Full disclosure: Yes, A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema was rejected by the Sarasota Film Festival. That makes two films rejected by the hometown. When I know when my film is playing the Fringe, I'll, of course, let y'all know, too. I should also mention that I am a film projectionist for the Sarasota Film Festival.
If you want to call me bitter, you have every right to and maybe there's a little bit of me that is. I've been rejected by plenty of festivals and I've been accepted by a few. I'm okay with that. But there's a special sting in being rejected by the hometown festival, especially when it's the only one there is.
More than anything, though, I'm frustrated. It feels like Sarasota wants to be supportive of local filmmakers just so long as those local filmmakers fit their view of what is art. And if there are stars in the film that can be brought to Sarasota to be shown off like a fancy piece of jewelry. What frustrates me the most is that the programmers for Sarasota like to go to other festivals, specifically Sundance, and pick up films from there for their programming. I see so many stickers from Sundance as I build festival prints, it's not even funny. I understand that there's a lot of that that goes on on the festival circuit, I'd love to know the ratio of actual indie and local films to ones cherry picked from other festivals to be shown here in Sarasota.
Last year, the festival screwed up and sent out the rejection letters without BCC-ing the entire list of rejects so everyone knew who was rejected. A few of those filmmakers got together and arranged on short notice to have their own festival in the middle of a restaurant featuring as many of the rejected films as they could pull together from the list of filmmakers the festival practically handed to them. While it sounds kinda ghetto, and according to a friend whose film played there last year it kind of was, it's also genius. Most cities have multiple film festivals. This one really doesn't. There's no competition for the Sarasota Film Festival, nothing to keep it vital to the community of artists that live here, young or old.
Will every film be good? No.Of course not. You, dear reader, may not like my film. That's the nature of the beast. But not every film the Sarasota Film Festival brings in is good either. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be some fine films in the Fringe festival that may not have gotten a chance to be seen otherwise because it looks cheap or you can see the boom mic or they used their mom as their lead actress or they just don't know any better and are brand new to the circuit or are consistently rejected from festivals for whatever reason. Without this exposure, this experience, some talented folks might not get seen.
I've played to empty rooms, well-attended theatre auditoriums, and jam-packed warehouse spaces. It doesn't really matter where you play so long as the work gets seen and filmmakers, no matter where they're from, always want their work to show in the hometown. Competition usually makes work better and there is no competition for the SFF. They've gotten complacent. Maybe the Fringe festival is exactly what is needed to shake them up a bit.
If you're so moved, you can give a minimum of $10 to the cause via Kickstarter. I've pledged $20. Only if they meet their goal of $5000 on that website will anyone be charged. If you're not so moved, at least come on out to the Sarasota Fringe Film Festival and check out the variety of films and filmmakers some good, some not good, but all made with heart.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Crazies and Triangle
I totally forgot that I had Quality Checked The Crazies the other night so thanks to Noel for reminding me specifically so I can tell y'all to not bother.
Some filmmakers are in the business because of George Lucas. I'm in it because of that other George, George A. Romero. The Crazies is a remake of one of his films - which is not one of my favourites of his work - about a military experiment that is accidentally unleashed upon a small town and causes the populace to go homicidally insane. The original was made in 1973, five years after Night of the Living Dead and five years before Dawn of the Dead. Romero executive produced this, which is really just a fancy way of saying that he wanted to collect the dough from a remake, but wasn't involved in the making of the film - he was in Toronto shooting Survival of the Dead.
Romero's been ripped off for years so I wonder if it gave him a little ironic glee to see just how much this remake ripped off the remake of Dawn of the Dead with the use of Johnny Cash over the opening credits and a lounge song at the end, plus the cut away during the end credits to more footage of the biological agent (codenamed Trixie, just like in the original) spreading into the larger cities. It's just too bad that whoever made the decision to rip off Dawn of the Dead didn't actually seem to understand what made those choices work in that remake.
