Suspiria (2018)

Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) is accepted to a prestigious dance academy in Berlin. Since the film takes place in 1977, it is in West Berlin. She is excited to work with the famous Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton) who sees something special in the girl. Unfortunately for Susie, that isn’t the only thing special about the academy.

A girl named Patricia (Chloe Grace Moretz) was the favored dancer before, but now she’s gone missing. The last one to see her was Dr. Josef Klemperer (Swinton again!), and he is obsessed with finding out what Patricia’s ranting about “witches” really meant. He enlists the help of another dancer Sara (Mia Goth) to do some digging. Will Sara and Susie discover the supernatural truth hidden in the academy, and does it all tie back to the ancient name Mator Suspieriorium?

Good Points:

• Impressive acting by Johnson and Swinton
• Some eerie and disturbing sequences
• Attempts to retell the story in a new an interesting way

Bad Points:

• Is never able to sustain its dread, or horror for every long
• The attempt to fuse the historical events of 1977 Berlin with witches doesn’t come together
• Never reaches a good flow, and ends up slogging quite a bit

Overall:

The original Suspiria is a film I admire, but don’t really like all that much. So I was excited to see it getting a remake treatment. I think there was a lot of interesting material to explore in the original. While Guadagnino takes everything in a new direction, the whole conceit never really gels into an engaging film. He attempts to draw many thematic ideas into the film using the setting of 1977 Berlin, but it feels at odds with the personal horror at play. There are some excellent performances, and some disturbing visual sequences for sure. In the end it didn’t quite work. I’d dare say I actually like the original film a bit more.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals:  4

Sound: 3

Acting:  4

Script:  3

Music: 2

Direction: 3

Entertainment: 2

Total:  3

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Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

So Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) should be feeling pretty good about capturing criminal mastermind Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) back in Rogue Nation. Alas a whole new set of rogues is taking up Lane’s cause and are threatening to unleash some serious destruction using nuclear devices. Hunt teams up with his crew of Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Dunn (Simon Pegg), but the plan falls apart and now there is a bomb to recover. As usual the head of the CIA , Erica Sloane (played with intensity by Angela Bassett) doesn’t think the IMF is up to the challenge. So she sends her watchdog, August Walker (Henry Cavill) to keep an eye on things.

And boy is there a bunch to keep an eye on. Turns out Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) has an impossible mission of her own – is she working with or against Hunt and his team? There is also a black market dealer known as the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) who wants a piece of the action. And that action ramps up with a battle royale in a bathroom, an insane car/motorcycle chase in Paris and one of craziest helicopter pursuit put to film.  As the mission gets more and more impossible even Hunt has to wonder – have they actually bit off more than they can chew?

Good Points:

• Top-notch action scenes and thrills
• Some excellent performances
• Keeps the plot moving with intensity and intrigue

Bad Points:

• Goes for the full serious approach to the franchise 
• Goes for a more grim visual style
• The score’s more modern approach may not work for everyone

Overall:

This series just keeps delivering solid thrills and action. This film makes for a fine follow-up to the last film. It also manages to work in elements from all the previous films. It was great to so many familiar faces returning (Baldwin is back and he’s a blast). But the overall tone is so serious and grim, that the fun nature of the previous installments is missed. Still, had a great time with this one, and while I think I enjoyed the previous installment a bit more, Fallout is well worth seeking out.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals:  4

Sound: 4

Acting:  4

Script:  4

Music: 3

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 3

Total:  4

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Score Sample: The Incredibles 2 (2018)

I've got to say that I really love The Incredibles. The animation, the story, the characters are all some of my favorite from the Pixar animation studios. That said, it also is the first time I heard the music of Michael Giacchino. This composer would go on to be one of my favorites of the current crop of movie composers, and The Incredibles is where he really captured my ear. That first score is an homage to the big brassy spy scores of the 1960s, with a healthy dose of John Barry and Henry Mancini all wrapped around some top notch theme work.

