classic film review: excess baggage (1997)
March 28, 2013
This is very cool, it’s a new review of Excess Baggage by Anthony Moretta on Out of the Gutter.
Anthony even made me like the film better and I have a few reasons to have grievances with it, though, you know, it’s my baby even if it’s not quite as pretty a baby as I wanted so I love it no matter what:
CLASSIC FILM REVIEW: EXCESS BAGGAGE (1997):
I don’t know many people who have seen this movie. When mentioned, I get the typical “with Alicia Silverstone?” reply. Yes, and Benicio Del Toro and Christopher Walken. Directed by Marco Brambilla, and written by Max D. Adams, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (with an uncredited re-write by Aaron Sorkin according to IMDB), Excess Baggage came and went with little attention and eventually died on video store shelves, which is where I found it.
You won’t come across many positives when scouring conventional review outlets for this and that may mislead you into thinking it’s not worth a couple of hours of your time. I’m not going to defend my opinion of the movie. I love it. It’s always on my ever-changing list of favorites. That’s only to say that I don’t pay much attention to critics’ reviews. They can sour a film or hype it beyond reasonable expectation, and, either way, taint your own viewing. In fact, 1997 is a good movie year to explore this a bit. That was the year of Titanic, buoyed by a critical love affair and box office spectacle. It won a shitload of awards, too. But 1997 also featured Cop Land, L.A. Confidential, Jackie Brown and Grosse Pointe Blank. All superior films. And those are just what I can remember at the moment. So, I say Titanic can go fuck itself. Now, let’s talk about a real good flick like Excess Baggage.
Here’s the set-up:
Emily (Silverstone) fakes her own kidnapping in order to win the attention of her rich neglectful dad, Alexander (Jack Thompson). Vincent (Del Toro) is a professional high-end car thief, who jacks Emily’s BMW with her bound and gagged in the trunk. Alexander calls in Emily’s caring and shady “Uncle” Ray (Walken doing his best Walken), an unflappable ex-military man who handles Alexander’s dirty work. It’s fair to say that Alexander has made tons of money less than legitimately. Ray is tasked with finding Emily and bringing her home while the cops try their awful best to track her as well. Ray suspects from the go that the kidnapping may not be what it seems and heads out on the accurate assumption that Emily is staging the whole thing.
Vincent and Emily formally meet at his dockside warehouse when she bangs on the trunk to get out. In a panic, he handcuffs her in the bathroom while discussing what to do with his tool of a partner, Greg (Harry Connick, Jr.). They decide it’s best —
oh yez, the new screenwriter’s survival guide
March 23, 2013
indiechat on twitter tonight
March 19, 2013
Join us for Indiechat 3/19 at 9pm EST! Topic: Screenplays
March 19th, 2013 by Kate Tilton
As many of you may know we took over the twitter chat #indiechat. #Indiechat is held every Tuesday at 9pm EST. You can check out our previous chat logs on BiblioCrunch Storify.
This week on #indiechat Kate Tilton (@Froze8) will be will be hosting from the BiblioCrunch twitter account (@BiblioCrunch) with guest Max Adams (@CelluloidBlonde). Max will be giving her tips on screenwriting and answering questions!
Hope to see you there!
About Max Adams:
Max Adams is an award winning screenwriter and author. She has written professionally for Columbia Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Tri-Star Pictures. Organizations she has lectured and/or taught at include University of Southern California, Austin Film Festival, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Film Arts Foundation, New York Film Academy, Gotham Writers, University of Utah, and the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. She is a former Writers Guild of America, West online screenwriting mentor, is the founder of two international online screenwriting workshops, The Left Door and 5150, is the author of The New Screenwriter’s Survival Guide; Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War, is a University of Utah associate instructor and is the founder of the The Academy of Film Writing. Her produced feature films include Excess Baggage, The Ladykillers, and One For the Money. You can connect with Max at The Academy of Film Writing or check out her book: The New Screenwriter’s Survival Guide; Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War. Photo Credit Michael J. Canales.
the other shore
March 14, 2013
So I was going out —
And about town Baksy’ing and I ran into these people. I was about to put my sticker up on a poster and someone said, “That’s our movie, you’re not going to paper over our poster while we are standing here?”
My reaction was, “Oh yes I will.” [Because I am just like that.] My friend Cathy’s reaction was, “Of course we won’t.” [Because she is just like that.]
It resulted in a convo [and I say "convo" just to piss off my friend Raincoaster] in which the woman in the group asked to exchange paper and share, and said, You have to do this too.
["You have to do this too" meant, if she took my paper and handed it out, I had to take her paper and hand it out too.]
It was a really unfair share. She had about ten really nice printed movie poster postcards. I handed her about 50 off the cuff cheap paper print offs. And then she asked for some back realizing she was just about out.
Her movie is The Other Shore: “The Other Shore” follows world record holder and legendary swimmer Diana Nyad as she comes out of a thirty-year retirement to re-attempt swimming 103 miles non-stop from Cuba to Florida. She is clearly insane, who would do that? But it’s pretty freaking great. Go see the movie.
I wonder whether the film chick really did anything with those book papers I handed her or just tossed them. Me, I went to a lot of trouble to make sure I got those five nice post cards to the right people. But? It probably didn’t work. Five? That’s hard to make really hit.
I give it to you peeps. Make it move. If Film Chick did it right? She distributed 50 printed pages of the book. Make it right:
