Saturday 30 January 2010

Overtime boredom post...

Doing overtime for day job which means I'm in work on a Saturday. Have got a script meeting this afternoon so had to come in at 9am to make it worthwhile coming in at all. This would be fine (as fine as being up at 9am on a Saturday can ever be) if I hadn't been out at a late-night screening of An American Werewolf in London last night. Which was awesome.

I forget sometimes how much seeing a great film on a big screen makes a difference. I've seen that film so many times before I wasn't even sure I really wanted to go. Am now really glad I did because it works so well in the cinema and made me realise again what a fantastic film it is. An interesting one for structure though as it kind of conforms to the standards but in a really odd way and deals with a problem quite well - for the majority of the film the main character doesn't have a goal and is really just waiting for something that he doesn't even believe will actually happen anyway. The actual transformation doesn't occur until the third act which seems odd out of context but works fine in the film, mostly because of the love story behind it which keeps it moving. And in keeping with my recent posts on the Elm Street series I'm loving old-school practical effects at the moment and American Werewolf still has some of the best ever on show.

While I'm here, if you have a minute I recommend you check out Amanda Palmer's behind the scenes glimpse into the bizarre world of the Golden Globes which you can read here. My favourite moment from the Globes though is Christoph Waltz's press interview which kind of highlights the oddness of the whole thing anyway - do the journalists at these things ever actually watch any of the films? I'm guessing not.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the use of practical effects. I wish it wasn't such a dying art. Although with the resurgence of indie horror the past couple of years, there is some great work thats being done by folks still carrying the torch.

Christopher said...

American Werewolf is still one of my all time favorites. I never get tired of watching it.

Chris Regan said...

A good recent film (well, 2005 anyway) for practical effects is Isolation which I strongly recommend if you haven't seen it. I blogged about it here:

http://whatwritesatmidnight.blogspot.com/2008/10/gloopy-horror.html