Review: "Fright Night"

Colin Farrell has something of a wolf's reputation as a celebrity and it serves him well in Fright Night, a remake of the 1985 vampire comedy, while playing a shameless monster. Yet, for all his rabid dog violence as vampire Jerry -- "a terrible name for a vampire!" --  the most adorable moment in his performance is positively kittenish. While stepping around a beam of sunlight during one action setpiece he hisses at it with instinctual annoyance. You can't scare sunlight away, dumb Jerry! It's a silly bit of actorly business but the new Fright Night soars whenever the cast or director are having a bloody good time.  Good times at the movies are as infectious as vampirism, though thankfully more common.

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I'm eager to see the original now that I've seen this. (Yes, it's true. I never have)

5 Frames That Accurately Describe Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" Sequel Plans

"Roy Batty" being Blade Runner and "Tyrell" being Ridley Scott, you see.

 This doesn't end well for Tyrell/Ridley.

Ridley Scott has never been able to keep his hands off his seminal scifi masterwork Blade Runner (1982) always smudging the prints with his restless dirty fingers. Though we'll always love him for making it it's going to be the death of him (artistically) if he proceeds with the sequel/prequel/whatever. The creation will turn against the creator. It's an inevitability.

Take Three: Max von Sydow

Craig (from Dark Eye Socket) here with another Take Three. Today: Max von Sydow

Take One: Hour of the Wolf (1968)
It goes without saying, of course, that a von Sydow Take Three wouldn’t feel right unless one of them was an Ingmar Bergman film. All three could’ve been, but the aim is to err on the side of variety whenever possible. They made 11 films together: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, Shame and The Passion of Anna are all classics. But Hour of the Wolf, in which von Sydow plays a painter losing his grip on his sanity, doesn’t always get the high mention it deserves. It contains some of von Sydow’s best work in any film, for any director.

With his handsomely regal face, von Sydow boldly dominates the film. His sinisterly unhinged stillness and almost unreadable presence cement the notion that he’s a tormented artist uncertain of his place in the world. He's visited by people, possibly demons in human disguise, who embody his trauma, his shame. In a possibly imagined, probably symbolic, but definitely surreal dinner scene von Sydow’s deathly wan countenance crumples in extreme close-up. His mind seems to deteriorate due to the inane banter of the chattering souls surrounding him. (No one said Bergman’s personal parables were cheery.) Von Sydow masters depression and disgust like breathing and underplays his scenes like a covert pro. With complete skill von Sydow does as much as an actor can to attempt to place the viewer inside his character’s brain.

Take Two: The Exorcist (1973)
I don’t think it’s via Jeez himself, but, Christ!, the power of character acting compels me... to write about Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist for this Take.

Demonic Possession and Demonic Behavior after the jump

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"The Runelords", "Game of Thrones" and the Problem of Endings

Longtime readers know that Nathaniel has a wee problem with addiction to fantasy literature. This proclivity is more masochistic curse than pleasureable blessing since fantasy literature is allergic to endings and there are few things Nathaniel likes more in storytelling than a brilliant finale. 

So last night I finished the first book of the The Runelords series "The Sum of All Men" by David Farland. I had heard that it would eventually be a movie so when my brother suggested I read it last month on my vacation, I gladly grabbed it for the airplane time. [Note: turns out the movie option ran out last year and Farland has the rights again.] The book concerns the young naive prince Gaborn whose quest to win the heart of a neighboring kingdom's progressive idealistic princess Iome is interrupted by an invading army of the Runelord Raj Athan who seeks to become "The Sum of All Men".

The conceit of The Runelords world is that, through magic rituals, people can gift their best attributes to others creating a stratified world where those in power are granted more and more of it as people sell their most economically viable asset to them be that beauty, strength, vision, intelligence, stamina (and everything else). It's sort of like the vampire economy that the USA is dealing with now as the rich and powerful decimate the weaker middle class in order to gain more and more and more (to infinity and beyond) for themselves to feed their insatiable greed and misplaced sense of entitlement. Never mind that once a Runelord has the strength of 1000 men, it hardly makes a difference to him if he has the strength of 1001... but it sure as hell matters to the weakling 1,001st man he's left behind in his greedy conquest. 

But let's not get into the ever-miserable discussion of the downward spiral of the actual world we live in. We're talking books and movies, the fake world we prefer to dream of!

Gandalf the Grey... no, WHITE. Most of the major characters in the book are those who have received "endowments" from others so they're all amazingly beautiful or super strong or what not; superheroes in medieval frocks and cloaks if you will. If they're not runelords they're wizards. The major wizard Binneman is basically Gandalf since he's very powerful, very wise, very old and his hair and wardrobe changes colors once he moves to the next stage of his power. But then, what wizard isn't Gandalf? He casts a long long shadow on fantasy literature.

More on Game of Thrones (with one major spoiler that's actually the absence of a plot development rather than a plot point) and The Runelords and franchise filmmaking after the jump.

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The Lord of the Apes: The Fellowship of the Ape

Blu Ray CollectionI missed the final critics screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes due to my Michigan trip, but some critics and pundits have gone quite wild for it. And once again Andy Serkis, aka Gollum aka King Kong aka Pioneer King of Motion Capture Performing, is getting "give him gold" attention.

Meanwhile, in an effort to make me feel even worse about missing the new flick before it hits theaters tomorrow, guess what arrived while I was in Michigan? The Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary Blu-Ray Box Set. Maybe apes aren't very good at math because the first movie was from 1968 which is 43 years ago but whatever.

It looks SENSATIONAL. I love the packaging and it's even got a gatefold timeline detailing the whole sci-fi tale. I have no idea when I'll find time to watch them all (I've only ever seen the first one which I love but mostly for camp reasons... actual NSFW *LOL* shot ) but I'll try.

So with apes on the brain, I asked Team Film Experience the following question and I want to know your answers too.

WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR "PLANET OF THE APES"?

KURT: Sadly, Mark Wahlberg.

CRAIG: Since The Simpsons' parody, I always think of Stop the Planet of the Apes, I want to Get Off!

MICHAEL C: In college I engaged in an ill-advised marathon of Apes VHS tapes, memories of which are blurry, but one scene from the surprisingly un-terrible, Escape from the Planet of the Apes stands out. After Cornelius and Zira have time traveled back to present-day Earth and become celebrities (of course) they bizarrely engage in one of those out-on-the-town, trying on lots of different outfits montages. I have never rewatched the movie so this is one of those movie memories I am never 100% sure I didn't hallucinate. Maybe somebody can help me out with this?

ROBERT: Usually I think Charlton Heston shouting "You damn dirty apes!" However currently I can't help but think of the commercials for the new film which make me laugh every time. Those apes just look so angry.

JOSE: Charlton Heston in a loincloth *drools*, wait, eww.

NICK: A Bachmann/Pawlenty 2012 ticket.

Your Turn. Go! What do you think of the second you hear "Planet of the Apes"?