Tag Archives: filmmaking
Vids I Dig 380: The Critical Drinker: ‘Men in Black: International’ – A Waste of Time
From The Critical Drinker’s YouTube description: So I missed this one at the cinema (lucky me), but I guess it’s time to review another failed attempt to restart an old franchise. Join me as I explore the failure of Men in Black International.
Book Review: ‘The Secrets of Writing: How to Write Great Fiction’ by James Hudnall
This book was recommended to me by a friend on Twitter who knew that I was currently working on a comic book script. The author, James Hudnall, also has a pretty invaluable YouTube page with a lot of solid advice on it, as well.
That being said, even though I’ve been a writer my entire life and have published four books, I’m always down with learning new techniques and new approaches from others.
Hudnall, who has had a ton of experience writing in multiple mediums gives some good, solid pointers on how to create better works in regards to fiction.
For me, even though I’ve always written fiction, it’s the one area where I’ve had the most trouble, as I’ve found it difficult ending stories in the right way. I can build worlds, create good characters and send them off on adventures but in the realm of wrapping things up, I’ve always had some difficulty.
I can write non-fiction all damn day, though. Hell, I can pump out ten-to-twenty reviews daily if I have to. Granted, they’d wane in quality but writing a mass amount of content has never been the issue for me.
Hudnall’s book really helped and I’m glad that I read it after finishing the first draft of my current comic book project. It’s allowed for me to go through the draft and pinpoint areas that need some improvement.
For those that want to write fiction or that feel the need to get better at it, this is a pretty cool book to read and it just may help.
Rating: 8.5/10
Documentary Review: Scream, Queen!: My Nightmare On Elm Street (2019)
Release Date: April 5th, 2019 (Cleveland International Film Festival)
Directed by: Roman Chimienti, Tyler Jensen
Written by: Michael Beard, Clint Catalyst, Leo Herrera, Justin Lockwood
Music by: Alexander Taylor
Cast: Mark Patton, Robert Englund, Jack Sholder, David Chaskin, Robert Rusler, Marshall Bell, Kim Myers, Clu Gulager, JoAnn Willette, Linnea Quigley
The End Productions, 99 Minutes
Review:
I was pretty excited to check this out when I first saw the trailer pop up. I’m a big fan of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise and I was probably one of the few that actually liked the second movie, before everyone else figured out how “gay” it was.
Granted, I kind of saw the film’s gay subtext for myself and despite this documentary claiming that the gay innuendo was widely known when this came out, I don’t recall many people talking about it until the late ’90s or so. Then again, I was also a young kid and didn’t reach my teen years until the ’90s, so maybe my peers were a bit behind in picking up on the cues.
Anyway, I actually thought that this was just sort of meh. I wouldn’t call this documentary a disappointment but it just didn’t live up to the hype around it and to my own excitement after first hearing about it.
I guess the thing I liked most about it was that I finally got to see what became of Mark Patton, who sort of fell off the face of the Earth for a long time because of what he perceived as backlash from this picture and because he felt that it somewhat exposed him as being gay in a time when there was still a lot of misinformation and fear of AIDS, as well as a lot of homophobia in mainstream Hollywood.
Most importantly, this really goes into Patton’s personal life, showing the viewer what hardships he went through during and after this film. I don’t want to give too much away, as this is worth watching for those who also love the Elm Street movies.
It was also cool seeing the cast of the second Elm Street movie finally reunite after all these years. It’s obvious that Patton’s cast mates cared for him and had missed him during his self-imposed exile from the business.
Overall, this was a decent piece on the man and his life but I wish it would’ve gotten more into the movie itself and actually tried to show it more as a somewhat beloved film by a small minority of Elm Street fans. It was the most bizarre and weird of the Elm Street pictures and that’s without looking at the subliminal homophobia that was written into the script.
Rating: 6.25/10
Pairs well with: other recent horror movie documentaries.
Vids I Dig 370: The Critical Drinker: ‘Ghostbusters’ 2016: It’s As Bad As I Remember
From The Critical Drinker’s YouTube description: For all the terrible movies I’ve reviewed in my time, there’s one that’s escaped my critical eye until now. Grab the strongest booze you’ve got and join me as I review Ghostbusters 2016.
Documentary Review: 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story (2017)
Release Date: September 20th, 2017
Directed by: Jeff Zapata, Joe Simko
Music by: Dr. Chud, Matthew Chojnacki
Cast: Art Spiegelman, John Pound, Tom Bunk, James Warhola, Adam F. Goldberg, Mackenzie Astin, various
Peel Here Productions, 114 Minutes
Review:
This has been in my queue for a long time but it was only available to buy. They recently set it for rent, so I was finally able to check it out. No offense, filmmakers and Amazon but I didn’t know if I wanted to spend like $12 on it. A few bucks for a rental, now that’s more like it. Make everything rentable.
