Thursday, August 29, 2002

 

GOOD ‘UNS


Two stories recently went up on www.horrorfind.com that I really dug. Thought I’d give them a mention.


First off, you've got to check out Latex: Like A Glove (A Brackard's Point Story) by Geoff Cooper. It's short, it's intense, and it packs one helluva wallop at the end. I first came across this story in Coop's chapbook BUM PISS AND OTHER CITY SCENTS. But now that it's on Horrorfind, it's even easier to check out. Give it a chance. I think you'll be glad you did.


Also on Horrorfind, there's a new story by Tom Piccirilli. This guy rocks! The story's called Horsepower and it's about a guy and his car - and a girl from his past. I have to admit, he grabbed me with the first page and dragged me straight to the end without stopping for any red lights.


These are a couple of good 'uns. Check 'em out.


On the DVD front - Quentin Tarantino recently came out with new "special editions" of his three movies (so far) - RESERVOIR DOGS, PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN. Each one is a two-disk set and features tons of extras like trailers, deleted scenes, commentaries, interviews, etc. Just about everyone's seen PULP FICTION, probably, but if you haven't seen the other two, you should give them a chance. RESERVOIR DOGS was an amazing directorial debut and features an amazing cast - Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, even the great Lawrence Tierney. If you haven't seen this yet - it will knock you off your seat. And you will never hear the old 70's song "Stuck in the Middle With You" quite the same way ever again. As for JACKIE BROWN, I think this is one of the most under-rated movies in recent memory. It has a solid story (based on the Elmore Leonard novel, RUM PUNCH), great direction and dialogue, and another killer cast with the terrific Pam Grier (I'm a big Pam fan from way back) showing off her acting chops in a big way, with Sam Jackson in another amazing role, Robert DeNiro, Robert Forster and Bridget Fonda. And a great soul soundtrack. A lot of people dismissed this movie when it came out, but it's one of my favorites. The DVD of JACKIE BROWN even features the complete Chicks With Guns video Sam Jackson was watching in the movie! Very cool!



Well, that's it for this week. Next week: TEN REASONS WHY THE PLANET OF THE APES REMAKE SUCKED



Wednesday, August 21, 2002

 

Saw XXX this weekend. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but here’s my take on it:


As a writer: this is a dumb movie.


As a movie-goer: it was a lot of fun.


Vin Diesel is actually turning out to be the one American action star who doesn’t suck. After Clint Eastwood started going gray, I had to look elsewhere for great action stars. Chow-Yun Fat took it to a new level in movies like The Killer and Hard-Boiled (if you haven’t seen these Hong Kong masterpieces yet – what are you waiting for??) And Japanese director/actor Takeshi Kitano (also known as Beat Takeshi) takes it in a different direction – his “action” films are more like zen contemplations on violence. Something like Violent Cop or Fireworks (Hana Bi) works on several different levels at once. Amazing stuff.


But American action stars, for the most part, leave me cold. Now I am not comparing Diesel to someone like Chow-Yun Fat or Takeshi Kitano (that’s like comparing hamburger to caviar) but as far as big-budget Hollywood action movies go, Diesel is currently in a league by himself. He’s not an asshole, and he’s not a Hollywood pretty boy. He has real screen presence and doesn’t seem particularly concerned about appearing to be likable – which is exactly why he is likable.


I first noticed this guy in a sf movie called Pitch Black. A clever little gimmick movie about a planet that experiences nightfall only once every thousand years or something – and how all the predators of the planet take that moment to go wild. Not the most logical plot in the world, if you really think about it, but Diesel, as the space convict Riddick, stole the show. He also dominated The Fast and the Furious another movie I had low expectations for when I saw it – but I’d heard a lot of good stuff about it – it's about illegal car racing. But when I finally saw it – it was a lot of fun. And Diesel was a big reason why.


Which brings me back to XXX. I saw the trailers – I heard the hype about Diesel being a “James Bond with an edge.” And it didn’t really thrill me. I’ve never been into “secret agent” movies – it’s not my bag. But I’d dug Diesel’s other performances so far.


But that’s not really what got me to go see XXX. What got me to go check it out was the entire cast. This movie has nothing if not a great cast.


First off, it’s got ASIA ARGENTO. She’s the daughter of Italian horror director extraordinaire Dario Argento and has become kind of a horror icon in her own right overseas. You can check her out in some of her father’s movies like the very dark Stendahl Syndrome and Dario’s version of Phantom of the Opera (which, unfortunately, might be my least favorite Dario Argento film of all time – but hey, Asia’s good in it). The idea of a European star like Asia suddenly becoming a big mainstream American action movie star is kind of funny. And kind of cool. Asia is one of these actresses, too, who is not classically beautiful, but who exudes sex appeal. She’s great at playing hard-edged seductresses. If you’re curious, check out a movie called B. Monkey. She’s the star, it’s in English, and I think it might be one of her best roles.


