My Next "Must See" Film

Openly gay fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with his adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel A Single Man, about a day in the life of an English professor (Colin Firth) who is trying to cope with the sudden loss of his long term lover. I've never read any of Isherwood's works, though I probably should.

Born in the UK, Isherwood eventually emigrated to the U.S. and settled in southern California where he began a long and tumultuous affair with a man 32 years his junior. He was friends with the great Science Fiction author Ray Bradbury and worked with satirist and screenwriter Terry Southern (Dr. Strangelove; Easy Rider).

Joining Firth in the cast are the gorgeous and talented Julianne Moore (Far from Heaven; The Hours); Watchmen's Mathew Goode as the dead lover and puppy-eyed cutie Lee ("Pushing Daisies") Pace.

And while the trailer does little to tell you what the film is actually about, it certainly displays Ford's eye for style and aesthetics and early reviews have been exceptionally positive.

Will A Single Man do what Brokeback Mountain couldn't, and finally convince Americans that love is love, no matter who is doing the loving? Probably not. If Ang Lee's gorgeous and painful tragic romance couldn't do it, I doubt any movie can. Still, I know a few open-minded straight boys (and one adorable little gay elf) I'll be dragging along with me to see it.

More, anon.
Prospero

Dear Vincent; A Love Letter

Is there a more enduring icon of Horror than Vincent Price? Some might argue that Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi or Lon Chaney (Sr. and/or Jr.) are all more important to the genre. But Price's film career outlasted all of them.

Starting with the 1938 comedy Service de Luxe, the classically trained Shakespearean actor had a career that spanned 7 decades and included more classic films than one can count on two hands.

His first appearance in a "Horror" movie was in 1939 as the Duke of Clarence in Tower of London, with Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff. It's an effective little chiller about the Duke of Gloucester's rise to power through torture and intimidation.

1940 proved an important year in Price's Horror career as appeared in both The Invisible Man Returns and The House of Seven Gables. Four years later, he would be seen in Otto Preminger's Laura, a noir classic about a man who frames his own brother for murder:

Two years later, he would finally have the lead in Shock, another mystery about a psychiatrist who murders his wife:

He made many films thereafter, but it was 1953's House of Wax that forever cemented his career in Horror movies. Price stars as Professor Henry Jarrod, a disfigured genius who uses real people as the models for the figures in his wax museum. Known as one of the earliest #D movies, House of Wax also featured "The Addams Family" star Carolyn Jones and introduced a young Charles Bronson as Igor:

I saw the 1980's re-release of this movie in 3D, and was highly amused by the obvious attempts to exploit the new technology, though saddened by it's headache-inducing effects.

Another 5 years passed and Price appeared in several in several films before his next Horror (really Sci-Fi) movie The Fly.

He soon teamed up with the 'King of Gimmicks,' William Castle for House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler in 1959. And then moved on to Roger Corman's adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe's stories Master of the World; The Pit and the Pendulum; and a 1962 remake of The Tower of London, in which he portrayed Gloucester. Of course, his best role under Corman's direction was as the sadistic Prince Prospero (no relation) in The Masque of the Red Death:

Price appeared in many more of Corman's Poe-inspired films before the 1971 movie that brought him to my full attention as a Horror Icon; The Abominable Dr. Phibes. As the (once again) disfigured genius who wreaks his vengeance against those he feels responsible for his wife's death, Price is both elegant and creepy in a story featuring inept policemen, corrupt doctors and elaborate deaths in a Steampunk (before there was such a term) tale of vengeance and horror featuring Joseph Cotton, Terry Thomas and Hugh Griffith:

And then there was the inevitable 1972 sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again:

Before his career degenerated into a parody of itself, Price had one more great role as the Shakespearean actor Richard Lionheart in Theatre of Blood, one of Uncle Prospero's favorite 70's Horror movies which co-starred Diana Rigg and Price's last wife, Coral Browne:

There would be many appearances in TV specials and series ("The Brady Bunch") afterward. But it wasn't until 1982 that Price received the tribute he was truly due. A young filmmaker by the name of Tim Burton made an animated short in tribute, simply called Vincent, which the Master himself, narrates:

Of course, Price's last film appearance was in Burton's Edward Scissorhands, as a slightly mad inventor who dies before he can give his creation a real pair of hands:

I've barely touched on Vincent Price's long and varied career, but I have to ask myself if there will there ever be another iconic Horror star like Price? I doubt it. Probably no other film actor is so is indelibly defined by the genre as Price, by all accounts a gentle and intelligent man who made a living both scaring and delighting fans over a career longer than most most modern film actors could ever hope to have. His kind is like to never be seen again. And I would have it no other way. Thank you, Vincent, for so many great performances in so many great (and even not-so-great) films.

More, anon
Prospero

The End of the World (As Hollywood Knows It)

Now that Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic, "disaster porn" film 2012 is actually upon us, I thought I'd re-run and update a post from this past January. It was all about how Hollywood has envisioned the End of the World in oh so many variations.

Emmerich's movies are usually pretty terrible (though I must admit to having a soft spot for Stargate, but that probably has more to do with James Spader and Kurt Russell than anything else). And while Independence Day is certainly entertaining enough, the less said about Godzilla; The Day After Tomorrow and 10,000 BC, the better (Jake and Steven, aside).

Based on ridiculous speculation by people with more time on their hands than they deserve to have, 2012 posits that because the Mayan calender has only been calculated up to t December 21, 2012, that's when the world will end. Of course, any sane person will tell you that 12-21-12 is simply when they stopped calculating and that the date holds no other significance than that, despite what some nutballs would have you believe. Of course, Emmerich has taken the nutballs' ideas and run with them in an orgy of CGI destruction that rivals any EoW (End of the World) movie to come before. John Cusak, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover lend their talents to what critics are already describing as the 'unintentionally funniest movie of the year:'

But, Hollywood being Hollywood, 2012 is hardly the first time they've depicted the End of Days. In 1951, Director Rudolph Mate and producer George Pal (War of the Worlds) gave us When Worlds Collide starring Richard Derr and Barbara Rush in a story about a gigantic asteroid headed toward Earth and the effort to evacuate as many 'important' people as possible:

In 1959, director Stanley Kramer took on the EoW via nuclear war and the fallout that follows in On the Beach, starring Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire and Ava Gardner:

in 1962, director Steve Sekely gave us his film version of the John Wyndham novel The Day of the Triffids. A spectacular meteor shower blinds most of the world's population, leaving them ripe for annihilation via an ambulatory vegetable from space. The movie is probably best known for its inclusion in the song "Late Night Science Fiction Picture Show" from the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show. "And I really got hot, when I saw Janette Scott/ Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills..."

And here's a terrific student-made trailer for the remake this film deserves:

Janette Scott would make another EoW appearance in Andrew Marton's 1965 film about the apocalypse, The Crack in the World. This time, it's mankind's hubris that brings about the end. Attempting to harness the apparently unlimited geothermal energy at the Earth's core, scientists detonate a nuclear bomb inside a volcano, setting off a series of cataclysmic events. Johnny Douglas' terrific score helps make this one a favorite of yours truly:

In 1978, George A. Romero gave us the first true 'Zombie Apocalypse' movie Dawn of the Dead, in which a rag-tag group tries to survive while holed up in a suburban shopping mall. The End has never been quite so scary (or gruesome):

In 1983, the ABC network brought us The Day After, a chilling post-nuclear tale about the effects of fallout and the efforts to survive an attack by the Reds. They issued warnings that young children shouldn't watch and school districts around the country offered counseling to their students who may have been unsettled or upset by its graphic depictions of destruction and the effects of radiation poisoning:

12 years later, James Cameron brought his own vision of nuclear annihilation at the hands of a sentient computer program in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, his FX groundbreaking sequel to The Terminator:

ABC destroyed the world again in 1991 with Mick Garris' mostly excellent version of author Stephen King's The Stand. This time, it's a virus which kills off most of the population, though the Devil (in the form of actor Jamey Sheriden) has a lot to do with the horrors visited on humanity:

Personally, I would have made a few different casting choices. Laura San Giacomo in particular is all wrong for her role, but it still remains one of the better adaptations of a King novel.

