I've been seeing a lot of promos and posters all over NYC for NBC's new show Smash. I'll admit, this is not my sort of bag, but when jaded viewer friend Christina Rose dropped me a line informed me that Gary King's indie musical How Do You Write A Joe Scherman Song? is soon to be released I had to take a quick glance at the trailer (which is below).
Here be the plot:
Joe (Joe Schermann) dreams of hitting it big on Broadway. After landing an opportunity to write for an Off-Broadway musical, he is forced to cast either the love of his life Evey (Christina Rose) or his newly discovered muse Summer (Debbie Williams). The realities of show business prove to Joe that writing is easy, living is hard.
Christina is a brilliant actress (she was brilliant in Death of the Dead (see review here and interview here) and I'm sure she's going to show off all her talents: her beauty, singing and acting in this little slice of NYC indie film.
Here's more info via the Press Release:
HOW DO YOU WRITE A JOE SCHERMANN SONG is an original feature film musical written and directed by Gary King; music and lyrics by Joe Schermann; and original score by Ken Lampl. It stars the singer/songwriter of the same name Joe Schermann, Christina Rose (of Broadway's GREASE, Deadheads, & previously worked with King on "Death of the Dead"), Mark DiConzo ("New York Lately"), Debbie Williams, Jenn Dees ("What's Up Lovely") and Darly Ray Carliles (Jaradoa Theater). The incredible dance sequences in the film were choreographed by Mark DiConzo and Christina Rose. The indie film was funded primarily through crowdfunding (Kickstarter) which has led to a global fan base long before the film's release. Marcus Wolf and Edward A. Bishop of Flicker Dreams Productions served as executive producers.
Film festival screening announcements coming soon.
Fresh from the jaded viewer indie mailbox, I was sent a very DIY film by Brandon and Leia Gadow of Scumbag Films. When I say DIY, I mean it. Scumbag Films based out of San Diego is run by this husband and wife team and they do it all. Act, produce, write and direct. They've produced a wide variety of music driven films and in Homemade Monster, which was made for around $400 they create a musical revolving around that old reliable Frankenstein cliche.
I gotta admit, I've seen some low budget indie films but I've never seen a low budget rockabilly horror musical. And if I, the jaded viewer have never seen it, you earn bonus points just on that.
Homemade Monster may have been made on a dollar cent budget but it's got a mixture of indie spirit and a killer soundtrack that make it a Misfits song come to life. It's clear Mr. and Mrs Scumbag are amateurs in the filmmaking world, but this musical has lots of ambition and they don't overdue it or try to hard.
What you get is a funny, jazzy DIY film that's like seeing a garage band music video.
Oh yeah it's got boobs and blood too.
Boring Plot-O-Matic
Faced with an unspeakable act at her own hands, she attempt to rectify the situation and since she is frustrated with men, our heroine decides to make her own. This story is about her struggle to gather the necessary parts, put together and animate the man of her dreams. Music by The Jim Rowdy Show, who’s psychobilly rock and roll parallels our character’s inner turmoil but hopefulness. Awesome Review-O-Matic
Leia wants a man with all the qualities that will make a lasting relationship. Somebody who cares, has brains and of course has a big dick. After a fight with her boyfriend she drugs and kills him and comes up with the bright idea to make her own new super boyfriend by assembling them out of the parts of various dudes.
Well that's the the gist of the story.
The film which runs about 45 or so minutes is littered with rockabilly tunes delivered by Leia as she sings her troubles, her plans and her ultimate goals. Some are catchy like the opening number and a song where she seduces a bar patron. They all have their country twang sound with a psychobilly beat and I'll admit, it's a bit catchy.
The big number comes after Leia assembles a brain from a yawny professor, a heart from a chubby bartender and Johnson from a big ole cowboy, she finally finishes assembling her masterpiece. Now all frisky she goes all stripteasy, gets topless and makes monster grunty with her dream man. We get lyrics like "cuz I am bringing you to life." as she tries different methods to zap him to life.
However it gets kinda repetitive at times and with all musical numbers you expect a elaborate dance routine to accompany the beat. We get sporadic moments of a choreographed number but mostly it's singing with monotonous acting.
