FILM FRENZY

Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell in Twisters (Photo: Universal)

By Matt Brunson

(For a review of the new Blu-ray release of A Prairie Home Companion, go here. For a review of the new 4K release of A Nightmare on Elm Street as well as reviews of the other films in the franchise, go here. For a review of the new Blu-ray release of both 1980’s Caligula and 2023’s Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, go here.)

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

THE BABADOOK (2014). How’s this for an endorsement? William Friedkin, who directed the movie that tops poll after poll as being the scariest ever made — 1973’s The Exorcist, of course — was once quoted as stating that “I’ve never seen a more terrifying film than The Babadook.” That’s a hell of a plug. Making a significant feature-film debut as both director and writer, Jennifer Kent has fashioned a psychological drama that’s ultimately more about real-world terrors like grief, frustration, and loneliness than about the types of monsters that reside in the closet or under the bed. Essie Davis is excellent as Amelia, still mourning the gruesome death of her husband (killed in a car crash while rushing her to the hospital to give birth) even as she has to contend with their 6-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who appears to be a seriously disturbed boy. Into their home appears a mysterious children’s book called Mister Babadook, and by reading it aloud to Samuel, Amelia seems to have unleashed a very real — and frightening — presence in her house. The first half of the picture is flat-out terrific, and if the second half disappoints on a narrative level due to a shift into more commonplace developments, the ambiguous subtext still hums along at top speed, resulting in plenty of post-viewing discussion fodder.

Blu-ray extras include separate interviews with various cast and crew members, including Davis, producers Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere, composer Jed Kurzel, and illustrator and book designer Alex Juhasz, who created the storybook employed in the movie.

Movie: ★★★½

BATHING BEAUTY (1944). The first but hardly the best of the splashy (in both senses of the word) MGM musicals starring Esther Williams, this finds the actress and nautical sensation cast as Caroline Brooks, a college swimming coach who leaves her songwriter husband Steve Elliot (Red Skelton) seconds after saying, “I do,” wrongly believing him to already be married and a father. Not knowing that the deception was set up by a producer (Basil Rathbone) who doesn’t want him to give up musicals for matrimony, Steve heads to Caroline’s all-girls college, finding a loophole that allows him to enroll as a student. While there, he tries to focus on winning his wife back but finds such barriers in his way as stuffy professors, peppy students, and a determined Great Dane (in a funny scene that almost got cut due to no satisfying resolution until comic legend and set visitor Buster Keaton advised the filmmakers how the sequence should end). The MGM suits wisely changed the film’s title from Mr. Co-Ed to Bathing Beauty once they realized they could make Williams their next big box office draw — their instincts were correct, even if the aquatic numbers aren’t as impressive as those in later Esther hits (the exception, of course, is the knockout finale). There are over a dozen musical numbers featuring the likes of Xavier Cugat and Harry James — the best, however, is Skelton and Jean Porter having fun with “I’ll Take the High Note.” It’s all as shallow as a kiddie pool, but it’s a fairly refreshing dip nonetheless.

Blu-ray extras consist of the 1996 episode of TCM’s Private Screenings in which host Robert Osborne interviews Williams; the Oscar-winning 1944 Tom & Jerry cartoon Mouse Trouble; the Oscar-nominated 1944 live-action short Main Street Today; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

DEATH BECOMES HER (1992). Black humor takes center stage in this frenetic comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and showcasing a pair of imaginatively cast stars. Meryl Streep plays Madeline Ashton, a vainglorious stage actress who over the decades has stolen every single man from her former childhood classmate, the drab Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn). Her latest deed is swiping and marrying Helen’s fiancé, wimpy plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) — this sends Helen over the edge, as she becomes depressed and obese before reemerging years later as a successful (and slender) author. For her part, Madeline endures a loveless marriage to Ernest and worries about her fading youth and beauty. But a visit to a mysterious woman (Isabella Rossellini) allows her access to a youth serum, and from here, matters take a supernatural turn. The script by Martin Donovan and David Koepp never lacks for cleverness, but it’s ultimately more frantic than funny, with its digs at celebrity vanity and physical obsession never going much below the surface. Hawn is fine in her role, but a lively Streep and an atypically mousy Willis are even better; look also for a great bit by an uncredited Sydney Pollack. The excellent visual effects won an Academy Award; also noteworthy are Rick Carter’s set designs and the makeup work by the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist).

