OUR ICONS? OR L.A.'s?

So, we've all read it and cringed:

"A reimagining"

"A reboot"

"A redefining"

"A retread"

RE-RE-RE-RE....remember when people just told a cool story?

It's not uncommon for Hollywood to return to old themes or ideas - that's been going on for as long as there has been a movie industry.  But the idea of taking specific characters and changing part of their story because they weren't "cool" enough in the first place seems relatively new.

"We're gonna do SUPERMAN, but he needs to be cooler.  Edgier."  Rather than focus on what works about the character and writing a good story with those elements, they ignore everything about it, focusing just on the brand recognition.

One only need to look as far as the Twilight novels to see how popular culture has started a trend of gutting character arch types that we know for drastically different (and counter to the core of the character) interpretations.

So it begs the question.  Who owns these characters?  Does it go beyond the legal ownership and licensing rights to a greater sense of ownership by those who hold these characters dear to their hearts?  George Lucas constantly redefines the most popular series of films in history.  Are they truly "his"?  Or are they owned, in part, by those of us who feel they are part of the fabric of our culture?

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME FOR A FLICK

Christmas season is upon us.  Well, I guess it's been upon us since October, but now it's in full swing.  Just 20 days until the jolly fat man squeezes his white ass down the chimney.  I've been prepping the way I always do...watching movies.  I watch a variety.  Some are new.  Some are old.  Some are gonna make you say WTF for either it being included (or excluded).  So, here are my top ten Christmasy flicks that I have to watch every year so I can keep the holiday in my heart...

1)    NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION  "If I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet, I couldn't be more surprised than I am right now."  trailer

2)    A CHRISTMAS STORY  "Fragile!  It must be Italian."  trailer

3)    ELF  "We're gonna go ice skating and eat sugar plumbs!"  trailer

4)    MIRACLE ON 34th STREET  trailer

5)    DIE HARD "It's Christmas time in Hollis, Queens..."  trailer

6)    MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL  "There's more of gravy than of grave..."  trailer

7)    LETHAL WEAPON  "Do you really wanna jump?  Do ya?"  trailer

8)    A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS trailer

9)    WHITE CHRISTMAS "We'll follow the old man..."  trailer

10)   4 CHRISTMASES  "I'm from the bison state baby..."  trailer

Yep, no IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and BAD SANTA got the boot.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOEL

Sadly, he didn't.  Joel McHale confirmed on his Twitter that, in fact, Community has gone into some kind of hiatus.

Does this mark the end of the one of the best written shows on TV?  It definitely doesn't bode well for the show.  Whether were heading for the early death of an Arrested Development or whether the show will limp along in SCRUBS-ian fashion remains to be seen.

One thing is clear however.  The proof that the American cultural IQ has dropped to the point that it can be satiated with more reality and typical sitcom fare is evident.

Part of my love of Community stems from the fact that it is most decidedly a-typical.  It's meta, its irreverent and it pokes fun at the Whitneys and the Up All Nights of the world by illustrating all of the tropes that make those genres so silly and overdone.  As a film guy and someone who'd rather watch a movie than most of the tripe on TV these days, I get that.  And so does a very loyal fan base that I don't think will take this lightly.  For those of you who don't get it, who didn't feel "in on the joke," I don't know what to say.  Maybe less REAL HOUSEWIVES and X FACTORS and more entertainment of substance?  If you want to give the show a shot, I suggest the Halloween Ep of season 1 and the season 1 & 2 finales.

What was a dynamic night of off beat comedies just got less so.  I for one hope to be back at Greendale sooner than later.

HALLOWEEN 5,6,7

HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS

While not as “good” a sequel as 4 or 2, I dig this one.. Again, Danielle Harris and Donald Pleasance carry this film. Michael is back a year later after a really nice sequence referencing Bride of Frankenstein where he is nursed back to health by an old man who he then kills. (He monster did it as an accident. Mike is just a jerk.)

Again the film executes the tropes first set out by the original but also builds on the mythology in an attempt to deepen the story. There are some missteps though. This is the first of the Halloween films that creates characters that you WANT to die. The goofy cops for two and I kind of wanted Jamie's little friend to buy it too. In fact, none of the characters, outside of Loomis or Jamie are worth even rooting for.

What I always enjoyed about the other films was the degree of empathy felt when the characters would buy it. On the other hand, one of the strong parts of this entry is that the story is built to carry on and seeds are planted to carry through the next installment.

HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS

This movie is weird for me. In a lot of ways, it takes the franchise in a bold (potential) new direction. But at the same time, it randomly kills off a beloved character (Jamie Lloyd) after recasting her.

But I didn't hate the film, mostly due to performances like the one that Paul Rudd (yes, that Paul Rudd) gave as TOMMY DOYLE. Tommy survived the first night's attacks and has studied Myers from afar and introduces the idea that Michael's unstoppability might be more than happenstance. The character of Doyle almost adds a degree of realism to the narrative, even with how “out there” it gets.

The film has major flaws, a product I learned later had to do with test screenings, reshoots and the like. The knowledge of a producers cut has my interest and I will wait for that to arrive to pass final judgement on the film. But, at the end of the day, I put this film slightly above 5 on the sequel list.

HALLOWEEN H20: This film is problematic for me. On the one hand, I enjoy it very much. It's a technically very good film. It's well put together, well written and well acted. And of course, it features the return of Jamie Lee Curtis. It's a slick horror film. Maybe too slick. The way they took the theme into a traditional score even feels too glossy.

