Tag: Movie

Intruders: An Interview with Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

by Allisonnnnn

You should probably read the review of this movie first, if you want this to make any sense.  I mean, do what you want, but that’s my advice.

A:  You were speaking briefly about the idea of emotional inheritance in the movie earlier.  I was hoping if you could speak a little more about that.

JC: This movie comes from some investigation of something that I felt when I was a kid when I was having my first nightmares and, not at that time—later on, I realized that part of the nightmares I had had at that time were connected and related with some secrets of my family, things that my parents didn’t tell me.  But those secrets were living with us and, because when you’re a kid you’re completely sensitive and picking up on so many things from your parents… well, they were trying to hide those things from me and I think it was a mistake to do that.  I understand why they did it—because they were trying to protect me from the ugly truth, but the reality is that I think when you do that to your kids, they create something worse than the truth.  So this movie is about that, how sometimes secrets become a monster and how sometimes your fears are inherited from your family, and then the fear becomes a legacy.   That’s something that really drives me crazy on many levels and I felt that it was important to share that idea with the audience through this particular story.

A:  Then movie was inspired by you reflecting on your childhood?

JC:  Yes.  I was working with the screenwriters, trying to create a kind of structure with the characters and in every single sequence I was trying to track those emotions from the past and try to use them as an inspiration for the movie.  And I can tell you that the character of Juan, the Spanish boy, was a reflection of my feelings at that age because I knew that there was something strange in my house as a child and, in the movie, I used the fantasy of a boy writing a story as a sort of running away from that strange feeling which I think really shows that emotional part of myself.

A: Juan’s story also allows the creation of a monster that can be defeated, as opposed to a secret hovering around the house.  It gives a definition and a shape, something that you can combat that your parents can protect you from instead of something that your parents are creating for you.

JC:  That’s a theme in the movie for sure.

A: So, you said you had nightmares when you were young.  In the movie, the two children’s parents deal with their offspring’s nightmares in very different ways.  How did your parents deal with your nightmares? Were they frightened of them because it was like having their secrets come out, or were they dismissive?

JC:  I remember them being dismissive and, yes, part of the movie is based on that attitude.  But I’m not blaming my parents for handling it in that way, it was something that they did because they wanted to survive in a very difficult environment.  But it was, for me, a very strange thing to grow up with that lack of truth.

A:  So this movie is really addressing things for you?

JC:  Yes, absolutely.

A:  When did you realize that the nightmares you were having were connected to things going on behind the scenes with your family?

JC:  I do therapy, and there was one session with my psychiatrist where we were talking about a nightmare that I had had.  He had me imagine that I was waking up in the middle of the night and that there was somebody in my bedroom.  Then my psychiatrist told me to go and face that person, so I stood up and started walking towards the person hiding in the corner and then he asked me, “Who is that guy?” I remember seeing the face for a second in my mind and it was me, it was me in the corner and I had the revelation: “Oh my god, it’s me— I’m my own ghost,” which I completely believe.  Sometimes your nightmares and your dark side are connected, meaning that your dark side is you and your own problems.  That boy in the corner wasn’t a ghost, he was a very scared boy trying to tell me that the problem, the fear I was experiencing, was connected with something else—the things I felt when I was a kid.

A:  If you were your own nightmare, where did you get the inspiration for the Hollow Face character?

JC:  The concept of mystery in the movie gives the emotional drive to the story.  When we were thinking about the creation of an unique and special monster that would support that drive, the idea about the monster looking for his identity was something I felt was new and fresh and supported of that theme of mystery in a very visual way.  Who is this monster?  Why don’t we see his face?  And it was the perfect reflection of logic and emotional drive for the main characters to want to know who he is.  A monster without a face—if you want to defeat him, you have to see his face, you have to find the identity of this monster.

A: When I was watching it, the end actually made me feel really sad for Hollow Face.  Was there any sort of backstory for that character?

JC: In the first version of the screenplay, we had a much longer version of the background, but finally we decided to compress it to make the ending more clear and understandable. I think, as an audience member myself, that we didn’t need more than those basics to understand the story.  I really believe that if you put some small element into a movie, the audience will imagine the rest of the story.  I really love those types of movies, the way they use elements and details that makes one feel that the movie has become a mirror that the viewer reflects themselves in to think about their own stories.  So when we don’t develop certain things, we try to clearly play a note, a single note, and hopefully that note has a kind of a resonance in the audience’s mind and they build the rest of the story.  So that was intentional with the monster.

A:  Were there a lot of other scenes were cut from the movie?

JC:  In this structure, which is very back and forth and jumpy, I would say not too many scenes were cut, but there are several sequences cut that I hope you will enjoy on the DVD.  These were scenes that I thought “Yes, I would love to see that in the movie!” but finally decided not to keep them.  As we polished the story, we cut some of the English scenes out because the balance of the English story and the Spanish one needed to be equal, more or less, and some of the English scenes didn’t connect so well with the Spanish story at times.  And it’s funny, because when you’re reading the screenplay, you don’t notice, you think that everything flows so well.  Then when you watch it on the screen, you realize that you can screw up so many things that you didn’t even think of and, yes, it was one of the things that I didn’t understand when I was collaborating with the writers to produce the screenplay, that the balance of the two stories needs to be about equal.  And it was a pity because we had to pull stuff out of the movie—really good stuff, but I know the movie was better once we simplified the story.

A: So was cutting those scenes upsetting for you?

JC: W when you cut, it’s a moment of suffering, but then when I watched the whole movie without those pieces, I was happier because I saw how much better everything is when it’s clean and simple.

A: Were there going to be any different endings, or did you always know that the very last scene was going to be there?

JC:  I think from the very beginning, the concept of revealing the story in this kind of fable-like tone was clear to me.  Especially because the movie is about an unfinished story which is why, in the end, the father has to finish the story, and that was part of the concept from the very beginning.  In the process of the development, we went through different ways of doing the ending, but finally we ended up with the one you saw, which is like an exorcism almost, and a very cathartic way to end the film.

 

Intruders opens in theaters on March 30, 2012.

SXSW 2012 Interview: Mike Birbiglia

by Brent Moore

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a roundtable interview with Mike Birbiglia to discuss his new film, Sleepwalk With Me. Sleepwalk is the latest, and perhaps final, version of a story Mike has been telling for years. You may have seen his one man show, or heard it in his stand up act, or heard it on This American Life, or maybe you read his book.

It’s a testament to his storytelling ability that it has managed to survive all these iterations and continues to garner interest.

The film is surprisingly sure footed for a first time director and the power of the tale has not diminished in the retelling. Mike’s unique voice shines through despite the more collaborative nature of film.

The interview is shown in full below. The questions have been paraphrased.

How did you decide that you wanted to make this a film, and how did you decide to direct:

No one else was available for the amount of money we had. For any of the positions. For all the positions. I took as many positions as I could. As much as that’s a joke, it’s also very true.

There’s a lot of questions in that.

