This has been the first time in years that I’ve seen a movie with nothing but the poster to go on, I never even saw the trailer. It’s really hard to see a movie these days without being tainted by any sort of baggage. I saw the poster. It didn’t make any sense, but I’m a fan of both David Fincher and Spike Jonze. Tarsem’s only other film was the completely insane The Cell¹, a film I’ve been meaning to revisit for the past few years, but I have yet to make the time.

Tarsem is known for being really artsy. He often recreates or pays homage to paintings in his work, he’ll spend 17 years working on a film (which he did for The Fall), and he doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but it’s always really pretty anyway.

The Fall is about a crippled stunt man (Lee Pace) in a hospital in 1920’s LA. A cute little girl that barely knows English (Cantinca Untaru, who really didn’t know any English) befriends him. He starts telling her an epic story during her daily visits to him, but he’s really just using her so she’ll do stuff for him. It’s very much like The Princess Bride² in that the story frequently gets interrupted by the storyteller or listener. In fact, the interactions between the stunt man and the girl were filmed first and all improvised. The chemistry they have is the best I’ve seen in a long time. They actually dictated a lot of what happens in the story by their improvisation.

The story world scenes are spectacular. They really are epic. Tarsem shot this movie all over the world. Really. He’d been scouting locations for nearly two decades³. There’s so many amazing places in the world I didn’t know about, but thankfully Tarsem exposes many of them in this film. Palaces, deserts, tiny islands in the middle of the sea (and I do mean tiny, like only 20 wide), ancient ruins and an M.C. Escher drawing come to life.

I’ll admit it, I don’t get the movie⁴, but it still haunts me nearly a week after seeing it. It doesn’t make any sense to me. You’ve got an elephant swimming, Charles Darwin wearing a pimp coat, birds coming out of a dude’s mouth, evil black guards that sound like snarling dogs and this amazing scene. I love really great slow motion and this film really gets it right. The whole intro to the film is a long slow motion black and white sequence that’s just brilliant.

The film is rated R, but really should have been rated PG-13. There is nothing in here that warrants an R rating, I guess it might be because of the violence, but it’s no worse than Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. There is a scene that comes to mind that could be found offensive in this post 911 world, and I’m assuming that’s why they got the R rating. If it is the reason, then I’m offended.

If you like breathtaking photography then you’ll enjoy the movie no matter how weird it gets. If you like knowing what’s going on then buy a ticket to The Fall and sneak in to What Happens in Vegas.

1. I understand that The Cell was pretty much only made because The Matrix was such a hit and the studio heads finally “understood” what Tarsem was trying to do.

2. Turns out The Fall is actually a remake of an old Bulgarian movie called “Yo Ho Ho“, but who’s ever seen or even heard of that movie?

3. He was just waiting for the right little girl to come along, and when she did he knew he had to make it right away because little girls grow up so fast.

4. I think it’s a tribute to the pioneers of stunt work in the early silent films. Seriously.

I was so excited to finally see this movie.  I’ve heard so many great things about it. I really dig Hammer and Tongs as filmmakers, plus it’s about the son of Rambo(w). I must say the wait was definitely worth it.

Son of Rambow takes place in the 80’s in England, but unlike movies like The Wedding Singer it doesn’t bombard you with 80’s nostalgia (except for one amazing over the top dance party scene).  Will Proudfoot is a young boy with a healthy imagination.  He also belongs to a highly religious family (they’re Quakers or something, I never did catch what religion they were).  At school he has to leave the classroom whenever they watch a documentary because he’s not allowed to watch TV.  The school troublemaker, Lee Carter, befriends him and tricks him in to being a stunt man in a movie he’s shooting.   There’s also a French exchange student that has got to be the coolest kid in world.

Will accidentally watches a bootleg of First Blood¹, the first movie he’s ever seen. It has the same effect as giving a six pack of Mountain Dew laced with LSD to a 6 year-old.  He goes completely bonkers.  He becomes obsessed with making the movie.  What happens next is nothing short of brilliant.

