Lord of Illusions

31 Days of Horror, post 12

I have had an odd interest in Lord of Illusions ever since it was released in theaters, back in 1995.  I haven't read the novella that the story is based on.  I am not a fan of Clive Barker's movies.  In fact, the only reason I am aware of this film at all is because it was heavily advertised in the comic books I read as a teen.  At the time, I had never seen a horror movie, but there was something about the title and advertisement that drew me in.  In a way, it was inevitable that I would track Lord of Illusions down and finally watch it.  However, my knowledge of movies in general (and horror movies in particular) immediately points out some potential weak points in this film.  For starters, the villain is the bad guy from Super Troopers and Scott Bakula is neither traveling through time or playing football with Kathy Ireland.  Hmm.  This one might get painful.

Lord of Illusions begins with a statement that there are two types of magic; one is illusions, the other is magic as reality, which can be powerful and make death an illusion.  Which would then be the other type of magic, I guess?  The story opens with a group of friends entering a secluded building in the middle of a desert.  They are there to put an end to Nix (Daniel von Bargen), a cult leader who professes to have magical powers.

Fire is nice, but real magic would give you a longer T-shirt

The interlopers were actually once followers of Nix, but realized that he is evil/batshit crazy, so they decide to kill him.  They don't do a good job, but a fluke of timing and circumstance leaves Nix with a bullet wound in his head and various other perforations.  But he's still not dead, because MAGIC!  The rebel leader, Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor), pulls out a sort of Vic Rattlehead S&M mask and screws it into Nix's face.  Team Killcult then decide to bury Nix so deep no one can ever find him.  Meanwhile, Nix's Number One toadie, Butterfield (played by J. Trevor Edmond and Barry Del Sherman), does his best his best Gamorrean impression.

And all of that was just the prologue!  Jump forward thirteen years and meet Detective Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula), a hard-boiled private investigator with a nose for the supernatural.  While working another job, Harry stumbles across a dead body and winds up fighting the presumed killer.  It turns out that the corpse is one of the people who helped kill Nix.  When news of his fellow murderer-for-a-good-cause dying reaches Swann, his wife, Dorothea (Famke Janssen), decides to hire Harry to investigate the death because they think that Butterfield and other Nix-lovers are behind the murder.  And hiring a private investigator when you think you know the guilty party is better than telling the police because...?  Oh, and in the future, Swann is the most famous magician in the world.

Now you know where Criss Angel stole his act

Harry agrees to take their case and attends Swann's next magic spectacular with Dorothea.  During the show, something goes wrong and Swann dies.  What's with all the killing?  Well, it seems that Butterfield is trying to resurrect Nix, which naturally means that he is putting the only people who know enough to stop him on their guard.  So what can Harry do?  If you said, "Try to avert the resurrection of a evil warlock," then you might just be on to something.

The acting in Lord of Illusions tends to be a little campy, but isn't too bad.  Scott Bakula was miscast as the grim noir-ish hero; he works against his strengths here, trading his signature everyman charm for pseudo-tough talk.  Famke Janssen deadpans most of her lines and wears inappropriate clothing for most of the film.

...like her Scott Bakula stole

 Kevin J. O'Connor was just plain odd; he did a pretty good job acting like a master magician, but was melodramatic in the rest of the film.  Daniel von Bargen was similarly over the top, but he did look like the product of a man's passionate love for a salamander.

Fact: Evil is moist

In fact, the only actor in the entire movie that I actually enjoyed was Barry Del Sherman.  Of all the cast members, he seemed to flourish the most under this story's campy subtext.  To put that in context, he was the most entertaining actor, despite having a wardrobe that consisted primarily of a leather vest and snakeskin pants.  Oh, and a crushed velvet shirt for the truly special occasion of resurrecting a dead magician.