How did we decide to make it a film? I guess that’s the first question. I’ve wanted to make a film since I was 18 years old. I directed shorts in college but I found it to be prohibitively expensive. It’s a money pit, making films. We have stacks of master tapes in our closets and our parents’ basement of films that aren’t done, shorts that aren’t done, and will never be done. That’s discouraging. I veered towards standup comedy around that time because there’s no overhead. I was able to perform my writing and I was able over time to sculpt my writing from something that was kind of short and joke based into something that had more of an arc to it. Just on stage with no cost, really. Film is so expensive, and its really because I’ve built up enough of an audience over the years that someone was willing to take a chance on financing my vision for a film. It’s the very rare company that’s willing to do that.

How has the story evolved over the re-tellings and does this feel like the final stamp on it:

No, I think this is the final stamp. Unless we make Sleepwalk 2. 2 Sleepy. 2 Sleepy 2 Furious. Or Sleepwalk 3D, of course. And the video game, obviously. And the line of pizzas. Pizzas and pizza pillows are of course on the way.

No, I think it’s the final one. It was definitely the hardest. Writing a book is hard, making a movie is unimaginable.

Does the line between reality and story get blurred the more you tell the story:

My life doesn’t have cinematography that good. The color palette in my real life isn’t that interesting. The clothes are better in the movie. I’m not nearly so fashionable.

No, that’s a really interesting question. Everytime I see it, and I watched it last night again, I shudder during the jumping through the window scene. It really makes me cringe, and fortunately the audience as well. There’s a little bit of blurring, but at the same time there’s so many decisions that go into every frame of the film that you just know so well how you got there. I feel like that actually kind of solidifies it. One of the things that struck me when I watched it last night was that we shot it so recently. We shot the movie in August, we wrapped in September, we edited it in October, November, and December. We got into Sundance with a cut of it and now we’re here. So it’s really recent, to the point that I remember the takes. I remember the takes that are on the screen. I don’t think a lot of filmmakers have that. I thinks is all kind of a blur because it was so long ago and they went through so many things. That final scene where I’m talking to the camera and I say I went to visit Abby and she said I didn’t want to hurt you, I remember that take. I remember the parking problems we had. When I pulled in we had to keep going around the block and in that take, I remember driving and remember seeing that there was an intern that had an orange cone and he was running away so I was trying to slow down so he wouldn’t be in the frame. So I’m directing and acting in my head all at the same time. I remember that like it was yesterday and I’m watching it on screen and thinking ‘This is forever’. This memory that I have is as real as going to CVS and picking up a toothbrush. It’s immortalized and that’s such a weird feeling.

Comedy these days is more personal, is your film part of that tradition:

I’ve been doing it for a while. It’s really just an extension of what I’ve been doing. I love Larry David and Louis CK’s work. I think what they’re doing is great. I’d like to think that we’re part of a comedy movement right now that’s moving away from observational comedy into something more personal and real. It’s just one person’s opinion, but it’s what I prefer because I feel it has more heart to it. It has more teeth. I feel like it’s a response to what was the Seinfeldian era or comedy, which was observational to a point of brilliance. Seinfeld did it so well and there were so many mimeographs of that style. At a certain point those mimeographs became so boring. Not only do you see it in stand up comedy, you see it in TV commercials. That’s kind of the ultimate way that you know when something is done. If it’s in a TV commercial, it’s over. I feel like observational comedy is a little bit over right now.

I interviewed Marc Maron on his podcast, and I asked him a question John Mulaney and I had come up with together. ‘What is edgy in an era where nothing is edgy anymore? In an era when everything seems to have been done or said?’ And Marc said being honest. It’s always hard to do. It’s always hard to be honest with an audience, because you’re taking a risk. You’re taking a risk of the audience not liking you. He said, and it’s not paraphrasing, people think it’s edgy to get up and say ‘cunt’ or ‘I fucked your cousin’ or whatever thing that raises peoples tether that are over 60 and are uncomfortable with words. But it’s actually more difficult to just get up and tell your story, and tell it honestly, and admit that you’re kind of wrong about things in a way that’s entertaining. And chances are those first few drafts of that are not entertaining.

And of course this period of comedy will also become watered down and mimeographed and it will become a Doritos commercial and it will be over. We’ll have to figure out some other form of comedy, but for now I think there’s a lot of really great examples like Doug Stanhope and Louis CK.

How did you find your voice as a director, there are some tracking shots that are impressive for a first time director (Mike Birbiglia requested we add this preface – This is a boring answer unless you already love the movie. If you love the movie, this is your question. If not, then don’t read further into this self-indulgent bullshit):

That was actually a funny day when we shot that, because our cinematographer just goes ‘We’re not shooting that’. We had scouted it and we had photo storyboarded the whole film. Our cinematographer was this brilliant guy, Adam Beckman, who had shot This American Life the TV series. Very meticulous, really brilliant. Understanding of light and color. Very meticulous. We had scouted that shot, came up with that shot and we were psyched when we came up with it. The more we thought about it we were like ‘This is going to be awesome’ because it’s going to get across the fact that he’s going to be on the second floor without telling the audience he’s on the second floor.

It’s interesting because it’s telling the story that he’s exhausted, he’s getting pressure from his parents, and he’s on the second floor. So when you come out of the dream your kind of know that in the back of your mind. So we thought it was a really interesting device and we were really excited about it. But then when it came to shooting on the day, the logistics of that shot were so hard. This was a low budget film. We didn’t have the time or resources to shoot that shot.

There’s a moment in that that we actually came up with on the day which is, on the elevator, the guy who is in the towel was a PA on the film. We got on the elevator and realized nothing happens on the elevator. I’m just on the phone. Elevators are boring. We hadn’t accounted for that. So it was me and Jacob and Seth going, ‘Well, what can happen on the elevator?’ I think it was Jacob who said ‘What if there is a guy going to the pool?” So I just said to James ‘Just keep talking to me, just keep trying to talk to me and I’ll blow you off and in ADR we’ll figure out how to choreograph the phone conversation with whatever we improvise.’ So in post we had Carol Kane come in and we did this really involved… basically the other side of that scene, audio wise. It was really time intensive to figure out the choreography of the phone call and that walk at the same time.

That was a really boring answer that is only for people who just love the movie. If you don’t love the movie don’t read this answer. You need a preface to that question. If you love this movie then this is your question, if not, do not read any further into this self indulgent bullshit.

When did you know you had a story worth telling:

The first time I told the actual sleepwalking and jumping out of the window story was at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, Canada. I had told it on the road, I was on this Comedy Central Live tour and I had come out with an album called Two Drink Mike and I found that for the first time in my career I showed up to places and people knew my jokes. So I couldn’t tell those jokes anymore. Comedy is not like music, once you’ve heard it you’ve heard it. You’re done. So people were kind of like ‘Alright, what else?’

I had been developing this one man show, Sleepwalk With Me, so I just started telling the stories from the show. I had written them never imagining that they’d be in standup. That was good but I had never done it in front of my peers in the industry at a festival. That’s a whole different thing. At The Just For Laughs festival is this show called Confessing It where you just tell a story you’ve never told in front of people. I told this story and it just killed in this way that was getting monstrous laughs and also was really connecting with the audience. It felt emotional. It felt like an emotional connection with the audience. I came offstage and Doug Stanhope said to me ‘Do you tell that story on stage?’ and I said ‘Yeah, I’m trying to.’ He was like ‘Yeah, that’s your thing. You should tell that. That’s great standup.’ That was a big summer for me. That was the moment I felt I was on to something.

