24: Redemption (2008, TV movie) or, Bauer in Africa!

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+ Best TV movie of the Year

Beloved TV action hero Jack Bauer finds himself on the dark continent at sundown on this dark and gritty poster for Jon Cassar's 24: Redemption

24: Redemption is a TV movie written by Howard Gordon (Homeland (2014-19)) and Tari (Forsaken (2015)) and directed by Jon Cassar (Nancy Drew (1995, TV-series)), based on the great action TV-series 24 (2001-10) by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow (La Femme Nikita (1997-01), both). It is the series' only TV movie, set between season 6 and season 7.

Exiled counter-terrorist agent-hero Jack Bauer helps a dear old colleague/friend in an orphanage in an unsettled African country, where an unscrupulous rebel militia is armed from a shady American and stage a coup!

24: Redemption takes a radical step in a new direction from the series' normal battleground by taking place in Africa, (Bauer usually combats terrorism in Southern California), and the team behind the film deserve credit for actually going to Africa to shoot and feature African talent. The film has suspense and emotions rolling, and besides Kiefer Sutherland (Melancholia (2011)), who remains solid as Bauer, Robert Carlyle (Dead Fish (2005)) is a welcome addition; as is an evil Jon Voight (JL Ranch (2016)), cynical Powers Boothe (Deadwood (2004-06)), Cherry Jones (Mother and Child (2009)) as a Hillary Clinton-like newly elected first female US president, and in the Africa scenes Isaach De Bankolé (The Unit (2006, TV-series)) and Tony Todd (Chuck (2007-11)) light up the screen.
There are no major surprises in the content or execution here, but 24: Redemption has a handsome scope for a TV movie, and it wets the audience's appetite for more 24!

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
Reviewed 24 seasons: Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
24 - season 3 (2003) - The virus-centered peak for the great action show
24 season 2 (2002-03) - The Bomb 
24 season 1 (2001-02) - TV action milestone
 

Sutherland talks 24 on Jimmy Fallon's talkshow, including Bauer's 'dammit' catchphrase in this video

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV movie
= Uncertain - but a ratings hit
[24: Redemption premiered 23 November on Fox in North America (with the DVD release two days later) and runs 89 minutes (an extended 102 minute cut was later released). The film was conceptualized in order for Bauer to stay with his audience despite the 2007-08 writers' strike in the US, which delayed the 7th season. Sutherland has stated that the film is inspired by the Clinton administration's passive reaction to the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Recreating an African environment in California proved too difficult, and therefore shooting was set in Africa: Shooting took place in Cape Town, South Africa and in Los Angeles, California from June - July 2008. The film was Fox's second most viewed show of the week of its release (behind House (2004-12)) and hijacked 12.1 mil. US viewers. It was the night's highest-rated scripted show and the third most viewed of the 8-11 PM spot overall. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and 5 Emmys. Cassar returned to direct several episodes of 24's season 7. Sutherland did voice performances in Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) and returned as Bauer in 24 season 7 in January 2009. 24,770 IMDb users have given 24: Redemption a 7.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of 24: Redemption?

Halloween Movie 2017: Candyman (1992) - Racial tensions inform Rose and Barker's Chicago-set horror favorite

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A mysterious and curiosity-sparking poster for Bernard Rose's Candyman

As part of her thesis project on urban legends, Helen and a student friend visit Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project, where the feared Candyman is said to have killed...

Candyman is a hugely suspenseful, heavily loaded horror favorite that treads new ground in a thought-provoking way. Virginia Madsen (Joy (2015)) is outstanding and a trooper for the genre here, and the same goes for Tony Todd (Agoraphobia (2015)), SPOILER who among other things endures having bees in his mouth for his performance in Candyman. Madsen and Kasi Lemmons (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), who plays her friend in the film, both have the added quality here of irresistible, glamorous hairdos, and Xander Berkeley (Nikita (2010-12)) is perfect as Madsen's disloyal partner.
Candyman also has a cute boy performance (by DeJuan Guy (Make It Rain (2008))), a strong score by Philip Glass (No Reservations (2007)) and a gruesome core to it that is interpretable in several ways: There are undeniable sexual overtones in the relation between misty-eyed Madsen and Todd with his huge hook (yes, the mandingo fantasy kind), but the film could also possibly stand as a conservative warning against 'slumming' on 'the wrong side of the tracks.' SPOILER The ending also made me speculate whether the black populace of Cabrini-Green want to burn Candyman for his bloodlust or for crossing racial barriers with his ancient romance? The film taps right down into the still boiling, rich stew that is the fraught race relations in modern America and in this could be seen as a precursor of recent huge hit Get Out (2017).
Candyman a a film scoffs at the supercilious academic world in favor of the superstition and religion that is held high by the under-privileged black community. It is over-lit more than once, - perhaps so we won't miss the great production design (by Jane Ann Stewart (About Schmidt (2002))) and strong use of colors.
Candyman is written and directed by great English filmmaker Bernard Rose (Paperhouse (1988)), adapting Clive Barker's (Sacrament (1996)) short story The Forbidden from his Books of Blood: Volume 5. It is a major horror favorite in my book.

