>> Missing Nightbreed Footage Found!

Click to view trailer

Horror fans have waited for years to see Clive Barker’s original version of his 1990 film Nightbreed, and now the discovery of long-lost footage from that film might make a Director’s Cut a reality.  Referred to by Barker as “the Star Wars of monster movies” before studio execs got involved in the final cut, the film chronicles Craig Sheffer as Aaron Boone, a troubled young man whose black-outs and detailed dreams about a creature-filled cemetary called Midian allow his psychiatrist (David Cronenberg) to manipulate him into believing that he is a serial killer.

The movie is memorably strange, but severely disjointed, and I’ve always wondered if a re-cut with the intended footage would actually turn it into a better film, or would it just be a longer version of the same odd, clumsy film that already exists?  Now, I might actually find out.

From Clive Barker’s Twitter (tweets edited together for readability):

Unbelievable news.When Mark Miller (apologies.I am shaking with excitement) volunteered to try and find my cut of Nightbreed, I thought there was 25 minutes missing.  I was wrong. Phil and Sarah Stokes called.  They possess a video copy of my Work Print, 44 minutes longer than the theatrical release.  Now all we need is somebody to fund the reconstruction of what was always intended to be Celebration of the Shamanic Outsider.  When Nightbreed was released the only support came from the gay press.  But the movie seems to have found a broader audience.  Nightbreed’s about outsiders.  And if the Inside is grey fat hamburgers and eye candy I’ll stay outside with the monsters.  It’s wonderful that people find something of value in Nightbreed, though it reveals my failings both as an artist and as a man.  The failure as an artist is tied to the inability to fuction as a normal member of the species; to pack every sliver of time with signifigace, like capsules of humanity on craft sent to the stars.

You can read more about some of the lost footage here.

>> In Defense of Nicolas Cage

I have a couple of friends that despise Nicolas Cage. One of these friends will actively avoid anything Cage is in, and I believe I’ve heard him utter the sentiment that Cage is one of the worst actors he’s ever seen. I get weirdly indignant when I hear this, because, for one, I think Nic Cage is totally awesome, and for another, I know that with every Bangkok Dangerous, with every The Wicker Man, Cage’s reputation increases as the crappiest of the A-list actors. 

Click here to read my full article on Cage at CyberMonkeyDeathSquad.com!

>> The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon

This short from director Richard Gale was a highlight of last year’s Fantastic Fest and it’s finally made its way online.  (Now if we can only get Jason Eisener to upload Treevenge somewhere…)  This short contains a little R-rated language and violence, so be warned.  Hope you enjoy it!

>> Some Thoughts on Knowing

Concerning the new Nicolas Cage thriller Knowing, Roger Ebert said, “Knowing is among the best science-fiction films I’ve seen — frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome.”  He gave the film a four-star review.

But what are the majority of other critics saying?

“Knowing starts off mildly ridiculous, ascends to the full-blown ludicrous, and finally sails boldly off the edge of the absolutely preposterous.”–Ty Burr, The Boston Globe.

“The draggy, lurching two hours of Knowing will make you long for the end of the world, even as you worry that there will not be time for all your questions to be answered.”–A.O. Scott, The New York Times.

“Knowing is a hilarious movie.”–Russ Fischer, CHUD.

One national critic (and one friend of mine) called the film an early contender for worst film of the year.  I’m guessing these two people didn’t sit through Miss March, and I envy them for that.  It’s disconcerting when so many people hate a film that you really like.  It not only calls your personal judgment into question, but your sanity as well.  “Am I crazy for liking Knowing?”

The truth is that when the lights came up in the theatre, and the credits started to roll, I still wasn’t sure what I saw was a good movie.  What I admired most, immediately as the film came to a close, were the guts the film had–the willingness to take a chance and play out an ending that I couldn’t have expected, in any way whatsoever.  As a few days have passed, I’ve decided that I need to see it again (I rarely see a movie twice in the theatre), and I do think it’s a worthwhile movie.  Overall, I was entertained and surprised, and, honestly, Knowing contains some of the most unforgettable special effect images ever committed to film.  Sometimes it does feel like a bad movie with a lot of fantastic moments, but, to me, these things sort of level out and make the movie defineable as good.  I certainly didn’t feel like I had wasted my time.

I can agree that Nic Cage’s performance  is little beyond serviceable.  Cage, esepcially in his recent work, comes in only two settings–eccentric or mopey.  He’s in mopey mode here.  I think part of people’s dissatisfaction with Knowing is a knee-jerk reaction to the casting of Cage.  I almost feel like you could take the exact same film and replace him with Will Smith or John Cusack or somebody that people usually like and you would not see people responding as negatively as they are to this movie.  (And if this is true, then it’s beyond time that Nicolas Cage do some damage control to his own career.)

The film isn’t particularly well-written, despite its big ideas.  Characters speak in expository dialogue in almost every scene, the movie has a tenuous grasp on logic that is only salvaged by the movie’s Calvinist themes of predestination, and then there’s the stuff that feels like cliche, like Cage’s sign language lovey-dovey phrase he shares with his son.  Also, the script doesn’t make enough of a big deal out of Cage’s (lack of) personal faith, which directly affects the emotional impact of the film’s ending.

Despite these criticisms, I thought the movie was almost great.  It was like watching a crappy high school basketball team win a stunning victory over the state champs.  I never expected it to excite me, so when it did, I found myself way more excited than I normally would be.  I can understand every bit of criticism against Knowing, but, for me, it worked.  It has a third act that seems to divide people into love-it or hate-it camps, but I went along with it, once the film moved beyond a doomsday thriller into something more science-fiction and philosophical.

I don’t think I’m crazy.  Some films just work better for some than they do for others.  You may have found Knowing to be a dopey, dour mish-mash of spirituality and sci-fi, but I found it to be ominous, thought-provoking, and, in many ways, unforgettable.  Po-tay-to, po-tot-o.

>> Some thoughts on Watchmen and 2009.

Poor, neglected website.  I’ve seen a ton of movies that I haven’t taken the time to review, for multiple reasons (most of them personal).  I plan on playing catch-up with a post filled with mini-reviews, but until that time, I thought I’d share my thoughts on Watchmen.  No, it’s not an “official” review from me, but I did want folks to know that this site wasn’t DEAD dead.

Before I saw Watchmen, I wrote a heartfelt Open Letter to Alan Moore for CyberMonkeyDeathSquad.  It probably reads a little corny or pretentious, but it’s honest.

As for the film…

The good:
–Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl grounds this film in reality and humanity, which is needed.
–Jackie Earle Haley (as Rorschach)  is awesome.
–You’ve never seen anything like it.
–Reminded me, at times, of a Stanley Kubrick film.
–It’s very faithful to the source.

The bad:
–Really questionable soundtrack choices.
–Feels long.
–Nixon’s make-up is god awful.
–It’s very faithful to the source.

I have no idea what people are going to think about this film, nor am I sure what number rating to give it myself (I lean towards an 8 out of 10, but that score reflects more on its ambition and artistic merits than it does personal entertainment value, which would probably be closer to a 7 or 7 1/2 for me).

It’s a deliberately episodic narrative, following the original individual issue structure, and I’m not entirely convinced that following that structure to a T created the best possible Watchmen film. As a film, it ends up playing out like a sci-fi noir murder mystery that takes really strange tangents from time to time. In the comic, that feels complex. In the movie, that feels meandering.

Still, you’ve never seen anything like this…

>> The Spirit: A Case of Miller Lite

The Spirit, heralded by some as the worst piece of crap to hit screens in 2008, will be gone from theatres very soon, possibly by this weekend. Somebody should eulogize this film, so I pick me. Hello there. I can tell from the box office totals that you didn’t take the time to see it. That’s ok. Honestly, I didn’t either. I watched about three-quarters of it out of a projection booth window, while babysitting a finicky lamphouse. Imagine Warren Beatty’s 1990 version of Dick Tracy mixed with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Now take that mixture, wrap it in a Maxim magazine and mail it to Sin City. Notice I didn’t mention Will Eisner at all?

Read the FULL ARTICLE at cybermonkeydeathsquad.com!  I will be writing for CMDS throughout 2009, as well as keeping up with reviews on this very site.

>> Obligatory 2008 Year-End “Least Favorite” List!

