For at least the first half of its running time, 1408 is one of the strongest Stephen KIng short story adaptions I've seen. As with most King stories, they've got a great yarn to build from. John Cusack (Say Anything, The Raven) stars as TMZ level novelist Mike Enslin. After a promising first novel and a tragic life event, he's now wallowing in writing about haunted hotels, debunking them while fabricating the most sensationalistic version of what he experiences, which is typically nothing. Like those TV Ghost Hunters, there seem to be spooks wherever he goes, but are there? Really? After receiving a mysterious postcard, he heads to the Dolphin Hotel in New York City to stay in room 1408. He's greeted by Hotel Manager Gerard Olin (Samuel L. Jackson, relishing his brief role and bringing the goods) who offers to give him every bit of sorted history AND an $800 bottle of scotch to NOT stay in the room. But Mike is past the point of believing and caring, so Gerald reluctantly gives him the key, letting him know that more than 50 people have died in the room and NO ONE has lasted more than an hour after checking in. It's a fun premise that's built for suspense and scares. The screenplay is no slouch, with Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Ed Wood) crafting a fun first half. But the film has a couple things that make it challenging for it to hold its intensity for the entire running time. It's basically a one man show after Enslin shuts the door of 1408. Yes, other characters, dead & alive, pop in and out, but Cusack has 90% of the screen time to himself. That's not a bad thing. Cusack has always given his characters a quirky, fascinating edge. But an hour in a room is a long time to sustain suspense. As the film goes on, stretching King's original story to nearly two hours, it begins to collapse under its own mythology, but it's never less than involving. Mary McCormack (Private Parts) is excellent as Lily, Mike's estranged wife and she brings real feeling to a final scene that emerges out of nowhere to close things out in strong fashion. Len Cariou (Blue Bloods) is okay but not given a lot to do as Mike's father. Room 1408 is a bit like those rooms in King's Overlook Hotel in "The Shining", stretching and morphing into some pretty expansive spaces within the mind. But NOTHING here approaches any scares even half the equal of Kubrick's film, even though they plow some of the same psychological turf. The room may be "pure evil" but the 2007 PG-13 rating makes it Evil-light in the scheme of things. A solid hit in theaters, it still plays pretty well today, limited only by its rating and a creeping sense of being stage bound that sets in about an hour on. It only scares up a C for me, paling in comparison to that much larger hotel dominating my King memories. For you real-life hotel ghost hunters, take note that due to alleged paranormal activity, the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio, Texas has sealed one of their rooms, 1408. Perhaps King's inspiration? Also, anyone out there still fascinated with the number 13 will have plenty to discuss after viewing!

Morgan Freeman is legendary. Every word, every motion conveys gravitas. Even he can't breathe any life into the role of Alex Cross in his second film as the detective in 2001's ALONG CAME A SPIDER ? Why? Because he's trapped in a film with so many plot holes and logic lapses in its story that you're left at the end scratching your head in confusion. And not in a good, "Inception" or "The Prestige" way. A big "twist" two thirds of the way through the story was as bad as M. Night's stupid "The Village" reveal. My reaction wasn't "oh, how clever", I just kept saying aloud, "that doesn't make any sense". The film opens with a rip roaring action scene in which Alex Cross is in a helicopter, observing his female partner in a red sports car with a known killer, trying to entrap him (I guess?). There are hidden cameras here that are the first head scratching hints of credibility gaps, but it soon ends with a high speed crash and death that's marred as much by bad early CGI as questionable logic. The best part of that opening scene is the music by Jerry Goldsmith. This was one of his last scores before his death, and it's his usual soaring, awesome action music. The man has written so many great scores (Patton, Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, Basic Instinct, First Blood, Poltergeist, Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and he's still firing on all cylinders here. But even he and Freeman can't save this mess. We move on to the main plot, with a senator's daughter attending a private school. Her history teacher Mr/ Soneji (a strong Michael Wincott from "Nope") is obviously wearing bad theatrical makeup. No one seems to notice, even though it's absurdly bad. Before you can say "Class Dismissed", Soneji kidnaps Megan, the senator's daughter and whisks her away to a boat, storing her in a locked, sound proof cabin. The Secret Service agent in charge, Jezzie Flannigan, played by Monica Potter, (who I'll never forgive for being part of that crapfest "Patch Adams") botched her protection duty as bad as those idiots protecting Trump in Pennsylvania and gets yelled at by her boss, McArthur. Dylan Baker (Happiness, Selma) is such a great character actor that I kept hoping the movie would give him more to do as McArthur. Soneji immediately pulls the semi-retired Alex Cross into the case, wanting to engage in an elaborate cat and mouse game with him to save Megan. Alas, this is where the screenplay by Marc Moss begins its plummet into the nonsensical. It's been 23 years since this movie hit theaters, so I'm not sure a spoiler alert is necessary, but just in case, STOP READING NOW , and know that I gave this dumb mess a D. Okay, take a ride with me here. * How would Jezzie know where the boat is where Soneji is keeping Megan? * How would Jezzie and Ben know what kind of voice masking system Soneji was going to use? * Why the elaborate chase all over Washington City when it would have been easier just to steal the diamonds by having them dropped to one of them? * Why would Jezzie keep every bit of the elaborate two year scheme on her computer with a password that she's practically handed to Cross, one of the greatest detectives since Sherlock Holmes? And lastly, why would she assume that Soneji wasn't just going to kill Megan when he took her? When one of these questions enters your head in the middle of the movie, you can just roll forward, hoping it's explained. When a half dozen stupid plot points are ratting around in your brain and every new scene brings a bigger eye roll, you've got a hell of a problem. I've never been a big Patterson fan, except for the novels he's co-written with other authors. They can be fun fluff and a quick one day read. But ALONG COMES A SPIDER gets tangled in its own illogical and poorly constructed web so quickly it becomes a slog to its stupid finale. Blech. Good work Freeman & Goldsmith, but even you can't save this dreck.

