Friday 31 August 2018

The White Buffalo (1977)



Plagued by nightmares of a giant white buffalo, Wild Bill Hickok leaves his comfortable live back east and heads into the Black Hills in search of the beast he is sure lurks there.  He's joined on his quest by an irascible old friend and a mysterious native who calls himself "Worm", but whom the audience knows is Crazy Horse, and who has his own reasons for seeking the white buffalo.

The success of Jaws launched a great many "killer critter" films, and in 1977 Dino De Launrentiis made not one but two stabs at the genre, with the notoriously awful Orca and this offering, which features a somnambulistic Charles Bronson in the lead role and owes more than a dash of debt to Melville's Moby Dick, most obviously in the colour of the animal but also in the sticky ends that come to those who seek revenge during the course of the film.

The film also owes a debt to revisionist westerns such as Soldier Blue or De Launrentiis's own Mandingo, though it rather tries to both have its cake and eat it too, on that front.  The US cavalry are corrupt and incompetent, and the seizing of native land is shown as a question of greed and force ("we want the land, and we have more people and better weapons" Hickok tells Crazy Horse), but the action scenes are straight out of John Wayne's heyday.

A bigger problem is that the film's also rather confused as to the nature of its titular character.  There's plenty to suggest that the white buffalo is a demon or other kind of malevolent supernatural force - Hickok's dreams, what it does to make Crazy Horse hunt it, and its seeming ability to teleport around to wherever the script needs it - but at other times it's treated as a purely mundane (albeit unusually big and powerful) creature.  Ambiguity on a question like that has the potential to be powerful when used carefully and in a planned and strategic manner, but in the case of this film it comes across as confused and muddled instead.


Tuesday 28 August 2018

Dexter, Season 4 (2009)



Most serial killers are loners, and as Dexter Morgan struggles to adjust to life as a husband and father of three, he's seeing the wisdom of that strategy.  It's hard to sneak out at all hours of the day to murder folks when your wife needs you to run to the store, or the kids need help with their homework. 

As stifled and trapped as he frequently feels, however, Dexter doesn't want to lose his family.  So when he discovers the identity of "the Trinity Killer", a serial murderer with crimes dating back 30 years, and then also learns that the man has an apparently happy home life with a wife and two teenagers, he postpones his plans to execute the man in favour of trying to learn his secrets for being a sociopath with a functional family.

Season 4 is widely considered the last "good" season of Dexter, and I certainly don't remember a lot noteworthy about season 5 or 6, off-hand (while I quite liked 7, and the less said of 8, the better).  And it's a fun ride.

But (because this is me, so of course there is a "but"), with the benefit of hindsight it is easier to see the developing cracks in the show's quality.  Performances remain good, but the writing certainly relies on some pretty hefty contrivances, and the very climax of the season - while a powerful moment of TV, and probably something they had to do, for off-screen reasons - opened a gap in the show's fabric that I think hurt it over the longer term and certainly put a premature end to some interesting hints they'd been developing over the course of the last couple of years.

At the end of the day, though, if the 'serial killer with a code' concept of Dexter is one that appeals to you, you should have a good time with season 4.

Friday 24 August 2018

Doctor Mordrid (1992)



Anton Mordrid is a wizard sent to Earth by a being called the Monitor, to stop the evil wizard Kabal from opening the gate to Hell.  When a series of strange robberies occur, targeting powerful magical reagents, Mordrid knows that the time has come for a final battle with his nemesis.

And if you know your comic books at all, or possibly just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you might immediately be thinking "Gosh, sounds a bit like a Doctor Strange knock-off", and indeed Full Moon Entertainment initially developed it as an adaptation of the Marvel comic, but their option expired before production began.  Never mind, though: change a few names, slap in a topless lady so the target market of teenage boys will be happy, and Doctor Mordrid will be ready for his cut price adventures at your local video rental store!

Honestly, I'm not being entirely fair to Full Moon, here.  This film comes from their early years of operation, when the (unexpected) commercial success of the first few Puppet Master films allowed them some genuine ambition in their productions.  Ambition beyond their ability to actually deliver, mind you, but ambition nonetheless.  I mean, I kind of can't be too down on a film that has "animated T Rex skeleton vs animated Mammoth skeleton" as its plan for a climactic magical showdown.

