Reviews
[Blu-ray Review] ‘Miracle Mile’ Explodes on Blu-ray
Before Kino Lorber announced they were releasing Miracle Mile on Blu-ray I had never even heard of the film, much less seen it. The other night when I got around to popping the movie in and hitting play, I did so with no expectations. What happened in the next 88 minutes blew me away. Maybe it was because of my lack of expectations, or maybe it wasn’t. Whatever the reason, I can’t stop thinking about Miracle Mile.
Director Steve De Jarnatt’s second and shockingly last feature film opens up in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Harry, played wonderfully by a young Anthony Edwards, spots Julie (Mare Winningham) and the two are immediately drawn to one another. They never speak but they constantly lock eyes and flirt as they make their way throughout the museum in an opening credits montage. As the two exit through the gift shop, Harry blows his chance and fails to introduce himself. Dejected, Harry heads to the La Brea Tar Pits and begins to wallow in his disappointment. After a brief moment and much to the surprise of Harry, Julie appears and introduces herself. The two spend the rest of the day together until it’s time for Julie to go to work.
Miracle Mile begins with all the makings of a romantic comedy. Two hip, young people meet and connect instantly, spending a wonderful day together. Then the movie takes a turn. Harry has plans to meet Julie at the diner where she works but he shows up late, after Julie has already gone home. Harry attempts to give her a call on a pay phone but has no luck. Then the pay phone rings back. After a moment of brief hesitation, Harry answers the phone. The person on the other line is very frantic and is calling with a warning. He says a nuclear bomb will be going off within the hour and in 70 minutes it will hit and wipe out LA.
This is when Miracle Mile looks to be taking a shift from a rom-com to more of a screwball comedy. At this point I expected the film to take serious subject matter and play with it in a bit of a light hearted, over-the-top fashion. It does go down this path for a little bit. Harry warns those in the diner of the impending doom and they all begin to load a random array of supplies into a truck. The idea is to get out of town before mass panic ensues. There are some laughs in this scene, particularly when two of the folks in the truck begin to take down a list of the names of important people that they want to make sure survive and help lead the new, post-apocalypse world. One girl suggests Pat Riley.
Harry decides he can’t leave the city without Julie and jumps out of the truck in an attempt to find her. As Harry makes his way through Los Angeles more and more people become aware of what awaits them. This is when the film makes takes a final shift and begins to head down a dark and grim road. The outlook becomes increasingly bleak and yet Harry will not give up. He’s determined to find Julie and get her out of the city.
Miracle Mile somehow manages to be one of the darkest films I’ve ever seen dealing with an all out nuclear war, while at the same time being incredibly sweet and romantic. Harry is a good guy looking for the perfect girl. He finally finds her and he will not let the end of the world stop him from being with her. Despite barely knowing her, he goes through hell to find her. He jumps off a moving truck, steals a car, gets chased by cops and that’s just the beginning of what he’s willing to do.
Essentially Miracle Mile is this sweet, blossoming romance that happens to take place just before a nuclear apocalypse. It’s never sappy or cheesy or anything like that. Whether it’s the romantic aspect or people trying to deal with facing doom, everything feels very real. In fact I’d argue that Miracle Mile may offer up the best depiction of mass panic that I’ve ever seen in a movie. When the entire city becomes aware of what they’re facing, the results are pretty horrific. And still, through it all, Harry and Julie find one another.
If you’re like me and you somehow managed to miss Miracle Mile all these years, do yourself a favor and see it. This really is a fantastic movie and the Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber looks great. I’m no expert when it comes to transfers, but I know what looks good to me and Miracle Mile certainly looks good. Cinematographer Theo van de Sande certainly took full advantage of the great late 80’s Los Angeles locations available to him and they look gorgeous on this release. The image looks crisp and clear and maintains that wonderful film quality. The release also comes with some nice special features, including two audio commentaries.
Miracle Mile is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
The problem with parodies is that there’s an extremely fine line between precise mockery and simply creating a genuine example of what was being made fun of in the first place. That’s why the best kind of cinematic satire comes from a place of love, as unironic appreciation for the material being parodied means that you’re still left with something fun to watch even when the humor fails.
I was reminded of this while watching I Hate Found Footage, the latest horror comedy by Michael Rock, director of the Tahoe Joe trilogy and founding member of Horror Dadz Productions. This cheekily titled parody has just been released on Found TV as one of the budding streamer’s first exclusive productions, and while I commend the folks at FTV for enlisting a found footage veteran to help popularize their fan-funded platform, the ensuing product might just be a little too accurate for its own good.
Taking inspiration from classic Muppets spoofs as well as a lifetime of experience with some of the best and worst that found footage movies have to offer, I Hate Found Footage may not be the very first comedy to poke fun at the FF genre, but it’s certainly the first one to feature colorful puppets as the protagonists.
In this decidedly meta experience, we follow Eddie Blake and Michael Rock himself as Ollie and Filbert – a duo of talkative hand puppets who embark on a quest to shoot a no-budget found footage movie in the middle of the Nevada wilderness. Unfortunately for the budding filmmakers, their cameras end up picking up much more than they bargained for when their impromptu monster movie accidentally puts them in the path of a masked gang of ritualistic murderers.
What follows is a self-conscious comedy of errors poking fun at all of the most hated and some of the most beloved tropes that the found footage genre has to offer. Ollie and Filbert frequently interrupt their terrifying POV misadventure with jabs at common faux pas like their own inability to stop filming even under risk of death, as well as multiple instances of puppet-based physical humor.
In general, this is far from a bad premise. The kid-friendly puppetry might be a bit jarring during the first few minutes as you get used to seeing this playful duo interact with the gritty real world, but there’s an undeniable charm to the way that these unorthodox characters record ironic versions of the familiar exposition dumps and ominous testimonials that we’re so used to seeing in “serious” found footage flicks.
Unfortunately, Rock is so dedicated to recreating an authentically terrible found footage production that the finished film often feels more like a failed attempt at an earnest project than an enjoyable parody. Sure, the copious amount of jokes and the fact that our leads are played by fluffy masses of felt should indicate that the film isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but pointing out how amateur found footage productions suffer from long stretches of dead air and unnecessary build-up is only funny until the movie becomes the very thing it’s supposed to be criticizing.
I get that having Ollie and Filbert’s ill-advised cinematic endeavor be a laughably bad movie is itself part of the joke, but unlike similar genre parodies in the vein of Ed Wood or even stuff like Sharknado and Velocipastor, which benefit from the fun parts of traditionally “bad” horror filmmaking, I Hate Found Footage has to contend with the fact that poorly-made found footage tends to be more boring than ridiculous.
That’s not to say that there’s no enjoyment to be found here, as I especially appreciate absurdist jokes like when the characters encounter the murdered “corpse” of another hand-puppet, and his full skeleton only consists of a bloodied arm. Or even the ridiculous scene where the duo attempts to simulate a jump scare for their monster movie using embarrassing levels of puppet-on-puppet effects work. But it’s a shame that these elements are shackled to excruciatingly long, though admittedly beautiful, shots of the Nevada setting.
That being said, regardless of certain stilted/unfunny line deliveries and the painfully slow build-up that doesn’t really lead to a horrific finale, Rock is still a skilled enough filmmaker to know that this kind of comedic experience works best in short bursts. That’s why the hour-long runtime comes as a blessing even if it also serves as an example of why the flick would probably have been better off as a short film. As it stands, however, I’d argue that it’s still worth suffering through some of the flick’s cringy moments in order to get to the good stuff.
Ironically enough, I Hate Found Footage will probably only entertain veterans who are already more inclined to forgive the genre’s common pitfalls and recurring tropes. After all, the production was clearly helmed by a team with a deep knowledge of how these movies work and what fans expect to see when they press play on a low-budget POV adventure. While I still think there’s only enough humor and story here to sustain a half-hour-long short, I’d still recommend this feature to die-hard fans who enjoy a healthy dose of silliness alongside their POV scares.
I Hate Found Footage is now streaming on Found TV.
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