Cone of Silence (1960, directed by Charles Frend)

Posted on July 2, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Cone of Silence is a very British film about aviation.

George Sanders plays an investigator who is looking into a crash of a “Phoenix” jetliner. The crash has been blamed on the pilot, Captain George Gort (Bernard Lee). Because Gort was killed in the crash, he is not around to defend himself. Gort had a previous crash on his record and had also been reprimanded for flying to low when he landed a flight in Calcutta. To Phoenix Airlines, Gort is the perfect scapegoat but a series of flashbacks reveals that Gort was a good pilot and that the cowardly Captain Clive Judd (Peter Cushing) was responsible for the incident in Calcutta. Captain Hugh Dallas (Michael Craig) tries to exonerate Gort’s name before another crash occurs.

Cone of Silence is named not for the famed listening device from Get Smart but instead for a key part of Gort’s certification process, where he has to fly a plane without being able to hear anyone or anything else around him. That Gort manages to do so is one of the things that leads to Dallas believing the Gort couldn’t have been responsible for the later crash. Bernard Lee is best-known for playing James Bond’s unflappable superior, M, and it’s interesting to see him playing a much more neurotic character in Cone of Silence. Gort is a good pilot but he knows that, after his first crash, no one trusts his judgment and everyone is expecting him to fail and it gets to him. It does not help that he has to deal with the weaselly Captain Judd, who is looking to blame anything that happens on Gort. Cushing does a good job of playing Judd as someone who is outwardly friendly but who is ultimately only looking out for himself.

Cone of Silence was released at a time when jet travel was still considered to be a luxury and pilots were viewed as being the men who could do the impossible. Not surprisingly, the film is full of lengthy scenes in which Captain Dallas and others explain every step that goes into flying a jet. Great care was taken to get every detail right, even if it meant limiting the film’s dramatic potential. This may have been fascinating to audiences in 1960, many of whom had never traveled on a plane, but today, Cone of Silence can feel dry and overly talky. It’s good to see Sanders, Lee, and Cushing all in the same film but Cone of Silence is never as compelling as its cast.

Film Review: The Princess (dir by Le-Van Kiet)

Posted on July 2, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe (2022, directed by John Rice and Albert Calleros)

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Beavis and Butt-Head, those two lovable, illiterate, and thoroughly moronic teenagers from Highland, Texas, are back and they are as dumb as ever! Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe is their second movie adventure. Currently streaming on Paramount Plus, it’s a smart comedy about dumb people.

In 1998, Bevis and Butt-Head (voice by their creator, Mike Judge) accidentally attend their school’s science fair and end up burning the whole place down. The toughest judge in Texas sentences them to Space Camp, where they can learn responsibility. As so often happens with these two, their utter stupidity is mistaken for genius and they end up going into space. Their job is to help the space shuttle dock with the International Space Station. Beavis and Butt-Head, however, think that they are being sent into space to “do it” with astronaut Serena Ryan (voiced by Andrea Savage). Quicker then you can yell “Fire,” the boys manage to destroy the International Space Station and get sucked into a wormhole.

The boys find themselves transported to Galveston. The year is 2022, not that Beavis and Butt-Head ever figure that out. Their multiverse counterparts, Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head, materialize to warn them that, unless they go through the wormhole again, the universe could be destroyed. Beavis and Butt-Head are more interested in returning to their house, seeing what’s on TV, and doing it with Serena. Serena, who is now governor of Texas, would rather kill Beavis and Butt-Head in order to prevent anyone from discovering what actually happened on the space shuttle 14 years ago.

It’s a long journey from Galveston to Highland. Beavis and Butt-Head get an iPhone to help and Beavis falls in love with Siri. A trip to a university leads to Beavis and Butt-Head interrupting a sociology class and it also leads to one of the film’s best moments, when a white student with a man bun proceeds to interrupt all of the women in the class so that he can mansplain white privilege. Beavis and Butt-Head take this to mean that they can steal without getting arrested and it turns out that they’re right, up until the moment they try to steal a police car. A trip to prison leads to Beavis shouting that he is the great Cornholio while the universe itself grows closer to destruction.

Yes, Beavis and Butt-Head are just as moronic as ever but, fortunately, so is the sharpness of Mike Judge’s satiric wit. It’s been close to 30 years since Beavis and Butt-Head made their debut on MTV and, through all that time, the main joke has remained the same. Beavis and Butt-Head are such utter morons that almost everyone who meets them assumes that there must be something else going on beneath the surface. In the past, it was just Mr. Van Driessen thinking that he could teach the boys how to be responsible by asking them to clean his house and not touch his valuable 8-track collection. In Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe, it’s expanded to NASA trusting the boys with expensive equipment and human lives. They fit right in at the college and they even manage to rally the prisoners in the county jail. The government thinks that they must be aliens while Sarena worries that they could destroy her political career, even though neither one of them can even read a billboard. Not even Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head can bring themselves to accept just how stupid their multiverse counterparts actually are!

