Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Movies from Guam





To my surprise, there have actually been a few movies filmed on Guam: Son of Godzilla (1967), No Man Is an Island (1962), and the most recent (straight to DVD) dismal failure: Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004) starring David Carradine and Carmen Electra.


Max Havoc was an unmitigated disaster that resulted in several lawsuits. Everyone associated with the film lost money, including the Government of Guam that lost $800,000. According to an L.A. Times article, the movie was a bomb from the beginning. "The crew worked 14 to 16 often chaotic hours a day mostly 'shooting people running up and down the hallways' of the luxury-class Outrigger Guam Resort hotel," adding, "I'll give you 20 dollars if you can watch 20 minutes."



Today a friend brought a new movie to my attention. Its an indie production shot on Guam last year. I watched the trailer online - the filtered yellow hue and tragic urban decay milieu gave it a gritty, depleted and sinister perspective more reminiscent of East L.A. than Guam. Frankly it was interesting recognizing many of the locations, yet I was totally unable to grasp any of the locations in the movie's ominous context. And nothing on Guam is ever that yellow, not even the school buses.
I also noticed that they filmed in the National Park - without a film permit!!!
The horror.






4 comments:

Unknown said...

ahem... and need I remind you about the opening scene of Austin Powers (I can't remember which one) which starts totally states "Guam" even if it was filmed in Florida somewhere... And I am pretty sure (even though they don't mention it) that parts of Jurassic Park were filmed here..
heh heh heh- I think Shiro's head may be the first quality film done here.. the producers were just a little jaundiced is all. :)

Anonymous said...

albert pyun and john laing, the makers of the max havoc movie, are total pieces of shit.

con men, scam artists, carpet baggers and all around assholes

Anonymous said...

I know this blog is a million years old, but you're completely forgetting "Noon Sunday." This, my friend, was actually filmed on Guam. "No Man.." was not, and there were no Chamorro actors, only Filipinos (listen to the accents).

Anonymous said...

It has been brought to my attention that article purporting to be about me exists on your site. Beyond the fact that it has erroneous and libelous information that is unverified and slanted by those who have hijacked the page. The page is controlled by those from Guam or live in Guam in an attempt to smear me because they are trying to discredit my upcoming testimony on Guam that will lead to criminal charges of these individuals . I will be asking my attorney to look into your site to seek damages incurring to my reputation by the posting of libel and slander.

best, Albert Pyun apyunfilm@aol.com