Marcus Nispel – Podcasting Them Softly

Marcus Nispel’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre

October 27, 2017 by natewatchescoolmovies, posted in Film Review

In most cases, Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes label has made dismal attempts at horror remakes (see their Elm Street and Friday The 13th for cringe cases in point). However, the version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre they did was pretty damn good on my barometer, a brooding, darkly humorous and fiercely frightening piece that reworks the barebones, grainy vibe of Tobe Hooper’s original classic into something more dingy and atmospheric. It’s the 70’s, and rural Texas is as humid and inhospitable as ever, particularly so in Travis County, right in time for a Volkswagen bus full of nimrod partygoers to trundle through and get caught in the snare of the severely disturbed Hewitt clan, spearheaded by big ol’ Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), a mute, disfigured monster with a penchant for taking a chainsaw to people’s vitals and wearing their skin over his own, inspired by the less imposing real life killer Ed Gein. Sexy Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Eric Balfour and Mike Vogel plays these ill fated kids, serving mainly as power tool sharpening blocks. I love the slow, eerie buildup of this one, as they begin to realize that the town isn’t just sleepy or hidden, it’s pretty much dead save for these last straggling residents who are clearly off their head. A huge asset for the film is R. Lee Ermey as the creepy, hostile county Sheriff, who let’s just say… isn’t really the Sheriff at all. He gets many chances to mean mug, terrorize and intimidate these kids and the old gunnery sergeant has a ball. The rest of the townsfolk are a creepy bunch of hayseed yokels without a brain or conscience between them, and serve as a luring posse to Leatherface. The killings are appropriately gory, and hats off to director Marcus Nispel for a striking opening shot that sees his camera pan through the still smoking head-wound of a poor girl who’s just blown her dome off with a giant revolver. Ew. The high praise I’m giving this one does not apply to the follow up prequel called The Beginning, which ditches all mood and pacing for an exercise in abrasive, unforgivable sadism and lazy plotting. Ermey goes full nutso in that one and still is having fun, but not even he can pull it out of the shit. I’d imagine same goes for the host of others that came after, including a new entry that’s slated for this year, if memory serves. This one got lucky because it played it’s cards right, and earned the position of a remake that does indeed hold a candle.

-Nate Hill

Marcus Nispel’s Conan The Barbarian: A Review by Nate Hill

September 1, 2016 by natewatchescoolmovies, posted in Film Review

I’ve never seen any of the original Conan films with Ahnuld (I know, get the torches and pitchforks), so I don’t really have anything to compare Marcus Nispel’s remake to, but on it’s own I found it to be a solid, servicable sword and sandal outing with a welcome hard R rating and some neat work from legendary actors. Jason Momoa was fresh of his Game Of Thrones stint, jumping right into a very similar role as iconic Conan, a musclebound soldier of fortune on a grisly quest to exact revenge against warlord who decimated his village when he was but a pup. Momoa exudes a different aura than I imagine Schwarzenegger must have, a stoic, silent tunnel vision style as opposed to posing theatrically. It works, but it’s a new Conan from the one I’ve seen in many a trailer and snippet on tv, that’s for sure. My favourite part of the film is the extended prologue, which just somehow feels like the most grounded part, whereas everything else is almost cartoonish, reminding me of stuff like The Mummy. The opening is terrific though, introducing us to a young Conan (Leo Howard) and his father Corin (Ron Perlman, who else?), living in their nomadic village on the edge of nowhere. Enter tyrannical villain Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang) and his super freaky daughter Marique (Ivana Staneva), played later down the line by Rose McGowan, before she got all lame on us. Laying waste to Conan’s home and killing countless people including Corin, he is left to breed fearsome vengeance for years, until he sets out into the wide world on a journey to find Zym and mess him up real good. The story is standard, the action is well staged by Nispel, who has a golden eye for spectacularly orchestrated displays of violence in his films, and pulls no punches here. He also casts roles on the nose, and has for years. Lang is in overdrive, practically frothing at the mouth and turning Zym into something scary indeed. McGowan is straight out of a Takahashi Miike film, all bone white hissing snarls and needle sharp appendages, a hellcat with supreme bloodlust that you just don’t want to encounter. Momoa has the brawn for Conan, but a few extra syllables of dialogue wouldn’t have hurt, if only to round the guy out some more and give Jason something to say, which he rarely gets to do in his work it seems. I think parts of the film, especially the finale, were somewhat ruined for me by the catastrophically bad 3D they used (when oh when will they learn with the damned 3D), so I feel like a Blu Ray revisit is nigh, in which I can fully appreciate some of the set pieces without being reminded of a popup book. It’s a good time at the movies, but like I said, I have nothing to compare it to as far as Conan goes.

