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Film (all)
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
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Empire Pictures, 1985
starring: Peter Liapis, Lisa Pelikan, Michael Des Barres and Jack Nance
written and directed by: Luca Bercovici
the plot:
After a distant relative dies, Jonathan Graves (Liapis) returns to his
ancestral home with his girlfriend, Rebecca (Pelikan) in tow. Jonathan
and Rebecca roam about the sprawling mansion and ponder just how
Jonathan’s family, whom he never really knew, kept up with such a
place. As Jonathan explores the basement, he finds boxes full of
bizarre artifacts, texts on magical rites and other strange items.
Meanwhile, the mansion’s caretaker, Wolfgang (Nance), keeps a watchful
eye on the pair. Jonathan becomes increasingly obsessed with the
strange items in the basement, intently studying the spell books and
grimoires. And, when Rebecca is gone, he actually attempts to cast
spells. His first few feats are small—he summons a few rat-like
creatures and, during one incantation, conjures up two little people,
Grizzel and Greedigut. But as Jonathan becomes more adept at using
magic, his ambitions grow. He casts a spell on Rebecca to keep her from
leaving him and, during a dinner party, uses his powers to force his
friends to perform a horrible ritual.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
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rated R
Once you’ve gotten high and gone on a
mind-bending odyssey to White Castle, the only place left to go for
some extreme strangeness is Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. military prison camp
that’s physically in Cuba but exists in a legal no-man’s-land, where
the rules of the real world don’t apply. Throwing two high-strung
stoners into the mix sounds like a recipe for some off-the-wall comedy,
but “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” never really gets as
weird as it should. There’s some pointed jabs at the war on terror and
snipes at racial stereotypes amid all the dick and fart jokes, but the
movie never gets as subversive as you might expect.
Hours after their fateful trip to White Castle, Harold (John
Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are onboard a plane bound for Amsterdam,
where Kumar plans to enjoy all the legal weed he can handle and Harold
plans to woo his dream girl, Maria (Paula Garces). When a paranoid old
lady on the plane, already suspicious of Kumar because of his dark
skin, spots him lighting up a homemade smokeless bong, she cries
terrorism, and it’s not long before the hapless duo is locked up in
Gitmo.
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Written by Bill Trotter
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
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Ioka will woo the Seacoast indie-film crowd
“It is a
great way to bring in a new demographic,” said Roger Detzler, owner of
Exeter’s Ioka Theatre. He’s excited about a new arrangement between the
Ioka and Emerging Pictures, an independent film distribution company.
Over the past couple of years, Detzler had noticed increasing
public demand for a venue dedicated to independent films. He saw the
trend as a steady source of revenue, but couldn’t conjure up an
appropriate business solution.
When Emerging Pictures contacted him two years ago, he was at
first reluctant to adopt such a “quirky business model.” The two sides
conversed sporadically, but Detzler remained uninterested until he was
certain that Emerging Pictures would steadily progress into “a more
marketable product.”
The deal was finalized a few months ago, and the Ioka began
renovating its smaller downstairs screening room to accomodate a new
entertainment system by early May. In all, the upgrades will cost over
$20,000, as the room’s old 35-millimeter projection system is converted
into a digital, high-definition system.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 24 April 2008 |
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Filmways Pictures, 1981
starring: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer and
Lou David
directed by: Tony Maylam
The plot: Cropsy (David), the
caretaker at Camp Blackfoot, is targeted one evening by a group of
mischievous campers. Angry at Cropsy for his bad attitude and
prodigious drinking, the campers plant a human skull with a lit candle
on a table next to his bed. Cropsy awakens, panics and is soon engulfed
in flames. The campers run off, horrified at their prank gone awry,
while Cropsy is left to recover from his wounds. Five years later,
Cropsy is released from the hospital, his face and body hideously
disfigured. Where does he go but Camp Stonewater, a new camp built
across the river from the former site of Camp Blackfoot. There, Cropsy
finds a new batch of campers, led by counselors Todd (Matthews) and
Michelle (Ayres). As Cropsy lurks about, one camper, Alfred (Backer),
takes all the blame for the weird happenings around camp.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 24 April 2008 |
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rated R
To get a good idea of what to expect from the
new break-up comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” look no further than
it’s star and writer, Jason Segel. A veteran of Judd Apatow’s televised
“Freaks and Geeks” school, with a brief stint on “CSI,” you may have
last noticed him as Seth Rogan’s towering slacker friend in “Knocked
Up.” Like many of the men on Apatow’s crew, he comes across as a
doughy, needy, ne’er do well, with a sly comic outlook and an
undeniable attraction to smokin’-hot ladies. This movie is a lot like
that.
In writing the film (which Segel admits is 80 percent
autobiographical—including having worked on a musical production of
“Dracula” written for puppets and having once been mercilessly dumped
by a girl while completely naked), he’s put himself completely on the
line. There’s a clear and heartfelt sincerity to all the characters,
like ’em or not, which connects the audience to their plights and buoys
the comedy in a way few other film producers have even attempted.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 11 April 2008 |
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Crown International Pictures, 1980
starring: James Westmoreland, Ben Frank, Flo Gerrish and Nicholas Worth
directed by: Robert Hammer
the plot: Los Angeles is
caught in the grip of fear as a psychotic strangler lurks in the city,
assaulting and killing young women in their own homes. The culprit is
Kirk Smith (Worth), a disturbed Vietnam vet and amateur photographer
who uses his camera to lull victims into feeling safe, only to use his
brute strength to choke the life out of them. As the victims pile up,
detectives Chris McCabe (Westmoreland) and Hatcher (Frank) are tasked
with catching the killer. They receive unexpected help from Dr. Lindsay
Gale, a local psychiatrist with an afternoon radio call-in show. Gale
believes the killer has called into her show before and provides the
cops with recordings of the calls. Meanwhile, a low-life smut dealer
gives the cops a tip that sets them on the track to finding Smith. But
as the heat closes in, Smith lashes out and sets his sights on one
final victim: Dr. Gale.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Friday, 11 April 2008 |
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Martin Scorsese is no stranger to great music. The soundtracks to
his films are plastered with fabulously pitch-perfect selections, and
his respective roles as producer and director on oft lauded televised
documentaries about the blues, as well as rock legends like Eric
Clapton and Bob Dylan, signify a clear appreciation and understanding
of the form.
