John Dies at the End (new Don Coscarelli film)

[thrashard76]

Originally Posted by Dave

Video on demand in Dec and limited theatrical next year.

Thanks Dave. I'll have to keep an eye out for this.

[Cydeous]

I caught this at the Toronto Film Festival and it was pretty good but not great. At the Q&A afterwards Coscarelli said that Giamatti expressed that he's a genre fan and really wanted to work with Coscarelli. He was probably the best actor in the film. IMO, the main characters weren't that convincing and really brought the movie down for me. Too bad because I was really looking forward to it and hoping that it would be right up there with Phantasm. It's still decent, though.

[KGBRadioMoskow]

Read the book a while back, wasn't bad but I wasn't impressed. A splash of cool concepts tied to a meandering plot - not an unusual pit for authors to fall into.

In comparison, Bubba Ho-Tep was a better, tighter story - but then again, it didn't try to stretch its premise across a full length novel. From a scripting standpoint, its was well suited to feature film conversion, which IMO showed in the product. Didn't hurt that the cast was particularly talented, either.

I see potential for Coscarelli to have turned the source material for John Dies into something worth watching, but I can just as easily see the weaknesses of the source dragging down such an attempt. Where Ho-Tep for me was a "make a pilgramage to the nearest theater showing the limited release" event, it will probably take strong reviews to get me to see this one.

[MorallySound]

Just finished the book, which I personally enjoyed the hell out of, and can't wait to see Coscarelli's adaption. He seems a perfect fit to adapt the material after his success with Bubba Ho-Tep.

[Hatchetwarrior]

I read the book at the beginning of this year and loved it. It's like a stoner version of Naked Lunch. If you like off the wall horror/scifi kind stuff this is up your alley. I'm still looking forward to the Coscarelli film, but, after re watching the trailer after reading the book, I'm kind of nervous a lot is going to be lost in translation.

[Dave]

I wasn't crazy about the book. I had trouble staying interested in it while listening to the audiobook. I stuck it out and finished it, but probably would have rated it a 5 out of 10. I enjoyed the sequel a lot more and because of that I may revisit the JDATE book in 2013.

I did rent the movie. I would have rented it off Verizon Fios for $9.99 but they did not have the HD version. I instead used my bluray player and tried out Vudu for the first time, which streams through my player. They are offering a $5.99 credit so the HD version can be had for like $5 or $6, a little more reasonable. I can't believe they expect people to pay $10 for what is essentially a rental. I know it's in advance of the limited theatrical release but still...

Anyway, the movie was enjoyable enough. Fun. They changed the name of the dog and for some reason I always imagined the dog to be very small. The dog didn't really fit in the movie, though. They just didn't work that right. And the girlfriend (Amy, I think) was pretty minimal in the movie. Otherwise an enjoyable 100 minutes from Coscarelli. It was good to see Angus again, too. Knowing Don's past, I'm hoping there is tons of extended footage and we get a director's cut on bluray.

I'm still hoping his next will be a Phantasm V but perhaps we are all dreaming about that. I'm not sure I would even be opposed to a remake of Phantasm, considering how dated the original looks these days.

[Dobby]

By the time Don makes Phantasm V will Angus Scrimm even be alive? It's now or never he needs to make Phantasm V and be done with it!!

[booper71]

I usually spend $3.99 for a SD movie, or if I absolutely need HD I get the $5.99 one, the only time they are ten bucks or more is if they are not yet on bluray or still in theaters.
I've been using pre-paid debits on the account for movie fests here.

[booper71]

I had ordered chinese food before watching this and being on the "soy sauce" didn't help me much here, but I did like the movie.

[bruce h]

Theatrical dates for those waiting:

http://www.magpictures.com/dates.asp...5-fa580e6ca8bc

Predictably, it's not hitting Baltimore. It seems like Magnolia Pictures releases skip this town completely and I usually have to drive to Philly if there's something I want to see. Ditto with THE ABCS OF DEATH.

Preorders are up for a 4/2 release.
DVD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B00B04NJE4
Blu: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B00B04NJCG

[Hatchetwarrior]

Enjoyed the movie quite a bit, although my biggest complaint would be the lack of Amy. Her character arc was, for me, a huge part of the book and her developing a relationship with David. Now, I do understand certain characters (Jennifer in particular) were eliminated, and certain plot points either combined or removed completely for the shake of brevity, I still think it's a shame that Amy's character took a backseat, leaving so much out of context. (For those who didn't read the book, we learn why she only has one hand.) Other than that, I was entertained, the cast was incredible and so was some of the practical FX (not so much the digital ones.) Good for a watch, but I doubt I'll purchase it when it hits DVD or Blu-ray.

[joltaddict]

Originally Posted by Hatchetwarrior

It's like a stoner version of Naked Lunch.

Considering all the H Burroughs was on when he wrote that I dont know if that is a compliment or an insult?

[MorallySound]

Originally Posted by Hatchetwarrior

Enjoyed the movie quite a bit, although my biggest complaint would be the lack of Amy. Her character arc was, for me, a huge part of the book and her developing a relationship with David. Now, I do understand certain characters (Jennifer in particular) were eliminated, and certain plot points either combined or removed completely for the shake of brevity, I still think it's a shame that Amy's character took a backseat, leaving so much out of context. (For those who didn't read the book, we learn why she only has one hand.) Other than that, I was entertained, the cast was incredible and so was some of the practical FX (not so much the digital ones.) Good for a watch, but I doubt I'll purchase it when it hits DVD or Blu-ray.

Just watched this last night and I agree. I thought as a film it worked and I enjoyed the hell out of it, being a ton of fun and I thought the leads captured Dave and John quite well. But of course having read the book a lot was truncated to make the 99 minute run time and was a bit disappointed that pretty much the whole middle of the book was condensed and combined considerably so. But that said, it serves the movie format and wasn't too much of a miss. My biggest peeve though, other than Amy's sideline status, was the changing of the dogs name from Molly to Bark Lee... Why? But overall I think it was a good fit for Coscarelli and for their small budget it's big on entertainment.

[Paff]

It will be playing at my local art house theater, but I wonder if it will get a screening on HDNet Movies first. From that website Bruce H linked, every single one of those Magnet movies (with the exception of Compliance) was given a one-day showing on HDNet. The theater it's playing at here is not known for good digital presentations, and I highly doubt it will be on 35mm film.

[ReelFear]

I didn't read the book, but based on the film alone, this was a lot of fun. Reminded me of Evil Dead 2, Dead Heat, Donnie Darko, and others. Definitely a whacked out movie, but doesn't reach the classic status of Phantasm or Bubba Ho-Tep.