1408 And A Cry For Quality Cusack

“But you wouldn’t be sleeping with a person. You’d be sleeping with a whole sad single-person culture. It would be like sleeping with Talia Shire in ROCKY if you weren’t Rocky.” *
- Rob Gordon (John Cusack) HIGH FIDELITY (Dir. Stephen Frears, 2000)

* A friend emailed me this quote not long ago and asked "what does this mean?" I honestly have to say I don't know.

I avoided 1408 upon its original run in theaters earlier this year because I suspected that the explanation (or lack of) for the supernatural premise would really piss me off. However I ordered the new release DVD on up from Netflix because my curiosity got the best of me but also because I like John Cusack (see below) and knew he'd at least deliver. So here's my review:

1408 (Dir. Mikael Håfström, 2007)

The premise (based on a short story by Stephen King) is simple - John Cusack gets trapped in a hotel room from Hell. He's tortured by apparitions of the many who were killed or killed themselves there and by images of his own deceased daughter (no, she didn't die in the room).

The angle is that he's an extremely skeptical writer of anti-ghost books - guides to hotels that are believed to be haunted that he stays in to debunk. So naturally when he hears (by way of a cryptic postcard) about a hotel room in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City that nobody has lasted more than an hour in and that has been closed off to the public, he gets his publisher to cut through some legal red tape and book the room.

He first has to listen to a series of lectures from hotel manager Samuel L. Jackson (whose role is essentially an extended cameo) about the history of grisly deaths interspersed with repeated attempts to talk Cusack out of staying in the room. "It's an evil fucking room" Jackson concludes in the grimmest most intense manner he can muster as Cusack cynically and drolly rolls his eyes. This is where the plot description ends and I just bitch about the movie in full.

As for lasting an hour - the first hour of 1408 is pretty good - sharp and genuinely creepy. The second half however is really ludicrous - literally throwing every horror movie cliché at Cusack as he is almost burned, frozen, stabbed by ghosts, drowned, chased by a corpse in a heating duct, and he almost falls to his death hanging from the ledge when he tries to escape to the next room's window which of course disappears.

These are technologically savvy ghosts - they outdo the AMITYVILLE HORROR's screwing with the bedside alarm clock ploy, though they do that too. Yes Siree - these ghosts can manipulate Cusack's lap-top's video messenger screen and broadcast their own satellite cable transmissions on the room's television. They sometimes even tap into surveillance camera and old family camcorder feeds somehow to better scare Cusack. They can also appear in black and white complete with old film scratches or in technicolor depending on when they died craftily enough.

But of course it's not the ghosts but the room itself as the title implies and Jackson said - it's evil and can take control of everything including time, space, bed, bathroom and beyond. How could that be? You can't have a Indian burial ground beneath a rented space in the sky so what gives? Then we have to filter in the estranged wife (Mary McCormack) and dead daughter (Jasmine Jessica Anthony) - who the room and the film use as heartstring pulling psyche-out set-up punches.

It's the kind of movie that boils down to "we've traced the call - it's coming from inside of your brain!" That said, this is an amusing time waster that has a better than the material performance by Cusack who carries pretty much the whole show. Like those movies depicting plane crashes that are banned by airlines, I think this would be a good one to censor from hotel-chain pay-per-view. I doubt I could sleep in a hotel room after watching it - just sayin'.

Postnote : Not that it affects my review but I only saw the unrated version of 1408 which is disc 2 of the Special Ed. DVD. I wasn't aware that there was an alternate ending that is completely different to the theatrical release's. I thought that the unrated version would be everything, you know? As readers of film babble must know I hate when there are alternate endings - cop-outs based on test screening panic for the most part.

A Cry For Quality Cusack

So how long since the last really good John Cusack movie? Uh, let's go back through the bad ones - MUST LOVE DOGS, which was a real dog, was 2005, before it there was RUNAWAY JURY which was beneath the bottom of the bail and IDENTITY (another failed supernatural thriller like 1408) were both 2003, and SERENDIPITY and AMERICAN SWEETHEARTS which both seriously sucked so the last really good John Cusack movie was HIGH FIDELITY (2000). Wow, 7 years!

HIGH FIDELITY is one of my favorite movies (as the Nick Hornby novel it was based on is one of my favorite books) so because of Cusack's top notch work as heartbroken music snob/geek Rob Gordon (named Rob Fleming in the book) in that film as I read somebody say on The Onion The A.V. Club he gets a free pass. However it looks like the pass is going to expire soon unless he takes some action. It looks like there's possibilities ahead for the upcoming films MARTIAN CHILD (by Menno Meyjes who directed Cusack in MAX - which was decent but unmemorable) and the drama GRACE IS GONE (pictured below) so with hope the 7 year itch will be scratched.

