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Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Your Above Average M. Night Movie
Which might be damning with faint praise, but I enjoyed this movie despite its flaws.
The funny thing is that, thinking about it, there aren't really any spoilers to this movie, and perhaps that's it biggest benefit. It's a smooth, uneasy story that slowly shows its hand, but also in some aspects of the narrative keeps its cards very close to its vest, right up to the last shot.
As I say, though, Knock at the Cabin also has flaws. Pretty big ones. The one that continually struck me through the movie were the actions and reactions by the couple to these intruders into their lives. I kept wondering when they would ask "Who are you people?" "What do you want?". But the two show little interest in figuring out what's actually happening, and why. Sure, you might expect them to be fairly silent out of shock during the initial assault, but as the movie continues, their actions (or inactions) and motivations remain stubbornly frustrating.
But then, you have what can only be described as a mesmerizing performance by Dave Bautista playing against type as the quiet, concerned ring leader of this band of disparate people with mysterious motivations terrorizing a seemingly innocent family. Bautista is a study in condradiction: a towering hulk covered in tattoos who expresses real, crippling regret at what he has to do.
Knock at the Cabin is very much worth a watch. It breezes along at a tight pace, with compelling acting and an uncompromising story that doesn't treat you like an idiot, needing to have information and explanations spoon fed to you. Take a trip to this cabin and enjoy the ride.
The Outer Limits: Dark Matters (1995)
Probably the First Great Episode of the 90's Outer Limits
Considering the 90's redo of The Outer Limits... I think the first episode of the series that I really appreciated was 'Dark Matters', which came 11 episodes into the first season. In my opinion, a show that takes that long to produce a truly interesting and enjoyable episode is probably on shaky ground. But still, it took Star Trek: The Next Generation an entire first season before it found its space legs, so there you go.
Speaking of Trek, the plot of this OL episode is one that can be found in a multitude of Trek shows: a crew of a space freighter get trapped in a strange, starless void where other ships have become imprisoned, physics go out the window and the dead can find no peace. It feels like the best kind of science fiction story, where the particulars of space travel are dealt with, but it also studies the humanity of the people who travel out into it.
'Dark Matters' features John Heard, an actor I always appreciate watching. Less so with the female lead, Annette O'Toole. I always find her a bit wooden in her roles: she's an actor you can actually see trying to act, which is not a good look for someone trying to breathe life into a character. When you place your characters into fantastic situations, you need rock solid performances to ground your audience and make the far-fetched seem plausible. O'Toole and the other weak link in the cast, Micheal Dolan as the spiritual crew member Rob, sabotage the episode somewhat.
Still though, 'Dark Matters' as a whole represents a solid episode of the series, exploring the dangers of space travel... and the darker recesses of the human heart.
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020)
Not As Agonizingly Terrible as You Might Expect
Think of the 93-year history of television. That's probably something north of 23,000 shows aired. And know, considering all that, that Tawny Newsome has, as Ensign Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks, voiced the most annoying character in television history. I'm sure, if she happened to read this, she would be proud to hear that. In the YouTuber age, the level of loud, rapid-fire manic inanity that you can reach is your metric for success.
Still, Lower Decks has some pluses. These days, as a Star Trek fan, you hold on to whatever tiny little sliver of whatever microscopic feeling of Trek the producers deign to keep in these new Star Trek shows, and this one actually captures the vibe of TNG pretty well. And considering that TNG is the very best of Trek, this serves Lower Decks well.
Most Importantly, the show succeeds where all good Trek shows must: in its portrayal of humanity, and the lessons it must learn as it continues to explore both its own potential and the realms of outer space.
This episode has heart. Both literally and figuratively .
Star Trek: Voyager: Endgame (2001)
After Seven Years, One Last Human Failure
There won't be any spoilers in this review; End Game already spoils the entire series enough. I guess there's one spoiler, which I'm sure you've figured out.... they get back home.
In this episode, you have a lot of Borg rigamarole and transwarp corridors. But the most important thing that should have been handled in this series finale, the human ramifications of finally getting back home, is completely cut off with the ending. You could almost say that they DON'T really make it to home, but just to within sight of Earth. There is absolutely no conclusion of any crew setting foot back on the planet. It is, without a doubt, one of the most anticlimactic endings to any series. Even the Sopranos had more of a point with its cut to black.
