Well, this was disappointing. Make no mistake about it – “Chernobyl Diaries” (2012) was nowhere near as good as its trailer made it look. I’d give it a 4 out of 10, and that’s primarily for a great shooting location. (This was filmed in Serbia and Hungary, but it sure as hell looked like something filmed near the titular doomed Russian nuclear reactors.)
You want a truly frightening new found-footage horror movie? Skip this and check out the Australian gem, “The Tunnel” (2011).
The fantastic “The Cabin in the Woods” (2012) is a surprise-filled movie that is difficult to review without spoilers, so I can’t say much about it. Suffice to say, I really, really liked it – I’d give it a 9 out of 10.
This is a smart, inventive film that is probably the most creative thing I’ve seen in a long time – it’s safe to say that I’ve never seen anything like it. Do yourself a favor and avoid news articles or websites like imdb.com – you’ll enjoy this much more if you know little about it.
It actually takes a while to get going. I had a lukewarm response to this movie for maybe its entire first half. The end — which brings together a surprising number of story elements (I really can’t say more) – really redeemed it. The buildup to that ending is a lot of things that have long been established as horror clichés. But that’s intentional, as screenwriter Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon made it, I think, partly as a parody and partly as an homage to the genre.
A few caveats … if you’ve been looking forward to this movie for a while, as I have, you’re aware that it was very well reviewed. But I’m pretty sure it got so much praise because it was creative and original – not because it was the best HORROR movie ever made. The central plot device is too contrived and fantastic to be really frightening, and the movie is too self-aware to allow us to forget it’s just a movie. Parts of it were disturbing, but there’s just too much humor to make this a truly scary movie. You’re not sitting down to “The Exorcist” or “The Shining.”
Also, various reviews seem to indicate a twist that is impossible to guess. This isn’t true. Horror fans – especially fans of a certain subgenre – will know the big reveal before the halfway mark, especially if they listen to the dialogue of the story’s antagonists. Hell, I was just talking about it with another aspiring horror writer just the other day. Don’t expect a surprise on the level of “The Sixth Sense” or “Unbreakable.”
Still, this was a hell of a lot of fun. And what a GREAT Halloween movie it would make!! It would also be fun to watch back-to-back with “Cabin Fever” or one of the “Evil Dead” movies, given their similar settings.
I got acquainted for the first time yesterday with “The Vagabond Poet,” Don Blanding. Dear Lord … this guy’s life sounds like an adventure novel. (A WWI veteran who enlists to fight WWII at the age of 47?!)
I particularly like “The Poet and The Woman,” the first poem on the page at the link.
I finally saw “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), and I really liked it. It had a fantastic script with great performances by Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany and Adam Goldberg. I’d give it a 9 out of 10.
I had no idea that Crowe was this good of an actor. He had a “Rain Man” role in this film, in which an established actor can show his range by portraying a mentally ill person. Yet even his terrific performance here was maybe outshined by Harris’. I don’t know what it is about Harris … but he grows on you. He’s a great actor, even in a somewhat one-note role like the one he has here. He can be forceful and intimidating, and even genuinely frightening, but also sympathetic at the same time. (See his performances in “The Stand” miniseries (1994) or that Saturday-afternoon, guilty-pleasure standby, “The Rock” (1996).) Plus he’s just got a damned cool voice. And those crazy-ass eyes that bore right through you. Seriously, if Ed Harris were your Dad, would you ever f%#@ up as a teenager? Ever? I would never come home late with beer on my breath, EVEN IF ED HARRIS WERE AN OUT-OF-STATE UNCLE.
Ron Howard’s directing was good – very good. Still, I couldn’t help comparing him with other directors who have a genius for this kind of source material. This is a movie where the main character comes to doubt his perceptions of reality – when I think of films like “12 Monkeys,” “Vanilla Sky” or “Jacob’s Ladder,” I couldn’t help but wonder if their directors really would have given a tour de force with this story’s fantastic elements. Think about it … if Terry Gilliam had directed “A Beautiful Mind,” wouldn’t this great movie be even better?
