#matthew klickstein

[megamanfour]

You Are Obsolete, in summary

there. I just saved you $20.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Against the Dark (2009)

Even a die-hard Steven Seagal film with a major brain injury would have difficulty enjoying Against the Dark. Debilitatingly cheap, poorly acted, often directionless and slow, the most interesting thing about this movie is a single, head-scratching entry in the end credits.

A disease has ravaged humanity and turned nearly everyone into blood-thirsty flesh-eaters. Tao (Seagal) is the leader of a group of hunters who prowl the streets looking for the infected, which they take out using their edged weapons. A group of survivors is hiding inside a hospital. Can the hunters rescue them before the military is forced to drop bombs on the building?

The first and most puzzling issue with this film is its monsters. It’s pretty obvious the script originally called for them to be zombies. They mindlessly attack people, often in packs, there are plenty of scenes of them tearing people apart and eating their guts or taking big bites out of human flesh. At some point during the production, someone (probably Seagal, who I hear is difficult to work with) said “I don’t like zombies; make them vampires instead”. This led to some hasty rewrites and reshoots. In some scenes, the creatures are too dumb to open doors. In others, they’re filing their teeth to points and hanging their victims upside down so they can collect their blood. There are further attempts to make them different from the undead ghouls they were clearly meant to be with some references to I Am Legend that make no sense. Someone says something along the lines of “Are they the monsters, or are we?” That line doesn’t work when there are plenty of people and the survivors are being literally torn to pieces by mindless, razor-toothed mobs.

The film is packed full of scenes in which monsters have to be very quiet so they can sneak up on someone. Once they're within range, they suddenly forget their previously displayed “intelligence”. You won’t care about the characters. You certainly won’t be scared. In theory, there is a ticking clock that should add some excitement: Keith David plays Lieutenant Colonel Wyaters, who wants to drop bombs on the zombie/vampire-infested neighborhood as soon as the sun rises - presumably because the monsters will be asleep at that time - but if he does before our survivors can escape/are rescued by Tao and his posse, they’ll all die. The problem is that you never understand the urgency. Can’t they just wait until the civilians and monster hunters leave?

If, for unexplainable reasons, you’re coming into this movie eager to see Seagal, prepare to be even more disappointed than zombie fans. It takes an eternity for the 80's "icon" to show up. I began wondering if all of his footage had been shot separately and was getting spliced in, possibly explaining the obvious rewrites, when finally, he makes his entry. Will you be satisfied with the results? I doubt it. The action scenes are “fine” at best. They certainly aren’t exciting or memorable. Seagal’s acting chops haven’t improved over the years and his reluctance/inability to perform stunts like he used to make Against the Dark scream “I needed the money, ok?!”.

Finally, we come to the point where we talk about the one thing this movie does that’s interesting. I blasted Steven Seagal pretty harshly and you might think he doesn’t deserve it but I disagree. Look closely at the end credits and you’ll see that Tao’s voice wasn’t provided by Seagal at all. It was provided by Alan O’Silva (as Alin Olteanu). How many of his lines? I couldn’t tell you but it seems Seagal either mumbled his lines so badly no one could understand them or he just couldn’t/wouldn’t come back for the post-production recordings. Either way, I’ve never seen such a thing before. It’s not much but in a movie like this, where there’s nothing else to interest you, it's a defining moment.

Against the Dark is instantly forgettable, which actually works in its favor. This has all the markings of a zero-star movie. The special effects are terrible, the performances come from people who know how bad the script is, the story can’t make up its mind and the film is cheap (pay attention to the ceiling tiles in those corridors and you’ll notice how frequently the production is dressing up the same location to look like a completely different place). Even if all those had been executed professionally, there isn’t anything here you haven’t seen before. Despite this, this film by Richard Crudo and written by Matthew Klickstein never becomes worthy of hatred. It’s too pathetic for any strong emotions - for better, and for worse. (February 17, 2023)

[roesolo]

A little bit of Comic Con on your bookshelf... See You at San Diego

A little bit of Comic Con on your bookshelf... See You at San Diego @fantagraphics

See You at San Diego : An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture, by Mathew Klickstein, (Sept. 2022, Fantagraphics), $39.99, ISBN: 9781683966517 Ages 14+ A definitive history of San Diego Comic-Con, See You at San Diego is a personal chronicle of fandom, as members of the convention and fandom community provide their own stories of the rise of Con. From a group of…

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[ladypartsunknown]

Nickelodeon Nostalgia Superfan Reveals Himself to Be Clueless White Guy

Flavorwire interviewed Matthew Klickstein, a man you've never heard of before, about his book, SLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age. Mid-interview he decided to wax philosophic about diversity in the terms above. Now, I suspect, his "woman" publicist and "woman" editor both wish he were dead.

The whole situation here is beyond upsetting. Reading the interview at first I thought it had to be some kind of joke. As someone who loved the era of Nickelodeon tv Klickstein is talking about, I cannot believe how insensitive and offensive he really is.

And sure while some of the shows aren't as diverse as I'd like them to be, at least they did not espouse the hate this guy does in the interview.

Was Pete and Pete an all-white show? Yes. At a time where that went unexamined in society. But it was very good at capturing a specific point in childhood, which is why it still charms today. Plus it had Ellen tutor Big Pete math problems, and for that I will always love it. Looking back though, older and hopefully a bit more aware of the world than I was as a kid, yeah, the lack of diversity is obvious. It is just a shame Klickstein can't see these types of shows as building blocks for the future than the be-all, end-all.

[flavorwire]

Our interview with Matthew Klickstein on Nickelodeon's lack of diversity is stirring up quite the controversy. Now we've heard from a Nickelodeon publicist that Clarissa was indeed a "HUGE hit." 

[jasalc]

McRobb lamented to me that over the span of Pete & Pete, he witnessed Nickelodeon’s transformation into something that it had originally been very consciously railing against.

The Adventures of The Adventures of Pete & Pete by Mathew Klickstein for Splitsider