Just a Guy

Zack Ward has had a varied career working with a wide variety of talented people over the years. He started out as the legendary bully, Scut Farkus, in A Christmas Story, did Almost Famous with Cameron Crowe, starred as Dave in the cult hit sitcom, Titus, worked with Steven Spielberg, was yelled at by Michael Bay in Transformers, is starring in this months Postal (May 23rd) and plays opposite Kevin Kline in a riveting dark drama called Trade. There is more to this actor than meets the eye.

TMW: In looking at your career you have worked with a variety of people. What was the one part you really went after when you found out who was attached to the project?

ZW: I would have to say Transformers. When I found out the Optimus Prime was coming out of retirement to be in the movie and make that leap from the 2D world of cartoons to the 3D world of live action, I was in. That is a big risk for any actor to take and I really wanted to support his decision, as Opie, (that’s what his friends call him) and I go way back. We used to hang out with Vanilla Ice in ’87, just partying and snorting WD-40, y' know, guy stuff.

TMW: Priceless.

ZW: Actually when I learned that Kevin Kline was going to be in Trade I went for it. I've loved Mr. Kline’s work since "A Fish Called Wanda" and it was a privilege to tackle such important content with a performer of his stature. I put my heart and soul into that film, aspiring to match the levels of integrity, of character that Kevin brings to his work. When we premiered at the United Nations building last summer, it was an incredible moment in my life and career. Having Kevin take me aside and compliment me on my work was more than I could have asked for. It’s an important film and I hope people take the time to see it.

TMW: Sounds like something I may want to check out. I wanted to move on to the movie you have coming out on May 23rd, Postal. There are a lot of people that may not be familiar with it. Can you tell me a little more about it?

ZW: Postal is a brilliantly tacky comedy. If Kubrick made fart jokes, this would be his film. It’s kind of like “Dr. Strangelove” meets “South Park”. Everybody makes gross, rude, sexist, racist jokes in the privacy of their own group of friends. Postal is like a huge "baggin" session where everyone tells their worst, crudest jokes, but this time to the faces of the people they’re making the jokes about and then gets a joke fired right back at them. Postal slaughters sacred cows and then puts them on a bun, which is a good thing as all our religious and cultural separations have only accomplished more wars and strife.

Real comedy comes from pain and Postal is the one movie that has the balls, or the Bolls, to put that pain in your face and make you laugh.

TMW: Now that sounds like something I would want to see. You did this flick with Uwe Boll, what's he like to work with?

ZW: Uwe is a brilliant producer and has God like abilities to get investors for his films. When he gets in the directors chair he has this incredible passion for making movies and in his excitement he misses a lot of details and that makes him a target for critics. This is his workflow: while he’s directing one film he is also posting (organizing the editing, sound, CGI, distribution) his last film and is locking down the financing for his next two projects which he'll shoot almost immediately after the film he's directing and so the process continues. The problem is that he's never fully dedicated to just one movie and therefore he lets a lot of crucial details fall through the cracks. If he slowed down or just produced and handed the directors chair over to someone else for 4 out of the 5 movies he shoots a year, I think he would be a legend and highly respected.

TMW: Interesting take on the guy. I have to say I never knew how good of a producer he is but we all know what his end product looks like. Maybe he should stop wearing so many hats. Speaking of wearing different hats, I hear you have put on the writer's hat. What inspired you to start writing scripts?

ZW: Titus. When I was working on the series we had awesome writers. Aside from Chris Titus, Jack Kenny and Brian Hargrove running the show, we had 14 staff writers, so the writer’s room had an incredibly contagious energy. It was the first time I was around something like that and it sucked me in. I started throwing ideas out and they very kindly told me "Shut up Zack."

Then, one day, I pitched a joke and…IT MADE IT ON AIR! Well, that was like crack for me. I wanted more. The next season I kept pitching and kept hearing "Shut up Zack." Only this time they took me aside and started teaching me about script structure, context and story. I have been working on my writing ever since and have a great writing partner.

TMW: Nice. So what have you done with it so far?

ZW: When I was working on Postal, Uwe asked me if I would be interested in playing Edward Carnby in Alone in the Dark 2. I asked if there was a script yet and he told me no, so I started writing one. I got together with my writing partner, Carl Lucas and we hammered out an outline while I was still shooting Postal. Everyday after wrapping the shoot, we'd work on the script over the phone: him in New Mexico and me in Vancouver. We ended up with a prequel that brought back a lot of the H.P. Lovcecraft type monsters from the original game, really aiming at the die-hard fans but with a sexy edge that anyone could get into. I then talked to my one of my best friends, Todd Tucker, at Drac Studios and he gave me an incredible budget for the special effects. I called my producing partner Ben Moody (of Evanescence fame) and he reworked an Iron Maiden song from the early ‘80’s, made it more cinematic and modern, just amazing. I also scouted some locations for shooting and had everything within the budget that Uwe told me he had to work with. Unfortunately by the time I brought it to Uwe he had his mind set on going another direction.

