I
first became acquainted with director Peter Medak’s work in 1983 when I saw his
1980 masterwork The Changeling, one
of the most frightening ghost stories shot in color. Also known for 1972’s The Ruling Class and 1990’s The
Krays, Mr. Medak made the film noir Romeo
is Bleeding, shot in 1992 and released on Friday, February 4, 1994. The film is told in an elliptical narrative
fashion, starting with the end and going back in time to show us how the
protagonist got to where he is. We first
see Jack Grimaldi in a dilapidated diner, his voiceover indicative of a man
full of regrets who is probably in the Witness Protection Program and forced to
lead a life bereft of any true purpose or feeling. Once upon a time, he was a police officer in
New York City and his partners are comprised of actors we know well today: Scully
(David Proval from Mean Streets and The Sopranos), Martie (Will Patton from 24), John (Gene Canfield from Law & Order), and Joey (Larry Joshua
from NYPD Blue). Unfortunately, his lust for money gets the
better of him and he sells out the criminal witnesses to the Mafia. His wife Natalie (Annabella Sciorra) knows
that he’s up to something and is on to his affairs as well (he dilly dallies
with Sheri, a nineteen year-old mistress played by Juliette Lewis who dances
for him among other things), and catches a glimpse of the secret hiding place
that he foolishly stashes his cash in the corner of the backyard.
Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin) is a Russian
assassin who is out to take down the Mafia that Jack works for. The head of that organization is Don Falcone
(Roy Scheider) who pays Jack to kill her and wants the job done yesterday. Unfortunately for Falcone, Mona is drop dead
gorgeous and Jack weakens in her presence while he is guarding her a dumpy
hotel that the police use to hold suspects. Mona exerts a tremendous amount of sexual power and although Jack seems
to buckle under her spell, the two of them also realize that their couplings
are only business. Jack may love
Natalie, but she apparently cannot give him what he gets from Sheri and Mona,
which is to be dominated. Jack uses both
sex and money as a drug, he cannot seem to get enough of either one of
them.
It’s interesting to note that the film
is written by a woman, Hilary Henkin, who also wrote Fatal Beauty (1987), Road
House (1989), and Wag the Dog
(1997). There is an obvious female slant
to the story as the men are reduced to squirming little gerbils while the women
wield all the power. Even Natalie
momentarily and jokingly turns the tables on Jack while pointing a gun at him. We are not sure if she is kidding knowing
what we, the audience, knows and Jack isn’t sure either. It’s a moment that seems to last a very long
time. After all the craziness that
occurs between this moment and the end of the film, we are right bar at the bar
with Jack as he waits for Natalie to show, and we cannot help but wonder if she
ever will.
Much of the covert action takes place
at night where the probability of being discovered is high. There are moments of questionable judgment,
such as Mona forcing Jack to dig a grave for Falcone in full view of the
Brooklyn Bridge and nearby building complexes, and Jack digging through his
money while any of his neighbors could easily see him. The late Mr. Scheider, who appeared in
a slew of terrific films in the 1970’s (Klute,
The French Connection, The Seven-Ups, Jaws, Marathon Man, Sorcerer, Jaws 2, All
That Jazz), is one of my favorite actors but he is unusually stiff in the
role of mobster Falcone. He also didn’t
look well, as his death from Multiple Myeloma in 2008 confirmed that he was
probably sick for some time. The late Dennis
Farina, on the other hand, after having played Jimmy Serrano in Martin Brest’s brilliant
1988 comedy Midnight Run, does a
funny turn as a mobster turncoat in the single scene that he appears in.
I liked Romeo is Bleeding far more than I did in 1994. I was very naïve about mob life at the time
and how the police handle such matters, so after my graduation from The Sopranos the plot is far more obvious
than it was twenty-two years ago. The
new limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray from Twilight Time boasts a really nice transfer. However, if you are looking for a special feature-laden
set, this is not it. Aside from a
booklet with a nice essay from Julie Kirgo and an isolated score, this is a
very slim package. I love running
commentaries and would have enjoyed one from director Medak who provided an
informative feature-length commentary on the Dutch DVD release of The Changeling.
Who doesn’t love watching giant monster
movies from the 1950s? The Beast from 20,
000 Fathoms (1953), Them! (1954),
Tarantula (1955), Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) and Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) are
just a few of my favorites. Some of those titles are better than others and
there are many more that are worse such as 1957’s unintentionally hilarious The Giant Claw, but the decade that gave
us rock 'n' roll also created a giant monster flick that never seemed to get
the respect it deserved, which is ironic being that it’s a top-notch production
with a pretty convincing and scary monster. Of course, I’m talking about the
often overlooked 1957 classic, The
Monster That Challenged the World.
