DailyView: Day 311, Movie 441

I set myself several “unofficial” goals for the DailyView. The main official goal, of course, was to watch a movie from 2020 or before that I had never seen, every day, for 365 days. However, I have set a few “unofficial” goals to go along with the main one, as much for fun as anything else. Today, I accomplished the first of those “unofficial” goals thanks to Sherlock Jr. a silent film from 1924 starring Buster Keaton.

As of this moment, I have seen, as a part of the DailyView, at least one movie from every year from 1915 through to 2020. The final year I needed to complete that feat was a film from 1924. While investigating what films would work for that year, I found the Sherlock Jr. film with Buster Keaton.

I have to say that I liked this more than some of the other Buster Keaton films I have seen. I found myself laughing several times as his variation of slapstick that was such a staple of the silent films of the 1920s.

Buster was a movie projectionist and a janitor. He wanted to get a gift for his girl (Kathryn McGuire) but he did not have enough money. When he bought a less expensive version, he changed the price to make it look like he spent more.

However, this led to him getting tied up as a suspect in taking the girl’s father’s watch, actually taken by the Local Sheik (Ward Crane), and he framed Buster for the theft.

Returning to the theater, Buster played a movie and began to dream that he was in the sotry of each.

As I said, I found this very funny, and Buster was excellent. While I have always preferred Charlie Chaplin, this Buster Keaton was charming, engaging and extremely expressive during his troubled dream. There is a chase scene that is just expertly choreographed and designed.

There was a tremendous scene where Buster walked down through the audience of the movie theater and walked up straight into the movie on the screen. That sequence was masterful and a genius bit of effects for the time. According to Wikipedia, Keaton had said “that his character walking onto the screen and into a film was ‘the reason for making the whole picture…Just that one situation.’ “

There were some other amazing stunts in the film, including one with a train and a nearby water spout, Buster leaping into a small suitcase and a whole stretch of a motorcycle ride. These are fabulous and Buster was known to have done his own stunts. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Buster had seriously injured his neck during the water spout stunt, perhaps even having broken it.

Sherlock Jr. was a lot of fun and I am please that it was able to check off the first of the “unofficial” goals for the DailyView, which has less than two months to go.

DailyView: Day 311, Movie 440

Stan Lee is one of my idols. He created so much of my childhood with the hand that he had in designing the Marvel Universe of characters. Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk etc. were so important to me then, and remain so to this day. It is a legacy that Stan Lee will never lose.

However, not everything Stan Lee did turned into a classic. Case in point, The Condor.

Stan Lee created a series of heroes for POW Entertainment in the early 2000s, which included a character named Mosaic. Here, Lee introduced a Latino character called the Condor, which was a skateboarder with nanotech technology. This film and the hero surrounding it was lifeless.

Tony Valdez (Wilmer Valderrama) was a famous skateboarder who was up for a major championship. When his skateboard was sabotaged, Tony wound up losing the competition. His parents were killed in a car wreck after they were run off the road and Tony wound up being beaten up by the same assailants, who break his legs terribly.

With a diagnosis of not being able to walk again, Tony’s friend Sammi (Kathleen Barr) brought him the nanotech and a powered up skateboard. Tony wound up in a costume as The Condor, and he went to try to gain justice for his parents.

The animated movie is typical for the low budget type of animation. Basically, what you would expect on a cable network show. None of the animation stands out.

The voice cast was average too. Wilmer Valderrama, from That 70’s Show, is fine as Tony, but nothing else stands out. Stan Lee makes his typical cameo in the film as a random grandfather of a girl saved by the Condor.

The story is your typical superhero fare, nothing remarkable or interesting. The character of Condor is basically like the character of Rocket Racer from Marvel, which should tell you how uninspiring he is. It takes too long to set up the conflict and the villains are as stereotypical as you are going to find.

Not everything can be Spider-Man. The Condor doesn’t even come close.

DailyView: Day 311, Movie 439

The follow-up documentary from Seth Breedlove to the On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Legend doc is subtitled The Search. This documentary is very much the story of the title, a search for Bigfoot.

Three sections are used here just like the previous film. Each section is an interesting look at some of the different individuals and/or organizations that are in pursuit of the mysterious Bigfoot.

In the first section, the doc takes a look at some of the more “out there” theories of Bigfoot and its ability to evade discovery. These theories include ideas that the Bigfoot creature is from UFOs or are inter-dimensional travelers that step through portals and that is how they are so elusive. The first section is really a weird group of theories that, to me, undermines the topic.

