Independence Day: Resurgence (3 Stars)

Disney Wednesday #26

This is a delayed sequel to "Independence Day", made 20 years after the original. I always have an aversion to delayed sequels. Sometimes they're good, mostly they aren't.

Actually, I'm no big fan of the original. I remember seeing it on television shortly after its release, but I had no inclination to buy it on DVD. I still remember the spectacular special effects created by Stuttgart's own Roland Emmerich, but I was annoyed by the concept of America saving the world and July 4th becoming the Independence Day for the whole world. For me as an Englishman that's an insult. I still think that American independence was a mistake. But it's all in the past. The Americans wanted independence, and now they have Donald Trump.

"Resurgence" is a far inferior film. The battle scenes are confused and difficult to follow. The first film was acceptable, but the sequel is unnecessary. At least it was a box office success.

I only watched it today because my grandson Oliver requested it. He watched it on television with his parents a few weeks ago, and he wanted to watch it again. I hope he'll have better taste as he gets older.

Success Rate:  + 0.4

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

God is a Bullet (3 Stars)

This is the tenth film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

It's supposedly based on a true story, but I haven't been able to find out which true events form the basis for the story.

Bob Highwater is a God fearing police detective in a small American town not far from the American border. His daughter is snatched while waiting for her mother outside a store. After weeks of investigation there are still no clues. Then Case Hardin offers her assistance. She says that she knows who's taken Bob's daughter, because it happened to her as well. There's a Satanic cult which kidnaps young girls, then gets them hooked on heroin so they can be used as child prostitutes. Case used to be a cult member, but she was allowed to leave. No reason is named. Maybe she was too old. The cult is always on the move, but Case can contact them through her old contacts.

The film has a lot of action, and it's an interesting story, but it's an ugly story that's often disturbing. It's also too long. It runs for 156 minutes, and it should have been an hour shorter. Particularly annoying is that after Bob's daughter is found the story doesn't end quickly, it rambles on from one wrap-up to the next. There are too many little endings.

It's not a film that I want to watch again.

Watcher (4½ Stars)

This is the 15th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

Francis moves from New York to Bucurest, Romania to work for an advertising agency. Francis can speak Romanian fluently because his parents are Romanian, but his wife Julia can only speak English. Francis works late hours, entertaining clients, so Julia feels isolated in a strange country. She notices that a man who lives opposite is always standing at his window watching her. He also follows her when she goes to the cinema or the supermarket. Or is it just a coincidence? Francis thinks she's being paranoid, but Julia feels that she's in danger, especially because there are news reports of a serial killer who's been decapitating women.

It's a chilling thriller with a plot that goes backwards and forwards but isn't spoilt by an artificial plot twist. Maika Monroe is impressive as Julia, cementing her position as the leading horror actress of the 2000's.

Greta (4 Stars)

I saw this film in the cinema two years ago. I've finally bought it on Blu-ray. It's a welcome addition to my collection.

Isabelle Huppert plays the title role as a Hungarian widow pretending to be French. There's something ironic in choosing her for the role, but she fits it perfectly. The film is considered to have been a box office failure, although I don't have the necessary data to add my usual Success Ratio. That's tragic, because it's a chilling thriller that deserves to be seen.

Isabelle Huppert was voted the best actress of the 21st Century by the New York Times. That's high praise indeed. She's known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. That certainly applies to her performance in "Greta", even though it's not apparent from the start.

The film is a tale of two women. Chloe Grace Moretz plays Frances McCullen, a young woman working in New York as a waitress. She finds a handbag in the subway on her way home. She finds the owner's name in the bag and decides to return it the next day, despite her flatmate's suggestion to keep the money and throw the bag away. She finds Greta Hideg living in a cute little house between the skyscrapers in Manhattan. I didn't know there were houses like that, but why not? It just takes one home owner to love his house and not be tempted by the high land prices in the city.

Greta is obviously a lonely old woman, so Frances befriends her. Once more, this is against the objections of Frances' flatmate, who finds the relationship weird. It continues until Frances finds a collection of identical handbags that Greta has been planting in the subway to attract people to her home. In the following weeks Greta stalks Frances. The police refuse to step in, so the situation escalates.

I've been fascinated by Chloe Grace Moretz ever since I first saw her in the 2010 film "Kick Ass". It's not about her looks. She has mousey features that make her ideal for playing plain looking characters. I'm not saying she's ugly. She just has a very average face that wouldn't stand out in a crowd. What impresses me about her is her acting ability. She's not included in the New York Times top actress list, but she ought to be. She's outstanding in whatever role she plays.

Compare her with Maika Monroe, who plays her flatmate Erica. She's a stunner. She has the sort of face that would make me turn round in the street for a second look and walk into a lamp post. She's also a good actress, though not an all-round talent like Chloe. Maika specialises in science fiction and horror films.

