…Is A Happy Mailbox

So the list goes:

• (BuyZombie)Ex-Heroes by: Peter Clines
• (BuyZombie)The Zombie Combat Manual by: Roger Ma
• (???)Unsettled
• (Contest: Fatally Yours)Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter by: A E Moorat
• (BuyZombie)Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by: Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks
• (BuyZombie)American Zombie Gothic by: Kyle William Bishop
• (BuyZombie)Attack of the Vegan Zombies
• (ScaryMovies)The Landlord
• (Contest: Horror Society)Dante’s Inferno

This was a great week and a half between a combination of two GREAT contest wins (Damn you HS for such an addicting game! Thank you for FY for a book that’s being brought on my vacation next week!), a pile of new books and DVD”s to review for BuyZombie, and 1 film I have 0 memory of winning or requesting (but honestly I’m fine with that.) The only downside is the fact that half of the books I’ve recently received I’ll have to send out before I have a chance to read them to have them reviewed and that is a true shame as now I’ll be missing out on them. Alas, these are the prices I pay for not being able to get it all done by myself.

Still all in all it’s been an increasingly great month and I have one more contest win (that I know of) coming int he mail from the UK. It’s big, it goes on my wall, and it’s awesome. More on that when it comes in though.

On a side note – doesn’t my carpet look awesome? Yea I didn’t think so either. It’d be REALLY cool if someone like Horror Decor shipped out a “rough night bloody footprint mat” or better yet some of those pillows to lay these over that I would have to mention every post. How cool would these pictures be than? How much more blatant can I be for asking for free stuff? I really don’t know!

(Lyrics by Switchfoot – Mess of Me. Lyrics… really more motivating than anything. By far my life is not a mess but it’s easy to slack and I’ve been on a roll of being productive as of late so refuse to let that slip. The picture? It is what shall happen to my enemies. Wait.. I mean.. What can I say people know how to label cats to be entertaining to fit as blog post headers. That’s really all there is too it.)

Life:
Well life is life. Not “too” much going on at the moment as I’ve been putting a lot of time into projects that are all ever so close to being launched. What I have done though was of course spend time with Leah (the usual hanging out, a few BBQ Nights with friends, and dinner with her parents.) Let’s face it that’s been the highpoint of my month as I really only have hung out with the parents, Neil for movies and gaming, and had dinner with Jen one night. It’s still cold out and with being busy my social life has definitely taken a hit but I don’t think that’ll be the case for much longer. (I’m lying to myself – the cold weather is going no where.)

Projects:
As I had written previously there is a new layout over at Buy Zombie and the response has been great! Readership is up, comments are active, and advertisers are taking renewed interest in the site.
On top of that for Buy Zombie we have hit new levels of fans on Twitter and Facebook as well as have picked up 2 new book reviewers!
On a side note I also took side work writing for AdFamous LLC which includes fun sites such as Cool Things and the upcoming (already writing and posting but it’s not fully setup yet) Scary Movies.

Movies:
Dog Soldiers is a werewolf movie that I don’t know how it’s possible I have missed for so long. It probably has to do with the fact that I avoid most Werewolf movies like the plague. This one though? If you enjoy supernatural movies with a military twist (that’s done right) it’s perfect! Not only was it released in 2002 giving me no excuse to have not seen it yet but it also stars Kevin McKidd (Rome) who always plays a character that fits well on the big screen. On a side note Kevin also does the voice of “Soap” in the Modern Warfare games and I kept expect someone to call him Soap.

Sorority Row was absolutely painful to watch. I’ll quietly (and shamefully) admit to enjoying how they setup the story (it being a prank where one of the girls pretends to be killed and than actually killed.) It really was a decent setup and something that is almost plausible. Past that though the reason for the murderer to go on his killing spree, how everything happened, where murders occurred. Even looking past some of the acting it was all just too convenient and annoyingly setup. The problem is ‘horror’ movies like this are easy to write, film, and always make a profit at the box office so will never truly go away.

Planet Hulk shows exactly why I love Marvel making animated movies of their major story arches and hopefully the sales are high enough for it to continue as a trend. Visually beautiful it shows the “Planet Hulk” story line from the introduction to how he becomes the savior of the alien planet that he has become stranded on. While it does not continue through his return to Earth, show why he is angry, or where his need for revenge takes him – it does show the build up. Will a sequel be in the future to show the results of what is destined to occur? Only time will tell.

Triangle (full review at Scary Movies) is the tale of a group of friends going out sailing. There is a woman in the group though who is both distracted at first and isn’t that close to the group. When they hit a storm and the sailboat is wrecked at sea they are able to luck out and hop in a cruise ship that is passing by. It is quickly obvious though that the cruise ship they have boarded is empty – or is it? Add in an interesting science fiction themed twist and this is one of the most creative horror films I have seen in quite awhile.

Bitch Slap is the epitome of B movies. You get blood, fighting, bad special effects, mixed dialogue, sex, lesbians, a rough shooting style – all mixed together perfectly. You could sum the movie up as three women who are friends trying to track down a stolen item and be correct. That would of course leave out the layers of what is actually going on. This is honestly one of the more pleasurable movies I’ve watched lately just from the humor side of it. The plot itself, while complex, wasn’t that great (even for a B movie) but there was a fun twist near the end and was just fun itself to watch. I’d recommend this to any fan of B movies in a heartbeat.

Dorian Gray brings us Oscar Wilde’s classic tale of a man who is immortalized from selling his soul to the devil by having it tied to a painting that was being created in his likeness. As long as the painting is able to survive Dorian himself will never age or know true pain. As this immortality kicks in one of his closest friends introduces him to the pleasures of the flesh and while nothing Dorian does will cause anything to happen to him – each sin is shown on the painting that was made.

Anti Christ is able to pull off the entire movie with only a male and female lead with no supporting actors aside from their child who dies right off the bat and is only shown for a few minutes at the introduction to the movie. What you first need to know is Willem Dafoe does an amazing job as the lead roll (as with almost everything he is in) and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the female lead whose been in quite a few films though very few that have hit the states. The second thing you need to know, if you are a male, is no. No don’t watch it. There is a scene with genital mutilation. It actually has it for both genders but being male I tend to keep that one in mind – and have nightmares.

The Fourth Kind promised me a semi different take on an alien film with some creepy scene included. On top of that it promised Milla Jovovich as a bit of extra eye candy to enjoy throughout the film. My thoughts upon seeing it? What a waste of my time. If I wasn’t working on something (probably writing an update for a website) there is no way it would have stayed on my screen for the full length of the movie. There is no way I would have let it stay on my screen for that long because I was bored to death about 1/4th of the way in. Milla was able to prove something we all already know – that eye candy cannot always save a movie.

Slices lets me talk about 2 bad movies in a row. I actually had the horror of watching The Fourth Kind right before this one and seriously felt like it was a waste of my night by the time it was over. It was still saved but I’ll get to that. Slices should make me actually say it wasn’t just 2 bad movies that night but a few. This is a collection of short films that did not have a single saving grace in the lot. Anyone that knows me will know I’ll sit through and enjoy some pretty bad horror flicks. Slices though? A collection of short stories just didn’t cut it. I’m not saying the concept is bad: Creep Show 1+2, Trick ‘r Treat, and even that Snoop Dogg collection blew this out of the water. It’s not special effects its acting and plot and these all lacked plot. (There was some decent acting but it couldn’t save the spots from what the movie ended up being.)

The Collector (full review at Scary Movies) was my saving grace after the last 2 movies. I was completely worried about watching a movie done by the creators of the last 3 movies in the Saw franchise as I didn’t enjoy where they took the series. The Collector was like a breath of fresh air. I’d say it was because I watched it after 2 horrible movies but I’ve watched it on 2 other occasions now with others who have also enjoyed it. The film is about a man who collects people and does saw in a very disturbing way and a lead character who is trying to keep himself safe while robbing the house The Collector is collecting at. The plot might sound only OK but trust me this one is worth the watch for horror fans.

