Friday, January 31, 2025

Green and Gold, in The Epoch Times


GREEN AND GOLD is fictional, but it captures the very real-life struggles of family farmers (and their sports fandom). Its authenticity and hardy spirit might just convert some viewers into Green Bay Packers fans. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

The Martial Artist

It is easy to lose sight of the spiritual aspect of martial arts in a steel cage. Consequently, when an up-and-coming MMA fighter loses his way, he must reconnect with his heritage and the transcendent spirit of martial arts practice to regain his mojo. Of course, nobody wants to watch a long meditation session, but a few seconds can help round out a training montage. Regardless, Ibby “The Prince” Barkan’s path to MMA glory takes a detour through the mountains of Pakistan in Shaz Khan’s The Martial Artist, which opens today in theaters.

After years of training and many questionably sanctioned matches, Barkan finally signs with a major mixed martial arts promoter. However, he lets success go to his head, before he fully attains it. He starts drinking, partying, and making enemies. Soon, the violence of his needless grudges spills-over onto his family. Barkan’s resulting guilt, compounds his anger, leading to a self-destructive cycle.

To save Barkan from his demons, his mother sends him to Pakistan, to learn about his late father from the Dada, the grandfather he never met. Nestled in the rugged mountains, Dada’s retreat trains disciples to be warriors, both physically and spiritually. It is exactly the kind of discipline Barkan needs, but he must come to that realization for himself, before he can reap the benefits of Dada’s teachings.

Although Khan emphasizes the loftier ideas underpinning martials arts, as the director, co-screenwriter, and star, he often showcases the practice at its most brutal. Much of the action consists of gritty, no-holds-barred street-fighting. Barkan’s two MMA showcases are impressively staged, against strikingly cinematic backdrops, while still featuring absolutely ferocious fight choreography.

Indeed, the fight scenes are far and away the best aspect of
The Martial Artist. In contrast, the family melodrama is clunky and cliched. Frankly, some business with Barkan’s brother-trainer Ali will elicits groans from many viewers. Admittedly, Barkan’s quest for re-centering also travels a well-trod thematic path, but it is nicely executed and the Pakistani setting adds a distinctive vibe.

Thursday, January 30, 2025

The Hunting Party, on NBC

How frequently does the Joker break out of Arkham? How many times did Stallone wriggle out of super-prisons in the Escape Plan movies? In that case, three times. The point is putting all the worst eggs in a fancy basket never seems to work, but they did so anyway in this new series. Hidden under the plains of Wyoming, “The Pit” secretly housed some of the nation’s worst serial killers, including several that were supposedly executed. They were the guinea pigs for some weird government research, because they wouldn’t be missed, until there was a massive escape. Semi-disgraced FBI Special Agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson and her team scramble to capture the fugitives, while cautiously investigating the shadowy conspiracy that apparently facilitated their escape in creator JJ Bailey’s The Hunting Party, which starts its regular first season run this Monday on NBC.

The Pit was totally off the books and undisclosed to the public. Then a supposedly freak, but actually deliberately planned explosion rocked the facility. Given the destruction, it is not clear how many inmates escaped. It will probably depend on how long the series runs. One of the worst was Richard Harris, who happened to be the first case Henderson worked. Given her insight, Attorney General Elziabeth Mallory reactivates Henderson to track down Harris, teaming her up with Ryan Hassani, a CIA officer, whose agency has absolutely no domestic jurisdiction, and Shane Florence, a former correctional officer at the Pit, who manages to invite himself along.

Richard Harris? Seriously, JJ Bailey? I’m not a profiler, but I would suggest looking for Harris in MacArthur Park. After all, there have been reported sightings of cakes mysteriously left out in the rain.

Despite the presumably accidental disrespect to King Arthur and Dumbledore, the first four episodes already show some decent chemistry between the three lead “hunters” and Oliver Odell, a former FBI agent who served as the warden of the Pit and clearly seems to know more about the escape than he wants to admit. However, the trust-and-suspicion dynamics Henderson has with him and her natural agency rival Hassani, elevate the energy of the fairly routine fugitive chase stories.

Harris and the second episode psycho, Clayton Jessup, are quite familiar in their motives and methods. However, “Lowe,” from the like-titled third episode, has the unusual distinction of being a human-hating environmental extremist, whose M.O. involved feeding victims to a wolfpack. Perhaps episode four’s Dr. Ezekiel Malak is the creepiest, especially considering his new extreme method of killing, which is definitely a fresh and horrifying wrinkle.

Melissa Roxburgh is a strong lead. She has credibility in both the deductive and action-oriented scenes and develops nice chemistry with her co-stars. Nick Wechler is appropriately shifty as Odell, generating potentially spoilery tension with Roxburgh.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis

In the recent first issue of DC’s “All In” Aquaman, the Atlantean king is learning how to use his wife Mera’s telekinetic power over water, when they shifted to him after the conclusion of the Absolute Power miniseries. (Long story short, everyone lost their super-powers and then they mostly got them back, but sometimes slightly differently). It is a bit of déjà vu, because he had to learn his original powers from scratch back when he thought he was a mere mortal named Arthur Curry. Aquaman’s origin story had a snappy DC animated treatment in Ethan Spaulding’s Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, which makes fitting viewing today (Curry’s in-world birthday) and this Friday (1/31, Mera’s birthday).

As the film opens, the relatively new Justice League has a lot of fancy infrastructure, but only Cyborg really takes it seriously. Consequently, he answers the call when a US Navy submarine is attacked by mysterious forces. Viewers soon learn it was destroyed as part of Prince Orn’s false flag operations to foment a war between Atlantis and the surface world.

Deep down, Queen Atlanna recognizes the Prince’s ruthless nature, so she designates Curry, her secret half-human love child as her heir. Slightly disappointed, Orm responds by killing her and framing land-dwellers. Of course, Black Manta is the Svengali pulling his strings.

Cyborg will need the full Justice League to deal with this problem. Mera understands Atlantis also needs Curry, so she goes rogue, revealing his birthright. He can breathe underwater and communicate with fish, but learning how to best apply his super-powers will take time he does not have.

