Food Inc. (2009)

Title: Food Inc. (2009)

Director: Robert Kenner

Review:

This world is fucked up. That’s what documentaries make me think about. I mean, if one was to watch Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006) Jesus Camp (2006) Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple (2006) Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Living (2005) Sicko (2007) Capitalism: A Love Story (2010) and now Food Inc. (2009) one after another, one would not want to go on living in the world as we know it. And honestly, I find it so sad that the world is the way it is. You know what they say, the more you know about how things really are, the more bitter you get. I guess you learn to find happiness in other things in life, but the reality remains that this world is one sad place when we really stop to look at it. Still, I like to watch these documentaries, psychologically torturous as the may be, because they are like a bitter pill that the world needs to take in order to get better. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, that’s when we know we have to fix our tie. When we look at these documentaries, we know what is wrong in the world, and what we can do to make it better.

Hey, where did that pretty American Farm go to?

In this case, the bitter pill has to do with the food we eat. Every day, we eat chicken, pork, soy beans, vegetables, corn, yet we don’t really know where they come from. We see a neat little package in the supermarket, we buy it, but do we ever stop and think what the food in the supermarket has gone through to get there? Food Inc. shows you exactly what it went through, and it isn’t pretty. The documentary focuses on three areas, the production of meat, the production of grains and vegetables like soy and corn, and finally, the documentary focuses on the power these gigantic companies have, crushing smaller farmers and using legal tactics to shut them down, just so they can have a complete monopoly over food production. Like I said, it’s sad the way the world really is. It’s a dog eat dog world in the food industry, and its sad to see the smaller farmers putting up the good fight against these giant multinationals. How weird is it that one of these giant companies can actually genetically alter a grain, and then own it? As in no one else can grow that grain of soy, but them? I mean, arent grains part of nature? How can a company own a freaking grain? Ask the giants, they've deviced a tricky way of doing it. It’s strange to see farmers acting all scared in front of the cameras, like they are showing some dirty secret that they are going to get punished for talking about. And sad part is, they probably are going to “get it” for talking about how the food we eat is handled. The bravery shown by some of these farmers who were willing to open up the doors of their farms to show us how our food is handled is commendable.

You’ll see how chickens are grown in complete darkness, and grown so fat that they can’t even take three steps without falling down! The chickens can’t even hold their own weight! Really, it’s the mass production of it all that sickens me. These companies need to produce so much food, so fast and on a day to day basis, that the quality of the food goes down because they take short cuts to produce more, bigger and faster. I enjoyed how the documentary also focuses on smaller farms, the organic kind. These farmers produce less food and don’t want to ever get huge or multinational. They want to remain small, and produce quality food for their neighbors. Id love to support farmers like these, unfortunately, where I live, people live off of the supermarket and the supermarket alone. I think it’s sad when you think that not many people grow their own food anymore. The idea is so remote from their minds! The way things are set up in the world, we only have time to go to work, come back, and eat something we bought at the supermarket. We don’t know what its like to grow our own food, because we don’t have the time to do it.

"Hey, they left out that extra order of saturated fat that I ordered!"

A quick drive to McDonalds or Burger King can solve your hunger problem in a jiffy, its cheap, but its crap. Unfortunately, when you make little money (as many families do in our current economical reality) going to a fast food joint is sometimes the ONLY option to get the whole family to eat. I mean, how unfair and messed up are things in the world when buying vegetables in the supermarket is way more expensive then getting a happy meal at McDonalds? How wrong is that? Shouldn’t the good food be cheaper? It should. It would be the right thing, but we live in a world where what is done is the wrong thing. Just take a look at all those documentaries I mentioned earlier. But its not all gloom and doom, thankfully, the documentary does offer up good points on how we can improve our eating habits, how we can kill the giants, by not buying the crap with pretty packages that is sold to us at the supermarket, but by consuming organic products sold on Farmers Markets, amongst other things. In other words, know what you eat! Watching this documentary will help you do that. I support this kind of documentary because it lets us see things the way they really are, not a false exterior, but the real truth of it all which we seldom get in this world. Highly recommended viewing.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Lolita (1997)

Title: Lolita (1997)

Director: Adrian Lyne

Writer: Stephen Schiff

Cast: Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith, Frank Langella

Review:

On my review for Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962), I mentioned that that particular version was a prisoner of its time, and it's true, the book on which the film is based on (Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita) is a novel about a  man who falls in love with a 12 year old. For all intents and purposes, it’s a story of pedophilia. Surprisingly as this may sound, considering how sexual a lot of Stanley Kubrick's films are, his version of Lolita is restrained in the sexual aspects of the story, failing to go where its story begs for it to go to. It fades to black in key sequences, and lets the audience imagine what is happening between Professor Humbert and Lolita. Fast forward more than 30 years later and director Adrian Lyne decides he wants to do another take on Nabokov’s novel. Was this version also restrained, or did it go further?

Lolita is the story of Professor Humbert Humbert, and man who suddenly finds himself playing with the notion of falling in love with a 15 year old girl, a child. He even goes as far as marrying Lolita’s mother so that he can be closer to Lolita! Will Humbert control his aberrant thoughts? Or will he move forward with his desires? And what will the outcome of his actions be?

I was a bit disappointed with Kubrick’s version of Lolita. Not that its badly directed or acted or anything. It was just one of those films that are kind of hard to digest. It was deliberately slow paced, it didn’t go all the way with its themes because of the conservative times it was made in, but the performances pulled me in and the story of course grabbed me, because I wanted to see how Humbert and Lolita would end up, would their crazy idea of a relationship work? But mostly, I stuck with Kubrick’s film all the way to the end for one main reason: its Kubrick, and I have to watch every Kubrick film before I die no matter what I do. I ended up liking the film even with its ‘flaws’.

