Right, here's why Beetlejuice freaks me, I mean, used to freak me out:
1) GIANT WORMS!
When I went to the beach as a kid I always started freaking out because of something that featured in the Monster In My Pocket toys. It was a creature that lived under sand and used to poke through and snatch children pulling them under to eat them. As such these things terrified me.
2) SHE RIPS HER FACE OFF!
I mean, seriously, right off!
3) THE GUY WAE THE WEE HEID!
Reminds me of a guy who cuts about my hometown. In fact he looks identical and the real life guy's mental.
4) SNAKE BEETLEJUICE!
Let's be honest it is quite a freaky wee scene.
5) EYEBALLS!
I'm not the only person freaked out by the eyeball. Hoffman, Freud and The Residents all understand our fears relating to them and many a horror director manipulates it with "eye deaths". Just don't go looking through any keyholes.
6) FUNFAIRS FREAK ME OUT!
Even if it's only a guy dressed as one.
7) AS DOES MODERN ART!
This movies full of it. And then it all comes to life...
8) FALSE TEETH!
My grandpa used to take his teeth out and chase me with them. It wasn't so much the fake teeth clapping in his hand rather the gums they left behind that freaked me out.
9) THE METAL PLATE ON HER MOUTH!
As someone who struggles with sinus trouble the idea of a metal plate boltedto my mouth is just plain scary. If it happened to me whilst my nose was bunged up I'd suffocate and die!
Great, now I'm a gibbering wreck! If any kids come to the door I'll be too afraid to open it in case they're dressed as modern art, giant worms or my grandpa!
So why is Beetlejuice my Hallowe'en night film? Because let's be honest Hallowe'en's for kids and Beetlejuice scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. And I'm one of those tits who tries to re-live his childhood every chance I get.
So just for you I'm going to re-live the childhood trauma and then list why it used to scare me. It doesn't now because I'm a manly man 'n' stuff (honest)...
Watching the first bit of Amityville Horror remake before The Dark comes on. Looks a bit Hollywoody. Bugger this Amityville guff I'm goin for a jobbie, and noe because I'm shitein maself! A bit too much sunlight in the opening scenes of The Dark for my liking Also appears it was actually shot on Isle Of man instead of Wales so killer sheep are prob out! SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPP! (sadly not killer ones though) So Maria Bello's worked with both Arargon and Boromir Not killer sheep, suicidal sheep! Not at all bringing attention to the red coat there! DING DING DING, she gonna die! Shouting at Sarah like she's a dog probably ain't gonna bring her running! An abattoir, suicide and a freaky religion. Happy Halloween everybody So far decently creepy. Atmospheric and it's got a touch of The Ring to it Is it ever a good idea to plunge your hand into a hole in the wall that's talking? You should never be the character that knows what's going on in a horror it doesn't end well for you! weird colour grading? That'll be the other side It's gotten a bit stupid now sadly. First half was good and creepy then it just got a bit too stupid for its own good. Shame really.
It's the night before Hallowe'en, All Hallow's Eve Eve as no one would ever to refer to it. As such it's telly time. Traditionally the week of Hallowe'en has been scary movie central. Sadly that seems to be a thing of the past, maybe because of satellite and cable TV and their ability to show tons of the things on dedicated channels. As such looking through the terrestrial schedules for a scary movie proved to be a bit difficult.
Hallowe'en night itself proves to be a bit of a damp squib. Channel 4 is showing the rather brilliant The Host, but that's after midnight so it's technically a November 1st movie. BBC2 is showing the original Halloween and Halloween 2. The latter's guff whilst the former is just way too familiar, although as argued on Wednesday you could do far worse than download the Halloween Rifftrax and give the old film a new slant. Your best bet is on E4 which is showing Charlie Brooker's surprisingly brutal Big Brother zombie thing Dead Set. Of course it's a repeat from last year but it is pretty darn great.
The scariest thing on telly tomorrow night can be found on Five USA. No not a showing of Prom Night but rather the earlier screening of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. It's the most terrifying thing on telly by a long, long way.
So what to do. I say get a DVD in. Quite a few of the films covered for the 13 Days Of Hallowe'en are perfect as is the previously reviewed on Splice Drag Me To Hell which came out on DVD this week. Great fun and nicely old fashioned in its scares it's well worth your time.
If your going out, on the piss as opposed to trick-or-treating I'd imagine, then there's a couple of scary movies on tonight that take you past midnight and into Hallowe'en. ITV 1 has plumped for a remake of The Amityville Horror starting soon. More interesting is BBC 1's choice of The Dark, the one I'll be watching. I've went for this as it sounds decent, has a good cast and it's set in Wales. As such that should mean at least one scene of horrifying sheep*.
It starts at 11:40pm and I'll probably tweet on the Splice Twitter page during it, although it won't be of the level of the Dracula Vs. Frankenstein live Twitter session of last Friday. Mainly because I can't be bothered having to pause the film halfway through for two hours after posting too many tweets in a short time span.
If you're watching either film get in touch!
* If you want guaranteed sheep horror check out New Zealand's Black Sheep, another great film for a party tomorrow night.
Next up is Japanese horror/thriller Death Note. Death Note is the live action film based on the manga, anime, video game and breakfast cereal of the same name.
Here's the review I wrote on the MST3K Discussion Board at the time I first watched the Halloween Rifftrax:
Halloween proves the rule that there should be no sacred cows when it comes to making fun of movies. A much loved, me included, seminal horror flick provides many a great laugh, if your sense of humour is as skewed as Mike and Kevin's, allowing you to look at the movie's flaws instead of why it's great. In a way then it's similar to Mike's Night of the Living Dead commentary, but this is way better, with Kevin in particular in great form. Personal favourite riffs include Darth Vader stumbling onto the wrong set and the whole run of Carpenter coming home from work over the opening tracking shot. Halloween is a fun Rifftrax that should become a holiday tradition like the MST3K Xmas episodes.
Here's the scene that I was talking about with Mike and Kevin pretending that the opening tracking shot is just John Carpenter coming home from his work:
Well it's the most obvious film to watch at this time of year so here it is. Sadly it's probably not that shocking anymore, either because you've seen it a million times or because you're really young and it's all a bit tame. Well you can piss off and watch your rubbish Rob Zombie versions.
Anyway this is an attempt to shake things up a bit with the Rifftrax treatment of the classic film. If the terror has been too much to take so far Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy should make you laugh whilst cowering behind the sofa...