Because if you're going to dress up, you've gotta go all out

The reason I don't mind the acting in Lord of Illusions is because most of the actors fit the tone of the movie pretty well.  Written and directed by Clive Barker, there are moments in this story that would have fallen completely flat if they were handled with utmost seriousness, but Barker managed to get the actors play their parts (except for Bakula) with a tiny bit of goofiness.  The choice to camp this film up, just a little bit, is what saves it from being dreadful.  This is kind of a film-noir-meets-neon-camp style, if that's a thing.  As far as Barker's direction goes, the acting and sets were a little ridiculous, but I thought the violence and gore we handled pretty well.

The special effects were also pretty imaginative; the digital effects don't look great by today's standards, but they are still clever.  I really liked the weird origami/fire thing that confronts D'Amour after he romances Dorothea.  The practical effects stand the test of time far better.  Some of them were gory, some of them included full costumes, and some were fairly subtle by comparison (like Nix's fingers entering someone's skull), but they all looked pretty good.

Maybe a little silly, too, but that's the price you pay for wearing rubber suits

My biggest problem with Lord of Illusions was Clive Barker's writing.  The story is inherently melodramatic, so I'm glad that he added some camp into his script.  That doesn't forgive the poor focus or logic.  It is obvious that Scott Bakula's character, Harry D'Amour, is the main character in the film.  He gets top billing and is the point of view character for the audience to identify with as the story gets progressively weirder.  And yet, Barker spends a lot of time making Kevin J. O'Connor look like a mysterious bad-ass.  Heck, this story doesn't even adhere to the basic idea of having the main character play the hero; D'Amour is an observer when it comes down to Swann vs. Nix.  I also don't understand the magicians in this film.  Swann kills Nix and buries him, but is afraid that Nix may someday return from the grave.  Shouldn't the script at least mention why dismembering Nix's remains and/or cremating him is not an option?  And if you're going to hide a body in a desert, shouldn't it be harder to find?  It seemed as though that was the easy part for Butterfield to accomplish.  And what was up with Nix's followers?

"Join us and get a free Summer haircut"

I can understand a charismatic guy leading a cult and convincing them to do many things.  I find it hard to believe that the exact same people would all re-enlist in the cult after thriteen years of not having a charismatic leader to guide them.  Sure, some would return, but everyone seems pretty unlikely.  And I can't comment on this movie without pointing out Nix's stated goal that earned him a cult following: "I was born to murder the world.  You can help me if you like."  Okay, one: that's a pretty awesome villain line.  Two: wait, what?!?

Lord of Illusions doesn't quite work as a straight horror film or a campy one, but balances uncomfortably between the two genres.  The strangest thing about Lord of Illusions is that it is not difficult to sit through; the sum of it's odd parts is actually halfway decent.  I have an idea.  Instead of remaking classic horror movies, filmmakers should look at a movie like this, one that has good moments but got the big picture wrong, and update this.  I can imagine a version of Lord of Illusions that falls a lot closer to Angel Heart than Dracula A.D. 1972.  Then, maybe, we could enjoy a horror movie about magic that isn't mediocre at best.

 

Super Troopers

I'm fairly picky when it comes to comedies.  There are many reasons for that (discriminating taste, enough intelligence to see punchlines coming, a love of context-based humor, and utter snobbery), but I am usually willing to give a movie the benefit of the doubt and just rip it a new asshole once it's over.  I was definitely prepared to do that the first time I saw Super Troopers.  When a friend brought the DVD over to watch, everyone in the room groaned.  To be fair, that particular buddy has some pretty terrible taste and the television trailer for the movie looked wretched.  I've seen funnier commercials for the ASPCA.  Since my friends and I were open-minded (and we relished the possibility of revoking our friend's movie recommendation privileges), we chose to watch Super Troopers, despite our misgivings.  Good move, young Brian and Friends.

As with most comedies, the plot is pretty basic.  The Vermont State Troopers based in the Canadian border town of Spurbury are on the verge of being shut down, with their responsibilities (and budget) probably going to the jerks in the Spurbury Police Department.  That's not terribly surprising, since these State Troopers spend their time at work fishing, joking, masturbating, and smoking evidence from drug busts.  These amateur cops accidentally stumble into a murder/drug investigation, but can they solve the crime?  And will that be enough to make them look moderately competent?