With the special effects make-up design and far-out stares of the actors, and GAR's name attached of course, you'd be tempted to think it was a zombie flick. It's not. In spirit, it's closer to 28 Days Later (which is essentially a rip off of the original Crazies), but not as intense or as well-written (don't forget, those weren't zombies, they were infected with Rage!) This film starts out well enough as they set up the characters and their motivations, but the writers (Scott Kosar - who wrote the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville Horror remakes and Ray Write - who wrote the Pulse remake) didn't make me care about them, their struggle, or their fate. This is a common enough problem in horror films, but it seems to be even more endemic to remakes, which makes up the majority of theatrical horror releases right now.
The rest of the film was just okay with surprisingly good, if not forced and at times somewhat unnatural, performances from the actors, lead by Timothy Olyphant (Scream 2) and Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill). The score was fine, the editing was fine, the cinematography was fine. Everything else was just fine, but if you don't have a strong, or even good, script, you're dead in the water and in that way, The Crazies is DOA.
~~~~~
I, like most people, have an innate distrust for direct-to-DVD releases, especially in the horror genre, but as Hollywood insists upon spoonfeeding us remakes and cookie-cutter garbage, I find myself considering the direct-to-DVD offerings a little more. This has lead to a lot of crap of course (a lot of crap), but it's also lead to some very interesting, original, and sometimes even freakin' great films like Triangle.
No, it's not about the Bermuda Triangle, but to say much more about the plot may unwind the whole thing for you and I really think you should go to your local video store or Netflix (they have it on their Instant Queue, which is how I watched it) and give it a chance. It's predictable if you're familiar with this particular sub-genre of psychological thriller, but it's engaging, involving, and puzzling in all the best ways. All of the questions I had while watching it were answered by the end and while the end does have a minor problem that threatens to destroy the whole story, it can also be easily reasoned away, especially if you have Pollyanna-like tendencies, as I do.
With a few well-cut scenes in during the opening credits, I found myself caring more about our lead character, Jes (played by Melissa George from 30 Days of Night), than I did about the entire cast of The Crazies (that's just a little bit of perspective for ya). Something's just not right in Jes' world, however, and you know it right away.
Its predictability aside, this is a top notch flick with strong performances, an unobtrusive score, remarkable editing, and good cinematography. I wish I knew why this didn't have a wide theatrical release in America. It may be because the cast is pretty, but relatively unknown here, and the film (which is a UK-Australia co-production) didn't have the same kind of touting here that something like Paranormal Activity did, which is a shame since this was a solid little flick.
Some filmmakers are in the business because of George Lucas. I'm in it because of that other George, George A. Romero. The Crazies is a remake of one of his films - which is not one of my favourites of his work - about a military experiment that is accidentally unleashed upon a small town and causes the populace to go homicidally insane. The original was made in 1973, five years after Night of the Living Dead and five years before Dawn of the Dead. Romero executive produced this, which is really just a fancy way of saying that he wanted to collect the dough from a remake, but wasn't involved in the making of the film - he was in Toronto shooting Survival of the Dead.
Romero's been ripped off for years so I wonder if it gave him a little ironic glee to see just how much this remake ripped off the remake of Dawn of the Dead with the use of Johnny Cash over the opening credits and a lounge song at the end, plus the cut away during the end credits to more footage of the biological agent (codenamed Trixie, just like in the original) spreading into the larger cities. It's just too bad that whoever made the decision to rip off Dawn of the Dead didn't actually seem to understand what made those choices work in that remake.
With the special effects make-up design and far-out stares of the actors, and GAR's name attached of course, you'd be tempted to think it was a zombie flick. It's not. In spirit, it's closer to 28 Days Later (which is essentially a rip off of the original Crazies), but not as intense or as well-written (don't forget, those weren't zombies, they were infected with Rage!) This film starts out well enough as they set up the characters and their motivations, but the writers (Scott Kosar - who wrote the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville Horror remakes and Ray Write - who wrote the Pulse remake) didn't make me care about them, their struggle, or their fate. This is a common enough problem in horror films, but it seems to be even more endemic to remakes, which makes up the majority of theatrical horror releases right now.
The rest of the film was just okay with surprisingly good, if not forced and at times somewhat unnatural, performances from the actors, lead by Timothy Olyphant (Scream 2) and Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill). The score was fine, the editing was fine, the cinematography was fine. Everything else was just fine, but if you don't have a strong, or even good, script, you're dead in the water and in that way, The Crazies is DOA.
