Triple Bill Mini Musings: Killer Teens, Frozen Soldiers, and Punching...

Heathers:
It was before my time when this flick originally threw a knockout punch upon it's release, but even after almost 25 years it remains a gloriously-pitch-black dark comedy that skewers the social groupings and peer perceptions of high school life with a bloody knife. It would never get made today, not with the depressing number of tragic incidents that take place in schools (particularly in America), but just for what it is, it's well worth watching - even if you're from a later generation, such as myself - after all, social frustration and exclusion are timeless themes.


Universal Soldier Regeneration:
I'm a big fan of the original movie, ever since I first saw it on television (in a cut, pan & scanned form, no less), and it remains a hugely enjoyable action fest. Fast forward basically twenty years, in which there have been two in-name-only sequels and one kinda-naff-real-sequel, we get this new flick. I thought it was a bad idea to begin with, and figured it was going to be a real crap-fest, but - surprisingly - it wasn't too bad actually.

It kicks off with a suitably gruff car chase, before getting into a plot about a group of rebel fighters of one (fictional) nation seeking severance from their oppressive parent-nation - by threatening to blow up Chernobyl. UniSols have been deployed in aid of this cause, and naturally fire needs to be fought with fire - but it all goes arse up and Van Damme's Luc Devereux from the original film returns to sort out the mess.

When the action is going it's good fun, and while the plot is serviceable, the characterisation isn't up to an awful lot - so there's little in the way of investment, and as a result when bullets aren't flying you find yourself twiddling your thumbs ... but then someone starts shooting and it all picks up again. It's no secret that Dolph Lungdren makes a reappearance (via some handily advanced cloning techniques), but the promised rumble between the two original UniSols is all-too-brief, unfortunately - but the kicker of a full-stop to the sequence is rather fun. Despite some flaws, it's a surprisingly decent action flick all-said-and-done.


Road House:
Another example of a Family Guy running gag that I didn't really get until now - Road House is decidedly 1980s, but in all the right ways. Directed, appropriately enough, by a dude named "Rowdy", Patrick Swayze plays a hard-nut dude who helps keep bars safe from lots of punching and broken bottles - by dishing out roundhouse kicks and looking very brooding with his shirt off.

It's all good fun - indeed one of the vehicles driven by the henchmen of the big bad guy is a ruddy Monster Truck! - and what's more it's got Sam Elliott in it doing his fightin' Southern Gentleman thing, and what's not to like about that?

Triple Bill Mini Musings: The Devil's Proposition for Mandy Lane...

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane:
Considering the title, I thought this was going to be a spiffing horror riff on the sexes and high school infatuation, but alas it never really picks up the suggested ball to run with it. Rather, the notion of the chick that literally all the guys dig is briefly presented, and then ditched in favour of a handful of them (with two 'valley girl' types) sauntering off to a (rather lame) party at a ranch.

It's stylishly shot, but the script just doesn't live up to the potential of the title - there is little in the way of tension, characterisation, motive, and the third act twist makes absolutely no sense at all. Worth seeing for the beautiful Amber Heard in an early starring role, and a couple of fairly original kills, but beyond that it's a real missed opportunity to do something deeper and more interesting.


Race With The Devil:
I think my first knowledge of this flick came with Kevin Smith, a couple of years ago, when asked what movie that his (at the time) proposed Red State most resembled in terms of feel and he said Race With The Devil. That was a good while ago now, but Sky Movies helpfully showed this late one night and I gave it a spin.

While I haven't seen Smith's Red State (yet, natch) I can understand (as a result of the Red State of the Union podcasts over on SModcast.com) why he made the link. It's a movie full of paranoia and an unstoppable sense of creeping menace. Two holidaying couples (travelling in an RV with all the mod cons) find themselves in the crosshairs of a Satanic cult, and spend the rest of the movie trying to get the hell out of dodge and to some sort of safety.

For the most part the film has a gentle pace, but the slow ratcheting-up of the sense that something isn't quite right about some (or all?) of the people they meet leaves you with a palpable paranoia. Indeed, this tension builds gradually towards the big set piece sequence where the protagonists do battle with a convoy of Satanists, which is a genuinely tense experience.

Coming in the midst of the 1970s, with the disaster of the Vietnam war still raw and bloody in the collective American consciousness, and at a time when rumours of Satanic cults in the heart of middle America were rife, this is a classic of its time and a skilled illustration of tension building.


