I’m really… happy that some of my old posts continue to find an audience and continue to be looked at favorably. And for those of you who took, and take, the time to comment… Thank You. This will be a very brief post, I’ll just leave you with a recent discovery or rediscovery depending on your point of view: I mentioned Bob Dylan a couple posts back, and how I’ve been a fan of his mostly from his singles, catching his music on the radio or in film soundtracks (such as his brilliant score for PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID) but having not really listened to any of his albums all the way through. So this past week with the assistance of my local library I’ve been rectifying that. I started with his BLONDE ON BLONDE, an album whose title alone makes my pornographic brain smile, but that aside I was (given the raves this album gets)… underwhelmed. On first listen (with the exception of VISIONS OF JOHANNA which is an absolute masterpiece) I was pretty unmoved by most of the songs. And I realize you have to put what he was doing in the perspective of the times, I understand how revolutionary his blend of folk and rock was in a younger 1966 America, but importance is no substitute for timelessness and staying power, and I feel a lot of these songs lack staying power. So I can understand the criticism to this album, because I had them, and to an extent still have them (particularly when it comes to the 2nd CD). But i would say to the detractors put the album on rotate on your CD-player and just live with it for a week. Because that’s what I did. I gave the album several more listens, I understand some albums have to grow on you, and I did grow to quite enjoy the first half of the 2CD album. Especially the zany fun of LEOPARD SKIN PILL BOX HAT and just the addictive beauty of JUST LIKE A WOMAN, and of course as mentioned the highlight of the album… VISIONS OF JOHANNA. You could spend a lifetime decoding the beauty and imagery and meaning of that song, and find new beauty and imagery and meaning everytime. But for the winners the album had, there were still quite a few more that even with repeated listens I just didn’t like or engage with. So final verdict: an album definitely worth a listen for the ones that work, JOHANNA worth the price of the cd by itself. Just go in understanding it’s not a masterpiece (at least not an out the box one) and it will need to grow on you, and I think you’ll appreciate it. B/B-.

Well being not exactly a tv person, I’m finally getting around to watching season 1 of the television series 24. I did catch one episode, the premier, nine years ago. And while I thought it was okay, I just wasn’t interested enough to try following the series. Which is just as well, watching live I would have given up on the series well before the end. The DVD is the way to view this series. That said onto my evaluation of the 6 DVD set of season # 1. The season starts strong, the beginning half is pretty damn addictive, brilliant viewing. The only weakness is the plodding storyline about the presidential candidate’s family problems. Whenever the focus shifts to that storyline, all the life and interest goes out of the show. While the actor who plays Senator Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) is a good actor, he spends pretty much the whole season whining, and vacillating over his idiotic son. But Haysbert himself dominates the role, and it is fantastic casting. Having been in the business for years (he’s done everything from BUCK ROGERS to DALLAS to MAGNUM PI to CRIME STORY to RETURN TO LONESOME DOVE to STANDOFF to THE MINUS MAN to THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR to “Now and Again” (1999) to THE UNIT) , it’s good to finally see him in more leading roles. And as Senator Palmer he’s an impressive and imposing aspect, towering as he does over everyone else. He manages to really straddle that troublesome line of Presidential bearing, inspite of the fact that often his character is poorly written, crossing the line too often into melodrama. Speaking of which a large portion of why the Senator Palmer subplot doesn’t work is the poor casting of his son. Beyond not looking remotely like he’s related to the other actors, the young actor in the role comes across as just an annoying, unsympathetic screen presence. Not everyone has a face for every part, and this young man with his mugging, and whining, and temper tantrums was the wrong take for this critical role. He came off as very unsympathetic, which just makes the audience not remotely interested in the character’s welfare. So it’s also a hit against the writing team, for scripting a character, and dialog, that makes you want to hit the fast forward button. And beyond that poor casting, the senator plot, basically just goes in circles, repeating the same old argument about telling/not telling for the whole series. It’s just bad writing. Luckily the other plots are interesting enough to make up for the poorly written Senator Palmer storyline. That said at the half way mark or so, when The main subplot of Jack Bauer finding his wife and daughter is resolved, the whole series just shifts tonally, and becomes, like the Palmer plot, very repetitive and plodding and uninteresting. Every character begins to behave wildly irrationally, and the show just goes off the rails. Particularly Leslie Hope’s character (Terri Bower) suffers from being poorly and irrationally written. Amnesia?? Really? She went from being okay written, to being an atrocious, annoying mess. Other odd writing choices include: (SPOILERS): A character stabbing someone on camera? Bauer, basically trying to set up an episode of CHEATERS with a known assassin rather than just taking him into custody. And then we have a special forces trained Assassin getting taken out by a scorned campaign aide.(END OF SPOILERS) Just idiotic subplot building on idiotic subplot. As if the writers are just killing time to get to the season end. Well that’s my verdict through Disk #5. One more to go. I’ll update this review when that last disk is done. But my opinion right now is that 24 is a series let down by its 2nd half, and lazy writing. UPDATE: (Possible SPOILERS) Okay I just saw the final four episodes of Season #1, and “24″ does still suffer from being very irrational, and annoying. Though there are some surprises. The Senator Subplot actually becomes at times interesting, with the Lady Macbeth machinations of the wife of Senator Palmer. But for that plus, the Bauer subplot loses just about all steam and credibility, with them falling back on kidnapping his daughter again. There’s just a lot of inconsistencies, and stupidity on the bad guy’s side that stretches suspension of disbelief too far. Also the casting of Dennis Hopper, didn’t work well. He’s generally a fine actor, but saddling him with a ridiculous accent really distracts, he just isn’t very believable throughout these episodes. (END OF SPOILERS) So there’s a lot of cliched writing throughout these final four episodes, but there’s a couple of really original plot twists that really save the season. One particular plot twist blew my mind, and really just created an emotional storm that carried you through any writing plotholes. All in all I thought it was an audacious ending that worked on enough levels to get me to give the first season a passing grade, but just barely. **12 out of **** ******** And here’s a quick overview of some of the under the radar actors that I thought delivered really strong and essential performances for 24 season #1: -Michael Massee as Ira Gaines owned the first half of “24″. His understated, but menace filled performance was the kind of presence that Dennis Hopper couldn’t bring to the 2nd half of season #1. And it is really surprising he hasn’t gotten more work since his stint on “24″. -Richard Burgi is always a fantastic actor, and here, as Alan York, is no exception. The guy is a solid actor and always brings his A game, even in less than stellar productions. This reliability is probably due to his soap opera background, which I’ve noticed tends to allow actors to outshine others, who don’t have that demanding training ground of daytime tv to hone their skills. This range, and “in the moment” truth of his acting is more than likely why Burgi has remained a consistently busy and in-demand actor. For other work by him try “ONE WEST WAKIKI”(1994), “THE SENTINEL” (96-99), STARSHIP TROOPERS 2 (2004- A subversive, straight to DVD, claustrophobic film, that I thought was far better than the big budget blockbuster original), CELLULAR (2004), “POINT PLEASANT” (2005), James Woods “SHARK” (2006-2008), “REAPER” (2007), “HARPER’S ISLAND” (2009), “DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES” (2004-2009). -Zeljko Ivanek as Andre Draven I thought was astonishing. Possibly the most effective actor of the whole series, I thought he completely owned and made true every scene he was in. Having first seen him on “HOMICIDE” where he was good, here he gets the chance to be great. And I didn’t realize he’s Yogoslavian when he acted on “HOMICIDE”, as his English is accent free. Here in “24″ he channels the land of his birth to I thought always riveting effect. He’s another actor who has stayed consistently busy, and like Richard Burgi he started in soap operas. Proof positive that people who do years on a Soap, really learn how to bring it when they graduate to Primetime and Movies. Some of the highlights of Ivanek’s filmography being: THE SOLDIER (1982), THE SENDER(1982), “The Sun Also Rises” (1984), “Echoes in the Darkness” (1987), “Aftermath: A Test of Love” (1991), White Squall (1996), Courage Under Fire (1996), Infinity (1996), “The Rat Pack” (1998), “Homicide: Life on the Street” (37 episodes, 1993-1999), Snow Falling on Cedars (1999), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Denis Leary’s “The Job” (2001), Unfaithful (2002), “Oz” (27 episodes, 1997-2003), “Touching Evil” (2004), “The Jury” (2004), “Bones” (2005), “Shark” (2006), Ascension Day (2007), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), In Bruges (2008), “The Mentalist” (2008), “Damages” (2007), - Megalyn Echikunwoke in a poorly written role as Senator Palmer’s daughter still manages to draw your eye when she’s on screen. You can catch her also on: “CSI: Miami”, Who Do You Love (2008) , Fix (2008/I), “The 4400″ (2006), “Supernatural” (2005), “Veronica Mars” (2004) - And last but definitely not least Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers is fantastic! The season largely hangs together on her performance and credibility. And when a lot of actors waver, I think she never gives a false note, a really fine performance. Inexplicably, she had very little follow-up to “24″. If I was a director or producer she’s the type of talented actress I would be on the lookout for. However it appears the lull in work has turned around for her as she has a slate of movies and television projects for 2009 and 2010. Some standouts from her filmography include: Psychic Driving (2005-short film), Alibi (2007), The Colony (2007/II- short film), “Life” (2007), “The Cleaner” (2008), Twilight (2008/I), Women in Trouble (2009), Level Seven (2009).

