Old

When I first saw the trailer for the latest M. Night Shyamalan film, I was quite intrigued. It was a unique hook for a horror thriller. The resulting film is certainly proving to be one of his more divisive films. I can certainly see why with how the film plays out but it is still an intriguing premise for a film that I found to be reasonably satisfying. 

Guy and Prisca Cappa (played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps) are taking a family vacation to a tropical resort with their young children, Maddox and Trent (played by Alexa Swinton and Nolan River). Guy and Prisca are at a crossroads in their marriage and planning to separate. They are viewing this as one last family vacation before they do and trying to make the best of it. When the Resort Manager (played by Gustaf Hammarsten) suggests the family check out a secluded beach for the day, they agree. Also aboard the resort shuttle to the beach is Charles (played by Rufus Sewell), his wife Chrystal (played by Abbey Lee), daughter Kara (played by Kyle Bailey) and his mother Agnes (played by Kathleen Chalfant). They are also joined by Patricia and Jarin Carmichael (played by Nikki Amuka-Bird and Ken Leung). Upon arriving at the beach they are surprised at how beautiful and secluded it is. They soon discover they are not alone, another man is at the beach who the kids know as famous rapper Mid-Size Sedan (played by Aaron Pierre). Their tranquility is quickly shattered when one of the kids discovers a dead body on the beach who is revealed to have been Mid-Size's girlfriend. The group tries to deal with this discovery and determine what to do since the Resort simply dropped them off at the beach, promising to pick them up that evening and no one can get a cell phone signal. Soon, Prisca notices something is wrong with the kids and as the hours pass, it becomes clear the kids are aging at an accelerated rate. It quickly dawns on the adults that it's not just the kids...it's everyone. Any attempt to leave the beach the way they came causes the person to black out and awaken back on the beach. The characters find themselves facing a horrifying scenario as they have to try and find a way off the beach before the rapidly passing time has them all dying of old age.    

The film was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and is based on the graphic novel "Sandcastle" by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. I have not read the original novel so I am not sure how closely he follows the original story but I have heard he does make some significant departures. Still, the film does have an intriguing hook to it's story and how the characters react to all the horrors this beach can unleash on the various occupants. The film does come up with some very unique situations the characters have to deal with, such as rapidly accelerating medical conditions, both physical and mental, as well as their kids accelerated travels through puberty that lead to some very real and unique complications. This is all paired well with some stunning cinematography by Mike Gioulakis that manages to make the beach look idyllic and ominous at the same time. I also have to give credit to Make-up designer Tony Gardner for the fantastic work on the old age make-up effects. Often times, old age makeup will be really overdone in movies but there is a nuance to these effects that make them very convincing and natural. 

The film does have some faults though too. The dialogue at times is very clunky and heavy handed, especially at the beginning. There is also the ending to the film which I feel reveals too much about the nature of what exactly is happening on this island and the nature of the resort and in doing so creates some pretty big plot holes if you stop and think about the implications of the ending revelations at all. Shyamalan listed Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock among his influences but I can't help but wish he had taken more inspiration from that film and crafted an ending that was a bit more ambiguous rather than spelling everything out for the audience (although to his credit, the exact nature of the beach and why it is that way remains largely a mystery).  

The cast assembled for the film is great, led by Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps, who give a sense of realism to their characters, two people trying to put on a brave face for their kids, first in the face of their impending separation and then later their impending doom on the beach. Rufus Sewell does well in his role too and it is certainly a trickier one as the film goes on. I won't elaborate because spoilers, but he does do quite well in the role. Alex Wolff does an good job as older Trent and along with Thomasin McKenzie as older Maddox and Eliza Scanlen as older Kara have some tricky parts to play because the characters are only supposed to look older, but functionally still be little kids and all three pull off that delicate balancing act well. 

Overall, Old isn't one of M. Night Shyamalan's best films but it's far from his worst either. It has a solid premise that holds up for much of the film, but just falls apart with some aspects of it's plot and his need to over explain. The more he does the less that held up to scrutiny as I thought back on it. If anything, the morals of this story are always make sure to research your vacation destinations thoroughly and make sure you tell family and friends back home your entire itinerary. 

