Volcano (1997)

As much as I love the craggy face and dour demeanour of Tommy Lee Jones, I have never looked at him onscreen and thought "that man needs to be a blockbuster star". That isn't to say that I don't like seeing him in films, and he's been great in some blockbuster fare, but he just doesn't feel like the kind of person who would be comfortable carrying a major event movie on his shoulders. Volcano proves that.

The plot is silly. A volcano starts to rise up in the middle of Los Angeles, causing the kind of mayhem that you would expect. Jones plays Mike Roark, the director of the city's Office of Emergency Management (which you get some information about in the opening scenes), and he's about to have one hell of an emergency to try and manage. Anne Heche is Dr. Amy Barnes, a seismologist who spends most of the movie giving people warnings that they tend to ignore until the volcano makes it impossible. And Mike is supposed to be spending time with his young daughter, Kelly (Gaby Hoffmann), of course, which gives us one more main character to watch being put in lava-centric peril.

The only writing credit for Jerome Armstrong, and one of the worst writing credits for Billy Ray, Volcano is, from my recollection, the weaker of the two major volcano movies released in 1997. Even when it is getting some things right, the earlier scenes of people discovering unexpected issues with heat building up under some L.A. streets, it's simply not as good as dozens of other natural disaster movies that I could recommend. The biggest problem is that the central idea never feels plausible, despite everyone involved having to keep a straight face. It also doesn't help when the script makes a clumsy attempt to show how working together on this emergency can  . . . ummmmm . . . end racism?!?!?

Director Mick Jackson seems uninterested in the material, or maybe he's just not able to get the best out of it. That wouldn't be surprising, considering his filmography (although it should be noted that this is the man who helmed Threads, a TV movie often hailed as one of the bleakest and most terrifying TV movies ever made), but perhaps the fault can be shared between Jackson and those who gave him the job. There's nothing else that he's done that makes him seem like the right choice for a blockbuster like this.

I'd love to praise the cast, but I can't. None of them can overcome the horrible script, which also forces in some romantic longing between Jones and Heche in scenes that are truly cringe-inducing. Having said that, Jones still has a presence, as ever, and is very watchable in the moments that don't completely undermine him by forcing him into the box-ticking gruff hero moments. Heche is saddled with being the brains and exposition except whenever she needs to just stand back and look on at Jones being all heroic. Hoffmann is there to be kept safe, and nothing more. The supporting cast does have some treats, with Don Cheadle having some fun, and small roles for people like Keith David, John Carroll Lynch, Richard Schiff, and a decent selection of "where do I know them from again?" faces. I also have to praise Marcello Thedford, mainly because of his ability to tolerate some of the worst writing in scenes that show him helping out emergency workers who wouldn't necessarily be so ready to help him out if the roles were reversed.

I was trying to think of other things I might lightly praise, be it the score from Alan Silvestri of the cinematography by Theo van de Sande, but there's nothing. The special effects are generally okay, for the time, but it's a spectacle movie without enough proper spectacle, which wouldn't be so bad if it also had other stuff going on. It doesn't.

3/10

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Mubi Monday: Psycho (1998)

Well, I guess I owe an apology to quite a few people. I used to spend some of my time online defending this ill-advised remake of the Hitchcock classic. This recent revisit, the first time I have watched the film since I caught it on a rental VHS copy, quickly had me reconsidering my view. So many elements are awful. And yet... yet... there is still something here that leaves it ad a fascinating experiment. Not a satisfying movie, and not a remake that comes anywhere close to the original, but something worth viewing as a way to strengthen the case of how many different elements come together to make a movie a timeless classic.

You know the story, basically. Unless you don't. If you don't, I am not going to spoil any potential twists and turns, even if you've seen the original film. Anne Heche is Marion Crane this time around, a woman who is left in charge of a large sum of money by her boss and, in a moment of madness, heads off to use the money as a chance to start a better life with her boyfriend (Viggo Mortensen). Tired from the drive, but so close to her destination, Marion pulls in to get a room for the night at the Bates Motel, where she meets Norman (Vince Vaughn). He seems like a nice young man, in stark contrast to his angry mother.

Based on the exact same shooting script as the 1960 original, written by Joseph Stefano, and with many shots replicated as closely as possible to the way Hitchcock already did them, it's understandable that many people cite this as an example of a remake that is completely pointless. I was tempted to think the same thing as the end credits rolled this time around.