Much has been made about the fact that we're currently in a vampire film renaissance. Post Twilight there seems to be bloody hunners of them. Mainstream Saturday night crowd stuff, teen boy and girl releases, and in Thirst an arty Asian import vamp flick. Even the latest "must see" HBO show is a suck and fuck fest. But whilst Drac's cousins are tearing up the multiplexes the humourous zombie is still shuffling about Blockbuster's straight to DVD horror section, just next to the Wrestling bit and the badger documentaries. In the horror genre though it's the zombie that wins out in terms of quantity of films. Seriously there's bloody tons of them.
As such there isn't much new to say when making a zombie film. It seems pretty much every connotation has now been done. Even Romero, king of the modern zombie, seems to have nothing new to add to the rotting corpse of the sub-genre. But wait, what's that lumbering slowly over the hill (I'll stop with the zombie metaphors now), why it's first time writer/director/brother team Matthew and Sean Kohnen and their little low budget zombie flick. And you know what? It's actually pretty original!
Wasting Away is told from the angle of the zombies you see. Four friends end up zombified after eating some toxic ice cream, the only thing is they don't realise it, seeing themselves and other infected as normal. As one character states at one point in response to another's claim that they don't feel like a zombie; "well idiots don't feel stupid but they are". As a result of their now lower brain functions they see those not infected moving at hyper speed, leading them to believe that everyone else has become infected instead. The only ones who appear to them normal and they can communicate with are drunk people, lower brain functions again, and vice versa. To show the split between reality and the zombies' perceived reality the filmmakers have chosen to flick between Night Of The Living Dead black and white for the real world and colour for the zombies' fantasy world, a simple yet effective trick:
The film is jam packed with references to films like Evil Dead 2, Re-animator and the Romero films. But it also plays with the cliches of the genre, the only zombie who eats brains is shown to be a curious eater before zombification and as such can't resist shoving the meat on a taco just to see how it tastes. Thanks to the setup there is much humour derived from the simple fact that they don't know they are zombies. As such we see a zombie waiter, a zombie attempt to stealthily intercept an army base and another attempt to ask a father permission to date his daughter not realising that his heartfelt plea merely sounds like moaning to the human ear.
For all the great ideas Wasting Away sometimes struggles to overcome its lack of budget. It also could have done with some tighter editing and script supervision. Some scenes go on too long and the whole zombie job interview is a superfluous distraction that never lives up to the potential of the idea. As such cutting it or possibly finding a way to do it through dialogue after the fact would have been preferable.
Ultimately though Wasting Away is a lot of fun. There's a great central idea supplemented by lots of brilliant twists on the traditional zombie cliches and an absolute load of references for those inclined to play at spotting them. Some budgetary concerns and a slightly saggy middle let it down a tad, but for a first effort this is an treat that points to the Kohnens being ones to watch. They've proved there may be life in the old zombie yet.
Right, next up is a zombie flick called Wasting Away. In all honesty I have no idea what this is. While I was sifting through the horror DVDs in HMV Ispotted the cover for this with happy looking zombies. It kind of reminded me of that rather entertaining original take on zombies Fido.
So reading the back of the DVD this sounds like it could be quite fun. Basically four friends become zombified but the story is told from their point of view so they don't realise it.
Looks like it won some awards at horror film fests as well so hopefully this turns out to be a wee gem.
For tonight it's a bit of a lighter film after yesterday's intense one. Monsters Vs. Aliens has been recommended to me thanks to constant references to cheesy old sci fi/horror flicks. It's also the family Hallowe'en night film of the list. It's out today on DVD so I've just bought it and I'm away to watch it now. Review up as soon as possible afterward...
Humans. We're meant to be the good guys, right? When other worldly beasties attack it's humanity's plight and fight for survival that is ultimately the heroic tale. Or are we really the monsters, paying for a multitude of sins as nature strikes back, unable to put our prejudices and superstitions to one side to fight against our attackers. So many siege movies have dealt with this idea and Frank Darabont's The Mist balances itself on the fence between the two sides of the argument.
As set ups go The Mist's is pretty much textbook stuff. Frightful storm, mysterious mist, group of survivors trapped in a supermarket as monsters lay siege to the place. The setting is key though as it allows for a rich cross section of society to be among the group of survivors. There's the everyman and his kid, the successful lawyer, the religious nut, black, white, male, female, young, old, stupid and clever. Oh and there's the too intelligent for their own good.
It's an inevitability that the survivors divide really isn't it? It's what humans do. The situation in the supermarket is a microcosm of the world, and in particular America, today. As such we have the skeptical and the foolhardy/dumb who either don't believe or think it's a good idea to venture outside. The decision to head to the pharmacy next door to get drugs for a man as good as dead is the ultimate in stupidity and stubbornness. Thankfully it also provides an incredible set-piece that'll have anyone scared of arachnids running from the room.
These actions could be attributed to fear. With things becoming oppressively terrifying we tend to act desperately. And when people are at their most desperate they turn to anyone who claims to have answers. In the case of The Mist this comes in the form of Mrs. Carmody, the aforementioned religious nut. Spouting what appear to be prescient passages from the Book of Revelations she quickly garners supporters. Before long this cult are just as much a threat as the things outside. In following the word of the Bible (or at least Mrs. Carmody's interpretation of it) they become arguably more monstrous than the creatures outside.
It's not the most subtle of social comment, and indeed the writing is a tad heavy handed at times. But it is effective. And that's because The Mist just works. It's gripping and at times utterly horrifying and as such you forgive Darabont's clunkier moments. The CGI isn't great either. The burden of a low budget. Thankfully there are only a few scenes where the monsters aren't submerged in mist. The suspicion is that if Darabont had been allowed to make the thing in black and white as he wished they wouldn't look quite as bad. It's a shame really as after so much effort has went into crafting a realistic horror they tend to jar and take you out of it slightly.
Thankfully the performances suck you back in, after all it's the humans not the nasties that really matter. Credit in particular goes to Marcia Gay Harden's (is she bad in anything?) manic fervour as Mrs. Carmody, Toby Young and youngster Nathan Gamble, a horror kid that doesn't grate. Sadly Thomas Jayne isn't quite in their league. He's not awful but he's nothing more than a likable, average actor, meaning that he copes for the most part, but emotional scenes are a bit too much for him.
