E.R. Torre's Blog, page 171

Dark Angel (1990) a (wickedly) belated review

There are certain films you see way back when they’re released that you want to see again.  There are others you don’t see but regret having missed and long to catch up with them at some point or another to see if they were any good.

So is the case with Dark Angel, or as I knew it, I Come In Peace.  I’m not quite sure why the film has the two names but when I first saw the trailers, it was advertised as the later rather than Dark Angel.  See for yourself:

Regardless of the title, for whatever reason I was unable to catch the film way back then but always was curious to see it.  Though his range as an actor may be limited, I like .  He most certainly has a strong screen presence, though he’s usually at his best playing cold-blooded villains.

Seeing Mr. Lundgren in a starring role and in a sci-fi/action mix had me intrigued.  I liked the way the original Predator mixed army action with sci fi and this film decided to mix the buddy cop action genre so popular at the time with sci-fi.  Would the combo work?

For the most part, it did.

Now bear in mind, Dark Angel (I’ll refer to it by its video release name) is a very low budget affair and, at times, this is quite obvious.  Having said that, I have to give credit to the film’s makers for pushing that budget as far as they did.  There are an awful large number of pretty impressive explosions in the film along with some great stuntwork which makes this low budget feature look far more impressive than it would have.  The soundtrack, by the way, was created by of the TV series Miami Vice fame and I couldn’t help but think because of this and the film’s visual style that it played out like a particularly wild Miami Vice episode!

Anyway, the plot goes like this: Detective Jack Caine (Lundgren) loses his partner while the man was in the process of infiltrating a drug deal.  After his partner is killed, a mysterious white haired giant of a man appears and kills off most of the bad guys with the use of a strange razor sharp disc that slashes the drug dealers’ throats.  Afterwards, this blonde haired stranger takes all the heroin and disappears.  As Caine checks the wreckage of this botched drug deal, the Feds move in to claim jurisdiction of the case.

Caine is then forced to partner up with Special Agent Smith (), a too-young and too-cocky Fed whose allegiances are suspect.  While his cocky attitude is a turn off, we, like Caine, are left to wonder if this new partner has a hidden agenda in this case.

As the movie goes along, it becomes clear the menace they face is extraterrestrial in origin.

What does the white haired alien want?  And who is the black haired, equally giant other alien pursuing him?  Can our bickering heroes triumph against something much stronger, faster, and far more heavily armed than they are?

I enjoyed watching Dark Angel but, once again, I can’t help but think that modern audiences might find the film’s pace a little too slow for their tastes.  Still, I enjoyed the meaty script and found that this forgotten little film held up pretty well considering its age and budget.  As it played out, I couldn’t help but feel this is one of those films that might benefit from a modern remake.

Hell, they could get Dolph Lundgren to play the bad guy alien this time around!

So if your taste is like mine and you are curious to see a buddy cop action film married to an alien threat type film, you’ve got it!

An aside: I’ve come to the conclusion that the folks at Shout! Factory either read my mind or are my dopplegangers when it comes to many of the films they’ve recently released.  Dark Angel, among several other films like Without Warning, Firepower, Supernova, The Fog, Prince of Darkness, Phantasm II, Lifeforce (I’ll get to these last two soon enough) and the upcoming Escape From New York are all features I’ve recently purchased from them.

You guys keep this up and I’ll be broke in no time!

The Rise and Fall of Metallica…

The most interesting thing about reading interviews is that sometimes you may glean a bit of knowledge that surprises as well as fascinates you with its insight.

This happened when I was reading the following interview with the authors of Birth, School, Metallica, Death and Into the Black from Salon.com, concerning the rise and fall of the heavy metal group Metallica:

“What the f*ck have we got ourselves into?”: The Rise and Fall of Metallica

Now, before I get into what I found so fascinating in the interview, let me first state that I really like Metallica’s first album, Kill Them All, but have middling feelings about most of their other output.  There are a smattering of songs from other albums I enjoy, but I’ve always felt their first album was their strongest.  Further, in the realm of metal music, I’ve preferred the music of Megadeth (although to me their post-Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia albums are lacking) and Anthrax.

