Sharks, baseball, family tragedy, and '80s thrills.
DEEP BLUE SEA (1999)
The 1999 release of Deep Blue Sea was an exciting event, because there hadn't been much in the way of shark thriller action on the big screen since the Jaws franchise was run aground by the end of the '80s. This was the comeback of killer shark movies - and thankfully, director Renny Harlin delivered an exciting movie that turned out to be one of the best shark movies to not be directed by Steven Spielberg.
Written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers (with uncredited contributions from John Zinman, Simon Barry, Michael Frost Beckner, and C.M. Talkington), this movie follows in the footsteps of "nature run amok" films like Tarantula, Island Claws, and Night of the Lepus, among many others, by having the horrific things that happen in the story be the result of scientific experiments that were conducted with good intentions. In this case, Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) and her associates have been experimenting on mako sharks in hopes that a protein harvested from the brains of the sharks will be able to reactivate human brain cells and cure degenerative brain diseases - a cause Susan is very passionate about, because her own father had Alzheimer's. Problem is, Susan and Dr. Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard) have taken the illegal step of using gene therapies to increase the size of the sharks' brains so they can harvest more protein from them.
The scientists quickly come to regret that decision. After one of the three makos they have in their possession gets loose from its pen - and retrieved by smuggler turned shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane), but not before it scares the hell out of some people partying at sea - Susan and company have to give a demonstration to convince their wealthy benefactor Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) not to pull their funding. Franklin is flown out to their labs at Aquatica, a place that was originally a submarine refueling station during World War II. The demonstration appears to be a success, but things fall apart when a mako bites one of Jim's arms off.
Harlin is known for putting explosions into his films, and not just action movies like Die Hard 2. Even in Nightmare on Elm Street 4 he had things exploding all over the screen. He indulged himself big time here, in a sequence where the medevac helicopter that's supposed to be taking Jim away to a hospital on the mainland ends up crashing into Aquatica. The resulting explosions are quite excessive, but also effective in trapping Franklin and the skeleton crew running the place in the halls and labs beneath the surface of the water... and now those areas of the structure are flooding. Letting in the ravenously hungry makos, who have increased intelligence to go with their larger brains.
From the moment Jim gets bitten 33 minutes in until the end credits have wrapped up 72 minutes later, Harlin and the screenwriters keep the action and the thrills coming at a steady pace. There is rarely a dull moment in Deep Blue Sea, and there are a lot of memorable moments. For example, a rousing monologue delivered by Franklin, which gets interrupted in an awesome way. A sequence in which cook Sherman "Preacher" Dudley (LL Cool J) - and his parrot - have to deal with a shark that has come into the flooded kitchen. Carter, Susan, Jan Higgins (Jacqueline McKenzie), and Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) climbing a ladder in a shaft where fire burns above them and water is flooding in below. And the way characters try to dispatch the three sharks that are relentlessly hunting them.
The effects required to bring the killer sharks to life in movies like this are always a challenge, but while there is some dodgy CGI to be seen along the way, there are some great effects in here, too. The animatronic makos built for some shots look incredible, and overall the effects are believable enough that I'm not taken out of the movie, I remain invested in watching the characters struggle to get out of this mess. The worst effects aren't the sharks, they're things like CGI fire and stormy waters.
I saw Deep Blue Sea on the big screen when it first came out. I was fifteen years old at the time, and still remember going to a theatre in Elkhart, Indiana with my mom to see this movie. I enjoyed it then, I continued to enjoy it when I got a DVD copy months later, and twenty-one years down the line I still find it to be a lot of fun to watch. Shark movies have been coming out non-stop since this movie reached theatres, most of them terrible, some of them good (like The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged), and I still count Deep Blue Sea as one of the best.
FOR LOVE OF THE GAME (1999)
For Love of the Game feels like an overlooked entry in the filmography of director Sam Raimi, a movie that got lost amidst his work in the horror, thriller, and superhero genres. This a more down-to-earth movie than most of the ones Raimi has directed, a mixture of sports drama and love story that allowed the filmmaker to delve into a game that he loves, baseball.
Written by Dana Stevens and based on a novel by Michael Shaara, For Love of the Game stars Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel, who has been pitching for the Detroit Tigers for nearly twenty years. Now forty, Chapel is dealing with a persistent pain in his throwing arm, and when we meet him he's dealt with back-to-back personal blows: not only have the Tigers been sold, with the news owners planning to trade him to the San Francisco Giants, but it looks like his tumultuous relationship with writer Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston) is about to come to an end, because she has taken a job in London.
As Jane goes off to the airport, Chapel has to pitch in a game against the New York Yankees. Scenes that show how the game progresses are intercut with flashbacks to major moments that occurred throughout his time with Jane. We're watching him figure out just how much he loves her and needs her, and at the same time we're watching him pitch what may be his final game in major league baseball - with his arm causing him trouble, there's a sense that he's going to retire rather than play for the Giants. And since his mind keeps drifting off to memories of Jane, it takes him a while to realize that this is shaping up to be a perfect game. Once he does realize that, will he back able to complete the perfect game?
This may not have required every moment of its 138 minute running time, but I did find it to be involving and heartwarming. I'm not into baseball, but I was into the game Chapel was playing, and I was invested enough in the romance side of things that I had a tear rolling down my cheek as the end credits started rolling.
Raimi's darker films and superhero adventures do mean more to me, but For Love of the Game is a good movie.
