Category: Reviews

Reviews of books, movies, tv shows and other items

The Big Circus (1959) – A Movie Review

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I’m doing this review on a whim.  I just saw this movie for the first time since I saw it on Million Dollar Movie probably about fifty years ago and what I could remember of it even as a kid was that it seemed slightly hammy.  In retrospect it’s a lot hammy.  Instead of the Ringling Brothers’ Barnum and Bailey Circus; “The Greatest Show Earth,” we’re watching the Whirling and Borman Brothers Circus; “The Biggest Show on Earth.”  Remarkable creativity there.

But Hank Whirling (played by Victor Mature) has split up with the Borman brothers and taken his own circus on the road.  But he needs money so he goes to the local bank and gets a loan but in exchange for the money he has to take along two bank employees; Randy Sherman (played by Red Buttons) and Helen Harrison (played by Rhonda Fleming).  Helen is a publicist who is supposed to help make the circus’s tour successful (and end up as the love interest for Hank).  Red Buttons is there to be Red Buttons and annoy everyone.  Vincent Price is the circus master Hans Hagenfeld.  Gilbert Roland is the high wire star Zach Colino.  Peter Lorre is an obese decrepit version of himself as an alcoholic clown named Skeeter.  David Nelson is Tommy Gordon, the aerialist and saboteur.  And Howard McNear is Mr. Lomax, the bank employee sent to foreclose on the circus when Red Buttons refuses.

Forget the plot.  It has to do with the Borman Brothers sabotaging the circus.  But it’s too dumb to care about.  What you have here is a collection of B-movie actors strung together to make a cinemascope spectacle involving elephants and lions.  And you know this from the get-go.  Anything with Red Buttons in it will be nothing else.  And Victor Mature and Vincent Price are exhibits B and C.  Look, they didn’t even get Ricky Nelson, the popular Nelson son.  Instead, they got his brother David, the one who couldn’t sing.  And the only thing Howard McNear is remembered for is playing the oddly disturbing Floyd the Barber character from the Andy Griffith Show.

So, I’m watching this clunker.  Everything about it is hackneyed and telegraphed.  But there’s a lion act in it and it’s really fun to watch.  And there’s a clown sequence and it’s mildly amusing.  And there are some scenes with the elephants and suddenly I’m remembering how I used to like seeing the elephants at the circus.  And there are some girls dancing around in harem outfits and that’s not so bad.  And even Victor Mature and Vincent Price hamming it up isn’t so bad.

And before you know it, I find myself enjoying this awful movie.  By the end when they introduce Steve Allen as himself providing network tv as a lifeline to save the circus during a NYC subway strike, I find myself completely forgiving all the schmaltz.  I even forgive the scene where the tightrope walker manages to cross over Niagara Falls to restore his lost courage and honor.

And of course, by the end of the movie there are at least two incipient marriages.  Victor Mature will marry Rhonda Fleming and Red Buttons will marry the sister of Mature’s character (whoever the hell she was).  All they left out was bloated Peter Lorre marrying one of the elephants.

So, I can’t recommend this movie on its merits.  It has none.  But if you’re nostalgic for the circus, watch this and pretend the Ringling Bros. circus still exists.  The lion scene is really fun.

04AUG2023 – Dissident Clarity, Home Maintenance and the Art of Surviving the Apocalypse

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Friday morning is one of my favorite times.  I usually get to spend an hour or so in the home gym and I usually listen to the ZMan’s Friday podcast.  And today was no exception.  As I said I’m changing up my exercise routine so it wasn’t routine but I was still able to pay attention as the Voice of Saruman declaimed on the workings, or rather, the non-workings of the American political system.

But he changed it up a little and this time he played devil’s advocate and tried to describe what it would take to fix our political system.  Or, more accurately, he explained what would happen if we tried.  And I think he was relatively even-handed in his estimation of what it would take to change the Republican party into an honest representative of the American Right.