With The Mist Frank Darabont has crafted an intelligent and gripping state of the nation address horror, in the mould of Night Of The Living Dead, bleak ending and all. Darabont's first full length Stephen King horror adaptation suggests that the genre has missed him until now. He proves a dab hand, able to command scares and bend the genre rules. In these days of redundant, bludgeoning horror films The Mist is a vital piece of filmmaking. Make sure you're a good guy and go see it.
Let's continue on the classy front with the second killer bug movie on the list, Frank Darabont's third feature length, and first horror, Stephen King adaptation, The Mist.
I've heard many a good thing about this one, usually along the lines of "it's a travesty nobody went to see this yet Saw is on its fifth sequel".
If that isn't a recommendation I don't know what is...
The idea for this review was to video myself watching the film as I'd heard it was right scary. Sadly a) it wasn't a jumpy sort of scary, more haunting thus the video footage wasn't all that funny, and b) because of prior commitments I had to watch it during the afternoon, not the best time:
Right, on to a classier affair. I know, you're thinking what could be classier than Dracula Vs. Frankenstein? Paris Hilton's sex tape maybe? That's just too ghastly even for Splice. Instead let's go with Euro ghost story Devil's Backbone.
Going to do something a wee bit different yet again for this one, keep your eyes peeled...
Here's some of the Tweets in response to what surely is an over looked classic of the genre of men in bad make up pushing each other about films:
Hellboy!, and Salmond Rushdie! Oh it's #DracVsFrank my bad Looking forward to vampire vs. mad scientist action! Or am I giving the makers too much credit in assuming they didn't just call the monster Frankenstein? Looks like the inside of a Korg synth I must say it's all very dramatic. Hope it can maintain the credit sequences level of excitement! Very sunny looking moon I vant to suck... oh never mind Torgo's hat makes a cameo Pete Townsend as Dracula! Awfy bad midges this time of year! Hello Cleveland! Rock And Roll! Wait is this set in Siam? She certainly don't travel light in the chest area, WOOT WOOT! Lip synch a tad off there. Sound editor was obviously distracted! TITILLATION! Low brow style! By the way I apologise for the phalanx of Tweets during this! Phalanx is the correct term for a load of Twitter posts. Music wasn't quite right for a scene about a missing person was it? She finds corridors complicated Also making sandwiches And revolving doors Tourists come to see the pushers and white slavery operators. They'd be disappointed otherwise!
Such a pretty face David Lynch's worst role It's a dark world in low budget films anyway. Lighting costs money! Bloody hell there's a midget. Does every bad 70's film need a midget? I'm guessing him enforcing the "you must be this high" is just cruelty on the managements part Isn't that the name of the new Terry Gilliam film Sage advice, you must open your eyes to see things. Troll 2 level of monster make up He looked better with the mask on And we should all have green teeth I'm just going to eat some beef Monster Munch, get in the mood I'd gather he don't know a lot of things! The Fuhrer!!!!!!!! So he runs a ghost train to fund his research then? Sorry just engrossed in his performance Yeah cos scars are known for their disappearing qualities Lucky cos she ain't awake yet See I always had my suspicions about nightshift workers He breathes heavier than James Gandolfini running a marathon The wonder of cinematic effects ladies and gentlemen He now looks a tiny bit different! And try not to breathe
I really hope that mustachioed man and the wheelchair dude go at it! Fight I mean, Christ you dirty bastards! Dracula grew that mustache so he tickles his victim's necks when he bites them, softens the blow There was a reflection You have such an attractive neck Oh here's the backstory, I always love vampires who deliver exposition instead of killing Have you thought of switching your energy provider to Powergen? He's starting to smell a bit And so it all makes sense...no wait, it doesn't He's so powerful he even has a magic ring Sex = death As does measured voiceover The dubbing here is of Manos levels! "That makes me so mad. You can't tell by the way I'm speaking..." Oh looks like some social comment That shirt says that that society really is at rock bottom Sally Twinkletits is back. I may have seen her standing closer to me than that. It's hard to say
Brave choice not to show his face They're magic beans "Make sure I get a damn cow in return baldy!" he got that scar whilst shaving First midgets and now a trip out scene. Yup it's a 70's low budget horror In fact I should compile a list of stuff to tick off Midgets, trip out scenes, dodgy mustaches, the general air of sleaze... Oh and eye candy as tasty as a regurgitated Fruit N Nut bar he also cut himself shaving Looks like they left him sitting too close to the electric fire Face has went a bit pizza-like Oh good more exposition Bugger not a born again Christian. Those people just bore me! My primary school in the 80's had better tech set up than this tube We can't show you the comet obviously... Is Dracula going to steal the "It's alive " line? That would just be discriminating against the disabled that New borns always look ugly covered in all that stuff The monster's got the best hairdo of anyone in this so far! And master of the Boogaloo Did he just call him Dr. Dong? Not to his face obviously But he now has real grip action
Right let's get going with part 5 of the most titanic struggle since Jack Straw attempted to open a bottle of broon sauce Tight white trousers and a necklace made of teeth. Ladies your dessert has arrived Let me guess Joanie's the scar necked chick He's strange, unlike me with my ensemble and you with that hair I'm thinking his aftershave will blank any fresh air getting to her lungs My dream in life, to take a deep breathe Oh she'd fancy Nick Griffin then Had to get my own social comment in, sorry An elongated toe.she'd make a killing with the midget as an agent Rule number 2: youhave to openyour eyes to be able to see Maybe he got stuck down the toilet He'll be rolling about somewhere He's hell on wheels But you'll need to squint to see her in it Ah so he treats her like a dog Crosby, Stills and Nash terrorise the seafront Wait is it her or him they fancy? Maybe it's just his stripey trousers
Right where were we plot wise? Eh... I'd be saying that even if there wasn't a two hour break! Is her hair taking on a life of it's own? It'll take out Dracula and Frankenstein at this rate! And toothy Ah the ocean's a visual metaphor for wetness. Not her, he's a drip. They're not going to meld her with a puppy are they? Shiteist werewolf ever! Ah so all of this is so he can arrange an orgy I'm starting to react pretty similarly to this film, and I too may need to inject something to get through it Ah so this is the first attempt at a live action Scooby Doo film
Let's go, let's hope we get the #DracVsFrank fight soon as this undercard sucks! Really shouldn't have listened to the cliched horror score station Not the face, my beautiful face! She also got tired trying to balance that tonne weight of hair on her head Yup, right under the toilets Well human collector still isn't as freaky as most Star Trek fans Do you know what? I think this is a perfect example of Cinema Verite. That is if they were trying to depict purgatory The low rent Elliott Gould, John Ritter and that bloke from the West Wing Sounded like a Chaney in the wild, collecting humans She dropped her cough sweets? Side note, midgets don't make good security He wants to see his penis?
