Book review - "Eruption" by Michael Crichton and James Patterson (spoilers) (2024)

Cobbled from notes in Crichton's papers and put together quite professionally by Patterson. I don't know who did what. I'm guessing the heavy volcano mumbo jumbo was from Crichton. He specialised in taking a silly concept and grounding it in as much reality and research as possible. I totally bought it.

The novel started well, with its set up of a Hawaiian volcano about to expode and the reveal that it there is a gas that would wipe out the world and a plan to blow up the volcano and divert lava.

It gets less effective as it goes on. Main problem - the army and President keep everything hush hush. Why not tell the world and get the world's resources devoted to getting out the gas and blowing up the volcano? It affects the whole world. Why not tell the town and get them to evacuate?

The tough hero scientist Mac is particularly dull. Like, he's tough and impulsive and has some girlfriend and... ugh. He's cardboard. I'm not sure why the reporters are Bad or the head of civilians or the volcano experts who appear on (gasp) TV.

The final volcano isn't bad with a decent death toll. They could've had that an evacuatin. But it sets things up nicely for a suicide run then goes into a deux ex machina. Frustrating.

Easy to read. Short chapters.

Book review - " The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902" by Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan-Witts (1969)

 I wasn't that familiar with the disaster - it happened in a French colony in the Caribbean - but it was remarkable with around 30,000 people wiped out in a few minutes due to an exploision, ash cloud and fire. The thing is the situation got bad for weeks and weeks earlier, mudslides and fires and mini exploisions and the town wasn't evacuated. This is an examination of inertia and denial, rulers swept up in petty politics (there was a local election at the time), the Church being useless, stiff upper lips, a weak press. All too many resonances today with climate change.

Film rights were purchased but it wasn't filmed, at least I don't think so. I can see why. The actions are so frustrating from humans. However tremendous action set pieces - mud, ash, snakes going mad and attacking humans, cats taking on the snakes, voodoo sparking up, gore of people being killed, lots of dead kids and babies. It's a harrowing read.

Movie review - "Rollercoaster" (1977) ***

 James Goldstone tried really hard to make a good movie but I think he was limited by his talent and also the restrictions of Universal - it has particularly ugly 70s art direction and costume design (those checked pants).

At heart this feels like an episode of Columbo with some spectacle (rollercoaster scenes, crowds at themed parks) - we know who did it straight away the film becomes about catching the killer. There's cat and mouse phone calls between hero George Segal and bomber Timothy Bottoms.

I liked Bottoms and Segal, though I wished Elliot Gould had been in either role. There's a lot of craggy faced actors like Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, and Richard Widmark, and newer faces like Steve Guttenberg, Helen Hunt, and Craig Wasson. There's a fun cameo from a non famous band, decent extras. a solid rollercoaster explosion at the top, so much smoking (like, everyone's smoking, there's a plot about Segal trying to give up smoking - smokes killed one of the writers IRL), bits of business for Segal to play that was presumably actor bait (girlfriend Susan Strasberg, divorced from wife, trying to give up smoking, snappy attitude, scenes with Fonda and Widmark), lots of scenes of phone calls (dilligent plotting but I felt half an hour could've been cut out just with scene trims).

I wish the police had tried other ways of tracking Bottoms (eg interviewing people who saw him when he pretended to be giving room service... not hard to do, would've taken time, provided a sketch to give Segal).

But this was a pretty good movie. The acting was solid, it was smart, there was suspense (I expected the bomb crew to be blown away), the villain isn't dumb.

Movie review - "Tidal Wave" (1975) **1/2

 Japanese film The Submergion of Japan was retitled by Roger Corman for New World, who added a few scenes with Lorene Greene though not many. Decent effects but I think the successs was due to its concept - they figure out tidal waves will wipe out Japan causing the whole country to be evacuated. Massive stakes. Great issues. Refugees etc.

Aussies will enjoy a scene where a Japanese politician asks the Australian ambassador to take people.

