The Doorman - Die Hard with Girl Power and a Norwegian Knock Off Bill Burr

*Blog post started on October 27, 2020.

My prior vacation day, I felt I was clinging to my past. This most recent one(s), old is how I feel.

With a three-day weekend, I think I got a lot accomplished. There is a new tattoo. Peoria bars were fun with genuine interactions, and I made it to more of them than usual. I paid my respect to Stacia Marie Hardin and discovered a cool block of shops in Pekin. Who would not call the last Co Op records in the Heart of Illinois being located by a thrift shop and a used bookstore operated by TAPS No Kill Shelter (featuring kittens and a polydactyl cats) a little slice of heaven in a town whose mascot was once the Chink? To the town's credit, the appropriation of the dragon into their municipal logos is cool.

I spent time with my folks with only the hourly mention of Hunter Biden's emails. Perhaps I should have spent the night and watch the Michigan State game, but a day where I did not leave my apartment and caught a lot of Pokemon was good (It was "Pokemon Let's Go Eevee". Perhaps the games are becoming to expansive. 20 hours of story is all you really need.). Sunday I was back at the retailer, but with a Redbox $0.75 off coupon and groceries to grab. With NinetyForChill.com back in working order, a review of "The Doorman" at 1 hour 37 minutes would be perfect content. Too bad I called it an early night. Catching up with the G1 Climax finals led to me being exhausted. This obviously felt odd since I did nothing extraneous on Saturday.

Since I will end up at some point putting out an abridged version of this post, let me fill up some space.  Thanks Redbox for the reasonable Blu-ray rental price and the inflated DVD rental fees. We as a society need to rid ourselves of standard def. Screw those who hate change. There is a good chance they will further ruin the country in a week. Let me have this.

Did I over exert myself taking a chest freezer out to a customer's car? Was the replacement air fryer too much work to move as I nearly lost it when I walked into a security pylon? The amount groceries I took home was less than usual.

This left me with a dilemma. I had a movie to watch and I would not be back from the bank until 6:15 pm. There was still dinner to make. So apologies for rushing through about five minutes of this Ruby Rose feature. The feeling of victory getting it back to an appropriate vending machine with 10 minutes to spare warrants this action. And it at least gave me some good vibes from this film.

The Doorman

Ali Gorski has recently been honorably discharged from the Marines. She has returned to New York City with a Silver Star and PTSD after she was the sole survivor of a terrorist attack on the ambassador to Romania's motorcade. This may make it difficult to find employment, but fortunately, her Vietnam veteran uncle, Pat, has an in for her at the high end apartment complex where he is serves as the maintenance man. Unbeknownst to her, her late sister's family lives in the building. Her brother-in-law, Prof. John Stanton, is a pretentious Brit who holds himself responsible for the past strife between his wife and Ali and her subsequent leaving to join the military to begin with.

The building has been around since Prohibition, so it is currently undergoing renovation. It is about to kick off in full force, but the Stanton's have arranged to stay in over the Easter weekend before waiting out the updates in London. As for the other residents, only the nice elderly couple that have been living on the ground floor will be staying through out it.

The husband is a stroke survivor who does not like change (I wish I could get the names of these characters, but it appears both these performers chose to forgo being credited.). No one knows that this man has smuggled out priceless painting from East Berlin who has hid them in their original apartment that now belongs to the Stantons. No one except the other doorman, Borz, and his true employer, Victor Dubois.

A serendipitous mint sauce spill leads to Ali going to visit this couple to see if they had any leftover sauce to borrow. This means Ali is not present when her family has been taken by Dubois and his crew. Seeing that the elder's apartment had been raided and the couple murdered, Ali will use her particular set of skills to takedown these ruthless thieves and save the only family she has left.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. It is disappointing that "The Doorman" is the first leading role that Ruby Rose has had on film since she broke out with "Orange Is the New Black", but what makes this project even worse is that it was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Kitamura is the director who put one of my favorite goregasmic sequences on film in "The Midnight Meat Train" and helmed the innovative Yakuza zombie film "Versus". On the upside you get a chatty Jean Reno as a villain, but his French charms cannot polish the dialogue enough.

