LAPSIS, PLUS A LITANY OF OTHER LATELY-VIEWED MOVIE OFFERINGS OF THE OFFBEAT KIND

 

Publicity poster for Lapsis (© Noah Hutton/Couple 3 Films/Purple & Gold Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I have an extremely wide, inexorably catholic taste when it comes to movies, never having limited myself to any one specific genre, but those of the more offbeat kind hold a special fascination and delight for me. So here are my mini-reviews of a half-dozen films fitting this distinctive description that I've watched lately.

 

 

Another publicity poster for Lapsis (© Noah Hutton/Couple 3 Films/Purple & Gold Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

LAPSIS

My movie watch on 2 July 2022 was Lapsis. Directed by Noah Hutton and released in 2020 by Couple 3 Films in association with Purple & Gold Productions, Lapsis is a dystopian/parallel world sci fi feature satirising the manipulation and exploitation by high-tech mega-companies of their ground-level workers – literally ground-level in this case, For here they constitute cablers – people employed to run lengths of cable over the ground across mile after mile of countryside, linking together huge metallic cubes generating the quantum energy that powers everything of significance in this world. One new cabler, however, a delivery man from Queens, NYC, called Ray Tincelli (played by Dean Imperial), who is given the cabler username Lapsis and is cabling in order to earn enough money to fund specialist treatment for his younger brother (Jamie, suffering from a controversial chronic fatigue ailment called omnia, and played by Babe Howard), is being mysteriously and quite considerably overpaid for his work. So it’s not long before he and everyone else in his cabling group want to know why. That, basically, is the plot, such that it is, in a movie that for me was, at 108 mins, way too long to sustain my interest – sorry, but I can take only so much film footage of people walking through woodland running cable off a spool. And if you think that the long-awaited ending will be startling enough to warrant sitting through all of this tedium, forget it – because it's not. I'm aware that this movie has attracted many plaudits from critics and has even won a few awards, but for me, enthusiasm in Lapsis soon lapsed into ennui – end of. A strange movie in a stranger land. Click here to view an official Lapsis trailer on YouTube and you may agree with me – or not.

 

Publicity poster for The Deadly Mantis (© Nathan H. Duran/Universal International – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE DEADLY MANTIS

On 8 October 2022, courtesy of the UK's Legend retro-TV channel, which specialises in rescreening vintage sci fi/horror movies and TV shows, I was finally able to watch (and record) a classic 1950s monster movie that I'd always wanted to watch but until now had never managed to do so – The Deadly Mantis. Directed by Nathan H. Duran, and released in 1957 by Universal-International, this captivatingly-offbeat b/w creature feature is all about a ginormous 200-ft-long prehistoric praying mantis that due to a massive volcanic eruption is released still alive from its longstanding sepulchre of solid Arctic ice dating back to ancient times, thereby enabling it to wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting modern world. Starring Craig Stevens as Canadian military officer Colonel Joe Parkman and William Hopper as palaeontologist Dr Ned Jackson who combine forces in their attempts to annihilate its titular terror, the movie culminates in this inimical insect's flight to Washington DC and then a climactic confrontation within NYC's Lincoln/Manhattan Tunnel between the monstrous mega-mantis and a special-unit US military detachment dispatched to destroy it. Close-ups of the mantis are impressive, scenes of it in flight rather less so, especially for anyone who has actually seen real mantises in flight. All in all, The Deadly Mantis is an absolutely typical B-type monster movie from that period that faithfully follows the tried and trusted basic storyline recycled endlessly in such movies, but still enjoyable despite – or perhaps because of – this, as the viewer knows right from the off exactly what to expect and can therefore wallow in the snug familiarity of it all. The Deadly Mantis is a nice addition to my monster movie collection – I might even seek out its official DVD release in case it contains extras. And if you'd like to view on YouTube an official trailer for this entomological epic, simply click here.

