U.S. Army Ranger Sgt Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) accidentally kills a man who has been harassing him and his wife after they are reunited. He serves his time and 8 years later is paroled. To get back to his native Alabama he boards a prison transportation plane. Other criminals are also sharing the flight and are still serving time such as highly intelligent criminal mastermind Cyrus ‘The Virus’ Grissom (John Malkovich), former general of the Black Guerillas Nathan ‘Diamond Dog’ Jones (Ving Rhames) and rapist John ‘Johnny 23’ Baca (Danny Trejo). What could possibly go wrong?!
I love Con Air. It’s a big, fantastic action movie that I regret never having seen in a cinema on a big screen. It’s also very intelligent even though it tries to come across as dumb (I love the armchair film critics on social media who don’t get this). Its homages and pastiches regarding the action genre are very knowing and extremely entertaining. I can’t get enough of those shots of Cage running in slow motion with explosions going off behind him. I also can’t get enough of the soundtrack with its awesome electric guitars. How Do I Live by Trisha Yearwood was also written for the film and received an Oscar nomination. There was also another nomination for Best Sound. The idea of Con Air being nominated for Academy Awards blows my mind.
I also love how each of the baddies in the film has a fleshed-out (pun not intended) backstory and are exceptionally well-acted. It feels like the plane is full of villains en route to a sociopath’s summit meeting. It also feels like any one of these characters was already well-rounded and well-written enough to star in their own film on their own merits.
The action within the film knows no bounds and it feels like ANYTHING could happen. The finale in which a sizable chunk of Las Vegas is levelled is awesome. I love the money raining down on everyone once the action has finally subsided.
Critics at the time were questioning whether the events in Con Air were believable. Who cares? It’s a fantastic film that’s all you need to know. Disregard the mainstream critics with their boring tastes and the armchair critics with their lack of cineliteracy. Con Air is pure cult cinema and a delight from start to finish.
A young couple have their young baby snatched away from them and offered as a human sacrifice to an ancient tree to prolong it’s life by the infant’s nanny. We then see a short time later the Druid nanny from Hell starts new employment caring for another couple’s child.
This tautly and stunningly beautiful film was director William Friedkin’s first excursion into the horror genre again after that low-key film that he directed in 1973 that no-one ever talks about anymore. Just kidding. Friedkin’s first horror movie after The Exorcist was bound to garner much press and this film did. It was also predictable that any film that wasn’t as genre-defining and revolutionary as The Exorcist would provide howls of derision and bad reviews which was the fate for The Guardian.
I refuse to think of any film directed by William Friedkin to be irredeemably bad or massively flawed. And this truly is the case with The Guardian. Amazingly directed, beautifully shot, pinpoint perfect performances (a big shoutout goes to Jenny Seagrove as the anti-Mary Poppins) and you have a taut 1990 film that has more positives than negatives. If anything is lacking it’s maybe the generic source material and the constant re-writes that affected the film. But it’s interesting to see such a great director working on strictly genre fare and seeing what happens. This reminds me of Martin Scorsese directing Cape Fear and seeing what he could do within such parameters.
The horror scenes are great and the buildup of tension is lovingly established. The film establishes the feeling of placing the well being of your baby into someone else’s life and that someone turning out to be a nutjob (if only the film had ditched the supernatural element and made it about a psycho nanny instead. This film could have been to childcare what Jaws was to sharks). The loss of control and the erosion of some of the most precious parental boundaries are fully explored here and the result makes for a very chilling film.
Time has been very kind to The Guardian. It’s established a fanbase and isn’t the disaster some critics would have you believe it was at the time. In fact, it’s a very good movie.
This week’s Book of the Week is Rebel Without A Crew by Robert Rodriguez. I first read this when I started living in Sydney, Australia for a year and it blew me away (Sydney and the book).
It details Rodriguez taking part in a clinical trial to earn the money to make his micro-budget masterpiece El Mariachi. The time spent in the trial is explored in depth and is very entertaining and eye-opening all on it’s own.
He then details how El Mariachi was made and how he substituted an expensive education in a film school for just going out with a camera, experimenting, overcoming any setbacks as he went along and having enough passion and imagination to make the project work.
