Re:tro Re:view - The Lost Boys!

The Lost Boys (1987) is revolutionary in presenting what we know as the modern vampire, stylish, and full of youthful energy and humor!  Vampires, pre-Lost Boys, were solitary aristocrats who had fake fangs, not scary and almost a parody.  The innovative make-up effects were by Greg Cannom, he worked on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and won a Academy Award for Vice (2018).  Read the FX article here: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/blog/the-lost-boys-makeup-fx-behind-the-scenes-pioneering-new-vampires.  The design was set in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).  The other vision of vampires was Count Orlock in Nosferatu (1922), the German film directed by F.W. Murnau, but it wasn’t really adopted by other horror properties.  All of the versions of vampires were brought together in Kindred the Embraced (1996)!  The story was by Jan Fischer and James Jeremias, the initial script had Lost Boys at Neverland age, but it was aged up to teenagers by Jeffrey Boam, also known for writing the adaptation of The Dead Zone (1983). 

It was masterfully directed by Joel Schumacher who also directed St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) and later directed the musical adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (2004).  There were two later sequels, Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008), and Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010).  We pan across moonlit waters, some tense music by Thomas Newman, and then we move to a boardwalk.  On a carousel are the Lost Boys, leader David (Keifer Sutherland), and his lieutenant, Marko (Alex Winter).  Sutherland has become a well known actor, his previous role was as bully, Ace Merrill in Stand by Me (1986).  Winter is later known for playing Bill S. Preston Esquire in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989).  David is looking at a woman and her boyfriend tries to fight them.  A security guard sends them off the boardwalk.  The lights go out and we get a soaring pov above the boardwalk to the security guard walking in an empty parking lot.  The cinematography was by Michael Chapman who also worked on Taxi Driver (1976) and later The Fugitive (1993).  He starts to scream and run, but can’t open his car door.  The guard and the car door are ripped upwards and he screams.  

Then, we get the ocean at daylight, some music is played as a jeep and trailer travel through the seaside town of Santa Carla.  We get mother, Lucy (Dianne Weist), and sons, Michael (Jason Patric) and younger brother Sam (Corey Haim).  Weist is a distinguished actress and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) before starring in a horror movie!  Patric was in sci fi movie Solarbabies (1986).  Haim is of course part of The Coreys, he starred in the drama Lucas (1986) and also the horror movie Silver Bullet (1985) based on a Stephen King novella.  The trio are an interesting family, mother struggling to hold her family together, Michael our rebel, and Sam, the innocent teen.  Sam’s dog is the Siberian Husky, Nanook.  Then, we get Echo & The Bunnymen’s cover of The Door’s “People are Strange”, the soundtrack is also a star of this film.  While we get the residents of Santa Clara and posters of missing persons.  The jeep pulls up to and they look at some of the strange wood carvings.  Lucy sees Grandpa (Bernard Hughes) collapsed on the front porch playing dead.  Hughes is known for playing Dr. Walter Gibbs and Dumont in Tron (1982).  His performance is eccentric and perfect. 

At night, there is a concert at the boardwalk, Michael is entranced by the wild spirit of a young woman, Star (Jami Gertz).  The actress co-starred with Patric in Solarbabies, but I know her from the sitcom Square Pegs (1982-1983).  She looks at him and then leaves, Michael tries to follow her.  Lucy is also on the boardwalk and sees a help wanted sign at a video store.  At the store is the owner, Max (Edward Herrmann), then the Lost Boys walk into the store.  Hermann was in the film, The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and the comedy Overboard (1987).  Lucy finds a crying boy and takes him into the store to find his mother.  Her mother runs in to get her son.  Max sends out the Lost Boys and they ride away on motorcycles.  Lucy says they are just young kids.  Michael is still in pursuit of Star so Sam goes into a comic book store.  Side note: this is the first time that I saw a comic book store in any media.  One of the workers is Edgar (Corey Feldman) and his brother, Alan (Jamison Newlander).  Feldman is recognized from many genre films including Gremlins (1984) and Stand by Me.  Newlander appeared in the Lost Boys: The Thirst and also the horror Western, Bone Tomahawk (2015).  The Frog Brothers names are a fun nod to Edgar Allen Poe and they are a comic, strange duo.  

