Sunday, April 24, 2005
Well, I was going to go see KUNG FU HUSTLE Friday night, but ended up hanging out at a friend's house and saying "fuck it" (he'd bought a new bottle of Chivas). But I plan to see it eventually.
I did go see another Asian flick this week, though. And it was kind of a masterpiece: Chan-wook Park's movie OLDBOY. I really dug this one. It concerns a Korean businessman (who drinks way too much) named Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi) who one night is kidnapped and locked away in a hotel room for 15 years!! When he finally gets released, his tormentor contacts him by cellphone and tells him he has 5 days to figure out who did this to him. So Dea-su Oh goes on a killing spree to find out who the fuck is behind all this. Along the way, he falls in love with cute sushi chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), who also becomes his only friend. The ending, where Dae-su finds out all the answers to why this has happened to him is suitably twisted and reveals connections upon connections that we weren't first aware of. Unlike some Asian movies (especially ghost movies), which seem to have a logic all their own (maybe it's a cultural difference), this movie actually makes sense, and I totally enjoyed it. This one probably won't be in (art) theaters for very long, but it is definitely worth looking for on DVD. Probably the second best movie I've seen so far this year (the best being, of course, SIN CITY).
Speaking of SIN CITY, the new Cinema Knife Fight came out this week in Hellnotes, and Michael Arruda and I reviewed SIN CITY. Needless to say, we both dug it. It was a lot of fun to write.
In other news, I hear that the HBO show CARNIVALE may not be renewed for a third season, which is a total shame. The first season was atmospheric and well-acted, but kind of slow going. Season Two was terrific, picking up speed and resolving just about all the storylines. There were also a few touches of horror throughout the season. All in all, I became a huge fan of the show in Season 2 and I hoped it was doing well enough to come back again for another season. But it sounds like that is unlikely. Which sucks.
Also, Lucy Lawless stars in the TV movie LOCUSTS tonight on CBS, about a scientist (Lawless) fighting a swarm of genetically-engineered locusts (surprise!). Looks kinda hokey in the commercials, but it might be fun. It's kind of depressing though to see Xena, Warrior Princess reduced to acting in a TV movie. I was a huge fan of Lawless and Xena, and I'll watch LOCUSTS just to see her in something new. But, man, how the mighty have fallen. Can't someone give this woman a role she can sink her teeth into?
And, finally, after a year's wait, I've updated my other blog, SARDU'S THEATRE OF THE MACABRE , which deals with more extreme horror movies. This time around, I've reviewed two box sets, BLOOD ISLAND VACATION (a quartet of Phillipino monster movies from the late 60's and early 70's) and the notorious Japanese GUINEA PIG movies. If you're into gore flicks, you might want to check these reviews out.
That's all for now. Until next time, Infernally Yours....
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Saw Tori Amos on Tuesday night. I was still tired from World Horror. Originally the plan was I'd go see Tori with Laura and then she'd go with me to see Nine Inch Nails. But it didn't work out - NIN sold out in like 15 minutes and we didn't get tickets. I like Tori Amos (she reminds me a lot of one my all-time faves, Kate Bush), and I thought I knew her music pretty well, but I didn't recognize a lot of the songs she did in concert. Maybe I just haven't listened to her cd's in a long time. But that made me a little restless. The concert seemed to go on for a long time, but Tori was in good form.
The opening act was a singer/songwriter guy with an acoustic guitar named Matt Nathan, I think. I hated his stuff. I cannot stand this new breed of singer/songwriter guys like John Mayer, Jack Johnson, etc. They should round up all these guys and ship them off to a deserted island somewhere. They all sound the same and it's one of the most boring trends in pop music these days.
WORLD HORROR 2005
Went to the World Horror convention in New York City last weekend. It was a blast! Steve Dorato came out to NYC with Laura and me. Got to hang out with some old friends like Kurt Newton, Brian Keene, Mikey Huyck, Seth Lindberg, Cullen Bunn, Kelly Laymon and Mike Pennacavage, to name just a few. And met some new people like Sandy Daluca (author of the upcoming novel DESCENT from Delirium Books), Nick Cato and Gary Frank.
Some Highlights:
I finally met Joe R. Lansdale. He was a really nice guy. He's one of my favorite writers, so this was pretty cool.
We saw the first 15 minutes of the upcoming ABC TV movie version of Stephen King's DESPERATION, directed by Mick Garris. It looks damn good. It's going to be just one night, and 3 hours long (not a miniseries) but the beginning looks killer. Ron Perlman (HELLBOY) plays the evil sherrif and he's perfect. Garris also gave us a sneak peak at the trailer for his upcoming Showtime series MASTERS OF HORROR that will be a horror anthology show directed by people like George Romero, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, John Landis, John Carpenter and Garris himself. It looks really good too.
