Ang Lee has always been a visionary director who has challenged conventions with certain genres. While he doesn’t always hit a home run, Lee can at least be appreciated for wanting to take ideas to help usher in classic films. “Gemini Man” should have been a slam dunk. It would have been a slam dunk. But as a film, it’s so much more a concept meant to do pretty much everything but tell a story that’s engaging. It flexes its CGI, as well as Hollywood’s current fetish for de-aging stars and trying to find ways to beat mortality for the sake of cashing in on them as long as possible.
Klute (1971): Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]
When you get down to it, you can examine “Klute” as something of a neo-noir set in the darkness of New York City where society shifted out of the Free Love era and in to much dimmer years. But deep down “Klute” manages to be a rather fantastic character study about a woman who is hopelessly and probably forever exploited by the world. Throughout “Klute” she struggles with whether she wants to have what she perceives as an easy ride and allow herself to become exploited, or resist, and try to carve out a better world for her that’s more respectable, but so much tougher than she’s prepared to handle.
Seven Pressing Questions That I Hope “Paranormal Activity 7” Answers
I was an ardent supporter and fan of the “Paranormal Activity” films for a while there. Parts one to three are a pretty great trilogy on their own, discussing Katie’s family, and how their entire lives were fated to become prey to the demonic entity known simply as “Tobi.” With the release of “Paranormal Activity 7” being announced for a potential 2021 date, I’m hoping the new movie bothers to create some sense of cogency by bringing back characters, introducing heroes, and answering so many lingering questions they never bothered to answer.
Without further ado…
GoodTimes Home Video: Adjust Your Tracking
This week’s episode of “The Online Movie Show” goes back to the 1980s in a celebration of the GoodTimes Home Video, the king of the bargain basement VHS videos. Facebook’s funniest man, Anthony “The Kingfish” Vitamia, recalls the breezy and cheesy world of those wonderfully zany videos.
Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Harley Quinn has been one of the most popular DC Comics anti-heroes of the last twenty years, and for good reason. She went from an abused spouse who served her partner thanks to years of mental abuse, gas lighting and Stockholm Syndrome, to someone who cast off the shadow of the Joker to carve out her own niche. Harley Quinn should be an easy adaptation but DC and Warner haven’t quite mastered it yet. After stealing the show in “Suicide Squad,” she steals the show again in “Birds of Prey” but still never quite comes out unscathed thanks to what is an imperfect and brutally flawed, albeit balls to the wall entertaining action movie.
The Bootleg Files: Sing a Song of Six Pants
BOOTLEG FILES 726: “Sing a Song of Six Pants” (1947 Three Stooges short).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On too many public domain labels.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is doomed to public domain hell forever.
Every Three Stooges fan knows that four shorts starring the slapstick icons are in the public domain because Columbia Pictures failed to renew their copyrights. Three of those films are among the trio’s best: “Disorder in the Court” (arguably the greatest courtroom comedy ever), “Brideless Groom” (my pick for the finest Stooges short) and “Malice in the Palace” (a masterwork of surreal mayhem).
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Alastair Sim’s School for Laughter: 4 Classic Comedies [Blu-Ray]
Like many movie lovers, you mainly associate Alastair Sim with his iconic portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 masterpiece “A Christmas Carol.” His take on Scrooge remains one of the most celebrated and imitated to this day. But Alastair Sim also had a very seasoned career in various film roles that challenged the performer, and the cinema curators at Film Movement have made his other under seen, otherwise under appreciated performances from the period of 1947 and 1960 available for purchase.