On the other hand, Adrian Lyne’s version of Lolita was actually a pleasure to watch. Not that Im into stories about pedophiles, Im speaking more of the way the film was shot, wow. Lyne really captured some beautiful imagery on this film. He framed every shot perfectly, he filmed in beautiful locations, and got the best performances he could out of these actors. He pulled of a story that is not easy to tell, in a very beautiful way. My hands down to Mr. Lyne for filming such a beautiful looking picture. I really enjoy Lyne’s directing style. He frames things perfectly and beautifully, but he also gets right in there in the action, making you feel as if you are right there in the movie with the characters. There is one scene where Lolita comes back into the house running through the stairs to meet with Humbert so she could say goodbye to him. When Lolita is going up the steps, you feel like you are right there with her because of the way the scene was shot. Bravo, Mr. Lyne. Its no surprise this director has made one of my favorite horror films ever: Jacobs Ladder; yet another film that is visually striking. So be ready for some beautiful imagery with this version of Lolita.

The theme for this film are controversial, some might think the film favors pedophilia, which it doesn’t. Humbert and Lolita’s outcome is a testament to that. This film did come closer to capturing the developing intricacies of Humbert and Lolita’s strange relationship. It focuses on those little details, those little moments that are decisive in moving forward with a relationship, in this sense, I have to say that this film developed everything better than Kubrick’s version did. Kubrick's version was afraid of its themes, while this version embraces them. You see Humbert oogling on Lolita, you can see machinations forming in Humbert’s brain, you can tell this man wants Lolita in his arms. And Lolita is more of a provocateur in this film, she is the one pushing Humbert’s buttons as well. Dominique Swain, the actress who plays Lolita was only 15 when she shot this, but Adrian Lyne filmed her more erotic scenes with a body double. This illusion works perfectly well, for I didn’t notice it until I recently read about it. Still, the sex scenes are not graphic at all, it’s the idea that grabs and shocks you. But we're not here to see Jeremy Irons making out with a 15 year old girl, this film is after all a morality play, we want to explore what is the right thing to do. And if you choose to do the wrong thing, what are the consequences?

What I loved about Kubrick’s version more than anything was Peter Seller’s performance as Claire Quilty. The guy who tries to “rescue” Lolita from Prof. Humbert’s claws. It was such a crazy performance, the character comes off as kind of nuts, psychologically damaged. On Lynes film this character is played by Frank Langella, a solid actor if there ever was any. Langella brings an air of disgust and depravity to his character. Quilty is on screen for a very short time on this film, yet he is incredibly mysterious, and at the same time intensely revolting. A sexually aberrant individual. A despicable character, but a great performance!

All in all, a great movie. The controversy surrounding the thematic elements made it difficult for this movie to take off at the box office. It actually got a very small theatrical run and was later premiered on cable tv. I was surprised to discover that this film didn’t even get any Oscar Nominations when it so obviously should have gotten many awards. I guess this shows just how conservative the members of the academy are. This movie should have at least been nominated for cinematography, but alas, it was ignored by the academy that year. I guess Titanic was “king of the world” on that year and Lolita was completely ignored because of that. A shame, because even though this films thematic elements speak of a very ugly truth; this is actually a very beautiful film to look at. A true work of art.

Rating: 5 out of 5

 

Patrick Still Lives! (1980)

Title: Patrick Still Lives! a.k.a. Patrick Vive Ancora (1980)

Director: Mario Landi

Review:

The oiriginal Patrick (1978) is an Australian horror film about a comatose hospital patient with Telekinetic powers. A doctor constantly performs a series of experiments on him to see what makes his telekinetic powers tick. Meanwhile, Patrick has plans of his own, like falling in love with his lovely nurse! You see, his comatose state doesn’t stop him from getting the hots for her. So, Patrick tries to constantly contact her by typing messages on her typewriter. Problem is that while she accepts that Patrick is contacting her through the typewriter, no one believes her. Patrick ends up getting dangerously jealous of her, in a psychotic sort of way and there's nothing more dangerous than a psychotic telekinetic! Patrick ends up using his telekinetic powers to kill everyone who gets between him and his nurse. It was an interesting horror film, nothing mind blowing, but I remember enjoying it. The director Richard Franklin went on to make bigger and better movies, like Psycho II (1983). He had written a sequel for this film called Patrick II: The Man Who Wasn’t There, which had something to do with a religious cult who finds Patrick’s dead body and brings it back to life. And interesting premise, unfortunately this proposed sequel was never made. It ended up lost in development hell. Still, this didn’t stop the Italians from making their own indirect sequel to Patrick called Patrick Still Lives! How was this trashy Italian flick? 

A tragic accident turns Patrick into a paraplegic telekinetic!

Nothing connects this film to the last. This is an entirely different Patrick only this time, the story develops in Italy for some reason. The story starts out with Patrick and his dad having a road side accident. While they are on the side of the road, a car passes by and someone from the car hurls a bottle out their window, the bottle smashes on Patrick’s face! Patrick ends up comatose after this accident. Fast forward a couple of years later, and Patrick’s dad is the owner of a hotel/spa. He has invited five strangers to stay at his home. But for what dark purpose? Will Patrick ever get revenge over those who left him comatose?

So basically, this film is also about a bedridden telekinetic who kills people with the power of his mind. That’s the basic premise of the original, and this one follows the same basic premise, only with a few differences here and there. For example, on this film Patrick feeds off the negative energy coming from three criminals to augment his telekinetic powers and execute his revenge. While the first Patrick film took place in a more believable scenario, this Italian rip off goes into cheesy territory. Patrick’s dad keeps Patrick locked up in a special room of his hotel, a room that looks like some cheesy laboratory in a bad sci-fi movie from the 50’s. Complete with panels of useless blinking lights and levers.