Strictly speaking, it’s difficult to qualify his new release,
“Shine a Light,” as a documentary. For one thing, it’s not made
immediately clear exactly what’s being documented. The first reel
mostly documents the process of documenting the process, and while
providing the only brief glimpses the film offers of the Stones
offstage (aside from a handful of oddly disjointed vintage interviews),
it features an awful lot more footage of ol’ Marty himself, finding
ways to make a simple concert shoot remarkably complicated.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 04 April 2008 |
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rated PG-13
For a movie about a team of super-smart MIT
students using card-counting skills to rake in hundreds of thousands of
dollars in Vegas casinos, “21” is surprisingly average. On the surface,
“21” is slick and sexy. The story is about a team of five MIT students
who jet to Vegas on the weekends, beat the casinos and make it back in
time for class. But under the surface … well, it’s pretty much all
surface and very little depth, slightly better than the fake mustaches
and colorful wigs the students wear to avoid detection by the casino’s
security guards. It’s sort of like “Ocean’s 11,” but with a lot less
snap and very little star power.
Leading the team is Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), who’s
determined to get into Harvard Medical School after graduation. The
trouble is, he needs at least $300,000 to cover the cost of his dream.
Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), one of Ben’s professors, notices Ben’s
mathematical brilliance and recruits him for an underground blackjack
team. Micky provides the bankroll, while the team members use their
card-counting abilities and secret signals to find hot tables and break
the casino. Ben is reluctant at first, but the lure of easy money, plus
the presence of his longtime crush, Jill (Kate Bosworth) on the team,
pushes him into the game.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 04 April 2008 |
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a tribute to Richard Widmark
Pushing an elderly,
wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs is an unlikely way to
become a star, but Richard Widmark was never a typical actor. Widmark
shot to stardom in 1947’s “Kiss of Death,” in which he played Tommy
Udo, a sadistic, giggling killer who plots revenge on the former
partner who sent him to jail. In the film’s most memorable scene, Udo
drags an old, wheelchair-bound woman out of her apartment and pushes
her down a flight of stairs, gleefully laughing the whole time.
Widmark’s boyish good looks helped make him famous, but it was
his distinctive voice and unmistakable laugh—alternating between an
insane squeal and a desperate chuckle, depending on the role—that
cemented him as one of the greatest noir actors of all time. Widmark
won a Golden Globe in 1948 for his role in “Kiss of Death,” and he was
soon typecast as the heavy in a number of films, including 1948’s “The
Street with No Name.” A run-of-the-mill caper film packaged as a
semi-documentary about the FBI’s clashes with criminal gangs, “Street”
stands out mostly thanks to Widmark’s menacing and charming turn as
Alec Stiles, a ruthless gang boss who is just a shade less crazy than
Tommy Udo.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 27 March 2008 |
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NF Geria III-Produktion, 1980
starring: Catherine Mary Stewart, George Gilmour, Vladek Sheybal and Joss Ackland
written and directed by: Menahem Golan
the plot: In
the far-flung future of 1994, the world is under the control of
Boogalow International Music, a multinational conglomerate. Each year,
BIM owner Mr. Boogalow (Sheybal) hosts the World Vision Music Festival,
using it as an opportunity to recruit a new pop star for his evil
empire. But even Boogalow is surprised when Bibi (Stewart) and Alphie
(Gilmour), a sweet folk-rock duo from Moosejaw, Canada, win the
contest. Boogalow rushes to enfold them in his world, tempting Alphie
and Bibi with promises of money, fame, sex and drugs. While Bibi jumps
at the chance to become an international pop star, Alphie is hesitant,
experiencing a series of frightening visions just before signing the
contract. He refuses to sign, and so Boogalow exiles him to a life of
poverty and sadness. Meanwhile, Bibi gets wrapped up in the glamorous
life, with legions of fans and hangers-on surrounding her. As Bibi’s
career takes off, BIM slowly worms its way into controlling all facets
of society, forcing citizens to wear a BIM mark and participate in
daily exercise programs. Alphie meets up with Mr. Topps (Ackland), the
leader of a hippie enclave that shuns modern society and refuses to
submit to BIM’s control. As Alphie attempts to free Bibi from BIM’s
clutches, Mr. Boogalow sets into motion a plan to crush Alphie, Mr.
Topps and the hippies once and for all.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
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PMS Filmworks, 1987
starring: Rick Burks, Carl Crew, Lisa Elaina and Drew Godderis
directed by: Jackie Kong
the plot: When they were
children, brothers George (Crew) and Michael (Burks) Tutman watched as
the police gunned down their deranged uncle Anwar (Godderis), a
psychotic slasher responsible for the deaths of a number of young
women. But before he died, Anwar asked his nephews to carry on his work
when they got older. As the boys would discover, Anwar’s “work”
centered on sacrificial murder. His goal: to kill and harvest the body
parts of young women in order to resurrect the ancient goddess Shitar
and unleash her upon the earth. To keep the family tradition alive,
George and Michael open up a vegetarian café in Hollywood, where they
pick unsuspecting patrons to be their next victims. Guiding the boys is
the disembodied brain of Anwar, stuck in a jar and hooked up to a
speaker so he can communicate his diabolical plans.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
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rated R
“Doomsday” could have easily been billed as
“Grindhouse 2.” A mishmash of bits from the last 25 years worth of
post-apocalyptic flicks, “Doomsday” is derivative, but fun. Part “Mad
Max” and part “Escape from New York” with a dash of “28 Days Later,”
“Doomsday” is like downing a dozen Twinkies and drinking a gallon of
Mountain Dew. It’s a momentary indulgence in excess that’s thrilling
but not necessary to repeat.
The end is nigh in “Doomsday,” and, this time around, a killer
virus is the agent of the apocalypse. First showing up in present-day
Scotland, the virus ravages the country and kills hundreds of thousands
of people. With no cure in sight, Great Britain decides the best way to
contain the virus is to wall off Scotland and leave any survivors to
fend for themselves. Three decades later, the virus surfaces again in
London—along with evidence that some unlucky souls are still alive and
kicking in Glasgow. Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), who, as a child,
got out of Scotland just before it was walled off, is assigned to
accompany a crack military team into the blasted country and retrieve
one of the survivors in order to find a cure for the virus.
