Monday,
August 28: Summer Wrap-up
It's summer,
so I've seen all of the movies that you'd expect; Superman
Returns, X-men
3, Clerks
2, Snakes
on a Plane and the awesomely wrong-headed Lady
in the Water.
But what
else have I been taking in this season? A bunch of stuff,
but I've been putting off writing about it for so long that
I don't know where to start. But I'm about to get really busy
(more on that tomorrow), so in order to keep this site active,
I'm forced to just give you the laundry list version of things:
Sometime
in Late July, I found myself on a minor Japanese monsters
and super heroes binge.
It all
started with Ultraman
Max (2005), the series designed to revamp the franchise
by having big-name directors like Takashi
Miike and Shusuke
Kaneko direct a few episodes. As a whole, Ultraman Max
is a mixed bag, with a few real gems, particularly the two
very different episodes from Miike.
This led
to watching the first episode for the newest series in the
line, Ultraman
Mobius (2006), which is much more traditional. I then
found myself inspired to go out and get the first series of
the original Ultraman
(1966), which just came out on DVD. Then came a little
bit of Spectreman
(1971), who fights super-apes from space, and the slightly
disappointing Kikaida
(1972), who fights some of the flimsiest monsters the
genre has ever seen.
My favorite
of all of these shows is Toho's
Zone
Fighter (1973). Which not only has the usual Ultraman/Jet
Jaguar-type title hero, but superhero sidekicks with cool
gadgets and monsters of the highest quality. By "highest
quality" I mean THE highest -- Toho's own mega movie
stars Gigan,
King
Ghidorah and Godzilla
himself appear in several episodes. You can't beat that.
Similarly
themed feature films fell into the mix, including the adult-oriented
The
Legend of the Dinosaurs (1977), the Caesar
Romero & Joseph
Cotten-helmed Latitude
Zero (1969) and the delightful sci-fi battle epic The
War In Space (1977).
As cable
movie networks go, Showtime
Beyond has always been a favorite. They often have few interesting
things in their line up, not to mention their ongoing commitment
to classic Vincent
Price favorites. Lately, they have a few of interesting
oddities in their line up including Richard
Elfman's campy and cartoonish Forbidden
Zone (1980) starring Hervé
Villechaize, and Louis
Malle's bizarre dream, Black
Moon (1975). I also watched the CGI film Ark
(2004), which wasn't half bad.
Angus
recently sent me a short by the son of an associate of his
called The
Slowww Zombie (2005). It's a humorous 22-minute film by
20-year-old Shant
Hamassian about recently undead fellow who just can't
get the hang of the whole zombie thing. Made for about $800,
the film was accepted into the Cannes Film Festival! Read
all about it here.
On the
much more grim side of horror is Fists
in the Pocket (1965), which has been recently released
on DVD. Another downer that we watched was Kidulthood
(2006) written by and staring Noel
Clarke. It's sort of an updated version of Larry
Clark's Kids
(1995), but a not quite as shocking. Still, it has a bit
more bite than
Wassup Rockers (2005), which I saw on its opening day
here in NYC.
The little
lady and I watched the two-part The
Second Coming (2003), starring Christopher
Eccleston as the -- well, the title gives it away -- second
coming of Christ. And while we're getting religious, Laree
and I watched Chariots
of the Gods (1970) -- a film that blew us both away as
kids. Uh, not so much so as adults. In fact, you'd have to
be a gullible nine-year-old to buy into the leaps of logic
presented in this dull little film. A real disappointment,
as I loved this movie sooo much when I was a gullible nine
year old.
Friday,
August 11: Save The Dates
The
Last Winter (2006) will be making its worldwide premiere
at the Toronto
International Film Festival on September 11. That's the
day after that festival's screening of Pan's
Labyrinth (2006).
Also in
September, Kelly
Reichardt's Old
Joy (2006) begins its run at Film
Forum on the 20th.
And THIS
month, THIS DAY, New Yorkers can see Jeff
Winner's Satellite
(2005) during its week-long run at the Pioneer.
It plays every night at 9pm until this Tuesday the 15th, so
see it now!
Tuesday,
August 1: Damage Control
Okay,
so The
Descent (2005), last years UK horror hit, opens here in
North America this week. It's getting a lot of hype in the
genre press, which I hope doesn't raise expectations too high.
Having
seen it a while back, I will agree with those who say that
it's the best new horror film that's come along in years.
But is that really saying much? It's no secret that in the
glut of horror films flooding the market today, we only get
a handful of gems a year, if that.
The Descent
is a well-crafted film. It's better than average, but it's
not going to blow you away. But it may have you on the edge
of your seat at times, more so in the earlier parts of the
film, rather than toward the end. Since they were on the cover
of July's Rue
Morgue, I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying
that the movie features subterranean monsters. You know that.
But to tell you the truth, some of the creepiest and most
suspenseful moments occur in the first 45 minutes before the
creatures show up.
Anyway,
film opens here on Friday with a re-edited ending than what
the rest of the world saw last year. Thanks a lot, LionsGate.