 

Sam tells them that their Superman comics are not placed correctly, true comic book fan!  Star and a young boy, Laddie (Chance Michael Corbitt), reach the Lost Boys and she rides with David.  They watch David looking at them and ride away.  The girlfriend is reading a comic book, when the roof of their car is torn off, and there is some garish red light.  They scream, the boyfriend is torn upwards, and then the girl.  At the garage, Grandpa and Sam enter his Ford Fairlane, but he only runs the engine.  At the comic book store, Alan asks Sam if he notices anything unusual about the town, his brother gives him a Destroy All Vampires comic book, made for the film.  They have their phone number written on the back, not true comic collectors damaging a comic!  Michael is wandering the boardwalk and meets with Star.  He invites her to eat when the Lost Boys ride up.  David compels her to ride with him and tells Michael about Hudson’s Bluff.  Michael rides behind them, Star looks back at Michael, the terrain becomes rough and he crashes.  The Lost Boys enter their hideout, David explains that it was an abandoned resort collapsed against the sea cliff.

At the hideout, Marko has brought Chinese food, David is spotlighted by strong moonlight.  He gives Michael a box of rice, says it is maggots, and Michael spits it out to see it is just rice.  Then, David offers a box of noodles, Michael sees worms, and David eats a noodle.  David calls for a bottle from Marko and drinks it, then offers it to Michael close-up of his face, saying, “Drink some of this Michael.  Be one of us.”  The other Lost Boys chant his name.  Star tells him not to drink it because it is blood.  He thinks like the rest of the food that he is being tricked and drinks from the bottle.  Michael closes his eyes.  He is slowly drawn into David’s Lost Boys and after Nanook protects Sam, they find he doesn’t cast a reflection!  Sam needs the help of The Frog Brothers to take care of the vampire problem.  Michael has to get Sam’s help to face his vampiric changes.  When we finally look at the true form of the vampires, they are demonic, but still recognizable as the actors.  David, Sam, and the Frog Brothers have to become vampire hunters.  The Lost Boys is clever with vampire rules and humor, wild and also fun characters, and a great soundtrack!   

Five Stakes out of Five! 

#LostBoys, #JoelSchumacher, #JasonPatric, #KeiferSutherland, #CoreyHaim, #JamiGertz 

The Mandalorian, “Chapter 9: The Marshal”, Review!

Season 2 of The Mandalorian is here!  This episode, I can’t believe it, is directed and written by Jon Favreau.  The creator of the show starts off the new season and he does not disappoint.  This is the best episode of The Mandalorian!  This is Chapter 9 of the show and this episode is of course superior to Episode 9 of the film series.  We have Mando given a quest by The Armorer (Emily Swallow) to find The Child aka Baby Yoda’s people.  He left his allies, Cara Dune (Gina Carrano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) for his quest.  There is also the threat of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) who wielded a Darksaber in the finale!  A Darksaber is the symbol of leadership to all Mandalorians.  It was created by Tarre Vizsla, the Mandalorian who became a Jedi.  In the Clone Wars it was held by Pre Vizsla, leader of the Death Watch.  Maul took the Darksaber.  It was found by Sabine Wren in Star Wars: Rebels.  She eventually gave it to Bo-Katan.  

The episode opens with a recap of season one.  The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) is walking with the pod, hover crib?, holding The Child.  It is an alien world that is starting into dusk.  This image is classic Western with the cowboy walking into town.  He walks into a city with walls covered in tagging, stormtroopers and droids, also writing that is not the Aurebesh symbols that is in Galactic Basic.  We haven’t seen graffiti in Star Wars, except from graffiti artist Sabine Wren in Star Wars: Rebels.  Baby Yoda is curious and looks around him.  Mando asks the Ithorian doorman about wanting to see Gor Koresh.  He enters the room with a fighting area, it looks like a boxing ring with various flags above the fighters.  They are Gamorrean, the green pig-like guards that we saw in Return of the Jedi (1983), using heavy axes, identified as vibro axes in SW lore.  Every strike causes blue pulses, shielding, so they are not mortally wounded.  

Mando sits next to an alien, Gor Koresh (John Lugizamo), a Cyclops alien with a bulky body and stubby arms.  His species is called the Abyssin, one was seen in the cantina scene from Star Wars.  Lugizamo was in Chef (2014) also written and directed by Favreau.  He is unrecognizable including his voice.  Mando is looking for other Mandalorians that he thinks could guide him to find Baby Yoda’s kind.  There are various aliens in the audience in including wearing a hat like Zuvio in Force Awakens.  Gor asks Mando if he will bet on the fight and wants his Beskar armor. Mando offers to pay him.  Gor takes out a blaster and shoots a Gamorrean raising his axe.  Then, he turns to cover Mando along with several other blasters held by his men.  The crowd runs out of the room.  Mando activates his gauntlet, Baby Yoda closes his pod, very funny!, and he activates the Whistling Birds, tiny projectiles that streak from his armor and takes out the gunmen.  

