Imaginative Cinema Society

What's Ahead in 2011

2010-11-06T12:36:00.002-04:00

I chuckled at a recent online quote from Iron Man director Jon Favreau about next summer's movie prospects. Favreau is prepping a new popcorn epic called Cowboys and Aliens, with Harrison Ford. I give Favreau credit for not jumping on the sequel bandwagon, which happens every summer. Anyway, Favreau is worried about his film's chances in the middle of next summer's genre avalanche. Favreau said, "It's gonna be Omaha Beach. There's going to be blood on the carpet and teeth on the floor just about every weekend next summer." Meaning: the slate is so crowded that something's going to get buried. Maybe a lot of somethings.

So I was inspired to take an early look at what's ahead in 2011. I usually save this column for January, but this time I couldn't resist. I found a lot of retreads, a lot of superheroes, and some interesting gems in the mess. See what you think:

January

THE GREEN HORNET. Seth Rogen lost some serious weight to get this role, so husky guys like me should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.

THE RITE. Did you know there's a real exorcism school lodged within the Vatican? Neither did I. Interested? Me neither. But it's Anthony Hopkins, back in genre mode!

February

SANCTUM. I saw the trailer for this one, and it looked nice. Producer James Cameron supplied the same 3D technology he used for Avatar to make the film, about a deep-trench expedition (I think) trapped far underground.

DRIVE ANGRY 3D. Nicolas Cage plays a dead guy who escapes from Hell to get revenge on the cultists who murdered his daughter. Evidently he drives really, really fast to do this. Hence the title.

March

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. This one is being promoted as a cross between Cloverfield and Black Hawk Down. Aggghhhhh! Shaky-cam alert! Shaky-cam alert!!

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU. Yet another film based on a Philip K. Dick property (Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, you name it) with Matt Damon as a Senate hopeful who bucks Fate by falling in love. No, seriously, Fate is majorly pissed; Fate is actually a bunch of men in dark suits who chase you down if you don't turn the right corner, push the right button, etc, etc.

SUCKER PUNCH. Zack Snyder, who made Dawn of the Dead and Watchmen, ramps it up again with this live action comic book about hot-looking babes fighting monsters, ninjas, giant robots, indoor plumbing...okay, I made that last one up.

April

SCREAM 4. After ten years, Ghostface is back. Maybe this time it'll be Courtney Cox under the mask, and she'll go after her ex. Fool around on me, huh? We'll see about that! Eat THIS! Slash...slash...

THE THING. This is a prequel to the John Carpenter classic, relating the events at the Norwegian outpost. I predict the dog gets away at the end.

May

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES. Johnny Depp is back as Jack Sparrow, looking for the Fountain of Youth with Penelope Cruz. Wouldn't we all.

THOR. Marvel Comics is back with another superhero, and Anthony Hopkins plays Odin. No-name Chris Hemsworth sure looks the part in the pictures.

KUNG FU PANDA: THE KABOOM OF DOOM. I only listed this one because I love the title.

June

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. The Marvel onslaught continues with this prequel to the earlier X-Men movies. We get James McEvoy as a young Charles Xavier and Michael "Inglourious Basterds" Fassbinder as a young Magneto. I'm still cheesed they didn't sign McEvoy to play Bilbo in The Hobbit, but you can't have everything, I guess.

GREEN LANTERN. Ryan Reynolds fills the emerald tights as one of DC Comics' most popular heroes. What, you thought it was all about the Bat at DC?

RISE OF THE APES. Yet another prequel, this one from Fox, in a loose remake of the long-ago Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, with James Franco as a present-day scientist working with highly-evolved monkeys, or something like that. Isn't it cool how I can get away with such long sentence fragments? Just keep adding commas!

CARS 2. I only mention it because it's Pixar's 2011 model. No car pun intended.

