Steve Stebbing

What The Hell Came Out This Month? – October 2023

stevestebbing

October 31, 2023

Okay, this is a weird one out of the blue, everybody, but October was a stressful month beyond the awesome Vancouver International Film Festival. Afterwards, my usual spooky time of the year, a personal favorite, consisted of packing up my entire existence and moving across town for the remaining three weeks of the month, including the close to the over 3,500 titles in my collection. Twenty-four boxes by the way. Anyways, enough rambling. What I’ve tried to do was make a list of all the cool things I’ve received in October and give you my thoughts on each of them, having held them in my hot little hand.

Promising Young Woman 4K – Pushing thirty, and defined by a hideous crime involving her bosom friend, Nina, emotionally scarred medical school dropout, Cassie, knows firsthand that some wounds never heal. Leading an uneventful existence, still living with her parents, waiting tables at a cheap coffee shop to earn a living, Cassie has found the perfect way to deal with the painful past. Dressed to kill, at night, Cassie frequents the local bars and nightclubs, pretending to be dead drunk, utterly helpless and vulnerable. And, every week, lethally beautiful Cassie is on the prowl for all sorts of nocturnal predators and other wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are unaware that, sometimes, the hunter can become the prey. Then, Ryan, a kindly and caring old classmate who is the bee’s knees, enters the picture, and just like that, Cassie wants out. However, everybody knows that breaking bad habits is easier said than done. Could Ryan be the one?

Review: I know I’ve brought this one before but it has a Carey Mulligan performance that demands to be seen and it is now re-released in the all-glorious 4K format. The feature debut of Killing Eve creator Emerald Fennell, this film is a gutshot to every toxic dude on this planet and it may be uncomfortable at times, but it is all necessary. This film’s narrative is caustic, searing and totally unrelenting but has the ability to be sardonically funny and then slap you hard with its seriousness. Very quickly into this movie, I knew I was watching a really special film and it kept getting better.

Elizabeth 4K – Elizabeth Tudor becomes queen of a divided and dangerous England in 1558. She is roundly perceived as weak by threats from within and abroad, and she is strongly advised to marry by counsel William Cecil. But she will be married only to her country. Intelligent and cautious, she must choose where to place her trust: with her shrewd secretary Walsingham, a master of espionage, or her secret lover, Sir Robert Dudley.

Review: Cate Blanchett roared into our lives with this beautifully shot film at a time when I was just getting my foothold in taking in great cinema. If I had my film eyes at the time this one came out in 1998, I would have had it as a favourite of the year but now I can appreciate it in some pristine 4K and also appreciate its fantastic sound design as well. It’s notable that this came from writer Michael Hirst who would go on to royal-related drama with the series The Tudors.

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts – Returning to the action and spectacle that have captured moviegoers around the world, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on the ’90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new faction of Transformers – the Maximals – to join them as allies in the existing battle for earth. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback.

Review: The pathway after Michael Bay departed this Transformers franchise as a director has been surprisingly bright as Bumblebee was a fun movie and this 90s set prequel brings that same energy as well plus has the best performance from Pete Davidson I’ve seen so far. It should be mentioned that this is in a voice-over role but he and lead star Anthony Ramos have a great repore and it’s also really great to hear Ron Perlman’s booming voice in the role of Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals. This is definitely a dig for us 90s cartoon fans who dug into Beast Wars every week but the film has great pacing, solid characters and, above all, action that you actually see and make sense of on the screen. Bay should take notes on that.

The Boogeyman – High school student Sadie Harper and her younger sister Sawyer are reeling from the recent death of their mother and aren’t getting much support from their father, Will, a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. When a desperate patient unexpectedly shows up at their home seeking help, he leaves behind a terrifying supernatural entity that preys on families and feeds on the suffering of its victims.

Review: As a big Stephen King fan, the author who really got me reading books avidly, I love that they tackled this short story, one that I felt was an easy transition to the big screen. It comes from the writing duo of Beck and Woods, mostly known for the A Quiet Place movies but coming from the sci-fi action of 65, and the big studio debut for Rob Savage who found genre popularity with his Shudder streamer Host during the pandemic. As far as good and creepy scares go, this one is pretty solid in that department and while it won’t knock you out of your socks like a film with this title should, they paid attention to character and plot along the way.

Creepy Crawly – The film tells the story of a young woman who has just returned from a foreign country. She has to stay at a hotel to quarantine, but then suddenly comes across a monster that can change its shape in a variety of ways, according to the individual that this monster possesses. The concept of the story was inspired by the story of Battambang which was told during the reign of King Rama V.

Review: Well Go USA is a huge treasure trove for me, releasing so many different genre films from around the world which include a lot of killer martial arts films. It also has the odd creature feature here and there, exactly what this Thai horror is, but I have to say that I wish the focused more on the thrills than the largely cheesy character interactions. That said, if you like chills that are off the beaten path of Hollywood, you can’t really go wrong with this film, it really satisfies and makes you long for the practical effects of the 80s and 90s.

Rosemary’s Baby 4K – Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in an opulent but gothic building in Manhattan. Their landlord, Edward “Hutch” Hutchins, attempts to dissuade them: the building has an unsavoury history. They discover that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple, Roman and Minnie Castevet, and Guy starts spending a great deal of time with them. Soon, strange things start to happen: a young woman Rosemary meets in the laundry room seems to commit suicide, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises, and Guy becomes remote and distant. Then Rosemary gets pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for her child.

Review: This is the perfect month for Roman Polanski’s incredible devil worship film to get revamped in a 4K edition, even if it’s not a boosted piece of the Criterion Collection like it’s supposed to be. This movie holds up as a great thriller, even fifty five years after its original release. Mia Farrow plays the innocent descent into occult victim so well and the surrounding players of John Cassavettes, Ruth Gordon and Ralph Bellamy add so much more to the mystery. I know it’s not morally right to praise Polanski but this is real landmark filmmaking here that cannot be reproduced.

Angel Face – When Mrs. Tremayne is mysteriously poisoned with gas, ambulance driver Frank Jessup meets her refined but sensuous stepdaughter Diane, who quickly pursues and infuriates him. Under Diane’s seductive influence, Frank is soon the Tremayne chauffeur; but he begins to suspect danger under her surface sweetness. When he shows signs of pulling away, Diane schemes to get him in so deep he’ll never get out.

Review: This is definitely a special film and an early 50s classic with two towering lead performances from Robert Mitchum, in a year he released four films, and Jean Simmons, three years after her first Academy Award nomination. It comes from director Otto Preminger, a giant of his time and the man behind Anatomy Of A Murder and Stalag 17 to name a couple, but it was a bumpy ride in making it as he butted heads with Mitchum many times over his directorial process and even tried to get the star fired by producer Howard Hughes. They say that a troubled and angry set sometimes churns out a great production and this may be an example.

Caged! – Marie Allen is a 19-year-old innocent who is sent to the State penitentiary after becoming involved in a robbery staged by her now-dead husband. She is two months pregnant and finds herself in the company of both petty and hardened criminals. With the help of a few inmates, she quickly learns the inmate pecking order and takes the advice of the kind prison Superintendent, Ruth Benton, to follow the rules and aim to get parole at the end of her first year. Her biggest obstacle is the matron in charge of her section, Evelyn Harper, an evil, sadistic overseer who goes out of her way to make everyone miserable. When her mother refuses to take care of her newborn, it goes into State care, and when Marie is refused parole, she hardens and is destined to a life of crime.

Review: Nominated for three Academy Awards in a year that was dominated by All About Eve, Samson And Delilah and Sunset Boulevard, Caged was a film that would get buried in the awards season of 1951 but it is a bonafide noir classic these days and it’s great to see this new Warner Archive edition. It is an early “women in prison” film that predates the sleaze that would hit this specific genre in the seventies and eighties but it was even taboo at the time it was made. It was so shunned by Hollywood in the fifties that Bette Davis turned down starring in it, telling Warners she wasn’t interested in making “a dyke movie.” Davis did get nominated for Eve that year so who knows if she made the right choice but, yikes, what a reason!

The Damned Don’t Cry! – A land surveyor discovers the body of a notorious gangster out in the Palm Springs desert, setting off a police investigation that turns up one very surprising fact. The gangster was somehow connected to the New York socialite, Lorna Hansen Forbes. Where is she? The last place they would think to look is near an oil field in the modest home of two old folks. It seems the mysterious Miss Forbes has a secret past; these poor old folks are her parents. In a flashback, we learn that Miss Forbes was once Ethel Whitehead, a poor wife who wanted something more out of life and abandoned her husband to get it. A new career selling cigars in an office lobby leads to something better: modelling dresses. That leads to her meeting a meek accountant. And he becomes the first rung on her ladder to success, which means climbing down into the underworld and meeting rich gangsters, who are able to give her everything she has ever wanted – or thought she did.

Review: One of the scariest leading ladies of the Golden Age of Hollywood has to be Joan Crawford, an actress of formidable stature. This film noir is a great example of that iconic nature as she plays a strong woman trying to rise up the ranks of a man’s world, something that was a hair’s breadth away from impossible in the fifties. Loosely based upon the life of sharp-tongued moll Virginia Hill and her secretive relationship with gangster Bugsy Siegel, this was a discovery in Crawford’s career that really made me appreciate her range and it must have meant a lot ot her as well as she would reprise the role in a radio production a year later.

Videodrome 4K – The president of Civic TV Channel 83, Max Renn, is always looking for new cheap and erotic movies for his station. When his employee, Harlan, decodes a pirate video broadcast showing torture, murder, and mutilation called “Videodrome,” Max becomes obsessed to get this series for his channel. He contacts his supplier, Masha, and asks her to find the party responsible for the transmission. A couple of days later, Masha says that “Videodrome” is a real snuff movie. Max’s sadomasochistic girlfriend Nicki Brand decides to travel to Pittsburgh, where the show is based, to audition. Max investigates further, and through a video by the media prophet Brian O’Blivion, he learns that TV screens are the retina of the mind’s eye, being part of the brain, and “Videodrome” transmissions create a brain tumour in the viewer, changing the reality through video hallucination.

Review: My experience with this Cronenberg classic is a long one and something that I documented on my horror podcast Tremble but the gist of it is that I watched it at too young of an age on Showcase and now, as an adult, I love it with all my heart. I know how messed up that is but this is the master of body horror operating on an almost operatic level and totally deserving of its place in the Criterion Collection. This 4K is a revamp of the film and its special features and looks absolutely pristine. A gem in anyone’s collection if I say so myself.

A Bronx Tale 4K – Calogero Anello is a nine-year-old child living in the Bronx – notorious for gangster bars, racist people and an aggressive nature. Calogero witnesses a shooting in the street involving local big-shot gangster Sonny, but refuses to betray him to the police. Sonny grows fond of the boy and begins to teach him how things are conducted on the streets. Calogero’s father is a working man who wants his child to grow up and make his money honestly and does not want him to mix with Sonny. Despite his father’s disapproval, for eight years Calogero continues to see Sonny and receives a ‘street’ education from him. Despite being a gangster, Sonny loves Calogero and teaches him that being a gangster is too risky and dangerous. However, Calogero misinterprets Sonny’s message and still gets involved with his friends in racism and fights. Things get worse when he falls in love with a black girl. This story is about a Bronx where a child grows up with two educations, one from school and one from the street. As the child grows closer to a gangster, he begins to grow away from his family.

Review: This new 4K anniversary edition in the thirtieth year of its existence was an opportunity for me to re-evaluate a Robert De Niro-directed mob story on an adult level. Written by co-star Chazz Palmenteri and shot by Bobby D in his debut behind the camera, you can really tell that he took all the teachings of the many legendary film sets he had been on, like Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma and more, and used it to craft his own vision of a crime story. As a deeply personal story for Chazz, one taken from his real life, this is the crowning piece of his career and I may be late to the party but I have the utmost appreciation for this movie now.

The Last Voyage Of The Demeter – Based on a single chapter, the Captain’s Log, from Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel Dracula, the story is set aboard the Russian schooner Demeter, which was chartered to carry private cargo – twenty-four unmarked wooden crates – from Carpathia to London. The film will detail the strange events that befell the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a terrifying presence on board the ship. When it finally arrived near Whitby Harbour, it was derelict. There was no trace of the crew.

Review: The second Dracula film of 2023 hit Blu-ray this month, although this one is very different from the modern comedy horror of Renfield from a couple of months ago. With the stylistic eye of Troll Hunter writer and director André Øvredal, This is an above-mediocre low-key chiller here, featuring cinematography from Clint Eastwood’s usual guy, Tom Stern, and a score from the great Bear McCreary. Øvredal described this movie as basically Alien on a ship in 1897but the source material is one small chapter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I do say that it feels really stretched at times to make a two-hour feature window. It is an enjoyable watch but nothing that will stand the test of time.

Shortcomings – Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theatre as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices and begins to explore what he thinks he might want.

Review: The writing and directing debut of Randall Park, this film is a total win with a great script and smart and funny characters framed by great performances from Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola and Ally Maki. Meta in a lot of its delivery, the interesting thing about the film is that it leads with a pretty unlikable character but one that is very unassuming of his lesser traits. This counteracts Min’s onscreen likability as I always have enjoyed his work, especially on The Umbrella Academy.

Rabbit Hole: Season 1 – Nothing is what it seems when John Weir, master of corporate espionage, finds himself at the center of a shadowy conspiracy. After uncovering a dangerous plot by powerful forces with the ability to control populations and subvert democracy, Weir is framed for murder and put on the run, trying to figure out who and what is real in a reality turned upside down. As a man who deals in mistrust and deception, can John Weir trust a team of unlikely allies to outwit an enemy with deep ties to his past and who’s bent on using our own data against us? John Weir must navigate a world of surveillance, misinformation and manipulation to uncover the man at the center of the plot and stop him before it’s too late.

Review: Put Keifer Sutherland in any action series and you’ve got my butt in a seat for sure and this one follows through on the promise to be as explosive as 24 was. Within the first few scenes of the first episode, it seems to be the story of a tech-heavy espionage organization run by Keifer’s character until the last scene of the show sends it all into intriguing uncertainty. Needless to say, I’ve loved the whole ride so far and am really hoping that season two comes sooner than later.

Dangerous When Wet – The health-conscious, dairy-farming Higgins family begins each day with an invigorating swim. One day, travelling health-tonic salesman, Windy Weebe, comes to town and suggests they could swim the English Channel. Sponsored by “Liquapep” and coached by Windy, the family arrived in Europe. There it is decided that daughter Katie is the only one strong enough to enter the contest. But while she should be focused on the difficult and risky task ahead, Katie is pursued by dashing Frenchman, André Lanet… This comedic musical is well remembered for the scene when Katie dreams she is swimming with cartoon characters Tom & Jerry!