RELIC (2020)
Writer/director Natalie Erika James' feature debut Relic was inspired by the filmmaker's real life experience of losing her grandmother to Alzheimer's, and the sadness and darkness of this tragic loss permeates the finished film. This is not an easy or pleasant movie to sit through. That said, the heavy atmosphere is really the least challenging thing about Relic. A bigger challenge is that the film moves along at an achingly slow pace that may cause some viewers to feel restless and desperate to see something substantial happen. When something does happen, the film deals largely in metaphor, so it's difficult to understand exactly what is happening. The meaning of certain moments will surely go right over many heads. After watching the movie, I had to look up interviews with the director in hopes of finding answers. Now I know what certain aspects of the film represent, but I still don't know why these things actually happen to the characters. Yes, the condition and layout of the house the film is set in begins to reflect the mental state of a lead character, but why?
Relic centers on three generations of women; elderly Edna, her daughter Kay, and Kay's daughter Sam. When Edna goes missing for a few days, Kay and Sam go to her home and find the place empty. A search of the forest surrounding Edna's home turns up nothing - and then the woman just shows up at home, unable or unwilling to say where she's been. When Edna returns, she's different than Kay and Sam have ever seen her before; she has been becoming increasingly forgetful in her old age, but now it seems like she may have dementia. She also has extreme mood swings, so she could be a danger to herself and others. But does Edna have a medical condition, or is there something supernatural going on in her home? And if there is a supernatural force at work, does it have something to do with the mold that's growing throughout the house? Nightmares Kay has tie this mold to the story of her great-grandfather, who lived in a cabin on the property and is said to have lost his mind.
Edna, Kay, and Sam are played by Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer, and Bella Heathcote, respectively, and each of them did great work in this film. Nevin very effectively plays the two sides of the Edna character; the one who tugs at your heartstrings because she's an old woman whose mental state is declining, and the one who comes off as frightening because she seems capable of violence and may not even be Edna anymore. Kay seems a bit cold and distant at first, but Mortimer shows that the character has more depth of emotion as the story goes on. Sam is more outwardly caring from the start, and when the action kicks in toward the film's end, she's the one who carries us through the sequence that I found to be the most involving.
I am touched by the story behind Relic, the personal experiences that inspired James to craft the screenplay for this film with Christian White. I was impressed by the performances of the cast members, and appreciated the artistry that was on display in this film; James has definitely proven that she is a capable filmmaker, and I think it's going to be interesting to watch where her career goes from here. But when Relic was over, it was clear that this was not a movie for me. Not only was I baffled by what I had just watched and feeling the need to look up interviews, but for me the things that happened near the end were not worth the long, slow journey it took to get there. The movie feels much longer than its 89 minutes, and I didn't feel rewarded for sticking with it.
I was also put off by just how dark the film was, visually speaking. Sure, a horror movie should be dark, but this is up there with Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem as a film where the dark visuals were an impediment to the viewing experience. (Rest assured, this is the only way I would ever compare Relic to Requiem.) When a character has to use a flashlight to get through a room in the middle of the day, when the lights are already on in the house, they have a serious illumination issue to deal with.
I didn't enjoy Relic, but James got positive notices for it after the film was screened at Sundance and the movie was produced by Jake Gyllenhaal, with Captain America / Avengers filmmakers Anthony Russo and Joe Russo serving as executive producers, so in the big picture this movie is an incredible success story for a burgeoning filmmaker. I wanted to like it more than I did. Some modern slow burn horror has worked for me, but this one didn't.
The review of Relic originally appeared on ArrowintheHead.com
RUNNING HOT (1984)
Writer/director Mark Griffiths' 1984 thriller Running Hot is quite an odd movie, mainly because one of its two leads is a really strange character. That's Monica Carrico as Charlene Andrews, a 30-year-old sex worker who is introduced to viewers as she writes a romantic fan letter to Danny Hicks (Eric Stoltz), a 17-year-old boy who is jailed and on trial for killing his own father. Charlene is so obsessed with Danny that she even kisses her TV screen when he's shown on the news. She's sure they're meant to be together, and her belief that 13 is her lucky number plays into that: 30 minus 17 equals 13. She takes this as a sign.
Convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death, Danny makes a clumsy escape from the custody of Officer Trent (Stuart Margolin) while being transferred to prison and turns up at Charlene's door, seeking her help. Which causes some friction between her and her married, public figure sugar daddy Tom Bond (Richard Bradford, who had over 80 credits to his name but will always be Mr. Pyatt from The Legend of Billie Jean to me). Things don't go all that much better when Danny and Charlene seek shelter at the "massage parlor" she worked at, which is run by a sleazy fellow named Ross (Virgil Frye).
While they're on the run and always bumping into more trouble, Charlene - who is never brought down by anything bad that happens - does try to seduce Danny, who turns out to be a timid and troubled kid. He's not the cold-blooded murderer the prosecution made him out to be, nor is he quick to embark on the romance Charlene has been wishing for. The viewer does come to care for Danny and hope there will be a positive outcome for him, although the fact that Officer Trent is on his trail makes that seem unlikely.
One highlight of the film comes when Charlene and Danny are caught skinnydipping in a water hole on the property of a seasoned criminal played by Sorrells Pickard of Hardbodies. Pickard doesn't have a lot of screen time, but he makes quite an impression in the time he was given. I also enjoyed seeing Juliette Cummins, one of my favorite '80s scream queens, make an appearance as Danny's younger sister Jenny. I was left wishing Cummins had played a larger role in the film.
But through it all, the most fascinating thing about this movie is Carrico's performance. She brought a lot of energy to her odd, inappropriate character. This was Carrico's first of just two acting jobs and the only time she played a lead in a movie, and she certainly dove into it wholeheartedly. She thoroughly inhabited the role of Charlene and made me believe she really was that person.
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