The Writer's Poke

The sequel came out 35 years after the original, but I've got to say, the visual continuity of the films is pretty amazing. When I was reviewing Blade Runner (1982), I wondered about the "emptiness" and "loneliness" of Los Angeles. I was curious about the darkness and the perpetual rain. The sequel doesn't necessarily go into much more detail, but we get to see brief glimpses of life outside the city center. We are also told about the "blackout," which is a rather vague but ominous event. And, of course, there is the outer planet colonies, which may indicator that the rich people have gotten the hell away from a destroyed Earth. The sequel makes it a little bit clearer: All forms of life, from trees to animals, have become extinct. Somehow humans survive. Los Angeles, or maybe "Lost Angeles," is a community that feels diverse, but maybe it's a diversity of survivors. Maybe they ended up stuck in Los Angeles during the blackout and the...

Los Angeles in 2019 is oddly empty. Yes, the market areas are full of people, but where do the real people live? The big company that makes the Replicants, it only has the owner and J.F.?  Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a retired Blade Runner. He's asked to do one more job, I guess, and he agrees, I guess. Why? What's in it for him, or does he just fall into doing it?  The Rogue Replicants are dangerous, which might be why Deckard is okay hunting them down. But Rachael (Sean Young) isn't? What does he feel about her, other than the attraction that a man would feel for a woman? This is where the "object" point of view doesn't help, because it would be nice to know why Deckard becomes so invested in, well, a robot. She's not human, but she's enough for Deckard. This, again, makes me wonder where all the humans are. J.F. (William Sanderson) has to make friends just to have friends, and we never see Deckard interact with anyone but marketplace vendors and the ...

Okay. I watched this movie out of morbid curiosity, but I have to admit that it won me over. Generally, I don't like remakes, but if a remake can actually fix some things that the original got wrong, then I can see the value in doing it. And this remake does fix a few of the issues I had with the original.  That said, I'm not a huge fan of Jaden Smith. It's not that I think he's a horrible actor; I just don't enjoy watching him in the lead role. He's the 12-year-old Karate Kid, Dre. And, of course, they are using Kung Fu in this movie, so it's silly that this movie isn't called The Kung Fu Kid. Regardless, he's four years younger than Daniel (Ralph Machhio) was supposed to be in the original. I think a slightly older Karate Kid works better.  I do like Jackie Chan in the role of the Pat Morita role. As. Mr. Han, Chan is able to do a lot more than Morita could. Morita had a stunt double to do the karate bits. Obviously, Chan doesn't need a stunt d...

Just like Part II, The Karate Kid Part III begins with a 5-minute recap of Part I, also including the new bit in Part II where Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) humiliates Kreese (Martin Kove) after the original fight.  The film came out five years after the original, but in movie time, under a year has passed. Mr. Miyagi and Daniel (Ralph Mocchio) have just returned from Okinawa; neither of their ladies returned with them. Now, Mr. Miyagi is out of money, and it's time for Daniel to start college. Note: Daniel is supposedly somehow still until 18. I wondered how old he was supposed to be, because the adult bad guys keep pushing younger students against him, but the All-Valley Championship Tournament is for 18 and younger. For most of the movie, the tension is this: Daniel wants to enter the tournament to defend his title, but Mr. Miyagi is against it. Terry (Thomas Ian Griffith), a rich bad guy and Vietnam Vet buddy of Kreese, has made it his mission to get Daniel into the tournament so tha...

Although only 2 years passed between the original and the sequel, the beginning of this film is a 5-minute recap of the original, using the original footage of the first film. A little odd. Then, it picks up right where the original film ended. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) are leaving the tournament, as are the members of Cobra Kai and their teacher, Kreese (Martin Kove). He starts beating up all of his students, and eventually Mr. Miyagi has to step in to make him look like a fool.  What's strange about this scene is that Ali (Elizabeth Shue) and Daniel's mom are nowhere to be seen. Could they not even be bothered to put in a cameo appearance? Of course, this entire sequence could have easily been cut, because THEN we jump ahead six months. Anyway, my real impression here is that the writers didn't know where to start this film. To me, it's simple. Start it with Daniel and Mr. Miyagi getting off the plane in Okinawa. It would have been easier to e...

