New Year, New Stuff-

2014 sees me working on the following:
Writing Fellowships - lots of these to apply to within the first half of the year. These have done great things for a friend of mine, which has allowed me to see the direct results these programs produce.

Eat Geek Play reviews- Check my stuff out here. The list will grow as more stuff gets posted. There's four reviews already done that haven't gone up yet at the time I write this.

DDP Yoga - Started doing this. Will periodically update this with how stuff is going. Starting at beginner for 13 weeks. Check the guy out over at his official webpage.

Carnage Culture- A new video project with my friend John Reyes Cadiente. We did some principal shooting Thursday, but need to do more before we have a full episode - weather was not our friend. The stuff we did shoot came out looking great and I can't wait to have something together. If you like the stuff I've written on here about going to Olvera Street or the Bruce Lee statue, you'll like that.

Today, I'm going to shoot an episode of my friend Reid Ackerman's web series, Strip Club. It's about comics, not people taking their clothes off. This might include a FIGHT SCENE, as long as the logistics work out with the giant monster head involved. I'll explain more some other time.

-Casey

The Bates Haunting Review

Full disclosure first - my old high school buddy Byron Turk made The Bates Haunting, and so some of you might think that makes me biased with my review. That just makes you dicks. Nothing would give me more pleasure than endlessly tormenting the poor guy if I thought the movie sucked, trust me. The guy gave me so much shit whenever WCW would beat WWF in the ratings. That was like a whole year.

But I didn't think it sucked. I actually thought it was pretty good. You win this round, Turk.

I've had to watch a lot of bad horror movies on streaming services as part of trying to get to 365 movies by the end of the year. The Bates Haunting is so ahead of the pack that it's not even funny - it has actual production value. For reals.

But yeah, don't go into it expecting SERIOUS BUSINESS. The Bates Haunting has more of a tone like the Hatchet movies - old school styled horror, can laugh at itself, and hits the ground running so you're never bored watching it. Kind of like Hobo with a Shotgun but not all "LOOK AT ME!!!" about everything.

I hate when movies are all "LOOK AT ME WE ARE SO IRONIC!" It's a crutch. It feels natural here.

What's worse than a boring horror movie? Nothing. Even that, that you're thinking right now as you're reading it. Trust me, I've seen a lot of boring horror movies. I'd rather sit through a movie and think it totally sucked than fall asleep watching it. At least it would engage my mind a bit. This is a FAST PACED film that gets shit done in an hour and seventeen minutes. No ponderous tracking shots or staring at empty rooms for ten minutes. People do that stuff.

I can go on and on about The Bates Haunting and why you should watch it, and in turn, bore you out of watching it. I'm not gonna do that! I can boil everything down into one line that will make or break you wanting to watch:

TWO PEOPLE GET EATEN BY A COMBINE HARVESTER.

If you can't appreciate that, what are you doing reading reviews about horror movies? I have a feeling I know my audience and they'd be running to see the movie because of that alone.

You can see it on iTunes or Amazon Instant Video right now. If you've got prime, it's free.

-Casey

Let's Get Weird!!!

Check out this article first.

So...what exactly does it mean?

Well, it could be a couple of things.

First, I was like OH MAN DR. STRANGE RIDE. This could happen, and if I could pick from any of the possibilities, it's the one I'd want to see the most. It'd also HAVE to be in Disneyland, because Florida can't have Marvel stuff in the parks due to Universal still having the rights to all the Marvel characters for all theme parks east of the Mississippi River FOREVER (or until Marvel/Disney fork over enough to buy them out which hasn't happened yet).

Or it could be just a comic book tying into a Disney concept. What's the concept?

MUSEUM OF THE WEIRD.

The Haunted Mansion was planned out for quite some time before the ride came out, and one of the original concepts was a walk through "Museum of the Weird" where you'd see a bunch of stand alone exhibits that would display some crazy special effects/ghost stuff, then go to the next exhibit. It was a cool idea with some cool designs - some of which, like the demonic clock actually pictured on the poster, made it into the Haunted Mansion in an altered form.

You can read more about that stuff here, or check out Jason Surrell's amazing book on the Haunted Mansion - here's an amazon link.

Now, this concept is old as dirt, they wouldn't possibly think of revisiting it, right?

Well, they basically opened it in Hong Kong earlier this year as the "Mystic Manor"

Here's a video of it. Kind of a cross between the Museum of the Weird and the Haunted Mansion.