~~~~~
I, like most people, have an innate distrust for direct-to-DVD releases, especially in the horror genre, but as Hollywood insists upon spoonfeeding us remakes and cookie-cutter garbage, I find myself considering the direct-to-DVD offerings a little more. This has lead to a lot of crap of course (a lot of crap), but it's also lead to some very interesting, original, and sometimes even freakin' great films like Triangle.
No, it's not about the Bermuda Triangle, but to say much more about the plot may unwind the whole thing for you and I really think you should go to your local video store or Netflix (they have it on their Instant Queue, which is how I watched it) and give it a chance. It's predictable if you're familiar with this particular sub-genre of psychological thriller, but it's engaging, involving, and puzzling in all the best ways. All of the questions I had while watching it were answered by the end and while the end does have a minor problem that threatens to destroy the whole story, it can also be easily reasoned away, especially if you have Pollyanna-like tendencies, as I do.
With a few well-cut scenes in during the opening credits, I found myself caring more about our lead character, Jes (played by Melissa George from 30 Days of Night), than I did about the entire cast of The Crazies (that's just a little bit of perspective for ya). Something's just not right in Jes' world, however, and you know it right away.
Its predictability aside, this is a top notch flick with strong performances, an unobtrusive score, remarkable editing, and good cinematography. I wish I knew why this didn't have a wide theatrical release in America. It may be because the cast is pretty, but relatively unknown here, and the film (which is a UK-Australia co-production) didn't have the same kind of touting here that something like Paranormal Activity did, which is a shame since this was a solid little flick.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Shutter Island, Black Dynamite, Ghost Story, Alice in Wonderland
Oh, boy...another review dump! Nothing new has been posted at the Vampire Film Festival website, though. Not for February, anyway.
The first review I offer up is for the Martin Scorsese-directed psychological thriller Shutter Island which stars Leonard DeCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as two Federal Marshals who are sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous patient from Ashecliff Mental Hospital. It's from a novel by Dennis Lehane.
I wanted to like this. I admire Scorsese, as do most filmmakers, and his direction of this film is flawless, but I found it hard to believe right out of the gate and I guessed most of the film right away. Really, my problems with the film are with the story - not even the script, just the story. The script was well-written enough, I just found the whole plot unbelievable and lacking. The cast were all great, even DeCaprio, of whom I'm not a big fan. I found the camerawork to be a little too stylish at points and it distracted me from the film, but was nice overall.
The plot aside, another huge problem I had with the film was the music. Scorsese used music that sounded similar to what Stanley Kubrick used for The Shining, but where Kubrick used it like a delicate brush with which he filled in the landscape of the film, Scorsese used this music like a sledgehammer to pound the rough edges into submission.
Overall, an okay, but ultimately disappointing, film.
~~~~~
Black Dynamite is a film I've been waiting for since I first heard about it a year or so ago. It stars Michael Jai White as our eponymous hero in a loving spoof of classic blaxploitation films like Shaft and Superfly.
The film is so jam packed with plot that I'm not sure I can adequately sum it up...but I'll try. Black Dynamite is a kung-fu master and pimp who, while fighting to rid the community of smack and to rid his people of the shackles of The Man, stumbles upon a nefarious plan to further put the black man down that culminates in a fight in the White House, then ends with a good old kung fu showdown on an island.
This film was just as hilarious as I thought it was going to be. Everything about it was pitch perfect and even the most casual view of blaxploitation - like myself - can appreciate the finer jokes as well as the broad. There's just one little problem: it's one of the longest hour and half films I've ever seen. It's so dense with plot and jokes that the movie stretches out forever and the film jumps the shark once it makes it to the White House, but that long hour and those looooong thirty minutes contain some of the best laughs I've enjoyed during a movie in a very long time.
~~~~~
Ghost Story is a flick from 1981 starring Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Melvyn Douglas, and John Houseman as the self-proclaimed Chowder Society, a group of friends in rural New England bound by a deep, dark secret that's forcing its way to the surface via the twin sons of one of its members, both played by Craig Wasson.
As played out as this plot is 29 years on, the film is still very effective, thanks due mostly to the four "Elder Statesmen" in the film as well as the special effects provided by Oscar winner Albert Whitlock and Henry Millar, Jr.