Case 39 gives us a small case of a very non-horror cast being put in a horror film. Renée Zellweger as a lead in a horror film? That’s just strange. I mean I’m not complaining her performance actually worked pretty well but not who I would have expected to see. Also Callum Keith Rennie from Battlestar? Score. So as I’ve rambled enough on some of the casting: Renee’s character is a social worker in charge of helping get children out of unhealthy environments. She helps one little girl get away from a family that tried to kill her only to learn that the girl is closer to the Anti Christ than the innocence she was portraying.

Hulk Vs Thor continues the Marvel animated cartoons that have been being released for a ‘mature’ audience. Mature not as in pornography (cartoons don’t do it for me sorry) but actually violent and following dark story lines. These aren’t the children’s versions of cartoons, though I’m sure that they are actually marketed that way. Stunning visuals and quality plots are following through with what Mavel’s been doing and this one proves to be no different. This one pits Hulk vs Thor in Asgard, the home of the Gods. Loki has found a way to control the hulk’s body with his own mind and tries to use this unstoppable behemoth to bring down a reign or rule under his own name. Spoiler: he fails.

Dread dares to ask the question ‘what makes us afraid?’ Though that gets tossed out the window pretty quickly. A film student is trying to come up with a final project with the girl he loves and runs into a new friend who wants to help him. The new friend has a boatload of issues from his past concerning fear and decides to focus the partners into making a case study on it. While the case study slowly turns into a documentary the new friend believes an actual study has to be done on what people will do to get over what they fear in a chance to cure his own fears. Things spiral out of control as he develops a Jigsaw styled attitude of making people experience their fears in the most gruesome of ways.

Freeway Killer is based on the true story of William Bonin, a California based serial killer. It also brings up the two serial killers her had trained. Scott Anthony Leet plays Bonin in this film and is does an absolutely amazing job at showing someone who can be both scarily creepy at times and so outwardly a decent person at others. A true sociopath and you can experience it first hand through the acting within this film. Bonin apparently killed over 20 people in the course of his freedom and they go through a few of them within the movie. On a side note it is also worthy to mention that Bonin is the first person to be executed by lethal injection in California.

The Crazies (full review at Scary Movies) really felt like a let down after how well done the trailers were. Honestly it didn’t live up to the hype it had from the commercials and din’t come across as well done as the original film. I can’t put my finger on exactly what was wrong. The plot, concept, and acting was great. I think it was the pacing and lack of focus on either of the two major antagonists that didn’t do it for me. Which is a shame. I didn’t leave the movie feeling disappointed, just underwhelmed. Romero’s remakes are always hit or miss. Dawn of the Dead was fun, Day of the Dead was painful, this one was just OK. Nothing special.

Tell Tale was a clear rip off of the name The Tell Tale Heart though clearly wasn’t exactly based off of the idea. In this film a man is dying and at the last minute receives a heart transplant that allows him to live. Freshly renewed life goes on and the man no longer has to worry about dying. The problem is, and there is always a problem, he starts having ‘visions’ of certain people he runs into at the hospital. These visions we come to learn are from the heart itself and are trying to tell him those that were responsible for the original body’s death. Without having a choice in the matter the heart forces him to kill those responsible for it’s death.

Cabin Fever (full review at Scary Movies) was one of the first movies to put Eli Roth on the map and you can easily tell why when watching it. A fun throw back to both outbreak and slasher flicks. It gives us an 80′s feel reminiscent of the original Friday the 13th (camp ground setting.) An absolute blast of a party gone wrong film with gore galore at parts, a hillbilly cop that you can’t help but hate while enjoy being on screen, and a no win scenario that you watch played out before your eyes.

Cabin Fever 2 (full review at Scary Movies) is Ti West’s sequel to the original. I won’t gush on my love for Ti West behind the camera here. I’ll just move on and say that with a cartoon styled intro, and his obvious ability to film an 80′s time period, and the ability to do ridiculous gore – Ti topped Eli on the series. I honestly wasn’t sure what direction the film would go as Ti’s previous horror was a very slow paces movie with a lot of build up, not so in Cabin Fever 2! We hit the ground running and continue on throughout the entire film being full of gore and suspense in just the right places. Bonus points for also ending with an 80′s styled cartoon to show how they could make a sequel.

Quentin Tarantino Minimalist Posters

Ibraheem Youssef, a Toronto based designer, has come up with some amazing minimalist posters for Tarantino’s movies. It appears to be trendy for minimalist posters to be popping up everywhere online right now but that’s ok! Seriously this eye candy has been great on every one that’s come out so far (at least that I’ve posted about.) I’m sure it’ll get old sooner or later but I have at least 3 more sets of this style of art to write about that I’ve enjoyed.

Unlike some of the others I’ve listed or will be listing – these you can even buy prints of at Ibraheem’s online shop!

(Lyrics by 30 Seconds To Mars – Kings and Queens. On the one hand I’m a total sucker for this song and it’s been getting a lot of play time by me as of late. On the other hand I completely disagree with the lyrics. We *WERE* the kings and queens of promise. I don’t know about you but I for one don’t think my promise was still in the past but still exists and is being pursued in all areas of my life. Of course that could just be me. The image? Well it just goes along with the what I just typed!)

Life:
Life has of course been keeping me busy as of late. With Leah and I being officially dating more of my free time has disappeared (I’m not complaining! My free time being replaced I have absolutely 0 issues with, that was just pointed out for explanation) so I’ve been in a rush trying to get ahead on everything under the sun. It being January my birthday was at the beginning of the month with a nice turnout of everyone coming over for a party. Had the full crew of friends over and good times were had by all. Apparently even more so by those who stayed the night and were treated to a huge breakfast that was clearly enjoyed by all. On the fun side of things I was also at BBQ Night which is a regular Sunday activity in Leah’s group of friends – food and booze? Always good times. Finally in case you missed it I booked a vacation which is my first real one in nearly 4 years. Christ you’d think with how much I love to relax that wouldn’t have been the case.

Project wise I am starting a new blog entitled The Write Start with my friend Jason Zajdel that will focus on Blogging, Networking, Freelancing, Social Media, and Online Tools. All of these have been a huge interest to me for years and Jason the past year so an outlet to write on them? Bonus. There isn’t much I can officially say on projects past this but there are still a slew in the works at various stages in development. Hell, 5 are technically up though I just am not advertising them until I have the look of each of them down.

Of course not all of life has been great in the world of Stu. My mother was in the hospital last week after having a horrible migraine, a blackup immediately after, and short term memory loss. There is still 4 hours of that day she can’t fully recall and that’s terrifying. The worst part is they have no idea what caused it. Supposedly everything overly dangerous and life threatening has been ruled out, but how can they be totally sure if they don’t know the cause? Here’s hoping modern medicine can figure it out.

Movies:
This is the worst part of not making an update in nearly a month. Having watched over 10 movies I have to write a mini review of all of them and I know for a fact I’m leaving out 5-15 movies.

Jennifer’s Body was Diablo Cody’s first stab at horror. (See what I did there? Stab at horror?) After such great reviews of Juno and the fact she seems to be in touch with and a huge fan of horror in general there was high expectations on where this film was going to go. What actually happened though? Well that would be a whole lot of disappointment had by many. Aside from the Jennifer’s Body Poster ripping off of True Blood’s poster there was just a lack of both direction in the movie and the plot really making a lot of sense. I won’t argue though that with how painful some of it was – it had some great lines. The stand out one had to do with two members of a boy band talking and one asking if the other wanted to keep being a failure or “Do you wanna be the guy from Maroon 5?”

Circle of Eight tells the story of a girl who moves into a new condo when everything goes to hell. It is a tale about karma, life, and death. It is also severely messed up and unless your paying attention will easily miss out on a few key aspects on where the movie is going. I would absolutely not recommend this one as a buy and to my horror loving friends who love a very STRANGE way of telling a story to the movies they watch I would suggest a rent. It’s not at all a great movie but it IS an original movie. As someone who loved both independent and original movies I did enjoy it, I just don’t think most people I know really would.

Cars is another of Pixar’s adventures into combining a kids animated movie with a mixture of a plot feasible for an adult audience to enjoy. It’s also, in my opinion, the worst of the Pixar movies. Now I’m not saying that it’s bad because Pixar has been pure gold to date on every movie they’ve had being enjoyable. It just wasn’t as enjoyable as anything else that they’ve done. Perhaps I’m a little biased having seen both Wall-E and UP in the past year, this is one of their older works and of course everyone gets better as they have additional practice at their trade. I think it was just the idea of talking cars I couldn’t really get into or truly feel for the characters on screen.