Doctor Mordrid is not a good film, but it's a bad film with a level of passion and verve that the hallmark of "so bad it's good" straight-to-video schlock from the late 80s and early 90s.  If only the work of The Asylum, and other modern day schlockmeisters, had half this much energy.

Tuesday 21 August 2018

Burn Notice, Season 6 (2012)



Five years ago, the shadowy conspiracy known as "The Organization" burned Michael Westen as the first step of a plan to recruit him as their newest operative.  Instead, they created their own most implacable enemy.

Westen has dedicated himself to tearing the Organization to pieces; a task made almost Sisyphean by the many secret layers of the Organization's ... well, organisation.  Seriously, this conspiracy has more heads than a hydra, and look at me rocking the Greek myth references today.

So with any TV show there almost inevitably comes a time of diminishing returns, and with season 6, it feels to me like Burn Notice has crossed that Rubicon (hey, a reference to Roman history rather than Greek myth this time).  The story-line about the Organization is feeling very stretched by now, and the pattern of introducing a new "maybe this is really the big boss this time" antagonist for a few episodes before they are defeated is getting very worn.  The show does make some effort in the final third of this season to shift direction, but I don't feel it worked very well.  It feels rather forced (particularly in the interpersonal drama between Westen and his girlfriend) and it doesn't seem to be setting up an especially distinctive or interesting new "status quo".

Right now, I feel like they would have been better served simply wrapping up the show with season 4 or 5, but we'll see if season 7 - which really is the last season - can pull a rabbit out of the hat and give us a satisfactory conclusion after all.

Friday 17 August 2018

Dead Sushi (2012)



Unable to live up to the exacting standards of her sushi chef father, Keiko runs away from home and becomes a maid at a hotel.  At first, the worst of her troubles there are her mean girl colleagues and the pompous guests, but Keiko's dad was also a martial arts aficionado, and that's one area where she actually lives up to his legacy, so when said guests finally get too much for her and then get aggressive when she talks back, Keiko more than holds her own.

Unfortunately for everyone except the audience, Keiko's problems are going to get way worse, as a former geneticist turned hobo now unleashes his revenge on those who wronged him - the pompous guests I mentioned - by using his experimental zombie formula to animate an army of undead, killer sushi.

Aided only by the hotel gardener - and by an egg sushi roll that was bullied by the seafood sushi, and no I am not making that up - Keiko must fight for her life against a swarm of sociopathic sashimi.

So, you've probably twigged to the fact that Dead Sushi is not exactly the most serious of films, which is perhaps not surprising for a film that sets out to be a mashup of Piranha 3D and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  It hurls all kinds of absurdity at the screen - though it smartly does so in an ever-escalating fashion, so that you're well primed for each incremental increase in the insanity - as well as plenty of enthusiastically over-the-top sushi-on-human violence.  Which as you might imagine, even when it becomes quite graphic, is always more than a bit goofy.

I watched Dead Sushi with friends, and we all had a great time.  If the premise sounds at all amusing to you, it's worth checking out.

Tuesday 14 August 2018

The Americans, Season 6 (2018)



It is 1987, the era of glasnost and perestroika.  Profound changes are affecting international politics, and creating power struggles within the Soviet Union.  Such a time of turmoil cannot help but have a profound impact on Soviet spies Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, perhaps even putting them on opposite sides.  Can they get through this time with their covers and their family intact?

It's always a challenge for a show to jump forward in time, and season six of The Americans leaps three years in its first episode.  There's definitely a little settling in to do after that, as we adjust to the new reality: several characters are in new jobs, the Jennings' daughter Paige is a college student (and neophyte Soviet agent) now, and of course the Cold War itself is in a state of flux.

Of course, a time of flux for the Cold War makes a great deal of sense as the setting for the climax of this show, and the sharp writing soon establishes the new scene and drives the action forward, culminating in an extended, 70 minute final episode that delivers a satisfying conclusion without sacrificing the melancholy and ambiguity that have been such hallmarks of the program's tone throughout its run.

