The Hot Blog

This comes second-hand from a film critic friend in Cleveland, but apparently Will Smith and Sony made a point to promote and screen Seven Pounds for the press in economically deprived areas, as opposed to the usual avalanche of LA/NY screenings (he saw it super early, with full junket interviews and the works). Although he didn't care for the film, he always believed that the pure hatred from many more mainstream critics was due to their annoyance of being denied access in favor of 'those people'. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's tangentially related so I thought I'd share.

Sure, I'd love to see GI Joe early, but at this point I'd probably pass on a last-minute press screening and just wait three days and see it Friday morning before work. But if AMC and/or Arclight doesn't schedule a Friday morning screening early enough for me to catch the flick and still not have to stay super-late at work that day, then I'll be annoyed. But again, I would never take it out on the film itself.

"Last big movie of the season"?

Time Traveler's Wife might surprise.

And I'm sure DP would turn up his nose at both of these, but HALLOWEEN II is by a more important, relevant, and exciting filmmaker than Quentin Tarantino, and Final Destination 4 will do well.

"Do they really think Harry Knowles’ opinion is going to sell a single ticket?"

It will sell a few. Probably not enough to matter.

What I always wondered was why so many ads quote Larry King -- not a critic, and not remotely in the demographic most studios are trying to sell to.

And I'll note that The Mummy 3 did screen for press.

If a bunch of regular critics end up liking this, not showing it will look like a mistake, a la Snakes on a Plane. As far as the geek-blog critics who saw it, it seems that they were all specifically hand-picked for having trashed Transformers 2 (Knowles, Faraci, Roush...who'm I missing?).

As to Scott's point, I can attest as someone who worked for a national chain of newspapers in the early part of the decade...Dallas frequently got better screening access than L.A., at least when it came to big studio films. Then there was one time when there was an embargo on all L.A. reviews for a particular action movie...but no such embargo in Phoenix, where our locally based critic reviewed for the chain. (funnily enough, it was ultimately a fairly well-reviewed, well-liked flick that generated three sequels)

The inconsistency could be frustrating for the one assigning reviews (which was me, more often than not) -- lots of last-minute reshuffling and trading of assignments. It's evened out a bit since the rise of the Internet and fall of print.

LYT: The Terminator?

Back when I was a ten-year-old editor at a newspaper?

(actually, I WAS a published author at ten...but not of film reviews)

I always thought you were a child prodigy.

I just hope Inglorious Basterds is good. Tarantino has nailed all of his movies, except for Death Proof in my opinion. But luckily it was surrounded by the great trailers and Planet Terror so who cares.

Dave, for the record, I was not flown into LA to see the movie. Paramount called me while I was sitting at the airport in Toronto waiting for a delayed flight. I did go right from landing at LAX to the Paramount lot, but Paramount didn't so much as pay for my FlyAway bus fare.

If there's any way to amend that bit, I'd appreciate it.

Correction made and noted in the copy, Devin. Thanks.

"Middle America is ALWAYS the priority for a wide-release movie."

To clarify, it might be more apt to say it is important in terms of advertising and how the movie is perceived by middle America but not in terms of the content of the actual movie itself.

Is the new GI Joe not more for a international audience with all notions of America being wiped from it? Does it not deviate from the source material by saying they are based in Europe as opposed to America?

Curious about that myself, Nicol.

I don't think, from what I've read, that the team is based in Europe. It sounds like they are based in the U.S. but have a more international make-up.

As an American kid growing up in Ireland, I hated that the GI Joe toys were renamed "Action Force" and made more UK-based in the file cards, etc. Very interested to see how the movie deals with that issue.

LYT,

I agree. I wasn't trying to start anything (lest anyone thinks I was), I just was under the impression that the new Joe was based in Brussels or Belgium or something. And I think Sommers has actually given interviews stressing it is not an American movie or team in any way.

I have no attachement to the franchise and do not really care but if this is true, the reach out to middle America would seem very disingenous on Paramount's part. The whole jingle from the cartoon reeks of America and so forth.

Even the 12 inch doll line from the early 70's was America. If the new Joe is European based, I suspect it will bite them in the ass in week 2.

And of course using the name Joe will make no sense. GI Johan perhaps?

G.I. Joe had international soldiers in the 60's. I have the French Resistance Fighter.

