"THE ROOM" - written, directed, and starring Tommy Wiseau

I had never heard of this 2003 film until a friend told me about it and how it's becoming a midnight-movie sensation at the Sunset 5 theaters in west hollywood. When I looked it up on-line - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368226/ - I realized that I had seen that ugly face a million times before on a billboard in Hollywood that's been up for eternity. I always just glanced at it and didn't give it much thought, assuming it was a CD or something as there are a million billboards around town.

Anyway, I bought the DVD off Amazon and boy, this thing really stinks bad, but in a very good way. The director, writer, and lead actor are the same person - Tommy Wiseau, and you will just not believe what a misguided vanity project this is. You are subjected to shots of his naked butt in long-extended love scenes between him and the lead girl, who's an ugly overweight blonde. She's the femme fatale of the piece because she's cheating on Tommy with his handsome best friend - and all the boys think she's hot and say that a lot! That's about all there is to the story. The dialog is hilariously basic and there are plenty of unintentional laughs along the way, especially every time there's a love scene, these awful adult-contemporary female-vocal songs start. I've seen a lot of bad movies in my time and this may not be the worst, but it's sure close, especially knowing that the director thinks his movie is so good. The bonus interview with him on the DVD is priceless as well. "I had an ideaaah - and I rehliiized I had to make a muhveee. Yuh ned to seeh it twice to get it all, as it's vehry cumplex." Manohman. Great stuff!

I'm tempted to check out the next midnight showing to see how it plays out with a crazed heckling audience. Apparently, it is getting pretty good crowds as word spreads. Has anyone else seen this thing, or better yet, been to an audience screening?

I've heard many things, but I'm not quite sold on it. While the idea of a vanity project gone awry always amuses me, I get the feeling that this movie, as Enid Coleslaw would say, is so bad it goes past good and right back to bad again.

Eh, it's no DANGEROUS MEN.

Like HOWLING VII? (shudder)

Not to derail the discussion but has anyone ever heard of a 2006 film called THE ROOM from Belgium. Here is the imdb listing for THE ROOM (2006)

This movie is not a dream. It exists. You can hear it and see it on your very own dvd. And if you're very lucky, you can see it with a crowd.

I ordered it from Amazon as well and I do believe that it is one of the finest zombie movies ever made. You will believe that an undead European Fabio clone living in San Francisco can walk, run, make sweet love and know loss (uh, *SPOILERS* there).

I'm genuinely amazed that Wiseau can walk around in daylight. Just judging from the decrepitude evident in his nude body (particularly his, uh, overly expressive tush), the flesh remains on his frame beyond the grace of God.

In all seriousness, you have to sort of give it up for Wiseau. Were it not for his mind-blowingly creepy presence, this movie would be unwatchably inane. As it is, Wiseau is like some sort of demon who wants desperately to be loved...

...and IS loved in this movie! Good grief! His Johnny may well be the most loved man in San Francisco!

You have to love the scene where he walks into a flower shop and the woman behind the counter says, "Oh, hi, Johnny. I didn't know it was you."

...as if there are two guys in San Francisco who look like that.

That's also a scene where Johnny has a "Hi, doggy" moment. I'd assume it was an homage to THE TENANT if the dog did the right thing and snapped at him.

I do have to defend the female lead. She often gets attacked for the way she looks and while she is certainly no supermodel, I think it's the make-up, wardrobe, lighting and general presentation that fail her. It's hard to imagine anyone looking good under those circumstances.

One imagines that she's a dead ringer for someone who Wiseau once knew.

THE ROOM helps up to realize what a Vincent Gallo film would be like if Gallo were completely without talent, self-awareness or any genuine charisma.

Then again, BUFFALO '66 and THE BROWN BUNNY (the latter unseen by me) couldn't possibly be as funny as THE ROOM.

Here's a rather good piece I dug up on it:

http://www.ostrichink.com/feb2005/room.html

Wow - that one sounds even better (or should I say worse!). I guess we are in a bad movie renaissance!

Tom - Thanks for that link about "THE ROOM". I guess if I end up going to the midnight show, I should bring some plastic spoons? :lol:

The trailer is here.

When is a major studio gonna remake this? Wouldn't you want to see Will Ferrell, Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney in this? Or, better yet, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Hillary Swank, and Jet Li. The mind boggles at the possibilities. :lol:

Thanks for posting that!

I've seen those creepy billboards for years in Hollywood, and ads in the Weekly. I'd always wondered what the story was behind them.

As amazing as it is that the movie exists at all, and indeed that a human like Wiseau exists at all... even better is that I understand he attends EVERY screening. Oblivious to the nature of the audience's response? Playing along? Doesn't care? Baffling!

