Category Archives: Doc’s Classic Movies Reviewed

All Eyes (2022)

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June 4, 2023

Day: 4, Movie: 4

I have a low budget horror/drama for the June Swoon 2 today. I found it on Amazon Prime awhile ago and had placed it in “My Stuff” at the streamer. The premise of the film intrigued me so I added it to the list, intended for the June Swoon.

A disgraced podcast host Allen (Jasper Hammer) received a letter from a man named Don (Ben Hall), a widower who claimed that there was a monster in the woods behind his home. Allen, hoping to use this story for redemption, took Don’s offer to come and help him kill it. However, Allen soon realized that he had gotten himself into a situation that he had simply not expected.

First of all, it was clear that this movie was very low budget, so some of the things that it has in it do not look the greatest. Some of the booby-traps set up at Don’s home were silly and should not have worked the way they did. Having said that, the look of the film is not a criticism. I am sure they did the best they could with the budget that they were afforded.

The key to this movie is the interactions between Allen and Don. Both men were broken, from different reasons and both men were filled with pain. Finding this unlikely connection between them was the heart of the film. Some of the best scenes were the ones where these two men spoke to each other. Don was clearly an unhinged individual who set up a series of bobby-traps around his house that put anyone around him in jeopardy.

The stories of Don’s late wife really helped to humanize him and definitely touched Allen.

The monster involved in this story is an enigma. We know practically nothing about it, though there are some mysterious people as part of this story who obviously have some connection to it. The monster was used very well in the film and actually did look pretty decent when we finally get a look at it. Mind you, that scene was pretty much an apparent green screen, but, again, I appreciated the effort. In the end of the film, the film has some almost mega commentary about the monster that works for the whole film.

The performances of Jasper Hammer and Ben Hall stole the show. Ben Hall especially filled what could have been a cliched character into something rich and multidimensional.

This was a quick watch and was much better than I thought it would be, better than it had any right to be. Good performances and a surprisingly effective monster story blended together into a solid movie.

Grimcutty (2022)

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June 3, 2023

The first film of the June Swoon 2 that is not very good is Hulu’s Grimcutty.

An internet meme comes to life to attack kids, forcing them to cut themselves, and drive parents into a frenzy. Asha (Sara Wolfkind) begins to see the creature and she desperately looks for ways to save herself and her family. Meanwhile, her parents (Usman Ally, Shannyn Sossamon) are becoming panicky and more strict with social media.

I will say off the top that I think there is something in this premise that could have led to a decent film. Unfortunately, the execution of the film itself is severely lacking. There are some gapping holes in the story, the acting is average at best, and, probably the most unforgivable, the creature of Grimcutty is silly looking.

The message of this movie is worthwhile though. Grimcutty is a creepypasta (which, according to Wikipedia, is a “horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet“), and is based upon real life events (such as the Momo Challenge Hoax). The film deals with the concept of addiction to social media and how if can affect your life in a negative manner. That is a viable story beat, but the themes just do not carry through this movie.

This feels like a film that could have benefited from a series of re-writes and going back over to tighten up ideas. I do think there could be a very effective and interesting film somewhere within Grimcutty. Sadly, this just is not it.

Facing Nolan (2022)

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June 2, 2023

I love baseball. Although he never pitched for my favorite baseball team (that’s the Dodgers), I was always a fan of the intimidating Nolan Ryan. There was just something about the Ryan Express that was awesome. He pitched in a day where pitch count was not used. I can’t imagine how many pitches Nolan Ryan would throw in a game. But he had an attitude that if he had anything left in his arm, he wanted to go back out there.

So this Netflix documentary of Nolan’s massive 27-year baseball career, starting with the New York Mets, heading through the California Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, is a fascinating watch.

You know you are something when a former president of the United States is a talking head in your documentary. George W. Bush was a former owner of the Texas Rangers so he had several insider points of view.

Nolan Ryan struck out over 5000 batters in his career. He threw a remarkable 7 no hitters (shattering Sandy Koufax’s record of 4). He won over 300 games. He was inducted as a first ballot Hall of famer. An argument could be made that Nolan Ryan is one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the sport that thrives upon its records and history unlike any other sport.

Listening to Nolan Ryan himself speak about the highlights and challenges of his storied career was thrilling. The film spoke to his wife Ruth Ryan and to several of his children to get the inside of the pitcher.

