CHRISTIAN GUZMAN TWO VIEW

MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW VHS 1987 AND LA CAMA

     I received a email from Christian Guzman a little over a week ago to let me know that the latest episode of a short horror series is out titled VHS 1987. So I checked it out. Seeing that it was so short I decided to include one of Guzman's previous outings that he did with director Rudy Gold as well.

MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW VHS 1987
Directed Rudy Gold

CAST:
Araya Gallegos
Azura Gallegos
America Gallegos

PLOT:
     A birthday worth remembering...

REVIEW:
     Even though the short runs in at under one minute, it's one of the funnier shorts I've seen. Even though it's not the bloodiest or has the best story, which there really isn't one there, you know what it's about right away without having to be told. The glee from the kids faces and the way they're reacting to what is happening is the true horror in this short. Another good thing in this short is that there's not one bit of talking in it, just laughter from the four little girls as they watch what is happening before them not with terror or fear, but joy.

LA CAMA
Directed by Rudy Gold and Christian Guzman

CAST:
Christian Guzman

PLOT:
     A man answers a strange phone call

REVIEW:
      Let me just first say that the story is for this is very interesting and could be used to go anywhere after the first story beat is used. Unfortunate for the short that the story doesn't go really anywhere after that first story beat. While something does happen at the end, you don't know what that thing is or what exactly happened. While the look of the short is supposed to to be reminiscent of the old grind house movies it fits that bill only half the time. While the old movies has a lot of splicing done to make them work, trying to replicate that look more than fifty times in less than five minutes only becomes distracting. Another drawback for the short is the sound usage. Loud noises when used right can be a great benefit to films, yet when the sound is also used too much it becomes annoying and takes away from the film the tension that they filmmakers were trying to build. While the short had so much potential, the execution of it made the short fail.

BEST DEATH:
     Birthday party surprise.

BEST LINE:
     What about the bed?

THE SEA OF PERDITION

THE SEA OF PERDITION (2006)
UK/IS
Directed by Richard Stanley

CAST:
Maggie Moor - Sly Delta Honey

PLOT:
     A Warren Comics style short portraying a stranded cosmonaut on Mars.

REVIEW:
     I originally intended this review to be put up a couple of days after the review for The Theatre Bizarre was up for a couple of days . The main reason why I decided to really focus on Stanley was to show that with the constraints he had while working on Mother Of Toads, it isn't a fair showing of his ability. If giving free reign to work everything out in a film he can accomplish a impact-full film even if the film is actually a short film. It's just too bad that Hollywood truly doesn't understand film making anymore and the people that bring something different to the screen are the ones left out in the cold.

     I can't really judge Maggie Moor's character Sly Delta Honey all that much due to the dialogue in the short is kept to a bare minimum. She has to act more with her body as she explores the barren planet's surface in search of a way to get in touch with anyone. But what I did see of it, Moor does a decent job as a astronaut lost and separated from the rest of the crew. Yet at the same time Moor also plays a alien doppelganger of the Sly Delta Honey as well who seduces the astronaut it's copying. Moor in this role has no lines yet has to let her body do the acting for her. Even though Moor is the star and carries the short, it's the appearance at the end of it of an alien that just makes you smile.

       This short I have to admit isn't really about story but more about feel of it. This is demonstrated within the first 30 seconds of the film where it open in space and a flying satellite passes by playing a Pink Floyd song. The colors in this shot weren't bright, but somewhat muted. As someone would expect a lot of blacks due to it being in space, instead the main color is an off color purple and light browns mixed. Once the short moves planetside, director Richard Stanley knows how to use barren landscapes to show just how alone the main character truly is. The main shot showing this is when Sly Delta Honey is scanning for radio frequencies on top of a what looks like a mountain while two planets are visible in the background. I love the look and feel of this short as I used to read old horror and sci-fi anthology comics that had to tell a story quickly while also being understandable by all readers. Even though not much story background is giving, Stanley's short film captures the feel of those old cult comics perfectly in its simplicity while also being very well shot that actually left me wanting to see more of this alien planet.   

BEST DEATH:
     Sly Delta Honey's massive information brain drain.

BEST LINE:
     -Traigan a mas astronauts!