Directed by Arnold Laven (The Rifleman), The Monster That Challenged the World, which was solidly written by
Pat Fielder (The Vampire, The Return of
Dracula) and based on a story by David Duncan (The Time Machine, Fantastic Voyage), begins when an underwater
earthquake releases a horde of enormous, prehistoric creatures from
California’s Salton Sea. After one of these creatures kills a sailor,
Lieutenant John Twillinger (Tim Holt from The
Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The
Magnificent Ambersons) discovers an unknown, slimy substance which he
brings to Dr. Jess Rogers (Hans Conried, The
5,000 Fingers of Dr. T). Rogers analyzes it and not only deduces that it comes
from a giant mollusk, but also figures out that, if the creatures aren’t
stopped soon, they’ll multiply by the thousands and destroy every human being
on the planet. With the help of Dr. Rogers’ beautiful secretary (Audrey Dalton,
Mr. Sardonicus), the lieutenant and
the good doctor do everything in their power to stop the creeping terror before
it’s too late.
Made for only $254,000, The Monster That Challenged the World, which was originally titled The Kraken,is an entertaining monster movie that always seems to be
overshadowed by many of the titles I listed earlier. This is strange because
the fun movie is filled with tight, solid direction, plenty of atmosphere and a
great-looking, mechanical creature created by August Lohman (Moby Dick). The well-made film also
benefits from an interesting story as well as some pretty pleasing performances.
To begin with, Tim Holt is appropriately calm, rational and, at times, a bit
stiff as Lieutenant Twilliger, but he also gives his character much-needed doses
of humanity and likeability. Up next, the great Hans Conried is totally
convincing as the knowledgeable Dr. Rogers. He delivers his dialogue about the
giant creatures completely straight and because he seems to believe everything
that he’s saying, we believe it too. Last, but not least, the beautiful Audrey
Dalton is wonderful as secretary, single mom and love interest, Gail. Dalton
brings an inner strength and intelligence to her role, making her character
more than just a screaming, helpless woman who needs saving. All in all, The Monster That Challenged the World is
a well-done creature feature and a bit more than you would expect from a late
50s, sci-fi monster mash.
The Monster That
Challenged the World has
been released on a region one Blu-ray by Kino Lorber and is presented in its
original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The beautiful HD transfer boasts sharp, crystal
clear images and the disc not only contains the original theatrical trailer,
but also an extremely informative and enjoyable audio commentary by film
historian Tom Weaver who tells us just about everything we ever wanted to know
about this entertaining film; great stuff. (Weaver leaves briefly to allow 50s
monster music expert David Schecter of Monstrous Movie Music to discuss the
film’s effective score by Heinz Roemheld). If you’re a lover of 1950s giant
monster movies, this one is definitely above average and I highly recommended
the excellent Blu-ray.
I
was first introduced to comic books in 1979 by my father’s cousin, Dan, who had
an unusually large collection of them in his parent’s basement. I had already seen Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978) twice and
loved it, completely enthralled with the big screen adventures of the Man of
Steel as embodied by Christopher Reeve. I
knew of Superman’s origins with DC Comics. Dan’s mother remarked, while he was in the basement of course, that she
wished that he would “get rid of the comic booksâ€. It’s a good thing he didn’t. Today, along with Jim Lee, Dan DiDio is the
current Co-Publisher of DC Comics. In
the years hence, I have followed my fair share of comic book characters, but
never with the level of enthusiasm that is on display at the annual San Diego
Comic Con or the New York Comic Con (for the uninitiated, here “con†is
industry shorthand for “conventionâ€, a gathering of fans who exalt with others
over their favorite comic book characters and movies). The level of enthusiasm on display at these
gatherings on opposite coasts, as well as the financial support they give to
their favorite superheroes, are what keep the artists and writers
employed.
Comix: Beyond the Comic Book Pages is the new 85-minute documentary that
takes viewers behind the scenes not only at the cons, but also into the world
of making comic books, and what it takes to prevail in a saturated market. It’s also a film about gratitude and
appreciation. Many people give thanks to
their relatives for buying them comic books; others thank the artists for their
favorite characters; still others thank both the artists and publishers for
their advice. Directed by Michael
Valentine, the film is fittingly a valentine to the creators and the fans. Heavyweights in the comic book arena who
appear are Stan Lee, the creator of Spiderman
(he has an amusing story about that); Mike Richardson, the founder of Dark
Horse Comics; Neal Adams; Frank Miller of Sin
City and 300; Todd MacFarlane; John
Romita, Jr.; and Renae Geerlings.
