Diluted hauntings

POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper did not return for seconds when a sequel was announced to the original fright film that became a box-office hit. They must have read the script and puked their own vomit monsters. "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" is an uninspired, flat sequel that will make you choke with unintentional laughter. It is a travesty.

The Freeling Family returns but with no trace of pizazz or humor. Steve Freeling (Craig T. Nelson) has grown his hair long, fancies himself a hippie, sells vacuum cleaners and wants nothing to do with televisions. Diane Freeling (Jobeth Williams) merely exists and points out to Steve that they are broke ever since leaving their haunted domicile. Carol Anne (the late Heather O'Rourke) and Robbie (Oliver Robins) are about the same, though Robbie has braces and Carol Anne talks to mysterious strangers (and how come there is no explanation of Dominique Dunne's Dana character from the original? Never mind that Dunne was tragically murdered shortly after the original's release.) They all live with Diane's mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald, in a wasted role) and before you know it, the poltergeists are back. This time, though, we get lots of smoke and fire, braces with a life of their own, a mysterious preacher named Kane (played by the late Julian Beck) , and an enormously ugly worm creature courtesy of H.R. Giger. Oh, yes, and a Vomit Creature.

"Poltergeist II" is a senseless, witless, numbingly mindless movie with no real sense of terror or purpose. The Freelings do little to provoke any sympathy as they did in the original. There is an Indian shaman (Will Sampson) and the thick-accented, terminally annoying psychic (Zelda Rubinstein) returning from the original, who are both aware that dark forces still prevail in the Freelings's original domicile. All this smacks of desperation and is similarly contrived to most horror sequels (providing an explanation, no less, of why the dark spirits wanted Carol Anne in the first place.) It is a good thing that the sweet, talented Heather O'Rourke went to the other side herself or she would have been stuck making movies like "Poltergeist II."

Godzillas vs. Transformers (in a good way)

PACIFIC RIM (2013)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The giant robots who are roughly the size of half of a skyscraper are what initially intrigued me about the trailer for "Pacific Rim." They are massive and they walk with precision, and can run like the wind. Two pilots are necessary to operate one robot and manipulate its moves and its ability to swing a punch or use a steel sword against massive sea creatures. "Pacific Rim" is that kind of monster movie we do not see much of anymore - its added pluses are that it has a little heart and some noble heroes.

The Kaiju are the flying sea creatures who are roughly the size of one Godzilla and a half. They cause major destruction to almost every city on Earth. The Kaiju emerge from the sea with a roar that is pure Tyrannosaurus Rex X 1 million decibels and a bite that can cause real damage, not to mention a deadly acid that spews from their mouths. What are the humans to do? Build technological marvels of robotic destruction, of course, known as Jaegers (not the alcoholic drink that one imbibes, but you might like to have one after seeing this film, and I do mean that in a good way). These robots could give the Transformers a run for their Michael Bay dollars - when they stomp on the city streets, you feel it. Same with the Kaiju.

A former pilot named Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam, minus his "Sons of Anarchy" beard), who lost his brother during a dangerous combat mission with the fierce Kaiju, is commisioned by Commander Stacker Pentecoast (Idris Elba, who suffers the occasional nosebleed) to fight these raging beasts. Raleigh is reluctant until he finds a suitable, untested and ambitious pilot, Mako (Rinko Kikuchi), who as a child encountered one of those beasts. The two pilots have to have their minds in unison to operate the mammoth robots - they must be locked in a neural bridge called "drifting" (a psychic linkage).

Most of "Pacific Rim" is filled with Kaiju fighting Jaegers and vice versa. I saw the film in 3-D and the effects are truly astounding and eye-opening - there are times that you might have to grab the arms of your chair when these titanic monsters fight each other on the screen. Guillermo Del Toro (who previously helmed "Pan's Labyrinth," "Cronos" and the "Hellboy" pictures) never lets the action up though he does pause for character moments and various idiosyncracies. Still, the name of the game is unrelenting action, explosions and, eventually, a self-sacrifice. There is a chilling, nightmarish moment where Mako as a screaming, crying child hides in terror from the Kaiju in a near-apocalyptic moment of almost Hiroshima-like extremes. It is this memory that prevents her at one point from operating the Jaeger as she is ready to use its weapons to destroy the beast.

