Movie review - "Avatar: Fire and Ash" (2025) **1/2

 Gorgeous visuals. Excellent action scenes. Acting fine. Knows how to pull at the heart strings. Too long. Feels choppy. Endless subplots. I nodded off and at one stage thought I was seeing the first movie, with similar action sequences, whales, and Brendan Cowell (didn't he die? Why bring him back? Can't they kill anyone these days?)

Full of unresolved plots - like the general, the nasty tribal leader (great character). I'm not even sure Stepheh Lang and Brendan Cowell are dead, they keep bringing people back.

They should've attacked the human base at the end.  And Spider is more trouble than he's worth.

Better that they'd wrapped this up. 

Movie review - "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980) **** (re-watching)

 Rousing score. Excellent script. Big heart. The other New World space flixs didn't have this heart. Richard Thomas' nerdiness is well used. Darlene F is adorable. Robert Vaughan is touching - great resentful death. All the mercenaries die so it has even more kick than The Magnificent Seven.

Just a great fast paced well written film.

Movie review - "Avatar: The Way of Water" (2022) *** (warning: spoilers)

 I totally enjoyed that more than I thought I would. It was a struggle at times - that running time - but it was quite moving. Then I guess Jim Cameron is a dab hand at trope manipulation - it's hard not to be stirred when the peaceful natives have their villages pummelled (again), or to feel for whales who are harpooned, or to be roused when the whales kick arse, or to love it when whalers get devastated, or to be moved when babies play in the ocean and people die, and people have a final glimpse of their final dead family member.

Also it hits on universal themes: fear of protecting family, bickering siblings, the good son versus the troublesome son, the walking stakes kids, the kids feeling out of step.

The flaws are big but oddly one would think they were easily fixable. They set up this plot about colonising Pandora but that gets forgotten (along with Edie Falco's unconvincing general) to hang out with whales. I mean, weren't the forest people at war again? Isn't that still going on? Would the baddies devote all these resources to tracking down Sam Worthington once he actually leaves the forest people - I mean he's no longer a threat/mastermind because he's gone right? Why didn't they just make it a generic flight thing - he tries to flee but realises he can't any more. And Zoe Saldana's part is nothing. For a hippy movie it's very patriarchal.

Still, I was engrossed more often than not, the spectacle was fun, as was re using jungle movie tropes (there's even a comely native girl walking out of the ocean), and I got a little teary at the end.

Movie review - "End of Days" (1999) **1/2

 Dumb. Loud. Arnie has too much dialogue.  Rips off so many films - The Terminator, Rosemary's Baby, Braveheart. Unpleasant story basically about stopping Gabriel Byrne raping Robin Tunney.

Tunney is good in these wide eyed innocent roles. Byrne is good in these evil devil roles. Rod Steiger eats scenery. Miram Margoyles adds camp value. High death toll. Peter Hyams photography and editing - quick cuts, etc. Random sexy scene with Byrne sleeping with Udo Kier's wife and daughter. 

Still there's always something happening and plenty of action. Logical finale.

Book review - "A Long time ago in a cutting room far away" by Paul Hirsch

 Entertaining editor memoir. Close up accounts of collaborating with famed directors like Brian De Palma, John Hughes and George Lucas and composers like Bernard Herrman. There's also depictions of working with Charles Shyer (nice but could never make up his mind), Duncan Jones, Herbert Ross (a great experience for Hirsch), Brad Bird.

Hirsch seems to be upfront and honest - I'm sure it's biased in his favour and those criticised will go "that's not how it happened" but he has great credits. He made a lot of genuine contributions to cinema history - persuading de Palma to hire Hermann, the credits and 'Let's Hear It For the Boy' sequences of Footloose, 'Twist and Shout' for Ferris Bueller. He tried to be a director for a bit but not too hard.

This is full of fun stories: having to cut out the bad actor who played Jabba in Star Wars, dealing with temperamental yet brilliant Herman, offending Brian de Palma on Mission to Mars, the moods of John Hughes, the indecision of Charles Shyer on the money pit of I Love Trouble, extracting the juice out of John Hughes movies, what went wrong on Pluto Nash (apparently the original script was funny), James Cameron sledging him on the day Titanic overtook Star Wars at the box office.