All in all, though, this was an excellent film. I cheerfully recommend it.
… but I’m disagreeing with those lauding “The Simpsons Guy,” the crossover between “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons.” This was an average episode, and not a great one. There was just too much self-referential humor and the running gag about the former copying the latter ran too long.
The “chicken fight” joke has always been lost on me. I never got it the first time, and usually grab a snack whenever it pops up. (Doesn’t it usually last like five minutes or more?) A genuine team-up between Bart and Stewie would have been funnier than the character contrast, and there were too many weirdly dark moments (including the final chalkboard joke).
All I’m saying is that both shows are brilliant, and this landmark episode didn’t really reflect that.
Still, there were some nice moments — including the Emmy gag and the cameo(s) by James Wood.
I’m blogging my past film and tv reviews from Facebook. It’s too bad this promising BSG prequel never made it past the pilot phase.
*****
I was happy with the prequel web-miniseries “Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome” (2012) – it really seemed like a return to form to the immensely popular first two seasons of the tv show. I’d give it an 8 out of 10. Gone are the weird and confusing plotlines involving divine intervention and … (sigh) angels. Instead we’re treated to a decent, escapist and gratifying sci-fi war-adventure story, with a few gritty horror elements thrown in to remind us that this is still Ron Moore’s unique Battlestar Galactica universe. It seemed to consciously emulate “Aliens” (1986), which is a direction I think a lot of BSG fans would have been thrilled with. (I’m a little confused about whether the SyFy Channel intended this as a possible pilot for a regular tv series … it seems that way, from how it’s written.)
There are also nice nods to the series, its followup prequel series, “Caprica,” and even the original 1970’s tv show. I loved how one key actor/actress appeared to lend his/her voice to really nail a nice surprise in the finale. That’s some damn fun continuity right there, and awesome fan service.
It’s a shaky pilot (?) in some ways. Young William Adama is a two-dimensional clone of “Starship Troopers’” Johnny Rico, though he does grow a bit by the end of the story. There are also other clichés – at one point a commander states something along the lines of “the fate of the entire war hinging on this battle!!” Ugh. Another flaw was its inclusion of actors from the series – in different roles. It was probably cool for Moore to keep it in the family and give these talented people additional high-profile work. (My personal favorite is the great, underused character actor Ty Olsson.) But it’s jarring, and takes you right out of the story – sometimes you’re too busy saying, “Hey! It’s THAT guy!” to get immersed in the show.
Still, this was cool and exciting and fun. What a shame it’s (apparently) not turning into a regular series.
Okay … “The Awakening” (2011) had a certain surprise plot development that didn’t work. But other than that, it was a darn good movie. Rebecca Hall is terrific (and alluring), and this might be the most beautifully shot ghost story I’ve ever seen. It was also nice and scary. I’d give this an 8 out of 10.
The following are pictures of Culpeper, Virginia, which I was lucky to see again, even if it was only briefly, on the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains this past Labor Day weekend. (There was a time I would name Fredericksburg as America’s best small town, of course, but I’m not sure that Fredericksburg meets the definition of a small town any longer — more on that in the future.)
I remember Culpeper fondly indeed. I found my first job after college here — working as a reporter for the Culpeper Star – Exponent newspaper. (Third photo.) I lived right on Main Street, which is pictured in the first two photos. It wasn’t New York, but it was a warm community of good neighbors that I was lucky to join.
Yes, I did say newsPAPER. There was time, kids, when news was actually printed in ink on a refined paper product that required hand delivery to your home. Either that, or you could purchase it from a mechanical metal box on the street corner.
Check out the fourth photo of Mount Pony at the edge of town– this is something my friend pointed out to me. (I know you can hardly see it — the picture is blurry because taken from a moving car.)
Until nearly the end of the Cold War, this was a 140,00-square-foot, federally operated “continuity of government” facility, housing people underground and designed to keep our government going in the event of a nuclear war. There were dormitories, food supplies and wells, protected from blasts and radiation by steel-reinforced concrete and lead shutters — it even had an indoor pistol-range and a helipad. There were also just billions of dollars housed there by the Federal Reserve, to jump-start a post-apocalyptic economy.