There are four credited screenwriters, how did you keep it in your voice:

That’s because those guys didn’t do anything. You heard it here.

No, I appreciate that. Truthfully, there are four credited screenwriters but I have the document on my computer. I have the master document. I’m making sure that every contribution is fitting into a singular voice. That’s always the case when I’m working with collaborators. I’m always taking their suggestions and ideas and joke pitches and filtering them through what I was writing. It was weird. There’s all these weird WGA rules where we couldn’t write Written and Directed by Mike Birbiglia because there were other writers on it and because it was based on a play. I thought it was weird because I always thought it would say Written and Directed by  and then Screenplay by these people. That was kind of disappointing.

It also wasn’t a formal four person collaboration. It was like, I would work with Joe for a day, then I’d work with Seth for a day, then I’d work for a day with Seth and Joe, then I’d work for a day with Seth and Ira or with Joe and Ira. So it was very fluid and the crediting was weird. We didn’t know how to credit it, honestly. We had to talk to the WGA people and be like ‘How does this work?’ I was like ‘Here’s what happened.’

SXSW 2012 Review: The Raid

by Brent Moore

The action movie genre has been stagnant for quite some time. Sure, we get plenty of “action” movies full of posturing and special effects, but films like Taken or The Losers are lazy, sad excuses for action. We’re far from the golden days of Jackie Chan and John Woo, left with only the occasional Tony Jaa or Jason Statham movie to sate our appetite. Nothing makes this lack of quality more apparent than a movie like The Raid.

The Raid drops like an atomic bomb on the genre, completely destroying the competition. It’s simple and to the point. This is a movie about shooting and punching, and how cool those things are. We don’t get special effects laden video game cutscenes that lack any real thrill. We get real stuntmen doing real stunts, and doing them with an intensity and inventiveness that I haven’t seen since Jackie Chan was in his prime. You’ll absolutely see things here that will make you want to stand up and cheer.

One of the best things about the raid is how direct it is. The plot synopsis is the whole plot. Police officers need to “raid” a criminal owned apartment building. The movie starts as they begin the raid, and ends when the raid is over. There is no build-up, no bullshit. This is nearly two hours of non-stop action.

There is also a fun transition from a guns and explosions film to a martial arts film. The first half of The Raid is all intense firefights and has a frantic warzone feel. As the numbers and ammunition dwindle though, we start getting into the incredible hand to hand fights, all building up to one of the best fights ever committed to screen.

Most of these martial arts displays are courtesy of Iko Uwais, a new face to the action scene and the most exciting thing since Tony Jaa. Unlike Jaa, however, Uwais actually has charisma. You like the guy as a character, not just as a stunt machine.

Uwais is pitted against some of the best villains in recent memory. The main crime lord has a wonderful easy-going confidence with just the right amount of sleaze, and his diminutive henchman proves to be an equal match to Uwais’ fighting skills.

If I was forced to find fault here, I would say that the action peaks a bit too early. While the last half hour or so is a nonstop brawl, the individual moments within fights become less memorable as time goes on. You could also criticize the lack of depth in both the characters and the story, but that would be stupid. Character and depth are not why you are here. You get just enough to know who you are supporting and to possibly care about them enough that you’d want to see what happens in the sequel, of which two are planned.

If director Gareth Evans, who also directed Uwais in the film Merantau, can keep up the same level of insane action for the entire Raid trilogy, action fans have something to be very excited for indeed.

SXSW 2012 Review: Sinister

by Brent Moore

Every year at SXSW there is at least one “secret screening” which becomes a main topic of conversation for all festival goers.The debate and anticipation over what will be shown is almost always more enjoyable than what you end up getting. This year the exciting, and entirely improbable, rumor was that, since Joss Whedon was in town for Cabin in the Woods, we’d be getting The Avengers. People always seem to shoot for the stars with these predictions, even though history has shown that tentpole films NEVER show up in these slots.

This rumor was crushed early, however, as it was leaked that we’d be getting Sinister, an upcoming horror movie from local Aint It Cool critic C. Robert “Massawyrm” Cargill and Exorcism of Emily Rose director Scott Derrickson. So as delusional comic book fans shuffled away to other screenings or cheap drinks, I got in line to see if this critic turned screenwriter could add something new to the haunted house horror genre.

He could not.

Sinister tells the tale of a true crime author, played by Ethan Hawke, chasing the success of one of his early books, a success he’s been unable to repeat. He latches onto a new case of a bizarre family suicide and decides to make that the topic of his next book. He also decides the best way to get a feel for the crime is to move his family, unbeknownst to them, into the house where the event occurred. You can probably take it from here.

The problem with Sinister is not that it’s a bad movie, it’s really not. It’s just exactly what you’d expect from this kind of thing. The scares are telegraphed. The glossy filmmaking takes away from any visceral thrills. The supernatural villain is a bit silly. It’s just unmemorable in every way.

There is potential here for something truly unique and haunting, which makes the blandness all the more disappointing. The opening scene is truly unsettling and promises a different movie than the one you get. The opening shows a super 8 film of the suicide that is to become the subject of our leads next book. It’s shown in full and with minimal music or sound other than the clicking film reel. The method of suicide is different than anything I’ve seen before and I was really hoping that I was in for something not quite like anything I’ve seen before.

These super 8 films, more of which are discovered in the house, play a big role in the film and are all equally unsettling and shown in full. These are easily the best moments of the movie. They add an injection of style and horror that’s absent from the rest of the film, although their impact is lessened as the filmmakers decide to replace the unnerving silence with overwrought music.

The performances are solid and the personal drama of a writer so desperate to re-attain fame and glory that he endangers his family is actually well done. All the elements for something great are here, but they are just used as window dressing.

If you don’t mind the familiar formula and are just looking for an unchallenging horror flick to watch on Netflix with your girlfriend, you could certainly do worse than Sinister. It’s just hard not to pine for the movie it could have been.

SXSW 2012 Review: Cabin in the Woods

by Brent Moore

It was more than two years ago that I first thought I would get a chance to see Cabin in the Woods. The film, shot in 2009, was rumored to be a secret screening at Fantastic Fest here in Austin. They were even handing out posters, each with phrase poking fun at horror tropes. “If you hear a loud noise outside….have sex.”

Alas, the rumors proved false, but the movie was supposed to come out in a few months anyway. Then MGM went bankrupt and Cabin in the Woods was shelved. A tough blow for the movie, and for the legion of Joss Whedon fans excited to see him and his crew take another shot at a feature length movie. Cut to this past weekend, two years later, where Cabin opened SXSW to near universal praise. I’d say it was worth the wait.

It’s tough to talk about the movie since much of the joy lies in the surprise. The less you know, the better. Unfortunately, the initial trailer, which I managed not to see until after viewing the movie, already gives away slightly too much. I’ll just say that Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard take your standard horror set up of a small group of college kids taking an ill advised vacation to the backwoods, and then proceed to deconstruct and then expand that into something jaw droppingly awesome.

