Twenty Eighteen in Film

This is simply a list of the movies, flicks, films and what-have-yous released (or widely released, or finally released) during the calendar year. I don't have any hard and fast metric for how I order this list, it's some ephemeral combination of components. Overall quality (of course), rewatchability, originality, voice and novelty all factor in, combined with my personal interests and fetishes. Point is: this is my list. Don't like it? Make your own list. (And send me the link and I'll check it out)

Last year I watched 47 movies. I thought that was a lot (and it is) but I still wanted to break that record. This year I saw 68. Sixty-eight! Next year I hope to watch 69. (Nice.)

Anyway, see below for my list:

"Mary Poppins Returns (2018)"

Long-gap sequels, or "legacy sequels", are a tough nut to crack. Picking up an intellectual property from ten, twenty, thirty years or more ago, dusting it off and making something hopefully new and exciting out of it isn't as easy an undertaking as you might think. You have to draw enough from the original source material(s) to please older fans while remaining accessible to new audience members. I am immensely happy to say that Mary Poppins Returns is one of the best I've seen.

"Robin Hood (2018)"

Robin Hood is fun, in a big, silly, action movie way. Much more fun than I was expecting, honestly, but it wears its influences on its sleeve so earnestly that it got a little exasperating. As it is the Thanksgiving season (and I've been watching probably entirely too much Great British Baking Show), I'll use a cooking metaphor: Otto Bathurst's Robin Hood isn't a new recipe, but it adds new spices: war movies, Christopher Nolan Batman films & political protest imagery. I guess then, my biggest problem is that certain bites felt over-seasoned.

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Well this is it, gang. The final EOINA of the year. Jesum Crow, 2018 really feels like it's been a lot longer than standard year-length, doesn't it? I know it's been especially rough for some of us, but writing these columns for y'all is, honestly, a highlight for me. A somewhat stressful highlight, I won't lie, but a highlight just the same. So thank you, as ever, for reading.

"Halloween (2018)"

Is it weird to tell you I got emotional during Halloween 2018? Well I did. My eyes welled up during the finale, watching the culmination of a 40-year battle with evil reach its close. Seeing how the story of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers finally ends... for now. Because, let's be real: this won't be the last Halloween movie. By hook or by crook, there will be more but that knowledge shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of any of them.

As with all movies, the movie itself should be taken on its own merit as much as possible, and on its own merit, Halloween 2018 is a story about the cost of surviving.

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You ever get the feeling you've been working too hard? Overthinking something that should be simple? I've been feeling that way about this column. Not that it, or you reading this, aren't worth the effort, mind you. It's just that I was reminded of a quote by Schumacher (that's E.F., not Joel) who said "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." So that's what I'm doing going forward with Everything Old Is New Again.

EOINA was never, itself overly complex; I watch trailers for the movies coming up that are based on some pre-existing concept and I weigh in on them. When I can, I contrast and compare them with their source materials, which isn't always possible. But instead of doing a bunch of digging to try and decode what's happening in the trailers, now I'll be taking them more at face value. These trailers are what they give us to go on, and while some flicks get multiple trailers to build anticipation, most only get one.

To remind you all: these are all based on some previously existing story; maybe they're a remake of an older or foreign language film, maybe they're adapted from a book or game or song, or maybe they're a soft reboot or relaunch of a franchise that might still be viable? Either way they're here, wringing every last drop of profitability from a concept, and I'm here to talk about them, so here we go:

"The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)"

THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME, as you may be able to tell, is a spy action/comedy that is living its best life when leaning on what sets it apart from the spy action movies it is ostensibly lampooning. As a spy movie SWDM is only so-so, featuring the obligatory globe-hopping location changes, "trust no one" attitude and face/heel turns the genre has worn into the ground. On the other hand, as a buddy comedy with two female leads, it soars.

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Hoo boy, it's been hot here in Philly. Welcome to Summer, I guess? More like 'Welcome to Pre-Autumn' as I like to think of it. As a kid, summer always meant a break from school, so that was nice, but I was never a big fan of the heat. I love to swim, despite how often I've seen Jaws (or Deep Rising, hahaha...) but that's about it for me, summer-wise.

Even as a kid I preferred the air-conditioned darkness of a movie theater.

So if you're like me, Everything Old is New Again is here to help! Here at EOiNA, I look into the Remakes, Adaptations and Legacy (or Long-Gap) Sequels making it to theaters in the coming months. But, before we get down to business...

If you're a regular reader of EOiNA, firstly I thank you, but also you may have noticed that I occasionally push the boundaries of what exactly falls under my purview. Well I'm about to do that again when I mention how excited I am that Joe Bob Briggs is coming back to ...well not exactly TV, but close-enough for me!

Though Joe Bob had hosted assorted other, similarly-formatted shows, I first discovered him as the host of TNT's MonsterVision, which he hosted from 1996 - 2000. During his tenure, MV was a late-night showcase of cheesy, drive-in style movies that Joe Bob would tell various anecdotes and give trivia about as the bumpers between commercial breaks. Returning to form (minus the commercials), on Friday, July 13th (how perfect) Joe Bob will be hosting a slightly-more-than-24-hour marathon on horror steaming service SHUDDER called The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. Some of the titles have been announced, but y'all can look that up for yourselves.

Anyway, here are some movies you may wanna check out if you're gonna be spending some time in a theater this summer. As always, thanks for reading, please share this with your friends and stay cool. I'll see you in September.

Listicle: Best Movies for the First Half of 2018

MovieJawn, the excellent film site that I write for (as you may have noticed) posts a mid-year list of our Top Five favorite movies of the year thus far. Everybody puts their Top Five in and then the results are tallied.

These were my votes, along with a brief explanation why:

"Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)"

Before this evening, before seeing it, I though everything about Sicario: Day of the Soldado was ...a bit of a mess. The sequel to a movie that doesn't need one, Sicario 2 (as it was originally marketed) traded in the numeric for a subtitle, the linguistic hodgepodge "Day of the Soldado" (soldier). Why not just pick a lane and call it either Day of the Soldier or Dia Del Soldado? It probably has to do with Sony wanting to build a franchise on the good Sicario name and worrying that an all-Spanish title would alienate audiences. That might seem pessimistic but it's obviously the direction Sony & co. want to head in. Intellectually, that bothers me. It's an obvious, and somewhat clumsy cash-grab. But if Sicario: Day of the Soldado is what cash-grabs look like in 2018, I'm ...kind of fine with it.

"American Animals (2018)"

To say that American Animals has a complicated relationship with reality would be a fair assessment. From the jump we are to that it both is and is not based on an entirely true story, something I kept in mind as the narrative unfolded before me.

"Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)"

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This piece was written for the excellent MOVIEJAWN.

I'm saving it here for posterity.

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The world needs more people like Fred Rogers in it.

I already held that sentiment before seeing Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville's biographical documentary of Rogers. What I didn't realize until after seeing it was how great that need truly is.

"SOLO: A Star Wars Story (2018)"

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This piece was originally written for the excellent MovieJawn.
Below is my original final draft before and revision / editing.
Plus pictures for added pizzazz.
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Solo: A Star Wars Story is the least satisfying of the new era of Star Wars films.

I wasn't sure what foot I wanted to start my review on, as there is good as well as bad to talk about here, but then I asked myself: "What would Han Solo do?" The answer, famously the subject of much nerd argument, is that Han would shoot first. Shooting first is one of the many things that define who the character of Han Solo is.

What I mean is, were you to make a list of "HAN SOLO AF" qualities and visual trademarks, the phrase "Han shoots first" would most definitely be on there. And that's what this movie is, at its core: a "Han Solo AF" checklist that we watch get crossed off, one box at a time. You knew that's what it would be, deep down. Search your heart. You know it to be true. We all did, right? Maybe not when it initially, but most definitely after the trailer premiered. There's no story here that needed telling to make anything about the Star Wars universe better or fuller or more impactful, it's just: Hey, you wanna see where Han got that blaster? Wanna see him meet Chewbacca? Etc. etc. And the thing with a list like that is, deciding which things are "more important" and should take precedent over others is highly subjective.

"Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2018)"

Taken as a whole, Boom For Real is an attempt to contextualize Jean-Michel Basquiat by shining a light on his early teenage years, when he was learning to be the artist he would become. Filmmaker Sara Driver brings together the familiar documentary materials to create a portrait of Basquiat that may seem simple, but is as nuanced and meaningful as his works themselves are.

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Everything Old is New Again
Vol. 3 - May & June 2018
By: Hunter Bush
For: MovieJawn

Howdy, cinemaniacs! Welcome to Everything Old is New Again (EOiNA to her friends), your bi-monthly update on Hollywood's long-standing love of Adaptations, Remakes and Legacy Sequels. In fact, now that I think about it, the last two movies I watched as of this writing were both adaptations: Wayne's World was inspired by the popular SNL sketch and Full Metal Jacket was based on the book The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford. See what I mean?

"Avengers: Infinity War (2018)"

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The following is my original, unedited article written for MovieJawn,
(though honestly they didn't edit much of anything, really).
Plus some more pictures for added pizzazz.
Enjoy!
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I've seen Avengers: Infinity War! I've seen it, gang and I was sworn to secrecy about it! For real. I wasn't even supposed to tell anyone that I was going or where or when! I dunno about you, but I'd never had a major entertainment monopoly give me the "this stays between us" agreement. What would happen if I told people? Maybe Hulk would come and crush my favorite DVDs into dust or Scarlet Witch would hex me so french fries would taste like drywall forever? The theoretical horrors are endless... but probably Captain America would just show up (with that beard) and just tell me how disappointed he was in me. And that would hurt worst of all.

