The Arrogance of Hollywood...

I covered some of this in my Remakes rant, but I want to expand on this a bit.  Anytime the folks in Hollywood get hold of  Foreign Film rights to do a remake of it for American Audiences, I usually try to find the original to see just how badly they butcher it.  Let's face it, they're pretty much hit or miss when it comes to getting the story right.  When it comes to adapting Asian Films for the US market, they just don't get it.

"The Ring" spawned one moderately good adaptation and a lukewarm sequel.  "The Grudge", meh, on all counts.  The original Japanese version was far superior in my opinion.  Hollywood just doesn't get it.  I don't think they ever will.

Which brings me to the point of this rant. American Adaptations of Anime to Live Action. "Dragon Ball Z", an interesting anime series based loosely on the legend of "The Monkey King", aimed at kids and adolescents. The Live Action film was a bloody disaster. Jumbled story line, almost no Asian cast members and just a total mess. "The Last Airbender" fared a little better story wise in the hands of M.Night Shamalamadindong, but once again the casting choices were decidedly short in Asian members. And now they want to make "Akira", possibly the best Sci  Fi Anime ever made with an American cast and Locations.  The Anime fan base is fiercely loyal to the Genre and really hate when their movies and TV Series get mangled by some ham handed  non-Asian/Japanese production company.  Case in point, the recent movie, "Speed Racer".  Great TV series, lots of fun and NOT meant to be taken seriously.  The movie?  Eh, it was alright but was too ambitious trying to imitate the anime style of the series.

What I'm trying to say is, if any Anime/Manga is going to be made into a live action film, let the Japanese Film Industry do it!  They get it!  They understand it and can do it justice better than any Hollyweird company could even think about.

Collection Agencies

Collection Agencies, a lot of us have probably gotten those annoying calls and letters from them demanding payment at one time or another. You know, things get tight and you figure it can wait a while until you get on your feet and pay it off, then life happens and you forget about it.  Next  thing you know, the letters start followed by the phone calls.

A couple years  ago my son needed/wanted a cell phone so a friend of his put him on his plan as long as he kept up the payments.  Things were Ok for a while then the friend decided he didn't want the hassle of getting the notices if my son was late with a payment, so being the nice guy that I am, I took over the account with the stipulation that I would pay the bill for him with the money he gave me for that purpose.  That worked out fine until he decided to go visit an old girlfriend in Arizona for a month.  The month turned into 11 months and he stopped sending money for the bill and  stopped paying it on his own.  The account was cancelled, closed out and the letters started.  Now by this time, I had no idea where to send the checks since I couldn't access the online payment site anymore.  The letters began and they would find their way to  the circular file because I  made the presumption that  it was HIS responsibility to pay for HIS phone bill.  Yeah, stupid of me, I know.

Cut to December of last year. Got a phone call from a collection agency and after a round of heated discussion, I  figured that I could afford to make payments and set it up.  Here's the kicker.  The way the guy explained it to me, if I made the payments every  month for 6  months the debt  would be considered satisfied.   Guess what, it was a lie. Now, they want the rest of the money in full in one lump payment so they can close out the debt.  I'm on Disability and have a fixed income that barely covers my monthly expenses.  For the last 6 months I've had to go without my medications and food.  These bloodsuckers don't understand that, they just want the money, NOW!

At first, they said that if I  make payments for 4 months they would review the account again and call me to let me know if they were happy or not.  I asked him what the hell he was talking about.  I thought that the debt would be satisfied after this most recent payment, but NOOOOO,  I still owed another $420.00!!  He tried to convince me that if I  paid that amount today he could close it out.  Now I'm saddled with  paying this for another 6 months and THEN I won't hear from them ever again. AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

Remakes...

Let's face it, Remakes will happen, no matter what we want or think.  Now that I have your attention, think about this, the 1959 Oscar winning film "Ben Hur" was a Remake and it wasn't the first remake of that story.  The first was in 1907 made in Hungary followed by the 1925 Silent  Classic starring Francis X. Bushman.

"The Prisoner of Zenda" was remade no less than 6 times from 1913 on. "Little Women", remade 17 times both on the Big Screen  and various TV series.  Hollywood does it all the time and it's not always a bad thing.  Take a look at "Sanford and Son", a remake of Britain's "Steptoe and Son". "Three's Company" was "Man about the House".  I'll bet if you look around you'll find remakes EVERYWHERE!

