E.R. Torre's Blog, page 155

The Hero’s Journey

Fascinating little article by Robby Berman for Slate.com which features an even more fascinating small video illustrating author Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey…and how it applies to a broad range of movie heroes:

The Hero’s Journey

Too lazy to click the link (shame on you!)?  Here’s the video:

911 Call-in madness…

I’m amused whenever I read about what prompts some people to may very inappropriately calls to 911.  Often, the reason they’re calling is far outside the boundaries of a real life emergency.

For example:

Man Calls 911 Saying Girlfriend Won’t Have Sex With Him

After reading that story you should check out the other “outrageous” 911 calls mentioned.  The first one presented is equally amusing: A 35 year old woman arrested for calling 911 because she’d been “shorted” on a $75 bag of marijuana.

Oh dear.

Zoolander (2001) a (very) belated review

It’s interesting when certain movies or books or TV shows display life after a lackluster initial release.

I recall many, many years ago, 1982 to be exact, when the Wes Craven directed Swamp Thing landed in theaters.  I was attending high school at a boarding facility and distinctly recall seeing a commercial for the film for the first time with a group of friends.  Everyone, and I mean everyone around me hooted and scoffed at the commercial.  They were certain the film was a total POS.

These same people were even more astonished when I told them I knew about the character and actually liked the Len Wein/Berni Wrightson comic book it was based on (at that point Alan Moore’s take on the character was still to come, though the movie did result in a new Swamp Thing series which, eventually, led to Alan Moore’s arrival on the U.S. comic book scene).

In fact, I loved (still love!) those original 10 issues of the Wein/Wrightson Swamp Thing so much that, risking considerable teenage ridicule, I went to see the film when it was released a week or so later.

Other than me, there was absolutely no one in the theater.

To say the least, Swamp Thing, the movie, was a complete bust.  But something curious happened on the way to its irrelevancy.  The movie was released to cable and, lo and behold, people saw it and realized it wasn’t the total crap-fest they thought it was.  I’d be the last person to vigorously defend the merits of the film, but it did carry enough of the old Wein/Wrightson comic book ideas to make it at the very least an enjoyable time killer.

The eventual unlikely success of that film led to a second Swamp Thing film, a TV series, a cartoon series, and, of course, the emergence of author Alan Moore.  And this isn’t counting offshoots like John Constantine (an Alan Moore creation who first appeared in Swamp Thing and subsequently has appeared in movies and a TV show, among others).

Which brings us to the 2001 Ben Stiller film Zoolander.  According to Box Office Mojo, the film was made for approximately $28 million and grossed $45 million, which makes it profitable but not anywhere near approaching blockbuster status (the amount the movie was made for doesn’t include advertising costs).

If memory serves, the film left theaters fairly quickly, though perhaps the movie did suffer from the fact that it was released on September 28 of 2001, very shortly after the tragic events of 9/11, and people maybe weren’t in much of a mood for humorous movies.

Yet not unlike Swamp Thing, the film had a rebirth of sorts over time.  After its initial release more and more people got to see the film and they apparently liked what they saw.  In 2016, a full fifteen years after its release, Zoolander 2 will arrive to theaters.

In all this time, I’ve caught bits and pieces of Zoolander on TV but never sat through the entire film.  Until now.

What I found was an amusing -if light- comedy that takes an interesting almost science fictional plot as its storyline: What if we lived in a world where males were supermodels?  And what if someone like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson -two people we would hardly classify as top models in any reality- were the two hottest models out there?

Further, what if both of them are crushingly stupid and become involved in a Manchurian Candidate-style plot to kill off a Malaysian ruler, a man who wants to create child labor laws in his country which will inevitably hurt the fashion industry that thrives on creating their clothing using very, very cheap labor of this kind?

Zoolander isn’t the best comedy I’ve ever seen, not by a long shot, but it is very funny -hilariously so at times- and breezes by.  Within the film you get some fascinating cameos (including amusing ones featuring Billy Zane and David Bowie), along with equally amusing appearances by Will Ferrell, Milla Jovovich, and David Duchovny.