Terrifying in 1968 and still haunting today, 1968's ROSEMARY'S BABY is a testament to Robert Evans vision as a young producer and Roman Polanski's as a new wave Director. Hollywood was beginning to see the impact of a new generation, with "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate" baffling older moviegoers and aging studio heads in 1967. A very young Robert Evans was newly appointed as the head of Paramount and worked with schlock b-movie horror master William Castle (The House on Haunted Hill) to bring Rosemary to the big screen. Castle wanted to direct, but Evans convinced him that Polanski, who had never made an American film before, was the visionary they both needed to bring Ira Levin's blockbuster novel to the screen. They went about assembling one of the most eclectic casts in sixties films to portray the residents of The Bramford, a Manhattan apartment building where struggling actor Guy Woodhouse (John Cassavetes) and his young bride Rosemary (Mia Farrow) move. The Bramford has a long history of deaths, murder and witchcraft, all entertainingly conveyed to the couple by their friend Hutch (Maurice Evans of "Planet of the Apes" fame). Their neighbors are certainly an odd lot, led by Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) as Minnie Castavet. Minnie is loud and so are her outfits, she talks loud, she eats loud, Gordon is a full volume blast. Minnie is married to aging man of the world Roman Castavet, played by Sidney Blackmer (High Society) who seems to bond very quickly with Guy. Rosemary isn't so sure of the older couple and likes the young woman Terri (Victoria Vetri) that the Castavets have welcomed into their massive apartment. Rosemary updates the Central Park West apartment, growing more weary of her intrusive but seemingly caring neighbors. Tragedy strikes yet again at The Bramford with an untimely death. Rosemary begins having nightmares about her neighbors and a horrifying, tangible dream in which she is raped by Satan. When Rosemary finds out she's pregnant, the Castavets insist that she see their friend Dr. Saperstein (Ralph Bellamy) the leading obstetrician in New York. 'Don't Worry!" Minnie says, "he'll give you the friends and family rate!" Guy's career suddenly explodes and he's rarely home. Rosemary becomes increasingly suspicious that her elderly neighbors and husband have sinister designs on her baby. Farrow is fantastic in a role she calls her career best. Fresh off her role on TV's "Peyton Place", she proves to be a movie star. Gordon won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Minnie. You can't take your eyes off of her. Evans has said in interviews (including on the superb Criterion Collection Blu Ray that I watched) that Polanski was always in trouble with the Studio Heads, but Evans backed him all the way, because the daily footage was brilliant. Hard to argue. Polanski's camera seems to always be positioned at an unexpected angle to keep you a tad off center, adding to the creepiness. He's a master at suspense as well, making you wonder what's in that closet? What are those sounds from next door? Just who IS on Rosemary's side? One scene has a dazed Rosemary walking into NYC traffic and it was shot for real, no stunt people, with Polanski and his hand held camera following Mia Farrow into traffic. They filmed it three times, with Polanski assuring her "Don't worry, no one will hit a pregnant woman!" Based on the sequence in the film, that's true, but barely. He worked many one-take, "camera moving around the building" sequences into the film decades before it became the norm. This was the first time that Polanksi had adapted someone else's work for the screen and his screenplay is remarkably faithful to Levin's novel, lifting entire sequences of dialogue from the book and even following the look and feel of the apartment from Levin's descriptions. Great moments abound. Watch Cassavetes reaction when a very pale, almost gray & gaunt Rosemary feels the baby move, exclaiming "It's alive!", She doesn't notice his repulsion, and neither did I until this time watching it. As you can imagine in 1968, Paramount had no idea how to market a film with this subject matter. Evans worked with a Manhattan Ad Agency who told him that they would create an entire campaign for the film for free, but if Paramount used anything, it would cost them a flat $100k. They created the now legendary poster of the baby carriage on the mountain range against a plain green background with four simple words. Pray for Rosemary's Baby. The rest is history. Audiences flocked to the film, making it a huge hit and an early massive win for Evans, who would go on to produce "Love Story", "The Godfather" and "Chinatown" at Paramount. Filmgoers of all ages have, I would think, heard about "Rosemary's Baby", but it is that rare nearly 60 year