Remakes are not always a bad thing.  Sometimes the remake is just as good, if not better, than the original. But, a lot of them are a disaster.  Take "Beau Geste" for example. The 1939 classic with Gary Cooper is a remake of a 1926 Spanish silent film and was better by far.  Now, let's go to the 1966 version starring Doug McClure,  it was Ok, but did it really need to be remade at that time?  Speaking of Mr. McClure, He was also in a remake of the 1952 Errol Flynn Swashbuckler, "Against All Flags" and turned it into the semi-comedic film "The King's Pirate" in 1967.

REMAKES HAPPEN, GET OVER IT!!!

Which brings me to the point of this entry...

In 1986 a low budget film called "Highlander" was released to less than critical acclaim, but soon developed a growing cult following that has become immense. It had everything. High Adventure, Historical Flashbacks, Sword Fights and Romance.  It spawned 4 questionable sequels, the last two an attempt to tie the TV series to the original film. They were all Ok, but not what any of us expected or wanted.  Then we heard about a remake.  Almost immediately the crapstorm started.  People beating their breasts, tearing their hair out and screaming WHY,WHY, WHY????  It took a couple of years but we finally heard the a Director had been chosen, Justin Lin of "Fast and Furious" and most recently a writer to tune up the script, Melissa Rosenberg who wrote the scripts for the Twilight films, which despite being universally despised by  any rational Vampire Fan, have made a BUTTLOAD of money for Summit.  I  like to keep an open mind on things and despite my initial misgivings, this all might turn out to be a good thing.  Now we have to wait for casting news...

Movies and Me...

I’m a Cinephile.  I LOVE movies.  All kinds of movies, from the Big Budget Blockbusters to the Shoestring Budget “B” movies.  Horror films, Musicals (don’t look at me that way), Science Fiction, Animation and Anime, Drama and Rom Coms, you name it.

I have a particular fondness for Ultra Low Budget SciFi and Horror Films, you know, the ones they show on SyFy Channel on Saturday Nights.  Yes they are often very bad, low budget, bad production values, really bad special effects and ridiculous plots.  Not to mention really bad acting!  But…  you have to love the fact that without these “Z” list films we would never have Cult Classics like “Darkstar” or “Evil Dead”, etc.  Hey, a lot of our favorite Directors had to start somewhere, right?

My love affair with movies really began in my childhood when Mom and Dad would pile us in the car and head out to the local Drive-In Theater for such classics as “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte”, “Forbidden Planet”, Disney films like “The Castaways” with Hayley Mills and the occasional re-showing of 1931’s “Frankenstein” where I remember seeing a copy that had the original mood gels for a touch of color to help set the tone.

But things really got going on Friday Nights and Saturday Afternoons when the Local Stations would show “Shock Theater”, and air such  classics as “Man Made Monster”, “I was a Teenage Werewolf” and every version of “Frankenstein” they could find.  This may explain why I have a twisted sense of humor, but more on that later.

As time went on I would save my money earned from doing odd jobs and convince my Mom and Dad to drop me off at the local grindhouse for the day where for 50 cents I would see a Triple Feature, usually consisting of a Western, a Horror Film and a Comedy along with a bunch of Cartoons.  I spent many a Saturday hunkered down on my seat staring at the Silver Screen, munching Popcorn and gorging  myself on various candy treats. I really miss those days.  Now we’re lucky to see one movie at the Megaplex for $10.00/ticket and spending a small fortune on snacks and drinks!

I am a Child of Television's Golden Age

I was born in the early 50's back in the days when TV was still new and you were lucky if you could get more than one channel.  That Magical Box was the greatest thing in the world where my friends, Howdy Doody, Bozo the Clown, The Mouseketeers and many others came to keep me company in the mornings and afternoons.  Saturday mornings were especially wonderful because that was when cartoons were on at a very early hour.  I remember getting up early before my parents got up just to sit glued to the set, watching Popeye, The Three Stooges, and Merry Melodies cartoons.  This was my standard routine until it was time to go OUTSIDE and play, wandering all over the neighborhood with my friends.  Yes, we actually went outside and played back then while our mothers cleaned house and watched thing like "Queen for a Day" and soap operas.

For many years, the only time I ever got too see a Color Cartoon was when we'd all go to the local Drive-in or Grind House where they always showed a few short  subjects before the main feature. The world was Black and White on the magic box.  As I got older, my tastes became more sophisticated when I would join my folks as they watched "Dragnet", "Perry Mason", "The Defenders", "Wyatt Earp", "Roy Rogers", "The Adventures of Superman" and "The Lone Ranger".