Occasionally gets a bit nerdy with talks of splicing and dubs and stuff but consistently interesting. Composers - get to know editors and be nice! They can wreck you with the wrong temp track/edit.

Script review - "Aliens" by James Cameron

Stunningly good script - has a strong basic idea (returning to the alien planet), builds logically. Great military and matter-of-fact sci fi; very good structure: set up, travel to planet, arrive, things go haywire, rescue, respite and find kid, another attack, flee, almost all die, rescue kid, final battle. (I did always feel the final battle between Ripley and mother was one too many but it is cathartic.) Great characteristation.

It reminds me in some ways of Attack of the Crab Monsters in its structure and shooting gallery structure.  The script was well executed but the greatness of this is already present in the script.

Movie review - "Rambo: First Blood Part 2" (1985) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Sylvester Stallone helped America overcome its Vietnam demons with this over the top wish fulfillment action fantasy where everyone's favourite PTSD poster boy, John Rambo, is called to rescue American POWs in Vietnam (something very common in cinema at the time, eg Missing in Action, Uncommon Valor). And if Rambo's arguments sound a lot like right wing Germans after World War One - we could have won if we'd been allowed, etc - it is true to character and does give this resonance.

The basic structure of this is very sound - James Cameron co wrote the screenplay. It's not original, mind, but there are decent twists: falling off target, deciding to take a POW back, being betrayed, the death of the girl.

The action scenes are over the top and spectacular rather than memorable. I've seen the film a few times and am struggling to recall them - I can remember the dialogue, both campy ("I've always believed the mind is the best weapon") and genuinely moving ("all we want is for our country to love us the way we love it"), I recall the montages (Rambo getting ready for battle), the silly excessive images (Rambo's flowing hair, firing a machine gun), the solid support from Charles Napier and Richard Crenna and Steven Berkoff, the stunning photography. But the actual action just seems to be explosions and increasingly unrealistic acts.

Politically and sociologically this is fascinating, especially considering how popular it was at the box office - it says a lot about America at the time. It was a phenomenon. As an actual movie it is competent but flawed. Worth seeing.

Movie review - "Rambo III" (1988) **1/2

Rambo II made so much money it would have been rude for Sylvester Stallone not to return for a third installment; the result did not attract the same level of "hot button" controversy at the time - though it's become notorious in later years because some think Rambo was helping the same forces America would be fighting from 2001 on wards. It's also not as good a movie.

It's still beautifully shot with lots of impressive explosions and stunts involving helicopters; and the basic set up isn't bad: Rambo turns down a chance to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, but decides to go there when his old mentor Richard Crenna is captured.

But the story isn't as good as Rambo 2  - the absence of James Cameron perhaps? The structure isn't as clean: Rambo turns up in Afghanistan, goes to rescue Crenna, fails, then goes back and rescues him again, then fights off the Soviets, is in a hot spot, but the Afghans rescue him and he goes home. It lacks the personal resonance in the second film, where Rambo was returning to his old stomping ground, and trying to win a war that had been lost; it also lacks the twists - in the second film Rambo decided to rescue a POW (twist), was not picked up by the US who betrayed him (twist), was rescued by his girlfriend who died (twist), then went on rampage. There's no sense of progression.

And it also lacks characters. This movie only has two real characters of note - Rambo and Trautman, plus some random evil baddy, and random helpful tribespeople. In Rambo 2 there were plenty of random people (even Steven Berkoff's character) but there were more who had resonance for Rambo: a fellow veteran POW, a CIA spook who betrayed him, a woman he kind of fell in love with. This movie has opportunity for such characters but doesn't take him - Kurtwood Smith's shady operative cried out for some betraying of Rambo but he disappears; that kid soldier cried out to bond with Rambo as a kid role but he doesn't.

The best moment is when Trautman lectures the Russian:  There won't be a victory. Every day, your war machines lose ground to a bunch of poorly-armed, poorly-equipped freedom fighters. The fact is that you underestimated your competition. If you'd studied your history, you'd know that these people have never given up to anyone. They'd rather die than be slaves to an invading army. You can't defeat a people like that. We tried; we already had our Vietnam! Now you're gonna have yours.

If only George W had seen the film!

In short: not as offensive as the second film but not as good either.

Script review - "Rambo: First Blood Part 2" by James Cameron

James Cameron's first draft of the action blockbuster became renowned as a script greatly changed by it's star, with Cameron distancing himself from the politics especially of the final film. Still, I was struck by how closely the final movie resembled it - in particular, the structure seems identical: Trautman retrieves Rambo from imprisonment, offers a deal to find POWs, Rambo clashes with the CIA spook, is dropped in the jungle, meets a beautiful Vietnamese agent, finds the camp and rescues a POW, is betrayed by the spook, is recaptured and tortured by Russians but escapes due to the girl, who is then killed after they decide to get together; Rambo goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of Russians and Vietnamese, steals a chopper, rescues the POWS and flies back to Thailand, snarls at the spook and walks off into the sunset. It's all here in Cameron's work.

Of course there are some differences - the opening scene is here in a psychiatric hospital, with Rambo in a makeshift cell (a nice touch); Rambo is given a wise cracking CIA op sidekick for the mission, who you can easily imagine being played by Bill Paxton - and who actually could easily be cut out of the film story wise (and he was.... people might think it was ego or something but the sidekick doesn't really contribute anything except maybe a little humour); there is little political posturing, with Rambo not whingeing about his country not loving him, or wanting to win this tim; Trautman is tougher here, more of a bad ass. But is surprisingly close to the end result. Certainly why would Sly tamper with the structure? It's very effective. One thing I would add though - it is not that character driven. Indeed, Sly's version, with it's paranoid hero convinced that the suits cost America the war, has more of a distinct character for Rambo.

Book review - "Total Recall" by Arnold Schwazzenegar (2013)

Reading this I kept thinking I could swear I'd read an Arnie memoir before, but nope - this is his first. I think because at his height in the 80s and 90s we kept hearing his story in every second article about him: the Austrian upbringing (was dad a Nazi, waking up in the freezing cold to milk the cows etc etc), the body building obsession (up at the break of day to work out, the admiration for Reg Park), his domination of competitions, the move to American, making his own fortune via mail order, construction and real estate before becoming an actor, getting off to a great start with Stay Hungry and Pumping Iron before wobbling for a bit (Cactus Jack) then finding genuine stardom with Conan and icon status with The Terminator, Republican leanings despite a Democrat wife. When his film career wobbled he went into politics, becoming governor of California.

Arnie worked super hard at everything - even though this is a memoir I don't doubt it, just look at the dude. He seems to have been a prized novelty in the 70s, hanging out with Nicholson and Beatty, guest starring on Lucille Ball's show - but he was keen to learn and always pushed himself.

He's such a positive person - in this book he goes on and on about how great Maria is/was and their courtship and love the family... mentions of his affair with Brigitte Nielsen (on Red Sonja, before he was married but well after he started going out with Maria) and the housekeeper which resulted in a kid, are given short shrift. To be fair though at least they're there - Arnie is also up front about his use of steroids, gamesmanship tactics in the world of body building in order to win, highly competitive nature, desire to say something outrageous which frequently got him into trouble. (He's more coy on the sexual harassment claims though they are consistent with the depiction of himself he sketches here.)

The chapters on California politics were a lot more interesting than I thought they would be - being governor sounds like a horrible job, but at least Arnie was a centrist Republican (it's enjoyable to hear him get stuck into the lunatic fringe of that party). It seemed to dent even his relentlessly upbeat nature.