Certain things make this movie hilarious. First of all, it’s so freaking sleazy. By that I mean that the movie wastes no time in getting its actresses naked. I’m serious here! Every single actress in this movie will be naked at some point, not just showing their boobs either, these girls go full frontal on this movie! The movie uses any excuse it can to get its actresses to have a cat fight and rip their clothes off during the whole process. It has Patrick using his telekinetic abilities to perform what can only be described as a 'vagina impalement death' that is hilarious because the character that is impaled sees this floating metal poker coming for her genitals and she just sits there waiting for it to happen. It felt like a death sequence in a Lucio Fulci movie. You know how Fulci would drag the hell out of a death scene? Same with the impalement scene on this one. I guess the director wanted to torture his audience, but the scene comes off as funny instead because the girl simply freezes and lets her self get impaled. This type of scene goes in accordance with Italian Horror Film Rule #576: Make as little sense as possible!

But when we really get down to it, this movie was just an excuse to show naked girls. For example, there is one scene where a character walks into a room and there’s this gorgeous Italian lady sleeping in her bed entirely naked! Not only that, she starts moaning! She looked great and all, but I tried looking for some meaning to the scene, and I found none because this scene was a text book example of what a gratuitous nudity scene is all about. Still not convinced? Then you should see a scene in which Patrick falls in love with his fathers smoking hot secretary and manages to get her to do a strip dance for him! And she ends the dance by playing with her self! As you can see, this movie is more about the sleaze than about Patrick and his revenge. At least the film manages to squeeze in a couple of cheesy death sequences in the middle of all the tits and ass.

Sadly, the telekinetic side of the story is delivered very poorly. One scene has Patrick conjuring up a wind storm making the trees and bushes move around a lot. Funny part is that you could tell the trees and bushes were being moved by people off camera and not by the wind! That’s right folks; there was not enough budget to rent an industrial size fan to get that scene right. Patrick makes the pool water boil! Even funnier is the fact that every time Patrick uses his telekinetic powers, the screen turns fluorescent green and Patrick’s eyes appear superimposed on the screen! It’s cheesy to the max!

So basically, Patrick Still Lives is just a cheesy Italian rip-off wannabe. But as many of you out there know, there is a certain level of enjoyment to be had with this kind of movie simply because of how sleazy and bad it is. You won’t believe some of the lines these characters spew. One scene has a doctor examining a death victim and he actually says “I believe his death was due to fatality”. This movie follows all the rules of a bad Italian Horror Film: Lots of nonsensical events, lots of tits and ass, lots of cheesy deaths filled with cartoon gore and blood, and of course a poorly written script that could not have taken long to write. A fun movie simply because it’s so sleazy and bad.

Rating: 1 1/2 of 5

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Title: Iron Man 2 (2010)

Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Justin Theroux

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell

Review:

The first Iron Man (2008) film was an incredible box office success. It was a hit for Marvel Comics Productions, a company that has been producing some of the best (and worst) superhero movies ever. Iron Man was one of their really good ones. Jon Favreau brought together an excellent cast and production team, the end result was pure superhero magic. Not to mention the film single handedly brought Robert Downey Jr. back into the spotlight, making one of the best comebacks in recent history. And of course, after such an incredible success, a sequel just had to be churned out. I mean the name of the game with commercial films such as this one is making money. Was Favreau able to catch lightning in a bottle again?

This time around, Iron Man has become something of a celebrity, everyone knows who he is, he has brought world peace to the planet and has essentially become something of a god on planet earth. Righteous and invincible. But what happens when ever one individual gets to powerful and too successful on his own? The Government wants a piece of him now! That’s right, government is salivating at getting their hands on Tony Starks Iron Man armor. They want to use it for military applications, while Tony Stark is interested in using it to keep world peace, and since no one can challenge the awesome power of the Iron Man suit, well then, Iron Man remains the protector of the planet. Or at least of the United States. But the question that comes into play with this movie is: Is Tony Stark the right man to wear this powerful armor?

Expectations for this movie are high for various reasons. It’s a sequel to a very successful film that many loved. The original made so many millions at the box office, that it is expected that for a sequel, Hollywood would treat its new cash cow with some respect and made sure they delivered a decent superhero film. So a huge budget and big stars is something to be expected with this sequel. In my opinion Hollywood delivered. This film has lush production values and a impeccable cast! Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell as villains? That’s a winning combination right there! Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow as the hot super hero babes? Double knock out! Don Cheadle as the sidekick who is awesome on his own? The Icing on the cake! So at least casting wise this movie headed in the right direction. In thing that I found kind of funny is how Jon Favreau gave himself a bigger role this time around. On the first film he was just Tony Starks limo driver. On this sequel he still plays Starks limo driver/body guard, only thing is this time around he actually ends up kicking some ass and serving as comedy relief in an action scene. I guess being the director has its privileges.  

Script wise, the film develops at just the right pace in my opinion. Many people complained that theres not enough action, but I don’t think I agree with these comments. Sometimes people complaint that there isn’t enough character development in a film, that the film is hollow and has no heart, but then when they give them a movie that fills those gaps, they complain that there isn’t enough action. If you ask me, this movie had the perfect balance between awesome action sequences and good character development. The film was written by Justin Theroux who wrote the super funny comedy Tropic Thunder a couple of years ago and has also acted himself on a couple of films like David Lynch's Inland Empire and Mullholand Drive. I think he wrote a good superhero film. It explores its characters and doesnt only concentrate on action and special effects. We get to know Tony Stark a little better this time around. We get to know about his past, his father, how he grew up, why he is who he is.   

In my book the flaws on Iron Man 2 were not many. The only thing that I can complaint about is that I wished the ending had been just a tad more elaborate and spectacular. Destruction had to be on gargantuan levels, yet they never peeked with the climactic action sequence. It is a good and extended action sequence, but it needed a little extra oomph to take it into epic and spectacular levels. It needed to be a bit closer, more in your face. More visceral. We needed to see Iron Man getting into bigger trouble, be in more peril. As it is, during the last action sequence you never feel the hero is in peril. Whenever he has his suit on, the guy is invincible. This guy’s body armor is indestructible, nothing harms it. Iron Man's invincibility takes away the tension, the peril. The final fight with Whiplash (Rourke) needed to be something that would wow us, instead, it ends with a whimper. This is really the one and only problem I had with the movie.