He kicks away the pod and takes on more henchmen hand-to-hand.  Gor Koresh starts to run away.  Mando ties him up with his grappling hook from his gauntlet and pulls him upside down over the street.   Gor admits that there is a Mandalorian on Tatooine that surprises Mando.  He was there in last season’s “Chapter 5: The Gunslinger“ (2019).  Gor also says that he is at Mos Pelgo.   Mando walks away and blasts the street light above Gor leaving him to a horrible fate.  His ship, the Razor Crest, heads towards Tatooine.   He passes over mountains and a Tusken Raider on a Dewback.  While the Dewback looks practical, it does like smaller than the elephant-sized creature in the first Star Wars.  

The ship lands at the Mos Eisley hangar of Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris).  She was in the fifth episode and of course she Deb in Favreau’s Elf (2003) and also was in Chef.  The pit droids start to move to repair the ship, but Peli says that Mando doesn’t like droids.  She is surprised when he asks for them to check on his ship.  Peli is happy to see Baby Yoda carried in a sack by The Mandalorian and exclaims, “Thank the Force!”  He explains his quest and wants to get help from other Mandalorians to chart a “path through the network of Coverts.”  He brings up Mos Pelgo which she says was wiped out by bandits.  She calls over R5-D4(!), the droid that malfunctioned in Star Wars, to project a map of Tatooine.  Peli points out the location of the “former mining town” and says that the Razorcrest would easily be seen by the town.  He borrows her speeder bike and races across the dunes with Baby Yoda.  

 

At sunset, he speaks with a group of Tusken Raiders, just like contemporary Westerns and characters like John Carter of Mars, Mando can speak with the natives.  It is also interesting that the Sand People communicate with their hands.  Scurriers which were first seen in the 1997 special edition of Star Wars flee as his speeder floats towards the town.  Mos Pelgo which was first mentioned in the computer game, Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Eternal Throne (2016).  The town looks like a frontier town out of a Western, Favreau directed the sci fi Western, Cowboys & Aliens (2011), this sensibility is a perfect fusion of the two genres like Firefly.  The soft guitar music of Ludwig Göransson as he rides into town is perfect.

Also, the rumbling of the speeder bike’s engine, is right out of motorcycles which works since Peli said it was old. Mando leaves Baby Yoda at the speeder bike as he enters a cantina.  Theres is a heavy set, Weequay bartender, and Mando asks if he has seen another Mandalorian.  He says if he means The Marshal.  At the entrance of the cantina is The Marshal in Boba Fett’s armor!  He also wears a red shirt and gets a bottle of spotchka, a blue liquid, from the bartender.  The Marshal takes off his helmet(!) and says he is Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant).  Olyphant of course has some Western experience playing Seth Bullock in Deadwood.  He was a character introduced in Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath (2015) that took place post-Jedi.  

Vanth admits that he bought the armor from Jawas.  They are about to draw when there is a rumbling that shakes the town.  The townspeople start running, one woman is in a Princess Leia-like dress, a massive creature burrows through the street like a Sandworm from Dune!  It raises up to swallow up a bantha!  The duo must team up to take out the Krayt Dragon, first time it is seen besides the skeleton in Star Wars, the lore is in line with the expanded material.  The best part is the team-up with the townspeople and Tusken Raiders.  They are still aggressive, but we understand a little about them as actual people, like fierce Native warriors.  It looks there is a macrobinocular watching them, no spoilers!, but this could be mysterious person who may have saved the bounty hunter, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen)!  This episode of The Mandalorian is perfect and hopefully the other episodes follow the tone set by this one!  

Five Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five! 

#TheMandalorian, #TheMarshall, #JonFavreau, #TimothyOlyphant 

The Outpost, “The Key to Paradise”, Review!

Yavalla has given Gwynn the kinj.  At the tavern, Talon says that Wren has fallen for Janzo.  Gwynn happily enters and has a private conversation with Talon.  Yavalla has control over her with white possessed eyes!  The market looks crowded with people as Gertrusha or Gertie walks (Glynis Barber) with Tobin and Munt who tells her about the death of the Mistress.  She has that the army has been reduced to one hundred soldiers after the battle with the Prime Order.  He walks in and spies Falista (Georgia May Foote) who has recently widowed.  She kisses him!  Gertrusha tries to act innocent.  Janzo is eating grapes sitting with Wren.  She asks him about the differences of humans and Blackbloods including reproductive organs!  Wren smiles at Janzo’s nervousness.  Gertrusha talks with Tobin and notes that Falista has an army.  Garret is punching at a bag and kisses with Talon.  They hear sounds and take swords to two Blackbloods.  A Blackblood says that he wants to bring them to the United.  Talon and Garret duel with the Blackbloods and kill them. 

THE OUTPOST -- “The Key to Paradise” -- JAKE STORMOEN, JESSICA GREEN -- Photo: Aleksander Letic/NBCU International © 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment.

Talon confronts Gwynn about the Blackbloods.  She starts to feel in pain.   Sends away guards and then uses her kinj to control Gwynn.  Under her control, Gwynn orders Talon out, she suffers pain from the kinj that moves to two orange spots!  Tobin is sleeping when Falista joins him in his bed!  He is disappointed that she married Lord Roman.  Falista says she was a teenager.  She kisses him again.  He says he’s betrothed to Queen Rosamund and tells her to leave.  Gwynn meets with Sammie and has him eat a meal.  The kinj travels from her, she kisses him, and the kinj makes him one of the United!  He’s been kinjed or kinjnapped!  This is a concept that is in comic books, Darkseid wanted the Anti-Life Equation that would give him control over every thinking person.  Janzo studies the box and Wren wants to work on the “scientific expermient.”  Janzo kisses Wren and it’s time to “experiment” all in the name of science.  Talon has made a proposal to Gertrusha and then offers a payment to Falista for her army.  She’s insulted since she only wants marriage.  Gertrusha says he tried using that tactic on Gwynn.  

Tobin walks with Munt who says the people are paying respect for him as king.  He convinces Tobin to marry Falista.   Tavakka enters the blacksmith’s shop, she takes Talon’s hands and tries to transfer the kinj, but it doesn’t work. Talon knocks out the guards and escapes.  She transfers the kinj to one of the defeated guards.   Yovanna enters Zed’s throne room angry that he didn’t tell her that his zinj failed to work on Talon.  Janzo enters confident and then becomes nervous talking to Talon.  She tells him that Yovanna’s zinj can reproduce!  Under a grate, Garret tries to sneak out, and sees Sammie in pain.  He sees a Blackblood hold a knife to Sammie’s throat when he passes on the zinj.  He welcomes her to the United.  Garret tells Janzo about the kinjification.  Talon is surprised that it was not just Yovanna.  Janzo thinks it’s like a hive.  Something like the Borg Collective?  So this is superhero and sci fi, I think this is a new concept for fantasy.  The trio are the only ones who are safe.  Talon thinks there is another person that could join their group.  I think that would be Zed with his zinj.  

THE OUTPOST -- “The Key to Paradise” -- IZUKAHOYLE, ANANDDESAIBAROCHIA-- Photo: Aleksander Letic/NBCU International © 2020 Outpost TV LLC. Courtesy of Electric Entertainment.

Villagers assemble for the marriage of Falista and Tobin.  He is asked to keep the marriage until death.  They are married.  Will he take two wives?  She shows him the army assembled outside of the castle.  Tobin rides with Munt and the other riders and soldiers.  They meet with the army.  Zed doesn’t believe Talon and Janzo.  He tries to explain what is happening through stinkflies.  Zed laughs at the idea.  Garret holds a sword to him.  Zed is surprised that Garret is alive.  Wren meets with her mother at the throne.  She wants an apology.  Yovanna walks toward her daughter, but she is suspicious.  She reaches out and tries to transfer the zinj, but Wren kicks her and escapes!  She ex-zinjed!  Wren walks in to talk to Janzo, then they see Zed, and now he believes!  I like this group of different characters.  Then, they hear the horn of an army.  On the battlement is Yovanna who sends Gwynn to give Tobin the Gift!  This episode has a “paradise” which is like the spread of a cult or a virus, a little romance, and some action!    

Five Daggers out of Five!  

#TheOutpost, #TheKeytoParadise, #GlynisBarber, #GeorgiaMayFoote 

Re:tro Re:view - Unfriended!

Unfriended (2014) is a Blumhouse film that brings suspense and terror to a group of teens entirely on computer screens!  Producer, Timur Bekmambetov, has developed the technology called Screenlife from his Bazelevs studio.  Such films include Hardcore Henry (2015), an action movie filmed on GoPro cameras, and Profile (2018), a thriller directed by Bekmambetov.  Unfriended led to a sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web (2018) with a new group of teens.  Searching (2018) directed by Aneesh Chaganty realized the potential of telling a story through computer screens and smartphones.  These movies really show what may the future of filming that made separating actors.  The film is directed by Levan Gariadze, he previously the Russian comedy, Lucky Trouble (2011), but this is his first studio feature movie.  It is written by Nelson Greaves, also his debut as a writer, he would later work on the supernatural series, Sleepy Hollow.  The title works with the theme of the film and superior to the earlier Offline and Cybernatural.      