Having said all this, here is what really intrigued me in the interview.  It is the very last question and the authors’ answer (the part I found so intriguing is bolded):

Salon Question: What is the legacy of Metallica one hundred years from now?

Good question. A hundred years is a very long time. Given that almost no music from a hundred years ago is widely known by the general public, it’s tempting to say that it might not be remembered at all. But if it is, they will be recognized as the greatest metal band of all time.

As I said, this bit of information, something that if I had given some thought to would probably have realized on my own, nonetheless struck me as so very fascinating because it so clearly speaks of the transitory nature of music appreciation.

We are creatures that live and appreciate what goes on around us in the “here and now”.  But our “here and now” is not necessarily other peoples’.  Or, to put it another way, what we find memorable is not necessarily what others find memorable.

And so it is, perhaps more so than with other works of art, with music.  For popular music is generational.  When I was growing up, The Beatles were considered (and are to many still considered!) the best rock band there ever was.  Yet when they were coming up, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were clearly influenced by the music they grew up to, which was 1950’s era rock and roll.

As much as I love Beatles music, I can’t get into most of the 1950’s era rock music, even though I know it was the foundation of much of what came afterwards.

I’ve noted many times before my love for the music of David Bowie, yet his output simply doesn’t work for my daughters, even though some of the music that does work for them displays to my ears clear echoes to Mr. Bowie’s works.

Ironically enough, I recall reading a very old (it must have been released in the late 1980’s or earlier) interview with James Hetfield, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Metallica, wherein he marvels at the music of the Beatles, a band he had at that point just discovered.

So the statement that “almost no music from a hundred years ago is widely known to the general public” is spot on…and rather sad.

I’ve always hoped that good art, whether it be novels or movies or television shows and, of course, music would stand the test of time. Yet the reality is that while we may still admire ancient artworks or ancient architectural wonders or old novels or poems, of all the art forms out there it seems to me music appreciation is the one that has the hardest time surviving the passage of time.

There are exceptions of course.  Most people know or at least recognize Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (and more likely the famous opening rather than the whole thing).

Yet let’s be truthful here: If you’re a modern teen in the mood to listen to music, I doubt you’re popping this into your player.

A while back I read another interview, this one with Henry Rollins (a truly fascinating singer/actor/comedian who came into prominence back in the 1980’s with the punk band Black Flag) wherein he stated that when he was a teen, his father would yell at him about the music he was listening to and tell him it was all garbage to his ears.

Mr. Rollins noted how his “old man” simply didn’t get the then modern music and therefore it proved how out of touch he was.  Mr. Rollins went on to state that his teen self couldn’t believe how someone could get that way and be as out of touch with music as his father was.  As a teen, he could only shake his head and say he’d never become like him.

The kicker?  Mr. Rollins went on to say that over time he’s found more recent music harder and harder to like.  With great humor and irony he notes that he finds most of it awful and that he has, effectively, become his father!

And so it goes.

Two-Page Hardy Boys Plot Outline…

Fascinating, though short, article regarding the two page plot outline author Edward Stratemeyer directed writer Leslie McFarlane to follow in crafting The House on the Cliff, the second Hardy Boys book which was originally released in 1927:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the-vault/2015/03/13/history-of-the-stratemeyer-syndicate-hardy-boys-plot-outline.html

I’ve probably mentioned it before, but The Hardy Boys were among my first reading passions.  Over perhaps five or so years I found and read just about every book in their series available at the time (we’re talking up to the late 1970’s) before going into Nancy Drew and, to a far lesser extent, The Bobbsey Twins.  I can’t even guess as to how many books of those three series I read, though they must have totaled close to 100 before I finally outgrew them and explored other works.

Still, I distinctly recall the thrill of realizing one could string together a series of words that eventually resulted -magically, it seemed!- in a singular work of entertainment.  There is little doubt these quickly written works influenced me a great deal, leading me in their own way to become an author as well.