old film that holds up as a horror classic on every level. The photography by William Fraker (Bullitt, Heaven Can Wait) is clever and Production Design by Richard Sylbert (Chinatown, The Cotton Club, Reds) nails the stage set creations of the inside of The Bramford. The exteriors of the building are the famed Dakota Apartments in Manhattan, where John Lennon lived and was assassinated in 1980. It's a scary building from any angle. This is famously the film that cost Farrow her marriage to Frank Sinatra. Their relationship was rocky and Sinatra insist she leave the film when production went very long over schedule. He wanted her to star in his film "The Detective" and demanded she leave the film. Evans showed Mia the dailies and told her she'd win an Oscar for Rosemary. She stayed and Sinatra's lawyer served her with divorce papers in the middle of filming a scene several days later. Come on, Frank!! Mia was staunchly Catholic at the time she took the role (that's not her in most of the nude scenes) so not all of Rosemary's anguish needed to be faked! The film is so cleverly constructed that you could debate if the events actually take place or if the entire thing is a figment of Rosemary's imagination. OK, maybe until the last 30 seconds anyway...... Sanity, betrayal, both are in play. Paving the way for "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" to follow, ROSEMARY'S BABY remains a classic worth revisiting. After all these years, it still hammers directly on the dormant suspicion within each of us that wonders if we truly know the people that surround us. Once it taps into that nerve, it never lets go. This masterclass in acting, writing, direction and set design gets an A. Watch for a new series "APARTMENT 7A" on Paramount+ in September 2024. It promises to tell you just what happened in their apartment before they moved in.

Steven Spielberg's first film in the director's chair, 1971's DUEL is one hell of a debut, taking an ABC Movie of the Week (remember those?) to another level. With a terrific screenplay by Richard Matheson (The Night Stalker, I Am Legend, The Omega Man) based on his novel, the story starts quickly and keeps the pedal to the metal. Dennis Weaver (McCloud) stars as business man David Mann, heading out on the California freeway in his red Dodge Valiant for a meeting that he describes to his wife as "very important". I'm not sure where they are meeting, but his drive takes him far off the LA coast into the deserts of California. Along the way, he passes a beat up looking fuel truck that looks like it's on its last wheels. Nothing out of the ordinary, but suddenly the truck flies by him at high speed, scaring the hell out of David, and us, thanks to some great direction by Spielberg. So begins an escalating game of cat and mouse, with the phantom trucker upping the stakes at every turn in the road. The film is cleverly structured, with Weaver's character stopping at a diner in the middle of nowhere to catch his breath. When he looks outside and sees the beat up tanker sitting outside, waiting for him, he begins to suspect everyone in the diner is the mysterious man behind the wheel. Paranoia runs wild. Weaver is excellent as Mann. He goes through every phase from mildly annoyed to terrified as the life and death measure of the situation settles in. As it becomes clearer that the killer trucker means to take him out at all costs, Weaver's flop sweat is palpable. The stunt team is first rate, with the legendary 70's stunt driver Carey Loftin (Vanishing Point, OO7's License to Kill, Against All Odds, Raiders of the Lost Ark) making every inch between the semi and the car scream with tension. Spielberg was only 25 when Universal gave him his first film directing job. Loftin famously asked Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the car's driver, Spielberg told him, "You're a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch." Loftin replied, "Kid, you hired the right man." The sound design team deservedly won an Emmy Award for the aggressive sound mix, way ahead of its time. The truck horn still startles today, as does the absolute ROAR of the truck's engines as it seems to want to devour Weaver and the Dodge. Shot in twelve days on a $450,000 budget, DUEL remains one of the most confident film debuts of any modern film director. After this film's superb response, Universal gave Spielberg the Goldie Hawn film "The Sugarland Express" to direct, followed by a little film called "Jaws". The legend started here. DUEL gets an A. Spielberg fans: Lucille Benson, the Lady at the Snakerama Gas Station also appears as a gas station attendant in Spielberg's "1941". The elderly couple in the car who don't want to get involved when Weaver begs them too, were also featured as a couple in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"!