As is usual with an impending apocalypse, complications arise for
Sinclair and her team, this time in the form of a pair of warring,
barbaric societies. Sol (Craig Conway), a mohawked maniac who wants to
lead his people over the wall and into England, leads one group.
Meanwhile, Kane (Malcolm McDowell), a former physician who tried to
cure the virus, keeps his group holed up in an old castle in the
countryside, intent on repelling “impure” invaders from beyond the wall.
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Written by Bill Trotter
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
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“Gravityland” takes viewers on an online journey
The
Internet has diversified to offer numerous forms of interactive
entertainment, including many Web-only TV series. John Herman’s new
project, “Gravityland,” launched on March 3, fits that category, but
that does little justice to his creative foresight.
“I feel like I’m putting together a lot of things at the same time,” Herman said with a chuckle.
If you have already made the trip to www.gravityland.com, you
understand what he means. The “Web series” is a set of five- to
seven-minute episodes, but that’s just the beginning.
Viewers can interact with the show’s actors and writers through
the Internet and make suggestions as the plot unfolds. “There is always
some way you are interacting with the show,” said Herman, who has spent
much of his life as an improvisational actor. “It gives me an
outlet.I’m really into collaboration.”
Each show will be a mixture of Herman’s loosely scripted
material and whatever twists viewers choose to offer. So you might
actually want to stick around for the credits.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
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Universal Pictures, 1973
starring: Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Andrew Robinson and John Vernon
directed by: Don Siegel
the plot: Middle-aged
stunt-pilot turned crop duster Charley Varrick (Matthau), along with
his wife and their friends, plan what they believe will be an easy bank
robbery in a small New Mexico town. But things go awry at the bank,
and, by the time Charley gets out of there, he finds the only member of
his crew left standing is Harman (Robinson), a sneaky young crook who
quickly starts bullying him. That’s the least of Charley’s worries,
though. What was supposed to be a small score of a few grand ends up
totaling close to a million dollars, and Charley quickly deduces that
the bank was a money laundering station for the Las Vegas mafia.
Charley puts a backup plan in motion, but the boys in Vegas have
dispatched Molly (Baker), a cold-blooded killer whose feminine name
camouflages an aptitude for violence. Also on Charley’s trail is
Maynard Boyle, a bank executive who was in charge of the money
laundering operation. Molly methodically moves through the state,
tracking down leads and cracking skulls while Charley puts the pieces
in place for a series of elaborate double- and triple-crosses. But,
when Molly finds Charley, the former pilot—who bills himself as “the
last of the independents”—may have finally run out of tricks.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
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rated R
While applauding a filmmaker for boldly
breaking genre conventions, one should take a moment to consider why
those conventions found their way into the process in the first place.
In the case of the most successful heist pictures, the things we
generally expect to see is ingenuity, flash, danger, gadgetry, romance
and coolness. By successfully delivering a thoughtful, complex and
realistic version of a very familiar type of story, “The Bank Job”
effectively turns the genre on its proverbial head. But, in so doing,
unfortunately, it undoes everything that makes a heist picture fun.
Ostensibly based on an actual bank robbery that occurred at
Lloyd’s Bank of London in 1971, it makes sense that the filmmakers
would grind off some of genre’s sharper edges for verisimilitude’s
sake. Real life larceny is probably a fairly sloppy business, and not
often pulled off by swaggering gin ’n’ tonic pretty-boys like George
Clooney or Steve McQueen.
But here’s the thing: The story, which is mainly concerned with
the clumsy yammering of the perps on public radio channels as they
burrowed their tunnel to the safe deposit vault, flurried across the
headlines of British newspapers at the time and then promptly
disappeared. Rumors that the government threw down an order to suppress
the story, along with the fact that none of the lifted loot was ever
recovered and none of the criminals involved were apprehended, has,
over time, elevated the incident to a full blown urban legend.
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Written by Matt Kanner
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
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time-lapse documentary illustrates Portsmouth’s shifting character
The immense changes that Portsmouth has undergone
over the last several years are difficult to put into perspective. New
buildings have crept into the city’s infrastructure, while others have
rapidly vanished from the horizon. A new documentary from local
filmmaker Thomas Clark provides a rapid-fire pictorial timeline of the
city’s evolving personality.
Clark began shooting images for “Drop-Frame” in fall 2004 and
continued photographing various city happenings on a near daily basis
until late in 2007. Using a handheld digital camera, he took thousands
of photos around the city, returning to particular sites day after day
to capture the most minute of changes. Much of his work focused on
major construction and deconstruction projects, many of which were
happening concurrently throughout the three-plus years of shooting. He
edited as he went along, stringing together sequences of time-lapse
photos that vividly illustrate the incremental changes he witnessed.
The film includes footage of Hilton Garden Inn and Harbour Hill
Condominiums rising up on Hanover Street, Eagle Photo being ripped to
pieces and replaced with Popovers on the Square on Congress Street,
Portsmouth Public Library taking shape on Parrot Avenue and Yoken’s
Restaurant tumbling down on Lafayette Road. There is also a
fast-forward sequence of Peavey’s Hardware shutting down and being
replaced by Goody Two Shoes on Market Street, and Clark personally lays
out a stack of hard photos of the North Church steeple renovations in
Market Square.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
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Ministry of Film, 1995
starring: Martin Kemp, Alyssa Milano, Harold Pruett and Rachel True
directed by: Anne Goursaud
the plot: In her first year
at college, Charlotte (Milano) is finding it difficult to reconcile her
strict Catholic upbringing with all the freedoms that life away from
home entails. Her boyfriend, Chris (Pruett), is pressuring her to have
sex for the first time, but Charlotte, just three days away from her
18th birthday, is reluctant. It doesn’t help that she’s plagued by
visions of a handsome vampire (Kemp) who is attempting to seduce her.
