Believe It or Not

Some family news: Ms. Spenser (DOCTOR Ms. Spenser) just got back from leading a study abroad trip to Ischia, Italy. So she requested The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) when she got back, because parts were filmed in Ischia. It's a beautify island. It's a beautiful and terrifying movie. 

It starts with Matt Damon, the titular talented, playing piano for an opera recital at a fancy New York party, ca. 1950. James Rebhorn, the rich man throwing the party, sees that he is wearing a Princeton jacket and asks if he knows his son, Dickie Greenleaf. When Damon says that he does, he offers him a thousand dollars to go to Italy and retrieve Dickie, who is spending his time and his father's money lazing around and digging jazz. 

What Rebhorn doesn't realize is that the Princeton jacket was borrowed, Damon has never been to Princeton, and is a washroom attendant living in a barely furnished basement (although he can play piano). But Damon likes the money and the idea of a trip to Italy. He meets a rich girl at customs in Italy (Cate Blanchett), and claims to be Dickie Greenleaf. But he surely won't meet her again...

In "Mongibella" (actually Ischia), Damon arranges to come across Dickie Greenleaf on the beach. Greenleaf is played by Jude Law and his girlfriend, Margie, is Gweneth Paltrow. Damon claims to have known Law at Princeton, although Law doesn't recognize him. Soon, he has worked his way into Law's rich circle. 

When Law asks him if he has a talent, he replies that he is a liar, can impersonate anyone, and is good at forging documents. When Law asks for an impersonation, he does Law's father, freaking him out. Then he imitates Rebhorn offering him money to bring Law back to New York - putting his cards on the table. 

And so begins a three-way friendship between Law, Paltrow and Damon, living la dolce vita. Paltrow is attracted to Damon's seeming sweet naivete but Damon seems to be more interested in Law. Of course, everyone is interested in Law. He's a beautiful man who makes you feel like the most important person in the room - until he drops you. But maybe Damon doesn't just want to sleep with Law. Maybe he wants to be him.

An interesting thing about this movie is how Damon plays Tom Ripley. Although he is good looking and claims to have been to Princeton, he nonetheless plays him as naive and socially a bit clumsy. It's partly because Ripley is naive - doesn't even know how to ski, for goodness sake. But also because he knows it's endearing. It's a manipulative technique. Law is the golden god, unruffled by anything and ready for anything for a thrill. I had expected the roles to be reversed - possibly based on what I have heard of Purple Noon, with Alain Delon in the role. I guess director Mike Minghella made this version closer to the original Patricia Highsmith novel.

Being based on Highsmith, this movie is very gay, and rather closeted about it. And that leads to bad places. But by the end, it kind of looks like he gets away with it. 

Copping a Plea

Once again, JustWatch.com promised me a good action movie, and it turned out to be available as a free trial for some stupid marginal service. So I grabbed the first silly Michael Jai White I came across: Cops and Robbers (2017).

White plays a weary policeman caught up in a bank robbery/hostage situation. It starts with him facing off against the robber, played by MMA fighter Rampage Jackson, in a small house. The police outside listen to their argument over the open walkie-talkie. Then we go back to the start of all this.

Jackson rolls into a bank with a gang of mooks, takes hostages and generally acts crazy. Even his gang wants to know how he plans to get out. But he's confident he can do it. 

The usual hostage negotiator is held up by a suicide jumper. She is also White's psychiatrist - he's been on leave and just getting back. His hard-ass captain is Tom Berenger, who is willing to let him work this situation - especially when Jackson demands that White act as negotiator. And that's because they are brothers. Jackson went to prison while White went into the police. Now Jackson wants to humiliate White and the police in general. 

The action in this movie is mostly psychological, with a little bit of gunplay and almost no hand-to-hand. The filming has a hard digital quality that makes it look kind of cheap. Not that bad, though. I've seen complaints about the acting, but I didn't mind that either. I actually thought the whole brother vs. brother thing worked pretty well. The main problem is that it isn't as tense or clever as it probably wants to be. 

