Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Mechanical Candle's LiveJournal:

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Monday, May 12th, 2008
9:27 am	"So help me, if you spray me again when I'm not actually on fire..." Yes, I finally got to see Iron Man. But this isn't about that. Nor is it the anticipated full review of "Southland Tales" ($25? Are you fucking kidding me?). Nor is it a review-by-way-of-apology to those who suffered through "Cannibal the Musical" last Thursday (I'm so very, very sorry. That'll teach me to trust 9-year-old memories of comedies.). Instead, this is the original "hard sell." ( Speed Racer ) ...you really already know if you'd like this film or not. If you absolutely love the original cartoon, absolutely see it in the theaters. Nagging doubts or effrontery that they would dare touch your childhood favorite are unwarranted; this is not another George Lucas rape & plundering. It's honestly a near note-perfect homage... all the way down to the incredibly irritating nature of Spridle & Chim chim. If you want to see anything else, any element or aspect other than what was in the original series (mocking of the original, realistic car races, out-of-cannon character acting), then don't bother. Or, actually, do bother, but you'll hate it. I just want a bigger box office for anything with Peter Fernandez in it. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
8:56 am	It's a headless blunder operating under the illusion of a master plan. Movie Night #12! Wow, we're up to a full dozen! And to celebrate the occasion, the science fiction theme has returned! Of course it's really simple science. Be prepared for the terrors of..... GEOMETRY! The Platonic Solid: Cube (1997, 90 minutes). Like a smart, cheap version of The Matrix, this taut, tightly scripted kafkaesque masterpiece is anything but a straightforward horror film. Paranoid science fiction at its finest and literally driven by the contrivances of the set, the film quickly converts from what is assumed to be a simple "characters in peril" situation to a confrontational character drama that proves more dangerous than anything mechanical encountered within the prison. A long-time favorite of mine, nonetheless I haven't revisited this film for many years, so I might as well be watching it for the first time with y'all. The Rounding Error: Sphere (1998, 134 minutes). Long before M. Night Shyamalan gave us "The Village," there was "Sphere"... a film where enormously interesting and unexplained things are happening all over the place, holding our rapt attention, but the final revelation when the curtain is drawn back is so incredibly LAME that it retroactively makes the rest of the movie dumb. "Seriously? That's what all this was building up to?" No less a cast than Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Queen Latifah, and Samuel L. Jackson contrive to counteract the extreme dumbness of the film's premise, and fail. But it's a fun ride before that happens. (Comment on this)
Monday, May 5th, 2008
10:47 am	Movie Night #11! Well, everyone. I'll be honest; in addition to an exhausting schedule, I had a hell of a time coming up with something this week. Short of waiting on an Amazon.com delivery (a definite maybe, Casey!), I couldn't think of a theme that wouldn't be too close (in theme or proximity) to a prior week's options. That's the reason for the delayed announcement this time, guys. Fortunately, a remarkably obvious one just jumped out at me! See if you can guess the theme! The Main Course: Ravenous (1991, 100 minutes) Probably one of the greatest examples of bone-dry, well paced, black humor ever made, this film is also the very epitome of the "slow burn," which is only to be expected when one of the focuses of the film is the barren bleakness of the wild west in winter. Stars Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, but most notably also the principal from "Ferris Beuler's Day Off." Unfortunately the flick passed under everyone's radar (hard to believe it didn't catch some popularity off of "Dances With Wolves" :) ), falling through the cracks for being genre-less... not really being a comedy, horror, historical fiction, or character piece. I'm well aware that a lot of my friends have already seen this forgotten gem, but it's a film I never regret revisiting, and I think y'all will find it memorable as well. The Ipecac: Cannibal! The Musical (1998, 105 minutes) I've long held this to be the best Troma film ever made (please note that it's still in the "bad" category). A comedy from the same production company that brought you "The Toxic Avenger" and "Nuke 'em High," this flick astounds by actually being funny. Intentionally even! It helps that this was the discovery project that brought us Trey Park and Matt Stone, the minds behind "South Park." ...I'm not sure what else can be said. It's a Troma flick that's actually amusing! But it's still a Troma flick. So it goes down here. (WARNING: I haven't seen "Cannibal" since it was released... we may be in for a rough night.) (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
