Ad Astra Review

Ad Astra
Director: James Gray
Cast Headliners: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga
Original Release Date: September 20th, 2019

Science fiction is a dime a dozen yet it also can be masterpiece a dime a dozen due to the literal infinity of our real space. Ad Astra on its surface may appear to be a generic 2001 or Interstellar copycat but it isn't. It certainly wears its influences on its sleeve but also has some fresh ideas presently kind of wonderfully. Brad Pitt in galactic Apocalypse Now is the slightly more apt comparison even if it never reaches the peaks of either of those claims.
In some unknown time into Earth's future humanity has established a moon-and-planet spanning network of space stations and antenna's. Major Roy McBride(Brad Pitt) is a pilot / officer veteran of the Space Command who almost loses his life in a space antenna energy “Surge”-related incident. Dark secrets come to light when its revealed to him by his superiors that not only is his long lost father Clifford McBride(Tommy Lee Jones) alive on the distant alien-seeking Lima Project but may be sending out Surge rays from an anti-matter weapon on Neptune. Roy is tasked with finding his father and if need be even taking him down.

The concepts of the film are an absolute highlight whether its from a world-building or philosophical perspective. As mentioned there's cosmic rays being used as potential weapons across the solar system so that's a pretty epic scope in itself. There's also moon commercial flights, moon pirates, Mars bases, floating monkey research stations, and more shown or referenced. It can be a very, very slow burn but the occasional twists and surprises excite while they provoke thought.

In the vacuum of space some human performances slightly shine through. Pitt's Roy isn't a highlight of his career but he's decently determined in his mix of level-headed charisma and personal haunting. Much of his dialogue is actually delivered as narration / inner monologue which is an uncommon technique but carries mostly depth in its script however this does bring some of the pacing down or confrontations down. He's joined for a certain majority of the voyage by rotating crew members including the ever-reliable (but often same) Donald Sutherland as Colonel Pruitt, base commander Helen(Ruth Negga, or the crew of the Cephaeus shuttle who don't quite differentiate from each other but are skilled and or friendly enough. He also remembers flashbacks or views recordings of his wife Eve(Liv Tyler) who doesn't say much in the film either.

The person with the most and important recordings is of course Lee Jones' mysterious Clifford. The Coppolla comparisons come from both the narrative yet also in his late-game introduction and insanity. He's broken, wise, and even heartfelt. It can trend towards generically boilerplate but the skill of him and Pitt make for a worthy complementary duo for what they mean towards each other.

The entity who performs the most of all is perhaps the director James Gray playing with the cosmos. This at times is an incredibly beautiful film. Interiors of spaceships and installations, Earth's atmosphere, the Moon, Mars, Neptune's atmosphere and more as mentioned feel so real yet so properly otherworldly. Wide pans, retro colors, and special effects give everything a breathtaking sheen. Some effects are less commendable than others holding it back from true excellence but what works works well. Some inventive action happens especially unique to space like the moon pirates projectile weapons in the silence of the cratered surface leading to such a special chase sequence or other quarrels in believable zero-g. A score by Max Richter is often typical strings but some dips into relaxing electronica add to the spacy wonder.

Some of its concepts never really go as deep as they should with the plot having an exciting journey with a possibly questionable end for its partly sluggish runtime. However for lovers of hard sci-fi it may likely scratch the itch one would want from something like this. There's some notable components and sequences which make it a fun heady ride even if its been done before. 8.05 out of 10

Rambo: Last Blood Review

Rambo V: Last Blood
Director: Adrian Grunberg
Cast Headliner: Sylvester Stallone really all its ever been right?
Original Release Date: September 20th, 2019

 When it comes to Syvester Stallone's iconic franchises the Rambo series may as well be second most recognizable after Rocky. However due to its decades long journey and “evolution” to be relevant to whatever times it released in it may as well be the Fast and the Furious. It's been a long time since the last entry in this gritty action / drama series. Rambo: Last Blood is the fifth in this legacy and has a bit of a concerning political timing with its tale of Mexican cartels and borders. However there's much more action than preaching luckily.

