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A couple of glowing looks at DETROIT ROCK CITY
No sooner than I was flipping through my current issue of PLAYBOY admiring the fantastic pics of the KISS girls... Ya know... It'd be cool if...ummm... ya know.... They got cool KISS style make up... and ummm... wowzers.... Anyway, I was reading the articles as usual when suddenly my gigantic GONG went off signaling EMAILS.... I click and lo and behold more praises of the Eddie Furlong/KISS epic called DETROIT ROCK CITY. Word has it the film has been moved to right around the first week or so of August to grab some of them summer dollars. From the sound of things.... this could do pretty good... Now if someone would just do a film based on that JOURNEY video game... then... then I could die a happy boy... or what about XANADU TWO? I just scored the one sheet for XANADU... Ahhhhhhh.... late seventies early eighties... heaven on the radio...
I've never really written a letter to 'Penthouse' before so please
excuse my language. I'm the only guy I know who writes like he's
translating the Bible. The test screening took place at the Pacific
Beach Cities 16 in El Segundo, California.
After an opening comic bit involving a Christian Mom (hilariously played
by the same actress who donned layers of make-up to play the old lady in
'Something About Mary'), we meet the four stoners, rehearsing their
basement band modeled after you-know-who. The film takes off with a
title montage of 70's pop culture icons. Everything from 'Famous
Monsters' magazine to Wacky Packs sets the tone for the story to
follow...
Which, as most readers of this site know by now, is 'I Wanna Hold Your
Hand' spliced with 'Dazed And Confused', and all shot with a comic book
camera that puts most, if not all, so-called 'comic-book' movies to
shame.
I laid hands on a cop of this screenplay months ago, not out of any
great loyaty to the 'Knights In Satan's Service', but out of great
affection for the 70's. I'll admit one of the first lps I bought was
'KISS Alive II', but only for the sleeve; I had never heard the music.
What 11-year-old can resist trying to run his parents' turntable
blockade with a photo of a guy with blood running down his chin?
However, I must stress that from there I moved on to my first John
Williams score album and other vinyl embarassments I'm certainly not
gonna detail here. In other words, I'm no veteran of the KISS Army!
Anyway, read the script; thought it mediocre. Didn't jump off the page
at me. An okay read.
So I was definitely approaching this movie with a certain skepticism.
Even after all the king's horses and all the king's men do their thing
and spend their millions, what's on the stage is usually what was on the
page.
Not this time. Laugh after laugh from me and my fellow lab rats. And,
on at last five occasions, APPLAUSE for a character or line. That's
right, a cynical L.A. test audience putting their jaded hands together
both during the movie and after the lights came up. I shit you not.
And deservedly so. This is a movie for us. Spoken in our language.
God knows why I didn't read it that way. Even the grossest gag, and
there are many, is presented in an innocent, sweet and good-natured way.
Like the late 70's were. Like we were.
Credit Adam Rifkin, who's takin' his carer in a great new direction
here. Nice to have him back behind the camera instead of just the
word-processor. He knows he's not makin' 'Masterpiece Theatre', or even
another 'Dark Backward' here. His style, casting and d.p. strike the
perfect tone. All the boys are great in a true ensemble. Yeah, Eddie
Furlong's in it, but no more so than any other guy. The star-making
turn here is from James DeBello. Playing a physical variation on 'Jay'
from the Kevin Smith universe, DeBello steals the show. And the
applause. The period soundtrack (Blue Oyster Cult, etc.) will have most
of us runnin' to the racks. I recognized the editor's credit from both
'Terminators' and 'True Lies'. You can sense him at work here. Lastly,
hats off to the art department; there are details here I haven't seen
since I rearranged my bedroom walls and door in '79.
All in all, this is the perfect summer movie, especially for This
Seventies Summer. As the marketing department that's gonna be sellin'
it has already advised: "If you're going to go see one movie this
summer, go see 'Star Wars'. But if you're going to go see two movies,
go see "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Well, if you're gonna
go see a third...
This, more than any other movie coming this year, is the perfect
companion piece for Mr. Lucas' Opus. Both take place, "A long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away..." Galaxies me and most of my
late-twenty/early thitysomething friends would prefer living in to the
ones we do now. At least we can visit. Especially this summer. Memo
to Marketing: Get This Trailer In Front Of 'Star Wars". It belongs
here more than any of the other so-called 'event trailers'. 'Nuff said.
Igor
Here's the next review.... Warning though... there are spoilers in a few places...
I was at a test screening for the new 70's KISS movie, "Detroit Rock City"
last night, and I thought you'd like to hear my thoughts on the movie. In
three words: THIS MOVIE ROCKED. I'm srue by now you all know the basic
story,
it involves four high schoolers from Cleaveland and their odyssey to go see
the KISS concert in Detroit. This is nothing new of course, but the
execution
was great!
When the movie begins, the four buddies have tickets to the concert until
one
of the guys' mother (Lin Shaye of "There's Something About Mary" and
"Kingpin", who again gives a great, scene-stealing comic performance) who is
a
religious fanatic and thinks KISS is devil music finds the tickets and burns
them. One of the guys, than wins tickets to the concert on the radio so the
guys head to Detroit. Along the way, they have a run in with some disco-
loving assholes. They end up picking up one of the girls (Natasha Lyonne
from
"Slums Of Beverly Hills").