"Pacific Rim" could have used a lot more moments like that one, punctuated with traumatic memories to make us cling closer to the characters. Still, the characters are all sharply defined personalities, not automatons. Charlie Hunnam's Raleigh is a soldier who does his best to ignore his brother's death; Kikuchi's Mako wants revenge for the loss of her family but has a hard time suppressing her past trauma, and Pentecoast tries to be more calculating and remote but his past memories also sneaks up on him.
Adding to all the noise, CGI and practical effects (and 3-D effects that make helicopters look like Ed Wood's toys when placed against the monsters) is the film's disarming sense of humor (a Del Toro trademark) thanks to the two geeky scientists who seemingly have a P.h.D on the Kaiju. They are Charlie Day as Dr. Newton Geiszle (channeling Sam Rockwell), who suspects that these beasts are being cloned and may have an idea of how to defeath them, and Burn Gorman as Dr. Hermann Gottlieb who just feels that Newton is a manic personality. And the piece de resistance is Del Toro regular Ron Perlman, wearing gold-stripped shoes that have to be seen to be believed, as an underground black-market salesman named Hannibal Chau who buys Kaiju body parts!

"Pacific Rim" is an upbeat sci-fi epic that is tons of fun to watch. The film is a hark back to the old Godzilla flicks and other Japanese monster flicks with a touch of, pardon the comparison, Transformers except the Jaegers are far more impressive and almost grandiose. It does help that we sympathize with the characters enough to hope they survive all the wrath and fury of these winged sea creatures. I only wish I could spend more time with them - maybe in the sequel (reportedly, one hour of the film was cut by Del Toro that featured more character nuance). But whom am I to complain because I had a blast with "Pacific Rim." Forget "Transformers" and its sequels, Del Toro gives a summer blockbuster what it needs - a shot of adrenaline mixed with heart and pathos. A good summer cocktail, indeed.

They are here!

POLTERGEIST (1982)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I first saw "Poltergeist" in 1982 in a packed movie theatre. It was an unnerving experience for me, and far too gory and violent to qualify for a PG rating. Mind you, I was only 11 at the time. I have seen it a couple of times since but only now do I see what a humane horror film it is. Like "The Exorcist" and others of its ilk, "Poltergeist" is a superb ghost story that makes us care for its characters because they are allowed to be themselves, and they play it straight in the face of both good and evil forces.

The characters are the Freelings, a close-knit family in suburbia. There is Steve (Craig T. Nelson), a successful real-estate agent who reads Ronald Reagan biographies and watches "A Guy Named Joe" at the same time! There is his wife, Diane Freeling (Jobeth Williams, in one of the two best roles of her career), who loves Steve and her kids deeply. The three kids include the teenage daughter, Dana (the late Dominique Dunne), who stays up at night on the phone, her younger sister, Carol Anne (wonderfully played by the late Heather O'Rourke) who has a habit of staring at the television screen, and the young brother, Robbie (Oliver Robins), who has trouble counting before the sound of thunder strikes. This is a close-knit family, but there are those nicely understated touches of humor that show more humanity than the average cutesy family you might see on Lifetime. When Diane finds Carol Anne's dead bird in the cage, she says, "Oh s**t. Couldn't you have waited until after her birthday?" Then there is the terrific scene where Diane rolls a marihuana cigarette while Steve listens to her story about how as a child, she was inadvertently kidnapped. But something is about to happen to this family, some kind of unseen force is ready to strike. The rolling clouds in the ominous sky are beginning to set in. The tree outside Robbie's house is certain to strike terror soon enough. And Carol Anne should know better than to stare at television screens for so long.

"Poltergeist" sets up its characters so well that when the inevitable evil strikes, it truly scares us. And, boy is it scary. The first indications are almost funny in a way. Chairs pile up in pyramid fashion on the table. A force pulls chairs and little Carol Anne across the kitchen floor. Lights flicker and burn with intensity. And, then the real terror begins as little Carol Anne disappears into a closet, and is somewhere in the house. Robbie is almost sucked into a tree. Steve is having trouble sleeping. Diane can smell her daughter nearby. "Poltergeist" feels like a funnier, wicked, jolting freakshow than a horror movie, and it puts "The Amityville Horror" to shame. The latter film had a sense of eerie mood but this movie really delivers with moments that will require you to cover your eyes.

Though it is directed by Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), "Poltergeist" feels like a Steven Spielberg production (he co-wrote the screenplay). In fact, there is a lot of the mood and atmosphere of "E.T." in this film (coincidentally released the same year). Even the kids play with "Star Wars" action figures just like Elliott does in "E.T." The genial tone also recalls Spielberg's sentimental flourishes but I have the feeling that Hooper has infused it with some of his own playfulness and humanism. The scene where Diane feels Carol Anne has made contact with her soul is exquisitely rendered, delivering an emotional crescendo that will make your heart melt. That feels like a Hooper scene whereas Spielberg might have laid it on a little too thick. And Hooper's wickedness is evident in the scene where one of the paranormal investigators imagines ripping his flesh from his face thus exposing his skull.

