Reviews – The Thing, Thunder Soul

The Thing (Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., 2011): A masterful combination of gnawing paranoia and shockingly overt glop, John Carpenter’s The Thing stands alongside David Cronenberg’s The Fly at the absolute peak of remakes done right: movies that honor their source material, while following their own unique path.  While this CGI tricked-out prequel can’t come close to equaling Carpenter’s slow burn, it’s by no means a disgrace, either. Much like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead revamp (also produced by Strike Entertainment) this version of The Thing respects its predecessors, while amping up the action-movie RPMs.  What it lacks in resonance, it mostly makes up for in enthusiasm. Set immediately before the events in 1982’s film, the plot follows a Norwegian/American research team (including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, and Ulrich Thompson, amusingly made up to resemble the eggheaded scientist in 1951’s original The Thing From Another World) who stumble across the frozen remains of an alien spacecraft. One ill-advised defrosting later, and the dwindling crew find themselves facing a viral enemy that duplicates its prey.  Making his feature debut, commercial director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. admirably attempts to replicate Carpenter’s gliding camera and claustrophobic staging, with diminished yet still effective results. (Likewise the special effects, which, while inventively disgusting, lack the germy viscosity of Rob Bottin’s landmark work.) Thankfully, the filmmakers do prove remarkably successful at recapturing its predecessor’s sense of fatalistic xenophobia, with a slew of characters seemingly capable of Thinging out at any time. While the disquiet ultimately fades as the third-act explosions mount, this reverent redo succeeds to a degree that might give even scoffing purists a goosebump or two.  Keep watching the skies, and stick around during the end credits. (originally published at Amazon.com)

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Thunder Soul (Mark Landsman, 2011): Some of the best documentaries arise from premises that, if fictional, would likely be jeered off the screen. Thunder Soul, the story of a beloved teacher’s lasting effect on his students, contains characters and events that seem plucked straight from the Inspirational Screenwriting handbook. But it’s all real, and pretty wonderful. Director Mark Landsman (with an assist from producer/narrator Jamie Foxx) tells the story of Conrad O. Johnson (known to his students as “Prof”), a Count Basie accompanist who stopped his performance career in favor of teaching music at an impoverished Houston high school. Under his tutelage, the Kashmere Stage Band became a sensation, winning national championships and bringing on the gargantuan funk in a fashion that still influences hip-hop. Nearly 30 years after his retirement, his students stage a reunion to show the ailing Prof his profound influence on their lives. The potential for melodramatics is certainly high, particularly as the rusty musicians scramble to meet their concert date, but the filmmakers cannily show restraint, using a mixture of found footage and interviews from admirers to pump up the emotion without ever quite edging over into sentimentality. Ultimately, what launches Thunder Soul into the stratosphere is its central subject, who, quite simply, comes across as one of the coolest people to ever walk the Earth. Sporting a beatnik goatee and a delightfully garish assortment of clothes, Johnson cuts an almost ridiculously magnetic figure, as a man so serenely secure in his abilities that it infuses everything within his general vicinity. The good vibes from him, and the surrounding film, roll off in waves. This movie should be played loud. (originally published at Amazon.com)