H1N1 and Recent Viewings

Hooray! As such with my luck, my beautiful lady and are currently the recipients of the viral variation of H1N1 known as “Swine Flu”. Supposedly caught from an irresponsible cat at the lady’s work, this virus is indeed not very fun, and has the following symptoms:

- Tiredness

- Headaches

- Sore throat

As such, we’ve been holed up in bed, and inbetween intermittent periods of sleeping and Tamiflu, have been watching a few films. Which are:

“Hooray for rock and roll and boo to squares!” is basically this flick’s message, and I can dig it. I’m not normally a huge fan of Richard Curtis, but he does ok here with some great actors to back him up and a groovin soundtrack. Oh, and Duffy. Welsh hag.

 

Christmas is upon us, so it’s back to the 80s. No more needs to be said.

 

John Carpenter and Debra Hill must have been smoking something when  they came up with this one. Some of the kills are neat, and Donald Pleaseance is a blast, but the rest of it’s terrible.

 

The best Friday flick for sure. An absolute blast of self-referencing and horror genius, about fifty years before Craven’s smug SCREAM.

This flick has had some good hype, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s not amazing, and I don’t see it being a Halloween classic, but it’s a good romp. Also, lady werewolves.

Halloween Viewing

Ah, 3-D. It’s always a bit weird watching 3-D movies in their 2-D home incarnations (evidently the 3-D version is available in the US, but not over here), as it becomes clear as day what the filmmakers are using to try and make it come out of the screen, such as yoyos and the end of a washing line pole. This isn’t one of the best Fridays, but it’s okay and the last half an hour is pretty good. For the record, my list goes:

10. JASON GOES TO HELL

9. JASON X

8. PART V: A NEW BEGINNING

7. PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN

6. PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD

5. PART III

4. PART I

3. THE FINAL CHAPTER

2. PART VI: JASON LIVES

1. PART II

 

Objectively, this is probably the best horror movie ever made, and I love it to bits because it creates a great range of emotional responses, and the realism and seriousness to it sets a perfect tone for the film.

 

We caught this last night in the cinema, and it was a great way to see out Halloween. The film is amazing, and really holds up, and the digital screening was fantastic, with a really nice print that made me notice a few details even I’d never seen before. Just awesome.

Halloween Musings

Ah, Halloween. The greatest day of the year, by far. I’m still smarting that my quite awesome Jason Voorhees costume was completely ignored yesterday, but it’s still shaping up to be a great day. Horror films out the wazoo, with a late theatrical screening of one of the greatest movies of all time, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

I’ve had a couple of thoughts today about a few things, namely horror as it stands now, and about fans’ ownership of horror which I suppose isn’t really anything different than fans of Star Trek or Star Wars. As a big horror fan, I’ve sucked lately at seeing new films, but there also hasn’t been that much that’s really inspired me to run to the cinema, at least from mainstream cinema. As we speak people are currently flocking to SAW VI, which is pretty impressive for a film franchise nowadays, especially a horror one as we just don’t see films reaching those kinds of numbers, franchise like Trek excepted (although even that’s been rebooted now). It seems Hollywood’s intention is to co-opt every beloved horror franchise and repackage it, so much so that in this decade we’ve seen remakes or “reimaginings” of DAWN OF THE DEAD, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR,  THE HILLS HAVE EYES, and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET upcoming.

That’s a pretty big list in terms of brand names, and I’m forever grateful that the SUSPIRIA remake thankfully languishes in development hell, whilst no one is brave or stupid enough to touch THE EXORCIST. I’ve seen most of these, and I”m a lot less bothered about them as I used to be, as some of them (namely AMITYVILLE) were never really that good in the first place. It’s more that they’re all seemingly being produced by the same company, Platinum Dunes, under the supervision of Michael Bay, and it’s become a factory. Look at the posters, they all have the same Trajan Pro font with a little distress added to them, the trailers are all patterned after the admittedly-good trailer for the CHAINSAW remake, but there’s one common thread thus far: they’re not scary. At all. Most of the films from what we call the “golden age” of horror were completely products of their time, namely the 1970s, where America was hanging out under the shadow of Vietnam. This is plain to see in many of the horror movies of the time, and people like Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper have admitted that the violence they portrayed is from their anger at what they were seeing in Asia. Because of this, it almost seems futile to reproduce these kind of films, especially with the Hollywood sheen that Bay has given them. Watching THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT now, it seems like the closest I’ll ever come to seeing a snuff film. I haven’t seen the remake, but the film has such a surreal tone to it that I can’t imagine it being replicated, especially in such a commercial environment as today.

I’ll be honest though, I’m quite interested in the remake of NIGHTMARE, only because I feel the first movie is pretty flawed in some of its execution, and Freddy Krueger as a character is a missed opportunity after being so diluted for the sequels, becoming a comedy icon. But the original still has some pretty visceral moments (Tina’s death), and it’ll be interesting to see how they cope with that.

Wednesday Viewing

Every once in a while, a horror film comes along that separates itself from the usual crap spewed out amidst the genre (see Sunday Viewing). This perfectly describes LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, a beautiful, sweet and quite hypnotic and psychotic film from Sweden which demands viewing. It’s a mesmerising tale of a twelve-year old boy who befriends a twelve-year old vampire, and has a wonderfully different take on the legend. The writing is surprisingly subtle and realistic for the genre, the acting is brilliant, the cinematography bleakly stunning and the music haunting. See this now.

