An accident at a laboratory renders stock analyst Nick Holloway (Chevy Chase) invisible. CIA agent David Jenkins (Sam Neill) wants to recruit Nick to be an assassin but Nick doesn’t want to kill people. He just wants to make his date with Alice (Daryl Hannah). With Jenkins and his agents in pursuit, Nick flees to a beach house belonging to his friend George (Michael McKean) and tries to figure out what to do with his life now that no one can see him. Fortunately, Alice is staying at the beach house too. Nick and Alice fall in love but Jenkins is close behind.
Based on a science fiction novel by H.F. Saint, Memoirs of an Invisible Man started out as a vanity project for Chevy Chase, who felt that the film’s mix of comedy and drama would establish him as a serious actor. The project went through a series of directors, including Ivan Reitman and Richard Donner, but in the end no one wanted to work with the special effects necessary to create the impression of invisibility and, even more importantly, no one wanted to work with Chase. When the film was finally offered to John Carpenter, he was reluctant to do another studio film because of his bad experience with They Live. He finally agreed because it had been four years since his last film.
The special effects in Memoirs of an Invisible Man are still impressive and the chase scenes show off Carpenter’s abilities as an action director. The movie flopped with critics and audiences but that was not Carpenter’s fault. Carpenter keeps the story moving and gets good performances out of Sam Neill and even Daryl Hannah. The problem with the movie is that Chevy Chase is miscast as an action hero and he tries too hard to give a serious performance. Carpenter later said he wanted to add more comedy to the film and to emphasize Chase’s talent for physical comedy but Chase refused to do so. Chase also resented wearing the blue bodysuit that would be used to render him invisible onscreen and often removed the suit early, ruining whatever else Carpenter had planned to shoot during the day. You can add John Carpenter to the long list of directors who have said they will never work with Chevy Chase again.
One good thing did come out of Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Carpenter met and enjoyed working with Sam Neill. (Memoirs of an Invisible Man probably would have worked better in Neill and Chase had switched roles.) Neill would go on to star in Carpenter’s next film, In The Mouth of Madness.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, a special guest star is forced to appear on the show.
Episode 1.24 “Uncle Charlie”
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on May 9th, 1999)
Jason and Scott are totally excited because their Uncle Charlie is coming to visit. As they explain to Murray, Uncle Charlie has been in the Marines for 30 years and is a total badass. Murray says that he tried to join the Marines but was classified as being “FW.” “Freaking weirdo,” Murray says. Peter then says that he doesn’t like it when Charlie comes to visit because Charlie always make fun of him for being too thin. Really when this show started and Peter was supposed to be like a seriously cool surfer dude?
Anyway, Charlie shows up and he’s played by Dick Butkus. After finishing up both Hang Time andHalf-Nelson, I thought I was done with reviewing anything to do with Dick Butkus but nope, here he is in yet another Peter Engel-produced show! I imagine that Butkus did this show as a favor to Peter Engel or maybe Butkus was just under a contract that he couldn’t get out of. Still, it’s hard not to notice that Butkus does not appear to be particularly enthusiastic about appearing on Malibu CA. While it’s true that Butkus always came across as being more of an ex-athlete than an actor (because, of course, that’s exactly what he was), Butkus still at least made an effort on Hang Time. In Malibu, CA, Butkus seems to be struggling to stay awake.
Uncle Charlie is upset because the Marines want him to consider retirement. Charlie works out his frustration by having Jason and Scott do calisthenics. (He’s not their favorite uncle anymore!) But then Charlie starts hanging out with Murray and Murray encourages Charlie to be a beach bum. That sounds good to Charlie and I have to admit that I think Dick Butkus hanging out on the beach in a Hawaiian shirt with Murray actually had a lot of potential. I’m as surprised as anyone that Murray has turned out to be this show’s saving grace but he has. I guess we should be glad the Marines didn’t take him.
Charlie’s new beach-centric philosophy becomes a problem when Charlie finds himself being considered for a job at a military school. The school doesn’t want beach bums! Can Jason and Scott straighten Charlie out? Will Jason ever manage to get through a scene without looking straight at the camera for his cue? Who cares?
As for the B-plot, Traycee has tickets to the Beastie Boys. She invites Stads and Sam to come to the concert with her. Awwww, how nice! “You’ve only got two tickets!” Stads snaps because, for some reason, the show has decided that Stads should always be in a bitchy mood. (Remember when the show started and Stads was vaguely likable?) Sam and Stads compete for the title of Traycee’s best friend. Years later, Paris Hilton had a reality competition show based around the same concept.
This episode was dull. When not even Dick Butkus can make your actors look good by comparison, you’ve got a problem.