 

Publicity poster for The Adventures of Pluto Nash (© Ron Underwood/Castle Rock Entertainment/illage Roadshow Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE ADVENTURES OF PLUTO NASH

One of my movie watches on 20 October 2022 was the 2005 Eddie Murphy comedy sci fi flick The Adventures of Pluto Nash, directed by Ron Underwood and released by Warner Bros. I say comedy merely because that's how its publicity described it; in reality, I personally found it thoroughly tedious throughout. Indeed, when John Cleese (as a high-tech limousine's holographic chauffeur) is the funniest thing in it, which he was, you know you're in trouble! Its storyline centres upon a future in which the Moon has been colonised, and Murphy's character Pluto Nash is a reformed smuggler and ex-convict who now legitimately runs a successful lunar club – until it is blown to smithereens when he refuses to sell it to a mysterious Mr Big character named Rex Crater, forcing Pluto and Dina (Rosario Dawson), the daughter of a friend of Pluto who has been waitressing at his club, to go on the run. All sorts of mayhem results, none of it remotely humorous, sadly, but I admit there is a good twist when they finally uncover the elusive Crater's real identity. This movie was a massive box office bomb – let's just say I'm not surprised. Click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube.

 

The official UK DVD of Terkel In Trouble (© Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen/Thorbjørn Christoffersen/Stefan Fjeldmark/A. Film Production AS/Nordisk Film – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

TERKEL IN TROUBLE

My movie watch on 27 June 2022 was the UK English dub (there is also a US English dub) of Terkel In Trouble, the first Danish computer-animated movie. Directed by Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, Thorbjørn Christoffersen, and Stefan Fjeldmark, released in 2004 by Nordisk Film, and sporting a 15 rating, Terkel In Trouble is definitely NOT a child-friendly cartoon film. Indeed, with profuse profanity, gratuitous gore, and violence aplenty, it is far more Fritz the Cat than Frozen, that's for sure! It's all about a boy named Terkel, who finds himself in all sorts of bother at school, to the extent that eventually his increasing paranoia leads him to believe that everyone there is trying to kill him, even his best friend Jason – but perhaps they are! Various red herrings are thrown at the viewer along the way before the real culprit behind the decidedly dastardly persecution of poor Terkel is revealed – and their identity was not who I was expecting at all. Terkel In Trouble takes a while to get going, but its second half certainly makes up for this anarchic movie's slow start. The UK English dub boasts an impressive voice cast, including Adrian Edmondson (as Terkel), Olivia Colman (Terkel's chain-smoking disinterested mother Sheila), Bill Bailey (the on-screen narrator Barry), and Johnny Vegas (Terkel's ultra-violent Uncle Stewart, who works as an entirely unsuitable, wholly unsympathetic child counselor). Terkel In Trouble is an interesting and entertaining albeit decidedly offbeat animated oddity reminiscent of Beavis & Butt-Head – remember them? Click here to view an official trailer for the English-dubbed UK version of this movie on YouTube.

 

The official UK DVD of The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (© Terence Fisher/Hammer Film Productions/Columbia Pictures/American International Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL

On 27 October 2022, I watched the not-overly-famous Hammer horror movie The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll. Directed by Terence Fisher, and released in 1960 by Columbia Pictures in the UK, by American International Pictures in the USA, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll loosely follows the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novella's storyline, but with two major changes. In this movie, Dr Jekyll (Paul Massie, with beard and moustache to make him look older) has an adulterous wife Kitty (Dawn Addams), against whom – and also her younger, handsome, but gambling-addict lover Paul (played unexpectedly by Christopher Lee) – he secretly longs to exact revenge. And whereas in most Jekyll & Hyde movies, Mr Hyde (Massie again but this time fully-shaved to make him look younger) is ugly and frightening, here he is handsome and charming, far more so than Jekyll on both counts. However, it is the deceptive beauty and charm of unprincipled, unscrupulous evil, as everyone who encounters Hyde, not least of all his internal alter ego Jekyll, soon finds out, to their considerable cost (but most especially those against whom Jekyll seeks revenge!). These twists give this gorgeously-shot movie a novelty that captivates, no matter how many other J/H films you may have seen – and I've seem a fair few down through the years, ever since I read the original novella as a young teenager. Click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube.

 

Publicity poster for The Brothers Grimm (© Terry Gilliam/Mosaic Media Group/Daniel Bobker Productions/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Atlas Entertainment/Miramax Films/Buena Vista International – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE BROTHERS GRIMM

