His Name Was Jason...

Out of the collection of 'franchise slashers' - the main three being Freddy, Jason, and Michael (with Leatherface hovering around in fourth place - at least in terms of sequels anyway) - it has always been Jason Voorhees who was my favourite. Freddy is alright, but he's too based around quips and chit-chat, plus he turned into a joke far too soon - not to mention too large of a cultural figure, which is especially disturbing considering he's originally a child-murdering paedophile! Beyond part 3 there's bugger all point in watching a Freddy movie - I mean part 6's 'death by map' says it all really. Michael Myers, my second place slasher figure (tied with Leatherface admittedly) - he's silent, but deadly, with a penchant for heavy breathing behind an iconic, but creepy-as-fuck, mask. #1 rules, #2 is decent, #3 (while not including Myers or a Myers-a-like AT ALL) is surprisingly good, but then #4 comes along and it all turns to shit - shit mask, boring plots, and Michael Myers just becomes a pale immitation of what he once was. H20 vaguely increased the franchise's standing somewhat, but it was massively in debt to Scream, and then of course there was the 'sequel that dare not speak it's name' - Halloween 8. Nuff said really. However, Rob Zombie came along with his remake - and yes, it's most definitely a Rob Zombie movie, and while flawed and not up to the standard of Zombie's original effort The Devil's Rejects, I still dig it. One of the best things the remake did, was make Michael Myers scary again - he regained his standing as a formiddable foe, a position long since lost by shoddy sequels. Leatherface - well, TCM#1 is simply a genre classic of epic proportions, nuff said. TCM#2 is gleefully OTT in every respect. TCM#3 has its moments, but ends up drifting wide of the mark. TCM#4 ... "real sequel" my arse, quite frankly. TCM2003 - it was never going to be a patch on the original, and it wasn't - but you know what, I quite like it on it's own you know? The follow-up to TCM2003 was completely unnecessary though. Now - the main man himself - Jason Voorhees. He's got the coolest look, including his burlap sack hillbilly-ish outing in #2, he's got the second-coolest signature weapon in the shape of his trusty machete (nothing beats a screaming chainsaw, natch), he's got the coolest name, coolest signature theme (two echoed half-words and everybody knows who you mean), and the greatest number of cool sequels. Also of particular interest, Jason was merely talked about in #1, and then only seen in a 'final scare' dream sequence - it was his mother doing the slaying. Freddy, Michael, and Leatherface never had that to contend with that when they showed up on the scene. But let's just whip through the Friday 13th franchise with my brief thoughts, shall we? #1 - gore-ific fun. Teenage camp counsellors getting offed in the woods, Jason's crazy-ass mother, Savini's masterful gore effects, it really kicked off the 'slasher set at a camp' craze, and the introduction of Manfredini's fantastic score. #2 - Jason turns up, and rocks the burlap sack look with style. Classic kills, classic plot of - yep - camp counsellors in-training being picked off one-by-one, a cast of interesting-but-simple characters that you like watching - and well, a legend is born. #3 - 3D playfulness, Jason gets his signature hockey mask, funky themetune, it picks up right after #2, plus I got to to-and-fro a couple of emails with Larry Zerner a number of years ago concerning the alternate ending, which was cool ... mind you, Miner's directing skill seems to have taken a nose-dive since #2 as it's an endless succession of characters seeking out strange noises and being scared to do so because we the viewer knows something might happen - but they don't know, so why are they creeping around with a scared look? Plus the dialogue is awful, and that hippy chick's 'scared' moment is nothing short of laughable. However - Jason rocks up and you get basically 30 minutes of awesome to cap-off a kinda rocky flick. #4 - follows #3 directly which is just awesome, Savini is back, the characters are again interesting-but-simple (and genuinely entertaining), it looks great, Crispin Glover gets the best death - and dance, Jason gets killed, it looks fantastic, the woods are dark, scary and it's lashing down a storm when shit kicks off - which is how the franchise works best. #5 - aye, it's not good really is it? At least it still looks like #4, so this is the last time we'll see the night-time lit and shot in such as a way as they had been doing ... and, well, there is some nice totty throughout. Certainly the lowest point in the franchise thus far unfortunately. #6 - JASON LIVES! The birth of 'zombie' Jason, Alice Cooper on the soundtrack, pure OTT fun, Thom Mathews being thoroughly 1980s, and I have fond memories of watching it on Christmas Day many years ago (it was a present, along with...) #7 - Jason's best un-masked appearance - the effects are simply jaw-dropping - Kane Hodder's first character-defining entry, telekenesis is an interesting addition, some nice totty, a last hurrah for the 'kids having a house party' plot ... such a shame that it was neutered by the MPAA - the uncut footage would have made it much ballsier. #8 - the last properly good Jason movie, one could argue - although calling it "Jason Takes Manhattan" is a bit daft when it takes an hour to get to the Big Apple, and the whole 'kids voice, vomits lake water, turns into boy Jason' bit at the end was just stupid, and again the MPAA stuck their stupid nose in and neutered it - still though, this is Hodder's finest moment as Jason - the dude just rocks throughout - it's amazing how much joy you get out of him punting a ghetto blaster down the pavement ... everything in Manhattan rocks, if only they'd had some more cash to extend all that ... the themetune of "The Darkest Side of the Night" kicks ass, Jason's 'pruned and soggy' look is cool, it's nowhere near as shoddy as I originally thought it was when I first saw it as a teenager, and despite it's flaws I'm now quite fond of it. #9 - the gore is cool, and any time Kane Hodder is on screen I'm liking it ... then they come along and think 'outside of the box' and forget to bring Jason with them, so instead we get a bunch of twats we don't care about whatsoever farting around being chased by Jason's soul ... ugh ... then there's the distracting inclusion of a couple of Evil Dead references in the final act, Jason getting taken to hell, the utterly daft "Final Friday" moniker (New Line were never going to buy a franchise to kill it off, sheesh!) and the seed for a turd-festival "VS" mash-up happens. #10 - I enjoyed the idea of 'Jason in space', but converse to my thoughts 'then and now' on #8, #10 isn't as good as I once thought ... anyway, the final appearance of Kane Hodder who simply IS Jason is good, there's some nice kill gags, some interesting ideas (even though Uber-Jason doesn't look as cool as he should really). Freddy VS Jason - a spin off, rather than a franchise-follower in my view, it was complete gash when I saw it and I've never been back. Cringey Nu-Metal soundtrack, not at all scary, it's got 'that one out of Destiny's Child ... I think' in it, it's too slick, Kane Hodder isn't in it anymore and ugh ... I just didn't care for it at all ... at least it had Monica Keena in it though. Friday 13th 2009 ... well, you can see my thoughts on that here: http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/02/friday-13th-2009and-another-rant-about.html