TMW: Damn that sucks. Do you have anything else you are working on?

ZW: I have a bunch of scripts in every genre. Two have financing waiting to drop. So as they say, “It’s all bullshit till Zack gets paid”. Actually, no one but me says that. But I say it a lot.

TMW: You know, I just did an interview with Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment. He is a huge supporter of independent filmmakers. You may want to try getting in contact with him. I will shoot you over the information for submission.

ZW: Thanks bro, I appreciate it.

TMW: No problem. The Movie Whore is all about trying to help others get their films made. Speaking of which, is there any one you would whore out for my next interview? Anyone with a project to pitch?

ZW: I can give you Christopher Titus and Jason London.

TMW: Thanks Zack, I appreciate it and I am a fan of both these guys. Thanks again for taking the time for this interview and have a great day.

ZW: You too, it was good talking to you.

Zack is working on an untitled project with Jason London which has my interest peaked and you can find it here. He was great to talk to and really had me laughing throughout the interview. There were other things we talked about that do not show up in this interview and I look forward to talking with Zack in the future. I hope he is able to get his scripts on to the big screen as I can already see he has some great ideas and I believe he could make some quality flicks. There is definitely more to this guy than meets the eye and The Movie Whore wishes him nothing but the best.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me explain how this started. At the end of the second video Dr. Boll has out on YouTube in response to the Stop Uwe Boll petition he asked that if you were going to send hate mail to use your real name so he could come tear you apart. I instantly had the urge to send him an email. I waited a couple days and thought it over. I mean I can understand his anger over this if I look at it from his point of view.

I did send him an email and I ripped a couple of his movies and I even included my full name and my home address. Now I went an extra step because while I am an a**hole, I believe in giving people a chance to explain themselves and offered to have a discussion with Dr. Boll over his films leaving the door open for him to possibly change my mind and give his films a second chance.

This led to a few emails back and forth between me and Dr. Boll. He suggested watching 3 of his latest films including the upcoming release Postal which he says is his best work so far. As an act of good faith I pulled my Anti-Boll posts and will refrain from any Anti-Boll posts or comments until after May 23rd when Postal opens up. If Postal is good I will put an end to my Boll hating days and become Pro-Boll. Before you start I am The Movie Whore and every whore is just that - a whore. At this point he offered me a 5 question interview for the sites I write for.

Now when you consider that I started this whole thing by ripping the mans work I think it was really damn cool of him to offer the interview. Me being the whore I am, I jumped on this opportunity and was quite pleasantly surprised. After all of this my respect for the man has jumped up quite bit and I am looking forward to seeing Postal. So now on with the interview.

TMW: Why video game adaptations, I mean why put yourself in a niche with a built in hard to please audience?
UB: HOUSE OF THE DEAD came to me out of nowhere and it turned into a success with over $60 million theatrical and DVD gross worldwide. It only cost $7 million to make.
TMW: You know from a business standpoint you can't argue with those numbers.

TMW: What have you learned over the years that you have used to make Postal which in your words is your best work to date?
UB: With POSTAL and SEED I turned back to my roots as a filmmaker who also writes his movies. I lost that in all the action driven video game movies before.

TMW: For anyone that wants to try to make a video game adaptation, what is the best advice you would give them?
UB: It's hard to convince the fans. Don’t let the pressure get you.

TMW: If you could pick one of your movies to go back and do over again would you? If yes, which one and why?
UB: Alone in the Dark .... without Tara Reid

TMW: I am The Movie Whore and no interview would be complete without something whorish. Who would you whore out to The Movie Whore
for a future interview?
UB: Michael Paré

He even gave me his email address. So I will be contacting him here in the next couple days to see if I can set something up. For those unfamiliar with Michael Paré he has been in such movies as The Philadelphia Experiment, Eddie and the Cruisers (one of my favorites) and the TV show The Greatest American Hero. He also has been working with Uwe Boll on a few films including Postal and SEED. On a side note they are trying to make The Greatest American Hero into a movie. Yes I am twitching up a storm over that one as it is one of all time favorite TV shows.