In the long period since the last film veteran hero John Rambo(Sylvester Stallone) has taken over his father's horse ranch of which it is fine for anyone but Rambo purists to have forgotten. Between cheesy ranching scenes he lives with old family friend Maria(Adriana Barraza) and her grandniece Gabriela(Yvette Monreal). Very little of the context of all this is actually explained in the film but what matters is the present.

Gabriela's desire to meet her father Miguel(Rick Zingale) makes her leave home, against paranoid Rambo's wishes of course(as he tends to his homemade traps in on-the-nose foreshadowing), to go to Mexico to visit her friend Gizelle(Fennessa Pineda). Big shock but things do not go well as she finds herself sold into the sex trade of a dangerous cartel run by the Martinez brothers Victor(Oscar Jaenada) and Hugo(Sergio Peris-Menchata). Rambo gets on the case with the help of local journalist Carmen(Paz Vega).

Suffice to say that this is not a very smart movie. The franchise has never really been smart since First Blood but at least Rambo 4 brought back a bit of dark nuance. Most of that nuance is lost in this film. Its interestingly funny how each film reflects its era in not just antagonists but style as well with the antihero piece of the 70s contrasting the shlock shoot-em-ups of the 80s being combined in 4 to now being a generic vigilante justice thriller. Of course that's what one may seek out of Rambo.

Rambo is definitely what one gets from the man himself. Stallone is of course much older than his past self but still manages to kick a ton of bad guy booty. His age brings a bit of emotional nuance in a manner slightly like his past few Rockies but again there's not the emotional nostalgia from the audience. He's fierce (if at times hard-to-understandably gruff) and determined. One will likely actually smile at HOW tough he is as he creates charisma through ludicrously violent slaughters and bone snaps.

Of course the rest of the cast is at an even lesser bar than he is with several relatively no-name actors. Monreal's Gabriela is alright mixing teenage cool-kidism with her dark past that leads to some slightly humorous and or important banter with Rambo but due to the narrative it disappears into generic melodrama on her journies with others. The other women of the film such as Vega's Carmen or Barraza's Maria offer little more than exposition. The villains are fearsome to be sure but other than Victor being the “crazy one” and Hugo being the “cool fancy one” they're about as generic as any antagonist in this franchise has been since the 80s.

Luckily the melodrama eventually gives way to pure action and slaughter in a brisk runtime. The last 20 to 25 minutes or so of the film is a pulse pounding showdown between Rambo and the Cartel that truly feels like it could be the end of the road for our muscle-headed hero. Seldom director Adrian Grunberg even pulls off a nice sweeping and or close-knit shot or two after all the mundane ones.

This is an incredibly gory film. There's the literal bone snaps as mentioned along with much blood, explosions, and gore. People are sliced, diced, stabbed, eviscerated, shot and so on. This at times is shocking but that just adds to the entertainment. It's to a little lesser extent than one may want from the series but the down-and-gritty chases and home defense mixes old and new.

World context and movie cheese aside, this movie entertains. One will either be on the edge of the seat for its excitement laughing at some of its attempted quips or maybe its for how cheesily “meh” it is. There's some attempt to bring this to a close with dramatic feels at times. Maybe that should mark this chapter as a close but if it doesn't there's definitely some more reading, and watching of its past self, to be done. One thing is for sure Stallone always Stallone as he intends to. 6.4 out of 10 

Villains Review

Villians
Director: Dan Berk / Robert Olsen
Cast Headliners: Bill Skarsgard, Maika Monroe, Jeffrey Donovan, Kyra Sedgwick
Original Release Date: September 20th, 2019 (very limited)

Here's a fun little one which is especially little as its currently a Regal theaters exclusive that's not even listed on Wikipedia or IMDB. Villains, an independent film directed by first timers Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. A couple of its cast members make it of note but really its premiere and execution deliver upon it moreso.

