Category: Reviews

On Story – Screenwriters and Filmakers on Their Iconic Films
Edited by Barbara Morgan and Maya Perez
247 pages, $20, University of Texas Press

The Austin Film Festival is a great place to watch films and hear from filmmakers as co-founder and Executive Director Barbara Morgan assembles a winning lineup of producers, directors, screenwriters, and performers to come talk about their craft.

Thankfully, Morgan and Maya Perez, producer of the Emmy-winning PBS series Austin Film Festival’s On-Story, have collected an assortment in a too-short collection, On Story – Screenwriters and Filmakers on Their Iconic Films. After a James Franco introduction, we get the best from the last 20 years’ worth of conversations in transcript form.

Among the highlights is the Conversation with Shane Black, David Milch, and Sydney Pollack, where the diverse filmmakers talk character, plot, structure, theme and favorite moments from across their careers.

Similarly, genre devotees will appreciate the focus on comic book adaptations during the A Conversation with Michael Green, Ashley Miller, and Nicole Perlman, who have given us X-Men, Heroes, and Guardians of the Galaxy among other projects. The talk between John Milius and Oliver Stone, sadly, barely touches on Conan.

Callie Khouri provides a lot of details behind how Thelma and Louise came together and the unexpected manner in which is got from handwritten script to studio production and its aftermath for her career and the feminist cause.

Comedy fans will find the creation process for Groundhog Day interesting as Harold Ramis talks on his own and then chats with Danny Rubin, the man who first had the notion that became the film’s core. And for thriller fans, Jonathan Demme and Ted Tally walk you through the writing of Silence of the Lambs.

Perhaps the most interesting dissection of a film is when Ron Howard, Jim Lovell, Sy Liebergot, John Aaron, Jerry Bostick, Michael Corenblith, Al Reinert, and William Broyles Jr., discuss the making of Apollo 13, considering most of the speakers were the astronaut and engineers who actually made history and how Howard used them as advisors.

Would-be screenwriters will find the anecdotes and process discussion fascinating while ore casual students of film will find the majority of the conversations entertaining reading. It’s not a How To book by any means, but a series of discussions on the process and business behind the films. You came away impressed by their thoughtfulness and by how no two films go from idea to screen in exactly the same way.

When Batman debuted on ABC in 1966, I was not yet eight years old, a prime target for this pop-art event. I was already a diehard comic book fan and couldn’t contain my excitement at seeing the heroes and villains come off the four-color pages and onto our then-new color TV. I was very excited and had no clue just how campy it was. That came later as the reruns began on WPIX and throughout the 1970s.

The Batman phenomenon has proven incredibly influential on several generations of comic book fans, professional writers, artists, and animators, and beyond. Thankfully, whatever legal entanglements there were between Greenway Productions, 20^th Century Fox, and Warner Bros got ironed out, allowing a new generation of fans to glory in what is now known as Batman ’66. The latest offering is the direct-to-DVD animated feature Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, starring the voices of Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar – sadly the last living main actors from the series.

Directed by Rick Morales and written by Michael Jelenic and James Tucker, there is tremendous love and affection showered on the production, billed as a direct continuation of the ABC series. In that regard, it comes close but not quite. After all, there’s no Batgirl and Robin is played as a still-16 year old with a learner’s permit, when by show’s end he’s acknowledged as older.  Additionally, there have been tweaks here and there so the Batcave is larger and more ornate, complete with the giant dinosaur and playing card trophies while exiting the cave is a more elaborate event. Even the Bat-chutes are reimagined as a singular giant parachute in black (and no evidence the Bat-chute Clean-up Van is still on duty).

The story teams up the fearsome foursome of Catwoman, Joker Jeff Bergman, nicely channeling Cesar Romero), Riddler Wally Wingert, also good), and Penguin (William Salyers) in an appropriately convoluted plot to takeover a space station abandoned after America and Moldavia cannot agree on its use. Batman is subjected to a chemical agent that twists him beyond recognition and he uses a far-fetched duplication ray to essentially stage a Bat-coup over Gotham City.

