DC League of Super-Pets, at Look Cinemas

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.

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

He has a bit of a Looper complex. Instead of wanting to kill Hitler or attend a Coltrane concert, Tim Travers uses time travel to kill himself, so he can explore the resulting paradox. It is an ambitious but very bad idea that inevitably goes spectacularly awry in director-screenwriter Stimson Snead’s Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox, which opens this Friday in theaters.

The titular paradox boils down to the notion that if you kill yourself in the past, your time-traveling self would still be alive thereby creating a paradox. It is a thought experiment that Travers takes to ridiculous lengths. Ill-advisedly, he also discusses his research with James Bunratty, an “alternate science” talk radio host. This will be a mistake, because it creates a trail for the hitman hired by the terrorists, whose plutonium Travers stole to power his time portal.

Fortunately, by the time Helter the assassin starts tracking Travers, he has already created at least a dozen other selves through time travel. He started by murdering his previous others selves, but then he started letting his selves from other times (merely one minute apart, but often enough to make considerable differences) live, so he could consult with himself. It also means Helter must keep killing every Travers he sees. To make things extra complicated, several of the Travers take time out for his/their date with Bunratty’s resentful producer Delilah, but it always ends badly, because neither of them is really suitable relationship material, especially him (all of them).

The loopy Looper-esque chaos of the first half is wildly entertaining. However, Snead has trouble maintaining the manic energy during the second half. It is also clear how desperately he was searching for an exit strategy—judging from the nearly incomprehensible speed of the double-talk. Nevertheless, Snead earns credit for developing a fresh take on time travel and for mining the science fiction material for a good deal of laughs.

Leonardo da Vinci, on PBS

He was like the Orson Welles of the Renaissance. Everyone knew he was brilliant, but he still had trouble finishing projects. Of course, he left behind enough to judge his genius—like the Mona Lisa. He led an eventful life, which is fortunate since he has already been the protagonist of fictional series from Starz and CW. Now the true Renaissance man becomes Ken Burns’ first non-American subject when the two-part Leonardo da Vinci (co-directed by Sasha Burns and David McMahon) premieres this Monday and Tuesday on PBS.

Yes, Leonardo was illegitimate, but the battery of historians and talking heads do a nice job explaining why that really wasn’t such a big deal at the time. Frankly, the same was true for his presumed sexuality in pre-Savonarola Florence. There is still a good deal of speculation regarding Leonardo’s life, particularly his early years, but the law firm-sounding trio of Burns, Burns, and McMahon do a nice job of covering all the periods of his life, from Vinci to Florence and then onto Milan and eventually France.

Logically, they focus and good deal on his work, particularly his sketches, codices, and scientific journals. Frankly, they make a convincing case Leonardo really was hundreds of years ahead of his time, especially with regards to his deductions regarding the structure and mechanics of the human heart.

Of course, it is also frustrating to hear about all the commissions he left incomplete or had canceled at the last minute. Arguably, they had to give “Vetruvian Man” roughly equal time as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, because that is what they had to work with.

Hazbin Hotel, on Prime

Apparently, even in Hell, nobody really believes in criminal rehabilitation. Charlie Morningstar is the exception. She can believe whatever she wants, because being Satan’s daughter technically makes her Princess of Hell. Unfortunately, nobody takes her earnest progressive reformist agenda seriously in Vivienne Medrano’s animated series Hazbin Hotel, which premieres tomorrow on Prime.

Every year, warring angels from Heaven sweep down on Hell to annihilate the (already dead) overflowing ranks of damned sinners and the demons who hold their souls in thrall. It is a horror show Morningside would like to avoid. Her vision is the “Happy Hotel,” where she will help rehab sinners, so they can climb that stairway back up to Heaven. Few believe it is possible and even fewer are willing to mend their wayward ways.

In addition to her girlfriend, Morningside has the “help” of Alastor, the “Radio Demon,” a powerful and mysterious overlord. The former 1920s radio star sounds somewhat like Rudy Vallee’s voice broadcast through his megaphone, which is a clever device. When he was mortal, Alastor was a New Orleans native, so he has good taste in music. Supposedly, he offered his services out of boredom, but it is pretty clear the demon has his own nefarious agenda.

