A Reel Review: THE CREATOR

Director Gareth Edwards has an uneven record on the big screen. In 2010 he had his breakthrough with his excellent indie film MONSTERS. Then in 2014 he did a baffling GODZILLA film where the big guy barely showed up. Then in 2016 came the outstanding ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, where he started off directing before production issues had him eventually moved to the background. Here in 2023, Edwards gets a chance to rise above all that with THE CREATOR. 

 

The year is 2065, and mankind is at war with androids powered by artificial intelligence (A.I.). Former special ops agent Joshua (John David Washington), is called back into service by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney), to lead a mission into the heart of A.I. territory…where a world-ending weapon is being developed. 

 

Directed by Edwards who co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz, THE CREATOR is a twisting and turning sci-fi flick which borrows many elements from some classic sci-fi films over the past many decades. Here, there are elements of STAR WARS, BLADE RUNNER, ALIENS, and STAR TREK…while also taking pages from APOCALYPSE NOW or even AVATAR. It’s familiar territory, but there are several things at work that makes it feel fresh and new. The first is the excellent work in world-building. In this future world, robots were invented to assist mankind…before they literally went nuclear and wiped Los Angeles off the map. Now the U.S. is hellbent on eliminating them all, while in Asian countries the robots live at peace with humans…while taking on personalities and artificial skins which basically gives them souls. 

 

The next element at work are the many twists and turns. It is no spoiler to say that eventually Joshua finds the weapon: an A.I. with the human form of a six-year-old girl. Unable to blast it (her), into little metal shards, Joshua goes (ahem), rogue with her…even naming her Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Ultimately, it’s a film about what is human and what isn’t; asking profound questions while Joshua and Alphie are chased across the county. 

 

THE CREATOR has some excellent action scenes during those chases. Set-pieces ranging from an underground laboratory to a giant floating weapon are edge-of-your-seat greatness. Weapons and vehicles are futuristic yet realistic, and the design of the robots is stunning. Overall visual effects are nothing short of breathtaking. 

 

John David Washington (son of Denzel) puts in his best performance. He is matched well with Gemma Chan, who plays his wife and may have a tie to the future of the A.I. Allison Janney is a huge surprise as a military bad-ass. Madeleine Yuna Voyles steals the show and is a revelation. 

The real magic of THE CREATOR is that it messes with our heads by making us question who to root for: mankind or the robots? It’s minor-shock ending doesn’t offer any conclusions, but will have us pondering long after we stagger out of the theatre. Gareth Edwards has notched one in the win column: THE CREATOR is his best creation. 

 

BOTTOM LINE: See it 

 

A Reel Opinion: Shut up, Marty

Famed director Martin Scorsese once again went off the top rope in his tired old bout against blockbuster filmmaking. The 80-year-old filmmaker, whose new film KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens next month, was part of a new profile feature at GQ, in which he spoke about franchise films. He said: 

“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture, because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those – that’s what movies are.

They already think that. Which means that we have to then fight back stronger. And it’s got to come from the grassroots level. It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves.

And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true, because we’ve got to save cinema.”

His quotes fall in line with the shots he fired at the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) a few years back, calling them “not cinema”.

First of all, who wants to tell him that (Christopher) Nolan, once spent nearly a decade making Batman movies? And besides that, Scorsese seems to be overlooking the history of Hollywood. The movies have always…repeat, always latched onto a genre and kept at it until it was no longer profitable. How many WWII and Westerns were made in the first 60 years of cinema? How many kung-fu flicks in the 1970’s? And how many rom-coms in the 1980’s? Did our culture suffer because of all that? Certainly not. What is happening now with superhero flicks and other franchises such as STAR WARS is exactly how Hollywood has stayed in business for over 100 years. As Dennis Quaid once quipped in THE RIGHT STUFF: “No bucks, no Buck Rogers”. 

To be fair, Scorsese seems to be mad at the state of Hollywood more than the guys with capes and masks. The movie business has always been a balance of art and profit, but in recent years there has certainly been a shift towards profit. It has become harder for high-art films to be made as studios favor the films that have the potential to hit that billion dollar box office mark, or at the very least make their production costs back. As Bill Murray once quipped in THE LIFE AQUATIC: “he hogs up all the grant money.” 

