Wednesday, June 21, 2006
I'M A TV STAR!
Well, I was interviewed for a press release that will be coming out this week for CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE in Boston. The article includes a mention of me, my website and a quote from me. Hopefully this will appear in tomorrow's (or Friday's) Boston papers.
Then on Sunday, the Channel 56 News Department called and said they wanted to interview me a news segment. Pretty cool. They came over to the house tonight. They came, set up their camera and asked me questions, mainly about Creature Double Feature. I just hope I don't come off as a complete dork.
Asked me a little about my writing and filmed the covers of some of my books/mags. So at least I got some free publicity out of it.
By the time I get to the screen, the 15 minute segment they filmed will probably be wittled down to a minute or so. For people in the Boston area - it will air during the 10:00 news tomorrow (Thursday night, June 22nd), between 10pm and 11pm. He said it might air either at 10:15 or 10:45. This is WLVI-TV 56 (WB56).
As for the first new edition of CREATURE DOUBLE FEATURE on Saturday, June 24th from noon to 4pm, the two movies will be GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER & THE GIANT GILA MONSTER.
Well, it was a fun experience anyway.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
SO I MIGHT BE ON TELEVISION
So here's the story so far....
Back when I was a kid, Channel 56 in Boston had a show called Creature Double Feature on Saturdays from noon to 4pm, where a nutty horror movie host would introduce two crazy old monster movies (often Japanese giant monster stuff). This was decades ago, and the last time anybody had a horror movie host showing movies was when Elvira was syndicated in the 80s. Surprisingly, you just can't find anything like this on television anymore - not even the cable channels.
So Channel 56 is bringing Creature Double Feature back from the grave this June 24th, and they've been doing publicity for it.
I'm pretty excited about the idea and I've been in touch with someone at the channel (now called WB 56) about this. We've been talking back and forth. And I also sent them a link to my website.
Another woman from WB 56 emailed me on Friday about Creature Double Feature and asked if I would like be interviewed about it. This is funny, since I have nothing to do with the show, but I guess between the fact that I actually saw the original show and because they liked my website they want to get my opinion or something.
I've called channel 56 back and am waiting for more information. Of course, nothing could come of this, but I'll keep everybody updated and let you know if I'll be on TV.
If something fun comes out of this, all the better.
LADY VENGEANCE and THE PROPOSITION
Haven't been seeing a lot of movies lately for some reason, but I saw two new films yesterday to catch up. The first one I saw was SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE. This is the third part of Chan-wook Park's latest "revenge trilogy," which also includes OLDBOY and SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. LADY VENGEANCE is the story of Lee Geum-Ja (Yeong-ae Lee), who is imprisoned at the age of 19 when she takes part in a kidnapping plot gone awry. It turns out the man behind the kidnapping was a sadistic serial killer and had no intention of returning the abducted boy once the ransom was paid. The Lee Geum-Ja takes the wrap for the crime because the murderer, Mr. Baek, threatens to harm her own newborn child if she doesn't keep quiet. After thirteen years in prison, she has planned out an elaborate scheme to get revenge on the murderer. This involves her getting lots of people on her side to act as her accomplices, just as she had been Mr. Baek's accomplice in the past. The result is that there are a lot of people involved in the eventual execution of Mr. Baek.
One aspect of the storyline that wasn't really made clear to me was how Lee Geum-Ja got involved with Mr. Baek in the first place, and how she was corrupted enough to get involved in the kidnapping plot. When she finds out that this is just one of many such kidnapping/murders that Mr. Baek has committed over the years, she is horrified, but what made her get involved with this monster at all?
There is also a touching subplot involving Lee Geum-Ja's relationship with the daughter she never knew while in prison, who was adopted by a couple in Australia.
I have to admit, some of the scenes were pretty intense and I liked the overall product, but man, did this movie move slow. I notice that a lot of Asian films just move at a much slower pace than American films, and that it's probably just a cultural thing. But it kind of affects the enjoyment of sitting there and watching a film sometimes. While I recommend seeking out LADY VENGEANCE on DVD if you're a fan of Park's work, I think I enjoyed OLDBOY a lot more.
Also I finally saw Australian western THE PROPOSITION. This one has music by punk icon Nick Cave, and he also wrote the screenplay. It takes place in a desloate Australian landscape before the land was tamed and modern cities arose. The perfect setting for a western. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), the local lawman, makes a deal with two brothers of the violent Burns gang when they are captured. The youngest, weakest Burns boy, Mikey, will be kept in Prison 9 days until Christmas. If Charles Burns (Guy Pearce) finds and kills his older brother Arthur (the real psycho of the gang) and brings Arthur's body back to him, Stanley will pardon Charles and Mikey and set them free. Charles then goes into the hills, clearly confused and burdened over what he has to do.
This film also moved at its own pace, but I liked it much more. The acting was excellent, especially Pearce, Ray Winstone, John Hurt as a bounty hunter, and Danny Huston as the philosopical oldest Burns brother, Arthur, who is thoughful and intelligent one moment, and a total psycho the next. Emily Watson also has a very moving role as Captain Stanley's wife, Martha, who's friend Emily was raped and killed by the Burns gang and who is horrified when she learns of her husbands deal with Charles. It doesn't help that Captain Stanley's men and the townspeople are pretty much against him, although he is determined to bring civilization to this forsaken part of the world.