As one expects from a film-length version of the show, all the tropes are there from giant prop death traps, Aunt Harriet’s near-discovery of their secret, the bond between Bruce Wayne and Alfred, the ineptitude of the GCPD, well-choreographed fight scenes, and deathless dialogue on public safety. And I grinned my way through most of it. Clearly, the script played up Catwoman since Newmar could run with the part and her fickle feline feelings has her switch sides with ease. There’s also a nice gag as a stunned Batman sees three Catwoman, one looking like Newmar, one like Lee Merriweather, and one like Eartha Kitt. There are several other sly touches like this one along with jabs at other filmed versions of the Caped Crusader.

Is it perfect? Of course not nor was the original TV series. I think the character designs for Robin and Riddler don’t quite work and the thugs come and go without explanation and when they’re present, there seems to be one of each and they do nothing to aid their bosses.  Speaking of the villains, when they teamed up on TV or first gathered for the live-action Batman film, they at least talked to one another before dissention rose among them. It would have been nice to see more of that here.

This is certainly the most optimistic and enjoyable Batman film out in 2016 and that’s something to be thankful for.

The film arrives in a Blu-ray, DVD< and Digital HD combo pack. Beyond the film, there are just two bonus features: “Those Dastardly Desperados” tries to shine a light on the importance of the villains but lacks context (or TV clips); and,  “A Classic Cadre of Voices” as vocal cast and production crew talk about the importance of recreating the sounds of the sixties.

Halfway through the first five-year mission, Captain James T. Kirk has grown complacent, even bored. The thrill of discovery and adventure seems to have worn thin and he’s restless, ready for a change. Still in his thirties, young by 23^rd century standards, he seems to be having a midlife crisis ahead of schedule. At much the same time, Spock yearns to join the remaining Vulcans in order to perpetuate the species, concluding this is his destiny.

Life has a funny way of upending plans and so we find the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise, Kelvin division, at the outset of Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond. The film was well-received by fans who felt the previous film, Star Trek Into Darkness, was as a betrayal and disaster. Unfortunately, an inept marketing campaign from Paramount Pictures meant along with a robust summer of competition meant the new film underperformed at the box office.

As 50^th Anniversary celebrations go, Paramount largely screwed the pooch on this one, although the film delivers everything fans want: human stakes, humor, references to the larger Star Trek universe, and action. There are multiple themes at work here including whether or not the unity of the United Federation of Planets weakened its member’s species or there was strength in numbers.

Simon Pegg and Doug Jung have done a wonderful job adding in depth and character, allowing the triumvirate of Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and McCoy (Karl Urban) to interact and explore their own futures. While Lin shines the spotlight on the reset of the ensemble, these three get the meatiest parts which honors Gene Roddenberry’s original series.

The entirety of the Star Trek franchise is well-served by this story with Easter eggs galore for the diehard fans without losing the more casual viewer. Instead, the screenwriters and directors take us into new territory seeing things we’ve never seen before. The drone bees that attack and then destroy the Enterprise is a clever attack and the comment the ship’s shields were not designed for such an attack shows that even in the 23rd century, Starfleet architects have things to learn.

Less clever, though, is Krall (Idris Elba), the protagonist that ironically ends up feeling the weakest part of the story. His motivations are ill-formed and while his backstory and history are nice nods to Enterprise the series, they are less interesting than an alien representing a race that challenges the very ideals the Federation was founded on. He is more a stock opponent and weakness what is otherwise a very strong film.

I would have liked to know about the other races lured to Krall’s planet, including the one that brought Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) to be there. She’s lost her family and has taken up residence in the hulk of the U.S.S. Franklin a starship from the earliest days of Starfleet.

The sense of legacy pervading the film is a strong theme and I wanted to see more of that. Kirk mourns his father and the appearance of Commodore Paris (Shohreh Aghdashloo) hints at the famed lineage culminating in Voyager’s Tom Paris. But the scene between her and Kirk is leaden and doesn’t go far enough to explore character or advance the plot. When Kirk tells Picard in Generations — “Let me tell you something. Don’t. Don’t let them promote you. Don’t let them transfer you, don’t let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you’re there, you can make a difference.” – we understand Kirk’s commitment to being a captain. Paris should be the one passing that on to Kirk, reminding him of his first, best destiny.

Similarly, Kirk looks more wistful than pained when his starship goes down in flames. The Prime Kirk would have been in agony at that stage of his career. That said, it went well and it’ll be interesting what’s new on its replacement.

