Take a look at the release poster above and you see a "punny" title. Now puns can be good and puns can be bad, and more often than not they are a sign of bad things to come. So when you see the title for a low budget zombie film called Die-ner (Get It?) with a picture of a zombie waitress outside of a diner on the cover, you can't help but expect the worse. And yes the (Get It?) is a part of the official film's title complete with the parentheses. Hold on a second and keep reading because the good news is that the title is the only drawback of the film.
After serial killer Ken (Josh Grote) offs a small diner staff (Maria Olsen and Jorge Montalvo), he has to figure out a way to keep them dead on a permanent basis when they reanimate into flesh-hungry zombies. Making matters even more difficult is the young married couple (Liesel Kopp and Parker Quinn), whose marital problems are nowhere near as critical as the horror they just stumbled upon, and the bumbling local sheriff Duke (Larry Purtell) who are now his prisoners.
As far as zom-coms (zombie-comedies) go, Die-ner is more along the lines of Return of the Living Dead and Shaun of the Dead than the overrated Dead and Breakfast (another punny-titled affair). The gags are funny and humorous gore is a plenty, but there is also a level of seriousness within the film's horror elements.
The film's opening scene feels very Tarantino-esque, along the lines of homage and not knock-off, informing the audience that they are going to see a different type of film than what the DVD cover art conveys. Then we see the face of our anti-hero Ken who physically looks like a cross between Ed Norton, WWE superstar Christian and adult film star Tony Tedeschi. And he really sounds almost exactly like Ed Norton too.
Nevertheless, Grote portrays Ken as a crass and sarcastic murderer who is just "simply misunderstood" in society. In his own mind, he is a decent human being, yet Ken is as vicious as they come. He does not seem too menacing due to his size and the fact that he wears what appears to be a Member's Only jacket. Now with all of those perceived negatives going against him, Grote pulls it off in a believable manner. In fact, he carries the entire film, not to say the supporting cast is weak by any means. His introduction scene where he poses as the waiter and draws a funny picture instead of taking the couple's order is a great standout moment.
As mentioned earlier, the comedy is tapped from the same keg as Return. So while Grote and Quinn are acting as this film's Burt and Freddy, Kopp really turns on the drama. Essentially, she is the film's "straight man", leaving comedy to the other leads. But she also does not play a typical helpless female stereotype either. In fact, she is pretty tough and fearlessly confronts Ken time and time again, pushing his patience to the limit.
Forget the fact that this is a low budget indie zombie flick, this is is a highly entertaining film overall. It is definitely amuch needed fresh take on the zombie genre film, even though it contains a large deal of humor. Not to mention you get to see pointless dream sequences and learn the importance of having a rope and duct tape bag.
Die-ner is a film light years better than the title implies. Director Patrick Horvath proves you don't need hordes of zombies to make a memorable and surprising horror flick that can go toe-to-toe with most of the high budget 3D horror shown in theaters. This is made possible by the impressive acting as a driving force and a story thankfully veers away from the stagnant repetition in the hordes of recent zombies films.
Although I have respected the genre since my college days, film noir has never been a topic of conversation on this site. That has changed since I received a screener for Cat City, a film made in 2008, but is being released for the first time tomorrow. This crime-drama stars some recognizable past headliner names such as Julian Sands and Brian Dennehy, but also has a share of some fresher faces in the industry.
Cat City resuscitates film noir in this modern age tale set during the aftermath of a failed casino developmental deal in the Cathedral or "Cat" City area of Palm Springs. Real estate developer Nick Compton (Sands) confides in a young stranger named Jonas (Alano Massi), who comes to town off a recommendation from Nick's friend, to help get some needed funds close the deal. However, Jonas is more than meets the eye and his hidden agenda could prove deadly.
In the meantime, Nick's wife Victoria (Rebecca Pidegeon) hires a P.I. (Dennehy) who learns that Nick is having an affair with Allyson (Shawn Huff), one of her colleagues at her law firm. When all of these characters start mixing in and out of each others' lives, let the mystery and drama begin!
This Cat is stuffed to the whiskers with twists, turns, betrayals, indiscretions, set-ups, schemes, ans murder. All of these ingredients are typical to the genre and helps complicate the plot as it builds towards an exciting conclusion with a classic plot twist.
Director Brent Huff really pulls the most out of his actors, whether they are a seasoned veteran who can motivate themselves like Sands or an inexperienced actor on the rise in a key role like Massi. The output delivered by a director, with only a few smaller scale films on his resume before taking on the Cat, is extremely impressive.
In fact, the acting and the beautiful Palm Springs scenery are what save this film from being below average fare. Some suspenseful moments are sometimes too brief to be truly suspenseful and the end twist is a great one, but it was predictable, at least to this reviewer. Even though it is a fun film to enjoy, you have probably seen the same plot devices before in several other movies. That aside, it's still worth a watch if you have a chance to do so. Cat City is available for purchase beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, September 28th on DVD. The film is exactly what it means to be: a straight up old school film noir taking place in our present-day. Recommended for all fans of the genre or those looking for a thriller with a decent crime story and some surprisingly good acting.
This sequel picks up several years after the events of the original with the MacManus Brothers, played by returning actors Sean Patrick Flannery and Normas Reedus, living in Ireland with their father Ill Duce, portrayed again by Bill Connolly. When news that a priest is murdered in their old hometown, brothers head back overseas to gain their vengeance. Soon Ill Duce learns that his sons are the pawns in a scheme to have him return to the States as well and do battle with a dangerous enemy from his past.
Ill Duce's backstory and an appearance by Peter Fonda are some of the positives this time around. However, Willem Dafoe as Smeckler is sorely missed even though Julie Benz is easy on the eyes as his replacement, Eunice. David Della Rocco as Rocco is missed in a more reduced role than in the original because Clifton Collins Jr., as the Brothers' new sidekick Romeo, just does not cut from the humor perspective.
