A. 59  12/2/09

If you’ve never seen or heard of it, a great movie from the 1990s is, “Pump Up The Volume.” I’m not going to delve into the storyline so much, because that isn’t what this post is about. But to give you a sense of the movie, it’s about a high school shock jock pirate radio DJ in Arizona in the 1990s. His racy and rebellious radio shows turn his school upside-down and causes a lot of serious drama, while still keeping it in high school.

But like I said, this post isn’t really about the movie’s plot. It’s about one of the reasons why this movie is so good: Christian Slater. Or to be more specific, Christian Slater’s hot body. Yup. He takes his shirt off in the movie, and it’s pretty nice eye candy. Ok, so I admit he looks better in the movie than these pictures, but for a then-21 year old, it ain’t too shabby either. Here’s what I’m talking about. Enjoy!!!

I was looking up Edward Cullen on Wikipedia and I saw that it said that Edward was a Byronic hero. Because of that, I clicked on the link that explained what a Byronic hero was. Anyway, as I was reading the characteristics, it did sounds like Edward As I continued down the website, it mentioned that Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles and the Phantom from the Phantom of the Opera were Byronic heros as well, but I digress with the Phantom. That made me think about how much Lestat and Edward were alike in the sense that they are both Byronic heros. I think that’s the reason why I don’t like either character. I mean, it’s not that I hate them, but it’s just that they’re not my favorites characters from their respective series. Anyway, I think that’s the reason why I don’t like Lestat and Edward is the fact that they’re Byronic heros.

In my search for any Lestat vs. Edward stuff, I found quite a few pictures that made fun of Edward and the Twilight series or making fun of the fact the Twilight series “outshines” the Vampire Chronicles. The one that I found to be the most funny was the one where it showed Edward and Bella together in the first box, and the following three boxes showing Louis, Lestat, and Armand telling their opinions on the series. I found that Lestat’s and Armand’s reactions to be the most funny. Their reactions were classic Lestat and Armand. Anyway, the next one that I thought was funny was the one where Lestat as picking on Edward. I just found those funny. By the way, you can find the originals at this site.

Interview with the Vampire (1994)
★★★★ / ★★★★

After being caught up with the “True Blood” craze, I decided to visit some of my favorite vampire movies. “Interview with the Vampire,” directed by Neil Jordan, was one of those movies I saw in early high school that I loved but forgot the details as years went on. I’m surprised this one strongly held up against other horror pictures, especially vampire movies. It’s something I didn’t quite expect because the movies I used to think were scary when I was younger turned out to be silly and vapid in storytelling. Tom Cruise stars as Lestat, a vampire who was as equally hungry for blood as he was with power. He one day decided to make Louis (Brad Pitt) into a vampire because, at least according to him, he wanted to give Louis a choice to relieve his pain of losing his wife and child. Despite turning into the undead, Louis still managed to hang onto his humanity by refusing to feed on humans. This bothered Lestat and thought that Louis’ loneliness would be eliminated by giving Louis a companion–in a form of a vampire child played by Kirsten Dunst. But this all happened in the past as the details which covered centuries were revealed by Louis to an enthusiastic reporter (Christian Slater). Although I did read the novels by Anne Rice, I only could remember three things: Louis, Lestat and the passion (both good and bad) between the two. What made me really engaged about this film was not because it was scary in content. I was actually more into Louis’ humanity, his efforts to abstain from human blood, and his eventual search for those who were like him. That romanticism was reflected into the elegant designs of each room in the 18th century to the dark corners of the catacombs. Another thing that was interesting was Kirsten Dunst. As an adult actress, she bores me to death because every emotion she wants to portray on screen feels the same. But in this film, she had range: she was quite magical, menacing, fascinating all rolled into one. For me, “Interview with the Vampire” is a great vampire film because it makes the argument that vampires have the capacity to choose to be good instead of just being one-dimensional fiends who crave blood and live for centuries. Although necessary to paint the nature of vampire, the gore, the violence, and the evil were secondary. It was consistent, thrilling, and very interesting.

While  The Legend of Billie Jean hasn’t yet made the transition from obscure VHS to DVD, it looks as though it’s a possibility, thanks to fervent nostalgics that transformed the ballyhooed 1985 teen movie into a cult classic. (Yeardly Smith did record DVD commentary for Sony, who was supposed to have released it by now). Surprisingly, those with a Netflix account, can endure the technological limbo, and add the movie to their Instant Queue.