This film is a total 80’s PG family movie². It can stand up next to The Goonies, Monster Squad, and The Sandlot- all movies that capture the spirit, imagination, and excitement of being a kid. I don’t want to ruin any more of the movie for you, this is something you need to see with as little preconceived notions as possible.  Just go in there with an open mind and let it get blown.

Real quick- you should really check out Hammer and Tongs other videos right now.

1. The writer/director Garth Jennings says that this was the first R rated movie he ever saw as well.

2. The Goonies was rated PG even though the language was a bit hard, PG-13 had just been invented a year earlier and was still being defined. Just like The Goonies it features kids talking like kids.

Indy is finally back after nearly two decades. Everyone wants to know: “Is it going to good? Is he too old? Is it really about aliens?” Well… Mostly, no, and yes.

Who doesn’t like Indiana Jones? I even like The Last Crusade. I don’t care what anyone says, when you mix Nazis and early Christian legends you’ve got gold my friend. That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Indiana Jones, they always based their stories in real history, and the new movie probably packs more history in to it than all the others combined.

So the Nazis are dead, WWII is over, the red scare is in full effect, and Indy is back teaching again. The Commies are after some crystal skull that will grant ultimate power, so Indy gets to save the world again. Nothing new, really. All the things that made the previous movies great are here in full effect. Some one has to put their hand in a dark creepy hole to pull a rope that opens a secret door, there are tons of booby traps, a tribe of angry natives, insane action sequences, Indy’s fear of snakes, Indy fighting with his love while they’re both being held at gun point, more insane action sequences, more historical relics than you can shake a stick at, big bugs, surviving falls from great heights, and even more insane action sequences.

A staple of all Indy movies is the pre-credits action piece. This one is no different, but it was probably the worst one, luckily the action gets much more insane as the film goes on. It takes place in the warehouse that’s at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Keep an eye out for the ark because it makes a cameo. In my mind this is the worst Indy movie there has ever been, but that’s not such a bad thing, because it’s still actually pretty decent. The corniness factor has been upped by a notch or two, George Lucas made them throw in some useless CGI prairie dogs, and there’s a little bit of magic missing that made the previous entries so great. I don’t know what it was, but it just didn’t FEEL like a complete Indy movie.

They’ve been working on this movie for at least 15 years now. The deal was that they wouldn’t do it unless Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas all agreed on a script. Harrison Ford was easy to please, he just wanted to work again, and Spielberg is a great filmmaker that knows a good story, but Lucas, oh man does that guy suck. Back in 2004 or so Frank Darabont (writer/director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist) worked for a whole year on a script. He had been a writer on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles so he knew what he was doing. Spielberg loved it, Lucas hated it. Spielberg couldn’t exactly do the movie without Lucas, so they did even more rewrites. Lucas has proven time and time again that he doesn’t know “good” when it comes to movies. He even says that The Empire Strikes Back is the worst Star Wars movie! He’s been responsible for some amazing advances in CGI and audio, but he should stay out of the creative process. I guess I just really wish I could’ve seen Darabont’s version instead of this one. And I really loathe George Lucas.

Go see it, you’ll have fun, but not too much. Then go see Iron Man again.

I’m now convinced that watching anything other than a light comedy first thing is the morning is a terrible idea. Take Ingmar Bergman’s last movie Saraband for instance. It’s a tough, depressing film. I had to watch it at 9am one dreary morning, I was ruined for the rest of the day. While The Strangers isn’t as draining as Bergman; it shouldn’t be the first thing you see in the morning.

The Strangers is loosely based on actual events¹. A couple returns home one night from a wedding reception and they get terrorized by 3 people in masks. You might ask “Is this another torture movie like Hostel?” and I would respond with “Actually it’s more like Haute Tension, but without the Haute².”

I’m a big fan of good home invasion movies. It’s scarier when it’s something that you can imagine could actually happen. Movies like The Exorcist II, Candyman, or The Manitou³ aren’t that scary to me cause they all take place in a different universe.  I’m much more frightened by stuff like Last House on the Left, The Exorcist, or The Exorcist III because they’re all based on true events, or events that could quite easily be true.

