Low Budget

New website

2005-11-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Low Budget has moved to a newer, sexier, website with a broader approach. The new website is called LowBudgetTruth. It will cover more areas, including reviews of all the important genres. Low-Budget will no longer be updated, and content on this site will slowly be migrated over to the new site.You may also enjoy the following websites from TheDigitalSandbox:

This site is no longer being updated

2005-11-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

However, material on this topic is being posted at LowBudgetTruth.com Material from this website will be migrated to the new website over the next several months.

Movie Review: Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

2005-09-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Movie: Ballistic: Ecks vs. SeverDirector: Wych KaosayandaStarring: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu I’ve never seen this movie all at once, but did see the last hour all together. Arguably I should see the whole thing as one unit to properly appreciate it as a piece of art. If you think that, let me know. I’m sure we can get you some help. Before damning this movie, let me say a word about Lucy Lui.

Bob Denver finally gets rescued from this mortal coil

2005-09-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Before it became popular to celebrate old sitcoms because of their simplicity and nostalgia value, before beer commercials were replaying the Ginger/Mary Ann debate, I understood that Giligan's Island was THE perfect sitcom.Structurally, there is no escape. Why do characters stay together in sit-coms in spite of all the horrible things they do to each other? Because the writers insist they are

A Sound of Thunder: Commentary and Review

2005-09-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

Movie: A Sound of ThunderBasis: Short story by the same name, written by Ray BradburyDirector: Peter HyamsCast: Edward Burns, Ben Kingsley, Catherine McCormack Movie-making technology is moving very rapidly. It seems like just yesterday that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow proved that you could create a whole amazing world in the background while uncomfortable actors posed woodenly in

Movie Review: bad martial arts movies: American Ninja

2005-08-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Title: American NinjaDirector: Sam FirstenbergActors:Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Judie Aronson Iran Contra seemed to have it all: Rogue military operations, money and guns to a government that had held Americans hostage, illegal supply of weapons to insurgents because they were “fighting communism,” and, most importantly, a big-haired blond with documents in her bra. Yet it falls into a dead

Horror Movies (review): Alien vs. Predator

2005-08-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

This site is evolving. Since, of all my blogs, this has the lowest traffic levels, there is plenty of room to experiment. I had previously posted reviews of a number of movies on the website: Breakingitdown.com, however that website has folded. So, since the reviews are often written with the same slant as I am developing here, I am reposting some of them to this website. First up: Alien vs.

Using History and Legend for Stories

2005-07-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

Troy is an appallingly bad movie. At least to me. As I watched it grind through a sequence of plot points from a different time, a different day, using all of Hollywood’s tricks to add grandeur to a bunch of grown men running around in the sand with swords, I wondered if it would have been any good on its own. I mean, Scorpion King was certainly no better in any measurable way. In fact, in

Batman Begins, worth a second and third look, at least

2005-07-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

The third time I watched Batman Begins, I loved it even more. There should be a rule: only Christopher Nolan can direct Batman movies. Tim Burton was great, but it was always Tim Burton, with a heavy dose of Jack Nicholson. Batman Begins is really about Bruce Wayne and Batman. Christopher Nolan gets this. He takes

War of the Worlds: Family Values and Extermination

2005-07-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

What would you do if aliens beamed down to our planet in lightening bolts, into clumsy tripod-driven machines they had long buried, and started mowing down everyone with “frickin’ lasers”. I mean after you got done wondering why they couldn’t just blow us up. Or maybe just use those lightening bolts in the first place. Or, well, if you start asking technical, scientific, or even tactical

Who Owns the Star Wars Universe?

2005-05-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting question about any work or body of work. Many an author, after developing a series, has felt constrained by fan expectations. If she unexpectedly kills off a much-loved character, fans feel betrayed. This didn't happen in "their" universe. Movies are often more sensitive to fan requirements, given the budgets involved. Still, when David Fincher took over the third

Waiting for Darth Vader

2005-05-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

I think we all remember that moment when Darth Vader became the greatest archetypal bad-guy in modern cinema. It was as he stood over the freshly dis-armed Luke Skywalker and announced: "I am your father, Luke!" This was, to the truly uninformed, during the second (and best) Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back. Darth didn't have to prove his claim, he told Luke that Luke knew it was

Authentic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2005-05-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie. I immediately told a good friend mind who has not read the books not to see it. Another friend, who has read them, will be asking me for a review, and I can't really decide. Was it good? Funny? How often did I have to remind myself to keep an open mind? When making a book into a movie, one type of authenticity to be conserved is that of the relationship to the source

