Film Diary June 09

Well, I suppose you can tell the nature of a person by the kind of movies they go see at the theatre. It's easy to sit on the couch and watch something on TV, a little harder to pop in a DVD, but when it comes to making the trip to a movie theatre, usually there has to be something worth the trek. Especially in Vegas when it gets to 110 in the summer. I play a game with myself called lets-watch-every-first-run-movie-for-any-given-month at my favorite movie theatre (in this case, at the Rave Motion Pictures Theatre in Las Vegas). Haven't made it yet; there's always some movie that comes out that I just can't bring myself to watch. Almost made it in April (but was savagely stopped short of my goal by THE HANNAH MONTANA MOVIE). Almost made it in May, but was denied by MY LIFE IN RUINS. Was doing great in June, until the unmovable object of MY SISTER'S KEEPER struck my irresistable force. Oof. At the end of the month I'm going to post my film diary at the bottom of the right column. In the next few posts, I'll put up all the movies month by month that I've seen at the Rave, starting way back in October 07. Has it been that long? Wow. It has. You'll never guess what the first movie I ever watched there was...

Film Review: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Okay, so this is a great example of a "best friend movie." Sure, structurally it isn't very well done. There's plenty of redundancy around, including redundant characters who don't add anything to the plot, contrived situations that wouldn't happen in a million years -- i..e, Shia LaBeouf can't tell Megan Fox he loves her (you've got to be kidding me -- is there a guy on the face of the planet who wouldn't tell Megan Fox he loves her, especially knowing she wants him to?); plus a teenager with a twelve foot intelligent car robot in his garage, who just wants to be left alone to live his own life? Again, you have to be kidding me. That is your life. Who wouldn't want a cool sportscar that turns into a protective robot for a best friend? And who in their right mind wouldn't take that car -- or Megan Fox -- with him to college? (The contrived explanation is that Megan Fox has to take care of her father, and that cars aren't allowed at college. Huh?) And it suffers from the same problems the first movie had -- when the robots talk, it's very difficult to understand what they're saying, and when the robots fight, they are so intricate looking that you can't figure out what is happening. Like other Michael Bay action sequences, the fighting is tedious and the least entertaining moments of the movie. Michael Bay has never been one to subscribe to the first and most basic tenets of movie making: bad movies are about plot (and special effects and action sequences and explosions etc...), great movies are about character. But the point is, it is still a very entertaining film if you like to see giant robots creating chaos and doing stuff. It's great how the Decepticons all look very very sharp. And there are some great moments of humor and fun, not to mention the first sequence at the beginning of the film which may be one of the best moments in sci fi film history... Overall, it's like your best friend. Sure, he has faults. He can't balance his checkbook all the time, flakes out on you every now and then, but ultimately, he's your best friend because you can count on him to be who he is, and you always have a lot of fun with him. You take the good and the bad because in the end, you know what you're going to get...

DVD Menu Artwork #1 Del Tenney

If you like old, cheesy, cheap B movies with crazy plot twists and makeshift ideas, then Del Tenney is definitely on your to-watch list. He produced some of the oddest horror films ever made, including THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH, ZOMBIE, and in particular, PSYCHOMANIA, in which “The Living Dead motorcycle gang is on the rampage, wreaking havoc in their small English town. For gang leader Tom however, mere earthly violence is not enough: he's obsessed with the occult and is convinced that he can kill himself and then return from the dead -- with the help of a frog-worshipping cult and his séance-conducting mother. Remarkably, Tom succeeds and soon joins the ranks of the walking -- and riding -- dead!”


One thing constant about old b-movies is is how the poster art promised much more than the film actually delivered, as if the filmmakers put more money into designing the artwork to lure you in to the theatre than the making of the films themselves. Which makes them fun in a different, almost childlike interactive way. (In the old days before video games and CGI, when you were a kid, a stick wasn't just a stick, it was a Buck Rogers ray gun, and a rock was an unearthed jewel. Cars were monsters and shrubs were jungles.) What you saw on the poster was definitely NOT what you got, but the creative effort was appreciated someplace deep in our brains. As if your imagination helped the experience. Sure the films were clunky and over the top, but you accepted that going in – and your brain smoothed over the wires and the rubber suits. Today we expect more, rightly so, but back in the fifties there was still a kind of childlike innocence in our monster movies.

True to form, the dvd artwork and menu art of THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH recaptures that feeling of promised-reality-not-quite met…

Rent and Decide #1

Everything old is new again. After a few months of hiatus, I’m back! Hopefully the followers are still out there….still thinking, still challenging, still posting. As for me, the future holds more film reviews, more dvd art, more introspections, more essential questions, must see movies, movie company art -- in general, just overall more fun with Hollywood (plus a few new categories – “monkey” movies, dvd menu art, movies I wish I’d written, and like this post, something called “Rent and Decide.”) And keeping in line with the title of this post, here’s one for you. A few years back a movie with Queen Latifah came out called the Last Holiday. This week on DVD, another Last Holiday arrives. What’s the connection, you ask? Well, let’s see.

Here’s the summary for Queen Latifah’s movie: It's advice to follow for shy New Orleans cookware salesclerk Georgia Byrd (Oscar® nominee Queen Latifah) when she's led to believe that she has less than a month to live. It's time to give her life a serious makeover, so Georgia jets off on a dream vacation to live like there's no tomorrow! Enjoy hearty laughs and rollicking comedic misadventures when Georgia shakes up a glamorous European resort spa while enthusiastically embracing a new look...new moves...and a new attitude! LL Cool J is the handsome suitor back home who's not about to let Georgia slip away. Timothy Hutton, Gerard Depardieu, Alicia Witt and Giancarlo Esposito also star in this comedy hit that makes the good times last forever.

Don’t you just love “hearty laughs and rollicking comedic misadventures?” Anyway, here’s the summary for Alec Guiness’ Last Holiday: Told by his doctor that he has no more than a few months to live, drab British workingman George Bird (Alec Guinness) decides to spend his savings on lodging at a seaside resort. Once there, however, he finds his identity caught between upstairs and downstairs, the guests and the "help." A droll social commentary as well as an unpredictable dark comedy about life, death, and luck, Last Holiday is one of Guinness's finest moments.

Ah. Another example of Hollywood updating a classic for a contemporary audience. Of course, all the while not bothering to mention that this movie’s already been made (unless of course you look carefully at the credits. Writers Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman are credited with the screenplay, with a nod to the original J.B. Priestley script. So, it takes two guys to “rewrite” something already written. Maybe we need a credit for “rewriters.”) Take out the substance of the original, the insight, and literary nature, and you end up with a relatively forgetful Hollywood outing, because obviously contemporary audiences don’t want all of that literary-ness and thinking stuff after all,right...

So what is the genesis of such projects? Is it somewhere deep in the dark recesses of the Hollywood creative director offices, where an astute decision is made to resurrect a financially solid property and give it new life? Or a choice to go with something a Hollywood executive can see, as opposed to something (new) which they a) have to read and b) understand? (Which some, maybe most, can’t do.)

Or is it because some Hollywood writer who has become lazy walks in and pitches a movie they’ve seen a long time ago, and it’d be a hell of a lot easier to rewrite that than create something spanking brand new?

Well, no matter. But in the watching is the answer. Which is better? Rent, and you decide.