Nope (2022)

Nope is a 2022 American science fiction film directed by Jordan Peele and stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, and Brandon Perea

In 1998 , on the soundstage for the sitcom Gordy’s Home, the titular chimpanzee animal actor attacks and kills its human co-stars after being startled by the pop of a balloon. Child actor Ricky “Jupe” Park hides under the table and is unharmed, though scared. The chimp finds Jupe and extends a hand before being shot dead by authorites. 

In the present day, ranch owner Otis Haywood Sr. trains and handles horses for film productions. When he is killed by a nickel through the eye that falls unexplainably, his children Otis Jr. and Emerald inherit the ranch. O.J. tries to keep the business going and to uphold his father’s legacy, while Em looks for fame and fortune in Hollywood. The Haywoods claim that unnamed jockey in “Plate 626” from Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion series of photographs was their ancestor. 

Six months later while, while filming a commercial with well known cinematographer Antlers Holst, a horse reacts violently when the crew startles it and the Haywoods are fired from the project. The ranch’s financial problems have forced OJ to sell horses to a grown up Jupe, who owns and operates the nearby Jupiter’s Claim, a smal western theme park, where he uses the story of Gordy’s Home killing for profit. Jupe offers to buy the Haywoods’ ranch, which Em encourages OJ to accept. That night Haywoods notice their electricity flickering and their horses disappearing and reacting brutally to an unknown presence. They discover that a UFO shaped like flying saucer has been sucking up their horses and spitting out any unwanted debris, which caused their father’s death. 

Seeking wealth and fame, OJ and Em decide to document the evidence of the UFO’s existence and they obtain Fry’s Electronics employee Angel Torresto set up surveillance cameras as they bait it with a pretend horse. Jupe introduces a live show at Jupiter’s Claim and plans to have a horse as bait to coax the UFO to come out, having fed it the horses he bought from the Haywoods, in front of a paying audience. This UFO is not a spaceship but predatory creature that eats anthing that looks directly at it.  

This film has a Spielbergian feel too it, much like his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but not nearly as good. To me this is one of Peele’s weaker films. Most of the movie is spent on the creature in the sky, waiting for it, watching it, escaping from it and only a portion is actually spent on the horses and the human characters. The creature goes from looking like a giant UFO, to a giant kite, to a ginormous kaleioscope, which is neat, but entire scenes of it, is a waste of time. We get it,  we’re amazed, move on. 

The acting is great from Daniel Kaluuya (OJ) and Steve Yeun (Jupe), Keke Palmer was given a bad role, as she is really good actress and deserves better, but her character Emerald was nothing more than an annoying stereotype of a young African American tomboy wanting fame and fortune. 

This film had little flow and made little sense and you never learn why the sky creature was after that town. It is very intense but also focuses way too much on the creature and very little on the human characters, although a good bit is focused on the horses. I like science fiction and thriller films but they both must have what films need a begining, middle and end. This one has a begining, but the middle and end are combined. Had the middle and end been seperated, I would have enjoyed it more. This took Spielberg style sci-fi and just made it worse. The last about hlaf the film was spent trying to get away from this UFO looking alien creature thing and not about learning anything about it and why it wants to destroy that town eat certain living things.They just want it come out and then run from it, which makes no sense and they are just wanting it to suck them up. 

This movie is really fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat and because of these things, it is better to see it in theater. The intensity, violence and language in this movie are not appropiate for yound kids. Just the creature alone would give them nightmares. 

I am disappointed I spent over two hours of my life watching this movie that had very little story to it other than horses, but the alien thing is never explained about at all, not why they’re on earth, where they came from, why that town? Nothing. Jordan Peele has said that the creature represents Hollywood and the main (human) characters are Hollywood stars and the alien going after the Haywoods and Jupe represents how Hollywood mistreats African Americans and Asians. Which upon learning that, it made me like this movie a little bit more, but still not a whole lot more. 

The cinematography, scenery and special effects are amazing, i just wish there had been less alien or whatever that thing is more about the characters and their lives. It might as well have been callled Jordan Peele’s Alien. But all of those good qualities dont make the film that much better, just more entertaining. 18+ 3.5/5 

