Hey folks, Harry here with a report from Victor Laszlo, who was one of the many "virgins" at this year's BNAT, heralding from Robocop's home town and gave me a great John Carter sketch of John and Tars Tarkus on a Barsoomian rock formation that he sketched during the event. Much appreciated and very cool. Done on the Drafthouse menu paper. Heh. Cool! Watch out for minor spoilers throughout. Love his enthusiasm even if I don't necessarily agree with all of his opinions here. Here ya go...
If you use this call me VICTOR LASZLO.
Back in Detroit after a red eye flight from BNAT 7, here's an in-depth but far from
comprehensive look inside. First I'd like to say that, as a first time attendee to anyone who
hasn't been there -- everything you've heard is true. BNAT really does deserves all the hype (a
weird trend in many of the films shown as well...) As a bonus, I ended up in the front row for
the event, which made it all the more intense. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to
Psychedelic for letting me crash in his hotel room. Great guy, that.
Anyway, here goes:
BEWARE:: MILD SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
STUNT ROCK Trailer: This looks like the greatest film of all time.
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932)::
"What makes you think it isn't just as much sport for the
animal as it is for the man?"
It's about damn time I saw this. Filmed on the Skull Island sets from KONG, with the
filmmakers, Max Steiner score, and the finest cast members intact? The best part is that this
movie really is all that that implies. Classic story, great dialogue, the best in 1930s pacing,
a screen villain to give Rathbone a run for his money, and a truly fantastic closing shot. A
worthy film adaptation of one of the coolest ever short stories.
PIT and the PENDULUM Trailer:: It'd be nice to finally have a non-Corman version of this
(although I do find myself creepily quoting "Oh there you are, Bartolome" from time to time).
Wait. In stop-motion? Under the HArryhausen banner of approval? YES. Can't wait for this
one.
NExt came the announcement that the same cat behind the above trailer will be joining forces
again with Harryhausen AND Mr. Knowles to finally bring the goddamn WAR EAGLES to life. They
announced this with a really cool 'teaser' comprised of O'Brien production artwork and recapping
the history of the project.
This was originally supposed to top KONG, and all of you that've heard of WAR EAGLES are
probably salivating right now.
It was only a matter of time, I suppose.
Are you in my head, Knowles@!? Damn you and bravo,
all at once.
KING KONG (2005)::
"You can trust me, I'm a movie producer!"
Peter Jackson's KING KONG isn't perfect. It's only dangerously close. (that S-K-U-L-L typing
bit was idiotic)
Sitting in the theatre (and this was the one where sitting in the front row really mattered)...
I felt just enough of the shock and awe often described by Bradbury & Harryhausen to grasp what
it might've been like to have the original unveiled before them. Just a small taste, but it was
enough. My expectations were through the roof on this movie, and in a rare twist of fate... it
delivered.
Naomi Watts is everything she needs to be here, and although this Ann Darrow is a different
woman than the one we've known, Watts channels Fay Wray in subtle, delightful ways. She is
resourceful and passionate, (and just wait until you hear her unleash a scream.) Her scenes
alone with Kong are obviously the core of this movie, and there's not much I can add here to
what already has been, and undoubtable will be said about them. But these are the scenes that
make this movie so successful. The way they steal moments away together before the madness and
violence of the outside world finds them, that is Jackson's greatest contribution to the story.
JAck Black as Denham has his on and off moments, but I'm glad to say he's mostly ON. Jackson &
crew definitly took a darker stance on the character, making him both funnier and much more
dispicable, which I agree would be hard to resist. In the new film you will hate Denham when
the curtains part and the 8th Wonder sits in chains. You will hate him for hurling those gas
bombs, more than anything that horrible last one. I've always felt that somehow Denham was the
villain of the original, and they really play that up here. That's not to say that there was
ever a villain in KONG or that there even is now, but Denham's callous single-mindedness is
highlighted, and in the wake of his drive there is a careless swath of destruction.
That said, if Carl Denham needed redshirt sailors to go to with him to Skull Island and possibly
get eaten by a dinosaur, I'd sign right the hell up.
Because the place Denham leads The Venture to is a place worth dying to see. Especially in
Jackson's version. Everything is bigger, bolder, more dangerous, more mysterious and more
beautiful than can possibly exist today outside the fantasy world of film. Alas for that. The
theatre trembled beneath the boom of the brontosaur stampede, and again it trembled with
applause when it was over. How they can even plan and storyboard scenes like this is an
absolute marvel to me.
