“Roxanne” Movie Review

    One of my favorite films as a kid was the Steve Martin romantic comedy “Roxanne”.  I am not sure if it was because of the subject matter or because of Steve Martin’s large clownish nose.  Steve Martin, in his prime, was easily one of the funniest people alive.  Thanks to the good folks at Mill Creek Entertainment, I was able to revisit one of my childhood favorites with a wonderful new blu-ray release.

    The film is a retelling of the classic “Cyrano de Bergerac” in which Martin plays an updated version of Cyrano de Bergerac named C.D. in this film.  When newcomer Roxanne arrives into C.D.’s town, he is immediately drawn to her not only for her beauty but because they get along so well.  C.D.’s feelings are unrequited however as Roxanne doesn’t find him attractive (due to his comically large nose) and is instead attracted to C.D.’s fellow firefighter Chris.  C.D. agrees to help Chris in his quest to court Roxanne and tell her the things she would like to hear from him.  C.D. channels his own feelings for Roxanne and has Chris repeat what he says.  Roxanne falls in love with Chris due largely to the things he tells her.  Unfortunately, things don’t go too well with Chris and Roxanne.  Later on, Roxanne ends up finding out that it was actually C.D. saying all those beautiful and romantic things to her.  What will she do knowing how C.D. really feels about her?

    Steve Martin led a good cast with a knockout performance.  Martin had good chemistry with Daryl Hannah in one of her best performances to date.  While the film is a great romantic comedy, it also doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It’s rare for a romantic comedy to allow itself to be silly.  One aspect of the film I find ironic is that Steve Martin’s character isn’t considered good looking because of his huge news right around the time French actor Gerard Depardieu was being hailed as a sex symbol here in the United States.  Depardieu has a nose that rivals Martin’s prosthetic nose in this film.

    The film was a critical and box office success and after rewatching it, it’s easy to see why.  The film still holds up fairly well as well.  I am just thankful to Mill Creek Entertainment for allowing me to relive a childhood favorite (complete with an incredibly cool retro VHS slip cover).  “Roxanne” is a must see classic worth a watch now!

Grade: B+

Buy “Roxanne” on Blu-ray with a Retro VHS Slip Cover Here!!! Also Available on DVD Here!!!

“Excess Baggage” Movie Review

    While going through the movies I wanted to watch to review, I came across the movie “Excess Baggage” which was generously supplied to me by the good folks at Mill Creek Entertainment.  I know I give them a shout out a lot, but they deserve it for all the support they show writers and content creators.  What caught my attention with the “Excess Baggage” release was honestly the incredibly cool VHS style slipcover.  So, when I finally had some free time, I popped this movie into my Blu-ray player and watched it for the first time ever.

    The film follows a young woman named Emily who has faked her own kidnapping to get the attention of her rich father.  Everything goes to plan and she even places herself in the trunk of her car in order to fool the police.  Things go off the rails when a young man named Vincent decides to steal Emily’s car, with Emily still locked in the trunk.  Vincent wants nothing to do with Emily or her plans and sets her free in the hopes everything blows over.  Things get even more complicated however when Vincent’s place burns down, with Emily’s stolen car inside.  This makes it seem as if Vincent kidnapped Emily and Emily is unwilling to clear him unless he helps her.  Now Vincent and Emily are in over their heads together.  What makes matters worse is that the pair might be falling for each other.

    I had no idea what to expect for this film aside from the fact that it was labeled a comedy.  Let me start by saying that the film isn’t a laugh out loud style comedy, instead it was more of a 90s style romantic comedy (which I guess counts as a comedy but it is a little different than a traditional comedy in my opinion).  Watching it, I found the film to be decent but it also wasn’t exactly filled with memorable moments.  It also had a slightly silly premise in my opinion.  There was a sense of nostalgia watching this movie however because it felt very much like a film I would have rented at the video store as a kid.

    After doing a little research on the film, I found out that the script for the film was the winner of the first annual Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition.  I thought that was kind of a cool bit or trivia.  I also found out that the amazing Aaron Sorkin did a rewrite of the script before it went into production (although it still tested poorly with audiences and had to undergo reshoots).

