It came out this week that HBO is panning a limited series that will remake Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 masterpiece The Birds. Before I get to how I feel about it, here is the premise:
Inspired by both Hitchcock’s film and Daphne du Maurier’s short story on which it was loosely based, “The Birds” introduces traveling magistrate Myra Massey (Snook), who returns to her isolated Alaskan hometown for what she expects will be a routine presumptive-death hearing. Instead, she discovers the bullet-ridden body of a childhood friend. Forced to step outside her role as a judge to untangle the mystery, Myra finds nature itself turning hostile as waves of bird attacks descend upon the town. Now, she isn’t just trying to close a case—she’s fighting to survive in a place where death lurks in both the shadows and the skies.
I suppose I could start this by saying why not call this something else? Reading that blurb above doesn’t sound like The Birds at all. It just sounds like a crime story with birds involved. Why can’t we just leave Hitchcock’s film in peace? We have had attempts of remaking the films of the Master of Suspense, but nothing has worked if we are being honest. Maybe this will surprise me, or maybe not. I guess we will find out in a year or so when this sees the light of day. On to the reviews!
Rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen descends into a horrifying revenge-filled monster when scientific ambition strips him of his identity and humanity.
There is a rich tradition of films for Batman villains that don’t include the Caped Crusader. Gems like 2004’s Catwoman, 2020’s Birds of Prey, and 2014’s Joker: Folie a Deux. Clayface did something different though that I thought helped it work more than those films though. What it does is turn the film into an R-Rated, body horror, revenge film, and at times it makes this a pretty fun time. There were points toward the end that I found myself wanting this version of Clayface to show up in the Reeves Batman films. Now, there were some things I found lackluster in this film. Tom Rhys Harries was ok as Matt Hagen, but I do wonder what this film could have looked like with a little more energy. The film opens with Hagen being nominated for an Oscar, but I don’t really believe he was good enough from what we see to be at that level. I also thought the film was pretty simple. We only see at most 7 characters and they all have their specific points point he plot where it comes off like we are checking off a to do list. This was also a little too gorey for me, but I am a well documented wimp with that stuff. Still, there is one death in this film that while creative, caused me to just stare at the ceiling until it was over. As the next part of Gunn’s DC Studios, I don’t think this really moves the dial in terms of success for the whole project. Gunn’s success will live and die with his ability to tell Superman and Batman stories. However, the project could a use a few more films like this to spice things up. Maybe tighten up the post first though on them.
The Severson family move to a suburban neighborhood where their neighbors, the Kringles, celebrate Christmas year-round and harbor sinister intentions to hypnotize and indoctrinate them..
If you are going to tell a horror story and set it around the traditions of Christmas, you have to be very careful. There is a fine line between success and failure, and this film just is frolicking among the inflatable yard decoration on the failure side. Good gravy this was painfully unfunny, which depressed me after seeing who is in this. If you told me a Tom Lennon led holiday horror film, I would say sign me up, but he is not his best in this. That can also be said for Donald Faison, Rachel Bilson, and Arden Myrin. I’m sure that Rob Riggle knew what kind of movie this was. That brings me to Ron Livingston as what I took as the main character. He was terrible in this, and I’m sure I could see him just going to a happier place in his mind at some points. This was a classic case of thinking you have a clever idea, but not having the ability to make that idea work in any real way. It just was an unpleasant film that wore out its welcome early, and that wasted some, I can admit, decent production design on a lower scale. I will say I did chuckle when David Wain showing up at one point, and wondered if he owed someone a favor. Don’t waste your time on this one.
An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. But, as he soon learns, there’s a catch.
I found this film disappointing once we reached the end credits. I really liked the premise, and for the first half or so, I thought we were cruising along with it. I thought we had good turns from Daniel Doheny (as Russell, our lead) and Maddie Phillips (as Ainsley, one of the daughters), but the reason to see this is Dot-Marie Jones. Jones plays Patti, the dog breeder that has decided to take a crack at breeding humans, and after some careful research, thinks Russell and Ainsley will make genius children. So, in exchange for fully funding Russell’s bee research, he is asked to impregnate Patti’s daughter. This isn’t taken very well by Russell, which in turn makes Patti kind of a monster, and we have the rest of the film with some turns that didn’t quite work for me. Jones commands the screen when Patti is near, and when she isn’t, I found myself watching the background to see where she would appear from. The underlying issue here was Russell’s reason for not wanting to go with this new plan. He is engaged to a woman back at his home 5 hours away, but I thought the film made a pretty poor job of making her a character that Russell couldn’t live without. It is kind of messed up that one person Russell seems to have chemistry with is his forced upon breeding partner, and I was thinking he should just do it, get the money, and keep it a secret. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but the film didn’t give me a reason to think other wise. Russell’s fiancé Haley (Tanaya Beatty) does some pretty clingy things, then some pretty dumb things. This film made it’s debut at the Tribeca Festival in June In the end, I found this to be a film that had a lot of momentum up until about te midpoint, then things kind of fell apart. That is a shame as these kind of horror films are becoming my go to.
A high-powered executive’s meticulously controlled existence unravels when professional crises, global chaos, and marital betrayal converge, pushing him toward a dangerous breaking point.
As it didn’t work out to see this in Chicago last week, as luck would have it, the Windsor International Film Festival had it, and it was a much shorter drive for me (19 miles and the bridge to Canada). This film had its world premiere in the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival this May, where it lost the Palme d’Or to Fjord, but won the Grand Prix award. Now, that I’ve finally watched it, I have mixed feelings. The story itself, based on the 1969 French film The Unfaithful Wife, was interesting. By placing a story about an affair against what looks like the Russia-Ukraine war, it does add another layer of stress for our lead, Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov), as he is dealing with demands from the Russian military as well as his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) pulling away from him. Where the film goes in the second half highlights governmental corruption and Gleb’s ability to problem solve, for lack of a better words. The issue I had with this is a common one I have: this didn’t need to be 2 hours, 20 minutes long. I could have cut out 40 minutes and I don’t think I would have changed the story or atmosphere of the film at all. For what is there though, it was a good story of what happens to someone when they feel their life is crumbling down around them. Just with a Russian “warmth” to it.
New films next week include The Cat in the Hat ($30-40 mil), Godzilla Minus Zero ($25-35), Drummer Boy ($4-6), Club Kid ($3-5), and Wild Horse Nine ($6-10). With You Can See Everything, Clayface, and Wildwood still lurking, It might require about $7 million to get into the top 5.
- The Cat in the Hat
- Godzilla Minus Zero
- You Can See Everything
- Clayface
- Wildwood
We enter the second to last month, and things will ease up for me a bit. I have an early screening of Godzilla Minus Zero on Tuesday, and I think possibly La Bola Negra on the weekend. The real treat for me is finally seeing Wild Horse Nine. Well, I already did Friday night in an early screening, but the review will be in next week’s post. I needed time to go through my feelings I guess. Most importantly this week, if you haven’t already, VOTE ON TUESDAY!
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