Watch the title sequence for the film here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 25.7 mil. $ - North America only
= Some uncertainty; at least a box office success and likely a big hit
[Candyman premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Although Barker's story was set in his native Liverpool, Rose changed the setting to Chicago and found shooting in the US easier than in England. Eddie Murphy was sought for the Candyman part but was too costly. For the lead, Rose cast his then wife Alexandra Pigg, but when she found out she was pregnant, the role was offered to Madsen. Sandra Bullock, who had not broken through yet as an actress, was also in contention for the part. Rose held meetings with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) before shooting to avert racial controversy, but relates that when they read the script they felt it was all "just good fun." Madsen was also worried about the race aspect and related fear that Spike Lee would not like the film. Shooting took place in Chicago, Illinois, including in the real Cabrini-Green project, and in California, including Los Angeles, from November - December 1991. The film opened #4, behind Under Siege, The Last of the Mohicans and The Mighty Ducks, to a 5.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent the next two weeks at #3 before leaving the top 5, grossing 25.7 mil. $. The foreign grosses are not reported, but if the world gross is set at a conservative 35 mil. $, the film rates as a big hit. Roger Ebert gave film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. The film inspired two lesser performing sequels; Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999, video), both without Madsen and Rose but with Todd. Candyman is fresh at 70 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Candyman?

The Crow (1994) - Proyas' unpleasant, exploitative, shameless and ugly turkey

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

A foreboding poster for Alex Proyas' The Crow

The Crow is an adaptation of James O'Barr's 1989 comic book of the same name, written by John Shirley (Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996), TV-series) and David J. Schow (Critters 4 (1992)) and directed by Alex Proyas (Knowing (2009)).

One year after the murder of Eric Draven, a young rock musician, and his fiancée, he comes to life again because of a crow, who flies around the dreary metropolis and wants to avenge their deaths.

The Crow has been celebrated to a ridiculous degree, and it is also even getting a remake now. It is, to me, a wildly unpleasant and poor film. Considering the three highly dubious, main talents behind it listed above, it is not so very strange, I think.
It only heightens the unpleasantness of the film for me that its talented star Brandon Lee (Legacy of Rage (1986)), - the son of Bruce Lee (Fist of Fury (1972)), - was killed in a weapon's accident on the Crow set: A weapon was not properly checked before use, and Lee was shot in the abdomen, which caused his death. - Something that, of course, should never be able to happen. Still the death was ruled an accident, no-one was deemed liable, and the film was completed with a double, rewrites and some CGI covering up for Lee's absence. The film's studio Paramount wanted out of The Crow due to the death of its star and violent material, and Miramax instead went in and injected 8 mil. $ to finish the film.
- But, paradoxically, it seems that the reception of the film at the time and the its cult following since have embraced Lee's death and consider the awful Crow a more profound film because of it.
Nothing could, however, be farther from the truth.

The details:

The Crow is a cheap-looking, shameless exercise in exploitation of the teenage crowds of its time; it is a world-weary concoction, draped in goth- and grunge styles and music. This isn't just the epitome of 'the ugly 90s', it is also a badly written film, populated almost solely with unpleasant characters with few individuating traits, who all scream and swear continuously. It's filled with unpleasant violence and the occasional, more or less motivated explosions. And it's nearly always night in the Crow universe, and mostly raining as well, so that the general atmosphere and what you take from the film is simply just a heady mix of depressing garbage, all in all.
The production budget was essentially too little for this type of film, because the lack of funds and mismanaging of the funds they did have, give it a cheap look: We understand that it takes place in a major city, - but we only see very little of it, and there are never many people out. The lack of extras is a mystery: In the big city of The Crow, we don't just happen to meet the same 10-15 characters over and over again, - no, they genuinely seem to be the only ones there! - Because Proyas and co. neglected to make the city look alive. 
Lee's death was also partly due to the fact that the weapons' handling was put in the hands of an assistant, instead of the expert, who was send home, probably to save money. - Cheap, cheap cheap. The Crow reeks of cheap, repugnant movie-making.
The Crow is one-dimensional, weltschmerz-laden, ugly, pointless film-making. And it's is such a shame that Lee should end his far too young life on such a tawdry production.
If you decide to watch the film anyway, you might notice that The Dark Knight (2008) seems, oddly, to have been inspired by The Crow, as some designs (namely Lee's make-up, which is very similar to that of Heath Ledger's Joker, but also some masks in the film) and visuals are very similar in the infinitely superior Batman movie.

 

Related post:

 

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

 

Brandon Lee in a still from Alex Proyas' The Crow - R.I.P.

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 94 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Crow opened #1 in the US with 11.7 mil. $, - successfully tapping into the badly clad youths of the time, - and grossed 50.6 mil. $ (54 % of the total gross) in North America. It was even praised by scores of populist and/or drowsy critics.]

What do you think of The Crow?

Night of the Living Dead (1990) - Romero and Savini hash up a superfluous remake

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The persuasive (for horror fans anyway) poster for Tom Savini's Night of the Living Dead

Master director George A. Romero's (Dawn of the Dead (1978)) great zombie classic Night of the Living Dead (1968) received a color-conversion remake 23 years after its release at the behest of Romero himself, who reworked his and John A. Russo's (Voodoo Dawn (1991)) original script for the purpose. The reason was partly copyrights issues concerning the original film, which, due to slobby paperwork, had not turned out the profits for Romero that it should have, (the film was a tremendous hit.) And partly due to a wish on Romero's part to secure control over the first remake of his own classic. For the job, he persuaded his friend, special make-up effects wiz Tom Savini (Day of the Dead (1985), special make-up effects) to take on the job of directing the film. Prior to it, Savini had only directed 3 episodes of the TV-series Tales From the Darkside (1984-88)).

A pair of siblings visit the resting place of their deceased mother but are attacked by living dead. The woman flees to a nearby house, where she fights for survival with some other strangers.

The plot is largely the same as in the original and nothing much has changed in the way of style or tone either. Savini has added some gore and zombies, but not as many as one might have expected. The opening cemetery scene is perhaps the film's most enjoyable, riffing on the original, great scene somewhat humorously.
From then on, the closeness to the original film begins to play as a distracting, ongoing show in the back of the minds of most audiences who are familiar with that film. The color and close repeating of the original's storyline dispels the eeriness that that film had, and what is left seems like a mostly unoriginal rehash of a truly beloved horror movie.

The details:

Fine actor Tony Todd (Candyman (1992)) is good in the role of strong African-American protagonist Ben (originally portrayed by Duane Jones (Ganja & Hess (1973))), who gets a different SPOILER, but still tragic, fate in this new version.
He plays opposite fiery redhead Patricia Tallman (Army of Darkness (1992)), who does alright here but gets stuck with some pretty bonkers material, especially towards the end I thought, as, for instance, SPOILER she addresses the rednecks with quasi-philosophical comments about their barbaric behavior after surviving the zombie massacre.
This remake doesn't seriously hurt anyone in the long run, (Romero's oevre is full of other misfires, which can't detract from his best work), but it is unquestionably redundant and disappointing.
Savini has called the making of it "the worst nightmare of [my] life", because the film's producers made his vision for the direction of the film impossible, which is a sad but not uncommon phenomenon in movies. Since then, he has reportedly been known to show some of his discarded gore material from the film at fan conventions, (the film lost some 'weight' to obtain its R rating.) And Savini has stayed away from directing after Night, besides a short film and segments in two horror anthologies.

Related review:

Tom Savini: Dawn of the Dead (1978) or, Mall of Death (make-up and cosmetic effects, stunts, actor)

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 4.2 mil. $
Box office: 5.8 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[But almost certainly a big flop. The film was poorly received by critics. It made 0.2 mil. $ in Spain. It has since grown in standing among some (overly) nostalgic horror fans. But don't let yourself be fooled.]

What do you think of Savini's Night of the Living Dead?