One episode of Hazbin Hotel can be funny in a naughty, snarky kind of way, but the dark attitude quickly becomes exhausting. The barrage of crude sexual comments and explicit cursing simply does not wear well over time. One of the hotel’s first reluctant residents is “Angel Dust,” a gay adult film star—and boy, do they go there, a lot.

Hazbin also happens to be a musical, featuring a Broadway-style number in every episode. However, they cannot compete with Satan’s showstopper in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The animation is colorful and lively, but the personalities viewers must spend time with are abrasive and/or annoying, especially including Morningstar. It really is the characters, not the setting, considering the superior charm of the animated feature Hell and Back. By far, the best voice performance is that of the great Keith David (who can make anything sound interesting) as Husk, the hotel bartender.

Heist 88, on Showtime

Contemporary caper movies clearly suggest computerization made the banking system more susceptible to hacking-savvy thieves. Yet, the truth is the greatest vulnerabilities in a security system are the spots that require human touches. Jeremy Horne is a master at exploiting those human weaknesses. In 1988, Chicago’s largest bank was on the verge of computerization, but that left just enough time for Horne to try to pull off a big score in Manhaj Huda’s Heist 88, which premieres Friday on Showtime (and Paramount+ with Showtime).

Horne (loosely inspired by the real-life Armand Moore) has already been convicted of fraud in Detroit, but before he must surrender himself, he jaunts down to Chicago for his brother’s memorial service. That night, he is super-interested to learn his nephew Marshall King, has several friends who work in the wire transfer department of a major bank, but they are all underpaid and under-appreciated. Of course, that gets Uncle Jeremy thinking.

They know the CFOs and money movers who frequently call to transfer money. Therefore, if they also know their codes (confirmed independently over the phone), they can transfer their funds. Horne just needs to arrange the right distractions to help facilitate the process. He also must maintain the trust of King and his friends, but that gets tricky when he keeps springing new accomplices on them. He does it anyway, because he wants to arrange a nice pay day for his old cronies, Buddha Ray and Bree Barnes. Plus, he will need their experience as fellow conmen.

There is a lot fun capery stuff in Heist 88. There is also an intriguing time-capsule dimension, capturing the banking industry in a time of technological transition (which banking industry employees should particularly appreciate). This was the end of an era for an old school bluff-your-way-through crook like Horne.

Unfortunately, the social commentary is often intrusive and way off target. Seriously, 1988 was a great year for economic opportunity—for everyone in America, across the board. However, screenwriter Dwayne Johnson-Cochran makes it sound like the early 1930s. It is a shame, because it interrupts some great performances.

It is always cool to watch crafty character actors like Courtney B. Vance and Keith David do their things. Heist 88 gives them both a good showcase to do exactly that, as Horne and Ray, respectively. Keesha Sharp (whom you hopefully do not recognize from Titanic 666) is also terrific as Barnes.

From the Shadows, Starring Keith David

Dr. Amara Rowan is sort of like an academic Amazing Randi, who specializes in debunking supernaturally-themed cons. Frankly, four survivors of the Hidden Wisdom cult would be thrilled if she could debunk the heck out of the horrors they barely lived through. They have seen some things and Dr. Rowan will see some too in Mike Sargent’s From the Shadows, which opens tomorrow in New York.

Before their falling out, archaeologist Dr. Joseph Cawl launched the Hidden Wisdom cult with his more scientifically-rigorous colleague, Dr. Leonard Bertram. For a while, they promoted it through late night TV commercials, like an average cheesy self-help program, but there was something sinister at its core. Supposedly, Hidden Wisdom and Cawl went the way of Heaven’s Gate and the Branch Davidians when the compound mysteriously went up in flames. However, four very scared cult-members survived and now they want to tell their story to Dr. Rowan, via online conferencing, from undisclosed locations.