My movie watch on 28 October 2022 was the 2005 Terry Gilliam-directed fantasy film The Brothers Grimm, released by Miramax/Buena Vista. Grimm by name, grimmer by nature, as it turned out. For although it is ostensibly played for laughs by Matt Damon and Heather Ledger as said Brothers (Wilhem & Jakob respectively), who here are re-imagined as phony ghostbusters prior to their real-life folktale collecting years, the storyline and especially some of the visuals are decidedly grisly. So if, for instance, numerous close-ups of living, swarming layers of insects crawling over and into graves, horses' muzzles, and anything else that their multi-limbed bodies can find to scuttle across, or a horrific tarbaby-like oil entity that emerges from a well and promptly sucks off a child's face, or a decomposed but deathless centuries-old queen (Monica Bellucci) reposing Rapunzel-like in an isolated tower as she impatiently awaits her werewolf slave to bring her the blood of twelve abducted young girls is not your thing, this may not be the movie for you. The decidedly wobbly werewolf aside, the special effects are generally good and the plot is pure fantasy in every sense. It took me ages to put name to face for the actress playing outcast witch/wise woman Angelika, but finally the penny dropped, and I realised that she is Lena Headey, hitherto best known to me as the evil incestuous Queen Cersei Lannister in the smash-hit Game of Thrones TV show based upon the novels of George R.R. Martin. The Brothers Grimm is not a bad (even if somewhat mad) movie by any means, but is a little too twisted in places even for my usual taste in offbeat fantasy. Click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube, and make up your own mind.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY & PURPLE NOON (aka PLEIN SOLEIL)

 

My official UK DVD of The Talented Mr Ripley (© Anthony Minghella/Mirage Enterprises/Timnick Films/Paramount Pictures/Miramax International – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My DVD movie watch on 8 April 2022 was somewhat of a genre departure for me, as it did not feature any monsters of the cryptozoological or prehistoric kind - however, its titular character was a very real monster of the human kind. The movie was The Talented Mr Ripley.

Directed by Anthony Minghella, and released in 1999 by Paramount Pictures in North America, Miramax International everywhere else, The Talented Mr Ripley is based upon the eponymous 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith (the first of five novels by her that star this chameleonic anti-hero). Like much of her work, it is seductively sinister, which was translated to great effect in this most famous movie version (an earlier one was the French movie Purple Noon, released in 1960 and starring Alain Delon in the lead role).

Set in the 1950s, The Talented Mr Ripley stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, an impoverished New York lavatory attendant but skilled pianist. While performing at an outdoor piano recital one day, he is mistaken by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) for a Princeton graduate (due to his wearing a borrowed Princeton jacket) and thus offers him a considerable sum of money (plus all expenses) to go to Italy and bring back the magnate's exceedingly wealthy but wayward, ex-Princeton playboy son Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law).

Not surprisingly, Tom readily accepts this dream offer of a lifetime with great delight, so off he goes to Italy forthwith. Moreover, due to his profound talents as an inveterate liar and sycophantic, manipulative charmer, Tom swiftly inveigles his way into the lives (and home) of Dickie and his equally high-class fiancee Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), greatly enjoying the entrance into high society life that his friendship with them brings to him. Tom even takes pains to secretly develop a working knowledge of jazz, knowing that Dickie is a passionate jazz lover, thus enabling Tom to bond even closer with him, as Dickie is keen to take Tom with him to jazz performances.

Eventually, however, fickle Dickie tires of obsequious Tom, and tells him so when just the two of them are out at sea off San Remo on a small boat together. But Tom, hating the prospect of his gilded life coming to an end, murders Dickie, dumps his weighted-down body overboard, and scuttles the boat – but that is not all. From then on, Tom masterfully assumes Dickie's identity whenever the opportunity to do so arises, as well as skillfully forging his signature on a stream of cheques, not only to ensure that no-one realizes that Dickie is dead but also to maintain the high life and adoration by others that by now Tom's hedonistic, narcissistic nature has become very accustomed to.

Unfortunately for Tom's dastardly, Machiavellian machinations, however, whereas some of the friends that he has made in Italy know him as Tom, others know him as Dickie (due to his impersonating the latter after murdering him), so he spends much of the remainder of the movie ensuring that these two groups of friends never meet up when he is present. And how does the sociopathic Tom do this? Those who seem likely to discover and thence publicly expose his identity deceptions are soon disposed of...permanently, while he also strives to stay one step ahead of an increasingly suspicious, investigative Italian police force!

This dark and creepy yet thoroughly fascinating psychological thriller is very engrossing, and I absolutely loved it – due in no small way, of course, to all three leads playing their respective parts with great verve and conviction (Jude Law went on to win a BAFTA award for his performance, and was nominated for an Oscar). In particular, Damon and Law work together very effectively in conveying the diametrically-opposite yet (initially) mutually-attractive natures of their characters, both outwardly and behaviourally.