The rest of the film is fantastic in my opinion. It explores Iron Mans darker side when we see Tony Stark getting drunk in a party while wearing the Iron Man suit. This is an element that I loved in the movie because it comes straight out of the comics. I mean, Iron Man has always been a hero that’s had to battle with his drinking problem. There was a story arc called "Demon in a Bottle" which showed us a Tony Stark going into drunk rages, going all sorts of evil and crazy, kind of like that time that Superman turns into "evil Superman" in Superman III. They translated that struggle in the film really well. It offers us one of the movies funniest moments. Robert Downey Jr. is a pleasure to watch in the role of Tony Stark, he is lively, funny, and spontaneous so it never gets boring whenever he is on the screen. Mickey Rourke pulled off a pretty convincing Russian accent in the film, which can be a problem when not done well. Speaking of his character, he looks bad ass with those electrical whiplashes; the scene in the middle of the car race is awesome. If only they had more of that awesomeness during the films last frames and the movie might have been perfect.

Iron Man going on one of his drunken rages, it gets pretty ugly in the comics

The biggest draw about this movie is the introduction of the War Machine character, played by Don Cheadle. I have to say that it was pulled off very well. The character looks exactly the way he does in the comics. I loved how he serves as Tony Starks conscience, telling him things like “you are not worthy of wearing that armor!” The teaming up of the two in the ending is awesome, if only it had been more complex than getting chased around by a couple of flying drones!

The thing about reading Marvel Comics (or any comic series for that matter) is that they usually leave you with a cliffhanger; they always have some sort of continuity to them to get you involved so you can come back next week for the next issue. This element of reading comic books has been effectively translated to the silver screen with films based on Marvel characters. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I love how he has been a constant through out all these movies…lets just hope that that Avengers movie thats coming in a few years (supposedly Josh Whedon will be directing) lets him truly shine in the role. Samuel Jackson has a more elaborate participation on this film, but his performance in Iron Man 2 remains an extended cameo of sorts. So was Iron Man 2 better then the first? Well, I had fun with it. It has excellent production values, the effects and action sequences were great. I really dont have anything bad to say about this movie save for the short fight between hero and villain in the climax. A fun summer blockbuster, made better because its excellent cast. As with most Marvel Comics movies, theres a little something extra after the credits. Hint: it has something to do with Mjollnir!

Rating: 3 out of 5

A Mind is a Powerful Thing to Waste (Telekinesis Movies)

A common theme in telekinesis movies is that of the young person who gets bullied around for being different. You’ll notice many of the films mentioned in the list below are about angry young people getting treated like crap till one day they suddenly snap, and its telekinetic display time! Another common theme is that of the government wanting to control the individuals who posses these special abilities.

There are actual people out there who would have the rest of the world believe that they actually posses telekinetic abilities. Just ask Nina Kulagina, a Russian lady who had people believing she could move matches with the power of her mind. Some illusionists are pretty good at making us believe they actually possess these abilities, and some of their You Tube videos are quite convincing. But so are the You Tube videos that show you how these tricks are done.

Ultimately, we can all agree that telekinetic powers are real only in our minds! There is no such thing, Telekinetic abilities are another fantasy that we’d like to believe is true. Still, the idea of Telekinesis makes for some fun movies! And there are a lot of them out there! I decided to compile a list of films that depict Telekinetic Powers as real. Here are the ones I came up with. I left some out so I could mention them in a future post.

Title: Carrie (1976)

Director: Brian De Palma 

Comments: Carrie is the outcast of the school. She’s shy, she doesn’t talk much and people like to make fun of her. She also has an ugly family life, her religious fanatic mom drives her insane. Things reach a boiling point when she can’t take the avalanche of abuse and disrespect she gets from everyone. So on Prom Night, when her peers are particularly cruel to her she uses her telekinetic powers to get payback upon all those who’ve made her life a living hell. Movie was directed by the great Brian De Palma and was based on Stephen King’s classic novel. It spawned a less than stellar sequel called Carrie 2: The Rage (1999)

Display of Telekenetic ability: During her prom night, Carrie gets a bucket of pigs blood dumped on her. She goes crazy and uses her telekinetic powers to lock all the doors in the school and ignite everyone at the prom in flames! Paybacks a bitch as they say.

Title: The Fury (1978)

Director: Brian De Palma (1978)

Comments: In many ways, this film feels kind of like a “serious” version of the X-Men. Why? Well, it has many similarities with the X-Men universe. The Fury is about these kids who develop these telekinetic powers. The government wants to exploit them for military purposes so they gather all these special kids in this special mansion. Problem is, these kids don’t want to be exploited, what they want is to be left alone. Again De Palma explores the themes he explored in Carrie. Namely, teenagers with telekinetic powers! In my opinion, the film should have dived a bit further into the horror aspect of things, as it is; it also has elements of a spy thriller, with the kids hiding away from the government. By far, the most exciting moments are the last 30 minutes, with Kirk Douglas going into the mansion searching for his rebellious son; whose telekinetic powers have driven him insane. 

Display of Telekinetic ability: When one of the teenagers goes rebel and wants out of the whole project, his father goes looking for him through the mansion, searching all the different rooms for him. When dad walks into a room, he doesn’t know it but his kid is hovering in the air in the darkness, in silence.

