DailyView: Day 305, Movie 433

This one was like a strange amalgam of David Lynch and Terry Gilliam movies if they went completely crazy.

Ink was a 2009 science fiction fantasy film written and directed by Jamin Winans and this was nuts. I was not sure exactly what was happening for most of this movie.

Visually stunning, Ink was filled with remarkable imagery and design. The film does not go out of its way to explain to the audience what was happening or why there were these creatures running around. It counts on the viewers to be smart enough to figure out what is going down without the need to explain every little detail. That is great.

Plot summary, according to IMDB: “As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge. They are invisible except for the power they exert over us in our sleep, battling for our souls through dreams. One force delivers hope and strength through good dreams; the other infuses the subconscious with desperation through nightmares. John (Christopher Soren Kelly) and Emma (Quinn Hunchar), Father and Daughter are wrenched into this fantastical dream world battle, forced to fight for John’s soul and to save Emma from an eternal nightmare. Separate in their journey, they encounter unusual characters that exist only in their subconscious. Or do they?“

I was impressed with performances, as everyone did a wonderful job. Still, the performances were not the stand out aspect of the film. Christopher Soren Kelly and Quinn Hunchar was the best among the cast.

This was a film that demanded your attention and it was an adventure to watch. I did not know what would be next, but it really worked and everything came together in the third act for a satisfying conclusion.

DailyView: Day 305, Movie 432

This was the third of the films I found free on YouTube when I was awake late at night last week. I have always been a huge fan of Robin Williams and any time he was in a film, I was interested. The Rotten Tomatoes score was lower, but I was still going to give this a chance. Turned out that The Final Cut was better than the score indicated.

Robin Williams played Alan Hakman, a cutter, in this sci-fi film where people are able to purchase implants from EYE Tech, which records all of their memories during their lives. When they passed away, Cutters would take the implant and cut the memories that were less desirable and create a memorial for family at a funeral.

Alan specialized in taking the worst people and creating a positive memorial out of their memories, essentially getting rid of the dark or disgusting memories.

When Charles Bannister (Michael St. John Smith), one of the main people behind the EYE Tech company died, Hakman was given the memories by the widow, Jennifer (Stephanie Romanov). Though Bannister put a positive face to the world, there were memories that indicated that he was molesting his daughter Isabel (Genevieve Buechner). Anti-implant forces led by Alan’s friend Fletcher (Jim Caviezel) came to see Alan, demanding that he turn over Bannister’s memories so they could discredit EYE Tech. Alan refused.

As Alan was going through the memories of Bannister, he came across a memory of a man at a party given by Bannister that reminded Alan of a tragedy from his own past and started his own self-doubt.

The premise of this film was pretty solid, and actually reminded me somewhat of Reminiscence from last year with Hugh Jackman. The moral ambiguity of the job of cutter was clearly a key theme, and Hakman was anything but a hero. It was his own past life that caused him to question everything he had been doing, not the horrors that he would have seen in the memories of the killers, criminals and deviants that he saw.

Still, you can’t help but root for Robin Williams, as he continued to show that he was more than the chaotic comedian that he rode to initial fame.

Mira Sorvino played a female confidant of Alan that became more than just a friend. Mira has an interesting arc in the film, but it felt as if it were a little underwritten.

The third act ends very abruptly and might cause some to be unhappy with it. I actually found the ending to be satisfactory and to have been an ironic way to end the story. I may have wanted more but the final scene laid out a further question about the implications of using this technology and how it may have tainted people deeper than expected.

Th film is a little slow and it certainly is dark. I can see where some people may not have enjoyed this and I can understand the low Tomatometer score. I, however, found this to be a solid, although not spectacular, sci-fi story dealing with broken people.

DailyView: Day 305, Movie 431

I found a comedy on Netflix this morning, a British independent comedy, that sounded like fun.

Mindhorn is the story of a fading television star from the 1980s, Richard Thorncroft, desperately trying to cling to what little fame he still had. He had starred on a TV show called Mindhorn where Richard played Detective Bruce Mindhorn, a detective with a cybernetic eye (that was a lie detector). Twenty-five years later, Richard’s star had faded.

However, police contacted him because there was an escaped lunatic, Paul Melly (Russell Tovey) who believed Mindhorn was real and he would only speak to him. Police contacted Richard with the hope that he could keep Paul on the phone long enough for them to get a trace. Unfortunately, things went awry.

Richard found himself in a complicated story with a murder, his old flame and ex-co-star Patricia (Essie Davis), and a videotape that showed that Melly was innocent.