This film is an odd product for its day, given the kind of movies that once typified the teen genre. Amidst numerous, cheaply produced T & A comedies (Private School, Spring Break, Porky’s, etc.), which indulged the exploits of mindlessly horny adolescents, John Hughes would soon become an 80s icon with sincere portrayals of American youth, both in drama and comedy. Elsewhere, a sub-genre of C-grade films that, seemingly inspired by 1950s pulp fiction, raised paranoia about the urban teenage timebomb (i.e. Class of 1984, Savage Streets, 3:15). Well, somewhere in the middle of all this is The Legend of Billie Jean. The B-grade action-drama (which includes a tasty foot chase!) isn’t set in the halls of the All-American high school, the comfort of Middle-class America, or even the grimy streets of the inner city, but more unusually, was filmed in and around the coastal Texas city of Corpus Christi.

At the forefront of The Legend of Billie Jean is the vigilante teen hero — or in this case, a heroine. This much had been done before, most notably, in Jonathan Kaplan’s 1979 film, Over the Edge. Based on true events, it tells the story of a burgeoning, fictional Colorado suburb brought to its knees in a violent revolt by its  bored and restless young residents who were ignored in its development. The decade’s punk cinema, too, steeped in a naive devotion to anarchy, was rife with temporary youth revolt (changing the status quo is hard work). Smithereens and Times Square, for example, featured angsty heroines who energized young, alienated audiences with their songs about mass delusion. Pump Up the Volume, which shares its star Christian Slater with The Legend of Billie Jean, was released in 1990. A sort of precursor to the free culture principals, it centered on an introverted teenager who, by  night, becomes a popular pirate radio DJ that urges the town’s disaffected teenagers to challenge arbitrary authority.

But, unlike these films, and contrary to the kind of war cry lyrics in Pat Benatar’s theme song, Invincible (“We can’t afford to be innocent/stand up and face the enemy…”), Billie Jean doesn’t exactly scream hardened leader. Helen Slater’s asthmatic 17 year-old centerfold-esque Billie Jean is confident, selfless, and innocent.

…In other words, she’s unrealistically wholesome.

Even her eventual MTV-styled makeover into a sexy feminist-guerrilla hybrid (add revealing wetsuit, buzz cut, carefully applied makeup and combat boots), it is an uncomfortable, shallow (“Billie Jean, you look… famous”), and temporary metamorphosis. Confident and selfless as she may be, her background — living with her brother and widowed mother in a sleepy trailer park — seem to only offer minimal impetus for her ethics, and no fodder at all for the crisis that erupts, setting the scene, of course, for that that beloved logic-suspending 80’s movie cheesiness.

The film begins, quite simply, with Billie Jean’s brother, Binx (Christian Slater in his film debut; no relation to co-star Helen Slater) humiliating a couple of assholes that won’t leave he and his sister alone. In retaliation, they steal Binx’s prized motor scooter while he and his sister are out on the lake. (Yes, the premise already sounds corny, but it is an update of The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas and horses just don’t mean the same to the average American teenager). Billie Jean assures her brother that they’ll  return the bike, and when they don’t, Binx decides to get it back himself. Hoping to avoid making matters worse, Billie Jean grabs her friends and heads to the police station, but the cop she speaks to (Peter Coyote) is, somewhat understandably, no help in the matter.

Binx eventually comes home a bloody mess; the bike is destroyed. Fruitlessly trying to be diplomatic Billie Jean presents  Hubie Pyatt (Barry Tubb), one of the conspirators, with an estimate from the body shop at his father’s beachfront souvenir store, asking him to compensate them for the damages. When he refuses, she takes up the issue with his father, who turns out to be an even bigger sleazebag, attempting to bargain for sexual favors.  Wondering what is taking so long, her brother and friends wander into the now-empty store (Pyatt makes his grotesque advances upstairs). Binx opens the cash drawer and finds a gun and, when Billie Jean frantically climbs down the stairs urging that they all leave, Binx threatens Pyatt with the gun, sheepishly telling him to leave his sister alone and give them the money. That simple. But, when Hubie walks in on the middle of this, his father quickly concocts a plausible explanation: the kids came to rob him. When Hubie doesn’t want to leave them to get the police because Binx is pointing a gun at his dad, Mr. Pyatt scoffs that he wouldn’t actually keep a loaded gun in the drawer. Binx, distraught, confusedly examines the gun when he accidentally shoots Mr. Pyatt. When Hubie runs for help, Billie Jean, Binx, and their friends get the hell out of their, now a couple of teenage fugitives.

