Phantasm: Ravager: A grand finale for the franchise?

Phantasm: Ravager began to roll out in limited theatrical release this weekend. As I reported for Variety last month from Fantastic Fest:

"It’s kinda-sorta like an Alain Resnais movie, only with zombie dwarfs. And four-barrel shotguns. And, of course, floating, blade-bedecked silver spheres. Phantasm: Ravager — the fifth and purportedly final installment in the cult-favorite franchise launched in 1979 with writer-director Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm — most assuredly is the surreal thing, a time-tripping, dimension-hopping whirligig that suggests Last Year at Marienbad (or, better still, Resnais’ Je t’aime, je t’aime) reconstituted as the fever dream of a horror-fantasy aficionado. 

"Anyone unfamiliar with its predecessors in the on-again, off-again series (which includes two direct-to-video sequels) won’t be able to make heads or tails of what transpires here. Indeed, even dedicated Phantasm fanatics may be hard-pressed to discern anything resembling a unifying narrative thread. But the latter group — the film’s target audience — likely will be willing to eschew coherence for the opportunity to savor this chaotic reprise of familiar characters and concepts in the cinematic equivalent of a greatest hits album."

You can read the rest of my review here.

R.I.P.: Marcin Wrona (1973-2015)

Just a few days after his third feature, Demon, had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Polish filmmaker Marcin Wrona died -- at the ridiculously young age of 42 -- Friday. I reviewed his film in Toronto for Variety, and while it was, I admit, a mixed review, Wrona liked it enough to blurb part of it in a Tweet. (Yes, the same quote that appears in his Variety obit.) You can judge the supernatural drama for yourself this week if you're attending Fantastic Fest in Austin. But I must admit: I am not thinking of the film right now so much as the fact that man who made it... well, as I said, was only 42 when he passed away. In other words, young enough to be my son.

Do not ask for whom the bell tolls... 

#VARIETY: Joe Leydon @joeleydon Marcin Wrona’s “Demon” enthralls as an atmospheric ghost story with a undercurrent of absurdist humor.

— MarcinWrona (@marcinwrona_t) September 14, 2015

Fantastic Fest 2015: Bone Tomahawk rides the first wave

Kurt Russell battles cannibalistic troglodytes in the Wild West.

Hmmm. This sounds like a scenario fit for... Fantastic Fest.

And sure enough: Bone Tomahawk, S. Craig Zahler's long-awaited horror Western, has been announced as the closing night attraction for the 2015 edition of Fantastic Fest, the bountifully stocked cinematic smorgasbord that immodestly but accurately bills itself as “the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world.”

This year's event takes place Sept. 24 through Oct. 1 in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

Also known as The Geek Telluride, Fantastic Fest takes pride in bringing out the stars as well as amping up the weird. Which explains why festival founder Tim League is hard-pressed to constrain his excitement when announcing that both the director and the ensemble cast of Bone Tomahawk will descend upon Austin for the world premiere. "Bringing Kurt Russell back to the Alamo is something we've been trying to do for a long time," said League. "And to do it with Bone Tomahawk, a quintessential Fantastic Fest film, means we're in for one hell of a closer. Huge thanks to Caliber Media for making it all happen."

So what's it all about? According to the official Fantastic Fest plot synopsis: "Kurt Russell stars in this character-driven and at times horrific Western about a group of men (including Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins) who set out to rescue a local woman and a young deputy who’ve been kidnapped by a tribe of cannibalistic troglodytes."

Cowabunga. 
 
Bone Tomahawk was just one of the titles included Wednesday in Fanatastic Fest's "first wave" announcement of its 2015 lineup. You can read the full announcement here.

Guess the North Koreans didn't see the Red Dawn remake

In the wake of the (alleged) North Korean hacking of Sony Pictures -- a crime (allegedly) triggered by a fictional assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Sony's upcoming The Interview -- one thing seems certain: The folks who made and released the Red Dawn remake must be very, very happy right now that their film flew so low under the radar.