I've heard ugly rumors that "GIJOE" now stands for something like "Global Initiative Joint Operations Execution" or somesuch.

I may be liberal, but I do want my G.I. Joe to be American, and wonder how it will play on military bases if not.

They're an international team. Heavy Duty is from the UK, Breaker is from Morocco (but it seems like everybody else is from the US, or possibly Canada. Snake Eyes is white but grew up in Japan). Their base is under the Egyptian desert near the pyramids - pretty much the kind of stuff 9 year olds love.

I realize a 30-second perusal of the Wiki page would clear this up, so I'm just being willfully stubborn:

I always just thought G.I. Joe was the '80s cartoon, with Cobra Commander and Destro and shit, the thing that would be on after Transformers and before Voltron.

So when there are always pop-culture references to "the kung-fu grip" (always a lame joke whenever used except Trading Places), I NEVER, EVER have known what that is referring to, because it sure as shit wasn't a part of the '80s thing... was it?

Then Christian or whoever talks about there being dolls for this in the '60s and '70s... again, I could look it up in ten seconds, but I've never known if these were all separate properties with the same name, just an overall similar concept, or if like Cobra Commander and that stuff has been around 40 years in different incarnations.

'Cause I thought it was all from 1983.

I loved the 12 inch dolls from the early 70's where Gi Joe was an actual guy with a beard named Joe. Sure he looked like he could have been part of the Village People, but that was my Joe. And he was pure America. Just like the Village People.

When I heard he was being relaunced in the 80's I went to the local drug store to buy the new comic and I couldn't find Joe anywhere. I kept sifting through issue after issue until I realized Joe was no longer the guy who led the team but a concept. I lost interest in the 80's Joe even though I was the right age for it.

Have very little interest in the movie and if people like it or not I really do not care.

But with it currently at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes I am more convinced than ever that the purging of American content is a huge reason why it is getting treated to soft good reviews by critics. Just like Bay if villified because he refuses to purge American content.

Nicol D, you have no idea how much I wish that the only problem with Transformers 2 was its right-wing politics.

Lex, you really didn't know that GI Joe had a whole 12 inch toy line from the 60's - 70's? Probably the most popular boy toy of the decade? The coolest American toy line ever made? When they were actually Made In America... Get thee to Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD-jfH7ATgc&feature=related

I think your headline pretty much summed it up.

Christian:

I can honestly say that is the first time in my 36 years I've ever seen GI JOE in that incarnation.

I had the classic 70's GI Joe (kung-fu grip, suckah!) and it had a jeep that launched missiles, all that crap. This new one sounds like it's trying too hard to reach a worldwide audience and gets back to early reports that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who owned the rights, knows nothing of GI Joe.

And Devin, et all; kids these days don't dig stuff like bases under pyramids. That was US as a kid. This movie will tank and tank hard, geek speak of mouth be damned.

I had the classic 70's GI Joe (kung-fu grip, suckah!) and it had a jeep that launched missiles, all that crap. This new one sounds like it's trying too hard to reach a worldwide audience and gets back to early reports that Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who owned the rights, knows nothing of GI Joe.

And Devin, et all; kids these days don't dig stuff like bases under pyramids. That was US as a kid. This movie will tank and tank hard, geek speak of mouth be damned.

I'm with Lex on this. The only GI Joe there ever was and ever will be was on saturday morning tv in the mid to late 80s. The action figures from that time are classics. Any other incarnation, before and after, was a cheap imitation. This movie feels like an imitation of an imitation, and I'm only interested in seeing it because it looks like stupid fun, not because it of its very tangential relation to the classic tv show.

Any other incarnation, before and after, was a cheap imitation.

Huh?? The original was a cheap imitation of the cartoon series it was named after?

And sorry, a 12 Inch Joe cold crush the cheap plastic 80's Smurf versions.

I'm shocked, shocked by Lex's admission.

See, I never knew there was a cartoon or anything about this Cobra crap until recently, when IO and the rest of you guys began going on about it. I figured G.I. Joe had died out with Pet Rocks.

I had that idol and snake. Remember the deep-sea diving getup with the octopus? And wasn't there a rhino hunt/safari kit, or something like it? Maybe a gorilla?

Remember how the beard would rub off and the kung-fu hands would crack and break? Did you guys ever mummify or build a gallows for your Joe? Or do the old garbage-bag parachute? There were Joes marooned on rooftops and snagged on power lines all over neighborhoods everywhere.

