hypestyle Reviews

Sixteen Candles (1984)

Reagan Era Coming of Age Film is Decent but Dated Fun

[6/10 · 7 May 2024]

"16 Candles" was one of a bunch of movies that I didn't get to see in the time of their initial release in the 1980s. I was technically underaged. It also ended up being one of quite a few movies which I have subsequently never seen (outside of excerpts) in all the years since.

I finally watched it on Amazon Prime the other day.

Some 40 years later (I was 10 at the time), while I can say that the film is pretty good for the genre, it just doesn't hit me the same way as it might have if I had seen it much earlier. I spent much of the time listening closely to the dialogue and how so many outlandish scenarios were portrayed in a matter-of-fact manner, how many boundaries-are-irrelevant expressions take center stage. (The wise guy younger brother in particular.. wow.. that would not have flown in my household.. or any household I knew, back then, lol.. ) . Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and several other characters look like several kids I eventually went to high school with; it's uncanny. (John Cusack in a smaller supporting role? Wild..)

Written and directed by baby boomer John Hughes, the film's narrative takes place either in far-northern Chicago or its suburbs.

Samantha (Molly Ringwald), a high school sophomore, wakes up on her 16th birthday to a heckling younger brother, oblivious parents, transgressive grandparents and a ditzy older sister whose wedding takes place in less than a week. Once it's clear that nobody has remembered her birthday by the time she leaves home, she feels unduly humiliated: only, there's more humiliation coming, in the form of "The Geek" (Anthony Michael Hall), an obnoxious, lecherous freshman who seems monomaniacally focused on making time with Samantha, even when she openly rejects him. During a class, Samantha tries to pass along a note to a buddy about a guy she likes; but it's intercepted.. by the guy she likes, Jake (Michael Schoeffling, a Matt Dillon lookalike). Only, she doesn't know it. Can the both of them find a way to express their like for one another, despite Jake, a senior, dating the beautiful prom queen Caroline (Haviland Morris)?

A series of loosely connected, lengthy comedic skits take place in which one teen character or another takes center stage with having to endure some form of outrageous misfortune or another. A wild card comic relief element is on glaring display with Gedde Watanabe's portrayal of Chinese exchange student Long Duk Dong (the actor, who was a Utah native, was 28 by the time this film came out in 1984). Long's broken English, racially coded scene entrances (a gong sounds off) and unfettered lust for partying (and the company of cute girls) are the subject of much academic debate about the ethnic stereotyping to be found in this film.

Eventually, by the end, nominal lessons are learned:

The Geek gets to score with the prom queen.. or did he? I still couldn't exactly tell.

The Nice Girl finally gets to spend time with Dream Guy.. though not without enduring galling mayhem from family, Farmer Ted and the rest.

Long's fate being untold is probably for the best; it would not likely have been kind, having wrecked his sponsors' automobile. (Then again, those folks had to have had insurance. So, no worries?)

... And,, finding out that Gedde Watanabe was pushing 30 when he took on this role, and now is pushing 70.. Good lord.. (!!!)

John Hughes would go on to direct several more successful films, but is considered unusually gifted for crafting coming-of-age-themed stories about 1980s teenagers that have become enduring, popular titles.

Viewers who are Generation X may find something to like from a time that they directly remember: Younger viewers may or may not, and they may find some of the scenarios on display problematic in some form.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

The Best World War II Movie of the Year!

[10/10 · 20 April 2024]

Despite having a weird title, "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" is absolutely a great action film. Guy Ritchie is the director. He is known for many action-comedy films with an edgy quality to them.

The main star here is Henry Cavill, who plays a disgraced British soldier (Gus March-Phillipps) who is recruited by Winston Churchill to lead a group of motley mercenaries to sabotage and sink a German-controlled warship which is docked in Cote-D'ivoire (the country was at the time a French colony, but due to France's capitulation, by default Nazi Germany was now in charge there.) His colleagues will include Eiza González as Marjorie Stewart, Alan Ritchson as Anders Lassen, Henry Golding as Freddy Alvarez, Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Henry Hayes and Babs Olusanmokun as Mr. Heron.

Together they all play roles that will hopefully lead to the destruction of the German supply ship. But hijinks of all sorts happen along the way. In particular on the part of Marjorie and Mr. Heron, as they have to basically do deep undercover work at the Nazi naval compound, hopefully gradually sabotaging things along the way just enough for the main muscle to arrive and do the heavy lifting (and shooting).

The script is taut, giving each character something substantive to do or say. There are some surprises along the way including some really nasty Nazi villains. The fight scenes are top notch and very riveting. Action happens during the daytime and at night, but viewers won't be pressed to think about which setting was better executed. No obvious CGI is noticeable by viewers.

The script doesn't waste time with any truly sentimental moments between any characters. It's all about getting the job done. Some viewers may be reminded about Quentin Tarantino's WWII opus "Inglourious Basterds", and they will be right to think about it. But this is still a totally different movie even if it's borrowed some DNA from the previous.

"Ministry" is well worth watching it in the theaters! Good show!

Mea Culpa (2024)

Tepid Potboiler from Tyler Perry Studios

[5/10 · 22 March 2024]

"Mea Culpa" is a feature film written and directed by gospel play auteur-turned-studio mogul Tyler Perry. It is ostensibly a thriller, with a "woman in danger" plot that could have easily been one of many such films as seen on networks like Lifetime. On Lifetime and in most similar films released theatrically in the 80s and 90s, the heroine was usually a white woman: at best, there may be a black friend to talk to, a friendly maid/janitor or sometimes a cop who shows up after the climax, but that's it. Perry, to his credit, creates a story that centers a prosperous black woman but also surrounds her with other black middle class people. Still, the storyline of "Mea Culpa" is no more sophisticated than those that centered white actresses, and there's the rub.

The basic essence of the plot is that Kelly Rowland plays a high powered attorney, Mea, who is going through marital counseling with her anesthesiologist husband. He got fired due to a drug habit, so she's carrying all the household bills. She takes on a high profile defendant in a bizarre murder case: an eccentric painter, Zaire, portrayed by Trevante Rhodes. He insists that he didn't kill a girlfriend after a night of passion, yet plenty of circumstantial evidence says that he did. Despite her skepticism, Mea represents Zaire, but it isn't long before the relationship between the two of them becomes more than professional.

What follows is largely in the realm of erotic thriller, though the legal drama pokes its head out of a hiding place every now and then. Most of the characters here are written extremely broadly, to the point of self-caricature, so the "serious" parts are often unintentionally hilarious; purportedly witty or catty statements meant to be mic-drops come across as brick-drops. Several characters are arbitrarily nasty or egotistical (and, it must be said-- frustratingly dumb), so there will be very few folks to sympathize with in this feature.

The actors, both the known and the lesser-known, do fairly enough with the material that they have to work with. Kelly Rowland was once a victim of Freddy Kruger in her first feature film, but now she's the victim of a so-so script. Still, there's excellent cinematography, giving special attention to the skin tones of the featured actors. In that, at least, the movie is to be lauded, not running away from depictions of romance and/or sex involving darker-skinned characters.

The climax is likely one that won't surprise many viewers, and the execution of it is average, compared to similar films. The denouement also rings a little hollow.

Overall, this is a mildly intriguing enough film for a one-time watch, but, if compared to the director's non-Madea fare, it does offer a slight change of pace.

Madame Web (2024)

Madame Web Weaves Above Average Spider-Story

[6/10 · 18 February 2024]

"Madame Web" is an action movie directed by SJ Clarkson.

A woman-directed super-hero film is not unprecedented (Patty Jenkins directed the "Wonder Woman" feature films, and Cate Shortland directed "Black Widow"). But this may be the first that is expected to introduce not one, but four femme Spider-heroes. As such, characters compete for attention and all come up short in some way. The use of flashbacks (and flash-forwards) as a narrative device also can confound many viewers. Still, the film has a just-barely-cohesive plot if you're already superhero sympathetic. But superhero fatigue-minded viewers may likely grow weary quickly.

