Interview With The Vampire

Time to warm up for Abigail this Friday and I'll tell you now, never have I ever seen this movie all the way through.

Now I have seen bits, once upon a time as a youngin' channel surfing deep in the night and coming across some hey hey material which was...interesting to discover that's what is between a woman's legs but uhh, boy I put myself in a position just now. Movie sign!! Interview With The (not A) Vampire came out in a fairly popular decade for the genre in the 90s, recounting the life or erm, unlife of Louis who has been soaking up the nights from 1791 to the then present day of 1994 as he divulges major events of his existence. How he was made a vampire by a real sociopathic bloodsucker named Lestat, their differing opinions on hunting, a young girl named Claudia is thrown into the mix, and Louis seeks answers about his own kind. It's truly a novel story that does engage you and it was a bit of a shock to learn this was just the first book in a series of 12 novels by Anne Rice, and it seems she was quite pleased with the finished product. I have to agree, the sets and costumes alone are incredible wearing the period piece cinema style on it's sleeve for the vast majority of the runtime, the acting is good, the effects by Stan Winston though not in your face or bombastic are unique and pretty cool, you can tell this movie had a significant budget and used it wisely. I know people could make fun of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Antonio Banderas as nosferatus but in all seriousness they treat the material seriously and do convey emotion. Yet even I will admit the movie gets melodramatic at points, Louis is a very broody vampire having an existential/morality crisis, he wishes to feed on animals rather than humans no doubt setting the precedent for Stephanie Meyers years down the road, it's a whole thing but Brad does decent work. I still hold true to the fact that the older he gets the better acting he gives. Now it is kinda weird seeing Tom as this regally dressed, morally bankrupt, beast of the night and the whole relationship between Lestat and Louis easily can be seen as straight up husbands especially when Claudia is in the fray, but if the author herself signs off on the performance I'll take it. Kirsten Dunst as the bloodlusting chomper Claudia is a solid performance from her at just 11 years of age, she has big moments to sell the horror and rage at what she has been transformed into and I bought it, she has an arc to her and changes up the dynamic while still being her own character. I will not speak badly of Antonio Banderas, firstly because he did fine work and second I don't want Guillermo to throw shade at me, but I was taken aback how little screen presence he has really not until the 3rd act so it was short but decent. Fair and due props for two elements: the first being I like how the movie balances both classic and modern, it really sells that old world feeling while coming back to more contemporary periods. Second it kinda put back the horror into vampirism, it is ridiculously easy to potray it as more romantic and sexy than scary but it confronts that yeah it seems like those ladies are riding the orgasmatron ride when bitten but then it turns to blood and screams and it's disturbing! It really is fucked up! It shows that lives are being taken, and I just haven't seen that barely at all in these types of films. Even just a smidge of introspection in a vampire movie? Practically unheard of. So I applaud the movie on those two fronts strongly. I know it's one of the corner stones of this dark and blood soaked phenom which even in and of itself has layers to the mythos and powers of vampires, and while it's no grand film it's certainly a very good one. I'd give it a solid 3 stars, 7/10! What new spore of monstrosity will the ballerina vampire unleash? I will let you know!

The Wizard

Oh man I rolled out of my seat I was laughing so hard at that Power Glove scene!

