I am the bestest, bravest LJ friend ever. Make a note of it. I watch Vincent Kartheiser movies so you don’t have to.
The Vincent Kartheiser-a-thon continues with “Heaven Sent” and “Ricky 6”.
I decided to watch “Heaven Sent” first. I figured if Heaven Sent was as bad as I’d heard, then “Ricky 6” (which I’d heard was a scary gore flick) would come across as rather refreshing. Believe me, that was, this wasn’t, and it worked.
Heaven Sent (1994)
Other notables: Wilford Brimley, William Christopher
Summary: A juvenile delinquent gets hit by a car, which becomes the opportunity for an angelic intervention (sadly, that’s “angel” with a small ‘a’). The angel puts Eddie Chandler through his moral paces and lots of nifty lessons are learned about Being A Good Person.
Happy Vinnie/Fucked-up Vinnie: Fucked-up Vinnie (no really, he’s a certified juvenile delinquent – he has probation officers and everything!) who learns how to be Stepford! Happy Vinnie. But it’s Fucked-up Vinnie with rosy cheeks and roller blades (*so cute*).
Brat quotient: 4/10. Alas, a movie where Vinnie is taught how *not* to be a brat and learns his lesson! Ergo, in the early part of the movie, the brat quotient is high. Yelling at his mom, leering at girls (who aren’t interested because “he’s a jerk!”), stealing things. Vinnie with an attitude! Then that blasted *angel* has to go mucking everything up. *sigh*
The Hair: Did I or did I not predict baseball caps! Yeah! Sadly, they only appear in the first scene. After that, you must contend with VK’s mid-length girly-hair.
And O.M.G. could VK look MORE like Michelle Trachtenberg? Yikes! Watch early Season 5 Dawn (or better yet, Harriet the Spy). They have the exact same face.
Bottom line: Campy acting, cheesy script, bad accents, plot devices that telegraph themselves from miles away, and religious allusions painted in primary colors without a hint of irony (seriously. Churches appear. Hymns get sung. Prayers are made and answered. The words F-A-I-T-H and P-R-A-I-S-E G-O-D get mentioned, more than once).
You gotta be in it purely for the adorable almost pre-teen VKness (he’s 14, but of course, on VK, that means he looks 10), otherwise, save yourself the pain of the anvil falling on your head. Unless you’re rather religious and have impressionable 5-year olds on the verge of a life of crime. Then it might be a family must-see.
There are some cute moments. VK in a bicycle helmet on the phone to heaven is very cute, and actually funny.
Ricky 6 (2000)
Summary: Ricky Cowen is an earnest enough, but insecure skinny high school loser (I mean, he’s on the football team, and the football players *still* beat him up in the halls) with an immature jerk for a father and stoners for friends. He just wants to have control of his own life, and discovers hallucinogens and Satanism one fine day. It’s a drug-addled roller-coaster ride from there, with ups and downs and pauses and the big stomach-lurching hill at the end.
Fucked-up Vinnie: Moogoo-mega Classical Fucked-up Vinnie. Angel Dust, Acid, Mescaline and Satan! In “Heaven Sent” one of the morals is you get the girl by being a nice guy, but Ricky gets the (very sweet) girl while drug-dealing and spouting Satanist doctrines. But honestly, he stays rather sympathetic up to the end. VK’s acting is, of course, stellar (if it wasn’t for that beatific smile and those other little facial expressions we know so well, I’d forget it was Vinnie).
Brat quotient: 4/10. Ricky goes from being the kid who gets stepped on to the kid who does the steppin’, but he’s really more of a messed-up kid than an actual get-on-your-nerves *brat*.
The Hair: VK with early 80’s stoner hair. Sometimes clean but stiff (when he’s trying to pick up chicks), sometimes limp and greasy (when he’s on a drug bender), sometimes in a ponytail (mostly during the Satan-worshiping) – a look never seen before or after for our boy.
Other notes: As a philosopher, I was intrigued by the depiction of Satanism in this movie. My knowledge of it is a bit sketchy, but it seemed a rather realistic portrayal of the religion (which is a motley mix of pre-Christian Paganism and distinctly anti-Christian ritual and symbolism).
The “religion” appeals to Ricky because it seems to be about empowerment: not putting up with shit the world dumps on you, embracing humanity’s “natural” instincts, throwing out hypocrisy. With the Devil backing him up, Ricky finds a new-found confidence and authority over others that was probably inside him all along but that he didn’t express out of fear.
