Showing posts with label audience participation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audience participation. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
The Insurgents Trailer
This is the trailer for The Insurgents, which I produced with John Gallagher of Angel Baby for writer-director Scott Dacko. Its kind of a work in progress trailer, but the movie has a bunch of upcoming screenings at the Montreal World Film Festival, the Edmonton Film Festival, the DV Film Festival in Seoul, Korea, and the New Filmmakers Series at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC. Its already won two best picture awards ((Oldenburg and Long Island Film Expo) out of three competition festivals played) and a best screenplay award at the other (at the Palm Beach Film Festival). Anyway, hope you'll enjoy and comment if you have something to say.
Check out this video: The Insurgents Trailer 1
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Check out this video: The Insurgents Trailer 1
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
As Time Goes By
Mot film fans (heck most people within earshot of the media) are aware than in the last few days, we’ve lost two iconic directors, Bergman and Antonioni. These two were giants of cinema, among the most influential directors of the 20th century. (We also lost in late July, Laszlo Kovacs, a director of photography who might be best known for his terrific collaborations with Peter Bogdanavich (Paper Moon, Whats Up Doc), for Shampoo, and for 60’s classics like Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider.)
This loss of talent got me thinking about who is left. Which directors left are the best working. We have the obvious giants, but if you had to pick, lets say ten directors not named Coppola, Scorcese or Spielberg (assuming they’d pretty much make every list, they are our modern versions of Chaplin, Keaton, Ford, Hitchcock, Hawks, Kubrick, Capra, Stevens, Wyler, Welles, etc.), who would you pick. We’ll limit it to film directors working primarily in the English language, cause otherwise, fughedaboutit.
List ‘em. Top ten. Go.
This loss of talent got me thinking about who is left. Which directors left are the best working. We have the obvious giants, but if you had to pick, lets say ten directors not named Coppola, Scorcese or Spielberg (assuming they’d pretty much make every list, they are our modern versions of Chaplin, Keaton, Ford, Hitchcock, Hawks, Kubrick, Capra, Stevens, Wyler, Welles, etc.), who would you pick. We’ll limit it to film directors working primarily in the English language, cause otherwise, fughedaboutit.
List ‘em. Top ten. Go.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Top 25 Horror Films to Date: Wrapping It Up
FINAL UPDATE, June 10, 2007
Well, we've gone through another one of these lists, and Im wrapping it up based on everyone's comments. I don't know that i am totally satisfied with my, ahem, I mean, our list, but it is our list, and this really cannot go on and on forever, can it. I mean, we have to finish it. Like the great horror movies, they come to a close.
Um, wait, actually alot of them have sequels. And remakes. So maybe thats not the best analogy. But just jump down to the bottom of the entry, you can find the last bunch. And then, you can lemme have it on all the omissions.
YET ANOTHE UPDATE, June 2, 2007
Its the nite before the tenth PictureStart Film festival and I am just getting used to having my mac back. I've been on a slow PC all week long, and now I am back among the 21st century dwellers. Anyway, need to respond to some of these comments, and bring the list up to date.
DONT GET LAZY, WE"RE NOT THERE YET.
I've succumbed to some other subgenres including Aliens and The Thing on the list, as well as action/adventurer/natural monster movie Jaws, which is arguably the best movie on the list.
SECOND UPDATE, May 28, 2007
Wow, so we have a lot of respondents, including one, John, who nearly wrote his own blog on horror. It kind of raises the issue of what qualifies as horror (at least for the very minor purposes of this survey). Horror has many sub-genres, including monster movies, slasher, ghost/supernatural, torture, and comedy, to name a few. There are also the thriller horror crossovers, like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs and perhaps the Omen (listed below, but maybe more horror, if only judging by the amount of gore in that movie vs. its contemporaries)and the Exorcist. I guess when I was thinking of this, while I thought about the old Universal horror stuff, and the old monster movies, I wasn't necessarily considering that sub-genre. Nor was I particularly considering other related genre movies like Tod Browning's Freaks, or action/sci-fi movies like James Cameron's great Aliens, or monster action like Blade, and straight thrillers like Diabolique, which I saw when I was seventeen or eighteen, and which my father always described as the scariest movie he had ever seen. I guess where one draws the line is somewhat arbitrary.
Do Lon Chaney and more importantly, Bela Lugosi, belong on this list somewhere. Yeah, of course (not that they care), but that again raises the issue of where to draw the line. Lugosi is one of the godfathers of horror. But movies like Phantom of the Opera, to me, dont really feel right on this list. Great, influential in effects, acting technique, maybe even music (though I believe it would have been performed live, no?), yes, but horror, not so sure.
Anyway, with the obvious issue of arbitrariness now out in the open, lets update the list a bit.
FIRST UPDATE
My mac is broken (ugh, took it to apple in soho today, waited forever so that they could send it back - i should have it back in a few days or a week (maybe ten???) but if my computer skills (or for those of you who know me, my email response time) is less than stellar, well, now I have an excuse) and Im working on my ass-old PC.
The updated list from your write-ins is below. And I may up it to 30, because it appears I may have bit off more than I can chew. And just cuz your suggestion didnt make it in yet, doesnt mean it wont, I am just conserving space for the time being.
Cool thing about the list, it makes a good netflix or to watch list for aspiring horrorphiles.
********************
So by request, I was asked to write a blog about the best horror movies ever made (before I started making em, right- maybe I’ll make one some day that can be on the list). I didn’t really do anything about the request, and I certainly know a bunch about horror, but would not consider myself an authority at all. I’m no Eli Roth (haha, wink wink).
What we did before here was to let people make their comments about the best teen movies of all time. Given my immersion in the horror world over the last six months or so, seems like a good time to make a new list, a horror list. I went to the horror Fango Con in Burbank this past Sunday, to hang with Bob Kurtzman, special fx wizard and the director of upcoming films like Dimension Films’ Buried Alive, and the independently produced The Rage. Bob is an authority on horror, and his work shows it. He’s also a great guy and I think we’ll be working together for a long time, or at least I hope so.
So anyway, now I am sitting in my little hovel in Hollywood, and having grabbed a bunch of DVD’s from the main house, I’ve been focusing on watching horror in preparation for Digger and Slaughter. So because of this, I have the first two (lets go for twenty five) entries, films I watched yesterday and today, for the list. Lets get the list (and blood) flowing.
1. Psycho – An original. Groundbreaking, and a film that has been copied from so much, in films considered classic themselves, like Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and this next film…
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Toby Hooper’s classic horror oevre. I remember watching it at age 13 or 14 in Garden City. Middle of summer, late nite, everyone else was asleep. After the girl got hung on the hook by Leatherface, I proceeded to close every window on the first floor and lock em. Remarkably, there is next to no gore or blood in this movie. Other than a few rotting corpses, its all done by suggestion.
3.Halloween- Simply one of the best, and deserving of a top stop on any list. Back story goes that Moustafa Akkad approached John Carpenter after seeing Precinct Thirteen and told him that he wanted him to write and direct a movie about babysitter murderers. Carpenter and Debra Hill sat down and wrote Halloween in three weeks, on spec. They made the movie, and history, for about 300K (1979 style or whenever that was, maybe 1978).
4.Scream - One of the great scripts, one that took an overwraught genre and turned it on its head. Not the craziest about Neve in the role, but no one is perfect. Totally reinvigorated a dying (nopunintended) genre.
5. The Shining- The definition of scary. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't why are you sitting there.
6. The Exorcist - The thinking man's (or woman's) supernatural horror thriller. Maybe not as gory as some of the entries on the list, but cemented into the minds of everyone who saw it. Created a sensation when it was released, with lines around the block, becoming one of the original blockbusters (without the bloated budget). Hopefully, Friedkin's return to the genre, Bug, will hold a candle, but I digress.
7. Suspiria - Considered by many to be Dario Argento's masterpiece for your more erudite horror fan, cant leave out the foreign entries, which brings us to...
8. The Ring (Japanese version)- the start of the japanese horror remake brigade, with The Grudge, which we making slaughter happily understand.
9. The Omen (original) - Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in another child-oriented supernatural thriller, with Richard Donner at the helm. The original is really good, a point made more clear when you watch the remake (which has its moments, mostly involving Mia Farrow and Pete Postelthwaite).
10. Night of the Living Dead - One of the groundbreakers in low budget horror and the godfather of Zombie movies.
11. Nightmare on Elm Street - The house in the first one was recently for sale in LA. Thanks, I will keep renting. Pirates on Elm Street, anyone (Johnny Depp's jump to movies from tv - and another Wes Craven entry).
12. Evil Dead - while i prefer its comedic sequel (remake), one of the standard bearers in no-budget horror, complete with arborial rape.
13. Alien/Aliens - Ridley Scott sci-fi horror (yeah so I guess the parallel works) with Sigourney running around in her underwear while we all wonder if the cat has the alien inside of it. And action horror sequel, from the sequel-meister James Cameron, with great performance from Weaver (Oscar-nommed), Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser.
14. Jaws - By proclamation, this great movie is a horror movie, for purposes of this list. A masterful piece of cinema, not just belonging on the great horror movies list (as if), but on the list of the great American movies.
15. The Thing - John Carpenter's 1979 remake classic with another great alien monster that had some unbelievable effects and more of his go to guy, the incomparable Kurt Russell.
16. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Widely considered, here and elsewhere, a modern horror masterpiece, better than the recent Rodriguez entry in Grindhouse.
17. Poltergeist - Still the subject of a raging debate as to whether this is a Tobe Hooper movie or a Spielberg movie (answer is, probably both), has some of the great spooks and plenty of gore for the bloodhounds.
18. Manhunter - Michael Mann directing William Petersen and Brian Cox, with great villany and support from Tom Noonan as the toothfairy. Perhaps not as well knownm as the other entries on the list, and unfairly so. A great movie. Which brings us to...
19. Silence of the Lambs - I couldn't justify not including Jonathan Demme's scarer while including Michael Mann's movie which covers most of the same ground. I have to admit, I don't know why Mann's feels more horrific than Silence, maybe its the lower budget. Perhaps neither of them belong on the list, I don't know, but I love them both and enough of you said they belong.
19. American Werewolf In London - A great exercise is horror/comedy that works, because its scary and never lets up, and the Rick Baker gore factor is in full effect.
20. Carrie - There is nothing quite as terrifying as a high school girl without a date for the prom. Not one of my personal favorites, but
21. Salem's Lot - Yet another Stephen King entry. I saw this movie, and I cannot remember much about it except for the vampires having a very scary, cool look. Anyway, Heidi, now its on here. So shuddup.
22. Hellraiser - Great villains, another that isnt quite one of my favorites, but got seconded a few times, (or thirded? fourth-ed?), and Pinhead rulls. So lets do it. And it gets Clive Barker on the list.
23. Saw, which began the huge horror resurgence in the last seven to ten years and set the initial baseline in torture/horror.
24. The Amityville Horror - Original scarer was not a movie, it was a part of the average kid's consciousness after it came out. One of the best uses ever of the "Based on a True Story" marketing hook of all time, and a darn scary movie killed by terrible sequels (and a doughy remake).
25. Frankenstein - Needed to have some classic old school horror, and Boris Karloff somewhere on this list.
So Many Honorable Mentions: Friday the 13th (very much a genre creator), Hostel, From Dusk Til Dawn, House of A Thousand Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, The Grudge, Curse of the Catpeople, Freaks, Prom Night, The Fly (Cronenberg), Re-Aminator, Murnau's Nosferatu, The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney version), Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Grudge, The Phone, Ichi The Killer, High Tension, Magic (which I absolutely love and is scary as fuck), The Birds, Evil Dead II/III/ Bubba Ho-Tep), Phantasm, The Blair Witch Project, The Eye, The Sixth Sense (which I really like but leave off the list cause I dont really consider it horror, and many consider it a gimmick movie) and Jacob's Ladder (another great great, is it Horror entry) and Angel Heart (yet another, left off maybe for more than this, but a fascinating, stylish, although flawed entry from Alan Parker), Masque fo the Red Death, Braindead (aka Dead Alive), Blade, Misery, 28 Days Later, Hell Night (a personal fave for no particular reason)I Walked with a Zombie, Diabolique (again left off as I can't really consider it horror), King Kong (1933), Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, Cujo, Candyman, and April Fools Day.
Well, we've gone through another one of these lists, and Im wrapping it up based on everyone's comments. I don't know that i am totally satisfied with my, ahem, I mean, our list, but it is our list, and this really cannot go on and on forever, can it. I mean, we have to finish it. Like the great horror movies, they come to a close.
Um, wait, actually alot of them have sequels. And remakes. So maybe thats not the best analogy. But just jump down to the bottom of the entry, you can find the last bunch. And then, you can lemme have it on all the omissions.
YET ANOTHE UPDATE, June 2, 2007
Its the nite before the tenth PictureStart Film festival and I am just getting used to having my mac back. I've been on a slow PC all week long, and now I am back among the 21st century dwellers. Anyway, need to respond to some of these comments, and bring the list up to date.
DONT GET LAZY, WE"RE NOT THERE YET.
I've succumbed to some other subgenres including Aliens and The Thing on the list, as well as action/adventurer/natural monster movie Jaws, which is arguably the best movie on the list.
SECOND UPDATE, May 28, 2007
Wow, so we have a lot of respondents, including one, John, who nearly wrote his own blog on horror. It kind of raises the issue of what qualifies as horror (at least for the very minor purposes of this survey). Horror has many sub-genres, including monster movies, slasher, ghost/supernatural, torture, and comedy, to name a few. There are also the thriller horror crossovers, like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs and perhaps the Omen (listed below, but maybe more horror, if only judging by the amount of gore in that movie vs. its contemporaries)and the Exorcist. I guess when I was thinking of this, while I thought about the old Universal horror stuff, and the old monster movies, I wasn't necessarily considering that sub-genre. Nor was I particularly considering other related genre movies like Tod Browning's Freaks, or action/sci-fi movies like James Cameron's great Aliens, or monster action like Blade, and straight thrillers like Diabolique, which I saw when I was seventeen or eighteen, and which my father always described as the scariest movie he had ever seen. I guess where one draws the line is somewhat arbitrary.
Do Lon Chaney and more importantly, Bela Lugosi, belong on this list somewhere. Yeah, of course (not that they care), but that again raises the issue of where to draw the line. Lugosi is one of the godfathers of horror. But movies like Phantom of the Opera, to me, dont really feel right on this list. Great, influential in effects, acting technique, maybe even music (though I believe it would have been performed live, no?), yes, but horror, not so sure.
Anyway, with the obvious issue of arbitrariness now out in the open, lets update the list a bit.
FIRST UPDATE
My mac is broken (ugh, took it to apple in soho today, waited forever so that they could send it back - i should have it back in a few days or a week (maybe ten???) but if my computer skills (or for those of you who know me, my email response time) is less than stellar, well, now I have an excuse) and Im working on my ass-old PC.
The updated list from your write-ins is below. And I may up it to 30, because it appears I may have bit off more than I can chew. And just cuz your suggestion didnt make it in yet, doesnt mean it wont, I am just conserving space for the time being.
Cool thing about the list, it makes a good netflix or to watch list for aspiring horrorphiles.
********************
So by request, I was asked to write a blog about the best horror movies ever made (before I started making em, right- maybe I’ll make one some day that can be on the list). I didn’t really do anything about the request, and I certainly know a bunch about horror, but would not consider myself an authority at all. I’m no Eli Roth (haha, wink wink).
What we did before here was to let people make their comments about the best teen movies of all time. Given my immersion in the horror world over the last six months or so, seems like a good time to make a new list, a horror list. I went to the horror Fango Con in Burbank this past Sunday, to hang with Bob Kurtzman, special fx wizard and the director of upcoming films like Dimension Films’ Buried Alive, and the independently produced The Rage. Bob is an authority on horror, and his work shows it. He’s also a great guy and I think we’ll be working together for a long time, or at least I hope so.
So anyway, now I am sitting in my little hovel in Hollywood, and having grabbed a bunch of DVD’s from the main house, I’ve been focusing on watching horror in preparation for Digger and Slaughter. So because of this, I have the first two (lets go for twenty five) entries, films I watched yesterday and today, for the list. Lets get the list (and blood) flowing.
1. Psycho – An original. Groundbreaking, and a film that has been copied from so much, in films considered classic themselves, like Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and this next film…
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Toby Hooper’s classic horror oevre. I remember watching it at age 13 or 14 in Garden City. Middle of summer, late nite, everyone else was asleep. After the girl got hung on the hook by Leatherface, I proceeded to close every window on the first floor and lock em. Remarkably, there is next to no gore or blood in this movie. Other than a few rotting corpses, its all done by suggestion.
3.Halloween- Simply one of the best, and deserving of a top stop on any list. Back story goes that Moustafa Akkad approached John Carpenter after seeing Precinct Thirteen and told him that he wanted him to write and direct a movie about babysitter murderers. Carpenter and Debra Hill sat down and wrote Halloween in three weeks, on spec. They made the movie, and history, for about 300K (1979 style or whenever that was, maybe 1978).
4.Scream - One of the great scripts, one that took an overwraught genre and turned it on its head. Not the craziest about Neve in the role, but no one is perfect. Totally reinvigorated a dying (nopunintended) genre.
5. The Shining- The definition of scary. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't why are you sitting there.
6. The Exorcist - The thinking man's (or woman's) supernatural horror thriller. Maybe not as gory as some of the entries on the list, but cemented into the minds of everyone who saw it. Created a sensation when it was released, with lines around the block, becoming one of the original blockbusters (without the bloated budget). Hopefully, Friedkin's return to the genre, Bug, will hold a candle, but I digress.
7. Suspiria - Considered by many to be Dario Argento's masterpiece for your more erudite horror fan, cant leave out the foreign entries, which brings us to...
8. The Ring (Japanese version)- the start of the japanese horror remake brigade, with The Grudge, which we making slaughter happily understand.
9. The Omen (original) - Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in another child-oriented supernatural thriller, with Richard Donner at the helm. The original is really good, a point made more clear when you watch the remake (which has its moments, mostly involving Mia Farrow and Pete Postelthwaite).
10. Night of the Living Dead - One of the groundbreakers in low budget horror and the godfather of Zombie movies.
11. Nightmare on Elm Street - The house in the first one was recently for sale in LA. Thanks, I will keep renting. Pirates on Elm Street, anyone (Johnny Depp's jump to movies from tv - and another Wes Craven entry).
12. Evil Dead - while i prefer its comedic sequel (remake), one of the standard bearers in no-budget horror, complete with arborial rape.