On with part 8 of #DracVsFrank though so far it's been more Dracula Vs his setof clippers Dr Frankenstein vs stairs and Chaney vs my stomach Tight white trousers, it's what all the spies were wearing in the 70's I want to put your head on a woman's body Remember the Lon Chaney action figure? it had real sweating action. Yes you've got blonde hair all over you and she's got teeth marks on her tits Oh the irony, he was one day from retiring to a hut in the woods where he was going to become a lumberjack This guys diving about more than Aiden McGeady at a swimming pool And Dracula's through all this is trying to shave his mustache only he's struggling with the mirror Mighty convenient of the town planners to have pointed those spotlights at that roof like that. Borat does hypnotism So Dracula's well known for his curly hair isn't he?
And on with part 9 of #DracVsFrank and at least Zander Vorkov's back as he just lights up the screen with his magnetic charm So she fears bungee jumping right, because of what it would do to her hair Living vampires, so emo kids then And it's the main event! And it's over, kind of like that time Mike Tyson fought at Hampden Park Imagine how the coroner's going to react when he tries to identify him by the teeth they find... "Well it appears he was a half shark half douche hybrid" Fuck me there's some intense hair styling going on in this scene Ahh, Dracula looks terrifying! Mainly because he looks like a mime! "Dibs" Anyone else wishing for them just to have a Yo Mamma contest instead of this shoving match OH MY GOD! Sorry just realised I broke 600 tweets ages back there.
#DracVsFrank, who will win? Does anyone care? And we're off. I think the most important question, was it those white trousers being highly flammable that killed tooth guy? Not since the Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy has there been such a great screen smackdown I still like this better than Transformers 2. Better characters and it's less confusing That was just incase you were watching this genre film and didn't know what kills vampires. He looks like Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips now Well they say Dracula can transform into anything he wants Chesty McGhee flashes back to stuff we've just seen This movie was so good it shows you it twice! That edited down version was well better! "Or is it?"
Final thoughts:
Well that's that over with. Sorry about the break in the middle but I had fun ripping this piece of chuff and that's what counts Sorry for the swathe of Tweets but the hairdos needed mocking. And what was shark teeth boy's deal? And why were a musical ... ... supergroup terrorising the town? And who thinks it's a good idea to have a midget watch your door for you? Well at least... ... it raised some issues unlike many of today's films. So with that I shall retire. Goodnight!
Right we can resume from Part 6 of Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. Hopefully I'll be allowed to finish the film this time. If not then I'll probably give up. http://twitter.com/SpliceChuff
Turns out there's a limit to how many status updates you can do in a certain period so with the first five parts of Dracula Vs. Frankenstein watched I've been cut off. I may resume again in a few hours if possible. If not then call this a glorious failure, much like any Scottish fitba team campaign!
Right enough of the decently well made films. Let's get stuck into a serious bit of utter chuff, Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. This stinky pile was recommended by batmite on the MST3K Discussion Board.
This one's available on YouTube and so I thought it would be fun to try something a little different. So as I'm watching Drac Vs. Frankie Boy on YouTube I'm going to Tweet about it on Twitter.
I don't know if it'll work but it's something new and thus supposedly exciting. I'll be watching the film about midnight UK time and anyone's invited to join in with the viewing and mocking on Twitter.
People really don't like bugs do they? Ask people what they are afraid of and the amount of times they say creepy crawlies or spiders is simply astounding. I even knew someone who was scared of Daddy Long Legs, or whatever they're called. The thing is they were the only bugs she was scared of. It just doesn't really make sense, especially in this hemisphere. Bugs aremainly harmless and do us a lot of good. It's not like we live in Australia and there's a chance of being bitten on the bum by a deeply poisonous one. Nope the only reason people are afraid of them is that they look ugly. Of course that's ugly to us. As such bugs make good movie monsters. Some of the most iconic, the mutant in This Island Earth, the titular Aliens, have been based on them. Of course what's even scarier are giant versions, not only because you can see what they look like more clearly but because suddenly they're a threat. Well they are if they're aliens, come to Earth on a meteorite and hellbent on harvesting us, like ants do with food for the winter.
That's the central premise of Infestation, a surprisingly successful low budget alien bug movie. At first glance it looks like it's yet another straight to DVD, 3 am on some obscure satellite channel effort, but there's a lot more going on. That's not to say that the surface ain't a lot of fun mind. Infestation plays out like a zombie film, group of survivors in deserted city trying to escape beasties, only this time they are actually, well, beasties. And as such they can fly. Much more fun than the shuffling undead. It's a wise choice as the monsters now pose a threat from all angles. There's a nice level of creativity to the creatures. On top of the bog standard cockroach types who cocoon humans and keep them sedated and the flying kind who whisk the unsuspecting off to the hive there are hybrids. These appear to be the results if humans stay cocooned and don't get out like our band of heroes. Basically they look like zombies with spider legs:
Even better, not all hybrids are human/bug creatures.
Where Infestation really succeeds is in its characters and cast. The acting's actually pretty top notch, something films like this tend not to concern themselves with. Chris Marquette makes for a very convincing slacker turned slightly rubbish hero, whilst Brooke Nevin and Kinsey Packard are more than just the eye candy you'd expect them to be. Best of all though is Ray Wise (the Devil in TV's Reaper) as Cooper's dad, an ex-military man who struggles with the emotional side of the father/son relationship. His introduction sends an already fun movie over the edge. Damn the man may even qualify as a Splice Hero of Cheese (anything with them in it is made 17% better purely thanks to their presence). Family relationships are key throughout the film and are surprisingly poignant thanks to the writing.
It's not a complete success. There are some mistakes of bad movie making proportions littered through it. But you forgive the film for them thanks to its dark humour and witty inversions of horror cliches, such as the "I had a bad dream" and the "if I become one of those things..." scenes. The SFX are also pretty decent. The best CGI is saved for the hybrids which means some of the flying beasties aren't quite as great. They are passable though. The bog-standard roach ones are pretty much all rubber, which I personally find kind of charming. The pacing is also well measured. The action scenes are spread out well and the talky scenes in between succeed thanks to the writing.
