CMT - Event Horizon

In order to entertain, you have to make the old new again. One way of doing that, is combining story elements that aren't used together often. Let's say that you've seen dozens of heist films, like "Ocean's Eleven", "Reservoir Dogs" and "The Italian Job". If I make the target of the theft a submarine, suddenly the genre you know is different. 

Switching up the setting is another way to keep things fresh, especially if the market is flooded with similar products. Off the top of my head, I can name a number of haunted house movies. "Poltergeist", "The Haunting" and "Paranormal Activity" are all good examples. You may not have counted "Event Horizon" among them, but basically the ship is a haunted house in space. 

Classic Movie Trailers – Event Horizon (1997) 

We all know the ingredients of a good slasher film; you need a bad guy, a bunch of potential victims and a short-range weapon of some kind. Suspense and gore are the two main draws of this particular subgenre. We are tense when someone is fleeing danger and we cringe when they are caught and killed. A gun would take away from the magic of these movies, since bullets can chase a lot faster than we can run away. 

When someone mentions that type of story, a number of characters pop into my head. The first thing I see is the "Ghostface" mask, from the Scream franchise. Then it's normally Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Until recently, I hadn't thought about the xenomorph from "Alien", but he fits right in with the rest  

There's really something about the backdrop of space. You can write an old story, set it next to the stars and make it seem new and different. If you ask me, it's the fact that the setting is married to science fiction. We're so used to seeing the two together, we don't notice the third party in the triangle.    

"Star Wars" is a step away from being "Lord of The Rings"; it has the high fantasy, the unfamiliar creatures and the sharp divide between good and evil. What really sets it apart, is the Sci-Fi that's added in. The swords are lightsabers, the crossbows shoot lasers and the great evil eye is a powerful space station. The underlying story of Lucas's film may not have been original, but we were awed by the way it was told.   

"Event Horizon" tries to do the same thing, with supernatural horror. It isn't obvious about it right away, and it tries to hide it for a while. Sam Neill, as Doctor Weir, was the magician in scientist's clothing. His explanation of the ship and it's intended use, was nothing but a set-up for the old "bait and switch". 

We were in a land, far, far away and we thought we left the terror at home. We didn't know that it was sleeping in a wormhole, waiting to be discovered. When the crew finds the black box from the proceeding spacecraft, we hear the first clue as to where the movie's going. It didn't show little green men with ray guns, that's for sure.  

There are a couple of ways to tell a haunted house story. You can make the ghosts the main antagonists, and have them use the objects inside to muder everyone. Another tried and true method is the indirect approach; instead of the ghosts actively killing, they drive the inhabitants to kil themselves. You can use possession or have them lose their sanity, but they need to become a danger to others and to themselves.   

The only critical element is a hopeless situation. You need to keep the prey trapped, with no means of escape. If your haunted house is floating outside of Earth's atmosphere, you'll find that the job is already taken care of. There is certain death beyond the walls of a spaceship, and it can be light years away from the nearest help. 

When you think about it, there is no better stage for horror than deep space. It's isolating, cold, unforgiving and frightening. Moreover, it brings expectations right along with it, and those are the greatest tools that fiction has. Great storytelling is about surprise and wonder, and the only way to achieve them is to change the old formulas. 

Trailer Here.             

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@ChannelSeals 

Se "Event Horizon" on Netflix! 

September 5th: CMT - Jurassic Park  

CMT - Beverly Hills Cop II

They say that a "Jack-of-all-trades" is a master of none, but is that really true? Plenty of actors have branched out to music, and a lot of musicians have graced the silver screen. Manny Pacquaio was a boxer, a basketball player, a singer, an actor, and he's currently serving as a senator in the Philippines. So maybe we should roll the dice as many times as we can; if we keep trying different things, we might achieve success.

While you think it over look at Jeremy Wade, the host of River Monsters on Animal Planet. Wade has been fishing since the 1980's, and he brought his craft to print media, television and film. His personal focus never leaves angling, and he made his name and fortune off that expertise alone. Finally, consider comedian Eddie Murphy, who is not a focused craftsman or a jack-of-all-trades, but a little bit of both.


Classic Movie Trailers – Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)


Murphy's early career is interesting. He started doing stand-up at 15 years of age, and by 1980, he landed a spot on Saturday Night Live. The program was a launch pad for the performer, and in 1982 he got his big screen debut. "48 Hrs." was an incredible success, and suddenly the SNL star was a household name.

People didn't know that he was singing back then. He was in the background, crowing along with The Bus Boys in chorus. Maybe you remember the song "Party All The Time"; most people just "Remember The Time" instead. To be fair, his singles put up some decent numbers, but I doubt the general public knows he's had not one, but three released albums.