Okay, that's enough nostalgia for one day.

Ah-ha!

http://www.buyoldtoys.com/forsale/GI_Joe/pic1/images/Pygmy%20Gorilla_JPG.jpg

It was a mini-gorilla, probably so the cheap bastards at Hasbro could save money on rubber. One solid molded lump, not poseable at all. I also remember the mummy:

http://members.verizon.net/~vze34fnk/graphics/gijoe/mummystomb/gijoe-mummystomb-box-old-large.jpg

LYT:

"Then there was one time when there was an embargo on all L.A. reviews for a particular action movie...but no such embargo in Phoenix, where our locally based critic reviewed for the chain. (funnily enough, it was ultimately a fairly well-reviewed, well-liked flick that generated three sequels)"

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS?

A few weeks ago, I was ready to agree with you don lewis, but the commercials I've been seeing on TV tonight are just cartoon action-action-action. I think they just might get the kids.

And knowing it's Ray Park in the Snake Eyes costume, it's weird to see him kind of recreating his "Ecks vs. Sever"-vs.-Lucy-Liu-fight-in-front-of-a-blazing-electrical-whosiwhatsis, but this time against Storm Shadow.

Say what you will, Dave, but allowing "nice" critics to see the movie, and not allowing "mean" critics to, is a dick move, and probably the only reason GI Joe is sitting at Star Trek levels on RT.

completely agree with a_loco. The whole screening process blows. I don't really care and have little to no intention of seeing/reviewing the film anyway, but it's bad precedent. Actually, it's a precedent that's been around but this movie shed light on it.

And SJR, you might be right. I can never tell what kids will like. Usually it's the worst thing possible so, who knows...

Goulet...yep

That 70s Joe looks kind of like Billy Mays. Someone should do a Kaboom! commercial with the 70s Joe action figure.

Don, the kids love Pixar. Stop hating on the kids.

Loco: they showed the movie to a fuckin guy, that has used his website to insult shit like GI JOE time and time again. Devin could be a douchebag asshole, but he has never wavered in who he puts himself out there to be. So his liking of GI Joe is a fucking shock to someone who has been reading his ass for years.

That aside, it's GI JOE. If you ever saw the cartoon. You get what this movie is. Seriously, that's what it is, and that's a good thing. Conrad Hauser, Scarlett, and Snakeeyes save the day. So, yeah, good times.

Lex, you've never seen ROBOT CHICKEN?

'robot chicken' is a hoot

I have NO idea what Robot Chicken is.

And here I thought I was out of it. Jeez, man.

Here. If you don't laugh at this, I give up.

http://www.devilducky.com/media/45466/

Nicol, I roll my eyes at you ("it might be more apt to say it is important in terms of advertising and how the movie is perceived by middle America but not in terms of the content of the actual movie itself."; "I am more convinced than ever that the purging of American content is a huge reason why it is getting treated to soft good reviews by critics.")

Lex, to get back to your Halloween 2 mention, I think the fact that Rob Zombie said in public that he didn't want to do a sequel and apparently only did so because the Weinsteins desperately are in need of some franchise cash-flow right now. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed 2/3 of RZ's movies, but he's not 'important' 'relevant' or 'exciting' in any way beyond the world of horror movies.

Jeff, thanks for a surprisingly non-condescending and balanced take on it all, but the reason RZ isn't "relevant" or "exciting" to the important film voices is simply that they condescend to him and to the genre in general. He's every bit as awesome and earnest and heartfelt in his obsessions as, say, Walter Hill or Peckinpah or Carpenter were back in there day, but most critics would demean themselves to consider another "Halloween" movie as anything but a disposable teen-splatter throwaway.

"Devil's Rejects" will ultimately end up HIGH on my list of the best movies of the decade, a brilliant bit of exploitation homage that's infinitely more vital and memorable and disturbing than ANYTHING in either of QT or RR's "Grindhouse" movies. And a decent bit of social commentary on top of that, the kind of exploitation movie that, like Night of the Living Dead or Hills Have Eyes or Last House '72 has something very real to say about "the return of the repressed" and all this film-school bullshit, and turns so many conventions on its head... really, it'll rank up there with "25th Hour," "Minority Report," "No Country," "There Will Be Blood," and "Memento" when all is said and done.

