Pun Salad

As promised/threatened yesterday in my David Mamet f-bomb anecdote, I dropped a few bucks on Amazon Prime to watch this 2001 movie, which he wrote and directed. A star-studded cast! In addition to the names on the poster to your right, there's also Sam Rockwell, Ricky Jay, Patti LuPone, and Mrs. Mamet, Rebecca Pidgeon. Nearly all on the wrong side of the law, and demonstrating that there is, with few exceptions, no honor among thieves.

It starts with a daring and successful jewelry heist, but kingpin Danny DeVito uses it as leverage to coerce master crook Gene Hackman into going after a bigger score. It is the fabled "one last job": a plane carrying a whole bunch of Swiss gold. (That's kind of a spoiler, sorry; we learn about the job solely from the characters talking obliquely about it. And not until it actually occurs do we realize: Oh, that's what they were talking about.

Mamet's dialog is also gold, of course. Are real-world bad guys clever enough to talk like this? I suppose if anyone would know, it would be Mamet.

I watched the original movie version back in 1981, and I liked it well enough to check out the associated novel. They were fine, but I would not have expected to see a remake of the movie in 2025. Yet, here we are.

The plot is pretty simple: Rami Malek plays Charlie, a CIA geek working in the bowels of Langley on computer security and cryptography issues. He's happily married to Sarah. Whose job takes her over to London, where she is murdered in a terrorist attack.

The CIA rapidly identifies the perpetrators, but is unwilling to bring them to justice, either legal or vigilante-style. So Charlie takes on the task himself, with woefully inferior qualifications for wet work in the field. Still…

It's nice to see Remi Malek play a (more or less) normal human protagonist. The plot is imaginative, and I stayed awake. On that score, it really helped that I remembered nearly nothing about the version I saw 44 years ago.

One possible gripe is the ending, which failed somewhat to satisfy my thirst for revenge on Charlie's behalf. There's also a climactic surprise plot twist, which, seen in sober retrospect, seems pretty contrived.

After more than 50 years, it's probably time to watch this again. Written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, sandwiched in between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. It's a little movie, non-epic, but nevertheless very watchable.

It's also Gene Hackman's movie. He disappears into the character of Harry Caul, a wizard with a singular talent for surveillance, recording conversations the participants would prefer kept secret. He is guilt-ridden over the horrifying results of a previous gig, but that has not dimmed his craving for snoopery. He's also somewhat paranoid, compulsive about his own privacy. But still very Catholic-religious. Which only makes the developments here more poignant.

The supporting cast is pretty good too: the "Director", an uncredited Robert Duvall, hires Harry to spy on his wife (Cindy Williams) to see if she's cheating on him. (Spoiler: she is, with Frederic Forrest.) The director is assisted, creepily, by Harrison Ford! While Harry's assisted by a gabby John Cazale! His obsessions wreck his romantic relationship with Teri Garr! He is betrayed by competitor Allen Garfield!

It ain't a feelgood movie, but I liked it anyway.

Please note the "2" exponent. That's how it shows up in the movie itself, I looked up the Unicode, and I think it looks cooler than just a bare "2".

I watched the previous movie in this series back in 2017 My report here, but I thought it was pretty good. Unfortunately, a major bright spot in that movie, the pride of Portland ME, Anna Kendrick, does not show up in this sequel. But the other bright spot, J.K. Simmons, does! Uh, briefly.

Oh, heck, this isn't much of a spoiler: Simmons' character, Ray King, gets pretty much killed right at the beginning, but he leaves a clue scrawled in pen on his arm: "FIND THE ACCOUNTANT". That's Ben Affleck, whose on-the-spectrum skills serve both to uncover financial skulduggery and other misbehavior. He also is pretty good at fisticuffs, gunplay, explosions, and fast driving. He must have picked that up from being, occasionally, Batman.

He gets help from his estranged, equally skilled hit-man brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal). (Sorry, a spoiler from the first movie.) All this in support of a thin but complex plot involving a hit woman, her kidnapped child, money laundering, … I had a difficult time figuring that out.

