THE BOOGEYMAN : Tuesday 6th June 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE BOOGEYMAN' at my local multiplex this week and this American supernatural horror film is Directed by Rob Savage whose three previous feature film credits are 'Strings' in 2012, 'Host' in 2020 and 'Dashcam' in 2021. This film is based on the 1973 short story of the same name written by Stephen King and cost US$35M to produce, has so far grossed US$24M and has garnered mixed reviews from critics, having been released in the US and here in Australia last week.

Here then, high school student Sadie Harper (Sophie Thatcher) and her younger sister Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) are reeling from the recent death of their mother who died tragically in a car accident. Sawyer suffers from nightmares and seemingly has visions of a monster living in her closet, and Sadie is struggling to adapt back into school life where her friend Bethany (Madison Hu) has joined in with a new group of girls who treat Sadie with disdain, and offer up little sympathy over the recent passing of her mother. Neither of them are getting much support from their father Will (Chris Messina), a therapist who is dealing with his own pain. 

One day, Will is visited at his home therapy office by a man called Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian) who asks to speak to him. Lester is insistent and as Will has a spare hour in his diary he reluctantly agrees. He goes on to explain that his three children have died, all killed one by one by an entity that he thinks has now latched onto him. Lester was never accused of the crime of murder, but in the court of public opinion he is guilty of murdering them. Although sympathetic to Lester, a disbelieving Will leaves him alone to call the Police. Lester slips away into the house and when Sadie is alerted to a shuffling sound in her mothers home art studio she goes to investigate, only to find Lester's lifeless body hanging from a coat hook on the back of the door.

Attempting to get their lives back to some sense of normality following the death of Billings, Sadie notices a strange black mould beginning to form above her bed, while Sawyer one night is woken by a mysterious creature that has hidden under her bed. Sawyer tells Sadie, who searches her bedroom but cannot locate the creature and does not believe her sister. The girls later visit their therapist Dr. Weller (LisaGay Hamilton) to talk about their mother's death. Weller uses a red light which flashes intermittently to help Sawyer get over her fear of the dark, but Sawyer observes the creature again when the room is thrust into darkness and the light flashes red and wets herself in fright. In the house, the creature continues to stalk and terrorise Sawyer while Sadie also glimpses it and begins to suspect the strange phenomenon is somehow linked to Lester's apparent suicide.

Sadie listens to her fathers recording of Lester's appointment and goes online to acquaint herself with the Billings family history and learns of their address. Sadie has Bethany drive her out to the Billings' now heavily vandalised and seemingly abandoned house. Inside she comes across Rita (Marin Ireland), Lester's estranged wife, who still lives in the house. Rita identifies the creature as 'The Boogeyman', stating it as the source of her children's deaths. She further tells Sadie that the creature feeds off fear and enjoys toying with its prey and that it can also mimic voices. The only way to ward off the Boogeyman is light. While talking to Sadie, Rita seemingly observes the Boogeyman approaching Sadie from behind. She warns Sadie not to move and to remain perfectly still, as she shoots at it with a shotgun, resulting in a disturbed Sadie fleeing the house.

The black mould continues its spread around the house. Later Sadie is alerted to strange noises coming from her mothers art studio. She gingerly enters in, only for Will to appear carrying a box of his wife's belongings which he was about to discard. Will and Sadie attempt to talk about the death of Sadie's mother with her convincing Will not to clear out the studio. Sadie takes the box down to the basement and begins to go through the contents of it, and other boxes too, writing 'keep' on each box. Whilst there Sadie seemingly encounters the spirit of her mother, directing the flame of an old Zippo lighter. At school, Bethany comforts Sadie following the episode at the Billings house, and decides to organise a girl's night at Sadie's house to cheer her up. While smoking a joint, Sadie almost chokes and runs through to the bathroom where she coughs up a tooth attached to a long piece of strings that Sawyer had lost shortly after the Boogeyman appeared. As a prank, Bethany's friends lock Sadie in the art studio closet, where she comes face to face with the Boogeyman. Banging on the door frantically to be let out, it remains tightly locked shut and then suddenly bursts open. A fight breaks out amongst the girls who all leave Sadie's house, angered by Sadie's reaction. Meanwhile, Sawyer is playing her PlayStation downstairs and is attacked by the creature and thrown into the TV, hospitalising her.