What Scorsese is overlooking is that franchises are what is saving cinema right now. It was only a year ago theatres were on their death bed before the legacy sequel TOP GUN: MAVERICK gave them a supercharged shot of adrenaline. Superheroes may be getting all the money now, but it is certainly possible that one day they will exhaust audiences just like the Western did…and Hollywood will be on to the next big thing. 

Movies have always been an open universe. There should be room for dramas like Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER, and the next film in the MCU (THE MARVELS, coming in November). But when the day comes that we say the movies should only be one thing and one thing only…that’s when cinema is going to need saving. So, Marty, please shut up. 

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Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (which cost $200 million to make), opens October 20^th. 

 

 

 

 

 

A Reel Review: EXPEND4BLES

For THE EXPENDABLES franchise, there was an idea…to bring together classic action stars from the 1980’s with names such as Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Norris, Gibson, and Van Damme on the big screen to recapture the glory of that shoot-em-up era that made them famous. The first problem they had was getting everyone on stage at the same time, so they did a hack-job of editing to try and make it look like they were. The second problem was the screen-time of those action legends was sacrificed for young no-names that no one cared about. For the fourth and final (ha), film, EXPEND4BLES, they don’t even bother with that idea in the first place. 

The Expendables team, led by Barney (Sylvester Stallone), and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), are sent to Libya to keep mercenary Rahmat (Iko Uwais), from stealing a nuclear bomb. When the mission goes badly and one of the team-members is killed, the splintered team gets a new leader (Megan Fox), and heads out to sea to try again. 

Directed by Scott Waugh, EXPEND4BLES plays out as a generic action film with the most basic plot and the most basic characters. After a disastrous mission in Libya, the reassembled team moves on without Christmas, who decides to tail the team anyway. The mission leads them to a cargo ship in the China Sea which is carrying the nuke headed for Russia…ready to detonate and start WWIII. The film clicks on every action-film trope there ever was: world-wide threat, tough-guys, sexy girls, lots of guns and explosions, and tough-talk. There is nothing new here with no effort to make things feel fresh. 

The cliches just keep on coming. Loud motorcycles, check. Noisy bar fight, check. Guy with a toothpick, check. Sunglasses in the middle of the night, check. The film is following a template and nothing more. Once the action starts things are dull and un-inspired, the CGI is horrible, the green-screen scenes un-convincing (got to love the scenes out on the fake ocean where no one’s hair moves in the wind), and the dialogue right out of a stockpile. 

Acting is all over the place. Sylvester Stallone has limited screen-time and he amounts to an extended cameo. His absence makes it a Jason Statham show, and although he carries the film fine, it’s the same-old, same-old from him. Megan Fox and her partner Levy Tran nearly steal the show, but their outfits (tight butts, crop-tops with plenty of cleavage), make them look like they’re headed out clubbing instead of a combat mission. Andy Garcia shows up as a CIA operative and just grunts his way around. Dolph Lundgren is getting harder and harder to understand. Iko Uwais takes the prize for the most boring bad guy of all time. 

The last act has two attempted twists, both of which can be seen coming from miles away…with one of them doing disservice to an early setback with a character. The old idea for THE EXPENDABLES is thrown out here, as there are only a meager handful of 1980’s action legends who bother to show up. That may have been forgivable if there was an actual movie built around the cast we did get. This is bargain-bin crap and the final nail in a franchise that never came within a whiff of its grand idea. 

BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it 

 

A Reel Review: A HAUNTING IN VENICE

To borrow a sportsball term: Acclaimed director and actor Kenneth Branagh has a .500 average in adapting famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie to the big screen. First came his most-excellent, ensemble-driven MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017), and then the most-crappy, lack-of-ensemble DEATH ON THE NILE (2022). Here in 2023, Branagh takes some big swings with A HAUNTING IN VENICE. 

 

Venice, 1947. Famed detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh), is coaxed out of retirement by his friend and mystery novelist Ariadne (Tina Fey), to attend a séance held by Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), to try and disprove her supernatural abilities. 

 

Directed by Branagh and based on the 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party by Christie, A HAUNTING IN VENICE is a twisting, turning, slow-burning murder mystery sprinkled with a healthy dose of old-fashioned horror. Poirot is brought to a creepy old Palazzo which was once home to children who died during a plague. Eventually, as we would expect, a guest winds up dead…and Poirot switches back to famous-detective mode to try and solve the murder. 

