Tag: Disaster

DON’T LOOK UP – Review

(L to R) JENNIFER LAWRENCE as KATE DIBIASKY, LEONARDO DICAPRIO as DR. RANDALL MINDY, in DON’T LOOK UP. Photo credit: NIKO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX © 2021

What if the world did not respond the way it always does in every disaster movie to an impending doomsday invasion, meteor or – comet? What if the real world faced a giant “planet-killer” comet on a collision course with Earth? Would they come together to save the planet, like they always do in the movies? That is the question Oscar-winning director/writer Adam McKay (THE BIG SHORT) asks in his satiric comedy DON’T LOOK UP.

The comedy features a top-tier cast, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, an astronomy professor at a Midwestern university, whose graduate student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers the giant comet. When Dr. Mindy figures out the comet’s terrifying trajectory, a deadly collision course with Earth, the pair set out to alert the federal government about the threat. The cast includes Meryl Streep as President Orleans, Jonah Hill as her Chief of Staff/son, Cate Blanchett as the co-host of a TV talk show with Tyler Perry as her co-host, Mark Rylance as a quirky tech billionaire who seems to have Asperger’s, Ron Perlman as a gung-ho former military hero, plus Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande and more.

DON’T LOOK UP is humor in the vein of DR. STRANGELOVE with a side of IDIOCRACY and a modern media slant, but with a bigger cast of idiots and hence more potential for things to go wrong. This satire is an equal opportunity ridiculer, taking swipes at all targets with range, from inarticulate scientists who can’t make a dire situation clear, to politicians wanting to use impending disaster to improve their party’s chances in the mid-term elections, to media talkers more enamored with the “hot” scientist’s good looks than his heated message, to political forces just denying facts and urging people to “don’t look up.” In DR STRANGELOVE, at least they could agree on the problem (well, mostly). In DON’T LOOK UP, as the title implies, denial abounds.

There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this satiric comedy. Both DiCaprio and Lawrence are excellent as the alarmed scientists, increasingly frustrated that they message is not being taken seriously. The pair find a key ally in their effort to get something done to avert worldwide destruction in Rob Morgan’s Dr. Oglethorpe, a scientist at the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, a real NASA agency tasked with watching out for extra-terrestrial threats like this comet, as the film notes. Oglethorpe quickly arranges a meeting with the President for the two scientists, who are then sworn to secrecy and whisked away on a military transport jet to D.C. But once in the White House, they find themselves stuck waiting in a hallway, while President Orleans (Meryl Streep) deals with “more pressing” problems. After all, the comet isn’t going to hit the Earth for another six months.

Once the astronomers meet with the President and her Chief of Staff, (a very funny Jonah Hill), who also happens to be her son and occasionally slips up by calling her “mom,” things do not go well. Their “sky is falling” message is met with eye-rolling, and pressure to say the chance of a planet-killing direct hit by the enormous comet is less than the 100% the scientist insist on. The President’s focus is more on making the threat look less certain for PR reasons than finding a way to deflect the comet and avoid the planet’s destruction. No action is decided on, the White House will assess, and the scientists are instructed to keep their discovery secret in the meanwhile.

They don’t, thanks to the quick work by their ally Oglethorpe, who gets them on a morning talk show, The Daily Rip. But the happy-talk co-hosts, played marvelously by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry, are focused on finding the lighter side of this impending doom and on the good-looking professor. When Jennifer Lawrence’s the graduate student loses patience with them, her outburst does not play well on social media.

With the information revealed, the White House decides doing something about the comet might play well in the mid-term elections and the whole media/political circus gets rolling. Eventually, the President brings in a retired military hero, played by a blustering Ron Perlman, to head an mission to address the problem, and later a quirky tech billionaire, played with chilling style and the world’s whitest smile by Mark Rylance, who has another, profitable idea. Forces line up on either side of an “issue” that isn’t one.

Rylance’s performance is one of the stand-outs in this comedy, particularly in a tense scene with DiCaprio, where the astronomer tries to persuade the businessman to accept the input of expert scientists in finding a solution, only to be buried in a recital of the chillingly detailed personal information on the scientist that the ego-driven billionaire has collected on him, although it is irrelevant to the situation.

While the laugh-out-loud moments are plentiful, some might find its broad swipes on all sides too obvious, no matter how true they may be. The comedy draws parallels to some issues and takes aim at even more, and it is that broad focus that is a bit of a problem. While DR STRANGELOVE is focused on a single topic, nuclear war, DON’T LOOK UP can’t always maintain a single focus as it takes aim at host of problems that prevent the world coming together to solve a global threat. Bouncing from one example of self-destructive idiocy to another as it lands comic bombs, it diffuses its central focus. It is a flaw that makes this well-intentioned, talent-packed satire less the direct mocking hit it should be, despite its moments of gold and strong comic performances.