Title: Scanners (1981)

Director: David Cronenberg

Comments: In Scanners there is a battle going n in the world between regular human beings, and Scanners. A new breed of humans with exceptional telekinetic abilities is popping up in society, some of them are good hearted people, but others think that they can rule over humanity. Who is leading the evil Scanners? And will they ever be stopped? So basically, this is one of the most well recognized telekenisis movies. It has one amazing sequence were a Scanner blows up this poor dopes head into a million pieces, all with the power of his mind! That scene is a showstopper to be sure, but the film as a whole is a gem of science fiction films. Cronenberg develops his tale in a believable fashion, having the good Scanners gathering around like rebels, afraid of being discovered but giving the good fight anyways. Michael Ironside steals the show as a Scanner willing to do anything to fulfill his ambition of being the most powerful scanner alive. The final showdown between good scanner and bad scanner is not to be missed! This film was followed by a series of straight to video sequels. The only one of these sequels I have seen was Scanners II: The New Order. Sadly, though entertaining it failed to reach the heights to which Cronenberg took his film. The sequels were the following:

Scanners II: The New Order (1991)

Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)

Scanner Cop (1994) 

Scanner Cop II (1995)

Title: Patrick (1978)

Director: Richard Franklin 

Comments: Patrick is a young man who is lying comatose in a hospital bed. You see, the poor bloke went comatose after he killed his horrible parents on a telekinetic tantrum. Doctors are using him to conduct a series of experiments on what happens between life and death. But Patrick isn’t as comatose as they think! He can communicate with his favorite nurse through a typewriter! Patrick’s has secretly fallen in love with the cute nurse who takes care of him in the hospital. Patrick is ready to do anything to be together with her...forever! This is an Australian film, but strangely enough, the Italians made a cheap ass sleazy sequel to this movie called Patrick Still Lives! (1980) All I have to say about that is, if you like your Telekinetic movies with lots of tits and ass, then look no further than this cheesy Italian rip off/sequel that has no connection whatsoever to the original. 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: When an abusive doctor keeps trying to perform all sorts of twisted experiments on Patrick, Patrick uses his telekinetic abilities to stop him by throwing a potted plant at him, then pushing him against a wall, opening the door and the hurling the doctor out of the room and into the hallway, all with the power of his mind!

Title: Modern Problems (1981)

Director: Ken Shapiro 

Comments: Well, this isn’t one of Chevy Chase’s worst comedies. But it also isn’t his best. It’s kind of a so-so Chevy Chase film. That this films director never did another film can be an indication of how well this movie was received. Still, the premise is fun. Chevy Chase gets powers! And he uses them to mess with his ex-girlfriends suitors! Watch Chevy Chase cause a guy to have a massive nose bleed! Watch Chevy cause an opera dancers crotch to grow way out of proportion! It’s all very symbolic for how extreme jealousy can be an evil thing. Cause even when Chevy gets his girl to come back with him (because he made all her dates lives impossible) he's still jealous, and his jealousy causes him to do very evil things. That’s when the movie becomes most interesting to me, when Max powers come to full circle and he starts doing all these crazy telekinetic related things, cheesy special effects get shifted into full gear during the last few minutes and it becomes entertaining. Thing about this movie is that it has a lot of goofs! You can see cameras, shadows, visible equipment and the boom mike on numerous occasions! The fx aren’t all that great, but they have that cheesy 1980s charm. Id recommend this movie only to Chevy Chase fans (like myself) or to people who like off the wall straight up weird movies. 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: When the superstitious maid of the house believes that Chevy Chase is possessed by demons, she throws this white "magic" powder in the ground which she thinks will scare away any evil demons that might try and come close to her. Chevy Chase has gone crazy with his telekinetic abilities and uses them to snort all the white "magic" powder from the floor as if it was cocaine!P.S.: Chevy Chase almost died while making this movie! In a dream sequence in which Chase is supposed to be an airplane with landing lights flying through the skies, one of the landing lights short circuited and gave Chevy Chase a massive electro shock that almost caused his death!

Title: E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Comments: A young human child befriends an alien child who has been stranded here on earth. They become the best of friends slowly learning from each other. That is until the evil government decides to kidnap the alien to conduct a series of experiments on him. Will the alien child ever return to his home planet? Why are its parents taking so long to get back? So yeah, it never occurred to me, but E.T. is definitely a Telekinesis movie. Only these abilities are not displayed by a human, but by an alien!

Display of Telekinetic Abilities: E.T. is naturally telekinetic, so he's making things fly through the air all the time through out the whole film. At one point, to illustrate exactly what planet he comes from, he makes a series of spheres fly through the air. And in possibly one of the most memorable displays of mental abilities on any film, E.T. makes Elliot and his buddies fly through the air on their bicycles, successfully evading the evil government men in black!

Title: Firestarter (1984)

Director: Mark L. Lester

Comments: In the realm of telekinetic movies there’s a little corner reserved for Pyrokinetic films. These are movies in which people control fire with the power of their minds. Firestarter is one such film. Based on Stephen Kings story, Id say that this was an enjoyable King flick. Drew Barrymore’s characters plays out like a more powerful Carrie. It’s like taking Carrie out of the high school setting and putting her up against the evil government agency looking to exploit her powers. This movie has an outstanding cast. Barrymore herself does a fine job as the titular Firestarter, when she goes berserk, all hell breaks loose. Loved those effects where she generates these fire balls to blow up the evil guys. We get Martin Sheen playing the guy in charge of the government division interested in Barrymore’s powers, and finally, we get the great George C. Scott playing an evil and sadistic bounty hunter that the government employs to capture the firestarters. Decent movie, sometimes I couldn’t help and get that made for tv movie feel to it, very 80s, but the movie always picks up whenever Barrymore starts spewing fireballs at the bad guys.

Display of Telekenetic Ability: When Barrymore and her dad decide to hide in a farm, the owners of the farm realize Barrymore has fire powers because she melts the bar of butter! With the power of her mind!

