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The
Pitch
The
Lost Boys is one of those films whose
value is impossible to understand if you’re
an outsider, but one that holds a very special
place in the heart of those who it “touched”
in its 80’s release. The people that were the
perfect age to fully embrace the combined might
of the Coreys [Feldman and Haim, you infidel]
and to understand that vampires don’t have to
be old and creaky but wear leather pants, ride
motorcycles, and hang out at the beachfront
carnival. Delivered by a then unspoiled Joel
Schumacher and featuring the relative unknown
actor’s kids Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric,
it was the antidote to all that came before.
It also helped start a trend of flashy, soundtrack
driven horror flicks, but Ben Kenobi had a good
point about fools and those who follow. One
can hardly fault the filmmakers for making an
aggressively quirky and entertaining horror
flick, especially one so successful in delivering
good comedy and drama as well as a few good
horror movie moments.
"Mr.
Ford, where are you going? I didn’t mean to
lie beneath…"
The
story tells the story of an eccentric nuclear
family moving in with their eccentric grand-patriarch
in a fictional California beach community and
the slow realization why the city is known in
some circles as the murder capital of the world.
Vampires.
Pretty, stylish vampires. Well, except for Alex
Winter. He just looked weird. Led by Kiefer
Sutherland, they sucked blood and looked good
doing it but soon young Sam Emerson (Corey Haim)
and the seedy Frog Brothers (Corey Feldman &
Jamison Newlander) are on the case and while
they aren’t fearless vampire killers, they’re
entertaining ones.
"Trust
me, that surfer dude has no future. Drop him
and go direct your little horror comedy."
Soup
to nuts, The Lost Boys has aged
well. It’s a horror flick with a great soundtrack
(it got heavy rotation on my CD player back
in the day), some fun moments, and nice FX works
by Greg Cannom. Even though Falling Down
and Tigerland are better films,
I think this is the be all, end all for me when
it comes to the celluloid Schumacher canon.
I expected to cringe when watching this, but
I didn’t. Well, aside from Haim’s wardrobe and
the “death by stereo” line. It still works almost
twenty years later and what more can a diminutive
Caucasian really ask for these days?
OK,
well… better matte work and a few less cute
moments, but otherwise what can you ask for?
It
was then that Jason realized he’d come down
with the 24 hour Harry Hamlin virus.
The
Perks
It
looks great, it sounds great, and it’s loaded
with all sorts of retrospective featurettes
and bells and whistles on both the film’s creation
as well as its influence. The absence of Jason
Patric is expected but sad, but everyone else
comes through with their comments. It’s worthy
of the two disc effort and Schumacher’s commentary
track is both informative and entertaining.
I think he had a crush on Patric back in 1985,
at least that’s the gist I get from listening,
but what the hey… the guy’s cute and his dad
was the exorcist. A nice bit of features all
told. It’s nice to have this film in a real
DVD case too.
Though
he appeared to be a Huskie, Snacker was actually
a Blurman Shepherd.
The Bottom Line
The
Poconos stage presentation of Tastes Like
Roy lacked pizazz, but Jake Busey’s Siegfried
was a revelation.
I
never looked at rice again the same way after
The Lost Boys. I never looked
at shirtless, muscular saxophone players the
same way after The Lost Boys.
I saw Edward Herrmann on Broadway as a kid in
Annie, but it’s here he made his real
contribution to humanity and vampiredom. This
is a DVD worth owning, for Christ’s sake.
The
Flick: 7
The
Disc: 8
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The
Pitch
Stir
of Echoes has the benefit of being both
a Richard Matheson story as well as a David
Koepp flick, two things I rather enjoy. Well,
until Secret Window. That film
was a punch in the works. Koepp’s The
Trigger Effect was a solid and engrossing
little film and this Kevin Bacon vehicle is
one of those sneak attacks that Hollywood will
uncork that results in a whimper at the turnstiles
but a ferocious roar on video as more and more
people realize how terrific it really is. You
see, Stir of Echoes is a ghost
story. When it was released, a certain little
story called The Sixth Sense had
recently made its mark and anything similar
was destined to fail. Until The Others
came, that is. Stir of Echoes
was a casualty of the hype and fallout of M.
Night Shyamalan’s movie, and while I sold this
film a little short the first time I saw it,
I ended up seeing it several times in the theater
and falling in love with it and ultimately concluding
that it was a better film than the Bruce Willis
ghost story. Ooooh, I’m tough, I know. Right
now it’s hip and convenient to bash the Philadelphia
auteur, but the fact remains that Stir
of Echoes is a richer, deeper experience.
Of course, I’m not here to talk about The
Sixth Sense, am I…
NBC’s
Fall replacement sitcom One Girl, an Ass,
and a Bathroom was a big hit with 18-22
year olds. And asses.
Kevin
Bacon delivers either his best or second best
(Murder in the First, perhaps)
performance as Tom Witsky, a working class father
and husband who’s trying to keep from growing
up who becomes involved in a bizarre mystery
involving his house, his son, and a long dead
young girl reaching out from beyond the grave.
In addition to having some really creepy and
inventive moments, Stir of Echoes
is one heck of a story about obsession. Watching
Bacon descend deeper and deeper into his fanatical
quest to unravel the mystery of the missing
girl. Even if it means alienating his wife (the
talented and sneakily sexy Kathryn Erbe), digging
up his yard, or mixing it up with his neighbors.
Even if it means kicking a bucket through a
window.
That’s
obsession, people.
My
cut of Cold Mountain was not only
better, but achieved the same effect far quicker.
There’s
a really cool scene where Illeana Douglas hypnotizes
Witsky, a sequence where he imagines himself
floating through a theater (of the subconscious?
Holy shit, I am DEEP!) that showcases a really
interesting visual side to the director as well
as a neat interpretation of Matheson’s text.
It’s moments like that or the sight of seeing
a wiry, shirtless Bacon in a giant hole in his
backyard that stick out for Koepp’s flick but
the end result is something that’s most smaller
and more real than the other gimmicky spook
films of the new millennium and right before
that makes it something that not only grows
stronger with repeat viewings but actually depends
on it.
It’s
not a classic, but it’s a sleeper that might
eventually worm its way into becoming one.
The
space/time continuum shat itself into itself
when Bacon finally got a taste of his own medicine.
The
Perks
The
first DVD for Stir of Echoes was
pretty solid in its own right, but this Lion’s
Gate/Fox effort smoothes out the rougher aspects
from the initial release and provides both a
solid (though unspectacular) audio and video
presentation but a host of terrific ancillary
features ranging from documentaries both period
and present as well as a truly phenomenal commentary
track from the filmmaker himself. It’s refreshing
to get so much from such an “off the radar”
film, and this is a truly stout DVD. The clear
slipcase with the dripping black ooze is a lot
better in concept than execution but who cares?
To
the surprise of millions, the Giovani Ribisi
talk show didn’t last a month.
The Bottom Line
If
you like smaller, sneakier choices in your DVD
diet there are few discs that will be as well
worn and appreciated than this. It’s like The
Devil’s Backbone in a way, a smart,
small, and totally effective bit of genre-bending
supernatural entertainment.
The
fateful telltale harbinger that warned Nicole
Simpson that her husband was having an affair
with William Perry.
The
Flick: 7.5
The
Disc: 8.5