Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish after what can only be described as a weird Friday, listening to Howard Shore’s moody and excellent score for the 1986 remake of The Fly. When the CD came out (it was in the early days of CDs) I was given a copy by Varese Sarabande, who issued it. Back then, I got copies of most releases. Anyway, I loved the score in the film so I was happy to have it on CD. Now, most times when whoever is issuing the album has rearranged the track order to make a better listening experience than hearing it in film order, I completely get it and have done the same thing but ONLY if it’s a better listening experience, especially if there are too source music tracks in the film order. I listened to the CD once and that was it. It was just not a good listening experience and I don’t care who did the reordering. So, last night, after watching the film, I decided to go to YouTube to grab the soundtrack, which I did rather than look for hours in the garage. I got halfway through it, feeling exactly as I did way back when. So, I did a little Google search and after scrolling quite a bit found a website where someone had put the track titles in film order. So, thanks to Music on the big boy computer, I rearranged all the tracks into film order and WHAT a difference. It’s like hearing a whole new album and it’s so much better as a listening experience because as the music works in the film it now works for the ear – it has a build it never had and it makes much more musical and dramatic sense. For example, track seventeen on the album should be track two – that’s how out of order the original album was. Anyway, I’m just finishing it up now and it’s great. And then, let’s talk about the movie. The original script was originally written by our very own former dear reader Charles Pogue. Before I get into that, I’ll just say that he and his wife binged Sami last night and LOVED everything about it, so that was lovely to hear. Anyway, when David Cronenberg signed on to direct, he rewrote the script, keeping much of Pogue’s structure and many of his strong and clever ideas, but making it uniquely Cronenbergian. He changed many of the character names to his peculiar names, and then insisted in the Writer’s Guild arbitration about credit that Pogue be first because as he said the movie wouldn’t exist without his strong work.
The resulting film, starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, is pretty much a horror movie masterpiece. I usually see no reason for a remake but the 1958 The Fly, while fun and a favorite part of the memories of those who saw it back then, was not a film classic, so why not? And the remake was very original and an entirely different kind of film with a very different plot. Of course, recently we had to endure the completely inept remake of Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, which only a person with a dead brain would attempt. Goldblum was inspired casting and he’s never given a better performance and he’s the rock of the film. His transformation into Brundlefly is astonishing – not the great makeup design, his ACTING it. And Geena Davis is a winning delight as an ambitious journalist who falls in love with Goldblum. Setting up their characters like that makes everything work and makes the horror bearable because you like them so much. Is it for everyone? Probably not – it’s pretty graphic in its violence but it’s never for gratuitous purposes and Goldblum even makes it funny at times, which helps. And the ending is very moving. It’s everything you’d want in a horror movie, and while I’m not all that with the horror genre, this would certainly be in my top fifteen horror movies that I love, some others being Eyes Without a Face, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, Orphan and its sequel, Me3gan, Psycho, Homicidal, and a few others. Anyway, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Prior to that, I watched a Japanese motion picture from Japan entitled Lady Snowblood, which was Quentin Tarantino’s inspiration (what else is new) for Kill Bill. Made in 1974, it’s fun in its way and the violence in it is so over-the-top that I kept thinking of Monty Python – every time someone is stabbed there is a gusher of spray of blook the size of the West Coast. It is, of course, a tale of revenge and remember – revenge is a dish that’s best served cold.
Yesterday was – weird. It just was. Not much to say about it, really, other than it was the fourth day in a row without a single Kritzerland order, which is not only unusual, but completely irritating. We need some damn orders. I got about six-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did some Sami stuff – we’re almost ready to submit for the Emmys to see if we’re indeed eligible, which we should be, so that’s good, and a couple more reviews have shown up on Amazon – there are still five errant and truant reviews from day one that are still missing, and hopefully they’ll get those up there soon. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how any of this happens. If they’re not up by Monday, we’ll write them and ask what’s up with the delay. I went to Ralph’s for that five-dollare chicken burrito thing I liked so much the other day, but all they had were six tiny chicken enchiladas – and they were all mis-marked as the chicken burrito. However, the enchiladas usually sell for eight bucks but here they were marked at the burrito price so that’s what I got. I came back home and heated three of ‘em up and had them with a bit of sour cream and they were very good. Not as good as the burrito, however. I had a couple of telephonic conversations, did some stuff on the computer, got the notice that both hardcover and softcover test copies are on their way to me, and then I sat and watched the two movies. But for the entirety of the day everything just seemed weird.
Today will hopefully not be a weird day. I’ll be up when I’m up and then I’ll have me a ME day. I’ll put up the link to the Sami Zoom Q&A on Facebook and I’ll send to a few people via e-mail, I’ll probably have the other three enchiladas, I may go to the mail place to see what’s what, then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax until the Zoom thing at four-thirty West Coast time (7:30 East Coast time), and I’ll have the link in tomorrow’s notes so it’s right there in front of you. Then next week we’ll finish casting the workshop thing and begin with a couple of music rehearsals and then there’ll be five or six rehearsals for staging and runs. It’s not a tremendously long play, which is good.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, have a ME day, put up the link to Zoom, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are YOUR favorite horror movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, quite done with weird.