BITE-SIZED REVIEW: DeepStar Six (Sean S. Cunningham, 1989)

At the bottom of the sea, a group of Navy contractors are assembling a missile silo for nuclear weapons.

After they collapse an underwater cavern, an unknown entity is released which proceeds to attack the station.

Will the crew survive the creature and make it back to the surface?

I have tried to watch Friday the 13th for years, but every time I do, I turn it off. There is something so sloppy and pedestrian about it - particularly if you have watched Halloween.

After checking out Sean S. Cunningham’s Deepstar Six, I think I will have to rectify that.

This movie was not on my radar. After watching Leviathan and a retrospective review by the Action Boyz podcast, I checked it out.

There is something simple but functional about DeepStar.

The plot is unexceptional, the acting is forgettable and the monster is somewhat botched. 

But there is a cheap and cheerful zest to this movie that makes it enjoyable.

I like genre movies on a budget and this is a prime example: A couple of sets, limited VFX and a drawn-out reveal of the film’s Big Bad.

One of the elements that Action Boys pointed out is that the monster only kills a couple people - the others are killed by accident or in the course of duty.

The creature is kind of ridiculous - it seems to change size based on whatever is convenient for the specific scene. I did not mind it but I was also aware of it going in so those expectations might have fed into it.

Watching this movie after Leviathan, I think I liked this movie more. It is a case of simplicity rather than success at execution. Leviathan had a big budget, a name cast and plenty of special effects. When that movie’s narrative faltered, it felt like a bigger problem. 

DeepStar Six feels more like a formula genre picture - a slasher movie filled with characters who exist to die in a variety of ways.

The prize among the cast is Miguel Ferrer, a terrific character actor who brings a sweaty intensity to the (fatally) by-the-book Snyder. The script does try to provide some individual fleshing-out, but aside from Ferrer, none of these characters stand out. They are cannon fodder of various kinds. 

This movie does not try to be bigger than it is - there is a lack of pretension and a blunt functionality to the filmmaking that kept me onboard.

I watched this movie after watching a more recent attempt at a small-budget genre piece - the 2016 sci-fi thriller Morgan starring Kate Mara and Anya Taylor Joy. That movie boasts a slicker aesthetic, but underneath it all it is just a monster movie - and not a particularly original or well-constructed one. 

DeepStar may not look that flashy, and its story is basically a lift from other monster movies, but it succeeds at its modest objectives.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming (John Watts, 2017)

Fresh off his first adventure with the Avengers, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is obsessed with becoming a full-time superhero.

Equiped with a new suit, Peter starts looking for opportunities to get the attention of his mentor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). 

One opportunity is a mysterious arms dealer who has been hijacking secret weapons from Stark and other companies...

 

Working on these Spider-Man reviews has been an exercise in constant revisionism. The Sam Raimi movies are a bit simple and obvious but they become examples of strong storytelling and character development through the prism of the Marc Webb duology.

And now to the John Watts/Tom Holland/Kevin Fiege era.

Firstly, it is great to have a Spider-Man who exists in an established environment and community. This movie has a stronger sense of place than the previous movies.

It might not be any more realistic than Raimi’s New York, but there is more of an ensemble feel - particularly in the early scenes - that grounds the viewer into this Peter Parker’s world.

While the details of this world-building were a plus, they are ultimately superficial. But i will dive into that a little later.

Watching this movie after the previous iterations, it is a bummer watching a Spider-Man who is part of a world of superheroes - part of the novelty is that Spider-Man is a singular being. He feels less special.

It is made worse by the presence of Tony Stark, whose involvement removes all stakes - Maguire and Garfield were put through the ringer and had to improvise their way out of problems. 

That being said, this is probably my second favorite of the Spider-Men  - the tone is lighter and it feels like Peter is surrounded by a genuine ensemble of highschool characters.

As the movie progresses, that lightness starts to feel like superficiality.  On this viewing, the jokes are a shade too plentiful, and the stakes feel markedly smaller.

 

After his predecessors, Holland comes off a little slight - this version forgoes an origin story, but with it goes the pathos.

The set-pieces are solid - the filmmakers make sure that the gizmos do not do all the work. And the stakes rise when Tony takes his suit away and Peter realizes Liz’s dad is the Vulture. 

This twist is one of the best swerves in a recent superhero movie, and it does lead to the only real tension in the movie. 

It helps that Michael Keaton is great as Adrian Toomes - he packs a similar intensity to Willem Dafoe but the characterisation is more nuanced. He is also able to dial the menace down to a simmer. The scene between Peter and Adrian in the car is one of the best scenes in any of these movies. With Keaton, there is a tension between what his character is telling on the surface and his eyes.