But then Hollywood comes a-knocking in the form of Columbia Pictures (a far cry from the Spanish speaking ‘straight-to-video’ sector Robert hoped to sell the film to) and so we get to see a birds eye view of the kind of deals brokered to get Rodriguez’s film released and the obscene amounts of money given to him to make this possible. He quickly becomes the ‘next big thing’ and a Hollywood player. It really happens that quickly. There were plenty of parts of this book that made me say out loud ‘No frickin’ way!’
This book is an inspirational to any young filmmaker who wants to make a movie with next to no budget and how if you have the tenacity, persistence and vision then anything is possible.
A truly brilliant book and one of the best I’ve ever read regarding film.
On my search for movie posters on the internet for my articles I come across a massive amount of fan made movie posters. Correction- I come across a massive amount of really good fan made movie posters. Heres a collection of the best I’ve seen so far (this could change as I stumble across more…)
And so, in ascending order…
No. 10- Captain America: The First Avenger
Such a classic American hero gets a classical poster concept.
The Art Deco framing and reimagining for Cap works brilliantly well here as the lines synonymous with this genre also emphasise movement, action and speed.
The red, white and blue of Cap’s costume works really well against the monotone of the background’s gun metal grey.
No. 9- Friday the 13th Part 3
How do you even think about reimagining a horror villain as well known as Jason Voorhees? Like this. Take only single colours (the blue background, the green of Jason, the red lettering that looks it has been written in blood- very Manson Family) and make the image as iconic as possible to reflect the film and central figure.
This is further demonstrated when you realise that it was this Friday instalment that introduced Jason’s hockey mask to proceedings (R.I.P. Shelley). This image further emphasises the iconic dimension to this.
The red and green also remind me of the red and green stripes of Jason’s sparring partner, Freddy Krueger. A nice touch. Red and green are also the colours used for 3D- which this film was shot in. Another nice touch.
No. 8- The King of Comedy
Sometimes simple is best. This poster is minimalism used to brilliant effect. The painting of Pupkin is gorgeous. And that’s all thats needed.
No. 7- Double-Bill – The Birds and Up
A fan made poster for an inspired double-bill coupled with absolutely gorgeous artwork. The colour of Up, the Gothic darkness of The Birds. The juxtaposition works beautifully.
The typography and aged look to the artwork works amazingly well also. I’d pay to go and see this double-bill anyway, but this poster would make me go and see both of these films even if I hadn’t heard of them.
No.6- Drive
I’m loving that this artist has used Gosling’s stuntman mask and brought it to the fore for this poster. I’m also loving that he/she has referenced the iconic poster artwork and bald head motif from Dawn of the Dead resplendent with blood splatter.
I noticed the gore/slasher elements of Drive when I first saw it. It appears I wasn’t the only one. Bonus points for the weathered/vintage look to the poster.
No.5- Dr. No
A sign of a great fan poster- it fools you into thinking that it was possibly conceived and conceptualised at the time of the film’s release but not used by the studio.
This is what has happened here- the artist has utilised the same style of artwork used at the time, assimilated it and come up with something just as brilliant but completely original.
You can tell that the artist knows this film and the series it belongs within inside out.
No.4- Jaws
There are so much Jaws fan posters on the internet and there are so many that are utterly brilliant.
This entry wins out as it terrifies me. Freud would have a field day with this. The enormity of the shark, the unsuspecting woman who is oblivious to her fate, the black water the shark is lurching up from. The sea could be the psyche, the shark our deepest fears that are waiting to attack and consume us whole. But that would be a Tarkovsky film and not the Spielberg classic we all know and love.
This poster still gives me shivers as I’m looking at it whilst typing this entry.
No.3- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2- Freddy’s Revenge
Such a simple premise that no-one else thought to do it! The gay subtext of Freddy’s Revenge is brought to life and placed centre stage on this poster. Thankfully it’s done by someone who is extremely talented and brilliantly gifted.
There was even a ‘Drag pre-show’ before this screening and a discussion about ‘queerness in the horror film’ after it.
This film has become a gay classic as well as newly reappraised by the horror community. It may not have been the sequel to the first that fans wanted but this curve-ball of a film has rightfully now been taken to horrorhound’s black little hearts.
