Hey folks, Harry here.

There seems to be quite a bit of speculation out there about the validity of the hype seen on this website concerning THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and THE IRON GIANT. Also there seems to be this perception that if you send me something cool or an airplane ticket or a premiere pass that you are somehow guaranteed a wildly praising review from me.

Well, let me address this cause quite frankly I’m sick of it.

First off, in the 3 and a half years this site has existed, I have gone on 29 trips courtesy of someone else’s buck. Some have been world premieres, speaking engagements, film festivals, set visits and a part in two films.

Do you have any conception of how many I turn down?

No. You don’t. I get tickets to world premieres offered all the time. I don’t go to many of them. Why? Simple. Because something is showing at the Alamo Drafthouse that I’d rather see. Recently I was offered a trip to a very high profile comedy set, where I could meet a superstar, the director and a babe or two, but.... I was more jonesed to see LAKE PLACID that day.

How much was I paid to see Lake Placid? Hmmmm.... Well I got my tickets from THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE, a local newspaper that provides me with.... oh.... I’ll say 95% of my free passes to movies, and have no studio ties at all. I went to the Regal cinema, stood in line for an hour and a half. Bought a soda pop, got a free keychain from the local Television station that was a sponsor for the event. Never spoke to the studio rep, never got a press kit or a poster. Total Profit for seeing the movie.... A key chain, and that wasn’t even from the studio. In fact... I had no contact with any of them. So I guess I got zilch.

THE HAUNTING? Well, gosh. I never received a press kit or stills. My tickets.... The Austin Chronicle. No poster, no books, no props, no phone calls with the director or any interaction with the studio at all. The result? I liked the film. I even went back and paid to see it that next weekend again, and still enjoyed it. Payola? A negative $3.75 plus the cost of gas.

To get on the various studio publicity screening ticket junket bit, you have to fax them a letter requesting this on company letterhead.

I do not have company letterhead. I do not have a FAX machine. I don’t know who to call or fax, and I have never signed up for their lists.

One screening company sends me tickets. One ticket, good for 2 people, for the various studios who’s products the rep. That’s how I got my A STIR OF ECHOES ticket, my DETROIT ROCK CITY ticket (which I gave to Tom Joad because there was another screening I was going to).

Does this mean the studios never send me stuff? Nope. Not true. New Line sends me all their press books and slides (which really don’t do me any good, I really would rather get an Electronic Press Kit, but.... I’ve never called to complain in the last year of getting these)

I got an autographed IRON GIANT poster signed by Brad Bird yesterday. Did he send it to me? Nope. It came from this producer dude that used to have me on his Radio Show in Las Vegas back.... oh.... a year or two ago, and he recently did a piece with Brad Bird, and had him sign about a dozen posters to giveaway as prizes on the radio program... But this guy reads the site and figured I’d appreciate it.

I also got a FACE/OFF poster signed by JOHN WOO the same way. This radio guy up in Seattle, I think, did an interview with him and had him autograph the poster, HOWEVER, didn’t tell him who it was for, and it was after my review.

Hell, I got an autographed MIGHTY PEKING MAN poster signed by the Jungle Woman in the movie. Did my alleged ‘good buddy’ Quentin Tarantino send this to me? Nope. It came from David Poland, one of my harshest critics over at Roughcut. And... It came after my Ebert stint.

Let’s look at the premieres. Well, I went to STARSHIP TROOPERS, RUSH HOUR, GODZILLA, THE FACULTY, ALIEN RESURRECTION, A BUG’S LIFE, EDtv, ARMAGEDDON and I think that’s it. There might be more, but that’s all that I remember right now.

STARSHIP TROOPERS was my first, and I loved the film. RUSH HOUR was fun, not a great premiere, but certainly a fun movie. GODZILLA, still one of my fave movie memories. Watching that film with 20,000 some odd screaming New Yorkers bouncing beach balls around Madison Square Garden, people standing on their seats doing that Arsenio Hall dog pound ‘whop whop’ thing. But ya know, 24 hours later in Austin I rewatched it and bombed it, though I still liked the effects work.... and I still do. THE FACULTY was fun, not a great premiere, but a fun sci fi flick, not the reinvention of the wheel though. ALIEN RESURRECTION, I bombed the hell out of. And told the head of the studio in no uncertain words that I really hated the film. A BUG’S LIFE, Pixar treated me royally even though I had already reviewed the film and preferred ANTZ... Which I still do, though A BUG’S LIFE is still a fantastic movie, I just like ANTZ more (though I didn’t go to the premiere, got zero free stuff for and had no airplane tickets or swag for at all). One of the coolest things I’ve received is from Pixar... It’s that lenticular Making of A BUG’S LIFE book that is.... INCREDIBLE, but in addition everyone I met at Pixar signed it and did sketches in it for me, including a Flik by Lasseter. BUT, I got that about two months ago. WELL after the fact. A similar book came from Dreamworks regarding THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, but months after I reviewed it and at no insistence on my part, and it got them zero extra publicity.