FUN FACTS:
     Maggie Moor is the great-grandchild of internationally known, Vaudevillian song and dance team Charlie Brown and Mae Newman.

     Dario Argento is one of Richard Stanley's favorite directors.

     Richard Stanley turned down the directing gigs for both Spice World and Judge Dredd in the '90s.

NEWS ROUNDUP Ver 2

BATTLE ANGEL VS. AVATAR
     James Cameron has confirmed that Battle Angel Alita is still on his slate of feature films to make. Yet how long this is going to take as Cameron has said that he's only going to concentrate on the Avatar sequels, two confirmed by him with a possible fourth, is anybody's guess when it will get made.

KICK ASS

     With Universal Pictures looking for a franchise it looks like a Kick-Ass sequel might just be in the works, minus Mathew Vaughn from the director's chair. If it is green lit, production could start as early as this fall.

THE AVENGERS
     Well this is a no shit Sherlock, everyone saw that one coming news. Disney and Marvel are putting The Avengers 2 into pre-production as soon as possible. Though the film wouldn't come out until at least till 2015. This will give time for

The Captain America sequel

Iron Man 3

A third Hulk film

Thor 2

A possible Shield movie

and the wanted by me, Edgar Wright's Irredeemable Ant-Man film to come out.

THE WALKING DEAD

     Creator Robert Kirkman talked a little bit about season 3 of the show recently saying that the prison is one of the most amazing set pieces done so far for the series. He also hinted the origin of the sword Michonne carries and uses will be told.

THE DARK TOWER

     Ron Howard twitted recently that he was in a story meeting for the much wanted film. Though he did say there is no time table yet for it.

PROMETHEUS

     I can't end this without a small but happy Prometheus news tid-bit. The rating for the film is "R". All I can say is thankfully someone got smart in Hollywood and let this one be what it should!

GUILLERMO DEL TORO ON ATMOM

     As most of the people that know me know that Prometheus is the film I'm waiting for the most this year. Well Guillermo Del Toro has something to say about the film as well as about the let down that was his production of H.P. Lovecraft's At The Mountains Of Madness and his resignation of turning it into a film. Just click the link below to read del Toro's thoughts on Prometheus. He doesn't bash bash Ridley Scott in fact he's happy for him. Well just click below to read it.
Guillermo del Toro thinks PROMETHEUS could spell the doom for AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS

     Just in the past two weeks I realized that Prometheus is At The Mountains Of Madness just set in space. Just from seeing the latest international trailer last week just helped cement this more in my mind. And this that I saw today just made that cement set into stone. I'm happy that I will be able to see a version of ATMOM, yet at the same time I feel sad for del Toro who has spent so much time trying to get his version of the story made only to have the studios balk at it.

     Yet here's to the countdown to Prometheus: 32 days and counting down!

THE AVENGERS

THE AVENGERS (2012)
US
Directed by Joss Whedon

CAST:
Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark/ Iron Man
Chris Evans - Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Chris Hemsworth - Thor

PLOT:
     Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.

REVIEW:
     So it's Summer, so that means that it's time for the studios to roll out their biggest films and movies. Even though there were other movies before this one already, Hunger Games if you were wondering, this is the beast that is going to make or break Marvel as a whole and set-up a whole slew of film if it did well. And from what it did over-seas last weekend, it's going to be a Juggernaut (sorry had to throw a character reference in there, me being a comic book reader). So going into this I actually tried to be even so where I won't be completely biased. But hell, who am I kidding..... here's why you should see this film!

 
1. The Hulk: Yes, the Hulk is the Hyde to Bruce Banner's Jeckyll and they are for all intents and purposes two separate entities in the movie. But when the Hulk shows up you know it.  At the end of the movie when every time the Hulk is on screen something cool happens and you find out why everyone is afraid of him and his power. Skip the seeing the recent Hulk movies and just watch this instead as they finally get the character right.

2. Joss Whedon: While yes, he wrote Cabin In The Woods that came out last month (review here) he finally can get the true exposure he truly deserves, not just as a writer but a director. While anyone that has seen Buffy, Angel, or Firefly know he's an amazing writer and director, now the studios and the world in general know it. And that is a good thing.

