Dan Bradley has only gone on to become the most sought after action-scene stunt coordinators. Long gone are the days where he was fired from an acting and stunt job as Jason Voorhees for being too 'portly.' Bradley has since done some very large-scale action movies, most notable the Bourne series.
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| Dan Bradley as Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part VI |
Yeah, writer/director Tom McLaughlin talked about him both on the pitiful (especially lookin' back) '04 released standard def From Crystal Lake to Manhatten boxset plus the re-released Deluxe Edition from almost three years ago now.
ReplyDeleteHe also talked about him in audio podcast interviews, too. And in the Crystal Lake Memrories book I believe someone like Nancy Mcaughlin said that maybe he was depressed & goin' through a divorce and that once he was on-set in Covington, Georgia outside of Atlant all he did was "eat & eat" I believe someone said. On a podcast Tom said that the overly young wardrobe gal, Maria Mancuso whom was in charge of the costumes & wardrobe, said to Tom that "Bradley needs to stay away from the craft services table between shots. I'm not trying to be mean but he's turning into a giant fat-fuck" or something mean-spirited like that.
It is intersting to note that while Part VI: Jason Lives isn't my favorite of the series (namely because of some of the inacuricies of Jason's costume, plus his new eleven inch department tore dinner plate style hock that looks like its from Sears and needless toolbelt & gloves, ect) that if you take a look at the opening of C.J. Graham crawling out of the grave, C.J. has quite the large backside.
And yeah Bradley was a different body type but I also believe the producer's wanted a lot more frightening movements. In some of the outtakes from the '04 boxset with that pointless side-by-side comparision and in the Deluxe Edition, it looked like Bradley was sometimes a bit TOO badly robotic & stilted and not as semi-fluent with his movements as the superior ex-marine that is Graham (by the way to this day I feel that he & raw food supporter Paul Kratka have the best in-shade bodies of the dudes in the series--both must really eat boring foods & mess with weight lifting).
But go figure as I actually didn't mind the footage of Mr. Bradley that was left in. He seems like a nice enough gentleman and like I said previously, stuntman are VERY underrated in the film & television business in my mind; they're greatl under-paid. Much respect to them.
Yeah, he's a big guy now. I am sure that is why he is a coordinator and second unit director now.
DeleteI dont think this is the same dan bradly
ReplyDeleteIt most certainly is the same Dan Bradley!!
DeleteTo Jack:
ReplyDeleteYeah he has always been a husky gentleman, but I still respect him. Being a stunt cordinator & stuntman and now a second unit director too is a VERY hard & daunting task and I feel that with some time & more prep time between the Covington, GA shoot that he would have been a fine enough, fitting Jason.
And yes I just used image searches. It is ineed the same Dan Bradley, I can confirm that to Jack as well. :)
In an old episode of the Smallest Hobo (or whatever it's called; about the dog) he is in an episode as a fireman and his stature was pretty athletic looking. However, this was many years before Jason Lives. So, perhaps his marriage woes resulted in some depression and weight gain.
DeleteYeah, no doubt his JV had some visible "lovehandles" going on in the scenes he filmed that made the final cut. Doesn't make much sense for a guy who's been dead in the ground for ages and hasn't had a meal lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm not super-keen on Part VI either, but I still enjoy the flick on some levels. I just find the flick, pardon the obvious pun, campy. The humor in much of it goes too far for my tastes. I always hated the toolbelt too. It's like Jason was rocking a Batman utility belt or something lol. The thing that keeps me watching Part VI when I throw it on is easily Jennifer Cooke lol. I still think she's the hottest girl in the later Paramount entries by far. Shame she quit acting after making Jason Lives. I hope some light is shed on that in the new documentary. I know she's been confirmed to appear in it.
It still is a solid slasher flick if you don't put it side-by-side to a film like Part II or IV.
