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Retro Movie Review: VIBES (1988)

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Retro Movie Review: VIBES (1988)

I know, I know. I hear what you’re saying out there. Some of us remember 1988. A movie from 1988 has no place in a segment about retro movies. It wasn’t that long ago, right? Sometimes, though, a film comes along that transfixes you. It compels you to watch it. This, my friends, is Vibes. All one must do is look over the cast list to wonder how wildly quirky this movie must be. Is this one I’d immediately wonder how I’d missed it? Or should Vibes return to the deepest, darkest corners of the streaming jungle? Read on. 

About Vibes 

Vibes follows two psychics (Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper). Shortly after getting to know each other, they meet a local eccentric (Peter Falk) who promises them $50,000 if they travel to Peru and track down his missing son. So he claims, anyway. As the film continues, they stumble onto questions of mystic treasure, gold, and a romantic adventure that feels inherently at home in the late 1980s. This is Romancing the Stone for the self-identifying “weird kids.” Julian Sands, Googy Gress and Michael Lerner co-star in the movie. Ken Kwapis directs Vibes from a script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. 

Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper talk at the table of a dance restaurant.

To dive right in, the following must be said, “Holy casting decisions, Batman!” Truthfully, this is going to be what draws a majority of 2024 eyes to this project, and it works to a beautifully quirky effect. Goldblum, even at his still relatively young age, is already the lovable character we recognize today. He’s fully formed and delightful. Cyndi Lauper, meanwhile, is her colorful and eccentric self. If you remember the 1980s, you remember Cyndi Lauper.  

RELATED: Retro Movie Review: Cat Women of the Moon (1953)

As a film, Vibes is fully and unapologetically reliant on character and personality. Lauper and Goldblum jump into the lead roles with uninhibited zeal and lean into their immediately familiar personas. Truthfully, this rockets Vibes to a new cinematic plain. This film, as it currently exists, is only possible with Goldblum and Lauper in the lead roles. This is a different and less memorable movie with different actors playing these parts.

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Vibes is at its wacky, zany best in Act 2 when Golblum, Lauper, and Peter Falk have the time and the freedom to bounce off each other. Always a brilliant character actor, Peter Falk is having a blast in this role. He’s unafraid to lean into this role and finds an easy verbal slapstick only he could pull off so effortlessly. 

Peter Falk gestures wildly to Cyndi Lauper in VibesPeter Falk gestures wildly to Cyndi Lauper in Vibes

As the film shifts into Act 3, it steps away from its easy sense of humor, and things get a little more traditional. While the leads try their darndest, it slips back into familiar and generic action/rom-com territory. This is particularly frustrating because Julian Sands is the performer who ends up largely wasted. While a film like this probably needs a “straight” man, in a movie with this much personality, his scenes sag significantly. 

RELATED: Horror With a Side of Cheese: 3-Headed Shark Attack

Ultimately, this is a film that, to some, will always feel at least a little dated. Vibes has a big, brash 1980s sensibility. This comes across in everything from the set design to the hair and especially the wardrobe. Cyndi Lauper is in this film, after all. Add in Jeff Goldblum in his Earth Girls Are Easy era and the fluorescent neon circle is complete. Do with that what you will. 

Now, as part of full film critic disclosure, Vibes does not make a great showing on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, its 13 percent is more than a little daunting. While the movie earns tremendous goodwill for its unabashed personality, anyone coming to this for the action narrative will be left wanting.

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RELATED: Retro Movie Review: Avalanche (1978)

The script, in particular, struggles with the treasure story. This is particularly noticeable deep in Act 2 as the final twist materializes seemingly out of nowhere. In truth, this plotline (and the characters stuck within it) feels like an afterthought. This becomes doubly frustrating as the film broadens its scope away from its adorable quirkiness. The narrative groundwork, unfortunately, hasn’t been laid to sustain a more traditional plot. 

Peter Falk, Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper sit on a step having a colorful conversationPeter Falk, Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper sit on a step having a colorful conversation

When all is said and done, Vibes is a fun and pleasant surprise. This wacky little film came out of nowhere and ended up being an absolute pleasure to watch, thanks to this purely enjoyable cast. This film largely knows where its strength lies, and it isn’t afraid to let its characters steal the show. With a script that doesn’t pull its own weight, they are a welcomed distraction. Goldblum, Lauper and Falk are unapologetically themselves, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Vibes is now streaming on Tubi. 

