Disclosure Day vs. Stop! That! Train!

Emily Blunt is the only actor who gets to act in Disclosure Day. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

It’s nostalgia week at the movies, as two new releases — one a much-anticipated blockbuster, the other a potential cult classic — battle it out at the box office. Both hark back to a different era of filmmaking and storytelling.

Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day (Rating: ✭✭✭) feels like a mashup of some of his own films, including his friendly alien pics E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind as well as his paranoid sci-fi thriller Minority Report. It also has a political message that’s as big and obvious as that boulder chasing Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt star as two ordinary folks caught up in something they don’t quite understand. O’Connor plays Daniel Kellner, a computer hacker/ex-con who refuses to hand over some restricted digital files about the government’s involvement with aliens, as well as a mysterious shiny object with secret powers, to a shady cybersecurity head named Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth).

Blunt, meanwhile, plays Margaret Fairchild, a Kansas City TV weather reporter who suddenly gains special powers, able to understand what people are thinking and speak a variety of languages. Scanlon quickly learns about her, too, and has his grunts track them both down before the two — who are somehow psychically connected, like those kids in De Palma’s The Fury — find each other.

The protective angel who seems to have all of the answers is Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), who’s defected from Scanlon’s group to help get those secret files — and the truth — out there.

It’s to director Spielberg’s credit that even though there are gaping holes in screenwriter David Koepp’s plot and especially his characters, we get swept up in what’s going on.

Mostly that’s because David and Margaret are constantly on the run while trying to figure out what their role in the story is. And who cares about narrative inconsistencies when you’re watching high speed pursuits, near captures and Blunt reading people’s minds?

Also, Scanlon has access to a mysterious device that, when he holds it while wired up with electrodes, allows him to enter the body of whoever he wants by looking at their picture. The only reason why Daniel is on the run with girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) is for Scanlon to enter Jane’s body.

The ridiculous plot doesn’t give the actors much opportunity to act; O’Connor seems constantly in motion, while Firth spends most of the film glowering at his minions. Domingo is tasked with the toughest role, delivering exposition while looking at screens, but he’s damn good at it.

Only Blunt, affecting a Midwest accent, seems to be enjoying herself as she figures out her role in the grand design.

The major theme is all about empathy. Margaret can read people’s minds and motivations, and so when she comes up against an antagonist, she’ll tell the person something that soothes them and makes them less angry.

The fact that the picture is set against an encroaching third world war makes Spielberg and Koepp’s point rather obvious. If we only listened to each other, if we only saw things through someone else’s eyes, the world would be much better.

It’s a simplistic, but not untrue, message. And only a director as gifted as Spielberg could make it work as well as it does.

Disclosure Day is now in theatres.

Train dreams

While the silly plot weakens Disclosure Day, an even sillier one contributes to Stop! That! Train!’s (Rating: ✭✭✭) camp appeal.

When the luxurious, high-speed Glamazonian Express train is heading into a huge storm — called a “Stormaganza” — two train stewardesses (Drag Race alumna Ginger Minj and Jujubee), who have jumped ship from the defunct Stank Rail, must save the day, avoiding their bitchy first-class competition (Brooke Lynn Hytes, Marcia Marcia Marcia and Symone) while working with an overworked control operator named Donna (Rachel Bloom), an inept assistant train conductor (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and eventually the Commander in Chief herself, President Judy Gagwell (RuPaul Charles).

Adam Shankman’s film draws heavily from 70s disaster films, as well as the ingenious comic response to those films, 1980’s pun-laden Airplane. Lots of the fun comes from the riders, who include Missi Pyle as an alcoholic gold-digger, Drewe Droege as a first-class passenger from hell and Sarah Michelle Geller, who’s subjected to the funniest ongoing gag in the film.

There are lots of winks at the film’s obvious modest budget — the opening shots feature a model train — but the film looks decent enough, and the production numbers (Shankman began his career as a choreographer, remember) pop.

Still, there are some missed opportunities. One section, in which the train heads into a haunted mine shaft, is curiously underwhelming and lacking in gags. Even worse, the writing for the sexist workers at the train control centre is oddly flat. (It’s painful to see a comic genius like Guy Branham so underused.)

But RuPaul’s scenes, especially one involving the president’s competent but overwhelmed press secretary (Matt Rogers), are fun. And Ginger Minj and Jujubee make appealing, resourceful underdogs who go through their own friendship issues about popularity and fitting in.

Unlike the Spielberg film, there’s something refreshing about a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Stop! That! Train! doesn’t care about being good, just entertaining. Sometimes that’s enough.

Stop! That! Train! is currently in theatres.