E.R. Torre's Blog, page 74

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) a (mildly) belated review

There are some films I can’t help but feel are “unreviewable”.  By that I mean that almost anyone that goes to see such a film will likely walk away if not loving what they’ve seen at least feeling they’ve had a good time.

This doesn’t necessarily mean such films are “great” or “classic” works of cinema.  Rather, they might be nothing more than fun time killers that amuse you while you watch them and, once they’re over, you feel you had yourself a pretty good time.

So it is with me and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

Is the film some kind of cinematic classic?  No.  Did it feature a plot that was so out there and so expansive that it shook/wowed me to the core?  No.  Did it play on my heartstrings and make me laugh hysterically or cry until I was a puddle of emotions?  Was the acting within transformational and re-define to me what it means to be an actor?

Nope, nope, nope, and nope.

But the film moved along at a brisk pace and provided enough laughs and smiles and, yes, even a few surprise twists (which I won’t give away) that made it worth seeing the film.

The plot is essentially the same as the original Robin Williams starring Jumanji only presented with a video game twist.  In this case our four heroes, High School students who for various different reasons are sent to detention, find an old video game machine, connect it to a TV set, choose their characters in the Jumanji video game, then find themselves transported into the game proper, where they -very amusingly, IMHO- take on the video game characters who, of course, look like Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan.

Who becomes what is part of the fun, and I’ll just say that Jack Black in particular  really does well in a role that might have proven difficult for others.

There are a few things one can quibble over.  The special effects, especially some of the CGI, isn’t always great.  In fact, at some times it is surprisingly crude.  But, again, that’s something either you’ll accept -I’ve seen worse- or not.

A little more troublesome is the movie’s main villain, who unfortunately barely registers.  Granted, this is a movie where we have to get up to speed with four characters really quickly and getting into another might have been hard to accomplish in the movie’s runtime.  Still, I kinda wish we had a little more of this character, even if he was an NPC (see the film to understand!).

Obviously, I recommend this film!

 

Pardon me a moment…

I know many out there simply don’t care, and I understand.  There are many out there that absolutely cannot stomach Zack Snyder’s run of DC movies, from Man of Steel to Batman v Superman to… well, whatever hybrid Whedon-esq film Justice League was.

Regarding the later film, there has been curiosity by those who enjoyed the Snyder DC films (or, as some smug people have called us, “idiots”) as to when/if the Snyder version of Justice League will ever appear.  Further, there is even a question of whether such a thing even exists.

Well, here’s some of the latest on that.  Ana Dumaraog over at screenrant.com notes that artist Jay Olivia, one of those who worked on Snyder’s Justice League, has stated…

Snyder had a full cut of Justice League before leaving

Essentially -and at the risk of completely spoiling everything in the article, Olivia stated that before he left Justice League, Mr. Snyder had indeed left behind a full cut of the film, albeit one that needed still needs some work.  From Olivia…

It may not be 100% polished but all of the planned scenes were shot and edited into a full timeline.

So we have what may amount to, using a literary term, seems to be a full “rough draft” of the film that requires some “polishing,” likely some editing to trim whatever fat is unnecessary and likely quite a bit of effects work.

In other words, what’s keeping the Snyder “cut” of Justice League from being released looks to be a matter of a) Warner Brothers deciding it is worth doing (I suspect, rather strongly, that Mr. Snyder would love to finish the work up), and b) money.

The later is the big issue, of course.  There are some rumors that Warner is willing to release a Snyder cut of the film but only if Mr. Snyder or his production company pay for the remaining work needed to be done to finish it up.  I imagine this could be a big amount, but who knows.  Further, this could be a negotiating tactic: Warner is willing to pay some monies to finish the film up, but they don’t want to take the whole hit.

Stay tuned… if you’re not one of us idiots.

Sketchin’ 78

Released in 1958, The Colossus of New York isn’t one of the better known horror/monster films of yesteryear, yet its one that, despite my having seen it one time when I was a kid, has stuck with me.

Basically the film was a 60/40 mix of Frankenstein and King Kong, with a man’s brain placed in the “colossus”, a robotic body, with tragic results.  The man who would become the Colossus was played by Ross Martin, who would go on to greater success as Artemis Gordon in The Wild Wild West TV show.

