FILM FRENZY

Obsession (Photo: Focus & Universal)

By Matt Brunson

(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.)

COVERT AFFAIRS: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2010-2014). The shadow of Alias continues to hover over the espionage shows that immediately preceded it, like La Femme Nikita, and the ones that followed it, like this one. By comparison to that narratively risk-taking and splendidly acted series, most of these other programs were unapologetically cookie-cutter in their approach to the various spy games, employing only moderately interesting characters in storylines that remained consistent — i.e. predictable — in tone, execution, and resolution. That’s not to say these shows don’t make for solid “comfort TV” / “binge TV” / [insert new TV catchphrase here], and Covert Affairs does better than many in making the familiar feel fun. Piper Perabo stars as Annie Walker, a CIA newbie whose obvious skills land her a plum position as a field agent in the outfit’s Domestic Protection Division. Head of the division is Joan Campbell (Kari Matchett), who’s married to Deputy Director Arthur Campbell (Peter Gallagher); also on board is Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), a blind operative who becomes Annie’s best friend at the agency. The Annie-Auggie relationship is easily the show’s most original — and strongest — ingredient, and it helps goose the usual cloak-and-dagger antics.

The Blu-ray box set offers all 75 episodes from the show’s five seasons. Extras include audio commentaries on a trio of episodes by Perado, Gorham, and key creative personnel; a making-of featurette; deleted scenes; and gag reels.

Series: ★★½

DESTINATION MOON (1950) / FLIGHT TO MARS (1951). The proliferation of ‘50s flicks set in outer space began in 1950 with Rocketship X-M and continued right through 1959, which saw the releases of such efforts as The Angry Red Planet and The Three Stooges yarn Have Rocket, Will Travel. Among the first out of the gate were 1950’s Destination Moon, which was supposed to be the first until production delays allowed indie outfit Lippert Pictures to capitalize on the hoopla by shooting Rocketship X-M (reviewed in From Screen To Stream below) in less than three weeks and releasing it a month before its high-profile competitor, and 1951’s Flight to Mars, an ambitious effort from the Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures. Both have now been paired in a new Blu-ray edition from the Film Masters label.

A landmark of science fiction cinema as well as the movie that jumpstarted George Pal’s career as a producer (and later director), Destination Moon examines the efforts of a group of men to pull off humankind’s first trip to our satellite planet, from the initial funding through the actual voyage. The talky script will doubtless turn off many, but director Irving Pichel maintains dramatic interest, particularly during the final stretch when it appears that the rocketship can only safely hold three of the four astronauts for the return to Earth, meaning one of the quartet will have to remain (and perish) on the moon. Sci-fi literary legend Robert A. Heinlein co-wrote the script and served as technical advisor, sci-fi artistic legend Chesley Bonestell contributed the matte backdrops, and toon legend Woody Woodpecker is imaginatively used in a small role (Pal was a close pal of Woody creator Walter Lantz). Destination Moon earned the Academy Award for Best Special Effects and garnered an additional nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration.

Although low-budget in practically every regard, Flight to Mars was filmed in color (a rarity, and perhaps even a first, for Monogram) and features some impressive visuals courtesy of production designer Ted Haworth (who would later win an Oscar for 1957’s Sayonara). Yet the movie is ultimately compromised by said lack of finances, a weak script, and artless, one-take direction by Lesley Selander (I especially like the Ed Wood moment when a guy takes a step back and loudly bumps into a chair). The story involves the efforts of five Earthlings to land on Mars; they succeed and are immediately befriended by the locals, who look just like us and speak perfect English. But the Martian leader Ikron (Morris Ankrum) secretly plots to steal the spaceship and invade Earth, meaning it’s up to the miniskirted Martian scientist Alita (Marguerite Chapman) to help save the day.

The best extra in this Blu-ray release is a featurette on the history of Monogram Pictures and how producer Walter Mirisch transformed that lowly outfit into the prestigious Allied Artists before leaving to set up his own production company, one responsible for such classics as The Great Escape and In the Heat of the Night. Other extras consist of film historian audio commentaries on both titles; a making-of featurette for Destination Moon; a pressbook gallery for Destination Moon; a piece on the earliest outer-space movies; and restored trailers for both flicks. A booklet is also included.