And then he ended off this discussion by talking about what happens if the Uni-party continues on, in full control of the country.  He gives four alternatives.

  • The Uni-party consolidates its control and produces a stable and powerful regime that rules in perpetuity.
  • The Uni-party continues to struggle and internal forces within the power structure create reforms to address the more dysfunctional policies of the Left.
  • The Uni-party continues to struggle and a rogue component of the Uni-party performs a coup that forces reforms that shake up the status quo.
  • The peasants revolt and burn the whole damn thing down.

I found the tenor of the whole discussion extremely moderate and reasonable.  In fact, it occurred to me that the ZMan was risking his standing as a dweller on the fringe.  Someone might accuse him of not being crazy.  Hopefully, word won’t leak out.

Afterward as I mulled over his words, I continued with my repair of the lock on my sliding glass door.  As I described the other day, the latch on the inside of the door broke off and the replacement handle I bought at the local hardware store didn’t fit.  So, I went on line and bought a new latch.  It was supposed to be a direct replacement but that was a lie.  Now I’m going to buy a whole new set-up; handles, lock, latch mechanism and hardware and start from scratch.  I anticipate a disaster.  But at least temporarily I can lock the door at night to keep the werewolves, vampires and ghouls at bay.  I think Camera Girl is starting to lose faith in my mechanical aptitude.  Confidentially, so am I.  I realized I had mislaid my claw hammer.  I’ve had the thing for forty some odd years and I really don’t use it that often so I don’t have an excuse for losing it.  I would think this is the first sign of dementia except it’s really the millionth episode starting in my early twenties.  So maybe I’ll take a wait and see policy because I’m too lazy to do anything about it anyway.

Camera Girl and I started watching a tv series on FX called “The Old Man” with Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow.  Bridges is a rogue CIA agent that has been hiding out for the last thirty years trying to live a normal life with his wife and daughter.  Lithgow was his old handler who is now an FBI big wig who doesn’t want Bridges to be caught because it will expose his part in shady doings that went on when the Russians were at war in Afghanistan.  So far (two episodes in), it’s very interesting and both of the leads are extremely interesting to watch.  Hopefully it continues to impress us.  We’re always short of good things on tv.

The ZMan’s podcast reinforced my recent feelings that we will be engulfed in this class struggle here in the West for a very long time and it is up to all of us and each of us on our side to strengthen the things we believe in and form as many links in the world to help our side survive the onslaught of the Left.  And surprisingly, it left me feeling slightly calmer and happier than before I listened to it.  Maybe it was his talk or maybe I’m reaching a better place with the status quo.  Panic doesn’t seem to be productive.

Well, that’s enough for now.  Have a great day.

Little Songs by Colter Wall – A Country Music Review

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I’ve been a fan of Colter Wall since a friend of mine introduced me to his eponymous album, “Colter Wall.”  That collection had some very strong songs like Kate McCannon and Bald Butte.  And in general, that was a big album.  This month I got ahold of his album called “Little Songs.”  And that is surely an honest title.  The longest title clocks in at 4:32 and the shortest is 2:25.  And more than that, none of these songs is big in its impact.  They’re quiet, almost subdued.

They’re of the western genre in the country/western alliance and they have the understated manner of the modest inhabitants of the Great Plains, especially the northern expanse of the plains in Canada where Colter Wall hails from.  We hear about ranchers and cowboys and farmers and their work and their romances and their blues.  But there’s no shouting unless you count a little yodeling in one song.

So, this isn’t a collection to get you all stirred up.  It’s quiet and small.  I’m a fan of colter Wall so I’ll add these songs to my MP3 player and they’ll leaven my collection of country music with some of the softer notes that provide a counterweight to all the fussing’ and shouting’ that some of my other songs provide.  Your mileage. of course, may vary.

