Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Dick Tracy (1990) Re-Visit

 

The 1990 version of Dick Tracy from director/star Warren Beatty has a lot going for it that I think people have ignored over the years. The look of this movie is impressive, coming years before the innovation of CGI that would make movies like this much more typical. This film uses a very simple color palette to make the comic strips from the Sunday funny papers come to life as a motion picture.

Warren Beatty probably remembered the comics fondly from his childhood which explains why he finds Dick Tracy a compelling character. I read the comics as well but I mostly knew Dick Tracy from the cartoons that played during the 1960s. Because those cartoons featured ethnically questionable characters, it is rare to find them easily available. Beatty did the right thing by leaving out all of those sidekicks from the cartoons and sticking with the villains who are cartoonish in the first place.

The movie also features Madonna, who sings three or four of the songs, and does a great job vamping it up as a femme fatale in what is basically a children's cartoon. That is except for the one sheer black nightgown that she's wearing which leaves little to the imagination and would certainly justify dad accompanying the children to see this movie in a theater. They're also some risqué lines that are delivered by Madonna and to which Beatty's character of Dick Tracy seems nonplussed. It's a lot of fun and full of cliches, but still spectacular looking with the photography and the production design.

People may forget that Al Pacino got an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor in his role as Big Boy Caprice in this movie. Pacino appears under a thick layer of makeup and an exaggerated bodysuit that makes him look thicker and nearly a hunchback in his role as the mobster who wants to run the city. This is one of those roles where the actor hams it up and gets away with it because of the nature of the film. I was happy to see Pacino get honored, but there's so much about this film that is enjoyable that he is not the only reason to see it.

It may be the Warren Beatty fell in love with shooting machine guns when he made "Bonnie and Clyde" back in 1967, and he still hasn't gotten over the thrill of pointing a Tommy Gun in the direction of things you want to destroy and pulling the trigger. This movie is full of gangsters and cops who arm themselves with this weapon from 1930s gangster films, and then go out at it in a largely bloodless outcome but with lots of explosions. In the wake of "Batman" the year before, I'm sure the studio was looking for a Hero film with spectacular visuals, and they almost got it. When Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy swings around and his yellow top coat flies open at the waist as he points his Tommy Gun in the direction of criminals who are shooting at him, it's a perfect trailer moment.

A terrific Glen Headley played Tess Trueheart, Tracy's love interest, and she is really under playing it in comparison to both Beatty and Madonna. She feels like a real character from a 1930s screwball comedy, although she's not the daffy one in the film. There are a variety of character actors who joined Pacino in the makeup chair to portray the Rogues gallery of criminals that Dick Tracy faces down. We can also throw in Charles Durning and Dick Van Dyke, both without much makeup, as characters in the film that add some interesting elements to the plot. The kid actor, Charlie Korsmo, appeared in a few other films as a child, but as far as I know his acting career didn't reach much further than the early 1990s. There should have been a sequel to this movie. It probably underperformed, and I know that Beatty fought some rights issues. 

When this movie was first released, it got a lot of publicity to launch it and of course the studio was marketing the images from the film as much as they could. I wish I had saved all of the McDonald's toys, and drinking glasses, and t-shirts that I purchased at the time. The most interesting artifact from my point of view, was the original ticket for the preview screening that we went to. It was a t-shirt with the ticket printed on it, and you wore it to gain admission to the theater on the night of the show. Even though my children were only four and two at the time, I was going to make them attend with me and so our whole family, all four of us, wore our t-shirts that night. I really wish I had that t-shirt to wear to the Paramount screening this last Saturday.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Repo Man (1984) Re-visit

 

The circumstances that gave rise to the aesthetics of this movie are long gone. Punk attitudes rose and fell in the 80s, and in the forty years since this came out, new attitudes of entitlement, resentment and envy have replaced the punk ethos.  The contempt for normative lifestyles continues but it is much less interesting now than it was in 1984. If we set aside the angry young man motif of the film, there still remains an off beat story about losers, struggling to make it in the world, and the complications that arise when they cross paths with society. In other words, this is still a punk movie, it just has lost it's cause.