At the hospital, Sadie is comforting Sawyer, while Will is in a private room where they brought his wife to be identified after the car accident. Sadie is contacted by Rita, who believes she has devised a plan to kill the Boogeyman. Sadie arrives at the house where Rita has set up a trap with several shotgun shells and trip wires. She suddenly attacks Sadie, planning to use her as bait for the creature by tying her to exposed wall joists with cable ties. The Boogeyman appears setting off multiple traps and being shot several times. Rita sidles up to the apparent corpse and fires two more rounds into it for good measure. With her back turned to release Sadie, the Boogeyman rises and kills Rita. Sadie escapes falling down the stairs with the Boogeyman in pursuit but she shines a bright light on it and it retreats from whence it came. Sadie flees the house. Will calls her asking where she is, and Sadie realises they're already back home. The Boogeyman attacks Will and Sawyer, dragging them into the house. Sadie arrives and finds a hiding Sawyer, who has wrapped herself in green and red flashing Christmas lights, who says the creature took their father down into the basement.

The sisters go down into the basement with Sadie carrying an ice hockey stick for protection. There they find the creature seemingly feeding off Will. They rescue their father and a chase ensues in the basement. With the help of Sawyer and her mother's spirit, Sadie manages to set the creature on fire, seemingly killing it and destroying the black mould through the house. The three manage to escape the house as the flames take hold, engulfing the entire property. Some time after having moved on from their harrowing experience, Will, Sadie and Sawyer have a group session with Weller. As they leave, Sadie is called back to the office by Weller only to discover she isn't there and the closet door is open. Weller appears and questions Sadie, who looks at Weller suspiciously and shuts the door.

'The Boogeyman' is a reasonably well crafted albeit fairly pedestrian horror film that isn't up there with some of Stephen King's more noteworthy horror movie adaptations including 1976's 'Carrie', 1980's 'The Sining', 1983's 'The Dead Zone', 1990's 'Misery' or 2017's 'It', but it also doesn't lurk down in the depth's of some of the also rans that have peppered our cinema screens in the last forty or so years. There are a handful of jump scares, the lighting adds a sense of foreboding, the atmospherics add up to the feeling of dread and fear, and the performances of Thatcher and Blair especially carry this film firmly on their shoulders. But, the story adds nothing new to the genre that we haven't seen countless times before, and when The Boogeyman is finally revealed in the basement, the monster is nothing short of a rip-off of Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. This film is aimed squarely at a teen audience looking for by the numbers thrills and chills and on that note the film delivers, but for the more experienced long-in-the-tooth movie goer, this is an OK horror offering, but not great.

'The Boogeyman' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AIR : Tuesday 11th April 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'AIR' earlier this week, and this American biographical sports drama film is Co-Produced, Directed and stars Ben Affleck whose previous film making credits take in 'Gone Baby Gone' in 2007, 'The Town' in 2010, 'Argo' in 2012 and 'Live by Night' in 2016. This film saw its World Premier screening as the Closing Night film of SXSW in mid-March recently, has so far garnered generally positive reviews, was released Stateside last week too and has grossed to date US$35M off the back of a circa US$80M production budget. It was originally slated for release on Amazon Prime Video before Amazon Studios decided to release the film theatrically following strong results from test screenings.

Here then, it is 1984 and the Nike, Inc. business sits looking down the barrel of bankruptcy due to is declining footwear sales, with the company capturing just 17% of the American sports footwear sales market, compared to Converse and the dominant player in the market Adidas. Recognising the financial strife they are in, Marketing VP Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), together with co-founder and CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), task Nike's basketball talent scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon, who also Co-Produces here) to come up with a new pitch for a shoeline based on current American sports, believing that basketball's days are numbered. While considering other basketball players chosen in the 1984 NBA draft, Nike's executives think third pick Michael Jordan is off limits, being both a fan of Adidas and too expensive for the basketball division's meagre budget of US$250K, which it aims to spread amongst three or four players, whereas Jordan is rumoured to have been offered US$250K plus a brand new red Mercedes 380 SL by Adidas, with Converse being his second pick. 

One evening while feeling down but not defeated, Vaccaro is sat at home with his TV dinner watching highlights of a Jordan game together with a TV commercial by Arthur Ashe for his Head tennis rackets. Seeing the eighteen year old Michael Jordan from a different perspective he is convinced that Nike should pursue the player that he now considers to be a once in a generation talent with both Jordan and Nike building off one another. With his new found enthusiasm he first pitches the idea to Strasser and then Knight who dismiss the notion as wildly too expensive to blow their entire budget on just one player, and besides the Board would never agree to it. 

