Replicas review

Look as an amateur film critic, I should judge a movie on how good it is not reasons I want you to see a flick. But there are three reasons I like Replicas as a guilty pleasure. I'll tell you two of them now so you can skip this or read this short review. One. Trump really hates the people of Puerto Rico. And they've suffered from Hurricane Maria. No matter how you feel about Trump, the people of Puerto Rico  are our citizens. Replicas was filmed there. And I hope more films are made there to help the economy. Two. Alice Eve co-stars. Look, she took a bad rap from politically correct Trekkies for the underwear scene in Star Trek Into the Darkness (2013) She's an excellent actress who deserves more work.

Replicas is about scientist William Foster (Keanu Reeves) who is trying to map a dead man's brain onto an android, giving control of the android's functions over to a human albeit a dead one. And it's not working well. His assistant is an expert in cloning, Ed. (Thomas Middleditch) Living with William on Puerto Rico is Foster's wife Mona (Alice Eve) and their three children. They're pretty much your normal, happy family until disaster happens. On a family outing, Foster has an auto accident. Mona and the kids are killed. Well, this being a science fiction movie, you can guess what happens next. William will attempt to bring his family back with the use of cloning and the brain mapping technology.

I'm not a big Keanu Reeves fan. I like many of his films but have found his acting to be stiff as if he doesn't seem to understand who his character is. At times he sounds like he's merely reading his lines. Here, he is no different than his other performances. Inconsistent. There are times he's quite good, other times not so much. English Alice Eve does a good American accent and is excellent in this film. She demonstrates the confusion of the horror, curiosity and emotional attachment to her family needed for this movie. John Ortiz is the William's boss, Jones. He's appropriately harsh and mercenary.

Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff is competent. Action scenes are clear and he relates the drama well. One big problem. The film clearly has budget issues. The decision to use CGI for the android was a mistake. It looks like an old fashioned stop motion character. The better decision should have been to use an actor in costume. The movement would have been smoother.

Stephen Hamel's story and Chad St. John's screenplay is fascinating. It made me think, "What does it mean to be a human?" I wondered do we have souls? One issue though. Jones' actions are barely explained and the screenplay expects you to accept how he knows things. It would have been better to have scenes that demonstrate his motives. I'm talking about a scene in the third act where you will ask yourself, "How did Jones figure that out?" And while it's explained with a throwaway line, it comes off lazy.

Replicas will surprise you. Because you will expect this movie to go down the horror movie path. I mean bringing back loved ones from death almost never works. It's the unexpected direction into William's agony that makes this movie work. Rent this one.   The grade is B.

Guilty Pleasures: Lovesick (1983)

There are a bunch of productions named Lovesick. This guilty pleasure is the 1983 film Lovesick. It's a romantic comedy about psychiatrist Saul Benjamin (Dudley Moore) who falls in love with his patient Chloe Allen. (Elizabeth McGovern) During the affair, Benjamin is visited by the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi... um make that the ghost of Freud. (Alec Guinness fresh off playing Kenobi in Return of the Jedi ) By the way, certain feelings for a patient or a patient's feelings for their psychoanalyst is known as transference. And Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. Anyway, look for early appearances of Christine Baranski (The Big Bang Theory, The Good Fight ) and David Strathairn. (Lincoln) The talented cast also includes legendary director John Huston, Ron Silver, Wallace Shawn and Alan King. Wow.

The film also features another great score by French composer Philippe Sarde. The music is lush, impressionistic in that French way, and just plain beautiful.  Mix that in with the gorgeous New York cinematography by Gerry Fisher, witty dialogue and you've got a warm romantic comedy. Lovesick, the 1983,  film is one of my guilty pleasures.

This trailer for Lovesick (1983) has some of Philippe Sarde's wonderful score.

Guilty Pleasures: The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project is a 1986 movie about a brilliant high school student Paul Stephens (Christopher Collet) who builds a portable atomic bomb to protest a top secret government facility that has been researching a new type of nucclear fuel. He enlists the help of his girlfriend Jenny Anderman (Cynthia Nixon) for his civil protest. Nixon and the idea of a high school student trying to change their world makes this film relevant. As we see high school students today try to get governments to enact gun law changes and Nixon's liberal candidacy for governor of New York.

Written and directed by Marshall Brickman (Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan), it's a funny and good thriller. It's also got an energetic score by French composer Philippe Sarde. The Manhattan Project is another of my guilty pleasures.

Guilty Pleasures: Battle: Los Angeles

The late, great film critic Roger Ebert bashed people who liked Battle: Los Angeles (2011) as idiots. And I usually complain about fast cutting and hand-held camera shots. But the point of the usage here is to show the fog of war. It gave the film a documentary feel as if you are there with a camera crew.

The fast cutting made the audience feel the confusion as our squad of soldiers take fire from everywhere. And there's a couple scenes of sacrifice that I challenge you to keep a dry eye. To the great Roger Ebert, I say maybe you fell asleep during the movie. Regardless, Roger I still admire your film criticism. Battle: Los Angeles is another of my guilty pleasures.

Guilty Pleasures: Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) is a movie with a terrible name. I don't know why they didn't name it after the book that was the source material called "The Destroyer" by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Fred Ward plays a New York city cop who's recruited to be an assassin for a top secret organization that fights government corruption. Unfortunately, he's given the name Remo Williams as an alias. Full of great action and humor , it's quite entertaining. Excellent make-up for Joel Grey who plays the Korean Chiun. Love that action set piece at the Statue of Liberty. And remember this line from the movie, it's called the Eleventh Commandment. "Thou shall not get away with it."

New Topic for the Basement Blog: Guilty Pleasures

I'm adding a new topic to this Blog. It's going to be called "Guilty Pleasures." It 's going to be posts about stuff that gets criticized by the media or people but I like. Most of these items will be movies but who knows. It could include other things.