Netflix Watch: We Have a Ghost (2023)

Watched:  03/02/2023

Format:  Netflix

Viewing:  First

Director:  Christopher Landon

Well, I was looking for something else on Netflix and saw the #1 streaming movie was something I'd never heard of but it starred Captain America, Jennifer Coolidge and Jim Hopper.  And I generally liked the premise of people catching evidence of a ghost and what that might actually mean in 2023.

We Have a Ghost (2023) feels, however, like a few movies that were shuffled together from different results from different writers all given the same prompt and characters but no guidance for what genre this movie was, who it was for, and especially no plot outline.  The result is a strange mish-mash of a film that wants to be funny, touching, exciting, a road movie, a haunted house movie, a teen romance, a wacky buddy comedy, a sci-fi flick...  and a touching story about family, father-child relations and probably ten more things.  I thought it was a kid's movie til about halfway through, and then was like... well, no.

That said, it's weirdly watchable.  It may not be great, or even particularly good, mainly because it bounces so fast from idea to idea that nothing ever really sticks - but it does have some crazy talent in the movie and so you get to see how that can prop up a very shaky film.  David Harbour never even really talks, and still gives a genuinely moving performance.  Anthony Mackie reminds you why he gets cast in so much stuff playing a guy hitting middle-age who thinks maybe he finally struck oil, Jennifer Coolidge is Jennifer Coolidge (if she were a TV ghost-psychic).  Tig Notaro plays the scientist - who seems to have a backstory they left on the cutting room floor - who is mixed up in ghost-chasing, the government G-Men and everything else.  

Our lead is young actor Jahi Di'allo Winston who is very good.  But, man, the movie sure takes its time making it clear you should like his character.  

I don't want to dwell on it too much.  It had a lot of issues.  But I also felt like it got weirdly violent for a minute or two, and it didn't really know a movie can say something, not just be a series of events that unspool.  There's no subtext - this movie is all text.  

The most promising bit of the film, and where I thought it was going before it decided it was not that, is immediately after the evidence of the ghost hits the internet.  You get to see humanity - filtered through the modern internet - doesn't know if the ghost is real-real or not, and makes him into something meme-able and for discourse and all the dumb shit we do as people.  But then the film spins off into something about government overreach, lasers, and a tragic back story I don't know anyone was sitting around hoping for based on the premise.  

SPOILER

I also was just like - did Anthony Mackie really get taken out by a very old man with a pan?  Like...  no one saw that and said "this isn't working."  They just let it be a thing that happened in a movie we all watched.  

Ricou Browning Has Merged With the Infinite

Ricou Browning, the man inside the Gill Man, has passed.  Browning was 93.

Many of you know The Creature from the Black Lagoon is part of my personal film canon.  And, so, we need to take a moment to address the loss.  

Browning wasn't just a one-hit wonder.  He was involved with several things you know - he did stunt work on Sea Hunt and started the show Flipper! as well as had involvement with the show Day of the Dolphin.  His work included item I genuinely love, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Thunderball.  Browning remained in touch with the massive CFTBL fanbase til the end.

I have several action figures in the house and a picture of the Creature in my living room (signed by co-star Julie Adams), so Browning has been in my world all my life as a 70's kid given monster content, and has continued on as a fixture, often on a daily basis one way or another.

PodCast 234: "The Raid: Redemption" (2011) - Action Watch w/ MikeS and Ryan

Watched:  02/17/2023

Format:  Amazon

Viewing: Second

Decade:  2010's

Director:  Gareth Evans

Soundcloud

The Signal Watch PodCast · 234: "The Raid: Redemption" (2011) - Action Watch w/ MikeS and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

We Have Company - Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese

Putting a Mad Dog Down - Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese 

Action Films

The Signal Watch PodCast · Action Watch

Marvel Watch: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Watched:  Early February?

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ryan Coogler

We watched this at the beginning of February when it was released.  I am holding comment until we re-watch and podcast it.  I won't spoil you on the movie or - I guess - what we'll say about it.

But I do need to note that we did see it, so here's a post.

Watch Party Watch: In the Line of Duty 2 - Super Cops (AKA: Yes, Madam!) (1985)

Watched:  02/24/2023

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1980's

Director:  Corey Yuen

This movie was very bad.  Well, this is actually two different movies stapled together, neither of which was thought out terribly well or given an ending.  I have no idea what was lost in translation, or if this was an edit.  But, woof.

We watched the movie for (a) a pre-fame Michelle Yeoh and (b) Cynthia Rothrock kicking the shit out of people.  And we got those!  And I liked that part.  Plus, really seeing how from 1985, Michelle Yeoh was obviously a star, from her martial arts prowess to her grace on screen to being able to rock some rad 1985 looks (what *can't* she do?).  

