Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex had the potential to be one of the coolest films of 2010, the story of a scared bounty hunter with powers to talk to the dead, and a soundtrack written by Metal behemoths Mastodon , a film in which the principle cast of Josh Brolin, John Malkovich and Megan Fox all took pay cuts to appear in the film, a film which Thomas Jane, who voiced Hex in a animated short, wanted so badly he petitioned the studio to give him the live action role, even hiring a make-up artist to give him the Hex look, it had lot stacked in its favour, it had so much potential…
Originally created in 1971 by John Albano and Artist Tony Zuniga for DC Comics Jonah Hex has never been a major player in the comic stakes, despite having a number of successful runs, and as such he's always been held in high regard in geekdom, and given the way any comic worth its ink and staples his eaten up and made into a movie nowadays it was a matter of time before Hex got his turn.
Which brings back to the movie, seamless I know. I think the first issue Hex has is with the director, Jimmy Hayward with his first live action movie, and only his second as a head honcho, the first being Horton hears a Who. Horton was a logical progression , as Hayward started out as an animator on the brilliant kids series Reboot, about the world within a computer. Okay they did that in Tron, but it was still good, and the first 30 minute programme made entirely in CGI.
Hayward also worked at the King Kong of computer animation, Pixar where he worked as an animator on their first five features Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. & Finding Nemo, at which point he defected to the dark side, otherwise known as Blue Sky Studios, who are most famous for the Ice Age films, and it was here Hayward worked on the rather forgettable Robots, anyone, no didn’t think so, and made his directorial debut with the aforementioned Horton.
History lesson over, and back to the point, Hayward shouldn’t have made the jump to live action, animation is clearly where he excels, and Hex looks like a animation, an animation where they couldn’t afford the crayons. The whole time your watching you can’t help but think it. There are two culprits for this cinematic crime, and evidence of both are apparent within the first ten minutes. The film starts with what seems like a ‘previously on Jonah Hex…’ type catch up, much more suited to something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the problem is we’re not catching up on anything, this is our introduction to the world of Jonah Hex. This leads into what is one of the best sequences in the film, an animated comic book title sequence, but this brilliant introduction brings to things with it, the knowledge of how good the film could have been, and the continuing feel of the sci-fi channel. After the catch-up and introduction the pace doesn’t slow down at all, its meant to be fast and exhilarating, but comes of more like a Chav on a joyride rather than formula one, everything just seems like a frantic rush... for a live action film, in an animated one the pace would be fine.
And for someone who supposedly took a pay cut to appear in the film, John Malkovich looks bored, defiantly leaving Con Air’s Cyrus the Virus as his greatest work of villainy.
Lets hope this isn’t going to be the case with all western inspired comic book adapts, because Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) is bring us Cowboys & Aliens this summer and that also has potential....
Which brings back to the movie, seamless I know. I think the first issue Hex has is with the director, Jimmy Hayward with his first live action movie, and only his second as a head honcho, the first being Horton hears a Who. Horton was a logical progression , as Hayward started out as an animator on the brilliant kids series Reboot, about the world within a computer. Okay they did that in Tron, but it was still good, and the first 30 minute programme made entirely in CGI.
History lesson over, and back to the point, Hayward shouldn’t have made the jump to live action, animation is clearly where he excels, and Hex looks like a animation, an animation where they couldn’t afford the crayons. The whole time your watching you can’t help but think it. There are two culprits for this cinematic crime, and evidence of both are apparent within the first ten minutes. The film starts with what seems like a ‘previously on Jonah Hex…’ type catch up, much more suited to something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the problem is we’re not catching up on anything, this is our introduction to the world of Jonah Hex. This leads into what is one of the best sequences in the film, an animated comic book title sequence, but this brilliant introduction brings to things with it, the knowledge of how good the film could have been, and the continuing feel of the sci-fi channel. After the catch-up and introduction the pace doesn’t slow down at all, its meant to be fast and exhilarating, but comes of more like a Chav on a joyride rather than formula one, everything just seems like a frantic rush... for a live action film, in an animated one the pace would be fine.
Lets hope this isn’t going to be the case with all western inspired comic book adapts, because Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) is bring us Cowboys & Aliens this summer and that also has potential....
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
The Nightmares ended!
In 1984 horror maestro Wes Craven created arguably the greatest movie monster ever, in the form of serial-killing slasher Freddy Kruger, first appearing in Nightmare on Elm Street and continued to terrorize over the next ten years through 5 more Elm Street movies.
Then in 1994 Craven flipped the horror concept on its head with New Nightmare, in which Kruger is a fictional movie villain, invading the real world and dreams of the cast and crew that created the ‘Elm street movies, with a number of people including Craven playing themselves. Kruger’s last outing was in the horror cross-over Freddy Vs. Jason, where Kruger faces off against Jason Voorhees, relentless killer of the Friday 13th franchise. A pretty average slasher movie, which to be honest is irrelevant because the only reason you want to watch the film anyway is to see the two icons batter the shit out of one another.
Freddy Vs. Jason was also the 8th and final time Robert Englund would fill the role of Kruger.
