Leon is a photographer. His passion, his goal, is to capture the real, raw, ugly, beating heart of the city (originally New York, now Los Angeles) that he calls home. Meanwhile, there’s a killer roaming the subways late at night, committing unspeakable acts when the cars are nearly empty. Perhaps Leon can find what he’s looking for through the killer—if he can stay alive. All aboard…

First off, I want to make it clear that although this movie is on Comcast’s OnDemand channel FEARnet, it wasn’t given the shaft. It’s WIDESCREEN, for starters, which is something I’ve seen people worrying about on several message boards (and believe me, I was one of them.) And more importantly, this was intended to be in theaters; after the much-hated Catacombs (another straight-to-FEARnet feature), many were in doubt about the quality of this movie; however, I can honestly say that it would have been a hit if it had been in theaters as originally planned, but thanks to Lionsgate’s foolish decisions, it’s on TV already…and it’s good. (In fact, the only downsides to it being on FEARnet were the bottom-of-the-screen advertisements and the midway-point intermission, which will mercifully be absent when this eventually comes to DVD.)

As for the feature itself: well, it’d be impossible for me to talk about it without comparing it to its source, the awesome short story of the same name by Clive Barker (happy birthday to him today!), so for the sake of anyone who has read the story, I’ll quash your worries about a bad adaptation right now and say that this was nicely done. There were a number of additions to the plot (a typical stipulation of short story adaptations), but instead of being artificially grafted on, they nicely expanded it while retaining the overall plot and the mood of the story (dread, “ickiness,” very wrong moments of humor, and a kind of sublime—or perhaps subliminal—beauty in the midst of so much ugliness.) Sure, there were a few areas that could have been avoided (Leon’s girlfriend Maya was the only poorly-written character in the movie, in a very typically Hollywood suspense film way), but overall, the plot was tight, the characters colorful, and the mood solid. Good work, Jeff Buhler!

Oh, and for those who have read the story and are wondering/worried about it including its revelatory climax, [spoiler]yes, it’s here. It’s not quite as heart-stopping or surreal, but it’s there and it works.[/spoiler] To everyone else: I shall say no more.

Bradley Cooper plays the protagonist Leon. I was impressed with how solidly evil he could come across in The Wedding Crashers—yes, I’m serious here—and figured that he would do well in a more sympathetic role. Here, he took on the role of an “obsessed artist,” where his intense persona and hardened gaze was perfect. The other actors all did fine—Leslie Bibb as the airheaded Maya included—but of course, I have to give special mention to Vinnie Jones, the subway “Butcher” himself. What he brought to the role of Mahogany was more than just a looming, intimidating presence; he brought a kind of grace to the role. Perhaps this was just in the way he moved, but I think he conveyed a kind of silent dialogue (he literally doesn’t say a word—until a key scene at the film’s climax) that would surprise many who only see him as just another muscle-bound character actor/thug. Brooke Shields also had a brief but enjoyable role as an art critic, whose disparaging remarks about Leon’s photographs were a little cliché but delivered with a bit of humanistic sympathy. Everyone else did nicely, but to say more may give away the plot. Moving on…

To look at the film was a real treat. Leave it to a foreign director to bring out the best of a Clive Barker story; Ryuhei Kitamura’s uses of light (or lack thereof), color, and camera angles were only the frosting on this cake. You know how many times I’ve mentioned mood already—half of that owes to Kitamura’s vision. I won’t give away too much, but there are a number of scenes that could have been much more conventional, and yet with a few nifty shots and special effects…well, let’s just say that a few of the kill scenes were at least as amazing to watch as they were gruesomely fun.

Finally, I have to give huge kudos to Johannes Kobilke and Robb Williamson for their musical score. It contributed to the overall (yes, here’s that word again) mood, and was engaging, kinetic, paranoid, eerie, and full of ambient beauty. Luckily the soundtrack is available in both score and “various artist” formats, and if you’re like me, that’s a good thing.