4 short March movie musings...

I've been meaning to post this up for a while/a long while, so here's a run-down:

Lesbian Vampire Killers...

You know what, it does what it says on the tin - it's got lesbians, who happen to be vampires, and they get killed. It was never going to be Shaun of the Dead (despite playing to that idea and audience), but it does what it does and as a result it was good for a night out with the lads.

A bit of silly throw away fun with brash, if scattergun, visual flair with a plot so simple you get the whole thing within minutes. Script wise - what do you expect? Well, a few more gags would have been nice - you do wonder, if it hadn't been for Horne & Corden, would this flick have done as well as it did ("well" being a relative term mind you).

It's been said that it's a bit soft on both the horror and the comedy fronts, and I'd have to agree. A few more gags to propel the final act more convincingly would have been nice, and a few more gore gags to elevate the bloodlust to From Dusk Till Dawn-ish levels.

Nothing especially memorable, but like I said - good for a watch and ideal lad's night fodder.



Transporter 3...

What's there to say really - Statham plus car plus random scrawny euto-trash bimbo plus silly make-do plot equals Transporter 3. A shame really, as the first movie was quite promising in terms of simple-minded action fair - lots of fun to be had with a cool jet-black motor roaring around with Statham doing his "action look" ... but Transporter 2 was utter pants, and Transporter 3 is perhaps marginally better ... but by the thinnest margin.

If you're going to watch a Transporter movie - watch the first one.



The Spirit...

Aye - late on this one as well, but whatever - it's nothing to get fussed about sadly. After the sheer bucket of awesome that was Sin City (the movie), it was a case of high hopes for The Spirit - but evidently, it definitely was Robert "do everything" Rodriguez who brought the directing talent in Sin City.

Frank Miller - he's a talented guy - but it's painfully obvious with his solo directing gig of The Spirit, that he just doesn't quite have the movie directing "thing".

No doubt the PG-13 rating was a major problem with this flick, it simply does feel like "Sin City for tweens" from start to finish, and the story feels too jumbled for those (of which there are no doubt many) who have never heard of "The Spirit" before. The film jumps right into the middle of it all, and only explains - sort of - about mid-way through, what on earth is going on - a major mistake, quite frankly...tacked onto the distinct softening on the sex and violence front. Regardless of what the source material was like, the movie just DOES feel neutered - and it's a damn shame.