Ridiculous as the movie soon becomes — in one scene, Billie Jean and the gang intervene in the abuse of an anonymous kid, and later, they devise a fake kidnapping of the Mayor’s nerdy son (actor-turned-director Kieth Gordon) to gain some leverage — this emphasizes the film’s commentary on the public’s thirst for celebrity and sensationalism. Immediately, Billie Jean attempts to make amends by contacting the police officer she previously spoke with (he is the only evidence that what transpired may have been an accident) to arrange their surrender, with the added caveat that Pyatt pay what is owed. When, the story is picked up in the local media, they become local antiheroes, celebrated by the young and criticized by the old. “Fair is fair” becomes their moniker and Billie Jean, the most morally-conscious and level-headed, becomes the spokeswoman for the fugitive group. On the one hand,she’s viewed by her peers as a (misunderstood) symbol of victorious teenage rebellion. Young girls in particular begin to emulate her clothes and hairstyle, and more importantly, form underground support networks that Billie Jean accidentally becomes aware of later on. Elsewhere, local news reporters, radio DJs, and merchandisers eat up the story. Even the Pyatts profit, selling posters of in their shop. So intensely sensationalized, trivialized, and exploited, it’s hard for Billie Jean, her brother, and friends not to get swept up in the inevitably disillusioning frenzy. The moment where Billie Jean, distraught, pulls down a poster and looks at the illustration of herself in front of a target perfectly captures this idea.

Pat Benatar is said to really berate this movie before performing “Invincible” at concerts, though this might indicate an underlying, unwanted contractual obligation to work on the film (or some other manner of being professionally wrong with regards to this movie). It can hardly be called the worst movie ever made (Fatal Rescue instead deserves that title). It’s heavy-handed, exaggerated adventure, and entertaining enough all the same.

I was bored recently and was on my computer I don’t know why but I typed Lestat vs. Edward into Google to see what I would get. Anyway, a lot of stuff that popped up were drawings of people making fun of Edward through Lestat’s point of view, and videos and articles asking who would win in a no-holds bar fight. I immediately thought that Lestat would definitely win. I say that because, after looking up their powers as a refresher, while Edward has super strength, super speed, and can read minds, Lestat can do or has all of that, plus so much more. Lestat also has pyrokinesis, the ability to fly, and he’s telekinetic. Plus, he killed an entire wolf pack by himself, albeit with the help of his two mastiff dogs. Anyway, I really think that Lestat would definitely win the fight against Edward, and that’s assuming Lestat doesn’t fall in love with Edward first, which I doubt would actually happen, and that Lestat doesn’t hurt Bella.

Dolan’s Cadillac

Filme de terror baseado em Stephen King, estrelado pelo Christian Slater? Ok, vale a pena ver qualé.

A vida do casal Robinson (Wes Bentley, de “Beleza Americana”) e Elizabeth (Emanuelle Vaugier) vira do avesso quando acidentalmente ela presencia uma das transações do mafioso Jimmy Dolan (Slater), que trabalha com tráfico de mulheres.

Achei o filme uma grande decepção. Por que? Pelo nome “Stephen King” nos créditos.

A primeira coisa que pensamos é num filme de terror, como a maioria das histórias de King. E com um carro no título, nos lembramos do clássico “Christine, o Carro Assassino”!

Nada, o carro é apenas o meio de transporte. E o filme não é de terror, e sim uma história de vingança.

Aí vem outra decepção pelo mesmo motivo: um dos melhores filmes de vingança da história é “Um Sonho de Liberdade”, também baseado em Stephen King. A vingança que rola aqui em “Dolan’s Cadillac” é até interessante, mas, comparado com aquele filme, fica a léguas de distância!

Para piorar, o filme é um pouco longo, porque quase nada acontece. Li na internet que é baseado num conto do livro “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”. Bem, houve um seriado “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”, com histórias de quarenta minutos. Talvez fosse o caso aqui, em vez de umlonga-metragem.

Só recomendado para os pouco exigentes!

Hi. How are you? My name’s Elliot, and I’m with the Cub Scouts of America. We’re… we’re selling uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree.