Anyway, as I looked up the book, I found images of the various cover designs for The House on the Cliff.  It is interesting to see how the cover design evolved over time while retaining the same general concept.

  

The above are three very early versions, while the one below is the one I’m most familiar with.  However, this is a more recent version, too, as the one I knew didn’t have “The Hardy Boys and the flashlight and #2 to indicate where it fell in the series.

Finally, a more recent “update”:

The bizarre, unsolved mystery of “My Immortal”

Until I read this article I never heard “My Immortal”, which many consider one of the very worst examples of “fan fiction”.  To say the least, I’m intrigued.  You might be too:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/03/13/-my-immortal-who-is-responsible-for-the-world-s-worst-fanfiction.html

“My Immortal” is a nearly 23,000 word long story featuring the cast of Harry Potter in a weird, very weird bit of fan fiction which features a goth vampire central character, sexual escapades, vulgarities, misspellings of character names, etc. etc.

There are those who feel this work has to be a knowing parody of fan fiction but…I’m not so sure.  Still, the article is fascinating, especially given the fact that the author -or authors!- remain a mystery to this day.

Fascinating stuff!

Plaster casts of the citizens of Pompeii

Perhaps one of the more fascinating realizations, back in the 19th Century and during the initial excavation of the lost city of Pompeii, was that the skeletal remains of the victims of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, all of whom were buried in mud and ash, had empty spaces around them.  Spaces that originally occupied the victims’ flesh.

A grim finding, but one that resulted in a historical curiosity: By pouring plaster into those empty spaces, the empty spaces effectively became a mold of the victims.  Once hardened, the plaster would effectively allow modern audiences to “see” the victims of Mt. Vesuvius as they lay dying way back in 79 A.D.

Here then is an article that features some of those plaster figures.  Their final moments on this planet must have been agonizing, yet seeing these victims allows us to travel back in time and see people (and animals!) as they were back then.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2015/03/12/plaster-casts-of-victims-bodies-at-pompeii-in-italy.html

It’s been a while…

From Cracked.com, 4 Awful Works by Famous Geniuses Everyone Pretends to Like:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-terrible-ideas-from-historys-greatest-geniuses/

I really have to agree with the second item, John Lennon’s Revolution #9.  I’m as big a fanatic of The Beatles as can be, but that “song”…

In fact, when I was transferring my CDs to my hard drive, I was tempted to delete the song but wound up keeping it only because of my desire to keep the album complete.  However, and to the best of my memory, I’ve only listened to Revolution #9 once from start to end and never had a desire to revisit it.

Still, this list, while amusing, points out the fact that even the best of the best creators have their “off day” and, in some cases, one can say that the “bad” work is in the eye/ear of the beholder.

Still, an interesting if too brief read.

For the masochistic out there:

Apple’s 7 Most Annoying Decisions…

…at least according to CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/2015/03/11/apple-usb-macbook/index.html

I’m not a huge Apple fan.  Never have been, though as I’ve mentioned before I do use my iPad quite a bit and, based on that, decided to go for an iPhone.  I’m not as enamored of that piece of tech as I am the iPad.

Having said that, I do admire the business model and the care/hoopola with which Apple has released their products.  But I can see how some of the items listed on the above link could be annoying while at least one of them is a good example of forward thinking on Apple’s part,

Apple’s “one port” on its computers strikes me as especially silly.  Why not have at least two such ports and on each side of the computer?  Why not give people the option to connect more items at one time?

On the other hand, the forward thinking certainly applies to their decision to rid their computers of, first, the 5.25 drive and then the 3.5 drive.  The fact is that both drives, now many years obsolete, deserved to be gone.  But not having a CD/DVD/BluRay drive?  That strikes me, again, as silly.

While I can see our tech future will probably rely more and more on cloud memory and downloading/streaming movies/music, It feels counterproductive, at least for now, to not include such items.

Ah well, who am I to argue with a successful, multi-billion dollar company?!

Firepower (1979) a (incredibly) belated review

Firepower is one of those films I saw once way, waaaaay back when it was released, perhaps in 1979 or 80 and never again.  Yet certain parts of it stuck with me and, when I learned it was going to be released to BluRay, I pre-ordered it.  On Tuesday it arrived and yesterday, for the first time in some (gulp) 35 years, I once again saw it.

