Movie Review Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) 

Directed by Kenneth Branagh 

Written by Michael Green 

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Johnny Depp 

Release Date November 10th, 2017 

Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is the most famous detective in the world. It is 1935 and Poirot is leaving Israel, having solved a crime that likely prevented a religious genocide. His work is that important, apparently. Poirot hopes for some rest and relaxation but unfortunately, he’s been called back to London on a matter of grave importance. The fastest way to travel in 1934 is the train known as the Orient Express, a bullet train from Istanbul all the way to Paris.

Misfortune follows the great detective, however, as he meets Mr. Ratchett (Johnny Depp) on the train and quickly deduces his criminality. Ratchett wants to hire Poirot to watch his back on the train ride but Poirot declines as he knows Mr. Ratchett is not who he claims to be. The true identity of Mr. Ratchett becomes the hook on which the rest of the plot of Murder on the Orient Express hangs. A murder occurs the night after Poirot and Ratchett’s tete a tete and Poirot is pressed into action to deduce the killer.

The list of suspects is long but as luck would have it, the train has been felled by an avalanche, leaving Poirot plenty of time for chatty snooping. Among the suspects are Ratchett’s cheating accountant MacQueen (Josh Gad), Ratchett’s servant Masterman (Derek Jacobi), a wealthy Princess (Dame Judi Dench), her maid (Olivia Colman), a German scientist (Willem Dafoe), a doctor (Leslie Odom Jr.), a governess (Daisy Ridley), a missionary (Penelope Cruz), a dancer and his ailing wife, and a husband-seeking missile named Miss Hubbard (Michele Pfeiffer).

Complicating matters further for Detective Poirot is that each and every one of the passengers I just mentioned are lying. Agatha Christie was a master of this sort of plot, navigating it with tantalizing detail. She, some have claimed, perfected the red herring and in Murder on the Orient Express, she brilliantly navigated a full sea of red herring. That director Kenneth Branagh evokes Christie’s legend is the true charm of the new film version of the legendary novel.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Classic Movie Review The Stunt Man

The Stunt Man (1980) 

Directed by Richard Rush

Written by Lawrence B. Marcus, Richard Rush

Starring Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey 

Release Date June 27th, 1980 

Published May 8th, 2024 

The Stunt Man is a wildly inventive and entirely incoherent exercise in style and storytelling. Directed by Richard Rush, The Stunt Man has an intriguing premise that gets overshadowed by a director eager to experiment with film style and editing. I appreciate what Richard Rush is going for but it's a failed experiment as the stylistic touches and innovations leave us with a story that is impossible to follow because scenes are missing or truncated in service of Richard Rush's desire to play with the toys and tools of filmmaking. 

The intriguing story of The Stunt Man finds a former Vietnam Veteran, played by Steve Railsback, on the run from the cops for an unknown crime. Cornered at a diner, the vet manages to sneak away. However, in the process of his getaway, the vet wanders into a movie scene as it is being shot. A stunt man is performing a car stunt and angrily drives right at the vet who is standing on a bridge that happens to be the location for this scene. In fear for his life, the vet throws a large rock at the car barreling towards him that causes the car to drive off the bridge. 

The stunt driver is killed and the incident is witnessed and filmed by the film's director, Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole). Once again, our unnamed vet flees the scene. This time he winds up at a nearby resort where he once again sees the movie in production. A beach at the resort is being strafed by fake gunfire by a stunt plane. Smoke covers the area as bombs fall and when the smoke clears, the audience of resort patrons are shocked to see mangled bodies and corpses strewn across the beach. Their shock and horror becomes good natured laughter as the director calls cut and the stuntmen and extras lift themselves out of the and and remove their broken, burned and battered fake body parts and wounds. 

As the vet surveys the scene, he watches as an elderly woman approaches the lead actor for an autograph. She wanders down the beach and the vet follows her curiously, wondering where she could be headed. It's a good thing that he does because the old women slips on some rocks and falls in the ocean, forcing the vet to leap in and save her. Soon after, the woman removes her makeup and reveals herself to be movie star Nina Franklin (Barbara Hershey). Nina was testing the believability and durability of her old lady makeup, which she claims to have done herself. Nevertheless, she allows the vet to rescue her to a standing ovation of the assembled crew, including the director. 

