Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Watching HBO as a kid in the ‘70s, I was exposed to (and traumatized by) some scary movie trailers – Carrie and It’s Alive immediately come to mind.

But the first full-length film I saw on HBO to completely scare the hell out of me (aside from Jaws) was the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I mean, even the poster freaked me out. So when I saw the DVD for $5 at Music for a Song (right next to The Late Show), I brought it home to see if it still had the same effect on me as a grown-up, 30 years later.

Plot: Pod people, man. Pod people. From space.

Our visitors first arrive as innocuous, pickable little flowers covering other plant life. After Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) – assistant to health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) – brings one home, it wastes no time “getting” her husband (Art Hindle) in his sleep. From there, Matthew and Elizabeth steadily notice (through phone complaints to their office and observing people on the street) that people aren’t themselves.

After Matthew’s married friends (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright) discover a half-developed pod person in her mud spa, they call over Matthew and Elizabeth, and begin a quest for help – which, after realizing the pod people are increasingly taking over, becomes a quest for survival.

Director Philip Kaufman makes good use of long shots down hallways and shadowy lighting from all angles (backlit, side lit, from below) to create an atmosphere of isolation, paranoia, and the unknown. By the second half of the film, your own paranoia of who’s who bubbles to the surface, and it’s hard to shake (John Carpenter mined the same shade of paranoia in his remake of The Thing four years later).

The special effects in Invasion are, without exaggeration, the stuff of nightmares. Seeing and hearing pod people hatch, especially in an extended sequence near the end, is completely unnerving. (The film has impressive FX for its time.) And the squealing screams of the pod people, when they identify someone who’s still human, are even more nightmare-inducing than the creatures’ whispers from Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. (Invasion’s sound FX were created by Hollywood veteran Ben Burtt, whose latest accomplishment was this year’s WALL•E.)

Kaufman also uses the screenplay by W.D. Richter as a blueprint to make Invasion a final sounding bell for the ‘70s. As a film of the “me decade,” it probably hit audiences hard watching the characters being turned into “one of them.” In another touch of the times, Leonard Nimoy appears as a best-selling, overbearing New Age psychiatrist, who tries to rationalize Elizabeth’s growing fear that her husband is not himself (literally).

And without giving anything away, this film has one of the best shocker endings ever. God bless the nihilism of ‘70s filmmaking.

So yes, Invasion of the Body Snatchers still has the power to creep me out after all these years. This 1978 version is widely regarded as the best of the remakes (even better than the 1956 original, some say). If you’re a fan of the sci-fi/horror genre, die-hard or casual, I would make it required viewing.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to see it?

If you have small kids, I don’t think they’d even know about this film…which is fine, because despite my high marks, I would keep it away from pre-teens. (See my aforementioned traumatization.) Beyond that age, just a heads-up that there are many intense sequences and several icky moments involving the pod people, plus some brief nudity near the end.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

As I say in my other reviews of horror films: If you have a FilmMother who digs the genre, by all means she should see this. Otherwise, I can’t say for sure. But it’s a great film to get her to grab your arm and hold you tight. ☺

OMG, my parents had those bedsheets!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
* Director: Philip Kaufman
* Screenwriter: W.D. Richter
* Stars: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, Art Hindle
* MPAA Rating: PG (intense scenes, adult language, alien sliminess and gore, brief nudity)


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Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, my mom told me how she was a young mother at home one evening with two small children (I would have been just shy of 5, and my little brother was about 8 months). My father was the town’s high school wrestling coach, and he was on the road at an away match.

So after my mom put my brother and me to bed that night – October 10, 1973, if the IMDb is correct – she sat down and watched the TV movie Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. And to have her tell it, it terrified her to the bone.

Plot:
Sally Farnham (Kim Darby) and her husband Alex (Jim Hutton) inherit an old mansion from Sally’s grandmother. Sally is determined to know why the fireplace is sealed up and its ash door bolted shut. In fact, handyman Mr. Harris (William Demarest) seems to know more about the fireplace than he’s letting on. Turns out it’s inhabited by small demon-like creatures determined to make Sally one of their own.