Review: The childhood favorite film of legendary film critic Gene Siskel has now arrived on blu-ray and I find this one really interesting as it is an early blend of live action and animation with the inclusion of the beloved Tom and Jerry characters. This isn’t the first time though as Jerry appeared with Gene Kelly a decade earlier in Anchors Aweigh but it’s still pretty notable and cost the studio a lot of money. The underwater sequences in which Esther Williams speaks to Tom and Jerry, Joseph Barbera animated pink bubbles coming from her mouth, which was an effect that cost $50,000 just for that. I can’t imagine what the full animation total was and, of course, you have to adjust that for inflation. Crazy.

The Old Man And The Sea – Now an old man, a lifelong fisherman sets out to sea to ply his trade as he has done all of his life. He’s not had much good fortune of late and has gone almost three months without a major catch while others are catching one or even two large marlins every week. Many of the locals make fun of him and some say he’s too old now to be fishing but he still loves what he does and is encouraged by a young boy who loves him and has faith in him. On this day he hooks the fish of a lifetime, a marlin that is larger than his skiff. As it slowly pulls him out to sea, the old man reminisces about his past, his successes and the high points of his life. When he does finally manage to land the fish he has to fight off sharks who are feeding on it as he tries to return to his Cuban village.

Review: Spencer Tracy doing one of Ernest Hemingway’s most famous stories on the big screen? You know that’s a big classic and it actually earned the legendary actor his sixth Academy Award nomination, although he would lose to David Niven for Seperate Tables. The film would earn three Oscar nods total and ended up walking away with the statue for Best Music but should be more notable as Hemingway was actually very involved in its production and can be seen sitting in the cafe in the final scene wearing a tan baseball cap and conversing with other fishermen in his onscreen debut. At under an hour and a half, this film still plays beautifully and Tracy was a giant among men in many ways.

Padre Pio – In this powerful drama directed by acclaimed filmmaker Abel Ferrara, a young priest, Padre Pio (Shia LaBeouf), begins his ministry at a remote Capuchin monastery in Italy’s San Giovanni Rotondo. WWI has ended and Italian soldiers – broken but victorious – are returning to the impoverished village ruled by wealthy landowners. As events surrounding the first free election in Italy threaten to tear the village apart, Padre Pio struggles with his own personal demons, ultimately emerging from his spiritual anguish to become one of Catholicism’s most venerated figures.

Review: I was immediately fascinated by this film as it has legendary writer and director Abel Ferrara teaming with eccentric bad boy character actor Shia Lebeouf, a departure from his usual leading man, Willem Dafoe. Again, Shia went deep for this one as he converted to Catholicism because of the role and went as far as to only sleep in the real bed that the character he plays slept in. Unfortunately, the film itself is a bit of a dry slog, more so than Ferrera’s usual work, including the almost biopic Tommasso. It also feels like two very different movies moving at the same time and I think Abel might have had a hard time reigning Lebeouf in because his performance can get downright odd and distracting at times.

Ride On – Washed-up stuntman Luo can barely make ends meet let alone take care of his beloved stunt horse, Red Hare. Luo reluctantly seeks help from his estranged daughter and her lawyer boyfriend when notified that the horse may be auctioned off to cover his debts. Unexpectedly, Luo and Red Hare become an overnight media sensation when their real-life fight with debt collectors goes viral. And Luo gets a second chance to choose between his stunt career and his family.

Review: I’ve had a love for Jackie Chan on the big screen since I saw Rumble In The Bronx in theatres in the 90s and then dug into all of his past Hong Kong flicks like the Police Story trilogy and Drunken Master so I was on board with this one as soon as I saw Well Go USA had sent it. This film has Jackie leaning into his true age, finally, but the great action and stunts tower over the lacklustre and mediocre story and character work that leaves it as a pretty forgettable watch. I don’t know what will of course correct this once-great action actor but this isn’t it.

Before Night Falls – Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. He joins Castro’s rebels. By 1964, he was in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; a love-hate relationship lasts for years. Openly gay behavior is a way to spite the government. His writing and homosexuality get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. He befriends Lázaro Gomes Garriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, “Revenge.”

Review: Another fascinating biopic to follow up his debut film Basquiat, Julian Schnabel has a filmmaking craft that is unlike any others and his first film and this Javier Bardem-led film show that style in its beginning steps. Well deserving of his Best Actor Academy Award nomination, which he lost to Russell Crowe for Gladiator, this might be one of the best performances from Bardem, in a career that has had so many, and a memorable one from Johnny Depp who plays the evolving role of Lieutenant Victor who also lives an alternative lifestyle in drag as Bon Bon. This is cinema gold here and I’m grateful to Warner Archive for bringing it to the next level of blu-ray.

Land Of The Pharaohs – In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh Khufu (Jack Hawkins) is obsessed with acquiring gold and plans to take it all with him into the “second life”. To this end, he enlists the aid of Vashtar (James Robertson Justice), an architect whose people are enslaved in Egypt. The deal: build a robbery-proof tomb and the enslaved people will be freed. During the years that the pyramid is being built, Cyprian Princess Nellifer (Dame Joan Collins) becomes the Pharaoh’s second wife, and she plots to prevent Khufu from taking his treasure with him when he dies, as well as helping him make the journey early.

Review: Directed by Golden Hollywood legend Howard Hawks, co-written by William Faulkner and starring Joan Collins, its crazy to believe that this would be the first big-budget flop in Hawks’ storied career but it was enough to break the director and stunt him from 1955 to 1959 when he made Rio Bravo and we all know the success that film was. Looking at the film now, it really shows the spectacle of the time and the huge undertaking it really must have been. It also feels a bit ahead of its time as well as sex is really a selling point of this historical piece alongside its intrigue. A really cool discovery in an era that always feels new to me.

Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm 4K – Batman is framed for the murder of Chuckie Sol setting off a chain reaction of events that forces Bruce Wayne to confront his past in ways that may put The Dark Knight’s future in jeopardy forever. When Bruce’s old love Andrea Beaumont returns to Gotham City, things start to unravel for The Batman and soon he becomes Gotham Police’s primary target, convinced Batman’s guilty of mysterious murders committed by a figure known only as The Phantasm. This is truly Batman’s most desperate hour.

Review: This might be the greatest Batman movie ever made and to some degree, the fight isn’t even close. Kevin Conroy is the voice of both Bruce Wayne and the Caped Crusader whenever I read the comics and this 4K restoration left me with a warm nostalgic hug that lingered for hours after I rewatched the film for the first time in decades. A fitting story for the World’s Greatest Detective and probably one of my favourite villains to appear in a Batman story, Phantasm, this is now a prized possession in my collection and I don’t mean that with even a little bit of hyperbole.

The Youtube Effect – The story of YouTube is both inspirational and cautionary; the video-sharing website appeared in 2005 and quickly grew to become one of the most ubiquitous and powerful media platforms in the world. It is impossible to overstate its impact on global culture by providing easy and immediate access to news, entertainment media and other vital forms of information. It has, however, helped radicalize some of its viewers with right-wing propaganda and other dangerous forms of media. The story of YouTube is the great dilemma of our times; the technology revolution has made our lives easier and more enriched, while also presenting dangers and challenges that make the world a more perilous place. And at this extraordinary moment in history, it is the story of how we got here and where we’re going.

Review: Lots of people, especially my age, know Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, one-half of the time travelling duo Bill and Ted, alongside his counterpart, Keanu Reeves. People really need to get on the ball with him though as he is a phenomenal documentarian as his BlockChain film was fascinating and engrossing and now he’s taken focus of YouTube in all of its glory through the good and bad. The film is ambitious in its scope and manages to deliver everything it sets out to and blows my mind with everything I didn’t know about the website that has drawn us in for almost two decades now.

Vancouver International Film Festival 2023

stevestebbing

no comments

October 5, 2023

For the first time in four years, I got to return in person to cover a festival that is near and dear to my heart. I will admit that it felt overwhelming from time to time to reacclimate and navigate my time and the city as well as my own social anxiety that has become commonplace after the effects of the pandemic but I managed to take in a good list of the selections at this year’s festival and there are some real gems here.

The Old Oak – It feels so selfish as a film fan to say that I don’t want this to be director Ken Loach’s final film because, after almost sixty years of making powerful and real films, I’d say he’s really earned it. This film is a stirring and emotional story of our current reality, following a poor neighbourhood that becomes the ideal place for the government to place Syrian refugees. Written beautifully by Paul Lafferty, every face you see in this film is a relatable or recognizable one, especially the main, TJ, the owner of the Old Oak bar, who has a truly transformative journey that was just beautiful to watch. It has such a great message at a time when it is really needed, proving once again that Ken Loach has never had his finger away from the world’s pulse.

La Chimera – Look, I can’t lie about this one. I’m not even sure I fully understood this film and that’s before I can even begin to say if I even enjoyed it or not. There are stark truths like Josh O’Connor is really great in it, as is Carol Duarte, who is so adorably endearing in her odd sensibilities but it feels like Alice Rohrwacher is leaning harder into the Lina Wertmüller style but doing it second best to a master. I’m still letting the film simmer but the leaning feels negative.

The Promised Land – When the title card, ” BASTARDEN”, splashed across the screen I knew we were in for something rich and meaty and with Mads Mikkelsen leading the film, well, enough said. When Mads gets to step away from the glossy Hollywood villain roles he always shines and after a VIFF favourite of mine, Another Round, this one was an anticipated one for me and it really came through on the hype. The whole cast delivers in this period piece character drama which should be in the running for Best Foreign awards in the upcoming trophy season.

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe – Nostalgia and Canadiana were at the heart of my morning as my first stop was this serviceable documentary about a huge part of any child’s upbringing in the great white north who existed between 1967 and 1996. The film encapsulates the magic and spirit that Ernie Coombs embodied as well as those he brought in to fill out the show, like the lovable Casey and Finnigan, puppeteered by the incomparable Judith Lawrence. The film features a melting pot of great Canadian personalities and also managed to teach me a bit as I didn’t know the close connection between Dressup and Mr. Rogers although it all makes so much sense.

Anatomy Of A Fall – This year’s Palme D’or winner at the Cannes Film Festival was a big one on my list and not because I am a big fan of writer and director Justine Triet, as I hadn’t seen her other big film, Sibyl, but for the great Sandra Hüller. The film is an intriguing mix of courtroom procedural, unfolding family drama and the blowing apart of an abusive relationship. The film makes you question motives, and decisions and, yes, I even questioned the intentions of a blind kid, which is absolutely wild.

The Zone Of Interest – It is so massively difficult to make a Nazi Germany drama that doesn’t feel like a retread or something we’ve seen before to some degree but Jonathan Glazer has made something here that sticks to your bones like tar. Opting to leave the atrocities of the Holocaust to your own thoughts, he chooses to give you a look at the day-to-day of the commandant of Auschwitz and his family with the evils committed just on the other side of the wall. This mundane exercise chills you to the core with an ominous score and fade-ins and fade-outs that left my jaw on the floor.

NO TRAILER AVAILABLE

Seven Veils – Legendary Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan returns after his last VIFF entry Guest Of Honor with a very personal film that ties back to his opera directing background in the mid-nineties. The film also reunites him with the star of his erotic drama, Chloe, Amanda Seyfried who does her best with a script that really feels like it lacks character depth. Against the backdrop of the opera Salome, the film never feels like a great enough sum of its parts and feels lacking when the credits hit. I call it Diet Tar.

NO TRAILER AVAILABLE

Monster – This here is one of the big films of the festival for me, the latest film from writer and director Hirokazu Koreeda, the man who made my favourite film of last year’s festival, Broker. Knowing nothing going in, this is a fascinating story about different perspectives that evolve the film through many different filters and Quasi genre feels to end with a message that is both poignant and imperative to our current times. Koreeda reminds me a bit of the director who kicked off this year’s VIFF, Ken Loach, as they both have a good hold on the human condition.

I’m Just Here For The Riot – I was really looking forward to this new documentary which is co-directed by Kat Jayme who has given us the fun films Finding Big Country and The Grizzlie Truth in the past. This one was focused on a decidedly more serious subject, the 2011 Stanley Cup riots, which was wild to watch at the Playhouse, just a block away from where it all started. The movie, sadly, raised some ire in me as I felt it was largely a sympathy card for the group of rioters that were made the focus of the film and that story fell on deaf ears in my opinion. You make your bed, you lie in it and I feel like 1994 rioter Trevor Holness framed that conversation really well in his part of the film but it kind of gets disregarded as only his opinion. I was definitely disappointed with the takeaway from this documentary.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sep 28

stevestebbing

no comments

September 28, 2023

New Release:

The Creator – From writer/director Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla”) comes an epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington, “Tenet”), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan, “Eternals”), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles).

Expectations: I don’t want to jinx anything but this may be the next landmark piece of science fiction cinema, something that will set the tone for this year much like Dune or Blade Runner 2049 did. Edwards is such a gifted filmmaker and I love the work he does with his usual cinematographer Greig Fraser and the trailers for this look incredible. I also think John David Washington is on the fast track to an Oscar so I love that he’s starring in this one. Very relevant to be talking about artificial intelligence as well.

Saw X – John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is back. The most chilling installment of the Saw franchise yet explores the untold chapter of Jigsaw’s most personal game. Set between the events of Saw I and II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer — only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable. Armed with a newfound purpose, John returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature visceral way through a series of ingenious and terrifying traps.

Expectations: After Chris Rock resurrected the Saw franchise a bit with the last film, Spiral, we now get a full-on resuscitation of the once-popular horror franchise with a prequel here and I’m sure that more are to follow. This is a franchise that was always directed to a very focused torture porn fanbase and this one is definitely no different. Blood, guts, gore and so much more is certainly on display but will there be a solid plot and reveals that take us back to the feeling of the first movie? Well, there hasn’t really been one as good in all the eight movies to follow but we can still keep hope alive for this one, I guess.

She Came To Me – This is a truly modern romantic comedy, a multi-generational love story set against the iconic backdrop of New York: A composer suffering from creative block finds inspiration after a chance encounter with an unusual woman, a couple of bright teenagers fight to prove to their parents that young love can last forever, and for a successful therapist who seemingly has it all, love arrives in the most unexpected of ways.

Expectations: A hell of a cast leads this film, with Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei, and the advance word on it is really giving high marks. This isn’t a surprise as it is the new film from writer and director Rebecca Miller, daughter of famed writer Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, but that isn’t to diminish her talent as she is proven through and through. Personally, I’ve been waiting eight years for this film as Maggie’s Plan, Miller’s last, was a press screening I checked out in 2015. This may be a word-of-mouth firebuilder here.

Flora And Son – Single mom Flora (Eve Hewson) is at a loss about what to do with her rebellious teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan). Encouraged by the police to find Max a hobby, Flora tries to occupy him with a beat-up acoustic guitar. With the help of a washed-up LA musician (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Flora and Max discover the transformative power of music. From the musical mind of John Carney, the film explores the bond between a mother and son on a journey toward a new harmony.