Title: Making Contact a.k.a. Joey(1985)

Director: Roland Emerich

Comments: Ten year old Joey has just lost his father in death and is learning slowly to deal with it. Along the process of mourning, Joey discovers he has telekinetic abilities! He moves a glass of milk across the dinner table to his mother’s horror! He makes his toys comes to life! One day, he wonders into an old house and discovers an old ventriloquist dummy, which actually talks to him! Is this dummy good or evil? What does it want with Joey? I remember watching this movie as a little kid and liking it, but not entirely. Even at that tender age (I was just ten) I recognized Making Contact was just trying to be a cheap imitation of E.T. It’s got that 'jee wheez I’m a kid from the suburbs' feel to it, just like your typical early Spielberg movies. Some scenes are completely swiped from E.T., like that scene where the evil scientist comes to get Joey to experiment and explore his telekinetic abilities! But the film also has a mild horror tone to it with the whole evil talking ventriloquist dummy. In one particular 'scary' scene, the kid talks to his dead father through a toy phone! I wonder if he ever crossed lines with Caroline from the Poltergeist movies? So in essence, Id say this movie feels like a strange mix between E.T. and Poltergeist. Making Contact (also known as Joey in some markets) was directed by mega budget-summer tent pole shit fest director Roland Emmerich. This was way back in the day when Emmerich was just a Spielberg imitator. Heck if you ask me he still is, just not a very good one. Guy has lost all my respect (10,000 B.C. What the hell was that all about man??!!) This film represents Emmerich’s humble origins, back before he was making big budget shit films for the masses.

Display of Telekinetic Abilities: When Joey decides to impress a girl at school, he goes all out telekinetic and makes a ruler float in the air. Then he makes a hard boiled egg (straight out of the lunch box) roll over the ruler like a bridge. Then, he wiggles the little girls pony tails....all with the power of his mind!

Title: Howard the Duck (1986)

Director: Willard Huyck

Comments: A scientific experiment gone wrong brings a midget duck from "duckworld" to earth. His name is Howard the Duck. Once here, he has to find a way to get back home. Unfortunately, the same machine that brought him home is the same machine that’s bringing some demons down from another dimension, demons hell bent on destroying the earth. Before going home, Howard decides to save the earth. I know this movie has always been on many critics "worst films ever made" list and whatever, but I’ve always been a huge fan of it. Along with Cutthroat Island (another flop that I find entertaining) Howard the Duck was one of the most expensive turkeys ever. People didn’t know what to make of it. Was it a kid’s film as the premise and main character might imply? I mean its a movie about a talking midget duck, it has to be for kids right? Well, not exactly, the film has Howard the Duck about to have sex with a human female, he smokes cigars, he watches the duckworld equivalent of Playboy (called PlayDuck) and there’s even female duck nudity. So it was definitely a film made for adults. A dark comedy. But I guess that confusion doomed the film from the start.

So anyhows, box office losses aside this movie is good silly fun. I love how out there it is. I mean come on, a duckworld? That’s fucking nuts! Darkoverlords of the Universe coming to destroy us? Love that shit! And to top things off, the Darkoverlords of the Universe have telekinetic abilities. Jeffrey Jones who plays a Darkoverlord, goes crazy powerful and starts hurling people around and making things fly, great 80s visual effects. Speaking of special fx, this movie has lots of them. The Darkoverlord is hurling power left and right making shit blow up, and when the Darkoverlord shows its true form its thanks to Phil Tippets awesome stop motion animation. Lea Thompson’s looking all kinds of hot in an 80’s kind of way. Of special interest as well is the fact that this was one of Tim Robbins first film roles.

Display of Telekinetic Ability: When Dr. Jennings is possessed by the Darkoverlord of the Universe he gains telekinetic powers. So in one cool sequence, all the people in a small restaurant have captured Howard and are about to chop him up into little pieces with a meat cleaver, suddenly, Dr. Jennings makes the meat cleaver fly through the air and frees Howard from his bonds. Then he proceeds to destroy the restaurant with the power of his mind!

Title: Spaceballs (1987)

Director: Mel Brooks

Comments: On this spoof of the Star Wars franchise the evil Spacesball’s are trying to take over Planet Druidia. You see, the greedy all consuming people of planet Spaceball have almost used up all their air, so they plan on stealing 10.000 years of fresh air from Planet Druidia. It’s up to Lone Star and Barf to stop them, with the help of Yogurt The Wise and The Schwartz! In my opinion, Spaceballs is one of Mel Brooks best films, right up there with Young Frankenstein in terms of laughs. And that’s saying a lot!

Display of Telekinetic Abilities: In one scene, Lonestar uses the Schwartz (thats Mel Brook’s equivalent for the force) to turn off a giant spaceship (shaped like a giant maid with a vacuum cleaner) that’s sucking the air away from Planet Druidia. He manages to successfully turn the switch from suck to blow! All with the power of his mind!

Title: Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood (1988)

Director: John Carl Buechler

Comments: A young girl named Tina goes with her mom and shrink to a cabin in the woods to try and deal with her fathers death. Her shrink knows she has telekinetic abilities and is trying to trigger them so he can become famous. Jason soon wakes up from his watery grave (at the bottom of Crystal Lake) and starts to wreck havoc on the girl and her family. He also kills all these teenagers that are on vacation in the cabin next door. Cool thing about this movie is when Tina goes 'mano a mano' with Jason, with her telekinetic abilities on full blast! 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: In one scene while Tina is fighting Jason, she uses her telekinetic abilities to destroy Jason’s iconic hokey mask revealing Jason’s zombie like appearance!

