Genre Grandeur May Finale – Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) – Rhyme and Reason

Tags

Action, Animation, Anime, Drama, Fantasy

Here’s my review for my chosen genre of non-Disney fantasy animation, courtesy of MovieRob’s monthly Genre Grandeur. Thanks a bunch, Rob!

MovieRob

For this month’s final entry for Genre Grandeur May – Animated Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Non-Disney/PIXAR) Movies, here’s a review of The Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011) by S.G. Liput of Rhyme and Reason who chose this month’s genre for us all.

If you missed any of them, here’s a recap:

This month we had 18 review for GG:

1.  Quest For Camelot (1998) – Past Present Future TV and Film
2.  Planet 51 (2009) – Movie Reviews 101
3.  Robots (2005) – Tranquil Dreams
4.  9 (2009) – Ten Stars or Less
5.  The Pagemaster (1994) – Past Present Future TV and Film
6.  The Iron Giant (1999) – Movie Reviews 101
7.  The Iron Giant (1999) – Digital Shortbread
8.  Titan A.E. (2000) – Past Present Future TV and Film
9.  Thumbelina (1994) – Past Present Future TV and Film
10.  The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) – Sidekick Reviews

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VC Pick: Same Time, Next Year (1978)

Tags

Comedy, Drama, Romance

 

 

Love begins across a room

With eyes that lock and smiles that bloom

But will not leave the stricken pair

When time to end the brief affair,

 

For love endures a year apart,

And patient is the waiting heart.

They love their spouses too in spite

Of seeking yearly to unite.

 

For love endures for decades too,

The changes they must suffer through,

And even when it nears its end,

It will not leave a lifelong friend.

_________________

 

Released at the height of Alan Alda’s M*A*S*H fame, Same Time, Next Year brought to life both Bernard Slade’s 1975 play and a romance for the ages. As she’s a big fan of Alan Alda’s charm and humor, it’s no surprise that my VC loves this film so much and insisted on my reviewing it.

George (Alda) and Doris (Ellen Burstyn) happen to meet at a seaside hotel in 1951 while on solo retreats and immediately fall for each other, with the romantic mood set perfectly by the Oscar-nominated song “The Last Time I Felt Like This” (the kind of lovey-dovey theme that gets my VC tearing up with just the first few notes; it also concludes the film to earn a place in my End Credits Song Hall of Fame). After falling into bed as well, the two can’t abide never seeing each other again and, since their respective retreats coincide at the same time every year, they plan to meet annually, with the audience checking in every five years or so. The set-up and plot are simple and potentially corny, but Same Time, Next Year is a good example of a film that is elevated by some outstanding performances and dialogue.

Burstyn played Doris on stage as well opposite Charles Grodin, winning a Tony (she also garnered an Oscar nomination), and feels perfectly at ease with the role, even as she metamorphoses over the years from naïve housewife to hippie to confident businesswoman. Conversely, Alda changes in much more subtle ways, yet both remain recognizable and endearingly flawed through the decades. (It’s interesting to note that Alda’s M*A*S*H co-star Loretta Swit also played Doris on Broadway; that would have been a reunion of a different type.) They chat about their lives and families and children and politics, about George’s accountant quirks and Doris’s uncle with a metal plate in his head. As they continue to meet, it becomes clear that much can happen in a year’s time, and their relationship must grow and adapt to the sometimes painful changes they aren’t together to face. And of course, with Alda on hand, there’s a good deal of humor in the conversations too, such as George’s insistence on absolute openness despite habitually lying.

I do endorse this film with reservations, though, since one’s enjoyment from it depends on how well they can suspend their morality. I, for one, believe in faithfulness and monogamy, ideas that may seem foreign in a film about a decades-long affair. Yet as much as George and Doris love each other, they both love their own spouses too and speak affectionately of Helen and Harry. It isn’t all about sex; while most affairs aren’t like this, there is a degree of faithfulness to all the relationships, bonds that are clearly much deeper than a broken marriage or a one-night stand. Whether this is enough to justify the breach of trust is left to the audience, but it’s not enough to spoil my enjoyment of the film.