Destination Moon: ★★★

Flight to Mars: ★★

MICHAEL (2026). Much has been made of the fact that the documentary Melania has a 10% Rotten critic score on Rotten Tomatoes while sporting a 99% Fresh audience score, but this biopic of Michael Jackson is also subject to a wide chasm, with a 38% Rotten score from critics and a 97% Fresh score from audiences. The disparity is easy to understand in both cases. With Melania, reviewers see a politically motivated hack job orchestrated by the odious Jeff Bezos while the audience is comprised almost exclusively of Trump cultists; in the case of Michael, critics see a dishonest and surface-skimming biopic while viewers experience a loving tribute. In Melania’s case, it’s Critics 1, MAGA Morons 0; in the case of Michael, it’s closer to a tie. Certainly, Michael contains the expected inaccuracies present in all musical biopics (my fave: a mention of Cyndi Lauper as a superstar in early 1983 when she actually didn’t become famous until 1984), but the problem for many of the naysayers is that there’s not one mention of the claims of pedophilia that soiled his legacy, in effect turning this into a hagiographic piece about apparently the most saintly human being ever (it’s hardly a shock to see six members of the Jackson family listed as executive producers). At the same time, the toe-tapping recreations of his live performances and music videos are a treat, and the picture contains a pair of terrific performances by Jaafar Jackson (Michael’s nephew) as the King of Pop and Colman Domingo as his monstrous pop Joseph.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital edition include an hour-long making-of feature; a piece on the Oscar-worthy makeup designs; and a look at the Jacksons’ actual Hayvenhurst mansion.

Movie: ★★½

OBSESSION (2026). It’s easy to understand why certain thrillers become box office smashes. Fatal Attraction managed to tap into the national zeitgeist with its tale of a marital affair gone disastrous, while The Sixth Sense owed much of its riches to the word-of-mouth generated by the famous twist ending. But Obsession? Made for under one million dollars, it was embraced by Generation Z to the point that it has earned over $400 million worldwide and has emerged as the top-grossing original American movie of the entire decade. It’s a solid horror yarn that partially gained awareness through a slick marketing campaign, but I’m failing to see the hook that made it so much more successful than most other terror tales of recent vintage. Then again, it was made by 26-year-old YouTuber Curry Barker, and given the similarly massive success of Backrooms, made by 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons, it appears that online auteurs are the wave of the future, and this reportedly has led to studio wonks combing Reddit posts for more great ideas. As for Obsession, it’s a fiendishly clever piece in which hapless twentysomething Baron “Bear” Bailey (Michael Johnston) finds himself hopelessly smitten with his co-worker and close friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Purchasing a novelty item known as a “One Wish Willow,” he uses it to wish that Nikki would love him more than anyone in the world. He gets his desire in the most awful way imaginable, as the new Nikki won’t give him a moment’s peace and frequently acts in an insane and even dangerous manner. Yes, it’s “The Monkey’s Paw” all over again, with Curry making it modern by exploring the ends to which some men will attempt to change, denigrate, and dismiss a woman’s feelings in order to lord over her.

Extras in the 4K + Blu-ray + Digital edition consist of audio commentary by Barker and a making-of featurette.

Movie: ★★★

STRANGE CARGO (1940). The eighth and final film co-starring friends and frequent real-life lovers Clark Gable and Joan Crawford is also the most unusual of their screen team-ups. Based on Richard Sale’s novel Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep, it’s an allegorical tale set largely at the Devil’s Island penal colony, which a handful of convicts succeed in escaping. The group includes the cocky Verne (Gable), the unfeeling leader Moll (Albert Dekker), the murderous Hessler (Paul Lukas), and, most significantly, the beatific Cambreau (Ian Hunter), who seems to know everything and manages to bring out the best qualities in some of the others. Crawford co-stars as Julie, a prostitute who ends up hoofing it alongside the boys, while Peter Lorre appears in a disappointingly small role as M’sieu Pig, a lecher who lusts after Julie. Director Frank Borzage was known as a romanticist whose pictures frequently engaged in spiritual matters, making Strange Cargo appear to be a perfect fit. But the Christian aspects of the piece are often ill-defined (although that didn’t stop the film from being condemned as offensive by the influential Catholic Legion of Decency and banned in several cities), and a heavy-handed approach is too often employed — did we really need to see Cambreau on a piece of wood with arms outstretched as if on a cross? And if Hessler is meant to be the Satan to Cambreau’s Jesus, that angle isn’t exploited nearly enough, leaving Hessler as a character who’s sketchy in more ways than one.