6:45 am	"I'm a pimp... and pimps don't commit suicide." NO this is not the "Southland Tales" review. I'll jot down some of my thoughts when I get to that point, but to be straightforward, there is no way in hell I can do that thing justice without owning a copy and stepping through frame-by-frame to figure out what the hell is going on... and I've yet to get to a Best Buy yet. That taken care of... ( A little bit of whining ) Meh. Let's drop the whiny shit and talk about a weekend of debauchery! (I wish... but closer than usual.) Welcomemyfriends, to the show that neverends, to the show that neverends, Benzercon, ( Benzercon )( Southland Tales )I.... seriously, I don't have words. This may be the most concentrated dose of nonsense I've ever been forced to swallow. It is, at the least, the most utterly incoherent film I've ever watched. I've run out of modifier tags to explain the absurdity of this film. It is a spectacularly bad movie. On an epic scale. Everyone involved would probably rather the thing was buried somewhere with those copies of "ET the videogame." Which means it MUST BE SEEN. Try to contrive it so that no money goes back to anyone responsible... they must never try to replicate this crap... but SERIOUSLY. Any fan of film must see this film to explode any ideals about modern film's social importance. About political activism from the Hollywood set. About films as anything but a handful of rich actors who are just glad to be getting paid being given the worst tripe imaginable to speak. Nothing has ever spoken to the empty significance of the Hollywood machine better than the fact that this CRAP was produced. It's like super-concentrated daytime television injected directly into the back of your eye. CARS FUCK. IN THIS FILM, CARS FUCK. The line "move to the rear of the mega-Zepplin" is actually spoken. "The Rock" re-enacts the "Nobody move or the n****r gets it!" scene from Blazing Saddles. Sarah Michelle Gellar takes a sip from a soda can with her face on it. A bit character orgastically chews cheetos while watching the security cameras in LAX bathrooms. The only thing missing is the Orgazmotron from "Barbarella." *Pant* *Pant* ...I'm going to bed. I'll cover the rest later. ( Benzercon 2 )....dammit. I forgot to chip in for gas. Gotta remember that when I see Andy next. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
12:39 pm	Movie Night news! Hey everyone. As I communicated to everyone last week, Movie Night #10 was postponed one week due to extreme tiredness on my part. (Didn't even get out to the schedule conflict; I was unconcious by the time it was supposed to start.) Movies for this week are those scheduled for last week: Phantasm and 13 Ghosts. Scroll back to last week for their summaries. (Comment on this)
10:13 am	I'm doing a meme 'cause it makes me look kinda smart. ( book meme ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 21st, 2008
8:23 am	"The Service is About to Begin." Whoa... getting later and later with these announcements, aren't I? I hope y'all will excuse my tardiness on this occasion as a stupid sequence of events is gonna require me to be at work and plugging away at 4 AM tomorrow, so I'm a little pressed for time. The idea for this week's main atraction was given to me at a big dinner a few days back when someone mentioned that it was this film which plauged most of their childhood after a half-remembered screening seen while peering between splayed fingers at the tender age of six.... The Silver Star: Phantasm (the original, 1979, 88 minutes) By all rights, this movie should totally suck. It's essentially a massive interstate pileup of six or seven movies all jumbled together. The cast is mostly amateurs, the budget is miniscule, it's the director's first picture, and the plot only makes sense in a very general way. And yet, somehow, it works. It actually manages to be scary and ominous and surprising even while it careens off the rails of a coherent storline. Intentionally dreamlike in structure, rapidly sliding downward into a nightmare state, you'll literally loose track of what is actually happening and what is only being assumed or dreamt by the characters. You'll have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next. The real gem of the picture, upon which everything else is hung, is Angus Scrimm's character, the looming "Tall Man" who dominates the film while having only six lines in the whole damn thing. Much like Texas Chainsaw, this is mostly a case of lightning being caught in the bottle and becoming a cult classic. The Lead Balloon: Thirteen Ghosts (remake, 2001, 91 minutes) What's