The Proposition:
Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road) and scored by the superb combo of Nick Cave & Warren Ellis (the former also wrote the script), this is the sparsely-plotted, meanderingly-paced tale of an outlaw who is given an ultimatum - kill his older brother, or his younger brother gets hanged. It's a compelling central conflict, but one that is handled from a distance, with lightly drawn characters set amidst the scorched earth, sun bleached frontier days of Australia's outback.

The direction and cinematography has a similarly distanced approach, something that was somewhat carried over onto The Road (another tale set in a desolate land, scored by Cave & Ellis), and it can at times be surprisingly brutal (the key point of which being an agonised lashing). The Proposition, like the land and time in which it is set, is a sweltering, sparse and bloodily violent tale told from a distance - and it's this distancing effect that can keep you, the viewer, from fully connecting with the story, but nevertheless the vision is uncompromising for all its flaws and successes.

"Allen Bridge" script planning a-go-go...

It's been an absolute hive of activity when it comes to my next script "Allen Bridge" - a drama/mystery - as I spent all afternoon yesterday furiously scribbling down ideas for entire scenes and a whole backstory to the titular town.

It really is a case of the muse working her magic - the inspiration is coming thick and fast - so much so that when I thought I'd finished I returned to my notebook not once, but twice, to scribble in yet more ideas that suddenly sprung to mind. It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle is forming of its own accord inside my head and I'm just trying to keep up with the thought process that seems to be beyond traditional thought ... that sounds kind of weird, I'm sure, but that's how inspiration works I guess.

As for "Summer Road", I'm currently working on the covering letter to go along with the script to the BBC Writersroom. It's amazing how tricky it can be to really get everything you want to say into one sheet of A4, and without talking about the specific plot or characters directly (so sayeth the Writersroom website).

Flavours of the Month: July 2010...

July has been a generally muggy month interspersed with spells of fresh cool, and power cuts. It has also been a month of - By Any Means 2: Sydney to Tokyo - which I gave a second viewing on DVD, and which was a good step up from the slightly disappointing first By Any Means.

A few weeks back I got into the ruddy thrilling first season of Prison Break, and I've now caught up on the other three seasons. Season Two was a strong follow-up, even if it did tail off a smidge in the last episodes, Season Three was the weakest (clearly affected by the Writer's Strike at the time) and often drew out small events to fill entire episodes, and finally Season Four, was back to the usual thrilling form ... but once again it tailed off a bit in the final third once there was yet another double-cross and things took yet another detour to drag everything out again ... and while the ending is a smidge unsatisfying in more than one respect, it was still an affecting finish to a bloody good and rather enjoyable show.

I finally caught up on the latest Splinter Cell game ("Conviction"), which seemed to encourage you to not be able to sneak around and just get you into a firefight, and while I wasn't always following the plot, I always enjoy a bit of Sam Fisher shadowy goings on. At least the "Deniable Ops" portion allowed for classic stealth gameplay in "Hunter Mode".

I've also been thoroughly getting into The Walking Dead, in anticipation of the October premiere of the TV adaptation. I've done the first three "Volumes" (or "Trades") and while Volume Two was a bit hit and miss, Volumes One and especially Three have been tip top zombie fun ... but the dialogue could use some improvement at this stage to rid itself of too much exposition and on-the-nose bluntness. Good lord though, with all the snippets of info coming out regarding the TV adaptation (including a leaked trailer from Comic-Con), it's been an absolute zed-head nerdgasm!

Musically it's been a bit of everything, but a late entry would have to be the Alan Wake soundtrack - specifically the licensed tracks featured in the game (the full orchestral soundtrack comes out in August). Particular tracks would be "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels, "Up Jumped The Devil" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Haunted" by Poe, "War" by Poets of the Fall" and "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison. Alan Wake is such a well crafted game and as such the music chosen to play throughout is inspired and really supports and extends the overall tone and feel of the game.

I've also been having a Blade Runner kick with a return to the 5-disc DVD. It's one of those films that you like more, and think higher of, each time you watch it.

Finally, I've been cracking on with final touches to Summer Road. I'm looking forward to getting it finished and sent off to the BBC Writersroom. I've been working on this for seemingly ages now. Actual writing has taken place over three months in spare time, and before that I was slowly piecing everything together in the form of notes.

I'm really looking forward to getting onto Allen Bridge as well, for which I've got some considerable notes mapped out including entire scenes, and being that it's a totally different vibe (and genre) to Summer Road, it will come as a welcome change of pace for my writing - that said, I'm really quite proud of Summer Road ... I've invested a lot of time and self into it, and I think that is reflected in the almost-final (at the time of writing) product.