No.2- The Shining
This fan poster is stunning. All the disturbing aspects of the film, all of the disturbing scenarios of the film and the utterly disturbing transformed persona of Jack Torrence are all upclose and personal on this artwork. And the choice of style for this poster is perfect for this with each brushstroke evoking so much.
When I marvel at this poster I think of the brilliance of artists such as Lucien Freud and Jenny Saville. Really. It’s that good!
‘Stare’ by Jenny Saville
No.1- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Well, where do I even begin with this beauty?!
My eyes almost popped out of their sockets when I saw this for the first time. Quite possibly, one of the best movie posters (fan-made or official) I’ve ever seen. And loads to discuss.
When I saw this I instantly thought of the Disco-era of the 1970’s whereby a disco dancers moves would be collected together in one picture, the same figure side by side, showcasing the very best of their dancefloor poses. I then remembered that was in fact a picture like this that was used to publicise Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta as Tony Monero being captured in various poses of disco brilliance.
Five moves of Travolta, referenced in the TCM poster with five moves of Leatherface
Theres also a similar collection of poses of Juliet Mills from the horror masterpiece Beyond The Door that was used in the film and as a still.
The colours on this TCM poster also compounded this Disco 70’s feel as well as the colours also echo the lit up coloured squares on the dancefloors of the era. This is a culture clash that has something in common- TCM came out at the same time as Disco was starting to take off and just two years before Travolta shook his groove thing and became a household name.
The rainbow colours also act as a signifier of the rainbow flag of the LGBT community. I don’t think Leatherface has ever been recognised as an icon of the trans movement even though he is biologically male but loves to apply make-up…to masks made of his victim’s skin. It’s unconfirmed where Travolta stands when it comes to all things LGBT.
A group of teens find themselves the victims of urban legends that come true. These legends range from ‘The Stranger in the Backseat’ to ‘Eating Pop Rocks and Drinking Soda’ (never heard of this but I’m keen to try it).
In the late 90’s there were a slew of teen horror movies made in the wake of one of the most irritating and terrible films ever made, Scream. They involved a group of pretty young actors in movies completely devoid of likeable characters, tension or any kind of intelligence.
This still is better than the entire film
Urban Legend is an example of this wave. Stars from recent TV shows were cast to draw in the young audience members who wouldn’t know good from bad in terms of filmmaking. Even Robert Englund can’t save this turkey.
Aside from being a time capsule from the late 90’s this really doesn’t serve any purpose. When I went to see the vile Scream in the 90’s I saw David Cronenberg’s Crash straight after it. So my advice to you is to watch this auto-erotic car fetishist’s wet-dream instead. Crash proved that some great horror movies were being made in that time period.
A comic book type caper in which a posse hunts down vampires for a living.
This is at the lower end of John Carpenter’s filmography. It feels more intent with slick visuals and trying to come across as ‘cool’ than being a thought provoking piece of cinema with any kind of substance. We get nods to the Western genre with the posse. We even get a reference to The Searchers. That’s the deepest and most thought provoking thing in the whole film.
The only people this film is of interest to are the nerdier depths of the horror/sci-fi demographic.
Yes, it’s as bad as this still suggests
In fact, this feels more like a TV movie than a proper film. The only innovation within this flick is that it’s ahead of it’s time in predicting the dearth of similar fare made to go straight to cable. As a matter of fact I saw this on the Horror Channel. I’m glad it found it’s rightful home.
Not the worst film I’ve ever seen but light years away from Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Someone’s Watching Me…
A wife fakes her own death to escape from her rich abusive husband. She then flees to the mid-west to try to rebuild her life under a different name so that he can’t trace her. Will she succeed?
This is a Julia Roberts movie. If there isn’t a big enough warning to stay away I don’t know what is (although The Mexican is a great film but that’s an exception in her oeuvre).
Everything from the scenes where she gets a beating (she’s like Bambi in these scenes- innocent and a pure victim) through to the scenes where she is predictably ‘learning to live again’ in her new locale (there is one scene where her and her new boyfriend have great fun trying on different hats. I kid you not. It’s as vomit-inducing as it sounds) to the final scenes where her hubby who has now traced her and seems to have morphed into a really rubbish version of Michael Myers, is big dumb Hollywood crud on every level.
