There’s a director’s cut of WICKED LAKE coming, and I got an exclusive first look at it.
I never really “review” movies that I have significant roles in – it’s too hard to distance myself. So let’s not call this a review, exactly; but I did watch the director’s cut last night in an all-but finished form (the dialogue was slightly off-sync or unmixed in a couple scenes). And boy, do I wish this was the one we could have shown the public first.
I’m not blind to the flaws of the original film. I love it, and will always love it, but I get why others don’t. Tonally it was an odd mix of director and script: the screenplay was balls-out brutality written as a giant F.U. to critics who were whining about movies like HOSTEL, while Zach, for as long as I’ve known him (i.e. since film school) has made meditative dreamscapes, usually featuring some kind of animation at some stage. I used to kid him about how he was going to find a way to get animation into WICKED LAKE. Lo and behold, in the director’s cut, he has. I won’t spoil how, but it absolutely works.
Most substantially, the director’s cut, which is entitled WICKED, WICKED LAKE, features a complete visual and aural overhaul…
I didn’t do any fast food reviews this week, but I did review some wrestling T-shirts.
TNA has taken a long time to get it together as regards their merchandise. The key to a hot-selling wrestling shirt is that it has to work even for someone who has no clue about wrestling. Where TNA has erred in the past is putting slogans on the back of the shirt, and the wrestler’s name on the front. For example, I could probably sell a shirt sporting the slogan “Big Sexy” to any number of large guys, but if that’s only written on the back, while the front just says “Kevin Nash,” I’m not gonna have much luck except with Kevin Nash fans.
And finally, a review of the boneriffic movie CHLOE.
CHLOE is based on the French film NATHALIE… (yes, the ellipses are part of the title), which, with its more cerebral approach to kinkiness, would seem more in line with what I’d expect from Canadian-raised director Atom Egoyan, who can often be as chilly and detached as his home country. Here, however, he’s gone balls-out Hollywood style in his approach to the material, adding more onscreen sex and a FATAL ATTRACTION element entirely absent from the source.
