Posts from — March 2008

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. After seeing the Americanized version this past thursday, I am at a loss of words. It was excellently executed, but I can’t help feeling overly manipulated while watching it. The killers break the fourth wall and speak to the camera/audience, which is extremely unsettling. Also, the film ends with a freeze frame, totally in medias res with absolutely no clear resolution.

Haneke refuses to explain the motives of the killers, and appears to be questioning the entertainment value of violence itself in movies. But he never clearly chooses a side. As Pajiba explains it: There is an “inherent duplicity of Haneke’s work and raises the question of whether he’s attacking American viewers for being such avid consumers of violence, as seen in his aversion to actually showing any, or whether he’s just a bit hypocritical, since it would be possible to discuss the flaws in modern American culture without making a film that’s terrifying and unable to avoid catering to those very desires Haneke seems to find so repugnant. Faced with the choice of taking the high or very low road, Haneke replies: Sure.”

Thus, I don’t know if I can call it a good film. Especially, when I knew going in that this was a shot by shot remake. If there was a hidden camcorder in the theater, you could definitely see how uncomfortable this film makes the audience. I understand horror movies are supposed to be a visceral experience, but if your movie makes people literally sick, something’s going on there. I suppose the jokes on the American viewing audience, since we have created a climate of people so afraid of subtitles that it’s a viable business decision to remake a film in English.

Couch surfing the other night, totally by chance, I came upon the wondrous B-movie gem, Watchers.

This flick stars one of my teen crushes, Corey Haim, Michael Ironside, and a loveable golden retriever. Obviously, if I’m even blogging about this movie, it can be said that I have an unhealthy affinity to cheesy 80s movies. Plus, I’m a sucker for sci-fi/action flicks. AND the best part is that I love dogs! And seriously, the dog in this thing was like the smartest dog ever! No literally, it can even type and play scrabble.

The screenplay was (loosely) adapted from the Dean Koontz novel. But by jove, did they trample all over it with some stupid eighties dialogue. It’s like every scene was shot in only two takes. At least, it has some decent (for the era) effects and wasn’t shot with some used vhs video camera.

Luckily, all that techie stuff doesn’t matter, since they obviously don’t expect you to really follow the plot. All you gotta do is understand that Corey Haim’s character finds a genetically enhanced dog, which he names FurFace, and subsequently is on the run from some science experiment gone wrong Bigfoot type creature who hates said dog and teddy bears. As an added bonus, you get to see a young Jason Priestley, who rather quickly meets a gruesome death.

According to badmovies.org, you learn the following by viewing this film:

“Dogs are naturally fire resistant.
Genetically engineered monsters have deviated septums.
Dogs love trucks! (Hehehe!)
VHS tapes are highly flammable.
Dogs can’t type.
Gorilla monsters hate bicycles.
Deputies are excellent conductors of electricity.
Golden Retrievers don’t bounce.
During the sexual discovery years of puberty a boy shouldn’t be sleeping naked with a dog.
Corey Haim is MacGuyver’s illegitimate son.”

Read the rest of his review and catch some dialogue excerpts here.

I knew there tons of Hellboy fans, but who woulda thought there was enough to warrant two movies. But when you think about it, it has been a popular dark horse comic since 1997!

Luckily for Guillermo Del Toro, this provides a somewhat guaranteed audience for his Hellboy movies. The first movie did alright at the box office, but was by no means a Spiderman size success. And as such, I had almost totally forgotten about the sequel until I saw the Hellboy 2: The Golden Army trailer.

Del Toro seems to love sharing production news as he goes. There’s even video segments on the design process of HBII that were shot on set with a digital camcorder. I wonder what type of camcorder was used? You could definitely use a Sony HDR-SR12 since it’s compact size is perfect for grabbing interviews on set, all in HD quality.

Arthur C. Clarke
1917-2008

The legendary science ficiton writer, Arthur C. Clarke, passed away this week at his home in Sri Lanka. Clarke was best known for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on 2001:A Space Odyssey. And if you’re a serious film buff, you might have noticed his cameo in 2010:The Year We Made Contact. I just watched that movie last week due to my nostalgia for Roy Scheider, who also passed away this year.

Clarke has a long and varied career in the sciences and writing communities. His intelligent and vivid imagination will be sorely missed.

I have to confess that I have a tiny (okay possibly big) crush on Simon Pegg.

He’s just so hilarious and endearing with his self-deprecating, honest humor. I probably gave myself away already with all that Hot Fuzz hype from last year. So as such, it’s no surprise that I’m pumped for Pegg’s latest movie, Run Fatboy Run.

Trailer Check:

Per usual, it was released some time ago in the UK, and is just now premiering on our fair shores on March 28th. If you live in a big city, try and catch a sneak preview this weekend on March 22nd.

If you’re curious, I found there’s paparazzi footage of the London 2007 premiere. Even though it was most likely shot with a dvd camcorder, coolfotodudes.net got some quality coverage of Pegg and the director, David Schwimmer.