Whiling Away the Summer Days

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As July draws to a close, I’ve been indulging in inconsequential trifles.  Yesterday I watched the remake of “Total Recall” with Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel.  The original with Arnold Schwarzenegger was a silly movie.  So was this.  But I think I liked the recent one better.  Not that it was any more sensible or was a masterpiece of cinematic brilliance but it was entertaining.

Then tonight we watched the first episode of the spy series “The Old Man” with Jeff Bridges.  And once again it wasn’t deathless theater but it was very entertaining.  We’re also watching the “Justified” sequel I guess you could call it.  Now, I really liked the original series a lot.  I don’t know that I’ll like this as much but it’s well done and definitely in the same vein as the earlier series.  So lately I’m not hating tv.

And since it stopped raining every minute, I’ve had a chance to get outside and do some macrophotography of bugs and flowers.  And that’s a lot of fun.  I’ve been testing out the advantages and disadvantages of using continuous autofocus with fast moving insects.  The primary disadvantage is that for the Sony A7IV camera magnified view is unavailable in continuous autofocus mode.  So, for instance, if you’re trying to get the eyes of a bee or butterfly perfectly focused you have to guess if the autofocus is precisely on the eye.  In single-shot autofocus I can engage a 5.5X magnified view that will let me see whether the eye or whatever else I’m trying to nail is perfect.  But often when these critters are crawling around, they can move out of focus almost immediately.  Plus, the magnified view ends as soon as the shutter is engaged and so it’s necessary to reactivate it after every photo.

Based on what I’ve seen in the last couple of days I’m starting to think that continuous autofocus is the way to go.  Especially if I use high speed multiple exposures (spray and pray mode).  This ends up filling up my memory card (and hard drive!) but the chance of getting the perfect shot is much more likely than with the single shot autofocus and single exposure mode.  Plus, it’s easier and as I’ve always admitted I’m an extremely lazy man.

And I’ve continued on my program of getting together with the grandsons one by one.  Last Saturday I had the twelve-year-old fellow over and he wanted a Star Wars marathon.  Luckily this was the “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”  I had forgotten just how bad the Ewoks were.  I also forgot just how goofy the scripts were.  Harrison Ford spends most of his time hammering away at some control components of the Millenium Falcon while whining about how it wasn’t his fault.  But we bonded over our shared belief that Imperial Stormtroopers were all pathetic losers without any detectable skills as warriors.  And finally, I rediscovered my disdain for Yoda.  As far as I could determine he was always wrong and of no value as a teacher or anything else.

On the upcoming Saturday, the sixteen-year-old is coming over and I believe it will be a “Lord of the Rings” film festival.  That should be fun.  For dessert he’s requested original Klondike Bars, of which I wholly approve.  It should be epic.

So, all of these things provide a welcome distraction from the slow-motion train wreck that is our national government.  I sometimes wondered what it must have been like to live through the more terrible chapters of the Roman Empire.  I think I now have a better idea.  Joe Biden is Tiberius and I guess Hunter is Caligula.  The FBI is the Praetorian Guard and we’re the rabble existing on bread and circuses.  But even if Tiberius was as sexually depraved as Joe, at least he was an able military leader.  Watching what Joe is doing to our foreign policy, or allowing others to do to our foreign policy, is frightening.

But enough doom and gloom.  Though we are perched on the slopes of Vesuvius we will eat, drink and be merry.  July is almost consumed but it will be relished to the dregs.

What Are the Best Science Fiction Movies?

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Reviewing Aliens and hearing from folks who remembered it fondly got me thinking about what readers here consider the best sci-fi movies.  So, of course, I went to YouTube.  And here’s the list.

  1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  3. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
  4. Aliens (1986)
  5. Jurassic Park (1993)
  6. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  7. The Matrix (1999)
  8. Children of Men (2006)
  9. Planet of the Apes (1968)
  10. The War of the Worlds (1953)

Now, right off the bat, I disagree with several of the picks.  Neither “Planet of the Apes” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” would be on my top ten movies list.  Planet of the Apes isn’t my idea of a sci-fi movie.  And The Day the Earth Stood Still is commie propaganda.  So, there’s that.

