The Spirit - is it as bad as the reviews? Well, yes... and no.

First, let's get this out of the way: I'm a comic book fan. But, I was never a fan of 'The Spirit', because despite what you might have heard, The Spirit is NOT a comic book movie.

Despite how it was marketed, The Spirit is not Batman, and is in fact, fairly faithful to it's roots. You see, Will Eisner's The Spirit comes straight out of the Sunday funnies, and as such has more in common with comic strips like 'Popeye' and 'Dick Tracy' than comic books.

So, not surprisingly, the closest big screen comparisons to The Spirit is Robert Altman's Popeye, and Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy - namely, live action cartoons.

Now, viewed as the live action equivalent of the Road Runner, The Spirit doesn't look so bad - certainly not as bad as most of the critic reviews it got. Yes, it's long on style and short on substance, but in some ways is longer on substance than the other two Frank Miller productions to hit the big screen (the overrated The 300 and Sin City). And, yes, it's another movie of actors acting in front of green screens and not particularly strongly directed - but plotwise, it holds up better than some of the other ventures of that ilk (Casshern, Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow, etc.).

But like Popeye and Dick Tracy, it's also of about the same quality of those movies - an interesting diversion, full of eye candy, but not a movie you'd want to see over and over again. Chances are if you like those two films you'll like this one, and if you hated them (like most critics), you'll hate this too.

But, the rapid fire film noir dialog, cartoony look, and the deadpan gags can make it worth a viewing, provided you're in the right frame of mind.

The Gits

When I was still in high school, a bunch of friends and I piled into a car for a short road trip from Cincinnati, OH to Antioch College in nearby Yellow Springs, OH. There I saw a band that blew me away. That band was called ‘The Gits’.

It’s hard for people to understand today just how vibrant the music scene was between the mid 80s to the early 90s. A lot of music today sounds so stale by comparison. Those of us in Generation X have to be the first generation to not only rock harder than our parents but ALSO rock harder than our kids. And even at a time when so many good bands were coming out, The Gits stood out.

When Gits lead singer Mia Zapata was found brutally raped and murdered on a desolate Seattle street in 1993 it didn’t just end that band, it ended an entire music scene.

The first half of the movie is a rockumentary and a pretty damn good one too. It instantly transported me back to the days of drunken parties with bands playing in basements and backyards that was the era of DIY music making. Chronicling a band from it’s inception to it’s zenith. Even though most of the best band footage is culled from the grunge expose 'Hype!', it's great seeing it again 15 years later.

And right when you hit the meteoric midpoint of the film, the revelation of Mia’s murder (even when you know it’s coming) hits you like a sucker punch to the gut. The second half of the film unravels like a true crime murder mystery. Will Mia’s killer ever be found?

But the film has an outlook that was very in keeping with Zapata’s life and music – never afraid to look at the dark side of things without getting overly depressing or morose. It celebrates the exuberance and wonder of the artists and that special time now two decades behind us that seems like it was only yesterday.

Still Dirty After All These Years

Dirty Harry

I was a little unsure of what I would think of Dirty Harry upon rewatching it. I mean it has been nearly 40 years since this hit the big screen and society has changed so much since then.

But I have to say in a day and age when police procedurals run on TV ad-nauseum, Inspector 71, Harry Callahan, SF Homicide division, holds up pretty well. The films are not nearly as over-the-top as I remember them, and are in fact quite believable, almost understated compared to today's cop movies.

That's not to say that Dirty Harry isn't also a window onto it's time. This first film has Harry going after 'Scorpio' a serial killer who writer John Milius no doubt based on the Zodiac Killer and the Tower Sniper (two then-recent killers who were in the media).

Overall Dirty Harry is an excellent, fast-moving, action piece with a strong protagonist. One of the best of its kind.

Magnum Force

For my money, Magnum Force is the best Dirty Harry film ever made. While the original Dirty Harry had a very direct plot, Magnum Force has a much more complex plot about a secret hit force within the SF Police Department that Harry has to uncover (while confronting his own views on the appropriate use of force). It's a little reminiscent of David Goodis' novel Night Squad.

Maybe it's the distinct lack of Dirty Harry one liners in this film that has made it the least well known of the series. If so, that's a shame, because it deserves to be remembered whenever cop films are discussed.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Quick, what movie invented the slasher genre, with all the beats that later became clichés – right down to having the killer strike on a holiday? Halloween, right? Everybody knows that. Well… not quite. While John Carpenter’s film definitely took Psycho to the next level, it was Black Christmas that came first – by about 4 years!



Viewing Black Christmas today, one might be tempted to conclude that it really adds nothing to the genre – until one realizes that it is the genre. Some of the most memorable thing – including the infamous telephone harassment – started here. The sorority house as a setting – that started here too. Some might be tempted to say, wait, ‘didn’t Ted Bundy kill a bunch of girls in a sorority house one winter in real life?’, and the answer is yes, that’s true – but that didn’t happen until 1978 – four years after this film came out.

The cast all does a fine job, especially John Saxon as the sober police lieutenant, and Margot Kidder, though almost old enough to be the mother of some of her co-stars, manages a convincing enough performance as the sorority’s requisite bad girl.

What’s to say about The Exorcist (the version you’ve never seen), except that you have seen it – or at the very least, like Black Christmas, through cultural osmosis you’ve practically seen the whole film end-to-end, even if you’ve never sat down and watched it.



Released the day after Christmas the year before Black Christmas, the evil antagonist of The Exorcist shares a lot in common, vocally anyway, to the villain of that piece, even though here it’s a demon (possibly the Devil himself) and in the former it’s (presumably) and entirely terrestrial villain.

However, unlike Black Christmas whose ending still packs a decent punch, The Exorcist’s ending seems a bit pat nowadays. Still, the version you’ve never seen restores the hitherto missing ‘spider-walk’ scene, and that alone makes it worth checking out (again).

Socioeconomic Culture Clashes

Socioeconomic Culture Clashes: Tattoo, A Love Story and Lollilove



Tattoo, A Love Story is an independent romantic comedy about an upper middle class school teacher who is engaged to a doctor, but develops a crush on the burly tattooed biker that one of her kids brings to Show-and-Tell one day.

While it is technically well crafted, it’s a little to 'precious' for it's own good; not to mention dated, given that just about everyone has a tattoo nowadays.

With a title like that, you'd expect some edginess - especially in an indie film - but everything about this film is as tightly controlled as the type A personality of the lead character - from all-too-perfect lighting to it’s locked down tripod shots. In fact, the only bit that isn't overly prettified is the When Harry Met Sally/Jerry Maguire technique of punctuating the story with first person interviews where people talk about their tattoos.

The end result is something like a sitcom version of good-girl-meets-bad-boy, rather than the real thing, making it feel like the least independent-independent film we’ve seen in awhile.



Lollilove, on the other hand is a bit edgier. You know this from the get-go because it’s a Troma release. But it’s not your typical Troma film – no hacked off limbs, gross-out humor and the like here. Instead we get a mockumentary about an upper middle class couple (not unlike the one in Tattoo, A Love Story in many respects), who decide to form a charity – Lollilove – which seeks to solve the homeless problem one lollipop at a time.

The deadpan black humor of the piece is excellent, and the performances of the leads is outstanding - particularly Jenna Fisher who also directed this film before going on to stardom in another mockumentary - the U.S. version of 'The Office' TV series.

There’s also a lot of great bit players including Lloyd Kauffman (of course), and Judy Greer.

You can see Lollilove for free here: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi977967385/

Stephen King films you missed...

The Halloween season is upon us once again, and you know what that means – it’s time once again to resume my annual tradition of posting a bunch of bunch of reviews of movies in the spirit of the season.

If we accept that Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft were primarily known for their short stories, then the most successful American horror novelist would have to be Stephen King.

Following the smash success of Brian DePalma’s adaptation of Carrie in 1976, nearly every available King property was being snapped up for the big screen treatment. By the early 80s they were flooding into theaters. 1983 alone saw the release of no less than 3 feature films and a few shorts based on King stories.

While Carrie and The Shining are justifiably considered classics, let’s take a look at a couple of the lesser known & discussed King films from that time.

One problem in discussing ‘horror’ films of this era is that we don’t really think of these things as horror movies anymore. Boris Karloff thought that the name ‘terror film’ was more appropriate for the genre since the goal isn’t always to horrify (today’s ‘horror’ movies heavy reliance on shock value aside) but to terrify. The horror genre changes from decade to decade, and while gore and startling scares may be the norm now, there are other types of horror films…

Take, for example, The Dead Zone.

This is an understated, low budget, haunting film that catches King, director David Cronenberg, and actor Christopher Walken all at the top of their games. Walken plays a teacher who develops precognition. But, far from being a blessing, he finds the power is a curse as his life slowly disintegrates. By today's standards, this low budget film would probably be relegated to Movie of the Week status, but that doesn't diminish its power. Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in something that is more thought provoking than the average horror movie.

At the other end of the spectrum from the thoughtful and introspective The Dead Zone is John Carpenter’s Christine.

This is a deliberate non-thinking movie. But, with a tagline like, ‘Body by Plymouth, soul by Satan!’ you pretty much know what you’re in for. It’s a popcorn film, pure and simple. We’ll have no complaints from the peanut gallery about the hows or whys – look, it’s an evil car that kills people, that’s all you need to know. Expect incredible cheese. Expect that everyone’s attempt to escape the killer car involves running down streets and alleys, never into buildings, through the woods, or even just up a flight of stairs, and you’ll not be disappointed. Toss in a fun, loveable rock and roll soundtrack, and the always-awesome Harry Dean Stanton in a minor role, and you have a movie custom made for six packs and drive-ins.

Before you go see 'Let Me In'...

Let me just say I expect this will be like 'Quarantine' was to '[REC]' - like 'The Ring' was to 'Ringu', what 'The Grudge' was to 'Ju-On', etc. etc.



Which is basically to say that Hollywood doesn't get that what makes these movies great has a lot to do with the [i]culture[/i] they are set in.



Seriously, this remaking of foreign films because Americans are too lazy to read subtitles is even worse than the 'we must make everything 3D' trend.



SO... for those of you EVEN THINKING about seeing 'Let Me In' - you had better have already SEEN 'Let the Right One In', or you're going to be ruining a fantastic experience.



For those who missed it - my review of the original Låt den rätte komma:



A tender little coming of age story about first love ...and the vampire next door!



Since the beginning of film history, every decade has one or two really good vampire films that stand out. But the genre seemed to peak in the 1980s and has been on a steep downward slide ever since. The 90s produced only a few, and just when it looked like we were going to get all the way through the 2000s without any really standout candidates... along comes 'Let the Right One In'...



Oskar is an introverted school kid, bullied by his classmates, and misunderstood by adults. One night he meets Eli, his next door neighbor who is also a bit of a misfit. Slowly they begin to understand each other on a level that no one else ever has. Alternately through scenes both gentle and horrific, the film lets us know that putting trust in just anyone can be fatal, but when trust is earned... when you let the right one in... your life can change forever.



Despite all the media hoopla about last year's blockbuster 'Twilight', the creators of that film could learn a truckload about love, adolescent angst, and vampires from this film. 'Let the Right One In' eschews all the slick polish and prettiness of Hollywood films like 'Twilight' and 'Underworld' in favor of an honest real looking world full of human frailty. In some ways it does for the vampire story what 'Ginger Snaps' did for the werewolf tale.



'Let the Right One In' is a great reminder that it's what's on the inside that counts. Especially if what's inside contains the RDA of hemoglobin!



Highly recommended.