It might surprise some of the loyal readers who regularly put up with my horrible grammar and run on sentences, but I can read, and sometimes actually choose to do it. I recently finished a book about one of my all time favorite films and decided it might be a good change of pace to review a few books I have read about the film industry. Below are these reviews.
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made - by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell- If you have never experienced the film sensation that is The Room then I urge you not to read any further until you have corrected this terrible mistake. The Room is a film that simply must experienced, no description can possibly do it justice. The Disaster Artist is the behind the scenes making of the "Citizen Kane of bad films". The Room is probably one of my favorite films of all time and obviously I loved this book. If you thought Tommy Wiseau was odd based on his film, you have no idea. Greg was a guy from San Fran who caught the acting bug and while trying to make his way to Hollywood met a strange guy from somewhere in Eastern Europe. After doing a scene in acting class together, Greg found himself the only friend of a mysterious rich guy with dreams of becoming the next James Dean. Against the advise of his friends and family, Greg becomes friends with Tommy and actually moves to Tommy's apartment in Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. While initially supportive, Tommy becomes very jealous of what he perceives is Greg's success and eventually moves to Hollywood to try to make it himself. I have read stories and seen movies about bad roommates, but Tommy very easily sits close to the top of any list for the worst roommates ever. After failing at acting once again Tommy goes into a very depressive state and "moves to London". Greg believes that this was one of the darkest times in Tommy's life and assumes he was contemplating suicide. As it would happen the thing that brought Tommy out of his gloom was writing the screenplay for The Room, which was initially supposed to be a play. Greg reluctantly decides to help Tommy make his vanity project and the book includes lots of great behind the scenes stories of the tumultuous making of the cult classic film. At times the book might portray Tommy in a bad light, but when it comes down to it this book is the story of a dreamer, Tommy, who conquered all adversity to get his story onto the big screen. The Disaster Artist was an inspiring tale full of many hilarious stories. Highly recommended. 5/5
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor - by Bruce Campbell - While I can't remember what specifically I learned from the book and what I picked up from the commentaries from the 3 films, yeah I'm that guy, I can tell you that it was a very entertaining story of the lesser known side of Hollywood, the B-movie world. Bruce Campbell is most famous for staring as Ash J. Williams in the Evil Dead trilogy, but he has also had numerous TV show appearances and has stared in an incredible amount of low budget horror movies. If Chins Could Kill tells his story starting as a child growing up outside Detroit who shot flicks with his friend Sam Raimi, original Spiderman trilogy director, on the super 8 through their first film together and finally describing his life as a full fledged cult legend. The book contains lots of very interesting details about the making of the first Evil Dead, a production that was so chaotic it is incredible that the early 20s rookie film makers were able to finish it, let alone create a classic of the genre. The book continues to discuss behind the scenes details of his career, including staring in Army of Darkness and The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. I really liked the details for why Bruce decided he preferred to make lower profile films and live outside of Hollywood most of the year instead of trying to push and become an A-list celebrity. It is refreshing to hear the story of a star who is down to earth and not super full of himself. The intro about Ivan and Sam Raimi, while clearly most fictional, is nevertheless hilarious. Highly recommended. 5/5
Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way - Bruce Campbell - His autobiography was extremely captivating, but I don't think Bruce should quit his day job to become a writer. Make Love is a novel from the man with the most famous Chin in B-movie history describing what would happen if he were to get his big break to star in an A list movie. While it has its moments of comedy, it is far from great literature. It is interesting to see him poke fun at Hollywood, but I found the ending a little too over the top. Would only recommend to big fans of Bruce Campbell, the type who actually think 'My Name is Bruce' deserves a sequel. To the normal reader, I would suggest you look elsewhere. 3/5
So that is pretty much the extent of my reading about the movie industry. If you have any books on the subject that you would like to recommend please feel free to leave a comment. You might even get a shout out in a post if I follow your suggestion (talk about incentive!). For now I'll get back to what the people love, reviewing films.
Ichi the Killer - Before watching Ichi the only movie I had seen by director Takashi Miike was Audition... so I guess I should have known I was in for a crazy ride. Similar to Oldboy, Ichi is an Asian movie where they apparently thought of a concept and decided to turn it up to 11 and see what happens. Ultra violent doesn't even begin to describe this film. Luckily the majority of the gore is done with outdated CGI so it isn't too bad to watch, but some scenes are still pretty rough. I think the most disappointing thing about this film is that in all its epic over the top violence, the killer is sort of underwhelming. I found Ichi to be more creepy and weird than actually scary. Luckily the main character of the film, Kakihara, is more than worthy of carrying this crazy film. Too bad Mr. Grey from 50 shades doesn't like guys because he would enjoy Kakihara. A combination of Netflix and Wikipedia would describe Kakihara as a "sadomasochist enforcer" who has an obsession with being beaten by his boss who has gone missing, when it becomes apparent that the mysterious Ichi is responsible, Kakihara is hoping to find Ichi because he "may be able to inflict the level of pain Kakihara so badly craves." There might be some parts that are awfully strange, but I hope you stick with this film because the pay off it pretty good. Honestly one of the most ridiculous films I have ever seen. WTF is wrong with Asian people? 7.5/10
Seven Psychopaths - I decided to watch this film because I heard it was from the director of In Bruges. While I remember liking In Bruges, honestly I watched in a period of heavy drinking and can't recall much about what made me like it. Nevertheless I had heard good things about 7 Psychopaths and was glad I rented it. The film is sort of like Adaptation in that the screenwriter wrote himself into the film after struggling to write a straight forward story. The writer director is very good at weaving comedy into his very violent films. Supporting characters played by Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and of course Christopher Walken all get very big laughs. Sam Rockwell's character's description of a possible final shootout scenario is utterly hilarious. It sound strange, but the weakest character in the film is the one of the writer played by Colin Farrell. All he does is drink and complain. Surprising that a guy with so much talent would spend all his time on the supporting characters and forget to give himself anything interesting to do. The seven psychopaths are mostly memorable, altho a few are a little less than others; the Vietnamese monk is clearly the best as all the characters openly acknowledge. Seven Psychopaths was a fun, often times very funny, self referential action flick that I suggest you check out. My only regret with liking this film so much is that I know I will have to go back and rewatch In Bruges. If there is one thing I remember very clearly from In Bruges it is that a midget is featured heavily in at least a few scenes. #TheHorror 8.2/10
Here's a video mashup of Sam Rockwell dancing. Man I wish I knew how to do that.
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