July

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON. Which is where I wish all those big-ass robots would just go away to live, and leave the rest of us alone. And take Shia LeBoeuf with you, please.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2. Remember Favreau's comment about Omaha Beach? This is the cruise missile that will probably do the most damage. I give Marvel Comics props for having the cajones to bring out their Captain America flick the following week.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. I'm still hoping they move the date on this, because I'd love to see it, but I have a feeling that the boy wizard will eat it for breakfast and spit it out for lunch. A big thumbs up, though, for deciding to film it as a World War II period piece.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS. Guess what, Favreau? You're probably right; those are your teeth on the floor.

(Continued)

The Definition of Gratuitous

2010-08-22T08:22:00.002-04:00

There is absolutely nothing in the new film Piranha 3D that could be called "socially redeeming." It doesn't have a message. It doesn't teach a lesson. It doesn't preach. It doesn't get all artsy with its camerawork. It doesn't even have much of a story, clocking in at a very brief 82 minutes.

But those 82 minutes are entertaining.

Director Alexandre Aja, who filmed one of my favorite horror movies of the last decade, Haute Tension, knew exactly what type of movie he was making, and he delivered: the most cheerfully gratuitous major studio film in a long time (maybe ever). There are scenes in this film that have no real business being in the movie other than to deliver a shock, a scare, or just to titillate. How else to describe the slow motion nude underwater ballet (I'm not kidding) between two lovely ladies? Or the chomped-off privates of a cast member, floating directly toward you in all their 3D glory? Or Eli Roth's cameo as the emcee of a wet t-shirt contest?

But wait, there's more. Any self-respecting fan of movies will grin from ear to ear at the opening scene, with a big-name actor sending up a famous role by singing several bars of a well-known song from his big-name film. (The character's name was just icing on the cake.) How can you not laugh out loud at a movie like this? And not maliciously, either.

Piranha 3D doesn't take itself seriously at all, which makes it a guilty pleasure of the highest order. The story, something about prehistoric piranha unleashed on an unsuspecting spring break crowd, is merely setup for one of the single most eye-popping displays of special effects bloodwork ever seen on screen. And now we're back to the definition of gratuitous. But I'm in full complimentary mode, folks. Really.

This will be a hard movie to defend. All I can say is, it's fast, fun, and in your face. Leave your brain at the door and you'll have a good time. Don't forget to pick it up afterward. 9 out of 10 stars.

Ah-nuld Would Be Proud

2010-07-09T19:39:00.003-04:00

I went into the first showing of PREDATORS this morning with fingers crossed and a prayer on my lips -- that some way, somehow, Robert Rodriguez would be able to restore some of the bloody sheen to a pretty tarnished genre legacy, and maybe, just maybe, bring some much-needed relief to a pretty crappy movie summer.

My prayers were answered, kids.

As a lover of action movies in general, and action-oriented sci-fi in particular, ALIENS and the original PREDATOR have always ranked pretty high on my list. (I'll put PREDATOR next to T2 as my absolute favorite Schwarzenegger pictures.) I was actually deluded into thinking (once upon a time) that melding the two franchises was a pretty good idea. Then the first AVP movie snared a PG-13 rating with some watered-down action, cheesy FX, and lousy performances. Ugh. The last one, AVP: REQUIEM, was basically a teen slasher film tricked out to look tougher than it was. That didn't leave me with much hope for (or interest in) another sequel.

Then word got around that Robert Rodriguez had dusted off an old treatment of the PREDATOR franchise with the intention of filming something closer to the tone of the original blockbuster. I was encouraged, even after I heard that Rodriguez would only be producing the film, not directing it; he would put someone named Nimrod Antal in the director's chair. I wasn't worried. Thinking Rodriguez wouldn't have some kind of input in PREDATORS is like thinking Spielberg had nothing to do with POLTERGEIST and it was all Tobe Hooper's doing. Uh huh.

This movie kicks righteous ass, f0lks. For starters, the ubiquitous CGI has been dialed waaaay down (with one snazzy exception, a "big reveal" shot about a third of the way in that any genre fans in the crowd with half a brain stem probably already saw coming) and the old-school creature FX/makeup work of the KNB group has been dialed waaaay up. Second, the cast has been populated with some pretty solid actors, starting with Adrien Brody (an Oscar winner, for Pete's sake) in the de facto Arnold part. If you thought Brody held his own as the hero in KING KONG, then you ain't seen nothing yet.