Critique:

Director John Newland does an effective job of making the tall, Victorian house as much of a character as the Furnhams and the creatures. (It even resembles a haunted house when shot from below or at night.) He also makes great use of the unseen, such as close-ups of bolts and doorknobs being turned from the other side, or shadows scurrying into corners.

The creatures are more odd-looking than scary; they resemble miniature gorillas with prunes for heads. But what they lack in visual scariness they make up for ten-fold with their voices. Their hissing, cackling, overlapping whispers will give you the shivers – especially when it’s their disembodied whispers playing over shots of darkened rooms in the house. Add the creepy, atmospheric score by Billy Goldenberg, and the audio of this movie packs just as much of a punch as the visual.

A few quibbles:
• Darby’s delivery of dialogue and her facial expressions are largely one-dimensional (ironically, she’s now an acting teacher)
• In scenes not involving the creatures, the film sometimes dips into melodrama, with overacting by everyone involved
• Sally’s good friend Joan (Barbara Anderson) is a little too quick to believe Sally’s story about little creatures living in the house

In the right atmosphere (nighttime, lights out, you’re alone) Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark definitely has the power to give you the creeps – and give you second thoughts about walking into a dark room before turning on the light.

Trivia (thx again, IMDb): The idea of the creatures coming out of the ash door came from the Spanish house that screenwriter Nigel McKeand was living in at the time. It had an old fireplace with a deep clean-out pit, bolted at the rear – and it was so deep, creepy, and dark, nobody ever wanted the job of cleaning it out.

Rating:

Will your kids want to watch it?

I don’t know how much interest kids of any age would have in a 35-year-old TV movie. But if you can convince them to give Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark a chance, I think most younger fans of scary movies would be glad they checked it out. I would probably draw the line at pre-teens or older for this film; despite it being a TV movie, it does have moments of terror, creepiness, and violence that could affect little minds.

Will your FilmMother like it?

As with any horror film, it again depends on your FilmMother’s taste for the genre. She could be freaked out by the film (like my actual mother), she might think it’s dated and silly, or she could have no interest whatsoever. It’s a tough call, one you’ll have to make yourself.

Photo courtesy of Kindertrauma

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
* Director: John Newland
* Screenwriter: Nigel McKeand
* Stars: Kim Darby, Jim Hutton, Barbara Anderson, William Demarest
* MPAA Rating: N/A

The Ruins (2008)

Despite the onslaught (pun intended) of horror films in theaters these days, most of them fall into one of two camps:

1. Lightweight, diluted PG-13 films with forgettable “stars” and been-there-done-that plots.
2. The ongoing McRemakes of great and not-so-great horror films of the past (Black Christmas, Prom Night, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.).

And unfortunately, both camps frequently share a common ground: Their films are awful. For a longtime horror fan like me, that hurts.

So it was with high hopes that I watched The Ruins, based on the novel by Scott Smith, who also penned the screenplay. (He also wrote the script from his novel A Simple Plan for director Sam Raimi’s highly underrated 1998 thriller.)


Plot: Two young American couples (Shawn Ashmore/Laura Ramsey and Jonathan Tucker/Jena Malone) vacationing in Mexico meet Mathias (Joe Anderson), a German tourist whose brother went on a dig at a set of Mayan ruins not on any tourist map. He asks the Americans if they want to tag along on his trip to the dig. They say yes and join Mathias and his Greek friend (Dimitri Baveas). When they reach the ruins, they are ambushed by angry locals, Dimitri is killed, and the surviving group is forced to the top of the Mayan temple, where they discover the fate of Mathias’ brother and encounter — well, let’s just call them “botanical horrors” so I don’t give away too much.