When
I watch a documentary, I am eager to learn something new. The history of comic books is fascinating as
they were deemed unfit for children, and there was a movement afoot to keep
them out of the hands of the little ones. The making of a comic book is also discussed in-depth in a way that I
had not heard before. There is a distinction
made between the artist who draws with pencils and the inker who applies the
colors. Very often the writers (who
provide character development and dialog) and the artists never speak to one
another!
Comix is accentuated by a spirited score by composer Michael
Crane. The fans depicted in the film are
all shapes and sizes and come from the far corners of the globe. A veritable melting pot of people
encompassing all races and creeds who converge on these convention centers
armed with backpacks, cameras, posters, photos, action figures, and just about
anything else that you can think of to have autographed and the opportunity to
meet their favorite artists, actors/actresses, and writers up close. What amazes me is the phenomenon of Cosplay
(a contraction of “costume playâ€) wherein fans dress up to look exactly like
the comic book characters they love. As
a frequent convention goer for twenty-nine years, I have noticed a demonstrable
surge in attendance of fans who partake in this role-playing lifestyle. The segments involving Cosplay made me
realize something that I had not thought of before. These people don’t just dress up. They want to become their favorite characters for the duration of the
convention. Their costumes are
magnificent, often indistinguishable from the big-screen counterparts. As a child, Halloween gave me the opportunity
to wear some truly awful and cheap-looking “costumesâ€. I was a Star
Wars Stormtrooper and wore this costume with a picture on my chest of the
Stormtrooper holding a gun! The
Stormtroopers that fans dress us as at the conventions look like they stepped
out of the actual movie. No comparison
whatsoever.
The
film is now available from Kino Lorber in a nicely illustrated 2-disc DVD set
that comes with a mini comic book and a whole host of extras. On disc one is the documentary, as well as
the following extra outtakes that equal roughly 70 additional minutes:
Anime
and Manga (3:56)
The
Art of Collaboration (10:17)
Comics
and the Movies (8:07)
Hardest
Things to Draw (3:43)
Influences
(7:22)
Insights
(4:14)
Making
History (18:29)
More
on Comic Book Conventions (6:13)
Outtakes
(7:57)
Trailer
(2:43)
Disc
two consists of interviews with Frank Miller (64 minutes) and Stan Lee (58
minutes).
The
NoHo 7, the Playhouse 7, and the Royal in Los Angeles will all be showing a
double feature of two of Doris Day’s best-known films on Monday, August 29,
2016. At 7:00 pm The Man Who Knew Too Much, the classic 1956 film directed by Alfred
Hitchcock, will be screened as part of its 60th anniversary. At 4:30 pm and again at 9:30 pm, 1961’s Lover Come Back, directed by Delbert
Mann, will be screened as part of its 55th anniversary.
From
the press release:
Doris Day Double
Feature
Part
of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.
Click here to buy tickets to the 4:30PM Lover
Come Back (includes admission to the 7PM The Man Who Knew Too Much).
Click here to buy tickets to the 7PM The Man Who
Knew Too Much (includes admission to the 9:30PM Lover Come Back).
Laemmle’s Anniversary Classics presents
a tribute to Doris Day, one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood’s Golden
Age. Day was the number one female box office star of the 20th century, but she
was sometimes underrated as an actress. She excelled in musicals, comedy, and
drama and during the 1950s and 60s she was one of the few actresses who
regularly played working women. We offer a double feature of two of her most
popular films, the 60th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and
the 55th anniversary of Lover Come
Back (1961). So you won’t miss any of the fun, the Doris Day double bill
plays at three locations: the Royal in West L.A., Laemmle NoHo 7, and the
Playhouse 7 in Pasadena on Monday, August 29.
We will have trivia contests with
prizes at all three locations.
In ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much,’ one of
Doris Day’s rare forays into the thriller genre, the actress introduced one of
her most successful songs, the Oscar-winning hit, “Que Sera Sera.†But she also
demonstrated her versatility in several harrowing and suspenseful dramatic
scenes. She plays the wife of one of Hitchcock’s favorite actors, James
Stewart. The movie was a box office bonanza for all parties. Hitchcock’s
success during the 1940s allowed the director to employ bigger budgets and
shoot on location for several of his Technicolor thrillers in the 1950s,
including To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. For The Man Who
Knew Too Much, a remake of his own 1934 film, Hitchcock traveled to Morocco and
to London for some spectacular location scenes. In his famous series of
interviews with the Master of Suspense, Francois Truffaut wrote, “In the
construction as well as in the rigorous attention to detail, the remake is by
far superior to the original.†The plot turns on kidnapping and assassination,
all building to a concert scene in the Royal Albert Hall that climaxes
memorably with the clash of a pair of cymbals.
‘Lover Come Back’ was the second comedy
teaming of Doris Day with Rock Hudson, on the heels of their huge 1959 hit, Pillow
Talk. Day and Hudson play rival advertising executives who vie for an account
that doesn’t exist, dreamed up by Hudson to throw Day off the track, further
complicated by their romantic entanglement. Screenwriters Stanley Shapiro (who
won an Oscar for ‘Pillow Talk’) and Paul Henning concocted a witty scenario
with deft sight gags, targeting the influence of Madison Avenue in the era, and
their original screenplay was Oscar-nominated in 1961. Day, Hudson, and a
winning supporting cast including Tony Randall, Edie Adams and Jack Kruschen
are all at the top of their game, nimbly directed by Delbert Mann. The New York
Times’ Bosley Crowther raved about “…this springy and sprightly surprise, which
is one of the brightest, most satiric comedies since ‘It Happened One Night.’
The Times also celebrated the box office smash as “the funniest picture of the
year.â€
Zev
Guttman (Christopher Plummer) is an elderly Jewish New York nursing home
resident whose wife, Ruth, recently passed on. In the early stages of dementia, he finds himself forgetting things,
such as Ruth’s death, which is evident each time that he awakens and calls out
her name. Zev is also a survivor of the
Auschwitz concentration camp (presumably Auschwitz II-Birkenau, which was a
combination concentration camp and extermination camp). Another nursing home resident, Max Rosenbaum
(Martin Landau), recognizes Zev from the camp. While Zev is able-bodied and mentally declining, Max is confined to a
wheelchair yet as smart as a whip and in full control of his faculties. Max reminds Zev that their families were
murdered during World War II at the hands of a ruthless Blockführer named Otto
Wallisch who fled Germany under the name of “Rudy Kurlanderâ€. Max has managed to locate four people living
in the United States under this assumed name and has a hunch that once of them
is the one and only Otto Wallisch. He
has spared no expense to send Zev out on a mission, armed with thousands of
dollars in cash, a handgun, and written instructions to find and murder Wallisch
in retaliation for his actions. Zev
sneaks out of the nursing home and escapes detection, much to the dismay of his
son and daughter-in-law who frantically search for him. When Zev makes his way across the country
looking for the various Rudy Kurlander’s, he comes face to face with people who
fled German occupied countries and sympathizes with them. Bruno Ganz plays the first such fleer and his
role is a small one, however it is revealed on the commentary that he had a
much longer monologue and I wish that it had been reinstated for the home video
release. This actor also played Adolph
Hitler in Downfall (2004).
The
second Rudy Kurlander is a bedridden homosexual whose plight moves Zev to
tears. Later, a case of mistaken
identity lands Zev unwittingly in the home of an anti-Semite played with
horrific gusto by Dean Norris, an actor who just gets better with every role he
plays. By the time he makes it to the
home of the fourth man he is looking for, the ending is not what we expect, and
it’s easy to carp about whether or not it’s effective or predictable.
I
have never seen a boring film by Atom Egoyan. One of the most interesting directors working today, Mr. Egoyan’s films
are fascinating cinematic revelations which I look forward to each time he
announces a new project. Canadian
audiences are probably most familiar with his earlier work which consist of Family Viewing (1987) and Speaking Parts (1989). His best works, The Adjuster (1991), Exotica
(1994), and The Sweet Hereafter
(1997), brought him worldwide attention and rightfully so as they are easily
three of the greatest films to come out of the Canadian film industry. Remember
does not quite reach the heights of these three films (it is less cinematically
interesting than its predecessors), but it is still an interesting outing given
his output since 2005’s Where the Truth
Lies which, 2008’s Adoration
notwithstanding, has been fairly uneven. Most of Remember’s detractors
fault the screenplay and the aforementioned denouement, in addition to the
questionable choice of using the Holocaust as a subject for a revenge drama
with characters seemingly fashioned after modern-day stereotypes. All that aside, watching Christopher
Plummer’s portrayal of Zev kept me captivated. It’s a carefully understated interpretation of a role that was written
with him in mind. I first saw him
onscreen as Sir Charles Litton in Blake Edwards’s The Return of the Pink Panther in the summer of 1975 when I was
almost seven years-old and found him to be funny and charming. His turn as Zev is, obviously, much
different, as we follow him through his routines of getting dressed, falling
asleep and waking up in a confused state. Mr. Plummer plays the role with maximum efficiency and basically
inhabits Zev’s skin. His forgetfulness and
need to refer to written notes calls to mind Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000).