And the remake of "Halloween" was mostly written off, but let me tell you, the '78 Carpenter flick is basically MY "Star Wars," something I know in and out, front and back, have seen probably 600 times, know every line by heart and is one of the key movies that made me want to be in the biz.

Now imagine someone, some condescended-to rock star filmmaker comes along and does a remake of Star Wars or Taxi Driver or The Shining, and it's eerie and unsettling and sickly and weird, like some funhouse mirror refraction of a movie that's bounced around your head for thirty years... yet in its own way is every bit as legit, passionate, and maybe even more intense and queasy.

Yes, I know Zombie said he had no interest in making a sequel or becoming the Halloween guy from here on out, but he's clearly demonstrated mad chops behind the camera, and I almost think it's liberating... where his remake fell short was in the rushed and slavishly faithful second half. Clearly his heart is in the skeevy '70s-style carny white-trash elements, and he could basically take or leave the Myers throughline.

So I'm strangely psyched that for the sequel, he probably felt no real obligation or passion for adhering to the mythos, and has apparently gone all out with some unleashed-id Zombie-esque mania, off on his own tangent instead of paying half-baked lip service to Leo Rossi getting strangled before the chick with the giant cans gets dunked in the hot tub. It's going to be its own weird, RZ style freakshow.

It's like if they let Marilyn Manson loose with THE SHINING 2 and gave him free reign to just go all out with unsettling imagery and insane plotting.

Can't wait.

Lex, I know you have a bias, but unchained id may or may not make for a great movie.

RZ does have a huge following in the horror community. They breathlessly report on every little tidbit of Halloween 2 news. He seems to truly love the genre, but I wish he'd work with a screenwriter or let someone else write his movies. The Halloween remake is an atrocious and embarrassing movie. Easily one of the very worst of 2007. Some of the worst acting and dialogue in recent memory. Zombie may have some decent chops behind the camera, but he appears to be clueless as to how to get cohesive performances from a large cast. He's too obsessed with giving cameos to everyone he likes. He also needs to get over his white trash fixation. It's very tired and played out. I think it's strange that no one blinked and H2 & The Final Destination will be released on the same day. Horror fans in general like both series and want to see both, but how many will? Enough to generate good opening weekends for both?

The screening process is just another fine example of the relationship between the media and the industry, i.e. star/starfucker.

the stars make the rules. the starfuckers are forced to deal with them.

Basically, Faraci got a booty call. And like most tiny film websites they are willing to whore out at their own expense for the thrill of being one of the 'chosen'.

Star/Starfucker. You're either one or the other.

The best incarnation of Joe...

http://www.freewebs.com/superjoecommand/figures.htm

Frank - I had those sets as a kid. There was also a white gorilla and one set came with a gator.

The problem with this film is not so much the internationalism or the bs reasons for it, but the MatriX-Men costumes. It kills the distinctiveness of the characters which is why the damn line was popular for so long. So instead of knowing who's who just by look, it's now stereotype and cliches.

Just look at the group photo in Variety's flash carousel. Snake-Eyes and a redhead means Scartlett. OK. After that, it's actor recognition - Quaid's the boss and there's Adabisi as a good guy, which means he's the muscle and a Wayons equals group smart-ass. With Joe, you should be able to tell instantly by aesthetic but Sommers flushed it all, everything, down the toilet because he's tool cool for that. That, IMO, is why there's been an underlining "hope it bombs" sentiment from the geek crowd which Par has been trying to dilute.

Re - Final Destination vs. Halloween 2.
I too have wondered why one of them didn't swallow their pride and move. If not for the unstoppable Saw franchise, I'm sure Weinsteins would have just moved Halloween 2 to Halloween (why not move it to the night before Halloween, since it's a one-weekend wonder anyway?). But I'm guessing that both films are relatively cheap enough to coexist. The Final Destination, with its added 3D ticket prices and it's more 'popcorn flying scary' tone will win the weekend, vs. the brutal and decidedly unfun terror of a Rob Zombie horror picture (to say nothing of the folks who hated his first Halloween picture). I can't imagine that Halloween 2 cost all that much (and I have seen next to no advertising outside of theater lobbies), so I'm guessing that Weinstein Co will be happy with a $15 million opening. The Final Destination, with its added 3D gimmick and general goodwill of the series, could really break out. The last one opened to $20 million, and a $30 million opening weekend isn't out of the question this time (I'd be guessing higher if not for the Zombie competition). Alas, I'll likely end up seeing The Final Destination 3D on opening night, though my wife's distaste for the first Halloween film probably lets me off the hook for the latter.