Brody's one of a group of 8 who find themselves mysteriously dropped into an unknown jungle locale; the common factor is that they all come from violent backgrounds. Pretty soon, things start to happen, their numbers start dwindling, and the survivors are fighting for their lives. (I'm trying to keep the plot in general terms for newbies, but you vets get the drift.)

One of the things I loved about PREDATORS is that it gives more than a few nods to its original predecessor. One of the characters is armed with the same type of portable gatling gun that Governor Ventura sported in the first movie, and what song do you think plays over the closing credits? I'll give you a hint -- it was blasting from Ventura's boombox at the beginning of the original. Nice!

PREDATORS was a fun ride, definitely worth a ticket, and I look forward to seeing it again. Give it a solid 9.5 out of 10 stars.

Do You Hear That Gurgling Sound?

2010-07-05T20:31:00.002-04:00

It's the sound of 2010, the first half of the year in movies, being flushed down the proverbial toilet. Talk about your disappointments.

As of July 5th, I've seen exactly 17 movies in the theaters thus far this year. That's roughly on a par with past years, although there have been opportunities this year in which I could have very easily gone to a show; I've simply passed them up. Nothing will ever again approach the halcyon days of 1986, the first year I began keeping track of my movie-going; by early July of that year, I had seen 66 movies. I would end the year with 102. You might ask: How did you find the time? My answer: I was unemployed. The obvious follow-up: Where did you find the money? My answer: I went to a lot of matinees. And ate a lot of Lance Nip-Chee Cracker packs for my meals. (That's a diehard movie fan for ya, folks.)

But I digress. What's up with 2010? To put it bluntly, it sucks. Nothing appeals to me. The reasons I've passed up a lot of films can be boiled down to these: The movies are bad, the movies are unappealing, the movies are getting terrible reviews, the movies have been dumbed down, lousy 3D rendering has gutted several decent ideas, and when an interesting idea does rear its inviting head, I can't get to it. Case in point: there's a new one out there called "Cyrus," a quirky indie comedy with good buzz, but its only available screen in the Baltimore metro area is the Landmark downtown, so I guess I'll wait until it hits On Demand or Netflix.

I've seen exactly two movies so far this year that I've flat-out loved: TOY STORY 3 and KICK-ASS. That's 2 out of 17. Only two movies that I would love to watch again, only two that I ever plan to add to my personal collection. That's a pretty crappy average, folks.

Oh, sure, there have been a few nice time-wasters. I liked HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, although its raunchy humor got a little predictable by the end. I liked IRON MAN 2, as far as sequels go, but it didn't have the same thrill as the original. I even liked GROWN UPS, which I saw last week with my wife and son. As Adam Sandler movies go, it was pretty good. Which is faint praise, I assure you.

But the disappointments have outnumbered the good ones, which is pretty surprising, considering how picky we are these days when it comes to spending our monthly mortgage payments on a night out at the movies. THE WOLFMAN was a major letdown, full of sound and fury and signifying exactly nada. CLASH OF THE TITANS was the first of what has turned out to be a truly distressing trend -- the bandwagon approach of redoing already-filmed prints with 3D effects. Trust me, they didn't help the movie at all. KNIGHT AND DAY (speaking of sound and fury signifying nothing) was a nasty sign that Tom Cruise's days as a blockbuster star may be numbered. And A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET -- well, the less said about that one, the better.

Where does that leave us for the rest of 2010? Well, if you're an Oscars buff, you're probably wondering where in hell they're going to come up with 10 Best Picture nominees. (The only one thus far that merits serious consideration would be TOY STORY 3. ) If you're a Christopher Nolan fan (or just a fan of movies in general), then you've got your fingers crossed for INCEPTION, opening July 16. If you're a Harry Potter fan, then you're waiting for November, when the first part of the Deathly Hallows finale hits screens. If you're worried that the rest of the year is going to follow the first half down the ol' Port-a-John (no relation), then you're probably already closing your eyes at that godawful trailer showing Jack Black's take on Gulliver's Travels.