In celebration of the 77th birthday of the great Director John Carpenter, I decided to watch his 1998 film VAMPIRES, starring one of my favorite actors in James Woods. I specifically remember the first time I ever read that this movie was being made and that it would star Woods. It was 1996, and I had just been hired to work for a company called Acxiom Corporation in Conway, Arkansas. It was at this job that I first had access to this new thing called the Worldwide Web. As far as I know, it was the first time I had ever looked at the internet. Of course, I immediately started completing searches on some of my favorite actors, including James Woods, when I came across VAMPIRES as a movie currently in production. These were the first times in my life that I was able to find out about new film projects without looking in a magazine or watching shows like Entertainment Tonight.
In VAMPIRES, James Woods stars as Jack Crow, the leader of team of vampire hunters who get their funding from the Vatican. We’re introduced to the team when they go into a house in New Mexico and proceed to impale and burn a nest of vampires. While the rest of the team celebrates the mission that night in a hotel filled alcohol, drugs, and whores, Jack can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t right, as he doesn’t believe they got the “master vampire” of the group. Unfortunately, Jack is right to worry. As they’re partying, the master vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) interrupts the fun and proceeds to kill everyone there, with the exception of Jack, his partner Tony (Daniel Baldwin), and Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a prostitute he decided to just bite on. Valek isn’t just a regular old master vampire, either. As it turns out, he’s the original vampire, and he’s on a quest to find the Berziers Cross, an ancient Catholic relic, that will allow him and other vampires to walk in the daylight. Against this backdrop, Jack, Tony, and a priest named Adam (Tim Guinee) use Katrina, who now has a psychic link with Valek, to try to kill the ultimate master vampire Valek, his cleric accomplice Cardinal Alba (Maximillian Schell), and just hopefully, save mankind in the process!
I know that VAMPIRES is not the most well-known or beloved John Carpenter film. He’s done so many great movies, but VAMPIRES is special to me as it was the first of his films that I ever saw in the movie theater. And the opening 30 minutes of the film is as badass as it gets. Carpenter is a master of the set-up. There’s lots of slow motion as Carpenter’s guitar riffs rock the soundtrack and the camera moves in on James Woods, with his cool sunglasses and black leather jacket, just before his team goes in and destroys a vampire nest at the beginning of the film. I also think the set-up of Thomas Ian Griffith as Valek is awesome, as he strolls up to the hotel room while the vampire hunters celebrate, completely unaware of the carnage about to befall them. Griffith has never looked cooler than he did in his long black coat and long hair, both blowing in the wind. These were awesome moments that illustrated Carpenter’s ability to project a sense of visual cool and power that I was mesmerized with. I wanted to see what happens next. And as a 25-year-old man at the time of VAMPIRE’s Halloween release in 1998, I also gladly admit that I really enjoyed the beauty of a 31-year-old Sheryl Lee. I would have definitely done everything I could do to save and protect her. The remainder of the film may have not been able to keep the same momentum as those first 30 minutes, but it’s a solid, enjoyable film, buoyed by the intense performance of Woods!
Vampires (1998)
Directed by John Carpenter
Shown: Thomas Ian Griffith, Sheryl Lee
There are several items of trivia that interest me about VAMPIRES:
John Carpenter had a good working relationship with James Woods on the set, but they had a deal: Carpenter could film one scene as it is written, and he would film another scene in which Woods was allowed to improvise. The deal worked great, and Carpenter found that many of Woods’ improvised scenes were brilliant.
VAMPIRES was John Carpenter’s only successful film of the 1990’s. Its opening weekend box office of $9.1 million is the highest of any John Carpenter film.
The screenplay for VAMPIRES is credited to Don Jakoby. Jakoby has some good writing credits, including the Roy Scheider film BLUE THUNDER (1983), the Cannon Films “classic” LIFEFORCE (1985), and the Spielberg produced ARACHNAPHOBIA (1990). The reason Don Jakoby interests me, however, is the fact that he had his name removed from the film I’ve seen more than any other, that being DEATH WISH 3 (1985), starring Charles Bronson. Even though Jakoby provided the script for DEATH WISH 3, due to the drastic number of changes, Jakoby insisted his name be removed. The script is credited to the fake “Michael Edmonds” instead.
As I was typing up my thoughts on VAMPIRES today, I learned of the death of the director David Lynch. This brings special poignancy to the fact that John Carpenter cast Sheryl Lee after seeing her on Lynch’s T.V. series TWIN PEAKS (1990).
Frank Darabont, who directed one of the great films of all time, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994), has a cameo as “Man with Buick.” Fairly early in the film, after Crow, Montoya, and Katrina crash their truck escaping the hotel massacre, they encounter the man at a gas station and forcefully take the Buick. This is a strong sign of just how respected John Carpenter was by other great filmmakers at the time.
John Carpenter has directed some absolute classics like ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976), HALLOWEEN (1978), ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981), THE THING (1982), and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986). There’s no wrong way to celebrate a man who has brought such joy into our lives through his work. Today, I’m just thankful that he has been given the opportunity to share his talents with us!