DON’T LOOK UP opens Friday, Dec. 10, in theaters, and debuts on Netflix on Dec. 25.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

REBUILDING PARADISE – Review

Looking back on the last few months, many (including yours truly, I’ll admit) have indulged in bouts of self-pity, perhaps even despair. “I can’t get a haircut”, “The movie theatres are closed”, “The store’s outta’ TP”, were often heard in conversation or on social media. But at least you could complain in the comfort of your home. What happens when that gets wiped out in minutes, or in this case, an entire town (comprised of long-time residents). This new documentary is not focused on faraway land ravaged by earthquakes or tsunamis. Yes, it’s set in the US of A, where parts of the country get battered by floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, along with some nasty tremors. For this film, the makers zero in the West where fire season looks to replace Fall or Winter for a look at an entire town almost wiped off the map. Oh, that filmmaker is an Oscar winner who’s been part of our pop culture for 60 years. He’s our eyes and ears as lots of determined everyday folks begin REBUILDING PARADISE.

It all ignites (literally) two years ago, early on November 8, 2018, as the fires begin seeping out from Feather Creek Canyon. Their destination: Paradise, California a rustic town of over 25,000 in the Sierra Nevada foothills just above the northeastern San Fernando Valley. Daylight quickly gave way to darkness as the black smoke blocked the sun with the flames providing the only illumination. We hear the police and rescue radios relaying the disaster’s progress. Officials dash into neighborhoods, warning residents to evacuate. Via many home videos (mainly cell phones) we’re riding with those fleeing, trying not to look back at engulfed homes, dodging the flames and downed powerlines, and clogging the roads and streets. Days later, when they’re allowed to return, the horrified (former) homeowners find smoldering vacant lots. And many learn the agonizing fate of missing loved ones. Eighty-five neighbors lost their lives in the inferno. The film then follows a diverse group of Paradise citizens. We meet “Woody” Cullerton who proudly proclaims that he’s the former “town drunk” who sobered and became a former mayor. Then there’s the orange-haired “whirlwind” Michelle John, the superintendent of schools who won’t rest until the students can return, but she’s got to set up temporary facilities and arrange for many to be added to nearby towns like Chico. A fixture at the high school is psychologist/counselor Cary Ingersoll who has to deal with her own trauma as she comforts the kids. For many sequences we’re riding alongside police officer Matt Gates in his squad car, serving his community even after the home he shared with his wife and two young sons was leveled. Along the way, we follow two high-schoolers whose senior year plans are scrapped, in addition to a young couple who debate whether to take their two toddlers and settle elsewhere. The doc plays out over time, showing us the town in a month, two months, six months, nine months, and year from that fateful Fall day.

And just who is the big-time director I mentioned above? Why it’s none other than Ron Howard, no stranger to feature-length documentaries although his previous works were set in the world of music makers (profiles of the Beatles, Pavoratti, and behind the scenes of a big music festival). His involvement might make you believe that this is a true-life BACKDRAFT follow-up, but it’s closer to his first big TV acting gig with Paradise not that far removed from Mayberry. After getting our pulses racing with the “middle of Hell’ opening (kudos to the editing team of M. Watanabe Milmore, and Gladys Murphy for stitching together a real “nail-biter’ with the “found footage”), Howard offers an engaging group of character studies, while showing the sorrow-filled return to “nothing”. He’s said in interviews that the strength of these folks is that they “show up”, which is illustrated with stirring footage of the town memorial ( a touching slideshow tribute to those lost), a restrained tree-lighting ceremony (could that be a relative of Charlie Brown’s tree), and several city council meetings. Aside from the fire, there is a “villain”, namely Pacific Gas and Electric, who, we’re told, did not shut down service at the start of the Camp Fire, and never really upgraded their ancient (1920s) equipment. And where’s there are PG&E troubles, who swoops in like a Marvel superhero? Yup, the “for real” Erin Brokovich speaks at another big town gathering imploring that they hold the utility giant’s “feet to the fire” (maybe she’s more like 007 taking down SPECTRE). This adds extra drama to another gathering in which a PG&E rep (guess he drew the short straw) speaks (and apologizes) at another “filled to the brim” meeting, which extolls the residents’ inspiring civility (no screaming and no big boiling pot of tar waiting for the rep). The big “stunners” occur in the final act as two of the main players are cruelly “blindsided” by fate (one is hit with a profound personal tragedy mere hours after their greatest professional triumph). And other than the earlier named utility, Howard points to other contributors, mainly the inaction on climate change, backed up by a tight montage of extreme events around the globe. All this is given big dramatic heft by the subtle haunting scores of Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe over the superb cinematography of Kelly A. Cook. In these trying times, many viewers should find inspiration from Howard’s ode to the heroes determined and dedicated to REBUILDING PARADISE.