Blu-ray extras consist of a pair of making-of featurettes; a photo gallery; and the theatrical trailer. Unfortunately missing are deleted scenes offered on past DVD editions — a shame, since many snipped bits (one featuring Tracey Ullman, MIA from the finished product) are shown in the trailer, and the film’s original ending was booted after test audiences gave it the thumbs-down.

Movie: ★★½

THE INTERN (2015). The most recent feature project from writer-director Nancy Meyers finds Robert De Niro cast as Ben Whittaker, a widower who’s bored with his retirement. He spots an ad for a successful startup company seeking a senior citizen to work as an intern — landing the job, he’s assigned to serve directly under the company’s founder, a workaholic named Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). While Ben’s an immediate hit with everyone else in the office — he’s personable, funny, and full of sound advice — Jules opts to keep her distance until he finally charms her as well. The occasional Killers of the Flower Moon aside, the deterioration of De Niro’s career has been swift and brutal, the result of too many bald lunges at sizable paychecks. So it’s nice to see him underplaying rather than overacting, delivering a relaxed, sympathetic performance. The film features many humorous moments, several appealing characters, and even some subtext about the lunacy of dismissing this nation’s elderly when their value to society still holds some currency. Given all this, it’s a shame the movie isn’t a tad better. Meyers’ greatest flaw is that, as with Woody Allen, her stories and people exist in a bubble of pampered privilege, and this tends to lead to some rigid narratives with no room for unpredictable happenstances. Worse, the picture features a few embarrassing moments that suggest Meyers allowed her own 20-something interns to try their hand at scripting a couple of pages — witness the sophomoric, out-of-left-field bits involving Ben’s erection. Notwithstanding these limp developments, The Intern is dependable enough to earn a modest endorsement.

Extras in the 4K edition consist of a discussion with Meyers; an interview with supporting players Adam DeVine, Zack Pearlman, and Jason Orley; and a piece on the costume and set designs.

Movie: ★★½

I REMEMBER MAMA (1948). Kathryn Forbes’ semi-autobiographical novel Mama’s Bank Account served as the basis for a 1944 Broadway production and this lovely film adaptation. Two actresses known for their matriarchal roles on 1970s prime-time television, Barbara Bel Geddes (Ellie Ewing on Dallas) and Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton on The Waltons), appear here, although the titular mom is played by Irene Dunne in one of her warmest performances. The Forbes surrogate is Katrin Hanson (Bel Geddes), who narrates the tale as she finishes putting her memories to paper — it’s 1910 San Francisco, as an immigrant Norwegian family comprised of mama Marta (Dunne), papa Lars (Philip Dorn), daughter Katrin, and Katrin’s two sisters and brother (the latter played on Broadway but, alas, not on film by Marlon Brando) contend with familial dramas involving finances, sibling rivalry, and pesky relatives. Marta’s three annoying sisters (the mousiest played by Corby) visit far too often; also dropping by is Uncle Chris (Oscar Homolka), who bellows a lot but is actually fond of Marta and her brood. The film unfolds as a series of vignettes, but it doesn’t feel episodic given that all the storylines ultimately revolve around Mama and her innate goodness. This earned five Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Dunne), Supporting Actor (Homolka), Supporting Actress (Bel Geddes and Corby), and Black-and-White Cinematography. It was followed in 1949 by Mama, a highly popular TV series based on the same book; it lasted seven seasons and peaked at #10 in the Nielsen ratings. I Remember Mama also led to 1972’s I Dismember Mama — obviously no relation, but the spoofy title of this low-budget gore flick has always amused me since I first learned of it as a teen.