Kevin Costner's Epic HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CHAPTER ONE is old fashioned, beautiful to look at, sprawling in scale and for me, a worthy entry into Costner's legacy of classic Western films. Over the last few decades, Costner has starred in and/or directed some of the best films in the genre. "Dances with Wolves", "Open Range", "Silverado" and the underappreciated "Wyatt Earp". He's put his money where his mouth is this time out, sinking $70 million of his own money into the HORIZON saga, which he envisions as a four-film story. Sadly, this first chapter did not find an audience in theaters just before the 4th of July weekend, putting the release of the completed Chapter Two in limbo. There's certainly enough story to fill more than one movie. We spend the first 70 minutes of this film's 181 minute running time (coincidentally, the exact same running time as "Wolves") meeting the characters in our tale. Costner doesn't even ride into the film until exactly an hour in! The film tells the tale of American settlers heading west during the Civil War era. To say they are not welcomed is an understatement. Costner has always had a heart for telling both sides of the Old West and at least for the first half of the film, we do see the fractures within the native tribes, with elders wanting to meet with the white men entering their lands. The younger warriors want to exterminate the invaders and protect their land. In the first half hour, I found myself inspired by the bravery of the people leaving everything behind to claim a piece of the new world, and horrified watching the advancement through the eyes of the indigenous children. Sienna Miller is Frances Kittridge, surrounded by her family in a new home in the Horizon settlement. Her world is torn apart when the village is attacked and massacred in a huge scale action sequence well staged by Costner and his production team. The loss of families and children of every age is shocking and the film doesn't shy away from the brutality. Sam Worthington (Avatar) stars as Lieutenant Gephart, a Cavalry man leading the team that comes to the Horizon settlement to help the survivors of the brutal attack. Meanwhile, Luke Wilson is Matthew Van Weyden, leading a massive wagon train across the landscape. A wide breadth of settlers is in the group, including a proper young English husband played by Tom Payne (Prodigal Son) and his wife, who provide some humor in their posh approach to heading West. Jena Malone (Nocturnal Animals) plays Ellen Harvey, who we meet as she shoots a man and kidnaps her own son, escaping into a pioneer town where she relies on young lady of the evening Marigold (Abbey Lee from "Mad Max: Fury Road") to watch her son during the day. The man she shot is the leader of Sykes family, a notoriously brutal name known to any of the settlers. The brothers Sykes, led by Jon Beavers (Sugar, Licorice Pizza) as Junior, in a towering performance that damn near steals the movie, head out to find Ellen at all costs, putting her, her son and Marigold in danger. Meanwhile, Costner stars as Hayes Ellison, a slightly more talkative version of Eastwood's Man with No Name, with his gun at his side and a focus on doing what's right, even if that means killing a man in a split second. Costner is fine here, but I hope that future chapters open up the character to show more layers underneath that ten gallon hat. If the above seems overwhelming from a narrative standpoint, I've barely touched on the twenty or so main characters driving the narrative. My biggest complaint with Horizon is the editing by Costner regular Miklos Wright (Open Range, The Umbrella Academy). I feel like the two of them must have had a massive board in the editing room, keeping track of all the characters, timelines, locations and action. Unfortunately, as a viewer, that matrix isn't available and I found some of the time jumps and movements from storyline to storyline pretty confusing. The acting is fine across the board and the photography of the western landscapes by J. Michael Muro (Crash, Open Range) is jaw dropping. I have never minded long films that hold my interest, and this one did, but my bride found it very long and confusing, an opinion shared by many on its way to $34M at the box office against the $100M budget. Many felt that Costner bit off more than he can chew, but I'm along in the saddle with him and have confidence that he'll weave all these people together into a final Western tapestry to stand alongside his classics. With only 25% of the story presented, it's a bit early to judge the epic. I'll be excited to see Chapter Two, whenever it lands on the big screen. Here's hoping it earns a big enough following on MAX and streaming to build an audience and provide Costner the room to complete his most ambitious film. For me, the full HORIZON is still a long way off, but I give CHAPTER ONE a solid B.

