Lightning Film Recollections

STOKER visually gives the illusion that the plotting is more sophisticated than it really is, but I still liked it. PAIN & GAIN and THE COUNSELOR are Hollywood talents just running f***ing unchecked - the former at least tried to be funny whereas the latter just went on & on with speeches that bored the s*** out of me (normal people don't talk like that?). GODZILLA CGI fights looked great but everything people related was wasted. WE ARE WHAT WE ARE portends to do something interesting with vampires but doesn't at all (but OMG I barely recognized Kelly Mcgillis). I struggled to get through INSIDIOUS 2 which didn't surprise me. 

#gnetx #sse

Beowulf (2007)

Beowulf: Give him a gold piece and send him home. He has a story to tell.

#gnetx #sse

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/quotes?item=qt0367965

Beowulf (2007)

Beowulf: I am Ripper... Tearer... Slasher... Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength... and Lust... and Power! I AM BEOWULF!

#gnetx #sse

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/quotes?item=qt0367946

Lighting Film Reviews

BOURNE LEGACY: alotta "who gives a s***," lame showdown. YOUNG DET DEE: too much matter-of-fact fantasy for a detective plot. OLD BOY: not horrible but misses the mark of the original by a long shot. OUTRAGE BEYOND: not as good as the 1st but entertaining. GRAVITY: simple story, great tension encapsulated in stunning shots. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS: palpable tension that makes you feel the final outcome was truly tragic. #gnetx #sse

Early Bird

That moment when you first wake up, where your mind is the closest thing to a blank slate as can be, is seriously the best time to get some writing done. This is before you get into reading any news headlines, calls, e-mails, tweets, and/or photos as these can influence your creative mood in unpredictable directions. #gnetx #sse

Not nearly as Crood as I thought

Wow, I really enjoyed THE CROODS - thought the animation was fantastic. I had my doubts about the plotting in the beginning but Nick Cage is so damn enjoyable. Though FROZEN's music is memorable, THE CROODS is far better cinema by far. #skyguy76 #sse #gnetx

Breaking Bad

Ok, yeah it was worth the wait. Very well executed - neither understated or completely bat-shit insane. Just the right amount of what the series does best. #fb

Breaking Bad: The Final Season

www.amazon.com

It all ends with a bang! In the final episodes, Emmyr winners Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul bring the saga of Breaking Bad to a bloody conclusion in their roles as meth kingpin Walter White and his...

Chushingura

Paying my respects at the temple where the 47 Ronin (忠臣蔵) commit ritual suicide after assasinating the untouchable man that dishonored their master. Sorry, I couldn't find Keanu Reave's grave. #fb #twit

Kabukicho

After some talk about Japanese mafia in Hiroshima, I was again compelled to check out the Kabukicho scene on Shinjuku. Some scary old lady was nice enough to warn me about getting ripped off while at the same time selling me on "a good time." Yeesh! #fb #twit

Post Script

Alright, let the journey begin! #gnetx #sse

Post Script

itunes.apple.com

Read a sample or download Post Script by David Chien & Patrick Wang with iBooks.

The World's End

I feel the THE WORLD'S END was the ultimate maturation of the Cornetto Trilogy, mostly for the characters and the actors that played them. I liked SHAWN OF THE DEAD but was never crazy about it because I was tuned into more serious zombie fare. HOT FUZZ had more of that something special going for it with many layers of plot and twists on expectations. But it still didn't hit it home for me. But watching THE WORLD'S END, I thorough enjoyed following Simon Pegg and Nick Frost with all their baggage and as if they finally made sense to me. The plot wasn't nearly as sophisticated and the humor wasn't nearly as zany but it all gelled for me to the bitter end. It did remind me of THIS IS THE END but with less d*** references and with a little more sincerity - I really liked both movies. #sse #gnetx

The World's End (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD with UltraViolet)

www.amazon.com

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reteam with director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) in this wildly entertaining thrill ride that critics call “funny as hell” (Richard Roeper, WLS-AM Chicago) and “sheer comic perfection” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).  Twent...

