TOY STORY

(November 1995, U.S.)

When my son was a little boy, I must have watched just about every computer-animated feature that was ever made because that's just what you have to do when you're a father. The original release of TOY STORY in 1995, though, was at a time during the crust of my '20s, when animation was just about the last thing I had on my mind when I went to the movies. Any initial interest I had in this brand new full length Pixar feature was more about the comic voice of Tom Hanks behind one of its characters than anything else.

Taking place in a world where anthropomorphic toys come to life when human beings aren't present, the plot tells of the relationship between a vintage pull-string cowboy doll named Woody (voiced by Hanks) and an astronaut action figure, Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen), as they evolve from rivals competing for the affections of their owner Andy, to close friends working together to be reunited with Andy after being accidentally separated from him and his house. On the day of Andy's birthday, all his toys are in a panicked frenzy because they've yet to discover what new toys are going to be a part of their world. All seems safe until the final birthday present is a brand new Buzz Lightyear action figure who's looking to be the best of the group above Woody. Buzz, however, things he's the one and only space ranger, and not a toy, though Woody repeatedly tries to convince him otherwise. It's days before Andy, his mother and his little sister Molly are due to move, and the toys are organized to make sure it all goes smoothly. Before going to dinner at Pizza Planet, Andy is permitted to bring one toy with him. Knowing that Andy will choose Buzz, Woody attempts to trap Buzz behind a desk but ends up knocking him out of the window, causing most of the other toys to accuse Woody of "murdering" Buzz out of jealousy. Before they can exact revenge, Andy arrives and, after failing to find Buzz, takes Woody with him.

Now faced with the challenge of getting back home, Woody and Buzz reach Pizza Planet and end up getting stuck in a crane game filled with alien toys. They're both retrieved by Andy's neighbor Sid, who takes pleasure in sadistically torturing toys. Inside Sid's room, Woody and Buzz meet the mutant toys who have suffered under Sid's torture. While trying to escape Sid's room, Buzz sees a TV commercial for a Buzz Lightyear action figure and suddenly and painfully realizes he is just a toy, and nothing more (his drunken stupor as "Mrs. Nesbitt" still cracks me up even today). But as cliché would dictate, Woody restores Buzz's confidence by convincing him of the joy he brings to Andy as a toy. The next morning, as Sid is about to launch Buzz on a his newly-acquired firework rocket, Woody and the mutant toys come to life in front of Sid, terrifying him into no longer abusing his toys.

The duo manage to make it to the moving truck by not only working together, but by actually employing Sid's rocket that was meant to destroy Buzz. In the end, the beloved toys are reunited with Andy (who's never been the wiser to anything that happened to them) and on Christmas Day at their new home, the new challenge (if not threat) to the toys will be a new puppy who may just enjoy chewing up toys.

Twenty-five years later, even as compared to the TOY STORY sequels, the original film looks a bit lame and underdeveloped in terms of its computer animation quality. For the mid '90s, of course, it was considered state-of-the-art with its bright, flashy colors. It also helped to reinvigorate animation through Pixar's arrival, even after a series of successful Disney animated releases that started with THE LITTLE MERMAID in 1989. Again, for its time, the film is a feast of visual razzle-dazzle offering a secret world beyond our own in a way we'd never seen before. As comedy, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and the rest of the cast make it fun, imaginative and inventive, with just the right amount of adult wit to keep one interested. For children, it's surely a pure and free-spirited romp though a world of toys that many of us may have grown up with as kids. It may also open our own minds and imaginations to how much our childhood toys really meant to us beyond the initial gratification of getting them from our parents when we asked for them. At least, that's how it works for me.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Buzz Lightyear: "Don't you get it!? You see the hat!? I'm Mrs. Nesbitt!!"

TOWERING INFERNO, THE

(December 1974, U.S.)

Allow me to post what is undeniably considered the greatest of the 1970s disaster genre, THE TOWERING INFERNO, with a very personal story...

It was late November 1975, and it was the year my life underwent a dramatic change when I finally learned that my parents were not getting divorced, but actually already were divorced. Apparently, it was finalized back in September, and my younger brother and I learned about it for the first time from my father following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. As might not be expected from a typical eight year-old child, my initial reaction was not a negative one. Realizing that my parents were constantly fighting and there was an ongoing environment of tension and hostility in the household, the only feeling I experienced was relief. I was just a child and all I could focus on, upon hearing the news, was that the fighting would end. Upon further reflection, I also realized that I'd spend my weekends with my father at his Manhattan apartment and that likely meant more fun, more leisure and more movies.

