DailyView: Day 131, Movie 204

Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, today’s DailyView is the schizophrenic thriller, From Dusk Till Dawn.

Two escaped convicts, Seth (George Clooney) and Richard (Quentin Tarantino). were on their way to Mexico to make a deal with an associate. In order to get across the border, they needed to find sufficient cover. Seth and Richard kidnapped Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) and son Scott (Ernest Liu), who were on vacation in Jacob’s RV.

Once across the border, Seth and Richard took the Fuller family to the roadside bar, The Titty Twister, that they would be meeting his contact in the morning. Unfortunately, beyond their knowledge, the bar was a hangout for vampires, which led to a violent encounter and a struggle for their survival.

What an odd movie. The first half of this movie felt very much like a crime drama from Tarantino. It had the criminals and the bloody results of their crime spree. Richard was a real kook and clearly suffered from some mental illness. Seth was a leader, but very manipulative and battled with his own anger issues.

The film picked up intensity after they snatched the Fullers. I have to say that I found the performance of Harvey Keitel, who has done some really great work in his career, to be one of the best I have seen from him. I was completely engaged with his character and the internal battle he was handling.

Then, without any warning whatsoever, the film went completely batshit crazy and became a fighting vampire movie. Since I already knew about the vampire twist, it did not shock me, but I cannot imagine the reaction of someone heading into the film without that knowledge. It went totally insane. That’s in a good way, though.

There were some things that pulled me out of the story though. When the vampires would explode in the sunlight, that was a bit too much for me. Plus, the fact that Cheech Marin played, at the very least, three separate characters was very distracting for me. I did not understand why, suddenly, there was another person who sounded like or looked just like Cheech Marin. After looking at IMDB, I see that John Hawkes (who was Lennon on LOST) also played two distinct roles, but since I did not notice that, it did not pull me out of the movie like the Cheech Marin characters did.

Many of the special effects looked like they were done in the nineties and so they were pretty dated. In fact, there were a couple of moments that were most likely intended to be frightening, but turned out to be cheesy or laughable (I’m looking at you, Fred Williamson).

George Clooney does an admirable job of maintaining his character throughout the movie no matter what bizarre situation he found himself in. Next to Keitel, Clooney was the standout among the cast.

From Dusk Till Dawn was a crazy ride that reverse course rapidly in the middle of the film. It really did feel like two completely different movies crammed together into one. Though far from the best work of either Robert Rodrigues or Quentin Tarantino, this movie is still a entertaining watch.

DailyView: Day 130, Movie 203

In the 1990s, Disney Animation was in a heyday. With the successes of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, the studio was on a roll. Next up, Disney took a swing at some history, bringing a highly fictionalized story of the real Pocahontas and John Smith to the big screen.

While the animation continued to be at a high level of beauty, much of the film Pocahontas was quite a step down.

John Smith (Mel Gibson) arrived in the New World with his ship’s crew, led by the greedy Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers), whose main concern was discovery of gold. As they were constructing the settlement of Jamestown, Smith meets the daughter of an Algonquin chief named Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and falls in love with the beautiful Indian girl.

Pocahontas had the rebellious spirit, disobeying her father Chief Powhatan (Russell Means), and searching out advice from her grandmother Willow (Linda Hunt), who was a spirit in a tree.

As the tensions continued to rise between the Indians and the white men, Pocahontas and John Smith became closer.

There were a lot of problems with this movie. First, the story itself was sparse. It was nothing that we hadn’t seen before. In fact, there were plenty of beats in Pocahontas that were near copies of earlier Disney movies. The relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas sprung up out of nowhere and became very deep before you knew it. I did not buy the relationship on any deeper level than the initial fascination.

The music of the film was downright boring. There were two exceptions. The Color of the Wind was to become the most well known of the songs in Pocahontas, but it lacked the magic of other Disney classics. The other standout song was Savages, which stood out because I swear, it was an exact copy of The Mob Song from Beauty and the Beast. As I was watching the section including Savages, I was struck how identical the scene and the song were.

Pocahontas was one of the first Disney movies to have the sidekick animal characters not be able to speak. The racoon, the dog, the hummingbird, all had the same type of personification, but the lack of voices made them easily dismissible.

The film is very short and, although it does have some moments of true artistry in the visuals, the rest of the film is very troubling. I have not even gotten into the controversial story elements dealing with Indians or how Pocahontas was turned into such a sexualized being. These issues exist but a better movie would have helped to minimize them. Unfortunately, this was at best a middling effort from the House of Mouse.

DailyView: Day 129, Movie 202

I chose Pan’s Labyrinth on Netflix to review today with the DailyView. Then, when I pulled it up, I realized that it was in Spanish and I would have to read the subtitles in order to watch it. I was not really in the mood to read my movie today so I was about to shut it off and look for something else. However, for some reason, I decided that I would go ahead and play Pan’s Labyrinth and read the subtitles after all.

Boy was that a great choice.