Nightmare on Elm streets follows the story of Nancy and her friends, including a young Johnny Depp in his film debut, who's dreams are being invaded by a sinister serial killer, with a hideously burnt and wielding a knife fingered glove, and if he kills you in your dreams you die for real. Kruger targets these particular teenagers as Nancy’s farther among others were responsible for his demise, as part of a lynch mob hunting down and killing him, after it was revealed he was responsible for a number of child murders in the area.
Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror classic, and most of the sequels are pretty good (barring 2 & 6), so when I found out there was going to be a new Elm Street, my interest was interested, but then learned it was to be a re-imagining, remembering that’s exactly what Tim Burton did with Planet of the Apes, at which point my interest become less interested. Later it turned out Englund wouldn’t be reprising the role of Kruger, at which point my interest started staring off into space, wait whats that Jackie Earle Haley a.k.a. Rorschach from Watchmen is playing Kruger, okay now my interest is paying attention.
Frankly my interest should have continued staring into space, perhaps going off to make a brew, and forgetting any notion of this remake/reboot because frankly its absolute bilge. The first problem, of which there is many, with the film is, none of the characters have any personality, bar one who is frankly an asshole, and whom you would happily stab in the face yourself. Played by Thomas Dekker, who corned the market in annoying teenagers in TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This lack of personality means that you couldn’t give a severed head who lives or dies, secretly hoping Freddy rips them all into confetti and you can wake up from this nightmare early.
The second , and biggest travesty is they’ve managed to suck the soul out of Kruger, peeling away all trace of a personality, turning him into little more than a Scooby Doo villain, and he looks rubbish too, apparently hes been made to look more like an actual burns victim, but looks more like he’s wearing a leatherface mask. I've seen scarier pictures of Michael Jackson.
Thirdly he’s been turned from a wicked child killer with no motive other than he’s twisted evil in a jumper, into a child molester, allegedly this was closer to Craven’s original vision for the character, but it turns him from Hitler into Gary Glitter, yeah he’s sick, but not evil, and thereby not nearly as scary.
And for me the nail in the coffin, and its probably something that most people probably won’t pick up on, but I did and it wound me up no end, and the moment unfolds like this: Nancy and her potential new boyfriend, head into a basement and Nancy picks up a lantern, why there would be a lantern down there to start with is beside the point, she turns to PB (Potential Boyfriend) and asks for his lighter. Why would he have a lighter on him, when not once have we seen him smoke!! It wasn’t even a case of ‘oh look a lantern, if only we had something to light it’ ‘that’s okay I’ve got a lighter in my pocket’ no she just demands the light from PB. Never smoked!!!!
Yet again Hollywood desire to remake anything that was ever any good, as exceeded them once again., in this vein attempt to resurrect Freddy, they wanted to ’elm street movie aimed at today’s audience they could have just adapted A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealer by Jeffrey Thomas, a Elm street story set the modern day, but still in the world of the original films.
My interest has left, learnt to juggle, joined the circus and travels the world as The Great Intresto.
Then in 1994 Craven flipped the horror concept on its head with New Nightmare, in which Kruger is a fictional movie villain, invading the real world and dreams of the cast and crew that created the ‘Elm street movies, with a number of people including Craven playing themselves. Kruger’s last outing was in the horror cross-over Freddy Vs. Jason, where Kruger faces off against Jason Voorhees, relentless killer of the Friday 13th franchise. A pretty average slasher movie, which to be honest is irrelevant because the only reason you want to watch the film anyway is to see the two icons batter the shit out of one another.
Freddy Vs. Jason was also the 8th and final time Robert Englund would fill the role of Kruger.
Frankly my interest should have continued staring into space, perhaps going off to make a brew, and forgetting any notion of this remake/reboot because frankly its absolute bilge. The first problem, of which there is many, with the film is, none of the characters have any personality, bar one who is frankly an asshole, and whom you would happily stab in the face yourself. Played by Thomas Dekker, who corned the market in annoying teenagers in TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This lack of personality means that you couldn’t give a severed head who lives or dies, secretly hoping Freddy rips them all into confetti and you can wake up from this nightmare early.
Thirdly he’s been turned from a wicked child killer with no motive other than he’s twisted evil in a jumper, into a child molester, allegedly this was closer to Craven’s original vision for the character, but it turns him from Hitler into Gary Glitter, yeah he’s sick, but not evil, and thereby not nearly as scary.
And for me the nail in the coffin, and its probably something that most people probably won’t pick up on, but I did and it wound me up no end, and the moment unfolds like this: Nancy and her potential new boyfriend, head into a basement and Nancy picks up a lantern, why there would be a lantern down there to start with is beside the point, she turns to PB (Potential Boyfriend) and asks for his lighter. Why would he have a lighter on him, when not once have we seen him smoke!! It wasn’t even a case of ‘oh look a lantern, if only we had something to light it’ ‘that’s okay I’ve got a lighter in my pocket’ no she just demands the light from PB. Never smoked!!!!
Yet again Hollywood desire to remake anything that was ever any good, as exceeded them once again., in this vein attempt to resurrect Freddy, they wanted to ’elm street movie aimed at today’s audience they could have just adapted A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealer by Jeffrey Thomas, a Elm street story set the modern day, but still in the world of the original films.
My interest has left, learnt to juggle, joined the circus and travels the world as The Great Intresto.
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