Daaaamn I forgot how beautiful some of the sets and shots from Bram Stoker's Dracula were... or maybe I never knew at all, and am just noticing now because of a 50" 1080p presentation. It's fucking glorious, especially the beginning of the movie. I particularly like the red-sky Vlad The Impaler style battle at the beginning, and Keanu's first ride up the mountain to Castle Dracula, with Dracula's eyes gigantically hidden in the sky. This movie is the most gloriou modern incarnation of a Universal monster movie that has ever been made. If Joe Johnston's Wolfman could have captured even HALF of the visual spectacle of this film it would have been HALF-ALRIGHT.
And WHAT THE FUCK was that bullshit Kanye song at the VMA's last night? I was hoping Power would be the worst of his comeback but am starting to worry it could be the best... that shit was horrible. Even a new Tyga verse could not save it. He is becoming horrible.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
RIP Kevin McCarthy
You might not know who he is, but you've seen him in a dozen movies guaranteed. I most recently saw him when I rewatched Joe Dante's original Piranha before seeing the remake in the theater. This guy played a great "mean motherfucker" role at every given opportunity. One of the great and underappreciated character actors. Same can be said for Glen Shadix of Beetlejuice fame who recently passed. You will both be missed very much by movie lovers!
NFL Opening Day
I got a twelver of Corona Light, some limes, and I'm pretty sure Green Bay is a sure thing against the Eagles. It's gonna be a good opening Sunday.
Other predictions? Colts take the Texans, Steelers take the Falcons, and I am not quite sure about the Redskins and Cowboys... that could go either way with McNabb and a new coach on board in DC.
Are you ready for some football?
Other predictions? Colts take the Texans, Steelers take the Falcons, and I am not quite sure about the Redskins and Cowboys... that could go either way with McNabb and a new coach on board in DC.
Are you ready for some football?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Elvis, Ebert, and the OTHER Nolan
Well, first off, I never thought I could enjoy a made-for-TV movie as much as I have as I watched John Carpenter's 1979 "Elvis" TV event. Sure, it may be of a SLIGHTLY better directorial and acting quality than the usual TV fair, but nothing compared to a great theatrical drama. I just love all of the parties involved THAT much. I am a humongous Elvis fan (particularly the 50's) and am nearly equally a fan of John Carpenter/Kurt Russell collaborations. 2 of my 3 favorite Carpenter jams are The Thing and Escape From NY... Halloween is the third (as I am a big slasher movie fanatic from childhood). While I can't say this would necessarily be everyone's cup of tea, if you have a similar pop culture jones for the involved parties then you should DEFINITELY check this out!
More good news in the form of Rogert Ebert is bringing his At The Movies show to PBS! Of course he lost his voice to cancer a few years ago and stopped hosting, but Elvis Mitchell will be one of the two new hosts as will Christy Lemire (who I am a little less excited about.) But the big news here is, unlike the Disney version which was recently cancelled after over a decade, this new PBS version will feature the movie clips in High Definition for thos with HD cable... like me... BOOYAH! This sounds even better than HDNet's Trailer Fanatic, which I am addicted to, but At The Movies always shows footage that cannot be seen outside of the show until theatrical release, so HOT DAMN. Starts in January!
The other big news is that Christopher Nolan's more narratively talented brother Jonathan Nolan (who did the heavy lifting on the Memento, Prestige, and Dark Knight scripts) is shopping around a new crime series to the major networks... to be produced by the man himself, J.J. Abrams! Count my ass in. If you asked me a J-Nolan involved in Inception could have elevated a B+ movie to an A-grade movie most likely, as all of its shortcomings were in the script department. Not sure why the more talented screenwriter of the family got the cold shoulder on that one. I suppose that one was supposed to be Christopher's baby, but come on guys, if it's not broke don't fix it.
Sunday's classic movie at Movieland is going to be West Side Story starring the wonderful Natalie Wood. Musical is generally not one of my big genres but, like Wizard Of Oz and Grease, this is one of those undeniable greats. I also have been meaning to check out Dr. Horrible's Musical Blog.