Anyway to learn more about Michael Paré click his name. I will be seeing if I can get him to do an interview. I have always been of the guy and I am hoping he says yes. Until the next time kids, go watch some movies.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been thinking about this the last couple days or actually ever since I knew what a movie was. What is it that makes a movie good?

It's a difficult question to answer. Whether or not a movie is good is totally subjective. Let's take for instance one of my new favorite movies, Southland Tales. I wrote a review of this movie and called it brilliant. Well tonight I went to see Mike and Spikes Sick and Twisted Cartoon Festival (Not as good as last years). The buddies I went with found Southland Tales to be "retarded." The Wookie actually said that. If you ever saw him you would understand why the hairy guy has the nick names. Then Jeff Solo, the Wookies room mate agreed with him. So I called Statutory Steve (Yes it is a joke nick name his girlfriend is actually older than him.) because I was in a state of disbelief over the fact that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum thought that Southland Tales sucked. Statty reminded me where these comments were coming from. The inhabitants of the Falcon are known for their bad taste and loving the most intellectually devoid crap.

Now don't get me wrong I love these guys like brothers but I really question their taste, frequently. Granted Statty and I are arrogant elitists but we have worked hard to become so. Statty is actually the one that gave me the title of Movie Whore as he is more of a critic than I am. The man just does not appreciate the value of a good B-Movie. I found myself becoming a critic and when I realized this was happening I decided the best way to regain my all out fandom was to immerse myself in crappy movies. This explains why I even know what Zombie Nation is.

Anyway back on topic. What makes a good movie I believe is what I am rambling about today. Here a few key points that I find makes a movie good to me.

* Entertainment Value: Did I want to shut the movie off. Even as much of a whore as I am I have shut some movies off for being that bad. Not many but a few. The best way to judge for yourself is after the movie do you feel like they stole time from your life you will never get back, if the answer is yes then it was a bad movie. Alone in the Dark was so bad I actually forgot I had seen it and watched it again.
* Dialog: Lame dialog makes for a lame movie. Good dialog makes for a possibly good movie. Great dialog makes a movie. Clerks looks like crap but it is the dialog that made it such a great movie.
* Plot: The more plausible and easy to follow the better generally speaking. There are some hard to follow movies out there that are pretty damn good. Think Donnie Darko and films that you may have to watch twice to get. Once you get it you love it.
* Pace: While important, can be forgiven for story and acting. Does the director move the movie along or are you stuck with pointless scenes that never lead to anything. Poor pacing can kill a potentially good movie in 5 minutes or less. Notable exception to this rule is The Good Shepherd. Matt Damon was incredible in this telling of a man that lived a life with little to no emotion. The slow pace emphasized his character.
* Acting: Bad acting can sometimes be a pleasure to watch if it is intended to be that kind of movie. Sometimes it could even make a movie better. I really think that Moulin Rouge would have been better with bad actors. The music stuff was fun but you had great actors pulling off emotional scenes that clashed with the fun ride this movie could have been. No one can deny that great acting can be crucial to how good a movie is. Hugh Jackman was amazing in The Fountain and carried that movie on his shoulders. I loved that movie.
* Loopholes: So many movies leave with you with questions. They never tell the complete story. A great movie that told a complete story and answered all your questions was The Departed. No some movies are made to leave you asking questions and that is their draw. They make you think and use your imagination to fill in the intentionally left holes. The original anime movie A Ghost In the Shell had my brain spinning for hours after I watched it. I own this movie.
* Special Effects: Bad effects can kill an other wise good movie. I am Legend is the best example of this. Will Smith really is a good actor. His performance was strong but the creatures in this move were so bad that I can't see myself ever watching the movie again.
* Less is more: Think about the original Alien. One of the things that set the mood and made this movie so good was the distinct absence of sound and background music. Silence can be a powerful thing. The Descent also used this technique and I was impressed with how many times I jumped out of my seat during this flick.
* Believability: Offenders of this rule include nearly every time travel movie ever made. They give you their science then abandon their own rules. Bullets go through walls. There is a big difference between cover and concealment. Cover stops bullets, concealment does not. Most action movies screw this one up. It really is the little things that viewers can key in on. If you don't believe me check out any movie forum. You will find nit picking all over the place with no mention as to whether or not the movie is good.
* Continuity: If you are going to make a sequel you better have your story straight. In my mind Lucas totally abandon this with Episodes 1-3. He threw off the continuity of Episodes 4-6. Kevin Smith of all people I think understands continuity better than any director I have ever seen. The references he makes in his films to past movies showing that he understands movie goers are not stupid and builds in an automatic need to see the rest of his flicks to get the jokes in later movies.

I think that is going to do it for this edition. If I have left something out let me know. In closing "Do I look like a cat to you boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree? Am I drinking milk from a saucer? DO YOU SEE ME EATING MICE?"

Posted by Jccjr at 02:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been commenting on this article over at Babeled and it got to me to thinking that I wanted to explain why I refer to myself as The Movie Whore. I am sure no one was wondering which is the number one reason to do it. Again this is my show and my warped brain. So her ewe go down the rabbit whole into the twisted and scary place that is my mind.

Qualifications to be considered a movie whore.

1. Must have received gonorrhea of the eye from watching movies that are so bad they should be outlawed. Examples: Including but not limited to Zombie Nation, any sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Transmorphers, Alone in the Dark or any other Uwe Boll movie.

2. You know what a Troma movie is and you watch them avidly. Examples: Toxic Avenger 1-4 and the cartoon. Tromeo and Juliet, Sgt Kabuki Man NYPD, Terror Firmer, Surf Nazi's Must Die and others.

3. Must be able to cross genres with your knowledge. Examples: Christopher Reeves was not only Superman but also made a movie with Jane Seymour (Yummy) called Somewhere In Time. You know that Russel Crowe worked with Denzel Washington prior to their latest theatrical outing and you know the name of the movie. Worth 5 cookies.

4. Know obscure shit. Examples: Christopher Lambert is a master swordsman that is nearly legally blind. Ellen Barkin was once in the Porn industry. Rebecca Demornay has a doctorate in Psychology. The Last Starfighter was the first movie to extensively use CGI and the technology was originally pithed to George Lucas for for the original Star Wars.

5. You own Xanadu. I do.

6. You have worked or currently work at a video store because you wanted to. Examples: I have done this twice. I actually worked in a video called Ray's video that had the most complete collection of movies in California and was next door to Ray's Liquor. So yes the original Clerks spoke to me on a very personal level. I can walk into a room and within 5 seconds name the movie on the TV even if I have not seen it. Give me the plot and I can name just about any movie that has come out in the 30 years. 5 cookies to anyone that can stump me. Using IMDB is cheating.

7. You know the movie this quote was used in. "No matter where you go, there you are." 5 Cookies to anyone that can name it with out looking it up and 5 more for being able to name 5 actors in the movie without having to look it up.

8. You thought the argument over whether or not destroying the second Death Star was morally wrong was one of the most brilliant things you have ever seen.

9. You re-watch movies you know are bad just because it has been a while since you have seen it. Examples: Refer to this article I wrote a while back.

10. You own or would like to own the following movies: Including but not limited to Ice Pirates, Big Trouble in Little China, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Xanadu, Starship Troopers, The entire Kevin Smith Collection, entire Mel Brooks collection, entire Monty Python collection, Any Godzilla movie that does not star Matthew Broderick, Far Out Man, The Last Star Fighter, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, and the Evil Dead Trilogy.

11. Lastly Bruce Campbell is one of your personal heroes.

I hope this clears things up a bit. I had a lot of fun writing this and did it with out having to look anything up. So it is with all confidence that I once again proclaim that I am The Movie Whore.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Any fan of the Boondock Saints just screamed in excitement. How fitting that he makes this announcement on St. Patrick's Day. See his video announcement here.

If you have no idea what I am talking about then I suggest watching this movie immediately. This is easily one of my all time favorite movies and has a cult following that rivals any other movie. yes, even Rocky Horror.

Posted by Jccjr at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I check out file sharing news daily and today I came across this article that both ticked me off and gave me pleasant surprise. NBC has joined with several other big names to provide legal movie and TV shows to watch for free. What is this little experiment" Hulu.com. I spent some time checking it out and while they have not loaded all the complete seasons for a lot of the shows, I do see a good beginning and would actually like to see something like this succeed. I am actually watching The Riches right now. I even found the first season of WKRP, the move The Usual Suspects and my favorite skit of all time, Homey the Clown.

I see this a step in the right direction to curb piracy. Piracy will never go away. It has been around since we figured out how to record music and video. It will still be around long after we are gone. However I do like the idea of the big boys starting to put the content out themselves and doing it for free. Granted you still have to put up with some commercials but it really is a small price to pay. They make their money off the commercials to fund the site so we can watch for free. I signed up and I am looking forward to spending some time watching some of my old favorites like the original Addams Family.