at the absolute opposite end of the scale? How about a polished Hollywood turd? Ooodles of money poured into a flick, making it all pretty and MTV-crowd friendly, then populating it with a crew of generic of-the-moment stars and loading it with a clunker of a script and incompetent pacing. (Matthew Lillard stars, as does Tony Shalhoub. Yes, I know, Tony Shalhoub is a great actor. I like his acting. He just doesn't act in this film.) But don't worry, y'all deserve a treat after suffering through the ministrations of "Death Bed" last week. The SFX and makeup of this film are fascinating. The 13 ghosts themselves steal the film in the first five minutes. You couldn't care less about the idiotic humans stumbling around inside the glass house, you want to see more of these fascinating spooks. (And not only because one of them is a naked woman with a knife.) On that front the film actually delivers, and we get fast MTV-video editing appearances (pretty much cementing the style of the early 2000's) of them all the time. Completely makes up for the ways in which the film otherwise sucks, the reasons that ultimately consigns it to the forgotten corner of the rental store. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
9:28 am	"My day started with a pig on the interstate... and it ended with Death Bed." "Breaking news? What's going on?" "There was a school rocking." "What?" "Some kid brought a guitar to his high school and started rocking. 15 people were rocked." "Wow, what would make a kid do that?" "Apparently he played a lot of Guitar Hero." So, having added not one, not two, not three but FOUR stars to expert level Guitar Hero III (including two to the final tier), and even having gotten some preliminary planning for AWA done, I thought I'd sit here and soak my arm in a bucket of ice for a while and make an lj post. With the approach of the tenth movie night this week, I think this is a good time to look over the whole proceedings and see how it's turning out. ( Summation ) Ah well, let's look at the turnout for the flicks: ( Past Movie Lineups ) 9) Hellraiser and Death Bed: The Bed that Eats. In all honesty, if I can't lure the handful of "I'll make it next week, honest" friends out there who never quite make it to the show with Hellraiser as the "hook"... I'm kinda out of ideas. It's just an awesome film in every respect, but it's still an "unseen classic" for a surprisingly large number of casual horror fans. Went over quite well, I think, and I even screened it a couple days later for Jeff, who had missed the beginning, and so had just skipped the showing. Did have a high-moderate turnout, which was encouraging, but probably sets the "as many as I should expect" high-water mark. For the first time, Dan, who was sick, couldn't make it, but Andy and Lisa made it out again, and brought "Death Bed" with them. "Death Bed" is.... well... Ah hell. Lemme give y'all a proper review. ( Death Bed: The Bed that Eats ) is not the craziest movie I've ever seen. It may be the craziest CONCEPT for a film I've ever seen, but I'd have to sit down and think about it for a long time. It is stunningly nonsensical in that, given how amazingly dumb the initial idea is, the director still actually manages to tell a story about a killer demon-spawn bed. It's like some sort of bet was lost, and the result honored to the fullest. It's obviously supposed to be funny at some points, but I'm conflicted about whether it was supposed to be funny all the way through, on the basis of its concept. It was hilarious, yes, but I'm just not sure if it was intended that way. Anything I could say to evaluate some aspect of the film would have to be prefaced with "considering that it's a film about a killer bed"... so there's really no reason to try a standard eval. If you are at all intrigued, even in a "passing a car wreck" fashion, by the idea, you should totally check this movie out. If you aren't... then there are some people in Area 51 looking for you. To quote Jason: "My day started with a pig on the interstate... and ended with Death Bed." (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
12:52 pm	Before I forget it, this quote from Thursday night. "My day started with a pig on the interstate, and ended with Deathbed" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
12:16 pm	Reminder Just a reminder note about this week's showings! Anyone who needs directions, gimme a call at 770-713-two eight three seven. Again, the movies are Hellraiser and Death Bed: the bed that eats. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
