Twisters (2024) – Review
Quick thoughts – Grade – B- – Director Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters provides plenty of action and spectacle, but it isn’t propulsive enough to be a memorable summer blockbuster.
Aside from the incredible VFX and sound design, Twister (1996) worked because of the simplicity of the meat-and-potatoes plot that put its characters directly in front of the finger of God (AKA giant tornadoes). All of the characters knew each other, and the introduction of Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gertz) works because she was new to the tornado chasing world which allowed characters to dump expository dialogue on her while they drove towards impending danger. The familiarity of the characters, coupled with a slimy villain played by Cary Elwes, created a simple narrative that still feels refreshingly propulsive. With Twisters (2024), there are too many elements, characters, or issues that need to be dealt with or overcome. I’d happily watch Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Katy M. O’Brian, Sasha Lane, Anthony Ramos, Brand Perea, and Tunde Adebimpe battle tornadoes, but all the additional elements slow everything down.
Twisters focuses on an ambitious tornado chaser named Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) who gets coerced back into tornado chasing after a five-year hiatus caused by a tragic incident that saw her tornado chasing team get blown away by a gigantic twister. She’s called back into action by Javi (Anthony Ramos), the other survivor of the incident who now owns a company with some expensive tornado tracking technology that could save many lives. Once in Oklahoma, she meets Javi’s well-funded crew (they all have matching polos – which isn’t a good thing in this world), and a rival tornado chasing crew led by Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a truck driving maniac who loves driving into the middle of tornadoes so he can set off fireworks in their cone. Together, they navigate a rough tornado season that leads to a burgeoning romance and a gigantic tornado that hates movie theaters. On the surface this all sounds great, but toss in corporate greed, family issues, farmhouse flirting, t-shirt jokes, a friendly journalist, and an entire subplot about people from Arkansas not being dummies (it turns out that Tyler and his crew are great people), and you have a little too much plot.
Originally planned to film in Atlanta, Isaac Chung (watch Minari now) convinced the studio to film in Oklahoma and it was a smart idea (it did force him to have a smaller budget and less shooting days though). The wide open landscapes provide a welcome dose of on-location work that works well with the VFX tornadoes that pummel everything in their way. There are some fun set pieces that involve Owens’ tornado-rigged Dodge Ram that can screw itself into the ground to prevent it from being tossed into the air, and the movie hits on all cylinders whenever Glen Powell is on screen. Whenever Owen and his team (and his Dodge Ram) are visible the movie feels alive and it makes me wish that writer Mark L. Smith leaned into the sillier aspects of maniacs who chase tornadoes into open fields so they can unleash fireworks inside them. It’s an interesting idea to focus on tornado-related trauma, but it slows down the summer blockbuster and makes it less enjoyable than its predecessor.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 571 – Any Given Sunday, Oliver Stone, and 1999 Movies
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Mark and Norbert discuss the 1999 sports drama Any Given Sunday. Directed by Oliver Stone, and starring Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, and LL Cool J, and several excellent speeches, the movie is what happens when Oliver Stone directs a football movie. In this episode, they also talk about football parties, movie soundtracks and 1999 movies. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Bonus Episode – The Kitchen Fight Michelin Star Guide – The Raid 2
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Mark and Nick discuss whether or not the kitchen fight from The Raid 2 is Michelin Star worthy. This is the beginning of a fun new series that will include the kitchen fights from Sudden Death, Gremlins, Deep Blue Sea, Monkey Man, Under Siege and many more! Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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John’s Horror Corner: Thanksgiving (2023), a solidly entertaining holiday horror with great death scenes.
MY CALL: This was good. Pretty good, in fact. I really enjoyed it, it’s very well made, and the death scenes were wonderful and mean and graphic. The only problem is that there is nothing special about this movie. So I’d keep this at a “popcorn horror” recommendation.
We find ourselves in the quaint town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the historical figure John Carver is honored for his involvement in Thanksgiving. Director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel I-II, Green Inferno) ushers in the holiday season with heaps of New England accents for anyone who hasn’t had enough since Good Will Hunting (1997). The locals are shifting gears from Thanksgiving to preparations for Christmas and tension is rising leading up to the store opening at RightMart for the sale-hungry soccer barbarians to pillage!
Not since Black Friday (2021) have I seen such a brutal Black Friday montage. This is a spectacle! People are literally trampled to death, limbs are stomped and broken, and hair clumps (of Gina Gershon; Voodoo Dawn) caught in shopping cart wheels are yanked out leaving a bloody flopping scalp behind. This scene just made the movie for me!