Personally, I think his music speaks to our struggles. It also shows what can happen when we branch to other disciplines. There's no denying Murphy's success as a comedian and actor, but that third thing is more debatable and arguably forgettable. That said, I can hardly blame the man; with so many things to love, it's impossible to have a single interest.

Besides, he was hot when his first album dropped. I'm sure it had his passion for music, but anything with his photo would have sold. You can look at it as a rich man's flirt with his fancy, or you can view it instead, as a savvy business move. Regardless, Eddie knows where his strengths lie, and this movie is a testament to how they're complimentary.

When Axel Foley acts like someone else on-screen, it could be an SNL skit, and it's just as effective. Most of the time, I thought Axel's BS shouldn't have worked, but I was too busy laughing to care. His comedic sense and timing made those moments for me, and they kept the humor high throughout the rest of the film. If you're an actor that can make the audience laugh on cue, you're just as talented as the one that makes them cry.

Regarding talent, I feel it's a starting point for the disciplined. We all have different capacities to do different things, but no one is born a master. So yes, Eddie popped out the womb with a better sense of humor, but years of grinding stand-up put him much farther ahead. With practice he made perfect, but while he was honing his craft, he was getting better at acting as well.

Plenty of comedy routines require competent acting. If you're really good at it, that helps you do the job. When he stepped on the set of "48 Hrs.", he definitely had some skill to draw from. By the time he filmed this picture, he was even better at it.

You can't say that about his trip to the sound studio. For all I know, he practiced in the shower two days before recording. However, even if he did it seriously for years, it's a hard enough task to demand even more. The same can be said of acting and recording artists do it, but they're capitalizing on fame and the best, expensive coaches. Ultimately, acting is side gig for them; they're in it for the love and the cash, not to go to the Oscar's.

I believe there is something elusive called 'the pinnacle'. It's something tradesmen labor to reach for all of their lives. The more jobs you add to your resume, the less time you have to get good at any of them. If you can't get good you can't be great; these are not my rules.

You can always prove me wrong and become the next Pacquaio. You could beat Jamie Foxx at comedy, singing, acting and playing piano. Just remember that both of them found success in one area first; they didn't blow up in three jobs all at once. Following in their shoes is like breaking in a house with a gum wrapper; basically what I'm saying is, "don't try this at home".



Trailer Here.

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@ChannelSeals

See "Beverly Hills Cop II" on Netflix!

Next Week: The Start of a Sam Neil double-feature... A look at "Event Horizon" will be followed by "Jurassic Park" on September 5th!

CMT - Journey to the Center of the Earth ('59)

When you hear the word 'adventure', what do you think of? Do you imagine descent, into dark and mysterious caves, with only a whip for protection? Maybe you daydream about an island teeming with dinosaur life. Or maybe your adventures aren't bound to the Earth; the fate of the universe could rest with a space station.  

Whatever it is and wherever your mind takes you, adventure is a common label slapped onto millions of products. It's often paired with action, which is self-explanatory, but do you know how the dictionary defines it? According to merriam-webster.com, adventure is "an exciting or dangerous experience". That's it, and that's about all. 

Let me level with you for a moment here; I love the English language. I absolutely love reading and writing. I've torn through mountains of comics, hundreds of short stories and dozens of novels. Never have I been so let down by a line of text. Editors please, do take note; this movie defines it better than you. 

Classic Movie Trailers - Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1959) 

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll probably remember that "Sleepy Hollow" inspired me to examine movie genres. If you haven't read that post I strongly suggest that you do; it illuminates the complexity and confusion in the matter. With that said, I was referring to the problem of categorization. Here, I want to question our understanding of the categories. 

Have you ever wondered why some words have multiple definitions? Have you ever been puzzled by their lack of congruity? I've never been on a staff that determines the current lexicon, but as I understand the process, there has to be a consensus. I'm not talking about a vote, from a board meeting of linguists; I'm talking about the use of English in publications. 

I bet you've never thought that salon.com influences our language. In reality it does, but only when it agrees with dozens of others. Let's say the New York Times uses the word 'orange' to describe a bitter person. It catches on, and dozens of newspapers follow suit. If the practice continues for several years and editors believe that use is widespread, they print a new definition, under the ones we currently have. 

That's why "tweet" is formally understood as the act of posting on Twitter. The meaning has been in our culture long enough, for scholars to take notice. Ultimately, we decide the course of the written word. Therefore, I propose that 'adventure' be discussed in a different context. 