Director Carter Smith (no relation to Scott) does a superior job of creating an overpowering feeling of hopelessness among the trapped tourists — no one else knows where they are, no one can help them, and the locals at the base of the temple won’t let them leave. (Credit also goes to the young stars for taking the film above what could’ve been a “killer plants” B-movie of Scott Smith’s acclaimed novel.)

I was filled with so much dread, discomfort, and squirminess watching The Ruins that I lost my appetite during a lunchtime viewing. Speaking of which, I recommend not eating anything beyond popcorn while watching this film: There are several scenes that will get under your skin (and literally do get under the skin of the actors), and be prepared for a grisly double-amputation that’s not for the faint of heart.

Ultimately, The Ruins gave me hope for the horror film, because it did several things right: It had a unique story, it made me care for the well-developed characters, and (like The Mist) it’s a film that has stuck with me for days. It’s unflinching, unnerving, unrelenting, uneverything.

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to see it?

If you have kids who crave scary movies, they’ll probably want to see The Ruins. But while it is a well-done horror film, it’s got several scenes of intensity, gore, or both. (The DVD is unrated, so it includes scenes too extreme for it to be released with an R rating in theaters.)

Will your FilmMother like it?

Unless she’s a serious horror buff, I wouldn’t bet on it. I’ll say again: The Ruins is well-made, but I’ve got a strong stomach and even I got uncomfortable with some of the scenes. This is probably one to watch when everybody's in bed, and it’s just brave old you in the room.

The Ruins
* Director: Carter Smith
* Screenwriter: Scott Smith
* Stars: Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson
* MPAA Rating: Unrated (strong violence and gruesome images, language, some sexuality and nudity)


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Valiant (2005)

Friday, October 3, 2008
**********
7:00pm: I discuss the idea of doing Movie Night (DVD+popcorn = bonding) with my 5-year-old, provided he can get into his jammies quickly. The evening’s wide open: No dishes to do (ordered pizza), no baths needed…why not go for it?

Plot (stolen from the Internet Movie Database): Valiant tells the story of a lowly wood pigeon named Valiant, who overcomes his small size to become a hero in Great Britain's Royal Air Force Homing Pigeon Service during World War II. The RHPS advanced the Allied cause by flying vital messages about enemy movements across the English Channel, whilst evading brutal attacks by the enemy's Falcon Brigade.

8:03pm: Make popcorn, pour drinks, and go up to my bedroom to watch movie (FilmMother wants to catch up on her TiVo in the living room). Put two husband pillows against the bed’s headboard, sit back with our separate popcorn bowls and drinks.

8:08pm: Start movie.

8:19pm: Pause movie to see if 5-year-old understands what’s going on. Swears he does.

8:32pm: He lies down across my lap, his left cheek on my stomach. “You tired?” I ask. “No,” he says, “I just want to snuggle.”

8:42pm: I wonder how he can see the screen with his head at that angle. I crane my neck out and see he’s asleep. I gently sit him up to get a better grip to take him to bed. He springs to attention. “Is it over?” “No buddy, you fell asleep.” “But I wanna watch more!” he protests as he reclines against his husband pillow.

8:43pm: He’s out again. And frankly, I’m beat too. I stop the movie and take him to his bed.

Note to self: Only do Movie Night on Saturdays; Fridays are too tough on both of us.

Rating: I (Incomplete).

Valiant
* Director: Gary Chapman
* Screenwriters: Jordan Katz, George Webster, George Melrod
* Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ricky Gervais, Tim Curry, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt, Olivia Williams
* MPAA Rating: G


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Iron Man (2008)

Ask any dad their favorite superheroes as a kid, and you’ll probably get stock answers: Batman, Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc. What you probably won’t hear often is Iron Man. We boy-men all remember him and how cool he looked, but in the pantheon of favorite superheroes, he probably falls somewhere between Ghost Rider and She-Hulk.

Still, there was a big buzz when it was announced there would be an Iron Man movie, though some of that buzz was concern about the players. Robert Downey, Jr., a superhero? Jon Favreau, the director of Swingers and Elf, at the helm?

