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SEE ARCHIVES FOR PREVIOUS UPDATES Revamp KINDRED has a new look. Kindly update your link. [Go here] June 19, 2003 Tru Calling Updates Before I proceed with my usual updates, I just want to use this space to give into account about my adversity last June 16. I lied in wait fear when two unidentified men in motorcycle cornered me and soldiered on with their spiel, "Hold-up!" Fighting fit somehow, I managed to run to the opposite direction. Clued-in and banked, I got my cel from my bag and threw it on a vacant lot. *Thank God I was able to save my cel* The assailants didn't notice it. They came chasing after me and tipped on their guns if I won't cooperate. I then gave them my bag to end the horror. They got my ATM cards, driver's license, company ID, cash and other valuable items. Guys, be careful. Dush, thanks a lot for helping me with the Affidavit of Loss. Great help! The real news now. Thanks Annie for the heaps. Check this out: From Spoiled Rotten [Read Here.] Tru Opening Clip Online To download, please visit TCOnline [Go Here] Here's a review of the pilot ep. [Click here] June 13, 2003 Some Articles While I was gone I would like to thank the members of the KINDRED Board for bringing me up to date with the Dushku lass. Much to Annie, for the articles posted below. No more ruckus, enjoy reading! Sexy Eliza Dushku Fights The Power (Madblast.com) If you were bummed that the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series finale was the last time you'd get to see Eliza Dushku kick butt, worry no more. Only weeks after portraying Faith for presumably the last time, Dushku is coming out with a movie called Wrong Turn. In it, she and a group of friends get lost in the woods and hunted by an inbred backwoods family. Scary at first, but you already know she'll kick their incestuous butts in the end. Which leads to the question, is Dushku doing too much ass kicking? Could this be a typecast? "There's a point where you just can't worry about what people are going to say ever," Dushku said. "Unless it's people that are near and dear to you, everyone's going to have an opinion. Critics are always going to be critical among other things and I'm just doing what I want and what and what makes me feel good and what makes me feel like I take on characters that I believe in. If you're going to say I'm being typecast as a woman who only plays strong roles, I can think of many other things it would be worse to be typecast as. I don't have a problem with it." "There's a point where you just can't worry about what people are going to say ever," Dushku said. "Unless it's people that are near and dear to you, everyone's going to have an opinion. Critics are always going to be critical among other things and I'm just doing what I want and what and what makes me feel good and what makes me feel like I take on characters that I believe in. If you're going to say I'm being typecast as a woman who only plays strong roles, I can think of many other things it would be worse to be typecast as. I don't have a problem with it." Roush Room ASK MATT Question: I know you have mentioned many times that you do not give spoilers or Internet rumors in your columns out of integrity as a critic. I know some others subscribe to the same idea, such as your counterpart at USA Today, but how do you feel about those that claim to be critics, but cross that line by giving away spoilers and rumors? — Tony Matt: Everyone has their own approach to covering this beat, but as long as they're upfront about what they're doing, I'm OK with it. I know people who are addicted to the sites that give away everything, and sometimes I'll go there if prodded by others. But generally speaking, I think most people who like TV enjoy watching the surprise of a plot twist as it happens. My job at times is to alert people that something amazing is going to happen on a favorite show (on those occasions when we know in advance and it's appropriate), but never to tell them exactly what it is that's going to happen. Question: I loved Eliza Dushku on Buffy and Angel. Is there any reason to be excited about her upcoming Fox show Tru Calling? It sounds intriguing, but I'm so tired of being burned on genre shows that come and go. I participated in the effort to save Firefly, and that didn't pan out. I'm really hesitant to start a new show knowing that one to two weeks after the premiere fans will be asked to send postcards and e-mails to network executives begging them not to cancel the show. These strategies are rareIy effective. I didn't give Miracles a shot after being burned by Firefly, and it appears that I made the right decision with that show. — LeeAnne Matt: I haven't yet had a chance to watch the pilot of Tru Calling, but the essence