DailyView: Day 235, Movie 324

I finished the original Matrix trilogy this morning in preparations for The Matrix Resurrections on Dec. 22. After watching and being disappointed by the first sequel from the Wachowskis, I went to HBO Max for the third film in the trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions.

Unfortunately, The Matrix Revolutions fails to help reimagine the second film for me and doubles down on the parts that were what led to my disappointment with Reloaded.

It felt very convoluted and spent a good chunk of time with characters that I either did not know or did not care about. The action for most of the movie was overlong and featured too much gunfire. These extended scenes of robots and humans in robot attire firing guns of some sort at each other became dull quickly.

There were large chunks of the film that do not include Neo (Keanu Reeves). There was a section at the very beginning of this movie that found Neo trapped in a space between the Matrix and the real world. This section of the film is utterly unimportant and irrelevant to the overall story. It just felt like it was something to toss into the film to pass time and allow them to leave a cliffhanger at the end of Reloaded.

The CGI is, of course, amazing. The Sentinels are a marvel of movie magic as is everything dealing with the battles with Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). It is clearly a beautiful film that looks special.

Speaking of Agent Smith, I found his inclusion in this movie to be over-the-top and a massive step down from previous movies, in particular the first one. Some of his monologues were sillier than I expected them to be. As one of the top actors in the cast, I just feel that his work in the Matrix Revolutions became all cheese and no substance.

Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) was reduced to a side character among the group of nobodies and unknowns around Zion.

Here is hoping that The Matrix Resurrections avoids the problems that mucked up the two sequels to The Matrix and can create a new and entertaining path to take.

DailyView: Day 234, Movie 323

So I have begun a rewatch for the Matrix trilogy before the new Matrix movie comes out next week. I watched The Matrix (aka the Good One) first and then I started into The Matrix Reloaded. As I was watching this, I realized that I had not seen this whole film. I remembered the highway chase scene, but everything else, including the finale of this movie was new to me.

I believe that what happened was that I had rented the DVD of this movie because I did not head to theaters as much during this time. and I did not like the movie and probably either ignored it or shut it off. That means, it qualified for the DailyView. The third Matrix film I have never seen because I never liked the first of the sequels so I did not see the second.

Having watched this now fully on HBO Max, I can say without reservation that The Matrix Reloaded was not as bad as I thought I remembered, but it is nowhere near as great as the original was.

The story is way too complicated, convoluted and makes little sense. While the highway chase scene was pretty decent, it lasted way too long. The film is hampered by the Deus Ex Machina that Neo has become with his super speed and flight, able to come out of nowhere and pluck characters out of their certain deaths.

It also did not help that Harold Perrineau was now in the cast and I kept waiting for him to yell for Walt. I know that is not fair, but I could not help myself. Some of his facial expressions were quite funny though.

Legitimately, the third act is as ridiculous as I have ever seen and I hated the end of the film with super surgeon Neo. Not only is he a Deus Ex Machina, but he is also a natural defibrillator.

All of the action scenes are well done, but over long. The battle with Neo and the army of Agent Smiths started fun but lost a lot as it kept going on.

The whole Architect thing made no sense and feels like it was just setting up an attempt for a story for the third film.

Many of these new characters mean nothing to me and I could barely keep them straight. Outside of Mike (er I mean Link) I had no idea about any of these extra faces on my screen.

I can see why I did not remember finishing this movie. There is just too much dumb here, which is disappointing, especially for how awesome The Matrix was.

DailyView: Day 234, Movie 322

One of the all-time classic Christmas movies is today’s DailyView. Miracle on 34th Street has one of the most iconic scenes in all of movies and I have, of course, seen that section of the film. I have never seen the entire movie though and that makes this eligible for the DailyView.

Christmas store Santa, Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) claimed to be the real Santa Claus and, because of his belief, winds up being committed at Bellevue. He had been tremendously successful at Macy’s, having the support of the bosses and the woman who hired him, Doris (Maureen O’Hara), and her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood).

John Payne played Fred Gailey, a lawyer who winds up in a relationship with Doris.