Flavours of the Month: June 2010...

Continuing on from last month, my obsession with Prison Break Season One exploded and I'm now eager to see the remaining three seasons. Initially I was sceptical as it does take a good four or five episodes to get you into the groove of the show, but after that you're totally sucked in and fascinated by how every single problem that arises gets solved ... and the last two episodes are nothing but awesome.

I read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as I'm a big fan of the film adaptation, and naturally it was ruddy great, and then I simply had to watch the movie yet again - inspiring another mini-Cusack fest complimented by another viewing of Grosse Pointe Blank.

There's been a lot of script writing going on, what with Summer Road (comedy drama, now onto Draft 2.2) and Allen Bridge (drama mystery with a somewhat supernatural tint, now in the planning stages).

I also got the Season 1 through 3 box set of Robot Chicken, so it was nothing but that for a couple of weeks as I gorged myself on the extra features - and yes, season 4 is pre-ordered.

I finished Red Dead Redemption, which was a ruddy good game, and is Rockstar's best game to date, I'd have to say. You really care about John Marston and you end up caring about his family too, and what's more you really feel involved in the setting - that of the dying days of the wild west - and wow, the ending really packs a punch (just remember, the game ain't over till you've seen the credits roll). Speaking of the credits, the soundtrack to the game is tip-top, especially those two tracks on the credits which leave a memorable mark in the context of the ending.

As such, there has been a bit of a soundtrack festival on my CD changer - the soundtracks to Red Dead Redemption, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and The Road - two are westerns, two are by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and all three are excellent.

Finally, a hot topic for discussion over on Homepage of the Dead at the moment is the forthcoming TV series The Walking Dead, and having never read the source material before, I've now gone and gotten myself into that. At the time of writing I've read Vol. 1 "Days Gone Bye", and I've just started Vol. 2 "Miles Behind Us".

...

And there we have it, a whole year's worth of Flavours of the Month - to see the first one, follow this link:
http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/07/flavours-of-month-junejuly-2009.html

The Road...

Coming to our local Cineworld three weeks after release, I finally got to see the film version of Cormac McCarthy's moving and brutal post-apocalyptic father & son journey story The Road.

In 2008 I took part in a YouTube user collaborative project for Channel 4's "3 Minute Wonder" slot - everyone submitting footage that would then be re-edited into four short films that were inspired by McCarthy's Pulitzer Price winning book. At this stage I hadn't read the book - but got the jist of it before submitting my footage (which was one of the chosen pieces to be edited into the final films which showed during the last week of October 2008 on Channel 4).

Shortly afterwards I bought the book and was thoroughly impressed by the sparse verse that managed to convey such a strong sense of how an unexplained, but sweeping disaster, had turned the world into a cruel and vile place where the few good struggled endlessly against roaming gangs of cannibals (still few in number, but certainly out-numbering those refusing to succumb to cannibalism).

However, that is merely the world presented, the crux of The Road is "Man" and "Boy", a father and son who lumber on, following the road south to find a warmer climate, and how they cope along the way. It's a powerful and moving read, with some of the most heart-felt final pages ever written.

Similarly the film adaptation is uncompromisingly bleak in its presentation. The terrifying glimpses of cannibalistic behaviour in the book are now written large in brief moments of abject and visceral horror, but these are thankfully punctuated by quiet and caring moments between Viggo Mortenssen (perfect casting) and Kodi Smith-McPhee's (nailing the tone of his character from the book) "Man" and "Boy".

The discovery of a can of Coke (calm down "advertising!!!1!!!1!" freaks - it was in the book, and Coca Cola had to be personally convinced by Viggo himself to allow their product to be used), or sharing the spoils of a lucky find, or the father bathing his starving son - even the moment that they address the Man comes from a world entirely alien to that of the Boy, are all moving and fascinating moments.

While the book might go into more detail and speak of things that film can rarely show in such detail, the film is a more intense experience. You can put the book down every few pages if your reading time is brief, but the film grasps your attention for two whole hours and lays out the visuals in gritty, cold examination. So in terms of impact, it's a draw, but for different reasons on each side.

The book is a meandering journey with moments of sharp action or horror, so the film has a slow-burn pace that transcends your usual 'movie apocalypse' style. This isn't Mad Max, this is what the end of the world would really be like. It's harsh, cruel, bleak and at times intensely tragic - but in amongst it all are clutches of something brighter, of a glimmer of hope for the future no matter how uncertain it may be. Ultimately The Road (both book and film) is a rewarding experience. It most definitely isn't a barrel of laughs (duh), or a Hollywood action extravaganza (as one trailer so inexplicably painted it as) ... what it is, is a thoughtful and moving piece of filmmaking ... and it's a strong contender for my own personal Film of 2010.

