Both those I watched for fun and more that didn’t make the cut—
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)) is that rare bird, the Thanksgiving perennial, as Steve Martin struggles to make it home to Chicago despite all forms of transportation going Murphy’s Law on him and the presence of bumptious fellow traveler John Candy. A few great moments, but I can’t say it really grabbed me, though the middle of carb coma may not have been the best time to try it out. “You’re boring—didn’t you notice when you started talking on the plane, I started reading the vomit bag.”
Discovering Netflix was streaming HANDS OF ORLAC (1924) with Conrad Veidt as the tormented pianist, I couldn’t resist watching. This story of a pianist who receives a murderer’s transplanted hands and fears he’s taken on the man’s personality as well moves way too slowly, and the revelation of the real killer is bland. I can see why Peter Lorre’s later Mad Love is hailed as the definitive version of this often adapted tale. “The fingerprints of Vasseur were everywhere—and those fingerprints are now yours.”
I watched THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) in the confused idea it was a different Muppet Christmas movie. So no time travel element, but some fun, though this is second-rate Dickens at best with a mediocre score—the best part is Gonzo as Dickens (“I’m the writer, I know everything.”). Odd details are that Scrooge is shifted from moneylender to slumlord, and this keeps the Three Spirits traditional rather than using familiar Muppet faces.With Statler and Waldorf as the Marley brothers, Fozzie Bear as Fezziwig, and Kermit and Piggie as the Cratchetts. “Well excuuuse me, Mr. godlike point-of-view narrator.”
WARRIORS OF VIRTUE 2: Return to Tao (2002) is a “parallel world” story only in the sense that Narnia is (so no, it don’t qualify): a teenage martial artist who once saved the realm of Tao gets yanked back there to face a new menace and recover from a crisis of self-confidence. This jumbles too many elements together for bland results.
ANOTHER EARTH (2011) is an SF drama in which a young woman trying to connect with the father of the family she killed in a car accident is also hoping for a trip to the duplicate Earth that mysteriously appeared in the sky the night of the accident. Thia is a competent indie drama but not particularly stand-out, and the SF elements are too restrained to elevate it—the ending twist feels like it should have started the story, not wrapped it up. And as this exact duplicate Earth doesn’t appear to be parallel, a no-go. “We still think we’re the center of the universe—do you imagine they call their Earth Earth Two?”