ARMAGEDDON, coolest premiere I’ve been to yet. Loved the film. Went out and bought the Criterion DVD out of my own pocket. And no matter what Jeffrey Wells says, I did cry and still do during that film. And on that Criterion disc, the scene with Lawrence Tierney kills me. Of course, I’ve always thought L.T. bore a similarity to my Dad.

It might interest you to know that I didn’t go to THE IRON GIANT premiere. Why? Because I had something I was doing here in Austin. In fact, most of the time when I get offers I can’t go because.... Well there’s a birthday or a friend is having a get together. Or I just don’t feel like it. Sure, it’d been cool to go to the IRON GIANT premiere. Would have loved to of met Brad, I think he’s a genius. But.... I was having a back yard party here in Austin where I was screening SUPERMAN II for some friends. And that was more important.

Now, this Monday I’m flying myself out to see DETROIT ROCK CITY in L.A. Why? Because I have always wanted to see KISS in concert in make-up. Every other time I’ve had a chance to see them perform in make-up, some personal disaster kept me from seeing the KNIGHTS IN SATAN’S SERVICE, so... When a friend turned up a pass for me to go and not only see DETROIT ROCK CITY, but the after concert and party. Well, I called up American Airlines and scheduled up a flight.

It’s the same whim that took me to Paris to see John Carpenter’s VAMPIRES. Sometimes... There’s just something happening in this world that I have to go see. I had tickets to see STAR WARS EPISODE ONE in San Francisco at that special screening.... Air flight and everything, but... I was in line. I was with friends laying siege to the theater. I’ll be damned if some monkey suit affair was going to drag me to attend.

The set visits. I haven’t done too many of these, though I have been offered a lot of em. I went to THE MUMMY set in London because I knew I could hook up with a contact and get the Episode One script, plus... I’d be able to see how the production on that film was coming along. Meanwhile, The New York Times was there, along with Entertainment Weekly, Starlog, Cinefantastique, US, Premiere and many other print medias. The biggest difference between us was I didn’t hang out with the publicity folks, I talked to construction workers on the set, one of whom also took hand in building that big wheel of Kubrick’s on 2001 as well as STAR WARS sets.

Ultimately when I saw the MUMMY, I didn’t really care for it, and said so in my review. I felt it was too cheesy and not the film I wanted it to be.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT:

3 weeks before Sundance, Joe Hallenbeck got a video of the film and didn’t watch it. A week before Sundance, I got an email saying to look out for the film at the festival and gave me the premise. I liked the premise and was curious to learn more, so I passed it on through the site, alerting my people that were at Sundance to see it.

They did. They loved it. I had a lot of reviews for the film come in from Sundance, but I printed just a couple. And they were from people I knew.

Hallenbeck saw the film on video on the second day of the festival, liked it quite a bit, and I had him send me the tape so I could see if it was as good as the reviews were claiming.

Meanwhile I flew off to ROTTERDAM. When I came back, I watched it. And loved the film. I felt it wasn’t for everyone. But, it was for the unconventional filmgoer. It was an art house experimental horror film. But, as I showed it to anyone and everyone that’d come over to watch it, I realized something. It was really getting these people in that creep out sort of way. After every showing, we’d stay up till dawn talking about the film, about implications and about how the premise is taken from about a hundred pieces of film from before, what we each saw and how much fun it is to screen to people that don’t know.

90% of the reviews written for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT that appeared posted on my site by me, came from me personally screening the film for these people. Moriarty, Copernicus, Quint, Hooper, Segue Zagnut and a bunch I can’t remember.

Why were we so passionate about the film? Because the film got to us. It succeeded in doing what it needed to in us. And we shared our enthusiasm. So.... Did Artisan send me my tape? No. Joe Hallenbeck did. How’d he get it? I don’t know, and I don’t ask. All I know is he had it BEFORE Artisan acquired it.

I was contacted by Artisan and the filmmakers to see if I’d be interested in World Premiering the first trailer for THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. I jumped at it. I love indie filmmaking, and the chance to help this film reach a wider audience excited me. So on April 3rd... I offered the links.

The hype regarding THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT on AICN came from the enthusiasm I had for the film, along with those I showed the movie to. Ultimately it came from the film itself, and the mythology surrounding it which I felt was perfect WILLIAM CASTLE fodder, which I could not resist playing up.

THE IRON GIANT

On March 4th 1998, the first piece on THE IRON GIANT appeared online on AICN. It was un early piece of pre-production art that was quite moody featuring the giant himself. No info, and not a bit of talk back.

On July 5th 1998, the first insider look at THE IRON GIANT came in. The insider was an animator.... but not for Warner Brothers. And did know Brad, but not more than as a casual industry way. In fact, the source was from Disney. They reviewed the film as a strict work of pencil and animatic version of the giant. And... it affected this person the same way it did me. Brad had apparently just shown the film to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (the classic Disney animators). This review was the first piece to really get me excited. It covered all the key bases of what I have been hoping to see from an animated film. BUT.... Talk Back was still.... ZERO.

Later in July a source at another animation studio, still not Warners, provided me with some images from the film itself. Talk Back erupted. 2 days later Brad Bird called me to see if I’d consider taking the shot of the Giant down cause he really wanted the character introduced in the film. I talked with him for a bit. Listened to his arguments and consented. However, the Hogarth images remained, and Brad was beside himself with how I could have gotten these.