Review: I have really loved all of John Carney’s films to date and this film, although a bit Hollywood glossy cheese at times, still has that crowd-pleaser formula all over it. I love that Carney hasn’t lost his edge and that bit of roughness in character adds so much more to the fantastic performance that Eve Hewson gives, a real starmaker and driving force of the movie. I loved how they framed Flora and her online guitar teacher Jeff’s relationship and the imagination used to tell it and the film really left a smile on my face in the end. A solid film that you should believe the hype on.

Blu-Ray:

Elemental – The film journeys alongside an unlikely pair, Ember and Wade, in a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The fiery young woman and the go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they have in common.

Review: I had almost no enthusiasm for seeing this new animated film, which is crazy historically as it is a Pixar feature film, but nothing about it looked interesting. Well, maybe the low bar I had set for it worked out because I ended up loving this film, embracing it’s chaotic world and look a bit but the moral and message are what really landed. The film plays with themes of xenophobia as well as the immigrant’s plight and I found it fascinating that they didn’t lead with this in advertisements. Actually, come to think of it, that might have killed it at the box office even more as people are really rejecting the “woke” thing. Mostly because they are idiots that can’t define woke. Yeah, I said it.

Insidious: The Red Door – The horror franchise’s original cast returns for the final chapter of the Lambert family’s terrifying saga. To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and a college-aged Dalton (Ty Simpkins) must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family’s dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.

Expectations: The finale of a chilling and jump-scare-filled series arrives and lead actor Patrick Wilson steps behind the camera in his debut as a director to shepherd the end to the screen. This film definitely has its built-in audience so I don’t see it grabbing any new fans. I will also say that the first two films, directed by creator James Wan, are the best in the bunch so I don’t see this one outdoing it at all.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken – Sixteen-year-old Ruby Gillman learns she is in the next legendary line of sea Kraken. Despite her lofty destiny, she is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High. Ruby struggles, even more, to fit in when her mother forbids her from going to the beach. After disobeying her mother’s rules, she discovers that she is descended from the warrior Kraken queens and will ascend to the throne as the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, her grandmother. The Krakens are a race sworn to protect the world’s oceans from the vain, power-hungry mermaids by battling with eons. Ruby would need to embrace Chelsea, a mermaid-turned-human who enrolls at Oceanside High School.

Review: It looks like Dreamworks is trying to launch a new franchise here and the animation is fun and colourful which had my kid engaged for the whole duration, a tough feat these days. The humour for adults is present here as well, coming from writer and director Kirk DeMicco, the mind behind The Croods movies and I contest that those films are hilarious. Featuring the voices of Lana Condor, Jane Fonda, Toni Collette and Will Forte, this movie didn’t really grab the audience like it should’ve but I see it doing really well on the home release market.

Sympathy For The Devil – After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems.

Expectations: Look, this is a Nicolas Cage movie so you will get hyperbole and love from me but I’m more than a little aware of the large disdain for his work. This one has Joel Kinneman playing the straight role of Cage’s psychopath and I can’t lie, it looks like some of Michael Mann’s Collateral was borrowed storywise to plot this film but, still, it looks fun. Yes, the reviews don’t reflect that but I’m forever and ever a Cage dude. That will never change.

Gangnam Zombie – Gangnam, an upscale neighbourhood in Seoul, becomes the center of mass chaos when residents begin to experience terrifying symptoms that turn them into strange, inhuman creatures that begin to attack. A man and woman are among the remaining few not infected and must risk everything to escape the zombie onslaught.

Review: I can’t lie, when I saw this title I was fully expecting Psy to come out during it and everyone dropped into a choreographed “Gangnam Style”. Suffice it to say, that didn’t happen. The issue with this film is it has all of the previous zombie films, both dramatic and comedy, that came before it and, sadly, did it way better. The film has flairs of style here and there but mostly gets stuck in doing a lesser version of what we’ve seen before. All in all, the zombies fared better in Busan and I have my issues with those two films as well.

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Season 3 – When CIA analyst Jack Ryan stumbles upon a suspicious series of bank transfers his search for answers pulls him from the safety of his desk job and catapults him into a deadly game of cat and mouse throughout Europe and the Middle East, with a rising terrorist figurehead preparing for a massive attack against the US and her allies.

Expectations: John Krasinski has done a phenomenal job with this character and given Harrison Ford a run for the best to have played him at this point and it is with that going out on top feeling that he and the creators of this series have decided to bring it to a close with a final group of episodes that is currently on Prime Video. Always well told and believable, I think Tom Clancy would be proud of what they’ve done with the character and the modernization of the world he faces. It also makes me wonder if we may see some limited movies in the future within this world.

Star Trek Prodigy: Season 1 Episodes 11 to 20 – A motley crew of young aliens in the Delta Quadrant find an abandoned Starfleet ship, the U.S.S. Protostar; taking control of the ship, they must learn to work together as they make their way towards the Alpha Quadrant.

Review: The collective zeitgeist is probably looking at CBS All Access and thinking they’re milking the Gene Roddenberry-created universe of smart science fiction for all it can get and, yes, that’s almost exactly what producers are thinking but it is paying off. They have a straightforward series with Discovery, a call-back show with Picard, a comedy series with Lower Decks and now this in-betweener. The series is a teenager-aimed animated story that follows a group of teenagers who steal a derelict Starfleet vessel and use it to explore the galaxy. The show signals the return of Kate Mulgrew’s Captain Janeway and Robert Beltran’s Captain Chakotay from Voyager, which makes me far too happy for a guy who isn’t a Trekkie.

Pennyworth: Complete Series – Former British SAS soldier Alfred Pennyworth forms a security company and goes to work with Bruce Wayne’s billionaire father, Thomas, in 1960s London.

Review: This DC Universe-related television series that debuted on Epix of all places comes to a close after three seasons, compiled into this set. Not to be confused with the Fox show Gotham, another prequel that had a younger Alfred Pennyworth, loyal butler to Bruce Wayne and medic and everyman to the Caped Crusader Batman, this show features British actor Jack Bannon in the role, harkening back to his days working for Bruce’s father Thomas. The show would honestly be a lot better if they hadn’t tied it to this pre-existing world and done an original series instead. It also gets a bit dry here and there.

Steve’s Blu-Ray & 4K Geekouts:

Rio Bravo 4K – When gunslinger Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) kills a man in a saloon, Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) arrests him with the aid of the town drunk, Dude (Dean Martin). Before long, Burdette’s brother, Nathan (John Russell), comes around, indicating that he’s prepared to bust his brother out of jail if necessary. Chance decides to make a stand until reinforcements arrive, enlisting Dude, an old cripple named Stumpy (Walter Brennan) and baby-faced cowboy Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson) to help.

Review: A classic Warner Bros. western has made its way to 4K this year as the famed studio is on a mission to bring its catalogue to the next format and this is one of those landmark John Wayne films that was a crown jewel in his career. The film was directed by Howard Hawks, one of the biggest filmmakers of the era, and this was the follow-up to Land Of The Pharaohs, funny enough, a film I will be covering in this segment very soon. All in all, this is a genre classic that paved the way for many more to be inspired by it, although it was never recognized in an award sense at the time.

East Of Eden 4K – Cal Trask is a particularly unhappy young man. He sees himself as the black sheep of the family and is always competing with his brother Aron, who seems to be perfect in almost every way. Aron is also their father’s favorite and Cal desperately wants his father’s love and affection. It’s the period leading up to America’s entry into World War I and these are tumultuous times. After his father loses most of his fortune trying to ship refrigerated lettuce to New York, Cal decides to speculate on a crop of beans and makes a small fortune but he soon realizes that he can’t buy his father’s love either. Cal’s discovery that his mother is alive – he and Aron were told that she had died – and that she is a madam leads to a final, tragic result for all three of the Trask men.

Review: Through this repressing of all the films that built Warner Bros. as a studio, I have now gotten all of the films that made James Dean a big star before his tragic death at far too young of an age. After taking in Rebel Without A Cause and now this one I really love his performance as Cal more compelling and it might be due to the direction of the legendary Elia Kazan as well as the source material being a John Steinbeck book. I mean, you’d have to try really hard to screw that one up. The film went on to win one Academy Award from four nominations, going to Best Actress, Jo Van Fleet, but it definitely secures its place as one of the greatest dramas of its era.

The Elephant Man – Forever imprisoned inside a hideous, deformed body, the unfortunate, perpetually masked in a dreadful burlap sack Victorian fairground attraction exhibit, John Merrick, is forced to live a cruel life as a curiosity. Milked for every penny by the sadistic showman, Mr. Bytes, the ridiculed and multiply disfigured Merrick crosses paths with the philanthropic physician, Frederick Treves, who offers Bytes a hefty compensation to conduct a more thorough examination at the London Hospital. However, how pure and humanitarian are sympathetic Treves’ motives? Is the grotesque “Elephant Man” doomed to relive his horrible past?

Review: This Criterion Collection beauty was a birthday present for me this year and a thoroughly fantastic edition of a special film in one of my favourite filmmaker’s incredible careers. Directed by a young David Lynch in one of his more conventional films and produced by Mel Brooks, one of the non-comedy entries in his long Hollywood tenure and one that his wife Anne Bancroft starred in as well. This film was celebrated by critics broadly and nominated for eight Academy Awards but, unfortunately, it lost out on all of those awards to a solid year that included Tess, Ordinary People, Raging Bull and Fame. This is one of those must-see films if you are a total movie buff.

Television:

Gen V (Prime Video) – From the world of The Boys comes Gen V, which explores the training of the first generation of superheroes to know about Compound V, and that their powers were injected into them, rather than God-given. These young, competitive heroes put their physical and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the school’s highly coveted top ranking. They quickly come to learn that ambition comes with sacrifice, and that the difference between right and wrong is not as straightforward as they once believed. When the university’s dark secrets come to light, the students must come to grips with what type of heroes they are going to become.

Review: Trying to capitalize on the mega success of the Garth Ennis-written and Seth Rogen-produced adaptation of the graphic novel series The Boys, I wouldn’t look at this show as an equal representation but it’s still really entertaining. This feels like one of the spin-off comics for that Dynamite book series, which is pretty fitting. I’m not sure what it’s future is beyond this one season but it was definitely an entertaining binge with that same satirical and violent style.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sep 21

stevestebbing

no comments

September 21, 2023

New Releases:

Expend4bles – A new generation of stars joins the world’s top action stars for an adrenaline-fueled adventure in Expend4bles. Reuniting as the team of elite mercenaries, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone are joined for the first time by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. Armed with every weapon they can get their hands on and the skills to use them, The Expendables are the world’s last line of defence and the team that gets called when all other options are off the table. But new team members with new styles and tactics are going to give “new blood” a whole new meaning.

Expectations: “They’ll die when they’re dead” is the tagline for this fourth Expandables film that we never knew was coming, the big team-up of all the greatest action stars. The team is looking a bit thinner these days, without the inclusion of heavyweights like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Jet Li or Harrison Ford but there is something fun to these dumb, bombastic and one-liner-filled movies that satisfies the original action kid in me and I expect this to be no different. It is also the first entry in the franchise to be rated R, so that’s fun.

Dumb Money – The ultimate David vs. Goliath tale, based on the insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (yes, the mall videogame store) into the world’s hottest company. In the middle of everything is regular guy Keith Gill (Paul Dano), who starts it all by sinking his life savings into the stock and posting about it. When his social posts start blowing up, so does his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich — until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.

Expectations: A bizarre story straight out of the pandemic era, I was wondering how quickly the Game Stop stock saga was going to get the film biopic treatment and here it is, helmed by the capable director of I, Tonya, Craig Gillespie. A phenomenal cast led by one of the greatest character actors today, Paul Dano, I have very good thoughts about this movie and have been looking forward to it ever since it’s first trailer. This might be the sleeper hit of this month to alleviate the boredom that has been September.

No One Will Save You – This film introduces Brynn Adams (Kaitlyn Dever), a creative and talented young woman who’s been alienated from her community. Lonely but ever hopeful, Brynn finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up–until she’s awakened one night by strange noises from decidedly unearthly intruders. What follows is an action-packed face-off between Brynn and a host of extraterrestrial beings who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past.

Review: I’ve been a huge fan of Kaitlyn Dever for years and with the release of Booksmart she really started getting some good attention. This kind of film is my total jam, a one-on-one battle for survival between a great character actress and an extraterrestrial force and I loved every second of it. The writer and director Brian Duffield hit another home run, something very common for him after his debut, Spontaneous, as well as his scripts for Love And Monsters and both of the Netflix-made Babysitter movies. The guy rocks and hopefully, this one will grow into a sleeper hit as well.

Barber – Val Barber, a private investigator, is hired by a wealthy widow to find her missing granddaughter Sara. As initial investigations into her disappearance begin to darken, secrets surface in unexpected ways. Before too long, Barber finds himself entangled with powerful men of shady morals determined to thwart his investigations. Has he bitten off more than he can chew?

Review: Anyone who is a fan of The Wire and Game Of Thrones knows how great Aidan Gillen is as an actor and just coming off the newest season of Mayor Of Kingstown, my vigour for the Irish character chameleon’s work is at an all-time high. This film feels like a standard BBC film thriller but the focus here is Gillen’s nuanced work which is evident with every moment of screen time he has. To be honest, if Val Barber’s character were to continue on in another film or series form, I would be on board with that. It reminds me of Idris Elba’s Luther a bit.

Relax, I’m From The Future – A man from the future, now trapped in the past, tries to make a life for himself, oblivious to the consequences he has set in motion.

Review: One of the funniest New Zealanders ever, Rhys Darby, stars in a film set in Toronto with one of Canada’s more niche actors, Julian Richings. That’s all you need to say to sell me and it really works to combine in a dopey low-fi comedy sci-fi that comes through with some mild chuckles. It feels very independent which will hurt it on a financial box office level but fans of Flight Of The Conchords and Our Flag Means Death may discover it and champion it through word of mouth. It may be a Canadian-made international darling.

Cassandro – Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso, rises to international stardom after he creates the character Cassandro, the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” In the process, he upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life.

Expectations: Gael Garcia Bernal stars in this true story pro wrestling biopic so you know I’m on board with it immediately but I also have to note that it co-stars the massive recording star Bad Bunny in the romantic lead, a big acting breakthrough for the Grammy winner. As a fan of the industry, I know a little bit about this story and am excited to see the crossover with the mainstream stuff I know really well but, as a story of the struggle of a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I hope it is handled well and with sensitivity to the real Cassandro. The film is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes so I’m assuming it is well crafted in all aspects.