Vaccaro heads to LA to meet his friend George Raveling (Marlon Wayans), who coached Jordan in the 1984 Summer Olympic tournament in Los Angeles and asks for his support in courting the star. Vaccaro then drives to the Jordan household in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he turns up unannounced. He tells Michael's mother Deloris (Viola Davis) that Nike would give Jordan all the attention that he would not get from his preferred brands Adidas and Converse and begins to recite the opening lines that each of those companies would greet them with. He also asks Deloris to ask a pointed question to the Board members when she meets with those two companies, and to carefully and cautiously gauge their responses and reactions.

After receiving a very angry call from Jordan's agent David Falk (Chris Messina) about visiting his client's family, Vaccaro learns that the Jordans have still scheduled a meeting at Nike's Beaverton, Oregon HQ the following Monday. Vaccaro and Strasser start preparing their pitch while tasking shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) to work through the remaining week and weekend to prepare a single prototype, which Moore names 'Air Jordan' after Nike's Air Sole was deemed inappropriate. In the meantime, Knight reluctantly accepts to assign the basketball division's entire US$250K budget to hire Jordan. 

Monday arrives and the Jordan's pull up at Nike's HQ to be met by Vaccaro. He ushers them up to the Boardroom where they are warmly welcomed by Strasser, Moore, and Howard White (Chris Tucker) with Knight deliberately arriving seven minutes late. Vaccaro can sense that Deloris and Michael are non-plussed by the meeting, so he breaks off a video presentation and makes an off-the-cuff impassioned speech on how he sees Michael's future unfolding with Nike, the good times and the bad, and how long after the Nike executives in the room with him that day are gone and forgotten, his legacy will live on. Vaccaro's speech turns the meeting around but he subsequently learns that Adidas matched the US$250K offer while adding a red Mercedes 380SL into the mix, and he believes the deal is done and dusted with Adidas. 

However, he later receives a call from Deloris, who states that Michael will sign with Nike for US$250K, plus that he earns a percentage of every Air Jordan sold anywhere in the world. Vaccaro believes the company's CEO and Board would not accept such a bonus proposal, which sets a precedent. Once Knight is told he calmly shrugs and says that if it is necessary to ensure the endorsement, then accept the terms, saying to himself how much can it be worth, they sold US$3M in shoes last year! Vaccaro calls back Deloris to tell her that Nike will accept her terms and then speaks with Michael welcoming him to Nike. He then goes out into the open plan office and loudly announces 'we signed Jordan'. 

The closing credits reveal various milestones in Michael Jordan's stellar basketball career, how Phil Knight has so far given away US$2B of his personal fortune to philanthropic causes, how David Falk sold his agency for US$100M, how Peter Moore designed the Jumpman logo for the Air Jordan shoe, and how the Air Jordan shoe sold US$162M in the year following its launch and how today sales are upwards of US$4B and Jordan has earned US$400M from residuals. 

'Air' is a notable return to form for Director Ben Affleck since his last misstep with 'Live By Night', for which he can be forgiven on the strength of this gem of a film about a struggling underdog company whose courage of its convictions ultimately wins the day, and well and truly turns the fortunes of Nike around turning it into the one of the most recognised brands and successful companies in the world. The script moves the film along at a steady pace, the ensemble cast are spot-on with their performances, the recreation of the mid-1980's is a slam-dunk and the music score took me right back there to my early twenties. My only criticism is that Michael Jordan as a character in this film is only ever seen from the back of his head, or his hands caressing the prototype Air Jordan shoe, or as the real life Michael Jordan in archival footage as the end credits roll. This film is less about the sport and more about the marketing guys working tirelessly to sign MJ and the advertising strength that his name will bring to brand Nike - and on that level 'Air' delivers, and the rest, as they say, is history!

'Air' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) : Tuesday 11th February 2020.

'BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)' is an MA15+ Rated American all female superhero film based on the DC Comics team 'Birds of Prey' that has appeared in comic books form, miniseries and special editions since 1996. Directed by Chinese American film maker, Producer and Screenwriter Cathy Yan in only her second Directorial outing following her 2018 Shanghai based 'Dead Pigs', this film is intended to be the eighth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and a follow-up spin-off to the 2016 David Ayer Directed film 'Suicide Squad'. Despite that films Box Office haul of US$747M from a production budget of US$175M and it winning seventeen awards and another 39 nominations, it garnered mostly negative press from Critics. 'The Suicide Squad' (aka 'Suicide Squad 2') also starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in what will be her third outing as the character, is currently in post-production and is Directed by James Gunn, sees the cast from the previous film return except for Will Smith as Deadshot and Jared Leto as The Joker, and is set for a 6th August 2021 release date. This film was released in the USA on 7th February following its Mexico City World Premier on 25th January, cost in the region of $85M to produce and has so far performed below Box Office expectations with a worldwide haul of US$87M and has generated mixed or average Reviews with Critics praising Robbie's and McGregor's performances, Cathy Yan's Direction and its visual aesthetic, but less positive for the Screenplay.

Following on from the events of 'Suicide Squad', Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) in the opening sequence narrates an animated update from the point of her conception to her childhood years, her time as a former qualified psychiatrist working in Arkham Asylum to the time very recently that she broke up with The Joker (played by Jared Leto in that film) and he cast her out on the streets of Gotham. She is promptly taken in by the well meaning and warm hearted Doc (Dana Lee), the elderly owner of a Chinese restaurant, as the only person to ever show her any kindness. Slowly getting over her abusive relationship, Harley cuts her hair, adopts a spotted hyena (whom she names after Bruce Wayne), takes up roller derby, and hijacks a fuel tanker truck and drives it headlong into the Ace Chemicals plant where she pledged herself originally to the clown prince of crime, and blows the place to kingdom come.

At a nightclub owned by gangster Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), Harley drowns her sorrows by drinking heavily and popping pills, cripples Roman's driver and meets burlesque singer Dinah Lance (aka 'Black Canary' - Jurnee Smollett-Bell). Dinah later rescues an intoxicated Harley from an attempted abduction. Looking on Roman is so impressed by Dinah's fighting skills that he appoints her as his new driver. Meanwhile, Gotham City Police Department Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) investigates a series of mob killings carried out by the so called 'Crossbow Killer' vigilante. Finding Harley's 'J' necklace at the scene of the Ace Chemicals explosion, Montoya notes that Harley must now be in danger from numerous quarters without the security of The Joker to protect her.

Sionis sends Dinah and his sadistic right-hand-man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) to retrieve a diamond encrypted with the account numbers to the multi-billion dollar fortune of the Bertinelli crime family, who were all massacred fifteen years previously. Young teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) steals the diamond from the pocket of an unsuspecting Zsasz, but is arrested and promptly swallows the valuable rock while en route to the Police Station. 

Harley, involved in a cross city foot chase trying to evade Montoya and several other low life crims she has wronged, is captured by Sionis's men. Zsasz informs Sionis that Cassandra has the diamond, and Dinah calls Montoya alerting her about Cass. As Sionis prepares to have Harley killed by the hand of Zsasz who is rather adept with a sharp instrument in peeling off the faces of his victims, she hurriedly offers to recover the diamond for him. Roman agrees putting a midnight tonight time line on her attempt, and also for added security puts out notification of a US$500K bounty on Cass. 

Having tracked down Cass to the GCPD, she storms her way in and using  a colourful array of non-lethal grenade launcher rounds, she is able to free the young pick-pocket and the pair escape to the evidence warehouse. Upon an ambush by goons seeking Cass' bounty, Harley seeks cover behind a pallet load of impounded cocaine which is promptly shot up sending plumes of the white powder into the air all around her. She unintentionally inhales so heightening her reflexes and fighting abilities and dispenses with them all. She and Cassandra then steal a shopping trolley loaded up with groceries from a local supermarket and bond over a bowl of cereal and cartoons on the TV while hiding out at Harley's apartment.

Soon afterwards Doc is approached in his restaurant for information by the 'Crossbow Killer', who is revealed to be Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Having survived her family's massacre fifteen years prior, as a young child she vowed revenge on the death of her entire family and so trained as an assassin. When the time was right (and that time is now) Helena has been targeting each of the gangsters responsible for the murders of her family, and has successful taken out many of them one by one using her crossbow skills. Harley's apartment is bombed by criminals looking for Cass, after Doc betrayed Harley and sold them out, stating in the aftermath, that 'it's just business' and how now he can relocate and open a real Chinese restaurant!