Blindness took the ideology of a post-apocalyptic outbreak movie, ran with it, and threw in one major twist. The disease spreading across the world does NOT kill you. What it does for everyone who is infected is makes them blind. It’s the tale of how one woman is still able to see in an age where the majority of the population can’t. How people survive and how those who are strong are willing to pray on the innocent. While there are a few parts of the movie that just disgusted me in what occurs, both on the side of people and the government, it was a really well put together movie. If you enjoy outbreak movies, post-apocalyptic films, or anything even remotely similar to them you will love this movie.

The Final Destination is the 3D trip into the world of the Final Destination franchise. It is apparently by the title and interviews THE Final Destination, no more, finale time, game over man – game over. I really hope this proves to be the case because it is a franchise that relies on a single gimmick that got rather stale quickly. I don’t know if it was because you feel you are watching the same movie over and over again or bad writing but this was the final nail in the coffin for me as if it didn’t end here it still would have been my last stop with the franchise.

Forget Me Not was a pretty original horror movie with the common genres that are currently coming out. You don’t see a lot these days on movies that involve curses and specially not ones that involve curses which are so original. What happens when a group of friends start to disappear one at a time? Usually there would be an investigation, however what happens when no one but one of them remembers them after they vanish? This is the story of a woman whose friends go missing one at a time and no one in the circle of friends remember the others. Of course this leads to everyone thinking that she is losing her grip on sanity even though it is quickly made clear to the viewer that she isn’t. What is causing the disappearances? Can she stop them before everyone she knows is gone for good?

Primer was one of the most original science fiction movies I have seen in a long time. My usual choice of science fiction takes place in space though this one? It takes place in the near future where two friends are able to invent a device that lets them travel through time. They start using this technology to at first increase their wealth but quickly start to change events to suit their wants and desires. Time travel is a tricky thing involving paradoxes of all sorts and this story is no different as it quickly spirals out of control into a story of both confusion and betrayal. Anyone who likes a twist in their science fiction will love this look at morality and the twisting of time.

Daybreakers is the second best vampire film to come out in the past few years. Obviously Let The Right One In is still my favorite but this is an extremely close second bringing in a new twist on the entire vampire genre of horror. Set in a noir future where vampires have taken over the world the human population is quickly running out. With blood supplies decreasing the society itself has a huge problem on it’s hands if a blood substitute cannot be found. What happens though when someone finds a way to ‘cure’ the disease that has inflicted society making everyone a vampire? When everyone can be turned back into a human is it truly a cure, or just another way to find food?

Couples Retreat which I was worried might fall into too much of a romantic comedy with the premise behind it proved to be entertaining the entire way through. When a group of friends that are all couples are at a party together one of them announce that they are possibly getting a divorce. The solution is a retreat dedicated on helping couples rebuild their marriages or relationships. While everyone is sold at the beauty of the vacation spot they are quickly shown that they were fooled into thinking they would all have a nice break and are all forced into couple’s therapy. With a ton of jokes and Vince Vaughn on his game for the first time in a few movies it was a slew of laughter and well worth the watch.

The Men Who Stare At Goats was Clooney’s most recent foray into a both strange and unique movie. Clooney plays a ‘mystical’ soldier from a secret armed force that the government created to use paranormal powers to fight any enemy of the United States. It is the most offbeat and oddly written ‘war movie’ that has been written and also a complete riot the whole way through. Add in Jeff Bridges as a soldier turned hippie turned soldier that runs the unit Clooney was in? It felt like a partial return of “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski and any fan of his performance there (who isn’t?) will get a constant kick out of this one everytime he’s on screen.

The Lovely Bones is Peter Jackson’s latest film and shows he can still flex his chops when it comes to putting together a well written movie with some amazing special effects. Now I’m writing that I loved this film from the viewpoint that I have NOT read the novel. Every reviewer and person I know that has said they didn’t enjoy the movie because it didn’t follow the book properly. So I’m kind of glad I haven’t read the book yet as I REALLY enjoyed this as a thriller. Plot, acting, visuals, everything was top notch. I feel bad that people who have read the book didn’t like it, though it does make me curious how well the book was written if people who have read it can’t stand the movie.

The Road is another one of those post apocalyptic movies I love so much. While it is never fully clear on what exactly caused the cities to be ruined and the human race to fall into such a horrible state of savagery. The tale follows a father trying to take his child across the country in search of a safe place to live. As they travel they follow the roads from the now fallen infrastructure and attempting to avoid everyone they find on them. The father and child are both good people but it shows the father progressively become more of a selfish and paranoid man as he strives to keep his child, the one person he loves most in the world safe.

The Stepfather is another one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen. With Jennifer’s Body and The Final Destination this was a trifecta of bad movies that did nothing but hurt. This was surprisingly the most enjoyable of the three because it wasn’t horrible. If they had chosen a bit differently on the casting it may have even ended up being enjoyable. Still though it suffered greatly from some bad dialogue in a few points and too much of random painful moments where it was hard to believe the acting as it felt a bit forced. It couldn’t have helped that I went into the film expecting to not enjoy it, the premise of a serial killer step father that has been avoiding detection and being photographed so he couldn’t be tracked down? Seems a bit too far fetched with the body count he apparently had.

Pride and Glory was both well written and surprising. Surprising in the fact that it took so long to see an Edward Norton film. A police drama that pit good cops against corrupt cops and problems within a police family a drama that sucked you in and didn’t let you stop watching until it came to the end. This film also kicked back into my mind the thought that Jon Voight needs to be in more movies with darker aspects to them as he really is a great actor and doesn’t receieve nearly as many projects as he should. Hell I don’t believe he’s been in anything since 24 and this is just a depressing thought as he’s getting on in age.

Yes, fine, The Fantastic Mr. Fox was a kid’s movie. However like a Pixar film it was an animated movie that was written to keep not just children but adults interested as well. Another film that involved George Clooney this month though this one was of course all just voice acting. On a side note anything Bill Murray is in these days, even as just a voice actor, you know has to be worth the watch. A completely underused style was used to show off the animation in this tale of a man (erm fox) learning to truly be a man (erm adult fox) and quit living in the past and actually grow up. Great moral tale and one that is almost subliminal with how well the story comes together.

The American Psycho Billboard

(You really need to click the image to see it full sized.)

For any fan of American Psycho you have to love what they just did here. I am in awe at the creativity of this project, as easy as it was probably for them to do. This is both a tribute and a work of art- I want one of you to steal this so I can have it moved to Chicago and put outside my condo. That is all.

(Lyrics by Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked – Cage The Elephant and image were both used because as you will quickly see I’ve been busy planning out a lot of projects I’ve had on the back burner that I’m going to try to finally push forward into completion. I’ve actually put off a LOT of my regular media intake the last couple weeks planning things out, making new contacts, and harassing current ones.)

Projects:
So to start with, yes all of my time as of late I’ve been putting into working on projects. I know I claim to be playing Modern Warfare 2 all of the time but honestly I have a lot going on I just don’t like to talk about things until there is a sliver of a ray of hope that I can show something off on them in the near future. I finally have a skeleton rough draft of the code for the new Buy Zombie and am working with my friend on Eric on having it move to completion. SO CLOSE! So.. very.. painfully close. But wait.. there’s more!

I’ve had another side idea I’ve been toying with for quite some time now. Due to circumstances (lack of time, artists, etc) it was kind of on the back burner for quite awhile now. However, recently I lucked out and was able to start speaking with Byron of idrawzombies.com and The Daily Zombie and believe we might be on to something. More information on that soon, hopefully next ‘big’ update.

On the same zombie theme (still no word on my overall horror site) I have been working on another project that is almost done I just need to play with a color scheme for it. It’ll be a quick and easy resource for all of the zombie fanatics out there who are annoyed when I don’t put up every little piece of zombie news under the sun. Well this should make them happy!