It Lives Inside – Sam, an Indian-American teen, lives in an idyllic suburb with her conservative mother and her assimilated father. Sam’s cultural insecurities grow due to her estranged friend, Tamira, who mysteriously carries around an empty mason jar all the time. In a moment of anger, Sam breaks Tamira’s jar and unleashes an ancient Indian demonic force that kidnaps Tamira. Sam searches for Tamira, following the trail of a young man who performed a deadly ritual, until the demonic entity starts targeting her, murdering her boyfriend and shattering her reality with terrifying visions. Sam must band together with her parents and a sympathetic teacher to save Tamira and put an end to the terror of the demon.

Expectations: Yes, another horror movie dumped into a month that is filled with productions that studios don’t know what to do with. This one instantly interests me as it is a chilling demonic force story set against a cultural background, exploring the Indian ancestry and the evil that could be contained within. I really enjoy the lead actress in this, Megan Suri, as I enjoyed her a lot in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever and she recently showed up as the main character’s friend in the screen-based thriller Missing, so it’s cool to see her get the big push in this bigger Hollywood horror. This could be really great.

Blu-Ray & DVD:

The Little Mermaid – The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, Ariel is a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. Longing to learn more about the world beyond the sea, Ariel visits the surface and falls for the dashing Prince Eric. Following her heart, she makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to experience life on land.

Review: I had a low bar set for this live-action adaptation of a Disney classic, one largely regarded to be the greatest of their library. None of the other big screen versions had been even close to the calibre of the originals and, while this one falls short of that mark as well, it really is a pretty solid film with some really great moments from most of the main cast. Halle Bailey is an instant star in her main role as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy excels in her villain role, something she clearly had a lot of fun with. I was really surprised with how much this film worked for me and I chose to go beyond the faux outrage that many have levelled at it.

Past Lives – In Korea, Na Young, a girl and Hae Sung, a boy are schoolmates and good friends. They often walk back home together after school. Na Young moves to Canada and then to New York with her parents. Hae Sung continues living in Korea, does his engineering course, goes through a short spell of military service and then takes up a job. Both keep in touch periodically through video chats where they talk about their past and general stuff. Meanwhile, in New York, Na has changed her name to Nora, made a name as a playwright and is happily married to Arthur, an American. Hae is keen to meet Nora and visit her in New York, where he spends time with her and Arthur. What has the future in store for Nora and Hae in their relationship?

Review: This film may have snuck in and become my favourite film of 2023, a story full of soul, human connection and also the effect on lives when that is abruptly cut off. This is such a bold debut for writer and director Celine Song who crafts this tale of two fibres connected and severed to be reconnected again in twelve-year intervals. I was engaged from the start as both Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are so brilliant together and when it becomes a trio with John Magaro’s character, the film elevates to perfect levels. This is my recommendation of the year and I am here lobbying for it to be a Criterion Collection entry. It’s that damn good.

Biosphere – In the not-too-distant future, the last two men on earth must adapt and evolve to save humanity.

Review: A simple movie at its core, following two men living in a biosphere, assumedly the last two men on earth, but it’s a premise that could lead to almost anything and the avenue it chooses is one I could never see coming. Written and starring one of my favourite indie filmmakers, Mark Duplass, this movie has commanding performances from him and Sterling K. Brown who is able to take this wild situation and make it so deep and meaningful. I loved this film a lot once I was able to contextualize it afterwards but I can see many people being put off by it.

Bad City – In a city plagued with poverty and crime, a corrupt mafia-connected businessman runs for mayor and starts eliminating his opponents. A former police captain in jail for murder is secretly released and put in charge of a special task force in a desperate, last-ditch effort to take down the corrupt tycoon.

Review: Just tell me a movie is a Yakuza underground crime thriller and I’m more than game to watch your movie but I will say that Takeshi Kitano or Takeshi Miike are kind of the masters of that genre. This story exists in a lower budget and subtler tone but the blood is always flying and the action is pretty fast and furious. I was also surprised by the artfulness of the film for being such a smaller production. They utilized their budget well and some of the set pieces really stand out.

Fire Country: Season 1 – Bode Donovan, a young convict seeking redemption, joins an unconventional prison release firefighting program in Northern California, where he and other inmates are partnered with elite firefighters to extinguish massive, unpredictable wildfires. It’s a high-risk, high-reward assignment, and the heat is turned up when Bode is assigned to the program in his rural hometown, where he was once a golden all-American son until his troubles began. Five years ago, Bode burned down everything in his life, leaving town with a big secret. Now he’s back, with the rap sheet of a criminal and the audacity to believe in a chance for redemption.

Review: Honestly speaking, a series about wildfires and firefighters is a little close to home being a resident of British Columbia or even the Okanagan alone, but this show has some appeal to it that I can get behind. The series is led and co-created by SEAL Team’s Max Theriot, who has become a pretty solid television star through that show’s run and makes Bode a pretty solid character, although with some glaring cliches starting with the hometown mysterious kid storyline. I do really like that it follows a group of inmate firefighting program volunteers, giving it a different edge than you’d see on your standard procedural.

Steve’s Blu-Ray & 4K Geek-Outs:

American Pop – This animated trek across the musical landscape of the 20th century begins with young immigrant Zalmie (Jeffrey Lippa) arriving in New York City. He’s addicted to show business, but an accident ruins his voice. He marries a stripper (Lisa Jane Persky) and their son, Benny (Richard Singer), becomes a jazz pianist. Although Benny is killed in World War II, his son, Tony (Ron Thompson), goes on to great success as a songwriter during the ’60s, as does Tony’s son, Pete (also Thompson), in the ’80s.

Review: As a big fan of Ralph Bakshi’s work for a long time, I love films like Heavy Metal, Fritz The Cat and his unfinished Lord Of The Rings, but this film has always been a blind spot until this Blu-ray release. The film is interesting in its commercial appeal, which only poked up its head in Heavy Metal to my memory, but something rare in the animator’s work. I love that the restoration of the picture for this format makes the rotoscope animation style sort of pop off a good television and to experience something so daring at its time of release in an era that has definitely felt its influence is very cool. A niche film for sure but something worth watching.

The Legend Of Zorro 4K – The legendary Zorro (Antonio Banderas) goes on another adventure to protect the future of California and its citizens. This time, he fights against evil-doers with the help of his beautiful wife, Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and their precocious young son, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso). Don Alejandro de la Vega is torn between two worlds: his life as Zorro, and his life as a family man. After Alejandro once again breaks his promise to stop wearing the mask, Elena leaves him and soon begins seeing Armand (Rufus Sewell), a haughty French Count. But a mysterious explosion in the desert leads Zorro to believe that there’s more to Armand than meets the eye, and our hero is intent on finding out what that is. Little does he know, there are others working to uncover certain truths as well.

Review: Getting a short little franchise around the 2000s, Antoni Banderas was pretty well cast as the title character, ironically enough being cast as Puss In Boots in Shrek 2 the year before this sequel, and Catherine Zeta-Jones was one of the hot A-listers at the time. I remember not enjoying this film as a jaded twenty-something. Still, in this new 4K upgrade I felt the movie was pretty fun and it’s that adventure style that director Martin Campbell excels at, coming from the Bond franchise’s GoldenEye and Casino Royale which he would release the same year. The film also features Rufus Sewell in a villain role which always makes an action adventure come together well.

The Princess Bride 4K – A kindly grandfather sits down with his ill grandson and reads him a story. The story is one that has been passed down from father to son for generations. As the grandfather reads the story, the action comes alive. The story is a classic tale of love and adventure as the beautiful Buttercup, engaged to the odious Prince Humperdinck, is kidnapped and held against her will in order to start a war, It is up to Westley (her childhood beau, now returned as the Dread Pirate Roberts) to save her. On the way, he meets a thief and his hired helpers, an accomplished swordsman and a huge, super-strong giant, both of whom become Westley’s companions in his quest.

Review: Easily one of my favourite films of all time and a movie responsible for my love of filmmaking as a craft, the loving edition that the people at the Criterion Collection have put together is a piece of art within itself. Packaged in something that feels like a real book, this is crammed with special features on the disc and a beautiful book of essays from the cast and those inspired by the film as well as behind-the-scenes photos, a majority taken by star Mandy Patinkin. If you are a fan of this film at all, you really owe it to yourself to go out and get this, the most definitive version you will find of it.

Television:

Sex Education: Season 4 (Netflix) – Socially awkward high school student Otis may not have much experience in the lovemaking department, but he gets good guidance on the topic in his personal sex ed course — living with mom Jean, who is a sex therapist. Being surrounded by manuals, videos and tediously open conversations about sex, Otis has become a reluctant expert on the subject. When his classmates learn about his home life, Otis decides to use his insider knowledge to improve his status at school, so he teams up with whip-smart bad girl Maeve to set up an underground sex therapy clinic to deal with their classmates’ problems. But through his analysis of teenage sexuality, Otis realizes that he may need some therapy of his own.

Expectations: One of the great British Netflix creations draws to a close, a hilarious, thoughtful and, at times, pretty outrageous high school comedy graduate with very high marks. The iconic Gillian Anderson is absolutely perfect as Otis’s sex therapist mom and Asa Butterfield was already a sizeable star in films like Ender’s Game and Hugo but this show also gifted us future stars like Emma Mackey, recently in the box office smash Barbie, and Ncuti Gatwa who is about to kick off a brand new season as the new Doctor Who. I am sad to see this show come to an end, one that rarely disappoints, but I’m glad to see it go out on its own accord, a luxury that a lot of shows don’t get to do.

Still Up (AppleTV+) – Bonded by insomnia, best friends Lisa and Danny stay connected to each other late into the night and find their way through a world of wonderfully weird surprises as their relationship deepens.

Review: Having no knowledge about this series heading in, I was surprised by how likable it was from the get-go. I really enjoyed Antonia Thomas from her time on the Channel 4 series Misfits and Craig Roberts has been on my radar as both an actor and a writer and director for years, a really talented dude. This show has some of the cliche romantic tropes of will they or won’t they get together, but it works mostly because the characters are well-written. It also bums me out as a story because Thomas’s love interest is a former Inbetweener, Blake Harrison. I love that show so much and hold it close to my heart.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sept 14th

stevestebbing

no comments

September 14, 2023

New Releases:

A Haunting In Venice – In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to uncover the killer again.

Expectations: Kenneth Branagh returns both behind the camera and in front of it as Agatha Christie’s iconic sleuth Hercule Poirot in the third film he has done with the character to varying degrees of satisfaction. I enjoyed his Murder On The Orient Express but Death On The Nile was a bit of a mess in multiple places so I’m getting my bar at a mid-level for what I see as his last kick at the character. That said, from advanced reviews I’m reading, this might be his best Christie yet.

The Retirement Plan – When Ashley (Ashley Greene) and her young daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk, she turns to the only person who can help – her estranged father Matt (Nicolas Cage), currently living the life of a retired beach bum in the Cayman Islands. Their reunion is fleeting as they are soon tracked down on the island by crime boss Donnie (Jackie Earle Haley) and his lieutenant Bobo (Ron Perlman). As Ashley, Sarah and Matt become entangled in an increasingly dangerous web, Ashley quickly learns her father had a secret past that she knew nothing about and that there is more to her father than meets the eye.

Expectations: When it comes to this guy, anytime Nicolas Cage is on the big screen, I’m in the audience guaranteed and this film is no different. This movie has more added character power than one of my all-time favourites as Ron Perlman and Jackie Earle Haley also have some really plum roles that they have some fun with. Australian director Tim Brown makes his Hollywood debut with a film that has Cage with long hair and a scraggly beard dispatching bad guys better than Liam Neeson in almost all of his 2010s action films outside of the Taken franchise. What more do I need to sell you?

Blu-Ray:

AIR – The movie explores how Nike’s basketball shoe division was struggling in 1984 due to low sales, and how the company’s Marketing VP Rob Strasser and CEO Phil Knight tasked basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro to find a new spokesperson for their shoes. Although they considered third-draft pick Michael Jordan off limits due to his preference for Adidas and Converse, Vaccaro convinced them that Jordan was a generational talent and that Nike should pursue him and try to convince Jordan to sign with Nike.

Review: Ben Affleck’s return to the director’s chair is easily one of the best scripts of the year, best casts of the year and best films of the year. An absolute crowd pleaser around a sports phenomenon and change in the industry that is fascinating from the get-go. Affleck has a gift for crafting these brilliant character stories and Damon might have worked his way to at least an Academy Award nomination as Sonny Vaccaro. This is one of my most recommended films of the year and a definite candidate for an enjoyable home viewing now on Blu-ray.

Joy Ride – The hilarious and unapologetically explicit story of identity and self-discovery centers on four unlikely friends who embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure. When Audrey’s (Ashley Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Stephanie Hsu), her college friend turned Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their no-holds-barred, epic experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.

Review: One of the funniest films of the year, this debut film from writer and director Adele Lim may have spots of formula you would recognize in The Hangover, Bridesmaids or other raunchy epic odyssey films but it also takes so many bold and original chances with a cast that is game at every turn. Star power performances from these four ladies in a year that had Hsu as an Oscar-nominated actress, Park guest starring in the new season of Only Murders In The Building and Cola co-leading Randall Park’s fantastic debut film and this film capitalizes on their fantastic chemistry. I absolutely loved this one.

Cobweb – Eight-year-old Peter is plagued by a mysterious, constant tap, tap from inside his bedroom wall — a tapping that his parents insist is all in his imagination. As Peter’s fear intensifies, he believes that his parents (Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr) could be hiding a terrible, dangerous secret and questions their trust. And for a child, what could be more frightening than that?

Review: An eight year old is your narrative conduit into a story that would have terrified everyone as a kid, the simple notion that your parents are in cahoots with the monsters that go bump in the night. Absolutely chilling visuals and sound design make this one of the creepiest horror experiences of the year and it should be on any genre fan’s list. Crazy that it comes from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers but it has relied on largely word of mouth.

Aporia – Since losing her husband Mal (Edi Gathegi) in a drunk-driving incident, Sophie (Judy Greer) has struggled to manage crippling grief, a full-time job, and the demands of parenting her devastated teenage daughter (Faithe Herman). When her husband’s best friend Jabir (Payman Maadi), a former physicist, reveals that he has been building a time-bending machine that could restore her former life, Sophie will be faced with an impossible choice–and unforeseeable consequences.

Review: At the top of this well-constructed, thoughtful and unpredictable drama with seasonings of sci-fi, I was cheering inside for another chance to see Judy Greer dig into that character actor bucket of hers. Paired with a soulful performance from the always-great Edi Gathegi, this movie does slow burn right and leaves you with a resonant story about hope and grief. A really unexpected hit with me and I hope it lands with a bigger audience.

