Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Near Dark (1987) - Kathryn Bigelow | Houselights #251

Transcript

Near Dark (1987) - Kathryn Bigelow | Houselights #251 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Welcome to House Lights, as we open up a new
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: chapter on a new director, the house of Bigelow, Catherine Bigelow,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: in specific, a director who has had actually Oscar wins
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and nominations in her past. But everybody starts somewhere, So
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: this week we will be starting our examination of the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: works of Ms. Bigelow with the look at her first
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: full feature, single directed film, Near Dark, a nineteen eighty
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: seven vampire hillbilly western, biker punk, rock drama thingy, whatever
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: genre you want to say it is, that's what it is,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: according to the critics. I'm happy to be here to
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: discuss Near Dark, movie I've loved for a long time.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I am a disgruntled father of the vampire pack here
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: and I have the spur wearing cool kid vampire in
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Darren Moser and the never to grow up and always
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to feel what it is to be a child for
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: all eternity Tristan Riddell. So, gentlemen, are you ready to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: discuss this little gem from the nineteen eighties that not
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: many people have seen but has garnered a cult following
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Near Dark?
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's very dark. I mean, we'll talk about that.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: It is dark. It is time. Yes, oh man, it
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: is dark.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I actually there was one scene where I said, I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: wonder if Darren feels like you can see everything here,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: So I can't wait to get into that part of it.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: But obviously I'm the old man. I saw this on
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: video way back in the day.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: This was like a.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Little lost treasure passed around video sort of thing where
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: friend sees it, and I'm pretty sure it was my
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: friend Mike was like, oh no, no, you got to see this.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: You gotta see this. He puts in the VHS and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh wow, this is a different kind of
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: vampire movie.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: But you, guys, this is your first time encountering it, right.
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: Yes, I mean you you talked to me about it
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: a while ago, like you Okay, So, fans at home listeners,
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: John has been pitching Catherine Bigelow for a very long time,
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: essentially since we started the podcast and we moved one
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: from h Fincher and Nolan and Anderson been years basically
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: since since Darren started, which which basically it seems it
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: feels like Darren has been with us since the beginning,
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: but that's how long he's been pitching it and we
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: we It's not like we didn't. It's not like we
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: disliked Bigelow. It was just, I don't know, like we
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: were just never in a mood for it. And so
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: you kept telling you kept telling me specifically too. You're like, no, Tristan,
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: I know you like vampires. You gotta watch in your dark, Okay,
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: It's really hard to find a copy. So I found
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: you a copy. John, That's how much I loved you.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: I found you a copy and.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Sent it to you, and.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: I didn't I still didn't watch it because I didn't
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: love you that much, but I wanted a viperation for
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: this podcast.
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: And that was today.
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: That was today, and that was the first time I'd
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: ever seen it, and I'd never heard anything about it.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: I didn't know what on earth. I didn't know who
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: was in it. I didn't know.
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: All I knew is that it was Catherine Bigelow and vampires.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: That's it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: That's all I know.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And Darren, were you surprised to find at least half
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the cast of Aliens was in Oh.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: My gosh, I was having Aliens. I had to look
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: up like, oh, this was the year after that tracks
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: because they're all I mean, we just it's not quite half,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: but it feels like a good chunk of the vampires
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: are from the Aliens cast. And I think we can see,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: you know, between the lines on how that came about.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Someone knew someone and someone said, hey, but they're still actors.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: They'd still a gig, still a job. Just because they
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: were an Aliens doesn't mean they're too good for this.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: And so yeah, we get some game over, we get
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: some fun in the sun, and yeah, but it was
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: in a way hard to extract that alienness because this
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: is the following year and they look just the same.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: And I mean, you know, sometimes you can see an
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: actor later, a couple of years later, and they look
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: different enough that it's easier to detach them from the role.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: But when it's the same voice and tone and they're
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: talking to the same people and it's literally the same
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: age close enough, it took me a little while to
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: to stop saying game over in my head. Let's put
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: it that way.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: That's that's fair, that's very very fair.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: I think that part of the prestige of this movie
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: for the sort of like the cult crowd that's followed
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: it around for all of these years is the fact
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: that it's it's.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Got the shine on it from the.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Fact that it was released very close to The Lost Boys,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: and the Lost Boys is a big, polished Richard Donner,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: big budget Warner Brothers. The direc of Superman gets to
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: do whatever he wants to, and we have these giant
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: crane swooping shots and Keifer Sutherland everywhere and cool vampire
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: makeup and all of that, and this very much feels
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: like it's a smaller scale film, So it's it's a
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: more intimate sort of take. I consider the two an
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: interesting counterplay with each other though, because Tristan, I'll throw
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: this to you. Do you see something in the DNA
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: of Near Dark that makes you feel like this is
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: very close to Lost Boys thematically as well as time wise,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: or do you feel that this the vampires here are
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: different enough that you don't see too much crossover in
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: worldview and stuff like that.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, like you said, I mean Lost Boys
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: is man okay, So like if if Near Dark is
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: a Western Lost Boys is a music video, yes, that's
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: kind of how I would say.