of your question is, quality of show aside, whether you should bother committing to a show that you fear is toast from the start. A legitimate concern. My problem with this approach is that, even though it's frustrating when a show like Firefly or Miracles is cancelled way too soon, would you really be happier never to have seen Firefly at all? I'm glad I got sucked into the few episodes of Miracles that aired, even though we (predictably) were let down by ABC in the short and long run. Tru Calling is at a huge disadvantage given its no-win time period (Thursday at 8 pm/ET), and Fox is notoriously unreliable these days about giving genre shows a chance to prove themselves, even in better circumstances than this. But if the concept and star are intriguing to you, I don't see what it would hurt to check it out. Taking too defeatist an attitude is like giving up. If no one shows up, the show is certainly doomed. Site Update Updated "Certify Your Madness" section. Congrats to Kim. You are now a certified fan. June 5, 2003 Tru Calling Tru's smart boots will hit off this coming fall- scheduled every Thursday. Eliza's being the lead, I must conclude a much higher regards on the series. Not that my basis would cover my being waft, I'm just considering the efforts shown on her raps and taps in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and her other angst films. Aside from my humble opinion, here's what the Entertainment World have to say. Thanks to Dush for the link. Read below. What would you do if you could relive a day? If you're TRU DAVIES (ELIZA DUSHKU, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), you'd save lives. Tru is a smart, sexy recent college graduate who – when her high-powered medical internship falls through – finds herself working the midnight shift at the New York City morgue. One night, Tru questions reality when she thinks she hears a beautiful murder victim asking for her help. But the next morning, our heroine wakes up to find that she is back at the beginning of that very same day – twelve hours before a murder that only she knows about is set to take place. With the clock ticking, Tru is compelled to traverse the city of New York over those next twelve hours to prevent this wrongful death, while at the same time rescuing members of her own family from their dangerous and self-destructive lives. Directed by renowned filmmaker PHILLIP NOYCE ("The Quiet American"), TRU CALLING combines the sexiness and speed of "Alias" with the procedural crime format of "CSI." TRU CALLING is from 20th Century Fox Television and Original Television and comes from executive producer/writer JON FELDMAN ("American Dreams," "Roswell," "Dawson's Creek"). Vote for Tru Calling Thanks again to Dush for the link. Thanks Girl! Which new show from the Fall 2003 Schedule are you looking forward to the most? [Vote Here] Buffy Video Game: Chaos Bleeds Thanks to Annie for this stack news. Here's the preview. From GamesFirst.Com With Buffy the Vampire Slayer wrapping up its final season, hardcore fans are looking around in a daze for the next fix, and it looks like Vivendi/Universal has finally come through for us. The first installment in the gaming world whetted our appetites, but left us longing for more. This time, developers were allowed to let their own obsessive sides out to play in the latest installment, Chaos Bleeds. As I spoke to Harish Rao, Associate Producer of the title, on the floor of E3, my excitement grew and grew. It was obvious that a lot of love went into this game, and pains were taken to give the fanboys and girls at home the best Buffy gaming fix that money can buy. The storyline for Chaos Bleeds was penned by Chris Golden and Tom Sneigoski (who both wrote for the TV series). Although the big baddie for this game is The First, the authors have created an original story which still fits nicely with the other Buffy mythology (no Lucasesque faux pas here). The First has created an alternate universe to attempt to circumvent his demise, and he has enlisted the dead, the undead, and the we-wish-they-were-dead to try and stop the Scoobies (and friends) in this third person fighting adventure. The rogues gallery features Kakistos, Ripper Giles, werewolves, Bat Beasts, and Zombie Gorillas (just to name a few). You will alternate playing as Buffy, Xander, Willow, Spike, and Faith (as well as Sid the Dummy starting in the second level) and each level is set up to insure that character’s special skills will be necessary to move you through the plot. Each character has unique fighting styles and weapons and there are tons more special moves and combos. There are training modes for each of our heroes, and a voice-over trainer for each of them (Giles instructing Buffy, Buffy instructing Spike, and so forth, although