“The world is divided up into two types of people… those who believe, and those who will believe.”
WEREWOLF, Fox 80s TV series

I grew up watching creature feature specials on Friday and Saturday night. This was back when late night television didn’t mean infomercials and adult phone line ads. This was before companies like SINCLAIR BROADCASTING and FOX decided to sell sex and politics and hate at every turn.

This was back when late night TV was live hosts, dressed like Vampirella or Dracula, introducing classic horror films. It was back in an age, when there were still wonders in the night. And kids could turn on the tv, at any time, and just enjoy being kids.

A huge part of being a kid for me, were those creature feature nights. Watching those old universal movies. It’s no accident that the most creative people you can name, from Mel Brooks to Stephen King to John Carpenter to Del Toro grew up loving Universal Monster films.

There’s a brilliance, a mythology, a wonder, a logic even, to those films that speak right to our imagination, to our id, in a way that very few of today’s explicit “show it all” movies do.

The movies were all atmosphere back then, all shadows and shapes, and the screen behind your eyes. Today’s flicks have no depth to them, no beauty, no mystery… no need for you to think. Look at the INVISIBLE MAN, look at the style and the direction, and the performances. Eight decades later, and countless attempts, and no one for all the advances in special effects have managed to equal James Whales masterpiece… much less improve on it.

Atmosphere. A sense of scale and myth.

So, my siblings… for occasionally watching with me, my parents.. for allowing me to watch, and Universal (and Hammer Studios) for giving a young impressionable kid myths that spoke to the id, all take their bows or boos for making me into an imaginative, and far more creative young man, than I would have otherwise been. And a happier man, I can’t imagine being 7 years old, without those creature feature nights.

Horror writers, particularly Stephen King, look fondly at the horrors of their youth, because those films were about myths, and watching myths made of these young men… myth makers. Today’s “horror” films are mostly about sensationalism and sadism, so I leave it for you to decide what those films make of our young.

Getting back to the films of yesteryear, here are some of my favorites, pretty much coded by decade:

The silent age, is pretty much ruled by German expressionism in films such as NOSFERATU and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, the 1910s and the 1920s, would very much inform the birth of Horror films proper, as the 30s would launch the Universal Age. That said Oscar Mischeaux, the quite profitable Black Filmmaker of the day, while for the most part working in the genre of Drama created some fantastic scenes of pure dread, one particularly quite effective scene in his banned film BODY AND SOUL stands the test of time. In a film that is hampered by pacing issues, the movie is at times rudderless and overlong, there are however scenes in it… that are pure, visual poetry and horror combined. And I think it’s an unfairly forgotten film, and visually a far more influential film than it is given credit for.

30-40s This was really the Universal Age, while other studios tried to compete, Universal was a juggernaut, and they had James Whales and Todd Browning, who between the two of them effectively defined the monster genre.

Dracula (1931)-the silent films of Tod Browning are fantastic, and this early talkie was an unimaginable success for Universal and launched the monster craze. However for me it’s a film, that unlike the later universal movies, does not stand the test of time. Somehow not being quite of the silent, or the sound era, it’s clunky, overlong and rather boring, especially considering the Vampiric well that Lugosi created, has since been mined to the point of ridicule. But there are without doubt, memorable moments of atmosphere, particularly as it relates to Renfield. Who for me… rivets. But my qualms aside, it’s undeniably a milestone film. And it’s worth noting Lugosi, an actor I have great respect for, was so desperate to be cast in this role and reprise his stage success that he acted as an unpaid intermediary for Universal to purchase the rights to Dracula cheap, and also agree to take a ridiculously low salary for this part. This desperation of his to be in film, at any cost was a defect in Lugosi that would cost him. Because once the studios had determined they could have him cheap, they treated him cheap. And we’re going to get more into Lugosi, and his transition from stage to cinema, and his transition from romantic leading man, to typecast cameo player.. and the toll such… poor use, took on him.

Here are some neat reviews of Dracula from columnists of the time. Gives you a great insight into the diffrence eight decades can make, in how a film is perceived:

2/15/1931 FD Dracula
Universal Time, 1 hr., 25 mins.
“Fine melodrama of human vampire carries spooky thrills with Bela Lugosi giving splendid performance in role.
The screen transposition of the melodramatic stage play has been given a finished production under the expert direction of Tod Browning, who knows how to get the most out of the weird and spooky effects. Bela Lugosi as the human vampire gives a convincing performance that will send chills down the spines of sensitive people. The story is that of Count Dracula condemned to eternal life, who takes human form only at night, returning to his coffin as soon as day breaks. He lives on human blood, and coming to England where the story takes place, is finally uncovered and killed by a scientist who saves the heroine from the horrible fate that awaits all the victims of vampires. It is not a picture for too squeamish people to see, but there is no denying its dramatic power and tingling thrills. Bela Lugosi creates one of the most unique and powerful roles of the screen in this one.
CAST: Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, Herbert Bunston, Frances Dade, Charles Gerrard.
Director, Tod Browning; Author, Bram Stoker; Adaptor, Garrett Fort; Dialoguer, not listed; Editor, Milton Carruth; Cameraman, Karl Freund; Recording Engineer, C. Roy Hunter.
Direction, Expert. Photography, Excellent.”