Poker Face – A mystery-of-the-week series following Charlie Cale, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road in her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve. Guest stars are plentiful throughout, from Ellen Barkin and Adrien Brody to Luis Guzmán and Chloë Sevigny. An inverted detective series, also known as a “howcatchem” and popularized by “Columbo,” the crime and perpetrator are shown at the beginning of each episode, and follow Charlie as she tries to solve the mystery.

Review: This show ROCKS! Created and directed by Rian Johnson, the mind behind Knives Out, Glass Onion and many more awesome things, this is the kind of show I could watch for countless seasons, a callback to the mystery sleuth shows of the seventies and eighties with Natasha Lyonne at the helm delivering every knowing line so beautifully. Johnson’s style in both writing and visual flair is all on display and with each mystery, you are more and more on board with Charlie and her run from a big bad enemy in Las Vegas. This right here is must-see television.

Rick And Morty: Complete Seasons 1 to 6 – Rick, an alcoholic mad scientist, stumbles into his grandson Morty’s room begging for help on an intergalactic adventure. Morty reluctantly agrees and finds himself on a never-ending quest across time, dimension and space. Morty must keep Rick in check as he causes havoc everywhere they go.

Review: It’s been a crash course in a cartoon that I was way late to the game for but I will say that I was on board so quickly because the writing is so good I get euphoric with its brilliant complexities. Admittedly, the show has gone through the wringer of controversy in the last year or so with co-creator Justin Roiland being let go from Adult Swim amid a sexual assault accusation but, really, the show has been speculated about ending for a few seasons now and still seems to keep rolling. Even more, than that, the show is thriving just as popular as ever with no horizon of slowing down as they have to have more than twenty-five episodes in the tank from that last batch of contracted episodes. We also should be grateful that WB Discovery didn’t shut the show down entirely in those massive restructurings.

Succession: Complete Series – Waystar Royco is a global media company with holdings across several industries and continents. At the helm is its CEO and founder, 80-year-old Logan Roy. There is speculation that he will retire soon and hand over the reins to one of his children but he appears to have no intention of doing that. This does not sit well with his children, three of which have ambitions to run the massive company.

Review: In just three seasons, the Roy family came and went but drew in a massive audience as their saga was told. Brilliant writing contained within a cut throat world, the series reminded us how incredible Brian Cox is as an actor, the patriarch of the whole affair, as well as raising Keiren Culkin, Matthew MacFayden and Alan Ruck to new heights in their careers. Beyond that, it also made Jeremy Strong and Sarah Snook household names that can never be ignored again and I appreciate that a lot as I’ve loved their work for years. I look forward to re-watching this series and finding the subtler nuances that I missed the first time around.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geek-Outs:

The Book Of Henry – In a small suburban town in the Hudson Valley, 11-year-old boy genius Henry Carpenter and his younger brother Peter are being raised by their single mother Susan, a waitress who is working on writing children’s picture books. Henry has used his intellect to invest successfully in the stock market, building up a very substantial nest egg for his family. Henry also protects Peter from a school bully and builds Rube Goldberg machines in their tree house. Henry and Susan are both fond of their next-door neighbour (and Henry’s classmate), Christina Sickleman, who has recently become glum.

Review: This is an interesting film because it was the bomb that effectively, or according to rumour, got director Colin Trevorrow removed from the director’s chair on what would become The Rise Of Skywalker as well as the second Jurassic World movie. It is a fascinating narrative mess though, going to weird and outlandish places for twists and character developments, and because of this I couldn’t say I wasn’t entertained but I certainly was baffled. It was definitely ambitious in where it was trying to pull their emotional manipulation from but I think the end result is just too out there.

Rush – Both on the track and off, Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) couldn’t have been more different. Yet as much as Englishman Hunt’s showy public persona clashed with Lauda’s reputation for tightly controlled perfectionism, both men remained bound together by one undeniable fact–they were both among the best drivers ever to grace the racetrack. But when a horrific crash during the 1976 Grand Prix at the Nürburgring nearly claims Lauda’s life, a grudging respect develops between the two racers as Hunt realizes just how devoted his greatest adversary is to the sport they both love.

Review: Just a few weeks after watching the latest based on a true story racing flick Gran Turismo, it was cool to take this racing biopic in again, a slick film directed by Ron Howard and what I think is his last truly great film. Hemsworth delivers a character performance that I didn’t know he was capable of at the time, with Thor and Cabin In The Woods being his only claim to fame at the time, but this movie is really Bruhl’s at its core. His performance as Niki Lauda should have been award-nominated across the board as it makes the film absolutely must-see if you haven’t.

Television:

Wrestlers (Netflix) – Ohio Valley Wrestling of Louisville, Kentucky is a regional wrestling gym whose alumni include Brock Lesnar, The Miz, John Cena, Dave Bautista, and Randy Orton. Once a proud finishing school for aspiring pro wrestlers, the gym has since hit hard times. Acclaimed wrestler Al Snow clings to an old-school wrestling philosophy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, but in spite of the love of a few diehard fans, the gym struggles week to week to stay relevant enough to keep its doors open. Things have become so dire financially that Al has to sell a majority stake to a group of local businessmen including Matt Jones, the most popular radio personality in the state of Kentucky. Matt and the new ownership group have infused the struggling gym with much-needed cash but it still operates at a staggering loss. The new owners have given Snow the summer to turn things around. Wrestlers chronicle the efforts Al and his band of aspiring wrestlers make as they struggle with their personal ambitions and each other while they attempt to come together to save this historic gym.

Review: Being a massive pro wrestling fan, tis was an easy watch for me as I’m really passionate about the industry from the grounbd up but this isn’t about the glamour side of it at all but the work horse side that builds that star power. Besides the trainers, there are no superstars here but ones on the verge of becoming the next best thing and, having my eyes on the industry all the time, this is very cool. I will say that calling Al Snow “one of the greatest wrestlers of all time” is more than a bit of hyperbole.

The Morning Show: Season 3 (AppleTV+) – After a fallout with their previous morning show co-host, the popular but #MeToo-scandal-ridden Mitch Kessler, a New York City TV station hires a new spunky journalist, the progressive and hotheaded southern girl Bradley Jackson, as the new co-host. The scheming station head manager Cory Ellison sees in her the chance to push his career further. The show’s other popular co-host Alex Levy, disgruntled by the fact that she has to take in a newbie, tries to use this new situation to make her own power move and turn Bradley into an ally. Meanwhile, Mitch refuses to accept defeat and tries to take everyone in the station who knew about his sexual abuse scandal but said nothing down with him. Other characters include Chip Black, the show’s cynical top producer and program organizer, Hannah Shoenfeld, the station’s employee and Mitch’s emotionally gutted silent victim, Yanko Flores, a romantic and the Morning Show’s most popular reporter, Claire Conway, a British junior employee of the station and Yanko’s smitten secret girlfriend, and Fred, the station’s sleazy chief executive who tried to help Mitch cover up the scandal.

Expectations: AppleTV+’s biggest remaining draw comes back for another series, a show that definitely relies on the star power of both Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. That said, for me, the draw is most certainly Billy Crudup who is an absolute artist with the script he is given and how he delivers it. Within moments of his appearance on screen in the pilot episode, I knew I wanted to follow this show. Drawing from real stories in the media and obviously the Matt Lauer drama, this show is quite good, even though I don’t find Aniston very strong in it. It’s a water cooler show for sure.

Welcome To Wrexham: Season 2 (FX) – A docu-series in which Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds learn to run the third oldest professional football club in the world. In 2020, Rob and Ryan team up to purchase the fifth-tier Red Dragons in the hope of turning Wrexham AFC into an underdog story the whole world can root for, but the concern is that neither has any experience in football or working with the other. From Hollywood to Wales, from the pitch to the locker room, and the front office to the pub, the docuseries will track Rob and Ryan’s crash course in football club ownership and the inextricably connected fates of a team and a town counting on two actors to bring some serious hope and change to a community that could use it.

Expectations: My wife and I started watching this show based on our mutual love for both Ryan and Rob but the infectious love for Wrexham itself, its townspeople, the fans, the players on the team and all those in the background immediately endeared itself to us and made it a total binge-worthy event. Of course, the love for Ted Lasso must have rubbed off in this feeling too but it is an underdog story that really keeps you engaged and I hope that this isn’t the end of what we get from Wrexham FC because I want a season for everyone that they do under the ownership of these two loveable dudes.

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (AMC) – Following his departure from The Commonwealth, Daryl Dixon washes ashore in France, raising the ire of a splintered but growing autocratic movement centred in Paris and endangering a young boy at the heart of a benevolent religious movement.

Review: For those keeping track, this is the fourth spin-off of the mothership we call The Walking Dead, but the second since that show ended. That said, and as much as I was enjoying Dead City, this is the one that people have been waiting for big-time as Daryl Dixon, although a creation just for the television series, is a clear audience favourite. I’m bummed that Melissa McBride’s Carol wasn’t included in this post-apocalyptic ride but, after one episode, it really rocks and channels its own attitude through Norman Reedus who is finally getting his flowers for real. I hope others love it as much as I do.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Sep 7

stevestebbing

no comments

September 7, 2023

New Releases:

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 – After travelling to Greece for a family reunion, a woman attempts to locate her deceased father’s childhood friends.

Expectations: After the release of The Equalizer 3 last week, September continues to be the month of unnecessary sequels with a double shot this week, kicking off with this film that is the second “Why did you make this?” in the franchise. Nia Vardalos is charming and I enjoy her on screen but all these movies do is try to capitalize on a remarkable first movie by diminishing the returns every time. I like and even own the first film but this is where I stop and, hopefully, it’s where the studio stops too because no one is even talking about this one.

The Nun II – A follow-up to the enigmatic gothic horror about a strong evil that haunts and causes supernatural harm to everybody it comes into contact with. After the events of the first film, the said powerful evil begins to spread in 1956 throughout a town in France as word gets out that a priest has been violently murdered. A finished contemplative in her novitiate, Sister Irene, begins to investigate the murder, only to find a demon behind it — the same evil that terrorized her in the original film as a nun — Valak, whom she once again soon comes to encounter.

Expectations: Unnecessary sequel number two here and we all know that this film only serves to further the expanded universe of James Wan’s Conjuring universe as Bonnie Aaron’s Valak character first appeared in the second of those films. I will say that the first film benefited from a great creepy monster performance from Aaron and I love Demian Bechir a lot but it is now up to Taissa Farmiga to carry the franchise and I think she is pretty capable of doing that, much like her mom does with the mothership franchise. I also find it interesting that Aaron is suing Warner Bros. when this is being released for profiting off her likeness without compensation. Sounds like one of those issues this strike is about to me. Get ’em, Bonnie!

Blu-Ray:

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.

Review: This is one of the best movies of the year easily the greatest animated feature of 2023 and a must-see for all audiences. The creators manage to capitalize on a perfect first movie brimming with heart and soul and make a film that equals it and doesn’t waver your journey with Miles Morales whatsoever. These movies sit at the pinnacle of superhero storytelling and leave an open ending that will keep you salivating for the third piece of the trilogy. The sad news is, because of the writer’s and actor’s strike, it has all been delayed. The sadness is real.

Asteroid City – Following a writer on his world-famous fictional play about a grieving father, who travels with his tech-obsessed family to the small rural town of Asteroid City, to compete in a stargazing event. Only to have his worldview disrupted forever.

Review: Wes Anderson holds his audience in the palm of his hand as we, for decades now, have salivated over all of his work since he debuted with Bottle Rocket and then really introduced us to his style with Rushmore. Now he is making the movies for himself it seems as both The French Dispatch and this film take very different approaches to storytelling. Dispatch played more of an anthology game but this film is more about the method of writing, less about character development and way more about the mindset to go into it with. Oh, and there’s an alien too, done totally in his own way, but the draw is the cast, especially those who have never worked with him before.

Star Trek Picard: Complete Series – Shortly after the Destruction of Romulus, Starfleet reneged on a prior commitment to help the evacuation of Romulus. Culminating With a battalion of “Rogue” Starfleet Synthetics attacking The Mars Colonies (Short Trek: Children of Mars) This set forth a series of unprecedented events that led to a Galactic Conspiracy. Ten years into his retirement, Jean Luc Picard has a stranger ask for his help, which unearths unnerving questions that no one will answer. So now it is up to Picard to rise up and face those challenges head-on.

Review: Just three seasons, that’s all we got from the return of Patrick Stewart to the most iconic role of his long career and they went full bore for a Next Generation reunion for the final season, making any stumbles in the first season absolutely worth it. The series definitely got better as it progressed so I recommend plowing through the uneven first season because I had fun with season two and absolutely loved the third season. To be honest, if we got a spin-off with Todd Stashwick’s Captain Shaw I would definitely watch it.

NCIS Los Angeles: Complete Series – Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J star in this second show in the “NCIS” franchise, focusing on the high-stakes world of the Office of Special Projects (OSP) in Los Angeles. Highly trained agents use the most-advanced technologies available and go undercover to apprehend criminals deemed a threat to national security. Special Agent G. Callum can transform himself into whoever he needs to be to infiltrate criminal factions. His partner, former Navy SEAL Sam Hanna, is a surveillance specialist who uses state-of-the-art equipment to monitor field agents and feed them information.

Review: Scott Bakula and the New Orleans crew bid audiences adieu, Mark Harmon did the same from the original spin-off from JAG under some damning allegations and now the Los Angeles contingent is calling it quits too. This leaves the flagship show still running under the new eye of Gary Cole as well as the newbies, Hawaii and Sydney, but this will leave a void as I really enjoyed this one the most and definitely because of Chris and LL who make the show pretty great with their banter. The good thing is now I can roll through all fourteen seasons on my own accord.

Steve’s Blu-Ray and DVD Geekouts:

Personality Crisis: One Night Only – Continuing his vibrant and invaluable documentaries about iconic American artists and musicians such as George Harrison: Living in the Material World, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, and the Fran Lebowitz portrait Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese turns his camera on another beloved New York institution: the singular David Johansen. Equally celebrated as the lead singer-songwriter of the androgynous ’70s glam punk groundbreakers The New York Dolls and for his complete reinvention as hepcat lounge lizard Buster Poindexter in the ’80s, the chameleonic Johansen has created an entire genre unto himself, combining swing, blues, and rock for something at once mischievous and deeply personal.

Review: Out comes another one of my many documentary biases, the music-focused films and this is actually a great follow-up for anyone who enjoyed the film, New York Doll, as this is a David Johanssen-centric story, the frontman for the legendary-punk group. This film comes together so well under the co-direction of one of the greatest directors of all time, Martin Scorsese, adding this to the pantheon of great documentaries on his resume. This film is fascinating, and informative and gives a full portrait of one of the most interesting individuals in the New York scene for decades.