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review The Idea of You

The Idea of You (2024) 

Directed by Michael Showalter

Written by Michael Showalter, Jennifer Westfeldt 

Starring Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine 

Release Date May 2nd, 2024 

Published May 7th, 2024 

With this many talented people involved, I am shocked at how boring and basic The Idea of You turned out. Michael Showalter has proven to be an adept and quirky filmmaker. His previous films have an adventurous yet warm romantic humor. Jennifer Westfeldt, returning to screenwriting for the first time since her breakout screenplay Kissing Jessica Stein, also promises something warm, funny and quirky. So how did we arrive at this product placement laden, highly predictable and endlessly dull, dud of a rom-com. And how did they manage to fumble the radiant talent of Anne Hathaway? 

The Idea of You, a desperately forgettable title, stars Anne Hathaway as Solene, a 40 year old divorced mom. She's an artist and she runs a successful art gallery. As we meet Solene, she's bundling her teenage daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), and her two best friends, off to Coachella with Izzy's uber-rich daddy who has sprung for a big backstage package, one that will allow her to meet her favorite boy band. Well, they used to be her favorite boy band but she doesn't listen to them anymore. The boy band, known as August Moon, is headed up by Hayes Campbell, the Harry Styles of the group, played by Nicholas Galitzine. 

Circumstances conspire to have Solene have to take the kids to Coachella where she will end up backstage. In a comic misunderstanding, Solene ends up in Hayes Campbell's trailer, thinking it's the backstage restroom. Hayes is immediately smitten with Solene but she doesn't see it. After a brief exchange about art and her art gallery, they part ways. Later, Hayes shows up at Solene's gallery and buys all of the art as a ruse to spend time with Solene. She goes for this, after initially questioning his dedication to art, and the two end up back at her house sharing a moment over her piano. 

Once Solene's daughter is sent off to a summer camp of some sort, Solene takes up Hayes' offer to fly to New York to hook up and for a time, the pair enjoy hooking up. Naturally, we have roadblocks set up in Solene and Hayes' age gap, 16 years I think it is, and in the reaction of Solene's daughter to her mom dating her former favorite boy band guy, but the biggest obstacle is the predictable nature of romantic comedy structure. The typical beats of a rom-com are inescapable at this point, intractable. The only way to work around the genre strictures is to elevate the familiar with great performance and undeniable chemistry. 

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community Vocal. 

Classic Movie Review Dream Lover

Dream Lover (1994) 

Directed by Nicholas Kazan

Written by Nicholas Kazan

Starring James Spader, Madchen Amick, Bess Armstrong, Larry Miller

Release Date May 6th, 1994 

Published May 6th 2024 

Okay, so hear me out, this is my secret plan. I saw this guy who is really handsome and rich and has his own business. So, what I am going to do is steal his money. Here's how I am going to do it, stay with me, it's complicated. So, I am waiting for him to finalize his divorce. Then, several weeks or perhaps months, after he's been on a bunch of dates with a bunch of women he's not interested in, I will meet him at this art opening that he's supposed to be attending. 

At the art gallery, while he's talking to another woman he's not interested in, I will position myself behind him with a glass of wine. When he turns around, I will say he spilled wine all over me and then storm out without giving him my name. Then, the next day, I will follow him when he's grocery shopping and approach him. Then, he will follow me and ask me to dinner. I will let him take me to dinner but then, I won't tell him how to get in touch with me for another date. 

My plan indicates that he will be so besotted with me that he will start stalking me, not knowing that I am already stalking him. Then, he will see me come home with another man and when that man leaves, he will find a way to find which speaker is connected to my apartment. And then I will let him come in and somehow, I will have just been in the shower, even though I was just answering my door to let him in my building. Then I will have sex with him after he jealously berates me for information about the guy who just left. I will say that guy's gay, so I save this guy's ego. 

So, we have sex and then several months later of us dating and having sex, we will get married. And then, after we've been married for a few months, I will have a baby. And then, after we've been married a few years, I will have another baby. And then, a few months after that, I will start leaving obvious clues about having an affair. And when he gets super-jealous and punches me in the face, I won't have him arrested, I will have him committed and once he's deemed crazy, boom, divorce, I take his money and the kids. 

What do you think? Don't worry about the hitting thing, he will punch me in the face and slap me and I will still put on makeup to fool the doctors that I was abused. I mean, I will have been abused but I am crazy, so I have to make it look like I am lying for no good reason. Then it will only confuse my husband and father of my children even more. Because I am crazy. It's a foolproof plan, it can't fail unless he somehow tricks me into going to see him at the asylum on the ruse that he's figured out my dastardly scheme and then chokes me to death using the excuse that he's crazy as cover so he can get out of the hospital when he recovers. But really, what are the chances of that happening right? 