My God, at this point we haven't even seen much of KONG himself yet.
This is before you've seen him fight. I don't need to describe this, everyone just needs to see
it happen. So much thought and passion has been poured into the character, into the physics of
a powerful animal at that scale, into the thought process and the emotional level such a
creation might have, and it all pays off here. I will say only that when that final jaw is
broken in two, the Drafthouse nearly exploded.
My favorite moment in the whole film is just after this happens, and KONG is waiting for her
gratitude. He knows that what he just did was incredible. He knows that she knows it, and
dammit he wants her to acknowledge it. He sulkily begins to walk away from her, playing hard to
get, and she chases after him. With the hint of a smile, Kong carefully tosses the woman he
fought for and won onto his back, no longer his captive, and triumphantly charges back into the
jungle.
I could go on forever, but I'll leave the rest for others. When you see this movie sit close to
the screen. Let the sides of the frame graze the edges of your peripheral vision, then go to
Skull Island and possibly get eaten by a dinosaur.
PS: If you watch this movie and continue bitching about CGI, I will fight you.
FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933)::
"As long as there are sidewalks, you've got a job"
This is one of those musicals that I've been meaning to see for years but never got around to.
Seeing that wonderful 35mm print made me glad I waited. As sharp as the dialogue is, Cagney is
sharper, always ahead. Bizarre that the stage-bound (yeah,right) "prologues" are by far the
most cinematic sequences in the film. The whole thing is shot & cut fairly mundanely (read:
standard), until the scenes that are actually supposed to be on a stage: then you've got major
camera movement, bird's eye views, storytelling through editing language, etc. So much so that
the crowd reaction shots become laughably out of place. Was this an intentional commentary on
film vs. stage? That certainly makes some kind of sense, but I'm not sure it was meant that
way. Either way, those last three dance numbers are completely dazzling (especially the first
two). My hat is off.
MASTERS OF HORROR: SICK GIRL (2005):: "You've got to make a choice; babes or bugs."
I really liked the quirky tone and all the characters in this episode of the (Showtime?) series,
but it's woefully predictable and really kind of dumb. Angela Bettis turns in another
adorable/bizarro performance as a lesbian entomologist which recalls but doesn't repeat her work
in "May". Much hoopla in the theatre was made over the fact that Lucky McKee (in attendance)
spent the entire CGI FX budget on KNB practical stuff, but unfortunatly the bug FX look plastic
and awkward as hell. I love the real stuff (and KNB) just like the rest of you, but perhaps he
should've reconsidered. Best part was the love montage/bug hunt sequence.
LUCKY SEVEN Trailer:: Basically a montage of thugs throwing superhero (or secret agent?)
12-year olds through windows, into walls, punching them in the face, and so on. I'd watch it.
SOUL OF BRUCE LEE Trailer:: Seems like this was all about mocking Bruce Lee and that electric
muscle work-out contraption, but I can't really tell.
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (2005)::
"live white"
I am further convinced of Chan Wook Park's cinematic power. This man has such an uncanny and
truly formidable ability to marry image and emotion that you feel like you should be taking
notes if you only you could look away.
Lady Vengeance builds slowly, beginning with a young woman, Geum-ja, being released after 13
years of imprisonment after having confessed to the murder of a child. I'm not going to
summarize, but Park takes his time in letting us know what's really going on before the depth of
the horror comes out. This would be a hard film to watch as a parent, and I found myself
relieved not to carry that burden while seeing it unfold.
The last third of this film goes places I really didn't expect, but found myself completely in
tune with. The last image has a whimsical kind of poetic beauty that makes it the perfect
finale to a trilogy about revenge. Geum-ja's insatiable desire for redemption and innocence
lost builds to this moment, quietly leaving on the highest posisble note.
"ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A MAN CALLED INVINCIBLE" Trailer::
This looks terrible and completely watchable. I can't tell you anything the title doesn't
imply.
THE PROFESSIONALS (1966)::
"I'll be damned." "Most of us are."
When the opening credits of a 'Men On A Mission' western include Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster,
Claudia Cardinale, Woody Strode, cinematography by Conrad Hall and scored by Maurice Jarre, it's
fair to get excited. Lancaster's renegade gunfighter/demolition expert is absolutely on fire,
and probably my favorite all-time role for the Birdman.
