'CRACK IN THE WORLD'.....NUKE 'EM LOW! OR: LAVA MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY.......

 Crack In The World (1965)

      Ahead of the curve, this one......

      It arrived 5 years before Hollywood fell in love with disaster movies that ran rampant through the twinned theaters of the 1970's. 

       A modest effort on a limited budget, though.....so don't look for a large all star cast here, except for aging 1940's leading man Dana Andrews, who at the time, was turning up in supporting roles in almost every other movie produced in '65.

      Considering its ambitious storyline of geology gone awry, this movie does manage to pack in a whole lot of action, spectacle and pseudo-science into one breathless adventure. You won't find too many Grade B double-feature movies treating you to the sight of Mother Earth belching out another moon to fly up and take its place next to the old moon. 

        This all starts with driven, obsessed scientist Dr. Sorenson (Andrews) planning a bold move from his vast underground headquarters somewhere in Africa. He wants to bring up, from deep in the earth's crust, that hot, hot, magma to serve as an inexhaustible power supply for the entire planet.

        (We're not sure how that would work exactly. Pumping that stuff into your car would probably melt the fuel line in a hurry.....) 

         Above ground, Doc convinced world leaders to fund a missile gantry to shoot a nuke straight down into the earth's crust to release the magma.  Sounds terrific, right? Like something that RFK Jr. would heavily endorse, based on his own scientific know-how.

        What could possible go wrong?  Heh, Heh, Heh, heh. heh...........

          We'll take 'a crack in the earth's crust' for $2000, Ken......

           You guess it....the arrogant Dr. S. is stunned to find out the crack he started will eventually circle the Earth and halve it like a walnut....and just like Trump's election, it's an extinction level event that'll leave all of us dead, or in dire need of a first aid kit as we go flying off into outer space, each of us cooked well done on the magma barbie.....

        But breathe easier, because Sorenson's stalwart staff geologist Dr. Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), who thought the nuke plan was nuts to begin with, has figured out a remedy......drop another nuke into an active volcano and who knows.....maybe it'll seal up the crack or whatever. 

          Oh by the way, in between all the earthquakes and tsunamis that have been killing off thousands of hapless Third Worlders, Ted's still toting a heavy torch for Sorenson's lovely wife (and assistant) Maggie (Janette Scott). Poor Maggie's getting no love from her cold-hearted hubby who in addition to his single minded dedication to cracking and uncracking the earth, is rapidly dying from cancer.

         Let's not forget to give a shoutout to director Andrew Marton, who'd already forged a mighty reputation as a second unit director of epics like "Ben Hur", "The Longest Day", "55 Days at Peking", "Cleopatra" and "Fall of the Roman Empire".) This guy knows eye-popping spectacle inside and out and he's greatly aided by the equally unsung special effects master, production designer and sometime film director Eugene Lourie ("Gorgo", "The Giant Behemoth", "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms")

       The catastrophe special effects are about as good as you can get for for a 1965 low budgeter, but what's truly impressive here - Sorenson's underground HQ, quite an enormous actual set, a cave buttressed with V shaped girders. It reminded us right away of one of Ken Adam's villain lair sets from the early Bond films. 

        The wild 'n wacky science on display here seems inspired by 1961's "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (where simultaneous U.S. and Russian nukes at the North and South Poles knocked the earth off its orbit).  And  you would think by now, given the amount of  radiation spawned giant bugs and dinosaurs, that movie scientists would think twice about flinging nukes around like 4rth of July firecrackers......

          But then again, that would spoil all the cheesy fun to be had watching films like this one. 

           1960's sci-fi completists won't want to miss it, which you can easily catch for free on Plex or Tubi.

            3 stars (***). 

      

        

            

               

'WHISPER CREEK'.....A FARM FAMILY BESIEGED BY MOTHER NATURE AND HUMAN VILLAINY.....ALL IN ONE NIGHT....

 Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan (2026)

     Out in the farmlands of Texas, torrential rain is coming down in sheets. Roads flooded out, fields turned to swampy mud......and worse than that, there's a trio of thugs on the loose, serving as minions for the malignant land-grabbing town bigwig who plans to buy out properties he covets... ....or else. So before this storm-tossed night's over, there's bodily harm coming down on the farm......

     Now that's what I call a 4 star recipe for a page turning thriller that combines warm family drama with Mother Nature and human villainy both on the rampage during one terrible stormy night. Fasten your pickup truck seat belts, it's going to be one bumpy perilous ride, courtesy of author Alison Brennan.

