WAKE UP, DEAD MAN (2025) is the third of Daniel Craig’s outings as ace detective Benoit Blanc, following Knives Out and The Glass Onion. Josh O’Connor plays Father Jud, a boxer who turned into a priest as a path to redemption after viciously beating his opponent in the ring to death. He’s assigned to the small-town parish of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher who looks down on Jud’s belief the church should offer grace and lift people up, not punch down at them. Wicks’ reverential flock included a failing doctor (Jeremy Renner), a frustrated lawyer (Kerry Washington), a devout believer (Glenn Close) and others. When Wicks walks into an alcove in full view of the flock and comes out stabbed to death, who could have done it? And how?
Craig is delightful as he relishes the prospect of a genuine locked-room impossible crime but there’s less of him in the movie and it suffers thereby. Beyond that, the movie felt off to me in a way I couldn’t pin down until I read Camestros Felapton’s review — the problem is that it’s a Catholic Church but the trappings, the sermons are very much right-wing Protestant and it doesn’t quite work (Kirsten Kobes du Mez, however, argues it works in many ways). Still, it’s a fun one to watch. “They all look like John Goodman in THE BIG LEBOWSKI.”
TYG has never seen THE TERMINATOR (1984) so we watched my DVD for a recent date night. Having imagined it as an over the top spectacle like the Avatar films or True Lies she was pleasantly surprised by the tense, low-budget story of cyborg Arnold Schwarzenegger traveling back in time to alter history by killing Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and Michael Biehn jumping back to stop him. The story is set up so we don’t know who’s who or which side they’re on or what it’s all about at first; for all the jokes about Schwarzenegger at the time (who better to play an emotionless inhuman robot?), he’s effectively menacing here.
The film’s opening acknowledgement to the work of Harlan Ellison reflects his view that it ripped off his Outer Limits episodes “Soldier” (visually the openings do have a lot in common) and “Demon With a Glass Hand” (I’m not convinced) though I think the film is enough of its own thing that it stands on its own. The start of a long-running franchise and a fine movie in its own right. “He won’t stop until he finds you. That’s what he does — that’s all he does.”
TYG bought me a collection of three early Fritz Lang silents on DVD for Christmas, the first of which is HARAKIRI (1919), a film that show Germans are as susceptible to Orientalism as Americans. This adaptation of Madame Butterfly is competently made but not terribly interesting, and the jerk male lead deserve to be soundly slapped. “You lost your belief in Buddha — beware his wrath!”
It’s a big week for TYG related films — although she’s a fan of HIGH FIDELITY (2000) she’s never seen it on the big screen so that was last weekend’s date movie (it played at the Carolina Theatre here). John Cusack plays Rob, a record-store owner and something of a jerk who’s just gone through Number Five of his all-time worst breakups, with girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjelje). This sends him into his flashback booth to contemplate lost loves including Lili Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones — why didn’t it work out? Is there a pattern here? Meanwhile he has to ride herd on his peculiar staff, most notably Jack Black in his breakout role as an obnoxious music nerd.
My only reservation when I watched this originally was wondering why Laura should be The One when she didn’t stand out compared to his past girlfriends. Now I’m inclined to see it as Rob having grown up enough to handle being in love, which he definitely wasn’t earlier. Based on Nick Hornsby’s novel, the cast includes Joan Cusack as Rob’s sister, Sara Gilbert as a music nerd and Tim Robbins as a possible romantic rival. “I’ve been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I’ve come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.”
All rights to images remain with current holders.