Not saying Dr. Strange couldn't be involved, and I hope he is, but I think a comic based on that concept is a bit more likely- I hope I'm wrong. Dr. Strange could be added to the Museum of the Weird concept quite easily, and it'd work great. Plus I'm a huge fan of the Doc. -Casey

Lucha Libre masks on Olvera Street

In this post, I talked about finding the bronze Bruce Lee statue in LA's Chinatown.

Another stop along the red line subway is actually its final stop - Union Station. Across the street is Olvera Street, one of the oldest parts of LA and is basically a tribute to Mexican culture.



One of my favorite things to do here is scope out all the lucha libre masks for sale; I'm a huge fan of Mexican wrestling, and the masks that the wrestlers wear. Each of these masks you're going to see belongs to a distinct character with a history behind them- I tend to buy the ones of the wrestlers I like other than just going for the coolest looking masks, but they're sometimes one in the same.

Keep in mind that the ones you find here aren't the highest quality- they're fan masks, and will set you back about $15 each, with fancier masks sometimes costing a bit more.



You'll see masks at various stands, but there's another stand smack dab in the center that's the hotbed of lucha masks and has the best selection.



Once you see this guy, you're close.



You'll see a stand completely covered in masks- this is where I usually buy from. The masks are the same price at whatever stand you go to, but these guys have the best ones.

-Casey

Casey's Movie Quest - Part 3

You can read the first part of my movie quest, and background on how this stuff works, here. Click on the movie quest tag to see the rest.

Now we're up to 11-15.

11. Warlock - This one was one of my favorites as a kid renting videos from the local Blockbuster. Sadly, it doesn't hold up as much as I thought it would. I don't mind something being unrelentingly dated - I usually enjoy that; I just can't figure out what my problem with it is, just that the enjoyment was gone during this viewing.

12. DC Cab OH GOD FUCK THIS MOVIE. It has Mr. T in it but this was a chore to get through.

13. Dead Heat I hadn't ever seen this before, and it's actually a pretty funny, good movie that nobody will watch because it stars Joe Piscopo. Look past that. Watch this. Trust me. It has zombies.

14. Slither James Gunn can't do any wrong in my eyes, and this one is no different. This movie is downright fun to watch, and is like a new version of the 80s body horror movies like Reanimator and From Beyond mixed with a Tremors sort of vibe. Check it out.

15. Candyman: The David Klein story Serial killer doc recommended because I liked Cropsy. Cropsy is awesome- this is just kind of hard to get through, though it is a look into a mind of a really deranged dude who wrote everything down - so you're hearing about how crazy this guy is from his own words.

I'd say this set is 2 for 5, with the two being Dead Heat and Slither.

Next time, we're going to see a really weird group of movies to put together - and more James Gunn!

-Casey

Instant Watch Wednesdays!

We're back for another Instant Watch Wednesdays, where we each suggest a title available on Netflix Instant for you to enjoy.

Casey's Pick-



Event Horizon

CREEPY mix of sci-fi and horror. There's some dated/bad CGI in the beginning but ignore that and you'll see one of the great unsung horror movies. Most people I know who have seen this love it- it's just not a lot of people have seen it.

Queue It!

Mike's Pick-



Identity

Does an excellent job of weaving all the characters into the hero's story line. Also shows how each character is a facet of the hero in some way -- literally.

Queue It!

How to find the Bruce Lee statue in Chinatown

I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan, from his movies to his philosophy, and when I heard that they put a seven foot tall bronze statue of the guy in Chinatown (This is the Los Angeles Chinatown, not the San Francisco one, FYI), I had to see it.

Part of the trip is taking the red line, the subway that goes from North Hollywood to Union Station in LA. You can get an all day pass for $5, which will take you to Union Station, where you can go to a few cool places, a couple of which I'll highlight on this blog. This $5 day pass is way less than you'll pay for parking at any of those places.

Once you get to Union Station, you take the gold line over to Chinatown. It's one stop and included in the day pass.

Once you get to Chinatown, you want to find THIS:



This is Chinatown's central plaza, which is located near the intersection of N. Broadway and W. College.

Enter the plaza and turn left immediately. There's Bruce.



There's also a pretty sweet wishing fountain, which you can see above.

-Casey

Casey's Movie Quest - Part Two

You can read the first part of my movie quest, and background on how this stuff works, here.

Onto the next five movies!

6. The Dark Knight Rises - while almost everyone I know loves the Nolan movies, I kind of feel differently. Sure, The Dark Knight was pretty badass, due to Ledger's Joker. I thought the first one was super boring, and the last one, while alright, wasn't really anything special to me either. Felt like a really flat ending to a trilogy that was best in the middle. I mean, the original Star Wars was the best in the middle, too, but at least Jedi was a satisfying ending, Ewoks or not.

