One of the great things about having a kid is getting to watch with him or her all the favorite movies you had growing up (and I include in the notion of growing up the time period from birth to last week). Not only do you re-experience them yourself, but you get to see them through new eyes. Here's a few I've shown my own son over the past few years that have held up the best.
by Matthew Howe
One of the great things about having a kid is getting to watch with him or her all the favorite movies you had growing up (and I include in the notion of growing up the time period from birth to last week). Not only do you re-experience them yourself, but you get to see them through new eyes. Here's a few I've shown my own son over the past few years that have held up the best. by Matthew Howe Film shoots that go bad are often described as "pig fucks." In our case, however, there are literally pigs fucking. Day 4 of our 8 day feature-film shoot extravaganza is set at an upstate New York "hog farm." The "farm" is basically a hilly piece of land dotted with broken down trailers and trucks with 200 or so just-this-side-of-feral hogs roaming the land, eating all the greenery and getting it on whenever the urge strikes them, which based on eye-witness accounts is pretty much always. By Matthew Howe Walking into the theater to see Godzilla, a trailer was already playing on screen. As soon as I realized it was for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, I did what I always do during trailers for movies I'm excited about: I shut my eyes tight, stuck my fingers in my ears, and hummed loudly. (Call me crazy, but I like to know as little as possible about a movie before I see it). As you may have guessed, I'm a big fan of Nolan. Inception is one of my favorite summer blockbusters of all time (and yes, he's still in). Not only did The Dark Knight accomplish what I once felt was the impossible task of making a truly great Batman movie, it's also the best film ever made about the war on terror. Going back, though, we see Nolan, right from the start, has been making terrific movies. I'd like to take a look at three of them. by Matthew Howe I can't decide if Irwin Allen's 1978 The Swarm is the among the worst movies ever made, or among the greatest. At the very least, it is certainly the most accidentally (I hope) racist movie I've ever seen when watched through the PC lens of 2014. The entire cast is white, with the exception of one minor character of Latin-American descent and a few other minorities as deep, deep background extras. I'm pretty sure there's one line of dialogue delivered by an African-American, but I'd have to go back and check. This mob of A-list crackers struggle to overcome the menace du jour, in this case vast swarms of killer bees invading Texas. by Matthew Howe Dean Koontz is cursed. At least when it comes to film adaptations made from his many best-selling books. The guy has had a pretty hard run of it. Other than the excellent Demon Seed and a pretty well-reviewed French version of his novel Shattered, the movies based on Koontz's fiction have been pretty hit and miss. Mostly miss. If you don't believe me, then just try slogging through Servants of Twilight or Phantoms. I dares ya. by Matthew Howe I may get killed for this. I know there are several friends who may never speak to me again. Coming home to find red paint splashed on my front door is not out of the question if I go forward with this, but hell, the meek don’t inherit squat, so here goes. I hate Stanley Kubrick. by Matthew Howe An old school chum of mine calls to hire me for a job. She grew up in the upstate New York town of Goldens Bridge, a town just about to celebrate its 75th anniversary. They're marking the occasion with a massive party and want a video made to document the event for future generations. I don't know much about Goldens Bridge. I'd seen the name on signs as I drove by on the highway, and may even have passed through it once or twice. My memory tells me it's a quiet, simple sort of place of winding roads and neat little houses set on charming, wooded tracts. Goldens Bridge does boast one famous citizen, Oscar winning actress Marisa Tomei grew up there. She will, I am told, be attending the party. Which is cool. But not that cool because I have a standing policy about not getting excited about working with celebrities. (The only time I've ever violated this was when I did a shoot with Matt Stone and Trey Parker. But that's a tale for another day). by Matthew Howe So bad it's good is a real phenomenon. There are films out there that are so unspeakably terrible they somehow phase shift into entertainment. I was a material participant in one myself, 1998's Airboss (a movie so crappy that for the next few years it was used as the standard for bad at international film markets where buyers would often ask "this isn't as bad as Airboss, is it?") Yet the few Americans who saw it strangely loved it. One guy even told me it was his favorite film; he'd watched it twenty times. No, he didn't think it was good. He knew it was bad, but he loved it because it was bad. By William John Experiment 626 (which may, or may not be Stitch's real name) is an event embarked on by the I'm With Geek Film Team. Film knowledge was unearthed, truths were found and a DVD exchange took place. These are the true life stories from that experiment... To William from Matthew Upon William I bestow 12 Monkeys! Why did I pick this for William? These are the films he chose as among his favorites: Serenity, Rear Window, The Dark Knight, Back to the Future, The Shawshank Redemption, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Frequency. Based on his preferences, I see he likes dark, he like science fiction, (but thoughtful science fiction), and he has two movies on his list that feature time travel (plus he's also a fan of The Time Traveler's Wife, so that's three). by Matthew Howe Having worked on reality TV shows as well as infomercials, I know that dishonesty is a constant in the entertainment industry. (In fact, I'm always struck how Hollywood types, who wallow in one of the most back-stabbing, dishonest, unethical and truly sleazy businesses this side of jail-bait porn, produce an endless stream of PSAs telling the rest of us how to live our lives.) |
FilmWriter of the Month
FeaturesFilm News -
Keep up to speed with the latest news from the world of cinema Must See Movies - A list of independent films we are looking forward too! Movie Monologues - Paul Costello counts down the best speeches in cinematic history every Thursday. Movies In Motion - Jo Johnstone explores the world of stop-motion animation from adverts to features every last Friday of the month. Experiment 626 - Our writers exchanged DVDs and here are the results We'll Fix it in Post - Graham Osborne gives us the run down on how certain movies could be improved. The Horror Vault - The dark side of cinema You May Have Missed - Movies that passed you by. From The Trenches - Matthew Howe delights with stories from the front line! Hidden Heroes - Celebrating those incredible people often in the shadows of cinema Terribrill - So bad they are actually good! Straight On Till Morning - Leah looks at the impact of childhood films Monthly Musical Moment - Taking a look at the best soundtracks and music moments Film FriendsCategories
All
Archives
July 2015
|