E.R. Torre's Blog, page 181

Cold in July (2014) a (mildly) belated review

I first heard about Cold In July when it was making the film festival circuit earlier in the year.  People said very good things about it and, given that it was based on a story by Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-Tep), I was intrigued.

The film was barely released to theaters but when it arrived on the home video market (without too much fanfare, sadly), I needed to see it.  Yesterday I finally had the chance to do so.

What I saw was a film that started somewhat slowly, taking its time to build the central character and going in a certain direction only to make several interesting twists and turns before, unfortunately, ending on a rather bland note.

The plot of the film, at least as much as I’m willing to reveal without getting into spoilers, starts with Richard Dane () awoken by his wife late at night.  His wife heard something and, sure enough, it is apparent someone has broken into the house.  Richard goes to his closet and gets his handgun, then makes his way to the living room.  There, the very nervous homeowner confronts the robber and, without meaning to, kills him with a single shot.

Afterwards, the police arrive and go through the procedure of writing their reports.  They assure Richard that what he did was self-defense and there won’t be any problems afterwards.

They are quite wrong.

Richard is wracked with guilt at his actions.  So much so that he goes to the robber’s funeral.  There, he is confronted by the man’s father, a recently released convict named Russel (), and the elderly man makes menacing statements directed at Richard’s son.  At this point it appears we’re dealing with an “eye for an eye” situation…

Only things aren’t always what they seem and the story goes through several clever twists and turns.

To me, this was where the movie really started to soar.  Despite the obvious low budget and the filmmakers attempts at emulating early John Carpenter films, I was fascinated by the developments and, in particular, the scene stealing turn by .  His P.I. Jim Bob was easily the highlight of the second part of the film.

Unfortunately, and as I stated before, this intriguing film builds up to a climax that is neither terribly suspenseful or original.  Rather than leave me breathless and amazed, I was left thinking I’d seen this type of climax many times before…and better done (think Rolling Thunder).  Assuming the movie was true to Mr. Lansdale’s story, one gets the feeling that he came up with a lot of clever concepts but didn’t have a terribly original or clever way to wrap it up so he went for something tried and true.  And, unfortunately, not terribly great.

In the end, I can only offer a mild endorsement for Cold In July.  For most of its runtime this film is clever, original, humorous, and surprising but unfortunately gives you a very unsurprising ending.

Too bad.

Jury Duty, part deux

So last week I was summoned to Jury Duty and found myself in a rather small Jury Duty pool, certainly smaller than the previous crowd I was involved in several years before.

As the morning unfolded, I was surprised by how many times and in how many ways the people operating this offered apologies for our being there.  It began with their public service video that described the Jury Duty experience and what you could expect.  It noted attending this was a small sacrifice to make for this great country.  Yet, again and again, the message of pride was prefaced and/or followed up with profuse apologies for the disruption to our lives.

After the video was over, a lady appeared at the front and center of the room and essentially went over much of the same, including, yet again, offering profuse apologies for this disruption to our lives.  When she was close to being done the first two waves of potential jurors were called in and, once they were accounted for and gone, the movie The Blind Side began on the various monitors and the remaining pool of potential jurors, including me, sat back and waited to see when/if we were called.

In my case, the call came close to 11 A.M.  At that point, I kinda knew it was coming.  As I said, the jury pool this time around wasn’t all that large and, after four or so groups were called in and given the small amount of potential jurors left over, I figured my odds of getting selected were high.  I was right.

Thirty five of us were lined up and assigned numbers (I was 26) and taken downstairs and to the opposite end of a corridor from the trial room itself.  We waited around for nearly an hour before being let in and introduced to the councils and judge.

Then, it was off to lunch with the admonition to be back in that opposite end corridor by 12:45.  We were all back by then, but wound up waiting until nearly 2 P.M. before finally, finally being taken back into the chambers.

What followed was the process of council Q & A.  It was there that we were given some idea of what this upcoming trail was about.  Basically it went something like this: The defendant was a convicted felon allegedly found with bullets in his possession.

Not handguns.  Not machine guns, not mortars.  Not BB guns.  The man was accused of being found in possession of bullets, obviously a no-no for a convicted felon.  Reading between the lines (and making an assumption on my part), I had the feeling it wasn’t even a terribly large amount of bullets.  This assumption, by the way, was based on the questions asked by both Council members.

Now, I’m not a gun nut.  In fact, I feel there are way too many guns out on the street and, further, that people who quote the 2nd Amendment, including politicians and judges, too often ignore the whole “well regulated militia” statement.

Still, based on what little I heard about this case from our questioning, it was just as well I wasn’t selected to the final seven jury pool.  I don’t know how I would have reacted as a juror, but in the end it seemed the entire trial was a lot of fuss made for what amounted to a relatively small matter.  A matter that perhaps should have been dealt with before the trial itself.

Had the convicted felon been caught with a gun, on the other hand…

By the time I got out, it was a little before 5 P.M.  I, along with 34 others, had spent the whole day there, for the most part sitting or standing around and doing not all that much.  Seven of these people would now have to return the next day and perhaps the day after that for the trial itself (the judge felt the case might take 2-3 days).

Tough going.  No wonder there’s so many apologies offered.

Supernova (2000) coming to…BluRay?!?

File this under “I didn’t see that one coming”:

Shout! Factory, the company whose focus appears to be in releasing quirky, cult films of yesteryear, will be releasing the 2000 sci-fi horror film Supernova to BluRay in January of 2015 (read about it here).  Considering Shout! Factory’s previous releases, I’m expecting some pretty interesting bonus material here…perhaps even the film’s original Walter Hill rough cut.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Supernova is a film with a very peculiar history, one which you can read about here:

http://movie-memorabilia-emporium.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Supernova

According to the above, Geoffrey Wright was the movie’s original director but dropped out.  The legendary Walter Hill then took over and, effectively, “made” the film.  However, toward the end, when it was in the process of being edited for release, there were clashes between the director and the studios and Walter Hill abandoned the project.  Francis Ford Coppola (yes, Francis Ford Coppola!!!!) then came in and, using the footage available, assembled the theatrical cut which was unceremonially dumped into theaters with the directing credits listed to the pseudonym “Thomas Lee”.

The movie, at least in its theatrical incarnation, is a trainwreck, yet given the talent both in front of and behind the cameras, a most curious one.  I reviewed the film a couple of years ago here:

http://ertorre.com/randomthoughts/2012/12/16/supernova-2000-a-very-belated-review/

You should check out the above link, if only to see some alternate sequences that were presented in the original DVD release of a few years before, including the movie’s original, far darker alternate ending.

What makes Supernova even more fascinating to me is that it seemed the general theme and certain elements within are not unlike that of 2012’s controversial Prometheus.  In fact, I’d be bold enough to say that Supernova, if not a “first draft” of Prometheus, in some ways had to be an inspiration to that later film.  And why not?  Director Walter Hill is the producer of all the Alien films, from the classic Alien and Aliens all the way to, yes indeed, Prometheus.

Perhaps the inspiration was subconscious.  Or perhaps Mr. Hill was still smarting from the failure of Supernova and felt the general story (or rather story theme) deserved a second shot.

I don’t know, but I’m damn curious to get my hands on Shout! Factory’s BluRay the day it is available!