Return from Witch Mountain: A Review

RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Bette Davis.

One does not usually associate Bette Davis with both science fiction and family films. However, Davis did make a few Disney films in her career. Her first foray into the wonderful world of Disney was Return from Witch Mountain. The sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain has an interesting turn from Davis, part serious, part silly. Return from Witch Mountain is solid family-friendly entertainment that will appeal to its target audience.

Tony and Tia (Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards) are extraterrestrial children living with their community on Witch Mountain. Their Uncle Bene (Denver Pyle) drops them off at the Rose Bowl on their flying saucer. Tony and Tia are to spend a highly supervised vacation to explore the large city. On their way to the hotel, the inept and chatty cabbie runs out of gas and is forced to leave them in the taxi. Here, the telepath Tony has a vision of a man falling from a building.

That man is Sickle (Anthony James). He is the muscle for his Aunt Letha Wedge (Davis). She has been funding the research of mad scientist Victor Gorman (Christopher Lee). Letha is running out of both money and patience, not seeing any profit from their ventures. Gorman's latest project involves mind control via electronics. It is initially successful when Gorman's device, an inhibitor that lets Gorman control people's minds, gets the acrophobic Sickle on the roof. Letha, terrified for her nephew, demands that Gorman get him down. In the fracas, she accidentally destroys the device, making Sickle impervious to commands. Sickle's fall is stopped by Tony. Tony's reward for saving Sickle is to have Victor and Letha drug and abduct him. 

Gorman is convinced that controlling Tony's powers of "molecular mobilization" will make him powerful and respect. Letha is convinced that it will make her rich. Tia, unable to find her brother, accidentally falls in with the Earthquake gang. The Earthquakes are desperate to be tough and intimidating, which is hard to do when each of the four members is quite adorable and wholesome. In thanks for helping them out with a rival gang, each member pledges to help Tia find Tony. 

The Earthquake's default leader, Dazzler (Christian Juttner) along with fellow Earthquakes Rocky (Jeffrey Jacquet), Muscles (Brad Savage) and Crusher (Poindexter) have a bigger enemy than the rival Goons gang. It is Mr. Yokomoto, better known as Yo-Yo (Jack Soo), the school board's truant officer. They continue to avoid him but struggle to find Tony. Finally, a breakthrough. Letha, impatient for a return on her investment, uses the inhibitor to steal gold bars from a museum exhibit. This is enough to give Tia a vision of Tony's location.

Now it becomes a race between Letha/Victor and Tia/the Earthquakes to rescue Tony from his mind control. For that, the Earthquakes hoodwink Yo-Yo into helping him. Things reach a climax when Gorman aims to kill two birds with one stone. He will take control of a plutonium plant. Gorman will use Tony to shut down the cooling system (giving him prestige). He will also demand $5 million (giving Letha a fortune). Tia, the Earthquakes and Yokomoto now join forces to save Tony. Who will win in this ultimate battle?

Return from Witch Mountain is a good case of not necessarily needing to have seen the previous film to understand the plot. To be fair, I did see Escape to Witch Mountain before I saw Return from Witch Mountain. Therefore, I knew Tony and Tia's powers ahead of time. However, as I think on the film, I think that screenwriter Malcolm Marmostein filled in enough information for audiences who had not seen the previous film to follow the plot pretty much well enough. We know that Tony and Tia are humanoid beings from another world when they ride into the Rose Bowl on a spaceship. We know that they are telepathic, able to levitate and use their powers to do such things as open locks and lift heavy objects. As the film goes on, we see Tony and Tia's alien powers. Therefore, I think anyone who had not seen Escape to Witch Mountain would understand Return from Witch Mountain well.

As this is a Disney film, Return from Witch Mountain is clearly and squarely family friend. The Earthquakes are the most wholesome and cute tween gang members in film history. There is something delightfully square about Dazzler, Rocky, Muscles and Crusher. Try as they might, the Earthquakes could not intimidate a litter of kittens. One senses that the people involved in Return from Witch Mountain know that the gangs here should not be violent or dangerous. It is as if the kids are cosplaying at things they are far too young to understand. "You can't be tough and educated", one of the Earthquakes observes. Each of the Earthquakes delivers their lines with a mix of cutesy and almost innocence.

I will say that it is very interesting that for being a Disney film, Return from Witch Mountain has kidnapping and suggestions of murdering minors as major plot points. However, because the overall spirit of the film is rather wholesome, one does not really pause to think on the downright murderous ideas of Letha and Victor.  However, I think everyone sees that while there must be danger, that danger must be mild. 

Return from Witch Mountain has some surprisingly strong elements. Of particular note is an impressive sequence where we get a long Steadicam shot of the Earthquakes leading Tia into their hideout. The camera follows the kids for what seems two or three floors. I was surprised at how good this sequence was. Credit should be given here more than in the visual effects. The effects in Return from Witch Mountain are serviceable though a bit quaint even by the 1970 standards. The scene where Letha is stealing the gold by creating chaos at the museum and having Tony float the bricks away in the confusion works, albeit do look a bit curious.

Director John Hough keeps things going to where the time flies by. He also got strong performances from his cast. I think everyone got that Return from Witch Mountain was a bit of a lark and targeted at families. As such, the adult performances were closer to camp than straightforwardly menacing or dangerous. Christopher Lee was probably the actor leaned in most on the camp manner of acting. His Victor Gorman seemed to be so imperious as to almost slip into farce. That is not necessarily a bad thing. The film needed a slightly over-the-top villain. Christopher Lee did not make Gorman into a comic character. He, however, did not make him a dangerous one either. Instead, Lee played the mad scientist as someone who was so egotistical that he did not notice anything other than his own genius. As Letha wryly observed to her nephew, "Professor Gorman is extremely busy being a genius". 

Anthony James was more menacing as Sickle. He had his lighter moments, usually involving his acrophobia (his journey starts and ends with him very reluctantly finding himself way up). James made Sickle into a dangerous person, someone who would break necks without a second thought. He is not purely evil on screen, at least enough to have the target audience of children recoil. His efforts to collect the gold do give him a moment of lightness. Overall, though, James was the more dangerous of the three.

Bette Davis was somewhere in the middle. She took things somewhat seriously. However, at times Davis seemed to play Letha as if the whole thing was more an amusing lark. A good case for the former is her terror at seeing Sickle climbing higher and in danger of falling to his death. A good case for the latter is when she is ultimately defeated. For some reason, her offer of taking the children for candy, sodas and ice cream after abducting them and trying to kill them wasn't taken up. Instead, she was taken up. "It's absolutely dreadful the way they bring up children these days", Letha deadpans at the end. 

The last adult served well as something of comic relief. Return from Witch Mountain was Jack Soo's final film before his death from cancer the following year at 61. He played Yokomoto as a well-meaning man caught up in strange circumstance. Yo-Yo was mostly a comic character, forever chasing the Earthquakes or Gannon/Letha in a Keystone Kops manner. However, near the end, he has a surprisingly touching monologue where he tells them that all he wanted for the kids was for them not to grow up to be bums. His great hope was that they would return to him years later and thank him for saving them from a wasted life.

As a side note, the film does have another humorous character in a security guard at the plutonium plant. When Tony first levitates him, his cry of "Why?" is hilarious. After Tia brings him down, the dumb guard insists that the kids can't go in because they have no IDs. At that point, Tia levitates him again and leaves him there. 