Blu-ray extras consist of the 2008 short Gable and Crawford; the 1940 Our Gang short Goin’ Fishin’; the 1940 cartoon Home on the Range; and the theatrical trailer.

Movie: ★★½

WHITE PALACE (1990). Ever since losing his wife in a car accident two years prior, 27-year-old yuppie Max Baron (James Spader) has been more of a shell than an actual person, remaining celibate from life’s pleasures and going through the motions at social functions. Enter 43-year-old Nora Baker (Susan Sarandon). An employee at the White Palace diner, she first meets Max under less-than-ideal circumstances, when he angrily accuses her of shortchanging his burger order. Tempers flair, but all is forgiven hours later, when the two bump into each other at a bar. In a drunken stupor, he gives her a ride home, where they eventually engage in some hot and heavy bed wrestling. Nora figures it’s a one-night stand, but to her surprise (and pleasure), Max keeps coming back. Yet their relationship is strained as the upper-crust Max has to deal with the ramifications of their age difference and their dissimilar social standings. Sarandon and Spader both give strong performances, as does Eileen Brennan in a choice role as Nora’s older sister. But the problem with the picture rests with the characters, not the actors. Max initially comes across as pompous and self-pitying, and by the end he’s graduated to a different sort of smugness. As for Nora, she’s presented as a nitwit who turns to the tabloids for her hard news and leaves her home in such a disgusting state that sandwich crusts morph into permanent fixtures. She finally comes around to cleaning up her abode, but scripters Alvin Sargent and Ted Tally (adapting Glenn Savan’s novel) are unable to clean up the story’s implausibilities, particularly that dopey ending.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★

FILM CLIPS

COLD STEEL (1987). A detective (Brad Davis) sets out to find the psychopath (Jonathan Banks) responsible for the murder of his father (William Lanteau). Cold Steel is as generic and disposable as it sounds, with the only points of interest tied to its cast. This was one of only a handful of films that featured Midnight Express lead Davis before his assisted suicide in 1991 due to his HIV-positive status; co-star Sharon Stone was still on the ascendancy when she made this picture (her other 1987 release was Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol); and one of the villains is (broadly) played by rock star Adam Ant.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★½

HAMILTON (2020). What does it say about the cinema of COVID-stricken 2020 that not one but two of the year’s best movies were nothing more than filmed stage shows? One was Spike Lee’s David Byrne concert film American Utopia; the other was this documentation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway smash. Miranda’s infectious tunes, Daveed Diggs’ phenomenal Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson, Jonathan Groff’s playful King George III, the championing of the immigrant experience — it’s a treasure trove of musical theater par excellence.

Blu-ray extras include an interview with Miranda and a sing-along version.

Movie: ★★★½

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964). In this black comedy, a cowardly naval officer (James Garner) is chosen by his superior (Melvyn Douglas) to film the D-Day invasion firsthand, in effect increasing the chances that the first man to die at Normandy will be from the Navy … and thereby elevating that military branch’s profile. Julie Andrews co-stars as a reserved war widow who thaws in Garner’s presence, while James Coburn spices the proceedings as his gung-ho confidante. Arthur Hiller’s prosaic direction softens Paddy Chayefsky’s biting screenplay — what Billy Wilder or Blake Edwards could have done with this material! — yet the project’s cynicism toward war is never in doubt, particularly during a standout monologue in which Garner’s character explains why it’s the general populace rather than the military brass which deserves the blame for the enduring popularity of wars.

