DailyView: Day 61, Movie 105

Covering another movie that is leaving HBO Max at the end of the month, I watched the Dennis Quaid 1980s film, Dreamscape for the DailyView this morning.

I had not heard of this one before I saw it on the HBO Max site and I thought it would be an interesting film to give a try. I have always been fascinated with dreams and the theories behind dreams and I was looking forward to seeing what this movie was all about.

Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) was a young psychic who was using his gift to win at the horse races was approached by Dr. Paul Novotny (Max Van Sydow) about joining in a program dealing with dreams. Specifically, having psychics enter a person’s dreams and helping them through whatever difficulties they may be facing.

Alex was not anxious to be involved, despite his attraction to Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw), a scientist involved in the program. However, he was slowly convinced when he discovered what he could do.

However, Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), the head of the project, had another plan for it. He knew that the President of the United States (Eddie Albert) was having powerful nightmares and that, because of those, he planned on making an arms agreement with the Russians. Blair did not want this so he planned on sending in another psychic, the vicious killer Tommy Ray (David Patrick Kelly) into the President’s dreams to make it look as if the President had died in his sleep.

Dreamscape was an interesting film with a intriguing sci-fi story to it. The ‘psychic’ aspect of these people were kept pretty vague. It had been mentioned that Alex was once in a trail where he displayed telekinesis, but he does not show that at any time in the movie. In fact, most of his psychic abilities are ill defined. I guess he can absolutely see into the future for horse races, but after that, his psychic abilities are questionable.

The film sets up the story with Alex and then jumps immediately into the plot. I might have liked a bit more development. There was a decent scene where Alex helps a young boy face (Cory Yothers) his nightmares and kill the monster within, which I liked. However, that was dropped as quickly as it was brought up.

Alex is a likeable rogue and you enjoy spending time with him. He has heroic tendencies too, as we saw with the kid. The relationship with Jane felt a tad forced, but it was understandable. I’m not sure there would be more there after the physical attraction, but some times that is enough.

The dreams are well done and present as dreamlike. The special effects do make this feel as if you are inside someone’s dreams and are very effective at keeping you on your guard.

The cast is a strong point to Dreamscsape. Even when presenting these unlikely to far fetched circumstances, when you can provide a solid performance, it helps elevate the material, and that is certainly happening here. Dennis Quaid is excellent as our lead protagonist and Max Von Sydow does a great job. Christopher Plummer is menacing and makes an effective antagonist. George Wendt stepped outside his Norm persona from Cheers to play a writer investigating the dream concept (although he does buy Quaid a beer…something that Norm would never have done).

One major drawback for me was the score. I hated this score. It was that 1980s synth/techno garbage that made it feel like nails on a chalkboard. Every time that the score would play, not only did I know we were smack dab in the middle of an 80s B-movie, I would cringe and hope for it to end as soon as it could.

Nowhere near a perfect movie, but it is one that had a solid sci-fi premise and engaging actors in the roles. The story worked most of the time and the flaws did not prevent me from enjoying the film.

DailyView: Day 60, Movie 104

I have been waiting to watch the sequel to Creep for awhile. I was considering saving it for Halloween time, but I enjoyed the original so much that I decided to make this another film for the DailyView. Creep 2 was on Netflix and Mark Duplass returned to the role he played in Creep.

I really enjoyed the first Creep and the sequel was even better.

As we know, Aaron (Mark Duplass) draws in victims using an ad looking for a videographer. He then spends a day with these people and ends up killing them. Here, however, it seems as if he has met his match. Sara (Desiree Akhavan) is the host of an online video show that follows lonely men and studies their lives. Sara thinks that she has hit the jackpot with Aaron, who immediately confesses that he is a serial killer and that he was looking for something special for his 40th kill. Sara does not believe him, but she worries about taking advantage of the disturbed man.

They spend the day together. All of Aaron’s tricks, that worked so well in the previous movie, do not work well on Sara and he is slightly frustrated by that. As the day progresses, the conversation between Aaron and Sara change up and this dialogue is the main driving force of the film.

Sara is unshakable in her attitude, most likely from her past experiences with these kinds of sad people, but she does not realize the level to which Aaron will take the action.

Creep 2 is not as scary as the original, but it does a great job of creating an uncomfortableness that plays into the tone of the movie. You know that Aaron is a killer, but you are uncertain exactly what he is going to do about it. Sara feels like a match for him and one wonders if she s going to realize what we already know. It just seems that every wild and out there moment he tosses at her, she is ready for it and gives it right back.

The film is more of a character study than a horror movie, and it takes what could have been the same premise and makes it different and original from the first film.

Creep 2 was filled with tension and anxiety, but in a different way than Creep was. The fact that they could give us two very different types of movie from the same general premise is very impressive and makes Creep 2 an excellent sequel.

DailyView: Day 60, Movie 103

Next up on the DailyView was Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film, Almost Famous. Crowe worked as a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine while he was a teenager, and he was able to go on the road with many of his rock and roll idols. This inspired the story told in Almost Famous.

Teenage prodigy William Miller (Patrick Fugit),a writer with Creem magazine, had a chance to write an article for Rolling Stone magazine about the up-and-coming band Stillwater. In order to gain access to the band, William travelled on tour with Stillwater, getting close to guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). Lead singer Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) distrusted “The Enemy” -the rock journalists.

During the connection with Stillwater, William met Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), a ‘band aid’, a more positive term for a groupie who followed the band around because she loved their music. Penny was having an affair with Russell, but befriended the young William.

As the band struggled with their interpersonal issues, William was learning about life in rock and roll, the ups and the downs and the world around him.

Almost Famous was a wonderful movie. It was a love letter to rock and roll as well as a coming of age story with a special twist. Patrick Fugit was sweet and innocent as William and he brought every ounce of that to the role. His chemistry with both Russell and Penny was a major strength of the film. William’s consistent attempt for the one-on-one interview with Russell, which kept getting interrupted or pushed off was a great hook for the relationship.

I loved the airplane/electrical storm scene. It was such an amazing sequence of events that brought all of the conflicts out into the open. There has been a history of rock stars dying in small plane crashes that when Russell starts singing Buddy Holly songs, it is both funny and poignant.

Another great band moment was the ‘Tiny Dancer’ moment upon the bus. There was the message that, no matter what troubles might be facing the group, the music is always what they have.

Frances McDormand was William’s over-protective mother Elaine, apparently based on Crowe’s own mother. McDormand was her normal brilliant self, infusing the character with more than just the stereotypical over-protective mother. She brought an intelligence and a humanity the role and created someone who you could tell loved her children more than anything.

Almost Famous was a truly enjoyable film with some of the best characters you will find, brought to life by skilled actors. The music is well designed and fit beautifully in the story.

DailyView: Day 59, Movie 102

Over at Starz, I chose an animated movie to continue the DailyView this afternoon. It is a cult classic film from 1981 called Heavy Metal. The movie is an anthology movie based on short stories published in Heavy Metal magazines. The film is an adult animation directed by Gerald Potterton.

The framing device that crosses through the different stories is a small, glowing green orb that has significant evil power, leading to the deaths of many that come in contact with it. The voice cast is extensive, including John Candy, Don Francks, Richard Romanus, Harvey Atkin, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Rodger Bumpass, Harold Ramis, and Percy Rodrigues.

The animation was groundbreaking at the time. Now it looks choppy and a bit underwhelming. However, many of the images standout and definitely have a flavor to them that makes you know the movie you are in.

Of course, the soundtrack is one of the film’s most celebrated trait. There are songs from Black Sabbath, Journey, Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Blue Öyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Devo, Riggs, Grand Funk Railroad, Don Felder, Donald Fagan, Nazareth, and Trust.

As for the film, I have to say that I probably would have liked this more when I was in high school. The graphic violence and nudity among these animated stories are meant to target the young and horny males and their adolescent fantasies much more than someone my age. It does not age well either as there is a ton of misogamy toward every woman character in the movie.

There are some interesting parts of Heavy Metal, but the negative outweigh the rest for me.

DailyView: Day 59, Movie 101

I have been enjoying some Jimmy Stewart movies recently and how could you go wrong with a good Western. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance not only has Jimmy Stewart, but also features the one and only John Wayne.