Everything Coming to Netflix in September 2024

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The Last Republican movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

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The Last Republican movie review (2024) | Roger Ebert

The documentary “The Last Republican” follows the final months in office of Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who represented two districts in Illinois over the span of 12 years. Kinzinger was one of a handful of Republicans who stood against President Donald Trump, refusing to support him in 2016, then going after him more straightforwardly after Trump lost the election of 2020 and tried to overturn the results by inciting a mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, causing multiple deaths. Unlike other Republicans, including then-Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Kinzinger never walked back or even softened his position on Trump’s role in Jan. 6 in order to help position Trump for re-election and stay close to the party’s power center. Kinzinger instead made his opposition to Trump the defining part of his identity.

He started a podcast titled “Country First Conversations”” and a political action committee to fund anti-Trump candidates and later supported President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris for president and spoke at the Democratic convention. After voting against Trump’s first impeachment, Kinzinger voted for his second impeachment and later said he regretted not voting for the first one.

He also became one of 35 Republicans to support the formation of a committee to investigate the attacks on the Capitol and served on the committee himself. There’s grimly funny segment showing House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, announcing that Kinzinger was going to serve on the Jan. 6 committee before actually asking him, and a snippet of McCarthy casually referring to Kinzinger and another Trump critic, Wyoming Republican senator Liz Cheney, as “Pelosi Republicans.” When Cheney lost her primary in Wyoming to her former advisor Harriet Hageman—who briefly opposed Trump, then supported him again—Kinzinger accused conservative pastors of “failing their congregations” by encouraging support for Trump. He is now a CNN commentator.

The title telegraphs the point-of-view of the movie’s director, Steve Pink (“Gross Pointe Blank”). Pink is progressive who disagrees with most of what Kinzinger stands for politically (the movie opens with Kinzinger baiting Pink by calling him a “communist”). Pink positions Kinzinger as one of the last true or real Republicans, primarily because Kinzinger consistently advocated for the rule of law where Trump was concerned and, in Kinzinger’s words, put “country over party.”

This is, of course, a questionable framing, good for branding and sparking arguments on podcasts but not much else. There are plenty other examples of Republicans positioning themselves above the law at various points in the last 50 years, and it’s not as if Democrats have a spotless record in that regard either. In any given era of American history, the “true” Republicans are whichever ones define the identity of the party, and at this particular juncture, it’s not people like Kinzinger.

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“The Last Republican” also mostly elides Kinzinger’s positions on various issues, seemingly to make him more palatable here as a Capra-esque hero who is exclusively defined by standing up to corruption, and against a politician that the filmmaker also opposes. (Kinzinger had a much more progressive record on anti-discrimination legislation than most Republicans, but still voted with Trump 90% of the time, blamed China for spreading COVID, and voted in 2017 to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act.)

This is not to say that Kinzinger’s opposition to Trump isn’t evidence of integrity and a willingness to sacrifice power for principle. That’s plainly the case, and it’s driven home in a scene where Kinzinger and his wife Sofia Boza-Holman sit on a couch in their house cradling their newborn son while watching the House vote to censure Kinzinger and Cheney for serving on the Jan. 6 committee. But there’s a more nuanced movie that could’ve been made covering the same period in Kinzinger’s life, one that took fuller measure of the ancient proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”—though, to be fair, the very end of the movie humorously acknowledges what strange allies Pink and Kinzinger are, at least as far as this project is concerned.

The movie also gives a strong sense of Kinzinger as a person walking against the winds of change and dealing with tendencies in the American character that elude party definitions. “Everybody’s self-centered,” he tells Pink. “That’s the fight now of my next part of life, fighting against that cynicism.”

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Wicked movie review: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande waltz into our hearts in this gravity-defying extravaganza 

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Wicked movie review: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande waltz into our hearts in this gravity-defying extravaganza 

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’
| Photo Credit: UNIVERSAL PICTURES

She did not eat grass as a child nor is she seasick, insists the green-skinned Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in Wicked, the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which in turn was inspired by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’.