The kids did very good jobs in their roles. Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards knew their characters. It was a wise decision to split them. Eisenmann had the slightly easier job as he was pretty much a zombie for most of Return from Witch Mountain. Richards' Kim was forever polite and pleasant. The various Earthquakes as stated made up the most adorable would-be gang in film history. Each of the kids did a solid job with their characters, a blend of comic and innocent despite their efforts at intimidation.

The film does have some 1970's touches, such as Lalo Shifrin's score. It also has a comic though probably un-P.C. moment during the gold robbery. One of the guards attempting to control the runaway stagecoach is startled to find a Native American dummy hovering over him. In the chaos, that guard throws his toupee at the Indian figure, making it look like a scalp. It is funny in a kid-friendly way, but I wonder if it would be seen as problematic today.

Overall, Return from Witch Mountain is an entertaining family film. It is a bit dated, but it is enjoyable. You do get a nice time capsule with it, seeing the vast open fields around the Rose Bowl and Los Angeles at the time that the film was made. I found it a pleasant return and solid sequel to the story of tween aliens in danger.

DECISION: B-

The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Review

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Marlon Brando.

Divas to the left of me. Crazies to the right. Sometimes, the divas and crazies switch places and were even one and the same. The bonkers behind-the-scenes stories during the filming of The Island of Dr. Moreau have become infamous. Fired directors who had nervous breakdowns. Actors who accidentally repeated police reports as if it were actual dialogue. Other actors who fled or attempted to flee the filming location. Those wild stories range from the amusing to the terrifying. However, what about the film itself? Separate from the eccentric anecdotes, how is The Island of Dr. Moreau as a movie? 

Told occasionally in voiceover, we start with Edward Douglas (David Thewlis). He is the eventual sole survivor of a plane crash on the Java Sea. Edward is a United Nations negotiator who is close to finding peace with warring nations in the region. However, it is not the U.N. that comes to his rescue. Instead, it is the Ombak Penari, a small ship that came across Edward's raft. Aboard is Dr. Montgomery (Val Kilmer), who first tells Edward that he will be dropped off on Java. However, they end up on what Montgomery calls "Moreau's Island", where Edward reluctantly agrees to go.

Montgomery appears somewhat hospitable. That hospitality, however, includes locking Edward in his guestroom. Why would Montgomery make Edward a de facto prisoner? Who is the beautiful woman dancing in the courtyard? The answer to the second is Aissa (Fairuza Balk), who says that she is Moreau's daughter. The answer to the first is a shocking secret. Montgomery is helping give birth to new creatures who are half-man, half-animal.

Edward, aided by Aissa, flee to a village of these new mutants overseen by the Sayer of the Law (Ron Perlman). This blind half-man/half-goat creature speaks the words of the Father. Edward now comes face to face with the mysterious Doctor Moreau (Marlon Brando). He is the mad scientist who has created his "children" with varying degrees of success. Montgomery is his hands at the various surgeries. Edward is appalled at Moreau's activities but his efforts at escape flop.

One creature who does not escape is Lo-Mai (Marc Dacascos), who has violated Moreau's laws about killing other creatures. He's disposed of with Azazello (Temuera Morrison) violating another law: shooting him. Moreau controls his creatures via electroshock implants inside of them. Montgomery also controls them with various shots that allegedly are to stop them from regressing but which he adds some marijuana. However, by now one of the creatures, Hyena-Swine (Daniel Rigney) has uncovered the implant and removed it.

The mutants are revolting, leading to a cascade of butchery and death. Which of the three pure humans (Moreau, Montgomery and Douglas) will survive the growing chaos on the Island of Misfit Monsters? 

It is approximately twenty minutes into The Island of Dr. Moreau before Marlon Brando appears. When he does, I would not blame anyone watching from having one of two reactions. He or she will either sit in stunned disbelief or burst out into laughter. Those are probably the only logical reactions to seeing Kabuki Brando arrive on his version of the Pope-Mobile. 

It does not get any better for Brando. His performance is one for the ages in that it somehow transcends goofy, bypasses loony and lands on Bizarro World. Actually, even on Bizarro World, Marlon Brando's performance would be seen as flat-out bonkers. Brando's first appearance has him in garish white makeup and all-white ensemble, looking like the illegitimate child of the Abominable Snowman and Frozen's Olaf.

His appearance then shifts to his speaking. That does not improve matters. Brando adopts a very curious accent, presumably British but the type more suited to a P.G. Wodehouse adaptation than an H.G. Wells one. He is quite foppish in his manner, with grand gestures and an air of not being fully aware of where or even who he is. I will give credit where credit is due. Marlon Brando does seem to play it oddly straight when Moreau is surrounded by beast men waiting to lunge at him.

Even here, when the animals are revolting against Father, Marlon Brando looks as if he either doesn't care or doesn't seem aware of anything. Sometimes though, one flat-out laughs at how broad Marlon Brando is (and no, that is not a fat joke).

The height or nadir of Brando's gonzo acting comes in what should be a curiously tender scene. Aissa has come to Moreau for help. She is slowly transitioning to animal (Aissa being the most human-looking of his creations). There we see Marlon Brando, usually ranked among the greatest actors of all time, with an ice bucket on his head. He tells Aissa that his "caloric converter" is empty, requiring her to dump ice directly into Moreau's head. The entire scene, I think, is meant to be a tender heart-to-heart between Aissa and Moreau. Instead, one could not help but to laugh at the hilarity of the "caloric converter".

Caloric converter probably is one of the saner elements in The Island of Dr. Moreau. The mad doctor has with him one of his favorite creations: Majai (Nelson De La Rosa). One never knows why he is almost always at Moreau's side (we do get to see this tiny figure nude when Montgomery is vaccinating the various creatures). This attachment to Majai is an unexplained whim. Majai later became the inspiration for the character of Mini-Me in the Austin Powers franchise. Majai adds nothing to whatever plot Ron Hutchinson and the film's former director Richard Stanley had. Then again, I don't know if The Island of Dr. Moreau had an actual script or director. Technically, the latter role was filled by John Frankenheimer. Visually, it's anyone's guess if someone was overseeing this madhouse.

Marlon Brando didn't embarrass himself in The Island of Dr. Moreau. He didn't humiliate himself. He looked like he was too whacked out to even be aware of what he was doing. His performance is such that one can believe the stories that Brando repeated police reports accidentally picked up through his earpiece as if it were actual dialogue. Brando does not appear to know anything about reality if one judges by his performance. 

As bad as Brando was, and he was bad, his two other costars were hardly better. David Thewlis did embarrass and humiliate himself as Edward Douglas. While Marlon Brando was acting on a whole other planet, Thewlis was not bothering to show his utter contempt for everything to do with the film. Brando may have slipped into some alternate universe, but Thewlis was one-note throughout. One can watch Marlon Brando as some kind of bizarre avant-garde acting style he was doing for his own eccentric amusement. One cannot watch David Thewlis as anything other than looking and sounding irritated.

A mild defense can be made owing to a lack of script. However, David Thewlis never convinced anyone that he was genuinely shocked or horrified at the demonic experiments going on. His character says that this is a mad and evil world that Moreau has created. Edward, however, never seems to believe anything that he says. One can say that it is wrong to create human/animal hybrids. Thewlis, however, never delivers his statements with any conviction. It is pretty sad that someone apparently cannot make the case why bestiality is wrong. 