Here's what should have happened. Skip the actual episode and imagine this:
The bridge crew beams to Starfleet HQ. Admiral Owen Paris steps forward, looking at his grand-daughter in B'Elanna's arms. Tom steps forward to shake his hand. Admiral Paris takes his son in an embrace.
Ensign Kim is made a Lt. After getting his pips, he is embraced by his parents. His mother pats him and says "You really have lost weight. Come, I'll make you some Mandu." As they turn away she asks if he's kept up with his saxophone lessons. "Why didn't you meet a nice girl on-board..." is heard fading as they walk away.
Finally, a button on the series. Chakotay and Seven are picnicing on a patch of grass in Crissy Field, the Golden Gate Bridge stretched out behind them. Captain Janeway joins them. They express their gratitude at her leadership and the hard choices she has made on the journey. Janeway demurs.... but in that moment, her two greatest accomplishments from her ordeal in the Delta Quadrant have come to fruition. She has joined the Maquis with the Federation in Chakotay, and has liberated Seven from the Borg and guided her to her humanity.
The sun shines down on them, and the rooted bridge in the background.
{CREDITS}
THIS IS AN ENDING TO A SERIES. Instead of all the goofy mystery and "What the Hell is going on" BS in the first third of the episode, you open with Admiral Janeway chased by Klingons through the rift she has made. You throw in some exposition for explanation as they rig their escape as shown in the episode. Then you end the series with the 5 minutes or so I have described. And instead of a deeply unsatisfying and abrupt ending, you have a proper and necessary culmination of seven years of Voyager. Is the point the journey instead of the destination? Not when it comes to the narrative conclusion of a dramatic series. No. Considering this is what they managed, they really should have just left Voyager in the Delta Quadrant.
Star Trek: Voyager: Friendship One (2001)
Dumb Motivations Used to Support Lame Plot
I won't go into a detailed plot synopsis, suffice to say that Voyager is sent to investigate a lost Earth probe, eventually finding it in the hands of survivors of a doomed civilization that used technology from the probe to eventually destroy itself.
By far the most interesting aspect of this episode is the fact that it is the first Federation mission assigned to Voyager after being lost in the Delta quadrant. As for the rest of it, the motivations of the alien race (yes, yet another hominid species with some facial appliances stuck to their faces) are nonsensical. So, you found this probe and mishandled the tech and you're blaming people 300 years later? Dumb. These aliens would make great Catholics, with their original sin.
Boil it down to the actions of the alien leader and he seems even more stupid. Voyager ambles along, demonstrates that, even though they acknowledge that Earth could be seen as partially culpable for their plight, they want to do their best to correct the terrible ramifications... and he does his level best to thwart Voyager's every move to help them. If you had the right actors, who could maybe sell the idea that the aliens have been driven insane by their plight, this idea might work. But the people they hired aren't those actors, so all you think while you watch this episode is "Why the Hell is he doing that?!?!". Why? Because script, that's why.
Outside of the idea of finally being able to carry out Federation-issued plot lines, skip this lame attempt at a morality tale
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Planet of the Slave Girls (1979)
Middling Science Fiction Pap
To give you an idea of how pedestrian (and badly edited) this program is: While watching it with my 13 year-old son, there is a cut from a bubbling lava pit to a campfire in the desert. My son and I both agreed that this was the best edit in the show.
Bombshell (2019)
A Bombshell, This Is Not
This movie certainly describes sexual harassment in general and at Fox News in particular, but doesn't really comment on it or enlighten us on the subject.
It's fun to watch Charlize Theron give such a spot-on impression of Megyn Kelly, and hilarious to gape at John Lithgow chewing up the scenery, unrecognizable as Roger Ailes. But one can't help feel that in the age of #metoo, this movie has surprisingly little of consequence to say except a mere retelling of what happened in the toxic atmosphere of Fox News. It's as soulless as the culture it attempts to skewer.
Star Trek: Voyager: Pathfinder (1999)
Hurray for Barclay, Boo! for Bad Plot Motivations
It's always great to see stuttering, socially awkward Reg Barclay in an episode.
Unfortunately, the forced character motivations hamstring the episode and keep it from becoming a really quality Voyager outing. Barclay has become obsessed with Voyager's plight (perhaps because they are stranded alone in the Delta quadrant, and he is stranded alone inside his hopelessly cringey social ineptness). He has developed a theoretical method of creating a singularity and using it to establish 2-way communications with Voyager. But his commanding officer, who otherwise seems patient and rational, refuses to allow Barclay to test this theory, or even to recommend it to higher-ups in Starfleet.