My football hero Brett Favre was showing his age during their 2010 debut game agains the extremely sharp Saints this week... I truly hope the old man is just warming up, because I would hate to see him retire on a down note. This marked his 267th consecutive start without missing a game, so at 16-game seasons, just do the math. He is truly an iron man in a sport where lesser men drop like flies. But equally as important, my Packers are on nationally-syndicated TV for opening day this Sunday... BOOYAH. GO GREEN BAY.
Also my planned DOUBLE FEATURE OF GLORY for tonight is Boris Karloff in Universal's original Frankenstein in a nice 720p On-Demand presentation via FiOS b/w the glorious Bram Stoker's Dracula blu I got for $10 at Kroger last week. HELL YES. I was thinking of saving this for October but I just couldn't wait that long, this is going to be one great night of cinema. I will certainly throw together a few deserving horror marathons in October as the genre is kind of my specialty, so no worries.
Thank you blog world, and good day.
More good news in the form of Rogert Ebert is bringing his At The Movies show to PBS! Of course he lost his voice to cancer a few years ago and stopped hosting, but Elvis Mitchell will be one of the two new hosts as will Christy Lemire (who I am a little less excited about.) But the big news here is, unlike the Disney version which was recently cancelled after over a decade, this new PBS version will feature the movie clips in High Definition for thos with HD cable... like me... BOOYAH! This sounds even better than HDNet's Trailer Fanatic, which I am addicted to, but At The Movies always shows footage that cannot be seen outside of the show until theatrical release, so HOT DAMN. Starts in January!
The other big news is that Christopher Nolan's more narratively talented brother Jonathan Nolan (who did the heavy lifting on the Memento, Prestige, and Dark Knight scripts) is shopping around a new crime series to the major networks... to be produced by the man himself, J.J. Abrams! Count my ass in. If you asked me a J-Nolan involved in Inception could have elevated a B+ movie to an A-grade movie most likely, as all of its shortcomings were in the script department. Not sure why the more talented screenwriter of the family got the cold shoulder on that one. I suppose that one was supposed to be Christopher's baby, but come on guys, if it's not broke don't fix it.
Sunday's classic movie at Movieland is going to be West Side Story starring the wonderful Natalie Wood. Musical is generally not one of my big genres but, like Wizard Of Oz and Grease, this is one of those undeniable greats. I also have been meaning to check out Dr. Horrible's Musical Blog.
My football hero Brett Favre was showing his age during their 2010 debut game agains the extremely sharp Saints this week... I truly hope the old man is just warming up, because I would hate to see him retire on a down note. This marked his 267th consecutive start without missing a game, so at 16-game seasons, just do the math. He is truly an iron man in a sport where lesser men drop like flies. But equally as important, my Packers are on nationally-syndicated TV for opening day this Sunday... BOOYAH. GO GREEN BAY.
Also my planned DOUBLE FEATURE OF GLORY for tonight is Boris Karloff in Universal's original Frankenstein in a nice 720p On-Demand presentation via FiOS b/w the glorious Bram Stoker's Dracula blu I got for $10 at Kroger last week. HELL YES. I was thinking of saving this for October but I just couldn't wait that long, this is going to be one great night of cinema. I will certainly throw together a few deserving horror marathons in October as the genre is kind of my specialty, so no worries.
Thank you blog world, and good day.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Most Wanted
Man, I was just daydreaming to myself and drooling about the long list of genre blu's I absolutely need to buy from this year's theatrical schedule and its upsetting to me that I have to wait for them. I believe the people who complained about the summer have no appreciation for decent genre film. Immediately I need to own the following:
Iron Man 2 (which is finally possible once I'm paid)
Predators
Piranha 3D
Machete
Toy Story 3
That's like $100 bucks or more I'll have to sink on Summer 2010 in the format. Fuuuuuck. But I will do it, and love it.
Iron Man 2 (which is finally possible once I'm paid)
Predators
Piranha 3D
Machete
Toy Story 3
That's like $100 bucks or more I'll have to sink on Summer 2010 in the format. Fuuuuuck. But I will do it, and love it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Machete
Finally got to screen Machete tonight, which I have been anticipating since I first read it was a full-on script that has existed since Desperado and not just a fake trailer. And, yeah, it lived up to the hype. The film succeeds in its over-the-top Planet Terror moments, but its biggest achievement is allowing the audience to become at least as attached as a true exploitation movie allows. I mean to say that, although self-aware in its lampooning of 70's exploitation movies, it feels more like a valentine to the best of these and attempts to genuinely offer much of the same experience - only with a larger budget and less conversational filler. As Tarantino said when the original Grindhouse double-feature premiered, the exploitation movies of old never could quite live up to the 3 best minutes they shoved into the trailer. Machete has, like Planet Terror before it, succeeded in creating one that more than delivers on what the trailer has promised. Planet Terror b/w Machete will be an excellent blu double-bill when I have them neatly on my bookshelf, and it is one I plan to enjoy frequently.