Edmund Gwenn is extremely charming in this role. He performs his role as if he were truly Santa Claus. He is easily the best part of the movie as his Academy Award win for Best Actor can attest.

Miracle on 34th Street is a sweet movie with a funny, kindly story of a man who just wants to be Santa Claus, and has been proven to be so by the fancy lawyer tricks of his lawyer.

This was the famous scene during the hearing on Kris Kringle when Fred had bags and bags of letters delivered from the Post Office to Kris at the court house admitted as evidence that the Federal governmental agency the Post office recognized Kris as the real Santa Claus. What I did not know about that scene was that it was dumb luck on Fred’s part as the Post Office sent the letters to the court house as a way of getting rid of them. I guess it wasn’t as much of a fancy lawyer trick as I had always believed it to be.

This is a Christmas classic and is a wonderful story for all people.

DailyView: Day 233, Movie 321

The first of the images on the extended banner was from this movie. The Hounds of the Baskervilles is one of the most famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and this was the first of the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films.

Set during the Victorian time (which was the setting for the original stories), The Hound of the Baskervilles tells the story of a legendary and monstrous dog that haunted the moors of the estate of Baskerville in Devonshire. The legend stated that the hound would kill all family members of the Baskervilles, after it had started with Sir Hugo Baskerville (Ralph Forbes) hundreds of years prior.

However, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and his friend and sidekick Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) saw more to the legend than just a terrible family curse.

Interestingly enough, 20th Century Fox was uncertain about the selling power of Sherlock Holmes so instead of leading the cast with Basil Rathbone, actor Richard Greene, who played Sir Henry Baskerville received top billing. Fascinating bit of trivia considering Basil Rathbone would lead over a dozen more Sherlock Holmes films in his time.

The film is very atmospheric, with the shots on the moors being very cinematic and the foggy circumstance around the finale really brought a feeling of uncertainty and dread.

Rathbone and Bruce show exactly what they are capable of doing with the roles and they must have eased any doubt the studio had about the property. Rathbone is such an iconic performance of the Baker Street detective that every time we visit him, it is an enjoyable time.

There are several twists to the mystery and it was a fun film to see.

DailyView: Day 232, Movie 320

One of the most classic Christmas tale is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It has been adapted into countless variations over the years, both live action and animated. This is one of the Disney animated versions of A Christmas Carol starring Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck and other Disney characters.

Ebenezer Scrooge (McDuck) was a covetous old sinner, more concerned with his gold than people. He spent his days counting his money and tormenting his clerk, Bib Cratchit (Mickey Mouse). On Christmas Eve, he was approached by the ghost of his old deceased business partner Jacob Marley (Goofy), who claimed that, if Scrooge did not change his ways, he would spend eternity hauling around heavy chains, just as Marley has to do. Marley told Scrooge that he would be visited by three spirits and that these spirits were the only way to avoid such a fate.

Each spirit (which included Jiminy Cricket, Willie the Giant and Pete) showed Scrooge scenes from the past, present and future, including scenes from the family of Bob Cratchit and his family, which featured his sickly son, Tiny Tim.

These ghostly visits changed Scrooge, making him a caring, loving individual, who embraced all that Christmas had to offer.

This was a nice adaptation. They covered the story effectively despite having to edit out a lot of the story because of the time. Tis could have benefitted from a little longer run time as the 26 minutes felt a little rushed.

Truthfully, being familiar with the story, it is more apparent with what Mickey’s Christmas Carol left out than what it had. There were some classic lines of dialogue that always appear in the adaptations that had been removed from this version that minimize the impact of the tale.

Still, this would be a nice way to introduce the story to a younger audience (although I think the Muppet Christmas Carol would be even more effective). The music was interesting, especially the opening song.

This was fine, but I think a longer, more involved version would allow for more depth of story and character and less of, look who is playing whom.

