Zombie Jamboree

I honestly hadn't planned on a zombie film fest, but these just came off of Short Wait at the same time, so...

28 Days Later (2002) sort of revived (heh) the zombie genre by making them fast, not just shuffling shamblers. It starts with some animal rights activists releasing some monkeys from a lab, not realizing that they were infected with the rage virus. Kind of like the start of The Hunger, but not vampires. 

Twenty-eight days later, Cillian Murphy wakes up naked in a hospital bed - you know, for the ladies. He finds the hospital and the entire city to be deserted, until suddenly, a mob of zombies is attacking and a couple of humans hustle him into the shelter of a little shop. They explain the situation to him, and we think, "don't get too attached to these guys." And indeed, after a trip to his Murphy's home to see that his parents have killed themselves peacefully, we lose one of the two. He gets infected and the other, Naomi Harris, kills him.

These two find more survivors: father Brendan Gleeson and his daughter Megan Burns. They have heard a radio broadcast of a military presence up north, and want to form a party to try and get there. So off we go.

They mostly make it, but when they get there they discover that humans may be a worse threat than zombies. And that becoming a zombie might keep you human.

Director Danny Boyle (yes, Yesterday's Danny Boyle) made this the first major feature "filmed" digitally. This gives it an interesting look - the stuttering effect in action or slo-mo is pretty common now. But we kind of wondered if our Blu-ray player wasn't working right for some sections. A field of flowers, for instance, was completely posterized, with serious banding where there should have been smooth gradations. Maybe the effect was intended, maybe a limit of the technology, maybe a malfunction of our old player. Anyway, it has a surprisingly upbeat ending (tacked on, I understand). It looks like the sequel has a different cast and director. Should we watch?

Train to Busan (2016) starts with busy finance exec Gong Yoo trying to relate to his young daughter, Kim Su-an. She just wants to see her mom in Busan. Gong doesn't feel like he has time for the trip, but finally agrees to take her. 

As the train leaves the station, we catch a glimpse of an odd mob. Also, there is a tramp locked in a train toilet, muttering that everyone is dead. But mostly it's just regular people: a high-school baseball team and a cheerleader, a chubby tough guy with a turned up collar and a pregnant wife, some nice old ladies, and maybe a zombie.

That zombie bites someone and pretty soon whole cars are infected. These zombies are fast like in 28 Days, but also dumb. If they don't see humans, they just mill around - and they can't work locks. So the survivors have to keep them locked out of the cars where the uninfected are hiding, and maybe they can make it to Busan. The main question is: Can Gong Yoo protect his daughter?

There isn't as much visual flair in this one, but the action scenes are well done. It's fun to see them worked out in the narrow confines of a train (Snowpiercer, anyone?). Although they did neglect to lock doors a  bit too often. But the fast zombies obviously owe something to 28 Days.

So two zombie films, one that kicked off the current rev of the genre (although it wasn't clear that 28 Days Later zombies were undead - they were just mindless), one that is a recent entry. And we aren't even big zombie movie fans. But at least it helped us get the jokes in Zombieland.

Period Piece

I went into Emma. (2020) with little information - I hadn't read any reviews (maybe noted that they were favorable) or Jane Austen's novel. I did not know anything about Autumn de Wilde, because it is her first feature. I haven't even seen Clueless, the modern remake.

It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular Emma. She is a smart young woman with a rich and doting father (Bill Nighy) who delights in matchmaking (but swears she will stop). She takes an interest in a local girl, Mia Goth, whose parents are unknown. Emma undertakes to find her a husband, although she doesn't plan to meddle. But she does discourage her from marrying a nearby farmer, as she feels he is too low.

At first, she thinks the smarmy preacher, Josh O'Connor, is interested, and works to bring them together. But he is actually interested in Emma, so that won't work.

