Migration (4 Stars)

This is one of the rare cases where I prefer the German film title to the original title. The Germans call the film "Get out of the pond", which is appropriate. It's about the young ducks Dax and Gwen who live in a small pond somewhere in the north east of America. They spend all their lives swimming in circles in a pond that can't be bigger than 20 square meters. It's not much, but it's all they know, so they're happy with it.

One day a flock of Canadian ducks makes a brief stop in the pond. They say they're on their way to Jamaica. They migrate every year. Dax and Gwen want to travel with them, but their father forbids it. Their Uncle Dan accuses their father of being a coward, so he changes his mind. But the migrating flock has already left, so the family has to find their own way to Jamaica.

Effectively, the film is a road movie. Dax's family has no idea of the distance involved. When they stop in New York City, they think they're almost there. But they have enemies. A master cook has an exclusive restaurant where he prepares roast duck for wealthy guests. He catches the ducks, but when they escape he takes it personally and pursues them on their flight to Jamaica.

This is a delightful comedy. Unfortunately it was spoilt by technical problems. When I arrived in the cinema I was told that the film would be delayed by 15 minutes. That was okay, but after 25 minutes we were still waiting. The cinema kindly showed a short film to keep the children happy. "Migration" finally started 50 minutes late.

From what I've been told, cinema is in a slump at the moment. Things went bad after Corona, and it wasn't until "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" (collectively called "Barbenheimer") that there were big cinema audiences. The momentum continued for a few months, but "The Marvels" started a slump in which even good films are performing badly at the box office. "Migration" is a film that deserves to be a success. Cinema audiences are fickle. Let's see what happens.

Man on the Moon (5 Stars)

True Stories #30

Name: Andy Kaufman

Lived: 17 January 1949 – 16 May 1984

Film dates: 1955 to 1985 (a year after death), mostly 1971 to 1985

Film made in 1999

If you want a full review of this film, please check the post I wrote two years ago. Today I'll just add a few thoughts.

The film begins with the eccentricity that characterised Andy Kaufman. Jim Carrey walks onto a black screen and introduces the film.

"Hello. I am Andy, and I would like to thank you for coming to my movie. I wish it was better, you know, but it is so stupid! It's terrible! I do not even like it. All of the most important things in my life are changed around and mixed up for dramatic purposes. So, I decided to cut out all of the baloney! Now the movie is much shorter. In fact, this is the end of the movie. Thank you very much".

Then the final credits roll, while Jim stands and watches them. When they're finished the screen goes black for 14 seconds.

Jim cautiously peeks into the screen from the left, and addresses the audience again.

"Wow, you're still here! Okay! I hope you're not upset. I did that to get rid of those folks who just wouldn't understand me and don't even want to try. Actually, the movie is really great. It's just filled with colourful characters, like the one I just did and the one I'm doing now. And so the story begins".

The credits end at 3:40, so that means the rest of the film is an after credits sequence that lasts 109 minutes. This must be the longest ever after credits scene.

Jerry Lawler plays himself in the film. This is ironic, because he's acting out the events that he performed with the real Andy Kaufman 15 years previously. It must have been emotional for Jerry, because he used to be close friends with Andy.

Nobody but Andy Kaufman would have turned his own funeral into an entertainment show. After his death from cancer at 35, his body lay in an open coffin while a recently recorded video encouraged the people in the church to sing and be happy.

Before his death, Andy encouraged his closest friends to spread rumours that his death was a hoax. His friend Bob and his girlfriend Lynne wrote a book, "Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally", in which they claimed that Andy was in hiding and would return 30 years after his death. Sadly, he didn't return.

Success Rate:  - 1.1

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I'm happy that there's renewed interest in this magnificent film. I bought it on DVD in 2005, but the DVD has been out of print for years. Later this month it will finally be released on Blu-ray for the first time.

Mars Attacks (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #31

I just sat staring at the screen for the last half hour, and I can't think of a thing to write. It happens. I've saved 26 screenshots from the film to be used in my review, but I shan't use them now. I'll save them for use the next time I watch the film.

Here's an even better idea: I challenge my readers to write a review for this film. Write as short or as long a review as you want, and send it to me in the comments box. I'll publish your review using a selection of my screenshots.

Today I'll just use this one screenshot with Pam Grier. Maybe this beautiful picture is enough to make up for my attack of writer's block.

Tomorrow I'm finally going to get my first Coronavirus injection. Maybe that's what's put me off writing. I'll see how I feel tomorrow evening.

Success Rate:  - 0.6

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Man On The Moon (5 Stars)

This is a biopic about the life of Andy Kaufman, who lived from 17th January 1949 to 16th May 1984. He's considered by many to be greatest comedian of the 20th Century, even though he rejected the label "comedian".