Good writing, great performances.  The Americans is must see TV that far too few people have seen.  If it's at all your kind of thing, I encourage you to track it down.

Friday 10 August 2018

In Time (2011)



In the future, time is money, quite literally.  Genetic engineering has allowed us to arrest the aging process at the age of 25 - guaranteeing a world of beautiful people - but there's obviously not room for everyone to live forever, so when you hit 25 you're allotted one year of time.  You can work to earn more, of course, but everything you buy will erode your balance.  A bus trip?  Two hours.  A cup of coffee?  Four hours.  A car?  59 years.

Will Salas has spent most of the three years since he turned 25 living day to day, quite literally, with little more than 24 hours left on his clock.  When he helps out a stranger, though, he suddenly finds himself in possession of a century's worth of future ... assuming he can live long enough to enjoy it.

Of course, Will Salas is not the kind of guy who easily gives up ...

So for all the science fiction element of the time-as-currency thing, In Time feels like a film that is very much about the concerns of movements like "Occupy": the concentration of wealth into a smaller and smaller elite, the erosion of the living standards of a growing part of the population, the creation of barriers and walls to separate the haves and have-nots, and the need to take some kind of action to rectify things.

Of course you're free to ignore all that political and economic element and just enjoy it as a relatively entertaining SF action flick full of attractive people, but I'm guessing that the film will resonate most effectively with those who agree with its basic themes and don't mind that it's more than a bit heavy-handed and didactic in its presentation.

Tuesday 7 August 2018

Dick Turpin, Season 2 (1980)



Season 2 of Dick Turpin continues the light, family-friendly adventures we saw in season one.  It continues to portray Turpin according to the romanticised tales that turned him into a popular folk hero.  He's loyal to his friends, compassionate to the poor, and even when they have to acknowledge that he's a highwayman; i.e. someone who commits armed robbery for a living; his victims are always pompous, corrupt, or both.  Usually both.  Overall it's very much more of the same, with familiar plots driven more by the charm of lead than by any particular quality of the writing.

There are two main innovations of this (short, seven episode) season compared to the first, though.  First, it relies far less heavily on the recurring antagonists Spiker and Glutton (though they return late in the season).  Second, it has one two-part storyline, a double-header that would probably have been better placed as the season finale than its opener, since it feels a bit more ambitious than all the one-and-done episodes that make up the rest of the run.

Organisation of the episodes was an issue in the first season two, and it is not only in the placement of the two-parter that season two's arrangements seem odd.  Episode six sees Turpin thoroughly trash Spiker's reputation, and yet in the next episode old Spikey is back in his regular role with no more said about it.  I know the show was produced a long time ago, when TV shows were often locked in an eternal status quo, but you'd think they'd spend at least five minutes sorting this stuff out when compiling a DVD release.

Friday 3 August 2018

Clue (1985)



Six strangers - each of whom is given a colour-themed codename - are invited to a dinner party at an isolated house.  They're surprised to find their supposed host is missing, with only the butler, a maid, and the cook on hand.  But it's only when they're joined by a seventh guest, a certain "Mr Body", that the night turns from merely odd to positively murderous ...

So in case you've been living under a rock since 1949, Clue (or Cluedo as it is known everywhere other than North America) is a board game where players try to deduce the particulars of a murder: who did it, with what weapon, and where.  This film is inspired by the board game, though I suspect if you did away with the codenames (which match those of the suspects in the game) then you could easily have called it something like "Getting Away With Murder!" and not been called on it.

So what we have here is a determinedly silly and slapstick comedy film, jam packed with PG-rated murders, slightly smutty humour, and pratfalls.  It has a fantastic cast, most of whom you will likely recognise by sight even if you don't know their names, who all fully commit to the on-screen antics, and a script that makes up in enthusiasm what it sometimes lacks in sense.

This is a thoroughly fun bit of silliness, with several (or possibly more, depending on your tastes) good laughs.  It's by no means high art, but if you're in the mood for some straight-up "comfort food" style comedy, you could do a lot worse.