hilltopics
daily kansan
friday ▲
11.6.98 ▲
eight.a ▲
You know you love it
Guilty pleasures permeate the big screen, air waves
An undead zombie threatens the living in *Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn*. Released in 1987, director Sam Raimi's opera of flying eyeballs, dismembered hands and geysers of gore upped the ante for later entries in the realm of so-bad-it's-kinda-good cinema. It's mix of Exorcist-type horror and Three Stooges slopstick later was copied in main-stream hits such as Liar Liar and From Dusk Till Dawn.
Contributed art
James Woods leads a motley crew of hardcore exterminators in John Carpenter's Vampires. Critics everywhere can't stomach the flick's affection for carnation and half-dressed females, but savvy moviegoers should delight in this latest entry in bad-taste cinema. Photo by Neil Jacobs/COLUMBIA PICTURES
story by jeremy m doherty kansan movie critic
Francisco to Miami,
but John Carpenter's
Vampires could end up as
a mini-landmark in Ameri-
can cinema.
How can this be?
The New York Times'
Lawrence Van Gelder howled at the horror flick's reliance on mumbo jumbo and labeled it as claptrap. Hauling out his grab bag of puns, Michael O'Sullivan of the The Washington Post panned the movie as toothless and dead.
And I don't deny any of those charges. In fact, the incessant parade of bloodletting, prostitutes and foul language is exactly why Vampires 'brand of shoot'-'em-up silliness works.
It's the newly crowned King of Guilty Pleasures. In fact, it may be the most invigorating exercise in schlock since Evil Dead 2 joked around with flying eyeballs and dismembered hands more than 10 years ago.
Guilty,pleasures inhabit the lonely middle ground that exists between critically acclaimed Oscar-winners and overpriced turkeys. Producers and show biz folks unleash these products on the public in the hope that, somehow, something will stick in the consciousness of audiences.
When they don't,
When they don't,
the movies
usually turn
up on
cable TV months later, stuck between airings of Beastmaster 6 and Aqua Monster: The Return.
And people love 'em. They revel in the cheap writing, the balsa-wood acting and the dollar-store special effects. The best guilty pleasures are the ones that consistently push the envelope and go for bigger explosions, nastier gore and faster cars. They can be innovative, but they never lose sight of their cheesy roots.
To qualify as a guilty pleasure, a movie has to meet three criteria:
The script must tell a pulpy story about crops, cops or secret agents. Any attempts at character development are frowned upon. James Wood's hero in Vampires, for example, remains thoroughly dislikable, vulgar and sadistic from start to finish as he beats up on hookers, priests and, oh yeah, vampires.
The chances of widespread appeal are slim. Hence, *Face/Off*, while seemingly a prime candidate as a guilty pleasure, doesn't qualify because it starred John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Plus, it tacked on a phony happy ending — a big mistake in schlock cinema.
The movie requires a sense of audacity. It needs to take chances and rub its excesses in the viewer's face. A good example in this case is Oliver Stone's 1997 thriller *U-Turn*, which paired an array of film noir clichés with wall-to-wall sex and violence. Stone also shot the movie in his usual style — all nutty camera angles and a mixture of color and black-and-white photography. Does it serve a purpose? Nope. It's its eye-catching as hell.
There are exceptions to these rules.
Please use italics. I am sorry.
k doesn't meet the standard for guilty pleasures, but its 1997 sequel, The Lost World, does. At first glance, that scuns odd.
Both were huge moneymakers, and both had a profound impact on the field of computerized special effects. What's the difference?
The Lost World is like the orphaned child in a Dickens novel that no one wants. It's louder, bloodier and more hackenied than its predecessor. But because it's not trying to wow us with glorious, sun-bathed images of grazing dinosaurs, it doesn't waste time getting
around to the slicing and dicing
around to the sliding and diving.
Some of today's biggest stars have based their entire careers on satisfying the public's primal urgles. Is anyone dying for the day when Kurt Russell plays King Lear? If he's not starring in asequel to Big Trouble in Little China sometime soon, I'm going to withdraw my membership in his fan club.
This philosophy explains beautifully why TV shows such as Dukes of Hazzard continue to thrive in syndicated reruns. Any program that survives so well on a diet of rednacks, down-home cooking and cars named General Lee is doing something right.
And let's not leave out the old standby of guilty pleasures, heavy metal music. Though everyone swayed to power ballads by Tesla and Poison at junior high dances, it's not proper these days to get caught up in crunching guitar chords and lyrics about every rose having its own thorn.
film this weekend, but the passing of Halloween should carve into its audience.
Fans of guilty pleasures now have to retreat to the background of society. Vampires was the top-grossing
Kurt Russell's fans have sworn off his latest flick, Soldier, in which he tries to use facial expressions instead of dialogue. Not a pretty sight.
Members of Poison, one of the more flamboyant of mid-'80s heavy metal bands, grit their teeth in happier times. Fans of big-haired rock 'n' roll still long for the days of mouse, leather and power ballads. Contributed photo
The greatest of all redneck vehicles, the "General Lee," awaits its next adventure with the Duke boys in Hazzard County. You want sophistication? Then don't look here. Contributed art
OPENING ACT
Conspiracy, brew on tap at local tavern
What to look for in the opening episode:
The sixth season opener finds Mulder and Scully attempting to return to work on the X-Files with the help of their supervisor, Assistant Director Skinner.
The dark figures led by the Cigarette-Smoking Man have other plans.
The first episode also features a return appearance by Mimi Rogers as Agent Diana Fowley and Chris Owens as Agent Jeffery Spender.
For more information about the upcoming season, log on to www.thex-files.com/showinfo.htm
By Agent A. A. Piazza
Kansan staff reporter
For many KU students and Lawrence residents, there is no mystery about where to go on Sunday nights to watch the popular paranormal-chasing duo of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
The Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., has become the weekly hangout for many X-Files afficiados.
Wilson said that it originally began as a way for him to watch the show while he worked on Sunday nights. He placed an "X" in the front window to alert other conspiracy-curious fans that they could watch the show.
Sunday's season premier will kick off the third season that the bar has held the weekly gathering. The show, on the Fox network, will begin its sixth season. The gathering was initiated by Marty
"Everybody from students, locals, lawyers and administrators come together to watch the show." Wilson said
"I was doing it for selfish reasons," Wilson said.
The gathering was initiated by Marty Wilson, bartender at the Red Lyon.
Mason Karrer, Overland Park senior.
Lyon the first year the bar televised the show and will attend the party Sunday night. He said he was eager to see if the guarders of The X-Files would pick up the creators
said that he attended the Red
show's summer movie left off.
But once the action on the screen starts, the chattering has to stop. Wilson said silence spread throughout the bar once the show's opening credits started to roll.
Many of the show's Lawrence faithful will be in attendance Sunday night, ready to share their theories about what the new season holds.
"It's very quiet, there are rules that you have to obey," Karrer said. "It's not very often that you will be in a crowded bar and it will be so quiet."
"It definitely turned Sunday night around," Wilson said. "It turned the slowest night of the week into one of the busiest nights."
Wilson said that the X-Files night had increased business on Sunday nights.
Wilson said that on a typical Sunday night about 100 people pile in to watch the show.
Haglund is scheduled to return toward the end of the year. Wilson said.
I know! How about the Red Lyon?
"We never thought that the night would take off as much as it did," he said.
A highlight for the Red Lyon viewing par ties came this summer when Dean Haglund, the actor who plays Langley, of the Lone Gunmen, attended to play host to The X-Files night.
Though the bar normally opens at 7 p.m. Sundays, Wilson said he'd open the doors about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
1