Month: September 2021

Ladies and gentlemen, there’s some news that hit earlier this week that actually doesn’t involve any specific movie release or production.  No, this has to do with the IATSE union.  What is IATSE?  It stands for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.  It’s one of the most important unions in Hollywood, if not the most important.  Hollywood, as most people probably know is pretty much a union town.  It’s part of how the industry operates.  There’s a lot of contract negotiations going on between organizations, actors, directors, what have you.  IATSE is unique in that they represent nearly 150,000 members of the Hollywood crafts scene.  Let me get a little more specific.  When you watch a movie, what do you see on screen?  You see costumes, buildings, explosions, lighting, camera-movements and other stuff like that.  You can thank IATSE for all of that.  The people that IATSE represent and protect are film editors, sound and set designers, builders, electricians, costume designers, caterers, hair dressers, and make-up artists.  Essentially, these people are literally the nuts and bolts of the film industry.  Sure, you’ve got actors and directors who are important, and the unions that represent THEM are as equally important.  But without set builders and electricians and all these relatively unknown people, you’ve got nothing.  So, whenever you watch the end credits of a TV show or movie, look for this symbol at the very end.  It’s attached to nearly every production in the United States.

I bring that up to bring this up: Earlier this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter, members of IATSE have called for what is known as a “strike authorization.”  It’s not the same as a strike.  What this does is that it allows the union to go ahead with a strike if contract negotiations break down or reach an impasse.  This is happening because members of IATSE are returning to incredibly intensive schedules following the pandemic.  You have to understand that people who work in this industry work tough hours on a regular basis, averaging about 12 hours a days, sometimes up to twenty.  It’s a very demanding industry, and that’s why unions are important to help protect the workers.  The problem here is that film producers want more for less.  They want everything, but they’re not willing to pay for it, which puts the folks in IATSE in a bit of a bind.  The work conditions faced by these workers has been an issue for years, and the workers are sick of it.  I don’t blame them.  You’re working all these hours and you don’t get a lot of time to rest or see your family?  There’s something inherently wrong with the system and the workers are fighting back.  They should be.  It’s obvious that the winds are changing in the film industry with video-on-demand and streaming services.  It’s an evolving beast.  But the higher-ups at some of these places and studios don’t seem to understand that if you piss off the people that work for you, you’re not going to be able to provide a product for the masses, who in turn, will tear you to shreds.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that IATSE votes to strike.  What would happen?  Basically, Hollywood shuts down, and that’s not hyperbole.  Every US-based film and TV production would be brought to a standstill, even if the production is taking place in another country.  The movies that are already in the can and ready to be released, will be released on schedule, but any film that’s in any sort of production will come to a complete halt pending the outcome of these negotiations.  This is HUGE.  This potential strike has the possibility of changing work-place behaviors and standards to better accommodate the people that are working on these projects.  These people are incredibly important.  If you don’t have them, you don’t have a movie. It’s that simple.  What are the odds of IATSE actually striking?  There’s a very strong possibility that they will.  Now, will negotiations between other organizations come to an amicable conclusion to prevent a strike?  It’s another possibility.  The billion-dollar question has to be asked:  If IATSE strikes, will the strike succeed?  Honestly, I don’t know.  I’m no contract lawyer, and I have no idea what’s going on in those negotiations.  I’m just some dumb schmuck with a microphone and a keyboard.  Do I think they should strike?  Absolutely.  One of the biggest things about unions is their bargaining power.  IATSE is in the unique position of being one of the most powerful unions in Hollywood, while representing OTHER smaller unions under their umbrella.  The people that IATSE represent deserve fair wages and compensation for a hard day’s work, as do we all.  But they also deserve time off to rest and recuperate.  Changes HAVE to be made.

