Anybody Hungry? How About Some Gumbo?

Jan 20, 2010 Cool Stuff

My new friend Beth Accamondo who does the CINEMA JUNKIE blog for KPBS in San Diego sent me and Stew “Sugar-Mags” Goldstein a box of gourmet brownies for a Gumbo recipe! It was a sweet deal on our end, I think Beth got rooked, but I figured it was a pretty decent recipe and deserved to be posted here!

Okay, one of the things about gumbo is that no 2 are the same, gumbo is really more of a term like stew, consomme or chowder. So, pretty much whatever you got lying around can go in it. One of the things that is not in most gumbos is okra or file, not a lot of folks like okra and file is an easy out.

The proper way to thicken a gumbo is with a roux and there are various ways to make roux. I like to go simple, use 1 part oil, corn or canola (something with a high smoking point but not peanut oil) and one part flour. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or Dutch oven, preferably cast-iron, at a low flame till it’s really hot then whisk in the flour stirring constantly. Cook for about 10-15 minutes depending on how dark you want the roux. If you are doing duck, turkey, venison or gator you might like your roux to be a little darker. Shrimp, fish, chicken and scallops you may want to go a little lighter but make sure that it’s fully cooked and doesn’t have a chalky taste. Separate a sample and let cool, please! You have no idea how hot and sticky roux can be, it’s like napalm. No joke!

To make your simple shrimp stock take the heads and shells from the cleaned shrimp and bring it to a boil in a quart or 2 of water with some celery innards. That’s why I like to use a quart of chicken stock so you can make the shrimp stock really intense. Always throw a few bay leaves in any stock, pork, chicken, beef, fish, whatever!

There’s also a recipe for a good no sodium Cajun spice mix. Let’s face it, you can always add salt at the table and don’t buy into that “iodide is a necessary nutrient” crap, Kosher salt tastes better and has 50% less absorbable sodium than table salt.

Cajun Spice

* 4 teaspoons Paprika
* 3 teaspoons Garlic powder
* 3 teaspoons Fr. ground pepper
* 2 1/2 teaspoons Onion powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoon Dried thyme — crumbled
* 1 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano — crumbled

For the roux

* 4 ounces vegetable oil
* 4 ounces all-purpose flour

* 2 quarts stock (chicken or shrimp or both)  with one cup crushed or pureed tomatoes

* 2 cups of the TRINITY (1 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup diced celery, 1/2 cup diced green peppers)
* 1 tablespoon kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon Cajun spice (no sodium)
* 1/2 pound andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and browned

* 2 tablespoons minced garlic

* 1 1/2 pounds raw, whole, head-on medium-sized (31-50 count) shrimp

1. Prepare the roux and bring stock & tomato to a simmer.
2. Take the diced onion, celery, green peppers & andouille and toss in the spice mix but save a little for the shrimp.
3. Once the stock is at temperature and the roux is ready and on a low heat, mix the trinity in with the roux and saute until onions start to look translucent, stirring constantly then add the garlic absolutely last.
4. Add the hot stock right after the garlic and stir with a whisk to insure there’s no clumping. The heat of the stock will help with this but you should still stir constantly!
5. Add shrimp and remaining spice mix, stir and bring to a low boil then simmer.
6. Continue to stir occasionally and it will be ready in 15. If it doesn’t look like it’s bubbling, don’t worry, there is plenty of heat in the mix!

HELP THE HERO INITIATIVE!

Jan 19, 2010 Cool Stuff

Hey, folks, got a cool charity auction coming up to benefit the Hero Initiative! For those of you that are unfamiliar with this outstanding charity here is their mission statement;

The Hero Initiative creates a financial safety net for comic creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. Since inception, the Hero Initiative has been fortunate enough to benefit over 40 creators and their families with over $400,000 worth of much-needed aid, fueled by your contributions! It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

I found out about it from Ms. Renee Whitterstaetter, one of the very nice comic-book professionals that I routinely pester on social networking sites. Here’s what Renee had to say in her latest blog about it;

“On E-Bay right now: the Mid-Ohio-Con charity auction is up and running and our friend James Henry, one of the organizers of the show, has just send me some images and links to the auction, which includes an awesome Batman sketch that Steve Scott did for the convention on their Main Stage.

The auction also features copies of the Texeira’s “Babes & Brawn” sketch book, Golden’s “Heroes & Villains sketchbook,” and the Creator Chronicles DVDs that I co-produced on Joe Jusko and Bill Sienkiewicz, so take a look. You’ll also find some great pieces by some of our friends such as Chris Sprouse, Billy Tucci, Fred Hembeck, Jay Fife, Todd Nauck and many more, representing the awesome line-up at last years show!”

You can check out a page with all the eBay listings here!

This year we are going to 11! PK’s pick for 2005

Jan 18, 2010 Cool Stuff

Something I would like to mention before I start this post. If you are at an event in the coming weeks where folks are watching the NFL, please don’t complain about people watching football, ok? You don’t even have to pretend to like the game. Just tolerate the maniacs that live vicariously through genetically engineered, drug enhanced armored psychopaths let loose on a concrete field covered in industrial outdoor carpet and enjoy the food and booze. Thank you.

