Denizen

J.A. Steel’s Denizen is about a small town that’s being terrorized by this hairy like creature. People’s bloody body parts start showing up all over and now everyone is in a state of panic. The general is in his fatiges and informs the people at the town meeting that it’s a rare strain of bird flu thats in the water now people are freaked and think everyone is going to die sickly horrible deaths. 

Dex was told that he could call a woman named Seirra if he ever was in sticky situation but it must be a dire emergency. Now Sierra gives of the vibe of a total tough girl but I think somewhere deep down in her there is a slightly soft side. After getting the run aound he finally get’s in touch with Sierra and he convinces her to get involved.

 Sierra is now ready to rock and she’s got the guns to prove it, and by guns what I mean is some muscle arms. Her and the monster go head to head in battle. The fight is on and they are going toe to toe and you aren’t sure who is going to be the winner but a gunshot rings out and breaks it up. A plan is set into motion so they can catch the monster with the bloody pointy choppers.

 Will they be able to hatch a plan good enough to work against the creature that is flying thru the town leaving innards dropping and blood puddling where ever it goes. The trap is set  and now all they need to do is wait for him to show up and Seirra has a freaky litle trick up her leather sleeves. Who will win this battle and will the town ever be saved?

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.

The Crazies Review

I found that the original ‘The Crazies’ (1973) by George A. Romero frightened me much more than the recent remake. That’s not to say that I think the new ‘The Crazies’ directed by Breck Eisner was terrible but it did lack the balls to point a finger directly at the antagonist – the United States government.

The Crazies is about the inhabitants of a small Iowa town, called Ogden Marsh, suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. One man, his wife, a nurse, and the sheriff try to survive this plague, but the military is killing everyone on sight. They’re going to have to fight their way out, or die by either the plague or the military.

George A. Romero – you might remember him from those zombie movies – has been known for having political overtones in his films, The Crazies (1973) was no different. The original film frightened me because of the way the military / government was portrayed in that film.

In this new film, the crimes are committed but the film glosses over them, never  making a statement. The film seems too afraid to cross that line. Perhaps the audience doesn’t want that. But the audience should be challenged. Maybe in Obama’s USA, people want to have hope in the government so the producers thought a anti-government message would not play to audiences. Back in the Bush era they might have been more daring. Remember, when Romero made the original America was dealing with Vietnam, Kent State and a wicked distrust for the government. Although people have felt that for 8 years under George Bush, I think they are trying really hard to gain that trust back – and playing down the government in the remake hurts this film.

But what does that leave us with? A government who has an accident and kills everyone, even those not contaminated – including women and children and then blow up entire town – but look over here everyone – a crazy person! Whew, glad we didn’t spend too much time on that other nasty stuff. Horror should have balls and not pussy out when it comes to pointing a finger.

I think since The Crazies dealt with the big-bad government with kid gloves in a time people might not want to see them attacked led to the film feeling slightly tame. A film without a strong antagonist is a weak film.

Oh – and one more thing – this is NOT a zombie movie. I am reading reviews where the crazies are being called Zombies – they aren’t zombies. Just because this was a Romero movie doesn’t mean they are zombies. Unfortunately, the make-up guys did go a bit on the zombie side for the make up which I think was a mistake.

All that said, the performances were well done and I cared about the characters involved. You could do a lot worse if you want to go and see a movie this weekend – I’m looking in your direction Cop Out!

If you haven’t seen the original, give it a chance. It may surprise you – it has a lot more going on and it is set in Pennsylvania. Maybe that’s why I have a soft spot for it

21 Powerful Rewrite Strategies – March 1st

Monday night, March 1st at 9PM EST / 6PM Hollywood time, James will give feeback on ScreenwritingU’s “21 Powerful Rewrite Strategies” teleseminar. What did he learn from the seminar and was it worth it? What was the most valuable lessons learned from the seminar and can help you on your screenwriting journey. All these questions will be answered so tune in.

Here is some of what will be covered in this teleseminar:

- The #1 Key to Rewriting Success. Change this one thing and
rewriting gets so much easier.
- Three ways to turn ordinary characters into extremely compelling
story people.
- The most important question you must ask to turn dull scenes into
dramatic and valuable scenes.
- What to do when you’re confused over a scene or character.
- The key ingredient that will turn a simple conflict into an
unforgettable one.
- The #1 Reason writers won’t cut bad scenes. Don’t be guilty of this.
- And 16 other Advanced Strategies for rewriting.

Geoffrey Fletcher on Some Scene

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 9PM EST / 6PM PST, James welcomes Geoffrey Fletcher to This Is Some Scene. Mr. Fletcher’s screenplay for the 2009 film “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire” has been nominated for an Oscar at this year’s 82nd Academy Awards.

Listen to the show here.

Brooke Lemke’s Two short film reviews

A Broken Family

A nervous groom stands waiting at the altar for his bride to be to come sweeping down the isle with breath taking beauty that will steal his breath away. A stern looking man comes up and whispers to the bridesmaid who leaves the room to look for the bride and find out what is going on and why isn’t she out there next to her eager groom. Her sister and her fiancee find Michelle and the converation they have will change all of their lives forever. 

Young Eyes

Society today just seems to press the idea that women should look a certain way into everybodys heads, and it’s unfair. Everywhere you look there are billboards with glamorous thin women pouting down at you or shows on TV stating how marvelous these ladies are when in reality most of them are thin from stress, drugs, eating disorders but some actually just have good luck. You grow up thinking that if you aren’t a pin sized blond with double D breasts that your not beautiful or worthy. In this short two young girls are feeling the toll of being fed how we women should look.

Breaking Her Will

It starts with a dark haired female who looks extremely nervous trying to hitch a ride. Finally a guy stops and picks her up. He veers off the road into this parking lot gets a knife from the trunk and forces her to put on handcuffs and get in the trunk. He takes her to a basement where he slowly and methodically torments her with ease.

He insults her and handcuffs her lying down to this long piece of wood. A blond in lingerie comes over and then some fun begins. Mind games seem to be a major part of the plan when it comes to breaking chicks down, well along with sodomy, rape, and perhaps murder? This guy will skeeve you with his disgusting self and his horrible antics.

Breaking Her Will is one of those movies that if you are a woman and put yourself in that position it will give you goosebumps and turn your stomach. I would truly never want to go thru that situation and it completely hones in making you realize all over again that evil is out there and this shit really happens everyday to unsuspecting victims who never even seen it coming!

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.

Why Am I in a Box?

In the film Why Am I in a Box Rachel Grubb plays Ellen Famsby who lives in an apartment with her boyfriend James and they are both writers. Ellen hasn’t written anything for a long time but James stays home all day trying to advance with his story but he seems to be having a serious case of writers block that won’t go away. His concentration is completely lost.

One day Ellen leaves work and the next thing you know she is in the hands of a wacky woman named Paige who has always wanted to write a great novel but has never been able to achieve her goal. She chains Ellen up in a completely painted white room with a typewriter and feeds her only ramen noodles when she is hungry.   

Paige wants Ellen to write an unforgettable masterpiece that will put her name on the map and if she doesn’t- she’s dead.. So she’s holed up in the room not feeling too inspirational but forcing herself to write so this psychotic woman will let her go, well that’s what she promises her anyway. Paige reads the budding story and hates it telling her she better shape up and get it right.  

Will Ellen be able to get it right or will she succumb to Paige’s punishment? Her boyfriend finally goes to the police and they put their heads together trying to figure out what could of happened to her. He doesn’t understand how she could leave him without a word, not knowing that she being held. Paige sends them a clue to decipher in order to find her- but will they get there in time?

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.

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