Noirvember: Snake Eyes (1998)

Brian De Palma is a director not really known for his subtlety, which makes it all the more surprising that he has only made the one film starring the also-notably-unsubtle Nicolas Cage. Let's not mourn the films we haven't been given though. Instead, let's celebrate what we got. Snake Eyes is quite ridiculous, but I'll argue strenuously against anybody who tries to deny that it is also a hell of a lot of fun.

Cage is Rick Santoro, a dodgy cop who ends up with a chance to become a celebrity when he's attending a boxing match that is interrupted by the assassination of a major political figure. Working alongside a friend, Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise), Santoro needs to figure out what boxer Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw) has to do with the plot as he also tries to track down a mystery woman (Carla Gugino). And he does all this while being watched by some typically smooth and lively De Palma shot choices.

You know what you're in for almost as soon as Snake Eyes starts, quickly moving to a sequence that allows Cage to be as over the top and exuberant as usual while the camera seems to track through the onscreen environment with hidden edits that make it all seem like one huge tracking shot. De Palma wants viewers to have fun, but he also knows how to expertly ratchet up the tension in one or two key sequences. The screenplay by David Koepp (who developed the story with De Palma) is playful and energetic, despite the action mainly taking place in the one location, and there's a nice mix of subversion and tradition running through all of the key elements.

While he is always a divisive figure, Cage does his part to help make this as propulsive and energised as it is, delivering a typically robust turn that allows him to show a number of different facets of his character. Sinise isn't as well-rounded, but he does well with what he's given, particularly in the second half of the movie when things start to twist and turn more. Shaw convinces as a championship boxer, he certainly has the physique for it, and Gugino convinces as the kind of character who could be either a "damsel in distress" or a femme fatale. There are also moments for Kevin Dunn (a sports reporter who ends up in the middle of a big news story), Luis Guzman (the kind of guy who is forced to pay some money over to Santoro for a bit of peace), Mike Starr (working the security cameras), and John Heard (in a role that just feels like it was marked "get John Heard").

The score by Ryûichi Sakamoto, the work from D.P. Stephen H. Burum, the editing by Bill Pankow, everything comes together here to elevate a wonderfully pulpy bit of neo-noir into something eminently watchable and satisfying, from the audacious opening to a darkly comedic footnote. It might never deliver a knockout blow, and it's not quite top-tier De Palma, but Snake Eyes is a loud and dazzling spectacle for most of the 98-minute runtime.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: The Pale Door (2020)

The sophomore directorial feature from director Aaron B. Koontz, who has spent some time honing his craft with numerous shorts, including his segments in the mixed bag horror comedy anthology that is Scare Package, The Pale Door has a number of big names attached to draw horror movie fans to it. From producer Joe R. Lansdale to cast members Pat Healy and Noah Segan, there are plenty of names to prick up your ears. But try to ignore your ears.  This is not a terrible film, far from it, but it's nowhere near as good as it could be.

The plot is simple enough. An outlaw gang (headed up by Duncan) are planning a profitable train robbery. But when one of the gang loses out in a shoot-out, Duncan is reluctantly persuaded to use his younger brother, Jake. The robbery doesn't get too messy, but it turns out that the treasure being transported is a young woman named Pearl. Pearl convinces the gang to take her home, where they will receive a warm welcome and a reward. They'll receive a lot more than that, considering her town houses a multitude of dangerous creatures.

The biggest problem with the first half of The Pale Door is that it feels as if it is retreading material we already saw executed so well in Dead Birds. Unfortunately, the problem with the second half is that it becomes so predictable and dull that you wish it would get back to trying to emulate Dead Birds. The problem seems to lie with the script, co-written by Koontz with Cameron Burns and Keith Lansdale. The cast do what they can, but they're weighed down by the obviousness of the plotting, and also the moments that Koontz decides to drag out for what seems an interminably long time (seriously, the final scenes in this movie feel like they add half an hour to the whole bloody thing).

Knighton is good as Duncan, Devin Druid is your typical reluctant kid acting tough, and does well, and Bill Sage is a central part of the outlaw gang, and someone always willing to do whatever needs to be done to save their own skin. Stan Shaw and Pat Healy do solid work, Noah Segan is underused, as is everyone else playing a gang member. Natasha Bassett does well with her wide-eyed innocent character who we know has some dark secret to her character, and Melora Walters is a highlight as Maria, a matriarchal figure in the town who is very open about her true intentions quite early on in the proceedings.

There are some good little touches throughout (figures scrabbling across walls and ceilings to attack the main characters, a sequence involving people being manipulated while they try to stay sheltered in a small church), but not enough to keep things enjoyably varied. Once things go from relative normality to bullets vs. evil denizens then it all turns a bit dull. The editing could have been sharper, and maybe having so much happen in the space of 5-10 minutes in the middle of the film wasn't the best decision. Drawing things out a bit more, in the right ways, would have helped, while other scenes would benefit from being trimmed, or excised completely.