Many of the survivors complain of seeing “Shadow People,” whom he audience can often spy moving furtively in corners of their video feeds. Of course, Dr. Rowan and her videographer Peter are skeptical, but they will be convinced when a hooded figure starts attacking the ex-Hidden Wisdomers, one-by-one.

Although Sargent’s budget was obviously severely constrained, he still manages to realize a respectably Lovecraftian vibe. The effects are not great, but the dark, claustrophobic locations help cover for them.

Curator’s Choice ‘22: Nope

Jordan Peele's latest film exists in an alternate reality where the Fry’s Electronic big box stores are still in business. Unfortunately, the California-based chain closed in February 2022, before filming even started. They blamed the pandemic, but it was really the lockdown that killed them. More chaos comes to California, specifically Hollywood ranch country, in Jordan Peele’s Nope, which screens during MoMI’s Curator’s Choice series.

The Haywood family has handled horses for Hollywood productions for years, but OJ and Emerald’s late father Otis Sr. was the face of the business. Business has been off since he was fatally killed by debris mysteriously falling from the sky. Since then, his adult children have been forced to sell horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park, a former child actor, who now hosts a western-themed amusement park. They have also lost horses to apparent UFO abductions.

Emerald convinces O.J. documenting alien activity could reverse their precarious fortunes. Naturally, they drop by their convenient neighborhood Fry’s Electronic, where Angel Torres fixes them up with surveillance gear. After installing everything, he taps himself in too, because he wants to believe. Unfortunately, the supposed UFO always cuts electric power, but he sees enough to officially team-up with the Haywoods, joining with them to recruit acclaimed cinematographer Antlers Holst, who is famed for his ability to get any shot. Holst also happens to own his own hand-cranked IMAX camera, so he definitely has the right gear.

Peele spends a disproportionate amount of time on Park’s backstory, particularly when his chimpanzee co-star went nuts a killed the entire cast of his sitcom, leaving him as the sole survivor. It is a masterfully brutal and surreal flashback scene, but it clashes with the reserved emotional tone of the rest of the film. The metaphor also becomes heavy-handed, when Park’s sense of his own charmed life leads to spectacular tragedy. Nevertheless, it is some of Terry Notary’s most interesting simian work, since The Circle.

Many pie-in-the-sky interpretive theories have been applied to the sneaker seen balancing on its toe throughout the chimp’s rampage. You name it, someone thinks it symbolizes it. However, the truth is probably simpler (and sort of cooler). Peele produced the latest Twilight Zone reboot, which several times referred back to Rod Serling’s original series. Most likely it is an homage to the episode “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” in which otherworldly things happen while a dropped coin remains standing on its edge, where it landed.

Nevertheless, Nope, like Us, lends itself more to creative analysis than his over-hyped Get Out, which is a major reason why both are substantially superior films. Even though it looks like an alien abduction movie, Nope is indeed a horror film, which Get Out was not (it is a slightly fantastical thriller that is never really scary). When it fully reveals itself, there is an atmosphere of menace to Nope that is seriously creepy.

Creepshow: Dead & Breakfast/Pesticide

In horror, you can’t just sit around waiting to kill or die. Of course, if you have a job that involves death, it makes it easier for the Creepshow Creep to give your tale a morbid twist. That certainly happens to the protagonists in the second episode of the second season of Creepshow, which premieres today on Shudder.

Business is bad in “Dead & Breakfast,” directed by Axelle Carolyn, because nobody has heard of the Spinster Siblings’ serial killer grandma. They own and operate a horror themed bed & breakfast inspired by her crimes, but old lady Spinster (who presumably wasn’t one, since here they are) hasn’t gone mainstream. She confessed to dozens of murders, but the bodies were never found. Nevertheless, Pam Spinster hopes comping true crime vlogger Morgue (short for Morgan) will be good for business.