3/28/1931 EH Dracula
“Opened at Orpheum, March 27. Directed by Tod Browning. CAST: Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, Herbert Bunston, Frances Dade, Charles Gerrard, Joan Standing.
By W.E. Oliver
The world’s most gruesome folk-story has been brought to the screen by Tod Browning, master of Hollywood’s weirdest tales.
It is Dracula.
After having read the book and seen the play several times I sat at the Orpheum Theater yesterday and perspired with horror as its unbelievable tale convincingly unfolded amid groans, wolf howls, encoffined corpses, vampires, cobwebs and a haunted maniac who loves on the blood of spiders.
Bela Lugosi, who played the title role on the stage, is seen as the blood-drinking count in the picture. He is perfectly cast. As a result of this performance, he will probably be the most celebrated mystery on the screen–a logical successor to the late Lon Chaney with whom Tod Browning had hitherto created some of the screen’s strangest pictures.
Helen Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Loan all are convincing in their roles, as are other members of the cast.
Dracula is a swell nightmare, perhaps as grand a one as you will ever see until they write another horror story as potently flesh-creeping as Bram Stoker’s novel.
If you want to have the supreme short story to tell to your prattling grandchildren, or to divert yourself with when taking the short cut home through the graveyard, don’t miss Dracula. It’s a sweaty horror. It’s great.
The Orpheum this week is showing a Jack Laughlin stage show, and is also screening an unbelievably dull golf short, along with some interesting news.”

3/28/1931 IDN Dracula
By Eleanor Barnes
“An eerie excursion into the realm of the metaphysical began yesterday at the Orpheum Theater with the opening of Dracula as a talking picture.
The sinister quality which marked the vehicle as Bram Stoker’s book and as a play is preserved in the film version. It is a tense affair, with the audience reaction held at a high pitch.
A complexity of difficulties, no doubt, beset Universal officials in transforming such a fantastical theme to such a popular medium as the talking screen. Its plausibility becomes secondary, however, through the adeptness of its execution. For Dracula is entertainment, if for no other reason than it explores, so captivatingly, the land of the unreal.”

Stay with us in the next segment as we trace Tod Browning’s defection to MGM, and the rise of James Whales’ Gods and Monsters.

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ohmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Ah much better, nothing like a little ohming and deep meditation to clear out the cobwebs, and to slightly sharpen your focus.

Between the every day vagaries of life that we all deal with, the common… necessities and bureaucracies of our days… art can get lost. I know people who say “I don’t have time to read”.

“I don’t have time to read.”

It’s a moronic statement to me. It’s similar to saying, I don’t have time to learn, or to dream, or to discover. Reading isn’t just the process of taking in what people think on a diverse range of topics, but reading on its most basic level is about your capacity to think; about evolving that capacity, expanding it, honing it. And that’s an ever on-going process, it doesn’t stop when you hit puberty or when you hit menopause… at least it shouldn’t. We should always be… processing.

There’s a reason repressive governments throughout history have banned reading. There’s a reason the red states made it against the law to teach an enslaved person how to read. What good is it denying a people their language, their laws, their ideologies, their oral histories, their gods, their ability to have culture and to communicate.. if you undermine all this great, fantastic closing of doors… by opening one.

That’s what reading, the continuing process of, does…. it opens doors.

It’s why Gutenberg’s printing press (which allowed for the first time, easy mass production of knowledge) and Martin Luther’s blasphemous insistence that the word of god should be put in the hands of common people (rather than coming through priests, as was and to a degree still is… the fashion), combined to shake the very foundation of Rome, and set off a bloody Christian holy war that to this day, has not sufficiently cooled.

Martin Luther, that most perfect of catholics… became in many ways Catholicism’s end, at least as the unchecked singular voice of Christianity, the undisputed and dreaded Oligarchy that it was.

And I use those terms as historical accuracies, not to judge catholicism. I am no more a protestant than I am a catholic. But the historical fact is prior to the reformation the Catholic church ruled very much through terror. That’s not my opinion, that’s history. The catholic church if they deemed you a heretic, for saying some stupidity like the world was round, or the earth orbited the sun… thought nothing of kicking in your door, throwing you in jail, and torturing you until you recanted or died. Whichever pleased God.

Such acts would continue long after the Reformation and long after Luther’s death. But Martin Luther set in motion a process for questioning authority, questioning the way to God being through torture and war, that over time made the Catholic Church, step away from their more overzealous methods… lest they lose ever more believers to this growing cult called Protestants.

So the Church changed, to avoid losing more of their children to the way of that mad turn-coat catholic… Martin Luther.

That way was through reading.

And we come back to it.

Ignorant men, told that a war is in the service of God, will go to war. Told this murder and rape and torture, serves God… will murder, rape, and torture.

A few hundred years ago we called it the crusades.

Today we call it the New World Order. The Catholic church has been nudged aside by Multi-national, geo-political corporations, However the color of the blood being spilled today is no less red, and the people doing the dirty work… are no less ignorant.

They believe absolutely in the rightness of those who lead.

I believe that by its fruits will you know a tree, and by his works will you know a man.

But that’s a judgment call.

It calls for a willingness to look at the tree, and look at the man.

It calls for reading.

The process of.

It’s an open door, and the process of learning to walk through it, can give to you… that which repressive governments have always tried to take away… your identity.

And a choice based on reasons, rather than momentum. A choice based on processing how we got here, and how is the best way.. the best way for your family, and for mine, for that nation, and for this… to start getting better… rather than worse.

Reading… the process of…. starts you there.

So I hold reading in pretty high regard.

I say all this because

1/ it was on my mind and

2/ by way of explanation for spending an inordinate amount of money on books. Of all shapes sizes and pedigrees, which I’ll be reviewing for you in the days to come. But for the nonce, check out the novel and short story reviews I do have posted.

And to leave on one last note… keep processing. Keep questioning, and like that most perfect of catholics taught us, keep… protesting.

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One more addition, I found the following on a great site PROJECT WITTENBERGhere, it’s a letter from Martin Luther to the Pope, and is pretty riveting reading. Here’s a bit of it, but i strongly direct you to the site to read the whole thing… it’s pretty good:

Concerning Christian Liberty
by Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Letter of Martin Luther to Pope Leo X

“Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my vindication, made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I have never thought any evil concerning your person; further, that I am one who desires that eternal blessing may fall to your lot, and that I have no dispute with any man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. In all other things I will yield to any one, but I neither can nor will forsake and deny the word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my words in another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the truth.

Your see, however, which is called the Court of Rome, and which neither you nor any man can deny to be more corrupt than any Babylon or Sodom, and quite, as I believe, of a lost, desperate, and hopeless impiety, this I have verily abominated, and have felt indignant that the people of Christ should be cheated under your name and the pretext of the Church of Rome; and so I have resisted, and will resist, as long as the spirit of faith shall live in me. Not that I am striving after impossibilities, or hoping that by my labours alone, against the furious opposition of so many flatterers, any good can be done in that most disordered Babylon; but that I feel myself a debtor to my brethren, and am bound to take thought for them, that fewer of them may be ruined, or that their ruin may be less complete, by the plagues of Rome. For many years now, nothing else has overflowed from Rome into the world–as you are not ignorant–than the laying waste of goods, of bodies, and of souls, and the worst examples of all the worst things. These things are clearer than the light to all men; and the Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all Churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wickedness.”

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

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I was a little wary of this film going in. Even though it had a good star in Ed Norton, this was offset by the fact that it had a relatively untried Director in Louis Leterrier (DANNY THE DOG, TRANSPORTER films), was written by Zak Penn whose previous screen credits of films such as ELEKTRA and INSPECTOR GADGET doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, and finally that the film had a tag team of Editors, often a sign of a movie that has issues, that needs to be fixed in post.

But much to my pleasure the INCREDIBLE HULK exceeded expectations, from direction, to performances, you could not do the premise (which really is threadbare, being nothing more than Jekyll and Hyde dusted off, and mixed with Beauty and the Beast), any better than these guys did it. It was a very smart and enjoyable and note perfect movie, which is an odd to say about a film, ostensibly about a flawed, and simple character.

And the initial worries of the preview giving away the whole movie proved unfounded, as the film was far richer, and again smarter than the previews let on. And I do also think some scenes in the movie were improved and changed from what they appeared to be in the previews. Commendable if they had the wherewithal to do some 11th hour CGI sprucing.

The film from beginning to end, just worked. No small amount due to Ed Norton dedication, both in front of and behind the camera where he worked on the story. A fan trying to do right by a childhood love.

And you get this in the great cameos and allusions to the HULK TV series, while possibly missed by younger viewers, it was definitely appreciated by an old war horse like me, who very much remembers the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno series (The late Bill Bixby’s appearance ala a shot of one of his early TV shows).

The film very much came across as a labor of love, and was not only true to the source material, but much as with IRON MAN an improvement and a streamlining. The HULK comics have arguably never, even under Peter David, a long-time writer of the comic, been as good as this film was. Beyond a certain point, the premise of a giant green Man-Monster… becomes a tired premise, this film made it new again.

And I thought the opening sequence, to distill all the backstory in the opening credits… was brilliant. Louis Leterrier is a director without much of a track record before this film, but has now definitely earned my respect, and is a director I’ll be looking out for in the future.

There was nothing I didn’t like about this film, and I think all involved created the best HULK movie possible, and my unwillingness to translate that into a “4 STAR” movie, is just there’s another gear of emotional intensity, of connectivity that the film generates with the viewer, that defines a four star movie for me , such as the THIRD MAN and MALTESE FALCON and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. A 4 Star movie is a movie that becomes part of your family or a cherished friend. It’s a movie you want to revisit often. It’s a movie without hesitation you can say, in your own personal Idaho, is one of the greatest films.

John Woos THE KILLER is a 4 star movie. The Hughes Brothers MENACE TO SOCIETY is a four star movie. Carl Franklin’s DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is a 4 star movie. Depalma’s UNTOUCHABLES is a 4 star movie. Jet Li’s FIST OF LEGEND is a 4 star movie. Pekinpah’s BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA is a 4 star movie. Just about anything by Jules Dassin is a 4 star movie. The first SUPERMAN is a 4 star movie. SPIDER-MAN 2 is a 4 star movie.

There’s this ineffable additional range you have to reach to be a 4 star movie, an emotional connection you have to make with me, to get that 4 star status . And generally that’s not a place a summer blockbuster needs to go. The HULK is a solid 3.5 star, which is a really high score. I put it neck and neck with IRON MAN. IRON MAN may be a little better, but not enough to get it a 4.

But by releasing movies of such a high caliber where they are darn close to being 4 star movies, MARVEL FILM GROUP has very much announced their arrival as a force to be reckoned with. For both of their initial offerings to not just be good movies, but GREAT movies, for this new untried studio, bodes well for their formula and their future.

I’ve had, and have problems with the quality of the comic book side of MARVEL COMICS, but their film division as of to-date can do no wrong. Distilling what is best and most iconic about these characters and jettisoning the rest. Kudos to MARVEL FILM GROUP for building a movie dynasty right before my eyes.

And finally kudos to them for training the audience to wait until the credits are over. What a stroke of genius. Keep it up guys, keep the quality high, and for movies at least, you can make mine… MARVEL.

How does it take the Supreme Court EIGHT YEARS to say “it may be wrong to lock up people in dog cages in a Guantanamo Bay Concentration Camp, based solely on your suspicion they may be criminals or may one day become criminals”.

Eight years? Eight Years is a long time when you’re kept in a cage without trial, and without access to family, friends, or representation.

Eight years is a long time to spend in a concentration camp.

Eight years is a long time to spend in Hell.

And what is the military’s reply to this long delayed recognition of their ill-advised offshore concentration camps …. “We’re the military— your law does not apply to us”.

Really?

Really. It seems clear a military coup occurred in 2000, a coup by and for the industrial war complex, the architects of war. Unfortunately such clarity gets lost when you consider America’s “free ” press is owned by the same companies that have a financial stake in the war. The people who own the news, also own interest in the companies that are profiting by dropping bombs on children.

Moral of the story being… when your right hand is covered in blood, your left hand will wash it off.

The press is our Administration’s left hand.

So the coup was not televised, nor spoken.

The revolution was not televised.

So it does not exist.

SURVIVOR, AMERICAN IDOL, insert meaningless, mind-numbing “entertainment” here… these things exist. They are the face of America… to Americans.

We have not become the new Nazi Germany.

We are not the mad warmongering of Old Rome.

We are not massacring millions so that venal, greedy, suspect examples of humanity can make more money today then they made yesterday.

really? we are none of those things?

“We’re the military— your law does not apply to us”

And in the last days of Rome, they were killing their Senators in the streets.

Because at some point, the law that could not bind the high, could no longer bind the low.

Why do I know the names Marion Jones and Wesley Snipes? And why have they been sentenced to prison?

A young girl was one of many in a Haitian village, who got her face blown off. From an American bullet, from an American Soldier, ordered by an An American General. Yet no one knows his name, and neither soldier nor general are in prison.

You seemingly, in this bastion of Liberty and Justice, this moral center of the World, this Christian nation… this America…you seemingly don’t make the news or go to jail… for killing non-white people.

But yeah we could find prison space and tv time for you if you didn’t pay your taxes, or if you won a medal 15 years ago, and we don’t like that you won it.

A massacred village on one hand or a sports figure suspect of improperly winning a medal on the other. Which should get the media attention and the the prison time?

“We’re the military— your law does not apply to us”

Law has to bind us all. Military and civilian. President or Pauper, or it ceases to be law. We become a nation of terror and of tyranny. And in such a nation, such a time, such a place, the only patriotic thing to do, the only right thing to do, and the only american thing to do… is to toss the fucking tea overboard.

Is to break the law.

And from its pieces… build up something, not unlike justice.

The law…

It binds us all or none.

Choose.

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LINKS OF THE DAY:

• http://www.hurah-inc.org/- If you want to help the Haitian people, and learn more about their plight go here. I’m proud to say I donate. Ranting only takes you so far, putting your money where your mouth is… takes you the rest of the way.
• http://www.ethanlewis.org/freewesleysnipes/- I liked Ethan’s take on the Snipes case, you may too
• http://www.margueritelaurent.com/- Definitely a page you should visit
• http://www.guantanamo.co.uk/- Images on this post, came from this site. Go there and order David Rose’s book. While I differ with his support of the Iraq invasion, his stance against Guantanamo is to be applauded
  
• http://www.guantanamo.org.uk/- A must visit site! Must visit daily. When the cry to shut down Guantanamo Bay has to come from England… because inside Nazi America the propaganda machine is in full effect— you know America has problems. “We didn’t know–” they will say later, they who voted for Bush, and the Democrats who rolled over for every twisted piece of legislation… they will say later like good little Nazis “We didn’t know what they did in our names. We didn’t smell the smoke”. This site tells you what they are doing in your name. And I am telling you, I will leave you no excuse… to hide behind.

This was spurred by a post on another site, and I’ve decided to weigh in with my own two cents.

As always .

As much as it’s popular to bash Hollywood they’ve made some really strong and some really brilliant films in the last few years. So forgive me if some of my list is “Hollywood” obvious. .

300- A medium changing film

BABEL-I love this film, just masterfully done

CHILDREN OF MEN- ditto. I didn’t believe the hype people were giving it, but finally broke down and bought the DVD. Brilliant.

DEPARTED-for me a little Scorsese goes a long way, which means I get tired of his films quickly. That said I do think this is his best film in years.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN- deserving of its accolades

I AM LEGEND- probably outside of IRON MAN (and EL BENNY) the most fun I’ve had in the theater all year. One of the rare remakes that transcends its predecessors. And that scene in the darkened building… heart-poundingly impressive

RAMBO- people write off Stallone as being stupid, and his films being mindless. I’d argue nothing could be further from the truth. I would say much like the first RAMBO (FIRST BLOOD: which Stallone worked on the screenplay for) this film is a sharp indictment of its audience. It is a mirthless mirror of the audiences own bloodlust, and the fallacy of concepts such as hero… or villain. It’s a mirthless satire painted in broad strokes of blood.

SUPERMAN RETURNS- Had its flaws, but its strengths outweighed them

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

DEVIL’S BACKBONE

PAN’S LABYRINTH- Del Toro’s most personal film, mixes beautiful fantasy and sickening horror, into a stew that is pure cinema.

OPEN RANGE- along with TOMBSTONE and UNFORGIVEN and LONESOME DOVE (yeah I know it was made for tv, it’s still great) one of the best westerns in the last 2 decades. And more than that it’s one of the best westerns… period.

THE DECAY OF FICTION- which had a new screening this year, is an experimental flick, with allusions to film noir and Bunuel. And more than anything… is a love letter to a building. Challenging going, but worth a viewing.

THE DESCENT-I thought Dog Soldiers was amateurish at best, boring and predictable and unoriginal at worst. The same is being said for the director’s DOOMSDAY film. But between those two films, he somehow managed to crank out one of the greatest horror films to hit screens since SEVEN. Unquestionably a work that will stand the test of time.

SLITHER- A throwback to everything great about 80s horror movies

Some lesser known, foreign, and straight to DVD recommendations are:

From Korea:

MEMORIES OF MURDER- Not just my favorite Korean Movie, but one of my favorite movies of all time. Just brilliantly made drama/thriller/cop procedural film.

HOST- follow-up by the director of Memories of Murder, is flawed and overlong, but is still frigging fantastic.

3-IRON- it defies words. Except to say… I loved it. Go buy a copy now. Don’t read anything about it, just buy the DVD pop it in, and prepared to be… entranced.

OLDBOY- While no fan of this director’s earlier SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, and while I have no intention of sitting through OLDBOY a 2nd time, I cannot deny it is astounding, mind exploding filmmaking.

TAE GUK-Is pretty much a Korean version of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but I think it is that rare homage that equals and some may even say… surpasses the original. Phenomenal film.

From Japan:

THE BIRD PEOPLE OF CHINA- From a director whose work I generally can’t stand, comes this meditative, funny, brilliant, warm, touching, and utterly human fable. Along with MEMORIES OF MURDER one of my favorite discoveries of the last ten years.

From Cuba:

EL BENNY- This bio-pic on Cuba’s greatest and most controversial musician, is done against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution, and is a sumptuously photographed ode, to an age and a time and a county. Saw it at the 16th annual Pan-African film festival and again… it’s one that goes in that favorite discoveries pile. This is the film I’d urge you to see before anything else on this list. Not necessarily because it is better, it’s a B+ movie and some of the others on this list are As and A+s… but I think it may well be a film that adds something valuable to how you view the world…and as such I weight it a little higher than mere escapism. Plus it is a great film, with some of the world’s most beautiful women.

From Daresalam:

DARESALAM- Named after the region where blood still flows. Probably you have to go all the way back to BATTLE OF ALGIERS to find a film that is as utterly of and about, the nature of colonialism and what that means to still ongoing wars in distant lands. Yet another of my favorite discoveries of the last ten years. Hollywood needs to reach out to this director

From Brazil:

CITY OF GOD- an oldie, but a goodie. nuff said

DIRECT TO DVD

Steven Segal’s return to form comes in URBAN JUSTICE. This action film is smartly written, well directed, and with a movie saving performance by Eddie Griffen. After years of sub par Segal flicks, this one hits the target. Worth a buy.

And last but not least…

Actually not on DVD, and not strictly speaking a movie, the Internet Fan Film in 3 parts STAR TREK: OF GODS AND MEN… is just plain fun. A low budget ode to everything that made the original concept of Star trek so enduring, a concept that Paramount and the suits just don’t get. If you’re sick of bad star trek movies and bad star trek tv shows (the quickly canceled Scott Bakula Enterprise comes to mind) you might want to give this film a look (done by people who aren’t making a dime, for no other reason… than love). I enjoyed it, and you may too.

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• SUPERMAN VS MUHAMMAD ALI, KING SIZE BIG GUY AND RUSTY THE BOY ROBOT and JERIMIAH JOHNSON Review
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• Christopher Priest’s THE CREW! Best Ever!
• Today’s Postings ie THE NEW STUFF

Real quick post/recommendations:

Comics:

BAD PLANET #5- By Thomas Jane and Steve Niles series continues to be a fun throwback, to the 80s horror and sci-fi books of the 80s.

Movies:

MIAMI VICE- Despite my reservations, a great flick.

More to come.

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m pretty easy on movies. Heck look at my INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL review, I like the film while everyone else wants to lynch it up.