If you want to see the original full cut of the film, there's
an excellent two-disc
Region-2 DVD version currently available in the UK.
Finally!
The infamous Indonesian version of Phantasm,
Pengabdi
Setan (1982) was finally released on DVD earlier this
month under its English title, Satan's Slave. As you
can imagine, I've been waiting for this for a while.
Pengabdi
Setan steals several elements from Coscarelli's
cult classic; our hero is a boy who's just lost his mother,
he likes to ride a dirt bike around the cemetery, he visits
a fortune teller, etc. Despite this, it is not a remake or
even a knock-off of Phantasm. The story involves ghosts, not
an inter-dimensional invasion. There are neither silver spheres
nor a Tall Man. And what is most sad is that we don't get
to see an Indonesian version of Reggie.
Unfortunately,
this is a typical Brentwood DVD release. It comes from a crappy
old tape source, which is fine for a budget release. But there
are a number of large digital "hits" in the first
20 minutes of the film, which are extremely distracting. On
well, at least Phantasm fans will finally get to see this
film...
Also recently
making its way onto disc was Equinox
(1970). On this Criterion
Collection DVD are two versions of this low-budget effects
film that aims high and delivers despite its lack of funding.
One is the original version and the second is the re-edit
that was released to theaters. I have to admit that I prefer
the re-edit, as it spreads out all of the various monsters
and SFX throughout the film, instead of all at the end.
Frank
Bonner, of WKRP
in Cincinnati fame, is one of the film's stars.
You know
what films are still not on DVD here in the US? Alejandro
Jodorowsky's The
Holy Mountain (1973) and the groundbreaking classic, El
Topo (1970). I have both on European DVD releases. There
are supposedly a series of discs in the works for US release
next year from abkco
films, but it's just silly that it's taken this long.
These films are important! Think of the children!!!
Story-wise
The Holy Mountain is one of my least favorite of Jodorowsky's
films, but it is one of his most visually striking. Required
viewing, of course.
Another
PAL disc I watched recently was that of Peter
Greenaway's
The
Baby of Mâcon (1993). People either love or hate
this film. I'm sort of in the middle. I'm not sure why anyone
who's familiar with Greenaway's films would have such a strong
negative reaction to it. It has the same high art aesthetic,
sex, violence and gore that his more popular films did. It's
far more watchable than Prospero's
Books (1991), which has its fans. It does however; take
his flat, stagy compositions to the ultimate extreme, as the
film is all at once a play within a play within a film.
I'll admit,
it's a little more of a challenge to sit through than say,
The
Draughtsman's Contract (1982), and it's a much uglier
film. But that's because it's about the less attractive facets
of humanity, much like The
Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989). The Baby
of Mâcon is just a lot less flashy than Greenaways earlier
hit. Ugly is ugly. And that's what we all are.
Wednesday,
July 26: Quickies
I'll be
hanging out with Lisa at the Ghastly
Greetings booth throughout the Rue
Morgue Festival of Fear in Toronto. I'll be playing the
Automatons
(2006) trailer over and over until the neighbors complain
and doing whatever else it takes to promote the film.
The festival
is from September 1-3 and featured guests include Guillermo
Del Toro, Alice
Cooper, Karen
Black, Ben
Chapman, Mike
Mignola, Linda
Blair, Michael
Berryman, Jeffrey
Combs and tons more! Get your tickets now and stop on
by.
Also,
the The
Roost: Original Motion Picture Score by Jeff
Grace is now
available. The collection also features some tracks by
Jeff from the film Joshua
(2006). You can get it right now from itunes.
Wednesday,
July 19: Back
in Brooklyn
Just got
back from the Fantasia
Festival in Montreal where we screened the trailer for
Automatons
(2006). Lisa & I arrived there too late to set up
for showing it before Frostbiten
(2006), which was the original plan. Instead, the super-accommodating
Mitch
Davis put us in front of a midnight showing of Meatball
Machine (2006) on the following night.
It was
a much better match for our film. Although Frostbite
is a very well-made movie and people seemed to really enjoy
it, it was a much more light, Buffy
/ Scream
sort of thing. Meatball,
on the other hand, is very Tetsuo
(1988)-inspired, so the audience was much more receptive
to something like Automatons. Anyway, Mitch introduced me,
I introduced the trailer, the trailer ran, people cheered,
somebody yelled "Awesome!", and then it was on with
Meatball
Machine.
I went
to some other screenings while I was up there, but have far
too much work to catch up on to give a full report. Instead,
I'll direct you to some of the blogs and reports out there
done by real writers:
Oh, and one last thing: The new Trigger
Man (2006) official site is up:
TriggerManMovie.com
Enjoy!
Wednesday,
July 12: MonsterPants
in Montreal
|
MonsterPants
portrait by "Little 80", age 8 |
The trailer for Automatons
(2006) will make its big-screen premiere Thursday, July
13 before the 7:30 showing of Frostbiten
(2006) at the Fantasia
Festival in Montreal. My co-producer, Lisa, and I will
be making the trip up north for the festivities.
I'll be
back next week with a full report.
Au revoir.
