From the directors of Ready or Not comes yet another chapter in Wes Craven’s Scream series. I’ll admit I’m liking the cast in this one. We have Melissa Barerra (In the Heights), Jenna Ortega (Yes Day), Dylan Minnette (30 Reasons Why), Jack Quaid (The Boys), Marley Shelton (Planet Terror), Kyle Gallner (Jennifer’s Body), and Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood)
Then you have the returning cast, which includes Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette. Most importantly, it appears that Roger L. Jackson is voicing the Ghostface again! On a side note, Jackson was also responsible for Mojo Jojo’s voice in The Powerpuff Girls. (“Curses!”)
January movies don’t always do very well, but we’ll see what happens with this one.
What makes you you? Better yet, what’s the meaning of life? Lucky for you, I know the answer to both of these questions. You are your experiences. That’s it. The meaning of life is choice. You are a sum of your experiences and choices. Life is a series of choices from the lowliest earth worm going into soil or the sun to a person deciding to risk their life to save themselves or their own skin. Sorry, the meaning of life isn’t more exciting, but that’s it just the same. Choice after choice after choice is what life is and what makes you you are the results of those choices. You may now go about your business.
Ghosts of War was written and directed by Eric Bress for Netflix. I am very grateful to Eric Bress because without him we wouldn’t have Final Destination 2 or The Final Destination and that is a sad life indeed. FD2 is Super Awesome: there’s people sliced in half and trees that take your head off and death itself is really into Rube Goldberg machinations of killing you. Death is kinda bored and goes a little nutty.
Ghosts of War was a lot of fun. The ending was hard to watch, but not because it was poorly done; it was just pretty realistic. Also, GOW has Billy Zane that alone should make you watch it. I also liked that the film had both Brenton Thwaites and Alan Ritchson of Titans (See it on HBO Max), which is Breaking Bad levels of awesome! Yeah, I said it.
GOW centers around a WWII era platoon assigned to protect a house in France. When they arrive, they realize that the house quite haunted. Bress solves the why not leave the haunted house question by putting them into a loop, wherein, no matter where they travel, they are back at the haunted house.
There are some good scares and not just jump scares. It has the gross stuff that you loved in Final Destination 2, which must be a Bress signature. There’s at least three people who are immolated in this movie. If you miss the gore of Supernatural, this movie is for you!
Brenton and Alan both have some real stand out performances and make me want to re-watch Titans again because of it. Brenton and Alan play frustration, fear, and rage better than anyone I’ve ever seen.
On a personal level, I’m always watching how well people play Soldiers. This movie is VERY realistic. The characters talk like us, think like us, handle stress like us, and move like we really do. I could understand why and what they were doing at all times. It was amazingly accurate. I was very impressed and would recommend the movie just for its realistic portrayal of Soldiers. This movie accurately showed how Soldiers would react to a supernatural enemy. This doesn’t just happen. It was clear to me that the actors and director took care to do this correctly. It is appreciated.
The ending was a good twist and there were clever subtle clues along the way to lead you to solving the mystery. I would highly recommend this movie and hope to see Brenton and Alan work with this director again.
Talking to empty chairs aside, Clint Eastwood still goes down as one of the greatest living American filmmakers. This doesn’t dismiss the current slump he has been in the past couple years (Jersey Boys, Hereafter, J. Edgar just to name a few). This 2014 holiday season he’s set to release his latest film: American Sniper.
The film is an adaptation of the best-selling autobiography of the same name by former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. Steven Spielberg was initially attached to direct the film, but bowed soon after. In comes Clint Eastwood to take up the director’s chair with Bradley Cooper starring as Chris Kyle (also producer on the film).
The film has already made it’s premiere at the AFI Fest with a limited release on Christmas Day 2014.
American Sniper will have a general release date of January 16, 2015.
Warner Bros. Pictures makes it a triple-bill with the latest in a series of trailers for some of their upcoming films.
The latest to arrive is Clint Eastwood’s latest film. Eastwood adapts the Chris Kyle autobiography, American Sniper, of which Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct until dropping out in the summer of 2013. Eastwood was announced a week later as taking on directing duties on one of the more sought after properties of the last couple years.
Bradley Cooper will star in as Chris Kyle with Sienna Miller in the role of Chris’ wife, Taya Renae Kyle.