The first official trailer for the return of Daredevil to the small screen has finally been released by Marvel Television (a part of Marvel Studios). Daredevil: Born Again will finally and officially be the homecoming of the live-action Daredevil character that many fans have been clamoring for. Disney is finally embracing the Netflix Marvel shows as part of the MCU (they ignored the ABC/Netflix Marvel shows like they were something one found under their shoes).
Charlie Cox is back as Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, The Man With No Fear. Vincent D’Onofrio is also back as his arch nemesis Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin. Pretty much the rest of the cast of the Netflix Daredevil show and its many spin-offs are back, as well.
There was some major fears and trepidations from fans of those shows that Disney will water down the mature-aspect of those shows in order to have them on Disney+. The fact that Kevin Feige and his braintrust at Marvel Studios made a major overhaul of the shows creative team six-episodes in of the shows production to start anew tells me that the initial plan to make the show more lighthearted didn’t so well when reviewed by the powers-that-be. So, after some many months of major reshoots, change in showrunner and directors, we now see a taste of that pivot away from the studio’s original plan.
Daredevil: Born Again trailer channels the original Netflix series’ serious and mature tone. Even the fear that the violence of the original series would be water-downed could be put to rest. Daredevil: Born Again definitely is for mature-audiences only.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn’t has many hits since the end of Avengers: End Game, but this trailer (hopefully just a hint of what to expect when the show comes out) is a right step in the direction of righting the MCU ship, because the pop-culture landscape is much better when its tentpole franchises are working perfectly on all cylinders rather than not.
I’m truly devastated to hear the David Lynch, one of the few true visionaries of our age, has passed away. His death was not totally unexpected. He had recently opened up about his health difficulties. But it’s still hard to believe that David Lynch is no longer with us. He was 78 years old and he was one of the best. I’m sure we all have much more to write and share about him in the future. For now, I’m still coming to terms with the news.
What can I say about this 2004 action horror film that can do it justice at just how it perfectly represent what I call a “guilty pleasure”.
Van Helsing by Stephen Sommers (him being at his most Stephen Sommersist) was suppose to be a new action franchise with Hugh Jackman as it’s lead. One must remember that in 2004, Hugh Jackman was still at the height of his popularity as an action star with roles as Wolverine in the X-Men film franchise and, in another guilty pleasure of mine, Swordfish.
This film was suppose to catapult him to the stratosphere and taking the action star role from aging ones such as Arnold Schwarzenneger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. Instead Stephen Sommers reached for that brass ring and failed, but did so with a mish-mash of horror properties blended haphazardly to give us a film that tried to be too much yet also not enough.
Hugh Jackman in the title role was more than game to try and prop up the film’s convoluted plot. Kate Beckinsale was stunning as usual and hamming it up in what I could only guess is here version of a Transylvanian accent. Even Richard Roxbrough in the role of Dracula, miscast as he seem to be in the role, gave a campy and scenery-chewing performance that his performance went past bad and circled back to being entertaining.
Yet, for all its flaws, I actually enjoy Van Helsing for what it was and that was a modern version of those Abbott and Costello mash-up with the Universal horror characters of the 40’s and 50’s. One cannot mistake this film on the same level as Nosferatu (Murnau, Herzog and Eggers versions) and Sommers definitely cannot be mistake for the three auteurs who had their own take on the abovementioned film. But Sommers does make thrilling, though some would say repetitive, action films.
Did I turn my brain off watching Van Helsing?
I sure did, but it still didn’t stop me from being entertained…and I cannot ever sat anything bad about a film with Kate Beckinsale in a tight black-red leather corset. It’s against some sort of law to do so.
Here’s a new AMV to usher in my return (hopefully for much longer than before).
Song: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd
Anime: Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta)
Creator:Pyrothemusical (As always, if you enjoyed this video, we encourage you to subscribe to the creator’s channel and give them lots of likes and nice comments)
They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
Today, we continue to wish John Carpenter a truly happy birthday! Needless to say, today’s scene that I love comes from a Carpenter film, 1988’s They Live. Though They Live was apparently not a huge box office success when it was first released, it’s a film that feels more relevant with each passing day. Carpenter is often described as being a great horror director but, with this film and The Thing, he shows that he’s a master of capturing cinematic paranoia.
There’s definitely a reason why They Live continues to find new fans over 30 years since it was originally released. Who hasn’t experienced that secret message of “OBEY!”
An accident at a laboratory renders stock analyst Nick Holloway (Chevy Chase) invisible. CIA agent David Jenkins (Sam Neill) wants to recruit Nick to be an assassin but Nick doesn’t want to kill people. He just wants to make his date with Alice (Daryl Hannah). With Jenkins and his agents in pursuit, Nick flees to a beach house belonging to his friend George (Michael McKean) and tries to figure out what to do with his life now that no one can see him. Fortunately, Alice is staying at the beach house too. Nick and Alice fall in love but Jenkins is close behind.
Through the Shattered Lens