Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan

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My review of “Exit Humanity” (2011)

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I am blogging some of my past film reviews from Facebook.  Bill Mosely is a damn good actor who needs his own major feature film to star as the bad guy; I am also becoming a Stephen McHattie fan.

*****

“Exit Humanity” (2011) might not have been as great as I’d hoped.  (The trailer made it look amazing.)  But it was still a good and creative independent zombie film; I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

It’s a genre-buster that posits a zombie epidemic just after the Civil War, but that isn’t a gimmick.  There’s a complete absence of camp that makes this a “straight horror movie” and a hell of a lot more fun.  It’s got a great script, beautiful locations, two great leads, and a couple of great “that guy” actors in supporting roles — the incredibly underrated Bill Mosely (Otis Driftwood in “House of 1000 Corpses”) and the also-underrated Stephen McHattie.

The directing is very spotty, the pacing is way off, and the “book chapter” structure makes this feel less like a movie and more like a series of well-made webisodes.  (I’m starting to understand why many movies adhere to that “three-act” structure that critics refer to.)  The limited budget also shows — there’s a dearth off special effects and some of the zombies look remarkably like actors in white facepaint.  (Is this a kabuki zombie epidemic?)

One of the things that surprised me about this movie is how terrific Brian Cox’ voice is.  He narrates the entire tale retrospectively as an older version of the main protagonist.  I can’t believe I never noticed this before.  I think he’s better than Morgan Freeman or David Prowse.  Check him out in the trailer.

All in all, this was a good movie.  I’d recommend it to any zombie horror fan.

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Gross. (I never really liked the stuff.)

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Although they were never as bad as those abhorrent “Good’n’Plenty” candies, which to me tasted as bitter as cold medicine and came in tiny boxes.  As a child I opined that they were neither good nor plenty.

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“The Walking Dead” Season 5 Premiere Was Just Perfect.

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[This post contains mild, general spoilers for seasons 3 through 5.]

The zombies might shamble along slowly, but the Season 5 Premiere of “The Walking Dead” roared along at a breakneck pace last night with an action-packed spectacle that I would rate at a perfect 10.  This was a fantastic episode, even by the show’s standards.

There isn’t a hell of a lot I can say without spoilers, except it had all of the scares, gore, horror and action that a viewer could ask for — not to mention a tour de force by possibly my favorite character.  (And I just KNEW this person would shine in this episode!)

And in its fifth season, it still manages to be an effective horror show.  My stomach dropped when one defenseless character was imperiled and another extorted.  (“Go outside!”)  Yeesh.

The inhabitants of Terminus, I think, are the scariest group of human adversaries the show has developed.  The dialogue, detail and even the set design, showing how organized and methodical they were in their wrongdoing, was incredibly creepy and unsettling.

I honestly think I would have fallen for their trap.  I don’t think I’m giving myself too much credit if I say I would never have been taken in by a charismatic opportunist like the Governor –he was an obvious politician, and in the corporate world, guys like him are a dime a dozen.  I’d also like to think that I would be too shrewd to trust a guy like Shane, and that I’d be vigilant or lucky enough to stay a step ahead of “the Claimers.”

But I don’t know about the “Termites.”  I think I might have taken the bait.  They seemed so … normal, and easygoing and … safe.  Gareth and his second in command seemed like precisely the sort of people I would trust — affable, disarming, articulate grad-student types, just maybe a little worse for wear during the apocalypse.

In fact, do you know what I suspected the twist for the end of Season 4 would be?  That the Terminus residents would be harmless, and that a paranoid Rick and company would accidentally attack and kill a group of innocent people.  (This show is just dark enough to do that.)

That’s not quite how things worked out, of course.  Wow, what a great opener, and what a nice little event for the Halloween season.  🙂

Nice job, AMC.

Final fan theory observation … is it possible that one character was bitten and is concealing the wound?  A key melee does take place offscreen, doesn’t it?  (Caveat — I am almost always wrong on predictions like these.)