13. Alien/Aliens - Ridley Scott sci-fi horror (yeah so I guess the parallel works) with Sigourney running around in her underwear while we all wonder if the cat has the alien inside of it. And action horror sequel, from the sequel-meister James Cameron, with great performance from Weaver (Oscar-nommed), Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser.
14. Jaws - By proclamation, this great movie is a horror movie, for purposes of this list. A masterful piece of cinema, not just belonging on the great horror movies list (as if), but on the list of the great American movies.
15. The Thing - John Carpenter's 1979 remake classic with another great alien monster that had some unbelievable effects and more of his go to guy, the incomparable Kurt Russell.
16. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Widely considered, here and elsewhere, a modern horror masterpiece, better than the recent Rodriguez entry in Grindhouse.
17. Poltergeist - Still the subject of a raging debate as to whether this is a Tobe Hooper movie or a Spielberg movie (answer is, probably both), has some of the great spooks and plenty of gore for the bloodhounds.
18. Manhunter - Michael Mann directing William Petersen and Brian Cox, with great villany and support from Tom Noonan as the toothfairy. Perhaps not as well knownm as the other entries on the list, and unfairly so. A great movie. Which brings us to...
19. Silence of the Lambs - I couldn't justify not including Jonathan Demme's scarer while including Michael Mann's movie which covers most of the same ground. I have to admit, I don't know why Mann's feels more horrific than Silence, maybe its the lower budget. Perhaps neither of them belong on the list, I don't know, but I love them both and enough of you said they belong.
19. American Werewolf In London - A great exercise is horror/comedy that works, because its scary and never lets up, and the Rick Baker gore factor is in full effect.
20. Carrie - There is nothing quite as terrifying as a high school girl without a date for the prom. Not one of my personal favorites, but
21. Salem's Lot - Yet another Stephen King entry. I saw this movie, and I cannot remember much about it except for the vampires having a very scary, cool look. Anyway, Heidi, now its on here. So shuddup.
22. Hellraiser - Great villains, another that isnt quite one of my favorites, but got seconded a few times, (or thirded? fourth-ed?), and Pinhead rulls. So lets do it. And it gets Clive Barker on the list.
23. Saw, which began the huge horror resurgence in the last seven to ten years and set the initial baseline in torture/horror.
24. The Amityville Horror - Original scarer was not a movie, it was a part of the average kid's consciousness after it came out. One of the best uses ever of the "Based on a True Story" marketing hook of all time, and a darn scary movie killed by terrible sequels (and a doughy remake).
25. Frankenstein - Needed to have some classic old school horror, and Boris Karloff somewhere on this list.
So Many Honorable Mentions: Friday the 13th (very much a genre creator), Hostel, From Dusk Til Dawn, House of A Thousand Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, The Grudge, Curse of the Catpeople, Freaks, Prom Night, The Fly (Cronenberg), Re-Aminator, Murnau's Nosferatu, The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney version), Murder in the Rue Morgue, The Grudge, The Phone, Ichi The Killer, High Tension, Magic (which I absolutely love and is scary as fuck), The Birds, Evil Dead II/III/ Bubba Ho-Tep), Phantasm, The Blair Witch Project, The Eye, The Sixth Sense (which I really like but leave off the list cause I dont really consider it horror, and many consider it a gimmick movie) and Jacob's Ladder (another great great, is it Horror entry) and Angel Heart (yet another, left off maybe for more than this, but a fascinating, stylish, although flawed entry from Alan Parker), Masque fo the Red Death, Braindead (aka Dead Alive), Blade, Misery, 28 Days Later, Hell Night (a personal fave for no particular reason)I Walked with a Zombie, Diabolique (again left off as I can't really consider it horror), King Kong (1933), Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, Cujo, Candyman, and April Fools Day.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Vote for a movie goddammit :)
Come on people. Weigh in. We're only at 19. Can't just be John and Bobby and Scott and Bitter and a few others. I know you're out there. Silent. Stalkers. Leave a comment. It wont hurt. Im sure there is some movie that sends chills up your spine, or second someone else's vote.
Now, go.
Now, go.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Top 25 Horror Films to Date
YET ANOTHE UPDATE, June 2, 2007
Its the nite before the tenth PictureStart Film festival and I am just getting used to having my mac back. I've been on a slow PC all week long, and now I am back among the 21st century dwellers. Anyway, need to respond to some of these comments, and bring the list up to date.
DONT GET LAZY, WE"RE NOT THERE YET.
I've succumbed to some other subgenres including Aliens and The Thing on the list, as well as action/adventurer/natural monster movie Jaws, which is arguably the best movie on the list.
SECOND UPDATE, May 28, 2007
Wow, so we have a lot of respondents, including one, John, who nearly wrote his own blog on horror. It kind of raises the issue of what qualifies as horror (at least for the very minor purposes of this survey). Horror has many sub-genres, including monster movies, slasher, ghost/supernatural, torture, and comedy, to name a few. There are also the thriller horror crossovers, like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs and perhaps the Omen (listed below, but maybe more horror, if only judging by the amount of gore in that movie vs. its contemporaries)and the Exorcist. I guess when I was thinking of this, while I thought about the old Universal horror stuff, and the old monster movies, I wasn't necessarily considering that sub-genre. Nor was I particularly considering other related genre movies like Tod Browning's Freaks, or action/sci-fi movies like James Cameron's great Aliens, or monster action like Blade, and straight thrillers like Diabolique, which I saw when I was seventeen or eighteen, and which my father always described as the scariest movie he had ever seen. I guess where one draws the line is somewhat arbitrary.
Do Lon Chaney and more importantly, Bela Lugosi, belong on this list somewhere. Yeah, of course (not that they care), but that again raises the issue of where to draw the line. Lugosi is one of the godfathers of horror. But movies like Phantom of the Opera, to me, dont really feel right on this list. Great, influential in effects, acting technique, maybe even music (though I believe it would have been performed live, no?), yes, but horror, not so sure.
Anyway, with the obvious issue of arbitrariness now out in the open, lets update the list a bit.
FIRST UPDATE
My mac is broken (ugh, took it to apple in soho today, waited forever so that they could send it back - i should have it back in a few days or a week (maybe ten???) but if my computer skills (or for those of you who know me, my email response time) is less than stellar, well, now I have an excuse) and Im working on my ass-old PC.
The updated list from your write-ins is below. And I may up it to 30, because it appears I may have bit off more than I can chew. And just cuz your suggestion didnt make it in yet, doesnt mean it wont, I am just conserving space for the time being.
Cool thing about the list, it makes a good netflix or to watch list for aspiring horrorphiles.
********************
So by request, I was asked to write a blog about the best horror movies ever made (before I started making em, right- maybe I’ll make one some day that can be on the list). I didn’t really do anything about the request, and I certainly know a bunch about horror, but would not consider myself an authority at all. I’m no Eli Roth (haha, wink wink).
What we did before here was to let people make their comments about the best teen movies of all time. Given my immersion in the horror world over the last six months or so, seems like a good time to make a new list, a horror list. I went to the horror Fango Con in Burbank this past Sunday, to hang with Bob Kurtzman, special fx wizard and the director of upcoming films like Dimension Films’ Buried Alive, and the independently produced The Rage. Bob is an authority on horror, and his work shows it. He’s also a great guy and I think we’ll be working together for a long time, or at least I hope so.
So anyway, now I am sitting in my little hovel in Hollywood, and having grabbed a bunch of DVD’s from the main house, I’ve been focusing on watching horror in preparation for Digger and Slaughter. So because of this, I have the first two (lets go for twenty five) entries, films I watched yesterday and today, for the list. Lets get the list (and blood) flowing.
1. Psycho – An original. Groundbreaking, and a film that has been copied from so much, in films considered classic themselves, like Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and this next film…
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Toby Hooper’s classic horror oevre. I remember watching it at age 13 or 14 in Garden City. Middle of summer, late nite, everyone else was asleep. After the girl got hung on the hook by Leatherface, I proceeded to close every window on the first floor and lock em. Remarkably, there is next to no gore or blood in this movie. Other than a few rotting corpses, its all done by suggestion.
3.Halloween- Simply one of the best, and deserving of a top stop on any list. Back story goes that Moustafa Akkad approached John Carpenter after seeing Precinct Thirteen and told him that he wanted him to write and direct a movie about babysitter murderers. Carpenter and Debra Hill sat down and wrote Halloween in three weeks, on spec. They made the movie, and history, for about 300K (1979 style or whenever that was, maybe 1978).
4.Scream - One of the great scripts, one that took an overwraught genre and turned it on its head. Not the craziest about Neve in the role, but no one is perfect. Totally reinvigorated a dying (nopunintended) genre.
5. The Shining- The definition of scary. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't why are you sitting there.
6. The Exorcist - The thinking man's (or woman's) supernatural horror thriller. Maybe not as gory as some of the entries on the list, but cemented into the minds of everyone who saw it. Created a sensation when it was released, with lines around the block, becoming one of the original blockbusters (without the bloated budget). Hopefully, Friedkin's return to the genre, Bug, will hold a candle, but I digress.
7. Suspiria - Considered by many to be Dario Argento's masterpiece for your more erudite horror fan, cant leave out the foreign entries, which brings us to...
8. The Ring (Japanese version)- the start of the japanese horror remake brigade, with The Grudge, which we making slaughter happily understand.
9. The Omen (original) - Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in another child-oriented supernatural thriller, with Richard Donner at the helm. The original is really good, a point made more clear when you watch the remake (which has its moments, mostly involving Mia Farrow and Pete Postelthwaite).