 

As a whodunit, there are things that we expect to keep the plot moving. The murder that comes is expected, although the guest that gets it is a huge surprise. Everyone is then trapped in the building thanks to a (in)convenient storm, and as Poirot peels back the many layers of the mystery…we as the audience are left guessing over and over. 

 

What makes the usual cliché stuff work is the setting and the horror elements. Poirot has his disbelief in the supernatural challenged when he starts seeing and hearing apparitions, and the film has no lack of scares. The real star here is the Palazzo itself, which is packed with Gothic horror elements: shadows loom large by candlelight, ghostly figures appear in lighting flashes, and we are left constantly scanning the surroundings for something to come at us. The production and cinematography are excellent. Characters seem small up against the spectacular architecture, and the film has a great sense of atmosphere thanks to extreme high and low angles. There is also not a spot of CGI to be found, giving the film an old-school feel that is timeless. 

 

Branagh gets a solid performance out of his entire cast. The actor/director is excellent as always, and he is matched toe-to-toe with Tina Fey who is a huge surprise. Michelle Yeoh seriously gives off some creepy vibes. 

 

Most whodunits live or die by its ensemble cast. The draw to most of them is that the audience is on the edge of their seats waiting to see which one of their favorite actors or actresses are the culprit. The lack of this is partly what sank DEATH ON THE NILE. A HAUNTING IN VENICE also goes low in its cast, but it works better because of the wonderful mashup of mystery and horror. To borrow a sportsball term: Branagh has improved his average by way of a grand slam. 

 

BOTTOM LINE: See it 

A Reel 25: RUSHMORE and RONIN

This month marks the 25^th anniversary of two of the best films to come out of the 1990’s: Wes Anderson’s RUSHMORE and John Frankenheimer’s RONIN. 

 

Premiering first was RONIN. Helmed by acclaimed director John Frankenheimer, who had directed classics such as BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962), and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962), RONIN followed a team of special operatives hired to steal a heavily guarded briefcase leading to a web of international espionage. 

 

The idea for RONIN came from writer John David Zeik, who was inspired by the novel Shogun. The novel gave him background on the ronin, masterless samurai who roam looking for purpose. The theme was incorporated into disavowed CIA and international government operatives, all in the game for the mysterious case. 

 

With a modest budget and a shooting schedule of 78 days, RONIN was filmed across locations in Nice and Paris. The cast would include Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Sean Bean, Jonathan Pryce, and Stellan Skarsgard in one of his first major roles. The film would be noted for its action, with two multiple car-chases a highlight. RONIN would earn good reviews, and finish as 1998’s 11^th-highest grossing R-rated film. 

Later in the month, Wes Anderson’s RUSHMORE would have its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Only the second film from Anderson and creative partner Owen Wilson, RUSHMORE followed a 15-year-old boy who has a mad-crush on one of his teachers, leading him to trouble at school. 

 

Written by Anderson and Wilson, RUSHMORE was conceived before Anderson’s first feature film, BOTTLE ROCKET from 1996. The idea was inspired by Wilson’s own expulsion from his prep school. Anderson also took inspiration from Charles Schultz’s famed Peanuts comic strip, with the main character in RUSHMORE similar to lovable loser Charlie Brown. 

 

The cast would include Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Olivia Williams, Connie Nielsen, and Luke Wilson. Much of the cast would become frequent collaborators with Anderson over the years. Filming began in Houston in the Fall of 1997. 

 

RUSHMORE would open at several prestige festivals and draw acclaim. It would win two Independent Spirit Awards: Best Director for Anderson and Best Supporting Actor for Murray. Murray was also nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2016, it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. 

 

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RONIN and RUSHMORE are two films that could not be more different. The former is an espionage thriller, while the latter is a quirky comedy…yet both over time have become respected and beloved in their own ways. RONIN stands as one of the last great action films before the CGI age took over, while RUSHMORE laid down the groundwork for the style that Anderson would embrace for the rest of his career. These are two excellent films that have lasted the test of time, and feel right at home when viewing in the cooler month of September. 

