Okay, so I was just having a conversation with a friend on the fact that slasher films were the only place to see nudity back in the day. We were marveling at how, considering that sex and violence were psychologicall linked in EVERY MOVIE WE SAW in our formative years, that we turned out just fine but kids today see the word "sex" in the sky in the Lion King and end up killing their kindergarten class? Perhaps the problem is not the one we claim.
Monday, June 6, 2005
The Toolbox Murders, Pre-Porn Porn, and the Nerdiest thing I ever said
So I see the new Toolbox Murders is out, the one directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I haven't seen it but hae a great love for the original. It starts where all my interesting childhood stories start, with my childhood best friend Richard Jones. In the 1980's when VCR's had been invented, the big studios were unaware of how much money they were losing by not glomming onto this new format, there were hundreds of video stores bringing in unprecedented amounts of money and Hollywood was ignoring it. But the exploitation production companies were not. These guys were so independent they'd make the Weinstein's puke and if only the Weinsteins could see a return on their investment like these guys did, there likely will be no era like it again for indies. These guys were cranking out low-budge movies and selling for $100 a copy to stores that would make that back in a week based on the demand. Also Friday The 13th and Halloween had become money printing presses, money invested in making a slaher film had a guaranteed return on investment of thousands of times the money put in. It had a built-in market and could make tons of money in theatre's and then go onto video and clean up again. These two factors led to two things, LOTS of slasher movies, and Richard and I watching ALL of them.
One of the great advantages of slasher films was, not only were they good entertainment, but they all had nudity in them, which was a HUGE selling point and increased the butts in the seats, and definitely the amount of pre-pubescent teens watching movies they already wanted to see just based on violence alone!. In an age prior to getting our hands on real porn, this is how you saw women nude. The best nude scenes ever pre-porn were the shower scene in Porky's (duh), the sex scene in Scream For Help (Lolita Lorre), and the Nail Gun Girl in the original Toolbox Murders (Kelly Nichols). She was gorgeous and was nude for SO LONG. I later found out that she went onto a successful porn career, which is so weird, the girl from Toolbox that we all wanted as kids is naked somewhere else, and even dirtier.
This all brings me to the nerdiest thing I ever said. I was Odd Obsession and I was looking at their slasher collection and recognizing SO MANY old favorites, and I picked up the movie Pieces, at an advanced age, unable to be able to tell many of my old slasher movies apart I asked the Brian "Is this the one that takes place in the hotel? Because sometimes I get Pieces confused with Toolbox Murders and Driller Killer" I then stopped, and shook my head in embarrassment. Anywhere else I would've been made fun of, but luckily I was in Odd Obsession. Brian hugged me and said "It's okay, you're in a safe place." Godbless him.
Friday, June 3, 2005
One Year!!!!
It's great to have him back isn't it?
For anyone who hasn't seen, this is the first look at Brendan Routh as Superman from Bryan Singer's Summer 2006 Event. I am a serious old school live action superhero movie fan, long before Blade started this new wave of Superhero films. I LOVE Richard Donner's Superman, and after all the false starts with Tim Burton, Nic Cage (1996), McG (1999), Brett Ratner (2001), and McG again (2003) I am personally very happy to see someone in that suit again and am ready to believe once again that a man can fly.
Thursday, June 2, 2005
Matthew Vaughn not directing X-Men 3
Just read the Matt Vaughn (Lock, Stock, Snatch, Layer Cake) will not be directing X-Men 3. I was very excited to see Matt Vaughn's take on something the had to overcome great odds to become a great series to begin with. Now here's the super Joel Schumacher sized kicker, Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3) will be stepping in. Ew, makes you hurt all down deep inside doesn't it? I wonder if he'll cast Richard Pryor just for a little of that Superman III magic. He should have the X-Men make fun of themselves, comment on how stupid superheroics are, that always makes for a good turn in the third outing of any movie. Then again, it might be hard to fuck up, it's still Bryan Singer's cast. And would I rather have Bryan Singer directing this than Superman? Never.
How To Behave When Company Comes Over
So evidently Sandy and I made asses out of ourselves in front of the company last night. We had a couple Public Radio producers from Sweden stop by the studio last night to observe our process. We know how to behave ourselves, but sometimes we forget that other people are around and interrelate the way we do when nobody’s around. We’re not afraid to tell each other what we think, sometimes in the rudest of terms.
So I completed my draft of Episode 55, a day behind schedule. I assumed it needed a lot of work and put a lot of work into it. Sandy works faster, but pays less attention to detail, I’m a detail guy and that annoys Sandy, Sandy says things are “done” whether they are done or not and that annoys me. Deadline’s are more important to Sandy. I’m not Mr. Deadline, I will noodle and mess with my art until far past the deadline, which is why Stephe makes up fake deadlines for the submission of my films, godbless him (although I even fucked that up yesterday, I don’t know why anyone even works with me anymore). So I was supposed to send Sandy a new draft of Ep55 last Friday Morning, I didn’t send it until 9pm, 12 hours late. I didn’t want to send a work in progress only to have the exact thing I didn’t get to receive the comment that it wasn’t good. Plus I had to sleep and go to work, it’s not like I had ALL DAY to work on it.