Now I don't want to write one of those "open letter to..." or any smarmy "here's some career tips Mr. Big Star", I mean how moronic would that be for me - a lowly blogger to even slightly think I know what really goes on with choosing scripts and signing on to projects but damnit I wish Cusack would do 2 things:

1. Work with Stephen Frears again - 2 of Cusack's best films (THE GRIFTERS and HIGH FIDELITY) were with Frears directing and it seems like a good time for them to hook up again. Also Cusack was great in Woody Allen's SHADOWS AND FOG and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY so another collaboration with him would be great too. How about this being a plea for Cusack to work with better directors in general? The last seven years smell of behind the camera hackery.

2. Host Saturday Night Live - That's right, Cusack has never hosted SNL despite the fact that his sister Joan Cusack used to be a cast member. In his friend Tim Robbin's excellent mock poli-doc BOB ROBERTS Cusack played an actor doing a SNL-type show called "Cutting Edge". Just credited as "Cutting Edge Host" Cusack had a great anti-corporation/anti-right wing folk-singing senate candidate Bob Roberts (Robbins) rant. It would be a great actor exercise for him to do a string of different characters all live on SNL and I bet it would refresh his comedic facilities.

But like I said who am I to say such things - nobody that's who! As long as Cusack still makes movies with his sister - the very funny above-mentioned Joan Cusack (they've been in 5 movies together and 2 more coming up) and Jeremy Piven (6 films) I'll stop complaining. In fact I bet Joan would made 1408 quite a bit better if she would've appeared as the voice of the hotel phone operator and Piven as the bell hop - man, that would've added a more chilling effect to the proceedings.

So in conclusion - I have to do right by HIGH FIDELITY's Rob Gordon and his obsession with top-5 lists and name:

The Film Babble Blog Top Five John Cusack Movies

1. HIGH FIDELITY (2000) - No surprise there.

2. SAY ANYTHING (1989) - Excellent Cameron Crowe high school relationship movie. Best known for the boom box blaring Peter Gabriel held to the skies by Cusack's immortal Lloyd Dobbler character - no, I'm not going to post that picture. I'll go with the one with the Clash t-shirt on the left.

3. THE GRIFTERS (1990) - A con man (Cusack) and a few con women (Annette Benning, Angelica Houston) and a dark uncompromising comic tone that never lets up make this essential on my blog.

4. BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (1994) - One of Woody Allen's best screenplays with Cusack spot-on as a troubled neurotic playwright in 1920's New York who has to deal with mafiaso control of his project. A pleasure from start to finish.

5. THE SURE THING (1985) - Very underrated Rob Reiner helmed comedy originally billed as a college-kids-on-the-road-sex-farce but it has better intentions and results. It makes the Top 5 because it was the first full-length that cemented the Cusack persona - he's one of the only guys who can get away with a line like: "How would you like to have a sexual experience so intense it could conceivably change your political views?" Great Tim Robbins cameo to boot.

Came close but didn't make the cut : BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (Dir. Spike Jonez, 1999)

That's all for now - next time I'll try not to come anywhere near giving celebrities career advice. I'll leave you with this nice montage of Cusack in the rain which sort of says it all.

More later...

10 Reasons The 30th Anniversary Of OH, GOD! Should Be Celebrated

Jerry Landers (John Denver) : "If you wanted to see me, why didn't you just appear over my bed?"
God (George Burns) : "Ah, Hollywood. Next question."

The film forums were flowing with tributes to the 30th anniversary of STAR WARS last summer but I think another little movie released that same year should get a shout-out. I’m talking about OH, GOD! – the Carl Reiner directed comedy that had God come to Earth in the form of a wise-cracking smug smiling George Burns. He appears to John Denver, of all people, in Denver's only cinematic acting role and asks him to give his message of hope to the world. Wackiness doesn't ensue like in lesser broader comedies (BRUCE ALMIGHTY - I'm looking in your direction) - no, a measured witty thoughtful tone carries Denver's supermarket manager everyman character through the motions of his doubting wife (Teri Garr), his stern unforgiving bosses, and the scolding from the entire religious community that result.