The Freeling family feels like a real family, people you may see in your neighborhood. All the details of their lives feel right, and Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams instill the parents with the right mixture of pathos and believability. Heather O'Rourke has many eerie scenes, particularly when talking to the television screen or when she notices things that her parents (and, we, the audience) do not see. Dominique Dunne has a small role but there is a funny moment where she tells off some leering construction workers with obscene body language, while her mother smiles approvingly. Oliver Robins has those precious looks of bewilderment and shock, especially with a toy clown who possesses a crooked grimace.

Emotionally involving, humanistic, magical, often terrifying, "Poltergeist" is one sensational movie, a roller-coaster ride that delivers its thrills and laughs in equal measure. But how could anyone rate this PG is beyond me. It is decidedly not for the kiddies.

1,000 dollars for a Polaroid camera

THE SPANISH PRISONER (1998)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is an unexpected joy I have in watching a David Mamet film - a joy mostly derived from his expert unfolding of complex, involving puzzles. Arguably, Mamet is always at his best when he directs his own screenplays as evidenced by "House of Games" and "Oleanna" - his style is simple and direct. "The Spanish Prisoner" is a terrifically entertaining film - an intriguing, finely detailed, exhilarating comic puzzle that leads from one revelation to another.

Campbell Scott stars as Joe Ross, a bespectacled scientist-of-sorts who is also a brilliant mathematician. He's also the inventor of the Process, an invention that will make his company more lucrative than ever before. Ross's boss, Mr. Klein (a laid-back Ben Gazzara), is so impressed by the Process that he holds a meeting in the Caribbean to discuss its future - a company lawyer (Ricky Jay) is on hand to look after the finances. On the Caribbean, Joe meets a typical Mamet character named Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin) who offers Joe one-thousand dollars for his Polaroid camera - this is the kind of request that should drive Joe away from Jim. Denying his request, Joe decides to accept Jim's dinner invitation in exchange for his apologetic remarks. Naturally, Jimmy Dell is the driving anchor of the movie and it would be unfair for me to explain what the plot's surprises have in store for you. Suffice to say, if you are a Mamet fan you'll anticipate many of the twists and turns the plot takes. If you have seen the Mamet-like labyrinth "The Game," you'll see some distinct similarities.

Surprisingly, "The Spanish Prisoner" works because of its characters and the sharp dialogue rather than the elaborate machinations of the plot. Joe Ross is the bland everyman whom things happen to and not always for any clear reasons. As played by Campbell Scott, the character is broadly sketched displaying no apparent flaws or weaknesses except that he's too trustworthy. In other words, he's a cipher - a trait uncharacteristic of Mamet - but Scott manages to bring some droll, subtle humor to Joe's character.

Two of the finest performances in the film are by Steve Martin and Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's wife). Steve Martin gives a superb, restrained performance as the seemingly rich New Yorker who asks for other simple services of Joe such as sending a book to his sister in New York. Is that all Jim wants, or is he up to no good? Martin's poise and mannered speaking are as fluent and as engaging as anything he's done in his career. Rebecca Pidgeon (an accomplished singer in real-life who also starred in Mamet's "Homicide") plays one of the sweetest, smartest women in all of Mamet's works. Her character, Susan, Joe's secretary, bears a certain affection to Joe that leads to all kinds of plot turns. Susan is sexy, intelligent, convivial, a bit annoying in the beginning but we grow to like and accept her. She is also manipulative and perhaps deceitful, but we are never sure. My two favorite scenes with Pidgeon are the airplane scene, where she discusses how you never truly know the people in your life, and a hilarious moment where she fabricates an argument with Joe to evade questions from the police.

"The Spanish Prisoner" is in many ways both akin and atypical of Mamet's former films. For one, the film is rated PG. Gone are the customary four-letter words we normally associate with Mamet and, as a result, it's also more light on its feet and less heavy than usual. Part of its lightness comes from the greenish, mossy look of the cinematography that fits perfectly with the title and the mood. Although the film is occasionally flawed and unevenly paced, "The Spanish Prisoner" is still high quality verbal entertainment. From Mamet, I wouldn't have expected less.