It is good to see a majority of the original's cast, including the bumbling local law enforcement and bar keep, who help to keep this continuation in the same spirit as the 1999 cult classic. Even though it is the same vain as the first one, it still is nowhere near the same caliber.
Flannery is almost unrecognizable for some reason and the film only hits its full stride in the last 10-15 minutes. That is not to say that this is a bad film, but is definitely an average sequel and only recommended for Saints fans. The stage is set for what should be a better and more exciting installment, but let's hope we don't have to wait another decade for it.
A night of young love turns into terror when four teens venture to watch a meteor shower in an isolated area and inadvertently land in the crosshairs of a deranged serial killer. Meanwhile, a strange pair of mysterious lights float around in the night sky.
The Woods suffers from a bit of an identity crisis because director John Sjogren does not make the main intention of his film obvious enough. For example, the DVD cover art and description make this one seem like it will a typical backwoods slasher flick played completely straight, but many of the scenes in the film are presented as a bit offbeat and comedic. It is hard to gauge if this is meant to be a horror-comedy or a straight up spoof of backwoods slasher films because the tone is too dark. If it is meant to be a spoof or a horror-comedy, it is simply not a good attempt at executing either one. Another problem is the killer Jack Carter, played by Kerry Wallum. A horror film's villain outweighs the importance of the protagonists, yet the character of Carter lacks any fear-inducing qualities and is overall just plain boring. From a physical perspective, Carter looks like a cross between a present-day Ted Nugent, Jimmy Buffett and comedian Bill Engvall from the Blue Collar Comedy troupe rolled up into one whose weapons of choice are a machete and hammer. Look at the below screen caps for evidence...
Exhibit A
Exhibit B Not exactly a great mold for cinematic villainy, is it? And the script calls for his character to have too much strange dialogue to be considered a serious threat. Wallum is a bit of a hulking man when standing close to other actors and maybe more emphasis should have been placed on his physicality instead of his hokey lines. Wallum got left hung out to dry here in how his character is represented by the director not playing to his strengths.
The acting is somewhat below average, but it is surprisingly better than the story. Joe Estevez plays the town sheriff Cade in a humorous capacity, which is entertaining at first but ultimately backfires as the film enters the later acts. When it is time for the Cade character to turn dramatic, it is almost impossible to accept him in this fashion. Add to the fact that he is involved in the big plot twist that is extremely obvious from about ten minutes into the film, and Joe's big scene is ineffective. However, the acting we get from him early on is fun and also gives us a look at what his brother Emilio will look like in about 10 years.
Estevez's presence is a one of the few positives The fatal flaw with this film is the plot line for the actual "lights" aka the Windy Hill Mystery Lights. The film is called The Lights, there is a hinted mystery surrounding them at the beginning of the film and the lights are swirling around for more than half the movie, yet in the end we get no payoff for their significance. Are they ghosts, aliens, gasses? We are never given any visibility and they essentially do not even need to be in this film.
If lights' continued mystery was the director's intent, then they should not have been the focus of the picture's title. It would be like never showing that a shark was attacking people in Jaws and leaving it up to the viewers to decide what was the sea beast's significance, even though the film is titled Jaws. Without spoiling anything, let's just say there are two moments where the lights seem to "do" something or another, but we are never given any confirmation if it is the lights or simply a coincidence.
For a low budget flick, the effects used for the "lights" are passable
The pacing also hampers the film even though it contains a short running time. It seems to take ages for our main cast to get to the site. Part of this can be blamed on unnecessarily long montages, filled with horrible Skinemax-like music, that seem to only be used to pad out the running time. There are moments of ridiculousness that are hard to be believed even for this type of film, like a scene involving a "national champion cyclist"...who trains alone even though he is a national champion and would be sponsored out the wazoo.
More importantly, things do not get into full horror mode until right near the film's conclusion. And the horror is definitely a diet version of horror, complete with a low body count. Finally, the audience is "treated" for their patience and endurance with an abrupt ending that leaves some loose ends and unanswered questions.
One of the montages...this one contained the T&A factor Whatever the case may be, the end result is very disjointed. It's not scary enough to be a horror film and definitely not funny enough to be a comedy, so the audience is not sure what type of genre they are digesting. It's a huge distraction.
If there are any positive, one would be actress Elizabeth Jauregui who plays Kelly Rogers. She does not have top-flight acting talents, but is extremely beautiful and photogenic. the other would the aforementioned presence of Estevez. After some research on The Lights, this is the very first published review on the film even though the release year is documented as 2009. Not sure of its distribution status, but it is easy to see why it has such low awareness. Even if backwoods slashers interest you, don't bother to turn on The Lights. Keep them off and look for another movie on the shelf.
I had so much fun participating in Alex's Dirty Dozen of Film over the summer, that I jumped at the first chance to join in for this TV-based blog-hop. Actually I was the 11th to jump at the chance. Last time I did my top-10 favorite guilty pleasures to be a little different from the rest of the pack. This time I will do my top-10 favorites, but I will do something just a little different once again. Mind you that these are not my all-time favorite shows but my Top-10 Favorites Shows that were prematurely canceled.Here they are in no particular order:
Twin Peaks A beautiful and popular young woman is murdered in a small town and the FBI is brought into work with local law enforcement to uncover her murderer's identity before he strikes again. However, this murder is not going to be so cut and dry as there are supernatural elements at work.
David Lynch's venture into television with his murder mystery series was way ahead of its time. It became a pop culture hit before the buzz died off during the season's second half. The last episode contained ten minutes of the scariest scenes I have ever witnessed on network television which concluded on an enormous cliffhanger:
Some years later, Lynch directed an incredible motion picture prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, that explained some nuances of the original series but nothing pertaining to the continuing story which was a far more important topic.