Bank robbing deeply in love criminal couple Mickey(Bill Skarsgard) and Jules(Maika Monroe) hold up a convenience store but soon find themselves out of gas deep in the wilderness. They break into a nice mountain home to find supplies yet also find the chilling sight of a young child Sweetiepie(Blake Baumgartner) locked up in the basement. The homes owners George(Jeffrey Donovan) and Gloria(Kyra Sedgwick) come home to confront them. If the little girl didn't give it away these people are not just anyone but a pair of insane serial killers. It's criminal versus criminal with the black comedy-thriller fusion that follows.

It's a film that can be brutally bloody and scarily intense yet its presented much more as a dramatic character study and humorous comedy due to the small cast / location list involved. The whole thing carries this wacky, quirky vibe to proceedings with things rarely erupting into more than momentary violence.

The cast list may be filled with relative unknowns but the performances are strong. Skarsgard comes off quite a thriller month although Mickey is very different to Pennywise. Here he's much more of a nice person that wavers between cockily brave and neurotically wimpy with some quips at play. It's not quite a highlight and perhaps one maybe would want more menace from him but he's ok. More likeable is girlfriend of the duo Jules. Monroe has her noble intentions amidst some stupidity (that they both have) but proves herself with some retaliations and ideas with an even more sincere side. Together they're a lovingly fun pair emphasis on loving.

These two seem so nice in comparison to the much more wicked foes they face. The absolute performance highlight is Donovan's George. With a distinct mustache and fancy sweatered look he's like an evil southern Mr.Rogers. He brings a smile with a dark secret underneath but treats everything as if he's a gentlemen from 1950s high class retro America. Hidden angers occasionally burst forth which makes his reserved other self that much more complementary. Sedgwick's Gloria is delightfully insane as well pairing nicely with him with her own sick insanities and even slight sympathies. As said this is a movie that trends towards humorous and absurd then scary with these two making for the best of it. Little other cast appears with the exceptions of Sweetie's silent victimhood and a brief police officer played by Danny Johnson who's look and charisma would make you swear he's Danny Glover.

For first-timers the Berk / Olsen team does decently well with their camera work. Whether the grey forest outside or the retro-styled house interior everything feels distinct. Some pop songs (especially in dream sequences) and otherwise orchestral music by composer Andrew Hewitt adds some momentary spice. It's all presented very snappily over its relatively brief but intensely fun runtime.

This movie won't blow one's mind but it has the solid aspects mentioned. A darkly charming indie darling that's been done before but offers a fun twist and surprise filled ride of evil-versus-eviler. Check it on home release for anyone interested in the talent involved or premise knowing its constraints. 7.8 out of 10

Three From Hell Review

3 From Hell
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast Headliners: Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, Richard Brake, Sid Haig, who really knows
Original Release Date: September 16th, 2019(limited)

Musician Rob Zombie's work is hard to objectively call “good” whether its his electro-grooving metal music or his films. His body of work can certainly be called “aesthetically distinct” however. His dark twisted world of murderers and monsters has manifested in multiple forms but most famous for his early 2000's work House Of 1,000 Corpses which was a bloody niche genre piece that felt like a long form of one his music videos. The sequel The Devil's Rejects a few years later dropped almost all of the supernatural elements to gain a darker and bloodier grit in new ways while still keeping that (whether purposeful or not) shlock. Many years have passed to where this 3 From Hell acts as both a follow-up to that offering more of the same yet expanding the series in new (if still silly) ways.

In a retcon (understandably) from the end of the last film this movie takes the ridiculous outcome that the titular murderous psycho redneck anti-heroes survived their closing “Freebird” shoot-out from the last film to become incarcerated for a long period. This includes a barely minutes long appearance of ringleader Cutter “Captain Spaulding”(Sid Haig who unfortunately passed away just days after the release of this....one can tell in this his pronounced aging since the last film although it's good that he could make one last appearance at all with an attempted decent delivery of lines) as well as his Firefly family proteges Otis(Bill Moseley) and Baby(Sheri Moon Zombie). Quickly Otis finds himself freed by the third “Three” in newly introduced half-brother Foxy “Wolfman” Coltrane(Richard Brake).