"Truth Or Dare (2018)"

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The following is my review of Truth Or Dare, written for MOVIEJAWN.
This is my unedited version, so any spelling or grammatical errors are my own.
Plus, I image-searched up some pictures for added pizzazz.
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Without spoiling the ending, Blumhouse's Truth Or Dare blows the opportunity to have a series of movies where a Demon corrupts kids' games to make them deadly. Just imagine 2020's Duck, Duck, Goose, where a possessed teen is transformed into a horrendous cygnine creature, honking through a bloody bill full of sharp teeth or 2023's Red Rover, whose poster shows a line of battleworn 20-somethings with interlocked arms holding kitchen knives and meat cleavers.

Alas, it is not to be...

"The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)"

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This review was written in October 2017 for MOVIEJAWN and was also included in the November 2017 issue, which may be available for purchase HERE.

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Yorgos Lanthimos' THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, will end up drawing a lot of comparisons (some of them from me) to his last film, The Lobster because of Lanthimos' fondness for unusual stories and stilted dialogue and his decision to team with Lobster star Colin Farrell again. But while these similarities are there, Deer is the more grounded and at the same time more intangible of the two.

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Everything Old is New Again

Vol. 2 - March & April 2018

By: Hunter Bush

For: MovieJawn

Hello there! Welcome to Everything Old is New Again, Vol. 2: March and April, 2018. If you're new to the column, EOiNA is where I spotlight some upcoming films that are inspired in some way by a previously existing concept, work or franchise; remakes, adaptations or long-gap sequels.

How was your January and February? Did you see that Eagles Super Bowl win? I did (Go Birds!). Did you catch any of the Winter Olympics or snag any deep discount day-after-Valentine's Day candy? More pressingly: Did you see any good movies? And hey, were any of them ones I covered in EOiNA Vol.1: Jan. and Feb. 2018? If you did, I'd love to hear what you thought. Leave a comment below why dontcha?

I saw Them Horse Boyz (I mean 12 Strong) btw, and was pleasantly surprised. Not enough Michael Shannon though.



Alright, who's ready to look ahead a bit? There’s a lot, so let’s jump right in.

Article: Phantasmagoria: The Dreamlike Imagery of Tarsem Singh

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This article originally appeared in the October 2017 issue of MOVIEJAWN,
which may be available to purchase HERE.

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PHANTASMAGORIA: The Dreamlike Imagery of Tarsem Singh

There is something about the visual language of director Tarsem Singh that resonates with me and has since I first witnessed it. Or, I should say, "first knowingly witnessed it". As it turns out, I was more aware of Tarsem's existence than I knew. You probably are, too; you may just not know it yet.

"Game Night (2018)"

Game Night has an absolutely amazing cast but the true star of the movie is the writing. The script, by Mark Perez, takes a pretty straightforward plot, a group of friends involved in a murder mystery party that  *may*  not be simulated after all, and continually takes it in unexpected directions. For instance who'd have thought you could get heart  *and*  laughs (and some dry heaves) from a scene where a husband and wife clean up a bullet wound?

"The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)" and the greater Clover-verse (Go Birds!)

Firstly, I just wanna say one thing: Go Birds!

Now to the matter at hand: The film now known as Cloverfield Paradox. In case you aren't aware, I'm gonna give you a quick rundown of its history and how (if) it fits into the larger Clover-verse.


Fair Warning: There will be spoilers

"mother! (2017)"

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This review was written in September of 2017 for MOVIEJAWN.

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Darren Aronofsky's latest movie, Mother! is a messy film that manages to succeed on one level while ultimately failing on another. Which level you perceive as being more important will greatly affect how you feel about it.

Mother! (and I will be using the exclamation point with the title, yes) is a difficult film to categorize in much the same way as his earlier Black Swan (2010) was upon its release. Hindsight and repeated viewings now allow Swan to be categorized as a psychological drama (with body horror elements) but I'm curious if Mother! will come to be classified as anything besides its current generic (and misleading) horror label. Going by the trailers for the movie, you could be forgiven for thinking it's a home invasion thriller. I mean it is, but that's just the start.

