Caffeinated Clint
If you were ultimately left a little disappointed by Warner Premiere’s “Lost Boys : The Tribe”, I can promise you – the next direct-to-DVD sequel bearing that brand name should be more your cup of maggot-masquerading noodles.
Without going into too much detail, the storyline this time is much more compelling,and the dialogue (there’s some doozies in here, believe me) works better too. But more so, whereas “The Tribe” concerned itself with chronicling the staking adventures of new characters (like the offspring of Michael and Star), “Lost Boys : The Thirst” puts ‘The Frog Brothers’, played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander, front row center again.
My good pal Feldman really knocks it out of the park this time – and if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll be able to see not just how much fun the guy is ostensibly having reprising Edgar, but how close he sticks to his performance in Joel Schumacher’s beloved original. This fella knows this part like a postman knows his route.
It’s also great to have Jamison Newlander back as Alan Frog. Newlander reprised his role from the 1987 film for “The Tribe”, but his scene was ultimately cut from the film and tossed to the deleted scenes component of the DVD release. And maybe for the best, the scene didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the flick. But, that’s neither here or there, as I said, this time he’s getting in on the action – and like Feldman, seems to have relished the chance to blunt some fangs again.
I had a chat this morning with Newlander about his role in “The Thirst”, and he said ”It was a blast” getting to play the character again.
“Back, side by side with Feldman – plus a bunch of cool added twists to the character since the last time we saw him in Lost Boys 1 – such fun. Not necessarily easy to snap back into character, I’ll admit. My “snear” was a bit rusty when I first started reading the dialogue out loud. Not only did I have to reach back to the teenager I was and channel the same kind of adolescent bravado that I think made Alan Frog the guy he was then. But there’s also the factor that the character himself had been living his own life for all that time. Feldman and I talked a lot about it – because he had done a lot of this work getting ready for the second movie. He said, “Think about what kind of adult Alan has become.” He was right. I couldn’t just make him frozen in time. He’s been through a lot. How has it changed him? How can I keep the same edge that made the fans like him to begin with – but also bring to him what I understood about life post teenage years?”.
Of course, the only disappointing aspect of filming “The Thirst” was that Newlander didn’t have the opportunity to reunite with his other “Lost Boys” co-star, Corey Haim.
Newlander has nothing but kind words to say about the late actor.
“For all of the controversial press on Corey Haim, the thing that I always felt about him was that he was a really good guy. He had a lot of love and friendship to give. Always had a kind word to say when he saw me. The thing that often happens with people who are really open and loving in that way is that they’re also really sensitive. It’s part of what made him such a good actor. I could see that he struggled with a lot of things emotionally. But it always felt to me like his passion for acting and the strength of his character would win out – and I’m so sad that he just didn’t have the time for that.”
Says Newlander, “I think my fondest memory of the Haimster was back in the summer of ’86 when we were shooting Lost Boys. It was on one of our days off and we decided we were going to ride our bikes from my house to the beach – which was a pretty long way. And we just spent the whole day riding through West LA, getting lost, and finally meandering our way west. We had to call our parents to pick us up because it took us way longer than we thought it would to get there. One of the reasons I remember that was because I felt I was able to share with him a little bit of what I was lucky enough to have – some time as just a normal kid. Once he came to Hollywood, I think he lost a lot of that, as a lot of kids do who make it big in show business. I wish I had seen him more in the last year he was alive. But who knew it was his last year.”
Indeed.
Stay tuned for the full interview with Newlander in the coming days.