The main story involves New York City paramedic Cassandra Webb, who is hinted as having grown up in foster care after her scientist mother died in childbirth in Peru (a flashback scene begins the film, which also serves as a microwave origin for the villain Ezekiel, played by Tahar Rahim). Cassandra's mom was looking for a rare spider in the Amazon rainforest reputed to have healing properties distilled from its venom, but she was betrayed and murdered by Ezekiel.

In the not-quite-present day (the film's main action takes place in 2003), Cassandra is aloof to a wide array of people, with only her paramedic partner Ben and his sister-in-law Mary as confidantes (the identities of Ben and Mary are just-barely concealed but will be obvious to most comics scholars). A near-fatal accident during a rescue seems to activate psychic visions in Cassandra, and in the midst of her bewilderment she crosses paths with three teen girls who are apparently being stalked for mysterious reasons by Ezekiel. (Ezekiel, who has Spider-Man-like abilities, also has psychic visions of the future, and is convinced that the three girls will be "spider-heroes" who will eventually bring about his demise-- thus, he sets out to preemptively kill them). Thus the main conflict in the film involves Cassandra's quest to keep the girls out of harm's way, despite her confusing psychic flashes.

The script was credited to four writers (including the director) which arguably could be said to blame for the not-quite-fully engaging results. Some of the main shortcomings include the villain Ezekiel being something of a cipher (in the decades since killing Cassandra's mom, he apparently became some kind of big deal billionaire, though it's not particularly explained why). Also, the character development of the three teens suffers greatly. They're mainly painted in broad strokes: Sydney Sweeney's Julia is awkward and morose about her stepfamily in the wake of her mother's disappearance, Celeste O'Connor's very rude Mattie feels neglected by her jet-setting rich parents, while Isabele Merced's bookish Anya is apparently living on her own following her father's recent deportation. All three have coded abandonment issues, though the film doesn't particularly explore this, putting more emphasis on running for their life from Ezekiel. Some bright spots among the supporting cast are Adam Scott as Ben and Mike Epps as O'Neil (the latter of whom has an unfortunately smaller role to play in the narrative).

The climax of the film takes place at a fireworks storage warehouse, which conveniently makes for a great place to stage an explosion-filled final act (it also provides the most ostentatious example of product placement in the film. Viewers of vintage superhero cinema may note that in 1978's "Superman" film, Clark Kent's mom casually retrieved a box of Cheerios out of a cupboard; this film's nod to a commercial sponsor is a bit more obvious. Some random plot inconsistencies are glaring as well.

This writer will note that the film is part of the "Sony Spider-Man Universe", technically separate from the "Marvel Cinematic Universe"-- due to the fine print of contracts currently held by Sony Pictures, the filmmakers are attempting to create a Spider-Man-centric sub-franchise with disparate characters, but they aren't allowed to interact with other characters from the Marvel world. Whether the "Spider-Trio" (or is it "Spider-Quad") is going to make for a commercially viable spinoff film is unknown. But this film is at least not-boring enough for an inoffensive afternoon or evening.

Just One of the Guys (1985)

Surprisingly Sweet 1980s Teen Comedy

[8/10 · 16 January 2024]

"Just One of the Guys" is a teen-culture comedy directed by Lisa Gottlieb. Compared to certain genre fare from the decade, "Just One of the Guys" manages to transcend the mostly pedestrian fare that proliferated in the Reagan years. It's in the same absurdist, farcical vein as Better Off Dead and Private Resort. Credited writers Dennis Feldman and Jeff Franklin, in concert with director Gottlieb, create a world that oozes 1980s excess while obliquely paying homage to William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Still, the plot's proto-feminist message is subsumed by the cross-gender hijinks. Just One of the Guys got initially overlooked at the box office compared to the John Hughes high school explorations (16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club) but managed to generate a cult following for Generation X viewers in the early years of cable and home video.

The plot centers Terri Griffith (Joyce Hyser), a high school senior who dreams of being a journalist. The major newspaper in town is offering a summer internship for a local student-but first, a student essay has to be a top finalist as chosen by the schools' English teachers. Unfortunately, Terri's feedback from teacher Mr. Raymaker combines constructive criticism with a dose of condescension. Additionally, Terri is exasperated in dealing with her virginal sex-obsessed younger brother Buddy (Billy Jacoby, a future alumnus of "Parker Lewis Can't Lose") and her entitlement-driven college-student boyfriend, frat-boy Kevin (Leigh McCloskey). Convinced that her essay was rejected purely due to sexism, Terri imagines an extreme tactic to get her essay (about the nutritional values of the school's lunchtime offerings) reconsidered: she decides to secretly enroll at a rival school and pass herself off as a boy.

While there, Terri (newly self-identified as "Terry"-of course) still gets disappointing feedback for her essay-but then she hits on the notion to write about her experiences as a temporary guy and how boys and girls act around her. Among other things, 'Terry' quickly makes an enemy of Greg, the school bully (William Zabka, in a follow-up bully role right after The Karate Kid). Terry also makes friends with the outsider boys at the school, some of whom pass their time speaking fake alien-talk to one another or showing off their pet reptiles. But there's one in particular, Rick (Clayton Rohner), who catches Terry's eye- first as a friend, then as more than a friend. Terry encourages Rick to become more confident in his interactions with the opposite sex and promises to help him get a date for his school's senior prom.

From there, a series of mostly amusing misadventures take place, with Terri juggling her life as Terry at school during the day and in the evening trying to deal with Buddy and Kevin-while wrestling with her growing feelings for Rick. Additionally, a girl classmate starts falling for "Terry", that throws further complication into the mix. (A sequence staged at a campsite is the highlight of this subplot). All of this leads to a climax at Rick's school's beachside senior prom, where everything comes apart.

When analyzing this film, several components to the plot and character development stand out: The filmmakers have created a bubble of ostentatious wealth and social privilege that low-key informs many of the proceedings. Several of these high-school aged characters drive then-contemporary desirable cars. Buddy's Playboy magazine collection (the company is thanked in the credits) is likely of his own acquisition and not his father's secret stash. Several sequences involve one or more of the kids acquiring beer or offering it to one another. (In what may be simply a quirk of the production, the shown beer cans are super-generic). Any adults in the story are exclusively limited to school personnel and are the resident foils for Terri and others. Seemingly, nobody's parents are around for the entirety of the story. For context, Buddy has a series of foul-mouthed exchanges with his and Terry's mother, who is stated to be on a Caribbean vacation with their dad. Above all else, the logistics of Terri's hoax is handled rather matter-of-factly. Of course, this was the 1980s, when it was arguably both harder to forge transfer papers and harder to scrutinize them for veracity.

There are some puzzling creative choices made during the narrative.

For one, several actors present as much older than the story claims. Joyce Hyser was 26 while filming this, and she has dewy enough looks to get away with being a high school senior-but several male actors in the film come across as more 25 - 30 rather than 18. Perhaps it was considered a pragmatic compromise for the production, as the screen actor's guild rules for underaged performers come with a lot of restrictions, but the optics are still glaring, especially for the locker room scenes.

Despite Terri's alleged passion for writing, viewers actually don't see her doing much of it. There's no recurring scene with her at a typewriter or with a pen and paper writing out her thoughts with a voiceover, for example. It's just taken for granted that she's still technically going through all of this to write an in-depth essay. Viewers also get to see a poster of Ernest Hemingway on her wall. An author who has more than his share of criticism regarding allegations of sexism and less-than-fully realized women characters, curiously.

