Book Reviews: 'Vaders

'Vaders
by R. Patrick Gates

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic I was in the mood for reading some disaster stories. I decided to read this older book that for some reason I had never gotten around to perusing. Well. That was a big mistake. There are some long books where you can't wait to figure out what happens next. 

And when you finish you are impressed with the storytelling skill or the author's technical skills or how deep the characterization was or how well the author knew his or her subject matter. You want to read the next book by the author.

This wasn't that kind of book. Reading this 500 page book didn't evince any emotions in me other than increasing regret at wasting my time reading this tripe and a final snort of contempt when the author abruptly ended his story. 

He didn't even end it on a cliffhanger. It was as if he had reached the word count required by his editor or publisher and stopped writing right there. It's frustrating because I've read better work by this author.

Although obviously many sci-fi/horror movies require some suspension of disbelief, this story stretched my tolerance for that to its breaking point.

In many alien invasion/end of world apocalypse stories I prefer I see how multiple people across the world, or at least across the US face the horror. Some of them do better than others. Often, they all end up having a small piece of the solution, even if they don't know it. Maybe there's a scientist who has an idea but she can't find a functioning laboratory. 

Maybe that old doddering fellow in the corner just happens to be the deadliest gunman in the world. Maybe the racist will have to ask for help from one of THEM. Maybe the team badly needs a driver and the kid in the Tupac shirt can drive anything anywhere.

Movie Reviews: The Wrong Man

The Wrong Man
directed by Alfred Hitchcock

This film took a random case of mistaken identity and effectively demonstrated how it can snowball into something with major consequences. 

It's a film noir that lacks violence or even an identifiable bad guy. 

The viewer might think the polcie are the bad guys but they are just doing their jobs. Some are a bit more committed to their jobs than others. The real "bad guy" is an indifferent and uncaring universe. This movie was based on a true life story. 

This film demonstrates why going down to the police station to help cops "clear some things up" is almost never a good idea. This movie was set in a time when police were not limited by such things as Miranda warnings. As we've seen in numerous recent real life incidents police will break rules when they feel they can get away with it, but it's still important for a suspect, especially if he or she is innocent, not to make things easy for the police.

Someone who is innocent, who has never had any trouble with the police before and regards them either as heroic or as necessary evil will not have the required paranoia or fear regarding dealings with police and the law enforcement system. The person may honestly believe that the police only bother guilty people. So that person may think that once he tells the police what really happened, he'll be quickly let go with an apology.

Movie Reviews: The Wretched

The Wretched
directed by Brett Pierce and Drew Pierce

This is a new horror movie that simultaneously hearkens back to some favorite low budget cheesy 80s films but at the same time is inventive enough to give me hope that horror movies can simultaneously be fun, scary and intelligent. 

It's also quite obviously set in my home state of Michigan though I can't remember if the story made that explicit. It was shot in Michigan.

It might as well have made its location explicit as there is plenty of expository dialogue about people maintaining vacation homes and farms in the north of the state. That's what lots of Michiganders, including some of my family and friends, do. Boating is also a big part of the story.

After some spoilerish events which I won't mention open the film we see that the film's default hero, troubled teen Ben (John-Paul Howard), has moved in with his father Liam (Jamison Jones). Liam is a usually genial man who is going through a divorce with Ben's mother. Ben was implicated in some minor criminality which is why his mother has temporarily sent him up north to live and work with his Daddy. 

Well Liam is less interested in playing strict paterfamilias than in trying to convince Ben to accept that Liam has swiftly moved on to a new significant other, Sara (Azie Tesfai), who works with Liam at the marina which he owns/runs. 

Movie Reviews: Marked Woman

Marked Woman
directed by Lloyd Bacon

It is always somewhat startling and sobering to realize that people you always remember as aged and decrepit were young and vibrant once. Time waits for no one. We will all eventually meet our maker. 

Still it is jarring to see Bette Davis, who I remember as a bug eyed chain smoking elderly woman, take the lead in this film. Although I don't think anyone could ever describe Davis as beautiful, she was striking playing a role that was not subtle in its sexuality. 

I didn't know it before watching the film but this movie is based on the downfall of Mafia Boss and vice lord Lucky Luciano, who had just received a thirty to fifty year sentence for extortion and prostitution about a year before this film was released. 

Much as mob film or television auteurs such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola or David Chase would do fifty years later, Bacon hired some real life mob hoodlums to give the film some verisimilitude. Another fun fact about this film is that one of the supporting actresses, Lola Lane, was the inspiration for the comic book character, Lois Lane. As you might expect the fast paced version of the Mid-Atlantic Accent is widely used in this film, primarily by Bette Davis but also by a few other actors and actresses.

