More Films (from a Snow Day Last Month)
"Cruel Intentions 3"
starring: Kerr Smith, Kristina Anapau, Nathan Wetherington, Meliss Yvonne Lewis, Natalie Ramey, Tom Parker, Charlie Weber, Alex Donnelly
written by: Rhett Reese
directed by: Scott Ziehl
I know what you're thinking... wait, they made a third movie?!! This is a trilogy?! And, why did I watch it?! Well, I felt a need to see how they "wrapped up" this franchise after such a successful original and the disastrous sequel. This one starring Kerr Smith, who is perhaps mostly remembered for playing the gay teenager on "Dawson's Creek," no, that's just me that remembers him from that show? I'm not ashamed to say I loved Dawson's Creek.
It's a new year at the exclusive Santa Barbara College which means Cassidy Merteuil (Kristina Anapau) and Jason Argyle (Kerr Smith) are back along with Jason's new roommate Patrick Bates (Nathan Wetherington). All three have one thing in common, they like sleeping with people but enjoy the chase, the act of luring and tricking their prey in to sleeping with them more than the act of sex itself. It is how Cassidy ends up betting them both in to trying to seduce two friends one who is in a committed relationship the other who is engaged to a boy back home. But things escalate with both Jason and Patrick vying over Cassidy. Question is, is everything as it seems?
Where the first film succeeded was giving each character enough of a backstory and depth into who they were as "evil" persons, this film (and the sequel) definitely failed. There's absolutely no depth to these characters and all we really know is that they are capable of being conniving and seducing through a variety of tricks, persuasion, and blackmail (if need be). It's all about reliving a sense of ennui with the rich lifestyles they've been silver-spooned into their whole existence and thus preying on the lesser teens.
Was this third installment necessary? Absolutely not. I mean, it was made way back in 2004. Is it a travesty? Not really, as much as I hate to admit it.
...............................................................
"Hot Bot"
starring: Zack Pearlman, Doug Haley, Cynthia Kirchner, David Shackelford, Anthony Anderson, Donal Faison, Danny Masterson, Larry Miller, Angela Kinsey, Kirby Bliss Blanton
written by: Mark and Michael Polish
directed by: Michael Polish
Do you remember the film "Weird Science?" Did you like it? Want to remember the 80s? Go watch that one. Do not, however, watch this pathetic attempt to sort of update that story with futuristic technology in the form of a robotic sex doll, stolen by two horny, virgin teenage boys.
This is an example of bad, bad filmmaking all around. The acting is terrible and the big names in the film, I'm left shaking my head and asking "what were you thinking, taking on this 2016 tragedy?!?"
This is a very amateurish film with pathetic attempts at teenage boy humor that just falls fault every time. Do not waste your time.
.................................................................
"Detropia"
directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
I watched "Jesus Camp" and enjoyed, with frustration the story presented by the filmmakers, and their next documentary "Detropia" has been sitting in my Netflix queue for honestly years. I finally took to watching it.
It's an interesting film to watch after the major bank crisis and housing market crash and bailouts, etc. as well as the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs overseas throughout the better half of this 21st century, which can perhaps ultimately be given the blame for Detroit becoming such a forgotten, desolate metropolis. Once the heart of the car-making industry, it has been left an empty shell of a major city, rot with poverty and crime.
Via beautiful cinematography, the film wanders the city, contrasting a new automaker's towers with abandoned hotels, derelict theaters, ruined houses and people walking through the snow down the middle of streets because there's no traffic. Such shots are intercut with performances by the Michigan Opera Theatre, which clings to life with the support of the Big Three car companies.
Watch this if you don't mind being depressed for awhile afterwards.
................................................................
"Black Butterfly"
starring: Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Piper Perabo, Katie McGovern, Craig Peritz, Abel Ferrara, Natalie Rapti Gomez
written by: Justin Stanley and Marc Frydman
directed by: Brian Goodman
If you like Stephen King novels that involve writers struggling internally and externally (re: writer's block) and yet have an unstoppable imagination which conjures up some bad stuff, then you might enjoy this film; or it might piss you off as it comes off as slight plagiarism.