As I noted in Variety when reviewing the remake at Fantastic Fest in 2012:

China was depicted as the aggressor when this Red Dawn was shot in 2009. But after MGM, its original distributor, declared bankruptcy, the producers opted to make the pic more appealing to other distribs (particularly those wary of offending Chinese government officials) by re-filming scenes, relooping dialogue and digitally altering flags and military insignia to transform the bad guys into war-mongering North Koreans.

Thank goodness the North Koreans didn't know about that. At least, I think they didn't know about it. I mean, the fact that the remake premiered in Austin... that wouldn't have anything to do with Austin being on North Korea's must-nuke list, would it?

BTW: I guess the North Koreans didn't see Olympus Has Fallen, either.

Machete is back, and Fantastic Fest has got him!

It's official: Machete Kills, Robert Rodriguez's cult-ready sequel to his exuberantly over-the-top Machete (2010) -- will have its world premiere as the opening-night attraction Sept. 19 at Fantastic Fest in Austin.

And Tim League, creative director and co-founder of the world's wildest genre-movie extravaganza, wants you to know that this is a pretty damn big deal.

"Every year we compile our dream targets for opening night film," League says. This year, "Machete Kills was at the top of that list. We are going to pull out all the stops to ensure Robert's world premiere red carpet experience is literally blood red."

The lovely and talented Danny Trejo returns as Machete, a former Mexican Federale turned free-lance ass-kicker, and he's re-joined by Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba, who also appeared in the original 2010 flick. Newcomers to the budding franchise include Antonio Banderas, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Lady Gaga, Demián Bichir, Alexa Vega, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding Jr., William Sadler, Mel Gibson -- yes, that Mel Gibson -- and promising newcomer Carlos Estevez as the President of the United States.

The plot has something to with... with... aw, hell, just take a look at the freakin' title, for crying out loud. And if that doesn't tell you enough, take a gander at this trailer.

Fantastic Fest: "It is a celebration of geekdom at its geekiest"

Produced for public television station KLRU of Austin, All My Friends Are Vampires is a way-cool overview of the phantasmagorical frenzy that is Fantastic Fest, the world's wildest genre-movie exposition. I'm on screen to offer pithy commentary at the 11:30 and 15:00 marks (and off-screen, but still heard, at around 24:10). But, hey, you owe it to yourself -- and to director Mario Troncoso -- to savor the whole dang thing.

Live from Fantastic Fest: It's Red Dawn

And guess what? The long-delayed remake doesn't suck. Seriously. You can read my Variety review here.

Take 2: More Fantastic Fest coming attractions

Those wild and crazy guys at Fantastic Fest have announced another batch of titles they’ve confirmed for the Sept. 20-27 edition of their annual genre-movie extravaganza in Austin. Among the most attention-grabbing, complete with official FF12 plot synopses:

SINISTER -- A frightening new thriller about a true crime novelist (Ethan Hawke) who discovers a box of mysterious, disturbing home movies that plunge his family into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror. 

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING -- Surviving Unisols Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) battle anarchy to build a new order ruled by Unisols without government oversight. To accomplish this, they weed out the weak and constantly test their strongest warriors in brutal, life-and-death combat. (Lundgren and co-star Scott Adkins will be on hand for the FF12 premiere.)
 
LOOPER -- In this futuristic action thriller, time travel will be invented - but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a “looper” -- a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) -- is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good -- until the day the mob decides to “close the loop,” sending back Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. (Gordon-Levitt and writer director Rian Johnson will be on hand for the FF12 premiere.)

HERE COMES THE DEVIL -- Fantastic Fest veteran Adrián García Bogliano (Penumbra) returns – really, he’s actually going to be there in Austin -- with his latest supernatural horror. When two children who went missing while exploring a cave are found, it quickly becomes apparent something evil has come home with them.

