Clue (1985)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Being born in 1976, there were a lot of movies that I was aware of.  Some were movies that were talked about, but I was too young to see.  (The Godfather was released a few years before I was born, but I had to wait to be able to see it.)  Others, I saw, but didn’t remember that well.  Clue was one such movie.  The movie is based on the board game of the same name.  I think most of what I remember of the movie came from having played the game.

For those that have never played the board game, the basic idea is to figure out which of several characters committed a murder.  You also have to figure out which of several weapons were used and which of several rooms the murder took place in.  It was one of those games that I never cared for, mostly because I could never really get the hang of it.

The movie borrows the characters, weapons and rooms.   It’s set in 1954.  We start with a butler named Wadsworth, who wasn’t in the game but is used for the sake of the story.  He’s invited several people to the house where he works, but for secrecy, he’s decided to give each person a pseudonym from the game.  (Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, etc.)  He then reveals that Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing each of them for various reasons.  (Colonel Mustard was a war profiteer.)  An assortment of weapons (gun, lead pipe, etc.) are provided.  When the lights go out, several expected sounds (a gunshot, a thud, etc.) are heard.  The lights come back on and we have a dead Boddy.

To add to the suspense, several other murders take place.  (A police officer, a distressed motorist and a singing telegram show up, putting them in mortal danger.)   It’s up to the remaining people to figure out who did what to whom with what and where.  Not only do the main characters know each other, but the three uninvited guests are not random.

The game carries over well to a movie.  This is probably because the game was one of mystery.  All you’re really doing is taking the names, weapons and locations provided and working them into a story, which could easily have been written as a independent concept and modified slightly to fit the details of the board game.  There’s also a lot of comedy, which is a bit unusual for a murder mystery.

There are a few adultish aspects to the movie.  Many of the secrets are somewhat adult in nature, although nothing explicit is mentioned.  (Miss Scarlet tends to the desires of men.  Mr. Green is gay, which was probably more of a big deal for someone in a position of power in the 1950s than today.)  Also, there’s a maid that grownups will probably react differently to than children.  Again, there’s nothing explicit, but it is worth mentioning.  We’re talking PG-13 at worst.

One thing that I wondered about was the multiple endings.  Those that have seen it on TV or on home media know that there are three endings, each with a different set of murderers.  The movie, with all three endings, runs about an hour and a half.  (IMDb has it listed at 94 minutes.)  From what I’ve read and heard, the movie was released in theaters with each ending separately.  (Theaters had the endings marked as Ending A, Ending B or Ending C.)  This would have made the movie much shorter.  I realize that there’s no law saying that a movie has to be of at least a certain length, but the endings take up about half of the movie.  I was thinking that the movie would have had to have been something like 60 minutes if you took out two endings.

I was able to get the movie streaming through Netflix.  The only option is to watch all three endings, although you may have the option to play the endings individually if you get the DVD.  It looks like the option is available on DVD, but I’m not sure if this is something only available on certain versions.  I’d say watch it streaming or, if you get the DVD, watch the combined version.  I don’t know if you’re going to want to sit through three iterations of the movie just watch the endings separately. 

IMDb page

Clue - Trailer

Battleship

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions accouint.


I remember seeing these mock coming attractions for a movie based on Where’s Waldo.  It was pretty clever.  They had Waldo as someone trying to evade several groups like the mob, if I recall.  The police may have been after him, too.  There was even another mock trailer for a movie from someone else based on Minesweeper.  It struck me as odd that you could essentially make a movie from any source material.  (I think the Minesweeper trailer may have been implying that Hollywood was doing just that.)

Then, one day, I saw a trailer for Battleship.  Except this one wasn’t a mock trailer.  It was an actual trailer for an actual movie called Battleship.  I asked myself if it was the same Battleship that I used to play as a kid.  Turns out, it was.  I had to see this just to see what they had done with the premise.  Instead of seeing it in the theaters, I waited for it to come out on DVD.

The most obvious reference to the board game was the name.  Since there were no characters or real plot in the game, most of the rest of the movie is new.  It starts with the announcement of an Earth-like planet being found far, far away.  A signal being sent to the planet in hopes of making friendly contact.  Meanwhile, Alex and Stone Hopper in a bar celebrating Alex’s birthday.  Alex has an interest in the beautiful Samantha.  Alex nearly gets arrested trying to impress her.  Stone gives him the option of joining him in the Navy instead of going to jail, which Alex accepts.  You see, Samantha’s father is an admiral.  This should impress her to no end.

We cut to the present day.  Alex is still a screw-up, but now he’s a lieutenant.  He’s serving aboard the USS John Paul Jones.  Stone is the commanding officer of the USS Sampson.  The two brothers and their respective ships are set to do training exercises with a Japanese ship.  Samantha’s father is there.  He’s the admiral running the training exercises.  While underway, five alien ships show up.  One crashes into a satellite and destroys a good chunk of Hong Kong in the process.  The remaining four end up in the Pacific Ocean not far from the training exercises.

The aliens set up a force field encompassing Hawaii and the surrounding ocean, cutting the Sampson, John Paul Jones and a Japanese ship off from the rest of the world.  Alex is sent over to have a look at one of the alien ships.  When Alex touches the ship, the aliens very quickly destroy the Sampson and the Japanese ship, leaving some survivors.   When Alex makes it back to the John Paul Jones, he finds out that the commanding and executive officers are both dead, leaving him in command.  It’s up to Alex to defend the Earth.

There weren’t many references to the board game that I caught initially.  In fact, Alex points out that actual battleships have been retired.  (The modern-day portion begins on the USS Missouri, a battleship that‘s now a museum.  The three active-duty ships are all destroyers.)  There is one line where someone says something to the effect of, “They’re not going to sink this battleship.”  The aliens also fire something similar to the pegs used in the game.  Other than that, it wasn’t until I started looking at IMDb and other sites that I realized the other references.

I came into the movie not really expecting much.  I knew that the connection to the board game would be thin.  I just had to see what they did with it.  That being said, it was a pretty decent action movie.  What do you think you’ll get from a movie called Battleship?  It’s mostly fighting with the story being about a kid who goes from wasting his talent to leading a crew to victory.

Yes, there were plot holes.   For starters, how did Alex go from getting in trouble at every chance to not only being a lieutenant, but the commanding officer of a ship?  I’ve heard of people being given the choice of military service as an alternative to jail hoping that the service will straighten them out.  Usually, it does.  However, right before the main action, Alex starts a fight with the captain of the Japanese ship, which does not impress Samantha’s father.  In fact, Stone informs Alex that he’ll likely face court-martial upon their return.

It actually surprised me that they used a board game.  It could have gone horribly wrong.  At least with something like a comic book, you have a well-structured universe in place.  This isn’t to say that the movie was spectacular.  The movie seemed to be more a vehicle for the CGI and some in-jokes related to the game.  The movie was at least enjoyable.  There are worse ways to spend 131 minutes.  I’m just not holding my breath for Scrabble:  The Movie.


 Battleship Movie - trailer HD