The other thing that bothers me is their desire to ignore the 4,5,6 installments. While those events COULD have existed with the way the 7^th film is constructed, that they made a point of telling everyone that 4,5,6 didn't exist is lame. It means as an audience, we wasted our time and money enjoying those films. It's a little silly to feel that way, I know, but at the end of the day, its something that, as a fan, I can't pull back from.

HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION Not wasting my time.

RANKING OF HALLOWEEN FILMS:

Halloween (1978)
Halloween 4
Halloween 2 (1981)
Halloween (Zombie)
Halloween H20
Halloween 6
Halloween 5
Halloween 2 (Zombie)
Halloween 8

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

HALLOWEEN 1,2,4

As a filmmaker, it's not hard to trace my influences. John Carpenter (along with John Hughes and other. But thats a conversation for a different day) ranks high among them for reasons explored in this blog. But nothing, in my mind, tops his Halloween film (and the sequels they inspired). It stands as, in my mind, the best of the horror franchise that never deviated from what it was trying to do: scare people.

HALLOWEEN: After killing his sister 15 years ago, this is the night he came home. This is my number one, go to horror film. It holds up and never gets old. I love everything about the film: the unexplained nature of Michael's evil, the POV shots, Jamie Lee Curtis and of course, Donald Pleasance. The body count is surprisingly low and a lot of the blood is missing from what we would imagine would come from a slasher film. And still the film is scary.

It works on many levels: it plays on the idea that the middle class isn't safe, that evil can just exist within the fabrics of society. It plays to a post modern audience that understand the tenets of “Horror films” as films like THE THING (later to be remade by Carpenter) play in the backdrop of the film. The film works largely do to Carpenter. It's an independent film in a true sense and his fingerprints are all over the movie, from the film itself to the score that is iconic. At times, in fact, he played Michael Myers. The film pushed a genre to the forefront: the idea of the serialized slasher film with an anti hero at the forefront. If you've not seen it, punch yourself. Then see it.

HALLOWEEN II: Many call the first sequel unnecessary. While that might be true, it's a cool film for a lot of reasons. It begins on the same Halloween night with the final 5 minutes of the original serving as a preface and picks up with Michael at large, then finding Laurie at the hospital. The set up works because we don't need to waste time explaining how a new group of kids have lined up for the slaughter. We can get down to business of deepening the mythology. An introducing the thread that will allow the story to continue: that Laurie Strode is Michael's sister.

An increase (by a lot) of blood and gore and some great performances added to the Pleasance and Curtis characters, this film is a worthy successor to the original. And the hot tub scene is killer.

HALLOWEEN IV – THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS: The best of the Halloween sequels that truly builds on the familial theme that runs through Halloween. The film gives us Danielle Harris, a child actress with amazing chops, as Michael's niece, Rachel (she would late return and do an amazing job as Annie Bracket in the Zombie remake). The film follows Michael on his quest to eliminate his family. The spirit of the first movie is still here, down to the clown costume that Jamie wears.

The film combines an increase in the gore factor with a more complicated storyline than most of the other horror “franchises.” It focuses on family, on being an outcast and never once does Michael make a joke or end up in space.  I love the final scene and the image of Jamie with the scissors.  It was great lead in to the 5th installment.

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GENIUS OF JOHN CARPENTER: THE FOG & THE THING

John Carpenter, as much as (if not more than) Wes Craven has been a horror cinema pioneer and mainstay with a career that has spanned generations.  I'm not even going to mention the holy grail of horror films in this entry.  Carpenter's genius extends to THE FOG and the THE THING as much as it does Halloween.

The Fog is a creepy ghost story about beings in a fog that kill the inhabitants of a small town.  The subject of a remake in 2005, the film combines ghost story elements with enough blood and a great score by Carpenter himself to create some very real scares and palpable suspense.  It's smattered with Halloween alums including Annie Bracket and Sheriff Bracket.  Jamie Lee Curtis stars as well in a role that many have suspected (and few have dismissed) is actually a renamed Laurie Strode on the run after her runin with her brother who mentions her "badluck".  Even actors from Halloween 3 show up. Adrienne Barbeau stars and well, is the kind of woman who led me to Rule 34 her.  All in all a great flick!

A movie I knew was great, but I had to re see was Carpenter's THE THING.  Carpenter's love of the original is evident in Halloween as the movie plays on Tommy Doyle's TV.  Reuniting with Snake Pliskin himself, Kurt Russell, Carpenter weaves a gory, scary tale of an alien invader.  What makes this movie so great is the characterization as the morale and trust of the team unravels as each suspects the other of being the alien.  That Carpenter is able to move from slasher to supernatural to alien and crafts excellent story lines give evidence to his skill as a story teller.


The Fog Trailer

The Thing Trailer

EXORCIST III & POLTERGEIST & SCARLET WATERS!!!

First, I apologize for not keeping this up!  SCARLET WATERS prep time took alot out of me.  I love that event.  In the fourth year, the event just gets bigger and better.  I can't say enough about our cast and crew who really pitched in and helped make the event special.  I'm also so thankful to all of the filmmakers who made it out and sent their films.  I'm extremely proud of the Twitchy folks who made the short films!  They make it all worth while!

Now, THE EXORCIST III.  If you've not seen it, see it.  It's a very different kind of sequel.  Part mystery, part traditional horror flick, the film combines these elements expertly to create a very different feel than the original (although superior original).  George C Scott leads an excellent cast in this very creepy film.

Speaking of CREEPY, I'd never seen POLTERGEIST till recently.  I loved the film.  It was so Spielberg:  the references, the sense of wonder and the characters!  Excellent.