I notice the strangest things when people die

Heath Ledger was born on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and died the day after the celebration of his birth. A random thought for an inexplicable death.

I didn’t know the man personally and have no clue as to why he is gone. Thousands of people lose their lives in their prime but ledger’s celebrity means that more people will know and care that he’s gone. I can not say I’m sad to hear the news just bewildered.

I’m not a sentimentalist if you hadn’t already guessed. I’m very dispassionate when comes to death. My greatest concern is for the people he leaves behind. My heart goes out to his daughter Matilda Rose. I can’t imagine growing up in a world full of people who think they know your father when all your memories of him stop at age two.

When I spoke to Herbie today we both had to agree that this reminded us of Brandon Lee’s death. Both were 28 and had a career changing comic book movie pending. ‘The Crow’ was well received and Brandon’s tragic end help cement it as an iconic fan movie. Ledger on the other hand had an established career and an Oscar nomination to his name. He was currently working on Terry Gilliam’s ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’. Word is Ledger finished principal photography on this film and was in New York for a short vacation before going back to finish effects shots. They were able to digitally add Lee where needed for ‘The Crow’ in ’94 so we may be hearing about Ledger again in ’09. For now we have six months till see what may be his final performance.

Early reports have Ledger’s role as the ‘Joker’ being transcendent. This was not going to be your father’s Joker or even you grandfather’s. Word is that Ledger’s Joker steals the movie in a cheerfully psychotic way. Not Cesar Romero’s buffoon or Nicholson’s Punchinello. If what has been said is true Heath Ledger has made the character his by using dry wit and a whet stone to carve out his own brand of humor. I’ll let you know if this is true after July 18th.

Heath Ledger has attained the eternal youth that is cinema and joins the list of Nick Romano’s many acolytes.

“Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse”
Heath Ledger
4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008

-C J

Movie Review: Cloverfield

The viral marketing campaign for this movie worked. It got me and a bunch of other people to go watch it this weekend. The posters have been everywhere, you know the one with the Statue of Liberty having her head torn off by something that’s left an incredible wake and it’s veering towards land. Now, I won’t spoil the show, go see it and you’ll be shocked by the very real thrills. It’s a monster movie, not at all cheesy like the Godzilla movie that it is clearly based on. Well, scratch that, as an updated version of the original Gojira, well that I can accept. Just know that Mathew Broderick won’t be mugging in this movie. You won’t recognize any of the young actors in this movie, it’s not really that kind of movie.

What it is, as has been described before, is a classic Monster Eats Tokyo movie but shot with a handheld camera. Ooh. Yeah, if you get motion sickness really easily, well I’d recommend 27 Dresses or somesuch. The cast is bright and telegenic, hungry you might say (I’d give a sandwich to a couple of the female leads), but not as annoying as in most twenty-something dramas. It starts off at a sending off party for the male lead, a schlubby everyman who is getting a new job in (yes, wink wink Japan), and as the relationships are set up and delineated really well I might add, the tone of the movie changes with a rumble and a roar. Cool.

I have to say, giant monster movies are my favorite genre. Godzilla, Rodan, King Kong, even Gamera the Flying Turtle for godsakes. I love King Ghidra, Mothra, and any Beast from 40,000 fathoms. I used to go to Echo Park here in Los Angeles as a kid, look into the murky water and wonder if there was some Giant Squid monster living in its man-made depths. Ok 30 feet deep but that’s a lot for an 8 year old. I love the cheesy sets, the flyovers by jet planes shooting missiles, even the scene where the tiny tanks come rolling through the town with the military music in the background shooting at the monster, and only angering it. None of those scenes are in the movie. Well, they are but just not in the way you’re used to seeing them.

The script is really clever in that it sets up a premise, like Blair Witch Project I guess, that the action on screen is just what’s being shot by Hud: the best friend of the main character Rob. It takes place mostly in real time and the events happen “naturalistically” as you really can’t use the term realistic in this sort of movie and there are some leaps in logic at times and the monster was handled very well, shot in glimpses and shadows mostly until the end, and very well realized. This is not your grandfather’s rubber suit, or your dad’s bad CGI.

I wasn’t disappointed, it was short and succinct and apparently sets up a sequel from what I’ve read just now getting back home. Take that and make it what you will.

B+
- Herbie

Neuromancer

Joseph Kahn + Hayden Christensen = Neuromancer.

C>:_error Count Zero Interrupt

Sorry can’t make this equation work. The rumors attached to the Neuromancer movie just make me cringe at what’s happening to the icons of my youth. I read the book twice my senior year of high school and thought William Gibson had created a window to the future. So forgive me if I think directing “Torque” does not give you the background necessary to take on the novel that that foresaw the growth of Fascism as we interfaced more with our computers. Maybe the producer saw the chase scene it “Matrix II” and thought that was the whole of what cyberpunk was about. I could be wrong but it would explain a lot. Cyberpunk is just an umbrella term invented by critics to pigeonhole the fiction of the mid to late 80’s that looked past Orwellian fears of government oppression and predicted the growth of corporate control.

In Neuromancer William Gibson looked past Glasnost and saw the looming specter of a global economy that sought to control the masses through the use of an innocuous device; the personal computer. I look at Neuromancer’s empty IDMb page and pray that the rumors are just that; rumors. Oh, if you’re looking for me to shoot down Hayden Christensen, I’ll hold my venom till I see the film. Case is a whiney little punk who occasionally borrows a pair of balls from Molly Millions. I do reserve the right to tear into him if they completely miscast ‘Rose Kolodny’. The Molly/Case relation is crucial to the story. It could always be worse, of course. They could cast Ashton Kutcher and make a comedy/thriller. They could really pull in the kids by renaming the project “Cyberpunk’d” Dear God if this comes to pass, kill me.