2005 was a really outstanding year in films that were both lauded with praise by critics and films that were cheered by fanboys.

• SIN CITY: I actually had a nightmare the night after seeing this film about the creepy Hobbit in the glasses. Oh, yeah, Frank Miller, blah, blah, blah….

• SERENITY: A Sci Fi Western that actually makes some sense! Wow! Well-thought out characters and a thorough mythology (better be considering it was a TV show) are usually a Whedon trademark and the film manages to be a great capping to the show and a great stand alone adventure. The Master of the Macabre himself, Bernie Wrightson, did character designs for the Reapers, so that is a huge thumb’s up in PK’s human skin bound grimoire of opinions.
  

• 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN: Steve Carrell really is America’s sweetheart in this wonderfully executed comedy and Catherine Keener is quite charming as his love interest. ProbablyApatow’s best movie.
  

• BATMAN BEGINS: Before last year, I would have said, “Best Bat-Movie EVER!”
  

• THE DEVIL’S REJECTS: Okay, maybe Sherri Moon-Zombies voice just doesn’t bother me as much as some folks. I really have to give it to her husband on this film, though. It’s a really well-done turn on 70’s revenge thrillers with an amazing ensemble cast! Let’s give credit where credit is due, character acting legend Geoffrey Lewis is great in everything that he’s done and Priscilla Barnes performance is in my opinion, honestly, Oscar worthy. I was really rooting for WilliamForsythe, too!
  

• GRIZZLY MAN: Well, if anybody knows crazy it’s Werner Herzog.

• THE DESCENT: My good friend Damian Maffei said, “When I was sitting in the theater  watching that film, I felt what I think audiences did seeing JAWS in the theater for the first time.” That is a bold statement, but I do agree that Neil Marshall’s foray into what I like to call the “C.H.U.D.” genre is an instant classic! A Horror film where 4 ridiculously hot, and I mean amazingly fine, fine prime young ladies don’t take off their tops and I didn’t notice until Damian mentioned it afterwards?! That is impressive film-making people!

• CAPOTE: I have mentioned certain actors that have taken on roles of historical figures as if they were their doppelgangers, Philip Seymour Hoffman makes you feel as if Truman Capote is in the room with you. Catherine Keener is wonderful as Harper Lee, author of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD*, as is Chris Cooper, who portrays Alvin Dewey, the investigator of the murders Capote made famous with his seminal work IN COLD BLOOD.
  

• WALLACE & GROMIT: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: I was a scared!
  

• THE ARISTOCRATS: “Then the dad wraps the guinea pig in duct-tape so it doesn’t explode when he…”
  

• A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE: Did you really need make-up to give Ed Harris an air of menace? Oh, William Hurt should have won Best Supporting Actor, too.

Boy, is this a GUILTY pleasure!

• SANTA’S SLAY: For BellMojo’s CHRISTMAS AFTERMATH Burlesque & Music Fest Damian Maffei was asked to provide content for over 100 TV screens at the Pool House Billiards Hall & Pub. This little gem ended up in the pile and nether of us had seen it. In the middle of a RIDICULOUS set of Death Metal byKOROTORY, Damian taps me on the shoulder and points like the Ghost of Christmas Future to a TV screen showing James Caan, Fran Drescher, Rebecca Gayheart and Chris Kattan portraying a good Christian family at the Holiday table who are then brutally slaughtered by pro-wrestler Bill Goldberg in a Santa suit. It also has RobertCulp and he was Trent in DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND**

*If you have never seen this B&W classic for shame.
**Ditto!

Tags: 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, BATMAN BEGINS, CAPOTE, GRIZZLY MAN, horror, Independent film, SANTA'S SLAY, sci-fi, SERENITY, SIN CITY, THE ARISTOCRATS, THE DESCENT, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, thriller, WALLACE & GROMIT: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

2004’s Picks and an Apology for one Omission!

Jan 16, 2010 Cool Stuff

First thing everybody is going to say is “No MILLION DOLLAR BABY?” Well, unfortunately for me, the ending was revealed to me before I had a chance to see the film, it certainly is a haunting tragedy beautifully executed by the man who may be America’s greatest living actor/director with a brilliant cast, but what can you do? Didn’t see it in theaters and have been dejected about it ever since.

• FAHRENHEIT 911: Once again, no matter what you have to say about Michael Moore and his agenda, this stuff had to be said!

• BOURNE SUPREMACY:Once again, the only things that this film has in common with the novel on which it is based is the title character and that they are both great!

• DAWN OF THE DEAD: Okay, not a big fan of fast zombies, but then this film did something that Romero failed to do in his last outing, bringing some new ideas to a progressively overdone genre. The opening sequence is riveting and the part where Sarah Polley does a header in to the tub still makes me cringe.

• A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN: Even more frightening to the citizens of California is the premise set forth in this wonderful satire about what would happen if the immigrant labor force simply disappeared.