As the visions occur more often, Charlotte turns to her friend Nicole
(True) for support. Nicole drags Charlotte to a party where they meet a
pair of guys who follow them to an abandoned building on campus. When
one of the guys tries to force himself on Charlotte, her mysterious
vampire intervenes. He explains that Charlotte is the reincarnation of
his one true love, and that she must submit to his advances within the
next three days or he will be cursed forever. He begins working behind
the scenes, planting seeds of doubt in the minds of both Charlotte and
Chris.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
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rated R
Will Ferrell’s formula for box office
success—Will Ferrell + ’70s attire = big bucks—is so well known and
easy to capitalize on that anyone can do it. Enter first-time director
Kent Alterman, who has assembled Ferrell and a gang of co-stars in
“Semi-Pro,” the latest attempt to stick Ferrell’s ridiculous man-child
persona into some paisley suits in an effort to mine comedy gold. But,
this time around, the cracks in Ferrell’s comedic foundation are
starting to show. It may be the beginning of the end for movies that
rely on Ferrell’s goofy antics and inappropriate wardrobe choices to
carry the production.
Ferrell stars as Jackie Moon, a washed up pop-star turned
basketball franchise owner/coach/player. Jackie’s team is the Flint
Tropics, the lowest-standing team in the American Basketball
Association and the shame of Michigan. More concerned with getting
groovy at the disco and showboating on the court, Jackie is neither a
good coach nor a good player. When the ABA commissioner announces that
the NBA will absorb the top four ABA teams at the end of the 1976
season, Jackie commits to getting his team to fourth place and future
NBA glory. To do this, he trades the team’s washing machine for Monix
(Woody Harrelson), a former NBA player whose best days on the court are
far behind him. Monix’s addition to the team doesn’t sit well with the
Tropics’ star player, Coffee Black (Andre Benjamin), who has NBA dreams
of his own.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 27 February 2008 |
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Coral Productions, 1994
starring: Edward Furlong, Frank Langella, Amy Hargreaves and T. Ryder Smith
directed by: John Flynn
the plot: Michael Bower
(Furlong) is a nerdy teen, still reeling from the effects of a car
accident that killed his mother. He spends much of his time hanging out
in his room, watching gory horror flicks, playing computer games and
surreptitiously videotaping Kimberly (Hargreaves), his longtime crush.
When his best friend and fellow horror fanatic tells him about a new
videogame called “Brainscan,” Michael has to try it. The game promises
to put players in the mind of a killer and, during his first time
playing, Michael slaughters what he thinks is a video game victim. But
the next day, Michael sees a news report about a grisly murder—and
recognizes the victim as the man from the game.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Wednesday, 27 February 2008 |
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rated PG-13
Director Julian Schnabel’s third film is,
put simply, a work of art. A lifelong painter himself, he’s made it his
business to celebrate the lives of fallen compagnons d’art on
film—precocious grafittist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1996’s “Basquiat”;
Cuban born poet Reinaldo Arenas in 2000’s “Before Night Falls”; and now
playboy/fashionista Jean-Dominique Bauby.
At first glance, this would seem an odd shift of focus for
Schnabel. For most of his life, Bauby spent his days rocketing around
the European countryside in convertibles, eating, smoking and drinking
to win. World famous editor of French Elle magazine, he was the picture
of success, and always surrounded by stunning women. Like a
freewheeling Pepé Le Pew fever dream, his appetites may only have been
matched by his devil-may-care attitude. But then, in an unbelievable
irony, he suffered a grievous stroke, which left him completely
paralyzed. He awoke in the hospital, locked inside a broken and useless
body, unable to move or communicate in any way.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
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American International Pictures, 1972
starring: Ray Milland, Sam Elliot, Joan Van Ark and Adam Roarke
directed by: George McCowan
the plot: Nature
photographer Pickett Smith (Sam Elliott) is on assignment in Florida,
shooting a feature on how pollution is affecting local wildlife. While
canoeing through a placid lake, Smith meets up with Clint Crockett
(Roarke) and his sister, Karen (Van Ark). The siblings invite Smith
back to their family’s nearby island estate for lunch, where cranky
family patriarch Jason Crockett (Ray Milland) asks for Smith’s advice
about the sudden, inexplicable boom in the island’s frog population.
Smith agrees to investigate and, during a walk around the island,
discovers the family’s groundskeeper dead in a swamp, covered with
amphibians. Meanwhile, Clint, his wife and the rest of the family drink
and argue incessantly, all while Jason Crockett glowers from his
wheelchair. As the number of frogs, snakes, gila monsters, alligators,
turtles and other lizards and amphibians begin to appear en masse
throughout the estate, Smith becomes convinced that industrial
pollution is the cause of the invasion.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
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rated PG-13
“Jumper” starts out with perhaps the most
annoying voice-over in the history of film, with Hayden Christensen
smugly listing his day’s activities: hanging out in Rio, having lunch
atop the Sphinx in Egypt, surfing in some tropical locale and so on,
all before retiring to his New York apartment that evening. It’s an
innocuous list, but Christensen delivers it in such a thoroughly
unlikable manner that it’s hard not to hate “Jumper” immediately. The
rest of the film presents a similar challenge—lobbying hard for you not
necessarily to like the film, but to not hate it as much as you should.
“Jumper” is a superhero movie for the unimaginative, with a half-assed
plot, unlikable characters and lackluster special effects.
Christensen stars as David, who discovers at the age of 15 that
he can teleport anywhere at will. His first “jump,” as he calls it,
happens after he falls through some ice into a frozen river. David
suddenly finds himself in the Ann Arbor Public Library, soaking wet and
with no idea how he got there. It’s not long before David gets the hang
of his abilities, though, and sets out on his own, leaving behind his
abusive dad and Millie (Rachel Bilson), his childhood sweetheart.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
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a.k.a ‘The Horrible House on the Hill’
Barrister Productions, Inc., 1974
starring: Gene Evans, Taylor Lacher, John Durren and Leif Garrett
directed by: Sean MacGregor
the plot: Three couples
gather for a business vacation in a remote mountain town. The rich and
cantankerous Papa Doc (Evans), owner of a number of hospitals and
sanitariums, is about to bequeath his newest facility to his
son-in-law, Rick (Lacher), even though Papa Doc can barely disguise his
contempt for Rick. Apart from some petty squabbles, the vacation is
relatively calm—that is, until a bedraggled group of five children
suddenly appear at the house. Led by a boy named David (Garrett), the
children explain that they were on their way to a new parochial school
when their bus crashed, killing everyone onboard but them. Papa Doc and
the rest take in the children, unaware that they are actually malicious
killers who were being transported to a psychiatric hospital.
