America’s greatest hero is back. No, I’m not talking about Captain America, or Neil Armstrong, or even Audie Murphy. I’m referring of course to Jack Bauer. And yes, I know he is played by a Canadian actor, but nobody’s perfect. Kiefer Sutherland has announced that everyone’s favorite indestructible Special Agent will be back next summer. However this time, he’s moving to the big screen.
There really isn’t much info out yet except that it’s supposed to start shooting in January and should be released sometime next year. Aside from Jack himself, it’s not clear who else might pop up, but as far as I’m concerned, the only other person that needs to appear my favorite computer analyst and yours, Chloe O’Brien!
The show ran for 8 seasons, and I was a huge fan from start to finish. I’d be remiss however, not to admit that the first 4 seasons were considerably better than the last 4. The show just didn’t have the same feel after David Palmer…
But despite declining viewer ship, as well a poor reviews towards the end, 24 still entertained the Hell out of me and I do miss it. Truth be told I wasn’t heartbroken when it got canceled. The show had sort of run it’s course, and how many shows now get 8 seasons to do so? Plus there was always talk of this movie happening so I didn’t really feel as though I was losing some of my favorite characters as with other canceled shows.
Now originally when they talked about this, they did so in a manner that would’ve exceeded ‘Awesome Levels’ by so much movie projectors would’ve exploded. One of the early drafts for the movie was titled: Die Hard 24/7. It would have featured both John McClane and Jack Bauer thus making my head explode along with the projector.
I am happy though they’ve decided to keep the franchises separate. This way we 2 get movies instead of just one. With that, let me just say I’m very excited for this movie.
You have to think about the landscape of the horror genre in 1996. Several years removed from its last smash hit and fading, Horror fans wanted a reason to go to the theater. The genre was in trouble, and the most successful horror movies of the decade to that point were Silence of the Lambs, Misery, and Flatliners. All released in 1990, and none of which are traditional ‘Horror’ movies. It seemed the old school ‘slasher flick’ had been all but killed the in the late 1980s. Done in by endless sub-par sequels to movies like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Audiences had become fed up and the box office reflected it. So when Scream came out, and grossed over $100 million, it was a big deal.
I felt the Laser line background screamed 1990.
I think it’s easy to forget how big a deal it was now, 15 years removed from its release, because of what came after. Scream fell victim to the same formula that killed its predecessors: Too many mediocre (if not downright terrible) sequels and copycats. In recent years I’ve been involved in discussions where this movie will be brought up and someone will lump it in with the garbage that followed. That however, is simply not fair. Scream was a head above anything that followed through the rest of the decade. From I Know What You Did Last Summer (& it’s own sequel) to Urban Legend (& it’s terrible sequel) to Scream 2 & 3, no movie I can think of has been so copied so quickly.
Scream set a standard for a while. It wasn’t just another teenage slasher flick, it was self-aware. It was a satire of the entire genre that it unintentionally revitalized. They did everything from straight out referencing movies like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street by name, to talking about the director of their own movie in a fictional manner. All the while, more subtly throwing nods back to the classics. Skeet Ulrich’s character, ‘Billy Loomis’ should sound familiar to Hitchcock fans who will remember the boyfriend ‘Sam Loomis’ from Psycho. You might also remember one ‘Dr. Loomis’ in the Halloween movies. We get a cameo from The Exorcist star Linda Blair as a reporter, and Sheriff Burke was played by Joseph Whipp. Mr. Whipp doesn’t have much luck protecting kids apparently, as he was also a cop on Elm Street 12 years earlier.
This also came out at a time when it was rare to get A-List cast in a horror flick. I mean, this is what you did to start a career, not once you were established. And make no mistake, in 1996, Drew Barrymore was a bona fide A-List actress and I don’t think she gets credit enough for the success of this movie either. Scream catapulted almost the entire cast into furthering their careers. Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox were already TV stars, but this made them house hold names. Plus David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Matthew Lillard, and Rose McGowan all went on to have success after this.
The story was simple enough, small town high school students are being terrorized by a serial killer. He wears a mask and calls to taunt his victims on the phone. That aspect is what has been most played up in spoofs and re-imaginings. So much so that phone companies reported the orders for ‘Caller ID’ tripled after the release of the movie. As the movie progressed and we learn who the killer is (are) we are regaled by the lack of motives. Sidney (Campbell) survives and we’re actually given a pretty satisfying end to the movie. So much so that a sequel really doesn’t make sense. Of course that didn’t stop them from making one.
In fact the movie became watered down by not 1, but 2 sequels. A watchable, but not good sequel in Scream 2, and then the abortion of a movie that was Scream 3. The second movie followed Sidney (Campbell) and Randy (Kennedy) off to college where the movie was once again packed with a good cast and similar formula. In this fictional universe there is a movie based on a book by Gale Weathers (Cox) about Sidney and the events from the original film. This movie with-in a movie is called Stab. Stab inspires a copycat killer to start stalking Sidney and recreating kills from the original killer.