This is one of those films where the lead character was a bumbling idiot and stumbled through the plot with comedic results. We have seen this kind of character several times, and it does feel familiar. It is very British comedy and it works. Some of other films that would have this type of character would depend on sophomoric jokes, but those are limited and fit in when used.

Mindhorn is silly, but it worked well. You connected to the character and forgive the ridiculousness of the character. Mindhorn was funny, especially if you are a fan of British humor. It was a nice treat on Netflix.

DailyView: Day 304, Movie 430

The second film I found free on YouTube after the late night browsing Thursday evening (morning?) was Parkland. It sounded the most intriguing of the films that I found on YouTube, and I was right. This was a compelling look at the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas in 1963.

While none of the characters involved received an in-depth development, several performances stood out to make the film work. The performances included Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder, the man who filmed the assassination, Tom Welling as Roy Kellerman, the loyal secret service agent who would not take no for an answer, Billy Bob Thornton as Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels, Jacki Weaver as Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, Zac Efron as Dr. Charles “Jim” Carrico, the attending physician at Parkland Hospital, James Badge Dale as Robert Oswald, brother of Lee Harvey, David Harbour as J. Gordon Shanklin, head of Dallas branch of FBI, and Ron Livingston as FBI Agent James Hosty. These performances stood out on the film and helped overcome the flaws that were within the script or the characterization.

There were some truly intense scenes too. The scene of President Kennedy arriving at Parkland Hospital and the resulting efforts to save his life were both heartbreaking and harrowing. The removal of President Kennedy’s body from the hospital to Air Force One, despite laws of Dallas stating that the body could not be removed, was intense and really gave Tom Welling some material to work with.

Paul Giamatti gave such an amazing, understated performance in an over-the-top moment that it gave me a new respect for the talented actor. The pain of what he witnessed and the crushing guilt weighed upon Zapruder and Giamatti played that with nobility. It was a wonderful performance.

Perhaps if the film had not spread out the narrative to so many other perspectives, despite great performances by all, there would be more of an emotional depth outside of just the true story that this film reports. If the film focused in on Zac Efron’s character or Billy Bob Thornton’s character for more than what it did, the film would resonate more. As it is, I enjoyed the film, but it seemed as if there were four or five potential stories that could have sustained a longer look. Perhaps this would have worked better as a series than a just a feature length movie.

Still, the story was presented in the movie format, and this was compelling, even if it left me wanting for more. The acting was superb and the power of the moment in time that changed the course of the USA forever was a rich moment to mine.

DailyView: Day 303, Movie 429

I found myself awake early in the morning for no apparent reason, so I was playing around on YouTube until I felt tired enough to get back to sleep. As I was scanning around the page, I came across a group of films listed there that were free. I had not heard of any of these, so I was interested in checking them out, to see if they would be good films for the DailyView. This was when I found a documentary by Jason Aron that looked in depth at one of the great movies of all time, Back to the Future. I knew that was the film that I wanted to use for today’s DailyView.

I may not be as much of a fan of Back to the Future as some of the people interviewed for this documentary, but I have always loved that trilogy. This doc was clearly a love letter to all of the aspects that made that series such an awesome time.

There were interviews with the stars, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, as well as people behind the camera like Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Huey Lewis, Alan Silvestri, and Bob Gale. It also spent significant time with fans, focusing in on the DeLorean, hover boards, and other memorabilia.

The documentary showed a few shots of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, the original actor hired to play the part prior to Michael J. Fox taking on the role. Some of the discussion about how the script and the comedy was not working with Stoltz in the part was fascinating. It goes to show that even miscasting one actor, albeit an important one, could devastate a project.

I enjoyed the stories about how it was difficult to shop the film around, even going to Disney looking for backing. Disney reportedly said that they couldn’t do this movie, because they wrote a movie about incest. Amazing how one of the most beloved movies ever made struggled to find its way into existence.

I also enjoyed the section where they talk about how the script/story broke a lot of rules in Hollywood such as having a lot of exposition, having a protagonist that does not learn anything or have a central path to follow, or how having the mother lust after her son was a taboo subject. Yet many people believe that the screenplay for Back to the Future should be studied in film classes.

This was a fun documentary that investigated many of the reasons why we love Back to the Future. It was something that I was glad to find while awake in the middle of the night.