The acting and singing are all pretty solid but the glaring oddness of it all is the lack of budget. I'm not going to criticize the film because of that but it's pretty funny to see SyFy-ish rain and lightning, a beer can labeled beer and some cardboardy acting by the other actors. Some scenes were way too dark but I wouldn't expect we'd get proper lighting on a $400 budget. During a penultimate scene where our Mrs. Frankenstein wishes her monster to "come alive!" we hear a dog barking in the background. It seems intentional but I got a chuckle out of the homemade-ness of it all.
The film is decently made for a husband and wife team with no film making experience. They do a good job of getting set ups to music numbers and there were different settings. But at the end of the day, it's all about the music and as a punk rocker in a former life, I dug the tunes. If you enjoy listening to the rockabilly you'll enjoy this rockabilly horror music video.
I can rest easy now that I've watched my first ever rockabilly horror musical. I can check that off my bucket list.
You'd think having a rapper in your movie would turn out to be a big FAIL. Somtimes that's not the case. That's because your not watching the right rappers in the right movies, you know what I'm saying? Insano Steve already detailed how awesome Stickey Fingaz hip hop musical A Day in the Life was. Even I was blown away by the cleverlogue of seeing Stickey, Omar and WeeBey from the Wire, Michael Rappaport, Caine from Menace II Society and Treach (from Naughty by Nature).
So thank the hip hop gods, Stickey Fingaz made another musical. This one is called Caught on Tape and it looks fuckin awesome. And whose in this one you asking? OMG, look at this lineup motherfucka. Vivica Fox and Cedric the Entertainer are the notables in this one with Sticky.
Bust a cap and watch the trailer below.
Straght out of Shaolin (aka Staten Island) comes The RZA's Wu Tang vs. The Golden Phoenix trailer (news via FilmDrunk). The RZA, musical genius and founding member of the infamous Wu Tang Clan goes all homagy to all the old Chinese king fu flicks of old.
This fucker has got serious street cred my brothas. Jackie Chan's stunt team, Fight choreographer Robert Tai of 5 Deadly Venoms,members of the USA Shaolin Team, and starring Shaw Bros. Legend Chi Kuan Chun and Dr. King Ogun Ali Muhammad, founder of the Universal African Fighting System.
And it wouldn't be Wu Tang without 5th generation Shaolin disciple The RZA. It's got serious kung fu-ery and all sorts of insane action.
HaaaaaaaaYaaaaaaaaaa. Check out the trailer.
Have I changed your perception of the rapper turned filmmaker stereotype? Hahaha. Maybe not but what do you think of these flicks?
I'm joining in the festivities over at Gore Gore Dancer as Aleata Illusion proclaims it Buffy week this week. (its good I didn't participate with The Spiral Downward to Irrevelancy of Sarah Michelle Gellar post) I've been rewatching some seasons over again and I recently got to the musical episode in Season 6.
"Once More with Feeling" is indeed a precursor to Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing Along web short. It's got some great musical numbers with the notables being Tara's "Under Your Spell" and Buffy's "Through the Fire". I'll even say "I'll Never Tell" featuring the duo of a Xander and Anya is pretty sweet too.
But the craze this episode started after it aired and even continues today is the number of stage plays/musicals and final school art projects its spawned. Seriously this is some uber Buffy nerdo stuff here. From us Americans to the Brits to the French to the Aussies, we love our Buffy musical and we love to karoakey it to death.
Mind you, some of these are bleeding ears bad and others are actually pretty yabba dabba doo. Here are a few examples. First the big super crappy burgers.
the jaded viewer says: It's "I'll Never Tell" where the actors/singers are not even in costume and just seems like they never even watched the episode as they don't perform the little nuances associated with the characters.
the jaded viewer says: This Portland, OR version isn't too bad.. This send up of "I've Got A Theory" is actually tolerable.
the jaded viewer says: Sometimes there is one good singer in the troupe while the others are mediocre. Take for instance this one. The Buffy singer is super duper. This is a final school project featuring "Walk through the Fire"
the jaded viewer says:OK lots of big Buffy fans getting their kumbabyayas out. Some people don't even look like Buffy like in this UK version of "Going Through the Motions"
So what have we learned? There are alot of Buffy fans who love doing this musical. I kinda think its glued to the fact when that Super Mario Bros live action sketch went viral everybody copied that.
In any case, the musical is damn catchy and ranks as one of the best BTVS episodes ever. Now the best version is the original and below is a making of that episode.
Here's a making of the Buffy musical.
Well that was magically delicious wasn't it? So what are your thoughts on the Buffy musical episode? Like it? Dislike it? Want to make a version where I play Xander? In any case, for more Buffy fun head over to Gore Gore Dancer for some awesome Buffy posts this week.
[This review brought to you by Insano Steve, who while watching this movie gunned down 3 innocent bystanders]
One day while mindlessly browsing the YouTubes, I stumbled upon the trailer for "A Day in the Life". Little did I know, I had just discovered the best black movie in at least the last 10 years.
A Day in the Life is a Hip Hop, action-drama, musical film. The film begins as the sun rises, it's just another day in the life of Sticky's character and concludes before sunset of the same day.
The story takes the audience on a wild journey through one day as witnesses to an intense street war between two rival crime families.
Awesome Review-O-Matic Onyx: The producer and main star of 'A Day In The Life' is Sticky Fingaz from the famous rap group, Onyx. Onyx was a rap group from the rape and murder filled streets of Queens, NY. They first reached fame in the early 1990s with the hit single "Slam".
At the peak of their of popularity, there were over 850 members of Onyx in the wild. Although, only 2 or 3 of them actually rapped. The only requirements for membership were to be:
black
bald
angry
Later on, the hair and racial requirements would be lifted.
Unfortunately, by the year 2000, deforestation and erosion would slowly dwindle the Onyx population until only the 2 main members remained, Sticky Fingaz and Fredro Starr. With no space in the music marketplace left for angry blacks, the Onyx had no choice but to adapt and embrace the film media. In "A Day in the Life", they were the first to make a film where the dialogue is entirely in rap! Yup, the whole 90 minutes are rapped!
Plot: Sticky Fingaz (played by Sticky Fingaz), is a gangsta that’s been robbed by the guy who played Big Worm in ‘Friday’. So, Sticky and his boy, Fredro, vow revenge and many many many bruthas end up dead in the process.
In fact, more bruthas die just in this movie’s trailer than in even some my favorite blaxploitations! And these murders are fucking brutal. Lots of bloody white Tshirts yo! Rap: Oh shit. When I heard all the dialogue was rap, I just couldn’t see how it could be done. But damn, Sticky really did it here. To make all the dialogue work in terms of the plot (no matter how negligible) and still sound good as a rhyme, this really is genius.
One of my personal highlights were: Sticky and Fredro rapping over a cellphone, and the bad phone signal serving the role of a record scratching. Also, everybody in the movie raps. Not just gangstas. The cops rap, old people rap, white people rap, they all rap. And with the miracle of Auto-Tune, it all sounds good! Rappers/Name Dropping: Damn near everybody you can think of is in this shit. Best rap performance by an actor goes to:
Omar Epps (who wrote his own rhymes)
Michael Rappaport as he often does, plays the good cop (aka, the only white guy in the movie).
Back from the dead, ‘Caine’ from Menace II Society plays Rappaport’s corrupt partner/the bad cop.
Mekhi Phifer and Bookeem Woodbine provide some acting credibility to the movie.
Omar and Wee-Bey from ‘The Wire’ are in this, playing pretty much their same characters.
Treach, of OPP fame, plays Sticky’s personal arms dealer.
Even Ray J, who’s not actually famous, has a tragic/funny cameo.
Who knew Sticky friends with so many people? Cause there’s no way he paid them.
T&A: Good amount of booty shaking. At least one scene of simulated sex and bare breasts. All females in the film are either bitches or hos. Now, that’s blaxploitation!
Gore: Lots and lots of gunshot fatalities (the best of which is done execution style). Also, a guy gets stabbed in the neck with scissors. Oh yeah, and one case of vehicular infanticide!
WTF Moment:Fredro is shot in the chest at close range multiple times, which sends him to intensive care. Later that day (yes, same day, remember the name of the film), Fredro checks himself out of the hospital, having recovered enough to his satisfaction.
Perhaps, the bullets bounced off some bullets that had already been lodged in his chest from a previous attack?
Anyhow, upon his release, having not shot anybody in several hours, Fredro, unprovoked, unloads his gun on one of his friends who has come pick him up at the hospital. Why!?!? I don’t think anybody will ever know, but I definitely appreciated this senseless violent act.
Insano Steve's Final Prognosis: See this fucking movie. At least, for novelty sake. I mean this film has singlehandedly reaffirmed my faith in modern black cinema.
I had once been lost and confused. Searching for something to fill the emptiness in my soul that was once filled with rap and gang violence.
But now, I can say, once again, I am whole. Yes, I have found my savior. And my savior’s name is Sticky Fingaz, ……
Richard Griffin and his Scorpio Film Releasing are relatively new to me. I had never heard of his films until I stumbled upon Nun of That (review here). So when I won a contest, I got some other Griffin films as well which included Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon (not gonna review because I've been told if you don't have anything good to say....), Feeding the Masses (possible review upcoming) and this flick.
Well it was billed as "The First Slasher Musical" so I was hoping that I'd see some musical numbers in the same vain as Poultrygeist: Chicken of the Dead.
But not everything that's hyped can live up to the billing. Splatter Disco has some splatter, some disco and some big name stars (see Ken Foree and Debbie Rochon). It's got some decent acting, a slasher on the prowl and something I didn't expect. Furries!
Really furries? Boring Plot-O-Matic
Kent Chubb thinks life couldn't possibly get any worse when the mayor, his sociopath mother (Lynn Lowry), and the city council threaten to close down his nightclub Den O' Iniquity for "acts of perversion." Enlisting the help of his father, Shank Chubb (Ken Foree), Kent and club regulars attempt to educate the town to the community service function of the club: providing a safe and welcoming environment for all the oddball local citizens. Little do they know a serial killer has begun to pick off club employees one by one, and now even Kent's acid-flashback-prone hippie attorney can't help them out of this bloody mess...or keep his eyes off Kent's gorgeous wife (Debbie Rochon).
Awesome Review-O-Matic
I'm not explaining plot. I mean it's right up there. As we meet all the deviant characters of the Den O Iniquity, they are pretty interesting. Lots of them are regulars in Griffin films (many of them are in Nun of That).
So who are these degenerates?
Kent: Our Mr. Manager who wants to keep his club open so all these fetishers have a place to go
His dad Shank: the owner of the club and a sick old dancing man
Danni: A Furry who wants to be loved
Echo: He repeats the last line you say and is secretly in love with Danni
A bunch of other misfits
As the mayor's mom tries to shut down the club, the clubers start to get picked off one by one. Not much to report on splatter. There's a few oozey blood, but it's the PG-13 variety. But that's not important. There are about 5 musical numbers in Splatter Disco. The first one is the only one that I found actually fun. It has furries. So check it out below (not sure why the audio is unsynced)
The other musical numbers are a lawyer's lament, a few dance numbers, a Ken Foree number and something else that I don't remember. All of these are unremarkable. I had thought after the Furries number which I thought was hilarious we'd get more of the same. Well there's more gibberish and talk than singing in Splatter Disco.
Some of the dialogue is goofy Troma funny and it definitely has that feel. But the movie drags and there's serious gaps between musical scenes. Even the supposed twist only leads to a yaaaaaaaaaaaawn ending. Good performances overall by the cast and Sarah Nicklin is next door neighbor hot. Having seen this after Nun of That may have made me jaded but I had high expectations for this one.
I mean a slasher musical is a great concept. But unfortunately the music portion was a major fail. The worst part of the movie is now I got the damn Furries lyrics stuck in my head. Arghhhh!
I think these are the lyrics. Chimpanzees in the zoo do it Some courageous kangaroos do it Let's do it, let's fall in love
???? do it Bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love
I'm sure giraffes on the slide do it Every hippotamus do it Let's do it, let's fall in love.........
The other lyrics are pretty funny as it goes along.
I've been seeing a lot of promos and posters all over NYC for NBC's new show Smash. I'll admit, this is not my sort of bag, but when jaded viewer friend Christina Rose dropped me a line informed me that Gary King's indie musical How Do You Write A Joe Scherman Song? is soon to be released I had to take a quick glance at the trailer (which is below).
