Twitch-O-Meter: Swarez´s MEGA-ToM! (Twitch-O-Meter turns 50, ninth and final part)

So lets get things rolling.


Fred Dekker

Every film geek out there knows Dekker’s two films that got him notice, Night of the Creeps and The Monster Squad and few would like to admit that the man was behind the god awful Robocop 3, the film that killed both his directing career and the franchise. But lets not dwell on the negative. Why do I like the man so much?
First and foremost because of the man’s writing. Night of the Creeps introduced a man that was a master at witty dialog, funny characters and fresh takes on tired formulas. NOTC was Scream 10 years before Scream came out with it’s “oh so fresh” self-referencing take on the horror genre. Problem was that Dekker had done it a decade before and did it better. It was clear that Dekker loved 40’s and 50’s genre cinema and NOTC is full of it, he even paid tribute to Ed Wood long before it was in vogue and had the hero run around with a lawnmower, slaughtering zombies a years before Peter Jackson did, although Jackson used it to it’s full potential. The film is also made to fit in to the 80’s love of collage comedies that ran rampant in that era with the two main characters being nerds that love the school hottie that’s dating the school hot boy and all around asshole. Classic stuff. Night of the Creeps is the ultimate horror geek film with references to older films thrown in every scene. Sadly the film has been unavailable on any format besides VHS and laserdisc since it came out, although rumors have been plenty over the years that it was on its way. Even with the phenomenal sales of Dekker’s other masterpiece The Monster Squad it seems Sony is in no hurry to cash in on that by releasing a decent DVD of this great film.
The Monster Squad was also an ode to 40’s and 50’s but with the Spielbergian look and take on kids adventure films of that decade, like the Goonies and Explorers. Here, a band of kids do battle with Count Dracula himself and his gang of monsters, with the aid of the Frankenstein’s monster. Again the film is superbly written, with Dekker collaborating with Shane Black, and still holds up today. It’s just that nobody would make this film today as it was made back then. The kids swear like crazy and it has a healthy dose of very un PC material that no film company would touch in today’s political environment. How would they evoke memories of the Holocaust in a kids adventure film these days? I doubt they would. By Dekker’s own account this film killed his career but I would say that his next directorial effort pretty much tore him a new one and then shot him in the back of the head in a deserted field somewhere.
Robocop 3 is an god awful movie, co written by Dekker and Frank Miller, the film is just a mess from the get go. I simply refuse to believe that these two great writers would end up with such crap. Miller wrote the ultra violent Robocop 2 and then this fucking abortion of a movie shows up as the third installment. I’m pretty sure that the success of the title character with the kids at that time had something to do with it. A kiddy friendly film with a smart cute kid, robot ninjas and a flying Robocop was too much for the audience to handle and I really want to believe that Dekker’s hands were tied as to which direction to go with the franchise. The whole film feels like a pilot for a TV show, which ultimately happened in the end. A damn shame.
Dekker vanished to TV land after that, writing and directing a few episodes of Tales form the Crypt and then most recently working on Star Trek’s Enterprise as a writer and producer.
He said in a recent interview that he was working on a new project and hopefully that will come to be. I’m just surprised that Masters of Horror hasn’t yanked him to direct an episode. Here’s hoping.


Johnny To

Johnny To gave me hope that Hong Kong cinema had still something to offer other than the high octane action movies churned out by studios over there. I had lost interest in HK cinema for some time mainly because all I saw were poorly made, frantically paced action films with the same cookie cutter plot lines re-used over and over again. Yawn.
Then I saw Breaking News and it blew me a way. Here was a film that allowed the plot to breathe and was actually well written, allowed actors to emote and take their dime delivering their lines, didn’t have a shitty synth orchestra score or use pop stars as actors. The film also had one of the coolest opening moments I’ve seen in years, with a massive shoot out all done in one take. Great stuff.
I dug up more films from this man, Election 1 and 2, The Mission and Exiled, all great crime dramas that didn’t fall in to the exploitation pit. To me he is Martin Scorsese of HK cinema, a man who loves the crime genre and knows how to pull it off. I look forward to his next venture.