Me, I'll be in line for INCEPTION. In the meantime, I'm reading a great book. (The Passage, by Justin Cronin) What a novel concept. (No pun intended.)

Ridin' Easy Into the Sunset

2010-05-31T10:00:00.003-04:00

Dennis Hopper has died. That fact shouldn't be a surprise to the many movie fans who have followed Hopper's career, especially recently, when he looked so sick in public. I was shocked at his appearance, and figured it was only a matter of time before he passed on. It seemed like a good time to reflect on the milestones of his career, for which there were many.

Hopper acted in a lot of TV through the '50s and early '60s. A quick scan through his IMDb listing showed credits for just about any program you could name back then, from The Twilight Zone to Bonanza to The Big Valley to Combat! I think that kept his face in front of a lot of producers and agents. I first noticed him as the son of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor in GIANT. He showed a rebellious streak even then, playing a scion of a Texas millionaire who married a Mexican. I'll always remember the moment when his wife is denied service at a beauty salon; Hopper flips out and goes after James Dean for the slight.

Later on, he hitched a ride with John Wayne, playing the weak-willed son of bad guy James Gregory in Wayne's '60s classic, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER. But it was four years later that he scored a double play to end them all: writing, directing, and starring in EASY RIDER, the ultimate counter-culture classic, while simultaneously nailing a small but memorable part in conservative Wayne's Oscar winner, TRUE GRIT. I watched that scene again the other night, and noticed how Hopper's long hair is tied back in a ponytail in the scene. I thought how funny it would be that the Duke might not have had a clue what Hopper was doing on his own in Hollywood at the time. It's possible that Wayne knew about Hopper's tastes and politics and overlooked them, but somehow I kinda doubt it.

Hopper's career went into a long, slow decline after that memorable year, but he enjoyed a career resurgence in the late '80s similar to John Travolta's in the '90s. I loved his supporting performance as the drunken father in HOOSIERS, as well as his villainous role in SPEED. He had a very small part in Tony Scott's Tarantino-penned TRUE ROMANCE as Christian Slater's father, going toe-to-toe with crime boss Christopher Walken in a scene that was an actor's clinic. And he had one more notable TV role, too, as the villainous Victor Drazen on the first season of 24.

Here are my top Hoppers, in order of preference.

1. HOOSIERS (1986)

2. EASY RIDER (1969)

3. SPEED (1994)

4. 24 - Season One (2001-2002)

5. TRUE ROMANCE (1993)

6. GIANT (1956)

7. TRUE GRIT (1969)

8. THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (1965)

9. BLUE VELVET (1986)

10. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

A Nightmare to Sit Through

2010-05-03T22:17:00.002-04:00

I went to see the new remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street for Jackie Earle Haley. No, not because I owed him a favor or anything, but because I thought his casting as Freddy Krueger, stepping into Robert Englund's iconic finger-blades, was dead-on. I loved Haley as Rorschach in Watchmen -- he was the best thing in the movie -- and I've enjoyed him as the computer geek sidekick in the Fox drama Human Target. So I figured, what's not to like?

How about the fact that he barely registers under all that melted-cheese-pizza makeup and pitched-way-down-to-here gravel pit of a voice? How about that none of the "high schoolers" (and I use that term very loosely) look like they've seen the business end of a hall pass in about ten years? How about that the movie is so crammed with music stings and jump cuts -- the cheapest, laziest way to get a scream out of the horror film audience -- that you're bored inside of about 30 minutes?

This movie was designed to cash in on the horror remake craze quickly and get out of Dodge, which it seems to have done, taking the box office for one weekend before the Iron Man 2 juggernaut rolls into town. It's probably going to make back its investment, and a nice, tidy profit besides, which means we'll likely see Haley pull on the finger blades one more time. Well, somebody will. But not me, brother. This nightmare is over.

Give the new Nightmare 3 out of 10 stars. An early candidate for the Allie of 2010.