Javier Bardem is a poet and Jennifer Lawrence is his muse (all characters are credited archetypally; theirs are Him and mother respectively) and they live together in an isolated and peaceful home which Lawrence has rebuilt from the literal ashes of Bardem's previous home, entirely by herself so that he can continue to write; to create. We don't get long to appreciate this quiet idyll and their easy affection for one another before a knock comes at the door. Ed Harris (credited as man) says he is new in town and was misdirected there by someone thinking the home was a bed and breakfast. The couple invite him to stay the night, during which time he and Bardem drink and he smokes (vices that Lawrence does not partake in, herself) and the next morning they are joined by Michelle Pfeiffer (woman), Harris' wife.

Harris and Pfeiffer both turn out to be fans of Bardem's work, and have taken a sort of pilgrimage to meet him under the somewhat false pretenses Harris gave the night before. They delight in prying into Bardem & Lawrence's home life, even eventually going into His second floor study and accidentally breaking a delicate gem, explained by Bardem as the only thing to survive the destruction of his previous home. They apologize profusely, like scolded children, but when Lawrence leaves Bardem painfully clutching the broken shards in his hands, she finds the pair in a carnal embrace (sex being another vice that Lawrence seems not to be partaking in).

Shortly thereafter they are all joined by man and woman's two sons (played by the real life Gleeson brothers Brian and Domhnall, but they're barely onscreen long enough for me to tell them apart) who feud over family business and before Jennifer Lawrence can catch her breath, everyone is taking one brother to the hospital while the other brother, having fled the house, is still out there somewhere. Lawrence alone is left to clean up the blood but one spot won't come up, staining the floor and almost instantly softening the wood into a wound that bleeds down into the basement, revealing a bricked over door that leads to the furnace's oil supply tank. This is where any resemblance to the usual home invasion / horror / thriller goes right out the window and you realize this movie was never going to be that.

The group return from the hospital, revealing that the badly injured son has died and of course Bardem offered to host the wake which is starting right now. Strangers come pouring into the house with nightmarish single-mindedness, ignoring Lawrences questions and requests. Pfeiffer, who had earlier chided Lawrence for not "keeping things interesting" in the bedroom, now admonishes her for the indecency of the casual clothes she is wearing. Around when a walking example of street harassment accosts Lawrence in her own home, I gave up looking for a "key metaphor" for Mother! because there just isn't one. There are many.

This film, which Aronofsky wrote in just five days, may have begun as a story about relationships (especially ones with a creative person like him; someone who gives of their time and attention to strangers at the expense of all else) but it becomes a lot more. Lawrence isn't just a symbolic muse, or a surrogate for a lost lover, in Mother! she is all women: womanhood as concept. Their house isn't just a ruined relationship rebuilt by a new partner, it becomes a metaphor for existence itself, awash in biblical imagery of man and womankind coming to a paradise, bringing their vices and offspring, inadvertently spoiling everything. The brothers fighting is Cain & Abel, the blood spot that won't come clean is Original Sin. The wake even ends in flood imagery from a broken water pipe.

It's only after all the people are gone that Lawrence can evolve, egging Bardem on to take her to bed, which leads to a nine month return to their private Eden, during which time he feels inspired to create new work and she converts the scene of The First Murder into a nursery for their forthcoming child. But his new work of course brings new people. More people; worse people. People more disrespectful and entitled than the overwhelming mass at the wake. People more fanatical.

From here the film spirals into a complete nightmare as Lawrence is shuffled from room to room each serving as microcosms for mankind's worst acts. She is, among the myriad other archetypes, Mother Earth and if you've been paying attention to the way we humans have been treating the planet and each other and women in general, you'll have an idea of the direction the third act takes. Keep the biblical parables in mind as well. I'm not giving away any great secrets here by the way. Aronofsky wants you to know what he's talking about on an emotional level even if intellectually it's all a bit muddied, but that muddiness is where my main problem lies.

Javier Bardem is the most obvious author surrogate this side of a Stephen King novel and even though the finale of the film is an attempt at explaining this mistreatment (of those who love us / all women / the world / everything), he doesn't express any real remorse. "Nothing is ever enough" he says, "I couldn't create if it was." Which is a baffling sentiment from the man who makes sure we feel every brutal second of his symbolic muse's suffering. He is simultaneously pointing out how terrible mankind is and excusing it as essentially just the cost of doing business. The finale's failure to tie up the thematic threads satisfyingly is the biggest flaw, but overall I enjoyed Mother! because while it fails intellectually, it succeeds emotionally. I left the theater acutely conscious of people who indulge me so that I can pursue my dreams and I intend to show them that I appreciate them.

Ultimately the start of the film is almost fun as a home invasion black comedy but once the symbolism hits the fan it spirals into a fever dream of heavy handed, ugly metaphors. Aronofsky created this world in just five days while apocryphally it took God six to make ours. Maybe an extra day wouldn't have been the worst idea.

"12 Strong (2018)"

The following is my review of 12 Strong, written for Moviejawn.
This is the unedited version, so any spelling or grammatical errors or vagueness is my own.
Plus, I Googled up some pics for added pizzazz.