What I found most incredible about Zoolander is that the writers, including Ben Stiller, managed to create an almost James Bondian-type plot that logically revolves around issues of fashion and the creation thereof.  Sure the film features plenty of “stupid” humor (which if done right I absolutely love…check out the whole pouring gas scene early in the film), but to have a plot that actually touches on something as real as child labor laws and the fact that top fashion industries rely on cheap labor to get their products out there?

Rather stunning.

As I said before, Zoolander isn’t the very best comedy I’ve ever seen but it is quite humorous and -dare I say it?- clever in its own way.  I can certainly understand why this film found life after a so-so first release.  Recommended.

Superman’s new secret identity

Don’t quite know why, but of late DC Comics has been trying to modernize/revitalize/re-work many of their superhero concepts.

Perhaps the editors/writers/artists felt that some of these older concepts had become stale with the passage of years and felt it was time to upset the cart a little and see what happens.  It may also be that the for the most part successful re-working of various characters on the many DC TV shows have also inspired a desire to do the same in print.

Which leads us to the above.  In case you haven’t been following Superman comics of late, one of the big things that was recently

…SPOILERS FOLLOW!…

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

…was have Superman’s secret identity of Clark Kent be revealed to the world at large (by Lois Lane, no less!) and the fallout of this revelation.

Now, it appears that Superman will take on a new secret identity…

Superman’s Getting A Brand New Secret Identity

How long will these changes last?  Who knows.  In the past when DC or Marvel made “big” changes to their well established characters they would inevitably return them to a semblance of what they were before (for example, they “killed” Superman and kept him dead for a while before bringing him back.  They turned Hal Jordan/Green Lantern evil and he did some truly ghastly things, including mass murder, before he too was apparently killed off.  He returned and the villainous stuff was explained away.  Over at Marvel, they killed off Steve Rogers/Captain America and he returned as well.  Etc. Etc.)

I can’t help but wonder if today’s changes, however, might be longer term.  There is no doubt that comic book fiction is far different today than what I remember from my own childhood and the writers/editors of today may be in a more experimental mood than before.

Doesn’t mean they won’t eventually bring things back to the status quo, though!

Shaun of the Dead (2004) a (very) belated review

Shaun of the Dead, the first part of The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, went a very long way in helping the careers of actor/writer , , and director/writer .  And for good reason!

After transferring many of my movies to the cloud, the family and I were sitting around, wondering what to see over the weekend and everyone wanted a comedy.  I suggested they give this film a try, though to be honest outside of the film’s central plot (working shlub loses girlfriend and tries to win her back during the zombie apocalypse… something it takes this dimwitted -though kindly- soul a good while to figure out is happening) I didn’t recall all that much about it.

This is usually not a good sign and I feared the film might not be all that good…at least for them.

My memory of the other two films in the Cornetto trilogy, 2007’s Hot Fuzz and 2013’s The World’s End were fresher.  I could even recall more regarding the non-Cornetto film Paul, which also featured Pegg and Frost, than SotD.

So, naturally, the film turned out to be not all that great, right?

Wrong.

My lack of memory might be related to the fact that this was my first exposure to the works of Pegg/Frost/Wright and I might have been more focused on the zombie and apocalypse stuff rather than what actually “made” the film: the characters and their interactions.  Either that or I was distracted during that showing and wasn’t paying all that much attention.

Regardless, shame on me because SotD is an absolute delight and as much as I enjoyed both Hot Fuzz and The World’s End (Hot Fuzz a lot more than The World’s End), SotD is to my eyes clearly the best of the Cornetto trilogy.

Then again, it is the movie that features the most interesting subject matter for this particular brand of parody.  Bear in mind, too, that the whole zombie apocalypse concept, so common now, wasn’t quite that common back in 2004.  In that year we had the release of the Dawn of the Dead remake and it would be six years before Walking Dead showed up on TV.

