Monday, January 19, 2009

 

MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D


The new
Cinema Knife Fight column went up this morning on Fear Zone, and it's a review of the new movie MY BLOODY VALENTINE - 3D. This is an especially funny one, because we totally disagreed on this one.

If you wanna check it out, just go here.


 

RAY DENNIS STECKLER & THE ROBOT - RIP


On January 7th, director
Ray Dennis Steckler died in Las Vegas. He was 70. I hadn't heard about it until now. If you're a fan of low-budget horror films, you probably know Steckler as the director of tons of flicks including THE THRILL KILLERS (1964), THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES (what an amazing title! - also from 1964), RAT PFINK A BOO BOO (1966), THE HORNY VAMPIRE and BLOOD SHACK (both 1971).

He also acted in several of his movies under the name Cash Flagg. His wife Carolyn Brandt also appeared in several of his films.

While Steckler's most famous films were made in the 1960s and 70s, he worked right up until the late 80s. Some of his later films included THE HOLLYWOOD STRANGLER MEETS THE SKID ROW SLASHER (1979) and LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER (1986).

Some of his films are considered low-budget classics such as INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES which features Steckler/Flagg as a kid who is hypnotized by a carnival gypsy and ordered to kill. And RAT PFINK A BOO BOO which is about a couple of superheroes who are a bit similar to Batman and Robin (and the movie has the same campy sense of humor as the old Adam West Batman TV show). Originally the movie was titled Rat Pfink a Boo Boo, but when the name was spelled wrong on the opening credits, it stuck.

Alongside such other legendary old school horror directors like Herschell Gordon Lewis, Ted V. Mikles, Al Adamson, and Andy Milligan, Steckler gave us some of the strangest films ever made. He'll be missed.

***

Bob May died Sunday of congestive heart failure. He was 69.

Fans of the old TV show LOST IN SPACE (one of my all-time favorites) will remember Bob as the guy inside the metal costume of The Robot, who was famous for the line "Danger! Danger!" May did not do the voice of The Robot, though. That was the voice of television announcer Dick Tufeld.

Bob was an actor and a stuntman and the Robot was his favorite role. He often appeared at memoribilia conventions with his suit, and was known as a friendly guy.

As the Robot's nemesis, Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) would say "Farewell, you bubble-headed booby!"


 

BEST TV SHOWS OF 2008


Here are the shows I enjoyed the most in 2008.

THE BEST TELEVISION OF 2008

1. THE SHIELD - The last season of this brutal cop drama was rivetingtelevision. Right up to the jaw-dropping finale, where Vic Mackey(Michael Chiklis), confessed his sins under the cloak of immunity. Anamazing show, and an amazing final season.

2. MAD MEN - this show about advertising men in 1960 kept its high level of quality for its second season. A real highlight of 2008.

3. TRUE BLOOD - I hated the first couple of episodes of this HBO vampire drama based on the books by Charlaine Harris. Or, at least, I thought I did. By episode 3 I found myself getting hooked on this show, and by the end of the season, it had become one of my favorite new shows. If you missed it, check it out on DVD when it comes out. Excellent new show by Alan Ball, the guy who also gave us Six Feet Under.

4. LIFE - my favorite new network show. Damian Lewis plays Charlie Crews, a cop who got framed and spent 12 years in prison. Now he's been vindicated and he's a detective, solding crimes in a weird Zen way, while he also tracks down the men who framed him. One of the best cop shows on network television in years!

5. DEXTER - Michael C. Hall's sympathetic serial killer (he only kills bad guys) maintains the greatness of previous seasons. This time around, it kind of lagged in the middle, but by the end, all of the storylines paid off, and my faith was renewed. With an always great performance by Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter's sister Deb (and now Mrs. Hall), and a great guest turn by Jimmy Smitts as an assistant D.A. who befriends Dexter and thinks he's above the law.

6. THE BIG BANG THEORY - this sitcom renews my faith in the medium. Four super-smart nerds live next to a hot chick. That's all the plot you need. And it's funny as hell, especially Jim Parsons as the most hilarious of the geeks, Sheldon Cooper.

7. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - this anti-sitcom from HBO gives us two geeks from New Zealand who play guitar, can barely get gigs, and have just one fan. This is the kind of low-key show that really grows on you. It's no wonder it has a big cult audience already, after just one season.

8. LIFE ON MARS - A modern day cop gets hit by a car and finds himself as a cop in 1973. What the hell is going on? Based on a British show with the same name, and with a cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli (Christopher from the Sopranos), and Gretchen Mol. How can you go wrong?

9. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - I hate football. Friday Night Lights is all about a high school football team in Texas. But somehow, it's one of my favortie shows. FNL kicked ass in 2008, and just returned to network TV (after airing its new season on satellite TV first) for a new season, for those of us who don't have a satellite dish.

10. LOST - this show is still amazing. The best thing ABC could have done was let the creators set up a definite time frame of when the show would end. After some bumpy seasons where it seemed to flounder, the show now has focus again as it hurtles toward the big finale. It ended on a powerful note in 2008, and the new season begins next week. Still a heavyweight contender.

Let's hope 2009 is half as good.


 

THE DICEMAN COMETH


Well, on Saturday I went out in the 12 degree night to see Andrew Dice Clay. It's been a long time since he was the hottest comedian in America, but I still dig the guy. Nobody knows how to harass an audience like Dice, and he's so non-PC and filthy that he's bound to say something to offend just about anyone. For some reason, I really dig that.

So I've got the worse seats in the house. Second to last row up in the balcony. When Dice comes on, I can see the top of his head, and he looks an awful lot like Larry Fine with muscles and a leather jacket. In a way, that's kind of sad. But once he goes up to the mic, pops a cigarette into his mouth (he doesn't light it up, but he doesn't need to, we all know its a prop that's part of the persona) and says "Test, test" into it, it's clear that the man hasn't changed.

Even with a cold, he kicked lots of comedic ass with that angry wit of his. When people laughed at the "Test, test" start, he raked them over the coals for being "stupid fucks who who laugh at anything." He then focused on a couple of audience members in the front row, which was hilarious as he tormented them. His act had me laughing out loud a lot. A routine he did about how people today would rather text each other than fuck was pretty hilarious. And he did some pretty funny stuff about the Clintons and Obama.

Not everything was funny. When you're as all-around offensive as Dice, some of the stuff is going to rub anyone the wrong way. But that's the price you pay. And the man delivers.

I know a lot of people hate Dice. But I've always dug him, partly because he's so hated. And at the end, when he did the dirty nursery rhymes we've heard a million times (and therfore are maybe the weakest part of his act - even though there is a kinda nostalgia to them), after saying that he really doesn't like to do them anymore (of course, the audience insisted, and he gave in), I was almost transported back to the days when he was big.

I haven't laughed this much in a long time. And even though my seat sucked and the audience was full of yahoos who kept yelliing "Oh!" (actually, the audience around me wasn't that bad), I had a really good time.

He was worth going out in the cold for.

I'm glad.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

 

BEST MOVIES OF 2008 (NOT JUST HORROR)


One more movie list. Since I did my "Top 10 Horror Movies of 2008" list, I figured I'd also post my list of best movies, period, of 2008. Here it is:

TOP 10 (ALL) – THEATRICAL FILMS....


1. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - I've raved about this one a lot, and it's easily the best overall film I saw in 2008.


2. THE WRESTLER - Mickey Rourke's big comeback lives up to the hype. He's amazing in it, and it's another great movie by one of my favorite directors, Darren Aronofksy.


3. MOTHER OF TEARS- I will continue to praise this Argento movie. Even if I'm the only one who dug it.


4. PUNISHER WAR ZONE - A lot of people slammed this one, too, but it's still the best ultra-violent comic book adaptation I've seen. And as a hardcore Punisher fan, it was great to finally see him done right.