3. The script: While the film is a geek dream come true, it wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for the writing. From the small quips that everyone makes toward the other person to the more personal, smaller introspections that happen, the movie wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for this. Each character has their own voice that sticks out. Which in a film this big, is something amazing in and of itself.

4. The Characters: Actually that's a bad way to put it, as I should say icons. Everyone knows who they are or at least seen pictures of them before, yet in this they actually see why they are icons from the past and present. And now, the future. Captain America leads finally like he should. Thor is shown as a protector. Iron Man as the billionaire genius. The Hulk as the time bomb with the faulty timer that he truly is. Nick Fury as the man that does what needs to be done no matter what. Hawkeye as the ultimate marksman. And Black Widow as the spy that was only previously hinted at.

5. The last 45 minutes of the film: Holy hell that was pure awesome.

6. The movie itself: It shows that a film packed with so many stars and characters can work if the story is treated correctly and not dumbed down or become to preachy as some other superhero movies. Even with a small nag about the camera work during one scene causing the action to get lost, it didn't take anything away from the film at all. While most people who see this will only concentrate on the action aspect of the film, it's the characters themselves that drive the film through and through. This is about as close to a perfect film and what blockbusters are meant to be.

BEST DEATH:
     Hulk smash!

BEST LINE:
     Puny god.

FUN FACTS:
     Mark Ruffalo, who play Bruce Banner/ The Hulk describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon - he's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!"

     Has an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast and crew for a comic book movie - or most movies for that matter.

      According to Joss Whedon, The original cut of the movie was over 3 hours long. There will be about 30 minutes of the excised footage included in the DVD Release, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America). Whedon revealed that one of these scenes involved Rogers struggling to adjust to the modern world in his Brooklyn apartment and another revealed Steve Rogers' reunion with Peggy Carter.

     The Chitauri appear in the first story arc of The Ultimates. Their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls.So the early rumors were true. In a way......

     The mid-credit scene hints at what is to come, and his name is Thanos.

THE RAVEN

THE RAVEN (2012)
US/HU/ES
Directed by James McTeigue

CAST:
John Cusack - Edgar Allen Poe
Luke Evans - Detective Fields
Alice Eve - Emily Hamilton

PLOT:
     When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.

REVIEW:
     A person I work with mentioned something about the movie that actually makes sense, yet it was a sad statement as well. To summarize, she said that people are going to go see this film just because they think it's a horror movie. She also stated that most people won't get the literary aspect of the film. This is the sad part with most people that will see this, the general audience. Yet the people that grew up loving to read will probably get a lot more enjoyment out of The Raven due to they are more versed in stories that make up the film.  So now that the boring part is over with, what did I think of it you ask.

     As far as I'm concerned John Cusack really has not been bad in anything he has acted in. Sure some of the films he's chosen to do aren't the best, yet that doesn't mean he hasn't done his best in them. Cusack playing Poe I really didn't know what to think about when I first heard about this film. Looks wise, Poe in real life looked more haunted and shrunken, while Cusack doesn't quite have that look and that was the one of the put offs in the film, well that and Cusack has to much hair. Part of that is that his face,  which  Cusack grew a van-dyke for instead of Poe's usual mustache which didn't help very much. Acting wise though, Cusack did a very good job as playing a complete asshole through and through. Cusack you could tell had some fun playing the earlier parts as there was always a slight smile on his face when he could let go. The other stand out performance in The Raven was form Luke Evans who played Detective Fields. Evans to me though really stole the movie from Cusack by playing everything cynical and morose, partly due to the role, but I think it's more Evans though that his character has seen to much and it's gotten to Detective Fields.

     The story for the movie is for the most part very interesting as it's based on fact. Yes, Poe really did disappear for a week before his death. Also one of the only words Poe would say after he was found on a park bench was the name Reynolds. Just this set up alone could launch a hundred fiction stories and what's even better is that this part is all fact. The rest of the film is fiction as it has Poe helping a detective find a serial killer that has been killing people in the way people were killed in Poe's stories. Yes, in the movie we get some very interesting set-ups based on Poe's stories The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, and The Cask of Amontillado. At each of the crime scenes, or on the corpse's themselves, a clue is left leading to the next murder scene or set-up. This part of the story is what drives the movie to me and keeps it interesting and almost action driven. But, it's the love story parts of the movie that slows it down and keeps it from ever going full blast like I think the movie really wanted to do. It's not that these parts are badly written, it's just that the chemistry between Poe and Emily Hamilton has no spark to it and just seemed dull compared to the rest that was going on. Another negative to the film is the main antagonist. After watching the whole film you just feel let down by the revel of who has been putting Poe through hell, as it is played up so much only to have it seemingly thrown away by having no real resolve between the two what so ever.

