... 'Tis the Season
Christmas just seems to creep up on one closer and closer each year. I try to tune out most of the hype to keep something special about it to me; it works with varying degrees of success. Whether one believes it's the birthday of a deity or the usurpation of a pagan holiday tamed into a spiritual holiday, then warped into a celebration of the REAL God of Our Worship - namely Money and the Goods That It Buys - there is something special about the time of year... it's mainly up to YOU how special it is.
Thus endeth the sermon.
A Christmas miracle of sorts has occurred; namely regular employment - or at least the start of it. As usual, it's of low character and substance, but as long as I can fake it long enough, then things will be alright... right? It may put a crimp into the other activities I was doing, but it's not like those were making any money, eh? And money is indeed the lifeblood of most anything one wants to do these days. So, we'll see how it goes.
Another Christmas tradition - in Britain, anyway - is the telling of scary tales around the season. Just look at A CHRISTMAS CAROL... and it was a tradition in Britain in the 70's to broadcast such tales, usually adaptations of stories by M.R. James (look it up). A collection of those tales got passed around under the heading of A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS. DVDs of these shows appeared in the UK and though they're mostly out of print now, some enterprising souls put the collection out there, along with a couple of fairly recent attempts to revive the tradition, and the show that kicked it off, a late 60's adaptation of the James story, "Whistle and I'll Come To You."
Most of the shows are deliberately paced, and there's no gore to speak of. The emphasis is on atmosphere and a growing sense of unease. Those who like their horror to be slambang and bloody will be disappointed at the lack of body parts strewn about, along with boring things such as character interaction. But then, British horror has never been all about goosh and gore; it's more on how the Uncanny intrudes upon the Familiar, and turns understanding of one's world upside down...
Not a bad thing to be reminded of, in my view. Putting the 'scare' in Christmas seems to be spreading - Santa in the European tradition, has long been a figure much more complex than the jolly fat man pushing consumerism in America, and two new films from Europe, RARE EXPORTS and SINT (Saint) are ready to ride that wave... it's only a matter of time before Krampus gets his own horror film.
They're certainly better than END OF THE LINE, a film that I heard a little about a few years ago, then it dropped from sight, until finding it recently.
It's not a bad film... in fact, its central premise is a pretty good one. However, for me, it's somewhat too fatally flawed to give it a total pass, and you can probably spot those in the trailer (which really gives too much away about the picture). It could lose its first 25 minutes or so with no detrimental effect to the picture... some of that is unnecessary shock/jump effects and background that really doesn't add anything pertinent, except stripping any ambiguity away...
And even though your effects guys are pretty good - know when too much is TOO MUCH.
It sounds like I'm down on this film... I'm more irked that with so much it had going for it, it got hobbled by some bad decisions. It is worth looking for, though.
Way better was the local library getting in its copy of AMERICA LOST AND FOUND: THE BBS STORY, which in its DVD incarnation is in several discs, which the library decided to carve up and circulate as separate packages. THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS was saved for me, along with the one I really wanted - HEAD!
In Widescreen, with commentary from all The Monkees, and with some very tasty extras, including a recent interview with Rafelson, an overview of BBS, some trailers including one I hadn't seen before, and a good photo gallery.
God Bless Us... Everyone!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
PUNK SIDE STORY - When Broadway and Punk Rock had a one night stand...
Schlong, an East Bay Punk band, had a reputation for twisted covers... such as their TUMOURS ep, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS album. But their crowning achievement was PUNK SIDE STORY, a complete re-do of the WEST SIDE STORY album, with drunken punks taking the place of rival gangs.
You can read about the story of its making here - and judge for yourself by the following samples.
jet song
maria
america
tonight
gee officer krupke
I feel pretty
somewhere
Schlong, an East Bay Punk band, had a reputation for twisted covers... such as their TUMOURS ep, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's RUMOURS album. But their crowning achievement was PUNK SIDE STORY, a complete re-do of the WEST SIDE STORY album, with drunken punks taking the place of rival gangs.
You can read about the story of its making here - and judge for yourself by the following samples.
jet song
maria
america
tonight
gee officer krupke
I feel pretty
somewhere
Thursday, November 11, 2010
"When Dino die, everybody cry," - R.I.P. Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis is dead, alas. Yes, the name has a certain infamy among cineastes - but let's be honest here - yes, he produced a lot of crap, but most of it was highly entertaining crap. He also produced a lot of good films, and helped a lot of directors get a leg up - David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Michael Cimino, Richard Fleischer, amongst a very long list.
And most of those films are die-hard favorites of most audiences out there.
The Bible
Danger Diabolik
Barbarella
Serpico
3 Days of the Condor
Mandingo
Drum
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
The White Buffalo
Conan The Barbarian
The Dead Zone
Dune
Maximum Overdrive
Blue Velvet
Flash Gordon
We will never see his like again in this world - and woe is us.
