Author Archives: Leonard Wilson

Quick Movie Review: Arachnophobia (dir. by Frank Marshall)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to keep this clear shower curtain of a large black web, complete with a big red spider on it. It scared me so bad that I was actually more willing to brave the darkness of the basement bathroom than to have to deal with that monstrosity in the well-lit one. Between that, my brother’s EC comics and the original “The Fly” with Vincent Price, it’s how I developed Arachnophobia. It’s a fight or flight reflex that occurs when anything spider related appears. It seems fitting that as I’m writing this from a location that’s full of Black Widows, Arachnophobia is the topic for this review.

Arachnophobia marked the first directing attempt by Frank Marshall, long time producer of many of Steven Spielberg’s films. The film turned out to be a success when released, and manages to feature one the greatest Human vs. Tarantula battles ever filmed.

Although the film has some horror elements, it’s kind of hard to classify Arachnophobia as an actual horror film, despite the deaths that are in the film. There are some humorous moments (particularly from John Goodman), and the scares don’t come too often. For anyone who’s bothered by spiders, though, there are a number of jumpy moments that occur without being excessively gory. The story is a little misleading. It starts in Venezuela, South America, where a deadly tarantula manages to sneak its way on board a trip back to California. You’d think that from here, the Tarantula would end up finding another Tarantula, and thus pull a Kingdom of the Spiders with a whole town full of spiders. The writers, however, end up making a mistake in having a Tarantula mate with a common house spider, thus breeding dozens of other smaller spiders.

That’s like a Tiger trying to mate with a house cat. I’m not exactly sure if that’s even possible, but I’m getting off track. This actually ends up helping the story because now the town has to deal with all of these smaller spiders that are easy to hide around. I always considered that to be pretty effective.

Jeff Daniels character, Dr. Ross Jennings suffers from Arachnophobia in the worst way. Moving to the town of Canaima with his family, he trades the big city for a more relaxed, rural setting. Of course, it’s a happy ideal situation until various deaths start happening around town. Eventually, he and the authorities come to realize just how bad things really are. John Goodman’s character was an interesting touch as a funny exterminator, but really wasn’t used as much as he could have in this film. Then again, when he does tend to steal the scenes he’s in. Arachnophobia has a number of other supporting actors, but the film mainly belongs to Daniels, Goodman and the the spiders.

Chris Walas, who won an Oscar for his effects and make up work in The Fly helped to create some of the more mechanical spiders and close-ups when necessary. While you can tell where you’re dealing with real tarantulas and their synthetic counterparts, he did a great job in getting the fear factor out there, especially during the final standoff of the film. Without giving much away, the last 20 minutes of the movie are brilliant in that the final battle is much more than the simple “find it and squash it” scenario from Kingdom of the Spiders. It’s almost a violent chess match.

Arachnophobia is a treat. It may not be the best film about spiders in general, but if you do suffer from the condition or know someone who does, it definitely worth seeing, just to jump and squirm now and then. It’s much better than knowing there are real Black Widows to contend with.

Movie Review: Darkman (dir. by Sam Raimi)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

As I haven’t been to the movies lately, I’m working on reviews of older films I’ve seen.

A long time ago, just after Tim Burton’s Batman and before Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Sam Raimi came up with the idea of making his own superhero movie. Supposedly, he had tried to get a hold of both Batman and The Shadow (which eventually went on to Highlander’s Russell Mulcahy), but wasn’t able to. As a result, Darkman was created. I never mind watching it or recommending it, as long as the viewer realizes they’re not shooting for Oscar Winning material here.

Darkman was a strange film. It wasn’t really marketed very well, evidenced in the simple “Who is Darkman?” posters that I remembered seeing on the sides of buses. I don’t recall there being any kind of commercials for the movie. While the movie did alright (and even spawned 2 sequels), I never thought of it as a great success. It still is, despite its flaws, a good film. Well, for someone at 15, it was good.

