Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014) Review

Time: 91 Minutes
Cast:
Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer
Ray Wise as Leland Palmer
Kyle MacLachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper
Mädchen Amick as Shelly Johnson
Dana Ashbrook as Bobby Briggs
Phoebe Augustine as Ronette Pulaski
David Bowie as Special Agent Phillip Jeffries
Joan Chen as Josie Packard
Eric Da Re as Leo Johnson
Don S. Davis as Major Garland Briggs
Mary Jo Deschanel as Eileen Hayward
Miguel Ferrer as Special Agent Albert Rosenfield
Warren Frost as Dr. Will Hayward
Pamela Gidley as Teresa Banks
Harry Goaz as Deputy Sheriff Andy Brennan
Heather Graham as Annie Blackburn
Michael Horse as Deputy Sheriff Tommy “Hawk” Hill
Chris Isaak as Special Agent Chester Desmond
Moira Kelly as Donna Hayward
Peggy Lipton as Norma Jennings
David Lynch as Bureau Chief Gordon Cole
James Marshall as James Hurley
Everett McGill as Ed Hurley
Jack Nance as Pete Martell
Michael Ontkean as Sheriff Harry S. Truman
Jürgen Prochnow as Woodsman
Wendy Robie as Nadine Hurley
Kimmy Robertson as Lucy Moran
Harry Dean Stanton as Carl Rodd
Charlotte Stewart as Betty Briggs
Kiefer Sutherland as Special Agent Sam Stanley
Director: David Lynch

A feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

As I was watching Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, I was very curious about The Missing Pieces. Essentially it is a compilation of deleted scenes from Fire Walk with Me, there were so many that they were made into a full on movie (which interestingly took over 20 years to come out after the initial release of the movie). While it’s not a movie in the conventional sense, it’s well worth the watch for Twin Peaks fans.

The Missing Pieces is a hard movie to review. As I said, it is a feature length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Fire Walk with Me. As such, the movie isn’t cohesive and there isn’t much of a plot structure. However, I’d argue that it’s mandatory to watch this if you’re a Twin Peaks fan. It fills in holes in the series and the movie, and there’s a lot here I wished made it to the final cut. The early scenes of Fire Walk with Me involving the FBI agents felt a little disjointed, as it turns out it wasn’t fully fleshed out and some of the key scenes didn’t make it into that movie. With these additional scenes now in The Missing Pieces, it makes that storyline better. David Bowie appeared briefly in Fire Walk with Me but now gets more scenes here, in some of the most memorable parts of the movie. There are also additional Laura Palmer scenes which makes her story even stronger. It also sheds light on some storylines not in Fire Walk with Me. There are entire appearances from familiar Twin Peaks characters including Sheriff Truman, Deputy Hawke, Dr Jacoby and more here. There’s even an extension on the massive cliff-hanger ending of Season 2 of Twin Peaks

I will say that it’s probably for the best that some of these cuts happened for Fire Walk with Me, especially when it comes to what it was focusing on; you wouldn’t want to have too much agent stuff when really this is Laura Palmer’s. Nonetheless, its very interesting to watch. Tonally it isn’t as dark as Fire Walk with Me and has more of the quirks and humour from the original show. However, The Missing Pieces aren’t just deleted scenes added to fill in the holes, there are some greatly handled sequences, especially on a directing level. One involved a scene of Laura being possessed by BOB, which was incredibly creepy and memorable.

If you liked Twin Peaks and Fire Walk with Me, I would say that The Missing Pieces is essential viewing. Again, it feels like a collection of scenes more than a movie and you can tell why some of these scenes were cut. Nonetheless it helps with the Twin Peaks experience, and I highly recommend it.

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Boogie Nights (1997) Review

Time:  155 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence, offensive language and sex scenes
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/”Dirk Diggler”
Julianne Moore as Maggie/”Amber Waves”
Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner
Don Cheadle as Buck Swope
John C. Reilly as Reed Rothchild
William H. Macy as “Little” Bill Thompson
Heather Graham as Brandy/”Rollergirl”
Nicole Ari Parker as Becky Barnett
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Scotty J.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

In the San Fernando Valley in 1977, teenage busboy Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) gets discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who transforms him into adult-film sensation Dirk Diggler. Brought into a supportive circle of friends, including fellow actors Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), Rollergirl (Heather Graham) and Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), Dirk fulfills all his ambitions, but a toxic combination of drugs and egotism threatens to take him back down.

I remembered going into Boogie Nights for the first time only knowing it as “that one movie about 70s porn” and being quite surprised at how great it actually turned out to be. Having watched it a second time, I can very much say that it is one of director Paul Thomas Anderson’s best movies.