• 5:49
  Speaker 6: And so, like you know, like it's really like Lost Boys.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Is really stylized with Neon and it even has like
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Echo and the Bunnyman playing, I mean, come.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: On, and one of the best saxophone songs in the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: history of rock and roll.
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: Yes, and You're Dark. You know, it's it's much more
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: bleak visually, I mean visually.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: I mean, like you know, like Lost Boys has its
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: bleak moments, of course, but I mean to me, I
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't know, I don't I don't really see,
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: like I'm looking, okay, So, like I'm looking at IMDb here.
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: So like Lost Boys came out in eighty said, the
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: same year, obviously only a couple of months beforehand, and
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: the budget isn't that different. I mean, I guess, I guess,
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: I'm I'm kind of okay. So, like the budget for
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: Near Dark was five million, and the budget for Lost
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: Boys was eight point five And but when you're dealing
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: with numbers that low, and I say low relative is
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: relatively speaking. I'm not trying to sound weird, there is
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: kind of a big difference between a eight point five
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: million and five million when you're dealing with stuff that's
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: below ten million, especially with inflation, and you really see
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: the difference, Like when you look at Near Dark, you're
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: kind of like, okay, just for inflation, where did that
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: money go? Like, honestly, where did that money go? And
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: with Last Boys, you see it on the screen.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: I think, yeah, I think that's fair.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: But I think what it is as well is I
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: think you see and Darren, I'd like to get your
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: thoughts on this. I think that when you're comparing the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: budget like that, Joel Schumacher, who's a vet by this
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: point of making The Lost Boys, knows how to make
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: that eight point five million dollars go. He knows he's
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: run this ship before. He's like okay, and he has
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: that to your point, Tress in that music video sensibility,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: which is you know how to edit and like and
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: flash with as little as possible, whereas this is Bigelow's
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: first film. Do you think Darren, that's the key difference there?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: The budgets are a little different, But would a more
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: seasoned director have done more with it?
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah? It to kind of go to my first netpick.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: And this is just speculation. I want to say. It
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: almost felt like they had only one camera, like ever,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and so everything, all the coverage had to be shot
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: with a one camera setup. And I don't know that
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: extra two point whatever million could have rented us the
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: second camera, but I felt it from the very beginning
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: the scene where Caleb is talking to May, I was like,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: I was almost thrown out of it because every shot
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: was a back and forth shot. There was like no
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: two shots. It was like him and then her, and
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: then him and then her, and then him and then her,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: And I was like, where's my wide, where's my master? Like,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I felt it in a different kind of way. It
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: reminded me, kept making me think of Harry Potter as
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: so far as they had to shoot that in a
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: coveraged way because they were shooting children to piece a
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: lot of it together in the edit because of the acting.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that has anything to do with this.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: These are obviously you know, pro actors, but it it
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: just was jarring because I was like, this is how
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: you're putting a conversation together, a meet cute of two
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: of your lead characters. And I almost got a sense
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: that they were there on different days of shooting and
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: happened to be edited into the same conversation. It was
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: almost that bad. And there are other parts throughout this
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: that are shot like that, the bit at the bar
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: where they're tearing it apart. Like I never got a
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: sense of the room because we were cutting everywhere. Someone
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: sitting over here, someone standing over here, We're breaking the line,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: we're moving around like and that was the entire movie.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: So to say that, I mean, I say it almost
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: in jest, but I don't know, maybe an extra camera
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: for that white shot, for some coverage, for something to
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: cut to. I'm not saying it only had one camera.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: It could have had to it could have had some
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: other type of shot. It could have been a stylistic thing.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: But it felt it was like that. It did. It
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: felt like a TVD movie. I think that's the thing.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: Is that, like with you saying like one camera, you know,
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: like a lot of modern sitcoms where it's a single
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: camera comedy, they sometimes they just use one camera, like
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: especially if they were shooting on film, like thirty Rock
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: shot on on one camera, and Tina Fe talked about
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: how much she hated it because it was film. Their
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: lines set up, change film the other people's lines. But
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: then when you know, people started embracing you know, in
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: the same genre, like when people started embracing digital, like
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: with parks and rec you'd have you'd have both, you'd
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: have the close ups on both actors, and sometimes you'd
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: have a wide depending on so you could have like
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: two or three cameras at one time. Now granted this
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: is neither here nor there, but I'm just saying that, Like, Darren,
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: everything that you're saying sounds like TV, where you're just like, Okay,
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: we have enough budget for one camera. We do not
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: have enough time for a masters shot, so we're just
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: going to be using this one camera to get every
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: single shot that we need, and then we piece it
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: together and that's the movie that we have.
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: It didn't feel like they explored in editing.