Lin brings a visual verve to the production so we see the starship zipping through warp space or shot from fresh angles so we were dazzled. He had lovely touches such as the glowing universal translator pips on Kalara (Lydia Wilson). On the other hand, given the loss of gravity in several scenes and the frenetic action, his editing left me dizzy and occasionally uncertain of what was happening.

While Scotty (Pegg) has some wonderful moments, the rest of the crew needed more. John Cho’s Sulu has a husband and daughter but it would have been nice to see him talk about them or take charge of the crew while they were prisoners of Krall (and why were they being detained?). Chekov (Anton Yelchin) uses his innate genius to handle some of the tech demands but otherwise fawns after Kirk’s instinctual genius. I did like seeing Uhura (Zoe Saldana) in action and showing initiative, but had little else to say. Her romance with Spock is on the rocks which is under-explored.

Overall, this is a strong Star Trek film and is certainly the strongest of the three Bad Robot films, make of that what you will, but the leads have grown into their roles and we’re finally given a chance to see who they are. The death of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock is nicely handled and the end title memorials to Nimoy and Yelchin are nicely done.

Star Trek Beyond is out Tuesday from Paramount Home Entertainment in a 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Digital HD combo pack.  While I can’t speak to the 3D, the high definition transfer is excellent along with good audio. The bonus features two short deleted scenes (1:02, with one more good Easter Egg) and eight short pieces, each one examining thematic aspects of the film, with copious footage taken from across the preceding films and television episodes: Beyond the Darkness (10:08); Enterprise Takedown (4:31), Divided and Conquered (8:17); A Warped Sense of Revenge (5:15), Trekking in the Desert (3:06); Exploring Strange New Worlds (6:02), New Life, New Civilizations (8:04); and, To Live Long and Prosper (7:51). Additionally there is the too short and choppy For Leonard and Anton (5:04), paying tribute to the passing of the Trek; and of course, Gag Reel (5:13).

It’s fairly amazing that it took five men — Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, James Vanderbilt – to conceive the story and pen the script to Independence Day: Resurgence when it trod no new ground and felt like the worst rehash of the original film and many other SF flicks from the preceding twenty years.

The original ID4 was an unassuming popcorn thriller with implausible science and predictable actions but leavened with strong performances and quirky, fun characters. They were having fun fighting the alien invaders and we had memorable lines and Will Smith punching out an alien with “Welcome to Earth”.

Somehow, these five, including Devlin and Emmerich who gave us the first, left out the fun. Instead, for two hours we see a mix of familiar and unfamiliar figures watch an even larger alien ship arrive, intent on destroying Earth either as an act of revenge or still in need of our resources, the locust that would ravage Earth before moving on to the next world. And of course it all happens conveniently on the 290^th anniversary, as if the aliens would calculate time so precisely.

The kids have grown up and we focus on Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher), the son of Jasmine Dubrow-Hiller (Viveca A. Fox) and stepson of Steven Hiller (Smith) and Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe), daughter of President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman). New kids on the block include Rain Lao (Angelbaby) and Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), not that they get much to do. They are our first line of defense and somehow mankind has reverse engineered the alien tech so they could rapidly rebuild Earth and then build a massive station on the moon (the technological advanced are perhaps the most implausible aspects of this film).

We still have David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) as the smartest man in the room along with Dr. Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner), the craziest man in the room. And there are numerous newcomers, none of whom are given anything resembling a personality or real role in the film spoiling the talents of Sela Ward as the current President and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a fellow scientist.

Apparently, a third race has arrived to warn us of the impending invasion but we fired first and it takes time to uncover the Poké Ball, with its dire warnings. The mother of a ship arrives, all 3000 miles of it, and the heroes make a valiant attempt during the trench run to launch the missile into the exhaust port. When that fails, they fall back and fret a lot until smarter minds come up with a plan while the aliens bore into Earth’s crust trying to suck out the molten core. None of the physics of such a massive presence on Earth’s Atlantic Ocean or the drilling deep into the tectonic plates is ever felt.

We win, of course, and the alien queen is stopped seconds shy of victory, all too predictable, all too anticipated and therefore all too futile to entertain. After twenty years, one had every right to higher expectations.