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My review of “Exam” (2009)

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“Exam” (2009) was a good psychological thriller — eight extremely intelligent executives are forced to compete for a dream job.  Except the group interview turns out to be a bizarre social experiment, and things eventually turn brutal.

There are some pacing problems.  (Way too much time, for example, is devoted to discussing the room’s lighting.)  But there’s a smart, fun script, some nice surprises, and you really do get the sense that these are borderline geniuses in a battle of wits.  I could never write a story like this – that’s for sure.

Incidentally, the individual I liked the best was awarded the job.  I thought that this person was the one I would have most liked and trusted.

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My review of “Escape From Alcatraz” (1979)

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I’m blogging some of my past movie reviews; please don’t hate me for not giving the classic film more love.

*****

“Escape From Alcatraz” (1979) was a decent flick; I’d give it a 7 out of 10.   (And, yeah, I do know I’m going to get nailed to the wall by my film buff friends who no doubt can point out reasons why it would deserve a higher rating.  This is why I hide behind an internet connection with these reviews.)

Clint Eastwood really is a wonderful actor, and there are nice amounts of tension here.  I personally think the best actor was Roberts Blossom as “Doc.”  I was also pretty surprised to discover just how much “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) borrowed from this – right down to an elderly, eccentric  prisoner nurturing a pet and dying tragically.

To me, the movie seemed a little thin.  Of the four protagonists, the only one we really get to know is “Butts,” and two others are convenient Italian American stereotypes.  Little was done to exploit Patrick McGoohan’s amazing acting skills as the warden.  (This was the guy who played Longshanks in “Braveheart” (1995)!!)

It also seems thinly plotted.   Little transpires beyond four prisoners gathering small objects to effect their escape.  And if you’ve already read about the true story of Frank Norris, there are no surprises here.  Finally, we do not even fully see the aftermath of the story for the one unfortunate conspirator.

This movie also might suffer from … “genre fatigue?”  Yes, it’s regarded as a classic, but, since 1979, we’ve seen fictional film prisons do more with this kind of setting.  One, of course, is the obviously inspired “Shawshank.”  Another is HBO’s “Oz.”   I just don’t think this movie would thrill a modern audience the way it did in 1979.

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Skip this “Elevator” and catch the next one.

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“Elevator” (2011) started strong and then just flzzled.  It had a few strong moments, but the ending lacked much punch or surprise, and it finally had the feel of a made-fpr-tv movie.  I’d give it a 4 out of 10.

This movie also suffers from the inevitable comparison with surprisingly fantastic “Devil” (2010) an elevator-themed thriller that was ten times better than its synopsis makes it sound.

Elevator Box Art (2-D)

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My review of “The Divide,” (2012)

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I was surprised indeed by “The Divide” (2012) – a flawed post-apocalyptic  horror film that nevertheless has a hell of a lot going for it.  It’s a horrifying, brutal look at seven apartment building residents who survive a nuclear holocaust by sheltering together in the building’s basement.

Does that sound dark?  Because it’s a hell of a lot darker than you think it is.  This film is brutal and disturbing – even by the standards of the survival-horror sub-genre.

The script is flawed, but this movie still surprised me and held me in suspense.   You know it’s a worthwhile movie if you can’t stop watching it, even if the screenwriting isn’t perfect.  That’s partly due to a great cast – with terrific performances by Michael Biehn, Courtney Vance, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia,  Ashton Holmes, Rosanna Arquette and Ivan Gonzalez.

Despite the good acting all around, the runaway performance was Michael Eklund as Bobby.  This guy is an incredibly talented actor.  He nailed the role of a survivor who descends quickly into madness and depravity, and was probably the best thing about this movie.  His performance actually reminded me a hell of a lot of Buffalo Bill in “Silence of the Lambs.”  That kid was amazing and terrifying.  (I don’t think what I’m writing here is a spoiler; everyone knows the premise of the movie, and Bobby is recognized almost immediately as an erratic personality.)

