I began the month with intentions of focusing on SF, but….well. Things got weird. Well, to be honest, they started with Xanadu so they BEGAN weird, but you’ll see.

NOVEMBER

Xanadu, 1980. XANADU! *clap-clap-clap* XANADU!  *clap-clap-clap* XANADU!    Some dude falls in love with Olivia Newton John and meets an old guy on the beach who fell in love with the ageless Olivia Newton John back in the Glenn Miller days, and they decide to open a club that fuses the 1940s and the 1980s together and then they discover that Olivia Newton John is a Greek goddess who is supposed to inspire artists like Some Dude and Glenn Kelly and definitely not fall in love with them. Electric Light Orchestra provides music.  

Dune, Part 2, 2024. The shadows of Arakkis hide many secrets…..  

This is a continuation of Dune, but now Paul and his mother Lady Jessica are accepting their fated role as leaders within the Fremen. They wage war against the Baldheads and their leader ISCREAMINEVERYSINGLESCENE.  Great performances from Timothée Chalamet & Stellan Skarsgård.       

Also, parts of this movie are unintentionally hilarious having watched Life of Brian. 

“I’m not the Mahdi, you understand? HONESTLY!”
“Only the true Mahdi denies his divinity!”
“What sort of chance does THAT give me? All right then, I AM the Mahdi!!”
“He IS the Mahdi!”
“Now bugger off!”

“Hope? We are Bene Gesserit. We don’t hope. We plan.”

Paul: If I go South, all my visions lead to horror. Billions of corpses scattered across the galaxy, all dying because of me.
Gurney: Because you lose control?
Paul: Because I gain it.

Ghost in the Shell, 1995.  An interesting Japanese cyberpunk anime film set in a future where human-machine interfacing is fairly common. Some Japanese detectives are on the trail of a mysterious hacker, but the full story delves into questions of machine intelligence and sentience.  It’s existential SF that’s visually rich, though sometimes the voice work was wooden. Unexpected quotation of I Corinthians. 

Django Unchained, 2012. This appeared on my radar because I was looking for movies in which Christoph Waltz was a dominating presence. Here, he’s sharing the screen with Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson,  but he’s still very much in the game.  Well, for two hours, anyway.  Herr Waltz plays a German bounty hunter who buys a slave played by Jamie Foxx (Django) who can identify the persons of a particularly lucrative bounty:  Waltz’s intention is to set Django free immediately, but he becomes intrigued by the fact that Django has a wife of a German name, one from a powerful German myth, and most of the movie is Waltz und Foxx tracking the woman down and then laboring to free her from Leonardo di Caprio in his first villainous role.  Leo kills it as an eccentric dandy, and now I want to see him in The Great Gatesby. (He had my curiosity, but now he has my attention.)   I am gob-smacked that he did Django,  Wolf of Wall Street, and The Great Gatesby all in a relatively short window of time.  Did not like the gratuitously violent ending or the too-frequent intrusion of rap music in the last hour or so.   There were quite a few historical anachronisms given that this film is set in 1858: the scene with the “Klansmen” arguing over the efficacy of their eyeholes is hilarious, but nonsensical, as is a later scene with someone wearing a Confederate forage cap. (Lots of language in the aforementioned clip.)

“Oh, monsieur, you can’t imagine what it’s like to not hear your native tongue in four years.”
“Hell, I can’t even imagine two weeks in Boston.”

Jumpers, 2008.  A teenager plunges into an ice-cold lake while trying to retrieve a gift for his wannabe girlfriend and, approaching death, finds himself in the local library. He has unwittingly realized an ability to ‘jump’, or teleport, anywhere he wants to go.  He suddenly transforms into Hayden Christianson,  who after eight years or so of traveling the world on money he steals from banks, becomes stalked by Samuel L. Jackson. SLJ is a “Paladin”,  someone who irrationally hates “Jumpers” – Hayden is evidently not alone – and wants to kill them because only God can be omniprescent. Nevermind that Jumpers are not omnipresent, they can only be in one place at one time and transfer from place to place with certain restrictions, but whatever.  It turns into a thriller with Mace Windu  trying to kill young Skywalker before he joins the Dark Side, because he alleges all Jumpers turn to the dark side. 

Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991.    I watched Terminator some years ago, enough that I’ve forgotten most everything but the basic premise and the haunting percussive soundtrack.  Bottom line: in the future,  sentient machines are waging war on humanity and they want to destroy the leader of the resistance by knocking off his mother.  Terminator 2 reintroduces Arnie as The Terminator, a killing machine, but now his former target (the future human rebellion leader John Connor) has reprogrammed some iteration of him to protect John Connor in the past. This is necessary because the machines waging war on humanity have sent back another terminator, this one a shapeshifter,   I didn’t realize how much of this movie has saturated pop culture: I recognized line after line.  While going in I had some doubts – movies that are just chase scenes and supermen bashing the hell out of each other and destroying property bore me, hence why I watch very few superhero movies – this proved far more compelling than predicted. There was one scene where I thought “WOW!  What a great finale!” and then realized – wait a minute, there’s twenty minutes left in this film. Nice twist.  The special effects are crazy for 1991, and it’s replete with  badass reloads. 

All Quiet on the Western Front, 2022. Bloody hell, don’t recommend watching this on the eve of Armistice Day. Also, the Netflix version is dubbed rather than subtitled, so instead of hearing German we see a lot of blokes speaking RP before they get gunned down by other chaps  speaking RP.  Bit disorienting, that, it’s like an Arsenal & Tottenham Hotspur match. Fortunately I was able to find a way to switch to the original German audio with English subtitles, as things should be. Alles in ordnung, ja? …pretty grim movie, I will say. 

The Great Gatesby, 2013. The first 30-40 minutes of this were dreadful,  with so much rap that my original notes include the phrase “someone should literally  be caned”, but once I was an hour or so in the story started taking shape. There may have been some mood whiplash from watching this right after All Quiet on the Western Front, because I went from Serious and Tragic to watching a bunch of richie riches act like fools and would have actively despised them even WITHOUT the rap.   (I will say, though, that the nighttime shots of NYC were gorgeous, especially the street-level perspectives, and the cars were magnificent.)  Do not recommend making a drinking game out of every time Leo says “Old Sport”.   While there was a LOT of spectacle in this, I think one of my favorite scenes was a quiet moment where  Love Interest drops her lighter, then Leo picks it up and lights her up and everyone is staring like yep, we definitely recognize this allusion to sexual chemistry. 

St. Vincent, 2014. Bill Murray is a broke misanthropic ….widower? with a drinking problem.  Then the house next door to him gets a single mom and her kid, Oliver.  Insert Man Called Ove plot, only instead of being a very functional grump, Bill is more of a dysfunctional lush whose bond with Oliver no one understands. I love almost any movie Bill is in, and of course readers know I am an absolute sucker for the “curmudgeon is recalled to life” trope. This one is more gritty than Ove or say, Frank and Red:   Murray’s character is deep in hock to loan sharks and has gambling, prostitution, drinking and cigarette addictions.  However….as the movie progresses, we realize there’s more to Bill’s story than meets the eye: it’s a tough, tear-terking tale that turns out wonderfully sweet.  A very me movie, I will say. 

Priest: I’m a Catholic, which is the best of all religions, because we have the most rules. 
Me:  IS THIS THE GUY FROM THE IT CROWD? I need him to tell someone to turn their device off and back on again. (It was.) 

Oliver: I’m small, sir, if you haven’t noticed.
Bill:   Yeah? So was Hitler.
Oliver: ….that’s a horrible comparison.

Mom, watching dancer/prostitute: Is that……[Bill’s] baby?
Oliver: I prefer to stay away from the whole situation. 

Oliver: What’s [Bill] like when I’m not around?
Daka: He don’t like people. People don’t like him. Except cat. And you. Why you like him?

Edge of Tomorrow, 2014. 

Me: I’m giving a movie called Edge of Tomorrow a taste.
Movie Friend: Never heard of it.
Me, 20 minutes later: It’s….Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day. 

 Europe has been invaded and taken over by hostile alien immigrants. Mad-Eye Moony is sending Tom Cruise and an army of  Mechtroopers to do a little reconquista. Cruise is not an action badass, though: he’s a soft-handed PR flak who now gets to prove that with the mechsuits, even an untrained newbie could kill hundreds. I was on the fence about watching this, but when I saw that the late, great Bill Paxton was in this, I had to give it a shot. It gets…..weirder, though. When Cruise (inevitably) gets killed, he finds himself the day before Operation Downfall..again  – and again, and again, and with each replay he starts using his foreknowledge to get further. It gets deeper than just “Tom Cruise basically does what video gamers do”, though, as Cruise encounters someone else who has had this experience and works with him.   I hadn’t watched any trailers – my chain of thought was “Mm, SF, hmm- oo! Bill Paxton!” – so I was REALLY surprised by the early twist and thoroughly entertained.  Interestingly, this was evidently based on a Japanese novel.  Loved Bill Paxton in every scene.