For whereas Damon's hitherto-friendless Tom Ripley is so physically inconspicuous and bereft of any individual personality that he spends his entire time metaphorically concealed behind a mirror whose surface reflects whatever its onlookers wish to see of themselves, Law's uber-popular Dickie Greenleaf is the handsome, perpetual focus of public attention who almost literally radiates golden beams of light illuminating the lives of all who encounter him.

Moreover, during the early stages of their friendship, it is abundantly clear that, far from pretending to do so, Tom does genuinely like Dickie very much – a little too much, however, as it turns out. For Tom's feelings for Dickie become ever more obsessive, possessive, and ultimately lethal, especially once Dickie, who initially treats Tom like a favourite little brother, ceases to reciprocate them, and finally rejects them altogether, thereby sealing his own fate.

Interestingly, various other actors were considered for the role of Tom Ripley, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, and Edward Norton, whereas Law initially turned down the role of Dickie Greenleaf. Happily, however, Damon was eventually chosen (after director Minghella saw his superb performance in the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting), and Law changed his mind, accepting it – thus establishing the dynamic, magnetic on-screen friends-into-foes relationship that totally captivates the audience.

There are some excellent supporting performances to savour here too. These are provided by the likes of Cate Blanchett as society girl Meredith Logue (not present in the original novel, who is spurned as a lover by Tom in Dickie guise); and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dickie's comparably-rich longstanding friend Freddie Miles (who not only despises Tom on account of his socially-awkward, gauche attitude when in affluent company, but also begins to suspect that Tom is not at all as he seems to be…).

Last but certainly not least, The Talented Mr Ripley is augmented by gorgeous on-location Italian scenery, as well as exquisite original music composed by Gabriel Yared (which is supplemented by several classical excerpts by Bach, Vivaldi, and Tchaikovsky, plus a haunting ballad sung by Sinead O'Connor and fittingly entitled 'Lullaby For Cain' – click here to listen to it – Cain murdering his brother in the Bible).

In the movie, Tom offers the following telling insight into his twisted thought processes and raison d'être for his unbalanced, amoral behaviour: "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody". So if you'd like to view some excerpts revealing his disturbing and deadly duplicity in action, be sure to click here and here to watch a couple of official trailers for The Talented Mr Ripley on Y0uTube.

 

Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, and Matt Damon as Tom 'The Talented Mr' Ripley (© Anthony Minghella/Mirage Enterprises/Timnick Films/Paramount Pictures/Miramax International – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

After watching a few nights ago the excellent 1999 American movie The Talented Mr Ripley, starring Matt Damon (in the title role as the murderous master impersonator) and Jude Law (as his unsuspecting rich boy victim Dickie Greenleaf), and based upon the 1950s novel of the same title by Patricia Highsmith, on 12 April 2020 I watched the English dub of the much earlier French movie version, whose original title was Plein Soleil but was retitled as Purple Noon for its English-dub release.

Directed by René Clément (who also co-wrote its screenplay), and released by CCFC and Titanus in 1960, Purple Noon stars a young Alain Delon in his first major film role as the titular Tom, with Marie Laforêt as a very sultry Marge, and Maurice Ronet taking on the role of Dickie Greenleaf (but renamed Philippe Greenleaf here, for reasons that I have yet to uncover).

The photography in Purple Noon is sumptuous, almost like some ravishing oil painting come to life, and the entire movie while enjoyable is unequivocally arty in style, all very mean and moody in places, with plenty of emotional pauses and close-ups of deep meaningful eye contact. Nevertheless, I personally found it much inferior to the American version for one very prominent, crucial reason, which is this:

Following closely Highsmith's original presentation of him, in the 1999 movie Damon portrays Tom Ripley as a totally ordinary, bespectacled nondescript, the kind of nerdy guy that no-one would look twice at, let alone remember, which is exactly how an impersonator needs to be if he is to fool people into believing he is someone else. In stark contrast, Delon in Purple Noon has matinee idol good looks, not to mention an amazingly close facial resemblance to James Dean. In short, both a total heart-throb and a film idol facsimile that, once seen, would never be forgotten, thereby wrecking any chance of passing himself off as someone else, and, in turn, wholly destroying the plausibility of the plot.

Also, because cinematic morality back in those days carried much more weight than it does in these days, a surprise twist added right at the very end of this movie by its makers ensures that its smug, calculating serial killer has not been as clever as he'd supposed. This movie-manufactured twist apparently annoyed Highsmith, as she saw no reason why even a villain as heinous as her Tom could not escape the clutches of the law on screen.