– Elliot

Quentin Tarantino penned the script for True Romance for director Tony Scott. I heard about this movie, because when I saw the IMDb page of Inglourious Basterds. He made one of the characters “Bear Jew” Donowitz the grandfather of one of the character in this movie. I thought I might check it out. I think this was Tarantino’s attempt to have a bloodily romantic movie, but it fails.

Taking place in Detroit, a comic book store worker, Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) goes to a Sonny Chiba “Street Fighter” triple feature. A beautiful young woman, Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) intentionally bumps into him there. They take a liking to each other and meet each other for pie. He tries to get to know her more, but she is coy.

They quickly fall in love and have sex. Afterwards, Alabama confesses to him that she is a call girl that was hired by his boss to get him laid on his birthday. They promise to be with each other always and get married the next day. She tells him about her fucked up life and how needed to get her stuff back from her pimp

When shit is about to go down the spirit of Elvis (Val Kilmer) gives Clarence a quick pep talk in the bathroom. Clarence wants to retrieve Alabama’s stuff from her former pimp, a Rasta man named Drexl (Gary Oldman). Going over there, things go wrong when he kills Drexl and takes a suitcase. It turns out that suitcase is filled with a million dollars worth of cocaine from a drug lord, Blue Lou Boyle.

The duo doesn’t know this. When Clarence comes back to the apartment bloody and bruised, Alabama is turned on by doing anything for her. They go over to a trailer house to meet his father, Clifford (Dennis Hooper), who is a police officer. They haven’t seen each other in three years. He wanted to know if the cops are after the twosome. Clifford tells them that they are in the clear.

They take a road trip Clarence’s best friend in Hollywood, Dick Ritchie (Michael Rappaport), an actor with his stoner roommate, Floyd (Brad Pitt). After the duo leaves, Vincenzo Coccotti (Chirstopher Walken), the local counsel for Boyle, pays Clifford a visit. The thugs interrogate him when Clarence dropped his license at the crime scene. They want to get their score back.

The movie is supposed to be a modern version of Bonnie and Clyde, but the movie felt false. You know you hear Tarantino dialogue when the characters ramble on about movies and minute trivia. The movie as whole laid flat. There was no oomph. I didn’t care if the characters lived or died. It was disappointing.

Judgment: Words cannot describe how terrible this movie is.

Rating: **1/2

Creo que he descubierto otra de las series a las que me voy a enganchar. Hablo de “Sin Identificar” (The Forgotten) que Fox estrenó ayer y que tiene varios ingredientes para que me guste: Christian Slater, que es policíaca y que está producida por Jerry Bruckheimer… bueno y que es de Fox.

El primer capítulo de “Sin Identificar” empezó con un gazapo de campeonato porque cuando el título original de la serie apareció en pantalla, una voz en off lo tradujo como “Los Olvidados” que es como realmente se llama pero como no lo han traducido.

Me gustó la serie (y también que la emitiesen sin publicidad) especialmente porque la historia es un poco “Caso Abierto” (Cold Case) en el sentido de que si en ésta Lilly y compañía resuelven los casos buscando siempre a los asesinos para que los muertos y sus familiares puedan descansar en paz, en “Sin Identificar” pasa algo parecido porque el grupo de voluntarios liderados por Christian Slater ayuda a la policía de Chicago a poner nombre a víctimas que no han sido identificadas. Y, original me parece que sea la propia víctima quien cuenta cómo fue su muerte en vez de ver la confesión del asesino. Recomendable.

I was sad to read today that Edward Woodward died – he of the famous quizzical expression is no more.

No one could do this face quite like him

He has a special place in my heart because watching re-runs of Callan with my older brother was a big treat each week when I was a tiddler – I could never follow what was going on and he would patiently explain. I remember thinking that he knew and understood everything about everything in the world although with hindsight I guess being 9 years older probably made it easy to give that impression to a silly little sister.

By the time The Equalizer came along I was older (but not much wiser) and I could watch without his help. Somehow it just wasn’t the same, although it was a great series and Woodward was perfect as Robert McCall, the oh-so-mysterious man of few words and all round good guy.

Robert McCall, putting right yet another wrong in atonement for his past sins

What I didn’t really catch on to at the time was the number of now famous people who starred in the series – Kevin Spacey, Adam Ant, Christian Slater, Lawrence Fishburne and John Goodman to name but a few. As if that isn’t enough the very cool and memorable theme tune was the work of Stuart Copeland, he of Police fame, alas always overshadowed by the much less cool Sting, but super-talented in my humble opinion.