Snake Eyes

 

I should start off this review by stating I have never been the biggest G.I Joe fan. I vaguely remember the animated show from when I was a kid, but that was about it. So, if you're coming into this review wondering how closely this movie adheres to the source material I am afraid you have come to the wrong place. My interest in seeing this one was more of in spite of it being a G.I Joe film rather than because of. But I saw it with a friend who is a much bigger G.I Joe fan and she certainly seemed satisfied so take that for what you will. I was more just craving a Martial Arts flick and the fact that it had Henry Golding, Iko Uwais, and Samara Weaving amongst it's cast members didn't hurt either. 

Snake Eyes (played by Henry Golding) has been living as a drifter ever since he witnessed his father gunned down by a mysterious assassin who makes his victim roll a pair of dice to see what their fate is. Snake takes his moniker from the pair of ones his father rolled that night. He has been making ends meet fighting in the underground fighting circuit. It's there that he catches the attention of Yakuza boss Kenta (played by Takehiro Hira) who offers Snake a deal. If Snake will work for him, he will help Snake find his father's killer. One day, Kenta asks Snake to prove his loyalty by shooting a traitor. Snake is unable to go through with it and helps him escape instead. It turns of the man in question, Tommy (played by Andrew Koji) is Kenta's cousin and both were in line to run Clan Arashikage, an ancient Ninja order devoted to maintaining preserving order and maintaining peace. Kenta tried and failed to kill his cousin and was subsequently banished. Grateful, Tommy takes Snake back to the Clan compound and having seen his skills as a fighter asks him to join Clan Arashikage. The current leader of the Clan, Tommy's grandmother Sen (played by Eri Ishida), agrees provide Snake can pass three challenges overseen by two masters, Hard Master (played by Iko Uwais) and Blind Master (played by Peter Mensah). The Clan's head of security, Akkio (played by Haruka Abe), doesn't trust Snake and turns out she is right because Kenta set up Snake to make it look like he betrayed him to earn Tommy's trust and infiltrate the Clan. He is to retrieve the Clan's sacred Jewel of the Sun and trade it to Kenata for his father's killer. But as Snake bonds with both Tommy and Akkio as he trains for the three challenges, he finds his allegiances challenged and must choose between his new friends and his overwhelming need for revenge. 

The film was directed by Robert Schwentke from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse. The screenwriters manage to craft a reasonably entertaining story, even though parts of it do feel very cliche at this point. The whole child witnessing the death of a parent and vowing revenge on the killer is a very well worn trope and the movie only gets away with it barely because they have Snake face his lifelong desire and decide if it's worth betraying the people who have presented him with a potentially better future for it. Far more interesting for me as a viewer was the three challenges Snake must face to join the Arashikage, as well as the two Masters who help train and guide Snake along the way. Even if this too is a familiar trope, the filmmakers do a better job of making it feel a little more fresh and kept it intriguing for me. Schwentke does a reasonably good job staging the action sequences even though he does rely on the damn shaky cam too much and the quick cuts are at times too quick to even really get a good idea of that is going on. Also, he commits the cardinal sin of setting up a really great fight sequence between Iko Uwais and a whole group of Yakuza and then cutting away just as it was about to start and not going back to it until the fight was basically finished. I was so irritated by that narrative choice I wanted to scream. Aside from that though, the filmmakers handle the action reasonably well, even as the film suddenly shifts and takes on a vaguely more fantastical angle once the Jewel of the Sun is unleashed. 

The cast assembled for the film is quite impressive. Henry Golding does well as Snake Eyes both with the more action oriented aspects as well and doing a good job portraying Snake's internal conflicts. Andrew Koji likewise does well as Tommy and plays off Henry Golding quite well so their burgeoning friendship becomes one of the strengths of the film. I've long been a fan of Iko Uwais so seeing him turn up in this was one as Hard Master of the main reasons I wanted to see the film and while he does very much have a supporting role, he has his fair share of memorable moments in the film too. Peter Mensah also impressed me a lot in his role as Blind Master, including a rather cool scene between him and Snake as he administers the second challenge. Takehiro Hira does his best with his villain role as Kenta, even if the role is written as a fairly routine baddie character. Far more entertaining was Úrsula Corberó as Baroness, who is clearly having fun with her Cobra aligned villianous role. Samara Weaving shows up in the second half of the film and has some fun in her role as Scarlett, a G.I Joe agent sent to help assist the Arashikage.  