Screenwriter Michael Rousselet & Erik Sandoval get all kinds of humor out of the clash between Morgue’s obnoxious hipster entitlement and Pam Spinster’s middle-class ambitions and twisted sense of family pride. As Pam, Ali Larter definitely chews the scenery and goes nuts with Creepshow-appropriate relish. C. Thomas Howell nicely balances her as the more lowkey Sam Spinster, whereas Iman Benson makes viewers eagerly anticipate Morgue’s death, which is a good thing when it comes to this franchise. The Spinster House is also a wonderfully weird and creepy setting, featuring all kinds of messed up secret rooms and hidden passageways. Indeed, “D&B” is jolly good fun and perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the original film and the vintage horror comics that inspired it.

“Pesticide,” directed by showrunner Greg Nicotero is not quite at that level, but it is still a solid Creepshow story. Harlan King is the self-described “king” of pest control, but many of his customers would say he is also the king of rude, boorish behavior. Mr. Murdoch does not really care about that. He wants King for a special job—one that will even trouble the exterminator’s conscious and prompt visions of all the bugs and vermin he has made a living killing.

The Zhengs’ Insight

This is a Cain and Abel sibling story, told by a brother-and-sister filmmaking team. It also incorporates a whole lot of martial arts and some mild fantastical elements. Jian Huang is a highly skilled fighter who also has the gift of second sight. That certainly makes him sound formidable, but the same was true of his somewhat estranged brother, who just died under mysterious circumstances. Huang will uncover the bad guys behind his murder with the reluctant help of a LAPD detective in Ken & Livi Zheng’s Insight, which releases today on VOD.

Much to their bafflement. Detectives Abby Lerner and Carl Stevens have been pulled off a high-profile kidnapping case to greet Huang at the airport. Evidently, Huang has powerful friends in the Federal government, because of his work as a Jack Bauer-style counter-terrorism agent. His brother used to serve in the same agency, before he left for a job in Vortex, the tech company owned by the villainous Wallace Jackson. Initially, his brother’s death looked like suicide, but his visions clearly tell a different, homicidal story—one that deeply implicates Vortex.

Lerner was pretty put-out when she was ordered to escort Huang—and even more so when she finds herself bailing him out of jail. However, she soon gives credence to his suspicions. Of course, they are mostly on their own, but Huang is one hard cat to kill.

Okay, so Insight is basically a B-movie, but it is a thoroughly entertaining one. It represents a big step up from their last martial arts narrative feature, Brush with Danger. Ken Zheng is clearly a seriously skilled martial artist. This time around, he has the benefit of the support from some always reliable and entertaining character actors, starting with the great Tony Todd, playing slightly against type as the uncorrupted Det. Stevens. Plus, Keith David and John Savage both add grizzled grit as Stevens and Lerner’s Captain Duke and Huang’s superior officer, respectively.

Savage Dog: No Bark, All Bite

Evidently, there is some truth to the historical urban legend about the fugitive National Socialist coming to Indochina as a member of the French Foreign Legion. However, he is not the only dodgy foreign national taking advantage of the power vacuum left after the French retreat. With the American military yet to arrive in force, a veritable United Nations of thugs and mercenaries will fight among themselves in Jesse V. Johnson’s Savage Dog (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Sure, there is a plot to Savage Dog, but there is no question the film’s real attraction is getting to see Scott Adkins square off against Cung Le and Marko Zaror. We will not have to wait long to see the wanted IRA hitman Martin Tillman display his skills. Steiner, an ex-German Foreign Legion officer turned warlord, quite profitably keeps him as his personal pit-fighter. Eventually, Tillman earns his freedom, but he voluntarily returns to Steiner’s employment, because it is really the best work available in the 1958 Indochinese jungle.

Tillman unleashes his inner demons in the pit, but the beautiful Isabelle appeals to the better angels of his nature. She is the illegitimate daughter of Steiner and a local woman, whom the Nazi Bond villain has never acknowledged. Tillman starts to fall in love with her while temporarily working as a bouncer at the tiny tiki bar owned by Valentine, an American expat. Inevitably, Steiner and his Spanish enforcer Rastignac will rudely interrupt their brief respite with a violent power play. They will leave Tillman for dead, but he won’t be dead enough.

