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movies@seren.bangor.ac.uk MOVIES SEREN October 2001 13Burn, Hollywood, burnMovies editor Chris Chapman considers how theevents of September 11th will hit HollywoodThe entertainment industrymay never be the same again.And I’m not talking about the farreachingeffects of Tom Baker’sstartlingly disturbing turn on C4’sTop Ten Sci Fi (“well hello there,my boy...”). Since the World TradeCentre attacks, the movie worldhas been plunged into a messof false rumours, reshoots andBrando-sized industry rethinks.Yeah, yeah, I know it’s callous tobe worrying about movies withall the loss of life involved in thestateside disaster, but hey, it’s myobsession.The first film to have problemswith the attack was Sam Raimi’supcoming Spiderman. Early reportsthat the majority of the film’sset pieces featured the towersand that the whole Toby Maguireflavoured venture could facecomplete cancellation proved tobe sheer garden fence gossip.Reshoots are necessary but theproject goes ahead unabated.Unfortunately the teaser postersfeature the towers reflected inSpidey’s bug eyes, so have allbeen pulled from cinemas.Arnie’s crap looking CollateralDamage has been pulled indefinitely(the Commandotastic plothaving Arnie taking revenge onterrorists for killing his family), sono great loss there, whilst Swordfishwas immediately ditched fromcinemas (aw well, its run wasalmost at an end anyway).But there is a bigger problemnow for the industry than simplereshoots, rescheduling and Arnie“comebacks.” Will America’s mainstreamever be able to look at theWill America’smainstream everbe able to lookat the disastermovie in quite thesame way again?disaster movie in quite the sameway again? In an industry wherean action movie’s money shot is—nine times out of ten—a big oldexplosion, will people still pay tobe reminded of the events of the11th? The simple and dishearteninganswer is—yes. It will takesome time and some severe tacton the part of the moviemakers,but despite their grief, people willstill return to the action movie:they enjoyed them too muchbefore to let them go entirely.Though it may seem unthinkableright now, there will inevitablybe a film made of the attack;Oliver Stone already seems to bethinking it over. Think about thesinking of the Titanic, it took 50years for A Night To Remember toreach the screens, but now Titanicis open season and more thancapable of becoming the largestgrossing film of all time. Couldthe same thing happen to TwinTowers: The Movie? Distasteful nowof course (DeNiro recently kickeda would-be scribe out of a café foroffering him a Towers script withBobby cast as Mayor Giuliani), butit will happen. Then the distancingeffect, already caused by theendless TV coverage, will reach itspeak and it’s possible that manyof us just won’t be able to feelthat sad about it all.One thing is certain: Hollywoodwill have to steer clear of theham-fisted handling of Easternthreats as seen in many many 80smovies (even Back To The Futurethrows in an “Oh No! The Libyans!”line). And certain movie bits—the exploding tower in Die Hard;the smouldering Twin Towers inIndependence Day—may well raisehackles the next time they pop upon telly.On the other hand, to avoidthe issue could be even worse.Zoolander, Ben Stiller’s upcomingcomedy vehicle, was shot in NewYork before the attack but decidedto digitally erase the towers beforerelease—surely in the same ballparkas denying the Holocaust. Atthe other end of the scale, thesight of the partially submergedtowers in Spielberg’s future visionAI is jarringly disturbing.One message that kept on pouringforth from September 11thwitnesses and TV viewers to theextent that it was a cliché withinhours, was how much like a moviethe whole attack seemed. Perhapsthat was the key shocker of theattack: that we’ve been seeingthese sorts of images for yearsbut previously they have been asescapism. Now we just want toescape from them. For now, Hollywoodwill just have to stay clearof the stampede.Welcome reappearance: Alyson and her Magic FluteFILM REVIEWAmericanPie 2Now showing at the PlazaCinema (Cert. 15)It’s odd, in a really good way—Iliked this film masses more thanthe original, my first experiencein the complete defiance of therules of sequels. The jokes werecleverer, plot smoother and moreengaging, and the characters cameacross (I guess because they hadalready been set up, and were nowbuilt on winningly) as hugely morecomplete, and much deeper andwarmer.The story starts a year on fromPie 1. All the characters (and that’sanother great thing—really all thecharacters) have returned homeafter their first college year, manyfinding that although they mayhave conquered fears of virginity,fears of life after high schoolare now dominant. Anxious abouthow he and his friends will holdtogether after a weighty year apart,Kevin turns to his elder brotheronce more for advice—as a result,he, Jim, Oz and Finch, plus Stiffler,rent a house on the lakeside forthe Summer, living several monthsHugely morecomplete, andmuch deeperand warmer thanthe original.of parties, piss-artistry and personalrevelation.American Pie 2 is a lot less cruelthan the original. My biggest problemwith the first film (daft asit sounds given the subject) wasthat so much of it felt like beingled to point and laugh at peoplewho were less lucky or cool thanus. The sequel is so much kinderthough—although there are loadsof intrusions by parents, footballsin guts and trumpets up arses,this time there’s an air of aware,affectionate irony and somehowyour heart goes out to the victims;and the humour benefits bymiles. Admittedly, in many waysPie 2 just looks to replicate hitset-piece scenes from its predecessor—Stifflerdrinking ejaculate-complementedbeer, or fromthe internet broadcast in Pie 1to a radio transmission of joustingsexual favours with “lesbians”.Most times, though, it builds brilliantlyon the original, and thereare masses of great in-jokes andself-references.Although it’s weird to use termslike these when reviewing anAmerican Pie film, it’s due to aself-aware influence of sensitivityand—even—restraint, plus the factthat it actually thinks (just a bit,y’know…) puts Pie 2 way aheadof its comrades—it’s not a greatwork of art, but it’s easy to becomepart of, it’s really funny, and it’sthoroughly enjoyable. Jon Mason