5. TOWELHEAD - This controversial coming of age story about a young Arab-American girl who discovers her sexuality isn't for everyone, but I thought it was amazingly well done. By Alan Ball who also wrote AMERICAN BEAUTY and created the excellent shows SIX FEET UNDER and TRUE BLOOD.


6. THE RUINS - Atmospheric, with some nice spooky moments, this killer plant movie still stands out for me.


7. QUARANTINE - Excellent performances, especially the hot Jennifer Carpenter, highlight this remake of the Mexican horror film [REC]. Rabid zombies in a quarantined apartment complex. The ending is killer.


8. THE STRANGERS - the more I think about this movie, the more I really liked it. From the bleak tone, to the excellent use of a Johanna Newsome song, this one has grown on me over the months.


9. CLOVERFIELD - the best giant monster attacks a major city movie in a long time. I'd probably post this higher on any given day.


10. THE INCREDIBLE HULK - I actually liked Ang Lee's version, but this new "reboot," starring Edward Norton, is even better. And they finally had him take on a real villain from the comics, The Abomination (Tim Roth). Iron Man may have been the Marvel comic book movie everyone was talking about in 2008, but I'm a much bigger Hulk fan.

.. ..

Honorable Mentions:

DARK KNIGHT - like everyone else I thought Heath Ledger's performance was amazing and he deserves whatever awards he gets. Every time he was on screen, this movie rocked. Unfortunately, I'm not a big Batman fan, and thought that Batman was still stiff as hell and the plot of this one was way too convoluted (and way too long). Aside from Heath and Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face (we got way too much Harvey Dent and way too little Two-Face and then they killed the character off!), I didn't like this movie enough to put it on the list. But hell, Ledger alone was good enough so that it probably belongs up there.


IRON MAN - Robert Downey Jr's big comedback. Like Ledger's Joker, it was Downey's Tony Stark that made the whole movie. And he's the one who should get all the credit. Otherwise, I thought the script was a disappointment, especially having Iron Man go up against a lame-ass villain (where's Titanium Man when you need him?). Also, I'm not a big fan of origin stories, but this one did the job well, and this movie even made Gwyneth Paltrow likable.


Let's hope 2009 is even better. The two movies I'm looking forward to most this year are THE WATCHMEN and Benecio Del Toro in the remake of 1940's THE WOLFMAN.


Thursday, January 15, 2009

 

GOODBYE TO THE PRISONER AND KHAN


Two more great old celebrities died yesterday. First off Patrick McGoohan died. For those of you who didn't know who he was, he was a British actor who is probably best known for playing Number Six on the cult TV show THE PRISONER, which ran from 1967 to 1968. It was one of the best television shows ever made and maybe the only truly great existential drama to make it onto the small screen.

The plot was simple. McGoohan played a former secret agent (the show he'd starred in before this one was called DANGER MAN, so there's always been a kind of connection between the two), who decides to leave his job. Unfortunately, the government can't let him do that, so they knock him out and he wakes up on a strange island where everyone has numbers instead of names and nobody will answer his questions. Oh yeah, and giant bubbles are sent to grab him if he tries to get off the island and bring him back.

If you've never seen this show, you really owe it to yourself to rent it or buy the DVDs. It's an amazing show that will make you wonder why nothing on television now is as smart and good as this.

Needless to say, I was sad to hear of McGoohan's passing.

Also yesterday, Ricardo Montalban died. He had roles in tons of movies, but was probably best known for two television characters he played - Mr. Rourke, the mysterious host who welcomed people to an island where fantasies came true on a show called, of course, FANTASY ISLAND. I kind of hated this show, though, even though it had the great dwarf actor Herve Villechaize as Mr. Rourke's assistant Tattoo.

Montalban's best role was as the villainous Khan on STAR TREK. He first appeared on an episode of the first series called "The Space Seed" in 1967. He then came back in the second (and best) theatrical Star Trek movie STAR TREK 2: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982). Khan was terrific character, and I wish we'd seen more of him.