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Written by Patrick Law
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
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rated R
Almost all men have the desire to challenge
themselves and society. For most people, this desire is never acted
upon, either because it would be too hard to do so or because
responsibilities to family, careers and social pressures weigh too
heavily upon them. But, those individuals who do act on this desire are
the ones most likely to find truth. Sean Penn’s new film, “Into the
Wild,” introduces us to such an individual.
Based on the 1996 book by Jon Krakauer, “Into the Wild” tells
the true story of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), an upper middle
class graduate of Emory College, who, upon graduation, gives away his
life savings and burns his pocket cash, because money “makes you
cautious.” McCandless wants to unburden himself of comfort and security
in order to experience life in the raw.
After losing his car in a flash flood (the second scariest part
of the movie, the first being when he gets the shit beaten out of him
by a railroad cop), McCandless sets out on foot. In his journey across
America, he depends on free rides, book-fueled inspiration and an
industrious good charm. He passes through landscapes that suggest
infinite freedom and the possibilities inherent in vast open spaces.
Along the way, he also meets a number of characters with whom he
bounces wisdom back and forth like a tennis ball. Despite some useful
nuggets McCandless picks up from these characters, he always comes out
on top in terms of insightfulness. Game, set, match.
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Written by Patrick Law
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
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Seacoast filmmakers address global warming
Although
temperatures have been rising for some time, climate change is a
relatively new issue. It’s only in the last decade or so that people
have begun to realize its catastrophic potential. Global warming is
also a very complex issue, to which people outside of the scientific
community sometimes have a hard time relating. Its newness and
complexity has demanded innovative thinking on how best to convey the
message that climate change is happening and that people need to start
doing their part to stop it.
Recently, three Seacoast filmmakers have answered that demand by
creating a series of short Internet-ready videos. The series is called
“Now or Never” and is produced by Court Street Media. Creating a
feature-length film usually takes months of preparation, filming and
editing, but because global warming is an immediate problem and poses
an immediate threat, the filmmakers—Bill Rogers, Melissa Paly and Peter
Vandermark—wanted to expedite the creative process.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
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20th Century Fox, 1986
starring: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong
directed by: John Carpenter
the plot: After completing
a haul, truck driver Jack Burton (Russell) is looking forward to
kicking back in Chinatown and doing a little gambling. Jack wins a hunk
of cash from his friend Wang (Dun), but before Wang can pay, he must go
to the airport to pick up his bride-to-be. Jack follows and, at the
airport, meets Gracie Law (Cattrall), a local lawyer who’s at the
airport to pick up a friend. But the Lords of Death street gang
interrupts everyone’s plans by kidnapping Wang’s fiancé and spiriting
her off to Chinatown. Jack and Wang give chase, but their pursuit leads
them directly into the middle of a vicious gang war. Watching over the
dueling gangs is the dreaded Lo Pan (Hong), a powerful sorcerer and the
unofficial ruler of Chinatown.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
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rated R
Known for sprawling, ensemble-cast films like
“Magnolia” and “Boogie Nights,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be
Blood” feels like it was beamed in from another universe. It lacks the
spiritual uplift of “Magnolia” and 2002’s “Punch-Drunk Love” and is
without the dark humor and quirky characters that populated “Boogie
Nights.” No, “Blood” is unrelentingly dark. The humor is as black as
the oil that flows throughout the film and the lead character is an
unlikable scoundrel who just happens to be the American dream turned
frighteningly real.
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview, a former silver
prospector turned oilman. With his adopted son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier)
in tow, Plainview moves through the Southwest, searching for new
drilling sites to add to his burgeoning empire. One evening, a man
named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) tips Plainview off to some oil located on
his family’s ranch in Little Boston, California. Plainview and H.W.
scout out the ranch and do, indeed, find oil, but Plainview’s efforts
to subtly snatch the ranch away from the family are thwarted by Eli
Sunday (also portrayed by Dano), who doubles the price of the land and
demands Plainview help fund his newly founded church, the Church of the
Third Revelation.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
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Imagine Entertainment, 1989
starring: Tom Hanks, Rick Ducommun, Carrie Fisher and Henry Gibson
directed by: Joe Dante
the plot: All Ray Peterson
(Hanks) wants is a nice, quiet vacation at home in his typical suburban
neighborhood. Though his wife (Fisher) wants him to take the family to
their lakeside cottage, Ray’s content to watch his friendly, if
offbeat, neighbors bicker with each other. But all that changes one
night when Ray begins spying on his new nextdoor neighbors, the
Klopecks. No one on the street has seen the Klopecks since they moved
in a month earlier, and, late at night, Ray hears bizarre noises and
sees strange lights in the Klopecks’ creepy, dilapidated home. Ray
shares his suspicions with his other neighbor, Art (Ducommun), and soon
the two begin devising more and more elaborate methods to snoop around
the Klopecks’ house.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
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rated R
For an apt illustration of John Rambo’s epic journey, and
possibly his place in American pop-culture, you need look no further
than his right hand and the knife it’s preparing to jam into your guts.
The blade he carried in 1982’s “First Blood” made for a decent
representation of his character—beaten and used, but fairly utilitarian
and still razor sharp. It had a saw on its spine, a matchbox stowed in
its pommel and a compass on its butt. The knife, like Rambo, seemed to
be an oversized government-issue instrument for surviving rough
situations, and was shockingly out of place in the quiet, domesticated
Jerkwater, U.S.A., in which the film took place. The simple threat of
its presence was enough to scare the bejesus out of the yokel cops, and
subsequently re-trigger poor John’s military conditioning as a
cold-as-steel killing machine capable of eating things that would make
a billy goat puke.