The Strangers starts off really strong.  There’s great relationship drama between the couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman), you’ve got a creepy girl knocking on the door asking for someone that doesn’t live there, and then people in masks start running around the house giving everyone the willies.  The movie is only about 84 minutes long, but when we got to the third act I was done.  It seemed like there was nowhere else for the movie to go and come to find out that’s exactly what happened.

I’m not saying it’s terrible because it’s not, there’s some really fantastic cinematography, loads of great imagery and really effective suspense. The interaction between the couple was great, I wish there were no strangers and the movie was just the couple dealing with each other after the wedding reception from earlier. It could be called The Couple and I probably wouldn’t see it because why would I watch a movie called The Couple?

1. the Manson murders
2. Better known in America as High Tension, a nifty little movie
3. Please please please watch that trailer!

If you’re a David Mamet fan then you don’t need to read any further; you’re going to see this movie no matter what I write. I loved it completely. There, now you can go out and see it for yourself.

Now, for the people that have never heard of David Mamet, the ones that think that Tim Allen is a terrible actor, or maybe they think it’s just going to be a fighting movie. Come with me and I’ll tell you about one of the great movies of 2008.

Did you like The Usual Suspects? Yeah? It was good huh? David Mamet had a similar movie come out at the same time called The Spanish Prisoner. And guess what? It was better. Well… I think it was better. David Mamet also wrote other classics such as Glengarry Glen Ross, Ronin, the Untouchables, and House of Games (his directorial debut).

Redbelt is about Mike Terry (the magnificent Chiwetel Ejiofor), a jujitsu instructor who is all about the way of the warrior, you know, honor, doing what’s right, the golden rule, all that stuff. His business is failing, but he refuses to start competing for money because “It makes one weak”. After a series of seemingly innocent exchanges (a Mamet staple) he finds himself in the place he never wanted to be. “There’s always an escape” is what he tells his students, but what will he do when he gets tested himself?

I’m not a fan of the Ultimate Fighting scene. I appreciate the art of a good fight, but I don’t need to see someone just get pummeled. The fighting in this movie is not hyper-fighting, this is the real deal. The movie begins with two of Mike Terry’s students sparring, with Mike telling them what moves to perform. It might sound boring to some people, but I was hooked right away. If you’re not riveted by the first scene you might as well walk out and watch “What Happens In Vegas” instead. Something so simple has been made interesting through Mamet’s dialog. Mamet has always been great at dialog, but this is probably his most dialog light movie. He won’t hold your hand through the film, he won’t explain anything that can be explained with actions instead. Mamet doesn’t treat us like kids. We don’t need a secondary actor explaining that the other guy is a bad dude, we know it just by the way he carries himself.

Okay, let’s get this Tim Allen thing out of the way. He is in the movie, he plays a famous actor currently filming an action movie, but don’t let that turn you off from seeing this. Just because someone is known for doing comedy doesn’t mean they can’t hold their own with real dramatic actors. I’ve always believed that some of the best actors are the ones that start out doing comedy, or more specifically improv. Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Jon Lovitz, Will Farrell, and even Adam Sandler have all proven they can do good drama. I’d go so far to say that if the abismal Rob Schneider was cast in a drama I’m sure he’d do an excellent job. Before anyone writes a comment about Jimmy Fallon I’d like to remind them that I can’t consider him a comedian since he’s never made me laugh. Anyways, don’t let the fact that you hate The Santa Clause trilogy as a reason to stay away.

There’s so many great actors in this movie. Tim Allen was one of my favorites besides Ejiofor. Emily Mortimer and Alice Braga as the two main women were spectacular as well. Seriously, there’s so many great actors doing their thing here that I can’t even mention them all. Ricky Jay¹ did weird me out a bit, he seemed to be reading from a cue card at points. But upon reflection of his character it was just right.

Mamet writes a lot about what it is to be a man, and I know that most men will love this movie because of that (and the few awesome fight scenes). But I believe it has something to offer to the women as well. If you’re a woman and saw the movie please leave a comment below and let us know what your thoughts were.