Mark Chiarello, DC’s Art Editor Supreme, once again proves himself one of the driving visionaries in comics today. Following on the heels of his SOLO series (A critical, if not commercial success, that I hope DC tries again) he masterminds what I consider another DC homerun, WEDNESDAY COMICS (Dedicated to the great Archie Goodwin). WEDNESDAY COMICS is getting me to go to the comic shop every week to pick it up, and I didn’t do that for any other weekly book. Heck I don’t do that for monthly books. Just the format, and the fact that it’s a complete self-contained reading experience (no tie-ins etc) makes it for me an attractive read. So with the series half done, I thought now was a great time for an issue by issue overview: #1 WEDNESDAY COMICS 8 JUL 09- BATMAN is a solid choice to launch this collection of strips. Nice art, nice story, keeps you on tap for next issue. B. KAMANDI-A lot of praise has been heaped on Gibbon’s and Sook’s KAMANDI and rightly so. Completely captures the feel of classic Prince Valiant strips. And does a great job with the cliffhanger. B+. The SUPERMAN strip has beautiful art, but doesn’t feel as successful as the others in being compelling in one page. B-. DEADMAN- Nice art, layout, fun story, strong cliffhanger. Though, feels a little back-story heavy, B. GREEN LANTERN- Love the art, but feel the story doesn’t really make itself work in the one page format. B-/C+. METAMORPHO- Great art, Interesting story. B-/B. TEEN TITANS- Uggh. Neither the art nor the story particularly worked. Very off-putting every time I try and read it. D. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Pope’s STRANGE ADVENTURES gets a lot of praise, and while not my favorite of this issues’ strips, it’s a fun, relatively effective 1 pager. B/B+. Palmiotti and Conner’s SUPERGIRL is cute, and fun, kid friendly stip. B. METAL MEN- Dan Didio impressed me with this effective one pager, and the art by Jose Garcia-Lopez, and Kevin Nowlan (two of the greatest artists in the business) is stunning. Fantastic work by Didio to tell a compelling story in one page. A. WONDER WOMAN- It’s a beautiful strip and like Pope and Baker, Ben Caldwell is doing everything himself. So just for the body of work he’s producing on a weekly basis, he deserves praise. That said the story/structure is largely impenetrable and definitely off-putting. To take an oversized format and still make it squinting, eye strain material, is at the best a misstep and at the worst a crime. All in all, even less reader friendly than the TEEN TITANS’ piece. D-. SGT. ROCK- It’s hard to go wrong with the Kuberts, and this strip so far is no exception. Compelling. B/B+. FLASH/IRIS WEST- Just a lot of fun, and a throwback to the romance comics of yesteryear. And the art is beautiful. B+. DEMON & THE CAT – Great art, found the story not very intriguing or memorable. C+. HAWKMAN- They have Kyle Baker bringing up the rear but for my money that was a good thing because he ended strong. For me this was my favorite strip of this issue, hands down. Just fantastic art, story, and composition, with an effective cliffhanger. It had weight, and gravity to it, no pun intended. “And we Flap”. A+. #2 WEDNESDAY COMICS 15 JUL 09- BATMAN- Solid art. Though I’m not sold on the pacing of this yet. B-. KAMANDI- Wow. It’s just gorgeously drawn and composed. And effectively told. It is beautiful. B+/A-. SUPERMAN- Superman meets Batman. What’s not to love. While the characterizations seemed… off (“Super-Prozac” is that a comment that Batman would make?). Overall good. B. DEADMAN- Good strip. Nice art, relatively compelling. B. GREEN LANTERN- Improvement over last installment. Love the art, and ends on a good cliffhanger. B. METAMORPHO- Not much storywise here but I really enjoy how Allred plays with the page layout. And the kid commentary at the bottom is nifty. B-/B. TEEN TITANS- It’s better than last issue, though it still feels like they are not making use of the 1 page format. STRANGE ADVENTURES- I think here is where Paul Pope for me begins to earn his accolades. Fun art, fun story, effective use of the format. B+. SUPERGIRL- Not exactly my cup of tea. But great art, and kid friendly fun. B. METAL MEN- Loving this series. Didio and Garcia/Nowlan are knocking this out the park and perfectly using the format. Who would think a VP could actually be a great writer? Wow I’m impressed. A/A+. WONDER WOMAN- Still reader kryptonite. D-. SGT. ROCK- Good if taking its time about actually progressing the story. B-/B. FLASH/IRIS- is solidly fun and fantastic. B+. DEMON CAT- Uhhh— beautiful art, story is not doing anything for me. C-. HAWKMAN- Is still beautifully drawn, however reads perhaps a little awkwardly compared to that fantastic opening last week. B/B+. #3 WEDNESDAY COMICS 22 JUL 09- Batman-Nice art, story progressing. Just not terribly interesting so far. C/C+. KAMANDI- Continues to be one of the consistently best strips. B+/A-. Superman- Art beautiful, but starting to feel like it’s treading water. B-/C. Deadman- Nice page layout. Not particularly compelling. B. Green Lantern- Great art. Still trying to get a hang on the story. B. Metamorpho- I still appreciate Allred’s layout, though it’s getting a little repetitive. Same with Gaiman’s lack of actual story/story progression. It is starting to actually annoy me. C-. Teen Titans- Art is not my cup of tea, but the story seems like its starting to shape up. C. STRANGE ADVENTURES- I’m really enjoying this series. Paul Pope is consistently entertaining. B+/A-. Supergirl- More of the same. Fun but not my cup of tea. B. METAL MEN- Man!!! I keep having to sing the praise of these guys. Another brilliant mating of story and art and a cliffhanger! Wow! A/A+. Wonder Woman- Reader Kryptonite still. Sgt Rock- Okay, but still waiting for the story to progress itself. C+. Flash/Iris- Continues to be a joy. B+. Demon and Cat- Wonderful art, not sure what to make of the story. C+. HAWKMAN- Well, that was an unexpected twist. Art is still good, and intriguing story, though I do miss the clean, grittiness of the opening. B. #4 WEDNESDAY COMICS 29 JUL 09- BATMAN- If you’ve seen the Big Sleep, and the thick verbal foreplay Bogie and Bacall do over a meal, you’ll appreciate what Azzarello and Risso are doing here. First one I really loved of their installment. The best Batman I’ve read in a bit, and it had no Batman in it. Excellent. A+. KAMANDI- Wow! Kamandi also ups there game with their best installment yet. Fantastic. A+. Superman- Beautiful art, but Arcudi seems to be pacing his story for the book, rather than the page. B-/B. DEADMAN- Picking up the slack from Superman manages to turn out their best installment to date. Fun. B/B+. GREEN LANTERN- I’m finally getting into this series and its right stuff feel. B+. METAMORPHO- Finally Neil Gaiman has decided to start actually writing a story and I’m intrigued. B/B+. Teen Titans- I don’t know what it is about the number #4 but even the Titans turned in a compelling installment this time. B. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Paul Pope continues to rock. A/A+. SUPERGIRL- What the heck. Even this one was great! Made me laugh! B+. METAL MEN- Brilliance. Pure Brilliance. A+. Wonder Woman— nope Sgt. Rock- Still feels like it’s treading water. C. Flash/Iris- Is still very good, but perhaps a bit confusing. B. Demon and Cat- Uhhh— beautiful art. Story is a nope. HAWKMAN- Wow. I thought this was fantastic. From the invasion to the JLA to the last line. B+/A-. #5 WEDNESDAY COMICS 5 AUG 09- Batman- Azzarello and Risso are hitting their stride. B/B+. KAMANDI- Kamandi rocks! A. Superman- Nice retelling of an oft told origin. B. DEADMAN- Wow! Pretty intense. B+. GREEN LANTERN- It’s rockingly good now. B+. Metamorpho- not a fan of what Gaiman is doing here. C-/D. Teen Titans- A little heavy-handed been there done that. But at least it’s solid storytelling now. C. Strange Adventures- A nice lull. But still fun. B. Supergirl- Fun. B. METAL MEN- Beautiful art. Solid fun. B+. Wonder Woman- unreadable Sgt Rock- Good art, but it’s like Andy Kubert has no idea how to advance the plot. FLASH IRIS- Good stuff. B+. Demon Cat- Great art, a boring story. C-/D. HAWKMAN- Here’s the best compliment I can give this HawkMan serial… I want to own every single page! Baker is amazing, particularly when you consider outside of Ben Caldwell he’s the only one doing the entire strip by himself (Paul Pope does everything except colors). But where Caldwell’s strip is not reader friendly, Baker’s has weekly been one of the serials I look forward to and enjoy the most. B+. #6 WEDNESDAY COMICS 12 AUG 09- BATMAN- Some beautiful visual storytelling. B+. KAMANDI- Beautiful as always. Fun/ great. B+. Superman- Beautiful art. Not enough there to say anything about the story. C+. Deadman- Intriguing. B/B+. Green Lantern- I’m on board. Fun stuff. B/B+. Metamorpho- uhhh— Gaiman’s work leans heavily toward filler/treading water. C-/D. Teen Titans- I’m enjoying the story now. Intriguing. B. STRANGE ADVENTURES- Lives up to its title. Pope consistently weaving an engaging and brilliant narrative. A-. SUPERGIRL- Okay since issue #4 this has been consistently really fun! And this issue continues the streak. B+. METAL MEN- I continue to toss accolades at this strip, but that’s because week in and week out it continues to earn them. Here the METAL MEN take on the mastermind of the bank robbery they’ve been foiling the past 5 weeks, only to realize that bank robbers are the least of their problems. B+/A-. Wonder Woman- unreadable Sgt Rock- Well story is finally moving. C. FLASH/GRODD- I was getting confused, timetravel does this to me, but I read all six issues back to back again, and confusion is cleared up. Remarkably inventive and fun. Wacky stuff and fun Grodd strip this time. B+. The Demon and the Cat- I hate a non-rhyming Demon. D. HAWKMAN- I’m really loving the heck out of Hawkman. After a couple odd steps, it’s feeling back on solid ground. And I’m loving Bakers art. B+.