The film was well paced and whatever plot issues there are are spackled over effectively enough that you just don't notice. The music is atmospheric and unobtrusive, and the direction was deft and well done. A solid film worthy of the title.
~~~~~
Alice in Wonderland is the newest film from Tim Burton, his follow up to the gruesome film adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd. Here, he reunites with Todd stars Johnny Depp and wife Helena Bonham-Carter in an adaptation of the classic children's book by Lewis Carroll. In this film, Alice is almost twenty years old and Wonderland is little more than a recurring nightmare, but she's still willful and easily distracted and at the party her late father's friends have thrown to celebrate her surprise engagement to a man she's not sure she wants to marry, she sees the White Rabbit in the waistcoat and follows him down the rabbit hole in a Wonderland that's been corrupted by the evil Queen of Hearts.
It skillfully blends elements from the stories with the brain of Tim Burton to produce an absolutely wonderful film. Everything about it was perfect, from the girl cast as Alice to the voices chosen for two of the most pivotal characters, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar. From the trailer and all of the promotional art, I thought that they were going to over power the audience with Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, but I'm happy to say that he's in the film for the right amount of time and he plays the character with a perfect mixture of control and chaos.
I watched this film in 3D and though I don't think it's necessary to the experience to see it in three dimensions, it sure was fun. If you can afford to spend a couple of bucks more to see it in 3D, I'd go for it.
The first review I offer up is for the Martin Scorsese-directed psychological thriller Shutter Island which stars Leonard DeCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as two Federal Marshals who are sent to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous patient from Ashecliff Mental Hospital. It's from a novel by Dennis Lehane.
I wanted to like this. I admire Scorsese, as do most filmmakers, and his direction of this film is flawless, but I found it hard to believe right out of the gate and I guessed most of the film right away. Really, my problems with the film are with the story - not even the script, just the story. The script was well-written enough, I just found the whole plot unbelievable and lacking. The cast were all great, even DeCaprio, of whom I'm not a big fan. I found the camerawork to be a little too stylish at points and it distracted me from the film, but was nice overall.
The plot aside, another huge problem I had with the film was the music. Scorsese used music that sounded similar to what Stanley Kubrick used for The Shining, but where Kubrick used it like a delicate brush with which he filled in the landscape of the film, Scorsese used this music like a sledgehammer to pound the rough edges into submission.
Overall, an okay, but ultimately disappointing, film.
~~~~~
Black Dynamite is a film I've been waiting for since I first heard about it a year or so ago. It stars Michael Jai White as our eponymous hero in a loving spoof of classic blaxploitation films like Shaft and Superfly.
The film is so jam packed with plot that I'm not sure I can adequately sum it up...but I'll try. Black Dynamite is a kung-fu master and pimp who, while fighting to rid the community of smack and to rid his people of the shackles of The Man, stumbles upon a nefarious plan to further put the black man down that culminates in a fight in the White House, then ends with a good old kung fu showdown on an island.
This film was just as hilarious as I thought it was going to be. Everything about it was pitch perfect and even the most casual view of blaxploitation - like myself - can appreciate the finer jokes as well as the broad. There's just one little problem: it's one of the longest hour and half films I've ever seen. It's so dense with plot and jokes that the movie stretches out forever and the film jumps the shark once it makes it to the White House, but that long hour and those looooong thirty minutes contain some of the best laughs I've enjoyed during a movie in a very long time.
~~~~~
Ghost Story is a flick from 1981 starring Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Melvyn Douglas, and John Houseman as the self-proclaimed Chowder Society, a group of friends in rural New England bound by a deep, dark secret that's forcing its way to the surface via the twin sons of one of its members, both played by Craig Wasson.
As played out as this plot is 29 years on, the film is still very effective, thanks due mostly to the four "Elder Statesmen" in the film as well as the special effects provided by Oscar winner Albert Whitlock and Henry Millar, Jr.
The film was well paced and whatever plot issues there are are spackled over effectively enough that you just don't notice. The music is atmospheric and unobtrusive, and the direction was deft and well done. A solid film worthy of the title.