But Yeoh and Rothrock are only in maybe 3/7ths of the film.  The rest is handed over to three dum-dums who seem like they're in a kid's film minus the extraordinary amount of foul language the voice-over saddled them with.  

The basic story is that Yeoh's maybe boyfriend? from England is assassinated because he has evidence on film of forged documents from the world's jolliest badguy.  Two dum-dum's accidentally steal the evidence, and hand it over to a dipsit named Fingers who outfits crooks.  Rothrock - who is ADR'd by Lady Matt Barry - is made sort of cruel?  And I think we're supposed to get a good cop/ bad cop pairing between she and Yeoh, but there's so little time spent on it in favor of watching the three dumb-asses mug, it's just bizarre.

The film also just... ends.  Like, there's a lot to unpack after the 90 minutes you just spent with the characters, and a pivot to one of the dummies picking up a gun and committing cold blooded murder was a twist, certainly.  But our heroes are all going to jail at the end.  

I dunno.  It feels like they just forgot to write an ending and were like "oh, Dave.  We ran out of money to finish the third act, so we're going to just have you grab this gun and murder Barry.  Okay?"  And everyone wanted to go home, so they agreed.

I don't hate the movie  but I can't think of anything I enjoyed that wasn't Yeoh or Rothrock related.  (edit:  not true.  I enjoyed the mirthfulness of the chief baddie and the facial hair of his henchman, Wolf.)

Friday Watch Party: In the Line of Duty 2 - The Super Cops (aka: Yes, Madam!)

I've dreamed of this one becoming available for our Friday-viewing pleasure.  I've never seen it, but it stars Oscar-contender Michelle Yeoh* and American Martial Arts phenom Cynthia Rothrock dubbed for some reason by a lady with a British accent.  

It's a chance for us to bear witness to acrobatics, flying kicks, slow-motion-bodies-falling-through-glass and all the best bits of mid-80's HK non-prestige cinema!   

Day:  02/24/2023

Time:  8:30 Central/ 6:30 Pacific

Service:  Amazon

Cost:  $0 for Amazon Prime subscribers

CLICK HERE FOR A FOOT TO THE FACE

(link live 10 minutes prior to showtime)

*be still my heart

Noir Watch: Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)

Watched:  02/23/2023

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  First

Director:  King Vidor

The thing that might leap out at you watching Lightning Strikes Twice (1951) is that the film was written by a woman, based on a novel by a woman.  So while it's absolutely a grimy, desert noir, it's also not focused on a Dana Andrews floating into town and getting in over his head - it's Ruth Roman.  And the male characters of the film are certainly important, but they're not the show that you're here to see.*  This movie has terrific - I mean great - female characters who don't feel like they got knocked out of the "mother", "housewife", "nightclub girl" mold you may realize you've gotten too used to.

Happy 94th Birthday, James Hong!

 

James Hong, one of our greatest and most prolific actors, turned 94 yesterday!  

I mean, honestly, this man is a national treasure and one of the MVPs of movies and television.  Nothing he can't do or hasn't done. 

PodCast 233: "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987) - A KTB PodCast w/ Danny, Stuart and Ryan

Watched: 02/10/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  1980's

Director:  Sidney J Furie

For more ways to listen

For Danny's Superheroes Every Day blog

Well. It's time to talk about the final, and possibly flawed installment of the Christopher Reeve movies about the Big Blue Boy Scout. Join three fellows who have spent way too much time pondering Superman, Superman movies, and the cinema of the 1980's as they consider topics such as "should this story have been told?", "what could have been?" and "who cooks a duck in someone else's hotel suite?" It's a Kryptonian Thought Beast episode for the ages!

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 233: "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987) - A KTB PodCast w/ Danny, Stuart and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Superman Main Titles (8 Bit Version) - 8 Bit Universe 

DC Movies and Television

The Signal Watch PodCast · DC Cinema and TV

Superheroes Every Day PodCast Episodes

The Signal Watch PodCast · Superheroes Every Day

President's Day: James Carter - the 39th President of the United States

Former President James "Jimmy" Carter is on my mind these days as he is, at age 98, entering hospice care.  

Perhaps now more famous and liked for his post-Presidential career than his time during office - a period during which I would not envy anyone who was in the White House - Carter may not be with us much longer, so now seems like an opportune time to remind all of us who Jimmy Carter is other than a nice old man who spends a lot of time volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.

Carter was born and raised in Plains, Georgia, where his family had a peanut farm.  He would leave to go to college, finishing as a Naval Academy graduate, which led to his military service aboard submarines in both the Pacific and Atlantic fleets.  Clearly he had something going on upstairs as he was selected to study reactor technology as nuclear submarines came online.  Yes.  He's a nuclear engineer.