There was a small catch, however. He had a new girlfriend whom I shall call Mindy (because that's really her name). Just prior to Christmas, we arrived at his new apartment in Gramercy Park on Saturday morning to meet her for the first time. I was nervous, but going against the grain of how most children would traditionally react, I took to her almost immediately. She was pretty, fun-loving and high-spirited, which is exactly what a child needed when his own mother was experiencing her own personal feelings of bitterness following the divorce and, unfortunately, found its way into the home environment during the week with her. So as that day dragged closer to dusk and we were planning an evening of take-out food together, I stumbled upon something I’d never seen before. It was a guide, but not the traditional TV Guide I’d seen before. This was a mini booklet with a cover depicting the bright colors of red, orange and yellow. On the left side of the guide were the words ON AIR with December 1975 printed underneath it. On the right side of the guide were three letters I’d never seen before – HBO with the words Home Box Office printed underneath it. Underneath that was what really caught my attention and that was the movie title of a major blockbuster hit that was in theaters just one year before, THE TOWERING INFERNO. Here's what it looked like...

Inside the guide were numerous pictures and schedule listing of not just this movie, but many others. Wait a second – just what was this I was looking at? My father told me he was paying for an extra channel every month that showed movies without commercials, though he didn’t specifically identify his new service by the name HBO, but rather simply stated that he was paying for cable TV. HBO, cable TV, extra channel, I didn’t care what the proper name for it was. This was something new that I never knew existed before – the latest hit movies on television without commercials. My visitation weekends with my father and Mindy had just jumped up a considerable amount of points. For the first time, I was going to watch THE TOWERING INFERNO on television, uncut and uninterrupted. I'd heard of the movie a year ago simply by staring at the promo ads in the newspaper, which depicted the tall skyscraper engulfed in fire, so I didn’t need to guess what it was about. So, that evening, by the time 8 pm rolled around and the consumption of take-out fried chicken had been completed, we all sat in front of one of the most modern color televisions available at the time, ready to watch the movie.

Two and a half hours later, I was not only enlightened, but also just a little freaked out by what I’d just watched. Enlightened because this was the first disaster film I saw during an era when this particular genre gained widespread popularity with moviegoers ever since George Seaton’s film AIRPORT in 1970. It seemed I was just starting to understand what all the fuss was about because THE TOWERING INFERNO proved to be sheer excitement and intense drama for my movie tastes, limited as they still were at my age. Freaked out because watching a raging inferno in the world’s tallest building taking the lives of so many people is a frightening thing and because my father was a living in a rather tall apartment building. There was also a Christmas tree flashing in the corner of the living room. That night, I couldn’t remember if he’d unplugged the tree before retiring, but I do remember that idea of an electrical element like that running all night in an apartment building after having just watched THE TOWERING INFERNO didn’t sit right with me. I have the vaguest memory of waking up in the middle of the night and checking the living room. It would seem that childish paranoia and the power of the disaster motion picture took its toll on an eight year-old boy (thanks so much for doing that to me, Irwin Allen!).

Years later, in my high school teen years, the film actually inspired me to pursue architecture as a career because I'd convinced (actually, deluded) myself into believing that I could possibly conceive and design such a feat of construction. It also gave me a case of anxiety because as the architect of the film, Doug Roberts (played by the late, great Paul Newman) is not only an expert in his field, but in the field of every engineering department, as well, including mechanical and electrical. Geez, would I really have to know all that if I wanted to become an architect in real life? Well, speaking as one now, the answer is no. Architects know their profession, and engineers know theirs, and neither one of us are interested in becoming experts in the other's field.

All these years, THE TOWERING INFERNO continues to thrill and astound me as it did back in the '70s, as not only a technical achievement of action and dangerous thrills, but as a better story of the actual people behind the disaster. Whereas Universal Studios disaster films of that same year (EARTHQUAKE and AIRPORT 1975) featured acting performances about as shoddy and cheesy as the disasters themselves, Irwin Allen's great production provides dramatic characters with all their charms and their flaws that one can actually care about (hell, you even believe that Mike Lookinland, formerly Bobby Brady of THE BRADY BUNCH, had to potential to act beyond his infamous childhood TV role). In a way, I suppose I'm not too unlike the film itself when it comes to my memory of it...a personal story of people, as well as action. So again, thanks so much for doing that to me, Irwin Allen!

Favorite line or dialogue:

James Duncan: "We've got a fire, and if it was caused by anything you did, I'm going to hang you out to dry, and then I'm going to hang you!"

TOUCH OF EVIL

(February 1958, U.S.)

I am writing this post on Orson Welles's 1958 theatrical version of the film...