“Worst” is arguable; “Least Favorite” is not.  These are just the ones that I saw that I ended up hating.  I’m sure there were worse films this year than some of these, but pity the man who had to see them.

(EDIT:  This became a list of six after I discovered that I omitted Fanboys.)

6.  Repo!  The Genetic Opera (4.5/10–Read review here.)

“Check out the song “Seventeen”:  “Something’s changing/I can feel it/I’m seventeen now/Why can’t you see it?/Seventeen and you can’t stop me/Seventeen and you won’t boss me!/You cannot control me, father/Daddy’s girl’s a f***ing monster!”  And if you thought those lyrics were a little too on-the-nose and witless, then imagine a movie filled with songs like that, set to some of the least memorable melodies of any musical in recent memoty.  It’s unabashedly childish in its approach–campy, convoluted, and almost always annoying.”

5.  Fanboys (4/10–Read review here.)

“This astonishingly unfunny film, with its parade of cameos from Pineapple Express and piles of humorless Star Wars references,  is almost a chore to sit through…Will only find an audience exactly like the characters depicted in this movie–people so blindly in love with Star Wars that simply stating “Star Trek sucks!” is enough to elicit a belly laugh.”

4.  The Haunting of Molly Hartley (4/10–Read review here.)

“You really should’ve nailed down the specifics of the plot before you decided to become a movie, because the only people who are going to be able to enjoy this are 10-year olds, folks mentally unequipped to tell you exactly why the religious mumbo-jumbo and questionable psychiatry in your movie make your movie idiotic.  I literally can not understand you, and it’s your own fault.  There is not a single reason I can think of to tell anyone why they should see you, and I hope you are soon forgotten.  Good luck in your future life as the movie nobody wants in the “2 for $11″ Wal-Mart  discount bin.”

3.  Eagle Eye (4/10–Read review here.)

“You don’t have to be a technological genius to despise this movie.  Just a basic working knowledge of technology will make this film absolutely unwatchable, leaving the Amish and cavemen as director D.J. Caruso’s apparent target audience.”

2.  Deadgirl (3.5/10–Read review here.)

“I wanted every scene to end quickly; every character to please, stop talking.  This is an incredibly weak movie about potentially strong stuff. “

1.  Disaster Movie (2/10–Read review here.)

“All of the dialogue in this movie consists of actors announcing who they are dressed up as and then leaving, or other characters pointing out who the other characters are and running away from them.  It’s not a movie; it’s a costume catalog.”

>> Obligatory 2008 Year-End “Best of” List!

10.  Sauna (8/10–Read review here.)

“This atmospheric, creepy “thinking man’s” horror film is the kind of movie that you really hope develops an audience, even a cult one, because it’s totally deserving of the attention.  The unusual time period and setting, along with gorgeous, stark visuals and fantastic production design are all part of what makes Sauna a must-see.”

9.  Iron Man (8/10–Read review here.)

“Iron Man is definitely a Marvel Pop Art Production–timely without being deep; disposable entertainment yet completely unforgettable. In other words, superhero comic books personified.”

8.  JCVD (8/10–Read review here.)

“Here is an actor laying himself bare, in the most “meta” of ways, somehow addressing every audience criticism of his acting and his body of work, while still telling a suprisingly original heist story.”

7.  Frost/Nixon (8.5/10–Currently not reviewed.)

The year’s best boxing movie.  My formal review is still on the way.

6.  Synecdoche, New York (8.5/10–Read review here.)

“The reward comes in watching someone’s imagination at work, full-steam ahead, creating a dense, crazed story that feels shockingly personal.”

5.  Slumdog Millionaire (8.5/10–Read review here.)

“The new Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire opens with torture and ends with dancing, and the journey that takes place between these bookends is one of the best times I’ve had at the movies all year long.”

4.  Estomago (8.5/10–Read review here.)

“A robust celebration of food and the female posterior, Estomago is a movie filled to the brim with passion.”

3.  The Wrestler (9/10–Read review here.)

“This movie just feels lived in, more than any other narrative film released in 2008.”

