What I'm Watching: Mama

I completely forgot about this!  Watched it last week, and promptly never got around to reviewing it.

Long-time readers may recall I wasn't too thrilled with the last movie that had Guillermo Del Toro's handprint on it, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  It wasn't bad, but something about it never clicked.  I wanted to see Mama, but never bothered in the theatres, in part because of that (Even though Del Toro was only producing) and because the trailers made me cringe just a little bit, and not in a good horror way.

Which makes me SO pleased that after watching the DVD, I so enjoyed it!

The story is about a man who one day snaps and kills his co-workers and wife, and while taking his kids away to escape capture, he crashes deep into the middle of a wintery nowhere.  He finds his way to a shack and uses it as shelter for himself and the kids, but it's not long before something attacks and kills him.

Cut to several years later, when his twin brother, who never gave up searching, finds the cabin, and the kids, still alive and having gone a wee bit feral over all this time in the woods and no other human interaction.

Note the 'human' part of that sentence.  Because while the kids were left out there, they were not alone.  Whatever killed their father took care of them.  A something that follows them back to civilisation to watch over them, and something that they call Mama.

The plot unfolds quite well from there, with a lot of good creepy moments and scares, in that definitive Del Toro style.  He may have only produced, but you can tell he had his hands in this.  In good ways, and bad ways.

Del Toro's style is often quite terrifying, but also has this tendency to switch in an instant over to something more...whimsical.  And that is located here as well, sadly enough.  It doesn't ruin the movie, but the occasional silly or cute look to something we are supposed to be afraid of undercuts things just a little, in those few moments it happens.

Fortunately, it only happens when we're supposed to be sympathising with the creature, seeing its human side, both figuratively, and literally.  So at least it makes sense thematically, and makes it more palletable.

Most importantly, the movie actually ends with a satisfying ending.  Something that can be so rare in hrror these days.  It's not necessarily a HAPPY ending, but things are resolved, and explained adequately enough, and you are left with a sense of closure and hope.  I'm all for ambiguous endings, or sequel baiting, but these things have become so prevalent in horror movies, you almost forget what a legitimate *ending* is!

Probably the biggest problem is that the movie may not have the most original elements to it.  You will find many familiar tropes.  But they are put together in a new way, with its own style, that you can almost forget that nagging feeling of familiarity it sometimes has.

The cast is great, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau doing a dual role of the brothers, and you really feel his pain at losing his family so many years ago, and the hope at rebuilding it again.  Jessica Chastain as his girlfriend who gets put in the unenviable position of trying to take care of the kids when she doesn't want to also puts in a way better performance than such a role would normally receive.  Even the kids aren't annoying.

Mama was a real treat to watch, both from a storytelling point of view, and visually.  Even on his bad days, even on a movie Del Toro just sneezed at, the movie has a distinctive style that is entrancing.  It may not be the most original horror movie, it may have its own quirks, but those are also its charm, and I think it works.

What I'm Watching: Agent Beetle

Since I looked at one awesome superhero movie last week, let's stick with the divergence and talk about another superhero movie I watched.

Is this one awesome too?

Pffffahahahaha, not really.

Agent Beetle is...special.

It is a very independent, very low budget movie, and almost every frame of film shows that to its fullest.  The plot revolves around a cop who goes undercover as a criminal so he can be injected with a serum that gives people insect-like abilities.

Just how insect-like those abilities are can be highly questionable, but eh, whatever.  I can roll along with the plot device.

Dan Garret runs around...wait, what?  Dan freakin' Garret?  So, Agent Beetle is THE GOLDEN AGE BLUE BEETLE!?

What the what??

Yep, they've adapted the golden age Blue Beetle into a modern story told on the cheap.  The plot is simple and straightforward, it does nothing original, and is so simple that the 80 minute run time is highly padded.

Long scenes of people walking around, extended fight scenes I can forgive because of the content, but then there's a nearly five minute scene of a bikini pagent that is there for no purpose, other than to drag things out, and boobs.  One of our villains walks into the club, watches the thing, then leaves.  No real point, no real dialogue.  Whatever.

The sets are downright laughable, if they can be called sets.  Half the movie takes place clearly backstage at a theater.  I recognise those curtain setups all too well from my days in drama clubs.  Seriously, the evil mastermind scientist's office has black curtain walls?  Yeah, no.