Then we got Val Kilmer. He seemed to act as if the whole thing was crazy and it was best to be crazier. Given the reports of intense animosity between Kilmer and Brando, one imagines that the former enjoyed mocking the latter when Montgomery goes mad. However, in that short time period when Montgomery is the new Father, he looks less crazy and more bored. I think Kilmer may have tried to be menacing. He might have tried, but he failed spectacularly.

It is unfortunate that Fairuza Balk gave the most honest performance in The Island of Dr. Moreau. She is the only major player to appear to at least try to make any of this remotely plausible. It is probably the best performance in the film because she steered clear of what doomed her male costars. She did not make Aissa a whacked-out loon (Brando), a bored actor (Kilmer) or an angry actor desperate to get out (Thewlis). Ron Perlman was basically sad as the Goat-Boy. One often forgets that he is there or what his purpose is.

The film is confused about itself. Its efforts to be deep end up looking goofy. We start with a fistfight between the other survivors of Edward's doomed flight. "They fought like beasts, not men", we hear in Thewlis' voiceover. That's not subtle foreshadowing. The film ends with footage of various fights, again pushing the "man is really a beast" theme that it thinks it is communicating. "You all killed the Father. You all ate the flesh", Douglas somewhat mockingly tells Hyena-Swine when the latter appears close to demanding worship. My guess is that even atheists would roll their eyes at The Island of Dr. Moreau's pretentions of intellect.

The Island of Dr. Moreau has exactly two good things in it: Fairuza Balk and Gary Chang's score. The music is strong and effective in its effort to make things ominous and thrilling. Like Balk, Chang's score was making the effort. Apart from those two aspects, The Island of Dr. Moreau is a film that one watches almost in stunned disbelief at how laughable it all is. I figure that it may be revived as a cult film. It is not a "so bad it's good" film. It just gives mad scientists a bad name. 

DECISION: D-

The Blob (1958): A Review (Review #2200)

THE BLOB (1958)

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Steve McQueen.

We all have to start somewhere. For future King of Cool Steve McQueen, that start began by facing off against red goo. I do not think that anyone will argue that The Blob is great cinema. I see it as a good drive-in movie, not quite self-aware but an enjoyable romp. 

Steve Andrews (McQueen, billed as Steven McQueen) and his potential girlfriend Jane Martin (Aneta Corseaut) are enjoying the nice crisp air and each other's company when they see what appears to be a shooting star. That star lands near the home of an old man (Olin Howland, billed as Olin Howlin). The Old Man gets close to this strange, glowing object and with a stick, cracks it open. The strange goo that emerges soon latches onto the Old Man's hand, causing him great pain.

Steve and Jane come upon the Old Man and rush him to Dr. Hallen (Steven Chase). Dr. Hallen is just about to leave for a medical conference but quickly agrees to look on this new patient. He instructs Steve and Jane to go back to see if they can find what caused this. They leave and after an informal backward drag race with local teens eventually go to the remote cabin. Steve and Jane manage to talk the other teens into going with them, after enduring a soft lecture by Officer Dave (Earl Rowe).

There appears to be nothing at the cabin other than the Old Man's dog. Steve and Jane take the dog with them. Little do they know that the goo that got onto the Old Man is now swallowing up everyone it comes in contact with it. Steve sees Doc swallowed up by something. Desperate, he goes to the cops. Dave is more willing to listen. Officer Bert (John Benson) stubbornly refuses to, thinking this is some oddball teen prank. 

The red glowing goo keeps growing. It keeps terrorizing those who are unfortunate enough to come across it. Steve and Jane, who had to sneak out of their houses to search for it, came close to getting swallowed up. They find their fellow teens at the theater. Reluctantly, they leave the Daughter of Horror screening and believe Steve's story of the invasion. Their efforts to literally raise the alarm first fall short. The Blob, however, has grown too big to ignore. What can stop The Blob? Who will live and who will die before it is iced?

The Blob is good, campy fun. This is the type of movie where you do not give much of anything in it a great deal of thought. I can imagine that The Blob would be a great drive-in feature, where you can delight in its blend of silliness and almost cartoonish manner. 

That The Blob is campy does not mean that it is a bad film. I thought that director Irvin J. Yeaworth, Jr. (with uncredited directing by producer Russell Doughten, Jr. had some surprisingly effective sequences. There is a strong cut between Steve's statement hoping that "Doc" is still there and Dr. Hallen confirming with his office that he is just about to leave. A POV shot of Nurse Kate (Lee Peyton) tossing acid at the Blob is also well-shot. 

The director(s) also build up some good suspense when the Blob comes into a mechanic's shop. The mechanic working under the car keeps prattling on about his plans, unaware that The Blob is nearby. This builds up the tension of when the Blob will claim its next victim. 

There is, however, only so much that the production team could do. At the Daughter of Horror screening, the audience supposedly flees in terror. However, you can see many of those supposedly terrified people running out with giant smiles and grins on their face. They were not terrified. They were clearly having a good time pretending to be terrified.

I think that is a reason why The Blob is surprisingly good. It is entertaining and unafraid to do so. Everyone is in on the joke. That doesn't mean that the professional actors are attempting to be frivolous with the material. The extras can be forgiven for making things overtly silly. The actual actors are not playing this as spoof. To be fair, they are not exactly playing things straight either. Instead, The Blob has a cast that is making an effort to take the nutty premise seriously but is also aware of how goofy it all is.

The Blob was Steve McQueen's breakout role, or at least his first major leading role. He was 28 years old when he made The Blob. Even with a very generous standard, McQueen looked too old to be a believable teenager. I would say that McQueen works hard to make Steve into someone thrust into a chaotic situation and opting to take charge. He, to his credit, does not attempt to send up the material. He plays it with sincerity, if not sincerely. 

Part of that may be due to how The Blob's screenplay by Theodore Simonson and Kate Philips constrains the character. McQueen plays Steve as what appears to be the film's version of a pretty decent, clean-cut teen boy. It does make it hard to see this almost 30-year-old man trying to talk to his fellow kids. Despite that oddity, Steve McQueen showed himself to be enthusiastic and determined. We can see him developing as an actor. It is, however, an unfortunate coincidence that his character shared his actual name.

The other actors did not rise above B-movie acting. Here, though, that is not a bad thing. It is as if everyone knew that The Blob was not meant to have great acting. There is one exception, however, in the acting department. Keith Almoney as Jane's baby brother Danny was absolutely atrocious. Every line delivery was dreadful. Every expression was blank. Yes, he was a child, so I cut him some slack. However, it does not say much about his performance when you want the blob to swallow Danny whole.

The Blob does not have state-of-the-art visual effects. They are, like much about the film, serviceable. What it does have that make it better is a bit of a surprise. The Blob has nice, jazzy opening music. The opening theme song continues that upbeat, jazzy mood. It is no surprise how good The Blob is as it was cowritten by Burt Bacharach (along with Mack David). I think The Blob captures what kind of movie The Blob is. 

This is nothing more than what I would call a delightful romp. The Blob is nothing to take too seriously, if seriously at all. The performances, especially from Steve McQueen, are not deliberately camp. They are, if anything, slightly tongue-in-cheek. The Blob is nothing more than a good time, with a sly sense of humor amidst all the extraterrestrial chaos. 

You can't help not ending up loving The Blob. 

DECISION: B+

Disclosure Day: A Review (Review #2193)

DISCLOSURE DAY

The truth is out there. Something else that is out there is a better movie than Disclosure Day. A mishmash of plots, self-serious to the point of parody, filled with shockingly awful performances, Disclosure Day is a low point in Steven Spielberg's filmography. 