My buddy Greg (I'd totally forgotten) also pointed out that Montalban played Armando in both ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971) and CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972), two great installments of the PLANET OF THE APES films of the 60 and 70s (how the hell did I forget that??)

Another sad passing.


 

THE WRESTLER

Well, I saw THE WRESTLER last night. As a fan of Darren Aronofksy, I really wanted to see this one. His previous films include PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (still his masterpiece), and THE FOUNTAIN. I've enjoyed every movie he's made and when THE WRESTLER started to get Oscar buzz for Mickey Rourke's performance, I knew it was going to be great.

And I wasn't wrong.

Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson. Twenty years ago, he was at the top of his game, one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. Now, he's over the hill and not looking so good. And yet, he continues to wrestle, even if it's in Veteran's Halls and community centers. The pay isn't what it used to be, but The Ram has his die-hard fans.

The thing is, he's barely making ends meet. He lives in a trailer park (and still gets locked out every once in awhile for not paying his rent). During the week, he works in a supermarket lifting boxes and taking shit from his little tyrant of a boss (Todd Barry). He doesn't have much in the way of real relationships, but he does have a stripper at a local strip joint that he's sweet on (Marisa Tomai) and who he'd really like to have as his girlfriend, if she'll let him into her life. He also has a college-age daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who hates him for abandoning her as a child.

When he has a heart attack after a bout, he starts to seriously consider retiring from the ring. But he realizes fast that without wrestling, he doesn't have much of a life.

THE WRESTLER is a somber character study about a fascinating guy. I was a big fan of Mickey Rourke's early in his career (9 1/2 WEEKS, ANGEL HEART, and especially the Bukowski-scripted classic BARFLY), but he made too many wrong choices and disappeared for awhile. With the role of Marv in SIN CITY, he got the chance to make one helluva comback. But THE WRESTLER gives him more than just a cool character, it gives him a chance again at real respectability, and maybe even an Oscar nomination, if he's lucky.

All of the performances are great, but Rourke is the heart of it all, and he does a terrific job. And this is a movie with a lot of things to recommend it: pathos, comedy (the scenes where Randy works in the supermarket deli are priceless), violence (the wrestling scenes are especially brutal and bloody, and they let us in on a lot of the tricks wrestlers use to make the proceedings extra gory), nudity (Tomai, who has often used body doubles in the past, finally relaxes enough to do her own nudity, and she has nothing to be ashamed of), and a really well-written story.

Aronofsky and Rourke make a great pair of collaborators. And Mickey Rourke deserves all the praise that he's been getting for THE WRESTLER. Easily one of the best movies of 2008.


 

TOP 10 HORROR FLICKS OF 2008


Well, if you read the "BEST OF 2008" edition of Cinema Knife Fight on FEAR ZONE, you already know my Top 5.

But I know how much you guys love lists. So here's my complete Top 10:

***

TOP 10 HORROR FILMS OF 2008

1. Let the Right One In - a small Swedish vampire film that is easily the most amazing flick I saw in 2008.

2. Mother of Tears - It seems like most fans hated this new film by Dario Argento, completing his Three Mothers trilogy, after about 25 years of waiting. But I loved it. It's almost more of a comedy than a horror flick, and it's easily one of the most entertaining things I saw all year.

3. Punisher War Zone - I know this one's pushing the "horror" envelope, but it is maybe the most violent/gory movie of 2008, so it fits. Finally, the Punisher done right! This one earns its hard R rating, and then some!

4. Red/Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door (tie)- two small films based on Jack Ketchum novels. Both did the festival circuit then went straight to DVD. Both deserved a real theatrical run. GIRL NEXT DOOR is especially disturbing, and not for everyone. But these are two very well-made adaptations.

5. The Ruins - Tourists in Mexico vs. killer plants. Way better than it sounds.

6. Quarantine - Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter's sister on DEXTER) plays a reporter who follows cops to a tenement building to check out a disturbance. She ends up locked away with all the other inhabitants as a killer strain of rabies turns them into drooling zombies one victim at a time.

