Reviews by TrekMedic

Given the current climate in America's higher learning system, I felt it was appropriate to watch this today when it popped up on TV. A little dated and the themes are delivered with a heavy hand, but oh, what a start for some of cinema's brightest stars of the (then) future! Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser offer glimpses of their skills to come, but Ben Affleck (Damon's cinematic partner in crime) was nothing more than background filler here.

Watching this movie, I was reminded of [Link removed - login to see] and [Link removed - login to see] shady characters and bad actors, living in enormous houses of cards. Eventually, a card slips and the houses crumble.

I'm not really into gothic horror in general, but the pacing was too slow for me. The best part, honestly, was watching Telly Savalas with a lollipop in his mouth, in the manner of his titular TV character, [Link removed - login to see]

Well, this show started off on the wrong foot for me (although I'll post a more thorough review if it survives the season)! First, despite several references from the "new" detective about being from Philadelphia, and the token Philadelphia-born black cop name-dropping Philadelphia's basketball team, The Sixers, (way to perpetuate a stereotype) this ALL-CANADIAN cast, situated in a REAL Canadian town ([Link removed - login to see]), is supposed to either a) be some poorly-defined Philadelphia suburb, or b) oddly attractive to cops from Philadelphia? Not happening,...not with the references to "The Sunshine Coast," or "knowing the subject from back in Uni (slang for University)". The Kristin Kreuk/Rossif Sutherland cute romance might play out,...who knows?

Well, it took me THREE attempts to get all the way through watching this without triggering my PTSD. Thinking this was just an updated version of [Link removed - login to see] and was I wrong. Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan are essentially playing two versions of the same character: a neophyte paramedic (Sheridan) out to save the harsh New York City world from its ills and the seasoned, burned out veteran (Penn) he is destined to become. Unlike BOTD, there is no dark humor to balance Frank Pierce's (Nicholas Cage) self-destruction, no outlandish urban legends brought to life on the silver screen. A few years ago, then-mayor Bill DeBlasio was quoted justifying why NYC pays its paramedics so poorly compared to their firefighting brethren by stating "their work is different!" Different, indeed, and the cost it takes on our souls has no dollar value.

Do you remember the TV series [Link removed - login to see] The show that featured a future Earth overcome by a superior alien race and administered by a group of Quisling humans? If you do, picture this movie as a downbeat, relentlessly pessimistic and poorly-focused version. Hell, it's so depressing, John Goodman (I think he phoned this dreck in) looks like he just realized his career has declined so far that Roseanne Barr is becoming popular again!

Regarding Season 5 (ended 1/2024): I'm a little conflicted about this particular season. On the one hand, the season's spousal abuse themes, which borrow heavily from movies like [Link removed - login to see] and [Link removed - login to see] in their depiction, are concluded with the FX network ending each episode with real-world resources for abuse victims, so kudos for getting the message out there. On the other hand, the season is placed in 2019, the pre-COVID presidential administration of one Donald J Trump: public enemy #1 in Hollywood (Jennifer Jason Leigh's Lorraine Lyon refers to him obliquely as "the Orange Man" in one episode). Jon Hamm's Sheriff Roy Tillman, the abuser in the story's arch, is the embodiment of Hollywood's view of conservativism: a Bible-quoting he-man, disdainful of the federal government, ruling his domain with an iron fist (the same, covered in a velvet glove, keeps his spouses in line), capable of convening an anti-government militia (January 6th anyone?) on a moment's notice. The conflict of the Supreme Court's recent reversal of Roe v Wade (which occurred in 2022, but why let facts stand in the way of a good story, that's how Fargo works, right?) is animus of this conflict as a whole. The en vogue 2024 theme of female empowerment, in the form of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Juno Temple, and Richa Moorjani are all up front, as well as the DEI subtext of Dot Lyon's (Temple) daughter, Scotty, who self-identifies as a boy. As with every good Fargo season, there's an element of the supernatural and Season 5's Old Munch (Sam Spruell) channels Season 3's V.M. Varga (David Thewlis) to perfection.

Preachy dialogue that passes for making this an "atmospheric" thriller? Not really,...it devolves into religious belief versus the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Or maybe the devil's in the details? As Baudelaire said, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Peter Loew, an publishing executive, has problems. He's narcissistic in a classic, NYC 80s fashion, he's a control freak (long before OCD became "cool"), he's a misogynist and he has serious relationship issues. After his most recent break-up, he has a too-good-to-be-true encounter with the sultry and beautiful Rachel. "Too-good-to-be-true" is, perhaps, an understatement and kicks off a tour-de-force performance by Nicolas Cage. Vampirism is an allegoric look into Peter's decent into madness. Was Rachel truly a vampire? As Peter's "sire," was she controlling him (one of Peter's phobias) or an outlet of his misogyny? Cage's truly unhinged performance features sly vampire trope references, such as Peter eating a cockroach, a la Renfield from Dracula (Cage really ate one in the movie!), as well as other horror movies (Peter's brutal verbal abuse of Alva, his secretary, leads to a retribution that mirrors the villagers attacking Frankenstein's Castle). Overall, a cult classic for those longing for both vampire movies and the 80s in all it's glory!

An intriguing episode for many reasons. First and foremost, the fact that World War II and the horrors of the Nazi regime were still very fresh in the minds of many Americans. The very idea of their return was very much a nightmare to many. Second, the show references the infamous Martin Bormann, one of Hitler's top henchmen, likely for credibility and also intrigue: at the time of this episode's original airing, the real Bormann had not been seen since the Allies took Berlin. He was tried at Nuremberg in absentia and sentenced to death. It wasn't until 1972 (5 years after this episode) that his body was discovered in a West Berlin construction site. Third, and finally, was the cast of this episode. Steven Hill (who's adherence of Orthodox Judaism cost him his role on the show), Barbara Bain and Martin Landau were all Jewish. Having to portray Germans who supported the return of Nazism (The "Fourth" Reich), especially Landau's (Rollin Hand's) role as Bormann, was a true tour de force.