2.  The Dark Knight (9/10–Read review here.)

“This film will influence the landscape of superhero films to come, and if they can come close to capturing a fraction of this movie’s dense complexity then we are very lucky viewers.  The Dark Knight is a crime thriller in every sense of the word, humming with palpable dread, taut suspense, and richly drawn characters.”

1.  Wall-E (9/10–Read review here.)

“I would go so far as to say that the first half of Wall-E is as good as a movie can get. It transports you wholly to another place and time, and connects you emotionally, almost immediately, to an object–not a person, or a loveable talking animal, but a garbage compacting machine called a Wall-E. What kind of skill does it take as a filmmaker to make me empathize and cheer for a garbage compactor?”

>> BNAT X: The Stuff We Didn’t See

Everyone expected Watchmen but no, I didn’t see Watchmen, the one film everyone thought would play BNAT X. Two years ago, director Zak Snyder came to town and showed off an unfinished version of 300 to the crowd at Octo-BNAT, so everyone assumed that he’d be back to dazzle us with an unfinished version of his Watchmen adaptation. It didn’t happen. For some attendees, this was a massive let-down. For me, it was just another BNAT surprise.

Read the FULL ARTICLE on cybermonkeydeathsquad.com! I will be writing for CMDS throughout 2009, as well as keeping up with reviews on this very site.

>> The Wrestler (9/10)

The Wrestler is not an underdog story.  It’s not the story of a man with an unattainable dream who works beyond all odds to get within reach of his dream.  If that story is a part of The Wrestler at all, then it happened a good twenty-five years or so before this film starts.  Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) has already achieved his goal; he has already lived the dream.  The Wrestler is about the “now what?” that comes afterward, in a profession where the human body will insure that you aren’t the top star forever.  Pro wrestling is a profession where the fake extends beyond just the in-ring violence, where the distinction between your own personality and the character you play every single night begins to blur so badly that it affects your personal relationships, where your own level of celebrity is a sham, calculated for you by booking agents and your in-ring partners, both with their own set of agendas.  The Wrestler is a story that feels like the very real biography of the dozens, if not hundreds, of men that have seen their lives go from bubble gum cards, action-figures, and  performing on television in front of millions to menial jobs, nagging ailments, and wrestling shows in gymnasiums in front of a handful of people.

This movie just feels lived in, more than any other narrative film released in 2008.  You get that sense of fly-on-the-wall audience participation while you watch this that some documentaries have, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say The Wrestler has a documentary feel.  It’s intimate.  The actors physically inhabit their roles.  I believe Mickey Rourke is Randy the Ram.  I can see it in his watery eyes, the face that looks like it was formed out of clay, the way he breathes and sighs and talks in that gravel-pit voice  of a pro wrestler.  I believe Marisa Tomei is Pam.  I can see it in her desperation, her sad smile that still manages to burn at 100-watts through sheer force of will.

Pam is “Cassidy”, the dancer that Randy takes a shine to at a local strip club, both of them drawn together in part by the artificial personas they’re trapped in, alter egos of their own creation, neither one finding real life particularly easy to deal with.  Randy decides to take a crack at a real retirement, after being treated for heart problems, and he’s urged by Pam to reconnect with his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood).  It’s a noble idea, but the truth is that Randy is a bit of a bastard–it’s the reason he’s broke and alone–and the pop of an always adoring crowd is not easily substituted by the emotional stickiness that comes with real life.

In this way, director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) has created another portrait of addiction.  Randy is addicted to love, and “fake” love is much easier to get than real love.  It’s by no means as rewarding, but Randy only knows that when he is performing, he feels love.  When he’s working the deli counter at a supermarket, when he’s pleading with his daughter, or when he’s trying to get Pam to bend her own rules on dating customers, he doesn’t feel it.  We know that the crowd response is fleeting, because we’re on the outside looking in, but to the person standing right in the warm glow of the cheering crowd, the emotions are much too strong to make a difference.

I loved every minute of The Wrestler.  It’s a small, truthful movie, one that will offer non-wrestling fans an extremely personal look into a world they didn’t know was this interesting, and for the wrestling fans, it reflects the tale of every upper-mid card superstar that went from fame to famine.  It’s the year’s best love story, and fully deserving of every bit of praise it has received along the film fest circuit.

9 on a 1 to 10 scale