The
Blu-ray from Lionsgate comes with some nice extras. There is a full-length audio commentary with director Egoyan, producer
Robert Lantos and screenwriter Benjamin August who discuss how the project came
about and the casting of those involved. I have always loved commentaries as they give you a terrific insight
into how the creators intended certain scenes to play and how they actually are
presented. Mr. Egoyan has always been
especially articulate when discussing his films and this commentary is no
exception.
There
is also a featurette entitled Performances
to Remember which runs roughly 17 minutes and is essentially a
behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film and on-set interviews
conducted with some of the performers regarding their roles. More than a few minutes are spent on the set
of the anti-Semite’s house and the director explains how it was deliberately
built to accommodate Paul Sarossy’s camera (Mr. Egoyan’s longtime
cinematographer) from a multitude of angles. Mr. Plummer also weighs in on his role of Zev.
A Tapestry of Evil: Remembering the
Past is a featurette that runs about 14
minutes and it focuses on screenwriter Benjamin August’s desire to write a film
about the hunt for Nazi war criminals.
The new Metrograph Theater on Ludlow
Street in New York just finished a series called “This is PG?!†which screened
35mm prints of films that traumatized youngsters during their initial releases
after having been granted a PG-rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. Films that were released prior to the July
1984 introduction of the PG-13 rating such as Jaws (1975), Burnt Offerings
(1976), Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1978), Tourist Trap (1979), Poltergeist (1982) and, most
specifically, Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom (1984) all had a hand in helping to create the new rating to
bridge the gap between PG-rated films that weren’t quite R-rated material. Released in New York in February 1976,
actor/director Ray Danton’s Psychic
Killer could have easily been a part of this screening as it, too, secured
a PG-rating. There is a fair amount of
violence and bloodshed in this film, not to mention a fairly gory Psycho-inspired shower murder with
nudity, to raise more than a few eyebrows (ironically, 1960’s Psycho has been given an R rating!)
Ostensibly shot between April and July
of 1974, Psychic Killer is a time
capsule of a film, a veritable authenticated record of gaudy clothes, bad
hairdos, enormous cars and men with oversized ties. Timothy Hutton’s father, Jim Hutton, fresh
from screaming at Kim Darby and her little imaginary creatures running around
the house in ABC-TV’s Don’t Be Afraid of
the Dark (1973), plays Arnold Masters, a sort of mama’s boy who lives like
a bit of a hermit. He is blamed for the
murder of a doctor (he didn’t kill him) and lands in prison where he meets
other disturbed persons. While
incarcerated, his mother passes away and this infuriates him as he feels that
her death is directly attributed to his absence. Masters soon obtains a medallion that has
mystical powers (it almost looks like the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in
Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost
Ark from 1981) and gives him the ability to leave his body in a sort of
Out-of-Body-Experience (OBEE) and seek out revenge against those who put him in
prison and those he deems responsible for his mother’s death (David Cronenberg
wrote a similar storyline several years later in one of his best films, 1979’s The Brood. That film was controversial as it employed
young children as mutant killers). When
Masters kills in this state, his body goes into a condition wherein he appears
dead. The film’s premise is based upon
the Kirlian Effect, which was written about extensively
in the 1970s. The idea is, if nothing
else, intriguing.
Two
cops assigned to the case are Lieutenant Anderson (Aldo Ray) and Lieutenant
Morgan (Paul Burke), partners who are desperate to stay one step ahead of Masters
before he can kill again. Also eager to
stop Masters is the prison psychiatrist, Dr. Laura Scott (Julie Adams,
real-life then-wife of director Danton). Mrs. Adams may have fled the clutches of TheCreature
from the Black Lagoon, but she has a tougher time bolting from the
occasional silliness that seeps into the script. There is a psychic expert in tow also, one
Dr. Gubner (Nehemiah Persoff) who informally teams with Dr. Scott to stop
Masters.