Werewolf
After being bitten by a werewolf, college student Eric Cord travels the country to kill the head of his bloodline and free himself of the curse. Making that an even harder accomplishment is a bounty hunter hot on his trail.This series was made in the make and model of other series' like The Incredible Hulk and The Fugitive. Eric travels to the town, gets in trouble, wolfs out to escape and just missing being caught by his pursuer Alamo Joe.
Eric finally kills who he believed was the head of the bloodline, only to find that his true target, Remy, was a werewolf in a whole other league. Unfortunately there was never any closure with the series finale as a standalone episode and a ridiculous way to end the story. The lack of a larger audience wasted some great acting by the late Chuck Connors and Brian Thompson as the baddie wolfies!.
Brimstone
Detective Eli Stone is murdered and sent to hell, but makes a deal with the devil to return to Earth in exchange for tracking down and killing 100 damned souls that escaped from hell. Their only weakness was to puncture both eyes and kill them.
Peter Horton was good as Stone, but John Glover really was the real scene-stealer as the lord of darkness.This show followed the "villain of the week" formula, with Stone tracking down and killing a particular underworld escapee. One nice touch was revealing that Stone's love interest, and a main "good guy" character, was the head demon who led the escape from hell and was trying to take Stone out of the equation. It would have been good to see how storyline ended.
It was given the famously dreaded Friday night time slot on FOX, so Brimstone only lasted maybe 8 episodes before being axed. I remember reading post-cancellation interviews with Horton where he was devastated that it was never given the right opportunity to succeed and I don't blame him. He was extremely proud of the Brimstone world he created.
Reunion
After a woman is murdered, her old high school friends try to figure out who the killer is. Sounds very vanilla but it is a lot different than you might think.A cool concept of this show was that every episode told the story of each character in events that transpired over a one-year period since the group's high school graduation. For example, the first episode contained flashback of events during 1986. Then the next episode was 1987... and so forth. The final episode was going to take place in our current year (2006 at the time) and reveal the killer. In the meantime, the audience tried to piece together clues and solve the mystery for themselves because each year always made suspicious of her murder.
FOX canceled the show more than halfway into the season and aired a huge cliffhanger concerning one of the lead characters. And the worst thing - they never revealed the killer! So if you were one of the loyal viewers who invested about ten hours or so of your life into this show for some well-deserved payoff - you were S.O.L. The producers finally leaked the killer's identity on the internet almost a year later, but by that time no one cared anymore. I didn't at least.
Tru Calling
Tru is a college student working at a morgue who has the power to be given one chance to travel back to the previous day and and save the dead.
This show adopted a Quantum Leap-like formula with the heroine saving people from their doomed fates. The difference in this series is that she did not always save everyone, which presented a shock and dramatic factor.
In my opinion, Eliza Dushku was at her hottest in this show, but the funniest thing is that Zack Galifinakis plays the straight man and nothing like what his persona has become nowadays. Once the network added Jason Priestly as Tru's brother, ditched the original supporting cast without explanation and added with Tru's family being evil, this series started to fall apart fast. It still had entertainment value, should have never veered off the series' original path. And in the end, a large deal of major plot lines began without closure.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Taking place in a somewhat alternate Terminator universe around the time of T2, Sarah Connor continues to protect her son John from more time-traveling cyborgs. Luckily, the John of the future sends back a hot female Terminator to help them even out the odds.
Season one was fun, even with the groan-worthy comedic lines. However, Summer Glau as the hot female Terminator was great eye candy and Lena Headey was extremely effective in the title role playing the character very differently than Linda Hamilton. Thankfully the lame comedy got ditched but the producers did double trouble by bringing Brian Austin Green and all his plot lines that took focus off the main story.
After some standalone episodes, Green's character got killed in one of the biggest WTF? moments ever in my TV experiences. Coincidentally, or not, the series headed back towards the greatness of season one. Too little, too late. The Sarah Connor Chronicles ends with an enormous cliffhanger as John time-traveled to the war-torn future. Would have loved to see where the series went after that.
Surface
A new form of sea life emerges from the ocean's greatest depths and is discovered by three individuals in seperate parts of the country. Meanwhile. the government wants to keep this new species identity under wraps and try to stop our protaginists from getting their stories out to the public.
A great storyline from beginning to end that never had a standalone episode or felt like it was dragging along. The three main characters had their own individual stories that were followed week after week, all leading to a meet-up. Well the three finally united in the season finale for ten minutes, the big secret was finally revealed about the species' agenda and the audience was left with no answers.
NBC hyped this show much like they did Heroes in 2006, but gave up on it way too fast. It was a smart sci-fi show that didn't try to depend on the FX and I never thought the ratings were bad until I read about the cancellation a month about the season finale. This one is a real shame because there was a lot more story to tell and all those hours invested in watching the program were for naught.
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
A cowboy bounty hunter seeks to avenge his father's death by tracking and taking down his killers, the Bly gang. Every week, Brisco and his friend Lord Bowler would take on some random villain, who always seemed to possess some futuristic gadgetry and elements in this alternate Old West universe. First and foremost, Bruce Campbell and the late Julius Carry (Sho 'Nuff from The Last Dragon) were the series leads. Just for that fact alone, this series should have never been canceled. This show was ahead of its time and right before Campbell's cult status erupted. A few years later, we could have had many more great seasons of Brisco instead of watching Campbell on Ellen DeGeneres' series like a fish out of water.
Battlestar Galactica ('78)
In another galaxy, the rest of a humanoid civilization are relentlessly pursued by an evil cyborg/lizard race, as they search for Earth with the hope of relocating their species.
