Summer 2024 Movie Roundup Part II – Very Miscellaneous!

Autumn is almost upon us, so it’s time for part 2 of my Summer 2024 Movie Roundup!

I did not, however, actually watch all that many movies in the second half of the summer. No nefarious reason for that, it was just 1.) I was busy with travel, 2.) I was busy with multiple instances of home repair, and 3.) I was busy with finishing HALF-ORC PALADIN and SHIELD OF CONQUEST. So I mostly watched some older stuff that I found on streaming.

As usual, the movies are listed from my least favorite to most favorite, and the grades are totally subjective and based upon my own thoughts and opinions.

THE BURBS (1989)

A dark comedy/horror movie satire starring Tom Hanks as Ray, a suburban homeowner with a wife and son. On vacation for the week, Ray becomes obsessed with the Klopeks, a new family that has moved onto his street. The Klopeks have no interest in maintaining their property, and show signs of other odd activities – going out only at night, constant digging in the backyard, and strange noises and lights coming from the basement. Soon Ray and his two neighbors become determined to find out just what the Klopeks are up to.

It was darkly funny, though you could tell that the ending had been rewritten a few times. The movie couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a satire of clannish homeowners, or to totally validate their concerns, or both. I think it tried for both and couldn’t quite get there.

Though it does show how much the US has changed (or declined) in the last 35 years – Ray and his friends are shown as kind of losers, but they live in enormous well-maintained houses. It’s like how Homer Simpson in the first seasons of THE SIMPSONS was shown as a bumbling loser, but yet he could afford to live in a four-bedroom house, his wife didn’t work most of the time, they had two cars and three children, and all without Homer having a college degree. By 2024 standards, Homer Simpson lived like a king.

Amusing anecdote – one scene in THE BURBS was clearly inspired by A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, which I talk about more below.

Overcall grade: C

THE BATMAN VS DRACULA (2005)

An animated movie where Batman goes up against Count Dracula. As probably dark and gory as something can be while still technically remaining targeted at children.

When a robbery goes bad, the Penguin accidentally releases Count Dracula from his tomb, and becomes the vampire lord’s new chief servant. Dracula is fascinated by the modern world, but he’s especially fascinated by Batman, since for obvious reason he admires Batman’s bat-themed motif. Dracula offers Batman the chance to become his chief lieutenant, with Batman refuses, and Dracula takes personally. He’ll get his revenge by turning Gotham City into a city of the undead, and taking Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Vicky Vale as his new bride.

Unless, of course, Batman stops him.

It was interesting how neatly Dracula slots into becoming a good enemy for Batman. After all, in the original DRACULA novel, Dracula’s nemesis Van Helsing was definitely a Man of Science who brought logic, reason, and scientific method to his fight against Dracula. Batman is also a Man of Science in the sense that he’s a detective, so he does some detective work to unravel Dracula’s weaknesses and build weapons to use against him.

Overall grade: B

SET IT UP (2018)

A romantic comedy that reminded me a bit of more cynical 1940s-era romcoms like THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.

The female lead, Harper, works as the personal assistant for a workaholic female sportswriter who terrorizes her employees. The male lead, Charlie, works for a workaholic male venture capitalist who also terrorizes his employees. Both their bosses are miserable, demanding people who make everyone around them unhappy. One day, both Charlie and Harper are dispatched to get dinner for their bosses, and end up fighting over the last available deliveryman. However, in the wake of the encounter, Harper hatches a plan. Both she and Charlie know everything about their respective bosses, so why not manipulate their calendars and schedules so they fall in love? They might be more cheerful, or at the very least, they will be in the office less frequently.

Charlie has his misgivings about this plan, but after one more unfortunate encounter with his boss, decides to embark on Harper’s plan. Of course, Charlie has a high-maintenance girlfriend who wants him to make a lot more money, and Harper is trying to find a boyfriend, but as per the rules of romcoms, perhaps Charlie and Harper will have more in common than they might think.

A bit more crude humor than I might prefer, but still enjoyable. It did remind me quite a bit of more cynical 30s/40s movies like MY MAN GODFREY or THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.

Overall grade: B

BANK OF DAVE (2023)

Basically the cynical British version of a Hallmark movie, but with better production values.

It is very, very loosely based on the activities of Dave Fishwick, a successful van dealer in the north of England who decides to start a local bank for local people, feeling that the big London banks have lost sight of that. To do that, he recruits a London lawyer named Hugh to help him navigate the labyrinth of regulation around financial institutions. Of course, the big banks dislike this idea, and come after Dave hard. Dave is definitely the local Big Man, and it’s interesting that humanity’s default mode of government seems to be Local Big Man. However, if one must have a Big Man, one could only hope he is as benevolent as Dave.

