25) The McPherson Tape - aka UFO Abduction (1989)

(2 out of 5)

Director
Dean Alioto

Cast
Tommy Giavocchini - Eric Van Heese
Patrick Kelley - Jason Van Heese
Shirly McCalla - Mom
Stacey Shulman - Renee Reynolds
Christine Staples - Jamie Van Heese
Laura Tomas - Michelle Van Heese 
Dean Alioto - Michael Van Heese

When it comes to the "found footage" horror subgenre, I find that the ones I've seen are great at building up only to end too abruptly. 

"Found footage" refers to a filming technique which presents the story as a home movie recording, made by a character or characters in the movie. It gives the impression that the movie is actually raw footage that was found and wasn't really intended for general audiences. 

The 1961 movie "The Connection" is often referred to as the first movie shot in this format.

When it comes to this found footage genre, three movies come to my mind. The first is "The Blair Witch Project." "Cloverfield" is another. And the alien abduction movie, "The McPherson Tape" which is also known as "UFO Abduction," is the third.  

The footage takes place on the night of Oct. 3, 1983. The McPherson family, who live somewhere in the Connecticut mountains, gather to celebrate Michelle Van Heese's (Laura Tomas) fifth birthday party. Her grandmother (Shirly McCalla) along with her children Eric (Tommy Giavocchini) who's Michelle's dad, Jason (Patrick Kelley), and Michael (Dean Alioto) are all there. 

Michael is the one working the family camcorder. Also, Michelle's mom, Jamie (Christine Staples) is of course there, too. Also, Jason's girlfriend Renee (Stacey Shulman) is joining everyone.

Everything starts off jovial enough. The scene is a typical family having a small get-together for young Michelle. 

For the first 20 minutes or so, the audience gets nothing but home video footage of this birthday. Nothing at all interesting happens as the movie forces us to sit and watch and wait for something interesting to happen.

They turn off the lights so Michelle can blow out her candles, but they can't turn them back on. 

Michael, Eric and Jason go outside to check out the breaker box. While doing so, some red lights from a UFO pass overhead. 

They decide to follow it as mysterious spacecraft appears to land not too far from their location. 

While they walk to the landing sight, they talk about how their mother has become an alcoholic since the death of their dad. 

The three guys finally come across the UFO on their neighbor's property. Alien beings are wandering outside this ship, investigating the surrounding wooded area. 

After one of these aliens sees their flashlights, the guys run back to the house. 

The guys lock the family inside and grab some shotguns all while hysterically shouting about what they just witnessed. Naturally, they freak everyone out. 

More red UFO lights shine in through the windows as a spacecraft flies overhead. They all think the spacecraft flew off and all the creatures they witnessed are now gone. 

Where the movie gets a little silly, if it isn't already, happens right about here. The guys find one of Michelle's drawings of an alien which looks just like the aliens they saw. 

Still, everyone calms down a bit. Some of them try to leave. However, the aliens are standing outside their house. 

Everyone rushes back into the house, clueless about what to do. 

Eric then shoots one of these aliens. Thinking he killed it, Eric brings it into the house. Who knows why? 

Well, once the supposedly dead alien is brought inside, it's clear where the story is going to go. 

The movie is good enough to keep me invested all the way to the end. I wouldn't call it an "edge-of-your-seat" sci-fi thriller. Still, it manages to be effective. 

But this found footage subgenre needs to be really good, and depict a really effective topic, otherwise it ends up underwhelming or not as satisfying as the producers surely want it to be. These kind of movies often miss more than they hit. 

What makes them unsatisfying is that the audience is generally left with no climax. "The McPherson Tape" ends just as the aliens enter the home. The family doesn't even see them enter, though the audience does. Their reaction, and whatever happens next is left to the audience's mind. Otherwise, it ends just when it gets really good. 

All the found footage movies I've seen follows this pattern. Just when sparks are going to fly, the credit start rolling. Yeah...yeah. I know. What happens next is left to the audience's imagination. Big wow! Am I supposed to call that great writing or magical movie making? 

"The McPherson Tape" tries to be serious, and it does a decent enough job in appearing authentic (for the most part). The aliens ruin it for me. They look like kids in black spandex and rubber alien masks. Otherwise, it's a respectable attempt at a "found footage" movie. 

Dean Alioto and Paul Chitlik remade this movie in 1998 titled, "Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County." I'm curious enough to look for it and see if it's any sort of improvement. 

24) The Avengers (2012)

(2.5's out of 5)

"The Avengers. That's what we call ourselves; we're sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type thing."

Director
Joss Whedon

Cast

Robert Downey, Jr. - Tony Stark 

Chris Evans - Steve Rogers
Scarlett Johansson - Natasha Romanoff

Jeremy Renner - Clint Barton
Mark Ruffalo - Bruce Banner
Chris Hemsworth - Thor 
Tom Hiddleston - Loki

Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury
Stellan Skarsgård - Selvig
Gwyneth Paltrow - Pepper Potts 

I decided to put on Marvel's bar-raising and 5th highest grossing movie (according to ScreenRant.com), "Avengers." 