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: It was very much like you know sometimes you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: you look at a movie and you can tell it's
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: an editor's movie, and other times you're just like, oh no,
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: like this is this is what they got, and this
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: is what they pieced together. They just found the best takes,
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: and this is how they progress the scene. I think,
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: if I'm interpreting what you're saying correctly, I kind of
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: got that feeling too, Darren.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, there's some parts that are very obviously adr
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: you know, to fill in the sound, which again, these
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: are all technical things. Like I'm not it doesn't detract
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: from the story. Or yeah, we're just acting, but you
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: felt it. It was very you know, this felt overall
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: a step above. This is not a student film. This
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: definitely has caliber to it, but it is it is
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a first film. It does feel like that, like there
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: is a and I mean, hey, I'm ready for us
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: to be buckled in. I don't know why it took
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: us so long to get to this director, so we
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: can just go through her career and see because man,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: like you said, we're gonna get to some oscars, We're
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: gonna knock it out of the park and not too
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: short of an order.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that one of the things that is
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: maybe endearing is the fact that it feels like a
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: first director film. For the bar scene, I completely concede that,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Like I think, even even before I possessed sort of
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: the more discerning eye for certain things, that bar scene like,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: besides everything else, the way that it's shot, the way
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: that it's put together, it's like the slowest moving bar
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: fight I've ever watched in my life. That's what makes
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: it feel like a super first time effort, because it's
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: like no no cut, Oh god, that this is like
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: an extra three seconds. I'm not getting a sense of
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: danger about what's going on here, and I think maybe
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a different editor probably could have gotten it tighter for her,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: you know, but who knows what the you know, their
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: working relationship was, like maybe it was no, no, no
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: trust me, and the first time director didn't have the
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: confidence to push back on the editor in the bay
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: or something like that.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: And the bar scene, it's hard because two things. You yeah,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: there's no, it's not building, and your victims are just
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: kind of standing there like NPCs, waiting for the main
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: character to go up to them. But I could also
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: see how you could get trapped in the edit where
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: you have to have all the kills, you have to
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: have all the you can't just have oh what, wasn't
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: there another patron who was sitting over there that we
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: just never saw again. So you shoot all this coverage
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: and you kind of get stuck in a loop where
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: you can't trim it only so far, like you have
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: to include everybody, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: this is like a fifteen minute segment. That's just what
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: it's got to be because you can't edit your way
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: out of it.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: So I looked up the I looked up the editor
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: it's Howard Smith. His first big movie was the fourth
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: segment of the Twilight Zone movie, and then it wasn't
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: until then he did a few other pictures and then
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: Near Dark in eighty seven. But after Near Dark in
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: eighty seven, he does The Abyss in eighty nine, and
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: he comes back to Bigelow with Point Break in Strange Days.
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: And in between Point Breaking Strange Days he does Glengarry
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: Glenn Ross, Oh and I and then he does Dante's
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Peak later the Crow.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Shouting Off, but he's also on a miniorit crew right.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: But the way wait wait wait wait, we're we're still going.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: He does the Glasshouse, he does Sonny and then he
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: then all of his talent culminates once we get into
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: the two thousand and four, two thousand and six and
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: he does Blade Trinity and Snakes on a Plane just
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: a one two punch, just boom.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: It was all starting here. It all built all to
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: those moments. Yeah, but you know, maybe it is something
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: then then where I mean, he obviously has some talent,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: and maybe it is like you're saying, Darren, it's just
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: this is what they had to work with. And it
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: was a first time director not getting as much extra
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: foot it just.
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: She needed, Yeah, get her that coverage that you need.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: And maybe maybe just maybe spending too much budget on
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: blowing up a truck, because I feel like we could
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: have gotten around that scene differently.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: That felt a little much. That that felt still felt.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: James camerony where it was like maybe you know, he
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: was giving notes on the script.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, yeah, no, no, blow up a truck.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: People love that it's really really big because you know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: we all know love the camp. We all know the
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Cameron loves to blow thing, blow up trucks as they go.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: I do want to say though, that even though this
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: is her big I should say it's not her first movie,
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: but her it's her first bigger movie. I mean five
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: million dollars that's I think that's like thirteen in today's money.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: That's nothing to sneeze at. Obviously it's low budget for today,
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: even thirteen. But still you can see her in this.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: You can see Bigelow in this. Like if you've seen
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: any of our other work, like if you specifically like
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: Point Break and hurt Locker.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: You have this.
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: Really, what's this RM? I'm looking for?