It was also cool to see so many of Nolan’s contemporaries speak about him too. We saw George Brett, Dave Winfield, Bobby Valentine, Enos Cabell, Roger Clemens, Jose Cruz Sr., Craig Biggio, Rod Carew, Art Howe, Randy Johnson, Cal Ripken, Pete Rose, Ivan Rodriguez, Craig Reynolds, Mike Maddux, and Steve Buechele among others.

Mike MacRae was the narrator, bringing a Texas feel to the documentary. He did a nice job of setting up some of the key moments in Nolan’s career and building anticipation.

Nolan Ryan was a pitcher unlike any other that stepped on a major league mound. He was dominant, but, playing for some bad teams, really held back his overall reputation. After watching this, I appreciate Nolan Ryan all the more.

Brian and Charles (2022)

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June 1, 2023

The second annual June Swoon gets underway today with the first film from 2022 that I had not seen. Some of these film I have been anxious to watch, but I have pushed it off until June came around. This film, which wound up on critic Dan Murrell’s top ten best list of 2022, was the comedy film, Brian and Charles.

Brian (David Earl) was a lonely and isolated inventor who was struggling after a particularly harsh winter in Wales. To combat the loneliness, Brian created a robot named Charles (Chris Hayward). Amazingly, Charles worked and the twosome became close friends.

However, Charles began to feel the need to expand his horizons and travel outside of Brian’s house, which made Brian nervous, afraid of what people would think and of the reprisals of a local bully, Eddie (Jamie Michie).

Brian and Charles was a funny, heart-warming story of two friends, one of which happens to be a robot with his torso made out of a washing machine. It is a weird, eccentric movie that was a lot of fun to watch. The center of it, of course, was the relationship between Brian and Charles. Charles was like a child, hard headed at times and other times filled with wonder for the world. Brian tried to keep Charles isolated, but it was clear that things were about to change.

It was also strange as several times Brian turned to the camera and spoke to it, breaking the fourth wall. It wasn’t just Brian either as Charles addressed the audience, and even Eddie looked toward the camera at a certain point of the story. There was even a moment when Brian was rushing out of his house that he told someone (a cameraman, perhaps?) to get out of the way. It was a quirky and odd trait of this movie that kept it feeling like a documentary of some sort.

Brian was given a love interest in Hazel (Louise Brealey) who added a human feel to Brian. Their relationship was sweet and felt very sincere, considering the movie included a giant robot that liked to dance and wanted to go to Honalulu.

I found myself laughing quite a bit and the film was very wholesome and smart. We are kicking of the June Swoon 2 with a definite winner. I watched Brian and Charles on Prime.

The Little Mermaid (1989)

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Next weekend sees the release of Disney’s live action version of The Little Mermaid. Since I have not watched the original animated classic in, literally, decades, I thought it would be a good idea to pull the original up on Disney + and watch it before seeing the new version on Thursday.

Ariel (Jodi Benson) is a mermaid with a beautiful singing voice who is the daughter of King Triton (Kenneth Mars), and she is obsessed with the human world, collecting objects that are found tossed into the water. When she rescues human Prince Eric (Christopher Daniels Barnes) from drowning, Ariel falls in love with him and wishes for a way to join him in his world.

Of course, Ariel is half-fish and does not have any legs, which is a drawback. When Triton finds out about Ariel’s desires, he flips out and destroys all of her things. This drives Ariel to seek help from the sea witch Ursula (Pat Carroll), who uses her magic to turn Ariel into a human… but at a cost.

First, Ursula takes away Ariel’s voice as payment. Secondly, she insists that Ariel get Eric to fall in love with her and kiss her before the sun sets on the third day above sea or else Ariel would be doomed to be under Ursula’s control forever.

Ariel goes to the human world, with help from her friend fish Flounder (Jason Marin) and the crab who had been assigned to keep tabs on her by her father, Sebastian (Samuel E. Wright), and tries to get Eric to fall in love with her.

Let’s start with the parts of this movie that are great. The music. King the Girl, Under the Sea, Part of Your World are some of the greatest Disney songs of all time. The score to the film contained some very recognizable beats that really worked as well. The sounds of this movie were one of the most classic elements of The Little Mermaid.

The character design of these characters were epic. In particular, the villainous Ursula was brilliantly designed. She was totally frightening and surely scared her share of little kids in the theater.

The conclusion of the film was suspenseful and brutal. I did not remember how Ursula met her demise and it was not the typical Disney ‘villain falls into the pit’ ending that we have seen so many times. SPOILERS:Ursula is impaled by a ship. That was unexpected and very effective.