Dino De Laurentiis is dead, alas. Yes, the name has a certain infamy among cineastes - but let's be honest here - yes, he produced a lot of crap, but most of it was highly entertaining crap. He also produced a lot of good films, and helped a lot of directors get a leg up - David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Michael Cimino, Richard Fleischer, amongst a very long list.
And most of those films are die-hard favorites of most audiences out there.
The Bible
Danger Diabolik
Barbarella
Serpico
3 Days of the Condor
Mandingo
Drum
Buffalo Bill and the Indians
The White Buffalo
Conan The Barbarian
The Dead Zone
Dune
Maximum Overdrive
Blue Velvet
Flash Gordon
We will never see his like again in this world - and woe is us.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween with The Club Foot Orchestra
Excerpts from silent film horror classics, that could be grouped in the Horror genre, scored by Club Foot (composer Richard Mariott and company).
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Hands of Orlac
Pandora's Box
If you're lucky enough to be in the Bay Area on November 14, Club Foot returns to SF for a live performance at the Castro Theater.
Excerpts from silent film horror classics, that could be grouped in the Horror genre, scored by Club Foot (composer Richard Mariott and company).
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
The Hands of Orlac
Pandora's Box
If you're lucky enough to be in the Bay Area on November 14, Club Foot returns to SF for a live performance at the Castro Theater.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
3 Cats, 1 Steak
The Best Political Allegory You'll Ever See
The U.S. political situation, as enacted by 3 Cats, 1 Steak...
The U.S. political situation, as enacted by 3 Cats, 1 Steak...
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
October is the best time of year...
I'm definitely a Fall-type of person - good things tend to happen for me in the Fall, as everything prepares to die for the Winter...
Final shooting on Patrick Rea's NAILBITER wrapped up... they're looking at a premiere date sometime in Spring 2011, so if the Film Distribution Gods smile upon them, it could be out in general circulation sometime in 2012... BUNKER HILL is still looking for a distributor, so the only way to see it for now is to check your local film festival. AU PAIR, KS is finished, so I'm told, and will hopefully be at a festival near you sometime next year.
October also brings about the yearly Halloween movie themed links.
THE KIND OF FACE YOU HATE is doing its annual Shocktober blogging of horror literature, "The Kind of Face You SLASH!", and you can check out the entire series going back to 2008.
Stacie Ponder over at FINAL GIRL, is doing her Shocktober film listings;
and at A THRILLER A DAY, they're checking out the recently released tv series THRILLER - and getting to the horror episodes just in time for the holiday.
As for myself; refer to last year's posting and the post on the obscure CHILD'S PLAY down further on the page.
This year, I plan to keep to 'obscure horror', starting with television shows... I'll get to a few movies soon enough in the next week.
First on that list of obscurities is the anthology show DARKROOM, from the early 1980's, which featured James Coburn as the host.
It only lasted some six weeks; not really enough time to gather a general audience, but just enough for the few episodes that aired to stick in the heads of those who watched them. It chose from a decent pool of stories by writers like Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, Cornell Woolrich, William F. Nolan and Robert McCammon, though the execution was somewhat spotty. It was only available on torrent, with dubious image quality, though that could change - the entire series was released on R4 dvd in Australia, so it's entirely possible an R1 release will happen soon - or at least better quality torrents will soon be popping up.
More obscure than that is the little seen QUINN MARTIN'S TALES OF THE UNEXEPECTED from 1977, broadcast on NBC. Really, the only memorable thing from this is the funky opening theme by David Shire:
No episodes of this available on the 'Net, which may not be a bad thing... As anyone who's seen the movie THE MEPHISTO WALTZ can tell you, 'horror' and 'Quinn Martin' are two terms that don't go well together - the most memorable episode was basically THE INVADERS done in the space of an hour instead of two seasons. Although "Force of Evil" looks like cheesy fun - in retrospect.
Since I mentioned cheesy horror, I went to see BLACK SWAN at the Kansas International Film Festival tonight, a late birthday present from a couple of friends. I'm a bit lukewarm on Darren Aaronovsky - I like PI and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, didn't like THE FOUNTAIN and haven't seen THE WRESTLER as of yet.
Can't really say that I liked BLACK SWAN, even though there's a lot that I should... unfortunately, for me, the parts don't add up to a satisfying whole. It definitely AIN'T your mother's THE RED SHOES, with its deliberate unromantic and realistic look at the world of ballet dancing... well, realistic in terms of the environment and feel.
It's sort of a combination of THE RED SHOES with REPULSION - Natalie Portman is a dancer who's chosen to headline the lead role of the Swan Queen in a production of SWAN LAKE. Natalie isn't quite so tightly wrapped herself - she's stifled by her mother (Barbara Hershey), who simultaneously spurs and hinders her; and another dancer (Mila Kunis) may be attempting to take over her role.