Sexier than Sting and we don't have to listen to him playing the lute.

Anyway Edward Woodward is a great loss to British telly and all I can hope is that eventually some programmer will see sense and run Callan again so that I can see if I get it now without my brother’s help.

There is nothing I love more than introducing people to the Hollywood gems that they somehow missed while growing up. Today, it was Heathers (1989). As I basked in the artistic genius of Winona Ryder I realized that her once over exposed face has been missing from tabloids and from mainstream movies for years.

Sure, this could be because studios are still cautious about hiring a shoplifter to promote their work, but bitch please that was way back in 2001. The world was a different place and she was still young and impressionable. It’s hard to pay for things when you are used to getting them for free.

Winona has been in the public eye since her early teens in the late ‘80s with movies like Lucas (1986) and Edward Scissorhands (1990); typically playing angsty teens, wannabe nuns, and sexually deviant liars. For the best of Winona I suggest you witness her genius in Mermaids (1990) with Christina Ricci and the great Cher. In Mermaids, Ryder wants to be a nun in order to depress her mother, unfortunately she is Jewish and fighting a colossal infatuation for Michael Schoeffling, better known to girls as Jake Ryan of Sixteen Candles(1984).

Currently Ryder is planning a comeback. She is scheduled to star in Black Swan (2009) currently in pre-production. Lord knows A Scanner Darkly (2006) did nothing but bury her career even deeper into its grave.

Winona, I miss the way you read your diary entries out loud, how you constantly critique “the Man” and your use of the five finger discount.

Winona Ryder, I miss your face- Shassie

Today’s the day! Get ready for the big news as we reveal the NOMINEES for the 2010 People’s Choice Awards! And of course, that’s “revealing” courtesy of special guests Jeff Probst, Sofia Vergara, Cat Deeley, and Kris Allen. I’ll be tweeting from the event so stay tuned and you’ll know as soon as we know just who’s headed for January’s big show.

In regular TV news (as opposed to DWTS news –  it is Tuesday, after all), we have good news if you’re a fan of The Forgotten (that’s the new Christian Slater drama). It seems ABC hasn’t forgotten about this rookie show and they’ve gone ahead and ordered more episodes. Unfortunately, they didn’t grant the same wish for Eastwick, starring Rebecca Romijn, and so the future of that one looks pretty bleak. Now, on to Dancing With The Stars because the fact is, as our celebrity hoofer field gets thinner, the plot gets thicker. There are just 5 couples left,  and tonight one of them won’t exactly be kicking up their heels. Last night, Mya and Dmitry triumphed with 59 points out of 60 for their two dances. For that reason, we’re not going to put her in today’s poll as a possible vote-off.  But as we get down to the wire, who’s going home?  Now, voice your choice in today’s featured poll and let us know which one of these 4 couples you think will get booted off the show tonight.

1) Aaron & Karina

2) Donny & Kym

3) Joanna & Derek

4) Kelly & Louis

A ABC encomendou mais episódios de ‘The Forgotten’, drama criminal que exige às terças-feiras. Em contrapartida, desistiu oficialmente de ‘Eastwick’, decidindo não encomendar mais episódios do programa.

O procedural estrelado por Christian Slater é o mais forte das duas, ambos produções da Warner Bros TV. Apesar de não encomendar novos episódios, a ABC pretende exibir todos os 13 produzidos para ‘Eastwick’.

A la espera de que los de Fox se decidan a emitir más temporadas de “Último Aviso” (Burn Notice), el día 16 de noviembre estrena a las 21:30 horas “Sin Identificar” (The Forgotten), una serie de la factoría Jerry Bruckheimer (“Caso Abierto”, “CSI”, “Fiscal Chase”) protagonizada por Christian Slater que da vida a Alex Donovan, un policía al que secuestraron a su hija de 11 años y que nunca más supo de ella, y que lleva hasta la fecha ocho capítulos emitidos en Estados Unidos.

La serie trata sobre un grupo de detectives amateur que forman parte de una red llamada Forgotten Network en la versión original y que se dedican a buscar a poner nombres a personas que van a ser enterradas sin identificar.

