Reel World

Cult Leader
An Interview With Actor Bruce Campbell

The Others
Scare Fare

Idiot Box
You Don't Know Samurai Jack

The Week in Sloth

Film Capsules

Film Times

Reel World
By Devin D. O'Leary

Principal photography has wrapped on the new Spider-Man flick directed by Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi and starring a buffed-out Tobey Maguire. The film isn't expected in theaters until summer 2002, but teaser trailers are running in your local cineplex right now. Most of Hollywood is waiting with bated breath to see how this film does at the box office. Waiting in the wings to pounce if this superhero craze gets percolating are a couple interesting possibilities. ... Following the success of Rush Hour 2, New Line Cinema is knocking on comedian Chris Tucker's door to do a follow-up to their 1994 superhero smash The Mask. Superstar Jim Carrey is too expensive, and singer Sisqo already turned it down. ... Aintitcoolnews.com reported last week that noted Irish actor Daniel Day Lewis might be interested in playing Prince Namor of Atlantis in the movie adaptation of Marvel Comics' Sub-Mariner. I'll believe that when I see it. ... Ray Park (The Phantom Menace, X-Men) has been signed on to play the martial arts superhero Iron Fist for some time now. Last week, the film added a director in the form of Hong Kong helmer Kirk Wong (Jackie Chan's Crime Story, The Big Hit). This one goes under the lens later this year.

Cult Leader
An Interview With Actor Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell

Maybe you don't know Bruce Campbell. That's OK; Bruce probably doesn't know you either. If you're a dedicated fan of science fiction or fantasy, however, you've undoubtedly caught his act. Back in 1979, Bruce and several pals from Detroit made a little independent horror flick called Evil Dead. The film went on to become a cult classic, inspiring a trilogy (including Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn and Army of Darkness), a videogame (recently released Evil Dead: Hail to the King) and even an action figure bearing Bruce's likeness.

Since the success of the Evil Dead films, Bruce has parleyed his dashing good looks and self-deprecating humor into a string of cult movie cameos (The Hudsucker Proxy, Congo, Escape From L..A.), a starring role in the short-lived weird western series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and a multi-year stint as Autolycus the King of Thieves on both "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess."

After nearly two decades of underground success, Campbell has penned his first book, the screamingly funny If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor. Campbell is currently in the middle of a multi-month, coast-to-coast tour promoting the "blue collar autobiography."

On the eve of his visit to Albuquerque, Campbell took time out to chat with Weekly Alibi.

What was your purpose in sitting down and banging out this book?

It's so annoying to watch entertainment shows and read newspapers, seeing all the coverage of the one percent of the industry that is represented--which happens to be the A-list people. They're missing 99 percent of the people, I feel. It's an industry that's made up of technicians, business affairs people. It's not all just about the Steven Spielbergs and Bruce Willises. There is a bunch of people out there grinding away, and I just feel that we have some stories too. Much like Avis, being number two, you do try harder. Because you don't have the resources to make a movie forever, you've got a limited amount of days of shooting; you're limited with the people you've got. You're limited in every possible way, so you've got to be clever. I think, in a way, it can actually be healthy. B-movies are not meant to be a bad connotation at all. I'm proud of what we have to overcome.

All the folks that you grew up with in Detroit (Sam and Ivan Raimi, Josh Becker, Rob Tapert, Scott Spiegel) seemed to stumble into their own little niches within the entertainment industry. How did you end up being "the actor" of the group?

I was kind of interested in that. I mean, we were all interested in everything. That's the thing about doing all those Super-8 movies in junior high and high school. We didn't know any job definitions. On each of those shorts there were always multiple versions where we all kicked in ideas and stuff. I was interested [in acting] since I was about eight, I guess. By the time we started doing those Super-8 films, I had actually been in some local plays. I thought, "Well, I'm an actor." But I was in front of the camera and behind the camera too.

Do you think doing everything on those old Super-8 films made you a better actor?