Want to hear a SPOILER? The twist is that the brothers were in it together all along. The bank robbery was to retrieve some information on police corruption. The psychiatrist was lured away by a phony jumper, because she knew that the brothers had recently reconciled. The fight in the house was staged, and there was a tunnel out. OK, that was pretty good, and it explained some of the rest of the movie, including, maybe, the bad acting. 

But it wasn't enough. The first two acts just weren't enough to make it worth it. A similar movie, Man on a Ledge, worked a lot better. And I don't think White is getting too old for a few fight scenes. 

TEOTWAWKI: AI

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025) - sounds pretty goofy, huh? It's a sort-of time loop sci-fi comedy about the evils of AI, directed by Gore Verbinski. 

A strange man Sam Rockwell) bursts into an LA diner. He is bearded, disheveled and dressed in rags. He announces that he is from the future to save the world from the evils of AI. Nobody looks up from their phones - they've seen nuts like him before. So he reveals that he is wearing a suicide vests, and asks for volunteers, or he'll start drafting people. He knows that some combination of people from this diner can succeed in the quest, but he doesn't know which combination. He's tried this before, and failed all hundred-odd times. 

He finally decides on a small group, and we get to see some of their stories. Michael Pena is a substitute teacher in the same school as his wife Zazie Beetz. He tries to take away a kid's phone, and an app alerts all students that he is the Enemy, and the whole school starts chasing them. They retreat to the diner.

Juno Temple's son died in a school shooting. Her insurance paid to have a clone of him grown, but it wasn't very convincing. But an AI construct of his personality is so close, she gets addicted to the app. That app tells her to go to the diner.

Haley Jo Richardson is a girl in a princess dress with messy makeup. She was employed as a princess for little girls' birthday parties. She is very allergic to electronics, and little children are relatively electronics free - for now. Her boyfriend is a rebel who destains electronics, until one day he tries a VR headset sent to them "by accident". Now he is addicted, and she runs away to cry at the diner.

With this group and a few others, Rockwell will attempt to get to a nearby address, where a young boy is about to develop the super-intelligence that will destroy mankind. But first, they need to get around the police blockade, because of the whole suicide vest/hostage situation. They will also face mysterious pro-AI warriors, and a monster or two.

This starts out as fun, but a little lame. Oh, yeah, AI will kill us all. Smart phones are destroying our minds. This movie started life as a proposed TV series, which explains the three character backstory episodes. There is a little bit of time-loopishness, but although Rockwell has done this many times, it's never the same twice. So even he is winging it. At least he gets to go back and try again. Everybody else just dies when they are killed. 

I'm not sure the end really worked for me, although it had a nice scope. And did they save the world? SPOILER - no. But maybe next time.

Tapping In

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025) is another one of those legasequels - sequels of a property from long ago. Quite a few came out during Covid - Matrix, Bill and Ted, etc The appeal is partly nostalgia, partly that these are great stories. STII holds up for both.

Spinal Tap hasn't been talking to each other since the last movie. They all have new lives: Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) has a young wife and a cheese and guitar shop in the country. David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) is composing music for murder podcasts and hold music - he has even won a Holdie award. Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) runs a Museum of Glue - after all, he was the glue that held the band together. 

But a video of Garth Brooks and Trish Yearwood performing Big Bottom goes viral. The daughter (Kerry Godliman) of their late manager inherited a contract that said Spinal Tap owed one concert, and that was now worth something. So she's got to get the band back together, and Marty Dibergi (Rob Reiner) wants to film it. 

They get a new drummer - after getting turned out by every famous drummer they could contact. Since no Tap drummer has survived, this is understandable. They head for New Orleans, where a concert cancellation gives them a venue, and start rehearsing. 