In “Rambo: First Blood, Part II,” Rambo is drafted out of prison
on a top-secret mission to recover a crew of American POWs still
imprisoned in Vietnam. For the task, he’s handed a bigger, slicker
version of the same design, but this time it’s brand spanking new, matt
black, with 10 percent more blade to assist him in the 580 percent more
kills he would undertake in the name of Vietnam vets everywhere. The
series had evidently taken a hard right turn into big budget action
fantasy, and America ate it up.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
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Canon Films, 1986
starring: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Moseley ad Bill Johnson
directed by: Tobe Hooper
the plot: Nearly 10 years
after a quartet of teenagers met their gruesome end at the hands of a
family of chainsaw wielding cannibals, tales of the bloodthirsty
killers still circulate in northern Texas. Chasing after those rumors
is former Texas marshal Lefty Enright (Hopper), whose niece and nephew
were killed by the cannibals years earlier. Lefty gets proof of the
family’s existence when radio DJ Stretch Brock (Williams) records an
on-air phone call from a pair of teenagers under attack by the
murderers. When Stretch re-plays the tape over the air, cannibal family
members Leatherface (Johnson) and Chop-Top (Moseley) pay a visit to the
radio station, big-ass chainsaw in tow. While under attack, Stretch
convinces the simple-minded Leatherface not to kill her, and when the
two monsters leave, she follows them back to a nearby hideout. Lefty,
now armed with three chainsaws, is close behind, but too late to
prevent Stretch from falling into a trap. As Leatherface, Chop-Top and
their older brother get ready to serve Stretch up for dinner, Lefty
fires up his chainsaws and gets ready to exact bloody revenge.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
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PG-13
With an intense viral marketing campaign complete
with fake Web sites and MySpace profiles, “Cloverfield” positioned
itself as a giant monster flick for the Web 2.0 world. Presented as a
recording of a mysterious monster’s rampage across Manhattan,
“Cloverfield” really feels like a post-apocalyptic artifact, dredged up
from the rubble and covered in dead monster bits. Although it’s built
around a conceit that could easily become tired, “Cloverfield” doesn’t
let up, sticking faithfully to its premise and delivering all the
necessary monstery goodness.
“Cloverfield” begins as a recording of a going-away party for
Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who’s going to Japan to accept a job as
vice-president of an unnamed company. Organizing the party is Rob’s
brother, Jason (Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas),
both of whom want the evening’s events documented. Behind the camera is
Rob’s best friend, Hud (T.J. Miller), a dim-witted guy who provides the
movie’s comic relief. Rob’s party is first interrupted by some drama
between Rob and his friend Beth (Odette Yustman), who have unresolved
feelings for each other. Beth leaves the party angry, Rob gets sad and,
shortly thereafter, an earthquake rocks the building and knocks out the
power. As Jason, Rob, Lily, Hud and friend Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) head
out to the street in search of safety, the nature of the disaster
becomes a little clearer—a giant monster is rampaging across Manhattan.
After a series of tragedies, Rob decides he needs to head across the
city—directly into the path of the monster—to find Beth and make amends
with her.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 |
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a.k.a ‘Make Them Die Slowly’
Dania Film, 1981
starring: Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Lorraine De Selle, Danilo Mattei and Zora Kerova
written and directed by: Umberto Lenzi
the plot: In
New York City, the police and a pair of mafia goons are hot on the
trail of Mike Logan (Radice), a small-time pusher and all-around rake.
But neither side of the law realizes that Logan is far away in the
Amazon jungle. While on the run from a native tribe he claims is
cannibalistic, Logan and his friend Joe meet up with a trio of young
American explorers. Gloria Davis (De Selle), her brother Rudy (Mattei)
and friend Pat (Kerova) came to the jungle as part of Gloria’s work on
a doctoral thesis about the myth of cannibalism. Logan claims that he,
Joe and a third man were searching for an emerald mine when the
cannibal tribe captured and tortured them. However, as the group
continues on in the jungle, Gloria and Rudy become suspicious of Logan,
even as Pat begins to fall for him.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 17 January 2008 |
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multiplex screens two important films about the Middle East
The
multiplex theater is very rarely accused of being a bastion of
political interest or cultural significance. With most of the “higher
profile” tent pole productions (primarily concerned with superheroes,
sequels and sequels about superheroes) being held for release in the
warmer months, January is well regarded by the big distributors as an
entertainment desert. In a season, however, generally reserved for
spackling over empty screens with smaller, more emotional productions
and last minute Oscar bids, some good things occasionally happen.
Case in point: When was the last time you can remember two films
by major studios about the socio-political history of the Middle East
showing simultaneously on the big screens? This week saw the release of
Universal’s “Charlie Wilson’s War,” a film “based on a true story”
about the United States’ involvement in the late 1980s cold war effort
against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. At the same time,
Paramount released “The Kite Runner,” a bleak but hopeful fiction film
about friendship and redemption spanning 20 years of late 20th century
Kabu. Both films are playing side by side, against all odds, in
mainstream theaters.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 10 January 2008 |
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Propaganda Films, 1992
starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkley and Kasi Lemmons
written and directed by: Bernard Rose
the plot: Grad
student Helen Lyle (Madsen) and her friend, Bernadette (Lemmons), are
working on a thesis about urban legends. During a series of interviews,
Helen hears a local tale about Candyman (Todd), a mysterious,
unstoppable killer who many believe was responsible for a string of
slayings at the nearby Cabrini Green housing project. According to the
legend, standing in front of a mirror and saying “Candyman” five times
will cause the killer to appear—and murder the summoner with his
hook-hand. Helen researches the killings and the legend of Candyman,
much to the annoyance of her husband (Berkley), a professor at the
University of Illinois whose research intersects with Helen’s own.
After a trip to Cabrini Green, Helen is plagued with strange visions
and thinks she hears the voice of Candyman. Without warning, Helen is
sucked into Candyman’s world when she blacks out and wakes up inside
Cabrini Green, covered in blood and accused of kidnapping an infant.