Heath Corson’s adapted screenplay roughly follows the 2013
Throne of Atlantis comic arc, but some of the best parts focus on other JLA members. It often seems like Cyborg gets unfairly overlooked by casual superhero fans (as a sometimes member of both JLA and the Teen Titans), but he has a new licensed flavored coffee that sounds delicious. Cyborg also gets some of the best scenes in Throne of Atlantis, wherein he considers the effects of his constant robotic upgrades on his underlying humanity, nicely expressed by Shemar Moore.

In addition, there is a cool subplot following the burgeoning romance between Clark Kent and Diana Prince (a.k.a. Wonder Woman). Yes, they were an item for a while in some of the comic storylines, because fans demanded it and it made logical sense. After all, Wonder Woman might be the only love interest who can withstand the force of Superman’s passion, so to speak. Obviously, the film does not go there, but its depiction of their courtship is quite appealing. Both super-characters are well-served by the winning voice-over work of Jerry O’Connell and Rosario Dawson.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The Devil and the Daylong Brothers

When the Devil goes down South, he often enjoys the local Americana roots music. He tuned Robert Johnson’s guitar at the Crossroads and fiddled with Charlie Daniels. Logically, Robert Johnson was a particular inspiration for this blues-rock-flavored horror-movie-musical. Yes, this is a musical and it works. On the other hand, the deal a father made most definitely does not work for his three sons (from different mothers). He shook hands with Old Scratch, but they were the ones who were left to pay in Brandon McCormick’s The Devil and the Daylong Brothers, which releases this Friday in theaters and on VOD.

It was sort of Satanic child abuse when Nehemiah Daylong sold the souls of his future sons, Ishmael, Enoch, and Abraham, rather than his own. Understandably, the Daylong half-siblings rather resent his bargain. Facing damnation, they made their own deal with Clarence, a soul-collecting demon, filling his quota of similarly damned souls in exchange for their father’s location. Theoretically, if they kill him first, he takes their place, voiding their debt.

Unfortunately, trusting Clarence is rather foolish, as most viewers would expect. However, Frankie, a damned soul known to associate with infernal folk, might lead them to their troublesome father. Of course, as a femme fatale with demonic experience, she has a knack for exposing their weaknesses and offering temptations.

One of the titular characters never appears in the film, but the brothers rage and bicker together in almost every scene. As the Daylong trio, Brendan Bradley,
  Nican Robinson, and Jordon Bolden are unnervingly fierce. They are also decent singers, thanks to some help from songwriter and music-and-film producer Nicholas Kirk. Some of the musical numbers feel more like 80’s music videos than Bollywood-style musicals, in that characters might initially breakout into song, but they do not always lip-synch the entire tune, but they mostly flow quite smoothly.

Monday, January 27, 2025

This Woman: Filmed in China, Produced in Malaysia, Only Released in the USA

As the central subject, or rather cast-member, Hihi Lee intends to tell her husband, all the scenes she filmed phoning her lovers, were actually made with a very gay friend. Whether he believes her or not, may depend on whether he keeps watching once the closing credits start, or if he misses her Marvel-like postscript. Regardless, her daughter might need therapy as teen when she hears some her mother’s comments regarding her unmotherly feelings. Fortunately for Lee, the docu-hybrid film she stars in has not been approved for release in China and it probably never will be under the current regime. Regardless, mother and marriage are not exactly sacred to Lee in Alan Zhang’s This Woman, which opens this Friday in New York, at the Metrograph.

Lee, adopting the “persona” of Beibei, makes no secret she essentially caved to pressure exerted by her mother and society, when she agreed to marry and have a child at age when she was not mature enough to handle either. Frankly, she often sounds like she has only now matured to the point where she recognizes her previous immaturity. She is still not great with commitment and fidelity—or maybe that is just her “character.”

In her mid-credits “stinger,” Lee is very nonchalant when asked how she thinks her husband might take the film. Most viewers will wonder more about her daughter, when she hears “Beibei” tell the camera she does not miss her daughter when she is away and only feels guilt regarding her long absences when she sees happy mothers caring for their children. Savvier viewers may wonder if Lee assumes this will never be seen in China, so she can freely confess/perform without fear of personal, familial repercussions.

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (Sundance '25), in Cinema Daily US


Screening at Sundance, MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN is a truly shocking and genuinely courageous documentary that exposes the politicization and militarization of Russian civilian education, by propaganda mandateed by the Putin regime. Obviously, it was documented at great personal risk, by the school employee, who became an international whistle-blower. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Paul Newman @ 100: Exodus

Today marks Paul Newman’s centennial (1/26/1925-9/26/2008), but aside from tonight’s TCM programming, the occasion seems strangely under-heralded. Maybe this film is a partial reason why. Throughout his lifetime, Newman passionately advocated for liberal causes, but if he tried to speak on an Ivy League campus today, he would probably be shouted down and possibly physically attacked, because he appeared in Otto Preminger classic historical drama chronicling the founding of the state of Israel. Ironically, Newman was probably attracted by the film’s old school liberal themes, condemning anti-Semitism and championing indigenous people (the Jews) rebelling against their colonizers (the British and Arabs). Plus, Newman was also half-Jewish. This epic (at 208 minutes, “epic” is the right word) has only grown more controversial, for reminding the world why the Jewish people needed a homeland and how the Arab world immediately waged war against them. Preminger’s Exodus is also a stirring, old fashioned Hollywood crowd-pleaser that deserves rediscovery—and today would be the perfect day for it.

Initially, Kitty Fremont is no Zionist. She rarely thought about the Jewish people and when she did, it was not particularly edifying. To be fair, she still grieves her war correspondent husband—or rather she has rather avoided moving on with life. The nurse just finished a tour of duty at an American military hospital in Greece, so she stops in Cypress as a tourist before returning home. There, she visits her late husband’s friend, Gen. Sutherland, who administers the Jewish refugee camp. Sensing she needs purpose, he recommends she volunteer in the short-staffed camp clinic. First she declines, but when she recognizes her prejudice reflected in Sutherland’s subordinate, Maj. Caldwell, she agrees out of shame.

In the camp, she meets blond haired, blue-eyed fifteen-year-old Dutch refugee Karen Hansen Clement, who defies her preconceived image of Jewishness. Fremont is determined to bring Clement to America. However, the teen still hopes to find her missing father, the only other member of her family not confirmed dead in the concentration camps, in what the British call the Mandate of Palestine.