In the second section, the tale becomes considerably more relevant and intriguing. Breedlove goes to Area X, one of the hotspots of Bigfoot encounters with the NAWAC, the North American Wood Ape Conservancy. The most fascinating part of this section is how some of the searchers went out with their guns and with an intent of proving the existence of the creature by killing one and bringing its body to science. This debate has raged in the Bigfoot community and it is dealt with in a serious manner.

The final section sees Breedlove meet up with some of the “weekend warriors” who dedicate their time, almost like a hobby, to heading out into the woods and trying to find whatever they could. These lesser scientific methods were interesting too.

Some of the best parts of the doc were recordings of vocalizations and other sounds that are difficult to explain. These recordings are always creepy and unnerving. Of course, this is not evidence of anything, but the ability to hear the unknown sounds brings a reality to the investigatiom.

Seth Breedlove’s cautious skepticism is a welcome attitude. He is legitimately out to try and find out, one way or another, if these creatures are real and that provides his documentary with an importance that may not be provided by a doc from either a true believer or an outright denier.

There are more of these docs that I will be looking at later. They are well done and informational.

DailyView: Day 310, Movie 438

Taika Waititi has become one of my favorite directors. His work on Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and Jojo Rabbit has been awesome. So when I came across an earlier film on Vudu called Boy with Taika as the writer and director, I was excited to watch it. He did not disappoint.

11-year old Boy (James Rolleston) lived with his brother Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), their gran and a goat. Gran left for a week, leaving Boy in charge of the children living with them. However, Boy’s absentee father Alamein (Taika Waititi) returned to his sons from prison hoping to find a bag of money that he had buried years before. Boy had always admired and dreamt about his father in noble ways, but Alamein did not match this fanciful creation in Boy’s head.

Taika Waititi has the ability to take some of the most ridiculous things, seemingly random bits, but still highlight the humanity and the heart of the situation and the characters. Rocky believed he had magic powers, which was a silly, childish notion, but it came from a tragic backstory. He was told that he had magic powers because when he was born, he was unable to control them and their mother died. This, of course, was the way to explain to the kid that his mother had died in childbirth. It was both sweet and sad at the same time.

There are many examples of this in Boy. The relationship between Boy, who idolized the fantasy version of his father, and his father, who in real life was a gang member who drank a lot and was extremely selfish, is one of great depth and emotion.

James Rolleston is excellent as the titular role, and he has a shine in his eyes. His presence on screen is special and his chemistry with Taika Waititi is obvious. This is the essential relationship of the film and if it did not work, the film would fall apart.

The allusions to Michael Jackson was funny, too, as was the use of the Thriller dance at the end of the film using Māori cultural music.

Boy is filled with charm and packs a surprisingly emotional punch. There are some great performances from the three main characters, each bringing something special to the tale. This felt like a small, personal story and it was a wonderful film. You can see many of Taika Waititi’s skills beginning to develop here that would lead him to become a hugely successful director.

DailyView: Day 309, Movie 437

Since I am heading off to The Batman tonight, I decided to do a short this early morning for the DailyView, but I went in a different direction. Instead of heading back into the 1920s or 1930s for Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy or Buster Keaton, I scoured YouTube for more recent shorts that would fill the same section. I found a list of good possibilities and today, I am watching a horror short called Other Side of the Box.

It is a scant 15 minutes, but Other Side of the Box manages to be very unnerving and intense in the short time frame. A couple is at home preparing dinner when an old friend, and possibly an old flame for the woman, arrives with a Christmas present. The present was a strange box that seemingly had no bottom. Then, someone is suddenly peaking out of the box.

The box is obviously cursed and leads to some scary moments in the short.

It does not give us much along the lines of resolution to the set up provided in the story. This short feels like one that could easily be expanded into a longer film, much like Lights Out or The Babadook. In fact, there feels like there is a rich backstory, not only of the box, but of the couple and their friend that could be mined to easily reach feature length.

The film starred Nick Tag and Teagan Rose as the couple and Josh Schell as the friend.

This was a winner at the SXSW Film Festival for the Grand Jury Award.

There was a lot of tension built and some powerful scenes without any gore or violence shown. It is an eerie and disturbing short that I hope finds its way into explaining the set up more.

DailyView: Day 308, Movie 436

A mix of whodunnit and spoof comedy is on the agenda for tonight in the DailyView. It is a film from 1976 called Murder By Death and it was written by classic playwright Neil Simon.