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This just might be too much…

…or perhaps not enough?

A few days ago IHOP (used to be called International House of Pancakes, but in this ADD era, it was shortened to this) noted it would change its name to…

IHOB, they announced, and then asked people to figure out what the “B” stood for.

I, and I’m sure many, many others, figured it would be “Breakfast”.  After all, they are a breakfast oriented and they don’t just serve pancakes, right?

Except…

The “B” turned out to stand for…

Burgers?!

What the…

I mean, I’ve been to IHOP… er… IHOB a few times and, yes, I knew they had burgers and all but I can’t ever recall ordering a burger from them, given that the times I have gone to the place it was to get, you know, breakfast.  And burgers just ain’t on my regular breakfast menu.

Anyway, I mention this only to serve as background to this:

Burger King is trolling IHOB by claiming (with tongue firmly in cheek) they are now calling themselves…

They’ve even posted some amusing twitter statements to that effect…

Some more:

You know, given some of the extremely grim news we’ve gotten today (don’t even get me started on the Trump’s Children Concentration Camps), I enjoyed getting at least one good laugh.

So… about Wonder Woman 1984…

Yesterday director Patty Jenkins took to twitter to offer a still from the now filming Wonder Woman 1984, the sequel to her very popular Wonder Woman film, starring Gal Gadot, and set in (duh) the year 1984.

The image caused much curiosity:

Yep, that’s Chris Pine in an 80’s getup (though check out the people behind him… if nothing else, the movie sure does seem to want to get the aesthetic of 1984) … thing is, and SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN IT, Chris Pine’s character in the original Wonder Woman appeared to, well, not make it out alive.

Which begs the question: How the heck is he in this film?

If you have even a casual knowledge of the Wonder Woman TV show featuring Lynda Carter, you should know that the series had the character appear in both World War 2 and, in subsequent seasons, the “present” of the 1970’s.  What was curious about that series is that actor Lyle Waggoner played two roles in the series.  In the first, taking place during World War 2, he was Major Steve Trevor…

In the “new” adventures of Wonder Woman, set in the then present, he played… Coloner Steve Trevor Jr.!

So it would seem the Wonder Woman movies are perhaps doing something similar, having Chris Pine appear in both eras.  The question is, will this be a distant relative of Chris Pine’s original Steve Trevor from the first WW movie?

You know what?

I don’t really care too much about that.

What intrigues me much more is the fact that this movie is set in 1984.  Clearly there must be some reason for setting it in that year versus, say, in the “present”.

Thinking back to 1984, I recall world events of that time and wonder if those will play a role in the movie.  The Soviet Empire was on its way down but the Cold War was still in effect (the Berlin Wall would come down in 1989).  There was a feeling, at times, that nuclear conflict might happen.

Conversely, and within the U.S., there was the issue of cocaine and drugs in the U.S.  The TV show Miami Vice premiered in 1984 and for better or worse it became something of an aesthetic of that era…

So I’m wondering… could this movie take a little more from something like Miami Vice rather than world events at the time?  Or will it be a little of column “A” and column “B”?

Stay tuned… same Wonder channel, same Wonder time!

Sketchin’ 77

There have been many films that, unfortunately, were lost over time.  Perhaps the most famous of these is the horror/mystery film London After Midnight (1927).  Directed by Todd Browning (Dracula, Freaks), the film starred Lon Chaney (the “man of a thousand faces” is probably best known today for his starring roles in the original 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dam and 1925 The Phantom of the Opera).

Unfortunately, the last known copy of London After Midnight was lost in a fire at the MGM studios’ vault fire in 1965.  Though there still exist stills from the film, a copy has yet to be found, though there are plenty of people looking for one.  In 2002 Turner Classic Movies aired a “reconstruction” of the film using stills and dialogue from the script.  Frankly, the film’s story is really creaky by today’s standards, but there’s little doubt Lon Chaney’s makeup was top notch, at least based on those same stills!

