FILM FRENZY

John Lithgow, Ralph Fiennes, and Stanley Tucci in promotional artwork for Conclave (Photo: Focus & Universal)

By Matt Brunson

(For a review of the new 4K UHD + Blu-ray release Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Cracking Collection, go here. For a review of the new Blu-ray release of The Complete Thin Man Collection, 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 BEAST WITHIN (1982). Forget the usual Transylvania or London settings: This horror flick has the distinction of being set in scary Mississippi. It’s while driving through the state on their honeymoon that Eli and Caroline MacCleary (Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch) find their car stuck in the mud; while Eli goes for help, Caroline is raped by some sort of grotesque creature. Cut to 17 years later, and the product of that encounter, a clean-cut kid named Michael (Paul Clemens), suddenly undergoes a series of transformations that (unknown to his parents) leads to a killing spree. As much of a mystery as a horror flick — the MacClearys head back to the Mississippi hellhole in search of clues as to their son’s condition ­— this primarily suffers from the flat direction by Philippe Mora (who would later sully the memory of Joe Dante’s excellent The Howling with the awful Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf; see review below) and the hilarious (albeit fascinating to behold) effects in the climactic transformation scene. Clemens, a fellow Famous Monsters of Filmland diehard back in the day (oh, and he bought an item from me on eBay several years ago, which led to a nice chat), holds his own in the lead role, though the real entertainment comes from watching sturdy character actors like L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, and Luke Askew.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Mora and Clemens; audio commentary by writer Tom Holland; a 46-minute making-of piece; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★

BLOOD AND LACE (1971). Pity the accomplished actors and actresses from Hollywood’s glory years, those award-winning thespians who later found themselves winding down their illustrious careers by appearing in grade-Z horror yarns and Italian gangster cheapies. On that lengthy list that includes the likes of Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino, Joseph Cotten, Veronica Lake, and Arthur Kennedy, make room for Gloria Grahame. One of the best actresses to make her mark during the 1950s — she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful and also co-starred in In a Lonely Place, The Big Heat (see From Screen To Stream below), and (as Ado Annie) Oklahoma! — Grahame here finds herself trapped in a lurid thriller far beneath her talents. She plays Mrs. Deere, who runs an orphanage for troubled teens and who harbors some strange ideas about life and death. Into her home comes Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson), who fears she might be the next victim of the hammer-wielding psycho who murdered her mother. The unusual setting helps, and the film ends on a string of plot twists, some less predictable than others. The supporting roster includes some familiar faces: Vic Tayback (Mel on TV’s Alice) as a lecherous detective, Len Lesser (Uncle Leo on TV’s Seinfeld) as a lecherous handyman, and Dennis Christopher (Breaking Away) as a teenager who is decidedly not lecherous but does raid the fridge a lot.

Blu-ray extras include film historian audio commentary and alternate opening titles.

Movie: ★★

CONCLAVE (2024). Over the past 30 or so years, there have been other actors who have delivered as many consistently excellent performances as Ralph Fiennes — Willem Dafoe and Julianne Moore immediately spring to mind — but I daresay none have been as perpetually underrated. It’s ridiculous that Fiennes has acquired only two Oscar nominations (Schindler’s List, The English Patient) when he’s delivered award-caliber turns in Quiz Show, The Constant Gardener, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and many more. He’s certainly in the conversation for Conclave, a riveting papal thriller directed by Edward Berger (riding high after his All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars, including Best International Feature) and adapted by Peter Straughan from Robert Harris’ novel. The Pope has died, and it has fallen to Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) to arrange the conclave in which all the cardinals will choose the next Pope. The frontrunners appear to be one liberal (Stanley Tucci), one moderate (John Lithgow), and two conservatives (Sergio Castellitto and Lucian Msamati), but as the balloting gets underway, Cardinal Lawrence gains knowledge of various secrets involving some of the candidates. Conclave is fashioned like a murder-mystery, with plenty of mystery but the murder replaced by a string of character assassinations. It’s heady, harrowing stuff, pumped with intriguing back-and-forths between the players and charged by an excellent score from Volker Bertelmann.