I was most interested in the movies, of course, and while I am fairly familiar with Arnie's career there was plenty of new stuff: genuine affection for John Milius, taking a punt on John McTiernan for Predator off the back of Nomads (Arnie took a lot of risks on newer directors starting out, eg Jame Cameron, McTiernan), criticisms of the Predator and Conan sequels, dissastisfaction with Paul Michael Glaser's direction on The Running Man. He doesn't go into too much detail about the bad luck that dogged his cinema career from the mid 90s onwards - ever since True Lies, really, the Arnie movie, which used to be something special, has become a "whatever" movie. Eraser, Jingle All the Way, Collateral Damage, The Sixth Day, End of Days - anyone could have made these. And the public don't seem to care since he went back to acting. (He doesn't mention Christmas in Connecticut for some reason.)

I also found other stuff interesting too - body building, Austria, life with the Kennedys, politics, his scandals.  He deserves all the success he's had, and the brickbats that have come his way (the housekeeper? really?) but I have such affection for him, that I wish him well and look forward to seeing what he's going to come up with next.

Movie review - "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1981) ****

Enormously enjoyable science fiction film from New World - the most expensive they've ever made - which has perhaps the most likeable characters in a sci fi action film that I can think of off the top of my head. John Sayles wrote the script and he did a terrific job, helped by some good casting.

Richard Thomas is likeable in his regular sappy way the boy next door who goes around whipping up the mercenary force; Robert Vaughan is touching as the incredibly rich assassin who is living lonely on a planet because he's on the run from everywhere (sure, it's a reprise of his Magnificent Seven work but he's even better here because of his age and the fact he's on his own on a planet); George Peppard is winning as a lonely smuggler from Earth (hooray) who likes Westerns and has a Confederate flag on his ship; Darlanne Fluegel is achingly pretty and most winning as the naive girl who has grown up without androids and whose father (Sam Jaffe, in a performance that is surely a nod to Lost Horizon) wants Thomas to breed with her (tough gig!); Sybil Danning is spectacular as the well-dowed Viking woman. I loved the other creatures in make up, too - the Nestor, who all share the same sensations; the little guys without ears; the lizard desperate for payback.

It's a tribute to Sayles that all these characters are conveyed so well so quickly. There's more too: Thomas' sister Julia Duffy (I was never quite sure what happened to her in the film after she got kidnapped) and mentor Jeff Corey, the voice of his space ship (who has a touching quasi-Alzheimers death scene), Marta Kristen as a leading woman on Thomas' planet, John Saxon as the megalomaniac villain. Every race has a different religion - it's a really clever, rich script.

There is plenty of action and cheesy special effects, which haven't aged too well, but it fairly spanks along - by minute eight Thomas is off on his mission. No wonder this film is so well loved.

Movie review – “Piranha 2: The Spawning” (1981) ** (warning: spoilers)

The famous skeleton in James Cameron’s cinematic closet is actually a decent enough horror film. Yes there are some flaws – the comic relief is fairly hideous (nerdy guys with glasses persued by fortune hunting women, man with stutter falls in water, horny honeymooning couple), any attack by the flying piranhas looks kind of hokey. 

 

But it’s polished enough and has a decent amount of imagination – for instance the couple at beginning trying to have sex underwater in a wreck when they are attacked, the third act reveal that the love interest for the lead woman is actually a government scientist. And the finale is impressive, with them trying to blow up the piranhas and the son appearing on a boat and the ex-husband trying to rescue them all.

 

Cameron fans will be able to spot themes that appeared in later movies – there’s a tough female lead (Tricia O’Neil), who has a son and an ex-husband with whom she has a good relationship; the women are strong and sexual aggressors (even an elderly man eater and some topless bimbos); Lance Henrickson has a role; there’s a scene where a piranha bursts out of a dead person’s stomach Alien-style. The acting by the leads is pretty good; that by the supporting cast is pretty poor. All the black people with speaking parts wind up dead – I think there’s only three of them (I liked the dynamiting guy, he seemed liked a good bloke – it’s a shame they had to kill him off).

Movie review - “Avatar” (2009) ***

The price tag was huge but it's up there on screen – a stunning looking film, especially in 3D, and it has an intriguing set up and plenty of action. It also has this sort of irritating separatist liberalism that you find from millionaire film directors (indeed, it's similar in its simplistic attitudes to Strange Days, which resembles this in a lot of other ways – to wit, it deals with the redemption of a fallen warrior through the use of a new-fangled technology).

