Category Archives: Fantasy

El Conde

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El Conde              4 ½ stars

Just in time for Halloween comes my discovery and viewing of the 2023 vampire movie El Conde, by Chilean director Pablo Larrain who must be my favorite Latin director after Guillermo del Toro. I have seen several of his successful movies including Spencer, Jackie and No. In El Conde Larrain combines two of my favorite genres of comedy horror and political satire creating a real fright fest. Filmed in black and white, the movie takes on fascist figures making them out to be viscous monsters. At the beginning of the movie, we meet a French soldier named Claude Pinoche serving France under Louis XVI and see him witness the beheading of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Fearing for his life he runs away, but we learn that Pinoche is a vampire and thus blessed with a long life. For two centuries he travels to Haiti, Russia and Algeria vowing to fight against revolutions as a soldier, while serving under merciless dictators. He finds his way to Chile in 1935 where he rises to the rank of general and eventually overthrows the socialist government of Allende in 1973 and becomes the new dictator of Chile, killing hundreds during his brutal reign. Thus, Pinoche is actually Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell), the fascist ruler of Chile, only he is a vampire. After being driven from power, having lived for 250 years he dies in 2006, except that his death was faked, allowing him to live on his country estate. (There he happens to have a giant guillotine that gets put to use.) He is joined by his corrupt wife, Lucia (Gloria Munchmeyer), his five children and his longtime butler, Fyodor (Alfredo Castro), a Russian Cossack devoted to his master. Pinochet now goes by the title, The Count. (Hence, the name of the movie), but he would like nothing better than to just die. During his reign, besides all the killing, Pinochet has robbed the country of a fortune and hidden it in various countries all over the world. His children would like him dead so that they can inherit the money, but the problem is The Count was bad at accounting and has lost track of it. So, the family hires a forensic accountant in the form of a young catholic nun named Carmen who is to track down the money by scouring through the records and interviewing the family members. She would also like to exorcise the demon out of Pinochet, something The Count isn’t so keen on. The Catholic Church having sent Carmen to do the job, is hoping they can get their hands on the fortune too. Now having a young beautiful nun around has reinvigorated The Count causing him to rethink his desire to die. The end result is him renewing his reign of terror on the country, flying by night to seek fresh blood. (His preferred method of consumption of blood is to place the human heart in a blender and make a blood smoothie. Points for originality on that one!) Larrain has taken on fascist dictators before in his works including The Club and No. In El Conde he really goes after Pinochet, satirizing this ruthless ruler portraying him and his family as greedy monsters. The movie is really a condemnation of fascists everywhere, sending us a warning of what they can do to a country. Pinochet even says that he wants to destroy the International Criminal Court. (I think I have heard that before.) There is one other character that I must mention, that being the narrator who speaks in the voice of an older British woman. She turns out to be Pinochet’s mother and is also a vampire and is someone of great importance in world politics, but you will have to watch the movie to find out her identity.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

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Guardians of the Galaxy 2             4 stars

It has been four years since we heard from those heroes from the Marvel universe that includes Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Baby Groot.  Now they are back again in their heroic fashion to once again save the universe from its latest threat.  This time circumstances force them to ally with enemies Yondu and Nebula as they must find out the true nature of Peter’s family.  Now they must deal with Peter’s recently found true father, Ego who turns out to be a millions of years old celestial being who inhabits entire planets and has desires to control the entire galaxy.  The team must battle to put their internal differences aside while they do the usual, engage in a colorful, explosion filled conflict of mega proportions in long action filled sequences.  One of the best performances has to go to Michael Rooker as the enemy turned friend, Yondu, who upon being betrayed by his barbarian like gang, must join with the misfit Guardians.  The second installment of Guardians may have lost a bit of its sparkle, but still has plenty of heart with its soundtrack of seventies and eighties music that seems to inspire their leader, Peter.  I am sure we will soon be hearing about the next sequel, Guardians 3.