Paxton:  Haven’t you heard? We’re T-minus haul ass, it’s H-hour!

Cruise: Master Sergeant. You’re an American.
Bill Paxton: No suh. I am from Kentucky.
Me:  ❤ ❤ ❤

Cruise: It doesn’t need to fly. It just needs to get us across that gap with speed.
Me: You feel the need. The need for speed. (And…I was imitating Emily Blunt imitating Tom Cruise, to be honest.)

Source Code, 2011. Jake Gyllanhal is an Airborne officer rescued from a disastrous mission in Afghanistan to find himself in a strange cell, where he’s told he has been selected for a top-secret project. The DoD has found a way to cast a personality into an echo of the past so that vital information can be gleaned to understand what happened during disasters, and to pursue those responsible. Gyllanhal repeatedly relives the same eight minutes on a commuter train, each time trying to find where a bomb is, and who the bomber was – because the bomber may very well strike again. It gets much more interesting than that, though,  and I can’t say how because of spoilers, but it ends on a sweet note. I was also much amused to see product placement for Bing, and this movie reminds me how much I REALLY miss seeing Jake and Maggie G. in movies.

The Time Machine, 2002.    Jeremy Irons!…for like two minutes. There are other actors, and HG Wells The Time Machine happens, sort of, but in New York and with some kind of lunar apocalypse instead of class struggle. The main story, set in 800K or so,  had a disappointing execution of the Eloi. The book had them to be small creatures, almost like children – but here they look like Polynesians.  The Orcs – er, I mean, the Morlocks – at least look like their ogre-like descriptions in Wells’ original.  This is an extremely loose adaptation of The Time Machine, and disappointing on that mark –  but it had its visual moments and  Jeremy Irons, so all’s right with the world. Nice music, too. 

“What are your people called?”
“New Yorkers, I guess.”
“‘New Yorkers’. Are they friendly?”
“Until you talk to them.” 

The Last Castle, 2001. Superb drama with James Gandfolini, Robert Redford, and a young Mark Ruffalo.  A general (Redford)  with a legendary reputation – who was famously tortured in Hanoi but refused early release to remain with his men – is the newest prisoner of a military prison.   Gandolfini, the commandant, is immediately torn with admiration for the man, plus his professional need to treat him like any other prison – including abject humiliation. Redford, though, is something of a Stoic, and I am certain Admiral James Stockdale was the inspiration for him.  Redford, by personal example and admonition, urges the men to be true to the best in themselves, to comport themselves with dignity.  There’s a moving scene where the men gather in formation and sing the USMC fight song in honor of a prisoner who stood on principle and was shot down in cold-blooded murder. Disgusted by Gandfolini’s treatment of the men, Redford moves to take over the prison in an effort have Gandfolini removed from his post as per the Military Code of Justice. (Losing control of your prison =  update your resume, sport.)  I don’t think I’ve seen Redford in anything else, but I believe I will now.  I do have….questions, like HOW DID PRISONERS BUILD A TREBUCHET?     One of ending scenes – of Old Glory rising above fire and ruins – gave me shudders. This came out five weeks after September 11, when similar shots could have been taken at Ground Zero. 

“Why are you movin’ if I have checkmate in five moves?”
“Because I have checkmate in three.” 

“Frankly, general, I think he’s losing the plot. He’s become weak and pathetic.”
“You may want to watch your word choice. That ‘weak’ and ‘pathetic’ man put these stars on my shoulder.”

Hoosiers, 1986. Gene Hackman.  That’s all I needed.  This one was a bit of a struggle for me: I had Bill Kauffman’s recommendation, but I know nothing about basketball. I’ve seen plenty of football and baseball games, all the way from high school to the professionals (in the case of baseball, in person), but never a single basketball game. Based on a true story of a small town school winning the state championship, and according to TvTropes the movie’s announcers were the same guys who did the real-world announcing, both in person and on radio.

Student: Progress. Progress is electricity. School consolidation –
Me: BOO!

The Taking of Pelham 123, 2009.  Continuing my march through James Gandolfini’s works. This film features John Travolta, who takes a subway passenger car hostage;  Denzel Washington is forced to transform from transportation communicator into a hostage negotiator; and Gandolfini is the mayor of NYC who was done with this job before psychos threatened to kill a carload of people. The interplay that develops between Travolta and Washington is fascinating character drama.  Also, train drama!
”

Denzel Washington: “A good Catholic would know he’s got a trainload of innocent people.”
Ryder, with a Y. Ryder:  “A good Catholic would know that no one is innocent. And I’m not going to kill all these hostages, I’d give up my leverage!