Speaking of which, there is no doubt that Delon's Ripley is a much more sinister, less likeable character than Damon's (who did at least show a genuine fondness for Dickie until Dickie eventually rejected his friendship). So too, interestingly, is Ronet's Philippe/Dickie in comparison to Law's. And Leforêt's Marge is decidedly more Mediterranean than Paltrow's prissy counterpart!

But for me, as a longstanding James Dean fan, Delon's incredible resemblance to that latter movie icon is an impersonation too many – Ripley mimicking Greenleaf is one thing, but when the mimic is also such an uncanny Dean doppelgänger, I was fully expecting at any moment for Ripley to break down and scream out: "You're tearing me apart!" – Rebel Without a Cause fans will understand!

All in all, Purple Noon is an interesting, visually gorgeous interpretation of Highsmith's classic novel, but I much prefer the later Damon/Law version, as a much closer, far more faithful screen adaptation. However, you can make your own mind up by clicking here to watch an official English-subtitled trailer for Purple Noon on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

An official Blu-Ray release of Purple Noon, giving both its French and Italian titles, and depicting Alain Delon as Tom Ripley (© René Clément/Robert & Raymond Hakim/Paris Film/Paritalia/Titanus/CCFC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

TITAN A.E.

 

Publicity poster for Titan A.E. (© Don Bluth & Gary Goldman/Fox Animation Studio/David Kirschner Productions/20^th Century Fox – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch on 31 January 2022 was the spectacular animated science fiction feature film Titan A.E.

Directed by veteran animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and released by 20^th Century Fox in 2000, Titan A. E. is a space opera on a galactically grand scale.  A.E. stands for After Earth, because a dastardly race of pure-energy entities called the Drej have only gone and blown up our poor old planet!

Happily, some humans managed to escape in time, including leading scientist Prof. Sam Tucker (voiced by Ron Perlman) aboard a huge space vessel created by him named Titan that has the capacity to create a brand-new planet and populate it with all of the life-forms previously native to Earth, thanks to a genetic database onboard that stores every Terran species' DNA like a futuristic Noah's Ark. Sadly, however, Titan goes missing, and both the Drej and assorted humans-in-exile are seeking it, the Drej to destroy it, the humans to save it and enable it to achieve its original epic goals.

Chief among the latter is Cale (Matt Damon; Jean-Claude Van Damme, Christopher Reeve, and Matthew Broderick had all previously been considered for this voice role). Cale is Prof. Tucker's now-adult son, who has on his finger a golden ring given to him by his father, which turns out to contain a map that will track down Titan. However, only Cale can operate the map-encoded ring because it is linked genetically to him.

Assisted by Captain Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman) who was one of his father's friends, plus a young female spacecraft pilot (and Cale's eventual love interest) named Akima (Drew Barrymore), as well as a (very) odd assortment of aliens (voiced by the likes of Nathan Lane and John Leguizamo), Cale sets off in pursuit of Titan, but the Drej warcraft are in pursuit of him. Who will get there first, and how will Cale deal with the despicable double-crosses slickly engineered by two of his companions?

The background animation is spectacular throughout, and although I half-expected the characters to be yet another incarnation of the standard limited-animation variety constituting the staple ingredient of comparable space-themed Saturday morning cartoon shows from Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and the like, I was pleasantly surprised that in this animated space movie they actually did a lot more than stand motionless while talking with only an eye-blink every so often, as was so typically the case with the latter genre in the past.

Then again, with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman at the helm, I should have expected that the animation would be of a far superior quality. Having said that, Titan A.E. had originally been conceived as a live-action movie before the project was passed to Fox Animation Studios. Sadly, however, it proved to be their final production before they closed down (their first movie, released in 1997, had been Anastasia, followed by its sequel, Bartok the Magnificent).

Also worth noting here is this movie's strong rock soundtrack, featuring a score composed by Graeme Revell as well as music by the diverse likes of Jamiroquai, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Texas, and The Wailing Souls. Oddly, cinema trailers for Titan A.E. often included Creed's song 'Higher', even though it does not appear in the movie itself. Nor does a song entitled 'Heart of Honey' that was written specially for it by Chris Cornell, Alain Johannes, and Natasha Shneider.

Titan A.E. is well worth watching if you're an animation fan, and especially if you're into space battles – lots of space battles! And if you'd like to experience a sample of its interstellar essence, be sure to click here watch an official Titan A.E. trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.