Psychic
Killer was previously
issued on DVD in 1999 and 2008. The new
Blu-ray/DVD combo, which are mastered from a 2K scan of the original camera
negative, are obvious steps above these previous releases, so the third time is
indeed a charm. This version by the fine
folks at Vinegar Syndrome comes with some nice extras specifically made for the
Blu-ray/DVD combo:
The
Danton Force
featurette (8:55) is comprised of onscreen interviews with relatives of the
late director of the film, Ray Danton. Steve Danton and Mitchell Danton, his sons, talk about how the film came
about and what it was like to be on the set. Their father’s work ethic had a huge impact on them and their chosen
professions. Their mother, Julie Adams,
appears briefly, as does Ronald L. Smith, the first assistant director. The opening prologue of the film, which
attempts to set the audience up with a serious tone, contains a voice over by
director Danton: "Why should any phenomenon be assumed impossible? The
universe begins to look more and more like a great thought, than a great
machine.â€
The Aura
of Horror featurette (8:05) features Mardi Rustam, a Kurdish movie fan born
in Iraq who dreamed of making it in Hollywood. Amiable and well-spoken, Mr. Rustam describes writing to the movie
moguls of the day and making his was to the United States. Psychic
Killer’s original script title was I
Am a Demon. He also produced Raphael
Nussbaum’s Candice Rialson vehicle Pets
(1973), Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive
(1976), and 1985’s Evils of the Night,
which is due for a Blu-ray release by the end of the month also from Vinegar
Syndrome.
The Psychic
Killer Inside Me (13:32) focuses on producer Greydon
Clark, also
known for Satan’s Cheerleaders (1973), Without Warning (1980),and Joysticks
(1983). He heard about the Kirlian
Effect on the radio and was intrigued by it and thought it would make a great
premise for a film. The Kirlian Effect was also the working title of the film. Mr. Clark also wrote On the Cheap, a book about his adventures in the screen trade.
Rounding out the extras are multiple
television spots and the original theatrical trailer.
For fans of 1970’s cult cinema, Psychic Killer is a fun ride.
Are you a MOVIE BUFF? Do you think you know a lot about
MOVIES? Well, then, Movie Buff is the party accessory for you!
What is it? Movie Buff is a fast-paced, open-ended, very clever trivia card
game for “folks who love spouting movie lines and film facts.†It’s tag line is
“Finally!—a place for all that useless knowledge!â€
During the course of the game, players
create “Takes†that consist of a movie title, actor(s) in the movie, role(s) in
the same film, and even applicable quote(s). “Strategy†cards can be thrown to
manipulate the play of the game. Because the game relies on players’ own store
of trivia knowledge, the same game can never be played twice. No expansion
decks needed!
Recently, Cinema Retro correspondent and reviewer RAYMOND BENSON encountered
JUSTIN PURVIS, the creator/designer of Movie
Buff, at Chicago’s Flashback Weekend. He sat down with Justin to find out a
little more about Movie Buff.
CINEMA
RETRO: How did Movie
Buff come about? What’s the origin
story?
JUSTIN: Honestly, I feel
like I've been working on Movie Buff my entire life. Ever since I was old
enough to start watching movies, I have had this connection with films and the
actors in them. And movies became a huge part of my life when I was fourteen,
and I was diagnosed with a rare degenerative eye disease that began to slowly
steal my eyesight, leaving me with less than 10% of my vision remaining today.
But when I was diagnosed, I had no idea how long I would be able to see, so I
dove into the escapism of movies, and found that I had a knack for remembering
useless knowledge, like actors in small roles in movies and lines of dialogue
after only watching a movie once. My brother and I would even have
conversations and movie quotes around my parents and they would sit there
quizzically looking at us as if we were speaking a foreign language.
As I grew older, my friends and I started playing different games
to try and stump one another; one was a game that we just called "the
movie game," where I would name an actor and then the next person would
have to name a movie that that actor was in and then the next person had to
name a different actor in that same movie and then the next person had to name
a different movie that the second actor was in, continually moving from a movie
to actor to movie until one of us was stumped and couldn't figure out another
movie or another actor without repeating them. And then in the 90s the game 6° of Kevin Bacon became extremely
popular where any actor can be connected to Kevin Bacon within six steps using
the movie they've done, so my brother and I and our friends would play games
where instead of naming an actor we connect to Kevin Bacon, you name any two
actors, and we would connect them in six steps or less, seeing who can connect
them either the fastest, or in the shortest amount of connections, or in the
most obscure ways.
