The Walking Dead

Now up & running is a review of Anchor Bay's shiny Blu-ray edition of The Walking Dead [M], AMC's rather daring series which premiered in 2010, and returns in the fall of 2011 - meaning those hooked on the series won't be sated with more tales of emotional trauma from a world overrun by zombies for MONTHS.

Damn!

I still think series creator Frank Darabont benefitted from the allowances ABC made towards the makers of Lost, whereby stories often focused on the offside, private moments of characters rather than the next big pre-ad break shock; and the upped gore level in Dead Set (2008), the brutally violent U.K. series that made it okay for filmmakers (and satirists) to indulge in slimy viscera and serious bodily trauma on TV. Darabont gave free license to effects meisters KNB, and the results are pick-axes to the head, gunshots inflicted upon various facets of the head, and a lovely moment involving the smearing of rotting internal organ matter on clothes.

Bear McCreary's sparse score isn't yet available on CD, but in our interview [M] last year, he reflected on working with Darabont, and some of the scoring ideas for the series.

Coming next: thoughts on the recent screening at the Tiff Bell Lightbox (TBL!) of Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and a review of the 1988 TV remake. What? Didn't know there was one? I'm sure stars Patrick Duffy and Loni Anderson also forgot. Or tried to, after firing their agents.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Soundtrack Reviews

This one’s a quickie, as I’m finishing up on several themed blogs & reviews for this week.

Just uploaded are reviews of Jason Graves’ score for the video game Dead Space 2 [M] (released by E.A.R.S.), Andrew Hewitt’s Cuckoo [M] (MovieScore Media), and Alan Ari Lazar’s music for Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema [M] (Lakeshore Records).

The last film [M] I reviewed last week, and is part of a series on gangster films (of which another trio will be up shortly).

Coming next: an examination of the thematic links between the zombie and post-apocalyptic disaster genres in AMC’s wonderful series The Walking Dead (Anchor Bay).

Oh, and just in case this may never have crossed the mind: in this blog (as well as its Word Press clone), when you see the following – [M] – it means there’s a link to a mobile version of the review.

You’re welcome.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Gangsters: Part I

Here’s a slightly different spin on reviewing TCM’s latest group of classic films sets: along with reviews of one pair of classic gangster films, I’m adding either a contemporary classic whose roots lie in Warner Bros.’ vintage ‘torn from the headlines’ crime films of the thirties, or a title you may have missed because the local distribution channels missed it, or it’s been forgotten for whatever silly reason.

Here’s a case in point:  the first pair from TCM’s Greatest Gangster Films Collection (Warner Home Video) are Little Caesar [M] and Smart Money [M] - both from 1931, and both superb in spite of being in black & white, mono, and made 80 years ago.

Chief reasons to catch these gems: Edward G. Robinson’s extraordinary performances, and the meanness and naughtiness that vanished once the vile Production Code became law in 1934, disallowing all kinds of behaviour, dialogue, visuals, inferences, and things we completely take for granted today.

Tied to the two classics is Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema [M] (Anchor Bay), Ralph Ziman’s 2008 ‘inspired by true events’ crime drama based on a real-life figure who managed to snooker abandoned apartment buildings from landlords during the eighties in Hillbrow, the once crime-drenched inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Originally released as Jerusalema, the film may have been overshadowed by the Oscar-winning success of South Africa’s other recent gangster film, Tstotsi (2005), but it shouldn’t be overlooked.

Ziman shot a film no one wanted to finance using old Soviet-era film cameras in dangerous locations in and around Hillbrow, and it’s a compelling update on the Little Caesar template of a kid who becomes a thug, thief, gangster, slum lord, and eventually must fall from grace.

I’ve posted reviews of the films and their extras (including vintage short material on the Warner discs), and the next pair of gangster films will also be accompanied by another South Africa crime film.








Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Soundtrack News & Reviews

Just uploaded are three new soundtrack reviews, although I before I get to the links, Soundtrackcollector.com recently reported composer Mark Isham has established his own soundtrack label, and is releasing the score to The Mechanic in three formats: EP versions of cues from the score, the complete original score, and a 2-disc edition with both soundtrack versions.

What’s intriguing is that years ago, when Isham recorded an audio commentary track for the Blade (1998) DVD, he mentioned the eventual release of the electronic music in EP / dance club versions. Now, that edition never happened, but it is interesting that The Mechanic seems to be a fulfillment of that concept of creating two versions of a soundtrack: film score, and a version that’s unfettered by the time constraints of a specific scene, with room for improv and development.

Isham’s background includes electronics, orchestral writing, and jazz – he’s recorded non-film, jazz fusion albums in the past, not to mention composed jazz cues for Little Man Tate (1991), Cool World (1992), and Quiz Show (1994) – and it’s not unusual for composers to reinterpret film works as standalone concept albums.

