The Hills Have Eyes Premiere

It's a good thing to dish a little on industry happenings when you carry the word, "Hollywood" in your blog title, right?

The Hollywood Thoughts staff attended the premiere of "The Hills Have Eyes" last night at the Hollywood Arclight cinemas (you know the place, right? Its the sorta new-ish cineplex located behind the historic Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard-- the very same location where you can apply to become a card-carrying "member" (and god knows I need another piece of plastic to shove into my wallet). It's also famous for charging fifteen bucks per ticket. At those prices, a movie isn't enough. I think the ushers should give you free PROSTATE screening).

I digress.

The movie is a remake of Wes Craven's 1977 Horror classic of the same name. The 2006 version was directed by Alex Aja... an up-and-comer whose father, Alexandre Arcady, is also a well-respected filmaker.












The film opens this weekend, and the buzz is that the performance at the box office will be very strong-- especially among the high school and college set. There's enough jump-in-your-seat moments to keep the nation's stadium-like seating completely filled. Emilie de Ravin (TV's, "Lost") also spends some screen time in a bikini... and THAT can't be bad for the bottom line.

The film looks great... and the performances are all very strong (Kathleen Quinlan, Ted Levine also appear). At 87 minutes, the film never drags. With a driving score, the show moves at a fairly relentless pace.

Bottom Line Review: As much as we had fun last night, I think Craven's original remains the better version. Here's why: Craven's characters were more well-established. When people started getting whacked, you cared more. Otherwise, the new version is a fun romp.

Last night's premiere was only twenty minutes late-- a blink of an eye in movieland late-start terms.

The audience seemed to enjoy the movie, and jumped at all the right places. The creepy looking mutants in the movie are a real hoot, too.

Emilie de Ravin struck us as being very sweet. She was warm, engaging and... TINY. Wow, talk about petite! She looked great with her "up 'do"-- a different look as we tend to see her on TV with her hair down. Emilie was accompanied by her Fiancee-- a very nice and down-to-earth fellow.

Lots of posers in attendance last night. You know the type: mock-serious looking dudes with lots of product in the hair and unbuttoneddowntohere french-blue shirts... blue-tooth Star Trek gizmos hanging out of their ear (even when they're not talking to anyone)... and constantly shifting eyes as they scan over the top of your head... JUST IN CASE they spot a celeb named, Hillary. Where's the ejection handle when you need to flip one of these bozos into the next zip code?!?

The After Party was held across the way, and themed to resemble the film's "Military Nuclear Test Housing Development, #3-B." Creepy looking 1950's era "just-got-blasted-by-a-500-pound-nuclear-bomb" mannequins dotted the space. Chicken and bellpepper skewers, pasta, and barbeque tri-tip were on the menu. So were an abnormal number of weirdos...


One guy in attendance had himself made-up to look like one of the film's nuclear mutants. Hey, I admit: what's more fun than sharing a bit of tri-tip with some dude that looks-like-the-world's-gnarliest-burn-victim? Mmmm, yum. Pass the hickory sauce, sparky...

Go see "Hills"...