-apocalyptic town. Without power, Briareos
cannot do much, so they accept the next crummy gig: neutralizing and scavenging
a pack of rogue soldier-bots outside of town.
This
would be easier work if Briareos were in better shape. Regardless, things get
interesting when a group of mech-mercs drive into the drone zone with their
abductees, Olson, an enhanced but not full cybernetic former soldier, and Iris,
the young girl he was protecting. It turns out they are from the rumored sanctuary
of Olympus, which will mean a lot more to longstanding franchise fans. They are
also on a mission that Briareos and Deunan will join and ultimately embrace. Meanwhile,
the shadowy cabal trying to capture Iris follows their trail back to Two Horns,
bringing him into the fray as an unstable wild card.
Essentially,
Alpha arranges things differently on the timeline, but it closely hews
to the heart and spirit of the previous anime films. Briareos and Deunan are a
compelling beauty-and-the-beast couple, who have terrific battlefield chemistry
together. That last part is important, because Aramaki unleashes wall-to-wall
action. This kind of light-mecha combat really plays to his animation
strengths.
The computer-generated
motion-capture (but not full rotoscope) animation looks better here than it did
in Aramaki’s later film, Starship Trooper: Traitor of Mars. Perhaps the
distinctive, practically robotic look of Briareos (who reportedly influenced
the design of Blomkamp’s Chappie—you can see it in the ears) and Two
Horns helped focus the efforts at humanization on Deunan, Olson, and Iris.