The film featured an ensemble cast filled with a plethora of stars including Peter Falk, EYG Hall of Famer Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Eileen Brennan, James Coco, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Elsa Lanchester. James Cromwell, Estelle Winwood, Nancy Walker, and a rare role from writer Truman Capote.

The cast played several broad parodies of some of the most well known and beloved detective characters of literature including Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, Hercule Poirot, Charlie Chan and Miss Marple.

Admittedly, there are some parts of this movie that did not age well such as Peter Sellers playing the Chinaman Charlie Chan and the gay jokes. However, as a film of the mid-70s, this is a product of that time.

The film is on a rapid pace, jumping from one bizarre turn to another. In the third act, the film became very meta as it makes reference to the way some mystery stories try to put one over on the audience by introducing characters right at the end or by giving answers to riddles that make no sense whatsoever. The film was making a direct commentary on the very genre that this film was in.

All of the cast was fantastic. It is clear that they are a seasoned bunch of legends or soon to be legends. They flash through the film without missing a beat. The ending of the film that saw each of the detectives come up with a fanciful story as a reveal only to be shown up by the next detective.

Yes, the story makes no sense in the end, but that, I think, is part of the joke. The cast is great and delivers some of the best deadpan comedic performances that you are going to find. The pace is so quick that you never have a moment to be bored and, although you could never solve this case on your own, you could also never solve the case on your own so there is a definite surprise aspect to it, which can be considered both a positive or a negative.

This was a fun film that may require some ignoring of tropes and some racist tendencies.

DailyView: Day 307, Movie 435

I love stories about Bigfoot. I am a believer that there has been some kind of mysterious beast in the wilds of the continent. So when I came across this documentary on Vudu, I was immediately intrigued. I came to find out that this doc was a combination of three episodes of a six episode from a series called Small Town Monsters.

Directed by documentarian Seth Breedlove, the film looked at the history of Bigfoot and where it came from, where it gained its immense popularity and how sighting across the country differed as well as were similar.

Breedlove investigated some of the earlier stories of the existence of a “wild man” or “devils” before the term Bigfoot was coined. He touched on the yeti, the skunk ape and the Minerva Monster. He discussed the story of the Bigfoot attack at Ape Canyon on Mt. Saint Helens, which was one of the earlier tales of a violent encounter with a sasquatch.

I found this to be very interesting and a fairly deep look at the legend of Bigfoot. I heard about some sightings and details that I had not heard about before.

The one massive flaw I found was the extremely limited focus on, what I believe is the biggest single piece of evidence in support of Bigfoot, The Patterson-Gimlin film. The famous film reportedly was filmed by the two men, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, of a large, female Bigfoot walking through California. The film has been debated for decades since 1967, when it was filmed. It has never been debunked and, deeper details show images on the film that could not be a costume. The Patterson-Gimlin film was mentioned but this film spent about 20 seconds on it, and alluded to it later once or twice. I do not think you can do any kind of doc on Bigfoot without spending more time on the Patterson-Gimlin film.

However, the rest of the doc is very well done and, putting aside that hole that I feel is in the middle of the film, I thought this was truly well covered and brought up some excellent items that I had not heard before.

This documentary ended with a “To Be Continued” on it, and, my further research indicated that there was another On the Trail of… which is subtitled “The Search” where, apparently, Seth Breedlove headed out on his own to see what he could find. That second part (episodes 4-6, I assume) went on my list to watch as I have found Breedlove’s documentary to be fair and balanced.

DailyView: Day 306, Movie 434

The DailyView travelled back to 1938 for one of the classic screwball comedies of the early days of movies. Bringing Up Baby featured comedic performances from Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn, and it was directed by Howard Hawks.

The circumstances that Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) found himself in was ridiculous, and it was all the fault of one distinctly odd woman, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn). It all started when she took David’s golf ball and played it on the golf course. She then started driving his car, claiming that it was hers. David found himself swept up in the craziness like he had been caught in a tornado.

Turned out that “Baby” was a leopard that Susan was taking back for her aunt. A leopard? Yes, there was a leopard.

Susan pulled all kinds of tricks to keep David with her, preventing him from heading back to New York and get married.

Though there are some issues I had with the characters, the film was funny, and funny can help overcome some issues. Katharine Hepburn was charming, if not annoying at times, and the connection with Cary Grant was obvious. Yes, the pair of them talking at the same time got to be irritating at times, but the reactions they had to the silly situations they found themselves in was definitely the strongest part of the film.

Bringing Up Baby was a lot of fun and silliness. It featured chaotic performances from its two leads and a load of laughs.

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.