In 1972, one of the funniest women on the planet took on her first big screen leading role, in a part in which she barely broke a smile. It begs the question, why? PETE 'N' TILLIE pairs Carol Burnett with Walter Matthau in a screenplay written by Julius J. Epstein, who wrote "Casablanca" and "Arsenic and Old Lace". So, with that pedigree, it's got to be a great story about a legendary romance, right? Well, no. Burnett's Tillie is a single woman leading a very quiet life, not in any hurry to meet anyone and content with her life. I mean, I guess she's content, Burnett plays her with the straightest of faces. Her longtime friend Gertrude (a wild Geraldine Page, swinging for the fences, perhaps in an attempt to breathe some life into the proceedings) throws notorious parties and she's committed to introduce Tillie to Pete, a marketing research everyman who's got a quick wit, a million retorts and the dryest of humors. If Burnett's casting is questionable, Matthau (The Odd Couple, The Fortune Cookie) is spot on. From their first meeting, Matthau comes off as a self centered, Scotch drinking guy who takes nothing seriously. Director Martin Ritt (Norma Rae, Hud) dutifully films a "falling in love" montage set to one of John Williams earliest, perfectly adequate scores and we watch them cavort through restaurants and parks. Eventually it ends up in a bedroom scene so clinical that I felt like a medical student sitting in on a physical. Awkward, dull and without a spark, I kept wondering how they would ever be together. But Epstein's script has no time for dilly dallying. Soon, they've been married for awhile, then Tillie's pregnant, then the kid is old enough to be played by Lee H. Montgomery, surely one of the worst kid actors of any decade. After "Ben" I was hoping he'd slink off to commercials, but nope, here he is. Oof. Barry Nelson (The Shining, Airport) is excellent as Gertrude's husband, Burt. He and Tillie have chemistry on screen, I kept waiting for that movie to happen. Rene Auberjonois (M*A*S*H*, Brewster McCloud, The Hindenburg) brings class and eccentricity to Jimmy, an openly gay character (revolutionary in 1972) who's a steadfast friend to Tilly. Just when you begin to connect with someone, Epstein takes the story or a character into a weird place. When Tilly is faced with Pete's seeming habitual cheating, she barely registers any emotion. When their child faces a life threatening disease, Pete sits in front of the TV and Tillie strolls around the backyard swearing at God. Poor Burnett does her best and is fine as Tillie, she's just playing such a stereotypical, bored, middle-class, undemanding character, she grows annoying. Matthau gets off some great lines. "Love without irritation is just lust. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with lust." When Pete asks Tillie where she hails from and she responds, "San Jose", Pete retorts with "I have to be honest with you. That isn't much of a "hail". Next time you're asked, say, oooh, I don't know... Indianapolis". When Tillie offers to make Pete a drink and asks what he wants, he says "Whatever's the most trouble". There's an enjoyable movie wanting to break out here, but.... Matthau is such a louse to Tillie for 90% of the film, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to cheer for, certainly not for these two unhappy people to stay together, when they seem, at every turn, to be settling for each other. A catfight between Gertrude and Tillie near the end of the film seems like a bit of physical comedy edited in from another film. It makes zero sense. Think about Jimmy's final scene with Tillie, it makes no sense for him to be saying any of that and her reaction seems like she's near comatose on Xanax. Burnett, Matthau and Nelson are always worth watching, but PETE N TILLIE spirals into a major stretch of my goodwill by the final act. Playing like a mix between a very bad Woody Allen movie and a half-assed take on "Terms of Endearment", it gets a C.

Alien fans should be very excited that Director Ridley Scott has returned to fast-moving, exciting horror sci-fi with his latest, ALIEN COVENANT. Ranking a beyond expectations, fourth in the series for me behind James Cameron's "Aliens" and Scott's original 1979 film "Alien", COVENANT starts off strong and never lets up. The opening flashback scene is a quiet meeting between Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) and his android David (Michael Fassbender) as they speak about creation, intelligence, faith and the quest for knowledge. The screen then fills with a view of space and the legendary ALIEN title appearing on screen in the same style it did in '79, over Jerry Goldsmith's original score from that film, enough to excite any true "Alien" fan. You know from that moment that Scott is going to reward long time fans of the series with references both audio and visual for the next two hours. And those two hours move fast. We move ten years after the events of the last film, "Prometheus". We meet the crew of the colony ship Covenant as they are awoken seven years early by an emergency on the ship. (Do these long journeys of sleep ever go off without a hitch? Between "Planet of the Apes", "Passengers" and the nasty occurences here, I'm thinking that a long nap is the most hazardous part of the voyage!) They are told by the onboard computer Mother (welcome back Mother!) that there is an ideal planet for colonization very nearby. Why wait seven more years when their mission can start on a beautiful, human-friendly planet nearby! No spoiler alerts necessary, I'm not going to tell you what happens from that point forward, but suffice to say, the planet holds it's own secrets that blend perfectly into the story arc of our Alien creatures. The last film set up a mythology in which creation began, with the