We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
A World War II mission, The Walking Dead, and new Mickey Keating.
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961)
Before writing Where Eagles Dare, a World War II "men on a mission" movie about infiltrating a difficult-to-reach castle in the German Alps, author Alistair MacLean wrote the novel The Guns of Navarone, a World War II "men on a mission" movie about trying to destroy large, radio-controlled guns set up in a fortress at the top of a 400 foot cliff on the Greek island of Navarone. Stories about World War II soldiers trying to pull off seemingly impossible tasks in high-up locations really served MacLean well. Published in 1957, The Guns of Navarone got the movie treatment in 1961, with J. Lee Thompson directing from a screenplay by producer / The Bridge on the River Kwai writer Carl Foreman - and this movie was a big hit.
It's easy to see why. Although the movie has a running time of 156 minutes, it sets up the problem that needs to be dealt with right up front, with text on the screen: It's 1943, two thousand exhausted British soldiers are marooned on the island Kheros, and Germany is planning to attack the island. Those soldiers are going to be massacred if they can't be evacuated; but the only way to reach them requires passing Navarone. So a team is assembled for what is considered to be a suicide mission of destroying those guns on Navarone. The objective is very clear, and the men set out on their mission quickly enough, allowing for plenty of action and intrigue to play out over the course of the film.
Helping hold the viewer's attention even in the quieter moments is the fact that a solid cast was assembled to play interesting characters. Although this is an ensemble, at the center of it all is Captain Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck), a highly capable man who has had to make some very tough decisions; Colonel Andrea Stavrou (Anthony Quinn), a Greek soldier who blames Mallory for the death of his family, since they were killed by German soldiers after Mallory made one of those tough decisions; Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren), who is from Navarone and whose family is part of the local resistance; "Butcher" Brown (Stanley Baker), who is the knife expert, because from The Magnificent Seven to Young Guns it's always important to have a knife expert; Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), who gets wounded early on; and my favorite character aside from Mallory, Corporal Miller (David Niven), an explosives expert who was a chemistry teacher before he got pulled into the war.
The men have bad luck from the very beginning of this mission, which starts off with their fishing boat being stopped by a German patrol. Soon after that, a storm hits that causes them to wreck on the coast of Navarone. From there they deal with injuries, aerial assaults, traitorous locals, and the constant threat of being captured or killed by the German soldiers that are all over the place.
It's a simple set-up with a lot of complications. The story is told in a captivating manner, and there are moments of terrific acting between the bursts of action.
THE WALKING DEAD: SEASON FIVE (2014 - 2015)
As the eleventh and final season of The Walking Dead plays out on AMC, it's still drawing in respectable numbers. Each episode is watched by just under two million viewers, so it remains the most-watched scripted show on the network. But back in the day, its viewership numbers were astronomical compared to its cable contemporaries. It reached its peak when over seventeen million people tuned in to watch the season 5 premiere. And that is a great episode that sees Carol (Melissa McBride) confirming her status as a badass hero when she leads a one-woman assault on a compound where a group of cannibals have captured several of her associates. Backed up by a herd of zombies, she shows up to start wrecking the place just in time to save her buddy Glenn (Steven Yeun) from getting killed with a baseball bat to the head.
The exodus of viewers didn't really start until a couple seasons later, with fans saying there had been a decline in quality. But looking back, there are earlier stretches in the show where I find it surprising that so many viewers were still so captivated by it. The majority of season 5 is one of those stretches. After that great start, this season just drifts for a long time, like a zombie stumbling through the countryside. The group at the center of the show lost the prison they were using as a home in the middle of season 4. They spent the rest of that season wandering... and they keep wandering for most of season 5. They do have an objective, they're trying to get from Atlanta to Washington D.C. to find out if there's anything going on there, but still, most of the episodes are just them travelling with little or nothing interesting to really hold on to.
The cannibals are a threat for a few episodes beyond the season premiere. There's a really dull situation with the character Beth (Emily Kinney) getting stuck in Grady Memorial Hospital with an unethical doctor and corrupt cops. That gets us to the middle of the season. Then the second half of the season begins with one of my least favorite episodes in The Walking Dead history, What Happened and What's Going On. The episode that sees the exit of the character Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman). The fact that Tyreese is killed off isn't my problem with it. The problem is the fact that the people making the show felt that Tyreese was so important he deserved to have a whole episode dedicated to his demise. Things get trippy and artsy as he succumbs to a zombie bite, and I found it to be kind of mind-numbing. It's tough to sit through, and yet somehow 15.64 million viewers watched that episode. Almost 14 million of them have bailed on the show since. I have to say, by not watching any longer they have missed some episodes that are much better than ones they tuned in for during season 5.
As season 5 goes on, we find out that Eugene (Josh McDermitt), who claimed to be a scientist who could cure the zombie plague if only he could reach D.C., was lying. He made the story up just to earn the protection of former military man Abraham (Michael Cudlitz), because Eugene is an insufferable coward. The group meets Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), also an insufferable coward at this point, who let his congregation get torn apart. Characters come and go, the amount of survivors we're following rises and falls. Morgan Jones (Lennie James), who first encountered group leader Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in the first season but never joined his group, is shown to be following their trail. I remember there was great fan interest in seeing Morgan finally get with the group - so of course the show makes us wait for that. Morgan doesn't catch up with Rick until the end of the season finale.