10:36 am	"We have such sights to show you..." Hmmm... it appears that if there is a line where "entertaining bad" passes over into "painfully bad," then Creepshow III crosses it. Sorry for any anyeurisms following last weeks showings. This week, however, brings a special treat! Andy, who made it out to last week's showing, has insisted on supplying the flick for the "bad" slot on this, the ninth movie night! (For those of you who don't know, Andy makes me look like a rank novice in horror and cult films.) Thus, you'll be suffering under the ministrations of a guest director with (allegedlly) much better taste in bad films, presenting something I've never even seen... And me? I'm under orders to try and haul in as many people as possible with the "good" flick so they can be subjected to Andy's contribution. As such, I'll pull out a gem I'd set aside for just such an occasion... The Headliner: Hellraiser (original, 1987, 93 minutes). Based on Clive Barker's original novella "The Hellbound Heart," this work, both written and directed by him, is by far the best of his filmic works. Introducing oft-imitated aesthetics and iconography (a favorite among tat' artists and body-modification fans), a tightly-written, well acted story, and presenting Doug Bradley in his most powerful and famous role (despite an introduction at the midpoint of the flick, and not actually being the villian), the film was groundbreaking enough to eventually spawn seven sequels of widely varying quality. This is easily in my top five flicks and may actually be my favorite horror film of all time. I could (and have) go on for pages about this particular movie. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. (Besides... I just picked up the 20th anniversary edition and wanna see what the remaster looks like.) The Guest Star: Death Bed: the Bed that Eats (1977, 80 min) Uh.... hm. I have no idea. Andy, as is his wont, used many adjectives to describe this film. However, I'm uncertain about their context. "Bizzare" comes up a lot, as does "insane." All I really know, is that Andy insists I have to see it. ...are you as scared as I am? (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 7th, 2008
10:54 am	"They're creeping up on you..." First, to get the necessity out of the way: Wooo... turns out I was right about the drawing power of "classical" horror flicks... record low turnout this week. So, let's try a famous favorite for the all important eighth movie night! The Horror: Creepshow (1982, 120 minutes) Stephen King and George Romero write a two-hour love-letter to EC comics. Do I really need to say anything more? The flick is an anthology of five stories written in the style (or perhaps even more viciously) of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comics. While opting occasionally for blatantly cartoony scare-takes that deflate the impact of a couple scenes, the star studded cast (including King's best acting job, Adrienne Barbeau, Ted Danson, and Lesie Nielsen in a non-comedy role as a revenge-driven killer) also features something you will never see in another movie.... me leaving the room. As a nine-year-old kid I stumbled across the comic-book version of this film and the final story so terrified me, it instilled a lifelong cockroach phobia. As my only actual horror-related psychological trauma, there is no force on earth that could make me watch the movie version of that story. The Horrible: Creepshow III (2006, 104 minutes) Yes, three. In 2004 or so, James Dudelson somehow got ahold of the rights to the Creepshow franchise which had been, until that point, sitting contentedly at a single sequel. The resultant massacre (reprising his work from "Day of the Dead 2: Contagium") pissed off pretty much everyone who ever saw it. Lousy acting, hideous direction, literally the cheapest animation I've ever seen in a feature film, the entire thing comes off as a weird conglomeration of the rejected scripts from every late 80's, early 90's cheap horror series. The quality deficit is only amplified by placing it under the title of a long-respected cult favorite flick. (And even moreso by screening it immediately after the first.) That said, it's kind of amusing in its audacity and wandering incompetence on every level. A magical TV remote? A haunted hot dog? Seriously? (For those who are concerned, I should note that I didn't actually buy the latter, but ended up with a screener copy given to me by an irate reviewer who didn't want the thing anywhere near him anymore.) This looks to be a truly hellacious week. ( Whining ) It is kind of infuriating, to be honest. I haven't been to the theaters in months, and the only flick I've watched outside of movie night was out of a "50 movie box set" last Saturday. I pulled out ( Black Dragons )In all, an enjoyable but forgettable espionage flick. Lugosi is pretty much the only reason to watch it, though the puzzling plot, outlandish and unbelievable as it might be, is also fun. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