Book review - "Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!" by ZAZ

 Flying High was a seminal film in my life. I hadn't given that much thought to how it was made but I'm glad I read this book. Some cool stuff:

* ZAZ made a living out of showbusiness quite quickly with their stage show - they put in a lot of work but it paid off for them quite quickly: the power of three people working for a common cause

* there was another key guy in the group who quit because they wouldn't let his girlfriend join

* it was still really really hard to raise finance for this despite Kentucky Fried Movie and hard to raise money for that

*they pay tribute to John Landis while also admitting there were lots of stuff they would've done differently on Kentucky Fried

* major studios didn't want to make it but minors did - Robert Rehme (an under appreciated head of production) wanted it for Avco Embassy but they had finance issues and AIP wanted it but then head of production Jere Henshaw wanted comedians not TV stars and ZAZ were willing to walk so good on them

*Paramount behaved magnificently, it sounds - I know this is looking back at at a hit, but they did everything right: tested ZAZ but also backed them, assigned them a pro script editor who got to work on the screenplay (ensuring the love story remained solid), assigned them a pro producer who got it to work on the film (Howard Koch)... the crucial things was those executives "got" it... Michael Eisner also insisted in colour so it covered 70s disaster films. All these decisions were spot on.

*They pitched a sequel Airplane Meets the Godfather which Hayes visits Hegart's family and they're the mafia. That would've been fun.

There is a lot of love for Steven Stucker, whom the gang attribute much of the stage show's success to. Also affectionate comments about Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges etc and appreciation for Hegarty and Hayes.   I would've liked to have heard more about Lorna Patterson. No one talks about her much and she added a lot to the film.

There are quotes from famous people of today like Bill Hader about how much the movie means to them. I get why it's there ("you gotta get the kids") but it is annoying especially as they are the usual suspects (Judd Apatow, Adam Mackay, Maya Rudolph). Also Tim Allen almost wrecked the book for me with his stupid "couldn't say that now God I miss comedy" schtick.

Movie review - "Krakatoa East of Java" (1968) **1/2

 I found it impossible to dislike this movie, with all it's creakiness - the geographical inaccuracy of the title, the C list-ness of its cast (Maximillian Schell! Diane Baker! Sal Mineo! Brian Keith! Joe Leyton!), random moments like a woman singing a song in her underwear, Cinerama.

Even the dopeyness of the script was endearing - it's about this famous eruption but the plot is about a boat that spends its time hunting for treasure in a balloon as the volcano erupts.

I do love its kitchen sink story telling approach: a boat of orphans, nuns, Brian Keith has the bends, prisoners, impoverished rich people, a cargo load of pearls, a long lost son, diving, pearls, drug induced hallucinations, Diane Baker's history in a mental asylum, a prisoner mutiny, a very inefficient rescue mission.

It was endearing.

Movie review - "The Towering Inferno" (1974) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Pure entertainment. Disaster films were mocked at the time but this has so much going for it: genuinely exciting storyline, skilled script by Sterling Silliphant that juggles a lot of balls in the air, confident handling from John Guillermin, decent stunts and effects, and a genuinely starry cast: some B listers sure (Robert Vaughan, Richard Chamberlain, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner), and camp casting (OJ Simpson) but two genuine former A listers (Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones) one on the slide (Bill Holden) and three at the top of their game (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway).

Dunaway has the least to do though she looks gorgeous and is good. Wagner has a moving trapped and death scene with his girlfriend. Chamberlain is great fun - I'm surprised Dunaway didn't ask for his part. Newman and McQueen are entertainingly heroic. I did expect Holden to die. Jones' death is a real jolt.

There's a death mother and a cat, but some of it is genuinely moving. The fire starts quite quickly into the action and it's scary in that Newman is on to the problem straight away.

Excellent fun.

Movie review - "Concorde - Airport 79" (1979) *

The fascinating thing about this movie is not that's bad, but all the different ways it manages to be bad. Whether it's George Kennedy going "they don't call this the cockpit for nothing" or constantly talking about his dead wife or his awkward banter with fellow pilot Alain Delon... actually make that everything Kennedy does... or Delon struggling with hi English and lack of chemistry with Kennedy or his poorly devised love subplot with Sylvia Kristel, or an assassin turning up at Susan Blakely's house or Blakely crawling on the roof escaping said assassin.. or the subplot where Blakely uncovers an arms racket run by boyfriend Robert Wagner who arranges for a missile to try to shoot down the Concorde, or Jimie Walker playing on a saxophone, or Martha Raye getting drenched in the toilet or... or...