It took me some time beyond CITIZEN KANE to fully realize the genius behind many of Orson Welles's films, including TOUCH OF EVIL. Believe it or not, I was barely aware of the film until it was featured in the 1995 John Travolta film GET SHORTY. The combination of Travolta's enthusiasm and the image of the Los Angeles movie theater marquee peaked my interest in this American film noir classic. Not long after, I got the chance to see it on screen at a revival theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in a double bill with DOUBLE INDEMNITY (that was a great day at the movies!). Then in 1998, it was re-released as an extended and re-cut version remaining faithful to Welles's original vision, as it was described in a fifty-eight page letter he wrote to Universal Studios at the time. It was, of course, a pleasure to watch this film again on screen, but I've always (with only a few exceptions) clung to the original theatrical versions of popular movies.

Charlton Heston plays his version of a Mexican drug enforcement official named Mike Vargas, just newly married to Susie (played by Janet Leigh). While walking along the U.S.-Mexico border, a time bomb is planted inside the trunk of a car and explodes on the U.S. side of the border, killing a man and his young female lover. Realizing the political implications of a Mexican bomb exploding on American soil, Vargas proceeds into the investigation despite having no official authoritative jurisdiction. Several police officials arrive on the scene, including obese and sloppy police captain Hank Quinlan (played by Orson Welles himself). The prime suspect in the bombing is a young Mexican named Sanchez who was secretly married to the car bomb victim's daughter. Sanchez is roughly interrogated by Quinlan and the other cops and eventually framed for his arrest by two sticks of dynamite planted in a shoe box in his apartment. Vargas accuses Quinlan of planting the evidence and soon suspects that Quinlan has been planting evidence and framing suspects for years to help secure convictions. Vargas's claims are dismissed due to his presumed just-biased in favor of fellow Mexicans.

Meanwhile, Susie is holed up alone at a remote American motel to escape the trouble brewing amidst the investigation and the criminal intentions of crime family boss Uncle Joe Grandi. The motel is owned by Grandi and proven to be unsafe when Grandi's relatives take over and terrorize Susie by overdosing her with drugs and planting drugs around her unconscious body. Grandi is double-crossed and strangled by Quinlan, leaving Susie in the room with the dead body, all as an attempt to discredit Vargas and his suspicions. A drunk Vargas is confronted about his past history of tainted evidence by his police partner, while Vargas is not far behind recording the conversation on foot. Qunilan drunkenly admits to planting evidence on those he believed to be guilty. But during the outdoor recorded conversation, Quinlan hears an echo from the secret microphone and suspects betrayal by his partner, as well as Vargas's presence nearby. Qunilan shoots his partner with Vargas's' gun (stolen earlier in the film) and prepares to shoot Vargas himself, but is instead shot by the dying partner. Like the filthy man he is (was), Quinlan falls and dies in a pool of filthy wastewater. The film ends with a simple implication that men are just men, and it doesn't matter what we say about them in the end.

Despite being a film that Welles initially didn't want to make, it has all the styles and traditions that make his films great, including the overlapping dialogue and multiple perspective camera shots and cinematography. Orson Welles himself plays a role that may also be considered semi-autobiographical, in that he not only acknowledges his own changing physical appearance, but also a man who may be confronting old feuds and past demons, exhibiting an obsessive need for control of everything and everyone around his professional career and personal life.

However many versions of TOUCH OF EVIL there may be, or however it's been judged throughout the history of cinema, it still remains a shining example of Orson Welles's brilliance.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Tanya: "Isn't somebody gonna come and take him away?"
Al Schwartz: "Yeah, in just a few minutes. You really liked him didn't you?"
Tanya: "The cop did...the one who killed him...he loved him."
Schwartz: "Well, Hank was a great detective all right."
Tanya: "And a lousy cop."
Schwartz: "Is that all you have to say for him?"
Tanya: "He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"
Schwartz: "Goodbye, Tanya."
Tanya: "Adiós."

TOTAL RECALL (2012)

(August 2012, U.S.)

The year 1990 was the absolute worst year of my youth for many reasons, including my education, my professional life and being in love with a girl who didn't return the same feelings. The blockbuster summer season didn't do much to take my mind off things, as films like BACK TO THE FUTURE-PART III, DICK TRACY, ANOTHER 48 HRS., ROBOCOP 2, and particularly TOTAL RECALL repeatedly let me down. To this day, I'll never understand why Arnold Schwarzenegger's sci-fi action movie is so damn popular. The acting and visuals are, at best, mediocre and cheesy. The dialogue is corny and typical of just about any other Schwarzenegger vehicle, despite whatever joy we make take in watching him gun down Sharon Stone and declare, "Consida dat a divorce!" In fact, it's Sharon Stone as Lori Quaid offering her delicious body to Arnold, and seductively offering, "I'll give you something to dream about"...

...or even that incredibly sexy and vicious look she has on her face when she tries to kill him that highlights this Paul Verhoven dud, in my opinion...