1. Ricky Jay is a Mamet regular and master magician, which is good since deception and misdirection are themes in most of Mamet’s writing

P.S. I just remembered… The ending is preposterous. It could never happen, but even so, I stuck with it to the end to see where it went. It was still ridiculous, but it somehow worked. Oh man, just thinking about the last shot makes me want to hug Chiwetel Ejiofor.

I love bad movies, but sometimes there are movies that are just completely unwatchable. This is one of those gems. If you’ve got some friends over that simply won’t leave, just put this in and they’ll be out of your hair in less than 15 minutes. Unless you friend is like me, then they’ll stick around to see who the movie breaks first. If you are stuck with a friend like me, make sure you always have a copy of Bed of Roses on hand. That’ll do the trick.

Remember that Jim Henson show from the early 90’s? It had a dinosaur family, they talked and wore clothes, there was a hilarious baby that said “Not the mama!”, then bonked the dad on the head with a frying pan. The baby also said “I’m the baby, gotta love me!”. I think there was a music video called “Gotta love me” (i just checked, it’s real). Anyways, the show was originally going to be the next Henson movie after Labyrinth, but once they found out about The Land Before Time Warner Brothers decided to can it for the moment. During the whole process they did get $5 million for research to design the dinosaur costumes. That eventually helped get the tv show made. It also helped another movie get made, a movie called Theodore Rex. Warner Brothers sunk over $30 million in this movie. They got the writer that was originally hired to write the Henson movie to write and direct this new blockbuster. It was originally written for Val Kilmer to play an Irish cop from the lower east side, the studio wanted Whoopi Goldberg to star instead so they made him rewrite the movie for her. I made a little timeline detailing what was going on with Whoopi during the ordeal:

1990 - Whoopi Goldberg agrees to star in a movie called T. Rex. Ghost is released to wide acclaim.
1991 - She wins an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Ghost.
1992 - Sister Act is released to rave reviews. Star Trek The Next Generation is still going strong.
1993 - Whoopi is sued $20 Million for breach of verbal contract by T. Rex Productions. Sister Act 2 is released and is a hit. Whoopi loses the case and is forced to star in a movie now titled Theodore Rex.
1994 - Theodore Rex is completed and sits on a shelf for over a year. The Lion King is a hit in theaters.
1995 - Theodore Rex is released straight to video. With a $33+ million budget it easily makes it the most expensive straight to video movie at the time.
1996 - Eddie, Bogus, and The Associate all come out, no one really cares.

The movie starts out with a text crawl. “Once upon a time in the future….” - that’s the best joke in the whole movie. It’s all downhill from here folks. It goes on to say that some fancy scientist called Elizar Kane(Armin Mueller-Stahl, who won an Oscar for his next movie “Shine“) is going to bring on a new ice age and clone all new animals he keeps in his cloning ark to create his perfect world. And it happens at midnight too. 2 workers escape to tell the world of his evil plan.

One of the workers gets killed by a high pitched, lispy Zaphead(Bud Cort, Harold from Harold and Maude). The other is a dinosaur who is sent to the great tarpit in the sky by an exploding butterfly. Teddy Rex, the police dino relations dinosaur, is temporarily promoted to detective and teams up with a grumpy veteran named Katie Coltrane (Whoopi). She doesn’t want to be teamed up with a dinosaur because she’s somewhat of a “speciesist”. She seems to be the only cop in the movie that gets to wear a skin tight black leather/spandex uniform. This is truly one of the worst of the many, many offenses in this film. Oh, and it’s vaguely referred to a few times in the movie that she is part robot too. Typical unfunny zany cop movie antics litter the movie; dinosaur fart jokes, Teddy’s tail knocks over everything in sight, and bumbling henchmen to name a few.

After watching the movie I’m left with a few questions about the dinosaurs in the movie.
1. Why are they all human size?
2. Why do they wear clothes? I can understand if they wore a utility belt, or a fanny pack, but a scarf on a dinosaur serves no purpose.
3. How can they talk?
4. Why does Teddy Rex eat only cookies and never meat?
5. Why do dinosaurs need shoes?
6. Why do humans and dinosaurs dance together at a nightclub? Is the movie suggesting that dinosaurs and humans date?