The least silly thing about it is the romance between Jon Davidson and a Russian gymnast and that's still pretty silly. There are some scenes where the Concorde does a 360 with everyone wailing which are dumb too. Other highlights include Charo and her dog and Eddie Albert being an idiot in the cockpit waitinf for a subplot and... it's all pretty bad.

Structurally the film has a major problem in that the film consists of two flights - the Concorde takes off, is attacked by a missile, but manages to land safelty. Then it takes off again, a bomb goes off, and manages to land safely.

I should say that the moments where the bottom of the plane falls out and passengers can look through to the ground are well done. And I liked Delon having to land the plan on the snow at a ski field he was familiar with. Ed Begley Jr helps clear the ski field. Eric Roth wrote this. The ending feels very abrupt - a bit more of a denouement would've been nice.

Movie review - "Airplane!" (1980) *****

Saw this so many times as a kid I can practically recite the whole thing (though I did get some jokes to the second mixed up). Random thoughts:
* Robert Hays and Julie Hegarty both superb and both should have had bigger careers
* Leslie Nielsen would be the best out of all the veterans - they're all great, mind, but his timing is tighter, his delivery stronger
* Steven Stucker is brilliant
* Lorna Patterson's part is bigger than I remembered and she's lovely
* the actual drama of the storyline is solid - Arthur Hailey should get more credit
* Peter Graves goes there - molestation humour still hits home
* Elmer Bernstein's music is perfect
* Jonathan Banks is in this!
* Kareem Abdul Jabar is hilarious
I don't know what else to say. It is so funny, so fast, so entertaining.

Movie review - "San Andreas" (2015) **

Big disaster film which has some of the pleasures of films from that era, and a typically confident performance from Dwayne Johnson. The special effects are impressive - there's some really good destruction.

But the basic story isn't great. Dwayne is a rescue pilot - yet when San Francisco is getting wasted and he's flying around in a helicopter not rescuing anyone except his wife and they go looking for their daughter. Who's not in that much danger - well, not compared to everyone else. You know, people who died.

Most of the action time is Dwyane and ex Carla Guigno running around trying to find their daughter who is with two guys (a SNAG and his brother). Paul Giamatti hangs around in his office a lot.

There's a bunch of Aussies in minor roles like Dennis Coard and Kylie Minogue!

Movie review - "Geostorm" (2017) ** (warning: spoilers)

Gloriously silly action/sci fi movie which really needed to be made DOV by Jim Wynorski or Fred Olen Ray but instead got the $100 million-plus treatment.

And you know something? Some of this isn't too bad - the investigative story, uncovering who is the traitor and who is behind sabotaging the station, is very solid - and pleasingly complex: it's got a Seven Days in May type vibe with the baddies being American rogues who want to turn the station into a weapon. Abbie Cornish gets to star in a really fun action sequence driving a cab, spinning around and driving backwards, blasting a gun at a pursuing car (I wondered why she accepted this thankless part - apart from the play cheque of course - until I saw this sequence).

There are some good actors running loose - Ed Harris, Andy Garcia, Cornish - all whom would've been better in the leads than Gerard Butler, who looks like a former football player gone to seed, and Jim Sturgess, who just looks like an idiot (disclosure: I've never liked Sturgess in anything).  The special effects are brilliant and there's some good action sequences.

But the central notion just feels silly and untrue - a space station that can control weather - it just doesn't feel believable, even in the science fiction world. (If they were going to use this idea, I felt they could've really committed to the idea and used it more.)

I'd also add that while the film sucks up to China a little by saying the US developed the satellite with China, there's only one Asian actor of any decent size in the film and he dies after about ten minutes.

Movie review - "Broken Journey" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

When Sydney Box took over Gainsborough he was less into melodrama, more into ripped from the headlines. This airplane disaster movie is based on a real life incident where a plane crashed in the Alps.

It's a British plane, with Phyllis Calvert ideally cast as the stewardess, James Donald as the navigator. There's a film star, an opera singer, a man in the iron lung, a person who was in a concentration camp. It's done sensibly and intelligently - to be honest the film probably needed to be crappier to be successful. It needed terrorists, escaped criminals, kids needing insulin, all that stuff - if you want to make these sort of movies you've got to go the whole hog. I remember when Rank tried to make sensible versions of Gainsborough melodrama and they couldn't pull it off eg Blanche Fury.