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: Like moral ambiguity, a lot of muchismo like she like
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: her movies have a lot of machismo, and I think
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: that's definitely prevalent here and in later films. And I'm
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: not saying that as a knock. It's just there and
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: you know, kind of like a sometimes frenetic camera work,
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: you can still see that. And you know, like oftentimes
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: we ask ourselves, we asked the question like, oh, you know,
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: like where do you see Anderson in this? Or where
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: did you see Nolan in this? Like when you see
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: no like when you watch the following by Nolan, You're like,
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: where do you see him? And I was just kind
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: of like, don't. I don't see it, Like I don't
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: know where we get this guy. But with this, even
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: if I have my own issues with the movie, like
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: I see Bigelow in this like I can see a
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: freshman outing and her fingerprints are all over it, and
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: I can see her grow into what she is today.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: I can honestly say even with some of the you
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: know what, let's just tear this band aid off, because
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: I know that Darren loved the night scenes here, But
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: even with some of the things where it's like, oh,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you know, there's a little difficulty seeing what's going on
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: in the darker moments and stuff like that. I think
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: there's still a color palette that comes through with Bigelow here.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: It's a very it's very interesting sort of you can't
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: quite put your finger on it sort of thing. But
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: like the way that the palette works with the background
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: colors and the foreground colors and everything. They never blend,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: but they all seem adjacent to each other. There's not
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: a whole lot of separation going on through a lot
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: of this, and I'm you know, some of that is circumstance,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sure, but it feels like a choice because I
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: think you get to, like you talk about Tristan like
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: hurt Locker and you know, other stuff that she's done,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: and you see that sort of similar palette choice going on.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: But Darren, let's go ahead, let's embrace it. On a
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: scale of one to ten, ten being I hated it
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and one being I could tolerate it. How frustrating was
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: it for you to watch the night scenes here?
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: You know, I gave it a little bit of a
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: pass because it is a vampire movie where they have
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: to have things happen at night, like, so I gave
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: it probably an extra two points on that scale just
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: because yeah, you're not You're not going to have all
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: of these day shots or even twilight shots there, but
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: yet you could still light things where you can see
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: people and understand what their motivation is. So probably give
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: it a I'll give it a five right in the middle, like,
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: and that's with a bonus point, you know, it's I
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: think it kind of leads to something else about this
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: movie is I think there's too many vampires. I think
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: the coven, the group, whatever it is, like, there's too
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: many people, maybe by one where I want to know
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: more about each one. I want to know more about
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: where they're coming from, and we just don't have the
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: time to invest in all of those characters. I think
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: we got a little bit, you know, we knew for
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: you know, Lance Hendrickson's you know, oh, Civil War soldier
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Bill Paxson was, I don't know anything about him, but
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: he was angry, probably maybe a cowboy, he had spurs.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: But for Diamondback, I felt like she wasn't even there,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: like she was there just to hang on Jesse's arm.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: So that I think leads to the darkness and the
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: dark scenes when you have just all these people shoved
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: in a car, shoved in a room, shoved in a bar,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: like it's almost hard to tell them apart in some ways,
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: not that I couldn't tell, like, oh, that's Lance and
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: so and so, But I don't know. Did you guys
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: get that similar vibe. Did you feel there were too
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: many vampires or was there just enough?
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I don't think that there are too many vampires. I
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: think that there to speak to your point about characterization
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: and stuff, I think the script doesn't support opportunity for
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: the actors.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: To put too much of a spin on anything.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: These vampires are I guess I struggle for a phrase,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: but I guess you would call them plot vampires. We're
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: we're in an age where we're very used to what
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: it would call story vampires, whereveryone's got a backstory, and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: it feels like they're fully fleshed out being in their part.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: They've gone through it man, and they're struggling with their
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: immortality and everything like that, Whereas you have these vampires
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: are I'm a vampire, I'm old and I kill and
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: it's like they're very surface level vampires.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I guess you could say.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Even if you compare this to the Lost Boys, the
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: Lost Boys all of those characters.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: You know, they at least work the balancing act of
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: there are other vampires than Keifer Sutherland. But that movie
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: very wisely balances the focus onto Keifer Sutherland and say
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: this is your antagonist and everybody else's his henchmen. This
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: script slash movie is trying to make everybody equal in
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: a sense and never succeeds. And that's where they should
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: have had more. I guess you could say they should
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: have had more Severins and Diamondback and Homer, like, just
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: swap that out for two more Severins, and it's just
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: like a group of jackasses.
• 21:06
  Speaker 6: And what a badass Severn. I love that name.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Actually I went to school with a guy named Severn.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: He spelled it differ.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: He was not a badass. I'm just gonna say.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: No, I think you're I love what you said, John.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Where they're plot vampires, they're there to move the plot
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: along because honestly, I mean, maybe you could say may
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: because of the meat cute, but who's the protagonist vampire?
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: It's a very much an amalgamation of it's the vampire
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: group that's the character, which isn't a bad thing. It's
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: just you don't get a lot of backstory like that.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that uh Adrian Pastar is Caleb. He
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: doesn't get he doesn't do a lot with the role.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to throw him under the bus for it. Again,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: I think it's a script function more than anything. I
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: think he's doing what he can or.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: You know, there's not a lot of meat on the bone.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's not like you said, it's not
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: his fault. There's a But the problem is is that anybody,
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: literally any actor could have played that role.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: And I think there should have been just a clearer protagonist,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: like I didn't care what happened to him too much, and.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: It was like that.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest problem with the movie is
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: that you don't really care. Whereas, again, to draw the
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: comparison to Lost Boys, because let's just embrace it. Lost
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: Boys comes out around the same time you care about
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: that family dynamic, the two brothers. You know, the older
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: brother needs his younger brother to help him out, and
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: he has his friends and everything like, and there's something
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: dynamic and interesting going on there, and they've moved to
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: a new town and there's all of this stuff. Whereas
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: this again is just sort of like, Hey, here's some
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: events that happened, and they're cool, and it's well structured
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: and it's interesting, and I think that what really comes through,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: especially with this watch, is what we've all been sort
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: of drawing the line to, which is you can see
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: where this is going to go with Bigelow, especially if
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: you've seen her later stuff. You see the potential here
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: so that I can under you know, sometimes you see
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: a movie that flops and your your reaction is why
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: this director get another job? But you see this and
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: you're like, I understand why somebody could watch this and say,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you a chance with this and see
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: what you can do with this point break in this case,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: and you know, maybe you can you can give me something.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I see some promise here of what you can do.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: The music is very eighties Tangerine Dream. They were an
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: unstoppable force for many years, Darren, Tangerine Dream. Did they
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: bring it from near dark or did they undercut the tension?
