Movie Review: The Goonies (1985)

The Goonies (1985) directed by Richard Donner

A group of boys want to have one last day of adventure before local developers foreclose on all their homes and turn the area into a golf course. They explore Mikey's (Sean Astin) attic and discover an old map from One-Eyed Willie, a pirate from the 1600s who left a treasure (and his whole ship) buried in a cave nearby. Most people don't believe the legends, mostly because no one ever found the cave. Mikey and his friends race off to find the pirate treasure. The map leads them to an abandoned restaurant where they run into the Fratellis, a mother (Anne Ramsey) and her two bumbling sons who break out of the local jail and are conducting their "business," including disposing of some dead bodies. The boys discover a passageway underneath the basement fireplace. The tunnels are full of booby traps left by One-Eyed Willie to protect his treasure. The kids go first, but the Fratellis are not far behind.

The movie is a kid's adventure flick with a lot of the typical stuff from the 1980s. The story was from Steven Spielberg so there's plenty of adventure and Indiana Jones-style action toned down for the almost teenaged characters. The script was written by Chris Columbus and has a lot of slapstick violence and rude behavior that he would perfect in Home Alone years later. The score has a John Williams feel to it. The film has a pop video tie-in with Cyndi Lauper's The Goonies Are Good Enough. The evil country-club developers have no real character and just provide motivation for the financially-poor heroes to go on an adventure, starting with riding their bikes to the restaurant. The movie checks all the boxes for 1980s crowd-pleasing cinema.

Watching the film almost forty years after its release, I find it hasn't aged well. It definitely looks and sounds like a 1980s film. It doesn't have that timeless quality that the darker Gremlins or the lighter Home Alone has. The cast does a good job but there's nothing really outstanding here and it is definitely aimed at kids (though my children were completely uninterested after watching the trailer).

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Jaws (1975)

Jaws (1975) directed by Steven Spielberg

In the early summer, some college kids are having a bonfire on the beach of the island town Amity. One girl sneaks of with a boy to go skinny dipping. He's too drunk to make it out into the water, which is lucky for him because she is killed by an unseen nemesis from underwater. The boy reports the incident to local police chief Brody (Roy Scheider). The police find what's left of her body on the shore. The medical examiner declares the cause of death as shark attack, but soon backpedals once the town council gets ahold of the news that Brody plans to close the beaches. The island depends on summer tourism. Brody reluctantly agrees to leave the beaches open, leading to another shark attack. Pandemonium breaks out on Amity Island as shark hunters and ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) come to help out with the problem. Brody eventually hires Quint (Robert Shaw), a local salty old fisherman who promises to bring in the shark. Brody bring Hooper along for the hunt. The three of them have a rough time getting along as they try to get the shark.

This movie is a classic, scaring people away from beaches since its release in 1975. The movie effectively uses the "less is more" strategy, not showing the shark till late in the movie. He's just a menacing presence with an iconic menacing theme from John Williams (who seems to be inspired by Bernard Herrman's Psycho score). The performances are all solid, with Shaw standing out as crusty Quint. He's got the gravelly demeanor and a fantastic speech that ends the "comparing of scars" scene. The movie is tightly crafted and highly enjoyable, still looking good even now, 45 years later.

Highly recommended, though definitely a strong PG rating for language, menace, and gore.

Movie Reviews: Catching Up on Spielberg

I've been watching a bunch of Steven Spielberg's more recent movies that I missed in the cinema. Considering his career goes back to the 1970s, "recent" is a relative term. Here's some quick reviews:

War of the Worlds (2005) based on the novel by H. G. Wells

After an icon radio adaptation by Orson Welles and an iconic film adaptation produced by George Pal, Spielberg took on his first "aliens are evil" project (the other being the evil aliens who messed up the Indiana Jones franchise in 2008). The movie is remarkably faithful to the original novel, matching the mass flight from a major city (this time New York instead of the novel's London); the nefarious plans of the aliens (though in this movie they are never called Martians); the sequence of being trapped in a basement with a guy who plans to fight back; the "red weeds" that start growing where the aliens are active; the ultimate defeat of the aliens not by humans. Spielberg adds Tom Cruise as a divorced dad who has his kids for the weekend when the aliens show up. His plan is to make it from New York to Boston, where his ex-wife and her new husband have gone for the weekend. He's kind of a bad dad, which both his kids know, but he rises to the occasion when anarchy breaks loose.

The movie does not wax philosophical about the aliens and their menace, it's more of an immediate experience of how horrible the situation is. The story is very serious and relentlessly bleak with the humans occasionally behaving badly too. The cinematography looks very much like it was shot in the 1970s or early 1980s--it's a bit grainy and hand-held (though not overboard on the hand-held camera work, which is a pet peeve of mine (I'm looking at you, Monsoon Wedding)). At first I wondered if the film was supposed to be set in an earlier time but they have cell phones and Tivo, so the cinematography is just a style choice. It works well to communicate the immediacy and peril of the characters' situation. But there's very little depth about the aliens.

I enjoyed the film and am glad I watched it but probably won't watch it again.

Ready Player One (2018) based on the novel by Ernest Cline

In 2045, America is not the best place to live, at least not for Wade, who lives in a slum but spends all his time in the OASIS, a virtual reality that is extremely popular. The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has died and left three challenges inside the game. Whoever can beat those challenges first will inherit both Halliday's fortune and control of the OASIS. Some corporate baddies are trying to take over the game in the hopes of monetizing it, but true fans of video games and the OASIS are trying to win to keep it the way it is. Wade does some research and eventually figures out how to beat the first test. He then teams up with five other players (who call themselves "The High Five") to complete the challenges before the evil corporation can.

The movie looks amazing and has a bazillion pop culture references. The story struck me as very paint-by-numbers plotting. The performances are good. The movie has a totally bland message about spending less time in virtual reality and more time in actual reality.

This movie is a special effects summer popcorn blockbuster, and is satisfying at that level. Like War of the Worlds, it's not a film I feel the need to rewatch.

The Post (2018)

Washington Post owner Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) decides to sell shares of the paper on the New York Stock Exchange to raise money to keep the paper going. At the same time, the New York Times begins publishing articles about the Pentagon Papers, documents showing how all presidential administrations since Eisenhower had been deceiving the American public about the US relationship to Vietnam. Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) wants to publish too, though it may cause the paper and its people very serious legal and financial problems.

The movie is a well-executed drama though the script is uneven. Mrs. Graham's tricky situation is well fleshed out and Streep gives a great performance. On the other hand, Richard Nixon is the most one-dimensional villain ever--he had more character depth and nuance in Black Dynamite. Some of the speeches defending freedom of the press lack the conviction one would expect in this type of movie. In a time where there is conflict between the President and the press, I wanted more depth or nuance. The movie is entertaining but mediocre.

Movie Review: Bridge of Spies (2015)

Bridge of Spies (2015) directed by Steven Spielberg

Tom Hanks plays Brooklyn lawyer James Donovan who gets drawn into the Cold War. He is selected by the bar association to represent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Soviet spy active in New York City. Donovan was chosen because no one wanted to defend Abel. Being an honest, honorable, and precise man, Donovan gives Abel the best defense he can, in spite of encouragement from family and the firm to get it done as quickly as possible. Donovan builds a little friendship with Abel, enough to find out that the U. S. government did try to get information from Abel or turn him into a double agent. Abel keeps quiet and refuses to cooperate, telling Donovan that the Americans have men just like Abel in Russia doing the same thing. The evidence is fairly overwhelming and the judge is completely unsympathetic, so the guilty verdict is no surprise.

Meanwhile, the U2 spy plane program has started. American pilots in Pakistan are flying U2 planes at 70,000 feet over Soviet airspace, taking pictures of facilities and other locations of interest to the U. S. Government. One of the planes is shot down and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, is captured by the Soviets. Powers goes through a quick trial to parade him in front of cameras, showing how evil America is.

The two stories intersect when Donovan receives a letter from East Germany. Someone claiming to be Abel's wife has written and is hinting that they are willing to trade Powers for Abel. Donovan is drawn into the negotiations as an unofficial representative of the U. S. Government. That means he has to travel to Berlin just as the Berlin Wall is being constructed. An American graduate student is caught behind the eastern side of the wall and is held by the communist East German government. Donovan decides he wants to trade Abel for both Powers and the student, though the respective governments are not interested in extra complications. What follows is an exciting struggle by Donovan to get both the Americans home.

The movie is a sort of Cold War version of High Noon. Donovan is a man of integrity and uprightness, even in the face of social pressure to do the expedient and shallowly patriotic thing (either letting Abel go to the electric chair like the Rosenbergs did or accepting just Powers and not the student too). While he agrees the Cold War is a war of cultures, he insists that the Americans hold to their principles, like due process for Abel and protecting all lives including the student's. Otherwise, how is American culture different from Soviet culture?

Donovan is also intelligent and disciplined, able to read situations and either coax or strong-arm others into doing the right thing. Often, such actions are not convenient for Donovan but he does them anyway. He's an inspiring character.

Highly recommended!

Movie Review: Lincoln (2012)

Lincoln (2012) directed by Steven Spielberg

Despite the title, this movie is not a bio-pic about American president Abraham Lincoln. Rather, it tells the story of his fight in late 1864 and early 1865 to pass the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery in the United States. The story is dramatically told with the typical Spielberg visual flair.

Even though the film is not a bio-pic, it gives a fully-rounded character portrait of Lincoln. We see him as a father comforting his young son and trying to keep his older son out of combat. We see the turbulent relationship with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln (ably played by Sally Field). He deals with congressmen, soldiers (high and low ranked), government workers, and everyday people. Lincoln often uses his penchant for storytelling to make his points. He's decisive and forceful when he needs to be. He is politically adept, which often means skirting on the edges of (if not crossing over) what's moral to achieve his ends. Viewers see his lawyerly mind working all the different facets of legal issues, especially when he discusses (though really it is a monologue) the legality and the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a great performance, capturing the voice and look and world-weariness and optimism of Lincoln. So perhaps the title is justified.

The political and moral wrangling over the amendment is interesting. Many different factions in the House of Representatives need to be satisfied--hard-lining abolitionists and Southern sympathizers and middle-grounders. Lincoln's staff works with sympathetic congressmen to make sure they don't push so hard they make it impossible for others to join the cause. They hire some men to offer patronage to wavering congressmen to secure their votes. When patronage doesn't work, blackmail is also tried. Meanwhile, a delegation from the Confederate government is invited to negotiate peace (thus placating those hoping that a diplomatic solution has been tried before the amendment is passed) but Lincoln struggles with accepting their potential offer (which would kill momentum for the amendment but end the war) and his desire to pass the amendment (which would end the evil of slavery but kill the peace negotiations). The movie gives plenty of food for thought on the right way to handle such situations and the need for compromise and chicanery in politics.

Check out more commentary on A Good Story Is Hard to Find podcast which is what inspired me to watch.