February 24, 2008 - 10:28 pm - Posted by Administrator
The sequel to 1985’s Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return is a worthy–if somewhat thin–continuation to the story. To recap, our geriatrics from the original film discover the fountain of youth. They decide to accompany some aliens to their home planet of Antares where they’re promised eternal life. And in Cocoon: The Return… well, you know, they return. Damn, now that I’ve written that, it sounds ridiculous. Did I give this movie three stars?
Jack Gilford brings his supporting role of Bernie Lefkowitz two steps forward into a starring role, now a widower after the passing of his beloved Rose. Not surprisingly, he is still reluctant to embrace the fountain-of-youth lifestyle of his friends.
The primary story arc of Cocoon: The Return involves the rescue of a cocoon which has been recovered from the ocean by the St. Petersburg Oceanographic Institute. In reality this movie is more about the fragility of life, the importance of family, and having a healthy sense of adventure, all as experienced by Art [Don Ameche], Ben [Wilford Brimley], and Joe [Hume Cronyn] and their wives. Eventually when they begin to experience the aches and pains of being back on Earth, they are forced to make hard decisions–whether to return to Antares and live forever, or stay home on Earth and let nature run it’s course.
Steve Guttenberg and Tahnee Welch (daughter of Raquel) reprise their roles from the first movie, and a young Courteney Cox makes an appearance as Sara, a scientist. Overall, I would say it’s better than most sequels but not exactly must-watch material.
*** Three Stars ***
Posted in 1988, Alien Contact, Atlantis, Suspended Animation, Three Star Rating | No Comments »
February 24, 2008 - 8:31 pm - Posted by Administrator
1984 to 1985 was a very good time for Ron Howard as a Director. On the heels of mainstream success with 1984’s ‘Splash‘ starring Daryl Hannah and Tom Hanks, 1985’s Cocoon became Ron Howard’s first massive smash, catapulting him to new levels as a Director who could write his own ticket in Hollywood.
Cocoon is a science-fiction film of the family-oriented variety, straight out of the Spielberg/Lucas school of movie-making. It boasts an all-star cast including Wilford Brimley, Jessica Tandy, Don Ameche, Brian Dennehy, and that staple of 1980’s movies–Steve Guttenberg. Even MTV Movie Award Lifetime Achievement winner Clint Howard has a role in Cocoon.
A group of St. Petersburg retirees has been trespassing, swimming in the pool at the vacant estate next to their assisted-living center. When a group of out-of-towners rent the estate, they think their swimming days are over. But soon they begin sneaking into the swimming pool and sharing the waters with strange egg-like artifacts collected from the ocean via Jack Bonner’s [Guttenberg] boat. In short fashion, they begin to notice youthful, energizing side effects from their swimming parties. And thus they are drawn into an amazing adventure about aliens and the fountain of youth.
Much as the bleak science fiction movies of the seventies reflected apprehension about the times, Cocoon seems to mirror the optimism of the early eighties with it’s uplifting attitude and fun-for-all-generations angle. Hardcore science fiction fans will probably find it all too vanilla but I enjoy this movie in much the same way I enjoyed Back to the Future or E.T. the Extraterrestrial. If you can handle your movies about Aliens, Immortality, and Atlantis all wrapped up in a shuffleboard and geriatrics storyline, then Cocoon is highly recommended.
**** Four Stars ****
Posted in 1985, Alien Contact, Atlantis, Four Star Rating, Suspended Animation | No Comments »
January 9, 2008 - 10:20 pm - Posted by Administrator
OK, so I’m gonna admit right up front, I had about five beers and a couple of margaritas in me, and it was about one thirty in the morning before I finally sat down to watch Final one night. I think I DVR’ed it from the Independent Film Channel if I remember right. It’s possible that I don’t because of the beers and margaritas, but if you’ve been reading much of this blog, you probably already know I’m full of shit, so no point pretending I’m informed now.
Occasionally I take notes while I’m watching movies so I can refer to them later when I blog it. Here’s what I wrote for Final:
I don’t know if I can buy Denis Leary in this type of role.
What the hell is going on in this movie?
What the fuck?? Is that Jim Gaffigan?
Is something going to happen soon?
This is a science fiction movie without special effects!
After that my writing trails off on the page and ends in a stain that can only be the drool from where I fell asleep at about three am.