While my VC’s affection for Same Time, Next Year far surpasses mine, it’s still a romantic dramedy to remember. She claims that the viewer gets to know these characters, even those only mentioned like Harry and Helen, better than almost any other film. While I wouldn’t go that far, George and Doris are indeed the likable sort that I wouldn’t mind reuniting with, maybe, around this time next year.

Best line: (George, often enough for it to almost be his catchphrase) “All right, I didn’t think it through.”

VC’s best line: (George, recounting when they first met) “We had instant rapport. Did you notice that too?   (Doris) “No. But I know we really hit it off.”

  

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

312 Followers and Counting

Bottom-Dweller: Urban Cowboy (1980)

Tags

Bottom-Dweller, Drama, Romance, Western

 

 

(Can be sung to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”)

 

Travolta went down to Houston,

He was lookin’ for a job to take.

He was young and dumb, just a country bum,

And he was waiting for his big break,

 

When he came across this young girl

Dancin’ round in a honky-tonk,

A promised land of beer and band

With a metal bull or bronc.

 

When the misfit pair were married,

Things at first were going well,

But some stubbornness made a jealous mess

And the marriage quickly fell.

 

While the two just boozed and pined away

And rode that bucking bull,

I began to think that this movie stinks

And was near unbearable.

__________________

 

This is it, the original bottom-dweller. This is the first movie I sat through and immediately hated, or, to coin Roger Ebert’s quote from his review of North, I “hated hated hated hated hated this movie.” Urban Cowboy was yet another star vehicle for John Travolta, but with films like this, it’s a wonder he became a star at all. I don’t usually subject myself to terrible films, but never before have I asked “Is it over yet?” so many times.

It starts out with some promise: small-town wannabe cowboy heads to the big city to find his fortune, meets girl, marries girl. That storyline alone might have been worth seeing, but the relationship between Bud and Sissy is hardly one for the ages. They meet each other in the famous Gilley’s Club, a multi-acre theme park of booze and cowboy paraphernalia, and Sissy (Debra Winger) has to practically twist Bud’s arm to convince him to dance with her. After some dancing and an argument and a roll in the mud, they’re suddenly walking down the aisle. Did either of them really think a marriage starting like that would last? As it turns out, barely a week passes before Bud’s pride is hurt, and both go their separate ways to make the other jealous, with increasingly depressing results.

One of my biggest problems with Urban Cowboy is the character of Bud. Travolta isn’t appealing in the slightest; he’s a juvenile man-child so unconfident in his masculinity that the slightest hint that someone may be better than he throws him into a blind rage, especially if it’s his own wife. In addition, he’s the kind of bumpkin that gives country music a bad name, content to work (sometimes) during the day and wile away his nights at the bar, picking fights and slapping his wife when she disagrees too much (but not too hard, of course). Plus, he’s supposedly in Houston to work and save up enough money to buy land and become prosperous, yet never seems to realize that he’s pouring his paycheck down the drain every night on beer and bets and pointless mechanical bull rides. Oh, and let’s not forget that he doesn’t just pretend to cheat on Sissy to make her jealous; he freely sleeps around, too stubborn to actually care for the girl he uses (Madolyn Smith) and too dense to realize why Sissy isn’t running back to him with open arms. What exactly am I supposed to like about this guy?

A series of misunderstandings keeps the couple apart, and Sissy ends up with “real cowboy” Wes Hightower, played by a leery Scott Glenn, who’s just a slightly harsher version of Bud, hitting a little too hard and stealing what he can’t earn. If Bud and Wes are “real cowboys”, they’re the worst kind, selfish he-men just trying to prove their own toughness to girls they only moderately care about. By the end, Bud trains Rocky-style for a mechanical bull showdown, and he seems to think that winning it will win Sissy back. How so? A silly championship is not going to repair a relationship; all his training is pointless, since all he really needed to do was go and apologize for his own pigheadedness. While he ends up doing exactly this, it’s as if he can’t muster the effort until he’s once again proven his alpha male status. Of course, it all works out for a happy ending, where assault turns into just desserts and a whirlwind romance rekindles into a whirlwind reconciliation. And then, thank God!, it was over!