Be aware that the film industry is still feeling the effects of the writer’s strike back in 2007-2008.  Any strike from these unions has a lasting impact on the industry, which is why it’s important that you don’t piss them off.  Negotiate until the cows come home, but get it to the point where both sides are satisfied.  If IATSE votes to strike, you can pretty much bet hard money that most movies in production will have their release dates pushed back significantly.  It’s in everybody’s best interest to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible.  Again, this is not about actually striking, but rather a strike authorization.  To get a strike authorization, IATSE needs a majority of delegates from participating locals to vote in favor of authorization.  This is an incredibly fascinating situation and I’m going to be keeping my eyes on it and see what develops.  I’ll let you folks know if anything changes.

WARNING!!! DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS PARTICULAR LIST, A MAJOR SPOILER WARNING IS IN EFFECT.  IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW THESE MOVIES END, CLOSE THIS PAGE.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Every story that has ever been told throughout history has three distinct parts: A beginning, a middle, and an end.  As with all things in life, everything eventually has to come to an end.  It’s how we choose to end things that can make all the difference in the world.  When it comes to story-telling, ending a story is as important, if not more so, than beginning the story.  There are a couple of reasons for that.  If you end a story with something compelling and satisfying, then that story will be remembered.  Even if the rest of the story has problems, if you end the story the right way, that is what people will remember most.  It doesn’t matter if its a video-game, fictional novel, or a movie.  The ending is a very critical part of a story.  If it’s not handled right, the ending can ruin whatever that story was trying to go for in terms of entertainment and messaging.  In the world of movies, it is necessary to get endings right.  They don’t have to be happy endings, but they have to be satisfying and in line with the story that’s being told.  So, for this list, I’m going over the endings that I feel are excellent or outright garbage.  Let’s do this.

The Best: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

When Star Trek VI was released, it had been 25 years since the franchise began.  While The Next Generation series was at its prime at this point, the original crew of the USS Enterprise was not getting any younger, so it was decided that they needed one final movie as a send-off for Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, U’hura, Scotty, and Chekhov.  The allegory of the film to the collapse of the Soviet Union was not lost on audiences and critics, as the film would see the Klingon Empire begin to collapse after a disaster on their main energy production facility.  Not only would The Undiscovered Country reconcile Kirk’s hatred of Klingons(for the death of his only son), but it would also see the end of an era of hostility between Starfleet and the Klingons.  This is about as perfect a send-off as you can get for the original crew.  One of the last lines that Kirk says when asked where they should go: “Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.”  It’s an obvious Peter Pan reference, but it works, and the film ends with one final Captain’s Log detailing the last cruise of the Enterprise under Kirk’s command.  The credits roll with the original crew literally signing off.  It was a great ending to a 25-year journey with the original crew.

The Worst: The Matrix Revolutions

You know this one had to be on here.  Truthfully, I enjoyed this movie.  It’s visually spectacular and action-packed.  But the problem is the narrative flow is all sorts of fucked.  This was the Wachowskis trying to force philosophy into movies that really didn’t need it.  While it worked for the original film, the original movie was balanced out by interesting characters, unique story, and outstanding action.  It was a brilliant movie.  The sequels were nowhere near as good, because when the Wachowskis started focusing on all that prophecy mumbo-jumbo, they forgot what made the original film stand out.  Revolutions ends with both Neo and Trinity dying in very anti-climactic ways.  The ending to this movie is such a jumbled mess.  Even the final battle between Smith and Neo ended with a whimper.  While the film-makers claim that the ending of the film is up to the interpretation of the audience, all it really revealed was that the Wachowskis had no clue how to end Neo’s story, so they threw everything against the wall hoping that something would stick.  Watching the machines cart Neo’s body away was so heavily symbolic that it’s comical.  What a mess.  Hopefully Resurrections can explain this mess, but I’m not expecting anything.

The Best: Furious 7

The Fast and the Furious movies have never been high art.  They’ve always been adrenaline-fueled thrill rides.  Furious 7 hit an unfortunate snag when Paul Walker was killed in a tragic car accident while the movie was being filmed, so Paul never got to finish his scenes.  Because of that tragedy, the film-makers put the film on hiatus for about a year while they changed the story around and tried to figure out how to end Brian’s story that was both respectful and entertaining.  Furious 7 is my favorite of the franchise not just in terms of action and thrills, but in how the movie ended.  It ended with the crew on a beach with Brian and his family, then a montage follows and we see Brian driving off into the sunset.  Not only was the ending incredibly respectful of the actor and character, it was emotionally powerful.  In fact, I’m getting a little choked up writing this, because the franchise and the world would never be the same without Paul Walker, and the last two movies have proven that.  But the ending to Furious 7 was amazing, and is one of my favorite endings to any movie.

The Worst: Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker

This one hurts.  It really does.  I’m a huge fan of Star Wars.  I have been since I can remember.  I understand that capping a trilogy is a hard thing to do, with the third film in a trilogy being the final film.  But The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t just the final film in a trilogy, it was the end of an entire saga that spanned 40 years.  To quote Angry Joe: “They fucked it up.”  Now, it goes without saying that The Last Jedi was divisive as a Star Wars movie, but I absolutely appreciated what Rian Johnson was trying to go for.  He was trying to go against the expectations of what audiences wanted, and for the most part, he succeeded.  But because of the fan backlash, Disney lost their balls, and threw nearly everything that The Last Jedi was doing out the window.  Rian Johnson wanted the character of Rey to be a total nobody, and that would’ve worked, but nope.  Disney wanted her to come from somebody, and that somebody was Emperor Palpatine or Darth Sidious if you’re so inclined.  That was one of MANY bad decisions that robbed this final entry of any emotional or narrative impact.  And honestly, when Rey adopts the name of Skywalker as the movie closes, eyes were rolling.  Also, the film NEVER explained how Palpatine returned.  That was waved away when Poe said: “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”  If you’re going to pull that shit, you need to explain to the audience why and how he came back.  I enjoyed this movie as an action flick, but it completely fails as a Star Wars movie, and it nearly ruins the epic Skywalker saga.  For a lot of people, the story ended with The Return of the Jedi, and rightfully so.

The Best: Saw

I generally don’t like twist endings.  To me, the twist ending is a lazy way out of bad writing.  You can definitely see this with a large chunk of M. Night Shyamalan’s work.  However, as I have stated earlier, if it’s in tone with what the film is trying to accomplish, then it will be something for audiences to remember.  Saw has one of the best twist endings I’ve ever seen.  Yet, it doesn’t completely come out of nowhere.  The first Saw film was more of a psychological thriller rather than the gore-fest horror movie that the franchise would become.  It mostly takes place in a single location with two characters chained to opposite ends of what appears to be an abandoned restroom.  There’s a third and lifeless body on the floor.  What ensues is a cat-and-mouse game as the two character try to escape their situation, despite the answers literally being in the same room.  At the same time, there’s a detective story going on involving a “Jigsaw” serial killer.  The ending has the third body moving only for the audience and Leigh Wannell’s character to realize that this was the Jigsaw killer all along.  You didn’t see it coming, yet it makes perfect sense.  THIS is how you do a twist ending correctly.

The Worst: Independence Day Resurgence

Unless you know that your movie’s going to be successful, you don’t end a movie on a cliffhanger, unless you’re shooting movies back-to-back.  Independence Day Resurgence is a perfect example why you don’t do that.  It’s an alright action movie, but whatever good will that the 1996 movie put out was trashed by this one.  To be fair to Roland Emmerich, this wasn’t the sequel that he wanted to make.  Will Smith pulled out because of scheduling conflicts, but I get the distinct impression that he didn’t like the script.  As a result, re-writes were done and the results speak for themselves.  It’s a copy and paste movie with a much larger ship, but the film ends when an alien sphere gives Brent Spiner’s character information about interstellar travel and a planet of refugees.  The movie sets up for a sequel that we’re never going to get.  Honestly, this movie never should’ve happened in the first place.  The original movie from 1996 was awesome the way it was and it ended just fine.  One and done.  This one was a decade too late.  LAME!

