The Rogue Indies: July 2008

"Get Down on One Knee and Weep."

BERNERD REPORTS:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain. Time to die."
- Roy Batty

There are moments in film-making history when people got so close to creating the perfect moment, the perfect story, the perfect world that it could make you cry for hours just thinking about the loss. It's happened for thousands with "Firefly," and happened to me this weekend watching the director's cut of "Blade Runner."

If you've seen "Blade Runner" chances are you remember liking it. You remember the clear-plastic raincoat, Pris' wild death and Rutger Hauer leaping around in bike shorts - but probably, if you're honest, you don't really remember it being remarkable; it isn't in your top 5; and although you may quote it, own it and love it...
There was something missing.

That something, ladies and gentlemen, was a leading performance. A performance supposedly given by Harrison Ford. While Rutger was bleaching his hair and writing his final words; while Darryl Hannah was creating her own look and choreographing fight scenes; while Sean Young spent hours on her hair and Edward James Olmos put stark blue contacts in his eyes; Pampered Harrison's contribution involved not wearing a hat (in the supposed acid rain let me remind you) and cutting his hair days before production began so that 'they couldn't change it unless they wanted to push production back long enough for it to grow out again."

The production value on this movie is unprecedented. Pre-production alone took 9 months. The wardrobe, lighting, sets and art design are like nothing you've ever seen. And standing in the middle of it all is a giant turd of an actor.
This wonderful face is what we get to see 85% of the film - when he's not over acting his brains out fighting replicants. Is he angry? Upset? Tired? Bored? Dead? You tell me...

"Blade Runner" will always be a classic. A stand-alone in the sci-fi universe. But it could have been something much better. It could have had a hero, a main character, a guiding light through the darkness of the near future. As it is? We're alone. Alone with Batty in a dying, smog filled city.

And P.S. If you didn't get the ending even Ridley Scott himself says you're a moron.

Entertainment?

BERNERD REPORTS:

I'm going to make this short and to the point. I will not be seeing “The Dark Knight” this summer. I may never see it. And yes, I suppose I'm here to ruin everyone's fun.

This film is not like other films. Like “The Crow” this film is so interwoven with the real lives behind it, that one cannot look at it apart from them. But, unlike “The Crow” – who's actor died in a freak accident during shooting – “The Dark Knight” is a culprit in the demise of it's young and talented prey.

Mental illness is often ignored. Probably because it's so easy to blame on other factors like 'personality', 'lifestyle' and the infamous 'drugs'. It's just easier to accept that the person did it to themselves than flipping it upside down and saying that those factors are influenced by the mental state of the person. It's easier to say that 'All Hollywood is fucked up' and therefore the fact that one of them died is only a matter of mathematical probability. It's easier than facing the truth: the Joker killed Heath Ledger.

I physically can't watch it. Even the trailers drag me down into a very dark place. To watch a man twisting his mind into such a state as to make him unable to sleep at night goes a little further than 'summer entertainment'. A film is a product of many lives, and to detach it from that is simply naive.

So, I'll finish by saying: please really look at what you're watching. Those are human beings on the screen. A human being who died bringing this to you. Was it worth his life? Were you entertained?

Requiem in Pacem

Dark Knight lives up to Hype.

FRAN REPORTS:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I ALWAYS have a quote or a scene from a movie stuck in my head so with that in mind, every Friday be prepared to be enlightened by Tyler Durden, Don Corleone, Lefty, Jigsaw, Col. Nathan Jessup, Rusty Ryan, William Wallace, Jack Skelington, Spledini, Patrick Bateman, and many more. So without further ado, here is, as always, the good, the bad, and the ugly...Friday Favorite!

Joker: "Why so serious?"

I know it's a short quote, but it's still sticking with me. I went to see The Dark Knight last night at midnight....I was so excited. You know those kinds of movies where you are so anxious to see them that you talk about it, think about it, eat, sleep, dream about it alllll the time, waiting to see it in it's absolute glory, but when you finally get to said movie it completely disappoints and you leave the theatre feeling, well, angry?

THIS WAS NOT THAT MOVIE! I am putting it out there right here, right now...I don't care if you hate it, I don't care if you think it was wrong for it to be shown, I don't care if you hate superhero movies, I don't care if you hate Christian Bale... I thought this movie was absolutely and positively perfectly executed in every way.

p.s.- There will probably be several posts on this movie, however, this post is merely the Friday favorite, combined with my added emphatic recommendation to see this movie!

"...people always ask me if I know Tyler Durden"

FRAN REPORTS:

Tyler Durden: "Wouldn't do that... not unless you knew which wire's for what."

Narrator: "If you know then I know."

Tyler Durden: "OR! Maybe I knew you'd know, so I spent all day thinking about the wrong ones... ya think?... Oh, heaven's no not the green one, pull any one but the green one."

Fight Club (1999)

Director: David Fincher

Writers: Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)

Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter

I am not going to even try to summarize Fight Club in a few sentences...it would do it absolutely no justice. All I will say is that everyone should see this movie at least once in their lifetime. Go...right now...what are you waiting for?!

Fran

p.s.- we apologize for the lack of posts for the past week, things here at Rogue Indes have been quite hectic. We'll be back to full force soon!

"I'll Be Fat."

The Fatty McGoo of the Week!
And the winner is? Arnold!
The Fatty McGoo award is given to those select few who forgo the Hollywood lifestyle of binge-and-purge/lemon skin diet/liposuction and decide instead to age like a normal human being.

These Awards are in no way a call to diet!
We love our Fatty McGoos!

Previous winners include: Mr. Blimp, Marlon Brando, Lex Luthor, and Val Kilmer!

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR A NEW MCGOO!

You're my lawyer so I think you should know.

FRAN REPORTS:

Patrick Bateman: "There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there."

American Psycho (2000)

Directed By: Mary Harron

Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe

American Psycho is not the kind of movie that you sit down to watch for a light and fluffy night. It is an intense movie, but absolutely wonderfully done. The movie represents our modern theology, a huge materialistic and superficial movement that began in the 80's(but that we have yet to pass). Patrick Bateman is a man who has a pretty face, a chiseled physique, a perfect tan, all the latest technology, a job that earns him the big bucks...he is seemingly perfect. However, in actuality Patrick Bateman is a serial killer.

This movie is all about the fact that nothing is what it seems. On the outside, Patrick Bateman is the epitome of the perfect man, but his lust for blood makes him nothing more than an animal.

Yes, Hancock does mean John Hancock

FRAN REPORTS:

Well, sadly to say, I went to see Hancock starring Will Smith today, and was severely dissapointed. The sad part is, though, that I really thought it was going to be bad to begin with. I'm going to try and keep this short and concise without many plot spoilers beings that it has just come out, but if your looking for entertainment, stray far from this movie. If you, however, are in need of making time stand still, this movie is exactly what you're looking for.

At only an hour and a half long, this movie tries to present a range of emotion and depth that falls so short, it's laughable. And that's exactly what I did, I laughed. Now, I hate saying this because I'm a writer and I see something like this, and it was obviously someone's brain child. It wasn't the kind of movie where you watch it and are like "wow, what was this person smoking?" It was just plain bad.

With an out of left field twist in the plot, and un-believable characters (both good and bad) this movie was just hard to sit through. I was either shaking my head or laughing. I don't consider Will Smith to be the best of the best, but I do like him and I did want to like this movie.

Like I said, I'm keeping this short and sweet, and awfully vague, I just don't want to give too much away just yet...plus it's 1 am. Anyways, we'll revisit the so-bad-it-lapped-good-and-went-back-to-bad-again Hancock at a later date....probably multiple times.

Fran