The movie was pretty funny, though a lot of the humor comes from the UK’s class and regional divides, which are rather more pronounced than in the US. Like, here in the US, you can drive for three hundred miles and be in the same state the entire time, and the local culture won’t change that much. The cliche is that the US east cost and west coast look down upon “flyover country”, but you can drive something like a thousand miles from New York before you get to flyover country.

If you drive 300 miles in the UK, you’ve probably gone through six or seven regional accents and local traditions.

It does kind of turn into a Hallmark movie since Hugh falls for Dave’s doctor niece. So basically a romance with a backdrop of British class/regional struggle.

Overall grade: B

COOL RUNNINGS (1993)

A sports comedy film very (and I mean very) loosely based on the debut of the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

When sprinter Derice Bannock is unable to qualify for the Jamaican Olympic team due to an accident, he decides instead to start a bobsled team to represent Jamaica in the games. To do this, he recruits washed up former bobsledder Blitzer (played by John Candy), to act as the team’s coach.

What follows is a pretty good example of a sports movie – the team must come together and perform while overcoming their own personal challenges and inner conflicts. Especially Coach Blitzer, who has to dig deep and overcome his past to effectively coach the team.

It’s interesting that sports movies tend to follow two trajectories – either the team rallies and wins the championship, or they don’t win the championship and nonetheless achieve moral victory by overcoming their internal difficulties and learning to work together. I won’t spoil which path COOL RUNNINGS follows.

Overall grade: B

UNCLE BUCK (1989)

A coming of age comedy film about 40 year old man, oddly enough.

This was pretty funny. Bob and Cindy are a married couple with three children living in the suburbs of Chicago, and when Cindy’s father has a heart attack, they need to rush to his side. Due to the unexpected nature of the news, they have to find someone to watch the kids while they’re gone. In desperation, they turn to Bob’s brother Buck, who alternates between working for his girlfriend at her tire company and making money on rigged horse races. While Buck is kind of a loser, he’s basically a decent guy, just averse to responsibility and settling down. He quickly steps up to take care of the children, though he conflicts with the oldest daughter Tia, who is in the grips of a full-blown adolescent rebellion.

Buck soon realizes that he’s come to a crossroads in his life, which is reinforced when Tia runs away to a party for the weekend.

Slightly dark in places, but definitely more family-friendly than many 80s comedies.

Overall grade: B+

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (2011)

A science fiction romantic thriller based on a Philip K. Dick story. Which is a very odd sentence to type, but it’s true!

Matt Damon plays David Norris, a Congressman from New York who just lost a Senate race. Preparing for his concession speech, he meets Elise (played by Emily Blunt) and is immediately smitten with her. A month later he runs onto her by accident on a bus, and receives her phone number. However, soon mysterious suited men with unusual powers arrive and burn the paper with the phone number. The men explain to David that they are the Adjustment Bureau, charged with making sure history unfolds according to the mysterious Plan.

And the Plan says that David can never see Elise again.

David, of course, is not the sort of guy to take that lying down, so he soon finds himself trying to outwit the Time Cops and find Elise.

It was interesting that the Adjustment Bureau was very similar to the Time Variance Authority from the Marvel LOKI show, so I wonder if they drew from some of the same sources of inspiration.

An interesting movie and worth watching. It wrestled with the oldest philosophical question in western civilization – are all things predestined, or do we have free will? Or is it somehow both?

I have to admit the scene where Elise dunked David’s Blackberry in coffee was VERY satisfying since I had a lot of support headaches with Blackberries back in the 2000s.

Overall grade: B+

A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)

The first Spaghetti Western I’ve seen, which means it’s an Italian director Sergio Leone’s sort of stylized version of what the Old West was like. Of course, the movie actually ripped off the Akira Kurosawa samurai movie Yojimbo. In fact, it was so heavily ripped off Yojimbo that Kurosawa sued, settled out of court, and received fifteen percent of the film’s revenue. Apparently Kurosawa made more from the settlement than he did from Yojimbo.

Legal troubles aside, it was quite good, and I can see how it heavily influenced many subsequent movies. For instance, the STAR WARS character of Boba Fett was inspired by A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and Boba Fett in turn inspired THE MANDALORIAN. Stephen King’s rather disappointing DARK TOWER series was inspired by DOLLARS as well, and there are many other examples, such as the scene in THE BURBS I mentioned above.

Anyway, Clint Eastwood plays the Stranger, a mercenary gunslinger who seems to be drifting from town to town without a purpose. He arrives at San Miguel, a US-Mexican border town that is dominated by two crime families at each others’ throats – the Rojos and the Baxters. Both clans seek to hire the Stranger for their organizations, and the gunslinger begins playing them off each other for personal profit. As mercenary and as ruthless as he is, the Stranger seems to have a core of honor to him – a couple times he goes out of his way to help people because he can, which sometimes gets him into trouble.

Definitely worth watching as a classic film.

Overall grade: A

-JM