Gee whiz this movie is too horrible. I don’t want to write any more about it. It’s just making me upset. Avoid at all costs.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The folks in the Young at Heart Singing Chorus would have something to say about that. With an average age of 81, this singing group teaches us you’re never too old to learn a new song.

The Young at Heart Singing Chorus started in ‘84 at an old folks home. Just some old people singing old people songs, then one day one of the members got up and sang Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy” and it just took off from there. Now they exclusively sing “rock” songs. Songs from the likes of Talking Heads, The Clash, and Sonic Youth- just to name a few. They mention singing Radiohead in the movie, but it didn’t make the cut, I wonder what song they did. I should mention that “Young at Heart” is also a tv documentary for the BBC called “Young @ Heart”. From what I understand they just recut the show for a theatrical version here in the states.

The chorus is gearing up for a new show. They’ve got a lot of songs under their belt, but they’re learning a handful of new ones for their next tour. Yes, they tour. I’ve been on tour a few times and I imagine it would be a complete nightmare to deal with 2 dozen seniors (who at any moment might need the last rites read to them) on tour in Europe. If I ever get to meet their touring manager I’m going to give them a trophy.

The film focuses on about 1/3 of the members while they try to learn the new songs. James Brown’s “I Feel Good” does not come naturally to anyone. Everybody hates “Schizophrenia” by Sonic Youth, and Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can”, with it’s 71 “Can”s in the lyrics, proves to be terribly frustrating for all involved. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the music and the singing, maybe it’s New England, but these people are full of life. They seem so strong. My grandparents can’t get around like these people do. There’s even a 92 year old lady that won’t stop flirting with the film crew nearly every time she’s interviewed.

This movie is very, very touching. I’ve seen it twice now and both times I think the person sitting next to me was tearing up at certain points. I can’t be sure though due to my own affliction at the time. One of the standout scenes for me was their performance at the prison. One moment they’re all old people standing in front of a bunch of prisoners. Then they explode in to Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark”. I’m serious, they really explode. There was so much energy I thought it was a bunch of kids dancing up there. Then they sing “Forever Young”. I know it’s a cheap trick to utilize a touching song during a touching moment to make the audience feel a certain way, but I fell for it, and so did most of the prisoners. In fact, the movie is chock full of these musical moments, but it works here. One of the final performances is a solo of “Fix You” by Coldplay (the only song I was unfamiliar with) sung in honor of a recently deceased member of the group, who was supposed to sing that very song as a duet with said soloist. If that doesn’t tug at your heart strings, you’re a robot.

And now, I present to you, The Young at Heart Singing Chorus performing The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated”

Gee whiz! Iron Man is great! I’ve read more than my share of comics, but I never read Iron Man. I pretty much missed the boat on Marvel altogether. I think Spiderman was the only Marvel book I picked up as a kid. We didn’t have much money so all I had to read were my dad’s old comics, which were pretty much all Batman and Groo, with some smatterings of a few titles that never got popular but were drawn by his favorite artists. My mom was just glad I was reading until she noticed all his old Frank Frazetta calendars were in the same box under the Mad Magazines. Anyways I had no clue why they were even making an Iron Man movie, but when I read that Jon Favreau was directing I knew it would be well worth my time.

Iron Man is Tony Stark(played perfectly by Robert Downey Jr.), gazillionaire and boss at Stark Industries, a corporation that invents awesome stuff- including weapons for war. His best friend is Jim Rhodes (played perfectly by Terrence Howard), a powerful military man. Pepper Potts (played perfectly by Gwyneth Paltrow) is Stark’s personal assistant. Obadiah Stane is 2nd in command or something at Stark Industries, he was best friends with Stark’s dad. I’m terrible with faces so I didn’t realize Obadiah was played by The Dude AKA Jeff Bridges (who was perfect by the way) until I heard him talk. Everyone is so good here.