As it happens, Haganah commander Ari Ben Canaan has a plan to ferry hundreds of Jewish refugees like her to their homeland—and hopefully send a message to the United Nations in the process. The British steadfastly oppose any further Jewish immigration, out of deference to the neighboring Arab nations. Consequently, Sutherland will approve no such transfers, despite his reputation. Frankly, officers like Caldwell consider the Colonel so sympathetic to the Jewish refugees, they assume he must be secretly part-Jewish.

Of course, all the Jews Ben Canaan successfully shuttles into Israel will face violent reprisals after the historic 1948 UN vote. Fremont will see it all for herself, when she joins Clement and Ben Canaan in the future Israel.

Exodus
was filmed on location in Israel and Cypress, where the ancient backdrops give it a sense of historical authenticity and visual splendor. Encompassing the events of the Exodus Blockade (which was admittedly given a much happier ending), the Acre Prison escape, UN Resolution 181, and the subsequent Arab pogroms targeting Jews (while the Brits sat on their hands), Exodus is a true epic, sent against a sprawling canvas.

Newman is also terrific as Ben Canaan, even though many critics argued he was miscast, because he was too handsome to be Israeli (again, he was half-Jewish). Frankly, this is one of his toughest, steeliest performances of his Hollywood heartthrob years.
 His closing eulogy serves as an acting master-class that both perfectly expresses his character’s grief and the aspirations of the Israeli people, to finally live in peace and security.

He also has potent chemistry with Eva Marie Saint, his co-star in the 1954
Our Town, which was a breakout vehicle for them both. Arguably, Fremont has the greatest character arc and shows the most growth amongst all the characters, which Saint quite bravely depicts.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Sunray: Fallen Soldier

Most soldiers hope their service will keep violence and danger away from their homeland and families. Usually, that is why they sign-up in the first place. When tragedy finds their loved ones anyway, they might feel like they failed, but it is more likely that we failed them. Andrew Coleman (Echo 1) was already burdened with guilt stemming from the death of several comrades in Afghanistan. His daughter’s premature demise from poison-laced drugs pushes him over the edge. However, the illicit gang responsible gives Coleman a target and an outlet for his rage. He cannot fight the entire organization by himself, but Echo 2, 3, and 4 loyally rally behind him in James Clarke & Daniel Shepherd’s Sunray: Fallen Soldier, produced by and starring former Royal Marine Commandos, which is now available on VOD.

When Coleman returned home, he carried the unfortunate events of his tour back with him. Inevitably, it affected his relationships with his soon-to-be ex-wife Elaine and their teen daughter Rachel, even though both women recognize and understand he still struggles with unresolved trauma. Even with a troubled father, Elaine is a pretty good kid, but when mean girls successfully peer-pressure her into trying coke, her mistake turns fatal.

Frankly, her boyfriend Cassius is considerably broken-up over it as well, but he left her alone, with a bad element. He should have known better, because that is his world. As the son of Lucian, a long-reigning druglord, he was directly involved in supplying the drugs. Consequently, Coleman wants Cassius dead—and he is willing to work his way up the organizational flow chart to get to him. He starts off wielding nail guns and hammers, but when his vendetta gets messy, his old teammates, Smudge, Sledge, and Harper (Echo 2-4), bail him out and help upgrade his hardware.

Sunray
is a throwback to old school vet-turned-vigilante movies, represented by the likes of the Robert Ginty Exterminator films. Frankly, this film is so gritty it sometimes feels like sandpaper on your eyeballs. Yet, the directness of the action scenes is undeniably effective.

The same is true for 29-year Royal Marine veteran Tip Cullen, who broods like a house on fire as Coleman. You would be hard-pressed to find a more grizzled or gristly actor, but that gives him instant credibility in
Sunray. Tom Leigh, Luke Solomon, and Steven Blades, fellow veterans all, have equal cred walking the walk and talking the talk, as Echo 2, 3, and 4. With Cullen they nicely create a sense of the fellowship that comes from serving together.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Into the Deep: Richard Dreyfuss and Sharks, Together Again

Jaws 2 gets a bad rap. People unfairly lump it together with the next two truly dreadful sequels. Of course, for many, it was doomed from the start when Richard Dreyfuss refused to reprise his original role. Now, forty-five years later, Dreyfuss finally appears in another shark movie (Piranha 3D and documentary narration don’t count). Technically, he never leaves shore, but he still has some of the best moments in Christian Sesma’s Into the Deep, which releases today in theaters and on VOD.

Years ago, Cassidy Branham’s parents moored their boat at a spot where sharks had never been reported, but a great white ate her father right in front of her anyway. She has had a love-hate with the ocean ever since, largely because Seamus, her marine biologist grandfather, keeps pushing her to face her fears. That is why she agrees to join her archeologist husband Gregg and his scruffy skipper pal Daemon Benz on a treasure dive.

Tragically, both sharks and pirates crash their party. First sharks chow down on one of their companions. Then they hail the nearest boat for help, but the bandits aboard are decidedly not good Samaritans. Led by disgraced Navy SEAL Jordan Devane, they are tracking the signal of a large submerged shipment of drugs that they intend to hijack/salvage. However, they need a better, lighter diver to ferry the drugs back up in the shark cage.

Mixing sharks with pirates gives
Into the Deep a slightly different angle than other sharksploitation movies. It also has a decent cast, especially Dreyfuss, whose appearance is quite a coup for a movie of this stature. Essentially, crusty Seamus, who constantly warns his students to fear nature’s wrath, is a combination of his original oceanographer character, Matt Hooper, and Robert Shaw’s salty sea dog, Quint. He never gets within earshot of a shark, but delivers several colorful monologues and makes an extended pitch for shark conservation during the closing credits.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

The Colors Within, in Cinema Daily US


THE COLORS WITHIN is an anime feature that happens to be one of the best teen dramas of the year. Its themes of music, faith, and personal responsibility should resonate for multiple demographics, including young adults and Catholic audiences. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Grafted, on Shudder

If it were up to the filmmakers who write and direct horror movies, there would be no medical research whatsoever. Want to develop new skin-grafting techniques to treat the disfigured? Oh, the hubris. Haven’t you seen Rabid? Wei’s father is doubly asking for it, because both he and she stand to benefit from the revolutionary technique he tries and fails to develop. Despite his spectacularly gruesome fate, she continues his research in Sasha Rainbow’s Grafted, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder.