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah? This was just TV movie from the get go.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: You felt parts repeating you felt. I mean, synth is okay,
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: but it's also a cheaper sound as opposed to like
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: an orchestra, you know, not that you can't do cool
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: things with synth. I mean we saw that in Terminate.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: We saw that and some other great things, some some
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: little bits there. So yeah, it's nothing to write home about.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: And yeah, to to ask answer your question, did it
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: enhance the tension, there's no. There's no tension. There's no
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: tension this movie at all, Like really, I mean, they
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: give the guy a blood transfusion and he's like, oh
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: I'm better now. I'm like, oh, okay, I guess that's
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: a thing, and we're good.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: So apparently that was a studio note, like originally.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: They wanted it that in there, or they like, this
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: doesn't make sense because no.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: The studio note was they wanted it. They wanted a
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: happy ending, oh my gosh, and so like. So, so
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: May was originally supposed to die, and the lesson that
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: Caleb was going to learn was that, you know, like,
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: you can't dance with the devil in the pale moon
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: night and walk away unscathed. And then they're like, no,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: one needs to be happier. So they're like May needs
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: sort of to survive, and they're like, how are we
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: going to get made survive? They're like, okay, well you
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: give her a blood trenfusion and she's not a vampire anymore.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: They're like, Okay, if we do that to her, are
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: we going to do it to Caleb? And so that's
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: what happens to Caleb earlier on, and that's why we
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: have that. And it feels like a double edged sword.
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: So okay here, okay, I don't hate it, but I
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: don't like it either, but I find it interesting because
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: no one's ever done it before. And that's what I
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: really appreciate in this movie is that the transfusion, you're
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: just kind of like, oh, okay, that's all it takes.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all right.
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: But at the same time, like I said, you've never
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: seen it before, yes, And so that in itself is
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: interesting and it adds to the credency of it, of
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: of the credence of this being its own story, its
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: own world. And you know, like you said, John, like
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: there these are plot vampires and that's a plot fix
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: and it's just moving from one scene to the next,
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: like getting these people around, and it's just what I like,
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: if I was writing a vampire story, would I add
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: that in?
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: No?
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: Oh, because that's part of the torture of being a vampire.
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: Is that there's no going back. Well, this one is
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: just like, oh no, you want to live for a
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: couple hundred years, but hey, you want to see the
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: sun again, Just get a transfusion from your father in
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: law and it'll be totally fine.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Hey, you know, it fixes everything. I think that you're right, Tristan,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: that it has the virtue of not having been done before.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: And I think that that also added to its appeal
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: back when people were first encountering it way back when
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: on VHS was Oh, what a neat different way to
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: do things, because we've all seen variations of you know, oh,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: you know, they're not a vampire until they make their
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: first kill, or they're not a vampire until the third
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: night has passed, or there's always an out for the
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: person who gets turned. There is always an out. And
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: this is the first one that said, well, why don't
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: we use something I don't know, scientific and will replace
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: his blood or something. And it's like, well, okay. Like,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: if anything, it feels more than a lot of other
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: vampire movies even today, it feels more of an embrace
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: of the modern age to say, well, you know, modern
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: fix for an old problem, and it's like, oh yeah,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: all right, nobody just nobody thought of it before. Sure,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: like you can buy that, you can believe that. So,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a nifty fix. I think
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: it's messy the way that it's done here. I think
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: that it's too slow. I mean, that's the thing that's
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: really sort of gets under my skin about the movie
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: is it's ninety five minutes and it still feels too long.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: It feels about ten minutes too long.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: When I was I hear what you're saying about it
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: feeling ten minutes too long, because by the time that
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: you get there, you feel like you're burning oil. But
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: when we got to the thirty minute mark, I was
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: checking the time, which is not a good thing. But
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: like at the thirty minute mark, I was checking the
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: time and I was like, only thirty minutes has gone.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: By, which is completely different from we just did House
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: of Donner, and I, you know, all of us talked
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: about the fact that it's like, oh, I'll just turn
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: on Forrest Gump for a little bit, and then all
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, you're an hour and a half in
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: and you're like, oh, what what happened? Like you just
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: you're just sucked in as you go and again. I
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: think that's a function.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Derek, I think it's a function
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: just of the script. I think this is really a
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: script that needed another another pass. What do you think
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: that could have fixed it?