Oh, yeah. Independent filmmaking, if you come from that background, it gives you a much better perspective of what's really happening. If you get actors who were bred in the upper crust from the get-go and they had some early success, those are the ones to watch out for. Because they don't know what a soundman does, they don't know what a focus puller is; they don't know what an 85-millimeter lens is versus an 18-millimeter lens. And they don't know how that all affects their performance. I think all actors should go to film school. I think, in the same sense, all these young MTV brats, as directors should take some acting classes. Because it's not all technical either.

Have you had stranger experiences on low budget movies or on expensive Hollywood sets?

Oh, it's both. Because on the big movies you get excess that doesn't make any sense. It's just so big. Spider-Man was funny. I had a small part in that. My buddy Sam Raimi directed it. On Evil Dead, he'd be five feet across the room right next to the camera with no monitor. On Spider-Man whenever I asked him a question, I had to go through three assistant directors with walkie-talkies. I never even knew where he was the whole time.

Did you feel the need to smack him occasionally?

I probably should have. But he was aware of it. He came out to rig some stupid gag and he looks at me and he winks and he says, "You know we're doing the same old crap, we just have a lot more money." Which is typical of Sam. He's aware of what's happening. We haven't lost him.

Can you tell the difference in your different fans?

Sure. The "Xena" fans, there are a lot of couples that are women. And the "Herc" fans are all pretty straightforward. The Evil Dead fans are a little more tricked out, a little more goth, more shaved heads, more tattoos. I've started to see some Evil Dead tattoos. One guy did an amalgamation of me and an ax. It's interesting. We're starting to be indelibly placed on Americans.

What's next on your schedule after the book tour?

The book tour will be done in November. That's my summer vacation. Then we'll do some serious time off. But I finished four films recently, so I'm not really looking. There's a film called Servicing Sarah. That's a real Paramount film with Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley. I play Elizabeth Hurley's ex-husband in that. Then I did a film called Bubba-Ho-Tep. I play a 68-year-old Elvis Presley. It's pretty bizarre. Weirdest script I ever read. Then there's another small part in The Majestic, this Jim Carrey film. Jim plays a blacklisted writer in the '50s and I play the actor in the movie that he wrote. It's nice to be in a couple big, phony movies. The funny thing is, I wrote a book about being a B-movie actor and three of the last four films were these Hollywood A-movies. Yet, at the same time, that's the advantage I have over somebody like Mel Gibson. Mel's not gonna turn around and do Bubba-Ho-Tep. He's got too many people who'd be screaming bloody murder: "You're not gonna do some shitty $500,000 movie with the guy who directed Phantasm!" But for me it was fun. Us guys in the B-movie world actually have more choices. We can just be actors. We don't have to be movie stars.

Bruce Campbell will be signing copies of his book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor on Saturday, August 11, at Page One Books (11018 Montgomery NE).

The Others
Scare Fare
By Devin D. O'Leary

The Others
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Starring Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston

Hush little baby, don’t say a word, mama’s gonna kill you a mockingbird

It's rare these days when you can use the words "horror movie" and "intelligent" in the same sentence. The Others is a notable exception. Mixing old school chills with new world thrills, The Others emerges as a deviously clever ghost story with a wealth of shocking surprises in store. Shades of Henry James' Turn of the Screw, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting and M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense are among the biggest specters to haunt this literate little spookshow.

The Others comes to us courtesy of Chilean-born writer/director Alejandro Amenábar, whose 1997 thriller Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) energized art house audiences with its whiplash-inducing plot twists. Hollywood, of course, sat up and took notice. Academy Award-winning writer/director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) pounced on the chance at a remake of Abre Los Ojos (now titled Vanilla Sky), promptly signing Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz to star. Instead of heading to Hollywood himself, Amenábar stuck around Europe looking for his next gig. The Others gives Amenábar his first chance to work with an English-language cast, and he does not disappoint, roping in a fine contingent of British and Australian thespians.