~~~~~
Alice in Wonderland is the newest film from Tim Burton, his follow up to the gruesome film adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd. Here, he reunites with Todd stars Johnny Depp and wife Helena Bonham-Carter in an adaptation of the classic children's book by Lewis Carroll. In this film, Alice is almost twenty years old and Wonderland is little more than a recurring nightmare, but she's still willful and easily distracted and at the party her late father's friends have thrown to celebrate her surprise engagement to a man she's not sure she wants to marry, she sees the White Rabbit in the waistcoat and follows him down the rabbit hole in a Wonderland that's been corrupted by the evil Queen of Hearts.
It skillfully blends elements from the stories with the brain of Tim Burton to produce an absolutely wonderful film. Everything about it was perfect, from the girl cast as Alice to the voices chosen for two of the most pivotal characters, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar. From the trailer and all of the promotional art, I thought that they were going to over power the audience with Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, but I'm happy to say that he's in the film for the right amount of time and he plays the character with a perfect mixture of control and chaos.
I watched this film in 3D and though I don't think it's necessary to the experience to see it in three dimensions, it sure was fun. If you can afford to spend a couple of bucks more to see it in 3D, I'd go for it.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The music video is finished!
Part of the reason I've been even more silent than usual lately is because I was asked by my brother to create a music video for his band, World Collision. It took me a while to come up with a concept that I liked and that I felt captured the mood of the singer's lyrics and then I had to submit it for approval. As soon as I had that, I started casting, reaching out to Brian Dennis, who was in A Hammer fell in Jerusalem: Anathema, for the role of the Tempter and through him, I found the wonderful Miss Chelsey Panisch for the role of the Innocent. The rest of the cast speaks for themselves: the band is played by...the band. The Fire Dancer is Dr. Marguerite Barnett (how cool is that part, too? How cool is ALL of them? I mean, the fact that I made the video not withstanding, I love all of these people and it was so much fun to make this video!!)
After that, movement into actual production was swift. I did storyboards and a shot list and the next week, we shot all of the daytime stuff at Dr. Barnett's property, which I also used in AHFiJ: Anathema, and a couple of days later we shot the "limbo" and band stuff at night. I started editing at 11 am on Thursday and breaking only to go to work or grab a quick bite to eat, I finished post officially today, unofficially yesterday.
For those who are into the technical stuff, I shot in standard definition on my Panasonic DVX100b (no, I'm not being sponsored by them, but I have to say that love that freakin' camera) using the "squeeze" mode set to 24fps. I hadn't used that setting before, using standard 4:3 for Without/Within and AHFiJ: Anathema and letterbox for aftershock.
Without too much further ado, here is the video, as hosted by YouTube! (Watch in 480p if it gives you the option. Or you may want to watch it on YouTube since my blog format cuts off a bit on the right -- I'll work on that...):
After that, movement into actual production was swift. I did storyboards and a shot list and the next week, we shot all of the daytime stuff at Dr. Barnett's property, which I also used in AHFiJ: Anathema, and a couple of days later we shot the "limbo" and band stuff at night. I started editing at 11 am on Thursday and breaking only to go to work or grab a quick bite to eat, I finished post officially today, unofficially yesterday.
For those who are into the technical stuff, I shot in standard definition on my Panasonic DVX100b (no, I'm not being sponsored by them, but I have to say that love that freakin' camera) using the "squeeze" mode set to 24fps. I hadn't used that setting before, using standard 4:3 for Without/Within and AHFiJ: Anathema and letterbox for aftershock.
Without too much further ado, here is the video, as hosted by YouTube! (Watch in 480p if it gives you the option. Or you may want to watch it on YouTube since my blog format cuts off a bit on the right -- I'll work on that...):
Friday, January 29, 2010
A Vampire film review, two movie reviews, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I wrote a review for Park Chan-Wook's Thirst over at Metropol!
I should ask them if they're going to have an archive or if I should archive the reviews under a Metropol-branded blog...
~~~~~
Over the past couple of weeks, I saw two Judeo-Christian related Apocalypse films: The Book of Eli from the Hughes Brothers and Legion from Scott Stewart. Let's start with the first one of the two I saw, The Book of Eli.