No characters in the movie are particularly likeable. Otto, the main protagonist played by Emilio Estevez, is an angry, self centered punk, with no respect for women, who feels entitled to something more, but he doesn't quite know what. He does seem to have some ethics, but those morals are constantly undermined by his associates, both the professionals he takes up with, and the girl he supposedly cares about. It may be understandable why he has such attitudes, everyone he interacts with lets him down in some way.  Bud, the Harry Dean Stanton character, is his mentor, but also an antagonist who second guesses and manipulates Otto from the start. Thankfully, their story does get a more satisfactory conclusion than that of Leila, the girl who betrays him after he has rescued her a couple of times. 

The great Tracey Walter, plays Miller , a non-driving cog in the repo man world, who passes out wisdom like candy at Halloween. The only problem is, when you look in your bag, it is full of those circus peanut candies that are disgusting. Nothing Miller says means much, and most of the time it is simply designed to provoke those around him. His commentary on John Wayne is a good example of that. Lite, is another repo man that Otto works with and his philosophy is at complete odds with the one Bud has been espousing.  There is not a homogenous set of opinions in this culture. The Rodriguez brothers, who are set up as antagonists early in the film, turn out to be not so bad in the end. The UFO group that seeks the McGuffin, are not heroic revolutionaries but jaded outsiders who are indifferent to their own benefactor .

There is a ton of stuff to laugh about in the film. The banality of normal life is lampooned by the use of the "generic" products of the era. Otto's parents are hypnotized by the television and a preacher that they are sending all their money too. The customers who are losing their cars are often nitwits or trying to pull a fast one themselves. The former friends of Otto, who have become stick up artists, are the most inept of all, suggesting that writer/director Alex Cox is is not all that sympathetic to the youth in the picture at all. My favorite moment in the film is an exchange between two of Alex former friends,

Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.

Duke: Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay.

I wrote about this movie originally on my 30 Years On Project, saluting the films I saw in 1984. This Screening at the Paramount was the first time I have seen the movie in a theater since 1984. It really holds up well. Just as a side note, the Chevy Impala that Bud drives in the movie, had a parking decal on the bumper from Fullerton College, which was a duplicate of the one I had on my car because I was teaching there in 1984. 

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

 

The snarky and violent "Deadpool and Wolverine" is entertaining but in a very specific way. It appeals to the naughty child in us, who is anxious to see all of the things that are held up as role models, taken down a peg or two. We don't want anything to be so highfalutin that we can't make a vulgar joke about it and share it with our friends and hope that they are amused by our cleverness. So congratulations Ryan Reynolds, all of your friends, me included, found your smart ass commentary and visuals to be funny. The fact that they're funny however does not mean that what you're doing is automatically good. I was entertained, and that's the goal most of the time for a movie, but I also want to be moved emotionally by what I see, and that almost never happens in this particular film.

Of course Ryan Reynolds and the filmmakers already know that this is true. The opening sequence has Deadpool behaving as if he is a necrophiliac with the remains of Wolverine from the "Logan" movie. That film had a deliberately dramatic bent to it, and it was a fitting conclusion for that part of the X-Men story. What "Deadpool and Wolverine" does, is simply pretend that that story doesn't matter, and proceed as if it's okay to engage in mocking it as part of our own self-referential style. One of the problems with these films that are set in a Multiverse, whether it is something from the quantum Realm, something from a different timeline, or some magic variant of either the two, is that the stakes seem unimportant and as such the drama is largely missing.

I would have a hard time telling you exactly what it is that the two lead characters are trying to accomplish as the task in this plot. This movie is mostly a chance for fans of comic books who love it when characters that they follow fight one another and fans can indulge themselves in exactly that. Wolverine gets resurrected from the dead, or from some other timeline, primarily so he and Deadpool can bicker with one another like a battling pair of married people, or a buddy cop movie where the partners act like they hate each other, and cover up their true feelings with false bravado. In what would be the second act of this film, we get stranded in a place that were unfamiliar with. The Void doesn't seem to follow any rules that will make it easy for us to understand how characters might manage to escape their situation, and we are returned to the presence of characters that have long been forgotten. That of course is the point of the movie, to give some of those superheroes a final act that they have been denied.