And coming from a military family, we traveled around a lot. Every
time we would move, we met new friends and found that they were playing this
game that I thought I had invented. And they always had different kinds of
spins on it, anything from the ability to go obscure once in a while, or if you
did something, you could reverse it back on the other person. That got me
thinking about ways that we could create a unifying game that everyone could
play and share their love of films without being snobbish about it, or not
being as snobbish about it. Which prompted me to take this verbal game
that I had been playing most of my life and turning it into a physical game
with more strict rules to cement the game's idea, but also provide the ability
to play strategies to help you overcome obstacles that show up eventually.
Around 2005 or so, I had finally decided that I was going to try
make a prototype of this game and I went online to a "create your own
cards" website and bought the software and the card stock, creating my
very first prototype of what I was calling Movie
Buff at the time, On Set! I went
and got some generic images from the Internet and put them on these cards and
used them, play testing it with friends or with students that I would teach. I
used to teach Improv in Washington DC, and after the classes or the shows we'd
go out for drinks and I would break out the game and we'd play it.
Slowly over that time, in between full-time jobs, full-time life,
and full-time hobbies, I kept chipping away at the idea, putting it aside
whenever something "more important " came along. It wasn't until 2014
when my wife became pregnant with our first child that I realized I had to get
a real job, or make this game a reality. It was after a long conversation with
my wife, Corrie, that I sat back down to re-write out the entire rules and make
sure all the cards I had were the right ones for the game. We then launched
into starting a Kickstarter campaign and reaching out for help in finding a
print house and graphic designer, as well as making sure all of our legal
obligations were met in protecting the game. And then, nine months after our
successful campaign ended in August 2014, I had the very first printing of Movie Buff in my hands. We immediately
began selling it up and down the East Coast at conventions and festivals, as
well as in local comic and game shops. Never being afraid of a challenge, I
even approached non-gaming stores. I'm proud to say that you can even find Movie Buff in the occasional hardware
store and RV sales buildings. Because, let's face it, everyone can benefit from
Movie Buff!
CINEMA
RETRO: Are there plans to try and sell it to a bigger
company/distributor?
JUSTIN: Absolutely! Every
convention we go to, we make new connections with people and we find out new
ways to spread the word about Movie Buff.
And we have been introduced to many people who are connected with game
companies/distributors. We are currently in conversations with a few companies
and are very excited about the prospects of this upcoming year. Of course, we
will let people know any good news we hear from these companies once we lock
down something with them.
On a potential side note, one of the ways we have really felt like
we have made headway is with the celebrities at the conventions we attend. For
those who have seen us at conventions, you know that we have a fun spread set
out, we make fresh popcorn to give out to people, we have a candy dish filled
with goodies, and when we are less busy, I try to make my rounds to the
celebrity tables to offer them popcorn and candy, since they don't always get a
chance to leave and get a meal until the end of the day. And at a lot of these
conventions, after a weekend of plying the celebs with chocolates and popcorn,
they usually ask me about two things - 'what's the deal with the cane?' (I am
legally blind, so I usually have my cane out when I am delivering candy, just so
people don't think I’m a jerk if I bump into them) and 'what is Movie Buff?' (which I then tell them
briefly about and, on many occasions, has resulted in them buying a copy from
me). So there is a small group of celebrities who have become as in love with
the game as we are, which we couldn't be happier about.
CINEMA
RETRO:Tell us about future updates or spin-offs.
JUSTIN: We have some great
games in the Buff Family coming your way soon! For December 2016, we are
debuting TWO new games. Or, rather, one new game and one Director's Cut!
First we are going to have Movie
Buff - Director's Cut!, which will have three new Trivia Cards to add to
the already amazing game. Also debuting will be the second game in our Buff
family, TV Buff. As we have discovered
through our travails in the convention world, we have a pretty unique game
mechanic and it lends itself to some awesome spin-offs. Much like Fluxx, or Monopoly, you can use the same game dynamic and take it in a whole
new direction. TV Buff will use your
own “useless knowledge†of TV shows and make you the Big Shot of the Boob-tube!
After that, we will be debuting Music Buff in Summer 2017, and following that more additions to the
Buff Family will include Comic Book Buff,
Video Game Buff, History Buff, Sports Buff,
and many others, that will allow every single person who has been told that
they have “useless knowledgeâ€' a venue to prove it is worth something
extraordinary!
CINEMA
RETRO: Has
anyone ever said you remind them of Paul Rudd?