Anyway, I was happy to see this, as I was one of those ’80s kids that spent a good few years obsessed with Garbage Pail Kids, even though they became hard to track down in my area after local parents groups caught on and got them pulled out of stores. You know, the same parents that didn’t care that their kids in the ’80s were watching slasher movies from the video store or flipping through dad’s Playboys.
I pretty much already knew the story about Garbage Pail Kids but it was neat seeing the story retold in an official documentary. Plus, this also gave some background on the creation of the Topps trading card company, as well as a lot of the other non-sports cards they produced before Garbage Pail Kids came along.
My favorite thing about this, though, was where it went into the art side of things. It went through how the Garbage Pail Kids came to be, every step of the way. It also explained the process and the reason why they made each set a certain size and the process in how cards were selected based off of dozens of concepts.
Additionally, this interviews a lot of the key people involved, including the primary artists who worked on these over the years.
After that, I really liked the section about the live-action Garbage Pail Kids movie and being enlightened as to why it was such a terrible film, pretty much destined to fail.
All in all, this was a beefy and informative piece about something I once loved and kind of still do.
Rating: 7.5/10
Pairs well with: other documentaries about niche ’80s and ’90s stuff, as well as specific fandoms.
Vids I Dig 346: The Critical Drinker: Kathleen Kennedy “Saves” ‘Star Wars’ (Again)
From The Critical Drinker’s YouTube description: So I was delighted to learn that a new female-centric Star Wars TV show, written by Leslye Headland) is in the works. Let’s find out more.
Vids I Dig 338: Filmento: ‘At World’s End’: How to Build the Perfect Action Sequence
From Filmento’s YouTube description: With Birds of Prey Harley Quinn failing at being an impostor Jack Sparrow, let’s travel back in time to take a look at the real Captain Jack Sparrow, this time in the trilogy conclusion, At World’s End. While this movie might not be the most flawless movie overall, when it comes to the maelstrom ship battle action sequence at the very end with the Black Pearl going against the Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones, it does shine bright. Not only is it a great action set-piece, it’s one of the greatest action set-pieces of all time. In today’s Film Perfection, let’s see what narrative elements it uses to make that happen. For a brief moment, let’s return to a better time when Johnny Depp was still Captain Jack Sparrow and things were great. Here’s hoping for one more, Pirates of the Caribbean 6 with him.
Vids I Dig 335: Razörfist: Rageaholic Cinema: The ‘Dirty Harry’ Film Series (In 5 Parts)
From The Rageaholic/Razörfist’s YouTube description (DIRTY HARRY): Let’s get dirty.
From The Rageaholic/Razörfist’s YouTube description (DIRTY HARRY 2 – Magnum Force): The greatest action film of the ’70s gets a sequel… …does it EVER get a sequel!
From The Rageaholic/Razörfist’s YouTube description (DIRTY HARRY 3 – The Enforcer): Dirty Harry meets feminism. RUN.
From The Rageaholic/Razörfist’s YouTube description (DIRTY HARRY 4 – Sudden Impact): Dirty Harry versus DEATH WISH. We’re going to need more bodybags.
From The Rageaholic/Razörfist’s YouTube description (DIRTY HARRY 5 – The Dead Pool): Go ahead. Kill my franchise.
TV Review: Noir Alley (2017- )
Original Run: March 5th, 2017 – current
Cast: Eddie Muller
Turner Classic Movies
Review:
While I’ve always been a fan of classic film-noir, it was TCM’s Noir Alley that really reinvigorated my love for them and pushed me towards covering them a lot more on Talking Pulp.
There are two reasons as to why I really gravitated towards this movie show.
The first is the host, Eddie Muller. The guy is quite possibly the greatest expert on the subject of film-noir that we have in modern times. He works towards restoring old noir films and is a literal Wikipedia of knowledge when it comes to the history of film-noir and really, film history in general.
Muller is the perfect host for this show, as he breaks the films down, talks about their history, their genesis and their overall impact. His extensive knowledge on directors, actors, cinematographers, writers, etc. is astounding. Plus, he’s well spoken, extremely likable and he really taps into what makes these films and this era in film history, so damn cool.
The second thing I love about Noir Alley is the film selection. Muller really digs up and dusts off some lesser known gems and showcases them alongside some of the more famous noir classics. Without this show, it’s possible I wouldn’t have discovered nearly half of the films it has featured.
I sincerely hope that this is a show that can keep going for years to come. One may think that they’ll eventually run out of films to show but once you go down the noir rabbit hole, you discover that there are so many movies worth talking about.
Rating: 9.5/10
Pairs well with: noir documentaries, primarily those featuring Eddie Muller.