First of all, the script from PTA is fantastic. The story is set against the backdrop of the low-rent machinery of the adult film industry, and it was quite interesting to watch. Boogie Nights is known as that one movie about porn, and while porn that plays a notable part in the plot and the characters are involved with it, it’s not essentially at the core what the film is about. Essentially it is a story about fame, its highlights but also the downsides of fame, and how it doesn’t last. The story starts off in the 70s, in which you see the more extravagant and outlandish side of the business. However halfway through, it moves to the 80s, and there’s a distinct tonal shift. Everyone’s depressed and drugged up, and it’s a much darker look at life. The characters are trying to make normal livings for themselves, but their pasts are lingering over them and makes things difficult for them. The transition from the light hearted high on life and fast paced comedy to the emotional, serious and dark drama is done greatly, and doesn’t feel tonally inconsistent, you can tell it is still very much the same movie. Something that benefits this movie is the memorable and well-developed characters, who really shine. It’s also a very entertaining movie, there’s some good humour throughout much of it, there’s a lot of quotable dialogue, and it’s quite fun to watch. Despite the very long length of 2 hours and 30 minutes long, the script is very tight and not a single scene is wasted.

This movie contains a strong ensemble cast, and each of them deliver masterful performances. First of all, Mark Wahlberg gives a career best performance as the lead character of Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler. Wahlberg did great at portraying the up and coming star in this movie, over the top when he needed to be, and also grounded in the more serious moments. The supporting cast are fantastic too, with the standouts being Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Even some of the actors who are only in a few scenes make an impression, Alfred Molina for example is very memorable in his scene later in the movie. All the actors had great and believable chemistry together, with Wahlberg and Reynolds really sticking out for me.

Paul Thomas Anderson already showed himself a confident director with his debut film Hard Eight, and his work here is even stronger, it is astonishing on a technical level. The cinematography is amazing, the camera movement is quick and feels alive in this movie, especially during its numerous long tracking shots. Every scene is shot to perfection, feeling so electric it was hard to not be engaged. That paired with the exceptional editing really made it quite an experience to watch. The 70s and 80s were captured perfectly in this film from the environments and costumes to the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack was phenomenal and the songs were utilised very well in the scenes.

Boogie Nights is an incredibly well made movie on just about every level. The story was engaging and entertaining, the characters were memorable and well acted, and the direction was phenomenal. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Norm of the North (2016) Review

Time: 90 Minutes
Age Rating:
Cast:
Rob Schneider as Norm
Heather Graham as Vera Brightly
Maya Kay as Olympia Brightly
Ken Jeong as Mr. Greene
Colm Meaney as Grandfather
Loretta Devine as Tamecia
Gabriel Iglesias as Pablo and Stan
Michael McElhatton as Laurence
Bill Nighy as Socrates
Director: Trevor Wall

A polar bear of many words, Norm’s greatest gripe is simple: there is no room for tourists in the Arctic. But when a maniacal developer threatens to build luxury condos in his own backyard, Norm does what all normal polar bears would do he heads to New York City to stop it. With a cast of ragtag lemmings at his side, Norm takes on the big apple, big business and a big identity crisis to save the day.

I heard plenty of horrible things about Norm of the North, I however had some morbid curiosity and wanted to check it out. After viewing it I can say that Norm of the North is not only one of the worst movies of the year, it is also one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. It was painful within the first 5 minutes, and this movie is 90 minutes long. It’s honestly hard to imagine how this film ended up being shown in theaters, with the poor writing and atrocious animation.

I know that this film is a kids movie but I don’t even think kids would be able to enjoy this. This movie is not interesting at all. It tries to express a forced message about protecting the environment but the film is so distracted by attempting to be funny and it’s very hard to care about what’s going on. Plenty of things don’t make sense in the movie. For example, the corporation wants to build houses in the arctic, which no one in their right mind would actually do. Also, when Norm is in the city, most people think that he’s just a human in a Polar Bear costume, it’s actually astounding. There are countless moments with unbelievably horrendous decisions. Also the humour in this movie is so terrible. Childish humour, including piss jokes and even in one instance a gay joke. And the film thinks it’s funny, for example there’s a moment where the Lemming characters take a leak in a fishtank and it lasts at least 30 seconds, it’s like the filmmakers assumed that what they did was hilarious. None of the jokes were funny at all, it was just loud noise. There’s so many things wrong with this movie. A combination of script faults and the cringe comedy made this film absolutely painful to sit through.

There’s not much to like about Norm as a character. He’s got little to no characterisation and is so basic. Oh, and he’s also voiced by Rob Schneider, just to make matters worse. A lot of the characters were entirely pointless, not adding to the film that much. The villain was an over the top business guy that have been seen in countless other films. Also, this film has little Lemmings as the comic relief, they were like the minions in Despicable Me except they were somehow worse, they got annoying really quick.

Even though the writing is horrendous, the thing that gets me the most is that the animation was horrible, it makes me wonder how a movie this badly animated made it into the cinemas. The character designs were so lazy and simple, they are just so uninspired and uninteresting, both for animals and humans. Also, the movements are so unnatural and weird, especially from the villain, who often looks like he’s going to turn into Mr Fantastic.

Norm of the North is hands down the worst animated film I’ve ever seen. Everything from the animation, to the story, the characters, the writing, everything was done so incredibly poorly. There is nothing to enjoy with this movie, not even in a ‘so bad it’s good’ kind of way. It was somehow worse than I thought it would be.