10. Night of the Living Dead - One of the groundbreakers in low budget horror and the godfather of Zombie movies.
11. Nightmare on Elm Street - The house in the first one was recently for sale in LA. Thanks, I will keep renting. Pirates on Elm Street, anyone (Johnny Depp's jump to movies from tv - and another Wes Craven entry).
12. Evil Dead - while i prefer its comedic sequel (remake), one of the standard bearers in no-budget horror, complete with arborial rape.
13. Alien - Ridley Scott sci-fi horror (yeah so I guess the parallel works) with Sigourney running around in her underwear while we all wonder if the cat has the alien inside of it.
14. Jaws - By proclamation, this great movie is a horror movie, for purposes of this list. A masterful piece of cinema, not just belonging on the great horror movies list (as if), but on the list of the great American movies.
15. The Thing - John Carpenter's 1979 remake classic with another great alien monster that had some unbelievable effects and more of his go to guy, the incomparable Kurt Russell.
16. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Widely considered, here and elsewhere, a modern horror masterpiece, better than the recent Rodriguez entry in Grindhouse.
17. Poltergeist - Still the subject of a raging debate as to whether this is a Tobe Hooper movie or a Spielberg movie (answer is, probably both), has some of the great spooks and plenty of gore for the bloodhounds.
18. Manhunter - Michael Mann directing William Petersen and Brian Cox, with great villany and support from Tom Noonan as the toothfairy. Perhaps not as well knownm as the other entries on the list, and unfairly so. A great movie. Which brings us to...
19. Silence of the Lambs - I couldn't justify not including Jonathan Demme's scarer while including Michael Mann's movie which covers most of the same ground. I have to admit, I don't know why Mann's feels more horrific than Silence, maybe its the lower budget. Perhaps neither of them belong on the list, I don't know, but I love them both and enough of you said they belong.
19. Keep going, we arent done yet with this debate.
Its the nite before the tenth PictureStart Film festival and I am just getting used to having my mac back. I've been on a slow PC all week long, and now I am back among the 21st century dwellers. Anyway, need to respond to some of these comments, and bring the list up to date.
DONT GET LAZY, WE"RE NOT THERE YET.
I've succumbed to some other subgenres including Aliens and The Thing on the list, as well as action/adventurer/natural monster movie Jaws, which is arguably the best movie on the list.
SECOND UPDATE, May 28, 2007
Wow, so we have a lot of respondents, including one, John, who nearly wrote his own blog on horror. It kind of raises the issue of what qualifies as horror (at least for the very minor purposes of this survey). Horror has many sub-genres, including monster movies, slasher, ghost/supernatural, torture, and comedy, to name a few. There are also the thriller horror crossovers, like Se7en and Silence of the Lambs and perhaps the Omen (listed below, but maybe more horror, if only judging by the amount of gore in that movie vs. its contemporaries)and the Exorcist. I guess when I was thinking of this, while I thought about the old Universal horror stuff, and the old monster movies, I wasn't necessarily considering that sub-genre. Nor was I particularly considering other related genre movies like Tod Browning's Freaks, or action/sci-fi movies like James Cameron's great Aliens, or monster action like Blade, and straight thrillers like Diabolique, which I saw when I was seventeen or eighteen, and which my father always described as the scariest movie he had ever seen. I guess where one draws the line is somewhat arbitrary.
Do Lon Chaney and more importantly, Bela Lugosi, belong on this list somewhere. Yeah, of course (not that they care), but that again raises the issue of where to draw the line. Lugosi is one of the godfathers of horror. But movies like Phantom of the Opera, to me, dont really feel right on this list. Great, influential in effects, acting technique, maybe even music (though I believe it would have been performed live, no?), yes, but horror, not so sure.
Anyway, with the obvious issue of arbitrariness now out in the open, lets update the list a bit.
FIRST UPDATE
My mac is broken (ugh, took it to apple in soho today, waited forever so that they could send it back - i should have it back in a few days or a week (maybe ten???) but if my computer skills (or for those of you who know me, my email response time) is less than stellar, well, now I have an excuse) and Im working on my ass-old PC.
The updated list from your write-ins is below. And I may up it to 30, because it appears I may have bit off more than I can chew. And just cuz your suggestion didnt make it in yet, doesnt mean it wont, I am just conserving space for the time being.
Cool thing about the list, it makes a good netflix or to watch list for aspiring horrorphiles.
********************
So by request, I was asked to write a blog about the best horror movies ever made (before I started making em, right- maybe I’ll make one some day that can be on the list). I didn’t really do anything about the request, and I certainly know a bunch about horror, but would not consider myself an authority at all. I’m no Eli Roth (haha, wink wink).
What we did before here was to let people make their comments about the best teen movies of all time. Given my immersion in the horror world over the last six months or so, seems like a good time to make a new list, a horror list. I went to the horror Fango Con in Burbank this past Sunday, to hang with Bob Kurtzman, special fx wizard and the director of upcoming films like Dimension Films’ Buried Alive, and the independently produced The Rage. Bob is an authority on horror, and his work shows it. He’s also a great guy and I think we’ll be working together for a long time, or at least I hope so.
So anyway, now I am sitting in my little hovel in Hollywood, and having grabbed a bunch of DVD’s from the main house, I’ve been focusing on watching horror in preparation for Digger and Slaughter. So because of this, I have the first two (lets go for twenty five) entries, films I watched yesterday and today, for the list. Lets get the list (and blood) flowing.
1. Psycho – An original. Groundbreaking, and a film that has been copied from so much, in films considered classic themselves, like Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill, and this next film…
2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Toby Hooper’s classic horror oevre. I remember watching it at age 13 or 14 in Garden City. Middle of summer, late nite, everyone else was asleep. After the girl got hung on the hook by Leatherface, I proceeded to close every window on the first floor and lock em. Remarkably, there is next to no gore or blood in this movie. Other than a few rotting corpses, its all done by suggestion.
3.Halloween- Simply one of the best, and deserving of a top stop on any list. Back story goes that Moustafa Akkad approached John Carpenter after seeing Precinct Thirteen and told him that he wanted him to write and direct a movie about babysitter murderers. Carpenter and Debra Hill sat down and wrote Halloween in three weeks, on spec. They made the movie, and history, for about 300K (1979 style or whenever that was, maybe 1978).
4.Scream - One of the great scripts, one that took an overwraught genre and turned it on its head. Not the craziest about Neve in the role, but no one is perfect. Totally reinvigorated a dying (nopunintended) genre.
5. The Shining- The definition of scary. If you've seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't why are you sitting there.
6. The Exorcist - The thinking man's (or woman's) supernatural horror thriller. Maybe not as gory as some of the entries on the list, but cemented into the minds of everyone who saw it. Created a sensation when it was released, with lines around the block, becoming one of the original blockbusters (without the bloated budget). Hopefully, Friedkin's return to the genre, Bug, will hold a candle, but I digress.
7. Suspiria - Considered by many to be Dario Argento's masterpiece for your more erudite horror fan, cant leave out the foreign entries, which brings us to...
8. The Ring (Japanese version)- the start of the japanese horror remake brigade, with The Grudge, which we making slaughter happily understand.
9. The Omen (original) - Gregory Peck and Lee Remick in another child-oriented supernatural thriller, with Richard Donner at the helm. The original is really good, a point made more clear when you watch the remake (which has its moments, mostly involving Mia Farrow and Pete Postelthwaite).
10. Night of the Living Dead - One of the groundbreakers in low budget horror and the godfather of Zombie movies.
11. Nightmare on Elm Street - The house in the first one was recently for sale in LA. Thanks, I will keep renting. Pirates on Elm Street, anyone (Johnny Depp's jump to movies from tv - and another Wes Craven entry).
12. Evil Dead - while i prefer its comedic sequel (remake), one of the standard bearers in no-budget horror, complete with arborial rape.
13. Alien - Ridley Scott sci-fi horror (yeah so I guess the parallel works) with Sigourney running around in her underwear while we all wonder if the cat has the alien inside of it.
14. Jaws - By proclamation, this great movie is a horror movie, for purposes of this list. A masterful piece of cinema, not just belonging on the great horror movies list (as if), but on the list of the great American movies.
15. The Thing - John Carpenter's 1979 remake classic with another great alien monster that had some unbelievable effects and more of his go to guy, the incomparable Kurt Russell.
16. Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Widely considered, here and elsewhere, a modern horror masterpiece, better than the recent Rodriguez entry in Grindhouse.
17. Poltergeist - Still the subject of a raging debate as to whether this is a Tobe Hooper movie or a Spielberg movie (answer is, probably both), has some of the great spooks and plenty of gore for the bloodhounds.
18. Manhunter - Michael Mann directing William Petersen and Brian Cox, with great villany and support from Tom Noonan as the toothfairy. Perhaps not as well knownm as the other entries on the list, and unfairly so. A great movie. Which brings us to...
19. Silence of the Lambs - I couldn't justify not including Jonathan Demme's scarer while including Michael Mann's movie which covers most of the same ground. I have to admit, I don't know why Mann's feels more horrific than Silence, maybe its the lower budget. Perhaps neither of them belong on the list, I don't know, but I love them both and enough of you said they belong.
19. Keep going, we arent done yet with this debate.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Saturday miscellany
Saturday nite. Big pasta dinner. Sitting at home. Watching movies, good and bad.
