A Comic Book Cover Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 

BRIGHT (2017)

Although Netflix has been a destination point for quality television for a number of years now, their feature film production arm has not exactly been top notch. There are number of Netflix produced feature films that you can see on the service but I'll just mention the two action movies that I'm aware of as 'Netflix films' and focus specifically on their big holiday release of BRIGHT.

Many months ago I watched their production SPECTRAL (2016) and observed at the time that it was a rolling disaster filled with obvious post production work to attempt to bring the film into some kind of serviceable form. That ultimately failed and created a movie that starts out interesting and then bumbles and trips its way straight into abject pointless stupidity and disaster. Proving that there seems to be some glitch with spotting script problems and/or just well-produced and thought out ideas for stories, we come now to BRIGHT (2017).

Netflix has certainly spent the money to make this a good movie. They signed on a star in Will Smith, an excellent group of character actors to fill out the cast, a director who has made at least one very good film and a production team that surely knows how to put together a good-looking product. The weak link in this entire affair is definitely Max Landis' weak-ass script. When my girlfriend read the description of BRIGHT she quickly gleaned something that I should have thought of myself when she compared it immediately to the 1988 film ALIEN NATION. Indeed, as soon as she said that, it was clear to me that BRIGHT is little more than a slightly more convoluted, slightly more expensive and definitely more poorly scripted version of ALIEN NATION. In the 1988 film refugee aliens land on Earth and years later are still trying to assimilate into human society. One of these aliens has now become the first cop on the LAPD and is partnered with an older police officer who doesn't want the assignment. On a call they discover a crime that is much bigger than they can handle alone but also learn that they may not be able to trust their superiors on the force. BRIGHT uses that template but makes a huge world-building mistake.

In this film orcs, elves, fairies, trolls and all sorts of other fantasy creatures are real and have co-existed with humanity for centuries if not forever. But, the modern day Earth of the film is just our world with a couple of thin layers of fantasy details laid over the top. We are shown anti-orc graffiti to delineate that group as the most discriminated against in this society with obvious criminal gangs and heavily segregated neighborhoods making their lower status clear. And then we see that the highest level of this world is occupied by elves who seem to run everything they wish to, along with their well paid human sycophants. Herein lies the fail - if this world has existed with all these races co-mingling for centuries why does it so closely resemble our Earth of 2017? If magic is real why has technology advanced to the level it has in this reality? We're given a few casual lines about the past of this world but never anything to indicate how and why things are as they are. Even the occasional line referencing real historical events such as the Alamo create more questions than they settle. We're not even given a real motivation for the villains' actions beyond just reacquiring a lost magic wand. The story needed at LOT more background information to establish a place that felt like something more than a tossed off idea. This script needed more eyes on it to fix it's inherent thinness.

It doesn't help that the script's dialog is pretty weak as well, substituting profanity for emotion and bad jokes for character devolvement. Will Smith does his best with the material as does the always interesting Joel Edgerton as his orc cop partner but they can't save the poorly constructed narrative. Also, I think Smith may have pulled the chain on his MEN IN BLACK character one too many times now and it might be time to retire it completely. The director handles the action scenes well and actually generates some tension and suspense once things get moving but that and the excellent cinematography are the only consistently well done elements in this thing.

If you're curious, check it out but go in with lowered expectations and hope that NetFlix starts finding better scripts for their big action epics - and soon! 

Trailers From Hell - MATINEE (1993)

Merry Christmas From Santa!

Have a Happy December the 25th! 

AT SWORD'S POINT (1952)

I'm a big fan of swashbuckling movies. I don't get to see nearly enough of them, mainly because every time I sit down to watch one I'm judging it against a pair of almost impossible to match films. The first film is The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn. When I first caught that movie I had no idea that it was setting such a high bar for adventure movies that almost everything I saw after that would seem a limp copy in comparison. The second film is similar but a little different - Richard Lester's 1973 film version of The Three Musketeers. Along with its continuation the Four Musketeers released in 1974 I consider this to be not just the best version on film of this amazing story but easily all together one of the best and most entertaining swashbuckling films ever made. I have watched both The Adventures of Robin Hood and the Three and Four Musketeers so many times that I feel I could quote them backwards and forwards. So when I say I love swashbuckling movies understand that, for me, those are the unassailable classics and everything else is just trying to match those amazing cinematic adventures.