I was instructed by Moviejawn HQ to focus solely on Michael Shannon for the duration of my viewing of the film 12 Strong; his performance, how his character's actions help move the story along, etc., etc. But bad news: there isn't nearly enough Michael Shannon in this flick.

Don't get me wrong now, I know this is based on a true story (and the book Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton) but it's still a movie, not a documentary and I intend to talk about it from that perspective. As such, I will reiterate: I am sorely lacking in Michael Shannon in this movie. That isn't to say that the other performances aren't enjoyable. Chris Hemsworth does the stoic action movie thing as Captain Mitch Nelson just fine. Michael Peña is inexorably likable as the sarcastic Sgt First Class Sam Diller, joking about buying timeshares in the middle of a crossfire; Trevante Rhodes makes his performance as Sgt First Class Ben Milo shine through a familiar tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold shtick; and Navid Negahban takes you from distrusting his General Dostum to admiring his willingness to make peace amidst a war. All these performances are very engaging.

But none. Of them. Is Michael Shannon.

Shannon (as Chief warrant Officer Hal Spencer) enters in the second scene of the movie. We've opened with pre-9/11 terrorism news footage (for context) and seen Thor's family (his daughter turns off the 1987 Chipmunk Adventure movie to find 9/11 happening), but Michael Shannon and the rest of his team were on a training exercise, waist-deep in a river in full camouflage, complete with face paint, when the attacks happened. Shannon speaks for all of America at that moment in time:

MS: "What happened?"

Back at the military base, Shannon and his crew are trying to process everything and sort out what to do next when Thor shows up. They had been a unit until recently, when Hemsworth had requested a desk job to be near his family but now he's itching to defend America. Only problem is Colonel Bowers (Rob Riggle) doesn't think he can cut it. Luckily, Michael Shannnon is there to go to bat for him, telling Bowers:

MS: "You pull this team, you're cutting the head off of your most venomous snake."


Shannon's wife (Allison King) finds him packing thermal underwear in the garage and, cliche though it may be, Shannon definitely sells the idea that none of these men want to leave their families, but are duty-bound to it. His face when he tells his son he loves him is heartbreaking.

After that, Shannon does what he does best, apparently: standing behind Thor, lending him gravitas through sheer proximity as Thor takes a meeting with Colonel Mulholland (William Fichtner) to pitch himself as the right man to lead the task force into Afghanistan. Perhaps thanks to Shannon, Mulholland agrees. They'll be the first team into the region after 9/11, using (at the time) cutting edge technology to call in precision airstrikes. Hemsworth equates them (through sheer volume of unknowns) to the first men in space, to which Shannon unleashes a charmingly unhinged laugh:

MS: "You know what they sent into space first? A monkey!"


Thor picks his team (spoilers: there's 12 of them) and they find out that they'll be using a sandstorm as cover to fly in to meet their escort, travelling at 1,500 feet in a chopper designed for a third that height, exposed to the elements and without the benefit of oxygen tanks, at the risk of hypoxia. Michael Shannon is the defacto Chopper Cheerleader in this scene, reassuring everyone that they kind of have no choice so why not just get it over with. They land, make their rendezvous, and are lead to an outpost nicknamed The Alamo to await a meeting with Afghan warlord General Dostum (Negahban) who will be their guide in the region, helping them locate Taliban factions.

When Dostum arrives, he mostly ignores Thor, focusing instead on Michael Shannon, who he kisses on both cheeks. Dostum tells Thor that he doesn't have killer's eyes, like Michael Shannon and the others do. Clearly Michael Shannon is the teacher's pet (warlord's pet?).

Up until this point, I though I knew what the drinking game for this movie would be: Drink every time Michael Shannon stands around a little behind Hemsworth, looking like the Serious Man he is, which Shannon has done quite a bit. But General Dostum apparently has other plans: he only brought 6 ponies meaning Thor has to split Task Force Dagger in twain! So, I mean, of course you want Michael Shannon in charge of the Bravo team (who are staying behind at the Alamo) because he's your right hand man, but it sucks for me and any other Shannon-heads because he's effectively out of the movie for half of it!

Eventually the two halves do reconnect, but Shannon's Hal Spencer suffered a slipped disc from riding the horses and spends a lot of the back end of this movie laying down! (For Pete's sake! I came here for the Michael Shannon and now you're just teasing me!) On the positive side, Shannon does have the line: "That's the great thing about air strikes, you can call 'em in laying down!" and in the final action sequence, we get some nice Michael Shannon: Sniper action, but then to add injury to insult, Spencer gets injured.

This is where the movie and I really gelled because at that point Hemsworth's sole focus becomes taking out this big honkin' multiple missile launcher the Taliban has mounted on a pickup because as long as it's active, they won't be able to get a rescue chopper in to save Michael Shannon. And, as though the movie knew it had to make it up to me, it saved the best action sequence for the Shannonless gap right here: Hemsworth, on horseback, leading a group of General Dostum's men directly through a war zone to take out this Rocket Thing. It's a sequence that could have felt very much like a video game, but managed not to. The direction is all very close, showing how all the man on horseback were essentially rubbing shoulders with each other in this assault.

I do have to give this movie props (do the kids still say props?) in one regard though: their treatment of the horses. There were a lot of instances of CG gunfire and explosions, which would usually bug me, but I believe in this instance it was done in service of the animal actors; obviously a CG explosion is preferable to scaring holy hell out of some poor unassuming horse actor who only knows he's supposed to do his "falling down trick" now. There were also two shots of kind of hilariously fake horses presumably getting shot and throwing their riders. Director Nicolai Fuglsig and / or DP Rasmus Videbæk shot around them very well, but I was specifically looking for these type of effects.

In case you couldn't tell from my inability to call the Rocket Thing by whatever its proper term is, I'm not a big military guy and when I do watch a war movie, I tend to go for the older films or the ones about the older wars. Maybe that's because they're over? I'm not sure. Regardless, this movie does a good job of keeping things in perspective. Obviously this is a war that we, as a country, are still involved in so it would be impossible to give the movie some kind of grand scale view of the whole thing, as that would require distance we couldn't possibly have. So keeping everything focused on this team and what they accomplished is smart and effective.

It also avoids pandering to patriotism, which I find incredibly distasteful. "Because America" is never really used as a justification for anything, or a rallying cry, and things aren't as oversimplified as they could've been. Instead the situation with what's known as the Northern Alliance (basically all the disparate military groups that want the Taliban out of that region) is depicted as being a tenuous and complex lacework of smaller alliances; that old adage "My enemies enemies are my friends" is touched on with the caveat that they may not all be friends with each other.

All in all this isn't quite the military movie I was expecting, for better or worse. In my head, it was a wild, horse-ridin', gun shootin' adventure called Them Horse Boyz but the reality was a fairly measured film about soldiers being incredibly good at their jobs and accomplishing one groundbreaking feat after another. If this movie even kind of seems like your thing, I'd recommend it, just don't expect to get enough Michael Shannon.

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EVERYTHING OLD is NEW AGAIN
Vol. 1: January & February of 2018
by Hunter Bush
for MOVIEJAWN

Hello, all and welcome to Everything Old is New Again, my new and improved regular column on Moviejawn dot com! As Jerry Seinfeld once wondered aloud (about Tide detergent no less) "How can something be both New AND Improved?", well I can't speak about Tide, but as far as this column goes, I can actually explain.

Everything Old is New Again is where I take a look at upcoming movies based in some way on an existing intellectual property: Remakes of older or foreign films, Adaptations of stories from other media (most commonly bestsellers, but comicbooks & videogames aren't exactly rare) and Long-Gap Sequels to older films attempting to revive their fanbase. There'll be a lot of speculation and more than a little of my personal opinions as well.

I have, technically does this type of column before on MJ, but it was twice a year (six months apart) and didn't have a fancy title. There were, fair to say, some drawbacks in this format. The first being: I had to sift through a LOT of movie descriptions and trailers (if I was lucky) all at once and then, even after all that, sometimes the movies would get pushed back. Now, I'm not so egotistical as to think that anyone would be bookmarking my li'l old articles as firm proof of a release date, but as any decent person would, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret at having passed on the wrong information. Just so you know, I'm nothing even resembling a Hollywoo Insider, I'm just a guy toiling away over a laptop in a house in South Philly full of spooky bric-a-brac and the smell of good baking, so I'll still not have any control over if the flicks make it to screens (or VOD) when I've said they're supposed to, but in an attempt to keep on top of any last-minute changes like those, Everything Old Is New Again will be gracing your screens every other month.

Thus is it both New AND Improved.

Honestly, I just hope you dig it. Enough preamble, let's dive in.

JANUARY 2018:


5th :

MOLLY'S GAME - Based on Molly Bloom's book, Aaron Sorkin directs and adapts the screenplay about Molly's time running the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world. Jessica Chastain & Idris Elba lead the cast as Molly & her lawyer Charlie Jaffey, respectively. This one has the vibe of a pretty standard biopic, with a star-bedazzled cast (Kevin Costner as Molly's father, Graham Greene as the judge and Michael Cera as Player X, a composite of Hollywoo bigwigs like DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck & others) but trying to give to appearance of greater inclusivity. Melissa Strong feels in her review that ultimately Molly's Game falls short. What do you think?

DAY OF THE DEAD: BLOODLINE - This View On Demand remake of the late, great George Romero's 1985 original Day of the Dead seems to follow roughly the same plot: A med student / scientist (Sophie Skelton) hunkered down in a military bunker in a post-zombie-apocalypse world, working on a cure for the zombie virus with a Very Special Zombie (Jonathan Schaech) chained up to experiment on. As you may expect, things don't go well. This remake, from director Hector Hernandez Vicens, isn't getting the best reviews but for a $7 rental fee (on Google Play, Vudu & the Playstation Network) it sure beats braving the chilly aftermath of that Bomb Cyclone to hit a theater, right?


12th :

PADDINGTON 2 - Based on the long-running book series written by Michael Bond and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum starring the very polite anthropomorphic bear, Paddington. In this sequel to the 2014 Paddington, Pads wants to buy a pop-up book of London for his aunt who is also a bear who has always wanted to come to London but can't, so he takes odd jobs. Then the book gets stolen by Hugh Grant who's doing a very Count Olaf-y character (a la Lemony Snicket). Pads gives chase, but gets the slip and the cops think he stole the book so the bear goes to jail. I don't know if this mirrors any plots from any of the books, but with 150+ books since 1958, chances are... maybe? Either way, the tone works for me and with the added zany vibe of Grant's costume-swapping character, I'm sold.


19th :

MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER - Based on the novel The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, this traditionally animated film from Studio Ghibli regular (and Secret World of Arrietty director) Hiromasa Yonebayashi follows the seemingly average Mary (Ruby Barnhill) a young girl who one afternoon finds the titular flowers that give you special, magical powers for one day. She attends what appear to be witch classes, meets Flanagan the talking fox (Ewan Bremner) and becomes integral to an older witch's plot to find the rare flowers. This seems like a pretty standard fairy tale story, but as with anything with that Ghibli pedigree, I am there for it. It also has a solid voice cast (which also features Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent) and some really cool visuals and character designs!

12 STRONG (THE DECLASSIFIED TRUE STORY OF THE HORSE SOLDIERS) - I've seen this trailer a bunch in theaters the past 2 months or so and every time, I'm struck by the thought "This should really just be called Horse Soldiers, that's a better title!". Based on the book (correctly titled Horse Soldiers) by Doug Stanton, this flick has a phenomenal cast, featuring two of my favorite Michaels (Shannon and Pena), William Fichtner, Rob Riggle and Chris Hemsworth (among others) playing the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. I'm usually skeptical of military films and all, but, like, Michael Shannon so... y'know. Yes, gimme them Horse Boys!


26th :

MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE - I know next to nothing about these Maze Runner movies, but from the trailer, there appear to be no mazes in this one and honestly not that much running. Based on the book series by James Dashner, the plot appears to be the Maze Runner & his friends (or maybe they're all Maze Runners?), having escaped from an oppressive society run by a company called WCKD, now have to break back in for some reason I didn't really catch. There's dialogue about a cure to a plague that the Maze Runner(/s) are immune to, but I can't imagine WCKD have a cure, as it's implied that Thomas Brodie-Sangster's character Newt will have to decide whether to sacrifice himself to make one, so... why? On the plus side: Walton Goggins, Patricia Clarkson, Giancarlo Esposito & Ki Hong Lee are among the cast. If I'm being honest, while I never like to say something "isn't for me" until I give it a fair shake, The Death Cure just looks soooo much like all these other young adult dystopia movies / book adaptations that it just makes me want to nap. Maybe one day I'll catch them on TV on a Sunday afternoon or something and regret skipping them, but then again maybe not.



FEBRUARY 2018:


9th :

MONSTER FAMILY - Based on the book Happy Family by David Safier, this animated film is the story of a regular-degular human family who mistakenly get an invitation to an all-monsters costume party (where the monsters dress up as humans, you dig?) where they get outed as monster impostors (better title) and cursed by a witch to become the costumes they're wearing. So Mom is a vampire, Sister is a mummy, Brother is a werewolf and Dad is a (farting. Ugh.) Frankenstein's monster and they can't turn back until they're a "happy" family. UGH. This one looks bad, gang. The writing seems immature and lazy: if the Franken-fart wasn't bad enough, there's a bit in the trailer where the Sister mishears another Mummy's name (Imhotep) as "Johnny Depp". UGH. Worst of all, the voice talent is pretty great, with Emily Watson, Jason Isaacs, Nick Frost and Catherine Tate all lending their pipes to ....whatever this is.