The Best: Final Destination 5

I know I said I usually don’t like twist endings, so ending this post on a movie that has a twist ending is pretty ironic.  It has to be said, though.  The original film began with the explosion of Flight 180 en route to France, but a few passengers got off because one kid had a premonition about the plane exploding, setting off a chain of events that would eventually end with the deaths of everybody who got off the flight.  It’s a really awesome set-up for a horror movie and it works.  Even the sequels all have had something to offer, but it’s the fifth entry that is my personal favorite.  See, at the beginning of Final Destination 5, everybody assumed that it took place in 2011.  Well, two of the survivors of this movie board a plane to France when they witness a bunch of kids being yanked off the flight.  The camera then reveals the ticket of the main character: Flight 180 in the year 2000, when the original film came out and when that plane exploded in the movie.  Ending the film on the explosion of Flight 180 brings the entire franchise full circle in the best way possible.  The best thing is, there were signs throughout the movie that this was going to happen, but most people, myself included, didn’t pick up on them. For example?  The complete lack of smartphones and certain technologies.  These signs were hidden in plain sight.  This was one of the smartest entries in the franchise, and I loved every minute of it.  Yeah, it’s a bleak ending, but it’s entirely in line with what Final Destination is about.

Well, those were some of my favorite and least favorite endings.  I hope you enjoyed this list as much as I did making it.

Released: October 1999

Director: Louis Morneau

Rated PG-13(ignore the rating in the poster)

Run Time: 91 Minutes

Distributor: Destination Films

Genre: Horror

Cast:
Lou Diamond Phillips: Sheriff Emmitt Kimsey
Dina Meyer: Dr. Sheila Casper
Bob Gunton: Dr. Alexander McCabe
Leon: Jimmy Sands
Carlos Jacott: Dr. Tobe Hodge
David McConnell: Deputy Wesley Munn

Plot Synopsis:
Genetically mutated bats escape and it’s up to a bat expert and the local sheriff to stop them.

Released: May 2011

Director: Michael Goi

Run Time: 85 Minutes

Not Rated

Distributor: Anchor Bay/Lionsgate Studios

Genre: Horror

Cast:
Amber Perkins: Amy Herman
Rachel Quinn: Megan Stewart
Dean Waite: Josh

It’s often been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  Whatever your intentions are when creating something that can be of use to people, there tends to be a lot of suffering involved.  Technological advancements happen because of war, and medical advancements happen because some sick scientist conducted experiments on people.  The same thing happens when you’re making a movie, especially one that deals with real-life issues, whether it’s crime or social injustice.  If you want to make something compelling that will get people to notice and understand, there’s a line that you have to draw somewhere between exploitation and legitimate story-telling.  The problem is, is that when you make a movie that has a strong message, you run the risk of hitting the audience over the head with that message, and most people do NOT appreciate that.  That brings me to a little horror movie called Megan is Missing.

Megan is Missing is a found-footage movie that tells the story of teenage girls Amy Herman and Megan Stewart.  Megan disappears a few days after meeting a guy named Josh online and Amy disappears several weeks after.  That’s the crux of the story.  I’ll be honest, I really had no interest in seeing this.  I have no issues watching movies that deal with real-life crimes and situations.  Some of those films can be very compelling if handled correctly.  Michael Goi’s Megan is Missing was intended to be a wake-up call for teenagers and parents about the dangers of online dating, because you never knew if you were going to run into a predator.  I understand the intention the movie and what happened to Amy and Megan in the movie happens in real-life.  It’s a horrific crime that is every parents’ worst nightmare.  Utilizing the found-footage technique is not the worst idea.  In fact, it can be pretty effective.  The problem here, is that the movie is BORING.  It spends the first part of the movie trying to develop our main characters until Megan disappears.  Then we follow Amy for the following couple of weeks until SHE’S abducted.

