| Author | Message | ||
     John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.245 |
Another 'Movie I Should Have Seen Sodding Ages Ago'. A remake of Daniel Mann's 1971 picture that I only ever saw on TV once (unlike the sequel 'Ben' that seemed to be on all the bloody time when I was a kid - Michael Jackson end credit song and all). Not bad but not great. Crispin Glover is superb, and Laura Elena Harring is quite beautiful (she was my preferred gorgeous lady of choice in Mulholland Dr, if I had to choose, that is), but director Glen Morgan doesn't make it anywhere near as scary as it could be. The only time the film kicks into gear & shows what it could have been is in a gloriously black comic sequence where the rats eat a cat to a familiar Michael Jackson theme song. Otherwise the rat attacks should have been really, really horrible and the ending doesn't work at all. I'm actually not surprised this never got a UK cinema release. Anyone else caught it on its recent FilmFour run? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Yet again, I agree with your assessment. I really wanted to love this one, too, but in the end it was a wasted opportunity. Glover is such a singular talent; I'd love to see him better used but often think that directors struggle to find a home for what he offers. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Couldn't agree more. I grew up loving "Ben" (I had a childhood fantasy of a friendly rat army who would attack all my grade school tormentors) and didn't actually see "Willard" until years later. My brother and I kept pet rats and we used to enact scenes from "Ben" with them (how scary is THAT?). The remake, though. Hmm. Glover was worth watching (usually is). He's better than the material (often is), but the film as a whole suffers from too much budget and too much terminal hipness. The kind of vibe that dragged the slasher film genre (of which I'm an unabashed fan) into the gutter. Well, the gutter BENEATH the gutter. You know what I mean. R Lee Ermey, for god's sake... | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.245 |
Quiet right - it WAS 'too much budget'. The house looked too nice, the photography was too glossy. I wanted someone absolutely covered in rats dragging themselves along the floor while their limbs were gnawed off. Someone should have choked on one. The old 'copper bowl' routine should have been in there somewhere. And I would have preferred more of a transformation of Glover's character from browbeaten nerd to gloriously all-powerful King of the Rats . | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
Agreed. I did enjoy this though. Crispin Glover is amazing. MCFLYHHHH! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.17.31.53 |
Yup, WILLARD '03 is slickly made, wonderful to look at, a good remake if not great. And yes, the best sequence, worth the seeing alone, the wonderful killing-of-the-cat bit - such a great set-piece, what stands out most in my mind. I'm of the all-for-remakes school - sure, it's abhorrent what they do sometimes, but what the hell... like the presence of gay marriage, it not like they can just blindly reach out and damage the integrity of those who prefer originals (and can often be improvements upon originals!). BLACK CHRISTMAS was a great remake, and so was DAWN OF THE DEAD, and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR was fun, and even awful crap like WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was at least watchable, nice to gaze upon. The most anticipated dvd of the year (so far) for me, is the remake of PROM NIGHT... I hope it's a good one.... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I can't even remember the scene with the cat! :-/ Craig, I have to disagree with you: The Amityville Horror remake was atrocious, and I can't get past the first 10 mins of When a Stranger calls - despite the gorgeous leading lady. The DoTD remake is indeed excellent, though. Niki - I thought Ermy was one of the best things about the rather good TCM remake. :-) | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.225 |
Craig - PROM NIGHT was out here ages ago. Apparently it was high bollocks and had very little to do with the Paul Lynch original other than the title. I still think the BLACK CHRISTMAS remake was awful. Every Fred Walton film I've seen I thought was a waste of time (I would have cheerful beaten him up after APRIL FOOL'S DAY) so I couldn't bring myself to see a remake of anything he did. Ditto AMITYVILLE HORROR. I like AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION, mainly because it ditched the earnestness and embraced the sleaze, and because it was made by mad Italians and the only things they kept were the bloody scary house and Schifrin's music. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.239.93 |
Zed, John: I agree these films are "bad" in the contexts you're using them; but in the contexts I'm using, it's roughly parallel to saying: I like Taco Bell. But is Taco Bell food *good*...? Do you even have Taco Bells out there? Maybe it's like saying one likes eating Cheese Whiz right from the cannister (which I don't). The films aspire to be little more than adventure rides, and they put enough $ into them to make them watchable: I'm cool with that. HOUSE OF WAX was another one - can that even be classified as remake? It was fun, though. I just hate horror films that want to be more than they are, that want to pose as "higher," as making a statement, as being "deep"... when they're not... like THE MIST.... | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.147 |
I suppose we all have different opinions on what we find good or bad, Craig. For example I think THE MIST is a genuinely good horror film and I loved it. I don't actually think it was 'deep' and I'm sure it wasn't meant to be - THE THING is more profound and both are very good monster movies. The SAW movies are quite bad (they don't hold up to repeat viewings, the plots are shaky, etc) but for their sheer exuberance and sense of 'let's really see how ridiculous we can be this time' I love them. The remakes of BLACK CHRISTMAS, HOUSE OF WAX, PROM NIGHT et al didn't do anything for me. They're not awful but they felt bland, which for me is the biggest crime a horror picture can commit. If you want a food analogy perhaps that explains why if I go out I'll either go to a decent restaurant or get sausage and chips from a van. But I honestly never go to fast food chain restaurants as the food there doesn't even work for me on a comfort level and it's a waste of time me even trying to enjoy it. Just like a certain type of film. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.199.0.147 |