Blu-ray extras consist of audio commentary by Berger and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Movie: ★★★½

HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985). Second only to 1941’s The Wolf Man as the greatest werewolf flick ever made, Joe Dante’s 1981 The Howling (see From Screen To Stream below) remains a high-water mark in lycanthrope cinema. That’s why the very existence of this wretched movie is so depressing: An in-name-only sequel that involved no one from the first film, this immediately tainted the Howling brand, a mercenary move that continued through a rash of further follow-ups. Author Gary Brandner, who publicly voiced his dislike of the 1981 film because it strayed from his novel (I actually read his book, and while it was decent, the movie was definitely superior), co-wrote the script for this sorry sequel, so he’s responsible for much of its awfulness. Also known under the title Howling II: Stirba — Werewolf Bitch, this finds Christopher Lee delivering a wooden performance as Stefan Crosscoe, a mysterious figure who travels to Transylvania intent on slaying Stirba (Sybil Danning), the queen of the werewolves. Accompanying Stefan are a pair of Americans (Annie McEnroe and Reb Brown) as well as various local crusaders. It’s difficult to ascertain who gives the worst performance — forced to pick, I’d say Danning — although such ghastly acting falls right in line with Brandner’s hideous screenplay and Philippe Mora’s seemingly nonexistent direction. Reportedly, the first thing Lee did upon arriving to the set of Dante’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch was apologize to the director for taking part in this atrocity!

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Mora; interviews with Danning and Brown; and a photo gallery.

Movie: ★

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX (2024). Seeking a minority opinion? Here’s one: Joker: Folie à Deux is superior to 2019’s Joker in just about every way. Mind you, there’s plenty that’s wrong with this sequel to a movie that I described as “aimless and unfocused in its trendy nihilism” (that review remains the most read story on this site; check it out here). But give writer-director Todd Phillips and co-scripter Scott Silver credit for trying something different and not merely making another simplistic sop to the nation’s cabal of incels, MRAs, and other trashy, Trumpy trolls. And it’s also no wonder the fanboy critics hate this, as it refuses to pander to their desire for regurgitated formula. A major problem created by Phillips, Silver, and star Joaquin Phoenix (absurdly winning an Oscar when Heath Ledger been there done that earlier and better) is that Arthur Fleck didn’t come across as a particularly intelligent or crafty individual, certainly not the type to inspire a revolution. Joker: Folie à Deux is more honest in that it ignores that fudging, with Phoenix now willing to portray Fleck as a complete loser. Dashing viewer expectations of seeing Joker as an anti-hero cutting loose, this movie basically tells those folks who embraced him to screw themselves by keeping him in prison for almost the entire duration as he wrestles with his conscience. The picture is often choppy and the musical numbers don’t flow, so there is that going against it. Lady Gaga is fine as a reconfigured Harley Quinn who loves Fleck only when he embraces anarchy and outrageousness — it’s a supporting role, but she’s the closest thing this anti-audience film has to an audience surrogate. (P.S. to those who wrote me after the first flick and called me an idiot for thinking Joker spared the single mom played by Zazie Beetz; hey, look who’s in this one as well!)

Blu-ray extras include a making-of piece and a look at the music.

Movie: ★★½

SHOCKER (1989). One of Wes Craven’s worst, Shocker finds his attempt to create another enduring villain like A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger falling woefully flat. Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) is the monster of note, a mass murderer who enjoys slaughtering entire families. The detective on the case, Don Parker (Michael Murphy), is frustrated at his lack of progress, more so after Pinker kills his wife and kid. But Parker’s adopted son Jonathan (a typically awful Peter Berg) has some sort of psychic link to Pinker, mainly through dreams (sorry, no Freddy cameo), and he’s able to assist in the capture of the madman. A date with the electric chair doesn’t kill Pinker but instead makes him stronger, since he prayed to the TV gods (stay with me) to allow him to exist in ethereal form and continue his reign of terror. Badly written and poorly paced, Shocker also suffers from the sort of broad humor best suited to a Looney Tunes cartoon. Pileggi goes deliberately over the top as Pinker, and it ain’t pretty to watch; the actor would later settle down and enjoy sustained success as FBI Assistant Director Skinner on TV’s The X-Files. Look also for Ted Raimi, Sam’s little brother and Joxer on TV’s Xena: Warrior Princess, as Jonathan’s friend Pac Man.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by Craven; audio commentary by producer Robert Engelman, director of photography Jacques Haitkin, and composer William Goldstein; a vintage making-of featurette; interviews with Berg and Pileggi; and a still gallery.