As a side note to finish on, the score (by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis) is just superb. The pair had previously scored The Assassination of Jesse James (one of my all-time favourites), and proved they have unending skill and craft - with The Road, they have out-done themselves. Just like the film, the soundtrack is emotional and thought provoking. Incredible.

The Book of Eli...

I was hoping to have an "apocalypse weekend" at the cinema, but annoyingly our local Cineworld wasn't showing The Road - hopefully it will be sometime soon - so it was just one dose of apocalypse for us at the cinema this past weekend. I wasn't expecting an awful lot, and went into it with mild interest - indeed the trailer makes it look like a dumb actioner.

Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. It's not a dumb actioner. Sure it has some action in it, some quite good action too, and one set piece that's sparse but immensely stylish, but it's much more thoughtful.

No surprises though that the titular book is The Holy Bible, but mercifully there isn't any bible bashing (of either kind). The film performs a straight forward balancing act between the good and bad sides of religion through, you guessed it, a good guy and a bad guy.

The thoughtful nature of the film however is in its construction. The ruminations on the Bible are there, but it's more a case of the feel of the film as a whole. At times we don't see the visual payoff we might expect - we know something is going to happen, and that's good enough - indeed, it makes it better. The post-apocalyptic world feels functional (replete with a simple, but informative look at the bartering process) and fleshed out, even though it's treated merely as the setting and not the subject.

Many of the elements in the film could have been expanded upon (and some sequences could have been trimmed for pacing), but you rarely feel short changed. You're left wanting more in a good way.

This flick is also stylish. Really stylish. Not in the MTV way of 'style', but in a more thoughtful way (hooking back to the thoughtfulness again). It feels considered and dramatic, with the right amount of sensation thrown into the mix.

It's a hard flick to sum up, but needless to say it's not the actioner that the trailer leads you to believe. Indeed I would wager that in most screenings there will have been people who either walk out disappointed, or are frequently in-and-out to go for a piss after they've spent the first half guzzling eighteen litres of Coke. This was the case at our screening, which was a mid-afternoon showing. It was far from sparsely populated, but there were people in and out like a fucking Yo-Yo. It did amuse me to see a teenager - decked out in expensive trainers, football shirt, low slung trousers, and a baseball cap - wearing a gaudy crucifix around his neck. Considering the content of the film, it seemed like an odd juxtaposition, but strangely related.

So far it's been a surprising start to the year for me at the cinema - first with the rather enjoyable Sherlock Holmes that I wasn't sold on until the final trailer - and now with The Book of Eli, which is far better than its paint-by-numbers stock trailer suggests.

Now come on Cineworld, show The Road.

Hush...

There have been a series of low budget British indie horror flicks coming out in recent years, some very much on the indie end (such as the grim Mum & Dad - made for £100,000) and others on the bigger end of the spectrum (such as Jake West's first big calling card - Doghouse - which followed on from his other, more indie projects such as the rather enjoyable Evil Aliens).

Somewhere in the middle and here we are with Hush - a road-horror-movie in the tradition of The Hitcher or Road Games, but taking place at night on and around the rain-soaked M1 motorway and its various service stations along the way.

While the opening ten minutes that introduce you to the lead characters and their faltering relationship can at times feel a bit clunky in the dialogue and delivery side of things, the atmosphere makes up for it. A near-empty motorway, a car meandering its way through the lashing rain, and a sinister-but-average-looking lorry up ahead.

Considering the indie budget, the atmosphere afforded through the crew's dedication (lots of consecutive night shoots, a lot of rain to be manufactured) really helps spur the film along - especially when the plot takes a more sinister turn when leading man Zakes catches a brief glimpse of a naked and caged girl in the back of the aforementioned lorry.

From this point on, and with the relationship establishing stuff gotten out of the way, the film really gets into its groove and becomes quite an effective low-fi cat & mouse chase flick. Pleasingly there are a few little twists dotted throughout that really keep you guessing, and on the back foot throughout most of the flick. All-too-easily this movie could have ended up as entirely predictable, but these few turns - as well as the previously adored atmosphere - manage to keep the plot fresh enough to keep you going through the not-too-short-not-too-long running time.

There are a couple of obvious moments, where you can see what's going to happen from a mile off, but it's still bloody good fun regardless.

