When Movie Magic (Actually) Happens...

I can list only a handful of films that blew me away over the years....ones that did all the things the movie-going experience can be capable of doing...you know, entertain and awe and inspire. But mostly awe.

That first film for many people I know was either Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Arc. Neither really worked for me at the time of their release (though I've grown to appreciate them with age). For me the first was probably Jaws. Awe-some. Subsequent movies that made a similar impression were Alien, Road Warrior, Aliens, Terminator 2, The Matrix, and The Fellowship of the Ring.

So why those films exactly (interestingly, nearly all could be categorized as fantasy/sci-fi/action)? A decent story and interesting characters for sure, but more importantly was a combination of palpable energy emanating from an enthralled audience with lots of 'blow your mind' spectacle. And that spectacle was usually achieved via some new and extremely effective visual or practical effect done in such a way as to essentially transport one to another place/time/realm or world.


Well, last night, Transformers joined the list. Yes, it's a Michael Bay film, so that is a little troubling...but it was also a Spielberg film, so perhaps they cancel each other out. Or maybe that's who Bay needs exec producing him in order to create something acceptable. Or maybe I don't know squat. But this morning I couldn't stop thinking about and marveling at so many of the sequences in the flick...much like one other film Transformers reminded me of that needs to be on my list: Jurassic Park.


Yes, the dinosaur movie. Awe-some. Movie. Experience.

Like Transformers, I knew little about the story of Jurassic Park before I saw it, but I was well aware of the film long before it arrived in the theatres. We see this all the time today, but back then I remember being stunned after opening up a Variety and seeing this one page spread...exactly one year before its release date.


An ad? One year early?? WTH???

I turned to a colleague and made a joke about it...snarking that there's no way anyone will remember this movie when it comes out. But I did secretly admire the simplicity of the ad, and was somewhat intrigued by a film that might be so amazing it was touting its release a year in advance.

Then I saw a teaser trailer for it a few months later...



Hmmm....cool.

Interestingly, last summer, a YEAR IN ADVANCE, I saw this print ad for Transformers.


I was a little confused...such early promotion, for a cartoon? But then I saw this teaser trailer for it....



Hmmm...cool.

Besides both being groundbreaking in the art of CGI, Transformers and Jurassic Park ran almost identical ad campaigns and celebrated near identically spectacular openings. And I realize I'm talking about two different things here: the marketing and selling of a movie, and then the movie-going experience itself (one so often lets the other down). But I'm letting these two examples stand because the build-up ultimately contributed to the 'awe-some' experience. At the end of the day, the movies delivered.

Now, were they perfect? Hell no. There were plot holes and logic bumps aplenty in both films, but visual spectacle and a spectacular movie-going experience trumped in a big way.

That's when effects laden movies can truly be magic...when you don't find yourself saying: "Wow. How did they do that?" but rather, just: "WOW."

It's 'Just' That 'Everybody Hurts'...in a good way

This is a bit of a limp out post on cool music videos, but whatever...

I remember when MTV hit the television airwaves in the early 80's. I found them fascinating. A chance to finally hear AND 'see' the bands and musicians I was into at the time. And for a kid living out in the middle of nowhere (with no real opportunity to see any of the bands in person, this was a big deal). I used to head down to the one bar in my town that had a satellite feed to sit from 4-7 and sip happy hour drinks and 'watch the vids'.

Sure there was a lot of crap. Or a lot of videos that were just 'commercials for songs'. But there were also some wicked mini movies set to music. And for a beginning film student, that was the biggest attraction.

Here's a list of VH1's 100 Greatest Music videos compiled in 2001 just to give you a frame of reference.

Most lists are topped by M Jackson's 'Thriller', and Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' or 'Express Yourself'... and P Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer always rank high. And they were all groundbreakingly original at the time, but it The Police's 'Every Breath You Take' and Don Henley's 'Boys Of Summer' that resonated for me the most way back when...



Jumping forward in time, Marilyn Manson messed with my mind with his video for 'Beautiful People'...



And REM's 'Everybody Hurts' was an instant classic...



But Radiohead wins hands down. Check out any of their vids like 'There There', 'Fake Plastic Trees', 'Knives Out', 'Street Spirit', 'No Surprises', 'High And Dry', 'Rabbit In Your Headlights', 'Paranoid Android', 'Karma Police', and you won't be disappointed. All brilliant.