The logo of Universal Studios gets distorted or corrupted and then the screen goes dark.  Next we get a computer screen of a website, Live Leak, that warns about Laura Barns suicide.  There are a pile of photo to the side of Blaire Lilly’s computer.  We also get the clever time at the top, Monday, 8:57 p.m.  The mouse on the screen clicks continue and we get Laura’s suicide on April 12, 2013 at her school in Fresno, California.  There are shouts for Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) as we see her on a field.  Sossaman was in the comedy, Remembering Phil (2008).  The screen is blurry and then scales up on Laura.  There are muffled pleas for her, and then she shoots herself in the chest to screams!  The bullying and consequences are important in the film.  We also get the overload and addiction of social media.  The video is paused and then the mouse clicks over to the video that led to her death.  At a party outside a house, Laura is drunk, it is interrupted by a video call from Mitch Rousell. 

The icon of the call is switched over past Laura’s video and we get the voice of Blaire (Shelley Hennig).  She was in the Teen Wolf series and also was in another horror movie, Ouija (2014).  We hear the voice of Moses Storm and see his profile picture in a muscle pose.  He is currently in the horror film, Bad Hair (2020).  While talking Blaire clicks over to her Spotify list playing “Lost Cities” by the Banshees.  An interesting way to bring in a soundtrack.  Blaire whispers she wants to show Mitch something.  He rushes off to the bathroom and we see Blaire’s toes on the video call screen in the corner.  She playfully switches to her “demon voice.”  Mitch (Moses Storm) shows his current video shirtless.  There is sometimes distortion in the chat windows.  He is not interested in looking at her toes and Blaire moves the camera to her legs.  

Mitch asks Blaire to take off her shirt, we get an extreme close-up of her face, and he takes out a knife.  She smiles at his joke and begins unbuttoning.  Blaire laughs it off and nervously tells him that it will happen on prom night.  They are interrupted by their friends, Jess Felton (Renee Olstead), Adam Swell (Will Peltz), and Ken Smith (Jacob Wysocki), and rush off to get dressed.  Olstead was in the drama show, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and she was in the horror movie, The Midnight Game (2013).  Peltz was in the thriller Paranoia (2013) and is now in the thriller InstaPsycho (2020).  Justin in the comedy, Pitch Perfect (2012), was played by Wysocki and he was also in the series, Artista Obscura (2019).  They all make fun of Blaire and Mitch, then they return, there is a faceless icon on the screen.  Adam tried to hang up on the unknown person.  They agree to hang up and re-dial.  Blaire plays “Lost Cities” while chatting with Mitch.  They wonder how the unknown caller got into their chat.  Mitch types, “Ghost?”  

Blaire types, it is interesting to hear her typing, and the change of text in the chat.  She gets no response and then tries to video call him, but it hangs up.  9:06 p.m.  Silence and then the ring tone which is startling!  It is a group chat again, Ken suspects that it is a hacker, so they all hang up again.  Then she gets a message from Laura.  Blaire goes to delete her video history and I noticed there are episodes of Teen Wolf on the screen.  She asks “who is doing this?” and then she gets a video call of Adam and then brings in her other friends.  Mitch notes in messages that is the anniversary of Laura’s death.  Then, he sends her link to unexplained forums.  Blaire clicks it and the headline is “DO NOT ANSWER MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD….”  Next, we get the addition of Val Rommel (Courtney Halverson).  She was in the comedy horror series, Death Valley, and starred in the horror movie, St. Agatha (2018).  There is tension in the group and they are joined by billie227, the Skype account of Laura Barns, there is laptops in hell?  The computer screen and activity are engaging, not confusing, and it slowly reveals harsh truths in a Truth or Dare game by Billie227 that turns all the friends against each other.  It leads to some grisly deaths.  Unfriended brings up the supernatural, but in the context of bullying, social media addiction, and data privacy.     

Four Chat Windows out of Five! 

#Unfriended, #ShelleyHennig, #MosesStorm, #LevanGariadze, #ReneeOlstead, #WillPeltz, #JacobWysocki, #CourtneyHalverson 

 

Swamp Thing, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, Review!

 Night at the swamp, a car alarm goes off, as Avery throws a flare to make a fire. He takes out a body and then flashes back to a father, Burritt Sunderland (Steve Wilcox) and a growling from an alligator.  His boy, Avery (Eli Hannon), doesn’t want to kill it, so the father stabs the gator.  Avery kicks the body into the fire.  Two men are carrying lanterns into the swamp.  One takes a chainsaw cutting into a tree to make a path.  The other, Todd (Andrew Yankel) tries tries to stop him, and a body falls from the trees, biting him in the arm!  This is the classic zombie plague that spreads through people.  They run off to their boat.  The lifeless corpse is examined by the Swamp Thing.  At the bar, owner Delroy (Al Mitchell) greets Todd, who looks at the cut on his arm.  Liz checks on him, he is starting to see things, but it is empty dish water.  He reaches into the dishwater and out comes a snake wrapped around his arm.  He takes a knife and stabs his ar, then swings at Delroy and Liz.  Delroy looks after him and the man rakes his fingernails on his arm!  Another infection! 