DailyView: Day 302, Movie 428

I was going through Netflix tonight, looking for something that I would enjoy. The Jungle Book 2 was hardly satisfying tonight and I was hoping for something better. I found it.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture was a film from 2018 about Douglas Kenney (Will Forte), a comedy writer who was one of the founding forces behind National Lampoon. The film followed Kinney through his younger days with his friend and co-creator Henry Beard (Domhnall Gleeson) through the rise of National Lampoon from college magazine to major comedic force. Kenney was a writer on Animal House and Caddyshack and his life took a turn of excesses.

Based on Josh Karp’s book of the same name, A Futile and Stupid Gesture was howling funny, wittily written and surprisingly deep. The film was as much of a character study of this hilarious individual who proved that comedians are likely to have come from pain.

Douglas had to deal with feelings of inadequacy from his parents, especially his father (Harry Groener), as Doug believed that his brother, who had died, was the son that his father loved the most. The relationship with his father was one of the most troubling one of his entire life.

The film is narrated by an older version of Douglas, played by Martin Mull. Mull spends much of the movie breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience about choices that he had made and commenting on the situation.

The writing of this film, I found, was exceptionally witty. The constant one liners coming from Doug were very funny and pushed the level of comedy. The dialogue was quick and biting, but truly funny.

There are a lot of comedy legends portrayed in the movie. We see actors playing John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Tom Snyder, Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Rodney Dangerfield, and Tim Matheson. None of these performances really catch your eye as these famous actors, but that is part of why they were successful. Plus, Martin Mull is able to use that as a joke early in the movie.

I really enjoyed the chaotic nature of the narrative structure. I thought the use of Martin Mull was inspired, especially with what the end result of the movie turned out to be. There are several wonderful meta moments that made this movie a lot of fun to watch. I was impressed with the work of Will Forte, bringing to life a person with whom I was not at all familiar, and making me care about him. It might have tried to cram too much into the film, but I enjoyed what they gave me and I laughed throughout. What more can you ask of a comedy?

DailyView: Day 302, Movie 427

I was watching the YouTube show Charts with Dan, featuring Dan Murrell and he was looking at a Box Office chart from years before. On that chart was The Jungle Book 2, which I had no idea was a theatrically released Disney film. Having seen the listing on Disney +, I always assumed that it was just another one of the direct to DVD sequels such as The Return of Jafar or Lion King 2.

Of course, after watching it, that is exactly what this movie reminded me of.

With a new voice cast, The Jungle Book 2 felt like a considerably weaker retread of the much better original animated film. And, of course, it was far inferior to the “live action” Jungle Book that was released a few years ago.

Mowgli (Haley Joel Osment) was feeling homesick for the jungle, now that he was in the man’s camp. The little girl Shanti (Mae Whitman) and the little boy Ranjan (Connor Funk) were there too. Baloo (John Goodman) was also missing his man cub so he took off to find the kid, followed from the jungle by tiger Shere Khan (Tony Jay).

Once he got there, the people of the camp panicked when they saw Shere Khan and Baloo and Mowgli, who had reunited, retreated into the jungle. Shanti and Ranjan followed to try and save Mowgli from the wild bear Baloo.

The film used Bare Necessities or some version of it three times. There was no doubt that the film was desperate for music. The other songs in the film are unremarkable and hard to remember. It is why they kept going back to Bare Necessities.

John Goodman made a decent Baloo. Haley Joel Osment was clearly not much of a singer. He was fine the rest of the time, but not a real standout.

The film is harmless, but needless. Maybe a little kid would enjoy the film, but it is such a drop in quality from the first one, it was quite a disappointment.

DailyView: Day 301, Movie 426

I have always been a fan of serial killers in pop culture. I was an avid reader about Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer when I was younger and I was intrigued by the type of person who could do such heinous actions against other human beings. All that means is that I have a soft spot in my heart for movies dealing with serial killers, and there are no shortage of them. Even those that are average to below average interest me.

The January Man falls right into that wheelhouse of films. It has Kevin Kline as former police detective Nick Starkey, who had been forced off of the force two years before due to a scandal. His brother Frank (Harvey Keitel) had become the Commissioner, and he had a contemptuous relationship with Nick. The city had been frightened for the last year as a serial killer had strangled one woman every month. There had been 11 murders so far.

The Mayor (Rod Steiger), desperate for some resolution to the case, brings Nick back to help find the killer.

I liked some of the parts of the story that were involving the actual murder case. Watching the unconventional Nick figure out details of the serial killer’s personality was fascinating and made Nick look smart. Most of the rest of the movie was pretty lame.