• KILL BILL vol 1: Sonny Chiba. Nuff said.

• KILL BILL vol 2: David Carradine. Nuff said.

• SHAUN OF THE DEAD: The moment in which Shaun’s girlfriend tells him that the flowers are addressed to his “mum” may be the most uncomfortable moment in Horror film ever!

• THE INCREDIBLES: This movie really fired on all cylinders and the second half was the best Bond film since GOLDENEYE.

• HELLBOY: Who could do this role better than Ron Perlman? Mike Mignola’s world’s greatest paranormal investigator is brought to spectacular life by the best monster-movie maker in the biz, Guillermo del Toro. As a comic-book fan and a fan of the comic-book, it was nice to see a film in which things were changed from the source material with good reason, not just arbitrarily. Though I do still have to admit that the relationship betweenHB and Liz Sherman seemed a bit icky for me, I mean they are pretty much adopted brother and sister, but everything else about the film was stupendous! How bad-ass was Karl Ruprecht Kronen? Rumor has it that if GdT does a third film it will feature more of Mignola’s Occult Nazi villains and the claw of justice, himself, LOBSTER JOHNSON! Which means we might get evil Nazi head-in-a-jar Hermann VonKlempt and his army of cyborg primates! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

• SPIDER-MAN 2: “Best Super-Hero Movie EVER!” EXCELSIOR!

There is a 3-way tie for my guilty pleasure this year and they are all deserving!

Tags: ANCHORMAN, BOURNE SUPREMACY, CLUB DREAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, FAHRENHEIT 911, HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, HELLBOY, KILL BILL, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SPIDER-MAN 2, THE INCREDIBLES

2 blind warriors, a sailor & Kieth Richards walk into a bar…

Jan 13, 2010 Cool Stuff

There were a lot of movies that critics, both professional and amateur, slammed in 2003. Well, what the hell do those clowns know? Here are my pics for the year:

• ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO: Yeah, it was all over the place but who cares! Robert Rodriguez gives a fun-filled romp in a movie that Johnny Depp looks like he is having as much fun making as he did FEAR & LOATHING. Banderas is great once again as the Mariachi and Salma Hayek smolders too briefly on the screen for my taste. Eva Mendez exudes sexuality and danger, Micky Rourke is a real cabron and Enrique Inglesias manages to be prettier than Eva and evoke more drunken world weariness than Mickey! Movie even has Ruben Blades!

• MASTER & COMMANDER: As much criticism as the guy gets, Russell Crowe can carry a film and here he is extremely good as a Sea Captain in pursuit of privateers! Beautiful cinematography of this film often make you feel as if you were at sea while the brutality of battle and the hardships of such a life are thoroughly depicted, including what passed for surgery in the days of the Napoleonic Wars. There is also the theme of exploration and the thirst for scientific knowledge that ran rampant at the time, evidenced by the sub-plot of the ship’s doctor desperately wanting to study life on the Galapagos. Good old high seas adventure!

• X2: Here is an example were a sequel may be superior to it’s predecessor! Alan Cumming really did a great job portraying the Fuzzy Blue Elf and Brian Cox proves once again that there are few actors alive that can breath such malevolence into a character.

• HOUSE of 1000 CORPSES: If anyone has drawn fire and scrutiny from critiques and audiences it is Rob Zombie, but if you have a problem with his directorial debut than you are just playa-hatin! Excellent production, great characters and a kick-ass soundtrack make this a drive-in horror hit! You really like the kids of which the Firefly Family are about to make short work. Loaded with classic horror movie references and a classic horror movie cast (Sid Haig, Tom Towles, Bill Mosely and Karen Black) really solidify it as a new exploitation classic. The scene in which THE SHEILD’s Walton Goggins is executed by Otis Firefly is simply riveting.

• HAUTE TENSION: Yo, man, that bitch is crazy!

• RETURN OF THE KING: While it is the weakest of the 3 films and does deserve some pokes for being overly melodramatic, and, even, a little, well you know, for the amount of time focused upon Sam & Frodo’s breaking-up and getting back together (this may be the only snark you will get out of me) it was liking watching Ross & Rachel for a hot minute. There are also two glaring changes from the novel that stick in my personal craw (Faramir attempting to bring the One Ring to his father Denethor and the complete omission of the scouring of the Shire) that being said, the film is still a masterpiece and I can get away with talking trash when someone gives me a 300 million to make a trilogy based on one the greatest pieces of fantasy literature ever written! The battle of the Pellenor Fields was practically taken from my mind’s eye and no giant spider has ever looked a good as Shelob. You can tell that the kids at WETA really took notice of Tolkein’s description of the Last Child of Ungolient, “But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness.” Oh, by the way, I guarantee that I could do a great mini-series of NINE PRINCES IN AMBER for under 250 million, if anybody wants to pony up the coin. Anybody?

• MONSTER: Once again let’s touch on the subject of crazy bitches. Charlize Theron was an actress long criticized for being just a pretty face. Boy, did she prove them wrong with her turn a real- life serial killer Aileen Wournos. Christina Ricci is also perfect as Theron’s less than unwitting girlfriend. Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress, Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama and the SAG Award for her performance. Astounding!

• BAADASSSSS! Mario Van Peebles turns his critical eye towards a topic of which he had both intimate knowledge and the impetus to explore, his father and the making of the film which started the Blaxploitation genre, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Mario himself starred as the young version of Sweet and to say that his father had a tendency to be a task master towards his son and himself would be an understatement! Rain Wilson is great, as always, playing Melvin’s good friend and Adam west makes a wonderful cameo. The title that Mario initially wanted was “How to Get the Man’s Foot Outta Your Ass”, which is truly apropos.

• ZATOICHI: You want to talk about movie bad-asses, no conversation would be complete without mentioning the blind samurai Zatoichi! 26 films were made from 1962 to 1989 and one hundred and twelve episodes were aired from 1972 to 1974 about the lovable rouge, a masseur and gambler that travels the country side, righting wrongs, usually after taking some Yakuza in dice! The legendary Beat Takeshi, known in the USA as Vic Ramano, host of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge; takes the role from Shintaro Katsu truly brings honor to the film, which he also directed.
  

• PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Everybody had something negative to say about the movie I had the most fun watching that year before it made it to screens. And they were full of a lot of hot air! Too bad it was a one-hit wonder! Curses, me mateys.

2003’s guilty pleasure is:

• T3: This doesn’t even really deserve to be a guilty pleasure. Other than Kristana Loken’s whole super hot, scarlet leather clad fembot shtick and the nano-bot stupidity, talk about deus ex machina, the movie is pretty solid! It’s very well paced with some ridiculous stunts and Nick Stahl and Claire Danes are both very good.  Arnold, well, he’s Arnold and  I really like that T3 has a much better ending than it’s predecessor!

2002: Daywalkers, Fast Zombies, Forgetful Secret Agents and Elvis Presley

Jan 9, 2010 Cool Stuff

2002 was a banner year for strange and fantastic cinema and had one film that reminded us of how brutal the real world can be.

* BLADE II: Is there a director in this day and age that is doing monsters better than Guillermo del Toro? And speaking of bad-ass, post-modern, heavily armed, martial arts monster slayers, is there anyone that designs them better than Tim Bradstreet? When I had heard that Guillermo was taking the reigns on Marvel’s next film featuring Marv Wolfman and Gene Colon’s wooden knife wielding Nosferatu annihilator and that he had hired Tim Bradstreet to do design, I said about goddamn time! Tim has been a favorite of mine since forever and you could see his mark all over Ron Perlman and his vampire tactical squad with which Blade is forced to ally. Mike Mignola also worked on the film, setting the stage for Big G to adapt HELLBOY, who is one bad-ass, post-modern, heavily armed, martial arts monster slayers in his own right! This movie has just about everything you could ask for in a vampire flick, far as I am concerned. Really cool villains, and a bunch of them, including an antediluvian vampire lord, his hideously mutated son (the awesome Luke Goss, who portrayed Elric of Melnibone, I mean, er, Prince Nuada in HELLBOY II), sleazy human thralls and a vampire princess, played by the mesmerizing Leonor Varela. It really covers all the bases. And while we are talking about the most filmed of monster archetypes, I would like to touch on a few points related to Das Wamphyr. I have long had a problem with much vampire fiction, often these hideous abominations are portrayed in an unnecessarily romanticized fashion. Now instead of mounting Gothic staircases to fright the souls of fearful audiences, they caper nimbly in a lady’s chamber, to the lascivious pleasings of Linkin Park! My vampires were not shaped for sportive tricks nor made to court an amorous looking glass! In BLADE II the vampires are portrayed the way they should be, even at their best they would envision us as cattle and at their worst, much like in Skipp & Spector’s LIGHT AT THE END, they would be dirt-bags with super powers. Either way, no matter how pretty they are, they are pretty ugly! They also have weaknesses and faults, unlike the golden boy-band rejects that pass for vampires in modern film. Even old Barlow has a ton of crap he has to deal with before he and Straker literally set-up shop in ‘SALEMS LOT. Modern vampires have lost their much needed ugliness because they have become pinup fodder for TIGER BEAT, instead of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND! I am sure that Guillermo continues to make people like Forry Ackerman happy! It’s also got Kristofferson, think I am going to watch PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID tomorrow and you should, too! Oh, yeah, you should also check out the covers that Tim Bradstreet is doing for the 28 DAYS LATER comic-book, which brings us to…

* 28 DAYS LATER: Whatever you want to say about fast zombies (I am just glad that people are having such a debate as slow zombies vs. fast in this day and age) Danny Boyle did just as good a job with the post-apocalyptic death at every turn genre as he did with Scottish junkies. Cillian Murphy may be even more scarecrow like than in his turn as the Dark Knight’s phobiaphilic nemesis when he awakens in a London hospital after a 4 week nap. Cillian’s bicycle delivery protagonist was hit by a lorry, that’s a truck for us Yanks, and he slept through the decimation of Great Britain by a viral plague the likes of which we’ve never seen. He soon meets other survivors (Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley) and eventually find refuge with a father & daughter (Brendan Gleeson & Megan Burns) in their barricaded apartment block.  (Block  just means building, good thing I read all those Judge Dredd comics as a kid.) Realizing they must find help the band journeys to a military base run by DOCTOR WHO’S Christopher Eccleston. I don’t know about you folks, but as soon as I saw Eccleston’s Major Henry West I knew he was just Captain Rhodes-Batshit Crazy! Riveting action sequences, moments of abject terror and a wonderful allegory about the monster that reside within all of us!

* BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE: Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are two real life monsters that should never be forgotten, which unfortunately was exactly what they wanted. Despite what you may think of Mr. Moore’s politics or style, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is a must-see! I have known the victims of two such spree shootings. One a friend that we are lucky enough to have with us today, another was a cousin with whom I had a lot in common, that I never really got to know. I implore you, as some one that has seen the pain these senseless atrocities cause, watch this film.

* THE RING: Naomi Watts is captivating in this American remake of a new Japanese instant classic! I saw this film when I was on the road in 2002 and it was my night to have a single room, and much wanted luxury on tour! When returning to the hotel I told another cast member, that had not seen the film, he could have the single. Brian Cox appears in one of the most jarring scenes in recent memory and the imagery of Samara’s revenant climbing from the tv is simply iconic.

* BOURNE IDENTITY: While it has about as much in common with the novel on which it’s based as TOTAL RECALL has to Philip K. Dick’s WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, this rock-em, sock-em rollercoaster about an amnesiac assassin set the benchmark for the post-millennial action film. If BLADE II has what I want in a vampire flick then BOURNE IDENTITY is chock full of what I look for in an espionage outing; foreign locales, beautiful scenery, exotic women, insidious government string-pullers, ruthless contract killers and Matt Damon looking confused half the time, it’s astounding! Oh, man, and the fight sequences are simply some of the best ever filmed. Franke Potente is wonderful as Bourne’s unwilling accomplice, Chris Cooper, Julia Styles and Brian Cox (once again, I have loved his work since he originated the role of Hannibal Lecter) are loathsome as intel-manipulators and Clive Owen makes an appearance as the nemesis known simply by the title the Professor.

* ICE AGE: I just love the Skrat! He made this movie, God bless his twitchy little heart!

* SPIDER-MAN: Sam Raimi gets it right! One of the finest superhero films of all time and an all around great popcorn flick. The casting is superb (J.K. Simmons performance as J. Jonah Jameson is as spot on as Hoskins as Kruschev in ENEMY AT THE GATES) and the story is well thought out, hitting on just about every major theme in Spider-Man’s early career. It’s sequel, is still in my opinion, “The best super-hero movie EVER!”

* NARC: Why did it take so long to get this cop drama finished? Ray Liotta is as hard-boiled and sour as a pickled egg and Jason Patric bristles with self destructive curiosity in this gritty as sand-paper ‘noir thriller about rogue cops searching for the murderer of a fallen comrade.

* THE TWO TOWERS: Definitely the finest film of the trilogy and much more deserving of the Best Picture Oscar than RETURN OF THE KING. Like the novel THE TWO TOWERS is high adventure at it’s finest! I commented in retrospect that the fight in Moria from the previous film is the best depiction of combat in the films. However, the Battle of the Hornburg was unlike any film combat ever seen before!

* BUBBA HOTEP: What can I say, I was positively ecstatic when I found out that the novella written by my favorite living author, Joe R. Lansdale, about an aged Elvis Presley interred in a rundown East Texas old-age home haunted by an “Egyptian Soul-Sucker”, the titular Bubba Hotep. Elvis’ only help is Jack, the kindly man down the hall, convinced that he himself is the 35th President of the United States surgically altered to appear black. Yeah, it’s totally far-out! Even Joe admitted to Ron Bennington in an interview that he told Don Coscarelli it couldn’t be done! Yet, here were weird film legend Bruce Campbell and equally legendary character actor Ossie Davis in the respective lead roles! The film is a pretty damn close adaptation to the book and really has a Lansdale-esque feel to it. There are moments that are intentionally cheesy like the scene in which the King tangos with a royal sized scarab, which to me seems a tip of the old stetson to Joe’s essay ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS featuring the late, great Buster Crabbe. However, like all of Lansdale’s work it combines the absurd with the heartfelt, the bizarre with the simple undeniable truths of what is just in this world. It reminds us of the awful transgression we commit by throwing away our best when they are no longer in their prime, simply because they are in the way. Campbell turns in what may be a career defining performance and Greg Nicotero’s Bubba Hotep design steps right off the pages. Nicotero is one of the founders of KNB EFX Group and he DONATED the suit which was worn by stuntman Bob Ivy! I think that the annals of horror film owe him a great debt! Be great to see what Greg would do with THE DRIVE-IN and my mouth waters like one of the Popcorn Kings sycophants awaiting their sacrament of scab-corn at just the thought of it!