This just might be my most hated bottom-dweller, with hardly any redeeming value. The only bright point is the classic country music soundtrack, particularly Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” For reasons beyond my comprehension, my VC and many other critics actually liked the film itself, looking past its unlikable characters and petty squabbling. She tells me that she finds the movie “interesting for its dysfunctional lifestyle” and as compelling to watch as a car accident, while I’d prefer just to not look at all. I don’t plan to ever see Urban Cowboy again; I have much better things to do than watch white trash with superficial, totally screwed-up priorities cheating on each other.

Best line: (Bud) “All cowboys ain’t dumb. Some of ’em got smarts real good, like me.”

VC’s best line:  (Bud’s Uncle Bob) “You know, Bud, sometimes even a cowboy’s gotta swallow his pride to hold on to somebody he loves.”  (Bud) “What do you mean?”   (Uncle Bob) “Hell, I know I pretty near lost Corrine and the kids a couple of times just ’cause of pride. You know, you think that ol’ pride’s gonna choke you going down, but I tell you what, ain’t a night goes by I don’t thank the Boss up there for giving me a big enough throat.”

 

Rank: BOTTOM-DWELLER!

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

311 Followers and Counting

Opinion Battles Round Two – Best Sequel

In the second round of the Opinion Battles over at Movie Reviews 101, I joined in to propose the Best Sequel, which just happens to be my #1 movie too. Be sure to check out the choices and vote for your favorite!

Movie Reviews 101

Opinions Battles

First I would like to thank everyone who took part in the first round, all the people who voted and the winner will be announced when Round 3 happens. I would also like to introduce the new players for this round.

If you like what we are doing and want to take part message moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk for more information and our next subject will be Best Disaster films to celebrate the release of San Andreas, submission date 31^st May 2015.

The subject we are going to focus on is Best Sequel, over the years we have seen movie studios give us plenty of sequels, some move the stories to the next level, others try to extend a story that was complete, we do get the franchise sequels that just use the try and tested formula with a slightly added twist, some good some bad. We do…

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Interstellar (2014)

Tags

Drama, Sci-fi

 

 

The earth is getting dusty,

And our crops are less than trusty,

And our history is rusty,

And all life is soon to end.

 

Farmer Coop is in frustration

Till suspicious gravitation

Sends him to a NASA station

To encounter an old friend.

 

Dr. Brand suggests spacefaring

On a certain wormhole bearing

Will reward the pilots’ daring

With a new potential Earth.

 

Leaving son and loving daughter,

Coop departs to be the spotter

On new worlds of ice and water,

Where time carries greater worth.

 

Though he carries on with yearning,

Many dangers are concerning.

Complex choices stem from learning

He may not end up returning.

______________

 

I was impressed by the Dark Knight trilogy, thoroughly impressed by The Prestige, and blown away by Inception, so I had high hopes for director Christopher Nolan’s latest creative extravaganza Interstellar. While it was praised for its scientific accuracy, creative innovation, and Oscar-winning visuals, it obviously draws from several other precedents of science fiction cinema, such as Contact (a mysterious “them” sends messages to Earth, which prompt a wormhole-related mission with Matthew McConaughey involved), Sunshine (a mission to save Earth runs into an ill-fated earlier mission), and of course 2001: A Space Odyssey, from which Interstellar derives those long, slightly boring scenes of space and space docking and a not-quite-as-confusing journey into transcendence. Plus, those walking wall AIs resemble (perhaps intentionally) the monolith from 2001.

As the film sets up a believably down-to-earth apocalypse and a touching father-daughter dynamic between former astronaut-turned-farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his brainy daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy), it lays a compelling groundwork. Then when it leaves the devastated planet behind to travel through a wormhole near Saturn, it rises in its sci-fi virtuosity, even if certain scenes are a bit drawn out. It really hits its stride when the crew (McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, and David Gyasi) explore stunning new worlds with heartbreaking costs. All this adds up to a plausible visionary experience that was more or less what I was expecting, and then….

[Spoiler alert for the next paragraph] I’d like to add one more cinematic comparison: Disney’s 1979 let-down The Black Hole, another film with a compelling storyline, a likable robot, innovative special effects, and a climactic journey into a black hole. As in that film, all of the plausibility is lost once the black hole is entered, and the unlikeliness of subsequent events is written away with the weak argument that no one knows what would happen in a black hole, so artistic license is free to do any old thing. In the case of Interstellar, I can swallow what Coop finds and even his shaky assumptions about who brought him there, but the film’s most glaring hole is how grown-up Murph (Jessica Chastain) inexplicably figures out the meager messages given her to save mankind. The truth apparently just dawns on her, and the day is saved thanks to Coop ex machina. While the emotional climax that follows is fittingly poignant, it is cut too short (Coop doesn’t even try to meet his grandchildren) and also calls into question the necessity of finding a replacement world in the first place.