This is an origin story, but don’t think it’s going to be like every other origin story. It’s definitely got its act together. Stark is a regular guy, he doesn’t get covered in radioactive ooze or get struck by lightening. He’s a super smart scientist inventor who’s also super slick with the ladies. He’s put into a position that forces him to grow a conscience. I’m not saying Stark is a perfectly moral dude, he’s not. He kills terrorists when Batman would’ve delivered them to jail (I know Batman has killed in the past, but it’s been a rare occurrence). He’s also an alcoholic, which I hear is a big deal, but not in this movie. I believe they’re saving that storyline for the sequel. And yes, they hinted at a sequel a few times in the film. With every origin story you get the obligatory new-invention-test-run-that-doesn’t-go-so-well montages. These are pretty fun, but the action scenes are spectacular. Holy cow was I excited. I was alone in the theater and after each awesome moment I couldn’t keep from saying out loud how cool that was.

Jon Favreau really hits it out of the park this time. I’ve always admired him for focusing on story and character rather than special effects (I’m looking at you Transformers). He even prefers using practical effects instead of CGI whenever possible. The last movie he directed was Zathura. It wasn’t just a quasi sequel to Jumanji, it was a great movie for all ages. It was full of practical effects and the movie was better for it, it didn’t hurt that he had a fully fleshed out script either though.

I predict that Iron Man will be huge. It’s going to have great word of mouth. If Indy 4 doesn’t deliver, and early reports say it won’t, then everyone should go watch Iron Man a second or third time. Iron Man isn’t perfect, I think it has maybe 2 extremely minor flaws; I couldn’t find either one. Don’t hesitate throwing down that $10 for a ticket. You’ll get your money’s worth.

2007 dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky

The Counterfeiters is a fictional account of the true story of Operation Bernhard during WWII. To this day, Operation Bernhard is the largest counterfeiting scheme of all time. The Nazis’ plan was to print hundreds of millions of Pound notes and put them in to circulation with the intent to destroy the British economy. They planned to drop a ton of fake notes from planes flying over England in hopes that most of the population would begin to use the money. The counterfeits were so good that Britain had to take all notes over £5 out of circulation for decades. This plan might have worked had The Nazis been in better shape. Their idea came at a point in the war when they didn’t even have the planes to spare. They did print up over £130 million. They cracked the Dollar as well, but it was right before the end of the war and only a handful of those made it through.

The film follows Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch, a russian-born Jew and supposedly the greatest counterfeiter in the world. Before the war Sally gets arrested after a night of passion and passport forging. He’s sent off to a hard labor camp. He survives by painting awesome portraits of Nazi’s looking powerful. Eventually he gets sent off to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he’s enrolled in the secret counterfeiting operation. Sally meets Adolf Burger who is a collotype expert. His memoirs are what the movie is based on. He tries to convince Sally that they shouldn’t be helping the Nazi’s win the war. Sally’s motto is “adapt to survive”. Now he must choose between living another day and helping the Nazi’s kill his own people or dying for what’s right.

The movie was shot on a handheld Super 16 and blown up to 35mm. It looks great. There’s practically no color during the WWII parts of the film. It’s all dreary grey. Even when Sally is in a Paris casino the bright colors are still muted. The music they play on the record player in the camp is just fantastic; it reminds me a bit of Anton Karas² (I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie and wanted to buy the soundtrack right away.

So, the film looks and sounds great. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (It would’ve gone to <a href=”http://www.thebandsvisit.com/”target=”blank”>The Band’s Visit</a> though if the academy would’ve recognized it). It won a ton of awards all over the world. It’s a pretty good movie. It’s not a great movie though. It’s got a few overly dramatic scenes that ruined it for me. I saw an episode of Grey’s Anatomy³. once and while it wasn’t as bad as that, it took me out of the film with how perfectly certain plot points came around. Nevertheless, I still liked the movie a lot, it’s still really effective and affecting.