DeleteYeah I never liked the gloves in either Parts VI & Part VIII respectivelly. I feel that both times it was perhaps a make-up F/X superiorvisor thing of not wanting t do "Ted White-like fingernails" like they did in The Final Chapter in order to help save on actors & stuntmen getting made-up for most shooting days time.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah writer/irector Tom McLaughlin is a fine sounding guy in interviews but now that I am older I am not too keen on his films. Fromt he fantasy-comedy Date with an Angel to Friday VI though I love the franchise to the King adaption Sometimes They Come Back, I just don't care for them now that I am adult. I never said I hated them, but they're just not my cinematic bad. *shrugs playfully*
Ad I chuckled at you noting that yeah indeed, if Jason was indeed worm food for the many years when Tommy Jarvis aged from a pre-tween 12 years old young lad to a guy in his early 20s then indeed, him having a substational weight gain is even worse then Tommy stealing important evidence with the old hock to bring to his own private burial/burning, ect. But CJ was cast and I feel it was all fine. And Part VI's humor and the rest of the Paramount series just isn't high on my re-watching scale now that I am an older lad.
By the Part VI rolled around, Paramount wanted the filmmakers (I feel at least) to shoot more almot PG-13 styled "overtly mainstream Monster Movies" for slightly better reviews & for higher weekend R-rated film box office takes, and I just plain missed director Steve Miner's Parts 2 & 3-D kitch fests that was so oddly creepy to this day as well as The Final Chapter from Joe Zito too, ect. Jason Voorhees as a character is MUCH better shot in a somewhat delightfully sleay hard R-rated (for its time, anyway) more traditional Slasher film/Exploitation flilm style as opposed to a throw back Monster movie with a few too many homages, ect. But hey, to eac their own. :D
I was never TOO into any of the post Part V starting with Part VI's onwards heroines or the female victims. I DO, however, kinda fancy the dyed redhead that is Hungarian born actress Elizabeth Kaitan. And the hot platinum bonde bitch of the late Susan Jennier Sullivan (may she RIP--she passed quietly of Cancer back in '09) but I LOATHE that film, though. Looking back as I'm older I can barely sat through its' reycled Manfredinni music and the bad editing and the fact that ti is a largely mis-cast third rate/inferior The Final Chapter. I also loathe most of its spoken oddly quiet more idiotic dialogue and its just plain SUB FUCKIN' TERRIBLE head-scratching & head shaking inducing ending, not to mention its terrible blue0ish & white-ish tinted light in which it was shot. Like the screen writer noted in the CLMs book I too loathed how it was shot. The MPAA imposed cuts also hurt it but even with the gore reinserted back in, it would still be a largely lame & deplorable bad/inept movie. I find that our fellow old school Slasher & Giallo collector fanatics like us depend it all WAY too much.
Meh, mostly for female victims in the post exploitation post-Part V Paramount distributed Fridays I mostly just like the oddly good, generic female Canadian gals of Part VIII. Sure, the only is only a full star or so better then Part VII, but at least the old school slasher scenes on the boat I feel were like an oddly enjoyable straight to vhs slasher form the very late '80s at the tail end of the boom/craze. I agree some of the Part VIII hair styles were carier then our resident anti-hero (by that point on) of Mr. Voorhees, but I liked the resident blonde bitch/prom queen coke snorting easy-to-lay & soon-to-be-dead gal villianous in that one plus Kelly Hu and the opening victim of Suzi Donaldson plus Saffron Henderson, too. All were hot in a nice abover-average, still attainable in a gal-next-door kinda way. :D
Jack wrote: "It still is a solid slasher flick if you don't put it side-by-side to a film like Part II or IV."
ReplyDeleteOnce again I agree my good man. I enjoy the now oddly enough not-so-unbaanced more returned-to-normal Tommy Jarvis played in PArt VI by Tho Matthews for what it is. Feldman as a better child actor was probaby the best, hands down. Him and Danielle Harris were probably some of the better child actors in genre films, I'd stake my $20 one.
An yeah I don't mind its pacing and soundtrack & some of the victims were cute gals for the very mid 80s when they shot it, ect. I also like its shooting locale for the mot part--just not its lameoid ending, lack of gore even though not much all was shot plus the children being at the camp actually & its Phantasm III style limp/goofball humor. But alas to each their own; I alo woudn't venture to say that it is a bad/indept film under any circumstances, especially considering the super shitty Part VII: The New Blood that came barely two years and a month or so later, as well.
And yeah, I figured tht he was oce in better shape. As Chris Rock once noted: Nelson Mandella spent DECADES in a Republic of South Africa prison---and it was less then three before marriage busted the brotha's ass! So don't be thinkin' for A SECOND that its some easy shit now, fellas!".
And yeah I feel that he had a BIG TIME point, heh heh. ;-)
And yeah flaws & all I LOVE Parts 2 & 3-D and The Final Chapter the most.
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