It was decommissioned in 1992, and was bought in 2007 by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It’s now a national film archive operated by the Library of Congress, with more than 6 million pieces of original film and television artifacts. (Apparently old film stock can be dangerous to store, because it’s extremely flammable?) It’s open to the public, and has its own theater that screens classic films for free — it even has an organ that ascends to the screen when the theater shows silent films. The Library of Congress has a running schedule right here:
http://www.loc.gov/loc/events/#eventlist9
That sounds pretty damn cool. I’ve been dying to see a bunch of silent films I’ve never seen (particularly “Nosferatu” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”) I might try to take a trip out there if they screen any such vintage movies around Halloween. Because seeing classic horror films in an underground facility designed for the end of the world has got to be a unique experience.
If you enjoy my movie or television reviews, follow “ericrnolan” at the Internet Movie Database:
I’m blogging some of my past film reviews on Facebook — here is my review two years ago of “American History X.”
*****
It was a weird coincidence for me watching “American History X” (1998) last night. I’d borrowed it from the library over a week ago on my friend Lisa Bennett Chesser’s recommendation; well before Wade Michael Page went on a shooting spree in a Wisconsin Sikh temple. (The Neo-nazis in this film even rally to white power music, as Page is said to have done.)
I’m glad I watched this. It’s a good, smart, enjoyable film. I learned from it.
I’d really rather not discuss its social or political messages on my wall. One glance at an online discussion of this movie shows that they’re divisive and often ugly. (There are even ongoing debates about which gangs or groups should rightly be called “Skinheads,” and which are racist.) I’m just not in the mood for controversy this morning. I’d rather just tell you what I thought about AHX as a film.
This movie had a lot of great things going for it, but two things stood out in particular. The first was Edward Norton’s tour de force performance. I’ve liked Norton elsewhere, like “Red Dragon,” where he was good. Here, he’s phenomenal. He’s goddam frightening as Neo-nazi Derek. (He reminded me of Bill Moseley’s turn as “Otis Driftwood” in “House of 1,000 Corpses.”) Then we see him as a redeemed man. Then, through flashbacks, he’s made even more human and three-dimensional, as we see a sensitive young teenager traumatized by the death of his father. Norton was so damned good that I still seem to have trouble believing that the same actor played all three roles. I don’t pretend to be a film expert; reviews like this are just a hobby. But I think I know great acting when I see it, and this was great acting.
The second was a really smart script. Again, I learned from this. I always assumed that Neo-nazis were poorly educated nuts from the fringes of society. As it turns out, they actually do have an ideology, albeit a horrible and misguided one. This movie makes a very smart move in scripting Derek and his younger brother as “brilliant” students, who articulate facts and motivations for doing odious things. Listening to Derek’s tirades (including one cringe-inducing scene at a dinner-table) actually sheds light on what motivates the characters’ real-life counterparts.
Only two small things occurred to me that made this film a little less perfect than so many others have claimed it to be. First, this movie doesn’t even know the meaning of subtlety. Its message and delivery were so heavy handed that it was almost an ABC afterschool special. We even have an overly convenient framing device – Derek’s adulating brother, Danny (played wonderfully by Edward Furlong), is asked by an African American history teacher to write a report on Derek’s life. The superior film, “Crash” (2004,) for example, handled racism with a hell of a lot more finesse and surprises.
Second, one character arc was way too quick and implausible. After one conversation with his redeemed older brother, Danny also disavows the Neo-nazi movement? After years of propaganda and socialization by the group? I’m not so sure a disturbed, fascist teenager can be deprogrammed so easily. Did anyone else who saw this movie wonder about this as well?
Still, this was a great film. I’d give it a 9 out of 10. One final note – the ending quote by Abraham Lincoln was just beautiful. I’d actually heard only snippets of it sampled by films before – once in “Apocalypse Now” and once in “X2: X-Men United.” It’s better in its entirety.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 