The deconstruction is fun but, despite a unique premise, isn’t something particularly new. Ever since Scream this kind of meta commentary has become commonplace and audiences are well aware of the cliches. The recounting of horror movie rules doesn’t have the same effect as it did a decade ago. Just recently, movies like Behind the Mask and Tucker and Dale have found equally unique ways to cover the same ground. So while that bit is enjoyable, if that’s all Cabin was it wouldn’t have made much of an impact. The expansion, however, is spectacular. Just when you think you know what the movie is, it turns to something else and rides a geek adrenaline high all the way till the end.

Joss and Drew, writer of Cloverfield and many Buffy/Angel episodes, are masters at creating “the moment”. The build up and pay off of set pieces are absolutely perfect. It’s musical in the way everything flows together and builds to a climax. This is a movie where they somehow made the ‘ding’ of an arriving elevator one of the most exciting things you’ve ever seen. It’s impressive.

The cast is a mix of Whedon regulars and new faces, and maybe a surprise appearance or two. Kristin Connolly is perfectly charming and sympathetic as the ‘virgin’ lead. Chris “Thor” Hemsworth takes a backseat in this pre-fame ‘jock’ role and it’s interesting to see him play a college kid after larger than life turns as a god and Kirk’s dad. Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are wonderful and provide the films biggest laughs. The only performance I had an issue with was from Dollhouse co-star Fran Kranz. Fran is the ‘stoner’ of our stereotypical group and is given some of the best lines, but he overplays the “I’m so high, man” thing and is never believable. This is particularly unfortunate since his character is essentially the audience surrogate. He’s the one who speaks for us, just in a silly voice.

Even Kranz is redeemed by the films incredible climax, though. It’s something that must be seen, preferably with a group of like minded friends. It’s a fist pumping, spontaneous clapping, holy shit celebration. During the Q&A, an audience member asked the crew if they knew they were making the last horror movie ever. In some ways that feels accurate, as this takes the genre and blows it sky high. It’ll be interesting to see what future filmmakers make from the rubble.

The Geekscape Staff Roundtable: Our Favorite Movie Soundtracks

by GeekscapeStaff

Movie soundtracks. They’re the soundtrack to our lives… so for this week’s roundtable, we checked in with our writing staff to find out what their lives ideally sounded like.

Eric Diaz

What it sounds like when doves cry…

In my opinion, Prince’s soundtrack to his 1984 movie Purple Rain isn’t just the greatest movie soundtrack of all time, it is one of the greatest albums of all time, period. I admit, the movie itself is fairly terrible overall, but remains totally watchable today as a kind of pop culture/ fashion time capsule. Not to mention, about 50% of the movie is on stage performances from Prince and others, and that helps A LOT. But the album is another story all together: from the spoken word opening of Let’s Go Crazy (“Dearly Beloved…”) to the final fading melancholy strings of the title track, all nine songs on this album are pure pop perfection. Spawning four top ten hits and two number ones (“Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry”) Purple Rain showcases Prince and the Revolution at the very peak of their musical powers.

Back in 1984/85, everything associated with this soundtrack turned into radio gold. It didn’t even matter if the songs from the album were even released as singles, many got massive radio play just the same. Even Erotic City, the B-Side to Let’s Go Crazy, got significant play. The two songs performed by Morris Day & the Time included in the movie became hits, as did Apollonia’s Sex Shooter, and none of these were even considered good enough by His Royal Badness to actually include on the actual final album release. While many consider Prince’s 1987 double album Sign O’ the Times to be his crowning achievement, the truth is there are still a couple of filler tracks on there. Purple Rain however, is lean mean perfection from start to finish. Over the past twenty eight years, I’ve owned it on vinyl, cassette, CD, mp3 and will probably have it directly downloaded straight into my brain one day.

Random Trivia: Track #5, Darling Nikki, was considered so obscene that it caused Tipper Gore to form the Parents Music Resource Center which is why you have all those annoying black and white Parental Advisory labels on your albums today.

Ben Dunn

When his mind’s made up…

One of the best soundtracks that comes to mind for me is from the little indie that could, Once. The movie is billed as a modern-day musical, but it’s not the traditional type with the characters breaking spontaneously into song. Instead you characters that are actually musicians trying to create music together. And boy does it ever do its job. The feelings that are expressed in the lilt of Glen Hansard’s voice and the way it mingles with Marketa Irgolva’s is heart breaking. Listen to the main theme or “Falling Slowly” and if it does not move you I would definitely go to the doctor and check to see if you have a heart.

Matt Kelly

Stands outside and yells at the rain…

Over the years Garden State has become the go-to joke for ‘Hipster movie’ and ‘Indie by Numbers’, but for me it’s always been an important movie. It reflected my post-high school, pre-college worried and concerns and became a huge comfort to me. The soundtrack is no different. Each song is so lovingly picked for each sequence. They all fit in the context of the scenes and flow beautifully on the album. My favorite track is the somber I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You by Colin Hay. I’d never heard of him before this album but the song made me go out and purchase more of his music and he’s now one of my favorite artists of all time. Whenever I’ve had a rough day I can still put on the Garden State Soundtrack and relax.

Molly Mahan

Understands who makes the rockin’ world go round…

When it comes to best film soundtracks THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. With original music (and a few covers) by Queen, Highlander is the clear winner. It has no rival. No other collection of sound can be its equal: 26 years have passed since it was given to us and it is still the future of sound. From the epic “Princes of the Universe” (later used as the opening theme to the TV show) to the somber power ballad “Who Wants to Live Forever?” (Which I plan to have play at my funeral), the Highlander soundtrack is rife with music for any occasion and it’s bound to make your day better.

It also shows what kind of lasting power a soundtrack can have on a film. I mean, seriously, without music written and performed by Mercury, Taylor and May, where would Highlander be? The soundtrack is so blindingly amazing that not only does it make me forget the horrible experience that is the film proper, but I will rewatch it constantly and proclaim it as one of the greatest movies of all time. It’s just amazing. Not to mention that hearing Freddie Mercury halfhearted cry of “Bring on the girls!” makes me smile every time I hear it. It truly is A KIND OF MAGIC. So, GIMME A PRIZE, my fellow Geekscapists, as I do my best Kanye impersonation and proudly state that I’m gonna let you finish, but Highlander’s soundtrack is the greatest soundtrack of all time!

Shane O’Hare

Loves this Monday to Friday soundtrack…

Snakes on a Plane gets my vote for BEST movie soundtrack. It is one of the most odd amalgamations of music I have ever heard. The opening track is a scary, snakey sounding piece written by Trevor Rabin of YES fame. And then things get odd.

The main hit single by Cobra Starship, Snakes on a Plane (Bring It) was my ringtone all throughout my Junior year. It has a freakishly fabulous guitar riff and the best line in musical history ever: “We got a free upgrade for snakes on a plane/Fuck ’em, I don’t care.” Next, we have not one but THREE remixes by Tommie Sunshine of popular 2006 radio hits from Panic at the Disco, Fall Out Boy and The Hush Sound.

