Recently Watched - 2021 Part Three!

So here's three more movies I was able to squeeze in before the end of the year.  It's an interesting mix of styles and genres, but all try to be theater-filling blockbusters, with very different results.  Some are definitely better than others, here.  Anyways, here's my last "Recently Watched" for the year!

Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Like I said in the previous article, I ended up watching these out of order.  However, as I anticipated, it would not end up mattering all that much, as any of the connections to the MCU didn't really reference The Eternals at all.  However, setting aside all the meta, this film is actually a pretty solid stand-alone film, turning this particular corner of the universe into a martial-arts fantasy roller-coaster ride.

Shang-Chi is raised by his father to be an assassin, but he defects and goes to live in the US as Shaun, hoping to stay in hiding.  However, his father's men find him, eager to steal an amulet Shang-Chi got from his dead mother.  This eventually leads him and his estranged sister to meet with their dad again, who is eager to "save" their mother from another dimension.  However, the father is being led astray by an evil demon, and the siblings have to stop their father from inadvertently unleashing the Dweller-in-Darkness.

The story is conventional, as most of these films are, but the details make up the difference.  Simu Liu does a decent job of carrying a fairly predictable reluctant hero who has to confront his childhood traumas, but Tony Leung nearly steals the film as the distraught father eager to finally reunite with the love of his life, and won't let anyone get his way, even his own children.  The rest of the film does have some pretty solid action scenes, as one would hope with this level of wuxia fantasy.  The fight on the bus makes good use of the environment, and while the final battle does get a little hard to follow, as you have CGI dragons and monsters all over the place, it makes for a solid, if not completely satisfying conclusion.  (At least not until they let the other shoe drop on the karaoke joke; that was dang funny!)

This is probably the best film of this so-called Phase 4 so far.  While Black Widow was amusing and Eternals tried too hard only to fall flat, this one really stands pretty well on it's own.  However, I will admit some of the world-building details do get me a little excited for the Marvel films again, though I don't think I'll be in a rush to do so.  At least this was a better wuxia film than that live-action Mulan turned out to be.

F9 (2021)

After working my way through the franchise in a bit of a blitz, I came to the conclusion that the series had kind of built a decent franchise out of the ridiculous stunts and car fetishes.  However, I guess in the time since I wrote that article, I had forgotten how stupid these movies can be.  So when I finally decided to take a look at the latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise, I was mostly looking forward to a decent, fun action film, and was hit smack in the face with all the stupid they could muster.

Seriously, the dialogue is downright awful.  Not only do you have the low-effort man-drama between Dom Toretto and his estranged brother, but the exposition is awkwardly shoehorned in, especially when they start retconning things in ways that feel like the worst of comic book continuity.  Oh, and the sheer lack of physics continues from Hobbs & Shaw, as our heroes' plot armor is thicker than ever, allowing them to survive the dumbest of deathly circumstances, despite the physics involved.  They introduce this super magnet, and while they do some entertaining stunts with it, it's obviously very selective with what it chooses to attract.  And worst of all, you have these moments where both the heroes and the villains try to exercise some meta-humor about the series that kinda lands with a thud.  I think I laughed more at this film than with it.

So other than all that, I guess the movie was just above mediorce.  The plot is a pretty silly sci-fi-spy thriller about a secret device that can hack "anything," but it allows for a lot of chase scenes and shaky-cam fights, so I guess it serves its purpose.  They also make a bit of an effort to bring back some of the gritty street-racing vibe, as well as a bunch of cameos from previous films, which I admit was kind of fun.  Probably not a highlight of the franchise, but just another mindless explosion fest that tries to be about more, and basically fails.

Dune: Part One (2021)

I know I was extremely excited for this movie back in 2019 when it was announced that Legendary Pictures got the rights and that Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve would be in charge.  I knew at the very least it was going to be a well-shot film.  I remember loving the book when I read it in high school, and the early trailers showed a lot of promise.  Now that the film is finally in theaters (after an understandable one-year delay), I am pleased to tell you that it lived up to my expectations.  This movie is great.