SWAMP THING -- “Darkness on the Edge of Town” -- CRYSTAL REED, DEREK MEARS -- Photo Credit: Fred Norris / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Abby is on a boat on the swamp calling out for Alec.  Vines grasp the boat and hold it fast, then release it.  Swamp Thing looks at Abby who asks him for a tissue sample.  He extends vines from his arm to give her a piece of him.  Swamp Thing warns her and leaves.  Abby is looking at the sample in a microscope when Dr. Woodrue enters.  He thinks she made a mistake that the sample looks like a plant not an animal.  Woodrue looks at the microcope at the green organic matter that looks like a plant, but in the shape of a human.  Woodrue says he is more qualified to examine the sample.  We are slowly getting to Swamp Thing’s nature and of course this will have consequences for Woodrue.  Abby knows he is employed by Avery Sunderland.  She wants to keep the results confidential.  She finds Daniel Cassidy with balloons who calls himself a blue devil!  Abby sits next to Susie is drawing a picture of Swamp Thing.  Avery and Maria invited everyone for a crawfish boil at the town hall!  Maria sits next to Susie to talk to her.  Avery speaks with Abby surprised she didn’t leave with the CDC.  

At Delroy’s, Sheriff Cable has Delroy and Liz go over the incident as Todd is taken away on a gurney.  Abby enters with Liz suspicious about what may have come from the swamp.  Delroy starts to have dark visions.  Liz and Abby wonder what is happening to him.  Delroy sees his mother bleeding on the floor.  He starts to see men in bizarre masks and takes out a shotgun!  Abby and Liz shout to Delroy, but he can’t heart them.  He fires a shot at one of the nightmare figures and it strikes a window.  Several more shots before the sheriff enters with her handgun pointed at him.  A man with pig head mocks Delroy, he finds his shotgun has jammed!, and the sheriff tackles him.  He scratches her across the neck.  Abby takes a tranquilizer needle from her bag and injects Delroy.  Sheriff Cable sees blood on her fingers from her wound as she calls for an ambulance.  Maria is worrying about Susie losing her father.  Avery says the swamp took his father.  At the hospital, Delroy wakes and Liz says he didn’t hurt anyone.  He says it was a memory of masked men who broke in at the roadhouse.  Delroy tells Abby where Todd was in the swamp.  

SWAMP THING -- “Darkness on the Edge of Town” -- CRYSTAL REED -- Photo Credit: Fred Norris / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Abby tells Liz she is going to investigate.  She takes her boat to the swamp and uses a flashlight to find her way around the trees.  The tree branches part and Abby asks for Alec.  She finds the chainsaw and the belt buckle.  Then, she stumbles on the corpse and examines its jaw.  Abby takes a photo of it before being startled by Swamp Thing who says there is a Darkness.  She pieces together the path of the infection and realizes that Lucilia Cable is the next victim!  At the Marais Town Hall, Avery starts the party with towns people drinking and dancing to the band.  Avery has Susie stay with them.  Daniel is met by Xanadu and he asks about his mission.  She is having difficulty sensing what is happening and says that “a storm is coming.”  What is Daniel’s destiny?  Could be as a demonic superhero?  Xanadu says he made a bargain eight years ago that keeps him in Marai.  Abby picks up Liz in her jeep.  She tells Liz about the scratch.  Liz has researched a strange event that appeared to spread the infection.  Sheriff Cable is at the party and sees her son, he speaks distorted, she sees an argument and then is stabbed in the chest by the man.  The sheriff makes the officer down call and uses her jacket to cover his wound.  She only has her jacket on the floor.  

Lucilia Cable sees the killer and takes out her gun.  Abby tries to break the spell and stands in the way her gun!  Daniel tackles the sheriff and takes away the gun.  Abby struggles with the sheriff and then is scratched!  She sees the bloody wounds and heads to the swamp!        

Abby is boating back to the lab calling for Alec, Swampy, but he is not there.  She starts to fall under the spell of the Darkness.  A young Abby  (Bianca Berry Tarantino) faces the spirit of her father!  We get a glimpse of Abby’s past.  He holds her up in a chokehold, but of course it is Swamp Thing holding her!  He takes the infection from her, vines writhing form his shoulders.  Swamp Thing staggers into the bayou.  He touches the loom of the swamp floor.  Abby is confused and Swamp Thing says the plants are talking to him, The Green!  Avery and Maria are looking at the dining room.  He says he is still paying for the services of Jason Woodrue.  Later, he gives a check to man outside.  Abby says she will stay around to help Alec.  She thinks a “faceless monster” would take away her mother when she was a child.  Abby calls Alec her friend.  This episode dives deep into the past of severa characters brought to the swamps by the Darkness and we have a threat that may be at the center of all of the problems!    