This show was not only heavy on story, with even religious undertones at times, but the acting was a nice mix of veteran and upcoming talents. Due to the timeframe of the show's release, this was considered a Star Wars knockoff. Nothing could be further from the truth because they are two completely different universes. While the effects might seem cheesy in this day and age, back then they were considered award-winning. One of the main reasons for the show's cancellation would be due to the price tag of $1 million an episode...in 1978!
Battlestar is another show that had a lot more story left and just as many seasons needed to tell it in, but the show sadly lasted one season. The show was re-worked into an abysmal program called Galactica '80, which is only worth noting due to learning the sad fate of Starbuck (Dirk Benedict).
Freaks and Geeks
Judd Apatow's series about teenagers who were basically freaks and geeks, but it was a lot cooler than I just made the premise made it sound. The audience is basically given life from the perspectives' of two totally opposite crowds.
The cast included James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and Busy Phillips before they all broke out. Nice move, NBC. Hell I think Jonah Hill was even on this show. There is really not much to say about this show except that it was a lot of fun, seriously underrated and I urge you all to get the DVD of the first season if you have not been fortunate enough to see it yet. Even if you aren't into people like Rogen or Apatow.
Maybe it was geared towards my generation, but for whatever reason, the show was critically acclaimed but yanked by the NBC execs without so much as a slight hesitation. In retrospect, it might have been for the best as most of the main cast have gone on to some solid careers.
R.I.P. My Fallen Franchises
Well that does it for my Top-10 TV Series that were canceled too soon. Hope you enjoyed my part in the blog-hop and cannot wait to stop by and read some the entries on your blogs! Thanks again to Alex for coordinating this 'hop.
Analysis: The guy I always mention from Pinocchio's Beer Garden still maintains a 1.000% batting average when it comes to recommending new stuff for me to try. I wanted something special for the holiday weekend and the dude grabbed me a bottle of Wrath of Pecant, a collaboration brew between the Alstrom brothers from Beer Advocate and Dogfish Head. The result is a beer that tastes just as good as its' hilariously punny name. While it is the most expensive single bottle of beer I have ever purchased, this might very well be the greatest beer I have had in a long time, maybe even my life. Yeah it's that good.
The beer contains a malt taste with a touch of smokiness. I enjoy smoked-flavored beer, but this was the perfectly balanced accent of smoked flavor that I have ever experienced. The pecan taste is mixed in there as well but, like the other flavors my pallet detected, it was not overbearing. Light head after the pour.If you tracked this one down, congratulations. Unfortunately it is not for sale outside of Delaware where the Dogfish Head brewery is located, but I was lucky enough to enjoy its deliciousness in the confines of The Man-Cave, based on lucky availability and a bullseye recommendation. It is a limited edition, which means that I am going to have problems pulling off a repeat performance and drinking some more.
Buzz Factor: It seems a lot stronger than the 6.00% ABV advertisement and will give you a good, clean fuzzy feeling once the whole bottle has been drained. The price tag you pay is high, but it is worth the extra change that you would spend on other beer in its class. For example, I enjoyed the Wrath of Pecant along with three other beers in the same caliber and all I could think about was wishing the other two were more Pecants the whole time. So if there is an honest testimonial needed for this review, that was it.
Some side notes include that the beer was named based on votes from the Beer Advocate community and a play on words from Star Trek II's title, The Wrath of Kahn. The original title was going to be Wrath of Pecan, based on the pecan in the beer, but legally issues forced them into adding the "t" to the end of Pecant. Doesn't matter to me. They could call this The Wrath of the Colon and I'd still line up to get some more.
As I mentioned in my last post, FX sent me an advanced copy of the first two episodes of the The League's second season (premiering tonight on FX). Last week I was also invited to dial into a roundtable conference call discussion with Jeff and Jackie Marcus Schaffer, the husband and wife duo responsible for creating the show. I was contacted to join the call out of nowhere or without any knowledge of the event and as a fan of the show, I could not pass up the opportunity to speak with the show's creative minds, especially Jeff. I have the utmost respect for Jeff's work and award nominations from HBO's hit series Curb Your Enthusiasm and his work on Seinfeld. And of course the work he does with his wife on The League.
I could have posted the entire transcript, but decided to get right to the meat and bones of it with my question since I was representing ETMC and, well, this is ETMC. So here it is...
START transcript:
Moderator: Our next question comes from Geofree Capodanno with Enter the Man-Cave.
Geofree: Being that when FX first put the show on after It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is obviously a huge hit, and there had been previously shows put into that time slot that were there one minute and gone the next. One of them was Testees, I can't even remember the other ones off-hand. When you guys were first put into that time slot did you ever feel any kind of strange pressure because that time slot had such a high turnover?
Jackie: Not at all, as … with the Sunny billboard roars past. I think it's one of the dirty little secrets of why we wanted to be at FX. It was no secret around town that FX, the network, was just blowing up. Sons of Anarchy was kicking …. They had all these great shows and Sunny was in season four at the time—it just finished season four, on its way to season five. It was no secret that FX had been really trying to find a companion piece for Sunny to build up that hour and for all the people who love making half-hour comedy and are geeks about television scheduling, it was this hidden little gem of a time slot that everybody was excited about trying to fill.
Jeff and I, just not only creatively at FX, but the way that the network was growing, we thought, "God, if we could make a show that could be a good companion to Sunny and that could turn into a great comedy night for FX, what a terrific outcome for all of us this would be.” We just feel very happy to be partnered with them. I know we're even sharing our premiere with them this year. We're going to do a joint premiere together this year by next Tuesday. If I were to watch—I did watch Sunny and I do watch Sunny—I would be happy to see those two shows back-to-back. So we hope that's the experience that viewers have.
Jeff: For us, it's like when Jordan was on the Bulls and like Luc Longley could go to the bar and say, "Hey, Jordan and I scored 52 points." Luc, … got his 2 and Jordan got his 50, so yes they go 52 points. So, we're just happy to be part of Sunny and us scoring 52 points.