And recalling "Meat Train", are you telling me that there was not a spot for Vinnie Jones in this cast? "The Big Ugly" was good, but definitely not something you would release at an AMC. He is definitely an expense I think this film could have afforded. I am not asking him to be the lead, but set this flick in London and make this about an ex-sergeant in the royal army, you have a lot more talent in terms of action to pull from. It would be better than Aksel Hennie trying to impersonate Bill Burr from "The Mandalorian".

Could Rose not pull off an English accent? Her American is really solid.

The premise of a female-lead "Die Hard" has legs, but since I immediately went into how this project could have been saved, the misses make this film seem like it was directed by an Imperial stormtrooper. 

There is only one scene with any amusing dialogue. The close quarter action sequences are shot horribly. It does not help that our villains cannot die with any believability in there death throws. Any kind of exterior makes it seem like Tommy Wiseau was in Kitamura's ear. I am just hoping this was a rush job in terms of direction or something was lost in translation from the script. Any action sequence outside the finale is choreographed well enough, but it feels like your brain is squinting to catch that.

It is starting to seem that I should start comparing the quality of my script for "Main Event of the Dead" a no/low budget, zombie-themed pro-wrestling movie I am trying to produce to the bad movie that I am reviewing. For inquiries on helping me out with this production or to obtain an updated treatment of the script, email russthebus07@gmail.com. I had copyrighted the first version of my script, and it needs some polishing, but I am confident saying that it is better than "The Doorman".

"The Doorman" is a painful miss on many levels. After "John Wick: Chapter 2", I want to see Ruby Rose as the next action heroine (Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron may only have a decade left in terms of spryness.). When you see Jean Reno on the poster, you expect a clever action flick. It is one thing to not deliver on either of those, but when you fail to present something watchable with those elements, that is damn near criminal, especially from a director whose prime may only be a decade ago.

CineMaterial.com - The Doorman (2020)

 

 

90-min. Stallone - "Escape Plan 2: Hades" - Why Not Knock Off "Tron: Legacy"?

*Blog post started on August 13, 2020.

There are of course the blog posts that I need to all have prepared before my vacation. Because I got to justify my Netflix DVD subscription, my most recent disc had to get back to Carol Stream before the next billing period. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" is next up which is good because I got to slow down my output for NinetyForChill.com. But until we get to the way I should be handling my Terry Gilliam collection (To my credit, my copies of "Brazil" and "12 Monkeys" were both purchased at heavily discounted prices.), we must tread through another post 2015 action movie starring Sylvester Stallone.

"Escape Plan" was an amusing enough movie that may have taken itself a little too seriously. With two sequels being shot back-to-back, one would suspect any other franchise to be taking itself way too seriously. Fortunately, when you realize these flicks are solely for the Chinese mainland (Free Hong Kong!), it is easy enough to relax and enjoy "Escape Plan 2: Hades" for the braid dead trash that I hoped "Rambo: Last Blood" would have been.

Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018, 1 hour 36 minutes)

Breslin Security has expanded from prison breaks to encompass rescue missions. With Ray Breslin tired of doing the physical work required in testing the effectiveness of prison security, Shu serves as his top agent. Unfortunately, the last bout with terrorists only allowed for half the assets to make it back home. If fellow agent Kimbral had skipped trying to further promote Breslin by blowing up the terrorists' weapons cache and arrived at the rendezvous on time, the results would probably have been different.

Ray fires Kimbral and puts Shu on leave to work on his team leadership skills. Shu decides to head back to Shanghai to visit his family, and make sure nothing happens to his satellite genius cousin, Yusheng, at a Bangkok bachelor party. At least being at his cousin's side means he will not have be alone when they are kidnapped to soon awake in a black op prison site called H.A.D.E.S.

The Zookeeper has been hired by a Swiss competitor to Yusheng. Shu and his cousin are there to be tortured until they give up the patent information for Yusheng's new satellite communication technology. HADES is far more complex than the last prison Ray broke out of and with the Zookeeper having inmates fight for luxuries, how long can our protagonists last?

We know Ray is going to do anything he can to get Shu out, including recruiting the towering DeRosa to give them some extra firepower, but will not make a move until he is certain of success. It is all a matter of figuring out the location and layout of the prison. Time is one thing Shu has and with Kimbral being a fellow inmate, what he has learned from Ray gives him all he needs to win the day. But after all the damage that Breslin has done to the private prison industry, things seem far too easy.