It is also far too long and dull for what we did not get.

Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) holds a major secret in his backpack. Shadowy Wardex Corporation head Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) will do anything to get this secret back. The secret, kept in a myriad of flash drives, is the existence of aliens who have been in contact for decades. To get those secrets back, Wardex does not shrink from taking Daniel's girlfriend, Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson).  Daniel, however, has a few tricks and an alien device up his sleeve. He and Jane manage to escape with the backpack and find shelter in Jane's former nunnery.

Daniel does not want to be involved in as much as he is. He is adamant that Hugo Wakefield (Coleman Domingo) take the information he has from him.  Hugo, who like Daniel worked at Wardex until they went rogue, assures him that he will be relieved of his package. He asks him to be patient. Hugo is also building some kind of massive set for an important reason.

Meanwhile, aspiring Kansas City television news reporter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is wondering whether she should move again. This suggestion does not sit well with her current boyfriend, musician Jackson (Wyatt Russell). He is also puzzled on how, after a cardinal flies into their apartment, she is able to speak Russian. He'd be more puzzled if he saw Margaret use Jedi-like powers to get out of a speeding ticket, though she is barely aware of doing that. The big meltdown comes when she is presenting the weather. Margaret starts struggling to speak, then slips into unintelligible gibberish and collapses.

Scanlon knows that gibberish is alien. Daniel understands that gibberish as easily as he understands English. Soon both Margaret/Jackson and Daniel/Jane start racing away from Wardex's goons. Scanlon, however, can communicate with Jane telepathically using his own alien technology. He can even use his powers to try to get Jane to kill Daniel. 

The chase eventually leads Daniel, Margaret and Hugo to find each other. What happened on February 23, 1996, to the younger Daniel and Margaret that makes them so special to aliens? What are those animals, if they really are animals? Now that Margaret has managed to return to her Kansas City news station, will she get the world to listen?

I have seen Disclosure Day twice. I have fallen asleep watching Disclosure Day twice. However, I have full confidence that I did not fall asleep at the same point in Disclosure Day. Therefore, I think I saw the whole film. What I cannot do is fully remember it. I put that down to finding Disclosure Day very unmemorable. 

There are many problems with Disclosure Day. Director Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp (from a story by Spielberg) repeatedly attempt to show the world is at the brink of total annihilation. For example, a North Korean expert is at the news station with an interpreter. We are told from time to time that there is an impending nuclear war. However, that is all we are told. We are never really shown that there is an impending nuclear war. For a film that is aiming to put us in suspense, Disclosure Day is almost shockingly distant and remote. 

There is never a genuine sense of tension throughout the film apart from when Margaret and Daniel escape onto a moving train. To be fair, that moment does have some tension as to whether or not they will survive. Apart from that though, a lot of Disclosure Day is laughable. 

This is not hyperbole: the audiences that I saw Disclosure Day with were laughing at certain points. I do not think that Spielberg or Koepp wanted us to laugh when Margaret was able to spirit Daniel from Wardex's secret lair by having everyone think that she was someone else. I did ask myself if Margaret was a literal shapeshifter given how her appearance changed based on who was coming up to her. I also do not think that the aim was to have audiences laugh when Margaret calls Daniel to warn him that Scanlon's men know where he and Jane are. Maybe that was because it was amazing that she could drive so much without paying attention to the road.

Daniel too was able to look at Jane for long periods of time while driving without looking where he was going. I sat in amazement, not at the aliens or how Scanlon was communicating through his mind. I sat in amazement at how people could simultaneously drive and turn their heads to face their passengers in conversation. 

I have, with some fairness, been accused of becoming almost fixated on small details. The Waymo-like driving is one of those details. Another is on how Jane's former digs had the word "monastery" on its plaque. Granted, I am not Catholic. However, I thought a "monastery" was for men, and a "convent" was for women. I understand that some nuns do have "monasteries". However, I think it would have been easier to distinguish between "monastery" and "convent" for those of us not within Catholic theology.  Minor issue to be sure. 

Disclosure Day, for reasons I cannot fathom, touted itself as a film that would do more than shake people's faith, specifically Christianity. In some circles, I have been told, it would obliterate theology altogether. I think such reports are silly. I especially think that if Disclosure Day struggles distinguishing between "monastery" and "convent". To be fair, that is a minor issue and I personally prefer "nunnery", but I digress. Disclosure Day does make some curious stabs at being more theological than it ultimately is. If memory serves correct, Scanlon quotes Christ's words at the Garden (or a variation thereof). At another point, someone asks if knowing the existence of aliens would not make us question our faith. "I will not become anyone's religion", an angry Margaret at one point says.

Again, I do not know why Disclosure Day seems to think that the existence of aliens would wipe out faith, specifically the Judeo-Christian one. I also do not know why Disclosure Day would even care about such things.  

In terms of the film's technical aspects, Disclosure Day is closer to spoof than genuine film. The performances are all almost pretty bland to bad. Credit should be given where it is due. For the most part, Emily Blunt did well as Margaret Fairchild (separate from how one fights the temptation to call the character "Morgan Fairchild"). It is not a great performance. The scene of her helping Daniel escape was a source of unintended comedy. However, she did have good moments, such as when she casually slips into Russian or Korean without being aware that she is not speaking English.

She is the best performance in Disclosure Day. However, that is almost by default. Everyone else seems borderline idiotic. Josh O'Connor is so blank and dull as Daniel. He makes nebbishes look weak. Colin Firth seemed to act as if Disclosure Day were a James Bond spoof if we go by his performance. As a side note, John Williams' score made Scanlon's final appearance sound as if he was a Bond villain entering his lair. Hewson and Domingo were there. Wyatt Russell managed to look positively bored throughout the film. If he hit one note, it would have been amazing.

One of the most bizarre elements in Disclosure Day is when we see footage of President Nixon showing off the aliens to a guest. According to Daniel, he tells Jane that the person walking around with Nixon is someone who was "a big star in the fifties". Judging by how Nixon's guest looked like, I think Dick was showing the aliens off to Jackie Gleason. To be fair, the name of this big star was not mentioned. However, this figure was rather rotund. Why audiences now would know who this "big star" was Disclosure Day cannot answer. Those of us who think it is The Honeymooners' star that Nixon was showing the aliens off to are left to ask, "Why Jackie Gleason?". Moreover, why can't Daniel just say it's Jackie Gleason. It is doubtful that most people his age would know the Richard Nixon/Jackie Gleason/aliens connection. Or who Jackie Gleason is, unless they have seen Smokey and the Bandit. 

Disclosure Day is disjointed and is filled with pretty dull performances apart from Emily Blunt. It is really trying to be serious but seems dangerously close to veering into a downright spoof of an alien/chase film mashup. How (un)sweet it is.

DECISION: F

Greenland 2: Migration. A Review (Review #2165)

GREENLAND 2: MIGRATION

It is a curiosity that Greenland 2: Migration is simultaneously a hopeful and dystopian film. I found Greenland 2 working to be deeper and more meditative on this family's great crisis. I wonder though if by now, people would rather watch action over meditation. 