Pan’s Labyrinth, from director Guillermo del Toro, is a masterful fantasy movie that had all the elements of a fairy tale, but one made for adults. The film was graphically frightening at times, with some brutal violence to go along with the magical story.

Set in Spain during the last days of World War II, young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her pregnant and ailing mother Carmen  (Ariadna Gil) traveled to the post of Carmen’s new husband, the cruel Spanish captain Vidal (Sergi López), who was here to track down the rebels in the woods. Despite the dangers of traveling at this stage of her pregnancy, he wanted her to be with him before she gave birth to his son.

That night, a fairy approached Ofelia and led her to the faun Pan (Doug Jones), who told Ofelia that she was the daughter of the mystical realm’s king and that she needed to perform three dangerous missions if she wanted to take her place at her father’s side.

The film balances the beauty of the magical world and Ofelia’s efforts to perform her tasks with the the brutality and ugliness of the war and the cruelty of the Captain. While the fairy-tale world had a beauty, there was plenty of gross there too. It wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows. It was more like giant, slobbering toads and child killing trolls with eyeballs in his hands.

Maribel Verdú played the character of Mercedes, a woman whose brother was among the resistance as she worked inside Captain Vidal’s camp. Much of the secondary story with Mercedes was extremely compelling and kept the real world in full view as these magical moments were going on.

The character design is brilliant and beautiful. The film did win Academy Awards in the areas of Art Direction, Cinematography and Makeup, and you can see why. The look of Pan’s Labyrinth is amazing and really holds up in today’s world.

I am so glad that I did not shy away from this master class in storytelling because I had to read some subtitles. Pan’s Labyrinth is an unbelievable accomplishment for Guillermo del Toro and everyone involved in the project. If you haven’t seen it, do it. Es una obra maestra.

DailyView: Day 128, Movie 201

With the calendar flipping to September, the list of movies leaving HBO Max was refreshed and I can target some new films for the DailyView. The first one that I picked off the list is Single White Female. Probably did not make the best choice.

Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) broke up with and kicked her lover Sam Rawson (Steven Weber) out of their apartment when she discovered that he had cheated on her with his ex-wife. She needed to find a roommate and Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) answered the ad. Hedra revealed that she was a twin, whose sister died at childbirth. She began to bond with Allison. When Allison and Sam decided to get back together, Hedra began to lose her shit.

This falls into the category of films such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Sleeping with the Enemy, River Wild, Double Jeopardy, The Intruder, and a bunch of Tyler Perry movies. Hedra comes in nice and loving, but she shows her real side as the film moves along. And the real side is crazy. Coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

This just becomes ridiculous. So many dumb things happen only to be obstructed by the implausible things. Honestly, as soon as Hedra turned her hair the same color and length as Allison, she would have been out on her ass.

There was nothing new here and nothing made sense. These people were all just horrible characters that are anything but real.

I feel like I am being too negative on this movie. Still, I think it deserves the vitriol. There are some good actors in Single White Female, but they do not seem to be doing much acting. It is over-the-top and silly.

DailyView: Day 127, Movie 200

Can’t sleep.

Tomorrow is also going to be very busy, packed full of things, including Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in IMAX. So I decided that since I am not succeeding in going to bed, I may as well use my time wisely and get the 200th movie done for the DailyView. That movie is the final two-reel short film for Charlie Chaplin, entitled Pay Day.

As for most of the other Chaplin films that I have watched during the DailyView, Chaplin wrote, directed and starred in the film. He composed the music, which is of huge important in the silent film.

Chaplin, in his typical Little Ramp garb is a laborer in a construction site. After getting paid, Chaplin keeps some of the money from his wife so he could go out drinking. He is able to return to his home just in time to act as if he had just woken up and to go to work.

Chaplin continued his mastery of the slapstick comedic form that he displayed in all of these movies. There is a joke with an elevator at the work site that is pure wonder.

Edna Purviance appeared once again as Chaplin’s regular co-star. Phyllis Allen played Chaplin’s wife.

These Chaplin films on HBO Max have been a godsend for me during the DailyView and, with just a few remaining ones left, I hope I can get by without them.

Now… off to be *fingers crossed*

DailyView: Day 126, Movie 199

Tom Selleck was a huge star in the 1980s, a huge TV star, that is. He tested for the role of Indiana Jones, but was locked in on his Magnum P.I. contract to take the role. Instead, he wound up taking this role in the 1984 sci-fi/action film Runaway. All’s well that ends well for Harrison Ford and the rest of us. Maybe not so much for Tom.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons starred opposite Selleck as the villain of the piece. His name was Luther. There was not much to him either.

In a futuristic society where robots did most of the common house chores and mundane work, Jack Ramsay (Selleck) was a police officer who specialized in stopping robots that were runaways. One case found one of the robots was not a runaway, but had been tampered with to create a killer robot.

There really is not a ton of sci-fi elements to Runaway, outside of the weaponry used by Luther and the box robots that rolled around the set. Jack had a robot housekeeper called Lois, which was fun, very much like Alexa with wheels.

