TGIM - Bad Movies

I know what you're thinking. Mondays suck, he's run out of things to be happy about, hence this entry. Au contraire, friends.

One of the benefits of freelance (and the drawbacks) is that you can work around the clock. Feel like working, do it. Feel like taking a break, do it. Just make sure you handle your business, hit your deadlines, and maintain your professionalism. Freelancing is the ultimate ROWE. As a result, I'm reading more comics (or rather, catching up on years of backlog in some cases) and watching more movies.

I've written before about my love of Netflix's Watch Instantly service. It has its downfalls too, and they lie mainly in limited availability and the temptation to watch anything because there's nothing more invested of you than the time and the clicking of a button. There's plenty of great stuff on there, and I have over 200 movies ready to go. But sometimes I just surf through and find things.

This weekend I watched Garden Party, Conversation(s) with Women, and even the remake of Prom Night. But these were far from the worst of what I saw in the past week. The ultimate bad movie was taped off of one of the premium channels on our DVR, Wayne Kramer's seminal classic, Running Scared, starring the incomparable Paul Walker.

I can't even begin to tell you how bad Running Scared is. It has Paul Walker, which is always the kiss of death. It has a ridiculous style, to the point where inconsequential cuts, freeze frames, and rewinds take over and ruin any semblance of story. At one point, during a supposedly tense and pivotal moment, the film goes off the reel and begins to burn. Just when I thought the film, which began poorly and took a steady nose dive into awful, couldn't get any worse... The last twenty minutes is a rousing chorus of cliche.

It's so bad that it made me forget that there have ever been good movies.

But here's what I took away. During the opening scene, when I was already being taken out of the movie by its shit style and worse writing, I jotted down some notes. One thing they did gave me an idea for something totally different, and has now become the concept I most want to develop in terms of original IP.

Bad films often have the power to inspire. When someone does it wrong, you just want to grab the wheel and take control. Put these fools in their place and show them how its done. When I can't come up with ideas (which isn't often a problem), I now know I can just put on a bad movie and let the wellspring floweth.

Beyond that, bad movies also allows for lessons. Not every movie has a lesson in it, but most with any aspirations at telling a story do. What they did right, wrong, forgot, confused, etc. You get to see it all played out. Their mistakes become your laboratory. And if you're astute enough, if you've got the stomach to make it through... Film school is a Blockbuster Exclusive rental away.

Mini-lessons from each movie:

Garden Party - Give your story and the actions of your characters consequence, don't try to be Altman-lite.

Conversation(s) - A gimmick can make a visually uninteresting movie more interesting, but you can overuse a gimmick.

Prom Night - Pretty people don't instantly communicate characters, or even archetypes; give someone a goal.

Running Scared - Don't. Just don't.

***

Just to let you all know, I did wash down all of this crap with new viewings of Collateral and Point Blank. All is not well, but some day, with enough time...

Wednesday Dump

Worked pretty hard today, but didn't wrap the one pitch I had on the books.  Just trying to tweak it right, and... Not getting there.  Had a good call, sent a couple pitch packages around (one for me, one for friends), so hopefully someone will be getting the green light soon.  If not, I owe five more pitches (self-imposed deadlines) in the next 48 hours.

At night I caught up with Internet superfriend Tally to watch the Hawks game at some Buckhead spot.  Not super high class, as evidenced by a drunken encounter.  There were less than 30 seconds left in the game when Drunk Man stood right in front of the TV, completely obscuring it.  This isn't happening, I told her.  Excuse me.  Can you not block the game?  He looked confused as hell.  I apparently hadn't noticed when he almost fell down the stairs a few minutes earlier, I was wrapped up in the game.  Either stand to the left or the right.  Thanks.  He gives me this weird nod/shake and then sits at our table.  He is visibly tanked now that I've given him half a glance.

DM:  What's going on here?

RL:  Hawks game.  Hopefully they're about to win.

DM:  Is that interesting to you?

RL:  Indeed it is.

DM:  Tell me more about this.

RL:  Well, if the Hawks pull it out, I'll probably put my hands up like this and say, "Yeeaahhh!"

It's at this point that he notices the brace on my left hand.  Yes, I'm wearing it again.  I dunno, I get a twinge every so often when I catch my thumb wrong.  Has me worried, so I'm sleeping in it and wore it all day today.  He starts asking about this, and I tell him I broke my hand punching some guy.  Don't ask me why, I just figured he might leave if I either didn't give him answers he was expecting.  He asked why, then told me he used to be a pacifist and starts espousing his philosophy.  

He keeps asking why I hit the guy, and I told him because I wanted to.  Why does anyone do anything?  The Hawks have won by this point and I'm responding without thinking to Drunk Man.  I even throw my hands in the air and do the YEEEAAHH I promised him.  Tali is laughing.  At one point he gets completely serious and says to me, "I'll break your fucking neck."  Well, that's a horse of a different color.  I, of course, go with the usual response.  Awesome.  He's eye fucking me without blinking and I'm done with this.  If anything goes down there's a knife on the table and he's drunk, so I've got a clear advantage.  Before anything gets out of hand, management comes and kicks him out.  Before his cab came, he was sitting across the courtyard howling at the music.  It was all kinds of hilarious.

***

Little trailer park action for you guys.  Every couple months I hop on Quicktime.com and watch a bunch of trailers.  Normally so I know what's up, but also because it shakes loose the rust.  I came up with some idea a few weeks ago while watching these, but I can't remember anything past the ideas of the last 7 days.  In any event, I want them off my Firefox tabs and on the blog.

SUGAR - From the writer-directors of the excellent Half-Nelson comes the story of a pitcher from the D.R. trying to earn a spot in the majors.  I watch trailers like this and wish I had the guts to write more about the human condition without death and action and mystery surrounding it all.

'Sugar' Trailer

TOKYO - Not much to say.  It's one of those crazy art-house beloved multi-part films from off-the-beaten-path directors.  Of the three, I've only heard of the now mainstream-ish Michel Gondry (and have done no IMDB research to make myself look cooler), but visually this one looks stunning.

'Tokyo' Trailer

SKILLS LIKE THIS - Welcome to my future.  Well, let's hope not.  A failed writer turns to a life of crime, and probably finds himself in the process.  This looks like a hell of a lot of fun.  I also love the poster.

'Skills Like This' Trailer