poor Xander apparently gets…no one.) The developers paid special attention to the graphics for the characters, and the faces on our heroes have definitely evolved. There are 12 levels of puzzle solving, butt kicking action in the single player mode, but the best part about this game is the multiplayer function. You can have up to 4 players in modes which include Last Man Standing, Domination, Versus, and Anya’s favorite, Bunny Catcher. This game seems to have added lots more depth in the single player mode and the addition of multiplayer action gives this version a huge advantage over its predecessor. A console game that allows you to invite your own gang over for slaying carnage has a much longer shelf life than one that only lets you play by yourself. And Harish Rao hinted at two secrets to be discovered in the multiplayer mode (what a tease…I can’t wait!). Last but most certainly not least, for all the fans out there, the original cast members are back for all the voice-overs and cut scenes. The title also includes great bonus content, including cast interviews, photos, storyboards, a "making of" for the game, and a bonus e-comic. With so much love for the fans, I am willing to bet that Chaos Bleeds will be just the thing to combat our Buffy blues. This game comes out on all three platforms (another bonus over its predecessor) in late summer/early fall 2003. June 3, 2003 Wrong Turn Updates After several set backs, Wrong Turn has been finally shown last May 30. And of course we are all snooping to know how the film battered in the blockbuster. Figures are based gathered online, fact that the flick is still 3-day- infantile, we may expect a greater volume in the days to come. Check this out: 1 Finding Nemo $70,600,000 2 Bruce Almighty $35,600,000 3 The Italian Job $19,300,000 4 The Matrix: Reloaded $15,040,000 5 Daddy Day Care $6,800,000 6 X2: X-Men United $5,025,000 7 Wrong Turn $5,010,000 Film Analysis Thanks to Dush for providing us some review links. Not so positive. Critic's standpoint, I suggest watching the film. From Fantastica Daily Several young folks have an unpleasant run-in with backwoods yokels in West Virginia. That’s the entire story. I hope I didn’t give anything away. It’s the Deliverance premise taken by a slasher filmmaker and injected with… well, not much of anything else. The film does indeed offer up an almost-unwieldy number of horrific acts and situations. There were times when I felt as if my heart was in my throat. There was one moment when things were so grotesque that I had a sense -- for an instant -- that I might soon vomit if there wasn’t some sort of release of tension. The film can be said to succeed in what it’s trying to do, from this point of view. But at each plot development, the viewer must be very forgiving, because the story is so relentlessly cheap. At times, it seems as if the filmmakers expect us to laugh, but they never quite take that solid step over into parody of the genre. For all intents and purposes, they expect to be taken completely seriously. And therein lies the film's problem. The approach to horror here is so by-the-numbers that I’m required to tell you that this film is strictly for fans of the specific genre spawned by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This is just another one of the retreads. There are bad guys, who have no rhyme or reason for what they do. They exist to make things extremely awful for our personality-challenged protagonists. The director hasn’t put any kind of fresh spin on this stuff. At least House of 1000 Corpses can be said to have added something to the mix, or combined familiar elements in an interesting way. Since I’m comparing these two recent films, I’ll mention that in at least one way, Wrong Turns excels over House of 1000 Corpses. Rob Zombie’s House made the mistake of having its nasty rednecks talk and talk. The nut-cases used dialogue to let their victims in on what kind of horror was at hand. Wrong Turn at least borrows from a good source (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) in having the bad guys limit their chit-chat, thereby increasing their perceived remoteness from all things civilized, which increases the alien quality of the horrors you will see. I should mention that Stan Winston is a producer and special make-up effects artist for this film. While he may have given us such classic effects designs as those in Aliens and Terminator, his influence this time around is negligible. The make-up effects we see might have been done (and they are done well, mind you) by anyone with respectable experience in the field. Wrong Turn is for fans of grotesque cinema only. There may be some heart-pumping nasty horrors, but there’s nothing new in sight here. From One Guy's Opinion A group of photogenic