John Irvin
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Connections, in both directions
After graduating from B-level action blow-outs like Commando and Raw Deal to the likes of Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the 1996 action throwback Eraser felt and played like a big budget variation on the kinds of films that propelled Schwarzenegger to stardom in the first place.
In essence, “The Expendables” is John Irvin’s “The Dogs of War” (1980) meets Robert Aldrich’s “The Dirty Dozen” (1967), which is a good idea if you don’t have any ideas of your own.
Mark Waters (Disney's "Freaky Friday" remake) directs; Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum, and yes, *that* John Sayles pen the untaxing screenplay; David Strathairn appears as Arthur Spiderwick mostly in equally untaxing sepia-toned flashbacks (no huffing and puffing up mountainsides for him this time out); and everyone's favorite stuffy grandmotherly British type Joan Plowright ("Widows' Peak," etc.) plays Great Aunt Lucinda, safely squirreled away at the local sanatorium on account of her obsessive culinary indulgences: salt, honey, and spaghetti sauce.
It is also a film far removed from a conventional Hollywood-style knight’s tale, as distant as “A Ghost Story” was from something like “Ghost Story”– there is more of the Bergman of “The Seventh Seal” than the Boorman of “Excalibur” here.
Lowery has brought this style to stories like “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” about outlaw lovers on the run, and “Ghost Story,” a transcendental drama about death.
But if you happened to experience his emotionally exhausting Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) or his mesmerizing A Ghost Story (2017), you know Lowery as a steadfastly confident filmmaker; one who seizes on an idea and plows ahead with it with ingenious recklessness.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts
influenced by Hamburger Hill (1987)
Themes
“Kong: Skull Island” plays like a mash-up of “Apocalypse Now,” “Hamburger Hill,” “Congo,” “Jurassic Park,” even “The African Queen” — with a couple of elements so ridiculous they could have been borrowed from a “Gilligan’s Island” episode.
…lesser works like Raw Deal…
Midsommar, The Witch and A Ghost Story have all recently terrorised audiences by taking them on a mental trip.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
Directed by Michael Bay
influenced by Hamburger Hill (1987)
Themes
It plays like “The Green Berets” or “Hamburger Hill,” or any of the wave of Reagan Era “This time we WIN” Vietnam pictures.
Ecco, forse ricorderete pure Scott Derrickson che dirigeva The Exorcism of Emily Rose e poi assestava un bel colpo nell’affollato ring dell’horror con Sinister, una ghost story di tutto rispetto sui macabri traslochi di uno scrittore in crisi.