Then the Teddybear Remix of The Academy Is takes the mediocre existence of that band and elevates it to next level status. Then out of literally Nowherevilles, a township of Leftfield County, Cee-Lo Green drops an original track about the fear of snakes aptly called Ophidiophobia which includes a chorus only Cee-Lo could sing: “Send me an angel, an angel/No sign of the times, instead I’ll take it to mean I’m a stranger, to danger/But I’m scared ’cause I swore I saw a snake on a plane”.

SOAP soundtrack is HANDS DOWN the best movie OST on the planet. Feature epic original tracks, crazy ass remixes and epic genre flip flopping. Where else are you going to hear “Final Snakes” by Shranky Drank? HMMM? WHERE?

Noel Nocciolo

Still trying to make ‘fetch’ happen…

Clueless is the blueprint, in motion-picture soundtrack-form, for my music schizophrenia. Not only is “Clueless” one of my favorite movies from the 1990s, the soundtrack was my jam…and sort of still is.

The soundtrack, like the movie, begins with The Muffs’ straight-forward, solid version of Kim Wilde’s 1981 hit, “Kids In America,” a fine thesis in which to introduce Cher Horowitz.

Much like what I constantly have on current rotation in my headphones, this soundtrack is all over the place. And yet somehow it works. There are gorgeous acoustic versions of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” and Counting Crows’ cover of The Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You,” and randomness from the Beastie Boys and Coolio. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones make an appearance in the movie as themselves, playing two songs at a frat party; one is on the soundtrack. My favorite track, which I think holds the most water in current times with regards to the evolution of what we (probably) now call “indie-rock” is “Alright” by Brit-pop group, Supergrass. I find myself listening to that cut about once a week.

The first day of classes at Fordham University, I met Rachel, whom I still count as one of my closest friends. Soon into our friendship, she told me about this incredible off-Broadway musical that was playing downtown at the Jane Street Theatre, called Hedwig And The Angry Inch, and that we must pick a night to go see it, as soon as humanly possible, because it was going to change my life.

We went, and she was right. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen on a stage. It was sort of a rock show; there was a multi-media component with the stage, but it was a play with a beginning, middle and an end. I was seventeen and a freshman in college in the biggest theatre-city in the United States, from a small town…and it blew my mind. It resonated for me in a way nothing had ever and nothing has ever since.

“Hedwig” was made into a feature film that I enjoyed immensely, but nothing duplicates the eccentric electricity of seeing it on stage. Beautifully, it forces empathy for sad, passionate and brilliant Hedwig, who is (partially) transgendered and searching for a place in a society that doesn’t quite know what to do with her. Both the movie soundtrack and the original cast recording are really incredible.

Joe Starr

One shall stand, one shall fall…

On behalf of geeks everywhere, I’d like to apologize to our readers that no one has given the correct answer to this discussion yet: TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. No Michael Bay to be found here: it is the year 2005 and the treacherous Decepticons have conquered the Autobot’s home planet of Cybertron. But, from secret staging grounds on two of Cybertron’s moons the valiant Autobots plan to take back their homeland. And they plan to do so with the POWER OF STAN BUSH.

The album kicks off the most inspirational song ever written, The Touch, followed by the Ironhide killing Instruments of Destruction (this soundtrack kicking everyone’s ass was almost too easy, mighty Megatron!). All true movie soundtracks should be judged by the movie version of their theme song, and Lion’s version of Transformers is more than meets your eyes. And your face. And your god damn soul. Do you need more lifting up? The second most inspirational song ever written, Stan Bush’s Dare is be your hero. It will hold you up when you’re feeling down. It will make you smile in times of darkness. It will pull a triplechanger’s cannon out of the way so that you can avoid a swift death outside of Autobot City when you’re outside of Autobot City facing a swift death at the hands of a triplechanger. All of this plus Weird Al and Vince DiCola’s score makes the rock of this soundtrack stronger than unleashing the power of the Matrix. Also, I like Transformers.

Edgar Wright to Helm Johnny Depp’s The Night Stalker

by Gilmore

In what promises to be the highest grossing Edgar Wright (and lowest grossing Johnny Depp) movie of all time, Disney is remaking the 1970s TV hit The Night Stalker into a feature film.

The original TV movie/series was about a Chicago newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak (played by Darren McGaven), who investigates unsolved mysteries and crimes that end up having been perpetrated with vampires, werewolves, aliens and other supernatural beings, which is why it makes sense that Disney wants it. They’re getting it cheap/easy because it used to be an ABC show, so it makes sense and everyone’s happy.

According to Deadline, Edgar Wright is set to direct the feature and has agreed (but has not yet been confirmed) to helm the entire project, meaning he’ll get to write it as well since they haven’t hired anyone to do that yet.

The entire project was originally Depp’s idea, and with Edgar Wright’s whimsical directing style and amazing grasp of the best parts of sci-fi, fantasy and the supernatural, this movie should actually be watchable. And hey, maybe it’ll lead to another awesome franchise so that Disney can keep Johnny Depp locked up in a dungeon for another decade.

Johnny Depp is like Disney’s Katie Holmes

It will be a family-friendly, PG-13 film most likely targeted at Disney’s regular wheelhouse of “everybody who doesn’t hate happiness”.

The film has a tentative release of 2014 according to IMDb.

American Teen – The Geekscape Review

by Brent Moore

Ah, High School. That largely insignificant four years that provide a lifetime of emotional abuse. It’s funny that the period of our lives that most of us would just as soon forget is so often revisited in film and literature. Why do we have an interest in watching something we all went through? Something we all survived?

And the answer is right there in the question. We all went through it. There are very few things as universally relatable as the High School experience. Very few subjects that provide such clear archetypes. We all know the Jock, the Nerd, the Outcast, the Popular Girl, the Heartthrob. Basically, we’ve all seen The Breakfast Club.

Well this very familiar story is presented to us again with American Teen, the documentary that made a huge splash at Sundance. I was lucky enough to attend an early screening of the film with a very entertaining Q&A with the main characters afterward.

So, is it worthy of the hype? Kind of.

The movie doesn’t tell you a story that you haven’t seen before. It doesn’t shed light on anything new. It doesn’t have the benefit of a great script. It’s just real kids making their way through their senior year. However, it’s that universal relatability that makes it work. Yes, you already know these characters. Yes, you already know this story. But damn it, you can empathize with these kids. You know exactly how they feel. You want to take them aside and assure them that yes, life does get better.

The movie has been compared to a real life Breakfast Club but that’s not a very good example. Sure they deal with high school and have representatives of high school cliques, but Breakfast Club is about the characters overcoming their prejudices and seeing each other as people. It’s about coming together. American Teen doesn’t do that. It’s concerned with each character’s personal story, there are very few instances of overlap between them. It’s not about people coming together, it’s about them growing up and moving on.

Luckily the chosen kids are all interesting and all have stories to tell. Everyone has some goal to accomplish, there are stakes in each of their lives. For Colin the Jock, it’s to get a basketball scholarship so he doesn’t have to join the military. For Megan the Popular Girl it’s to make it into Notre Dame to keep up the family tradition. For Hannah the Outcast, it’s to find the personal strength to make it on her own and move away. For Jake the Nerd it’s to find love. These dreams are all represented in great little animated sequences that are unique to each character.