Well, love it or hate it, the original version of TOTAL RECALL was probably one of the few movies I ever expected to be remade, but it was, and it's a far superior improvement on what I believe author Philip K. Dick intended to be a dark and dystopian tale with his 1966 short story, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". This time the setting is Earth only, and no one is required to get their ass to Mars. The story blends political themes of American and Asian influences, particularly in overpopulated settings of two divided nations, the United Federation of Britain (UFB) and the Colony. It's the end of the 21st century, and our planet is deemed almost inhabitable due to chemical warfare. Factory workers living in the colony, including Douglas Quaid (played by Colin Farrell), commute to the UFB everyday on a gravity elevator known as "The Fall". Within the UFB is a resistance group, viewed as a terrorist movement in the media, seeking to improve the quality of living in the Colony. As Doug appears to be living a boring life of a factory worker and married to Lori (played by Kate Beckinsale), he dreams of being a secret agent living a life of adventure, and visits Rekall with the intent of fulfilling this fantasy through memory implants. But before the fantasy can be implanted, it's discovered that Doug already has memories of being a spy, and this is when all hell breaks loose, with police squads trying to arrest him. Instead, Doug instinctively reacts and kills the entire squad. His wife is also revealed to be a UFB intelligence agent and that their marriage is just an illusion, and now she's trying to kill him.

Much like the first film, Doug is repeatedly pursued and repeatedly escapes his would-be captors. Along the way, he learns more about his true identity and his true purpose withing the resistance, even getting help from visual recordings made by himself in the past under his former and real life identity of Carl Hauser, an agent working for UFB head and movie bad guy Cohaagen (played by Bryan Cranston). It's up to Doug and his female sidekick Melina (played by Jessica Biel) to stop the impending invasion by an army of robots against the Colony citizens. Plenty of action and explosions later, justice and freedom are restored, and Lori, the insanely-vicious female killing machine is finally defeated, too.

Like I previously indicated, people consider the original 1990 film a sci-fi classic, and I'll never know why. That being the case, it's almost no wonder this remake of TOTAL RECALL earned so much negative criticism, and I'll never know why. Visually, this is a far more striking experience to the senses, much in the spirit of Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER and Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT (both inspired by Philip K. Dick stories), while giving us some truly detailed and richly-constructed action sequences without being silly or campy (though sadly, the silly three-breasted hooker is still included in the remake). It's also impossible to deny that Colin Farrell is an actual actor in the role as compared to a slab of meat like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and that counts for a whole lot when you're trying to tell any story. Bottom line, I've never felt that science fiction should be silly or funny in any way, especially when it's meant to be a tale of our dark future. If there's any exception to that rule, it comes only from Woody Allen and his 1973 comedy SLEEPER.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Lori Quaid: "By the way, you haven't even begun to to see me try to kill you!"

TORA! TORA! TORA!

(September 1970, U.S.)

In 1991, when I was still in college, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was fifty years-old. Hard to believe that TORA! TORA! TORA! is now a movie that's fifty years-old (just goes to show you what makes a man like me feel older) and released in a year when 20th Century Fox had war on its mind with other popular releases like M*A*S*H and PATTON. Still, even after all these decades, this film which depicts the legendary attack from both sides, American and Japanese, is a whole lot better than Michael Bay could have ever hoped to achieve with his 2001 epic PEARL HARBOR (and I actually like that movie).

Without going into any historical detail (that's for my readers to research on their own), the pace of the film is told as if it were a point-by-point countdown to the inevitable day of December 7, 1941. There's virtually no civilian life or reaction in this story, concentrating solely on military strategy from both the American and Japanese forces, each of them gearing up for what they fear will be the prelude to a long, destructive and catastrophic war.

While the film's opening disclaimer insists that its depiction is based on historical accuracy, that of course, is always subject to interpretation and acceptance. One must always expect a certain level of Hollywood liberties in any story that's (supposedly) based on true events or facts. While the film's characters are plentiful and leave a little something to be desired in terms of being able to identify with them on any level, the events of battle are authentic looking and exciting to watch, all in the days long before CGI. One of the more interesting points of accuracy is the final line of the film in which Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto says, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." A version of this quotation is also said in PEARL HARBOR and the 2019 version of MIDWAY (haven't seen that yet). Did Yamamoto really say this? There is no recorded evidence to prove such a statement, but it has apparently embedded itself into Hollywood folklore when making a World War II combat film about the Japanese.

Not well received in 1970, TORA! TORA! TORA! is still one of the most spectacular war films ever made, in my opinion, and clearly makes a point of attempting to carefully recreate an event of historical significance with vivid action scenes of aviation and strategic planning, despite a rather slow-moving plotline (slow or not, it's still a whole lot better than investing one's time in a love triangle between Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale). And by the way, if you remember a TV mini-series called PEARL originally aired on ABC in 1978 (aired again in 1991 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the event), you'd be interested to know that the scenes of the attack was footage originally taken from TORA! TORA! TORA!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Isoroku Yamamoto: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."