7. The Strangers - masked killers torment a couple in an isolated cabin. Very atmospheric and effectively spooky.

8. Cloverfield - giant monster attacks Manhattan as twenty-something kids flee. One keeps his videocamera filming it all.

9. Hellboy 2 - Ron Perlman turns in another amazing performance as the superhero who's also a devil. Fishman Abe Sapien sings! And an elven prince decides he wants to conquer the world of humans.

10. Midnight Meat Train/Pathology (tie) - MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN is a cool movie version of a Clive Barker story that got cheated out of a theatrical release and went straight to cable. PATHOLOGY features HEROES star Milo Ventimiglia as an intern in a pathology lab who falls in with a sadistic crowd who likes to create their own corpses for the autopsy room. Both were better than expected.

NEXT LIST: TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2008 (NOT JUST HORROR)


Sunday, January 11, 2009

 

Movie Reviews: THE SPIRIT, 1408, and TOWELHEAD



I’ve seen a bunch of movies lately and figured I’d post some quick reviews:

THE SPIRIT

I saw this Friday night after I saw THE UNBORN. Nobody wanted to see THE SPIRIT with me, but I’m a Frank Miller fan, and the trailer looked okay to me, so I went. Even though every single review has been negative. But hey, I’ve loved movies before that everyone else hated (DOMINO and MOTHER OF TEARS, anyone?)

However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I loved THE SPIRIT. But I sure did like it. After sitting through THE UNBORN, which was pretty bad (I just finished my review of it for Cinema Knife Fight this afternoon), I thought THE SPIRIT was a breath of fresh air.

THE SPIRIT is based on a comic strip by Will Eisner that started in the 1940s. It’s the story of Denny Colt, (Gabriel Macht) a true-blue boy scout of a guy who becomes a cop, gets killed, and comes back as The Spirit, a crime fighter who can’t be killed. No matter what you throw at him, he heals up. Of course, Denny has no idea how he ended up this way.

The Spirit’s arch-enemy is the underworld kingpin The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), who also cannot be killed, and who knows how the Spirit got the way he did. But he’ll tell him in his own time. In the meantime, he’s happy to make the Spirit miserable, lord over the underworld of Central City (he literally lives underground, beneath the sewers) and search for the fabled blood of the demi-god Heracles, which will make him immortal and god-like.

Helping the Octopus is super-scientist Silken Floss (Scarlett Johanssen) and an army of cloned henchmen (all played by Louis Lombardi), created in a lab by the Octopus and Floss.

Coming between the two enemies is Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), an international jewel-thief who used to be the Spirit’s girlfriend when they were kids, but is now a dangerous criminal with a heart of gold. She turned bad when her cop father was killed, but even now she donates large sums to police stations after a heist.

After Sand steals two crates – one holding the mythical Golden Fleece that Jason and the Argonauts once sought, the other holding an urn holding the blood of Heracles that the Octopus so desperately desires – she becomes a crucial piece in the final chess match between the Spirit and the Octopus. Of course, the Octopus steals one of the crates – but it’s the wrong one (the one with the fleece), and Sand Saref barters for an exchange.

I’m not sure how faithful the movie is to the comic strip/book, because I haven’t had a chance to read much of the original series. However, I do know that most of the supernatural elements have been added for the film. Also, Will Eisner, the Spirit’s creator, was a mentor and hero of Frank Miller’s, and he’s been wanting to bring Eisner’s hero to the screen for awhile now.

For those who don’t know Miller, he is a comic book icon due to 1980s work like his run on the Marvel comic DAREDEVIL, which added a real edge and style to the character, as well as his work on the seminal DC miniseries THE DARK KNIGHT that showed us a dark, cataclysmic future where Batman is old and at the end of his career. Miller is also the creator of the excellent and stylish SIN CITY series as well as the graphic novel 300, both of which have been made into movies.

