Payback: Straight Up: The Directors Cut (2006)
In 1999, the original version of the film was released with Brian Helgeland listed as the director although he was fired and they ended up re-shooting about a third of the film with Mel Gibson and others leading the re-directed effort. The theatrical version also has Kris Kristofferson as the bad guy. Now, Helgeland gets the opportunity to release his version which is this one. And sometimes you should stop while you’re ahead. Helgeland had just won an Oscar for co-authoring the L.A. Confidential (1998) screenplay. This version is, simply put, awful. It’s incoherent, uneven and you just don’t care one way or the other. Plus, the dog dies. Really, he kills the dog off. For my money, you’re much better off renting the theatrical version. Good points about both versions? Gregg Henry who plays Val Resnick and is one of my favorite slimy character actors. One of my favorite Henry films is Slither (2006) where he plays Mayor Jack MacReady. Then there is Maria Bello. This is one of her first big films and we are all the better for it. She’s beautiful and she can act. Want proof? Check out The Cooler (2003) and A History of Violence (2005).
Forbidden Planet (1956)
This is considered the great-granddaddy of the big budget sci-fi films. It is one of the first science fiction films that was filmed with a real big movie budget. You get a real feel for that as the special effects for late 1950s are impressive. Plus, you have a big MGM star as a draw – Walter Pidgeon. Yes, the acting is stiff. Yes, the costumes are silly looking to us now. But there is a certain charm to this film because the concept is a good one plus we are introduced to Robby the Robot for the first time. Outside of Pidgeon, other actors include Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun (1988) and Airplane (1980) fame. You get the buxom MGM blonde with Anne Francis. For those of us who owned a Six Million Dollar Man action figure and lunchbox, we get Richard Anderson, who played Oscar Goldman to Lee Majors’ Steve Austin. And, last but not least, the ship’s doctor was played by Warren Stevens. Why is this important? Because any decent Trekkie would recognize Stevens as Rojan the Kelvin from the 1968 Star Trek episode, “By Any Other Name.”
Get Smart (2008)
I really like Steve Carrell. This is important for this movie. If you don’t like Steve Carrell, you will not like this movie. Based on an fairly innocuous and goofy television show, this PG-13 rated flick asks nothing from you. It is straight-up silliness from beginning to end. Does this mean the movie is a waste of time? No. I would classify this as a “doughnut” movie – it is entertaining but not filling. Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays Agent 23. Carrell is Agent 26 (the Don Adams role). Masi Oka and Nate Torrence are wasted as Bruce and Lloyd. Alan Arkin is The Chief and is playing exactly the same role he played in Mike Myers’ So I Married An Axe Murderer (1993) – a movie that, as far as I know, only my wife and I have ever seen and enjoy. I let my 11-year-old daughter watch this and shouldn’t have. It’s PG-13. It has a ton of sexual innuendo and sexual jokes, but I think it’s rated PG-13 mainly because this movie has a higher body count than one of the Die Hard films. People are shot. People are killed. People are blown up. For a film adaptation of a supposedly funny sit-com, it is over-the-top and unnecessarily violent.
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