Clap for the Wolfman? Maybe a Little...

2010-02-14T18:55:00.002-05:00

I'll say it up front: I hadn't anticipated a movie this much since INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. Unfortunately, more often than not, the reality doesn't live up to the dream. THE WOLFMAN, twice postponed (a red flag right there), opened Friday, and considering it was an R-rated horror movie opening on the no. 1 date weekend of the year, $30 mil at the box office wasn't too bad. But I digress. I liked some of it; not enough to give it a big rave, but I think horror fans will be able to enjoy it.

This movie was championed by Benicio Del Toro; he starred in it, stuck by it when the first director dropped out and the release date was pushed back, even got a producer's credit for his efforts. And he turned out to be one of the best things in the movie. Del Toro does "tortured soul" very well, and he even bears a passing resemblance to Lon Chaney Jr, although I might be pushing that a bit. I liked what he brought to the tragic character of Lawrence Talbot, prodigal son returned just in time to take on the most iconic of all horror film curses. I liked the British actress Emily Blunt as Gwen Conliffe, the love interest. The two had a nice chemistry together. I was less enamored of Anthony Hopkins, chewing the scenery in the Claude Rains role as Del Toro' s father, Sir John. He was short, squat, looked like Louis Pasteur, and opened the door on a plot point that really sent the movie off the rails.

Which is a shame, because for a while there I really enjoyed myself. The look of THE WOLFMAN was spectacular; the production designer deserves some kind of award for the film. (Even though I knew much of what I was seeing, especially the long range shots of the mansion, was pure CGI.)

And speaking of CGI -- the transformation scenes (what you were allowed to see, anyway) were less than impressive. Rick Baker's legendary expertise was limited to close-up head shots of the creature; second-choice director Joe Johnston decided to forego a time-consuming transformation process a la Baker's masterpiece, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. He chose instead to let the computers run wild, and once again, we're presented with a gallery of faked CGI numbers that truly underwhelm. Let's face it; when you see the Wolfman leaping across city rooftops on all fours like a hungry husky, you kinda know you're not watching flesh and blood.

I'll give the film a qualified thumb's up for a good show from Del Toro, Blunt, and Baker. It's worth about 7 out of 10 stars. But purists of the 1941 film -- prepare to scream foul when that little plot point I mentioned earlier rears its ugly head. You'll want to take screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (SE7EN) and kick him in the nards. Because, after all, the wolfman has nards. Remember?

Super Bowl Movie Ads -- 2010 Edition

2010-02-07T23:44:00.002-05:00

It's hard to kill some traditions -- especially my annual look at the Super Bowl Movie Ads. The numbers were down slightly from last year's record 11 movie spots, but the quality was pretty good and stuck pretty closely to the target audience, with at least one glaring exception. Here are this year's spots, rated from 5 to 1 Smileys:

THE CRAZIES :) :) :) :) :) This was a shock, to see a horror remake at the top of the list; it didn't even show until the postgame festivities. But it was cut differently from the trailer, with some text screen captions that amped the tension for me. A remake of the Romero film about a small town infested with a bloodthirsty psychosis, it looks promising. This is what I look for in a Super Bowl Movie Ad: showing me something different.
SHUTTER ISLAND :) :) :) :) Very well-cut spot that highlights some of the creepiest images from Scorsese's adaptation of the Dennis Lehane thriller. It downplays the mental stability of a lead character (seen front-and-center in the trailer) in favor of eye-grabbing visuals. I'm actually looking forward to this one now, even though I know the ending from the book.
ROBIN HOOD :) :) :) :) They sneaked this one online the other day; I liked it then, and I like it now. Plays up the action/battle quotient, plays down the romance, although I think Cate Blanchett is the perfect choice for Maid Marian. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are back. Sounds like Gladiator crossed with Braveheart. No footage of the Merry Men that I could see.
THE WOLFMAN :) :) :) It loses at least one Smiley for not showing anything new. It holds onto at least three Smileys with an If-it-ain't-broke-why-fix-it? attitude. Opens this coming weekend -- finally.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND :) :) :) I'm not sure why this one was here, although it was fifth in a chronological line of eight and the first to make my son respond verbally, as in "I want to see that one." Eye-popping visuals, which is to be expected with anything featuring Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
THE LAST AIRBENDER :) :) Thirty seconds of frenetic, incomprehensible CGI action from M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong; I think this guy's career could officially be over. No. 1 Son said it's based on a video game; I'm not surprised.
PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME :) :) Thirty more seconds of even more incomprehensible CGI action, which John said was also based on a video game. Like a video game adaptation could be slow-moving.
THE BACK-UP PLAN :) I didn't realize thhis was a movie ad until it was almost over; it showed a strange, freaked-out childbirth class, and I thought, what are these guys selling? Then I thought, Hey! That's J-Lo! I didn't know she was pregnant! Then they flashed the title -- an actual movie. God help us. This movie's target audience was already in the theaters, watching Dear John, the latest weepie from Nicholas Sparks. They sure as hell weren't home watching the Super Bowl.