Although some people see this as a film noir because of the presence of Bette Davis and of course Humphrey Bogart, I don't. It's just a Warner Bros. crime drama, a good one perhaps but there is no moral ambiguity. There are no conflicted heroes or femme fatales. This film is a morality play. Either because of enforced censorship or studio squeamishness about making heroines out of prostitutes, the film alters the stated occupation of the heroine and her friends from their real life inspirations.

Movie Reviews: The Invisible Man (2020)

The Invisible Man

directed by Leigh Whannell

This movie is a retelling/reboot of the original old Hollywood movie based on the H.G. Wells sci-fi story of the same name. It takes place in modern times. 

The biggest difference is that whereas the original movie and story were both parables about an arrogant male scientist fooling around with subjects better left to God and causing suffering to himself and others as a result, this story incarnation makes it clear that the arrogant scientist in question was already a bad man who enjoyed dominating people, especially women.

Invisibility didn't drive him insane or make him worse. It just gave him additional tools to use. This film is primarily an extended lecture on why and how domestic abuse, particularly gaslighting, is a bad thing.

I think that everyone should already know this. I don't mind message films but felt that this one, despite being entertaining, was a little heavy-handed and literal in its approach. The horror is not the invisibility but the fact that the man is controlling, bullying, condescending, dismissive, contemptuous and capable of violence when challenged. 

I'm no physicist but if someone or something is invisible then that would seem to indicate to me that the spectrum of light which is visible to humans is either passing through the object completely or being bent around it. So to me that would mean that the person would be blind. Dunno. I will need to look more into it.

The movie opens with a mousy woman, Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) escaping the home of her rich genius optics engineer boyfriend Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). I say escape because Adrian is apparently not the sort of man who will take kindly to a Dear John email or meekly accept a "We need to talk" short unpleasant one way discussion. 

Movie Reviews: Ready or Not

Ready Or Not

directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

This horror/dark comedy movie has a lot in common with a movie previously reviewed here, You're Next. 

Both films invoke some pretty common horror motifs before simultaneously upending them or playing them for some twisted laughs. 

If you're not a horror film fan then this movie is simply not something that you should be watching. If you are among that group of people who enjoy watching such movies then this low budget but high quality film is definitely something that should be on your to watch list.

As with You're Next, Ready or Not imagines that a young woman, Grace (Samara Weaving) of modest means has gone to her fiancee's venerable family home, actually a mansion. Yes I know there are some people who would never ever do such a thing. Grace and Alex Le Domas (Mark O'Brien) are to be married. They are in love you see. And Grace not only comes from modest means, she grew up in foster homes. 

Grace is eager to become the latest official Mrs. Le Domas and do the do. Grace also wants to get acquainted with all of Alex's oft eccentric relatives, many of whom don't exactly appear too welcoming to their formerly impoverished new in-law.

But you don't grow up in foster homes without learning to quickly adapt to new situations and turn the other cheek to snarky comments or pointed snubs. The wedding completes without a hitch. Grace is heads over heels in love with Alex and can't wait to show him how much in a suitably private suite.

Movie Reviews: Cast A Deadly Spell

Cast A Deadly Spell
directed by Martin Campbell

Cast A Deadly Spell is an older HBO movie that I decided to rewatch. It is a rare example of a film that mixes two different genres and mostly gets things right. It's also interesting to see some people (Julianne Moore) just before they became superstars. Cast A Deadly Spell takes itself seriously but not too seriously. 

You can always see the tongue firmly planted in cheek. There is some humor but it's not usually slapstick. It's not everyone who can mix a hardboiled noir detective story with a bit of fantasy but Campbell did it here.  

This movie references the works of H.P. Lovecraft but not too much. Other than the name of the hero (slightly different than the author) and a few of the author's creations this story is not that much in Lovecraft's debt.

In 1948 Los Angeles, magic is real. Not only is magic real but almost everyone uses it for the most mundane tasks. All sorts of supernatural creatures exist and interact with humans, some more peacefully than others. Like the technology of our time that would be considered magic to a human living two thousand years ago, everyone in this world takes magic for granted. Someone who refuses to use magic is considered to be a Luddite. 

One man who refuses to use magic at all is private detective and former cop Harry Phillip Lovecraft (Fred Ward). As he explains to skeptics, his reasons for not using magic are personal and thus none of their ever loving business. Be that as it may, a detective who doesn't use magic in a world where everyone else does is at something of a competitive disadvantage. This means that Lovecraft's paying jobs are rare.