This is also a good opportunity for me to bitch about the Death Proof unrated cut which I have screened twice in the past 4 months, the last time being 2 nights ago... and BOY DO I FUCKING HATE THIS CUT OF THE MOVIE. I did and still do enjoy the shorter theatrical cut very much, but this super-long, super-boring unrated version sure takes the piss out of the whole thing. The extended bar scene is bad enough, but I could possibly argue that this in some ways extends the tension before the first murder sequence. But after that, slowing down the second portion with the completely unnecessary and plodding picking-Zoe-up/convenience store sequence completely deflates any tension the movie has built. In short, this cut completely fucks over the pacing, includes minutes and minutes and minutes of boring dialogue that never should have left the editing room, and does not even remotely compare to the experience of a slasher film. Sure, this was SUPPOSED to be the most subversive take on the slasher genre probably ever made, but this longer cut does not even remotely resemble a 70's horror film... there is way too much other shit bogging it down. A horror film should not have you checking your watch, and I was doing so frequently on each screening of this unrated version outside of the very first. I doubt I will ever put this in again.
The thing about Tarantino is no matter how good he is, and how similar his taste is to mine as far as genre films, I have seen his movies enough to notice all the flaws. In hindsight it is clear to me that Pulp Fuction and Jackie Brown represented a magical peak that he has been unable to recapture. Inglorious Basterds is a valiant effort and is a damn good B+/A- movie, but when I think about what he originally set out to do -- create a men-on-a-mission genre movie, in the vain of Dirty Dozen or the original The Inglorious Bastards -- he managed to fail. He made a great movie, but for all his little homages to the genre, he made a poor example of a men-on-a-mission genre picture. The various bastards are given ornamentary introductions with much hype, but beyond this we never spend any quality time with any of these characters, much less learn to love them for their various quirks and character depth. I dare you to watch Dirty Dozen and then Inglourious Bastards as a double-bill and attempt to make the case that you care for his Bastards even a tenth as much as the film he attempts to homage. It can't be done. In every other regard I love his movie, but in cramming in tons of cool unrelated shit (a Demons-esque valentine in using a cinema as a central set piece, the masterfully executed bar sequence, the suprise ending) he lost sight of his goal to create a men-on-a-mission film. The same can be said of his second volume of Kill Bill, but this movie, in my opinion, does not succeed "in spite of" as Basterds does, but drowns under its own plodding weight. For every minute of perfect drama Jackie Brown provided Kill Bill 2 drowns in its own dialogue-driven aspirations.
Well the fiance is bored, so that is all for my Grindhouse/Tarantino recap, but as a word of parting advice --
GO FUCKING SEE MACHETE. The end.
This is also a good opportunity for me to bitch about the Death Proof unrated cut which I have screened twice in the past 4 months, the last time being 2 nights ago... and BOY DO I FUCKING HATE THIS CUT OF THE MOVIE. I did and still do enjoy the shorter theatrical cut very much, but this super-long, super-boring unrated version sure takes the piss out of the whole thing. The extended bar scene is bad enough, but I could possibly argue that this in some ways extends the tension before the first murder sequence. But after that, slowing down the second portion with the completely unnecessary and plodding picking-Zoe-up/convenience store sequence completely deflates any tension the movie has built. In short, this cut completely fucks over the pacing, includes minutes and minutes and minutes of boring dialogue that never should have left the editing room, and does not even remotely compare to the experience of a slasher film. Sure, this was SUPPOSED to be the most subversive take on the slasher genre probably ever made, but this longer cut does not even remotely resemble a 70's horror film... there is way too much other shit bogging it down. A horror film should not have you checking your watch, and I was doing so frequently on each screening of this unrated version outside of the very first. I doubt I will ever put this in again.