American Sniper is set for a limited release on December 25, 2014 and going wide on January 20, 2015.
“I’m just tired of losing people is all.” — Daryl Dixon
It’s that time of the year when The Walking Dead returns to the airwaves with a new season. Whether one believes the show is the best thing on TV or a mess of a show it’s hard to deny the fact that it’s become must-see TV whenever it comes back. The series has become pop-culture event that other shows of better quality and acclaim wish they could muster (the final 8 episodes of Breaking Bad was the closest to accomplish it).
The returns for it’s fourth season with a new showrunner in series veteran writer Scott M. Gimple. It’s this constant changing of showrunners that seem to make critics scratch their heads. For a show that could never keep a guiding hand for more than a season the series never seems to lose any of it’s popularity and it’s ratings numbers.
“30 Days Without An Accident” sees the show come back after what looks like an extended period of time since last season’s finale. The prison compound looks to have been fixed and improved with new defenses. There seems to be more people now than what was brought over from Woodbury at the end of last season. It would seem Rick is out as leader and a new leadership council have decided to bring in survivors they come across since last season. Carl and Judith are not the only kids in the show anymore.
The episode actually starts off quite serene in comparison to past season premieres. There’s a lack of desperation and kill-or-be-killed tone to this season premiere, but there’s still a sense of something still not right just beneath the surface of relative normality we’re given. Even the normally taciturn badass Daryl Dixon gets to relax a little with all the new people greeting him like an old friend. Yet, we all know what this show has always been about. For all the notion of rebuilding civilization that we see in tonight’s episode the streak of 30 days without an accident was bound to end and it does so in bloody fashion.
Some will probably complain that tonight’s episode was too slow in the beginning. It’s unlike the action-packed season 3 premiere with Rick and his smaller, but highly-trained group clearing out the prison yard with military precision. Again this goes to show that this season that desperation of trying to find the next safe place to rest has now been completed. They do have a safe place to call a safe haven. There’s now a growing farm with vegetables and livestock. They now a common area outside where people cook and eat their meals. We even see Rick and Carol looking to see that the younger members of this burgeoning community get to have some sort of education and time to be kids.
The writers of the show have been very good with creating these little serene and peaceful set-ups only to pull the rug from under everyone and it’s no different with tonight’s season premiere. The group going out into the “world” to scavenge for supplies seems like it’s become routine for this community from the early set-up, but it also looks to have created a sense of complacency in the group as a whole. We see the consequence of this complacency and belief in that things were getting into some sort of normal.
We see a routine and efficient run to scavenge a Big Spot supermarket turn into a nightmare with zombies literally raining down on the group. It’s a great action and horror sequence that managed to be both full of tension and terror. While it also had a “redshirt” feel to who would live and who would die it still didn’t diminish the fact that if The Walking Dead the series was good in any one thing it was setting up and executing action scenes.
The scene with Rick and the Lady in the Woods was another good sequence that focused more on showing just how screwed up this new world Rick and the community is still trying to come to grips with. For all their attempts to establish this normalcy within the prison’s fences the world outside is still a “kill or be killed” place. Even though it was only a brief turn as the Lady in the Woods, Kerry Condon does a great performance conveying how desperation in the early going of this zombie apocalypse has broken so many people. Where Rick and most of those he has rescued and kept safe haven’t succumbed to despair this woman in the woods gave up. She’s an example of where Rick could’ve ended up right from the beginning of the show if he never found his family. This entire series has been in part a story of how Rick has been trying to keep himself from giving up.
Then the final sequence right leading up to the episode’s end shows us that things that were taken for granted pre-zombie apocalypse might just be coming back with a vengeance as we see one of the new people introduced in the first half of the episode succumb to what looks like a virus. It’s good to see that the writers of the show are beginning to spread their boundaries when it comes to bringing in ideas to the show. While some might not think it’s an important detail I’m sure those who dedicate their life in studying crisis management and events will look at tonight’s episode and nod their head’s in agreement. Zombies might be the main threat facing this community, but the show has now introduced the threat of diseases that usually gets cured with a trip to the doctors or the pharmacy. In a world where everyone has reverted back to an almost medieval style of living such things have become luxuries or non-existent.