Some of the other movies are pretty good ones.  Now as for the order and any additional movies to pad out the top ten I’ll have to give it some thought.  But I think it’s a good talking paper to inspire discussion of what each of us considers to be good sci-fi movies.

Now here’s another list (see below).  This is IMDB’s “TOP 100 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time.”  There are a few commonalities between the top ten of this list with the former list.  But one interesting thing I noticed is that once you get past the top of the list the sequels start piling up.  Between sequels to “Back to the Future,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Predator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Star Trek” “Alien,” “Terminator” and “Star Wars” we’re looking at a lot of retreads.

What it made me think was that there really aren’t that many really good science fiction movies.  There are definitely a lot more good science fiction books than there are good movies.  Which I guess is kind of hopeful if you’re an optimist.  For instance, I saw that they’ve made a movie out of Asimov’s Foundation stories.  I saw the coming attractions.  Honestly, I couldn’t tell anything about it at all.  It could be great.  It could be awful.  But at least it’s a new movie.  It’s not a sequel.

So, I guess being a science fiction movie fan is all about being an optimist.  And in the larger world of science fiction/fantasy movies we were rewarded in the early 2000s with the Lord of the Rings movies.  So that tells me miracles can happen.  Maybe one day a true fan of Heinlein will reboot “Starship Troopers” without the nazi iconography or might even film “Have Spacesuit Will Travel.”

So, this will be an open thread to get some comments.  If you’d like to give your top sci-fi movie list or what story you’d like to see filmed in the future put it in the comments.  Later on, I’ll add some more of my own thoughts on what is a proper science fiction movie and what isn’t.

A last question for the audience.  Is “Escape from New York” really science fiction?

 

  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  2. The Terminator
  3. Planet of the Apes
  4. Alien
  5. Blade Runner
  6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
  7. The Matrix
  8. Back to the Future
  9. Aliens
  10. Interstellar
  11. Contact
  12. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
  13. The Road Warrior
  14. Predator
  15. The Thing
  16. The Man from Earth
  17. Edge of Tomorrow
  18. District 9
  19. Dark City
  20. Blade Runner 2049
  21. A Clockwork Orange
  22. Gattaca
  23. Jurassic Park
  24. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
  25. Mad Max
  26. Starship Troopers
  27. Minority Report
  28. 12 Monkeys
  29. Inception
  30. Back to the Future Part II
  31. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
  32. The Abyss
  33. Looper
  34. T. the Extra-Terrestrial
  35. Star Trek: First Contact
  36. Stargate
  37. Ex Machina
  38. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
  39. The Truman Show
  40. Children of Men
  41. The Martian
  42. Avatar
  43. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
  44. The X Files
  45. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  46. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  47. Cube
  48. Star Trek
  49. RoboCop
  50. The Time Machine
  51. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  52. War for the Planet of the Apes
  53. Prometheus
  54. Total Recall
  55. They Live
  56. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  57. Sunshine
  58. Moon
  59. Super 8
  60. I Am Legend
  61. Signs
  62. The Fly
  63. Escape from New York
  64. Pacific Rim
  65. Dredd
  66. Oblivion
  67. Cloverfield
  68. Pitch Black
  69. Godzilla
  70. Back to the Future Part III
  71. Limitless
  72. Deja Vu
  73. War of the Worlds
  74. The Matrix Reloaded
  75. Elysium
  76. Enemy Mine
  77. The Butterfly Effect
  78. Predestination
  79. I. Artificial Intelligence
  80. Logan’s Run
  81. Another Earth
  82. Independence Day
  83. The Arrival
  84. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
  85. Predators
  86. Outlander
  87. John Carter
  88. Alien³
  89. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
  90. Phenomenon
  91. Predator 2
  92. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
  93. Riddick
  94. Cloud Atlas
  95. Armageddon
  96. The Running Man
  97. The Fifth Element
  98. Waterworld
  99. The Day After Tomorrow
  100. Mimic

Aliens (1986) – A Science Fiction Movie Review

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It’s a funny thing I had never seen Aliens in its entirety until today.  Somehow, I missed the first half hour of the movie and only came in when the main action was beginning.  So finally, I have the correct basis on which to judge it.

