Where I have been & where I am going

Awesome things ahead…

I haven’t been on This Is Some Scene for quite some time. I haven’t been doing the radio show either. Some of you might believe I gave up but the truth is that I am very busy on projects.

I have been working on a site called Kill Scenes (http://killscenes.com/) with a friend. If you are a horror fan or filmmaker, please join today. Read the ‘About Us’ page on the site to find out more about it and what is to come.

Outside of these major time-eaters, I also have my day job and my real world commitments to take care of.

I wish I could talk more about the great things ahead but I don’t want to jinx myself.

Keep posted

James

Movies I Liked – Proof I don’t hate everything

I was recently falsely accused that I do not like any movies. I see more movies than probably the average person and I will admit that most of the films released are shit. But to prove I don’t hate everything, here is a list of movies I liked in 2009/2010.

My Bloody Valentine 3D
I Love You, Man
Monsters Vs. Aliens
17 Again
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Star Trek
Drag Me To Hell
Up
The Hangover
Moon
Dead Snow
The Hurt Locker
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Zombieland
A Serious Man
An Education
Black Dynamite
Precious
Up in the Air
The Wolfman
The Crazies
Alice in Wonderland
The Runaways

Drive-By Reviews – March 2010

Keep it Simple, Stupid: Drive-by Reviews for short attention spans.

Alice in Wonderland: Tim Burton put his own style on the Lewis Carroll classic story. I took my 8 year old son to see this movie with me and we both enjoyed it. I am not a diehard Alice fan and do not have any issues with Burton. Like Mr. Burton or not, you can not deny that you can tell it is a Tim Burton film by his unique style, something lacking in today’s filmmakers. Alice isn’t brilliant but it was a fun little movie to watch. Helena Bonham Carter was the highlight of this film.

3 out of 5 stars

Hot Tub Time Machine: Just like the movie Adventureland, Hot Tub Time Machine fails to capture the 80s. The film fills the frame with every cliche 1980s pop-culture reference from Alf to Miami Vice. It’s all done in a short scene and then the film forgets about the 80s. The script was a complete mess, filled with holes. Some scenes played funny but as a whole this was a shit film thrown together without any love for the material. WORST PERFORMANCE – Chevy Chase phones it in. He is painful to watch. Stop paying this guy to be in movies.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Runaways: I am not a fan of Kristen Stewart. But I have to give her major kudos for her portrayal of Joan Jett in The Runaways. There was not a moment when I did not believe that I was watching Joan Jett on the screen. The cast did a fine job on this film but the film lacked the emotional impact I wanted to see. It played more like a documentary – this is what happened – film without feeling. This group of girls went through some horrible events, some portrayed in the movie, but based on what I know about the Runaways the film toned it down. It was much too tame and should have been darker. I wonder if because the people portrayed in the film are alive they went easy on them – especially the Kim Fowley character – he was an evil man to them in real life. This movie made him appear as tough but a genius.

Production design and costume design was nailed perfectly. It is a great looking film. I just wanted to care more. Instead I just thought it was interesting. Worth checking out though.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: My son read the books so I took him to see this. I doubt I could ever have a bad time at the movies with my son. That said, if you have a child who enjoys these books, I am sure they will enjoy seeing the books come to life on the big screen. My son enjoyed it and from what I could tell, so did the other kids in the theater.

3 out of 5 stars

Plaid Shirts & Camo Pants

There is no doubt that The Karate Kid (1984) is one of the best 80s movies made. 2nd only to Bruce Lee, The Karate Kid’s influence was felt throughout martial arts schools across the globe. The schools were overflowing with wannabe Daniel Larusso’s. People imitated the crane kick (which is possibly the stupidest karate move ever put on screen). Try that kick on an experienced martial artists and they will kick the shit out of you. Despite the kick being useless, it is now part of the pop culture along with “Sweep the leg!”

All around this film was great; story, character, action – even the original music by Bill Conti is great.

But one thing still bugs me. Ralph Macchio’s wardrobe. What were the costume designer’s thinking? I know it was the 80s but Plaid Shirts with Camo Pants? Did he have to wear that stupid headband throughout the entire film? It works perfectly to convey that Daniel is a complete dork.

