BNAT1138: The End
After BNAT1138: The Beginning and BNAT: The Middle, we're coming to the end of Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT). Don't panic. There's plenty to make it a very memorable ending.
Inappropriate Clip: Apparently it's tradition to show something tasteless. This year it's sumo-diapered men in a ring allowing themselves to be dry-humped by dogs, from a variety of angles, with a special guest (perhaps the MC?) wearing a penis'd afro wig. The truly disturbing part was at least one of the men seemed to be enjoying it.
Special Presentation: "AICN True-ish Hollywood Story." Birthday wishes and wisecracks from JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Danny McBride, Michael Bay and Jon Favreau. Favreau had a very special birthday/BNAT greeting, with an introduction to world premiere of the Iron Man 2 trailer.
Trailers: Iron Man 2, Fearless Frank, Animal Protector, The Return of Captain Invincible
Matthew Vaughn brought the not quite finished cut of Kick-Ass along with co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse. While Kick-Ass may not have been everyone's favorite, it was far and away the crowd pleaser of BNAT, even with a 15 minute break after a speaker died. The music, while temporary, was absolutely perfect, including the Batman and Superman, and Watchman themes, which Vaughn later said he's not gotten permission for the first two to use in the final cut; that's a shame, because this homage to superhero movies is likely to up the sales of every single superhero DVD and Blu ray. One particular scene that had everyone clapping in time to the music as some ass was thoroughly kicked. I think Standby-Gal was going was going to burst with excitement.
It's a great non-superhero hero movie, with an average teen (Aaron Johnson) suddenly becoming a vigilante, only to find he's not the only one out there. Christopher Mintz-Plasse has a great non-McLovin type role that still has his dorky charm signature as the son of a gangster. Bad Lieutentant: Port of Call New Orleans fans will flip over Nicholas Cage's performance. But the scene stealer was Chloe Moretz as Mindy Macready/Hit-Girl; this pint-sized, sewer mouth martial art moppet. Audience members were demanding more information on her costume.
Without doing a full review on Kick-Ass, the only way to sum it up is the superhero fangeek's fantasy one night stand of kick-assery.
Trailers: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, I Come in Peace, Dr. Pepper Post-Cola Wars ad
The final film of BNAT was Avatar. Harry shared the story of getting James Cameron's latest film, one highly speculated upon and constantly dismissed because Harry reputedly doesn't have a great relationship with Fox Film. Apparently Cameron was cool with his latest film coming to BNAT, and went, according to Harry, a bit bad ass on Fox to get it.
The souvenir RealD glasses are fancier than the usual disposable ones, with Avatar and Coke Zero logos. Unfortunately, they don't fit well over glasses, making them a bit uncomfortable.
Avatar had screened earlier last week for press, but there were projection problems causing a good deal of the film to be out of focus. It looked much prettier on Sunday. But the lack of character development and the thin, derivative story doesn't hold up well. Still, visually it's stunning. But even the normally sublime Giovanni Ribisi was channeling Jeremy Piven in his worst performance I can recall.
Still, those visuals are worthwhile, and watching Zoe Saldana's performance as Neytiri is mesmerizing. Saldana, through the use of motion capture, fills in most of the gaps in the script to create a fully realized woman. I ended up liking Avatar a bit better on second viewing, when there wasn't so much visual distraction.
As the lights came up, Tim pointed out a special gift that had been delivered for Harry. It turned out that Zach Snyder sent a WW1 German Zombie Soldier Bust from Suckerpunch, which comes out March 2011.
Suddenly, it was over. We all wandered out into the daylight, not really ready to leave. As everyone slowly made their way back to their cars, there were lots of "Happy BNAT" farewells.
Sunday night had the annual Guerro's gathering, which I missed because I started to fall asleep about an hour before it was due to start. I heard it was fun. Last night there was a smaller #dayafterbnat gathering at the Highball, with some of the out-of-towners mingling with the locals and a few friends who didn't make it to BNAT.
And that's a wrap. I have to say it was an outstanding program, a great mix of trailers, vintage and unreleased, genre and mainstream, a well-rounded cineaste's dream. I sincerely hope it won't be my last.