DRAG ME TO HELL

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There is nothing quite like having an entire movie theater to yourself. And I had just such an experience at today’s matinee showing of Sam Raimi’s latest DRAG ME TO HELL.

Though that said, DRAG ME TO HELL is obviously a film that plays to having the crowd experience. The jumps, and exclamations of the audience are part of the gestalt in a film such as this.

But having the theater to myself gave me a chance to evaluate Raimi’s film as a film, rather then just a theater experience. And as a film the first 2/3rd made me quite remember why the name Raimi is legendary. He remains an exciting, innovative filmmaker. You can see on the screen all the timing and experience he brings from his Indie days, his big budget days, even his TV days, and it makes the first two thirds of the film quite fun.

The story perhaps relying a little too much on gross out gags, for the juvenile audience, but it is an easily overlooked flaw. It is not perfect by any means but the first 2/3rd of the film moves at a brisk enough pace to keep you from looking at the seams of the movie.

SPOILERS:

However from the séance onwards, the film becomes a little too campy. The wire-fu possessed dancing dude, is pretty much where the film loses me (dancing characters appear to be Raimi’s Achilles heel. I say that to be tongue in cheek, because unlike many, while I agree the third SPIDERMAN was the weakest of Raimi’s trilogy, as a whole I quite liked it. And found the dancing sequence in that film quite enjoyable, however not in this film).

The possessed guy, assistant to the medium who tries to exorcise the demon, his whole appearance in the movie seems like what it is, contrived, and calls attention to itself in a bad way. He comes in and comes out to be the weakest portion of the film. So from that point on the film feels really forced, particularly the ending just seemed (the name of the movie to the contrary unlikely) slapped on to give the audience an unconventional ending.

