An unnamed Princess (Joey King) has been taken prisoner by the evil Julius (Dominic Cooper). Julius wants to take control of the kingdom and the best way to do that is to force the Princess to marry him. The morning of what is planned to be her forced wedding, the Princess wakes up handcuffed and trapped in one of those huge towers that always seem to turn up in movies like this. The Princess takes one look out the window and is confronted by some cartoonish CGI that lets the viewer know that she’s really up high.
Fortunately, this Princess has spent most of her life training to be a warrior. Under the tutelage of Linh (Veronica Ngo) and Khai (Kristofer Kamiyasu), the Princess has learned how to fight and defeat almost any enemy. (“Fight from you heart,” Linh tells her.) As such, the Princess has no fear of breaking her wrist so that she can remove the handcuffs. Soon, she is running through the tower, fighting every man that she comes across.
The first few fight scenes are cool and I appreciated the scene where the Princess shot a man with a crossbow just as he started to yell the C-word because, seriously, you boys have been going overboard with that word lately. Ultimately, though, there’s so many fight scenes that eventually, the viewer can’t help but notice that the fight choreography itself is rather simplistic. The Princess spends a lot of time jumping and spinning around in slow motion. She’s good at sliding across the floor while ducking her head to avoid swinging swords and flying arrows. It’s enjoyable the first few times but, as the film progresses, it all gets a bit repetitive. A huge part of the problem is that none of Julius’s henchmen appear to be particularly competent. They keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again and, as such, it’s not really empowering to watch The Princess defeat them because they’re all so clumsy that it seems anyone could defeat them. Even Julius commits the cardinal sin of talking when he should be fighting. A great hero needs a great villain and unfortunately, The Princess doesn’t provide that. Still, the fight scenes are preferable to any scene that involves dialogue as the script sometimes seems to have been written by an AI programmed to include every cliché possible. On the one hand, the Princess is smashing the patriarchy. On the other hand, good intentions do not make up for clunky dialogue.
To be honest, there’s a certain cynicism at the heart of The Princess that’s a bit off-putting. Written by two men and directed by another, The Princess is so proud of itself for featuring a young woman kicking ass that one has to wonder if the people responsible are seriously not aware that the action girl is one of the leading pop culture clichés of the past 20 years. The main complaint about the action girl trope is that the character is often not given any personality or motivation beyond the fact that she can beat people up and look good while doing it. The Princess doesn’t even bother to give its main character a name. For all the talk about the fate of the kingdom, we never learn how the Princess feels about any of it.
As for the cast, neither Joey King nor Dominic Cooper are well-served by a script that doesn’t offer any sort of real depth to the characters. Both deserve better.
In the 1997 film, Strategic Command, Richard Norton plays a terrorist named Carlos …. wait for it …. Gruber. If that last name sounds familiar, that’s because the villain of Die Hard was named Hans Gruber and the bad guy from Die Hard With A Vengeance was named Simon Gruber. Gruber — the number one name in hostage situations!
Anyway, Carlos Gruber and his fellow terrorists steal a chemical called Bromax from the FBI. Bromax is a chemical weapon, one that can be used to kill thousands of people. It’s probably not a good idea for anyone to have Bromax, regardless of whether they are terrorists or the FBI. What’s the point of Bromax, really? It only has evil purposes. Plus, it has a stupid name.
Gruber proceeds to hijack Air Force Two, holding the Vice President (Michael Cavanaugh) and several journalists hostage. Gruber wants his fellow terrorists to be released from prison and he’s prepared to kill the Vice President if he doesn’t get what he wants. Perhaps because Gruber realizes how little the Vice President actually does, Gruber is also willing to spray Bromax over America.
Not wanting to see America get Bromaxed, the President sends an elite force of special op. soldiers after Air Force Two. Captain Rattner (Jsu Garcia, back when he was still using the name Nick Corri) is in charge of the mission and he doesn’t expect there to be any slip-ups. Accompanying Rattner’s men is Rick Harding (Michael Dudikoff!), the inventor of Bromax! Along with not wanting to see Bromax sprayed over America, Harding also wants to save the life of his wife, Michelle (Amanda Wyss, who co-starred with Jsu Garcia in the original Nightmare on Elm Street). Michelle is one of the journalists on the plane.