This Bitter Earth

KILLER OF SHEEP (1979)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 "Killer of Sheep" is not a film that is designed to entertain, only to inform in the most poetic way possible - through pure images. In that spirit, despite its creaky pacing and other faults, it is an extraordinary portrait of an impoverished black family in L.A, specifically the Watts area.

Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) is the main character, a slaughterhouse worker who comes home every day, beaten down by life. He feels little in the way of emotion, he doesn't communicate too well with his two kids (one of whom occasionally wears a hound dog mask) and he can't make love to his wife (Kaycee Moore), despite hearing Dinah Washington belting out "This Bitter Earth" on their LP player. There is little joy in this world with friends and other associates barging in and out of his house, kids jumping across the roofs of these small apartments, kids throwing rocks at each other, dragging a car engine with his bare hands, killing sheep at work (at one point, he tells his wife he needs a new job), and in general, a pervading feeling of listlessness. Stan is calm when he drinks tea but more often than not, he is fixing the sink or cutting linoleum. Stan is even treated seductively by a white female grocery/liquor store who will cash his checks but presumably nobody else's. There is the tendency to resort to violence and one feels Stan may or may not consider it. The pressure of his job and family might do him in, or it might not.

"Killer of Sheep" is built out of individual moments of time. There is no plot and as writer-director Charles Burnett describes it, it is meant to be an evocation, an illustration of his reality - akin to a documentary. Some of these episodes of life are strung together without a lot of coherence, and other times there are abrupt cuts or transitions, particularly involving lines of dialogue. The sound quality isn't the best, though that is a minor criticism since the black and white photography is evocative enough. Though Burnett chose to be anti-Hollywood in those days since he rejected polished Hollywood product, it doesn't mean that the editing should lack polish or that the rhythm should be occasionally stilted. Still, such technical limitations do not diminish the power and beauty at work here. "Killer of Sheep's" antecedents, intended or not, are firmly rooted in the neorealism and naturalism of Vittorio De Sica or Satyajit Ray.

"Killer of Sheep" has had a strange history. For Burnett, the film was his UCLA thesis that gained a following but wasn't released theatrically due to music rights. Now, after thirty years, it has been restored by UCLA and shown in some theaters. For a look at poverty and the harshness of life (a timelier topic, now more than ever) without resorting to a political debate or specific black communities, "Killer of Sheep" is a helpful reminder that things haven't changed.

This ain't no 90210

GIRLS TOWN (1996)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

"Girls Town" was released in about one or two theaters during the fall of 
1996. What a shame that smaller, independent films never get anywhere and do not get the promotional push they deserve. "Girls Town" won a series of awards for screenwriting at the Sundance Film Festival, and the push the film spotlights is a ball-of-fire performance by Lili Taylor, the former independent queen of film.                                              

"Girls Town" is the day-in-the-life of four young women in a small, suburban section of New York (or is it New Jersey? It was filmed in both states) who are trying to get through high-school amid all their worries, aggravations and heartaches. Nikki (Aunjanue Ellis) is the most troubled of the group - she inexplicably kills herself. The others, Patti (Lili Taylor), Angela (Bruklin Harris), and Emma (Anna Grace), try to cope with her death and, consequently, confront their own lives and where it may lead them. In a perfectly written scene, the threesome argue and then begin to really talk about themselves after discovering that Nikki was raped in the past. Why can't they talk to each other about what they are going through? Their problems? Their fears? And, more importantly, why couldn't Nikki?

After enduring a moment of truth, the triad become a posse, and they stake out any man who walks in their path. They nearly destroy a hotshot macho guy's car by skewering it with keys and breaking the windows with cement blocks - the scene is both exhilarating and frighteningly funny because it shows how far teenage girls will go to get even. To demonstrate their good deed, they write about it in the girls' bathroom.

It is easy to dismiss "Girls Town" in how it negates macho male stereotypes and shows them as nothing more than abusive, rotten rapists. The movie's special trick is that it doesn't sermonize or preach about how young women are treated today, it skimps over it and blatantly avoids making a socially relevant issue out of it. The beauty of the film is that not all the males are abusive - there is a park cleaner (Michael Imperioli) who makes lewd comments towards Patti, but then he is sweet to her and apologizes.

"Girls Town" is raw, funny and brilliantly alive with some harrowing scenes of rage balanced with wonderfully observant moments of truth and humor. A courageous, low-budget film shot in ten days in New Jersey, it benefits greatly from an inspired, bold performance by Lili Taylor as Patti, and the appealing Anna Grace and Bruklin Harris as Emma and Angela, respectively. You won't look at inner-city teenage girls the same way again.