Last I heard, he's decided to be a good sport and play along with the fact that the audience sees his movie as camp. But everything leading up to this, especially from friends who worked theatres where the film initially played during its four-walled run was that he was completely and totally sincere about what he was trying to do. So I guess he hopes that snarky exposure is better than no exposure and he'll get someone to help finance other project again.

I can't help thinking that secretly, he hates that people are mocking it, though.

As for the aforementioned John M. Rad and DANGEROUS MEN, apparently the initial attention he received from "outsider movie" lovers like myself has gone straight to his head and now he wants ridiculous money for theatrical plays and the DVD rights, thinking that he has a cult sensation on his hands. If you were one of the lucky people who saw it though, it's pretty unbelievable.

Here's an idea of what it's like. Sounds like a GREAT bad film to me:

Mom has cancer


And perhaps the CRAZIEST thing I've ever seen:
Trailer

The movie may be bad, but it's amazing how I instantly I came to despise a room full of people I couldn't even see.

I have not seen this film yet I am quickly becoming obsessed with it after seeing clips from YouTube. It looks HILARIOUS. And I love how it looks as if they made this movie in all seriousness and yet it's marketed as a 'dark comedy' according to the trailer. I think AFTER it became a joke Wiseau said "OK it's a comedy. It's still money and recognition" but at what cost? This poor guy, I feel bad for him.
I can't wait to get my dvd from amazon.com now, and I may go see it in the theater this weekend in West Hollywood.

If people here have seen it more than once I'd be curious to know.

I've just ordered two copies for my store. Hopefully it will out-Kelly R. Kelly's TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET.

I've tried ordering that goofy poster online with no luck. His site gives a ton of links but none of them have it in stock. Has anyone else had any luck?


marc

I finally saw this "film" tonight and all I can say is WTF?!
It is amazingly bad, but so damned entertaining because of all of its flaws.
This needs to be seen with friends, preferably with a lot of booze around. You can play many drinking games. For example: when anyone says Mark is Johnny's best friend or vice versa take a drink. Or maybe whenever there is a sex scene. Or when someone is referred to as "my future husband/wife". Or how sensitive Johnny is.
Crap, I could go on and on...just see this damned thing!
And don't get me going on the green screen work.

I watched... and I hurt....


marc

I ended up going with two friends to the midnight show this weekend at the Sunset 5 theater.

Yes, Tommy Wiseau did show up and took questions for 10 minutes before the film. The audience (only about 37 people) was a psychotic bunch, some of them clearly dealing with substance abuse. Questions to Tommy were quite condescending and somewhat surreal. "Tommy, do you like cookies?", etc. (Yes, Tommy likes cookies.) Tommy didn't stay for the actual screening, but asked viewers to "express yourself, but don't hurt each other" before he left. When he walked by us, he quipped "what are ya doing?" instead of someththing more appropriate like just "hey!"

The attendees came equipped with a HUGE bag of plastic spoons - tons of spoons were flying into the air on many 'bad moment' occasions. When we had walked into the theater, the ticket-taker was on the phone with the projectionist. He told us after he hung up, that the projectionist wanted to kill himself before running this film again. I definitely know cleaning up the theater afterwards would not be fun. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of spoons.

The film does play so much better (or funnier) on the big screen with an audience. There's one scene quite a ways into the film where the lead blonde chick is talking to her girlfriend on the couch. I never noticed it while watching the DVD, but there's like this slug creature pulsing to get out of the blonde chick's neck while she's talking. She has some sort of freakish neck thing. The audience kept screaming "ewwwwwwww" time after time until we figured out what they were screaming about. Then we went "ewwww" also for another bunch of times as her neck slug constantly tries to burst out. Look closely and you will see the grotesquerie that is Lisa' neck!


MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....

(Don't Read if you even care!!!!)





Plus, at the very last shot, when Tommy's friends are around his body, the audience kept screaming "give him a bl** job!" - and what do you know, all the people's heads around his body appear to be doing just that! Not intentional, but there it is! What a wild finale. I would never have noticed that without the audience comments.



SPOILER END.............................



The audience's comments were definitely not as precise and calculated as something like "Rocky Horror", but there were a few classic moments like when Tommy's doing his tape-recorder thing, the audience vocalized the "Mission Impossible" theme. And whenever they showed those endless panning shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, the audience went into a "go, go, go, go, go" chant. There were also a lot of "Who are You?" shouts whenever characters who have no introduction whatsoever suddenly show up as a character everyone knows. Lots of 'disgust' wails were heard whenever Tommy's shriveled naked butt showed up and everytime the love scenes started, the audience clapped along with the insipid vocal songs layed on top.

Quite a good time overall. The DVD viewing was somewhat fun, but the theatrical experience did open it up even moreso. Yes, it's a derisive, sarcastic, and somewhat negative audience reaction to the filmmaker's intent, but this movie really deserves it, and Wiseau seems to be OK with it (since, I guess, he has no choice).