Infestation's a great piece of fun cinema. It's not particularly scary, but it makes up for that by getting a lot of other things, things that many other films of this ilk don't even strive to do well, right. As such it would make a perfect film to view with a group of mates on Hallowe'en night. It's good, but it's also goofy enough to have a laugh at.
Next up is Infestation. Kim Newman, who writes what used to be called the Straight To Video Dungeon until videos became obsolete, in Empire quite likes this one.
What tipped it over the edge into must-see is the fact that it features Ray Wise who played the Devil in what will be the much missed (by me) Reaper.
This one looks like it could be fun, and after yesterdays dour film let's see if Infestation can get us back on track...
Ah day five, day five was a Monday and after catching up on sleep and having a not doing anything over the top drink wise over the weekend I managed to sleep in for my TIFF shift. Woke up exactly on 7.26 with a start and checked my phone which was my source of alarm. For some reason it never went off, a minor electronic setback i suppose but with my internal alarm clock getting me up four minutes before i am supposed to start it meant it was a major setback for me.
So i threw on clothes rapid and dashed out the door to try get in as early as possible. The roads are a bit busier later in the morning and the street car is too, from being stretched out on a double seat i was down to struggling to get a seat.
I arrived at Sutton Place at 8.30 and threw myself up the stairs and turned into the Press and Industry Screening Library (my home from home in these ten days) only to find i had been busted as my supervisor ladys at there. I told the truth though, i slept in and it was all good. these things happen and there is no point bullshitting it. after all, I am volunteering for this and why if i couldnt be arsed doing it would i turn up an hour late, surely i would just ditch it altogether? Well thats how i justify it and i assume Lauren (supervisor type lady) justifys it like that too.
A ton of posters in the library again today, some cool ones, some duff ones. I have never thought too much about posters if the truth be told, but one of my co workers does. She tells me that a lot of the time effort isnt put into the art of posters. Its more about star power. She says that psoters should tell you what the movie is about as well as who is in it, not just who is in it. Its an interesting point of view, and probably true. I like talking about this sort of stuff, its, its, well its interesting.
After compiling my schedule for the week yesterday I have decisions to make today. When my shift finished i would have 4 vouchers to be used to get me in to a film on the festival, i plan on using one today. My schedule had the Michael Caine film Harry Brown up against the Hong Kong film Accident at 2.30 in the afternoon. My preference was to go to the cinema straight after my shift and then go home so i wasnt going in and out the city all day and night. I did however look later to see what was on. The Gala Premier of Damned United perhaps at Roy Thomson Hall piqued my interest, I mean i did go on and on about it in Splice earlier this year then never went to see it so this could be an opportunity and i would get to watch it in the same audience as Michael Sheen (he must have been there!) but i decided against it, would have to stand in the Rush line for that and then i wouldnt be home till really late and my alarm woes of the morning were fresh in my mind so i ruled it out. Another film on my sched is Neil Young Trunk Show which is a free screening at Yonge Dundas Sq, this was a lock for me from the start because Young was scheduled to turn up and probably perform and i wanted to see that but in the last few days Young has pulled out his appearance and so my interest faded a bit, if i stayed in the city centre i would definitely scooted past for a look but ultimately i decide to blow it off.
I should also add that my volunteer status means my voucher can potentially get me into Press and Industry screenings around the city, we called them P&I's for short! On this the Monday night I pencilled in to give some thought a few films i might go see that were P&I's, The Most Dangerous Man In America was one, Videocracy was the other, both Documentarys the former is about the Pentagon papers and the latter is about Silvio Burlesconi's regine in Italy. Both sound fascinating topics but i didnt go see either. I just thought i would tell you that i gave it some consideration, hoping it made me seem intelligent or something.
Ok, so the point of me describing what i am not going to see is what? Probably should get on with telling what i did watch and it came down to the east v west, a battle between Caine and Kong.
Caine won. Mostly becuase i reckon i will get another chance to see Accident before the festival is over and also cos Caine doing bad ass appeals to me. 2.30 start time means i can motor down Yonge to Elgin Theatre pretty much arrive there dead on. Smashing.
Harry Brown had been elevator pitched to me as a british Gran Torino. Well i havent seen that movie yet so i cant really judge properly however i do like to surmise with limited knowledge and so will do so in this instance. From what i gather about the Eastwood movie, its about his relationships with his neighbours, he takes the young kid under his wing too. Harry Brown isnt really like that, its actually one fo the most intense thrillers i have seen in a long time.
It may be said that this is just another British crime movie but if its a British crime movie where Michael Caine rolls back the years and plays a bad ass then i say bring it on. Regardless of his age which some may see as offputting and unrealistic, the scene where Caines character visibly takes the turn to vigilante, basically passes the point of no return, it will elave no one watching it under any illusions that he is too old to pull it off.
Harry Brown is the story of a pensioner, the titular Harry, in a London suburb who refuses to take the abuse and intimidation of local youth gangs lying down any more. Harry is pretty mild mannered, his wife is in hospital and he visits her every morning, he goes for drinks and chess with an old friend in the afternoon in the pub, he seems not to even notice the casual drug dealing going on behind his back in the pub or the fact he intentional dodges using the underpass to make his passage to the hospital easier. Two things happen which seem to change Harry and set him on his course to take things into his own hands. first he loses his wife, then his chess playing friend Leonard. Leonard he loses when he is murdered trying to stand up to the gang who terrorise him. What follows is Harry attempting to exact some revenge.
Its a fantasy really, set in real life. A pensioner vigilante, i mean come on. Plus the troupe of gangsters and junkies Harry meets on his road to redemption (of sorts) are all colourful and replusive at the same time. But it is also a look at the elderly in Britain (the first half anyway) as well as a scathing look at urban Britain, gangs and crime on the street. Every corner a potential trap, the good people terrified to step out on the streets. I get the feeling that TV show The Wire has played a role in the creation of this world. The gritty realism for one thing but also the police incompetance and ability to cover up and doctor numbers. A sad indictment of Britain really.
Caines performance is sublime but the supporting cast also do a fine job. Emily Mortimer is good, so is Charlie Creed-Miles as the two police officers dealing with the case. Ben Drew is excellent as the evil Noel who leads the gang of youths, he really is poisonous in his role, really really horrible little man. I also enjoyed the brief performance of Sean Harris in a kind of pseudo Drexl from True Romance role, he always interests me in any film or TV show i see him in, his face and his mannerisms are fascinating to me, and this is no different.