I confess that I didn't know Andy Kaufman at the time the film was released, and I only bought the DVD because it starred Jim Carrey. I'd never even heard of Andy Kaufman. As far as I know, he was only ever popular in America. The DVD contained a few short videos of Andy Kaufman in the special features, and I watched various other performances on YouTube. After watching him I'm sure I would have been a fan if I'd known him during his lifetime. More accurately, I would have hated him at first because I didn't understand him, but he would have intrigued me enough to want to see more of him, and I would gradually have grown into a big fan. Somehow I think that's what Andy would have wanted.

Andy Kaufman was an eccentric and an innovator. At the start of his career he was booed off stage by audiences that didn't get it. I would have been too polite to boo, but I wouldn't have got it either. He told jokes that weren't funny, and he kept repeating them until people were laughing at him, not the jokes. He wanted to be ridiculed. On the other hand, it was more important for him to be able to laugh at the audience than for the audience to laugh at him. For instance, in a television special he let the picture roll to make the viewers at home think their television set was faulty. That's a wicked joke.

He was fascinated by wrestling, in particular the play-acting aspect of professional wrestling. He wasn't strong enough to become a normal wrestler, so he decided that he would only fight against women. The fights were staged, unknown to the audiences, but he was so abusive to women in his pre-match speeches that he became the most hated man in America, and he loved it! Jerry Lawler challenged him in order to defend women and bring back respect to wrestling as a sport. They had several fights and public brawls. They seemed to hate one another, but it wasn't until 10 years after Andy's death that Jerry Lawler admitted they were good friends and had planned everything together.

When Andy was diagnosed with cancer, nobody believed him. Everyone thought it was a sick joke, especially since he'd already talked about staging his own death as a prank. His final joke was actually the opposite. Before he died he arranged for clues to be left that he was still alive. Or was he really still alive after faking his death? He didn't want anyone to know.

Enter Jim Carrey. This was the dream role for him, as someone who had always admired Andy Kaufman. He didn't just play the role, he became Andy Kaufman. He's always been a method actor, but in this case he pushed it to the limits. He refused to let others call him Jim while he was filming. Jerry Lawler appeared in the film, playing himself, and Jim Carrey continued an enmity with him off-screen. This was especially disturbing for Lynne Margulies, Andy's former girlfriend, who was on the film set as an adviser. She asked Jerry Lawler one evening, "Do you think he's really Andy?" That's freaky. But Jim took it one step further. Even after the film was completed, he continued to live as Andy Kaufman, leading the newspapers to speculate that he was having a mental breakdown.

Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman are kindred spirits. They're both insane, and they're both geniuses. Could anyone else have played Andy Kaufman? Impossible. This is Jim Carrey's film. It might not be his best film, but it's certainly his most personal film. He pours his whole being into the role.

I like Jim Carrey as an actor. I always have done. I forget what the first film is that I saw him in, probably "The Mask", and I've loved him ever since. But you know something? I think that if I ever met him and told him that I didn't like him, he wouldn't care. He'd probably laugh about it. Jim wants to have an effect on people, and he'd rather a person dislikes him than remain indifferent. Andy Kaufman revelled in being hated. I don't think Jim would go quite that far, but I don't think it would worry him. I'd like to meet Jim and tell him I hate him. He'd probably laugh at me. If he believes me, that is. I'm not a good actor, and he'd probably see through me immediately.

Jim Carrey. A great actor. A great man.

Success Rate:  - 1.1

Men In Black (5 Stars)

I've returned to this film after only six weeks, and I had to increase my rating. After I watched it today I asked myself, "What is less than perfect about this film?" and I couldn't give an answer.

Agents J and K are a perfect team. I don't mean that they're the perfect team to save the universe, although that's probably true. I mean they're the perfect team to entertain the viewer. The two bounce off one another with humorous intensity. K is disciplined and sad, while J is spontaneous and happy to do his job. Come to think of it, why does K come before J? Agent Z is the boss, so maybe the letters are assigned in reverse order.

The most hilarious scene is the interrogation of the dog. If I weren't aware of the level of computer technology today I'd be rushing to the post box to mail a letter complaining about cruelty to animals.

Now I need to watch the second and third films, finally, before the fourth film is released. So many films, so little time.

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Men In Black (4 Stars)

This is a film that I recently added to my rewatch list. I need to watch the first three Men In Black films before the fourth film is released next month. It's amazing that I've gone so long without watching the first two films. It's like I forgot they even existed. Yes, they're silly, but it's all good humour. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are the perfect buddy cops, totally unlike one another but perfectly complementing one another.

First the film introduces Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) on the Mexican border. Illegal aliens are being driven into the USA, but there's only one alien that K is interested in. It's Mikey, a visitor from another planet who's an undesirable citizen because he's been in jail.