So the film was an early example of the popular zombie genre and the subject of its parody/humor was mostly a nod to the much smaller base of zombie fanatics who loved the George Romero “Dead” trilogy.

In the character of Shaun, Simon Pegg is a riot.  He’s presented as a kindly bloke who likes the simple things in life: Frequenting his favorite pub, hanging out with his slacker flatmate Ed (Nick Frost), staying as far away from his stepfather as he can, working a dead-end electronics job, and trying his best to keep the flame going with his increasingly turned off girlfriend Liz ().

But life proves too complicated for Shaun and when he screws up a dinner date with Liz and, to make matters worse, tries to patch things up in a very awkward and obvious way with flowers meant for someone else, Liz ditches Shaun and his life comes crashing down…both literally and figuratively.

So focused is Shaun on his personal problems that he doesn’t notice all the strange things -both small and large- going on around him, hints that the zombie apocalypse is well underway.  It isn’t until he’s quite literally face to face with a zombie that he realizes the danger everyone is in and then decides to go into action.  Oh, and win his girlfriend’s heart back.

SotD is at its best in the early going when that zombie apocalypse is happening and Shaun just misses realizing this is the case.  The jokes during this section of the film are both in your face and subtle, ranging from Shaun impatiently changing the channels of his TV just as they’re about to talk of the apocalypse to -my favorite- what happens just after he grabs that drink the second time he goes to the convenience store while not noticing the bloody handprints on the refrigeration unit.

SotD is also a very (pardon the pun) “meaty” comedy.  Stuff is constantly happening and it is clear a great deal of effort was put into making this screenplay.

Do I recommend the film?

If you can’t tell by now, you weren’t paying attention.

By the way, the movie is much better than this pretty lame trailer makes it seem.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015) a (mildly) belated review

When word came that  had a new project for DC’s animated universe, there was much rejoicing.  This project, released this past year, was Justice League: Gods and Monsters and featured a decidedly darker take on DC Comic’s “big three” superheroes, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

In this alternate universe, Superman’s father is General Zod rather than Jor-El.  Rather than millionaire Bruce Wayne, Batman is Kirk Langstrom (aka Man-Bat in the regular DC Universe).  Wonder Woman is Bekka, a child of this universe’s High Father from the New Gods rather than an Amazon.  She, along with her lineage, have a much darker backstory than that which is presented in the regular DC Universe.

Interesting stuff for certain, but while I was eager to see the film, I feared that it might prove a little too “dark” to really enjoy.

And the movie most certainly starts that way!

In the opening scenes, those which give us this universe’s origin of Superman, we see what can only be described as a Kryptonian “rape” being the way that General Zod becomes Superman/Hernan Guerra’s father.  Now, PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT IS PRESENTED IN THE FILM ISN’T AS GRAPHIC AS I MAKE IT SOUND IN THE ABOVE DESCRIPTION, but if you consider what you are presented with, that is effectively what happens.

We fast forward to present time in this world and the three superheroes are shown on a mission.  They are arrogant and more than willing to use their powers in gruesome ways.  They dispatch a group of terrorists, including some alternate world versions of supervillains, with maximum casualties.

These early scenes are meant to show us that while this version of the Justice League does deal with villainy, their methods are very grim and, naturally, make people very uncomfortable.  So uncomfortable, in fact, that many protest these “heroes” and wish they would disappear.  The U.S. Government, meanwhile, uses them while looking at them with a very weary eye.

With the opening over, we then move into the movie’s main plot: Someone is targeting well known -and incredibly brilliant- scientists (It helps to have an awareness of who many of these characters are) and making it look like the “Big Three” were responsible for their assassinations.

In investigating the deaths, the Big Three realize they are being framed.  Given the unease I already mentioned regarding their status in this world, it won’t take all that much to turn humanity completely against them.

As I said, going into this movie I feared it might be a little too dark to enjoy, and in the early going the movie more than earned its PG-13 rating.  Along with the already mentioned Kryptonian “rape”, there is a bit of sexual innuendo presented via the various characters and for this reason I’d recommend anyone thinking of showing this movie to their kids to see it themselves first and then decide if it is appropriate.