END transcript
I love sports analogies and Jeff's comment made me legitimately laugh out loud on the call. Some communication that was withheld from the transcript for space constraints (for everyone, not just me) concerned my starting off the conversation by thanking them for introducing my wife to "Fantastic Lady Day" in he second episode of season two. You will have to check out next week's episode to see what I am talking about and I promise it is hysterical. Jackie definitely supported my wife's request for Fantastic Lady Day being that she sees it from the female perspective, whereas Jeff asked me if I bought the handcuffs already. After confirming that I had the handcuffs in my drawer, I also told him I was going to the store immediately after the call to buy a blindfold in case I have to make any fantasy football transactions this weekend.
Finally, I finished by telling them how much I enjoyed the episodes, but if I had to make one negative critique, it was that I now had to wait two more weeks longer than the rest of the world to see new episodes. It was an honest compliment that I was glad to share with them and so sincere that I also used it in my review of the second season. They were both very down to Earth and gracious, but more importantly very good answering the many questions they fielded in both an intelligent and hilarious manner. You can really tell that they have the utmost confidence in their show, are proud of its rapis growth and have a great time delivering the goods to the fans.
The League season two premiere airs tonight on FX immediately following the season premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you are a fan of the show or interested in reading the whole transcript, please contract me and I will see if I can get you a copy.
Last October, FX released a great compliment to their smash hit It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when they aired The League in Sunny's follow-up time slot. For what it's worth, I was so instantly taken with The League that I named it as a Show You Should Be Watching and even gavethe show an "IT" Award for "Best New Series" in the first ever ETMC It and Sh*t Awards last December. FX rightfully renewed the series for a second season that will be longer than last season's six episode run.
FX sent me an advanced copy DVD with the first two episodes of the new season as well as an opportunity to join a roundtable teleconference with show co-creators, executive producers and directors Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer. After watching these episodes, the only drawback I can find is that I have to wait two weeks longer than the rest of the world to see more new episodes and learn what happens next.
For those who are not in the know, The League follows a group of friends in a long running fantasy football league, which they all take very seriously. The zany group includes:
- Kevin (Stephen Rannazzisi), the commissioner of the league whose big secret that his wife Jenny (Katie Aselton) really is the one calling all the shots and making all the transactions
- Taco (Jonathan Lajoie), the slow-witted slacker who is also Kev's little brother
- Peter (Mark Duplass), whose favors his fantasy football obsession so much that it resulted in the end of his marriage
- Ruxin (Nick Kroll), whose drive to win the league championship is held back by having to juggle fantasy football with the needs of his hot wife
- Andre (comedian Paul Scheer), who is a plastic surgeon rich in wealth but a lifelong geek. Last season, he won The League's championship.
Season two begins with the gang holding this year's fantasy football draft in Las Vegas. Sin City holds some new surprises for the league members including a hilarious cameo by Chad Ochocinco as himself, a new member joining the "league" and Jenny's determination to split from Jeff's team to manage her own.
While the Bengals' wide receiver seems to be a one-shot deal, the other additives appear to be season long arcs. For one, Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) seemed like oil to the original cast's water at first and I thought that it was too soon to be bringing in another central character. However, he fit right in with the group by the time I was a few minutes into the second episode and will be a welcome addition moving forward. Meanwhile, Jenny's persistence to break out on her own is heading to a boiling point.
Season two looks to be on par with season one in terms of the offbeat comedy and the show's popularity seems to be on the rise as seen by the large amount of promos run during last night's Monday Night Football games. It's good to see the NFL embracing this series.
Make sure to check out the season premiere of The League this Thursday, September 16th following the season premiere of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX.In the meantime, the hilarious season one DVD and Blu-ray have just been released by FX at a reasonable price and can be ordered here.
Three lucky winners were selected using a sophisticated technology exclusive to ETMC. Wanna find out who won or if you are a winner? Follow the link below to head over to the new ETMC Youtube channel...
A couple weeks back I posted a review of the indie thriller The Darkness Within then followed it up with an interview post including the film's very talented director Dom Portalla. Many people stated that they were interested in seeing this film while it seeks distribution. Well now is your chance to own the special edition DVD of The Darkness Within by entering this giveaway. This is a rare opportunity to own a copy before it hits general release if you are one of the three randomly selected winners.
All you have to do to officially enter is post a comment belowand "Like" my new Facebook page for double chances to win (please comment and let me know you that you liked my FB page so I can keep an accurate count).
Deadline to register is Friday, October 1 by 5pm. The winner will be announced on Monday, October 4.
The Darkness Within really took me by surprise and I am sure you will enjoy this great indie flick, so please enter now while you can,
Last year, Eastbound and Down was listed as one of ETMC's Show You Should Be Watching and after an extremely long hiatus, season two will return in September on HBO. I just saw the promo again the other night and got all pumped up for it.
Danny McBride plays Kenny Powers, a flamed out MLB relief pitcher who must now work as a PE teacher at his old hometown's high school. In his mind, Powers still sees himself as "the man" even though he is pretty much a loser. Longing to return to major league baseball, he seeks to find his arm strength that used to register 100+ MPH on the radar gun but has sank to a speed that I can throw harder than.
It is probably the funniest show you have never heard of because it gets lost among the other major series programming that HBO pumps out. Creator and star McBride is freakin' hilarious as Powers and might be my favorite character he has portrayed in his career up until now. I even contemplated being Powers for Halloween (there is a Powers jersey available for purchase online and at selected retail stores).
Season 1 left off with a pretty big cliffhanger, so I won't spoil anything but I can't wait to see what is store for him after the last stunt he pulled. If you haven't yet, please seek down season one on DVD (it's only 6 half hour episodes) or on HBO On Demand and get caught up in time for season 2! Trust me you won't regret it.