Brian Goodman’s Stephen King-like Black Butterfly unfolds a lot like those first-semester freshman compositions. It’s as though writers Marc Frydman and Justin Stanley had seen the thrillers based on King’s books — specifically Misery, The Shining and 1408 — and set out to paraphrase them as they tell the story of a blocked alcoholic writer in the woods who picks up a hitchhiker, only to be held captive until he can finish his next screenplay. Sounds familiar, right?
The beginning picks up some steam by riffing on King’s work almost verbatim: Antonio Banderas plays writer Paul, whom we see in the first frames staring at a typewriter, the sentence “I am stuck” inked over and over on the paper — an easy echo of The Shining’s “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Paul is trying to sell his house for quick cash because he can’t sell a book. When hitchhiker Jack (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) — yes, there’s an unhinged character named Jack — defends Paul from a riled-up truck driver in a diner, Paul brings the drifter home with him, trading some food and shelter for Jack’s handyman skills to make the place more presentable to buyers. Meanwhile, news of a serial killer stalking the area blasts on every TV and radio in sight.
Everything sounds like a decent setup with potential for twists and turns and fun with the characters, but it falls quite flat, perhaps because King is a masterful writer and adds a hint of humor to each of his deeply flawed characters. There is no humor here, though. The filmmakers go straight for the dark and don't really make any other turns.
Antonio Banderas had great potential to become a Stephen King character within this story, but his screenwriters failed him as he just comes across as a cheap knockoff. And, who would go for that when we have plenty to pick from with movie adaptations of the real thing.
starring: Kerr Smith, Kristina Anapau, Nathan Wetherington, Meliss Yvonne Lewis, Natalie Ramey, Tom Parker, Charlie Weber, Alex Donnelly
written by: Rhett Reese
directed by: Scott Ziehl
I know what you're thinking... wait, they made a third movie?!! This is a trilogy?! And, why did I watch it?! Well, I felt a need to see how they "wrapped up" this franchise after such a successful original and the disastrous sequel. This one starring Kerr Smith, who is perhaps mostly remembered for playing the gay teenager on "Dawson's Creek," no, that's just me that remembers him from that show? I'm not ashamed to say I loved Dawson's Creek.
It's a new year at the exclusive Santa Barbara College which means Cassidy Merteuil (Kristina Anapau) and Jason Argyle (Kerr Smith) are back along with Jason's new roommate Patrick Bates (Nathan Wetherington). All three have one thing in common, they like sleeping with people but enjoy the chase, the act of luring and tricking their prey in to sleeping with them more than the act of sex itself. It is how Cassidy ends up betting them both in to trying to seduce two friends one who is in a committed relationship the other who is engaged to a boy back home. But things escalate with both Jason and Patrick vying over Cassidy. Question is, is everything as it seems?
Where the first film succeeded was giving each character enough of a backstory and depth into who they were as "evil" persons, this film (and the sequel) definitely failed. There's absolutely no depth to these characters and all we really know is that they are capable of being conniving and seducing through a variety of tricks, persuasion, and blackmail (if need be). It's all about reliving a sense of ennui with the rich lifestyles they've been silver-spooned into their whole existence and thus preying on the lesser teens.
Was this third installment necessary? Absolutely not. I mean, it was made way back in 2004. Is it a travesty? Not really, as much as I hate to admit it.
...............................................................
"Hot Bot"
starring: Zack Pearlman, Doug Haley, Cynthia Kirchner, David Shackelford, Anthony Anderson, Donal Faison, Danny Masterson, Larry Miller, Angela Kinsey, Kirby Bliss Blanton
written by: Mark and Michael Polish
directed by: Michael Polish
Do you remember the film "Weird Science?" Did you like it? Want to remember the 80s? Go watch that one. Do not, however, watch this pathetic attempt to sort of update that story with futuristic technology in the form of a robotic sex doll, stolen by two horny, virgin teenage boys.