In Darkman, Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is a gifted scientist that has just about everything. He has a great girlfriend in Julie (Frances McDormand), who’s doing well in her job and he’s on the verge of a major breakthrough in developing a new synthetic skin. If he could only solve the problem where the skin apparently decays in light after 99 minutes. Soon after realizing the flaw in his project, he is attacked a group of criminals (lead by Larry Drake in a great role), burned with his own chemicals and his lab is set ablaze. Left for dead, he’s found and brought to a hospital. They’re able to confirm that he’ll live, but he’s also horribly scarred, has no sensation in his nerves (meaning he feels no pain), and will need skin grafts for the rest of this life. The result of all this trauma is also a bit of mental damage. Westlake breaks free of the hospital, resurrects his lab, and decides to get revenge for what was done to him. The synthetic skin technique now allows him to assume the appearance of anyone he chooses (as long as he has a picture of them, of course). He can wear a disguise for up to 99 minutes in direct sunlight, else his face begins to melt.

One thing I like about some of Sam Raimi’s films is that they’re just strange in some ways. Not Cronenberg strange (that’s just creepy sometimes), but they tend to have some weird elements. He likes to throw things into the camera, whether it’s someone’s face or an object. He’s also into these extreme zoom shots where he’ll have the camera low and bring it racing towards it’s subject. At the time the movie came out, my parents gave me a Camcorder. I did a lot of similar shots, chasing the cats around the house with the camera hovering a few inches off of the floor. I’ll admit it, it was pretty effective here.

Some of the acting was okay in Darkman. I particularly liked Larry Drake at the time because he seemed so different from the character he played on L.A. Law at the time, but everyone else here seemed like they were playing up their roles and in some cases, taking themselves far more seriously than they should have. Some scenes didn’t even make sense to me and felt like filler. I get that Westlake was just a little bonkers, but the whole “See the Dancing Freak” song and dance routine kind of left me with a “What the hell?” expression. Frances McDormand seemed to almost whine on cue (though I guess if I had a love one come back from the dead, I’d be a little shocked too). Colin Friels’ villain caused my family to collectively snicker and groan when at one part, he exclaims “Because I built it!!! I built it all!!” It was just all very strange. M. Night Shyamalan did something similar with The Happening, but for me, this really worked better in Darkman’s favor. Since the acting is so campy, the movie never really tries to make itself out to be Dark Knight / Captain America piece.

If you’re looking at it logically, there’s really no way that Westlake should have been able to pull off half of the disguises he used. You’ve height and weight to consider, and last I checked, Liam Neeson and Larry Drake really had two different body types. Where’d he get all the extra bulk, one has to wonder? Extra clothing, perhaps?

If Darkman has anything going for it, it’s the music. At the time, Danny Elfman was riding the high he had off of movies like Batman, Midnight Run, Dick Tracy and Nightbreed. While Edward Scissorhands remains the strongest score he had that year, Darkman has a number of nice action cues mixed with some somber tones. It helps to carry the film, somewhat.

Overall, Darkman was an interesting look at Sam Raimi’s approach to a superhero. It may have also been one of the key factors in securing the directing duties on the Spider-Man movies in the early 2000’s, which was far superior to this film. If nothing else, it’s worth a laugh or two.

Quick Review: Fright Night (dir. by Craig Gillespie)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

I want to say great things about Craig Gillespie’s remake of Fright Night. I want to say that it was worth seeing and it was full of awesome moments. I also wanted to be able to write this review without making so many comparisons to the 1985 Original by Tom Holland. Not that the original was a masterpiece by any means, but I dozed off (just a little) on this film.

If there’s only one reason I could give for recommending Fright Night, it would be to get a taste of what Vampires should be. Don’t read me wrong on this. I own all four Twilight books in hardcover, read them repeatedly, and have seen the three films that came out in the theatre. It’s just nice to see a vampire movie that shows vampires more as predatory creatures than sparkling A&F models.  There’s an edge to this film that’s pretty fun in a lot of ways. Both Colin Farrell and David Tennant have great roles here and even Anton Yelchin holds his own, but there’s a weird breakdown that happens. Fright Night is a good film, as long as you don’t try to make any kind of direct comparisons to the source material.

The story focuses on Charlie Brewster (Yelchin), a teenager – the story being in Vegas this time –  who discovers he has a vampire named Jerry Dandrige (Farrell) living next door to him. When the vampire confronts Charlie, Charlie is forced to seek out help in the form of Peter Vincent (Tennant) to defeat him. While there were a few scenes that really stood out for me and I found myself smiling more often than rolling my eyes, the pacing of this was off. Other audiences may find that the movie moved well. I felt like they were just throwing things to say “Well, wouldn’t it be cool if they did this, and then that.”