I think with any ending [spoilers], the film has to earn that ending; has to earn its happy ending or earn its downer ending. This film did not earn its ending.

The ending felt, rather than coming out of the film we were seeing, as if it were there for no other reason then to appeal to an audience that increasingly confuses sensationalism and extremism with quality.

Being an optimist I think most films earn their happy endings. I’m a believer in happy endings. So for a film to have a downbeat ending, it has to, through the internal logic of the film, earn that ending. Films that fail to earn their downer ending, are films like THE MIST (its ending felt forced, and tacked on. But so did most of the film).

As far as examples of movies that earn their downer ending: DESCENT, Raimi’s own EVIL DEAD films, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, SEVEN, Carpenter’s THE THING, etc.

Unfortunately DRAG ME TO HELL’s ending is more MIST then DESCENT.

And I understand that studios increasingly gear films toward an audience that filmmakers are aware can’t appreciate plot, or subtlety, or even beauty, but just bodily fluids and banality.

So increasingly filmmakers crank out lowest common denominator films to lowest common denominator audiences. They create caricatures rather than characters, protagonists as objects for audiences to laugh at or feel superior to (for not being in their shoes). And I think that’s a dangerous itch to train the American public to get used to being scratched; to objectify and even enjoy the pain of the other. There’s a dangerous grooming of the audience that filmmakers are gearing their movies toward; a dangerous commentary about what our degenerating fictions say about our society’s degenerating freedoms.

But such pandering was not something I expected from a filmmaker like Raimi. And to his credit it’s not something I got for the bulk of the film. But unfortunately it is the ending that defines the journey, and I think the film swerved into oncoming traffic at the end.

The ending flew in the face of the internal veracity/logic of the film. How many blank sealed envelopes, with a round item in it are you likely to find in a car? It is illogical (in the logic of the film) that the protagonist would mistakenly pick up a duplicate envelope, or that such a duplicate envelope would just be sitting in the car. As soon as she lost the envelope, then found it again I was on the alert for just such an ending as we got. But I was hoping Raimi wouldn’t be as… slapstick as that.

And that is the perfect word for the ending, it felt slapstick rather than narrative, or emotive, or meaningful.

I think DRAG ME TO HELL is not a film that people who raved about it in the gestalt of the theaters, will judge it as favorably upon second viewing. I think the clumsy nature of the 3rd act, will be clearer when revisited.

An ending has to be a product of the convictions and craft of the filmmaker, as well as the strength of the script/story; and should not be an interchangeable thing. A film is not a video game, it shouldn’t have multiple endings. It is a narrative that should like a novel, build toward a singular end. DRAG ME TO HELL, its name to the contrary, felt untrue to its end.

So all in all, a film worth seeing just for Raimi’s directorial style, but a flawed film. It is a fun date/group movie for most of its running time, but just be aware the ending does not hold up.

**1/2 out of ****.

ORPHAN

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Saw ORPHAN last week with a friend, and in a packed theater, and it was a very odd experience for me. ORPHAN is a thriller with a creepy kid, that’s all you need to know going in. That’s all I knew. It is a technically pretty damn impressive film, that does everything it wants to do, with a nice twist I did not see coming, but I really did not enjoy this film. Because for all its craft, its cliches got on my nerves. (I’m going to avoid the central spoiler of this film, because it is great and you should see it for the twist alone, that said to discuss what I don’t like about the film is impossible without discussing a few other things about the film. So these are very minor obtuse SPOILERS, but they are spoilers, so go see or rent the film first, and come back to compare our takes on the film. You have been warned! )

F**K I’m sick of characters of color being in a movie just to buy it. SICK OF IT. It was piss poor filmmaking three decades ago, and it has just gotten to be a more pathetic crutch today. Which is why I’m such an effing fan of John Carpenter films. Wow, great movies, where the character of color doesn’t necessarily have to be the victim or the villain. And where he typically has more than one character of color. Imagine that? Man, I understand roles are hard to come by for actors of color, but seriously to all actors of color out there: pick your roles with some care!

Because when you, the actor, are silenced… shuffle off this mortal coil; they… the images, will continue to speak for you. Actors like Poitier and Belafonte and Roundtree and Williams understood this. And while this principled stance has made their careers shorter than they otherwise would be, it has also made cinema better than it would otherwise be.

Here endeth that rant.

Onto Cliche and rant two. The cliche of getting the upper hand on the villain, then turning your back on them. OH KNOW, NOT AGAIN!

The last time that was cool was in the first LETHAL WEAPON movie. It’s been done 5 million times since then, notice to filmmakers: IT IS NO LONGER COOL, INTERESTING, OR REMOTELY A SURPRISE so stop effing doing it! Grrrrrr! ORPHAN has this obligatory scene of “surprise the villain isn’t dead”, and it’s just lazy scriptwriting, lazy direction, lazy filmmaking.

And like I say, I quite like where the ending of ORPHAN begins to go, but that cliche just takes me right out of the film, and kills any enjoyment for me. And the whole movie is filled with frustrating and annoying cliches like that. Particularly the character of the husband is so stupid and whiny and blind, that I personally want to reach into the screen and strangle him. The actor Peter Sarsgaard is always such such a swarmy presence in his roles, though that did serve him well in the far better SKELETON KEY.

And the last thing that really kind of got me about this film, it’s really a very vicious film throughout. I mean, it’s bloody dark. Which is absolutely what the filmmakers were going for, but I have to say, I was pretty uncomfortable with the whole film. I’m no light weight when it comes to thrillers/horror, I’ve seen everything from UNIVERSAL CLASSICS to EXORCIST to SEVEN, Japanese Horror, Italian Horror, you name it, I’ve seen it. But a lot of this film revolves around violence around children, putting them in jeopardy, and while this has been done to good effect from films such as NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, LEMORA, WHO CAN KILL A CHILD, TOGETHER BROTHERS, etc., it’s always something I’m weary of. And here in ORPHAN there’s some really explicit violence, and implied violence, and language perpetrated around and at children. How parents of these young actors can be okay with their kids in such explicit scenes, I always find slightly disturbing.

All that’s on the bad. But on the good is that the performance of the cast, for the most part, is fantastic. Vera Farmiga as the mom, Kate Coleman, has been working since the 90s, but this puts her on the map for me. She completely ties you into this movie. CCH Pounder in a thankless role, delivers her usual solid and grounded performance (a great actress, who is typically underused). And the children Jimmy Bennett (The Young James T. Kirk from the new STAR TREK film, who only 13 already has over 30 film and TV credits to his name), and Aryana Engineer (in her screen debut) are excellent in really difficult and intense roles. But it’s the 12 yo Isabelle Fuhrman who is a revelation as the title character. It is an astonishing performance and one I would never have any 12 yo play. However in the long history of evil kid movies, without argument Isabelle’s performance takes the crown.

Director Jaume Collett-Serra, a Spaniard, with this his third movie marks himself as a pushing the edge director to watch. If he can avoid the easy cliches, and the predictable scripts, he may become a house-hold name. Based on this film I’ll check out his previous two films: HOUSE OF WAX and GOAL II. And finally moving onto the writers, the story was by Alex Mace, and screenplay by David Johnson. Their twist I quite liked but, like the director, the writers need to avoid the clichés and the well worn choices of the genre.