 

 

A Reel 50 : Part 2 - 50 Years, 50 Films

This Blogger has just celebrated his 50^th birthday. To mark this glorious event, I have been looking back at the films that have inspired, educated, and thrilled me. In Part 1 (HERE), I went through the notable films that were released in the year of my birth, 1973. In this Part 2, I will list my favorite film from every year since I was born, and then list a favorite from that decade. 

First Decade: 1973 – 1982

 

1973 - The Exorcist

1974 - The Godfather Part II

1975 - Jaws

1976 - Rocky

1977 - Star Wars

1978 - Watership Down

1979 - Apocalypse Now

1980 – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 - Conan the Barbarian

 

My formative years. The first film I saw on the big screen was Disney’s THE RESCUERS at a drive-in, in 1977. But it was STAR WARS just a few months later where my life-long love affair with the movies really began. Not just a spectacle but classic, hero’s journey storytelling that captured the ultimate spirit of adventure. My first decade produced some classic cinema from Spielberg and Coppola and introduced me to Conan, but everything I know about the movies began in this decade in 1977. 

 

Decade Favorite: STAR WARS 

 

 

Second Decade: 1983 – 1992 

 

1983 – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

1984 - Ghostbusters

1985 - Back to the Future

1986 - Platoon

1987 - Predator

1988 - Willow

1989 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1990 - The Hunt for Red October

1991 - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

1992 - Bram Stoker’s Dracula

 

In 1982 my love for adventuring cinema went to another level when I was introduced to Indiana Jones in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. But it was in 1989 when Indy went on his third big-screen adventure with his old man where the man in the hat delivered an emotional wallop. The father-and-son journey of discovery was not lost on me as a 16-year-old, and it means even more today, now that my own father has ridden off into the sunset. THE LAST CRUSADE was not just a quest for the Holy Grail but for the search for a father-son relationship that the two characters never had. It resonates, and hits deeply. THE LAST CRUSADE is a family favorite and the perfect Father’s Day movie. 

 

Decade Favorite: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE 

 

 

 

Third Decade: 1993 – 2002

 

1993 - The Fugitive

1994 - Ed Wood

1995 - Braveheart

1996 - Independence Day

1997 - Titanic

1998 - Saving Private Ryan

1999 - The Mummy

2000 - Gladiator

2001 – LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring

2002 – LOTR: The Two Towers

 

In this decade I hit my twenties, joined the military, finished college, and joined the professional workforce. It was a decade of new ideas and early adulthood, but my tastes didn’t change much. Adventuring films such as THE MUMMY, epics like BRAVEHEART, and absolute spectacle from INDEPENDENCE DAY thrilled me. But it was the epic of all epics, Peter Jackson’s monumental adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS that hit me in the heart. There are two films from that trilogy in this decade, but the favorite has to go to THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. It was that film where I rediscovered big-screen spectacle balanced with heart, and the film that brought myself and my very own Fellowship of friends together. 

 

Decade Favorite: THE LORD OF THE RINGS – THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 

 

 

 

 

Fourth Decade: 2003 – 2012

 

2003 – LOTR: The Return of the King

2004 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2005 - Good Night and Good Luck 

2006 - V for Vendetta

2007 - There will be Blood

2008 - The Dark Knight

2009 – Zombieland

2010 - The King’s Speech

2011 - Rango

2012 – Argo

 

In was in this decade where my tastes in film began to move over into serious, arthouse drama. Films like THERE WILL BE BLOOD and GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK re-opened my eyes to a cinema world that I had overlooked for far too long. It was a transition that comes with age and maturity. But despite this, it's a comedy that takes my decade.  Wes Anderson’s fourth feature, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, has Bill Murray playing an aging oceanographer and documentary filmmaker who finds himself at an impasse, and being that I was in a period of change myself, was able to see myself in Captain Zissou. This is an adventure, says the final line in the film; a line that sticks with me every day. 