However, I do have some issues with the film. One, I am not sure I love the message of the film. Ariel has to completely change who she is for her man. In order to be with Eric, she has to give up her fins and become human, casting away her entire childhood. Could that be considered romantic? Maybe. It just feels as if that was a lot to ask.

Maybe that sticks out to me more because I just never bought the relationship between Ariel and Eric. I mean, she rescues him, sings to him, and they fall in love immediately. So much so that she is willing to change herself for him. There was not enough of building their relationship for it to make sense to me. It was a very quick movie and I feel like if the film had added another fifteen minutes or so of their relationship, I might not have felt as uncertain about the end. It did not help that Eric was a bit wishy-washy during the time they were together as he dumped her immediately when Ursula, in disguise, comes to Eric with Ariel’s voice and steals him away. I know the film implied that Eric was being controlled by the magic sea witch, but it still did not seem to be a good look for Prince Eric.

And I mentioned that this was a scary film. There was the scene of the chef chopping fish heads off as Sebastian watched on in terror. I was amazed how brutal this scene was. Mind you, I liked it, but it had to be frightening for any young children watching it.

The Little Mermaid new version is considerably longer than this animated version which may take care of some of the issues that I have with the animated film. There is no doubt that this is a classic film, but it would be down the list for me among the Disney renaissance from the 80s/90s (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King).

Matilda (1996)

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Last night, I attended our high school’s presentation of Matilda, the musical play from 2010 with songs written by Tim Minchin. The kids did exceptionally well. Of course, the movie Matilda the Musical was one of my favorite movies of 2022. All this led me to Netflix today to re-watch the original film from 1996 that had been based upon the book by Roald Dahl.

Directed by Danny DeVito, Matilda (Mara Wilson) was an unwanted young girl by her mean-spirited father Harry Wormwood (Danny DeVito), her selfish mother Zinnia Wormwood (Rhea Perlman) and her brother Michael (Brian Levinson). Matilda spent the first part of her childhood taking care of herself and learning anything she could. When she was finally sent to school, Matilda wound up in the classroom of the sweet Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). Unfortunately, the school’s principal, Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), a former Olympic athlete in hammer throw and shotput, was cruel and vicious toward the children. Trunchbull ruled with fear and violence, sending the children she wanted punished to a closet called “the Chokey.”

It had been a long time since I have see this version of Matilda, and I would not be honest if I did not say that the memory of the outstanding musical film, also currently on Netflix, did not affect my viewing of this movie. I remember a couple of times waiting for the song to start, even though I knew that there would be no singing or dancing.

Mara Wilson does a very good job as the titular character. This version spent more time with Matilda prior to her attending school and had more scenes with her mom and dad. Danny DeVito, who also was the narrator of the film, shows the rotten side of Mr. Wormwood throughout the story. Rhea Perlman stood out of the cast as the dingbat wife too. DeVito and Perlman who are married had a strong connection here.

The secondary children characters did not receive much attention here. There was the cake scene with Bruce (Jimmy Karz), but after that seminal scene, we get very little about Bruce. Matilda’s best friend Lavender (Kiami Davael) had a few cute moments, but she is there for just a touch. The children in Matilda the Musical receive much more scene time and are developed into deeper characters.

Pam Ferris was outstanding as Agatha Trunchbull, setting the bar high for the cruel bully type character. Sure, much of the film requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, Trunchbull remains as one of the top antagonist characters in fiction.

This film does a better job at developing the telekinesis shown by Matilda. We see Matilda practicing it in several scenes before she uses it in a confrontation with Trunchbull.

Matilda (1996) is funny and develops its main characters very well, but the school scenes were not as important feeling since so much of the early film dealt with Matilda’s home life. Still, the outstanding performance by Pam Ferris put a fearful face on the challenge in the story. While I absolutely prefer the recent musical version, Matilda (1996) is a ton of fun and provides an odd tale from the mind of Roald Dahl.

Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone (2017)

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I was on YouTube watching a video from CinemaWins called Everything Great About Everything Everywhere All At Once. I have liked that series of videos and I thought this would be a fun one to watch. Near the beginning of the video, it called attention to the actor Sunita Mani, who was on the Netflix show GLOW, and who was also in Everything Everywhere All At Once in a small role. The narrator then made a reference to another film that had been produced by the Daniels (the directors of EEAAO) called Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone. He recommended it and said that everyone should go an watch it immediately after they finished this video. I was interested so I looked to see where it could be watched. I was able to find it on one of the Amazon Prime channels, MUPI. One free 7-day trial later, I was watching the 40-minute short.

