Film things...

So I've decided to start writing again after this protracted hiatus, finally being inspired with new thoughts of how to improve the script instead of wallowing in a bottomless pit of self doubt and disgust and your basic no frills neurosis. Ironically it was the most mainsteam of all stuff that inspired me with new things to consider; I was watching the recent War of the Worlds and Ant had me reading a blog he likes explaining why things like Indiana Jones (the first one, we do not acknowledge the Crystal Blah film) and Die Hard are good scripts. I realised a few scenes I was writing are misplaced - for one thing the tone changes after a death far too quickly and I need to think of an appropriate scene to go between the death and the following U turn. Also it's becoming more and more apparent that I like my secondary characters much more than the actual main characters. I know why, and I know why I'm finding it hard to change the main characters, but I'm almost amused by how bland I'm keeping them. I'll figure out why I'm amused later.

On another note I've been reading up on Toronto Underground Cinema's current Defending the Indefensible films; I love this idea, I can't get over how great it would be to do this here. There are some films I'd love to show under the guise of defending it, skirting the line between genuine debate and good natured entertainment. Maybe it's because I love a good argument, I love a situation in which arguing one side with both facts, details, citations as well as good old fashioned bias, opinion and unfounded passion is allowed, encouraged. Maybe it's just because I love alot of crappy movies, or movies maintained to be crappy that I still really love :D

I really do. This is no secret since I was a teenager. I watch lots of movies over and over; I am one of those people who'll watch a film I like dozens of times, and there probably are a few I've seen over a hundred times. The only difference between one of my favourite good films and one of my favourite crappy films is I'll have seen a little less than the good favourite. And often I'll have seen the crappy film I enjoy more than a classic I just respect. I've seen She-Devil, like, 10 times. I've seen French Connection once.

One film that everyone reviles that I would happily stand in front of a room of people telling me I've got no taste or I'm fucking crazy is Showgirls. I guess a film like Showgirls is so niche it'd never be included on something like that, but if it would I'd fight that baby right to the end! I won't go in to why much here, but suffice to say that yes, I think it's misunderstood, but no, not to the extent that I actually watch the whole movie regularly because each scene is so tongue in cheek that it's actively funny each and every time. The concept more than the scenes themselves are funny - it's almost socratic the way the production works. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for all the pre-production meetings leading up to a greenlight vs. the company response afterwards. They wanted a movie like a porno, but with no real sex so it isn't actually a porn movie and can be released mainsteam and get all audiences. Well, that's what they got, a movie like a porno but with no real sex - bad acting, bad character arcs, bad dialogue, bad dancing, bad everything, but without the one thing porn is designed for. Love it.