In Aaron's Wolf's TAR, an L.A. landmark is fodder for some foolish, would-be horror

The idea of using Los Angeles' semi-famous La Brea Tar Pits as the sort-of setting and theme for a modern monster movie sounds promising. If only. The resulting misfire, TAR, proves a way-overlong slough through one genre cliché after another, with a script that offers dialog ranging from adequate to stupid and thus provides a decent cast with a nowhere-near-decent opportunity to even look good, let alone shine. 

I'm afraid there is but one person to blame for most of this, actor/writer/director Aaron Wolf (shown below) who appears to be a  triple threat -- but in the negative, rather than positive, meaning of that word. If TrustMovies had not agreed to review this one, he likely would have stopped watching midway, if not sooner.

Mr. Wolf (shown above) is an attractive enough performer but as co-writer (with Timothy Nuttall) and director, he allows for snail-like pacing until one wants to scream, Get on with it!, while some of the inane dialog -- particularly that involving the usual dumb, overweight and over-sexed best friend (played by poor Sandy Danto, below) -- becomes cringe-inducingly obvious and expected

The movie posits a seen-better-days business located in the area of the Pits that is now forced to close and must move out completely by the following morning or face a huge monetary payment. Simultaneously, a long gestating Tar Pitts monster is somehow unleashed and of course wreaks havoc on our gang of employees, family, lovers and friends. (Below is Timothy Bottoms as the uber-controlling paterfamilias.) 

Far too early on the electricity goes out (not simply at the location but in the writing, direction and performances, too), leaving us viewers in the usual gray, muddy semi-darkness that soon becomes boring to view but does provide the chance to fudge on any sharp, easily-seen visual effects. (The monster himself proves no big deal visually, in any case.)

Above is Tiffany Shepis, playing the employee with "psychic powers" who's not nearly as good at predicting as she imagines, and below is our old and always fun-to-watch friend Graham Greene as the local indigenous storyteller who knows the history of the "monster."

In films like this, there is sometimes fun to be had in guessing the order of who-will-survive?, but Tar doesn't generate enough interest to even manage that. Maybe 20 minutes too long, it's repetitive and tiresome: another pretty good idea for a scary movie wasted in mediocrity. But then, maybe younger folk who have not yet seen a lifetime of this kind of thing might find some fright and/or amusement here. (That's the movie's zaftig and relatively charming sex symbol, played by Nicole Alexandra Shipley, below.)

From 1091 Pictures and running 99 minutes, Tar hits digital streaming, available to purchase this coming Tuesday, October 20, and for rental the following Tuesday, October 27. To maybe find a theater or drive-in near you, click here then click on the various embedded links.

Warning: The latest GODZILLA movie is bad enough to put the franchise to bed--for good--

but the irony here is that the cast assembled for this one is as good as any in all of the rest of the Godzilla movies put together. Ah, well... GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS gets so little right -- from the woeful "science" at hand to the special effects that look second-hand, second-rate and way too dark (that last is the reason that the Jurassic Park series and Kong: Skull Island are so watchable: you can actually see what's going on!) to the tiresome script to the near-constant chaotic visuals and sound -- that, should you stick to movie out until the end, you might find ushers handing out congratulatory You-actually-sat-through-it! awards in the lobby.

Since we paid for our tickets to this film, TrustMovies didn't feel at all guilty about leaving the mess of a movie around two-thirds of the way through. You would think that the fact that we were even sitting in those comfortable and ultra-reclining seats ought to have made the experience at least bearable. No: That's how bad this movie is.

Granted, the Godzilla franchise has always been silly (except for the original 1954 Japanese film--not the ridiculous "American-ized" version), never more so than when someone decided -- as here, again -- to toss in every last monster the old guy has ever faced off against. Motha, Rodan, some Hydra-headed thing, the works. Yet nothing does. Did someone say, The more the merrier? Hardly. This just adds to the length.