The burning question when watching this episode is then: WHY? Why wouldn't they let Barclay try? By all accounts throughout the story, there is absolutely no ramifications to trying... except to reach the stranded Voyager and finally establish full comms with them. One, of course, knows why this stubbornness exists.... to create drama as artificial as Barclay's wormhole! To make him struggle and finally prevail.... over nothing, really.
This really makes what is a watershed moment in the show a, well, a hollow pursuit.
Star Trek: Voyager: Unforgettable (1998)
Unforgivable casting mistake
This is not a bad episode. Tonally it's on point, dealing with the ephemeral nature of love and attraction.
The problem is the terrible casting of Chakotay's love interest. To describe her as wooden is an insult to forests.
This might be forgivable, but for the fact that she also has all the warmness and charm of a block of ice. The chemistry between Beltran and her registers at around absolute zero. A pretty tough hurdle to get over when they are supposed to fall in love multiple times.
In other words, forget it.
Await Further Instructions (2018)
Missed It by THAT Much
This is an interesting premise, quite competently done. It also has the benefit of excellent, realistic performances and it nails the dysfunction and buried resentments found in all families.
The problem, found in a lot of these Netflix movies of the fantastic, is that it just can't stick the landing. I won't get much more into it for spoilers, suffice it to say that at least the journey is worth your time, if not quite the destination.
How It Ends (2018)
They Should Have Put a Question Mark at the End of the Title
Because that's what you'll ask in disbelief when the credits roll. Is this... how it ends?
3/4 of the film is a serviceable end-of-the-world, survival-of-the-fittest tale. Forest Whitaker and the other lead are good together... they create an interesting chemistry and the movie is deft in how the two grow... you can't really say grow closer to each other, but they do develp a fondness and understanding for the other person.
But towards the end, things start to slide off the rails, the expected awkwardness between the two lead characters is replaced by just plain awkwardness in the acting and character motivations, and as others have said the ending isn't there. Literally.
How it ends? The scriptwriter asked the same question to himself, but it was 11:45 in the morning, so he just slapped {CREDIT ROLL} after the last parapraph he had written and went for Burger King.
The Beyond (2017)
A Mishmash of Lousy Worldbuilding
My biggest problem with this movie is how it tries to have things both ways with the "near future" world it tries to build. It's close enough so mankind still has familiar problems to deal with, but we're also talking about incredibly sophisticated cyborgs and brain goddamn transplants.
Mix that with a tired fake documentary feel and a go-nowhere plot, and you have an SF movie you can definitely skip past on Netflix.
The Twilight Zone: The Incredible World of Horace Ford (1963)
Subject to the Worst Foibles of the One Hour Twilight Zones
Pat Hingle is a lot of fun to watch as he exuberantly chews scenery, but the entire episode exhibits the worst faults of the extended 4th season episodes. His visits to his boyhood street are repeated and repeated, all coming to naught. And the final resolution brings us right back around to the beginning with no lasting impact. Avoid this episode when you review the series.
The Innocents (1961)
Unsettling
The Innocents definitely lives up to its reputation as a truly unsettling movie along the lines of the original The Haunting. The spooky shenanigans that go on are subtle, but possess a powerful impact.
The movie tells the tale of a governess who, given full control by a distracted uncle saddled with two precocious kids, begins to fear that their remote mansion and the grounds it lies on are haunted, and more. The real key to the movie is the continually broached question of whether or not our heroine is truly battling otherworldly spirits, or simply increasingly dangerous delusions from her own mind.
The film refuses to hedge its bets one way or the other, right up to the rather abrupt ending. This uncompromising vision makes for a slightly frustrating experience, but is a much better approach than what you get nowadays, which would be a neat twist that confirms things one way or the other. The Innocents really demands repeat viewings, where the nuances of the story truly start to shine through.
Although there are weak points, such as the occasional flagging pace, the uncomfortable performance of lead Deborah Kerr and the inscrutable motives of the uncle, the film still holds a lasting fascination for viewers prepared to catch its meaning from the corner of their eye.