The first 20 or 30 minutes feel so campy, but by the time Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) become the primary focus, the quality of the story improves. It's still a big ask to think that Daniel can learn enough to even come close to winning a tournament against black belts. He did all that in 2 months? We see his training, but was he still going to school at all? And what happened to his mom for the middle 90 minutes of the film? She simply disappears, and Mr. Miyagi seems to have quit his maintenance job, too.  In terms of the Cobra Kai school, the trainer is an over-the-top villain, and for the majority of the film, none of the kids training with him like Daniel or act like they would feel any empathy for him. Well, Bobby (Ron Thomas) doesn't want to take things too far, but Johnny (William Zabka) and the others do...  And there's the class issue -- the Hill vs. Reseda. Class is the real thing, and I wondered where Daniel was getting the money even to ta...

What I immediately noticed in part 2 was the additional of humor. The first movie didn't really have any humor, but this one tried to include it everywhere. Usually, I like humor. Here, at first at least, I thought it felt forced, like the test group from the first movie said it lacked humor and so the writers made sure to add it everywhere in this one.  But then I thought: Most of the humor comes from Spider-Man. Maybe the use of humor is to show that he has grown in confidence. If he had to make a choice between being Spider-Man and Peter, he's made the choice: He's Spider-Man. Of course that won't stick. Like the first franchise, this franchise is set-up like a Romance movie, and so Peter (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen (Emma Stone) will need to continue to wonder "will we or won't we"?  Gwen seems to have made his firm choice. She's going to Oxford for 6 months, without Peter. But, of course, Peter makes the decision to stop her. Gwen doesn't put up...

What is interesting to me is how little time passed between franchises. The Amazing Spider-Man came out in 2012, just five years after Spider-Man 3. (Even less time would pass between The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming -- 3 years). My impression is that it would make sense to allow more time to pass between franchises, or as a viewer, I'm naturally going to compare one franchise with the other. Now, since I'm watching them on DVD, I'm basically watching all the Spider-Man franchises back-to-back-to-back, but still...  This franchise does a few things differently. We have the backstory of Petere's parents, which is nice. Peter himself still comes off as pretty nerdy, but Andrew Garfield isn't quite as geeky as Tobey Maguire. You can at least imagine that he has a chance with Gwen (Emma Stone).  Since it's the first movie in the series, we go through the origin story (again). We watch him make his first suit (again) and learn how to shoot his webs ...

A busy movie. We have three villains this time, as well as Peter (Tobey Maguire) dabbling with the Venom himself.  Peter as Venom. What can I say? They make him look emo. He's basically the Spider-Man version of Chris Gaines. Is there any way to make Tobey Maguire look cool? Doubtful. The weird thing is, most of New York realizes he's a douche when he looks emo, but for some reason when he goes to the club with Gwen (Bryce Dallas Howard), the people there seem to like him.  What kills this franchise for me? Well, no, I don't like the casting. Maguire is 30 years old in this film. They are still painting him to be dweeby. Even in college, the guy behind him is hitting him with spit wads. And Kirsten Dunst. Not a fan of her as Mary Jane, but I also don't like this Mary Jane. It's tough to like a movie when you find the main characters -- and/or the actors portraying them -- to be annoying.  The whole relationship between Peter and Mary Jane is beyond annoying. Have th...

Sometimes you re-watch a movie and think, "That one holds up." It's a weird idea: That something can be "good" at the time but maybe less good later. Can a movie really depreciate over time, like a car? Is it normal for movie depreciation to happen, and what causes it to happen? In the case of Spider-Man 2, for example, it's the second movie in the first Spider-Man franchise. A 2026-viewer will naturally compare the movies from the first franchise against the movies from the second and third Spider-Man franchises. Any viewer will also compare a sequel or the continuation of the story against the movie that came before it.  When I was re-watching Spider-Man 2, I found myself more interested in assessing it against Spider-Man (2002), a movie that I had some questions about -- one being: Why are Harry (James Franco) and Peter (Tobey Maguire) friends? Unfortunately, Spider-Man 2 simply assumes they are. It does nothing to strengthen the case. Peter is still work...