Then we meet Agent J (Will Smith) before he becomes Agent J. James Darrell Edwards is invited to apply for membership of the Men In Black, a bureau that licenses, monitors and polices alien activity on the planet Earth. At any time there are about 1500 extraterrestrial beings on Earth, most of them in Lower Manhattan. After his initial scepticism he signs up.

Together the two agents have to prevent a galactic war after a member of the Arquillian royal family is assassinated. They have to retrieve something called "the galaxy".

The film is based on a Marvel Comics series, but only just. The comics were originally published by the Canadian company Aircel Comics. In 1988 Aircel was bought by Malibu Comics, who printed another Men In Black mini-series. In 1994 Malibu Comics were bought by Marvel. After only a few months Marvel cancelled all comics printed by Malibu, because Marvel was only interested in Malibu's advanced colouring technology, not the comics themselves. After the first Men In Black film was made the comic was revived.

A few days ago I was talking with a friend who reads my blog, and he asked me why I'm writing so many posts that aren't about films. My immediate reply was "Because I want to", but that was only because I didn't have an answer ready. My full reply, and I hope he's reading this, is that my blog is meant to give readers an insight into me and my raison d'être rather than being a pure film review site. I don't write emotionally neutral film reviews, I write about how the films affect me. Films are a big part of my life, so they're the main topic of this blog, but other things affect me as well. Marvel comics have always been a big influence on me, so they deserve to be part of my blog. For many years music was the biggest part of my life, now to a lesser extent, but it's still important enough that I should write something about it as well.

I'm making sure that I write more about films than I do about other topics. My Marvel Years posts are very time consuming, so it's doubtful that I'll be able to write more than two posts a week. My Klaus Schulze posts are shorter, so I could write about his music every day, but I don't want to flood my blog with music posts. I've actually written a few posts in advance, but I'm not posting them all at once. I'm spreading them out, about three posts a week maximum.

The music posts are a temporary subject. When I've finished writing about Klaus Schulze's albums, which will take me about a year, I doubt I'll write about any other artists. The Marvel posts are a different matter. When I started in January 2018 I thought I could write about all of Marvel's comics from 1961 to 1972 within one year. I underestimated the volume of the work. It's more realistic to schedule five years of Marvel comics per year, and I now intend to continue up to 1984, which means I'll be writing about Marvel for another four years, maybe longer.

My Marvel Years posts weren't very popular at first, based on the number of readers. Now they've become more noticed, and I usually have two or three of them in my ten most popular posts each day. I suspect that I have regular readers who wait for each new post. My Klaus Schulze posts are less popular, and none of them have entered my top ten popular posts list. Yet. I'll see how things progress.

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Austin Powers: Goldmember (4½ Stars)

There's been a two month delay, but I'm finally concluding my viewing of the Austin Powers Trilogy (which should only have lasted a week). I have a perfectly good reason for the delay: I forgot about the third film! I even put the Blu-ray box set back in the cellar last month because I thought I'd watched it all. No I hadn't. Yesterday I realised my mistake and ran down into the cellar in panic to get the box set back.

Don't worry, my cellar is well organised. I have five bookcases for my DVDs and Blu-rays, well sorted in alphabetical order. I found the Austin Powers Trilogy filed under A where it belonged.

My main intention of this post is to write about Verne Troyer, but I can't resist mentioning the Japanese twins Fook Mi and Fook Yu. Austin is admiring their rucksacks. I'm not so self-centred. I'd be looking somewhere else.

Now let's get back to Verne Troyer, or rather the character Mini-Me that he plays in the film. He was created by cloning Dr. Evil's DNA while he was frozen in suspended animation. This was a shock to Dr. Evil at first, but he soon accepted Mini-Me as a replacement for his son Scott who wasn't evil enough to take over the family business.

Mini-Me partook willingly in Dr. Evil's plans, even if it meant that he had to go to prison.

One of the advantages of being so small is that people don't notice Mini-Me sneaking up on them with a gun.

They really ought to make chairs in his size. And beds. And everything.

In this film Scott finally decides to become evil, so his father accepts him back. Poor Mini-Me feels rejected, so he changes sides. He becomes a British secret agent, which involves him dressing up to look like Austin Powers. Once a clone, always a clone.

Verne Troyer
January 1, 1969 – April 21, 2018

"Verne was the consummate professional and a beacon of positivity for those of us who had the honour of working with him. It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place. He will be greatly missed" (Mike Myers).

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Mars Attacks (5 Stars)

30 films to watch before you die, #17

This must be the only film ever made that's based on a set of trading cards. Only a director as eccentric as Tim Burton would tackle such a task. The end result is at the same time ridiculous and astounding. It's a big budget B-Movie. The cast looks like a list of all of Hollywood's biggest stars in 1996, when it was made.