From Warner Brothers and running 132 minutes, the film is playing nationwide (but at less screenings than last week: word of mouth will out). Click here if you really want to find a theater near you.

Unearthed Films digs up another fun "classic," Jean-Paul Ouellette's THE UNNAMABLE

Celebrating its 30th anniver-sary this year, the cult horror film THE UNNAMABLE -- which TrustMovies had heard of occasionally over the years but never actually seen until now -- turns out to be a bit of good, old-fashioned horror/ supernatural fun, for reasons that begin with its surprisingly well-imagined and executed "monster" and include some decent dialog, well-placed scares, and better-than-average performances from most of the cast members. (The musical score is far too over-the-top, however.)

As directed and adapted (from an H.P. Lovecraft short story) by Jean-Paul Ouellette (shown at right), the movie's main problem (today, at least) is that the tale it tells seems awfully been-there/done-that, so audiences -- cult audiences are likeliest to fall for this one -- will simply have to ignore or forgive these trespasses and stick with what makes the movie the most fun.

The late Mr. Lovecraft, whose work has been adapted or inspired into nearly 200 movies so far (according to the IMDB, at least), did have a knack for scares & fright.

He knew how to make use of "the unknown," while turning the "knowing" of it into something much worse than one's previous ignorance.

In The Unnamable, we begin maybe a couple of hundred years previous, in a large New England house in which a very naughty "being" is semi-imprisoned. When it misbehaves, carnage ensues.

Cut to present day (present day circa 1988, anyway), where a very attractive bunch of university students plus one dweeby nerd (yes, the usual suspects) are discussing the rumors surrounding that house and what they might mean.

Before you can say "pile on some more exposition," sure enough, one of the fellows (two photos above, at left) decides to explore the place. Yes, say goodbye to him. Then we meet a couple of hot and hunky frat boys (clearly quite expendable victims), who talk two female students -- one hot, the other sweet, and all four shown above -- into exploring the house with them as a ruse and a road to some nooky.

All this is followed by suspense, scares, and more gore and carnage. And a little near-sex. One of the girls, played by Laura Albert, (above), possesses one of  the nicest nipples I've seen in a long while, and her character also keeps her on pearls on during sex -- always a sign of class.

Our hero is played by an actor who went at the time by the name of Charles King (but later became Charles Klausmeyer), shown being menaced, above. He is adorable and naive and properly sexy, at least to the girl (Alexandra Durrell, below) who pines for him but whom he does not notice properly until the finale. Well, the course of true love never did run smooth, as Willie the Shake told us way back when.

Now, to get to the main reason for watching The Unnamable: that really scary, amazingly put-together monster, of whom, as befits all good horror movies, we view only snippets until fairly close to the finale, when she (yes!) appears in all her gory glory.

What a creation this one is, and despite all the ugliness, there is more than a hint of sexuality and carnal desire present here. One gets the sense that if only one of our hot and hunky young men had pulled a nice, big boner for our creature, he might have remained alive. Or at least enjoyed himself a bit before the end. Ah, well. Best not to dwell on what might have been.

From Unearthed Films and running 87 minutes, the movie hit Blu-ray and DVD last month via MVD Entertainment Group -- for purchase and (I would hope) rental. The disc is full of Bonus Features, as well (click here for details), so fans can really dig in.

Netflix streaming tip: OKJA is yet another amazing blockbuster from Bong Joon-ho

Is there anyone else in the movie world making such intelligent, suprising and entertaining blockbusters as that South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho? I don't think so. He is indeed the new Spielberg but also something quite "more." After his Snowpiercer (from 2014), he has now gifted us with OKJA, the new sci-fi/fantasy/(sort-of)monster movie that features as its leading character a stalwart adolescent girl up against a corporate world that controls us all these days. Really: I can't think of another moviemaker (Mr. Bong is shown below) who could begin a film as though it were a child-and-her-adorable-giant-animal movie and then, by its end, give us one of the most memorable, moving, surprising and disturbing scenes to ever grace the screen (and I mean any kind of screen, not simply the "theatrical" variety).