It's been so long since I saw the Blade trilogy that I'm not exactly sure why it is I should be happy about the return to the screen of the actor who embodied that part, but I was. I never saw the Electra movie, so I don't know whether this return is necessary or not. I did appreciate however, the joke that came up when Chris Evans made his appearance in the film. The direction that the moment took was one of those entertaining meta incidents, that the filmmakers clearly planned, relished, and executed so craftily. I hope it doesn't spoil it for you that I even mentioned that actor's appearance in the film.

Grotesque violence as humor is not new, in spite of what people who are seeing Deadpool might think. For example in Pulp Fiction from 30 years ago, we accidentally have a character shot in the face and disappeared for us, as criminals ineptly try to cope with the event. It works as humor because it's shocking, and it stands out against all the other things that are going on in the film. The problem in "Deadpool and Wolverine" is that this sort of violence is in every scene, and it is repeated over and over and over again. There are just so many times you can go over the top and get a laugh from doing so, otherwise it just feels like you're pressing. Which is frequently the way I felt while watching some of those scenes. The best example of it was the resolution of one of the characters who appears tangentially in the film. His demise was so quick and grotesque that it was shocking and funny at the same time, but that was not true in most of the other cases. The violence appeared to be the whole point of those sequences.

I recommend the film to people who are fans of superhero movies, and who have struggled with the DC Universe, and what has happened in the MCU. The The Fourth Wall comes down frequently, with commentary by Deadpool about the lack of planning, and coordination, around the comic book films and characters. Reynolds doesn't spare himself from the mocking, and while such self depreciating humor is easy to appreciate, it also seems a little contrived as a way around the failures of earlier films to connect with us on an emotional level.

I don't resent the success that the film has, I'm quite happy that theaters are full and movies are doing business. It's just a shame that audiences are flocking to this while ignoring movies that are probably of greater worth and certainly a lot deeper. The kind of humor that we laugh at may very well reflect our culture and in this particular case not in a very positive look. It would be nice to say that we were the culture the laughed at Jack Benny, Albert Brooks, or Woody Allen but this film suggests that what we really find funny as a culture are The Three Stooges with knives. I like The Three Stooges, but I also recognize their humor is not as complex. The fact that we are amused is good, but it will not be longer lasting and it may not be worthwhile.

John Carpenter's Starman (1984) Revisit

Once again 1984 proves to be a wonderful year for terrific movies. The Alamo Drafthouse has been presenting a series in their time capsule, that focuses on 1984 in the month of July this year. After having a great experience at "Buckaroo Banzai" on Monday night, we ventured to a different location to catch up with the least John Carpenter-ish film that John Carpenter ever made. This science fiction romance includes an Academy Award nominated acting performance, and no dismemberment of any animals or human beings, although a car or two do get destroyed.

This was the adult version of E.T. , and it features a mature love story that plays out very patiently between an alien visitor and an American woman. Karen Allen, famous for the Indiana Jones movie, plays a woman grieving her recently lost husband, who's marriage was only a couple of years old. We watch her torture herself by looking at old films of she and her husband and happier times, as she drinks herself into a position where she can finally sleep, we wonder how this is going to connect with the space vehicle that has crashed not too far from her home in Wisconsin. It turns out that the visitor from another world is going to use the DNA in the lock of hair that she has in a photo album to replicate itself in the form of her deceased husband. This would come as a shock to just about anybody, when she encounters this being as it is growing in her living room, and it when it turns around it is the exact image of her lost love, you would expect her to pass out immediately. It actually takes almost two more minutes for her to do so.

Once the premise has been set up the film becomes a chase movie, as the alien and the Earth woman travel from Wisconsin to a crater in Arizona where the alien is supposed to rendezvous with his partners on a different spacecraft. Of course the woman and the visitor are also pursued by agents of the U.S. government, who use the military in a ham-fisted way to locate the alien, and assess what thread it might present to our country. Trapped between the science and the military strategy, is a scientist from S.E.T.I. , the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, played by Charles Martin Smith. Jeff Bridges inhabits the body of our deceased carpenter, resurrected through advanced cloning, and his charming limited understanding of English vocabulary becomes one of the continuous humor tropes in the film. Bridges best actor nomination is almost certainly a result of the physicality that he brings to the character of Scott, the late husband of Karen Allen's character. 