After Maleficent, which looked at the Sleeping Beauty story from the antagonist’s point of view, here is another revisionist look at the famous wicked witch from the other side of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’.

For those who came in late (like in all those Phantom comics), director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) provides a précis of events where Dorothy liquefied the Wicked Witch of the West and went home to Kansas down the Yellow Brick Road with her dog Toto, The Cowardly Lion, The Tin Man and The Scarecrow. As the people of Oz celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch, the Good Witch, Glinda (Ariana Grande), joins in.

When one of the good people of Oz asks her about the Wicked Witch, Glinda admits to knowing her and it is time for a flashback. Elphaba was the daughter of the Governor of Munchkinland, Thropp (Andy Nyman). The colour of her skin, thanks to her naughty mum (Courtney-Mae Briggs), meant Elphaba was always rejected and made fun of by those around her.

Wicked 

Director: Jon M. Chu

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Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum

Runtime: 160 minutes

Storyline: The story of how a misunderstood little green girl became the all-powerful Wicked Witch of the West

She feels responsible for her paraplegic younger sister, Nessarose’s (Marissa Bode) condition too. When she comes with her father to drop Nessarose at the stately Shiz University in Oz, her father insists she stay to see Nessarose is properly settled in. The Dean of Sorcery, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), sees Elphaba’s power and proposes to teach her to control her magic. Glinda or Galinda as she is known then, is pretty, pink and popular. While she wants to study sorcery under Madame Morrible, she is not prepared to have Elphaba as a roommate as suggested by Morrible.

Despite the initial hiccups, the two very different girls become friends, bonding over a wild party at the Ozdust Ballroom. Elphaba is sensitive to the undercurrents at Oz including the fact that animals are being excluded and losing their voice as the history professor, a goat named Doctor Dillamond (Peter Dinklage) reveals. The campus is in a tizzy when the handsome and determinedly shallow Winkie prince, Fiyero Tigelaar (Jonathan Bailey) joins Shiz. Though Elphaba dreams of meeting and impressing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), so that she can ask him to change her skin colour when she finally does meet him, that is not what she asks for.

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Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film ‘Wicked’
| Photo Credit:
GILES KEYTE

Wicked works wonderfully well on so many levels. It is a study of what makes people do the things they do, or think the way they do. It is a look at what is considered normal and what creates a villain, all the while celebrating the joys and tears of being different.

Wicked is a musical, with gloriously choreographed songs and an action film with breathtaking stunts. The sets, physical and CGI, are eye-popping, especially the library with its books (rare and medium rare as Glinda helpfully points out) stacked in gigantic wheels — wish Fiyero did not step on books though. The girls’ room, the Ozdust Ballroom, the Emerald City, the weird and wonderful train that takes Glinda and Elphaba to Emerald City, and many more, are all glorious sonnets to the imagination.

Erivo and Grande own their roles, singing, dancing and dueling with gusto while Bailey is delightful as the callow, charming Prince. Yeoh is grandly inscrutable and there is special joy in watching Goldblum do a jig. The 160 minutes of Wicked slip by in a Technicolor flash and the fact that there is Part II, coming out in 2025 puts a jolly song in one’s heart.

Wicked is currently running in theatres

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Mechanic Rocky Movie Review – Gulte

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Mechanic Rocky Movie Review – Gulte

2.5/5


2 Hr 36 Mins   |   Action, Drama   |   22-11-2024


Cast – Vishwak Sen, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Shraddha Srinath, Sunil, Naresh, Harsha Vardhan, Hyper Aadi, Harsha Chemudu & others.