The film starred a comedy dance group called Cocoon Central Dance Team. This included Sunita Mani along with Eleanore Pienta and Tallie Medel.

It is a challenging film to try to explain. The plot synopsis from IMDB gives the idea, “Beach balls. Doctor boners. Farts. Snow. This film, starring Cocoon Central Dance Team, just might have invented its own genre: comedy-dance-sketch-fantasy.”

There is not any real plot to this film. It is a series of vignettes strung together. There were dance numbers in snow, comedy bits and even some musical performances. It was a wild trip. Filled with a ton of creativity, totally unafraid to be weird and original.

The dance routines were very funny. The Cocoon Central Dance Team had amazing facial expressions that made their routines all the funnier.

Written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Rachel Wolther, this movie was forty minutes of bizarre scenes and a good time. If you are looking for a tightly woven story, this is not for you. However, if you are willing to let your mind wander and laugh at the insanity of the whole thing, you may just enjoy Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone.

Dark Star (1974)

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Day: January 31st, Movie: 33

It is January 31, 2023, and that means today is the final day of the first ever Genre-ary DailyView. Thirty-two science fiction films were watched over thirty days leading to the final film, John Carpenter’s Dark Star.

Dark Star was a science fiction/comedy that was John Carpenter’s directorial debut. The movie began as a USC student film that was developed into a feature film, receiving a limited theatrical release.

The film looked in on a crew of the starship Dark Star which had been out on a twenty year mission to blow up unstable planets that might threaten future plans. Dark Star had begun to break down and malfunction, leading to more troubles.

There are some funny moments in Dark Star. The talking bombs are a real hoot. There are several intriguing situations that happen during the plot. I really enjoyed the last half of the movie more than I did the beginning.

It definitely feels like a student production with the special effects (which were okay for 1974) and the list of unknown actors. They did use technology to create the jump to hyperspace that they would use a few years later in Star Wars.

As I said, the second half of the movie was more entertaining for me, with some of the visuals making me laugh out loud. I was not involved with the characters, but I loved the bomb. A talking, spiritually debating bomb is funnier than hell.

You can see how John Carpenter developed into a director who directed and produced some of the best science fiction films of all time. You can see it begin in Dark Star.

Box Room (2014)

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Day: January 30th, Movie: 32

I made a decision this evening. Because I have a bunch of write-up to do tonight (The Last of Us and a couple of Poker Face episodes) and Monday Night RAW, I decided to push the film that I had scheduled for today to tomorrow, and I went to look for a short that would work for today. I found a sci-fi short called Box Room, which was something else.

Jerry (David Joseph Magee) was a sad and lonely young boy who lived with his neglectful mother (Erika McGann) in an apartment. When he discovered a damp space on the wall, Jerry began peeling away the wallpaper. He uncovered a strange, alien-looking orifice that was inside the wall. At first, Jerry was repulsed by the creature, but, as he continued with problems with his mother, he made a choice. Jerry had sex with the creature. And then things got worse after that.

This movie was really fairly gross. Only a hormonal and, perhaps, depressed teenager would even consider sticking his penis inside that creature. It looked horrible and left all kind of yuck across anything that Jerry put inside it (such as a pencil). How could he think this was a wise idea? There was a dream sequence in the short that was horrifying.

David Joseph Magee does a really solid job in a film where he has to shoulder a huge part of the storytelling. And the orifice in the wall was clearly designed to look like a monstrous vagina, and it was frightening. The whole thing was extremely creepy and unsettling, but was pretty great. It absolutely delivered feelings during the story and created plenty of tension. The ending was just as gross as the beginning.

It was only fifteen minutes and it was worth the grossness.

Space Cowboys (2000)

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Day: January 29th, Movie: 31

Well, this one is not really a science fiction film. Maybe a few of the events at the very end of the film may let this qualify, but I wanted to watch this movie so that is the reason why I had this be a second film of the day in the Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView. Space Cowboys was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred several older actors in critical roles in an Armageddon-like movie.

Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner played a group of pilots who lost a mission back in the late 1950s and spent decades in regret. When a Russian satellite was falling out of orbit, NASA had to recruit Eastwood to fix the navigation system on the satellite, which was one that he had created and no one else knew about any longer.

Eastwood blackmailed Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) to allow his old crew to come back and fly the mission or he would not help. Against his better judgment, Gerson agree only if the crew could pass their physicals and the training other astronauts go through.