In a matter unlike the last two movies(where these legacy characters where occasional villians in the first and mostly-together-dark-progtagonists in the second) they're more seperated than ever as well as having the film divided into multiple distinct parts varying in narrative and even vibe. For the first half of the film or so Otis and Wolfman terrorize the backwoods and eventually the suburban household of prison warden Harper(Jeff Daniel Phillips in a cheesily 70s mustache token villian) in sequences that feel almost carbon copy from The Devil's Rejects' gas station motel and surrounding parts. Elsewhere Baby contends with violent abuse in her prison from fellow inmates and sadistic prison guard Greta(Dee Wallace who is far better than this material also in her own stereotypical token way). Gratuitously violent torture and escape sequences follow.

One wishes Captain Spaulding was well enough to join in but the performances of the other Fireflies make up for that. Moseley's Otis and Sheri Moon's Baby are as lovably sickly insane as ever in their own cheesy way. Even moreso Otis is a bit weathered this time bringing a touch of compassion and cool leadership in with his murderous insanity. So too does Sheri Moon bring in a slight nuance especially as she finds herself ironically contained in a prison. Now this is “nuance” as they play maniacal kill happy killers but its that mix of terror and even some laughs that always drew audiences to them. Richard Brake's Wolfman is a mostly perfect addition to the titular trio. His take is very unrecognizable from his other roles as he mixes hillbilly were-wolf-ish hollering (and cleanliness) between combat skill and sly quips. This makes him especially fun when paired with Otis. Together for the brief chunk of the film where the trio is actually side by side it makes for a devilishy charming combination to the extent it can be enjoyable ( “or quality).

However for its last half or third or so the movie takes an almost drastic genre shift. However this shift is not drastic when considering director Rob Zombie's interests and backlog as a whole but the gang takes a trip to Mexico to avoid the law. There they run afoul of the luchadore mask wearing Black Satans gang who is led by Rondo(Danny Trejo who briefly shows up again although DDP is missed!)'s son Aquarius(Emilio Rivera). They also meet strange characters such as an eye-patch wearing little person and innkeeper Carlos at a Day Of The Dead festival which brings back a bit of the spookiness of the first film.

It's a genre shift because where before the movie was torture porn / a renegade recnexploitation road trip it becomes an action movie(with some exceptions). Rob Zombie's never really dealth with much gun versus gun shoot-outs before but he's able to make things enjoyable in his own way. Of course some of the camera work is still shoddy and music(some 1970s pop songs aside) / sounds are ironically and unfortunately of mixed quality but it has its fun when it does. Its fitting that if this is the end of the insane series it goes down in carnage and flames.

         As a whole this movie is recommendable only to those who know exactly what they're going for and especially who have seen the other two prior. It's bloody, gruesome, dark, and intense yet also cheesy, stupid, and ridiculous. Each one has kind of upper both of those sides of its aspects but its good it could reach this form of culmination. For its experiments one may wonder if it should be stopped now or if Rob Zombie should build on his experimentation even further. 7.1 out of 10

It: Chapter Two Review

It: Chapter Two
Director: Andy Muschietti
Cast Headliners: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Bill Skarsgard, their friends and child forms           
Original Release Date: September 6th, 2019 