Strategic Command is stupid, yet strangely likable. It’s impossible not to admire the film’s attempt to be a huge action epic without actually spending any money. As a result, Air Force 2 is a commercial airliner. There’s a surprisingly small number of people involved on both sides of the plot. The viewer might expect the hostage situation to be one of those big, “all hands on deck” emergencies but, instead, the President is content to send 6 people to get the job done. Fortunately, there aren’t that many terrorists either. This is action on a budget.
Adding to the film’s overall strangeness is the miscasting of Michael Dudikoff as a quiet and somewhat nerdy scientist. This is one of those films where the viewer is meant to assume that a character is smart just because he’s wearing glasses. Dudikoff is so miscast that, again, it all becomes strangely likable. He and Richard Norton are so enthusiastic about chewing up the scenery that it’s kind of fun to watch. Also fun to watch is the legitimate great actor Bryan Cranston, cast here as a vain and cowardly anchorman. One gets the feeling that this is probably not a film that Cranston brags about but his performance isn’t bad at all. Every film like this needs to have a self-important reporter who can get humiliated in some fashion and Cranston handles the role like a pro.
Strategic Command is dumb but kind of fun, in the way that many 90s direct-to-video action films tend to be. It’s a good film for when you want to watch something that won’t necessarily require your full attention. In fact, the less thought one gives to what happens in Strategic Command, the better. Watch it for Dudikoff, Norton, and especially the one and only Bryan Cranston!
First published in 975, Beowulf tells the story of a Danish king named Hrothgar who can’t be bothered to be a good neighbor. The loud parties at his mead hall ends up annoying both Grendel and his mother so Grendel takes it open himself to start killing Hrothgar’s men. Hrothgar and his men are forced to abandon their mead hall …. which, well, that would be the solution right there, wouldn’t it? I mean, they could just go somewhere where there isn’t a monster living nearby and build a new mead hall. And maybe they could establish some new mead hall rules, like “Keep it down after 10 pm” and “You Don’t Have To Go Home But You Can’t Stay Here.” But instead, Hrothgar decides to cry about it. Seriously, dude, it’s just a mead hall!
Anyway, this jerk named Beowulf sails over to help out Hrothgar. But before Beowulf can help out Hrothgar, he has to spend a lot of time bragging on himself and telling everyone that he’s the greatest warrior that has ever lived. I mean, he goes on for so long that I was wondering if maybe he was just planning on boring everyone to death. Beowulf goes on to kill Grendel with his bare hands and then, when Grendel’s mother complains, Beowulf kills her too. Uhmmm …. yay, I guess.
Many years later, Beowulf is the king and one of his slaves steals a gold cup from a dragon. Needless to say, the dragon is not happy about this and really, who can blame it? I imagine that dragons spend a lot of time collecting their gold and it’s always struck me as odd that humans seem to think that they have the right to just steal from the dragons whenever they feel like it. With the dragon threatening his kingdom, Beowulf has to come out of retirement to fight one final beast….
The main problem with Beowulf is that the main character is kind of a jerk and he has a really bad habit of bragging on himself. If I was one of his subjects, I would dread having to ask him for help because Beowulf is apparently incapable of just doing something without using it as an excuse to puff himself up. Instead, he has to brag about how he’s the only person in the world who could possibly do it and, to top it all off, he has to make everyone else feel bad about the fact that they’re having to ask Beowulf for a favor. Beowulf is such a long-winded jerk that he makes Grendel and the Dragon seem sympathetic by comparison.
I’m not surprised that the author of Beowulf is anonymous. Who would want to take credit for this? For a far better look at life in the 8th Century, check out John Gardner’s Grendel. Or go watch the Robert Zemeckis-directed 2007 film adaptation, which has its flaws but also features Angelina Jolie, Crispin Glover, Anthony Hopkins, and John Malkovich! How can you wrong with a cast like that?
Degrassi does The Breakfast Club! In fact, this episode so closely follows the plot of The Breakfast Club, one has to wonder how John Hughes would have felt about it. This episode is classic Degrassi in that it shouldn’t work but it does. Plus, it’s the start of the Ellie (Stacey Farber) and Sean (Daniel Cameron) romance! Ellie and Sean were one of the best couples in Degrassi history, I don’t care what Emma says.
Time Stands Still (Season 4, Episodes 7-8)
This is probably best-remembered for the scene where Jimmy (Drake) gets shot in the back but the entire episode is actually a sensitive look at the school shooting phenomenon. Ephraim Ellis deserves a lot of credit for making school shooter Rick Murray both deeply creepy and, occasionally, pathetically sympathetic. Still, one has to wonder why Alex (Deanna Casaluce) was never punished for her part in the prank that drove Rick over the edge. Our beloved Spinner (Shane Kippel) and Jay (Mike Lobel) were expelled and treated like pariahs. Alex not only remained class Vice President and somehow became far more popular with all of Jimmy’s friends.