I've never understood the marketing decisions for film releases. In America and Germany "Greta" is available on Blu-ray, but in Britain it can only be bought on DVD. Weird. I thought the days of DVDs were numbered, at least as far as new releases are concerned.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

Greta (4 Stars)

This is a film that I had to see in the cinema. I consider Chloe Grace Moretz to be a terribly underrated actress. Some of her recent films have gone straight to video, some have received 0% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and even the films that make it into the cinema aren't successful at the box office. Tonight it looked like the streak was continuing. I bought my ticket at the cinema, and I was told that the film would be cancelled if nobody else wanted to see it. At 8:39 pm, one minute before the film was due to start, I was still standing in front of the locked door. Finally two elderly ladies turned up, and the door was opened. The film started a few minutes late, but at least it started.

Chloe Grace Moretz plays a young waitress called Frances who lives in New York. She finds a handbag in the subway, and because she's a decent person she brings it back to the person whose name and address are inside: Greta Hideg, an elderly widow who lives in Manhattan. They realise they have a lot in common. Greta lives alone, because her only daughter is living in France; Frances is grieving over the recent death of her mother. The friendship is based around a mother-daughter relationship, even though Frances tries to deny it. Frances' roommate Erica, played by the always wonderful Maika Monroe, finds her friendship with an older woman strange. We soon see that Frances and Erica have nothing in common, which is one of the reasons why Frances is so fast to accept Greta as a friend.

Just when things seem to be running naturally, Frances opens a cupboard in Greta's apartment and finds a row of identical handbags, each with a note of a woman's name and a telephone number. Greta has been luring women to her apartment. Frances doesn't wait to find out why. She breaks off the friendship immediately, but she can't escape from Greta. Wherever she goes, Greta follows her. The police don't offer much help, so Frances delves into Greta's secret.

This is a chilling psychological thriller. As Greta, Isabelle Huppert is beautiful but sinister. The three women in the main roles play off one another perfectly. Could this be Chloe Grace Moretz's return to success? Somehow I doubt it. The film is delightfully feminocentric, which makes it appeal to me, but most viewers will miss the presence of a strong male character.

The 5th Wave (3 Stars)

I watched "The 5th Wave" in the cinema last year and I wasn't very impressed. Click here to read my review. I didn't think I would watch it again, but when I was browsing the Blu-ray bargain bin in Saturn, Stuttgart's largest media store, I found a copy for 2.99 Euros, so why not buy it? It didn't escape me that the fact a relatively new film is being sold so cheap is a poor testament to its quality.

In the film an alien race invades the Earth. They want the planet for themselves, and humans are in the way, so their intention is total genocide. The first three attack waves are carried out before the invasion itself.

1. An electromagnetic pulse knocks out all of the world's electricity, destroying civilisation.

2. Manipulating Earth's gravity sends tidal waves that destroy Earth's cities.

3. A genetically modified bird flu kills most of the world's population.

After this the aliens themselves invade to kill any remaining humans. Unfortunately they can possess humans by living inside their bodies and controlling them, so it's impossible to recognise them. The aliens, when we finally meet them, are polite and well-spoken, so they can easily adapt to human society. They're not belligerent creatures, for them it's just business. It's practical Darwinism. They're superior to the human race, so they have the right to kill anyone or anything who gets in their way. They never say why they came to Earth, but we can assume that they just needed a planet they could colonise.

After the first three waves the population is divided into three groups: the army, the adult civilians and the children. I'm not sure where the age limit is that separates adults from children. Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays the lead character Cassie Sullivan, was 18 when the film was made, but she could pass for 15 or 16. She's lucky that she was considered a child. The army rounds up and slaughters the adults, because they think that aliens are hiding among them.

Maika Monroe was 22 when the film was made, but with a bit of imagination you can accept her as a teenager. Only just. The army recruits and trains the children as elite forces in the battle against the aliens. It's not voluntary, they're all drafted against their will, but they're persuaded that it's necessary to save mankind. Maika plays Ringer, a bad ass dedicated soldier. Cassie doesn't trust the soldiers and manages to escape.

Let's talk a bit about some of the film's details. The first attack is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). This has been a standard film trope for years. EMP's have been used in "View to a Kill" (1985), "Until the End of the World" (1991) and "The Matrix" (1999). Sometimes the electricity comes back after a while, sometimes it doesn't, depending on the film. People who watch films just assume that an EMP is something that stops electricity working, without asking any more questions. But what does an EMP really do?