But stupid, they are. The world is all the better for it.

Film Review: Strategic Command (dir by Rick Jacobson)

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

Film Review: The Ledge (dir by Howard J. Ford)

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

The TSL’s Grindhouse: World Gone Wild (dir by Lee H. Katzin)

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“World Gone Wild!? What’s that about?”

Don’t ask me. I just watched the movie and I’m not particularly sure what the point of it all was. Released in 1987, World Gone Wild is one of those films that was made to capitalize on the post-apocalypse boom of the 70s and 80s. Basically, imagine a Mad Max film that sucks and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what World Gone Wild is like.

There’s been a nuclear war. Civilization has collapsed and now, there are just tiny outposts of humanity who are trying to survive. It hasn’t rained in decades. Old-timer Ethan (Bruce Dern) is in charge of a town called Lost Wells. He remembers what rain was like and he also remembers what rock music used to sound like, too. As for Lost Wells, it’s one of those dreary little desert communities that always tend to pop up in movies like this. Angie (Catherine Mary Stewart) teaches the community’s children in an abandoned school bus. They have a bunch of books on etiquette. One little girl can recite every word ever written by Emily Post. That gets annoying fast. Emily Post didn’t live on a school bus in the desert.

That etiquette doesn’t do much good when it comes to protecting Lost Wells from Derek Abernathy (Adam Ant), a cult leader who dresses in all-white and who wants to take control of Lost Wells away from Ethan. (In a somewhat clever twist, it turns out that Ethan learned how to become a cult leader by reading a book about Charles Manson.) Knowing that the majority of the people in his town are too obsessed with Emily Post to fight off Derek and his army, Ethan recruits a group of mercenaries led by George Landon ( who is played by Michael Pare, who looks like he was absolutely miserable while shooting this movie). George and his men agree to protect Lost Wells from Derek and, in the process, they regain some of their lost humanity and they start to believe in the possibility of rain. Or something like that. Fortunately, one of George’s mercenaries is played by the supercool character actor Anthony James. He doesn’t get to do much but hey, it’s still Anthony James and Bruce Dern in the same movie! Yay!

For a film called World Gone Wild, this is a strangely low-key affair. Even the most unimpressive of Mad Max rip-offs will usually have an exciting car chase or two. At the very least, there’s usually a big battle where people sacrifice their lives for the future of humanity. In World Gone Wild, the mercenaries pretty much just go to Lost Wells and then wait for Derek to come back. And when Derek returns, there’s a few explosions and some gunfire but that’s pretty much it. Neither side really puts up much of a fight, which leads me to wonder if Derek really even cared about Lost Wells.

On the plus side, the film has got Bruce Dern, doing his wild-eyed old-timer bit. That’s always fun to watch and, if nothing else, Dern appears to be having fun in this movie. At the very least, he’s having more fun that Michael Pare and Catherine Mary Stewart, both of whom seem to spend the majority of the movie looking for a way to make a quick escape. And I suppose the film does win some novelty points for casting Adam Ant as the main villain, even though Derek ultimately turns out to be not much of a threat.

In the end, World Gone Wild‘s greatest strength is Bruce Dern. He’ll make you believe in the rain again.

Guilty Pleasure No. 57: The Voyeurs (dir by Michael Mohan)

Posted on June 27, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Voyeurs premiered on Amazon in 2021 and I have to say that I’m a little bit angry that I didn’t bother to watch the movie until last week. Seriously, someone should have alerted me about this film because this is exactly the type of shamelessly sordid, narratively nonsensical film that I always end up enjoying. Seriously, I expect better from my friends.

The film opens with Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) trying on lingerie in a chic shop, just to suddenly realize that anyone looking through the shop’s front window would be able to see her. Pippa glares reproachfully at both the window and, presumably, the people watching this movie. That’s right, the film opens with the lead character judging you for watching. However, as we soon discover, Pippa is a bit of a hypocrite.

Pippa was buying the lingerie as a way to celebrate moving into a new studio apartment with her boyfriend, Thomas (Justice Smith). Unfortunately, Thomas is kind of a lame-o and he ends up falling asleep as soon as they move in and before Pippa can show him what she’s bought. When Thomas does eventually wake up, he and Pippa discover that they can stare straight into the the apartment across the street from them. That apartment is inhabited by a handsome and sexy photographer (Ben Hardy) and his beautiful wife (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Pippa and Thomas find themselves obsessively watching as Thomas and Pippa make love in the kitchen and basically everywhere else in their apartment. (Meanwhile, Thomas is still complaining about how much he hates his job.) Eventually, Pippa and Thomas even figure out a way to capture the vibrations of the other apartment’s windows so that they can “hear” what the photographer and his wife are saying to each other. While Thomas worries that Pippa is becoming too obsessed with the neighbors, Pippa is busy fantasizing about the photographer and befriending his wife. When Pippa discovers that the photographer is cheating on his wife and cruelly gaslighting away her concerns, Pippa makes a decision that leads to….