The only Blu-ray extra is the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★★½

TAG (2018). The most startling trivial pursuit regarding Tag is that it’s based on the true story of 10 men who had spent the last few decades taking one month out of every year to play a game of tag, with the final person tagged forced to be “It” for an entire year until the next cycle. Attempting to focus on 10 individuals would turn the film version into, well, basically an Avengers movie, so the decision was made to downsize to five guys. The plot centers around the fact that one man (Jeremy Renner) has never been tagged in all the decades of playing. Thus, the other four gents (Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Hannibal Buress, and Jake Johnson) have long been determined to nail him, and they feel this is finally their year. Too many modern comedies include an idiotic character who’s allowed to utter supposedly shocking declarations (thanks a lot, Zach Galifianakis) — these guys are never as funny as intended, and that’s the case here with Johnson’s tiresome slacker. Yet Hamm again demonstrates sly comedic chops, Buress is gifted most of the best lines, and Isla Fisher (as Helms’ exuberant wife) is a delightful dervish. The real-life story is primarily one of enduring friendship, but the emphasis here is on rude pranks and crude one-liners. That’s perfectly fine — the film is often very funny when it’s going for the throat — but it does render the sentimental final act soggy and not particularly convincing, and the dire fate of one character is brought up and then abandoned in the haste to a happy ending.

Extras in the 4K edition consist of deleted scenes; a gag reel; and a piece on the men who inspired the film.

Movie: ★★½

THAT GUY DICK MILLER (2014). A popular character actor with close to 200 credits to his name, Dick Miller (who passed away in 2019 at the age of 90) had been appearing in movies for 64 years, sporting a face that everyone recognized even if they couldn’t place the name. One of the many Hollywood luminaries who got his start making movies for Roger Corman, Miller went on to find continued employment under numerous other filmmakers — this number includes other Corman protégées, among them Joe Dante (who had cast Miller in practically all of his movies, most notably Gremlins and The Howling) and James Cameron (who tapped him for the gun-shop owner in The Terminator). Film buffs will be familiar with much of the material in this entertaining documentary, but the ample film clips are a treat, and there are at least two points of trivia I didn’t know: 1) Dick Miller is the “Richard Miller” who’s credited as one of the writers of Jerry Lewis’ Which Way to the Front? (reviewed here), and 2) Miller had a scene opposite Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction that was unfortunately deleted (this remained a sore spot for the actor). Even more heartwarming than the film clips and the tributes from directors and fellow actors? The fact that Miller was married to the same woman, Lainie Miller, for 52 years.

Incidentally, here’s a photo my wife took of Mr. Miller at the 2014 Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, NC:

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Lainie Miller (who produced the film), director Elijah Drenner, and cinematographer Elle Schneider; introductions by Lainie Miller and Drenner; a selection of Dick Miller’s home movies; the 1978 short film Starhops, featuring Miller; and outtakes.

Movie: ★★★

TWISTERS (2024). It’s speaking volumes about the mindset of the USA in 2024 that a former antagonist has now been reconfigured as a hero. In 1996’s Twister, the human rotter was the character played by Cary Elwes, a preening, grinning media celebrity who was interested in ample exposure and in looking as good as possible. In the sorta follow-up Twisters, Glen Powell plays a variation on this role, only now he’s the good guy. And whereas Elwes’ twit ends up gone with the wind, Powell’s stud finally reveals his good-guy credentials (through a development I scarcely believed) and thus is absolved of all egomania, ready to ride off into the wind-whipped sunset with a beer in one hand and a barometer in the other. This character shift is one of the only significant differences between Twister and Twisters, two films that center on a fiercely independent woman who years later is still grieving over the loss of a loved one to a twisty thing. Here, the maverick missus is Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), lured away from her cushy meteorologist job in NYC and back into the killing fields of Oklahoma by Javi (Anthony Ramos), the only other survivor of the earlier tragedy. Their team competes for first dibs on fluky funnels with an outfit headed by Tyler Owens (Powell), a slick hunk who eventually breaks through Kate’s defenses. Director Lee Isaac Chung, lunging for those big-studio bucks after helming the lovely Minari, doesn’t bring much style or personality to this assignment, just as his Oscar competition Chloé Zhao didn’t add anything to Marvel’s Eternals after her deeply committed Nomadland. Twister and Twisters are comparable in terms of dumb dialogue and irksome posers for characters, so the surprise is that the visual effects in Twister are more exciting and immersive than the newer ones here.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition include audio commentary by Chung; a making-of featurette; and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★