He Needs Me

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I have not cared for any of the Adam Sandler films I have seen. They would include "Happy Gilmore," "The Waterboy" and "The Wedding Singer." All of them were box-office hits, not to mention "Big Daddy" and "Billy Madison." My feeling has always been that Sandler was an untalented, uncharismatic actor who could not make me laugh no matter how much he tried. I would occasionally flash a smile or a mild chuckle when he did anything besides beating people to a pulp with a golf club - perhaps, all he needed was the right guide. "Punch-Drunk Love" has finally provided the material that Adam Sandler may have needed to prove his comic worth.

Just the opening sequence alone dictates the unknowable fact that this is no average Adam Sandler flick. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a toilet plunger salesman sitting at his desk inside a giant warehouse, trying to get frequent flyer miles from Healthy Choice products. He hears something outside the warehouse door. He peeks out in the morning light, witnesses a car crash that is as unsettling as any car crash I have seen in recent memory, and out of the blue, a cab drops off a harmonium. Here we see the movie's frequent symbols of uneasy violence against an object of beauty and simplicity. In essence, both symbols correspond with Barry's behavioral impulses. You see Barry is something of a loner. He lives in a bland apartment, has several sisters who call him "gay boy," refuses to go on dates (usually set up by his sisters), has a tendency to smash things, lies then apologizes at the most inopportune times for lying, and basically wants to be left alone. Barry tries a phone sex service that ends up costing him more than he bargained for. He tries to run his business but gets sidetracked by Health Choice products and a sweetheart of a woman named Lena (the aptly cast Emily Watson). The whole movie gets inside Barry's head so that we shift with carefree abandon from one incident to the next, never knowing where Barry or the movie will end up. We know at least it will end up somewhere between a violent cathartis or some poignant note of beauty.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "Magnolia") crafts his most experimental feast yet, at a short 1 hour and forty minutes (for those who decried the 3 hour running time of "Magnolia"). He has created a canny comic nightmare from which Barry seems unable to escape from. Barry wants Lena and follows her to Hawaii on a business trip (using up his frequent flyer miles), but everything else is a distraction in his life. When Barry fidgets or feels he is being singled out, he smashes windows, bathrooms where he can barely remove a soap dispenser, and even people. The most fitting line in the film is when Barry professes his love for Lena by saying, "I want to smash your face with a sledgehammer." He doesn't mean it, but violent romantic witticisms are at the heart of his character. Violence, in a sense, is Barry's way of saying he needs help. Lena can calm his violent tendencies, and so can Barry's harmonium which he can hardly play.

Okay, so this is no ordinary Adam Sandler flick as you can well see. Yet I have not had such a good time at the movies since I can remember. "Punch-Drunk Love" is sort of a latter-day "After Hours" with the frenetic rhythms of "Run Lola Run" and a dose of Jacques Tati added to the mix. The result is romantic, strange, exceedingly funny, dramatic, and completely unpredictable (who else but P.T. Anderson could have thought of Shelley Duvall's song from the film "Popeye" "He Needs Me" as a soundtrack choice). There is no way to tell where this film is going, and Sandler's uncharacteristic mannerisms and nervous tics make the experience exhausting, frustrating and entertaining.

Sandler has done something he has not attempted before - his Barry is a character study of what drives his violent and lovey-dovey urges. In the past, we just expected Sandler to go nuts without much explanation. This time, director Anderson provides the basis and insight for the angry behavior. I believe "Punch-Drunk Love" will be considered the ultimate example of lonely, angry males in the new millenium who vent their frustrations by any means necessary.

A special note of mention is Emily Watson, one of the sweetest women in the movies today, with puppy dog eyes and a benign smile that made me a big fan of her work ever since "Breaking the Waves." Her role as Lena is thankless in theory, but it does provide the window of love for Barry that he desperately needs. I also need to mention Mary Lynn Rajskub as Barry's inquisitive sister (she was the cell phone voice who argues with Tom Cruise in "Magnolia," and played a blind woman in "Road Trip") who can't understand what Barry's problems are. One nervy, tensely funny sequence is when Barry's sister follows him from his office to outside the warehouse asking why he can't date Lena and why he keeps so much pudding in his office. She is ideally cast as his sister and sort of looks like Sandler.

There are so many surprises and hysterical sequences in "Punch-Drunk Love" that it would not be fair to dwell much further into the film's story. It is also a clever change-of-pace for Paul Thomas Anderson who continues to surprise me with every film. He is a director to watch out for in the future. And, I never thought I would say this, but Adam Sandler, with the right guide, may be the sparkling star to watch out for as well.