STEP UP to THE DESCENT

I'm thinking that THE DESCENT and STEP UP are my two favorite films of the summer. I love them both. I can't stop thinking about them or talking them up as I've got to helm an entire word of mouth campaign on my own. As if the movies' success hinges on me (and why, I wonder, am I so emotionally invested in both?!)

I love the women in THE DESCENT. I believed them to be their characters and not actresses. The sisters (especially the one who looked like a Scottish Kelly Ripa) were so lovely. That filmmaker, Neil Marshall and those women created such a totally terrifying yet moving and entertaining movie (and, for the record, I like both the US and UK endings). At the first screening I attended with fellow diehard genre fan, Laura (In My Life) Jordan, I had to really use my peripheral vision to remind myself that I was in a movie house and not that terrible, terrible cave.

STEP UP is a unifying film. No kidding. Both times I saw it in cinemas frequented by diverse "urban" audiences. While some did not buy certain plot points (poor Skinny) and were vocal about it, that movie got everyone watching. Last night (Sunday) when I saw the sold out 8:30 show at AMC Empire 25 w/ Marguerite, Melissa and Bixby there were a number of people sitting on steps and standing in the hall watching the whole movie. Nothing like a well-crafted formula flick to create a community event. The chemistry of all elements aligns perfectly in STEP UP (even Rachel Griffith's crazy over-the-top headmistress of MSA - Maryland School of the Arts- enhances the fun).

Some gripe that there's not enough dance in STEP UP. The restraint is what made it for me (and most others in the auditorium). The sparing use of big productions numbers intensified the event-factor of the choreography we did see. No kidding, people were cheering like it was a life performance of "So you think you can dance?"

When I first saw the movie I had a flash of recognition - deja vu really while watching Jenna Dwaan, who plays senior-with-a showcase-to mount, Nora Clark. I quietly called Laura Jordan midway through the film to make her IMDB (love using IMDB as a verb) Ms. Dewan and sure enough, Jenna Dewan is none other than TAMARA ("Evil has a new name," or as IMDB says "Revenge has a killer body") http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401815/

When dance and horror collide I'm in hog heaven! Perhaps I should revisit my idea for a slasher flick set in a hotel that's home to bad dinner theater (born, of course, during my stint dancing in Jean Ann Ryan's "Night Music" at the Lilly Langtry Dinner Theater at the Sheridan Valley Forge Hotel in PA). Showgirls against a knife-wielding killer - the opening weekend B.O. is sure to be killer.

Anyway, both movies are staying with me. So much so that I had to come out of Blog retirement for a night.

Hope you all get to check them out!

DEER HUNTING IS A DRAG

Upstate recently post P-Town I joined James and his mom for a shopping trip (Loews, home depot, and some big outlet hunting store that James likes for the shoes and outerwear)

At the hunting store I bought a T-shirt for Bixby which featured one little cartoon dog sniffing the another cartoon dog's butt along with a "do i know you?" caption. Cute, right?

Not so cute was a T-Shirt which had "Deer Hunting can be a real drag" printed above an illustration of a hunter dragging a slain deer by its antlers. Wow.

I preferred "deer hunters like a good rack" and am still trying to let go of the notion that there's a market for the other kind of T. It takes all kinds, I guess