Then there is that all white outfit with the red coat he wears when he goes to pick up Elisabeth Shue at the fancy country club dinner. He looks like a damn ice cream vendor. Speaking of Elisabeth Shue, even some of her outfits were questionable.

According to IMDB the costume design for The Karate Kid was by Richard Bruno and Aida Swenson. Bruno has many films as a designer under his belt. Swenson however only has one other credit, a film from 1966.

If anybody reading this has an insight to 80s fashion and costume design and can explain where these fashions came from, I’d love to know.

Despite the silliness of Larusso’s clothes, I can watch The Karate Kid over and over and over again. I don’t know if the new Karate Kid with Will Smith’s son will have the same impact on popular culture, I highly doubt it – what do you think and if you think the new Karate Kid won’t be as powerful as the original, why do you think that?

On a side note, I smack my hands together and rub them together really fast like Mr. Miyagi to heal my wounds – doesn’t work either. Just goes to show you, a great screenplay doesn’t have to be accurate. If it is exceptional, people will buy it.

Re-Making Money! $$

In the past week, I have seen fans on facebook groan over the possible remake of JAWS (1975) starring Tracy Morgan as Hooper and the upcoming remake of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s horrible acting son) who also was in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008). I had a conversation about the remake of Escape from New York and why it sounds like a horrible idea. And today, I saw the remake of The Wolfman, which I enjoyed. Overall people seem to get up in arms when they hear about classic films being remade – and yet, these films kick ass at the box office. Perhaps it is cinema-chic to bitch about the big bad Hollywood machine remaking the films we grew up with. Because if these films are making money, then it is only fair to assume all the jokers that are trying to show their film muscles on social networking sites like facebook are actually going out to see these films.

There is a very simple solution. If you want Hollywood to stop remaking movies from the past – STOP GOING TO SEE THEM.

Here are some remakes coming out:

Nightmare on Elm Street, Clash of the Titans, Piranha, Tron, The Crazies

(See a list of 55 remakes – some happening, some already did, and some are just rumors)

I see a trend: Hollywood announces a film remake – the internet buzzes, fans are disgusted with the idea and the lack of originality in Hollywood, the movie is released and it makes money.

Here are the facts – this does not include DVD sales:

Rob Zombie’s Halloween – Budget $20M / Gross $59M (Worldwide)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006) – Budget $15M / Gross $55.9M (Worldwide)
Friday the 13th (2009) – Budget $16M / Gross $88.8M (Worldwide)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) – Budget $100M / Gross $149M (Worldwide)
The Last House on the Left (2009) – Budget $14.1M / Gross $38.5M (Worldwide)
Prom Night (2008) – Budget $20M / Gross $54.6M (Worldwide)
My Bloody Valentine (2009) – Budget $15M / Gross $53.5M (Worldwide)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) Budget $80M / $230M (Worldwide)

This is just a short list. These movies make money. Hollywood Execs would be idiots not to do this.

Grindhouse – a great double feature by Rodriguez and Tarantino lost money. Nobody went.
Trick ‘R Treat – had to go straight to DVD – nobody cared and it’s a great horror film.
Moon- the fantastic film by Duncan Jones – does anybody know about it? Probably not – but Halloween 2, one of the worst films of 2009 made over twice its budget and there were talks almost immediately about another sequel. Will that happen? Who knows – but I bet it would make money.

I don’t see anything changing. The sad truth is that because people run out and only see remakes or “event” movies like James Cameron’s 3D gimmicky, but empty Avatar, the chance that new and creative films getting made is becoming slim to none.

The future looks like a cinematic wasteland. Our only hope is the new media frontier, where hopefully new filmmakers can find an audience. When internet TVs bridge the gap between what Hollywood is making and truly original content at our fingertips, the chance of fresh content might actually exist – that is if the few corporations that own everything don’t buy up the online distributors providing content to showcase their own crap.