Overall, I was thoroughly pleased with the result of all this waiting. Clive Barker was pissed that Lionsgate (and to name names, their head honcho Joe Drake) eliminated the wide release that this movie deserved, and rightfully so: it was good. Really good. But, now it’s out, and if you have FEARnet, you can see it. And if not, don’t worry—it’ll be on DVD soon enough. Fear not, naysayers; you’re in for a wild ride when you step aboard The Midnight Meat Train.

I'm wondering how closely the RJ novels with hew to the "real world" with respect to the upcoming election. Many polls seem to indcate a probable Obama victory in November (especially the projection at fivethirtyeight.com).

Assuming he does get elected, an Obama presidency would tend to herald a rise of American prestige abroad and a foreign policy based around unity between America's allies and strong diplomatic engagement with other nations as well as increased cooperation in attack global terror networks. Not to mention Obama's constant mantra of Hope. The overall result of all this would tend to be a reduction in fear, hatred and violence - and thus a poisoning of the feast that the Otherness planned to have on our world.

Therefore, one would expect that Rasalom and various agents of the Otherness would make moves designed to thwart a President who plans to spoil their "dinner." And one wonders if Jack might become involved in spoiling Rasalom's plans.

That said, a plot involving a possible Presidential assassination seems a little too involved and public for Jack, who prefers to shun officialdom like the plague. On the other hand, Obama himself began his political career as a local community organizer. Perhaps there's someone in Jack's New York like that...

Gotta know. Is he inspired by Cthullu? Sure, its six legs instead of eight, but then again, I don't really recall how many legs ol' tentacle breath had.

Minor spoiler below











I searched the forum, but did not find the topic:


Anya is the first Dog Lady we see eating, and she eats only what the plants discard: grains, nuts and fruits. She won’t eat leaves because she doesn’t want to hurt the plants.

And yet, she smokes a lot. Cigarettes are made with tobacco leaves.

So, what does exactly Anya smoke?

I don't remember this little gem of a movie being mentioned before. Don Cheadle stars as Petey Green, an ex-con who became a reknowned Washington D.C. disc jockey during the end of the 60's by 'telling it like it is'. His popularity really soared by staying on the air all night the day of Martin Luther King's assasination helping to restore order to an enraged city. It is based on actual events and Cheadle and Vondie Curtis hall are both exceptional in the leads.

Man how did you guys manage to survive the weeks between shows? I watched the entire first two seasons each in less than a week-this dragging it out over the course of 12 weeks mkight be more than I can bear-or is it bare?

Anyway I think Dexter will make an excellent father, don't you? What about Deb's new look and who will she hook up with this season? Will another Doakes show up to haunt Dex or will he be free of his co-workers scrutiny? Or will Jimmy Smits, or his brother,character take his place. All in all, I'd say it was the weakest of the 3 season openers(his kill was positively amateurish) but I have faith that it will pick up.

Hi all, I hope you guys can help me. Does anyone know what the Limited Editions (signed) of The Haunted Air are going for? The only ones I see are on ebay for $125 and on amazon for $599! Do you think the $125 is a good deal or is the $599 artificially inflated? They actually have more than one book at the $599 price at amazon and those are old library copies, but I cannot find anyplace that can give me an idea of the value of this book. Can anyone help?
Thank you!

S.

For all those that love a parody or two as this case may be. Cartoon Network is showing the parody episodes of Star Wars from Family Guy and Robot Chicken. Both running back to back on Thursday October 2nd. It starts at 11PM here on my cable network. Even though I have seen them many times.....I never fail to laugh my self silly.

I just saw this about a week ago. It was meh for me. I was a fan of the show on HBO and the movie just wasn't on par with it. I would have much preferred for them to have concentrated on a brief period, instead it spanned over 6 months.

I get that Big was always a little iffy when it came to marriage, but [SPOILER]him not getting out of the car because she didn't look at him [/SPOILER]was such crap. My wife was tsk-tsking, but I was eye-rolling as it just came off as unbelievable bad writing to me.

Just now I heard this sad news at CNN.


Paul Newman died. I really missed him. I always enjoyed his movies. "Cool Hand Luke", "The Sting", "Slap Shot".... and of course "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was his best movie.



R.I.P., Paul Newman.....:cryin: