dvd review: KENNY

It is difficult to describe the Australian comedy Kenny without giving away a crucial bit of information, which is that even though the film looks and feels like a documentary, it is not. But as far as mockumentaries go, Kenny ranks among the very best, and if it weren’t for the credits at the end, revealing that Kenny Smyth was played by Shane Jacobson, it would be easy to believe that this was an intimate portrait of a working class hero drowning in crap—literally.

film review: CHOKE

The complaints, comments and comparisons surrounding Choke, based on Chuck Palahiniuk’s novel of the same name, were inevitable and unavoidable. You could hear people after the screening either complaining that it was not enough like the book, or commenting that writer-director Clark Gregg did an admirable job of adapting the source material to film. Likewise, you could hear people complaining that it was either too dark and raunchy, or not nearly dark and raunchy enough. And of course, there was the debate of how it stacked up to another film based on a Palahiniuk book. Such is the unenviable fate of a film like Choke, adapted from a book by a cult novelist, whose rabid fans have been waiting nine years since his last work was turned into the iconoclastic film Fight Club.

One of My Favorite Movies of All Time

film review: THE LUCKY ONES

When you stop and think about it, few film genres require more of a suspension of disbelief than the road picture. Sure, it might not seem like that, especially when you consider how much science fiction and horror films ask audiences to suspend their disbelief. But the road picture grounds itself within a cinematic “real world” that audiences are supposed to relate to as if it were true. But as anyone who has ever been on a road trip can tell you, such journeys are seldom the metaphors for life punctuated with wild and amazing adventures that are depicted in films. In real life, a road trip is usually just driving in a car from one place to another, with a few stops along the way, and maybe a flat tire or an over-heated engine to spice things up. A film, however, with driving from one point to another (even with a flat tire along the way), probably wouldn’t be all that interesting, which is why the road picture incorporates plot devices that ask the audiences to accept everything from the implausible to the contrived to the predictable. And all the implausibility, contrivances and predictability that are conventions of the genre are found in abundance in The Lucky Ones.

dvd review – ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES!-STRIPPERS VS. ZOMBIES

There are inherent expectations that come when the title of a movie is Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers vs. Zombies. Mind you, those expectations aren’t necessarily all that high—in fact they should be rather low—but the expectations are there none the less. First and foremost, it is not at all unreasonable to expect a movie called Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers vs. Zombies to have lots of zombies and a fair amount of strippers as well. Now, exactly how many zombies and how many strippers a person thinks will fill the quota is something each individual must determine on their own. But as far as I’m concerned, if you show me a movie with the title Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers vs. Zombies that runs 82 minutes, I want at least thirty minutes of gratuitous nudity and forty minutes of zombie related mayhem, which leaves approximately twelve minutes for things like plot and character development. Stray too far from that formula and you run the risk of a movie called Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! – Strippers vs. Zombies being a low-rent bit of schlock that never really delivers the type of trash it promises.

When GOP Got Cancer

This special post is brought to you courtesy of Bonnie Walker (my mother).

Today, September 21, 2008 in Portland, OR, there is the Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure”. It is a run/walk for women survivors and their supporters who have or have had breast cancer. It is also in memory of those who have succumbed to the disease. These race/walk events take place all over the country in an effort to raise both awareness and funds in combating breast cancer. Portland’s race/walk is one of the largest in the USA.

Rowdy Roddy Piper interview

Listen to this great interview with Rowdy Roddy Piper conducted by Rick Emerson. It would be great even if Emerson didn’t drop my name in the begining. I’ve been a fan of Piper since I was kid, and his Colt Toombs is a great MMA fighter.

Mark Your Calendar — DVD Release Party Sept. 21

My film DAMAGED GOODS is coming out on DVD. There will be a Release Party in Portland on Sept. 21 at the Clinton Street Theater.

film review: LAKEVIEW TERRACE

With a total runtime of 110 minutes, Lakeview Terrace is the sort of excruciatingly bad movie that becomes both physically and mentally painful to endure. I’m sure you’ve all experienced something like it before, where every minute seems like two minutes. Well, with Lakeview Terrace, every minute seems more like two and a half minutes, which makes sitting through this craptacular garbage feel like over four hours of torture.

Norman Whitfield – Rest in Peace

We lost another incredible talent this week with the death of Norman Whitfield, who passed away at the age of 67 years-old. Whitfield was a songwriter and producer for Motown in the 1960s and 70s who helped usher in a new era of more progressive, psychedelic and politically relevant songs. Some of Whitfield’s biggest hits for Motown in include “Ball of Confusion,” “Cloud Nine,” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” all of which he wrote for the The Temptations. He also wrote other big hits, including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” Motown’s most successful release of the 1960s. Here is a video of one of my favorite Whitfield songs, performed by Edwin Starr, the man who made the song famous.