Not much to review, due to my insane dog-centric schedule …
WARLOCK (1991) is a stock horror film in which Julian Sands as the eponymous witch (apparently all witches are evil and “gypsy magic” is even eviler) is transported from colonial Massachusetts into the present to collect the parts of an ultimate McGuffin. Hot in pursuit come Richard E. Grant as the witch-hunter who captured Sands and Lori Singer as a present-day victim. Despite some actual bits of folklore (“Drive a nail through his footprint, it’ll hurt him.”) this is pretty weak, and Sands acting talent is limited to arrogant scowls. “Our interest is stopping those who would fell all things good.”
Despite Sands’ returning, WARLOCK THE ARMAGEDDON (1993) is a name-only sequel in which the Warlock is Satan’s son, reborn time after time to recover the six magic gems that will free Daddy from Hell (making me wonder if whoever wrote this had just read Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet), and a sect of druids and a couple of teenagers try to stop him. This makes the original look like classic Universal horror: lots of gratuitous gore, some gratuitous T&A, and what’s the point in establishing druids control plants, then having the Warlock tie up a druid with vines (I’d assumed that would be a fatal mistake). Fortunately there’s no time travel angle so that’s one less for the book
TIME AND AGAIN (2005) is a competently made low-budget film in which a convicted-but-innocent murderer travels back to the day he was arrested so that he can either clear his name. There sare some nice noirish twists, but the film doesn’t do much with them, then cops out with an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ending. “I’m starting to think you’re the real reason I came back.”
KATE & LEOPOLD (2001) has 19th century duke Hugh Jackman stumble into descendant Liev Schreiber’s time portal and find himself confronting not only the brave new world of the 21st century but romantic cynic Meg Ryan. While I remembered this presenting Jackman as enough of a visionary to accept an independent modern woman, rewatching I see they simply skate past the topic to focus on Jackman as a man of Honor and Integrity in contrast to Ryan’s inherently (it’s implied) unethical marketing career. Enjoyable, but not entirely satisfying for reasons I’ll get to in another post. And the ending implies Ryan has previously had sex with the man who’s her great-great grandson. “For no reason beyond my affection for you, I find myself peddling pond scum to an unsuspecting public.”