But wait – there’s more. And you can read all about it here.

Killer sushi? Zombie outbreaks? Violent vigilantes? Must be time for Fantastic Fest

The eighth edition of Fantastic Fest -- the world's wildest genre-movie extravaganza -- is set for Sept. 20-27 in Austin, arguably the only place on the planet weird enough to handle its spectacular excess. And judging from Monday’s announcement of the first titles confirmed for the FF2012 schedule, I'd say festivalgoers are in for the usual smorgasbord of heavy artillery, sexual perversity, edgy sci-fi, scantily clad cuties, flesh-eating zombies and unrestrained ultra-violence.

But wait, there’s more: This year’s line-up also features eccentric animation, with the previously announced opening-night presentation of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, and vicious vigilantism, with the gala premiere of Peter Travis’ Dredd 3D.

For the benefit of those who tuned in late: The latter is an R-rated adaptation of the John Wagner/Carlos Ezquerra comic strip set in a futuristic society where relentless supercops like the eponymous Dredd (played by Karl Urban) serve as judges, juries – and instant executioners. You may recall there was an earlier attempt to bring this source material to the screen. You may also remember that it didn’t turn out too well. This one is supposed to be better. Or, at the very least, bloodier.

Among the other intriguing titles in this first wave of FF2012 offerings:

COCKNEYS VS. ZOMBIES -- When a badly planned bank robbery and a zombie outbreak collide, hilarity allegedly ensues in this  British comedy starring Michelle Ryan (star of the ill-fated Bionic Woman reboot) and Lee Asquith-Coe (soon to be seen in the direct-to-video Strippers vs. Werewolves – you think I’m making that up, don’t you? – and Kathryn Bigelow’s  Zero Dark Thirty).

DEAD SUSHI -- Japanese splatter-action comedy is served up raw when director Noboru Iguchi and karate girl Rina Takeda join forces to take on flying killer sushi monsters.

I DECLARE WAR – Here’s the inside skinny from the Fantastic Fest press office: “A group of exceptionally creative teens gets sucked into their own private Lord of the Flies scenario when an after-school game of ‘war’ turns into a test of loyalty, strategy and friendship.” Sounds like more fun than a Dungeons & Dragons tournament. And – gasp! – it’s from Canada.

ROOM 237 – Rodney Ascher’s provocative documentary examines bizarre theories about subtext and symbolism that can be found – if you look really, really hard – in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (which, not incidentally, also will be screened at FF2012).

SECRET CEREMONY – A textbook example of the jaw-dropping weirdness that often resulted back in the late 1960s and early ‘70s when Hollywood studios briefly indulged maverick auteurs by bankrolling eccentric (and, occasionally, incomprehensible) “art films.” In this case, the maverick was the late Joseph Losey (The Servant, Modesty Blaise), and the plot has something to do with a middle-aged prostitute (Elizabeth Taylor – yes, that Elizabeth Taylor) who’s despondent over the drowning death of her daughter, a disturbed young woman (Mia Farrow) in desperate need of a mother figure, and a creepy stepfather (Robert Mitchum) who does his damnedest to facilitate an unhappy ending. If you’ve ever seen this 1968 psychodrama on broadcast TV, you may be in for a few surprises, and no little befuddlement, if you catch it as part of FF2012’s “House of Psychotic Women” sidebar: Like many Universal Pictures releases of its time, it was trimmed of salacious content, and supplemented with newly shot footage (intended to “explain” the confusing goings-on) before being unleashed on unsuspecting viewers. Presumably, FF2012 will be screening the original version exhibited – fleetingly – in theaters.    

WRONG – French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux’s follow-up to his 2010 thriller Rubber – a.k.a, “The Killer Tire Movie” – is described as an “absurdist opus” about an everyman who goes to extremes when he awakens one morning to find his beloved dog is missing. Early reports indicate that homicidal wheels do not figure into the plot of this one.

YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME – From South Korean filmmaker Oh Young Doo, director of FF2011 offering Invasion of Alien Bikini, we get a time-travel confection involving sex shops, robot hands and Hawaiian shirts. In short, something for everyone.

Another weekend, another film festival

Yeah, I know: I haven't completed all my reviews of films I saw at the Toronto Film Festival. And I'm already about 2 or 3 weeks behind on postings for my Take 59 project. But here I am in Austin this weekend for Fantastic Fest because... because... because I'm just a ramblin' kind of guy.

Fantastic Fest: It's baaaaaack!

The seventh edition of Fantastic Fest -- the world's wildest genre-movie extravaganza -- is set for Sept. 22-29 in Austin, Texas, the only place on the planet weird enough to handle its spectacular excess. Judging from today's announcement of the first 20 titles confirmed for the FF2011 schedule, I'd say festivalgoers are in for the usual smorgasbord of heavy artillery, sexual perversity, edgy sci-fi, scantily clad cuties, flesh-eating zombies and unrestrained ultra-violence. Still no word yet, however, on whether creative director and co-founder Tim League will be getting back into the ring with anyone.

Fantastic Fest: The main event

While most folks aound these parts obsess over Sunday’s Texans-Cowboys football matchup, my weekend plans call for a road trip to Austin and a total immersion in Fantastic Fest, the bountifully stocked cinematic smorgasbord that immodestly but accurately bills itself as “the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world.”

The 2010 edition of what Variety has dubbed “the geek Telluride” actually kicked off Thursday night with red carpet premieres (complete with stars and filmmaker in attendance) of Matt Reeves’ Let Me In, the Americanized remake of Tomas Alfredsen’s Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In, and Rodrigo Cortés’ Buried, an acclaimed claustrophobic thriller starring Ryan Reynolds as a kidnapped businessman who’s been, well, buried alive. And Friday night’s main attraction is the regional premiere of Stone, with director John Curran and star Edward Norton on hand at downtown Austin’s Paramount Theatre to introduce their twisty neo-noir drama about a hardened convict (Norton), his sexy girlfriend (Milla Jovovich) – and a cynical prison counselor (Robert De Niro) they may or may not manage to manipulate.

But even though I won’t be able to make the scene until Saturday, I know there’s still plenty more promising stuff on tap. I’m especially eager to see Heartless, Philip Ridley’s dark fantasy (shown above) about a disfigured photographer (Jim Sturgess of 21 and Across the Universe) with a personal grudge against demons who haunt the streets of his bleak neighborhood; The Dead, an enthusiastically hyped, British-produced zombie thriller from sibling filmmakers Howard and Jonathan Ford that, evidently, has nothing whatsoever to do with the classic James Joyce novella of the same title; and – yes, I’m not ashamed to admit it! – Hatchet 2, writer-director Adam Green’s eagerly awaited sequel to his gleefully retro 2007 slasher horror flick about a deformed bogeyman who haunts the swamps near my hometown of New Orleans.

As it turns out, however, the hottest ticket at Fantastic Fest 2010 may be an off-screen attraction. And no, I’m not talking about the festival-sponsored gatherings at various firing ranges where festivalgoers can shoot everything from pistols to shotguns to AK-47’s. (Though I have to admit – all of that sounds pretty dang fantastic to me.)

Late Sunday at the South Austin Boxing Gym – so late, in fact, that it’ll really be Monday when things get started – Alamo Daft House founder and Fantastic Fest director Tim League will join actress Michelle Rodriguez in a “Fantastic Debate” over the issue of whether Avatar (in which Rodriguez was prominently featured) should have won this year’s Oscar for Best Picture. Rodriguez, not surprisingly, will take the positive position. League, who appears to have developed a death wish of some sort, will take the negative position.

During the first part of the program, they will engage in a relatively calm and reasoned exchange of ideas. And then they’ll step into the ring, and slug it out.