Track of the Vampire

2005-04-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

More specifically, in vampire movie terms, I just finished watching Track of the Vampire. I didn't know much about the movie when I watched it, just that it was cheap, early 60s, and the bad guy was a vampire. The movie was kind of a mish-mash. Fortunately, our minds will add sense to things that aren't all that coherent. In particular, the Vampire does not look like, move like, dress

Track of the Vampire

2005-04-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sub-genres is the vampire movie. I love it in all its forms. The purest, of course, is the classic horror tale, best exemplified in Nosforatu. The related form is the artistic response, found in movies such as Shadow of the Vampire and the under-rated Vampire's Kiss. Then there are all kinds of cheap vampire movies, big-budget versions, and action-vampire movies. Of

A Point of Reference for Kung Fu Hustle

2005-04-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

I saw this movie twice. Each time with a different person. The first woman loved it, the second, well, thought a couple parts were funny. Oddly, though I enjoyed it greatly the first time, it doesn't hold up well. Worse, it has no point of reference for the non-Kung Fu movie person. The slapstick in this movie relies on an understanding of the well-exaggerated effects in the older Kung Fu

Law School Ruined me for Watching This Movie

2005-04-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

I watched The Verdict, with Paul Newman, and greatly enjoyed the tale of a bottom-feeding alcoholic trial attorney, a plaintiff's attorney in a medical malpractice case, fighting the odds. The acting was great, the critical turns were well-concealed until the last moment. One turning point was done entirely without dialog, ending with a marvelously deserved sock to the jaw. As I left the

Tarantino and Gritty Realism

2005-04-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

There is a certain visceral violent feel to Tarantino that is both real and exaggerated. When he came onto the scene, he was celebrated for bringing a gritty realism to an overly formalized action genre. But, like Sam Peckinpah, was it realism or a different kind of exaggeration? Peckinpah wanted to show that gunfights weren’t clean, so he slowed them down and spurted blood all over the place.

Natural editing and Napoleon Dynamite

2005-03-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

There are some movies that you can start watching at any point on cable, convincing yourself that you just want to see “this one scene,” and then you find yourself sitting through the whole thing, again. Animal House, the first three Star Wars movies and The Matrix fell into this category, until ruined by sequels. Saving Private Ryan was, for awhile, though the ending never really held up. Of

Somebody has to pay

2005-03-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

Narrative drives to a satisfying conclusion. In the baldest melodrama, this is when the bad-guy gets his comeuppance, after dominating most of the story with his badness. In a horror story, this can be an exaggerated punishment. In the common action-drama, usually the good guys escape with a modicum of damage and suffering, and some side-character is usually destroyed to account for the fact

About this blog: low-budget authenticity

2005-03-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

About this BlogUnlike my other works, this one is not accompanied by any commitment to ongoing updates or constantly being witty, hip, and amusing. This topic is somewhat academic. Though I’m writing it with a sense of fun, I am still trying to get deep at something I first encountered when my ex-wife was studying film. I was tasked with helping her understand a lot of the theorists, and I got

Misty Mundae: Brechtian Poptart

2005-03-19T07:39:00.000-08:00

She’s not that hot. Not that compelling. Not too enthusiastic. In fact, she’s sort of like the girl in the drama club that you kind of like but who’s more of a friend. So why, in a field filled with silicon blonds and stripper types, does Misty Mundae have such a following? She gets naked, but so do most actresses at some point in their careers. She does it a lot, but if you’ve got cable

2005-02-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

The level of authenticity required to invoke a visceral response is somewhat similar here. These boots aren't really the boots of the people who died. But they "represent" those deaths. Who will buy the representation? Wouldn't that audience just as well respond to the pure number of dead? Probably not. A certain chill comes with viewing the empty shoes, even though this could just as well

Bite Me! Spiders and Strippers and Clay

2005-02-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

There’s a movie called Bite Me!, which is about a strip club being assaulted by mutant spiders who’ve been eating Government enhanced killer pot. While the movie is obviously marvelous, the interviews are really fun. The part that’s relevant to Authenticy is the claim, made by two of the oft-naked stars, that claymation is more authentic than CGI. My first, intuitive response is agreement.