Por su parte, el miércoles 18 a las 22:20 el canal estrena la sexta temporada de “Mujeres Desesperadas” (Desperate Housewives) que también lleva ocho capítulos emitidos en Estados Unidos. Nuevas tramas, nuevos vecinos, más secretos y la respuesta a la pregunta de “¿con quién se casa Mike”? es lo que nos espera.

Pasamos a AXN porque llega la segunda temporada de “Al Descubierto” (In Plain Sight), serie protagonizada por Mary McCormack (“El Ala Oeste”) el jueves 12 a las 22:30 horas.

Lestat and Louis share a late-night snack in "Interview with the Vampire".

(Neil Jordan, 1994)

November 4, 2009

by Joel Crary

Garlic and stakes through the heart are old wives’ tales. Coffins are an unfortunate necessity. “I actually like staring at crucifixes,” a man claiming to be a vampire tells a reporter in a modern apartment room somewhere in downtown San Franciso one night. Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) is there to set the record straight. Forget about that Dracula nonsense. He was the product of a drunken fool of an Irishman.

Breaking up sure is hard to do, especially if you’ve spent the last 200 years attempting to get over your first time. That is, essentially, what Neil Jordan’s “Interview with the Vampire” boils down to. For vampires as for virgins, their first time is a life-changing experience that can never be repeated, no matter how many times a night they are able to feed afterward. The movie’s homosexual undertones are not subtle; in fact, for a while there, the filmmakers make a pretty good argument for gay marriage.

The monkey wrench in that machinery is Claudia, played by a very young Kirsten Dunst, who effortlessly delivers the film’s strongest performance. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, who plays the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, are fine, capable actors, but they struck the completely wrong tone here. Cruise in particular looks almost embarrassingly made up in his role. Rarely is he able to break through the undeniably obvious fact that, underneath the blonde straggly wig and pale makeup, Lestat is simply Tom Cruise with sharper teeth.

Pitt is not much better, but at least he is somewhat believable as a lost soul. He is able to cast baleful, melancholy looks in spite of the demonic contacts that look impressive yet seem to go unnoticed by his myriad of victims over the years. As the film opens, Louis is still alive in modern times and enlists the aid of a reporter (Christian Slater) to tell his story, which is ultimately lacking in philosophical detail. Who spends 200 years alive and yet learns so little about how the world works?

To Louis’ credit, not many of the other vampires seem to have much of a clue about the grand scheme of things either. He is given eternal life after Lestat discovers him, distraught and suicidal over the death of his wife and children. The two live together for years in New Orleans, feasting on the occasional human sacrifice to sustain their health (understandably, Louis can’t immediately bring himself to kill humans, so he swigs back rat blood like spring water). Giving in to his hunger one night, Louis bites into an orphaned girl and Lestat takes pity on his conscience, lending her eternal life as well. And then there were three.

As 10-year-old Claudia, Dunst is viciously self-aware and merciless. She bears a grudge to Lestat for her inability to grow up and dispatches him with trickery. His body is dumped in a swamp, but it’s hard to keep a good vampire down, and Lestat returns with fiery results. Louis can’t help but feel a little guilty in the midst of all this, but he and Claudia decide it best to travel to France and leave America behind altogether.

In Paris, they discover a clan of vampires who disguise themselves by way of showmanship, calling themselves the Théâtre des Vampires and offering very real shows of sacrifices as entertainment to an unsuspecting public. Their leader is Armand (Antonio Banderas), who takes a shine to Louis’ still-human soul. He claims to be the oldest living vampire, but offers still little in the way of existentialist conclusions in the vampiric circle. Rumours about what Louis and Claudia have done to Lestat circle among the clan with a nasty bit of vampire-style torture involving sunlight, but we know that Louis survives and returns to America.

What are we to gather from his story? Louis is a man whose loneliness pushes him to make a desperate choice, only for that choice to make his life eternally desperate. He gains no pleasure from his lifestyle and continually seeks knowledge that no one can give him. He offers nothing of consequence to his interviewer and hence to us. He exists in a perpetual state of guilt and is constantly taken to task by Claudia’s reminders that he made her what she is. It’s easier for her to play the victim. She’s been 10 for a hundred years.

“Interview with the Vampire” has terrific sets, costumes and special effects and benefits from Neil Jordan’s grand vision of direction. It’s too bad that the story is so un-flashy. The performances and dialogue are so over the top in moments that the whole thing might have succeeded as camp, but it repeatedly returns to wallow in its own gulag of depressing themes. The script was written by Anne Rice and based on her novel. She shows no real handle on what could make her characters cinematic as opposed to purely literary. Louis has a gift of sorts, but he’s so mopey. Where’s the fun in eternal life if you spend every waking moment wishing you were dead?

