Tom Wallace’s latent psi abilities are awakened after he is hypnotized at a party. He experiences telepathy, precognition, even a limited degree of mind-reading. He also sees a ghost. Awkward mashup of two independent storylines, the one a Peyton Place-like melodrama of the secret lives of a group of implausibly sinful neighbors, the other a simplistic and ultimately dull tale of a dead woman with an agenda. Meanwhile, Tom struggles to hold his mind and marriage together. For all its histrionics, the book is well-written and surprisingly readable, if never entirely satisfying.
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Tom Wallace’s latent psi abilities are awakened after he is hypnotized at a party. He experiences telepathy, precognition, even a limited degree of mind-reading. He also sees a ghost. Awkward mashup of two independent storylines, the one a Peyton Place-like melodrama of the secret lives of a group of implausibly sinful neighbors, the other a simplistic and ultimately dull tale of a dead woman with an agenda. Meanwhile, Tom struggles to hold his mind and marriage together. For all its histrionics, the book is well-written and surprisingly readable, if never entirely satisfying.
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** Muddled message movie that takes place in a post-nuclear-holocaust New York. Harry Belafonte plays Ralph Burton, a black man with a racial chip on his shoulder, who believes he may be the last man on Earth until he meets Sarah Crandall (Inger Stevens), a white woman who soon begins to fall in love with him. Matters are complicated when Sarah sees a boat churning up the East River; on board is Benson Thacker (Mel Ferrar), a white man who views Ralph as a rival for Sarah. Neither man cares in the slightest what Sarah thinks about the situation. Race is a non-issue (for everyone except Ralph), sexism is accepted as a given (except by Sarah), and all that’s left is a bland commentary on civilization and war. Would-be allegory wastes the setting: no dead bodies, no wild animals, no radiation effects and, with handyman Ralph on the case, no lack of power, either. Maintains an inexplicably high rating on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Guess the post-apocalyptic crowd will take whatever it can get. Written by MacDougall, from a story by Ferdinand Reyher, and “suggested by a story” by M. P. Shiell (The Purple Cloud). *** Modern take on Noah and the story of the Ark — meaning some good video game violence, nondescript references to a “Creator,” and an evolutionary spin on life. The Bible has little enough to say about Noah, but Aronofsky and crew rewrite the story anyway, turning God into a riddle-master and Noah (Russell Crowe) into a conflicted angel of vengeance who ultimately clashes with his own sons. Some good ideas along the way, though, particularly having to do with the building of the Ark and the manner in which it is populated with birds, beasts, and creeping things. Several Watchers — fallen angels who, in this version, are rock-encrusted giants — help Noah with his project. Tubal-cain, leading an army of evildoers (that’s us, antediluvian style), provides an external threat. Crowe is a grave and formidable Noah and Anthony Hopkins has an amusing turn as a berry-craving Methuselah. Enjoyable, but as a magical action movie, not a Biblical epic. *** Light, fast-paced, almost flippant story that begins when a manned expedition to Ursa Major returns with no crew but rather a message from its captain warning the people of Earth of a terrible approaching danger. Seems there's a war going on in space, and the Ursa Major crew's physical similarity to one of the combatants leads another to conclude that Earthmen, too, are an enemy. Fortunately, Earth has a thriving space program; not so fortunately, their ships are hopelessly outclassed by the aliens'. Physicist Fred Hoyle supplies the clever idea that just might save humankind, while his son Geoffrey jollies the plot along with loads of gallows humor that is so cheerful one might forget that the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Somehow, it works. Followed in 1974 by a sequel, Into Deepest Space. ***** Terrific monster movie that is both fun and funny, with a pleasing cast of characters and an effective interpretation of Godzilla. Panned by critics — most famously by Roger Ebert, who is lampooned in the film — many of whom saw too many similarities to Jurassic Park in its effects and probably didn’t want to offend Spielberg by enjoying it. Matthew Broderick is very good as a happy man in not always happy circumstances and Jean Reno plays the surprising role of a French agent with amusing aplomb. Action-packed and exciting, with a clever twist in the middle that keeps Godzilla himself from becoming boring. Simply one of the best. Addendum (8/22/16) In 2016, Variety placed this film at #4 (in a catchall of horror movies) on its list of the 10 Worst Movie Remakes of All Time. Silly lemming.
* Another Asylum (Sharknado) crockbuster, this one fudging its title from Edge of Tomorrow. “When the sun strikes an altar hidden within the ancient Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico, it creates a beacon that triggers an alien blitzkrieg.” So says Asylum, in a tacit admission that when your films are as bad as theirs, not even an accurate plot description matters. Kelly Hu stars as an unimaginative prostitute whose liaison with a smug but untalented alien spawns the cast and crew of this film. Perfect for viewers with no self-respect. Direct-to-video. ** Based on an idea that amuses neuroscientists — that human beings use only ten percent of their brain — this violent fantasy follows Scarlett Johansson as Lucy, a student forced by a Korean drug lord (Choi Min-sik) to carry a new narcotic in her abdomen that, when it is accidentally released into her system, begins to awaken the supposedly dormant 90% of her gray matter. Along with her ever-increasing powers of the mind comes the knowledge that she will soon die if she doesn’t get more of the drug, a mission the drug lord is determined to thwart. Besson includes a few funny metaphorical asides by way of cuts to the animal kingdom, which, along with the gun-play and car crashes, are meant to divert us from the absurdity of the characters and story. Morgan Freeman, for instance, plays a scientist whose childish daydreams of expanded brain-use are treated as respectable scientific theories; meanwhile, Lucy’s incredible new intelligence includes a convenient black hole in the area of her battle with the drug lord. Lucy’s self-absorption is understandable, but her amoral anarchism is not. For mavens of mayhem only. |
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