Stand By Me and The Telling Detail

2005-01-26T11:29:00.000-08:00

I'm about two thirds through watching Stand By Me, and I have yet to get into it. There is a point, watching a movie, when we suspend disbelief and accept the movie on its terms. Sometimes this point is helped by good movie-making, sometimes it is done just because there seems to be so much fun going on. Sometimes we just do it to ourselves. Stand By Me has always been mentioned to me as a

Million Dollar Baby and the Right Hook

2005-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

Martial art movies, dance movies, and pornography have a certain advantage. There is something physical happening beyond and above the screen representation. Even if the plot, background, special effects seem fake or artificial, even if the acting is wooden, something real happens. That “something real” often rates independent critical review, and certainly underscores the movie. Sometimes,

White Noise

2005-01-12T13:06:00.000-08:00

Reviewers aren’t taken with this movie, yet it is doing well with the public. Quite well. One reason it gets trashed, in all probability, is the association with The Ring and others that have followed in that strain. It’s no Ring, but definitely better than The Grudge Good horror is, as the stylish. But bad horror can still be very good if it gets underneath our skin. To do

The Incredibles and Reality

2004-11-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

Ontological Authenticity is an excellent phrase. I’m not sure if it will hold up under close scrutiny, but it seems to mean what is true about the nature of things, which shines through imaginary reconstructions of the world. Perhaps it is the logical truth that holds together even fictional universes. This is the kind of truth that helps understand that if an animation falls from the sky

Halloween, John Carpenter's high point

2004-10-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

As Halloween, the holiday, approaches, it's time to think about one of the best all-time low-budget horror movies ever made. The greatness of this simple movie has been obscured by workmanlike sequels followed by pathetic sequels followed by slick sequels, followed by, well, burn-out. With Halloween, the link between low-budget and authenticity in a certain style of horror movie was made

It's just a puppet, isn't it?

2004-10-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

I saw Team America: World Police yesterday, at a preview. Now, I can’t say if this is a good movie or not. It is very much a creature of its makers, so if you like South Park, you’ll probably love this. What’s interesting, though, is that this movie is about puppets. You’d think this is the opposite of authenticity, but in fact the filmmakers achieve exactly that. There is a theory of drama

Sports: Realism or Entertainment? Or both?

2004-10-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Sports, a form of entertainment, is “Real” in the sense that the outcome is not known at the beginning. Usually. It is also “Real” to the participants, who are innovative and aggressive within a well-defined set of rules, shared with the audience. Such rules are, at best, adequate to keep everyone playing until the end of the game, saving the long arguments until later. If you play ball at

Last Man Talking

2004-09-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Watched Basic in two parts. Basic is a movie with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson that tries to create a sense of confusion as an investigator struggles with facts. The movie is, well, okay. When I watched the first hour, I was very taken with it, and wanted to finish. When I finally caught the whole thing, however, it was obvious I had overestimated how good it would be. That’s not

Is Garden State a Chick Flick?

2004-09-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

Arguably, the character is a guy, working out issues with his mother, while in a developing romance with a somewhat crazy woman. According to the generally accepted Chick Flick Indicia Scale, those factors put this at about a seven. Still, I saw it by accident. We’d been planning to see Collateral. But somebody got the time screwed up and the only well-reviewed movie starting

Real Gilligan's Island?

2004-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

Noted on a bus: The Real Gilligan's Island. Now, Gilligan's Island was probably the perfect sit-com. Not the best, by any means. The Honeymooners, Seinfeld, the Simpsons, all far better in terms of writing, acting, production. But Gilligan's Island assembled the best group of archetypes to match the time. It provided a premise that ensured that, no matter what happened, the central group

The Village of Idiots

2004-09-22T08:11:00.001-07:00

M. Night Shyamalan doesn't so much make movies as he creates a sense of gaming with the audience. This could be a good thing, and was best done in The Sixth Sense. But movies are essentially stories, and stories are about the characters in the movie. That's why I hate it when someone is creeping around and then gets surprised by the bad guy whose sole method of hiding is to be Offscreen. You

Being confined is good for you

2004-09-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had to send Henry V, starring Kenneth Branaugh, back to Netflix. It sat in my DVD player for weeks. I've made it through about one hour. I'm told it's a good movie, well worth my time. But the TV is in my room. My room is, currently, a mess. Also, there is a computer and a PS2 in my room. The only place that is far enough from the computer and the PS2 controller for me to watch a

Brain on Fire

2004-09-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

Fahrenheit 9/11 brought forth good and bad. Good is that documentaries really can make lots of money. Good is that it's now possible to laugh, or at least chuckle, at the psycho-neo-cons who are inexplicably running the country. Bad is that now nobody knows what a documentary is. Bad is that liberals are often in a corner defending the spotty, self-absorbed, Michael Moore. Good and Bad are

Sky Captain and the world of too much talking

2004-09-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

As I approached the theater, God attempted to save me. God came in the form of a PR man handing out free tickets to another movie, "Wimbledon." After handing me a pass for two, he would not take it back. "Give it to somebody else." Now, all of a sudden, I'm a PR guy for Wimbledon, trying to pass off this free pass. Guerilla marketing, I suppose. Or maybe Viral Marketing. I saw a