This year’s guilty pleasures were:

* REIGN OF FIRE: Dragons pitted against Air Cav while Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey try to out scruff each other! Best looking dragon since DRAGONSLAYER, which still holds the number one spot in my heart. Really fun Saturday afternoon turn-off-your-brain fare!

* RESIDENT EVIL: Milla. Nuff said.

Tags: Andy Serkis, ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, Bernard Hill, Bill Nunn, Billy Boyd, Bob Ivy, Brad Dourif, Bruce Campbell, Busta Rhymes, Buster Crabbe, Cate Blanchett, Chi McBride, Christian Bale, Christopher Lee, Cliff Robertson, David Wenham, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Ella Joyce, Eric Mabius, Gerard Butler, GREEN GOBLIN, Greg Nicotero, H.P. Lovecraft., Heidi Marnhout, Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellen, Izabella Scorupco, J. JONAH JAMESON, J. K. Simmons, J. R. R. TOLKIEN, Jack Betts, James Franco, James Purefoy, Jason Patric, Jimmy Norton, Joe Carnahan, Joe R. Lansdale, John Rhys-Davies, Kirsten Dunst, KNB EFX Group, Liv Tyler, Marco Beltrami, Marilyn Manson, Matthew McConaughey, Michelle Rodriguez, Milla Jovovich, Miranda Otto, Orlando Bloom, Ossie Davis, Paul Anderson, Peter Jackson, Ray Liotta, REIGN OF FIRE, RESIDENT EVIL, Ron Perkins, Rosemary Harris, sci-fi, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Shinji Mikami, SPIDER-MAN, Stanley Anderson, thriller, Tobey Maguire, Viggo Mortensen, Willem Dafoe

Dah-Dah-Dahna!! Da-dun-da-dun-da-dun! It’s PK’s picks for 2001!

Jan 8, 2010 Cool Stuff

2001 is a date that evokes film greatness and we had some prime examples of them in this year. It also had a lot of movies that were just plain FUN! That is why there is a tie for the number 10 spot.

• SUPER TROOPERS: The scene in which they drink the syrup and wherein one of the troopers admires a billboard model say it all. Irreverent, gross and occasionally smarter than it should be, this commentary on pot smoking Vermont police officers is hilarious.

• JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK!: When Kevin Smith is on he is on! Another film that is irreverent, gross and way smarter than it should be, a lot like the wise-ass clerk behind the counter at your local convenience store. I am also a sucker for funny primates and Morris Day and The Time!

• OCEAN’S 11: George Clooney and the boys make a really great heist film from what was essentially the Rat Pack’s weekend home movies. The cast is superb, the script very funny yet taut and the direction superb! I’d really like to see Soderbergh return to a film like THE LIMEY someday, but this shows how well he can handle big name ensemble casts and the two old men in said cast, Eliot Gould and Carl Reiner, steal the film.

• SHREK:It’s cute and Eddie Murphy has his best performance since TRADING PLACES! MIke Meyers is in top form as the curmudgeonly ogre and Cameron Diaz’s Princess Fiona is a cartoon heroine in the same league as Tarna the Tarakian. Lithgow as always is wonderful and the dragon put in a hell of a performance, too! The movie isn’t dumb, either! It has layers like parfait, everybody like parfait. Oh, I very rarely can listen to ‘Hallelujah’ alone without crying.

• BLACK HAWK DOWN: This object lesson in the term military blunder is a gripping portrayal of one of the worst days in US military history. I remember watching the film with friends and being physically shaken by it. Ridley Scott delivers once again, and Ewan MacGregor and Sam Shepard show why they are two of the most lauded talents of their respective generations.

• MONSTERS INC.: “MIKE WAZOWSKI!”

• ENEMY AT THE GATES: Stalingrad, 1942. Not the best of neighborhoods. Jude Law looks as if he stepped out of a Bolshevik propaganda poster to play real life Red Army grunt turned master sniper Vassili Zaitsev. Law’s opposite number Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) lurks wraith-like in the rubble of the once great city. Joseph Fiennes is Law’s best-friend, a Soviet propaganda officer that was witness to the slaying of 5 German soldiers by the his sublimely talented comrade, whose doubts and convictions are portrayed with nail-biting brilliance. The brother in arms are both in love with Rachel Weisz, who manages ingenue like beauty, even covered in filth. And Bob Hoskins looks so right and is so dead on in his performance it’s as if he were Nikita Kruschev’s doppelganger. A great combat film about a part of World War II rarely seen by the American public and the great sacrifices made by the people of Mother Russia in the fight aginst Nazi Germany. Damn movie even has a happy ending.

• CQ:Angela Lindvall is positively enchanting as a young model/actress starring in a late 60’s French Sci Fi adventure film FIREFLY. The film’s editor, Jeremy Davies, is an aspiring director attempting to complete his own documentary while working on the trouble plagued shoot. Eventually Davies replaces the dickishly twitty Jason Schwartzman as director of the film, who had taken the reigns from mad auter Gérard Depardieu. Davies begins to be drawn into the film on which he is working, literally, by the seductively slinky future secret agent Firefly! This film is a great tribute to the 60’s Euro-SF movies made by Mario Bava and the like, skin-tight cat-suits, go-go boots and pop-art technology abounds! Really touches on the difficulties encountered as a struggling artist and the distractions that come with commercial success. Did I mention how stunning Angel Lindvall is?