A: Nope

No, the plot isn't anything special.  What the plot of Super Troopers does is allow the sketch comedy group behind the film, Broken Lizard, many episodic opportunities to crack wise.  Honestly, I usually don't like movies based on sketch comedy because the plots are awful and they are usually filled with a single joke spread over ninety minutes.  **cough, cough, anything originating from SNL in the last eighteen years, cough cough** What I appreciate most about Super Troopers is how well each sketch in the movie is framed.  The officers pull over a civilian and more or less ask each other what pranks they are going to pull this time.

Oddly enough, this is funny with context

It's a simple way to make a movie, but it's damned effective.  My favorite thing about Super Troopers is that the humor is generated within each sketch --- meaning that it isn't random or pop-culture based --- and that helps it stay rewarding even with (especially with) repeat viewings.

Nobody in the cast was going to win an Oscar for Super Troopers, but I thought everyone was pretty good.  The standout actor in this film is definitely Kevin Heffernan as Officer Farva; he has the best lines and perfectly embodies an annoying guy you like to laugh at.  The rest of Broken Lizard all turned in solid performances with their own highlights; Jay Chandrasekhar's ethnic and swinger jokes were great, Erik Stolhanske's rookie was made for hazing, Steve Lemme's Mac was consistently funny (and has both mine and my dad's favorite scenes), and Paul Soter managed to not suck, despite being the character with a romantic subplot.  Brian Cox added some much-needed legitimacy to the film, and he showed off that he can be pretty funny when he wants to be, too.  Daniel von Bargen was solid as the hard-ass Spurberry Police Chief.  Marisa Coughlan might have been in the film to add a romantic interest for Soter, but she pulled off a convincingly strong and likable female character in a movie where that was light years beyond what was required of her.  You might recognize a few other supporting cast members, too.  Jim Gaffigan, before he was famous, had a bit part, as did Lynda Carter (although hers was an "after she was famous" bit part).

Meow!

Philippe Brenninkmeyer, Joey Kern, and that bastard who married Christina Hendricks, Geoffrey Arend, all have minor (but memorable) roles, too.

I simply cannot believe this jackass married a hottie

What makes Super Troopers such a funny movie?  Honestly, I credit Jay Chandrasekhar for editing (and, I suppose, for directing) the crap out of the film.   Every scene has several jokes in it, and most of them are throwaway gags that don't detract from the story.  The weakest parts of the film are the ones that propel the plot forward, but even those have many fun moments.  The best parts are the scenes where the team pulls over drivers.  Maybe it is the perfect cop mustaches.

Maybe it's the material.  Maybe it is because the humor feels original and is usually hard to predict.  Whatever the reasons, I truly appreciate the blood, sweat and tears that went into the post-production on this movie, because it is a lean, mean comedy machine.

After I saw Super Troopers in college, I went home and rented the movie to show off to my family.  Well, not all my family --- mainly my father, who is a very funny man and helped shape my sense of humor.  His immediate reaction to my suggestion was the same as mine: the commercials made it look like crap.  I managed to talk him into watching the first scene, and from there he was hooked.  And when I say "hooked," I mean "having trouble breathing because he was crying from laughter."  To give you an idea of how funny my father found this movie, he decided to try and get my mother (a very generous and nice woman, although not nearly as funny as us male folks) interested in the movie by showing her this scene:

How high off laughter was my dad to think that his wife --- who isn't a big fan of stupid humor --- would watch a scene with a bullet-proof cup and the line "good enough to fuck your mother" and think to herself "Perhaps this is a film I should spend some more time with."  My dad is an idiot.

Is Super Troopers a masterpiece?  Absolutely not.  It's not very clever, the story is weak, and the characters are not very sympathetic.  I absolutely love this movie, though.  It is stupid humor at its best, and varied enough to make you want to watch it again --- and you are rewarded if you do, because the script is jam-packed with half-audible lines and throwaway jokes that you didn't catch the first time through.  This is easily the funniest movie I have seen in the last decade.

For the record, my favorite moment in the movie is when Mac tells Rando to sit down in the diner.  The timing of the syrup bottle is so perfect, it gives me the giggles every time.