Tag: Kevin J O'Connor

Deep Rising (1998)

More spooky movie reviews for Halloween! 🎃 Deep Rising (1998) was in the Roger Ebert book, I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie and Ebert didn’t like it. Generally the film’s received negative reviews. Maybe it was just the slew of Aliens rip-offs around the late 1990s and the number of action horror flicks that took place near the water (Anaconda, Deep Blue Sea, Lake Placid, even Alien Resurrection). Aside from some dated sea monster tentacle CGI, this was a fun ride and pretty entertaining. I’m a fan of Treat Williams and he’s pitch perfect as the Han Solo hero here, a rouge merchant sailor hired by mercenaries led by Wes Studi and a stacked stable of character actors (Djimon Hounsou, Cliff Curtis, Jason Flemyng, Trevor Goddard) to board a cruise ship out in the South China Sea. Unfortunately, when they arrive, it’s a ghost ship with ominous noises and a few survivors including Famke Janssen as a stylish jewel thief and Anthony Heald as the Donald Pleasance of this Fantastic Voyage. However, higher praise goes to Kevin J O’Connor stealing the movie as the comic relief, updating an Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to a hipster slacker vibe while never becoming annoying or wearying. Often set aside for tension-stoking silence and loud explosions, when you do hear Jerry Goldsmith’s score, there’s a lovely throw-back feel of a classic monster movie. Directed by Stephen Somers before he would strike it rich with The Mummy franchise starring Brendan Fraser; there’s still some expensive sets and production value here before it would all go CGI shit-storm for his career. You can stream Deep Rising on Disney Plus or rent/purchase from iTunes. Recommended.

Lord Of lllusions (1995)

Occult neo-noir is a sub-sub genre that has few big screen entries and Clive Barker’s Lord Of Illusions (1995) has always intrigued me, even though it has a mixed reputation with some defenders. Much like the loopy people in the Mojave desert, where this film opens, who pledge their sanity to a man named Nix (Daniel Van Bargen) whose belly is peeking out under his dirty shirt, sometimes you give love to things that are not all that perfect. So it was with this film, which I enjoyed despite of and maybe because of its imperfections. The film follows the fall-out when one of Nix’s acolytes, Swann (Kevin J O’Connor) believes this cruddy messiah has gone too far kidnapping a young girl for a sacrifice and a showdown ensues where magic is real, powers are wielded, yet a shotgun and a metal mask ensure that Nix is defeated, buried deep in the desert. We time jump to the 1990s where Swann is a wealthy magician with David Copperfield level fame, billboards promoting his shows on the LA streets and a mansion with a glamorous wife, Dorothea (Famke Janssen). Our actual hero is Scott Bakula as Harry D’Amour, a private detective who has a history with the supernatural and finds himself caught up in strange, dark matters while on an insurance fraud case. D’Amour has a great taste in maroon trousers and brown patterned shirts/jackets, yet also spends a lot of the movie shirtless with Barker’s signature horniness balanced for both his hunky PI and his femme fatale, when Dorothea hires D’Amour to investigate Swann’s past. Bakula has a low-key, likeable charm as he wields a revolver against early CGI special effects that seem like they’re from a CDROM PC game like The Seventh Guest. There’s great chemistry as well between Bakula and Jannsen, which alongside Connor’s trademark nervous energy as a character actor of choice, kept me hooked through all this hokum. Also features: grotesque horror, a psychotic killer in gold spandex pants, a supernatural conspiracy, a visit to The Magic Castle and Vincent Schiavelli with an over the top accent. Even as the climax might ultimately underwhelm or the presence of Nix remains intentionally uncharismatic (and thus doesn’t quite compare to a Pinhead or Candyman), I was into Lord Of Illusions and slightly disappointed that the version on Stan wasn’t the director’s cut (which has a longer sex scene and more character stuff). Recommended.