Greatest Science Fiction Films of All Time

  1. Barbarella – 1968
  2. Nine Days – 2020
  3. Moon – 2009
  4. Westworld – 1073
  5. Silent Running – 1972
  6. Snowpiercer – 2013
  7. The Hidden – 1987
  8. Galaxy Quest – 1999
  9. Sleeper – 1973
  10. Alphaville – 1965
  11. The Vast of Night – 2019
  12. Independence Day – 1996
  13. Dark City – 1998
  14. A.I. Artificial Intelligence – 2001
  15. Ghost in the Shell – 1995
  16. Tron – 1982
  17. Looper – 2012
  18. The Man Who Fell to Earth – 1976
  19. Edge of Tomorrow – 2104
  20. Intersteller – 2014
  21. Minority Report – 2002
  22. Paprika – 2006
  23. Annihilation – 2018
  24. Men in Black – 1997
  25. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind – 1984
  26. Arrival – 2016
  27. Planet of the Apes – 1968
  28. World on a Wire – 1973
  29. Seconds – 1966
  30. Forbidden Planet – 1956
  31. Total Recall – 1990
  32. The Thing – 1982
  33. Je t’aime, Je t’aime – 1968
  34. E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial – 1982
  35. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – 2004
  36. The Terminator – 1984
  37. Jurassic Park – 1993
  38. Wall – E – 2008
  39. Back to the Future – 1985-1990
  40. Robocop – 1987
  41. La Jetee – 1962
  42. Under the Skin – 2013
  43. Aliens – 1986
  44. Stalker – 1979
  45. The Matrix – 1999
  46. Terminator 2: Judgement Day – 1991
  47. Metropolis – 1927
  48. Close Encounters of the Third Kind – 1977
  49. Akira – 1988
  50. Fantastic Planet – 1973
  51. The Fifth Element – 1997
  52. Predator – 1987
  53. Blade Runner 2049 – 2017
  54. The Face of Another – 1966
  55. Avatar – 2009
  56. THX 1138 – 1971
  57. Re-Animator – 1985
  58. The Iron Giant – 1999
  59. Blade Runner – 1982
  60. Gravity – 2013
  61. The Bride of Frankenstein – 1935
  62. Frankenstein – 1931
  63. Ex Machina – 2014
  64. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back – 1980
  65. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – 2015
  66. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – 1977
  67. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 2017
  68. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – 2016
  69. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – 1983
  70. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – 2005
  71. Star Trek III: THe Search For Spock – 1984
  72. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – 1986
  73. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – 1991
  74. Star Trk into the Darkness – 2013
  75. Star Trek Beyond – 2016
  76. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan – 1982
  77. Star Trek: First Contact – 1996
  78. Star Trek – 2009
  79. Them! – 1954
  80. The Day the Earth Stood Still – 1951
  81. Inception – 2010
  82. Solaris – 1972
  83. Invasion of the Body Snatchers – 1956
  84. Children of Men – 2006
  85. The Last Starfighter – 1984
  86. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – 1989
  87. The Martian – 2015
  88. Melancholia – 2011
  89. Starman – 1984
  90. War of the Worlds – 2005
  91. The Andromeda Strain – 1971
  92. The Abyss – 1989
  93. Sunshine – 2007
  94. District 9 – 2009
  95. Invastion of the Body Snatchers – 1978
  96. 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
  97. Mad Max – 1979
  98. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior – 1981
  99. Metropolis – 2001
  100. Chronicle – 2012

Classic of the Week: Weird Science (1985)

Weird Science is a 1985 American teen science fiction Comedy film written and directed by John Hughes and stars Anthony Michael Hall, Mitchell Smith and Kelly LeBrock. The title is take from a pre-Comics Code Authority 1950s EC Comics magazine of the same name.

The film is about nerds and social outcasts Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly who use a computer program to create the perfect woman, she turns the lives topsy turvy. Both Wyatt and Gary are bullied by senior jocks for drooling aver their cheerleader girlfriends. Turned down and disappointed at their lives and wanting more, Gary tells Wyatt they need shove in popularity in order to get their crushes away from the bullying jocks. Alone for the weekend, Gary is inspired by the 1930 film Frankenstein to create a virtual woman using Wyatt’s computer, making her with everything they can imagine to make the lady of their dreams. After attaching electrodes to a doll and hacking into a government computer system for more power, a power surge constructs Lisa, a gorgeous and smart woman with unlimited magical powers.

Weird Science is not only weird but it is filled with vulgar and tasteless humor. John Hughes wrote and directed a story that seems like the two actors and maybe a high school drama produced. Only teens (boys mostly) will really enjoy this this disaster of a film. It is a film that teen boys will likely want to masturbate to, since there are lady’s undergarments and full frontal nudity shown. Once a teen (boy mainly) reaches adulthood, they are likely to either stop liking the film, forget about it, or only find it to be an okay movie.

This film is not even okay, it is tasteless and seems like a horny teenaged boy wrote the screenplay. It screams drooling adolescent males that have just discovered how to self pleasure and seeing a naked female for the first time. Only a few times did I actually laugh. I really don’t understand the cult status of this movie, as it’s really not very good. It is a tad entertaining, yes only a little bit. It is not one that I can watch over and over again. It is a once or twice and never again type.

From such a great director and the cult classic-ness of this film, I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular (judging by the plot), but something at least good. This is John Hughes’s worst film. A piece of trash that should remain in a garbage can or burned. Normally I don’t give such awful reviews for movies, but this one definitely deserves it. There really isn’t much I enjoy about this movie, maybe how gorgeous Kelly LeBrock was and how she was the best actor in the entire production.

Weak, typical bad teen film, unoriginal plot from a renowned director and too much vulgarity. I’ll be sticking to his Brat Pack and other better films from now on. Did he use a computer and turn himself back into a teenager to produce this? Sure seems like it. 14+ 1.5/5