Let’s just say Wei’s dad regenerated a little too much skin. Unfortunately, as the world knows from experience, dangerous, unpredictable experiments have a habit of escaping labs in China. In this case, Wei takes his notes to New Zealand, where her aunt has enrolled her in college. Auntie travels most of the time for her dodgy business, so that means the highly self-conscious Wei must deal with her entitled and resentful cousin Angela on her own. It also means she must endure Angela’s friends, Jasmine (who has a good heart, but is too passive to stand up to Angela) and Eve, the campus queen bee, who also happens to be sleeping with Wei’s biology professor, Paul Featherstone.

When Dr. Featherstone sees the potential of the experiments Wei runs in her spare time, he offers to collaborate, with the intention of stealing her father’s work. However, he never anticipated some of its applications. For instance, if Wei were to accidentally kill one of her bullying frienemies, she can use the newly developed serum to regenerate and graft the dead girl’s face onto her own.

Brave the Dark, from Angel Studios

Much to his colleagues’ bewilderment, Stan Deen believed helping students, even the difficult ones, was a bigger part of a teacher’s job than advancing a political ideology or marking time until retirement. Weird, right? Admittedly, Nathan Williams was a tough case, but the teen had some horrible breaks. Clearly, it takes more effort to get involved, but Deen does so anyway in Damian Harris’s Brave the Dark, released by Angel Studios, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Most likely, Deen eventually reaches Williams, because you rarely see films made about people who attempt good deeds, but failed. Deen was already popular with students, because he did the easy stuff, like college recommendations, so well. More perceptive than other teachers, Deen slips Wiliams a candy bar during one of the early scenes, because he can tell the teen is hungry. Abandoned by his fosters and grandparents, Williams has been living in his car for months. He only joined the track team, so he could shower in the mornings.

When Williams gets busted for an ill-conceived burglary, only Deen comes to check on him. The teacher shocks his colleagues and confuses Williams by personally taking responsibility for him and inviting him into his home. Inevitably, returning to school as jailbird entails further frustrations and cutting rebukes. Plus, it is hard for the teen to believe Deen just wants to help, rather than working an angle.

Mostly likely many critics will have no problem feeling much cooler than
Brave the Dark. Some might dismiss it as TV-movie fare and stereotype it as another “faith-based” release from Angel Studios. Yet, it should be noted the film never mentions God, Jesus, or any religious figure. Instead, it is about accepting personal responsibility and offering compassion on a person-to-person basis. Constantly, Deen is asked why get involved? Why not let the system take care of Williams. Of course, “the system” has already done quite a job on the unfortunate teen.

As a director, Harris also has the benefit of his brothers, Jared and Jamie, who are terrific as Deen, and Williams’ parole officer, Barney, respectively. They both look like they belong in Lancaster, PA, even though all three are sons of the legendary Richard Harris. As Deen, Jared Harris is achingly earnest, yet so understated, some shallow critics will not notice how good he is. The other on-camera Harris is tough and smart, but also fair. He’s not the PO you want, he’s the PO you need. Both demonstrate that decency is not boring to watch on screen—quite the contrary.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Prime Target, in The Epoch Times


Apple TV+'s PRIME TARGET certainly leaves viewers skeptical regarding the ethics and judgement of advannced mthematical and scientific researchers and institutions, but the thriller elements should more consistently thrill. EPOCH TIMES exclusive review up here.

The Snow Woman, on OVID.tv

Her hair is black as coal, but her skin and robes are ghostly white. Any half-witted genre fan can immediately tell she must be some kind of supernatural entity. In this case, she is a Yuki-onna, often referred to as a snow witch. If that sounds familiar, maybe you read the Lafcadio Hearn short story or saw it adapted as part of Masaki Obayashi’s truly classic anthology film, Kwaidan. This Yuki-onna is that Yuki-onna. Three years after Kwaidan, Hearn’s snowy story was translated into a full-length feature., but Tokuzo Tanaka’s The Snow Woman remains true to its source and chillily atmospheric, as viewers will see when a new 4K restoration premieres this Friday on OVID.TV.

Instead of wood-cutters, this time around, a master wood-carver and his apprentice traveled deep into the snowy woods in search of the perfect tree for the elder artist’s final masterwork. Late that night, the long-haired Yokai glides into the cabin where they took refuge, freezing the old man to death with her frosty projections (sort of like Marvel’s Iceman). However, she spares Yosaku’s life, because he is young and just too darned good-looking. She insists on one condition—he must never, ever speak of what happened. Should he break his word, she will quickly finish the job.

Several days later, while Yosaku still grieves and recuperates with his master’s widow, a strange woman takes shelter from the rain in their modest home. Obviously, viewers can tell the eerily beautiful Yuki is the Yuki-onna, but Yosaku never makes the connection. Instead, he falls in love with her as they both comfort the ailing widow. Unfortunately, his soon-to-be wife also turns the head of the cruel local lord.

The Wild Robot, on Peacock

It is sort of like Are You My Mother? (written by P.D. Eastman, not Dr. Seuss, even though it carried the Cat in the Hat insignia on is cover), but with artificial intelligence. Due to a typhoon, a Jetson’s-style service robot washes up on an island where no ‘bot has gone before. Her encounter with nature changes her nature in Chris Sanders’ Oscar-qualified animated feature, The Wild Robot, which premieres this Friday on Peacock.

When Roz, short for Rozzum (a play on Rossum’s Universal Robots), pops out of her crate, she cannot find any humans to give her a task. Her initial inability to communicate leads to misunderstandings with the animal kingdom and an unfairly monstrous reputation. Eventually, her self-learning AI cracks the animal code. However, the only beast who will really talk to her is Fink, a fox looking to exploit her good intentions.

Sadly, Roz crashed into a nest, killing most of the occupants. Awkwardly, when the only surviving egg hatches, the gosling imprints on her. She is not a mother, but she finally gets a task: parenting. She lacks a “village,” but at least she has Fink’s help—as long as he refrains from eating the little guy. Together (but mostly just her), Roz and Fink must prepare Brightbill to migrate for the winter, but like most teenagers, he doesn’t fully appreciate his adoptive mom’s sacrifices (including overriding her own programming).