Kong: Skull Island

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Kong: Skull Island             2 ½ stars

Kong: Skull Island reimagines the classic Kong story with some significant revisions.  First instead of the setting being in the 30’s, this time it is set in the seventies right after America’s withdrawal from Vietnam. (Thus the anti-war references). Second, instead of being perhaps 30 feet tall, this Kong is the size of a skyscraper, thus eliminating any possibility of capturing the beast.  There are several spectacular action sequences that depend heavily on special effects that feature various giant creatures attacking and devouring various members of the cast while others devise clever means of surviving.  The scientists of this team are accompanied by a small army that seem to be equipped for all-out war until they meet the featured ape who easily dispatches everything the military can through at him.  The characters are mostly two dimensional other than John C. Reilly’s Hank, a soldier who has been left behind on Skull Island since the end of World War II.  Reilly gives the movie a much needed dose of comic release.  Other notable cast members are Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Shea Whigham.  Kong: Skull Island is mostly an updated version of Land of the Lost and not a great one at that.  Based on the end scene of the movie we can probably count on there being another in a series of these lost monster movies.

Buddy

Buddy   4 stars

Do you have fond memories of those children’s TV shows from the eighties and nineties of adult size colorful characters and children singing happy tunes about learning, getting along with others and doing chores? Or maybe your memories are not so pleasant? Such shows are the basis of Casper Kelly’s Buddy, a horror movie that features a children’s TV show from the nineties that stars a full-size bright orange unicorn set in a colorful house and yard together with several children and a few other adult characters. This movie was featured at The Sundance Film Festival this year, but I had not seen it until it opened in theaters. As the film opens the kids and Buddy (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key of Wonka and Only Murders in the Building) are having a good time singing “You Love Buddy, yes you do.” But later when one of the kids refuses to obey Buddy’s orders, a violent encounter occurs off camera and the child is mysteriously absent later. (The other kids are told that he was called to go to Diamond City.) Things escalate with each new episode as Buddy violently kills off another character or child in stark fashion when things don’t go his way, until the remaining children run away into the woods toward Diamond City in scenes reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. I cannot express how impressed I was with the acting of the children as they displayed artificial happiness switching to suspicion and fear. Later, the setting changes to a family at home in the present. The parents are Grace (Cristin Milioti of How I Met Your Mother) and Ben (Topher Grace of That 70’s Show and Spider-Man 3) who have two boys in a seemingly normal home life. Only Grace has a very uneasy feeling about the situation, expressing to Ben that she believes that they had a third child that they had forgotten. Later, the strange Buddy TV show appears on their TV screen, and Grace is pulled into the TV and added to the cast of the show. Thus, we become aware that Buddy is snatching kids from their homes to be on the show with their memories and those of their families of their past lives being erased. Without giving too much away, the confrontation between humans and orange, plushy control freak escalates to an all-out bloody battle where only one side will survive. Other voice actors include Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), Patton Oswalt (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Eric Bauza (Coyote vs. Acme) and Devon Hawkes Ludlow, noted puppeteer. I knew this was going to be a weird one when I went in. Despite the dark premise, I was impressed by the well-constructed story it told and its lesson about trusting your instincts. Although it has bloody scenes, the violence is obviously fake and meant to amuse. It would be appropriate for tweens and older kids and silly horror loving adults to see the movie, but I advise against taking smaller children. While watching it I couldn’t help but think of how fun it must have been for the child actors to be in such an odd horror movie. Other comedy horror movies I have seen of this genre are Krazy House where a sitcom about a suburban family is invaded by violent Russian gangsters and Little Monsters where a young man and a kindergarten teacher must defend a kindergarten class on a field trip from marauding zombies. All of these were available at Sundance.