It should be noted that Rodriguez – who made her movie breakthrough back in 2000 as the star of Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight – is a professionally trained boxer. It should also be noted that League is not.

When I caught up with League a couple days ago, he was on his way to the South Austin Boxing Gym for his last training session. He didn’t sound much like a man who expected to score a stunning upset. He did sound like he expected to be, ahem, stunned.

“I have already watched Girlfight,” League said, “and I am genuinely terrified, since I’m going to be insulting her movie in the debate.” He cautioned that members of the ringside audience – particularly those in the journalism profession – might want to keep their own critical comments to themselves: “I've also been watching You Tube clips where she has shown that she can fly off the handle and get pissed with reporters who insult her.”

Which reminds me: Have I ever mentioned how much I liked Girlfight? And how much I really, really liked Avatar?

Fantastic Fest preview: Machete Maidens Unleashed!

From Mark Hartley, the Melbourne maverick who unleashed Not Quite Hollywood, the explosive expose of B-movies from Down Under, we now have Machete Maidens Unleashed! – the inside story of babes behind bars, blaxploitation bloodletting, kung-fu ass-kicking, and mutant monsters making mayhem in the wild, wild East. Hartley, an Aussie doumentarian with an avid appreciation for disreputable genre movies, will again please connoisseurs of sleazy cinema with his latest effort, a richly bemused and slickly produced overview of lurid schlock inexpensively shot in The Philippines between the 1960s and ‘80s.

As the title indicates, Machete Maidens -- which has its world premiere last week at the Toronto Film Festival, and screens this week at Fantastic Fest in Austin -- devotes a huge amount of running time to those memorbaly lurid '70s action-adventures (many of them produced by schlockmeister Roger Corman) involving scantily clad (or entirely unclothed) women in prison. A few vets of these robustly campy exploitation flicks insist  Black Mama, White Mama (co-written by, no kidding, a young Jonathan Demme), The Big Bird Cage and similar fare had at least a smidgen of socially redeeming merit, in that they empowered women as action heroes, and often involved revolutionary movements against oppressive dictatorships. (Ironically, the pronounced left-wing lean of these B-movies never was acknowledged, much less censored, by Philippine government officials -- even after President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in The Philippines in 1972.) But filmmaker John Landis, who serves as a hectoring commentator throughout the documentary, sarcastically rejects such readings. When apologists read deeper meaning into the likes of  The Hot Box and Caged Heat, Landis cracks, “I say, ‘What are they smoking?’” And director Joe Dante, who got his start making trailers for Corman movies of this era, breezily dismisses them as formulaic guilty pleasures, impure and simple. His mock sales pitch: “If you like the title Women in Cages, you’re going to like this movie. Because what’s it got? Women in cages!”

You can read my full Varierty review of Machete Maidens Unleashed! here. If you dare.

Live from Austin: The Office Space 10th anniversary celebration

Gazing at the capacity crowd that turned out Sunday evening for a special 10th-anniversary screening of Office Space at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, writer-director Mike Judge couldn’t help noting: “I think there are more people here tonight than went to see the movie during its opening weekend ten years ago.”

Maybe so. The movie was considered a box-office under-achiever back in 1999 – which, at the time, was no small embarrassment for me. Don’t get me wrong: I’m sure Judge and his amazing ensemble cast were pretty bummed out by the bad news, too. But, hey, I was the one who had boldly predicted in my original Variety review that Judge’s sharply satirical comedy about cubicle-bound wage slaves would be nothing less an instant cult-fave phenomenon, one that would inspire “a new trend: Friday happy-hour get-togethers topped off with visits to multiplexes for repeat viewings of Office Space.”

Actually, it took quite a bit longer than a single opening weekend for Office Space to gain the recognition and attract the avid following it so richly deserves. But as I noted while shamelessly pestering Judge at a pre-screening reception: I wasn’t so far off the mark, was I?