How did I feel about revisiting it?  Read on, read on…

Let me start by saying I can’t really explain why the film stuck with me during all this time.  I couldn’t recall the movie’s plot but certain things remained: cool machismo.   absolute, undeniable beauty.  And yes, fate.

These three are the principles in the film, which to its credit begins with a couple of really BIG bangs (pardon the pun).  Which is good because after that explosive (jeeze) start, things settle down a little and the plot unfolds for a bit before we’re hit with the next wave of action.

The plot?  It goes like this: Sophia Loren is Adele Tasca and, in the movie’s opening minutes, she becomes a widow.  Afterwards Adele is eager to get revenge on the man she feels is behind the killing: Reclusive and, except for one very old photograph, unseen billionaire Karl Stenger (he’s basically a Howard Hughes type).  The U.S. Government, like Adele, are eager to get their hands on Stenger but, unfortunately, he is hiding out somewhere in the Caribbean and beyond U.S. extradition.

Adele suggests to the Feds they hire mercenary -and former flame- Jerry Fanon (James Coburn) to take up the job of bringing Stenger back to face justice.  They eventually do just that and Fanon, accompanied by right hand man Catlett (O. J. Simpson), and Adele all find themselves on Antigua and in pursuit of their prey.

I don’t want to get into too many spoilers beyond this point, but suffice it to say the film winds up being filled with double crosses, violence, and action.

As I said, I didn’t remember much of the film, but as it played out, I couldn’t help but think that the film plays out like a more violence filled episode of the original Mission: Impossible.  In fact, it plays out that way so much that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the original script was intended for that TV show and was expanded for this feature.

The cast alone makes the case for me: Coburn is essentially Jim Phelps, Sophia Loren is the female star (Cinnamon or Lisa or Dana), and O.J. Simpson is a combination of Barney and Willy, simultaneously brains and muscle.  There is no use of disguise, but there is a…well, as I said before, I won’t get into spoilers!

The film moves reasonably well though, as with other older films, modern audiences may find the pace a little too slow.  In re-watching the film, I also came to the conclusion that Sophia Loren, rightfully considered a screen legend, was nonetheless miscast in the principle role.  Her character needed to be more of a femme fatale, but Ms. Loren was a little too aloof for this role.  I got the feeling she was simply reading her lines and moving along.  This particularly hurt toward the end of the film, which features considerable revelation and double crossing.

In conclusion, revisiting Firepower proved an interesting experience.  I don’t believe it is a particularly “great” film, but it is an entertaining bit of action that features a meaty and, to be fair, at times preposterous, plot.  Nonetheless, it is entertaining enough to spend some time with.

TRIVIA: When the film was in the works, the producers originally wanted Clint Eastwood for the Fanon role but he ultimately declined.  Charles Bronson was also considered for the role (he and director had worked together on many features) but supposedly dropped out because he wanted his then wife Jill Ireland in the movie but she couldn’t be accommodated into it.

2014 Solar Power…

So, according to Mother Jones, 2014 was the biggest year for Solar Power ever:

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/03/2014-was-biggest-year-solar-power-ever

Very encouraging news, in my opinion.  I’ve noted before that it seems silly to continue using “old” technology when new, better technology is available.

It would appear solar power is becoming not only more prominently used, but is cheaper and cheaper to purchase.

I long for the day when we no longer use oil or coal.  It’s past time we had a cleaner, more efficient energy system…one that doesn’t pollute nearly as much as the current one.

Looks like that time may be coming.

The Flash directed by…Ingmar Bergman?!

Absolutely hilarious “trailer” for a directed Flash show/movie.  If you don’t know who The Flash is, he’s DC Comic’s fastest man alive, a superhero capable of running faster than anyone…

…and in the hands of “Ingmar Bergman”, he becomes rather…moody:

Btw, found this video at:

http://groupthink.jezebel.com/the-flash-directed-by-1690110714