So when I tell you THE STRANGERS is one of the few movies I actually walked out on, you’ll understand that it has to be pretty bad. If you go by IMDB… the reviews would lead you to believe this film was the 2nd coming of SEVEN, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The film is just tired and cliched and annoying. With the characters doing every annoying cliched thing people do in stupid movies. Don’t believe your girlfriend when she tells you someone has been in the house— leave her alone while you go on some harebrained scheme— and it’s supposedly based on a true story, but I’m sure the stupidity is all the filmmakers.

I’m sitting in the theater watching Liv Tyler scurry around on the grass, with her butt sticking up and her lips pouty, and acting terrified, and as much as I welcome any chance to see Liv Tyler’s ass in the air, she’s too good an actress for this lame piece of garbage. I’m sitting in the theater and I’m bored, and I’m thinking life is too short to spend another second watching this lame piece of offal. I just don’t care about it, or how it ended, they live, they die, they move to Mars… just didn’t care.

I just think the film insulted my intelligence with these lame, cliche ridden characters. Particularly the boyfriend annoyed the heck out of me, I didn’t care if they lived or died, and just so he would stop annoying me I was leaning strongly toward die, in his case. All in all, a waste of $12 (matinee showing+parking).

That 2000+ people on IMDB rate this film by first time director Bryan Bertino, highly enough to get 7+ stars, fills me, like Bush getting elected twice. with dubiousness and more than a twinge of loathing. God we’re raising stupid people, that think banality is brilliance.

This film is not even worth a rental.

It’s worth noting a lot of the praise reviews are one time posters, which is usually a film’s PR people, trying to drum up support by posting multiple reviews. So as a rule I discount any review by someone, who has no other reviews to their credit.

That said I urge you to check out JM Kiff’s review, cause he summarizes exactly my issues with the flick, and with the “praise” for it. Check it out here

Well not wanting to leave on a negative, a far, far better movie is one that’s not even a movie, but feels like one. Doug Moench’s and Paul Gulacy’s acclaimed run on MASTER OF KUNG FU. Read reviews here
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INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL- I just came from seeing the latest, and I would say final (at least with Harrison Ford in the title role) INDIANA JONES film. And I have to say, contrary to the mob, I really enjoyed it.

There are few filmmakers who are as technically accomplished as Spielberg, and fewer still as masterful at creating thrilling, rousing visual scenes. While I’m no Spielberg groupie, it can not be denied, that he is an innovative, driving force in film. That said… he’s not a filmmaker that particularly resonates with me, but I understand his importance to film.

His JAWS redefined the Monster movie, and defined the term summer blockbuster. And a whole industry has grown up around that movie, trying to be that movie.

His CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and ET very much put science fiction films on the map as viable, big budget entertainment.

His SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, almost cliche now, because so many people from TAE GUK to RAMBO have ripped it off, very much gave new life to the war film and the depiction of same, and to that point was the most visceral, brutal battle scenes ever presented.

Spielberg has always moved film forward.

He did it with the first INDIANA JONES , reviving a pulp, serial style of entertainment that has not been seen since the 1940s, and making a modern audience go crazy for it.

I’m not saying Spielberg is the best filmmaker, he’s personally not my favorite, but there is no more successful filmmaker than Spielberg. No filmmaker who has proven himself more tied into his audience… what it wants to see.

Which brings us to the latest INDIANA JONES film.

This film has met with vocal derision.

Particularly over how it wraps up the central storyline, the last 10 or 15 minutes, and I agree… the denouement is flawed, the ending feeling shoe-horned in, and rushed. It’s very anti-climatic, when measured against the thrilling scenes that built up to it.

So yes flawed, but to my mind not flawed enough to erase the fact that for the majority of the films running time, it’s a thrilling, white knuckled, tongue in cheek, and most of all fun roller-coaster ride of a film.

In a medium that has become so much about the lowest common denominator, it’s refreshing to see a film that doesn’t have to rely on profanity, or rape, or hate, or graphic sex or violence to tell a story. But can be a fun, exciting, and largely family friendly film.

And I appreciate that. However in an increasingly cynical world, a lot of people seemingly don’t.

This is not Spielberg’s audience anymore. This is the audience of Rob Zombie and SAW, and cinema is the poorer for this distinction.

Spielberg has always made slightly hopeful, wide eye films, that hearken back to that age of pulp sensibilities.

He does that here with quite a few scenes, that put you right in the heart of the action.

And I went to this film with a local movie group. And I remember now, why I stopped attending films with this group. A very negative lot of people. Problem I have with critics in general: They are either pompous or pessimistic, or more often then not some marriage of the two. And they love to gripe seemingly.

I have no use for critics, by definition they want to criticize, they want to tell you what they hate. I’m a reviewer, I want to tell you what I love.

I don’t pay my money to dislike a movie. I go into a movie looking to like it, looking to meet it halfway. And I found that very easy to do with this film. Rushed, forced conclusion and all.

So flawed, but still recommended… and fun. The Motorcycle scene is worth the price of admission by itself, add to that the grave yard scene, or the sword fight scene, or the ant scene…. and there’s just enough fun in this film, for a few movies. And I like it better, easily, than the 2nd or 3rd films.

So not perfect by any means, but I left the theater feeling I definitely got my money’s worth; and I Look forward to purchasing this film when it arrives on DVD. And I don’t say that for many films. GRADE: B-/B.