Things are very tense between Tufnel and St. Hubbins. It doesn't help when Paul McCartney drops by and agrees with St. Hubbins that the fiddly bit of Tufnel's new song should be dropped. Elton John comes by to try out Smalls' new song about death - Rockin' in the Urn and to play Flower People, then agrees to join them onstage for Stonehenge. And this time, they have a full-sized prop. Surely nothing will go wrong.

This movie might not be quite as funny as the first one, but it's pretty close. There's no "It goes to 11", although Elton John's "Fuck Spinal Tap!" is pretty iconic. The crew has lost none of their oddball improv skills. The music is great too, both the classics and some new material, like Urn and Small's Hell Toupee, performed with orchestra. I understand this is from a previously released album.

And, of course, this turned out to be Reiner's last movie, as the original was his first. Sadly, this meant that a planned third film, The Final Finale, will not be made. But this was a great bookend to a great career. Glad we go it. 

Wright Man

When I got The Running Man (2025) out of the library, it was because I vaguely remembered it was supposed to be good. When I saw director Edgar Wright in the credits, I remembered why.

It stars Glen Powell as an unemployed prole in a dystopian future. He is begging his old boss at. a foundry for his job back. He has brought his sick baby along for sympathy, and because he doesn't have anyone to look after her. His boss tells him that after blowing the whistle on the company for unsafe practices, he's never getting working there again. Powell gets mad, but controls it.

When his wife get home from her job in a hostess bar, Powell tells her about his plan to get enough money for some medicine. He'll go on one of the sadistic (sometimes deadly) gameshows that are now so popular. She reluctantly agrees, but makes him promise not to go on Running Man, the worst of them all.

He goes in for an interview, and they find him the angriest man who has ever applied. Makes him perfect for - guess what? Running Man. In this show, you are hunted for fun by a group of killers, while anyone can earn a bounty by killing you. Producer Josh Brolin tells him how much money he could make for his family for every day he survives, even if he doesn't live for the whole 30 day duration. So he agrees. At least, during the show, his wife and baby will be protected. The company promises that neither they nor anyone else will use them for leverage. 

And so he starts running. His plan is to go underground, sticking with the dregs of society. He goes to old buddy William H. Macy, who reluctantly helps him out with new ID and some disguises. He also gives Powell a contact in Bangor ME, well off the beaten track.

Another rule of Running Man is that runners have to send in a ten minute video every day. Powell's are so angry that he is beginning to get a following. The show's host, Colman Domingo, has to deride him as a dangerous, violent "welf" (welfare recipient), with a hooker wife and neglected baby.

Up in ME, he meets up with a Michael Cera, a sort of revolutionary. He knows the hunters are right behind Powell, and hopes they make it, because he has the whole house booby trapped. So we get a little lethal Home Alone-ing.

Powell is doing pretty well - lasting longer than most. So Brolin starts a psychological game, claiming that Powell's family is not safe. Maybe they are hostages, maybe already dead. nit sure what the point of this is. To make him madder? Just to mess with him?

On the whole I enjoyed this, but it was rather generic. There were a few Wrightian touches - like when Powell in disguise is standing in front of an animated wanted poster of himself, looking right and left as the poster does the same in sync. But they are relatively few or at least not noticeable. There are a lot of action scenes, but nothing much new or particularly stylish. Well, maybe Wright was going for a generic action feel. There is also more than a bit of politics, even a touch of One Battle After Another. 

So, a fine movie, good entertainment that isn't even that mindless. But maybe my least favorite Edgar Wright. 

Bridgerford Park Abbey

The elevator pitch for Fackham Hall (2025) is "Bridgerton in the style of Airplane! done by Monty Python". Not inaccurate.

It is set in majestic Fackham Hall after WWI. It has been in the family for generations (their mottto is Incestus ad Infinitum), but the families four sons, John, George, Paul and little Ringo, have died in the war (or in a bizarre strangle wank accident). Unless one of their two daughters marries the right cousin, they will lose the hall. Fortunately, older daughter Poppy (Emma Laird) is about to be wed. 