"House of 1,000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" are pretty exciting, vibrant pieces of filmmaking - same with a lot of the music videos Zombie directed for himself. The one thing that kept taking me out with the "Halloween" remake was Carpenter's score and, to some degree, the mask and locales. Every time you felt like you could start considering the thing on its own merits, it found a way to call back the original and make you compare it to that.

It also got a lot of flack for really explaining the backstory of Michael whereas the original just left that part dark.

But still, I think Zombie's a very interesting filmmaker. I kind of wish he had done something original instead of "H2" next, but maybe - with all the stuff about the homeless Myers and the weird ghost-stuff, he's really claiming it as his own this go-round.

Rob Moore chimes in:

"After the chasm we experienced with Transformers 2 between the response of audiences and critics, we chose to forgo opening-day print and broadcast reviews as a strategy to promote G.I. Joe," says Paramount's vice chairman, Rob Moore.

And if you're in Los Angeles, Graumann's Chinese 6 is apparently going to do the rumble-and-shake chairs for "Final Destination." I'm going to be there for that first Friday matinee. The "FD" franchise is just one of those series that you have to see in the theater. Fun, fun shit.

Oh wow... thanks for the tip. That's really neat. Said horror-loving spouse will get a kick out of that (literally perhaps).

Then there's Eric Fensler's G. I. Joe "PSAs". If Stephen Sommers can hit this mark...

Wow, what a stupid quote by Rob Moore.

For one thing, the reviews didn't hurt Transformers 2 in the least.

For another, they clearly selected bloggers who hated Transformers 2 to "prove" that G.I. Joe was totally different.

Here's where it gets ridiculous for Paramount, though. In my town, there will be a Thursday-night promo screening for people who picked up tickets at the nearby Verizon store. But critics won't be allowed in the building, even if they have a ticket.
So I'll be seeing "GI Joe" at a midnight screening Thursday night/Friday morning — and will have a review online Friday (and in Saturday's paper) as quickly as I would if I would have gotten into Thursday's screening.
BTW, to LexG, don't get too excited about "The Time Traveler's Wife" — it also is not being screened for critics (at least not regionally).

TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE is being screened in LA.

RZ is an important figure in todays horror scene.

For one the guy is a fan with chops and doesn't appear whiny and arrogant (you know who). Secondly the guy isn't 300lbs and fugly which is usually the quintessential horror fan stereotype. If the guy is sexy to women (and he is) then I think he can take the mantle of king of horror for awhile and run with it. However there's a creepy mean-spiritedness to his work that doesn't gel with his enthusiasm for the genre and his humour sometimes comes from the school of picking wings off flies.

You like the OLD version of Halloween, Lex?

BAD MOVIE.

I can't watch it. I always fall asleep. It moves waaaay too slow, the body-count is too low, the shots are held too long, and the women are all wearing those horrible Seventies clothes with the socks hiding their legs.

The cinematography sucks. It should be less blue and more Saw-green and jittery, and there should be whooshing noises on the soundtrack whenever the knife is wielded, or anyone passes through the frame, or stands up or sits down. WHOOOSH!

They should have had all the chicks in midriff-baring tops, and that lousy, cheesy synth score should be replaced with some chunky guitar Nu-Metal. And it needs high-tech gore. Imagine if Michael chopped someone's head off with one swipe, no edits, with digital cartoon blood flying everywhere in a handheld shaky-cam shot with a hundred lens flares.

THAT WOULD OWN.

"If the guy is sexy to women (and he is) then I think he can take the mantle of king of horror for awhile and run with it."

blech. not this woman

and 'king of horror' my ass. his flicks are lame to mediocre at best, and couldn't scare a flea off a dog

I don't know, I really don't connect with Zombie at all. I like that he's actually a horror filmmaker who loves horror, and knows it well...but damn, I think he's made a bunch of weak movies. Devil's Rejects was the best he's made and I'd basically categorize that one as "okay." Halloween was so damn silly. I think the guy has a pretty great movie in there somewhere, once he decides to stop making homages and just make something interesting. Halloween was so incredily silly. He should go for it and make a really surreal horror movie...which he sort of did with Corpses but that still had such a standard storyline.

I think his Halloween remake COULD have worked...I wouldn't have minded him exploring Michael Myers as a kid, but I think he went the easy cartoonish route and that hurt.

I thought THE DEVIL'S REJECTS was art, the bastard mutant son of Peckinpah and Craven.

Leahnz. Well maybe not to you but he is attractive to many women from horrors core scene. And not to sound ageist but you're not really representative of women plonking down $$$ to see the latest horror film now are you?

Now the mantle King of Horror isn't actually a title based on value or merit of his filmography it's based on his brand and what he does for the scene. Arguing about whether REJECTS blows is neither here nor there. He does more for Horror these days than the Crypt Keeper Carpenter does. I'm older, wiser and more of a purist than you'll ever be, but even I think it's a bit silly to be so blindly nostalgic that you can't comprehend the scene as it is.

And for the record I detested Corpses and Halloween but rather joyed the gleeful nihilism and energy of Rejects.

Maybe it is, C, but it's also a mess in terms of tone, and a completely amoral movie. And the best parts are blatantly stolen from Tobe Hooper, Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, to be specific.

I'll admit there is something there, some style and potential. Forsythe is fun to watch, and overpowers nearly everyone else. There's a certain warmth and humor in the scenes with Foree and Berryman, and Sid Haig is often funny. At its very best, it feels like Tarantino made a horror film.

But overall it's a shambles, and sick in a bad way. Don't try to tell me it's being ambiguous or complex by forcing us to identify with the killers, yadda yadda, because I didn't -- they were vile, annoying, and I couldn't wait to see them get it. (Moon-Zombie in particular, but also Mosely, who I loved in Chainsaw 2.)

But then, I also don't buy that Last House is anything other than a very effective (when it's not totally inept) grindhouse flick that gets by on going too far and rubbing our noses in it. Vietnam my ass.

I agree the film is kinda amoral, but Moseley's scene taunting God to come strike him down is like something I haven't seen before. I told Rob Zombie hisself that I loved it when Forsythe stapled the girl's photos to the Rejects. I think Zombie wants the audience to feel that charge of cathartic revenge. All I know is that is that it was one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. But the film is true to itself and felt more 70's crime than 70's horror.

I didn't identify with the killers in the least, which is why I so appreciated the finale. We have the oldest staple in horror films, the crazed male maniac chasing down a 'helpless' blonde victim with the intent to savagely murder her. But because of the dynamic, we're quite possibly rooting for the 'crazed chaser' for a genuinely moral reason. Now Halloween, on the other hand, I found overtly immoral, especially the fact that Zombie gives quick deaths to the amoral or immoral characters but drags out the suffering of the decent people.

just wanna bring up that when Armond White gushes over GI Joe, all the positive suck-up geek press will wilt in the bright shining glow of ARMOND and his maximum bullshit. Can't wait!!

I get your point, Christian, but I'm not convinced he really knew what he was doing POV-wise. Seems like he threw enough shit at the wall and some of it stuck.

Why is the suffering of the motel victims played as a joke, but the Fireflys' pain and deaths are epic, as if they're some great folk-hero outlaws?

Like Scott said, there was an interesting dynamic as we're cheering on Forsythe torturing them, and then realizing how sick this is. But then they get that grandiose, blaze-of-glory finale...if it was irony, it didn't work.

I think RZ has an affinity for the genre and some talent, and hope that he gets it together and makes a fully-realized film someday. (As opposed to, say, Eli Roth, who I hope just goes away.) But if I never see Whitetrashjokeycameohalloween, I'll live quite happily.

How did this turn into a Devil's Rejects thread? We're under Zombie's spell!

"Like Scott said, there was an interesting dynamic as we're cheering on Forsythe torturing them, and then realizing how sick this is."

I think I said that;] And I get your point about mythifying them at the end.

But any movie that references SKIDOO is Art.

Rejects is okay, and i don't find Zombie the complete hotness (compared to Zinedine Zidane or Takeshi Kitano) *but* he's a bit of alright. I love that he's a big fan of the Munsters and he brought horror a little bit more attention by making some unusual movies. I hated 1000 corpses.

In general I think I don;t care for his films massively because I much prefer Asian horror to anything in US horror scene right now and I love the way Johnnie To (in a few of his films) has mixed horror into "regular" films.