In 2002, director Danny Boyle took on the Zombie Apocalypse with his movie 28 Days Later, in which a virus accidentally released by animal rights activists decimates Great Britain, much to blue-eyed beauty Cillian Murphy's consternation:

And probably most infamously, overrated director M. Night Shamalama-Ding-Dong took on the genre with his ridiculous 2008 killer trees movie, The Happening. As before, the movie is so bad, I can only bring myself to post the "South Park" parody:

Finally, in the hands of Ruben Fleischer, the EoW is a hilarious pastiche of zombie-killing and amusement park rides, punctuated by celebrity cameos and wanton destruction of all that we now hold dear. Zombieland may well be the most financially successful zombie movie ever, but it is also a telling story of survival and camaraderie among the worst of circumstances:

And while the real End of the World will probably take place with a fiery explosion when the Sun inevitably goes nova, you and I and the Internet will probably be long gone (unless of course, mankind actually manages to colonize other planets). But I'll leave that up to the Sci-Fi futurists and take solace in the fact that I will not be around to see it. Quite honestly, I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to EoW movies. There are plenty more where these came from. Mad Max; A Boy and His Dog; The Omega Man; Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes (why is Charleton Heston always around for the EoW? -- Did Hollywood expect him to live forever?). I could go on and on (unlike the human race will). So, what's your favorite Hollywood Apocalypse? You know I love your comments.

More, anon.
Prospero

Tobacco Chewin, Gut Chompin Creatures of the Night

Yes, I am still obsessed with Zombies. I have no idea why. Or maybe I do. Zombies are us, caught up in the need to feed so that we may survive. Humans eat grains, meat, vegetables and fruit to sustain ourselves. Zombies eat... well, mostly brains in order to sustain themselves.

Part of the American zeitgeist since George A. Romero's seminal Night of the Living Dead, the zombie as we have come to know him is an almost unstoppable eating machine, much like the shark in Peter Benchley's Jaws. And like the ravenous Great White Shark in Spielberg's terrifying film, the modern zombie is an eating machine, intent on chomping on human flesh. The big difference here? While a bite from either is probably fatal; the bite of a shark does not create another shark.

Doomed to roam the Earth in eternal hunger, zombies represent our greatest fears. Alone, unfulfilled and unloved, the modern zombie is everything we hope we'll never be; a shambling, mindless creature with only one priority. I don't know about you, but uncontrollable urges, soulless wandering and heartless blood-lust seem to me the ultimate horror.

Of course, Hollywood (and I will admit, myself) have taken advantage of that fear and exploited it for all it's worth. Needless to say, some have used those fears to their financial advantage, often with horrific results (though more than occasionally, for cheap thrills and laughs). I know I have blogged about zombies ad nauseum, and probably will again. And I know you'll continue to read my thoughts on the genre because, like me, the fear of losing control of one's own mind to one's basest urges is almost unthinkable.

So, you may well ask yourselves what prompted yet another Zombie post from your dear Uncle Prospero. YouTube gets the blame here, suggesting the following trailer as something I might enjoy:

Follow-up video clips included this gem:

This very funny piece:

And finally, something I may have posted before, but still find hilarious:

Ah, the George W. Bush administration. I can't think of a better real-life Zombie analogy. The horror.. the horror....

I really need to get out more, don't I?

More, anon.
Prospero

Not Much To Say?

I know. Can you imagine me having a post with such a title? I'm not sure what to say about that, either (obviously).

I've said pretty much all I have to say about Maine on Facebook, though I will take the opportunity to once again to tell the voters of Maine to "Suck it!" There's a newish term being bandied about these days: "Gay Apartheid." We're sure feeling it lately, aren't we? Basically, apartheid means "You're different from most of us, therefore you should not be afforded the same rights and privileges as us and we're going to pass laws to ensure that you never will." We all saw how well that worked in South Africa, didn't we?