Keaton’s eyes are piercing - it always feels like he is focused on something beyond the immediate focus of the scene. There is a straightforwardness to his performance as Toomes is frightening. It cuts through the movie’s sense of boheme in a way that the movie never capitalizes on.

I like it when the heroes are on the backfoot and the final fight between Spider-Man and Shocker (Bokeem Woodbine) is a fine example - Peter cannot get to his web shooters. 

It does not last long but it is a nice beat.

There is something off about the climax to the movie that really stood out. 

The filmmakers attempt to create a lowest moment for Peter when he is buried by the Vulture, but it does not work. Peter sees his mask in a puddle - the submerged side reflects his face back at him so it looks split. It is a nice touch but it is a payoff with no set up. 

Tonally, Homecoming is a joy. It is lots of fun, and the cast are terrific. But after four years and two further instalments, its charms are starting to wear a little thin.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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BITE-SIZED REVIEW: The Cutting Edge 4 - Fire and Ice (Stephen Herek, 2010)

After winning gold, Alex Delgado (Francia Raisa) is back on ice - only these days she is teaching kids how to skate.

After her relationship broke down, so did her career. 

She thinks her ice-skating dream is over - until former singles star James McKinsey (Brendan Fehr) appears.

He has been banned from singles, and wants to make the transition to pair skating. 

Alex accepts the offer, even though she is weary of his reputation. 

Will opposites attract (for the fourth time)?

A sequel featuring Francia Raisa reprising her role as Alex Delgado, The Cutting Edge 4: Fire and Ice feels like compensation for all the problems of its predecessors.

That is really the worst thing about this movie because in every other capacity it is fairly solid romcom/sports amalgam.

In its favour, this movie benefits from her presence and Brendan Fehr is a more charismatic performer than her last co-star. His character, James McKinsey, is also a little more dynamic.

The building blocks for this installment are solid  - James is a singles star forced into duo competition because he is banned from singles competition. This gives him a good motivation for seeking out Alex as a partner, and also a reason for conflict when he is offered a chance back in singles competition.

 

This might be a controversial statement but Alex and James are the best cast leads of the franchise. For once the leading man is not a wash - Fehr and Raisa feel like two characters interacting with each other. 

And the script gives the characters reasons for sticking together, and some faultilines to give their road to romance some wobbles. 

It is not mindblowing, but after two movies worth of stakeless coupling, this movie is a model of scripting relationships.

James is this movie’s version of Kate from the original. He may not have her line with a withering putdown, but he is cocky and self-obsessed. Not enough to be a monster - Behr does not play James as being threatened by Alex - but this movie lays enough pipe so that his eventual downfall makes sense. 

His character’s arrogance also has a long payoff. This might just be the effect of having two actors with real chemistry, but it felt like James and Alex got together too fast. But I give the film credit for letting James destroy the relationship without jabbing the viewer in the eye with obvious foreshadowing.

When James sees Alex interacting with another man, he puts together a story in his head that she is not in love with him. It is a fairly simple scene without exposition - we just see James watching this interaction from afar, and it works. It is not new but it is a good use of visual storytelling.

Of course this leads to fissures in their relationship - but not bad enough that they cannot get back together before the third act.

And the script actually gives their final reunion a bit of tension. 

Because of their breakup, James returns to speed skating after they are made the alternates for the pair competition. This means at the pivotal moment, he has to make a choice between the two events.

Once more, Francia Raisa is the MVP of the movie. Fehr is good, but Raisa is committed. She gives energy, humour and fierce intelligence to what could have been a cookie cutter role.

This movie took a while to get going, but once the leads were together, the movie starts working.

The characters actually have wounds which they try to avoid sharing with each other. 

For once, the final skate has some emotional undercurrent - director Stephen Herek films their routine in a warm red colour palette, with slow dissolves. It is not mindblowing, but this fim feels more put together in a cinematic sense than its predecessors. 

This movie is no masterpiece, however as a sports/romance movie it puts the building blocks together efficiently. 

If you are stuck in lockdown and looking for something to marathon, The Cutting Edge is not the franchise to go for. But if you are interested, watch the original and Francia Raisa’s duology. 

Watching all four together, it still feels like a great concept waiting for a great execution. But if you scramble together the ingredients from ¾ of the movies together, you can assemble your own perfect version in your head.

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The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke, 1978)

After he figures out a robbery is about to take place at his bank, teller Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould) comes up with a scheme to use the robbery as cover for stealing his daily transactions. When the robber demands he pay up, Miles will hand over a small sum and claim that all the money from his transactions was stolen.