Rick, Terri's budding love interest, is presented as a sensitive, musically-inclined loner- he is shown to be a James Brown obsessionist who collects memorabilia and records from the R&B legend who had by then segued into the nostalgia circuit. But in Terri's conversation with him, he balks at actually showing his musical inclinations, including during the climax where a live band is playing. If viewers were supposed to accept that Rick is this really talented guy (he hedges about college being in his future), it's not really shown.

The other nerdy kids come across as only eccentrics with no underlying depth. Even Napoleon Dynamite might tell these kids to get lost.

The epilogue seemed like it was shoehorned in to fit the run time of the movie. It would have There's a key moment in the climax where Terri reveals her feelings-and more-to Rick. In particular, there's a segment that lasts maybe two seconds in real-time but in the Internet era has been paused, turned into a .gif and uploaded to any number of message boards as discussion fodder and even has an entry such wildly carnal websites as Boobopedia (where the content catalogues-I think you get the idea). The sequence contributed to the legend of the film and apparently was a coming-of-age (or at least, coming of puberty) touchstone for any number of younger male viewers in the 1980s era of HBO repeating a modest backlog of films with sustained frequency. But to call this movie a "sex comedy" would really be a grave mistake. Despite Terri's brief exposure-which is not done for seduction-it and Buddy's centerfolds (his bedroom has them posted all over) is the only genuinely 'racy' content.

That said, this is a film that I could not have seen with my parents, as relatively tame as it is. I wasn't allowed to see rated R films and even PG-13 films like this weren't guaranteed. I also didn't have access to cable TV or a VCR in my primary school years. I'm thinking, pragmatically, I could only have seen this with a peer-aged cousin or an older sibling.

In retrospect, the film juggles a number of teen-centered social issues that still have some currency today. The gender-influenced career role expectations for girls and boys is still an issue. Terri's cross-dressing conceit could be said to obliquely touch on some of the concerns of non-gender conforming and nonbinary folks. Though in this case, Terri's heterosexual feelings are never in question. Even her brother Buddy's desire for sex gets fulfilled by Sandy, who had a crush on "guy Terry" (Sandy's presumed age difference with the younger Buddy is never addressed. Again, a possible "blame it on the 80s" conceit).

Just One of the Guys is worth seeing as a more quality-driven teen comedy of the era compared to the bawdy-for-it's-own-sake Porky's franchise and any number of one-offs like Class, Zapped! And more.

Rustin (2023)

Excellent Movie on a Forgotten Civil Rights Activist

[9/10 · 25 December 2023]

"Rustin", directed by George C Wolfe, is a film about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.

The film does not portray a birth-until-death biography of the man.

Instead, the narrative focuses on the events leading into the 1963 March on Washington.

Bayard Rustin was by the early 1960s a well known social activist in African American social circles. At various points in his life he had participated in and led anti-segregation activities in an assortment of cities as well as a pacifism-based anti-war protest. That Rustin, raised in Pennsylvania by Quaker grandparents, identified as gay was something of an open secret among some, though not all, of his peers, including Dr. Martin Luther King.

When Medgar Evers is assassinated in Mississippi, frustrated African Americans start calling for a mass demonstration to be held in Washington, DC. The plans are nearly scuttled, however, because of the conservatism of some high profile leaders, including Roy Wilkins of the NAACP (portrayed by Chris Rock) and even Dr. King himself (played by Amil Amin). Still, there are others who are convinced that only Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), recently let go by the NAACP, is the only person who can legitimately pull off such an event. So Rustin agrees, as prodded by Ella Baker (Audra McDonald).

As the planning progresses, Bayard finds himself facing the antagonism of Wilkins, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (portrayed by Jeffrey Wright as a narcissist) as well as white establishment figures. In the meanwhile, he even courts longtime friend Tom (Gus Halper) and new friend Rev. Elias (Johnny Ramsey).

The film shows flashbacks to some of Rustin's past activism, which informed his work by the early 60s as a then-middle-aged man who is enthusiastic about reaching out to young people and teaching them what he knows.

The director frames the sequences carefully, never letting a scene go on too long before moving on to the next. There's plenty of jazzy music in the backdrop courtesy of Branford Marsalis. The film shows that the efforts of the civil rights movements of the 1960s were not without internal dissension, fits of ego or sexism, let alone the "homophobia" that was not remotely a mainstream term at the time yet was understood as the "right" stance for many to lend a skeptical eye toward Mr. Rustin, despite his intelligence and capabilities.

The film does not lapse into preachy sentimentality, fortunately, Colman Domingo is an excellent actor in this role. It should be considered highly valuable viewing regarding the civil rights movement, highlighting a man whose efforts lent an enduring legacy.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Aquaman Sequel is a Theme Ride on Film!

[8/10 · 23 December 2023]

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (directed by James Wan) is the third full movie appearance of the superhero as played by actor Jason Momoa. From the cameo in Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice, to the Justice League movie, to 2018's Aquaman, Momoa has been a part of the "DC Extended Universe" for several years now. With this as the reported denouement of this iteration of the DC Comics film franchise, it's going out on a high note of high adventure and joyful absurdity.

The plot, essentially, is this: Sea pirate Black Manta (Yahya Abdul Mateen II, never missing a chance to chew scenery), one of the villains from the previous film, swears revenge on Aquaman and Atlantis. He has kidnapped a scientist (Randall Park, great at comic relief) and forces him to help him find the remnants of a lost underground kingdom, which reportedly has vast technology, including weapons that could be used against the hero. Among the artifacts found is a magic trident which turns out to be cursed. In Manta's hands, the trident gives him visions of the equipment and the supplies to use to antagonize Aquaman. Soon enough, Manta and his pirates have commandeered a cache of wild weapons and vehicles, not to mention a special fuel that turns out to be toxic to the environment. (See? This film has a message! It's not at all mindless! Okay, it is, but in a good way.)

Meanwhile, Aquaman (Arthur to his family) is bored of the bureaucracy of being King of Atlantis. He has a new baby boy with wife Mera (Amber Heard) and is more into being a dad than negotiating tense meetings with the Atlantean tribal council. His boredom is interrupted by Manta's sneak attack, which gravely injures Mera.

The plan to stop Manta means that Aquaman will have to break his estranged brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) out of a desert prison.

This sets up the main thrust of the film, as the Aqua-brothers bicker and battle their way through a series of increasingly wild confrontations, each in a different backdrop- a desert, a jungle, underground caverns, and the Antarctic Sea.

Momoa seems to be having a ball as Aquaman, portraying him as a jovial lunk who never takes himself overly seriously and gets a kick out of fighting his way out of conflicts. Patrick Wilson as Orm is a capable supporting actor, Orm being a kind of straight-man foil for Arthur's zaniness (look for a cringe-inducing joke involving a bug.) Dolph Lundgren, himself a still-standing veteran of action films, is a nice touch as Aquaman's father-in-law. Nicole Kidman is touching as Aquaman's nurturing mom, Atlanna. People with keen ears may recognize Jonathan Rhys-Davies and Martin Short as "hidden" characters as well.

Corporate chair-shuffling at Warner Bros./Discovery in recent years (including the recent installation of James Gunn as the boss of DC Films) has meant that this will be the "last" of the DCEU films-- in other words, no films will be produced involving the actors from previous DC Films playing the same characters. Detractors will say it's about time, supporters will cry foul. But hopefully they'll both agree that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is an enjoyable way to cap off this cycle of the DC Universe.

In the Heat of the Night: My Name Is Hank (1989) Season 3, Episode 9

Christmas Episode for ITHOTN

[6/10 · 3 December 2023]

Hank is a teen whose father was a cop in Sparta before he washed out and joined the military to serve in Vietnam.

The normally mild-mannered Parker is admittedly prejudiced against Hank, based on the former's experience as a GI in Vietnam and hearing stories of capture and torture of US soldiers by Vietcong soldiers.

Hank's citizenship status is ambiguous having never been to the USA until now and his father's death while serving in Vietnam.

Also, Hank is caught up as a witness to a possible robbery while also being alleged to be an accessory to the robbery-- and a murder.

Tibbs and Gillespie have to navigate the legal status of Hank, including being mindful of the open prejudice of Parker and other Sparta locals, and to solve the mystery of who robbed a Sparta store and shot and killed someone while there.

Candy Cane Lane (I) (2023)

Fun Family Christmas Film from Eddie Murphy

[8/10 · 3 December 2023]

"Candy Cane Lane" is a Christmas-themed comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Tracee Ellis Ross. The movie is directed by Reginald Hudlin ("Boomerang", "House Party", "The Black Godfather"). Murphy and Ross play a married couple, the Carvers, whose house in the Los Angeles suburbs is a perennial candidate for their block's Christmas decorations contest. Chris (Murphy) in particular is a Christmas obsessionist, so much so that his children (and, coincidentally, his wife) all have Christmas-themed names and the family's garage is overflowing with Christmas memorabilia throughout the year. As the story begins, Chris is a sales manager freshly laid off just in time for the holiday (an exchange with a supervisor references Chris' alleged oldness by the fact that he uses a rolodex). Wife Carol is looking at a promotion at a distribution services factory. In the midst of the very mixed career news for mom and dad, Chris buys a gaudy, flamboyant lawn-decoration Christmas tree a from a pop-up store run by a chatty manager (an alternately perky and menacing Jillian Bell). Unbeknownst to Chris, Pepper the manager is actually a rogue elf (fired by Santa for being a martinet about the naughty list) who likes to sell enchanted Christmas decorations to unsuspecting desperate people, which enacts a curse: if the hapless victim cannot collect enough golden rings by a deadline, they will turn into a living glass miniature, forever! Like, bummer!

Needless to say, plenty of Christmas shenanigans ensue, all based around The Twelve Days of Christmas song. So, can Chris, Carol, Joy, Nick and Holly round up all the rings, dodge the Christmas dangers, and live to save the holiday (and maybe win the neighborhood decorations contest)?

You'll have to watch to find out! Some other supporting players include some sketch comedy alumni (Chris Redd, Robin Thede, David Alan Grier, Nick Offerman) who get to offer an assortment of quips and jabs during the proceedings.

"Candy Cane Lane" is a perfectly acceptable family-friendly Christmastime film. Murphy and Ross do well as the leads, with a nice rapport between them. Murphy seems to generally rein in his improv instincts and generally sticks to the script by Kelly Younger. In fact, any number of instances where a character is about to curse there's an interjection involving a holiday song, which seems to be a deliberate in-joke about the characters Murphy was known for playing early in his career. Ross, by now a longtime television comedic actress, does well in what could have been a thankless and colorless role. There's plenty of good soundtrack music choices, and the special effects are excellent. Several sequences will find younger kids really entertained.

Check it out, and have fun!

Wham! (2023)

Wham! Gives 1980s Pop Duo Its Due

[8/10 · 9 September 2023]

Wham! Is a documentary film about the 1980s pop duo featuring George Michael and Andrew Ridgely. The documentary is excellent. The conceit to have it be mostly narrated by George and Andrew is a good choice. I suppose since the documentary is exclusively about the Wham years, it doesn't feel a need to go further into the solo career of George or the post-group life of Andrew (which, to me, is too bad, in some respects. Especially since Andrew is alive-- and we all know this-- it would have been good for some type of current coda to be inserted.

Fascinating that the group's first single, and a follow-up, were a nod to hip-hop which was very much in its early stages as a recorded music (the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" only came out in the summer of 1979) but clearly show that it was catching on as a co-genre of contemporary funk/R&B in the U. K.

Great to see the growth of both young men as they experienced this together but both had slightly different takeaways from what was happening in the moment. Nonetheless, they both had a brotherly bond that kept a friendship intact which obviously drove others in showbiz apart that we are well aware of.

I really dug their music, once I became aware of it, circa 1983. "Bad Boys" was the first song, I think that I got to see on a music-video show. I didn't have cable in my household growing up, but local over-the-air TV stations (especially the UHF stations) gradually started having their own music-video shows to compete with MTV. (And in retrospect, many of these locally-programmed shows had a more genre/racially-diverse playlist in comparison).

Regarding Wham's image, I'm not sure if I had much of a takeaway from their wardrobe as it was featured in the videos and television interviews. Rock stars just dressed differently from what I had access to as a working-class elementary school-aged kid in the Midwest. But I had not issue looking with them as "cool". I wasn't high school aged yet, so the politics of what they seemed to represent as a pop act wasn't an issue. R&B was the music of my community so some of what they did was already getting some "reverse crossover" on R&B radio in certain cities, as played by some progressive on-air DJs. R&B-adjacent pop wasn't really looked down upon in urban culture the way that it invited this visceral derision in white, suburban culture.

I'm not sure if I had a reaction to their break-up, or if I was even explicitly aware of it. No Internet back then, Generation Z readers. I just know whenever the Faith album by George was released in 1987, I was happy to hear the new songs, though now as a high school freshman attending Catholic school, I felt a certain nervousness about openly bopping to "I Want Your Sex" if it came on the radio, lol.

At roughly 90 minutes, the documentary wisely doesn't belabor the narrative. Similar to how Wham themselves decided to call it a day before any perception of falling off or falling-out with one another, the director keeps things taut.

Salute to Andrew and George, for all the good music and memories. Bravo!

Gran Turismo (2023)

"Gran Turismo" Dramatizes a Modern Fairy Tale

[8/10 · 6 September 2023]

Gran Turismo is a motion picture about the coming together of three very different men. Millions of dollars are at stake and it all hinges on how well one of them plays a video game. Well, there's more to it than that but it's a good summary of what the pitch must have been.

In essence, the plot concerns the real life Jann Mardenborough, a Black biracial young man in England. His skill at the PlayStation car racing video games brings him to the attention of a Sony Entertainment marketing executive who has convinced Nissan Automobiles to sponsor a Gran Turismo tournament-the winner gets to join a cohort of elite gamers in training to be real-life professional car drivers. This time, it's more than just neighborhood bragging rights at stake. It's the chance of a lifetime.

This writer has no idea about the real Mr. Mardenborough or the rest of the principals in this film. So when it comes to the presented narrative, how much fidelity, if any, it has to the real backstory of this man is unknown. But as a general entertainment story, this is enjoyable. Because of this film's video game connections, possibly some non-gaming viewers will be taken out of the story with the recurring visual nods (starting with a police chase highlighted by "you dodged 'em!" graphics). That said, the more obvious computer-graphics are kept to a minimum, so viewers won't feel like they're watching a Twitch exhibition. (And for those who don't know what Twitch is, ah... carry on). Lead actor Archie Madekwe as gaming savant Jann is believable in his role as a college-aged console enthusiast, gifted but sullen. The rest of his supporting cast do a solid job, though their roles are pretty much thankless. Geri Halliwell, former Spice Girl, is unrecognizable here as Jann's unglamorous housewife mom. The estimable Djimon Honsou plays Jann's father, an ex-soccer pro-turned-railyard laborer. He has much less involvement in the plot than viewers may expect (he shows up to scold, to admonish, and eventually, to support), but he seemed to make the most of the scenes where he has a presence. David Harbour as Jann's coach seems to hit the expected notes as a grizzled, middle-aged former racing veteran with a tragedy in his past. Orlando Bloom is a welcome presence. His corporate hustler character is not villainous but not heroic, either: his ethical dubiousness comes to a zenith when he almost derails Jann's rise in favor of a more telegenic (and, yeah, Caucasian) candidate. Other supporting characters are seen in brief sketches, including the lady-friend and the villainous 'racing bro' on a rival team. The cinematography is excellent, it captures a lot of engaging real-life race-car action. For casual action movie fans and those looking for a general feel-good drama, this movie is well worth checking out.