3 Out of 4

REBUILDING PARADISE opens in select theatres on Friday 7/31 and is available as a Digital Download on several streaming apps and platforms.

THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM – The Review

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Three short years ago, a devastating earthquake shook Japan and a massive tsunami followed, wiping out all signs of civilization in its path. Lives were lost and property was destroyed. As with any natural disaster, the damage is immense and recovery is a long, slow and emotional process. THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, directed by the talented young non-fiction filmmaker Lucy Walker, chronicles the efforts by survivors of the tsunami to rebuild what was taken from them as it coincides with the beginning of the cherry blossom season.

The opening four minutes of THE TSUNAMI AND THE THE CHERRY BLOSSOM consists of one, continuous shot of the massive wave bulldozing over the land, moving in closer and closer to onlookers as they watch from atop a nearby high hill. This footage, presumably taken on someone’s camera phone, offers an unflinching depiction of the destruction, as well as an audio insight to the emotion and heartbreak of those most closely associated with the disaster and the pain it has produced. It’s a long, arduous four minutes to endure.

From here, Walker cuts to some beautiful close shots of cherry blossoms radiating in the sunlight, inter-cut with someone painting in watercolor. An extreme juxtaposition, to be sure, and a stunning metaphor for the subject of the film. Walker collaborated with Richard Melville Hall, better known as Moby, who wrote and performed the moving score for the film, which further enhances the film’s dichotomy of beauty and destruction. This becomes apparent as the film transitions from stories of death and loss into recovery efforts occurring at the start of cherry blossom season. In Japan, the cherry blossom (“sakura”) symbolizes the harbinger of spring. Rebirth ad renewal.

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THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM manages to capture a great deal within its limited 39-minute running time. As if the fickle force of nature had not created enough misery on its own, perhaps best depicted by one survivor’s account of some 70% of a nearby school’s students bodies found washed up miles away, the worst hit areas are also dangerously near the Fukashima nuclear power plant that was severely damaged by the earthquake, which caused the tsunami, which in turn led to radiated water leaking from the power plant. Not only must survivors struggle to rebuild and cope with loss, they must also deal with a locally annihilated economy and the potential for health issues caused by leaking radiation.

Walker brilliantly illustrates the wonderful hope and wisdom of the survivors, most vividly through their connection with a massive, sprawling cherry tree said to be over a thousand years old. We’re given a fascinating glimpse into the Japanese philosophy of life, spirit and our connection with nature. Perhaps it’s not the natural world that is changing, so much as our relationship with it and our ability to adapt and cope with its ever-changing moods. I found myself in awe of so many survivors interviewed for this film. Their strength and willingness to embrace these harsh realities with an openness to making the best of the worst is just mind-boggling.

The film, despite the spectacle of bigger than life events and the beauty of nature at its finest, never loses focus on its heart. The Japanese people and the amazing culture that so often seems so foreign to western life. The most heartbreaking moment in the film is a scene depicting so many lives lost, shots of closely spaced graves, each marked only with a plain wooden stake a sign and a number. The numbers grow into the hundreds as the camera pans and the film cuts from shot to shot, then into the thousands. Even with this, the survivors persist in conveying their sense of vitality and resilience in life. A truly beautiful story of humanity told masterfully by Lucy Walker in a beautifully shot and compassionate work of cinema.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The 39-minute documentary short released through iTunes on March 11th, 2014, the 3-year anniversary of the tragic natural disaster.

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Review: 2012

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I find it humorous, if not entirely premeditated, that what is perhaps the disaster movie of the grandest scale be released on this, Friday the 13th, 2009. For a movie that has so much riding on it’s success and so many people sitting on the fence, unsure of how it will do… for it to open on such a characteristically traditional day for neurotic fears of bad luck, well… it ballsy. Then again, I don’t believe in that kind of superstitious black cat and broken mirrors bad luck.

Apparently, neither do the filmmakers. It’s a good thing too, because if they had it may have manifested itself in the movie and turned out much worse that it did. I will admit, I was one of those fence-sitting skeptics, fearful that 2012 would end up being a disastrous disaster movie. I can say with a fair amount of satisfaction that this film holds up to the standards of the genre and is certainly not a disaster… I mean, in the non-geological sense.

