Men In Black II (2002)

Another day, another chance to revisit a film that I think was always given a bit too hard a time when it was first released. Men In Black II is a lot of fun. It’s as well-paced and inventive as the first movie. The returning players are still great in their roles. It just isn’t as good as the hugely successful original.

A new baddie has landed on Earth (Serleena, played by Lara Flynn Boyle), looking to get their hands on something that was hidden away years ago by Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones). Unfortunately, Agent Kay had his mind wiped when he chose to retire from the MIB organisation, which makes things tricky when Agent Jay (Will Smith) has to bring him back “into the office”. Can they protect the valuable asset that Serleena is seeking? Can they even find the damn thing in time?

Written by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro, in place of Ed Solomon, and with Barry Sonnenfeld back in the director’s chair, Men In Black II doesn’t feel very far removed from its predecessor. There are one or two scenes that spend a bit too much time being too earnest and unfunny, but they are few and far between. Overall, this is a pretty great sequel, full of both new gags and gags that call back to lines and moments in the first film. The visual style is just as cool and slick throughout, and Danny Elfman once again delivers with his music (I think his main theme for this movie series holds up as some of his best work). Sonnenfeld keeps perfect control over everything, or at least makes it seem that way, and every extra detail, in the plot or production design, feels well-considered and relevant.

Although their roles have changed somewhat, Smith and Jones still make a great central pairing. The former remains cocky and ready to deliver witty lines, the latter still retains an air of exasperation around his well-worn face. Boyle is fun in the role of Serleena, an alien dominatrix with their tendrils whipping whoever doesn’t give them the right answers to their questions, and Johnny Knoxville is . . . well, look, I like Johnny Knoxville, but his character is the weak link there, a two-headed creation given too many chances to fool around in a way that isn’t on a par with the rest of the humour in the film. Rosario Dawson is a worthy addition to the cast, playing a murder witness named Laura who somehow avoids having her memory wiped, and there’s a typically great little turn from Patrick Warburton at the start of the movie. Rip Torn, Frank The Pug, and Tony Shalhoub all make welcome returns, as do the odd little “worm guys” (CG creations who all perk up when Dawson is introduced to them), and there are some fun cameos to keep your eyes peeled for.

The first film set a very high bar when it comes to blockbuster sci-fi comedy, and it holds up as a brilliant slice of modern mainstream cinema, but I remain convinced that this is a worthy sequel. It’s smart, it’s funny, it hits similar main beats. It just isn’t the first film, and I think those judging it too harshly on that basis are being a tad unfair. Although you can deduct an extra point or two from my rating if you REALLY can’t stand Frank The Pug. I have somehow grown to enjoy his screentime a bit more than I used to, but I can see how he could hurt the viewing experience.

7/10

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Mubi Monday: Afterglow (1997)

Written and directed by Alan Rudolph, someone with an extensive filmography stacked with titles I would at least recommend to the curious (Breakfast Of Champions may not work, but it never feels like anything less than a bold attempt to translate difficult source material into a satisfying movie). Having also worked on a few Robert Altman movies, it’s unsurprising to find that his style could be referred to as Altman-esque. Unfortunately, however, he doesn’t have the same ability to meld the cinematic with the authentic, and the end result, here anyway, is something that fails to resonate.

Nick Nolte plays a handyman named Lucky Mann (yes, that would seem to be his actual name). He is married to Phyllis (Julie Christie), an ex-actress who allows her husband to stray and play around with other women. Jonny Lee Miller is an upright businessman named Jeffrey, married to the neglected and unhappy Marianne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Marianne wants a baby, which leads to her getting things prepared in their home. So Marianne hires Lucky, which leads to some fun and games for them, and Jeffrey, happy to use the situation as an excuse to cut loose and find away to massage his ego, ends up seducing Phyllis, completely unaware that she is Lucky’s wife. Conversations lead to a number of revelations, about love, family, sex, and different gender roles, and viewers know that it’s only a matter of time until the central quartet come together to argue and fight.