"The films aspire to be little more than adventure rides, and they put enough $ into them to make them watchable" But they also homogenise them, which I suspect is probably the real reason I don't like them or want to watch them - because they're all the same and it's a type of same I find dull. Now if in some mystic land Hollywood was pumping money into movies all written by Nigel Kneale or directed by Cronenberg or Lynch I'd watch them because I know there would be stuff in there that would interest me. But these remakes all feel as if they are made to formula. It's a well known fact that the composers for these movies are specifically told not to write anything melodious but to provide 'moody soundscapes', which means that these films don't just all look the same but they all sound the same as well. And I happen to like melodious scoring. In the past it's been the only thing that has made crap like HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW watchable and is why I remember that particular film. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.77.250 |
THE MIST and THE THING are in totally different camps, John. Part of it is simple technology. THE THING's "things" are all of them 3-D tangible objects, for all their "fakeness"; but the fact that they were real, that cameras caught them on film, and that they are not quite real-to-life, make them horrible. There's a horrible monstrousness that verges on reality; but in THE MIST, there is a horrible monstrousness that remains a video game. That's just one problem. Why did I truly enjoy BLACK CHRISTMAS, and not THE MIST...? Because there's a tone, a look, a feel, to BC that I wish were in more horror films, perhaps. There's a style, that was in THE MIST, that's so prevalent in horror now, that the throwback style of BC is something for which I long. It's as if BC is pre-grunge, in a world gone grunge. I'm tired of the (remake) TEXAS CHAINSAW, SAW, etc., styles, though I like the movies - I'm just tired of these "repeat-beats," and want for a new style to emerge. BC is stylistically close to THE ORPHANAGE, which is also pre-(post-?)grunge (in my tortured analogy), and I want THE ORPHANAGE-style movies to become the dominant one. I think we need to get away from the affliction of style, the overt thing-tacked-on, and back to the purity of telling a horror story in film: sans CGI, sans shaky effects, sans messages, sans irony, sans outrageousness... sans style... good, solid, crutch-less (read: CGI, shaky/doc cameras, etc.), well-told stories on film... what's so wrong with longing for that?... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Just seen Wall.E; lovely till it got message heavy. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I really enjoyed House of Wax: great little film. "I just hate horror films that want to be more than they are" Right there, my friend, you have highlighted why we will never agree on films. I love horror films that strive to be more than they are; horror films that push the envelope and try to expand the boundaries of genre. Yes, I also love the unashamed thrill-rides, but it's the others - the tryers - that truly resonate with me. "I think we need to get away from the affliction of style, the overt thing-tacked-on, and back to the purity of telling a horror story in film..." Your comments above describe The Mist, from my perspetive. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
I really am happy for a film just to have a 'feel', a story. But then I don't mind messages either if they're done right. When done wrong I wonder why they didn't just stick up a poster or go on Thought for the Day. But worthiness can sink a piece, it's true. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.148.96.124 |
Willard always feel in my mind like that kid's film, Mouse Trap. When I try to recall one of them the other always pops into it somehow. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I've just rewatched a flawless film: The Big Lebowski. I keep forgetting how amazing this one is. Seriously, it's perfect. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.159.137.224 |
It ain't bad, is it? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Utterly, utterly flawless. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.17.12.212 |
Utterly, utterly flawless. You're provoking me, Zed!  It might be flawless, and even utterly flawless... but utterly, utterly flawless?... mmm, no. Like, a few less "Shut the f*ck up, Donny"s would have been nice. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Shut the fuck up, Craig. ;-) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
 | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
None the less, Crispin Glover seemed born for the part. That guy is just SO freaking fantastically odd. I lurve "The Big Lebowski" - and somehow seem to lurve it more each time I see it. It's amazing how it just KEEPS getting better. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.178.175 |
I agree with Zed's assessment of The Big Lebowski. It's one of my favourite films. In fact, I hereby elevate it to 'utterly, utterly, utterly flawless' status. In the parlance of our time... "The Dude abides"  | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.17.15.79 |
I will concede it's flawlessly, flawlessly, flawlessly utter. And leave it at that.  | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
I agree, Lebowski is amazing and it is the kind of film that you want to watch all throughout your life. Has anyone seen the Lebowski edit where all the moments with the word Fu#k are edited together into a three minute summary. Its hilarious. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXT0gOk1Ogw | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
And I'm off to see The Dark Knight | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I often wonder who has time to cut those things. It is funny, though I wish they'd used some of the full lines - Nobody fucks with the Jesus" etc... | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
Ha! Yeah they should have had the whole quote there :-) |