No sooner than I was flipping through my current issue of PLAYBOY admiring the fantastic pics of the KISS girls... Ya know... It'd be cool if...ummm... ya know.... They got cool KISS style make up... and ummm... wowzers.... Anyway, I was reading the articles as usual when suddenly my gigantic GONG went off signaling EMAILS.... I click and lo and behold more praises of the Eddie Furlong/KISS epic called DETROIT ROCK CITY. Word has it the film has been moved to right around the first week or so of August to grab some of them summer dollars. From the sound of things.... this could do pretty good... Now if someone would just do a film based on that JOURNEY video game... then... then I could die a happy boy... or what about XANADU TWO? I just scored the one sheet for XANADU... Ahhhhhhh.... late seventies early eighties... heaven on the radio...
I've never really written a letter to 'Penthouse' before so please excuse my language. I'm the only guy I know who writes like he's translating the Bible. The test screening took place at the Pacific Beach Cities 16 in El Segundo, California.
After an opening comic bit involving a Christian Mom (hilariously played by the same actress who donned layers of make-up to play the old lady in 'Something About Mary'), we meet the four stoners, rehearsing their basement band modeled after you-know-who. The film takes off with a title montage of 70's pop culture icons. Everything from 'Famous Monsters' magazine to Wacky Packs sets the tone for the story to follow...
Which, as most readers of this site know by now, is 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' spliced with 'Dazed And Confused', and all shot with a comic book camera that puts most, if not all, so-called 'comic-book' movies to shame.
I laid hands on a cop of this screenplay months ago, not out of any great loyaty to the 'Knights In Satan's Service', but out of great affection for the 70's. I'll admit one of the first lps I bought was 'KISS Alive II', but only for the sleeve; I had never heard the music. What 11-year-old can resist trying to run his parents' turntable blockade with a photo of a guy with blood running down his chin? However, I must stress that from there I moved on to my first John Williams score album and other vinyl embarassments I'm certainly not gonna detail here. In other words, I'm no veteran of the KISS Army!
Anyway, read the script; thought it mediocre. Didn't jump off the page at me. An okay read.
So I was definitely approaching this movie with a certain skepticism. Even after all the king's horses and all the king's men do their thing and spend their millions, what's on the stage is usually what was on the page.
Not this time. Laugh after laugh from me and my fellow lab rats. And, on at last five occasions, APPLAUSE for a character or line. That's right, a cynical L.A. test audience putting their jaded hands together both during the movie and after the lights came up. I shit you not.
And deservedly so. This is a movie for us. Spoken in our language. God knows why I didn't read it that way. Even the grossest gag, and there are many, is presented in an innocent, sweet and good-natured way. Like the late 70's were. Like we were.
Credit Adam Rifkin, who's takin' his carer in a great new direction here. Nice to have him back behind the camera instead of just the word-processor. He knows he's not makin' 'Masterpiece Theatre', or even another 'Dark Backward' here. His style, casting and d.p. strike the perfect tone. All the boys are great in a true ensemble. Yeah, Eddie Furlong's in it, but no more so than any other guy. The star-making turn here is from James DeBello. Playing a physical variation on 'Jay' from the Kevin Smith universe, DeBello steals the show. And the applause. The period soundtrack (Blue Oyster Cult, etc.) will have most of us runnin' to the racks. I recognized the editor's credit from both 'Terminators' and 'True Lies'. You can sense him at work here. Lastly, hats off to the art department; there are details here I haven't seen since I rearranged my bedroom walls and door in '79.
All in all, this is the perfect summer movie, especially for This Seventies Summer. As the marketing department that's gonna be sellin' it has already advised: "If you're going to go see one movie this summer, go see 'Star Wars'. But if you're going to go see two movies, go see "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". Well, if you're gonna go see a third...
This, more than any other movie coming this year, is the perfect companion piece for Mr. Lucas' Opus. Both take place, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." Galaxies me and most of my late-twenty/early thitysomething friends would prefer living in to the ones we do now. At least we can visit. Especially this summer. Memo to Marketing: Get This Trailer In Front Of 'Star Wars". It belongs here more than any of the other so-called 'event trailers'. 'Nuff said.
Igor
Here's the next review.... Warning though... there are spoilers in a few places...
I was at a test screening for the new 70's KISS movie, "Detroit Rock City" last night, and I thought you'd like to hear my thoughts on the movie. In three words: THIS MOVIE ROCKED. I'm srue by now you all know the basic story, it involves four high schoolers from Cleaveland and their odyssey to go see the KISS concert in Detroit. This is nothing new of course, but the execution was great!
When the movie begins, the four buddies have tickets to the concert until one of the guys' mother (Lin Shaye of "There's Something About Mary" and "Kingpin", who again gives a great, scene-stealing comic performance) who is a religious fanatic and thinks KISS is devil music finds the tickets and burns them. One of the guys, than wins tickets to the concert on the radio so the guys head to Detroit. Along the way, they have a run in with some disco- loving assholes. They end up picking up one of the girls (Natasha Lyonne from "Slums Of Beverly Hills").
Whent he guys get to Detroit, the tickets from the radio station have already been given away, so the four guys split up and each try to find a way into the concert before it starts. The movie ends up with the four guys getting in the concert and with KISS performing "Detroit Rock City."
What made this movie work is the way it captured the 70's so perfectly. You really feel like you've entered a time warp. The soundtrack had EVERYTHING you remember from the 70's, from cheesy songs like "Muskrat Love," "The Pina Colada Song" and "Makin It" to great rock classics like "Baba O'Reilly" and of course lots of great KISS music. Also, the great thing about this movie was that it was extremely raunchy. From some reason, when I heard the concept I thought this film would be PG-13, but it is a hard R. Most of the raunchy "Something About Mary"-type gags are HILARIOUS.
My advice to everyone who reads this is: SEE THIS MOVIE IN THE THEATER. IT'S A GREAT GROUP EXPERIENCE. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE THAT YOU DID WITH "DAZED AND CONFUSED" AND WAIT UNTIL VIDEO!!!!!
Hope this was helpful,
CAPTAIN STARSHINE