This one has a cast that including Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Gayheart, Jada Pinkett (Smith), Omar Epps, Heather Graham, and ‘Charlie’ from The Mighty Ducks. It also featured Buffy herself – Sarah Michelle Gellar, and future Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi. But the best parts of the cast were the 2 actors who weren’t yet widely known. First Liev Schreiber, who reprised his role (of about 10 seconds) from the first movie as Cotton Weary, and most importantly, my favorite actor on television – from Justified Raylan Givens Timothy Olyphant.
In the 3rd movie we were heavy on cameos and big names, like on substance. At the time I did enjoy the presence of Jenny McCarthy and the cameos Carrie Fisher and by Jay and Silent Bob, but I don’t remember enjoying much else. Scream 3 was so bad it not only killed the franchise for the next decade, but the whole genre for a couple of years. After the ware-out provided by all the copies, it wasn’t till the Japanese Horror Invasion started in 2002 with The Ring that the genre felt fresh again.
That quickly faded however, and they went back to the well. This time with a gluttony of remakes. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (& horrible sequel), The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street, and an entire franchise reboot of Halloween.
Now, here we are in 2011, just a few days from the release of Scream 4. The first chapter of the franchise in over a decade, and just as before we’re not short on names. From Sookie to the Cheerleader to Annie Edison, this looks to be full of beautiful women in precarious situations. The most important one of course being my Uber-Crush: Kristen Bell.
I can’t really predict any true level of quality here, but I will say I’m expecting it to be better than the 3rd one was. As long as they’ve worked on it for, they must have learned something from the 3rd movie.
Well I can already say that I hate these new ‘movie geek’ kids. Lame ripoff of my favorite character in the series Randy. They just seem to convoluted to be likable, but I guess we’ll find out Friday.
Anyhow, I’m going to see this opening night because of my attachment to the franchise. I’ll be doing so in hopes it’s not terrible, because I’ve already committed to seeing it a 2nd time with my Secret Agent/G-Man buddy Dave. We watched all the other ones together back in High School, so it only seems fitting that we do this one as well.
“Yes Kristen, obviously I agree. VERONICA MARS was a better show than TRUE BLOOD is.”
Over the weekend I had to pleasure of seeing a film called Hanna. I had been waiting for the release of this movie for quite some time now and I can tell you – I wasn’t disappointed. The movie revolves around a 16-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) who is trained by her Ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) from an early age to fight and survive against exceptional odds. Cate Blanchett’s character is our antagonist, as she attempts to hunt down Hanna.
Oh buddy. It’s hard to imagine this kind of cast in a movie this poorly shot and written. In 1992, if you had put Sylvester Stallone, Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, and Kris Kristofferson into one movie, it’d be for sure a summer blockbuster. In 2002 however, this movie barely registered a blip on the radar. And that’s not all. This masterpiece also luminaries such as T-1000, Young Indiana Jones, and none other than our very own Party Crasher. Oh yeah, THE Party Crasher.
So now that I got the sweet ass cast out-of-the-way, let’s get to the shit fest movie itself. Eye See You is the story of a FBI Agent Jake Malloy (Stallone) who is hunting a serial killer who targets cops. Said killer has ended 9 cops in the last 6 months and the 10th is one of Malloy’s friends. As Malloy arrives at the crime scene he receives a call from the killer…who is at his house. He is then forced listen to the murder of his girlfriend. What I just wrote is a generous description. These first 30 or so minutes of the movie were terribly written, poorly shot, and as predictable and cliché as I’ve seen. Though I did like the killer’s method – he would knock on the door, and when people look into the keyhole he puts a drill though their eyeball.
After his girlfriend’s death Malloy falls into months of depression and tries to kill himself…twice. Eventually he is convinced by his partner (a very fat Dutton) to a middle of no-where detox facility for cops, run by an ex-cop (Kristofferson).
I admit that once he arrives at the detox center the movie gets exponentially better. It climbs from the depths of a ‘terrible action movie’ all the way up the ladder to a ‘mediocre thriller’. Of course when you add those 2 halves together, it still averages out less than a sub-par movie. Bad enough in fact that the studio shelved it for 3 years before they altogether disowned it. And despite spending $55 million on the production (most of which was probably the cast) they gave it such a limited US release that it grossed only $32 thousand dollars. That’s a bit of a bust. It also didn’t help that it was released around the rest of the globe under the title D-Tox, and then renamed Eye See You for the U.S. DVD release, effectively confusing the shit out of people.
Once the mystery part of the story gets moving it’s obvious they drew upon one of the greatest mystery thrillers of all-time: The Thing. In fact, if you take the aliens and the quality out of The Thing, you’re basically left with this movie, right down to the blizzard setting.
Now I am a Stallone fan, but even surrounded by the talent present in this movie, he gives one of his weakest performances. In fact, so do Kristofferson and Berenger. And I would rip Dutton, but there wasn’t enough script for him to work with for him to take any of the blame. But this is what happens when you hand your movie over to a director who biggest critical success is I Know What You Did Last Summer. And yes, I said critical, not commercial, though that would qualify too.
My biggest problem with the movie however, is clearly the same problem that prevented this garnering a bigger release. Both under exposure and misuse of The Party Crasher. Here you have one of the greatest actors of our time, and he was given all of 10 lines or so. It’s down right shameful.
