April 20, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
I actually think that the picture would work best when viewed on a basic cable station at 2am in the morning. Drag Me to Hell is certainly a jump out of your seat good time as a theatrical experience, but I’d only imagine that it would have scared the hell out of me if I had seen it when I was nine, on Channel 43 at 1am in the morning as I struggled to stay awake to see what happened next.
Apologies for cutting/pasting from my review, but it tied into what DP was talking about at the end. I liked it, but not nearly as much as some of the reviews I’m reading. My wife loved it, but she’s the reason I sat through Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus if you get my drift. Actually, I saw the film at a test screening a couple months ago. It was the final cut and it looked mainly finished, but it was a completely rough print, with a fuzzy, uncorrected image. Point being, considering how much the movie feels like a 1980s cheesefest, I think I enjoyed the movie more with its rough, looks like a late night basic cable movie look than I would have had I seen it in glorious 2.35:1 scope.
From what I’ve heard, there wasn’t much cut out to achieve the PG-13, as that’s what’s Raimi was going for in the first place (not that it’ll stop Universal from somehow creating an ‘unrated cut’).
This review kinda reminds me of Raimi’s entire post-Evil Dead (the first one, and only the first one) career. Humor and horror are a hard mix to pull off correctly and I don’t think Raimi is particularly good at walking that line.
I can’t think of a moment or scene that would have greatly benefited from being R. I went in thinking it would be neutered, but it’s not at all.
Yeah, swallowing gallons of used embalming fluid is just as bad – if not worse – than swallowing blood.
Movie wasn’t perfect, but it was – along with Crank 2 – the best time I’ve had in a cinema all year,
….had a great time, but I kept getting these deja vu flashbacks to my misbegotten youth when B-and-proud-of-it movies like “Drag Me” were the unheralded (and often superior) bottom half of drive-in double bills.
In fact, next weekend’s Universal release (“Land of the Lost”) would have made a particularly apt headliner.
Lure the kiddies in with slapstick comedy and dinosaurs, then freak them out with the scary-as-shit co-feature.
Reminds me of the time I saw this creepy British horror flick (whose title escapes me) paired with “The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze” at an old downtown movie palace when I was maybe five years old. Thing gave me nightmares for months afterward, and I didn’t remember a thing about the Stooges movie, then or now.
Best time I’ve had this year, too. It’s a funhouse ride.It’s slight, no doubt, and sort of a lateral move for Raimi (when we know based on A Simple Plan he has the chops for something major).
The ads did suck, though. They played up Raimi and as said elsewhere that was only for the geeks (me). If it had not been Raimi I would have skipped it rather than hitting a 1pm matinee opening day.But on the positive side at least for once the best parts were NOT in the trailer. This may help word of mouth. It might have legs as soon as kids are out of school.
Maybe it’s being over-praised as a reaction to the long painful glut of crap us horror fans have complained about: lazy torture porn, remakes, sequels. 98% garbage. So despite the fact it’s “minor Raimi,” the fact that it is FUN and FAST as opposed to the other garbage is leading to people overrate it.
Honestly, from the standpoint of a horror fan, it’s only going to get better as soon as some studio has the balls to put a good product against these insipid SAW movies, beats it, stops this horrid, horrid series. Something has to give there.
Oh, and please release TRICK R’ TREAT someday.
“Justin Long reminds us, not happily, that he isn
‘Justin Long’s never been (and never will be) the “movie star”; but he’s still the guy that made movies like Die Hard 4, Dodgeball, and Jeepers Creepers a whole lot better for his presence.’
here, here, hallick, i second that (i LOVE ‘jeepers’, and justin was the perfect foil for willis’ grizzled mcclane in ‘die hardest’). justin is definitely ‘niche’ but in the bestest way
Loved Lohman (does this chick ever age? she looks the same as she did in “White Oleander” and “Matchstick Men” seven years ago) and liked Drew’s ex well enuf. My only complaint–if it’s even a complaint; probably more of an observation–is that both seemed a tad young for their “professional” characters.