This is an example of bad, bad filmmaking all around. The acting is terrible and the big names in the film, I'm left shaking my head and asking "what were you thinking, taking on this 2016 tragedy?!?"
This is a very amateurish film with pathetic attempts at teenage boy humor that just falls fault every time. Do not waste your time.
.................................................................
"Detropia"
directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
I watched "Jesus Camp" and enjoyed, with frustration the story presented by the filmmakers, and their next documentary "Detropia" has been sitting in my Netflix queue for honestly years. I finally took to watching it.
It's an interesting film to watch after the major bank crisis and housing market crash and bailouts, etc. as well as the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs overseas throughout the better half of this 21st century, which can perhaps ultimately be given the blame for Detroit becoming such a forgotten, desolate metropolis. Once the heart of the car-making industry, it has been left an empty shell of a major city, rot with poverty and crime.
Via beautiful cinematography, the film wanders the city, contrasting a new automaker's towers with abandoned hotels, derelict theaters, ruined houses and people walking through the snow down the middle of streets because there's no traffic. Such shots are intercut with performances by the Michigan Opera Theatre, which clings to life with the support of the Big Three car companies.
We follow the last days of the local union at American Axle, as the members turn down a contract that would not allow a living wage, and the company closes. The film's co-directors, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, observe that the inner city has seen a modest population growth because of young people taking advantage of bargain rents. We meet one such couple, who assemble a long table in an urban wasteland and sit at it while wearing golden steampunk gas masks. Their goofiness makes a contrast to the bleak cityscape behind them.
Throughout the film, there are glimpses of the golden days, of sleek new models and glamorous car ads. Stevens takes the camera on a long drive past where the main Cadillac plant once thrived. "We built everything," he said. "In the war, they switched over to bombers. Everything." He is driving past a barren landscape.
Watch this if you don't mind being depressed for awhile afterwards.
................................................................
"Black Butterfly"
starring: Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Piper Perabo, Katie McGovern, Craig Peritz, Abel Ferrara, Natalie Rapti Gomez
written by: Justin Stanley and Marc Frydman
directed by: Brian Goodman
If you like Stephen King novels that involve writers struggling internally and externally (re: writer's block) and yet have an unstoppable imagination which conjures up some bad stuff, then you might enjoy this film; or it might piss you off as it comes off as slight plagiarism.
Brian Goodman’s Stephen King-like Black Butterfly unfolds a lot like those first-semester freshman compositions. It’s as though writers Marc Frydman and Justin Stanley had seen the thrillers based on King’s books — specifically Misery, The Shining and 1408 — and set out to paraphrase them as they tell the story of a blocked alcoholic writer in the woods who picks up a hitchhiker, only to be held captive until he can finish his next screenplay. Sounds familiar, right?
The beginning picks up some steam by riffing on King’s work almost verbatim: Antonio Banderas plays writer Paul, whom we see in the first frames staring at a typewriter, the sentence “I am stuck” inked over and over on the paper — an easy echo of The Shining’s “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Paul is trying to sell his house for quick cash because he can’t sell a book. When hitchhiker Jack (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) — yes, there’s an unhinged character named Jack — defends Paul from a riled-up truck driver in a diner, Paul brings the drifter home with him, trading some food and shelter for Jack’s handyman skills to make the place more presentable to buyers. Meanwhile, news of a serial killer stalking the area blasts on every TV and radio in sight.
Everything sounds like a decent setup with potential for twists and turns and fun with the characters, but it falls quite flat, perhaps because King is a masterful writer and adds a hint of humor to each of his deeply flawed characters. There is no humor here, though. The filmmakers go straight for the dark and don't really make any other turns.
Antonio Banderas had great potential to become a Stephen King character within this story, but his screenwriters failed him as he just comes across as a cheap knockoff. And, who would go for that when we have plenty to pick from with movie adaptations of the real thing.
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