WarGames (1983)
Fun film from the early days of computer hacking
WarGames, a sort of Dr. Strangelove for the Pac-Man generation, has been one of my favorite films since I first saw it at the theatre 15 years ago, not the least of reasons being that it was a movie way ahead of its time. Back when a modem was far from the standard computer component it is today, WarGames delves headlong into hacker culture, personified by the wily but naive ubergeek David Lightman, wonderfully played by an impossibly young Matthew Broderick.
While trying to hack into a new computer games company, Lightman accidentally infiltrates the computers at NORAD and brings the world to the brink of nuclear war. With the government out to get him, Lightman must undo what he has unleashed before the missiles start flying.
Broderick and a relentlessly perky Ally Sheedy deliver two great unaffected performances, surrounded by a rogue's gallery of supporting adults such as Dabney Coleman in full jerk mode as NORAD systems specialist John McKittrick, and Northern Exposure's Barry Corbin as the corn pone euphemism-prone General Beringer. Another must-mention performance comes from English actor John Wood, who's elusive Professor Stephen Falken speaks of the insanity of nuclear arms and the fallibility of the computers who watch over mankind.
It certainly takes a stretch of the imagination to believe everything that Lightman gets away with, and you keep wondering during the final third why the people in charge keep falling for the same computerized chicanery. However, WarGames weaves its reality with a sense of wonder and fun, allowing us to happily overlook its technical and logical shortcomings. And no other movie made since has so realistically (and lovingly) portrayed computers and the people who love/hate them, allowing techies and people who mistake CD-ROM drives for cupholders alike to enjoy the proceedings. Occasionally, you'll hear talk about a WarGames II movie involving the original scriptwriting team of Lasker and Parkes...let's hope they can repeat the success in a v.2 .
The Dead Zone (1983)
Note to film studios: This is how King movies should be made.
Definitely one of the best movie adaptations of a Stephen King novel, along with Kubrick's The Shining and DePalma's Carrie. King himself considers this one of the best, for the same reason I do...it uses cinematic conventions to actually improve aspects of the original story, a rarity when it comes to filming books. Canadian director David Cronenberg understates the story, and except for one spectacular suicide scene refrains from his usual visceral horror approach to storytelling. He captures the same small-town tone of King's writing, and the great Christopher Walken delivers an amazing acting job as the tortured John Smith, a school teacher who's aspirations are robbed from him in a car accident that sends him into a coma for five years. He awakes to find his legs crippled, his fiancé married to another man and his job long gone.
But he has received something in return...a psychic bond with whoever he touches. Also notable is Martin Sheen, who's performance as lunatic politician Greg Stillson is one of the best of his career. Topping it all off is a fantastic climax that wraps up the entire story in even better fashion that the original novel. No matter if you're a fan of King or Cronenberg, check out this rare beast, a movie that almost outdoes its literary equivalent.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
The ontogenetic mystique of Mr. Don Knotts
A certifiable cinematic monument to hilarity, featuring the luminous and statesmanlike, comic wunderkind and international treasure Don Knotts at his farcical apex. This caustic and underrated masterpiece has Knotts portraying a hopelessly humiliated newspaper journalist named Luther Heggs. Accompaning Knotts' towering and tempestuous dramatization is an array of colourful characters creating a palate of almost unattainable perfection. Within the film's highly complex framework, Knotts produces a dazzlingly intricate performance of rare perception; at once vigorously innocent and yet cunningly aware. The nefarious underpinnings of a jaundiced society are mercilessly exposed in this pre-Vietnam era neo-realistic dissertation on mankind's scurrilous primal instincts. Other superlative Knottsian achievments include The Love God? and The Reluctant Astronaut.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
How I learned to stop worrying and love Kubrick.
Without a doubt one of the greatest comedies of all time. Probably the strongest testament to the brilliance of this film is the fact that even though it was made over 30 years ago, the film does not seem dated at all and its various comments on the insanity of nuclear war are just as relevant as when it was first released. Sellers delivers an absolute tour-de-force acting job in his triple role as bumbling US president Muffley, the stuffy-yet-courageous Col. Mandrake, and the lunatic genius Strangelove. And as with all great films, the supporting characters are just as strong, including George C. Scott as gung-ho commie-hating General "Buck" Turgidson, and Slim Pickens as patriotic redneck bomber pilot Major Kong. Strangelove, like all of Kubrick's masterpieces, just gets better and better upon repeat viewing. Do yourself a favour and check this one out.
And take care of your precious bodily fluids! POE