Iron Man opens with playboy zillionaire, whiz-kid inventor, and military weapons industrialist Tony Stark (Downey) riding with a US Army unit in Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest weapon of mass blowing-crap-up. When his convoy is ambushed and he’s kidnapped (suffering a severe heart injury), he’s forced by his captors to build a weapon based on his own creation. Instead, he creates a power suit to save his life, escape, and help those who fall prey to oppression and terrorism.

Iron Man is, in a word, fun. It’s a straight-up popcorn movie that’s a welcome alternative to the broodiness and borderline sadism of The Dark Knight. Watching Stark’s trial-and-error construction of the Iron Man suit is very engrossing, and occasionally hilarious. And yes, I’ll admit, I did “nerd out” a bit when they showed Downey don the (albeit unpainted) Iron Man suit for the first time (goosebumps then layered on top of my nerdiness when the suit is shown in red and gold). And seeing Iron Man in action during several exciting sequences gave me the same exhilarating feeling as when I first saw Spiderman come to life in Sam Raimi’s 2002 film.

It may be too much to say that Robert Downey, Jr. was born for this role, but he was born to say the lines (the script is very witty and intricate without tripping over itself). Downey’s likable swagger makes him a perfect fit to play the self-confident yet flawed Stark. Terence Howard is game as Stark’s close friend Col. James Rhodes, Jeff Bridges is effectively shady (and nearly unrecognizable) as Stark’s business partner Obadiah Stane, and Gwyneth Paltrow serves her purpose as Stark’s assistant Pepper Potts (the adulation surrounding her as an amazing actress still dumbfounds me).

And for you true comic book nerds, keep watching after the credits for a little surprise…

FYI: Iron Man was released on DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday.

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to watch it?

If your kids are of a certain age, this could be a fun one to enjoy together. I say “of a certain age” because Iron Man is rated PG-13, though I wouldn’t call it as “hard” of a PG-13 as the aforementioned Dark Knight. This film does include mild language, superhero/villain mayhem, and some scary scenes involving baddie terrorists.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Doubtful. While Iron Man is a blast for dads and their kids (of a certain age) to watch, FilmMother will probably do at least two of the following: yawn, roll her eyes, or leave the room.

Iron Man
* Director: Jon Favreau
* Screenwriters: Matt Holloway, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum
* Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
* MPAA Rating: PG-13 (some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content)


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The Incredibles (2004)

October is just around the corner, as is Halloween…which made me think back to last year, when my wife and I dressed up our sons as Dash and Jack-Jack, two characters from Pixar’s The Incredibles. And the more I thought about the movie that inspired their costumes, the more I realized how amazing The Incredibles truly is (notice how I deliberately did not describe The Incredibles as “incredible”).

I don’t often gush about a movie, but The Incredibles is such a perfect film that I don’t know where to start praising it – so I’ll start with the plot (cribbed from Amazon.com):

Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible) and his wife Helen (Elastigirl) used to be among the world's greatest crime fighters, battling evil on a daily basis. Fifteen years later, they’ve been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they live "normal" lives with their kids Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top-secret assignment. But he soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.

The Incredibles succeeds in so many areas, but I’ll try to keep to the ones that impressed me most:
• A script by director Brad Bird that hits all the right notes for making a great film, live or animated: character development, believable dialogue, and sympathetic, relatable protagonists to name a few.
• Extended, heart-pounding action sequences, any of which could be the climax of a lesser action film.
• A love-to-hate villain in Syndrome (Jason Lee), whose origin I won’t disclose in case you haven’t seen the film yet.
• A great dissection of the family dynamic: Bird’s script effectively humanizes the superhumans in the Parr family, including Mr. Incredibles’ mid-life crisis, Elastigirl’s yearning for a functional family, and the sibling rivalry between Dash and Violet.