But I'm not getting on my high horse, tonight. I've already said I don't have much to say.

Not much happening at the movies, this weekend, either. There is the abysmal-looking (and pretty abysmally-reviewed) The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element; Resident Evil) as an Alaskan psychiatrist investigating what appears to be a rash of alien abductions. Yawn. Alien abduction has never been particularly scary to me, and while I was certainly an X-Files fan, I never understood why aliens would be so interested in anal probing (unless of course, their leader was Richard Simmons wanting to know what it's like to be a top - Oh, now that was just mean. Stop it!).

Then there's Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly's latest, The Box. Based on a Richard Matheson short-story, The Box is about a young couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) who are in dire financial straits. Along comes a mysterious stranger (a digitally scarred Frank Langella) with an unusual offer. In exchange for pressing the red button in the mysterious box he brings them, they will receive a million dollars. The catch? Someone they don't know will die.

Kelly's last film, the critically drubbed Southland Tales was a highly-anticipated failure that didn't even find an audience on DVD. His first film, the enigmatic Donnie Darko, won both critical acclaim and a devoted cult following (myself among them). It's the movie that shot Jake Gyllenhaal into superstardom and gave the late Patrick Swayze his best role since Ghost.

The Box has gotten less than stellar reviews and I suppose I'll wait until it's On Demand.

On TV, my beloved Fringe was back this week with a story about an alien entity trapped in the body of a comatose Cosmonaut which feeds off the radiation in its victims, leaving them little more than piles of carbon dust. Like the best X-Files stand-alone episodes, it was creepy and fun, though it lacked the intensity of episodes about the series' central conspiracy plot.

Oh, and I almost forgot. there's a new Grizzly Bear video (via):



Well, I guess I had a few things to say, after all. I hope you're having a good weekend. I'm trying to... I think I'll do a little Christmas shopping tomorrow. What are your plans?

More, anon.
Prospero

A Geek's Response to "Glee"

I'll be the first to admit it - I love "Glee," Fox's surprise musical series about a high school glee club. As a high-school Chorus and Drama Club Award recipient, how could I not? Of course, none of the numbers we performed in Woodrow Wilson's Chorus were nearly as slick (or current) as those on "Glee." And unlike the members of the uber-talented Glee Club on the show who know all the notes and lyrics with barely a glance at the sheet music, we took months to prepare our selections. As for choreography and costuming... well, that was left to the annual musical.

I appeared in all of the musicals presented in my four years at Woodrow Wilson High School: "Bye-Bye Birdie;" "Godspell;" "The Wizard of Oz" and "South Pacific," moving up the ranks until I was cast as Emil in my senior year (the less we talk about my role as the Cowardly Lion, the better).

Still, what I wouldn't have given to be a part of Mr. Schuester's amazing ensemble of singers/dancers. Of course, the singers/dancers on "Glee" are all seasoned veterans well beyond the age of most actual high-schoolers, but that hardly matters.

What does matter, is the heart and soul behind the characters in the show. There's Rachel (Lea Michelle), the girl who knows she is destined for theatrical greatness; Finn (Cory Monteith), the Football jock who nevers feels so good as when he is singing; Quinn (Dianna Agron), Finn's cheerleader girlfriend, pregnant by his best friend and sent to Glee Club as a spy by the evil Ms. Sylvester (the always amazing Jane Lynch) and the rest of losers and jocks who are are inspired by Spanish teacher Will Schuester (Miss Saigon's Matthew Morrison), himself a past member of the school's formerly championship Glee Club, now surpassed by Sylvester's championship "Cherrioes" squad. Of course there's the adorably giant-eyed Jayma Mays (Red Eye; "Heroes") as the school counselor in love with Will, but betrothed to the awkward gym coach, Ken (Patrick Gallagher) and the hilarious Iqbal Theba as the clueless Principal Figgins, who seems to take delight in pitting Schuester and Sylvester against one another. And don't get me started on Will's wife, Terri ("Nip/Tuck" alum Jessalyn Gilsig), who is pretending to be pregnant in order to hold onto the man she doesn't deserve. And then there's the gay kid, Kurt (Chris Colfer), whose coming out to his dad made me cry and the adorably hot best friend, Puck (Mark "Please Lose the Lame Mohawk" Salling) who not only knocked up Quinn, but hooked up with Rachel because his mother wants him to date a "nice Jewish girl." Talk about ensemble casting! And I've barely scratched the surface, here.