"Escape Plan 2: Hades" starts out like any silly 80's action movie, but it makes a sudden turn to attempt and capture "The Matrix" cool aesthetic that exposes all of its weaknesses. It is kind of like "Tron" without the teleporting laser and smooth incorporation of effects. With punching and kicking being your primary means of action, our characters are not in the right movie. Especially Stallone who I do not believe knows how to kick.

I suppose the concept of a computer controlled prison allows for twists to constantly occur, but the narrative is far too predicable. The idea is to make the audience to try and figure out the puzzle as they go along. Its mistake is the constant twists to mock us just when the nerds develop a theory on how the protagonist can escape. This leads the audience to just quit caring, so only the stupidity of villain(s) can the film get them reinvested. That is a whole lot of stupid.

Director Steven C. Miller is accustomed to making stupid films. He directed a fun remake of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" ("Silent Night), but that film featured a script that does not necessarily make sense as it works to a big reveal. What made the film fun was a cast of screen chewers and shocking violence. The film chewer in "Escape Plan 2" is Stallone who is essentially there only for his brand value. He is not the lead, so he cannot chew the fat off of this film.

As for the violence, you get one great fight scene, otherwise the film is too quick to resolve its scenes. This leaves the flick with nothing for Miller to catch and over expose. If it left us with graphic scenes to linger on, it would play towards Miller's strengths. It also lacks a sense of humor or clever wit that can save an action movie. All of that is reserved for Dave Bautista's screen time. Since the third film in the franchise also features him, you have to admire the writer, Miles Chapman, doing the bare minimum to leave the audience wanting more.

"Escape Plan 2: Hades" might have figured out how to make a Chinese-funded trilogy work, leaving the audience just interested enough for a third film. In this case, I think this interest stems from wanting justification for putting up with a quickly produced sequel that lacks heart. It has some fun moments, but it also wants to prove itself smarter than its audience.

"HADES" might show up the audience with its twists to indicate intelligence, but it does not change the fact that it is built on a metaphoric swamp. How smart can you be if you are still sinking? Hopefully the wreckage of this castle will be enough to serve as a sturdy base for "Escape Plan: The Extractors".

 

"Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse" - A Mostly Positive "Oi, Oi, Oi"

 *Blog post started on October 20, 2020.

My weekend was not too bad. They have hired enough newbies at the retailer that I work for the most part just have to make sure nothing goes wrong at check out and our customer service experts are now scheduled properly. Without too much pressure, I think I can work almost all the time. It keeps my mind off my existential crises and the pay makes it a net positive. Who needs a therapy when you could make $15 an hour?

I could probably get the same vibe by consuming my stockpile of Zoloft (as per the dosage directions). Work will free you is a bullshit comment in the end. It is just a different kind of numb. YouTube wormholes do not help.

Sunday was alright because I at least had the time to video games. Once the ex called to check on her cat and encourage me to abandon the written word for the video abyss, I decided to leave the gaming chair to get comfortable. Eva the Queen Kitty filled that spot immediately after I left to answer the phone, so that put an end to catching Pokemon. This was interpreted as a sign that I should watch a feature to feed the blogs. My little brother's abandoned copy of "Board Heads (a.k.a. "Beach Movie")" fit the NinetyForChill.com criteria (Longer than 75 minutes, Shorter than 97).

I do not know if I made it 15 minutes into this attempt to bridge Cinemax's late night features with early 80's dudes trying to get laid flicks that have aged poorly. The latter genre for the most part does not bother me too much. If you want to say that "Revenge of the Nerds" is far too rapey, I will remind you that the premise is REVENGE.

We are cool with brutal vengeance from "I Spit of Your Grave". Violence for violence is that case. Exploitation and objectification in the name of teaching a judgemental asshole, the mental scars are too harsh.

I would imagine that "Board Heads" would try to emulate something like that with Bronson Pinchot or Loretta Swit, but the Uwe Boll dialogue on top of establishing shots as the only direction lead to me tapping out early. Not early enough to put another flick in unfortunately if I wanted to watch "Last Week Tonight" at a reasonable hour. This lead me to return to YouTube before the episode aired, and probably an hour after it did so.