Daniel Barber directs this well in his first full length film, the pace is good and the action is well handled. Sure there are poorly patched plot holes in it, the fact that Brown is an ex marine is just kind of squeezed in as a throwaway line, and it wont win awards but as a thriller and for its performances this is definately worth seeing. As big fan of Layer Cake it was reassuring for me to see Matthew Vaughn's name on the credits as a producer. But the main event is Caine and Caine is awesome.
If this is to be his final leading role (as he is implying) then what a way to go out as he is mesmerising, a role to be proud of and a film which will take its place in the upper level of his canon alongside the likes of Get Carter than down in the doledrums with guff like Jaws The Return.
Anyways, i left the cinema very impressed. I had made a good decision, i really liked the film. I should note that during the opening ten minutes or so a phone went off in the auditorium and the idiot answered it, telling the person on the line he couldnt speak. what a wally, why not click reject, or better than that put it off. Fud. Also there was no post movie Q&A, Caine had done this the previous day at something called In conversation With...Michael Caine which is aprt of the Mavericks section of the festival. Peter Berg yesterday was also part of this Maverick programme.
After that i wnet home and never came back out. Monday at TIFF for Ruud ended there.
For an old country, awash with tales of spooky goings on, Scotland hasn't really produced many horror films. And the ones it has tend to be set in the wilderness and feature beasties attacking outsiders, be they city dwellers or foreigners. Ghost stories appear to be pretty rare. Ever rarer is one set in modern, urban Glasgow. Urban Ghost Story, in case you couldn't tell, is just that. It's a film that looks to combine the staples of gritty Scottish drama with the supernatural goings on of the traditional ghost story. Sadly it fails in its approach to both, coming off as cliche-ridden no matter which angle you approach it from.
It's set in a Glasgow tower block, replete with junkies, single mothers and troublesome, ecstasy driven teens. The setting itself is in fact perfect for a ghost story. It's doubtful that much set decoration was needed at the locations. If you've never been inside a set of highflats in the west of Scotland then you're lucky. Reeking of piss, fucked lighting and strange noises are par for the course. Even if the place isn't haunted it's scary as hell navigating your way through to your dwellings. Even in the flats there's the wind effect. It creates hellish noises and makes the tower block sway. Trying to get a good night's sleep in the place isn't easy. As such setting a tale that seeks to remain ambiguous as to how real the haunting is is a savvy move.
The problem is that on the ghost story side of things it's all very ho-hum. Characters walking through barely lit corridors looking to see if that noise was the lift or not, chest-of-drawers moving across the room by itself, bed's being broken and knocking at the door to find no one there has been done many times and much better elsewhere. Even the characters that come into the families life as a result feel well worn. There's a group of parapsychologists who are all beards, glasses and guts who seem to enjoy nothing more than a young girl having a violent nightmare. Then there's the kooky psychics who "see" what's present in the flat. They may be there for comic relief, their scene may have been designed to cause terror. It's a bit hard to tell. Slightly better is the cynical journalist, looking to exploit the family as the story of the hoax is better for his career than even an authentic haunting.
The urban drama side doesn't fare much better. We get a single mum struggling to keep her family together, surrounded by destitution and potential bad influences for her tearaway teenage daughter, namely the druggy single mother a couple of floors down. It's typically dour stuff, the sort of thing pretty much every Scottish filmmaker has to write if they want any sort of funding from the government to get a film made. You can just about accept all this as the addition of the ghost angle means it could be a film looking to subvert the usual Glasgow drama. But wait, it turns out that the single mum owes money to some local gangsters. Always with the bloody gangsters! Seriously, there are more gangsters in Scottish film than appear in the entire run of The Sopranoes. Even that bastion of gritty plight of the underdog cinema Ken Loach couldn't resist them when he made some Scottish films.
Another major problem with the film is the pacing. There appears to be a deliberate attempt to build tension, but rather it just leads to boredom. Also by keeping the ghost angle ambiguous too often it means it all but disappears from the film. Most of the real life story lines don't have any sort of satisfying payoff, instead most of the b-stories are just kind of dealt with in the sort of way you'd expect from any other Scottish drama. It feels somewhat of a cop out. In the end you don't really care if it's the girl acting out after her incident whilst joyriding or an actual ghost haunting her because of her wrongdoing. It's difficult to care because there isn't a single likeable character in the film. And for some reason they all talk with a bizarre syntax that involves the odd piece of Scottish slang, for, like, authenticity and that, being thrown into the most stilted sounding of sentences. It feels like there's an attempt to make sure international markets won't need subtitles, like Sweet Sixteen or Trainspotting, because a ghosty film is something that can be sold globally.
In the end Urban Ghost Story doesn't work. It's dull, dour, cliched and tedious. It's a shame because as previously stated there just aren't many Scottish horror films, ghost films or urban set ones. Instead of doing something original it falls back on tried and tested horror techniques and frankly lackadaisical storytelling. It appears to be trying to present the Scottish take on the modern ghost story, and I suppose in that respect it succeeds. But only by presenting a story of working class strife that has become synonymous with Scottish filmmaking. There's simply nothing original here and it stands as a perfect example of everything wrong with the films that this country produces. It's like we don't have the confidence to try something else, and sadly even if a Scottish filmmaker tried to do so, they wouldn't get the funding.
Right, up next is a wee Scottish film that was on the telly the other week there called Urban Ghost Story. I've never heard of it but I've picked it purely for the fact that you rarely see Scottish horror films. Even rarer is one set in the inner city.
Will it be any cop? Let's have a look-see shall we?
Imagine Quentin Tarantino went and made a zombie film. It'd be pure self referential manna wouldn't it. The rules of the zombie film would get deconstructed and the violence would be right cool. That or it would last three hours and the characters would bore the tits off you with endless gabber about what great music they used to listen to before the apocalypse. Given his recent output sadly it'd probably veer more toward the latter. Be thankful then for Ruben Fleischer, with writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who have went ahead and done the former. And they even get away with one of those music conversations!