Did anyone see the Hitcher. My friend Phil Hardage worked as the first AD on it. I just a music video by that director. Incredible. Really incredible work. I went to see what else the guy had done (besides the video) and there was the Hitcher (the remake that is, Sean Bean Hitcher, not Rutger Hauer Hitcher). Anyway, lemme know what you thought of the movie – Im pretty curious. Just in an academic sense, because I am kinda biased about music video directors doing movies, generally. But this Pink Video was so incredible looking, now I am curious.
I am headed back to LA on Tuesday. Been just a few days since I got back, it feels like, and I am already headed back to LA. Which is OK. Its for a good reason. We are about to lock someone very key to Slaughter. Can’t say more than that, but its exciting and very big news.
The apt in LA is coming in very handy, it seems. Would have been spending a lot of money with all the time out there. If I can only make it a bit nicer. Any readers in LA or thereabouts who wanna help out with that, would be great.
When I get out there, I have a meeting on the Warner Studios lot. First time for me to go to a studio lot. Ive been to offices for a major (New Line on Robertson), but this will be a first for me. I may have a meeting at Universal as well, but one thing at a time.
I hate flying. Have I mentioned that. Uggh.
Oh, so by the way, everyone who reads this know that Heidi, the frequent commenter (especially when stuff concerns her or misogynist horror movies) . She’s an actress. She was in Hot Baby. And now, with Digger coming up, well, to me, Heidi being from Connecticut and all, you know.
But apparently, Heidi doesn’t know I am working on the movie, does she? I spoke to someone we both know, and Heidi told em all about the movie, Digger, which I’ve been working on for a year. I thought she knew I was working on it. But this person in common was like, hey, you’re working on that, that’s cool. I guess that while Heidi is kind enough to weign in on the blog here and there, well, I don’t rate top billing on the producer’s list. Probably because I am so abusive. Maybe I should try to be nicer.
Nah.
Did anyone see the Hitcher. My friend Phil Hardage worked as the first AD on it. I just a music video by that director. Incredible. Really incredible work. I went to see what else the guy had done (besides the video) and there was the Hitcher (the remake that is, Sean Bean Hitcher, not Rutger Hauer Hitcher). Anyway, lemme know what you thought of the movie – Im pretty curious. Just in an academic sense, because I am kinda biased about music video directors doing movies, generally. But this Pink Video was so incredible looking, now I am curious.
I am headed back to LA on Tuesday. Been just a few days since I got back, it feels like, and I am already headed back to LA. Which is OK. Its for a good reason. We are about to lock someone very key to Slaughter. Can’t say more than that, but its exciting and very big news.
The apt in LA is coming in very handy, it seems. Would have been spending a lot of money with all the time out there. If I can only make it a bit nicer. Any readers in LA or thereabouts who wanna help out with that, would be great.
When I get out there, I have a meeting on the Warner Studios lot. First time for me to go to a studio lot. Ive been to offices for a major (New Line on Robertson), but this will be a first for me. I may have a meeting at Universal as well, but one thing at a time.
I hate flying. Have I mentioned that. Uggh.
Oh, so by the way, everyone who reads this know that Heidi, the frequent commenter (especially when stuff concerns her or misogynist horror movies) . She’s an actress. She was in Hot Baby. And now, with Digger coming up, well, to me, Heidi being from Connecticut and all, you know.
But apparently, Heidi doesn’t know I am working on the movie, does she? I spoke to someone we both know, and Heidi told em all about the movie, Digger, which I’ve been working on for a year. I thought she knew I was working on it. But this person in common was like, hey, you’re working on that, that’s cool. I guess that while Heidi is kind enough to weign in on the blog here and there, well, I don’t rate top billing on the producer’s list. Probably because I am so abusive. Maybe I should try to be nicer.
Nah.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Sunday Nite
Not much to say. Going scouting on Digger up in Connecticut on Tuesday.
Dunno if you’ve seen any of the press on Digger. Its being reported that the Material Girl is a producer on the movie. In like 17 languages. I mean, she’s more than welcome, but I don’t think she’s really gonna produce the movie. But all over the world, in languages I cannot even identify, cunning linguist that I am, that’s the translation.
Google it. Go ahead, I cannot believe how many hits. Just try it…Google John A. Gallagher Digger Maverick. Holy Canoli.
So we’re going up to Connecticut on Tuesday to look at some locations. The woods. The college. The graveyard. Spooky huh?
I’ll let ya know how it goes.
Dunno if you’ve seen any of the press on Digger. Its being reported that the Material Girl is a producer on the movie. In like 17 languages. I mean, she’s more than welcome, but I don’t think she’s really gonna produce the movie. But all over the world, in languages I cannot even identify, cunning linguist that I am, that’s the translation.
Google it. Go ahead, I cannot believe how many hits. Just try it…Google John A. Gallagher Digger Maverick. Holy Canoli.
So we’re going up to Connecticut on Tuesday to look at some locations. The woods. The college. The graveyard. Spooky huh?
I’ll let ya know how it goes.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Airplane Blogging – The End of the Road
Coming back to NYC from Kansas City, via Atlanta. I spent over a week in KC, from a trip on a whim due to bad weather out of Chicago. All in all I had a great time and Val and I (and Mikimoto, her pooch) got along swimmingly. And despite a few hiccups with work related stuff during the week, I basically had a very nice, relaxing week. KC isn’t exactly New York (hell, its not even St. Louis), but it was pretty cool, anyway. I worked all week out of the Screenland theater, arranging for My Brother to make its KC premiere there and playing matchmaker between the theater owner, Butch Rigby, and Slamdance, to set up a Slamdance in the Midwest screening series which both sides think is a dandy idea.
See, I am talking like them now.
Now, what you may or may not have been waiting for, which is the results on My Brother’s run in the theaters.
We had 28 screens in 18 markets the first weekend. The total advertising budget from the distributor, I am told, was about 100,000 dollars (prints and PR are extra). We didn’t have newspaper ads, either.
You see where I am going with this. Maybe, maybe not.
We did around 33,000 on the 28 screens for the opening weekend. One theater didn’t report, for some reason. Don’t know why.
So at about 1,200 per screen or so, we weren’t the weakest movie released that weekend, but we weren’t burning up the ticket window either, except in Houston, which did very nicely thanks to the Scott’s help and to some extent, Hampton VA (which is still going strong). Some markets, like Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and unfortunately, Chicago, did very little. And so, at the end of the weekend, AMC pulled the chain on 24 of the screens they had given us, and added only one replacement screen.
Funny thing, though, despite the weak opening, the movie began to do decent numbers during the week. Steady, not spectacular. We crossed 40,000 Thursday nite, but despite the decent performance during the week, especially in NYC and Norfolk VA (where Donovan lives), the decision from the prior weekend stood, and we are only on six screens this weekend, three in Houston, one in Columbus OH (which didn’t perform well during the first weekend), Dallas, and Norfolk. New York City was done with AMC.
From the distributor’s standpoint, they seem pretty happy with the release. The movie got reviews, some good (Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Kam Williams and NY Times being the best), and some not so good. There seems to be a lot of awareness in the market for the movie, and since they spent so little on prints and advertising, the money that will start to come in on DVD sales will recoup their expenditure very quickly Which means both CodeBlack and Liberty will start to see cash sometime fairly soon.
That’s all well, but we still want to get the movie out a little more broadly in the public consciousness, so I’ve made contact with some movie theaters, independent ones, to book the movie in cities where we never opened. Kansas City was the first (which also makes the trip a biz trip, tax deductible, yes). And working on San Francisco, and a chain of theaters in the south from Mississippi to Louisiana and the Carolinas. They have the movie, lets see. Still working on Philadelphia, but time seems to be running out on that.
Anyway, that’s the basic plan. There are still the same people circling about putting up some money to do a real movie campaign, but time is so short, and I’ve seen this song and dance a million times. We’ll just have to see where it goes.
The new Slaughter script came in, and it’s a big improvement, although we can leave that upto Heidi to determine. I’ll send her a copy so she can get grossed out again and complain about all the actresses taking their clothes off. The production team has been having its bumps and bruises, but the creative elements seem to be coming together, and that’s the key. We even slipped the script to a director who may be a good fit for the project. We’ll see if he warms to the material.
I haven’t been in NY for two weeks. And before that, I was gone basically all week in Washington, D.C., Arizona. California, Arizona, Houston, Chicago, Kansas City, all in the past month. Lotsa travel. And that followed up a January in Park City and the nine days I spent out there. My mattress is getting lots of rest.
Despite the title of this entry, I probably will head to LA for work within the next ten days or so. Slaughter is sitting squarely in the middle of my bloody plate. Its picked up momentum, and is getting good press from the bloggers and horror websites. Already seen a picture of Nathan and Bobby, the writers, on JoBlo. That’s pretty huge.
I have to see how we’re putting all these pieces together with all these partners, or say some goodbyes and get focused down to business. I am also going to start taking legal clients again –this traveling gets expensive. I’m looking at renting a cheap place in Hollywood to cut costs for when I go to LA, so that I can stay as long as I need to and afford it. The Sunsent Hyatt (or Riot Hyatt) just wasn’t worth three bills a nite, anyway.
Catch y’all in NY. And to those who went to see My Brother, thanks.
See, I am talking like them now.
Now, what you may or may not have been waiting for, which is the results on My Brother’s run in the theaters.