The Book of Eli has a simple enough premise: a man is walking through post-Nuclear War America on his way West to deliver a book to a gentle, caring society who won't abuse it. Gary Oldman's Bad Guy is desperate to own the book because of its power over the soul. No shock here, the book is the Holy Bible (King James version.) It's so valuable to Gary Oldman's Bad Guy because every single copy was burned in the aftermath of the America-ending war. While that's an intriguing idea that was never truly explored to its fullest (the religious impact on war with Christianity being the religion at fault), it's also absolutely and completely implausible.
I have a great capacity to suspend my disbelief, but I live in America. There's no flippin' way every single copy of the Bible in America had been burned. And when would these Bibles be burned? I mean, if it was in reaction to the bomb, who'd actually care enough to burn books, especially the Bible during a time when the Believer's faith would be most tested and religion would come to the forefront? Personally, I'd be more concerned about continuing to survive if I'd survived the actual explosion. If the Bible-burning happened before the bomb that ended the world as we Americans knew it, then what the hell was the fight about? The film just doesn't make sense.
As for casting, I was mostly excited to see Denzel Washington kick some butt and be a bad ass anti-hero (yes, I knew it was about the Bible before I watched it, but one can hope), but the final twist on his character ruined the whole thing for me. Gary Oldman's character was interesting, but underdeveloped, and Jennifer Beals wasn't given much more to do than be the hot blind mother to Mila Kunis' really annoying character.
The reviews in the trailers don't lie, though. It's a visually stunning work. It's just too bad that it's wasted on a flick that doesn't rise to its own aspirations.
And now, the second flick: Legion from Scott Stewart. In this one, God's disgusted with humanity so on His Son's birthday, He sends His angels to wipe all of us out, including the as-yet unborn baby of an unwed mother living in the middle of the desert. Yeah. One angel refuses to follow orders, the Archangel Michael (played with nearly overwhelming gravitas by Paul Bettany), and he falls to earth and chops off his wings to free himself of God's Collar (I guess it was God's collar, but it didn't prevent him from Falling to earth) so he can steal lots of high powered weaponry and an LAPD police car and drive into the desert to protect the spoiled, whiny pregnant chick.
*sigh*
Okay, look, I'm all for interesting and exciting ways of looking at Judeo-Christian mythology. A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema (and the novel I'm working on from which it comes!) with its take on the Grigori and the idea of warrior Priests that wield guns AND swords should be plenty enough proof of that. Legion really needed another pass or two in the writing stage. The dialogue is stilted and the action tends to start and stop abruptly so they can explain to the audience what's happening...far too much exposition especially considering how quickly the people in the diner adapt to the idea that God has sent Angels to destroy mankind, like it happens every day.
Also, they're angels. ANGELS. There isn't enough ammo in the world to kill all of the angels, especially not when Gabriel comes to do what Michael was supposed to, kill the child - humanity's last hope. That battle, Michael and Gabriel, is, well...ridiculous, but no more so than the rest of the movie.
For all of the crap in the film, there were some good ideas, the sorts of things one doesn't see too often even in genre pics: angels possessing humans, the violent side of angels. And I like the design of the angels with the shark teeth.
Look, just go rent The Prophesy, the one with Christopher Walken (as a far better Gabriel), Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortensen (in one of my favourite portrayals of Satan), Virginia Madsen, and Elias Koteas. It's an excellent flick.
~~~~~
And, finally, http://www.flickr.com/photos/coulter/1635530685/ .
I should ask them if they're going to have an archive or if I should archive the reviews under a Metropol-branded blog...
~~~~~
Over the past couple of weeks, I saw two Judeo-Christian related Apocalypse films: The Book of Eli from the Hughes Brothers and Legion from Scott Stewart. Let's start with the first one of the two I saw, The Book of Eli.
The Book of Eli has a simple enough premise: a man is walking through post-Nuclear War America on his way West to deliver a book to a gentle, caring society who won't abuse it. Gary Oldman's Bad Guy is desperate to own the book because of its power over the soul. No shock here, the book is the Holy Bible (King James version.) It's so valuable to Gary Oldman's Bad Guy because every single copy was burned in the aftermath of the America-ending war. While that's an intriguing idea that was never truly explored to its fullest (the religious impact on war with Christianity being the religion at fault), it's also absolutely and completely implausible.