The thing about Tarantino is no matter how good he is, and how similar his taste is to mine as far as genre films, I have seen his movies enough to notice all the flaws. In hindsight it is clear to me that Pulp Fuction and Jackie Brown represented a magical peak that he has been unable to recapture. Inglorious Basterds is a valiant effort and is a damn good B+/A- movie, but when I think about what he originally set out to do -- create a men-on-a-mission genre movie, in the vain of Dirty Dozen or the original The Inglorious Bastards -- he managed to fail. He made a great movie, but for all his little homages to the genre, he made a poor example of a men-on-a-mission genre picture. The various bastards are given ornamentary introductions with much hype, but beyond this we never spend any quality time with any of these characters, much less learn to love them for their various quirks and character depth. I dare you to watch Dirty Dozen and then Inglourious Bastards as a double-bill and attempt to make the case that you care for his Bastards even a tenth as much as the film he attempts to homage. It can't be done. In every other regard I love his movie, but in cramming in tons of cool unrelated shit (a Demons-esque valentine in using a cinema as a central set piece, the masterfully executed bar sequence, the suprise ending) he lost sight of his goal to create a men-on-a-mission film. The same can be said of his second volume of Kill Bill, but this movie, in my opinion, does not succeed "in spite of" as Basterds does, but drowns under its own plodding weight. For every minute of perfect drama Jackie Brown provided Kill Bill 2 drowns in its own dialogue-driven aspirations.
Well the fiance is bored, so that is all for my Grindhouse/Tarantino recap, but as a word of parting advice --
GO FUCKING SEE MACHETE. The end.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Jules Verne rolling in his grave
First LOST, now a Dwayne Johnson-starring sequel to Brendan Frasier vehicle Journey To The Center Of The Eart entitled Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Indeed to be loosely based upon the classic adventure/mystery novel The Mysterious Island. How about we stop getting half-assed imitations and somebody actually make a badass modern film version of The Mysterious Island. Fincher is greenlit to do a live-action 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, so I would much rather that team eventually take on this material through Disney. Much like Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming ultra-reverent-and-faitful film adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's penultimate classic At The Mountains Of Madness. Those two films have me frothing at the mouth for footage (the Fincher and Del Toro projects).
Machete this week bitches! I may not get to see it until Tuesday after all. I was slightly upset to see the bad ass 7" Machete figure listed on Amazon.com Toys & Games is down to one remaining In Stock item... fuuuuuuck. It is okay, my first real paycheck on the 15th will garner me one 12" Buffy Seth Green as 'Oz' figure and my long-desired Uncle Sam blu through Blue Underground. Can't fucking wait to see that movie in a truly glorious transfer as I am only experienced its exploitation slasher glory in a terrible VHS transfer.
I am soon ready to experience the lost film glory of Kurt Russell's first John Carpenter collaboration, TV's 'Elvis' from 1979! As a huge appreciator of Elvis Presley, John Carpenter, AND Kurt Russell this has been on my to-see list since I heard of its existence a year ago. Bad ass. Let's hope this turns out to be less anti-climactic than when I was able to track down Robert Rodriguez's lost TV movie Roadracers (Meh.)
Also, almost NFL regular season time, bitches! Go Packers! And the boy Brett is back for season 20... can't wait to see that.
Machete this week bitches! I may not get to see it until Tuesday after all. I was slightly upset to see the bad ass 7" Machete figure listed on Amazon.com Toys & Games is down to one remaining In Stock item... fuuuuuuck. It is okay, my first real paycheck on the 15th will garner me one 12" Buffy Seth Green as 'Oz' figure and my long-desired Uncle Sam blu through Blue Underground. Can't fucking wait to see that movie in a truly glorious transfer as I am only experienced its exploitation slasher glory in a terrible VHS transfer.
I am soon ready to experience the lost film glory of Kurt Russell's first John Carpenter collaboration, TV's 'Elvis' from 1979! As a huge appreciator of Elvis Presley, John Carpenter, AND Kurt Russell this has been on my to-see list since I heard of its existence a year ago. Bad ass. Let's hope this turns out to be less anti-climactic than when I was able to track down Robert Rodriguez's lost TV movie Roadracers (Meh.)
Also, almost NFL regular season time, bitches! Go Packers! And the boy Brett is back for season 20... can't wait to see that.
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