The Black Demon – Oil company inspector Paul Sturges takes his family on a vacation to a small town in Baja, where he is sent to inspect an oil rig called “El Diamante.” Upon arrival, they discover the town in ruins and encounter a massive and deadly megalodon shark known as “El Demonio Negro.” Stranded on the dilapidated rig with limited time and constant shark attacks, Paul and his family must fight for survival and find a way back to shore before it’s too late. It becomes a thrilling battle between man and nature in this harrowing adventure.

Review: I would be lying if I said I wasn’t leery about getting into another megalodon movie after the disappointment that was the Meg sequel, a film that is severely lacking some Meg action but this looked like something fun to dispel that. I like the casting of Josh Lucas, fresh in everyone’s mind at the moment with his performance as the young John Dutton on Yellowstone, and the film languished in that B-movie effects pool that entertains as long as you don’t get too in-depth with the script. I can honestly say it was a step up from the August blockbuster I just took in but the comparison isn’t that great.

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage – A documentary about the Canadian rock band Rush relates the group’s 40-year history and examines its continuing popularity. Using extensive archival footage, it follows the resilient rockers, lead guitarist Alex Lifeson and singer/bassist Geddy Lee, from when they started the band in the late 1960s through to the present. A diverse group of interviewees, such as musician Billy Corgan, actor Jack Black and “South Park” creator Matt Stone, share what makes the band so special.

Review: The original greatest band out of Canada, the power trio that brought us the birth of progressive rock in a way and classic album after album got the full-on documentary approach from Victoria-born director Sam Dunn in 2010 and I just got my hands on a copy of the steelbook blu-ray this week and I had to gush about it. Even if you aren’t a fa, Dunn engages you with a story of three technical geniuses in music who strived, persevered and inspired so much more creativity and music on their musical journey. Geddy, Alex and Neil are gods of music and this film celebrates them perfectly in my opinion. An absolute must-see.

Television:

I Am Groot: Season 2 (Disney+) – Baby Groot is a mischievous toddler who is growing up and getting into trouble among the stars as a member of the superhero team, Guardians of the Galaxy.

Review: Another round of short films arrives on the Mouse streamer that again follows one of the fan favourites from the Marvel cinematic universe and, really, how can you not love this dude? Voiced by Vin Diesel, each little installment is adorable and endearing and now seems like our last grip on James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, the perfect trilogy with the expansive franchise. Gather the whole family for this one and binge all of them, it is definitely worth it.

The Changeling (AppleTV+) – When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and strange recurring dreams. Now Apollo is a father himself–and as he and his wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. At first, Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes. Thus begins Apollo’s quest to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His odyssey takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

Review: Alternate worlds, pre-destinies and Lakeith Stanfield as the lead? Yeah, this show is something I can definitely dig into and it is another genre gamble for AppleTV+, a streaming service that always seems to surprise me with their releases. The series also features Canadian actor Jared Abrahamson, star of the underrated heist flick American Animals, and Alexis Louder, who blew me away in her starring role in CopShop as well as the Christmas action thriller Violent Night, both featured in a story that feels fresh and unpredictable at every turn. I hope this isn’t a limited series because I’m really loving it so far.

Star Trek Lower Decks: Season 4 (Paramount+) – The series focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the USS Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi must keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The ship’s bridge crew includes Captain Carol Freeman, Commander Jack Ransom, Lieutenant Shaxs and Doctor T’Ana. This is the second animated spin-off in the franchise after 1973-74’s “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” but has a decidedly more adult tone and humour.

Expectations: It’s not crazy to see the success of another Star Trek series after the Paramount+ created Discovery hit screens and the resurrection of Picard and his crew for his own show but the fact that a very adult series within the franchise has survived to a fourth season is pretty wild. I really love this show and Jerry O’Connell and Jack Quaid’s characters are the big reason why and I’m excited to see what the crew will do this time around. I’m also looking forward to them addressing Quaid’s character Boimler who just did a stint on Strange New Worlds with Captain Pike and his crew.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Aug 31

stevestebbing

no comments

August 31, 2023

New Releases:

The Equalizer 3 – Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has struggled to reconcile the horrific things he’s done in the past and finds a strange solace in serving justice on behalf of the oppressed. Finding himself surprisingly at home in Southern Italy, he discovers his new friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia.

Expectations: As a big fan of the first Equalizer film, I have to preface my thoughts on this third one by saying that I really disliked the second installment and don’t really see this follow-up being earned. Still, Denzel is always a great presence on the big screen and sequels are definitely not his regular jam as Equalizer 2 was the first one he ever did. He must love doing this Robert McCall role and dispatching bad guys effortlessly. Those parts are really cool to see and probably the highlight of each film. I also like that there is a Man On Fire reunion in this film with Denzel and co-star Dakota Fanning.

Blu-Ray & DVD:

The Flash – A bolt of lightning strikes Barry Allen and thus, an extraordinary power is born inside him: The Speed Force. When he uses this power to run back in time and save his mother, he creates a world without heroes and General Zod has returned. To defeat him, his only hope rests in the hands of a retired Batman, another Barry and an imprisoned Kryptonian.

Review: This might be easily my most disappointing movie of the year as well as one of my most hated ones which is so depressing as it took so long for it to come out and it featured the return of a childhood favourite in Michael Keaton’s Batman. I will admit that the emergence of Supergirl was cool as well but once the film brings both back, it has no idea what to do with them. This film is a struggle thoroughly. Bad CGI, a script that struggles to find a tone throughout and a purely unlikable performance from Ezra Miller in a dual role hamper the film constantly through its almost two-and-a-half-hour run time.

No Hard Feelings – In the enigmatic town of Montauk, New York, Maddie, a struggling Uber driver facing dire financial circumstances, stumbles upon an intriguing Craigslist ad. Responding to the cryptic posting, she enters into an unconventional arrangement with secretive parents who harbour concerns about their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy. In a secret pact, Maddie agrees to immerse herself in Percy’s life, delving into a world where dating and intimacy are foreign concepts. Little does she know the enigmatic path that awaits her as she embarks on this mysterious journey to guide Percy toward adulthood while grappling with her own uncertainties.

Review: Judging from the trailers, I wasn’t sure what to think of this raunchy comedy but I knew Jennifer Lawrence put her all into every film so I kept an open mind. The result was a very funny film that highlights the Academy Award winner’s comedic chops, wears its burgeoning heart and soul on its sleeve and the whole show almost gets stolen by her young co-star, Andrew Barth Feldman, who is an absolute delight every moment he is on screen. The movie makes some bold choices and has one unforgettable fight scene on a beach and I think is one of the more underrated ones to hit the box office this year. Hopefully, with VOD and streaming, the film gets some distance through word of mouth.

Blue Bloods: Season 13 – The series follows the lives of the NYPD’s First Family of Law Enforcement: the Reagans. Frank, the Police Commissioner and son of former PC Henry Reagan must balance his duties of running the largest police force in the world and being his kids’ boss. His daughter Erin is an Assistant District Attorney, son Danny is a senior detective and fellow Marine Veteran, and new Harvard Law grad turned cop, Jamie all swirl through this family drama and passionately defend their city from harm. The Irish-American family is deeply rooted in their patriotism, passion, and love of family.

Review: Unlucky season thirteen rolls in this week and it actually saw the return of former regular cast member Jennifer Esposito to her role of Jackie Curatola in a guest starring capacity, which is a bonus for me as I really liked her character. Let’s face it though, the series draw is all about Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg who bring it every time they are on screen. This is sort of like your regular run-of-the-mill Law & Order procedural but the Reagan family dynamics keep each season pretty engaging.

Smiling Friends: Season 1 – Smiling Friends Inc. is a small company whose main purpose is to bring happiness and make people smile. The series follows the day-to-day lives and misadventures of its representatives, the lazy, cynical Charlie, and the cheerful, optimistic Pim, as they try to cheer up and comfort the troubled people who call their company’s hotline. They receive seemingly simple requests but the jobs turn out to be more complicated than they seem, making it difficult to bring happiness to the world.

Review: Adult Swim strikes again with another delightfully weird piece of animation and this one will appeal to the niche viewers who love stuff like Superjail or Mr. Pickles. You know, the downright deranged stuff. It comes from the mind of Michael Cusack, an Australian creator who recently brought his brand to Hulu and Disney+ with Koala Man, a hysterical little series. I really love it but take that for what it is.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:

Champions – Woody Harrelson stars in the hilarious and heartwarming story of a former minor-league basketball coach who, after a series of missteps, is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realizes that, despite his doubts, this team can go further than they ever imagined.

Review: I will admit, that this movie had bad reviews so I went into it with a chip on my shoulder and I ended up really liking it. I’ve been done in some of the solo work of the Dumb And Dumber and There’s Something About Mary directing duo, the Farrelly brothers, but Woody wins me over in this alongside his very funny team players and a great romantic role for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olsen who is honestly incapable of phoning it in. Ingire the slights on this one, I had fun with it.

River Wild – Joey (Leighton Meester) fears there could be trouble ahead after her brother Gray (Taran Killam) invites Trevor (Adam Brody), a childhood friend with a troubled past, on their whitewater rafting adventure with two tourists. Once they become stranded in raging rapids, the thrill-seeking trip quickly turns from exciting to utterly terrifying as the rafters are trapped in a desperate fight for their lives, all while someone seems intent on sabotaging to ensure shocking secrets stay buried. To survive the wild river, Joey will have to face her fears, and everyone will have to develop killer instincts before they’re torn apart by deception aboard the raft, or by deadly waters wreaking havoc all around them.

Review: This film got me in two ways as, one, I am a huge fan of Curtis Hanson’s original film, starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn and John C. Reilly, and, two, it stars two people from the 2000s teen dramas, The OC’s Adam Brody and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester. Fun addition to that, they are actually married in real life. Now, this is not a direct remake at all, just a film that sort of uses that same energy and makes Brody, against type, play the menacing bad guy. That said, I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit once I was able to separate it from the pre-established film I know. I would say that the performances against the white water rafting peril is what got me and it would be a really tough story to completely screw up in my opinion.

Nuclear Now – The movie, narrated by Oliver Stone, promotes nuclear power as a safe and viable solution to combat climate change by replacing fossil fuels. Stone predicts a significant increase in global electricity demand in the next three decades and suggests mass-producing nuclear power plants to meet this growing need for low-carbon energy. He argues that recycling, electric cars, and eco-friendly products are merely superficial attempts by the middle class to feel good and that they won’t make a substantial impact on the climate. The scriptwriters also accuse the anti-nuclear movement of associating nuclear power with nuclear weapons, thus instilling a deep-seated fear of this energy source. Additionally, they imply that the oil and gas industry has been funding campaigns against nuclear power.

Review: Being a huge fan of his narrative work, Oliver Stone is one of those cinema gods to me and has been since I was an early movie aficionado but as an adult, I’ve scrutinized some of his historical beliefs, political beliefs and social commentaries as he can some times have, well, a wide range of ideas. This one is really fascinating though because it centers around a resource that is pivotal to our world, both in use and execution. The energy battle, especially now, may make or break our world so to have open and frank discussions on how our kids are going to survive and how they will power things is crucial. Stone knows the conversation and knows what questions to ask, making this film really important and I wish it got more of a mainstream push, honestly.

Television:

One Piece (Netflix) – An alternate version of Earth, and one that is currently in the midst of the ‘Golden Age of Pirates’. Ruthless cut-throat pirates rule the seas, and only the strongest have the chance to lay claim to the mythical treasure known as ‘One Piece’ that was left behind by the greatest pirate of them all, Gold Roger. Years after the death of Gold Roger, a young boy by the name of Monkey D. Luffy has dreams of raising his own crew, finding One Piece, and declaring himself as Pirate King. After eating a devil fruit that grants Luffy the power to make his body like rubber, it gives him enormous strength and agility. When Luffy finally comes of age, he sets sail from Foosha Village in East Blue and sets upon his grand adventure to become the next Pirate King.

Review: A hit with anime fans of all ages for a long time now, Netflix has now put this into live-action form, ahead of the adaptation of Avatar The Last Airbender and after their version of Cowboy Bebop which they sadly cancelled, so I’m sure expectations are high for it. I myself found it a little hard to get into as I don’t have the history of the show to lean on but I am more than willing to give it more than a few episodes because it is colourful, beautifully shot and my kid is getting really into the story.

The Wheel Of Time: Season 2 (Prime Video) – Moiraine, a member of a magical organization, takes five young people on a journey, believing that one of them might be the reincarnation of the Dragon, a powerful individual prophesied to save the world or destroy it.

Expectations: Based on a popular fantasy book series from author Robert Jordan, I have to sadly admit that I was late to this series and just started the first season in anticipation of this new follow-up. To be honest, with the spending on the Lord Of The Rings series, I thought Prime Video would make this show dead in the water like Carnival Row but here we are, more episodes with the badass Rosamund Pike. She is really the draw to the show and the killer action and not shying away from gore make the whole thing really entertaining. Hopefully, they can keep it all afloat with these new episodes.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Aug 24

stevestebbing

no comments

August 24, 2023

New Releases:

Gran Turismo – Based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, the film is the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.

Expectations: Sony Playstation rolls out their second feature film based on one of their popular titles after Uncharted and this one is special because it is an adaptation of one of their original games from when their first system launched. The supporting cast is very likeable, with Stranger Things star David Harbour, former Legolas, Orlando Bloom, all around the young British star, Archie Madekwe, known to horror fans because of Ari Aster’s Midsommar. I want to have faith that this is an entertaining film but I worry about the muddled nature of the storytelling as it comes from director Neill Blomkamp who has stumbled notably since his debut with District 9 in 2009. Hopefully, this will put him back on top with a whole new blockbuster rejuvenation.

Dreamin’ Wild – This film, the true story of love and redemption, is about what happened to singer/songwriter Donnie Emerson and his family when the album he and his brother recorded as teens was rediscovered after thirty years of obscurity and was suddenly hailed by music critics as a lost masterpiece. While the album’s rediscovery brings hopes of second chances, it also brings long-buried emotions as Donnie, his wife Nancy, brother Joe, and father Don Sr. come to terms with the past and their newly found fame.

Review: This film is a winning true story music-driven film that satisfies with great performances from the entire cast with Casey Affleck, Walton Goggins, Noah Jupe and Jack Dylan Grazer leading the way. An interesting story about a young talent that was kept hidden by so many conflicting elements and the juxtaposition of being appreciated for it decades later. It also raises the fascinating notion of the rediscovery of unappreciated art of the past. Really enjoyed this one.

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! – Stacy and Lydia are BFFs who’ve always dreamed about having epic bat mitzvahs. However, things start to go comically awry when a popular boy and middle school drama threatens their friendship and their rite of passage.

Review: Adam Sandler lands with his latest Netflix original movie and this time it’s a family affair with wife Jackie Sandler playing a supporting role and daughter Sunny shouldering the leading weight instead of her father. That said, this might be the most cohesive film he has released since Uncut Gems for sure and it is all from the sheer heart and likability displayed from the start. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I really love this movie and I hope it gets popular.