PETER RABBIT - If you're the kind of person who thinks things like "Y'know, those timeless children's books by Beatrix Potter sure could use a modern reboot", this may be the movie for you. Also you're a monster and I don't want to know you. For real, there's a scene where Peter Rabbit (voiced by Carpool Karaoke guru James Corden) makes it rain cabbage leaves like he's in a strip club! Get right the fuck out of town with that bizness! Now, I'm not saying this will be awful, but it sure is being presented to the audience that way. Casting Domhnall Gleeson and Sam Neill as your Farmers McGregor is a good choice though and the voice talent isn't lacking: Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie and even Sia, among many others, all voice various critters

THE 15:17 TO PARIS - Based on the book by Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone (with Jeffrey E. Stern) this biopic tells the story of the three men foiling a terrorist incident on the titular train in 2015. Clint Eastwood directs Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone as themselves with character actors like Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer, Jaleel White, Thomas Lennon and Tony Hale playing various parents, teachers and etc. in the more historical autobiographical sections. This one is a bit of mixed bag for me. I like a lot of the people involved but I get some real questionable vibes from this (a Gung-Ho Patriotism vibe and an Award Thirtsy vibe specifically) that kind of leave me cold.

50 SHADES FREED - In this the final (?) film based on the final (?) book in E.L. James' 50 Shades series, Ana (Dakota Johnson) & Christian (Jamie Dornan) are living the married life. They have a gorgeous house (yet are going to have a gorgeous-er one built?) and still enjoy their oh-so kinky lifestyle until... something something kidnapping? Apparently Ana's old boss has some vendetta against her and Christian, both, so he kidnaps Ana's sister. Meanwhile Ana suspects Christian of infidelity possibly due to the reappearance in his life of Elena (Kim Basinger), the woman who first introduced him to BDSM. Cards on the table, y'all. I have never read (and have no plans to read) the 50 Shades books, nor have I seen any of the movies, so when this trailer played in a darkened theater, I honestly didn't know what movie it was I was laughing at. Afterwards when the titled rolled, the realization of what I'd been watching only made it funnier / more outlandish / better. I would consider actually seeing this one, if only because it looks batshit stupid crazy.


16th :

BLACK PANTHER - I am so excited for this movie, fam! Besides adding some much-needed diversity to the Superhero Franchise Blockbuster genre, after Chadwick Boseman's scene-stealing appearance in Captain America: Civil War, I'm so excited for him give BP his own film! Directed by Ryan Coogler, the story looks like it expands on newly King T'Challa (Boseman)'s place in the larger Marvel universe, debuting his home, the hidden land of Wakanda, and a boatload of amazingly-costumed supporting characters (the cast includes Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker as well as returning MCU alums Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis). Plot details are scarce, but it seems like a group of T'challa's enemies rise up and attempt to dethrone him possibly? My big takeaway from the trailers is how incredibly sick all the costuming is! Like the Amazons' armor in last year's Wonder Woman, this was a visual itch I didn't realize needed to be scratched until I saw this trailer. Design-wise, comics are an incredibly diverse medium but after a while, it's easy not to notice how similar everything looks. Obviously, that applies to the casts as well, so, on both fronts,  I'm incredibly excited to see Black Panther to shake things up!


23rd :

EVERY DAY - This one looks pretty weird, y'all and I'm ...kinda intrigued. Based on the novel by David Levithan, this is a movie about Rhiannon, a teenage girl whose been having relationship troubles with her boyfriend Justin until one day when they go to the beach and have a heart-to-heart, really opening up to each other. Only that wasn't Justin, it was some kind of wandering spirit called A that can inhabit people's bodies; a new one (wait for it) ... every day. Now A has fallen in love with Rhiannon and has to not only convince her of the truth but also find a way to stay with her. Now, I get the impression that this is gonna lean a little too far into Christian fiction for me (and way too far away from a horror movie, obvs) but I think this one could be a real fun stay-at-home and yell-at-your-TV movie night.

ANNIHILATION - I'm not the only Jawnie who's excited about this one! Based on Jeff VanderMeer's novel (the first of his Southern Reach trilogy), this film directed by Alex Garland (who also adapted the screenplay) follows Natalie Portman who plays The Biologist (no proper nouns appear in the novel) who is part of the 12th expedition into an area (known as Area X in the novel / apparently called The Shimmer in the film) where the laws of nature don't seem to function as we normally experience them. The Biologist's Husband (Oscar Isaac) was a member of the previous expedition and returned seriously ill. The Biologist and other characters played by Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Gina Rodriguez comprise a 12th expedition who explore The Shimmer to find what it is and what is happening within it. This is a killer cast, working with a smart, genre savvy director who isn't afraid to make challenging work, telling a story full of creativity, mood and invention; I will be in theaters for Annihilation!



These are by no means the only Everything Old is New Again -applicable movies coming in the next couple of months, but they're the more widely-available ones and the ones I found most attention-grabbing. What do you think? Any of these you'll be seeking out? Any you'll be skipping?