Well, it leads to a lot and I certainly won’t spoil it. I will say that it’s all wonderfully melodramatic and silly. The Voyeurs has multiple twists, none of which make much sense. Indeed, it’s best not to think too much about any of the twists or the film’s rather macabre conclusion. Instead, watch it for the sex, the glamour, the spacious apartments, and the beautiful people. Don’t worry about logic. Instead, just accept The Voyeurs as a dream. Sydney Sweeney brings some much-needed sincerity to her role while Hardy and Bordizzo both appear to understand exactly the type of film in which they’ve found themselves and, wisely, they fully embrace the sordidness of it all. At times, Justice Smith seems to almost be taking the movie too seriously but even that adds to The Voyeurs off-center charm. Someone always takes things too seriously in a film like this.

The Voyeurs is the type of sordid daydream-turned-nightmare that we can all love.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Film Review: I Want You Back (dir by Jason Orley)

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Peter and Emma!

Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) both work in the same building in downtown Atlanta. That’s one thing that they have in common. Peter works for a soulless nursing home company. At a typical meeting, Peter listens as the other executives debate whether or not it’s actually necessary to spend so much money feeding the residents. Peter dreams of starting his own nursing home, one where the elderly will be treated with the respect that they deserve. Emma is an administrative assistant in an orthodontist’s office. She lives in an apartment with two college students, even though she hasn’t been enrolled in college for years. Though they’re both in their early thirties, neither Peter nor Emma have really be able to get their lives going yet. That’s another thing that they have in common.

And there’s a third thing that they have in common. They’ve both recently been dumped. Anne (Gina Rodriguez) left Peter because she felt that Peter was stuck in a rut and she’s now dating a pretentious but dashing middle school theater teacher named Logan (Manny Jacinto). Emma’s ex, personal trainer Noah (Scott Eastwood), is now deeply in love with a pastry chef named Ginny (Clark Backo). Anne and Noah may have moved on but both Peter and Emma want their exes back.

When Emma and Peter meet each other while looking for a place to cry in the office stairwell, they strike up a quick friendship. They also hatch a brilliant scheme. Emma will volunteer to work on Logan’s production of Little Shop of Horrors and, while doing so, she’ll seduce him and cause Anne to break up with him. Meanwhile, Peter will befriend Noah and convince him that Ginny really isn’t right for him.

Of course, things don’t go as smoothly as expected. We’ve all seen Strangers on a Train enough times to know that these “You’ll help me and I’ll help you” schemes never seem to work out. Peter does manage to befriend Noah but it turns out that Noah is deeply in love with Ginny. Meanwhile, Logan is more than open to the idea of being seduced but it turns out that Anne is also interested in exploring new things. While Peter and Noah are hitting the clubs and getting taunted, for being “old,” by Pete Davidson, Emma is being forced to sing Suddenly Seymour with the 13 year-old star of Little Shop of Horrors. Peter and Emma are also growing closer, even as they try to get back with their exes.

Currently streaming on Prime, I Want You Back is an amusing romantic comedy, one that works due to a surprisingly clever script and a charming cast. For all the indignities that Peter and Emma go through in their quest to win back the exes, the film always treats their emotions with respect. The scene in which 30-something Emma wipes away tears while a bespectacled 13 year-old sings Suddenly Seymour to her is a wonderfully comedic moment but, because Emma feels like a fully realized character instead of just a comedic caricature, the film works on an emotional level as well. “I’m not ready for this,” Emma mutters as the kid starts to sing and it’s a funny line that works because it’s also a line to which everyone can relate. Everyone knows the feeling. Jenny Slate and Charlie Day are charming as the two leads and both Scott Eastwood and Gina Rodriguez bring some welcome depth to the role of the exes. No one in this film turns out to be as simple or as one-dimensional as the viewer might initially expect. Instead, we find ourselves caring about not only Emma and Peter but also about Noah and Anne, as well.

I Want You Back is a sweet-natured and genuinely funny romantic comedy. The final scene is perfect. Check it out on Prime.

Documentary Review: Shatner In Space

Posted on June 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember when William Shatner became the oldest man to go into space?

It’s okay if you’ve forgotten. It happened way back in 2021 and that was like — well, it feels like it was about 30 years ago. Add to that, Shatner went up in space as a part of Jeff Bezos’s space program and Bezos’s attempts to conquer space have pretty much been replaced by Elon Musk’s attempts to conquer space in the national consciousness.