Tuesday Viewing

Grr. Arrrr. Wolverine sure is angry. I’m a huge fan of the big canuck (hell, I partly named my son after him), so I was looking forward to his solo movie debut. I skipped it at the cinema because a lot of people panned it, and I wanted to wait for the furore to die down so I could make my own decision. And, well, um. It’s not very good. There are some bits that are great, but they are quickly ruined with badly shot fights and explosions. It’s like a vaguely decent character piece spliced with random sections of Michael Bay movies. Terrible CGI and music, too. Still, Hugh Jackman is the perfect embodiment of Logan and initiates feelings within myself that are strange, and frankly confusing.

Note: I bought the Blu-Ray, which is a “triple play” edition. This includes the BD, a DVD and a digital copy, which all in all is pretty cool as it’s a pain in the ass to want to watch a film in bed but not be able to because it’s Blu-Ray. Still, if this becomes the norm for movies (I hear STAR TREK will come with a digital copy), this could be quite awesome.

Sunday Viewing

Hooray! 3D is back. This is a good thing, right? Well, it depends. It might be a good thing if someone can put a good film behind the 3D (note that I haven’t yet seen UP yet), but we need that to happen first. MY BLOODY VALENTINE is an atrocious film that is made pretty fun by having some pretty awesome 3D bits for about an hour of its runtime. It runs out of steam after a while, which is when the terrible plot and acting take over, before coming back for the big “surprise” (c’mon, I guessed that about twenty minutes in) ending. Still, eyeballs flying at you and pickaxe deaths in three dimensions is always fun, and the technology has improved greatly. Maybe AVATAR will be the film that finally wonderfully marries 3D with motion pictures? Then again, have you seen the trailer? Oh dear.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 4

A bit of a rest from the antics of Cad Bane this week, as the possibility of a Separatist spy in the Republic senate is revealed. As the suspect senator is a former “friend” of Padme, the Jedi Council ask her to spy on him, only for her to refuse. It’s only when they ask Anakin to ask her that she agrees. This in itself is interesting, and a tad manipulative of the Jedi Council, sharing parallels with the council’s request for Anakin to spy on Palpatine in REVENGE OF THE SITH. It all goes well at first, he is a treacherous bastard, until he discovers she’s a spy and ends up indirectly poisoning her. It was a nice break from all the battles, with even a few nods to Hitchcock, but I’m eager to get back to the front lines, as that’s what’s really held my attention in this series.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 3

Wow. I hate the term “dark” when referring to things like this, especially involving such a kid-orientated franchise, but this show is starting to go there. It’s great to see Sidious take a much more direct involvement, and the whole hunting down children thing is a suitably evil pursuit for him. You also don’t have to be a literary major to see the irony inherent in Anakin racing to save younglings after what he did in REVENGE OF THE SITH. The whole Jedi mind control thing though, that was pretty far out. Especially as it gave you a tinge of sympathy for Bane, which is no easy trick based on what he’s done so far. And having Anakin at the fore of it sets him up nicely for his rise in power, although it made me think of what Ahsoka must have been feeling when this was going on, just standing there in the back. Scared to death I imagine, which is an interesting play for characters who at the end of the day are heroes and supposed role models for children.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episodes 1 and 2

Hooray, a twofer! I always dig it when shows either open or close seasons with double-length episodes. I enjoyed the hell out of the first season of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, so it was with great delight that it returned a week last Friday. I’ll be doing a little review of every episode from hereon in, so strap yourself in while we calculate the navicomputer, or some such.

The first half of the season two opener is “Holocron Heist”, where badass bounty hunter Cad Bane – who was introduced at the tail end of season one – is hired by Darth Sidious to steal a Jedi Holocron from the Jedi Temple archives, which is obviously no mean feat, especially as only Jedi Council members are allowed access to the vault where the Holocrons are kept. It’s fun to see Bane as a villain who has shades of bad guys we’ve encountered before – namely Boba Fett – but isn’t directly related to anyone. The design is always really cool, as I always loved the two Duros’ chatting in the Cantina which had to be an inspiration for him. The droid accompanying him (voiced by Seth Green) is pretty good as the comic relief, and is a lot less annoying than the silly battle droids. I will admit that the Jedi come across a little dim here (“He’s after the communications centre!”) but it’s good to see some proper Dark Side influence there.

You have to love the episode titles: “Cargo of Doom”. Cargo of DOOM! DOOM! Again, this episode has Cad Bane kicking Jedi ass and taking names. It also shows how dark they’re taking him, with him torturing the Rodian Jedi to death. He has ingenuity on his side, along with a few gadgets James Bond would kill for, and it was interesting to see him easily get the best of Ahsoka, setting her up for revenge along with Anakin after being forced to open the holocron. It’s also interesting to find out what this specific Holocron holds – the names of every force-sensitive child in the galaxy, which are fodder for Sidious either to murder or train as his disciples, which certainly has a bit of an echo in history. With the exception of a few episodes, season one seemed to go for a more stand-alone anthology feel, which was great, but it’s nice to see an arc forming, especially with a villain at the centre of it.

Saturday Viewing

I always liked BLUE THUNDER. By itself, it’s still a neat little thriller with some fun sequences and good action. But while the helicopter chase bits are still pretty exciting and well done, I like the idea that the titular craft is more of a villain than the hero, which seems the antithesis of media at the time (Knight Rider, Airwolf, Street Hawk etc), and the whole techno-conspiracy idea. Warren Oates is great as usual, I’m a big fan of Candy Clark, and Malcolm McDowell’s sneer is always welcome, but I swear Roy Scheider was a criminally underrated actor and he’s great here. While I’m not the biggest fan of remakes, it’d be interesting to see what a modern translation could be like in these paranoid times. The original script had Murphy go on a bit more of a rampage against the city at the end, and Dan O’Bannon was pretty angry when it was changed, but it seems he always had a lot of authority issues. Still, it stands up a bit more than a lot of 80’s flicks I used to love.