The Wild Robot
is a pleasant enough film, but despite its considerable box office success, it pales in comparison to other animated Oscar contenders, especially Flow. As you would hope, the animation is indeed bright and colorful, while the furry animals have a lot of charm.

Of course, every animated movie can use a bear, but Thorn (grouchily voiced by Mark Hamill) bears a strong resemblance to Nick Nolte’s grumpy bear in
Over the Hedge. Similarly, Bightbill’s training for the geese’s big annual flight echoes some of the themes of Migration. Regardless, Matt Berry undeniably contributes the funniest vocal performance as Paddler, the appropriately enterprising beaver.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Werewolf Game, Co-Starring the Late, Great Tony Todd

Obviously, people deeply distrust social media tech companies, if horror movie makers believe the public will accept a company that somewhat resembles Meta kidnapping innocent people to produce a life-and-death dark web survival game. If you are wondering, the evil corporate entity sounds more Meta than X, because of all the references to their AI division. Regardless, their behavior is unambiguously criminal, but apparently, they have been getting away with it for quite a while in Cara Claymore & Jacki Payne’s Werewolf Game, which releases today on VOD.

The “Judge” will explain the rules to the distressed abductees, but viewers who have played the parlor game “Mafia,” also known as “Werewolf,” already know how it works. Two lucky “contestants” are designated werewolves. The rest are villagers. During the night, the two wolves hunt the villagers. By day, the sheep try to identify their hunters, before each fatal elimination vote, resulting in a bullet to the back of the head.

Frankly, nobody (including myself) would be particularly interested in
Werewolf Game were it not one of the final films starring the late, great horror legend Tony Todd. It really is a nasty, brutish piece of work. Yet, the violence is eclipsed by the impossibly bad decision-making. Perversely, the villagers constantly vote to eliminate the least dangerous players, including the homeless basket case, who could hardly get out of bed. Very little makes sense, including placing Raymond, a former IT guy with the tech company, into the game.

Of course, Todd has the perfect, malevolent voice for the Judge, but it is rather a shame he must mask up for most of the film. Arguably, the best work comes from Robert Picardo (
Star Trek’s holographic doctor), who plays Bill, a former police detective, who at least tries to apply a little deductive reasoning.

Monday, January 20, 2025

Sniper: The Last Stand

Sniper overwtch missions have been a family business for Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett (not to be confused with the archbishop) and his son Gunnery Sergeant Brandon Bishop. Business has been brisk over the course of eleven Sniper movies. The father (Tom Berenger) starred in the first three, with the son carrying the Sniper standard in the subsequent eight. Perhaps this might be Brandon Beckett’s final mission, judging from the finality of the title. If so, Beckett will surely go down shooting in Danishka Esterhazy’s Sniper: The Last Stand, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Beckett isn’t even sure which African nation Zeke “Zero” Rosenberg, agent of G.R.I.T. (Global Response & Intelligence Team), has secretly infiltrated him into—and it is probably best for him not to know. If Americans are caught participating in the country’s civil war, it would surely lead to a diplomatic incident. Wherever they are, the government is not merely oppressive. It has become a safe haven for Kovalov, an arms dealer transparently based on Viktor Bout.

The local freedom fighters contracted G.R.I.T. to capture or kill Kovalov and his tech guru, before they finish the cutting edge WMD they have reportedly been developing. For Zero, it is not just a job. It is personal. Zero nearly had a line on Kovalov twice before, but red tape slowed him down. There will not be any bureaucrats delaying this
Wild Geese-like mission.

The initial breach of Kovalov’s government compound proceeds like clockwork. Unfortunately, the arm’s dealer manages to send an S.O.S. to the regime militia. Then he activates his mysterious new pulse weapon, which eventually kills him along with half Zero’s team, through some kind of delayed effect. Instead of retreating, Beckett convinces the team remnant to stay and fend off the militia, while the resistance leader uploads all the weapon data to various intelligence services around the world. Anyone who recently downloaded the latest Windows upgrade understands how long that could take.

Screenwriter Sean Wathen’s narrative is not exactly complex, but if you enjoy VOD action movies, this one delivers bounteous servings of red meat. Frankly, all of Esterhazy’s action scenes are adrenaline-charged and cleanly choreographed. It is wall-to-wall pedal-to-the-metal action—and almost nothing else.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

A Legend: Propaganda on BluRay

How many film critics are in the mood to cheer for colonialists waging war on an indigenous people? That is exactly what you get with this latest fantastical historical from China, except the cultural genocide it celebrates is still going on. In one timeline, it is the Han versus the “Hun,” a.k.a. the Xiongnu people of Xinjiang and the Eastern Steppe. The other timeline features the archeological time excavating the past. Jackie Chan appears in both—sort of. The propaganda might elude dumb Westerners unfamiliar with the region, but it is ever-present in Stanley Tong’s A Legend, which releases Tuesday on VOD and BluRay.

Technically, this is the third film in Tong’s trilogy featuring Chan as archaeologist Dr. “Jack” Fang, following the fluffy
Kung Fu Yoga and the earlier, similarly blandly titled The Myth, which A Legend more greatly emulates. As in Myth, Doc Fang and his assistant Wang Jing start having dreams and visions of the Han-Xiongnu Wars, in which they were both young heroic generals for the imperialist Han. However, you might not fully realize Fang is supposed to be part of the historical action. For the flashback scenes, Chan was “de-aged” using AI, rendering him almost unrecognizable and very weird-looking. If A Legend represents the current state of Chinese AI, then America and the West are way out in front of them.

Of course, the noble generals manage to save Mengyun, a Xiongnu princess fleeing a company of fellow Xiongnu soldiers. Conveniently, she and her family pledged their loyalty to the Han conquers, which [understandably] infuriated He Boar, who also covets the princess for himself. In fact, he even killed his moderate brother and their ailing chieftain father to have her.

Apparently, these visions started with the discovery of Mengyun’s shamanic jade pendant. There definitely seems be some kind of strange time-transcending New Agey power at play. A lot of people around Fang who are also interested—maybe too interested—in a rumored cache of Xiongnu treasure.

