Up first this week are a couple of Anne Rice adaptations. I had opposite reactions to each because I knew more about one than the other. First is Mayfair Witches: Season One. I liked this one more because I’m not as familiar with the source material. I’ve never read any of Anne Rice’s Mayfair books so I can’t say how similar the series is them. Alexandra Daddario plays a doctor in San Francisco who is adopted. She had always wanted to know about her biological parents, but her adoptive mother held the truth from her. When the adoptive mother dies and Daddario’s Rowan starts having odd abilities, it snowballs into a trip to New Orleans where she learns about the Mayfair family. Daddario is good in the role and I always think she’s younger than what she is because she doesn’t look old enough to be a doctor. If you are into Supernatural, A Discovery of Witches or stories like that you’ll dig it. The ending leaves the door open for Season 2 and I believe it was picked up for a second season.
Second we have Interview with the Vampire: Season One. I liked this one less because I’m more familiar with the source material and the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt film adaptation. Characters have been changed as has the timeline. It opens in 2022 during the Covid pandemic with Louis telling the journalist the story of him and Lestat. It’s still set in New Orleans, but Louis isn’t from France and the timeline of when he is turned takes place in the early 1900s. It’s still watchable and does have nudity and eroticism, but because I know enough about the story, the changes seemed more jarring. The two lead actors are quite good and I will watch Season 2 to see where it goes, but it’s a much different adaptation than what I’ve seen before. If you aren’t familiar with at least the movie you’ll probably like it though.
Third we have Gangnam Zombie. Korea has given us the fantastic Train to Busan so I was hoping this would be another hit zombie flick. It’s ok, but it needs more action especially with the fact it uses fast zombies and not slow walkers. It opens with a guy being attacked by a cat, but it doesn’t really get going for a while. It’s more about social media posts about the guy acting weird before this building is taken over by zombies. Once it’s in the building (sort of a mall type with levels and hallways) it has some decent action, but the lead actor uses martial arts and it doesn’t rely on him enough to fight the zombies one on one. He does have a couple of good scenes killing zombies, but I wanted more from it. Train to Busan is memorable years later, but I’ll probably forget about this one. It plays more like a zombie comedy than straight horror movie which is fine, but I wanted more from it.
Next is Sympathy for the Devil starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. Kinnaman is in his car on the way to the hospital because his wife is giving birth. Cage steps into his car and forces him to drive while at gunpoint. At first you think it’s just a typical carjacking, but the story unfolds into more. Cage might have the worst Boston accent in cinematic history. I’m from Boston so I can say that. Nic, you can be one of the best actors in the world when you want to be, but please never do a Boston accent again. And unfortunately for the viewer this is one of Nic’s over the top performances with huge facial expressions and lots of yelling. Despite his recent roles in Pig and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, it looks like Nic can very easily drop into his straight-to-home video/streaming acting ways whenever he wants to. Kinnaman is fine as the “straight guy” to Cage’s “wild card”, but he isn’t given much to do besides drive for a while. The diner scene is pretty solid, but ultimately it’s just another non-theatrical film for Cage.
Last we have The Apostle/At Play in the Fields of the Lord from Mill Creek Entertainment. Robert Duvall was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Apostle. He plays a preacher who finds out his wife was having an affair and attacks the man in a drunken rage. He leaves his congregation, loses all things that can identify himself and starts anew to find redemption. Duvall is fantastic and the cast also includes Farrah Fawcett, Walton Goggins, Billy Bob Thornton, June Carter Cash, Miranda Richardson and more. Duvall wrote and directed the film. At Play in the Fields of the Lord stars Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Tom Waits and Kathy Bates. You can tell this was a huge influence on James Cameron’s Avatar with a very similar story about outsiders seeing how natives live and how others want their land. You have two explorers, missionaries, local officers, tribes people and everything in between. I probably hadn’t seen the film in 30 years. Berenger’s character is accepted into the tribe and is seen as a god like figure. He wants the people to survive and not be moved and the film definitely feels like Dances with Wolves meets Avatar (this film came out decades before Avatar).
The Nerds Templar 