by Mr Blunderson
Vampire movies have started to really suck. Yes I'm sorry but it's true. Vampires have a long and rich history in cinema and it pains me to see one of the classic movie monsters reduced to sensitive sparkly angst ridden teenagers. There has been a great deal of web chatter regarding a little sweedish vampire movie, so when I saw it on the rental shelf I didn't hesitate even a little bit.
Let the right one in is a movie that takes it's time unfolding it's tale about a lonely boy, bullied by classmates, befriended by a lonely vampire. It's pacing is very slow and might not appeal to the whiz-bang masses but at it's core is a very excellent story and characters with a great deal of depth.
I enjoyed nearly everything about this movie. The performances were solid, the music was great, and the respect for vampire lore makes it that much better. Sometimes for a movie like this to feel new and interesting it helps to embrace it's roots.
Let the right one in is creepy, brutal, disturbing, deliberate as hell, and one of the best vampire movies made in a very long time which is why I rate it an Oh Hells Yes on the Mr. Blunderson scale. And if you don't like it, you suck.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Review - Choke
by Mr. Blunderson
From where I sit, if there was an element missing from the novel that served as the basis for this film, an early effort by Mr. Chuck Palahniuk, it would be heart. Of course, in the book, it doesn't really have a place for it. Maybe the book has heart and I missed it. Perhaps it is there but it is just a really, really dark heart.
And then comes the question of the adaptation. Writer/Director Clark Gregg takes a departure from the book in many ways but manages to keep enough of the original voice that the end result feels like a great success. According to the extra features, this direction was not only supported by the original author, but highly encouraged. I can't help but think that Palahniuk lucked out when the material fell into the hands of someone who was able to avoid the trappings of so many adaptations (changing the characters names, core relationships, etc).
Choke as a film is an example of a guy who obviously GOT the novel. He understood it. He took the time (years and years) to get the script right, and managed to put enough but not too much of his own voice in.
And it works.
It's beautiful, it's dark and dirty as hell, and the end reult is a fine little movie.
I know there are people who love this book and will be turned off by the fact that the film is not as deeply satirical and dark as the source, but there is a fine line between a too-faithful adaptation and a completely off the rails clusterfuck that Gregg is able to walk long enough to make a believer out of this jaded SOB (that is indeed me I am referring to).
The cast is phenomenal. Sam Rockwell once again demonstrates his superlative and subtle talents that convince me that no one else in this world could have been Victor Mancini. Anjelica Huston brings Victors mother to life in a way that to me felt so much more multi-dimensional than the character in the book (whom I despised, not that it matters). But the best part of this cast for me was Denny, played by Brad William Henke, a character who manages to serve as a moral compass in a film that seems to have no morals at all.
My favorite character by far though was Lord High Charlie, played by Gregg himself. Mostly because the name Lord High Charlie still cracks me up, but also because I think I work with the true life retail equivalent of this guy. Seriously.
After all this you wonder what the hell this movie is about? Well...
Victor (Rockwell) is a med school drop out and, colonial reenactor AND sex addict who scams unsuspecting diners in restaurants in order to pay the bills for his mothers care in a nuthouse. And from there, the story gets a little weird. It's irreverent, it's disturbing, but when the credits rolled the only thing I wanted to do was watch it again. So I did.
Choke gets a resounding Oh hells yes on the Mr. Blunderson scale.
From where I sit, if there was an element missing from the novel that served as the basis for this film, an early effort by Mr. Chuck Palahniuk, it would be heart. Of course, in the book, it doesn't really have a place for it. Maybe the book has heart and I missed it. Perhaps it is there but it is just a really, really dark heart.
And then comes the question of the adaptation. Writer/Director Clark Gregg takes a departure from the book in many ways but manages to keep enough of the original voice that the end result feels like a great success. According to the extra features, this direction was not only supported by the original author, but highly encouraged. I can't help but think that Palahniuk lucked out when the material fell into the hands of someone who was able to avoid the trappings of so many adaptations (changing the characters names, core relationships, etc).
Choke as a film is an example of a guy who obviously GOT the novel. He understood it. He took the time (years and years) to get the script right, and managed to put enough but not too much of his own voice in.
And it works.
It's beautiful, it's dark and dirty as hell, and the end reult is a fine little movie.
I know there are people who love this book and will be turned off by the fact that the film is not as deeply satirical and dark as the source, but there is a fine line between a too-faithful adaptation and a completely off the rails clusterfuck that Gregg is able to walk long enough to make a believer out of this jaded SOB (that is indeed me I am referring to).
The cast is phenomenal. Sam Rockwell once again demonstrates his superlative and subtle talents that convince me that no one else in this world could have been Victor Mancini. Anjelica Huston brings Victors mother to life in a way that to me felt so much more multi-dimensional than the character in the book (whom I despised, not that it matters). But the best part of this cast for me was Denny, played by Brad William Henke, a character who manages to serve as a moral compass in a film that seems to have no morals at all.
My favorite character by far though was Lord High Charlie, played by Gregg himself. Mostly because the name Lord High Charlie still cracks me up, but also because I think I work with the true life retail equivalent of this guy. Seriously.
After all this you wonder what the hell this movie is about? Well...
Victor (Rockwell) is a med school drop out and, colonial reenactor AND sex addict who scams unsuspecting diners in restaurants in order to pay the bills for his mothers care in a nuthouse. And from there, the story gets a little weird. It's irreverent, it's disturbing, but when the credits rolled the only thing I wanted to do was watch it again. So I did.
Choke gets a resounding Oh hells yes on the Mr. Blunderson scale.
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