There is no question Adkins is currently one of the best in the martial arts cinema business. Throughout Dog, Johnson has the good sense to step out of the way and showcase the chops of his cast. The fight between Adkins’ Tillman and Cung Le playing a corrupt cop in Steiner’s employ is pretty impressive, but the climatic face-off against Rastignac (portrayed by Zaror with gleefully sinister flare) is a no-holds-barred barn-burner. While the ending of the Cung Le fight might slightly disappoint purists, the Zaror battle builds to a deliriously over-the-top got-to-see-it climax.

Arguably, Adkins has the sort of quiet brooding charisma of the great 1980s action stars. He also develops some rather touching romantic chemistry with Juju Chan’s Isabelle. However, it is somewhat frustrating Savage Dogs fails to capitalize on Chan’s real-life talents as a martial artist, merely casting her as a damsel in distress, much like the Roger Corman-produced Fist of the Dragon. On the plus side, Keith David (narrator of Ken Burns’ Jazz) comes to play as the flamboyant-in-a-cynical-world-weary-kind-of-way Valentine.

Basically, the purpose of Johnson’s narrative is to get Tillman from one fight to another. It works well enough and the period setting adds an intriguing dimension. Of course, all that really matters is the degree to which Adkins, Zaror, and Cung Le tear it up. Highly recommended for action fans, Savage Dog opens tomorrow (8/4) at the Arena CineLounge Sunset in LA and releases the following Tuesday (8/8) on iTunes.

Smiley: Chatting Kills

Why would college kids want to hang around in internet chat rooms when they can go out drinking and carousing?  Nonetheless, that is what they do in a new horror movie wearing both its 1980’s nostalgia and a distrust of the digital culture on its sleeve.  An internet boogeyman is preying on online chatters, including perhaps a coed with a history of mental breakdowns, who might become his next victim in Michael J. Gallagher’s Smiley (trailer here), opening today in New York.

Smiley is the online answer to Candyman.  Supposedly, he can be invoked by typing the latest bit of internet crapspeak, “it was all just for lulz,” three times.  He then appears behind your chat partner to slit their throats.  Creepy online trolls are posting and commenting on a raft of dodgy videos supposedly capturing the urban legend at work, but the authorities consider them pranks.

Ashley is introduced to the Smiley phenomenon when her trampy roommate Proxy drags her to an anonymous chat room meet-up kegger.  Still recovering from her mother’s death, Ashley is a bit alarmed by the apparent murders.  The drugs she is slipped do not help much either.  To reassure her, Proxy suggests they call out Smiley in a random chat.  Of course, he duly appears to do what he does.  Wracked with guilt, Ashley fears she has attracted Smiley’s personal attention and might just wind up as one of his next victims, lulz or no lulz.

As dead teenager movies go, Smiley is pretty standard stuff, indiscriminately ripping off scores of previous horror franchises.  However, every now and then it shows a flash of genuine inspiration, even referencing the Anonymous-Hactivist movement in a decidedly unflattering way that would be spoilery to explain. 

Tony Award-winning Roger Bart also adds an intriguing element as Professor Clayton, a faculty burn-out teaching the required “Logic and Ethics” course to the incoming skulls full of mush.  Tellingly though, Clayton offers plenty of instruction in the former, but not much by way of the latter.  A leering logical positivist, he is quite a commentary on contemporary academia, played with genre appropriate flair by Bart.

Not surprisingly, the kids are a rather dull, colorless lot.  To be fair, Caitlin Gerard does a pretty credible job falling to pieces as Ashley, but it is impossible to understand why she hangs with such an obnoxious crowd.  Frustratingly, the always cool Keith David (narrator of Ken Burns’ Jazz) is criminally wasted as the lazy copper who thinks it is all a joke.

It must be freely admitted Smiley ends pretty strong.  Whether it was intended as a searing indictment of the nihilism permeating hipster culture and the intelligentsia, it could certainly be interpreted as such.  That definitely sets it apart from the pack.  It is not exactly what you would call spectacular, but it has moments of something.  For voracious horror fans, Smiley opens today (10/12) in New York at the AMC Empire.