By that time, season 5 has finally gotten interesting. The story livens up around episode 11 of the sixteen episode season, when Rick and his people find out about the walled-in community of Alexandria, Virginia. Led by former Ohio Congresswoman Deanna Monroe (Tovah Feldshuh), Alexandria seems like it has barely been touched by the zombie apocalypse. Behind its walls, the residents are carrying on like the world is still normal. Rick and the group like the idea of moving into this place, but they know the people of Alexandria are too weak to survive on their own for much longer. They butt up against the rules of the community, Rick and Deanna have differences of opinion. Some of the residents aren't very accepting of these rough-edged outsiders. While Rick's teenage son Carl (Chandler Riggs) finds kids his own age to hang out with, Rick gets caught up in the domestic drama of attractive mother Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her abusive husband Pete (Corey Brill). Rick's right hand man Daryl (Norman Reedus) is most out of place in this community, but he does find a good friend in resident Aaron (Ross Marquand). Meanwhile, the sword-wielding Michonne (Danai Gurira), who was not into the community of Woodbury at all back in season 3 - and for good reason - assimilates into Alexandria surprisingly well.
After the Terminus cannibals at the start and the crappy people at Grady Memorial Hospital, we also come to find out about a group of human villains that call themselves Wolves. They don't amount to much, but they cause some trouble. And they'll be back in the next season.
I described season 4 as meandering, and season 5 continues the trend. This isn't my least favorite season of The Walking Dead, but it's down there. In retrospect, it's difficult to understand why so many viewers were enthralled by the show through these seasons, but thought it lost something later. My least favorite season did come a few after this one, but that still wasn't enough for the show to lose me, and it got better after that. It got better after this season, too.
The following review originally appeared on ArrowintheHead.com
OFFSEASON (2021)
Writer/director Mickey Keating is building a fascinating career for himself, having made several original, low budget genre movies that have paired intriguing concepts with some terrific visuals. The latest addition to his filmography is Offseason, which is his best looking movie yet. But while the trailer seemed to indicate this would also be his biggest movie to date, the story is actually very small and contained – and if you’ve seen Keating’s previous movies, you already know what to expect from this one. If the other films on his résumé have been just what you were looking for, this one will be as well. If you found them lacking, you’ll feel the same about Offseason.
Although I follow Keating’s career and have watched everything he has made, I’m not always enamored with his movies as a whole. The core ideas are interesting, but the execution of these ideas aren’t always thrilling. Keating movies tend to be slow-burns that don’t have much happening in them - Ritual and Pod primarily consisted of people talking, Darling had a lot of one person wandering around in one location – and don’t have the most satisfying pay-offs. They tend to be rather short, which is a bonus, but several of them have lost me before the end of their short running times.
With a running time of 83 minutes, Offseason tells the story of Marie (Jocelin Donahue), who receives the distressing notification that her mother’s grave has been vandalized. Her mom was buried on a small island, a fact which is confusing to Marie to begin with because her mom had told her that this place was cursed; the early settlers had made a deal with a sea-dwelling demon. But when her mom died, her will specified that she be buried on the island. Now Marie has to go there with her less-than-ideal boyfriend George (Joe Swanberg) to see what’s going on with the grave.
This being a horror movie, we’ll come to find out that the “deal with a demon” story was true, and Marie will have a very bad and frightening experience on the island because of it. That’s a good set-up, but I found the way it all played out to be underwhelming. As soon as Marie gets onto the island – after the Bridge Man (Richard Brake) tries to turn her and George away because the island is “closed until spring” – we spend most of the movie watching Marie wander around different places on the island. These scenes are atmospheric and look great, but it’s still just someone wandering for minutes at a time.
Keating assembled a strong cast for the movie, with Marie’s late mother Ava being played in flashbacks by Melora Walters. Magnolia is one of my favorite movies because it manages to tear my heart apart every time I watch it, and a large part of that movie’s effectiveness is due to Walters’ performance as her character. She’s great in the moments she has in Offseason as well, my favorite moment being the opening scene where she monologues directly into the camera for a couple minutes.
Aside from the acting, the film’s greatest asset is the cinematography by Mac Fisken. Keating and Fisken basically got started out together, Fisken has shot every one of Keating’s movies, and he has always been able to capture some stunning imagery. Offseason looks great, the cinematography is worthy of a wide theatrical release. I was just left wishing there was more going on while we were looking at this imagery.
Offseason received a theatrical, digital, and On Demand release courtesy of RLJE Films on March 11th, but the more fitting release will be when it reaches the Shudder streaming service later in the year. There’s so much of Marie wandering around, this is a movie that works better as something you just click play on while browsing through a streaming service instead of something you go out of your way to watch.
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