By summer's end, it has finally all come together: new camera, new editing software, new type of media at ETMC. I brought my camera to Monster-Mania a few weeks back and decided to shoot a couple of interviews. First up is the wonderful Kristy Jett, of Fright Rags, The Blood Sprayer, Person You Benefit Knowing, etc., who was kind enough to sit down for my first conducted interview right in the middle of a signing hall.
If I can just do some small self-promotion before our feature presentation, I kindly ask you all to LIKE the new Enter The Man-Cave Facebook page and also Subscribe to the new Enter The Man-Cave Youtube channel. I would appreciate it and will gladly like and subscribe back if you have similar pages.
This is my first finished project. Now that I know the ins-and-outs of my camera and editing software, I also learned my advantages and limitations to make some more great video projects for this site moving forward. And yes I do know that there is a typo at the end - wanted to test you and see if you made it that far.
Next week is the final interview at Monster-Mania with Freddy in Space's John Squires.
Ok I have been known to fiend for some Mickey D's chicken McNuggets, but this lady takes her McAddiction to the next level. I realize this is close to a month old, but it;s the first I heard about it.
A seismic disruption allows a fleet of prehistoric man-eating piranha loose into a small-town lake right in time for Spring Break. That means lots of wild teens in the lake, which equals a human buffet for the scaly predators. Kids go in the water…piranha in the water…our piranha...Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies.
After an incredible cameo by Richard Dreyfuss, parodying his role of Matt Hooper from the original Jaws, the piranha are set free from their cavernous environment to start the carnage right away. Two members of local law enforcement, Sheriff Foster and Deputy Fallon (Elizabeth Shue and Ving Rhames), discover that something is making mince meat out of lakesiders, but that does not stop the unaware locals from participating the biggest lake bash this side of Meatballs 3. Do you like that obscure reference?
Director Alexandre Aja plays the film with more camp and comedy than the 1978 original (I’ll disregard the 90’s made-for-TV remake), which makes this one of the most energetic seas creature features to date. The 3D effects are phenomenal and well executed during certain scenes, but this film would be just as fun without them..
Even with the excessive gore and violence, the film is a successful mish-mash of horror, comedy, gore, and major sex appeal. Besides Shue, who is still easy on the eyes, Jessica Szchor (Gossip Girl), who portrays Kelly, and Kelly Brook (who has finally broken into the U.S. market) as the sexpot Danni, provide plenty of pop for the male audience.
Meanwhile. the ladies are not left out in the cold either with Steven R. McQueen (Vampire Dairies) as Forester's son Jake and Jerry O’Connell portraying Derrick Jones, in a hilarious and obvious send-up of Joe Francis (Girls Gone Wild). His performance is effectively over-the-top which makes for a baddie you can’t help but love.
The question should not be who is in this film, but the better question would be who is not in the film. Recognizable faces are aplenty. Besides the aforementioned names, Christopher Lloyd appears as a zany scientist not too far removed from his Doc Brown persona, Paul Scheer (The League) plays O’Connell’s sidekick and Richard Chavira (Desperate Housewives) and Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers and the Saw franchise) are cast as divers investigating the opened cave. I think the casting department has a keen eye on television talent and hired a star from every major television network. Let's also point out the fact that Eli Roth shows up in a ridiculous cameo that must be seen to be believed.
The fun aspect aside, the gore is delivered early and often. Without giving anything away, let’s just say that this film can go toe-to-toe with Saw for gore any day of the week. If you have not already, I implore you NOT to watch the leaked piranha feast scene and save the surprise for when you see the film in its' entirety. Words cannot describe the brutal, yet inventive, slaughter that takes place. But at the same time, I dare state that the violence is almost done in a comical light without being very comical. It's confusing to explain, so again, you must see it to understand my point.
Bruce Campbell is currently starring in USA's top-rated spy romp "Burn Notice" as the wisecracking Sam Axe, but for some fans, he'll always be Ash, the beloved hero of Sam Raimi's cult favorite "Evil Dead" trilogy: 1981's "The Evil Dead," 1987's "Evil Dead II" and 1992's "Army of Darkness." Precisely for those ardent enthusiasts, Anchor Bay has just released the original film in the series on Blu-ray featuring two new HD transfers that were supervised by Raimi himself. Consequently, the thriller about a group of unsuspecting friends vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods who inadvertently unleash an ancient demonic force has never looked better. Campbell, Raimi and producer Rob Tapert also teamed up for a new commentary track that details how three young guys from Michigan launched one of modern horror's most enduring franchises -- it involved a lot of fake blood and equal amounts of sweat and tears. Campbell recently took time out of his "Burn Notice" shooting schedule to speak with Hero Complex's Gina McIntyre about what it was like to revisit his past and to speculate about whether he's likely to pick up that boomstick once more (spoiler alert: prospects don't look good).
GM: Could you have imagined while you were shooting "Evil Dead" that the film would still be a part of your life 30 years on?
BC: No, we didn't even know we were going to finish the damn movie. That was the hardest part. It took us four years just to finish it. Then basically we had to put it out to the rest of the world. It was a slow, grueling process. Everything's long term on "Evil Dead." The investors took about six or seven years to break even, 10 years to get into any kind of profit. Now, the last 20 years they've been doing fine, but everything is slow on that movie. Slow to arrive, slow to leave, I guess.