One year after the RightMart massacre, someone is out for revenge. The teenagers who posted Youtube videos of the catastrophe are being tagged in strange social media posts from a mystery account (TheJohnCarver), there are curious sightings of a man in a John Carver mask, and the strange unannounced return of a young man whose career was ruined by his injury from the event is arousing suspicion. The killer could be anyone. So our local sheriff (Patrick Dempsey; Scream 3) has his hands full while the RightMart owner (Rick Hoffman; Hostel) is handling PR damage control.
Our social media-savvy co-eds are killed one by one, with the survivors tagged in posts with images of the brutally murdered remains as the killer works through his “naughty list” of Black Friday offenders.
The gore and death scenes are more than worthy of our time. After having her face dunked in a water bath, a victim’s face is pressed on the icy door of a walk-in freezer, from which she tears her skin freeing herself only to have her body gorily severed in half at the waste by a dumpster! There’s also a delightfully juicy decapitation, a looney 180-degree neck break, a cleverly stabby trampoline death, a gutty buzzsaw death, an amazing impalement through the face, and an extra messy head smashing. Yeah, this movie is fun.
While movie is pretty basic in concept, it’s also really well-made and features delightful death scenes. The finale is so incredibly hokey, but campily enjoyable so I just don’t care. The great death scenes make it worthwhile. And while there’s nothing particularly special about this movie, it remains well worth a watch, especially approaching the holidays.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 570: Fear, Chocolate Cake, and Reese Witherspoon
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Mark and Zanandi (@ZaNandi on X) discuss the 1996 thriller Fear. Directed by James Foley, and starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Wahlberg, William Petersen and a fancy house, the movie focuses on what happens when a yuppie family is stalked by a maniac. In this episode, they also talk about Wahlburgers, comical demises, and cheap chocolate cake. Enjoy!
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MaXXXine (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts – Grade – B – MaXXXine ditches the rural Texas settings and immerses itself in the grime and glitz of 1985 Los Angeles. The new location is welcome and there’s enjoyment to be had watching Maxine battle old demons and beat up Kevin Bacon.
One of the most pleasant surprises of recent years is the release of Ti West’s X trilogy made up of X, Pearl and MaXXXine. Taking place in 1979, 1918, and 1985, the Mia Goth (who also co-wrote Pearl) starring films have offered up some truly delightful gore, laughs and alligator action. X and Pearl were pleasant surprises that built up massive expectations for MaXXXine, which doesn’t have the luxury of being a surprise film (Pearl) or an under-the-radar A24 movie filmed in New Zealand during the pandemic. While the reviews so far have been mixed, I’ve found myself appreciating the movie more since my screening several days ago because of the evolution of Maxine Minx.
Maxine is now living in Los Angeles and has become a famous adult film star who dreams of breaking into Hollywood. The film opens with her nailing an audition for a prestige horror movie sequel directed by Elizabether Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), and then she’s followed around as she drives her 1985 Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible around town to her various jobs at peep shows and adult film shoots. This isn’t the young and naive Maxine you remember from X. In MaXXXine, she’s become a badass 33-year old who when cornered by a creepy actor dressed as Buster Keaton, pulls out a gun and makes sure the buster will always remember her (and have to go to the hospital). Maxine is still haunted from the events in 1979, and they come back to haunt her during rehearsals, set visits, and pretty much every waking minute of her life. Her antics on the Texas farm really come back to terrorize her when a VHS tape of the movie she filmed on the farm is delivered to her apartment. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between Maxine, a private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon), and a serial killer who kills Maxine’s associates in ways similar to the infamous Night Stalker who stalked Los Angeles between 1984 and 1985. Spoiling more of the plot wouldn’t be cool, just know that Giancarlo Esposito (who might be the MVP of the movie), Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale also pop up and make the most of their roles.
