December 10, 2007

2007 Annual: Final Specs

Streeting next week, The Film Freak Central 2007 Annual includes a provocative foreword by filmmaker/playwright Neil LaBute in addition to previously-unpublished reviews of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The Omen, Monkey Warfare, Rocky Balboa, The Queen, Flags of Our Fathers, Night at the Museum, Idiocracy, Silent Hill, 13 Tzameti, and (no shit) many more.

Instead of that Optimus Prime voice-changer helmet, why not hit up Santa for a copy of The Film Freak Central 2007 Annual? List price is $20.00; check back at the mothersite for further details.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could have sworn I'd read The Queen and Flags of Our Fathers reviews from Walter. Oh well.

Rick said...

Yes! Idiocracy review! I've been dying for that one.

And I am probably the biggest Labute fan currently blogging here.

Ryan said...

Anyone know how I'd go about ordering all three annuals without killing myself for shipping to Australia?

Bill C said...

Well LG, there's always the Sydney-based Booktopia, but they charge, like, $45 in Australian currency. Sounds pricey. Another place called "BuyAustralian" has the '06 volume for $40 koala bucks.

Is Amazon UK feasible, shipping-wise? They have 'em and will be stocking the third one.

Anonymous said...

Controversial? Well, considering that Walter's panned 3 of his films with such scathing criticisms like this...

LaBute is like Todd Solondz (and The Shape of Things is like Storytelling): once filmmakers celebrated for their excoriations of the hypocrisies of social interaction, they now address critics in simpering films with unsubtle monologues and fourth wall-breaking middle fingers.

...I'd say that's probably going to turn out to be quite the understatement!

Can't wait for it.

Bill C said...

You know, Jack, you got me thinking and I changed it to "provocative." Felt a bit hucksterish and reductive to promote it as controversial, though I am looking, er, forward to the reaction. It's also our longest foreword yet, about 3 or 4x as long as the others.

Alex Jackson said...

Controversial? Well, considering that Walter's panned 3 of his films with such scathing criticisms like this...

LaBute is like Todd Solondz (and The Shape of Things is like Storytelling): once filmmakers celebrated for their excoriations of the hypocrisies of social interaction, they now address critics in simpering films with unsubtle monologues and fourth wall-breaking middle fingers.

...I'd say that's probably going to turn out to be quite the understatement!


Well, you hardcore FFC fans will surely remember that LaBute wrote to Walter in April of 2005 masochistically (if perhaps characteristically) praising his pan of The Shape of Things.

By the way, while I haven't much liked the LaBute stuff I've seen, I absolutely adored his "Bash" trilogy of one-acts. I had to buy the play on-line, the film version for HBO has been impossible to find. Before I did so, I was literally losing sleep and making myself physically ill thinking about it, trying to get as much information as I could elsewhere.

After I got it, I compulsively read it three or four times back to back. I want to be glib and say that it does for Mormons what Jaws did for sharks, but that hardly does the thing justice.

Good lord I wish I could have seen it performed.

Anonymous said...

You've been holding out on us! You ASSHOLES

Rick said...

I agree with every word Walter wrote in The Shape of Things review, but whatever Labute's personal agenda was, I still believe the movie is insightful and is a great exaggerated microcosm and reflection of many modern day relationships.

Walter_Chaw said...

It's moments like this for Armond White that draws me back to him. Reviews that I wish like hell I could write. Here's mine for comparison.

Shit.

Dave Gibson said...

Too hard on yesself WC...I nearly did a spit take over your description of the mutant hordes--"incoherent acrobats". Awesome.

Anonymous said...

Dammit, no [i]There Will Be Blood[/i] review? I was really looking forward to that.

Shame about [i]I Am Legend[/i].

Jeffrey Allen Rydell said...

"It's moments like this for Armond White that draws me back to him. Reviews that I wish like hell I could write. Here's mine for comparison."
Uh oh. Something just clicked.

You're actually aspiring to become the new Armond White.

Aww, hell naw. This is very disappointing.

-Jeff

Walter_Chaw said...

HA - oh shit. No I'm not.

Jeffrey Allen Rydell said...

GOOD!

Jesus, dude. Had me worried.

-Jeff