     Ellen McKenna, widowed after the tragic accidental death of her husband, struggles to keep her farm afloat, with all four of her children pitching in, even the youngest. But ongoing storms have already left the land flooded and it looks like the worst one yet is well on its way.. Jake, her oldest, discovers a neighbor grievously wounded by gunfire and the perpetrators, just like the storm are just getting started, with the threat of more violence yet to come.

     The increasing suspense and danger only escalate from this point on and like every great thriller should, 'Whisper Creek' had me putting off all manner of everyday things, so I could keep turning the pages. What helps put the book in that category is author Brennan bringing to life the entire McKenna family with all their hopes, dreams, quirks, flaws and good old fashioned Texan gumption. You can't help but care for this brood as you fear for them. And the book surely doesn't spare the McKennas not even a little bit, throwing one traumatic life-threatening moment after another at them.

     Superb heartfelt storytelling moving to a thrill-a-minute pace. No wonder I stopped everything I was doing to finish this book.

     4 stars (****).

'CHECKING YOU OUT'......BOOKS, BOOKSTORES, LIBRARIES, KITTENS, SECRET ROMANCING.....AND EVEN MORE KITTENS.....

  Checking You Out by Jennifer Chen (2026)

     Enormous loads of cuteness to unpack here. Two lead characters overwhelmingly cute. And both of them lovers of a wildly best selling and yes, cute fantasy novel series. Both equipped with loving, loyal and, dare I say, cute friends. If that isn't enough sheer cuteness for you, how about dozens and dozens of fluffy, mischievous, insanely adorable and.....you guessed it, cute kittens.

     One last thing to pile on top of this Mt. Everest of cuteness. Libraries! Bookstores galore! And books, books.....and oh yes, more books.

     Is there anything unpleasant lurking in this Garden of bookish, kitten-ish, Eden? Indeed, there is, with our male lead Dylan a survivor of merciless bullying during middle school through high school. So much so that he's hidden away his love of reading and now presenting himself as distinctly un-literary, and interested mainly in his prowess as a tennis player.

     Dylan's secret life makes it doubly hard for him as he's crushing hard on book-aholic LIzzie, lifelong lover of the same fantasy series that Dylan adores. but still too shy to admit to publicly. And despite his supposed interest only in tennis, Lizzie's beginning to fall just as hard for Dylan as they work together in an animal shelter, bottle feeding and caring for countless litters of captivating kittens that come flooding into the shelter..

     In no time at all, this 'You've Got Mail' storyline turns into 'You've Got Books' with Dylan and Lizzie exchanging anonymous messages tucked away in library books, with each of them, of course, not knowing that the wonderful sweet book lovers they're communicating with are.......each other..

     The simplicity of the writing here would lead me to believe this book is pitched more for tweens but I couldn't help but feel charmed by author Jennifer Chen's enthusiasm and deep empathy for her characters. (Though I really do wish she'd consulted a thesaurus for synonyms for "cute", whose overuse gets tiresome awfully fast

     The lure of books, libraries, bookstores, kittens and secret romance sucked me in right away, but I realize that some readers may feel like they're munching on a jumbo State Fair cone of YA cotton candy. But then again, what's wrong with a book that wants nothing more than to make you and all the characters in it feel good together? In this day and age,I say you can't have enough of them. So there's my 4 stars and I'm stickin' to 'em.

       4 stars (****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.......SPECIAL "GREEN SLIME!" EDITION......

 Let us now gaze upon Trump's Big Beautiful Blue Reflecting Pool.....

New U.S. Park Service Poster now placed  in front of the Reflecting Pool......

And the madness rages on......

Everyone (except Trumpanzees) have a terrific weekend! See you all next week!

'DISCLOSURE DAY'.....OVERPLOTTED, OVER-COMPLICATED, DUMB AS A MOON ROCK.....BUT HEY, IT'S STILL SPIELBERG....

 Disclosure Day (2026)

      As a lifelong Spielberg nerd, we write this review with a heavy heart.....

      To our everlasting sadness, we found that some of the unfavorable reactions to this film were indeed, all too true......

      This film most assuredly does not capture that sense of awe and innocent pure wonder we all remember from "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" and "E.T.".

       And the film generates excitement only in spurts, as mostly it's bogged down by its impenetrable plotting and silly sci-fi gimmickry left over from old 'Star Trek' episodes. 

        Its central premise, the engine that drives this slow chuggin' train, is that the existence of aliens and other worlds would drive us all into such an existential  funk, society would collapse altogether.