An interesting film, with some really unnerving scenes. Not a film I walked out of the theater liking, though my friend— she was more a fan of it then I, but I can not argue that it was compellingly crafted.

An intriguing film, definitely flawed, but overall very capably put together. I wouldn’t recommend spending movie prices to see, but it is definitely one you should rent and decide for yourself. And let me reiterate if I didn’t make it clear, this is not a family film. IT IS NOT FOR KIDS, and is totally deserving of its R rating.

Okay those are all the reviews for this segment. See you next time!

TORCHWOOD:CHILDREN OF EARTH- I came into this mini-series having only seen one other episode of TORCHWOOD, the season #2 finale preceeding this series. And that episode by itself was pretty darn bleak and impressive. But CHILDREN OF THE EARTH ratchets it up several notches, with the stakes being nothing less than the world itself. I found it powerful, and wrenching television, with strong performances throughout. It’s the kind of emotional wringer that BABYLON 5 and FARSCAPE were very good at pulling off, primarily due to the tortured and terrific performance of their actors. And while CHILDREN OF EARTH perhaps lacks any single stand-out actor, all the actors turn in strong performances, and CHILDREN boasts a script, that while science fiction, is more grounded in the issues facing us today. That and the sustained storyline aspect, creates a cumulative effect that makes for one of the finer hours of television I’ve seen in a while. It’s not without missteps, what show is, but the few it takes are minor and lost in the numerous strengths of the mini-series. So all in all easily the best BBC TV production I’ve seen. If this series doesn’t touch your heart in places, it’s quite possible you’re in need of a new one. Recommended. A-.

I’ve actually got a nice little backlog of articles, but as way of excuse, a couple of the articles I’m hawking to paying outlets. One is in the can. Three more are toying on the lip. But here is one entry, that I actually conceived of a while back for a New Years resolution style presentation, but it was a delay getting the feedback from one of the presenters… He knows who he is! But, I’m being facetious, ultimately other things just kept bumping it, but now some of the Web’s coolest personalities consent to answer my questions and present you a pretty damn amazing selection of their favorites. Without further ado, read and be awed!!! Modest aren’t I? In this posting David W of the magazine and blog BADAZZ MOFO, and filmmaker of the extremely well received short BLACK SANTA’S REVENGE is at bat. HT: what are your 5 favorite movies that most people haven’t seen? David W of BADAZZ MOFO: In terms of blaxploitation, my five favorite films that haven’t really been seen, or at least haven’t been seen as much as they deserve to be seen, the top one would be Melinda. This is hands down one of the best films of both the genre and the era, but it’s never even had a release on home video. (This is me, HT, interrupting. David and I have pretty different tastes in movies [How do you not love the Poitier/Cosby Trilogy?!] , but I picked up Melinda on his recommendation. The first few minutes, I have to tell you… wasn’t impressed. But I stuck with it and it just kept getting better, and better, and better… it’s absolutely fantastic! WoW! The flick has everything, and at its heart is about a self-centered man, who learns to care deeply for something other than himself, and what happens when that is taken away. I don’t subscribe to the term blaxploitation, think it is a dismissive term for what was an empowering time/movement, but however you want to label MELINDA… it’s great! Okay, back to David’s list:) David W of BADAZZ MOFO:My list of favorite “seldom seen” classics of the blaxploitation era looks something like this (in no particular order). 1. Melinda – Calvin Lockhart and Rosalind Cash, both at their finest. 2. Together Brothers – Barry White’s score is enough to make this movie a classic, but it also happens to be a very well put together thriller that holds up to repeated viewings. It has yet to get a legitimate release on home video, but it’s turned up on cable recently. 3. The Spook Who Sat By the Door – This is not only my favorite blaxploitation film, but one of my favorite movies, period. It finally got a release on DVD, but most people have never even heard of it. 4. The Landlord – The directorial debut of Hal Ashby isn’t quite blaxploitation, but it comes close, and it is one of the greatest movies of the 1970s. People know Ashby mostly for films like Harold & Maude or Shampoo, but this is really his best, most provocative film. 5. Gordon’s War – This is just balls-out great blaxploitation, with Paul Winfield leading an ensemble cast of ex-Green Berets who decide to clean up the streets. I can’t help but think if this starred Charles Bronson, it would be modern classic. HT: Good list there David. I’ve seen 3 of the 5 you list, and plan on seeing THE LANDLORD and TOGETHER BROTHERS in the next couple weeks. But yeah the 3 I’ve seen are definitely great films. Okay onto the next question, what are five great books that most people haven’t read? David W of BADAZZ MOFO: I feel like I’m something of a populist reader. I’m trying to think of books I’ve read that no one else has read that were great, but that combination is difficult to come up with. I have a ton of pulp novels from the blaxploitation era, but most of them aren’t that good, or that memorable. The one exception is Roland Jefferson’s The School on 103rd Street , which I think is an incredible political thriller with a great blaxploitation vibe. Jefferson ’s book reminds me of the novel The Spook Who Sat By the Door, also an all-time favorite, which I guess deserves a place on this list. 1. The School on 103rd Street – Roland Jefferson’s paranoid thriller involves the discovery of underground concentration camps in black communities throughout the United States . 2. The Spook Who Sat By the Door – Great movie, even better book. The first black agent in the CIA leaves the agency to start a guerilla war against the United States . 3. Donald Goines’ Kenyatta series – I’m sure plenty of people have read master crime novelist Goines series Crime Partners, Death List, Kenyatta’s Escape and Kenyatta’s Last Stand, but all four are required reading for fans of urban action thrillers. Honestly, I’m not sure if Goines wrote the last book in the series, which came out shortly after he was murdered. The writing style is a bit different, but it, just like the other three, is a gritty, action-packed bit of pulp fiction. 4. Joseph Nazel’s Iceman series – Nazel cranked out seven Iceman books, chronicling the adventures of a badass killer. Honestly, I can’t remember anything about any of the books, other than the fact that they were better than other series from that era, with the exception of maybe Marc Olden’s Black Samurai series. 5. If I’m So Famous, How Come Nobody’s Ever Heard of Me? – This has no place on this list, as it’s the autobiography of B-movie actress Jewel Shepard, but I love this book. Shepard is brutally honest about her life and her career, and this book has stuck with me over the years. HT: Wow, he schooled me! As I like to think I’m on the cutting edge of the best books and films out there, but some of this list has flown under my Nubian Noir detector. Only ones on this list I’ve read are Goines KENYATTA’S LAST HIT, and also the phenomenal Marc Olden BLACK SAMURAI series (took me forever to collect, but well worth it!). Speaking of Marc Olden I also highly recommend his absolutely brilliant and ahead of its time (in its construction) POE MUST DIE (I have a review in the works). But yeah, definitely intend to get all these books. This is real literature, not the poorly packaged hood stereotypes that passes for Black literature today. And moving onto # 5 definitely interested, David did a great interview with Jewel Shepard in his essential, if short lived magazine, BADAZZ MOFO! I highly recommend pestering David for issues while supplies last! Tell him HT sent ya! Okay David, I see you’re getting sleepy so let’s wrap up this BEST OF LIST by providing your five favorite songs or albums that most people haven’t heard. David W of BADAZZ MOFO: They are… 1. Street Justice by The Rake – An epic, ten-minute rap song about a guy who’s family is attacked by thugs. When the punks go free, he tracks them down and kills them. Fucking brilliant. “You gotta meet the punks on the battle front/You gotta beat the punks/Street Justice!” 2. Spider-Man – From the bizarre, mid-1970s Album Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero. Both the song and the album are incredibly cheesy, but I still listen to it like I was eight years-old. 3. Thunder and Lightening by Thin Lizzy – Makes me want to go out and kick someone’s ass. 4. Daddy’s Little Girl by Khaleel – The most depressing song after Cat’s in the Cradle. 5. Big Dumb Sex by Soundgarden – From the Louder Than Love album, which came out before anyone knew who the were. HT: Wow. From Spider-man to SoundGarden, talk about eclectic. . Great lists David, I intend to pick up all the above. Thanks for taking the time to put up with my nagging and provide these. And we’ll have to do this again. And in closing readers, you can find more from David W at his site WWW.BADAZZMOFO.COM. And he also has a BADAZZ MOFO book on the horizon, so that’s one you should keep an eye out for. Okay we have a few more of these lists, as soon as I hunt them up. So keep an eye on this site for move. And if you dug this, drop an email or leave a comment. That’s all folks!