I wasn't necessarily expecting great things from Hush, so I was pleasantly surprised to find more than I was hoping to. A very solid debut from Tonderai, and a really enjoyable British indie, which - on a final note - has further inspired me, as a fellow filmmaker looking for a way to get my boot wedged in the door.

Memories of Falling Ash (2008)...

This short was made for the 2008 Frieze Film “Road Movie” YouTube project. They were looking for YouTubers to submit their own 3 minute long films, taking inspiration from Cormac McCarthy’s excellent book “The Road”.


From the submitted shorts, those behind the project selected a number (of which I was one) and proceeded to use the wealth of footage to put together four 3 minute shorts, which made up the aforementioned “Road Movie”. It was a really fun and creative project to get involved in, and it was a real joy to put together some really strong images in high contrast black & white (which suited the tone of the book perfectly, in my eyes).


The four segments were shown in October 2008 on Channel 4’s “3 Minute Wonder” showcase programme.

View the full length version of "Memories of Falling Ash" here:



Finally, you can view the Frieze Film 2008 YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FriezeFilm2008

Frieze Film 2008 - YouTube links...

These are the original edits (the ones shown on Channel 4 were a smidge different, with certain gory images replaced) of the Road Movie project, viewables on YouTube.

Part One:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LW4cbIw3IW8

Part Two:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Qf4ci7QH8

Part Three:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tLe4lglgTGA

Part Four:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbcnolKJB8

Enjoy.

...

And yes, there's not been much blogging this month, not sure why ... guess I'm not feeling the blog-juice this month. Anyway, I'm in the midst of writer's block/frustration - trying to get my zombie epic script started ... I finished my X-Files marathon the other day, or about a week ago now actually, and am currently going through Mulder & Scully withdrawal, ha!

Oh yeah, I'm gonna get around to updating my showreel, so expect to see that sometime soon.

3 Minute Wonder - further details!

http://www.friezefoundation.org/film

Go to the above link and watch Parts 2 and 4 - where I have footage used.

Obviously everybody only gets brief bits used, as there was 2 hours of chosen footage edited down into four 3 minute shorts, but this means I've had stuff shown on Channel 4 prime time television, and of course I'm credited on the end credits - according to my YouTube channel name of course - which is ZombieWagon.

There's one of my shots (seemingly flipped vertically and horizontally) in the opening titles of each of the four films - again, high contrast black and white footage of the white road markings ... on a road, obviously.

Anyway, in Part 2 my footage is the two high contrast black and white shots driving along a road with a dull sky overhead, at 0:21 and 2:17. (I do actually think Part 2 is the best of the four, and not just because I've got the bulk of my exposure in there, but because I do think it's the best one generally speaking).

In Part 4 I have a brief shot used at 1:35 (grey image with 'ash' falling through the frame - it's originally snow of course).

So aye, on the grand scheme of things and comparitively speaking I have had a good amount of footage used - and of course my original, uncut film can be seen both on the Frieze Film 2008 YouTube page, as well as my own YouTube channel (as linked to in the links section on the right hand side of my blog).

As for air times - well, as I've got a shot used in the opening credits, that gets shown before all of the films, but as for the specific parts I'm further used in:

Part 2 - Tuesday 14th October 2008, Channel 4 at 7:55pm (or an hour later on C4+1)
Part 4 - Thursday 16th October 2008, Channel 4 at 7:55pm (or an hour later on C4+1)

And as previously noted at the top of this blog post, you can see all the films on the Frieze Film 2008 website.

3 Minute Wonder...

As previously mentioned, I took part in the Frieze Film 2008 "Road Movie" project (with my short "Memories of Falling Ash", as seen on my YouTube page). Part of the project was for the organisers to pick some of the submitted shorts to be used for four 3 Minute Wonder shorts on Channel 4 at 7:55pm - October 13th through 16th (Mon, Tue, Wed, and Thur).

Of the 140 videos 'attached' to the FF2008 YouTube page, 38 were picked by the project director - of which, I am one.

So fingers crossed they'll use some of my footage in one or more of this week's 3 Minute Wonder slots on Channel 4 at 7:55pm (or indeed Channel 4 +1 at 8:55pm), they obviously liked it enough to pick it, so hopefully that's a good omen and then I can say I've had stuff shown on Channel 4's well-known shorts showcase in prime time television territory, which would be pretty cool.

As for the project itself, as previously stated it's based on/inspired by the 2006 Cormac MacCarthy novel The Road, which I recently bought and am now reading - pretty good actually, I look forward to seeing the film adaptation with Viggo Mortensen.