The filmmaking is pretty solid with a few exceptions. Sometimes the transitions between stories are abrupt and awkward and there are times when we leave characters alone for entirely too long. There are also a few instances when it feels more like you are watching fiction than watching a movie. Like recreations of reality. I don’t know if that is just due to the kids being uncomfortable on camera, just a trick of editing stories to play out in the most entertaining way, or if they actually did recreate or set up some things.

It’s a problem with any documentary. How much can you trust? How much has the truth been manipulated?

Luckily I had the benefit of seeing the real people after the movie and it was enough that I can say that the movie is a very close approximation of the truth, if not the whole truth. But more importantly, it’s entertaining.

So if you want to take another walk down the halls you swore you would never return to, then this is a good way to do it.

Hellboy 2 – The Geekscape Review

by Jonathan

I’m not that into Hellboy. I think he’s a cool looking character and Mike Mignola’s art is amazing. I think the stories are fun but it’s just a bit on the light side and I could never get too invested in them. I am, however, a huge fan of Guillermo Del Toro. So I was quite excited when the first Hellboy came out. It gave a filmmaker I adored a fun world to play in. The end result came off a bit like the Hellboy comics though. It was fun, it looked cool, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care too much.

Since the release of Hellboy, Guillermo Del Toro has grown immensely as a filmmaker and has proven himself to have one of the most vivid imaginations of any director working today. He has also earned critical acclaim and his name now carries some weight. So it’s a new, more powerful Del Toro who is tackling Hellboy 2, and it shows.

Hellboy 2 is a wild ride through a mad genius’ imagination. Del Toro finally had the freedom to go all out and every inch of the screen is filled with amazing little details. He took Mike Mignola’s world and really made it his own without betraying the source material, and in doing so turned something I only kind of liked into something I loved.

Yes, I loved Hellboy 2. I think it improves on the original in every way. The story is clearer and better told, the action is more spectacular, the visuals are breathtaking, and the characters that matter were front and center. In Hellboy we were forced to view this world through the eyes of a human outsider and as such we were one step removed from everything. This time we are with Hellboy and his crew and we are thoroughly entrenched in their world and it makes us do something we didn’t the first time around. It makes us care.

Luckily we have a good story to care about. The plot of Hellboy 2 is very simple but it’s told in an incredibly strong manner. There is a thing the bad guys want and that the good guys can’t let them have. That thing of course doesn’t really matter. It’s a classic MacGuffin that just serves as an excuse to get our characters moving. We aren’t buried under boring exposition. The real meat of the movie is with the characters and their relationships. Everyone gets screen time here and their characters are very clearly and strongly defined. We watch as Hellboy deals with doubt over his place in the world, as Liz deals with fear over the future of her family, as Abe deals with an impossible romance. We also get a villain who isn’t just “evil”. He’s not a cardboard cutout. He has depth and he has purpose and he is sympathetic, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Character and plot are all well and good, but the real star of the show here is the art design and makeup work. There are very few humans in this movie but there are tons of monsters and they all exist. What I mean by that is these aren’t empty CG shells. This isn’t one character design repeated ad naseum in a computer. These are wall to wall crazy creatures made with practical effects and makeup. They have personality, they have life, and it’s absolutely wonderful to watch. That’s not to say there isn’t any CG but it is used sparingly, and it is used to enhance rather than replace.

I was really taken aback by all of the different character designs on display here. It’s either an effects department’s wet dream or worst nightmare. The Troll Market scene in particular steals the show and has been getting a lot of comparisons to the Cantina scene in Star Wars. For my money this outdoes Star Wars by a large margin.

Makeup can only go so far without a skilled actor making it move and all the major players bring their A game here. Perlman IS Hellboy. He is so comfortable in the role and completely makes you forget that there is a nearly 60 year old human in there. Doug Jones finally gets to use his real voice in a movie and, even though I preferred David Hyde Pearce, does an admirable job as Abe Sapien. His true talent lies in his body language though and in this department he is second to none. The big surprise this time around was Seth MacFarlane, of Family Guy fame, as Johann Krauss, the German accented gas… guy. He provides some of the funniest moments in the film and is a very welcome addition.

I feel like I should say something negative about the movie, but there is really very little wrong with it. Kid Hellboy looks kind of stupid. Abe’s relationship with the elf princess seems a bit abrupt and he makes a questionable decision because of it that you don’t quite buy. I’m really having to try to nit pick here.

Point is, the movie is awesome and I’m kind of bummed that The Hobbit is going to keep us from seeing Hellboy 3 for quite some time.

Hancock: The Review

by Gilmore

Few redeeming qualities can be found in this film. Here’s the difficult part: I like Will Smith. Say what you will about whatever summer blockbuster he has brought us in the past few years, but there is no doubt that he is a big name, makes relatively good choices, and is a great actor. We all fell in love with him during his years as our beloved Fresh Prince, but really got to know him as his film career started. Bad Boys made him into a full fledged action star, Independence Day endeared him to audiences all over the world, Ali made him into A-List material, Men in Black entertained us all, and The Pursuit of Happyness made all of us cry. He has excited us, made us laugh, made us cry, and even scared us with I Am Legend. I think he ran out of emotions and went with “anger” and “disappointment” this time around with 2008’s Will Smith summer movie Hancock.

Hancock starts out with a chase scene that drops you right into the action. This is a superhero movie afterall, right? Let’s see this guy fight some crime. We cut to Hancock sleeping on a bus stop bench just like he is in the huge marketing campaign that you no doubt have seen if you have left the house in the last month or so. An eerie looking child wakes him up and points to some televisions and says “Hancock, bad guys”.

Here’s where the film started to lose me: Hancock (Will Smith) takes off (leaving broken pieces pavement in his leave, as he does throughout the film) and destroys what looks like millions of dollars worth of property on the way to stop the criminals on the run. “Move, Bitch” starts playing. That’s right. “Move, Bitch” (“MOVE, BITCH! Get out the way! Get out the way!…”). The tastelessly placed song that ruined the first trailer of this film for me was playing. Songs with such pervasive lyrics tend to take over a scene; and unless you’re intending for the song to be the primary focus and for your audience to take a break from your film making in order to enjoy the song being sung, then that’s a fine choice. If a film maker thinks “it’s kind of funny” to have a song that aligns with what is going on, then that music supervisor should pretty much be fired. That level of cheese is unforgivable in modern superhero movies. Especially in a summer where films like Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hulk are taking the stories, and the characters seriously.

Remember in the Iron Man trailer when Tony Stark comes out in his Iron Man suit and destroys everything to the song Iron Man? I was ringing my own hands in fear that this song, adding this level of cheese, would destroy that part of that film. Thankfully, Favreau and co. were smart enough to let the film speak for itself (despite its one-power chord score). Hancock not only made this mistake, but kept making it throughout the film. The song “Move, Bitch” is credited twice in the film at the end credits

Needless to say, the rest of the music in the film was atrocious. From ill-chosen hip-hop hits to John Williams Superman clones, this film’s music was one of its biggest downfalls. Except, of course, for one of the most important parts – the script

There is very little, if any, plot in this film. Sure, there is character development, but let’s not mistake that for a story. The film pulls you in three different directions and places you in scenes instead of bringing you to them. We are supposed to have started the film with some kind of caring about this character, when he has not endeared himself to us from the very beginning. This is the film’s biggest mistake. It drops the characters and the story on you as if it were a comic book movie (and this also isn’t ok for comic book movies to do, by the way).