• FRAILTY: Bill Paxton is one of America’s best everyman character actors, often overshadowing the rest of the cast, here he takes a great turn as both lead and freshman director yet he never tries to take the film from it’s true stars, Matt O’Leary and Jeremy Sumpter, who play Rockwellian brothers, Fenton and Adam, to Paxton’s loving widower dad. Paxton works hard for his boys, treats them with respect and teaches them to treat folks right. He’s even a church-going man, actually he kills demons disguised as the boys human neighbors for GOD. Matthew McConaughey is superb as the adult Fenton, who comes to FBI agent Powers Boothe with the belief that his brother Adam is the God’s Hand killer, a notorious axe murderer. Adam(Levi Kreis) had called just before taking is own life, and Fenton is convinced that Adam had followed in their father’s footsteps. Really well thought out occult-noir piece that has a twist ending better than many films of it’s genre. Did I mention how stunning Matthew Mc Conaughey is?

• FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: I still have to say in retrospect, the fight with the cave troll leading to Gandalf’s confrontation of the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad-dûm is still the best fight sequence in the series! Yeah, still no Tom Bombadil, but you can understand why. Be nice if Peter would have given us some character designs, though. I mean we know what color jacket and boots the guy wears!

• SEXY BEAST: Holy Please Don’t Let Him Near Me Crap on a Stick It’s the ANTI-GANDHI! Ben Kingsley gives the performance of a career (That’s right I said it!) as a beyond ruthless English mob enforcer sent to bring safe-cracker Ray Winstone back from the good life to do a job for crime overlord Ian McShane. jeez, as if Ben wasn’t enough, you also have the man that plays Al Swearengen on your ass, who did you screw over in a previous life, Ray? There is also a hideous dream sequence rabbit that would stomp the shit out of the one in DONNIE DARKO. This is a top-notch piece of crime fiction, as good as any ever filmed!

And our cheese-tacular entry to this year’s list:

• 13 GHOSTS: Man, did that movie look nice! The story really ain’t too bad, neither! The ghost designs were creepy and the cast is really a-list! Tony Shalhoub is stalwart, F. Murray Abraham is noisome, Shannon Elizabeth is statuesque and Matthew Lillard is over-the-top twitchy! The set-design for the house was really quite impressive and the RPGer in me loves the idea of binding spells etched in glass! Some genuinely scary moments! Lots of not-so-mindless fun! Did I mention how stunning Tony Shalhoub is?

Tags: Angela Lindvall

PK’s 10 Fave Films For Each Of The Last 10 Years!

Jan 7, 2010 Cool Stuff

Hey, kids, It’s PK again. We are going to be posting an article a day for the next 10 covering my favorite 10 films for each of the past 10 years. Now, as with all lists of this type, you may find what you feel to be glaring omissions and selections unworthy, but this is the stuff that I really dug and I missed a lot of films in the last 10 that some folks might really love. Like CASTAWAY, for instance. Love Tom Hanks, love Roger Zemeckis, heck, I even like Alan Silvestri’s music sometimes, just never caught the film. It’s been interesting to go over the films of the last decade, it was a pretty impressive time for film-making, both sublime & deplorable, but we like to be positive around here at BellMojo, so I am going to cover the good stuff and one movie for every year that I love in spite of itself! Oh, some of these films may not have been made in the year in which they are listed, but it will be the year in which they saw wide-release in the USA. Here we go with the year 2000!

* TITAN A.E.: I really liked this animated flick. It had a well thought out story, great character design and an outstanding cast featuring Matt Damon, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane and Ron Perlman. However, the thing that really struck me about the film was the sound! The opening sequence, when the VTOL choppers are landing, has some of the best sound-separation I’ve heard since APOCALYPSE NOW, the movie for which they created Dolby 5.1. Fun flick, well animated with a story written in part by Ben (THE TICK) Edlund and Joss (BUFFY) Whedon.

* GLADIATOR: The best film only makes the number 9 spot on the list? Wha-wha-wha? Hey, it’s a beutiful film made by a great director with a stellar cast, I ain’t talkin’ about the bully-boy from down under, who was great! Oliver Reed in his final performance, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi and, wait for it… Sven-Ole Thorson! That’s right! The man who portrayed Thulsa Doom’s giant snake-raising henchman Thorgrim, in CONAN THE BARBARIAN appears as Russel Crowe’s penultimate opponent!

* PROOF OF LIFE: This is one of those flicks that I missed in theaters and caught only last year. Boy, was I disappointed I didn’t catch this when it came out! Russell Crowe had a good year, here he is a hostage negotiator, Meg Ryan is vulnerable yet stoic wife and David Morse, a favorite of mine from wayback to ST. ELSWHERE, is spectacular as the business man being held for ransom. Good action and taught drama. Well worth seeing!