Ghost in the Machine (Season 4, Episodes 1-2)
Two years after being raped by Dean, Paige (Lauren Collins, giving one of her best performances) learns that the case is finally coming to trial. At first, Paige doesn’t want to testify, saying that she doesn’t want to relive the ordeal and that it won’t make any difference anyways. With Spinner’s support, Paige finally does testify but, despite her testimony, Dean is still acquitted. Paige spirals into self-destructive behavior before finally destroying Dean’s car in one of the show’s most cathartic moments. The first time I watched this episode, I was stunned and horrified by Dean’s acquittal. Even though Paige eventually took responsibility for destroying Dean’s car, I still cheered when she did it. If only Dean had been inside of it at the time.
Whisper to a Scream (Season 3, Episode 8)
Ellie deals with the stress of having an alcoholic mother and a media internship by cutting herself. Degrassi was one of the first shows to deal with self-harm and it did so with a commendable sensitivity.
Pass the Dutchie (Season 7, Episode 10)
Due to his cancer treatments, Spinner is given medicinal marijuana and is soon wandering around the entire school stoned out of his mind. Not only did this episode feature one of Shane Kimmel’s best performances but it also featured the classic line, “I’m going to fail English! What type of idiot fails his own language!”
Secret (Season 4, Episodes 14-15)
Emma (Miriam McDonald), who was previously the show’s token good, liberal activist, grows increasingly self-destructive in the wake of the school shooting and eventually heads into “the Ravine.” The end result is that she gets a STD from Jay but she also gets the lead role in Degrassi’s production of Dracula. This one of those Degrassi episodes that was so controversial, it almost didn’t air in the United States.
Voices Carry (Season 4, Episodes 11-12)
Craig Manning (Jake Epstein) asks Ashley Kerwin (Melissa McIntyre) to marry him, beats up his stepfather, trashes a hotel room, and eventually learns he’s bipolar. This was a powerful episode, one that wasn’t even harmed by a subplot about Liberty (Sarah Barrable-Tishauer) and J.T. (Ryan Cooley) working together to write the spring musical.
Since the start of the series, J.T. Yorke (played by Ryan Cooley) had been one of the show’s most popular characters, a former joker who got serious. However, when Cooley decided to leave the show to go to college, Degrassi killed J.T. off in a scene that was so violent that it’s still shocking to watch to this day. Making the scene all the more powerful is that J.T. was, more or less, a random victim. He just happened to walk out to his car at the wrong time. Degrassi was a dangerous place.
Eyes Without A Face (Season 6, Episodes 5 and 6)
Darcy (Shenae Grimes) starts posting racy pictures on her “MyRoom” page. A fat, middle-aged guy shows up at her house and introduces himself as the dude who has been sending her all of the complimentary comments and money. Along with introducing the character of Clare Edwards (Aislinn Paul), who would eventually became the show’s main character, this episode was also the start of a series of episodes in which Darcy transformed from being the somewhat boring, token Christian to being the most interesting person on the show.
U Got The Look (Season 3, Episode 3)
Tired of being called “cute” and “adorable” and wanting to be known as “sexy,”, Manny Santos (Cassie Steele) changes her look and her attitude. In the process, she alienates her best friend Emma, picks up a host of new admirers, and causes JT to repeatedly walk into walls. This is one of the best-remembered episodes of Degrassi, largely because Manny never went back to her “old” self but instead embraced her new persona.
Mother and Child Reunion (Season 1, Episode 1-2)
In the very first episode of Degrassi, Emma makes a creepy friend online and nearly gets kidnapped. Fortunately, Snake (Stefan Brogren) is there to toss the guy against the wall and threaten to snap his neck. Along with introducing almost all of the main characters of the show’s first 6 seasons, this episode also started the spark that would lead to Snake eventually becoming Emma’s stepfather.
Death or Glory (Season 7, Episodes 5 and 6)
After being diagnosed with cancer, Spinner gets a mohawk and gets out his aggression by accepting random fights. Who knew that Degrassi had a fight club?
Redemption Song (Season 5, Episode 10)
Still being rejected by his old friends because of his role in Jimmy’s shooting, Spinner spends the weekend at the beach with the ultra-religious Friendship Club. Jay complicates things by showing up. Darcy and Spinner were an underrated couple and this is one of their key episodes.