twentysomethings find themselves stranded in the wilderness and pursued by a bunch of backwoods wackos determined to slaughter them in grim, inhuman ways. Sound familiar? It’s a scenario older than “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and repeated innumerable times since--most recently in “House of 1,000 Corpses.” Now it’s back in “Wrong Turn,” a miserable summer knock-off of a movie to which the only appropriate response is: “Deliverance” us! In this case the wrong turn is into the theater parking lot. The predictable assortment of potential victims arrives in two vehicles. One is a Range Rover carrying two young, none-too-outdoor-savvy couples, Carly and Scott (Emmanuelle Chriqui and Jeremy Sisto) and Evan and Francine (Kevin Zegers and Lindy Booth), along with the obligatory solo damsel Jessie (Eliza Dushku). It’s halted on an unpaved, out-of-the-way West Virginia road when a strand of barbed wire punctures all its tires. Before the quintet can push it off to the side, it’s rammed by a Mustang convertible driven by handsome all-around he-man (and, conveniently, medic) Chris (Desmond Harrington). After a brief altercation, they join forces to search for a way out. Evan and Francine stay behind with the wreck--thus providing early fodder for the villains--while the others trek to a remote cabin, which looks as though it might have been left over from “The Evil Dead.” But the monsters here aren’t malign spirits--just a trio of local guys who appear to be the result of protracted inbreeding, and delight in attracting passersby to serve in their own private low-rent version of “Breakdown” (with a strong dose of “The Most Dangerous Game” thrown in). (Their names, according to the credits, are Three-Finger, Saw-Tooth and One-Eye. Eat your heart out, Leatherface!) Much mayhem and bloodletting ensue; there must be ample opportunity for the sort of gore effects in which producer Stan Winston specializes. Most die in elaborate set-pieces, after a good deal of stalking and last-second escapes; one couple survives, of course, in a bloody confrontation with the baddies--though, as the inevitable epilogue tells us, this might not be the end of the story! The recipe must, after all, be followed to the last jot and tittle. There’s nothing necessarily terrible about a pure formula horror flick, of course, but this one doesn’t bring anything to the party, managing to be both tedious and repulsive. The dialogue is unremittingly lame and the situations ludicrously gruesome. The cast is of higher quality than is customary in this kind of mindless slasher-fest, but they don’t handle their chores all that well. Dushku, Chriqui, Booth and Zegers get by, but Sisto (who was recently knocked off in the wretched “Frankenstein” send-up “May”) and Harrington seem rather long in the tooth for such stuff. Technically the picture is subpar, though John Bartley’s camerawork and Elia Cmiral’s music chalk up some heavy-handed points. (To be honest, there isn’t much every the best craftsmen can do to liven up extended POV shots of movement through a forest.) What makes “Wrong Turn” really dispiriting is that it’s such a comedown for director Rob Schmidt. I recall being impressed and moved back in the early nineties when his brilliant short film “Saturn” was submitted in competition at the USA Film Festival in Dallas; it was a powerful study of a son caring for his Alzheimer-afflicted father, technically strong and emotionally resonant. He went on to make a feature version of it in 1999, and then the intriguing if flawed “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia.” One can understand why a young fellow like Schmidt wants to demonstrate his ability to deal with Hollywood convention to further a studio career. But this dismal effort hardly shows off any skill he might possess, and in view of the promise his early work had, one can only grieve that he’s surrendered to the system so very quickly, and to so little effect: “Wrong Turn” is in the same league as “Blair Witch 2.” Meanwhile, if you want to see something about a family of inbred ghouls that’s really scary, just check out the old “X-Files” episode called “Home.” The Pennsylvania Peacocks beat out this boring backwoods trio without breaking a sweat. May 29, 2003 TV Appearances Geez, Wrong Turn will be in theatres on Friday, May 30. I just realized that would be tomorrow! How can I overlooked that? *sigh* Anyhow, another horror flick, outlying Soul Survivors, I hope this would be a major hit! Part of the movie campaign, check-out Eliza's sightings. Eliza on E! Eliza Dushku will be on E! News live tomorrow, May 30. More Ramblings and fun, be sure to turn your VCR. [E!] Conan Show Failed to spot Eliza? Annie, was cool enough to provide us another great link. Thanks An! [Click this site] |