DailyView: Day 231, Movie 319

There is such a plethora of these National Geographic documentaries on Disney +. I recently enjoyed one on Atlantis and now, I have found one on one of my favorite “mythical” creatures, the Yeti. I have always been fascinated by the story of the Yeti and its North American cousin, the sasquatch, and this doc looked to be intriguing.

The documentary features explorer Gerry Moffatt as he goes on his “hunt” for the yeti. He heads up Mount Everest to search for the evidence of the yeti. They research footprints, hair samples, sightings as well as the famous “yeti scalp” at Khumjung Monastery in Nepal.

Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum appeared in the doc. He is a known bigfoot researcher, with several bigfoot books in his arsenal.

The section of the doc with the Yeti scalp is the most interesting part of the story. Unfortunately, it seemed that the evidence found by Gerry Moffatt was less than convincing.

These docs remind me of the old “In Search Of” series narrated by Leonard Nemoy, which helped spur my own fascination with these unknown creatures. It is where a lot of my own creativity has come from and it is neat to see these docs, even if they do not provide anything too satisfying in the realm of answers.

DailyView: Day 230, Movie 318

One day after announcing the extension of the DailyView for a second time to encompass a full year (365 days), I kicked it off with a Christmas movie that I found on Disney +.

The Christmas Star felt like a made-for-TV movie from the mid-80s, especially with a cast that included Ed Asner, Fred Gwynne and Rene Auberjonois.

Ed Asner played Horace McNickle, a counterfeiter who was serving his time in prison. With just a few months to go on his sentence, McNickle saw a TV program that showed the hiding place where he and his former partner hid their money. Afraid that he was going to lose it all, McNickle organized an escape, dressed as Santa Claus, to whom he had a resemblance to.

McNickle got help from a couple of kids, Billy (Nicolas Van Burek) and Trudy (Vicki Wauchope), who believed he was the real Santa Claus. McNickle played on the kids’ naivety and tried to get them to do his dirty work for him. However, he began to see the charm of the children and his inspiration for his plan waned.

As I mentioned earlier, this felt like a TV movie and the plot fell right into that corner. It is extremely cheesy, filled with ridiculous plot points and some of the strangest, out-of-nowhere bits I have seen. This movie changed tones multiple times, even including a mysterious ghost train that played a big part in the story as if it were a different movie.

The kids involved were not great actors at the time, but they were not meant to be. They were there for the cuteness factor (although, to be fair, Nicolas Van Burek did continue on with a decent career).

Ed Asner, who passed away this year, is always fantastic and his very inclusion in this movie elevated it from the drek that it should have been. Asner is charming as the bad Santa who learns a Christmas lesson from a Christmas miracle. Fred Gwynne’s put down police detective character has a few minutes of funny too.

As a family film, this could be worse. It is far from a classic, but I did not hate watching it. Judging it on a scale of silly Christmas movies, this was pretty good. It’s nothing that I would put up for an award, but as a family film during the holiday season, you could absolutely do worse. That may not be a rave review, but it is about much as I can give it.

DailyView: Day 229, Movie 317

There is a lot of things wrong with The Rite.

Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donaghue) joined the Seminary to get away from his father and his father’s mortuary business, but he was finding a lack of faith or belief in God holding him back. Instead of letting him resign, Father Matthew (Toby Jones) sent Michael to Rome to take a course on learning to be an exorcist. Michael finds his way to one of the most successful exorcist in the world, Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins) who is involved in trying to help a young pregnant girl.

There were some interesting moments in the movie. There was some intriguing possibilities with Michaerl and his father (Rutger Hauer), but the exploration of this relationship was inconsistent and underdeveloped.

Colin O’Donaghue, who becomes a star in the TV show Once Upon a Time as Captain Hook, was too laid back the whole film. He did not show any of the charisma he did as Hook. He had a good look, but I just wanted more from the actor.

Anthony Hopkins is always great. He is an amazing performer and gives his best in every movie he appears in.

However, some of the dialogue being tossed around by the “demon” possessing the characters was laughable and, no matter how great an actor you may be, you cannot make some of these lines anything but ridiculous.

Another problem was the film, which had some moments working for it, really came off the tracks heading into the third act. I think the actors in this film deserved much better than what they were given.

