Batman: Under The Red Hood

2010 - Warner Animation
Directed By Brandon Vietti


SYNOPSIS

5 years after The Joker (John Di Maggio) killed his second Robin, Batman (Bruce Greenwood) must contend with a new menace in Gotham City, The Red Hood (Jensen Ackles.) This new vigilante astounds Batman with his fight moves, and the Caped Crusader quickly determines it is Jason Todd, his second Robin, somehow back from the dead. Now Batman must discover how he is still alive and how (and if) he should stop his old partner.

MY THOUGHTS

DC Comics and Warner Animation have put an outstanding series of direct-to-DVD films, and this is probably the best of the lot yet.

Like the others, this is based on actual story from the comics, and they remain faithful to the characters in the comic books, which are often tweaked and altered for feature films.
One of the strengths of the film's story is that it didn't waste any time with a dull Bruce Wayne subplot. It is ALL Batman all the time.
But on the other hand the big drawback to Red Hood is it's short run time. The film clocks in at only 1 hour and 15 minutes. It could have been longer but that probably would have been added Wayne-filler and ruined the taught pace of the story. So it's a strength and a drawback at the same time.

Fanboys would probably chide the film for not casting Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamill (Joker) because of their long involvement with the 1990s Batman animated series and the many offshoots of that show... but Greenwood and DiMaggio are excellent. The rest of the cast is also strong. Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing, Jason Isaacs as Ra's Al Ghul, and Jensen Ackles as the Red Hood round out the major players.

The film is a visual delight. The high-quality (2-D) animation rivals any theatrical release. That is where the DC series triumphs over Marvel's similar line of direct-to-disc series (which look like 1990's TV animation.)

The staging of the fight scenes are cleverly done and look more realistic than the average animated fare. 'Red Hood' also offers a more realistic and less stylish Gotham City than the Batman animated series, much like the Gotham of the recent live-action Christopher Nolan films compared with the earlier Burton/Schumacher series.


The film is an excellent addition to any comic book geek's collection, as long as they are old enough. The story is very dark and not for children.

The Good Heart

2009
Directed By Dagur Kari


SYNOPSIS

After his 5th heart attack, cantankerous Jacques (Brian Cox) is rushed to the hospital. He meets a young homeless man Lucas (Paul Dano) recovering from a suicide attempt. When recovered, Jacques takes the young man under his wing to potentially take over his dive bar should he die. Jacques tries to instill his rough-around-the-edges ways in Lucas, but his lessons aren't a perfect match for the kind-souled young man.

MY THOUGHTS

The Good Heart brought Brian Cox and Paul Dano back together. It was the first time they worked together since Dano's debut in 2001's L.I.E. They showed a strong chemistry in the earlier film and it carries over to this one. It's The Good Heart's major strength.

The well-shot bleak cinematography is balanced by an occasionally wickedly hilarious script but the film has more faults than strengths.

The story is improbable. Why would this old man, who dislikes and distrusts everyone, would take Lucas (who he barely even knows) under his wing?

Why is Lucas homeless? This is never fully explained. He seems like an intelligent, level-headed,  and 'good hearted' guy (sorry) and not a typical homeless man. "Because I want to be" is not a decent excuse. No reason is given for his suicide attempt. You could guess it stems from the homelessness... but if he chose to be homeless, he would be happy. Ugggh!


The love story between Lucas and the French girl is underdeveloped and seems forced, just to create tension between Jacques and Lucas.

The film's end is very unsatisfying and ruins much of the good aspects of the story, but I will not give it away, if you choose to take this bleak journey.

Hannah And Her Sisters

1986
Directed By Woody Allen



SYNOPSIS

Hannah's (Mia Farrow) marriage is in bad shape because her husband (Michael Caine) has fallen in love with her sister (Barbara Hershey.) Meanwhile, Hannah's hypochondriac ex-husband (Woody Allen) falls for her sister (Diane Wiest) and she must deal with her aging parents (Lloyd Nolan + Maureen O'Sullivan.)

MY THOUGHTS

One of Woody Allen's greatest triumphs.

The film is remarkably similar to Allen's other films during the 1980's and early 90's. Most of his films feature large ensemble casts and deal with romantic relationships in a sophisticated manner that can shift from incredibly funny to dead serious from scene to scene. 'Hannah' is no different, except the (Oscar-winning) screenplay is a bit sharper and the performances reflect this. Everything from the New York setting, to the jazz score, to even the font used in the credits sync with his other films during the era... except the film is better.


One of the highlights of the 80's and 90's (and later) Allen films is the great casts he could assemble because everyone wanted to work with him. Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest both won Best Supporting Oscars for their roles. The rest of the cast are lines with familiar faces including Max von Sydow, Julie Kavner, Sam Waterston, Carrie Fisher, John Turturro, and in a teeny-tiny role, Julia Louis Dreyfuss.

Hannah And Her Sisters is Woody Allen at the top of his game as a director and writer, and it is one of his finest films, along with Annie Hall and Manhattan. If you have never seen a Woody Allen film, this is an excellent place to start.

The Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes

1955
Directed By David Kramarsky



SYNOPSIS

A family of three lives at a remote farm in the wilderness, along with a farmhand. Following a piercing noise, the mute farmhand and all the wild and domesticated animals begin to attack the humans. The family begins to suspect the noise wasn't an airplane... and could quite possibly be something from another world.