The film was surprisingly dull considering. There were a few moments of intrigue but most of it was just a cliched cop drama with a few toys.

Selleck’s new partner was Thompson, played by Cynthia Rhodes. Jack had a son named Bobby (Joey Cramer). The scenes between Selleck and Cramer were cute, but fairly simple in depth.

This is not much of a film, feeling longer than the 100 minute run time.

DailyView: Day 125, Movie 198

So I went to Starz tonight for the DailyView and pulled a film from the mid 1980s called Peggy Sue Got Married. It was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, of which I had no idea. It featured the acting skills of Nicolas Cage and Kathleen Turner, again, which I did not know. It was a time travel-type film. However, I have to say, I was not thrilled with the movie. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I disliked the movie.

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) went with her daughter (Helen Hunt) to her high school reunion despite recently separating from her husband Charlie (Nic Cage), whom she had been with since high school. When she was announced as the queen of the reunion, she passed out. When she awoke, she was back in time, just before her 18th birthday with all her memories and the baggage that she had.

The performances were fine, but Nicolas Cage was using the strangest, most annoying voice and I did not understand why. It made me not care about his character.

Kathleen Turner was fine, but her character, Peggy Sue, was all over the place. I had a difficult time following the swings her character was taking. She was the most inconsistent character of the film. I never got an idea of what she wanted and her motives and desires were a total mishmash.

Some of the side characters are interesting, but underdeveloped. We get a short look at a young Jim Carrey, but his role is basically nothing. There is more to do for Barry Miller as Richard, as the only person Peggy Sue tells about the future. Not much else happens with this pairing. There is the inclusion in Kevin J. O’Connor as the mysterious Michael Fitzsimmons as a character that has zero reason for being included.

This was disappointing. Rotten Tomatoes score was high, but Peggy Sue Got Married was not for me.

DailyView: Day 124, Movie 197

I have said multiple times that I was never a fan of slasher movies so I rarely watched them when I was younger. So while I was aware of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series of films, I have actually seen very few. I have seen the original film and I have seen the Dream Warriors (Part 3). Tonight I put on A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. The Rotten Tomatoes scores were pretty poor (critic 41%, audience 33%) and, because of that, my expectations were fairly low.

Freddy Krueger(Robert Englund) returned to Elm Street and possessed new student Jesse (Mark Patton) by haunting his dreams. Freddy looked to use Jesse to be his anchor in the real world and to continue Freddy’s reign of terror.

Okay, starting off, there was actually something among the premise of this movie that really worked. The idea of Freddy Krueger tormenting the dreams of a young man in order to take control of his physical form is quite interesting. The dynamics of the relationships and the potential for some deep character work is off the charts. There are some themes hidden here that are intriguing, but not developed enough.

Unfortunately, everything else here was below average to terrible. The acting was atrocious. What could have been a subtle and intense story of possession and mental illness was just over the top insanity and none of the actors invovled here were able to carry the potential of the premise.

Another issue was the dialogue. It was bad. It sounded like a middle school kid wrote it. The weakness of the acting and the dialogue was too much to get past.

The special effects were okay for a mid-1980s movie. Unfortunately, there were not enough scares connected to the special effects. In fact, there was one of the worst effects I think I have ever seen with an exploding parakeet. The falling feathers was laughable.

Freddy’s Revenge had a chance to be more than what it was. It was a chance that failed miserably.

DailyView: Day 123, Movie 196

The Suicide Squad of the sixties? The concept of the Suicide Squad is very much that of the war film that will be the DailyView for today, The Dirty Dozen.

A group of murdering and criminal soldiers, awaiting or serving their punishment in prison, are brought together to become a special forces unit during World War II with the promise that any who may survive would see a reduction in their sentence. Under the command of Major Reisman (Lee Marvin), the group of ragtag soldiers were trained and sent on a dangerous mission.

The Dirty Dozen has a huge ensemble cast. Including Lee Marvin, the film features Donald Sutherland, Telly Salavas, Ernest Borgninie, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Robert Ryan, Robert Webber, Clint Walker, Al Mancini, Ben Carruthers, and Richard Jaeckel.

We get a look at the main members of the group during the training, going from a group looking out for number one to a group of “we.” Still, the crew is filled with so many reprobates that you are never sure when their true natures may surface.

Telly Salavas, in particular, is one of the most off-balanced characters of the movie. Named Archer Maggott, he was a religious zealot from the South who had troubles with Jim Brown’s Robert Jefferson. Though never quite a part of the group, Maggott did enough to make you think he might be willing to work with the Dozen. His uncertainty keeps the action suspenseful.

Speaking of suspenseful, the final act is just filled with it. The raid on the German meeting is intense and dramatics, with plenty of twists and turns.

The Dirty Dozen is considered a classic of cinema and you can tell why. A stressful story, strong performances and exciting action caps a very entertaining movie.