It looks nice - albeit basically identical to Sin City, which is perhaps another downside - but over-the-piece it just doesn't grip at all. There are moments of kick-assery, but it's really not that convincing throughout from the out-set, and I say again - it's a damn shame. It was shaping up to be feckin' schweet ... but alas, no dice.

Roll on Sin City 2 methinks.



Very Bad Things...

I remember seeing an advert for this flick - absolutely YEARS ago - on the back of a film magazine. I remember the line-up of characters (mainly a procession of "oh that guy from..." sorts), but I never got around to seeing it - but at last, I dipped into it the other day.

Kind of like U-Turn, in that it's one of those movies where "shit" simply gets progressively "more fucked up" for the protagonist(s) as the running time flows on.

It just goes to show really - when you accidentally kill a hooker in Vegas - just call the fuckin' cops, for crying out loud! Kinda like "Swingers" ... if it had gone REALLY badly in "Vegas, baby!" ... indeed.

...

Now if you don't mind, I'm off to watch yet more Angry Video Game Nerd episodes online - I've been a fan for quite a while, but I only saw it sporadically - thanks to His Name Was Jason getting the wind up me to see more AVGN stuff, I'm now methodically going through them ... but backwards ... to replace my "YouTube time", as I call it.

Sex & Ethics DVD - another review...

Another nice little review about the Sex & Ethics DVD that I was involved with last year (currently being followed-up by this new one about the environment).

"Making applied ethics, relevant, interesting and thought provoking for teenagers is not an easy task, but this DVD manages to do all three. An excellent multi-media teaching resource and well worth the price of a few text books"

Andrew Pearce, Principal Religious Studies Examiner

I'd also been hearing from Joe about comments he's been given about the DVD, and how people have been impressed with the over all presentation of it - i.e. it's not just some boring trudge through facts and figures, visually speaking - instead it's visually engaging.

I'm pleased that other people are seeing that, as from my side as the dude who filmed and edited it, I wanted to make it visually appealing, as I knew full well from my own experience in school, how boring these educational videos can be if they're not engaging.

From students as well, we've heard good things about it - the visual style changes frequently throughout, in that there's always something new to look at. We mixed a variety of things together, photographs, stock footage (from many eras of public domain videos, or the excellent Global Cuts website), and things we filmed - which included students in a group debating directly about the issues being discussed (a great way to help the students in other schools get that start for their own discussions, rather than everyone sitting quietly not wanting to say anything - again, I've seen that when I was at school - students just need that little push), and also filming "scenarios" as I liked to call them.

Scenarios (made up of stuff we filmed, and using a wide variety of disparate stock footage) that related to the issues at hand, and which were presented in different ways, some of which were quite striking from a visual stand point - lots of colour, lots of imagery, and liberal use of compositing - or, for the laymen out there, simply getting two layers of video and putting one on top of the other to create an interesting look for the segment.

And of course - for these scenarios - Magic Bullet really came in handy. I'm a big proponent of colouring video, and it really does help make the visuals more engaging - if you can keep the students looking at the screen, they'll keep their ears listening to what's being said.

It certainly seems that we have succeeded in keeping the students engaged with this Sex & Ethics DVD, so I'm quite chuffed that it's doing well. The link for it can be found on the right. www.ethicsonline.co.uk

Script update...

"From The Inside Out" continues apace - the first draft of the first act is done, and I'm now going back over what I've written so far - I initially added a bit more to the end of act one, then headed back to the start where I added a whole page to the opening scene, which I thought needed more meat from the off.

At this very moment it's at 22 pages, so it's a much leaner script than my last one - the zombie epic called "The End" - but I was always planning to make this latest script far leaner, especially as it's designed for a low budget (like I've spoken about previously) - at least, that's the intention.

I'll probably slow down for a spell though, as I've got educational DVD stuff to be getting on with, but aye - the script is going well so far.

Script writing a-go-go!

Well, my second sit-down on the script for "From The Inside Out" was equally plodding as the first - from 2 pages to 4 - it's always hard getting into something new you're writing, I always found that when writing essays throughout my education.

But last night, my third sit down with it, was quite a good session. It's now deep into page 10, and the plot is bounding along at quite a pace - something I'll seek to slow down and develop a bit more when I re-draft each act as I go along.

I'm starting to get into the swing of writing again, after having not written anything since finishing "The End" on New Years Eve. So aye - it's starting to pick up now - I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out in the end, how it all fleshes out from my two page run-down I scribbled out recently before I started.