Having said all that, JL: G&M wound up being a blast.

Yes, it is grim and yes, it does have some faults (I’ll get into them in a second), but damn if it doesn’t deliver an interesting story that, while it may start a little slow, grips you by the end.

The faults?  To begin, as this is a “new” take on the three principle characters, valuable screen time has to be devoted to their backstory and, with the exception of Superman’s at the very beginning, this backstory (for Batman and Wonder Woman) drops on the viewer in rather clumsy ways, IMHO. Why?  Because these backstories are presented just as the movie’s central mystery is developing steam and kinda stops things in their tracks.  However, because this backstory is necessary to understand the characters as well as this mystery, these scenes prove necessary, though they do stop the movie’s momentum.

The sexual innuendo mentioned above, also, turned me off.  Mind you, I’m far from a prude as my novels surely attest, but we are talking about a Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman story…did we need as much sexual banter as was presented in the early going?

Finally, and I have to tread very softly here for fear of getting into SPOILERS, but the return of a central character at the movie’s climax…why did it take this person so long to show up?  Had this person appeared a little earlier, it might have avoided quite a mess.

I’ll leave it at that!

Regardless of these flaws, I repeat: JL: G&M was a blast.  I enjoyed the hell out of it even as I was engaged into and trying to solve the mystery.  When all is said and done the mystery is classic Agatha Christie and I absolutely loved the resolution.

Good job.  I most definitely look forward to more!

Have an iPhone…?

Are you using iOS 9?  Are you suddenly getting messages from your phone provider that you’re using up your data at an alarmingly high rate?

The problem might well be in a new feature found in iOS 9 called “WiFi Assist”.  What this item does is whenever you’re using WiFi and that signal becomes weak, this unasked for handy dandy “WiFi Assist” automatically switches over to your cellular carrier to “boost” the signal and therefore your reception.  Of course, this is at the cost of your monthly data quota.

I happened to notice this the past couple of months even though I don’t use the internet all that much on my phone and had never reached my data limits before.

Anyway, for more information, including how to turn off this annoying “assistant” no one asked for, check out the article below:

Is iOS 9 Sucking Up All Your Data?  Turn Off This New iPhone Setting Right Now

This is rather…stunning…

According to the makers of the upcoming James Bond film Spectre…

New James Bond Film Destroyed Estimated $36 Million in Cars

Thirty six…million?!

Just how many cars did they destroy in the making of this film?

Granted, they used some specially designed cars, but I seriously doubt those vehicles were involved in the actual stunts.  I imagine they used the shell of said uber-expensive cars over some other far less expensive vehicle.

So maybe they’re exaggerating.  Still, if they feel bold enough to make that kind of estimate, it makes me wonder just how much vehicular carnage we’re going to see in this film.

Who knows, maybe the folks behind Spectre were secretly re-making Ron Howard’s directorial debut, the (not at all related to the video game) movie Grand Theft Auto…

Furious 7 (2015) a (mildly) belated review

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say if you’ve enjoyed the previous Fast & Furious films, chances are you’ll like Furious 7.

For me, watching the film turned into a strange case of deja vu… but not because this movie was too similar to the past couple (though it was, of course).

Rather, watching Furious 7 felt like watching a hot-rod variation of The Avengers: Age of Ultron.  They both feature a group of (super) heroic individuals coming together to go after a big bad.  In both cases, they deal with some kind of computerized problem.  And of course, the characters are colorful and varied and do all kinds of superheroic stuff.  Plus, you get another bunch of characters from previous films appearing here and there which gives the audience a sense of a larger shared universe.

Granted, what I’ve just written above applies to other films but given how recently I saw AOU and then Furious 7, I couldn’t help but feel I was watching the same type of film.