We’re supposed to care about Will Smith’s character and the fact that he’s going through something, because he is, after all, the title character. We are not given a reason, other than the film is being told from his perspective.

After his incarceration, the (100% predictable) revelation of Charlize Theron’s character’s powers, and the introduction of (a very poor excuse for) a villain, we are left with a film absolutely devoid of what would have made it good. There is no tension, there is no sense of danger for any of the characters, and there is no sense of purpose. Why do we care if Hancock does well with the public? So we can have a good viewing experience?

We know Charlize Theron’s character is going to be a bad guy, so we wait for that once the hints are dropped. We get there in the film, and they fight for seemingly no reason other than anger, and then there are no real consequences or conflict beyond Hancock’s origin?

A one-handed bald guy with a gun? Really? That’s the end villain/conflict for this film? Sure he has to save the life of his superhero companion, but if she was so worried about his well being, why didn’t she just leave town so he could get better sooner?

The plot holes, lack of emotional involvement on the audience’s part, the music, and the horrible lines (“Are you a crackpot?!” was actually a punchline in this film) make Hancock the most disappointing experience of this summer.

Here’s the worst part: I wasn’t really expecting very much, if anything, at all. This film was not just bad, it was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer bad. It was bad because it gives more ammo to those who “don’t want to see another superhero movie as long as they live”. It was bad because it was a relatively sound premise with a great cast and a hell of a lot of money behind it that could have been great if it just had some time, care, and creative effort put into it beyond the “realistic” breaking of the streets during take-offs and landings.

The concept introduced in Hancock of superpowered beings that have been around for thousands of years being dwindled down to only two and whose weakness is being around the one they were meant to love is great. That sentence sounds like there would be a great story to tell there and the saddest part is that there is. The disappointing part is that Will Smith’s Hancock didn’t tell it.

You should skip this movie and rent it if you really need to. Just don’t support movies like this one that take the superhero movie genre into the quality-abyss that would have been ok a few years ago. If Hancock was made a few years ago, then it would have been taken as ok; but with Iron Man, Hulk, and the Batman franchises breathing quality back into the Superhero genre Hancock really should have stepped it up. Don’t support films doing that, because in this downward spiral towards special effects and CGI extravaganzas over good quality films, a good story is hard to come by; and we’re definitely getting there with superhero movies, but I don’t want the bad ones to keep being made and neither do you. Your dollar is your vote in how the coming summers will treat us. Vote wisely. Rent this or borrow it from a friend.

 

 

Sex & The City… UPDATED with TWO Geekscape Reviews!

by Noel Nocciolo

Editor’s Warning – I’m telling you now. This review has spoilers. It does not fuck around. It does not pull punches. I got about 2 lines into it before I was like “no way. spoilers. everywhere.” and I do NOT want to ruin this experience for myself. When I one day have it. In a magical world called Never. But luckily, our own Noel Nocciolo was incredible enough to dig down deep and write this up for you all…

When Sex And The City aired originally on HBO, I was in college in New York City. Looking back, the series provided major memories for me, both good and bad. It seemed fitting that I attend the 12:01 a.m. screening on opening night, with Rachel, a close friend from college, at the movie theatre within walking distance from where we went to school. Granted, the theatre is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, hotbed of the kind of people who make up the target demographic, but it was still shocking to see that we weren’t the only ones who got there with much (two hours) to spare, to snag our six seats together in the back of the theatre. The crowd was a sea of twenty and thirty-something New York women and the gay men who love them, and Rachel’s Mom, Shira, Nate, Rachel’s boyfriend, and Andrew, our friend, who proudly represented the straight male sub-group in the crowd of rabid ‘Sex’ fans.

I warn you, Do NOT see this movie in the theatre unless you were a fan of the show. It’s not worth your (in our case, a few days’ advance purchase price of twelve dollars; everything is more expensive in New York) money if you didn’t have investment in the lives of these four women. I can imagine the movie, in its two hours and thirty minutes, would suck your brain into designer vapid-ness unless you actually really cared. I cared, and I was still caught thinking about how many outfits, shoes, accessories and product placement went into the movie.

I’m going to have to see it again, by myself, in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, a few weeks from now. For the present, let me share with you a few likes and dislikes. There will be spoilers, so be sure your girlfriend isn’t reading over your shoulder.

The Men:

STEVE: Sorry, but I’ve never really liked Steve. I know he was written to be this great guy for Type-A-Miranda-The-Harvard-Law-Graduate-Attorney, but there was just something about him that annoyed the living shit out of me during the series. I actually felt badly for him when it was revealed that he and Miranda hadn’t had sex in six months; especially since we had been privy to them having sex, (and a lot of it, as a monogamous couple), during the series. I took my feelings back when he revealed that he had cheated, once, on Miranda. I wished that he would have then faded into the proverbial sunset, but instead, they reconciled through marital counseling, overall forgiveness, and a scene on the Brooklyn Bridge that had one of our straight-male friends weeping. I say…..ok, whatever, Steve.….But sometimes the cheese stands alone.

HARRY: He’s a sweet guy, but don’t expect too much out of him in the movie. Not to sound like an art-school jerk, but if the director gave him ‘objectives’ in which to act, his overall objective in the movie would be “to be really sweet at all times.” Boring, yes, but this has always been a show about the relationships between the four friends.

SMITH: He’s a sweet guy, and gorgeous, but don’t expect to learn anything at all about him other than the fact that he’s now Big In L.A. and has a sweet beachfront mansion in Malibu. He stepped up to the plate the last season of the show in his support for Samantha and her battle with breast cancer. Don’t expect anything else remotely exciting here.

BIG: I Always liked Big over Aidan and The Russian, even if he broke Carrie’s heart (on the series and again, as I discovered, in the movie) and acted like an asshole. (Sorry, feminists everywhere.) Big Problem? (pun intended) How can you expect an audience (mostly female, of course) to be satisfied with a happy ending when two hours earlier, you left your forty-plus-year old, never-been-married intended at the altar (or in this case, the ballroom of the New York Public Library) in bridal couture? Sorry dude, you’ve always had a supporter in me, but WTF? I’m supposed to be psyched when he pulls his head from his ass, when its finally resolved and they have the simple City Hall wedding like they had previously planned? It’s hard to be supportive if, like Carrie said over and over, regarding the day of their wedding, “he couldn’t get out of the car?” To then be ok with the show’s central character getting married, as a happily-ever-after resolve? I’m not ok with this. Please don’t deposit my bare, exposed, backside on fresh cement at the beginning of the film and expect me to still like you at the end.

Things That Caused Me To Raise An Eyebrow:

–What happened to Marcus, Stanford’s Broadway-dancing, Hamptons summer-home co-owning Mensch of a boyfriend? No mention at all. No cameo at all.

–Why did Anthony and Stanford, both bitchy, both obviously not into one another during series, share an awkward New Year’s kiss?