That scene, by the way, may make the movie a more difficult experience for kids -- even though they'll love and appreciate most of the film.

And yet, because Bong is such a smart and gifted filmmaker (Mother, Memories of Murder, The Host), he is able to simultaneously give us the "happy ending" that those kids (and, come on, us adults, too) so want, while forcing his audience to view the larger picture -- in a manner so stunning and wrenching that it will seem like nothing you've encountered previously.

For thie alone, Okja deserves, and will undoubtedly receive, its placement on many of the year's "best" lists. (In fact, Variety has already picked it as one of the top movies of the year at our current halfway point.)

The film's story -- no spoilers here -- is all about a girl and her pet pig. That the pig is one of many genetically modified porkers and has grown to "monster" size has been no problem, since the girl, her grandfather and their pig live way the hell out in the countryside where they see (and are seen by) nobody else.

In the supporting cast are the likes of Paul Dano (above) and Jake Gyllenhaal (below), but the movie belongs to the Korean actress Ahn Seo-hyun, as the girl, Mija, and to the special effects department that created Okja and her giant breed. She and they are wonders indeed.

The drama arrives when the corporate entity (personified by the gifted and funny Tilda Swinton) that owns the pig takes it away from the girl to become the mascot for a new line of "pork products." Will our heroine allow this to happen? Not on your strip of breakfast bacon. So our filmmaker orchestrates everything from top-notch chase scenes to a pig-in-the-china-shop spree in a Seoul mall, from a marketing parade in Manhattan to a scary scene in one of those experimental laboratories.

But Bong is simply smarter than almost all the other would-be-blockbuster moviemakers. He always sees both sides of the situation, and so continuallly surprises and unsettles us. He understands that the power of money and greed can work both ways, that corporations can make themselves rich while feeding the planet, and that animal activists who want to harm neither animals nor humans will occasionally do both. He also understands the impulse not to kill other life forms we come to care for, and this, finally, is what sets up the film's biggest conflict.

So, sure, children will find more on their plate than movies like this usually provide. But give them the chance to view and handle it, and I suspect they'll remember this film for a long, long time. Stick with it, and you will, too. Opening a only a few theaters (in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center), the film will find its biggest international audience via Netflix streaming, where it is now playing.

On Home Video: Daniel Espinosa's LIFE proves to be everything the latest Alien movie wasn't

This is just a quick heads-up that if you're looking for a genuinely scary, suspenseful, smart and swift sci-fi thriller featuring an extraterrestrial who makes the recent "alien" look like the rather dumb-and-ugly monster it is, take a gamble on LIFE, from Swedish filmmaker Daniel Espinosa (don't worry, the film's in English), which is definitely this up-and-down director's best work to date.

Cleverly written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the movie pays good attention to everything from plotting, pacing and surprise to creating characters you care about while filling you in on (some of) the science of what's possible (or not) regarding space travel.

The movie's not perfect but it is so much better than anything else like it in a long while (particularly the recent and execrable Alien: Covenant, which offered Michael Fassbender and very little else) that the fact that it was so lukewarmly embraced by both critics and audiences seems a pretty clear statement of how dumb and undeserving both have now become.

I won't go into plot, except to say that, yes, the movie does the very same thing as the Alien franchsie and other space-travel-cum-monster movies: maroon a crew with the monster on board and then let things "work out." Yet how Life works them out is so much better than the other examples (save for the original Alien) that you'll be alternately on the edge of your seat and actually moved and amazed by it all. (And surprised and shaken by the ending.)

With Jake Gyllenhaal (three photos up) in fine form, Rebecca Ferguson (two photos above) supporting and Ryan Reynolds (above and below) again choosing to do a role that surprises in several ways, the entire cast is first-rate. And, yes, we lose some of them along the way, but how and why they expire is done with such novelty and feeling that this makes most other films in the genre look paltry indeed.