Some of Sydey's many disguises in Alias

Before 2001, I had no idea who Michael Vartan, Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper were. I had no idea the terrific actor that is Victor Garber existed and that Ron Rifkin made such a great villain. In 2001 – before Lost- there was Alias. The connection between the two shows? The creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams. The two shows could not have been more different. Yes, both include mystery, some unexplained supernatural possibilities (Alias will remember “Rambaldi”) and lots of action. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Lost became the phenomenon that it still is. Sure it is captivating and all, but Alias had created an addiction in me that Lost didn’t. For those of you who never caught Alias, here’s the plot (although I should mention that the order we are given the story is more complicated & intriguing than my orderly version).

THE BACKGROUND

Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow

 

One mission when she's posing as an asylum patient, trying to gain the trust of an inmate

 

 

She is posing as an ecort to a fat,ugly baddie. She is going to make him sorry he ever looked.

 

 

Syd and Vaughn are on a mission together, posing as metal music lovers.

 

Of course as smart, gorgeous and dangerous as she is, Sydney is only human and taking all of the below very badly:

Arvin Sloan played by Ron Rifkin

Victor Garber playing Jack Bristow

Will and Francie played by Bradley Cooper and Merrin Dungey

Daniel Hecht played by Edward Atterton

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge is the second film in the Nightmare on Elm Street series of slasher films. It was released in 1985 by New Line Cinema. The film was directed by Jack Sholder.

Tagline:  The first name in terror returns…

Trivia:

• Special-effects man Rick Lazzarini created a “demonic parakeet” puppet for the scene in which the Walsh’s pet parakeet flies around and explodes. His puppet was not used because they wanted a regular-looking bird.
• This is the only film in the series not to use Charles Bernstein’s original theme, or a variation of it.
• In the opening sequence, the bus driver is Robert Englund without the heavy “Freddy Krueger” make-up and his signature clothing.
• Cameo: [Robert Shaye] the S&M bartender.
• Brad Pitt, John Stamos and Christian Slater all auditioned for the role of Jesse.
• The song “Touch Me,” which is being played in Jesse’s room, is an early (and slightly different) version of Cathy Dennis’s #2 hit from the early 1990s.
• Nightmare series creator Wes Craven refused to work on this film because he never wanted or intended A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) to become an ongoing franchise (and even wanted the first film to have a happy ending), and also because he didn’t like the idea of Freddy manipulating the protagonist into committing the murders.
• The running time for this film is 87 minutes, Freddy appears in just 13 of them.
• JoAnn Willette is one of the girls seated in the back of the school bus driven by Freddy at the beginning of the film. She would later go on to star in the ABC sitcom “Just the Ten of Us” (1988), a program which not only featured numerous references to the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, but also co-starred Heather Langenkamp (from the first, third, and seventh films) and Brooke Theiss (from the fourth film).
• The last film in the original “Nightmare” franchise in which Freddy’s house is the focal point of Freddy’s terror. In the rest of the series, Freddy’s terror revolves generally around Elm Street and the town of Springwood with the house occasionally making an appearance. In the hybrid film, “Freddy vs. Jason”, there was a reference in the film that Lori lived in Freddy’s house but the reference was cut from the theatrical release (but appears in the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD).

Cast
  Mark Patton … Jesse Walsh
  Kim Myers … Lisa Webber
  Robert Rusler … Ron Grady
  Clu Gulager … Ken Walsh
  Hope Lange … Cheryl Walsh
  Marshall Bell … Coach Schneider
  Melinda O. Fee … Mrs. Webber
  Thom McFadden … Mr. Webber
  Sydney Walsh … Kerry
  Robert Englund … Freddy Krueger

Amazon Specials!