5 Star Movies - Part 1

According to my Netflix ratings, these are films that I rated as 5 out of 5 stars. Granted a 5 star movie to me is usually a 4 star film that I happen to see at the right time and right place - where the film hit a distinct chord in me or marked a pivotal moment in my memories. And I never claim to have a particularly refined taste in film but I do know what I like. There are still many films yet to be added to this list - many good films in my 4 star list waiting to be promoted to 5 stars.

Ran - Epic Kurosawa. Bloody, haunting, tragic. It may be a slow burn but the totality of this film is of a time lost to Japan (in history and in film).

Quigley Down Under - What? A Tom Selleck movie in my favorite films of all time? Yes but there's also the venerable Alan Rickman as a villain as good if not equal to his Hans Gruber in DIE HARD. And it's a Western (in Australia) with one of the best showdown endings.

Spirited Away - A world building that is so uniquely Japanese and so uniquely Miyazaki, with many parallels to how we as humans are impacting our home world. And a touching coming-of-age story that only Miyazaki can tell.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - The best of the Indy Jones movies. As campy as it can get, the action, the plotting, the adventure is Spielberg in top form. A toy box of socio-political action figures in worldy-fictional set pieces - so much fun.

Blood Simple - This was my intro to the Coen Bros but more importantly as I studied the Coens I was introduced to hard boiled novelist Dashiell Hammett. Both have shaped me as a filmmaker and this film is a prime example of what you can do on the indie level with just a talented cast, a film camera, and a finely tuned, high-tension script.

#gnetx #sse

Kurosawa Night!! Free Japanese Cinema Screening

Kurosawa Night! Wednesday, February 12@ 7:00PM. Venue: The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, Auditorium (5700 Wilshire Blvd. #100, Los Angeles, CA 90036). Admission: Free. Reservation is not required. 

#gnetx #sse #skyguy76

Death in the snow brings life to a movie

So a student of mine informed me that a script concept I had been developing was adapted to the feature film KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER starring Rinko Kikuchi which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The story is of a young Japanese woman that was convinced that the buried money in the Coen Bros film FARGO was somehow still buried in the snows of Minnesota since the film was "based on a true story" (the Coen Bros later admitted it was not). As the urban legend goes this woman (her actual name was Takako Konishi) traveled to the US and encountered the local police while wandering in the cold. Having difficulty communicating with the authorities, she was left to go on her way but then was later found dead - supposedly she froze to death while looking for the FARGO money. But later it was discovered that, as reported by Paul Berczeller in his article "Death in the Snow," Takako was actually searching for an estranged American lover she had met in Japan and that her death was actually a suicide - a letter mailed to her parents in Japan was later discovered. It's a truly fascinating and tragic legend/story with such great dramatic possibilities. My version was not a direct adaptation and I'm focusing less on the treasure hunting aspect and more on the love story. So despite this other film beating me to adapting the story, my version is still viable as it doesn't even involve Minnesota/North Dakota or the snow or FARGO for that matter. But I am curious as to how these filmmaker interpreted the subject matter. I highly recommend reading Paul Berczeller's article in the Guardian - his presentation of fact and fiction is what makes the story film-worthy. #gnetx #sse

Death in the snow

www.theguardian.com

A body is found in the frozen North Dakota woods. The cops say the dead Japanese woman was looking for the $1m she saw buried in the film Fargo. But the story didn't end there. By Paul Berczeller.








'Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter' at Sundance 2014
A chat with the star and writer/director/producers of 'Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter'.

You're... Stupid

I really don't understand the praise for the horror film YOU'RE NEXT - I just thought it was flat out stupid as hell. Granted I had expectations so with every "off" performance I thought, oh that character's suspicious - nope, it was just bad acting and writing. With every oddly pre-rigged method of killing I thought, oh these killers are either super smart or this is some preordained death game - nope, in fact the killers reveal themselves to be a bunch of pretards and the eventual plot twist is so mundane and is ultimately so predictable. I've heard comparisons to CABIN IN THE WOODS and "turning the genre on its head" - what in the hell are these people smoking? It's more like this film deliberately throws up random acts of violence to confuse and then devolves horror expectations (in a mundane and ordinary direction - not a clever or even amusingly ridiculous direction) and then is smug with calling itself original.