Over the years I've watched a number of other Three Musketeer adaptations and films that are 3 Musketeers related in some way or another and I've always come away disappointed. Even the best of these films just seem to be missing a little something. It might be an odd bit of casting that doesn't work (usually an American in a role) making me feel as if they're not quite what they're supposed to be. Or something the sour note is as silly as just aiming the dialogue a little too young, as if the film were only supposed to be viewed as a kiddie Saturday afternoon feature. I also try to catch just about every Robin Hood movie that I can see and I have the same problem with most of them as well. Although I've enjoyed a number of alternate takes on the Robin Hood story most of them are only somewhere in the mid-range of entertaining and none of them come even remotely close to giving me that thrill of adventurous joy as that Errol Flynn classic.

I had the DVR capture AT SWORD'S POINT because it's a tale about the children of the Musketeers who are called into service decades after their original tale ended. These young, untried adventurers are needed to help the ailing queen put her sickly child on the throne. This is made much more difficult by a noble born villain desperately trying to marry his way to the throne even if that means doing away with the young boy King.

This film shares most of the faults I've already enumerated for these types of movies but it's a pretty fun time, mostly because of the cast. Cornel Wilde throws himself into the main hero role with real energy giving several of the swordfight scenes some zest. Also, the supporting cast of familiar faces (including regular Errol Flynn co-star Alan Hale) are strong doing what they can with underwritten characters. But the true standout is the always impressive Maureen O'Hara as the daughter of a Musketeer who is just as formidable with a sword as her companions. She is a joy to see running around with the guys alternately lusting after her and backing her up in a fight. I joked with my girlfriend that the film could be re-titled The Hot Redhead Kicks Ass All Over France but I doubt that would have set well with the parents dropping their kids off to see a Musketeer tale!

Long story short - AT SWORD'S POINT is another mid-range swashbuckler but it's points of interest make it worth a look. 

Christmas Cinema - SUSAN SLEPT HERE (1956)

There's a difference between a movie that takes place at Christmas and a Christmas movie. I think a lot depends on the mood of the story as to whether the film will key into the sentimental feelings the season usually fosters but even dark themes can merge with glad tidings if enough wit is used. To that point, I bring you SUSAN SLEPT HERE (1956).

In the realm of films that just happened to take place at Christmas there are a lot of good ones and certainly this one fits. I discovered it by accident on Christmas Day 7 years ago when Turner Classic Movies screened it for Yuletide joy. The film spends the first third of its running time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day giving the entire procedure a kind of Christmas Eve feel even though the story doesn't necessarily relate to the holiday. When I wrote this film up for the blog in 2010 I did point out that it's probably the most charming film I've ever seen about statutory rape. At least I think it's about statutory rape. I'm not sure what the age of consent is in California but since Debbie Reynolds' female character is clearly 17 in the movie and the male lead is stated as being 35 years of age there's something hinky going on somewhere. And when you learn that actor Dick Powell was actually 50 at the time of shooting it doesn't really matter that his female co-star was, in reality, 22 years old! Often one of the most interesting things old Hollywood can show us is the stark difference between the Good Old Days and a much more enlightened time.

Although it may be hard to overlook such a thing in today's fraught sexual climate I would suggest giving it a try if you enjoy Classic Hollywood films. This is a delightful movie! It's very funny, it's very light and it has a number of laugh-out-loud moments scattered throughout it's run time. Indeed, it is a fun, frothy barrel of laughs. The fact that it has a Christmastime feel to it makes this the perfect season in which to view it and I do recommend doing so. Just go in knowing that the sexual politics of this film are a little tilted. I have no idea what people who saw this in theaters in the 1950s thought of it but I'm willing to go with the flow when the movie is this entertaining. Plus, knowing that Debbie Reynolds wasn't actually 17 takes a little bit of the edge off - for me anyway.

Lovecraft Influenced 'Carol of the Old Ones' Video

Here's a lovely variation on a fine Christmas Classic!