From Columbia Pictures/Sony and running a just-about-right 104 minutes, the movie hit Netflix DVDs yesterday (and is now -- this update comes two days later -- available on Redbox). In any case, if you're an intelligent fan of this genre, don't miss it. Click here and scroll down to view options for purchase or rental.

COLOSSAL: Another fine and original sci-fi film from Spanish master Nacho Vigalondo

What happens and why in the frolicsome, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful new sci-fi/monster movie, COLOSSAL, is so oddly charming and original that to give it away seems very unfair to any viewer who enjoys the necessary surprise that should go along with any movie experience. Too many reviewers have already ruined that surprise, but if you're still unaware of it, TrustMovies will do his best not to spoil it for you. The movie begins with the appearance of a monster in, hmmm... Korea. And then it jumps ahead to the USA some 25 years or so later.

The filmmaker here is one of my favorites, Nacho Vigalondo (shown at left), who has now given us three fine sci-fi films (Time Crimes, Extraterrestrial, and this one), as well as the excellent, modern-day, surveillance thriller, Open Windows. If his latest is not quite up to the wonders of Extraterrestrial, which is among, if not the best sci-fi film I've yet seen, it is, by virtue of being a Vigalondo movie, a "must" to view. It is also his "starriest," boasting a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, with Tim Blake Nelson and Austin Stowell in smart supporting roles.

Hathaway (at right) plays a very problemed-from-alcohol young woman, whose boyfriend (Mr. Stevens, below) kicks her out of their NYC apartment, and so she returns home to her parents' empty house in the sticks, where she takes up with an old school chum (played by Sudeikis). The movie takes place in both Seoul, Korea, and and the USA, and this very arbitrary choice of locales is one of the reasons why the film demands such a large suspension of disbelief.

Extraterrestrial posited the coming of aliens in space ships that simply hovered over our world without engaging with it. This was actually easier to buy than Colossal's plot gimmick, for the humans in that earlier film grew and changed due to their own responses to this not-quite alien invasion. Here, the monsters are certainly connected to the humans, but that connection demands a leap of faith in a manner that the earlier film did not.  That said, if you're willing to make the leap, Colossal provides some wonderful, original fun, along with terrific performances from the entire cast.

Ms Hathaway has never been better (and that includes her Oscar-winning performance), and Mr. Sudeikis (above) is a revelation. A very easy-to-enjoy actor, he has never been either this surprising nor this good. Nelson and Stowell (below. with Sudeikis) offer lovely turns, as well.

Again, I am not telling more about the plot because it would spoil the surprise. I'll just say that things here revolve around anger and how we use it.

If you enjoy sci-fi and/or movies with more than their normal share of originality, this one is definitely for you.

Colossal -- a charmingly ironic title -- running 110 minutes opens here in South Florida today, Friday, April 21, at the Brickell City Centre Cinema, the AMC Sunset Place and the AMC Aventura and here in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood.

It's playing elsewhere across the country, too, so click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

Quickie review -- Wow and wow again! Jordan Vogt-Roberts' KONG: SKULL ISLAND amazes

Just in case you were debating with yourself about spending the time and/or money to see KONG: SKULL ISLAND in its theatrical release, do yourself a favor and go. This is a model monster movie: smart and relatively swift (even at a two-hour running time). Its near-documentary style put us at the forefront of what's going on and makes it all seem extraordinarily real.

Even in this day of ultra-special effects, the ones here have simply never been equalled  It's not just that the monsters, including Kong and a whole bunch more, have been created with great skill and cunning, what they do is even better: specific, unusual, and so eye-popping and attention-grabbing that you cannot look away. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (shown at right) gave us the charming Kings of Summer a few years back, and as much as I enjoyed that little movie, I'd never have pegged this guy to come thru with one of, maybe the best monster movie of modern times. Well, you never know. He's done it, in any case.