El vomito
I hate films that don’t warrant their audience with one iota of intelligence. This is one of those films. It took in megabucks at the box-office. In fact how this was made as a film to be shown in cinemas is beyond me. This feels like a Hallmark TV movie.
If you want to see a great, intelligent film about abuse and stalker-esque behaviour in a relationship, please watch Play Misty For Me instead. If you want to see a film about an abused woman who isn’t a victim seek out Ms.45.
Yes we know the slasher film conventions. Instead of the most irritating characters to be committed to celluloid explain them to us how about integrate them into the script and make an intelligent horror classic. Instead of the mediocre franchise starter that this is.
Horror geek in a mask. Knife not needed. He’ll bore you to death.
Oh and if the film wasn’t bad enough Nick ‘Goth for Guardian readers’ is on the soundtrack.
I first saw Leigh Bowery in the late 80s. I was at the cinema when a commercial for Pepe Jeans was played featuring Leigh. This advert which only lasted about 2 minutes left such an indelible impression.
I first saw the documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery about five years ago and again was gobsmacked. This is amazingly made with a multitude of interviews with collaborators, family and friends. The breadth of the source material of footage and audio featuring Bowery is breathtaking- this project was obviously a labour of love and the director Charles Atlas throws himself into the making of this documentary with gusto and passion. And it shows.
Polaroid of Leigh Bowery, Taboo, London 1986
Who was Leigh Bowery? He is hard to categorise. Artist, fashion designer, pop star, musician, nightclub proprietor/superstar… But most importantly he was Leigh Bowery the personality. He defies all labels. And this is one of the most brilliant things about him and the multitude of ways that the documentary conveys this.
The film shows how Leigh became recognised firstly by his outlandish patronage of carefully chosen nightclubs. Because of this the film becomes so much more. It depicts the underground gay clubbing scene of the 80s in London- a world that spawned the New Romantics (in an interview we hear Leigh say that he always preferred this movement to any other) and was built around the idea of transforming oneself into a legendary entity and the whole ritual of ‘getting ready’ to go out (brilliantly articulated by Michael Bracewell in the film) and all that that entails. From a dingy bedsit in the suburbs arty loners could metamorphosise into larger than life characters and create new personae for their chosen nocturnal wonderlands in the neon soaked big city.
‘We could be heroes…’
London in the 70s and 80s was unparalleled for this- after glam rock and punk, the New Romantic scene had exploded in a mushroom cloud of Elnett and Boots No 5 make up. And that was just the boys. It attracted brilliant creations such as Marilyn, Philip Sallon and Steve Strange.
Whilst this scene and its main stalwarts were brilliant and revolutionary for their time, Leigh was so much more. He was a one man subculture who was still several hundred years ahead of his time. He liked to subvert- gender, the body, sexuality. This documentary depicts this amazingly. Leigh liked to use his body as a canvas and this film is like a catwalk for him to show the world the diversity of his alien visions.
Leigh’s personality and quirks are also evident through the wide range of sources and interviews used for the film- his love of embarrassing people, his love of cottaging (also a key part of 80s gay life), his love of getting a reaction from people but through using his brain rather than just using shock tactics for the sake of it.
There is also a feeling that whatever he turned his hand to he mastered brilliantly. His pop groups Raw Sewage and Minty have to be heard (and seen) to be believed. Here is his genius cover version of Run DMC’s Walk This Way-
And heres how it came about-
Another amazing thing about this film is the music used on the soundtrack- its just as avant garde and original as Bowery. Its a shame that a soundtrack was never released.
In these times of RuPaul’s Drag Race and its imitation of all that was genius that has gone before I can’t help but cherish Bowery’s work and this film even more. He was authentic and that authenticity is even more astounding when watered down versions by more mediocre and conventional drag artistes are foisted upon us. Imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery. Its just really shit.
I’ve now seen this documentary several times and think of it as a film I could watch at any time and thoroughly enjoy. I honestly think this is one of the best examples of the genre and one of the best films I’ve ever seen. I urge others to discover this gem and experience the genius of Bowery for themselves. And here it is-
meathookcinema.com 