We had 28 screens in 18 markets the first weekend. The total advertising budget from the distributor, I am told, was about 100,000 dollars (prints and PR are extra). We didn’t have newspaper ads, either.
You see where I am going with this. Maybe, maybe not.
We did around 33,000 on the 28 screens for the opening weekend. One theater didn’t report, for some reason. Don’t know why.
So at about 1,200 per screen or so, we weren’t the weakest movie released that weekend, but we weren’t burning up the ticket window either, except in Houston, which did very nicely thanks to the Scott’s help and to some extent, Hampton VA (which is still going strong). Some markets, like Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and unfortunately, Chicago, did very little. And so, at the end of the weekend, AMC pulled the chain on 24 of the screens they had given us, and added only one replacement screen.
Funny thing, though, despite the weak opening, the movie began to do decent numbers during the week. Steady, not spectacular. We crossed 40,000 Thursday nite, but despite the decent performance during the week, especially in NYC and Norfolk VA (where Donovan lives), the decision from the prior weekend stood, and we are only on six screens this weekend, three in Houston, one in Columbus OH (which didn’t perform well during the first weekend), Dallas, and Norfolk. New York City was done with AMC.
From the distributor’s standpoint, they seem pretty happy with the release. The movie got reviews, some good (Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Kam Williams and NY Times being the best), and some not so good. There seems to be a lot of awareness in the market for the movie, and since they spent so little on prints and advertising, the money that will start to come in on DVD sales will recoup their expenditure very quickly Which means both CodeBlack and Liberty will start to see cash sometime fairly soon.
That’s all well, but we still want to get the movie out a little more broadly in the public consciousness, so I’ve made contact with some movie theaters, independent ones, to book the movie in cities where we never opened. Kansas City was the first (which also makes the trip a biz trip, tax deductible, yes). And working on San Francisco, and a chain of theaters in the south from Mississippi to Louisiana and the Carolinas. They have the movie, lets see. Still working on Philadelphia, but time seems to be running out on that.
Anyway, that’s the basic plan. There are still the same people circling about putting up some money to do a real movie campaign, but time is so short, and I’ve seen this song and dance a million times. We’ll just have to see where it goes.
The new Slaughter script came in, and it’s a big improvement, although we can leave that upto Heidi to determine. I’ll send her a copy so she can get grossed out again and complain about all the actresses taking their clothes off. The production team has been having its bumps and bruises, but the creative elements seem to be coming together, and that’s the key. We even slipped the script to a director who may be a good fit for the project. We’ll see if he warms to the material.
I haven’t been in NY for two weeks. And before that, I was gone basically all week in Washington, D.C., Arizona. California, Arizona, Houston, Chicago, Kansas City, all in the past month. Lotsa travel. And that followed up a January in Park City and the nine days I spent out there. My mattress is getting lots of rest.
Despite the title of this entry, I probably will head to LA for work within the next ten days or so. Slaughter is sitting squarely in the middle of my bloody plate. Its picked up momentum, and is getting good press from the bloggers and horror websites. Already seen a picture of Nathan and Bobby, the writers, on JoBlo. That’s pretty huge.
I have to see how we’re putting all these pieces together with all these partners, or say some goodbyes and get focused down to business. I am also going to start taking legal clients again –this traveling gets expensive. I’m looking at renting a cheap place in Hollywood to cut costs for when I go to LA, so that I can stay as long as I need to and afford it. The Sunsent Hyatt (or Riot Hyatt) just wasn’t worth three bills a nite, anyway.
Catch y’all in NY. And to those who went to see My Brother, thanks.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Multiple Award Winning Movie "My Brother" starring Vanessa Williams - Theatrical Release in 19 Cities, March 16th - Please read and forward
Please read and forward-
From the Producer of My Brother:
Friends,
I am writing this letter because I’ve had the good fortune to produce the multiple award winning movie, “My Brother,” which was conceived, written and directed by Academy award-nominee Anthony Lover, and stars Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Nashawn Kearse (Desperate Housewives), Tatum O’Neal (Dancing With The Stars, Rescue Me), Rodney Henry (The Lion King) and Fredro Starr (Save the Last Dance). The actors I just mentioned are names that you know for their work in other shows. We chose them because we thought they were great in what they had done before in their careers. But producing this movie has been a life-changing experience, different from other films I've produced, because of the participation of two newcomers to the movie industry.
These are the two lead performers in the movie to whom at I want to introduce you, Chris Scott and Donovan Jennings. They each are now accomplished performers themselves, with Chris winning the Founder’s Award at the HBO American Black Film Festival (the film won Best Picture honors there as well) and Donovan winning the Youth Spirit Award at the International Family Film Festival.
Neither Chris nor Donovan had ever acted before My Brother. But they have more in common – Chris and Donovan both have Downs Syndrome. They are the first African Americans with a developmental disability ever to play lead roles in a feature motion picture. And with their awards (they have won awards and the movie has won 26 awards to date in film festivals and screenings across the country, making it the most celebrated film targeting African American audiences since The Color Purple), and the way that they have touched audiences around the country, they also have proved, together, that given the opportunity and support, people of all kinds can achieve things that are beyond what many of us can imagine. Never having worked before My Brother with people with developmental disabilities, I am just one person that gained this understanding from this movie.
Because of their truly stunning performances, we now are getting the word out about My Brother with different organizations all over the country, including the Special Olympics and the National Institute for People With Disabilities. We’ll be doing premieres for My Brother with the Special Olympics on February 27th in Washington, D.C., and thereafter in Houston, where Christopher lives and works as a teacher’s assistant, and New York. We're also marketing the movie with other partners - e.g., Reverend Jesse Jackson has called the movie "A must see for African Americans."
My Brother comes out in theaters in March 16th. Organizations around the country, whether in health care or education, like the NIPD and the Rize School, are organizing group parties for the movie and buying groups of tickets in blocks to see it in the nineteen cities in which it is being released (a list of theaters is attached). Because of the way that the movie business works, for the movie to get the fullest rollout possible, its important that people go see it on its opening weekend, and not to wait until even the second or third weekend.
Please take the time and have a look at our website, www.mybrotherthemovie.com, and our myspace page, www.myspace.com/mybrotherthemovie. Check out the trailer and behind the scenes documentary for the movie. And more importantly, spread the word and join the thousands of people that have been amazed and touched by Donovan and Chris. A list of the theaters where we open March 16th is attached.
Thanks for your time,
Gregory Segal
Producer – “My Brother”
SOUTHLAKE PAVILION 24 Atlanta
MAGIC JOHNSON CAP CNTR 12 Washington DC
EMPIRE 25 New York
SOUTHFIELD 20 Detroit
STONECREST MEGASTAR 16 Atlanta
HOFFMAN 22 Richmond
WHITE MARSH 16 Baltimore
OWINGS MILLS 17 Baltimore
JERSEY GARDEN 20 Elizabeth NJ
MAGIC JOHNSON 9 NY - Harlem
FAIRLANE 21 Detroit
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS 16 Chicago
AVENTURA MALL 24 Miami
WESTBANK 16 New Orleans
REGENCY 24 Jacksonville FL
HAMPTON TOWNE CENTRE 24 Richmond/Hampton VA
CHERRY HILL 24 Cherry Hill NJ
MAGIC JOHN. GREENBRIAR 12 Atlanta
MAGIC JOHNSON 15 Los Angeles
34TH STREET 14 New York
MESQUITE 30 Dallas
GULF POINTE 30 Houston
CRESTWOOD 18 Chicago
BAY STREET 16 Oakland
TALLAHASSEE MALL 20 Tallahassee FL
NORTH DEKALB 16 Atlanta
STUDIO 30 HOU. Houston
BAY PLAZA 13 NY / Bronx
CONCORD MILLS 24 Charlotte
600 NORTH MICHIGAN 9 Chicago
FORD CITY 14 Chicago
EASTON 30 Columbus OH
ORANGE PARK 24 Jacksonville
ONTARIO MILLS 30 Los Angeles
POTOMAC MILLS 18 richmond/Norfolk VA?
From the Producer of My Brother:
Friends,
I am writing this letter because I’ve had the good fortune to produce the multiple award winning movie, “My Brother,” which was conceived, written and directed by Academy award-nominee Anthony Lover, and stars Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty), Nashawn Kearse (Desperate Housewives), Tatum O’Neal (Dancing With The Stars, Rescue Me), Rodney Henry (The Lion King) and Fredro Starr (Save the Last Dance). The actors I just mentioned are names that you know for their work in other shows. We chose them because we thought they were great in what they had done before in their careers. But producing this movie has been a life-changing experience, different from other films I've produced, because of the participation of two newcomers to the movie industry.
These are the two lead performers in the movie to whom at I want to introduce you, Chris Scott and Donovan Jennings. They each are now accomplished performers themselves, with Chris winning the Founder’s Award at the HBO American Black Film Festival (the film won Best Picture honors there as well) and Donovan winning the Youth Spirit Award at the International Family Film Festival.
Neither Chris nor Donovan had ever acted before My Brother. But they have more in common – Chris and Donovan both have Downs Syndrome. They are the first African Americans with a developmental disability ever to play lead roles in a feature motion picture. And with their awards (they have won awards and the movie has won 26 awards to date in film festivals and screenings across the country, making it the most celebrated film targeting African American audiences since The Color Purple), and the way that they have touched audiences around the country, they also have proved, together, that given the opportunity and support, people of all kinds can achieve things that are beyond what many of us can imagine. Never having worked before My Brother with people with developmental disabilities, I am just one person that gained this understanding from this movie.