I have a great capacity to suspend my disbelief, but I live in America. There's no flippin' way every single copy of the Bible in America had been burned. And when would these Bibles be burned? I mean, if it was in reaction to the bomb, who'd actually care enough to burn books, especially the Bible during a time when the Believer's faith would be most tested and religion would come to the forefront? Personally, I'd be more concerned about continuing to survive if I'd survived the actual explosion. If the Bible-burning happened before the bomb that ended the world as we Americans knew it, then what the hell was the fight about? The film just doesn't make sense.
As for casting, I was mostly excited to see Denzel Washington kick some butt and be a bad ass anti-hero (yes, I knew it was about the Bible before I watched it, but one can hope), but the final twist on his character ruined the whole thing for me. Gary Oldman's character was interesting, but underdeveloped, and Jennifer Beals wasn't given much more to do than be the hot blind mother to Mila Kunis' really annoying character.
The reviews in the trailers don't lie, though. It's a visually stunning work. It's just too bad that it's wasted on a flick that doesn't rise to its own aspirations.
And now, the second flick: Legion from Scott Stewart. In this one, God's disgusted with humanity so on His Son's birthday, He sends His angels to wipe all of us out, including the as-yet unborn baby of an unwed mother living in the middle of the desert. Yeah. One angel refuses to follow orders, the Archangel Michael (played with nearly overwhelming gravitas by Paul Bettany), and he falls to earth and chops off his wings to free himself of God's Collar (I guess it was God's collar, but it didn't prevent him from Falling to earth) so he can steal lots of high powered weaponry and an LAPD police car and drive into the desert to protect the spoiled, whiny pregnant chick.
*sigh*
Okay, look, I'm all for interesting and exciting ways of looking at Judeo-Christian mythology. A Hammer Fell in Jerusalem: Anathema (and the novel I'm working on from which it comes!) with its take on the Grigori and the idea of warrior Priests that wield guns AND swords should be plenty enough proof of that. Legion really needed another pass or two in the writing stage. The dialogue is stilted and the action tends to start and stop abruptly so they can explain to the audience what's happening...far too much exposition especially considering how quickly the people in the diner adapt to the idea that God has sent Angels to destroy mankind, like it happens every day.
Also, they're angels. ANGELS. There isn't enough ammo in the world to kill all of the angels, especially not when Gabriel comes to do what Michael was supposed to, kill the child - humanity's last hope. That battle, Michael and Gabriel, is, well...ridiculous, but no more so than the rest of the movie.
For all of the crap in the film, there were some good ideas, the sorts of things one doesn't see too often even in genre pics: angels possessing humans, the violent side of angels. And I like the design of the angels with the shark teeth.
Look, just go rent The Prophesy, the one with Christopher Walken (as a far better Gabriel), Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortensen (in one of my favourite portrayals of Satan), Virginia Madsen, and Elias Koteas. It's an excellent flick.
~~~~~
And, finally, http://www.flickr.com/photos/coulter/1635530685/ .
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
New review at the Metropol, new review here (Imaginarium!), and an update!
They've posted a new review over at the Vampire Film Festival website, this one for Ganja and Hess. I reviewed Daybreakers for them, but I suppose they're going in order of when the review was written.
~~~~~
I was given the green light on the music video for my brother's band, World Collision, and I have a script all ready for a new short film so as far as production goes, it's going well! I hope to get principal photography done this month on the music video and then start the short in a couple of months! I love this stuff!!
~~~~~
I got to see Terry Gilliam's new film the other night, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which stars Chrisopher Plummer as our eponymous hero, a 1,000-year old man who manipulates the imagination to try and make the world a better place. He's locked in constant battle with the Devil, played by Tom Waits, and is about to lose his daughter to him when a mysterious, amnesiac stranger (played in the real world by the late Heath Ledger and in the Imaginarium by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) shows up on the eve of her birthday and changes the balance of the game between Parnassus and the Devil.
This is seriously one of the best films I've seen in a loooooooong time and is absolutely one of Terry Gilliam's best films. In fact, I believe this has replaced Brazil as my favourite Gilliam film. I wanted to cry, the movie was so good, so beautiful. There is so much heart, humanity, and - yes - imagination in this film.