So when they announced that there was sequel in the works, there was no doubt in my mind that they had to bring Giacchino back. He has a great working relationship with the studio and it just made sense. The Incredibles 2 sports Giacchino bringing that sassy brassy feel back, and then cranking it up a notch (or two). It's got more saxophone, more blaring trumpets and is having fun. The old themes return, a new theme for the villain is introduced, and even a theme for Elastigirl as she takes one some solo adventures. Great stuff all the way around. Giacchino wraps it all up with a wonderful end credits suite (always a highlight in his scores) giving you a taste of everything. So here are The Incredits 2 from The Incredibles 2 composed by Michael Giacchino.

The Open House (2018)

So we decided to have a double feature horror film viewing this weekend. We had two flicks in our Netflix cue. One was this movie that sounded like a fun thriller by the description. But in the back of my mind, I remembered seeing that Chris Stuckmann had worked on a riff track for the film. I figured that just means this could be a “so bad its funny” movie, right?

Summary:

After Logan’s (Dylan Minnette) father is killed right in front of him in a freak accident, he finds himself struggling with grief. His mother Naomi (Piercey Dalton) decides to move the two of them to her sister’s massive house in the mountains. She hopes that it will help them work through their sadness.

Unfortunately the house is up for sale, and the pair has to keep leaving the building because of the numerous open house events. Soon enough, strange things start happening around the place. The water heater is tampered with. Logan’s phone vanishes. Other lost items end up in different rooms. Could it be the odd neighbor Martha (Patricia Bethune) messing with them… or did someone stay inside the giant home after The Open House?

Good Points:

• Lovely location shooting in and around Big Bear in California
• Solid acting for most of the film
• Martha was an entertaining character 

Bad Points:

• Confusing editing drains all tension from the film
• The score overplays its hand over and over again
• The ending was very unsatisfying

Overall:

This movie is a bit of a mess. There are elements of an entertaining and thrilling film at the heart of this, but the senseless editing, horribly overloud and obvious score and an ending that just leaves you exasperated add up to a bad film. But if you are in the mood for a movie for riffing, there are plenty of laughs to be mined. Want a good thriller from Netflix, check out Hush instead.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals:  2

Sound: 3

Acting:  3

Script:  1

Music: 1

Direction: 2

Entertainment: 2

Total:  2

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MST3K - Season 12 Overview

With the outstanding success of Season 11 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, most fans were hopeful that the series would continue. Sure enough Netflix ordered up another helping of episodes. Joel gathered together the crew and got back to work.

The good news is that Jonah would return as the host of the series, not to mention Patton and Felicia coming back as the mad scientists. Good to see the familiar faces in front of the camera.

But other changes were in the works. Season 12 would be shorter, with six films riffed. But in an attempt to make the series more "binge-able", Jonah and the bots had to riff all six movies in a row. Kinga (Felicia Day) declares it "The Gauntlet" and laughs madly... because she is a mad scientist after all.

What this means for the series, well, I'm sure I'll have something to say about it. But let's also take a look at the this line up of movies. The bad movie gods were smiling, because we have some great fodder here. Let's see how Jonah and the bots handle them.

• 1201 - Mac and Me
• 1202 - Atlantic Rim
• 1203 - Lords of the Deep
• 1204 - The Day Time Ended
• 1205 - Killer Fish
• 1206 - Ator: The Fighting Eagle

MST3K - The Gauntlet is Coming!

Well November has rolled around again, and that means it is time for more Mystery Science Theater 3000. Thanksgiving is turkey day and for the past few years Shout! Factory has been streaming a MST3K marathon on their channel. They serve up episodes from across the 10 seasons (Comedy Central and Sci-Fi years), and usually have bumpers with cast and crew from the series.