Not sure how young (or old) Lohman and Long really are, but they still look like (college) undergrads to me. Bless those genes, kids, cause they’re not gonna lost forever.
Hey Lex: you’ve (frequently) commented on Lohman’s hotness. Did you ever see her in Atom Egoyan’s NC-17 rated “Where the Truth Lives”? Not great Egoyan by any stretch, but certainly interesting. And unquestionably erotic in a Canuck-perv sort of way.
‘drew’s ex’ – lol, movieman (those two crazy kids made a cute couple, i was rooting for them, but love is a fickle beast). i agree, i haven’t seen ‘drag me’ yet and likely won’t for some time, but from the previews lohman appears not to have aged a day since my beloved ‘matchstick’
Raimi said he only cut 7 seconds to get the PG-13, so that unrated cut people are waiting for will probably not be worth it.
Good B movie fun. The crowd was really with the movie. I’d like to see Sam Raimi do a balls out horror film without the humor. There are a couple scenes in the first half that work really well at being creepy and suspenseful. Horror and suspense doesn’t have to be gross to work.
Possible spoiler-
I would love to been in the meeting when Mr Raimi got the money to film the anvil in the garage scene. Really? An anvil suspend by rope and pulley in the garage? She must rent from Wild E Coyote. I’m not complaining. I love that kind of stupid crap when the director pulls it off so well, you don’t realize how ridiculous it is when it is happening.
End spoiler.
‘…and dead sexy in a way that Alan Ball & Co are working their asses off, push-uping and tight panting, to get Anna Paquin to in True Blood. (Don
Leah- I couldn’t agree with you more re: Paquin’s precocious sensuality in “True Blood.” No way did Ball ever intend to make Sookie into a–no pun intended–vamp-ish tart. That would be a complete betrayal of the character as originally described in the “TB” books.
And I personally can’t wait for Season 2 (starting in, hurrah, 2 weeks). Is this–6 1/2 months–the shortest gap between seasons of an HBO series since they began their “original programming” nearly two decades ago? If so, merci boucoup.
The typical wait between seasons on, say, “The Sopranos” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has always been maddening.
….er, that shoulda been “merci beaucoup.”
pardon moi.
movieman, ‘precocious sensuality’ – perfect description
I liked Drag Me to Hell. It isn’t as good as any of the Evil Dead movies but it’s the most fun I’ve had at the movies this summer. I don’t see how the movie would have improved by an R rating. It’s not really scary but the evil dead movies weren’t either. The crowd I saw it with seem to enjoy it. It gave me just what I wanted on a Friday night at the movies – a fun time. Also, watching Alison Lohman didn’t hurt.
An exemplary Poland review
^ And keep up the reflexive stupidity and douchebaggery.
Lohman is 29, Long is 30. Movieman, not sure what your age is, but not all 30-year-old people in real life look 6′ moviestars. I like it when movies cast like that. If Lohman had an identical twin who worked at a bank like her DMtH character and I saw her I’d guess she was late 20s. It was the same in He’s Just Not That Into You with Ginnifer Goodwyn and Long. It’s probably just because most people I know in their late 20s aren’t the big muscular 6ft pretty boy moviestars that are routinely cast.
Not endorsing Kenny’s mean-spirited bile in any way, but I do think that first sentence of the DP review is pretty inexcusable.
I am beginning to worry about your inferiority complex, Glenn.
I always knew you were minor, but your single-minded rage that you show up to unfurl, almost every time with no apparent goal but to make my validity as someone with an opinion the issue, is turning into a sad sideshow. I wonder why you would use up whatever reputation you have worked for to become another “what’s his problem with you?” caricature.
Anyway… the only part that does offend me is your weird, must be about you, conclusion about what my description of Ms Lohman as sexy in this film means to me. I started writing about her playing roles much younger than her age going back to White Oleander and Matchstick Men. The presumption that, somehow, I am reacting to her looking under age missed my truth utterly. I can’t speak for you.