“Actually,” Judge replied, “I’ve heard that Office Space is the movie most often requested for office parties at the Alamo Draft House here in Austin. The employees get to pick whatever movie they want. And I guess there’s a certain amount of tension when their bosses see the film, but that’s what they want.

“So I guess,” he added, looking at me with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge grin, “that makes you the Nostradamus of film critics.”

I’m sure he was just being polite – but, hey, I take my strokes where I can find them.

Meanwhile, back at the Paramount: Several members of the original Office Space cast joined Judge on stage to take questions from the wildly enthusiastic audience. One sharp-eyed fan – someone who’d clearly seen the movie several times before – asked John McGinley, the Scrubs star who plays efficiency expert Bob Slydell, why the actor wore his wristwatch “not like most people do” in the movie. McGinley, clearly amused by the query, responded earnestly: “I wore my watch facing toward my body because my father was a paratrooper. And they wear their watches like that, so they won’t reflect ambient light during their decent. So I wore my watch that way as a kind of tribute to him.” No kidding.

Ron Livingston, the top-billed star of Office Space, couldn’t make it to the 10th-anniversary screening. (Neither could Livingston’s leading lady, some obscure actress last seen appearing topless on the cover of a men’s magazine.) But Judge made a special point of explaining why he cast Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a young computer programmer stuck in a stifling and spirit-killing job at an Austin-based company: “A lot of people who read for the part read it like someone who thought they deserved better. Ron read it like someone who really didn’t think he deserved better – and it bummed him out even more.”

Gary Cole received full-throated cheers from the Paramount audience as an exuberant tribute to his iconic performance as the smarmy and self-absorbed Bill Lumbergh -- a.k.a., The Boss from Hell. McGinley admitted that he, too, had auditioned for the part. But he learned of Judge’s final choice, he had no complaints. “When I got out of NYU in ’84,” McGinley recalled, “the Steppenwolf Theatre Company had just arrived from Chicago, and was turning New York upside down. And it was during this time that I saw Gary Cole do things on stage that just blew me away. So when I found out that he was the one they cast as Lumbergh, and I was going to be cast as Bob, I thought, ‘Well, yeah. Jesus got the role of Lumbergh. That’s OK. I’ll fuckin’ play the part of Bob.’” Smart move.

No WiFi? No problem!

I'm very proud to announce that when I couldn't get my WiFi working in Austin last night, I didn't throw a fit, or threaten to go home, or sink into a black pit of despair. Rather, I simply attended the festivities for the 10th anniversary of Office Space, then drove back to my motel, opened a bottle of Merlot, watched a couple of episodes of Frasier, then went to bed. A fun evening, all in all.

Happy anniversary to Office Space

Can it really already be ten years since Office Space first entered our collective pop-culture consciousness? Gosh, it seems like only yesterday when I fearlessly forecast in Variety a new trend: "Friday happy-hour get-togethers topped off with visits to multiplexes for repeat viewings" of writer-director Mike Judge's uproarious satirical comedy about white-collar wage-slavery...

Well, OK, I was bit off the mark way back then. But never mind: Even though it was a box-office under-achiever during its initial theatrical release, Office Space has remained enduringly popular as a top-selling DVD and cult-fave cable-TV offering. And now, to celebrate its tenth anniversary, this contemporary classic is returning to the scene of the crime -- i.e., Austin, Texas, where it was filmed -- for a special one-time-only screening event Feb. 8 at the city's historic Paramount Theatre. Co-sponsored by SXSW and Fantastic Fest, the shindig -- tied to the Feb. 3 Blu-Ray release of Office Space -- will include special appearances by Judge and yet-to-be-announced members of the cast and crew. You can order advance tickets here or here. And you can get updated info on the screening here. But please keep in mind: If you attend, don't you dare touch anybody else's stapler. At least, not unless they ask you to.