There's some good bits like the man in the iron lung sacrificing himself so the others can use batteries and his girlfriend (Sonia Hale) staggering off into the snow, Oates style. I also liked the opera singer singing for help and there's nice location footage.

There is too much sitting around talking about the meaning of it all and/or things that happened in the past like Calvert's love life. I think the film needed more subplots that took place in the present day. Still it's tight and well done - Ken Annakin was a very reliable director.

Movie review - "Jet Across the Atlantic" (1959) **

The disaster film cycle of the 1970s was well known; less was the disaster film cycle of the 1950s, where a bunch of drama played on on a plane - No Highway, The High and the Mighty, Zero Hour, Jet Pilot, The Crowded Sky.

This is one such entry (shot in Mexico!), where the subplots include: FBI agent George Raft bringing back accused murderer Guy Madison; Madison's fiancee Virginia Mayo; nutter George MacReady, so traumatised by the death of his child that he's decided to take down the plane and kill everyone; diva Illona Massey.

The story has a few flaws and contrivances (eg how Madison's innocence is proved - it just happens) but something's always going on - a little old duck taking pity on Madison and Mayo and arranging for them to be married is unexpectedly sweet; the pilots get poisoned so Madison has to land the plane (just like in Flying High); there's poison in the airvents; a little romance between Brett Halsey and another girl.

Raft isn't a very good agent - he falls asleep allowing Madison to steal his gun and later Madison knocks him out and Raft shoots Madison with all these other people around. I liked his relationship with Madison and wish there's been more of it. Virginia Mayo's character is a wet drip, just hanging off her man.

Some of the acting is very good - eg Macready, Massey; everyone is professional. I enjoyed seeing old Raft in this movie, well cast and tough. Madison's not bad - he'd learnt a few things by now. Byron Haskin directs with competence and pace.

Movie review - "Tidal Wave" (1975) **

Roger Corman love (d) to buy foreign films, chop them up and add new footage - he did it with Soviet sci fi in the 60s and here he raids Japanese disaster movies. The original was called Submersion of Japan and apparently it's not bad - the American version isn't that great. The human drama has been truncated meaning there's few characters you can emphatise with and dramatic situations feels undercooked (eg one minute they're worried about disaster then, bang, disaster has hit).

Lorne Greene pops in as the US ambassador and there's some interesting stuff with what to do with all this refugees. Australians will enjoy a scene with an Australian ambassador. The special effects are well done. But as a drama it's a let down.

Movie review - "Avalanche" (1978) **1/2

You can't blame AIP and Roger Corman for being a little annoyed at the cycle of disaster movies - for years they'd been the ones doing exploitation, then along come the studios having a go at schlocky product, with studio production values. And because it was the studios, with extra financial resources, they couldn't compete.

Accordingly, both AIP and Corman waited a while before dipping their toes in disaster water, and neither did that well out of it - AIP with Meteor, Corman's New World with this. This doesn't have a great reputation but I kind of liked it.

It helps in that the cast includes Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow and Robert Forster - all three are strong actors, elevating the material. The support cast is decent too - and for all the New World cheapness, it does have impressive production values: the alpine setting, scenes of skiing and skating and chairlifts, and the avalanche stuff is done with quick fire editing.

They get around the budget restrictions by having lots of one and two handers - a man and boy stuck up a chair lift, Rock Hudson's mum and an associate trapped. Apparently the film was meant to have a bigger budget and it was cut... I felt it would have worked better had they gone in knowing it was going to be low budget and scripted accordingly. The script doesn't feel quite up to it - its written to be on a large canvas (the opening of a resort), but can't deliver on the promise. And it's a shame John Sayles couldn't have had a go - I feel he would've liked it, with the novelty of the alpine setting, and an ecology message. There were a lot of frustrating loose ends - I wish Hudson had more of a comeuppance and Farrow had more to do, the plot about bribery seemed to be forgotten.