Five Vines out of Five! 

#SwampThing, #DarknessontheEdgeoftheTown, #AlMitchell, #BiancaBerryTarantino

Over The Moon Review!

 Over The Moon is the movie that contains Chinese culture in a charming fashion, with memorable songs, and theatrically trained actors.  It is almost a redemption from the live action Mulan!  The film is currently available on Netflix and started streaming on October 23rd.  The director, Glean Keane, is a legendary animator who worked on many Disney animated films.  His directing work on Dear Basketball (2017) gave him an Academy Award!  It is written by Audrey Wells, she wrote the drama adaptation, The Hate U Give (2018), and the film is dedicated to her memory.  The film comes from Pearl Studio, an animation studio based in Shanghai, which also worked on DreamWorks’ Abominable (2019).  Over The Moon begins with a starry, night sky and a pullback from the purplish cosmos.  We get narration from a woman (Ruthie Ann Miles) saying what scientists can tell us about space.  Miles is a theatrical actress known for playing Lady Thiang in The King and I and won a Tony Award for the part!  

What the scientists fall short is telling us about the Space Dog!  An adorable, Chow Chow looking doggie.  This sets the tone that there is a playful, magical element to the story.  She explains that every night, the Space Dog takes a bite from the Moon, forming the Crescent Moon.  We see the tiny feet of young Fei Fei (Bryce Hall) splash the reflection of the Moon.  This is her first movie.  Fei Fei has long hair like her mother.  The story was told by her mother, Māma, who explains that the moon goddess, Chang’e, pronounced “Chong-uh”, makes the Space Dog spit out the Moon and restore it.  She wears a scarf and gives her daughter a doll of the goddess.  Her glasses wearing father, Bàba (John Cho) wants to give her the science, but Fei Fei likes Māma’s story.  Cho is brilliant in the drama film, Searching (2018).  Fei Fei wants to hear more about Chang’e’s story.  She sings “On the Moon Above telling about the moon goddess, and the mortal hunter, Houyi pronounced “Who-yee.”  The songs are by Christopher Curtis, Marjorie Huffield, and Helen Park.  Curtis produced the musical Chaplin and Park worked on the musical KPOP.  

It is an animated scene by Glen Keane and very beautiful like a Chinese painting come to life.  She takes a magic potion that gives her immortality, really to prevent Houyi’s apprentice, Fengmeng from taking it.  This causes their jade necklace to snap in two and sends Chang’e to the Moon. The lovers are separated and Houyi is mortal and dies, this loss is another theme that is strong in the film.  She is there with Jade Rabbit, waiting for him, and Fei Fei sees the love that is the same with her parents.  In the morning, Fei Fei runs through the streets of a Chinese city, running with the stick of a rabbit balloon, her rocket ship.  Then, runs up to the food stall of her family, Fei Fei watches as the family makes Mooncakes.  This is the traditional dessert for the Moon Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival.  The family’s Mooncakes are very popular.  Ma Ma is singing about the magic in the Mooncakes and stumbles, uh-oh.  Fei Fei shows a customer facts about the Moon, very science oriented, it becomes fall and Māma has a cane and looks tired. 

Still, her parents have a surprise, in a Mooncake box is a tiny bunny!  A mist falls over the town and we see Bàba look in on his sad daughter.  They let a lotus flower drift in the river in honor of Māma’s memory.  Then, we see Fei Fei, now fourteen years old, (Cathy Ang).  Ang was an actress in the theatrical production of Maybe Happy Ending about a future in Seoul, South Korea with robots!  She is the lead for an all Asian cast.  Fei Fei now has her hair in a wild, short cut with a headband.  It is four years later.  Fei Fei brings a Mooncake for the photograph of her mother.  She joins her father rolling dough for more Mooncakes.  In the morning, the stall is open for business again for the Moon Festival.  Fei Fei is about to deliver Mooncakes on her bike with her bunny, Bungee.  The expressions for the bunny are hilarious.  She ends up at a construction site of a new Maglev train.  Fei Fei knows all about magnetic levitation.  She returns home and finds red dates at the baking table for their new guest, Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh).  The actress has won acclaim for her part in the drama, Killing Eve.   