After the robber, Arthur Reikle (Christopher Plummer), flees the scene, Miles tells his bosses and the police his story.

He seems to have gotten away with it - the only problem is Arthur, who has figured out Miles' plan and now wants his cut...

At some point in the last decade, I got into Christopher Plummer. It helped that he always seemed to be working - when he would pop up in something like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or the pre-credits of National Treasure, it felt like a nugget of gold. Whatever my thoughts on the movie, there was going to be a baseline of enjoyment because Plummer was there, with a twinkle in his eye.

There is something so unnerving about Plummer’s eyes - there is a focus and a watchfulness that is ever present which always puts me on edge. It always feels like he knows something about whoever he is looking at.

 

Because of that uh, ocular slyness, I always wanted to see him play villains - I have seen his roles in Star Trek 6 and Up, but nothing has stuck with me. It felt like money was left on the table. A rare exception was All The Money In The World, which is solely powered by his callous, preening portrayal of J. Paul Getty. 

When Plummer passed away last year, I saw a lot of talk about this movie. I was lucky enough to catch a screening.

A Hitchcockian thriller about a regular joe who sees an opportunity to color outside the lines and finds himself in big trouble, The Silent Partner does not boast a great suspense sequence but it builds in an unpredictable way that makes it rather exciting.

It also features Plummer in good form as an unscrupulous criminal. But while he is the one unambiguous villain of the piece, Plummer’s role is small. The film is more interested in un-picking the hypocrisy of the law-abiding citizens who make up the rest of the cast.

There is a deep vein of moral relativism to the picture. Not only is Miles using the robber, everyone in his orbit is double-dealing - most of the bank staff seem to be sleeping with each other.

There is an unease about the general domesticity of the film - the way characters look and interact feels intentionally bland. It is as if everyone is wearing masks for when they have to take part in public life.   

Gould’s casting adds to the character’s ambiguity - he has a very staccato way of speaking that undermines any sense of sincerity that the character is trying to project.  

My one real quibble with the movie was the sound mix.

It was really odd - there were points where the music was mixed louder than the dialogue.

And then there is the ending. The third act makes such a choice that I am not sure how I feel about the movie - but it did make me want to watch it again. 

There is a subtext of sexual ambiguity running through the movie that this final sequence brings out into the open in a way that I was simultaneously uneasy about and yet retrospectively it enhanced my enjoyment of the movie leading up to it. 

It highlighted how bizarre the tone of the whole piece is. Hitchcock's thrillers are rife with mordant wit, and there is a specific tongue-in-cheek quality to parts of the movie which evokes his work. I am not sure the tone is as consistent as it needs to be, but it makes the movie weirder and more unpredictable than the rest of the movie would have you believe.

A fine thriller with an ingenious premise and some nasty surprises, The Silent Partner is worth a look.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

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BITE-SIZED REVIEW: The Cutting Edge 3 - Chasing The Dream (Stuart Gillard, 2008)

After his partner is injured, Zack Conroy (Matt Lanter) is looking for a new partner for the Olympics.

He may have found a new partner in hockey player Alexandra Delgado (Francia Raisa).

Will they overcome their differences to win the gold?

The second movie was so dull - it felt like a bland retread of the original. This movie feels like a reaction to that.

For one, this film flips the dynamic - the prima donna is the male dancer and the working-class hockey player is a woman.

I was worried that the movie was going to be a carbon copy of the original movie, but Alex is completely different from Doug Dorsey. Different here meaning a character who you want to root for as an athlete and the lead of a romcom.

As Alex, Francia Raisa is a breath of fresh air. It is a low bar, but Delgado is the most likable protagonist we have had in this ‘franchise’, and a lot of credit has to go to Raisa for giving this movie a character with some sense of interior life.

Matt Lanter is a bit colourless in the lead role - this might have something to do with the character being a little hard to pull out. He seems to be a little aloof, but the movie does not go the lengths of the first movie in defining his flaws. One of my favourite aspects of the original The Cutting Edge is how much effort the film puts into making Kate (Moira Kelly) an over-privileged shithead. By contrast, Zack is too nice.

The movie is weird in its POV - Lanter is the focus and initiates the plot but I had trouble tracking his arc. Alex’s subplot does not get much screen-time but she feels like more of an anchor for the story. The film gives her a backstory that she trained as a skater as a child but was unable to continue. This gives her a bit more agency in deciding to switch disciplines, and that story has a clear arc. It is just a pity that the movie focuses on Zack.

It is no hidden masterpiece, but Cutting Edge 3 is a steep upswing from its predecessor.

If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour. 

You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.