Harley has a moment of clarity following Doc's 'business' revelation and calls Sionis and offers to turn Cassandra over in exchange for his future protection, agreeing to meet at an abandoned amusement park. Dinah notifies Montoya of the rendezvous, while Zsasz notices Dinah's treacherous text message en route to the park, orders Dinah to pull over and contacts Sionis with this latest update. Devastated by Dinah's betrayal, Roman puts on his face mask from which he gets his villainous pseudonym 'Black Mask' and makes for the amusement park. At the park, Harley has Cass taped to the toilet having plied her with laxative so that she can shit out the diamond. Montoya confronts Harley but is knocked out of a window. Zsasz arrives and tranquilizes Harley before holding Dinah at gunpoint and ordering that she slice open Cass' stomach with a knife to retrieve the diamond. He is promptly killed by an arrow to the neck delivered by Helena, who reveals that Zsasz was the last on the hit list of her family's killers. Montoya climbs back through the window just as the effects of Harley's tranquilizer is wearing off. 

A stand-off ensues with Cass now holding the women at gunpoint out of anger and frustration more than anything, saying that Dinah was about to slice her open, and Harley was about to trade her in to the evil Sionis. The women then observe that Sionis has arrived with a small army of face mask wearing goons all out to claim the bounty on Cass' head. Using Harley's old gear conveniently found in a trunk in the room where they are all standing, the makeshift team of women successfully withstand and fend off their attackers, while safeguarding Cass, in an area of the amusement park that is suddenly illuminated and looks brand new like it was last used yesterday and a far cry from being abandoned and disused.

During the battle, Cass is captured by Sionis, while Montoya is shot, but survives due to her wearing Harley's bulletproof bustier. Dinah reveals her metahuman capability of hypersonic-level screaming, so instantly wiping out the additional goons sided with Sionis. Harley chases after Sionis' car on roller skates, and with assistance from Helena riding a motorcycle, the pair pursue him and Cass. At a nearby pier also fallen into disrepair, the final showdown takes place. Shooting at a shadowy figure masked by the nighttime mist, whom she believes to be Sionis, Harley uses her last bullet as Sionis appears from behind a statue, having missed. Sionis holds Cassandra hostage and is poised to kill her. However, Cassandra pulls the ring from a grenade she had taken from Harley’s weapons trunk earlier, slipping the grenade into Sionis' jacket. Harley drop kicks Sionis backwards sending him toppling into the harbour just before the grenade detonates and blows him into tiny pieces with body parts flying in all directions.

In the aftermath with Sionis criminal regime now destroyed, Montoya quits the GCPD. With the money from the accounts encrypted inside the diamond, she joins forces with Dinah and Helena in setting up a team of vigilantes, who call themselves the 'Birds of Prey'. Harley and Cassandra sell the diamond to a pawnshop, start up their own business, and are seen driving off in a convertible with a recovered Bruce the hyena in the back, and the pair biting into Harley's favoured fried egg and cheese sandwiches.

'Harley Quinn : Birds of Prey' as it has been renamed for the American audience it would seem is not a bad film, but its also not that good either. In the grand pantheon of comic book big screen Superhero movies, of which there have been many, I would rate this somewhere in the bottom half. What is it with the DCEU that they just can't emulate what the MCU have done numerous times over already with their finely crafted storytelling, intricate world building, deep rooted characters with empathy and a meaningful back story that we can relate to, and action set pieces delivered with aplomb. Here Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn steals the show with her unhinged and unpredictable emotions, her acts of extreme violence, moments of pathos and her live for the moment attitude. And Ewan McGregor as villain Roman Sionis seems to be relishing in his role as the dastardly underworld kingpin. As for the Birds of Prey as they come to be known, they are relegated to the final fifteen  minutes of the film and Harley ultimately isn't even one of them! This is certainly a colourful film with a thumping soundtrack and some moments of originality for sure, but the action sequences are frenetic, delivered all too often seemingly to grab the attention and maintain interest but look as though they have been lifted straight out of the Looney Tunes Cartoon playbook. How we are supposed to suspend all belief in seeing Harley and her three other female pals thwart a small army of crims of all shapes and sizes hellbent on a big bounty payday and armed with all manner of hardware really is beyond all comprehension. I guess 'stupid is as stupid does' as someone once said! And in between all the cartoonish action, in the brief moments of relative calm the script is left wanting punctuated with effing and blinding aplenty and what amounts to a fairly shallow storyline.

'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)'  merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-