The film begins with Senator Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) returning to a Western town where he spent some of his younger years to attend the funeral of one of his friends, Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). While there, Ransom recounts the story of how he met Tom and got involved with the outlaw/hired gun Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin).

On his first trip to two, Ransom’s stagecoach was hijacked and robbed by Liberty Valance and his crew (which included Western veteran, Lee Van Cleef). Valance gave Ransom a beating to go along with the robbery. Tom and his handyman Pompey (Woody Strode) discovered the badly beaten lawyer and brought him to the doctor. Once recovered, Ransom started washing dishes at the local eatery with Hallie (Vera Miles) and he set up his own law practice.

The area was in conflict over the idea of becoming a state or remaining a territory. Ransom was nominated as a delegate to go and make that decision. Liberty Valance wanted to be a delegate too, and challenged Ransom to meet him in the street that night.

This was a fun movie. Jimmy Stewart was his typical top self here, taking the stand for law and order. John Wayne was at his most John Wayne-ish, using his famous phrase “pilgrim” when speaking to Ransom. The relationship between these two men turned out to be an important one, and was built on mutual respect for one another. They could not have been further apart personality or philosophy wise, but their friendship was the center of the movie.

Although it was not just the friendship that was the key here, but the differences between our two heroes. Tom was more of the ‘solve the problem with the gun’ type where as Ransom was the ‘let the law find the answer’ and these philosophy of the Old West were at conflict throughout the movie. Both men eventually came to see the importance or the necessity of the other’s world view.

There were plenty of other well known Western stars involved here, including Lee Van Cleef from the Dollars trilogy, Denver Pyle from Grizzly Adams, Oscar-winner Edmond O’Brien, John Carradine, the comedic Andy Devine, and Ken Murray.

The legend of the shooting of Liberty Valance lets the movie play with perception and reputation as well. There are a bunch of themes in the movie and it balances them with fun, some oddball humor and two excellent performances from two of the biggest movie stars of the time. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was an exceptional Western.

DailyView: Day 58, Movie 100

This is the one hundredth film in the DailyView and I wanted to pick something special. I decided on Children of Men from director Alfonso Cuarón, and at first, I did not think I had found something worthy of number 100. As the movie went on though….

The year was 2027 and the world had gone into a horrible place. The youngest person on earth had just died and it had been 18 years since the women on the planet had become infertile. This divided the world into factions and terrorist groups looking to rise up and take over. Local government bureaucrat Theo Faron (Clive Owen) was approached by his ex-wife Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) to get papers to help a young immigrant girl Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) get to safety. Julian had connections with the terrorist group The Fishies, including Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor). When Theo gets Kee to the Fishies’ holdout, he realizes the importance of the girl: she is pregnant.

I was bored at the beginning of the movie and I was afraid that I was going to have to do a negative review for #100. However, after the first 20 minutes or so, this film picked up big time, to a point where I was hanging on every word and I had to wipe away tears from my eyes. I understand that the beginning of the movie needed to have some world building going on, but it nearly lost me a couple of times. I am so happy that I stuck with the film.

SPOILERS: The film for me really picked up pace when Julianne Moore gets shot and killed in the first act of the movie. I had no expectation for that happening and it immediately showed the viewers that absolutely anything could happen. END OF SPOILER.

Easily my favorite character in the movie is played by Michael Caine. Caine steals every scene he is in and he is just completely engaging and entertaining. He played a character that was just so kindly and easy to love that you can’t help but be enthralled with him.

There are some scenes, in particular in the third act, that require you to not breathe, because they are so tense. The whole time, I had no idea what was going to happen, because the movie had laid the groundwork for something tragic to perhaps happen. It made it just as likely that the film would end in tragedy as it did to end in happiness. That made the trip all the more suspenseful.

The images of the world were astounding, masterfully envisioned by Alfonso Cuarón, who would take that brilliant eye for imagery into a list of successfully beautifully shot movies, proving that he is one of the top directors working today.

Children of Men nearly lost me in the first 20 minutes, but I stuck with it and the work that first part of the movie does pays off in spades. It is a brilliant movie with real human emotions in a world that is not that unlikely and one that has ties to the present day issues.