To be fair to Glenn, not many writers would say, “I don’t have a huge amount to say” and then keep going for 500+ words.
Lohman is a lovely girl, but possibly not the sharpest tool in the shed. She didn’t know the movie was supposed to be funny until she watched it? http://www.terrorfeed.com/index.php?id=dragmetohell-lohman
“To be fair to Glenn, not many writers would say, “I don’t have a huge amount to say” and then keep going for 500+ words.”
And to be fair to David – hell, just to be realistic and factual – his writting the eqivalent to 3 or 4 regular-sized paragraphs doesn’t constitute a huge entry unless someone’s gotten accustomed to getting their movie reviews from Twitter 24/7.
I don’t quite understand all the euphoria over Drag. It’s fine for what it is but this is hardly some insanely great horror film. It was a cliff notes version of Raimi’s Evil Dead movies. I completely agree that an R rating wouldn’t have changed anything, the movie wasn’t designed to showcase a lot of gore if you really look at it. There’s some gross stuff, but it’s not a body-parts-being-ripped-off extravaganza or anything.
I think the hangover on this one a few months down the line is going to be pretty severe. Lots of folks will watch the DVD and think “Wow…I remember this being so much better than it actually is.”
Kinda sums up my feelings in a nutshell, really.
As far as I can tell, it was made as a cheesy, throwback b-horror movie. That it’s fairly entertaining and well directed is a bonus. I doubt that Raimi and crew put as much thought into the film as some here are doing.
AWESOME.
Hottest movie of the year… Seriously, the nonstop Lohman-lingering was INCREDIBLE, and it was pure sexiness how game this awesome actress was for being a sport about it all. Lohman in her yellow dress trying to impress Long’s parents, or better, in the rain all muddy and digging up the grave in the clinging T-shirt???? GIVE ME A B…
Also, that late-night diner setpiece where she’s pondering who to give the button to was witty, touching, goofy, and cine-literate all in one… easily the best thing Raimi’s gone since ’98.
GOOD MOVIE. Though perhaps appropriately, it pretty much evaporated from memory within 45 minutes, since I wouldn’t say it really transcends its unpretentious goals… but I’d still rank it among the more entertaining things this year.
Loved it. Don’t think it would have gained much if anything by being R-Rated. Judging by the reactions in the audience people were completely freaked out/grossed out by a lot of the scenes. The fact that he was able to achieve what he was with that rating is all the more impressive and interesting to me. Plus, there were some really ballsy choices made here that only a guy with Raimi’s clout could have gotten away with.
“I’d like to see Sam Raimi do a balls out horror film without the humor. There are a couple scenes in the first half that work really well at being creepy and suspenseful.”
To this day, Raimi has never really fulfilled that potential, and I’ve been waiting since 1981. Maybe he just isn’t interested. But the beginning of Evil Dead showed an amazing feel for atmosphere and slow-building dread, and A Simple Plan revealed a facility for first-rate suspense in a non-supernatural setting.
He has a great, non-comedic, suspense or horror — or suspense/horror — film in him. But again, maybe he’d rather play Three Stooges.
Come to think of it, moviemnan, maybe Raimi was at that double-feature with you, at an impressionable age.
Old skool Raimi RULEZ. And I thought this was a perfect summer horror/comedy blast. This is the kind of film audiences were made for, all of us audible and squirming in our seats. Raimi can direct a tiny set-piece (as when the Gypsy attacks the car) like no other director.
Best movie I’ve seen all year. Disappointed it’s not making more money so far.
If Alison Lohman, Kristen Stewart and Evan Rachel Wood could all do a road movie together, it would be the greatest thing ever. I would literally EXPLODE with excitement, as they represent the Holy Trinity of wispy, smart, vaguely cynical, nonthreateningly earnest FEMALE AWESOMENESS.
They should remake CROSSROADS with all three and cast me as a drunken, beer-necked Anson Mount.