I won’t synopsize the plot because it’s an Alien movie so the plot is for Sigourney Weaver to outlive the rest of her fellow humans battling the aliens before ultimately jettisoning a xenomorph into the vacuum of space.

As in the original “Alien” movie Sigourney Weaver is Ellen Ripley a commercial astronaut who works for the evil Weyland-Yutani Corporation.  Fifty-seven years after the first Alien attack Ripley is discovered still in suspended animation in the shuttle craft that she used to escape the destruction of her ship the Nostromo.

The evil Weyland-Yutani Corporation was very unhappy about her blowing up their ship but when they find out that their terra-forming colony on the planet that the alien was found on has gone silent they send “space marines” and Ripley to fix things.  They also send Paul Reiser playing smarmy corporate yes man, Carter Burke to provide the requisite “greedy corporation wants xenomorph for bioweapon” subplot.  And finally, they throw in an android to show that despite what happened in the first movie, androids can be pretty swell people too.

And finally, to soften up Ripley’s Rambo impression, they throw in an orphaned little girl named Newt that Ripley rescues a few times over the course of the movie, proving that a modern woman truly can have it all.

So, the producers pull out all the stops.  Aliens are popping up everywhere in the industrial complex that serves as the venue for this first-person shooter game.  Bits of aliens and “molecular acid” are sprayed everywhere and one by one the marine platoon is picked off by the monsters.  Until finally we’re down to Ripley, Newt, android and the pick of the Marine crew, Corporal Dwayne Hicks played by the ever-popular Michael Biehn.  But during the final rescue of Newt on the planet Hicks is wounded by molecular acid and from then on, all the heavy lifting is done by Ripley.  Which she performs with panache, culminating in the above mentioned obligatory spacing of the mother alien (of course there’s a mother alien).

So, what did I think?  Well, I have some quibbles.  The plot contrives it that the marines can’t use their heaviest weapons because the industrial plant is a “thermonuclear” power plant and if any of their explosive charges rupture a heat exchanger line the whole plant will detonate.  Since it’s a cinch that all the colonists (except Newt) are already dead why are they bothering to throw away their lives in this death trap.  As Ripley so astutely recommended, “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.  It’s the only way to be sure.”  Also, they overdid it with the strong female characters and weak male ones.  Yeah, I know, I know.  “There’s nothing wrong with that.”  But honestly it is insulting and stupid.

But taken all in all the movie does provide an exciting action-adventure/science fiction/horror experience.  I won’t claim it’s my favorite but it is a worthy representative of its genre.  I will give it a recommended status.

Ad Astra (2019) – A Science Fiction Movie Review

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(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)

Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”) is a science fiction movie starring Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride whose father Clifford McBride (played by a decrepit looking Tommy Lee Jones) is inexplicably firing anti-matter particles back at Earth from the orbit of the planet Neptune.  The anti-matter will eventually destroy Earth so Roy is supposed to go to the Moon to catch a ride to Mars to broadcast a message to his father asking him not to destroy Earth, or something.  The why and how of all this is very odd.  Clifford has been MIA for twenty years on a mission called Lima that was somehow supposed to be looking for extraterrestrial intelligence (from somewhere near Neptune!).

Eventually we learn that Clifford murdered his crew long ago because they figured out, he was crazy.  When Roy gives his message on Mars Clifford doesn’t agree to cease and desist so the military outfits a mission to nuke Project Lima to erase the threat.  Somehow (but not believably) Roy stows aboard the rocket (after it blasts off) and without really trying he kills the whole crew that were trying to kill him.  Now he flies to Neptune and confronts his father who is completely nuts.  He sets the nuke and thinks he’s convinced Clifford to return to Earth with him.  But when push literally comes to shove, Clifford unshackles himself from Roy and heads off into empty, empty space.

Finally, Roy uses a hatch panel to protect himself while he takes a shortcut through the rings of Neptune and then somehow the nuclear blast that destroyed Project Lima was able to provide most of the kinetic energy to return him to Earth before Roy dies of old age.  And despite all the astronauts he killed getting out there the military decides to forgive and forget and so Roy finishes off by reciting some kind of humanistic spiritual affirmation statement of some kind or other and then gets back together with his ex-wife Liv Tyler.

Now maybe that sounds quite odd for a science fiction story.  And it is.  This is a somewhat confusing rigamarole.  So let me give my thoughts on it.  The visual effects are quite good.  Some scenes in low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and aboard spacecraft are a lot of fun to watch.  But there are (I kid you not) space monkeys!  Which I kinda/hafta frown upon.  So, two points off.  Brad Pitt’s character starts out as an apparently emotionless robot who always saves the world from disaster without getting his pulse above eighty.  By the end he’s crying about his crazy father being crazy.  Tommy Lee Jones’ character is crazy so there’s not much there.  Donald Sutherland has a small part and he’s always crazy.  So, this movie doesn’t make a lot of sense.  For instance, how is Tommy Lee Jones investigating other life in the universe from Neptune.  Neptune is too incredibly cold for anything to live there.  And it’s not like it’s any closer to the stars than Earth.  Alright, I’ll stop making fun of the movie.  It’s a crazy movie, but like “2001: A Space Odyssey” it’s a visually enjoyable movie if you don’t care too much about the plot.  I recommend it for hard-core sci-fi film lovers who can live with space monkeys.

The Dead Don’t Die (2019) – A Horror Movie Review

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Here is another movie for which I will not provide a spoiler alert.  This movie cannot be spoiled.  There’s nothing there to spoil.

For whatever reason, more than a few well-known actors and celebrities appeared in this ridiculous film.  The star is Bill Murray as Police Chief Cliff Robertson.   Adam Driver is Officer Ronnie Peterson, Robertson’s patrol partner.  Steve Buscemi is a farmer named Frank Miller.  Tilda Swinton is Zelda Winston, a samurai/funeral director/space alien.  Danny Glover is a hardware store owner.  Selena Gomez is Zoe, “a young traveler.”  Rosie Perez plays a tv reporter and Iggy Pop is a coffee guzzling zombie.  Carol Kane is a fat bloated drunken zombie who wants a drink.  And last but not least, Sturgill Simpson, who also sings the eponymous theme song of the movie (several times) is “Guitar Zombie.”  He is this by virtue of a guitar that is dragging behind his foot by the strings as he stumbles zombie-like through the night.

Most of the dialog is Murray and Driver speculating on the steadily increasing zombie body count in what I suppose is supposed to be the stoic tones of small-town cops.  They also break the fourth wall from time to time by mentioning what the script said would happen next.  And one strange character arc has Tilda Swinton interrupt her zombie slicing work to be picked up by an alien space ship and transported away.

The reason given for the appearance of the walking dead is that the Earth has “fallen off its axis” because of “polar fracking.”  Eventually, one by one, or in small groups all the townspeople are eaten by the zombies.  Finally Driver informs Murray that the movie ends with them dying while courageously fighting the zombies.  So, they get out of their squad car and get to it.  And not a moment too soon.

I’m not sure whether this movie had a script or whether the actors just extemporized.  There might have been a few moments that were mildly funny.  Steve Buscemi is funny even when he doesn’t mean to be.  But there aren’t many.  And by the middle of the movie, you’re just hoping it ends sooner than later.  But it doesn’t.  It goes on and on.  It’s a very long 103 minutes.

This movie must have an audience.  But that audience doesn’t include me.