Having said that, there is some decent drama with Hudson trying to woo back his ex Farrow, who is attracted to Forster. There's a pants man skier, chasing after everyone; a suicidal skater (knocked off by snow has she goes to kill herself - this was very effective); a moving sequence of a kid and adult stuck up a chair lift. The acting as mentioned is good, and the pace is lively. Mia Farrow, very pretty, has enjoyable chemistry with Forster - both seem to genuinely like each other.

No classic but not as bad as it's reputation.

Movie review - "The Swarm" (1978) *

Absolutely terrible - but not completely terrible. I mean the structure is actually quite sound. It starts excitingly with troops coming into an army base to find everyone dead except for mysterious Michael Caine, and the action is developed well. There are some strong emotional sequences such as a kid watching his parents die in front of his eyes, and scientist Henry Fonda risking his life testing venom, and Bradford Dillman bitching about Caine and Richard Widmark, no fan of Caine's character, scolds Dillman for being a backstabber.

And the movie "goes there" - the kid sees his parents die, a train crashes wiping out half the cast, Houston is burned, hundreds of people die... the stakes are massive.

But it is terrible. The whole concept is flawed from the start. Disaster movies about fire and capsized boats and earthquakes work because such things happen in real life - but not mass attacks by killer bees. It's completely made up.

Okay so that wasn't fatal - zombie movies are completely made up and they work. But zombies are scary. Bees - why a bit scary in real life (they sting!) - aren't that effective on the big screen, at least not as dramatised here. They are a buzzy fuzzy mass descending on people - it's as visually exciting as watching people get attacked by clouds. We don't even get some cool gory close ups of faces exploding or something.

 The acting is poor. I don't think Michael Caine has ever been so bad - half asleep, delivering his awful lines in monotone, occasionally shouting at Richard Widmark. Katherine Ross isn't much better as his dopey love interest. Richard Widmark is at least professional as a military officer.

You've got varying performances from people such as Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Fred MacMurray. They all struggle with some horrendous dialogue. Stirling Silliphant was a good writer - I'd like to think he wasn't responsible. William Goldman has often downplayed the importance of dialogue, allowing that sometimes sparkling dialogue can really be an attraction. In this one it's fatal.

The story isn't bad in a junky way - it's got structure, it moves. But its inherently silly with that agonising dialogue. Badly directed to. Worth seeing! (I'm serious it's great campy fun.)

Movie review - "The Cassandra Crossing" (1976) ** (warning: spoilers)

A relic of its era, and as a result it has a certain charm: a Europudding all-star disaster film about a virus loose on a train travelling through Europe, with a cast that features something for everyone: Richard Harris (then at the height of his weird 70s career as an action star, that also included Golden Rendezvous and The Wild Geese) as a doctor; Sophia Loren in a role that is actually superfluous to the plot even though the producer was her husband (this happened surprisingly often in Loren films producer by her husband); Lee Strasberg in just his second film role as a Jew who doesn't want to go to Poland and who makes the inevitable comments about gas, camps and showers (were there no other offers after Godfather Part 2?); Lionel Stander as a porter in a part that led to his casting in Hart to Hart; OJ Simpson as a priest but actually an FBI agent; Harris' then-wife Ann Turkel as a singer with long hair and a tendency to be seen in bikini briefs despite the fact the movie is mostly set on a, well, train; Ava Gardner as a woman of mystery accompanied by a drug addicted toy boy Michael Sheen (wide-eyed and long haired and quite good); Burt Lancaster as a general quite willing to have the train go off a bridge so that America's involvement in germ warfare won't be exposed. 

(There's a strong strain of anti-Americanism through the movie which may have helped up the American bagging of the film... a similar thing happened with the much superior Quantum of Solace.)

It's a bit of a mess of a movie with a bunch of subplots and no one seems really at home but everyone appears to try. I think it was a mistake to stop the train and have everyone inspected- it slowed down momentum. And the ending isn't that satisfying - I wanted Lancaster to get more of a come uppance or to more clearly get away with it.

The film does get points for sending half the train over the bridge and killing heaps of passengers. And that cast is always likeable.

Movie review - "The Crowded Hour" (1960) *** (warning: spoilers)

Warner Bros entry into the airplane disaster movie lacks a bit in the star power department - it's full of familiar faces but no big names, people like Dana Andrews, Effrem Zimablist Jnr, John Kerr, Troy Donahue, Anne Francis. Much of it is hokey, full of cliched characters and scenes with characters thinking aloud to themselves.