The two problems I had with Fright Night were it’s pacing and Chris Mintz-Plasse. Chris is fun to watch at the start, and I’d love to see him do more, but someone really has to give him something where he’s not playing the “token geek”.  While I liked the movie overall, there’s a lot of verbal exposition in the beginning of the film, as Charlie doesn’t so much discover the truth about Jerry, but is pretty much told the entire scenario he’s in about 15 minutes into the start. I had a problem with that. Again, depending on the audience, the movie may move just fine.

Fright Night is one of those films could be a love it or hate it. I’m of the audience that will probably catch it again when it’s out on video, but it doesn’t feel like anything you really have to rush to the theatre for.

Scene I Love: Sunshine (dir. by Danny Boyle)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

The scene in Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” where the crew reaches Mercury is one of my favorites. It may not be as powerful as Kaneda’s Death, but this is one of those moments I can watch and smile at. There are no words, but visually, It’s an awesome moment of reflection in the scheme of things. John Murphy and Underworld’s music add a nice touch to this.

Quick Review: Winnie the Pooh (dir. by Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 running at full steam, and Captain America: The First Avenger opening this weekend, Winnie the Pooh still remains an option for younger kids who may not be ready for these two films (at least until The Smurfs is released). There’s really very little in the way of negative comments that I can give to Winnie the Pooh, expect perhaps that running at just 69 minutes, it’s very short. It’s for kids.

Working off the original story by A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh re-introduces us to the title character, along with his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood – Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet,  Kanga and her son Roo, Owl, and Eeyore. They are the treasured toys of Christopher Robin, who has an active imagination.

One of the cute elements of this story, narrated by John Cleese is how everyone breaks the fourth wall and occasionally has interactions with the paragraphs of the story. Stepping on a few words here, using a few as a ladder, it came across as being quite worthy of a few smiles.

I used to watch “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” on Saturday Mornings, and it was a treat to return to these characters. For the movie, we are given the “Busy Backson” story, where Eeyore has lost his tail and the team come up with ideas on new and interesting ones for him. Each character has their own way of figuring this out. Of course, Pooh has something of a difficult time with his constantly rumbling tummy, but he manages to help in his own way. In their search, Owl misreads a note left behind by Christopher Robin stating that he’ll be busy, but will be back soon. This conjures up the great and terrible “Backson” in everyone’s imagination, responsible for everything from stealing your left socks to making your milk spoil. The team decides to set a trap for the Backson, with wild results. The scenes with the Backson maybe a little frightening to the youngest of viewers, but it’s not that bad. We’re not dealing with Heffalumps or Woozles here.

In the end, as always, everything turns out well. I liked that Friendship was the big factor here. All of Eyeore’s friends tried to help him find his tail, and Pooh even puts his honey chasing ways on hold (as best he can, anyway) to aid his friend. Those familiar with the animated series will instantly recognize Jim Cummings as the voice of both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. I would have liked to have seen Peter Cullen come back as Eyeore, but he was pretty busy voicing Optimus Prime while the movie was being made. All of the other voice actors are new, including late night tv host Craig Ferguson as Owl. The kids won’t even care.

Musically, there are a few interesting songs. Actress / Singer Zooey Deschanel lends her voice to the title song, along with a few others. Most of the other songs are sung by the cast themselves, and the kids may find themselves singing along (at least I could hear singing in my audience, anyway). The film moves fast, extremely fast. By the time the antsy factor kicks in, the movie’s done, which makes that a treat by itself.

Overall, Winnie the Pooh may not have the magnificence of say a Kung Fu Panda 2 or How to Train Your Dragon, but for very young viewers, it should do just the trick.

Movie Review: Captain America – The First Avenger (dir. by Joe Johnston)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

This won’t be the only review for Captain America: The First Avenger here on the Shattered Lens. This may very well be considered an editorial on the film, depending on whether I can stay on topic (I gush a lot in this one). Once they see it, both Arleigh and Lisa Marie will probably make their own posts. Either way, you’ll have more than one perspective on the film.

Addendum: Arleigh’s review is up.

Many years ago, Marvel Comics decided that with all of it’s key franchises spaced around various film production companies, they’d create a series of films that would culminate to one big “Team Up” story. That team is known as The Avengers and it’s members (for the sake of the films, anyway) are Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, The Scarlett Witch, Hawkeye and Captain America. The project really went into high gear when Marvel Studios was born and Disney purchased Marvel.

