Venomous (2001) – Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a “dangerous animals” flick directed by Fred Olen Ray (here using the name “Ed Raymond”):
- Treat Williams stars (and a bunch of people that you’ve probably seen before but never learned their names co-star — shout-out to Marc McClure!);
- shooting locations for “super-secret government lab” and “military office” aren’t exactly authentic, but you’re not supposed to notice;
- the hero is a small-town doctor, and his not-quite-divorced wife just happens to be the head of a military infectious diseases unit, and working together on the crisis will re-ignite their relationship;
- the military is, of course, evil;
- the plot is engineered so that explosions from some other movie can be repurposed (specifically Delta Force 2).
Because Ray is a consummate professional, it’s a competent DVD filler (actually, it’s more in the vein of a weekly cable-movie filler) which doesn’t lag and doesn’t demand.
I gotta say, though, movies about weaponized viruses that escape labs and prompt the military to effect a cover-up aren’t nearly so much fun to watch as they once were.
VFW (2019) – You can see exactly how this was pitched: A bunch of old soldiers drinking at the VFW vs. hordes of drug-addled junkies, like an old settlers vs. Indians movie. I’m happy to say that it lives up to the potential of that pitch. It’s a bunch of tough old actors playing tough old ‘Nam vets: Stephen Lang (67), William Sadler (69), Fred Williamson (81 — he’s the sole Korea vet), Martin Kove (73), David Patrick Kelly (68)… Heck, they’ve even got George Wendt (71), because if you’re going to have a movie about guys in bars… Plus one young serviceman who stopped for a drink on his way home from his tour of duty.
And there’s a magic to watching characters who have nothing to lose — not a one of them mentions any family — or anyone left to impress other than themselves. They may not necessarily be good people, but they’re true people.
Repeaters (2010) – “It’s like Groundhog Day, but it’s three people and it’s not a comedy.” Three twenty-somethings in a drug rehab program are shocked at the same time during a lightning storm and find that the next day was actually the same day again, as is the next, and the next. At first, all three do stupid things, because people in rehab institutions are not known for good choices, especially when there aren’t consequences… but two of them start to realize that even if nothing else in their day changes because of their actions, they change. The third one, however, goes off the deep end, using this endless string of consequence-free days to indulge all of his darkest urges of murder, rape, and general terrorization of all those around him.
It’s a good, thought-provoking movie, in a way that Groundhog Day sometimes isn’t because of the comedy; the counterpoint of the bad egg, who becomes a monster simply because he can, brings it into focus. If you never had to pay for any bad deeds or reap the reward for any good ones, who would you choose to be?
Abandoned movies:
The Curse of the Blind Dead (2020) – Utterly clueless attempt to add to the Spanish “Blind Dead” movie series from the ’70s. It’s in a stupid post-apocalyptic setting with a stupid cult; the Blind Dead themselves munch guts like standard zombies, dress like Sith Lords, and get POV shots (what part of “blind” escaped you???). There’s none of the sepulchral dread that was the main strength of the originals.
Armageddon Gospels (2019) – You want to bring ancient gods into the modern British countryside? Sure. You want to bring them as a statement against the “racist, bigoted” Brexit vote? Pass.
Eh, well, that’s what happens when fiction meets reality. In the Watchmen graphic novel, something a number of the minor characters and supplementary materials casually mention from time to time is how the existence of actual costumed heroes and then superheroes led to superhero stories falling out of favor with the readers and comic book publishers abandoning them for other genres (which ultimately led to stories about pirates being the most popular genre of comic book by the time the 1980s rolled around). While the government’s gratitude to the comic book publishers for having inspired people to put on capes and tights and fight crime shielded the industry from some of its more censorious critics (such as Fredric Wertham, whose crusade against comic books is implied to have been nipped in the bud), the foibles and failings of these same “heroes” in capes and tights (some of whom weren’t very heroic at all) took a lot of the fun out of reading about the likes of Batman and Superman.
Flash forward to the events of September 11, 2001, and I remember reading an article later that same year about how a handful of authors who happened to have written stories in which aircraft crashed into skyscrapers (intentionally or otherwise) had reacted to seeing some semblance of their stories occurring in real life. One of the authors lamented how in his story, he’d (otherwise pretty accurately) described all the media hoopla and public outcry that he’d expected would occur over hundreds of people losing their lives in such a terrorist kamikaze attack. I also remember the Dave Matthews Band’s song “Crash” being taken out of circulation on radio stations for a while, the box cover art for the video game Red Alert 2 (which originally featured the WTC towers as a backdrop for a Soviet invasion) undergoing some last-minute alterations, and Disney likewise re-doing some of its animation on Lilo & Stitch.
Now, of course, we’ve got loads of fiction about worldwide outbreaks to compare against an actual pandemic. Most of the fictional plagues were a lot deadlier, causing civilization to collapse because not enough people survived to run it; what I wonder is whether any of those made up stories anticipated anything like the more gradual (though still rather rapid and deadly) socioeconomic and political decay our civilization has suffered from this pandemic. About the closest I’ve seen any fiction come to anticipating the absurdities of our time would be Demolition Man‘s portrayal of a wussified future in which people are afraid to touch each other and an incompetent “evil Mr. Rogers” kind of guy (who even looks a little bit like Joe Biden) has somehow been put in charge of running things.
(Of course, if any more of that movie’s predictions come true, that means someone even worse will soon dispose of Biden and take his place. Here’s hoping it wasn’t too prescient…)
Not to mention the whole “Taco Bell” thing.
The plot of the Repeaters movie sounds great. Hard to believe I haven’t heard of anyone else having their time-loop trapped character turn into a violent psychopath.
Though the VFW movie also sounds like a pretty great premise (Vietnam vets taking on drug dealers), I have to wonder what the writers’ explanation is for the vets just not calling the cops.
Part of the premise with the new drug called “Hype” is that there are just some areas of the city that the cops don’t venture into at night for any reason, and the VFW sits in one of those areas. Also, shut up and play along.
Hey, at least they were aware enough to add an explanation. Come to think of it, due to certain defunding efforts in the past year, that explanation isn’t too outlandish.
I love David Patrick Kelley! It’s hard to believe he’s 68. OTOH he was one of the cast members who had aged the most visibly in the new season of “Twin Peaks,” with his huge white David Letterman beard.
*Kelly