Here’s the deal. Final is one of those concepts that was borne out of a love for science fiction, minus the money to do it properly. Final is as low-budget as they come. Denis Leary is Bill, a man who wakes up in something that’s not quite a prison, but a little more than a hospital. We do not know exactly what Bill’s malady is, but we are treated to flashbacks from his life where he appears to be going through a very tough time. He’s the outcast of his family, he’s broken up with his fiancee, his father has died, and eventually he flashes back to his own apparent attempted suicide.
His therapist Ann (Hope Davis) is in charge of deciding whether he’s “recovering” or not. She begins work figuring out why he has delusions of being cryogenically frozen for four hundred years, and why he believes he will soon be executed. Just as you’re about to go, “OK, what the fuck??” and hit the stop button on the DVR, the story unfurls itself all at once and you find out that Bill hasn’t been frozen for four hundred years, but he is going to die soon.
The pacing in Final is terrible. Nothing seems to happen for the first half of the movie, then they reveal, like, ten plot points all at once, then there’s a long slow slide to the end. It’s like Denis Leary said “I’ve been frozen for four hundred years” and the doctors said “No you haven’t. Seriously.” Then as the movie viewer, you go “OK, whew. Cuz that would have been weird.” Then the Doctors say, “Instead you’ve been in a coma, your mom died, your girlfriend abandoned you to a science experiment and got remarried, we froze you, there was a terrible epidemic that ravaged the world, now we woke you up, but we have to kill you so we can save the world with your tissue cells because you were frozen before the pandemic burned into the human genome.” And all of that is revealed in less than five minutes. Nothing else happens. And the entire movie (except the brief flashbacks) happens in the hospital. Jim Gaffigan plays a hospital orderlie who hardly ever speaks.
But then maybe I was just drunk.
** Two Stars
Posted in Pandemic, Post-Apocalypse, Suspended Animation, The Future, Time Travel, Two Star Rating | No Comments »
December 15, 2007 - 3:13 am - Posted by Administrator
Imagine for a minute, Ellen Ripley, the baddest chick in the whole goddamn galaxy, played by… Meryl Streep?!?
It almost happened. Producers Gordon Carrol and David Giler were actually considering Streep for the part of Ripley. Luckily for movie fans, Streep passed on what she said was after all “only a horror film”. The Producers then settled on Sigourney Weaver.
In retrospect the choice seems clear. Lieutenant Ellen Ripley can only be portrayed by Sigourney. And the concept is simple. The Nostromo, a civilian mining vessel, has been contaminated by an unknown alien organism which grows exponentially over several days and has acid for blood. The Alien goes on a killing spree, striking from the shadows.
Many have called Alien a gothic horror film first, and a science fiction picture second. In this reviewer’s opinion, the fact that it’s both is what amazes. Without sacrificing anything, Director Ridley Scott entrances with realistic sets, special effects, and story detail that paint a rich picture of the Weyland-Yutani space mining industry in the coming century, and simultaneously horrifies with glimpses of an H.R. Giger-designed alien terror never before realized onscreen. Alien has consistently ranked in the top five of hundreds of Halloween scary movie lists.
An oustanding supporting cast including John Hurt as Kane (whose death scene is one of the great horror moments), Tom Skerritt as Dallas, Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, and Yaphet Kotto as Parker, are all stalked to their deaths by the increasingly menacing alien. Soon, Ripley and the Nostromo’s cat Jonesy find themselves the only survivors, and they’re forced to flee for their lives.
Alien has become a cultural phenomenon, spawning five sequels to date. It influenced a whole generation of science fiction movies to come, including Outland (1981), and Predator (1987). And oh yeah, it won an Oscar. It’s good.
Turn up the surround sound, turn off the lights, and watch. I wish I could get that feeling again.
***** Five Stars
Posted in 1979, Alien Contact, Alien Invasion, Artificial Intelligence, Five Star Rating, Suspended Animation, The Future | No Comments »
The sequel to 1985’s Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return is a worthy–if somewhat thin–continuation to the story. To recap, our geriatrics from the original film discover the fountain of youth. They decide to accompany some aliens to their home planet of Antares where they’re promised eternal life. And in Cocoon: The Return… well, you know, they return. Damn, now that I’ve written that, it sounds ridiculous. Did I give this movie three stars?