I just came from seeing the WATCHMEN, a much anticipated movie. My first film on the big screen since being back on the East Coast. My first theater experience, made me miss the Southern Californian movie theaters. LA as you can imagine is a place that takes their theaters seriously. From enforcing restrictions on R rated showings, to having state of the art sound and picture, to policing the screenings. The policing part made moot, by the fact that the Socal movie crowd, like I said is serious about their films. This east coast screening however, slightly marred by the fact that some idiot with a laser pointer made me want to kill somebody. An irritation easily resolved in the short term by having an usher in the theater to monitor just such idiocies, and in the long term by more selective breeding. This country has too many of the wrong people breeding. This moron, someone told me later was in there with three kids (seemingly his), and all four of them looking like Howdy Doody. I hate morons. Always have, always will. I hate people who cross the line. That minor idiocy bringing us back to the topic at hand, the WATCHMEN. The 12 chapter graphic novel at its heart is a cross-generational murder mystery, about a time and a breed of people, that hold an ever more broken line. The graphic novel is an acknowledged masterpiece, that I read when it first came out in 1986, and reread recently… just a scant month before the opening of the film. The graphic novel is deserving of its praise, as written and drawn and colored by three brits, it uses the trappings of the hero genre to examine and dissect the paranoia of a cold war America, and the violent, decadent, cannibalistic American id. An oft covered topic now, back in 1985-1986, the work was revelatory. In many ways it still is. Dense and layered and rich, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and John Higgins’ WATCHMEN was the wakeup call to a medium, that had been a long time sleeping. There is a sophistication to what these gentleman had done in the WATCHMEN that has since been much copied, but seldom equaled. For over 2 decades it kicked around Hollywood, unfilmable most said. But that was before. Before comic properties routinely started generating over 100million dollars. Before CGI grew up. Before Zack Snyder’s 300, made much money on little investment. So the unfilmable movie has been filmed, and director Zack Snyder is to be applauded for his vision, his style, his direction, his faithfulness to the source. There are many scenes that made me smile, because they capture exact and momentous moments, capture them well. Many scenes improve on the source, make moments cinematic and visceral, definitely Snyder’s strength in 300. His action scenes are phenomenal. Not since Peckinpah and Woo has anyone used slow motion as effectively. In pieces, in parts, the movie impresses; but as a whole it unfortunately fails. And that can be summed up in one word: Pacing. Snyder tries to be faithful to the book, but the book is too dense and too rich to be shoehorned into 2 or even 3 hours. Without having read the graphic novel, large parts of the movie are going to be confusing and incomprehensible to the audience. Even having read the novel, I clearly saw that much of it was muddled at best. I felt the whole conceit and destruction it was building up to and that the ‘heroes’ were racing to stop, got lost. The characters moving from scene to scene, but the why of their movements either lost on the cutting room floor or never filmed. I knew the ending of the book, but based on just watching the film, you wouldn’t. Snyder’s faithfulness to the source material, costing him in terms of making it accessible and exciting as a film. Bottom line, there was too much happening, in too little a period of time, to too many characters. And it cost a visually inventive movie its heart. Its audience. The movie would have been better served as a tv show, or a movie trilogy. Both options giving the audience time to know the characters and care for them, an empathy absent from this film. Looking at the trilogy aspect, the first movie should have ended with the death of the Comedian, not been just the beginning of a movie. That would have covered the Minutemen years. The 2nd movie would have been Rorschach’s investigation and the Watchmen years, and the third movie would have been the last hour and a half of the movie we saw in the theaters minus the muddled shoehorned in back-story. But hindsight is 20/20. I can see clearly what works, because of Zack Snyder’s effort. He had much right. The casting I thought was spot on, the performances, the acting, the visuals, the music, however the script and the pacing did not play to the strengths of cinema, this edit of the movie largely was nonsensical and cost a movie that could have been… great, its greatness. So all in all, a failed film. That I would not recommend to anyone who has not read the book, and even those who have… may find it a viewing better reserved for when the extended, and hopefully re-edited DVD comes out. But I still count Zack Snyder, with only 3 movies under his belt (DAWN OF THE DEAD, 300, WATCHMEN), as one of the most exciting filmmakers working, because even his misses, are visually more interesting than most people’s successes. A filmmaker to watch.

I don’t currently own a TV. I don’t currently have cable. Gotta tell ya… I don’t miss em. I mean I still keep abreast of the latest DVDs, but as far as television and cable… nope. I try and keep the number of monopolies that I am forced to support (because of lack of choice) to a minimum. So anytime I can eliminate or consolidate reoccurring debits, I’m happy to do so. When I want to see something on the big screen, I go to the movies (check my review on LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in 70mm to see why a quality theater is still the best way to watch great films) . Otherwise my leisure time is spent writing, reading, watching DVDs (laptop), self studying, activism, music, dining out and a recent interest in Horticulture (An admittedly odd interest for me, considering I have a thumb of death). I capture RSS feeds of the latest news from around the world, so I tend to stay more informed than the person who just sits slack jawed in front their television and hears the same news, told to him the same way, from annoyingly similar talking heads… 36 times throughout the day. I tend to stay more informed then the person camped out in front of CNN or ABC, waiting to be told, vapidly it seems, what to be outraged about and why. These days Broadcast news has more in common with mesmerism and propaganda than it does the people’s right to know. That said I do, eventually, intend to get a large flat panel TV for DVD watching, a 720p screen. Why? Well contrary to the bs, that’s actually the perfect resolution to both produce content at, and to watch that content at. Especially for passive entertainment like watching DVDs or TV. On anything under a 50 inch screen, anything over a 720 resolution is just asking for eye strain. 1080 is a resolution that really has no use, in the majority of screen choices required for a consumer situation (ie 50″ or less) beyond allowing TV makers to charge you more for it. The purpose and benefit of greater resolutions in the computer world, is not for watching movies, it is for having more real estate to multi-task, and to offer full page views of column heavy documents such as spreadsheets. And since we’re at least a generation if not two, away from viable interactive television sets, any 1080 display today is a medium in search of a market. It is the case of the tail wagging the dog. At 720p, production is cost effective for the little guy, cameras are readily available, and from recording to production of media, to reception, It really is an area that allows some growth. But 1080 allows you to keep the little guy playing catch up. because the cost of those cameras are high, and by the time the cost of those come down, the market will be onto something else. But 720p, is a place where a lot of good things can happen, if we can keep the tail (the people who create change, just so they can sell you more change) from wagging the dog (the consumer). Resolution is just that. It’s about screen real estate. Not about picture quality, but picture conventions. Arguably concerns such as contrast, refresh rates, dot pitch, and media compression algorithms are of FAR more importance to picture quality than the canvas dimensions. And that is all resolution is, is the dimensions of the canvas. A traditional 480 DVD looks great on a 720 screen, presented progressive. And a 720 DVD looks great on a 720 screen. And I’ve seen recent 1080 DVDs on a 1080 display, and they look like 720 but with noise inserted to fill up the additional real estate. I’ve watched a friend’s 300 and TROY in BluRay (I do go over other peoples’ houses and see the behemoth tvs they’ve mortgaged their children to purchase) on his 1080 Bluray Player, and it looks nice, it’s an improvement on regular DVD, but I have to say it is not a vast improvement. In the case of the movie 300, it was barely an improvement at all. Right now Bluray is not exciting me enough to justify its cost. And I think part of this is that the 1080 resolution, on anything under a 50 inch screen, looks like what it is… noise. Why? A 1080i or p screen (1080p being the current holy grail and what Blurays are mastered at) provides to whatever size screen you are using over 2 million pixels of info every 30th of a second. This translates into 60 million pixels of data per second. By comparison 720p provides a little less than a million pixels of data (921,600 to be exact) per 30th of a second, or roughly 30million pixels of data per second. So everything being equal, a 1080p recorded source played on a 1080p native player delivered to a 50″ 1080p tv and a 720p recorded source played on a 720p native player delivered to a 50″ 720p tv; the 1080p setup going by the argument more is better should be twice as good as the 720p setup, right? I mean it delivers twice as many pixels per second. Right? Well yes and no. Yes, it does deliver twice as many pixels per second, but it doesn’t look twice as good. In fact it’s arguably a negligible improvement and in my experience a degradation. Why? Well no one has done any studies on this particular phenomenon (who wants to get on the wrong side of a multi-billion dollar consensus of media conglomerates?) but my unscientific guess would be 1080i or p ( 60million pixels of data) delivered every second… concentrated in a certain amount of space, is not absorbed as fluidly as 30million pixels of data. I think the number is too much. Wait, don’t laugh, I promise you… I will prove the earth orbits the sun and not the other way around. Science already knows there are numbers below and above which range, they are not conducive to the vagaries of human pleasure. Just like there is a frequency of images per second above and below which the illusion of smooth television viewing falls apart, just as we are aware that there is a range of colors when alternated in quick succession, is passively absorbed by most of us, but triggers fits in the more sensitive (typically diagnosed as photosensitive epilepsy), so there is a point beyond which our brain (which is the most important aspect of what we see, it turns the upside down image that hits our eyes right-side up, and grants to these series of still frames the illusion of motion, etc) has to drop info, to keep the illusion. Our brains are very smart, they look at an image and they say, “so much info in so much real estate provides this sort of picture, and it is all useful”, but at some number the additional info becomes at odds with the area it is provided in, and the time it is given to process. 60000000 pixels of data in a space of 50″ or less, presented every second, I think is over the range that our brain determines is necessary or adequate in such a space over such a repetitive period of time. So visual data over the comfortable range our brain has set, is seen as unnecessary or redundant info and is dropped or not processed, and explains why the 1080p setup contrasted against a comparative 720p setup is something underwhelming at best (being not twice the quality of 720p ) and inferior at worst (where the extraneous info is actually seen as noise). Seeing as I’m not a mathematician or an Optometrist, I’ll leave the proving or disproving of my hypothesis above to the glory hounds among you. For myself it suffices to know that a 1080 setup is just asking for eye fatigue. . Your mileage may vary. But for me, currently the best viewing experience is a 720p source, played on a 720p DVD (uncompressed if that is available), on a 720p Screen. David Camoy over at CNET also has an article on comparative HD resolutions. And also puts forth the conclusion that the difference between 720p and 1080p on screens of 50″ or less are negligible. And I would go father than that and say the 1080p picture is actually degraded compared to the 720p picture. Try it for yourself, and decide. So save yourself some bucks and don’t blindly swallow the 1080p hype. Here endeth the, hopefully informative, rant.

