Netflix And Chill: Deep Impact (1998)

Despite becoming known at the time as "the comet film that isn't Armageddon", I have long been curious about whether or not my opinion of Deep Impact would be the same as it was when I first saw it. I thought it was a bit dull, suffered from some mis-casting in a couple of main roles, and basically proved to be a much harder sell due to it being, in technical terms, "a bit of a bummer" in comparison to the woohah jingoism and blockbuster silliness of Armageddon.

It turns out that my opinion remains almost exactly the same as it was. 

A huge comet is heading to Earth. Young Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) is happy to have spotted it in the sky and had his name attached to it. Unfortunately, it's on a collision course with our planet. This becomes known to the President Of The United States (Morgan Freeman) before most of the population are informed, but a hungry reporter (Jenny Lerner, played by Téa Leoni) also stumbles across the story. She uses her knowledge to advance her career, which gives her a front row seat as plans are established to either destroy the comet or, failing that, ensure the survival of humanity.

Having now made a comfortable living in the world of television shows for the past few decades, there was a time when director Mimi Leder was arguably primed to be one of the few female directors entrusted with delivering big-budget blockbuster entertainment. She helmed the first film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures (The Peacemaker, which I don't recall being lauded as a great success), and was then in charge of this, a film simply overshadowed by something with a similar premise and less concern for filling the runtime with too much personal drama and weighty considerations about the endurance of the human race. Leder handles everything well enough, but she's hampered by the screenplay (from Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin) and lack of proper star power.

Rubin and Tolkin really want to balance the big stakes with smaller personal moments here, and the film starts to drag every time we have to return to watching Leoni's character deal with her divorced mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and father (Maximillian Schell). None of it feels that important, considering the looming threat, but it has to be viewed that way because that's what we're told, right up until a horribly dissatisfying final scene for two of those characters.

As much as I like Leoni, she's not a good fit for a main role in this kind of fare. Especially when her character has to be emotionally and physically buffeted by converging events happening around her. Freeman is a much better fit for his role, a trustworthy and good-hearted POTUS, and young Wood brings a good bit of energy to his scenes, often sharing them with a young Leelee Sobieski, but often interacting with Richard Schiff, Betsy Brantley, Gary Werntz, and Denise Crosby. There's some excitement when we're spending time with the space shuttle crew (headed up by Robert Duvall) hoping to destroy the comet, but even that is weakened by the presence of Ron Eldard being one of the worst cast members inevitably given more focus than some of the others (Blair Underwood, Mary McCormack, and Jon Favreau among them). Others to look out for are Kurtwood Smith (working down on the ground for NASA), Laura Innes (a White House correspondent displeased when her colleague usurps her), Dougray Scott (a cameraman), Charles Martin Smith, Mike O'Malley, and James Cromwell.

What's here is generally well done, even if it cannot overcome the weaknesses in the material and some of the casting, but it never feels like a fun time to spend two hours. There's some spectacle, and it may make you think about how you would want to spend your last moments if you knew the world was going to end, but most people, myself included, would much rather stick on a film that has some Aerosmith on the soundtrack and Steve Buscemi going a bit stir crazy in space.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing. All links are HERE.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Prime Time: The Vatican Tapes (2015)

Here's a strange thing. When I stumbled across The Vatican Tapes I made a couple of assumptions. I knew it was directed by Mark Neveldine, so I thought there may be some hyperactive insanity. And, considering the title and the tagline, I thought it was a found footage horror movie. Neither of those things were applicable, and yet I spent a lot of the runtime wishing that they were.

Olivia Taylor Dudley plays Angela, a young woman who takes a turn for the worse. It's obvious from the start that she's going to be causing a lot of trouble, to put it mildly, as some demonic entity uses her body to enter our world. This is upsetting for Angela's boyfriend, Pete (John Patrick Amedori), and her father, Roger (Dougray Scott). Maybe they don't need to be too worried though, especially with Cardinal Mattias Bruun (Peter Andersson) and Father Loranzo (Michael Peña) on the case.