One could argue the edited album versions of scores conceived by Jerry Goldsmith for The Boys from Brazil (1978) or Poltergeist [M] (1982), for example, qualify, if not re-recorded albums with different cue arrangements, like John Williams’ Jaws (1974), but three distinct examples of genuine concept albums come to mind:

--- Malcolm X (1992), where Terence Blanchard released a score and jazz improv couplet (each very different from the other).

--- El Topo (1970 ) – Alejandro Jodorowsky’s score was released by Apple Records (and reissued by Anchor Bay in their Jodo boxed set), whereas jazz fusionist Martin Fierro crafted his own (and frankly awesome) theme extrapolations for the album Shades of Joy.

--- The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – Elmer Bernstein’s score (with heavy theme repetition) was released on its own, as was the full Chico Hamilton + Fred Katz jazz combos, although in the case of the latter, the B-side was one long improv collage of the pair’s own themes.

Note how these three all share jazz elements, which is perhaps why Isham felt it was not unusual to extrapolate material from existing themes.

In any event, if a theme can go through various permutations and cover versions, there’s no reason why a composer can’t re-explore some work he felt might have been restricted by the limits of a film’s edited and mixed soundtrack.

Now then, just uploaded are reviews for a trio of scores from La-La Land Records: Dominic Frontiere’s The Rat Patrol [M], John Debney’s The Young Riders [M], and James Horner’s Jade [M].

Of the three, Frontiere’s is the most satisfying, and I’m frankly stunned that so much care went into recording the series’ music in stereo in Munich. The score elements sound pristine, and this is my favourite archival release of 2011 so far.

Now if only La-La Land could release a multi-disc set of The Invaders, featuring Frontiere’s original scores (about 2 or 3 of Season 1’s episodes featured full scores) plus those composed by newcomers for Season 2.

If I say it three times, it will happen: The Invaders. The Invaders. The Invaders.







Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

The Sights & Sounds of Driving Angry

Yes, this shot is real.

It’s clear Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez put their own personal stamp on the grindhouse or exploitation genre with their respective Grindhouse films in 2007 via Death Proof and Planet Terror, respectively, but neither film was particularly good, and most fans seemed to agree the fake trailers were the best parts of what was an audacious attempt to create little homages to the sleazy, violent films the two directors love so much (plus me , too).

Rodriguez’ effort, Planet Terror, felt like a sick & slimy Italian horror film shot very quickly somewhere in the U.S. with familiar American faces, but as happens with the director’s films, story and script don’t always get the attention they deserve.

Sure, you can argue it’s supposed to be loose and fun, but if you scraped away all the dirty visuals, jump cuts and weird elements like an amputee girl outfitted with a machine gun peg-leg, Planet Terror kind of meandered.

Tarantino’s Death Proof, in turn, has a spectacular car crash and chase in the finale, but everything in between is bitchy characters bitching for long sessions, and there’s just not enough Car. If it’s about a Car that can smash-up other Cars without killing its driver, there should be Action, not indulgent dialogue scenes that tested the willpower of QT’s fans.

Maybe the two films could’ve benefitted from a little bit of Nicolas Cage instead of ensemble casts yapping away for interminable periods.

Now, Patrick Lussier isn’t the strongest horror director out there, but he finally found the ideal project where he showed some directing chops. Cage, Amber Heard (star of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, still under a 5-year quarantine lockup courtesy of the Weinsteins), and William Fichtner sell the goofy dialogue, but there are many Cars, much driving, and many screeching tires and gunfire, which is why Drive Angry 3D is a better, stronger, and faster film than the aforementioned Grindhouse diptych.

I’ve uploaded a film review [M] of Lussier’s movie, which was shot using the Red camera, and in a true 3D format instead of all this re-rendering nonsense that creates COAPS - Cranial Orbital Aches & Pains Syndrome. That’s when the images come off all fuzzy, the colours are weak, and you get little tiny pains from behind your eyeballs and experience visions of floating cucumbers with Cyclops eyes and bad breath.

Go ahead. Google it, because it’s real.

If you catch Drive Angry in theatres, you’ll also be treated to 3D trailers for Sucker Punch, Priest, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Oh, and a flat trailer for Fast Five, the necessary fifth film in the Fast & Furious franchise because the world never tires of Dominic Toretto’s exploits in automoboobles.

Also uploaded is an interview with composer Michael Wandmacher [M], who scored Drive Angry with plenty of angry bluegrass music. My review of the soundtrack album will be in an upcoming Rue Morgue issue, but in four words: the score is excellent.

Coming next: a review of the still difficult-to-digest Steven Spielberg film version of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, now out in a gorgeous Blu-ray edition from Warner Home Video, plus an early Spielberg TV movie, 1972’s pre-Poltergeist [M] spooky house film, Something Evil.

This is where I make a loud ‘Moo-hoo Ha-ha!’ sound, but feel free to use your own variation.








Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com