I’m always amazed how people get to this site. It is so cool, some of the people who have links to my site. Mr. Walter Koenig being the latest one. Thanks all, for the links. They are deeply appreciated. Okay onto the post: This post is some rambling notes for myself, so bear with it: I just saw REC the Spanish Horror thriller, I’m pimping a review to a paying site, so I won’t say much here except to say, I hated CLOVERFIELD and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, all these found footage films; and REC avoids the weaknesses and pitfalls of all previous attempts at such a conceit, and manages to imbue it with real strength. The film is fantastic. And damn Hollywood for remaking it rather than just giving it a US release. People aren’t morons, at least most people; this subtitled movie would have done great in the theaters. But the suits in Hollywood are all greed and no taste. So we get watered down Americanized versions of great foreign movies. Typically inferior garbage, that only weakens the strength of the original film. I have not seen QUARANTINE. After being stupid enough to see the garbage that was THE STRANGERS rather than the French original, I’ve learned my lesson. I avoid Hollywood remakes, at least until I see the original first. So REC was worth the wait. Fantastic film. Unfortunately for those wanting to see popular foreign films, Hollywood doesn’t make it easy, because they want you to see their crappy US remake, and buy that version on DVD. So as of this writing, there are no region 1 DVDs available of great foreign films like REC. Thankfully as long as you have a region free DVD player, which you really should have, and access to a foreign DVD seller, you’re good. Because the rest of the world isn’t as crippled and locked down as the studios have the American market. In the rest of the world, they release foreign films theatrically, and release foreign DVDs. Imagine that. And that’s exactly what I did. I bought a region 3 DVD of REC, and it rocks. But realistically you shouldn’t be at the mercy of the studios regarding seeing foreign films and tv shows. It’s all greed. They take a popular foreign series, delay the release of any region 1 DVDs so instead they can feed you their crappy US remake, and their crappy DVD. THEN they release the original series on region 1 DVD! So it’s double dipping! They generate ad revenue on the broadcast of their remake. then they generate revenue on their remake’s DVDs. then they generate revenue on DVD sales of the original!!! It’s a ripoff! So I say screw em. Get yourself a multi-region Dvd, and then you’re not at the mercy of region 1 release schedules. And the funny thing about that is, even when they release foreign tv shows on region 1 dvd, often the DVD is edited and cut differently then the original series. An example of this being JEKYLL BBC series. The show as broadcast in the states was cut, and the region 1 DVD is also cut. So if you want to see this series as it was released you have to purchase the Pal DVD. And if you think the current DVD scenario is problematic, Bluray/HDDVD will further cripple your options, and put you further at the mercy of the studios. Which is why I’m in no rush to migrate away from the DVD. Hell there are enough DVD movies and tv shows I haven’t seen, that if they stopped making DVDs tomorrow, I would have enough used inventory floating around out there, to last me the rest of my life. So screw you Hollywood studios! Screw you FOX! So do your homework people, and don’t be deprived of seeing the films every other country gets to see. Take John Woo’s latest film RED CLIFF. There’s no reason that film shouldn’t have gotten a US Theatrical release. But the greedy studios again, they want to be able to double, triple, and quadruple dip. So you’re going to have to wait to see the crappy Americanized remake or edited version of RED CLIFF, a year after the original has made the rounds. Then they are going to sell you the crappy American DVDs of RED CLIFF. And only after they’ve raked in all this money on feeding you two years of crap, are they finally going to release the original “director’s cut” Region1 DVD of John Woo’s RED CLIFF. So you can wait two years for the Studios to feed you piecemeal John Woo’s vision. Or you know what, you can decide you want to have the same rights to see this film as someone in Thailand or London, and buy the DVD today. It makes me insane, how for such a supposedly free country, we are increasingly at the mercy of greedy fuckers. And I understand profit. I have no problem with profit. I have a problem when profit becomes a juggernaut of greed. A beast that eats away at the consumer, rather than just filling the needs of the consumer. And it’s even worse if the country producing the film, is not a western puppet. One of the best films I saw last year was the Cuban bio-pic EL BENNY. I raved about it in my review last year. This is a film that should be seen by everyone. Especially Americans. Because it shows the world as something beyond the sound-bites of our nightly propaganda. Unfortunately that’s the very reason many foreign films don’t get US releases, and don’t get DVD distribution. Which means some of the vital filmmakers of our age, Diop Mambety, Sembene Oursmane, their best films do not make it onto our shores. Are seen once, in a film festival, and then relegated to molding away in someone’s closet. The move to all digital cinemas, will further marginalize such filmmakers. It’s all part and parcel of the same beast. It’s really, to a fine level, policing the content of what each region is exposed to. This even goes to the concept of having alternate endings and versions of films, a fad that i wholeheartedly despise. It pisses in the face of cinema. Why is CITIZEN KANE a classic? Or why is the THIRD MAN a classic? Or High Noon or JAWS or BRAVEHEART or DO THE RIGHT THING or BLOOD SIMPLE? Because these films offer a singular vision. A shared and shareable vision. An iconic and unwavering vision. The fantastic ending of DOUBLE INDEMNITY comes to mind (and yes I know DI had an epilogue that was excised from the final version of this film. But the point is we did have a final version, and it is that one, singular version we saw, and those hard decisions that define a classic film). And because of this, if you are 9 or if you are 90, and you have seen a great movie, you’ve largely seen the same movie. And you can share the memories, the conversation or the wow factor of that movie. It makes you part of a singular conversation. You gasp at the same moments at the end, you wow to the same scenes. It is a cultural connectivity that is very important, and unites the viewers, even if you didn’t see that film in the same theater, or in the same time, or in the same country, it is still the same film, its beats are the same, and you have that in common. That frame of reference. In a world increasingly spinning itself apart, this shared cinematic conversation is a tiny way to keep ourselves together. Cinema then, as that shared endless place in time where all our rosebuds are lost, and all our rosebuds are found. As opposed to today with the move toward multiple endings. Which in the short term may seem an easy way for studios to triple dip as far as revenues, but in the long term it robs that film of its singular vision, its cultural connectivity. In the long term… it hurts film. Because suddenly two people can have seen the same movie, but each remembers different endings. And the film rather than being a unique statement, that is memorable for the very fact it has the balls to lock itself in stone, and lock you, the viewers together, instead suddenly is something ephemeral, and transitory, and… forgettable.

The very act of having multiple endings, negates the ability of a film to be a classic. Period.

It negates the very ability of it to be a film, as far as I’m concerned.

It’s the act of a lazy filmmaker.

Multiple endings are great for “choose your own adventure” books and video games, but cinema has always been the domain of men and women, directors, who have something lasting to say to the world. Multiple endings negates the lasting voice of cinema.

DO you sense I really fing hate Hollywood suits?

And the only reason is because I love Hollywood. I grew up on cinema. I love Cinema enough to defend it perpetually and criticize, perpetually, the small minded, fing trolls, who temporarily, find themselves in positions they are not worthy of, interfering with the course of a medium, that was here long before them, and will be here long after they and their works have turned to dust.

Okay, that ends my rant. I’m jumped all over the place, but in summation…

Screw Hollywood. Get an ALL-REGION Dvd player. Screw Bluray. Support International sellers, and international filmmakers and generally screw Hollywood.

Oh and pick up REC, great movie.

Okay, Okay Holiday stuff. Today’s Holiday Recommendation: BADAZZ MOFO is a great magazine, covering the world of Soul Cinema, as well as Pop Culture in general. I mentioned the mag over a year ago (use my search engine to the right). They are currently running an unbelievable Holiday deal at their site, where you get multiple back issues for one low price! Just a great deal. How great is the magazine? Well this is from the intro of issue #6 (cover the kids’ ears and eyes): “Well here we are again. It seems like a long time since we were here last (and to be honest, it has been a long time). If you’re someone who’s returning, thanks for coming back. If this is your first time reading BADAZZ MOFO, allow me to offer this warning: there are things within the pages of this magazine -both ideas and language- that will offend you. I don’t give a sh**. If you can’t handle being offended, then get the f*** out now, because it’s only going to get worse.” That paragraph when I first read it, made me laugh out loud, and tells you all you need to know about the magazine and the man behind it, Big D. Having done my bit at self-publishing, I completely appreciate the passion that goes into a project like this. And his design layout is fantastic. Now I have to say I enjoy the heck out of the magazine, but I disagree with almost all of the reviews. If the mag says a movie is great, I usually think it’s horrible or so-so, and if the mag says a movie is horrible or lukewarm (COTTON COMES TO HARLEM, UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT, BROTHER JOHN) I rate them as FANTASTIC! (Especially BROTHER JOHN, which I think is one of the most lyrical, and subversive, and poetic films of the last 40 years. And for me Sidney Poitier’s most haunting and hopeful performance and film:) . But knowing our tastes are completely different, I just flip his reviews. . So our differing tastes aside it is just a must have magazine. Witty, funny, vulgar, brilliant, and insightful. Go to the site pick them up, and send him some words of support. He’s thinking of ending the magazine, so some commitments of support/subscribers for the next issue would go a long way to keep the issues coming. So yeah, go and buy a great mag that will put a smile on your face, and support a publisher that needs to stay around. A win/win situation. .