Again the site really is not complete with all episodes but like I said it is a good start and I will actually support this to help keep the law suits down and keep pressure off ISP's to invade our privacy by analyzing every packet that travels on their service which is what some people are calling for. They insist it is the ISP's responsibility to monitor for illegal downloads. Even though there are many legal downloads available through the torrent system it is widely pushed as fact that most Bit Torrent traffic is pirated content moving through the wonderful web. I am not in favor of having any ISP monitoring mine or anyone else's traffic. We have right to privacy and if the big boys are going to play ball and invest in sites like this then I am willing to meet them halfway.

Posted by Jccjr at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been running a little experiment on another site I write for. I asked my readers to give me topics they would like to see me write about. One of my regulars gave me this idea.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this one. The original idea came from Jack Gamble who is a contributor for Babeled. I like the site and stop by daily, They are some interesting cats.

I thought about this and decided if I was going to make this movie I would have to a lot of prep work. First I would have to do a lot of research on a lot of bands. I would need to listen to their music, talk to their fans, and try to talk to the band. The music would have to be good. It would have to be something a lot of people could get into. Would have to find a band with a large area following with die hard fans that are convinced all you need to do is see this band live once to become a fan. The band themselves would have to be interesting. They would need to have some Spinal Tap like stories to tell.

Once I picked the band and spent a year with them I would write the script. In the script I would use nothing but actual events from both the bands perspective and the fans. Casting would have to be done with unknowns. No cameos except from the band. Shooting would all be done on location at the venues where the band actually has regular gigs. We would shoot in their homes, in their cars, in all the places they live their lives. I am not making just a movie but an authentic representation of what it is really like.

The soundtrack would be nothing but the bands music. The performances in the movie would be the actors lip syncing to the bands songs. I would even have them write the score. The DVD would have hours upon hours of the band telling me their stories, talking to their fans, concert footage, the whole kit and caboodle.

Why do we need this movie you ask?

Can you think of any other way to shut American Idol fans up?

I do actually have a band in mind. Floater, check them out.

Posted by Jccjr at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am going to start by declaring Mel Brooks as king of this genre and every one of his movies are automatically on the list, so no complaining. Now then when looking at this genre I chose these movies for pure entertainment value. Did it make me laugh or scream when I could not find the remote to shut it off. Would I actually buy this movie or am I really glad a buddy let me borrow it. These are the ways I classify movies.

Airplane - This is really the grandaddy of them all. There are so many one liners that people quote to this day that makes it impossible to deny this movies place oin history. this movie is a must have for any video collection. "Surely you can't be serious." "Don't call me Shirley."

Hot Shots - The original was funny. I mean really how do top the insane silliness of this film. Charlie Sheen and Cary Elwes were perfect. Again so many liners you have to watch 3 times to get them all. Buy it.

Naked Gun: Files From Police Squad - Again first film was brilliant and Lesley Nielsen is the greatest straight man of all time. He can deliver deadpan comedy better than anyone I have ever seen. remember boys and girls OJ was not a killer yet and you felt bad seeing him get injured. Now you watch it and cheer the pain. "Nice beaver" "Thanks I just had it stuffed." If you haven't seen it she pulls out an actual beaver. Buy it.

Hardware Wars - A stack of cookies to you if you have actually seen this movie. Greatest Star Wars parody ever. Now on sale on Amazon.com

Scary Movie - Because I know some one will ask for it. I will give you the first one in this series, but after this they went down hill fast. Frankly I am still waiting for the Wayans brothers to make the Homey the Clown movie. If you don't know who Homey is search Homey the Clown on YouTube and enjoy.

This is Spinal Tap - O.K. so I know this falls under mockumentary, but that category did not even exist unitl Tap. Every one that has ever been in somewhat successful sees this movie as a road map of what will and has happened while on tour. Wehn this movie came out people went to the recrd stores looking for Spinal Tap albums. The whoile movie like all of their movies is heavily improvised with nothing more then a skeleton of an outline for a script. Comedic genuis. Buy it now.

Tromeo and Juliet - Quite possibly the most wrong movie ever made. If you have a weak stomach you may want to pass on this one. Anyone familar with Tromaville knows Lloyd Kaufman is one the most twisted guys o the planet, I love him. I really think that good old Willy would appreciate this satirical version of his satirical look at life. Buy it.

Evil Dead 2 - This makes the list because it really is just a parody of the Evil Dead and frankly every movie list should have something starring Bruce Campbell. What do mean you don't own this?

In closing I am also going to give a nod to The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy. These 3 shows costantly remind us how silly our society has become. The parody/satire really has just become a part of our culture and will continue to be as long as we keep watching them.

Posted by Jccjr at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)