I didn’t have a lot of hope for Captain America: The First Avenger. I know very little about the character save for the comics my older brother used to read. He was an army guy given something to make him super and he had a really cool shield that he’d throw and have return to him.. That was basically the bulk of my knowledge. When taken into account the announcement that Joe Johnston was directing the film, after his somewhat disappointing turn in The Wolfman and that Chris Evans was playing the role, I was certain the film was going to fail. I mean, wasn’t he just playing the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four?

Now, you need to understand that hearing Joe Johnston’s name attached to this left a mixture of feelings. I absolutely love The Rocketeer (1991) and period pieces in general. He was able to give it a nice ‘30s feel, right down to the old war serials that used to be shown before films. Hell, even the poster to that film was something grand. My little brother had a Rocketeer toy and I used to film home movies with it, holding the character just in front of the camera and running around the house as if it were flying. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as well for Johnston or Disney then – but that’s another story.

As for Captain America, the movie floored me. The story isn’t as complex as say, The Dark Knight or as full of itself as Green Lantern, but it’s hands down the best story in the whole Avengers arc that Marvel’s worked on. From my viewpoint, only Iron Man comes close to competing with this film.

The premise of the story is pretty straightforward. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a frail man with just about every problem you can think of. He’s short, he’s asthmatic, and he can’t do a pull up to save his life. Yet, as his parents were in the Army, he felt it was right that he do his part. Every time he tries to enlist, however, he’s told he can’t. This doesn’t sway him from the belief that he can do it, it just forces him to find other ways in. When a scientist overhears Steve’s reasoning behind wanting to join, he gives him a big chance to become the first of many Super Soldiers. The process does indeed work, but a mishap leaves Steve as the only Super Soldier the Allies have, and thus, Captain America is born.

Now, I’m kind of summarizing things there as the story’s just a little bigger than that, but it really needs to be noted just how great a job Chris Evans did in this. He portrays Steve Rogers as one of the most noble characters I’ve seen since Superman. The character never loses that drive or passion, and it came across so well that on reflection, I can’t recall ever thinking once about the Human Torch (something I fully expected to do here). I found myself really wanting this character to succeed, which is more than I could say about Hal Jordan in Green Lantern despite loving the comic. Evans truly was the right person for this film, in my opinion. Again, die hard Captain America fans that have grown up with the character may disagree.

Captain America also has a rich supporting cast. Hayley Atwell, coming over off a great role in the Starz Miniseries The Pillars of the Earth plays Peggy Carter, a tough as nails Army Officer that helps to motivate Rogers toward the path he’s destined to take. Atwell is beautiful, demure at times and responsive at others, every bit as she was when playing Alienna. Also from Pillars of the Earth is Anatole Taubman as one of Johan Schmidtt’s (Hugo Weaving’s) Officers. Tommy Lee Jones’ Colonel has some of the funnier lines in the film. Weaving does a great job as always at playing the villian. There’s really very little I can say on that other than the make up job they gave Weaving’s Red Skull was nice, right down to the visible seams just under his ears. Sebastian Stan has a good role in Rogers’ best friend, Bucky, but I think he could have used a little more. Even Natalie Dormer (Cassanova, The Tudors) and Amanda Righetti (Friday the 13th) have cameos. If the film has two supporting anchors other than Atwell, it would be Stanley Tucci (Easy A) and Dominic Cooper (The Devil’s Double). As Abraham Erskine and Howard Stark, respectively, they both almost steal the show from Evans. They both have a few key moments in the film.

If Captain America suffers from any problems, it may be that it gets from Point A to Point B a little quicker than I’d have liked it to. Some of the pacing is done in Montages, which is okay for showing the audience that the Captain is making progress, but I would have liked to have seen another mission or two before the finale. The buildup to Steve Rogers becoming the Captain is fast, and everything else moves pretty quickly from there on in. The last battle sequence could have been stronger – I’m reminded of the tank sequence in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – but considering the era in which the story was told, I wasn’t really expecting lightsabers or anything along those lines. It wasn’t bad, but it was over sooner than I expected. I should also point out that it really does help to have seen the other Avenger related movies. It’s not really a requirement, but the larger puzzle really comes into view on seeing this film.