Peter Berg

Now Peter Berg hasn’t done that many movies but of the few he’s done he has shown that here is a man that knows how to make action films, be they serious or comedic. Now I must confess that I haven’t seen all of the films that the man has directed, like Friday Night Lights or his latest The Kingdom but I loved The Rundown (or Welcome to the Jungle like it’s known as here in Europe) and Very Bad Things is a classic black comedy. The Rundown was for me a throwback to the 80’s action cinema but didn’t take itself seriously and just oozed fun. I happen to like The Rock as an action star and Seann William Scott was funny and Chris Walken hammed it up like a pig in heat. And how often can you get to see The Rock get raped by monkeys. I’ll take it whenever I get the chance.
I missed The Kingdom in the cinema so now I have to wait for it to hit DVD but from what I’ve seen from it, it looks like a fun ride with a stellar cast.


David R. Ellis

Not many people may know the name of the man but I’m sure all of you have heard of Snakes on a Mother****ing Plane. David R. Ellis started out as a stunt man and stunt coordinator, moving up to directing action scenes and second unit material for films as Matrix: Reloaded, The Perfect Storm, Clear and Present Danger and even a few episodes of Baywatch, got to respect that.
Then he moved to Directing films and his second feature was Final Destination 2, a highly underrated sequel and hilariously funny and gory. The opening car massacre in the film is one for the books. I sat in the cinema, slack jawed and laughed like a little school girl at all of the over the top violence. Ellis then came out with another underrated but very entertaining thriller, Cellular with Kim Basinger, Jason Statham, the highly enjoyable Chris Evans and William H. Macy. A film about a guy who has to keep his cell phone working because there is a kidnap victim on the other end sounds dubious but Ellis, along with the great cast delivered a high-octane film that never let go.
Just about everyone in the world knew about Snakes on a Plane, the most hyped film in recent memories but failed to live up to it with both the viewers and the critics. I felt the film was OK, nothing too exciting or campy enough to match the stupid name of the film.
Ellis is now working on a feature version of the Italian comic book character Dylan Dog, supernatural detective battling monsters in London, starring the new Superman, Brandon Routh. Sweeeeeet.


Albert Pyun

THE busiest man in Hollywood. The man has done a shit load of films, starring all sorts of stars and all sorts of genre. He is an unapologetic B-movie director who crams out more movies per year than most do in their entire lifetime. He’s the man who unleashed Van Damme to the world and has made countless action movies, done for a buck and a half that will entertain you more than most big budget Hollywood drivel. His prime was the late 80’s and pretty much all of the 90’s, with classics such as Cyborg, Sword and the Sorcerer, Nemesis, Captain America, Crazy Six and Mean Guns. He then hit a rough patch nearing he new millennium when he directed and produced a series of films starring Ice T and Snoop Dog, all obviously shot in Prague but were supposed to take place in New York. Those films are just bad, really bad and he’s the first one to admit that. Absent for a few years he’s back with a vengeance with three films in various stages of completion. The Invasion, a single take horror film about alien invasion in a desert town, released this month from Lions Gate on DVD, Left for Dead a horror western and the cop action film Bulletface. He’s also prepping a new sword and sandals film, rumored to be a sequel to his mega hit Sword and the Sorcerer. Let’s wait and see.

Related Links

• Joey's MEGA-ToM (part one)
• Todd's MEGA-ToM (part two)
• Ardvark's MEGA-ToM (part three)
• Collin's MEGA-ToM (part four)
• Kurt's MEGA-ToM (part five)
• Stefan's MEGA-ToM (part six)
• Timo's MEGA-ToM (part seven)
• Peter's MEGA-ToM (part eight)
• JMaruyama's MEGA-ToM Aftershock (late submission)