Throughout
A Legend all Xiongnu who are not part of Mengyun’s family are demonized for their barbarity. It is also rather galling to hear to listen to Chan lecture the audience on preserving archaeological treasures when the Chinese Communist occupiers have been literally razing mosques throughout Xinjiang to ground.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Back in Action, in Cinema Daily US


BACK IN ACTION scrupulously avoids serious issues and heavy drama, succeeding as light entertainment. Diaz and Foxx share some appealing chemistry as a happily married couple still going strong and they look good doing their spycraft. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Kneel Before Zod, from DC

For Gen-X, Terence Stamp was never an “angry young man.” He was an intergalactic war criminal. Together with Sarah Douglas, and Jack O’Halloran, he formed a trio of super-villains that still makes Superman II one of the best superhero films ever (along with Superman: The Movie). He is one of the most significant super-bad guys ever, so it makes sense he gets the kind of starring villainous role enjoyed by DC stablemates like the Joker and the Penguin in Joe Casey’s Kneel Before Zod, illustrated by Dan McDaid, which is now on-sale in a bind-up tradepaperback.

This is the Dru-Zod you know, but now he is officially married to Ursa, who is also otherwise exactly like you remember her. However, silent Non is absent and unaccounted for. They still hunger for power, but do not try to reconcile
Kneel Before Zod with the continuity of Superman II. With DC, there are so many timelines, pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, Golden Age, Tomorrowverse, and so on, non-obsessive fans should just accept each story on its own terms.

In this case, Zod and Ursa have indeed escaped the Phantom Zone, but they have temporarily made “peace” with the galactic authorities and the remnant of Kryptonian governance. In fact, they have built an outpost on a distant planet they christened New Kandar, with the intention of developing it as the new home for the bottled city Kandar, which Brainiac captured and placed in stasis, before the planet’s destruction.

Of course, Zod has a secret agenda, involving ambitions of conquest, so he is in no mood for his son Lor-Zod’s rebellious acting out. Conveniently, the House of Zod has a tradition of casting out their sons to fend for themselves, so it looks like his time has come. (In fact, Lor-Zpod gets his own limited series, teaming up with Sinistro’s bratty brood.) Nevertheless, Zod’s hallucinations of his old nemesis, Jor-El, cannot resist taunting him with his parental failures. Frankly, fighting the invasion of alien mercenaries who somehow got wind of his secret weapon, whatever that might be, offers him an opportunity to vent his anger.

Despite all the Kryptonian references,
Kneel Before Zod reads more like science fiction-ish titles distantly set in the DC Universes, such as Adam Strange and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. Indeed, the later issues take a wild space-faring turn. They are also unusually violent for DC, because of the graphic depictions of Zod using his powers very much in the same way Homelander does in The Boys, but with even less mercy.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Night Call, Co-Starring Romain Duris as a Bad Guy

The right to protest must always be preserved, but its always best to take a break and start fresh in the morning. All-night demonstrations are dangerous because both protesters and cops get tired, making it harder for cool heads to prevail. Indeed, an all-night BLM protest in Brussels further complicates a locksmith’s night-from-heck in director-screenwriter Michiel Blanchart’s Night Call, which opens today in theaters.

Mady Bala is not an idiot. He requires proper ID and cash payment for his late-night house-calls, but for some reason, he trusts “Claire.” After all, she perfectly describes the apartment’s interior. However, she scoots out with a package of something just before the real tenant, a white supremacist drug dealer, returns home.

Somehow, Bala kills the raging thug in self-defense, but the long-running protests convince the misguided locksmith to clean-up the crime scene instead of calling the cops. So, there he is, looking extremely guilty when druglord Yannick’s men arrive for their money, finding him instead. After some enhanced interrogation, Yannick starts to suspect Bala might be telling the truth, so he sends the poor patsy off to the dead man’s favorite sex-worker club in search of the mystery woman. Inconveniently, one of the henchmen minding him is aggressively ill-tempered and the other was in on the theft.

It seems pretty clear Blanchart sympathizes with the movement, judging from Bala’s anxieties regarding the police. Yet, ironically, the demonstrators constantly make his situation worse. In fact, the protest—which is really more of a contained riot—precipitate several of the darned things in Blanchart’s one-darned-thing-after-another storyline. There are also a handful of violent eruptions that are not exceptionally graphic, but are still shocking within the dramatic context.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Wolf Man, from Blumhouse

Traditionally, lycanthropy victims must sharpen their time-management skills. If they can secure themselves during full moons (if so inclined), they can continue functioning normally during the rest of the month. Not so for these werewolves. They turn once—permanently. Frankly, it seems fair to ask whether werewolves are still werewolves without the lunar aspect, or just contagion-based hairy monsters. Regardless, that is what we get in Leigh Whannel’s Wolf Man, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

According to the opening titles (which cry out for John Larroquette’s
Texas Chainsaw Massacre narrator voice), the indigenous people of these Oregon woods long told stories of shaggy man-beasts terrorizing the region. Young Blake Lovell’s veteran father Grady took those stories seriously. After a tense sighting, he went out hunting it and never came back.

Years later, adult (sort of) Lovell is now a stay-at-home father, largely because he is unemployed. Consequently, he is much closer to his daughter Ginger than his increasingly distant journalist wife, Charlotte. When the state finally declares the missing Grady dead, Blake convinces his wife a family trip to Oregon will do them good, but we know better.

Sure enough, the Lovell family inevitably finds itself running for dear life from a hirsute figure, barely reaching crazy old Grady’s farmhouse in time to barricade themselves inside. Unfortunately, the creature drew some of Blake’s blood, which still means what it usually means. The transformation will not be immediate, but despite his efforts to fight it, the change is inevitable and irreversible.

Blumhouse’s first re-conception of a classic Universal monster,
The Invisible Man (also directed by Whannel) was a clever, high-concept genre thriller that felt very fresh and contemporary. In comparison, Wolf Man is a disappointingly small film that resembles any number of low-budget VOD horror movies. Basically, the Lovells are yet another family that allow themselves to be trapped in a strange house by monsters.