So we’re going through Episode 55, with our two Swedish friends in attendance, and after going over Act 1, Sandy feels the need to point this out to everyone, that I take too much time on my scripts. He needles me by doing his demeaning impression of me doing my work. Sometimes I can take a joke, sometimes I can’t, I was proud of the draft I turned in, so this was one of the times I couldn’t, I’m normally tightlipped on the shortcomings of my friends, but I let Sandy have it, all my thoughts on the draft he turned in and why it sucked and we just got into a pissing match, right there in front of the Swedes. Back and forth back and forth.
I didn’t think anything of it until it was pointed out later that the Swedes jaws had dropped watching Sandy and I “fight” and that Justin wasn’t engaging in conversation with them, he was actually distracting them. We were arguing and I assumed Justin and Kate were in a conversation with them, I didn’t realize that we had caused it, so Sandy and I kept going because Justin and Kate were busy. Conversing. It was awful and ultimately just an excuse to work less on the Episode.
Ironically, in the end, neither Sandy or I’s contributions to the show last week mattered much, it’s been rewritten again by the group, again by Justin, again by Sandy, again by the group.
It took me 20 minutes to write this. Sandy would’ve done it in five. It would be shorter, but it would be more efficiently done and you, the reader, should respect that.
So I completed my draft of Episode 55, a day behind schedule. I assumed it needed a lot of work and put a lot of work into it. Sandy works faster, but pays less attention to detail, I’m a detail guy and that annoys Sandy, Sandy says things are “done” whether they are done or not and that annoys me. Deadline’s are more important to Sandy. I’m not Mr. Deadline, I will noodle and mess with my art until far past the deadline, which is why Stephe makes up fake deadlines for the submission of my films, godbless him (although I even fucked that up yesterday, I don’t know why anyone even works with me anymore). So I was supposed to send Sandy a new draft of Ep55 last Friday Morning, I didn’t send it until 9pm, 12 hours late. I didn’t want to send a work in progress only to have the exact thing I didn’t get to receive the comment that it wasn’t good. Plus I had to sleep and go to work, it’s not like I had ALL DAY to work on it.
So we’re going through Episode 55, with our two Swedish friends in attendance, and after going over Act 1, Sandy feels the need to point this out to everyone, that I take too much time on my scripts. He needles me by doing his demeaning impression of me doing my work. Sometimes I can take a joke, sometimes I can’t, I was proud of the draft I turned in, so this was one of the times I couldn’t, I’m normally tightlipped on the shortcomings of my friends, but I let Sandy have it, all my thoughts on the draft he turned in and why it sucked and we just got into a pissing match, right there in front of the Swedes. Back and forth back and forth.
I didn’t think anything of it until it was pointed out later that the Swedes jaws had dropped watching Sandy and I “fight” and that Justin wasn’t engaging in conversation with them, he was actually distracting them. We were arguing and I assumed Justin and Kate were in a conversation with them, I didn’t realize that we had caused it, so Sandy and I kept going because Justin and Kate were busy. Conversing. It was awful and ultimately just an excuse to work less on the Episode.
Ironically, in the end, neither Sandy or I’s contributions to the show last week mattered much, it’s been rewritten again by the group, again by Justin, again by Sandy, again by the group.
It took me 20 minutes to write this. Sandy would’ve done it in five. It would be shorter, but it would be more efficiently done and you, the reader, should respect that.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
THE CHILLOUT MOVIE
I'm reinstating the chillout movie. The chillout movie was the movie you popped in every day when you got home from school. From the invention of the VCR through much of college I always had the chillout movie, throughout grade school my friends and I had a contest to see how long you could keep the same chillout movie, through how many successive viewings on successive days. My first chillout movie, and I think many people's was Fletch. Fletch was my chillout movie off and on, and my two different records were ten days straight and eleven days straight. If only I hadn't taken a break that would be my record setting movie, my record setting movie ultimately was Ghostbusters with 21 days straight, number two Lethal Weapon at 15. Breakfast Club is in there somewhere and to this day I can say all the words to the first fifteen minutes of Fletch and Breakfast Club. Ultimately the Ghostbusters record fell when Richard Jones discovered Summer School and clocked in 29 viewings.
Chainsaw? As in “Black & Decker?”
No, as in “Texas Massacre”
The only reason I bring this up is that Stephe, Sandy and I in the wake of Star Wars Episode III have been quoting a lot of Star Wars, but we only ever quote Episodes IV through VI for obvsious reasons. We’re now on a mission to get quotes from Episode I, II, and III into our lexicons. That means making Star Wars Episode I my new chillout movie. And by the way, it’s not as bad as you made it out to be in your mind. As one of our Episode III opening day viewers said: “It’s much more disappointing to thing about than it is to watch.” Plus it’s young Obi-Wan, how bad can it be?
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