But you know what? I kind of liked it. There's always something happening, and it's handled professionally enough. Effrem worries about trashy wife Rhonda Fleming who sleeps with everything that moves (kind of like Jessica Lange in Blue Sky), John Kerr disapproves of co pilot Dana Andrews' bad parenting of Andrews' son, Troy Donahue worries about being married and training to be a pilot, the navigator comes in for comic relief, two geeky passengers find each other attractive but can't admit it, a old flame of Keenan Wynn's sits next to him but he doesn't recognise her, some passengers have a terminal illness, John Kerr is romancing air stewardess Anne Francis who is a reformed slut with a long lost baby, Kerr wants to be a painter and had a famous painter father. Plot, plot, plot, plot, plot.

Then in the last 15 minutes it gets awesome - Zimbalist crashes into Andrews' plane... and Zimbalist and Donahue die when their jet blows up! Then the wisecracking engineer gets sucked out and dies and some of the passengers die. Everyone else gets home alright but it's a great shock and worth the film.

Dana Andrews is a perfect pilot, John Kerr far too smug, Donahue alright, Zimbalist all craggy integrity, Fleming is OTT, Anne Francis very likeable. There are lots of character actors, some crappy model work for the crash, too much characters listening to their own thoughts, a lot of the characters seem to repeat the same tropes (there's several show biz plots - painting, actor, producer; several tramps; several bad parents). Briskly directed.

Movie review - "Meteor" (1979) **

The 2000 movie Gladiator was a semi-remake of Fall of the Roman Empire but with the story problems fixed up; so too did Armageddon solve the issues of this big budget flop. It's got the same concept - killer meteor is headed towards Earth, top level team of scientists get together to save the day (mostly Russians and Americans); there's also an impressive array of talent behind and in front of the camera, including Sean Connery, Natalie Wood,Henry Fonda and Brian Keith, plus some pretty nifty special effects.

But the movie has a massive problem which I think ensured it's underwhelming box office performance: the story. It starts well enough with Sean Connery being yanked off his yacht mid race and spirited away to a top secret meeting, and squabbles with the military (personified by Martin Landau), and colluding with the Russians. But far too much of the action consists of Connery and company sitting in HQ waiting for the meteors to hit and pressing buttons.

The great disaster movies had our lead characters in peril from the get go - The Poseidon Adventure had the boat crew upside down within the first 15 minutes, ditto the fire in The Towering Inferno gang. This only gets going towards the end when HQ is hit by a meteor fragment and everyone has to flail around in mud for a bit.

So despite professional acting, seeming high stakes of the concept and lots of footage of missles, plus some clever one liners, it's dull. It's funny that AIP of all studios made such a rookie error as to not focus on a few key characters in peril (which they normally always did, mostly due to low budget reasons) but maybe they were dazzled by high price talent.

Movie review - "San Francisco" (1936) ***1/2

30s MGM at full throttle: San Francisco 1905; lots of extras, costumes and character actors; Clarke Gable punching lots of people out, running a saloon and saying "I don't get this love malarkey... I don't get this opera malarkey... I don't get this God malarkey"; Jeanette MacDonald being virginal yet lusting after Gable in between arias; Spencer Tracy being a priest and punching out Gable when he's not trying to cock-block him; lots of sin and God and singing of opera.

Tracey's role actually isn't very big - very much a support bit - with most of the attention on Gable and MacDonald. MacDonald's an acquired taste - I'm not that familiar with her work yet. Her singing really got on my nerves as did her I'm-a-scared-virgin routine early on which made it seem like Gable was sexually harassing her... but she's great when she's actually hot for Gable and trying to fight her attraction, panting away. I also really liked her singing that song 'San Francisco' on behalf of Gable's saloon at the end over the objections of her fiancee (Jack Holt).

The earthquake finale is very well done (as is the follow up city fire and looting). All the prayer and God at the end was a bit much with Gable praying and MacDonald getting hot for him while watching him. I laughed at how little Holt's mother is about her son's death ("oh well... God's will"). Done with conviction and passion and Gable in great form.