Because of their truly stunning performances, we now are getting the word out about My Brother with different organizations all over the country, including the Special Olympics and the National Institute for People With Disabilities. We’ll be doing premieres for My Brother with the Special Olympics on February 27th in Washington, D.C., and thereafter in Houston, where Christopher lives and works as a teacher’s assistant, and New York. We're also marketing the movie with other partners - e.g., Reverend Jesse Jackson has called the movie "A must see for African Americans."
My Brother comes out in theaters in March 16th. Organizations around the country, whether in health care or education, like the NIPD and the Rize School, are organizing group parties for the movie and buying groups of tickets in blocks to see it in the nineteen cities in which it is being released (a list of theaters is attached). Because of the way that the movie business works, for the movie to get the fullest rollout possible, its important that people go see it on its opening weekend, and not to wait until even the second or third weekend.
Please take the time and have a look at our website, www.mybrotherthemovie.com, and our myspace page, www.myspace.com/mybrotherthemovie. Check out the trailer and behind the scenes documentary for the movie. And more importantly, spread the word and join the thousands of people that have been amazed and touched by Donovan and Chris. A list of the theaters where we open March 16th is attached.
Thanks for your time,
Gregory Segal
Producer – “My Brother”
SOUTHLAKE PAVILION 24 Atlanta
MAGIC JOHNSON CAP CNTR 12 Washington DC
EMPIRE 25 New York
SOUTHFIELD 20 Detroit
STONECREST MEGASTAR 16 Atlanta
HOFFMAN 22 Richmond
WHITE MARSH 16 Baltimore
OWINGS MILLS 17 Baltimore
JERSEY GARDEN 20 Elizabeth NJ
MAGIC JOHNSON 9 NY - Harlem
FAIRLANE 21 Detroit
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS 16 Chicago
AVENTURA MALL 24 Miami
WESTBANK 16 New Orleans
REGENCY 24 Jacksonville FL
HAMPTON TOWNE CENTRE 24 Richmond/Hampton VA
CHERRY HILL 24 Cherry Hill NJ
MAGIC JOHN. GREENBRIAR 12 Atlanta
MAGIC JOHNSON 15 Los Angeles
34TH STREET 14 New York
MESQUITE 30 Dallas
GULF POINTE 30 Houston
CRESTWOOD 18 Chicago
BAY STREET 16 Oakland
TALLAHASSEE MALL 20 Tallahassee FL
NORTH DEKALB 16 Atlanta
STUDIO 30 HOU. Houston
BAY PLAZA 13 NY / Bronx
CONCORD MILLS 24 Charlotte
600 NORTH MICHIGAN 9 Chicago
FORD CITY 14 Chicago
EASTON 30 Columbus OH
ORANGE PARK 24 Jacksonville
ONTARIO MILLS 30 Los Angeles
POTOMAC MILLS 18 richmond/Norfolk VA?
Saturday, November 25, 2006
That Guy!!!! (Top 10)
OK. So I don’t blog for a week. More than a week. Now I am home for Saturday night, writing, sitting around, reading old movie reviews at RogerEbert.com (which I very much recommend) and I thought of a good list post, so even though I just posted, I wanna start this one off. The list is one Happy will definitely appreciate – It’s the “That’s the Guy From” List, meaning a list of the character actors that we have seen a million times, but their names have never quite crossed into the public consciousness (based upon normal people’s knowledge, not yours, Happy).
So lets hit it.
1. Vincent Schiavelli - With that unmistakeable mug, the face of a corpse (he actually died this year), appearing in movies from Cuckoo’s Nest to Batman Returns to Better Off Dead.
2. Wallace Shawn - Best known as The Sicilian from The Princess Bride. "Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line."
3. Henry Silva - Always the bad guy, in so many different cultures, too.
4. Alison Janney - A happy choice.
5. Tony Goldwyn - Shouldn't be on this list, too good an actor (and quite the acting coach as well, apparently.
6. Dan Hedaya - One of the top character actors over the past twenty five years. Made his mark first in Coen brothers movies and on Cheers, as Nick Tortelli.
7. Frank Whaley - Great in Swimming With Sharks, a personal fave. Also a good director, but number seven on the whose that guy list (no Its not a Madonna song).
So lets hit it.
1. Vincent Schiavelli - With that unmistakeable mug, the face of a corpse (he actually died this year), appearing in movies from Cuckoo’s Nest to Batman Returns to Better Off Dead.
2. Wallace Shawn - Best known as The Sicilian from The Princess Bride. "Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line."
3. Henry Silva - Always the bad guy, in so many different cultures, too.
4. Alison Janney - A happy choice.
5. Tony Goldwyn - Shouldn't be on this list, too good an actor (and quite the acting coach as well, apparently.
6. Dan Hedaya - One of the top character actors over the past twenty five years. Made his mark first in Coen brothers movies and on Cheers, as Nick Tortelli.
7. Frank Whaley - Great in Swimming With Sharks, a personal fave. Also a good director, but number seven on the whose that guy list (no Its not a Madonna song).
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Get Er Done - Top 25 Teen Movies Finally
FINISHING UP. 10.28.06
OK FINAL VOTE _ CHECK MY LAST COMMENT AND LETS FINISH IT UP. People stop the madness, this has gone on way too long. Relationships have begun and ended (and new ones started despite crushing emotional blows?) in the time that its take to finish this list.
TWO MORE (Unless we can remove St. Elmo's Fire).
NEVER DID FINISH THIS LIST- LETS NOT GET LAZY NOW PEOPLE, SIX MORE TO GO@@$#$%@%#
Writing late nite, well, not that late. But anyway, heres an idea for a post, something that will at least capture bitter’s imagination. Lets make a list of the top 25 teen movies of all time. I am gonna start with one, and then whoever posts next can just add a name. Then we can have a little discussion about whether the new additions get to stay on the list.
****
UPDATE: TEEN MOVIES ARE LIGHT FLUFFY FARE THAT ARE FUN TO WATCH, NOT HEAVY DRAMATIC STUFF LIKE RIVER'S EDGE OR THE GREAT MOVIE FROM THIS PAST YEAR, BRICK (WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE BE CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST).
****
1. Cant Hardly Wait – The best karaoke scene of all time – a totally great cast, including cameos, and J.L.H.
2. The Sure Thing - About what most high school guys dream about through high school.
3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High - Awesome, totally awesome. Nice move Hamilton.
4. Grease
5. Porkys
6. Heathers
7. Breakfast Club
8. 16 Candles
9. As keeper of the Blog, I am putting up another genre - Revenge of the Nerds.
10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Totally great kids movie.
11. Risky Businesss (come on, how could I have forgotten this, doesnt even need to be seconded)
12. House Party (with M. Lawrence stinkin up the big screen in his first role)
13. Dazed And Confused
14. Cant Buy Me Love - Standard formula teen movie, done oh so well.
15. American Pie - The rise of Eugene Levy ("We'll just tell your mother...we ate it."
16. Bring It On - Just cause we know how much Happy loves Eliza Dushku.
17. Mean Girls - By popular consent, and because we need a little modernism here.
18. Say Anything - Chicks dig the Cusack-man holding up the radio over his head outside her window. "Who do you think you are?" "With all due respect Sir, Im the guy going with your daughter to England."
19. Weird Science - Perhaps not the greatest piece of intellectualism, and I always found Anthony Michael Hall's sidekick (whats his name Happy) really annoying - but Hall, Downey Jr., Paxton, and the bald guy from the Wes Craven movies of the 70's, how bad could it be.
20. Clueless (despite Alicia Silverstone) - people get a clue
21. Last American Virgin - Cause every teen movie list needs an entrant guaranteed to make you want to chug a bottle of Drano, and this is ours
22. Valley Girl - Yet another classic entrant, with a spacey Hollywood boy Nick Cage with chest hair shaved in a V. and a classic blond haired bad guy (a 80's movies staple, see Some Kind Of Wonderful, Karate Kid, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, etc).
23. St. Elmo's Fire - The Brat Pack goes wrong, and to me, easily the worst movie on the list. But what can I say, I merely keep this list for y'all. P.S. Does any male reader like this movie. And how much overacting can one movie have.
24. Footloose - How did we miss this one. The late, great Chris Penn dancing, SJP in a minor role, and Kevin Bacon in his first six degrees impacting role.
25. American Graffiti - The original, great teen movie from a director known world wide for Sci-Fi classics (and would-be classics), George Lucas. Supported by his mentor Francis Ford Coppola, every major other than Universal said "forget it kid, no one wants to see this." It was a sensation, needless to say, grossing 115 million dollars, and introduced to America movie audiences the Teen movie (as well as helping boost the careers of Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Charles Martin Smith, McKenzie Phillips, Cindi Williams, and Suzanne Somers as a hot blonde in a tight teeshirt.
Honorable mention to Three Oclock High, Empire Records, 10 Things I Hate About You and many others I am sure I am forgetting.
OK FINAL VOTE _ CHECK MY LAST COMMENT AND LETS FINISH IT UP. People stop the madness, this has gone on way too long. Relationships have begun and ended (and new ones started despite crushing emotional blows?) in the time that its take to finish this list.
TWO MORE (Unless we can remove St. Elmo's Fire).
