8MM (Joel Schumacher, 1999) Review

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“Not many people have been inside this room.” When a wealthy industrialist dies, his widow discovers a disturbing reel of 8mm film, so she employs a Private Investigator to verify if it's real or fake. Plunged into a downward spiral of depravity, this movie takes the viewer on a Grimm fairytale set during the dying days of the 20^th Century just before the World Wide Web was able to spread unlimited perversions on a grand scale...

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Screenplay Sample Pages - How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker...

How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker is a dark comedy novella I wrote concerning the twisted exploits of Elnora, a pet therapist with a sideline in post-mortem pet portraiture, and Parker, a gifted taxidermist, who join forces to explore the limits of love, death, and psychopathy in the warped world of celebrityville. You can find out more info about it HERE.

I have since adapted it into a screenplay, which allowed me to expand on the characters and story first established in the novella - and now you can read some sample pages from the script.

These twenty-five pages are all taken from various points in the first half of the screenplay, giving you just enough of a taste without revealing too much. READ THEM HERE.

The writing has begun...

Writing on my new book has begun. The title of it is: Murder at the Grindhouse. It's a coming-of-age murder mystery with a darkly comic tone set during the 1980s on New York's 42nd Street - aka "The Deuce" - between 7th and 8th Avenues (and the surrounding environs). This was movie paradise for cinema goers at the time who wanted unusual, outlandish fare to go along with their mainstream silver screen delights. It was a fascinating time and place to learn about as a movie fan and so I felt it was a great place to set a story.

Thus far I'm up to about 15,600 18,500 words deep* - no idea how long it'll all end up being as there's quite a way to go yet - but I'm off to a good start. It always takes a bit of getting going when you kick off a new writing project before you start feeling the groove, and this is quite a detailed project in many ways - detail oriented - hence the sheer volume of research and story prep that's gone into it.

This is going to be a fun little project...

*Updated on the 23rd.

Captain America: Civil War - Marvel Goes DC?

What's it about?
Following on from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, our gang of superheroes find themselves set against each other as 117 countries propose The Sokovia Accords to bring The Avengers under United Nations control as a result of civilian deaths and collateral damage in recent battles. Iron Man, riven with guilt, wants to sign up ... Captain America, suspicious of organised oversight in the wake of Hydra's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., wants to remain free to protect and serve. Which side will the rest of them choose?
Who would I recognise in it?
Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Daniel Bruhl, Paul Rudd, Emily Vancamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been hugely successful with critics and audiences alike, coining in the cash with gleeful abandon. They're bright, sparky, immensely fun, and the ever-widening world in which they take place is ripe with stories to tell. However, for all their successes, the Marvel movies have sometimes hewn close to pantomime villains and playing it safe with key characters. The third Captain America film, though, takes the moral greys and millennial murkiness of The Winter Soldier to new depths...

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How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker - NEW BOOK AVAILABLE NOW!

So I accidentally wrote a new book (as you do!), having originally intended to just do a little short story, and long story short it's now available in eBook and Paperback formats worldwide via Amazon.

Find out more information HERE.

"How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker"...

I had a sudden spark of inspiration a couple of weeks ago, and so, instead of getting stuck in to some deep planning on my next screenplay (working title of "A Sideline In Vengeance"), I've found myself bashing away at "How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker" - a dark comedy set in the Celebrityville universe.

Initially I was thinking of it as a short story, but - being that I'm now 5,000 words deep with plenty of ground left to cover - it's looking likely that it'll extend into 'novelette' territory. What's a novelette? A story that's between 7,500 and 17,500 words (at which point a 'novella' takes over, up to the 'novel' crossover line of 40,000 words)...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue reading...

"Sleb" is into the quarter finals!

Good news on this Sunday morning - the screenplay version of "Sleb" has reached the Quarter Finals of the Screenwriting Goldmine Awards Competition 2014! Click HERE to see the list of Quarter Finalists.

Click "READ MORE" for, well, more...

"Sleb" is now available in paperback print format!

In the words of Professor Farnsworth - "Good news everyone!"

My debut novel "Sleb" is now available to purchase worldwide via Amazon in Paperback Print format (in addition to the already available eBook version).

392 pages of darkly humorous celebrity-based thrills and spills in the lavishly chaotic life of besieged starlet Roxie Black. I've seen the proof copy first-hand and it looks fantastic - glossy cover, clean white pages, and sharp print make it a lovely looking book indeed. The dimensions are the traditional paperback 5x8 inches.