Okay, spoilers done. I was really expecting to love this movie, and in some ways, I do. It has the Nolan touch that combines well-drawn characters with difficult dramatic situations, inspiring themes of love and pioneering, and a moving, if repetitive, Hans Zimmer score. It even gets the science right in the space sequences, which are true to life in not relaying any sound, even explosions. I do wish that the monolith robots TARS and CASE had had more screen time since they offered the only comic relief and were the most unique special effect.

Yet for all its visual wonder and strong characters, the implausibility of the climax saps some of the emotion that it attempts to convey. It simply bends the mind a bit too far. I can still admire the film, but my VC was entirely turned off by the fantastical lurch toward a not-quite-satisfying-enough conclusion, though she’s not a Nolan fan anyway. While the care and craftsmanship behind the production are obvious, Interstellar is not Nolan’s best. It deserves a place of honor among his middle efforts, but Inception is still tops for me.

Oh, and here’s an Honest Trailer from Youtube that had my VC howling with agreement (and laughter): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMzf-SDWP8

 

Best line: (Coop, calibrating the settings on TARS) “Humour — 75%.”

(TARS) “75%. Self-destruct sequence in T minus 10, 9, 8…”

(Coop) “Let’s make it 65%.”

(TARS) “Knock, knock.”

(Coop) “Want me to make it 55?”

 

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

307 Followers and Counting

The Shining (1980)

Tags

Drama, Horror, Thriller

 

 

A lonely hotel is a dangerous thing,

At least in the works of an author named King,

For no one can know what occurs in the mind

When volatile men are annoyed and confined.

 

They say, like Jack Torrance, the winter caretaker,

That past tragedies are no sign or deal breaker.

He’s simply too sane for such things to occur;

His wife is the same, and he’d never hurt her.

 

But get them alone in a desolate maze

And watch them get worse with the passing of days

And cringe as the dread and the wickedness weave,

For those at the Overlook may never leave.

__________________

 

The only part of this Stephen King adaptation I’d seen previously was the snippets of the most famous scenes in Twister. Oh, and countless parodies of that infamous send-up of Johnny Carson’s introduction. Not being a fan of horror in general, I’m not surprised I never got around to this one, but I decided to give it a try based on its reputation alone (92% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Though horror often has a stigma as a B-movie genre, frequently relying on clichés, cardboard characters, and unnecessary violence, The Shining is a film that truly deserves its iconic status and high rankings among the top scary films. While I’m not a fan of Stanley Kubrick and consider 2001 vastly overrated, I have to admit he’s quite the skillful filmmaker. The direction and cinematography are exceptional, full of those long tracking shots that leave viewers like me enraptured by the fluidity of the camerawork. The film was one of the first to fully utilize the new Steadicam, which allowed the camera to follow the characters as they stroll, creep, or flee through expansive rooms and twisting corridors. Not only is it admirable for its style, but it also heightens the tension (along with the unnervingly dissonant score) as the viewer rounds corner after corner, preparing for some inevitable surprise that may or may not come.

Equally impressive is the performance from the ever brilliant Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, the kind of sanity-sapping role at which Nicholson excels, though he looked at least a little unhinged even from the beginning when he was supposed to seem normal. (It’s those devilish eyebrows!) I do wonder, though, what it was exactly that triggered his maniac descent when he seemed fine for an entire month; perhaps it was merely the constant sole presence of his wife (a perfectly hysterical Shelley Duvall), whom he evidently resented on some level even beforehand. The young Danny Lloyd also gives a memorably creepy performance as son Danny Torrance, who possesses some form of ESP (referred to as “shining”) and shares a body with the ambiguous Tony, who could be anything from a split personality to an unexplained possession. While Lloyd’s scenes are highly effective, I can’t help but feel concern when films like this employ such young child actors for potentially unsettling roles, though Lloyd supposedly never realized he was filming a horror movie. Also, sharing another film with Nicholson is Scatman Crothers, the concerned cook who reminded me of that sheriff in King’s Misery in more ways than one.