The movie is very violent, but also funny in spots. The chemistry between The Accountant and his brother generates some chuckles.

Pun Son and I went down to Newington for an early Saturday night viewing of the latest entry in the 28 Time Periods Later saga. Summary: it's horror, but not a simple squirm-and-screamer. It's got brains! (Braaaaiiins!)

The powers that be determined the repopulation/reconstruction effort attempted for Great Britain in 28 Weeks Later was a dismal failure. It was assumed that the victims infected with the "rage virus" would eventually starve to death. Which turned out to be untrue; they'll eat anything! And, as this movie makes explicitly clear, they also, um, reproduce. So the rest of the world quarantines the island, ruthlessly enforced by international navies; Great Britain becomes, literally, flyover country.

But there is a stronghold of uninfected humanity just off the coast in the Scottish Highlands, connected to Zombieland by a narrow causeway that is only passable at low tide. The community values safety, alcohol, and ruthless violence. The movie's hero is 12-year-old Spike, whose dad is eager for him to be initiated into killing the infected. And whose sickly mom is stridently opposed to that.

Spike's foray onto the mainland is, um, eventful, and he discovers something that may provide hope for his mother. And, later, he also discovers something less than admirable about his dad. Which sets him up for an even more, um, eventful expedition. Where he meets all sorts of interesting survivors.

The movie's opening scene eventually makes sense in the movie's final scene. Be patient, viewer.

And, while the movie is grim, it's not unremittingly grim; a shipwrecked Swede named Erik had some lines that made me chuckle.

As part of my preparation for seeing 28 Years Later, I felt I should perform due diligence and review its predecessors. It's a good thing, too, because while my blog assures me that I watched this movie in a theater back in 2007, I remembered even less about this than I did about 28 Days Later.

Reviewing my report from back then, I note I was pretty spoiler-averse about the plot. After 18 years, I think it's safe to reveal a tad more. An opening act reveals Don (Robert Carlyle) as a cowardly weasel, abandoning his wife to the virus-infected horde, barely escaping with his life.

But then, months later, all the "zombies" on Great Britain have (finally) starved to death, and reconstruction/repopulation is under way. The first group to re-inhabit includes Don's kids, who were fortunately away in Spain during the zombie apocalypse. A joyous reunion, marred by the fact that Don lies about the cowardice that doomed their mom. They get resettled into a nice, secure, apartment, guarded by snipers like Jeremy Renner. But the kids miss their old place, sneak out of their enclave, and discover… hey, Mom's still alive! But not exactly herself!

One major quibble: the resulting carnage is actually all the fault of those darn disobedient kids. Nobody seems to blame them, though, and they don't seem to be wracked by guilt. Someone should have given them a good talking to!

At my age, I often fall asleep while watching movies at home. Not a problem with this one.

I watched this in preparation for going to see 28 Years Later in an actual movie theater. Fortunate, because while I'm sure I watched this back in 2002 when it came out, I remembered nearly nothing except "fast zombies".

Except they are technically not zombies: they have been infected with the "rage virus", thanks to the efforts of some earnest, well-meaning, PETA-style activists who break into a primate lab where it's being studied. One of the mad apes gets out, infects a human, and before you know it, Britain is full of starving, pissed-off, infectious, and doomed humans.

There are a handful of the uninfected. For example, J. Robert Oppenheimer "Jim" (Cillian Murphy) who wakes up in a hospital bed, where he's (apparently) been comatose while all this was going on. Like the viewer, he's clueless. But eventually he meets up with a few uninfected folks, and after some scary encounters, they make for a promised refuge run by the army, and 75% of them succeed. But it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I remember watching this movie as a young fan of Raymond Chandler back in 1973.

I hated it.

So, 52 years later, I decided to give it another chance. Perhaps noting the movie's Wikipedia page says the movie's "critical assessment has grown over time."

Nope. It still sucks.