Miller clearly remade THE SPIRIT in his own image, since it bears a strong resemblance to the look of the SIN CITY movie (which Miller co-directed with Robert Rodriguez). Using lots of green screen and computer effects, we are transported back in time to a Central City that is a mixture of film noir and classic comics. The dialogue is dated and hokey, but entertainingly so. Some people have said that the movie is unintentionally funny, but I beg to differ. There is a strong sense of humor that runs throughout the movie like a vicious scar. From the dialogue to the over-the-top fight scenes, to the fact that the Octopus’s henchmen all where shirts with their silly names on them. If anything, THE SPIRIT feels like a mix between SIN CITY and the campy 1960s BATMAN TV-show starring Adam West.

Probably the funniest thing in the film, though, is Samuel L. Jackson, who, as the Octopus, chews up the scenery like a shark. Every time he is onscreen, the movie lights up, even in a totally over-the-top scene where the Octopus is dressed in a Nazi uniform (I kid you not).

There are flaws to the movie. Its pacing seems off at times, and some scenes drag a bit. And often-times, there’s this feeling that something just isn’t right. (Maybe it's the fact that this is the work of a novice director). And the dialogue is downright wince-inducing at times.

But the acting and the pure bigger-than-life feel of it kind of make up for its shortcomings.

THE SPIRIT might have its failings, but at its best it’s entertaining as hell. And I may be the only critic who liked this thing.

***

1408

I finally saw this one on cable this weekend. Based on a Stephen King story, 1408 is the story of writer Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who writes books debunking supposedly haunted houses, and his stay in a supposedly haunted hotel room in a New York City hotel called the Dolphin. At first, the hotel manager (Samuel Jackson again) pleads with him not to enter the room, even offering him expensive gifts and an offer of telling the world he was in there even if he wasn't, if he will just abandon his plan. Of course, Eslin sticks to his guns. He’s never seen a haunted house yet that convinced him ghosts are real, and he isn’t about to start believing in them now.

The rest of the movie involves Enslin’s night in room 1408, where he sees everything from ghosts jumping out of windows, to sea paintings exploding with waves of water, to the return of his dead daughter. While the scenes where he confronts the ghost of his daughter are somewhat effective, for the most part this movie is pretty hokey. It almost seems like a weaker, less-developed version of THE SHINING.

I didn’t even think Cusack’s performance was up to his usual standards. And Jackson is hardly in the movie long enough to make an impression.

Despite this, I didn’t hate the movie. It was entertaining enough in a silly way. But it certainly wasn’t one of the better Stephen King adaptations.

***

TOWELHEAD

Directed by Alan Ball (who also wrote the screenplay for AMERICAN BEAUTY, and who created the great shows SIX FEET UNDER and TRUE BLOOD for HBO), and based on the novel by Alicia Erian, TOWELHEAD is a coming of age story about an Arab-American teenager. Not your typical subject matter, but then Ball isn’t your typical director.

When 13-year old Jasira (Summer Bashil), asks her American mother (Maria Bello)’s boyfriend to show her how to shave her privates, and her mother finds out, she is shipped out to Houston to stay with her strict Lebanese father (Peter Macdsisi) .

Her father tries to control her with an iron first, but Jasira wants to be American and she finds out she is very sexual. Just looking at the porno mags in the house of the family she babysits for gives her orgasms. And she begins relationships with both the adult neighbor next door (Aaraon Eckhart), as well as a boy from school, Thomas (Eugene Jones), who her father objects to because he is black. When her father finds out that he is sexually active at such a young age, all hell breaks loose, and she goes to stay with a concerned neighbor, Melina (Tony Collette).

Despite the controversial subject matter of a young girl’s sexual awakening, TOWELHEAD is a powerful, well-made film. While I don’t think it will make many critics’ “best of 2008” lists due to its touchy subject, it was clearly one of the best movies I saw from 2008.


 

BOOK REVIEW: JAKE'S WAKE

I don’t normally review books here, but JAKE’S WAKE is, in several ways, a reason to celebrate. As a long-time fan of author John Skipp(he wrote several classic horror novels in the 1980s with co-writer Craig Spector, including THE SCREAM and THE BRIDGE) , it was interesting to see himcollaborating with someone new, writer Cody Goodfellow. The resultis a novel based on a screenplay Skipp wrote, which he is also making into hisfirst feature film, JAKE’S WAKE.