DailyView: Day 228, Movie 316

I watched one of the classic Westerns today for the DailyView. It was 1953’s Shane. Shane tells the Western trope of a gunslinger trying to stop living the life and start something new only to have someone or something pull him back into the violence. We have seen it in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven right up to the X-Men’s Logan.

Shane was available to watch on Hulu, and so I played it. I have been familiar with the story of Shane, but I have never actually sat down to view it.

Directed by George Stevens, Shane featured Alan Ladd, Jack Palance, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin.

Mysterious gunfighter Shane (Alan Ladd) arrived in a town where a group of people who have claimed their lands legally, but were being pressured by a vicious land baron Ryker (Emile Ryker) to leave their land. Shane met the Starrett family, Joe (Van Heflin), Marian (Jean Arthur) and their son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) and started to work for them. Unfortunately, Ryker was escalating things as time passed that would force the mysterious past of Shane to come back to the present.

The film does a great job of setting up the conflict and it does an admirable job of creating the antagonists as well as the protagonists.. Ryker is the clear villain, but he is anything but a mustache-twirling stereotype. In fact, he is shown as a person who wants to compromise with Joe and Shane. Of course, he is compromising from a position of privilege, and he takes measures that are anything but cooperative.

One of those measures is hiring Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) as a potential hitman, pointing him in the direction of people who would not agree to his terms. Wilson was notorious and extremely quick on the draw.

The ending was tense and exciting. Shane showed many of the tropes of the Western and became an inspiration for many of the Westerns that come after it.

DailyView: Day 228, Movie 315

I am not very familiar with the catalogue of performances from Roy Scheider, outside of Jaws and Jaws II of course. When I came across this film with Scheider and Meryl Streep on Amazon Prime, I was interested and the synopsis tripped some buttons for me.

Scheider played psychiatrist Sam Rice, who had a patient named George Bynum (Josef Sommer) who was murdered. George was stabbed to death and the police wanted to know if George had told Sam anything of importance.

However, before the police arrived, a woman named Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep) came to see Sam with a watch that belonged to George. She admitted to having an affair with him and wanted Sam to return the watch to George’s wife so she did not have to suffer more than she already was.

Sam became infatuated with Brooke and he was intrigued with trying to find out if she was actually involved in the murder.

This was an okay film, but I did not love it. It felt fairly pedestrian. We spend a chunk of time at an art auction that seemed to try and build some tension, and it was a long and dull stretch of time.

Scheider and Streep were good here, as was Jessica Tandy, who had a small role as Sam’s mother. Joe Grifasi played a police detective that was interesting, but he did not have much to do.

The biggest issue is the mystery. The police kept indicating that the killer was a woman. Because of that, we have Meryl Streep’s Brooke and one other main female character in the movie. This means that either it was Meryl or it was this other woman. Not much of a mystery, especially since they spent most of the film making it look as if it were Meryl.

Still of the Night, which is a nondescript title, is not a terrible film, but there is little about it that really stands out. This is the type of movie that will not stick with me for long.

DailyView: Day 227, Movie 314

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has had several big roles over the last few years, but few lead roles in movies. So when I found The Postcard Killings on Hulu, I was interested. It was a serial killer story which I have always liked too.

Morgan played police detective Jacob Kanon, the father of a daughter who was murdered, along with her husband, on her honeymoon in Europe. Jacob went to find the murderer, realizing that his daughter had become a victim of a serial killer.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is extremely likable and you can feel his pain during this story. We have seen the vengeful father trope before, but with Morgan, the film avoids the clichés of this character because of his acting and general presence.

After Morgan, much of the film is unremarkable, but watchable. There is nothing new and exciting in The Postcard Killings, but the familiar was okay.

Famke Jansson played Jacob’s ex-wife, Valerie, who has little to do. She has a scene with the father of the killer that is interesting, but doesn’t go far enough.

The final scene, however, is quite a cop out and feels like a poor horror film desperate to continue a franchise than a conclusion to the story.