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