As I said, I’ve been a fan of Skipp’s work with Craig Spector (the novels that madehim famous), as well as his solo work (his recent Leisure novella THE LONG LAST CALL, which was paired with his even better novella CONSCIENCE), so it was something new to see him working with Goodfellow here. But the result is something very good indeed.

The story involves Jake Conaway, a former rock star turned televangelist (and part-time pimp) , a truly despicable character, who dies andis somehow raised from the dead. With his trusty (and vicious) henchman Gray athis side, Conaway goes back to his home, where his wife and a group of others are holding a service for him, to turn their lives into a living hell.

As he rains down awful torments on those he left behind, it soon becomes apparent that he’s not the only supernatural being on the property. Some ghosts from his past have also come to join the party, and they don’t necessarily have Jake’s best interests at heart.

I thought Skipp and Goodfellow worked well together, and despite some slow spots early on, the book soon gathers momentum and drags you by the hair to the very end. While I stubbornly prefer some of the old Skipp and Spector novels, it’s good to keep in mind that this is the first time Skipp and Goodfellow have collaborated on a full-length novel, and the fact that this is such an enjoyable read is a good omen for things to come.Since any future Skipp & Spector novels seem unlikely, I think we’re in good hands with Skipp and Goodfellow. And I’m certainly looking forward to seeing more from them.

I really recommend this novel.

***

Also, in deaths, Ron Asheton, the guitarist for The Stooges died. He was 60. The band, led by vocalist Iggy Pop (before he gained bigger fame as a solo artist), started in 1967 and heralded in the era of punk rock before its time. The Stooges may not have been hit-makers during their heyday, but their albums certainly had something to do with the birth of punk, and influenced literally thousands of bands that have formed since.The Stooges broke up in 1973, but recently reunited to tour behind an album of new songs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the reunited band in concert. Now, I wish I had.


Wednesday, January 07, 2009

 

Eating Boiled Peanuts with Juno and Benjamin Button


Got back from Florida yesterday. Spent a few days visiting family. The weather was nice, but it's nice to be back. I like sleeping in my own bed, and I hate traveling. We had to stop over in Ohio on the way back home, so the flight back took forever.

Didn't do a lot in Florida, mainly because we were short on cash. But I did get to try boiled peanuts (they taste like cooked beans and they're soft - I didn't hate them, but I really don't see the point. Hard peanuts are much more flavorful), and we rented the movie JUNO. I thought it was okay, but I'm not really sure what all the fuss was about. Ellen Page turns in another interesting/smart peformance, but she still seems a little too clever to be believable. Sure, the character's intelligence is supposed to protect her vulnerable soft center, but still, I found some scenes hard to believe.

I like her, and she certainly can carry a movie, but I had the same problem with her in HARD CANDY. She just seems so smart that it's obvious she's reading lines written by an adult.

Then again, I heard that in real life, Ellen Page is 20, even though she keeps playing teenagers.

Another problem I had with JUNO is what I call "selective knowledge." She worships bands like The Stooges and Patti Smith, yet doesn't know who Sonic Youth is? Why would her knowledge grasp the 60s and 70s (when she didn't even exist yet), yet leave out cool bands from later decades? It just didn't make sense to me. And how could she know what SUSPIRIA is, but have no idea who Herschell Gordon Lewis is? If you like punk rock or classic horror films, then you're likely to know a lot about the subject, not just selective bits here and there. Especially if you're as smart as Juno seems to be.

Of course, the movie itself is about a smart girl who gets pregnant and decides to give the baby up for adoption to a yuppie couple. How smart is Juno if she got pregnant in the first place? Especially since it seems like she planned to seduce her boyfriend beforehand. How could she leave out such an obvious detail like birth control? Once again, it just doesn't seem plausible. And why is she so attracted to Michael Cera, who I still think is one of the least masculine actors around today? Is it because he's so gentle and unthreatening? Wouldn't someone like Juno seem the type to be more attracted to a "bad boy"?