VACATION (2015). Hardly a “comedy classic,” 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation is an extremely pleasant diversion with a few memorable bits and a likable cast, but true comic invention is hard to locate in the meandering screenplay by John Hughes. For those who haven’t actually seen it in eons, the plot finds good-natured clod Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) taking his brood — wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), son Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall), and daughter Audrey (Dana Barron) — from Chicago to Los Angeles to spend some time at the theme park Walley World. While everyone else wants to fly there, Clark insists on driving, a decision that leads to a series of disasters for the Griswold clan. The movie’s commercial success led to several sequels, and here, 32 years after the original, comes Vacation, which includes the obligatory cameos by Chase and D’Angelo but shifts its attention to the now-grown Rusty (Ed Helms). Despite resistance from his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins), Rusty decides they will embark on a getaway that retraces the one he undertook as a kid, right down to the final destination point of Walley World. Sweep the warm and fuzzy nostalgia aside, and the ’83 model and this new one are comparable, mixing R-rated laughs with a semi-sincere message about the bonds that hold a family together. Of course, the vulgarity is more pronounced in this version, but then again, so are many of the laughs. For the most part, this is the sort of assembly-line comedy that’s de rigueur this century, but it does possess a few elevating graces.

Extras in the 4K edition include a making-of featurette; deleted scenes; and a gag reel.

Movie: ★★½

SHORT AND SWEET

PAPER MOON (1973). Director Peter Bogdanovich had one of his biggest hits with scripter Alvin Sargent’s delightful adaptation of Joe David Brown’s novel Addie Pray. Despite being in practically every scene, 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her turn (she remains the youngest person to win a competitive Oscar), playing an orphan who teams up with a slick con man (portrayed by dad Ryan O’Neal) and immediately establishes herself as the brains of the outfit. Tatum’s angry glares at the idiotic adults surrounding her character alone warranted the Oscar, although Madeline Kahn has some choice moments as gold digger Trixie Delight. In addition to Tatum’s win, this also earned a second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Kahn) as well as nods for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Bogdanovich; a trio of retrospective documentaries; and a visual essay.

Movie: ★★★½

UP THE CREEK (1984). National Lampoon’s Animal House players Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst, Porky’s star Dan Monahan, and Sandy Helberg are cast as four Lepetomane University underachievers chosen by the dean (John Hillerman, taking a break from Higgins duty on TV’s Magnum, P.I.) to represent the school in an intercollegiate raft race. A psychotic ROTC officer (Blaine Novak) and a group of bullying frat boys are among those attempting to prevent the misfits from winning. There are more lulls than laughs, but the dog is cute. If leading lady Jennifer Runyon looks familiar, that’s because she played the college cutie wooed by Bill Murray at the beginning of the same year’s Ghostbusters.