Despite the changes in location, Afterglow feels like something that may have started life as a play. There are some other people scattered throughout the film, but it essentially stays focused on the four leads, and everything is based on the dialogue. This is a film that works on a “tell, don’t show” basis, with even the moments that could be purely visual accompanied by dialogue redirecting things back to the featured character of that moment.

Thankfully, the cast are generally excellent. Nolte gives another typical alpha male with the cuddly interior that he has presented in a number of his movies. Miller, wobbly accent aside, is a fantastic flipside to Nolte, mistaking coldness and cruelty for a sexual, macho persona. He oozes insecurity for every minute of screentime, covering it up as much as he can with an attitude of entitlement and indifference, and it’s an enjoyably unattractive performance. Christie is, as ever, a mesmerising screen presence, although she suffers from the script giving some of the worst bits of dialogue to her, and Boyle does great work with the rest of the bad lines, because it is the women here who have to speak the clunkiest and most tone-deaf dialogue.

I would say that anyone who likes any of the main cast members should find this impossible to hate, but that doesn’t stop Rudolph from trying to undo the good work in front of the camera with poor decisions behind it, from the score/soundtrack to the structure of the whole narrative. This is ultimately a film about people who are so hurt, for various reasons, that they are holding themselves back from any chance at real happiness. That only becomes clear in the third act though. While that may have been seen as the best decision for the film, I cannot help thinking that a little bit of reshaping of the script would have changed things for the better. But maybe others will disagree.

The drama works, the comedy doesn’t. The cast works, the writer/director doesn’t. Which leaves this hanging absolutely in the middle, between awful and great.

5/10

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Noir-vember: Red Rock West (1993)

You know your small town is about to see some shit go down when Nic Cage comes rolling in, surely, and that is how Red Rock West starts, a fantastic neo-noir from John Dahl (contender for the director with the most overlooked filmography of the past few decades, everyone goes on about The Last Seduction and forgets he has done so many other greats).

Cage is Michael, a military veteran looking for work. He has a job lined up, but that doesn't go anywhere when he tells the prospective employer about his wounded leg. So he ends up in a bar, which is being tended by a barman (Wayne, played by J. T. Walsh) who is expecting an employee. Pretending to be the expected party, Michael ends up with a job. But that job involves killing Wayne's wife (Suzanne, played by Lara Flynn Boyle). Thinking that he can warn Suzanne, run off with some money, and alert the local Sheriff, Michael finds his situation getting a whole lot worse when he finds out that Wayne is also the head authority figure in the area. And the real killer is still due to arrive soon.

Coming out a year before the film that really made movie fans sit up and take not of him, Red Rock West is a perfect mix of real thrills, tension, and lighter entertainment. The script, written by Dahl and his brother, Rick, lines up the familiar noir tropes and absolutely embraces them, even as our hero watches events unfolding around him with a mixture of disbelief and bemusement, and even a hint of wry amusement when he's resigned to his fate at the hands of various individuals who have managed to keep hold of him amidst their immoral dealings.

Cage is excellent in the lead role here, perfectly portraying someone who doesn't seem too bright, or to have too many prospects, but has a history and an intelligence that belie his outward appearance. Walsh gives yet another one of his superb performances that saw him almost steal a number of movies throughout the '90s, a nasty piece of work who tends to try a smile and a modicum of charm first, right before revealing his true nature to those who get in his way. Boyle is also just the right casting for her role, the potential victim who may have her own cunning plan at work, and there's a lot of fun to be had once Dennis Hopper appears onscreen. Can you guess which character he plays?

It's interesting that the Dahl brothers have crafted an enjoyably small film with an backstory that could easily have opened up the scope of the tale. Obviously waved away for the sake of keeping the budget and focus of the film much easier to handle, viewers are instead dropped into this maelstrom of events alongside Cage, who is teased more and more information until all becomes crystal clear in a third act that then builds to a wonderfully atmospheric finale.