Speaking of mixing horror with other genres, Just revisited Mr Vampire today. For an old movie (1985) It's hysterical Chop Socky and there are some genuine scares.

"We're under Zombie's spell!'

hardly, frankb (speaking for myself, of course)

'Leahnz. Well maybe not to you but he is attractive to many women from horrors core scene. And not to sound ageist but you're not really representative of women plonking down $$$ to see the latest horror film now are you?

Now the mantle King of Horror isn't actually a title based on value or merit of his filmography it's based on his brand and what he does for the scene. Arguing about whether REJECTS blows is neither here nor there. He does more for Horror these days than the Crypt Keeper Carpenter does. I'm older, wiser and more of a purist than you'll ever be, but even I think it's a bit silly to be so blindly nostalgic that you can't comprehend the scene as it is.

And for the record I detested Corpses and Halloween but rather joyed the gleeful nihilism and energy of Rejects."

JBD.

(and dude, if you're gonna board the condescension train i'll have to preface this by saying that to me, you'll always be the dude who claims johnathan mostow is a better filmmaker than james cameron so...bless)

you said "if the guy is sexy to women (and he is)...", nothing about these so-called 'women from horrors core scene', whoever the hell they are. and yes, you sound an ageist prat, because woman who love hard-core horror come in all shapes, sizes, ages and nationalities. if you assume only vacuous 20 yr old bimbos clinging to zombie are the hard-core horror demographic willing to buy a movie ticket, you be trippin. (and what zombie's supposed 'good looks' have to do with horror-loving women choosing to go see his movies is beyond me anyway, what a silly cliche)

"Now the mantle King of Horror isn't actually a title based on value or merit of his filmography it's based on his brand and what he does for the scene."

so being the 'king of horror' is all about looks and marketing? how purist of you

"I'm older, wiser and more of a purist than you'll ever be..."

older - congratulations on winning the race to the grave!
wiser - unfortunately telling someone you are wiser than he/she are doesn't actually make you wiser, it just makes you full of yourself with a rather inflated (or possibly fragile) ego
purist - have at it, i'm no purist, i'm all about evolution. i'll take my horror any way i can get it, so long as it's fresh, engaging, ingenious, hard-out, well-shot, clever, gutsy and SCARY.

re: zombie, imho he's a walking cliche/parody whose derivative, obvious, unimaginative, tired, cliche-ridden flicks do nothing for me. so he's a horror fan and loves the genre? whoopee-fucking-do, it's a pity it takes a lot more than that to actually make good movies. 'rejects' is certainly nasty and disturbing, i'll give it that, but also hugely unoriginal and i just didn't feel it at all and didn't give a shit about anybody in it.

if zombie is the fresh new 'king of horror', god help us horror-lovers. give me the hits and bad misses of marshall, gans, fressenden, aja (here's hoping he's over the extended brain fart he must have had making that 'mirrors' poopfest), turner, even blomkamp...i'm knackered so i can't think of any more of the young horror guns but i'll take those boys and their toys over the cliche-ridden pap of zombie any day.

My favorite part of Devil's Rejects had nothing to do with gore or people freaking out or getting murdered, and everything to do with a guy standing on the side of the road selling chickens.

So what are you trying to say leahnz?

;]

Leahnz you're cute when your coat gets all bristly. I love how you make bullet point rebuttal lists. How very teacherly of you.

I wasn't being condescending when I said you didn't represent the average female horror fan. You're deluded if you think you do. You're old and you're a slave for genre filmmakers.

btw horror queen, his name is Fessenden. I also like how you use their surnames except for the complicated one 'Aja' LOL

Do you mean Gens or Gans? As Gens has really done one horror and Gans has really only done Silent Hill and one poor segment of an anthology. Either one are poor choices. And Blompkamp? Oh please.

You come off like someone who just picked up the latest issue of Fangoria and wrote some names down. FAIL.

Next time think about what I've said before you get all uppity and school headbitchtress on me.