The problem is, Satanism isn’t going to make the basic fear go away. It’s a religion that defines itself in direct opposition to another religion, and therefore takes as a basic premise the very authority it claims to reject.
Ricky mocks Christianity as “the religion of slaves, invented to comfort the poor and the weak”. He thinks if you reject Christianity’s doctrines, you embrace power. So you invert Christian symbols and rituals and tenets. You read passages of scripture backwards and say prayers and give praise to the villain of the Bible.
But that kind of direct rebellion and rejection of something is itself a sign of weakness and resentment. Ricky isn’t empowering himself so much as impotently announcing to the world that that the Establishment that is making his life such hell (whether it be his parents, the police, or the popular kids in the high school) “can’t touch me!”
But watch the scene where “Jesus Christ” chases him through the grocery store. He hasn’t empowered anything but his own weakness.
The movie is told from the point of view of Ricky’s best friend Tommy, so the ultimate conclusions are Tommy’s, not Ricky’s. Ricky’s friends are atheists to a person, and they interpret everything that happens as a journey into drug-induced psychosis (although mostly, they think it’s a joke. This was still the era of “play your records backwards and hear the rock group chant a message to the devil!!” after all).
Tommy’s conclusion is that Satan, if he even exists, is a trickster that screwed Ricky over, not giving him the power he “promised’ in exchange for devotion. But Ricky never loses his faith.
Bottom line: A must-see for Vinnie fans. If you can handle Another Day in Paradise, you can handle this. I like it better than ADiP, but that’s just me.
I think the only reason this movie isn’t available in the US is because the producer doesn’t know the distribution business. There certainly isn’t anything in this movie more disturbing than any other Vinnie outing (e.g., ADiP, C&PiS, Inside Out); it’s both visually and psychologically intriguing. There’s a murder scene, yes, but I wouldn’t call this movie a slasher or gore flick at all.
Ooh, I even have R6 icons:
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Update: I just read on the Ricky 6 website that the guy who wrote Ricky 6 also wrote “The Craft” and “Flatliners”. Which should tell you something about the tone and quality of R6.
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
I really do need to see these films. So far I’ve only managed to get my hands on The Unsaid, C&PiS, ADiP and Luckytown. I did see Masterminds years ago but I didn’t think to record it. I wasn’t big with the Vinnie love back then. The one thing I do remember was feeling like a pedophile the whole time I was watching it. I thought he was so cute but at the time I was a mature 17/18 year old. Not good.
I *love* Masterminds, but then, I am at heart a 15-year old boy. The Unsaid and C&PiS are both highly watchable and intriguing, and I would put Ricky 6 in the same category as them.
Alaska, I have heard, has made many a VK fan feel like a big perv. As for me, I have a giant crush on Thora Birch. She *rocks* in that movie.
ADiP sort of depresses me. If it weren’t for the VKness, I’d skip it. Instead, I own it. But then, I own Heaven Sent, too. *shudders*
Luckytown is watchable, and has some adorable VKness in it, but not among my favorites. That leaves All I Wanna do, which is also watchable and mostly fun, but that I have yet to own.
Now I want to see Dandelion and Falling Off the Verge. What is it with VK movies and distribution problems??
I don’t know. I really do feel bad for the guy at times. VK can seriously act. He is damn good but you see all these people that he has shared the screen with going on to be big names and VK just seems to stay in the same old place. I actually asked him about that during the Q&A at the con I went to and he said that with each film he thought “this is the one” and then each film just becomes a disappointment.
How come Kirsten Dunst gets to be such a big star. I don’t think it’s her astounding talent.
VK is what we call a working actor. Although he’s not a big name, he always manages to find a job. And his fans are loyal. He’s only 25, he has time. I don’t think Brad Pitt became a “name” until he was over 30.
Very true. I just hate to see fabulous acting being eclipsed by good marketing and sharp promotion. It’s sad.
Word.
I tried to warn you about Heaven Sent 🙂 Get out your religion sledgehammer.