A lesser filmmaker probably would've had to abandon the project with so much left to shoot in the studio when Ledger passed, but with a story like this, and a mind like Gilliam's, the production recovered with only minor hiccups in the flow of the narrative. To be honest, if you didn't know Ledger had died during filming, you wouldn't give it much of a second thought.
The design is a HUGE part of this film, but it's not overwhelming. It's like looking through a window into Gilliam's brain and seeing loads of Monty Python-esque animated links brought to life. That might put some of you off (mom), but don't let it. This is a film that needs to be seen.
Unlike other films that have come out recently, the effects are not more important than the story being told and the characters within. Everything is of equal importance from the wonderful actors to the colours, to the score and design, to Gilliam's masterful direction.
Beautiful.
~~~~~
I was given the green light on the music video for my brother's band, World Collision, and I have a script all ready for a new short film so as far as production goes, it's going well! I hope to get principal photography done this month on the music video and then start the short in a couple of months! I love this stuff!!
~~~~~
I got to see Terry Gilliam's new film the other night, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, which stars Chrisopher Plummer as our eponymous hero, a 1,000-year old man who manipulates the imagination to try and make the world a better place. He's locked in constant battle with the Devil, played by Tom Waits, and is about to lose his daughter to him when a mysterious, amnesiac stranger (played in the real world by the late Heath Ledger and in the Imaginarium by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) shows up on the eve of her birthday and changes the balance of the game between Parnassus and the Devil.
This is seriously one of the best films I've seen in a loooooooong time and is absolutely one of Terry Gilliam's best films. In fact, I believe this has replaced Brazil as my favourite Gilliam film. I wanted to cry, the movie was so good, so beautiful. There is so much heart, humanity, and - yes - imagination in this film.
A lesser filmmaker probably would've had to abandon the project with so much left to shoot in the studio when Ledger passed, but with a story like this, and a mind like Gilliam's, the production recovered with only minor hiccups in the flow of the narrative. To be honest, if you didn't know Ledger had died during filming, you wouldn't give it much of a second thought.
The design is a HUGE part of this film, but it's not overwhelming. It's like looking through a window into Gilliam's brain and seeing loads of Monty Python-esque animated links brought to life. That might put some of you off (mom), but don't let it. This is a film that needs to be seen.
Unlike other films that have come out recently, the effects are not more important than the story being told and the characters within. Everything is of equal importance from the wonderful actors to the colours, to the score and design, to Gilliam's masterful direction.
Beautiful.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Interesting new gig as a reviewer of vampire films!
I've been waiting for word that the first review was posted before I mentioned this, just in case anything fell through. I was approached about a month ago by Asif, the director of the Vampire Film Festival, to write reviews of vampire films for their re-vamped (hur hur) website (I think the redesign will be upcoming because it looks the same to me right now.) I agreed so long as I could watch older vampire films and if I didn't have to watch Twilight (this was really important) and he didn't seem to have a problem with it so here we are! The first review was posted today!
http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/The_Hunger_-_Metropol_-_Lori_Bowen.html
I call it the Metropol Viewing Room (Fangs for the Memories, my first name for the review series, felt a little too punny and cheesy even for me.) It's actually a reference to Lamberto Bava's Demoni. Not a vampire flick, but there you go.
That's the main reason I've been so silent. Between working, writing for the future and writing for this, and trying to let my brain rest occasionally, I've been otherwise occupied. However, I've just finished writing a new script and am about to embark on pre-production for a music video for my brother so I'm sure that I'll have more to blabber about very soon. You poor, poor people. ;D
http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/The_Hunger_-_Metropol_-_Lori_Bowen.html
I call it the Metropol Viewing Room (Fangs for the Memories, my first name for the review series, felt a little too punny and cheesy even for me.) It's actually a reference to Lamberto Bava's Demoni. Not a vampire flick, but there you go.
That's the main reason I've been so silent. Between working, writing for the future and writing for this, and trying to let my brain rest occasionally, I've been otherwise occupied. However, I've just finished writing a new script and am about to embark on pre-production for a music video for my brother so I'm sure that I'll have more to blabber about very soon. You poor, poor people. ;D
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