creators sparking the beginning of human life and then creating a very different and terrifying life form to correct their mistakes. COVENANT tells two stories simultaneously, the fast moving story of our colonists on a terrifying planet and the backstory of what happened on this planet between the creators and other characters in our story. The cast is excellent. Katherine Waterston is our new Ripley-like heroine Daniels, morphing from emotional devastation to kick-ass action star in the story. Billy Crudup is great as Oram, thrust into a leadership role and wrestling with his faith in the face of his discoveries. Danny McBride, who I think is the funniest guy on the planet in HBO's "Vice Principals" plays pure drama here with equal skill as crew member Tennessee. Jussie Smollet has great screen presence as Ricks and Callie Hernandez is great as Upworth. At the film's center in dual roles is Michael Fassbender as android David and a newer model aboard the Covenant named Walter. He's fantastic. Menacing, compassionate, cunning and caring, you're challenged with which android is which and forced to think about their motivation. Fassbender's every move is perfect. There are numerous fantastic action sequences, staged by Scott and his fantastic director of photography Darius Wolski (The Martian, The Walk) as big screen spectacles on an amazing scale. Savvy long-time fans of the series will find dozens of fun references to the original ALIEN, including battles on the outside of crafts near thrusters, clever uses of the airlock, opening and closing hatches, a certain "roller coaster ride, straight down" and even that tiny toy bird on a control panel, dipping back and forth into a glass of water. Alien fans know what I'm talking about. Jerry Goldsmith's music is referenced throughout, woven into a new and clever music score by Jed Kurzel (who cut his teeth on small films like "The Babadook" and "Slow West") that also references Marc Streitenfeld's music from "Prometheus" that I didn't even know I remembered until I heard it again. The planet visuals are stunning on the big screen, like New Zealand on steroids and the Creator City is jaw dropping, making Pompeii pale by comparison. Fast, intelligent, bloody scary and graphic, the alien creatures have never looked or moved better than they do with Scott's blend of mechanical effects and 2017 CGI technology. I did have a creeping feeling as the film began to wrap up that I wished it would have unveiled a bigger part of the story arc, but as the second film in Scott's planned four film series, it's tasked with teasing you for the next two, which it does very well. It would have also been nice to see Oram's questions about faith explored a bit more in relation to what's unveiled on the planet. Some of the dialogue between David and Weyland in the prologue is so good, it makes you wish those level of questions about life and our place in the universe were sustained throughout. The fact that Ridley Scott continues to even address them within the framework of one of the best sci-fi/horror film series ever created, nearly 40 years after the original film, is the gift that continues to deliver. ALIEN COVENANT is a summer movie blast, filled with gory shocks and surprises and a few laughs along the way to relieve the tension. But don't get too relaxed, there's something terrifying right around that corner ready to jump on your face..... COVENANT gets an A-.

BRIAN'S SONG was one of the highest rated TV movies of all-time when it hit the small screen in 1971. The winner of 5 Emmy Awards, it still holds up as one of the best true story/football films ever made more than 50 years later. Billy Dee Williams, in his first major film after a lot of TV roles, is excellent as Gale Sayers. We know that Sayers would becomes one of the greatest Chicago Bears in history, but Williams captures his rookie year. Shy and gullible, he falls for every prank thrown at him by fellow rookie Brian Piccolo, played by James Caan, whose next film would be a little picture called "The Godfather". The film flies through their training camp and first season, with Jack Warden (Heaven Can Wait, All The President's Men) sterling as Bears Coach Halas. Bernie Casey (Sharky's Machine, Never Say Never Again) is player J.C. Caroline and Shelley Fabares (TV's Coach, Clambake) is a standout as Brian's wife, Joy. I never realized what a low budget film this is, with every cheap set definitely showing its TV movie of the week roots. The Bears headquarters look more like a high school and the players dorm rooms look like a Travelodge. It's hilariously cheap. Fortunately, the cast is on their A game, with Caan and Williams as the ultimate pigskin odd couple. The two also forged new ground as one of the first mixed race NFL roommates in the 1960's. When Sayers suffers a midseason knee injury, it's Piccolo who inspires and drives him to a full recovery. I think it's maybe forty years late for a spoiler alert, suffice to say that this film is legendary for making grown men weep as Piccolo faces off against a mid-season cancer diagnosis. Michel Legrand's theme song is legendary and rode the top of the music charts as a 45 for much of 1971. Unflinching in its portrayal of Piccolo dealing with the disease, the final twenty minutes serves up one blow after another, leaving you emotionally spent. Some of the racial language muttered is a bit jarring in 2024, but was less so in its time. The message of crossing racial boundaries together overcomes any off putting 1970's dialogue. Williams and Caan are excellent, showing early signs of their careers that would last for many decades. One of the best sports films ever made, it was released theatrically in Europe after its ABC broadcast premiere broke ratings records. BRIAN'S SONG delivers an inspiring B.

