“The Lost Boys”
a review by Darby O’Gill

Well, with all these Lost Boys reviews, I figure it was only fair to re-watch the original. Now, I haven’t seen The Lost Boys in at least 15 years, if not longer, and I’m sad to say it doesn’t quite hold up. It’s not that it’s a bad movie; it just isn’t the movie you remember. But, for those of you that might not remember, let’s recap shall we.
When the Emerson family moves to Santa Carla, California to live with their grandfather, the last thing they ever thought they’d have to adjust to was vampires. Sam Emerson, played by Corey Haim, stumbles upon a comic shop, and the Frog brothers. Edger and Alan Frog are not only horror comic experts, but also the town’s first defense against the town’s vampire infestation. Watching Corey Feldman play Edger Frog, back in 1987, just makes you realize that Feldman has always been trying too hard to act. Was Feldman really so big in the late 80’s, that no one could have told him that a 15 year old boy does not talk like a Vietnam vet that smokes four packets a day? But, let’s get back to those pesky vampires. Michael Emerson, played by Jason Patric… What’s that? No, Michael Emerson is the character’s name. No, it has nothing to do with the Emmy award winning actor Michael Emerson from LOST. I think it’s just a coincidence. Can I get back to the review now? Okay, thanks. Like I was saying, Michael, whose last name just happens to be Emerson, makes the classic 80’s mistake of making eyes at the lead vampire’s girl. He quickly gets mixed up in the wrong crowd, drinks the head vampire’s blood, eats some maggots, and slowly starts to turn into a vampire. When Sam discovers his brother is becoming a blood sucker, it’s up to him and the Frog brothers to find and kill the head vampire, before Michael makes his first kill.
As with most movies you grew up with, this one doesn’t quite playback as bad assed as you may remember, but one thing is for sure, Kiefer Sutherland’s mullet is scarier than his bite. The pacing in the original movie is much better than that of Lost Boys: The Tribe. I think the whole point of The Lost Boys, is what would you do if you found out that vampires are real, and your brother was becoming one? The movie really isn’t about the vampires. I think when they made the sequel, all they wanted to do is show bad ass vampires, but if they hadn’t sacrificed the story they would have had a shot at a good movie. If you haven’t seen The Lost Boys in a long time and love the way you remember it, I would suggest replaying the memory, and skipping the rental.

Rating:

DVD Special Features:

I didn’t get to watch any of the special features yet, but I will at some point. I’ll post an update hopefully in the near future.

Kiefer Sutherland

Strange events threaten an entire family when two brothers move with their divorced mother to a California town where the local teenage gang turns out to be a pack of vampires.

Alex Winter

Tagline: Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.

Starring: Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Barnard Hughes, Jami Gertz, and Corey Feldman. Directed by Joel Schumacher

Won the SATURN award for “Best Horror Film” in 1988.

Jason Patric

Won the 1988 Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Horror Motion Picture: Corey Feldman and Teenage Favorite Horror/Drama Motion Picture.

Make Up Department
  Brent Baker … effects crew: Cannom
  Everett Burrell … effects crew: Cannom
  Greg Cannom … prosthetic effects: vampires
  Keith Edmier … effects crew: Cannom
  Earl Ellis … effects crew: Cannom
  Bill Foertsch … effects crew: Cannom
  Dino Ganziano … hair stylist
  Chris Goehe … effects crew: Cannom
  Morton K. Greenspoon, O.D. … contact lens consultant
  Steve Laporte … makeup artist
  Ve Neill … makeup artist
  Larry Odien … effects crew: Cannom
  K. G. Ramsey … hair stylist
  John Vulich … effects crew: Cannom

 Special Effects Department
  Donald Elliott … special effects
  Sam Marquez … special effects
  Timothy J. Moran … special effects
  Doyle Smiley … special effects
  Bob Stoker … special effects
  Lucinda Strub … special effects
  Richard W. Stutsman … special effects
  Matt Sweeney … special effects coordinator
  Fred Tassaro … special effects foreman
  Michael Wever … special effects
  Tony Gardner … special makeup effects artist: Greg Cannom’s crew (uncredited)
  D. Kerry Prior … special effects artist: Dream Quest Images (uncredited)
  Shamu … special effects technician (uncredited)

Lost Boys Poster 24 X 36

.an angry vampire with a hang over.i was once described that way as i was wished a happy new year.well i am not here now to wish any one any thing at all.too late to wish you a new year.that much is true.not here to wish you any thing save that you all ready your library cards and log in to your netflix accounts because i think it high time that i account for those moments of my time whiled away on a certain hollywood lawn.eyes fixed on a mausoleum wall where flickers play out projected there.resurrecting dead stars for any one who knows what it means to be a popcorn venus flytrap.or wants to.