Finally with the extra free time I have been moving a bit closer to a few non-horror projects I’ve had on the back burner that are all almost nearly in place and just started contacting a few logo designers to get some visual finishing touches on them. Finally making a ton of progress in all directions and it’s kind of nice to say there will be results soon

Life:

Of course I haven’t JUST been sitting on my ass in front of a computer as of late. Other things have been going on to point out as well. The highlights? Well to start with I was able to meet up with Rex for some Texas De Brazil, 4 hours of gorging later I swear I gained 10 pounds. It’s always a good time hanging out with Rex and as always it’s a shame our schedules and locations don’t match up.

I ended up being a complete douchebag and not hanging out with Rob on his birthday due to a family party (not Thanksgiving though that was another night that just ended up wiping me out.) Aside from that I hung out with Leah for dinner and drinks a few nights and catching a couple movies. Oh how I feel as if I’m behind on movies.

I also attended Zombie Outbreak w/BJC, which was a ‘few’ hours of zombie movies and good times talking with friends. Speaking of hanging out with BJC, we also ended up seeing The Addams Family Musical together as my original plans with Rose fell through due to us having a small disagreement after she came over one night and played through MW2.

Ahh Modern Warfare 2. While I haven’t been playing it as consistently as most of my friends I have been able to finally prestige in it AND am about half way through my second one. Neil keyed me into his plan on how to prestige quickly and it seems to be working pretty well.

How does sleep fit into all of this? I’m FINALLY off of my off hour support. Speaking of work on top of that I actually have a normal schedule now. It’s.. strange.

Movies

Speaking of movies, look how short this list is. Amazing isn’t it?

When I first saw the previews for The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard I groaned. All I could think was that this was another failed attempt at a comedy that I would never force myself to watch and if I did be completely unentertained by it. Soooo I did end up watching it. What can I say aside from romcom’s I never really get enough of movies in general, even the bad ones. However, and I’m weary to admit it, I actually got quite a few laughs out of The Goods. I don’t know if it was Jeremy Piven’s timing on lines or Ving Rhames absolute mockery of his usual tough guy character but throughout the entire movie it was one joke after another I couldn’t help but enjoy.

Apparently I was in the mood for comedies as the next movie up was Funny People. Adam Sandler AND Seth Rogen in a movie together? Poking fun of Sandler’s career during the entire first half of the movie? Clearly this has to be comic gold. While I actually did enjoy a lot of it my attention wasn’t held all the way through. I’m pretty sure The Goods was the funnier of the two movies and would say it’s worth a rent at the very least. Two comedies in 1 month. I don’t think that’s happened in years.

2012, while still not my usual horror filled fare was directly about being the end of the world so it’s a step in the right direction. Another movie I was very weary on watching and hate to admit completely enjoying. While it doesn’t have the deepest or realistic plot in the world it does deliver payoff after payoff in over the top views of the destruction of the world. Roland Emmerich really has outdone all of his past disaster movies in a visual masterpiece of epic proportions that show how the end of the world would look like. He has topped all of his past works in a way that makes even thinking about anyone doing another disaster movie really just a waste of time. If you want a decently paced movie that shows an unrealistic view on how the world will come to an end in 3 years check this one out immediately!

The forth and *gasps* final movie on my life update that I’ve seen is Pontypool. It’s another infection movie based on the style of an outbreak that look like zombies (aka 28 * Later) that really has nothing to do with the undead. While you can read up my full review on Horror Society I will say that any horror, outbreak, or zombie lover should enjoy this film. It’s a unique take on the spreading of infection between people by actually having the spoken word be what triggers the outbreak. It turns people into vicious killers that have to suicide themselves after taking out as many victims as possible. These murders and suicides completely feel as if they are in place in any zombie film and it was a fun and interesting take on the genre.

Books
Hollywood Monster by Robert Englund provides a memoir of his experiences as an actor- both how he first got interested in acting and how it shapes his life. Mr. Freddy Krueger himself tells a wonderful tale about how he got where he is today, weaving in nightmares he has had throughout his life (gee that wasn’t a sure sell for fans of the series in the slightest.) Being cynical with that last comment aside it was an enjoyable read if you are at all a fan of the horror genre and I definitely suggest picking up a copy.

I also recently had a chance to read Age of Desire from The Book of Blood Volume 4 by Clive Barker. While not a full novel and just a short it was VERY enjoyable of a read (well.. of course it is Clive..) and the entire idea of a world where a true aphrodisiac has been created that will keep whoever is under it’s influence in a permanent state of arousal shows exactly how bad of an idea that this really is. I hate writing on just a single short story from a compilation but this one really brought up a lot to think about in a society where the idea of sex and ways to improve it are being so commonly sold.

(Lyrics from Audience of One – Rise Against. I’ve got bout 12 tracks right now that I am just not getting bored with and this is one of the ones that stand out. Probably for this line in particular. It’s kind of funny that this is a line that I would have applied to a few people I know and have been happily surprised that it is no longer the case. The picture is of course from LOLCats and just seems fitting both for using DOOM in it as well as how I feel towards work today.)

Once again too much time has passed since one of these updates. It’s one of those things that are just bound to happen though as I’ve been fully distracted as of late. Work, social life, projects, Modern Warfare 2- all of this and more are keeping me writing up what exactly I’ve been up to on a consistent basis!

Life:
Well for starters there was a small little convention that took place in Chicago since my last update- Flashback Weekend. I have to admit getting Neil out to one of the horror events in Chicago was a nice change, and I think made it easier for me to sell him on going to more in the future. (Figured it would only take event to get him to want to hit up more.) Continuing with the horror theme, my coder fell through for Buy Zombie. After all of the work getting it going it fell apart at the end. The upside? He at least sent over the .psd and I was able to hire someone on the cheap to convert it to a WordPress theme! I just have a few last touches to iron out and a new site will FINALLY be live!

Speaking of being alive, say in the world of 2009, it is hard to imagine that any of my friends had yet to see Iron Man. Therefor it was disappointing that Leah had not yet seen it. OK not really since I was able to enjoy someone else’s first time reactions to such a fun movie again and that’s always a nice change.

Rose decided she wanted a blog she could rant on. I’ll give you one guess who got talked into setting it up (not that I know anything about setting up WordPress blogs.) So Tiny Cynic was born. (I clearly had nothing to do with the name.) If it wasn’t for some CSS issues with how the theme was setup by default it would have taken I believe a whole 5 minutes to setup. (So yea it ended up taking about an hour…)

Finally I bought a couple of new toys. A new digital camera as well as the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2. To be completely honest they both game in on the same day so I have yet to open my shiny new Canon PowerShot SD780IS with it’s shiny 12.1 MP and 3x optical zoom. Apparently it also can do video. It’s a bold new world! Having not opened it yet I was clearly preoccupied with playing Call of Duty 6. I was so preoccupied I have yet to obtain batteries for the night vision goggles that came with the Prestige Edition! (Yes. I now have a digital camera and night vision goggles, I could run around at night and be that creepy guy you want to avoid at all costs. Score.) MW2 is everything I loved about Call of Duty 4 and MORE. I won’t start typing about the game as I could rant for the rest of the post on how great it is.

I know I’m missing things that happened. However, I am on too little sleep (nothing to do with staying up late playing Modern Warfare 2.)

Movies:
Dark Country had to be one of the more interestingly filmed horror movies that I’ve seen lately. It mixed ‘reality’ for the most part with certain scenes looking as if they had a 3D layer added over to them. Basically a newly met and newly wed couple are traveling from Las Vegas and stumble upon a body. The body ends up not being dead and as they offer him a ride the movie starts to get interesting. While in some movies this would annoy the hell out of me as Dark Country ended up with a dream like state to large aspects of the film it fit perfectly. The male lead did a stellar performance and after having seen him as the lead in both this and The Mist I want to see him continue on in the horror genre. Bonus points for Ron Perlman in his role as a deputy in the film.

The Public Enemies that I am referring too is obviously the gangster period piece starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Of course those two weren’t the true stars of the movie, it was in fact Stephen Dorff’s performance that stole the show. Yes I’m kidding but I do wish Dorff would get to play an asshole in more movies with how well he does it. While I would have preferred a real chunk of direct interaction between Depp and Bale they did demonstrate how the two were matched against each other extremely well and how confident he could get away with everything that Dillinger was.