The alien society, which is meant to be great because it’s so in touch with the environment, is a monarchy where the rulers are warriors, women don’t have a say in who their husbands are, and the warriors tame birds by raping them.

Also the baddy human corporation is just plain evil without given any decent motivation (it wouldn’t have to be too hard, just something like Bill Hunter’s villain in Strictly Ballroom being motivated by a desire to be able to teach “official” ballroom dancing steps – something like the company is losing money). On another level, it lacks the pure narrative structure of something like Aliens (land on planet-try to get off planet) or Terminator (escape Terminator) and is choppy.

Okay, enough griping. On the sunny side it looks terrific, there are some decent performances (I especially liked Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saladana – Stephen Lang would have been good if he’d been given a character with a bit more complexity), Sam Worthington is fine as the hero (although his American accent slips at times, he may as well done the whole thing as an Aussie), there is lots of action.

TV series review - "Entourage" Season 3 Part 1

The HBO gang keep the standards high with another excellent installment of this series. Vinnie Chase becomes a big star with Acquaman - although I maintain this wouldn't make him a really big star in the way that say Ace Ventura made Jim Carrey a star, people would think Vinnie was carried by the property and James Cameron. There are some lovely moments, like when Vinnie makes the nerds day, when the moms come out to LA, Martin Landau as an old producer and Beverly d'Angelo as a tough agent, the Lloyd-Ari scenes (I so want Lloyd to become Johnny Drama's agent), the 13 year old kid who goes for Ari's daughter (this show is brilliantly cast), the hot threesome episode. Kevin Dillon again brings this wonderful car crash quality to everything his character does and Seth Green is a lot of fun. Some wonky bits - after a while Turtle became too greedy (the thing with the shoes got to me - you don't need shoes, Turtle, this is false warmth), Ari going to Vegas felt wrong (they didn't give him a good enough reason to go); the arrival of an old friend to the gang was a bit distressing, though of course that was the point - it just made the show a little less fun to watch for those episodes. Still great fantasy TV.

Movie review - "Aliens" (1986) *****

A sequel even better than the original, with James Cameron in his element. It's an entirely different movie from the first one, which was basically a haunted house film in space - this one is mostly an action film. I always read this film as an indictment of American soldiers in Vietnam (or really any over confident world power in the third world): a bunch of cocky, gung-ho, heavily supplied soldiers get in totally over their heads in a hostile environment and get wiped out. The army here really aren't very good - they lack discipline, are poorly led, panic, and overly trigger happy. The film doesn't endorse these qualities (except maybe the "kill them all mentality" as it is espoused by Ripley) which is what makes it so entertaining (a sensibly led proper army surely would have found it easier to deal with the aliens - actually maybe I'm being a bit harsh: they do the right thing after the initial attack, they just have to deal with a traitor).

There is some excellent acting: Sigourney Weaver confirms she's a star with her lead performance (she's maybe not the best actor in the world, with some lines of dialogue she's a bit wooden, but she is charismatic and a half). Top support cast, too: Michael Biehn as the sensible Hicks, the dynamic Vasquez (a real find and its disappointing her subsequent career didn't come to much - one would have thought she'd at least made a solid made-for-video star), Paul Reiser in perhaps his best big screen performance as a slimy corporate yuppie (though not one without courage - no one credits him for that, he does show bravery at times), Lance Henrickson as the decent, kindly Bishop (a superb example of sympathetic underplaying) and most of all Bill Paxton as the quintessential 80s gung ho coward. Thrilling, explosive and logical. Maybe the final fight between the alien and Ripley in the loader is one too many.

NB the director's cut put back some scenes which I think was a mistake. I know the whole Ripley-finds-out-her-daughter-is-dead scene gives some extra resonance to her being asleep for so long and finding a new daughter in the form of Newt, etc but it wasn't really needed - the audience reads those things in anyway. Secondly the scene on the planet where we see Newt and her family first isn't really necessary either - it's a lot more effective to just land on the planet without knowing what or who is down there.