It has been five years since the asteroid Clarke has destroyed much of Earth. There are pockets of survivors throughout the world. Some eke out a living on the surface despite the radiation. Some have survived in bunkers. In the latter group is the Garrity family. Garrity patriarch John (Gerard Butler) goes to the surface often in search of supplies or potential survivors. His wife, Allison (Morena Baccarin) is one of the leaders at Thule Airbase in Greenland, where they took refuge all those years ago. They diabetic son, Nathan (Roman Griffith Davis) attempts to live life the best that he can. He likes a girl. He sneaks off onto the surface. He is not happy on Thule.

Fortunately, or not, a sudden earthquake destroys Thule and forces everyone to flee. The Garrity family manages to board a small, abandoned rescue ship along with others. Their eventual goal is to reach the Clarke Crater in France. Here, the Earth is rumored to be growing again. However, in this case, getting there is not half the fun.

First stop is Liverpool, where one of their compatriots is killed when he cannot produce an identity pass and attempts to enter their base anyway. Now, it's off to London to reunite with Mackenzie Matthews (Sophie Thompson). She is an old friend of Allison who has been caring for Alzheimer's patients. She gives them a car and warning to drive through Dover to cross the English Channel. Great Britain is a dangerous place, full of marauders. They take out their friend, Dr. Casey Amina (Amber Rose Revah). 

The Garrity family is surprised to find that the English Channel is now filled with land. There are still many dangers to cross to get into France. Fortunately, they come across Denis Laurent (William Abadie), a Frenchman who has managed to survive on the surface. He gives them information about the war going on between those defending the Clarke Crater and those determined to force their way in. He also begs them to take his daughter Camille (Nelia Valery Da Costa) with them. An old family friend is a commander with the troops. There are still many dangers before they can get near the Clarke Crater. Not all will survive, but will their journey be in vain or is there hope yet for the world?

I neither loved nor disliked the first Greenland. It was not a great film. It was not a particularly entertaining film. It was a curious hybrid of action and contemplation. Still, I thought well enough of it to think slightly well of Greenland. Greenland 2: Migration is pretty much in the exact same category as its predecessor. 

I did not love it. I did not hate it. I found it aiming for something deeper and richer. It did not always hit that mark. However, I cannot fault a film for at least trying. I was surprised that Greenland 2: Migration is actually almost a half hour shorter than Greenland. My surprise comes from the fact that Greenland 2 gives us a lot of things going on. There are tidal waves. There are earthquakes. There are many deaths going all around. 

That, I think, is why Greenland 2 failed at the box office. For all the Sturm und Drang of this dying world, the film was quite fond of killing side characters. We are introduced to such figures as Adam Shaw (Trond Fausa Aurvag), Obi (Ken Nwuso) and Dr. Amina. Each of them is killed off once they do whatever Mitchell LaFortune and Chris Sparling's screenplay needed them to do. Greenland 2 failed to see what has doomed other films: you cannot ask audiences to feel emotion for characters we barely know. It becomes almost a bit of a running gag: as soon as someone encounters the Garrity family, they have a high chance of ending up dead.

Even those who somehow manage to survive this cursed family somehow are just there. I cannot recall if Mackenzie is from the last movie. Even if she were, her appearance adds up to very little. 

There are other elements that leave the viewer a bit disengaged with Greenland 2. Throughout their entire journey, Nathan's diabetes is never touched on. We do not ever know what happened to the girl that he liked while at the Thune Airbase. The efforts to make things tense and exciting almost always fall flat. We get lots of tidal waves and earthquakes and battles. However, none of them have the impact that Greenland 2 aimed for.

Greenland 2 had some dodgy visual effects that would not be out of place on a SyFy Channel feature. The acting too was similarly limited. One never thinks of Gerard Butler as a dramatic actor. He is a big, burly Scotsman. I will give him credit for making a greater effort to make John's plight and concern for his family something to move audiences with. I think this is one of Butler's better performances. Is it a great performance? Probably not. It is, however, a good one. Monica Baccarin looked less than enthused at being there. I was not convinced that she wanted to be there. Baccarin looked as if she was going through the motions. In fairness, the part was not the greatest for her, so I cut her some slack. Roman Griffin Davis did well as Nathan. I think that he was not given much to do, but he acquitted himself well here.

Director Ric Roman Waugh got everyone through this serviceable production. The acting was acceptable. The pacing was steady. The visual effects worked though nothing spectacular. David Buckley's score matched the dour, morose world of Greenland 2. That also applies to Martin Ahlgren's cinematography. 

Greenland 2: Migration is a bit despairing about the world. It tries to give the viewer hope at the end. However, so much misery and death and chaos was thrown at us that it becomes a bit too heavy for viewers. I appreciated everyone's efforts. I do not necessarily see why we needed a Greenland 2. I, however, did not hate the film. It is fine enough but nothing that will have us calling out for a Greenland 3. 

DECISION: C+

Project Hail Mary: A Review

PROJECT HAIL MARY

Praise can be a dangerous thing, more dangerous than even microbes killing the Sun. Such is the case with Project Hail Mary. It has been less than three weeks, as of this writing, since the Academy Awards were held. Project Hail Mary, again as of this writing, is now seriously talked about as a major "awards contender". I will leave my exhaustion at the incessant awards season aside to look at the film itself. Project Hail Mary has some nice images and music. It is also far longer than it needs to be and is fast slipping into the most overrated film of 2026. 

In space, no one can see you stumbling into consciousness. A man finds himself awakened and receives various shocks. He is shocked to find two people dead. He is shocked to find himself floating in deep space. 

Over the course of Project Hail Mary, things begin to fall into place. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that our floating astronaut is not Major Tom. It is Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling). He is a renegade molecular biologist whose fight against orthodoxy has led him to be a middle school science teacher. His class, in fact, the whole world, is vexed by the Petrova lines. This is a strange infrared line between the Sun and Venus. The end result of this phenomenon is that it is slowly eating the Sun. This will cool the Earth within 30 years, dooming the planet.

There is, however, hope. Dour, humorless German Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller) gets Grace to examine the microorganisms collected from the Petrova lines. He finds that these microorganisms, named Astrophages, are infecting more stars. They can provide fuel for a desperate space journey to the distant star Tau Ceti. This is the only star that has not fallen to the Astrophage. It is time to find what if any immunity Tau Ceti has and if it can be brought to Earth.

Unfortunately, there is no way for the spaceship Hail Mary to return. Despite having no family or friends, Ryland will not go. "I put the "not" in "astronaut"", he insists. Circumstances, however, put him aboard.

All that is revealed in bits and pieces as Project Hail Mary tackles Plot B. Once he realizes where exactly he is, Grace works to complete the mission. Once near Tau Ceti, Grace is astonished to find another ship hovering nearby. Eventually, he finds that there is another creature who is working on the same problem. After a few fits and starts, Ryland is able to communicate and even become friends with an Eridian whom he names "Rocky" (James Ortiz). They jointly find that Tau Ceti-e, a planet in Tau Ceti's orbit, contains a microbe that prevents Astrophages to procreate and thus keeping Tau Ceti alive. The mission to retrieve that microbe off Tau Ceti-e (whom they rename "Adrian") is dangerous. The potential return journeys for both Grace and Rocky also put them in danger. Will amazing Grace and Rocky still manage to return to their respective home worlds? Will their distinct separate home worlds be saved?

Project Hail Mary has been wildly praised by both critics and audiences. I can speak only from what I saw both on screen and the screening that I attended. The people next to me were audible in their complaints about Project Hail Mary's runtime. Noting that Project Hail Mary is over two hours long, they noted that they were twenty minutes in with nothing that interested them. They walked out shortly afterwards. Project Hail Mary is two hours and thirty-six minutes long. As such, it needed cutting.