Biggest surprise omission, unless they put it on during the pre-game, which I highly doubt: Iron Man 2. The studio probably figured they didn't need to spend $3 mil on a film with a guaranteed $300 mil at the box office.

Quickie comments on the non-movie ads this year:
1. I love those E-Trade baby commercials. There were three, and they were all funny.
2. Putting Letterman and Leno together, with Oprah as the referee, was a stroke of genius.
3. I'm a sucker for ads with big names sending up their images, like the Brett Favre Hyundai ad, the Megan Fox Motorola ad, and Troy Polamalu subbing for the Punxsutawney groundhog. (That one was weird.)
4. The Careerbuilder.com "Casual Friday" ad was funny in an I-can't-believe-my-eyes-haven't-turned-away-yet sort of way. Lots of unflattering bodies in their tighty whities. As far from CGI as you can get.

What's Coming in 2010

2010-01-30T17:34:00.002-05:00

In place of a much-needed club meeting -- damn you, Mother Nature -- I find myself in front of the computer with nothing to do. (I've already vacuumed the house.) So I thought I'd resurrect an old Forum chestnut and lay out some key genre films to look for as the year moves along. There are some gems, some surprises, some train wrecks waiting to happen, some why-bother? remakes, and Saw VII 3D. 'Nuff said. Here ya go:

FEBRUARY

THE WOLF MAN. Hell, yes. And it opens on my birthday, to boot! I haven't looked forward to a movie this much since Inglourious Basterds. The trailer looks properly atmospheric, and it's got a great cast.
SHUTTER ISLAND. If I hadn't already read the Dennis Lehane novel that Martin Scorsese's film is based on, I'd probably be looking forward to this one more. But the trailer looks creepy; I didn't think Martin had it in him.
THE CRAZIES. Remake #1, but I'll be there, because it's based on the one George Romero movie I've never seen. (I think.)
And "Sleeper No. 1": FROZEN. I've seen the trailer; it looks intense. Early buzz on the geek sites is very high. Three friends get stuck on a ski lift when the resort shuts down for the weekend, and no one is coming back until the following weekend. Get the picture?

MARCH

CLASH OF THE TITANS. Remake #2. The first time I think Ray Harryhausen has ever been remade -- that's practically sacrilegious -- but once again, the trailer looks promising. (I'm a sucker for a well-cut trailer.) Sam Worthington is hot off AVATAR, and with Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades, who knows?

To be continued. We just ordered pizza, and I have to clear the sidewalk.

Goodbye, Spenser

2010-01-20T23:08:00.002-05:00

It's almost a day after I learned that a good friend of mine has died, and I'm still in shock. The fact that I've met this friend face-to-face just once in my life -- about 5 years ago -- is immaterial. I feel like I've known Robert B. Parker for years.

Parker was best known as the creator of the Spenser detective novels, centered around a tough Boston P.I. Robert Urich played the character in a short-lived TV series back in the '80s. Parker also created the character of Police Chief Jesse Stone, capably played by Tom Selleck in a recent series of TV movies. In addition, Parker created a series with a strong female lead, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, as well as a recent string of westerns featuring the pairing of guns-for-hire Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first of these, Appaloosa, was made into an excellent film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.