The movie intelligently adapts just the first half of the book, showing the story of how Paul Atreides ends up on the desert planet of Arrakis, how his family is betrayed in an act of galactic politics, and how we starts his path in becoming the anticipated messiah figure of the powerful Bene Gesserit cult that schemes behind the galactic scenes.  The story is definitely complex, as it introduces quite a cast to follow.  Fortunately, the movie is not in a hurry to tell its story, but takes its time to let the scenes breathe and let audiences really get a feel for the locations and intrigues going on.  It definitely needs its near 3-hour runtime to pull these pieces together.  It also finds a decent stopping point, as Paul and his mother successfully integrate themselves into one of the indigenous tribes of the planet called the Fremen.

As expected, the film is beautiful.  Villeneuve has a great cinematic eye, and knows to let the camera sit on a scene so that the audience can properly absorb all that's going on.  Arrakis feels perfectly sandy, hot, and foreboding, and contrasts well with the opening scenes on the Atreides wet and lush home planet of Caladan.  All these visuals are held together by an inspired and atmospheric soundtrack by Hans Zimmer.  The cast also does a great job, with Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, balancing between being a good leader and a good father to Paul.  Rebecca Ferguson gives a powerful, emotional performance as Leto's consort and Paul's mother.  And Timothée Chalamet does a great job as the conflicted, young hero Paul.  When needed, he shows Paul's weaknesses and insecurities, but also provides the promise of greatness with his acts of nobility and grace.  This contrast will only help bolster Paul's transition to who he becomes later in the book, when the second movie comes around.

While I have no plans of making a Top 5 list for his year, Dune is easily the best movie of 2021.  It understands that great, complex stories need to be told well, with clear and deliberate pacing.  It requires a solid cast who knows their characters' purpose in the story.  It requires a great soundtrack that matches the mood of the scene and the characters feelings.  It requires a visionary director who knows how to craft the unreal into reality.  And Dune was blessed to have all of this and more, and expect nothing less from the sequel.  October 2023 cannot come soon enough!

---

Well, that should do it for the year.  I know folks have been talking up the latest Spider-Man film, but I don't when I'll get to that.  Maybe early next year.

My next article will be my regular Anticipated Movies list, though I am doing that one a little differently.  From there, I don't know what else I'll do for the website.  I admit I haven't been writing as often as I have before, partially because my other blog has taken up a lot of my attention.  I'll try to keep writing, though, and I'll be sure to post whatever I come up with here.

Books I Read in 2021!

So I haven't been completely negligent.  Just like last year, I've got a summary of all the books I read this year.  I've been tweaking it over time, adding new parts as I finish each one of these books.  Unsurprisingly, it's a bunch of fantasy and science fiction.  It's kind of a nice way to take a look back at the year, though.  Here's the books I read for 2021!

The Silmarillion (1977)
by J.R.R. Tolkien

That's right!  I've read The Silmarillion!  You see, I had become a big fan of a YouTube channel called Men of the West, which goes over various parts of Middle-Earth's lore and timeline, and I figured I wanted to read the source of a lot of things I was learning about.  So I threw this on a list of books I'd like to get for Christmas for 2020, and Santa pulled through for me.  I dug right in during the holidays, and ended up finishing it within a month!

It's definitely different kind of book than The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, as it isn't a narrative, but more like a history, or more appropriately, the Bible equivalent for the world of Middle-Earth.  It discusses the world's creation and the divine beings that formed and managed it before even getting to the movements and kingdoms of the Elves, the first mortals of the legendarium.  As a consequence, it can be pretty rough reading, as you're given several names and places, with peoples moving all over.  While the book does contain a few maps, I mostly relied on another book called The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad to help me keep some things straight.