Maybe the oddest relationship to think about in this movie is the friendship between Peter (Tobey Maguire) and Harry Osburn (James Franco). What exactly makes them friends?  I guess I'm wondering this because they come from two different social classes, and they haven't exactly known each other for that long. Peter isn't the most popular kid in school, and yet here he is hanging around a rich kid who probably would have his pick of friends -- both because of his background, but also because of his looks.  Peter and Harry end up being roommates, which is convenient for the movie's plot, but how much does an apartment in New York run, and is Peter actually paying half the rent?  In terms of "friend values," why does Harry think it's okay to date Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst)? He must know it's not okay, as he keeps dating Mary Jane a secret from Peter. Only when he knows Peter knows does he offer the cop out: "Well, you weren't making a move." ...

I recently watched A Chorus Line (1985), and maybe I put off watching All That Jazz because I thought it might be the same sort of story. Not at all. Yes, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a Broadway director, and there is a little bit about that and his work with dancers and putting on a show. But there's a lot more about him and his race toward death. Much of the movie is the "delusions" he experiences. I'm not sure "delusions" is the right word. Maybe what we get is Joe experiencing his life flashing before him, plus the "bonus content" that his brain creates while he's lying in his hospital bed. Not sure how to explain it. Suffice it to say, Joe smokes too much, womanizes too much, works too much. His daily routine is to shower, take his meds, put eye drops in his eyes, and yell "It's Showtime!" into the bathroom mirror. Except for the womanizing, he doesn't come off as a bad guy, really. He has a daughter and seems to be a goo...

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm currently watching Natalie Wood films, and so I re-watched this one not for James Dean, but for Natalie.  The timeline bothers me. This is a lot to happen in a 24-hour period. If Jim's family just moved to this new location, how does the house already look like they've lived there forever? If this is Jim's (James Dean) first day at school, has he already given Plato (Sal Mineo) his address? For that matter, how exactly did the bad boys know that Jim and Plato and Judy (Natalie Wood) were at the old, abandoned mansion? Anyway, I'd like the timeline to expand a little. Let's see the relationship between Jim and Plato grow. Let's give Judy a chance to move from the "bad kids" to Jim's side. And so on.  Let's unpack the stuff that's implied. I know it's a 1950s movie, but I need some help understanding what's really going on with Judy and her father. I read that it's an "Elektra complex,...

Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) have a special friendship. Maybe it's because they're both writers. Maybe special friendships simply happen for no real reason. They just connect and they're inseparable. Eventually, a couple of things will separate them: A woman and a war.  At first, the woman doesn't separate them. Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) simply joins them. The film might be called Catherine, to be honest, because she is a force, and in some ways, she is the focus of the movie. The movie could also just as easily be called Jules and Catherine and Jim. It's interesting that they leave her name out of the title.  World War I pits Jules and Jim on separate sides. Jules actually happens to like serving on the Russian front, because there he knows he won't accidently kill Jim.  Jules and Catherine marry and have a daughter. Catherine, however, is not the marrying type. She lives her life as an experiment. Maybe she was curious to see what being a wife an...

Just to pick on something first: That ending. I'm not sure the movie has one, really.  At the beginning of the movie, we see the alien spaceship crash into Earth. We're then given the idea that it may have been buried in the ice for 100,000 years. Whatever the Thing is, it was able to wait for its moment.  When the alien makes it over to the American station, how did it know that the American station was there? That's one question. It took out the Norwegian station, but was it not happy being in its current form? Did it want to look human? If so, why? We'll never get to know, because this movie, just like the early Alien and Predator movies, never gives us any look into what the Thing is thinking. All we know is that it's advanced. It knows how to travel in space, and it knows how to mimic any lifeform it comes into contact with.  And it can stay frozen.  Humans cannot. Macready (Kurt Russell) has a plan, and that plan is to blow up the American station. How does th...