 

Decade Favorite: THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU

 

 

 

Fifth Decade: 2013 – 2022 

 

2013 - 12 Years a Slave

2014 - The Imitation Game

2015 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens

2016 - Hell or High Water

2017 - Dunkirk

2018 - A Star is Born

2019 - 1917 

2020- Onward 

2021- CODA

2022- Banshees of Inisherin 

 

Early in this decade things came full circle. After a 10-year absence from the live-action big-screen, STAR WARS came back with a force. The seventh episode in the Saga, THE FORCE AWAKENS, recaptured the fun and adventure of the early films, and made this Blogger feel like he was four-years old in 1977 again, being whisked away to desert planets where bad guys classicaly wear black and the good guys come in all shapes and sizes. It’s the film that brought my wife and I together, and when Han Solo says, “we’re home”, he’s speaking to me…and all of us. My 50 years on this planet began a long time ago, and ends in a galaxy far, far away.  

 

Decade Favorite: STAR WARS – THE FORCE AWAKENS

 

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Be sure to come back in 50 years for my favorite 100 films. 

A Reel 50: Part 1 - The Year in Film 1973

This Blogger just celebrated his 50^th birthday. It’s been a time to celebrate, reflect, and look ahead. And it’s a prime time to take a look at the films that were populating big screens in the glorious year of 1973. 

 

1973 A.D. was a time in cinema with change just around the corner. We were one year away from Steven Spielberg’s JAWS from swimming along and changing the way films would be made and released forever. And just three years later George Lucas would revolutionize movies again with STAR WARS. But before those two behemoths, the 1970’s was a time for anti-heroes. Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER was an early masterstroke that would embrace the nihilism that would dominate the decade, and even the epic PATTON from 1970 showed an American hero as a flawed man. This was the style of film in 1973 A.D. 

 

In this year, all the talk of cinema would center around the late William Friedkin’s horror film THE EXORCIST. Based on the novel of the same name and plotted around a demonic possession of a young girl, THE EXORCIST would re-invent the horror genre for the next five decades. It would be the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture (along with nine other nominations), and would shock nd disturb unsuspecting audiences. 

 

THE EXORCIST would be the highest box office earner in North America, and hot on its heels would be the eventual Best Picture winner, THE STING.  Directed by George Roy Hill, THE STING would reunite Paul Newman and Robert Redford to the tell the tale of two grifters looking to con a mob boss, played by future JAWS harpoon-chucker Robert Shaw. THE STING would win seven of its 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The worldwide box office would include the Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen prison film PAPILLON, and the James Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE. Other successful films included the Al Pacino cop drama SERPICO, THE WAY WE WERE, PAPER MOON, LAST TANGO IN PARIS, and the Clint Eastwood led MAGNUM FORCE. 

 

The martial arts genre would begin a kung fu craze in America with the Bruce Lee kick-em-up ENTER THE DRAGON, along with FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH. The sci-fi film WESTWORLD would be the first feature film to use digital images. George Lucas would direct his second feature film, the teen drama AMERICAN GRAFFITI (read Real Speak’s 50^th anniversary blog HERE). Martin Scorsese would direct Robert DeNiro to an Oscar win in MEAN STREETS, Terrence Malick would have his directorial debut with BADLANDS, and Walt Disney would deliver ROBIN HOOD. 

 

Other notable films in 1973 included the animated film CHARLOTTE’S WEB, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON, SOYLENT GREEN, THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, DAY FOR NIGHT, BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, THE WICKER MAN, SLEEPER, and THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN. 

 

Making their big-screen debuts in this year would be John Candy, Anthony Edwards, Rutger Hauer, and John Rhys-Davies. Born into this world would be Jack Davenport, Adrien Brody, Kevin Feige, Neil Patrick Harris, Kate Beckinsale, Ahmed Best, and Rian Johnson. Departing this world would be Edward G. Robinson, Merian C. Cooper, Lon Chaney Jr., Bruce Lee, and John Ford.

 

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1973 was a year that had something for everyone. The sci-fi and superhero genre was years away from dominating box office numbers and altering pop culture, so ’73 was free to deliver many quality films across all genres. THE STING was a crime caper that was a massive hit, as was the romantic drama THE WAY WE WERE. Characters such as Dirty Harry (played by Clint Eastwood), and James Bond (Roger Moore), had new adventures, Bruce Lee punched his ticket into legend, and THE EXORCIST began its 50-year run of terrifying audiences. 1973 may have been before the start of our modern era, but it was fantastic for film. 

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 In Part 2 HERE this Blogger will pick his favorite film from every year starting from 1973.