Documentary Review Jim and Andy and the Great Beyond

Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond (2017) 

Directed by Chris Smith

Written by Chris Smith

Starring Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman, Danny Devito 

Release Date November 17th, 2017

Man on the Moon was one of my favorite movies of 1999. I had no idea what went into making the movie at the time I saw it in 1999. Had I been more aware of the tabloid crazy story that was going on behind the scenes I likely would have loved the movie even more. Jim Carrey has now detailed the making of Man on the Moon in a new Netflix documentary that debuts November 17th and it is a remarkable and fascinating insight into the mind of an artist

On the surface, Man on the Moon was a straight-forward biopic of the always not so straight forward comedian Andy Kaufman. Directed by the legendary Milos Forman, Man on the Moon had the air of an Awards friendly true-life story of a man who had fascinated millions of people before and after his life came to an end. Even with it being the first of Jim Carrey’s attempts to become taken seriously, there was a prestige to the movie that was innate.

Then stories began to emerge about Jim Carrey’s behavior. In 1998 the film became fodder for the tabloids as Carrey’s shenanigans seemed to be overwhelming the film. In particular, Carrey had a very public run-in with co-star and real-life Kaufman antagonist, professional wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler. Carrey was said to have gone off the deep end, requiring everyone to call him Andy or Andy’s bizarre, obnoxious character Tony Clifton. Rumors were spreading that Carrey’s behavior was sinking the film.

Now, with the release of the Netflix documentary Jim and Andy The Great Beyond, we have a notion of what things were like behind the scenes of Man on the Moon. Now we know that all the tabloid nuttiness that was reported nearly 20 years ago was pretty much true and helped to make Man on the Moon the remarkably authentic and fascinating film it became. Using Carrey’s own behind the scenes footage, shot by Andy Kaufman’s real life girlfriend Lynn Margulies, we get the whole story, and we know that sometimes madness is creativity at its most pure.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Paranormal Activity 3

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) 

Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman  

Written by Christopher Landon 

Starring Katie Featherston, Lauren Bittner, Chris Smith 

Release Date October 21st, 2011 

Published October 21st, 2011 

If you have seen one Paranormal Activity movie, you've seen all three Paranormal Activity movies. Yes, the characters are different in each movie but the style and the general set up and execution are pretty much the same.

Paranormal Activity 3 is dressed up as a prequel intended to shed light on how the sister characters from 1 & 2, played by Sprague Graydon and Katie Featherston, ended up as targets of evil spirits but the prequel aspect doesn't really matter much; if you can really tell which sister was in which movie you care much more than I did.

The bottom line is that the set up and execution is the same for each of the movies. Cameras are trained on a home where strange things keep happening. Cameras are pointed at the beds of family members, as well as in the living room and kitchen.

Long stretches of film pass with nothing happening until something seems to move. More time passes and the movements become more noticeable. Finally, a crash is heard and something potentially deathly happens as the audience leaps in their seats.

The set up worked in the first '"Paranormal Activity" movie because of the novelty of director Oren Peli's no budget approach. "Paranormal Activity 2" however, exposed the holes in this premise and added the hoary concept of a child in danger.

"Paranormal Activity 3" wears out the welcome of this once novel approach to horror filmmaking in the first 30 minutes of the movie. Irksome characters standing in for the mother (Lauren Bittner) of the two sisters, Katie and Kristi, from the first two films, played as children by Jessica Tyler Brown and Chloe Csengery, and the mother's boyfriend (Christopher N. Smith), are no different from the characters troubled in the first two films.

The boyfriend carries his camera everywhere he goes for no other reason than the plot requires it. He sets up cameras throughout the house and with no surprise whatsoever causes friction with his girlfriend, even as the cameras clearly capture the ghostly presence that is wreaking havoc throughout the house.

If there is one modest innovation in "Paranormal Activity 3" it is a rotating camera jerry-rigged onto a rotating fan base. As the camera pans between the kitchen and living room we know that it will reveal something terrifying eventually and the slow turn of the camera is an effective piece of suspense until it too wears out its welcome.

"Paranormal Activity 3" is yet another in a long line of cynical cash grabs that don't even have the decency to hide their commercial intentions behind even low rent entertainment. The modest scares of "Paranormal Activity 3" rarely rise to the level of those in the first film, mostly because they're basically reruns.