UNDER THE RADAR #5 is HERE! Much belated issue.If you don’t know what UNDER THE RADAR is, I’m way too tired after assembling this latest issue to explain it to you :).

But seriously, it’s basically just a primer for slims (comic books- they’re these things made out of paper and filled with images and words, put together in a push-pull configuration ) coming out soon. And to get the best of these books, pretty much unlike any other medium, really depends on pre-orders. So this is a list of books that arrive in stores July. But the catch is, the small companies will only show up in your local comic store, or online comic store, if you order them this month.

There are tons of places you can order from. If you have a cool comic store in your town, you can print out the PDF and take it to them and say “I want this, and this, and this” or if you don’t have a great local comic shop there are numerous online comic shops (just do a search at www.scroogle.org or clusty.com) that will mail-order you the books.

But you can’t order what you don’t know about, and that’s where UNDER THE RADAR comes in.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll find in the attached (25 page worked my fingers to the bone, took me three nights to assemble) PDF:

AARDVARK VANAHEIM
GLAMOURPUSS #2
by Dave Sim “World Peace: Michael Kors Luggage Leads the Way!”; “There’s Nothing Funny About Anti-Depressants”; and, as a bonus, “Skanko’s Top 5 Ways I Drive My Men Wild in Bed,” plus an initial examination of the Big Three pioneers of realistic comic art: Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, and Milt Caniff, and Caniff’s influence on Raymond’s “Beyond Noir” style. 24pgs, B&W SRP: $3.00
The first issue got mixed reviews, I personally enjoyed it. A great history and art lesson all in one, it’s a definite buy.

BLUEWATER PRODUCTIONS

$3.99 PISTOLFIST #1 (OF 4)

by J.S. Earl, David A. Flanary, Jr. & Andres Guinaldo How precious is your freedom? Would you fight for it? Would you dare to die for it? Set amidst the American Revolution, this critically-acclaimed series follows the saga of a mysterious, masked runaway slave whose destiny is helplessly entwined with that of a famous, yet frail, Benjamin Franklin. Inspired by true characters and events, you’ll soon discover why fans and fellow creators alike have chosen to “rev it up!” SC, 32pgs, FC (1 of 4) SRP: $3.99

This company has been doing the Harryhausen line of books. Wasn’t hyped enough to pick those up, but this series sounds intriguing and fascinating!

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY TP VOL 7 HARVEY KURTZMAN
The seventh volume in this distinguished series focuses entirely on one of comics’ most esteemed and influential creators, Harvey Kurtzman, whose complete Comics Journal interviews are collected in this lavishly illustrated full-color edition. Obscurities unearthed from Kurtzman’s solo freelance career from Children’s Digest, Pageant, U.S. Crime, Varsity and Why, are featured, most of which haven’t been seen since their original publication. SC, 12×12, 124pgs, PC SRP: $19.95

Harvey Kurtzman jumped on my radar due to his absolutely fantastic work for EC. For that work alone this oversized trade is a buy. Let’s put it this way CJ Library has released 6 previous volumes, covering other acclaimed creators, and this is the only one I’m buying from them.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For the whole nine… go here..

preorder5

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This weeks comic review:

BIZARRE NEW WORLD #1- I finally got around to reading a teaser on-line copy of Skipp Martin’s BIZARRE NEW WORLD. I’m not big on reading comics on-line, tends to give me a headache, but I have to say I’m glad I stuck with this one.

Cause I found the first issue really very smart, and surprisingly captivating. As it takes a personal look at the ramifications of learning… you could fly. Martin’s very much grounded approach to a man who can fly, is oddly addictive, his first issue ending on a strong cliffhanger. And the art of Christopher Provencher, slightly cartoony, fits perfectly to evoke the mundane and the marvelous, he has real animation, storytelling chops, and the story rests heavily on his ability to convey much with many wordless, quiet panels.

Add to that the colors and letters of Wes Dzioba, which complements the expressive art, and slightly bittersweet story. I believe the trade of the first series is on the racks, and the 2nd series is almost ready to be traded.

I have to say, both are on my radar now, and I want to read more. Recommended!

Welcome back to part 2 of the incredibly strange cinema of Jesus.

That’s Jesus Franco, of course.

- Click here - for an interesting article comparing Val Lewton (the great 40s director of CAT PEOPLE and LEOPARD MAN and SHE WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE to name a few) and Jess Franco.

An interesting read though I personally think that comparison is more than a bit of a stretch.First it’s never lost on me the fact that Lewton, the producer, is considered far more the shaper of his films than the various directors. And it’s a well deserved acclaim, Lewton was very much the creative driving force for his productions,

Jess’ pedigree was decidedly different.

While Jess’ work in the beginning of his career showed promise and style and a certain craft and mood, subtlety and restraint were never his strong suit. And subtlety and restraint and leaving much to the viewers imagination, less is more, is at the very heart of the Lewton style, and why (even though Lewton’s body of work is brief, less than a dozen films, and his life, unfortunately, also brief) his films 70 years later are regarded as masterpieces, whereas even the best films of Franco are barely footnotes in cinema, are to most curiosities at best.