Filmed in a quick seven weeks in Los Angeles, Ti West decided to give the film a bigger scope so that the films didn’t repeat themselves. The bigger scope means less of a laser focus on characters, but I’m happy that this isn’t another Texas Chainsaw Massacre homage. X is about an indie film crew shooting a porno on a secluded farm, and Pearl is about the debilitating mental state of a woman who lives on a secluded farm. MaXXXine is about a woman who has entrenched herself in the Los Angeles film industry, so the film naturally has more scope as Maxine finds herself in movie studios, large mansions, and dingy apartments. Also, Maxine was hunted in X, and Pearl went insane in Pearl, so it’s nice watching Maxine become the hunter when her past comes back to haunt her. At first I wasn’t a fan of the expanded world, but I’ve grown to appreciate the film more because it allows Maxine to own the situation and finally become famous.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 569: Twister, Extreme Weather and Philip Seymour Hoffman
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Mark and Jay discuss the 1996 disaster film Twister. Directed by Jan dBont, and starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and an unlucky cow, the movie focuses on what happens when a group of storm chasers enter the suck zone. In this episode, they also talk about catapults, sound mixing and the excellence of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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MY CALL: What a delightful little bad movie. This has no real connection to its namesake, and has few effects worth mention. Still, this somehow entertained me just enough. MORE MOVIES LIKE Amityville Dolhouse: Uhhhhhh, when it comes to Amityville sequels, I’d stick to Amityville II: The Possession (1982) and otherwise tread carefully into the depths of the extended franchise. Part II has all the dumb fun you’re looking for with great pacing, but Amityville 3-D (1983) and Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes (1989) are both boring slogs. I haven’t yet seen Amityville Curse (1990), but it is the 5th in this sequence of non-sequels.
Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes (1989) continued the Amityville story with a hideous cursed lamp. Now, in this sort-of sequel, director Steve White uses a dollhouse. He never directed anything again, so that may be informative of how well this horror sequel was received.
Having just moved into their new house, recently remarried Bill (Robin Thomas) and Claire (Starr Andreeff; Club Vampire, Dance of the Damned, Vampire Journals, Scanner Cop, Syngenor, The Terror Within, Ghoulies II) unpack with their kids, nerdy preteen Jim (Jarrett Lennon; Highway to Hell), kiddo Jessica (Rachel Duncan; Rumpelstiltskin) and teen Todd (Allen Cutler). Todd and Jim both struggle with their new “family.”
So already I’m confused. We learn that Bill’s ex-wife lives in New York, where the original The Amityville Horror (1979) takes place. But as they move into their new home, Todd’s girlfriend (Lisa Robin Kelly) (because she lives nearby) drives over to the new house on day one. We also learn they live in a western time zone. So how could this possibly be an Amityville movie if there is no connection to Amityville, New York?
Bill built their new house on a property that already had an old shed which spiritually calls to Bill. It’s filled with tools, skulls, old biological illustrations of insects, a newspaper clipping telling the story of the death of the family in the house (with the father as a prime suspect, just like The Amityville Horror), and an old dusty dollhouse. I guess this sequel is ignoring the other sequels entirely, and even the 1979 original. Because this house is in a western state, and the article is not about Amityville, NY, but the house that burned down where Bill built his new house! So guess what, folks? You’ve been lied to! The only connection to The Amityville Horror (1979) is that the dollhouse Bill finds looks just like the house from the original movie. This should just be called “The Central California Dollhouse.”
The cheapness of the movie is harbingered by the first signs of the supernatural, which manifest as simply “turning off/on” the gas fireplace, turning on and moving the car, and the dollhouse lights illuminate on their own. Later, a tarantula “appears” in a pinata, and a bunch of dust and leaves are blown in through a window (like, literally, by a leaf blower). These effects are all manageable on a special effects budget of $0. I was a bit worried during the first third of the movie.
About 30 minutes into the movie, the effects upgrade from $0 to ultra-cheap, when we see a giant, campy rat tail sticking out from under Jessica’s shaking bed. This happened after Jim’s pet mouse wandered into the dollhouse, and under the model bed in the dollhouse bedroom. So the dollhouse actively makes things happen. Moreover, it seems that whatever happens in/to the dollhouse is mirrored in the actual house. Unfortunately, we later find that is not the case.
The supernatural influence of the dollhouse affects everyone differently. Bill has dreams of his daughter calling for help through the fireplace, Jessica is getting increasingly nervous about her dollhouse, Claire becomes obsessed with Todd (yes, in a sexually weird way), and Jim is haunted by his deceased father. Luckily there eventually are some real effects. Jim sees his dead biological father who has dark plans for Bill. Every time he appears, he is more and more decomposed. Todd’s girlfriend Dana’s head catches fire and the result is actually kinda’ satisfyingly gross.
Ultra-spiritual Aunt Marla (Lenore Kasdorf; Starship Troopers) and Uncle Tobias (Franc Ross) sense something from the dollhouse and consult their occult collection. They conduct a séance that goes horribly wrong. It’s dumb, but not unenjoyable. And this segways us to the final scenes, where the finale gets even more clunky. It’s truly as if Jim’s dead father is the evil antagonist, who wants to bring his living wife and son to Hell with him. But why? And what about the dollhouse? Wasn’t the dollhouse important?
