Dr. Giggles

Dr. Giggles (1992)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Manny Coto

Starring: Larry Drake, Holly Marie Combs, Cliff DeYoung, Glenn Quinn, Keith Diamond

From: Largo Entertainment

As silly as you'd expect for a movie called Dr. Giggles. When this was recently put on Shudder-it's also on Prime, as I discovered afterwards-it was a priority for me to view then review. It's not something I have nostalgic love for—except that one night in college (this is over 20 years ago now) me and some pals watched this-someone else chose the film. Sadly, there aren't as many instances as I'd like for there to be of this kind of shared communal experience during that time in my life. There are still some nice memories, such as I mentioned in my review of the Tony Montana Scarface how I first saw the movie (well, the initial hour or so before leaving to go out partying!) in a pal's room.

Regardless, I did not remember too much about Dr. Giggles except that it was rather goofy yet was fine overall. Turns out, my opinion has changed little in 2024. The title character is broadly characterized as schizophrenic; no matter the malady he escapes from the institution and heads back to his old hometown to make a house call and start killing random people-you see, his father was an actual doctor but he went bonkers so I guess mental illness is hereditary there. Lest you think my pun about house calls was corny, wait until you hear most of the medical-related puns that Dr. Giggles himself made throughout. The tone was decidedly not serious, in other words.

By the end the movie becomes especially absurd, but overall I'll say this was fine. Larry Drake in the title role was simply delightful being OOT and giggling more often than The Joker. The gory moments we do get don't necessarily come from the kills, but at least those deaths are appropriate modus operandi for the villain. I was amused by the other teens in the stock teen situations while Holly Marie Combs was likable as a teen who has a reason to be moody-she recently lost her mom and she has a heart condition.

If you need a prescription for a wacky 90's slasher/comedy which actually has more artistic moments than you'd expect (especially in a Hall of Mirrors sequence) and has better lighting than too many modern films, take one Dr. Giggles & call me in the morning.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024)

44% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 102 reviews)

Runtime: 181 minutes

Directed by: Kevin Costner

Starring: Costner and many others

From: New Line Cinema... and Costner's production company

While I did not love everything about Chapter 1 (nor Kevin Costner's antagonistic interview from recently which many people seemed to swoon over for whatever reasons) I can still respect the hustle of a star spending many millions of dollars to bring his own passion project to screen after it being a germ in his mind since the late 80's-one epic in scope-and see it to fruition. Sure, he left a popular TV show and far worse, ruined his marriage, that's on him. I am the sort to be down for a 12 hour saga spread out over 4 movies about the American West; despite the mixed reception it has received online and it flopping at the box office, I was cautiously optimistic.

It's always possible that my rating will rise after viewing all four installments, but minor objections aside, the verdict was that it was pretty good. It was refreshing to see the start of the boom of the migration to the American West (starting in the 1860's) as a wide variety of characters are shown in several different settings. Some are moving out there, others are running away from danger, while a poor town was swindled and was built in a rather hazardous location. The Native American perspective is also presented. The 3 hours went by relatively quickly as the viewer is often switched between the settings; for example, Jena Malone is introduced then her proper story doesn't start for awhile-and you'll be surprised when a famous face finally makes their first appearance.

Many balls were juggled in the air; IMO, this was done rather well and my attention never wavered w/ the cornucopia of characters. I appreciated the vast assortment of scenic locations, the solid direction, and the pleasant musical score from John Debney. This has even more famous names than first realized—thus I won't note them all in case anyone wants to be surprised. It was a nice ensemble cast where Costner wasn't the focus; not too many films have been seen of either Sam Worthington or Sienna Miller yet both did a swell job-the latter having a rather dramatic role. It's also nice to see the likes of Malone, Isabelle Fuhrman, Danny Huston and Will Patton.

The movie naturally skews towards the boomer crowd-meaning those older than me at the age of 43-thus many on the Internet will be lukewarm at best towards a classical Western without revisionism or ironic self-detatchment. Me, I'm on board with seeing how Chapter 2 will turn out. It was admittedly bizarre how Chapter 1 did a hard cut to a preview of Chapter 2 for a few minutes-without announcing beforehand this is the pivot they would make-so nevermind how it seemed to reveal spoilers it perhaps shouldn't have, it was just jarring & took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. Chapter 1 intrigued me so in thankfully a matter of weeks I can see how well Chapter 2 continues all those plot threads. Again, I do appreciate Costner for taking such a bold risk and even if it may not find its fans until sometime in the future w/ home viewing, it was an effort I am happy to support.

Chasing Coral

This is a 2017 Netflix documentary I viewed last night: 

“Watching documentaries” is one way I’ll be using Netflix this month. In the past I’ve reviewed several related to nature which is why this was selected. Unlike those, a message about the threat of global warming was at the forefront. At least in the United States this is a hot-button controversial topic-which I wish wasn’t the case. Being concerned about the world that we’ve leaving for future generations should be of paramount importance and I’d like to think there isn’t some bonkers conspiracy where all those scientists for so many years have concocted a hoax for who knows what endgame.

Moving along from those inflammatory statements, the film follows various scientists and divers as they chronicle how since the late 80’s, half of the world’s corals have died. It is alarming that global warming is believed to be the main cause-and among the other issues that arise from rising temperature, it impacts the world’s oceans, which is a keystone component of the planet’s health as it’s all a symbiotic relationship which includes humanity… I don’t always watch programs like this as it’s a stone-cold bummer.

It is still an important message to convey to the public. Aside from the educational value, all the underwater footage and views of ocean life (not just the stunning coral but also fish and a giant tortoise) was just delightful. Some of the crew responsible for filming this footage are also spotlighted; that is OK when “Zack the Coral Nerd” was shown. As many other reviews have noted, this nerd was an enthusiastic dork and thus provided passion, whether it is happiness or sadness. Their attempts at filming at times seemed cursed-eventually, they succeeded.

Nitpicks could be made—but when an important message was delivered, plenty of lovely footage was shown, the importance of coral was stressed, and there are memorable characters like Zach & another known as “The Coral Guru” … as I hope to see a wide variety of film in July, it was a wise choice for this to be among one of those films.