Little Man

I had watched The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) a while ago, maybe even on VHS. Had a hard time finding it again, so when it turned up on streaming, I queued it right up. Never mind what streaming service, it will be here today, gone tomorrow.

Bill Murray plays a chatty, clueless loser type visiting London for the first time. He is makihg a surprise visit on his birthday to his brother, Peter Gallagher. Gallagher is a yuppie ex-pat executive at an international company, nervously getting ready for an important business dinner with some Germans. He is not open to entertaining his brother for his birthday. So he gets him tickets to Theater of Life, a theater game where you play a secret agent in the streets of London. 

They go to a phone booth to get instructions, but - you guessed it - some real secret agents call him. They think they are talking to assassin "Spencer", and give him an address. He thinks they are assigning him a code name and telling him where to go to start the game. And we're off.

The assignment is to kill Joanne Whalley, an escort who has got some incriminating letters. Since he thinks he's doing improv, he quickly gets the drop on her, but when she decides to seduce him, they team up. He's soon having the time of his life. Between his clumsiness and clueless/fearlessness, he is invincible.

This is the second movie made in 1997 with this premise - but I've never seen David Fincher's The Game. There are problably a bunch more - like Game Night. But this was just spot-on perfection, mostly due to Bill Murray. There's some clever writing, like a Murray and his brother planning to enjoy some Ambassador cigars, which is heard as "light up the ambassadors". But it's mostly in the way he plays it, his whole Bill-Murray-ishness. Always clueless, but game for whatever comes his way. 

Maybe it's partly nostalgia - Murray's schtick has gotten a little old by now. But I had a great time re-watching this. 

Save the Last Dance

I enjoy the We Hate Movies podcast, although I don't always take their advice. For instance, in an "On Screen Live" YouTube episode, they talked quite a bit about Venom: The Last Dance (2024). Their conclusion: It's barely a movie, and you should avoid it. But guess what?

It starts rather incoherently: Tom Hardy and the Venom symbiote are stuck in an alternate Earth by Dr. Strange (did this happen at the end of Venom 2? Can't be bothered to check). Specifically, in a Mexican bar, where they are getting smashed to "Tequila". But some random creep played by Andy Serkis in a monster dimension gives us some exposition about destroying all symbiotes and ... We weren't paying attention. But somehow, they open a portal, and we're back in our usual dimension.

They head for New York to clear their names for crimes committed in Venom 2 (I guess), but are forced off of the plane they are attached to the outside of by a creature from the monster dimension, and land in Nevada. It turns out that Area 51 is being closed down, but not the secret lab deep beneath it. This lab, run by Chiwetel Ejiofor and scientist Juno Temple, has been studying symbiotes, and has several in containment. They are trying to give some hosts, but the hosts keep dying in agony. Oh well, science, I guess.

Hardy gets picked up by a hippie family in a VW bus. The dad, Rhys Ifans, is a saucer nut, and wants to see Area 51 before it's gone. His wife is into it, his young son and teen daughter less so, but surprisingly cheerful. 

They stop in Vegas on the way, and Venom figures he'll rich on the slots, but loses everything instead. But they meet Peggy Lu, the convenience store owner from the previous movies (and Across the Spider-Verse). She has won big, gotten a make-over and penthouse suite. Her and Venom have a disco dance number (when did they have time to rehearse?). 

Then it's off to Area 51, where we get some big battles. The trapped symbiotes get released, and bond with some of the scientists (by the way, are these scientists evil, misguided or just dumb?). Even Ifans gets some action in.

I wouldn't say this was a great movie. I think it worked better than Carnage, even though it was a lot shaggier. I think I preferred the lack of serious villains to the attempts at villains in Carnage. Anyway, we sort of enjoyed this, without paying too much attention. And if I left anything out of this review, it's because I wasn't paying attention. 

Aliens Redux

After Ms. Spenser watched it on an airplane, we decided to watch Alien: Romulus (2024) at home. I thought it was a perfect distillation of Alien, Aliens and Alien 3 (didn't I blog this one?). Ms. Spenser decided it was a stale rehash. 

It starts with an expedition finding the wreck of the Nostromo and salvaging an odd black cocoon (with something Xeno-shaped within). Then we go a dark and dismal colony planet. Teen (young adult?) Callee Spaeny is trying to get a transfer to nicer planet, but instead gets her contract extended. Her best friend is a stuttering, autistic-seeming android, played by David Jonsson. He was altered by her dead father so that his prime directive is to do what is best for Spaeny. 

Some of Spaeny's young friends have a plan to get to a better planer: Highjack a ship, then go to the derelict space station to pick up some cryo-sleep pods, and head out. Soon they are stuck on the station with a Xenomorph or two. (BTW, the station has two sides, Romulus and Remus. This may have meant something, or just been a cool name.)

Director Fede Alvarez and writing partner Rodo Sayagues took a lot of what's best from the earlier entries. For ex, the colony world from Aliens. The station had a nice throwback look (CRT monitors - well, maybe the colony didn't have the resources to do flat or holograph screens), but mainly it got the haunted feeling of the original. There were plot points, like someone being quarantined because they'd been face hugged, which is the right thing to do, but some people don't get it. 

Like I  said, I liked how true to the vision this was, and Ms. Spenser thought it was too derivative. On the other hand, I didn't feel like it was the greatest of all Alien movies, and Ms. Spenser enjoyed it for what it was. I'm not sure this is one of those retro-sequels, where the key is nostalgia, but it might be.