–Who is Jennifer Hudson’s Agent/Manager/Publicist/Personal Fairy-Godmother/Guardian Angel, and how did this person guide Hudson, who looked like she was reading her lines off a teleprompter next to the camera, into a role with so much screen-time next to Sarah Jessica Parker?

–Where was the “Carrie” necklace that had so many scenes in the series?

Things That Made Me Happy The Movie Was Made:

–Charlotte ran away with the film. She, quite literally, poops her pants in Mexico, tells Big off in grand style, and provides the ‘Lioness Protecting Her Cub’ facial expression and loving arms for Carrie when jilted by Big. Way to work it, Kristin Davis.

–Carrie Bradshaw started the series a writer, and ended the series a writer. She provided her signature fly-on-the-wall narrative of her life and the life of her friends. She sat in front of her laptop. She published books. She stayed Carrie.

–Though a total bummer of a “New Years Sadness/Happiness Montage With God-Awful Cover of Auld Lane Syne in the background” we got to see Miranda alone with Chinese food. It brought me back to the gems of scenes in the series when, though cross-town, Miranda and Carrie would share profound phone conversations before bedtime.

–Seeing Samantha stand up for the woman/slut/fierce bitch that she is, in L.A., in New York, in Mexico. We see that she fought breast cancer and came out swinging, and the girls finally revealed/acknowledged her age on the show. (Samantha is 50, in case you were thrown by all the frame-by-frame airbrushing for all four women)

This was a nostalgic two hours and thirty minutes. Though I laughed aloud quite a bit, it was not as funny as it could have been, and heavier, perhaps, than it should have been. This is not Academy-Award winning art, but instead a mark of the end of an era of over-the-top fashion, frankness of sexual encounters and interpersonal relationships between four strong, intelligent women living in the wonderful metropolis of New York City. Carpe Diem.

And now here is our very own Eric Diaz (who you may all know forum-style as Eric AD) with his review of this powerhouse that puts the “jugs” back into the words Box Office Juggernaut. Use the comments below to answer truthfully: Which Sex & The City girl would you go for? You know I’m a coug man so Kim Cattral is in. And the other one (Kristen Davis) that’s not Kerri or the Red Head is cool in my book too. Here’s Eric’s impressions:

For tons of men all over the world, the likes of Iron Man and Indiana Jones were the most anticipated movies of the summer season, but for millions of women and gay men like myself, tt was Sex and the City: The Movie that we were counting down to ( OK, I was counting down to it quite a bit less than the super hero popcorn flicks…I guess even for me, Geek trumps Gay. But it was close! ) For those few who don’t know, the show was about four women in their thirties and forties in Manhattan and their various sexual and romantic adventures. There’s nympho forty – ish ad exec Samantha Jones, ( Kim Cattral ) acerbic lawyer Miranda Hobbs ( Cynthia Nixon ), prudish Charlotte York, ( Kristen Davis ) and at the center of it all, sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw played by Sarah Jessica Parker.

Much of the show’s drama unfolded around Carrie’s on again/ off again relationship with the elusive “Mr Big” played by Chris Noth, as well as several other men in between. When Sex premiered on HBO back in 1998, there had never been anything like it before. Here were women who talked about sex the same way men do, who were accomplished and witty and not just the sidearm to the male characters. Single urban women all over the country embraced the show as theirs, and gay men realized that at least on occasion, some of these women were really gay men in disguise ( no doubt because the show’s creator and at least two head writers were gay, including future comic book scribe Allan Heinberg ) the show was an instant pop culture phenomenon, not just among women and gay guys, but a lot of straight men loved it too, or at least pretended to back when it was the “It” show.

Now however, four years after Sex and the City went off the air, straight men act like it’s the bane of their existence…like watching the show will make their dicks fall off or something. It’s lumped in with “chick shows” like the stuff they show on the Lifetime Network. But I don’t think any of those shows ever had women talk about whether or not they should make their man take wheat grass shots to make their semen taste better. Or whether or not they should shave their pussies into cute little shapes to please their fellas, or the politics of letting someone pee on you in the shower. I’ve always detected the stench of misogyny whenever a guy greatly dislikes this show, as if women can only be sexual if A: Men are the ones doing the sexualizing or B: The women are ridiculously hot in a non real way and under the age of 25. How any guy could dislike a show that encouraged a whole generation of girls to casual sex is beyond me. Of course, I will give some men the benefit of the doubt if their only exposure to the show has been in it’s greatly neutered syndication run. Every time I chance upon a rerun of the show on TBS or something I cringe. It reminds me of the TV edits of The Breakfast Club when I was a kid, and I get flashbacks to Judd Nelson yelling “Fail You!” instead of just saying “Fuck You” to the Principal. What’s the point? The crassness is a great part of the show’s charm…without it, it’s not really the same show.

But as much as I love the show, I have to admit I kind of hated how the series ended. For all the ridiculousness of the sexcapades on the show, it actually was pretty realistic in it’s portrayal of relationships. So when the notoriously non committal and frankly kind of selfish “Mr. Big” suddenly decides to change his ways and sweep Carrie Bradshaw off her feet in a fairy tale ending….I secretly hated it. All the women of America gushed, bet as a viewer I kind of felt betrayed. Whatever it might have been, Sex and the City never fed their viewers that kind of bullshit before. After spending six years telling their mostly female audience that it’s ok to be single, even if your are in your thirties, and not to settle for some asshole just in an effort not to be alone, the show kind of betrayed it’s own premise.

So I was prepared for the worst when they announced the movie. The trailer didn’t help either; it looked sappy and hokey, and worst of all neutered, as if it was trying to cater to all the fans that only discovered the show via it’s virtually sex-less syndication run ( In other words: Your Mom ) Not to mention, reunions are more often than not at least somewhat disappointing, missing that certain something that the ensemble had before. Sure, I missed the girls, but thanks to the magic of DVD, they had never really gone away for me. Did I, or the world, really need a Sex and the City Movie??

Well, no…probably not. But I’m sure glad we got one anyway. Sex and the City is not a great film, or really even a film in the traditional sense. It’s essentially 4 or 5 episodes strung along to a 2 1/2 hour running time. Nothing is structurally changed from the way the show was written or shot or acted, except maybe the title credits. But while Sex may not have been a great film, what it was was the Series Finale I wanted four years ago and didn’t get. Instead of everything being tied up in a nice convenient bow at the end, the movie actually shows that fairy tale endings are indeed bullshit…but that doesn’t mean that the ending has to be an unhappy one either. The ensemble never misses a beat, and their chemistry is there like it was just yesterday that the show wrapped. The one fear I did have however, that the big screen version proved to be a more neutered version of the show proved to be totally true. There was very little Sex in this particular City, even from stalwart Samantha, who you could always count on for at least one raunchy scene. Or three. And the addition of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson to the ensemble as Carrie’s new assistant is kind of pointless. She’s not around long enough in the movie to really become “one of the girls” and her whole role could have been easily filled by say, Charlotte, who had the least amount of screen time of the four women. And while the TV show was famous for name dropping labels, the move takes it to a whole new level. But whatever, these are really minor quibbles for me. It was great to see the girls again, and if this is the last time we see the four of them together, then I’m ok with that. I think it’s best to go out leaving people wanting more, and that’s just what Sex and the City does so well.