Emma spends a lot of her time with a jokey wastrel, Johnny Flynn. He's the type who lounges around with his leg up on the arm of the chair, making caustic comments. But she's really interested in Callum Turner, who she has barely met - it's always rumored that he will be coming to this or that event, but never does.

When he does, it is at a ball, where the pastor refuses to dance with Goth, so Flynn takes her for a turn out of the kindness of his heart. On her way home, Turner saves Goth from gypsies (offscreen). When Goth acts smitten, Emma thinks she is in love with Turner, not realizing that it is Flynn she's taken with. 

Is Emma really good at matchmaking?

Once that is cleared up, she hopes to take up with Turner, who she feels is her natural partner, attracted to his parentage (her family's good friends) and social standing. She is also annoyed at dark-haired, accomplished Amber Anderson, niece of  local bore and spinster Miranda Hart. Then, at a picnic, Turner is goofing around, and without thinking, Emma insults Hart cruelly. She regrets it immediately, but her friend Flynn takes her very firmly to task. Can she recover? Can she earn back the respect of her friends? And will she find love herself?

Of course! It all ends happily for everyone. 

This is a beautifully made film, full of gorgeous costumes and locations. It is also full of beautiful people, but everyone looks a little dumpy or foolish next to Taylor-Joy as the radiant Emma. Maybe Anderson as her dark rival. So this is quite dreamy and made me want to read the novel.

They did seem to have a bit of trouble making Austen's formal, epigrammatic dialog sound natural, but that's a pretty common problem. I've seen it solved in Shakespeare by just eliminating a lot of the dialog. That's what makes Bill Nighy my favorite part of this. He is constantly commenting on the scenes with nothing but a glance or a sigh. 

Brooklyn Owes the Charmer

I am not necessarily a big Jonathan Lethem fan, although I did read and enjoy his first novel. Gun with Occasional Music, about a private eye who is a gene-modified kangaroo who has a gun with its own theme music. But I was definitely interested in seeing Motherless Brooklyn (2019).

It was written by, directed by, and stars Ed Norton, as a private eye with Tourette's Syndrome. He works with a couple of other guys for Bruce Willis' detective agency. Willis has them wait outside while he goes up to an apartment, then he calls Norton at a phone booth and hides the receiver in a drawer, so Norton can hear the meeting. So Willis meets up with a few lawyer types and a few bruiser types, and they discuss something he has and wants money for - but it isn't clear what it is. Only that a black secretary is involved. When the bruisers drag Willis out, his guys follow him - but get there too late, They have rubbed him out. Norton takes his hat and coat.

Willis' wife is not too shook up. She knew he was taking too many risks. The other boys at the agency want to carry on, but drop this case - there's nothing to grab onto. But Norton, now wearing Willis' hat and coat, wants to find the guys who did this. This, and the thing with the wife, have distinct shades of The Maltese Falcon. 

The black secretary turns out to be Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who takes notes at Borough Authority meetings. The BA is run by a Robert Moses type bigot and power broker played by Alec Baldwin. But Mbatha-Raw is also a bit of a community activist, working with a Jane Jacobs type gentrification fighter, Cherry Jones. So there's more than a touch of Chinatown, as well.

Throughout this all, Norton twitches, mutters, and shouts nonsense and curses, many aimed at himself. I don't know if this is a good representation of Tourette's but nobody gives him any trouble about it. At one point Baldwin mentions his "condition", and when Norton gets defensive, he says he means his habit of sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. The other guys at the agency call him "Freakshow", but they all come from the same orphanage.

The movie has a great 1950s look (departing from the novel, which is set "today"). There's also some good jazz in the soundtrack, and a jazz man modeled after Miles Davis played by Michael K. Williams, He befriends Norton, and shares a jazz cigarette with him - helps calm the tics.

So I guess this bombed, but we enjoyed it. It's a bit all over the place, but that's part of the fun. Another part is the villain is so rotten - and his biggest crime is building parks in NYC. 