PTS Presents ACTOR’S SPOTLIGHT with STEPHEN LANG

September 22, 2015September 21, 2015 by Frank Mengarelli, posted in Podcast

STEPHEN LANG is an award-winning actor known for his work on TV, film and stage. Lang has been cast in a recurring role as Waldo in the upcoming AMC genre-bending material arts series INTO THE BADLAND. He will also be reprising his role as Colonel Miles Quaritch from James Cameron’s AVATAR in the three upcoming sequels. Lang can be seen starring in WGN America’s hit series SALEM as Increase Mathers. Recently, Lang took his acclaimed stage production of BEYOND GLORY on the road to eight cities nationwide. You can also watch Lang in the documentary BEYOND GLORY which the actor as he tracks the ten year odyssey behind his one-man show about eight medal of honor recipients.

Last fall, he starred as Coach Farris in 23 BLAST, a sports drama based on the true story of a high school football star who is suddenly stricken with irreversible total blindness. He also starred as Increase Mathers in the first season of WGN America’s hit series SALEM. Lang can be seen in such films as Stephen King’s A GOOD MARRIAGE, THE NUT JOB, IN THE BLOOD, and PIONEER. He was also featured in the cast of the HBO documentary LOVE, MARILYN. Lang’s many films include LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN, TOMBSTONE, GODS AND GENERALS, GETTYSBURG, PUBLIC ENEMIES, WHITE IRISH DRINKERS, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, CHRISTINA, and AVATAR.

Film awards and nominations include Saturn Award for Outstanding Villain, The Grace Prize, MTV and Teen Choice Awards, Best Actor Buffalo-Niagra Film Fest, Outstanding Acting Achievement VisonFest X.

Extensive work on TV includes Michael Mann’s classic CRIME STORY, and TERRA NOVA. His extensive work on the New York stage includes A FEW GOOD MEN, THE SPEED OF DARKNESS, DEATH OF A SALESMAN DEFIANCE, THE GUYS, and HAMLET, as well as 101 critically acclaimed performances of his solo play, BEYOND GLORY at The Roundabout.

He received the NEA Chairman’s Medal for Distinguished Service for bringing BEYOND GLORY to American troops around the globe, as well as the Bob Hope Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for his portrayal of American fighting men. Other theatre awards and nominations include The Tony, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Joseph Jefferson, Helen Hayes, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Lang holds Honorary Doctorates from Swarthmore College and Jacksonville University, and is a member of The Actors Studio.

MARCUS NISPEL’S EXETER — A REVIEW BY NICK CLEMENT

September 16, 2015 by nlclement, posted in Film Review, Horror movies

Exeter marks a return to the straight-up horror genre for slice-and-dice specialist Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Pathfinder, Conan the Barbarian). This gonzo, surprisingly funny, high-energy, EXTRA-gory horror flick puts a simple and fresh spin on the classic exorcism narrative and throws in some twists along with a supreme sense of style. A bunch of teenagers have decided to turn a run down children’s mental hospital into the makeshift location of a rave, and after doing some excessive partying, a group of friends splinter off and begin to get into some seriously messed up situations with the ghosts of dead children. Possessions ensue, exorcisms are attempted, people can no longer be trusted, the bodies start to hit the floor, and the film goes totally nuts in the final act, featuring one of the nastiest bits of horror movie violence I’ve seen in a while. This isn’t my normal cinematic milieu, and I’m not as well versed in this sort of material as so many others clearly are, but I was drawn to the project by Nispel (long an effective stylist drawn to hardcore material) and the involvement of the great character actor Stephen Lang, who gets the film’s best scenes and lines of dialogue. One of those talents who spruces up any picture that is lucky enough to cast him, Lang clearly had a blast getting down and dirty with this bit of extreme nastiness. Shot on a low budget but never looking anything less than spectacular, Nispel and cinematographer Eric Treml bathe the film in saturated colors, lens flares, and jet blacks with cool blues, employing hand-held cameras with variable shutter speeds, creating a visceral effect that puts you in the middle of all of the limb-lopping, glop-filled fights and kills that Nispel so clearly has a ball in staging. One bit, involving the loss of half of one’s face, is, for the lack of a better word, horrifically memorable. Production designer Guy Roland and set decorator Sarah Hill Richmond had fun with the scuzzy and threatening solo location, and the editing by Blake Maniquis never rests for a moment but never overwhelms the picture with incoherence. For fans of this sort of extra-grisly yet still playful horror madness, Exeter should more than easily hit the mark.

PTS Proudly Presents Marcus Nispel POWERCAST

July 8, 2015July 8, 2015 by Frank Mengarelli, posted in Podcast

We were honored to have filmmaker Marcus Nispel as our featured guest. Marcus started his career like Mark Pellington, David Fincher and others directing commercials and music videos until he was tapped by Michael Bay to direct the frightening 2003 remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Marcus then went on to make the Martin

Scorsese produced miniseries FRANKENSTEIN, PATHFINDER, the remake of FRIDAY THE 13TH and CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Marcus’ latest film is EXETER which is now a Direct TV exclusive until it hits theaters in August. He also teases his next project, STOWAWAY, a deep sea monster film that is co-written by our mutual friend, Juhani Nurmi. We would like to thank Marcus for how gracious he was with his time.