We find out that the previous house burned down leaving only the fireplace, which Bill left in place (to save money) and rebuilt his new house around it. Apparently, this fireplace was cursed because of what transpired there, making it a portal to Hell and a portal leading inside the dollhouse. So, of course, if you go through the portal, you are miniaturized to scale. But wait! Does that mean that inside the dollhouse is an interdimensional Hell? Like, actual Hell?
Bill travels through a portal that brings him inside the dollhouse to save his daughter from… the tiny slimy roaring demons that live in the dollhouse. WHAT!?!? Tobias joins him and sacrifices himself while casting spells to hold off the diminutive fiends that kind of look like discount rack Cenobites. These fiends have no further explanation than the fact that they exist, they are evil, and they must be stopped. But what about Jim’s dead dad? He didn’t want to take everyone to Hell. He only planned on bringing his living wife and son. He seems to be a completely mutually exclusive antagonist! So, it seems like there were two very different plots that got mixed together and never fully clarified during a rewriting process. And that is how we get solid gold bad movies! In the end, then they just burn the dollhouse inside the fireplace that was a portal into itself… so they imploded Hell? I guess.
I watched this wanting and expecting bad, and boy did I get what I wanted. This movie is awful, yet somewhat pretty fun to watch as long as know what you’re in for. This was definitely more enjoyable than parts 3-4, not that this was in any form “good.”
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A Family Affair (2024) – Review
Quick Thoughts: Grade – B- – Powered by solid performances from Joey King, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman, the romantic comedy provides several laughs and unique twists on the rom-com formula. It’s a bit overstuffed with subplots and supporting characters but enough charm and personality to make it an enjoyable comfort food watch.
After spending the last six months putting together a data piece on romantic comedies, I realized that the best romantic comedies don’t avoid genre tropes – they embrace them. The nice thing about A Family Affair is that it utilizes rom-com tropes (lies, miscommunications, rich people, writing as a profession, rich people, it takes place in California, dancing, singing, happy endings) well and happily leans into the fact that it’s a PG-13 romantic comedy. It’s been knocked for not having enough passion and Joey King’s character being a third wheel, but if you look at it as a welcome heaping of comfort food you’ll find enjoyment.
A Family Affair focuses on a personal assistant named Zara (Joey King – very likable) who spends her days and nights working for an A-list actor named Chris Cole (Zac Efron). Her job is miserable as she’s forced to buy earrings for the women he breaks up with and go on late night shopping trips to purchase whey protein (Cole is very needy). Zara lives at home with her single mom Brooke (Nicole Kidman), a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who is still reeling from the death of her husband 11 years prior. Things start going awry when after a work argument, Zara quits working for Chris and when he comes to her home to apologize he ends up striking up a relationship with Brooke. So, Zara’s womanizing boss starts a relationship with her widowed mom. It’s not a great situation and it leads to a bunch of PG-13 rom-com shenanigans involving day drinking, bruised heads, and a really cool pink AT-ST that I want in my home.
Efron and Kidman got memorably intimate in the gnarly 2012 film The Paperboy (the jellyfish scene is very memorable), so their chemistry is believable. However, they aren’t allowed to spend too much time together because of the other storylines involving Zara’s relationship with her best friend Eugenie (Liza Koshy) and her coworker Stella (Sherry Cola – watch Joy Ride now). Toss in Kathy Bates, who plays the mom of Brooke’s deceased first husband, and A Family Affair finds itself loaded with too many characters. Overall, it doesn’t hurt the enjoyment of the film because there’s enough to like and it’s fun watching Joey King acting silly for 111 minutes.
After spending so much time with romantic comedies I’ve learned to expect the expected and just enjoy what they bring to the table. The best bits of A Family Affair are the comedic moments between King and Efron who bicker endlessly and have a relaxed chemistry that carries the film. The romance aspect is underwhelming, which typically isn’t good for a rom-com, but I don’t think this movie was ever meant to be Anyone But You or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In the end, I was expecting a breezy rom-com and I got a breezy rom-com. That’s enough for me.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode 568: The 2024 Mid-Year Random Movie Awards
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The 2024 Mid-Year Random Awards! Mark and Megan hand out awards to their favorite 2024 movies, performances, moments and scenes. In this episode, you’ll hear them talk about In a Violent Nature, Challengers, Dune: Part Two, One More Shot, Civil War, Lisa Frankenstein, Hit Man, Late Night With the Devil and Hundreds of Beavers. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions (we love random questions). We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker.
Movies, Films & Flix 