Yesterday was turning out to be exactly the same after "Being the Elite". AEW really needs to get an HBO Max hub or its own streaming product (like every other "major" promotion). If there is a decent What Culture Wrestling/Horror/Gaming video that shows up after I finish "BTE", you can count on me losing another hour. I knew I had to make something of the day.

There has been some jonesing for Jim Jefferies's humor since he left Comedy Central and I had success with a previous Oceania horror comedy in "Bad Taste". It was time for an iTunes impulse buy in "Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse".

"Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse"

A "Walking Dead" like scenario has finally occurred in Australia. They may not be the undead, but they seem to be rotting away quickly and they definitely have a taste for human flesh. Everyone who is definitely alive is searching for safety. Daryl, Joel, and their telecom supervisor Roy know that the tower they work at has a security door, so sheltering there will do for now. Joel has brought the beers, Daryl brought Betsy the shotgun, and Roy is accompanied by his 19 year-old daughter Emma and a vape pen. You cannot let the apocalypse interfere with quitting nasty habits.

If they can somehow get the tower to connect to the military's phone network, waiting it out is all they will need to do. The problem with waiting is that it is just plain awkward. Joel and Daryl had to finish off Roy's wife to secure the beer, and Emma is pretty frisky so Daryl's mind maybe a little preoccupied to give Roy the bad news about the missus. What should alleviate the tension only increases it as the interns, Ryan and Emma's boyfriend Lachlan, bypass the security system to hide out at the tower as well.

To make the situation more dire, the interns state that this outbreak is a result of the military's actions, so there probably will not be a rescue. In its place would be a cover up. Will seven shotgun shells, two flares, two paintball guns, and a stash of fireworks be enough to hold off the hordes? When the beer runs out, will there be any reason to fight on?

"Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse" is a fun homage to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", but lacks the drama to be a very effective zombie film. When cracking wise is the feature's primary function, if you do not incorporate the threat enough, a gravitas to the entire apocalypse is lost. For the budget though, you cannot help but be impressed by the effort.

The actors are competent enough that you have a vested interest in their survival, but there does not seem to be a lead actor. This function should have been more focused on the largest star the film had to offer in Jefferies. With some rewrites (think "Deep Blue Sea's" most memorable kill), the story concludes the same, but everything would be held together better until the point where it should fall apart. A greater range in characters may have helped as well, but when you are shooting on next to nothing (I would have removed the parking dogs that the mics picked up during filming.), you cast what you can afford to cast.

Or auteur Declan Shrubb could have held back on the gore effects. They are very solid and I believe any zombie movie fan will appreciate them. Shrubb probably knows that every excellent zombie film needs at least one gut buster, so I think the trade of makeup for a diverse cast is a fair one. This film will not be excellent, but Shrubb knows he has to work towards that.

As a director, Shrubb is adequate in close quarters, but is lacking when it comes to wide shots. That is really only evident in the finale because Shrubb is wise enough to shoot from high vantage points otherwise. Give this guy a crane or a track because he seems to have promise.

"Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse" is not early Peter Jackson, but that is because director Declan Shrubb is working with a more narrow scope. His feature is fun with excellent gore effects, but lacks the violence and intensity to provide great slashstick. Its story does not challenge the audience, so if you are looking for "Shaun of the Dead" light, this is fine suggestion.

Most B-movies with a similar plot are shot just to be shot. "Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse" is an attempt at art which will at least amuse you and fulfill your gore fix.

 

Ryan Manlaw - Pinterest

 

Bad Taste: Peter Jackson, The WWE Intercontinental Championship, and Billy Corgan

 

 *Blog post started on October 16, 2020.

My three day weekend cannot come soon enough. The Staley blog network (NinetyForChill.com, MainEventOfTheDead.com, Russ's Remnants of Anime, and Disgruntled Real Championship Wrestling) are scheduled out to early November, so it will be a nice change of pace to not keep stockpiling content. The biggest problem for my blogs right now is a dependence upon wrestling content.