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"Sleb" cover art...

"Sleb" is nearing completion. There are final draft tweaks to make, but I've been busy working on some of the additional tasks relating to the project recently - getting the synopsis just right, for example, but also - the cover art.

I've also alluded to doing a special little something to help try and spread the word of the book once it has been released...

Click "READ MORE" below to finish that thought...

Inception...

I was really looking forward to this flick, thanks in part to the spine-tingling trailer (which annoyingly shows too many of the awesome bits, as I was to find out), but I didn't have the same "omfg!" reaction to it whilst watching that I did with The Dark Knight.

Then again, expectation will do that, and if you add in a healthy dose of "must pay close attention" then it can prove to be a challenging watch ... but it's entirely worthwhile, and will easily be in my Top Ten of 2010. However, it is most definitely the sort of movie that you simply must watch at least twice, and possibly more. It is a bit of a tricky one on the old noggin, but it's great to see an intelligent blockbuster up there on the screen.

I do enjoy some dumb fun, don't get me wrong, but there's too much of it these days and it's just lovely to see something with a strong idea that gets you thinking pulling in the punters during the summer season. Well done indeed to Nolan & Co for continuing to create wonderfully crafted, memorable films that boast brains as well as brawn.

Finally, kudos to DiCaprio and Levitt who are really proving themselves of late (although I never understood why some people hate DiCaprio so much, the dude's a ruddy good actor). Inception is a right old thinker, and while my expectations perhaps did me a slight disservice, it was still a high quality and totally worthwhile viewing experience, and I look forward to seeing it again.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus...

It's always the case with a film by Terry Gilliam, that you never really know what you're going to get. You don't know what you should expect, and sometimes you barely know what you're paying to see. For the longest time I had no idea what this film was actually about, or in what time period it was set, or anything.

Much of the chatter around it, naturally, surrounded the death of Heath Ledger (who gives another great performance here, proving like The Dark Knight did, that a truly great acting talent was taken too soon). Trouble does tend to follow a Gilliam film, and such tribulations are well documented, but these actually add to the flavour and occasion of a Terry Gilliam film.

The fact that he is still making movies, even after all his filmmaking career has been through, is just really inspiring in itself.

To respond to a couple of oft-talked about things, the transition from Ledger to Depp/Law/Farrell is never jarring. It makes total sense in this world, and is never confusing. At times you'll even swear that his three replacements actually resemble Ledger.

Another thing is the Imaginarium itself. Mark Kermode spoke about how the Imaginarium itself doesn't feel weighty enough - much of it being CGI - and this is indeed the case. After a moment that, for me at least, really made an impression (the first opening of the Doctor Parnassus sideshow outside a London nightclub), a scene that really shows off the weight and sheer size of the horse-drawn show, the world of the imaginarium itself does indeed feel weightless.

It's like a more serious, but no less weird, big budget version of Gilliam's Monty Python cartoons. It's wonderfully daft and quirky and colourful and actually, quite confusing - but in a nice way. This is indeed, as has previously been talked about by others, a film that has to be seen more than once to understand what you've just been shown (and perhaps even then you won't get everything). Although, most Gilliam films are like that, so it seems.

But is the weightlessness a bad thing? Certainly, I don't see how it could have been achieved practically at all, so it wasn't a bother to me.

This all said though, I still have no idea quite what to make of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. However, the fact that it has remained in my mind, swirling around in there, is testament to it being a bloody good film. If only I could tell you exactly why...

X-Men...

What with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I figured it was about time to catch up on the X-Men movies, so I nabbed myself the 6-disc DVD boxset, and have set about pouring over the flicks.

I liked X-Men ... it's no Spider-Man or Batman Begins (in my view), but it's better than other superhero movies. It's quite well structured, the plot is decent (although it does flag a bit when they start fighting on Liberty Island), but these days it's not the most action-packed superhero movie.

It's like the original Batman movie from 1989 - Burton's flick is positively sedate, and Batman Returns is even more-so - although X-Men has more action than Batman, but I just made the connection as they're the first in a series (if you set aside the campy Batman movie from the sixties), but they also pre-date (by years, or by months) the time when superhero flicks really kicked off grand style.

Spider-Man was one of the first really huge superhero movies - and now we have the likes of The Dark Knight with it's hugest ever hype machine (which it lived up to), and Spider-Man 3 with it's truly epic budget.