The Incredibles is a film whose brilliance is a growing revelation for the movie fan. After one viewing, you see that it’s great. But it’s only with repeated viewings that you realize how great. You recognize and appreciate something new about it each time you watch it.

Additional viewing from Brad Bird: By all means, watch his criminally overlooked 1999 film The Iron Giant. You can then follow it with his 2007 Oscar winner Ratatouille, featuring one of my favorite comedians ever, Patton Oswalt, as the voice of Remy the rat.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to watch it?

I would sure hope so. In fact, I would make it required viewing for all your children above a certain age. I say that because The Incredibles is rated PG for a few reasons: superhero fights, intense action sequences, some ominous-looking evil robots, and a couple of on-screen deaths via explosion (which may or may not sink in for the younger crowd).

Will your FilmMother like it?

Again, I would sure hope so. Even if she’s of the “I don’t like cartoons” mindset, sit her down and make her watch this film. I bet by the halfway point, you won’t even need to restrain her.

The Incredibles
* Director: Brad Bird
* Screenwriter: Brad Bird
* Stars: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Spencer Fox, Sarah Vowell, Elizabeth Peña
* MPAA Rating: PG (action violence)


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Sunshine (2007)

If I had to pick a favorite new actor of the last five years, it’d have to be Cillian Murphy (pronounced “Killian”). I’ve been a fan of his since the zombie flick 28 Days Later, he played a convincing baddie in Red Eye, and I can’t get enough of him in Batman Begins as the creepy, deranged Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka Scarecrow. So when my co-worker let me borrow his DVD of Sunshine starring Mr. Murphy, I hoped to see more of this gifted actor at work.

In the not-too-distant future of Sunshine, the sun is dying. (Yeah, that sun.) So an eight-member crew of the spaceship Icarus II has been tasked with flying extremely close to the sun and jump-starting the sun’s power with a detonation “payload.”

Why is their ship is called Icarus II, you ask? Because Icarus I failed the same mission seven years ago – lost in space, it seemed. But out of nowhere, Icarus II receives a distress signal from Icarus I, who not only has oxygen to spare but also still carries their “payload.”

The dilemma for Icarus II: Stay on course and complete their mission as planned, or save Icarus I's crew (if anyone’s even alive) and use their payload to double up Icarus II’s firepower? After a devastating accident kills Icarus II’s captain and depletes their oxygen supply, their decision is made for them: They must rendezvous with Icarus I. What they find (and what happens) once they board Icarus I puts their mission and their lives in jeopardy.

Sunshine is a potent combo of several genres: sci-fi, thriller, and drama. It moves at a methodical pace – just when you wish the story would move forward, it does. The most memorable and impactful scenes are also the most wrenching, usually involving the fate of one or more of Icarus II’s crew members. The film also does a commendable job of creating the same overpowering feelings of paranoia, isolation, and helplessness seen in 2001 and Alien.


So, did Murphy deliver for me like he’s done in the past? Yes, mostly. He’s done stronger work, but his performance here is solid and sympathetic. As part of an ensemble, he’s not supposed to stick out, and he doesn’t – for which he should be acknowledged.

On a side note: If you were planning to fly a spaceship really close to the sun, why in the world would you name it the Icarus – especially the way that story ended? Didn’t the music of Iron Maiden teach us anything?

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to watch it?

Based on the ads and DVD artwork, Sunshine looks like a tame space adventure about kick-starting the sun. But it’s rated R for good reason: There’s a fair share of adult language, several bloody stabbings, and a few graphic scenes of what overexposure to the sun’s heat and the cold of space can do to the human body.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Sunshine is a solid film experience that doesn’t disappoint, though it may depress at times. Whether your FilmMother will like Sunshine depends on if she’s open to being bummed a little by a movie. That being said, there are some strong performances, impressive special effects, and a larger, more earnest theme that overrides a few spots of sadness.

