Classic Movie Review Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 (1987) 

Directed by Bruce Pittmann 

Written by Ron Oliver 

Starring Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Justin Louis 

Release Date October 16th, 1987 

Published October 18th, 2023 

Hollywood is often accused these days of being obsessed with existing I.P or intellectual property. Sequels, remakes, re-imaginings, these are movies that are derived from existing I.P. It's true, Hollywood is obsessed with existing I.P, uncovering old products that can be made new again, it's familiarity wielded as a marketing campaign. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is an I.P, Marvel movies, Star Wars, the Fast and Furious movies, and any number of horror franchises are existing I.P and Hollywood loves to recycle to save a little money. 

It's tempting to say that this isn't a new practice and it really isn't a new practice. But, things like Disney turning their legendary cartoons into live action movies or even creating a franchise out of something used to be at least a little bit frowned upon. Remakes, re-imaginings and loosely related sequels were once the realm of hucksters and shysters not prestigious movie studios with decades of credibility, awards, and blockbusters. Why, there was once a time when Superman got sold to a couple of con-artists who used Superman 4 as a money laundering scheme, ALLEGEDLY. Could you imagine a studio willingly giving away Superman today? 

The best example of the disreputable nature of I.P plays back in the day came from the horror genre. Hucksters and con artists of all stripes were in the business of capitalizing on I.P and, even if they didn't know it, they laid the groundwork for where we are today with the out of control obsession with I.P plays. Take for instance, Troll 2, often viewed as the best worst movie of all time. That film has nothing whatsoever to do with the modestly successful low budget 80s horror movie, Troll. The producers simply managed to become the owner of the Troll I.P and felt that slapping a number 2 on a movie was a clever marketing gimmick. 

Full length review at Horror.Media

Movie Review Blackberry

Blackberry (2023) 

Directed by Matthew Johnson 

Written by Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller 

Starring Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Cary Elwes, Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside 

Release Date May 12, 2023 

Published? 

Blackberry is a story of technology, hubris, and the ways in which the world has been brought together via technology but people remain, quite predictably, human. The story of the rise of the first trendy handheld communication device, Blackberry charts the astonishing growth and precipitous fall of a fad unlike anything before it. Blackberry became a staple of high class living in the early 2000s. The ubiquity of the Blackberry became a meme before memes were cool. No caricature of a businessman was complete without them holding a Blackberry. 

How the Blackberry thus came and went as a phenomenon is a ripe subject for a movie. After all, how does something as ubiquitous and beloved become ancient and nearly forgotten in the span of just over a decade? It's hard to quantify, even less than 20 years after the Blackberry, how big the Blackberry got and how quickly it fell out of fashion. There are few phenomenon's quite like it. Perhaps a reasonable comparison for modern audiences might be Tiger King. The famed Netflix series was the hottest thing in the world and by the time it came for a sequel, people had already forgotten the people involved. 

The Blackberry lasted longer as a product but as a pop culture staple, the comparison is pretty good. Both became afterthoughts quicker than anyone involved could have imagined. The Blackberry's remarkable fall has roots in the way modern IT has changed the landscape of innovation. Where in the early days of the industrial revolution the innovation life-cycle was decades, today, the innovation life cycle is measured in years. Things in today's IT world change so quickly that even beloved innovations can expect to be outmoded within three years. 

There's a reason why we are on the 14th generation of the IPhone in the 16 years since it was introduced by Steve Jobs and his turtle neck. Technology is now a shark that must swim even when it sleeps. The Blackberry story was the trial balloon of modern technology. Innovators need to look no further than the 2002 introduction of The Blackberry and that same product's obsolescence a mere 5 years later when the IPhone crashed the market. 

As charted in the movie, Blackberry, the writing was on the wall from the early days. Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), the brains of the operation, was always in over his head as his employees walked all over him and took advantage of his genial good nature and lack of social grace. It's no wonder now, with grave hindsight, that Lazaridis would fall victim to a hard charging snake like Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). Lazaridis just wanted to make new, helpful technology, a noble pursuit. He needed a ballbuster like Balsillie to push him to deliver his best, and it worked, if only for a moment in the span of our new technological evolutionary cycle. 

The casting here in Blackberry is rather brilliant. Jay Baruchel, known as a waif and a shrinking violet, when he isn't an obnoxious denizen of a Judd Apatow film, is just the kind of guy who would get run over by a big personality like that of Glen Howerton. The former star of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star has a loud and brash personality that befits a scruples free businessman chasing every dollar and imposing his will upon the geeks and nerds that exist under his weighty boot. The dynamic is familiar, a genius who doesn't want the hassle of leadership and a dictator who is hungry for power at all cost come together like halves of a whole. 

Full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Condor's Nest

Condor's Nest (2023) 

Directed by Phil Blattenberger 

Written by Phil Blattenberger 

Starring Arnold Vosloo, Michael Ironside, Jackson Rathbone, Jacob Keohane 

Release Date January 27th, 2023 

Published February 8th, 2023 

Condor's Nest opens on a tense war scene. A British bomber is flying over Germany at low altitude, preparing to drop bombs on a strategic target. Six men are aboard and remain when the plane is shot down in the German countryside. As one looks for a way to help his fellow soldiers, German soldiers arrive on the scene. Led by an imperious S.S Officer, Col. Martin Bach (Arnold Vosloo), this is a particularly brutal group of soldiers. Bach's interrogation of the British crew involves shooting anyone that doesn't provide valuable information, whether they have valuable information or not. 

Watching this unfold from a distance, as he had fled to seek help and find shelter, is Pilot Will Spalding (Jacob Keohane). Trained with his gun on Col. Bach he knows that if he shoots and misses he will give up his position and any chance to save his crew. This leaves Spalding in agony as he watches two members of his crew be executed. One of the crew passes away from injuries in the crash before he can be asked to give up information. The last two members of the crew are then, seemingly about to be released. They are allowed to turn and begin running into the forest with a vague promise of safety from Bach, until he orders them shot dead as well. 

From here, Condor's Nest jumps a decade into the future. It's 1954 and a haunted Jacob Spalding is now living in Argentina. If you're not aware, Argentina became a hotspot of former Nazis who managed to escape as Germany fell at the end of World War 2. Spalding believes he has tracked Colonel Bach to Argentina and he's using any means necessary to locate Bach so that he can gain his revenge. This quest for vengeance leads Spalding to a shaky, distrustful alliance with Albert Vogel (Al Pagano), a former Nazi scientist on the run from both Nazi Hunters and Israeli Intelligence. 

Vogel strikes a deal with Spalding, he will take him to Bach and in exchange, Spalding will help him reach a safe house where Vogel hopes to be whisked away to safety by Russian intelligence, eager to have a German scientist that the Americans don't have. Their tentative alliance is upended by the arrival of Leyna Rahn (Corinne Britti), a Jewish mercenary working for Israeli Intelligence in Argentina. Vogel is the scalp she's been looking for and she aims to take him. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media