JUSTIN: Yes, they have. And
every single time they do, I have one thing to tell them - Totes Magotes,
Joben. I am very glad to hear it, since he is an incredibly handsome man and
quite funny to boot! In fact, when the movie I Love You, Man first came out, I sat down and watched it with my
girlfriend at the time, and when it was over, she turned to me and said, "This
is like watching a home movie of you."
*
Check out the Movie Buff website to watch other demo videos, find out where
Justin Purvis will be demonstrating the game near you, and how to order the
game, t-shirts, caps, and other useless ephemera to go with Movie Buff. The game itself sells for
only $25.00 plus shipping.
Wikipedia
defines “mockumentary†as a portmanteau (a linguistic blending of two words) of
the words mock and documentary. Essentially, it’s a phony,
comic documentary. Woody Allen didn’t invent this sub-genre of the comedy
motion picture, but he delivered two of its more successful examples—his very
first directorial feature, Take the Money
and Run (1969), and Zelig, released
in 1983. The latter can safely be counted as among the writer/director/actor’s best
movies—and seeing that to date he has directed forty-six titles (and that’s not
counting pictures he wrote but didn’t direct), that’s saying a lot.
Zelig, which takes place
in the late 1920s to the early 30s,is
the story of Leonard Zelig (Allen), a “chameleon man,†a nobody who
inexplicably assumes the physical and aural characteristics of whoever he’s
with. If he’s around scientists, he begins to speak the lingo and carry himself
in an academic, erudite fashion; if he’s associating with Chinese folks, he turns
Chinese, facial features included; and if he’s around African-Americans, his
skin darkens. No one can figure out why this marvel occurs.
Before
he knows it, Zelig becomes an international personality. The newsreels “of the
day†are full of him as he rubs elbows with the contemporary rich and famous like
F. Scott Fitzgerald or Jack Dempsey or even Adolf Hitler (all of whom appear in
some way in the remarkable footage on display in this picture). As it was the
“jazz age,†Leonard Zelig’s strange ability is celebrated in popular songs,
dance crazes (everybody is “Doing the Chameleonâ€!), and merchandise befitting
the lizard-like misfit.
Allen
and his cinematographer, Gordon Willis (who was nominated for an Academy Award
for the first time, unbelievably, for Zelig
after acting as DP for such titles as The
Godfather, The Godfather Part II,
All the President’s Men, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, among many others) painstakingly inserted Woody Allen
into frames of black and white still photographs and old newsreels—Forrest Gump-style, but without the
benefit of CGI—to accomplish the amazing visual treatment for Zelig. The look of the film is simply
remarkable, and totally believable, even more so than in Gump.
Additionally,
color footage features 1983-era intellectual luminaries, such as Susan Sontag,
Saul Bellow, and Irving Howe, providing “interviews†and commenting on the
Leonard Zelig phenomenon as if it had really occurred.
The
only other star of note besides Allen is Mia Farrow, who plays a psychiatrist
who attempts to treat the “chameleon man.†Of course, Zelig and his doctor fall
in love—it wouldn’t be a Woody Allen romantic comedy without the romance. It’s
interesting to note that Allen actually started filming Zelig after Stardust Memories
(1980) and it was the first of twelve films he made with Farrow. However,
the visual effects took so much longer to achieve after principle photography
was shot, that Allen wrote, directed, and released A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982) before Zelig was completed.
Narrated
by Patrick Horgan, a British actor with a voice that sounds astonishingly like
one of those war-era documentarians, Zelig
is a top-notch, sophisticated, and very funny comedy that is brilliantly photographed and directed.
It was well-received at the time, and it launched Allen into a very successful
run of several financially and critically-acclaimed pictures in the mid-1980s.
And, as with all of the writer/director’s films, it helps if the audience knows
a little bit about history, art, and literature—Woody Allen’s movies, then and
now, are intended for a cultured crowd.
Twilight
Time’s Blu-ray edition looks terrific—and you can’t complain about the
artifacts and blemishes in the images because these were all intentional to
make the old newsreel footage that much more believable. The disk comes with an
isolated score track (and the “original†20s-era music, adapted by Dick Hyman,
is hilarious and dead-on), and the theatrical trailer. A collector's booklet with extensive liner notes by Julie Kirgo about the making of the film is also included.
You,
too, will be singing along with “You May Be Six People, But I Love You.†Limited
to only 3000 copies, Zelig is a
must-grab for Woody Allen fans.