It's hard to fully convey just how shockingly redundant The Vatican Tapes is, a horror movie so mediocre that you wish for it to change format at some point. To do something, anything, that will make it seem like something worth your time. It does nothing well. You get the body contortions, you get the different language(s) being spoken, you get the new-found strength and powers. It's a very dull game of "possession movie bingo".

Although it would be easy to blame writers Christopher Borrelli and Michael C. Martin (developing the story from Borrelli and Chris Morgan), the framework that they create for the film is covered in a wet blanket that is the direction from Neveldine. I'd rather have seen some headache-inducing hyperactive craziness than the stream of visually dull nothingness that ends up being passed off as a slick horror movie. 

You'd think some of the casting might help. It doesn't. Any time that Scott or Peña appear onscreen leads to a slightly more enjoyable time, thanks to their presence, but they can't do enough to make up for the weak performances from Dudley and Amedori. Andersson is also a deficit, a pale imitation of so many other old wise men we've seen in these kind of films. Kathleen Robertson does okay as Dr. Richards, a psychiatrist who ends up receiving some acerbic honesty from Angela, and Djimon Hounsou deserves more than the few minutes of screentime that he gets. That's all I can say about the central cast.

This takes no risks, provides no surprises, and delivers no scares. It's very difficult to think of why this was made, and who it is intended for. I definitely won't ever recommend it to anyone, and I hope it fades from my memory as quickly as possible.

2/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing. All links are HERE.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Sea Fever (2019)

Dougray Scott is a good actor, isn't he. That's not a question. That is a statement. And it's not me being sarcastic. He IS a good actor, but I think it's very easy to forget how good he can be when he keeps being given roles that don't make the best use of his talent. He has starred in some crap over the years, most of which I have also enjoyed, but Sea Fever is both a) not crap, and b) his best role in years. If you're a Dougray Scott fan, this is one you must see.

The plot concerns a trawler/fishing ship that is helmed by Scott and Connie Nielsen (playing Gerard and Freya). They have agreed to allow a young marine biologist (Siobhan, played by Hermione Corfield) on board for their latest journey, one in which they hope to have a bit better luck. Siobhan having red hair is supposed to be a bad omen though, according to the rest of the crew. But the real bad luck stems from a decision by Gerard to take the ship into an exclusion zone, which brings everyone into contact with an underwater beastie that has a dangerous habit of spreading parasites to anyone it comes in contact with.

Written and directed by Neasa Hardiman, this is a fantastic creature feature that works as well as it does because of the central characters, the cast, and the general high quality of the script. There are one or two plot holes, and an ending signposted in huge neon letters well within the first act, but it's all done so well that you can let those things slide while enjoying a sea-based horror full of paranoia and a smidgen of body horror.

I started this review praising Scott, and I'm about to do it again. This is absolutely one of his best performances in years, and perhaps up there as his best of all-time. He shows that Gerard is desperate to get a decent payday, but also doesn't willingly set out to harm anyone in his crew that he views as being pretty much part of a family unit. Nielsen is very believable as a female who can be the more responsible one while not harbouring any resentment for the bad decisions that her partner makes, knowing he has good intentions (even if we know where those lead). Corfield holds her own alongside these old pros, being very likeable and easy to root for, even during the earlier scenes that show her being a bit anti-social and not being used to anything that isn't her work. Olwen Fouéré is an old hand, Ciara, on the boat, and some younger crew members are played by Jack Hickey, Ardalan Esmaili, and Elie Bouakaze, with nobody delivering a bad performance.

But it's Hardiman who brings everything together so well here, from the cast to the ideas she makes great use of, having the gorgeous cinematography by Ruairí O'Brien complemented by a wonderful score from Christoffer Franzén. Nicely using the skeleton of a standard watery creature feature (and they seem to be making a small comeback lately, we just need one or two more to make it feel like 1989 again), Hardiman then tightens the focus, it's all on the potential for parasites and how the characters could endanger one another, and the third act is very much a survival horror scenario with the main creature less of an immediate danger than the behaviour of others and the threat of a potential widespread infection.

I'm not sure many people will enjoy this as much as I did, and I'm not entirely sure why I enjoyed it AS MUCH as I did. Sometimes quality just wins out, especially when it is present in every aspect of a film you had no expectations for. Most people may want to knock a point or two off my rating.

8/10