It is a science fiction film, but the alien here is much different from the one that John Carpenter showed us in his previous film, "The Thing". This character is more benevolent and, as embodied by Bridges, a hell of a lot more charming. The cross country road picture allows Carpenter and Company to make some observations about the nature of human beings, and about the U.S. paranoia around aliens or any threat to National Security. The pig-headed leader of the security team played by veteran actor Richard Jaeckel , could easily have gone in a different direction. That would certainly make it a different film, but it might not be one that John Carpenter would have been willing to make. Instead we get an action film with a science fiction character, and a lot of humor. The road trip romance provides a lot more heartwarming moments than you will find in any other John Carpenter film.

I found this movie endearing back in 1984, and again when I rewatched it for my project about that year in movies that I did a decade ago, and I once again find it to be exactly that on this latest viewing. I'm not sure the film is substantial but it certainly is audience-pleasing and entertaining. Karen Allen by the way was just as good as Bridges was, but she didn't get the accolades because her part was a lot more standard. It's too bad that the science fiction world, doesn't have more movies like this, and by the way, it's also too bad that it doesn't have more John Carpenter films as well.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) Revisit

 

If ever there was a movie that I could make people watch, and hopefully love, it is "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". You are completely safe to watch the trailer, there are no spoilers there. In fact, there is no real information in the trailer at all. It tells you what kind of movie this is with just it's tone. There are only two lines of dialogue and they are a flippant response to starting World War III. The main hero is not shown doing anything more challenging than walking down a sloped concrete flood channel, and he is doing so while wearing a suit and a bow tie. This movie is confounding to people from the very start, after all, the very title is offputtingly odd. The short trailer just uses the weird theme and shots of a variety of strange people joining the lead character on his walk. Then you get a couple of brief shots of who knows what, and finish with the hysterical exchange about destroying Russia. No wonder the film never caught on in 1984.

Of course it caught on with me, because I was a film weirdo and tried to see as many movies as I could that year, and this Science Fiction concept had been hyped a little in "Starlog" magazine, and that was enough to get me into theaters to see it opening weekend. Apparently, I was the only person in the San Gabriel Valley who read "Starlog" because I was mostly alone in that first screening. However, I have not been alone for 40 years, thousands have become fans of this cult experience and like me, now consider themselves Blue Blazed Irregulars. The Alamo Drafthouse has been screening films from 1984 during their time capsule series this year, and I got another chance to see this on a theater screen, I think this may be the fourth time. The theater was not packed, but there was a reasonable smattering of Irregulars in the auditorium, and you could tell by their reactions during the film and their comments afterwards that they were as pleased to be there as I was. 

The title hero, Buckaroo Banzai, is not just a physicist, he is also a neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star. Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Stephen Hawkings would be jealous of his expertise but like everyone else, they would be charmed by his down to earth manner and sardonic humor. The Zen like statements that he uses to reassure his team, also suggest he is an Eastern Philosopher.  Yet at no time is he condescending to the political dolts around him, the non-scientists that he works with, or the public at large. Peter Weller will always be "Robocop" in his biography/obituary, but I will also always think of him as Dr. Banzai. Weller's low key demeanor, and willingness to let the crazies around him have the spotlight, make this a subtle performance. Oh, by the way, I should refer to him as Dr. Peter Weller, since he did not get a PhD in art history and literature, just to be referred to as Mr. .

"Buckaroo Banzai" is an 80s science fiction film that makes up with creativity and humor, what it lacks in budget. The locations are filled with conduit pipes, heat vent tubes and what might be some form of foam rubber molding. The humorous self awareness of the film can be observed in the scene where the cast members look at a holographic message through goggles that are made of bubble wrap. There are deliberate attempts to show us that this story is both a salute to and a parody of those kinds of pulp heroes that have come before. "Why is there a watermelon there?", is not a question you will get a straight answer to. I also don't know why lithium is no longer available on credit. That's because I am a monkey boy who does not have the insight of a red lectroid like Lord John Whorfin.

John Lithgow had been nominated for a supporting actor Oscar in both of the two previous years. His take on the character of Dr. Emilio Lizardo, should have made it three in a row. Lizardo, is a scientist who in a failed attempt to break the dimension barrier in the 1930s, allowed the evil Dictator John Whorfin to possess his mind and plot a return to power while in a mental hospital for thirty years. The cross pollination of Italian accented scientist with megalomaniacal Red Lectroid, results in one of the most demented and delightful performances to ever be committed to film. Lithgow runs wild with bulging eyes, slathering monologues,  and accents that would befuddle any linguist, regardless of their credentials. His obtuse interactions with his underlings is a great contrast to his opponent, Buckaroo.

Another reason that the film may have been overlooked at the time is that the supporting cast, which is filled with great performers, was in the early part of their careers, and audiences had not yet recognized their potential.  Clancy Brown was not yet Kurgan from the Highlander film, Dan Hedaya was still waiting for the Coen Brothers to make Blood Simple. Christopher Lloyd was a well established oddball character actor, but he was not an above the titles name. Neither were Vincent Schiavelli, Matt Clark or Ellen Barkin. The only supporting player with some potential drawing power was Jeff Goldblum, and he was also at his nascent point in his career.  Goldblum, as fellow brain surgeon and sidekick, is a complete joy to watch as he trapses through the movie in one of the most ridiculous cowboy getups since Hopalong Cassidy. 

The action scenes aren't great, but they are adequate. What you need to know however, is that they are merely a frame to hang the wry dialogue and arch attitude on. The film skewers and salutes these kinds of movies simultaneously.  This is smart film making that looks like cheap, dumb sci-fi filler, but is one of the greatest treasures in a year that was filled with great films. Jump in your jet car and find an Alamo that is playing this, NOW. You will thank me, and if you miss it, you will hate yourself. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-First Blood

Sunday night was another presentation by Robert Rodriguez for the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, this time the featured film was 1982's "First Blood". This Sylvester Stallone starring vehicle,  led to numerous sequels, and created a cultural touchstone that's been with us for four decades now. Rodriguez has a friendship with Sylvester Stallone, and like most of those kids from 1982, he saw this movie and immediately fell in love with the character of John Rambo and wanted to be him.

The introduction Rodriguez provided was fine, but it was more fully supplemented this time with some video clips from his own director series that is available online. He did share some stories about Stallone that we're not part of the video presentation, for instance the fact that Stallone didn't care for an actor in the Rambo film that was set in Burma. That might be why the moment that he shoves him up against the side of the boat looks so real. Of course that's a story for us, not one that he wants to put in the series which might make Stallone look petty.

I have seen all of the Rambo films, but I don't think Amanda had. This one was new to her completely, and she enjoyed it quite well. David Caruso who appears as Mitch, one of the deputies in the small town that John Rambo encounters, was not even recognizable to her, in spite of the fact that she is watched all the episodes and all of the seasons of CSI Miami. He was so young when he did this part he looks like a baby. She also thought that Brian Dennehy aged substantially between this film and Silverado 3 years later. That's not nearly as noticeable to me, but I'm an old guy who's used to a few extra pounds here and there.

One of the things that Rodriguez pointed out was that Stallone made significant contributions to the screenplay of First Blood. Including taking John Rambo out of the role of villain and putting that label on the sheriff played by Dennehy. It's a well-known story that Kirk Douglas walked away from the part that was ultimately played by Richard Crenna, because he thought that Rambo should die at the end of the movie. That appears to have been another Stallone modification.

This film was the start of a string of 1980s successes for Stallone in the action genre. Rodriguez also pointed out how Sylvester Stallone and his success created a competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger that would not start to even out until Stallone's 1990s films started to flag, while Schwarzenegger became increasingly marketable. The character of John Rambo however, continued to be a vein that Stallone could tap into. At one point when Rodriguez pointed out to his friend that Stallone hadn't directed a film for a dozen years, Sly was taken by aback. Just a couple of years later he picked up the character again for the brutal 2008 "Rambo", once again establishing is bona fides as an action director as well as star.

The original "First Blood" continues to be the best in my mind because it is the least cliched and the one that is most tied into reality. Many of the complaints made by Rambo at the climax of the film when he has his breakdown we're true. Veterans of the Vietnam War were disrespected, many of them suffered from exposure to dangerous chemicals during the war, and as exemplified by John Rambo himself, many of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the flashback scenes in this movie give us a sense of why Rambo reacts the way he does to the abuse from the local fascists in the police department in this small Washington town.

What most people remember from the movie however, are the clever ways that Rambo gets the best of the local law enforcement agencies and National Guard. The training that he received as a behind enemy lines commando, certainly exceeds that of a local law enforcement agency. When Richard Crenna shows up and explains that he's not there to save Rambo from them but rather to save them from Rambo, we know how badass this is going to be. John crawls through caves filled with rats, jumps into trees off of cliffs in order to escape being shot, and disguises himself in a half dozen different ways to get the better of his pursuers.

The fact that John Rambo doesn't have an exit strategy for his temper tantrum is a little problematic to the story. But that's why Colonel Troutman has shown up in the guise of Richard Crenna. We can have some exposition, and ultimately a peaceful resolution that makes some sense. Of course not before we've had enough explosions, bullets, and knife injuries to fill three other movies. That's the kind of sugar Rambo likes.

Twisters (2024)

 

I am perfectly content to watch a film that is not challenging but is entertaining and will allow me to consume way more popcorn than I should, enter "Twisters". A legacy sequel to one of the first digital disaster films of that long cycle. The movie can plug in all the pseudo-scientific verbiage it wants, you will not disguise the fact that this is a turnstile mechanism, made to bring in the crowds for a Summer day, and send them out without a care in the world except the calorie count of a large soda and buttered popcorn.  This movie delivers exactly what you want it to, entertainment. 

When the trailer first popped up I was mildly intrigued, because after all, it is a sequel to "Twister", but the preview did not have the same sort of demented energy that the 1996 film had. The teaser trailer told us nothing about characters, story or context, it just gave us a glimpse of the boogie monster. The trailer for the new film can't get away with that, so it tries to sell some star power with Glen Powell. That works a little, but it does feel a bit obvious. When you see the film however, it works much better and there is just enough of a story to make it fun.

Like the previous film, this movie introduces us to characters that we can enjoy and identify with, when we are never going to get much backstory about them. The opening disaster is just as compelling and frightening as  in the original film, and the main character takes a different path as an arc, so they have tried to change it up a bit. However, once you get past that plot device, the story beats are the same. Rival storm chasers, a twister at a big public event space, personal time with an older family member, and a race against the tornadoes at the end. Daisy Edgar-Jones as Kate, our main lead, gets the hero role here at the end, which is fitting since she really is the main character. Glen Powell as Tyler is a cartoon figure at first, but he becomes a more fully realized character as the film goes on. Anthony Ramos, who I first noticed in "The Honest Thief" and "In the Heights" has a more difficult role playing a conflicted colleague, and he is solid.

Let's face it however, no one goes to a movie like this for character development, rather we are driven by the action, and it is very effective here. The opening sequence, the rodeo twister and the climax tornado are the highlight sequences, although there are probably three or four more moments when the twisters are on the loose. Calling the movie "Twisters" reminds me of the choice to make the sequel to "Alien", "Aliens". It is completely appropriate given the number of events we get in the film. 

If there is any social message in the movie, it is very muted. This is not a climate change alarmism film. There is one slight nod toward villainess corporate culture, but it is barely memorable or understandable. To me, the real message of the film is in the vistas, small towns and music that fill the movie. This film has more respect for flyover country than any Hollywood production I have seen in years. The citizens are not presented as hicks who are ignorant, if anything, it is the city folk who follow Tyler on his YouTube channel who come off a bit goofy, but even that is restrained. This movie is carefully scripted to appeal to all four quadrants and all regions of the country, and those overseas viewers will get a much better picture of the middle of our nation as a result. So that is an unintended consequence in the movies favor.

The perfect Summer entertainment has arrived. There are no foul mouthed super heroes, there is no needless nudity, there is plenty of humor but it is very gentile. What more could you ask for? (Maybe some Hot Tamales to put in your popcorn).