And with that said, I may as well address recent championship title changes in pro wrestling. "Bad Taste" is in the title of this blog post, and that is the general consensus of what people think the fans of that industry have. My personal taste says we fans should lean into that more, but when I suggest the Katie Vick was a fun angle, that opinion maybe disqualified.

As a horror and occasional raunchy comedy fan, I respect when the creators take something further than what the audience considers far enough. If Triple H did not toss the brains at the end of the funeral parlor segment, my thoughts about the angle would be that it was in poor taste. Once that poor taste has been taken to the bad realm, the imagination of the audience has been destroyed. To gain that kind of control is something I admire.

For my argument with Billy Corgan over poor versus bad taste, visit MainEventOfTheDead.com.

Why is the Intercontinental Championship a part of the blog title? Because the recent Sami Zayn angle behind it was done in bad taste. How do you end up stripping a champion because of COVID-19, but Brock Lesnar was never rushed to defend his championships over the past six years?

Is the Intercontinental Championship greater than the TNT Championship? See why it is not be visiting DRCWwrestling.blogspot.com.

The 149th Disgruntled's Real Ocho Champion

AEW TNT Champion Cody (3) (10/7/20).

It is tempting to declare Zayn as the champion because of the length of his reign, but again, he did not start his reign with a great win. Three-on-one handicap match against the champion versus a dog collar blood bath: Cody's title victory is the superior.

A blood bath serves as a perfect transition into how I finally got around to Peter Jackson's debut directorial effort, "Bad Taste". The prior night, I revisited the failed lesbian take on the already pretentious "Dead Poets Society", Canada's "Lost and Delirious". It ended up being a downer of a film on top of that, so I needed something to cleanse my pallet. "Young Adult" is still a disc that I need to open, but as a depressed writer, I did not think the feature was right to bounce back from patriarchal bullshit (The only valid thing about "Lost and Delirious outside a Graham Greene supporting role is that it took place in the current day, so making it about accepting teenage lesbians at an up tight boarding school a good premise.).

As I looked through my unwatched DVD's and Blu-rays, "Young Adult" was the only film under 97 minutes. Anything purchased on iTunes was either foreign or experimental, so I did not know if I had the attention span for those. So I turned to Amazon Prime's offerings, and "Bad Taste" beat out "Night of the Demons" as my choice to add to my 90-minute movie data base.

Was there really a choice between these two "classics"? It is an Academy Award winner B-movie versus the guy who directed the sequel to Charlie Sheen's "The Arrival". To director Kevin Tenney's credit, his movie called "Brain Dead" from 2007 did help inspire me to write my B-movie script, "Main Event of the Dead". Email russthebus07@gmail.com with any questions about my production.

Bad Taste

The Astro Investigation and Defense Service (a joke that may have been ahead of its time) is investigating the town of Kaihoro, New Zealand. There seems to be no locals present, just a group of men in identical blue work shirts and jeans. Barry and Derek are the advance team. 

Barry is quick to capture one of these men while Derek is being tracked by an axe-wielding simpleton who he destroys with his magnum. Based on the reaction the two have received upon arrival, Barry is certain these are not friendly aliens with glowing fingers but extra terrestrials who intend to end humanity. It is a good thing their action-loving team members Frank and Ozzy (Is this a Muppet joke?) are en route to this town.

With all this ruckus, a gang of these aliens mount a counter attack which results in Barry taking a fall that leaves him with a compound fracture of the skull. The team writes him off, but the persistence of Barry allows him to figure out ways to keep his brain matter in his cranium, but perhaps at the cost of his sanity. Unfortunately, our heroes cannot leave because a charity collector, Giles, had arrived before Frank and Ozzy could block the roads into town.

Giles is soon captured, so the boys are set on rescuing him. As they infiltrate the alien base, they discover what has happened to the town folk. The aliens represent Crum's Country Delights and they have decided that human beings will be the dish that will make them competitive in the intergalactic fast food market once again. Kaihoro maybe lost, but there is no way the AIDS team is going to let Lord Crum and his cronies introduce this new menu item to space car hops.

"Bad Taste" is a very cheap slash-stick comedy which is very amateur in nature, but successfully shows there is a great director behind it. Peter Jackson shot this film over four years on weekends and the New Zealand film board took notice of his dedication. The result is a great exercise in practical gore effects while being more amusing and easier for the squeamish to stand than the similar efforts of Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead".