Soon, death follows Helen wherever she goes, but it’s impossible for
her to convince the authorities, and her husband, that Candyman is the
real killer. As the body count climbs, however, Helen finds it
increasingly difficult to determine whether Candyman is real—or if
she’s actually the killer.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 10 January 2008 |
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La-La-Land continues to sell its soul for lackluster blockbusters
Turns
out, in a fabulous and frightening irony, Hollywood’s own creative
bankruptcy in 2007 was apparently a one-way ticket to unprecedented
riches. Of the top five highest grossing films of the year, four of
them were sequels, and one was based on a toy line from back in the
’80s. Four of them—“Spiderman 3,” “Shrek the Third,” “Pirates of the
Carribean: At World’s End” (three seems to be a magic number here) and
“Transformers”—all grossed more than $300 million apiece—a feat never
before achieved by any one film in a single year. Against much fear and
anticipation that such a glut of bloated tent pole productions would
cannibalize each other’s box office potential, they inexplicably seemed
to feed each other. Not too shabby for a slate of films with about
three original ideas among them.
Where a screenwriter was once expected to fuel new and
compelling ideas, it would seem that such value currently lies in the
ability to hack out carbon copies of stories we’ve already seen. Even
as these franchises thrived, however, it bears noting that not one of
last year’s new franchise start-ups managed to get off the ground. It
will be a miracle if “The Golden Compass,” which, to date, hasn’t
covered even a quarter of its estimated production costs, ever sees a
second installment. “Nancy Drew” was also unable to crack the mystery
of money-making, and the woefully miscrafted “The Seeker: The Dark Is
Rising” refused to rise on any level. In a business so clearly driven
by familiarity and previous victory, one wonders what the Lala-Land
suits are going to have left to mine next year.
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Written by Denise Wheeler
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
Dear ones, I know your fierce dedication to the books of our youth—the
magical stories that play a sacred role in our reality. I know how you
watched the unveiling of each Harry Potter film and “The Chronicles of
Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” with a critical eye
keeping watch over that tender spot in your heart where those tales are
held with rare vulnerability and propriety.
At best, the stalwart among you were mildly content with the transition
these stories made to the screen. There is a reason books are primarily
the victor in the age-old barstool debate, “Which was better, the book
or the movie?” Could the hordes that Hollywood mandates to create a
film these days fit into that intimate space we hold for our most
cherished authors? Could the story come first, despite marketing,
high-ranking egos and an over-active thyroid churning out blood, lust
and digital enhancements? Dare we ask—can a movie improve a classic in
the pantheon of children’s literature?
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 03 January 2008 |
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Columbia Pictures, 1981
starring: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane and Tracey Bregman
directed by: J. Lee Thompson
the plot: Virginia
Wainwright (Anderson) is on the cusp of her 18th birthday, and, while
her life looks good on the surface, she carries a dark secret. The
teenager returned to school following a terrible accident that killed
her mother and caused Virginia to lose most of her memory. Working with
her psychiatrist, Dr. David Faraday (Ford), has helped some memories
return. But, it’s when she hangs out with her friends—the popular
clique at her school known as the “Top Ten”—that other, more tragic
memories surface. During a race over an opening drawbridge one night,
Virginia begins having flashbacks of her accident. Soon thereafter, she
begins to feel as though she’s being stalked by someone, and her
friends start disappearing one by one. Virginia pulls closer to her
best friend, Ann (Bregman), and the two are left helpless as the Top
Ten slowly reduce in numbers. Days before her birthday, Virgina’s
father (Dane) is called away on business and Virginia is left home
alone.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 27 December 2007 |
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Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, 1968
starring: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli and Adolfo Celi
directed by: Mario Bava
the plot: In a nameless
European city, a super-thief known only as Diabolik (Law) becomes a
thorn in the side of both law enforcement and the city’s criminals.
When Diabolik steals $10 million out from under the watchful eye of
Inspector Ginko (Piccoli), the lawman decides to crack down on all the
city’s criminals in the hopes of catching Diabolik. This raises the ire
of Valmont (Celi), the ruthless leader of the city’s criminal
syndicate, who pledges to capture Diabolik in order to take the heat
off his own illegal activities. While Ginko publicizes the appearance
of a rare emerald necklace in order to lure Diabolik into the open,
Valmont arranges the kidnapping of Eva Kant (Mell), Diabolik’s lover
and partner in crime.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 27 December 2007 |
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rated R
To paraphrase Tom Stoppard’s award winning play
“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” all good drama needs to blend
elements of love, blood and rhetoric. Blood and love without the
rhetoric, blood and rhetoric without the love, or all three concurrent
or consecutive. But blood is compulsory. They’re all blood. Enter
Sweeney Todd, stage right – legendary Victorian barber butcher whose
thirst for vengeance against a libidinous court magistrate who stole
his wife and daughter is matched only by a disturbing facility with a
straight razor.
Adapted from composer legendaire Stephen Sondheim’s 1979
Broadway musical, the rhetoric here is, naturally, nearly all presented
in verse. The principle characters reveal themselves and all their
driving lusts and angers and desperations in fabulously intricate
melodies which often twist together to then writhe apart again -
belting out their innermost desires to the heavens above even as they
scrape their lives away on the sooty, disease-ridden gutters of filthy
old London Town. By excising the street level choruses of the original
stage production, and having only the principle characters sing their
lines, director Tim Burton has not only hacked an hour from the
original’s running time, but also effectively made the proceedings
remarkably more intimate.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 20 December 2007 |
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‘Futurama’ comes back from the future
You gots to love
Fox. As the home DVD industry and the growing power of the Interwebs
conspire to utterly dismantle all conventions of traditional network
television profitability, Fox’s propensity for creating some of the
edgiest, most inventive programming on TV is matched only by the
station’s legendary compulsion to smack the shiny red jettison button
on some of their most beloved shows at the slightest threat of ratings
slippage. “Futurama,” Matt Groening’s wry animated sci-fi follow up to
his unmatched run with “The Simpsons,” was an unprecedented blend of
beer-swilling raunch and tech-geek intellectualism. Following the
misadventures of a 20th century meathead catapulted 1,000 years hence
by a late-night mishap with a cryogenics freezer, the show was
populated by some of TV’s most ingeniously twisted, but oddly endearing
characters—killer robots, loveable mutants, squishy aliens, addled
scientists and attractive interns. The cartoon overflowed with winks to
contemporary issues and nods to science fiction’s top concepts, all
with an extraordinary reliance on mathmotech IT-room humor. Struggling
against the considerable odds of Fox’s scattershot program placement
and repeated NFL overruns the show never stood a spaceballs’ chance in
the old cathode-ray, Neilson Rating driven model. After only four
seasons and a sad total of only 72 episodes, despite fanatical fan
enthusiasm, the button was slapped, and out the airlock “Futurama” blew.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 20 December 2007 |
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American International Pictures, 1971
starring: Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Virginia North and Peter Jeffrey
directed by: Robert Fuest
the plot: Across London, prominent
physicians are meeting their end in a series of increasingly bizarre
deaths. One doctor is found drained of his blood, another the victim of
a vicious attack by vampire bats. Scotland Yard Inspector Trout
(Jeffrey) is put on the case, but the attacks—all patterned after the
mythical 10 plagues of Egypt—baffle him. That is, until he meets Dr.