As I said, there is a lot of similarities to the movie Armageddon here, including being about as unlikely of a situation. The plot implausibility was a major factor for this movie. Even though you had four very charismatic characters involved in the story, what they are asking the audience to buy is a lot.

Still, if you can toss those doubts out of your mind, Space Cowboys was a fun and pleasurable ride.

Along with the four lead actors, we have several top notch stars involved including William Devane, Courtney B. Vance, Barbara Babcock, Blair Brown, Loren Dean, and Rade Serbedzija.

There were some predictable moments and some clichés, but the four stars are entertaining and a joy to watch.

Brazil (1985)

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Day: January 29th, Movie: 30

Terry Gilliam is a filmmaker whose work is filled with some of the most imaginative storytelling that you are ever going to find. 1985’s Brazil falls right into step with that concept. Brazil was the second film in Gilliam’s “Trilogy of Imagination” with Time Bandits and the Adventures of Baron Munchausen being the other two.

According to IMDB, “Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle (Brian Miller), Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton (Kim Greist). Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and Sam and Jill’s lives are put in danger.“

Gilliam’s film is a dark comedy set in a dystopian future. It takes some inspiration from George Orwell’s novel 1984. Brazil is a satire focusing on bureaucracy and technocracy. There is a real feel of English comedy to Brazil which may be something that prevents some audiences from appreciating how funny and clever it actually is.

Jonathan Pryce leads a remarkably strong cast as Sam Lowry. He played the role with a confused state that makes him a naturally excellent protagonist which played right into the final resolution of the movie.

The outstanding cast included Kathrine Helmond (Jessica from Soap and Mona from Who’s the Boss) as Sam’s mother. I was pleased to see her again, as she was one of my favorite actresses from those sitcoms. There was also Kim Greist, Robert DeNiro, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Bob Haskins, Peter Vaughn, Ian Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Sheila Reid, and Barbara Hicks, along with a ton of British actors.

The movie contained a lot of creativity and imagination, throwing together some visuals that were excellent and fairly absurd.  Brazil is a lot of fun and has become a cult classic because of its insane story and a visionary narrative.  Terry Gilliam is one of the most original filmmakers you are ever going to find.

 

 

Repo Man (1984)

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Day: January 28th, Movie: 29

When looking for science fiction movies, I did not expect one of them to be Repo Man. I was having a tough time believing that a movie about men who repossess cars could be a sci-fi flick. Spoiler alert: It was.

In Repo Man, we start out with Otto (Emilio Estevez), a young punk who was fired from his job as a stock clerk at a supermarket. His girlfriend left him form his best friend sending Otto into a depression. As he was walking around LA, Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) pulled up in a car and offered Otto $25 to drive his other car out of the bad neighborhood because Bud’s wife was in labor.

That turned out to be a lie. Instead, Bud was repossessing a car and he took Otto back with him to the company for which he worked. He was offered a job as a repo man. Otto was not happy about this initially, but, when Otto learned that his parents had given their money away to a televangelist, Otto returned to accept the job at the repo company.

Meanwhile, a 1964 Chevy Malibu was being driven by J. Frank Parnell (Fox Harris). He was being pursued by several different agencies and individuals because the car contained something amazing, perhaps even extraterrestrial, in the trunk. a highway patrolman had pulled Parnell over and opened the trunk, releasing a flash of light that disintegrated him, leaving only his boots.

Of course, the storylines would cross, bringing a lot of weirdness to the LA scene.

There were several other actors involved in this film that brought some good work besides Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. Other actors in the film included Tracey Walter (Bob from Batman 1989, Frog from Best of the West, Cookie from City Slickers, among others), Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Vonetta McGee, Richard Foronjy, Eddie Velez, Zander Schloss, Miguel Sandoval, Helen Martin and the Circle Jerks.

Repo Man was a very funny, dark comedy that did not pull any punches. Otto started out as a very unlikable character, but as the film moved forward, Estevez was able to provide more positives to Otto, even though he was never what I would call the hero of the story. There were so many weird things that went on that worked in the overall narrative.

The performances were all pretty great, with many of them going way over the top. The characters are both real and caricatures at the same time, which is an impressive balance. Everything went through the POV of Emilio Estevez and kept the insane things normal.

Repo Man was a surprise for me. I expected to not enjoy this one much, but I found it to be different than I expected.

High Life (2018)

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Day: January 27th, Movie: 28

Robert Pattinson is a very good actor. He has elevated his game in the years since Twilight, even though many still look at him with that film in their minds. Pattinson has taken some challenging films over the years to escape the shadow of Edward. High Life spotlights his capable skill as an actor.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to the outer reaches of the solar system. They must now rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.”