In terms of characters, this is some of the worst characterization that I’ve seen in a long time.  Megan, as a character, is incredibly insufferable to the point where the audience can’t identify with her, even when she disappears.  Amy fares a little bit better, but to me, these two are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter.  The only character that feels like a real character is Josh, and we don’t even see his face.  All we hear is his voice.  Not only that, but there are these news segments that mess with the film’s overall tone.  I don’t think it’s intentional, but that’s how it comes across.  In fact, there is a segment in which Megan’s abduction is re-enacted, and it’s unintentionally hilarious.  That’s not to say that re-enactments can’t be helpful.  They can, but not like this.  As far as some of the film-making goes, the camera-work is fine.  There’s a surprising lack of shaky-cam considering that this is a found-footage movie.  In fact, a lot of the dialogue that’s given is done through webcams, which makes sense as to why there’s no shaking.  Shots are surprisingly decent and the cinematography is more competent than I was expecting.  Bravo.

Megan is Missing was released back in 2011 and most critics tore it to shreds for the weak characterizations and a finale that hopelessly brutal and bleak.  The movie DID have something going for it and that was the endorsement of one Marc Klaas.  For those who don’t remember, Marc’s daughter, Polly was abducted and murdered in October of 1993.  Because of that, Mr. Klaas would go on to create the Klaas Kids Foundation, an organization designed to help and locate children who were victims of abuse, assault, trafficking, and other crimes.  That lends some credibility to Megan is Missing.  The strange thing is, is that the film has found new legs because of some TikTok reaction videos to the film that went viral back in November of 2020.  It also started trending again on Twitter, so in some ways, the film is a success.  Not necessarily financially, but in terms of getting people to pay attention to the movie and the message that it’s trying to convey.  Those last 22 minutes though, are what really made this movie controversial.  Sexual assault is NEVER an easy thing to discuss in a film review, which is why I’m doing this review in written form instead of my podcast.  I want my thoughts on this movie to be perfectly clear, and the written form is the best way for me to do that.  I’ve seen a lot of movies where there is a sexual assault involved.  Some of them have been pretty graphic while others are obviously implied.  Do I think that Michael Goi could’ve made his point without the audience witnessing the brutal assault of a 14-year old minor?  Maybe, maybe not.  Most people have torn Mr. Goi to shreds because of the last 22 minutes of the film, and do I think he deserves that?  Not really.  His intent was not to pull punches on a serious and dangerous aspect of modern technology.

I think it goes without saying that Megan is Missing was not made to be enjoyed, but rather to warn teenagers and parents about the dangers of the Internet.  Did the movie really need to be so blunt about it?  Look, I normally have issues with movies that force messages down people’s throats, but this is one of those “message” movies where people need to understand the reality of these situations, and Michael Goi pulls no punches in that regard, and I have to applaud him for that, even if other aspects of the film fail to be compelling.  There is no mistaking Goi’s intent, but there were times throughout the film where I was questioning his methods.  Ultimately, I don’t think Megan is Missing is a very good movie.  But I do believe that it is an important one.  Movies based on real-life crimes are hard to pull off, and Megan is Missing doesn’t always hit its marks.  I’ll be the first one to admit that while I don’t normally appreciate movies with a heavy-handed message, this particular message is one that needs to be hammered home, especially rebellious teenagers.  The Internet can be a dark and scary place, and some of the worst scum can be found there, but sometimes a movie like this can provide ways to help avoid those dangers, but it’s also up to the parents to make sure that their kids are adequately protected and prepared.

It’s really surprising that a movie like this actually managed to get people to see it, even nearly a decade after it’s release.  I would argue that because of the renewed attention to the film, that Megan is Missing is finally getting a Blu-Ray release towards the end of October.  While I most likely won’t watch the movie again, I’m very curious about what that disc is including.  I want to get into the minds of the people behind this movie, so I will probably be getting this movie when it hits Blu-Ray.  Would I actually recommend the movie for anybody to watch, though?  That’s not really a question that I can answer.