So Comic Con 2005 has come to an end, and as usual, it boasted an impressive four day line up of top notch events for comic book fans of all ages. Of course being the movie geek I am, I hit the festivities for the film related items which have become a mainstay at the legendary convention.

This year, I was graced by fellow writer Tyler Sanders and photographer John Pugh which is extremely beneficial for me as I'll have some help reporting back to you the reader. Before we get to the reports, I'd like to offer a special shout out to Mr. Pugh who had his wisdom teeth removed one day before our big venture. Despite excruciating pain, our faithful photographer braved the trip anyway. Now that's for dedication. An additional shout out to Tyler for handling driving detail.

Tyler and I have opted to share writing duties. Therefore, watch for coming reports from Mr. Sanders as well.

We arrived in San Diego at about 3:30 P.M. Our first stop? Checking into our hotel which wasn't actually in San Diego. No, that would have been far too easy. As fate would have it, our hotel was located in gorgeous San Ysidro. That's right. Approximately one mile away from the Tiajuana border. Lets just say it was quite the adventure checking in. Truthfully, it wasn't all that bad.The hotel was actually pretty nice especially for the price. It even had a kitchenette.

After checking in, we cruised down to the San Diego Convention Center which was only about a fifteen minute drive. Parking was a nightmare, until we discovered there was a brand new parking facility right across the street from the con. That made things extremely helpful.

We immediately went in and got our credentials which was a surprisingly speedy process. We then hit the dealer room floor because we heard that Dreamworks had a booth in there and that they might possibly be giving out passes to special film screenings. We found the booth and discovered the rumor was true. We picked up passes to Wes Craven's Red Eye and Michael Bay's The Island, which we'll be talking about later in this report. Following this, we checked out our schedules to see what panel we could catch as half the day was shot already. To our dismay, we missed the Bruce Campbell panel by about five minutes. DAMN IT! I love that guy. Lucky for us though, we were in time for "A Conversation With David Cronenberg".

A CONVERSATION WITH DAVID CRONENBERG

I'm a huge fan of David Cronenberg. From his early days with pictures like They Came From Within (aka Shivers) and The Brood, to his head exploding days with Scanners, to his grotesque but romantic take on The Fly, to the controversial Crash (not to be confused with the recent Paul Haggis film of the same name), to the dramatic character study of a killer in Spider, Cronenberg has always made films on his own terms.

The legendary Canadian was on hand to talk about his creative process and to talk about his upcoming film A History of Violence starring Viggo Mortensen. There is already a buzz brewing about the film and Mortensen won raves at the Cannes Film Festival last May.

Cronenberg screened the trailer as well as a lengthy scene from the movie. It tells the story of a restrained diner owner (played by Mortensen) and how he becomes a local celebrity after foiling a violent robbery attempt. There is much more to the story, but that is the gist of it. Cronenberg talked in length about his career, but the most fascinating elements of the discussion came when he talked about his creative process. He spoke openly about his style and how he doesn't like to use storyboards because he believes they hinder the collaboration between he and his actors. This was a thoroughly interesting conversation. I wished I'd tape recorded it so I could write it verbatim in it's entirety.

Following the panel, Tyler, John and I positioned ourselves to get some decent photos when a mad man trying to get to the stage brushed up against us continuously blurting; "Excuse me please". The mad man in question was Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London director John Landis. He was trying to catch up with Cronenberg before he left the building. We watched the two talk to each other for a moment. I would have done anything to've been a "Fly" near that conversation. Sadly, we never did get a decent picture. Oh well. There would be plenty of great photo ops later.

RED EYE

Red Eye is the latest thriller from horror veteran Wes Craven. It could be best described as Cellular meets Panic Room meets Collateral meets - AIRPLANE! Of course the Airplane-like lunacy is purely unintentional. Having said that, I didn't flat out hate this silly, but well paced movie. It had it's moments, but ultimately, the cliche riddled plot and cheesy humor drain the movie of any sort of real intrigue.