This is a pretty entertaining movie, but I'm not sure if it wants to be taken seriously, or if it's a satire on the "free love" culture of the 1960s. I viewed it more as a satire, but with a good message. Bob (Robert Culp) is a documentary film director. He and his wife, Carol (Natalie Wood), spend a weekend at a place in the woods called the Institute. As the camera swoops in from above, we see naked people lodging, yoga posing, and bathing outside on the deck. They're all naked. What kind of "new age" place is this? Bob and Carol spend their time inside, however, with a small group taking a 24-hour crash course designed to get them connected to their feelings. One of the group exercises is simple to stare and other members and "get to know each other" by looking. The idea being, we often don't take the time to stop and look at one another. We're too busy looking and thinking about ourselves. I mention this exercise because something s...

Into the Spider-Verse (2018) introduced us to four Spiders from other Earths, but Across the Spider-Verse opens it up and introduces us to, or at least shows us, dozens more. Spider-Gwen, who we met in the first movie, is the main Spider focused on from a different Earth. It seems like she and Miles, our Earth's Spider-Man, are more than friends, or they would like to be. There's only one problem, and it's not that they're from two different Earths. It's that a relationship between Spider-Man and Gwen never works out in the long run.  Even though there are all those different Spiders out there, we find out that the "canon" stories each of them follows generally have events that cannot be changed. Spider-Man and Gwen not working out is one of the canon events. Another is: Spider-Man cannot save the people closest to him -- be it, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, their father, etc.  Does freewill not exist anywhere in the multiverse? Miles cannot accept that. He wants t...

So, at the same time the Tom Holland Spider-Man franchise is going on, there's also this animated multi-verse franchise. The Holland Spider-Man works in the context of what's going on in all the other Marvel movies, and this one is its own separate deal. Of course, right now, the Marvel movies are in "Phase 9" or something like that, and they're all currently into the multiverse theme... but this movie came out in 2018 and I guess offered a sneak-peak at what the multiverse would look like.  This movie's Spider-Man is named Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). One of the ideas forwarded is that anyone can be Spider-Man. That said, the movie still features Peter Parker, but he dies. Then, the multiverse opens, and we get to meet a few other Spiders from other places -- including Spider-Woman (aka Spider-Gwen), Spider-Man Noir, and even Spider-Ham. To say that the movie is non-stop and fast-paced would be an understatement. I still remember watching this one in the th...

On the surface, Match Point seems like it's going to replay the Crimes and Misdemeanors script. Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a semi-pro tennis player who has decided he can't make it on touring circuit. As a result, he becomes a tennis instructor for the well-to-do at a London club. When we first see him, I think we're supposed to get the idea that he's playing the game -- not tennis, but social climbing. With a little luck, he can get in with a wealthy family. That's what ends up happening. He marries the sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), of one of his tennis club students, Tom (Matthew Goode). Does he love Chloe? Or does he simply accept that marrying into the family is what he needs to do to move up in the world? Chloe seems like a nice enough woman. She's by no means ugly, but I'm sure we're supposed to see her as plain, especially when she's compared to Nola (Scarlett Johanson). Nola is really the woman that Chris lusts after, but her problem ...

A lot can happen in one summer in Barcelona.  If you're two young American women, perhaps visiting Europe takes you out of your day-to-day routines. This may give you a chance to see yourself and your life from a new perspective.  Vicky (Rebecca Hall) wasn't the type to get swept up in romance and fantasy. She had her normal life planned out. She was getting married to an average, successful man. He will provide for her economically, as her 2-carat engagement ring testifies.  Christina (Scarlett Johansson) was the type that didn't know what she wanted. She only knew what she didn't want. She was much more open to experimentation and didn't feel the need to conform to society's box. If a strange Spanish man invites her to go away for the weekend, she will be open to the offer.  When they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a "bohemian" painter, Christina is immediately attracted. He seems dangerous, maybe a little intoxicating. Romantic. Vicky sees him a...