Two Ears Up

Jeanie Rogers: This week on Screen & Shout, we look at four new movies hitting theaters now, plus one restored classic.

Lissa Nupp: That’s right! First up is the much-ballyhooed initial chapter in DC Comics’ multi-decade plan to establish the Legion of Super-Pets film franchise, Krypto the Super-Dog vs. Ace the Bat-Hound: Dogs of Justice. What did you think, Jeanie?

Jeanie Rogers: Well, Lissa, I haven’t suffered such an endurance test in a movie theater since I played the Top Gun drinking game, where you do a shot every time there’s a homoerotic moment between Maverick and Goose. And I had to have my stomach pumped after that one, so that should tell you how I felt about this dull, overlong, nonsensical stinker.

Lissa Nupp: I don’t know what movie you were listening to. With the Atmos audio system’s elevated speakers adding a dimension of height to the sound field, I thought Krypto vs. Ace was a rollicking sonic adventure. I really believed a dog could fly.

Jeanie Rogers: We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. Next up, The Forbearancer, a gritty, downright grueling story of one man pursuing vengeance through the rugged, bear-infested landscape of the planet Venus. I thought it substituted grimness for plot and grime for character. You?

Lissa Nupp: From the moment of that first avalanche, I was hooked. It just sounded so amazing through those upper Atmos speakers. And so did the second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh avalanches. I was a little disappointed by the fourth one, but six out of seven avalanches isn’t bad.

Jeanie Rogers: Yes, there certainly were a lot of avalanches. OK, moving on… the latest entry in the Cloverfield universe reaches new depths of budget and production time, being shot entirely in a gas station while it was closed one night. And frankly, it shows. A Scary Gas Station in Cloverfield World proves this franchise is running on fumes.

Lissa Nupp: I don’t know how you can say that about a movie with such a sonically detailed, aurally convincing car-wash scene. I could hear the brushes overhead, the jets spraying the roof! Even in the slower scenes, the gas station’s piped-in music was so convincing, it really felt like I was listening to “Every Day is a Winding Road” while I was browsing the Hostess endcap.

Jeanie Rogers: If you say so, Lissa. In the arthouses this week, German auteur Werner Öskarbäit brings us Helmut and the Wrens, a slow, deliberate, really very slow story of a boy who sits in a park and watches birds. I know I’m supposed to love Öskarbäit’s work, but I just couldn’t hang with this one.

Lissa Nupp: Are you kidding me? I didn’t want it to end. I could have luxuriated in those realistic, 3D birdsongs for four hours.

Jeanie Rogers: The movie was four hours long.

Lissa Nupp: Six hours, then. It was such a sensitive, artistic use of the Atmos sound system, I start to cry just remembering it.

Jeanie Rogers: And finally, a beautiful new restoration of the 1943 Ernst Lubitsch classic Heaven Can Wait is making its way to theaters now, and it’s a pure delight. The spectacular Technicolor pops off the screen, just like the sparkling dialogue, incisive satire, and great performances by Don Ameche and Gene Tierney. It’s just utterly charming from start to finish, and it’s wonderful to see it in such a gorgeous restored print.

Lissa Nupp: What? This crappy movie didn’t even have Atmos sound! I never once thought a helicopter was going to land on my head! It sucked!

Jeanie Rogers: Well, Lissa, you’re not the only one wishing for that helicopter right about now. Until next time, this is Screen & Shout. If we have a next time.