Asia’s a big reason why I decided to give XXX a chance. But there’s more. You’ve got Sam Jackson as the guy in charge, Gibbons. It’s really a thankless role; they don’t give Jackson much to do. But man, is he good at just being cool. The villain of the film is also kind of interesting, Marton Csokas. He plays a lot of Eastern European bad guys – but the funny thing is he’s from New Zealand. I first became aware of him in the recurring role of Borias on the show Xena. (Yep, I’m a Xena fan, too. What can I say, I’m a sucker for women who kick butt).


So it’s got a solid cast. It moves at a non-stop pace. And it’s dumb.


But XXX is a lot of fun, if you put your brain on hold. Hell, even the soundtrack is really good. How can you hate a movie where the first scene takes place in a club featuring the band Rammstein?!!


So, if you go for this kind of thing, check it out. I’m not going to say it’s a great movie. But if you take it for what it is – you’ll have a good time.



Wednesday, August 14, 2002

 

In case anyone is actually reading this, I plan on trying to post something new at least every Wednesday. Sometimes I'll have something real to say, sometimes I might just recommend something I think is cool. But that way there will be regular updates at least. Here's an article from my past I thought might be of some interest.


A few jobs back, I was Editor-in-Chief of the company newsletter for an architect firm. I didn’t find architecture all that interesting (I was employed as a corporate librarian at the time), but in return for putting out the newsletter on a regular basis (I think it was either bi-monthly or quarterly), I was allowed to write a movie review column. Which is what I really wanted to do. Invariably when I got the newsletter out to the 150+ people in the firm (my own little captive audience, haha), a lot of people turned to the movie column first, if only because it was something fun amid the actual news. Since I’ve started this blog, I figured it might be cool to reprint some of these columns, which I called “Carnival of the Eye.”


This one was one of my favorites:


CARNIVAL OF THE EYE


(from January 1998)


THE SILENT ERA


There is a whole body of cinema that is widely ignored and consigned to a kind of limbo, just because of the absence of sound.


Aside from film scholars, and film fanatics, there aren’t too many people who go out of their way to watch silent films. This is a shame, because there were a multitude of great movies made back in the days before sound. To just disregard these movies as the art form of a lost age surely must be some kind of crime, especially when so many silent films have so much to offer.


Surely, most people who don’t like silent films have never seen silent films. In the same way that some people don’t like foreign films because they don’t like the distractions of subtitles or bad dubbing, many people don’t like silent films because there just isn’t anything to listen to, aside from an added orchestral score and the occasional sound effect. But, like many foreign films, silent classics are worth the effort, and might just surprise you. And they aren’t very hard to find. Many are at your local video store.


Charlie Chaplin


Perhaps the most revered of all film comedians, Chaplin’s best films were made during the silent era. Even after the advent of sound, Chaplin was hesitant to embrace the new technology of “talkies” completely, resulting in films like Modern Times that, despite being made when sound pictures were commonplace, are mostly silent. This is because Chaplin’s strengths lied in pathos and pantomime. With a facial expression, he could speak volumes. Everyone has surely hard of Chaplin, and, later this month, the Post Office will unveil the Charlie Chaplin stamp, but how many of his films have you actually seen? A good start is City Lights, featuring Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character, a lovable hobo. Other classics include: The Gold Rush, featuring the famous scene where a starving Chaplin makes a meal out of one of his boots, twirling the laces on his fork, like spaghetti, and Modern Times, which predicted the replacing of workers with machines. Also of interest would be his great 1940 film, The Great Dictator, which was one of the first films ever to attack Hitler (by way of satire).


Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd


Unlike Chaplin, who tended to emphasize sentiment and melodrama in his work, as eager to get a tear as a grin, Buster Keaton was known as the “Great Stone Face,” often seeming like a blank slate; a complete innocent. His expertise was in astounding the filmgoers of his day. He did all his own stunts (this was a time before stunt men were a regular fixture), and often these were amazing. Whether he just barely avoids being crushed by a house façade that collapses on top of him, standing just where an open window happens to fall (as in Steamboat Bill, Jr.), or riding a runaway train that eventually crashes – for real (in The General), Keaton always gave his fans a big payoff. Which is not to say that his films were just about stunts. His film Seven Chances featured the much-imitated plot of a man who has to get married in 24 hours, or else he will lose a large inheritance. Sherlock Jr. features Keaton as a projectionist who walks into a movie screen to interact with the characters there (a variation on this idea was later used by Woody Allen in The Purple Rose of Cairo), and, in one of his funniest films, The Camerman, a pet monkey practically steals the film from a befuddled Keaton.


Harold Lloyd was another comic genius. His specialty was also daredevil stunts, such as the famous scene of him hanging from a clock tower (from Safety Last). With his trademark spectacles and straw hat, Lloyd had the look of a fresh-faced, if naïve, go-getter, a role he often played in his films. Some of his finest movies include The Freshman (Lloyd goes to college) and The Milky Way (Lloyd as a meek milkman turned boxer).