An EMP can occur naturally (a lightning bolt) or be manufactured artificially (for instance, a side effect of an atomic bomb). The main result is a power surge. Where 20 Volts flowed previously 20,000 Volts or more flow for a short period of time. This is enough to destroy any unshielded electronic equipment permanently. Fires would break out. If the equipment is well shielded there might be a small disturbance, after which it would function again. I'm not a scientist, so I can't tell you too much about the subject. All I can say with any certainty is that the results of an EMP are erratic, not as clean as what we see in films. Some things would be destroyed permanently, some would cease to work temporarily, and some things wouldn't be affected at all.

But let's assume that the world's electricity is destroyed permanently, as in the film. That would be the greatest catastrophe that I could possibly imagine. For me personally it would be worse than the whole world exploding and killing everyone. If I had to live in a world without electricity I wouldn't know what to do. No computer. No Internet. No television. No recorded music. No telephone. I know that the human race lived for thousands of years without electricity, but I couldn't do it. I'm addicted to the comforts of electricity, and I'm sure many other people are as well. If I could no longer watch films and write my blog I would go insane. The television series "Revolution" (unfortunately cancelled after two seasons) deals with a world after electricity has suddenly, mysteriously stopped working. That's scary. Society might adapt. I personally couldn't adapt. I'm too old to learn how to live without electricity. It would destroy me.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de

It follows (4½ Stars)

I don't understand why I rated "It follows" so low the last time I watched it. It's true, sometimes films grow on me with repeated viewing, but my last rating was so low that I must have made a mistake. Maybe I was too tired to enjoy it when I was in the cinema. That's always a danger.

The film is amazing. The acting is so good by the young cast, especially Maika Monroe in the lead role. The film is made even more eerie by the very subtle use of background music.

Initially the film was meant to be released direct-to-video. It was shown in four cinemas and was so successful that it was decided to cancel the video release and show it in cinemas worldwide. Fans and critics alike loved it, which is rare in itself. Even I love it, the second time round.

Despite liking it so much I still think it would be good to see a Japanese remake.

Some of my regular readers might be wondering if I'll start writing this blog in German now that I live in Germany. Don't worry. That's the last thing I intend to do. I do speak German so well that it would be easy for me to write in German, but I won't do it, not even when I'm reviewing German films.

I've also been asked why I've added a link to a web site for Telugu and Sanskrit studies in my sidebar. The answer is simple. The site's author, Dr. Pandu Ranga Sharma, has put a link to my blog on his site, and I've received a lot of traffic from him. I'm returning the favour. If any of my readers have their own web site or blog, please add a link to my blog and I'll link back to you. Leave me a comment on one of my posts to let me know.

Labor Day (4½ Stars)

This is a beautiful film, despite the word "Labour" being spelt wrong in the title. When I was in Berlin studying Linguistics we were told by a professor not to be snobbish with alternate national spellings; we should accept the variations as equally valid. For years I followed the professor's advice in my naive belief that the American variations were the result of gradual change over the centuries. It's only in the last few years that I discovered that this wasn't the case. The American changes didn't happen slowly, they were the invention of one man, Noah Webster, who decided how words should be spelt in America. He was an American patriot, and he wanted American spelling to be superior to British spelling.

After publishing pamphlets with spelling recommendations for years, Noah Webster finally published "A Compendious Dictionary of the English Dictionary" in 1828. Later editions were renamed the "Merriam-Webster Dictionary". This book has done more to sabotage the English language than any other document in history. It's a work of evil by a twisted old man.

Apologists claim that Webster didn't invent his alternate spellings himself. I disagree with this. It's true that some people wrote "center" and "color" before he wrote his dictionary, but these were mistakes made by people of lesser intellect. Noah Webster stood up and told the under-educated Americans they should continue to spell words the wrong way. His anti-British sentiments led him to do damage from which the English language has never recovered.

The 5th Wave (3 Stars)

This film about an alien invasion is based on the first in a series of books by the science fiction author Rick Yancey. I've been told that the books are good. Unfortunately, the film offers nothing special. Not even the outstanding acting by Chloe Grace Moretz can rescue the film. The plot is jumbled and nonsensical, making me wonder what's so good about the books.

In the near future the Earth is visited by a giant spaceship which looks like it's a leftover prop from "Independence Day". It orbits the Earth for a few weeks without making contact. Then the attack begins in four waves.

1. An electromagnetic pulse disables all electricity on Earth.

2. Giant tidal waves destroy all coastal waves.

3. A modified bird flu kills most of mankind.

4. The human race is infiltrated by aliens controlling humans.

This is where the film starts. Cassie Sullivan is a resistance fighter. She doesn't know who to trust, because there's no way to distinguish the humans under alien control. Luckily the United States Army is still operative. They round up the civilians and take them to a camp where they'll be safe.

I can't say too much about the plot without giving away what happens. Suffice it to say that the film is a mess. I couldn't take it seriously.

Once more, Chloe Grace Moretz proves that she's an amazing actress, skilled beyond her years. She just needs to make sure she picks better films in future.