    The film starred Alicia Silverstone and she actually was fairly good in the film.  I have not seen much of her work outside of “Batman & Robin”, but I know she was never a critics darling.  Still, she actually surprised me a bit in this movie as a result.  Benicio del Toro is also sweet and charming in one of his first roles as Vincent.  Harry Connick, Jr. has a small role as one of Vincent’s associates.  The highlight of the film however is Christopher Walken as Emily’s uncle.  Every role Walken takes on, he absolutely owns.  I was surprised to see that Marco Brambilla directed this.  Brambilla was fresh off of his debut film “Demolition Man” when he filmed this.  As a big fan of “Demolition Man”, seeing his name on the credits definitely perked my interest.

    “Excess Baggage” is the type of movie that takes you back to a different time when movies didn’t have to feel so overly complicated.  While this movie might be easily forgotten, that is also the worst thing you can really say about the movie.  The movie is your average romantic comedy and is worth checking out simply to see Benicio del Toro as a charming young actor.

Grade: C+

Buy “Excess Baggage” on Blu-ray with a Retro VHS Cover Here!!!

“Us” Movie Review

    The other night after work, my girlfriend and I had planned to see “Dumbo” but a work friend and her family changed our plans and we all decided to see “Us” instead.  The film received good reviews (unlike “Dumbo” unfortunately) so it seemed like a safe bet.  The trailer for the film also looked super interesting.

    The film starts off in the mid 80s as a young girl wanders off the boardwalk at Santa Cruz and enters a hall of mirrors on the beach.  As the young girl makes her way through a maze of mirrors, she witnesses something that changes her life forever.  Flash forward to present day, we are introduced to a family of four which includes the now grown Adelaide along with her husband and children.  Adelaide still has bad memories from her mysterious encounter years ago and is not looking forward to returning to Santa Cruz for vacation.  After returning from the beach one night, a group of people break into their vacation home, but these people are more than meets the eye because they happen to be doppelgängers for each member of the family.  Through twists and turns, the family learns the truth behind the attacks and fight for their lives against dark reflections of themselves.

    Now without getting into spoilers, I enjoyed the allegory of classism the film depicts.  It reminded me a bit of classic episodes of “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits” in which the subtext of each episode tries to hammer across an important moral lesson.  Subjects such as nature vs nurture are explored as we see how different people can change being raised in different circumstances.  The film wants us to explore who we really are as individuals and what we might be capable of if we were pushed to our limits.

    The movie works largely due to it’s cast.  Each main cast member was tasked with not only giving a realistic performance of a normal family, but also exploring the bizarro versions of their personalities.  Lupita Nyong’o is given the most character development as both Adelaide and her mirror version named Red and stands out the most.  I wouldn’t be overly shocked if Nyong’o manages to get an Oscar nomination for her work on this film, though the release date and it’s genre may end up hurting her chances.  Winston Duke also does a stellar job as Adelaide and Red’s husband(s) Gabriel and Abraham.  Duke gave such a varied performance that it was hard to believe he played both roles aside from the physical resemblance.  Duke seems to be a bit of a chameleon, being able to play Gabriel as a bit of a yuppie while his Abraham was a monster brute (not to mention his performance in “Black Panther” in which he played a prideful warrior).

    In what seems to be an overly increasing trend, “Us” came under a bit of fire due to director Jordan Peele mentioning that he doesn’t imagine he will ever cast a white lead in his movies because he “has already seen that movie”.  Peele has become a breakout success in Hollywood and he ruffled a few feathers with his remarks.  Now, while I admit he could have more gracefully addressed the subject matter, I just want to point out that if his vision is to explore film’s from his perspective, it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to cast a white lead.  As a white person myself (and one who isn’t even a big fan of race and gender swapping characters in films), I think the whole controversy surrounding Jordan Peele is unfair and stupid and I personally think the man has a point, 99% of mainstream movies made in Hollywood feature white male leads.

    Interestingly, “Us” explores the concept of duality as a spiritual concept as well.  The film directly addresses the subject of the human soul and other concepts of Christianity as our main characters start to learn the truth about what is going on.  In addition to Christianity, the very nature of the yin-yang relationship the family and their doppelgängers share directly relates to religions such as Confucianism and Taoism.

    The film is filled with Easter eggs which helps give the audience hints about the twists to come.  One such Easter egg came right away as a television surrounded by VHS tapes is shown.  One of the VHS tapes was “C.H.U.D.” which I noticed right away largely because I wondered who would own a copy of that film?

    “Us” is a very entertaining film on a surface level and loaded with a ton of thought provoking subtext.  Despite the praise I am giving the film, it isn’t perfect  as some of the reveals create more questions than answers and it’s clear logic went out the window when it came to reveals.  Still, the film makes for a great conversation piece and a great horror movie.