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: Maybe I have the same thing where I pulled up.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: I usually look at Wikipedia just to because it has
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: a simple outline, but it's not like spoiler spoiler, And
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, see where am I in the movie. Oh,
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: I'm only in the first paragraph, and it's like nothing
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: has happened yet. There's still so much more to happen
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: and it's been like half an hour. But what a
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: story pass fixed that? I'm not sure. I mean, we're
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: talking about major issues of like, you know, specifically protagonists, drama, suspense, pacing.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Oh you know, I mean, you know, by taking another
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: pass at it, you know, maybe it doesn't make a
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: ten minutes shorter or not, but maybe having him meet
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: may once at least before they decided to go drive
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: off in a truck together. She has some sort of
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: allure for him, and he's sort of like intrigued and
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: they see each other again, and that way you have
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: more time with them.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: I will say it would have been nice not to
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: add to the length, but something in the very very
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: beginning establishing our protagonist. What is he doing. Is it
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: just a Friday night and he's looking for fun or
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: does he have a job interview tomorrow or has he
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: been away from home a lot and he misses his
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: sister and now he's back on spring break and something
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: give me context for this boy in his life. And
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying you need a lot of time to
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: do that, but there was none of that. It was just,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: here's an inciting incident right in the truck.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Even though even just a montage of him, like working
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: on the farm, bailing hay, doing farmer stuff because it's
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: a it's supposed to be a part Western, you could
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: see him on a horse riding in the sun, you know,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: corralling something to get it back into the pen or
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: or something like that. To get that vibe because begins
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: with purpose. Yeah, right, best I can tell. They they
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: were dirt farmers, and they were very successful because there
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: was a lot of dirt everywhere and not a single
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: crop that I could see on this farm.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: So well, you mentioned genres, and in reading about this,
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: it sounded like, you know, they she wanted Bigela wanted
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: to do more of a Western piece, and they couldn't
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: really get a Western funded. It was, you know, maybe
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: not this story, but some sort of story. It was
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: what she was going for. And then this whole craze
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: of vampire movies are starting to come out and are
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: fairly popular. So she took the idea of, oh what
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: if we combined Western aspects, and I think she did
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: it successful. I think this movie does kind of combine
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: those genres fairly well. You kind of have the lone strangers,
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: had him through town, someone has spurs. I know it's
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: a little on the nose, but it's you know, you
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: got a saloon. You know. I can see what she's
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: going for there, but in modern setting. So I applaud
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: her for that.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: And not just any saloon, but a saloon populated by
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: the guy that later picks a fight with the terminator
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: and terminator too, which is really great. Yet another Cameron
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: connection there. But you know, I feel like, you know, Tristan, earlier,
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: you said there's not a lot of meat on the
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: bone with regards to the protagonist, I feel like there's
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: not a great deal of meat on the bone as
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: a whole. But what I want to ask is there
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: were discussions to do a remake of this, and it
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: was in two thousand and six they were going to
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: talk about a remake of this, and they had somebody
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: attached to direct it. And then in two thousand and
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: eight there was a film that helped put.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: The kaibosh on that plan. Can you guess what film?
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: It was?
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: Twilight?
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, citing that it contained a romance between human and
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: vampire characters and therefore it was too similar. Now do
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: you feel that maybe they misjudged it and that the
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: time for a Near Dark remake was exactly the Twilight time?
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Or that was that was exactly when we needed Near
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: Dark the most? Yes, I was during this time. I
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: as I was watching this, I didn't like this movie.
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: I'm just gonna rip the bandit off. I didn't like
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: this movie. I really liked what it tried to do.
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: I really like certain aspects of it. I like there
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: are certain things I like. I really like seeing Bigelow
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: start off. I really liked seeing her freshman take with
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: a larger budget. But I didn't really like it. I
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: felt like this was pretty joyless and just felt like
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: like a slog going through. But the entire time I
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: was watching it like this needs to be remade, This
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: needs to be remade, Like this is one of those
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: movies where I know that they like people. Hollywood really
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: likes to remake good movies. No, don't remake good movies.
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: Leave good movies alone. Remake the crap ones, or remake
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: the ones that didn't make a lot of money, you know, like,
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: remake the ones that have a great idea. But it
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: was either the wrong time, the wrong director, the wrong script,
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: the wrong actor, whatever it is. Jared leto the reason
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: Rema remake tron Aries. No, like this is. This is
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: one of those movies, and it was I know this is.
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: I want Bigelow to cecil b the mill this. I
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: want her to remake this. I want modern I want
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: twenty twenty five Bigelow to remake this film. And I
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: think the cloud that she has, the oscar that she'd
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: be able to slap the producers with. I think she'd
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: be able to really produce the script that she would
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: want to produce. And I feel like you'd have well
• 34:01
  Speaker 5: rounded characters, you'd have some amazing action sequences. That bar
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: fight would look completely different. Yeah, And I think it
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: would be a really obviously we're just talking hypothetical now,
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: but I think it would be a really great character
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: study on a director's growth. And to say, like, because
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: in my own film school experience, like my senior year,
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: the last project I ever did was a remake of
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: the first project I ever did my freshman year, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: it was a challenge I you know, did for myself.