Overall I’d have to give this movie 3 Bears for the Party Crasher, but I have to take away one of those Bears since they so poorly used him.
This felt all too familiar. Some 6 or so months ago, I sat here at my desk and typed pleas to the internet community to watch Terriers. I was met with: ‘that new FX show about the dogs?‘. No one could quite figure out the marketing campaign, and that hurt the show. But unlike the networks, our favorite cable station FX let Terriers play out despite the abysmal ratings, instead of canceling it mid-season. I credit FX with giving it a chance, even if they didn’t re-new it. And they’ve just done the same thing again.
Regular readers to the site should already know, my favorite show on Television is Justified. They should know, not because I’ve said it multiple times (even though I have: Justified: A Beacon of Modern Masculinity & Justified: Cottonmouth – Harlan County’s Best of the Season just to site a few), but because it simply embodies the opposite of everything I regularly point out as being wrong with TV.
And last night was no different. For those paying attention to the show they already knew going in last night we’d get to see the Bennett Clan’s ‘Everyone is Invited’ picnic. We knew Mags had something up her sleeve, but we just didn’t know what. We also knew going in that Carol Johnson, the representative of the mining company, who was under Raylan’s protection, had plans to buy out the Bennett land, and mine the mountain.
The episode kicks off with Mags and Loretta, doing what appears to be some ‘Mother-Daughter’ bonding. Mags is gifting Loretta a family heirloom, an antique hairclip when Coover busts in the room. Mags explodes at him about not knocking and proceeds to kick him out.
He doesn’t leave right away though, he stands outside the closed door long enough to hear his mother cruelly badmouth him to her apparent new favorite kid.
Coover is obviously jealous of the attention Loretta is receiving from his mother, as if she is part of the family now.
Shortly after this Boyd and Ava show up to the shin-dig, and are clearly not welcome. Local Police Chief (and Mags’ eldest child) Doyle Bennett threatens to remove them forcibly if they don’t leave, but Boyd persuades him to arrange a sit-down with Mags. At this point we still aren’t sure what Boyd’s endgame is, only that it involves Raylan’s father, and what seems to be the betrayal of his current employer – Black Pine Mines.
This is when Raylan and Ms. Johnson arrive. Carol goes to have her final discussion with Mags, only to find Boyd is also present. Carol is under the impression that Boyd has secured Arlo Givens land for her, when in reality, Boyd secured if for himself. Mags then looks at Black Pine’s offer and demands it be tripled. She also wants a stake in the company as she reveals to Ms. Johnson, with the land now owned by Boyd and the Bennetts, Black Pine cannot build the road they would need to transport the coal. Black Pine agrees to her terms and she sells out the county she’d been so adamant in defending.
After Raylan and Ms. Johnson leave, Loretta is called over to help Coover load some kegs into the truck, as he has only one capable hand now.
This is when Loretta notices Coover’s watch, or rather, her daddy’s watch. She is noticeably frightened enough that Coover comments on it. It is now obvious that he only put the watch on to let her know he killed her dad. She heads back up to the house to remove the dress Mags gave her and switch back into her old clothes. This is her letting the audience in on the fact she now knows that her father is dead, as she attempts to distance herself from the Bennetts. But she wants her father’s watch back.
Loretta shows up at Dickie and Coover’s house sometime later. She brought Coover a gift – a joint laced with formaldehyde. Coover seemingly passes out and Loretta begins to search the house for the watch. She first finds Dickie passed out face down on the ground. She then uncovers the watch and calls in her ‘Knight in shinning armor‘ for help.
This is when Coover enters the room and Dickie wakes up. Enraged she tried to drug him Coover attacks Loretta and little Dickie unsuccessfully tries to stop him.
An unjustified Dick Choke.
Dickie’s attempt however does give Loretta time to escape out the front. Coover chases her down in the truck as Raylan, after doing a cell phone trace, arrives to find Dickie unconscious on the floor. Coover takes Loretta to the same mine shaft where her father’s body has been decomposing for some time. Raylan engages Coover again, and is losing again. Loretta picks up Raylan’s dropped gun and gets Coover’s attention long enough for Raylan to reach his backup piece and end Coover.
Upon hearing the news Mags shows up at the mine to see her son’s body being removed and learns that Loretta has been taken into protective custody. In an attempt to persuade Raylan to let her talk to Loretta, she starts to cry. Raylan is not moved, and upon seeing his unwillingness to budge, she abandons the plea and exits. That a Cold-Hearted woman.
While this episode may have, apparently wrapped up both the ‘Loretta’ and the ‘Black Pine’ story lines, Raylan’s killing of Coover is sure to elicit a swift response from the Bennett clan, meaning the last 4 episodes to come should hold a war in the making.
But despite declining viewer ship, as well a poor reviews towards the end, 24 still entertained the Hell out of me and I do miss it. Truth be told I wasn’t heartbroken when it got canceled. The show had sort of run it’s course, and how many shows now get 8 seasons to do so? Plus there was always talk of this movie happening so I didn’t really feel as though I was losing some of my favorite characters as with other canceled shows.
Grizzly Bomb 