7. CM Punk - Best in the World - I'm a huge wrestling fan, and this documentary is good enough that non fans should watch it, though I know none of you reading this will probably do that. It's available on Netflix Instant either way.

8. Drive - some of my best friends absolutely LOVE this movie. I just feel like I didn't get it. My favorite part of it is actually Great Wall of China, one of my favorite restaurants, being spotlighted in the movie pretty significantly. Otherwise, I just feel like the movie is trying to be minimalist a bit too hard, at the expense of me caring about any of the characters. Great use of LA locations though, so if you're from the area, you'll get more out of it. Saw this on Netflix Instant.

9. Creature - Movie about an alligator man that always has shit falling off of him for some reason. No, really- every time you see him, something falls off of his back. It's like moss or something, but they never explain it, and it's used every time the guy appears. Saw this on Netflix Instant.

10. The Devil Inside - alright, if you haven't seen this movie, it hasn't pissed you off yet, so I'm going to spoil it a bit for you so you won't get stuck watching such a shitty movie - there isn't an ending. They tell you to go to a website to find out what happens. This was released in theaters with an ending like that. I hope they learned their lesson as there was a bit of backlash against this. If you want to torture yourself it should still be on Netflix Instant.

I'd say I was 1 for 5 in this set, with the 1 being the CM Punk documentary.

Next time, we'll see some 80s classics, a new classic, and a movie I liked as a kid that I don't think holds up now.

Stay tuned!

-Casey

Casey's Movie Quest - Part One

It all started with a New Year's resolution.

I decided I wanted to watch 365 movies this year, and keep a list of all of them. They CAN be movies I've seen before, but they CAN'T be on the list more than once. I did this because I feel like I was falling back on repeatedly watching certain movies. This way, I can get that out of my system with one viewing, and move on to something else. This doesn't have to be one movie a day, but it has to add up to 365 at the end of the year.

As I write this, I'm up to 261 movies. So over a series of posts, I'm going to talk about the movies I watched. They're not going to be wordy reviews or anything, just quick thoughts. I didn't write any of this on the list, mind you, so I'm working from memory. Chances are if I have no memory of something it was really, really boring.

1. LOOPER - I had already seen this in the theatres, and was watching it a second time. I kind of liked it less after seeing it again, but I still feel like this was pretty entertaining stuff. It's also written the complete opposite way that we learned to write movies in grad school, but you're bound to break a few rules when your hero and villain are the same guy.

2. PREMIUM RUSH - Don't know why it turned into a Joseph Gordon-Levitt double feature, but he's pretty great in everything he does, and this is no exception. Great sense of speed and urgency in this movie, and it's a real fun watch. It kind of feels like Run Lola Run with bikes, and that's actually a huge compliment.

3. THAT'S MY BOY - Okay, everyone hated this, but I thought it sucked way less than people were saying. Still thought it sucked, though. I haven't seen Jack and Jill so I can't say which is worse, but man, it's way worse than the Sandler classics, obviously.

4. THE KARATE KID, PART 2 - Caught this on TV. Of course, seen it before. As a kid, I loved these movies, and anything martial arts related, so you're going to see enough martial arts films on here to make sections of this list look like Kung Fu Theatre. I do have a knock on this film for being kind of boring and slow; not nearly enough ass kicking. I made up with that for the action figures after the film, having everyone throw down in the Karate Kid Attack Alley playset that was one of my most cherished toys as a kid.

5. THE WATCH - Another one everyone hated that I thought sucked way less than people said, though I still didn't really enjoy it. I see why it had such marketing issues - the alien stuff was really poorly done, and they tried to hide it as much as possible.

That's it for now. I'd say I'm about 2 for 5 in this batch; can't recommend Karate Kid 2 unless you're having trouble getting to sleep. Next time, I'm going to have two movies in there that I'll have some controversial opinions on (since pretty much everyone but me loved them, but after talking to Mike he wasn't a fan either), more JGL, and promise alligator-human hybrids as well.

Today is officially Miami Connection Day.

Tonight, we're going to a a get together where everyone is going to be watching Miami Connection.

I've seen it before, and I LOVE the movie, which is one of the best "bad/good" movies that's out there.

The best thing about it is Mike is going to see it for the first time, and man, I don't think he knows what he's in for yet. We'll be posting our thoughts about it later, which will be Mike's reaction to seeing the movie for the first time, and me saying "But dude, motorcycle ninjas!" to everything.

That's right. Motorcycle ninjas. If this doesn't sell you on the movie, I don't know what to tell you. Why are you reading this?

Check out this trailer, which will get you pretty amped for the movie, if you have a soul.