      2017's It (or retroactively It: Chapter One by now) delivered mostly quite swell on remaking Stephen King's classic clown-demon-alien-ghost versus kids horror epic. It: Chapter Two both brings the main arc of the story of the kids to a close while also having the task of introducing the adult versions of the characters after the time jump. It's thus both more of the same while also being something very new so far that some results may vary. There's of course some  many scares between the drama, laughs, and feels.
After an incredibly brutal (perhaps uncomfortably so, but it is exactly in the source material) the Loser's Club is brought together again in 2016 after a 27 year time jump. Both kid and adult versions of the squad do end up appearing with some of these being more believable than others. This is everyone of brother of Georgie stuttering leader Bill( James McAvoy as an adult with Jaeden Lieberher Martell as a youth) is now a famous novelist, the dark past woman of the group Bev(Jessica Chastain as an adult and Sophia Lillis as a youth) a famous fashion designer in an unfortunate parallel of an abusive marriage, comedic relief Richie(Bill Hader as an adult and Finn Wolfhard as a youth) a fitting stand-up comedian, former shy fat new kid now strong Ben(Jay Ryan as an adult and Jeremy Ray Taylor as a youth) a successful architect, nervous hypochondriac Eddie(James Ransome as an adult and  Jack Dylan Grazer as a youth) a risk assessor of questionable success with a nagging wife much like his mother(even played by the same actress) , and the brief appearance of a fearful Stanley(Andy Bean as an adult and Wyatt Oleff as a youth) in an unknown profession. It's wise Mike(Isaiah Mustafa as an adult and Chosen Jacobs as a youth) who has become a town library historian and knowledge of the monstrous Pennywise the Dancing Clown/ It(Bill Skarsgard) who brings them back together for revenge once and for all.
That's what makes this story one of the more special Stephen King tales. It's a dark thrill ride of spookiness but it also is one of human heart and drama. Nearly all of the new casting choices carry the perfect chemistry and young-at-heart silliness of their past-set forms which makes one care for them. There's extra kudos to be given to Hader's Richie and Ransome's Eddie. They both manage to not only deliver just as many laughs as their kid counterparts but have important growth arcs and new demons(both internal and literal) to face. McAvoy's Bill and Chastain's Bev both carry the charisma and courage of their past selves as leading roles as well although the casting is just a touch off. This goes even moreso for Mustafa's Mike and to a bit further extent to Ryan's Ben and Bean's Stanley but their kindness and sincerity is felt. The script is mostly solid although at times as just the slight bit of (perhaps wanted) cheese..especially when it tries to be more romantic than funny or dramatic.   The kid counterparts are a delight to see again in the rare spots they do show up and it becomes more-number-one in a good way with them getting the slight edge overall for quality. Both eras heroes are actually mostly separated (with the past smartly taking place in a small time jump from the first film) from each other due to narrative reasons so the group dynamic only shows up in some parts more than others but strengthens when it does.
The other part of the It experience other than the laughs and human drama is of course, the scares. The movie has plenty to spare (once again aided by director Andy Muschietti's dark directing) although as a whole one would have to say that it treads some mostly familiar ground and has a slight less of a scare than the first as things become more epic action than on-the-run existential paranoia. Expect many, but not too many, jump scares and creepy trippy illusions. Skarsgard's titual villian Pennywise is once again great. His makeup and outfit look is as effective as ever along with his monstrous forms and servants in new ways although at times there's some slight CGI cheese. He carries more of a personal vengeance grudge this time which helps make him even more of a taunting jerk in the sporadic times he isn't illusion-terrifying or eating people.  Secondary antagonist insane bully Henry (Teach Grant as an adult and Nicolas Hamilton as a youth) brings his own creepiness but with an increase in insanity comes even further sliding into generic minion and a mullet that just doesn't work at all although there's some bloody satisfying showdowns.
This movie , for the most part, delivers more background on what It....is . Alot more is taken from the original novel and greater King-multiverse although it doesn't quite go fully novel-accurate but takes it in its own spin. This metacosmic lore may put off some viewers expecting pure scares or preferring not to know but it allows for more context and meaning. Some changes are disappointing but other changes make sense. It must be noted that this movie is almost 3 hours long so the length of the TV miniseries is contested although it misses a few beats along the way.  In the end it makes it worth it (aside from some odd closing scenes)
This movie is recommended with the first one as a must but that's almost an obvious given.  It delivers more of the wanted same although perhaps in direct comparison missing something from the simpler first time. Perhaps that's symbolic of being young and being older... the netherworld is scarier then but at times our world is scarier now. As a whole putting these two together its an overall modern duology that King and Tim Curry should be proud of. 8 out of 10