While the horror genre would not be taken seriously by the Academy until Silence of the Lambs in 1991, The Shining had the potential to break that barrier first, boasting enough quality filmmaking to deserve Oscar nominations or wins for at least Best Actor, Editing, and Cinematography. Alas, it was not to be, since The Shining’s popularity was slow in coming, and it was actually nominated that year for Razzies rather than Oscars. It was criticized for its slow pace and significant differences from King’s novel, but the main flaws for me were the language and a wholly unnecessary nude scene thrown in to solidify its R rating. Despite this, the film fits the mold of the few horror films I like in focusing on restrained horror and disturbing atmosphere rather than continual gore. The Shining is one of the best examples of a psychological horror, full of taut ambience, a little inexplicable weirdness, and an enigmatic ending that has kept critics and fans debating ever since about ghosts, time travel, and psychosis. Even so, it’s not one I’d watch often and certainly not at night.

Best line: (the obvious; Jack Torrance, as he axes through a door) “Heeere’s Johnny!”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

305 Followers and Counting

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Tags

Action, Drama, Sci-fi, Superhero

 

 

With S.H.I.E.L.D. out of service,

At least on the surface,

Six awesome Avengers defend the world still.

Since HYDRA arose,

They’ve empowered new foes,

Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, twins with ill will.

 

Once Tony Stark’s had

An epiphany bad,

He then starts preparing for “peace in our time,”

But Ultron’s created

And quickly upgraded,

Equating true peace with a murderous crime.

 

Against these new threats

And alarming skill sets,

Our heroes must deal with their goals and their fear,

And when all agree

To save Earth mightily,

The smackdown is epic and worth a good cheer.

____________________

 

As my first review for a film still in theaters, Avengers: Age of Ultron is luckily just the kind of film to see on the big screen, with all the eye-popping action and comic book culmination that drive superhero fans like me nuts. The first Avengers stands as one of the most breathtaking feats of any superhero franchise, bringing together characters from past films and achieving a surprising balance between action, heart, and geek heaven character interaction. It’s a high point in the superhero genre that won’t be easily topped, and though Age of Ultron doesn’t quite match it, it comes close enough to still be worthy of the Avengers name.

Like X-Men: Days of Future Past, the cast is potentially unwieldy. There’s the heroes we already know and love: Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), plus other familiar faces like Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), War Machine (Don Cheadle), and at least three others. Add to that Ultron, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and at least three others, and you’ve got a likely mess in the wrong hands. Luckily, we have Joss Whedon’s hands to mold it into a mostly satisfying blockbuster, with all the wit, humor, pathos, and awesomeness you might expect from his name.

With the glut of old and new characters, their treatment and screen time necessarily vary. Iron Man and Captain America get little more than some funny exchanges about foul language and disagreements about how to make safe the world, while there’s some unexpected development for Hawkeye, Widow, and Hulk, making the most and least super of the group sympathetically human. Though the presence of recognizable faces from past films will fill hardcore fans with glee, a few are so fleeting that the filmmakers could have left them out, if only to avoid confusing the less initiated. The same goes for would-be antagonists like Baron von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) and Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), who barely stick around long enough to make an impression. (I find it interesting that those two previously appeared together as shipmates in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, though with opposite fates.) As for Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), the two newest an/pro-tagonists don’t stand out as much they should have, in some cases being treated as afterthoughts amid all else happening. Quicksilver isn’t quite as fast or memorable as Evan Peters’ version of the character in Days of Future Past, but he and his Eastern European sister manage at least a couple scenes that highlight their eventual importance to the still growing team.

As you would expect from so many characters, there’s a lot going on. If your mind wanders at the wrong moment, you might be wondering why everyone is suddenly headed to a fictional African nation to visit Gollum or why Thor is skinny-dipping in a mystical Norse pool. (I’m still not sure I understand that last one). A couple added plot elements are even introduced with little to no explanation, trusting the audience to simply keep up. Just as the first film has Thor and Iron Man going toe to toe, this one sees Iron Man and Hulk duking it out. Despite all the urban devastation throughout the film, the end places special importance on the safety of civilians, and some sacrifices toward the end do touch the heart, if not very deeply.