But 2018 is going to be a bit different because SEASON 12 (aka The Gauntlet) is premiering on Netflix on Thanksgiving. That's right six new episodes of the series featuring the cast of the previous season are back on the satellite. Some really perfect films for riffing are lined up, so this season looks like it could be a blast. The whole season drops onto Netflix on Thursday, November 22.

But wait, what about the Turkey Day marathon?

No worries Shout! has you covered. They will be running the marathon on Sunday, November 18th. It will include six episodes, intros from Joel and Jonah, some sneak peaks of Season 12 and a few surprises.

Head on over to MST3KTurkeyDay.com for more information on how to catch the marathon.

Need more, here are some trailers!

Yep, this Turkey Day looks like it might be a little more hilarious than normal.

Score Sample: Solo (2018)

So it is time to roll out another Star Wars track for the score sample. I have to say I was pretty excited to hear that John Powell was going to be providing the score for Solo, even though I wasn't too excited about the movie itself. Powell is one of those composers who knows how to create some orchestral bombast, and keep his themes colorful and engaging. His style is a bit different from John Williams, but his use of percussion in action music is impressive. His score for How to Train Your Dragon remains one of my favorite scores from the previous decade.

Then we got the news that John Williams was going to provide a theme for Han Solo, and Powell was going to utilize it in his score. That was music to this film score fan's ears. The result is one of the most entertaining and exciting Star Wars related scores we've ever got. Lots of great stuff on this album, but my favorite track has to be Reminiscence Therapy. Not only does Powell give us a great statement of the new Han Solo theme, but he works in classic musical moments from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back into the cue. He keeps it all flowing into one amazingly dynamic track, a real highlight of the album.

So enjoy Reminiscence Therapy from Solo composed by John Powell including themes by John Williams.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Introduction:

So there is now an official Cloverfield trilogy which is blossoming into a full-blown “series” as of this writing. So far these films all share some element of surprise in their marketing. When it comes to this film, the surprise was along the lines of “where the hell did this come from?” because I didn’t know anyone who even heard this was in the works. Springing fully formed from the head of Zeus and onto Netflix we have a sci-fi horror hybrid. But is it worth checking out?

Summary:

Earth is in trouble. Natural resources are running scarce and a new source of energy needs to be found. So the Cloverfield space station is launched. Using technology based on particle accelerators, the science team believes they can create an endless source of energy… they just need to get the damn thing to work.

We meet Ava Hamilton (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) the communications officer aboard the station. She is dealing with some personal tragedy in her life and is finding it hard to focus on her job. She will need to focus, because a freak accident causes the station to malfunction and be hurtled to a mysterious location in space. While trying to figure out what is happening the crew realizes that they have opened a dimensional door. That caused all kinds of horrifying and bizarre things to occur. This includes finding a living person inside a wall, strange emanations of magnetic fields, and eyeballs just not behaving in sockets. As the horrors mount the crew becomes certain that they actually crossed dimensions and being in an alternate reality may create a paradox… a Cloverfiled Paradox so to speak. David Oyelowo, Daniel Bruhl, Chris O’ Dowd, Zhang Ziyi and Elizabeth Debicki round out the cast.

Good Points:

• Some solid acting by the cast
• Some excellent visual effects and sets
• Manages to build up some solid thrills and WTF moments 

Bad Points:

• Feels very disjointed and messy at times
• The story is very, very, very familiar
• Connections to the previous films in the series feels like an afterthought

Overall:

There are elements of a top-notch sci-fi thriller buried in this movie. It’s got a solid cast that does its best with a messy script. But the whole thing feels very uneven. It also is highly reminiscent of Event Horizon and similar films. Not a bad time for lazy Sunday viewing, but certainly the least of three films currently bearing the Cloverfield moniker. 10 Cloverfield Lane is easily the superior film.

Scores(out of 5)

Visuals:  4

Sound: 3

Acting:  4

Script:  2

Music: 4

Direction: 3

Entertainment: 3

Total:  3

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

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