Overall, Snake Eyes is pretty much exactly what I expected. It's not a perfect film by any means, but it does have it's moments that made it worthwhile viewing to me. Will it be the same for everyone? Well, that depends on if the elements I described above appeal to you as the viewer or not. The action sequences could have been a executed a bit better and the plot at times was a little bit predictable (can we discontinue shaky cam already? I hate that so much. But at least this movie wasn't as bad as some). But it did still have enough talent and surprises to keep me entertained on a hot Summer afternoon and isn't that what movies released this time of the year supposed to do anyway? I will say this though, the film definitely needed more Iko Uwais. But I may just be a little biased in that regard. 

Richard Donner

There are certain filmmakers that looking back have had repeated significant impacts on my appreciation and love of film. One of those filmmakers was without a doubt Richard Donner. I was planning on doing a series of retrospective reviews of his films much like I did a couple years ago with Spielberg because damn if I didn't love just about everything he made. I may still at some point, but I had wanted to do it before he passed. He was a such a fun-loving, big-hearted guy whose personality shone brightly through every movie he made. He also had an enviably eclectic filmography, showing he could transition from frightening horror to superhero fantasy to buddy cop action to intimate drama with ease. 

Richard Donner started his directing career in television, carving out a niche for himself working on a number of popular and iconic series, including a number of well know Twilight Zone episodes with the most popular being Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. He made a few feature films during this time as well, such as the Charles Bronson starring X-15, which also marked the screen debut of Mary Tyler Moore and the Sammy Davis Jr. starring Salt & Pepper. 

His first big break as a cinematic filmmaker came with the Gregory Peck starring horror film The Omen. The film was a box office smash focusing on an American ambassador (played by Peck) and his wife (played by Lee Remick) who unwittingly adopt a child that turns out to be the Anti-Christ. It was a fantastically frightening film punctuated by some genuinely shocking death scenes including an infamous decapitation that Donner took gleeful delight in editing in such a way that audience members who looked away would look back thinking it was over only to find it was still happening.  The film proved to be a box office hit and would go on to spawn three sequels, Damien: Omen II, The Final Conflict, and the T.V movie Omen IV: The Awakening. Of those sequels, Donner was only involved with The Final Conflict in an Executive Producer capacity. 

For his follow-up to The Omen, Donner was brought in by producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind to direct their planned cinematic epic, Superman: The Movie as well as a sequel that would be shot back to back. In what would become one of Donner's most beloved films, he approached the material with a perfect degree of reverence and seriousness, but also was not afraid to have some fun with the material, especially with Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor dealing with his nincompoop henchman Otis (played by Ned Beatty), which provided many of the film's biggest moments of levity. Yet, at the same time he approached the character of Clark Kent and Superman with a balance of reverence and sincerity that really worked for the film, with a fantastic performance by Christopher Reeve. Donner in fact insisted they went with a then unknown actor, rightly fearing that a known star would overshadow the character and the film therefore wouldn't work. Richard Donner was a fan of Superman and his legacy, something that is clear in every frame of the film. His instincts proved right and the film proved to be one of the biggest hits of his career and continues to be a cherished film today. His impact on the Superman mythos continues to reverberate throughout, influencing future incarnations of the character, including Zack Snyder's Man of Steel up to the most recent iteration with the CW's Superman & Lois T.V show. It also set the gold standard for what Superhero movies could be going forward. 

Unfortunately, conflicts with Producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind reached a boiling point and he was fired off the project before he could complete Superman II and was replaced by Richard Lester, who reshot a bunch of Donner's footage. Donner's footage in a stitched together, but still superior, cut of Superman II would not see the light of day until 2006 when a the footage was found while a DVD remastering of the film was being prepped. Still, they were able to remaster the deleted footage and create an all new cut, complete with John Williams score and new effects to create as close as possible what Richard Donner intended his cut of Superman II to be. I go into more detail about this whole thing in my Superman II review on this page, if you're curious. 