This may sound like I’m unduly disparaging Franco, or have an axe to grind against him, and that’s not the case. I haven’t seen as many Franco movies as some, clearly ( I mean the guy has made a 187 films, and most of these are films Franco himself has probably not even sat through, nor would he want to) but I reckon I’ve seen more than most people. I’ve seen the generally regarded highlights, and tonal shifts in his style. And it’s clear that his early films are of a different level of quality than his later films.

Unlike many, I’ll be the first to say that Franco’s early films, are not just curiosities… they are accomplished if flawed works. And his DIABOLICAL DR. Z, an out an out masterpiece, which has been liberally borrowed from by a generation of filmmakers since… to include Dario Argento.

The deep focus photography in this film is just gorgeous to look at! Go here for a pretty impressive and detailed review on the movie by the good folks at ECCENTRIC CINEMA.

Unabashedly a brilliant film, especially taken in context of when it was filmed. As the last and the best of Franco’s Universal inspired, but fresh and innovative in their own right, Gothic thrillers.

The four films in Franco’s gothic quartet are:
THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1962)

THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF

THE HORRIBLE MONSTER

And last but not least, Franco’s best film…

THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z!!!

There’s a wonderful review of DR.ORLOFF (which till recently was the most accessible film from this period of Franco’s career) by Scott Ashlin of 1000 MISSPENT HOURS that I urge you to read in its entirety here, but for the moment I want to present you a snippet of it, because I think Mr. Ashlin perfectly captures the dichotomy between Franco’s early work, and the bulk of his career:

“It’s hard to believe the same man could have directed both The Awful Dr. Orlof and Oasis of the Zombies. Here in his first outing as a horror director, Franco displays a visual flair and a concern for narrative cohesion that would vanish from his work almost completely by the beginning of the next decade. Hell, he’s even got his infamous zoom lens fetish under control. It’s also obvious that Franco took far more care with The Awful Dr. Orlof than he would with his vast 70’s and 80’s output. The film is derivative, to be sure, but it is derivative of so many distinctly different things, and the pilfered elements are reassembled in such a thoughtful manner that it manages to find a personality all its own. Most of the subject matter is stolen from Eyes Without a Face, of course, but there are also echoes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and a whole slew of Edgar Wallace mysteries (most notably The Dead Eyes of London) to throw the story into a completely new equilibrium. Meanwhile, Franco aims for a very different overall feel from his primary model. The Awful Dr. Orlof’s production design has more of a Universal look to it, and there’s a dash of sleazy sex that makes for one of the very few signposts this movie offers pointing the way for the rest of Franco’s career. With all that going for it, I suppose it’s only natural that Franco would return to the character of Dr. Orlof— and to actor Howard Vernon as well— again and again over the ensuing years. By most accounts, none of The Awful Dr. Orlof’s many sequels match the balance and poise of the original, but you can hardly blame Franco for hoping to recapture his apparently freakish early success.”

While the above quote is incorrect in regards to ORLOFF being Franco’s first foray into horror, or the sequels not being as good or better than the original, he’s on the money in the bulk of his statement. There’s an almost palpable sense of confusion and frustration when reviewers contrast early Franco, with 1970s and later Franco.

It’s a sense of loss almost, the realization that Franco is (was?)an actually talented filmmaker, who for reasons known only to himself decides to forsake that talent, and for the last thirty years of his career make largely flashy, incomprehensible, pornography.

But even in DR. Z you began to see the lack of restraint that would mar all his later films, and set Franco on his path of soft porn schlock. It is not talent that is the great dividing line between having a film career like Lewton and having a film repertoire like Franco. No, not talent. Talent isn’t the difference between THE LEOPARD MAN and VENUS IN FURS, or better still… talent isn’t the difference between DR.Z and VENUS IN FURS. There’s talent in evidence in all three films, however what VENUS IN FURS lacks is restraint.

It lacks the restraint to have a script, to tell a story, to be true to that story, to have actors who can be true to that story, it lacks the restraint to be anything more than pieces of an idea, moments of inspiration, instant gratification.

That is the difference between a great film, and a mediocre mess, more than talent, people forget now, but going into the 1960s, there was no more acclaimed young director than Jess Franco. So the difference lies not in talent, but in restraint.

More than anything a director, has to know what is a story, when he has a story, and what serves that story and what does not. It takes restraint to make and film and shape a movie. Somewhere along the way restraint became a virtue or perhaps a vice, too heavy for Franco to be bothered with. And his films since have shown that.

And I realize many of Franco’s soft-core films are end products of changing moral and economic times, but not really.

There’s a prurient nature in Franco (and I say that without judgment, there’s a prurient nature to most of us ), even in DR. Z.

Franco almost loses the thru-line of his story, you can sense this nearly gravitational pull, the director’s desire to get lost in the act of watching female flesh jiggle.

Believe me, that’s a huge past-time of my own, so I can sympathize. .

However if Franco had given into that obsession (as he would after DR. Z) … had failed to show restraint, given into his desire for moments over meaning, DR. Z would have been just a forgettable soft-core porn film, rather than what it is… the lynchpin movie between the American Universal Monster movies of the 30’s and 40s and the Euro-Gothic Horror Films/Giallos of the 60s and 70s.

But for Franco’s restraint early in his career, or his being restrained, cinema would have lost a film, a quartet of films, that I believe we are all the better for the having.