FrightFest Day 2

August 25th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

Having skipped the Hatchet DVD commentary (not having seen the film before I didn’t fancy having someone talk all the way through the film) the day started with The Sword Bearer. It wasn’t the greatest start. A love story with characters you don’t like and don’t care about and a score so overblown you’d think it was an opera. You can get away without explaining a lot in genre films (The Signal that followed this is a case in point) but a guy with a fucking sword that shoots out of his arm isn’t one of them. Worst film of the festival so far.

Things picked up big time with The Signal, a film that owes more than a little to Romero’s Crazies but had enough originality to keep it fresh. I’m assuming the three directors each did one of the segments (or Transmissions as the film refers to them) and whichever one handled the middle section is the pick of the bunch. There’s a lovely streak of black humour running through it that’s mostly absent from the other parts. In fact one of the films main problems is its a little pretentious and has a climax that’s far too drawn out.

Next up 1408 based on a Stephen King short story. It’s well made, well acted but a little to over the top. It feels like they’ve thrown every possible scare tactic into the film, including that perennial favourite, bleeding walls. Still, Cusack is on good form and Sam Jackson steals the film (and delivers the best line) in what amounts to an extended cameo. This may have made more money than any other King adaptation but it’s far from the best. This was followed by a short Q&A with the director, Mikael Hafstrom.

FrightFest Day 1

August 24th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 5 comments

This is my first film festival experience and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Reaching the head of the cue I picked up my weekend pass and proceeded to find my seat (which was rather a good one, not to close to the front and almost dead centre, although there is a guy with a rather large head in the seat in front. This could present a problem with the subtitled films). I could see why people cued outside when the tickets first went on sale though, the rear seats are bigger and wider than the others and when you’re going to be sitting for so long I’m sure it makes all the difference. I came armed with a cushion (I’d done my research!) but decided not to use it one day one, although I’ll definitely be getting it out today.

So what about the films? Well first up was Black Sheep, a comedy horror from New Zealand. The screening was sold out (the guy in front of me in the cue for tickets was disappointed to find there were none left) and it was nice to see the film with such an appreciative audience. It’s a fun film, playing things straight and all the funnier for it, but I did feel that all the best bits were in the trailer.

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly…

July 11th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

Things have been a little quiet on Mine Was Taller of late. I’ve not been completely inactive though, with plenty of articles appearing on the Blogcritics Magazine site. So what have the none-BC readers been missing? Well for starters there have been several pieces celebrating the centennial of a couple of movie greats.

Laurence Olivier Centenary: The Greatest Actor of the 20th Century? takes a look at one of England’s finest exports and there are also reviews of The Boys From Brazil, Sleuth and Bunny Lake is Missing.

John Wayne, My Dad, and Me or How I Learned to Love The Western goes back to my childhood to explore the beginning of my fascination with John Wayne and there’s also my pick of his films from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ’60s and ‘70s. The Wayne celebration concludes with a look at Warner’s John Wayne Film Collection box set.

Then there’s Cinema Macabre Issues 3 & 4.

Issue 3 takes a look at werewolves in the movies -

Iloz Zoc spotlights the Lon Chaney Jr. classic The Wolf Man (1941).

Daniel Woolstencroft watches one of the best Stephen King adaptations, Silver Bullet (1985).

Tony Woolstencroft enjoys the dog vs. werewolf film Bad Moon (1996).

Sticking with the dog theme Chris Beaumont celebrates the British horror movie Dog Soldiers (2002).

Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt (2004) is my pick and it’s shocking not least for having a good performance from Julian Sands.

Is War, Inc. a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank?

March 23rd, 2007 Posted by Ian W | Film & TV News, Rants & Raves | 3 comments

Is John Cusack’s new film War, Inc. a sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank? There seems to be very little information about the film online but what there is leads me to think this could be a follow-up to the 1997 cult favourite.

IMDb has this to say about the plot -

“…is set in the future, when the desert country of Turagistan is torn by a riot after a private corporation, owned by the former US president, has taken over the whole state. John Cusack plays the role of a hit man, who suppresses his emotions by gobbling down on hot sauce and is hired by the corporation’s head to kill the CEO of their competitors. Everything changes when the ruthless killer finds himself head-over-heels in love with a sexy reporter.”

This sounds more than a little stupid (a spicy sauce guzzling assassin!) but at least one thing seems certain - Cusack is playing a hit man just as he did in Grosse Pointe Blank.

And there’s more -

Cusack wrote the script for Grosse Pointe Blank something he’s only done with two other films - High Fidelity and War, Inc. Two out of three films about hit men or should that be a hit man? IMDb lists no character name for Cusack in the film.

John’s sister Joan appeared in Grosse Pointe Blank as his secretary. She’s back in War, Inc but again there is no character name listed.

Dave Cockrum: A Comics Legend Passes Away

November 28th, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

One of comics’ great unsung heroes passed away on Sunday. Dave Cockrum had been unwell for many years, suffering from diabetes and related illnesses.

Dave’s first professional comics work was on Vampirella for Warren Publishing in 1971. Later that same year he did his first work for one of the big guns, working as inker on DC Comics’ Superman title. He soon progressed to penciling a memorable run on Legion of Superheroes.

A couple of years later he moved to Marvel, once again starting out with an inking job, this time on The Avengers. But bigger things were just around the corner…

When Cockrum and Len Wein created the new X-Men in 1975 the team was hardly the top seller it is today. In fact it had been on hiatus for several months and for months prior to that had been surviving on reprints.

Giant Size X-Men 1 changed all that. Building on the mutant team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963 they added new heroes who would become staples of the title for years to come. Several would even make the leap to celluloid in the three hugely successful X-Men movies.