Say what you may about Fox's deplorable and ridiculously right-skewed news division; their entertainment division has done something no other network has been able to do. They've created the first ever successful musical TV series. Anyone remember "Cop Rock?" If you do, I'm sorry. Hilarious, topical, sexy and fun "Glee" is probably the best non-Sci-Fi series to hit the airwaves in a very long time.

I say it's about time that Musical Theatre Geeks got our own TV show and I proudly stand among them shouting "Thank you!" to the show's creators, writers and cast. I just have to ask, where the hell were you when I was 16, and really could have used you?

If you haven't seen "Glee," do yourself a favor and watch it. And here are a few clips to whet your appetite:

You go, Girl!



That song's never going away, is it? So, which character do you think I identify most with? No cheating!

More, anon.
Prospero

TV Review: "V"

I rarely watch Prime Time television in real time, especially since the advent of the DVR. So, it wasn't until tonight that I saw ABC's re-tooled version of their early 80's Mini-Series (and short-lived regular series) "V."

In preparation for the new series, I did watch most of SyFy's original "V" marathon on Sunday. It was just as ridiculous and cheesy as I remembered, but still an interesting take on modern fascism and the notion of people as sheep, blindly following those who promise a better life for doing so.

The original mini-series starred Beastmaster's Marc Singer as a network camera man who uncovers the Visitor's secret plot to steal Earth's water and eat her people. It took its time revealing plot points (as a mini-series, it had the luxury to do so) and I remember being shocked as all hell by that revealing shot of the Visitors' spokeswoman Diana (Jane Badler) opening her jaws (in a typically unrealistic '80's physical effect) to swallow a guinea pig whole. The Nazi allegory was deliberately unmistakable and the acting and special effects unintentionally cheesy.

In the latest version, "Lost" alum Elizabeth Mitchell plays FBI agent Erica Evans, who is as shocked and disturbed by the aliens' arrival as anyone. Joel Gretsch ("The 4400") is Father Jack Landry, a priest who has doubts about the Visitor's intentions and Morena Baccarin is Anna, the leader of the Visitors, who insist they are here to help Humanity in exchange for water and a "plentiful mineral" they need to sustain their lives. Alan Tudyk (Death at a Funeral; "Dollhouse" and the original cast of The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told) is Erica's partner and "Party of Five" alum Scott Wolf is the ambitious reporter Chad, who is soon taken in by Anna's charms and becomes the Visitors official media outlet. Add cutie-pie Logan Huffman as Erica's Visitor-enthralled son and hottie Morris Chestnut as a surprising ally, and you have quite an interesting cast.

The new "V" doesn't waste anytime in revealing the truth behind the Visitors' real intentions, but jumps right into the conspiracy plot in the first hour. No one can be trusted (without surgical proof of a skull beneath their skin) and it's immediately clear that the Vs intentions are far from honorable. Using state-of-the-art special effects; crisp, no-nonsense writing and an excellent ensemble of some of television's most interesting actors, the new "V" is surprisingly entertaining and well-done. Mitchell is particularly good as the single mom struggling to maintain both her career and her relationship with her increasingly distant and rebellious son, while Gretsch is convincing as the Man of God who questions if the Visitors are in fact part of God's divine plan for the human race.

It will be interesting to see where the series goes and whether or not the writers are able to maintain the momentum they have put in place in the show's first episode. And while I must admit that I had my doubts about this particular reboot, I can only hope that the showrunners are able to keep our interest long enough to sustain a long-term run. *** 1/2 (Three and a Half Stars out of Four).



More, anon.
Prospero