Zombieland could be viewed as the zombie film version of Scream, as it too is obsessed with rules. Columbus (we don't learn any of the characters names, saves them from getting attached to one another. Instead they're identified by where they're headed) is a loner nerd who knows how to survive zombie oblivion because he's a geek who has obviously watched enough zombie flicks to know the rules. We are reminded of the rules throughout the film thanks to an inventive use of graphics that sees them incorporated into a scene where one is either observed or broken. This device is also gleefully used at certain intervals to bring us things like "Zombie Kill Of The Week", it involves a wee old woman and a piano. It's a cool touch that doesn't feel superfluous thanks to the overall tone of the movie. That tone is one of humour as dark as the insides of a creepy old crypt. This is made clear from the off, as we see fat guys being chased down and devoured, guys cannabalised for taking a shit in a public bathroom and an opening credits sequence that sees zombie brides ruining weddings and zombie strippers tormenting their customers.
The cast are great too. Jesse Eisenberg follows up Adventureland with another awkward, nervous performance as Colombus. He's Hollywood's geek of choice at this time. Emma Stone, of Superbad, and Abigail Breslin, growed up a bit since Little Miss Sunshine, are equally great as sisters who have managed to survive by not trusting anyone. To them men are just things to con so they can make their way in the world. Best of all though is Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee, for lack of a better word a maniac who seems to enjoy nothing more than killing the undead. Well maybe he loves Twinkies more. Instead of the horror staple of a bunch of characters you'd happily see chewed to bits Zombieland delivers a group that you actually care about. Hats off to the cast and the writing. There's also a celebrity cameo which is so bloody amazing it would be a travesty to ruin, but fair to say you won't see a better one this year. Hell, you probably won't see a better one for at least a decade.
It's not all laughs though. There is some pretty decent gore and frights. There are a few scenes that are downright tense, something that many comic horrors forget. And yet pacing wise it's actually quite slow. The movie is happy to linger as the characters get to know one another whilst driving across America. But it never feels slow. The dialogue is good enough and the action scenes timed so well that it feels like it's zipping by in a way that it just isn't. It's testament to the assured direction of first-timer Fleischer that this is the case.
In all honesty it's very difficult to find many faults with Zombieland. It straddles the genres of horror and comedy at least as successfully as Peter Jackson's Braindead, Evil Dead 2 and Shaun Of The Dead. It's an original take and a weary tale and creative as hell to boot. It's the knowledgeable geek survival guide to the zombie holocaust. For that reason alone you owe yourself a viewing.
First up is the latest attempt to tell an original zombie tale, Zombieland. This one's still in cinemas so if you're looking for something good to watch at the pictures at this scary time of year that isn't a remake directed by Rob Zombie then this looks like your choice.
It's close to midnight. There's something...la-dee-daing in the dark. You try to...er...oh aye, scream.
You get the idea.
Tomorrow sees the start of Splice's 13 Days Of Hallowe'en because it's thirteen days to Hallowe'en.
Here's the lowdown once again:
Thirteen films in thirteen days all leading up to All Hallow's Eve.
Old, new, DVD, cinema, internet, TV, Western, European, Eastern, low budget, big budget, cult, mainstream. There's much variety in the choices and the reviews will be similarly varied. Most are being viewed for the first time so the reviews shall be genuine reactions to the films. Some will be written, some on video, some will feature live Twitter sessions.
Each day will see a post announcing the film being viewed with the review to follow afterwards.
Expect the first announcement tomorrow night about 7pm British time (is this British Standard Time or Greenwich Mean Time right now? Bloody clocks changing!). Soon after the review of that first announced film will appear.
To quote Crimewatch, please don't have nightmares:
A quick obituary notice about Al Martino who passed away on the 13th of this month.
Al Martino's name or the name in the post may not mean anythin to you straight away but when i explain that Johnny Fontane is the Frank Sinatraesque character from The Godfather trilogy it may trigger something in you. Al Martino played Johnny Fontane in the movies and also sang songs for the soundtrack. To be honest its more the character from the book that is close to my heart as his story is far more fleshed out in Puzo's novel than it is in Coppollas film but even still, respect where its due.
RIP Mr Martino, you played your part in a film that shaped my life.
Ok, going to go all Memento on this post and do everything backward. The reason is thus. I actually have a link (a legal one too) to the film i actually saw on festival day 4 so instead of firing it in after all my waffling about my day i thought i would mention it first putting it at the top so it could get noticed. So here we go.
The film i saw was Kings Ransom and the link is....well the link is dead. Through the power of the twitter it was brought to my attention on Sunday that the doco was at this location: http://kings.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=731&id=48191 and i clicked it and lo and behold it was there but guess what, now the link is dead. Sorry, what i should have done was come straight on, given y'all a heads up to day 4 by letting you in on the link but i didnt, again, apologies.
Possibly some readers may have seen it as, i got it from a twitter source (provided they are twitter users and were on around that time) its not as if i got it from some dodgy source, it came from NHL enthusiast and my current man crush Kevin Smith! But as i say, its dead so lets move on, i will still continue with the backwards narrative. Cos it might be fun.
I went home after the film very happy, Peter Berg is a top bloke, and he answered his questions well.
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After the film Peter Berg rememerged as promised and gave us a wee insight into making the film. To be honest in a Canadian crowd with a film about hockey i was kinda out of my element. There was questions about his relationship with Gretzky and what he knew of the news at the time of his involvement with the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL, questions about how they got Peter Pocklington involved, someone mentioned he has a book coming out. It was all pretty much over my head. I would have liked if someone asked about his other movies, and his plans for the future, actually that kind of was answered because he couldnt stay long because he was going to film an episode of Friday night Lights: the TV series or something so i guess he is pretty into that deep. Note to self, must try get a look at that sometime actaully, the film was pretty excellent and Peter Berg rocks. Note finished.
So the film is pretty good, well edited i would say and the sound editing in particular stands out. Its a pretty frank and quite bueatiful documnetary actually and all the more surprising as it is about sport. A pretty brutal sport as well to. The interviews with all involved are candid and the archive footage is well used. For a Scotsman watching who was both too young and totally not interested when this happened it was fascinating to see how it all played out. The truth in what Gretzky says is in stark contrast and makes you wonder about our current sports stars, he wanted the glory of winning more cups and was genuinely gutted to leave his Edmonton team but also had determintaion and desire to be the highest paid player in the sport. Looking at trades and transfers now is that still the case. The thing that ran through my mind while watching this was how different this is to shows like That Was the Team That Was on the BBC. Its unfair to compare i suppose as the budgets released for this by ESPN would no doubt dwarf any auntie beeb would but, the idea of the series is comparable. Letting directors pick their subject and letting them go at it. Me, i would go in and look at the summer of 1995 when Tommy Burns took the Celtic job and left Killie fans like me crying. Now that would be a sports doco!