Ultron himself is more charismatic than just some bloodthirsty robot, and James Spader’s voice gives him a compelling personality with darkly humorous and strangely religious overtones. Yet his motivations and origins are consistently murky, similar to Peter Dinklage in Days of Future Past, a villain who deep down admires his prey but intends to extinguish them for nebulous reasons. His evil plot is astonishingly inventive (though one of his creations leads to a promising new character and his inevitable downfall), and the battle to thwart it is eye-popping, including one of those goose-bump-raising extended shots with all the heroes kicking enemy butt like only the Avengers can.

I didn’t intend to make three references to Days of Future Past here, but I suppose both of these films exemplify the trend in superhero films, to bring past triumphs together into an overstuffed but breathtaking array of comic book goodness. These films and Guardians of the Galaxy seem to draw their energy from a “the more characters, the better” mentality, so long as an even-handed writer and director keep everything balanced and entertaining. Time will tell if DC can pull the same thing off with their Justice League intentions or if Marvel is destined to remain the big name in superhero hits. Age of Ultron was almost everything I had hoped, yet another sign that Marvel has yet to stumble.

Best line:  (Tony Stark) “We’re the Avengers; we can bust weapons dealers the whole doo-da-day, but how do we cope with something like that?”

(Steve Rogers) “Together.”

(Stark) “We’ll lose.”

(Rogers) “We do that together too.”

 

 

Rank: Top 100-Worthy (to join the first one)

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

305 Followers and Counting

Coma (1978)

Tags

Drama, Thriller

 

 

Surgeries happen every day,

Routine and clean, so doctors say.

You simply go to sleep and then

They ought to wake you up again.

 

What’s that? You’ve heard, through some mistake,

That sometimes people never wake?

That’s possible, but don’t dismay;

It’s very rare, so doctors say.

 

You need not worry of a coma;

Trust the doc and his diploma.

Never fear about foul play

That can’t occur, so doctors say.

 

Statistics prove how safe you are;

The surgeon’s been ideal so far.

He’ll deftly take the pain away,

And you’ll be fine, so doctors say.

________________

 

Michael Crichton’s second film, after Westworld, was this adaptation of Robin Cook’s novel, about (you guessed it!) comas. More specifically, it concerns the investigations of young medical resident Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold), who notices suspicious similarities among routine surgeries which result in unexplained brain deaths.

I had never even heard of this film before my VC recommended it, but it was actually quite entertaining, a mystery/thriller that keeps viewers guessing with its overriding paranoia. It starts off a bit rocky with a lover’s quarrel between Drs. Wheeler and Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), which escalates quickly with too little characterization as yet for us to know with whom we should sympathize. Add to this a slightly disturbing early scene involving a “routine” abortion, and I was dubious about whether the rest of the film would improve. It did. As Susan proceeds from apparently overthinking these cases to uncovering genuinely suspect evidence of foul play, the danger grows more and more real, with shady voyeurs and ruthless conspiracies. A couple scenes may seem like science fiction, but the film is even more frightening for the fact that its core concept is chillingly plausible. The reveals are best left for actually watching the film (don’t even see the spoiler-ific trailer), since it’s a glued-to-the-screen experience from the midpoint on.

I can’t say I’ve seen any of Bujold’s films, so I was interested to see the actress who was almost Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. To be honest, I prefer Kate Mulgrew, but Bujold could have pulled it off. She deftly carries the bulk of the film, first with some women’s lib independence, then with an increasingly paranoid race for the truth and survival. Richard Widmark, Rip Torn, and Michael Douglas also provide commendable performances, even though I’ll always see the latter as either Jack Colton from Romancing the Stone or Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. The most surprising appearances are the film debuts of not only Ed Harris, but also an ill-fated Tom Selleck.

Now that I’ve seen the original film, I should also check out the A&E miniseries remake from 2012, if only for comparison. I doubt it could match this film’s burgeoning tension, but you never know. Thanks to my VC, Coma is yet another nearly forgotten film of the ‘70s to add to my list.

Best line: (a nurse) “Doctors make the worst patients. They know too much.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2015 S. G. Liput

303 Followers and Counting