I haven't watched it since its release back in 2012 and I don't recall what I thought about it back then. I probably enjoyed it. I mean, I don't recall having any negative thoughts about it, though it was 13 years ago. Watching it now, it fails to impress. In fact, it's boring! 

Honestly, I lost interest in these Marvel movies ever since the fourth and final Avengers movie (so far), "Avengers: Endgame" came out in 2019. 

I mean, "Endgame" is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Too much of a good thing isn't good. I have what the kids call "comic book movie fatigue." For me, "Endgame" was the climax of this whole MCU. 

Occasionally, a new Marvel movie pops up that makes me curious enough to watch it when it's released on DVD. Otherwise, the spark is gone for me. 

When it comes to comic book-based movies, which "Avengers" is for those who have no idea what Hollywood has been producing in the last 20-plus years or so, after Tim Burton's 1989 movie, "Batman," comic book movies took a more serious, gritty turn. And to some degree, that tone still exists in some of these movies. But I think Marvel brought back some color and a bit more light-heartedness to this genre. Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" movies come to mind. I'm sure comic-book connoisseur would scream at me when I say that movies like Raimi's "Spider-Man" along with various other MCU films have a modern style and tone reminiscent of Richard Donner's "Superman" and Richard Lester's "Superman II."  "The Guardians of the Galaxy" vols. 1 and 2 along with the "Ant-Man" movies come to mind in that regard.

"The Avengers" is the first of four Avengers movies in the MCU, which several previous superhero movies focused on specific characters build up to. This movie picks up after those movies. 

In "Avengers," Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's adoptive brother, meets a representative of an alien species called the Chitauri, who is referred to as "the Other" (Alexis Denisof). 
The Other wants Loki to get his hands on an energy source called a tesseract. If Loki can find and grab this tesseract, the Other will give him an alien army strong enough to conquer the Earth. So, Loki comes to Earth and begins his quest to find the tesseract and rule over the world.

So, where is it? 

This tesseract is located at a secret facility where Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and a team he's leading is studying what it's capable of. 

Of course, Selvig and his team somehow activate the tesseract which opens a portal. And Loki meanders through it. That was easy! 

He snatches the tesseract and uses his magic-y staff to enslave Selvig and everyone in the lab including Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), also known as Hawkeye- one of the Avengers in case someone out there didn't know that.

So, while that's going on, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who previously brought the Avengers together, calls them to keep Loki from getting his hands on the tesseract and enslaving the Earth. 

To begin things, Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) heads to Kolkata to get Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to locate this tesseract through gamma radiation. 

As the Avengers hunt down Loki, inner turmoil ensues as they argue how to approach and deal with him. The top covert agency, S.H.E.I.L.D., wants to use the tesseract as a way to create weapons of mass destruction against the threat of any invading aliens. I'm trying to simplify the plot. 

Eventually, these alien invaders arrive at Earth, and it's up to the Avengers to stop them. 

There's a lot of talking in this movie, interrupted by fighting scenes, followed by more talking scenes. 

Throughout the movie, the word "tesseract" is used again and again...and again. 

Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., and Samuel L. Jackson.

"We have to find Loki and the Tesseract." "Keep working on finding Loki and the Tesseract." "Have we located Loki and the Tesseract?" "Where's Loki and also the Tesseract?" "Once we have Loki, we'll have the Tesseract." "Keep looking for Loki and the Tesseract." 

For all the talking this movie has, the dialogue feels dull and repetitive. You know... dull feelings that feel repetitive. 

All the characters, outside of their superhero costumes and persona, lack personality. I only find them interesting when they're fighting and battling and doing what superheroes are expected to do. Everything else is dialogue, pseudoscience, and more dialogue.

Robert Downey Jr's character Tony Stark/ Iron Man has some personality but outside of his being a pretentious, filthy rich, and ingenious character, that's about all we get in the personality column. 

He's a dry character, and he seems to intentionally be that way. The rest of the cast don't have much of anything other than looks and some fighting scenes to keep audiences invested. For a movie with so many characters to be as boring as it is, is kind of remarkable.  

"Avengers" is certainly proud of itself for being what it is, or at least what it perceives itself to be - a super, superhero movie. It is an ambitious project inclusive of a bunch of superheroes played by big name actors. Thankfully, keeping track of all the motives behind each character is easy to remember 

Otherwise, it's boring until the final battle in which something exciting actually happens. The movie takes itself way too seriously. It's enough to make even my roll my eyes. 

The movie is one big load of setting up for later stuff, though the individual superhero movies before "Avengers" which focus on one member of the team at a time, seems to do that, too. 

The movie kept me waiting for the action to begin or continue. It felt like a new experience when watching it on screen back in 2012. Now, I hear a fifth Avengers movie, "Avengers: Doomsday" is set to be released in May of 2026. Regardless, the novelty and sheen of these huge comic book movie mega-productions have since worn off almost completely, if not completely-completely, sometime between then and now.