When they're not backstage at the Apollo, I'm pretty sure the rest of the sets are just various other rooms in the theatre.  They have that distinct blandness of no set dressing and waiting for the cast of Cats to walk in at any time.

Much like you would expect from a movie that LOOKS like it was filmed by the crew of a college film project, the acting is about on the same level.  Everyone is stiff with little emotion, going through the motions, and with such bland, unoriginal dialogue, it's no surprise.

Uninspired is the watchword for Agent Beetle.  The best thing I can say about the movie is that the opening credits look bloody amazing.  They blew their effects budget on those, I suppose.

But since this is Trisk, being a bad movie does not mean it's not a fun movie, and this movie is just so crazy, so silly, it is mindnumbingly fun.  It is a blast watching this silly, pointless plot wind down every cliche path you'd expect, the actors stumble through their scenes, and how the lack of sets is like something right out of a Rob Liefeld background.

Agent Beetle may be a bad, dumb movie, but...we kinda love you anyways.  I had a blast watching it, even if I shook my head the entire time.

What I'm Watching: Iron Man 3

In the category of, "Hey, that's not horror!" Iron Man 3 premiered today!!  And hey, it's science fiction, and it's my damned site, and I love comics.  I'm allowed to write what I want!

It goes without saying, but just in case...there be spoilers beyond this point.  Run away now if you don't want to know stuff.

Every time I walk out of a movie, the first question I get asked is, "What did you think?"  As is the norm, I suppose.  I normally have a quick, one word answer.  Not so much this one, and I can't *quite* put my finger on it.  I *did* like IM3.  But I would probably stick it down amongst my least favourite of the IM movies.  Which is not a bad thing.  As I say, if you're rating a group of good things, someone is gonna come up last, right?

If Iron Man was a 10, and IM 2 was a 9, I would give IM 3 a solid 8, or 8.5.  So it's really JUST trailing the pack.

First up, some random stuff I did like.  LOVED the opening.  So many movies start with that semi-pretentious quoting of something, and this movie undercuts that instantly.  Which is so perfect for the tone of Iron Man.  It tells you *immediately* who Tony Stark is, before you even see a frame of him on screen.  Also, it sets up the running gag of quoting people, usually for comedic effect.

RDJ is back as Iron Man/Tony Stark, and if you loved him in the first two movies and Avengers, well, then you get more of the same here.  In fact, you get a bit more Tony than Iron Man, so that's good for some people.  In fact, he even gets to play a bit more with emotions this time, and is given a bit of a character arc to work through.

The villains were good, and I quit enjoyed the movie's take on the Mandarin.  There were some very good twists in the story with him, and AIM, and a few other characters.  I legit did not see a few of them coming, and that's always a good thing.

Ben Kingsley...  Well, he's Ben Freakin' Kingsley.  I don't need to say anything about him at all.  He brings such gravitas to the role, and then some.

I absolutely loved, LOVED Pepper getting to wear the armour, and some serious contributions to the action.  Her moments of stupid in the second movie ALWAYS sat poorly with me, and were my biggest complaints with IM2.  This was a bit of service in rectifying those moments, IMO.  She still had a bit of damsel in distress, but they at least had her not be an idiot staring at an about to explode robot.

Finally, a movie that did not culminate in the bad guy wearing a suit of armour all his own to fight Iron Man!  That drove me up the wall, that Whiplash needed to do that in the sequel.  Just because Tony wears armour, his villains don't all need to wear armour as well.  The movie DID put some of the baddies into metal forms a few times, but they were not the main goal of their plots, more diversions than anything else.  I appreciate this so damned much.  The Extremis abilities really worked as a good counterpoint to Tony's armour.

Now, for the bad.  Don't worry, it's not that bad!

Was the humour...off, for anyone else?  It felt like it got a little goofy at times?  Tony being Tony was fine, but something about anyone else trying to be funny didn't quite work.  Justin Hammer had a little bit of that awkward humour in the second one, but it felt more prominent here.  I dunno.  Maybe it was just because this movie had a darker tone in its narrative that made the gags stand out all the more.