If I had to pick just one, however, it's their classic video for the song 'Just'...



A story set to music with a beginning, middle, and a 'What da...?' ending, this work of art ultimately defined the 'music video' for me.

So what do you think the man lying on the ground said?

"Come On You Reds...Come On You Reds..."

Kids with their mom and I'm fighting a nasty cold, so spent the past couple days rewatching the first six Cracker's...the U.K. Cracker originals of course...mmm...so good.

For the uninitiated, it ran as a series of movies from 1993-1995 (with a one-off special screened in 1996 and a further special in 2006) and starred Robbie Coltrane as Dr Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald, a troubled criminal psychologist brought in to assist the Manchester Police Force interview, profile, and catch killers. It ranks right up with the 'Prime Suspect' series as some of the best of British television.



Character-driven 'open mysteries' - not so much 'who done its' as 'why done its' - they were filled with nifty plot twists, usually in the personal stories as opposed to the mystery story. Just the fact they are introduced as the creator/writer Jimmy McGovern's 'Cracker' should tell you that there's something right about this series. And 'To Be A Somebody' is still one of the best stories ever committed to film.


A young Robert Carlyle is terrifying yet mesmerizing as the working class sod who snaps, pulls a Travis Bickle, and decides to avenge the tragic deaths of 96 footballer fans at the 1989 soccer match in Hillsborough. His soccer fan chant mantra's will haunt you long after the program is finished.

"L..I..V E..R..P DOUBLE O..L Liverpool Are We!"

Sarah K at the Unofficial Guide to Cracker puts it rather well...

Everything about 'To Be A Somebody' is classic Cracker - McGovern's powerful writing, the interview scenes between Fitz and Albie which are some of the best of the series, along with the general interaction between Fitz and the police (most notably the still lingering tension between Fitz and Bilborough). At the time of its screening, 'To Be A Somebody' may have received a lot of attention due to McGovern's tackling of the sensitive issue of the Hillsborough disaster, but it without doubt left its mark and will long be remembered as three hours of the finest British television ever made.

Hear hear...if you don't have a lot of time, follow that movie up with the sixth installment 'Men Don't Weep' and you can experience an abridged best of this series in all its brilliance.

It struck me while watching Cracker how much 'Fitz' and Dr. Greg House are alike.

Unlikeable in so many ways, yet they manage to engage and intrigue and fascinate us. We 'like' them against reason and better judgement. Much like Jim Rockford (going waaaay back here to the Rockford Files), the surly snarky Malibu based private investigator.

I loved Rockford Files when I was a kid. Or at least I knew my dad loved it, and it was something we watched together, so I loved it too. A mystery series with requisite action (and those car chases), it was something of a revisionist take on the genre, grounded more in character than crime, and neatly infused with humor and realistic relationships. And they still hold up today - I try to catch it on Superstation WGN each morning whenever I can - with the winning supporting cast (Becker, Beth, Rocky...Angel!), and those wacky answering machine messages that led off each episode...

"Hi, sonny, it's Rocky. I got the bill and I've been trying to figure what everybody owes on L.J.'s birthday party. Tell me, did you have the Pink Lady?"

And that theme song....mmm...so good,

Rockford, Fitz, House...they all give us so many reasons to change the channel, yet we don't. What is it about these kinds of characters that turn our notion of the hero upside down yet still manage to entertain us?

The leads all have unpleasant traits and vices, are generally sarcastic and bitter, seem unable to keep any sort of lasting relationship...yet we still want to watch them. Reluctant heroes or Anti-heroes?


I read somewhere that the Rockford series was pitched as 'a private eye who would rather be doing something else'. Fitz and House appear to be cut from the same cloth. A psychologist who'd rather be doing something else...a doctor who'd rather be doing something else. I suppose all of us would rather be doing something else, even if most excellent at one thing...maybe that's part of the attraction.

I'd love to see Fitz and House and Rockford in their prime go toe to toe. Three brilliant bastards at the top of their game, trying to outsmart and outshine each other.

That'd be sweet.

Nicknames

One of my fav flicks of all time is 'Diner' - Barry Levinson's directorial debut in 1982. He also wrote it.

It told the story of a group of college-age buddies who struggle with their imminent passage into adulthood in 1959 Baltimore. Funny yet heart-warming (I'm sure even I teared up a bit at the end), it was filled with memorable dialogue like:

"We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia."