Lon Chaney


Known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” Lon Chaney was something of a phenomenon. Not only was he a gifted actor, he was also an amazing makeup artist, who created all his own disguises. He starred in some of the finest horror films of the silent era, including the original Hunchback of Notre Dame wherein he portrayed the tragic Quasimodo; as well as the first and best Phantom of the Opera. He was in countless films, playing everything from legless con men to sinister old ladies. Chaney was considered one of the few performers who would be able to pass from silent to talking pictures with ease. He died after making only one talking movie, however, a remake of his silent film The Unholy Three. (Trivia note: Chaney was he original choice to play Dracula in the 1931 classic, but he died before he could do it. A stage actor named Bela Lugosi played the role instead).


Louise Brooks


Arguably the most striking actress in all of silent cinema, Louise Brooks, from Cherryvale, Kansas, did not achieve fame until she left the United States for Europe. Originally a dancer, Brooks appeared on stage in Zeigfield’s Follies and eventually got cast in films, mostly as an ingénue. But it wasn’t until German director G.W. Pabst saw her and declared that she was the perfect actress to play “Lulu” in his film Pandora’s Box that Brooks had a chance to shine. Pandora’s Box, Pabst’s silent masterpiece, would be a wonderful showcase for any actress, but Brooks wasn’t just any actress.


Her Lulu is an impetuous, passionate woman who inadvertently ruins the lives of the men who gravitate to her. She herself is undone when she has an interlude with a man who turns out to be Jack the Ripper. Brooks’ other films of note include Diary of a Lost Girl, her second and last collaboration with Pabst, in which she plays an unfortunate orphan girl who is lured into the world of prostitution, and Rene Claire’s The Beauty Prize, where Brooks plays a woman with a jealous fiancée who enters a beauty contest. When she wins, her life takes a different and ultimately tragic turn. While silent legends Marlene Dietrich (one of the actresses originally considered to portray Lulu) and Greta Garbo may have been more famous and made more movies, Louise Brooks is, especially now, just as much of an icon, with her much-imitated helmet hairdo.


Clara Bow


With her pouty lips and girl-next-door film persona, Clara Bow specialized in light comedies. Her most famous was It, featuring Bow as a salesgirl in a department store who attracts the attention of a rich man because she has “it” (sex appeal). She appeared in several other films, including the role of an army nurse in the silent drama Wings, which was the first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.


There are other amazing silent films that might spark your interest, such as Metropolis, director Fritz Lang’s masterpiece about a mechanized future society where the lower class toils, keeping the machines going, while the rich elite frolic. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, famous for its bizarre sets and amazing visuals, features a Svengali-like professor who controls a sleepwalker to do his bidding, and The Wind, featuring the famous scene where Lillian Gish drifts down a river on a giant chunk of ice (which was all real).


There are many, many more. The best way to discover, is to explore.



© 2002 by L. L. Soares



Saturday, August 10, 2002

 

CHECK OUT WASPS


My wife and partner-in-crime Laura Cooney (Bonnie to my Clyde) currently has a story up on Horrorfind.com called "Wasps," and I think it's a really good one. If you're interested - the link to Horrorfind can be found at the left - you'll just have to do a brief search for her name. But I think you'll like it. Check it out while you still can!


Monday, August 05, 2002

 

Saw SIGNS this weekend. I had a mixed reaction to it. First off, it doesn't get really good until after the first hour. While I am normally okay with M. Night Shamalyan's pacing - the first hour of SIGNS was just boring to me.


I didn't care about the characters that much this time either. The kids seemed like zombies. Has Shamalyan ever actually seen real kids? In his movies they always act more like little old men. And I wasn't overly impressed with Mel Gibson this time around. Gibson isn't horrible in SIGNS. I just didn't think his character was all that compelling. I hate to say it, but I think I prefer Bruce Willis in something like this. He can be really annoying in some movies - but Shamalyan always knows how to use him well.


When I went to see this movie, I had big expectations. After THE SIXTH SENSE (an instant classic) and UNBREAKABLE (which I think I liked even more), I expected to be blown away by SIGNS. But, while it's a good movie, it's not a great one. Easily the weakest of his three big Hollywood movies.


Saturday, August 03, 2002

 

Just got tattoo # 2 yesterday. An angry-looking sun on my other arm. Took about two hours.


This one was different from first one. The first one (a Punisher logo skull) was big, but fairly simple in design. The new one is very detailed, with shading. Where the first one was pretty painless afterwards, the new one is still kinda sore (woke me out of my sleep this morning when I rolled over).


But I like the new one. Makes a nice set - lol.


After he finished it, the tat artist said "Man, that sun is pissed off at the whole fucking world."





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