Tag Archives: Cailee Spaeny

Movie Review: Alien: Romulus

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Somewhere in the world, there are companies that warehouse and store movie sets and equipment used in past films. From the opening scenes of the new movie “Alien: Romulus” it was like revisiting the sets of the original Alien (1979) or the sequel Aliens (1986), including the old computer monitors and related equipment. Regarding science fiction movies and arguably the greatest Alien creature ever created, these first two Alien films are the all-time standards and the beginning of the almost 50-year franchise of Alien movies.

The latest Alien movie “Alien: Romulus” has many reminders of the first two Alien movies and a character from the original movie named Ash, who is an android played by the late Ian Holm, using AI. From my memory of the original Alien from 1979, I remembered that the spaceship that Ash was on blew up. Given this fact, how could he now appear in this movie – with a timeline some 20 years after the original story?

This story is about a group of younger astronauts on a ship some 67 light years from Earth. Their mission is about trying to retrieve a valuable specimen on their space station called Romulus. Soon after they dock with another space station, where they encounter deadly alien creatures known as deadly Xenomorphs and face-huggers, that attach themselves to the face of a human host where they implant an alien that grows rapidly and explodes from the chest of the victim – one of the most impressive ideas in the history of horror movies.

That cast for this latest Alien installment includes Rain, played by Cailee Spaeny – who has an impressive start to her young acting career – having appeared in several major movie releases in the last 2 years. The android character of Andy is played very well by David Jonsson, who is close friends with Rain. The other characters have relatively small roles including Kay, played by Isabela Merced. Because Kay is pregnant, the new idea introduced in this story is that when a human is implanted with an Alien while pregnant, a new combination of Alien/Human creatures is created – something never seen before in all the many Alien movies. This idea is the only original one within this entire film.

Towards the end of this story, the climax includes too many ideas from the second Aliens movie, that I thought were contrived and lacked any attempt at originality.

Overall I thought this latest Alien movie was just OK, and I was surprised at the high 82% rating for this movie, with my rating about 70% and a very marginal recommendation only for fans of the Alien franchise.

Movie Review: Civil War

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One of the craziest parts about the new movie “Civil War” is how for an entire two hours, with a story about photo journalists covering a major Civil War in the United States – between the East and the West is that there is not one single second devoted to the most important issue – why is there a Civil War going on? What caused a war like this to happen? How long has it been going on? What does each side believe? Have there been attempts at peace? Amazingly, none of these most important issues were ever addressed during the entire movie.

This entire story is about a series of scenes where 4 journalists, played by Kirsten Dunst,
Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Wagner Moura, survive near death experiences all to take pictures of an ongoing war while traveling 900 miles to Washington DC.

There is a good deal of extreme violence in this film, in some cases too much unnecessary violence, all the while with no explanation why there was a war going on in the first place. This story also points out how ridiculous it is to have untrained people from the press within any war zone. They have no training, no guns and take huge risks with their lives only to take pictures. How many members of the press have died over the years covering wars, when their deaths were completely preventable, by a camera on the helmet of a soldier or a tank. The reporter David Bloom comes to mind from the Iraq War in 2003, who was a reporter who was killed because he was in a war zone, when he had no business being there.

As far as this movie, due to the glaring hole in the screenplay, not explaining the reasons for the Civil War, I do not agree with the 84% rating, giving this movie a 70% and a very moderate recommendation.

Movie Review: Priscilla

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The new movie “Priscilla” is directed by Sofia Coppola, based on the book by Priscilla Presley Elvis and Me about the relationship that started in the late 50’s between a young 14-year-old girl, Priscilla Beaulieu and 24-year-old Elvis Presley when he was stationed in Germany when he volunteered for the United States Army. Numerous questions come to mind while watching this film, starting with why Priscilla’s parents let their 14-year-old daughter become involved with Elvis Presley when she was way underage and he was an adult 24-year-old man, and world famous.

This entire movie is the story of the relationship between Elvis and Presley starting with their first date in Germany to Priscilla moving in with Elvis for years before they finally married. In the beginning, Elvis was extremely kind and respectful to his very young girlfriend, but over time, Elvis became so rude and cruel to Priscilla to the point where I wondered why she ever married him in the first place. Elvis also shared his prescription drugs with Priscilla, that included uppers to stay awake and downers to fall asleep, even when she was very young.

Elvis also had several well-publicized affairs with other famous actors while making his movies including Ann Margeret and Nancy Sinatra. Rather than apologize or try to hide his many affairs, Elvis became angry and Priscilla when she mentioned them and never apoligized for his cheating.

There are many scenes when Priscilla is required to just stay home for months, waiting for Elvis to return from a movie he is making or another tour. In so many scenes, seeing this very young woman around a chain-smoking Elvis and his entourage made up of 40-60-year-old men, was hard to watch because it was obvious she never fit in and had no business being in this life with a man who was both a drug addict and a serial cheater. Elvis even bought Priscilla several guns that matched her different outfits.

Towards the end of this story is the birth of Lisa Marie Presley and shortly thereafter Priscilla’s final realization that being married to Elvis Presley was not only impossible for her but for any woman. A marriage and relationship is difficult enough, but a life and career as insane as Elvis Presley during the peak of his fame was never going to work, especially with a woman who was so young.

The acting in this film is outstanding, with 25-year-old newcomer Cailee Spaeny, stealing this movie and receiving a major Oscar buzz for best actress. She has a perfect face for movies, and has without a doubt arrived as a bankable actress for future roles. Jacob Elordi, who plays Elvis Presley is also very good, although while he was excellent at capturing the way Elvis used to talk, his mumbling at times was very hard to understand.

I agree with the high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for Priscilla and do recommend this movie.