Mayor Gandolfini: Ten million dollars! Where do they get these numbers?
Mook: That’s the limit,  sir.  You sign a request to the city controller, he forwards it to our lenders, cash gets released by the Federal Reserve. Limit is ten million.
Mayor Gandfolfini: Some idiot with a gun wouldn’t know that. I didn’t know that.
Mook: ….you’re very busy, sir.
Gandolfini: How do YOU know that? 

Mook:  This is a leadership moment, sir.
Mayor Gandolfini: I’m not running for reelection. I’m not running for president. I left my Rudy Giulani suit at home.
Mook: You’re being selfish. It will take 30 seconds to reassure them.

Travolta: I told you, man. I told you. We all owe God a death.
Washington: I don’t know what you owe God, but you can’t pay it in cash.

The Taking of Pelham 123, 1979. Walter Mathau is grumpy old man who is a lieutenant in the NYPD and has to deal with a bunch of lads with mustaches taking over a train.There’s a Carrie Fisher doppelganger and a young Thomas Sowell doppelganger present as hostages. Some WTC footage, all background.  Compared to the 2009 version, I’d say this is a better action movie, even if 2009 is a better character drama. 

Walter Matthau: And right in here is our operations manager, Rico Patrone, who on the weekends works for the Mafia. Rico, why don’t you tell them some of our more exciting recent news?
Rico Patrone: Well, we thought we had a bomb scare. It turned out to be a cantaloupe. 

Passenger:  I’m sorry, sir, but shouldn’t we passengers be let in on what’s going on?
Gangster: What’s happening, sir, is that you are being held hostage by four very dangerous men. Do what you’re told and nothing will happen to you.
Passenger 2: That’s what they told me in Vietnam and I still got my ass shot full of lead. 

Mayor: All I know is I am the mayor of the city of New York, the second-most important elected office in the entire country, and you’re telling me I have to suffer like any common schlub?!
Nurse: I’m sorry you have the flu, mister Mayor.

Cop: WHY DON’T YOU TAKE A AIRPLANE HOSTAGE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE?
Hood: BECAUSE WE’RE AFRAID OF FLYIN!

Cop: I’m only 20 yards away from the train. The supervisor’s been shot with a machine gun.
Bigger Cop: Is he dead?
Cop: Wouldn’t you be? 

Mayor’s Assistant: Everyone’s on the way. But there’s no good running to them, Al. You’re the Mayor, the buck stops with you.
Mayor:  Oh, ****.
Mayor’s assistant: God help us.

. 

Nonstop, 2014.  Liam Neeson is an air marshall on a plane (instead of a boat, that would be weird) who starts getting text messages that threaten the passengers unless money is paid. After sussing how who he thinks it is – his fellow anonymous air marshall – things happen and Neeson finds himself under suspicion by everyone as The Baddie. It’s quite good as character drama, because the viewer’s suspicions and antagonisms will change throughout the film.  There are probably technical liberties taken, but I for one was on the edge of my seat.  The movie’s end has….quite the twist. 

There were a lot of minor actors in this I noticed, like Lady Mary and That Guy From West Wing, Or Was it House of Cards? AND ANSON MOUNT! I didn’t realize it was him without the vertical hair. It was very nice seeing Lady Mary again, especially since she wasn’t constantly spitting venom at Lady Edith. (I’m pretty sure it was House of Cards, by the way: I associate the character with events too grim to have been in West Wing.)

The Commuter, 2018. Liam Neeson just can’t win with public transportation. He stumbles into a conspiracy where again, the conspirators have targeted him specifically so he has no choice but to cooperate.   Again, lots of bonus actors: Lady Crowley and Mike Ehrmentraut.  “Ehrmentraut’s” appearance is especially funny because he refers to the MC as Walt. Also, Sam Neil from Jurassic Park: I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything besides JP. Unstoppable is a better train mechanics movie, but I liked this. Again, I am sure there are technical errors and silliness galore, but it worked

FBI Mook:  He was your cousin? Tell me what you saw.
Me:   People just spent two hours trying to  kill this person, WHY ARE YOU INTERVIEWING [THEM] OUT IN THE OPEN AIR?