It's not often that a film I've anticipated seeing for so long can exceed expectations, but Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS blew me away. WIth very fond memories of seeing the original Alien in 1979 at the original Cine Capri in Phoenix, I sat in the new Tempe Cine Capri 33 years later VERY excited as the lights went down. From it's opening prologue (fantastic photography and CGI) that heavily echoes 2001 (especially in its opening shot) to nearly its final shot, Prometheus stuns. This is not a straight up prequel in the way that George Lucas neatly wove the last hour of "Revenge of the Sith" into the beginning of "Star Wars". Prometheus has many, many echoes of Alien but don't go in expecting too many obvious, easy tie-ins to the original. Noomi Rapace (Salander in the original Swedish "Dragon Tattoo" films) and Logan Marshall-Green are scientists that discover similar cave drawings and artifacts on Earth that point to a far away solar system and outsized alien visitors. Scott moves the film along quickly and you are soon along with them on their journey to discover the origin of these visitors. Charlize Theron provides steely support as the ranking official from Weyland Industries and Idris Elba is great as the captain of the ship. Once they land on the planet, fasten your seatbelt. There are at least five action set pieces that will blow you away, my favorite of which deals with a robotic surgery pod and a very brave patient. Michael Fassbender is terrific as David, the crews's robot with a fascination for Peter O'Toole and "Lawrence of Arabia", its a great performance with a lot of mystery that echoes Ian Holm's 'Nash" in the original Alien. My only complaint was the very last scene, which felt tacked on and out of sync with the majesty of the last 15 minutes, but its a minor quibble compared to the 2 hours plus before that 15 seconds. This is a great film. If you are an action film or casual science fiction fan, its a treat. If you are a big fan of the Alien series and science fiction, you will be rewarded with dozens of echoes of Kubrick's 2001 and the DNA strands of the original Alien. PROMETHEUS is smart, beautiful to watch, thrilling and delivers the goods. An A by any measure. Looking forward to watching the original Alien on tonight...when its dark.......

Five years after the disappointment of Alien3, sci-fi fans were fed the most lackluster entry in the series with 1997's ALIEN RESURRECTION . Sliding quickly down the slippery quality slope so fast it must be coated with that green alien slime, this entry takes place 200 years after Ripley died on the prison planet. Conveniently for filmmakers, she's cloned by a group of scientists and then used as a host for an alien Queen. Because the scientists and the military are ALWAYS stupid in these movies, no matter what century they take place in, the docs think they can harvest the best pieces of the monstrous species for human good. Right. Brad Dourif (Dune, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) is as oddball as ever in the opening scenes as a wacko scientist who learns quickly that you cant keep these shiny xenomorphs in any cage for long. Sigourney Weaver is the bright spot of the film as a kick-ass, alien/human hybrid version of Ripley that you can't quite pin down as either. Her blood sizzles nicely on the floor and her memory and strength seem super-charged. She hasn't lost her flair for one-lines either, with "They'll breed, You'll Die" leading the way. Very predictably, a ship full of traders lands to deliver stolen folks in suspended animation for the twisted breeding process and they get stuck on the massive army freighter along with the newly grown and recently escaped alien creatures. Among them is Winona Ryder, horribly cast and out of her depth. She's so bad that Weaver nearly blows her off the screen every time they appear together. Ron Perlman (Hellboy) fares best, especially during his brief one-on-one basketball match against Ripley. Dan Hedeya (Commando, The Usual Suspects) has some good quiet moments when he's not channeling the drill sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket" and watch for a young Gary Dourdan who followed up this role with a 15 year stint on CSI as investigator Warrick Brown. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was hailed as a visionary genius (The City of Lost Children, and I enjoyed his film Amelie) but he is a complete bust here. Think about all the fantastic visuals in Ridley Scott's "Alien". He crafted the dialogue free first ten minutes aboard the Nostromo, the descent into the alien craft, the chest-burster scene. James Cameron brought strong visuals to "Aliens", including the massive civilian camp on the planet and the marines moving through it on every level, the jarring finale with Ripley v the Queen in the airlock. Even David Fincher brought a fantastic opening sequence to Alien 3. But here? Nothing. There's not one visual here that inspires. It's all a bland interpretation of the script. Even the space shots of the massive ships seem out of focus and phoned in. The only time the film comes to life for a few seconds is when it alludes to the previous films, with 15 seconds of Jerry Goldsmith's original score in the opening scene aboard the medical bay and the base-heavy WHOMP of a flashlight passing over the camera in tribute to the opening docking scene in "Aliens". Boring, bland and dull, RESURRECTION is anything but. It killed the standalone Alien films and led to the moronic "Alien V Predator" films of the 2000's as Fox tried to squeeze every last dollar out of the property. Weaver is the only thing that saves it in any measure, but even she's not enough to earn this last gasp of the series anything but a slimy D.