This film was a passion project of Jackson who knew this feature just had to get made. He was going to give audiences a bad film though, so his clever direction allows us to forgive the features shortcomings. It is more than apparent that Jackson lacked the means to produce high art, but his short cuts allow the audience to be in on the joke that these cheats are.

Until the finale, the action starts as being a little too sloppy for its own good. It starts to feel long, but the once a chainsaw-wielding psychopath is introduced, it finds its groove and becomes a ball until the gory climax that was repeated in "Dead Alive" and was missing from all of his features after (I may need to rewatch "The Frighteners" and "Heavenly Creatures" to confirm the lack of rebirth sequences.). Darn PG-13 and its limitations.

Excellent gore, a John Carpenter styled soundtrack, and the sheer absurdness of "Bad Taste" make this feature a classic. The film becomes more polished as it moves along (probably because of the New Zealand government funding), so it feels like you are learning about film makings alongside the great auteur Peter Jackson. It also leaves you missing the gory beauty that he was producing, but would you trade it for "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy? With the sheer amount of false endings in "Return of the King", perhaps.

90-Min Netflix DVD - "Silent Running" Great Message in a Pre Space Opera World

I finally got to that physician assistant appointment, and I do not know if I can say that was a good idea. A haircut could have probably taken care of my contact dermatitis. The need for them to build a profile of me has led to me being borderline anxious, and in turn, I realize all the stress I am dealing with now as my family is settling into the true retirement lifestyle. Being challenged to lose 10 pounds in a month led me think that I took on the bank's health insurance just to be judged.

I will give her some credit, she is hoping that I get healthy enough to no longer need such high amounts of medication. My past doctor was a live and let be kind of guy. Her efforts were so appreciative that "nihilism helps" was not one of my responses.

I am in a very misunderstood place and that has been all of my adulthood. You need to try and understand, not give up me.

And that is how you transition from my depressing life to 1972's "Silent Running". It is a film about people giving up on inconvenient things despite the beauty that they offer.

When it comes to beauty, I do not think I offer much. Just call me the reincarnation of Louis the Drone. If only I had space on my robot wrist to memorialize him.

Silent Running

Humans have given rabbits a run for their money in terms of breeding, but with a lack of suitable planets to colonize, how are they to come up with space for all of the people. Since deforestation never slowed down, clearing the world of vegetation and relying on synthetically constructed food, homo sapiens can survive on Earth indefinitely. It is even easier to be an Earthling because to keep up the means to create a comfortable 75-degree weather across the planet, everyone has a job. Humanity triumph over nature results in a comfort no one should reject.

Of course there was resistance to the idea of destroying all of the forests and encouraging mass extinctions in the name of progress. To address the naysayers, American Airlines Galactic Shipping have devoted a fleet of ships to maintain terrariums. Once the planet can allow for forestations, they will be transplanted back to Earth.

Be it the bottom line or just a dead soil, it is eventually determined that it is just too much work to maintain these galactic forests. The crews of these ships for the most part seem to agree, and they welcome the opportunity to nuke them all and head back home. Only one person thinks differently and determines that the beauty of nature must live on at any cost. This person is Freeman Lowell.

Lowell makes the rash decision to kill his fellow crewmates and make a run for the outer reaches of the solar system. Faking an accident to allow him to take this adventure on, he determines the vastness of space will prevent search parties and any chance for humans to finish the job of eliminating anything that is wild. The question is, can one man and a set of drone robots maintain the best parts of Earth, let alone Freeman's sanity?

"Silent Running" is a beautifully shot film with a lead character who is explored extremely well for a feature with a 89-minute runtime. For a viewer like me who has only seen Bruce Dern portray cranky, borderline evil old men, it was quite refreshing to see him portray a character that we sympathize with. But, if you want that cranky nature, he is still portraying someone who wants you to stay off his grass.

The set design and outer space scenes look marvelous. It made me wonder why it took Hollywood another five years before we got "Star Wars". I would dare say the special effects still hold up to George Lucas's original trilogy's standards. This film was from a time where science fiction was primarily there to teach us,  and with the Joan Baez soundtrack, you could not justify that this space film to warrant dog fights.