"It just pushed the flaps open?"
"Ripley's...I know."

"Carol Heathrow. She... is death!"

"Do you ever get the feeling that there's something going on that we don't know about?"

"I'll hit you so hard, I'll kill your whole family."

And of course:

"If you want to talk, you always have the guys at the diner. You don't need a girl if you wanna talk."


And these lines were delivered by a great collection of characters. With great names, and nicknames.

Steve Guttenberg was 'Eddie'....Daniel Stern went by 'Shrevie'...Mickey Rourke hit it out of the park as 'Boogie'....Kevin Bacon scored as 'Fenwick'....Timothy Daly was the straight man and thus just 'Billy'....Ellen Barkin as 'Beth'...Michael Tucker as 'Bagel'....and of course, 'Modell', played by Paul Reiser.

'Bagel'. Sweet.

Part of what made that movie, in my mind, was those names or nicknames. They all fit, and added shading and nuance to the characters and their relationships with each other simply with just one simple word and how it was delivered.

Which got me thinking about some of the nicknames I've had over the years.

Dill
Dilliam
Pickle (grew out of Dill)
Snake (don't ask)
Coyote (as in Wile E.)
Wilbur
Willard

But the most popular two by far have been Dix (right from high school to the present), pretty self evident .... and what yesterdays post reminded me of, and that is the nickname DCD, short for Dark Cloud Dixon. That one evolved from me generally being the mutterer around film sets and writers rooms about 'whether this scene will work' or 'how do we shoot that' or 'are we done yet?' I was a little surprised how quickly it stuck when someone called me that...but it must have seemed appropriate. And I didn't protest too much.

What nickname you give a character can paint them in so many different ways. 'Dill' or 'Pickle' suggests one type of person; 'Dix' or 'Snake' another; and 'DCD' or 'Dark Cloud' someone else altogether - 'Sauve' and 'Wang' something else altogether. Interesting. I'm sure there's a writing tip in there somewhere but I'm too pooped right now to suss it out.

Since most people don't post/comment with their real names this seems a little pointless, but anyone care to share the origin story of their nickname(s)?

Missing Me Magazines...

...I've always loved my rags, as far back as I can remember. So often, my day was made (which doesn't say much about my days) by the arrival of a subscription issue in the mail, or the trip to the local newstand when I knew when the favs were showing up.

But I was in the 'library' yesterday and realized that the most recent issues I had of anything was a Premiere mag from July...an Entertainment Weekly from June...and a Q Magazine from May. Hmmmm....

At some point recently, the necessity to have the mag 'in my hands' disappeared. I read so much on-line now, and can find pretty much anything I want quicker and faster and more up to date - the impetus to buy the issue whenever it gets to town has disappeared.

Anyway, here is a brief snapshot of my magazine staples...

Mad Magazine - my first subscription...Alfred E. Neuman, Don Martin, Spy vs. Spy...loved it

Rolling Stone - have read this forever, since the mid-70's...

Spin - went through a phase where I read it religiously, but that was quite a while ago...

Q Magazine - British music monthly - my rock n' roll bible for oh so long...

Entertainment Weekly - I bought the first issue of this and hadn't missed one since until recently...

Premiere - I also bought the first issue of this way back in the late 80's...

Creative Screenwriting - I have almost every copy of this...including the old old days when it came out as a small blue journal about 3-4 times a year...


And then there was Playback - the Canadian industry paper (except it comes out every two weeks and when you add the week for shipping what you'd read was so often yesterday's news) - and of course Variety, which I subscribed to (the weekly version) for a long time but again, as the ability to read what's happening as it happens on-line...bye bye.

That would be about it - and it's really too bad. Much like poring over the album jacket (or cd sleeve) of your most recent music purchase has gone by the wayside with the ability now to download our 'tunes', that physicality of holding the mag has also more or less disappeared. These days it seems to be about 'want it all and want it now'...and it's tough to go back once you've converted.


So I stopped in at the convenience store last night and got the 'Hot List' issue of Rolling Stone...something new for the library, for old times sake.

What were some of your favourite mags and where are they now?

SONG & ARTIST? - "I've got a freaky old lady name o' Cocaine Katy
Who embroiders on my jeans
I've got my poor old gray-haired Daddy
Drivin' my limousine
Now it's all designed to blow our minds
But our minds won't really be blown
Like the blow that'll get ya when you get your picture..."