Also, I want to address something too that we always get ragged on. We always get ragged on that we put out 18 versions of "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness." At the end of the day, the three of us -- me and Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi -- we're not business tycoons. If people keep bitching and moaning about something new and different, we give it to them. That's the bottom line. And technology changes, so we had to do a VHS version way back when and we had to do a PAL version and we had to do a DVD version. Now, the Blu-ray's just a logical extension of the next best thing that's available to put the movie out on. This is actually the first time anyone's seen what the hell this movie looks like, and it doesn't look that bad. It's not a bad-looking little horror movie because Sam, firstly, supervised [the transfer] and made it look like it always should have. If you had gone into a theater and seen the original 35 mm print in the early '80s in New York, they were all torn to shreds. You saw scenes that were missing and jumped and film that was scratched and destroyed at any midnight showings for years. They didn't take good care of the prints. They would rip and they would cut the damaged parts out and just splice them back together. These were old-time New York projectionists; they didn't care. They had a screening at 9 o' clock. Something had to go through the projector at 9 o'clock.
So, finally, Bob Murawski, the Academy Award-winning editor for "The Hurt Locker" [who edited "Army of Darkness"], has been behind the Grindhouse re-releasing of "Evil Dead" in theaters, striking new prints off the new negative. It's been a good one-two punch for the preservation of the film. We always like it as filmmakers too, because every time you update to a new version you've gone back in and kept that movie in its most pristine condition. That movie means a lot to us. That's what got all of us into the business, so that's our little baby that we like to coddle and take care of. We're glad it's in a new form now.
GM: What was it like to sit down with Sam and Rob to record the commentary for the Blu-ray? You talk in such great detail about how the movie came together...
BC: We took a different approach this time for the commentary. Normally you watch the movie and go, "Hey, it was cold that time when we shot that," or "Oh, I was really sick when we shot that." Now we were just going to tell the history of making the movie. It wasn't related to the images you're seeing. It's just a backdrop. It made it very easy for us, once we knew what our approach was. "Hey guys, how far back can you remember? Whose idea was this? Where were you? Were you guys living together?" It also gave us a chance to clarify some misconceptions that have come up over the last 30 years -- "Oh, it was a college movie, you did it out of college." That's not really true. It was good. And once you get the three of us going, we jog each other's memories and then any long-winded crap we would cut down and just hopefully make it a reasonable piece.
GM: When you listen to the commentary, it does seem as though you're interviewing one another in a way.
BC: It felt like the thing to do. ...
... If it was Rob's story, if I would remember it, I'd go, "Hey, Rob, didn't you have the thing with the thing and your lawyer was this guy?" And he'd go, "Oh yeah." It was the logical thing because all of us knew that each of us had certain stories from our own perspectives.
GM: How do you feel watching the movie at this point?
BC: I love watching this cute, 21-year-old boy trying to learn how to act. Someone said the other day, why is that performance more tentative when in your other performances you become cockier and more arrogant? I was like, "Whoa, hey, easy." That character, the whole point of it, the original Ash really has no skills and just he's a mild-mannered college kid, and it's really the other character Scott that you were supposed to latch onto. He's the "give me that thing, I'll go check it out." He wasn't worried or concerned or hesitant and then, boom, he gets killed. The whole shtick of that was to make the meek, mild-mannered guy the guy with the shotgun. I think you get more out of that than just starting out with the brash guy who's in "Army of Darkness." That character had to evolve from a college kid to [a jerk].
GM: How would you characterize the role these films have played in your career? That brash Ash persona seems to be the foundation for so many of the other things you've gone on to do.
BC: Well, basically it allowed me to get a foothold in the business through mostly genre movies for the first 15 years, and then by being around enough and getting enough experience in movies. I'd done "Army of Darkness" before I did really my first big television thing. I'd proved myself. If you prove yourself enough in certain worlds, casting people will look at you and they'll give you a chance to audition for other stuff. So then I got into TV. One thing I feel really did lead to the next. The first TV thing I did was an action period genre show, "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," with science fiction elements and good old-fashioned stunts and fistfights and guns. I could do all that crap. I was a good fit for that, even though it's now considered mainstream, it was on Fox. It's a show that's good for kids. It's just a logical progression. If you stick around long enough you try to do new things. That got me into the world of television. So then I did about 15 years of television and I'm now back into television with movies in between. But all roads lead to "Evil Dead." And probably the same could be said for Sam. "Army of Darkness" was technically a studio film, I technically starred in a studio film for Universal. That gives you a little more street cred, and we wouldn't have made that movie if it weren't for the first two. I trace it all to that, and I don't deny my roots.
Again, I think another probably slightly misconstrued idea is that I don't like talking about the "Evil Dead" movies. I just don't like answering the same questions. I don't mind talking about the movie. It was a good experience overall and a necessary one to get into the business. I have no issue with the "Evil Dead" movies. I have nothing but fond memories. They were hard, they were a lot of heartache and disappointment along the way, but I'm glad we did it. And we did it ourselves. We didn't do it with anybody else. The first movie was raised from a bunch of doctors and lawyers in Detroit, a place where they don't make movies. So I feel pretty good that we were able to pull that one out of a hat.
GM: I know you're a huge proponent of independent cinema. I would imagine that stems back to your experience making the "Evil Dead" movies.
BC: It made me completely defiant. On the first "Evil Dead" movie, people talk about different versions of "Evil Dead"; there were no versions of "Evil Dead." There was no studio to tell us that we couldn't do it. Whatever you see in "Evil Dead," that's Sam Raimi's cut. That's it. New Line Cinema didn't have anything to do with any edited version of that movie. We edited the trailer that people saw in movie theaters. We edited that in Ferndale, Mich. We designed the poster with all the specs from all the printing places. We took our own photos and picked our own typeface. We really had to learn how you market a movie. I think we're very proud of the movie and proud of the fact that we had a lot of opportunities along the way and a lot of people who backed us, which we're eternally grateful for. But along the way, we also put in about four years of a lot of sweat. Whenever filmmakers ask, "Hey, how can I get my first feature going?" I'm like, "Find two partners and get ready to flush four years down the toilet." It can be done, but you've got to work. If you're a lazy filmmaker, you're going to fail. We learned a good work ethic and we also learned the irony that we had more control over "Evil Dead" than "Army of Darkness."