I hate to bash this film too much because some of the cinematography, practical effects, and lead actress performance are noteworthy. But the film as it reveals itself is so aggravatingly... stupid. Maybe you'll like this film if you're truly fatigued by contemporary horror films that require a lot anticipatory brain work with clever misdirection and a satisfying realization. This film ain't any of that.

Again, if you want to see a good contemporary home-invasion horror film check out THE STRANGERS. Well executed, so much more in-the-moment and dramatic, so much more creepy and chilling - you feel the emotional torture of the characters without the filmmaker desperately trying to hinge everything on a face-smack plot twist. #gnetx #sse

  

  

The Long Play Filmmmaker

Once every year for 12 years of production in a boy and the other actors' lives. Linklater is an incredibly patient long-play filmmaker. #fb #gnetx #sse

He sees flashes of his 'Boyhood' screen at Sundance to rave reviews

www.latimes.com

Ellar Coltrane, 19, began his starring role in Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood' at age 7, filming a little each year with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette and growing with his character.

Writing rituals and habits

So I was listening to an interview with writer/director Peter Berg and he mentioned a writing habit where he writes in the morning as soon as he wakes up. He just wakes up and jumps into writing before doing anything else like checking e-mails or checking day's news or anything that might distract him. And it dawned on me that that's usually when I'm the most productive. After a good night's sleep and waking up before the kid or the wife, if I go straight into writing without looking at Facebook or Twitter I tend to be quite productive. So I tried it this morning and bam! I was on a roll. I only afforded myself maybe 1.5 hours but it was still a pretty decent session of pounding the keys.

Writers are notoriously ritualistic and even superstitious when it comes to writing and how they approach writing, but it's really no different than an athlete that has a lucky jersey or number or method. It's all about being in the right state of mind in the moment - triggering your "A" game on a consistent basis. Just like when I watch a movie, if I'm not in the mood to watch a certain genre, that film just may not appeal to me regardless of how good it actually is. But if all the right conditions align, even a crappy movie can be the time of my life. It's all about replicating those right conditions for weeks and months while I write a feature script. It's not easy but there is a method to the madness and that method is about being ritualistic. 

The Investigator vs the Op

The inherent problem with Sherlock is that you can't really relate to him in all his intellect and prowess. 

But the Hammett detective is the every-man with an ugly mug and bad disposition to match. He is solitary but dedicated to his code with the Continental Op. He's smart but not by education - he's earned his intuition to duck after being hit in the head one too many times.

Red Harvest

www.amazon.com

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

Sherlock: Season One [Blu-ray] 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$27.49 

Sherlock: Season Two [Blu-ray] 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$27.23  

Sherlock: Season Three (Blu-ray) 
Benedict Cumberbatch
$32.99 

Action and Dialog

Sometimes I have to separate the writing of action and dialog in order to find my flow. Action is all visual to me, as if I'm blocking a scene on set and replacing dialog with "blah, blah, blah" so that I'm not hung up on words. But when I write dialog it's ALL about the word choices. I'm constantly reevaluating which words work best for a given situation, or how many times I've used a word in a scene, or what words a specific character would use based on his/her background. So my drafts can sometimes be long paragraphs of action descriptions with very little dialog or long exchanges of dialog with little to no descriptions. I then go back and insert the missing component whether it's action or dialog. This method helps me identify the right tone and pace, and sometimes allows me to vomit words onto a page then sort things out later.

#fbpro

Separation of studio and critic

Critic Armond White mentions how many critics feel they are part of the movie industry when they are/should not - they are journalists. 

I should add that when I am critical of a film there is some notion that I am broadcasting a report to friends but that is secondary to my examination of what I personally like/dislike as both an audience member and a filmmaker. It is all in developing my own personal taste and style so that I can direct my own creative decisions with conviction. #blog