Attention New Yorkers, Los Angelenos, Philadelphiacs, Atlantians, Chicagoians and Seattleors:
I got an email from BLACK DYNAMITE co-writer/director (and one time outlawvern.com commenter) Scott Sanders. As I feared, he says the lack of a serious advertising budget is resulting in low ticket sales, and “Unless word gets out about the film soon, we have very little chance of surviving the weekend.”
It turns out that having the trailer online and showing the ad one time on BET doesn’t get everybody’s attention. Just ours.
Sorry for the infomercial but I have an interest in this doing well because 1) I want to see a sequel and 2) your life will be made better by seeing this movie, and I am a humanitarian. So here is my outlaw guarantee: if you go pay full price to see it this week and you regret it, contact me. In lieu of a refund I promise to review the movie of your choice. Even if it’s the fucking Boondock Saints or some shit like that, I’ll do it for you. But I probly won’t have to because this movie will kick your ass and grow you a mustache.
In other BLACK DYNAMITE news, the soundtrack and score albums finally came out this week. They didn’t get them at my local record store though, so I have them on order. But I’m listening to them online right now – skip over that hip hop remix (not sure what that’s about) and you can hear what’s actually on the albums. The soundtrack is the original songs by Adrian Younge and the score is all library music, which explains part of why the music sounds so authentic – it is authentic. But listening to those Adrian Younge songs, I swear I forget it’s not one of the vintage collections I have – even the recording quality sounds 1976. That attention to detail is part of what makes the movie so great.
links and more info if you click the ‘click here’ thing
One year before PREDATOR, two years before DIE HARD, John McTiernan wrote and directed this unusual thriller about ghostly demons or demonic ghosts. (Actually I thought they were ghosts, but the back of the DVD calls them demons. So let’s split the difference.) NOMADS stars Lesley-Anne Down as Dr. Flax, recently moved to L.A. One night after 32 hours on shift she sees a patient covered in blood, babbling in French, so crazed that they have to cuff him. He’s played by “Pierce Brosnan, the star of REMINGTON STEELE like you’ve never seen him before” according to the trailer narrator.
Well, say hello to the bad guy. The wet blanket, the party pooper, parade pisser, Gloomy Gus, Whiny Waldorf, Joyless Jim, Bum-out Benjamin. I’m talking about me here, the guy who achieved the dubious record of “First Person Not To Like [REC] Very Much.” Sorry guys. Didn’t think it would be me, so I didn’t prepare a speech.
Loosely based on Hanna-Barbera’s YOGI BEAR, GRIZZLY is the story of an uptight forest ranger (Christopher George) who just can’t stand that a bear is running around his woods living the free, unencumbered life of fun that his conformist philosophy won’t allow him. This is the more realistic BATMAN BEGINS version though so Yogi doesn’t talk or wear a hat or tie. Instead he’s 15 feet tall and weighs over a ton. Instead of stealing pic-a-nic baskets he steals people, by which I mean he eats them. Boo Boo is not a major character but is represented by a bear cub who some yokel hunters decide to capture and use as bait for Yogi. Yogi’s wiseass response? He eats Boo Boo. 
HALLOWEEN III isn’t the worst HALLOWEEN sequel, but it’s probly the most hated because it’s a new story unrelated to Michael Myers. Producer John Carpenter had this knuckleheaded idea that it was better to treat it like an anthology series, each one a new story having something to do with the holiday. What he didn’t consider seriously enough, maybe because he’s too modest, is that the first HALLOWEEN is a masterpiece and not a whole lot of stories or concepts feel worthy of being in the same series. Maybe if he’d done HALLOWEEN III: THE THING people would’ve gone for it, but not this.
Here’s a pretty obscure one – a good kind of DELIVERANCE / TEXAS CHAIN SAW type inbreds-in-the-woods movie from director Jeff Lieberman (SQUIRM, SATAN’S LITTLE HELPER). Gregg Henry (Val Resnick from PAYBACK) plays a guy who’s inherited some undeveloped land in some mountains somewhere. So against the warnings of a park ranger (George Kennedy) he takes some friends up there to camp and check the place out. 
My early review of Spike Jonze’s WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is up on the Ain’t It Cool News. This is a new children’s movie, it is not a part of my seasonal search for good slasher pictures, just to be clear. Just a new release coming out Friday.