The Sea Was Angry That Day My Friends...

...like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.


Callaghan over at Creatively Progressing threw down the challenge: 'What's Your All-time Favourite Scene from a TV Show'? Against better judgement, as in work beckons, I succumbed.

Man, what a hard question! There are so many...the scene when Angel goes evil and breaks Ms. Calendar's neck midway through Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I sat up in my bed in shock..."He didn't just...did he? Shit!"
Only that scene was topped by the Season 2 finale scene when Angel becomes good again at the exact time Buffy has to choose between letting him live or killing him to save the world. And she says she's sorry, and kills him! Holy shit!!

Or in 'Judging Amy' when Tyne Daly has to attend an anger management class, and after hearing people's petty complaints about being cut off in traffic or losing their keys - she launches into a riff about what makes her angry is seeing children being hurt or abused or abandoned by their own parents...so sue me! One of the funniest yet most heart-wrenching scenes I've ever watched...

Or in 'The Cosby Show' when the Huxtable family lip syncs to Ray Charles 'Night Time Is The Right Time'...

Or in the 'X Files' at the end of season 2 when Mulder finds a train car buried in the desert filled with alien skeletons, and then the men in black appear and seal him inside (or so we think)...WTF? :0

I could go on and on...

But I'm going to go with a scene from 'The Contest' - yes, Seinfeld...probably because I've thought about it, referenced it, marveled at it more than any other tv moment. After George is caught 'pleasuring himself', a competition is devised to see who can go the longest without...well, you know. And then...

KRAMER: Hey, look at this, c'mere. There's a naked woman across the street.
George and Jerry quickly join him at the window.
JERRY: Where?
KRAMER: Second floor from the top. (Pointing) See the window on the left?
GEORGE: (In awe) Wow!
JERRY: (Also amazed) Who walks around the house like that?!
GEORGE: (Suggesting) Maybe she's a nudist. You know, those nudist colony people..
KRAMER: ..Yeah.. (Pause) yeah..
Kramer slowly stands up, and walks out of Jerry's apartment.
JERRY: Hey George, let me ask you a question. In these nudist colonies, do they eat naked in the dining room?
GEORGE: I would imagine it's all naked.
JERRY: What about the chamber maids? Are they naked, too?
GEORGE: (Still focused on the nudist) They're naked, the gardeners naked.. the bellhops. One big nude-a-rama.
Elaine enters.
ELAINE: Hey.
JERRY AND GEORGE: Hey.
ELAINE: Well, Where's my money? Who caved?
JERRY: Not me.
GEORGE: Not me.
ELAINE: What're you looking at?
JERRY: There's a naked woman across the street.
ELAINE: (Chuckling) This is gonna be the easiest money I've ever made in my life. (beat) So, my friend, Joyce, is teaching an aerobics class. I'm gonna go tonight.
JERRY: (distracted) Yeah.. the - the waitress should've taken it back.
ELAINE: (Realizes Jerry and George aren't paying attention) So then, I got a call this morning. You know, I was, uh, chosen to go on the space shuttle. We're goin' to Mars.
JERRY: (Still staring at the woman) Uh-huh.
GEORGE: Have a good time.
Kramer casually enters, takes a few step toward the kitchen, and slaps a wad of bills onto the counter.
KRAMER: I'm out!
Everyone stares at him shock.
ELAINE: What?!
KRAMER: Yeah, I'm out - I'm out of the contest.
GEORGE: You're out?!
KRAMER: Yeah, yeah.. (off their reactions) what?
ELAINE: Well, that was fast!
JERRY: Well, it was that woman across the street. (To Jerry) You know, you better be careful, buddy. She's gonna get you next.
He walks out, shutting the door behind him. Jerry, Elaine, and George all look at each other, reflecting.
ELAINE: ..And then there were three.


"I'm out!" Wow. The fact that Kramer went back to his apartment and off camera, essentially rubbed one out, and then admitted as much on national TV --- I am still amazed today they pulled it off. And don't know if I've ever laughed so hard. The genius of the episode and the scene is that the restrictions of network television forced them to write a story/scene about 'jacking it'...without ever saying the words.

My all-time fav...what's yours? Better yet, tell Callaghan.