12:08 pm	"You do not need guns." "Maybe we think we do!" Fairly momentous crap going on in interpersonal circles this last week. I don't know that I actually feel up to talking about it, either from simply delving back into such things or the tightrope awkwardness involved in delicately discussing 'em. More importantly, it's probably not my place to discuss 'em anyway, as it's not directly involving me or impacting me in any manner other than tangential. My own life is actually doing rather well; with a canceled game this weekend, I had the whole of Saturday and Sunday to myself, and I used it to finish off a couple of video games, browse through one of my unopened movies, and get out to Oxford for the weekly visit. I've also discovered that ever since I reorganized my place to pretty much direct everything at the TV, I'm feeling less impetus to go online, and more to just veg out or play PS2. (Finally beat Resident Evil: Veronica X after having to re-do the entire last third because I got the weapons mis-sorted between the two characters. Also finished off "Puzzle Quest" as much as I'm likely to bother with.) I'm not sure this is an improvement. On other media slore fronts, I'm finally catching up to present with my podcast backlog. In theory I should hunt down another podcast to listen to now that I won't be able to download 90 'casts to get me through each month, but I've also got a vast backlog of songs culled from EKW's posts and related places to browse and decide which are keepers, so I may do that instead. It's also a little surreal now that I'm finally catching up with the present that the 'casts are talking about actual current occurrences that I recognize, instead of releases from three years ago. Ah, screw it. You know what I haven't done in a while? A movie review! I settled down last night with a bevy of beer bottles (three bud lights...'cause I had to get rid of 'em... and two harp's) and a random pull from the shelves, netting myself ( City of the Living Dead, ) a gorehound treat, center-staging another of Fulci's incredible over-the-top set pieces. However, I'm not sure anyone else could even tolerate the thing. It's an excuse to film a bunch of cool scenes, shoot some boring exposition to loosely tie the thing together in a bundle, and sell it on the strength of its blood. There's worse stuff out there, but I'd only give this to someone already familiar with Fulci's antagonistic relationship with linear narrative. Now, on to the movie night! We've made it all the way up to Movie night #7 without any serious disasters! Last week was even a high point, the prospect of "Lifeforce" drawing eight or nine people out to witness the carnage. So I guess it's time to push my luck. Much like the Italian horror flicks, this one isn't likely to appeal to as many of y'all... Classic Horror! I've been putting off the classics for quite a while, since my own knowledge of them is pretty limited, and most of my friends aren't big fans of the old stuff, but what the hell. I'll give it a shot. The Horror: Carnival of Souls (1962, 80 minutes, b&w). I came across this flick very early in my collecting days, and it completely blindsided me. This disturbing little film managed to completely creep me out despite (or even partially because) of a mediocre supporting cast and special effects limited to camera tricks. The film builds a thick, tension-driven atmosphere and depends strongly upon a confused, genuinely frightened performance from the lead, Candace Hilligoss. Though modern audiences may be blasé about it, this is one of those films that I wish was better known. Approach it without being determined to "outsmart" it, and I think it will reward. The Horrible: Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959, 80 minutes, b&w). OK, look, I don't own Manos. But instead of that, let me offer up what may be the most famous bad movie of all time. "Plan 9" was... it was Ed Wood. His "greatest" achievement. This movie is so bad, they made movies about how bad it was. The script is literally laughable, the story incomprehensible, the actors can't act... it's like the real Garth Merenghi's Dark Places. I literally just finished watching the thing for the first time. It hurts. In the opening scene I had a psychotic break and thought one of the characters was getting a shovel to club the scriptwriter with. It's so bad that I may defer to a different flick if we don't get enough people to ridicule the thing and soften the blow. Those are our movie lineup for next week. God help us all... (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
9:50 am	Movie Night news Quick note: Connectivity! Whoo! Also, be assured that I did pick up Lifeforce from Videodrome, and I've checked that it plays on my player, so all lights are green for the regular screening! There has, however, been a petition to swap the order. What say y'all? Anyone care? (Only those who can make it, naturally.) (Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