On paper the film looks overly complex. There are so many different characters competing for screen time – the American president and his family, an ex-boxer and his family, a Las Vegas casino owner and his wife, an American soldier and his family, to name but a few – but somehow the film doesn't seem cluttered. Everything fits together so well. I'm sure that if there's a beginner's class for film makers Tim Burton broke all the rules when he made this film. It's difficult to say what makes the film so good, it just is.

The flying saucers from Mars even invaded the Warner Bros. logo!

Other examples of Tim Burton's cinematic madness – though not quite as mad as "Mars Attacks" – are

• Batman Returns (1992)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Sweeney Todd (2007)

Austin Powers: Goldmember (4½ Stars)

In 2002 Mike Myers made the third and final film in the Austin Powers trilogy. Once more it was a big box office success. The film ratchets up Mike Myers' involvement another notch. After playing two roles in the first film and three roles in the second film, he now plays a fourth role, the title character Goldmember, in addition to Austin Powers, Dr. Evil and Fat Bastard.

Apart from the James Bond films there are references to many other films. To name but a few, there's "Foxy Brown", "Singing in the Rain" and "Saturday Night Fever". Some of the jokes are repeated from the first two films, but Mike Myers is brave enough to use mostly new ideas in the third film. He experiments with different layers of reality. We see a film within a film, in which the inner film retells the events of the outer film. This leads to amusing cameos by Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. Supposedly Brad Pitt also appeared, but I must have blinked and missed him.

I might have given the film five stars if it hadn't been for the mole jokes which were repeated so often that they became annoying rather than funny.

I've heard rumours that now, 13 years later, a fourth Austin Powers film will be made. I hope the rumours aren't true. The trilogy came to an end so tidily, neatly tying up all the loose ends. I don't feel that there's anything left to say. I fear that a new film would flop and discredit this brilliant set of films. Let's wait and see.

Batman Returns (5 Stars)

This was the second film in yesterday evening's Tim Burton session. Fortunately my friends were more appreciative. I agree that it's a better film. It's as if Tim Burton was holding back in the first film, but in the sequel he allowed himself to go completely crazy. If the first film was camp, the second is super-camp. The villains are larger than life and twice as eccentric.

Michelle Pfeiffer is the sexiest Catwoman we've seen so far, on television or in film. Any man who doesn't feel a tingle when she hisses "Meow" must be dead from the waist down.

Mars Attacks (5 Stars)

Stan Lee does not appear in this film. But if he did he would have whupped all the Martians single-handed. Nuff said!

Batman Returns (5 Stars)

This is a brilliant film. The use of the dark colours, blue, grey and black, throughout the outdoors scenes of the film is excellent. I have nothing to add to what I said about the film here.

Writing about films more than once emphasises the fact that this blog is a film diary rather than a film review site. I list every film that I watch, as I watch it, so if I watch a film 20 times I'll list it 20 times. Sometimes I might have new insight about a film or be in the mood to write more. Other times, like here, I have almost nothing to add. I'll add a few alternative film posters that I found online.

As much as I loved Adam West as Batman, I think Michael Keaton was visually the best Batman actor ever. Somehow he just looked right. Unfortunately this poster isn't very flattering.

Michelle Pfeiffer was very beautiful as Catwoman, though not really busty enough for the role. At least the costume used in "Batman Returns" was loyal to the comics. Halle Berry's costume in the "Catwoman" film was laughable.

DannyDeVito was perfect as the Penguin. I can't think of any other actor who would have been better for the role.

Mars Attacks (5 Stars)

This is one of my favorite films. It's sheer brilliance from beginning to end, from the burning herd of cattle to Tom Jones singing with the birds. Tim Burton had a huge budget at his disposal, which he spent on an array of world class actors to make the most ambitious B-Movie of all time.

"Mars Attacks" started with a set of trading cards published in 1962. In 1984 the cards were reprinted. In 1994 the set was reprinted again with additional cards. A fan following was beginning to build up, so Tim Burton tackled the film in 1996. While he certainly had enough money for realistic special effects, he chose to stick to a B-Movie style throughout, for instance by giving the Martians weapons that looked like water pistols.

Despite being a deliberate spoof, the film stands head and shoulders above the other big alien invasion film made in the same year. "Independence Day" was intended to be serious, but ended up being a ridiculous farce.

Batman Returns (5 Stars)

This is one of the rare cases where a sequel is superior to the original film. While keeping a gothic background Tim Burton added a colourful counterpoint. Batman's seriousness stands in direct contrast to the camp playfulness of the Penguin.

But it's all about the masks. When Bruce and Selina don their masks they become someone else. Or maybe they become their true selves. At the mask ball they're the only ones without masks. They have to stand apart from the rest of the world.