Sunshine
* Director: Danny Boyle
* Screenwriter: Alex Garland
* Stars: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis
* MPAA Rating: R (violent content, adult language)


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The Land Before Time (1988)

Well, this review was to have been for 2005’s Doogal, but instead our TiVo recorded Jim Carrey’s The Mask. Okay. Plan B: Raid the DVD cabinet for something my boy hasn’t watched in a while...

Which lead us to The Land Before Time. The movie, not for real. Though that would have rocked pretty hard.

The Land Before Time was “a George Lucas/Steven Spielberg presentation” and directed by Don Bluth, a longtime Disney animator whose non-Disney films (The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, All Dogs Go To Heaven) tend to lean more towards “serious” storylines versus fairy-tale, Disney-esque fables.

Plot: Kid brontosaurus Littlefoot (Gabriel Damon) is the last hope for his family’s (and his race’s) survival. Guided by the dying words of his mother (a T. Rex got the better of her) and separated from all adult dinosaurs due to an earth-splitting quake, Littlefoot takes his group of kid dino friends with him to seek out the “Great Valley,” which supposedly has enough plant life, water, and food to last for generations.

The Land Before Time takes itself very seriously for a G-rated kids film. There are little or no high jinks and few “cute” scenes. In fact, the film carries a solemn, dreary appearance and tone, punctuated by lots of perilous scenes featuring earthquakes, volcanoes, and a ferocious predator (the aforementioned T. Rex).

Not only that, the kid dinosaurs are more annoying than endearing – they’re as two-dimensional as their animation, with character development largely replaced with lots of “am-not / are-too” dialogue.

Of course, all this is Cynical Dad talking. My 5-year-old son (and dinosaur buff) seemed to enjoy the movie, not taking his eyes off the screen or asking me random questions in slow parts of the film.

Trivia:
• A haunting, angelic score permeates most of The Land Before Time, and it made me think of the sad parts of Titanic. Sure enough, the film’s score was done by Titanic’s James Horner.
• According to The Internet Movie Database, The Land Before Time has spawned 12 (count ‘em) direct-to-video sequels, plus two sing-along videos, two video games, and a short-lived TV series.

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to watch it?

Any pre-teen who’s into dinosaurs is probably aware of the Land Before Time series, and would want to see this movie. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how you’ll be able to dissuade them from wanting to watch this film. Maybe you can steer them to one of the sequels for a more rewarding experience…?

Toddler warning: Littlefoot and his gang are chased several times by an angrily drawn T. Rex, which may be too intense for wee ones. I asked my 5-year-old if the T. Rex was scary. His reply: “Sort of.”

Will your FilmMother like it?

I think mother and father alike will find The Land Before Time a bit of a drag to watch, in both its tone and lack of momentum – with a 69-minute running time, it sure seemed a lot longer.

The Land Before Time
* Director: Don Bluth
* Screenwriter: Stu Krieger
* Stars: Judith Barsi, Gabriel Damon, Bill Erwin, Pat Hingle, Candace Hutson, Will Ryan, Helen Shaver
* MPAA Rating: G


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The Late Show (1977)

For Father’s Day this year, my wife got me a quirky little memoir by Canadian film critic David Gilmour called The Film Club. He tells how he allowed his 15-year-old son to drop out of school, provided his son watched three movies a week with him.

In one passage, Gilmour says he’s hesitant to recommend movies to friends, because there’s always someone who didn’t enjoy his recommendation. That is, except, for The Late Show. Gilmour says he has never gotten a negative reaction from anybody he’s told about this film. So when I saw it on the discount shelf at Music for a Song while on vacation, I picked it up and checked it out.

For aging private inspector Ira Wells (Art Carney), the PI business ain’t what it used to be. Nothing but small-potato capers come his way; he’s a leftover from the golden age of gumshoes. But when an old colleague shows up dying (then dead) at his doorstep, Wells is determined to find out whodunit.