Blu-ray extras consist of interviews with Furst, Helberg, and casting director Harriet Helberg; the music video for Cheap Trick’s “Up the Creek”; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM TO SCREAM (Films for Halloween)

DEAD ALIVE (1992). Years before he hung out with Hobbits and Orcs, Peter Jackson was the guiding force behind a handful of idiosyncratic features in his native New Zealand. One such effort was Dead Alive (aka Braindead), a film so excessively gory that it makes the Pacino version of Scarface look like a vintage episode of Reading Rainbow by comparison. Yet those who can accept the gruesomeness with tongue firmly embedded in bloody cheek will enjoy a film that’s clearly influenced by Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead in its ability to gleefully mix slapstick humor with demented special effects. Set in a small New Zealand town, this finds the meek Lionel (Timothy Balme) caught in a tough spot after his domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody) gets bitten by a hideous Sumatran rat monkey and turns into a festering, decomposing zombie. Lionel must care for the undead population quickly building in his basement even as he hopes to romance the sweet Paquita (Diana Penalver), but matters take a turn for the worse when his obnoxious Uncle Les (Ian Watkin) decides to throw a house party. The effects by Richard Taylor (who would go on to win five Oscars working under Jackson) are often outrageous — dig that creepy zombie baby! — and the sweetness of the relationship between Lionel and Paquita manages to be effective even in the midst of all the mayhem. Look for Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J Ackerman as the zoo patron reading a magazine (Famous Monsters, natch).

Movie: ★★★

FROM BEYOND (1986). The H.P. Lovecraft short story “Herbert West: Reanimator” was the basis for 1985’s Re-Animator, a spirited horror flick in the Evil Dead mold and an almost instantaneous cult classic. Heady from its success, it’s no wonder that practically everyone involved with that production — director Stuart Gordon, producer Brian Yuzna, co-writer Dennis Paoli, and stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, among others — elected to immediately follow up with another adaptation of a Lovecraft tale. From Beyond is inferior to Re-Animator in virtually every regard, but it still qualifies as a grisly good time. Combs this time plays Crawford Tillinghast, a young scientist who’s assisting his mentor, Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel), in the creation of the Resonator, a machine that can tap into a person’s sixth sense while simultaneously opening the portal to a parallel dimension rife with hostile creatures. After Pretorius is killed by one of the malevolent entities, Tillinghast is arrested for his murder and tossed into an asylum, where he’s rescued by a psychiatrist (Crampton) who wants him to take her to the lab and recreate the experiment. They’re accompanied by a plainclothes officer (Dawn of the Dead star Ken Foree), and while he proves to be the most sensible of the trio, he’s not immune to the strange power of the Resonator. The freaky effects are a highlight, and Gordon again directs the yarn for maximum impact; at the same time, the clunky script leaves much to be desired (although kudos for the shout-outs to Bride of Frankenstein and Psycho), while none of the characters are nearly as memorable as Combs’ Dr. Herbert West in Re-Animator.

Movie: ★★½

THE OTHER (1972). Taking a brief respite from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, and James Herbert, teenage me elected to check out a pair of books by actor-turned-author Tom Tryon — and was floored by the results. The Other and Harvest Home are both compelling, creepy reads, and while I prefer Harvest Home to The Other on the page, the big-screen adaptation of The Other edges out the 1978 TV miniseries of Harvest Home (starring Bette Davis). Robert Mulligan, who coaxed lovely performances out of his child actors in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, gets good work from twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky (in their first — and final — screen appearances), with their characters involved in all manner of sordid activities that Scout, Jem, and Dill doubtless couldn’t even imagine. Niles Perry (Chris U.) is the good kid: helpful to his widowed mother (Diana Muldaur), loving toward his grandmother (Uta Hagen), and cheerful to everyone around him. Holland (Martin U.) is the bad seed: selfish, foul-tempered, and unforgiving toward those who anger him. Here’s that rare movie that equals its source material: While the mid-point plot twist is easier to spot in the film — and while the pitchfork scene in the novel is far more disturbing than on celluloid — the movie is more ambiguous than the book, and that in turn makes it more haunting on multiple levels. Three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Surtees (Ben-Hur) contributes a burnt, burnished look that amplifies the eerie proceedings. Two popular TV stars, Three’s Company’s John Ritter and Highway to Heaven’s Victor French, appear earlier in their careers as, respectively, the twins’ genial brother-in-law and the family’s ill-fated handyman.

Movie: ★★★½