Strategic Management on an Island

 SEND HELP (2026)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I love a tuna sandwich as much as the next person but I would not trust a woman who has a smidge of tuna on her lip after eating said sandwich. That woman is our protagonist of this dark, often gore-laden and dark comedy by Sam Raimi. Raimi has often treated these melodramatic stories with a controlled serious tone, as in "A Simple Plan," but he is back to sensationalizing everything and delivering deliberately cartoonish mayhem-fueled moments. 

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a "Survivor"-loving corporate strategist working for a company that has promised her a vice-president position. Only Linda has no chance of securing such a powerful position despite eyeing it for seven years. A new CEO named Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien, an underrated actor) is conniving and duplicitous, citing Linda as gauche and favoring his old college pal, Donovan (Xavier Samuel), as VP. Linda has to prove her worth on a business trip to Thailand with her new boss. Let's say this trip doesn't go as planned when the plane crashes into the ocean leaving only Linda and Bradley as the survivors on some seemingly unoccupied island. Bradley has a bad cut on his leg and Linda, learning her survival skills from that dreadful show, builds camp on the beach, hunts for fish, and goes spear-hunting killer boars for much needed protein. You are practically watching a redux of "Castaway" with no Wilson volleyball or Tom Hanks. 

McAdams often shrill portrayal of Linda in the first half-hour can get on your nerves. She plays it well but it seems vaguely one-dimensional...until she shows her pain and unwillingness to cry in public. O'Brien's Bradley is an arrogant, informal asshat who will not wear socks at a meeting. Once they are on the island, he still thinks he's her boss and fires her before realizing it is a mistake (or is it?) Bradley begins to sense his own discomfort at what he is since he learned it from his long deceased, mean-spirited and abusive mother (Dad was never around much). Linda was once married to an abusive lout of a husband and then we learn the details of his death that carry a potent charge - can we trust Linda? Trust is thrown out the window when she sees a speedboat on the waters and does nothing to alert them to their presence.

"Send Help" is often a wicked, tumultuous ride with suspenseful sequences. The trip around the edge of a cliff is enough to give anyone with a fear of heights the heebie jeebies. McAdams does suggest Linda's explosive side and her calm demeanor with equal strength. O'Brien's Bradley is a sourpuss who has always had everything done for him and hasn't cooked a day in his life. We kind of root for him to get off the island and then there is the queasy sense that it has more to do with Linda's increasingly psychotic side than anything else. I wished for more of a power play of two opposites in the corporate world learning to deal with each other where no offices or cubicles are in their way. Since this film was written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon (previously scribed "Freddy vs. Jason" and the "Friday the 13th" remake), I figured such complexity might escape them. 

"Send Help" is a horror comedy with absurdity written all over it but I still craved a deeper look into power dynamics. 

Hood ornament that flies

 THE ROCKETEER (1991)

Reassessed by Jerry Saravia

Pulp adventure tales used to be a dime a dozen in book format, comics and movie serials. Some even had a sci-fi edge to them. "The Rocketeer" is based on the late Dave Stevens' 1982 comic-book series of the same name and, like the feature film, it is a deliberate throwback to a 1930's-1940's sensibility with chivalrous heroes like The Shadow and, perhaps, the Phantom. The difference may be that the Rocketeer is a reluctant hero and he is not interested in wearing tights. His look is more of an Art Deco pilot wearing a "hood ornament" for a mask. "The Rocketeer" is tons of escapist fun though the hero is not as charismatic as I might have hoped.

Bill Campbell is the unlucky pilot, Cliff Secord, who finds himself in trouble with the FBI and the mob, both searching for a top-secret rocket backpack designed by Howard Hughes! It is left in Cliff's biplane and, suddenly, his eyes glow at the possibilities of such a super duper find. Peevy (Alan Arkin), Cliff's mechanic, is also startled by this invention and so they test it on a statue with mixed results. At an air show where he tries to rescue an older former pilot, Cliff swooshes in and out of the clouds and the countryside of orange groves where he keeps trying to get used to the rocket pack (his lack of smooth flying feels credible for a first-timer). This gets the attention of the FBI (one of the agents is played by Ed Lauter), gangsters including their mob boss, the "100% American" Billy Valentine (Paul Sorvino), and naturally fictional Hollywood actor Neville Sinclair (a boisterous turn by Timothy Dalton) who is a secret Nazi. 