DailyView: Day 57, Movie 99

Gareth Edwards’ feature film debut was Monsters, a science fiction horror movie, working on a low budget. I had not known about this movie until I ran across it on Amazon Prime and it sounded interesting.

Six years before, NASA had sent a probe into space to investigate the possibility of extraterrestrial life. when the probe returned to earth, it crashed in Mexico and giant tentacled creatures appeared. They were isolated in Mexico in an area dubbed ‘The Infected Zone.’

Photojournalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) was recruited by his employer to help escort his daughter Sam (Whitney Able) back to the US from Mexico. When they lose their passports, they have to find their way back through the Infected Zone, trying to avoid the dangers surrounding them.

With the demands of the low budget, Edwards provided us with a film that focused on characters and their fears, worries and thoughts of the future. The creatures are kept to a minimum and that makes their appearances all the more compelling. The design of the creatures is spectacular, again maximizing the limits placed on the production.

Both Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able do a great job of bringing their characters to life and enriching them with real problems and character traits. They have a solid chemistry between the two and you can root for them as they are making their way through the Infected Zone.

The Infected Zone is very effective as well because we really do not know what to expect. Some of the horrors that we see are even more emotional because of the mysterious nature of the plot.

I really enjoyed much of the cinematography of Monsters, as there were some wonderful shots using the darkness as well as some beautifully constructed lighting. The imagery of the film makes up for the lack of the big budget. It goers to show that you can absolutely make an effective monster movie on a reasonable budget and have it be every bit as tense and suspenseful as the big budget films are.

Monsters was an unexpected treat and created a really solid tone that kept me on the edge of my seat, unsure what was going to happen next.

My knowledge of Coen Brothers films is low. I have not seen a ton of them, so this is a good opportunity, during the DailyView, to catch up on some of them. One of the highest rated of the Coen Brothers films was the Nic Cage starring vehicle, Raising Arizona.

Small time thief H.I. McDunnough (Nic Cage) was being arrested and taken to jail on a regular basis. Every time he was arrested, he had his mug shot taken by a female cop named Ed (Holly Hunter). Each time, H.I. started to fall for her more and more. Finally, deciding to turn his life around, H.I. proposed to Ed.

The couple had some happy days together until Ed decided it was time to have children. She found out that she was barren and they did not make the best adopted parent candidates.

Meanwhile, furniture magnet Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) and his wife Dot (Frances McDormand) found themselves having quintuplets. Desperate to have a child, H.I. and Ed kidnapped one of the children, telling themselves that they were helping out because Mrs. Arizona had too many than she could handle.

A cast of weird characters rolled through the film, including two of H.I.’s former prison mates with Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe), H.I.’s boss Glenn (Sam McMurray), and the bloodhound tracker Leonard Smalls (Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb).

Raising Arizona was extremely funny and weirdly eccentric. The Coen feel is all over this movie. I enjoyed the amazing characters that help to create the world. The key to the characters is that, even though they are bizarre, they are real people with thoughts and feelings. They are not just caricatures.

NIc Cage is great here. I actually forgot that Cage was playing H.I. after awhile and he blended himself into the character. Holly Hunter made a great match with him and their coupling worked well. You rooted for these people despite their seemingly countless poor choices. And the diaper chase scene was just hilarious.

I also doubled over from laughing when john Goodman had asked where the bank tellers were during their robbery. OMG!

This was a wonderful film, full of uncertainty and humor. I enjoyed this a great deal.

When it comes to the DailyView binge, they can’t all be winners.

The Manhattan Project is a nonsensical teen thriller where our young protagonist steals plutonium and builds a homemade atomic bomb. Yup. He’s our hero. In no way should he be considered a terrorist.

First face I saw when the film started was John Lithgow, so I had some initial hope that this might be a fun ride, but that was stifled fairly quickly. Lithgow was working in a lab that was involved in the creation of weapons for the government. He meets a woman whose precocious teen son Paul (Christopher Collet), who would set up little explosions at school as pranks, is a scientific genius. He’s also a bit of a jerk.

For some reason, he decides to break into the lab, which he does with an unnerving simplicity, and steals some of the lab’s specially designed plutonium, replacing it with dish liquid soap. Then Paul takes that plutonium and builds an atomic bomb that he wants to enter into a science fair.