You'd think as you make the third in a series of movies that now you can call the shots. You can say this and have this budget and do this. That's not the case at all. It depends on where the money comes from. If the money comes from businessmen in Detroit, you can do whatever you want. They couldn't even set foot on the set if we didn't want them to. We ran the show, but now, "Army of Darkness" comes along, that film was re-edited from the beginning. It was messed with in so many ways that made it very challenging and very difficult to endure, not only the physicality of the movie, but the psychological crap of having to deal with a studio for the first time. There were 20 minutes of the movie cut out, you can see it on the director's cut. The studio version, I think it's 81 minutes and the movie was 90-something when we had it. I could be wrong, but it's incredibly short because the studio just sliced it down. It doesn't make it good or bad. My point is that we had complete control on our very first movie, and your very first movie is the one that you're not supposed to have any control over. You make a movie and it makes $100 million and the filmmakers never get anything back. Guess what? We got something back because we own the movie, we own the negative. It's just interesting. People are like, "Hey, when are you going to do another 'Evil Dead' movie?" I'm like, I'll do another one when we get money from doctors and lawyers to do our own version. Then I'm interested again. I'm not interested in making a $60-million studio film with a bunch of 24-year-olds telling me what to do.
GM: At this point, is another "Evil Dead" film really a possibility or just something fans love to speculate about?
BC: None of us have said no. I think Sam is always tweaking with the idea. He's joked with a couple of concepts. He has threatened to do it multiple times. He'll put a false statement out just to torment people. We joke that when he's got one eye left and I'm in the old actors' home, that's when we'll do it. But we both have day jobs now. The "Evil Dead" movies, you really have to lock up about two years of your life for each "Evil Dead" movie and we don't really have the time right now. Sam says that he will gladly get back on that track, but right now he's on that A-picture train and he's getting a lot more creative freedoms afforded to him with his success. I don't know that he needs to right now. And I'm kinda busy with the No. 1 show on cable. I don't think about it a lot because I'm busy doing other stuff.
GM: What is it about these movies that have caused them to become so beloved by generations of fans and to endure the way that they have?
BC: I've met a lot of fathers and their sons who bonded through those movies -- they didn't get along but that those movies were they only thing they liked together. I think it's because Ash is just a regular guy. He's not special forces, he's not Clint Eastwood, he's not a squinty CIA, ex-Navy Seal. He's nothing. He's just a guy. He's a garage mechanic. He's not even that. He works in the housewares department. I think the average audience member goes, "Hey, he's me! Look at him make that stupid mistake, what an idiot!" Because an average guy would make horrible mistakes. I love the fact that in a studio movie, Universal financed a movie where the lead character is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people. It just cracks me up every time I think of that. And I think audience members are like, "Oh my God! Ash can't remember three simple words and he raises an army of the dead that comes to attack the castle. It's all his fault." It grounds it somehow, where you go, I don't know if this guy is going to be able to pull this off or not.
Plus, Sam Raimi. "Evil Dead" took us 12 weeks to shoot. Most Roger Corman movies are like 10 days. We had days where we only got one shot. That's absurd! He'd be fired under any other scenario. Each of the "Evil Dead" shoots was long and miserable. Every single one, but as a result, Sam's really pulling off some cool stuff. The first "Evil Dead" we did a lot of cool stuff visually for nothing, "Army of Darkness" we spent more money on it, but he was always mixing puppets and animation. Sam's an old magician. Every trick in the book he was using to torment the audience and entertain them. He's a showman. Sam's the closest to P.T. Barnum I've ever met. There's a whole sequence in "Evil Dead" when Ash is going crazy that the entire thing is a 45-degree Dutch angle. Nowadays it's not that extreme in the whole MTV world of fast editing and "Friday Night Lights" style-shooting, it's not that big of a deal. But at the time when Sam came up with it, we were all looking at him like, "OK. Let's just see." Some of us backed it, and some of us didn't because we were like, "Man, that's just too extreme." But it looked great. It's probably one of the best sequences in the film.
I also feel that they're handmade in a way. I'm not making a judgment call on whether the movies are good or bad. I think they're not stamped out by a studio. They're slightly weirder stories with an off-kilter lead character. It doesn't make for mainstream success, but I think it makes for long-term success. "Evil Dead" was successful when it came out, "Evil Dead II" was in profit before we even made the movie, and "Army of Darkness" was a flat-out bomb. But now, it's on American Movie Classics, so go figure. Twenty years later, it's a classic. Last time I remember it was a bomb.
I also give a lot of credit to Anchor Bay. I think they were early pioneers in giving people all those crazy extras that we see on DVDs. The movie is two hours and the extras are 17 hours. I think they were early pioneers of commentary tracks, missing scenes, storyboards, interviews. They did a great job and they continue to be behind it. That's part of it too. You can have a movie that people want to see but if no one's there to market it.... And I've been touring for 20 years now myself. I've attended so many screenings of it and done so many interviews about it, I tend to keep the torch alive through a lot of my own activities. Wherever I go, it's always going to come up.
GM: Speaking of your own activities, I understand you'd like to make a sequel to your most recent film, "My Name Is Bruce," called "Bruce vs. Frankenstein" and that you'd like to be "The Expendables" of horror?
BC: Yeah, "The Expendables," or more like the "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can't possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something. I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It's a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so. My breaks between "Burn Notice" have been getting tighter because they've been adding episodes. They're trying to trap me like a rat in the TV world, and I might just let them. There's a script, it just kind of blows right now, so no one's really seeing it. We gotta work on it. Definitely shoot in Oregon all on a stage. It's like the "300" of horror comedies. We want to make it a whole world. Someone's gotta take Frank down for good.
