Here's a report by Cylon Chaney, who attended the American Film Market and was impressed by Danny Cannon's Phoenix and John Carpenter's Vampires. Read on...
I just wanted to get you some information on two brand new films that I just checked out at the AMERICAN FILM MARKET:
The first movie that I checked out is PHOENIX, the brand new movie by director DANNY CANNON of JUDGE DREDD and THE YOUNG AMERICANS fame. Ray Liotta plays the lead in this very dark film noir about a gambler who runs deeper and deeper in debt and in the end ruins his life and the lifes of the people is involved with. The film's plot is very intriguing and with the right marketing should generate some money for Paramount (produced by Lakeshore Entertainment). I liked the film a lot, maybe because it has a very European feel to it and doesn't have the typical happy ending. Ray Liotta shows one of his best acting performances in a long time and the supporting cast, including Daniel Baldwin, Anthony La Paglia and Anjelica Huston is also quiet good. Especially the music by Graeme Revell stands out as well as the great location photography. It is definitely worth the admission and so far the best movie Lakeshore has produced.
The second movie is one of the best JOHN CARPENTER films in a long time, the film VAMPIRE$ with James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, Maximilian Schell, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa with a great score by the master himself. This movie is certainly among the top five of John Carpenter's films. The story is very tongue-in-cheek with some great dialogue and James Woods at his best. This is one of the hottest films at the market and Largo should be making a killing with this one. I don't have the time to go into details about the storyline. I just have to say it is a little jewel among all those bad films that are shown at the AFM this year.