The one thing that kinda bugged me about Ricky 6 is the one thing they palmed off. WHen they were talking about the drugs psychiatrists have put them on after the CHrist melt down, Ricky talks about being on an antipsychotic. One of them points out that’s not for depression and Ricky gets pissed but then it’s forgotten. I guess they decided that it muddied the pictures. (the real Ricky was a schizophrenic and that is a terrible mix with street drugs and the question became would he have gone all the way had he been properly diagnosed and treated. Either way we’ll never know)
Yes, you did warn me about Heaven Sent. But I was very enamored of doing a Heaven and Hell double feature.
I did notice the reference to Haldol. The movie makes it seem as if everything he’s experiencing is drug-induced, and that the Haldol was the hospital’s over-reaction to a drug addict.
I suppose the makers of the movie were trying to say something on a more symbolic level about fear and choices and all that, and Ricky actually having a disease would have muddied the point they wanted to make. In that case, why mention the Haldol at all?
That was my reaction, why drag it into the pic if you aren’t going to use it a) ended up on the cutting room floor b) changed our minds and forgot about it c) didnt’ really understand what it meant. It was just alittle thing but it stuck out to me probably because of my profession. Still loved his acting in this (though buying him as a football player was a stretch).
Heh,yeah the heaven/hell juxtaposition is a good one.
though buying him as a football player was a stretch).
Yeah, skinny little Vinnie in shoulder pads and a helmet. Hard to buy as a fan, and also hard to imagine the characters taking him seriously in the world of the film. Maybe Ricky’s dad bought his way onto the team.
Heh,yeah the heaven/hell juxtaposition is a good one.
And hell clearly wins this round! (ding ding)
Even I looked less pathetic in my pads and helmet when I was a scrawny girl in JH. I can go with Dad putting on the pressure OR they were like my sad little school and took ANYONE who showed up.
You played football in JH?
For a little while until my dad freaked. I was 5’9″ and about 110 pounds and could knock down boys like nothing (being they were so much smaller than me)
That is SO cool!
Used to play basket ball too. That’s how I first screwed up my knee. Used to dance too. That ended in surgery…I’m much more sedate now.
Me, I’ve always been the sedate and intellectual type.
Thanks for friending me, BTW!
Yeah been meaning to do that but kept forgetting. I was the intellectual too. I’m a Gemini and not just by birth, my interests split right up the middle between introspective book stuff and the caving, white water rafting daredevil
Scorpio here. Which I think means I’m supposed to be mysterious and big into the alternative.
And hot tempered and stubborn (My brother’s one. Our sun signs read like our psych profiles, it’s a little scary) Just realized looking at your LJ that I thnk you and I are about the same age (which after you talk all day to kids who weren’t alive when you started fandom, can come as a relief)
Sadly, the hell really seems more intriguing than the heaven as far as these tow go :D.
The “religion” appeals to Ricky because it seems to be about empowerment: not putting up with shit the world dumps on you, embracing humanity’s “natural” instincts, throwing out hypocrisy.
What I know Satanism as an ideology is all about the law of the strongest and about the liberation of self from moral questioning in a sense of rising above it in kind of Nietzschean sense. Then there is the part of druginduced fucked up teens with their burning of churches, pushing down of gravestones, crime, sacrifices etc. There was quite a bit of discussion here in Finland a few years back when a nice “cutting a body in pieces” satanism related murder took place.
It does feel bad that a mindblowingly good actor doesn’t break through. Luckily, at least, he has gotten roles :D. This is a better situation for fans, it’s less fun to fan somebody who’s in everybody’s top ten list. Of course, Vinnie’s movies could have a better distribution…
I’m not hot-tempered. At least I don’t think I am. I can be a little cranky sometimes. ; )
I have a lot of friends on LJ who are younger than me, it’s true, although they are amazingly intelligent and interesting people. I rarely feel awkward around them. I also have friends my own age and friends who are a lot older than me. When I first started out in internet fandom with my website and posting board I met mostly people over 30, perhaps because of the nature of our discussions. Many of us came over to LJ together. I have to say that I’ve met more younger people over here in LJ fandom. But it’s still a good mix, for me.
Yeah, this movie practically swam with Nietzsche, but it’s lip-service Nietzsche. You’re only the Superman if you’re truly empowered, and Ricky was more re-acting than acting. I did this essay on the distinction between the true Nietzschean Superman and the false Nietzschean superman in my LJ. However, I wrote it in the context of the Harry Potter universe, so it probably won’t make much sense to you.