And when people see AVATAR they'll agree with me about the Mostow line.. har de har.

ps I lied I am younger than you.
pss I misspelt Blomkamp on porpoise.

oh JBD, you tosspot. i did indeed give what you said careful thought, it took all of 53 seconds

the names i came up with? top of my head (you = epic fail)

aja IS his surname, dipshit (alexandre or something like that is his first (you = epic fail)

gans - french dude (i think), bro of the wolf, necronomicon (sp?), silent hill; i'm not even a fan but the point was, better than 10 fucking zombies put together (you = epic fail)

blomkamp - district 9 - serious horror elements, i've seen it twice (you = epic fail)

shitting on avatar, a movie you haven't seen? (you = epic fail)

you have no idea what you're talking about

school headbitchtress gives you: a final grade of D-, just because i'm that fucking delightful

Leahnz and JBD are two of my favorite posters here usually, so not touching this with a ten-foot pole, but just to sing my own awesome praises for a sec:

Everyone please note that the haters here think I'm some raving sexist, misogynistic asshole, but I never have and never would bag on a chick or pick on a female regular as hardcore as just went down.

Just want it entered into the record that despite my rep and the offensive nature of my "generically" targeted rants, on a strictly one on one basis, I've always been a DISARMING DELIGHT to Leah, Lota, Kim V., DeafBrown, Sultry, etc.

LEX IS HOT.

hey, it's fine with me that JBD is as big a know-it-all dick to me as he is to everyone else, my gender is irrelevant to the proceedings

what IS relevant is that JBD is full o' shit (and don't even get me started about all that supposedly 'inside' crap he said on the 'lovely bones' thread, he has no clue what he's on about past what he's been spoon-fed, confirming what i've suspected all along)

Leahnz.. I concede to Epic Fail on Aja. Color me dyslexic.

ps.. I'm not totally full of shit for the record. A wee dram or two perhaps.

pss - I've seen D9. I was wrong about it. It's excellent and much better than the trailer suggests. I might be a dick sometimes but you do give off a school marm vibe now and then. Nobodys Perfekt (1979)

JBD is okay, he respects Sonatine so he must be firing on all cylinders.

Glad to hear about D9.

Dream on Lex. When you stop yearning for damaged young females who cut themselves and mail order brides (i.e. servitude and no English), and discussing women like they plastic Barbies who serve you and don;t even have a name you can remember, or free will then you may attempt to disarm. Until that time, EPIC FAIL.

Lex, the only way you can claim to get away with your Leykis 101 crap is if you rant that way in the flesh to the women you know -- and they still find you endearing. Nobody is that CHARMING.

Lota. Thanks for the support. She can be quite terrifying.
If you dug Mr Vampire and if you haven't seen Sammo's Dead & The Deadly or Encounters of a Spooky Kind then please remedy asap. You probably have if you're an old school fan. I'm excited to hear IP MAN 2 is being made for release next year. I miss the days when Tiger on Beat was on at my local theatre with a second feature like City War.

Lex will never get laid, which is just as it should be.

I still say that he goes for women out of his reach because he doesn't want to score. Because he's gay.

'She'...if that means Leah...she's grand, and of course you *are* being facetious or you'll get slapped around again.

I actually saw Mr Vampire when I was a youngster in school (and other movies) with CHinese friends and their 'special copy'[likely not legal] VHS and forgot how nuts it was. The hopping dudes make you LOL; then, you get nervous because alot of that stuff with them and the ghost love romance is really creepy. There's difference between Asian death humor and our sort of zombie slapstick and the Asians for some reason can make it so much more creepier with a more imaginative afterlife. American horror afterlife--they want to come back and slice us up. Asian horror afterlife runs the gamut of genre scenes. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts is a perfect example (and I love Johnnie To as much as I can) of a brilliant movie with horror but many other elements as well.

I've seen a few of the other Mr Vampires in the last couple years, but the original is quite original.

IP MAN yes is a slice of excellence--Wilson Yip (Yip Wai Shun) YEP YEP

Only problem was I have no idea what everyone was saying at the time I originally saw it since I did not have a US region copy--I saw it in Europe and had to have native speaker tell me what was being said, so I have to buy it.

I think Ed Wong is a good writer and hope he does alot more stuff.

We need to bring more Asian mentality into US horror before I get bored to death or want to swear US horror off forever because of that stupid Hostel crap and all copiers of boring slasher stuff. Cut my Guts out 365 ways Part 26. That's what we're headed for.

We used to have it, what happened I am not sure, but I think we have lost touch with our nightmares (the real ones).

City War--never got to see that in Cinema.

Speaking of which I wish Kai "Rico" Chung wrote more stuff.

Is Tin-Shing Yip is related to Wilson Yip?

Tin-SHing Yip was a writer of Election Hak se wui (2005) , and many other fine things.

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