The more I think about Red Rock West, the less I can find fault with it. You have the tension, you have a good measure of black comedy, and you even have a couple of decent action moments. It's not quite perfect, and I understand that some people just can't bring themselves to watch Cage in anything nowadays (their loss), but it comes surprisingly close.

9/10

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Hansel & Gretel Get Baked (2013)

A fun, modern take on the classic fairytale, with more than a dabble of weed sprinkled through it, Hansel & Gretel Get Baked isn't a movie that I could ever call a great movie, but it's certainly much better than I expected it to be.

Molly Quinn is Gretel, a bit of a pothead who starts down a path towards trouble when she goes looking for her pothead boyfriend, Ashton (played by Andrew James Allen). Ashton had been going to pick up some great new weed, something being grown by a little old lady from Pasadena (yes, the song is mentioned). Unfortunately, that little old lady is a witch (Lara Flynn Boyle) who lures in her victims and uses them to help her turn back the clock. Gretel knows that something is up but doesn't realise the full situation. And neither does her brother, the non-potsmoker Hansel (Michael Welch).

Director Duane Journey uses a decent cast, a fun script (by David Tillman), and occasional decent gore effects to put together a fun movie that should please horror fans who don't need every movie to be chock full of tension and/or bloodshed. The way in which the main elements of the classic tale are adapted for the modern setting are fun, though nothing here can be described as subtle or sophisticate. What the hell, people could say the same about me. This is a film to be watched with snacks and the beverage of your choice, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Quinn is a perfectly decent Gretel, Welch does okay even though he's not onscreen that much, and Bianca Saad heats things up a bit as a girl named, well, Bianca who ends up helping Gretel after her own boyfriend also goes AWOL. Everyone else does well enough, including Lochlyn Munro and Yancy Butler as a pair of police officers reluctant to waste any time trying to find someone they simply assume is not where he should be because he's stoned. And then there is Lara Flynn Boyle. She's good, but that's mainly thanks to the script giving her most of the best lines. Other aspects of her performance show that, sadly, her best performances may be far behind her.

It's not going to win over any fans who like their horror dark and smart, but if you're an easygoing, unfussy viewer then you may just find this to be an amusing enough way to kill 90 minutes.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Hansel-Gretel-Get-Baked-Blu-Ray/dp/B00BPGLNXQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1398997221&sr=1-2&keywords=hansel+and+gretel+get+baked

Poltergeist III (1988)

That spooky, nasty reverend Kane is back (this time played by Nathan Davis after the death of actor Julian Beck) and he still wants Carol Anne, despite the fact that she now lives in a sleek, ultra-modern highrise building with her uncle and aunt (Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen). Thankfully, this big building has lots of mirrors and reflective surfaces that can become portals for Kane’s particular brand of evil.

You can try to be all deep and meaningful about it and put it this way – Poltergeist was about the insidious nature of television and how too much exposure to it can literally eat up the life of your child, Poltergeist II: The Other Side was about the family unit and how important and difficult it was to stay united against outside pressures and obstacles, Poltergeist III is about the perils of complete modernisation that leads to alienation and far too many opportunities for wrongdoing. Or you could just say that Poltergeist was a great ghost flick, Poltergeist II: The Other Side was a decent ghost flick with a definite baddie to focus on and Poltergeist III was the movie that went back to the well one time too many.

The acting is okay from all involved but everything is undermined by a poor script (that should have simply been titled “Carol Anne” due to the number of times that her name is called out) and mediocre execution. Director Gary Sherman (who also shares the blame for co-writing the thing) seems happy to go along with everything that is wrong with many modern horror movies. You know what I mean: people keep running off alone, nobody seems to notice while lots of other folk disappear, one jump scare is repeated so often that it ends up being ineffective, etc.

It’s a shame that this was the last movie for young Heather O’Rourke (her death after this movie completed a trio of deaths that people referred/refer to as “The Poltergeist Curse”) because it’s just not a very good film. On a lighter note, it’s the first film gig for a young Lara Flynn Boyle so fans may want to check it out for that reason. 

There are still a few decent moments here and there but, overall, this is a poor end. 
 
5/10

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