So, for a season premiere “30 Days Without An Accident” was a good start for the new regime of Scott M. Gimple. He was able to bring in a new thematic element to the show’s overall narrative with the hope of rebuilding civlization, creating the sense of normalcy in a world turned upside down and new characters to support the returning veterans. He has also made it clear that for all the serenity we saw in the first half of tonight’s premiere the overriding theme of the show will continue to be that danger and death will always be out there waiting to get in and with tonight’s episode we see that it already has found a way in.
Notes
Tonight’s season 4 premiere, “30 Days Without An Accident”, was directed by series co-producer and make-up FX guru Greg Nicotero. It also marks the first time new showrunner Scott M. Gimple starts off a new season.
The way the new people in the group are greeting and reacting to Daryl Dixon one would think his legion of fans have joined this season’s cast of The Walking Dead.
Smart to clear out the horde of zombies at the fence line through the fence line. One thing most zombie fiction always seem to leave out or just get wrong is the constant need to keep the perimeter clear and secured.
Looks like it’s not just the Glenn-Maggie ship plying the zombie apocalypse seas this season.
Daryl Dixon is now one of the group’s leader…fangirls react enthusiastically to this new development.
The show has two HBO veterans joining the cast in Larry Gilliard, Jr. from The Wire and Kerry Condon from Rome.
I like how tonight’s episode gave us a brief, but tragic glimpse into those from other countries who got stuck in the area because everything fell to pieces in the beginning.
Too many new characters and the way this episode is moving it looks like some of them have to be redshirts.
AMC must’ve really opened up their tightwad purses to give Scott M. Gimple the chance to shoot that very awesome and bloody Big Spot sequence. It’s not often we get Visual FX on this show and the few times they’ve gone digital it looked somewhat fake, but not this time around with the destroyed Chinook falling through the weakened roof of the Big Spot.
Poor Violet and Patrick. At least, now we have an idea of just what new threat outside of the zombies and the missing Governor will befall this new community.
Swine Flu.
Talking Dead Guests: Nathan Fillion and showrunner Scott M. Gimple.
Kevin Smith’s 2011 film was a major departure for him. It wasn’t the usual comedy (his last one being the very awful buddy-cop comedy, Cop Out) but instead his first foray into one of film’s earliest film genre: the horror film. Say what you want or feel about Kevin Smith (and there’s a huge range of people who either love the man or hate him like the second coming of the Antichrist) but when he decides to make a film he puts everything of himself on display and he wears his emotions on his sleeves when it comes to his films. It’s this aspect of Smith’s personality which has gained him such a loyal following, but has also earned him the scorn and, for some, hate of film bloggers who now constitute the bulk of film criticism in the digital age. This first horror film for Kevin Smith would be called Red State and it would be a film that would continue to expand the gulf between those who hate him and those who support him. Lost in this playground-like tiff was whether the film would be a return to form for Smith or just a continuation of some very bad films in the last half-decade.
Red State could almost be called a coming-of-age story since the film begins with three high school boys joining together to travel to a neighboring town where they hope to engage in some sexual extracurricular activities. It’s also in this very town that we learn very early on in the film that the Five Points Church calls home. This church and it’s congregation has one Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) as it’s leader with it’s membership either related by blood to Cooper or by way of marriage. In this picture would arrive an ATF task force led by Special Agent Keenan (John Goodman) to investigate the illegal doings of Cooper and his flock. It’s between these two groups that the three teenage boys would find themselves in a horrific situation with their lives in the balance.
Let’s just say that this film had much potential in it’s plot and how it’s initially set-up. The character of Pastor Abin Cooper and his flock was definitely patterned after the Westboro Baptist Church led by Fred Phelps who’re infamous for picketing funerals of soldiers and for being outright homophobic in their teachings and ideology. The ATF group with Keenan in command looks to be set-up to represent the Federal government and it’s police agencies run amok in their attempt to fight terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. Then Smith drops in three horny teenage boys in the mix and it sure must’ve read like a surefire story with horror and action.