There was a whole subplot involving Nick and his brother’s wife, Christine (Susan Sarandon) that is just ridiculous. The rest of the cast, from Harvey Keitel to Rod Steiger to Captain Vincent Alcoa (Danny Aiello) spent the whole movie just randomly yelling.

Alan Rickman is in the movie as Ed, Nick’s painter friend, who really has no other reason than to get Alan Rickman into the movie. He is totally underutilized. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio played the Mayor’s daughter Bernadette, who forms a relationship with the older Nick. I liked her character although she went from a scared young girl to a tough woman pretty quickly.

The dialogue is not good. The performances are fine, but the film does not really have a tone to it. The third act changes from a more serious serial killer movie to an almost slapstick finale that felt out of place in a story that had a murderer of 11 women.

By the way, the murderer wound up in blackface, which may have been okay to have portrayed in 1989, but in 2022 it felt irresponsible.

Nick and Bernadette had a sweet relationship that could have been expanded. The killer’s signature and victim choice was interesting and I enjoyed how Nick worked his way through the clues unlike most people could have. There was just so much more than did not work or was out of place here. Great actors such as Alan Rickman and Susan Sarandon were wasted and other great actors just spent too much time screaming. What I hoped would be an entertaining film in the serial killer genre turned into mostly a mess. Kevin Kline was engaging as always though.

DailyView: Day 300, Movie 425

I was about halfway through this movie this morning, Sparrows, a silent film from 1926 starring Mary Pickford, when the internet went out. That, of course, put the viewing of this movie, the first one from 1926 which leaves only 1924 as the year where I have not seen at least one film from during the DailyView sating back to 1915, on hold.

Later tonight, the internet finally came back and I was able to finish the silent picture.

Most of the silent pictures that I have watched during the DailyView have been comedies, from performers such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Sparrows, however, is not a comedy. It would be a drama, or perhaps a melodrama, where Molly (Mary Pickford) a young girl at a baby farm, has to help a baby (Mary Louise Miller) that had been kidnapped from her wealthy parent, Dennis Wayne (Roy Stewart).

Molly had been taking care of the crew of children at the Baby Farm, which was being run by the cruel Mr. Grimes (Gustav von Seyffertitz) and his wife (Charlotte Mineau). When the kidnappers brought the little baby girl to hide at Grimes’ baby farm, Grimes started to become nervous. He decided it would be a better deal to get rid of the baby by throwing her into the swamp.

This sent Molly into a protective state as she led the baby and all of the other children on an escape attempt from the baby farm.

There are actually a couple of harrowing scenes in the film, including several uses of alligators in the swamp. Mary Pickford created a character that was so easy to root for and would do anything to help these children. She was a hero who found herself in some over-the-top situations but who always did what she could to save the children.

Here are the children actors who played the parts (Source: Wikipedia)

• Billy Butts
• Jack Lavine
• Billy “Red” Jones
• Muriel McCormac
• Florence Rogan
• Mary McLain
• Sylvia Bernard
• Seesel Ann Johnson
• Camille Johnson
• Monty O’Grady

It might be a touch too long for a silent melodrama, but Mary Pickford is great and the bravery her character showed was heroic as could be.

DailyView: Day 300, Movie 424

Our internet provider went down today, causing a disruption with the plans for the DailyView.  I was about two-thirds through 1926’s silent film classic Sparrows when the signal went out. 

After waiting for a while to see if it would come back, I had to make an adjustment to keep the DailyView underway.  I pulled out the DVD copy of the Studio Ghibli films and picked out one of the remaining animated movies from the EYG Hall of Fame studio that I had yet to see. 

The choice was The Cat Returns from 2002. 

I watched the English dubbed version of the film, which featured Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Tim Curry, Elliott Gould, Kristen Bell and Peter Boyle.

Shy high school student Haru (Anne Hathaway) saved a stray cat from being run over by a truck.  Haru was surprised when that cat stood up on two feet and thanked her for her bravery.  Turned out, he was a prince named Lune (Andrew Bevis).  Lune’s father the King (Tim Curry) decided that Haru would be brought to their kingdom and would married Lune, despite the fact that she did not want to marry him.

A mysterious voice directed Haru to find the Baron (Cary Elwes) who would help her to avoid the marriage of inconvenience.  

With the typically beautiful animation that Studio Ghibli always used, The Cat Returns is a great animated film.  The hand drawn look is always something special among animated companies and few did it better than Studio Ghibli.  Shorter than many of the animated films from the studio, The Cat Returns has a magic about it that is aided by the shorter run time.  It felt more like a fairy tale than some of the other Studio Ghibli films. 

