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J GRAHAM Reviews A PRETTY HOW TOWN I remember a while back when I read Bryan Bishop's screenplay for 'Duke is Dead' and wrote a review that scathed him, mentioning something along the lines of "He just doesn't seem good enough to pull off any scripts outside of his 'Days in Places' saga." Not only do I retract that statement, but I offer a public apology to Bryan, and bow down to him as the master of horror films. 'A Pretty How Town' is probably the most f***** up horror film I've ever seen, drawing parallels with 'Battle Royale' for sheer terror and mystery. The film's premise is simple. It takes place in a small town, a 'middle of nowhere' type place, where strange stuff is happening. Mysterious killings, and electrical discrepancies later, a small band of the town's population band together in a desperate attempt to find out what is wrong, and find out what the hell is killing all those people, who are nothing more than bloody mangled corpses by the end of it all. Every single one of them is interconnected to one another in some way, by the events or by pure happenstance: Jack London (Bruce Willis) is an English teacher at the local high school, who had an affair with one of his students, a Japanese girl named Issei (Chiaki Kurimaya). Two of his students, Robbie (Nick Stahl) and Irene (Lindsay Lohan) team up together when an odd electrostatic current lights up their classroom, yet nobody else notices. A woman, Anna Strode (Nicole Kidman) has disturbing images of two children she never had and Lance Honda (Ken Watanabe) finds that his appendages begin to mysteriously fall off. Several other characters in the film have their own personal crisis going on, and only one thing is for sure; the heart of the mystery lies with a man named Dr. Rabbitfoot (Sam Neill) who appears on people's TV screens while reminding them to stay sexy. The problems with Bryan's previous screenplays are once again on show here. Shoddy editing, and a sometimes confusing style of formatting are jarring reminders that this is just a film, and I found myself editing the screenplay simply for my sake alone (most of the errors could have been found with a simple once over). But those problems are naught once the story gets going. There is not a single wasted scene in the 113 page long film, which gallops along. Every scene both deepens the characters and furthers the story, and is done with a stylized flair that both terrifies and mystifies at the same time. The film goes from being a horror to mystery to straight up action, and never fails to pull its punches. The action is horrifying; the gore comes flying thick and fast, and once you see those red eyes light up, there is no doubt that you yourself will feel a little niggle of fear. However, when the action moves SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER GIANT SPOILERS HERE off the island and to the mainland, it delves into 'T-Rex in Los Angeles' syndrome and is unable to keep up with the superb atmosphere that the film develops to that point. The actors do a phenomenal job. The dialog is crisp and perfectly natural, the character development is light enough that it allows the film to keep going and deep enough for us to care about the characters. When the mystery is finally solved and the film lurches into its ultra violent climax, the anticipation builds to an almost feverish level, and its quite obvious that the writer enjoys having people rendered limb from limb. And he portrays it all with gusto. A brilliant take on the mystery/ slasher genre, 'A Pretty How Town' will holds your attention right from the opening through to the riveting and almost ironic close. Recommendation: Watch it. 75/100 PEDRO Reviews A PRETTY HOW TOWN “A Pretty How Town” is Bishop’s latest film here at HTG, unless you count “Dick Tracy 2,” which recently just came into theaters as well. This honestly was just a really bizarre movie. PLOT: Well the premise of the film is strange occurrences in a small town. The occurrences indeed are strange. The plot follows several small town inhabitants including Robbie Jennings (Nick Stahl), Jack London (Bruce Willis), Amy Strode (Nicole Kidman) and Issei Toko (Chiaki Kurimaya). The town notices some mysterious deaths. Soon they discover what’s going on, a man, Dr. Marlowe Rabbitfoot (Sam Neil) is punishing the small town members for their past sins. He has two robotic twins, Castor and Pollux killing them for their sins. It turns out that the small town inhabitants were once someone else in their old lives, who committed terrible sins. Some of the town members are trying to find out what is going on. By the end we get a nice twist that what is going on is that a reality TV show is actually being filmed in this small town called “Ghost Town” where the killers in their new states must try and survive, but there can only be one survivor and that survivor will be fully pardoned for whatever sins that he committed in his previous life. Yeah, and you people call my films fucked up. This plot indeed was interesting, but we’ve seen the survivor element before, but this film gets extra points for its creativity. This was really a nice effort by Bishop. This is one of the best of his that I’ve read. FINAL PLOT GRADE: 90/10 DIALOGUE: The dialogue too was very great. We get honest moments between the characters and honest moments when they are talking about their past sins. The characters interact very believably and this truly is one of Bishop’s strongest points. He has a great ear for dialogue. I think that his dialogue will only get better as time progresses. The dialogue meshes in well with the action of the film to make one hell of a movie. FINAL DIALOGUE GRADE: 90/100 CHARACTERS: Fan-fucking tastic. This was what made the film work perfectly. We needed great characters to make this film work and we got just that. We get great characters who were other characters in previous lives who had committed sins. Bishop meshes both of their identities together to make them very believable and great characters. This film has great characterization, which was very important towards the films spectacular ending. All of these characters are trying to be pardoned for their sins and the actors do a great acting job with these characters. FINAL CHARACTERS GRADE: 100/100 CASTING: The casting was really great. Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman do great jobs in this film but it really is Nick Stahl who steals the show. Sam Neill was perfect as Rabbitfoot and he most likely will end up with a nomination for his role. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the talents from this movie end up with nominations. I actually would have picked someone else to have directed this film rather than James Cameron. He has done these kinds of films before, but I honestly would have picked someone else to helm the project. FINAL CASTING GRADE: 90/100 PACING: I actually really liked the pacing for this film as well. Bishop has made one hell of a film here. We get great character motivated sequences as well as some great action sequences all paced very well. We never get bored with the film because the writer knows exactly what to put in all of his films. The violence was pretty gory at points but it was just paced so well. I think that this is one of the best paced movies I’ve ever seen here at HTG. Pacing really is one of the key elements to a film. You can make a great film but if you make it with lousy pacing, it will turn out to be a boring film. I liked that the action wasn’t over excessive so that we can have some time to get to know the characters because its really the characters that ran this show. FINAL PACING GRADE: 95/100 ADVERTISING: I liked what I saw that was advertised. The website was pretty cool as well and I loved the trailers before the film. The E.E. Cummings input on the site was great too. Bishop really advertises his films well to catch our attention. Advertising is a big part of a film, if you don’t advertise well, it could lead to a bad Box office opening. I really think that Bishop’s films will continue to have great advertising. FINAL ADVERTISING GRADE: 85/100 WRITING: Overall the writing was really fantastic. I think that this is possibly one of the best films ever here at HTG. Everything really fits well into this project and everything works. Bishop has written all the key elements into making a great film. He uses great characters in his films and writes them into incredibly interesting situations. The film suffers from very little spelling and grammatical errors, which always can make reading a film, that much better. I think that overall this is one of Bishop’s best film, if not the best and it certainly is his most interesting so far. It’s so interesting because it is incredibly creative and I for one look forward to the sequel. FINAL WRITING GRADE: 95/100 FINAL OVERALL GRADE: 93/100 LUCKYMONKEY Reviews A PRETTY HOW TOWN Bryan Bishop has become Hollywood ’s premiere action writer by displaying a keen sense for just how much blood he can soak the screen with while also creating compelling characters. Although the high-minded title, a Pretty How Town might lead the uniformed viewer to think otherwise, this is another bullet in the movie magnum, and it’s a wild ride from start to finish. The film takes place in a small, unnamed middle-American town, replete with big farms, scrappy townsfolk and a mid-sized college. The rural nature of the setting belies the strange happenings which include plane crashes, mysterious strangers, violent murders and a local population that aren’t what they seem. As the story, and a good deal of the locals, begins to unravel, a group of intertwining characters and stories coalesce. Reminiscent in many ways of a Quentin Tarantino plot, the key players are all connected in some way. English Professor Jack London, played convincingly by Bruce Willis, is having an affair with a Japanese exchange student named Issei Toko (Chiaki Kurimaya). Two other students in his class, Irene Grant (Lindsay Lohan) and Robbie Jennings (Nick Stahl) bond when they share a disturbing experience that centers on a plane crash where a complete stranger knows the young boy’s identity. Franklin Brown (Patrick Wharburton), the police officer who is first on the scene of the accident, is also known by the man. And from here, things get very strange, very quickly. From family man Lance Honda’s (Ken Watanabe) visions of fingerless hands to Anna Strode’s (Nicole Kidman) dreams of dead children, it seems that everyone in the this little town is living the surreal life. This is only accentuated when an enigmatic character known only as Dr. Rabbitfoot (Sam Neil) appears to Franklin over his television, yet can carry on a conversation with the policeman as if they were in the same room. John Cho, Angela Bassett, Christopher Lee, Wilford Brimley, and Chris Harmer round out the large ensemble cast, with each character bringing a different perspective to the bizarre tale. This is not exactly the type of film audiences have come to expect from director James Cameron. Many of the scenes take on more of a Terry Gilliam or Tarsem Singh bend, but the action sequences are classic Cameron, especially in his direction of the twin villains, Castor and Pollux. Despite some editing problems, the film is paced well, with plenty of running, slashing, shooting and pure adrenaline-pumping action so to keep moviegoers on the edge of their seats. The characters are exaggerated, but in ways that don’t detract from the premise of the movie. There are a couple of twists that will catch viewers unaware, but unfortunately, the final curve-ball was anything but. Throw the Running Man, The Truman Show and Ten Little Indians into a big blender with incredibly sharp blades, and you’ll end up with a tasty shake called A Pretty How Town to go with your summer popcorn. FINAL VERDICT: 80/100 MC48 reviews A PRETTY HOW TOWN Bishop's known as an up-and-down producer (with a huge valley, i.e. Duke is Dead), but everyone knows that when he's at his peak, he's extremely hard to top. So when "A Pretty How Town" started getting buzz as one of his best films, I bypassed my lifetime ban on Geocities theaters and got a bootleg copy from Mattricks. Boy, was I not disappointed.
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