It aspires to be a modern version of THE RED SHOES, yet its soul is more attuned to the type of movie that you'd watch on Skinemax at 2am. Granted, THE RED SHOES might be even more appreciated if it had lesbian oral sex, gratuitous CGI effects, and really obvious symbolism...
Bottom line, there's nothing here that I haven't seen before, and in much better films - I just named them! It's visually great to look at, and Barbara Hershey will probably get an Oscar nomination, but I was doing the faceplant several times during the last third of the film.
Watching THE RED SHOES, I felt I'd watched something tragic, but was exhilarated by its love of Art. The takeaway from BS (note the initials) is pretty much, Dancers Are Even More Fucked Up Than Actresses...
Maybe they're right, but still....
And I can't imagine anyone wanting to even consider being a dancer after watching this.
I'm definitely a Fall-type of person - good things tend to happen for me in the Fall, as everything prepares to die for the Winter...
Final shooting on Patrick Rea's NAILBITER wrapped up... they're looking at a premiere date sometime in Spring 2011, so if the Film Distribution Gods smile upon them, it could be out in general circulation sometime in 2012... BUNKER HILL is still looking for a distributor, so the only way to see it for now is to check your local film festival. AU PAIR, KS is finished, so I'm told, and will hopefully be at a festival near you sometime next year.
October also brings about the yearly Halloween movie themed links.
THE KIND OF FACE YOU HATE is doing its annual Shocktober blogging of horror literature, "The Kind of Face You SLASH!", and you can check out the entire series going back to 2008.
Stacie Ponder over at FINAL GIRL, is doing her Shocktober film listings;
and at A THRILLER A DAY, they're checking out the recently released tv series THRILLER - and getting to the horror episodes just in time for the holiday.
As for myself; refer to last year's posting and the post on the obscure CHILD'S PLAY down further on the page.
This year, I plan to keep to 'obscure horror', starting with television shows... I'll get to a few movies soon enough in the next week.
First on that list of obscurities is the anthology show DARKROOM, from the early 1980's, which featured James Coburn as the host.
It only lasted some six weeks; not really enough time to gather a general audience, but just enough for the few episodes that aired to stick in the heads of those who watched them. It chose from a decent pool of stories by writers like Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, Cornell Woolrich, William F. Nolan and Robert McCammon, though the execution was somewhat spotty. It was only available on torrent, with dubious image quality, though that could change - the entire series was released on R4 dvd in Australia, so it's entirely possible an R1 release will happen soon - or at least better quality torrents will soon be popping up.
More obscure than that is the little seen QUINN MARTIN'S TALES OF THE UNEXEPECTED from 1977, broadcast on NBC. Really, the only memorable thing from this is the funky opening theme by David Shire:
No episodes of this available on the 'Net, which may not be a bad thing... As anyone who's seen the movie THE MEPHISTO WALTZ can tell you, 'horror' and 'Quinn Martin' are two terms that don't go well together - the most memorable episode was basically THE INVADERS done in the space of an hour instead of two seasons. Although "Force of Evil" looks like cheesy fun - in retrospect.
Since I mentioned cheesy horror, I went to see BLACK SWAN at the Kansas International Film Festival tonight, a late birthday present from a couple of friends. I'm a bit lukewarm on Darren Aaronovsky - I like PI and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, didn't like THE FOUNTAIN and haven't seen THE WRESTLER as of yet.
Can't really say that I liked BLACK SWAN, even though there's a lot that I should... unfortunately, for me, the parts don't add up to a satisfying whole. It definitely AIN'T your mother's THE RED SHOES, with its deliberate unromantic and realistic look at the world of ballet dancing... well, realistic in terms of the environment and feel.
It's sort of a combination of THE RED SHOES with REPULSION - Natalie Portman is a dancer who's chosen to headline the lead role of the Swan Queen in a production of SWAN LAKE. Natalie isn't quite so tightly wrapped herself - she's stifled by her mother (Barbara Hershey), who simultaneously spurs and hinders her; and another dancer (Mila Kunis) may be attempting to take over her role.
It aspires to be a modern version of THE RED SHOES, yet its soul is more attuned to the type of movie that you'd watch on Skinemax at 2am. Granted, THE RED SHOES might be even more appreciated if it had lesbian oral sex, gratuitous CGI effects, and really obvious symbolism...
Bottom line, there's nothing here that I haven't seen before, and in much better films - I just named them! It's visually great to look at, and Barbara Hershey will probably get an Oscar nomination, but I was doing the faceplant several times during the last third of the film.
Watching THE RED SHOES, I felt I'd watched something tragic, but was exhilarated by its love of Art. The takeaway from BS (note the initials) is pretty much, Dancers Are Even More Fucked Up Than Actresses...
Maybe they're right, but still....
And I can't imagine anyone wanting to even consider being a dancer after watching this.
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