However, once you get over these hurdles, you're eventually given several great, epic stories that could have easily been novels of their own (some of which Christopher Tolkien would later pull together many years after his father's death).  I will say that it can be overwhelming at times, but it does set up everything that would eventually lead to the epics the author would be better known for.  It's not exactly an easy book to recommend, as one does have to put in effort to wrap one's head around all that's happening, but it is certainly not the impenetrable brick wall that some claim.  Definitely for the diehard fans, and those willing to dig through its dense narrative to find all the gems it contains (pun intended).

Foundation Trilogy (1951/1952/1953)
by Isaac Asimov

Asimov is one of those authors that I've heard about my whole life, but never really read much.  I recall reading I, Robot in high school, but not much else.  So, when the first three original books of the Foundation Trilogy were available at a library book sale last year, I grabbed them, and in 2021 I choose to make them a part of my reading list.

Starting off as a collection of short stories (like most sci-fi from the time period), Asimov presents a pretty fascinating idea: that the future of humanity can be predicted with the made-up math of psychohistory.  Basically, if one pulls together enough variables and projects them into the future, one can anticipate major movements of people as a whole.  This doesn't mean it can predict the acts of individuals, but instead focuses on the collective future of quintillions of people across thousands of years.  Sort of like studying the migration patterns of animals over long periods of time.

The story begins with a psychohistorian named Hari Seldon who has figured out that the current Galactic Empire will eventually crumble, and that it is too late to prevent it.  He also foresees that it will take tens of thousands of years for humanity to recover.  Based on this, he concocts a plan to adjust the future by setting an organization in motion called The Foundation, the purpose of which will be to anticipate a second Galactic Empire, and help bring it about in only a thousand years.  From there, the books then go through part of this thousand-year time-span, telling shorter stories of varying crises in the galaxy and how the Foundation and their agents provide the tweaks necessary for Seldon's plan to come to fruition.

The first book does a good job of setting up the premise and showing how it's interpreted by subsequent characters on the timeline, culminating in some pretty radical shifts of expectations while still maintaining focus on Seldon's Plan.  The second book then starts off in the same mode before reeling off the wheels as the Plan falls apart at the advent of an unexpected twist in human evolution.  However, Seldon had a back-up plan, and the third book focuses on this side of his far-flung equations.  There is also a significant shift from a technological science to a more psychological science, though I don't know if it really fits the themes introduced in the beginning very well.

I have to say, going from the dense Silmarillion to this is quite the whiplash in flow.  Asimov barely provides any details, going for a more focused and fast-paced tone that shows the ups and downs of this thousand year span.  Characters may seem to come and go pretty quickly, but Asimov teases just enough detail to get the basics of how each character thinks and behaves, even if they're there for just a chapter.  Even the plot may feel like it's skipping some scenes, but Asimov has the confidence to assume readers can fill in the gaps on their own.  It's rather curious to have such an epic space drama feel so brisk and spry.  Overall, it's a pretty fascinating set of ideas, even if they get kind of derailed towards the end.

(As it would turn out, a television series for Apple TV would come out at the end of 2021 based on these books.  I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard a lot of good things.  Maybe I'll get to it in 2022.)

Neuromancer (1984)
by William Gibson

It's kind of weird to consider Cyberpunk as a classic genre, now that it's nearly 40 years old, but having mostly grown up in the 90s, it certainly felt very real and relevant to me.  Later, I would end up becoming a fan of franchises like Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, and Deus Ex, and through them, I would become curious about their origins and inspirations, which led me to this novel by William Gibson.  While there are older novels and stories that have cyberpunk elements in them (some by Gibson himself), most critics generally consider this novel to be where the genre really took off.

Set in a near future where governments have fallen and high technology has filtered to the masses, the story focuses entirely on a man named Case, a former hacker who gets picked up by an ex-military patron named Armitage, along with a mercenary girl named Molly.  Together, they start doing jobs in acquiring gear and tech, but as Molly and Case start putting the pieces together, they learn that Armitage is just a front for something much bigger.  From there, the story then freewheels into the dense web of conspiracies, rogue AIs, and even a low-orbit space colony that's basically Vegas on steroids.  It also has quite a bit of variety in terms of locations and people, jumping from Japan to Turkey to space, and dealing with everyone from Russians to Rastafarians.

Gibson's writing does take some getting used to.  He tends to be light on descriptions, and often has a sideways, noir attitude about them when he does write them.  Conversation topics and even entire scenes shift jarringly and erratically, which can be rough at times and makes the story a little hard to follow.  However, I wonder if this isn't on purpose, creating this atmosphere of paranoid urgency, and perhaps is a reflection of the main character himself.  Even when there's downtime, they still feel like fleeting, half-remembered dreams before things start crashing together again.

Still, it's hard not to see this book as a Rosetta Stone for anything done in the name of cyberpunk.  Between all the gear and the jargon, the intense action, and the noir, dystopian atmosphere, to say nothing of the descriptions of a visual interpretation of cyberspace, it's easy to see how much it influenced later works and established a genre.  It's a bit of a rough read (and certainly not for the squeamish), but it's certainly a classic that set the tone for a lot of other things I've come to enjoy over the years.

The Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy (1984/1985)
by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman

During all this time I was reading this heavy, thoughtful science fiction, I decided to balance it out with a trilogy of fun, light fantasy books that I had read before, but a very long time ago.  I remember thinking these were some of the coolest books back in high school, and I easily got lost in its world.  I admit I never did read more from the universe, but the memories lingered, and I thought I'd give them another go.

The story is a rather standard fantasy epic.  Starting small with the reunion of a handful friends at a beloved hometown, they get caught up in the troubles of the world when they stumble across the miracle of true healing in the form of a magic staff in the hands of a young plainswoman.  From there, a ragtag bunch of heroes first escape their hometown and fall into a grand adventure that takes them all over the world of Krynn to fight the draconian forces of the Dark Queen Takhisis and her evil dragons.

Reading these all these years later, the flaws do stand out now.  First of all, it's not very deep storytelling, instead going for the high melodrama of pulp fantasy meant to excite the imaginations of teenagers.  There are also parts of the story that get skipped, largely in an attempt to incentivize readers to go play the D&D modules to fill in the gaps, which can feel a little disappointing that you missed out on part of the story.  And I do feel like the ending of the trilogy, while perhaps epic in it's own way, left a lot of threads lying around to be explored in later books and materials.

Still, I can't deny that I got lost in it all over again.  Not only is Krynn a very well-realized world of high fantasy, with plenty of lore and history seeping in at the edges of the story, but the characters are still lively and memorable.  From the hyperactive kender Tas to the grumpy dwarf Flint, and from the stoic gentlemanliness of Sturm to the unnerving sarcasm of Raistlin, and the self-doubting half-elven leader Tanis trying to keep them together, it really is a dynamic bunch of heroes, and more enter the story as it goes along.  By the second book, it almost feels like it's going to be too much, as the characters get scattered in different directions, but it makes for some very enjoyable reading as you see the journeys unfold, and by the end, it mostly comes together.  A fun ride, if nothing else.

---

I think it's been a good year for reading, with some decent variety.  I do want to keep trying to go through my personal library, though it didn't help that my local library had some massive book sales.  I think I picked up over 20 books from that!  Well, maybe I'll get through it all eventually.  Here's to more reading for 2022!!

Recently Watched - 2021 Part Two!

Good heavens!  I guess I really dropped the ball on posting to this site lately.  I've been pretty busy over at my other blog, though, as I've been listening to more and more music.  Still, I have been getting to a few films this year, and I plan on talking about a few more before the end of the month.

Black Widow (2021)

So, after a considerable theatrical hiatus, the MCU finally returns with a film that may not really feel like a Phase 4 starter so much as a displaced Phase 3 filler with Black Widow.  While I suppose there are a few implications for future Marvel films, it's mainly a stand-alone feature designed to provide more of the title character's origin and be a solid send off for Scarlett Johansson, resulting in a decent action film that doesn't really raise the bar for MCU.

To break it down, it's a lot like Winter Solider, with Black Widow's past and present merging together for a story about how the spy training center she started called the Red Room is still active.  So she gets back in touch with her former Russian fake-family spies that were once part of a sleeper mission in the US in the mid 90s before they had to leave and return to the Soviet Union.  From there, it follows a lot of familiar beats from most other MCU films: heroes fight each other for a bit, there's some chase scenes, a few awkward jokes, and an explosive finally that ruins an enemy base (but it's a flying one this time!).  The "my family is broken" melodrama gets laid pretty thick, and the story wants to try and throw a few plot twists, but does so pretty clumsily, as they mainly serve to shift the tension like a roller coaster, rather than be any kind of enlightening reveal.

For what it's worth, it's not a bad film, especially with David Harbour really selling his Old Communist Dad Hero persona (probably in an effort to get into a good superhero movie, for once).  Mrs. Johansson isn't too bad herself, but one wonders if she isn't a little tired this time around.  Overall, a decent summer MCU popcorn action-comedy romp that does just enough to not feel stale.  A bit like some nice, warm leftovers from a Thanksgiving dinner.

No Time to Die (2021)

After a year or so of delays, we finally got to see the latest in Bond's escapades, this one being the 25th film overall, and Daniel Craig's 5th.  What we get is an interesting mess of a movie, but I suppose the Bond films have always struggled in one form or another.  However, by the end, I definitely felt that this was the end of an era, as Craig's version of the character has really gone about as far as it can go.

As expected with this era of Bond, the story picks up kind of where Spectre ended, with Bond enjoying some downtime with the girl he walked away with on the bridge, Madeleine.  However, when their pasts comes back to haunt them, causing Bond to think he was betrayed, he literally puts her on a train and disappears.  Five years pass, and Bond is enjoying a vacation when Felix Leiter of the CIA suddenly shows up with a new concern regarding a DNA-based artificial disease that Spectre had been developing in the background.  From there, Bond jets around the world, hitting Cuba, Norway, London (of course), and an obscure, contested island on the Japan/Russian border.  And of course, Madeleine is involved, as well as the last movie's villain, Blofeld, though in more of a supporting role.

While Spectre felt maybe a little underwhelming by keeping things relatively simple and straight-forward, this movie almost feels like it's trying to do too much.  We don't even really see the main villain show up until half-way through, nearly showing up out of the blue.  I also felt the pacing was pretty clunky.  Some parts, such as the scenes in Cuba, blow by so quickly it can be hard to keep track of what is going on and why.  However, the movie also takes its time to establish Bond's emotional stakes with slower scenes that maybe drag a little too much.  This is easily the most romantic a Bond film has ever been.  Much of these concerns mostly disappear, though, as the final act seems to bring the different parts together in a decent way, and you see Bond (with some help) infiltrate the villains base with a good mix of stealth, action, and endurance.

While Spectre had a pretty classic vibe, making me think of the Moore-era films at times, this one feels more like a Brosnan-era film, with the more nuanced acting from Craig, a greater sense of stealth-action, and some contemporary political intrigue in there for good measure.  Overall, it's a fun film, and certainly tries to bring Craig's era to a dramatic close, but I don't think that it's as good as Casino Royale or Skyfall.  Still, it will be interesting to see where the Bond franchise goes from here.  

Eternals (2021)

If you're thinking this one is out of order, that's because it is.  I saw this one before Shang-Chi (though I will get to it in the next article).  That being said, I doubt I'm really missing much by taking these slightly out of order.  To be honest, this one is probably the most skippable Marvel film in quite a while.

Eternals is another jaunt into the cosmic side of the MCU, focusing on a handful of the titular alien superheroes who have been sent to Earth to deal with the Deviants, and nothing else (thus explaining their absence over the past several films).  However, as they begin to integrate with humanity, they discover that there is more to this people than meets the eye.  Then, when one of them is killed and their entire understanding of who they are gets up-ended, they are forced to grapple with who they are and what they choose to do, regarding the fate of the human race.

Unfortunately, the movie doesn't quite handle all of this very well.  Part of the problem is the ensemble cast.  While they aren't terrible, they really aren't given a lot of screen time, resulting in some thin characters that imply more depth, but never really get there.  The attempt at an epic philosophical melodrama is there, but when paired with the standard Marvel stuff, like action scenes and character-driven humor, it can't quite put the pieces together, resulting in a clunky pace and some exposition-heavy dialogue just to make sense of the thing.

I will say I did like some of the scenes, and the movie does have some great special effects.  I really quite like the main character's aesthetics, with the circle-heavy effects on their powers, really giving a divine, mathematical vibe.  The Deviants are also well designed, looking quite feral and powerful, until they evolve and start complicating the plot in bad ways.  However, I don't think this one will be remembered well in the long run, though the teases for the future do have some interesting implications.

---

For what it's worth, I have seen Dune, and will get to that as well in the next article.  I wasn't sure how many movies I was going to see this year, but I guess I ended up catching a handful.  I don't think I'll be doing a Top 5 again, this year, but I'll probably still do an Anticipated list.  We'll have to see.  In the meantime, I need to get back on the ball for writing articles for this place!

Recently Watched - 2021 Part One!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted anything to this site.  It's also been a while since I've seen a lot of movies.  For some reason, I haven't really been in the mood, lately, but I've finally pulled together a collection of things I've seen so far this year.  Some are new, some are old, and some are just plain weird!

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Now here's a movie that probably doesn't need a review.  If you weren't already excited at the title alone, this movie probably isn't for you.  However, it does represent the culmination of Legendary's own little Kaijuverse, having made three films as set up in anticipation of this one.  While it is a fairly solid roller-coaster-ride of a movie, they don't really stick the Avengers-style landing.

The main problem is that they spend a good amount of time setting up some details that honestly the movie didn't need.  There's a subplot about a corporation doing bad things that gets explored with some pretty uninteresting characters.  Largely I think it could have been told in a more hand-wavy manner to make more room for the big monsters.

Still, the action is pretty solid, as the monsters tear all kinds of things apart in their battles against each other.  There's one out at sea that's pretty solid, but the one in a big city feels a little lifeless a times.  The story is predictable, but fortunately doesn't seem to care.  However, when you get to the big ending, the way a final problem gets resolves is very facepalm worthy.  The ending also felt a bit rushed, once the action was over.

In short, it was fun, but could have been better, especially considering that the previous film King of the Monsters was a lot more enjoyable.  As for potential sequels, they did open up another world of possibilities for King Kong, but I think the rights for Godzilla expire after this one, so it remains to be seen if Legendary will make more with that monster.  

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011)

I've been hearing about this movie for quite a while, but I didn't get to it until just now.  A very slow-burning, well-paced spy thriller that's much more of a mystery than the action chops of something like Jason Bourne or James Bond.  While I knew Gary Oldman was the lead character, I wasn't expecting such a great cast!  Everyone from Benedict Cumberbatch to Colin Firth to John Hunt to Mark Strong to Tom Hardy is in this (among others) and they all do a great job.

I also think it was very well shot.  Instead of some shaky cam nonsense or over-the-top hyper editing, we see a lot of long, wide shots that let the actors move about their spaces and interact with each other in a very convincing way.  It also allows for a lot of the subtleties of the actors stand out as they give their subdued performances.  Oldman in particular seems almost stonefaced through the whole thing, but betrays just enough character and emotion to show that there's a lot going on underneath the surface.

That being said, I do think there a few scenes that seem out of place, and the ending seemed to fall together rather than feel like a grand reveal.  Perhaps I may have missed some things, as there was a lot to keep track of, but it could also just be the consequence of having to streamline parts in the name of adaptation.  Still, it was a very enjoyable watch, with a lot of attention to detail and tone, and really shows the intrigue and information-y side of spy-thrillers that we don't get too often these days.

The Green Knight (2021)

As I was going over the movies coming out this year, I saw this title in the midst of the rest and was curious.  When I learned that it would be an adaptation of the classic Arthurian legend, I was more interested.  It's not like we have a whole lot of classic medieval epics these days, so I figured this would be worth checking out.  I saw the trailers and was all set for a unique fantasy adventure, but when I finally saw the film, "unique" was the only word that remained.

That's not to say this movie is bad, or that it isn't what was advertised, necessarily, but it has a very slow pacing and deliberate sense of tone that makes it feel more like 2001: A Space Odyssey, or even like Ad Astra from two years ago.  Instead of a heroic knight off to prove his worth and honor, we get more of a character study about a mess of a young man who seeks knighthood but isn't really willing to embody its virtues.  As a result, the quest features him stumbling through the woods, dealing with robbers, ghosts, and foxes, before getting to the castle where his final temptations happen.  While all the pieces of the original story are there (with a few curious additions), the interpretation is much more symbolic, surreal, and psychological.

The cinematography is also worth noting.  We often have wide shots with long pans, mostly featuring wilderness and forests.  However, I was impressed with how they were able to feel what was likely just some nice part of Ireland feel like an alienating fantasy realm, where anything could jump out and kill you.  Overall, I had to give this movie quite a bit of thought afterward, but I eventually decided that it was actually pretty decent.  This movie is definitely not a mass-market crowd pleaser, but if you're in the mood for something more serious and more subtle and more artful, you'll probably find a lot to appreciate.

Race to Witch Mountain (2003)

I was at my parents' house recently, and we felt like watching a movie, so I recommended this one.  I had seen it and thought it was fun, but it had been over 10 years, so I didn't remember much more.  My family had been fans of the original films from the 70s, but hadn't seen this remake so they were on board.  Rewatching it again largely confirmed what I remembered: a fun little family friendly sci-fi action film.

The story is pretty straight forward: a Vegas cab driver suddenly picks up two alien teenagers and gets wrapped up in their quest to find an artifact left behind by their parents in order to prevent an intergalactic war.  Conveniently, there also happens to be a sci-fi convention in town, ensuring there will be a few "experts" helping them out.  It's a pretty fun romp, with good pacing and a few solid gags to balance out the chase scenes (of which there are many).

The casting is solid, if not quite amazing.  Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has a pretty good time as the cab driver with a rough past, but this was towards the beginning of his acting career, so he's a little leaner, and doesn't have quite as much presence on screen as his later appearances.  However, this is fine as it allows the rest of the cast to shine a little, in particular the two teenage actors playing the aliens, who both find a good mix of earnest and yet disconnected from Earth culture.

Surprisingly, the special effects have held up pretty well, but perhaps it easy to be lenient on a film that's not afraid to be a little cheesy for the sake of B-movie antics.  The only real problems I think the movie has is that the villains are kind of forgettable (they're some pretty obvious stock types) and the plot and characterizations are definitely on thin side.  Still, I think this is something of an overlooked gem, and worth a look when you want something fun to watch.  Easily recommendable.

---

I don't know if I have any major plans for articles here for the rest of the year.  I don't even know if I'll have a 2021 wrap up (though there are a number of films I want to see at the end of this year).  We'll have to wait and see.  I've been dealing with some health issues (dang smoke), but I'm surviving for now.  Hopefully, you're all staying safe.

New Short Story! The King's Laughter

Hey, just wanted to bring to your attention that I've written up and posted a new short story: The King's Laughter.  Be sure to check it out.

Anticipated Movies for 2021!

Happy New Year!  Like I said earlier, this list won't differ much from last year's, as so many of these got delayed to this year, resulting in quite the stacked list.  Still, if things go well, it will be nice to see these in theaters.  If not, it seems many of these will be released simultaneously with various digital platforms.  In any case, here we go!