Miami Connection is available on Netflix Instant, Blu Ray, DVD, and even a sweet, limited edition VHS. WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!

-CASEY

Instant Watch Wednesdays - The FP

Casey here. Chances are if you know me, I've told you to watch The FP a thousand times and if you haven't done it yet, it's going to happen again and again until you just break down and do it.

COME AHHNNNNNNNNN. Click here to queue it.

While these posts are usually going to be pretty short, highlighting something available on Netflix Instant Watch that you should be doing, I've got a classic article on when me, my friends the THUNDER BROTHERS(brother) and Little Buddy all went to a special premiere screening at the Cinefamily in Hollywood.

I live in Castaic. It's a tiny town built around a lake that's been shut down for ecoli contamination an assload of times, and a truck stop.

It's the last bastion of civilization for about 30-40 miles. After that, it's no-man's land. Miss an exit and you're fucked, son. Hope you have enough gas.

Just past that no-man's land is Fraizer Park, which is like if Castaic froze in time when I was growing up there in the 80s.

This almost post-apocalyptic wasteland is where the FP takes place.

Look, I'm not going to recap the plot and shit. Just head on over to The Drafthouse Films Site and take a look yourself.

Long story short - gangs fight using Beat Beat Revelation, a DDR clone.

Me and my homey since third grade and Castaic expatriate Tracy, Grad School Screenwriting homey John, and his brother(and also my homey) James went to see the Saturday premiere of The FP at Cinefamily. If you've never been, and you live in California, go immediately, Cinefamily is the shit.

We loved this movie, you guys.

If you like John Carpenter, Dance Dance Revolution, and are gangsta as fuck, you'll enjoy it too. Shit, I've already preordered the Blu Ray from Drafthouse Films, and that doesn't come out until June.

Here's a photo of me with JTRO, aka Jason Trost.



He's our main character in the film, but he co-wrote and co-directed with his brother Brandon Trost, who is a bomb-ass DP. I have a feeling these guys are going to be making awesome stuff for a long time to come - I hope FP is the hit it deserves to be so these guys can get some funding to make even more stuff.



Here's a photo of me with Art Hsu, who plays KCDC, the heart of Fraizer Park. He gets JTRO to come back and avenge the death of his brother, and is hilarious doing it. Really cool guy, and has the best speech in the film. Do it for the ducks.

So yeah, this film is a must see. In fact, even though you're reading this review right now, if you haven't seen the movie yet, I think less of you as a person for not having seen it. So see it and I will love you again.

-Head Ninja Casey

Review/Discussion: The Conjuring - LISTEN TO THE DOG!

We went to see The Conjuring last night, and as we usually do when we both see something, Mike and I had a bit of a discussion afterwards.

Casey Nielsen: Did you get a chance to check out the article I posted yesterday?

Michael Bowman: About the real doll?

Casey: Yeah. I almost feel like they could have got a whole movie out of that.

Mike: Yeah, but I don't think the event itself was the point. It was more about how they dealt with events in general, I think. How The Warrens dealt with confronting these things.

Casey: It set up the museum existing, which was essential. Real creepy way to start us off, as well.

Mike: I agree. It showed us their normal world, which was dealing with stuff like this. I am glad they changed the doll, though. The real one wasn't that creepy.

Casey: At least they didnt make it a clown doll. I'm not talking poltergeist either...my grandma used to collect creepy clown stuff.

Mike: While I really liked this movie, in thinking about it I realized that it really threw a spotlight on some glaring horror tropes that I think just need to go away.

Casey: Not sure if I agree, what are some examples?

Mike: I promise you, I will stand up and give a slow Citizen Kane clap for anybody who writes a horror movie where where people act normally.

• When entering a dark room...turn on the damn light. I do. We all do. ESPECIALLY when we're scared.
• LISTEN TO THE DOG.

Because that is a horror trope. Dog throws up warning signs and no one listens. There was something else that bugged me, but I can't think of it. I will. And these aren't huge, but they do defy the way we normally go about our lives. But it's not this movie's fault that they use it. I'm not coming down on The Conjuring in particular. It's just that the movie was so good, the tropes stood out to me.

Casey: I prefer not turning on the lights to "Oh shit, Michael Myers cut the power. Again.", but I get what you're saying. For the dog thing, I have to say my dog barks at nothing all the time. OR DOES SHE? Oh, man...

Mike: See? That's what I'm saying. And I'm not saying that every time the dog barks it's a problem. But it is a well used horror trope that the dog won't go where there's evil. It's a sign we give the audience and the characters never pay attention.

Casey: Yeah, but if people in horror movies were smart, they'd all be alive at the end of the movie, IMO.

Mike: It also bugged me that the house, like the walls and stuff, still seemed old and dirty after they moved in. I mean, if FELT like a haunted house, which was cool, but who doesn't paint the walls and shit?

Casey: They the house on auction, that's legit. You gotta watch Auction Kings, dude!

Mike: True. But I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Write a horror movie where people turn on the damn lights and see the warning signs. To me, that's scarier. I get the suspense of not knowing what's in the room, but what if you turn the light on and see the shit, now you have to deal with it.

Casey: But man I have to say, I was really, really happy to see a horror movie like The Conjuring do well. Mike: I agree. For all my bitching, I really liked the movie. A lot.

Casey: This is on the back of news that the last Paranormal Activity movie is so bad that they're not only thinking of pushing the October release back to January.

Mike: I hate to say it but I think we've pushed found footage horror like that as far as we can go without creating better stories. It was a gimmick that worked, but now we need to push further.

Casey: On top of that, they're thinking of taking a Latino spin off movie they did, the Oxnard tapes, and turning it into the new Paranormal Activity 5.

Mike: I really tired of that genre of horror. The found footage genre.

Casey: I still think that despite that, maybe The Conjuring is a wake-up call. Horror movies still do well and aren't bombing. It nearly doubled its budget on opening weekend, according to boxofficemojo.

Mike: In The Conjuring, I loved the jump scares in this because they felt organic. They weren't there JUST to make me jump. It was well written, I didn't get pulled out by crappy dialogue or stupid story logic.

Casey: I also like how they laugh at you in some instances for getting scared. Some movies have tried this and screwed it up (Paranormal Activity 4), but this felt legit, due to the cop character.

Mike: Yeah, the cop character was an excellent choice. He wasn't a badass, but was just a real guy and they used him well for this.

Casey: The cool thing is they knew that the original stories were a bit thin, so they combined three different Warren family cases into one movie, and it worked great because of that. Kind of hard to elaborate without spoilers. What some of the people reading this may not realize is that since we write scripts, we're always picking apart shit and it's hard to actually sit down and enjoy a movie sometimes

Mike: It did. Looking back, because this is a "true story" type movie, I would have liked to see some skepticism up front about The Warrens (which was real) and then get to see how they really do have to deal.

Casey: I didn't really find myself picking this one apart and ruining my own enjoyment subconciously. I think we didn't see the criticism due to one of the Warrens still being around, I don't feel like I really missed it in this movie though.

Mike: But you know, I didn't find myself sitting there analyzing structure and picking out holes in the plot during the movie. I was throughly entertained. It's been a long time since I've watched a movie and not thought about that stuff.

Casey: Yeah, same here. When we went and saw Pacific Rim, which I liked, I was still doing that.

Mike: I think we could have seen some criticism of "the science" behind it, maybe. Sure they make some comments, but I would have liked to see it. And not a lot, but it would have grounded it a little.

Casey: In reality, there is a bit of criticism toward the Warrens out there, but a lot of people consider them almost like pillars of the paranormal activity, along with their nephew, John Zaffis.
As someone who is a bit of enthusiast of the paranormal stuff, I was nerding out about some of the stuff in here, including a sly reference to the Amityville case that not everyone might pick up.

Mike: That was good. I even missed that because it's been so long since I've seen Amityville.

Casey: Overall, I really thought this was a badass movie, and that people should check it out in the theatres when they can. Watching it in your house feels too safe and is chumping out.

Mike: I agree. I'll watch it at home again, but I'm glad I saw this one in the theater.

Casey: Same here. Being surrounded by screaming people is the best way to see a horror movie.

Mike: As for the rest of the movie (minor story complaints aside) I thought all of the acting was spot on, the environment they set up was fantastic, and there's sound stuff that really made it. In fact, many of the cues are sound related. If you watch movies with a sweet pair of wireless headphones, like I do, you'll totally get the sound stuff at home. But you won't get that rumble. At a few points whole damn theater rumbled.

Casey: Plus, on top of the sound, you get that awesome James Wan crazy camera work, which is fun stuff.

Mike: Yeah, there's one moment with the shot above, then under the bed, that I thought was great.

Mike: But overall, I really liked this horror movie. And it has been a few years since I could say I was really happy with every aspect of a horror film.

Casey: Same here. People need to check this out as soon as they can.

Mike: Right now. Stop reading this, get up, and go to the theater!

A View From the Streets

For the record, here's a photo of your distinguished writers. Literally distinguished - this is from the honors commencement ceremony at CSUN in May. Mike is in the blue, Casey is in the red.

Once from warring street gangs, we managed to put our differences aside in order to write together.