But folks. The animation industry is very close, and everyone shows everyone each other’s work. It’s a bit like show and tell. And that’s how I got em.

However, it wasn’t until February 1st that we had the first real strong push of hype regarding THE IRON GIANT, and that came from Moriarty. It touched him at an extremely close and profound point. He called me up and bent my ear in two, going into tiny infinitesimal details about how we have to make the world aware of this movie. At that point I had already run 5 stories on THE IRON GIANT, and had seen enough to get me excited. Combined with my faith in Moriarty, I backed him up in his quest to get an interview with Brad Bird.

I gave him Brad’s office number, which I’ve never called, and told Moriarty to pump him for info. Moriarty, a possessed man, went to work. Fighting Warner Bros. to get in to talk to the man. Finally going around them, disguising himself and got the interview.

Now AICN doesn’t regularly do interviews because... Well, usually it means the piece has to be approved by a studio or the person you are interviewing. Outside organizations will not and do not edit the content I have on my site.

Meanwhile, EVERY review that I posted for IRON GIANT, till the last 4 days, came from someone I knew and trusted and wasn’t working for Warner Brothers. They may be anonymous to you, but not to me.

Then, the reviews of the past 4 days? Well, they come from long time spies, talk backers, parents, etc. People that work at Nestle, Dell, Apple, IBM, the military, students at college, etc. None of them came from hotmail accounts or anonymous servers. And certainly didn’t come from warner.com.

Also.... It seems people try to use the ‘Salon’ article to brow beat me with, well.... Had Salon bothered to fact check the piece they’d found that at that time AICN had run a total of 18 articles in a year and a half on IRON GIANT, not 69.

That piece was sloppy reporting and innuendo. None of which was backed up.

I don’t run EVERY review I get. In fact, I’d say it’s closer to 1 in 20. I always represent both positive and negative as I get it, and always try to give you to proper context in regards to the state of the film.... ie... Sound, effects... the state of completion.

Ultimately if studios were really interested in false hyping on my site, you would have seen 30 reviews of WILD WILD WEST or INSPECTOR GADGET or BIG DADDY or RUNAWAY BRIDE praising the living shit out of the films. Instead.... you don’t. You don’t see that dreck on AICN.

I like movies. nay, I love them. Everyday I wake up wanting to live my life, spend time with those I love, and embrace a bit of that silver screen. I love movies, movie-going, movie-making and movie-marketing. I love the process of film.

I love it when TIME magazine has to call up scratching it’s head wondering where THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT came from and how so many people found out about it, and them really not having a clue.

I don’t take credit for it, instead, I give them the entire history of how the film went from small microscopic indie film... to being THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT with a $29 million dollar weekend and phenomenal per screen averages.

Telling TIME that this is the potential of Horror Films. Serious creepy scares. Not campy ha ha’s.

I love USA TODAY calling up asking about why AICN seems to be the only place that has been talking about THE IRON GIANT, and how she’d just seen the film and loved it. “How did we know?”

We know because we care to find out. I don’t like films to open and close and never to find out if it’s a good flick or not. What’s the word? Yea or Nay?

Sure, I see just about everything anyway, but pretty much my whole life I’ve had friends asking me what they should see or how this movie was or have I heard about such n such.

I’m a child grown up and raised on Famous Monsters of Filmland, Starlog, Fangoria, Variety, Life, People, Cinefex, Cinefantastique, Siskel and Ebert, Pauline Kael, the Austin Chronicle and various Austin Critics, My Father and his group of rabid film friends.

I’ve sold movie posters, presskits, animation cels, props, gum cards, toys and related ephemera my entire life.

At the age of 3 I was selling black and white stills of Bruce Lee, Star Trek, Dr Who, War Of The Worlds, Harryhausen films, Universal and Hammer monsters, 50’s Sci Fi and Scares.

Raised on the film festival and comic convention circuit. I was raised in fandom from my earliest memories. The world of cinema is that extra particle in the air I breath that intoxicates me and allows me to thrive.

If I get excited about a movie and allow my enthusiasm and emotions to guide me, it’s because I don’t allow myself to control them. I’m not Spock, I’m Shatner and McCoy. I temper a bit of Spock from time to time, but I’m an emotional being.

And that is the truth about AICN. All this other stuff is just BS. I try to find others like me that share a love and passion for film.

We may not agree on everything, and we may scream and cuss and pitch a fit over this film or that film, but that’s because our opinions on film... yours and mine, are cemented to our passion for flicks.

You may agree... Disagree... Hell, you may even feel like pinching my head off. But if you are disagreeing with an opinion in my reviews, it is my opinion.

And opinions, contrary to some’s beliefs, are subject to change.

Remember when girls (or guys) were icky. Well, after further analysis... I have decided to form an opinion that believes firmly that girls/women/ladies are the cat’s meow. They’re the cream in my coffee, the apple of my eye, the ranch in my dressing, the lips around my ice cream cone. They rock!

And that’s one opinion I hope I never learn better on.