2012 is the newest massive scale epic from director Roland Emmerich (INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE PATRIOT). Emmerich has a filmmaker’s hopeless infatuation with the special effects heavy, ginormous budget thrill rides that draw audiences for the pure thrill of the ride. This is the kind of movie he enjoys, so it’s the kind of movie he makes. And, for what it’s worth, Emmerich has mastered the art and craft (10,000 BC excluded) of creating expensive yet exhilarating adrenaline rides.

As is his style, Emmerich wastes no time immersing the audience immediately into the beef of 2012. That is to say, it takes no time flt for the audience to catch up to what’s going on and know that the sh*t’s about to hit the fan. The story centers on Curtis Jackson, or Jackson Curtis… I never really was able to figure out which was his first name. Anyway, the story centers on Jackson [as he is referred to most often in the film] played by everyone’s favorite every-man John Cusack (SAY ANYTHING, HIGH FIDELITY). I mean, really… no matter how bad the movie is, who doesn’t like John Cusack?

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Jackson is a failed writer who works as a limo driver for a wealthy Russian tycoon named Yuri (Zlatko Buric) while struggling to revive his writing. Jackson is divorced, dislikes his ex-wife Katie’s (Amanda Peet) new partner Gordon (Tom McCarthy) and is devastated by his son Noah’s ecstatic approval of his “new dad”. Jackson collects Noah and his daughter Lilly for a vacation of camping with dad in Yellowstone National park, only to discover something strange is happening.

With half of the story now within your grasp, we move on to discuss why 2012 is worth seeing. This initial scene in Yellowstone leads us to Woody Harrelson’s role as the enviro-nutty, conspiracy theorist Charlie Frost, who briefly meets Jackson and his kids after they stumble upon a very hush-hush, yet minimally guarded government secret. The scene is relatively short, but tuck that away in your back pocket as it comes in handy later on in the story.

Woody Harrelson, despite his mere three scenes, is hilarious. He’s 100% certifiably fruitcake, but not necessarily wrong. He divulges his theories regarding the pending doom of the human race via planetary disaster to Jackson, who only later realizes just in the nick of time that Whack-Job Frost was onto something. On the drop of a dime, Jackson rounds up his family and the real adventure begins as the Earth’s crust literally begins to crumble.

So, we’ve got some fairly big stars, including Danny Glover as the President of the United States, Thandie Newton (ROCKNROLLA) as the First Daughter and Chewitel Ejiofor (REDBELT) as the heroic scientist that sits in relative comfort doing the brainy work while Cusack’s Jackson is put through Hell just trying to keep his family alive. Oh yeah, and Oliver Platt as the enjoyably well-played a**hole politician/scientist Carl Anheuser. However, the true star of 2012 is none other than the special effects.

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2012 is rife with extraordinary depictions of destruction and chaos on the grandest scale. The movie features several lengthy scenes of geological carnage, high in detail and excitement. The film does one thing well, if nothing else, and that’s keeping the audience gripping the arms of their seats, nervously watching and wanting more. It’s a morbid sort of entertainment to watch this sort of thing, even if it is purely fictional. Planes, trains and automobiles (and more) all meet their demise along with their many human operators and unfortunate bystanders. Bridges, buildings, streets and landmarks… nothing is spared.

One thing I noticed very quickly as I was washed away into the cinematic calamity that is 2012, is that it’s a movie that really should be experienced in IMAX. I did not view this film in IMAX, but could clearly see the potential and wish I had. Even on the regular old digital cinema projection, the special effects popped and felt real and even slightly three-dimensional, but this was all effect built into the movie to enhance the thrill ride. Add the new D-BOX Motion Technology seats into the mix with the IMAX and 2012 would make one helluva frighteningly fun cinematic experience worth every penny, so long as character development and story is not your primary objective.

At a whopping 158 minutes in length, 2012 ran the very real risk of being too long, but instead holds up well. I can honestly say I never realized or noticed the length until after wards while sitting and watching the credits. The writing is par for the course in a film like this, fairly thin and uncomplicated. There are many “conveniences” taken in the science and plot holes do exist, but 2012 deserves it’s place amongst the other classic disaster films from the past.

2012 surpasses Emmerich’s previous disaster film THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW by way of both special effects and believability, but the ending is still the weakest link in this film. Whereas THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW was far too neat and tidy with it’s ending, trying far too hard to tie up all the loose ends, 2012 does a slightly better job of leaving the audience with at least a tiny bit of their imagination in tact, even if you leave the theater baffled by the though of Kevin Costner’s WATERWORLD stuck in your head.