Grade: B+

"Alien" Movie Review

    Growing up, I may have had a wee bit of an unhealthy obsession with aliens and UFOs.  I would watch shows like “Sightings” and whenever “Unsolved Mysteries” had a UFO special, my fat butt was parked right in front of the television.  The subject matter always fascinated and scared me.  What if aliens do exist?  What if they aren’t so nice?  If we visited an alien world, would we be viewed as peaceful?

    Naturally, as someone already interested in the topic matter, the film “Alien” naturally appealed to me when I first saw the VHS sitting on a video rental store just waiting to be rented (this was before DVDs, Blu-rays, and digital streaming).  I rented it and for the longest time, I didn’t really care for it to be honest.  I was young and I was expected something different.  As you get older, your tastes change a bit and I realize now why I didn’t like the movie.  As a kid, I had heard so much about the franchise that I was expecting more of an action movie, I was expecting “Aliens” as opposed to “Alien”.  The first film focuses more on the horror and science fiction elements and has very little action scenes.  After a few years and realizing why I felt the way I did about the movie, I was able to revisit it with fresh eyes.

    The original “Alien” film is widely considered a classic and for good reason.  The first film in the franchise, as discussed above, was one of the first movies to successfully marry the science fiction and horror genres into an effective feature.  While the sequels went off into many other directions since the first film, “Alien” provided the perfect foundation for the franchise.

    The plot of the movie is simple, the crew of the ship Nostromo encounter an alien life form that ends up terrorizing the crew and it becomes a battle to survive.  The tag line for this film was spot on, “In space, no one can hear you scream” and it perfectly captures the spirit of the movie.

    The cast was stellar and I think they really helped make this movie seem more realistic and frightening.  Ian Holm makes for a menacing threat from within the crew.  John Hurt plays the second in command and unknowing host of the alien.  He gives ‘birth’ to the iconic and terrifying chest buster.  The scene and performance were so iconic that Hurt reprised his role for the spoof “Spaceballs” in which his character has yet another alien pop out from his chest.  Tom Skerritt and Sigourney Weaver co-lead the film but Weaver is the one everyone remembers and has become iconic.  Weaver’s Ripley was one of the first strong female leads in a science fiction film.  She remains a fan favorite staple of the genre even to this day.

    Director Ridley Scott masterfully helms this film and creates an atmosphere of pure despair by the end.  Scott widely used the art of H.R. Giger as the basis of much of the film’s designs, including the alien itself.  All the scares are set to the perfect score by Jerry Goldsmith.  The film also is well known for it’s use of practical visual effects.

    “Alien” is one of the best horror films of all time and a landmark science fiction film.  Needless to say, if you aren’t a fan of a jump scare or two, you should stay away.  If you want a freight, “Alien” does the trick.

Grade: B

Let’s Get Physical, Physical: The Importance of Physical Media in the Modern Era

  Why does physical media seem to be such a bad thing to major studios these days?  Are they really losing any money by releasing a catalog title on a format such as blu-ray if no conversation is needed?  I understand the costs of converting some popular titles such as "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" might not seem worth the cost since they were not shot on film, but why is it that some titles never seem to be worthy of a physical release beyond their first DVD release.  I just don't understand why the studios seem so opposed to releasing smaller cult hits on a high definition format.  Warner Archive has the perfect set up in which consumers can order their older catalog titles and they can make them "on demand".  Still, even with the praise I will show Warner Archive, there are still plenty of titles the studio seems to turn a blind eye to.
  I understand the studios feel the future is digital, but I don't think that future is as rock solid as they seem to think it is.  The average person only makes so much money a year.  I am a working class person myself.  I work hard for my money and I personally like the feeling of having something to show for my money.  Also, with a few streaming services available, the decision to pay for Netflix and Hulu (and Amazon Prime) isn't too difficult.  Yet, now we also have CBS All Access.  We are soon going to be introduced to DC's streaming service and in a few years Disney is throwing their hat into the streaming race.  How many choices are consumers going to have to make before streaming becomes as expensive or more expensive than buying the physical copies like they did during the DVD boom of the early 2000's?
  I just feel like studios shouldn't be so keen on shutting the door on physical media.  As long as film fans like me live, there will always be film collectors.  It's in our blood and if the studios lose us, they lose their money.  That's just my opinion though.  Thank you for reading this post and have a good day!

-Jeffrey S.