The first act felt a little slow, but I'm not too perturbed by that.  After the mind-blowing craziness of the Avengers, the movie kinda needed to take a breath, and it's always good to give the characters a chance to breathe.  But you do sometimes get antsy waiting for the action to start in an action movie, yeah? ;)

I mentioned Tony's character arc, and while I appreciate the attempt, I felt it was a little weak.  He's having a crisis of something, and he's having anxiety attacks!  They give some reasons in the form of gods and aliens, but it felt REALLY glossed over, and I never really bought into that side of the storyline.  "I fell through a hole in space...AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! *flails and hyperventilates!!*"  It felt like it needed more thought put into it, and more time spent building it up.  I like that Tony was affected by the Battle for New York...I just didn't buy into it.

Also, the resolution to it was equally as hasty.  "Well, just build something!"  "OK!"  If you're going to take time to slow the movie down and build character, go for it.  Don't start, then rush through it in the end zone, guys!

I do wonder what it is with trilogies ending with the hero seemingly hanging things up.  Yeah, I'm looking at you, Dark Knight.  That was an odd way to end this movie, with Tony almost getting rid of all things Iron Man.  I know it won't last, and it does have that bit of coming full circle, and completing his growth begun in the first film...but with more movies to come, it is a weird place to leave the character.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the kid, but it still gave me some good laughs, so the good outweighs the not so good there.  Also, it gave us time to get to know Tony, and develop him in ways the previous movies never quite got around to.  He really starts to come out of his playboy tropes at last, with this movie.

So, for the most part, I enjoyed it.  It's flawed, but it's more Iron Man action, with the same smart writing for Tony, with a solid plot, and stuff for everyone to do.  They don't make the mistake of overloading the movie with characters, stick with the few mains and the villains, and more sequels need to remember this.  You don't need all the same characters back from your previous two movies plust six new people.  It's a good way to tie up the Iron Man trilogy for now, and is a good action movie with some solid attempts at humanising Tony Stark.

And of course, stay through the credits for your usual surprise.

In the shadow of Avengers, I don't think anything would have been truly satisfying 100%.

What I'm Watching: Cloned - The Recreator Chronicles

Today on, "Movies no one has ever heard of..."  it is Cloned: The Recreator Chronicles!

Like most random movies, it was the trailer of this that caught my eye.  I saw the name, it sounds sciencey, and there's always fun stuff there, so I watched the trailer.  That was decent, and looked well made, AND there was the bonus of John deLancie!  Yep, Q from Star Trek: TNG wandered into this.

That was really all I needed to put this over from a strong maybe to a gotta see.

Cloned is about a trio of young adults heading off to a camping trip in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, to spend one last fun night together before one of them gets shipped off with the armed forces.

Once they make their way to their remote island, they find a home there.  One thing leads to another, and mostly thanks to a storm they take cover indoors.  The owners of the house return in the morning, chasing off their trio of Golidlocks.

Then things take a turn for the worst when the trio stumble upon a pair of dead bodies; duplicates of the people chasing them.  When the clone owners have the kids try and dispose of their originals' bodies, they are fortunately saved by more clones, their own clones.

So yeah, that is one lengthy set up.

Once the clones enter the scene, things really pick up.  The movie is nicely paced, with spending a good chunk of the first act introducing us to the three kids, then that opening twist that could have just as easily been a home 'invasion' gone wrong that then introduces clones, that then introduces MORE clones...  Yeah, fun stuff there.

The thing with the clones is that they're faster, stronger, smarter, and basically better in every way.  And they all know it.  They see themselves as superior, and want to be the ones to live, replacing the inferior originals.  Usually, it's the clones that are inferior, so it's a nice change up.

The actors do a good job of making the originals and clones different.  That can be a VERY tricky thing for actors, and they do a great job.  You never get confused about which is which, unless they want you to be confused.  Their personalities are distinct, and unique, so basically each person is playing two different characters.

Problems begin to arise when the plot tries to give us backstory, and I don't think it quite achieved that part of storytelling.  They drop bits and pieces here and there, and the narrative never really clicked.  I would've liked a little more time spent with the exposition, but when that takes away from the main focus, that does become problematic.  So it wasn't exactly my favourite way to get the story out, it's understandable why it went that way.

But the cast definitely carries the story through, and it is a fun journey watching both group fight for survival.  The originals wanting to live to continue living, and the dupes wanting their chance at life because they feel they're better.  If not for the clones being a bit homicidal, you can almost feel for them.

