Creepshow.

Review #2128: Creepshow.

Cast: 

Wraparound story: Joe King (Billy Hopkins), Tom Atkins (Stan Hopkins), Iva Jean Saraceni (Mrs. Hopkins), Marty Schiff (Garbageman #1), and Tom Savini (Garbageman #2) 

"Father's Day" segment: Carrie Nye (Sylvia Grantham), Viveca Lindfors (Bedelia Grantham), Ed Harris (Hank Blaine), Warner Shook (Richard Grantham), Elizabeth Regan (Cass Blaine), and Jon Lormer (Nathan Grantham)

"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" segment: Stephen King (Jordy Verrill) and Bingo O'Malley (Jordy's Father/Doctor)

"Something to Tide You Over" segment: Leslie Nielsen (Richard Vickers), Ted Danson (Harry Wentworth), and Gaylen Ross (Becky Vickers)

"The Crate" segment: Hal Holbrook (Henry Northup), Adrienne Barbeau (Wilma "Billie" Northup), Fritz Weaver (Dexter Stanley), Robert Harper (Charlie Gereson), and Don Keefer (Mike the Janitor)

"They're Creeping Up on You" segment: E. G. Marshall (Upson Pratt) and David Early (Mr. White) Directed by George A. Romero (#738 - Night of the Living Dead (1968), #1155 - Dawn of the Dead (1978), #1588 - Day of the Dead, #1901 - The Crazies)

Review: 

To put it lightly, hell yes, I was ready to do this film for quite a while. What better combination could one have for an anthology film than a director as damn good as George A. Romero and a writer in Stephen King? What better way to do it than to have five stories and a runtime of two hours too? Three of the stories were done by King straight for the film while the other two are based on short stories King had previously done before. It is made as a homage to those EC Comics of yesteryear such as Tales from the Crypt, complete with animation utilized to depict it as a comic book (Jack Kamen, who did story art on a handful of Crypt stories, contributed the comic book artwork). It came out in the middle between Knightriders (1981) and Day of the Dead (1985) for Romero, which one would say is a good place to cite for a director as dedicated to delivering enduring films. Two sequels followed, albeit with less fanfare. The second film (released in 1987) had Michael Gornick (cinematographer of the first film) serve as director while Romero wrote the screenplay based on three stories as done by King, while the third film (released in 2006) had none of these aspects. In 1983, Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein went to work on an anthology TV series that was loosely based on the film (of course since Warner Bros. released Creepshow, one couldn't just keep the framing device from before): the result was Tales from the Darkside, which ran for four years and even had two King stories serve as episodes while Romero also wrote a few episodes. In 2019, Shudder (a streaming service) premiered a show based on the film,  which has run for four seasons.

Anthologies are hard to do right, particularly for horror, as demonstrated by ones given general praise such as Dead of Night (1945) or the ones with even better quality such as Kwaidan (1964). Creepshow is a damn good showing of the macabre with clear enthusiasm shown for each and every story that makes a good effort in capturing the feeling of reading something cribbed from a book or someone with a really amusing sense of dark amusement in the campfire. The frame device is what else but a dad giving his son crap for reading a weird-looking book of horror that can only go one way when you've got a kid that believes those paper ads really are helpful. Interestingly, Joe King (Stephen King's son and actor here) really did become a horror writer as an adult. The first story in "Father's Day" (17 minutes) is fine. It involves a family awaiting a relative coming for cake on (what else?) Father's day, which is ironic since no fathers are actually there to eat it. Most of it is actually a yarn told about this relative who may or may not have offed her old father after he had apparently killed her lover. The folks here all get a surprise when somebody else shows up for cake...yeah, it's a decent story to get you started with eventual grisly conclusions (and one fun effects moment involving critters). Next up is "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", which runs  the shortest (next to the wrapround anyway) at 14 minutes. This is the one with Stephen King overacting a bit while playing a yokel that touches and waters a meteorite that lands on his farm. Daydreams and all, some sort alien vegetation starts growing all certain places...it makes for a decent story, even if King is probably an unusual choice to headline a story alone (for the most part). The ending is a good one in the allure of terror brought on already when it comes to things that latch onto you at night.

"Something to Tide You Over" (25 minutes) is probably the highlight of the film, if you think about it.  It has Nielsen (who I should remind you had dabbled in serious roles on TV and film for decades before Airplane! (1980) gave him his calling in comedy) in an interesting role as a man bent on letting a guy dig himself into a hole on the beach with the tide coming in. There's something enchanting about the cold energy he brings to such a deluded role, and amusingly it is being played off against Danson for that weird mix of cold blooded humor. Of course, it's the ending that makes it count, and I enjoyed seeing it from the perspective of Nielsen when it comes to what you see and can't see even with camera all around. "The Crate" (39 minutes) runs the longest for some odd reason. All it involves is something that apparently has resided in a crate for over a century that comes to the attention of Weaver and later Holbrook, who finds it a good way to interact with his onscreen wife Barbeau. It's more an offbeat amusing story than anything, complete with fantasies of offing an annoying wife, but it makes for a good tale of curiosity over just what happens with a hairy beast and open spaces. "They're Creeping Up on You" (16 minutes) closes out the proceedings with a good ol' shock story time. Marshall plays a real s.o.b. who is really obsessed with cleanliness in his place, complete with taking calls and saying as such even when they are trying to talk to him about other things (you know, business, probably leading to a guy's death...). Things just get weird when, well, something really does creep up on him to a massive extent. Not ideal for those who just ate food they know didn't have anything on it before they swallowed.  The visual stylization that occurs for each story is a neat touch, and in general the film works at giving you useful payoff without just being a starstudded mishmash. As a whole, Creepshow is a horror fan's dream when it comes to giving you a couple of good little stories that give you good payoffs to go with spirited filmmaking from Romero and company that justifies its two-hour runtime with worthy entertainment value that holds well in its time by a hard margin.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Next up: Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.