11:07 am	"Fuck this ship." Well, last week was a bit of a fuster... I knew I was risking a low turnout when the theme was "Italian horror flicks" (all the greater credit to those who did make it for the weirdness), but considering all of the muddling surrounding the primary movie (Fulci's "Zombi"), I can hardly blame y'all. For those who didn't make it... the worst outcome did in fact befall me. After my own copy proved to be broken, Videodrome's copy was already checked out! Lemme see if I can make it up to y'all. With the recent death of Arthur C. Clarke, how about a sci-fi memorial? The Good: Event Horizon (1997, 96 minutes). This film has long been derided as the poor man's "Alien," (or "Hellraiser in Space" before they actually made that in "Hellraiser 4: Bloodlines"), but let's be honest... how fair is it to compare anything to that masterpiece? Sporting a surprisingly well developed cast, including Lawrence Fishburne as possibly the smartest ship's captain in the whole sub-genre, this film is filled with cheap but effective scares, intentional surreality, and an "oh what NOW?!?" plot that carries your attention through to the very end. The Bad and Ugly: Lifeforce (1985, 116 min). Wow. This thing is CRAZY. This is perhaps the highest-budget most star-studded catastrophic implosion to ever grace the sci-fi / horror sub-genre. Like a British sci-fi series watched on fast-forward trying to simultaneously emulate "2001," "Dr.Who," and... I don't even know where the rest of this insanity is coming from. Or how they got Patrick Steward and Henri Mancini to agree to it. (Warning: Insane. Also, some nudity. And I can't seem to locate my $1 copy, but I'll hit the rental places much earlier this time...) (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 17th, 2008
11:02 pm	GAHHH! GIANT EYEBALL WOMAN! Gotta make this quick, the connection is acting all wonky. Usual crap, notify if you think you're coming, but not holding you to it, blah blah. Here we are at Movie Night #5, and I'm feeling in the mood for a little Italian.... This week's movie announcements. The Good: Lucio Fulci's Zombi aka Zombi 2 aka "Holy Crap! Zombie vs. SHARK!" (1979, 91 min) I'll let y'all know up front that I'm taking a big risk with this one. Originally concieved as a direct sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead upon its release in Europe (the details are convoluted), a jaded, critical eye could easily dismiss the film as hokey and nonsensical. Nonetheless, it contains some of the most iconic gore moments in the entirity of European cinema, and can be enjoyed for its downright insanity. If there is a single Zombie film that approaches the worldwide fame of Romero's original "holy trilogy," it's this one. The Bad and Ugly: Delirium aka Le Foto di Gioia (1987, 94 min). Speaking of complete insanity... This flick wavers weirdly around the "good/bad" mark. However, its utterly objectionable nature will probably dump it in the "bad" bucket for most of my friends. A very late entry in the classic "giallo" genre (roughly = exploitative slasher meets penny-dreadful Hitchcock mystery) the flick is downright nuts on several levels, especially to American sensibilities. It wanders into surreal sanity-breaks, works on a barely understandable premise, but still pulls off a surprise twist, and a cringe-inducing ending with the least obvious and most objectionable symbolism you're likely to encounter in any film. Warning for Both Films: These flicks are Italian horror films. This should set off enough alarms without me saying anything, but for the uninitiated this means immense amounts of ridiculous nudity throughout the film and borderline-(and not so borderline) misogynistic stories or set-pieces. I'm not gonna try to pretend otherwise, so y'all consider yourselves cautioned. International horror has some downright crazy stuff in it, dictated by different cultural sensibilities or film expectations, and I was gonna hit this stuff at some point. Consider it "educational" or "broadening your horizons." Seriously, y'all. I'm trying these out to see if y'all like 'em, feeling around for what the audience likes. If they're hated, they're gone. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 9th, 2008
