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We recently had someone suddenly move in with us, and the time I would have spent here has been spent with her, or my step-dad who's suddenly in poor health. I really appreciate everyone who stops by on a regular basis.
On a far less serious note, I wanted to talk about Vincent Price. One of the things I bought for myself was a Vincent Price movie collection, it's got 6 different movies, all of them the kind of delightfully cheesy horror movies- The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theater of Blood, for example.
And all of Vincent Price's characters were so charismatic- he had this gift of making a guy both truly evil and accessible, making you want to know him. I've watched a lot of these movies, sometimes I'll get lucky and a channel will run all his old movies- I'm gonna have a Halloween party, and we're going to have a Vincent Price fest.
If, somehow, you've never seen a Vincent Price movie, there's a few that I could recommend that you try first. I saw him in all sorts of things as a kid, he's been in Columbo and he was in Mission Impossible, he was in the very beginning of Edward Scissorhands, so I likely saw him once or twice. But my real introduction to him was the movie House on Haunted Hill, which I saw on VHS having been recorded off of TV. Ah, the days of VHS, eh?
He's done some more serious work, as well- I've heard Laura is his best work, but I haven't been able to get hold of that film. Some of these older ones, they haven't turned them into DVD's yet, and the ones that are DVD's you have to hunt down online, just about.
Masque of the Red Death is a good introduction to Vincent Price in what Stephen King once labeled 'Poe-pictures'. If you've read a lot of Edgar Allen Poe- and believe me, I have- you'll be interested to see how many different stories they pluck plots from and combine in the Poe-Pictures. Masque of the Red Death is a good example of this particular habit, and it's as good a start as any of them. Tales of Terror and Twice Told Tales are also a good way to dip your toe in, I think, but I have an absurd fondness for short stories and films. Keep an eye out, in the first Tales of Terror, for a story called Black Cat. It combines the Edgar Allen Poe story of Black Cat with Cask of Amontillado, and it's one of my favorites from that set of shorts.
Once again, I apologize to those who read regularly who keep checking in to find out I haven't done anything. Things are starting to settle down, and I'm hoping to get a lot more done. I've got a back log of movies I was going to watch this month, so I'll probably be talking about horror for a while yet.
Oh, I love Chiller. It's the 'horror movie-only' channel I get through cable, and it has led me to some wondrously bad movies. Unfortunately, Curse of Alcatraz isn't wondrously bad, it's just plain bad.
body is found in an unfinished cell on Alcatraz Island, in the museum that was once a prison. The guard who calls in the discover, the head of the guards, pricks his finger on the sharpened tooth of the skull (and that's an important plot point, which is highlighted in a very film 101 sense).
After a forensics expert (and The Bitch of the show) determines that the body is, likely, too old to be under her jurisdiction she calls an archaeologist (or perhaps anthropology?) professor to help her out. He brings along his crew of miscreants, post-grads who study under him, and we have our usual archetypes. The Bad Boy, the Slutty Girl, the Nice and Smart Guy, and the Survivor Girl. There might actually have been three girls. I'm not all too clear on that.
Anyway, after that Weird Shit proceeds to happen. All centered around the guard.
So, issues.
1: The professor, when asked his professional opinion, demurs to his student (Survivor Girl). While learning is a good thing, when giving a police officer a report, it is probably best to remain with the leading expert. A rookie involved will just cause problems if they make a mistake. It's a stretch, but I suppose it could happen.
2: A post-grad archaeologist freaks out and screams like a five-year-old when a bug comes off the dead body. I'm sorry, this might just be me, but I can't see it. It's done for a cheap scare- a jump-go-boo kind, and it doesn't work at all. I didn't buy it.
3: The professor seems to know NOTHING about the Indian and the tribe involved, or the legend. Although it's possible that a professor of archaeology hasn't heard of an obscure Indian tribe in specific, I wonder that he has never heard a THING about it. But his Native American student (the Survivor Girl) happens to know ALL about them. Not just a legend they do some research on, not just the name and some vague details. She knows A LOT.
4: They get stuck on the island. Can't do anything about it. ...what? This was set in 2007, they all had cell phones (which didn't work inside the prison). If the Mythbusters can arrange to row from Alcatraz in a boat made out of raincoats to prove a point (with several boats in tow), surely some guy in a fishing boat can manage to get out there and get them back on land. And why can't the ferry get out there? The reason they gave held up about as well as wet tissue paper. And how did the students get OUT there if the ferry was not able to go?
5: The professor finds out about the guard, whose finger was pricked on the corpse. Because I know there are archaeologists who don't shave for fear of picking up disease in the air through cuts on their face, I'm pretty sure the Professor didn't show enough concern.
The acting ain't great, the script seems tired and the beginning is quite slow. Snooze-fest.
The thing is tired, but it WAS the last film to be filmed on Alcatraz- although if that holds up for forty years or so, then it might have some historical significance. Right now, that could easily change. So watch it if for some reason you feel, historically, you must.