Nicole Kidman takes on the role of Grace, a troubled young woman who lives in a secluded mansion on the fog-shrouded Jersey Isles off England's east coast. Several years ago, her husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston) abandoned her to fight the good fight in World War II. With the war now at an end, Charles has yet to return, leaving Grace to raise their two children all by herself and to stoically contemplate life as a young widow. Answering an ad in the local paper, three professional household servants arrive at the gloomy mansion, offering their services. Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan) is the efficient and eerily wise head of household. Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes) is the quiet, old gardener. Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) is the mute, young chambermaid.

Grace gratefully accepts this somber trio into her household, informing them (a bit ominously) that the last group of servants mysteriously vanished without a trace. Grace, a devoutly religious woman, enumerates the various "rules" of her household for the newcomers. Some of these rules seem strangely neurotic. For example, Grace strongly cautions that "no door is to be opened before the previous one is closed and locked." As if the joint weren't creepy enough, the mansion is entirely without electricity, forcing the many maze-like rooms to be lit by flickering candlelight.

As it turns out, Grace's two children, Anne and Nicholas (Alakina Mann and James Bentley), suffer from a rare disease that leaves them allergic to bright light. Whether the children are actually ill, or are suffering under the yolk of a freakishly overprotective mother is just the first of many puzzling questions that bubble to the surface of this dense, psychological chiller.

Slow and methodical in its set-up, The Others takes some time to get things going. Those used to more immediate gratification in their horror films may find themselves growing restless. I recommend that even the most jaded of horror aficionados stick with it, however. The pay-off on this one is bigger than you can imagine. Revealing much more of the plot would be a disservice to viewers. So much of this film's power is based on the twists and turns that its script takes. Suffice to say that Grace and company are soon witness to a series of ghostly intrusions. Is the house haunted? Is Grace mad? Are her enigmatic new servants tricking her? All will be answered in time.

The cast is top notch, with Kidman doing a commendable job as the tortured lead. The cinematography is soft, warm and deeply evocative, balancing nicely between the comfortable glow of home and the dim flicker of horror. The candlelit sets lend a ruddy, shadow-filled atmosphere to the increasingly tense action. Amenábar's script reads like fine literature (his debt to Henry James is more than evident), and the carefully tuned plot features more twists and turns in the dark than Disneyworld's Space Mountain.

Those looking for buckets of blood and heaps of computer-generated special effects have wandered into the wrong theater at the cineplex. Those in the market for some good old-fashioned, icewater-in-your-veins, pull-the-covers-over-your-head kind of chills, however, will get a goodly dose with this Otherworldly opus.

Idiot Box
You Don't Know Samurai Jack
"Samurai Jack" on Cartoon Network
By Devin D. O'Leary

In 1996, animator Genndy Tartakovsky created Cartoon Network's first original series, "Dexter's Laboratory." The series went on to become one of CN's most popular shows, nabbing four Emmy nominations and spawning the inevitable merchandising line. Unwilling to rest on his laurels, Tartakovsky has returned to the drawing board with a groundbreaking new sci-fi/fantasy series that could just change the face of TV toons.

With "Samurai Jack," Tartakovsky set out to create an epic action series. He has succeeded with a skill and artistic level that has rarely (if ever) been displayed in television animation. The show concerns the adventures of Jack, an ancient samurai warrior, whose homeland has been enslaved by the demonic, shape-shifting wizard Aku (voiced with eerie presence by noted Japanese actor Mako). A monumental battle ensues between these two mortal enemies. But, just as Jack is about to deliver his coup de grace, Aku magically teleports his opponent thousands of years into the future. Jack suddenly finds himself stuck in a confusing, high-tech future full of flying cars, techno music and talking dogs. (Yes, talking dogs.) Aku is now the unquestioned lord and master of Earth, his evil empire stretching across a hundred planets. Can Jack find a way back to his own time to stop Aku before this terrifying future comes to pass?

Visually, "Samurai Jack" resembles the sharp, angular cartoons of the 1960s (Jay Ward, Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery pop to mind). Clearly, Tartakovsky knows his cartoon history; hints of everything from Bugs Bunny to "Batman Beyond" are evident. On top of this (or rather, behind this), Tartakovsky has layered a dense, highly detailed environment of background paintings. It's like nothing you've ever seen before--a kaleidoscope of cartoon visuals and wildly expressionistic images.