That wasn’t even the most egregious act of idiocy involved here. The whole thing heads to a standoff at the lab with the army and FBI agents (I guess). It got to a point where I was hoping the bomb would go off. It would have made for a more realistic film.

My major issue with the movie is that Paul literally commits treason, builds a nuclear device, threatens to detonate it and he’s our hero. It is not even one of those young people movies where the protagonist stumbles into the situation by accident. Paul specifically sets up the standoff for… well, I’m not really sure why, but there is no world in which this kid was innocent. He is absolutely 100% a terrorist.

It is ridiculous, stretching credibility beyond any reasonable level for this type of movie. How does Paul not wind up in prison for the remainder of his life? He has to be on a no-fly list, doesn’t he? Perhaps this is an origin story of a new super villain, because , honestly, Paul does not display much regret in his actions. He uses the threat of the detonation of a nuclear bomb to get what he wants without concern for anyone else around him.

Paul is so unlikable that I simply did not want to root for the arrogant like worm, and that really hamstrings the movie that is basing the audience’s reactions on how much they want to see Paul succeed.

This one was a dud.

After watching today’s episode of Loki, I was enjoying the reaction to the show by the Late to the Party crew and they made a reference comparing this episode to Time Machine. Well, I chose to watch The Time Machine in response. Now, I believe that Robert and Vanessa from Late to the Party were referring to the 2002 version (which I have seen years ago) but the 1960s version was on my queue at HBO Max, and it would work perfectly for the DailyView today.

Based on the classic novel from EYG Hall of Famer H.G. Wells, The Time Machine tells the story of H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) and his invention of a time machine allowing him to travel into the future. Once there, he discovered that the future was a dark and dangerous place.

Wells travels to multiple futures, discovering about several wars that will occur and how the time becomes a world completely different. The people of the Eloi, vapid and slow (all oddly blonde), and the Morlocks, the night creatures, are the ones remaining. This is the timeline that the movie focuses upon as the others are just stops along the way. Color perhaps to show how humanity wound up as it does in the Eloi/Morlock future.

The epic sci-fi film has some wonderful effects for 1960. The practical sets and the design of the Morlocks were frightening. The Morlocks’ glowing eyes were especially creepy. It did win an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects for Gene Warren and Tim Baar.

The confrontation with Wells and the Morlocks was quite well done and was an exciting scene.

I liked this classic and it was cool to be able to see this iconic story unfold.

The next film in the DailyView binge is from the new Showtime channel I picked up on Prime Day. It is listed as leaving Showtime on June 30th so I decided this was the best time to give it a watch. It is the sequel to First Blood, which sent John Rambo back into Vietnam to find evidence that some POWs are still there. Rambo: First Blood Part II seemed to embrace the ideas and philosophies of the 1980s, where as the original was more of the 1970s.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is serving a prison sentence doing hard labor when Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) arrived to present him with a mission. The government wants to send him back into Vietnam to investigate whether or not there are American POWs in a prison camp. Rambo’s mission was not meant to be one with confrontation, but when he discovered that there was a POW there, Rambo was not going to let it go.

When the project head Murdock (Charles Napier) found out that there was an actual POW there, he ordered Rambo to be left behind. Bad choice.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is a step down from the excellent First Blood. That movie had more to it than this does. This one is about creating a super hero, someone who can fight and gain revenge for the slights of the world. The original movie was more about an idea, a philosophy. This is all about violence and revenge. The PTSD from First Blood is replaced with the unstoppable warrior looking for vengeance.

That does not make this a bad movie, just a different one. One that less depth, but more over-the-top action.

I have to say that the weirdly accented Russians that show up midway through the plot are a strange addition. Of course, the reason is that the Russians in the 1980s were more of the villains to the US than the Viet Cong were. Unfortunately, they sounded more like British or perhaps German Russians instead of Russian Russians and it was funny.

The action of this movie would wind up inspiring a lot of the type of movies from the 1980s. It stretches credibility a long way and it is difficult to buy that Rambo is as much of a indestructible force that he was. This took this franchise away from the message film to the shoot-’em-up, blow-’em-up movie, where the number of explosions are the most important.

Again, that does not make this a bad movie. It has its place.