In Red Eye, the wonderful Rachel McAdams plays Lisa Reisert, a seasoned luxury hotel customer service rep who, just before taking a red eye flight, is taken aback by a charming stranger name Jackson Rippner (played by Batman Begins' Cillian Murphy). Before long however, that fondness turns to suspicion as she discovers she is much more than a twinkle in Jackson's eye. It seems that this guy has a dastardly plot, one that forces our heroine to make tough decisions on the fly. With any luck, these decisions just might save the lives of those close to her.

I'll give Wes Craven props for a brisk pace (perhaps too brisk - this film clocks in at a mere seventy-nine minutes). Red Eye, while outlandish, does crackle with kinetic energy. I also thank the good Lord above that this is a better film than last year's awful, awful Cursed, but it's still a far cry from the director's best work. I don't expect Craven to churn out a Nightmare on Elm Street or Hills Have Eyes every time, but it saddens me that this horror meister appears to be drained of his passion. Perhaps he's lost his zest for the genre. That would explain his trying to break out with Music of the Heart back in 1999. I suppose Scream was decent enough, but that movie spent most of the time mocking the pictures that inspired it. What ever the case may be, I'd love to see Craven just go off and make an independent shocker again (just as long as it's not called "Shocker," I wasn't a fan of that one either).

In Red Eye, Craven gets a big boost from a game cast. Rachel McAdams is already a star on the rise. You can see her in the recent Wedding Crashers or last year's heartfelt The Notebook. She's beautiful, has a gorgeous smile, and lends a lively energy to most of her roles. Here, she's the damsel in distress, but I'll be damned if she isn't effective, even when she's forced to partake in one absurd situation after another. Cillian Murphy is the real deal. I first took notice of him in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and he has since built a nice little resume of diverse performances. Most recently, he appeared as Dr. Crane (aka Scarecrow) in the excellent Batman Begins. Here, he showcases his ability to be charming one second, then a complete monster the next. McAdams and Murphy build a nice rapport and as good as they both are, they aren't always able to rise above the silly proceedings.

I have to hand it to the marketing team of Red Eye. They've done a good job with the ad campaign in terms of not showing what the picture is really about. I love how the first half of the trailer makes the picture look like Garden State or Serendipity before abruptly changing tone and showing the true nature of the picture. That's sort of how the movie unfolds. Sadly though, the numerous cliches in the film take hold and there came a point when I really got bored of what was happening. I never felt any sense of real danger and the final act of the picture just drags on into an extended "been there done that" kind of chase scene. And when the true plot is revealed and we learn who the bad guy is trying to take out, I completely lost interest. The climax of the picture, in which we witness the potential extermination of our token victims, is particularly laughable - though it's obvious that Wes Craven is trying to play it straight. Or maybe he wasn't. Who the hell knows.

Hanging out in the lobby after the Red Eye screening, I was quite shocked to find that most people in the audience really liked the picture. Not a little either. Quite a few of them liked it a lot. I know, I know, everyone has a different opinion, but I really felt like I had sat through a different movie than these other people. Tyler and John were in agreement with me as was Quint of Aint -it-cool-news.com. We bumped into the legendary internet guru in the lobby and chatted with him for a while. It seems we both agreed that the movie was well paced but just too damn silly. Still though, we were all quick to point out that it beats the shit out of Cursed.

Red Eye will probably enjoy the same kind of success that Cellular did. This picture has a lot in common with that one, particularly in terms of pacing and a cliché ridden plot. Perhaps I'm being too hard on the movie. After all, it is just your garden variety popcorn flick. I guess I was just hoping for a little more from Wes Craven, a once great director who appears to have lost interest in the genre. Red Eye looks good and features two strong leads, but ultimately, it's a mostly a lot of dead air.

Grade: C-

Watch for Comic Con 2005 Report #2. It will include looks at V For Vendetta, The Fountain, Showtime's Masters of Horror and a review of Michael Bay's The Island.