WAS1 Productions

Originally Written 05/06/09

I watched the original movie, The Fly on Netflix tonight. I was expecting a schlocky horror movie, but I was impressed with how good it was. Sure it was a bit dated and goofy in a couple of places, but for the time it was a serious and thoughtful science-fiction film.

Cronenberg’s remake in the 80s was fun and entertaining and an effective horror movie, from what I remembered, but it got lost in the drippy gore, like he tends to. I liked how this one had plenty of humanity and melodrama in it.

Originally Written 12/16/08

I saw the remake of  The Day the Earth Stood Still on Friday night; luckily the movie theater was open. It was a surprusingly-good remake, though I’ll admit my expectations were pretty low. Even so, I liked it and found it pretty enjoyable. It was a good update of the original to the present political and social states.

I loved the tension and suspense in the first half of the film. Keaneau Reeves was an excellent choice for the role of Klaatu. Much like in The Matrix, his wooden and detached presence was perfect for an alien.

There were some dramatic elements and scenes which were too forced; the role of the annoying stepson being most of them, which was the main detriment to the film. However, besides that the story was engaging and interesting. It’s not perfect or really great, but a decent effort and a fun ride.

Update 04/25/10

The original movie is a classic sci-fi film that should be seen. It is definitely of its time, as it deals heavily with 1950’s red scare and fear of communism. That fear of forces from outside makes for good drama as the characters and audience try and find out what the objectives are  of these strange and imposing visitors from another world.

Originally Written 12/16/08

I rented Horton Hears a Who with a friend. That was a film I would have likely passed on, given the lame adaptations of Dr. Seuss stories in the recent past. However, a couple of friends recommended it to me, and I’m glad I checked it out.

It’s produced by Blue Sky, which I believe is the company which put out the Ice Age films, so the CGI, while not Pixar, is quite good and pretty too look at. There was some padding of the story with random antics of Horton and the Mayor of Whoville, but overall the film was quite good.

It kept to not only the look and feel of Dr. Seuess’ work, but also the spirit of the story, which previous films have lacked. This film was also missing the crude humor as well; there were a couple of quick, non-offensive sight gags and that was it. It’s definitely a fun watch and worth a rental.

Originally Written 08/01/08

There’s something I’ve been noticing more and more these days. I don’t listen to the radio or music as much as I used to, I spend more of my listening time on podcasts and audio fiction. So over the past several years I’ve grown more out of touch with new music.

I’ve heard of the bands my teenage niece is into now, and I know a couple of their singles, but a lot of the time I’d be hard pressed to name their songs. I figure I’d recognize the songs if I heard them though.

Still, as part of the process of growing older, I realize there’s not a lot of new music that clicks with me. I think it’s true for most people that you tend to lock into the music from your younger years. There are some exceptions and you can discover some new music, but for the most part it seems you fix on music from that era.

Another example was awhile ago when I was half listening to the radio as I drove and thought, that I caught myself absently-mindedly grooving to a Bon Jovi song! Heh, that was a surprise. I still didn’t like it, but it took me a bit to realize what it was, when years ago I would’ve yelled at the radio and immediately switched the station.

I think it was a two-fold effect, one from not having the song crammed down my throat like it was from when it was in heavy rotation back then, so it wasn’t as obnoxious. Secondly, I think it’s the familiarity to songs from my youth, even ones I didn’t like. It’s funny when the songs you grew up with are now considered oldies.

Originally Written 06/12/08

I heard about Stan Winston passing away from cancer. That’s a bummer, the industry has lost another pioneer. He’s done good work making creatures in so many movies I’ve enjoyed.

Coincidentally, Terry and I rented a few horror movies to hang out on Sunday night and relax after a hike. We weren’t expecting much, but Pumpkinhead (3): Ashes to Ashes was actually a surprisingly decent movie. It was a competent sequel that continued to theme of vengeance and being cursed by it, as well as expanding on the storyline of Ed Harley. They gave Lance Hendrickson some nice camera time in the film and it’s always fun to see him show up. As a bonus, Doug Bradley, the man who plays Pinhead, played one of the characters in this film, this time an evil but intelligent villain.

Stan Winston’s studio didn’t do the creature effects for Pumpkinhead that time, but the creature still looked good. There were some quick shots of poorly rendered CGI effects, but most of the monster’s scenes were done with a full suit, and they were good.

We also watched Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud which was done by the same studio and looked to be filmed at the same time. It was more of the same, this time centered around a re-telling of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. The story was the lesser of the two, but it was still a fun popcorn flick.

Finally, there was Hellraiser (6): Hellseeker. This one was pretty bad, as expected. Like the other latest movies, the plot was one which didn’t have anything to do with the original story, but the studio glommed on the Hellraiser angle to squeeze more money out of the franchise. They tried to have a tie-in with the Kirsty character from the first two films, which had one interesting scene to it, but otherwise it didn’t make much sense and wasn’t all that interesting.

The plot also tried to be mysterious and non-linear, but instead just came out as a mostly boring and confusing mess. It was similar in some ways to Hellraiser (5): Inferno, just not as good.

Other than poor writing and cliched ideas, the thing that bugs me about these sequels is that they suck a lot of the intrigue out of the original premise of the series. The first two Hellraiser movies were really cool and something different and unique. The third one was kind of campy, but still fun, then the fourth had Hellraiser in space and just sucked rocks, and it was all downhill from there.

The idea for the movies was the dark side of desire, not a biblical Hell. The original concept of the Cenobites was S&M culture turned up to 11, and it made for creepy, visceral and very unsettling horror. Now they’ve turned that into standard avenging demons punishing the wicked. Wrong! Pinhead doesn’t care about your sins, he just wants to play with those foolish enough to want to push boundaries to the extreme.