Turned Out (Season 5, Episodes 7-8)
Oh my God, JT’s selling drugs! Well, Liberty is pregnant and JT does need the money but still! This episode is remembered for the final freeze frame of JT sitting in a hospital bed and sobbing. Degrassi could be a dark show.
What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost (Season 6, Episodes 9-10)
Craig’s back in town. Ellie and Manny are both excited but …. oh my God! Craig’s picked up an addiction to cocaine! This is best-remembered for the scene in which Craig gets a sudden nosebleed while performing during the intermission of a Taking Back Sunday show.
Accidents Will Happen (Season 3, Episodes 14-15)
Manny discovers that she’s pregnant. This is the episode that was considered to be so controversial that it didn’t even air in the United States until two years after it was originally broadcast in Canada.
Heat of the Moment (Season 8, Episode 12)
The later seasons were never quite as good as the first few but still, we got a few good episodes out of them. Like this episode, in which Alli (Melinda Shankar) starts the “I Hate Holly J” Facerange group. Yes, Facerange. Degrassi wasn’t going to get sued.
Jagged Little Pill (Season 1, Episode 15)
Ashley Kerwin’s the most popular girl in school until she takes ecstasy and ends up telling everyone what she really thinks about them. Fortunately, Ashley became a much more interesting character afterwards.
Bust A Move (Season 7, Episodes 13-14)
In a last hurrah for the original Degrassi gang, everyone goes on a road trip to Smithdale College. With Jay’s “help,” Manny gets into acting school. Meanwhile, Ashley reunites with Craig. Craig sings “My Window” and it was a fitting send-off to what was left of the show’s original cast.
Honorable Mentions:
The Curse of Degrassi — This Halloween-themed episode was technically a Degrassi mini but I like to think that it’s canonical. Holly J. (Charlotte Arnold) get possessed by the ghost of Rick Murray and kills all of her friends. Fortunately, Spinner is there to reverse time.
School’s Out — This made-for-TV movie was the finale of the original Degerassi High. It featured the first two instances of the F-word being used on Canadian television. In the start of a Degrassi tradition, it ended with Joey alone, Snake bitter, Lucy blind, and Wheels heading to prison.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
87 years ago today, Sydney Pollack was born in Indiana. Though Pollack got his start as an actor, he soon moved into directing and was one of the key television directors of the 1960s. He eventually branched out into film, making a name for himself as a director of intelligent and sensitive comedies and dramas. Though he only directed 21 films over the course of his career, his films received a total of 48 Oscar nominations and 11 wins. 1982’s Tootsie and 1985’s Out of Africa were both nominated for Best Picture. Out of Africa won.
Pollack also returned to acting in the 90s, making a name for himself as a skilled character actor. I’ll always remember him from Eyes Wide Shut, interrogating Tom Cruise while playing pool.
When he passed away in 2008, Pollack was remembered as one of the best directors of Hollywood’s second golden age.
In honor of Sydney Pollack, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Sydney Pollack Films
Jeremiah Johnson (1972, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Duke Callaghan)
The Yakuza (1974, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Duke Callaghan and Kozo Okazaki)
The Electric Horseman (1979, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Owen Roizman)
The Firm (1993, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: John Seale)
According to the imdb, today is Robby the Robot’s birthday. I didn’t know that robot’s had birthdays but apparently, they do. Robby is 67 years old and I think that, along with Earl Holliman, he might be one of the last two surviving cast member of the 1956 sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet.
So, it only seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should be Robby the Robot’s debut appearance in Forbidden Planet. Happy birthday, Robby!
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
92 years ago today, Robert Evans was born in New York City. He started out working in his brother’s clothing business but a chance meeting with actress Norma Shearer led to him becoming an actor. And while Evans, by his own account, was not a particularly good actor, he did prove himself to be very skilled at playing the games of Hollywood. Evans eventually moved from acting to production, first as an executive at Paramount and then as an independent producer.