Dark Skies Initiative

Dark Skies (2013) is just what we were looking for, and very much according to formula. It is movie of possession, like Insidious, for example, but not actually supernatural.

It stars Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton as a husband and wife with two sons. Hamilton is looking for work while Russell is a maybe-not-too-successful real estate agent, so money is tight. The younger son, Kadan Rockett, is 8 or 9 and likes his older brother to tell him scary stories over a walkie-talkie set at night. The older, Dakota Goyo, is 13, and has been hanging out with a somewhat obnoxious older boy. So things aren't perfect, but the family is strong.

Then odd things start to happen. The contents of the kitchen cabinets are balanced in odd geometric designs. Each family member, starting with Rockett, has some sort of fit, where they become unresponsive and harm themselves. The burglar alarm goes off when no one is in the house. And odd wounds and bruises appear on them all, but especially Rockett.

The police treat this as a psychological issue - kids acting out or possibly abuse. The neighbors begin to pull away, and they Russell and Hamilton even begin to doubt each other. Then Russell finds a website and it all becomes clear. SPOILER - aliens.

They go to consult with J.K. Simmons, an expert in alien abduction, Hamilton is skeptical at first, but Simmons tells them exactly what they are going through. He has no solution - says he has been hounded by the Greys for years. And worse, he predicts that they will eventually abduct one of them, probably the first one they possessed, Rockett. But if they fight back, they may be able to drive them off, and make them bother someone else.

Although this is directed by Scott Stewart and produced by Blumhouse, it has a touch of James Wan about it. The ordinary family, with problems, sure, but happy. The creepy happenings, maybe explainable, maybe not. Even the creepy music, which Simmons refers to as a ringing sound that seems to come from inside your own head. The suspicions of neighbors and authorities, which cuts off the possibility of help. Then the esoteric expert who explains it all - and helps or not. 

Maybe not all that original, but well done. Just tense enough to be scary, but not traumatizing. Ms. Spenser was satisfied, and it didn't give me nightmares. Good job.

Tomorrow Never Knows

I guess we just had to see Yesterday (2019), the movie where everyone forgets the Beatles exist except one guy. 

The setup is pretty simple: Himesh Patel is a singer/songwriter in a small English seaside town. He plays an acoustic guitar and sings to very small audiences, including a small group of friends who love him and like his music. His manager/best friend, Lily James has gotten him a gig at a big festival, but he winds up playing in a small tent to an audience of two children. He tells James that he is going to quit music and go back to teaching. Then, on his way home, there is a global power glitch and he his hit by a car.

He wakes up pretty battered, but when he is released from the hospital, he thanks his friends by playing them the song "Yesterday". They are blown away by this song they think he wrote. Later, a Google search reveals that the Beatles don't exist (also, no Coca Cola). So he furiously begins trying to remember the words to every Beatles song he can come up with.

He gets more and more famous. He opens for Ed Sheeran, which allows for a lot of good natured joshing at his expense. This would be funnier if I knew who Ed Sheeran is. In the end, he has to learn to love ... not himself - his music is still garbage - but Lily James. 

This wasn't as bad as I expected. Patel is quite sympathetic and easy to like. Lily James manages to look quite plain, which must have been hard. The humor is light and easy - Oasis doesn't exist in this world, because they didn't have the Beatles to cadge off.

But my main objection is this: The Beatles were a product of their times. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is not going to be a hit today - that style of music is old-fashioned and too much of a niche. The later works, maybe. "Yesterday" is a good example of a timeless song. It also works for one voice and an acoustic guitar. The Beatles didn't just write songs, they sang in beautiful harmony and had amazing and groundbreaking production values. Hearing them done solo sounds ok, but only because they are covers of well-loved hits.

As I understand, in the original script, the singer couldn't get anyone to listen to the Beatles songs he appropriates. This makes sense to me. World-famous violinist Joshua Bell played his violin outside a subway stop in Washington DC and was ignored by almost everyone. This seems like what would happen to Patel. 