5/10

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Jeepers Creepers 3 (2017)

First thing's first, this is a review of a movie. Nothing more, nothing less. The rest of the conversation attached to this film, and director Victor Salva, is a whole different kettle of fish.

With that out of the way, Jeepers Creepers 3 is, as if you couldn't guess, the third instalment in the popular Jeepers Creepers series. I enjoyed the first film a lot. And the second. But this third film seemed to be in pre-production for a long time. I wasn't even sure if it was going to be made. Then I wasn't sure if the end result would be worth my time. It was, and it was.

The Creeper is back to doing what he does, killing people and taking body parts from them. That's really all there is to this film. He has two cops on his tail, he has a whole new bag of tricks on display (the van has been pimped out in a way that some hate, but I really liked), and he's not as worried as before about being spotted by people. In fact, this character seems to nonchalantly walk around whenever and wherever he likes, confident in his ability to kill without any fatal revenge coming his way.

Written and directed by Victor Salva, this is a fun film for fans of the main creature. The pacing is perfect, the new details are, whether you like or dislike them, appreciated as an attempt to add to the mythos, rather than just keep rehashing the same moments from the previous two movies, and the murderous set-pieces are enjoyable enough.

The problems stem from the budget, which seems obviously reduced from the first two movies. Either Salva didn't have enough to make sure things looked consistent with his vision on the screen, or he was unable to stretch the dollars and make some tough decisions in a way that was beneficial to the film.

There's also a cast that doesn't really feature anyone interesting enough to have you caring about the humans potentially about to be preyed on by the Creeper. Meg Foster is good, playing a woman having psychic visions of a dead son who tries to advise her on how to defeat the creature, and Stan Shaw and Brandon Smith do well as the two men determined to hunt him down and put an end to his killing spree. Jonathan Breck does well once again as the Creeper, but Gabrielle Haugh, Chester Rushing, Jordan Salloum (playing the aforementioned dead son), and the other young actors fail to make much of an impression. They're not awful. They're just stuck with bad writing that leaves their characters paper-thin.

If you enjoyed the first two movies then you should find enough here to like. But it's not guaranteed. This takes a slightly different direction, and a more light-hearted and even more fantastical approach to the material. Some will not appreciate that at all. I thought it was fun, albeit never really great.

6/10

Jeepers Creepers 3 is available to buy here.
And Americans can buy it here.

Sci-Fi September: Runaway (1984)

Michael Crichton was, from my limited exposure to his work, quite a brilliant mind. As a writer, he developed stories around core ideas that would predate their implementation and/or development in our real world. In the world of sci-fi, I'd mark him out as being just as prescient as any other leading name that you could throw in to the hat. He may have been simply competent as a director, but I think that was more a case of the tech never really being up to the speed of his visionary imagination. As is the case with Runaway.

Tom Selleck is a cop in the near future who specialises in dealing with runaway robots. It's such a big problem, for example, that he's flown by helicopter just to deal with a runaway farming robot that is not doing anyone any immediate harm. Selleck inhabits a world in which his priorities are his son (Joey Cramer), his job, and the need to mention his vertigo in a way that allows viewers to figure out where the finale might head. He's just been given a new partner (Cynthia Rhodes) in time to deal with a disturbing case - there's a bad man (Gene Simmons) trying to fit all robots with implants that would allow them to break their programming and kill lots of people.

Slightly hampered by the special effects available at the time, and also the fact that it's often hard to get all excited about, Runaway remains a lot of fun, despite the obvious flaws. It has robo-spiders, bullets that can trace individual targets, and Tom Selleck being his usual, charming self.

A number of scenes feel a bit flat, with Crichton highlighting the fact that he's a solid, not great, director. He can't do enough to liven up the moments that surround the few set-pieces, with domestic situations and the standard police procedural stuff making up the majority of the runtime.

The cast do their best with their characters. Selleck gets by simply by being his usual Selleck-ness, which has been good enough in pretty much anything he's ever done. Rhodes is a decent partner for him, Cramer is an acceptable cinematic moppet, and Stan Shaw and G. W. Bailey lend decent support in the police station environment. Kirstie Alley also makes a good impression, as a potential victim that the police (well, Selleck and Rhodes) are trying to keep alive. Simmons, on the other hand, is pretty awful, but he's awful in such an entertaining, over the top, way that it works for a villainous performance.

Very much a product of its time, I'll always have a soft spot for Runaway because I saw it at a young age, an age when I thought tracker bullets and robo-spiders were the coolest things ever. Admittedly, I've not matured much beyond that stage, so that may explain my enduring affection for the film. Or it might just remain an enjoyable slice of robo-hokum. Watch and decide for yourself.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Tom-Selleck/dp/B00004TX5G/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411202107&sr=1-1&keywords=runaway