Defending Your Life

Defending Your Life         4 ½ stars

I recently took in Defending Your Life, the 1991 Albert Brooks movie about an advertising exec who is killed in an auto accident and ends up in an afterlife where the new arrivals must face a sort of trial and defend how they lived their life. Brooks is quite the master at writing material that is bitingly funny, taking aim at the selfish nature of people. Unfortunately, of the seven movies that Brooks has written and/or directed, I can’t recall seeing any of them before; (though I do remember seeing the shorts he created for Saturday Night Live in the seventies.) In Life, Daniel finds that instead of going to heaven he is in an existence between lives in Judgment City, a place he shares with many other recently departed souls. The place is nothing like how the afterlife is depicted in many other movies with clouds and angels with wings, but instead resembles corporate America with spotless hotels, restaurants and trams to carry the inhabitants to various destinations. The staff is polite and makes sure that the arrivals are comfortable. In Judgment City the subjects are assigned a defense attorney and a prosecutor and face a trial where their lives are reviewed and a judgment is rendered based on whether they have done enough to face their fear during their lives and thus either advance to the next level of existence or be returned to Earth where they will live another life. In the more advanced levels people learn to use an ever-increasing portion of their brain. Daniel is assigned to Bob Diamond (Rip Torn) for his defense and to Lena (Lee Grant) as his prosecutor and must view segments of his life showing what he did in certain stressful situations. Both sides argue their case in front of the judges. During his stay, Daniel meets a young, sweet woman, Julia (Meryl Streep) who is also facing trial and quickly forms a bond with her. (It does seem odd to Daniel that Julia has scored a much nicer hotel than he did.) Thus, besides being an imaginative take on the afterlife, the movie is a romantic comedy as well. Albert Brooks has created a movie that is low key, very funny and conveys a good message about how people live their lives and try to meet expectations. And even better, it has a happy ending that will make everyone feel good about it. Apparently, Defending Your Life is much less harsh than Brooks’ other movies, especially Lost in America. But I haven’t seen them so have to take the critics word for it. I do know that you can’t go wrong with this movie, so I highly recommend it.

Toy Story 5

Toy Story 5                          3 stars

No, I still haven’t seen either of the two major blockbusters of the summer, but I did finally see Toy Story 5, the fifth installment of Pixar’s flagship franchise that started back in the nineties. After four of these popular animated movies that chronicle the adventures of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and Bo Peep, one might ask do we need another one. How can the story be expanded beyond what has already been told? The answer is, of course we do, so that more money can be made for the studio and all the others involved. Back in Toy Story 4 the familiar toys have been separated into two groups, one is led by cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) and are the toys belonging to an introverted child, Bonnie. The second are the abandoned toys that Woody the cowboy (Tom Hanks) keeps together. Little Bonnie is a lonely girl without any friends. She would like to play with the twins next door but is too shy to talk to them. Besides they don’t play with toys. Instead, they spend their time playing on their tech devices, called LiliPad, where kids can talk online and watch videos. This is the new villain that has entered the Toy Story universe and threatens to destroy everything special about childhood and kid’s toys. In order to get Bonnie connected with other kids, her parents get her a new Lilipad (Greta Lee). This leads to a sleepover that goes horribly wrong for Bonnie and creates havoc in the toy collection. Some of the toys even get placed in storage in the garage! Now taking center stage, Jessie and her steed Bullseye are the ones that must correct things. While on her mission Jessie discovers another girl, Blaze, who lives in the same house that Jessie shared with her first child owner. Blaze does play with toys, so Jessie’s new mission is to bring the two children together somehow. (We see that Jessie must work through her own abandonment issues as she has now been left by two children.) She is aided by Smarty Pants, a toy used for potty training. (It is so appropriate that Conan O’Brien is the voice of Smarty Pants. Be ready for an abundance of bathroom humor.) There is also a pair of old tech toys, a toy camera and a GPS toy that join in. Eventually, Jessie calls in the help of Woody and an army of Buzz Lightyears (Tim Allen) that all work together through more misadventures and action scenes. Naturally, everything will eventually work out all right for all involved. After five movies telling this story, it feels there is little originality left to present. It was technology that made the Toy Story style of animation possible. Now technology has become the villain. Can we just realize that this story has been beaten to death over these thirty plus years and that it is time to put these characters to bed?

Welcome to Marwen

Welcome to Marwen                     4 stars

Welcome to Marwen from director Robert Zemeckis employs some very imaginative techniques to tell the story of Mark Hogencamp (Steve Carell), an illustrator who lost his memory after being beaten by some local thugs.  Having lost his drawing talent Mark has created a fantasy world made up of miniatures dolls and models in an imaginary town in Brussels during World War II.  Mark has an alter ego named Hoagie represented by an American airman doll who frequently takes on Nazi soldiers aided by some very courageous women who make up the town’s population.  Each of the women figures represents a woman who plays a part in Mark’s life.  Mark lives alone outside of town and seems to be a broken man, but he manages to stay connected to people through his town called Marwen which he photographs creating intricate stories about his characters.  I found the movie quite engaging with the way it moves from the fantasy world to reality and how the events in Marwen are related to things going on in Mark’s real world.  The special effects are well done using stop action photography and animation to create some great action sequences.  The story is based on the actual true events of Mark Hogencamp who created this imaginary world and became famous through exhibitions of his photography.  I found the movie uplifting and entertaining which apparently most movie critics don’t see based on the mostly negative reviews it has been getting.  Robert Zemeckis has been making movies for ages and I am sure most viewers have seen some which includes Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away and Forrest Gump.  In my opinion he has another winner that more people should be seeing.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3     3 stars