The remake of Taking of Pelham 123 had a lot of ups and downs throughout the film. Again a movie that has two stars pitted against one another (John Travolta and Denzel Washington) this one at least had them get a good chunk of face time with each other near the end of the movie. I have to admit I enjoyed the fact that Denzel didn’t play his normal role and mixed things up a little. While a train robbery movie is always fun in and of itself it was in fact what Travolta’s character was really trying to pull off that made the film more of a hit. They could have left out that entire subplot, still had the movie out, and it wouldn’t have been nearly as good.

State of Play brings Russell Crowe as a reporter investigating the death of his friend’s (Ben Affleck) lover. With Ben’s character being both married and in politics it is messy right off the bat. When you add in the fact that it is also involved with the regulatory commission that his character is on and has something to do with a multi-billion dollar company that is trying to influence government decisions to increase it’s contracts and influence? NOW it’s messy. Political thrillers that can keep my attention are few and far between as most of them really aren’t written properly. This one would have been a miss as well if it weren’t for the amazing acting on both Crowe’s and Affleck’s parts. (Both of whom are actors I haven’t really dug in a movie for awhile.) If you are into political thrillers at all you may want to check this one out.

Child’s Play. The birth of another horror series that after 3 movies should have stopped. Also a horror franchise that is being rebooted soon. While I did enjoy the first 3 movies the last 2 hurt my brain when I watched them originally. So Child’s Play is of course the origin of how a serial killer ended up transferring his soul into the ‘body’ of a toy while trying to cheat death. From here he has to find someone he can transfer himself into but that of course never works out so easily. I don’t know if it’s because I saw this when I was younger, because it really is well written, or because it takes place in Chicago but I’ve always loved the first 3, OK, 2 and a half movies in this series.

Child’s Play 2 starts up shortly after Child’s Play came to a close. Chucky is dead. Andy, the child from the first movie, is in a foster home having been taken from his “lunatic mother” due to her insistence that a doll tried to kill her son. Kudos for using the same child in both of the first two films. The plastic mess that Chucky had been burned down two of course on a corporate level cannot be wasted so is melted down and used in creating a new Chucky doll. I’ll give you one guess as to where this goes. Yes Chucky comes back and goes to chase after Andy once again.

Child’s Play 3 brings us a new actor playing Andy as well as a new concept on how Chucky came back to life. Only one of those two statements are true. If you know Hollywood you will of course know that it was a new actor! Andy is now in military school learning how to be a man and not a sniveling little boy who is afraid of dolls. That of course works ‘great’ but he is able to stand up to Chucky’s madness on a military base which actually worked out pretty well for a setting. Some of the slight changes he made around the base to add his fun in into the mix was actually entertaining. While it wasn’t as good as the first two it still lived up to my expectations of a Child’s Play movie.

Bride of Chucky was the beginning of the end of the series. With ‘rebranding’ the title to just have Chucky in it and no longer be called Child’s Play to removing Andy to adding in a female ‘sidekick/love interest’ for Chucky. It honestly just went to hell. It did have a bit of fun horror movie trivia at the beginning where Chucky (who oddly wasn’t completely torn up as opposed to what we saw happen at the end of Child Play 3) was warehoused in a police building that also included a ton of fun horror memorabilia. An ex-lover of Chucky’s human days brings him back to life but soon finds herself at the short end of his anger and is herself transferred into another doll and they together go on a rampage while trying to find new bodies. The one thing the movie DOES have going for it though is how many tributes to other horror movies all around it has within.

Seed of Chucky, the first time I saw it made me cringe. This second showing actually wasn’t as bad but I knew how bad the film was going to be in advance so that probably softened the blow. Chucky and his bride from the previous movie apparently had a child and this child is able to bring them both back to life from a voodoo amulet shown in the same film. With their lives returned they are found to be on a set where they are filming a movie about Chucky’s killing spree which is all an urban legend as far as the general populace is concerned. The best part? Jennifer Tilly (voice of Chucky’s wife) is an actress on the film being made which results in countless bad jokes within the movie I couldn’t help but smirk at.

How to be a Serial Killer was a fun infomercial styled view trying to sell it’s watchers on all of the benefits to your life in turning yourself into a serial killer. I’ll be brief as I have a full review up over at Horror Society of the film. Pretty much the infomercial is what is running in the serial killer’s mind and he spends the entire film both killing people as well as training an apprentice on how to literally get away with murder. Throughout the entire film though we aren’t made aware that the infomercial is actually running in his mind until the very end.

It really was a good month of horror movies for me. I don’t know how I missed watching this gem previously but The Descent is hands down one of the better horror films I’ve seen in awhile. While I’ve never had a fear of the dark or being claustrophobic I could feel the dread brought out by both of these fears in this film. When a woman’s family dies in a car accident her friends, who have explored caves together previously, stumble onto a new one to explore. While they are used to crawling through caves in near pitch black it quickly becomes obvious that this unexplored one has more then they bargained for in both not being safe as well as being full of a mutant offshoot of humanity that is blind and has lived underground their entire lives- who don’t mind eating humans. While the description I just gave is kind of weak it doesn’t give the full experience of seeing what they go through to survive and I can’t stress enough of how much of great flick this one was.

Assassination of a High School President is a noir styled detective story that actually takes place in a high school. With Bruce Willis as the school’s principal and one of the school paper’s reporters as the ‘detective’ it focuses on the theft of the SAT answers. While he becomes both famous and popular from discovering who stole them he quickly learns that he has reported on a frame up and is on a race against time to determine who the real thief is and the motive behind the theft is not as clear cut as it would appear.

While I may have won my copy of The Children of the Corn remake it doesn’t change that fact that it really was a painful watch. It cannot compare to the creepiness of the original and the interaction between the two adults who first came into the situation did not seem genuine in the slightest. The children just weren’t as scary and the movie seemed to take an action over suspense tone that did not mesh well with the source material. While I did enjoy how they changed the end of it, if you want to watch Children of the Corn do yourself a favor and get the original.

So this one was a surprise but Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li wasn’t “horrible.” Don’t get me wrong it was by no means great but I went into it expecting myself to hate every aspect of the film. While they of course took liberties with the overall storyline and barely touched on the Street Fighter universe (it was an origin story for Chun Li) it did have quite a few great special effects and martial arts scenes. It is an entertaining watch as long as you do go into it knowing it won’t do much justice to Street Fighter mythos or have an in-depth plot in general.

What’s this? A SECOND horror series I’ve watched? Well I just couldn’t help myself as it’s been so long since I’ve had a chance to watch the Lovecraft masterpiece of Re-Animator. This is the tale of a mad scientist named Herbert West who has discovered a way to bring the dead back to life. A satire on the Frankenstein story it tells how Herbert keeps trying to improve his ability to bring the dead back to life- with unintended side effects. The series can’t quite decide if it’s horror or comedy but meshes the two together rather well.

Bride of the Re-Animator continues the tale told in the first as Herbert tries to have his assistant in the original, who is on the run from the law with him, assist his experiments once again. While it wasn’t an easy sell all he had to do was show that he had the heart of his assistant’s dead girlfriend who instantly wants to bring her back. Now to interject wouldn’t he need the brain as well? Aside from that though it felt true to the original and was entertaining all the way through.

Beyond Re-Animator takes a turn away from having his normal assistant. West is put into prison nearly at the offset for murder. A child in the area where he was arrested had seen the effects of West’s chemical and grew up with the sole intent of becoming a doctor to carry on his work. He is able to apply at the prison that West is being held and quickly brings him in as a ‘helper’ while he is actually assisting in the recreation of the cure for death. While locked in solitary West has found a way to improve on his formula that will not only reanimate the death but restore them to their original cognitive abilities. Full re-animation is now possible. Of course anything with this series is never as simple as it seems and everything begins to fall apart on keeping this ‘normal’ rather quickly.

Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror is a tribute to the Creep Show. An anthology of short horror tales that are all linked together by Snoop’s character narrating them all. This is another movie that surprised me with how bad it could have been and actually being rather watchable. While a few of the stories were painful in implementation each one had something going for it. While if I had to see any anthology horror movie get made into a series it would of course be Trick ‘R Treat, but if this one were too I wouldn’t have any real complaints. As long as they could get a bit more actual horror movie star power in the next one.