As i came in to the cinema it was filling up nice, i took my seat in the front half near the exits. As the host introduced the film, he also intriduced its director Peter Berg was here and would answer questions briefly after the film and with that Peter Berg bounded down the stairs to my left, having never watch Chicago Hope i had no idea what he looked like and so i just sat there when i should have jumped out and told him how much i liked his films, especially Welcome to the Jungle starring The Rock, really liked that somehow. I mean its not my favourite of his films but i still really like it.
Also i should say that the highlight of the shift was me being taught a new game, the game being "who have you touched?" I wont lie to you, its not a game for deep thinking intellectuals. Or maybe it is, the idea is a group of people have to name the most famous person they have touched, once all famous folk are out in the open you argue over who has touched the most famous person. It s terrific fun. I didnt win nor ever will with my efforts. I mean James Robinson is on my list, he of young William Wallace fame in Braveheart, or Stuart Hepburn who taught me sreenwriting at the tailend of my University life but also voiced the gruff Scottish coach in the famous for five minutes cartoon The Hurricanes. Suppose there is David Bolland, NHLer and member of the girlfriends family. I will need work on it. The rest of my work buddies picking were slim too, one had Brad Garrett who plays Ray Romanos brother in Everybody Loves Raymond for instance. Oh but the other guy touched Clooney as i mentioned already in another TIFF post, he wins. I suppose the overwhelming point of mentioning this game is that we discussed who was the big winner, who trumps everyone. A few of my workmates feel Michael Jackson trumps The Queen! I have to say thats madness, everyone knows the Queen, everyone knows Jacko, thats a fact but if you were to ask Jackson who is the most famous person in the world he would have said the Queen. If you had asked the Queen she would have looked at you like you were nuts and asked if that was a serious question!
So the shift was very quiet. What with it being the Sunday after the first weekend it was to be expected i suppose, all the industry parties and such stuff that i didnt go to (more to do with not being invited than any personal preference) put paid to the busy morning schedule we had up on the computer. So spent most of the morning chatting and i also made out a schedule of my own of what i want to watch and when for the next six days, to keep me right. Todays entries stretch to only one film however, those words being Kings Ransom. Kings Ransom is actually an episode from a TV series being made for ESPN called 30 for 30. Its to celebrate ESPN's thirtieth birthday, or aniversary if you will and they got 30 film makers to make a film on a sports topic of their own choice in their own style. Peter Berg is involved and he made the film I will go and see which is about Wayne Gretzkys trade to LA. Love movies, love sports, its a no brainer that i go to this.
Here is a trailer from the 30 for 30 site and also a link to that site for info about the film and also Berg
It's the low budget Sci-fi from a first time director that shows him to be a potentially great filmmaker. The style and visual achievements are nothing short of astounding and the story is a clever, engaging little yarn.
Sorry, for a second there I thought I was reviewing Moon again, but no, 2009 has thrown up another little gem of a movie that fits the above description. This one's a bit more rock 'em, sock'em and a bit dearer budget wise, plus it wasn't directed by David Bowie's son. Rather it was directed by the bloke who was meant to have done the Halo movie until that project fell through. So instead Niell Blomkamp, under the tutelage of Peter Jackson, went back to a short film he made, Alive In Joburg (available to view here), about aliens who live in South Africa. District 9 plays like an extended version of this.
Told partly like a documentary District 9 charts how aliens ended up getting stranded in Johannesburg and were shepherded into segregated areas which quickly became slum-like. Now the government has decided to move them to a camp outside the city and so the operation to shift them from their dwellings begins. This is where we meet Wikus (played amazingly well by first timer Sharlto Copley), a bureaucrat tasked with taking charge of the operation. While out knocking on alien doors he gets covered in an extra-terrestrial goo. Before long the man who hates "Prawns" has started to become one and realises his only help lies back in the slum of District 9.
Obvious comparisons with apartheid have been drawn. The setting and the littered "no alien" signs make it an easy conclusion to jump to. But this is also a film about how immigrants are treated. South Africa like many other countries has seen an influx of people looking for salvation in a new "promised land". Instead they are shepherded out into the slums and treated like criminals. District 9 makes the case for these people. Treating them this way will eventually make it so. In desperation they will turn to crime if they have no other options. It may not be the subtlest of social comments but it is clever how it is done.
The alien effects are simply stunning. District 9 was made for about $40 million and makes a mockery of efforts like the abysmal Transformers 2, which cost about five times more than District 9 to make yet both rely heavily on CGI. District 9 is the perfect case for showing that in the right hands CGI doesn't need to be detrimental to a movie. It also doesn't need huge sums of money thrown at it. Of course you can sense the Peter Jackson touch here, he's another man that knows how to stretch a budget and incorporate SFX effectively. The closest recent film to compare District 9 to would be Cloverfield. Both employ a realistic style to document the fantastical, using the latest effects to create realistic otherworldly beings in a believable context. But District 9 succeeds in every facet that Cloverfield failed in. The story's gripping and you genuinely care for the plight of Wikus. In Cloverfield the characters couldn't be killed off quick enough!
Sadly the documentary style established in the opening act, not just endless use of shaky cam but talking heads with "experts" talking about the incidents of the plot after the fact, is not maintained. At times we veer off into more conventional narrative filmmaking but this tends to be at points where none of the talking heads would know what happened. It's almost as if Blomkamp is suggesting that even documentary filmmaking can't be trusted, being just another style of storytelling that may not always have all the facts.
It's a minor grumble though. For the most part District 9 is simply superb. You get brilliantly realised bug-like aliens, exploding heads, a mecha suit and a performance from a first time actor that is stunning. Plus everyone speaks in a South African accent, entertainment in itself. "Fooking" never fails to raise a smile. Sure the plot descends a little too much into the blam blam in the second half, but the plight of Wikus will keep you going.
With District 9 Niell Blomkamp has left a calling card that will be hard to top. There are glimpses here that suggest that if he had been allowed to have made that Halo movie it would have finally been the great video game movie we've all been waiting for. As it stands that project's cancellation has been a secret blessing as we get this exhilarating piece of cinema instead. People will say "imagine what he could do with a big budget". I say don't give him it because restrictions on the monetary side clearly suit this guy, much like his mentor.
