What's up, loyal readers? Hope you enjoyed my E3 recap -- last week was a crazy week, and I'm glad I finally got the chance to write down some of my thoughts on the show. Better late than never, as they say. But even as I was furiously typing away about E3, I was neglecting my usual movie and TV reviews and all the other wow-that's-cool stuff that you've come to expect from my All-New, All-Awesome Adventures. Well, the healing process begins now, people. The rest of this week I'll be playing a bit of catch-up, but you can rest assured that from here on in, the reviews will be coming fast and furious.
- But before I get to any movie reviews, I've got to talk about an event that I was privelaged to attend last week, that being a live studio taping of INSIDE THE ACTOR'S STUDIO.
Yes, Inside the Actor's Studio, the show that made James Lipton into a pop-culture icon. Through work, I was able to snag a couple of tickets to a rare LA-based taping of the typically NYC-based show, and seeing as how the guest was none other than comedy-king JUDD APATOW ... well, there was no way I could pass this up.
The taping, it turned out, was an almost FOUR HOUR LONG epic adventure into the most inner sanctums of Mr. Apatow's mind. By the end of the taping, I felt like I had just emerged from a deep and dark journey into a strange land. Suffice it to say, James Lipton was in rare form, asking absolutely insane questions with such straight-faced seriousness that you couldn't help but burst out laughing. James Lipton freaking rules, and is one of the most (unintentionally?) hilarious people I've ever heard speak. It's tempting to call him pretentious, but I do think that beneath the air of mock-pretentiousness, Mr. Lipton does sort of address his audience and his guest with a knowing wink. Basically, if you think about it, Lipton is in some ways the ultimate Fanboy. I mean, this guy takes art VERY seriously, and he's not afraid to gush about Leslie Mann's comedic performance in The 40 Year Old Virgin as if she were Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull. One minute, Lipton might say something strangely brilliant and profound about the art of comedy or cinema. The next, he is recalling the first film he ever viewed in which he remembers seeing on-screen vomit. Awesome.
Aside from Lipton's craziness though, the taping provided an extremely fascinating look at the life and career of Judd Apatow. As a comedy afficionado, I was hanging on every word, as Apatow talked about everything from his early childhood in Long Island to his career as a stand-up comedian to Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared to Knocked Up and Superbad. As I've stated many times here on the blog, Freaks & Geeks is to me at or near the absolute top of my all-time favorite anything list, and it's one of the shows, alongside stuff like The Simpsons and The X-Files, that made me stand up and say "hey, I want to make this stuff!". So yeah, hearing Judd talk about the show and its legacy was pretty darn cool.
Anyways, just wanted to share. I'm not sure when this episode of Actor's Studio will air, but I presume it will be sometime in the near future as it obviously somewhat promotes Apatow's latest flick, FUNNY PEOPLE, which I believe drops later this summer. Gravitas, baby.
ALRIGHT ... It's high time I review some movies. So without further ado, a look at Sam Raimi's latest, a movie that you should all RUN to your local theater to see while it's still playing ...
DRAG ME TO HELL Review:
- Welcome back, Sam Raimi. Oh yeah, it's true, Fanboys ... Sam Raimi is back, and his return can only be described with the following exclamation: "Hail to the King, baby." Yep, the Sam Raimi who was a geek god hath returned, and I am willing, ALMOST willing, to overlook the suckfest that was Spiderman 3 in light of this latest kickass horror-comedy extravaganza. Because Drag Me To Hell is not just some johnny-come-lately run-of-the-mill horror movie. Nope, this is the kind of flick they don't make much of anymore. I mean, it's PG-13 for god's sake. But this ain't no watered-down J-horror, folks. Drag Me To Hell is the true spiritual successor to THE EVIL DEAD. I know, I know, I can already hear the purists protesting at their keyboards. But even if Drag Me To Hell doesn't supplant Evil Dead II on your all-time best list, there's no denying that it channels the same manic energy, the same twisted humor, and the same star-making types of performances that made the Evil Dead series bonafide cult classics. So please, don't wait for this one to come out on DVD. Go to a theater. Send a message with your dollars. See this one *with an audience*, and ensure that Sam Raimi will make more of the movies he loves. I mean, look, I still want a big-budget Evil Dead 4 with Bruce Campbell in all his big-chinned, chainsawed-out glory ... but this is no mere pretender. No, Drag Me to Hell is a legit Sam Raimi horror movie. And if that means nothing to you, well ... time to turn in your film-fan cred, because this is an evil roller-coaster ride that will drag you from heavenly highs to the fiery depths of hell itself. Strap in.
Part of what I love about Drag Me to Hell is that, while it has a ton of scary, jump-out-of-your-seat type moments, it also has that great, creepy atmosphere that you don't get a lot of anymore in horror flicks. In fact, its macabre cast of characters and dark morality play of a story harken back to things like old EC Comics, Tales From The Crypt, The Twilight Zone, etc. What I mean is, the story is simple, memorable, and effective ... and at the same time the movie positively bleeds tension and atmosphere. But don't worry, it's also bugnuts INSANE, in the grand tradition of Evil Dead. Raimi brings his trademark techniques to his latest film, with lots of POV camera zooms and dips and dives, and action that is predictably off-the-chain crazy. Some of the scenes of over-the-top violence and gruesomness are so jaw-droppingly unbelievable that you'll be squirming in your seat and yelling "holy $#%&!" even as you laugh uncontrollably at the sheer absurdity of what you're witnessing.
It helps that the cast is uniformly great. I mean, this is a starmaking turn for Alison Lohman, who turns in an absolutely awesome performance that is a perfect fit for what Raimi is going for. She has a perfect sense of line delivery that is almost on par with Bruce Campbell's, in that she says all of Sami's great one-liners with just the right amount of hammy vigor, all the while playing things perfectly straight. It really is an iconic performance, and rarely has an onscreen transformation from shy and innocent girl-next-door to undead-stomping-riot-grrrl been handled so well or so entertainingly.
The rest of the cast is pretty good, though really they are just window dressing, as this is Lohman's movie. Justin Long does a nice job as her blissfully clueless boyfriend, and I was also happy to see Reggie Lee, who was so great as a villain on Prison Break, appear here as Lohman's similarly smarmy, ladder-climbing co-worker. Plus, a lot of the side character are just really great, from the uber-creepy old gypsy woman who puts the fateful curse on Lohman's character to the enigmatic psychic who tries to help her remove it. Like I said, the whole movie has that great old-school horror / supernatural feel to it. It's like someone took the very spirit of Halloween and bottled it up and made this movie.
In any case, after being one of many twenty-somethings who discovered Sam Raimi and Evil Dead after the fact via DVD and midnight movie screenings in college, it was a real joy to finally see a new Sam Raimi horror-comedy on the big screen with a large and enthusiastic audience. Drag Me to Hell isn't perfect - some of the later action scenes don't quite live up to the first big parking-lot brawl, and sometimes it does feel like the movie relies a bit too much on those turn-up-the-volume-and-scare-ya' type of moments. But as a purely fun movie experience, THIS, to me, is THE popcorn movie of the summer so far. Star Trek is this summer's reigning blockbuster champion, but Drag Me to Hell is the movie that has full command over its audience, the movie that will have you gripping your seat in tension, hanging on every twist, rolling in laughter, looking away in horror, and smiling ear to ear. Drag Me to Hell is, to put it simply, one hell of a horror movie.
My Grade: A-
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