As I mentioned in the opening, there is no denying what a strong performance Robert Pattinson gave in this movie. However, I struggled to follow the story. The story of High Life was told in a non-linear narrative structure that was, at the least, difficult to follow. The differing sections of the story felt separate from each other as well, calling the purpose of the narrative into question.

The film looked wonderful, taking the independent feel and making it appear even better.

The story included a plan which sent a group of criminals into space in a mission dealing with a black hole. There was also something dealing with artificial insemination, and there were some very weird and erotic scenes with the criminals and the lead, Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche). There were a couple of freaky moments in the film.

There were positives in the movie, but the story style felt too artsy for me and I had a tough time following it. I wanted more with the daughter and less with the criminals. High Life was intriguing, but lacked a few connections.

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

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Day: January 26th, Movie: 27

Before there was InnerSpace. Before there was Rick and Morty. Before there was Osmosis Jones. There was the 1966 Fantastic Voyage, one of the first and most influential films to travel inside the human body.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “The brilliant scientist Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) develops a way to shrink humans, and other objects, for brief periods of time. Benes, who is working in communist Russia, is transported by the CIA to America, but is attacked en route. In order to save the scientist, who has developed a blood clot in his brain, a team of Americans in a nuclear submarine is shrunk and injected into Benes’ body. They have a finite period of time to fix the clot and get out before the miniaturization wears off.“

There is no denying that this is a cool concept. Taking a submarine and a crew of specialists into the human body by shrinking it down is an amazing idea and Fantastic Voyage pulls it off remarkably well. Sure, the special effects do not hold up when compared to the more recent films, but this was 1966. What they had accomplished for the time period is sensational.

Stephen Boyd played CIA Agent Charles Grant, Raquel Welch played technical assistant Cora Peterson, Donald Pleasence played medical chief Dr. Michaels, William Redfield played US Navy officer Captain Bill Owens and Edmond O’Brien was General Alan Carter. The cast was good and did a nice job in the story that was certainly out there. It was fun to see Raquel Welch in a role that was not taking advantage of her looks.

One of the most fun part of the film was the scenes with Arthur O’Connell as Colonel Donald Reid which had to be the inspiration of the scenes with Lloyd Bridges in Airplane! It was a tad distracting and made me want to laugh every time.

I enjoyed the creativity of the film and the story. Fantastic Voyage was a quick watch and was paced beautifully. The special effects are not great for today, but were groundbreaking at the time. There is no denying that this film led to plenty of classic moments from other films.

Coherence (2013)

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Day: January 25th, Movie: 26

I had low expectations for this film as I played it on Prime. I had no specific reasons to think it was going to be bad, but I just had never heard anything about it. I’m not even sure how it wound up on the list to watch. However it happened, I am so glad that I saw this, because it is one of the best films that I have watched during this Genre-ary Sci-Fi DailyView.

A group of friends were getting together for a dinner party. With the inclusion of a party guest’s plus one, tensions were beginning to rise among the group. Discussion switched to Miller’s Comet which was going to pass overhead, very close to the earth, that night and how previous comets affected human behavior. When the neighborhood lost power, bizarre things began to happen and the group were tested with their friendship.

I loved the story of this movie. It was intelligent and creative. It kept you guessing as it slowly revealed certain details of what was going on. It balanced the weirdness with plenty of relationship drama and character interactions. The script was clever and well developed, keeping the audience uncertain about what was happening and how everything fit together.

It was great to see Nicholas Brendan (who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Brendan played Mike, an actor whose house was the location of the dinner party. All of these characters had personalities and were more than just taking up space. Time was given to the development of the characters which make us feel more for them than just a group of random people dealing with strange occurrences.

The main character involved was Em (Emily Baldoni), who was dating Kevin (Maury Sterling). Em was bright and inquisitive as things started to happen. She was one of the major people involved in determining what was happening and speculating on what they should do. She does a fantastic job of showing her confusion and uncertainty of the choices that they make. She also takes the biggest swing in the third act, which was truly unexpected.

The fact that this movie was made with such a low budget and limited effects and was still remarkably effective and filled with anxiety showed how successful director James Ward Byrkit was in, this, his directorial debut.

Coherence grabbed my attention immediately and never gave it up. The film ran for a wonderfully paced 88 minutes and every minute of it felt important and vital to either the development of the story or of the characters. The success of the film is that there was a balance between the character study and the sci-fi elements. I found this movie totally engaging and entertaining.