He lived a life as glamorous and tumultuous as the stars of his pictures and his memoir, The Kid Stays In The Picture, is considered to be one of the classic show biz autobiographies. He hung out with cinematic rebels like Jack Nicholson and Robert Towne and counted Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a friend. He suggested that Francis Ford Coppola should direct The Godfather and, when Paramount put pressure on Coppola to cut the film down to two hours, it was Evans who famously announced that a two-hour Godfather was nothing more than a trailer. He lost Ali MacGraw to Steve McQueen and, again by own account, he lost a lot of potentially productive years to cocaine. (The Cotton Club scandal is one of the wildest in the history of Hollywood, though it should be noted that Evans himself was never charged with any wrongdoing.) But, for all that he lost, Evans continues to gain admirers as being the epitome of the producer who was willing to take chances. For all of his flamboyance, Evans had an eye for good material and the willingness to protect his directors. In many ways, he was as important to the cinematic revolution of the 70s as the directors that he hired. When Evans passed away in 2019, it was truly the end of an era.
Here, in honor of the birth and legacy of Robert Evans, are 8 Shots from 8 Films that Evans produced, either as studio chief at Paramount or as an independent producer.
8 Shots From 8 Robert Evans Films
Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir by Romnn Polanski, DP: William A. Fraker)
Love Story (1970, dir by Arthur Hiller, DP: Richard Kratina)
The Godfather (1972, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
Chinatown (1974, dir by Roman Polanski, DP: John A. Alonzo)
Marathon Man (1976, dir by John Schlesinger, DP: Conrad Hall)
The Cotton Club (1984, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Stephen Goldblatt)
The Two Jakes (1990, dir by Jack Nicholson, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Sliver (1993, dir by Phillip Noyce, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
One year ago, Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) and her boyfriend, Luca (Talha Senturk), were climbing a mountain in Italy. It was a great experience, until Luca put his foot on the wrong part of the mountain and promptly plunged to his death.
Now, on the anniversary of Luca’s fatal fall, Kelly and her friend Sophie (Anias Parello) are planning on climbing the mountain in his memory. However, the night before their scheduled climb, they meet four friends. Josh (Ben Lamb), Zach (Louis Boyer), Taylor (David Wayman), and Reynolds (Nathan Welsh) have known each other since they were kids. They grew up together. They went to high school and college together. Now, they still go on weekend trips together, hoping to hold onto some remnant of their disappearing youth. They’re a tightly-knit group, even though Zach, Taylor, and Reynolds seem to be a bit weary of Josh.
Josh invites Kelly and Sophie to hang out with the group. Kelly, who is still mourning Luca, quickly grows disgusted with Josh’s overbearing and toxic personality. Leaving Sophie behind, Kelly returns to her cabin to get some sleep. When Sophie doesn’t return to the cabin, Kelly steps outside to look for her and discovers and films the four men tossing Sophie over the edge of a cliff.
With the men now pursuing her, Kelly has no choice but to climb the mountain from which Luca previously fell. The men chase after her, reaching the top of the mountain before her and leaving Kelly trapped between the rocks below and Josh above. Josh says that he just wants the camera but Kelly knows that there’s no way Josh is going to let her escape the mountain alive.
There’s a slightly interesting idea at the heart of The Ledge. While Josh is, from the start, an obvious sociopath, the other three men are portrayed with a bit more ambiguity. All three of them know that Josh is dangerous and, when Josh initially kills Sophie, all three of them initially resist his demands that they help him cover up what has happened. In the end, though, all three of them set aside their qualms and literally get blood on their hands. Taking as individuals, Taylor, Zach, and Reynolds are all level-headed and even likable but none of them are willing to stand up to Josh and, when they get together as a group, only Reynolds is the only one to weakly protest their actions. Even though Zach, Taylor, and Reynolds are not as vicious as Josh, they all became complicit in his actions when they decided that their loyalty to the group was more important than doing the right thing. As such, it doesn’t matter that Zach has a family or that Taylor initially tried to calm Josh down. It doesn’t even matter that the guilt-stricken Reynolds, at one point, allows Kelly to run past him rather than attempt to capture her. For all of the guilt that they feel as a result of their actions, Taylor, Zach, and Reynolds are all complicit because none of them were willing to do the right thing from the start. The fact that they don’t do more to stop Josh make them just as guilty as he is.
As I said, it’s an interesting idea but the film doesn’t really do much with it. Indeed, once Kelly starts to climb that mountain, the narrative gets bogged down with flashbacks to her relationship with Luca and scenes of Josh shouting insults at her while she climbs. The film features some striking shots and Brittany Ashworth is a likable lead but the narrative momentum stalls out early. It turns out that there’s only so much time you can spend watching one person climb and one person yell until your attention starts to wander elsewhere. Much like Luka, The Ledge gets off to a promising enough start but then loses its grip and falls back to Earth.