        Yes, we know. Imbecilic bullshit......but for the purposes of David Koepp's convoluted screenplay, that's the mission statement of the powerful, creepy government supported corporation Wardex, fronted by powerful, creepy Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). 

         Wardex, in collusion with the government has spent the last 79 years, capturing, vivisecting and hiding away alien visitors unlucky enough to crash land on earth. You can think of Wardex as a sort of  special intergalactic branch of ICE, terrorizing aliens before scooping them up into incarceration.  But to borrow the tagline of many a 1990's movie trailer......"everything  is about to change". 

          David Koepp's absurd, ridiculously over-involved storyline pours out an ocean of conspiracy theory molasses that Spielberg's forced to swim through. It's really nothing more than an extended chase, but festooned with some cornball sci-fi technology that sounds like Koepp was making it up as he went along.  Try to imagine 'Close Encounters' if Spielberg had devoted almost all its running time to Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon crawling up the side of Devil's Tower. That'll give you a rough idea of what it's like to sit through this film. 

         Wardex's ex cyber security whiz Daniel Kellner (John O' Conner). swipes all their damning UFO-Alien files, with the help of his ex-nun girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson). They're out to tell the world and a frantic Scanlon and his heavily armed minions are out to stop them......the chase is on. 

           Meanwhile, Kansas City TV weather girl Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt in a bravura performance) is suddenly gifted with otherworldly powers, speaking in fluent alien-ese and assorted earthly foreign languages. She only confounds and confuses her live in boyfriend Jackson. (Wyatt Russell,  essentially stuck with playing the Teri Garr role from "Close Encounters")  

           Margaret,  by the way, can instantly Jedi mind-trick anybody with her ability to unload an empathetic information dump of everyone's most private personal problems. The relentless Scanlon, however, has access to an alien device allowing him to telepathically carry on personal mind-meld conversations with any of our three 'good guys, Daniel, Margaret and Jane.

         Those good guys, with the Wardex stormtroopers yappin' at their heels, desperately race to meet up with Hugo Wakefield (Coleman Domingo), yet another Wardex defector who serves as Scanlon's worthy nemesis and former friend.        

          Everything we've just described takes a lonnnngggg  time  to play out, with the actors wading through mountains of exposition that's not all that well explained anyway.

           (Along the way, aliens pop up disguised as forest animals resembling CGI'd refugees from one of those terrible Disney live action versions of their animated films. Believe or not, we didn't mind these cuddly 'Bambi' aliens at all as opposed to most critics.....)

          You may well ask.....but what's all this mean?  And is finding out for sure we're not alone in the universe going to change what sounds like an impending nuclear war with North Korea?  Will it make us all gaze dreamily into the heavens, join hands with Kim Jung Un and sing Kumbaya together?

            We can only reveal this much - it just feels like it must have been an uphill battle for Spielberg to finally shepherd this movie to its Grand Finale.....but when it at long last gets there, it looks silly, far fetched and then....abrupt. While there's unquestionably whole chunks of 'Disclosure Day' worth admiring,  you'll get no warm hug 'Close Encounters'/'E.T. vibes out of it, so maybe don't go into the theater expecting any. 

            But let's remember that even when faced with a messy, all-over-the-place script like this one, Steven Spielberg remains one of cinema's great storytelling craftsmen......and he skillfully glides through "Disclosure Day" deploying his usual mastery of every single filmmaking art - editing, camera movement, directing of actors and when called upon, unparalleled action. (You'll literally gasp at a combo car and train chase that's already taken it's place as one of one of the director's most thrilling sequences ever.)

         (What will stick in our mind within the 2 & 1/2 hour running time.....a brief, heartbreaking clip of the Wardex-Government team torturing a little alien visitor until he/she/it shrieks in wailing agony.  We can picture Trump's official Nazi,  Stephen Miller putting this clip on an endless loop, so he can watch it over and over, giggling with a tub of buttered popcorn.....)

         And more sadness to report. Genius maestro John Williams, composing his 30th score for Spielberg (and most likely Williams' final bow) found little or nothing to inspire him musically  here. He provides serviceable enough accompaniment for the imagery but you won't hear his orchestra hitting those iconic heights of his previous collaborations with the director.  But during the end credits, you can always close your eyes and use Williams' heartfelt soaring choir to imagine the alien visitation movie you wish Spielberg had made instead of this one.

        Then again, maybe in this age of unease, anxiety, rancor, division and conspiracy paranoia, Spielberg's given us a thriller that can lift our hopes only just a little bit and not much more than that. 

         And that's kind of dispiriting for all of us.