Nick Cave turns in a solid screenplay and John Hillcoat provides fine direction. THE PROPOSITION is powerful stuff and one of the best movies I've seen this year.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
REVIEW OF X-MEN 3: THE LAST STAND
Well, I saw X-MEN3: THE LAST STAND last night. I thought it was flawed, but so are 99% of Hollywood movies these days. They took a lot of liberties with the comics obviously, and I could have done without the whole "mutant cure" storyline (Jean Gray/Phoenix was a big enough threat by herself). But overall I thought it was a decent cap to the "X-Trilogy." The basic storyline was taken from the “Dark Phoenix saga,” which was the pinnacle for X-Men comics back in the 80's, when Chris Claremont and John Byrne worked on it. The comics were a lot better, but they had tons of subplots the movie never could have dealt with (especially an entire storyline about a group called the Hellfire Club). For what it was, I thought the movie did a good job.
Wolverine had a lot to do this time around (which makes sense, since they're already working on his spinoff solo movie), and I thought Framke Janssen was good as Phoenix. But there were too many characters and not enough time to develop them all. A lot of people got short shrift (Colossus, who has never been fleshed out in the movies, got a little more screen time in X3, but nothing really to do, and I thought he was a great character in the comics, also where was Nightcrawler???). I thought it was interesting that they killed off some characters. (SPOILER ALERT)……….Cyclops got the shaft more than anyone, since he was hardly in the movie and was killed offscreen without even a decent sendoff. I know they never really gave the character much to do (I guess nobody could figure out how to make a quiet, brooding guy interesting, although a great director could have done it), but I thought he deserved better than he got in this movie. There’s also another rmajor death, but I won’t give it away here. I also thought Mystique stood out (as always) and got the shaft once she was given the "cure". The Beast was okay. I was never a Kelsey Grammer fan, but I guess he worked as Hank McCoy. It’s about time they had the Beast in one of the movies. Maybe that's why Nightcrawler wasn't around - maybe there's a "one blue-furred mutant per movie" rule. Another original member, the Angel, is around for this movie too. He was okay. I thought he actually looked kind of hokey in a few scenes, though.
As usual, Ian McClellan was great as Magneto. I wish they'd had the Blob (another old X-villain) in there. And Mastermind (since in the comics, Mastermind is the whole reason Dark Phoenix emerges from Jean’s psyche in the first place, even if there is no way they could have added the Hellfire Club storyline to this movie. And Mastermind was one of the original "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" members way back in the 60s).
I have a real mixed reaction to Halle Berry as Storm. I've seen her do some good acting (not great) in stuff like MONSTER’S BALL. But she rarely shows any real charisma. She's pretty, that's about it. And Storm seems like she should have a much bigger personality. She's practically a goddess and should reek authority. Instead, Berry seems like she just stepped off a catwalk and has as much authority as a slug. She's no Storm. Angela Bassett would have been much more beleivable in the role. But it’s too late now. Berry owns it.
One big fumble was Juggernaut. In the comics, he's Xavier's stepbrother and is NOT a mutant (since his powers are derived from a supernatural source). So it makes absolutely no sense that his powers would be taken away when he came in contact with that mutant kid Leech. In fact, I thought that would be the big payoff in the scene where Juggernaut and Kitty Pryde race to find Leech. "He can't affect me, since I'm not a mutant!" But they totally blew that. Also, he's supposed to be totally indestructible; the only way to attack him is through his mind (which is why he wears a helmet, so Xavier can't affect him). And in the comics his helmet is a lot cooler - in the movie it looked dumb. Like a fake rock helmet for Fred Flintstone!
And they totally jettisoned the fact that Juggernaut (Cain Marco) is Xavier’s stepbrother. They could have at least had the two of them eye each other when they "first met" outside of Jean Grey's house. Clearly with that dumb helmet that reveals Juggernaut’s whole face, Xavier would recognize him, even if they hadn't met since Marco's change into Juggernaut (which is unlikely). But no - no recognition between them at all - so the filmmakers decided to forget about their relationship.This is dumb because they could have addressed it in just two sentences.There is clearly animosity between the two characters in the comics, so they wouldn't need to have any in-depth conversation.
I was bummed because in the comics Juggernaut is like my favorite X-villain, next to Magneto, and they made him into a buffoon. The funny thing is I like the actor who played him (Vinnie Jones, who has been in lots of British gangster movies like LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS) but they just made him too stupid. Just Magneto's hired muscle.
I know the whole point in the comics was that Charles got all the brains and Caine (how biblical!) got all the brawn. But considering Juggernaut could take on the Hulk one on one, he's a little more than "just another mutant." And, like I said, he's not a mutant at all. So the movie totally messed that up. Oh well, enough about Juggernaut.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, definitely stay until after the end credits if you go. There’s an important scene that comes on after the credits roll. Not all that surprising if you pay attention, but important to the storyline. I saw a lot of people leaving the theater who missed out.
Everyone was whining about Bryan Singer leaving the series to do SUPERMAN RETURNS, so I really had no idea what to expect. There was a good chance Brett Ratner (whose main claim to fame are the RUSH HOUR movies with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker) would ruin the momentum of the first two films. I think Singer used a slower pace, but I liked it, and thought it suited the movies. With so many characters, you need some quiet time to flesh them out more. Rattner added more action, but it made sense in the context and overall he did an okay job of maintaining he tone of the previous flicks. So no harm done there.
So my final reaction is that X-MEN3 is the weakest of the trilogy (the best is easily X-MEN2), but it was a decent entry and didn't suffer too much by Bryan Singer's absence (it still had the feel of an X-Men movie). I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars (maybe 3 and a half if I'm in a good mood). Not great, but not awful.
Infernally Yours,
LLS