That mulit-paragraph plot is the actual plot of the 1994 movie Dream Lover, from the perspective of Madchen Amick's crazy wife character Mina. It's my interpretation of her plan and it hopefully illustrates just how desperately convoluted this plot is. Written and directed by Nicholas Kazan, the character of Mina marries and has kids and builds a perfect upper class New York life with Ray Reardon, played by James Spader, all so that after 5 years of wedded bliss, she can blow up the whole thing to steal his money. 

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Movie Review Devil's Whisper

Devil's Whisper (2017) 

Directed by Andy Ripp 

Written by Andy Ripp 

Starring Luca Oriel, Tessie Santiago, Alison Fernandez, Marcos A. Ferraez 

Release Date October 19th, 2017 

I’m torn on the movie Devil’s Whisper. One side of me finds the film stylish, well-acted and some of its ideas daring. The other side of me, however, cannot abide yet another movie where a demon of dubious abilities opens doors, manipulates electricity, or other such nonsense via mind control or some sort of demonic form ESP. When will filmmakers tire of these moronic tropes? When will a movie that has some good ideas about how to couch evil in a horror form to discuss big issues? Devil’s Whisper approaches big ideas but can’t resist demonic silliness.

Alex (Luca Oriel) is only 16 years old, but he already believes that he wants to be a priest. Alex’s mentor, Father Cutler (Rick Ravanello), wants him to slow down and live a little but Alex takes his path very seriously. That is, until Alex stumbles across a strange box in a collection of his recently deceased grandmother’s belongings. Inside the box is a cross once warn by a grandfather that Alex doesn’t remember well. He passed away when Alex was just five years old.

When Alex and his father, Marcos (Marcos A. Ferraez), open the box and retrieve the cross, the evil begins to take hold but like any silly demon possession movie, Devil’s Whisper has a demon of dubious abilities, meaning that this demon has somehow opened this giant piece of furniture, adhered a key for Alex to find to a compartment that shouldn’t be found, that contains a box that the demon somehow is able to convince Alex to try and open it. If the demon is powerful enough to do all of this, why does it need Alex?

Find my full length review in the Horror Community on Vocal

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 LBJ

LBJ (2017) 

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by Joey Hartstone 

Starring Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Bill Pullman, Jeffrey Donovan, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Release Date November 3rd, 2017 

I don’t understand racism. It’s strange to write that down but it’s no less true, racism doesn’t make any sense. Why does skin color matter? What is it about skin color that bothers people? What could possibly cause a person to believe that their skin makes them superior? It baffles me. Life is hard enough, why carry such an unnecessary and bizarre hatred on top of that? I find that in my life I need as many friends as I can make. The world makes more sense when you connect with people. To rule out connecting with someone over something like the color of their skin is just not something I can make any sense of.

I’m not seeking to understand racists; I know that they are just wrong in their hatred, but I can’t understand the conviction that drives them. Is it some sort of misguided notion of maleness? Tribalism that has yet to be evolved out of the species. What drives people to hate someone for a reason such as skin color? Hatred of any kind is hard on the soul. I am certainly not without hate, I hate racists, I hate those who hate the LGBTQ Community, I hate those who would seek to oppress others. Carrying that hate is the biggest burden of my life but I do it because I can’t not do it. My hatred makes sense because I hate on behalf of others. The hatred that comes from the racist simply makes no sense.

This is a longwinded way of getting around to reviewing the new Rob Reiner movie LBJ which hinges on the debate over the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The brilliant actor Richard Jenkins portrays a Senator Russell from Georgia whose hatred of black people has lost him to history to the point where I cannot recall his first name and would not be aware of his existence without this movie. That’s fair, he doesn’t deserve to be remembered. Nor do any of the Senators who opposed civil rights. Remembering that they opposed something as fundamental as civil rights for all people is enough of an awful legacy for these men.

LBJ paints a complex portrait of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It is a heroic portrait but one that doesn’t shy away from the less heroic aspects of Lyndon Johnson who, before he became Vice President had consistently opposed civil rights legislation. President Johnson's change of heart wasn’t him being ‘woke’ to use the modern parlance, it was born of pragmatism, at once coldly calculated and genuinely felt. President Johnson could see the direction the country was moving in and was determined to remain relevant and, he had become friendly with his cook, a black woman who could not travel safely and comfortably from Washington D.C to Texas despite working for the Vice President of the United States.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal