Despite feeling like I didn’t get much watched this weekend, it turns out I got quite a bit accomplished. One more 2010 movie packed away, a couple of ’80s fan favorites and this week’s Feed the Queue entry, plus a whole lot of Eureka.

So, here is what I watched this weekend:

BURIED

Dozens of filmmakers have claimed Alfred Hitchcock as one of their influences, but few films today feel like they might have been made by the Master of Suspense himself. Director Rodrigo Cortés has created in Buried a film that could very easily have been directed by Hitchcock himself, if it had been less nihilistic.

The story of a truck driver in Iraq carting supplies for the reconstruction efforts, is abducted after his caravan is attacked and buried in a wooden coffin with little more than a zippo lighter and a cell phone. The film focuses entirely on Ryan Reynolds as the buried civilian Paul Conroy who desperately tries to find a way to free himself and get back to his wife and daughter. While trying to use the cell phone to communicate with the outside world, his kidnappers are contacting him at regular intervals trying to convince him to get them the $5 million ransom they want and forcing him to make ransom videos and other things in the hopes that they’ll release him.

Buried could easily have felt gimmicky and suffered for it, but like Hitchcock before him, Cortés uses compelling storytelling techniques to keep the audience engaged. Hitchcock tried a number of gimmicks in his films from Lifeboat and The Birds to Rear Window and Rope among others, and still managed to keep the viewer enthralled by what he did. Cortés succeeds where other directors might have let their ploys overwhelm the film (like Phone Booth). Add in the relevance of a conflict still going on in Iraq and Afghanistan and you have a rather significant achievement.

And much of that achievement wouldn’t have worked if not for Reynolds’ commanding presence. While he has gone to great lengths to appear in many popular blockbusters, Reynolds has proven in the past that his talents as a thespian simply need a well written vehicle to shine. The first time I really felt Reynolds had potential as an actor was in the 2007 John August film The Nines. He has an effortless ability that compares favorably with one of Hitchcock’s favorite male leads, Cary Grant. He has the ability to be charming and funny while moving capably from one genre to the next, as he also proved in 2009’s Wolverine. I doubt the film would have worked with any other actor at the helm, but Reynolds does a superb job.

In a year with so much innovation and inventiveness, a film like Buried, which keeps filmmaking at the edge without toppling over it, employing classic techniques, shows us what the medium is still capable of even when mainstream films are beginning to fail for an audience increasingly pessimistic. A movie like Buried should have been more popular, but may have suffered from horror lovers’ fatigue. Having been overwhelmed by underwhelming product, the audience that would have appreciated the film never gave it a chance, but should have.

POLTERGEIST

I originally saw this film back when it first came out and then later in the ’90s when it was run fittingly on television. I remember liking the film and even managed to have several scenes ingrained in my mind after all of these years, but I had never looked at it through the eye of a film critic. Picking this film up again over the weekend, I was reminded of several things.

The first is just how much care went into producing films in the 1980s. During that period, not only did a film have to break boundaries in terms of story, it had to do so with a literate and compelling script. Today, any sequel will do and even Poltergeist was turned into a pair of decreasingly successful sequels, but today’s sequels aren’t necessarily built on quality originals as was the case of Poltergeist. The story, conceived and written by Steven Spielberg, and directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) tells the story of a home salesman (Craig T. Nelson) and his family living in one of his developer’s own original houses who begin to experience strange occurrences, each pointing to a supernatural incursion of some kind.

The film opens as the Star Spangled Banner plays off the nightly television program before shifting to “snow”. Young Carol Ann (Heather O’Rourke) walks up to the television settles down in front of the static and begins quietly conversing with the strange entity within, an entity that neither the audience, nor her family can see. From there, several strange things begin happening, chairs will be pushed out from the table even though they were previously pushed in, then later those same chairs will be found balanced in a precarious stack on the table even though the mother (JoBeth Williams) had her back turned for only a second. Other intensely creepy events take place before Carol Ann is sucked into the closet while her brother is being pulled out through a window and eaten by a large, hollow tree in the backyard. The Freelings bring in an expert in such phenomena (Beatrice Straight) who, along with her associates, come to the conclusion that their house is haunted and that only one person can help save Carol Ann: a diminutive psychic (Zelda Rubinstein) who must convince the Freelings to listen to her instructions or face losing their daughter forever.

This is a film whose visual effects are truly special, unlike the excessive abuses in most modern films, Poltergeist uses its chilling effects so well that it’s difficult at times to tell where some of them begin and end. And despite being nearly 30 years old, the film’s effects hold up amazingly well, the closing scene with the house being pulled into an extra-dimensional speck is quite impressive. Other effects feel dated, but they are entirely in service to the film, something a lot of new filmmakers should learn. The performances aren’t great, but they serve the plot quite well. O’Rourke was a talented discovery whose death in 1988 at the age of 12 sent shockwaves through audiences who had cherished her in this film. That and the earlier murder of actress Dominique Dunne (who played her older sister in the film) led to several speculations that her involvement in the Poltergeist films led to her passing, all of which have been debunked for years now. Had she lived, she might have followed a similar career trajectory to Dakota or Elle Fanning.

While some of the film’s conceits are firmly rooted in the ’80s (television hasn’t gone off the air at night in more than a decade), there is still a timeless quality to the film’s format. It’s a engaging thriller that relies less on grossing the audience out and more on terrifying them. And in a decade where horror films perfected the slasher milieu, Poltergeist stands out further as an example of how horror could still scare audiences even if there aren’t buckets of blood on the screen.

OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR

While any film depicting war realistically could be considered anti-war, there’s a difference between a popular war film like Saving Private Ryan, which paints a vivid picture, but hardly tries to present the war as anything but historical spectacle and something like The Thin Red Line, which takes a historical perspective that shines a light on the depravity of soldiers and the utter pointlessness of war. Comedy has had a much easier time portraying the ludicrousness of war and coming out effectively against such conflicts. M*A*S*H is probably the most famous of these, but a little-seen gem like Oh! What a Lovely War is far more successful at conveying its aims.

A kind of musical, farcical comedy, Oh! What a Lovely War is a luscious film that paints World War One in the most horrendous light, painting the dealmakers who set the conflict in motion as selfish, incompetent men looking for a way to win a war without putting a lot of thought into it. The film is segmented into themed vignettes, each highlighting a different aspect of the war from the run up to the execution with creativity and tongue bitingly in cheek. The film opens inside an opulent tent, one of the key settings for the film, where a grand series of rich appointments add a minimalist style to the proceedings as a group of politicians and diplomats discuss the various issues facing the southeastern portion of Europe and culminating a shocking portrait capturing the stylized assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. From there, the film shows us a Risk-like board game of will-we or won’t-we diplomatic discussions about entering the war. Then there’s the World War One carnival with soldiers on merry-go-rounds, puppet performances of military decision making, nickelodeons of war theater and other rich visuals. You even have an evocative scene of a burlesque-style show where pretty women entice young men into service in the military only to become numeric casulaties later displayed on tracking board designed like a baseball field marquee.

There are any number of poignant and important images within the film and it’s all punctuated by actual dialogue spoken or written during the war and musical parodies featuring anti-war sentiments, commentary and observations set to music that was popular in the period and sung by soldiers during the war. All of it is so bold and original that it’s little surprise that it wasn’t nearly as popular with audiences as it should have been. Matter of fact, it should come as no surprise that the film was created in Great Britain and not the United States where such farce would be met with a bit too much hostility. But, since the film is set in England and against the backdrop of the British participation and casualties of the war, it’s only fitting that it originate from there.

If the film has one flaw, it’s that it runs a bit long and you can feel every minute of it. Also, while I can appreciate all of the poppy symbolism and all of the other comparative analogies, some of the choices are far too obvious and heavy-handed, but considering the general thrust of the film, I can’t say it’s either surprising or unwarranted.