It’s amazing how many places in fandom I find this particular philosophy. It was in Harry Potter, Angel and Buffy.
it’s less fun to fan somebody who’s in everybody’s top ten list
I know! I feel guilty about this. It wouldn’t be any fun to fan VK if he was as popular as, say, Brad Pitt or something. At the same time, you want him to do well and get the recognition he deserves.
I’ll have to read that Nietzschean essay, though I Hp is not my cup of tea. Nietzsche is probably the most overused philosopher in tv. One o my professors calls N as a failed Antique scholar, lol.
If he ever breaks through big time, he probably wouldn’t get as good roles :(. You know the blockbusters and their
lack ofcharacter development.(I’m going out to listen some jazz now.)
Nietzsche is probably the most overused philosopher in tv.
‘Tis true, take it from me! And in films, and books. It’s sort of pop-culture shorthand for “here’s an evil person who doesn’t see him/herself as evil, only self-actualizing”.
So very, very true. It’s the Indie films that give him real meat to chew on and that also lead to the distribution problems.
Have fun with the jazz!
Hee! So Heaven Sent is terribly schmoopy (not surprising with a title like that) and Ricky 6 is quite strange but not really horror? I’m glad to hear it’s not actually horror, because I don’t deal well with that – it does sound very, very odd. Particularly from the perspective of a friend and the lack of knowledge about what is truth and what is reality.
No, not horror. More one of those movies about teens living on the edge in a druggie lifestyle, but pretty well done for that genre. You see Ricky go through a slow, gradual downhill fall and each step is interesting.
There’s a murder scene which is slightly more bloody than the murder scene in “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia”, and a few scary hallucination sequences. But nothing that comes close to the kind of deliberate attempts to scare you that you’d see in a horror flick. It’s always more about showing Ricky’s psychology than an attempt to get at the audience.
So do you want a copy of Ricky 6? The tape I have is already a copy itself, which means the quality isn’t perfect, but hey, it’s VK!
Hee! Sure! Because, as you say, VK !
ALthough it’ll feel really, really weird watching it, that’s for sure.
Well, it’s a weird film, but you’ll see VK’s face and all his familiar little mannerisms and it’ll take the edge off, believe me.
I don’t think I kept your address lying around, so just email me at masqthephlsphr@yahoo.com
Got your email. I’ll make the tape this weekend. Good excuse to rewatch the movie!
Yay! Thank you so much! *dances happily*
My brother’s got the hot-tempered Scorpio going then again so do I…
I don’t usually feel awkward around the younger crowd unless we’re ACTING like teenaged brats. Then I just withdraw to my corner until they grow up (then again I’ve seen some 40+’s acting worse than 13 year olds so…) THough occasionally it gets frustrated when you’re talking about something that happened and they were 3 at the time.
I usually try to avoid bringing in a lot of references to the 70’s and 80’s, but when I do, my younger friends usually know what I’m talking about. They’re not the sort who say, “Luke Skywalker who?” (although that might not be the best example, but you know what I mean).
I think the biggest difference I see between younger fans and myself is not knowledge of the same cultural references, but simply that they are leaps and bounds more hormonal than I am. We watch the same shows and while I focus on platonic family and friendship relationships, they are considerably more interested in romantic and sexual relationships. I am by no means asexual or anything, but I went through my ogling and porn-writing phase years ago. Doesn’t mean I don’t or wouldn’t do that still, but it’s more of a private indulgence, rather than a social activity as it is for so many on LJ.
It probably explains why a great deal of fan fic just doesn’t interest me the way a good essay or discussion can. BtVS and AtS were always multi-faceted shows that way. You could and can discuss them on a variety of levels, which means that simply because someone is a fan of the shows doesn’t mean you can have a conversation with them. It also means a conversation can go from deep to light-hearted and silly in a minute, and that’s fun, too.
Oddly, I find just as many older fans writing erotic as much as the younger ones (and sadly just as unimaginative). For my part, I do write erotica but as PART of the story and not the main thrust as many of the younger crowd.
But for the most part my fiction tends to be more action oriented or character development and the ships are secondary. I’ve written some essays but they don’t excite me quite as much and never have (I have friends who write absolutely wonderful essays. Mine always feel like pulling teeth)
Speaking of essays, I’m gonna have to find time when I’m not fried to read your many thoughts of today
I am completely fried right now. I just fell asleep at my computer and had that dream “Oh, we have a test? But I haven’t studied! Or been to class!” and I haven’t been in school in years. Plus I think Connor was in my dream somewhere.