Released on October 7th, 1977 to good box office and much critical acclaim, OH, GOD! is still not really considered a classic these days. It's not on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest movies list and it only gets a IMDb user rating of 6.2/10 but its Critics Tomatometer 82% approval rating shows there are a lot of fans out there. So, since I'm one of the film's biggest fans I thought it would be fun to celebrate the 30 year anniversary and honor OH, GOD! so here are :

10 Reasons the 30th Anniversary of OH, GOD! Should Be Celebrated

1. George Burns (1896-1996) As God – On the DVD commentary (recorded in 2002) Carl Reiner says "somebody came to me and said 'how about George Burns for God?' and I said 'who else?'" Despite this comment reportedly Mel Brooks was asked first to take the role but as Reiner joked Brooks didn't want to take the demotion. Burns brings a crafty confident component to his portrayal of the grand deity and nails every line. Especially when he takes the stand at the concluding trial scene - "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me me."

2. John Denver (1943-1997) - As Brooks was originally considered for God, Woody Allen was the first choice to play Jerry Landers - the grocery store manager chosen to spread God's word. Allen turned the part down because he had his own take on God and that wasn't it as the story goes. So they went to a top 40 folk singer who had never acted before - good ol' boy John Denver. Not sure how they arrived there but I'm glad they did because Denver had the chops and plays no false notes here. His exasperating defenses to the skeptical ones around him - "I'm not some kind of nut!" and tense talks/fights with his wife Bobbi (Teri Garr) all show a range though not polished was still perfect for this project.

3. Teri Garr - As the disbelieving worried wife - a role she would perfect in her next film CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND Garr holds her own here. She recounts on the commentary - "around the time of this movie I also made CLOSE ENCOUNTERS... and I remember I used to do interviews and I'd say I just did 2 movies - one in which God is revealed as a cabdriver and one in which God is revealed as a chandelier!" Incidentally Barbara Harris was the original choice - glad they went with Garr.

4. Paul Sorvino - Way before he was an established powerhouse actor in such pivotal films as GOODFELLAS and NIXON, Sorvino had done little besides TV series work and bit parts in a few movies but when he took on the part of Reverend Willie Williams people started to take notice. Williams is a popular evangelist described as "God's personal quarterback" who draws the real God Burn's scorn. God considers him a phony and instructs Denver to tell him so. The Shrine Auditorium sermon that Denver interrupts to bring him that message is show-stopping largely due to Sorvino's invigorated scenery chewing.

5. Great If Largely Unused Supporting Cast - From William Daniels (Benjamin's father in THE GRADUATE, the voice of K.I.T.T. on TV's Knight Rider) to David Ogden Stiers (Major Winchester on M*A*S*H - the TV series) and Ralph Bellemy as Williams' lawyer every part is extremely well cast. Unfortunately a lot of performances appear to have been cut - Donald Pleasance (Blofeld in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, the President in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK among other mostly villainous roles) is given very little screen time and has only one or 2 lines. A montage during the trial sequence indicates there was a lot more material but until a special edition DVD comes along we'll just have to make do.

6. Great Story - Adapted from the book by Avery Corman (who also wrote the original novel of Kramer Vs. Kramer) by Larry Gelbert (M*A*S*H, TOOTSIE) the premise is sound and well plotted out even though it follows a formulaic path it's one well worth taking. Even the courtroom showdown ending which was well worn by '77 comes across as fresh and necessary.

7. Great One-liners - Of course if you've got George Burns you would expect an arsenal of Vaudevillian one-liners and Gelbert's Oscar nominated screenplay doesn't leave him unarmed. Some examples - "The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea" and this literary gem "you know Voltaire may have had me pegged right? He said I was a comedian playing to an audience who's afraid to laugh."

8. Minor Miracles - As the before mentioned rip-off - sorry, uh...homage BRUCE ALMIGHTY and especially its lame sequel EVAN ALMIGHTY (with a budget of approximately $140 million - the most expensive comedy movie ever made) prove with their extensive use of CGI - money doesn't equal funny. OH, GOD! shows this by giving us a God who bemoans special effects and considers major miracles beneath him and his message. When a still skeptical Denver insists on a sign to fully convince him - God makes it suddenly rain. The thing is - he only makes it rain in Denver's car. He gets pulled over and tells the cop that he must have gone through a car wash with the windows open. The cop (John Ashton - talk about casting) buys it in a stormtroopers buying Luke by way of Obi Wan's Force tricks way. The only other miracles that our Lord Burns perform is a vanishing card trick and disappearing himself by way of cheap editing in his final court appeal. Those work fine so why bother with big-time spectacle that never really pays off?