Meanwhile, orphan and pickpocket Ben Radcliffe gets a mysterious letter to deliver to the hall. But as he bicycles up to the hall, he is struck by a vision of beauty, motoring along the road. Struck as in run over, because she has fallen in love with him as well.

When he tries to deliver the letter, he is mistaken for a job seeker, and given a job as footman. Since the girl he fell in love with is Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), younger daughter of the family, he'll do whatever he can to be close to her.

Laird's wedding to her cousin is presided over by Jimmy Carr, who gets some of the best jokes in. But she impulsively refuses to marry him, because she is in love with a filthy door-to-door manure salesman. Now it's up to McKenzie. If she doesn't marry her cousin, the family will lose the hall. If she does, she'll Radcliffe. This becomes pressing when her father is murdered, so the hall will now pass to the nearest male heir, the cousin.

The plot is pretty familiar - of course, since this is a parody. You might even guess where the orphan Radcliffe came from. There are bits of Gosford Park, along with Bridgerton, Upstairs, Downstairs, and Downton Abbey. Of these, I've only seen Gosford Park, so I'm sure I missed some bits. Fine gags abound, like the family worrying the Cyri the butler is listening to their conversation, like Alexa the maid. Some are surreal, like when they are duck hunting, and shooting down foxes and deer from the sky. Also, father is repeatedly shot, without consequence, until his murder later. He is killed, by the way, by being stabbed, shot, poisoned, and drenched in acid. Probably an accident.

Carr, as parson, has the best set of jokes. As part of the wedding service, he says things like, "Know that God is with us, and Jesus is gay." Pause, try again. "Know that God is with us, and Jesus is. Gay though we are..." Carr is one of the writers, and I'll bet he wrote this stuff for himself. 

This was a lot of fun, with great production values. I did feel that the joke density wasn't quite what I had hoped for - not quite ZAZ levels. But enough yuks for me, and it's great to see a clever comedy so well executed. 

Silly Killer

We were pretty psyched for Predator: Badlands (2025) after the success of Prey. It was great, but a whole different thing.

This one takes place on the Predator home world, Yautja Prime. Scrawny pred (or "Yautja") Dek has been cast out as a weakling, and his brother suggests that he should go to the death planet ad bring back a Kalisk, the most dangerous prey of all. Then their father shows up, and kills the brother for being soft on Dek. But before dad gets to kill Dek, he takes off for Planet Death.

He crashlands due to asteroids and bad robo-piloting. He meticulously sets out his weaponry, and then gets attacked by the local wildlife - losing most of his weapons. But he meets up with Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani robot who is missing her legs. She proposes to help him find the Kalisk, and her legs in the process. So Dek straps her to his back and away they go. 

On the road, they meet a cute little big-eyed pug/frog/armadillo, who Thia names Bud. He rolls up into a ball to roll through the razor grass. Thia insists that they share some of the meat that Dek hunted, earning Bud's trust - which he displays by spitting on Dek. 

We also meet Thia's "sister" (also Elle Fanning), another synth. She has been revived by the company to complete the mission - to capture the Kalisk as a bio-weapon. Unlike Thia, she is cold and well-brainwashed. So who is the real villain in this movie?

I went into this pretty much blind - I only the posters of a predator with a legless body strapped to his back. What I didn't realize was how goofy it was going to be. Thia is a sweet-natured emotionally mature chatterbox. Bud is a cute animal sidekick, and Dek even has a few goofy moments, like when he learns about alpha wolves. 

Another interesting factor is that, although it has all the gore of any Predator movie, there are no humans in the movie. Only synths and monsters. So the pred can kill with abandon, and nobody feels bad. But that makes this less of a horror movie, and more of a fun adventure. 

And the last scene is a hoot.

So, a goofy Predator movie. Very different from Prey, which is pretty serious. I like it - but I hope this isn't going to be the direction for the franchise. Superhero movies were saved by silliness, and now they are all silly. Keep changing it up, Predator people!