Naturally, the clones have the advantage, and since they are clearly on the stabby side, you want the originals to live.  But being the underdogs, the question becomes how, and will everyone make it out alive?  They find some good ways to make it believable that the originals can win, mostly due to being more knowledgable of the world than the clones.  The clones are smarter, but more naive in a way, and less aware of treachery.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone gets out alive, and the movie has a very nice, very dark twist to it, that both really wowed me at just how twisted it was, and made me shake my fist at the screen.  Overall, Cloned was a solid little movie that was a fun ride.  It ended up being very light on the John deLancie, and there's never really any threat from "The Recreator" like the back of the box warns, but oh well.  Taken for what it is, it's worth watching.

Whew, I made it through the entire review without mentioning the clones were created from DNA samples aquired via the home's septic system and were thus pooplicates.

...Shit.

What I'm Watching: Zombieland Pilot

Awhile back, I shared my thoughts on the awesomeness that was Zombieland.  It was widely known that they originally wanted to make a series, hence the Zombie Kill of the Week would've been a real thing, and other little touches.  But that didn't work, and they eventually got it to launch as a theatrical movie.

So, the wheel turns, and we come back around to...Zombieland being made into a possible series!  Go figure.  At Amazon, of all places.  But hey, if they get the tone correct, it's all good, right?

Right?

Well...  How can this feel so wrong and so right at the same time?  I really think the main problem here is the cast.  Now, there was NOOO way they were going to get the movie's cast back, clearly.  And other properties have transitioned well enough from movies to tv with a changed cast, like Stargate.  But Zombieland has SUCH an iconic cast, that it is tough, at least with this first episode, to get over that.  I hope that lessens as time goes by, because I would really hate to be constantly bothered by that.

Because really?  This was good.  This was GOOD.  This was, quite frankly, more Zombieland.  If you were to read the scripts, or if these were two separate chapters of a book, you would go, "Ah, yes.  These are two parts of a whole.  These are both of a piece."  I would be hard pressed to find someone who loved the movie that didn't at least like this, and at least be willing to give it a chance.

The cast is not bad, not really.  But yeah, hard to get by not having Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and the rest.  And it's been awhile since I saw the original, and I know Tallahassee was never the sharpest blade in the scabbard, but did they dumb him down, or is it just me?

I get they're going for comedic effect, and it's like Randall getting a slight IQ downgrade between the Clerks movies and animated series and whatnot.  It's funny to have a guy that's clueless.  And the guy playing Tallahassee was pretty good, and the way they wrote him suited the actor's protrayal, so it all works in the end.

They also did a funny bit opening the episode, which was maybe a little on the slow side but it's easing you in I guess...  But they open up with a joke that ONLY works because they recast the role.  The whole joke is, you don't know the guy, but if you knew this was Tallahassee, FL, then you would know that was who that was!  That is so meta, and pretty brilliant, and a great way to say, "Yes, we know they're not the same actors, live with it."

Little Rock came off as a poor man's Chloe Moretz to me.  And that's not a bad thing.  She was probably the closest to the original actress, in my head.  But being compared to Moretz is a plus, in my book.

I don't really have much to say about Columbus and Wichita, but they did decently enough.  Columbus as our returning narator works well enough, and isn't terribly jarring, which is a plus.

Aside from Tallahassee being dumbed down, Wichita's casting throws me the most.  She is SO different from Emma Stone, but she delivers the lines well, as some decent awkward chemistry with Columbus, and is pretty funny.  So it's the most distracting, but she does a good enough job of both making the role her own, and feeling at home at the same time, that it almost works.  And will surely grow on me if this goes to a series.

But the biggest question I have on the plot side of things...who the fuck is keeping OnStar going in the zombie apocalypse?!  That's almost crazy to me, and almost demands having a story told just to explain the hows and whys, before my suspension of disbelief snaps like a rubber band.

But in short, this is good, VERY good.  Especially for a pilot, and one that has such expectations breathing down its neck.  It hits all the right notes, and has the same tone as the movie.  You get that mix of humour and horror that the movie excelled at, and knows when to switch between the two.  It gets right what it needs to get right, and the stuff it gets wrong can be ironed out.  No pilot is perfect, and while the cast is different, the story remains the same.

Definitely worth checking out, and giving Amazon your feedback.