9. The Carl Reiner Cameo - Sure, it's not in the league of director doing a cameo in their own film as say Hitchcock but Reiner's appearance alongside Denver on The Dinah Shore show is still good stuff. As further Reiner self referencing goes - on a hotel room television set an episode of the Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show plays. God - this time dressed as a bus boy turns off the TV and remarks "so many repeats."

10. A Sincere Positive Message - Yes, shut your mouth you cinematic cynics - it's true, this film has a good solid message that believers and non-believers can embrace - that our world can work and it's up to us. Best said by God himself: "you can love, cherish and nurture each other or you can kill each other."

Okay! So put it in your Netflix queue and honor thy OH, GOD! with me - won't you?

Postnotes :

I've got to at least mention the sequels as inessential as they are. It has been a while since I've seen them but the 2002 DVD of OH, GOD! has trailers for them and they trigger my memory. The thing that has always bothered me about making a sequel to this film is simply this - Burns tells Denver when he first appears - "I picked a look you could understand. For somebody else I would've looked different." The sequels - OH, GOD! BOOK II (Dir. Gilbert Cates, 1980) and OH, GOD! YOU DEVIL (Dir. Paul Bogart, 1984) ignore this and just settle on God being George Burns. BOOK II pretty much repeats the same story as the first substituting a little girl (Tracy Richards) for Denver for extra cheesy results but at least OH, GOD! YOU DEVIL attempts a new premise - Burns plays the Devil as well and pulls off some amusing moments. Still, neither needs celebratory re-appraising - that's for sure.

Then there's the remake tentatively scheduled for 2008. According to my trusty Wikipedia source "there is currently a remake starring Ellen DeGeneres planned, which was confirmed by DeGeneres in a Time magazine interview." It even has an IMDb page and original producer Jerry Weintraub is involved but it looks like no progress has been made since it has been announced and I hope it stays that way. Hey, I like Ellen but this is a bad idea and I'm not alone in that thinking - this John Denver tribute page has a petition you can sign to stop it. I just signed it - hope you do too.

More later...

The Darjeeling Prequel - Now Playing On My iPod Nano

"She's kind of like a movie everyone rushes to see, and no one understands it sittin' in their seats."
- The Replacements ("Achin' To Be" from Don't Tell A Soul, 1989)

So as every online film geek knows that the official "prequel" to the highly anticipated Wes Anderson joint THE DARJEELING LIMITED (well, anticipated in my area - I know it's already opened in other markets) was made available free though iTunes last week. It was filmed a year in advance of THE DARJEELING LIMITED and titled HOTEL CHEVALIER (the end credits list it as "PART 1 OF THE DARJEELING LIMITED").

Since I just got an iPod Nano and am really new to the world of podcasts and video downloads I thought it would be a good tryout to download and watch this 13 min. short. I know - I could easily blow it up on my computer screen but having heard the criticism of this new gadget as a valid visual medium I decided to view and review HOTEL CHEVALIER based on my iPod experience. So here goes :

Immediately I realize how silly this venture is because it's presented in widescreen which makes the picture much smaller than the screen provides and there's no way to zoom or enlarge in any way. A mustached Jason Schwartzman lounges in a Parisian hotel room ordering grilled cheese sandwiches and watching STALAG 17 on TV (I could barely see it on the iPod screen - thanks for the nerdspotting The Playlist!) until Natalie Portman calls up and wants to visit. She shows up shorthaired (I guess it still hasn't grown back from V FOR VENDETTA) and clingy. They exchange cryptic dialogue - Portman : "are you running away from me?" Schwartzman : "I thought I already did" and have a brief sex scene that is really not done justice on my iPod's postage stamp viewpoint.

This short film seems to completely be about the song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" by Peter Sarstedt - the bulk of which is played twice. The lack of back story and any further insight into either Schwartzman or Portman's characters left me hanging and unsatisfied. Even though on my little screen it looked great - the colors and framing all held my attention and I loved the song but sadly the stylistic approach is the whole show - no real insight or memorable moments appear. The last tracking shot of the couple in question walking in slow motion is a Anderson trademark and it's provided in this short as the payoff which uh...well, let's just say it doesn't bode well for THE DARLEELING LIMITED. Despite that the full length follow-up PART 2 already getting pretty scathing reviews so far I'm gonna wait and see for myself how disappointing it will be - snap! Nah, nah...we'll just wait and see.

More later...