RATING:

El Mayimbe here!

Long time no script reviews. Before I get into the review I want to inject my mini Batman Begins review. It's awesome! The best film of the year! My goodness what a perfect movie! When I read it a year and half ago, I knew the film would be awesome. To me, the unsung hero of Batman Begins is David S. Goyer. He's the man. A master craftsman. Que Dios lo bendiga. To me Goyer single handedly rescued the Batman franchise. A lot of the reviews out there talk about Nolan's awesome direction, Bale's acting, the supporting cast, etc., but to me it all began with David's story. I know he collaborated on the script with Nolan but I feel the WGA should have given David the sole screenwriting credit. At least they gave him the story credit. After devouring the script various times and seeing what made it to the screen with the little changes, I feel the majority of it is David's story. No disrespect to Nolan whatsoever, he is also a great writer and excellent filmmaker who I have admired since I seen his first "made on the weekends for a year film" The Following. But mega congratulations to the WB for letting the comic pros like Goyer handle Batman the way he was meant to be handled. This is the Batman film that does all fans of the Batman comics justice. I saw it on IMAX and I can't imagine seeing it any other way. I will see it again at least 2 more times and I highly recommend the IMAX version. There are more thorough reviews out there of the film, including one by our own Ron Henriques, but since I gave the world the 1st peak at the script -- I just wanted to put in my two cents.

So remember folks, when you watch the film on top of noticing the acting, the cinematography, the direction -- don't forget one thing -- It all started with a great script. A great script by David S. Goyer.

I put David's script out there with Basic Instinct by Joe Ezterhas. If you want to learn how to properly write screenplays -- the proper use of structure, progression, setup/payoff, scene construction, subplot, description, dialogue, and action -- then read Basic Instinct and Batman Begins. To me the perfect spec scripts. I also want to thank the fans out there for making the Batman Begins script review my most popular one. I have gotten emails almost every day about it from around the world.

I stopped doing script reviews for a minute there because I got jaded. I got tired of reading great material that should have been made into awesome entertaining films, but they come out mediocre at best because of the development execs putting in their two cents.

Then you read a script like Batman Begins then see the end product survive intact and you get inspired again which leads me to the following --

One of my earliest recollections of going to the movies was when I was a 7 year old kid and my dad stuck with babysitting me, took me along with him to see John Carpenter's The Fog.

Latino parents, I tell ya, taking a 7 year old to a rated R horror movie...

I remember watching the scene towards the end when Adrian Barbeau was at the top of The Lighthouse roof fighting off the spooks. She hit one in the face and the next shot was of that spook that scared the shit out of me.

Like every Latin kids nightmare -- "EL CUCO!" I finally put a face on the demon!

I was crying hysterically that my dad and me got ushered out of the theater. We got kicked out because I was having a panic attack. I remember the embarrassment to this day.

Of course, I got older and I saw the film again eventually and what will always stick with me is how scary it was.

I always wanted to know more about the Blake character and why he did what he did. In this script we finally do. In the original, we got all of Blake's back-story in exposition in the beginning and when Malone read from his journal.

In the remake, we don't open with the expository ghost story; we actually see it for the 1st 6 pages.

We go back to April 21st, 1905 with JOHN PATRICK MALONE and his conspirators going out to see Blake on his ship, THE ELIZABETH DANE and we see the disease that Blake and his people have. They're lepers. Blake thinks that Malone is a man named Williams but Malone seizes the ship at gunpoint, forces everyone to go down into the hull and sets it on fire killing everyone aboard. The Elizabeth Dane burns into a dissolve of Antonio Bay 100 years later.

We meet the Tom Welling's character NICK CASTLE and his wingman BRENT SPOONER working for the ANOTNIO BAY SPORT-FISHING CHARTERS.

For all you geeks out there, the real Nick Castle was the guy who played Michael Myers in the 1st Halloween movie. John Carpenter's film school buddy. Nick also co wrote Escape from New York.

Nick finishes his job and leaves to go pick up his girlfriend ELIZABETH at the train station who is coming into town. Elizabeth's mom doesn't approve of her relationship with Nick. As Nick leaves we see that it is Antonio Bays 100th birthday celebration with bleachers and the whole nine being set up for the celebration.

At page 10 we see --

NEW ANGLE

As a low-hanging ground fog rounds a corner and begins spreading towards us. It flows into sidewalks and into the streets...

As Nick leaves town he runs into SHERIFF TOM MALONE putting up a for sale sign on 50 acres of land for prime development. This land plays an important part in the movie later on. The sheriff tells Nick to obey the rules of the road.

Later during Nick's drive --

From the RADIO in the dash, we HEAR a sensual female voice:

STEVIE (V.O.)
It's nine-thirty on a beautiful Friday night in Antonio Bay. I'm Stevie Wayne, and I'm gonna go a little 'old school' on you tonight. Here’s a track from [Ramones, etc.,] on KAB, 94.5, and streaming over the web at kabtunes.com. KAB -- your alternative to the modern music establishment.

At 10pm at night, just like in the original film, the town goes haywire. Lights go on and off, goods fall from the shelves. Nick picks up Elizabeth and they later meet with some friends on the beach. Spooner pulls up in his sea grass with two hot chicks.

Spooner goes out to sea.

We then meet Stevie at the broadcast booth at the lighthouse and she chats up with DAN O'BANNON the weatherman from the Coast Guard Weather Station. Apparently a fog bank is moving against the wind.

Around page 25, Spooner, buddy SEAN and their two chicks are stuck out at sea in the sea grass.

EXT. THE FOG -- NIGHT

An eerie WHITE WALL is almost upon them, lit from within by some strange phosphorescent light. Soon, it blots out the entire horizon. Glowing. Throbbing. Swirling.

While Spooner and Sean are outside trying to figure out what is wrong with the sea grass, down below in the steering house the two chicks hear something outside the door.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

We know they're screwed.

The remake is a lot like the original. Like the original, The Fog is out for revenge. A lot of the original characters are back too. Stevie's son ANDY, MRS. KOBRITZ, Andy's babysitter who meets a gruesome end and of course, the sheriff's brother FATHER MALONE. There is the showdown at the church and The Fog wreaks havoc with the citizens of Antonio Bay. There is not much to say -- the remake is basically the same movie with the same premise with only minor differences. For example, the Malone journal in the original was found in the wall of the church at the beginning of the movie. In the remake, Stevie finds the Malone journal in the wall at the lighthouse. Oh yeah, this being a horror remake, they have more money for effects and this fog is a lot more gruesome and aggressive. This Fog will be gorier. At least that is how it read. It takes many shapes and forms kind of like the liquid Terminator. It can do whatever it wants. In one cool scene, the fog goes inside a victim and melts him from the inside out.

The Fog will be released this October and if all goes well should be just as good if not better than the original. It was a good read.

Hasta el proximo capitulo --

YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!

mayimbe@latinoreview.com.