         2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2) 

         (Despite our lowest rating ever for a Spielberg film, we'd still declare it a must see for all movie lovers. Remember, even second rate Spielberg is infinitely better than some other directors at their all-time best.....)

            

'SELF-HELP FOR SERIAL KILLERS'....FOR THIS MARRIED COUPLE, IT'S TOUGH BALANCING WORK 'N SLAY.....

  Self-Help for Serial Killers by Asia Mackay (2026)

     Wonderful news to know that Hazel and Fox, that beautiful/handsome couple of "A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage" are back in action once again.......living their best lives while depriving a whole slew of better-off-dead guys of theirs. But the murderous misadventures of this deadly duo wouldn't be nearly as much fun as they are without author Asia Mackay to throw every variety of obstacles, complications and plot twists in their way.

     And trials and tribulations aplenty keep Hazel and Fox in a constant state of anxiety and suspicion of everyone around them. They're a family now, with irrepressible toddler Bibi and baby Reggie, .........so it's tough to balance their parental responsibilities with their private crusade to rid the world of assorted rapists, abusers and all around rotten men. Fox, deep in midlife crisis and loss of mojo, turns to therapy to navigate his crumbling self-confidence and fear that he's no longer a worthy husband and co-killer for Hazel.. Hazel, meanwhile, copes with the 24/7 demands of a newborn and a new powerful enemy she's made out of the formidable mother of one of Bibi's pre-school bullies.

     That's only the least of their troubles. Our favorite kill-happy couple have also run afoul of an international criminal organization who've sent out their dreaded expert top assassin, 'The Chameleon' for one last job before his retirement........and guess which married couple sits on the top of his hit list. As if that's not enough on their plates, there's also the relentless Interpol agent sniffing about, curious as to how dead bodies seem to pop up in Hazel and Fox's wake wherever they go.

     Author Mackay never forgets to leaven all this marital mayhem with generous portions of dark humor and wit sharper than one of Hazel's favorite knives. This couple's reversal-of-fortunes never cease, along with twists both surprising and wickedly ironic. . No matter how much our lovebirds plan to combine marriage and murder as a lifestyle go off the rails, you'll still want them to succeed........and hopefully continue the chaos in another series entry.  I, for one, can't wait.....

       4 stars (****).

'SOMEONE ELSE'S HUSBAND'.....FROM KILIMANJARO TO PARK AVENUE.....IT'S JUST MURDER OUT THERE.....

  Someone Else's Husband by Kimberly McCreight (2026)

     Among the uppercrusts of New York City, no picture perfect storybook marriage ends up more tangled in webs of adultery and murder accusations than that of Gretchen and Richard Falk. It turned out Gretchen's worries about her beloved husband joining his old college buddies to climb Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro were well founded. Because joining the otherwise all male expedition was beautiful New York artist Frankie Callahan, hopefully on the verge of critical acclaim and financial success with an upcoming gallery exhibition.

     The exhausting climb to that famous summit ends in tragedy for one of Richard's friends but also fosters a possible much-more-than-friendly bond between himself and Frankie. But then two weeks later, with the adventure's survivors all back in New York, Richard's charged with with Frankie's brutal murder,..... her body's missing but detectives find her apartment (and some of Richard's clothing) soaked in blood. A traumatized, horrified Gretchen and her three grown children try to cope with the very public spectacle of a loving husband and father accused of such a heinous crime.

     Author Kimberly McCreight certainly knows how to deepen the mystery and suspicions here. The book deftly unfolds multiple timelines exploring the emotions, twists and turns of Frankie and Richard's lives during that perilous ascension of Kilimanjaro. And there's clearly more than meets the eye going on in Gretchen's life as well during that pivotal two week period before Frankie's slaying at the hands of.........well, that's for us readers to find out, isn't it. And you most definitely won't want to stop turning the pages until you do, with no end of surprises in store.

     I love a thriller that manages to combine all those NYC entitled one-percenters (and their wayward kids) with a complex mystery and a serious, honest look at the complexities of love and marriage. This book easily checks off all those boxes. By all means put this one on your latest reading list.

     4 stars (****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.......SPECIAL 'I LOVE THE INFLATION!' EDITION.......

 Dearest Trump Voters:

      This weekend, we don't even need to sign off with our usual final line to wish you ill.....

       Your Dear Leader, your Fearless Fuhrer did all the work for us......

       This Weekend Wrap-Up is just for you, both hardcore Trumpanzees and "But I didn't vote for this!" whiners.....

       Enjoy!  Enjoy!

And the madness continues.......

To BQ visitors....Wonderful weekend to you all...see you next week!