Whannel builds a fair degree of tension, but the werewolf makeup underwhelms. It is also annoying to see the Grady Lovell character initially presented as yet another emotionally distant (perhaps even abusive) disciplinarian veteran, but admittedly, the film invites some sympathy for him as it reveals more of his backstory and fate. Regardless, most viewers will ask two glaringly obvious questions as the Lovells batten down grandpa’s long-empty farmhouse: why is it so clean inside and where are all his guns?

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Man with No Past, Co-Starring Jon Voight

This man of mystery has a wicked case of déjà vu. Ironically, he also amnesia. He doesn’t know who or what he is, but he is weirdly drawn to people who seem to recognize him, albeit vagely. Apparently, he fights for the innocent and just against those his nemesis leads astray, in morality plays that repeat over time, in different eras, throughout James Bamford’s Man with No Past, which is now available on VOD.

Ryder is not quite sure what he is doing in our world and his visions of fighting the same cast of characters in ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and National Socialist Germany only confuse him more. Yet, he recognizes Morgan, a pro bono attorney who works out of her god-mother Shelly’s bar, but she is too grounded for past-life déjà vu. However, Shelly can tell he is something, because she has the
shine.

This time around, the Jon Voight character is Paul Sanborn, a powerful Trump-ish developer, whom the Mephistophelean Mr. Soach has once again led astray. Before, past Sanborn executed innocents in Germany and forced them into gladiatorial games in Rome, all for the sake of maintaining “order,” which is also ironic, since Soach’s name is an anagram for Chaos. This time he intends to clear his old working-class neighborhood to make way for his legacy-enshrining development. To overcome the opposition of a difficult city councilman, Soach convinces Voight to target the politician’s young daughter.

This is an oddball film that layers an unlikely metaphysical genre story over a grungy VOD action movie, sort of like Timothy Woodward Jr.’s
Checkmate, but the execution is far superior, because how could it not be? There is just no sugar-coating the cheap look of the historical scenes. However, the entire cast plays it straight with the utmost earnestness.

Adam Woodward is clearly most comfortably playing strong, silent types, so a role like Ryder suits his skill set. Conversely, Marton Csokas appears almost inspired by Steven Paul’s script as he hisses, preens, and generally chews the scenery as Soach. Charlotte Weston also brings some upbeat charm playing Shelly, which often gives the moody film a welcome lift.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Lizzie Lazarus, on Screambox

If there is one ironclad law of both horror and science fiction movies, it must be the certain understanding that terrible consequences befall any attempt to infringe on death’s domain. Yet, here are Bethany and Eli, schlepping the dead body of her sister through the woods, hoping to reincarnate her once they reach a “sacred spot” on the night of the Summer Solstice. Maybe, this time it will work out for them, but do not get your hopes up, because director-screenwriter Aviv Rubinstien’s Lizzie Lazarus is a horror film, which premieres today on Screambox.

Technically, Lizzie’s death was ruled an accident, but the circumstances indicate vehicular suicide. For her sister Bethany and now ex-boyfriend Eli, that means a lot of guilt, especially since he probably became her ex right before she fatally drove away. Consequently, he agrees to help Bethany with her longshot scheme to bring Lizzie back using the old folkie magic she discovered in her stoner studies.

However, carrying a corpse through the dark woods is more taxing than either expected. They do not even mention the smell, just the weight. There are also weird noises and several potential witnesses ominously skulking about. Plus, there is the whole business of dabbling in dark magic. Yet, for Eli, Bethany’s constant babble of paranoid conspiracy theories and New Age baloney must constitute the most nightmarish aspect of the evening.

Clearly, Rubinstien holds a wicked twist in reserve to eventually spring on viewers. Even if you guess where it is headed,
Lizzie Lazarus takes the audience on quite a macabre trip. This is probably the talkiest horror movie in years—maybe even ever, but all that gab pays off.

In fact, Rubinstien’s script intelligently addresses some pretty serious issues related to grief and mental health, without ever feeling exploitative. A lot of painful truths come out over the course of the night. Fortunately, Rubinstien also takes care of genre business, steadily building a sense of foreboding. The evil vibes are palpable for viewers, even if the characters cannot pick up on them.

X-Treme Riders: Fast, Furious, and Thai

Kla and his friends are drug-running stunt drivers—and they are the good guys. Unfortunately, two of their fellow drivers were fatally double-crossed by the other gang they thought they were doing business with. It turns out, Kla’s sister Fun will be the featured fighter in the MMA championship sponsored by their new nemesis. Family is a big deal in movies like this, isn’t it? There is also a lot of fast driving in Sor Sangchai’s X-Treme Riders, which releases today on VOD.

In addition to their exhibitions, the X-Treme Riders also double as the special “cabbage” truck racers, until two colorful hench-people with grenade launchers ambush their latest run, killing Bank. Their boss Krit tells them to lay low, while he quickly tracks the killers back to Jo, the big city kingpin, who is also promoting Fun’s fight. Of course, Jo is pressuring her to throw the fight, because he knows she needs money for her mother’s heart-surgery.

Poor Kla has not spoken to his ailing mother in years because she blames him for his father’s accidental death—not completely without cause. Still, Kla’s teammates and their DJ, Pat, who is also his girlfriend, are a lot like his “family.” You know how that goes. Regardless, Kla and his cronies will be driving hard, while Fun fights her heart out, or not.

It is conspicuously obvious
X-Treme Riders was conceived as a Thai Fast and Furious. However, it deserves credit for its willingness to go darker. Just for starters, the X-Treme Riders are flat-out drug-runners. There is also a surprisingly high mortality rate among the major cast of characters.

Monday, January 13, 2025

Journey to America, on PBS


People forget, but no president was more supportive of immigration than Ronald Reagan—legal immigration, that is. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista present portraits of notable American [legal] immigrants very much in the Reaganesque tradition in Journey to America with Newt and Callista Gingrich, which airs this Tuesday night on PBS.

It might seem like a blindingly obvious point, but Prof. Susan Hanssen helpfully points out legal immigration is good, because it allows those who follow the law coming here can fully benefit from the rule of law as a recognized member of society. Conversely, illegal immigration is bad for the same reason. Indeed, all of the Gingrichs’ subjects came to America legally, duly taking citizenship over time.