After the blow of being fired off Superman II, Donner nonetheless bounced back with a couple of smaller films, the disabled basketball drama Inside Moves and the Richard Pryor comedy The Toy. One of his pet projects was a medieval set fantasy romance picture, Ladyhawke, that would be one of my favorites of his. It would turn out to hold a surprising significance for Donner as well, as he met and fell in love with his future wife, film producer Lauren Shuler, as they made the movie together. They would marry not long after and continue to produce many other movies together. Ultimately, the film would prove to be a box office disappointment but like many other 80's fantasy films it would garner a cult following on home video. It's certainly one that I've always admired. It's a beautifully shot film that was clearly made by a man falling in love. 

Donner would follow-up Ladyhawke with another one of his most beloved films, The Goonies. Collaborating with producer Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Chris Columbus, Donner crafted a fantastic, family friendly adventure about a group of kids who go hunting for Pirate treasure after they find an old treasure map in one of the kid's attics. In hot pursuit of the kids is a trio of robbers who want the treasure for themselves. Filled with impressive action set-pieces and just the right amount of humor, The Goonies continues to live on as timeless family entertainment. It's one that has been frequently re-released to theatres as well as fan gatherings. There was even an online reunion last year with all the cast members, Steven Spielberg and even Richard Donner himself. Out of all of his films, this is probably the one whose popularity has endured the most. It is certainly a film I loved when I was younger as well as one I continue to love today.

As if having Superman and The Goonies as part of his cinematic legacy wasn't enough, Richard Donner also directed all four of the Lethal Weapon movies, carrying a certain level of quality from one entry to another. The films made huge mark in re-vitalizing the buddy cop formula and continued to work largely on the remarkable chemistry between stars Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Los Angeles Police Detectives Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs. The recurring cast would grow as the series progressed, with Lethal Weapon 2 adding Joe Pesci (as a wiseguy known as Leo Getz, who Donner frequently stated was basically the third Stooge to Riggs and Murtaugh). Lethal Weapon 3 would add Rene Russo as Lorna Cole, a love interest for Riggs and every bit the adept fighter and daredevil he is. Lethal Weapon 4 added Chris Rock as a new detective working with Riggs and Murtaugh. Throughout the entire series, Donner managed to deftly balance large scale, explosive action sequences with genuine and hearty laughs making all four films irresistible entertainment. But further than that, he, along with series screenwriters that included Shane Black, Jeffrey Boam and Channing Gibson, crafted a group of characters that felt real, familiar and relatable. It was a group of characters I couldn't help but want to revisit again and again. I think it was that aspect that, along with the spectacle and the comedy of course, that made those four films one of the most cherished franchises for me.  

In between the first two Lethal Weapon movies, Donner pivoted again to a contemporary, comedic take on A Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray and Karen Allen, Scrooged. Although it perhaps was not as warmly received when it was first released during the Holiday season of 1988, it has grown over the years as a cherished Christmas film for many people, myself included. The film juxtaposes wacky humor with some genuinely dark scenes that may or may not work depending on the person but I always felt like Donner managed to balance the two well throughout the film. Even though Murray and Donner famously did not get along during the making of the film, it still worked quite well and Murray does make for a great contemporary Scrooge as selfish, narcissistic Network Executive Frank Cross.     

Other notable films he directed included the dark family drama Radio Flyer, the thriller Assassins with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, the Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson action thriller Conspiracy Theory, the time travel adventure Timeline and the Bruce Willis thriller 16 Blocks as his last film as a director. Yet, he also was a prolific producer both solo and alongside his wife Lauren Shuler-Donner, producing such hits as The Lost Boys, Free Willy, and the original X-Men. He also co-produced the HBO Horror Anthology series Tales from the Crypt, along with it's two big screen spin-offs. 

But even beyond his impressive and varied cinematic accomplishments, Richard Donner had long established himself as being a smart but kind, warm and generous man with an big, boisterous laugh that was unmistakable. Stories abound of his sets, filled with laughter and fun. He remarked in an interview that he always loved making movies because he'd always come out the other end with a new friend. That personality shines through his films too, never passing up the chance to go for a laugh when he could get one. There are also so many stories I've read from people who got their start working for Dick Donner and then moving on to bigger and better things. He was one of those filmmakers who I loved so many of their movies and would have loved to have met. But at least I still have his films to enjoy, which I have been re-visiting lately and I'm sure will re-visit many, many more times to come. If the outpouring of tributes I've seen online to him as both a filmmaker and an individual, I know I won't be alone there either.