X-Men, on the other hand, is a much more moderate affair. Yes, there's a good amount of action, but it's not especially long, nor particularly grandious - what it is, is efficient.

Hellboy 2...

I was never a fan of the first Hellboy, which I found merely "alright", indeed I could use the word "meh" (now officially in the dictionary). Again, with this sequel I was thoroughly "meh" throughout. I turned down the opportunity of peeping it out at an early screening with a friend of mine (whose blog, the McLegs Mainframe, is over there on the right somewhere). Now he actually digs Hellboy, but he only gave it an average score ... but then again, he dissed The Dark Knight a bit too...deary me.

Now, TDK - my top film of 2008 - was absolutely ball-bustingly awesome in my view. Hellboy 2 ... couldn't give a stuff in the end. It is certainly the work of Del Toro, but I'm just not all that bothered about weird and wonderful monsters flapping around on screen, nor schmaltzy love themes thrown about within said framework.

Right on to those who love it, fair play to them, but it's not for me. I'll be over here awaiting my double-disc doovde of The Dark Knight thank you very much.

Batman: Gotham Knight...

As is my way, when I get into something, I really get into it and practically - to all intents and purposes - become obsessed with it.

Case in point - The Dark Knight - since seeing it, I've rarely been able to stop thinking about it and how bloody good it was. My desktop background has been a series of Dark Knight promos since viewing the film also ... and yep, I went and snatched up the Batman Begins/Gotham Knight box set.

Batman Begins, as anybody with half a brain knows, is an incredible piece of superhero filmmaking - and a great piece of filmmaking in general too. So it was cool to get to check out the extra features at long last. Then - Gotham Knight. There seems to be a bit of a tradition starting up now, Anime-style films (mostly shorts collected together) acting as prequels to big releases - or indeed just to get a bunch of pre-plot story out of the way (seemingly in the case of Dead Space, a new videogame coming soon).

Anyway, I guess I should finally talk about Gotham Knight - I dug it quite simply. I liked the story of the first one as an idea, but I didn't really like the first story over all. It certainly stood out from the others visually ... but I don't think the look quite suited the franchise.

Fortunately the rest of the films followed the franchises roots and stylings a bit more closely and came up with interesting new 'in between' stories that pre-date the events of The Dark Knight. It's a neat idea, although clearly some aspects wouldn't have fitted into the 'Nolanverse' (I'm mainly talking about the giant Crocodile bloke).

A great little accompanying piece, and quite enjoyable for someone like me who digs Anime, but isn't really, really into it. Basically, if you dug The Animatrix, check out Gotham Knight (especially if you dug the 1990s cartoon).

The Dark Knight...

This is a great superhero movie. Not only is it a great superhero movie, but it's a great Batman movie, and not only is it a great Batman movie, but it's a great movie ... and not only is it a great movie, but it's a great film.

The Dark Knight is most definitely 'The Godfather II of superhero movies', and indeed so it is the T2 and Aliens of the Batman 'Nolan-verse' (to quote Kevin Smith, who recently ranted and raved passionately about how simply awesome the film is).

Now, at a hefty two and a half hours, you might think it's a tad long - but not once did I check my watch, or think "I wonder how far through is it now?" ... actually I tell a lie, about mid-way through I wondered how far through we were, and hoped that we were only a quarter through the movie, it was that good and I was enjoying it that much.

It's grand, it's epic, it's weighty and it packs a powerful punch.

Just the acting talent on show alone sets this movie high above all other films in its genre. Bale as the eponymous hero continues to rock copiously after his triumphant turn in Batman Begins. Oldman continues to paint Gordon with due care and attention, creating a character you truly respect. Caine again steps up to the plate as Alfred the Butler, the sort of chap anyone would love to have as their uncle, a man of pin-sharp wit and never-bending loyalty.

Now - the two villains - firstly, I'll have to say that Eckhart as Harvey "Two Face" Dent was fantastic, so much so that yes - I too believe in Harvey Dent. It is a shame that his sheer acting talent in this film will end up being kicked aside somewhat, due to the demise of Heath Ledger - who, quite simply, was astonishingly good at being The Joker.