My TV Viewing

Film and TV, it’s all I seem to be doing when I am not writing. I recently came to the realization that I enjoy everything J.J. Abrams has created; LOST, MI3, Cloverfield, Star Trek – but I never watched his series ALIAS. So thanks to the internet, I have been catching up with this series. I have watched seasons 1 and 2 and am just starting season 3. I tried a few years back to watch an episode of Alias but was lost and gave up on it. Starting from the beginning I was immediately sucked into the story. Abrams does great things with this series, unexpected turns, great characters – the sexy Jennifer Garner in different outfits. Alias has it all.

What Jennifer Garner is able to accomplish in Alias – always taking on a new persona for different missions – is what Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse could never do with Eliza Dushku. Dushku just doesn’t have the acting chops to pull off different roles. She was great as Faith in Buffy and that is about all she could do. I championed Dollhouse but it was the supporting cast that made that show work, Dushku seemed poorly casted as Echo.

On the History Channel I am obsessed with Pawn Stars – PAWN STARS takes you inside the colorful world of the pawn business. At the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas, three generations of the Harrison family–grandfather Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey–jointly run the family business, and there’s clashing and camaraderie every step of the way. The three men use their sharp eyes and skills to assess the value of items from the commonplace to the truly historic.

I am not a fan of reality TV but this show has a lot to offer from an interesting cast of employees as well as some fascinating items that show up in the store. Check it out.

My Discovery Channel new addiction is Solving History with Olly Steeds – Discovery Channel’s new face of adventure. Journalist Olly Steeds is out to find the truth behind some of the world’s biggest mysteries; The Lost Ark, the Nazca Lines, Atlantis – this show is full of adventure and is just pure fun to watch.

Some other shows that I am trying to keep up with include; Heroes, How I Met Your Mother and of course LOST.

2 things will either happen with LOST. Either they will end the show with answers that appease the viewers or it will suck so bad that LOST fans will riot in the streets.

You never saw Grindhouse!

Many people tell me that they love Death Proof or Planet Terror. The problem is they first viewed it on DVD. If you didn’t see Grindhouse in the theater in 2007 you didn’t see Grindhouse. Death Proof was shorter and despite its problems, it was much better in the theater. The lap dance was cut out in the theatrical release. When it was supposed to happen the screen said “MISSING REEL.” Let’s not forget the faux trailers and the double feature experience. It was the best film going experience I had in ages and I wish more people would have supported it by seeing the theatrical release. In my opinion, Planet Terror was the better of the two films. Many film aficionados will say Death Proof is a great film but I think that film geeks just attribute everything that Tarantino does as infallible. Film geeks worship Tarantino, who really is a great filmmaker but you need to call him on shit when need be. The same can be said for film geeks who worship Kevin Smith. Here’s a guy who has been making the same movie for over a decade. He’s a lousy director and was lucky with Clerks. But for whatever reason it is heresy to say so if you are in the film world. Death Proof suffers from Quentin’s self indulgence, whacking off to his film knowledge. Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror was not really a 70’s grindhouse film but a tribute to John Carpenter’s 80’s classics. And as much as I like Death Proof I have many issues with the pacing of the film. Planet Terror on the other hand I can not find flaw with.

We still do not have a theatrical DVD release of Grindhouse and I wish we would. It still won’t recreate the movie going experience unless someone screens it again but it will be better than what we have now.

Perhaps it was the poor marketing of Grindhouse that led to the low box office numbers. I can’t for the life of me figure out how the remake of Friday the 13th, a shit film, breaks box office records for its genre but Grindhouse failed. I believe people are programmed. Whoever has the best marketing spin wins the game. Since people are so easily manipulated, it just comes down to what the average Joe is told he should like. And he will put down his hard earned money for whatever shit the media tells him will make him popular at the water cooler come Monday morning.

This Is Some Blog

A blog is supposed to be a good idea when promoting whatever it is you want to promote. But what should I blog about? Do I want to blog about what is coming up on This Is Some Scene? Maybe. However, I am always promoting what is coming up on TISS on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook not to mention this site. So I thought I would just use this blog to ramble. I am not going to worry about being grammatically correct. Most of the time I might not make much sense. There probably won’t be a point but I’m sure there will often be rants. Unless the mood strikes, I also will be posting the laziest blog ever. So stay tuned for my slacker blog on This Is Some Scene.
R. James