And yet . . . there's definitely a lot to be gained from viewing this as an academic exercise. Director Gus Van Sant knows how pointless it is to try and remake such an acclaimed masterpiece, and he makes a great effort to highlight the futility of the exercise. Before you even see one bit of the performances on display, just watching the opening credits is enough to put you off. They're exactly the same as the original credits. They're just now in colour. Seconds into the film and it's already not as good, the colour seems to serve as a final flag raised up before the viewer. "You were warned," it seems to say, "and now the reality of the situation is here in front of your eyes." This continues throughout the entire movie. Even the moments that are staged as best as they can be (the sequence between Marion Crane and a highway patrolman, this time played by James Remar) just don't ever feel as good because, well, they're just not.

It's a shame that the cast don't do better though, even if they were given a thankless task. Heche is hard to warm to in the role of Marion, and Mortensen gives one of his worst performances as her beau. Vaughn is given the biggest shoes to fill, and I still find a lot to admire in his performance. It doesn't work, his laugh is too jarring and his quick-talking manner feels unlike the Norman Bates we're used to, but I still appreciate the way that he tries to make himself seem smaller and a bit more timid than he seems in most of his other roles. Julianne Moore, as much as I like her, is quite awful as Marion's sister, not helped by the pointless addition of headphones she is given to wear (as if the character was written to be some spirited, resourceful teen), but William H. Macy at least manages to make up for her presence in the second half of the film, easily outshining both her and Mortensen in his scenes as the detective, Arbogast.

And yet . . . there's STILL something here. Something in the heart of the story, something that pulls you towards it, even as the performances and the new colour scheme put you off. Van Sant knows this, he knows that YOU know it, and your growing appreciation for the original movie in direct correlation to your anger at the audacity of this remake just goes to prove the point that he decided to make when he took on this project.

4/10

You can buy the movie here, if you really want to.
Americans can buy it here.

Netflix And Chill: Catfight (2016)

All I knew about Catfight before I started watching it was that a) I had owned it for a while and b) it involved a fight between Sandra Oh and Anne Heche at some point. That's it. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a very darkly comedic film, taking a number of different fights as a way to completely change the lives of those involved.

Oh plays Veronica. She's quite happy with her life, supporting a successful husband and trying to dissuade her son from his interests in art in order for him to pursue a more successful path through higher education. Her main vice is drink. She tends to drink a bit too much when she starts on the wine, and gets a bit sloppy. This irritates her husband more than she knows, an irritation that is voiced as they are en route to a party. Heche plays Ashley, an artists who refuses to compromise her vision, even as her focus puts a strain on her relationship with her partner, Lisa (Alicia Silverstone). Ashley ends up helping out with bar service at the party Veronica is attending. The two eventually recognise one another from school days, with the conversation quickly turning into one full of barbs and vitriol. And that eventually leads to the first fight.

So, unless I am misremembering things already, there are three main fights scattered throughout Catfight, three times when characters have an opportunity to do things differently, and three times when things may change irrevocably for those involved. And this is part of the message being delivered by writer-director Onur Tukel, as well as an exploration of how people politely interact with others that they dislike, how they treat everyone around them, and how things can come undone when the illusion of civility disappears.

Starting in a fairly recognisable reality, Catfight dives further into the black comedy territory when the aftermath of the first fight is shown. From then on, it continues to get more twisted and amusing, all the way to an ending that manages to be wryly amusing, sad, and pointed all at once. Kudos to Tukel for shading the tone so subtly throughout and making the whole thing such a success, in terms of both simple entertainment and the commentary.

Oh and Heche are both very good in the lead roles, with the latter especially enjoying playing a character who is downright monstrous for most of her time onscreen (although Oh also certainly has her moments). Silverstone is very funny in her supporting role, especially in a scene that shows her receiving baby shower gifts (leading to her delivering some scathing critical comments with a sweet tone and a smile), and there are also good performances from Amy Hill, as an aunt of Oh's character, Myra Lucretia Taylor, as Oh's housekeeper, and Ariel Kavoussi, stealing a number of her scenes as the quietly-spoken assistant to Heche's character.

From the title, and from considering the potential of the premise, Catfight may seem like a wish-fulfilment kind of movie. A dream scenario, people saying what they really want to say and taking the gloves off. But that's not really a wish that anyone will want granted, and the dream can very quickly turn into a nightmare. Tukel makes that very clear. I'll be making sure to check out more from his filmography, and hope to be pleasantly surprised again.

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.