1. Based on real life counterfeiter Salomon Smolianoff
2. Anton Karas-Viennese zither player
3. Jesse hates Grey’s Anatomy

2007 dir. Frank Darabont

The Mist was on my top 10 movie list for 2007. Unfortunately, not many people gave it a chance- due in part to the misleading trailer (which led everyone to think it was The Fog remake part II) and the reviews that dwelt on the downer ending. Speaking of which, I want to get this out of the way right now, the ending will wreck you. It will not make you feel good about things afterwards; it will haunt you. It goes to a surprisingly dark place for a studio film. The ending is great; the journey is just as brilliant.

The Mist takes place in Bridgton, Maine. After a big storm that tears up the town, an ominous mist starts rolling across the lake. Our hero, David Drayton (played by the underrated Thomas Jane), his son (Nathan Gamble), and his estranged neighbor (played by Andre Braugher who does a superb job) go to the grocery store for supplies. The electricity is out so the lines are long. Out of nowhere an old man with a bloody nose comes running into the store screaming about something in the mist. The mist has already reached the parking lot and is quickly engulfing everything in sight. One dude runs out to his sweet El Camino just as the mist envelopes him. They quickly close the doors to the store, but no one knows what’s going on. It’s just a thick eerie mist, what could be so dangerous about that?

So everyone is trapped in a grocery store for an undetermined amount of time. It could be worse, at least there’s plenty of non perishable food and warm beer. The great thing about this movie is that all the characters are so well fleshed out. Obviously we’re going to side with the protagonist, but we can relate to most everyone else’s choices- no matter how foolhardy. We have the religious zealot you love to hate played perfectly by Marcia Gay Harden, the seemingly meek store clerk played by Toby Jones (you might have seen him as Truman Capote in “Infamous”- the other awesome Capote movie that no one saw), a big city lawyer and typical “out of towner,” a Christian biker, three young soldiers about to go to war, a sharp-as-a-tack old lady, two mechanic rednecks, and about a dozen other minor characters that are all equally integral to the film.

I hate hate hate it when they put religious zealots in a movie just so everyone can hate on them. I think it’s cheap and lazy to put a character like that in for no real purpose other than to let the audience laugh at them. I will let it pass this one time because Marcia Gay Harden totally pulls it off. She’s very commanding in this performance.

The movie is a great character piece that focuses on group mentality- but even better than that, it has monsters! And not just any monsters, Lovecraftian¹ monsters! Tentacles with claws that will rip the skin off your bones, bat like beasts with stingers full of poison, spiders from hell that can shoot webbing that acts like acid, and something that’s so crazy I won’t mention it. I don’t want to risk ruining it for you.

The movie deviates from the novella² considerably, thank goodness. I had a lot of problems with the original story and apparently Frank Darabont felt similarly. All the problems with the original text are gone for the movie. He’s really the only person, except for Stanley Kubrick, that’s been able to properly adapt Stephen King’s work to the big screen. Shawshank Redemption is already a timeless classic. I didn’t think that King’s monster stories could be adapted, but Darabont has proven me wrong.

The 2 disc DVD includes a black and white version of the film. The Mist was actually originally meant to be shot in black and white. Frank Darabont cites the Coen Brothers’ “The Man Who Wasn’t There.” They shot in color because all the studio contracts stated that the film must be shot in color, but they didn’t state that it had to be released in color. They timed it for black and white and it looked great. Nowadays the big studio contracts say you must release the film in color, but thankfully DVD is here and we get to see the original vision of the film. I know what you’re thinking. “Why don’t I just turn the color off on my TV?” You could do that, but it will look bland and Frank Darabont will think you’re an idiot. This looks just as good as the new Blade Runner release. The blacks are blacker than sin. The contrast is beautiful. It really does make a huge difference in the viewing experience. The blood is jet black too so maybe it will make the more squeamish viewers able to sit through that easier. It actually comes across as more impactful to me. I haven’t figured out why that is though. I’ll be introducing this film to as many people as I can, but I don’t believe I’ll ever let them see the color version with me.

Jesse Wayne

1. H. P. Lovecraft, horror writer, is best known for his gruesome monsters and weird fiction
2. The Mist is a horror novella by Stephen King