Maika Monroe looks almost unrecognisable with black hair. Click the picture to see her normal look. I'm glad that she is specialising in horror and sci-fi films, even if "The 5th Wave" isn't that impressive. She's rapidly becoming one of my favourite actresses.

The Guest (4 Stars)

Is the guest really here to help, as the poster says? If that were the case it would be a boring film. When he arrives it seems like he's come to help, but I'm sure that even viewers who didn't watch the trailer can guess that he isn't as benevolent as he pretends to be.

Maybe "pretends" is the wrong word. David Collins really is benevolent when he arrives at the Petersen household to give them a message from their dead son Caleb. He sees it as his duty to Caleb, his best friend in the armed forces, to look after the family. The trouble is that his main priority is self-preservation. When the teenage daughter Anna begins to find out his secrets he does whatever he can to prevent her succeeding.

Questions are left open in the film. It's obvious that this is deliberate, in order to prepare for a sequel, but the film wasn't successful enough to justify a sequel. That's a shame. Dan Stevens is marvellous as the mysterious guest, fully convincing whether he's being friendly or violent. His charm wins over both the family and the viewers.

An important part of the film is the soundtrack. From beginning to end it features amazing electronic music from the 1980's and 1990's, in particular songs by DAF and Front 242. It was difficult for me not to sit tapping my feet while I was watching the film.

It follows (3 Stars)

Jay is still a virgin. She finally has sex with her boyfriend Hugh in the back of his car. I suppose it has to be somewhere, but the back seat of a car? That's hardly a romantic setting for the first time. Afterwards Hugh warns her that she will now be followed by a creature which constantly changes its appearance. Previously it had followed Hugh, now it's following Jay, and the only way for her to lose it is for her to have sex with someone else, to pass it on. Only Jay and people who have previously carried the curse can see it. Jay doesn't believe Hugh until she sees a naked woman walking towards them. They escape by driving away. The creature doesn't run, it only walks at a steady pace, so by driving a distance Jay has time to rest while the monster catches up. Jay is also told that if she's killed the monster will go back to following Hugh, then the girl that Hugh had sex with, all the way back through the line to the beginning, whoever and whenever that was.

The film is certainly scary, as we see schoolgirl Jay (Maika Monroe) being followed by one person after another, sometimes male, sometimes female, sometimes old, sometimes young. It's always obvious from the creepy appearance that it's the thing. It's unmistakable. So what should Jay do? Should she have sex with a random man, or stand her ground and battle the creature?

I would gladly have volunteered to let Jay pass the curse on to me. No, I'm not just being my usual horny self. I have it all planned out. I could fly from Birmingham to Detroit, where the film is set, have sex with Jay, then take the next plane back to England. The creature would need months to reach me. In fact, if it's not able to cross the ocean it would never reach me at all. It's all perfectly logical.

Despite the scares and despite Maika Monroe's beauty, I found the film somewhat dissatisfying. There isn't enough of a story to it. It's like eating candy floss (which the Americans call cotton candy). It looks so enormous when you buy a portion, but as soon as you bite it it shrivels up to nothing in your mouth.

The thing that bothers me most about the film is the very fact that the creature changes its appearance so much. If the film had been made in Japan it would have been different. It would have been a creepy looking Japanese girl with long hair walking after Jay. I would have liked that more.

The Guest (4 Stars)

Sometimes a trailer doesn't do a film justice. I had seen "The Guest" advertised whenever I went to the cinema over the last few weeks, and I thought I knew what the film was about, but I was wrong. In particular, I didn't know what genre the film belonged to until I got to the last half hour of the film. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, so I'll restrict myself to a brief review.

Caleb Petersen was an American soldier who never returned from action in the Middle East. His family reveres him as a hero, and they try to get on with their life as best as they can. Two years later a stranger knocks on the door. David Collins tells Caleb's mother that he was her son's best friend, and that he was with him when he died. He's invited to stay overnight, but the family like him so much that they ask him to stay longer. David seems to be the film's guardian angel, protecting Caleb's parents and siblings from harm, for instance by beating up the boys who bully Caleb's younger brother in school.

Of course, we can guess that the mysterious guest isn't all he seems to be. He has a dark side, which leads Caleb's sister Anna to investigate him. This much was obvious from the trailer. However, the trailer makes the film seem like a psychological thriller, whereas it's really a horror film. That's the closest to a spoiler that I'll get.

It's obvious that the film's writer and director want to make a sequel. Things are mentioned but not explained, telling us that we have to wait for the next film to get answers. There are other typical markers of horror films preparing us for the sequel.

Maika Monroe is beautiful as Caleb's sister Anna. I hope to see a lot more of her in "The Guest 2". And "The Guest 3".....