Movie: ★★★

BARBARIAN QUEEN (1985). A potent “girl power” message is about all that this amateurish action yarn from the Roger Corman stable has going for it; otherwise, this is feeble stuff, with a bride and her BFFs (all sporting decidedly 1980s hairdo’s) turning into kick-ass warriors after their village is destroyed and their menfolk taken as slaves.  More interesting than anything occurring on the screen are the trivia points behind the film: 1) Corman later referred to the title character as “the original Xena”; 2) the music score was co-created by James Horner, who later won two Academy Awards for Titanic; and 3) the lead actress was Lana Clarkson, who was fatally shot 18 years later by Phil Spector in his California home.

Movie: ★½

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965). After overseeing a string of mammoth efforts like Exodus and In Harm’s Way, Otto Preminger directed this hiccup of a film that on paper might have seemed more at home in the stable of William Castle (who in this period was making Strait-Jacket, The Night Walker, and I Saw What You Did). Yet Preminger infuses the attendant luridness with a palpable air of dread, as an American (Carol Lynley, quite good) in London reports that her young daughter has mysteriously disappeared. But since seemingly no one in the entire country has ever seen little Bunny aside from her mom and uncle (Keir Dullea, quite wooden), the police inspector (Laurence Olivier) on the case can’t help but wonder if the child even exists. Understandably, the lion’s share of the choice dialogue is handed off to wily vets Olivier and Noël Coward (repulsive as Lynley’s lecherous neighbor).

Movie: ★★★

ROCKETSHIP X-M (1950). Rocketship X-M is rather classy for a low-budget production — competent direction by The Fly’s Kurt Neumann, a recognizable cast in Lloyd Bridges, Hugh O’Brian, and Noah Beery Jr., a script polish by the blacklisted (and thus uncredited) Dalton Trumbo — so it’s lamentable that it’s not better. Too many arid stretches tarnish this otherwise sturdy tale of the members of the first flight to the moon and the events that ensue when they’re knocked off their trajectory and end up on Mars. As noted in the Destination Moon review above, this was quickly filmed so it could beat that picture into theaters (which it did by approximately one month), and the rush is evident. Nevertheless, the film earns some respect for an unexpected ending.

Movie: ★★½

A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902). Anyone who marveled at Martin Scorsese’s 2011 Hugo, which partly told the story of silent-film pioneer Georges Méliès (played in that picture by Ben Kingsley), got to see recreations of — and snatches from — the silent-film pioneer’s most famous work, A Trip to the Moon. Yet skipping the original is simply not an option for those professing to be film fans. Running a mere 15 minutes, A Trip to the Moon is a treat for cineastes and sci-fi fans alike, with Méliès borrowing from both Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to relate his tale about six dapper gentlemen who climb into their rocketship and head to the moon, where they encounter hostile creatures who explode in a burst of smoke when walloped. Méliès was the inventor of special effects, and he employs them liberally in this charming yarn, a true watershed moment in the history of cinema.

Movie: ★★★★

TWO WEEKS NOTICE (2002). Sandra Bullock, a former breath of fresh air who briefly transformed into the screen equivalent of halitosis before finding her groove again, again plays a rumpled, neurotic lonelyheart, while Hugh Grant serves up his umpteenth variation on his patented role as a superficial, self-centered bachelor. Between them, they manage to wring out a couple of nice moments, but not nearly enough to prevent this from unfolding like the same-old same-old. Bullock plays an environmental attorney who boasts that she’s like a “bobcat” and a “pretzel” in the sack — this is in direct opposition to the movie itself, which is more like a defanged kitten and a soggy cracker. Grant co-stars as the cad millionaire for whom she works, and with whom she eventually becomes infatuated in a none-too-convincing manner.

Movie: ★★

UNDER THE RAINBOW (1981). One of the most notorious bombs of the early 1980s, Under the Rainbow is an abysmal comedy in which a Hollywood hotel is overrun by scores of little people all auditioning for the parts of Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Chevy Chase headlines as an FBI agent uncovering Axis elements at the establishment, while Carrie Fisher co-stars as a lowly studio employee assigned to work on the 1939 classic. This desperate dud is surprisingly mean-spirited toward its diminutive players (“You’re bad little people!” one character barks. “You deserve to be short!”), while the gags are a never-ending series of groaners — cracks one dwarf after dallying with a tall prostitute, “That’s the first time I’ve ever gone up on a woman!” Yeesh.

Movie: ★