NEVER DID FINISH THIS LIST- LETS NOT GET LAZY NOW PEOPLE, SIX MORE TO GO@@$#$%@%#
Writing late nite, well, not that late. But anyway, heres an idea for a post, something that will at least capture bitter’s imagination. Lets make a list of the top 25 teen movies of all time. I am gonna start with one, and then whoever posts next can just add a name. Then we can have a little discussion about whether the new additions get to stay on the list.
****
UPDATE: TEEN MOVIES ARE LIGHT FLUFFY FARE THAT ARE FUN TO WATCH, NOT HEAVY DRAMATIC STUFF LIKE RIVER'S EDGE OR THE GREAT MOVIE FROM THIS PAST YEAR, BRICK (WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE BE CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST).
****
1. Cant Hardly Wait – The best karaoke scene of all time – a totally great cast, including cameos, and J.L.H.
2. The Sure Thing - About what most high school guys dream about through high school.
3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High - Awesome, totally awesome. Nice move Hamilton.
4. Grease
5. Porkys
6. Heathers
7. Breakfast Club
8. 16 Candles
9. As keeper of the Blog, I am putting up another genre - Revenge of the Nerds.
10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Totally great kids movie.
11. Risky Businesss (come on, how could I have forgotten this, doesnt even need to be seconded)
12. House Party (with M. Lawrence stinkin up the big screen in his first role)
13. Dazed And Confused
14. Cant Buy Me Love - Standard formula teen movie, done oh so well.
15. American Pie - The rise of Eugene Levy ("We'll just tell your mother...we ate it."
16. Bring It On - Just cause we know how much Happy loves Eliza Dushku.
17. Mean Girls - By popular consent, and because we need a little modernism here.
18. Say Anything - Chicks dig the Cusack-man holding up the radio over his head outside her window. "Who do you think you are?" "With all due respect Sir, Im the guy going with your daughter to England."
19. Weird Science - Perhaps not the greatest piece of intellectualism, and I always found Anthony Michael Hall's sidekick (whats his name Happy) really annoying - but Hall, Downey Jr., Paxton, and the bald guy from the Wes Craven movies of the 70's, how bad could it be.
20. Clueless (despite Alicia Silverstone) - people get a clue
21. Last American Virgin - Cause every teen movie list needs an entrant guaranteed to make you want to chug a bottle of Drano, and this is ours
22. Valley Girl - Yet another classic entrant, with a spacey Hollywood boy Nick Cage with chest hair shaved in a V. and a classic blond haired bad guy (a 80's movies staple, see Some Kind Of Wonderful, Karate Kid, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, etc).
23. St. Elmo's Fire - The Brat Pack goes wrong, and to me, easily the worst movie on the list. But what can I say, I merely keep this list for y'all. P.S. Does any male reader like this movie. And how much overacting can one movie have.
24. Footloose - How did we miss this one. The late, great Chris Penn dancing, SJP in a minor role, and Kevin Bacon in his first six degrees impacting role.
25. American Graffiti - The original, great teen movie from a director known world wide for Sci-Fi classics (and would-be classics), George Lucas. Supported by his mentor Francis Ford Coppola, every major other than Universal said "forget it kid, no one wants to see this." It was a sensation, needless to say, grossing 115 million dollars, and introduced to America movie audiences the Teen movie (as well as helping boost the careers of Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Charles Martin Smith, McKenzie Phillips, Cindi Williams, and Suzanne Somers as a hot blonde in a tight teeshirt.
Honorable mention to Three Oclock High, Empire Records, 10 Things I Hate About You and many others I am sure I am forgetting.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Unfinished Biz BUMP- TOP 25 TEEN MOVIES OF ALL TIME
OK FINAL VOTE _ CHECK MY LAST COMMENT AND LETS FINISH IT UP. People stop the madness, this has gone on way too long. Relationships have begun and ended (and new ones started despite crushing emotional blows?) in the time that its take to finish this list.
TWO MORE (Unless we can remove St. Elmo's Fire).
NEVER DID FINISH THIS LIST- LETS NOT GET LAZY NOW PEOPLE, SIX MORE TO GO@@$#$%@%#
Writing late nite, well, not that late. But anyway, heres an idea for a post, something that will at least capture bitter’s imagination. Lets make a list of the top 25 teen movies of all time. I am gonna start with one, and then whoever posts next can just add a name. Then we can have a little discussion about whether the new additions get to stay on the list.
****
UPDATE: TEEN MOVIES ARE LIGHT FLUFFY FAIR THAT ARE FUN TO WATCH, NOT HEAVY DRAMATIC STUFF LIKE RIVER'S EDGE OR THE GREAT MOVIE FROM THIS PAST YEAR, BRICK (WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE BE CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST).
****
1. Cant Hardly Wait – The best karaoke scene of all time – a totally great cast, including cameos, and J.L.H.
2. The Sure Thing - About what most high school guys dream about through high school.
3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High - Awesome, totally awesome. Nice move Hamilton.
4. Grease
5. Porkys
6. Heathers
7. Breakfast Club
8. 16 Candles
9. As keeper of the Blog, I am putting up another genre - Revenge of the Nerds.
10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Totally great kids movie.
11. Risky Businesss (come on, how could I have forgotten this, doesnt even need to be seconded)
12. House Party (with M. Lawrence stinkin up the big screen in his first role)
13. Dazed And Confused
14. Cant Buy Me Love - Standard formula teen movie, done oh so well.
15. American Pie - The rise of Eugene Levy ("We'll just tell your mother...we ate it."
16. Bring It On - Just cause we know how much Happy loves Eliza Dushku.
17. Mean Girls - By popular consent, and because we need a little modernism here.
18. Say Anything - Chicks dig the Cusack-man holding up the radio over his head outside her window. "Who do you think you are?" "With all due respect Sir, Im the guy going with your daughter to England."
19. Weird Science - Perhaps not the greatest piece of intellectualism, and I always found Anthony Michael Hall's sidekick (whats his name Happy) really annoying - but Hall, Downey Jr., Paxton, and the bald guy from the Wes Craven movies of the 70's, how bad could it be.
20. Clueless (despite Alicia Silverstone) - people get a clue
21. Last American Virgin - Cause every teen movie list needs an entrant guaranteed to make you want to chug a bottle of Drano, and this is ours
22. Valley Girl - Yet another classic entrant, with a spacey Hollywood boy Nick Cage with chest hair shaved in a V. and a classic blond haired bad guy (a 80's movies staple, see Some Kind Of Wonderful, Karate Kid, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, etc).
23. St. Elmo's Fire - The Brat Pack goes wrong, and to me, easily the worst movie on the list. But what can I say, I merely keep this list for y'all. P.S. Does any male reader like this movie. And how much overacting can one movie have.
24.
25.
TWO MORE (Unless we can remove St. Elmo's Fire).
NEVER DID FINISH THIS LIST- LETS NOT GET LAZY NOW PEOPLE, SIX MORE TO GO@@$#$%@%#
Writing late nite, well, not that late. But anyway, heres an idea for a post, something that will at least capture bitter’s imagination. Lets make a list of the top 25 teen movies of all time. I am gonna start with one, and then whoever posts next can just add a name. Then we can have a little discussion about whether the new additions get to stay on the list.
****
UPDATE: TEEN MOVIES ARE LIGHT FLUFFY FAIR THAT ARE FUN TO WATCH, NOT HEAVY DRAMATIC STUFF LIKE RIVER'S EDGE OR THE GREAT MOVIE FROM THIS PAST YEAR, BRICK (WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE BE CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THIS LIST).
****
1. Cant Hardly Wait – The best karaoke scene of all time – a totally great cast, including cameos, and J.L.H.
2. The Sure Thing - About what most high school guys dream about through high school.
3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High - Awesome, totally awesome. Nice move Hamilton.
4. Grease
5. Porkys
6. Heathers
7. Breakfast Club
8. 16 Candles
9. As keeper of the Blog, I am putting up another genre - Revenge of the Nerds.
10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Totally great kids movie.
11. Risky Businesss (come on, how could I have forgotten this, doesnt even need to be seconded)
12. House Party (with M. Lawrence stinkin up the big screen in his first role)
13. Dazed And Confused
14. Cant Buy Me Love - Standard formula teen movie, done oh so well.
15. American Pie - The rise of Eugene Levy ("We'll just tell your mother...we ate it."
16. Bring It On - Just cause we know how much Happy loves Eliza Dushku.
17. Mean Girls - By popular consent, and because we need a little modernism here.
18. Say Anything - Chicks dig the Cusack-man holding up the radio over his head outside her window. "Who do you think you are?" "With all due respect Sir, Im the guy going with your daughter to England."
19. Weird Science - Perhaps not the greatest piece of intellectualism, and I always found Anthony Michael Hall's sidekick (whats his name Happy) really annoying - but Hall, Downey Jr., Paxton, and the bald guy from the Wes Craven movies of the 70's, how bad could it be.
20. Clueless (despite Alicia Silverstone) - people get a clue
21. Last American Virgin - Cause every teen movie list needs an entrant guaranteed to make you want to chug a bottle of Drano, and this is ours
22. Valley Girl - Yet another classic entrant, with a spacey Hollywood boy Nick Cage with chest hair shaved in a V. and a classic blond haired bad guy (a 80's movies staple, see Some Kind Of Wonderful, Karate Kid, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, etc).
23. St. Elmo's Fire - The Brat Pack goes wrong, and to me, easily the worst movie on the list. But what can I say, I merely keep this list for y'all. P.S. Does any male reader like this movie. And how much overacting can one movie have.
24.
25.
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