As other reviewers have mentioned, Jack Palance as mexican revolutionary CAPTAIN JESUS RAZA is
something of a revelation. Not in that "John Wayne as Temujin" kind of way, but rather that
"Sean Connery as Marko Ramius" way. The climactic gunfight and discussion about the nature of
Revolution and Love kicks everything up a few notches, and elevates 'The Professionals' to
greatness.
A seriously badass film that I might never have seen in a theatre, or perhaps even
at all, were it not for BNAT.
DANGER GIRLS Trailer:: Alex Dynamo! Where do you find this stuff?
DISTRICT B13 (2005)::
"I'm sorry, I can't remember any lines from this one"
This movie contains way more toughguy asskicking and far less surrendering than you'd expect for
being french (sorry, those jabs are involuntary). The action is fun and furious and overall the
film is done really well. It's 2010, and france has walled up its most dangerous ghetto,
District 13, creating a lawless warzone run by a jerkface druglord and his army of skinhead
thugs. Righteousness falls to a partnership between two tanktop-wearing wall-scaling badasses
from opposite sides of the wall. Once it falls into "disarm the nuclear bomb you have 4
hours--- yes, sir" territory it loses a lot of its edge, but District 13 is never boring, and it
still has style.
REally, really glad to see that Border Police Chief get his head smashed on retirement day.
Cheers to that.
MASTERs OF HORROR: Cigarette Burns (2005)::
"You bring evil to this house! (stabs out eye)"
Better than 'Sick Girl', but still unfulfilling in the end. It's got a fantastic concept, which
for the most part is built upon very logically, but I have one question: Mori, did the main guy
completely forget that he just saw a chained/captured supernatural creature at the beginning, or
was I supposed to? I love the idea that someone could manipulate the medium of film into
something with such psychological power, that a cinematic language could be developed to induce
madness or reveal some kind of dark infinite truth. The mystery built up around said film is
well done, but it ends up following a less intriguing (to me, anyway) path involving a possible
pact with the Devil, and actual forces of evil being bonded to the film (rather than the power
coming from within the film or from the artist himself). That said, the stuff with the critic
was good and I thoroughly enjoyed Udo's threading of the projector.
THE DESCENT (2005)::
"[=predator clicking - pig squealing sounds=]"
Keep your pants on. This is not a great horror film, nor is it even a verygood one by the time
the credits roll.
The cave photography is great in that it never looks false (until some moments towards the end),
and its often that 80-90% of any given shot is completely black. There are no fancy edge-lights
or glossy closeups, and the filmmakers aren't afraid to make it look ugly. The result very
effectively places you underground, and if you've ever done any cave exploration the tense first
half of this movie feels very realistic. The filmmakers have provided fantastic atmosphere and
an unsettling claustrophobic sense of true panic and hopelessness, but the third act of this
film is so by-the-numbers and tired it throws away everything it earned.
Even the early moments involving the creatures are effective (the first glimpse is blood-chilling), but before long
this 'descends' into an all too standard one-by-one kill countdown of characters we care about
so little it's hard to keep it straight how many of them there even are.
Every single time a creature attacks, the music pounds out these massive bass tribal drums, and
we are treated to the exact same monster clicking and squealing sound fx that everyone's been
using since PREDATOR and ALIENS. Monster and girl tumble around for a minute or so, then there
is an extra loud biting/slashing sound (louder than the other 50 layers of biting/slashing
sounds), and either girl or monster bleed to death. The first time this happened it was cool,
but it happens the exact same way about 5 or six times. The creatures behavior is inconsistant
and often contradictory, and the whole high-shutter-skip-frame-crawl movement is getting old
too, if you ask me. If these things can only navigate with sound "like bats", let's use that in
an interesting way, not drown it out with music everytime we see them in action, or simply toss
in a bunch of obligatory 'face-to-face-with-blind-monster-that-somehow-can't-hear-all-the-noise-I'm-making' scenes.
I talked to at least three people at BNAT who walked out on 'The Descent', and not from fear. The
jump-scares can all be seen a mile away, and there is one underwater moment where they could've
actually dubbed in the monster saying "peek-a-boo" and not affected the credibility.
STUNT ROCK: The Movie (1978):: Not, in fact, the greatest film of all time. I liked it much
better when I had no idea who the fuck that stupid wizard was.
DRUM (1976)::
"Ms. Augusta, you aren't about to start messin' with my poontang."
I've never seen MANDINKA, but this is supposed to be a sequel. Much was made over how
offensively racist this slave movie was going to be, but I didn't find the filmmaking very
racist at all. It's full of racism & offensive material, to be sure, bursting at the seams! -
but it takes place on the plantation of a slave breeder, so there's no way around that, nor should there be.