I continue with my catch up on Marvel movies I missed with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, the third iteration of these heroes who are always there to save the galaxy, courtesy of writer/director James Gunn. This one could be called the one where Rocket finally realizes that he is a racoon. While it has all the action and the wisecracking of the earlier two movies of 2014 and 2017, it does have a more somber tone to it. Both Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are in a funky mood near the beginning, and the end of the movie feels like the gang is breaking up. The heroes are tasked with a mission to save the life of Rocket who has been gravely injured. They must retrieve a computer file from a ship that seems to be made of living tissue that belongs to the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). We are introduced to Rocket’s backstory while he is in a coma and find out that when he was a small racoon cub, he was captured by this villain for the purpose of experimentation to produce a perfect species. (This explains Rocket’s extraordinary powers.) Now the High Evolutionary wants to capture Rocket again to learn his secrets, but in the meantime, he tries to destroy an entire civilization that he created since they are not perfect. (Does that sound like a familiar theme?) So, the stakes are certainly high enough to deserve the Guardian’s attention. The membership of the Guardians has expanded since the first movie with past differences being put aside. They include Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), of course a full-sized Groot (Vin Diesel), Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova). The movie is worth seeing based on the emotional way that Rocket’s story is told. However, the overall tone feels off with Peter Quill and others going through internal struggles that take away from the usual upbeat feel of these movies. Of course, the soundtrack features a variety of popular seventies rock music as always. The special effects are quite impressive which explains why Guardians earned a Best Visual Effects Academy Award nomination. The ending feels like this is the end of the franchise, though of course, you can’t be sure.

The Dead Don’t Die

The Dead Don’t Die         3 stars

The Dead Don’t Die by Jim Jarmusch puts a new comedic twist on an old genre, the zombie movie.  This light but bloody comedy brings together a very talented cast that includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Danny Glover, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane and Tom Waits.  With this group of actors you wonder how could this film possibly miss.  The movie has more hits than misses so has some moments that don’t hit the mark.  The premise is that polar fracking being done by corporations has caused the earth to move off of its axis leading to strange events throughout the world.  Of course this includes the dead rising from the graves to seek out human flesh to satisfy their appetite which is completely logical, right?  Much of the comedy is delivered by Murray and Driver who both give their lines in the most deadpan manner imaginable.  (Remember, the way to stop a zombie is to Kill the Head.)  Also making a significant contribution is Buscemi as Farmer Miller, the white racist whose accusations have little basis in reality.  There is an ongoing gag involving a new country song that bears the title from the movie.  Tilda Swinton has a most unusual role as the Irish undertaker, a new comer to the small town of Centerville.  It is a very strange role that only Swinton could deliver on.  It being a Jarmusch film, it wanders into the ridiculous at a couple of times that detracted from the overall feel of the movie.  The Dead Don’t Die is not the funniest Zombie movie I’ve seen, but if you are a zombie movie fan you should not miss this one.

Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4          5 stars

The movie that is currently killing at the box office and will be the best animated movie of the year is Toy Story 4, the 4th (obviously) installment of the Toy Story franchise from Pixar that features the adventures of Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) and many others.  This time around the gang of toys are in the possession of Bonnie, a little girl who loves her toys only some more than others.  Woody is apparently not among the favorites.  Bonnie creates a new toy out of the trash at Kindergarten, a spork called Forky (Tony Hale) who seems to have a complex about being trash accompanied by a desire to throw himself back in the trash basket.  It then becomes Woody’s mission to get Forky to realize that he is a toy who is loved by little Bonnie.  Of course things get much more complicated than that when the family along with the toys go on a trip to an RV park.  A whole new adventure is to be had at an amusement park and an antique shop that involves a talking girl doll, Gabby (Christina Hendricks) who has designs on Woody’s voicebox to restore her own damaged voice.  Adding plenty of color and amusement to the story are Ducky and Bunny (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) two stuffed amusement park prize animals.  I have not seen all of the Toy Story movies but I venture to say this one must be near the top of the series.  It is well suited for young audiences and adults alike.  Look for it to win Best Animated Movie Oscar next year.