If you love film and especially enjoy when filmmakers and actors poke fun at war and its repercussions as a way to encourage a divergence from such future events, then you’ll very much enjoy this film. If you prefer your war films to be patriotic and full of hope and not acrimony, then this isn’t your film.

LABYRINTH

There is no one alive today who has not felt the influence of the Muppets either through Sesame Street or the two incarnations of the Muppets variety show. Jim Henson parlayed his puppet creativity into a long career cut short by pneumonia in 1990. Before he died, he left an amazing legacy of television creations that was muted somewhat by his film work. More at home on the small screen, Henson made only a handful of live action films including the 1986 fantasy adventure Labyrinth.

The film is about a spoiled, selfish young girl (Jennifer Connelly) whose crying infant brother causes her to wish him away to the land of the goblins. Yet, after his disappearance, she realizes the error of her impetuousness and goes on an adventure to save him. Trying to thwart her at every turn is the malefic Goblin King played by rock star David Bowie. Filled with his trademark puppet characters, Henson created a dingy, color-starved world of fantasy where his young heroine could seek redemption. Connelly’s performance is nothing special, Fairuza Balk had already done better in the prior year’s Return to Oz. Bowie was rather a shocking fit for the production, though his musical compositions aren’t that exciting and often provide more of a distraction than an assistance.

Henson’s sense of humor was playfully at work here, even if some of the jokes seem dated by comparison. His world is visually involving and some of his puppetry is quite impressive, but the film is a trifle of entertainment that doesn’t compare well with the creative blockbusters of the era. It’s a decent way to spend an afternoon, but viewing it with your children will be more rewarding than watching it by yourself.

EUREKA, season 1

This is definitely not a show for everyone. A quirky little SwyFwy (SyFy accenting the Y’s) original about a U.S. Marshal transporting his teenage daughter back to Los Angeles who stumbles upon a Top Secret town where every citizen is a scientist, where 16-year-old PhD’s are not abnormal and strange things constantly happen. This bizarre show is something of a fun guilty pleasure. The writing isn’t particularly astute and the gimmick wears modestly thin after awhile, but the inventiveness of some of the stories and the amount of science you learn about through the course of the show is worth the time.

The idiosyncratic cast of characters includes Sheriff Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) the now-former U.S. Marshal forced to take over law enforcement duties in the town; his daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson), a troublemaking teenage girl whose smarts are hidden by her petty larceny; Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield), Carter’s wrangler and security officer at Global Dynamics, the fictional government science compound where most of the townsfolk work; Carter’s deputy Jo Lupo (Erica Cerra), a tough-as-nails special ops fanatic whose combat training is more advanced than any Jack has ever learned; head of Global (post-pilot) Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn) a Nobel Prize winner whose advanced scientific mind often confuses Jack’s procedural methods for a lack of intelligence; Henry Deacon (Joe Morton), the kindhearted mechanic who has a penchant for advanced Physics and other complex sciences; Stark’s accident prone assistant Douglas Fargo (Neil Grayston); and the town psychiatrist Beverly Barlowe (Debrah Farentino), a woman whose professional attitude hides a more sinister purpose.

There are also several other colorful recurring characters like Vincent (Chris Gauthier) the Master Class chef of the local diner Café Diem; Jim Taggert (Matt Frewer), an Aussie outdoorsman with a scientific kick; Kevin Blake (Meshach Peters), Allison’s autistic son who appears periodically to help solve cases involving complex mathematical computations, conveyed through a sort of photographic-exhibitive memory; and the artificial intelligence that inhabits Jack’s house, created (and voiced) by Douglas Fargo, they call her S.A.R.A.H. which stands for Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat.

With that array of characters, it’s not hard to love the show. While these aren’t award-worthy performances, the actors have still created wonderful characters that you don’t mind spending your time with for 45-minutes at a time.