Indeed, with this being Ledger's final full performance, he most definitely went out on one of the highest career notes in cinematic history. Just the scene where The Joker exits an exploding hospital (which was done for real, in one take), leaves you completely entertained as well as staggered. Jack Nicholson definitely created a legendary Joker in Batman 1989, one that was somewhat dark but mostly full of comic exaggeration. Indeed, Burton's Batman - often described as being dark and brooding - is comparatively light and fluffy when sat next to Nolan's shockingly bleak and complex entry. Only in the world of Nolan could The Joker be so exceedingly pitch black, while still managing to raise a wry grin and hearty chuckle from the audience - his "magic trick", or his fussing over a faulty detonator, exemplify this humorously dark tone that Ledger so beautifully captured.

Action wise - again - it leaves you staggered. From the technical marvel of a one-take, Ledger-involving, razing of a hospital, to Batman taking out a semi truck as only he knows how, to many other set pieces, you're just left nothing short of clamped to your seat.

Indeed, certain action sequences demonstrate such a potent and skillful understanding of tension building, that you are desperately strapped in position, and - when a character suffers a certain fate - you're genuinely blown away. In terms of the gloves coming off, I can only think back to the season five opener of 24 as being this shocking.

Why is the movie so involving? The script - which is truly adult in nature - no, I don't mean there are titties flopping around all over the shop. What I mean is, the issues at hand are often deeply complex, and there are some amazingly deep ethical scenarios played out throughout the film that left myself and a friend talking all the way back home again.

Through no action of my own, The Dark Knight remained one, two or three steps ahead of me. I barely was allowed room to stop for breath (or time to grow weary), and by the time the final shot cut to black and the title appeared before the credits, I was gagging for more.

I would have gladly watched another hour of something this well scripted, this well acted, this well directed, and this well assembled. Yes, there is a lot of hype surrounding the film - but try and forget about as much of that as possible - and just get swept away by literally the best film of 2008.

I'd previously said that WALL.E was my #2 of 2008 because I was holding #1 open specifically for The Dark Knight - I was not left disappointed, and am still swooning over how bloody brilliant it all was days later.

One final note - here in the UK it's a 12A, which is an advisory rating. As such there were kids as young as eight (guestimate) in the audience, and at times I did wonder (as Kevin Smith has also), what are they getting out of this movie? This film works on so many levels, most of which circle the depths of the grown up world, that you start to think - is this serving to entertain the kids as much as previous, far lighter installments did?

Well, it must do (at least for some), because when the trailer-bothering shot of the semi truck getting flipped over front-wards, some kid near the back just yelled out "WOOOOOOWWW!!!!", and indeed wow, it was a bloody cool sequence (especially Batman's idea of an about-turn).

Indeed, The Dark Knight stands up and shows the world that even a comic-book-based film can become something to be taken very seriously, that even ballsy box-office-owning entertainment can leave you mulling over a myriad of issues - from the superb acting, to the complicated ethical choices that characters must face throughout.

Now, actually finally, The Dark Knight is occasionally fairly shocking - the sheer detail in the revealing of Two Face alone made my jaw clatter to the floor (both in terms of Nolan's execution, and the CGI wizardry). Truly, this film won't be forgotten anytime soon - and yes, you miserable old farts on Newsnight Review, in a decade The Dark Knight will be looked back upon as a milestone in cinematic history and not just superhero movie history.

Truly great filmmaking, full stop. See it now.

...

Now gimme a top notch DVD to pre-order, chop-chop!

The Dark Half & new Futurama!

The Dark Half:

I'd seen this once, many years ago, when it was shown on ITV ... needless to say I'd basically forgotten all of it. I'll be quick on this one, it's standard King story telling, but it's not standard Romero filmmaking. Needless to say, it's not one of Romero's best and indeed preceded a long stint in movie development hell for the zombie genre legend.

That said, it's still worthwhile seeing for King and/or Romero fans. It's just a shame it feels under-done, if I dare use the cooking analogy again so soon. It could have been more, most certainly, but it could have been a total cock up which it most certainly wasn't.

...

Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs:

Not quite as good as Bender's Big Score, but still consistently entertaining and of great interest while viewing. The same Futurama humour and charm remains, even if the B-Movie riffing plot doesn't quite blast off into outer space, but it gets pretty damn close.

The Simpson's nineteenth season this most certainly is not ... the consistent belly laughs and clever, inventive writing keep it fresh.

That's pretty much it though, I can't think of much more to really say. The DVD's decent, with a similarly chucklesome cast & crew commentary. Bring on the next installment - Bender's Game.