Saving Private Ryan.

Review #1520: Saving Private Ryan.

Cast: 
Tom Hanks (Captain John H. Miller), Edward Burns (Private Richard Reiben), Matt Damon (Private James Francis Ryan), Tom Sizemore (Sergeant Mike Horvath), Jeremy Davies (Corporal Timothy Upham), Vin Diesel (Private Adrian Caparzo), Adam Goldberg (Private Stanley Mellish), Barry Pepper (Private Daniel Jackson), Giovanni Ribisi (Medic Irwin Wade), Ted Danson (Captain Fred Hamill), Paul Giamatti (Sergeant William Hill), Dennis Farina (Lieutenant Colonel Walter Anderson), Joerg Stadler (Steamboat Willie), Max Martini (Corporal Henderson), and Nathan Fillion (Private James Frederick Ryan) Directed by Steven Spielberg (#126 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind, #168 - Raiders of the Lost Ark, #169 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, #170 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, #302 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, #351 - Schindler's List, #480 - Jaws, #563 - The Sugarland Express, #573 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, #642 - Jurassic Park, #958 - Always, #1068 - Ready Player One, #1305 - Catch Me If You Can, and #1478 - The Color Purple)

Review: 
"What Steven wanted to do from the get-go was to use all of his magic, and all of the tools that existed in cinema as of 1997, and make a war movie that was going to break every one of the tropes, visually and cinematically, that all war movies had"

The 1990s were an interesting time for films, with Steven Spielberg being a significant contributor to that distinction through six films, which primarily resulted in audience attention, a studio that he helped to establish in DreamWorks Pictures, and three Academy Awards. Within those films are a mix of both adventure and historical drama, although this would be his first epic war film since Empire of the Sun (1987). The genesis for the script by Robert Rodat came from inspiration over the Niland brothers while reading Stephen Ambrose's book about D-Day (Ambrose's other book in Band of Brothers would later be turned into a miniseries by Spielberg and Hanks). There were four brothers in the family that served in World War II, with three of them fighting in the Normandy campaign. The surviving brother was believed to be the only Niland left, and he was shipped back to the United States to complete his service (however his oldest brother, a member of the Army Air Forces captured in a POW camp, was eventually liberated before the end of the war). The script appealed to Spielberg and his interest in the war, which he once described as "the most significant event of the last 100 years", one in which his father had served in as a member of the Army Air Corps, with the younger Spielberg being fascinated with the war due to his father's stories and recollections and what was depicted of it on American television; some of his early short films were combat ones inspired by his father. It shouldn't be surprising that the actors seem up to what is required in depicting combat with respect, since the main stars all endured a mini-session of boot camp led by Marine Dale Dye, who you might hear about as a trainer for other military-themed films.

The film opens and ends at the same place that seems interesting for an epic war film: the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, with Harrison Young as our first focus as a certain veteran here to pay his respects. I found these sequences to be fairly well-done in setting the film on pace for the thought that occurs after war when it comes to sacrifice in the horrors of war. And then of course there is the second sequence of the film, likely one of the best ever put to film that involves the landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, with over a thousand extras used within a recreation of the beach shot in Ireland. There is nothing quite like it in such devastating power as it moves across the killing field with tactile precision that makes for a harrowing experience for its viewers (who can feel every little moment of spilled seasickness and various other things) to set in and feel immediately without pretense. Soldiers being taken down before they hit the sand is still a striking image to dwell on. It has been a point of debate over the idea of said battle being the "peak" moment of the film. To me, that's pretty ridiculous, because that seems to imply that the rest of the film isn't as maintained in heightened fear or well-executed in discipline. If the D-Day sequence was at the end, would we being saying the same thing? Of course I also don't find the film drowns in maudlin nature unlike others - it grips me and keeps that grip firm and steady. I found that the film worked just as well in building its conflict within its mission that makes the inevitable fates all the more successful. One doesn't bat an eye much at the 169 minute run-time because of how well-involved it is when relaying the sacrifices made in the name of war. The film does its best work in depicting the fears and instincts that made up the men to fight without becoming a caricature, the absolute best in uncompromising epics for what Spielberg wanted to do.

But enough about details, there has to be a cast to go with it. Hanks proves quite resilient in displaying the humane side of persisting onward with what he must do regardless of the reasons or consequences, one who maintains himself with range that stands on his own terms as a useful lead to follow without becoming swept up in platitudes. Damon, showing himself past the halfway point does well with role filled in reluctance and care apart from the main group that does what is needed. Burns (in his first role that he also did not direct/write/produce, as he debuted with The Brothers McMullen three years prior) and Sizemore both do well with simmering intensity that carry the film in moving with the tides of weariness that doesn't seem wavering. Davies works well with unassuming quiver that we observe in the contrast between combat in translation and non-combat in translation a different way that sells that harrowing last shot of him worth it. Another filmmaker featured in this film Diesel, who had previously made two low-budget films of his own (as writer, director, producer, and star), and it was his short in Strays (1997) that impressed Spielberg to wedge his way into this film, and Diesel makes the most of it with some of the hard-edged charisma that would later make him a star. The others that are peppered through the film work handily in keeping the candor efficient from its journey across the fields of war with care, whether that involves folks like Goldberg or smaller turns for Danson and Giamatti. As a film that set itself on garnering more realism from what had come from war films in the previous decades (which featured films such as The Longest Day), Saving Private Ryan packs enough a wallop in its initial setup of harrowing bloodshed to make its resulting story a stirring experience that leaves its audience something it cannot forget about as just entertainment when it ends.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.