True Romance
True Romance (1993) is an American romantic crime film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. It stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with an ensemble cast including Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore.
This is THE movie that put ALOT of people on the map.
Essentially the story goes as follows….Boy (christian slater) falls in love with a Call girl (Arquette) and after getting married the day after they meet,  he decides that he needs to confront (read; kill) her pimp played by Gary Oldman. He does this and steals, on accident, a grip of drugs and then after briefly meeting his old man a former cop (Hopper), he and his new wife flee to California. So the pimps big connect (Walken) follows the trail to his father the retired cop and tries to torture him for info, yet fails. However, they find out where the drugs went via shitty chance circumstance. So the newly married couple are in California and for various reasons are trying to sell the drugs to a rich movie director and it all goes south real quick when the Italians show up. A blood festival insues and guess who the only two are to escape? You got it….

This movie is amazing due to a few factors. The Talent. The Dialogue. The editing. It seems like Tony Scott got in and finger fiddled things a bet less than in other films and let the amazing crew he had just act. Very interesting.

Below I provide a video of one of, if not the coolest dialogues in movie history….watch and learn. This was in fact, the first film in which I started a LONG TERM love affair with Chris Walken and Dennis Hopper really really impresses (Dennis get well soon!!!!).

Below…just a bonus moment from the Film.

Desde pequena, sinto um certo fascínio por vampiros. Talvez pelo toque de erotismo, talvez pela áurea misteriosa que envolve suas vítimas, as crônicas vampirescas sempre me atraíram de uma forma sedutora. Na adolescência fui apresentada a Anne Rice através do livro “O Vampiro Lestat”, que no filme “Entrevista com o Vampiro” é preciosamente interpretado por Tom Cruise. A partir de então, só pude mergulhar mais e mais nesse universo de sangue, imortalidade e romance. Depois de ler e me aprofundar bastante, restou-me apenas as boas lembranças destes vampiros apaixonantes que nos envolvem numa trama bem elaborada e contada pelo belo Louis.

Elenco
Tom Cruise …. Lestat de Lioncourt
Brad Pitt …. Louis de Pointe du Lac
Antonio Banderas …. Armand
Stephen Rea …. Santiago
Christian Slater …. Daniel Malloy
Virginia McCollam …. Prostituta
Kirsten Dunst …. Claudia
Thandie Newton …. Yvette

Informações Técnicas
Título no Brasil:  Entrevista com o Vampiro
Título Original:  Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
País de Origem:  EUA
Gênero:  Suspense
Tempo de Duração: 122 minutos
Ano de Lançamento:  1994
Direção:  Neil Jordan
Qualidade: DVDRip AC3
Tamanho: 1100Mb
Midias: 01

DOWNLOAD DE TORRENT E LEGENDA

A young quartet of gangsters with Christian Slater and Patrick Dempsey, only in the film world can this happen.

The film focuses primarily on Luciano and Lansky as they rise from petty criminals and bootleggers to push aside the old guard of the Mafia and eventually establish The Commission, which set up the New York Mafia into five separate families. Bugsy Siegel (Richard Grieco) and Frank Costello (Costas Mandylor) control the physical elements of the operation, while Lucky Luciano (Christian Slater) and Meyer Lansky (Patrick Dempsey) bring up the business end.

This is basically every mafia movie cliche that you have ever seen in one film. There are obvious scenes that are just total rip-offs from The Godfather and Scarface, that after awhile I was just bored and would rather watch paint dry.

The historical inaccuracy of this movie is an insult. I don’t mind movies changing history for dramatic purposes when they are well-made. The movie doesn’t just embellish facts; it completely makes them up. Almost none of the events are portrayed as they actually happened, but even this would have been forgivable if the reinvented events were remotely plausible. Instead you get these fantastical “hero saves the day” action sequences that you would expect to see in a Steven Segal film. And for some inexplicable reason the movie changes the name of the famous gangster Maranzano to Faranzano, despite the fact that every other character’s name is accurate.

I didn’t quite care for these mobsters especially after the first 20 minutes where the film starts to glamorize the life of a mobster. In Goodfellas, at times they glamorized but also showed effects of being a mob member and there not pretty. In Mobsters they kill normal innocent people and were supposed to like them?

The plot is so complicated, that in order to kill this guy we have to get his trust and in order to get his trust we have to fake trying to kill him and if we protect him long enough we can kill him. This also goes basically throughout the whole film.

If there is any good thing about this film is that has to be Christian Slater who is very convincing in his role, and although he has a horrible script to play with he still tries to make the best of it, and does a fine job.

Consensus: The film felt more like a parody with a horrible script, obvious inaccuracies, and cliches beyond belief. A Mobster film for a younger audience but even they may find it boring.

1/10=SomeOleBullShiIIttt!!!!