Title: Cameron’s Closet (1988)

Director: Armand Mastroiani 

Comments: Little Cameron is gifted. He’s got telekinetic powers! Cameron’s dad is a scientist who has been studying Cameron and conducting experiments on him. Just to see what makes his Telekinetic abilities tick. One day, an invisible force kills Cameron’s dad! Was it Cameron himself who did it? Or is there some evil invisible force at work here? So this movie is not that bad at all. It feels harmless, kind of in the same way that The Gate is harmless. You know, kind of scary, kind of silly, basically, your typical 80s horror flick. This movie made me laugh a couple of times with its telekinesis, which basically consisted (on more then one occasion) of the old trick of putting the footage on reverse. This film was made during the time when religious horror films where still considered scary. So you get demons and invisible forces attacking people. This movie is actually a bit like taking Poltergeist, The Exorcist and Carrie and juggling them all together. It’s got the little kid with the powers (Poltergeist) it’s got the evil demon in a statue thing (The Exorcist) and it’s got the Telekinesis (Carrie). It also feels like a cheesy episode of an 80s cop show with this detective investigating the whole thing. Not a bad little movie, the kind of horror movie you’d show to your little brother or something. On the plus side, Carlo Rambaldi, the special effects guy who created E.T. and some of the creatures in Dune and Alien, did the creature effects here. Though if you ask me, Id say the guy lost his touch. Or he didn’t get paid very well on this particular gig. One or the other. The reason I say this is because the monster is all kinds of cheesy! Sorry Mr. Carlo Rambaldi, but your monster on this movie was mediocre.

Display of Telekinetic Ability: In one scene, Cameron gets so angry at his mothers boyfriend that he blasts him out the window and onto the front of the house (effectively killing him) all with the power of his mind!

Title: Akira (1988)

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo

Comments: Akira is a film about a boy named Tetsuo. Like many of these telekinesis movies, Tetsuo, the main character is stumped on by all his peers. Everybody treats him like crap. That is until one day he starts developing Telekinetic abilities! Then, when Tetsuo manages to harness these powers, its time for payback! I always thought this film was an allegory for loss of control in ones life. When we can do whatever we want, will we end up doing what is right? Or let power consume us and devour us like some giant monster would? 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: Tetsuo uses his telekinetic ability to control a satellite hovering out in space. He makes the satellite shoot a powerful laser beam directly from space in order to destroy his enemies!

Title: The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Director: Brett Leonard

Comments: This is the story of Jobe. A mentally challenged gardener who is up for an upgrade of his brain! Doctor Angelo is looking to make Jobe smarter through a series of experiments that deal with Virtual Reality. Once Jobe is connected to the Virtual Reality machine, this opens up his brain and suddenly he is not mentally challenged anymore. In fact, his intellect might actually surpass that of Dr. Angelo’s! Soon Jobe becomes obsessed with the virtual world. So much so that he wants to transport himself entirely onto the computer. I remember that when this film came out, the computer effects were considered mind blowing, but unfortunately, by today’s standards, they are no better then a video game, actually, the graphics are worse then any video game. But the film is entertaining anyways. This movie is not as good as I remembered it last time I saw it, but it has its merits. 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: Once Jobs powers begin to grow, he no longer needs to push his lawnmower to cut the grass, the machine does it on its own. Of course with a little push from Job’s telekinetic abilities!

Title: Lord of Illusions (1995)

Director: Clive Barker 

Synopsis: Basically this is the story of Swan, a famous illusionist somewhere along the lines of David Blaine or David Copperfield. During the 70’s Swan belonged to a cult of religious freaks who worshipped an all powerful magician known as Nix, the leader of the cult. Swan and a couple of other followers decide they don’t want to be a part of Nix’s cult anymore, so they trap him and bury him alive so that his evil could not spread through the world. Problem is, Nix's followers want him back! And they are stopping at nothing to avenge his death! Will his followers resuscitate Nix and his evil ways? Will Nix want Swan by his side when he does? I love this movie to death. In my opinion, it is Clive Barker’s finest hour as a director. I find this movie terrifying because of the way the villain is portrayed. Nix is one all powerful evil bastard! It’s a bonus to have this character played with such evil glee by Daniel Von Bargen, who out does himself with the role. What I like about this movie is how it turns magic and telekinesis real. In my opinion, Barker successfully merged noir with horror. 

Display of Telekinetic abilities: Nix, the all powerful religious leader makes it rain inside of a room. His followers start to play in the mud that starts to form on the floor, marveled at the miracle that has just occurred before their eyes! Then, in a twisted turn of fate, Nix makes the sun come out (inside of a room) and his followers are burned to a crisp.

Title: Powder (1995)

Director: Victor Salva 

Comments: This movie is about a kid who is born albino. Not only does he have absolutely no pigmentation in his body, but he also has an incredible intellect, great sensibility and telekinetic powers! He has been locked in a basement by his family for years, until somebody finds him and unleashes him to the horrors of going to high school and having to socialize. Can this world accept Powder for who he is? Basically, this movie was directed by Victor Salva, the guy responsible for the Jeepers Creepers movies. You know, they guy who loves to put shirtless teenage boys in his movies because it turns him on. Anyway, the directors sexual preferences aside, this movie is actually his best work.

Display of Telekinetic Ability: Powder makes every single spoon, knife and fork in the school cafeteria fly through the air and form a column on the table that he is having lunch in.

Title: Dark City (1998)

Director: Alex Proyas 

Comments: John Murdock wakes up in a strange city. His memory isn’t quite clear, he really doesn’t know what’s going on. He finds himself living in a lonely, dark city with no people in it! Everything appears to be frozen in time when the clock hits Midnight! He is confused, but he follows clues to discover who he really is. Little by little he realizes things are not exactly what they seem! The city he lives in (the titular "Dark City") is a city eternally engulfed in night. And the buildings shift forms from time to time! What the hell is going on? And who’s doing this? And who are those guys dressed in black that are following him around? So for me this movie is one of the top science fiction films ever. It’s a film engulfed in noir, in darkness. It has that feeling of uncertainty to it. Plus we have that mystery surrounding the transforming city. Those images involving the buildings shifting positions and shapes....and the final encounter with the strange beings causing it are some of the things that make this one a favorite of mine. It’s the power of the mind which causes these shifts in ideas and situations, I loved that idea. The idea that we are the shapers of our own futures, our own destinies is one of the themes that permeates this film. The idea that we can go against the powers that be to create and shape our own. Highly recommended for lovers of gothic dark films. 