Vacation Friends 2 – Picking up a few months after the end of “Vacation Friends,” this uproarious sequel finds newly married couple Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) inviting their uninhibited besties Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner), who are also newly married and have a baby, to join them for a vacation when Marcus lands an all-expenses-paid trip to a Caribbean resort. His reason for traveling there in the first place is to meet with the owners of the resort to bid on a construction contract for a hotel they own in Chicago. But when Kyla’s incarcerated father Reese (Steve Buscemi) is released from San Quentin and shows up at the resort unannounced at the worst possible moment, things get out of control, upending Marcus’ best laid plans and turning the vacation friends’ perfect trip into total chaos.

Expectations: The first film, when I initially saw the trailer, looked like a bottom of the barrel crude comedy that Fox and Disney didn’t see having the clout for a theatrical release and they were sort of right. I definitely don’t see this movie making box office waves but I thought it was pretty funny and that rests on the broad shoulders of John Cena who is pretty hysterical. Do I see his character having enough comedic muscle to carry a sequel? I definitely don’t want to count him out and I will be watching for sure!

Blu-Ray:

The Blackening – The film centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherfu**in’ game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?

Expectations: Horror comedy is a genre that will always have a warm place in my cinematic heart and when they pull at tropes that are solidified in how we look at slasher films, well, that gets me even more. The setup is all here but the unpredictability and winks to the audience will surely be what wins audiences over and if it is all executed right we could have a runaway hit, much like the writers of this film’s previous work, Girl’s Trip.

You Hurt My Feelings – Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a popular writer, and her husband Don, a well-liked teacher, share the kind of relationship that truly, seriously, for the love of God cannot be real: that is, they’re actually in love. Even after decades of marriage, parenting, and their own successful careers, their physical spark has somehow not diminished; in fact, they seem to relish the opportunity to share a single ice cream cone and drive others — including their son, Charlie — mad. Should it come as a surprise then that his own marriage is in crisis? But when Beth discovers that Don has been untruthful to her about his opinion of her work for years — Beth’s world comes crashing down. Has their whole relationship been one Big Fat Lie?

Review: On the surface, this looks like a film about rich New York intellectuals going through a tiff in their long marriage but writer and director Nicole Holofcener manages to craft a relatable story that can fit into any romantic relationship. With a deft character-driven nuance, this film navigates the unspoken thoughts that exist in relationships, the white lies or dismissive support that is sometimes given and the hurt that comes from the revealing of the truth. Dreyfuss and her counterpart Tobias Menzies play this film with a veteran’s touch that makes it not only believable but makes us root for their relationship and mental health.

Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar – Picking up after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth, this new story finds Dethklok frontman Nathan Explosion traumatized in a brutal professional and romantic flat-spin all while he is tasked with fulfilling the prophecy and confronting the ultimate songwriting challenge: write the Song Of Salvation and save the planet. Can Nathan Explosion look beyond his brutally damaged ego to save his band, stop the Metalocalypse, and finally face the ultimate evil: Salacia?

Review: As a forever Metalocalypse fan, the mere announcement of this new movie sent me over a blood moon with excitement but those who aren’t clued into the blood-soaked and death metal-driven hilarity may just be left in the dark on this one. What other show about a fake band has spawned a real band that still tours to this day? Heck, there’s even a tour right now featuring Babymetal which seems amazing. As for the movie? If you love these guys then it’s just par for the course. So, throw your devil horns in the air and headbang to Dethklok… or die!

NCIS: Season 20 – Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs leads a group of colourful personalities in investigating crimes — ranging from murder and espionage to terrorism — that have evidence connected to Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The team includes MIT graduate Timothy McGee, Ellie Bishop, who specializes in international threat assessment, charismatic and unpredictable Nick Torres, and forensic psychologist Jack Sloane. Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard brings his vast experience in forensics into play to help solve cases.

Review: Twenty years his show has been going for? Yes, the Boomers have definitely been keeping this and the other spinoffs from JAG alive but New Orleans ended its course a couple of years ago, and Los Angeles ended its run this past year, so what is keeping this one afloat? The original lead star, Mark Harmon, has already shuffled off into retirement with his character Gibbs, after a reveal of on-set nastiness, and now Gary Cole is the leading man and I kind of love that. It honestly could keep the show going for another handful of years. That complete series box set is going to be massive though.

Steve’s 4K & DVD Geekouts:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 4K – Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) has an uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make one last duck-out before graduation, Ferris calls in sick, “borrows” a Ferrari and embarks on a one-day journey through the streets of Chicago. On Ferris’ trail is high school principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), determined to catch him in the act.

Review: One of my favourite movies ever made gets its full 4K treatment and it looks just gorgeous. Does the movie still hold up? Definitely, still one of the best high school comedies of all time and another brick in the incredible film foundation that John Hughes left us with. Broderick, Ruck and Sara are an endearing and iconic trio that was pitch-perfect in their casting and there are so many scenes that stick in my mind when I relive this classic. It’s a great addition to anyone’s collection and if you’ve never seen it before, that must be rectified immediately.

Are You Afraid Of The Dark?: Ghost Island – Four best friends and members of a Midnight Society get more than they bargained for when what they think is a fun summer vacation on a resort island turns into something sinister.

Review: Resurrected a while back by Nickelodeon, this original Canadian American horror anthology that chilled us all a teens has been pretty consistent in it’s return. I loved the kick off to it with Rafael Casal’s villainous top hat character and it has managed to stay consistent with this new season. This is purely gateway horror for the kids and, like me, it will prepare them to be total genre fans.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Complete Series – New York City has become the threshold for the crime lord Shredder and his evil associates, such as the genius Baxter Stockman and Hun’s gang of brutal street punks, the Purple Dragons. After fifteen years of living and training in the safe cover of the sewers, it’s time for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo to venture topside and battle these threats to the city. With the help of their Sensei, Master Splinter, and other allies such as April O’Neil and Casey Jones, the four lean green brothers are in for the fight of their lives if they are to defeat their nemesis.

Review: For those keeping track, this is my second complete series for the Turtles, my last one being the computer-animated version from 2012. Now, this one isn’t the original version I grew up on but this is a pretty solid series of the New York sewer-dwelling heroes and it did last seven seasons and over a hundred and fifty episodes which is very impressive. I dig that a lot of the storylines were taken from the original Mirage comic book, giving it an authenticity that has been lost over the years in varying degrees.

Television:

Ahsoka (Disney+) – After the fall of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

Review: A brand new Star Wars series arrives on the big Mouse streaming service and it is definitely the most heady of all the shows produced so far so a deep knowledge of everything in this universe is more than recommended to get a good foothold into the story. Lots across the internet are calling the first couple of episodes a bit of a snooze but I’m loving every second of it. Rosario Dawson is so commanding as Ahsoka Tan, like she was born to play it, and all of the villains are so formidable. I cannot wait to continue through it but am sad to have to go week to week for it. Also, rest in peace, Ray Stevenson. What a presence he was in this.

Invasion: Season 2 (AppleTV+) – Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens humanity’s existence; events unfold in real-time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unravelling around them.

Expectations: I was honestly surprised with the pick up of this sci-fi thriller for a second season as the first season felt so slow burn that I was unsure if it would catch on. Some of the main cast is a reason why I checked it out, with the great Sam Neill playing a retiring small-town sheriff and the beautiful and intriguing
Golshifteh Farahani as a mother trying to keep her family protected during a global alien takeover. The story may be a little slight and formulaic but I expect it will take off in this new season. Well, it really needs to or it will certainly face cancellation.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Aug 10

stevestebbing

no comments

August 10, 2023

New Releases:

Expectations: We get our second Dracula film of 2023 this week, although this one is very different from the modern comedy horror of Renfield from a couple of months ago. With the stylistic eye of Troll Hunter writer and director André Øvredal, we might have a solid low-key chiller on our hands, featuring cinematography from Clint Eastwood’s usual guy, Tom Stern, and a score from the great Bear McCreary. Øvredal described this movie as basically Alien on a ship in 1897, so based on that description alone, I’m in it for some fun.

Heart Of Stone -An intelligence operative for a shadowy global peacekeeping agency races to stop a hacker from stealing its most valuable and dangerous weapon.

Expectations: Gal Gadot steps back into the very familiar shoes of an action hero for her second Netflix feature after she teamed with Ryan Reynolds and The Rock for Red Notice. The film comes from director Tom Harper, known for the pretty solid air balloon true story on Prime Video, The Aeronauts, but, most notably, the music-driven indie drama Wild Rose which features a phenomenal Jessie Buckley Performance so I have good thoughts invested in this action thriller. With a string of okay-to-solid genre films recently, The Mother and Extraction 2, it might be a safe bet to say that this might be a worthy watch on your weekend.

The Pod Generation – Set in the very near future world where AI is all the rage and technology has trumped nature in nearly every aspect of life, The Pod Generation follows Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a New York couple who are ready to start a family. As a rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing by way of mobile, artificial wombs, or pods. Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist about the natural environment, has doubts, but his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith. And so, begins the wild ride on their tech-paved path to parenthood.

Expectations: Although a science fiction-based futuristic story, the ideas presented in this film are not that far off from how this is trending with technology so the far-fetched nature sometimes exhibited in the genre is not present here. I’m a fan of Clarke’s work on Game Of Thrones but I can’t say she’s done anything amazing afterward Chiwetel’s a massive draw for me, as the guy brings it to every role. The biggest excitement for me about this film is it is from the mind of writer and director Sophie Barthes, whose film Cold Souls is one of the most meta films I have ever seen and might be the most underrated movie of 2009. With her weird idiosyncrasies, this might be another underrated masterpiece that audiences might sleep on.

Passages – Set in Paris, this seductive drama tells the story of Tomas (Franz Rogowski) and Martin (Ben Whishaw), a gay couple whose marriage is thrown into crisis when Tomas begins a passionate affair with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos), a younger woman he meets after completing his latest film.

Review: Ira Sachs, one of my cinema MVPs, makes his return with a film that features one of the most gorgeous leading trios in a film this year. Whishaw has been a favourite of mine since 2004, with both Enduring Love and Layer Cake, Adele absolutely entranced me in Blue Is The Warmest Color and Franz has been a festival favourite since I started attending them, starting with the one-shot feature Victoria. This will be a slow-burn film among cinephiles everywhere but I highly recommend this well-told and beautifully shot film as it is one of the best in a year filled with incredible movies. I hope it doesn’t get lost in the crush of them.

Blu-Ray:

BlackBerry – A company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveal the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.

Review: A friend of mine called this film The Wolf Of Wall Street of Canadian Cinema and I love that term. Writer and director Matt Johnson was the perfect person to tell this story, also taking on the role of Research In Motion co-founder Doug, and the grainy look of the film and the fly-on-the-wall feel of it is directly attributed to him Glenn Howerton’s Jim Ballsilie is the big star of the film but Jay Baruchel’s understated then ferocious performance as founder Mike Lazaridis is so compelling to watch—definitely one of my favourite films of the year and a champion for Canadian movies.

The Wrath Of Becky – Three years after escaping a violent attack on her family by four Neo-Nazis, Becky and her beloved dog Diego live with a kind elderly woman named Elena Connor to rebuild her life. But when a fascist organization known as the “Noble Men” break into their home, attack both Becky and Elena and kidnap Diego, it’s up to Becky to fight back by returning to her old ways to protect herself and her loved ones, rescue Diego, and uncover the Noble Men’s mastermind plans before it’s too late.

Review: Look, when you cast Kevin James in his first villain role as a neo nazi escaped convict, you have my attention but when you have a young girl dispatch him and his crew in gory fashion, well, you’ve got my fandom. Easy to say, I was psyched for this follow-up and I was satisfied with what I got, an older Becky pushed to the edge by a new group of assholes. Lulu Wilson kicks every ass around her in this hero whose glee for killing may thrust her into the anti-hero category. Even still, I could be totally swayed into watching a third film, hell, make a Becky cinematic universe at this point, I’m game.

The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster – Having developed a preposterous theory in her mind, precocious Vicaria, a teenager obsessed with the unknown after her brother’s brutal murder, dreams of solving the impossible problem of the ultimate disease: death. And having a penchant for science, the driven schoolgirl gets to work. After all, trying to find a cure for the plague is worth a shot. As a result, strange, logic-defying experiments occur in the brilliant young scientist’s secret lab. Has Vicaria made a pivotal breakthrough in death treatment? If the irreversible process is only an illusion, who can stop the angry black girl and her monster?

Review: A gripping horror story set against the backdrop of a violent and brutal neighbourhood, this film pulses with an energy that gets under your skin and has some jarring and unforgettable scenes of tragedy. Lead actress Laya DeLeon Hayes, also the main voice of Disney Junior’s animated hit Doc McStuffins, delivers a hell of a performance that runs that gamut of all dark emotion leading to an ending that sticks to your brainpan and demands unpacking. This may be one of the best lowkey horror films of the year in my opinion.

Night Of The Assassin – Joseon, the last and longest dynasty in Korea, spanned over 500 years and contained some of the greatest unrivalled assassins. One such assassin discovers he has a heart condition and must put his violent career aside while he searches for a cure. With a bounty on his head and an area gang barging into his village hide-out, he must again take up his sword and fight to survive.

Review: This film, at least in North America, is so hard to research before watching as the real title just lists as The Assassin and no search for Night Of The Assassin yields any results so I almost felt like Well Go USA had discovered some anomaly. Well, if they did, I wish they would have unearthed something better as this film seemed to disappoint on every level, a rare South Korean miss. The film feels goofy and slapstick ridden with a lame script, and a consistent struggle to find tone and hair and makeup that looked jarringly bad. Usually, I’m excited to check these movies out, especially the dynasty epics but this one tipped its hat pretty early.

1923 – The next installment of the Yellowstone origin story introduces a new generation of the Dutton family and explores the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition, and the Great Depression all plague the Mountain West and the Duttons who call it home.

Review: This prequel spin-off of the popular Kevin Costner series definitely has more legs than its predecessor, 1883, as, spoilers here, but pretty much everyone dies by the end of that one-season series. This show has the added power of Academy Award winner Helen Mirren in a prominent lead role and, a personal icon of mine, Harrison Ford in his first television series. The show does get caught up a bit in sweeping romance when it comes to the one son, Spencer, living abroad in Africa and his new bride there, but when it gets down to the gritty action, Taylor Sheridan always comes through. I’m really looking forward to what’s next after the cliffhanger at the end of this season.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:

Golden Gate – New FBI recruit Kevin Walker (Matt Dillon) is tasked with finding communists within San Francisco’s Chinatown. When Kevin comes up empty-handed, he is forced to produce results, leading to his indictment of Chen Jung Song (Tzi Ma), an innocent Chinese worker. This results in tragedy, and the guilt-ridden Kevin feels compelled to look out for Song’s beautiful daughter, Marilyn (Joan Chen). Though Kevin and Marilyn fall for each other, his past deception still hangs over his head.

Review: It’s two weeks in a row of Matt Dillon films in the Geekouts, thanks to the people at Moviezyng.com but this one is about a decade earlier and it doesn’t have him behind the camera as well. This time it’s future Academy Award nominee John Madden, five years before he would be the talk of the movie world with Shakespeare In Love. The film was written by David Henry Hwang, who made his made his mark in the industry the same year with the romantic drama M. Butterfly, directed by the legendary David Cronenberg, which kind of left this film as a forgotten little drama. I think this film is fascinating to watch now, blending this tale of human connection across cultures with the era-specific battles against communism and racism.

Stormy Monday – Brendan (Sean Bean) begins to work at a jazz joint in a seedy part of Newcastle, England, and soon develops a friendship with the establishment’s seemingly ethical owner, Finney (Sting). Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones), a crooked American businessman, arrives and attempts to force Finney into a shady deal involving the nightclub, but Brendan tries to keep his boss out of the suspicious agreement. Things are intensified when all three men compete for the affection of call girl Kate (Melanie Griffith).

Review: This film is definitely a buried gem but it comes from a time when Melanie Griffith was a queen of the era and dominated the genre market of crime dramas. The movie also has a killer cast of character players including an underappreciated at the time Tommy Lee Jones, rock star Sting and a young upstart British star in Sean Bean. Written and directed by one of the best and most underrated filmmakers, Mike Figgis, in his debut feature film, the story is a new sort of noir that carves its own path and lets the characters breathe along the way. As a guy who only discovered the film in 2023, I loved every moment of this one and hope this new Blu-ray will give it a bit of a resurgence.

Television:

Ladies First: A Story Of Women In Hip Hop (Netflix) – Recreates the role that the unstoppable women of hip-hop have played across the 50 years of this groundbreaking genre, putting them where they belong: at the heart of the present day.

Review: Netflix is getting me in that sweet spot this week as it’s hitting me not only with a new docuseries but it’s a music-centric one as well and I just adore those. This one is really cool as well as it follows the journey of women in hip hop from the ground floor with the originators in the late seventies, Salt n Pepa in the 80s through to the nineties with Queen Latifah, Foxy Brown and so on through to the influence women still exhibit in the genre today. I’m an easy sucker for all of this but any documentary fan can latch onto this one, maybe dispel some myths and learn more about these players in the music industry and not just what they did for music but the gender war as well.

Painkiller (Netflix) – This limited series exposes the roots of the most pressing health epidemic of the 21st century. Powerful narcotic painkillers, or opioids, were once used as drugs of last resort for pain sufferers. Purdue turned OxyContin into a billion-dollar blockbuster by launching an unprecedented marketing campaign claiming that the drug’s long-acting formulation made it safer to use than traditional painkillers for many types of pain. That illusion was quickly shattered as drug abusers learned that crushing an Oxy could release its narcotic payload all at once. Even in its prescribed form, Oxy proved fiercely addictive. As OxyContin’s use and abuse grew, Purdue concealed what it knew from regulators, doctors, and patients.

Review: Following Hulu and Disney+’s limited series Dopesick starring Michael Keaton, Netflix now takes a stab at the OxyContin story with the writers of the Fred Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood making their debut as the showrunners. The cast is solid with Matthew Broderick playing Richard Sackler, the catalyst for the whole pharma-driven tragedy on the American people, as well as Uzo Aduba, Taylor Kitsch and West Duchovny in main roles and the pilot episode is a well-told dive into a sort of familiar story. It also helps that the veteran direction of Peter Berg for all six episodes drives a story that is fascinating on the surface anyways and just adds a new flavour to what you may have already seen.

Strange Planet (AppleTV+) – A look at a distant planet not unlike Earth, with hilarious yet poignant observations on life, love and friendship, as told in the most peculiar way.

Review: Based on a hilarious webcomic done by Nathan Pyle, this is something I never would think of getting a television series adaptation but here we are and, you know what? It’s pretty fun. Will it translate to a broader audience that has no connection to the origins of it? I think that is your harder sell as the whole idea, especially the way the dialogue flows, is nuanced to what. made the usually one to four-panelled comic work. I enjoy it but I also question the gamble with adapting this for a streaming service.

Only Murders In The Building: Season 3 (Disney+) – Follows three strangers (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) who share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one. When a grisly death occurs inside their exclusive Upper West Side apartment building, the trio suspects murder and employs their precise knowledge of true crime to investigate the truth. As they record a podcast of their own to document the case, the three unravel the complex secrets of the building which stretch back years. Perhaps even more explosive are the lies they tell one another. Soon, the endangered trio comes to realize a killer might be living amongst them as they race to decipher the mounting clues before it’s too late.

Review: One of my current favourite comedy shows is back for a new season and bringing some serious firepower in the guest star department with Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd. The chemistry with Martin, Short and Gomez is brilliant and it really gave me an appreciation for how talented Selena is in the genre as her deadpan deliveries are consistently hilarious. As a lifelong fan of both Steve Martin and Martin Short, I was an easy mark for this show but beyond that, it is one of the best-written shows on television today and always surprises and entertains. Can’t wait to see how this one will all turn out but I won’t go into specifics because of spoilers for new readers.

Winning Time: The Rise Of The Lakers Dynasty: Season 2 (Crave) – Beginning with the arrival of Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the #1 overall pick of the 1979 draft, the Lakers played basketball with gusto and pizzazz, unleashing their famed “Showtime” run-and-gun style on a league unprepared for their speed and ferocity and became the most captivating show in sports and, arguably, in all-around American entertainment. The Lakers’ roster overflowed with exciting all-star-calibre players, including center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and they were led by the incomparable Pat Riley, known for his slicked-back hair, Armani suits, and arrogant strut. Hollywood’s biggest celebrities lined the court and gorgeous women flocked to the arena. Best of all, the team was a winner. Between 1980 and 1991, the Lakers played in an unmatched nine NBA championship series, capturing five of them.

Expectations: Adam McKay has got himself yet another hit in the true story realm with this famed sports story of a benchmark in the history of the NBA under the ownership of a guy who had no idea of the mountain he was facing at the time. It’s a good thing this was a hit too because it cost his friendship with Will Ferrell over not being offered the chance to be involved. Beyond that behind-the-scenes drama, this show is really compelling with a great cast but I do wonder what the real people think about their stories being told because some of them definitely do not come off great.

What The Hell Should I Watch? – Aug 3

stevestebbing

no comments

August 3, 2023

New Releases:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O’Neil, helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

Expectations: For the first time since 2007’s TMNT, the Turtles are back on the big screen in animated form and the anticipation for this movie is high, with some eye-popping style that is reminiscent of Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. The voice cast around our four heroes is fantastic, including Jackie Chan, Paul Rudd, John Cena, Ayo Edibri and Seth Rogen, who also produced and co-wrote the film. Another cool thing about this film is that Leo, Donny, Raph and Mikey are all voiced by real teenagers, the first time this has been done with the characters, and, to me, that adds so much. This is going to be awesome.

Meg 2: The Trench – Get ready for the ultimate adrenaline rush this summer in a larger-than-life thrill ride that supersizes the first movie and takes the action to higher heights and even greater depths with multiple massive Megs and so much more. Dive into uncharted waters with Jason Statham and global action icon Wu Jing as they lead a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean. Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival. Pitted against colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes must outrun, outsmart, and outswim their merciless predators in a pulse-pounding race against time.

Expectations: Speaking of things that are going to be excellent, the first Meg film was way more fun than I expected it to be and now that we have a usually arthouse horror and thriller director Ben Wheatley helming this one, I think all bets are off. With bigger monsters, bigger stakes and Jason Statham defying all expectations, the trailer is an absolute blast and I think we will have a wild ride ahead of us. Giant shark movies for the win!

Review: The writing and directing debut of Randall Park, this film is a total win with a great script and smart and funny characters framed by great performances from Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola and Ally Maki. Meta in a lot of its delivery, the interesting this about the film is that it leads with a pretty unlikable character but one that is very unassuming of his lesser traits. This counteracts Chon’s onscreen likability as I always have enjoyed his work, especially on The Umbrella Academy.

A Compassionate Spy – Directed by two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself), the film is a gripping real-life spy thriller about controversial Manhattan Project physicist Ted Hall, who infamously provided nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, told through the perspective of his loving wife Joan, who protected his secret for decades. Recruited in 1944 as an 18-year-old Harvard undergraduate to help Robert Oppenheimer and his team create a bomb, Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project and didn’t share his colleagues’ elation after the successful detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. Concerned that a U.S. post-war monopoly on such a powerful weapon could lead to nuclear catastrophe, Hall began passing key information about the bomb’s construction to the Soviet Union. After the war, he met, fell in love with, and married Joan, a fellow student with whom he shared a passion for classical music and socialist causes and the explosive secret of his espionage. The pair raised a family while living under suspicion and years of FBI surveillance and intimidation. This film reveals the twists and turns of this real-life spy story, its profound impact on nuclear history, and the couple’s remarkable love and life together during more than fifty years of marriage.

Review: This new documentary is capitalizing on the fact that the Christopher Nolan-written and directed biopic was only released last week. So, with some of the Manhattan Project facts fresh in our mind, we get a story that is only slightly eluded to in that blockbuster film about leaking weapons secrets to the Soviets. The decision to do interviews along with dramatic re-enactment is one that I don’t agree with the story is interesting but that may be my residual Oppenheimer high from last week.

Blu-Ray:

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 – In the final part of their story, our beloved band of misfits is looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. A mission that, if not completed successfully, could lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

Review: Writer and director James Gunn closes his chapter in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe with a film brimming with heart and soul, so much so that if you didn’t leak a tear then I’m curious if you are a robot or not. I will contend that Guardians was the perfect trilogy contained within this expansive story and Gunn seemed to get the assignment every time and knock it out of the park. I also love that this is Rocket’s movie and every emotional beat lands with an incredible crescendo. This is one of 2023’s best, without a doubt.

About My Father – The film centers around Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco) who is encouraged by his fiancée (Leslie Bibb) to bring his immigrant hairdresser father Salvo (Robert De Niro) to a weekend get-together with her super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family (Kim Cattrall, Anders Holm, Brett Dier, David Rasche). The weekend develops into what can only be described as a culture clash, leaving Sebastian and Salvo to discover that the great thing about family is everything about family.

Review: I have to say that my feelings for this comedy may come from a low bar being set for it, given De Niro’s comedy choices recently and the “comedians-centric” movies that have always been hit or miss. The film has to fight through its cliches and plot points that are completely predictable but there are some genuine laughs to be had in this movie and enough to elevate it to being a solid watch. Much like Jo Koy’s Easter Sunday, there was something about this movie that just won me over.

Steve’s Blu-Ray Geekouts:

Best Seller – Police detective and successful author Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy) has not been able to write since his wife’s death and owes an overdue manuscript to the publisher. When corporate hitman Cleve (James Woods) proposes his life story as a book, Meechum suspects he is a fraud. However, Cleve has proof of his hits for executive David Madlock (Paul Shenar). While this convinces Meechum, it also endangers his daughter (Allison Balson), whom Madlock kidnaps to stop the story from coming out.

Review: It’s cool that Moviezyng.com hooked me up with this 1987-made action flick as it just celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary and it is a time portal to a different time of movies with very different ideas of a genre star. Yes, James Woods was at his early career peak and Brian Dennehy was in his F/X phase and the action section was filled with great gritty films. Both actors make this Larry Cohen script a hell of a lot of fun and it inadvertently led to Stallone calling director John Flynn to make Lock Up, another action favorite of mine at the time.

City Of Ghosts – Waiting for the heat to cool from a failed U.S. insurance scam, Jimmy (Matt Dillon) grows restless in Bangkok. When he hears rumours that his partner and mentor Marvin has surfaced in Cambodia, he sets off to get his promised cut. What he finds there is a mysterious and hostile environment where even the most polished criminal can end up on deadly ground. The further Jimmy gets in his search for Marvin, the deeper he plunges himself into a predicament from which he may not return.

Review: Matt Dillon’s debut as a writer and director in a feature film makes its debut on Blu-ray and I remember checking it out on DVD when it was originally released twenty years ago. Featuring a solid cast around him with James Caa, Stellan Skarsgard and Natascha McElhone, Dillon tells a pretty well-told story against an exotic and interesting backdrop. The cinematography is the true MVP here, done by Jim Denault, the eye behind Boys Don’t Cry and The Grizzlies.

Diary Of A Hitman – A veteran hitman, Dekker (Forest Whitaker) is ready to call it quits and leave the profession. Dekker’s final job, however, proves to be trickier than expected when the sadistic Zidzyck (Lewis Smith) recruits the assassin to kill his wife, Jain (Sherilyn Fenn), along with the couple’s baby. While Dekker has a change of heart and resolves not to shoot Jain and her child, his decision places all their lives in danger, since Zidzyck has dispatched another killer to perform the task.

Review: Dipping back to an action drama from 1991, this was also a Forest Whitaker blindspot for me, as well as a Sherilyn Fenn one as I’m a huge Twin Peaks fan as well. The film has that early 90s noir grit to it that benefits from having Forest’s gravitas, as well as a solid performance from Sharon Stone, just a year before she hit it big with Basic Instinct. I also like the added Twin Peaks connection of a quick cameo from Jim Belushi.

Television:

Physical: Season 3 (AppleTV+) – Set in the idyllic but fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego, the show is a half-hour dark comedy following Sheila Rubin, a quietly tortured, seemingly dutiful housewife supporting her smart but controversial husband’s bid for state assembly. But behind closed doors, Sheila has her own darkly funny take on life she rarely lets the world see. She’s also battling a complex set of personal demons relating to her self-image; that is until she finds release through the unlikeliest source: the world of aerobics. At first, hooked on the exercise itself, Sheila’s real road to empowerment comes when she discovers a way to merge this newfound passion with the burgeoning technology of videotape to start a revolutionary business. The series tracks her epic journey from a stifled, overlooked enabler to a powerful, confident economic force, as Sheila transforms into someone we take for granted today but was entirely radical at the time- the female lifestyle guru.

Expectations: Rose Byrne is an absolute treasure, especially comedically, but this show loves to dabble on the razor’s edge of dark comedy. That said, I think it still plays to Rose’s dramatic side and her portrayal of Sheila is biting, pragmatic and oh-so awful to herself. This show, in a sea of other shows that seem plucked from other networks, is a crown jewel in quality from AppleTv+ and I think it is the show that is being seriously overlooked on a grand scale. If you love character-centric dramas with a funny bite to them, this is your bag for sure.