Whent he guys get to Detroit, the tickets from the radio station have
already
been given away, so the four guys split up and each try to find a way into
the
concert before it starts. The movie ends up with the four guys getting in
the
concert and with KISS performing "Detroit Rock City."
What made this movie work is the way it captured the 70's so perfectly. You
really feel like you've entered a time warp. The soundtrack had EVERYTHING
you remember from the 70's, from cheesy songs like "Muskrat Love," "The Pina
Colada Song" and "Makin It" to great rock classics like "Baba O'Reilly" and
of
course lots of great KISS music. Also, the great thing about this movie was
that it was extremely raunchy. From some reason, when I heard the concept I
thought this film would be PG-13, but it is a hard R. Most of the raunchy
"Something About Mary"-type gags are HILARIOUS.
My advice to everyone who reads this is: SEE THIS MOVIE IN THE THEATER.
IT'S
A GREAT GROUP EXPERIENCE. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE THAT YOU DID WITH
"DAZED AND CONFUSED" AND WAIT UNTIL VIDEO!!!!!
Hope this was helpful,
CAPTAIN STARSHINE
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+ Expand All
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Well, Why are they waiting till Augus-.. OH! WAAIIT! I Remember-never mind:)
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As a child in the 70's I remember well the KISS craze. I, too, bought KISS Alive II,(as well as my first John Williams score - need I say which one?) and Love Gun, and Double Platinum...that was a good time. Any movie that shows how goddamn FUN KISS was in the 70's is cool in my book. I will see this one.
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Kiss.... sure you see them now as pathetic old men in make-up, but I remember when they ruled the world. I'm 36 and remember the first time I saw them on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Can you imagine seeing Gene Simmons before he was passe'? Man, I was in the army from that minute on. Albums, the comic book with their blood in the ink, posters... I had it all. When everyone else was listening to K.C. and the Sunshine Band, I bought all 4 solo albums (Ace Freely's is actually pretty good). Then everything changed. Kiss actually thought they were a real band , and threw aside the personas. They went from cool, to just another medicore big hair band. Thankfully by then I moved on (thank you Eddie Van Halen). When the boys made up and maked-up again, I thought "money-grubbers". How many 30 and 40 somethings do you think will want to relive THAT part of their youth. Millions, appartently. For our anniversary, my wife surprised me with tickets to the old foggeys. The place was packed, most of them like me, old army veterns called into service one last time. For two hours I was 13 again, and the words to "She" came back to me as though the 23 years since I last heard them hadn't happened. That's what I hope Detroit Rock City is like.
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Im all for the idea, but couldnt they have picked a bette band to make this movie about? I dont know... i wont bitch about music cuz this is a movie site, but KISS? I just dont get them... I'd rather see a movie about 4 guys going to a crazy, laser-light show-filled, Floyd show.
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I thought I was the only one who collected those funny stickers. Then one day I brought my entire collection to school in 1976-77 in the sixth grade. Somebody stole my whole goddamned collection!!!! I used to have to mow the entire lawn all day on Saturday while everyone else was playin' ball just so I could get a buck and a quarter to go out and by me 5 packs of those Wacky Packages!!! I thought I was over it until one day a couple of years ago I was at an Auto-Rama show where these dirtbag dealers were sitting behind tables of precious toy collectibles. I went up to one of the tables and there before me were about 100 original Wacky Pack stickers! I couldn't believe my eyes!!! The asshole wanted 2 fucking dollars a piece for 'em!!!! I swear that was the guy who stole them from me 22 years earlier. Oh how I would treasure that collection back. Can't find them anymore. Now I'm getting all verklempt. Sniff. Sniff.
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at least they aren't boring, like most bands around today.
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Out of Sight and Hoffa were made in Detroit, because they were set in Detroit, and because so many movies that are set in Detroit aren't actually made here, save for quick exterior shots to keep the local masses happy. One of the fun things about OOS that the rest of the country didn't get to do is "landmark spotting." When I saw OOS with an 3/4 empty theater, everyone in it was saying things like "Hey, I know where that is! I've been there!" Including myself, having seen a great many concerts at the State Theater (a wonderful venue for music, beautifully restored, great acoustics), used in the movie for boxing. That's comething you can't recreate on any set or in any other city. My point is, why wasn't DRC made here? Detroit and Cobo Arena was practically KISS's home away from home in their heyday, and its people are huge supporters, to the point that KISS officially kicked off their reunion tour HERE, and sold 45,000 tickets in a matter of MINUTES. Plus, Detroit is famous for its rock and roll audiences and fandom. There's enough history in this town to really hold a movie like DRC together. Danny Devito apparently knows that. Why didn't the makers of DRC? Money? Pshaw. If you're trying to create an accurate document of this time period, and if you're gonna name the movie after the goddamn CITY, shoot the movie there! Money should be no object! Detroit would be more than happy to welcome any film crew that wants to work here and will show the city in a positive light. So I guess you could say this is an open plead to any filmmaker reading this who's planning a movie about Detroit: Shoot the movie HERE! DRC is a missed opportunity for the city, its people, its history, and its future. I can only hope the same mistake isn't made twice.
One more quick question: to those who've seen the movie/read the script, what's the name of the venue where the KISS concert in the movie takes place? Thanks. -
Toronto, I saw them on a closed highway on my way to school for over a week shooting something with a small sign proclaiming "The set of Detroit City rocks this way--->". With 70's cars and everything, it was pretty cool.
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