Which of course leads me to match them up and, in this case, I’d rank Furious 7 over AOU.  Sure, I enjoyed AOU, but the film had plenty of problems and one got the feeling that director/writer Joss Whedon was hamstrung by Disney’s higher ups.  There were moments when AOU felt disjointed, as story material was cut out either in the script stage or snipped from the film itself.  Though the actors appeared to have great fun and there were some really good action sequences, the apparent flaws killed many people’s enjoyment of AOU, though these flaws weren’t big enough to kill mine.  Still, I would acknowledge it was far from one of the best of the Marvel films.

Getting back to Furious 7, you would think that this film might have even more continuity problems given the tragic death of actor/co-star .  His role in this film would wind up being his last one as he died in a horrific car accident only a couple of weeks before his filming ended.

For a while, there was concern the film would be scrapped but enough of it was already “in the can” that whatever extra scenes were left for Mr. Walker to fill could be done via the magic of previous cut footage from other F&F films and computer effects.  Further, because of Mr. Walker’s death the focus of the film had to be changed as well to pay tribute to his character and acknowledge that this would be his last round with the F&F crew.

Given all this, its amazing that Furious 7 feels very much like a complete film.  Yes, there are times, especially during the final shots of Mr. Walker’s character riding off, that look like they were created in a computer, but nonetheless the film feels very much like what was intended and, by its end, pays a very heartfelt respect to Mr. Walker.

Furious 7’s plot is rather standard but not uninteresting: The bigger, badder brother of one of the previous villains our cast faced ( basically delivering his Transporter character to the F&F universe…but he’s a bad guy this time around!) goes after them.  To get to him, they have to get their hands on the “God’s Eye”, a computer program that simultaneously looks though and analyzes information from ALL cameras and computer devices in the world.

And it would appear the villain -while he isn’t trying to kill the F&F cast- is after the device as well…

Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw proves a very nice addition to the F&F universe.  These films, while entertaining, never had a truly recognizable big bad to match the good guys up against (No disrespect to the previous actors involved, but I’m having a hard time remembering the villains from the past films, other than the “surprise” villain in F6).  With Jason Statham, we have a very recognizable star as your menace, doubly so as he’s somewhat cast against type: He’s played good guys in so many features but can do bad guys quite well (check out his turn in Cellular if you don’t believe me).

A few more familar faces show up to liven things, including the always welcome  in a smallish role as an amiable government spook and MMA superstar in a cameo appearance as a security guard who goes toe to toe against Letty.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Furious 7.  The movie moved quickly (no pun intended) and featured enough humor and action to sate your appetite.  Is the film a classic?  No.

But it is a pretty damn entertaining popcorn action film that pays a very respectful tribute to its real life fallen star.

Bring on Furious 8.

What We Do In The Shadows (2014) a (very mildly) belated review

Released last year, What We Do In The Shadows is a comedy which imagines what would happen if a reality show crew decided to follow a group of four vampires around and see how they live (they share an apartment) and interact with their environment.

Cleverly, these four vampires run the gamut of movie vampire tropes, from a Nosferatu-like ghoul to a Vlad the Impaler to a Anne Rice-ian dandy to a “newer” Twilight-like Vampire.  This later vampire, though the youngest of the group (at first), is nonetheless 100+ years old and imagines himself a good looking “bad boy”…though he amusingly clearly isn’t.  Later on we have -MILD SPOILERS!- a really new vampire appear, and I suspect that one was based on (perhaps) The Lost Boys.

While the movie starts rather slowly, it features a solid, well conceived plot that builds a healthy backstory and cast to our main vampires and subsequently leads to a nice, even sweet, climax/resolution that ties all the various threads into a nice bun.

For obvious reasons, I won’t get into specific details here!

On the minus side, the film is a “slow burn”.  It takes a bit to get to know the characters and what they’re about and, therefore, for the audience to start caring for the story presented.  While the pace didn’t bother me to the point of where I wanted to shut the whole thing off, I can imagine there are less patient people out there who will.  Too bad for them because the film does deliver some hearty laughs.

I could go on but I don’t want to get into more spoilery material.  Suffice to say if you like your humor subtle as well as in your face and enjoy comedies that explore decidedly odd directions, you will enjoy What We Do In The Shadows.