I gotta admit there is a bit more to this movie than a feature length Nintendo commercial as some people claim. The Wizard is a good movie, very dated, very commercial, and yet at the same time actually has a really good story and characters. The story follows a young boy named Jimmy who has been traumatized by the death of his sister and sent to an institution, where his young brother breaks him out and they make a quest to California, where they meet a young girl and discover Jimmy is ridiculously good at video games. So the gang comes up with a plan to put Jimmy in a video game tournament while making their trek to Jimmy's true destination. The first thing I gotta tell you guys is these kids are awesome, you spend enough time with them to get to know them and see them as real people, they have baggage, they have history even though they are very young. True, they sometimes act more like adults than the actual adults but it's essentially a kids movie so I can forgive that. I don't know, I was just in a good mood watching this movie! It was a big deal when this movie came out, Nintendo was on top of the world with a massive dedicated fanbase, and the unveiling of a certain new game at the end needless to say made people lose their minds. The film has some cheese to it, but I would be lying to say it isn't fun. Hell, the villain of the movie has lived beyond all these years with the immortal line which causes head shakes and guffaws aplenty, "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad...". Sweet Jesus. And one thing I especially noticed is how much of a time capsule this is. The NES came out in 1985, this movie came out in 1989 still during it's golden years but not only the Nintendo fever that was being felt, but also the movie throws in this big chase through a Universal Studios amusement park so that adds another layer of that specific time. You can almost look at it from a philosophical view. Optimists would say it's cool seeing a part of the world in that particular time, whereas pessimists would say it's heavily dated and hurts the film in years to come. I am an optimist in this case, to see a world so heavily seeped in video games and to also see just as simple a thing as an amusement park is really neat to me. And even I have to admit the final scene does in fact choke me up a bit, which just goes to show how well the characters and relationships were built. It's a really good movie and one I would definitely recommend to younger kids, maybe it could get them into older video games or video games in general! It's a good family movie, and I do see merit in what others brush off as a long commercial. If you have the time or interest you should give it a watch, I don't think you will be disappointed. Plus I'll give you a buck if you ever dialed up the Nintendo tip hotline and probably racked your parent's phone bill up sky high!

Heathers

Huh. Well that was interesting.

Now trust me, I get it. I get the message, the characters, and the story. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Yes, very much! I feel the movie is more in the vein of say, American Psycho in terms of humor, story elements, and characters. I feel American Psycho did it way better, but there were many parts of this movie that I really enjoyed. Basic story follows a girl named Veronica, she's in the popular girl group at high school where you guessed correctly, they are all insufferable, miserable, bordering sociopathic bitches. Veronica flat out hates being with them, why does she hang out with them? I don't know. Is it like an abused spouse just coming back for more? Beats me. But one days she meets this guy, JD he's a bit of a lone wolf, bit odd, and pretty much just says, "Hey you wanna kill all the popular kids?" and Veronica's all, "Yeah sure." so they do that in hopes of making their school a better place. Do they succeed? Short answer, no. Long answer, watch the movie. Onto the good stuff! I loved the feel of the movie, it's very offbeat, with dark humor, blunt characters (albeit very stereotyped but that is the film's intention), and just plain odd circumstances. I know exactly how the film was supposed to be potrayed and was potrayed, I greatly appreciate the message at the end and find it downright genius, and the whole subjugation and analysis of teenage culture, specifically high school groups is correct. But I feel it works mainly in the 80s. High schools have changed significantly, not every kid wants to be the popular kid, in fact while there are still those groups, you got your popular kids, your geeky kids, your punk rock rebels, whatever, most kids while part of groups still do their own thing. It's like they grew a brain stem and just said, "Hey I'm gonna be me. Screw you guys.". And that's awesome! I was in high school not that long ago, I remember this stuff. But again, the film is satirizing and without a doubt putting these stereotypes on steroids, I get the point. I really do. I can see why the movie has a cult fanbase. But not everyone is going to like it. If you watched and enjoyed a movie like American Psycho, Heathers is more or less likely to be up your alley. I can only recommend the movie if your taste in movies slides that way or if you really love absurdist satirical works of cultures. It's not a bad movie! Winona Ryder is a very good lead, you understand her situation and why she does these things, the film does not glorify the murders of schoolmates and shows that it does have consequences, Christian Slater really was made for this part, but again you have to be in the right mindset and have the correct....I guess taste in movies for you to get it. If not you're probably just going to wonder why you spent nearly 2 hours of your life watching this. I understand the movie, it's fans, and the satire. But I do not love this movie, though I do think it is a very good movie.