The film is out now from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in a 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Digital HD combo pack. The MVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1 and an adequate transfer, if a bit murky here and there. The 3D version feels entirely like a wasted effort, average at best. The film gets more bang out of the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix, not that it makes up for a sorry excuse for a sequel.

The 3D disc does not contain any special feature, all saved for the standard Blu-ray. There you get a handful of Deleted Scenes (8:24) with optional commentary by Roland Emmerich; The War of 1996 (5:11) a faux news recap of events between films; It’s Early ABQ (3:07), another faux program with Fred Armisen as an early morning talk show host; Another Day: The Making of Independence Day: Resurgence (55:25), a four part look at the film’s production with cast and crew interviews;  Gag Reel (6:14); Audio Commentary by Roland Emmerich; Concept Art: Aliens (5:48), AI (:43), Humans (2:58), Locations (1:33), and Original Presentational Images (1:28); and Theatrical Trailers (5:18).

When Warner Bros announced they were making a new Tarzan film, the first question among fans was, “Do we really need another Tarzan movie?” The character has had more interpretations and reboots than just about any other pop culture figure from the 20^th Century and it felt that his relevance has passed. The answer, surprisingly then, is that yes, we needed this one.

The Legend of Tarzan, out now from Warner Home Entertainment, is very faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ creation, honoring the time-honored story of the infant raised by apes, who just happened to be an English lord. The cleverness in the script from Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) and Adam Cozad (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) which picks up eight years later, after Lord John Greystoke (Alexander Skarsgård) has returned to England with Jane Porter (Margot Robbie) as his bride. They also steep the story in events that were contemporary at the time, things ERB usually avoided in favor of the fantastic.

The plight of the African tribes as the Dark Continent was seen as increasingly valuable and the slaughter of animals for their horns, tusks, and pelts started to shift the ecosystem’s balance. It took the efforts of an American, George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson), to bring the world’s attention to these problems. The man was real and not just added for a token black role and thankfully, Jackson was the right figure to bring the character to life. Williams comes to England to ask Parliament to invite Greystoke to accompany him to Africa to investigate.

England is cold, gray, and dreary, stifling John and Jane so the decision is fairly easy and director David Yates does a masterful job contrasting civilization with the simpler, happier tribal life. Still, they’re there for a reason who is made manifest by Léon Auguste Théophile Rom (Christoph Waltz), another historically accurate figure and said to be the model for Joseph Conrad’s Colonel Kurtz. Rom is there to tilt the balance of African power toward King Leopold in Belgium, fueled by stealing a cache of diamonds deep in the Congo. In exchange for helping Rom, Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou) has demanded Tarzan with whom he has a grudge.

And off we go. There are plenty of fine set pieces here that honors the traditions of Tarzan movies, along with winks and nods to the character’s worldwide legend. We have flashbacks to fill in the details of Tarzan’s past and have an over-the-top animal stampede in the third act. It’s far from a perfect film with Waltz playing a now stock villain complete with a dinner scene that seemed lifted wholesale from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Mbonga subplot was thoroughly unnecessary and was more of a distraction since the theme of Great White Hero versus Great White Exploiter of the Natives was a clearer narrative.

The film is lush with the jungle life and great attention to the animal and tribal life helps ground the story. Skarsgård and Robbie have a wonderful chemistry and you believe in their bond and faith in one another. Jackson adds just enough comic relief to be an able sidekick along with representing the audience in his awe of the life he finds deep within the trees.

The film’s 1080p, AVC-encoded transfer to Blu-ray is sharp, clear, and helps convince you we are in 1890 Africa. Slightly better is the Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

The Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD combo pack comes with a handful of special features although it is noteworthy that commentary, deleted scenes, and the like are absent in favor of Electronic Press Kit-worthy featurettes. The lack of cool features here is an example of Warner’s disappointment at the film’s undeserved failure at the box office. There’s Tarzan Reborn (15:10), an overview of the thinking behind this production; Battles and Bare-Knuckle Brawls, which examines three action scenes –Tarzan vs. Akut (5:15), Boma Stampede (4:53), and Train Ambush (4:57);  Tarzan and Jane’s Unfailing Love (6:01); Creating the Virtual Jungle (15:16); Gabon to the Screen (2:28) which stood in for the Congo; and, Stop Ivory (1:30), a PSA with the stars.