So, I Go to This Free Screening of Appleseed

So, last night I go to this free screening of Appleseed at the Egyptian. It's for critics and for members of the American Cinematheque (me). Of course, whenever I go into Hollywood, I try to stop by Skooby's, my favorite hot dog stand in the universe. It's right down the street from the Egyptian theater, so there's no trouble stopping by.

Once there, I have my usual, the Garlic Lover's Dog and fries with their awesome dipping sauce. Damn, I'm glad I don't live in Hollywood or else I'd have a steady diet of Skooby's food. I also meet up with my writer-buddy Mark who I see almost exclusively at Egyptian screenings. We've spoken on the phone a few times, but 90% of our friendship has consisted of chatting before or after movies at the Egyptian. I think once I bumped into him at the NuArt.

Aaanyway, so we hang out and chat about our present situations, I'm reminded that not everyone enjoys my sarcastic wit and try to tone it down. It's good to hang out with someone outside my immediate circle of friends--hell, it's just good to be out of Westwood!

We head over to the Egyptian and bump into two of Mark's friends, Joey and Lee. I think they're husband and wife, although they don't mention it when we meet. They seem like very cool folks but they head off to get some food and we head in. There's a brief screwup in that when I called to RSVP for the screening, my name didn't end up on the list. : But it's cool, I flash my membership card (after hunting for it) and Mark and I are allowed in.

In the lobby there are some Appleseed paraphanalia (sp???) including giant posters, an LCD with clips of the movie on it and even some action figures. They're not for sale, sadly. (Not that I can afford to buy any.) We get seats, I grab some corn saving some scratch by smuggling in a bottled water from Skooby's as opposed to paying too much for one at the theater (I don't normally do this, but like I said, I'm broke :) ) Back in my seat, Mark and I chat about the merits of dubbed/Americanized anime Vs. subbed/Japanesey anime. Joey walks over and we begin chatting about a project Mark had pitched to a production company. I'm jealous. I haven't pitched to a production company in too long :( It turns out Joey's a screenwriter and has even had a movie he co-wrote produced. He seems to have loads of contacts. I wonder where the business cards I ordered are. Wish I had one with me...

The lights start to come down a bit. Joey goes back to his seat and dude comes out and intros the movie. He's not anyone "cool" just some guy from the Cinematheque. Turns out Sori, the movie's producer is in the audience tonight. Cool, so if the movie sucks, we can't boo.

I just hope it's subbed. I HATE American/Canadian voice-over actors. (Not that all are of them suck, I just prefer to see movies in their native tongue.) The movie starts, big action scene, virtually no character development, but it's the first scene, so no big deal. Finally after about 5-10 minutes of action, the lead character has a line.

Damn. It's a dub!

Why do they have to dub a foreign film? Once you get American actors in there, it stops being a fully foreign film. You are skewing the tone and feel of the film thanks to a actors' influence. Remember, I'm not saying this is bad, just that I like to see foreign films in the language the film maker speaks so the film is only influenced by choices the film makers are influence by and not the new non-foreign VO actors.

We roll into the titles and my stomach tightens as I hear the theme music. It's an obnoxious techno version of an old American song. I have a bad feeling this movie will be too American for my tastes. But I'll save my opinion of the movie for my Pocket Review which will come after I have a chance to see a subbed version of the film which will happen Wednesday night.

ANYWAY, so the titles are going just fine until suddenly...

CUT TO BLACK.

No, not the movie--the theater.

There's a power outage and the room is pitch black. We can literally see nothing. I try to be cute by yelling out the word for "idiot" in Japanese. No one seems to laugh, but I think we were all nervous about the pitch. Then, a good number of us all get the bright idea to whip out our cells. Instantly the room is illuminated with soft blue and green glows from the tiny LCD screens and keypads outfitted on any modern mobile phone. Suddenly, someone's penlight illuminates a little shadow puppet show on the movie screen.

I call my friend Jen to see if there's anything on the news about a power outage in Hollywood. She says no, it's just those stupid entertainment news shows. At least it's not the end of the world, I guess.

Before I'm off the phone the power comes back. Mark needs to call his GF to make sure she tapes the TV show 24 for him. He's worried his VCR clock reset during the power outage. I give him my cell and just as he's done, same dude comes out and reintro's the film.

"Thanks for your patience. We'll rewind it just a bit and then start it just so you don't miss anything."

"Miss anything in the openning titles?" Mark asks.

Good point. The titles were just a long flyby sequence. >yawn< The rest of the movie screens fine. Afterwards, we bump into Joey and Lee again. We chat and meet a friend of Joeys. A guy called Rueben. He's just gotten back from Japan, Joey says.

"What brought you to Japan?" I ask.

"Everything, video games, movies, culture," Joey answers for Reuben.

"And the samurai thing," Reuben says.

I smile as Joey continues. "He's got his feet planted in all of that stuff."

Apparently, Reuben makes video games and movies.

Shit. I really wish I had my business cards.

Joey and Reuben talk about projects, including something with the production company of a big time Asian film maker whom I shouldn't mention but that you've definitely heard of...

Finally Reuben has to leave and we begin talking about movies. John Woo comes up and it turns out that both Joey and Lee really love Hard Target. Cool. Hardly anyone likes that movie. Sure, it's cheesy, but that's why we like it.

We walk out to our cars parked on Selma, I drive Mark back to his place on the east side and then head back to my place on the west side. All in all, it was a good evening. In fact, I can't remember the last time I had that interesting an evening.

Go figure.

Anyway, that was my Monday night. Of course, now I'm swamped with work and on deadline. Isn't there just one incredibly rich person out there who can sponsor this site? :) Just email me and I'll send you a digital version of one of my business cards--when they arrive...