Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Sweet tapdancing Jesus... this is the best cover version of a song performed by Crispin Hellion Glover since he did “These Boots Are Made For Walking” on his album.
I mean, I knew he was doing a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Ben” for WILLARD, but I didn’t know they were going to make a music video for it.
Here’s one you won’t be seeing on TRL anytime soon... thank God!!
I also got in another review for the film tonight, but it’s a lot less enthusiastic than Harry’s rantin’ and ravin’ yesterday. Here’s what LoFiSuicide had to say about the movie:
Harry & Gang,
Allow me to introduce myself, as this is the first time I've written to the site with anything of merit (this review might not even be considered that much, but ah well). My name's Rory, aka LoFiSuicide, and I'm writing this in a college town right out side Nashville, "Music City", Tennessee. Got out of a sneak preview of Willard just a few hours ago and felt like sharing the love (and hate) of personal opinion. On to the review.
Willard, for some reason, gave me high hopes. The website, the trailers, the kinda cheesey, but clever use of Smashing Pumpkins, it all made me hopeful that a rat-controlling mental case movie coming out two days after my birthday would make me happy. Before I go any further, I'll just say I'm glad I found out I could see it for free on a day that I didn't mind wasting my time. It was a disappointment.
The first twenty, thirty minutes though, gave me more hope. Stop-animated opening credits, an Elfman-esque score, eerie cinematography - even in the bright market shots. There were some lines that made me smirk and laugh, a gross-out shot that will make me sure to clip my toenails, and yes...the shots of Willard with the bags of rats were entertaining to watch.
Spoiliers below:
The trailer makes you think it's about a pathetic guy who gets walked on by everyone he knows, he cracks, and he becomes a pyschotic anti-hero with the power to control rats.
Thing is... he only controls them to an extent. He favors one of the albino rats, Socrates, over all of the rest. But it's Big Ben, the giant rat, who has more say over the rat population's behavior. Willard has let everyone walk all over him, and for the most part, he even lets Big Ben walk over him. Half the movie is Willard fighting with the Boss, the other half, Willard fighting with the boss rat.
There's only one "revenge" scene and you've seen the best shots of it in the trailer. The scene were an elevator of rats is delievered and Willard stands with a look in his eye, and the shot where the rats cover the boss in the elevator. Split second shots of a bloody boss and that's about it. The close ups of Willard's mother are scarier than the rats or any violence they cause, though you feel a bit of sympathy for a certain feline.
The acting was done well. Crispin knows how to play weird well, though his freakouts came off a bit more laughable than tragic. The idea was a clever one, I just though it went in the wrong direction in the end. The technical aspects of it were nice. Lighting set the mood. The house was quite creepy, yet mysteriously attractive on the inside. I do wonder why all of the windows were barred up on the outside. Score worked well. It was just the way the story played out.
They marketed the movie as a "revenge with weird powers" flick in the trailer, which if you add some heavy, alternative rock music to, it hypes you up. And then coming to realize it's more of a "pathetic guy snaps and gets more pathetic" flick, it's a bit of a let down. It's a well-made B movie with pros and cons, it just sucked that the cons had to include part of the story.
cheers,
LoFiSuicide
Thanks, man. Like I said yesterday, I haven’t seen this one yet m’self. The trades savaged it, but it’s doing pretty well so far at Rotten Tomatoes. By now, the only thing I’m sure about is that I’ll see it for myself when it opens this weekend.
"Moriarty" out.