That said, it was a really big deal when it happened. I think there were a lot of people who were concerned that, at the age of 90, Shatner wasn’t really physically fit to go into space and that it would be really depressing if Shatner didn’t make it back to Earth. There were others who pointed out that Jeff Bezos’s Blue Orbit may have gone high up in the sky but that it didn’t quite break through the atmosphere. The people on the ship, including Shatner, experienced weightlessness and got to see what the Earth looked like from space without actually literally going into space. George Takei had to be a whiny little child about it because that’s pretty much the way Takei reacts to anything positive happening to William Shatner. And, of course, many people said that Jeff Bezos should have been spending his money on fixing the Earth instead of trying to escape it. Those were the same people who, later that year, wrote positive reviews of Don’t Look Up.

That said, it was all just really cool. Star Trek may bore me to tears but even I was still moved by the thought of William Shatner going into space, even if it was just for a few minutes. It was a moment to spark the imagination and to inspire optimism. I think those are two things that the professional naysayers are incapable of possessing or understanding. But it’s imagination and optimism that will make the world a better place.

Anyway, there’s a 50-minute documentary about Shatner’s voyage into space, one that I just watched. It’s on Prime and, quite appropriately, it’s called Shatner In Space. In all honesty, Shatner In Space is largely a commercial for Jeff Bezos. There’s not point in denying that. The first half of the documentary features perhaps a bit too much footage of Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, trying to present himself as just being a humble sci-fi nerd who grew up on a ranch. Brilliant businessman that he is, Bezos is not the most charismatic person in the world and that’s especially obvious when he’s sharing scenes with William Shatner. There’s undoubtedly a lot that you can say about William Shatner but no one can deny that, even at 90, the man knows how to work a scene.

But, fortunately, Shatner himself seems to be so sincerely excited about the prospect of going into space that it even makes Bezos tolerable. The documentary doesn’t include as many scenes as one might hope of William Shatner training for his mission. Personally, I would be curious to know what type of precautions were taken before sending a 90 year-old person into space because, who knows …. I might be 90 before I get the chance to try it for myself! I did notice that, of the crew, Shatner was the only one not to really indulge in the weightless aspect of the trip. While everyone else floated around the capsule, Shatner seemed content to stay in his seat and look at the Earth below. The fact that Shatner, who has pretty much made a late-in-life career out of parodying his reputation for being a bit pompous, seems to be, at that moment, at a loss for words is actually rather touching.

Anyway, as I said, this is basically a commercial for Jeff Bezos but it’s hard not to enjoy watching Shatner go into space.

Short Film Review: A Little Dead (dir by Ben Richardson)

Posted on June 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On a farm in Oklahoma, an old man who we get know as being Grandpa (Jack C. Hays) sits at a dinner table. Though he seems to be alone, he’s got three glasses of wine sitting in front of the other chairs, along with with a glass for himself.

Things haven’t been easy for Grandpa since Grandma passed away. His two grandchildren, Hailey (Eden McGuire) and Kevin (Ben Richardson, who also directed the film) arranged for a caretaker to live with him but, when they stop by for a visit, they discover that the caretaker has vanished and Grandpa seems to be convinced that there are people sitting at the table with him. When his grandchildren try to clean up the table, he snaps at them not to touch anyone’s drinks. There’s a ritual going on and his well-meaning grandchildren better not interrupt it. At times, Grandpa seems to be perfectly lucid. At other times, he expresses surprise when Kevin tells him that it’s not a good idea to keep a big box of rat poison with all of the cereal. Is Grandpa losing it or is there something else happening that only he can understand?

Clocking in at a little over 10 minutes (not including the end credits) and deliberately paced without ever being slow, A Little Dead is a nicely atmospheric piece of country gothic. On the one hand, it is a story of a man who may or may not be living with spirits. On the other hand, I think it can be argued that the film is also a metaphor for the mixed emotions that many people have about the feelings of responsibility that they feel towards older relatives and the guilt that comes from feeling that maybe they were not there as much as they should have been. There’s a lot of people like this film’s Grandpa, who are living alone and who are only occasionally visited by younger family members who are, for the most part, checking in to see if they still have their mind and if they’re still capable of taking care of themselves. Is Grandpa talking to actual “people” at the table or is he just talking to the lingering memories of the people who used to be there? And are his grandchildren correct to be concerned about him or are they just dealing with their own feelings of guilt?

A Little Dead is also an enjoyable little horror story. It’s the type of story that you would might expect to find in an old horror comic book, complete with a nice little twist at the end. The film makes good use of that old farmhouse and the desolate country landscape. If you have spent anytime in the rural midwest, you will immediately recognize the film’s milieu. If there were ghosts to be found, that’s definitely where they would probably be living.

This is one to keep an eye out for. Pour yourself a glass and relax with A Little Death.