     The look and feel of the movie though is one of the main draws for me on this one. The Gothic atmosphere  is in full effect. Cramped quarters, fog ridden town, run down streets slick with wetness, it's all there.  Director James McTeigue knows how to get some very effective shots from the worms eye view of the killer on top of a church door to a pale rider on a horse. Yet, some of his shots were also lacking the emotional punch that he has shown before, most notably in The Pit and the Pendulum scene. While yes, there is blood in this scene, it is neither the most gruesome or suspenseful. The scene goes by to quickly and just seemed rushed as if it was an after thought and seems like it was shot almost comically. Another hit against the scene is the use of fake blood as it's mostly CG blood which ruined the scene even more. While the film had it's good and bad, they both evened each other out in the end. The one true miss with the film though is the characters were all flat and were never really allowed to be played out like they wanted to. The Raven had so much potential, though in the end it tried playing against what it wanted to be, a thriller, and instead wound up being a run of the mill mystery movie that had a lackluster ending.

BEST DEATH:
     John Cantrell's death from above.

BEST LINE:
     I might as well have written eroticism! 

FUN FACTS:
     Both Ewan McGregor and Jeremy Renner were originally attached to star in the film, yet had to drop out.

     Noomi Rapace was offered the role of Emily.

     The filming began on November 9, 2010 in Belgrade and Budapest.

A COUPLE OF NEWS BITS

This is something I might try to get into the habit of doing every every week or two, just putting down bits and information on films that are being made or coming out that I find interesting. Let me know what you think!

PROMETHEUS International release trailer pics:
     I'm going to let this one speak for itself with the pics below, but as you can tell I'm super hyped for this one while staying away form any spoilers.

A brand new alien

Is is just me or does the helmet look like it was melted by acid!

RICHARD STANLEY NEWS:

     I openly admit I'm a fan of Richard Stanley, even his less than excellent outings. Well Stanley, even though his work has been somewhat sparse over the last decade, is going to be having a slew of upcoming titles his name is attached to over the next couple years. The first is The Profane Exhibit which is in production right now. He is also working on the script for I Am Legion a horror war thriller directed by Nacho Cerda. He has also mentioned that he's working on a project based around one of  Lovecraft's stories.

CRAWLSPACE:

     This film popped up last year as it was starting production and now the poster for it has been released. The story is about the Australian military doing experiments and the facility comes under attack from unknown forces. The military sends in a elite force to find out what happened and somehow make it out alive once they find out more was going on there than should have been. Sounds like it can be fun.

RIDDICK:

     The third Riddick movie has finished shooting and is being prepped for a release early next year, and from Vin Diesel has mentioned about it the studio is setting it's sights on a possible franchise starting with this one. What you mean a third film in a series isn't a franchise?????

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES:
     The third and final trailer for Nolan's Batman trilogy is now out and with this one it seems like Nolan's going for the terrorist angle for it. Another film I can't wait to see.

OLDBOY:

     The remake of Oldboy is going on ahead and they have cast the lead for it finally. The honor of getting to fight in a crowded corridor and being completely bad-ass goes to Sharlto Copley.

STAR TREK 2:

     J.J. Abrams second Trek outing is still going strong in production with rumors finally becoming fact. Yes Khan Noonian Singh is in it as played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Klingons will make an actual appearance compared to just being talked about like in the first one. Also Leonard Nimoy will reprise his role as Old Spock.

END OF THE WORLD:

     Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen, and Jay Baruchel's My Apocalypse, about what else but the end of the world, has a name change and more cast joining in, all playing themselves. Part of the reason why the film is being made is because the creator's of Freaks and Geeks wanted to try and get the original cast back together for a project. Emma Watson has joined the cast as well.