Movie: ★

TOXIC CRUSADERS: THE SERIES (1991). I absolutely love the fact that there was an animated series for children based on Troma Entertainment’s The Toxic Avenger franchise, a series of movies notorious for gory content, unrestrained profanity, and overall sleaziness (go here for the reviews). Might this mean that someday we’ll see a kiddie show adapted from, say, Hostel or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer? But have no fear, parents: Although it includes the usual quota of adult-oriented gags that will fly over the heads of unsuspecting tots, this syndicated Saturday morning offering was strictly made for those who had yet to learn how to spell puberty, let alone experience it. The first episode largely parrots the 1984 movie (albeit in G-rated form) by providing the origin story of the mutant superhero Toxie. The remainder finds Toxie and other do-gooders (most created for the cartoon) pooling their resources to fight both pollution and the evil alien Dr. Killemoff — these misshapen heroes include Major Disaster, who can communicate with plants, and No-Zone, whose superpower is conjuring violent sneezes. There are a handful of clever gags scattered throughout the episodes, just not enough of them to render this as anything more than a passing curio.

The Blu-ray edition contains all 13 episodes of the show. Extras include an introduction by Troma co-founder and The Toxic Avenger creator Lloyd Kaufman; a documentary about the making of the Toxic Crusaders video game; and vintage commercials and TV spots for Toxic Crusaders toys.

Movie: ★★

TRANSFORMERS ONE (2024). Uwe Boll could make a Transformers film for a buck fifty and employ only sock puppets and it would be praised to the high heavens simply for not being directed by Michael Bay. That’s the takeaway one gets after watching 2018’s live-action Bumblebee and now the animated Transformers One, two pictures for which Bay relinquished the director’s chair. Utilizing an animation style that suits the material yet isn’t particularly pleasing to the eye, this details how best friends Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) would eventually, uh, transform into sworn enemies redubbed Optimus Prime and Megatron. For now, the two work as miners on their home planet of Cybertron — lacking the cogs that allow them to change into cool vehicles, they themselves are mere cogs in a hierarchical society in which Cybertron ruler Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) is forever promising the lower-class laborers a better future. But it’s only after they find themselves on the run alongside two other mining ‘bots (Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key) that Orion and D-16 are exposed to the truth regarding the current regime. My past comment regarding Bumblebee, that “new and improved” doesn’t immediately translate to “new and worth watching,” also applies here, although it’s only fair to note that this is the best Transformers film since Bay’s 2007 original. Nevertheless, it’s mainly for the fans, although, given the tepid box office returns, even they decided they didn’t need a warmed-over origin story rendered in ‘toon.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray edition include a piece on the voice actors and a look at the racing sequence seen early in the film.

Movie: ★★

THE WILD ROBOT (2024). A simpatico soulmate to The Iron Giant, The Wild Robot is similarly a film in which a metallic being grows increasingly self-aware as it connects to the world around it. In this new work, an adaptation of Peter Brown’s bestselling book, the robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) is part of the ROZZUM line and finds itself herself on an uninhabited island following a shipwreck. Feared by all the animals surrounding her, “Roz” manages to learn all their languages in an effort to communicate — most remain wary, but a few relationships do form. A sly fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) becomes her companion while a possum called Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara) offers advice — first and foremost, though, there’s Brightbill (Kit Connor), an orphaned gosling who views Roz as his mother and awakens heretofore unknown sensations inside the robot. This is a lovely movie that deftly explores a number of issues, including the unique ways in which a family can be formed and the necessity of cohabitation in increasingly hostile environments. There are many darkly humorous moments, which is apropos when the setting is a wilderness in which animals are often hunting or hurting each other (there’s a terrific visual involving approximately 100 raccoons hurtling through the air). The voice casting is spot-on — others involved include Mark Hamill as a bear, Ving Rhames as a falcon, and Bill Nighy as a goose — and as for the style of animation, it’s crisp and inviting, with a definite touch of the Miyazaki about it.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital Code edition include audio commentary by writer-director Chris Sanders; a making-of piece; and a deleted storyboard sequence.

Movie: ★★★½

WILLOW (1988). A wholesome hero. A dashing scoundrel. A plucky heroine. A sagacious wizard. Two bickering sidekicks. Given all the direct lifts from Star Wars, it’s amazing George Lucas didn’t go ahead and provide Willow with a Death Star for good measure. Handing the directing reins to Ron Howard and scripting duties to Bob Dolman, Lucas retained credit for the original story as well as serving as executive producer — the end result is only partially successful in punching across the requisite excitement, which is often crippled by a nagging air of familiarity (it’s as much Tolkien as it is Lucas). Warwick Davis plays Willow, who’s chosen to embark on a perilous mission: Deliver into safe hands a newborn infant who holds the key to ending the reign of an evil queen (Jean Marsh). Also involved are Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), a master swordsman with shaky morals, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley), the queen’s morally torn daughter, and Rool (Kevin Pollak) and Franjean (Rick Overton), Tinkerbell-sized beings known as Brownies. Rool and Franjean provide the ostensible comic relief, but they’re nigh unwatchable and sink the film wherever given ample screen time. Other elements fare better, including a likable hero in Willow, a battle siege that delivers the goods, and a fearsome two-headed dragon that was called the “Eborsisk” (after critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel) by crew members. Willow earned Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing.

Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by Davis; a making-of piece; deleted scenes; and Davis’ personal video diary.

Movie: ★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

THE BIG HEAT (1953). Here’s a brutal bit of film noir that’s long been regarded as one of the classics of the genre. Glenn Ford, a dependable actor who starred in a number of hits (including Gilda and The Blackboard Jungle) but whose reputation has unfortunately been largely marginalized in recent times, headlines as Dave Bannion, an upstanding detective and an even more upstanding family man whose professional and personal lives queasily come together as he pursues Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby), a criminal kingpin who seemingly controls the entire city. Rocked by tragedy, Bannion will let nothing interfere with his apprehension of Lagana and his sadistic goons Vince (Lee Marvin) and Larry (Adam Williams), and he receives some unlikely help along the way from Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame), Vince’s girlfriend and a formidable woman who ultimately gives as good as she gets. The sequence involving a percolating pot of coffee is legendary, but along with the expected bursts of violence and tough-guy swaggering, there are numerous scenes of tenderness, many between Bannion and his wife (Jocelyn Brando) as well as between Bannion and Debby. Grahame, who owned the cinema of the 1950s almost as much as Marlon Brando, is typically terrific; she had received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar the previous year for The Bad and the Beautiful, but she was no less worthy for this picture, which allows her to be funny, sexy, confident, and heartbreakingly vulnerable.

Movie: ★★★½

THE HOWLING (1981). The best of the three werewolf pictures released in the same year — the others were An American Werewolf In London and Wolfen — The Howling is one of those rare horror flicks that manages to integrate some humor into the proceedings without detracting from the terror elements. For that, we can thank director Joe Dante and scripters John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, who tweak the genre while still maintaining an obvious reverence; E.T. mom Dee Wallace, who delivers an excellent performance as a TV news reporter who unwittingly ends up at a resort populated by a werewolf colony; and makeup artist Rob Bottin, responsible for the astonishing transformation scenes. Made for approximately $1 million (admittedly, the relatively low budget resulted in some shortcuts; check out the laughable conclusion to the campfire scene), this adaptation of Gary Brandner’s novel grossed $20 million and led to seven schlock sequels, none of which had anything to do with this class act. A top-notch werewolf flick on its own, this offers added appeal to film buffs, who will catch the brief appearances by horror-movie mainstays (including John Carradine, Dick Miller, and Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J Ackerman) and appreciate the fact that most of the characters are named after directors of previous wolfman pictures. Rick Baker was always a bigger name than Bottin, so it’s no surprise that the very first competitive Oscar for Best Makeup went to Baker for An American Werewolf in London; it’s a shame, though, that Bottin didn’t at least snag a nomination (Bottin would also be ignored the following year for The Thing but would later get nominated for 1986’s Legend and earn a visual effects Oscar for 1987’s RoboCop).

Movie: ★★★½

THE PASSAGE (1979). Even when I caught this film a couple of times overseas at the age of 14 (apparently, it played longer in Portugal than it did stateside, where it reportedly barely lasted a week in theaters), my teenage brain was developed enough to know that it wasn’t particularly good. But with a decent hook that had been translated from page to screen (yes, I also read the source novel, Bruce Nicolaysen’s Perilous Passage) and, more importantly, an impressive cast, it was an adequate way to pass 100 minutes. As an adult, its shoddiness comes even more into focus, yet it remains difficult to completely discard a movie that unites Anthony Quinn, Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Lee, and Kay Lenz (whose turn in the landmark 1976 TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man had made me an instant — and smitten — fan). This World War II yarn stars Quinn as a Basque shepherd who’s hired by the French Resistance to safely guide an important scientist (James Mason) and his wife (Patricia Neal), daughter (Lenz), and son (The Beast Within’s Paul Clemens) across the Pyrenees. In hot pursuit is a psychotic SS officer (McDowell, shown at one point wearing a swastika-adorned jockstrap!) who will torture anyone who helps the fugitives, including the leader (Lee) of a gypsy caravan. Even an experienced scenery-chewer like Quinn is no match for McDowell, whose smirking, bug-eyed performance single-handedly places the picture in the realm of camp and foreshadows his even more insane work in the same period’s Caligula.