* X-MEN: Yeah, for those of you that don’t know me, I am a HUGE comic-book fan! That medium is my first love, probably one of the many reasons I am 39 and single, other than the substance abuse issues and anger mis-management, and this is one of the better films based on a comic. Might be higher on my list if I had read the book after Paul Smith left it. Yeah, I am showing my age with that last statement.

* DRUNKEN MASTER II: Like I said, wide release in the USA, and I couldn’t resist what may be Jackie Chan’s best film! Good story, great bad guys, wonderful supporting cast and it goes without saying, ridiculous fight and stunt coordination! Love the bad-guy in the suit with the bad-ass crazy foot-work! KICK-ASS!

* CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: Maybe the perfect Kung Fu flick. You can even take your girl to this one! Featuring the legend that walks, Choy Yun Fat, and two of the toughest woman to grace the screen EVER, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Beutiful cinematography and a story that hits on just about every element of the great Kung Fu films of the past. Still remember being awestruck in the theater.

* THE EXORCIST: One of my favorite films for so many reasons! A masterpiece top to bottom made even better! Unlike other films that had added footage in their re-release, this benchmark film is improved by the “spider-walk” and subtle images that were in the original shooting script. “It isn’t a horror film. I never set out to write a horror novel; I never wanted to frighten people. It was meant to be psychological thriller. A supernatural detective story. But something happened along the way,” said author William Peter Blatty. Well, he frightened a lot of folks with this little piece of police procedural. The novel, it’s sequel and the under-sung film made from the continuation also had profound effects on me. It explores faith and the scientific method in a way that sinuously shows the validity of both reality tunnels. Blatty is one of those few authors that does something miraculous to me, he makes me contemplate returning to the faith! While Linda Blair still deserves demonic kudos for her performance in the film and Elllen Burstyn and Scott Miller are Oscar-worthy, it’s really the supporting cast that knock it out of the park! Max Von Sydow carries the weight of the world like a burnished crusading knight, Jack MacGowron is lovingly cunty as the drunken director that Regan chucks through a window, and the great Lee J. Cobb is like a lovingly mischievous confidant as Sgt. Kinderman, a role appropriately recreated as a jaded cop that has lost his faith by George C. Scott in the aforementioned EXORCIST III. (The , ahem, film the EXORCIST II:The Heretic was not recognized by Blatty and would have been forgotten, if not for producers insisting on not using the title of the novel LEGION. Kinderman remains one of my favorite movie cops ever.) And the music, sweet non-existent supreme being protect me, Mike Oldfield’s “TUBULAR BELLS” is still one the scariest scores to a film ever!

* WONDER BOYS: I was really taken by this darkly comic, almost road movie. Written by Michael Chabon and directed by Curtis Hanson, I first encountered Chabon’s work in PLAYBOY when they published “In The Black Mill” written under the pseudonym August Van Zorn, an H.P. Lovecraft like figure that lived in the hotel Michael Douglas’ Grady Tripp did as a child. I am loathe to admit I have not read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay but this film about the stolen jacket that Marilyn Monroe wore on the day that she married Joe Dimaggio is a gem!

* OH, BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, Charles Durning! The Coen Brothers! That great tune and score by T-Bone Burnett! JOHN GOODMAN AS THE CYCLOPS! Nuff said.

* BEST IN SHOW: This comedy gets the blue ribbon! Porbably the best of Christopher Guests’ ensemble/improve ventures, this mockumentary story of 5 dogs and there owners entering the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show has some of the most uncomfortable moments in any comedy, usually involving Gerry and Cookie Fleck (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara) and Cookies various past sexual exploits. Fred Willard is once again loathsome! Love Fred Willard.

And our cheese-tacular entry to this year’s list:

* COYOTE UGLY: The worst movie I have ever sat through twice! Great idea to leave all that musical equipment on a roof in Hell’s Kitchen! Love you, Piper!

Tags: "In The Black Mill", Adam Garcia, Alan Silvestri, Ben Edlund, Bill Pullman, Bridget Moynahan, CASTAWAY, Catherine O'Hara, Charles Durning, COYOTE UGLY, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, David Morse, Drunken Master, Ellen Burstyn, Eugene Levy, Film, Fred Willard, George C. Scott, George Clooney, Gladiator, Holly Hunter, Izabella Miko, Jackie Chan, Joe Dimaggio, JOHN GOODMAN, John Leguizamo, John Turturro, Joss Whedon, Lee J. Cobb, Linda Blair, Maria Bello, Marilyn Monroe, Matt Damon, Meg Ryan, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Bay, Michael Chabon, Michael Douglas, Mike Oldfield's "TUBULAR BELLS", Nathan Lane, Paul Smith, Piper Perabo, Proof of Life, Roger Zemeckis, Ron Perlman, Russell Crowe, Scott Miller, St. Elsewhere, T-Bone Burnett, The Coen Brothers, THE CYCLOPS, The Exorcist, Tim Blake Nelson, TITAN A.E., Tom Hanks, Tyra Banks, William Peter Blatty, Wonder Boys, X Men