How? Well, he uses that documentary style, together with (seemingly) hand-held cameras about as well as I've ever seen. He's cast his film with A-list stars -- Tom Hiddleston (above, center), Oscar-winner Brie Larson (center, left) and Samuel L. Jackson (below, left) -- together with a bunch of great character actors and a handful of excellent small-but-fine actors in even the more minor supporting roles. All this lends a kind of credibility you don't often get in a monster movie.

If the script is best in the first 20-minutes-or-so set-up to the cast's arrival on Skull Island, afterward it remains at least good enough to get us where we're going, providing decent characterization, especially via John C.Reilly (above, center), who, once he comes into view, carries the movie through its amazing conclusion. There's only a single use of that stupid, old-chesnut command, "Hurry! Quick!" when characters are racing for their lives. Otherwise, if the script is not super-literate and witty, it's at least a journeyman effort. Dialog, after all, is not what audiences flock to monster movies to hear. They come to experience a great adventure. And that's exactly what they'll get here.

Death and destruction comes to many, many cast members, and you won't at all know which ones (or how this happens) much earlier than their demise occurs. Surprise is important in monster movies, and Vogt-Roberts understands this about as well as any current director. He also manages to avoid the necessity of night-time action used to mask so-so special effects in which many moviemakers indulge (Godzilla's Gareth Edwards, for example). The effects here are so spectacular, rich and real that they carry the movie.

So, yes, seeing Kong: Skull Island -- from Warner Brothers and running just under two full hours -- in a movie theater is a fine idea. Click here (then enter your zip code and click on either Fandango or MoviePhone) to find those nearest you. 

A MONSTER CALLS: In J.A. Bayona's visually resplendent film, a child handles grief and loss

Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona may never have made an out-and-out blockbuster, so far as American audiences are concerned, but he has also never made an uninteresting movie. From The Orphanage through The Impossible, onto a couple of episodes of the masterful Penny Dreadful (if you have not watched this series, one of the best-written to hit cable TV, you must: It's streamable now on Netflix) to his newest work, A MONSTER CALLS, the manner in which Bayona handles what seems to be his favorite theme -- children-in-trouble -- grows ever more masterful.

The filmmaker, pictured at left, combines knockout visuals with psychologically adept portraits of people in trouble, and the result is a movie that offers both special effects and genre thrills along with unusual emotional weight. His latest film, I would posit, is his best so far. And yet, I would also posit that it, too, will be no blockbuster. But it will intrigue and please -- on several levels -- most of the audience that manages to discover it. A Monster Calls is a beautifully conceived and realized tale of how a child learns to handle major and possibly devastating loss and grief.

In its handling of this theme, the film may bring to mind the recent remake of Pete's Dragon, and yet the two movies are very different. Bayona's is the darker and much more complex. It will give the children who see it plenty of impressive special effects to view, but it will also offer quite a challenge in terms of understanding the lessons that the titular monster imparts to the child.

That child, Conor (above), is played by a terrific young actor named Lewis McDougall (who made his screen debut just last year as Nibs in Pan), and the monster who takes him in hand and seems to have burst fully-formed from a giant old tree is voiced by Liam Neeson (below). It's a great combination, made even more productive and exciting by the extraordinary visuals Bayona and his team have created.

In addition to having to deal with the increasing sickness and encroaching death of his mother (another lovely job by Felicity Jones, below), Conor is bullied at school and is saddled with an absentee dad,

as well as a grandmother (Sigourney Weaver, below) whose cold demeanor seems to offer little comfort or help. The movie manages to combine its necessary "lessons" with enough visual pizazz, warmth, charm and energy to keep its slightly-too-long running time properly atmospheric and effective.

Will the film prove too much for younger children? Maybe. Older and/or more mature kids should find it worth the challenge and maybe even memorable. Adults may very well appreciate it even more.

From Focus Features, the movie opens nationwide today, Friday, January 6. Focus' web site for the film is no help in providing playdates, cities or theaters in which the film is showing. Click here for the Fandango site for the film and/or tickets.