Saw a cool new music video for the L.A. band ALSO, called "The Disappearing Heart," directed by horror writer John Skipp (of Skipp and Spector fame), another writer whose work I really dig. In recent years he went to film school and it sounds like we might be seeing some horror movies directed by Mr. Skipp in the future.
Probably the biggest highlight for me was competing in the annual Gross-Out Contest for the first time. I had a bit of bad luck at first. I read my gross-out story (entitled "Feeding Frenzy") wearing a monkey mask (I looked like Cornelius from Planet of the Apes), and just before it was my turn to go on, I noticed that the mask's strap was broken. I didn't have time to fix it, so I had to hold it to my face while I read, which was a royal pain the ass, because it prevented me from moving around at all and made it more difficult to read. But I think I did pretty good, regardless. In retrospect, this probably made my performance funnier.
I put on this funny voice (kind of a demented version of Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols) which kind of came to me at the last minute, and I immediately started insulting the audience (calling them "filthy human scum"), and said something like "I'm here to entertain you humans - even though you all SUCK!" before I launched into my "sad story about stupid fucking humans." I even turned around and insulted the judges at one point and gave them the finger (which might have worked against me in hindsight - haha). Let's just say I was totally in character and if you're going to go for comedy, you've got to take risks. I was just hoping that people got what I was trying to do. I figured I wouldn't have a chance against veterans of the contest, but I decided to have fun with it anyway. I totally got into my Cornelius character and stuck my tongue out at the audience and continued to insult them while reading. Some people seemed to really dig my crazed performance, even though I didn't win anything. Oh well, maybe next time I'll place higher.
Didn't get it on tape, unfortunately, and the pictures Laura and Steve took didn't come out. But there are photos of me with the monkey mask on my website (just go to llsoares.com and click on the "News" section, if you want to see what I looked like).
All in all, it was a terrific time and I'm glad we went.
Infernally Yours,
LLS
Sunday, April 03, 2005
GO SEE SIN CITY....NOW!
Well, it's been a interesting couple of weeks. First off, I got a new tattoo, which was a long time in coming. I found a new place in Jamaica Plain (near Boston) called Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoos. By the time I got there to check it out, they were only going to be open another hour (I had bad directions and it took longer than it should have). So I figured why waste a trip? I got something simple - the symbol for the band Black Flag (if you're not familiar with it, it's four black rectangles) - on my back. I'll get something more elaborate next time. But at least I have a new place to go to. Kind of lost track of my last tat artist.
The Terri Schiavo circus finally came to an end this week. After the media made a travesty out of the whole affair, Schiavo was finally allowed to die. Unfortunately, it wasn't with as much dignity as she deserved. A lot of people seemed to take this issue on just to further their religious agenda, which was pretty disgusting. And politicians catering the religious right used this as an opportunity to kiss ass. I'm a big proponent of dying with dignity. In a perfect society, Terri would have been put out of her misery in a lot quicker, humane manner. The fact that so many people used this poor woman to further their own agenda was repulsive.
On a final note, saw the movie SIN CITY last night, and was absolutely blown away by it. First off, I'm a huge Frank Miller fan. I've followed the guy's career from his run on DAREDEVIL through DARK KNIGHT through SIN CITY. I gotta say that SIN CITY is probably my favorite thing that he's done, so I had high hopes for this movie. The thing is, Miller, co-director Robert Rodriguez and company (Quentin Tarantino guest directed a segment too), made a film that has the visuals and feel of the comic down cold. I can't imagine how it could be any more faithful to the source material. It's actually kind of amazing. From the much talked about use of black and white vs. color, to the use of light and shadow, the look of the characters, etc. There wasn't one false step.
As for the casting, it was perfect. People have been talking about Bruce Willis, and he did a good job (his career sure seems to see-saw between horrible movies and greatness), but the one guy who totally stole the movie for me was Mickey Rourke as Marv. Not only was Marv's storyline my favorite in the movie (and the funniest), but Rourke played the character with such joy and fury that I wouldn't be surprised if his career gets a major shot of adrenaline from this. There was a time when he was on top of the world (9 1/2 WEEKS, BARFLY, ANGEL HEART) and then he just fell off the planet, for whatever reasons. But I think the guy deserves a second chance, and if SIN CITY doesn't give that to him, I don't know what will. His performance as Marv fuckin rocked!
Other standouts were Clive Owen (who proved his performance in CLOSER wasn't a fluke), Rosario Dawson (man is she hot!!), Benecio del Toro (who was almost unrecognizable at first until he start talking), Powers Boothe (his scene was small, but as always he left an impression), and I was totally surprised to see Alexis Bledel (Rory from the Gilmore Girls!) as a prostitute!!
From the start you could tell that SIN CITY wasn't going to be like any other movie you'd ever seen. Sitting through it, I felt like I did when I first saw PULP FICTION. This movie has "milestone" written all over it. And a lot of the showings were sold out and there were lines around the block to get in, so I wouldn't be surprised that it was a huge financial hit as well.
I gotta go see this again....
LLS
