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My score: 8/10. Damien Riley’s Audio review of the film “Barracuda” (2017). This is a great thriller! The music was so so but it worked to serve the plot. As a thriller/drama, this film gets 8/10 with me. There is nothing so much fun as a great thriller. There’s also a bit of mystery to figure out as well. Now streaming on Amazon Prime. Listen to my review here.
1h 40min | Drama, Music, Thriller | 11 March 2017 (USA)
With Prime Video
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A strange woman comes to Texas to meet her half-sister and stake a claim to the family music legacy-one way or another.
Directors: Jason Cortlund, Julia Halperin
Writer: Jason Cortlund
Stars: Allison Tolman, Sophie Reid, JoBeth Williams
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Ridley Scott has said numerous times that this is decidedly not a prequel to the Alien franchise. I would say that is a somewhat misleading statement. It takes place in the same Alien universe with the same sorts of life forms only other species thereof. This could be considered a prequel that requires another movie to really explain what is going on in the Alien movie itself. Furthermore, there is an alien creature at the end that is a child version of the ones we know so well from the franchise. Listen to my audio review of Prometheus:
Prometheus takes us back to the time before Ridley Scott’s Alien. It fills in a few gaps for us as fans of the franchise and opens all sorts of curious new doors. It stars a relative newcomer who really packs a punch in her role. The actress who plays the tough and sexy Elizabeth Shaw, Noomi Rapace, is well known for playing Lisbeth Salandeteen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series (Swedish version). Other actors with outstanding performances include Logan Marshall-Green, known for Devil, and Michael Fassbender as the android.
The movie starts out slowly though it reveals some truly amazing cinematography of Saturn and other parts of the universe in the story. In the beginning a human-like creature drinks a poisonous mixture and the special effects of his demise pull you in right away. There are, in fact, some really gruesome scenes in this movie. No special effect is spared when actors are taken out, Alien anyone? Still, despite the obvious resuscitation of an old sci-fi hit, Prometheus has a lot of treats all its own not the least of which being the question of how we came to be as a species. This movie says that aliens created us then decided they’d made a mistake, and then made aliens to wipe us out. It’s actually a pretty interesting premise, though it sounds really simplistic now as I write it.
Here’s a summary: The crew of a ship named Prometheus are heading to another planet that has some of the features of Earth and is able to sustain life. When they get there they find cave drawings and dead bodies of ancient creatures that died around 2,000 years prior. One cool piece of trivia is that the cave paintings are derived from and include some of the actual cave paintings from Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. In discovering these giant caverns, they set off dormant life that was meant to destroy humanity. This was not the life of their creators but rather created beings to destroy humanity. It is evident that “the engineers” or, those who created humans didn’t really care much about us and in fact decided we were destroying Earth’s environment to we therefore needed taking out.
There is a token android on board along with a bunch of men and women that are almost identical in character to those in the Alien movie. After a lot of gratuitous violence meant to show the aliens truly hate people, Elizabeth Shaw discovers as one of the last living crew members that she must destroy a disembarking ship designed to kill all life on Earth. She manages to destroy it with the self-sacrifice of a few of the remaining crew who die. In the end, Elizabeth takes off with the severed head of an android (?) and sets out to “search” for the engineers. The movie isn’t over before an alien is “birthed” in the usual way. As I said, there are a lot of commonalities between Prometheus and the Alien movies.
Final Thoughts
In the final analysis, Prometheus is a visually stunning, well crafted and well acted movie. It starts slowly but when it picks up it is the ride of ones life. I haven’t seen a sci-fi this exciting and enjoyable since … well, since Alien. All the questions I ever had about Alien were answered here. Well, all except one: will there be a second prequel to catch us up to the beloved sci-fi horror film we know and love so much?
My score: 7/10. Interstellar brought in a new sub-genre of sci-fi we can call “oddity.” “I Origins” fits into that category I think because there is a whole lot of oddity going on here. Most of it is interesting and intriguing but there are times I have to admit the details were lost on me.