Roxanne Roxanne (2017)

Average Film about an Above Average Hip Hop Pioneer

[5/10 · 24 July 2023]

"Roxanne Roxanne", directed by Michael Larnell, is a biographical motion picture about the 1980s hip-hop musician Roxanne Shante. Largely a lesser-known lady rapper compared to the crossover stars who followed in her wake (like Salt & Pepa or Queen Latifah), Shante rose to fame in the mid-1980s by recording and releasing an "answer record" to the popular "Roxanne, Roxanne" by rap group UTFO. She built up a reputation as a highly competitive "battle" rapper and released a string of singles and a pair of LPs by the early 90s before slipping into semi-obscurity. In the 2000s, she garnered headlines for reinventing herself as a practicing psychologist and owning a community meeting space. But that positive press was short-lived as follow-up journalism found out that she fabricated all of her degree credentials. Fast forward to 2017 and the now middle-aged Shante has reinvented herself again as an elder stateswoman of hip-hop culture, who gives her blessing to a film biography of her life.

The film starts out In Media Res circa 1984 with a middle-school aged Shante (Taliyah Whitaker) already 'battle rapping' against older teens on the grounds of the Queensbridge housing projects that she and her family live in. Fast forward a couple of years (in movie time) and a fifteen-ish Shante (now played by Chante Adams). Her home life is a wreck: she shares a crowded apartment with two younger sisters and her mom Peggy (a salty Nia Long) drinks too much. Mom is fierce about locking the door after 9 p.m. For security purposes yet casually tells her boyfriend about a stash of cash that's being saved to move to a house of their own. Guess what happens to the money.

Shante loves her family but wants to escape her mom's verbally abusive ways. Already she has been risking her freedom by shoplifting high-end clothes that neighborhood hustlers will buy for pennies on the dollar. She soon pivots to a stint as a low-level drug dealer but that goes south when the dealer buddy whose "spare" apartment she moved into attempts to assault her.

She grudgingly moves back in with her family. A chance encounter with a tenement neighbor (Kevin Phillips as DJ Marley Marl) leads to the UTFO-response record on an independent label, and soon rap history is being made by the newly christened 'Roxanne Shante' (who, according to the film, was all of 16 when much of the film's narrative takes place).

From there, the film follows in the footsteps of certain biopic tropes, including a rocket-like rise to fame, a fall from grace, and then a peek at the beginnings of a comeback. A major part of the fall concerns Shante's relationship with Cross (a smoldering Mahershala Ali), a much-older boyfriend (and drug peddler) who turns out to be an abuser and later, an extortionist. A wildly alarming transaction takes place just before the movie ends, seemingly too soon.

Along the way, a handful of Shante's rap contemporaries have bit parts, specifically Biz Markie, MC Shan and Sparky D. Still, despite the producing pedigree of Forest Whitaker and Pharrell Williams, it seems that little of the period music during Roxanne Shante's heyday was able to be legally cleared for the film. Just a couple of songs by the artist herself are included, and "crate diggers" will note that some aren't necessarily the original versions.

Roxanne Shante is a worthy subject for a film. Certainly the topic of gender diversity in hip-hop is a core tenet here. Casual sexism and misogyny are rightfully villainized. Shante consistently runs up against boys and men who are mostly dismissive, exploitative or abusive. That said, the film never seems to take a step (or several) back and allow her to ponder why this is happening and what is informing her choices. At just barely 100 minutes, the film ends with more questions than answers. Often times, such is the reality of independent features. But the cinematography by Federico Cesca is solid. Director Larnell has other features in his past, and pulls double duties here as writer and director. But there's still something missing and viewers may come out of this thinking that they've only seen part one of a mini series.

Three Arabian Nuts (1951)

Stooges Short with "Aladdin" Gimmick is Amusing

[6/10 · 1 July 2023]

This early 1950s Three Stooges short finds the hapless heroes as deliverymen working for a businessman. The title of the short is a play on words from "Arabian Nights".

Vernon Dent, a frequent Stooges supporting player (appearing in as many as 60 shorts), is Mr. Bradley, the businessman collector who the Stooges are working for. In the middle of the usual slapstick and physical comedy hijinks, Shemp discovers a simple oil lamp and decides to rub it: A genie is produced in an explosion of smoke (Wesley Bly). Meanwhile, two suspicious men of purported Middle Eastern descent (Dick Curtis and Philip Van Zandt) are searching for the magic lamp themselves.

More crazy calamities ensue as the villains stalk the Stooges and the genie-- named Amos-- is occasionally used by each of the Stooges to conjure random fortune-- or misfortune.

Moe, Larry and Shemp are largely in fine form, and handle this adventure with aplomb. It would likely have had a differing context with Curley Howard in the mix, but health problems derailed his tenure in the Stooges a few years before this was produced.

The simple plot is easy enough to follow. The stunt gags are mostly funny.

Sidebar: Oklahoma native Wesley Bly (1909 - 1959), who played the genie, had a mostly uncredited career in Hollywood, mostly playing the "typical" roles relegated for Black Americans at that time (tribal African, nightclub attendant, hotel valet).

Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

Humor-Driven Entry for the Batman Animated Legacy

[7/10 · 25 June 2023]

"Batman and Harley Quinn" is an animated film produced by Warner Bros. Studios. The film is directed by Sam Liu, with a screenplay credited to Bruce Timm and Jim Krieg. Timm and Liu, in particular, have achieved a certain legendary status among animation/comic-book fans for their adaptations of Batman and related characters in animated series and (usually) straght-to-video films.

Several voice alumni from the pioneering 1990s "Batman: The Animated Series" have roles in this production. For starters, iconic animated Batman actor Kevin Conroy reprises his role as the Caped Crusader. Batman's former teen sidekick is now a grownup called Nightwing and he is voiced by 90s Robin voice actor Loren Lester. But the co-star who gets top billing here is Harley Quinn-- voiced by Melissa Rauch ("The Big Bang Theory", 2022's "Night Court" reboot.)

Traditionally, Harley Quinn is an adversary of Batman, and began as a sidekick of the Joker. The plot of this film bypasses any references to the Clown Prince of Crime. Instead, the main antagonists of this story are the botanist-turned-eco-terrorist Poison Ivy (Paget Brewster, "Criminal Minds") and the obtusely named Floronic Man (modern voiceover legend Kevin Michael Richardson). Ivy and the Floronic Man steal plans for a formula that, theoretically, could forcefully mutate all of humanity into human/plant hybrids. Batman and Nightwing are soon on the case, but they grudgingly need help from one of Ivy's former partners.

Enter Harley Quinn.

Quinn, recently paroled and eking out a living as a waitress in what can only be described as a "Hooters" for lady superheroes, wants nothing to do with helping out do-gooders like Batman and Nightwing (though she does consider the latter to be kind of cute, which leads to a starkly different sort of interaction than viewers may be expecting).

What proceeds for the rest of this 74-minute adventure is a series of shenanigans where Harley's madcap volatility threatens to derail the investigation, and thus, hasten the possible end of humanity via the mass mutation plot of their arboreal adversaries.

There's a certain degree of pathos that appears very late in the feature, having to do with Quinn's partnership with Ivy that possibly became more than friendship. But viewers who are not steeped in "Harley lore" of select episodes of "Batman the Animated Series", the comics based on that production or the social-media abetted "head canon" of fan-driven conversations about the characters that have taken place for the past 30 years may miss out on what the filmmakers are hinting at. Also, the film ends rather abruptly-- stick around for the end credits-- and that may lead some viewers to feel a little cheated.