And her parents take the news of her pregnancy so non-chalantaly, especially her dad played by J.K. Simmons (remember, this is the guy who first came to fame playing a sadistic Nazi in the HBO prison show OZ. Now he plays J.Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies, and easy-going dads in movies like JUNO. It's kind of funny). I mean, her parents are kind of perfect, the way they support her without batting an eyelash, and I wish more parents were so forgiving in real life, but wouldn't they at least be a little angry that their genius daughter would do something so dumb?

The yuppie couple, played by Jennifer Garner and Justin Bateman are kind of interesting and boring at the same time. They're interesting, because you wonder why they would ever get together in the first place. He's creative and likes edgy stuff (he's the one who shows Juno a DVD of THE WIZARD OF GORE and plays her Sonic Youth's cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar"), but at the same time, he's kind of childish. He connects with Juno because she has the same kinds of interests, but she's 16 years old, so some of their scenes together are almost creepy. Nothing happens, but you can feel the tension. Garner's character is one of those one-track mind characters who I find incredibly irritating. The only thing that she wants in life, the only thing she thinks about, is having a baby. Of course her husband feels alienated! It clearly does not matter to her if he's part of the equation at all. All she wants is the baby. It's her entire reason for exisiting. Yawn!

All in all, I found JUNO tolerable, but didn't love it, and I certainly didn't understand what all the hype is about. This movie was an indie film that turned into a sleeper hit (a lot like Little Miss Sunshine did a couple of years ago - although JUNO is way better than that overrated flick), but I'm clearly not its target audience.

The often child-like music of the Moldy Peaches on the JUNO soundtrack, however, fits the movie perfectly.

I also got to see THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON at the theater while we were out there. I thought it was a good movie, but way too long (at over 3 hours!) and somewhat predictable at times. It starts out with one of those gimmicks I can't stand. Cate Blanchett's character is old and dying and has her daughter read her the diary of her true love Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt). The rest of the movie is told in flashbacks. Why? Why do we need the modern-day storyline at all? Whatever happened to simply telling a story without this tacked-on crap? In a movie like MEMENTO or PULP FICTION, the use of time is clever and adds something to the film. In a movie like BENJAMIN BUTTON, this device simply adds unnecessary filler to the running time and brings the movie to a halt every time we're pulled out of the real story. These scenes could easily have been cut without hurting the film.

It's directed by David Fincher who also gave us SEVEN and one of my favorite flicks FIGHT CLUB. He's worked with Brad Pitt several times before, obviously, but this is probably their most straightforward collaboration, and it has "Oscar Nominee" written all over it. And it will probably get a ton of nominations. But I think it's one of Fincher's weaker films, and while Pitt is just fine in it, I feel like the whole movie could have been a lot better.

It's an interesting premise: the tale of a man who is born a shriveled-up old man and who ages backwards (based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald). And it's certainly well-made. It just seems to revel in its own self-importance, and it wallows in sappiness a few times (especially toward the end).

Cate Blanchett, however, is stunning in her scenes (except for those gimmicky scenes where she's old and dying - and you can't understand anything she's saying). She is simply one of our best actors, and she's beautiful. I just found my eyes glued to the screen whenever she was on.
So I saw two good movies in Florida, but nothing spectacular.

Otherwise, it's good to be back home. The weather was better in Florida, and it was a drag to see the snow on the ground when we got back, but it's real nice to sleep in my own bed again, and not to have to travel anymore for the holidays.

At least now I can focus on my writing again.

***
Some people have asked me about my BEST OF THE YEAR list. This is something I've done in my blog every year for awhile now. And I'll probably be posting something soon. However, if you'd like to see my choices for the Top 5 Horror Films of 2008, you can check them out at Fear Zone, where they posted a Cinema Knife Fight column this week where Michael and I discuss our favorite films of 2008.

Just go to: BEST HORROR FILMS OF 2008

And Happy New Year!

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