Movie: ★★

SPY KIDS (2001) / SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS (2002) / SPY KIDS 3: GAME OVER (2003) / SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD (2011). Every year since 1989, the Library of Congress’ film preservation board has selected 25 “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” motion pictures for preservation, movies that are felt to be “works of enduring importance to American culture.” This past week, 25 more titles were added, bringing the total up to 900. This year’s batch includes several films reviewed on this site, including 1938’s Angels With Dirty Faces (covered here), 1962’s The Miracle Worker (here), 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (here), and 2007’s No Country for Old Men (just last week here). Some titles were only a matter of time, such as 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper as baseball legend Lou Gehrig, and 1989’s AIDS documentary Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt. Perhaps the most surprising pick was the 2001 family flick Spy Kids, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Here, then, is a look at that film as well as its first three sequels (Netflix released a fifth film last year, Spy Kids: Armageddon; I wasn’t even aware of its existence until recently, so it remains unscreened).

Zooming out of left field like a rogue missile, Spy Kids captured the hearts of most critics and the bucks of many moviegoers (its domestic take was $112 million). While numerous scribes at the time compared it to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, I was most reminded of the TV and film output of Pee-wee Herman applied to a James Bond template. Antonia Banderas and Carla Gugino make an attractive couple as Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez, a married couple who long ago gave up their status as secret agents extraordinaire in order to raise a family. But the global-domination plans of children’s TV show host Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming) bring the spouses out of retirement, and it’s only after they’re captured that their two young kids, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara), are drafted into the spy game. A real winner, this finds Rodriguez offering up a deft blend of slapstick and surrealism.

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams is a spirited attempt to recapture the first film’s offbeat appeal, but the end result, while still enjoyable, is decidedly less satisfying (the picture still did robust business, grossing $85 million). Practically the entire original cast (including Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin as fellow good guys) returns for this outing, which finds the Cortez family investigating the mysterious occurrences revolving around an island that’s inhabited by a meek scientist (Steve Buscemi) and his mutated creations. If anything, Spy Kids 2 is bursting at the seams with even more gadgetry and more eccentric characters than its predecessor, but rather than building on the sense of wonder and fun, this overstuffing only slows the picture down. The kids and their parents are still appealing, though, and some of the special effects (such as those animated skeletons) pay satisfying homage to the fantasy flicks of the great FX innovator Ray Harryhausen.

The law of diminishing returns clearly applies to Spy Kids 3: Game Over, which made the theatrical rounds in 3-D. Nabbing $111 million, this featured particularly unsightly 3-D effects at the multiplex, so it’s a minor mercy to catch it in 2-D at home. Beyond that visual aspect, this is simply a poorly scripted adventure yarn, with Juni forced to enter a “virtual reality” game in order to save his sister Carmen and vanquish the game’s mad inventor (a hammy Sylvester Stallone). Despite some occasionally interesting graphics, the game itself doesn’t seem very exciting (or comprehensible, for that matter), and the action frequently breaks for characters to deliver strained monologues about the importance of family. Speaking of family, Banderas and Gugino, so appealing as the Spy Parents in the previous pictures, have been reduced to nothing more than late-inning cameos.

A desperate attempt by Rodriguez to resuscitate a dead franchise, the insufferable Spy Kids: All the Time in the World casts Jessica Alba as Marissa Wilson, a retired spy whose husband Wilbur (Joel McHale) and stepchildren Rebecca (Rowan Blanchard) and Cecil (Mason Cook) don’t know about her former profession (they think she’s always been an interior decorator). But when her arch-nemesis, the dastardly Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven), reappears on the scene with a plan to speed up time until it runs out and the world ends, Marissa is called back into action and subsequently forced to let the kids join her on the mission. Topping out at a mere $38 million, this is unbearably juvenile, with a robotic dog (voiced by Ricky Gervais) deploying “butt bombs,” Cecil hurling used barf bags at villainous henchmen, Marissa walloping other goons with dirty diapers, and so on. It’s nice to see original Spy Kids Carmen and Juni as young adults (and again played by Vega and Sabara), although they wear out their welcome around the time that Carmen wipes snot on Juni’s shirt.

Spy Kids: ★★★

Spy Kids 2: ★★½

Spy Kids 3: ★½

Spy Kids 4: ★½