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: And I'm schmucky the clown. I would love to see
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: an Oscar winning director do that kind of thing. And
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: I this is this is a kernel of a great idea.
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: And this is going to sound ridiculous, but Manos the
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: Hands of Fate one of the worst movies of all time.
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: It's so much fun to watch because it's so terrible.
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: There is a kernel of an idea there that would
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: make a fantastic remake.
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: This is one of those. This is this is no Manos. Obviously,
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: I'm not saying that this.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: Is what I was about to get agree about that.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: No no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, okay, I'm
• 35:02
  Speaker 5: not I'm not making that comparison. It's just that there
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: is a there's a kernel of an idea, there's a
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: structure of it that really would work with a modern retelling.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Darren, would you go see a remake of Near Dark
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: or would you say, bah, they tried it.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: Once I'm done, Ah, I would say it depends who
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: the main character is, who you put in that seat,
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: because as we've said, the actor they got could have
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: been anybody. But if they got the right actor, some
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: name that I know, can you know, sell family son
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: and kind of drifter, you know, I think that that
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: was what would put me over to rewatch. But I'd
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: give it a shake, you know, give it a chance.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Now, before we start talking about our final thoughts and
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: ratings and everything, you talk about casting Lance Henrickson was Jesse,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: but it was originally offered to another Alien's alum, Michael Bean.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Do you think that this is a better movie with
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Michael Bean or Tristan. Do you think he dodged a
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: bullet since he cited that he didn't want to do
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: it because he quote found the script confusing. Do you
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: think that Michael Bean saw what was coming and wisely
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: touched that bullet.
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: I think he saw what was coming and dodged that bullet.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: It was It's so hard to say because I feel
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: like so many of the characters are replaceable, and so like, okay,
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: so like, can can anyone name all the vampires?
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: So it's okay. So we have Homer Jesse, Jesse, which
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: is Lance Hendrickson.
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: Right, Severn who is Benny Jackson.
• 36:36
  Speaker 6: Bill Paxton is Severn, and then Goldstein is Diamondback Diamondback,
• 36:42
  Speaker 6: and then May have May? Is that that we just? So?
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: There you go?
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: Okay, yes, dang it, all right, I ruined my point.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: I thought there was a sixth line.
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: There you go.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Tristan is now mandated by house lights law to give
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: this an extra half start minim.
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: I will give it an extra half star.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: His rating will be half a star.
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: No, it's just I feel like you could, like, if
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: you didn't have Hendrickson, you'd have Goldstein, and if you
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: didn't have Goldstein, you'd have May.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: And if you don't have May, I guess I can't
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: really hear rid of May. But I don't know. It's
• 37:14
  Speaker 6: just what was the question. I don't even remember now.
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: You know what the question is? Really?
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: Michael Bean?
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, that I think I think it would have
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: been improved. I think Michael Bean would have brought an
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: energy that Hendrickson didn't really bring and obviously big fan
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: of Hendrickson, big fan of Hendrick Hendrickson. He's a fantastic actor.
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: He can do a lot with a little, but there
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: needed to be Jesse needed. Jesse needed to be his
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: energy level needed to be between Hendrickson and Paxton. That's
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: where that and I think Bean could have done that.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I think Hendrickson is a great actor, but I think
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: he plays a very uh, you know, he's a very
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: patron like. He he is a father figure. I think
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: that Jesse and Severn would be more interesting if they
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: were this roughly the same age, because then you would
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: see that dynamic because Severn says at one point he
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: drops a hint that they started the Great Chicago Fire
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: in the eighteen hundreds because they were partying. And it's like,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: I can see those two, you know, two guys who
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: seem like they're relatively close in age, even if they're
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: separated by hundreds of years. They have that similar It's
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: more of a brotherly sort of setup than a father
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: son set up. Paxon is no longer that the disobedient son,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: He's the ahole brother.
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: And that's the dynamic that they have going on.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: Now. I agree, I think that's what I was looking
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: for in the group of vampires is because Jesse wasn't
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: coming across as I'm the alpha and I'm the one
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: who keeps us alive, and these are the rules that
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: you have to do otherwise we're going to get caught.
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: There was none of that. They were just kind of
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: wandering around. And I think a dynamic of you know,
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Jesse and Severin being more brotherly and kind of like
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: both kind of wanting to be the leader, but also
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: kind of leaning on each other and kind of squabbling
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: and bickering like I think that dynamic would have been
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: very interesting and also had energy, and we did not
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: get that.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Well, one thing we did get, and I will say
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: that the photography, as much as we might have you know,
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: thrown thrown it under the bus.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Here and there.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: I will point out that the director of photography went
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: on to work with James Cameron on a little film
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: called Terminator two Judgment Day, and he also shot Ghost
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: and Alien Nation, which is a delightful nineteen eighty eight
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: movie worth seeing. Three men and a Baby, but Greed
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: most importantly also shot Turner and Hooch. So you know,
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: let's just keep in mind just like with the editor,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: this might not be the best work that was ever produced,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: but circumstances as they are, they all gave it their
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: best shot. So that brings us to our final ratings
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: and reviews. And because he hates it so much, I
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: will let Darren go first.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to give this a two. It's a
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: starting point. I know we're going up from here, but
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: it's almost there. In a film school study capacity, like
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: this is the kind of movie you show when you
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: want to not critique but just look at what is
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: working and what is not working, because there's a lot
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: of potential in your plot, in your story and things
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: like that, and there's just it's not hitting its mark
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: in a lot of places, and it's just very And
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: one last thing I'll say is vampire movies and movies
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: in general, though, when they establish rules, those are really
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: important because the moment you stop following those rules, you
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: lose credibility in your story. And I'm not talking about
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: the blood transfusion because that, even though it was a
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: stupid rule, they kept to it. I mean more like
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: the reaction to the sunlight, because when they were in
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: that oldmobile at the very end, like and they're like, oh,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: block it out. You know, you didn't block out anything.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: You're in the most windowed vehicle I've ever seen, and
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: the sun is streaming in as it like just jumped
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: from dawn to like ten am in about three seconds.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of I don't know, wasn't doing
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: it for me as they were. They eventually did burn,
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: but it took quite a ways. And I also the
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: fact that as was it Howard the little Boy, Yeah, Homer,
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: as he was heading towards his explosion and he's walking
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: towards us, you could see the station wagon in the
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: background facing away like parked, like not moving at all.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: But then it was intercutting with them having turned around
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: and heading back to him, and I'm like, but but
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: then you're showing a shot where they're not facing.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: But that's the only shot that you have talking about
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: some of the editing problems, And on top of that,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: maybe maybe that's a subtext where they were just annoyed
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: with Homer and they were like, Eh, we got to
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: make it look like we're going for him, so it
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: doesn't feel too bad, but he's gonna blow up.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: So you know, oh no, Homer, Oh how horrible?
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: So yeah, so rules and shots, so to two stars
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: from me.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: So, Tristan, are you going uh? Are we winding up
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: with half star with the extra half star or are
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: we making it all the way up to two?
• 42:43
  Speaker 6: We're going all the way up to two. I'm with Darren,
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: this is a two.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 42:48
  Speaker 6: I think this is a bad movie.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: It's just bad, like you know, like three. To me,
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: three is good, but it has its issues. Two and
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: a half is mediocre. Two is bad. You know, like
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: this this, I will never watch this again. As I
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: said before, this this is a tough slog like it
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: just it just it feels so joyless.
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: It just feels like you're.
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: Going through the motions and it just was I was
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: so bored and it just felt like we were going
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: from point A to point B to point you know,
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: to C to DD. It just felt like, Okay, we're
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: going to the next moment. But nothing felt motivated. It
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: just felt like we were just like listlessly floating from
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: one scene to the next. And I needed more purpose,
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: I needed more immediacy. And I really like the concept
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: of like this happening in such a short amount of time.
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: I love, like I said, like this needs to be remade.
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: I love the idea of he meets a girl and
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: she fights him and he's like, oh crap, what's going
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: to happen to me? And then he's just like, haha,
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: it's not just me. I'm a part of a nest.
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: And then he has a problem with that nest and
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: then they go after his family. I think that's a
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: great story. It's very basic, and I'd love to see
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: it again. This is two stars easy.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I think that this is not a bad movie. I
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: don't think it's a great movie. I don't think it's
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: a bad movie though. I think that there is a
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: charming aspect to it in that you can tell that
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Paxton's having a great time. He's getting probably no direction.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: He's just showing up and just hey, what if I
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: did this? It's like sure, do that, Bill, and he's
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: having a lot of fun with it. I think that
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of moments like that where it
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily stitch together as a complete film experience, as
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: it were, but there are moments of enjoyment to be had.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: Caleb in the bus station when the detective is you know,
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: harassing him and stuff like that. There you know, there
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: is some legitimate tension here and there. I can't deny
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: that there is some semblance ofst Alga about it because
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: I saw it when I was so young and it
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: was so different. But I think it still is different
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: because again, the movie that kills it from being remade
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: is Twilight, and it's like what, But like, the whole
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: sensibility of this thing is actually kind of cool.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: Like it's a punk rock version of a Nan Rice story.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: I like that.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna come with a three. Like I'm not
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: gonna watch it regularly, but I enjoy it.
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: I have a good enough time with it. So that's
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: where I am.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: But this is far from Bigelow's last film. It's her
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: first big budget film, but that means there's inevitably another
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: film to talk about.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: Darren. What is it? We will be discussing next week.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: Next week, we're ramping up Gears with an action packed
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: spectacle with nineteen nineties Bluesteele Here on house Lights
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Join the Revolution, Join the net Party.