When this little science fiction movie Moon started I had no idea where it was going. It wasn’t until about 20-30 minutes in where things began to progress to the point that made the movie actually seem to be going somewhere. Once it did though I was hooked. Sam Rockwell played his character to perfection and Kevin Spacey voicing the robot who was his assistant was a blast. With Earth’s power sources winding down we have begun to harvest helium-3 from the moon as a new power source. (Fun fact: Helium-3 is a real element found on the moon which could provide another source of power for our planet.) While I can’t go into details on how this progresses too far without giving away spoilers let me just say that if you are into a science fiction movie, that likes to take pot shots at humanity, cloning, corporate greed, and has an overall good if slow story- pick this up immediately.

With all of the horror movies that I have seen as of late I do have to say that the introduction to UP takes the cake as one of the saddest and most depressing introductions of overtime. I’m clearly talking emotion here not quality as UP once again proves that Pixar is an animated movie house with power and talent. They have yet to fail to deliver a good animated movie and once more have made it increasingly more adult orientated compared to the standard kiddie fair you would expect from an animated movie. Not that there isn’t room for the children to see this as well as it really is a movie that can be appreciated by all ages. For those who have seen the movie all I can say is one thing.. SQUIRREL!

Black Dynamite is the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. While some may argue that Zombieland was, and I agreed until I had seen this, you really need to watch it before you make that judgment call. Both emulating and making fun of the 70′s blacksploitation films, Black Dynamite had me in pain from laughter. Not only was it written well but it was FILMED looking to be a 70′s film from the outfits, the sets, and the colors on the film itself everything fit perfectly. If you are at all a fan of 70′s blacksploitation films or kung fu movies and haven’t seen this yet you are doing yourself a huge disservice and need to get this immediately.

House of the Devil makes it two for two on films that LOOK as if they had been filmed years ago. While this would be early to mid 80′s horror instead of the 70′s it still has the same feel of not being a recent movie. Again, dialogue, sets, props, acting, visually, it’s an 80′s horror movie. I’m not talking the late 80′s horror movies either that were typical slasher flicks or cheesy but the GOOD horror with proper suspense built into the plot. I cannot wait to see what else this director pulls off and pray that he stays in the horror genre. If he does we have an easy building of a dynasty of quality horror movies on our hands since he knows what works and is able to implement it.

Warning: This Update Is Ridiculously Long Since I Took Nearly A Month Since The Last One.

(Lyrics from Someday – Rob Thomas. Not what I’d usually stick on here but in all honesty it’s fitting. I have a LOT going on in my life right now with a ton of decisions to make and projects to work on. Figuring it all out would be a welcome breath of fresh air. Image from Extra Life. As much of a horror junkie as I am, this was not a representation as me as a child. I lack in any skill that involves art, specially sculpting sand to look like this.)

So It’s been a long while since my last update, nearly a month! I’ve been pretty busy with not going out! While that doesn’t seem like it should keep me that busy that’s not the case in the slightest. With the condo up for sale or rent (though the rumor is it’s coming off the market for rent) I’ve been having to work quite a bit around that. Add a cold into the mix for a week and that should help narrow it down!

Life:
So while I wasn’t doing much on going out I did get out a few times in the last month. For starters I caught a few movie nights followed by dinner and drinks with Leah. While not a movie, on the visual (actually this is more audio) consumption I went over to Deathscribe 2009, a yearly setting of horror themed radio plays performed live with Dano (and met up with Bryan and Mitch there.) After a nearly 8 month hiatus of hanging out I also got to meet up with Jen for dinner to catch up on each other’s lives. Of course on top of that there were also a ton of people have checked out the condo so that did leave me at the local coffee shop quite a bit.

Staying in being productive I did a few pieces of web site related.. stuff. I helped Rose setup her new website / portfolio for school, http://www.roseskegg.com. Being generous with my free time on helping other people I also came up with a rough draft business card for Brittney so she could better showcase her website when people ask on it.

Now being greedy with my time who could think I passed up helping myself as well? I made a few changes to this site and my twitter account. One of the projects I’ve been working on to be automated on the side is almost complete. I just need to play with the logo a bit, some artwork, and it’s golden. Just a hint- it involves zombies. Secondly I have another project that shouldn’t be ‘that’ hard to get going once I find the right RSS feed widget/plugin for a few friends to setup kind of an internal network for a few horror blogger friends. More on that one as it pans out.

Movies

Well as each of my last 2 posts were dedicated to whatever horror movie series I was rewatching at the time this one will be no different. While it is a shorter series- once you get to the TV section you’ll know why I went with it. Who doesn’t love a few movies in a row though about the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world?

The Omen is the tale of a young man, switched at birth to be given all of the advantages anyone could ask for. Wealth, a political heritage, loving parents, a friendly little dog, and a staff that loves to help with his education. What else could Damian want for while growing up? Well when he turns out to be The Antichrist the end of the world would be a good start. Of course one can’t be purely evil while still naive in his youth without making some mistakes. Quite quickly first his mother followed by his father come to the realization that their son is pure evil, granted the father knows that the child is not truly his. Unfortunately due to this little family squabble the boy ends up being an orphan. Thankfully though the elite of the United States power base take care of their own and he is soon adopted by his uncle, another man of influence and wealth.

The Omen 2 starts with our young Damian securely living with his new family. A young boy once more surrounded by wealth and power now is getting an education from the military as this family has long done. Once again though family problems are stirred up, first his brother finds out his true nature. When not being too agreeable to it he suffers a fatal medical condition. This leads the rest of the family to go down that same road of mistrust and leaves Damian once again an Orphan- this time with all of the wealth and power of both sides of the Thorne family.

The Omen 3 gives us Damian as a young man. He is in charge of his “Uncle’s” company and also working with the government to expand his territory and influence. While not as creepy as an evil child this shows exactly what someone can do with power, money, and influence. The fun part to this one is that the time is at hand for the second coming. If Damian is to stop this and follow through with his plans of making a hell on Earth, he needs to work fast. You know how this goes, even if evil wins in a movie or two it never wins in the end so it won’t spoil this to tell you he died. Shocking I know.

The Omen 4 is the made for TV movie in The Omen series. Yes the owners of the franchise licensed out the name to this company to make a direct to TV film. If you think that’s a bad concept to run with it gets worse! The plot? An adopted daughter ends up being a possible resurrection of The Antichrist. Yes Damian had an illegitimate child who happens to be the star of this film. While the idea of bringing back a younger source of evil you just can’t get behind the acting or plot once it starts to kick in. I actually refuse to count this as part of the trilogy listed above. It WAS a trilogy, this isn’t part of it, this is an abomination. That is all.

If you really want to know how I feel about Trick r Treat in detail you can click on my review of it right here. Basically with the movie out and in my hands I was itching to be able to watch it again. How best to go about this? Virgin eyes of course. Neil came back to the condo one night and I pretty much forced the movie on him. Of course anyone who has seen Trick ‘R Treat knows that ‘forcing’ it on anyone isn’t really an issue. 5 minutes in and you are hooked because this perfect example of a horror anthology really is THAT good. If you haven’t seen it. yet you are doing yourself a disservice and need to change that immediately.

Return of the Living Dead is the non-Romero self proclaimed ‘sequel’ to Night of the Living Dead. A classic in it’s own right and one I shouldn’t have to introduce this is where the true idea of ‘bbrraaaiiiiinnnnsss‘ comes from, as well as the lesser known classic ‘send more cops‘ that is a beloved little saying for all zombie fans out there. Yes, before I got wrapped up watching The Wire this last month I had planned on polishing off a second series past The Omen. I haven’t watched the entire ROTLD series in it’s entirety in quite some time so felt it was the perfect choice! (Specially gearing up for Zombie Outbreak in November where I get to see this on the big screen.)

Grace is the story of a woman who wants to have a child. She has been wanting to have a child for quite some time and it’s just not working out for her. When she finally does become pregnant fate has other plans her as an accident takes her husband and the life of the unborn baby. So close to term however she ends up giving ‘birth’ to it regardless. So how surprising is it when the baby ends up crying? Yes it’s alive but if there is ANYTHING movies have told us by this time anything that is dead and comes back to life is not good and generally needs blood to survive. This is by far the case exactly. The movie has a lot of slow pacing and while is good is not something I would suggest to everyone. You need patience to get through this one, the end scene though? Seriously I shudder thinking about it.