Yes, there is danger to it, but danger isn't enough. There's danger in buying and selling stocks, but that isn't adventurous. Instead of considering the risks involved, we should take a good look at where adventure happens; it could be inside "a cave",  on "a dinosaur island" or deep in "outer space". The bottom line is, it has to be somewhere we don’t normally go. The focus should be on the journey and that journey should be novel.  

Watch the trailer for this movie and take note of their pitch. Sure, they are selling the danger but the sights are the most memorable. They've fired more pistols on camera than soldiers in open war, but how many films have giant, man-eating lizards? How many heroes have hacked away at mushroom trees?   

The setting is everything in these kinds of films. The actors get us interested but the locales are the hook. Even if we've watched a thousand pirate-themed movies, we can't travel back in time and live that over again. Adventure gives us the danger we crave in the package that we want; there's a difference between wielding a cutlass and swinging a Swiss army knife. 

When taken in the context of a movie genre, the word 'action' implies danger. There is no need to signify something we already expect. Besides, adventure has to be more than just risk; you can slip and die in the shower but the bathroom isn't where you want to be filming. I want to see the peril near the center of the earth, and every sight should be something I won't see anywhere else. 

Trailer Here. 

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@ChannelSeals 

See "Journey to the Center of The Earth" on Netflix! 

Next week: "Beverly Hills Cop II" 

(Here's to Post #100 and 100,000 more).

CMT - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

In order to write fiction you have to be an actor. That immediately seems wrong, when worded in that way, but stay with me here. The job requires accurate descriptions of many different people, and if you're doing that job right, you see the world through their perspective. So every line of dialogue and every single action, is an informed decision based on the character's point of view. 

If it sounds like a daunting task, I assure you that it can be. Career screenwriters and novelists can still miss the mark after decades of practice. The requirements of genre can add a great deal to the difficulty. Imagine being asked to write an inhuman organism, with behavior contrary to what we know. 

Let's say you're cast as a xenophobe, in the next Alien movie. They zip you up into the suit and you start to move around. If you start acting like a monster from outer space, they should relieve you of your duties immediately. From that being's perspective, humans are frightening; we're the grotesque creatures posing a threat to their existence. 

It takes a lot more than expressive movement; you have to get inside the mind and become what it is. Of course, that requires an extensive amount of knowledge, but it taxes your imagination and ability to live outside yourself. After reading about and doing it for countless hours, whatever instincts the subject would have are your instincts. Until you are able to find that place, you can't act properly and you certainly can't write about it. 

Classic Movie Trailers - E.T. the Extra -Terrestrial (1982) 

Sympathy and empathy are not synonyms. The former is an appreciation of someone else's position, but that may not include a full understanding. For example, let's say that your neighbors go through a messy divorce. The groom loses his life savings and the house is foreclosed. You may recognize it as a terrible turn of events, but that doesn't mean you can feel what he's going through.  

Maybe you were born into wealth with no financial concerns. Maybe you're in a rock-solid relationship, that hasn't changed since high school.  If that's the case, you would still be able to contemplate the reverse, but it can be difficult to feel the emotions involved. However, if you happen to be an empathetic person, you get the total picture and you're able to cry with the unfortunate person. 

Please note that if you're skilled at empathy, you don't need to have lived through a similar tragedy. In fact, if you're really good at it, the situation can be fabricated. There is no example of an immortal race of beings in this life, but if you want to write about Tolkien's elves, you better be able to empathize with them. To date, I believe that people have varying amounts of empathy, and some people try to defeat what is an essential human skill. 

According to this film, we're empathetic amateurs. E.T. comes from a race of beings far more advanced. It's humorous to regard superiority in that context. Fiction generally assumes that otherworldly life means better technology. Instead, an alien from a galaxy far away, touches down to show us how we suck at relating to each other. 

It's possible that we're not born with that deficiency. Some things, like imagination, are tougher to hold onto as we get older. Think about the alien's first meeting with the young boy. Think about their identical reactions and how they quickly realized they were feeling the same things. If Elliott was an adult on that fateful day, it might not have been as heartwarming as it turned out to be. 

As it was, he was put in a position to receive an incredible gift. Suddenly, he could empathize with E.T., even from a great distance. At first glance, it would seem like a simple, science-fiction invention. You probably won't recognize the biting satire. 

When it comes down to it, the human condition is a direct result of our emotional shortcomings. If we empathized correctly, imagine the problems we'd solve! Racism and gender bias wouldn't even exist. Social classes would be trivial and in danger of irrelevance.  

Creativity is linked to imagination. A strong imagination enables empathy, which allows for better creativity. So as an author, I'm motivated to feel emotions that I'm not experiencing. The ability produces quality fiction and better life forms. 

Trailer Here. 

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@ChannelSeals

See "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" on Netflix! 

Next Week: "Journey to The Center of the Earth".