Five Cool Things and Project Hail Mary

Hello, and welcome to another Five Cool Things, a bi-weekly article where yours truly discusses all the cool and interesting pop culture items I’ve consumed since the last time we talked. This week I’m talking about a classic British film, the beginning of Jon Pertwee’s reign as Doctor Who, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, a new Predator film, and the trailers for some groovy-looking upcoming films.

Let’s go.

Hobson’s Choice

Charles Laughton stars in this historical comedy as Henry Horatio Hobson, the proprietor of a successful boot shop in Victorian England. His wife died years ago, and his three grown daughters are constantly under his feet. One day, he decides they should marry. Well, not Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) for she is 30 and thus an old maid and not suitable for marriage (also, she essentially runs the shop, allowing him to spend his days drinking at the local pub). But when he realizes that he’d have to fork over a substantial amount of money as a marriage settlement to support his daughters, he declares that his children shall remain unmarried.

Buy Hobson’s Choice (Criterion Collection) DVD

This upsets the two younger daughters, for they are both in love with young men, and insults Maggie as she is perfectly capable of finding a husband if she wanted one. So she decides to get one. She looks no further than the shop’s bootmaker who works in the basement. Maggie is the type of headstrong woman who works so well in this type of comedy. She informs the bootmaker, Will Mossop (John Mills), that he shall court her and then soon marry her. When she learns he’s already seeing another woman, she marches him straight to the other woman’s house and has him break it off. Soon enough, she’s borrowed the money for them to run their bootshop, and they are off to the races, much to the chagrin of Hobson. You can place a sure bet that she’ll find a way for her sisters to marry and get their settlements before the film’s over. That would count as a spoiler if everyone who watches this film didn’t know how it would all turn out by the end of the first scene.

It loses a bit of steam in the second half and Laughton hams it up just a bit too much in a few scenes, but mostly, this is an utter delight. Laughton might get top billing, but Brena de Banzi is the star. She’s wonderful. She pushes the shy, unsure of himself, Will Mossop around like a rag doll, but it never feels too forceful or hurtful. She manipulates her father in the most hilarious ways, but always with a good heart. Both men’s reactions are priceless.

This is what I call a mother-in-law movie, in that my wife’s conservative, religious mom would find nothing to be offended by, but would immediately be won over by its charms, and it is something I can thoroughly enjoy as well.

Doctor Who: Spearhead From Space

The first story of the Seventh Season of the Classic Doctor Who era contained a whole lot of other firsts: It was the first story for Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, the first for Liz Shaw (Caroline John) as his companion, the first to be shot on in color, and it introduced us to the Nestene Consciousness (they would notable return in the first episode of the New Series, “Rose.”)

Buy Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space

It was also the first classic story to be released on Blu-ray (due to it being entirely shot on film – an anomaly coming from a strike which caused them to film entirely on location). You can read my full review of the Blu-ray. My thoughts have remained more or less the same. There is a lot of table setting in the first couple of episodes. It is all necessary as they need to establish the new Doctor, his companions (it is also the first story where Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart becomes a regular guest), and establish that the Time Lords have essentially grounded him on Earth for the time being (he’d stay more or less grounded for a couple of years, budget constraints and all that). That puts most of the action off until the last episode, but Pertwee eases into the role from the moment he appears on screen. I noted in that review that I’d only seen a couple of his stories at that point, but he was fast becoming a favorite. I’ve seen almost all of his stories now, and he remains one of my very favorite incarnations of the Doctor ever.

The Running Man

Stephen King, writing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, wrote The Running Man in 1982. It was adapted into a film in 1987 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto, and Maria Conchita Alonso. The film is not good. I was a big Schwarzenegger fan back then, and even teenaged me realized it was a bad movie. I watched it again yesterday, and while it does have some interesting ideas, they are all buried underneath a glossy sheen of 1980s excess and groan-inducing one-liners. I just started reading the book to see if maybe it did something more with those themes. I did all of this because Edgar Wright just dropped a trailer for his adaptation of the story. I’m a big fan of the director, so I’m really looking forward to what he can do with the material.

Buy The Running Man paperback

Predator: Killer of Killers

Speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger and 1980s excess, who would have guessed that the star’s big, dumb action flick would become such a long-running and successful franchise? Prey, released just three years ago, is probably my favorite of the Predator films. That film’s director, Dan Trachtenberg, co-directed (alongside Joshua Wassung) this animated anthology series.

Buy Predator: 4-Movie Collection Blu-ray

Much like Prey, which found a Predator landing on Earth deep in its past, each of the three short films that make up Killer of Killers has a Predator battling warriors from different eras. In “The Shield,” the Predator battles Vikings in 841 Scandinavia, in “The Sword,” it’s up against samurai in Feudal Japan, and in “The Bullet,” it does battle with an American WWII pilot. Our three heroes are then transported to an alien planet where they are commanded by some kind of King Predator to battle each other, with the winner fighting him to the death.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of anthology films as each story is never long enough to be fully fleshed out, and it was the same with this one. I liked the first two more than the third, and the final battle was quite a bit of fun. But what makes the film worth watching is its animation. The design of the different periods and the characters within them are unique and interesting. Each individual Predator is distinctive and well drawn. The action sequences are well-staged and look amazing. For that, I can definitely recommend it. I’m also really looking forward to Predator: Badlands, the next film in the franchise directed by Trachtenberg.

Smooth Talk

Few films have been so honest, so realistic about the coming of age of an American teenage girl. Laura Dern stars as 15-year-old Connie Wyatt, a tall, pretty, physically-mature-for-her-age teenager who loves the attention she receives from boys (and men) but isn’t at all sure of what to do about it. For most of the movie, it follows she and her friends as they go to the movies, hang out at the mall, and flirt with the boys at the local burger joint. She’s constantly at odds with her mother (Mary Kay Place). Her father (Levon Helm) is kind but distant.

Buy Smooth Talk (The Criterion Collection) Blu-ray

Like so many girls her age, she wants to be treated as an adult, but has no idea what that really means. There is a wonderful scene where the girls go to the mall, then change their clothes, put on makeup, do their hair, and transform themselves into something their mothers wouldn’t approve of, but will get all the attention from all the boys.

All of this is wonderfully drawn and emotionally felt. Then Arnold Friend (Treat Williams) shows up. All the other boys gave her plenty of attention, flirted with her, and sometimes even made out with her, but they were awkward and shy. Arnold is all bold confidence. He knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to tell her. There is a terrifying sequence toward the end where he shows up at her house and tells her that they are going to have sex. He’s careful not to cross the line. He doesn’t physically attack her; he doesn’t even enter her house. But he lingers. He makes menacing but vague threats. He tells her she’s going to come with her, that they are going to make love. She’s both scared and a little intrigued by the attention. I won’t spoil how it ends (and honestly, the film is rather vague about what happens), but as the father of a 14-year-old young woman, that scene is my nightmare, because it rings so incredibly true.

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir originally released his book, The Martian, in a serialized format on his blog. It became popular enough that fans demanded he release the entire book for the Kindle. He did so, and it immediately became a bestseller. Publishers came calling after that an audiobook was made, and eventually a physical copy followed. All became major sellers. Ridley Scott turned it into a movie in 2015, and it was a major hit. The book is good, and the movie is one of my favorites.

Buy Project Hail Mary: A Novel

Weir has written two other books since then, Artemis (pretty good) and Project Hail Mary (haven’t read it). The latter is soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. The trailer just dropped, and you can color me excited.