Display of Telekinetic ability: In a cataclysmic battle, John Murdoch goes up against The Strangers in a telekinetic battle to the bitter end! Mental blasts, knives flying through the air....telekinesis gone awry! Awesome stuff!

Title: The Rage: Carrie 2 (199)

Director: Katt Shea

Comments: Didn’t really hate this "sequel" but I didn’t really love it either. It basically plays out more like a lousy remake then a straight sequel. Nothing really new explored here, its just a girl with telekinetic powers, slightly grungier, more suicidal, less dorky then the original Carrie was. So when the rich kids make fun of her, she goes all crazy and starts killing them with her telekinesis in sometimes, sometimes not creative ways. 

Display of Telekinetic ability: When Carrie goes on her telekinetic killing spree and uses a harpoon gun to harpoon some guys genitals. You actually see the guys testicles floating in the pool at one point!

Title: Pyrokinesis (2000)

Director: Shuseke Kaneko

Comments: A little pyrokinetic girl looses control of her powers and accidentally kills a person who is attacking her. She bursts his body into flames. After this, she feels guilty and vows never to use her pyrokinetic powers again. Soon she grows up and is leading a quite reclusive life, until she falls in love with a co-worker. She soon finds out her new loves sister has been killed by a crew of violent teenagers trying to make a snuff film. She soon looses control of her powers in search for revenge. This movie has a similar premise to Firestarter, mixed with elements from Scanners. You know, the little girl with pyrokinetic powers. She tries to hold these powers in control so she won’t hurt anyone. But then this movie takes a turn and turns into a film about the same little girl, only all grown up and using her powers to fight the evil in the world, kind of like a vigilante. The fire effects are pretty cool, specially those dealing with the girl making the bad guys burst in flame. 

Display of Pyrokinetic Ability: Yuko spots one of the teenagers who was filming the snuff movie, so she decides to exact revenge upon him by lighting him up in flames right smack in the middle of a public park! Too bad her new boyfriend’s conscience kicks in and stops her from completely burning him alive.

Title: PUSH (2009)

Director: McGuigan

Comments: What a lifeless movie. Nowadays, they keep doing this thing where they make movies with not too much information, keeping stuff from you so they will have a bit more to show you on the future sequels that they have plans for, but have no idea if they will ever get to make. It’s as if they are taking for granted that their film is going to be a huge hit, so they make a film that doesn’t give you the whole scope of things. It only tells you half of the story, as a result, you get a movie that you feel is half assed. It’s missing something. 

That’s my main problem with movies like this one. Sometimes they’ll dampen the characters powers down somehow. Evil Hollywood ploy so they wont have to spend big money on special effects and destruction? Most probably, but damn, at least by the films final half you expect to be compensated with a decent semi spectacular ending, but this movie has no such thing. I was waiting for the big finale, but it just didn’t happen. It never came. Specially considering that the movie centers around a drug that can supposedly augment your powers, I was expecting a scene where Chris Evans telekinetic powers were going to go bat shit insane and he was gonna destroy everything in sight. It’s funny because one of the films posters has Evans throwing a car through the air…yet this never happens through out the movie! All he uses his powers for is apparently carrying guns through the air. The movie is pussy in the biggest way possible, it shy’s away from anything too over the top. And that’s exactly why I hated it. Its safe Hollywood crap. No edge. And not a moment of awesomeness. Barf. Such a boring lifeless film! When you watch PUSH, you feel like you are watching the simplest kind of movie. The good guys with powers vs. the bad guys with powers. Now if there was some using of these powers in cool and spectacular ways I don’t think I would have a problem with it. I wouldn’t mind seeing powerful dudes and gals blowing shit up and hurling each other through the air. But what the hell happened with this movie? It’s boring as hell! Let me put it this way, if you want to see a movie about Dakota Fanning drawing pictures, then watch this movie! According to the movie, Dakota is a watcher, one who can see the future. So what does she do? She draws what she sees and then watches it all come true. Unfortunately wed already seen that in a character from Heroes. Which brings me to my next point, this movie is like mixing the premise for Heroes and X-Men and throwing in a little bit of Firestarter in the mix with the whole evil government coming after them scenario. Only boring. 

Display of Telekinetic Ability: When Chris Evans is going to confront the villains in the movie, he takes two guns and uses his telekinetic powers to move the guns through the air without the bad guys noticing until he has them at gun point. Then he has a shoot out, but with the guns traveling through the air, while another telekinetic does the same against him. The only cool sequence in the whole film swears to god.

Title: Watchmen (2009)

Director: Zack Snyder

Comments: The world is on the brink of nuclear meltdown and society is going berzerk! At the same time, somebody is killing off Americas’ most recognized heroes. The Watchmen. Who is killing them and for what purpose? This movie was all I wanted it to be. A faithful adaptation of the graphic novel which took very few artistic liberties and made minor changes to the story. Rorsharch kicked ass. The Comedian was awesomely evil. And finally, my favorite part, Dr. Manhattan. He is the most enigmatic one of the group, this god-like being can do anything that pops in his head! Which includes teletransportation, telekinesis and mind reading.

Awesome display of telekinetic ability: When Dr. Manhattan is displaying his telekinetic abilities to the military people, he picks up an entire tank and squashes it with the power of his mind.

Other Telekinesis movies I had no time to write about:

Star Wars Saga (All six films) 

X-MEN (all three films) 

What have I done to deserve this? (1984)

The Medusa Touch (1978)

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) 

Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

Fire Starter 2: Rekindled (2002)

Momentum (2008)

Zapped! (1982)

Matilda (1996)

The Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War (1996) 

Zapped Again! (1990)

The Matrix (1999)