Gamer starts off as a great movie. The idea of playing a video game setting in real life is great. The idea that it is a first person shooter? Even better. How about using convicts to act out these games that use real guns? OK sure why not, I’ll go with it. The whole idea of virtual worlds becoming an outlet for humanity to delve more into themselves and be antisocial is a fun concept to play with this setup and actually works. It’s got a decent plot, good action, and some great special effects. Hell it has Michael C. Hall (Dexter) play a billionaire who came up with this concept that is also using it for his own gain in another way. Why ever did I start this with it “starts as a great movie” instead of saying it was? Well. The ending is just weak. Absolutely 110% weak. It’s over in a heartbeat and leaves you feeling unfulfilled in just about every way possible.

Surrogates takes place in the future where fully automated robot versions of ourselves or how we want to be are able to be purchased and lived through. You “jack in” Matrix style and are suddenly in our world but looking through the eyes of a virtual body. Wow, it’s not the same premise as Gamer but has SUCH a similar themed concept. Again people are becoming isolated and living in fantasy instead of reality, but hey crime is down so that’s good right? Of course it is, until someone finds a way to kill those who are actually plugged into the network through the virtual bodies. Crime has come back and in this case it has disasterous results for the world. Much like Gamer this movie starts off strong (most movies with Bruce Willis tend to) however also like Gamer it just ends. No feel of long term resolution and not left in a way that makes you think about it- it’s just over.

Law Abiding Citizen is the third in a series of movies that give me a headache from the ending. Fortunately unlike the previous two this one IS worth watching. I don’t care if it’s from the Saw styled gore factor on the revenge killing, the creativity of the revenge he has in place, or just the acting in general this one doesn’t leave you with a HORRIBLE taste in your mouth. I would probably wait for the rental on it since the replay value won’t be top notch and the special effects don’t require a big screen. I would however say it’s one worth checking out at least once.

OK. I KNOW I’m still missing a few movies on this. I just can’t think of what they are right now.

TV

So as you may have noticed the amount of movies I’ve watched lately has been down from most of my updates. There is a pretty solid reason for this. With my last update I had watched The Wire Season 1, well there are 4 more season of the wire. Yes I watched seasons 2-5 of The Wire and am now saddened that it is over. This is, hands down, one of the best crime drama’s that I’ve seen on television to date- from overarching story plots to character development that is done to perfection. Also seeing This is a must see series if you are at all a fan of crime dramas or in depth story lines.

Finished The Wire Season 2 takes place shortly after the first series ends. While the case has been investigated and mostly tossed to the wind aside from a few key arrests the team has been cut back. McNulty has been put on a boat to have harbor patrol duties and while contemplating quitting ends up finding a murder case that quickly gets him back to working with the Major Crimes Unit. While they aren’t directly in charge of the murder investigation the smaller crime they are on quickly leads to an international smuggling operation of drugs and women. Of course to keep things tied together these murders are also quickly tied in.

The Wire Season 3 ties in events from the previous two seasons. On the one hand the drugs were mentioned being smuggled in from Season 2 and this ties in with the drug deals going on from Season 1. While they are never directly brought up to the police the connection is there for the audience if no one else. We get to return primarily to the Barksdale organization and look in on both it’s legal and illegal activities. With the city demolishing the towers that was their primary source of income on the drug side they have to find a way to expand their market. Enter the drugs from the previous system and a coalition of drug dealers being formed.

The Wire Season 4 enters with the Barksdale organization having fallen. The coalition and a crew run by a new gangster named Marlo run the streets now and everyone has to adapt to a world of crime that has less rules and loyalty. The story has a major focus on a group of children from the gangbangers and how they grow into ‘the game’ or away from it. The Major Crimes Unit has fallen to the side due to it’s commander being promoted and politics. On the police side of thing this season is heavily influenced by the politicians in place in an increasing fashion and the gangs are in a bitter disagreement on how to deal with eachother and the influx of drugs into each of their areas.

The Wire Season 5 comes to close with one of the best series endings I have seen. It gives a small insight on how everyone is doing with their lives. Prior to all of that of course is the plot. The Major Crimes Unit hits a budget dead end and McNulty breaks the law, creating a new crime to creatively funnel resources back into the police department and into their ongoing investigation. The target? Marlo who has taken over the crime syndicate that was put in place 2 seasons previously. The entire season is spent walking a line between illegal phone taps, a fake serial killer, and the one target that the remnants of the Major Crimes Unit is desperate to bring in.

Books
The Professor and The Madman by: Simon Winchester is the story of how the Oxford English Dictionary was created, primarily by the works of a well respected doctor and by a man that spent the majority of his adulthood in an asylum. I’m a slight fan of words, phrasing, and the English language in general. Imagine though if there was no source for it, no way to look up what exactly a word meant. Think how many famous authors such as Shakespeare had no ability to look up a word they were writing if they weren’t 100% sure on the meaning. This is the tale of how it all came together. I was a bit iffy on starting this up as how could a novel about the creation of the standard format of a dictionary be interesting? Well I think the aspect of mentioning the ‘madman’ who was involved with it is a good start. While half of the book is about the creation of the dictionary the other half is of his life and how it shaped him to be such a prominent source of help on this creation that is still a standard in the English language today.

Trailer for The Expendables

How do you make an action movie that is destined to surpass all previous action movies? Is it the explosions and gunfire that matter? The in depth plots? I say nah! All you really need to do is get the following list for your cast:

Jason Statham
Jet Li
Dolph Lundgren
Mickey Rourke
Randy Couture
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Sylvester Stallone
Terry Crews
Bruce Willis
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Even with some of them only being cameos this cast list is just amazing. If the majority of the time was spent with them just sitting around and drinking tea it would still be full of more action from the cast alone. Once you’ve seen that add in the trailer itself and you can easily see why this shall be the greatest action movie of all time. While I can think of a few action stars not yet on the movie- there really aren’t many. (Also they need to save someone to stick into a sequel!)

A while lot of nothing new

(The above lyrics from from Rise Against – Audience of One and image is from the webcomic LilFormers and is brilliant. It has nothing to do with this post in any way shape or form but having grown up with both the cartoony pizza loving turtles and the darker comic based turtles I nearly died laughing from this. If you didn’t grow up with the Turtles and don’t get this don’t worry- I’m insane.)

So it’s been awhile since I’ve done my last update here. Surprisingly there hasn’t been as much media consumption as usual! While there has obviously been some you have to keep in mind that it has been just over a full month since my last “What Stu has been watching / reading / playing update.” So aside from this what HAVE I been doing? Well there was of course Terror in the Aisles 2 that I attended which was a complete blast all the way through. I spent some time hanging out with Rose before she went back to school. Spent a day hanging out with Leah while she was recovering from a late night of drinking which was a blast. Had Bryan and one of his friends over one of the nights Rose was here for watching a couple movies. Neil was gone for a week and a half and I had the place to myself which made me realize that it wasn’t that bad of a thing. On that note- our condo is going up on the market next month which means when looking for a new place to live I’m going to see what I can find out the south side, with indoor parking, that I can afford solo. It’ll clearly be a step down from where I’m living now but it’s that or I look for a new roommate as I don’t think Neil is planning on staying in the city when the condo is gone.

Rather light on the social life too. Where has all of my time gone? I’m honestly not sure! I have been half assed working out again lately but not enough to make a dent and while I know I’ve been working with a programmer for the new design on BuyZombie and made a few changes here (profile picture, added a contact form, and some minor things) it really doesn’t explain what exactly I’ve been up to. Maybe I’ve gone the Fight Club route and developed a split personality that’s running me around at night? Whose to say!

Movies
I was able to recently see the Chicago premiere of Trick ‘r Treat and can’t stress enough that this is a must buy movie for any horror fan. There aren’t many horror movies that actually focus on the holiday of Halloween itself, even the aptly named Halloween only took place ON the holiday and otherwise did not really concern itself with it. Here we have in it’s greatest form a movie based around ancient rituals of paganistic religions that were the origins of our present day trick or treat experience. Centering this masterpiece of fun horror is an entity known as Samhain whose entire purpose is to enforce that everyone follows the ‘rituals’ laid forth and punish those who didn’t.