Colossus, Storm, Mystique, and Phoenix are just a few who owe their look to Dave Cockrum. But his greatest creation must surely be Nighcrawler, a character he’d created years before and even offered to DC for their Legion of Superheroes.

How I Learned To Love Being Scared

October 31st, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | no comments

In August 1975, BBC2 started showing late night horror movie double bills; these ran for a couple of months every year until 1981. Some of the fondest memories of my childhood are watching these with my Dad. He wasn’t a big horror fan but seeing these films with him was how my fascination with the genre started.

That year I was ten and Saturday not being a school night, I was allowed to stay up a little later than normal, much to my younger brother’s annoyance. The movies usually started somewhere between ten and eleven; the first was a ’30s or ’40s classic while the second was of a more recent vintage and was considered too adult for my tender years. This probably had more to do with sex and nudity than violence and gore.

The only film I remember seeing from that first season was The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) and while I remember it having a very creepy atmosphere it is most memorable for introducing me to Peter Lorre. His twitchy, nervous performance is easily the highlight and I’ve been a fan ever since.

Tom Cruise Vs Paramount: Who’s Telling The Truth?

August 24th, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Film & TV News, Rants & Raves | no comments

Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise have parted company and it would seem the split is anything but amicable, with both sides claiming they instigated the parting. So who, if anyone, is telling the truth? Let’s have a look at the evidence.

Over the past year or so Cruise has come under fire from the media, for several reasons, most notably acting like a fool while professing his love for Katie Holmes on Oprah and being out spoken about the use of certain prescription drugs. This, Paramount have claimed, has affected his pulling power at the box office and caused them some embarrassment as well. While if can’t really be disputed that Cruise hasn’t done his public image a lot of good, just how much has if affected his star pulling power? Not a lot in my opinion. Lets remember we’re talking about Hollywood here, I don’t think a few red faces is going to put a major movie studio off, only money will do that. And in the embarrassment stakes Cruise definitely takes second place to Mel Gibson.

If you look at Paramount’s most successful films since the year 2001 that didn’t star Tom Cruise, you see an interesting pattern -

2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider No15
2002 The Sum Of All Fears No24
2003 How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days No29
2004 Lemony Snicket’s No18
2005 The Longest Yard No12

I Am Dyslexic Starring Will Smith

August 16th, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 11 comments

Whoops, my mistake that’s I Am Legend. But Smith is in fact dyslexic, something I never knew until recently. Something else I never knew was that about 4% of the population are severely dyslexic and a further 6% suffer moderate to miner effects, that’s 1 in 10. What’s the point of this? Let me explain…

Last week I received some ‘helpful’ comments on this site from someone whose opinion I valued (and, I surpose, approval I wanted.) I mean, this was after I’d been over it with spellchecker and corrected the worst mistakes, so I must be bad right? Following these comments I was not only ready to stop writing this blog and delete everything I’d already written, but also sell my house and move to a small island off the coast of Scotland, in the hopes of being far enough away from civilisation so as not to infect anyone else with my illiteracy. Thankfully some good friends persuaded me out of this course of action (I say thankfully as it gets cold up there and I hate the cold) and instead to dig a bit deeper to find the root of the problem.

Dyslexia was first recognised by Parliament in the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 although it wasn’t until the 1993 Education Act that it was defined as a special educational need. Basically what this means is that if you were a kid going to school in the 70’s who suffered from severe dyslexia there was a chance you might get some kind of special attention. If on the other hand you only suffered a mild form, the chances were you would just be branded as a ‘bad speller.’ I was a kid going to school in the 70’s and I was a ‘bad speller.’

‘The Official DVD Forums Top 100 Films’ Poll

August 9th, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 5 comments

There’s a thread running over in the DVD Forums to find ‘The Official DVD Forums Top 100 Films,’ so if you’re a member make sure you vote (and if you’re not a member, why not?) You pick just your top five films for the poll, and that got me thinking - how do you select five films out of all the classics that have been made over the years?

Do you try and spread them out across genres? Or decades? Or maybe your favourite stars/directors? It’s an impossible choice really. It’s the kind of thing that will vary depending on your mood, but somehow it had to be done.

So what are did I vote for and why? I’m glad you asked.

In reverse order -

5. Dirty Harry

The late 60’s through the 70’s was the golden era for thrillers for me, and I knew I had to have one in my list. There were several contenders - Bullitt, The French Connection, Marathon Man, Chinatown to name just a few, but in the end it had to be Clint. When I think of Eastwood characters it’s always Harry Callahan that comes to mind first. The sequels may have gone steadily downhill but the original is the perfect, no frills, cop movie. It’s hard to believe Eastwood wasn’t first choice for the role (actually he was fourth after Sinatra, Wayne and Newman all passed) as it’s become such an iconic part that it’s now impossible to imagine anyone else playing it.

Films I want on DVD No1: Rituals

July 26th, 2006 Posted by Ian W | Rants & Raves | 3 comments

This is the first in a planned series about lost classics not yet released on DVD.

I was introduced to Rituals by Stephen King; not personally you understand but via his book Danse Macabre. It’s an excellent read and highly recommended for anyone with a love of horror, be it cinematic or the printed word. One of the many films he referred to was this low budget Canadian shocker and he also included in his top 100 horror films at the back of the book.

Now in the early eighties I was a King fanatic (I’m still a big fan) so if the big guy rated it that highly then I wanted to see it. And I did, on a poor quality video cassette rented from the local video emporium, this was in the pre video nasties era when any Tom, Dick or Harry could set up their own video rental business and Blockbuster had yet to invade these shores.

I was impressed or as impressed as I could be with what I could see on-screen and that wasn’t much. The video had been in a lot of machines before ours and at least a few of them must have found it tasty enough to have a chew on, added to this was the fact that a lot of the film takes place at night and the film was low budget to start with so we’re not talking high production values here.