We were supposed to go catch this special anime show that had come through the movie theater, but on the night we decided to go, it was out.
He was taller than me, black. His name was Michael, we were in chemistry together. We looked at each other, looked at the movies that were available, and the one that was coming on soon was The Ring. He bought the tickets (I'm pretty sure) and we went and sat down.
I loved the music, and it was the first thing I really noticed. I thought the way the movie was shot was really beautiful, and I was genuinely creeped out.
The movie starts with two girls, Katie and Becca, being teenage girls. Gossiping, talking about a fun weekend, and discussing a video- a video that when you watch it, you have seven days to live. Katie reveals that she's seen this movie, nearly seven days ago.
Unsurprisingly, she is killed.
Cue Rachel Kellar and her son, Aidan. Katie was Rachel's niece, and Rachel (a reporter) begins to look into it. She watches the tape and gets the inevitable creepy phone call, but so does Aidan's father (her ex) and Aidan himself. That's when things become intense.
Rachel scrambles to find out who made the tape and how to prevent her son from dying.
It's really a very simple plot device, probably based off of those 'pass this on to ten people in two days or you die' chain letter you get in your inbox.
At the time I found the movie moody, and driving home I was checking my rearview mirror. I was also thankful that I didn't sleep in a room with a television.
I've watched it several times since, and it still holds up as a pretty damned scary movie. The scene, the one everyone talks about, where Samara crawls out of the television set- if I think about it too much, I get wigged.
I think it was a good movie, and it's a good kick off for my favorite month of the year.
September 26th 2008 01:57
Oh, this movie started out so well.
Bangkok Dangerous is a movie about an assassin who does everything by the rules, leaving no trace (except he has a bad habit of not wearing gloves whilst handling weapons, which means he's leaving fingerprints behind) and caring about nobody
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September 24th 2008 17:11
I am currently combing my shelves and I really wanted to talk about this movie before October really gets here. Anybody who reads regularly knows I have a thing for horror, and although I'm trying to get away from that a little bit... when October comes, I'm probably gonna do a lot of horror. Halloween is my favorite time of year.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a movie about a couple, John and Jane Smith (it'd only be better if they were named Doe), who are having marriage problems. John Smith is played by Brad Pitt, and Jane played by Angelina. They're both bored, and the marriage is definitely on the rocks. Part of it is because secretly, they're both well-paid assassins
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September 20th 2008 19:22
I've been tossing around whether or not I should talk about this for a while now, because I like this trilogy. Really I do. But I kind of... don't. It's tricky. So I plan to ramble for a while.
Because I don't want to be a spoil-sport, I'm discussing the whole trilogy including pertinent plot points. If you still haven't seen them, then you want to avoid this
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September 17th 2008 18:02
I know it gets a lot of flack, but I find this movie... entertaining. It's nor more/less lame than any of the older Bond movies (in fact, that's the point). Same cheesy and impossible action sequences, a plot that doesn't make much sense on reflection, really bad bad-guys, sexy co-star (Asia Argento!)... I don't think it's a good movie, mind, just entertaining.
Of course, I feel the same about Die Another Day
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September 14th 2008 02:37
So, part of my early birthday present was to go out and buy some cheap movies. One was XXX (the Vin Diesel movie), we bought The Grudge, Resovoir Dogs, and Phantom of the Opera.
I watched Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera last night. When I finished, I started it over, and was up until 2 in the morning re-watching Phantom
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September 13th 2008 01:21
This movie just came out on DVD here (Tuesday, as a matter of fact) and we watched it. My boyfriend picked it up and we sat down and watched it- and maybe I missed this in the trailer, but we sat down expecting... something else. I guess we thought it was some kind of martial arts epic.
Michael Angarino stars as Jason Tripitikas, a dorky skinny white dude who's way into old Kung Fu movies. He goes to an old pawn shop run by Old Hop (Jackie Chan in make-up). While he's in the middle of getting his scrawny white ass roundly beaten by the gang of larger 'mean boys', he's knocked off a building... and into feudal Japan. Or something- I guess maybe it's the Forbidden Kingdom, it kind of reminded me of the Celestial Bureaucracy in the video game Jade Empire, if you've played that you probably get what I mean
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The very first review I did to for Orble was to talk about one of my favorite movies ever, The Princess Bride. Since then, I've been meaning to hit up a few other movies that I watched as a kid. I watched the Princess Bride often enough that I have it memorized. The same goes for another childhood favorite, Labyrinth.
Directed by Jim Henson, Labyrinth is a coming-of-age tale set around Sarah, a spoiled teenager who lives with her mother, step-father, and half-brother. The movie opens in the park, where Sarah is reciting lines from a favorite play- until she gets to the one that she always forgets. Sarah is played by a young Jennifer Connelly
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Comments (2)
Comment by Bethany
on The Meth Epidemic
It's sad, I've worked with a couple of meth addicts, and they are certainly the saddest.