On opening weekend of what is meant to be an epic new science fiction film I saw District 9 with Rose and Neil. Now I’m not going to say that District 9 wasn’t epic in scale. I’m not going to say it didn’t have an original plot because the concept while used before WAS used originally in this film. I’m not going to say how it ends was bad because I loved the way the movie ended up. My complaints are two- exactly. The first of these 2 are the main actor. I’m sorry I just couldn’t feel bad for him even with how things ended up. I was far too annoyed by his character to see feeling bad for him when the time came that you knew you should. Things happened to him that you HAD to feel bad for him and most probably did but I just couldn’t. I mainly wanted to hit him. The second problem? I felt the beginning was too long. I think I ONLY felt this because of the actor as well. I loved how they showed us what happened to society and why but couldn’t enjoy it while trying to drone out the lead actor.

So I was a ‘small’ GI-Joe fan growing up so when Leah picked that as one of our movies to go see I have to admit I couldn’t pass up the offer. I knew what I was in for before it began- a summer action flick that would partially murder my childhood memories of a beloved franchise. I can’t say they overly commercialized it since the franchise was created OFF of a toy line. The cartoon would have never existed if it weren’t a marketing tool for the toys. With that in mind I have to say I really did have fun with it. I was a little annoyed with a few key plot changes; Scarlet should have been torn between Duke and Snake eyes, The Baroness was never ‘good’, Destro never had to have his mind controlled to be part of Cobra (loved how they did the mask for it,) and Cobra Commander’s ‘mask’ was asstastic. With those complaints aside I really had a great time watching the movie. It was a summer popcorn filled flick with a perfect sequel ending. An over the top plot that paid off in spades for entertainment and I am fully looking forward to the eventual sequel.

The ONLY selling point I had ever really heard for Prozac Nation was that hey- you get to see Christina Ricci. Being male this of course intrigued me! The movie though is a great commentary on prescription drugs, depression, mental illness, being accepted, and what people will do to have fun. On top of all this it is based off of an actual auto-biography of the writer Elizabeth Wurtzel and how she both got through college and started writing. Well acted, character development, amazing shots, overall (even without a nude Christina Ricci) the movie was a good watch and easy to be drawn into wanting to know how she would end up and unable to avert your eyes away from the train wreck she was making of her life.

What set of movies would be complete without at least one horror movie, and a zombie flick at that? Boy Eats Girl fits the mold perfectly! This Irish made horror movie went with the general zombie outbreak idea of the dead coming back to life, spreading through bites that kill, and these dead eat humanity. This movie has been fitting in once again with the idea of intelligent zombies. I feel this trend, with how commonplace it is becoming, is one that is here to stay. While it does work in some situations the entire idea of a horde of mindless man eating undead who feel and think nothing past how to kill the next of us is still more fun to work with. Having to accept the mindless zombies the ending of this movie makes up for how badly the ‘cure’ for turning into a zombie is- a nonstop over the top gore fest that is absolutely ridiculous. If you don’t mind intelligent zombies and can get over the teen romance angle it’s a fun ride.

Now I haven’t heard this about The International so wait with me a moment here, be patient, I hated the movie. Now your going to wonder why on this since literally it had me enthralled and was one of the better reviewed films this year, even slipping partially under the radar. So why did I hate this movie? THE LAST 5 MINUTES felt completely rushed and not in line with the spirit of the movie. It was an easy out for the character, an easy out on how it made no difference, and just didn’t feel that it did the film justice. I literally could not stop watching the movie and enjoyed every second of the plot and felt betrayed by the ending of the film. I’m fine with a movie that wraps everything up at the end in a bow if it has no plans for a sequel but the ending has to fit with the lead up. Who was killed, how they were killed, and the little newspaper clippings all felt thoroughly rushed and uncreative. The agent we’re rooting for who has to ‘turn bad’ in order to get his way isn’t forced to follow through negating the entire set of events he set into motion and it pissed me off. If your character isn’t taking the moral high ground he should be forced to make his choice completely and not have it taken out of his hands. I clearly enjoyed everything else with how angry I am about this ending which no one else has had an issue with but I felt let down with such a great build up in plot.

Friday the 13′th Part 6-10. So basically what happened in these movies is Jason Voorhees goes around and kills a bunch of teenagers that are having sex, doing drugs, or just having fun. Shocking isn’t it? Jason Lives, The New Blood, Jason Takes Manhattan, The Final Friday, and Jason X all told the same story of Jason going on a rampage butchering the innocent. There was a few fun changes of leaving Crystal Lake to take a trip into Manhattan and in one instance space but there really isn’t much you can do with a slasher flick series based off of a man in a hockey mask who never talks. At least Freddy spoke which lent us some originality. I did love how they mixed it up a bit in the later movies but watching these through straight just ended up being painful. One at a time mixed in with other movies these are all acceptable (and I love how the dress and speech clearly show the time periods they were made in) but a Friday the 13th marathon will never again happen on my TV. (Tune in next time for another Horror franchise that I kill any self-interest in seeing to completion in one sitting!)

On her day of relaxing at my place after a night of heavy drinking I felt Leah needed something that was just mind numbing entertainment which can always be fulfilled by the man- Bruce Campbell. My Name is Bruce felt like the perfect fit for a lazy day with B movie greatness in every second that you can’t help but love (even for the B movie haters out there.) He’s never had a problem mocking himself on film but this one takes the cake with an all out fest of a… simpler… town unleashing a curse and kidnapping Bruce. Not him acting but kidnapping him as a B actor. It portrays how ‘wonderful’ his life is these days- divorced, living in a trailer park, being screwed over by his agent (figuratively of course… though literally with his ex-wife,) barely running car, and not being able to land a job past sequel after sequel of horrible B movies that he constantly is panned for. If you love horror movies, B movies, or Bruce Campbell this is one to pickup.

TV
“The Wire was one of the greatest shows on television.” Neil said. “You HAVE to watch the damn show right now” he said. So I did, Season 1 at least and fine I’ll admit it- Neil was right. A great plot, acting, character development, well shot scenes, a series on cops vs drug dealers, every single aspect is a selling point for me. So why have I taken so long to start watching it? I suppose it’s from being stubborn (does that surprise any of you?) as well as telling myself I didn’t want to start another series. Well this one is 6 seasons, Battlestar is over clearing up a spot, and most of my shows are coming up to their season finales if they haven’t already had them. Basically I was bored and out of excuses so decided to pick it up.

Bonus note: I’m also caught up with True Blood Season 2 aside from the finale which is tonight. I’ll do a quick writeup of what I felt about Season 2 in it’s entirety in my next post.

Games
Shadow Complex came out on the X-Box 360 and I’ve been slowly playing through it. The ONLY reason I haven’t beaten it yet is because I know I will not see another game like it for some time, if ever. Anyone who gets me talking about modern video games will know I will eventually lead up to complaining that there aren’t enough side scrollers these days. I clearly love first person shooters or I wouldn’t be playing Call of Duty 4 2 years after it’s release and eagerly awaiting the sequel, but my heart is with the classics. Side scrollers and 3/4th view games (Zelda) are what always did it for me and now, finally, with Shadow Complex I can play a side scroller that is worth of the classics. With a metroid style shooter feel, a map the size of the castle from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a level up system, AND modern graphics I’m hooked. I try to play for an hour or two at a time and while I know where the game can be beaten I haven’t fully explored the map yet and plan on doing so, slowly, before it comes to an end. I may never see another game styled in this manner that was made with such skill again. I need to enjoy it while I can.

Books
With everything else I’ve been slacking on doing you would think I would have finished more than 1 book. However no there was only one, however it was a great one! In The Woods by Tana French is a murder mystery that completely sucked me in. The writing style had me hooked from the get go and the character interaction between the two lead detectives on the case was eerily familiar to a few friendships I’ve had in the past. Add in the fact that there was a great mystery at the heart of it, character development, and a few twists along the way and yes I loved it. Oh did I mention one of the two detectives are from the town this murder happened in and seems to be related to the murder of two of his friends that he lived through as a child, the memories of which are locked away in his memory?