I do write erotica, but I write original character erotica, not fan fic erotica. And it’s not the main “thrust” (*snerk*) of my original fic, either, it’s part of complicated relationship stuff. But its plenty steamy.
I am blessed or cursed as the case may be with having the ability to write out of both sides of my brain. I can do the essays and the fiction, although I think I tend more to the left brain than the write in both kinds of writing. I’ve been doing less fiction recently than essays. I want to get back into the pretty stream-of-consciousness fiction where your brain just comes up with the best coolest stuff.
After I sleep, though. zzzzzzz
write = right. Time for bed. *jeez*
I envy you. The only Vinnie movies I ever watched were The Unsaid (which is terrible and great in so many ways) and Masterminds. I didn’t know who Vinnie was when I watched Masterminds but I remembered him ever since.
I really want to watch Ricky 6, but I’m still looking. Heaven Sent sounds like such a Hallmark movie, but I wanna….
Dana, you watched Heaven Sent?
Look, this is my world turning upside down.
I’m going to try to put Ricky 6 in PAL format for . I could do the same for you, if that’s the format your country uses. Then you could have a copy.
I now have all his movies on tape except the first couple and the two most recent. If this PAL tape thing works, we could arrange other tapes.
Crime and Punishment in Suburbia is a must-see. I liked The Unsaid a great deal and loved Masterminds. I adored Alaska, although the teenagers I’ve talked to are less impressed by it than me!
I OWN Heaven Sent. okay it came in a block of dvd’s I got from Ebay all movies from various Angel actors. I WANTED Unsaid that came in the block and it was a promo copy for movie reviewers with the STUDIO printed across the whole screen the entire time. Hear my teeth grind
A dream of not being prepared and meeting Connor interesting (last night it was I was in a cop show with a detective I know but can’t remember, his sports car and me and his usual female side kick. She and I were wearing the only two pairs of high heels I own…why I’d be kicking bad guy butt in high heels I don’t know)
I do write a lot of left brain science stuff. I’m good at it. I just don’t enjoy it like I do fiction. Never have which is sometimes a problem when I have a deadline.
Same here with my erotica. I think I’ve done TWO PWPs just to prove to someone I could. I think that’s the mistake made by a lot of those using erotica, they get so caught up in it that we get 20 pages of sex so that it a) gets boring b) we lose the narrative thread c) start skipping ahead. I try to balance the sex with the rest of the story. I’d like to think that I’m doing it well and if I wasn’t someone would say so.
I do write a lot of left brain science stuff. I’m good at it. I just don’t enjoy it like I do fiction.
That’s me, too. I am an ex-Philosophy professor, by choice. I left academia in order to pursue my dream of being a published novelist. Still working on the second part. Fiction writing is my first and biggest love. But I learned the fine art of essay writing in grad school, and I consider my BtVS/AtS website my “second dissertation”.
I think that’s the mistake made by a lot of those using erotica, they get so caught up in it that we get 20 pages of sex so that it a) gets boring b) we lose the narrative thread c) start skipping ahead. I try to balance the sex with the rest of the story. I’d like to think that I’m doing it well and if I wasn’t someone would say so.
This is a problem I’ve been struggling with in my novel. The novel’s about relationships, of which sex is a part, but not the most important thing. On the other hand, sometimes some of the sex is integral to the plot, as when the teen character in my story has her first sexual experience with a woman, an event that also has a big impact on her partner, or when one of my other characters cheats on her lover. These are important, but how much of the sex do you show because it’s important to the plot, and how much is gratuitous? Writing sex is fun, and you can go on and on for pages of details if you want, but it doesn’t add anything to the narrative.
Just the other day I found a thread on this very topic in a writing community I belong to:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/seriouswriters/100425.html
Hear my teeth grind
From the word “Studio” printed across the screen, or from the sheer tedium of the movie? ; )
the word studio. I actually didn’t mind the movie. I sort of liked it even if it was so damn slow off the mark.
I plan to watch the movie again with the TV on “mute”. I think that’ll make it more enjoyable. ; )
snort. Like I said, it wasn’t that bad compared to oh, Luckytown