This Batman adventure is a lot more driven by humorous asides compared to other entries helmed by Timm, et al. A distinctly adult audience for superhero-derived stories was cultivated from the 1970s forward, and at one point the live action films were considered the default of what could be facilitated for said adult audience. No longer. For this animated feature, expect some potty humor as well as vaguely rated-R dialogue and scenes. This isn't a version of Batman for 10-year olds.

Much ado has been made on whether this particular Batman adventure is "canon" to any specific TV series or movie series, but that should be neither here nor there. On it's own, this works as a humorous one-shot entry. Ironically, the mildly provocative content of this feature arguably paved the way for the very recent "Harley Quinn Animated Series".

The Flash (I) (2023)

Flash: Savior of the Universe? Generation X and Z Superheroes Team Up!

[8/10 · 18 June 2023]

Ezra Miller plays Barry Allen, better known as The Flash, a decades-old superhero appearing in DC Comics. The concept of the fast-moving character goes back to the early 1940s, but the Barry Allen update premiered in 1958. This movie version was directed by Andy Muschietti and official screenplay credit goes to Christina Hodson. (Story credit is shared with John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Joby Harold.)

The filmmakers here have created a compelling science-fantasy story, dealing with themes of childhood trauma, personal loss, the desire to change the past, rekindling lost friendships and whether fate and destiny are real things.

In this story, Barry Allen's story picks up where it left off in the much-maligned Justice League film (directed by Zach Snyder and Joss Whedon). Barry works as a forensic chemist for Central City's police department. He's considered lazy by his boss and weird by his friends. Meanwhile, he constantly hopes to find some kind of evidence that exonerates his incarcerated father, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his mother when Barry was a child. The Flash is a local celebrity with adoring fans, wanting to take photos.

A crisis phone call from Batman's butler Afred alerts Barry to a bomb that went off in Gotham City that has endangered a hospital. Barry then zips from Central City to Gotham in record time and begins an impromptu rescue of all the endangered civilians. (The centerpiece of this is when babies and a nurse fall from an upper floor, and the Flash-- who it must be said, tends to see everything around him in super-slow motion as he's running-- saves them in an absurdly creative fashion.)

After a confab with other Justice League members, Flash reminisces about his mom, and is thinking about his dad's parole hearing which is takes place in days. He tries out a power stunt that allows him to travel back in time to various points in his memory. After explaining this to a skeptical Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), he goes ahead with a plan to travel back to the hours before his mother's murder, and changes a tiny detail of her day just enough that her murder never happens.

Problem solved? No. When Barry returns to his parents house, he finds out that his 18-year-old self still exists, and that the Kryptonian super-villains from the "Man of Steel" film are poised to declare war on Earth-- but Superman is not here on this Earth.

An accident swaps Flash's powers into Teen Barry, and this prompts "Barry Prime" (confused yet?) to conscript his teen self into a plan to reboot the Justice League, for the first time. Seems like the events that lead the other members to exist mostly haven't happened, and so the last missing member on the list is Batman. But this Batman isn't Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne-- it's Michael Keaton's version. (This is Keaton's first time as Batman since 1992. A sidebar is shared on his Gotham City being a fairly crime-free city for some time. This Batman has been a retired hermit for years.)

After listening to the tale of woe from the lookalikes, Keaton's Batman agrees to help find the "Super-person" who can help against General Zod (a returning Michael Shannon) and the invading Kryptonians. The tenuous trio end up finding Sasha Calle's Kara Zor-El instead of Henry Cavill's Clark Kent. As such, Supergirl becomes the final member of this ad-hoc Justice League, poised to take on a crew of ruthless villains.

Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton are in top form as different versions of Batman, a co-character that is a key component to enjoying this film. Ezra Miller is competent and empathetic as the put-upon Barry Allen, and viewers at first may direct most of that sympathy at "Barry Prime", while "Teen Barry" is portrayed mostly as an obnoxious slacker that's kind of hard to like at first.

A fleeting romance with journalist Iris West (Kiersey Clemons, having a thankless role) is only given surface-level attention, and that's unfortunate. The climax of this film is a dizzying nonstop series of special-effects driven stunts and confrontations, which may take a lot of viewers out of the action, but it is handled with colorful cinematography by Henry Braham.

Comic book fans, especially the DC Comics faithful, will likely not be disappointed by the long-in-development film. For die-hard comics-cinema folks, lots of "easter eggs" (cameos and other subtle nods to persons or topics of interest) are featured as well.

Much ado has been made about the years-long development of this film, the corporate chair-shifting at Warner Brothers Studios (especially after its merger with Discovery Communications), the mixed box-office results of recent DC Comics-based films and the legal challenges of the lead actor. Whether any of this informs the box office of "The Flash" is unknown, but as a standalone film, "The Flash" is worthy of checking out.

Termites of 1938 (1938)

Mild, mostly inoffensive Stooges Short

[4/10 · 13 May 2023]

Moe Larry and Curly get hired as escorts (back when this was an extremely mainstream sort of service, to be VERY clear) for a wealthy New York City society woman. What makes the comedy in this story is that Moe, Larry and Curly are bumbling pest exterminators. They were mistakenly called by the rich woman's maid (the underrated Etta McDaniel, sister of Oscar-winner Hattie). In a bit of retroactively embarrassing character stereotyping, the maid accidentally misreads her boss saying she wants to contact Acme Escort Service "and I hope they're discriminating" as "Acme... Exterminators" as 'the closest thing'..

With that sidebar aside, the dinner party has plenty of hijinks for the guys to get into. They mess up the dinner component of dinner, then they engage in shenanigans when it's time for a little musical entertainment, then they actually start wreaking mayhem inside the home when they decide it's time to get down to the business of finding termites!

This is a milder Three Stooges adventure. Not their worst of the Curly era, but not the strongest, either.

Konga (1961)

Just Okay Angry Ape Movie

[4/10 · 19 March 2023]

This movie is just okay. The main appeal is for the curious, as British actor Michael Gough (pronounced like 'cough') plays a bitter college professor and botany researcher. During a colonialism-driven trip to somewhere in Africa (Uganda is mentioned as his crash landing area) , the professor claims to have been taught advanced science by the natives. The professor comes back to London to teach, but also is obsessed with proving that his exotic plant species can be manipulated for..;. Manipulating purposes, as well as to influence animals and humans. A serum derived from the plants is applied to his pet chimpanzee, and miraculously grows to the size of a full gorilla-- a completely different species, of course, not that early 1960s audiences would care. From that point on, the professor promises his assistant/girlfriend that he will marry her, but she must keep the secret of using Konga the chimp/gorilla as his personal assassin, sending the ape after anyone who angers him.

The professor's plot thickens as he keeps secretly sending Konga after anyone who is perceived to be a threat. This leads into a climax involving a sultry college co-ed, and the professor's actions-- and that of his secretary-- send Konga on a path of literal growth and a path of mass destruction.

The special effects are extremely B-movie basic here. The acting by the actors is capable, though the material is extremely thin and borderline boring, not making much sense in the 21st century, in many respects.

Sidebar: "footage" of the professor's time in Africa is shown, which is stock footage of documentaries made about indigenous communities in African and Pacific ocean societies.

The Menu (2022)

Excellent but Ghastly Allegory on Class Conflict via Food

[8/10 · 22 January 2023]

"The Menu" is a dark satire and a murder mystery of sorts. However, the mystery isn't so much "whodunit" as it is "whydunit".

The film begins with a cohort of strangers being picked up by yacht to a privately owned island, possibly somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Margot and Tyler (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, a pair of "X-Men" film alumni, interestingly) are a couple whose tension with one another is the major lens by which audiences are exposed to the dinner - entertainment of Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). Presented to One Percenters at the cost of $1,250 per person, and elaborate to the point of pretentiousness, Chef Slowik's dinners are considered beyond exclusive: it's unclear just how every participant got their invite, but most are glib about it. Among the varied guests at the dinner are a weathered, semi-estranged married couple (Judith Light plays the wife), a "rock star" restaurant critic, three tech-industry executives and a B-list actor (an engaging John Leguizamo).

Tyler is a foodie fanboy of indeterminate career (but apparent wealth) who openly gushes like an uninvited narrator at every part of the presentation, early on. Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) is nonchalant at all of the excess, and her aloofness makes her the target of Slowik's attention.

Slowik's reputation is that of a restaurant Rembrandt, serving micro-masterpieces of food to elitist clientele. Slowik challenges his guests to "taste" and deeply analyze their food, and not to simply "eat" it. Descriptions by Slowik, Tyler or a staffer go into egregious detail on how the food being served is carefully sourced and prepared. Fiennes portrayal of Slowik plays into this conceit, as his command of the kitchen staff is clearly authoritarian, with a disturbing undercurrent.

The courses of the meal are presented in a theatrical manner, and Slowik's top lieutenant is the polite-but-likely-seething-underneath hostess Elsa (Hong Chau). Initially only the food critic Lillian (Janet McTeer), her editor, and obsessive fan Tyler are the only ones who are literally eating up the mostly scanty food that is served. As the nervousness and incredulousness ratchets up among most of the other guests, someone in the room dies-- and that begins the downward spiral of the mystery of why it happened and just why nearly everyone among the guests is potentially the next to go.

A sequence in the third act somewhat (barely) illuminates the backstory of Slowik. Some exposition by Slowik himself gives further hints, though he seems to give contradictory information as well. In short, it seems that he came from humble beginnings as a working-class diner cook to being a wunderkind of the restaurant industry, Michelin stars and all. At some point along the way he was apparently embittered and disillusioned by problems both real and imagined (embodied by several of the guests), and somehow turned to staging murders of people at his dinners as an abstract form of revenge.

The final five minutes of the film leaves more questions than answers. Still, while the final survivor of this torrid affair is not surprising, though the execution (pun intended) will be very surprising to those expecting a more traditional horror-suspense film. The film will stimulate discussion about the contemporary service industry, the internal politics of restaurants and the frequently contentious state of pre-and-post pandemic customer service relations in these businesses.

Knight Rider: Just My Bill (1982) Season 1, Episode 6

Generally Average Michael and Kitt Adventure

[5/10 · 20 April 2022]

"Just my Bill" is the sixth episode of the first season for Knight Rider.

Veteran television/film actress Carole Cook guests as a state legislature senator (non-partisan identified) who opposes oil development that marginalizes local residents in a sparsely populated area. Her wittiness is a treat in this occasionally boring episode involving a political struggle

Michael Knight's job is to protect her, as a wealthy businessman in concert with a rival senator manipulates events to rig the vote in his favor of unchecked oil development.

The episode is mostly mundane except for the climax, which starts off with a car chase, but then finds Michael and Kitt matching wits with a helicopter occupied by a henchman firing mortar rockets. That part, at least, is rather exciting to watch.

Not an offensive episode, but it wouldn't be in the top 20 of overall episodes, either. Seems as if the producers were still feeling things out for how the adventures would proceed, including budgetary concerns on stunts, etc.

Wonder Woman: Hot Wheels (1978) Season 3, Episode 2

Wonder Woman Wallops a Car Theft Ring

[5/10 · 10 April 2022]

"Hot Wheels" is an episode of the third and final season of the Wonder Woman television series. The basics of the plot involves IADC agent Diana Prince supervising the delivery of a Rolls Royce automobile at a Los Angeles-area shipping port. The IADC isn't in the business of reselling luxury cars, however. Inside the hood ornament is a microfilm that contains plans for a missile system for a foreign power (Soviet Union? China? It's never specified). When the appropriately large-sized shipping crate is opened, however, a miniature, motorized replica is revealed. Somehow, the Rolls Royce has been stolen.

The microfilm was sent by the IADC's foreign bureau, but somehow information on the Rolls was intercepted by a criminal who runs a black market car sales ring, with a car wash as its front. Wonder Woman's initial trailing of the Rolls is interrupted by a Los Angeles police officer, Inspector Bolt (Peter Brown). Introduced as being nominally sexist (referring to Wonder Woman and Diana as the "two females" who ruined his bust), he is forced by Steve Trevor to partner with Diana on solving the twin cases: that of the missing Rolls Royce and the microfilm hidden inside the ornament.

Eventually, some spy work reveals that the crime boss behind the heist is Otis Fiskle. He's played by Lance LeGault, who had a journeyman's career in supporting roles in B-movies before becoming a veteran day-player in episodic dramatic television of the 1970s and 80s (Magnum P. I., Rockford Files, Airwolf); he's arguably best known as Colonel Decker in "The A-Team".

Fiskle's team is largely bungling, thus making them more susceptible to an undercover guise for Bolt and Diana as would-be buyers of off-market luxury cars. The undercover play has random hits and misses, leading at one point to a rooftop tumble for Diana's alpha-male foil Inspector Bolt and a curious damsel-in-distress moment for herself, bound and gagged in the back of a getaway vehicle. (Scholars of the Wonder Woman comics will note that being tied up/shackled by a man was a special weakness of the heroine; it's unclear if the script writers were trying to be mindful of canon or if they simply felt it was a quicker way to move the plot along. We can sidestep the psychological explorations of bondage/S&M scenarios in vintage Wonder Woman comics for another day.)

Another sidebar that bears mentioning: one of Fiskle's henchmen is a Black car-wash employee. He's tasked with following Bolt when Fiskle gets suspicious of him. Bolt makes a passing remark to Diana about "a shadow" following him when he meets Diana for a debriefing. "Shadow" becomes Bolt's nickname for the man for the rest of the episode. Indeed, when one looks at the IMDB page, it's also the character's name, oddly enough. For some viewers, the double-entendre is obvious. For the uninitiated "shadow" was one of many belittling slurs toward African-Americans for decades. Given that this was produced in 1978, non-PC sensibilities of the era notwithstanding, it's more than a little cringe-inducing, in retrospect. That said, there is also a Black dentist in the story (unethical, turns out), but he is at least spared such coded references. He was played by Don Mitchell, a veteran of episodic television best known for his role as a cop in the "Ironside" series.

The climax is at an abandoned camping shack near a lake on a lonely country road.

Overall, this episode is fairly okay. Nothing really stands out about it. There's not much violence, and neither Diana nor Wonder Woman find themselves in any "sexy" situations. The tension between Bolt and Diana is supposed to drive the narrative but the actor playing him is a little flat sometimes. LeGault as Fiskle is a joy to watch chew scenery. Not among the top 10 episodes of the series.

Mother/Android (2021)

Moretz and Smith Anchor a Terminator-Lite Film

[5/10 · 4 March 2022]

Mother/Android is a science fiction drama, written and directed by Mattson Tomlin, and produced by "The Batman" director Matt Reeves.

Overall, this film has some scenes in it which show promise in the film's concepts, but outside of the comely lead actress, there's not much in the way of enduring appeal to be had here. Mother/Android operates as if it were working with an unused script for a "Terminator" sequel.

Chloe Grace Moretz and Algee Smith play young adult lovers whose unexpected pregnancy is only a mild shocker during a get-together with friends in a suburban Massachusetts enclave. Turns out, some of the people hanging out with them are.. well.. robots. Not just any robots, though. Murderous robots. Not just at the couple's house, either. Pretty much everyone's house everywhere has the same meltdown-having androids, who are trying to kill any human in sight.