.and with that i offer up the marrow of a bone picked clean.what i can now admit was too much meat.and with that i offer up my favourite fangs on film.

.this list should be perused keeping in mind that not all hematophogic creatures are vampires.insects for one.god and governments for seconds.two.too many to mention.there is so much rubbish out there.you know it when you see it and so do i.say no more say you? .when all is sad and done say i.when all is sad and done.and…achtung!

.vampyr directed by carl theodor dreyer.

.the hunger directed by tony scott.

.vamp directed by richard wenk.

.the lost boys directed by joel schumacher.

.the reflecting skin directed by philip ridley.

.dracula directed by francis ford coppola.

.nadja directed by michael almereyda.look out for the vauxhall and i poster nadja walks past.

.blood: the last vampire directed by hiroyuki kitakubo.

.trouble every day directed by claire denis.

.Låt den rätte komma in (let the right one in) directed by tomas alfredson.

]]> http://steveprefontaine.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/the-lost-boys/ Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:50:12 +0000 steveprefontaine http://steveprefontaine.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/the-lost-boys/

Strange events threaten an entire family when two brothers move with their divorced mother to a California town where the local teenage gang turns out to be a pack of vampires.

DVD Features:
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

This 1987 thriller was a predictable hit with the teen audience it worked overtime to attract. Like most of director Joel Schumacher’s films, it’s conspicuously designed to push the right marketing and demographic buttons, and granted, there’s some pretty cool stuff going on here and there. Take Kiefer Sutherland, for instance. In Stand by Me he played a memorable bully, but here he goes one step further as a memorable bully vampire who leads a tribe of teenage vampires on their nocturnal spree of bloodsucking havoc. Jason Patric plays the new guy in town, who quickly attracts a lovely girlfriend (Jami Gertz), only to find that she might be recruiting him into the vampire fold. The movie gets sillier as it goes along, and resorts to a routine action-movie showdown, but it’s a visual knockout (featuring great cinematography by Michael Chapman) and boasts a cast that’s eminently able (pardon the pun) to sink their teeth into the best parts of an uneven screenplay. –Jeff Shannon

The Lost Boys is available at Amazon for $7.99. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• Lost Boys: The Tribe (Uncut Version)
• Interview with the Vampire
• Stand By Me (Special Edition)
• Dark City (New Line Platinum Series)
• Iron Man (Two-Disc Special Collectors’ Edition)

I collect supporting actors, character actors. I revere them. I “cast” them. I watch feature films just to see their ten minutes of brilliance.  Part of this comes from my Dad.  

Like anyone who has even remotely participated in our family’s gene pool, he at one point got the acting bug. Unfortunately,  his screen career was limited to about 15 seconds as an extra in the 1949 film “Bad Boy,” when – sentenced along with Audie Murphy to a juvenile delinquency facility — he can be seen on camera rising up in anger and threatening the judge. (By the way, he was great!)

As I grew up, each re-run of “Bad Boy” would be an opportunity for a real family celebration. We would gather around the television, wait for the scene, watch his brief grimace, and cheer. And that is when I started watching these actors. 

I don’t know why I feel funny using the term “character actor.”  It has always  seemed  to demean the brilliance I would see in their performances, suggesting limitations rather than versatility. I know that some people use the term as high praise. I finally settled on “actor.”   

My favorite recent example – out of hundreds — is the absolutely brilliant Ned Eisenberg. In the first fifteen minutes of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Eisenberg – playing one of the Port  Authority police officers heading toward the towers – arrives on the scene and simply looks up.  But his reaction, so full of complexity and bewilderment and fear, and lasting no more than a brief moment, haunts the rest of the film.  His character knows that he has been instantly thrust into the worst day of his life. And we know this because of one subtle, nuanced and masterfully delivered glance.  

But I am a huge fan of these masters of their craft and wanted to share some absolutely random names. They could just as easily be followed by hundreds of others. Some occasionally made their way into starring roles, but their greatest moments were often glances, smirks, grimaces, or blank stares into the distance.

Thelma Ritter, Edward Arnold, Dabbs Greer, Robert Loggia, Ruby Dee, Andrew Robinson, Ward Bond, Robert Walker, Morris Ankrum, Charley Grapewin, Alfre Woodard, Ned Eisenberg, Paul Meurisse, Jane Withers, John Doman, Amanda Randolph, Margaret Dumont, Miriam Colon, Guy Kibbee, Barnard Hughes, Harry Dean Stanton, William Daniels, Bruno Kirby, H.B. Warner.       

Who would you include? Full-blown, leading-role movie stars are ineligible.