Shameless Self Expression

Harrison Ford plays a single-minded inventor who whisks his family (including wife Helen Mirren and son River Phoenix) off to Central America to create a jungle utopia. There they encounter internal conflict, external conflict, and mother nature. Andre Gregory plays a well-meaning missionary who earns Ford’s derision, with Martha Plimpton playing Gregory’s daughter. Butterfly McQueen of all people has a small role, and Jason Alexander can be briefly glimpsed early on at a store.   I’ve always carried with me a memory of this 1986 Peter Weir ( “Gallipoli” , “Witness” ) film being on my grandmother’s TV, and laughing at a particular line of dialogue from Martha Plimpton telling River Phoenix’s character that she thinks of him when she goes to the bathroom. Somehow that stuck with me all these years and nothing else about the film lingered at all. That said I would’ve been about 7 or 8 and the film as a whole wouldn’t likely have interested me. I just knew Martha Plimpton from “Th...

In a small Alaskan town where there is a period of 30 days of no sunlight, most of the townsfolk have skipped town, but a few decide to stay (around 150). This includes dutiful sheriff Josh Hartnett, but in the case of his ex-wife Melissa George (a fire marshal who misses her flight out), she has little choice. Meanwhile, a horde of animalistic vampires (led by Danny Huston, who is more “Nosferatu” than “Dracula” ) decides to romp into town for an all-you-can-suck buffet! Ben Foster plays a creepy stranger with seemingly a connection to the vamps, and who has been causing havoc in town leading up to their arrival.   The late 90s and early 00s weren’t my favourite decade for horror but things did pick up a bit in the middle and back half of the 00s. This 2007 David Slade ( “Hard Candy” ) adaptation of a graphic novel boasts one of the most ingenious and fascinating premises for a horror film that I can remember. The scenery is stunning, but setting the film in a part of Alaska...