Slacker

Digging for Corn in Crap: A Brief Introduction

I love a fair amount of crap of movies and/or TV shows (and MAYBE more) that were once considered great to legendary but have in their later days turned to…..well….crap. So, in this series I aim to pick through the turds of cinema and TV that I still can’t help but love and see if there’s any pieces of “gold in dem hills” (such as acting, writing, under rated characters, good action, good writing, music or quotes and more) or if all that’s left is a giant crater of crap. So join me, my fellow cynics as I delve deep into such decaying crumbling cinematic fossils and tumbling TV shows as: Dexter, Halloween, Supernatural (post season 5), The X Files, Friday the 13th, Roger Moore Bond films and much more. Join me on this adventure, as we both become Indiana Jones of The Junkyard. I hope you come along and don’t mind the smell. Prosit!

The Last Starfighter Movie Review

8:55 am By Lawrence

The Last Starfighter was a really……interesting movie. That’s to say that while I really liked this film, I do think it could be improved upon. HOWEVER, I feel that I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Last Starfighter, is a cult classic 1980’s science fiction adventure movie directed by Nick Castle (who originally played Michael Meyers/The Shape in the first Halloween movie as well as writing Escape from New York) and stars Lance Guest (from Halloween 2). The film, is about a simple video game/arcade geek who lives in dullsville USA. However, after scoring a record breaking high score, suddenly he’s whisked away by aliens and must solve an intergalactic war.

One of the main draws to this film, is the contrast of the everyman appeal of Lance Guest juxtaposed with the epic nature and scale of the intergalactic war and many alien races. So many 1980’s films have dabbled heavily in using CGI; HOWEVER, this film is extremely excessive in it to the point of coating it in overwhelming crappy special effects. Nevertheless, like I previously said, the main draw of this film is the loveable characters and epic storyline.

Most film geeks, have frequently undervalued and undermined remakes and reboots. However, I feel that The Last Starfighter would be the ideal classic 1980’s movie to be remade. While the story is epic, yet intimate and timeless, it is also sadly lessened by aforementioned dated special effects. I feel that if a film maker of today with a love of classic science fiction and were supported by someone with that same love (like JJ Abrams or Edgar Wright perhaps?), but with the modern CGI of today. Then it could be the start of an amazing new space opera series (especially thanks to the success of Guardians of The Galaxy).

So at the end of the day, it’s a fun, all be it endearingly cheesy 1980’s classic, well worth a watch, before its inevitable remake/reboot. This has been Lawrence Gaines, from Lord of The Reels, as always inviting you to enjoy and share the love.

Slacker Saturday: High Fidelity and Clerks Review

8:28 pm By Lawrence

So it’s time for my first double review or double feature cult movie review or what have you. ANYWHO why did I choose these two specifically for my first double feature review?

Honestly it’s because while not only do I consider these two exceptional comedic drama movies but they’ve also really inspired and influenced me and made me the cinematic buffoon I am today and I consider both of them the bible/autobiography of the 20 something male in terms of what males of the protagonists ages (although John Cusack older then his 20’s) are going through on a personal level.

Clerks of course centers around two underachieving lazy clerks one at a convenience store and the other at a VHS store. Like Clerks High Fidelity’s characters are underachievers pondering their position in their lives while at the same time seem fairly set in their pop culture ridden world of working at a record store (which as a fellow vinyl collector I can very much relate to).

I think both spoke to me on a very personal and primal level about manhood and coming of age without having some sort of cinematic MacGuffin to get me to do so rather a sense of sort of self propulsion of seeing where I am in life and where I want to be and going from there. I LOVE being lazy and unmotivated I LOVE it but these movies helped me to see my inner potential especially the story behind Clerks of a lazy bastard like myself becoming an exceptional film maker with just a dream and a passion.

However in High Fidelity’s case I also greatly relate to the characters in terms of failures and inability to accept responsibility for my screw ups in relationships that I’ve misguidedly messed up helping me to realize that I I was the one who screwed up. Also on a more aesthetic level I envy the hell out of the writing on both of them and the soundtracks are spectacular so I couldn’t recommend either of them higher.