This movie reminded me just a little of the superb BBC docudrama, “Threads” (1984), which was an equally brutal look at the aftermath of a nuclear war – far more so than the inferior American “The Day After,” which made headlines a year earlier.  (And doesn’t everyone in my age bracket remember that?)

The special effects budget is limited.  But the final shot of the movie is fantastic.

Again … this is not a feel-good film, even when compared with other movies like this.  This movie was written by people who have absolutely no faith in human nature.  The final choice by one character is pretty sad evidence of that.  What the character does seems inexplicable at first, but then makes perfect sense when you think about it.  And it’s pretty depressing.

I’d give this movie an 8 out of 10.

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Are you excited that Episode VII is being made?!?!

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Me: “Are you excited that Episode VII is being made?!?!”

Amanda: “What?”

Me: “I GUESS NOT.”

Then she comments that she can’t really get into Star Wars because she hasn’t read the original books upon which they are based.

GIRLS.

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My review of “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012)

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Blogging some of my past movie reviews — this is my take on “The Dark Knight Rises.”  Warning — fanboy bubbling ahead.

*****

Dear Lord, “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) was fantastic.  This third and final installment to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, at several times, wanted to make me stand up and cheer.

This film deserves a perfect 10.  All of the magic of “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Knight” (2008) return – especially with respect to an excellent script with a layered, detailed plot and great, three-dimensional characters.  I found myself seeing parallels between this movie and another current popular comic book adaptation, AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”  Both seem to have expertly taken the best elements from the comics, but then also changed or updated the source material to enhance it and surprise longtime fans.  And there’s a great continuity with the preceding films in terms of characters, themes, motif and story.

The dialogue was wonderful; this is a quotable movie.  And the basic story is perfect, especially in the way this film was challenged to follow up the amazing “Dark Knight.”  They made some wise choices.  Instead of trying to match Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker, Nolan simply presents us with a new kind of “Bat-villain” — Bane, a supremely logical and ordered personality whose background seems very similar to Bruce Wayne’s.  I was a Batman comic book fan in the early 1990’s, when Bane was created.  He remains one of my all-time favorite villains, along with Randall Flagg, Two-Face, (Matt Wagner’s) Grendel, and Hannibal Lecter.  Nolan seized the compelling original character (created, I believe, by writer Chuck Dixon), and truly capitalized on it.

So too, did Nolan capitalize on the great character of Selina Kyle as Catwoman (again best characterized in the original comic by Dixon).  She was wonderfully played by a runaway performance by Anne Hathaway, and she really does deserve her own movie.

The acting was wonderful all around (even though Tom Hardy doubtlessly was challenged as an actor by a mask that obscured his face).  Hathaway, was a terrific surprise, and Gary Oldman and Michael Caine were awesome as always.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard did just great in their supporting roles, especially with some character aspects and choices that viewers might not have expected.  I’ve criticized Christian Bale’s acting in the past … but here I thought he was at his best in the trilogy.

By the end of the movie, the two quibbles I had were extremely minor.  One, we see various supporting characters use high-tech military vehicles that would seem to require at least some training.  (You and I cannot simply hop into a tank and know how to use it.)

Two, by the end of the movie, Bane is not quite the iconic character I remember from the comics.  He seemed upstaged by certain other characters.  But I’m a nerd, and Bane is a favorite, so … really?  There’s probably no pleasing me, anyway.

Seriously, though, THANK YOU CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.

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Publication Notice: Dead Snakes features “Girl On A Film Screen”

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I’m honored to have another poem, “Girl On A Film Screen,” published over at Dead Snakes.

Dead Snakes remains a terrific place for newer authors to find an audience.  It is quite easy to submit, and Editor Stephen Jarrell Williams always seems to have an encouraging word for contributing writers.

Here is the poem:

http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/10/eric-robert-nolan-poem.html