The film seemed to be a mixture of The Princess Bride, Labyrinth, The Wizard of Oz and The Neverending Story.  The whole film had a wonderful vibe to it and was completely entertaining.  The English voice work was exceptional as everybody seemed to be on their A game. 

The only drawback I had was the constant fat shaming directed toward Muta (Peter Boyle).  It was played as a joke, but it was unnecessary and made some of the characters appear mean.  Muta was a loyal friend, albeit a grump and he did not deserve such treatment.

Other than that, I loved The Cat Returns.  Being a cat person, I love the use of them in the animation.  Many times they are shown as the evil or henchmen of animated villains.  Here, they are all shades of cats. 

Now, I just hope I will be able to post this on the site sometime tonight.

DailyView: Day 299, Movie 423

It’s President’s Day! To honor the day, I went looking for a movie featuring a president that I could use for the DailyView. One of the most tense and fascinating time of in history was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the film Thirteen Days gives a look at the Kennedy Administration and their anxiety-filled two week period that could have led to World War III.

Based on the book “The Kennedy Tapes – Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis”, Thirteen Days starred Kevin Costner as Ken O’Donnell, special adviser to the President, Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy, and Steven Culp as Bobby Kennedy. The movie told the (mostly) true version of the story of how JFK dealt with the fact that the Soviet Union had placed intermediate-range ballistic missiles carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba.

The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the USA and the USSR within a hair’s breath of nuclear war, and it was only from the strength of President Kennedy and his staff that kept that from happening. The film indicated that there were plenty of military officers who were pushing JFK for an invasion of Cuba when the photos of the missiles in Cuba were discovered. President Kennedy knew that an invasion of Cuba by the United States would start a slippery slope that would eventually lead to a larger conflict with the Soviets and he did everything in his power to prevent such an occurrence.

Bruce Greenwood does an amazing job translating the frustration and the utter desperation the situation brought to the White House. Kevin Costner was the eyes and the voice of the audience as he struggled with every possible choice. His influence on Kennedy was second only to Bobby.

The film does a magnificent job of creating tone of anxiousness and tension with every minute of the film making us think that, despite the fact that we know the ultimate historical result, the world was truly in jeopardy.

This film was great and it certainly showed the arguable high point of JFK’s presidency.

DailyView: Day 299, Movie 422

I have watched concert films from Elvis and Queen over the last few days, and so I decided to add one of the more controversial one to the DailyView, Michael Jackson’s This is It.

It took awhile for me to listen to Michael Jackson songs after the documentary series Leaving Neverland. The allegations against Jackson of sexual abuse of kids stuck with me and made listening to his music difficult. Since the time has passed and some of the allegations have been questioned, it has made it a little easier for me.

But that is not the only controversies with this movie. This is It was a documentary that was pieced together from personal films of the rehearsals for a comeback tour of the same name. In fact, the film itself is almost exclusively Michael’s rehearsals for the show. However, the show was cancelled because of the untimely death of Michael Jackson. There were plenty of people, including family members of the Jackson estate, that believed that releasing the movie was just an attempt at a cash grab and that Michael, being a perfectionist, would never have wanted it released since he was not giving it his all. There were also accusations of the use of body doubles of Michael because he was not in good health, an accusation denied by Sony. This led to protests and boycotts of the film by fans.

I will admit that I did not notice any obvious examples of replacing Jackson with body doubles. It seemed pretty clear that it was him. There may be one or two places where a body double could have been used, but it would not make sense in the grand scheme of the film to do so. As for not giving his all, he says multiple times through the movie that he is not singing to save his voice for the performance. There are moments when he breaks into song and he chastises himself and others that he should not be singing. I found this as Jackson’s desire to create an epic show and protecting it, despite the times when the music’s feel overwhelmed him.

No matter what you think about the person Michael Jackson, it cannot be denied that the man was a musical genius and one of the greatest onstage performers we have ever seen. The complicated dance routines involved in the plans for the show was amazing and how fluidly he moved through them was astounding, especially with the fact that he was not fully healthy and would die weeks later.

Jackson’s perfectionism came through in the film as well as he was constantly stopping people for specific reasons, to hold a beat or to let the music breathe, that some would not be able to hear, but it was how Michael had the sound in his head. His musical brilliance was definitely shown here.

The film is an amazing look at an artist in the process of creativity and how so many people were behind the scenes in support of the man. This is It exists in opposition to Finding Neverland, the dark side to the legend that was Michael Jackson.