In 1964 my World changed forever.   We were visiting my Uncle Walt in Fort Thomas, KY and after dinner the kids were  sent to the living room to watch TV.  They had a new  television that didn't sit on a table and had a bigger screen than I had ever seen before. 7:30 rolled around and "The Flintstones" came on,  in COLOR!!!  This was the most fantastic thing I had ever seen in my short life of 10 years!  You have to remember that TV's were considered a luxury item back then and not cheap, so you  can imagine what a Color TV cost. I ran to get my  Dad and said we HAD to get one! NOW!  It took a year, but we finally got one.  Now we could watch all kinds of programs in GLORIOUS COLOR along with the old Black and White shows.  I almost died when  I saw "The Wizard of OZ" in color for the first time.

These are just a few of my fondest memories of my childhood and I hope you readers got a kick out of them.

The Finest Man I've Ever Known

In 1977 I attended my first San Diego Comic Con at the El Cortez Hotel as a Volunteer for Security under Gene Henderson. I had a great time helping out and meeting all kinds of great people. After the Con was over I was invited to attend a meeting of the Members of the Board of Directors where I first met Shel Dorf. When I was introduced, Shel complimented me on my help structuring the security system so everyone could have a chance to attend the panels and see the programs they wanted. He invited me to join this small group of Fans to help out planning the next convention.

Fast forward to 1979 and the Con at the old Downtown Convention Center. I was still helping out with Security and where ever else I was needed. I was helping set up for the Celebrity Art Auction when we were informed that our Celebrity Auctioneer wasn’t there. I asked what we should do and who can replace him. Someone pointed at me and said, “You do it”!

I said, “Huh? Who me? What am I supposed to do?” I spotted Shel and told him the dilemma and asked him what to do.

He said, “You need to go ask the artists to come up and draw something for the fans.”

I was full of bluster and bravado when it came to the fans, but the artists kind of intimidated me a little since I had been reading comics since I was six years old and they were like Gods to me. Shel put his hand on my shoulder and said to me, “Just talk to them and never be afraid to ask them anything.”

After that day I ceased being a giggling Fan Boy and started making friends with the people I had admired and respected for so long. By talking to them I learned a lot about how they did things and got to hear some great stories from people like Jack Kirby, Rick Hoberg, John Romita, (Jr and Sr), Scott Shaw! and a hundred or more others.

In 1980 I asked Shel if he would be my best man at my wedding to my wife Kathy and was so proud and pleased when he said yes. On August 2nd, 1980 Kathy and I were married in the U.S. Grant Hotel during the 1980 Con. On that day Shel became more than a friend, he became a brother. Even after I had moved on from the Convention I always remembered Shel fondly. I really miss him.

The Devil Inside

Last year at San Diego Comic Con I had the pleasure of meeting two very talented guys named Todd Stashwick and Dennis Calero;

They have this GREAT online comic called "The Devil Inside" that you just have to check out.  The Premise is this;

The Devil has come to Paradise...

"Evil isn't a force...it's a choice...I'm weighing my options."

- Jack Springheel

From the creative team of Todd Stashwick and Dennis Calero comes the online comic strip "Devil Inside". A guns blazing, white knuckled, preternatural joy ride to hell and back.

Go on the road with Jack Springheel, an arcane drifter with a bounty on his head. Jack is running from a past, searching for a new truth and trying to keep the Devil inside.

http://www.toddstashwick.com/comic.asp?E=1

This will take you to the first Episode and there are currently 31 installments so be sure to read them all and check back every Wednesday for a new one!   Great story and great art work!

Something Really Special

I'm Back!  Yeah, I know, I wasn't gone long.  I wanted to share a Special Film from a friend if mine, Joe Pearson, called "War of the Worlds: Goliath" coming soon from the good people at Heavy Metal Magazine.  Click the link and check it out;

http://www.wotw-goliath.com/

You'll find a Dynamite Trailer and some behind the scenes Production Blogs about how it all came about.

Holy Crap, My first post!

To all my friends and followers who decide to check this out after I post the link in the places I hang out, Welcome.  Some thoughts will be long, some will be short.  My aim is to inform and amuse as I tell about  my life and the things I experience and the people I meet.  When I can, I might even post interviews I have with some of my friends that I meet at  the San Diego Comic Con.  Like the Title says, I'm a Life Long Fan, but I'm not a Fanboy.  I choose to meet and make friends with Celebrities and Artists and now and then I might even have a picture to share with you.