I'm gonna digress a little here, but I guess this all still falls under the "scrounge" umbrellla. Just not digitally speaking, but tough...
Went to see something on the big screen tonight and they showed this trailer for an upcoming Clive Owen-does-Jason Statham action piece called SHOOT 'EM UP, which looks to yet another HK-influenced wannabe of the kind that I mentioned in another thread on Hong Kong cinema books, where Western directors seem bent on appropriating the style of HK action scenes, but none of their unique construction (as discussed to perfection in David Bordwell's book). I suspect Owen and Paul Giammatti might very well save this from being yet another cartoon HK-style poser....but we gotta wait and see...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YVoBrHRMWXA
1408 was the actual film we saw tonight, and it's yet more proof that the Weinstein's glory days, if they ever had any, are essentiallly over, especially in the wake of the GRINDHOUSE mess and their unneccessary desicion to shamefully dump Corey Yuen's guilty pleasure DOA into a literal handful of theatres so they could slap "2007 Theatrical Release" on the DVD in a few weeks (no doubt featuring another "expert" commentary). When they push pretientious twaddle like this over something that made no bones about what it was and could have easily recouped its production costs with even a modest amount of marketing, you gotta wonder.
Certainly 1408 has the better pedigree: it's based on a short story by Stephen King, and John Cusack is a bigger draw than Eric Roberts for sure, but it's just so obvious they stuck this in theatres now to grab a slice of the summer movie pie with a movie that word of mouth would have hobbled before the first weekend was over during any other time of the year.
It starts of quite well, with enough cheap scares and weirdness to keep you interested despite an early sequence that casts instant suspicion over everything that comes after it, ala FEMME FATALE, but around the half-way mark, it becomes one loud crashing "madness" scene after another, with at least two trick endings and a third one that's definitely too feel-good phony. I guess in light of the more sick 'n twisted trends in horror films that have been in vogue these past couple of years, 1408 was at least something
different...but man, did they ever sucker people (yes, myself included) by releasing it now! For some reason, I kept thinking back to the Keanu Reeves film JOHNNY MNEMONIC as I was watching this. Both films were released (and I believe partially financed) by Alliance Atlantis here in Canada. In fact, JOHNNY was very heavily funded by Alliance and when they realized what a box-office turd they had on their hands (many execs admitted as much in interviews after the fact), they did something odd: they released it into the busy summer boxoffice season nonetheless. Of course, it got critically clobbered and disappeared within a week or so, but not before taking in something like $15 or $20 million. Infinitely more than it would have made at any other time of the year.
That's what it feels like the Weinsteins are doing with 1408. Clever boys.
1408 does hold one item of interest for fans of Hong Kong cinema (yes, there IS a sneakier reason why I even bothered to mention it here). It's an extremely creepy looking apparition thingy that lunges at Cusack with a big hammer or something in a couple of scenes. The make-up
seriously reminded me of Benny Urquidez, so much so I had to wonder if it was some kind of in-joke on the part of the make-up people. What a cool surprise to see that it really WAS Urquidez playing the part! Freaky!
Clearly, I need to start scrounging for more bargain bin goodies to properly contribute to this thread. I'm starting to wander....
(I use Snarfer for my reader)
):
Although the digits in question don't belong to the stripper, the role name might be worth cautiously re-describing, as Mei Yim-hung is not the only stripper in the film. Not that many people are actually following her career...
). Assuming, of course, that the K-stuff will still have a berth at your site?