Warren Oates completely owns the movie, casually dropping gigantic one-liners
that make you wonder if you really just heard what you think you did. Can't vouch for accuracy,
not having been there, but this exploitation flick seemed to me a more realistic and unfliching
portrayal than most any of the 'serious' films I've seen on the subject. DRUM is too long and
tends to meander, but the bloody, Nat Turner-esque slave revolt at the end was like an epic 'Go
Sound the Jubilee'. There was ugliness on both sides of the event, as there truly would have
been. Advice for the title character: Drum, if you didn't want the other slaves to kill your
mother or pseudo-girlfriend, you probably shouldn't have been yelling 'Kill! Kill!" the whole
time.
X3 teaser:: Looks better than I expected, especially given the hurt this site puts on it.
Still, I saw no Sentinels - and that is a major problem.
M:I:3 teaser:: PSH looks to be a great villain, but both of the major action setpieces in the
teaser look totally lifted from [A) True Lies] and [B) M:I:2].
"DER FUERHER'S FACE" starring Donald Duck:: Although it's no 'Education for Death', it's quite
unsettling to see Donald Duck as a brownshirt shouting 'Heil, Hitler!' every six seconds,
plastered in swastikas. It helps that the audience is *duck calling* along to the 'Der Fuerher'
marching band music. Donald eventually wakes from his dream to a Star-Spangled bed in the good
ole' U. S. of A., but I'm afraid my trust in him has been irrecovably shaken.
V for VENDETTA (2006)::
"People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should
be afraid of their people."
Indeed. I'm only marginally familiar with the Alan Moore graphic novel, so I cannot compare,
but I think it's fair to whip out the phrase TOUR-DE-FORCE for this complete and utter
masterpiece. This film literally had me shaking in my seat. The moment early on in which V
'conducts' a symphony of protest towards that blasted crescendo on a London rooftop completely
set the stage for what was to come, and caught me completely off guard. I thought the trailer
was fantastic, but I really never expected the film to go so far or hit so hard. Rest assured,
punches are not pulled. James McTeigue's direction is deft and graceful, and I'll be watching
this guy from now on. I had lost faith in the Wachowski's after the utter fiasco of "those
other two movies", and again I don't know the graphic novel well -- but they wrote a damn fine
script that skillfully balanced character and plot, while feeling totally complete as a film.
The dialogue given to Hugo Weaving and the voice he gives back to it are a match made in cinema
heaven, truly a thing to behold. His voice is the soundtrack, the velvet music that drives the
film forward. Portman is also in top form, as is Stephen Rea, a frothing John Hurt, and just
about everyone else onscreen. That we never see the face of V is completely and beautifully
faithful to the core theme that while fragile human beings may die, IDEAS can live forever.
Never has a comic book looked or felt so elegant on celluloid. I'd love to have a DVD
commentary track by the current Western world leaders, and another one from Bill O'Reilly for
kicks--- (just because I'd like to know what he thinks of the part where he gets killed in the
shower).
The section of the film dealing with Evey Hammond imprisoned and the letter that keeps her going
- it's devastating, and it hits all the harder having recently watched the news as our own
country engaged in actual debate on whether or not torture was an acceptable part of policy.
This isn't just some lame Left vs. Right thing, to clarify, but it'll be easily painted as a
monumental piece of liberal "terrorist" propaganda. I suppose, unfortunatly, that by current
definitions you could actually call it that.
This is a look down the path we're on, and a fantasy vision of what one person can do to bring the country and the land he loves back from the dire brink of 1984. It's a magnificent fucking superhero saga about massive social and
political revolution, not to mention unconditional love, and it doesn't end trying to set up a
sequel with a different villain.
V has more important things to do than bother with that.
The release date isn't until MARCH, but she looked finished to me, and no one better cut a
goddamned frame. I'm so afraid that some cowering suit is going to butcher this thing before
release. RELEASE THIS MOVIE EXACTLY HOW IT IS. Release it next week. Fight the good fight on
the press junket and in the media shitstorm, not behind the closed doors of studio offices.
FREEDOM! FOREVER!
Either way we saw it the way it is now, and it was a helluva way to finish off BNAT 7.
Thank you, Harry, for putting this together and allowing me be a part of it.
I walk away from Austin a better man.
Keep On Fighting the Good Fight!
_______________
If you use this call me VICTOR LASZLO.