"The Rocketeer" packs in a lot of heat for a fun, joyous serial-based fantasy with a few cliffhangers. There is plenty of aerial action with that rocket pack and several planes, a flaming zeppelin, a couple of fistfights with a Rondo Hatton henchman type, Nazis aching to return to the Fatherland, a Hollywood celebrity club where we hear renditions of "Begin the Beguine" by the lovely presence of Melora Hardin and where W.C. Fields and Clark Gable attend, a Bulldog cafe (there was an actual one in L.A.), a creepy Nazi cartoon, and even a lively turn by Terry O'Quinn as a mustachioed Howard Hughes who is trying to develop the Spruce Goose! 

As for Bill Campbell, he looks the part of a 1938 pilot but he is unpersuasive as a hero - just some twentysomething kid who at least knows how to kiss Jennifer Connelly. Connelly gives one of her loveliest performances ever as a Bettie Page-type who is not quite your usual damsel in distress (though she needs rescuing, she also fights back against Neville and some Nazi agents). Despite Campbell's role (he does give it an ounce of humor and determination), "The Rocketeer" is sheer entertainment with thrilling moments that are quite breathless to witness. You'll be cheering by the end. 

Wry comedy of manners

 THE INVITE (2026)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

An argumentative married couple have their loud neighbors over for appetizers and wine. Problems and tension are fueled almost immediately when there is no wine (well, there is the couple's anniversary wine stored away) and one of the neighbors is either allergic or just simply doesn't like cheese, crackers or prosciutto. What might have been a poor man's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" or a cuter version of "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice" develops into a wry comedy of manners with some of the biggest laughs I've had in recent memory. 

Olivia Wilde is Angela, a worrywart who buys rugs and lamps from flea markets with the need to impress. Angela is married to Joe (Seth Rogen), a former musician for a band that never went anywhere. He teaches music at a small conservatory that he doesn't seem suited for. Joe is miserable, has not had sex with Angela in a year yet they stay together for the one young daughter they have (whom we never see). When Joe arrives one night from work, Angela reminds him they have guests that evening- they are their upstairs neighbors who have loud sex romps every night. Joe is flummoxed by this, unprepared for this couple and is ready to rant on them being noisy to the extreme. The neighbors arrive and they include rug enthusiast and widower Hawk (Edward Norton), a former firefighter (not fireman), and his Spanish girlfriend, Pina (Penelope Cruz). What develops during the course of this evening is surprising with Joe relating his honesty about this couple to their face and with Angela doing her best to deflect her husband from making everything less than merry. The irony is that happy-go-lucky, charming Hawk (his chosen nickname) and flirty Pina appreciate them for their honesty. After Angela does a mini-tour of their San Francisco apartment with Hawk and Pina smokes pot with Joe in his office, there is much talk about sex and orgies and Angela walking naked in the apartment. This intentional display of baring it all was seen by Hawk in his apartment! And there is a tremendously funny scene where Joe has to admit that he knocked on their apartment door during all that noise - ring camera footage proves it all!

The first few minutes left me unsure of what I was in store for. The heightened music score by Devonté Hynes amps up the bickering and arguing between Joe and Angela. Once the movie settles in with the couples meeting each other, "The Invite" is a roller-coaster of laughs, wickedly funny character insights and an unexpected explosion of truth towards the end that I found quite moving. Still, this is not a raw examination of couples in the 2020's by way of Virginia Woolf nor does it open up beyond marital fidelity like "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice" (the best married couple syndrome comedy-drama I've ever seen) but its heart is closer to Woody Allen's own romantic comedies (there's a dedication to Diane Keaton in the end credits). Olivia Wilde scores another direct hit for having helmed this one behind the camera ("Booksmart" is my favorite film by her) and does an expert job of handling all the character nuances and the interior shots so that not one shot of this apartment is ever repeated. She also knows how to handle herself and her disbelieving looks at Joe are priceless. Seth Rogen gives the best performance of his life, sharing his own self-deprecating ways better than anyone else could have. Kudos to Edward Norton playing one of the softer, gentler characters of his career and he's a good match for Penelope Cruz who is always exciting to watch. A movie for couples to treasure.