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You learn something new every day…

Found this fascinating article by Jon Bordsen and found on CNN.com…

Marceline, Missouri: The tiny town is the site of Disney’s “lost” park

Never knew about this place, which apparently was a source of much of Walt Disney’s nostalgia as the family lived there in the early 20th Century, and wanted to show his appreciation for it by creating a mini-park there.  Ultimately, Mr. Disney’s death signified the death of that particular dream, but it is fascinating to see some of the photographs of that town and realize it was the blueprint to the Disney World Main Street.

Interesting stuff!

Sketchin’ 76

In a six year period from 1942 to 1948 actors Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake would team up in four films, three of which are considered classics and the fourth… well, not so much.

The first movie they made together was one of their very best, 1942’s This Gun For Hire.  A terrific noir where Veronica Lake took top billing and Alan Ladd would be a featured -but very important- player in the film.  A great work and one you should catch.  By the way, the other three films they made together are The Glass Key (1942), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and Saigon (1948).

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What a weekend…

So much happening, so many things to note… or not.

First off, the Trump-G7 summit… blah.  How surprising Mr. Thin-Skin got all huffy with the other leaders when he arrived late and left early.  And all that crap he -and his sycophantic underlings- heaped on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau?  Really?  (Wanna read more?  Here’s an article by Matt Spetalnick for Reuters and presented on HuffingtonPost.com, Trump blasts NATO Allies, EU, and Canadian PM Trudeau).

Then there was the Tonys which featured one truly beautiful moment in the Parkland students singing Seasons of Love…

…and Robert DeNiro giving some… uh… rough shout-outs toward Mr. Trump…

Man… I’m really conflicted about the later.  On the one hand, I’ve been shouting the same in private to my television for quite a while now.  On the other hand, I can’t help but feel that this sort of public insulting is exactly the type of crap that feeds Trump and his supporters and makes those who are against him look terrible.

Ah well.  Given the way that the news cycle is running (at about 5 million RPMs), it’ll probably be forgotten very soon.

Finally, Solo: A Star Wars Story continued to underperform though it looks as if it won’t bomb quite as hard as John Carter or The Lone Ranger did.  Ron Dicker at (again) HuffingtonPost.com writes about director Ron Howard’s twitter reaction to the movie’s box office:

Ron Howard tells fan he “feels badly” about Solo’s Box Office

To be more precise, when asked about his feelings about the movie’s box office, Ron Howard wrote:

I’m proud of #SoloAStarWarsStory and the cast & crew worked hard to give fans a fun new addition. As a director I feel badly when people who I believe (& exit polls show) will very likely enjoy a movie… don’t see it on a big screen w/great sound.

I mean, what else would Mr. Howard write?

You fucking fans blew it!  BLEW IT!  Why won’t you go see my film?!  It’s getting good reviews!  YOU CAN STILL  MAKE IT A SUCCESS!!!!  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO SEE IT!!!! #AAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!

I kid, of course, but despite his too-polite tweet (the real one, not my phony one) I’m sure Howard must feel considerable frustration.

Yet the reality is the reality: Sometimes you create something that may be good -or, if you search out a variety of reviews, something that is decent or even mediocre-yet-better-than-expected- and despite the fact that it may be at least decent-and-possibly-good, audiences will either come or they won’t.

And its maddening.

How many times has a film come out and it explodes at the box-office… despite the fact that it is at best mediocre?  How many times does a film get released with tons of great reviews and it… does ok?  Or perhaps worse?

Audiences are fickle.

There was a time that westerns were box office gold and audiences couldn’t get enough of them.

Then, one day, people no longer cared for westerns and, with few exceptions, they are hardly made today.

Superhero films are incredibly popular nowadays, but who’s to say they will remain so five years from today?  Or next year, for that matter?

Consider the Transformer films.  Despite getting slaughtered by reviewers and many fans, they nonetheless made tons of money, until the last one did only “ok”.

Solo may be a good film.  It might be a typical Ron Howard film, decent but not terribly extraordinary.

Regardless, audiences weren’t terribly interested in seeing it.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that people are tired of Star Wars films.  Perhaps people were so bothered by The Last Jedi -at least those who hated it- that they wanted to punish Disney.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that people were suspicious of a film with all the baggage this one had (previous directors fired, Ron Howard brought in at the last minute, etc.).  Perhaps people simply didn’t feel the need to see a Han Solo “origin” story… with or without Harrison Ford in the role.