Visually, the film is great. Johnston really catches that sense of old New York, though it may not be as nuanced as Jackson’s in King Kong. The colors are a little muted in some places, but I’m thinking that’s part of the tone that was set. There’s even a musical number that’s somewhat cute. The 3D effects in this are okay for some scenes. The end credits in particular were nice, but over all it’s really nothing to write home about. I’m still of the notion that 3D should really be restricted to animated features.

Overall, Captain America was a fun film in the vein of Joe Johnston’s earlier film, The Rocketeer and is easily the best of the Marvel Studios Avenger prequels. I’ll be heading back to see it again on Sunday.

And remember, when the movie is done, don’t leave. After the credits comes something definitely worth seeing (at least the yelling and cheers from my audience seemed to deem it so).

Hottie of the Day: Olive Oyl

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

There’s a commercial out for Summer’s Eve that I’ve seen in the theatre. In it, it shows various battles while in the background, there’s a voice over explaining that “Men have fought for it, killed and died for it.” While that ends up being a little humorous at the end, it does point out something. Guys will often do anything for love (or is it lust)?

Take Olive Oyl as a case in point. I know, it’s off the wall and weird with all of the Hotties that have graced the Shattered Lens (and I could get myself kicked for all this), but hear me out. I made something of a fun dare with Arleigh that I could write this – despite the shame that may come from it – and am getting it out there.

That red shirt.

Her Leia-like hairdo, complete with the ponytail.

And those sexy boots.

It’s Olive’s apparent flaws that make her beautiful, at least to two men.

Ms. Oyl, the love of Popeye the Sailor, manages throughout to always attract the attention of both Popeye and his rival, Bluto (or Brutus, in some stories). Like the characters in Twilight, the two men are always at each other to defend her honor over the years in Max Fleischer’s serials. While she may be petite by today’s standards, Olive brings a sense of vitality and clumsiness that adds to her allure, not to mention her bright smile. She’s all woman.

Olive Oyl is also a resourceful girl, whether it’s by helping her man sneak into a Rodeo or even putting up a fight for him (she once at the spinach and beat up a girl), she shows she’s not one to always wait to be saved (note that I say always – she does have her times where she needs help). Imagine how she’d be if she were written differently, with a darker tone. Perhaps she’d be like Catherine Trammell, Sharon Stone’s character in Basic Instinct, dancing between but never being “owned” by either suitor. As long as Bluto has an interest in her, Popeye will run to her defense. Thus, she owns all the cards. A wise one, that cutie.

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster is Out!

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster (via TheDarkKnightRises.com)

The Official Teaser Poster for The Dark Knight Rises (Copyright 2011 - DC/Warner Bros.)

Just in time for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, Warner Bros. has just released the teaser poster for The Dark Knight Rises. It’s a little hard not to get excited about this (I have a Batman Begins poster in my room, so personally, I was waiting for it), but there are a few things I notice:

1.) This poster has a mixture of the original Batman Begins Poster with the decay of Limbo in Inception.

2.) It’s thrifty. Maybe they had some old unused Inception concepts out there, and someone said, “Uhh…throw a Bat on it, and we’ll go with that.”

3.) The Dark Knight poster’s elements of fire hinted to the anarchy that the Joker tried to bring in that film. What could this be hinting at? Part of me is hoping for an earthquake, but I’m thinking it may have more to do with Bane’s destructive qualities.

Either way, we’ll all find out some Summer of 2012. Rumor has it that the teaser trailer is due to be tied to the Harry Potter film. If so, that should be interesting.

Note that the poster is from the Dark Knight Rises Official Site.

Scenes I Love: The Sandlot – “The Night Game”

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

When I think of the 4th of July, one of the biggest memories for me (other than recognizing what it took to declare the country free), are Fireworks in the street. Here in NYC, there was once a time where anyone could get a hold of fireworks, and the views you’d get in the sky were just as bright and beautiful as they are on the Hudson. Add to that a little baseball, and you have an easily memorable scene. Enjoy and may you all have a Safe and Happy Independence Day.

Game Preview: Batman: Arkham City – 10 Minute Gameplay

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

This may have already been posted on the Shattered Lens, and I apologize if that’s the case (did a search, didn’t see anything on it).

Eidos and Rocksteady are almost ready to bring us the next chapter in their hit Batman: Arkham Asylum with Arkham City, due out this October. With a wider playing around and a bigger story, it’s expected to be a hit. This preview showcases Catwoman as a playable character, along with some of the updates in the gameplay overall. It’s looking very good.