At his buddy’s funeral, he’s handed the case of ditzy Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin) and her missing cat. From there, it becomes a clash of his ’30s noir dialogue (“dames,” “dolls,” “grifts,” “fence,” “toots”) versus her ‘70s new age lingo (meditating, “vibrations,” “karma,” “grass,” “Pittsville”). Meanwhile, the case of the missing cat snowballs into two-bit thieves, “hot” merchandise, gunplay, a connection to his buddy’s murder, blackmail, and more murders.

If you put aside some of the rough stuff mentioned above, The Late Show is a nice, charming film. It’s actually the kind of late movie you would have seen on TV back in the day. But compared to today’s films, it plays little more than a glorified episode of The Rockford Files (ask your fathers, young dads).

In short: Recommending The Late Show to you (a la Mr. Gilmour) would be like asking you to try a mild new flavor of ice cream. You’d probably say thanks, try it, and never think about it again. That said, if you come across The Late Show, watch it – but I wouldn’t recommend seeking it out.

Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to watch it?

I can’t think of any reason they would, unless they’re an older kid and/or a film student.

Will your FilmMother like it?

Eh. It’s pleasant and mildly amusing, but it won’t stay with her after it’s over. Take from that what you will.

The Late Show
* Director: Robert Benton
* Screenwriter: Robert Benton
* Stars: Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, Joanna Cassidy, John Considine
* MPAA Rating: PG (adult language, violence)


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The Jungle Book (1967)

Whenever I re-visit older, classic Disney movies, I do it cautiously for two reasons:

1. The pacing doesn’t keep up with what kids are seeing in today’s Pixar/Dreamworks era, or even in Disney films made after The Little Mermaid.

2. The villains, and often their actions, can reach a level of scary that may leave its mark on young viewers. I mean, the evil queen’s transformation to witch in Snow White? Cruella De Vil’s desire to make a coat of 101 Dalmatian puppy skins?

So with some caution I sat down to watch Disney’s The Jungle Book with my 5-year-old – not only with concern of the scary factor, but also that I remembered it to be a bit slow.

Jungle Book in a nutshell: Abandoned baby Mowgli is raised to a boy in the jungle by a pack of wolves, until it’s decided that he must be taken to the “man village” before the return of Shere Khan, the ferocious tiger who will kill the boy before he becomes a man…and a hunter.

So Bagheera (Sebastian Cabot), the black panther who originally found Mowgli, takes the reluctant boy on a journey to the man village, along the way meeting the likes of Kaa the snake (Sterling Holloway), Baloo the bear (Phil Harris), and Louie (Louis Prima), the king of the monkeys.

The Jungle Book was better than I remembered. The personalities of Mowgli and the animals really come through (especially Disney regular Harris as Baloo), and there are several fun musical numbers including “The Bare Necessities” and “I Wanna Be Like You.”

There are some spots where the action and fun run cold. The scenes of the elephant infantry drag on, and scenes with Kaa were putting me to sleep much like the way he hypnotizes Mowgli so he can try to eat him.

All in all, my 5-year-old enjoyed The Jungle Book. It moved along pretty well (save for the spots mentioned above), and aside from some animal fighting at the film’s climax, nothing too scary. If you can, check out The Jungle Book’s 40th Anniversary Edition: digitally restored movie, games for the kids, plus a solid retrospective on the making of the film.

"Shere...Shere Khan...Shere Khan...Shere Khan, lemme rock ya, lemme rock ya, Shere Khan."

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5).

Will your kids want to see it?

It’s a Disney classic with fun characters and catchy songs, so I’ll go out on a limb and say yes. And if you haven’t caught up with The Jungle Book lately (or at all), treat yourself.

Will your FilmMother like it?

I don’t see why not, unless she’s running a Disney boycott blog or something. Fun story, fun songs…a Disney classic in every sense.

The Jungle Book
* Director: Wolfgang Reitherman
* Screenwriters: Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry, Bill Peet
* Stars: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway, Bruce Reitherman
* MPAA Rating: G


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