11:44 pm	"There's something in the water" Seem like I'm posting this a bit late? Well, some of us forgot to "spring back," and half my electronics are still set for the old daylight savings date, so I spent most of the day pretty confused. Between that and a highly irritating but entirely necessary session at work, I'm getting to all this crap late. As you're likely to guess, I've got a whole oodle of things I should be writing about here, having to do with my newfound hatred of March. To be honest, though, I haven't the time or motivation to go into it all (much less catch up on lj in general), so I'm just gonna do the essential bit; this week's movie announcements. The Good: Dagon. Anyone who knows me knows how big a fan of H.P.Lovecraft I am. Adaptations of any of his stories to movie form, however, were always irrevocably flawed works, trending towards the laughable or painful. A few, though, managed to evoke at least some of the mood of the Old Gentleman's stories. Dagon, with one notable exception, is probably the best attempt thus far, a full 3/4 of the film instilling the proper xenophobic creeping dread and abject terror of the ocean typical of HPL's works. Unfortunately, in addition to extensive story edits and anachronistic characters, it's also an excellent example of an amazing movie being completely ruined at the last minute by introduction of horrible CGI. It goes in the "good" category for everything preceding the gag-inducing ending. (Warning: Some scattered nudity throughout.) The Bad and Ugly: The Unnameable. Geh. Forgot I had this piece of crap. From one of the best HPL adaptations, to one of the absolute worst. I may actually switch this one out after re-viewing it if it turns out to be too incredibly bad to screen. NO budget, next to NO acting, this thing weirdly attempts to warp one of HPL's lesser works into a straight-up slasher flick complete with the worst clichéd stereotype characters in the "dare you to spend the night in the creepy old house" story. As always, drop me a line if you think you're attending, just so I have an idea of numbers, but I won't consider it binding in any way. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
11:58 pm	March can end any time now First it's Zabet, then Gary Gygax, and today I find out that one of my cats is going to be put down at the end of the week. I don't like March. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
11:33 pm	It's not fair. It's not fucking fair. I know I barely even knew her. Though she was around here a couple times w/MTT and likewise at a few other cons, I was only really socially "there" on one occasion where we all chatted together. And I think that time it was a group blather. And I was probably drunk. But I do know her a little. She did beautiful heartbreaking work, and I did all in my power to acknowledge it. And now that's as well as I'll ever know her. It's not fucking fair. Goodbye, Blackbird. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:14 pm	"Join us Ash..." Once again attendance at the movie screening was a little underwhelming, with exactly the same number of people showing up as last week despite the absence of a torrential downpour. Interestingly, there was only one audience member in common between the two showings. There are ( Two Possible Interpretations ) Ah well. As always, reply in lj or e-mail if you're thinking of attending, just so I've a general idea of numbers, but by no means is a reservation necessary or binding. A special no-prize goes to whoever can spot the theme this week! (And no, it's not the "assault on a house" theme.) The Good: The Evil Dead (original). Dear Lord, this is a glorious movie. Barreling out of 1981 with a perspective-camera charge, this is the film that launched the most relentless, unstoppable force of history straight into the teeth of Hollywood... Bruce Campbell. Essentially re-made six years later as a sequel with about 10x the budget, the original is still amazingly startling and gritty, while being perhaps the greatest example of straight-faced high gore-camp ever made. And it accomplishes it all without "winking at the camera" even once. Hell, it's probably in the top ten "camp" (any genre) films of all time. Every cheap shot is taken, every gore effect amped up to "11" on a miniscule budget. (Warning: While low on actual nudity, there is one decidedly uncomfortable scene near the beginning that everyone always forgets about. Ladies be warned.) The Bad and Ugly: Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. I feel kinda bad dropping this one into the "bad" slot... especially following The Evil Dead, considering how outright fun this flick can be. However, most of the fun comes from ridiculing the flick, and it's amazingly Scooby-Doo-in-peril cast. There has never been a crew more deserving of a zombie attack, and you've never been happier when the earth spits and the righteously indignatious undead come storming out. Low-budget schlockfest and amazingly sterotypical characters galore, as well as clothing loud enough to wake the dead. Showtime is scheduled for Thurs, 7:00, but I'm gonna try like hell to get the movie running by 7:30. Feel free to show up as much as an hour early, I'll be cleaning up and popping popcorn well before then. You'll want to bring your own dinner, though. (There's a Popeye's down the street; I recommend the "spicy chicken po-boy" with red beans and rice, which I've recently discovered.) (7 Comments |Comment on this)