Vesalius (Cotten), who reveals the hidden connection among the
physicians. Four years earlier, all of them operated on Dr. Anton
Phibes (Price) and his wife following a terrible car accident. Phibes’
wife died on the operating table, and Phibes himself was believed to
have died in the car wreck. However, Phibes, a highly skilled surgeon,
musician and student of theology, actually survived the accident, but
faked his death in order to hide his hideously scarred face. In the
intervening years, Phibes and his assistant (North) conceived an
elaborate plan for revenge against the team of physicians that Phibes
blamed for his wife’s death. As Trout and Vesalius race across London
and attempt to stop Phibes’ attacks, the mad doctor manages to stay
several steps ahead of them, using disguises, intricate traps and other
tricks to elude authorities.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 20 December 2007 |
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rated PG-13
The last man on earth versus a bunch of
angry vampires is a killer premise, one that should be easily adaptable
in any medium. However, that’s not quite the case, as proved by “I Am
Legend.” Originally a novella written by Richard Matheson in 1954,
“Legend” has been adapted three times, with director Frances Lawerence
and Will Smith at the helm of the third retelling of Matheson’s seminal
vampire story.
Matheson’s premise was simple: A mystery virus kills most of
humanity and turns the rest into vampires. The lone exception is Robert
Neville, an average Joe living in the California suburbs who stubbornly
carries on with life. Neville spends his days killing vampires and
looking for the scientific causes behind what seems like a supernatural
plague.
However, the book has never comfortably made the jump to film.
1964’s “The Last Man on Earth” cast Vincent Price in the Neville role,
although, in this case, he was a doctor. This was probably the closest
adaptation to Matheson’s book, but the author still disowned it and had
his name taken off the screenplay. In 1971, Charlton Heston starred in
“The Omega Man,” a rather loose adaptation that substituted crazy
albino hippies for vampires.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
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Alliance Communication Corp., 1986
starring: Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn and Randy Quaid
written and directed by: Mike Marvin
the plot: Packard
Walsh (Cassavetes) and his cadre of motorhead thugs use their souped-up
cars to terrorize a small desert town. Using threats of violence and
deadly drag races to keep the town’s teens in line, Packard and his
crew seem unstoppable. But all of that changes when Jake Kesey (Sheen)
shows up. Jake’s appearance coincides with the sudden arrival of a
mysterious drag racer who directly challenges Packard’s gang to a
series of increasingly dangerous races. Soon, Jake is found cozying up
to Packard’s girlfriend, Keri (Fenn), and befriending Billy Hankins
(Matthew Barry), whose brother, Jamie, was murdered by Packard months
earlier.
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
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rated PG-13
Just about everything you really need to
know about “The Golden Compass” can be found in the initial teaser
trailer for the film, released last summer. Rife with details, big
stars and cute computerized animals, it proposed, right from its
opening shot (a golden ring transforming into what appeared to be a
very complicated pocket-watch), to quote and build from the foundation
of New Line’s last and biggest hit, “The Lord of the Rings.” An
ambitious promise, certainly, but a surprisingly obvious tip of the hat
that gave off a distinct odor of repetition.
The action takes place on an alternate Earth, just a hair to the
right of our own, where the designs of Jules Verne apparently eclipsed
the theories of Issac Newton, and a deep-seated dogma of organized
religion, here known as the “Magisterium,” has officially wedded church
and state to create a positively Orwellian society of deceit,
corruption and oppression. The souls of the people of this world
manifest as living, speaking, physical sidekicks—all manner of animals,
birds and bugs accompany each of the characters along the way,
providing a unique kind of external/internal monologue for each—a kind
of Greek chorus, but with pointy teeth.
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Written by Larry Clow
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
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Troma Films, 1988
starring: Sean Bowen, Rick Washburn, Carolyn Beauchamp and Tod Johnson
directed by: Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz
the plot:
A routine flight on Tromaville Airlines goes terribly awry for a group
of hapless passengers when the engines fail and the plane crashes on
what appears to be a deserted Caribbean island. The ragtag band of
survivors includes Taylor (Bowen), an average dude from Tromaville;
Lydia (Beauchamp), a haughty woman who doesn’t take kindly to Taylor’s
advances, and Parker (Washburn), a Vietnam vet turned car salesmen who
immediately puts his survivalist skills to use. As the crash survivors
soon discover, the island is populated by a gang of highly trained
terrorists. Led by the pig-faced Col. Schweinhart (Johnson), the
terrorists are preparing a fiendish plot of unthinkable proportions—a
hostile takeover of America!
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Written by Trevor F Bartlett
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
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rated R
After such nuanced and contemplative successes
as “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” both adaptations of
Stephen King novels, it can easily be forgotten that writer/director
Frank Darabont was also responsible for resurrecting “The Blob.” He
also wrote for HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt” and wrote sequels to both
“The Fly” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
An avid reader, Darabont fell in love with King in high school when a
copy of “The Shining” fell into his hands, and he has obviously been
studying the man’s work with close attention ever since. His first
directorial effort in 1983 was, in fact, an adaptation of the short
story “Woman in the Room,” from King’s “Night Shift” collection.
Darabont and King seem to share a thoughtful and well exercised
affinity for the creeping darkness of life, which has certainly helped
qualify him far better than the hundred other directors who have tried
to translate for the screen King’s infamously wicked characters and
situations.
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