Fei Fei is suprised by an excitable boy, eight years old, Chin (Robert G. Chiu), he believes he has a super power, to run through walls.  He likes to give the warcry, “No barriers!” on his runs.  Chin has a pet frog, Croak, that leaps into everyone.  Fei Fei and Bàba are hanging lanterns for the festival and father admits he is lonely.   The aunties arrive, Auntie Ling (Margaret Cho) and Muntie Mei (Kimiko Glenn).  Mrs. Zhong offers the red dates, but Fei Fei wants to keep to her mother’s melon seeds.  Ba Ba sits next to Mrs. Zhong which upsets Fei Fei.  She argues about the existence of Chang’e and also trying to hold the Lazy Susan turntable and ends up spilling some of the food.  She leaves hearing from the others that she has high grades, but still believes in Chang’e.  Fei Fei is struck by ping pong balls hit by Chin’s paddle.  This doesn’t make sense since he should be at the table.  He is excited that his mother and Bàba are getting married.  Fei Fei thinks that if her father believed again in Chang’e, he would remember Māma.  

She sees Bungee at the window with the moonlight pouring down.  Bungee hops down and Fei Fei chases after her.  Bungee stops at a dock to see a white heron, Fei Fei walks over to pick up her rabbit, and the heron flies away.  She sings about her plan to make Bàba remember her mother.  Cathy Ang sings beautifully.  The heron seems to fly to the moon.  Then, Fei Fei comes up with the idea to build a rocket!  Fei Fei begins her rocket project starting with model rockets and later gets a breakthrough from her rocket sketch next to a picture of the mag lev train at school. She starts to cobble together pieces for her rocket.  This makes me think of the homemade spacecraft in Explorers (1985).  Her rocket has a balloon exterior that looks like a bunny.  She is joined on her adventure by Chin, a stowaway!, and manages to get to the Moon.  There she finds Chang’e (Phillipa Soo).  The actress is well known for singing in Hamilton.  Her costume design is by Guo Pei.  Her world on the Moon is Lunaria, a colorful world right out of Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).  Chang’e has Fei Fei travel the magical world of Lunaria to find The Gift.  She also has the help of a green pangolin, Gobi (Ken Jeong).  He is known for Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and sings here!  Over The Moon is a wonderful animated film with the dreams of space exploration, magic, and themes of family and love.    

Five Mooncakes out of Five! 

#OverTheMoon, #GlenKeane, #CathyAng, #JohnCho, #PhilipaSoo 

Going to a Movie Theater During the Shutdown!

Of course, there is great worry over a gathering place like a movie theater, this is a reason why the New Mutants review was delayed for nearly two months!  I was on constant guard at the theater so didn't cover anything with pics.  It had been too long since New Mutants opened and I found it was at a local theater, Regal Theater, which has closed many theaters across the country.  536 theaters around the country!  We of course need theaters in business, but for everyone too worried, yes, stay at home.  This is for healthy people who are maybe ready to see a movie in the theaters.   

So at the theater, I saw that there was no ticket booth open, and I purchased the ticket at concessions.  I entered and there was a greeter, it says on CinemaSafe at the Regal Theaters website, "Greeters will be located in the lobby to assist guests with new procedural changes."  I had a slight wait for a customer buying all sorts of food, hot dog, popcorn, and drink.  I then noticed that the cashier wiped the counter down for about twenty seconds.  Not a quick swipe, but making certain that every part of the counter was thoroughly wiped down.  I also saw another employee wipe down another part of the counter.  I know from Disneyland that it is not that people are cleaning, you have to see them clean to have the impression that the place is clean.  All employees wore masks and wore them properly.  

I got my ticket and then gave in and bought a popcorn and water bottle.  Then, it was heading to the theater.  I usually set my popcorn on the seat next to me, nope!, this auditorium had the old style folding chair seats and it fell right through the gap and spilled all over!  Sorry Regal employees, the mess was me, but it was an accident!  I noticed though that usually the floor is sticky and there is trash everywhere.  Nah!  Every arm rest looked like they were cleaned to a polished shine.  The cleanliness was much as could be expected barring customers who spill their popcorn!  

The other part I worried about was the air conditioning, if it re-circulated air, then I would be breathing air from every theater!  No, it did not seem to be the case, Cinema Safe, "We are Increasing our fresh air intake by 50%-100% above normal levels (which will help circulate more fresh air throughout auditoriums)."  I felt that the air was not recycled and still a good temperature.  I was wondering how many people will be watching the movie.  I kept checking before the movie started and afterwards.  I had the auditorium to myself!  Apparently, audiences are too scared to go to the movies.  I saw maybe six people when I was leaving, around 4 p.m., so the theater was almost empty!  You can check www.cinemasafe.org if you have questions about moviegoing.  The point is I felt safe and hope that anyone who really wants to see a movie should do so, stay safe, and always ask questions if you are worried.