My first two attempts to rewatch this ended in failure, as I fell asleep at some point. On my third try, I still fell asleep, but powered through via the rewind button on my Roku remote. Just to say that I watched it.

It starts with sleuth Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) being awoken (still fully dressed) in his bed by his cat at 3am demanding food. He's out of cat food! He tries to concoct something the cat will eat, but fails. He travels to the all-night grocery, but they are out of the cat's favorite brand. (He's also buying brownie mix, requested by the near-naked girls in a neighboring apartment.) But when Marlowe tries to fake out the cat with a different kind of food, the cat detects the subtrefuge and runs away.

All this takes an hour to tell. OK, maybe not an hour, but it seemed that long.

Eventually, the main plot creaks into motion. Marlowe's pal, Terry Lennox, shows up and asks Marlowe to drive him to Tijuana, because "a lot of people might be looking for him." This (it turns out) is due to the fact that his wife has been brutally murdered. Marlowe agrees, but that puts him into trouble with the cops, gets him acquainted with drunk writer Roger Wade (Sterling Hayden) and his wife (Nina van Pallandt), and sadistic mobster Marty Augustine.

Trivia: Uncredited performances by David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Only Arnold's second movie role, after his 1970 appearance in Hercules in New York.) Jack Riley, who was wonderful as Mr. Carlin on "The Bob Newhart Show", plays a bar musician here. Music by John Williams, including a dreadful song that keeps showing up, including a brief, awful, performance by Mr. Carlin. Screenplay by Leigh Brackett, who also had screenwriting credits for The Big Sleep (the one with Bogie, back in 1946) and The Empire Strikes Back (the best Star Wars movie).

Two movies you should watch instead.

But as far as the screenplay goes, IMDB trivia sez:

I got that impression about Elliot Gould's performance too, but have no evidence other than my own eyes and ears.

But in any case, the movie has little to do with Raymond Chandler's classic book. It's a travesty.

Ridley Scott is back, baby, and (as near as I can tell) uses his time machine to send a film crew back to Imperial Rome, a few years after that gladiator who looked a lot like Russell Crowe managed to work his way into a fatal encounter with that nasty Roman emperor who looked a lot like Joaquin Phoenix.

I went in not knowing too much about the movie, and I recommend that. I was taken unawares by some of the big plot twists.

It starts out with Hanno (Paul Mescal) about to defend his city against the invading Roman Navy. His wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) is a deadly archer, and before you can say "Gee, I bet she's not gonna do well here" … she does not, thanks to a specific order given by Roman General Acacius. Hanno is taken prisoner, he's recognized for his fighting talent by gladiator-manager Macrinus (Denzel Washington!), and pretty soon he's in the Coliseum fighting big lugs on rhinos, sharks, … while all the time plotting revenge.

Things are complicated by a holdover from Gladiator: Lucilla (Connie Nielson) is now (gasp!) married to Acacius, and is an occasional attendee at the Coliseum, where she … well, you should watch the movie.

Observation 1: Well, if you want to see Harrison Ford transform into a CGI Red Hulk, this is probably your only option. On the other hand, if you just want to see Mr. Ford as the US President, I recommend Air Force One instead.

Observation 2: If anger makes you into a Red Hulk, why did Bruce Banner turn into Green Hulk? Overcome by envy?

Observation 3: I watched this the night after I watched Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. I'll give this movie credit for having a slightly more credible plot.

Observation 4: As it turns out, I really missed some continuity. The major plot driver is the presence of "Celestial Island" in the Indian Ocean made out of the miraculous metal adamantium. Which threatens war between the major powers, the US and … Japan?! It must have landed there in some other Marvel movie I missed. Googling… yeah, probably The Eternals.

Anyway: Sam Wilson, previously the Falcon, is the new Captain America. He's still got his wings, though, aided by Cap's shield. This helps him investigate a nefarious scheme involving President Thaddeus Ross (Mr. Ford), mind control, that adamantium isle, and so on.

Oh, and Liv Tyler shows up. Nice!