MY THOUGHTS

As a lover of so bad they're good sci-fi and horror cheese from the 1950's... I can definitely say The Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes is flat out horrible.... and not in a good way.

I wonder if Alfred Hitchcock possibly saw this film and it inspired him to make a nature-gone-mad film properly a few years later. What separated his The Birds from the rest of the flock of horror films... was that it never explained why the fowl attacked. Any explanation would be ridiculous. That's all too evident here. An alien lands and has the ability to 'see through the eyes' of lesser beings and control them. Why? I don't know. If the (two-eyed) alien explained why he did this during the film's climax... my brain had already atrophied and I missed it. His explanation of that would raise the ridiculousness to new heights.

'Beast' is a very low budget affair with a brief run-time, cheap special effects (even for the time) and less than stellar performances. It's the sort of film that should have ended up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. But the films that aired on MST3K were more-often-than-not fun to watch. Beast With 1,000,000 Eyes is not.

Afterschool

2008
Directed By Antonio Campos


SYNOPSIS

Rob (Ezra Miller) is an unhappy loner at a prep school. He joins an extracurricular video club and one of his assignments is to get video of the school's hallways. While doing so, he captures the overdose deaths of popular twin girls. He then gets assigned to make a video to memorialize the beloved girls.

MY THOUGHTS

A unique look at the life of the modern teen.

Despite it's uniqueness, Aftershool in many ways is reminiscent of Gus Van Sant's 2003 film Elephant. The film's use of uncomfortably overlong shots convey the authentic unease of the high school years matches the earlier film. The natural performances filled with many dialogue-free passages and dark subject matter also ape Elephant. Despite the similarities, the two films are very different beasts.

One thing Elephant was lacking was one central performance to unify it together. Ezra Miller shines with his sensitive and complex portrayal of Rob. He perfectly captures the angst and alienation of the teen years without cliche.

The only thing Rob can connect to is YouTube-type videos. The film makes a definite and valid comment how the internet (from porn to violent videos) is disconnecting us all from communicating directly with each other.

Afterschool could easily be called 'boring' or 'dull' by the average film-goer. Its style may be oft-putting for some, but its realism makes for a compelling film. Thankfully, we still have filmmakers who try to make something against the norm.
 

Killer's Kiss

1955
Directed By Stanley Kubrick



SYNOPSIS

A washed-up boxer (Jamie Smith) sees a woman (Irene Kane) being abused and tries to stop her attacker. He gets to know her and falls in love. Her attacker is her employer/boyfriend (Frank Silvera) and tries to have the boxer killed. Instead, his goons kill the boxer's manager. Now the boxer is wanted for his boss' murder... and his girl has disappeared.

MY THOUGHTS


Stanley Kubrick's second film definitely shows the promise of his immense talents. Not only does he direct, but he wrote the screenplay, shot the film, edited it, and co-produced it. It's a B-movie both by budget and run-time... but far exceeds your average production.

Stanley Kubrick had already done a short film on boxing called Day Of The Fight, so he was well versed in the subject for a launching point for the film:




The boxing scenes in Killer's Kiss show this, but they are only a small part of the overall film.

The low budget limits the acting quality and the film's short run-time limit the character development. These keep the film from developing truly great and interesting characters. The awesome camerawork and location shooting makes up for these shortcomings a bit. The camerawork evokes the best of film noir and Kubrick was able to light these actual locations to great stylish effect. The climactic chase scene is the highlight of the film.

The film is not in the same league with Kubrick's later work, but is still an interesting piece of film history.

Rodan

1956 - Toho
Directed by Ishiro Honda
(American dubbed version)


SYNOPSIS


Nuclear tests near Japan unleash several giant caterpillars that terrorize a small mining town. A giant egg in discovered in one of the mines cracks, releasing a massive pterodactyl named Rodan who eats the catepillars like a snack and soon he and his mate threaten the entire country!

MY THOUGHTS

An entertaining Godzilla retread.

Like many of the Godzilla (or most disaster films) series, we're made to watch uninteresting humans that we never really care about and how they react to the crisis at hand.... all while we wish for more monster action.

Rodan also follows the formulaic plot of the 'man in monster suit' genre known as Kaiju --- 'monster emerges, threatens people, people strike back, monster strikes back harder, someone comes up with a successful plot to stop monster.' It's done no better or worse than any other. But starting the film off with another villain, the caterpillars, was a bit of a departure from the norm. Still, it just delayed Rodan's entry into the film.

Rodan is serious in tone, like the first two Godzilla films that proceeded it. This film lacks the original Gojira's anti-war and anti-nuclear message and chooses to not make any political statement at all. By the time Rodan and Godzilla would meet, in 1964's Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, the characters would be played for humor. The later films are 'more fun' but these early films are still cool. This was the first Kaiju film by Toho in color.

The miniature models that get trampled and destroyed by Rodan are some of the best I've ever seen. Recreating a small town, instead of Tokyo, seems to look 100 times more authentic. The miniatures are still superior to those in the 1990's and early 2000's Godzilla films.

The voice dubbing was better than the average Godzilla film as well and used actual Asian-American actors like Keye Luke and a young George Takei. This is great considering there's some Godzilla films where I've heard Japanese characters speak with thick New York accents!


Rodan could have used more Rodan, but otherwise is still an entertaining film for fans of Kaiju.