Director – Ravi Teja Mullapudi

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Producer – Ram Talluri

Banner – SRT Entertainments

Music – Jakes Bejoy

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After delivering a successful film, Gaami & not so successful film, Gangs of Godavari this year already, Vishwak Sen came up with his third film of the year, Mechanic Rocky, an action comedy film under the direction of debutant, Raviteja Mullapudi. Meenakshi Chaudhary & Shraddha Srinath did the female lead roles and Jakes Bejoy who scored a hit recently with Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, scored the music for the film. It’s a crucial film for producer Ram Talluri who delivered a disaster with Matka last Friday. Did Vishwak Sen score a hit with Mechanic Rocky? Did the debutant director deliver a memorable film? Did Ram Talluri get a sigh of relief? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Nagumomu Rakesh Aka Mechanic Rocky (Vishwak Sen) works as a mechanic and driving teacher at his father’s (Naresh) garage. Ranki Reddy (Sunil), a real estate settlement goon agrees to grab Rocky’s lake-view garage and hand it over to a businessman for ₹25 lakhs. Rocky makes a deal with Ranki Reddy for ₹50 lakhs and asks him to give him ten days to adjust the money. While Rocky & Ranki Reddy making the deal, he gets a call from Maya (Shraddha Srinath) who says Rocky’s father has a two-crore insurance policy in his name and Rocky will now get the two crore as his father passed away. Will Rocky get the two crore money? Who is Maya? What is her connection with Priya (Meenakshi Chaudhary)? Forms the rest of the story.

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Performances:

Vishwak Sen as Rocky Aka Nagumomu Rakesh did a decent job with his performance but he looked odd as a student during the college episode in the first half. The film has two female leads and both of them have good character arcs.

Meenakshi Chaudhary as Priya who takes responsibility for her family after her father and brother passes away, did perform well. Shraddha Srinath got a meaty role as Maya and utilised it so well. It is safe to say that she is the best performer in the film out of all the other actors. Senior actor Naresh’s comedy worked to an extent. Sunil, Harsha Chemudu and Hyper Aadi were wasted in insignificant roles. Harsha Vardhan and Raghu Ram Ambadapudi (MTV Roadies Creator) are just decent.

Technicalities:

Jakes Bejoy’s background score is a mixed bag. It was good at a few parts and was out of sync at a few parts. His songs are forgettable. The film has a total of five songs and none of them worked. The cinematography by Manoj Reddy Katasani is adequate. There’s nothing much to talk about his work. Anwar Ali’s editing should have been much better. He should have edited at least fifteen to twenty minutes of the film, especially in the first half. SRT Entertainment’s production values are decent. Debutant director, Raviteja Mullapudi should have avoided adding unnecessary commercial elements to a plot that has a very good potential to become a good thriller.

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Thumbs Up:

Core Plot of The Film
Two Twists In The Second Half

Thumbs Down:

Routine Template-Driven Screenplay In The First Half
Boring Songs
Poorly Written Dialogues
Unnecessary Action Episodes
Climax

Analysis:

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‘Your phone number won a lottery’, ‘You have received a parcel from abroad, ‘Click on the link to check your CBIL/Credit score’, etc., almost all of us must have got calls or E-Mails or messages from fraudsters who say one of the aforementioned things to loot money from us. As mentioned in the movie, around twenty-thousand such crimes are happening in India every day.

The debutant director, Raviteja Mullapudi took a very relatable point of crime happening by targeting middle-class people in India, as the core plot and he added a couple of good twists to the plot that worked well. But, in an attempt to include commercial elements, he lost the plot completely in the first half. The first half of the film tests your patience with a routine template-driven screenplay with three songs, two fights, a beaten-to-death hero & villain track and a romantic track. Everything in the first half looks forced and dragged forever.

Even in the second half, when the core plot is unfolding interestingly, he included a celebration song between Vishwak Sen & Meenakshi Chaudhary that comes across as a speed breaker to the proceedings. After a good sixty minutes in the second half, the director chose to end the movie very routinely with an action sequence and poorly written ‘punch’ dialogues that are uttered by the hero.

The core plot of the film should have been worked as a proper thriller film with a crisp runtime and tight screenplay but the director’s attempt to make it an ‘Action & Romantic & Comedy & Thriller’ film worked against it. Just like most of Vishwak Sen’s films, Mechanic Rocky also has a lot of curse words throughout the film.

Overall, the core plot of Mechanic Rocky has a lot of potential but the overall feel of the film is spoiled by unnecessary commercial elements and runtime. Given the potential of the core plot, Mechanic Rocky will end up remaining as a missed opportunity.

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Mechanic Rocky – Lost In Commercialization

Rating – 2.5/5

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