Meat Loaf Tagged Articles at Cinematical

What are we going to do? KILL!
What do we always do? KILL!
What do we need to do? KILL!
What do big dogs do? KILL!
...the Pre-Show Chant

Meat Loaf has been performing for decades, putting on intensely performance-heavy shows that not only strain his voice, but also any modicum of energy he has. Yet no matter how drained he might be, he makes it work, belting out long, classic, character-driven tunes and driving audiences wild. Each show begins with the spark created by the chant above. (At least, his most recent ones do.) Unfortunately, I don't think that Bruce David Klein had a rousing chant to help spur him into capturing the world of Meat Loaf for the concert documentary Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise.

When I was a teenager, my father took me to see Meat Loaf perform at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. We had amazing, front-row seats, and I remember being completely mesmerized for the entire show. Instead of well-choreographed dance moves that really have nothing to do with the song, or stoic, immobile singing, Meat Loaf Aday performed each song as if it was a short play. Even in my youth, I was exhausted just watching all of the heart and energy he put into it. Whether you're a fan of his music or not, this is one of the most dedicated performers that you can find.

All these years later, after wrapping up his tour for Bat Out of Hell 3, the unstoppable performer is the focus of his first concert documentary, Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, which was directed by Bruce David Klein and just hit New York theaters late last week. The film follows the last-minute preparations for the tour, and specifically focuses on his troubles with the classic song: "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." Stay tuned for my review, and continue after the jump to read Meat Loaf's thoughts on the project, as well as a few nibbles about his music and film career.

The CD/MP3 generation has lost something that those of us who grew up listening to vinyl used to take for granted: the ability to see cover art at a decent size. It was far easier to appreciate the cover art on an LP than on a CD or the display screen of an I-Pod, and Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell had one of the coolest covers of all time. The artwork by comics legend Richard Corben featured a muscle-bound hero riding a rocket-powered motorcycle as it bursts out of a grave. Now that's an image with which to conjure.

According to Movie Hole, Michael Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, is in talks to adapt his debut album into a motion picture. The Loaf-meister is expected to produce and appear in the flick, though not as the star. Apparently the likelihood of this movie getting out of the starting gate is linked to the success of his new CD, Bat Out of Hell 3. Meat Loaf has held his own quite well in films like Fight Club, and Crazy In Alabama in which he did a respectable turn as a bigoted southern sheriff, so I see his presence in the film as a plus. No word on what the movie might actually be about, but my mind keeps racing back to that classic album cover. Might this be a Heavy Metal-esque science fiction fantasy? Maybe a horror film? Perhaps a cooking show (his name is Meat Loaf)? Time will tell, I suppose.

Not to sound negative, but it takes a lot of guts to call a movie Bat Out of Hell. In the event that the film bombs and is yanked from theaters after only a few weeks, some smarty pants blogger (and make no mistake, it might very well be me) is going to use "Meat Loaf Film Leaves Theaters Like a Bat Out of Hell" as a headline. Hey, when you're blogging at 3:00 AM and you have to be up for work in a few hours, you don't always have the luxury of being clever.

I realize it sounds like a huge lie, but Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe had a great time watching BloodRayne. Seriously. It apparently filled several needs that Morris didn't even know he had, primary among them a desire to see "a celebrity death match between Kristanna Loken and the increasingly shameless Ben Kingsley." Sweet, a hot chick and an Oscar winner trying to kill one another- really, who can't get behind that? While the writer's affection for the movie stems mostly from the fact that he decides it's trashy fun, he claims that the writing by Guinevere Turner is actually sort of "smart." I know it seems impossible in a film that is both directed by Uwe Boll and based on a non-Lara Croft video game but, according to Morris, the script gives BloodRayne "the woman's backbone usually missing from these wet T-shirt contests." Who knew?

I don't know about you, but I'm very alarmed by this development. The movie already has vampires - and Meat Loaf, too. I'm already only resisting by the skin of my teeth; the last thing I need is an encouraging review. And, I mean, the man is a professional movie critic, people - not Boll's mom, or even a rabid gamer!

Even if there's no way you'll be persuaded to drop money on a Boll film, the review, which concludes with the brave assertion that the "film might be the first of its kind: something to bring Maxim subscribers, video gamers, and loyal Logo viewers together" is certainly worth a read.