There only being one character to focus on and relate to, the film does not need extra special effect sequences. You see Lowell as a crusader who knows there is no going back to what he was suppose to be. The film is about him accepting that and how we need to be more willing to prevent a so called dystopia/utopia that require no effort. Its story nearly pulls at every emotion, and you leave feeling exhilarated going on such a thorough and brief journey.

I have long needed to give "Logan's Run" a thorough rewatch. "Silent Running" left me feeling like I had just watched the most important pre-"Star Wars" science fiction feature of the 1970's. To go and claim that it is without rewatching "Run" would be irresponsible.

I thought this would give me a reason to also rewatch "Rollerball", but their is a sense of that feature being grounded in a more relatable reality. Douglass Trumbull's directorial debut takes you to another world that you are glad to visit and hope will never become a reality. Who does not want to chase someone down in roller skates to knock them out with a studded glove? I can live with corporations ruling everything. I cannot live without trees.

Pinterest - PopCultArt

Pinterest - PopCultArt - https://www.pinterest.com/popcultartco

"See No Evil 2:" Will There be 12 Rounds for Kane?

 

90-minute Walmart - "Near Dark": The Teenage Vampire Standard

Is it weird to say that director Kathryn Bigelow is an innovator? She deserves the title being the first woman to with the Best Director Academy Award, but she was not the first nominee, and she is best known for her genre flicks "Near Dark" and "Point Break".

These genre films are what make her an innovator. Nothing brilliant has come from the extreme sport FBI genre (Sorry Vin Diesel), but when it comes to the vampire love story genre, "Near Dark" showed Hollywood how it should be done.

Caleb is your typical Oklahoman teenager who should be thinking about signing up for agriculture classes at the local junior college. He drives his truck, raises horses, and enjoys "exciting" trips into town to act like the "King of the Hill" gang. Everything changes on one of these trips where he tries to win over the mysterious new girl in town, Mae. The only thing she lets Caleb in on is her obsession with the night.

Attached to this obsession are instincts she cannot resist which results in her taking a nip out of Caleb's neck. This leave Caleb trapped in a world that is controlled by the will of vampire Jessie Hooker. Unwilling to join these killers, he must either find a way to survive and stay with Mae or find a way to get back to his family and return to the normal.

With his family trying to track him down, hopefully Caleb will come to terms with his fate before his father and sister meet his new crew.

 Anybody know where I could stream Near Dark? - Reddit

"Near Dark" is the most believable vampire adolescence films produced. It works as an action movie, a coming of age tale, and an 80's horror classic.

As long as the audience has an idea of what small town living is like, relating to the characters is easy. We understand Caleb's dilemma and Mae's rebellious nature, and we pull for both to figure this existence out. The Southern charm also gives is a feel on an American fairy tale like "The Wizard of Oz".

With that Great Plains feel, the antagonists are brilliant and the character actors involved (Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and the rest of the USS Solaco's crew) are perfect. These West Texas vampires are the right kind of decadents that Americans can relate too, and show that there should not be anything romantic about hominus nocturna.

To further make sure the audience does not respond too much to the romance, the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream gives the film an Argento-esque feel that Goblin provided for his most highly-praised films. Like "Suspiria" it turns the story into a twisted folk tale.

Great direction, story, soundtrack and ensemble cast make "Near Dark" the most under appreicated vampire films of the past 40 years. It is a great early entry in the filmography of Kathryn Bigelow, and it demonstrates her understanding of what she is filming. If you liked any of her other films or vampire movies in general, "Near Dark" is a must see.

DevonDrawsHorror - Etsy

 

90-Min HBO Max - "The Second Civil War" HBO Fails to Find Middle Ground

*Blog post started on August 5, 2020.

Well, I have gotten through the initial lab work, handled my finances at least for a couple of weeks, and made sure that everyone can watch their appropriate media in Morton, for the most part. My older sister does not own any foreign stuff, but she sees potential in the region-free DVD player. Christmas for my folks will probably be a HDMI enabled region-free DVD player because I do not want my niece and nephew to ruin the DVD/VCR combo in their room. Tape decks are such a rare commodity.

Damn the hour lunch schedule. How much can you do with a free hour after sustaining one's energy on Jolly Ranchers? You cannot spend it eating. With that time, you can get damn near anywhere in Champaign/Urbana and be back to work on time. I suppose it is the bank just encourage commerce (Or is it for easier scheduling construction since Illinois only requires a half hour lunch.).

I hope all of you respect my decision to be sucking the life out of Hershey's non-chocolate option. If I was not doing that, the bank could not offer Dum Dums to the customers. They are a little more hesitant to ask in these unprecedented times, but most are still using drive up banking.

My worries also include just being bored. I will not kick the cats out of my video game chair, so yes, I have an excuse to be bored. The ex's cat seems to be the feline equivalent to me, which means (She was hedging her bets about a break up two-years prior.) I am constantly reminded of my loneliness. Talking to myself is something I do enough of. Now it feels like I am doing it in stereo.

Who knows? Skimble might be inadvertently doubling my angst. This is what I will blame for extra nervousness/reluctance to please my parents. Perhaps that may have skewed my perception of a Mom movie suggestion, "The Second Civil War".

The Second Civil War (1997; 1 hour 36 minutes)

The chaos throughout the world has become too much for most Americans to handle. For example, war in China lead to a refugee population becoming the majority in Rhode Island. When it comes to Asia, there are never an abundance of events to create asylum seekers, the most recent being an Indian nuclear assault on Pakistan.

There are now planes full of orphans who need hope and a new home. The Federal response is to ship them to Idaho. As these future Americans load their flights, the state's governor, Jim Farley, decides to close their borders. With the shelters already built, Idaho is the only place they can go, so armed forces are deployed. After this escalation, Farley lays down the gauntlet. If the feds do not withdraw their demands, Idaho will secede from the Union.

"The Second Civil War" is a poignant TV movie 23 years after its release. It is a satire about identity politics when they were just becoming a post civil rights issue (i.e. Fear of White America being lost to the values of minorities). If the film would have tried to make a statement or solely focus on hilarity, it would be worth suggesting.

This is essentially a TV movie despite its R-rating. The feature has a strong cast and a great director in Joe Dante, but aside from the performances of the adversaries (Beau Bridges and Gov. Farley and Phil Hartman as the President), no one is given a chance to shine. When Dennis Leary shows up as a reporter with Dick Miller as his cameraman, you hope for a madcap Dante film like a "Gremlins" or "Matinee". Miller turns out to be a neutral character, so his talents are wasted while Dante's chaotic touch is no where to be seen.

Without providing a challenge to the director, perennial TV-movie writer Martyn Burke's script could have been directed by anyone. This script could work very well as a play if it only focused on the goings on between the adversaries and their respective cabinets and influencers. These are the only scenarios where the satire works. The interactions amongst parties allows for blatant impolitical correctness that serves to highlight the failures of state and federal governments. Unfortunately, Burke wants you to see the events through the eyes of a news network that is only motivated by ratings.

Fox News and MSNBC had not found their footing by playing to one side of the political aisle or the other. The news network in this feature is out to please everyone which fails to work when the two important angles focus on selfishness. It ends up failing to fit between or unite the two other stories. When most of the cast that lead me to the title are part of this angle, my disappointment was massive.

I guess you might say it is Kubrickian, but you need something wild to occur to leave us comfortable with a sad perception of the finale. Stanley Kubrick wisely gave us Slim Pickens riding a bomb and Peter Cushing announcing, "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!"

Is there anything more disappointing that a great concept for a movie falling totally flat? I cannot say that identity politics is a great concept. Anyone who preaches that is an asshole. The idea of going to war with Idaho is.

"The Second Civil War" focuses too much on the negative effects of how politics would evolve, and its failure as a satire essentially tells us to just accept that we are going to hate those who are different than us. This feature was a waste of talent and lacks the nerve to be a worthwhile viewing experience. I guess there is nothing worse than dropping the ball. This is something I should have known being a lifelong Cubs fan, but thanks HBO Films for the reinforcement of that.

 

IMDb - The Second Civil War.

90-Min. Rewatch - "Jigsaw" and Trading Control for Trauma (The @cb27words Agenda).