I note that Project Hail Mary has not one but two karaoke scenes. I understand that Stratt breaking from her usual humorless manner to sing Harry Styles' Sign of the Times has been embraced as this moving moment. However, did we really need to see Grace and Rocky with his digital voice doing a little bit of Let's Call the Whole Thing Off? 

As much adoration as Project Hail Mary is getting, I think people need to pause for a bit to look at how some things do not work. I might walk that back a bit. I think they work in a predictable, almost cartoonish manner. Rocky's somewhat cutesy voice is already a bit hard to take. It is, however, how almost everything he says ends with the words "statement" or "question" to emphasize that they are statements or questions that is a bit childish. For me, it runs the risk of not having us take what should be a dangerous situation seriously.

So much time is eaten up by the Grace/Rocky bromance that it veers dangerously close to being a straight-up comedy. Perhaps Drew Goddard's adaptation of Andy Weir's novel was meant to be that way. However, it also took stabs at what was intended as serious drama. Take for example when Grace launches the two dead crewmen into space. Project Hail Mary was meant to have this as a very moving, dramatic moment. However, given how Project Hail Mary was structured, we really did not know who these people were. We did not see Grace interact much with them in the various flashbacks. There was no chance for him to interact with them when they were all in deep hibernation. Therefore, I cannot feel emotional over people I do not know. 

Project Hail Mary is longer than it needs to be. We have Grace give an infodump via his middle school class. Unsurprisingly, Grace is one of those "hip" science teachers who makes science cool. Put aside how I find the notion that Grace could have a doctorate and find no other work except a middle school teacher laughably absurd. I find that a bit clichéd too. I do not know if any middle school would hire someone so wildly overqualified as Dr. Ryland Grace. Yet, I digress.

I find a few things wrong with this scene. First, there is no sense of urgency or danger about how the Sun is slowly dying. The kids are not well-directed to express their fears of impending doom. Ryan Gosling is not well-directed to show that he is trying to simultaneously shield and inform them. Second, I figure that we could have found another way to give us the information. Granted, we would have lost the "cool teacher forced into space" bit. However, we get another infodump when Grace is taken by jet to a battleship. Third, we do not connect with the kids or ever see or hear from them again. I'm not sure that they are even ever mentioned by Grace again. For being a hip teacher, Grace forgets the kids once he finds Rocky.

Project Hail Mary has also been lauded for having practical visual effects. I admit that when they go to Tau Ceti-e, it did look beautiful. However, the other visuals were laughable, at least judging in part from the audience reaction. The Hail Mary and Rocky's spacecraft looked like they were from a lost 1980's Doctor Who episode. They did not look real. They looked like children's models. Yes, some CGI can also look fake. This, however, looked like it came from something closer to Mystery Science Theater 3000 than from a major studio. I genuinely expected the Satellite of Love to come wandering in and join the Hail Mary.

The performances as directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were less than what they could have been. Most of Project Hail Mary is a one-man show. That would be Ryan Gosling. His character felt at times too goofy to be this serious scientist sent on an Earth-saving mission. I can cut the film some slack in the initial opening when he is attempting to recover his memory. However, as Project Hail Mary went on, I kept wondering why such a goofball would be sent into space. 

The film reveals the reason: he was drugged and essentially kidnapped into it. I have a genuine question. Eva Stratt is supposed to be forever professional and humorless, calculating everything to near perfection. However, how is it that she never conceived of having multiple teams of Hail Mary crew on standby in case something happened to those scheduled to go up? Instead, after an explosion kills the scientist who was going to fly up, she is forced to turn to someone who apparently never had any real training to fly the ship or knew his way around it. Stratt first gives Grace three hours to think about it. After he states that he doesn't want to do it, Stratt, ever aware of the dangers, first attempts to force him into the ship. As he attempts to escape the facility, she then gets her goons to chase after him. This results in him getting drugged and corralled onto the Hail Mary without his knowledge or approval.

Bugs Bunny going up against Marvin the Martian had more logic to it. Yet, again, I digress.

Sandra Huller had one thing to do in Project Hail Mary: look serious. The dour, humorless German who looks like she takes everything literally and seriously is pretty much a stereotype. 

I can find things in Project Hail Mary to praise. Daniel Pemberton's score was nice and worked well in the film. Of particular note is a tango used during a montage. Some of the visuals, such as when they go to Tau Ceti-e, are also quite beautiful. 

Project Hail Mary is not a bad film. It has some good qualities within it. However, it is also too long for the story that it is telling. It also is a bit too jokey for what is meant as a serious situation. I think there is an overpraising for Project Hail Mary that will, in time, be seen as rather absurd. Project Hail Mary is fine enough, but it is not among the greatest science-fiction films ever made. That people are making it out to be may indeed be a Sign of the Times. 

DECISION: C+

Mercy (2026): A Review (Review #2115)

MERCY

I think Chris Pratt is a fine action star. I do not think that he is an actor. There is a difference between the two. As such, when I went to a secret 3-D early screening of Mercy, I asked myself, "Do people want action star Chris Pratt sitting down for most of the film's runtime?". Judging from the tepid reaction that I saw, I would say that the answer is "sorta". Mercy is not particularly good, and certainly not worth 3-D. Still, it is not going to be anywhere near the worst movie of the year.

Detective Chris Raven (Pratt) wakes up hungover, tied to a chair and totally confused. He is shocked to find that he is now on trial for the murder of his wife Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). There is great irony in having Detective Raven on trial in the Mercy court. Mercy is the AI court system meant to streamline justice. The AI is now judge, jury and (if needed) executioner. Detective Raven was not only a strong proponent of Mercy when it debuted, he arrested the first person convicted through Mercy. 

Now, here he is, charged with murder. Mercy's Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) informs Raven of what he should already know. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence. Otherwise, he will be executed. Innocent means hitting a probability threshold. I believe it has to be under 40%, but I cannot recall. Currently, he sits at 98% probability. Raven is allowed to make contact with potential witnesses and examine all evidence which is available via data.  

The case is damning against Raven. He is a relapsed alcoholic, still struggling with guilt over the death of his partner Ray Vale (Kenneth Choi). His AA sponsor Rob Nelson (Chris Sullivan) was unaware that Raven had fallen off the wagon. There is endless audio and video footage of Raven being belligerent towards Nicole. He also has a fraught relationship with his daughter Britt (Kylie Rogers). 

As he continues his frenzied investigation, he must rely on his new partner, Jacqueline "Jaq" Diallo (Kalli Reis) to film things and give him the needed information. Could Nicole's potential lover Patrick Burke (Jeff Pierre) be the killer? Could it be someone closer to the Ravens? Perhaps someone who could not only have been at their Sunday cookout but hidden in their house for two days? Time is running out for Chris, so he must hurry to save himself, bring the real killer to justice and save Mercy from total destruction.

I went to see Mercy with my cousins. They are very much opposed to my taking notes while watching. As such, my Mercy memory may be hazy. At the end of Mercy, they all said that they liked it. I said that it was alright, and one of them replied that I was hard to please. I think that in this case, I was more merciful than some of my reviewing brethren. 

Mercy is not good. By the end, Mercy becomes pretty silly even for its premise. It does not help that our two leads are given little to work with.