Fast-forward roughly eight-months later, and apparently the entirety of American society is reeling from the robot revolution, to the point where humans are reduced to having razor-wire-fencing buffeted encampments, mostly occupied by militias with elaborate security protocols and hostile attitudes toward even fellow humans, let alone the human-resembling androids.

Algee Smith as Sam functions as a well-meaning failure of a boyfriend throughout the film. Nearly every choice he makes has disastrous consequences, even in the midst of the brain-frying madness that surrounds them. In some sense, this non-genius everyman approach makes a kind of sense: clearly, Sam isn't set up to be John Conner (of the "Terminator" franchise, from which this film rather casually lifts much of its topical DNA).

Moretz's Georgia has a lot more emotional lifting to do throughout the film, and she handles things fairly well. But the script often leaves her to say rote things, and her about-to-go-into-labor status for over half the film limits what her character can physically do in a science fiction film of this sort. Most of the action is happening AROUND her, as she literally stumbles, skulks and wheelchairs herself about.

Raul Castillo is Arthur, a sympathetic survivor who may be more than he seems. Other supporting characters are negligible in the film. The core conceit of why all of the USA's robots decided to break bad isn't explained: similar to The Walking Dead's zombie plague, it's just a matter-of-fact reality that the humans have to deal with, with no clear-cut path to unplugging them all. A subplot about Korea being a robot-free sanctuary is dangled like a carrot for the protagonists, but similarly not rationalized.

The provocative premise of the film is promising, but there's very little payoff. By the end of the film many viewers will be led to assume that this was meant as the first part of a continued saga that was unearned.

The action scenes are generally competent, though some of the CGI effects are dull. The actors range from okay to decently compelling but that's it.

No Exit (I) (2022)

Dennis Haysbert Elevates this B Movie Thriller

[5/10 · 4 March 2022]

"No Exit" is a suspense film, directed by Damien Power. Havana Rose Liu plays Darby, the heroine. It's a film that presents itself as a taut thriller, but there are shortcomings that push the boundaries of tolerance.

As the film opens, Darby is in group therapy at a substance abuse rehabilitation facility in Sacramento. An unexpected phone call about her mother falling gravely ill prompts Darby to attempt to escape. Despite having a hotwired car, it's still at least an eight-hour drive to her mother's location of Salt Lake City. One more thing. A blizzard has hit town.

Thus begins Darby's descent into a frightening tableau. A county sheriff's deputy detours Darby to a lonely highway rest stop. If viewers now begin to ruminate on the bad things that happen at rest stops in the movies, they'd be right. Viewers are introduced to the handsome Ash (Danny Ramirez), twitchy, snappy Lars (David Rysdahl), retired nurse Sandi (Dale Dickey) and her husband Ed (Dennis Haysbert), a retired Marine. Nobody's going anywhere anytime soon, and the snowstorm conveniently stifles any reception for cell phones.

Lack of reception is the least of Darby's problems, however. While standing next to a van, she discovers a young girl (Mila Harris), who is tied up inside and clearly has been kidnapped. But by whom, and why?

Surprisingly, one of the travelers' treacherousness stands revealed earlier than viewers might expect, but that's not the only twist. Darby, still reeling from her aborted rehab and emotional turmoil, is expected to use her smarts to outwit the problem, but viewers will see things telegraphed to them before they dawn on her.

Dennis Haysbert's Ed is all stentorian calm, and easily does the best with the thin material here. The other actors here aren't really in his league but mostly do a passable job.

The adapted script by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari keeps the events of the plot in almost one setting, which is to the film's detriment, despite the brisk pacing. There's not much room for cat-and-mouse tension when both creatures share one room. As such, the film seems to have key characters make ill-informed choices throughout, which may pad out the narrative but makes for little in-story sense. The final third of the film becomes rather surprisingly brutal, to the point of gratuitousness.

The lead actress's Asian-American ethnicity is not mentioned in the story, which is arguably a progressive move. Nonetheless, given recurring U. S. headlines about attacks against people who look like Ms. Liu, there is an uncomfortable "ripped from the headlines" connotation to the proceedings once the violence is underway.

Hulu categorizes this film as "horror", which is not quite accurate. Overall, this film is a more egregiously violent Lifetime feature. There is a "final girl" arc to Liu's character, but her traumas leading into the main conflict are given a kind of short shrift. That said, Darby's drug problem does find an unexpected way into the climax. Overall, this story is okay but not overly compelling.

Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (1987 TV Movie)

Kenny Rogers & Bruce Boxleitner in a Good Western

[7/10 · 20 February 2022]

Kenny Rogers plays Brady Hawkes and Bruce Boxleitner plays his partner, Billy Montana.

This film takes the Gambler character into territory of historical fiction, as his cowboy hero interacts with real life characters like Indigenous Lakota chief Sitting Bull, Wild Bill Hickock, and South Dakota territory US government agents.

A (presumably fictional) US Senator is a key figure in attempting to secure Indian lands that will eventually lead to a prosperous railroad that is tentatively planned by private enterprise. The senator and a few others are actively plotting to cheat the Sioux people of their tribal lands, while a US Army general (George Kennedy) is a bureaucrat who is a top level administrator.

There are lots of twists and turns in this film. Rogers as Hawkes is convincing, something of a low-key hero. The set design and direction are all top notch. For this to be a television movie, it's very well put together. Viewers will get to see lots of impressive scenery and Western-inspired landscapes. All the supporting actors are very good. This film goes into uncomfortable territory as it deals with the real life land conflicts involving the Sioux, white colonizers and the U. S. government. Hawkes finds himself as an uncomfortable middle-man, but still trying to find a pathway for some kind of justice in the face of brazen manipulation that would see the Lakota people wiped out.

This film is a good showcase for Kenny Rogers. The producers don't try to reinvent the wagon wheel here. Rogers and Boxleitner play well off one another. The Gambler films arguably started off as a vanity project for Rogers, with a built-in television audience from his country music fans. In a pre-cable and streaming era, these films brought in substantive ratings.

Overall, this is a family friendly adventure, with not too much violence. There's a message about racial tolerance as well.

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: Fear Itself (1996) Season 4, Episode 25

Denise Crosby Guests on HIV allegory

[7/10 · 11 February 2022]

This episode features an artist, Isabelle, portrayed by Denise Crosby ("Lt. Yar" on Star Trek the Next Generation).

The artist is a woman who unfortunately contracted leprosy at some point. She disguises it by wearing long dresses and long gloves. Once the news gets out on her condition, the townsfolk panic and want to run her out of town. A pregnant Dr. Mike is torn between her inclinations for tolerance and helping out Isabelle and being mindful of her pregnancy and the moblike intolerance of the residence of Colorado Springs.

Crosby was several years removed from her stint on Star Trek TNG and plays Isabelle as someone who is resigned to not simply hide away from society despite her condition and the reactionary scorn it invites.

This is a pretty good episode, which also functions as a kind of AIDS/HIV allegory for the 19th century.

Kojak (1973–1978)

Revered 1970s Detective Series is Savalas' Signature Role

[7/10 · 2 January 2022]

Telly Savalas portrayed New York City (Manhattan) detective Theo Kojak in this highly rated and revered television series that aired Sunday nights on the CBS network.

Savalas was all in as a world weary, passionate detective Kojak. Kojak was gruff and sardonic but competent and dedicated to solving the case and advocating for victims.

Kojak's supporting cast included his captain as well as junior detectives.

Of particular note is Savalas' real life brother who plays portly detective Stavros.

The cases that Kojak got involved in ran the gamut from murder to theft to blackmail, narcotics and more. Kojak was a police officer but often had the approach of a gumshoe from the film nor 1940s or 50s.

Savalas wielded influence to subtly incorporate elements of Greek-American culture into the show, showing an American ethnic cohort that scarcely ever had seen showcase beyond the comedic or satiric.

The show ended its run in 1978 and has been seen in syndication ever since.