The View From The Mountain

Since exploding onto the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s Doctor Strange , the eponymous hero--also known as the Sorcerer Supreme--has been a trusted ally in the fight against evil in several of the MCU films. But the 2016 movie was not the very first time that the mystical adventures of Doctor Strange was caught on film. Forty five years ago this year, a TV movie starring Peter Hooten as the heroic sorcerer was released. In the 1978 TV movie, Hooten’s Stephen Strange was a psychiatrist on staff at a hospital in NYC, when he comes across an interesting case. A young woman (Eddie Benton) shows up in bad shape. Suffering from amnesia, she’s very disoriented and unsure of who or where she is. Yet the viewer has already seen what has happened to this woman, who turns out to be a college student named Clea Lake. Clea had been used as a pawn in a battle between sorcerers Lindmer (John Mills) and Morgan le Fay (Jessica Walter). The evil Morgan le Fay had used...

Hocus Pocus 2 is a bit of a disappointment. While it’s great seeing Bette Midler, Sara Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy back as the Sanderson Sisters, the witch trio from 1600s Salem who have returned a second time to terrify modern day kids, I just wish the sequel was at least half as good as the original 1993 film. The first HP did a superb job of also firmly establishing its three young leads, played by Omri Katz, Thora Birch, and Vinessa Shaw, that you were still rooting for the kids--despite the wildly charismatic and funny performances by the veteran actresses playing the Sanderson Sisters. In sharp contrast, the sequel barely spends any time fleshing out its three young leads (played by Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, and Lilia Buckingham); they each lack a specific character "moment" that everyone had in the original film. The sequel seems more preoccupied with blatant product placement instead of creating full-blooded characters. And the...

I dreaded watching the Doctor Strange sequel, so much so that I avoided it for a while now. I didn’t want to see it for the simple reason that Scott Derrickson, who did such a marvelous job with the first Doctor Strange film, opted out of helming the sequel. Derrickson, who directed such frightfully good films like The Exorcism of Emily Rose , Sinister , and The Black Phone , gave us a wonderfully weird and dark Doctor Strange film that was tinged with such strong elements of horror that it was a little unnerving in certain moments. In other words, the first Doctor Strange was pretty fucking great, and remains one of my all-time favorite Marvel Movies. But since I was a Doctor Strange fan from way back when I was a kid, I finally gave in and watched Doctor Strange in The Multiverse Of Madness on Disney Plus, and guess what? It really wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I kinda, sorta liked it. Well, OK, I really liked it. Yes, I really enjoyed Doctor Strange 2, I admit it...

I avoided seeing Ghostbusters Afterlife because the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters wasn’t very good. Neither was the 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters--and, admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of the original 1984 Ghostbusters, either. I didn’t hate the original movie, but I was never caught up in the wave of adoration for it that swept through the country back then. I guess you can say I’m not a Ghosthead, one of the rabid fans of the franchise, and the subject of a very well-made documentary that you should see, especially if you really enjoy the movies. But I eventually saw Ghostbusters Afterlife because--well, why not? I assumed beforehand that I would dislike it, but that it wouldn’t matter, because I’d only watch it once, and just forget about it, just like I did with the other Ghostbusters films. But something interesting happened: I would up enjoying Ghostbusters Afterlife a great deal. The new Ghostbusters film tries to be the true sequel to the original film, despi...

The House With A Clock In Its Walls is the latest attempt to jump-start a movie franchise that’s based on a series of children’s books. The only difference here is that the original book that this film is based on was written back in 1973 by the late author John Bellairs, and was illustrated by the late Edward Gorey, the writer/artist probably best known for his delightfully quaint ghoulish artwork as seen on the opening titles of the PBS Mystery! series. Another notable difference here is that THWACIIW (even the acronym for this is long) has been directed by Eli Roth, who’s better known for the first two Hostel movies, as well as The Green Inferno , all three movies being hard core horror flicks with stomach-churning gore. So does this House work? Yes, and quite nicely, too. As been noted in the DVD commentary for THWAC (I even have to cut down the acronym!), sometimes when you’re restricted, the restrictions can make you be even more creative. The PG rating doesn’t hamper Roth,...