James Cameron's ALIENS would be a tough act to follow for any filmmaker. David Fincher is a brilliant director in his own right, making some of the best films of the last two decades, including "Se7en", "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Social Network" to name just a few. Early in his film career, Fincher took the reins for this 1992 sequel to Aliens, creating the third chapter in the Alien saga. The film starts out incredibly strong. The familiar strains of the 20th Century Fox music fanfare suddenly turns sharp and wavering, turning into dark and shrill notes. The opening credits quickly pop between titles and staccato cuts of action aboard Ripley's escape pod in which she, Newt and Corporal Hicks escaped at the end of Aliens. It's obvious things have gone horribly wrong, with an alien creature aboard, oozing acid and destruction. The pod crashes to the surface of a prison planet without any women on its surface. At that point, just five minutes in, the film starts slipping from its promising beginning into something...less. The next half hour or so still shows flashes of greatness, especially anytime that Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, still strong) shares the screen with the mysterious doctor in the prison, Clemens. Clemens is played by Charles Dance, a great character actor now best known as Tywin Lannister on "Game of Thrones". He is a GREAT actor and he and Weaver have strong chemistry as two lost souls finding a quick moment of solace with each other on this miserable world. The film's best scene finds a huge Alien creature entering the medical bay with Clemens and Ripley. There are moments in that 5 minute sequence as good as any Alien film or any Fincher film. Alas, once Dance exits the picture, it becomes a much less interesting film, with unlikable characters played by actors that insist on shouting every line, a spin on the Alien creature that is less than successful and chase scenes that grow confusing and repetitive. Weaver does what she can with an underwritten part and no one creates dank, dark atmosphere like Fincher, but with little stake in the outcome, it quickly becomes a lesser entry in the Alien film saga. Lance Henriksen makes a strong appearance late in the movie that Bishop fans will appreciate, but its too little too late. That being said, it's better than the next film in the series "Alien Resurrection" that took the Fincher factor to the next level. Third time is definitely NOT the charm for ALIEN3, which gets a shrug and a C.

One of the best sci-fi horror thriller films of all time, one of the best sequels in cinema history and in my all time Top 10, James Cameron’s ALIENS is a fantastic thrill ride of a movie. Thirty years later, it’s just as incredible! As the film opens, Ripley’s escape craft from the Nostromo is drifting in space, where a salvage crew finds her, wakes her our of many years of sleep and throws her right back into action. In the many years Ripley was sleeping, many families and workers have colonized the remote desolate planet where her crew found the Alien in the original film. They’ve just gone silent after discovering the same ship that was Kane’s downfall in the original film. Writer/Director James Cameron sends Ripley back with an entire squad of marines, a massive ship full of weapons and the best technology available. But will that matter when they face off against hordes of the acid dripping, double jawed, huge creatures with a driving desire to plant their eggs in our chests? Doubtful, but so much fun. Cameron cleverly sets up second act battles with first act intelligence. He creates a terrific band of marines with unique personalities, from the badass Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) to the sniveling, but hilarious coward Hudson (Bill Paxton), first time Lieutenant Gorman (William Hope) to the classic, cigar chewing Apone (Al Matthews). 80’s stalwart Michael Biehn is terrific as Corporal Hicks, who never fails to rise to the occasion in this all out war. Throw in a corporate tool with ulterior motives, Burke (well played against type by Paul Reiser) and another android names Bishop (Lance Henricksen) that Ripley is terrified to trust and you’ve got a terrific cast of characters. When the marines discover a little girl nicknamed Newt (Carrie Henn) in the madness of the civilian compound, she becomes the driving force for Ripley to survive and protect against an unrelenting alien force. As Ripley, Sigourney Weaver is a home run. Believable, a kick-ass action hero and a born leader, Ripley is one of the best screen heroines of all time and this is, by far, the best film the character’s been featured in to date. Once Cameron sets up the basics very quickly, the film never stops, literally slowing down only long enough for us to breathe between suspenseful alien encounters. Cameron’s genius is blending a classic war movie with science fiction and action to create something we hadn’t seen before in 1984. Ridley Scott’s original “Alien” in 1979 is terrific, but ALIENS is that rare sequel that I would argue is even better, taking the ponderous, slow style of Ridley (which I love) and infusing it with massive amounts of adrenaline and conflict. Classic moments abound. Classic one-liners fill the movie. “Why don’t you put her in charge!” “ They mostly come at night….mostly….” “ Game over, man! Game over!” “Hey, maybe you haven’t been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked pal!” and of course the best, ‘Get away from her, you bitch!” That inspired huge applause when I originally saw this in the theatre and still gets us all riled up in that climactic moment. What a great movie. Great story telling, fantastic sets and creature work, excellent sound, superb visual effects, one of James Horner’s best music scores and James Cameron at his absolute best, ALIENS is an all time classic of any genre and in my all-time top 10. ALIENS stands as the best film in the series and one of the best films ever. It gets an A+.