The show's magnificently cinematic storyline borrows quite a bit from Frank Miller's cutting-edge graphic novel Ronin (evil demon, timelost samurai). The influences don't stop there, however, with bits of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and The Seven Samurai liberally scattered throughout. It's hard to guess where this show is going--which is great. One minute our hero is engaging in an epic, wordless battle sequence worthy of Akira Kurosawa, the next he's hanging out with a pack of canine archeologists with British accents. Wild!

Though kids will probably dig the quirky visuals and cool martial arts sequences, the show's brooding tone and epic scope are probably best appreciated by adults. "Samurai Jack" is, hands-down, the most dramatic cartoon ever put on television. I mean that in every sense of the word: arresting and forceful in its appearance, serious and emotional in its tone. Though it lacks the psychological depth of "Batman: The Animated Series," "Samurai Jack" speaks volumes about its mythical characters through the use of action. Ghosts of Sam Peckinpah, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone haunt the highly stylized action sequences.

Yes, this is a cartoon. Yes, there are plenty of funny jokes. Yes, it will spawn a line of action figures. But it is in moments like a climactic battle featuring our hero slashed, bleeding and drenched in the gore (OK, motor oil) of his enemy's robot hordes that "Samurai Jack" leaves behind the world of Saturday morning and enters the realm of the mythic.

"Samurai Jack" premieres on Cartoon Network on August 10 at 8 p.m. with a special 90-minute movie. Regular episodes follow Mondays at 9 p.m.

The Week in Sloth
By Devin D. O'Leary

Wednesday 8

"The Wayne Brady Show" (KOAT-7 7 p.m.) No, it's not some spin-off show about a long-lost Brady Bunch cousin. Instead, "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" improver Wayne Brady gets his own summer variety show promising lots of sketches, musical spoofs and (of course) improv comedy.

Thursday 9

"Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Baltimore Ravens" (HBO 9 p.m.) Reality TV gets a sporting twist as HBO sends its documentary cameras inside the locker rooms of last year's Superbowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens, to record an as-it-happens record of pro football's pre-season regimen. Witness the unfolding drama as rookies and old-timers endure the physical hardships, emotional strains and fun canoe rides of summer camp.

Friday 10

"LEXX" (Sci-Fi 8 p.m.) What is it I like about this twisted sci-fi series? Well, in tonight's episode (titled "Xevivor") nine earthly studs compete for the chance to spend a night with alien sex slave Xev (Xenia Seeburg). Hmmm.

Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her (Showtime 9 p.m.) Despite the presence of a big-name cast (Glenn Close, Calista Flockhart, Holly Hunter, Cameron Diaz, Amy Brenneman) and a celebrity director (Rodrigo Garcïa, son of author Gabriel Garcïa Marquez), the studio couldn't figure out how to market this vignette-filled comedy/drama/romance about five different women in southern California. At least you get to catch the premiere on pay cable.

Saturday 11

"My Favorite Martian" (TV Land 4 a.m.) The network that just keeps giving and giving, here gives us 48 hours of alien-centric sitcom bliss featuring the wildly underrated talents of Bill Bixby and Ray Walston. Relax, your antennae are showing.

Sunday 12

"Exposure" (Sci-Fi 9 p.m.) Tonight, Sci-Fi's short film showcase gives us "Skin Flicks," a collection of sci-fi and horror shorts all centered around assorted body parts. Feel free to watch it with your favorite organ.

Monday 13

"10 Deadliest Sharks" (Discovery 7 p.m.) What? You're gonna watch a show called "10 Sweetest Sharks?"

Tuesday 14

Return to Cabin By the Lake (USA 7 p.m.) Former 'Packer Judd Nelson had his finest role since The Breakfast Club as a screenwriter/serial killer with a habit of drowning lovely young women in the original made-for-TV flick Cabin By the Lake. The success of that 2000 thriller led inevitably to this sequel, which finds our not-quite-dead villain returning to wreak havoc with a film crew shooting his murderous movie script.