Perhaps it was a combination of all those elements.

Ah well.

Shocking news…

A few days ago came the shocking news that Kate Spade, the woman whose fashion empire was named after her (and whom my wife and daughters love her products) had committed suicide.

Mrs. Spade was 56 years old and the news was incredibly shocking for many reasons.  First and foremost: Her fashion line and Kate Spade stores were popular and I’m certain she was, at least financially, comfortable, yet soon after this shocking news her husband noted she had dealt with both depression and anxiety.

Today I wake up to the equally shocking news that Anthony Bourdain, noted chef and host of a popular travel/food show Parts Unknown, was found dead from suicide in France.  (You can read the CNN article concerning this news here)

Though I never watched a single episode of Mr. Bourdain’s show, I was familiar with him and his sometimes unvarnished comments regarding, among other things, Harvey Weinstein.  Mr. Bourdain, at least the last time I read, was the boyfriend of Asia Argento, one of the women who claimed Mr. Weinstein raped her.

Clearly, Mr. Bourdain had his demons just as Mrs. Spade and the fact that they took their own lives speaks to one of the great tragedies regarding suicide: Depression, anxiety, etc. can strike anyone, young and old, successful or poor.

I’ve faced it and, frankly, was once very much in danger because of it.  In my case, it involved a physical condition that didn’t allow me to sleep full nights.  Basically, in my mid 30’s or so I had a very strong nasal infection that, once it was over, I found that when I lay down to sleep I could only sleep for 3-4 hours before an incredible pressure would build in my right nostril to the point where the pain and inability to breathe would wake me up.

The pressure was so bad I was forced to get out of bed and walk around until the pressure went away, usually an hour later, then and only then could I get back to bed and, again, I would sleep only 3-4 hours before it would again hit me.  Mind you, this wasn’t something that happened once in a while.  This happened each and EVERY night.

Worse, I developed an incredible sensitivity to dust and cigarette smoke.  Frequently I’d feel such a terrible pressure in my sinus that it would give me terrible migraine headaches.  Headaches that would have me on the floor in the bathroom throwing up into the toilet or lying in bed completely unable to do anything.

I went to an Ear/Nose/Throat Specialist and he told me I had a deviated septum.  I had that operated on and, once healed, I was good but only for a few months.  Then, the symptoms came back just as before.

I returned to the Specialist and he re-examined me and said maybe I was suffering from an allergy.  For one year I then went to an allergist getting injections but…nothing resulted from them.

After five or so years of suffering and, quite literally, not having a single comfortable full night of sleep, I went to another Ear/Nose/Throat specialist and that individual (I’m trying hard to be polite) said that “This happens when you get older”.  He nonetheless said if I cauterize some veins in the nose I might get a bit of relief.

Desperate, I went through the second operation.  Like the first, there was relief after I recovered for a few months but then everything came back as before.

Five or so more years passed, now I endured some 10 years of living without being able to sleep a full night and enduring incredibly debilitating migraines.

I was constantly tired, depressed, and increasingly weak.

One day I went to my regular doctor and talked to him about my situation and he said: “Did any of the Doctors you saw before about this mentioned your turbinate?”

None had.

He recommended another doctor and I went to him and this doctor, whom I didn’t mention anything but my symptoms to, looked in my nose and said: “Your right turbinate is eight times larger than it should be.”

Essentially, I had something in my nose that was eight times the size it should be and, when irritated, would inflame to even larger size and this pressure, like a baseball inside my head and under my eye, was the cause of 10 years of suffering.

I got a third operation and this one ended my ten years of suffering.

Each time I went to a Doctor, I was desperate.  Yet two of the Doctors, supposed specialists in their fields, clearly didn’t see what they should have.

And ten years or so of my life were spent suffering when I didn’t have to and, yes, even considering suicide.  The pain and discomfort were that freaking bad.

Don’t let things get this bad for you.  If you or a family member is dealing with depression or anxiety, you NEED to call or have them call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

The number is: 1-800-273-TALK, ie 1-800-273-8255.

Do so.