Rants and Raves

It recently dawned on me that both of the young leads from John Carpenter's 1983 flick Christine have gone on to become fairly successful filmmakers. And that realization led to the obvious revelation that there are two distinct definitions of the word "successful."

Keith Gordon, whom you may remember from his performances in Jaws 2, Dressed to Kill, The Legend of Billie Jean, and Back to School, played Arnie Cunningham, the nerd-turned-automotive assassin in Christine. Mr. Gordon has since gone on to direct The Chocolate War (1988), A Midnight Clear (1992), Mother Night (1996), and Waking the Dead (2000), four extreeeeemely good films, if it's me you're askin'. Gordon also directed the big-screen adaptation The Singing Detective, which I've not yet seen due to the millions of awful things I've heard about it. I really should rent the thing already.

Aside from his performance as the blandly noble Dennis Guilder in Christine, John Stockwell is probably most recognizable for his work in Losin' It, Eddie and the Cruisers, My Science Project, and Top Gun. As a director, Mr. Stockwell brought us 1987's Under Cover, the 2000 TV flick Cheaters, the Kirsten Dunst romance crazy/beautiful, the surfer-girlz classic Blue Crush, and the keeningly awful Paul Walker/Jessica Alba gape-a-thon Into the Blue.

Which just goes to show you: If you're a young actor who has aspirations of becoming a film director, and you have the chance to star in a Stephen King adaptation ... be sure to audition for the role of the tragic villain.

In this, part 1 of a brand-new series that I just thought up like 4 minutes ago, I'll bring you small snippets of my favorite reviews from new movies. Once I get done writing my own reviews, there's nothing I love more than reading the opinions of my favorite critics. And today's a good day to start this column because KING KONG comes out today. And I loved it. A lot. And, yay, so did most of my favorite critics.

"And then it just keeps getting more almost unbearably exciting -- I can't remember the last time I actually gasped or moaned out loud at sometime I was seeing on a movie screen, or actually slapped my hands to my face half in awe at what I was seeing and half resisting the urge to cover my eyes so I wouldn't have to see any more... but Kong made me feel like a little kid again, astonished at the transporting power of The Movies." -- MaryAnn Johnason, The Flick Filosopher

"King Kong is gloriously uninhibited, fearlessly silly and willing to express itself through grandiloquent statements and breathless pronouncements. At three full hours, I wanted three full hours more. I hadn't felt as exhilaratingly free and goofy in a film since I was an eight-year-old watching RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK through my fingers. They don't really make movies like this anymore; I don't know if they ever did." -- Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

"The movie is, almost by definition, too much - too long, too big, too stuffed with characters and over-the-top set pieces - but it is animated by an impish, generous grace. Three hours in the dark with a giant, angry ape should leave you feeling battered and exhausted, but KING KONG is as memorable for its sweetness as for its sensationalism." -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"The result is a surprisingly involving and rather beautiful movie -- one that will appeal strongly to the primary action audience, and also cross over to people who have no plans to see KING KONG but will change their minds the more they hear. I think the film even has a message, and it isn't that beauty killed the beast. It's that we feel threatened by beauty, especially when it overwhelms us, and we pay a terrible price when we try to deny its essential nature and turn it into a product, or a target. This is one of the year's best films." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-TImes