As stated, I think Chris Pratt is a fine action star. He can be charming, effective and strong when knocking down bad guys or dinosaurs. What he cannot do is act if by acting you mean show dramatic range. Mercy gives us bits of him fighting, such as when we see footage of how many cops it takes to take him down. Mercy, however, keeps Pratt sitting down for nearly the entirety of its short runtime. As he has 90 minutes to prove his innocence, Mercy gives us about 100 minutes to watch all this unfold.

And that is what Mercy does: have us watch all this unfold. It feels a bit like one of those theme park rides where you're sitting in your chair while things go around you. That is not a bad thing, although the last time that I went on Star Tours, I came close to becoming violently ill. You have all these icons and images pass by. You see Instagram/TikTok-like videos of interrogations and the crime scene. You see files fly by Pratt's head.

That is, in and of itself, not a terrible thing. It just takes away from what Chris Pratt does best: show off his action skills. His acting skills have never been particularly strong. Mercy will not make one change that idea. I could cut him some slack in that Pratt essentially has no one to work with. He has to act as if he is talking to Ferguson or Reis. They are not really in the room. However, when we see him in footage, Pratt is not doing particularly well either. Pratt is best when having to shoot weapons, not when attempting to show how much he loves his daughter. 

In a curious criticism, I think Rebecca Ferguson comes across as too human to be an AI figure. I think director Timur Bekmambetov made a mistake in not making Ferguson more dispassionate and robotic. Here, she played Judge Maddox as if she were a person and not a machine. Whether this was a flaw in his directing, Marco van Belle's screenplay or a combination is hard to tell. Ferguson frankly is too good an actress to be in material like Mercy. She certainly is a better actor than Chris Pratt.

The other actors were not particularly good. Again, I will cut them all some slack in that their parts did not require much of anything. Perhaps I can say that they were serviceable and nothing more. 

I think some of the Mercy reviews are a bit over-the-top in their vitriol. It is not great. However, it is serviceable entertainment if you do not ask much from it. I knocked some points down from it because frankly I do not see why Mercy needed to be in 3D. Apart from maybe a fire sequence, I do not see why 3D was necessary. Oftentimes, I would lift my 3D glasses up to see if the picture looked any different. It did not. 3D in Mercy seems a silly gimmick rather than a good use for it.

Mercy is being shown very little by reviewers. I judge films based on what they are attempting to achieve. As such, Mercy would have been barely passable. The 3D element, however, is what ultimately pushed it to a mildly negative rating. Mercy, while not the worst film of the year, will mercifully be forgotten save for eventual late-night viewing. 

DECISION: C-

The Running Man (2025): A Review (Review #2070)

THE RUNNING MAN (2025)

Whatever the merits of The Running Man, it faces a very tough challenge separate from the lead character's race to survive. The makers of the 2025 adaptation insist that this Running Man is closer to the Stephen King novel than the 1987 adaptation. That, however, does not mean that it is better. Far from it. Excessively long, increasingly nonsensical, The Running Man is a sorry step down, with only its star's physique to recommend it.

In a dystopian world, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is struggling for employment. He was terminated from his last position due to being pro-union and a whistleblower to the company's negligence. With a sick infant to care for, Ben opts to make quick cash by volunteering for one of the many deadly game shows that pay great amounts, if one survives. While he promised his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) that he would not go into The Running Man, that's where his skills and intense anger get him assigned. The various game shows are overseen by network/government executive Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), who sees in Richards a strong contender for ratings gold. The Running Man's flamboyant host Bobby T (Coleman Domingo) loves the theatricality of the show and plays along with everything.

The Running Man show is simple. Three contestants are given $1000 and a 12-hour head start. Once those hours are up, anyone who spots them can record, report and reward themselves after a successful execution. The contestants have to record themselves every day and send the tapes for proof of life. Ben has a leg up in that he has friends who can aid him with disguises and fake IDs. One of the contestants, Tim Jansky (Martin Herlihy) is soon eliminated on television. Ben faces many close calls, one of them in the nude. His antagonists are The Hunters, a group of elite assassins tasked with eliminating the contestants. The deadliest is McCone, who is permanently masked.

It is one daring escape after another, with various people helping the increasingly popular Richards evade the Hunters. One group is Bradley Throckmorton (Daniel Ezra), who hosts an underground video channel exposing the lies of the government television network. Another is Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), this world's Antifa equivalent, the anarchist Che Guevara-loving revolutionary bent on avenging his father. As Ben keeps surviving, he becomes an inspiration for the population, with many viewers now cheering on the "Richards Lives" movement. 

The other contestant, Jenni Laughlin (Katy O'Brien) has been exterminated by a couple of tweens. It is no surprise given how Laughlin has been openly flaunting her excesses for all the world to see.

With Richards gathering steady payments owing to his continued survival, it becomes clear that he is a formidable opponent. He is also a ratings boon against the goons. Time, however, is running short. Circumstances force him to take a random citizen hostage. This hostage, Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones) at first believes everything that she has seen about the murderous psychopath Ben Richards. She soon sees the error of her ways. However, will she be able to help Ben Richards? Things come to a head when McCone (Lee Pace) is forced to reveal himself. Their faceoff is the brilliant season finale. However, it is also the start of the revolution.

As The Running Man kept going, I kept wondering why director and cowriter Edgar Wright (with Michael Bacall as cowriter) bothered with any of this. A good action film, a strong action film should also be a fun action film. There is little fun to be had in The Running Man. I think the problems are set up and execution.

The first maybe twenty to thirty minutes of the film are spent in showing the miserable conditions of Ben Richards' world. He lost his job because he was some kind of Karen Silkwood. He has a very sick infant daughter. His wife is I think a waitress or hostess who faces the possibility of having to sell her virtue to fund their daughter's treatment. Richards goes into the television network complex already angry. As such, he never changes or evolves as a character.

I imagine that Ben Richards would or should transform from someone doing The Running Man television show out of desperation into a hero to lead an uprising. Instead, he already looked like a member of the resistance. As such, there was no real character development.

We did, however, see a lot of physical development from Glen Powell. I think Powell's personal trainer ought to get a special Academy Award for turning him into this immensely muscular figure. We got a lengthy scene of him wearing nothing but a skimpy towel. As the Hunters come close to killing him, at one point he is forced to take the towel off to break a window. I do not see a logical reason for taking so much time to showcase Powell's physical beauty. I also do not see how he managed all his various escapes with such great ease. 

What are the odds that his shabby hotel room would have a grenade? 

I think Glen Powell did his best with the material that he was given. However, try as he did, and he did try, a small part of me wanted Ben Richards to be defeated. He was pretty much one-note, growly and angry from the get-go. Much better was Josh Brolin as the evil television producer. He had a slightly easier job in that he did a lot of his acting from a screen. He did not have to share the screen with many people. As such, he could snarl to his heart's content.

I sadly confess that I did a little applause at Michael Cera's first end. He was just there to spout how killing "goons" (aka cops) was a good thing. As he electrocutes the men sent to kill Richards, Cera's Elton shouted, "I like my bacon crispy!". To The Running Man, this is subtle messaging. 

Regretfully, Lee Pace is wasted here. For most of the film, he is fully masked. Once he unmasks himself, it does not provide any shock or even interest. McCone as a character is not that interesting to start with. He is, I figure, meant to be menacing. However, McCone is personality free and never seems much of a threat. Ezra too is not that interesting as his character Throckmorton. The clips of his videos (essentially info dumps) look unintentionally hilarious.

It was, I think, a great mistake to bring in Emilia Jones' Amelia so late into the film. It almost looked as if she was from a whole other draft that was just put in there. She could not be a romantic interest. She was not that interesting to begin with. She was just there. Coleman Domingo, like Glen Powell, did his best to sell his outrageous television impresario. It is unfortunate that The Running Man opted to let him have a last-minute change of heart and side with the growing revolution. 

William H. Macy is on screen probably no more than seven to ten minutes. He has two scenes, one of them where he is being tortured for information. Who exactly is he? How do he and Ben know each other? Why did the curiously named Molie (pronounced "Molly") not offer Ben the job that he said that he planned to earlier? The Running Man plants these story threads but never really starts or finishes them.

As a side note, Ben Richards never struck me as interesting enough to lead a rebellion. While the source material was published long before it, The Running Man came across as hitting some of the same notes as The Hunger Games. I half expected Richards to look into the screen and give the Katniss salute.   

There were other problems in the film. At least twice, maybe more, we had scenes that ended up being dream sequences or fake-outs. It was not strictly deceiving the audience, but they were unnecessary. In what is meant as a crucial twist, Killian informs Ben that his wife and child have been killed. Having repeatedly seen Killian fake footage of Ben, why would Ben believe that particular footage was real? Is he an idiot? I never believed that so many people would be happy to help Richards in his various dodges from the Hunters. It seemed far too convenient. 

The film also has some absolutely ghastly editing. Some of the fight scenes are almost maddeningly impossible to follow. The cutting is so frantic as to be cinematic gibberish. 

I do not compare two versions of the same film when reviewing one or the other. That is for another time. The only real nod to the original is when we see the new money featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger's face on them. For the moment, I think it is safe to say that the 1987 The Running Man will continue to be enjoyed. The 2025 version, flashy as it may be, will probably be forgotten. It helps that the 1987 version is a good half hour shorter. I never felt that version's runtime. I felt every minute of this one's though.

2025's The Running Man will not survive to see another season. It can't get cancelled fast enough.

DECISION: D+

Bugonia: A Review (Review #2065)

BUGONIA

They are among us. There are those who believe that there is life outside of our humble planet. A subset of those believers hold that these aliens are not watching us from beyond the stars. Instead, they live among us. At the very least, they built the Pyramids both in Giza and in the Yucatan among other great wonders. Bugonia takes this premise and gives us wild, funny and surprisingly tragic take on the benevolence and malevolence of these things from another world.

Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) is well-versed in various conspiracy theories. His most recent one involves Auxoleth Corporation's CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone). He believes that she is not a 45-year-old woman. She is, rather, an Andromedan, an extraterrestrial who is here for nefarious work on humanity. He gets his intellectually disabled cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap Michelle when she returns to her estate.

Teddy and Don have shaved Michelle's head and coated her with antihistamine cream to prevent her from contacting the mothership. Teddy's plan is to use Michelle as a bargaining chip with the Andromedan Emperor who will be coming in four days' time. Teddy insists that Michelle take Teddy and Don onto the mothership to negotiate for humanity. Michelle, finding all of this bonkers, insists that she is not an alien. She also reminds them that due to her position, a major manhunt will take place to find her.

As Bugonia continues, the audience finds many mysteries and layers to the story. Auxoleth, a pharmaceutical corporation, has treated Teddy's mother Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) for her addictions. The drug tests, unfortunately, left Sandy in a comatose state. Teddy works as a packer for Auxoleth, where he secretly delights in seeing news reports of Michelle's disappearance. Michelle soon matches wits with both Teddy and Don. 

Teddy soon comes to the conclusion that Michelle is not a mere Andromedan functionary but a member of the Andromedan Royal Family. This grants her some limited privileges, but it still puts her in danger. As the date of the lunar eclipse comes closer, who will win out in this struggle? Will bumbling sheriff Casey (Stavros Halkios), Teddy's former babysitter who probably abused him as a child, stumble upon the truth? Will Michelle manipulate Teddy into literally murdering Sandy albeit unintentionally? Is Michelle what she appears to be? More wild turns take place until the lunar eclipse comes upon Earth. In the end, we are left to ask Where Have All the Flowers Gone? with no one left to answer.

Bugonia is a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet! which I have not seen. Will Tracy's screen adaptation manages to work well in keeping the story going with one turn after another. The film spends the first part giving us Teddy's beliefs and methodical manner in planning this alien abduction. As Bugonia continues, we see how Teddy became so apparently unhinged. He at one point tells Michelle that he has shifted in conspiratorial worldviews. He has gone from alt-right to Marxist beliefs in an apparent attempt to find the truth. We also learn of the various tragedies that have befallen Teddy. His mother is in a coma resulting from Auxoleth's actions. Casey, though not overtly saying so, asks Teddy for forgiveness for what Casey did to him when Teddy was a child. 

As such, Bugonia makes a strong case that Teddy's actions and thinking are a result of the various traumas that he has suffered. This is carried by Jesse Plemons' performance. Rarely does Plemons behave as a nutter. For the most part, he is eerily calm and rational for a man whose actions are anything but. There are a few times when his emotions get the best of him. Of particular note is when he becomes violently murderous towards Michelle. His eccentric calmness makes this already frightening scene more effective. His mix of tears and terror when he is attempting to save his mother is a highlight of Plemons' performance.

He is more than matched by Emma Stone. She runs the gamut of emotions. Michelle is many things. She is insincere and prickly in her efforts to make a promotional video. She is removed when first realizing that she has been abducted. We see her briefly via surveillance cameras break down emotionally. Michelle can be curt, pleading, dismissive and ultimately distressed at the end result of the human experience. Stone gives us a sense of tragedy about the human condition. 

Aidan Delbis and Stavros Halkias did well in their smaller roles. While I would not call them standout performances, both of them were efficient. At certain points, the relationship between Teddy and Don felt reminiscent of the Lenny and George relationship in Of Mice and Men. I do not know if that was intentional or not. I think Halkias was the weakest performance. He seemed nervous in Bugonia, as if he was unsure about his abilities to act. While I grant that Casey tiptoeing around his probable child abuse of Teddy is uncomfortable, he felt pretty much that way even at the end. 

As a side note, I was surprised by how relatively small the cast was. It is mainly four people: Teddy, Michelle, Dan and Casey. While there are other characters, they are pretty much irrelevant to the story.

One thing that did surprise me was how sometimes Bugonia was funny. The bumbling abduction and Teddy's final moments were amusing even if the latter was a bit grisly. I would put it down to how director Yorgos Lanthimos filmed it. Credit should also be given to how Lanthimos and Tracy kept the audience in suspense as to where the truth stood. I do not think that what might be a twist turns out the way it did is shocking. At least it was, at least within Bugonia, not totally out of left field.

The film also has a strong Jerskin Fendrix score that keeps to the eccentric tone of Bugonia (no pun intended). 

I would quibble with a few elements. While Robbie Ryan's cinematography was strong, I think shifting from color to black-and-white was a bit much. I also question how Teddy's past adventures with Andromedans came to be. 

Overall, though, Bugonia is a strong and at times amusing film. There is something of a tragic element to it when it comes to the foolishness of man. It does play with eccentric ideas of alien involvement when it comes to us Tellurians. Strong performances from Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone elevate Bugonia. When will they ever learn? That, sadly, remains to be seen. 

DECISION: B+