Breaking the Bank at Monte Carlo

Next in our Edward G. Robinson festival, Seven Thieves (1960) is not a comedy. But it comes later in his career, when it made as much sense to cast him as a professor as well as a gangster.

It is set in Monaco. Robinson has invited Rod Steiger out for reasons he hasn't explained. Steiger has gotten out of prison recently, and it seems he is there because he was a student of Robinson. Now, Robinson wants to make it up to him with one last big score. Steiger is not too pleased, but hears him out. Robinson needs Steiger because he can trust him. But the other members have to approve him. Steiger points to beatnik Eli Wallach and hot chick Joan Collins, and says, those two? Yes, says Robinson, and three more.

They go to a strip club where Collins is dancing to Wallach's sax. Steiger figures out who the other thieves are: Alexander Scourby, the sweaty pervert who is infatuated with Collins (and happens to work at the casino), Michael Dante, the cool safe cracker, and Berry Kroeger, a German heavy. In the end, they agree to work with Steiger, and he agrees to lead them. So they go to work.

First, a run-through for timing, then the actual job. It's like most heist films, and in fact, has been ripped off by a few, including Ocean's Eleven. There is some derring-do climbing the outside of the casino, in a high wind over a long drop. There is the usual patron who appears to die, and the management wanting to remove him discretely. (Management represented by the rotund Sebastian Cabot.) And, amazingly, it all goes according to plan - until the getaway.

Robinson is wonderful in this. He was once a doctor, a professor in fact, but after serving time, he couldn't get a real job any more. But his last big haul isn't done for the money (mostly), but to prove a point - to achieve the perfect crime. There's another odd movie of his, The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse (amazing name, too), where he is a professor of criminology, who takes over Humphrey Bogart's gang to get into the mind of a criminal. That detached scholarly air is very similar to his style here. But Rod Steiger is also great - I don't think I've seen him in much, but know him by reputation. I even like Joan Collins here, and I'm usually pretty much immune. Wallach as a philosophically nihilist criminal beatnik is pretty good, as well.

Bloody Vikings!

Finally got around to watching Guy Ritchie's King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017). Rmember when we got fooled by the knock-off? I don't think it was really much worse.

It starts with some scene setting: Uther Pendragon killing Mordred, wizard Vortigern killing Uther, baby Arthur put in a boat and sent down the Thames. He is rescued by some loose women who take him in and raise him. So we have Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) growing up on the streets, a street-wise king-to-be.

When some Vikings rough up one of the women, Arthur and his crew force them to pay up. But he finds out that King Vortigern (Jude Law) is protecting the Vikings, and his secret police grab him and take him to Camelot castle. There, along with every other young Englishman who isn't nailed down, he is forced to attempt to remove a sword from a stone. He succeeds, but passes out from the magic power. That puts him in Vortigern's power.

Meanwhile, a tomboy girl wizard called Mage (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) gets in touch with Arthur's buddy Djimon Hansou, and they rescue Arthur. So, reluctantly, with the help of his ragtag band of friends, he takes on the Vikings and the king.

This is not your regular King Arthur story. For one thing, it's all prelude. They just get started on the Round Table at the very end. Merlin is in the movie for a second in a flashback, but that's it. His place is taken by Mage, with a little Nimue folded in. There is no Lancelot, no Guinevere. Aside from Hansou, one of Arthur's buddies is Tom Wu, called Kung Fu George. And Excalibur is totally magic - can cut through magic fire or blast a roomful of warriors. 

I can accept all that, even based on the now tired trope of the guy you thought of as a noble hero being raised as a street tough. But Ritchie didn't seem to have his heart in this - or maybe put too much heart and not enough judgement into it. There are some good fights, but nothing outstanding. The anachronisms and departures from canon are designed to add some oddball fun, but fail to do so. Plus, it seems he was saving the best stuff for the sequels, which, sadly (?) will never get made.

Skip it, and watch Excalibur again.