This is quite a starry lineup, including Golden Age movie star Hedy Lamarr, whose contributions as an inventor and scientist are also cogently explained. In fact, the Gingrichs largely cover the same territory as
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, but with greater economy. As you would expect from the Catholic Gingrichs, their coverage of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen beautified into Sainthood, is also quite strong. It also reminds potential visitors the Cabrini Shrine in upper Manhattan is lovely often overlooked attraction.

Perhaps the most controversial segment focuses on the late Henry Kissinger, reminding viewers the future Secretary of State came to America with his Jewish family, as penniless refugees from National Socialist Germany. It makes you wonder why the hard left likes to smear Kissinger (a diplomat), who happens to be Jewish, as a “war criminal,” instead of Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, or William Rogers, but not really.

Shortlisted: A Bear Named Wojtek (short)

He served in the same unit as Menachem Begin and mathematician Julian J. Bussgang, even though he was a bear. Like Sgt. Stubby during WWI, Wojtek the bear was a soldier of rank in the so-called Anders’ Army (who were granted amnesty by the Soviets and allowed to return to the battlefield, thanks to British diplomatic pressure). They were often outnumbered and outgunned, but they had a secret weapon, who was furry but fiercely protective. Filmmaker Iain Gardner pays tribute to one of our great veteran fore-bears in the animated short film A Bear Named Wojtek, which has been shortlisted by the Academy. (Voting for nominations has been extended to tomorrow, so members still have time to watch it).

Polish soldiers discovered the orphaned Wojtek in the Iranian mountains, while they were training under the Brits. Initially, their training Sergeant Major opposed the presence of a wild animal on base, until he captured a pair of would-be saboteurs. There was no arguing with results, so he shipped out with the Anders Army to Monte Casino, where he helped carry shells to artillery positions covering the Allied advance.

This all sounds like a tall tale, but apparently, just like Sgt. Stubby’s heroics, there is official documentation to back it up. Regardless, a great story is a great story. Gardner tells it well, employing a painterly style of animation reminiscent of water color and pastel canvases.

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Sakamoto Days, in Cinema Daily US


Netflix's SAKAMOTO DAYS is an endearing ode to marriage and fatherhood that also includes a lot of wild, over-the-top action. Its perfect comfort food for anime fans. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Oceans are the Real Continents

According to one character, the heat and humidity makes time pass slowly in the rural Cuban town of San Antonio. The nearly complete absence of economic activity does not help either. The slow speed of life somewhat appropriately gets a “slow cinema” treatment in Italian director-screenwriter Tommasso Santambrogio’s Oceans are the Real Continents, which is now playing in New York.

Alex and Edith are lovers, at least until she defects during her upcoming puppetry performance abroad. Aside from him, there isn’t much keeping her in Cuba—and he doesn’t seem to have much personality. Frank and Alain are kids, who can still amuse themselves. Yet they still dream of baseball glory in America. Milagros is a pilar of the community, but she lives in the past, constantly rereading the letters her late husband sent before he died serving as part of Cuba’s militaristic adventurism in Angola. Thanks in part to his sacrifice, Angola continues to be a one-party dictatorship, rated “unfree” by Freedom House.

This is definitely the sort of film that would have a much greater impact if some of its parts were broken down that it has in its current form. By far, the sequences featuring Milagros Llanes Martinez as her namesake are the most meaningful. There is no competition. Had her scenes been edited into a short film, it would be quite a powerful work. It is also worth noting several arrestingly composed scenes of Edith’s marionettes in performance, which might have also constituted a diverting short.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Rogue Heroes Season 2, on MGM+

Eight decades after WWII, many in the United Kingdom now question why Lt. Col. Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne never received his nation’s highest military honor, the Victoria Cross (VC), nor has any other member of the Special Air Service (SAS), the commando unit he led throughout North Africa and Italy. In fact, no subsequent SAS commando has received the VC, which is strange, considering their valorous history. The hit show prompting these questions also offers an obvious explanation. The snobby officer class happily let the SAS fight and die on their behalf, but they never considered the highly effective but ill-disciplined unit proper soldiers. The disdain was mutual, at least it is throughout the second season of creator-writer Steven Knight’s Rogue Heroes (a.k.a. SAS Rogue Heroes), still adapted from Ben McIntyre’s nonfiction book, which premieres tomorrow on MGM+.

At the end of season one, Lt. Col. David Sterling, the co-founder of the SAS and then-Major Mayne’s commanding officer had been captured and interned in an Italian POW compound. Consequently, he has far less screentime in season two. However, Mayne more than capably picks up the slack. He also gets a new Sterling, Lt. Col. Bill Sterling, who is much more a proper officer according to the way top brass thinks. Of course, Mayne considers him an aristocratic dilettante. Nevertheless, the new Sterling is a better, more conscientious advocate for the SAS, or the SRS (Special Raiding Service), as they are temporarily renamed, than Mayne realizes.

Regardless, Montgomery and Allied command continues sending the SAS/SRS on foolhardy advance missions, paving the way for the regular army’s Italian invasion, because they keep surviving, killing many Germans and fascists in the process. Given their track record, Eve Mansour, the Algerian-born Free-French spy, who also happened to be David Sterling’s lover, hopes to rendezvous with Paddy Mayne, hoping to support his efforts and possibly glean some intel for De Gaulle regarding the expected invasion of France. Surely, the SAS (as they insist on calling themselves) will be in thick of any such operation.

One way or another, the SAS/SRS keeps rolling, but they are all not completely immune to the horrors of war, just the increasingly in/famous Paddy Mayne, who does not merely laugh in he face of death—he double-dog-dares it. There is no question Mayne is the star of season two and Jack O’Connell runs with it.

Indeed, O’Connell swaggers, snarls, and howls like a champion. You would almost think O’Connell was classically trained, given Mayne commanding bravura poetry recitations—one of the commando officer’s many eccentricities that worries Staff Sgt Jim Almonds, his designated conscience and voice of reason. That is a tough duty to draw.

It is also hard sharing the screen with O’Connell, but Corin Silva and Theo Barklem-Biggs shine developing season two’s other standout characters, Almonds and Sgt. Reg Seekings. Indeed, Barklem-Biggs would generate awards buzz in a more perfect world for the way he portrays Seekings’ PTSD (as we would call it today), as well as his righteous fury at the civilian casualties resulting from the National Socialists’ ruthlessness.