I Origins (2014)
R | 1h 46min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi | 19 September 2014 (South Africa)
A molecular biologist and his laboratory partner uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.
Director: Mike Cahill
Writer: Mike Cahill
Stars: Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey
The director gave us “Another Earth” which is also a sort of dreamy sci-fi netherworld. I don’t think all things in his films are meant to be understood but rather felt. Retina photos are like fingerprints which allow a scientist to identify people anywhere in the world. That, in fact, is where this film takes him as he studies and makes conclusions based on people’s eyes.
I thought things were jumping around in time but discovered there is only some of that going on. This film will require your full concentration to get what is happening. At the same time, if you open yourself up to the film, I think you will be pleased with it and its final result. Because it will not appeal to traditional audiences who prefer more simple answers, it loses a couple of points. Still, I did enjoy it but understand it does require your full attention until the end. 7/10.
My score: 5/10. The time I feared has come: millennials are making movies. This is a hodgepodge of backgrounds as reasons to give Noël Wells a stage for her brand of humor. It’s a knock off from Zoe Deschanel but not as funny. This film is now streaming on Netflix.
Mr. Roosevelt (2017)
R | 1h 30min | Comedy | 22 November 2017 (USA)
After a loved one falls ill, 25-year-old struggling comedian Emily Martin returns to her college town of Austin, Texas and must come to terms with her past while staying with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend.
Director: Noël Wells
Writer: Noël Wells
Stars: Noël Wells, Nick Thune, Britt Lower
There is a lot wrong here but let’s start with the basics: if you put a talent in the lead role don’t rely on her talent alone. There HAS to be a story to showcase what she does. She was in “Master of None” and my wife who saw it tells me she was cute and did well. From what I have seen of the show, which isn’t much, there is a story intertwining the episodes together. It also features a comic, Aziz Ansari.
Let’s look at a perfect example of how to get a comic noticed in a film: “The Big Sick.” I will say there is some good writing in this in the way of jokes. I caught myself laughing several times so there’s that. But as a whole the plot is not believable having her go live with her ex who she dumped so she can attend her old cat’s funeral. That’s just not a good premise. Apparently they disagreed because they named the film after the dead cat.
I will certainly look for more from Noël Wells and she isn’t bad altogether but she has a long way to go to write, direct, and star in a film as she does in this one. Humility my dear. I understand many will praise her for her bravery in taking on all roles. Ok but there is a point where bravery becomes just a reckless bad idea like jumping off a cliff into a waterfall in front of millions … topless. 5/10.
Science and passion were the cornerstones of the original Wonder Woman comic. A Professor and his wife hired an assistant and the Professor observed them to get inspired to write Wonder Woman.
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
R | 1h 48min | Biography, Drama | 13 October 2017 (USA)
The story of psychologist William Moulton Marston, and his polyamorous relationship with his wife and their mistress who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman.
Director: Angela Robinson
Writer: Angela Robinson
Stars: Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote
The Christian groups don’t like what is happening here. They question the Professor and take him to task on these actions in the comic strip. She appears to be doing forbidden, submissive and/or dominant acts but he contends that is ridiculous. Kind of like now, the church attacked creativity and science that was intended to help humankind. The tension between the church and knowledge is prevalent in this film.
One thing I did not know about this real life story is that he invented the lie detector. He wasn’t just some ne’er thee well spinning his wheels writing a dirty comic book. He was a scholar. My favorite part in the film is the end when they show actual photos of these figures. This film started a bit slow but after all I liked it very much. I gave it an 8/10.
These are 4 great films I highly enjoyed! I hope you enjoy this audio review post. Listen at the player below. See you next time. I’m currently posting on Mondays and Thursdays.
Hey there readers and listeners! This is my output for Monday 4/7/2018. “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women,” “Upstream Color,” “Headless,” & “The Female Brain.” I put a little teaser audio of Phil Hendrie’s humor. He appears in a very small role in “The Femal Brain.” The guy is a comedic genius on the radio.
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