What we get instead was a film which didn’t seem to know how to proceed with the initial set-up. The film began and played out like something similar to Hostel and films of a similar vein. Unsuspecting teens lured by sex to be made an example of by a group of people extreme in their passions and ideas. If the film had continued with just those two groups as the core of the film’s story then it could’ve made for a decent survival horror film, but the addition of the ATF task force and how they impacted the dynamics between the congregation and the teens unbalanced everything. Now what was suppose to be a horror film turned into an action-drama.
The performances by the cast was also inconsistent. This could be due to the weakness of the screenplay which tried too hard to push Cooper and his people as batshit crazy through overly long sermons. Sermons by Abin Cooper that was delivered by Michael Parks in convincing fashion at times and then mumbled incoherently at others. The three teens were also a problem in that they weren’t sympathetic by any means. Even knowing what awaited them didn’t lessen the fact that these three teens were obnoxious and vulgar to the point that we didn’t care if Cooper and his people tortured and killed them.
One would expect that the addition of John Goodman as the ATF special agent and Kevin Pollak as his assistant would at least bring some serious acting chops to the proceedings, but their characters were so thinly-written and their dialogue so forced that one couldn’t believe them as real characters. It’s a shame that the film’s overall screenplay couldn’t provide the necessary foundation for a cast that had a very good veteran ensemble which included Melissa Leo, James Parks and Stephen Root.
Red State really failed in the very thing that was suppose to make this film the beginning of a shift in Kevin Smith’s career. It failed as a horror film in the most general sense. There was never any true feeling of horror to be had throughout the film. Even the first death of an unnamed homosexual kidnapped by the congregation to be used as an example during one of Cooper’s sermons failed to elicit any form of horror. This was a film which had much potential for some horrific sequences but it never explored it. The film doesn’t even work as a thriller which would be the closest this film ever got to be. Even the ending of the film which tried to inject a semblance of the supernatural didn’t even work as it turned out to be a major bait-and-switch that didn’t come off as creative once it was explained.
Does the film justify some of the venom hurled at it from Kevin Smith’s detractors?
I would say no in that the film wasn’t the worst thing he has made by a long shot. It did have some moments that hinted at something special could’ve been made if someone else was involved or if the film had more time to be worked on. I do believe that if Red State was made by anyone else other than Kevin Smith it would be considered average to good. But having such a polarizing figure as it’s creator and marketer might have blinded some in actually watching this film with an open-mind.
Does this mean Red State was actually a good film?
I would say no with the reasoning I’ve mentioned above. But I will say that the film wasn’t dull or boring. As unnecessary as the ATF task force to the story as a whole their arrival and the subsequent reaction of the congregation to them made for some exciting few minutes. Even Michael Park’s performance was quite good despite some of his line deliveries coming off as incoherent mumblings.
If Red State was to be Kevin Smith’s attempt to try and move away from his history of making comedies then it was a failed one. While it was a failure I wouldn’t mind him going back to the genre to hone his skills in doing more horror. If Uwe Boll could continue making even worst materials then surely Smith could be given another chance to make another and fix the very things which he did wrong with Red State with another horror film project. One thing for sure he would not be lacking in actors wanting to work with him.
I will admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Kevin Smith as a filmmaker though I don’t dislike or even loathe the man the way some film bloggers seem to. He’s definitely much more talented than Uwe Boll despite what some people may say. I just think that Kevin Smith had ended up listening too much to his own press about how he was the indie darling of the 90’s. He lived too much in his past glories and stagnated as a creative artist.
His last few films were either bombs financially and/or critically. Smith just tried too much to replicate what he had done in the past when he should’ve been trying to expand his horizons and attempt new things. To say that his Cop Out was awful would be an understatement. One of the worst films of recent memory, but for some reason actors still want to work with the guy.
It’s a good thing that good actors still want to work with him because his upcoming film, a horror film at that and a straight out one, in 2011 looks to be Smith reinventing himself beyond his “Jay and Silent Bob” era.
Red State looks like it’s just plain horror and the teaser trailer doesn’t seem to show any black humor or any humor at all that seem to be part and parcel of any Kevin Smith production. The teaser has a fundamentalist eerie vibe to it and with Michael Parks in what looks to be a Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church infamy has definitely peaked my interest.
If Neil Gaiman, who has already seen the finished product (or close to being finished), was shaken by the experience but in a good way then my optimism for this film may not result in another Kevin Smith disappointmen. One can only hope.
Through the Shattered Lens 