Parker was credited by many of his fellow writers as single-handedly saving the "hard-boiled" detective genre in the '70s when he created Spenser. His writing style was terse, direct, yet surprisingly witty, never more so than when Spenser would trade barbs with his friend Hawk, or repartee with his lady love, Susan Silverman. I've read so many Spenser novels that I've lost track of them all, but thanks to Parker's prolific output -- he averaged three or four books a year for many years -- I could always count on another title just around the next corner.

Several years ago, Parker appeared at the White Marsh Barnes & Noble for a book signing, and I attended. It gave me a chance to meet a real live "famous" author, and while Parker was never on the order of a Dan Brown or Stephen King, he was one of my favorites. That day I got him to sign his latest hardcover, a Sunny Randall novel, I got his publicist to take a picture of us together, and I asked him some questions, most of which I can no longer remember. However, I do remember one comment he made, a rather eerie one given today's context. He said that he worked so far ahead that he could die tomorrow and his publisher would have at least four books ready to go into print. Sure enough, the publisher noted today that a new Jesse Stone novel will be published next month, and several more books, including a few more Spenser novels, are "in the pipeline."

I plan to savor each and every one of them, one page at a time.

The Year in Netflix - 2009

2010-01-02T14:40:00.002-05:00

Without further ado, here's my list of movies watched via Netflix in 2009. As you can see, I really indulged my grindhouse tastes last year. But there were a few gems, as well.

THE YEAR IN NETFLIX RENTALS, 2009

SAHARA (Bogart)
BE KIND REWIND
SALO
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
FOUR FOR TEXAS
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER
THE KLANSMAN
SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM!
SHOGUN ASSASSIN
W.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
PUNISHER: WAR ZONE
LAKEVIEW TERRACE
ROMANCE
EXTREME PREJUDICE
SCHOOLGIRL REPORT: VOL. 1
SPLINTER
LAID TO REST
MARTYRS
THE UNINVITED
THE WRESTLER
CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
FEMALE PRISONER: CAGED!
DEFIANCE
THE KILLER ELITE
TRUE BLOOD: SEASON 1
12 ROUNDS
CALIGULA
BEDTIME STORIES
ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM
THE FURIES
DEXTER: SEASON 3
SPRING BREAK
THE H-MAN
MIDNIGHT BLUE: VOL. 6
THE YAKUZA
MAID IN SWEDEN
STREET KINGS
THE LAST HOUSE ON THE BEACH
THE HAPPENING
WHITE DOG
CHAMBER OF HORRORS
TRICK ‘R’ TREAT
WWE: HULK HOGAN’S UNRELEASED MATCHES
DAMIEN: OMEN II
OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT
CARRIERS
ORPHAN
THE PROPOSAL

I also watched the following instantly at my computer:

TWO-MINUTE WARNING
REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
DIGGSTOWN
MY FAVORITE YEAR
D.O.A.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE
DAWN OF THE DEAD
THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN
THE APES SEQUELS (BENEATH, ESCAPE, CONQUEST, BATTLE)
A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON
POSEIDON
GRINDHOUSE
PORKY’S
MR. WARMTH: THE DON RICKLES PROJECT

Yes, I do have a life. It just doesn’t seem that way from these lists.

The Best of 2009

2010-01-01T17:38:00.003-05:00

This will be a cry in the wilderness. Let me explain. The club still has an active forum, but no one has touched it since last winter. This blog hasn't been touched by human hands since last July. The chances of anyone -- anyone -- ever reading this are slim to none. So why bother? Because the ICSFiles is long since defunct, and I just can't seem to let go of my annual Top Ten Movies list. Call it a habit, a hobby, call it what you will. I still like doing it.

Once again, I have followed the rule of not listing the movie unless I have seen it in a movie theater in that calendar year. This is why you'll see last year's Best Picture on my list, but you won't see The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, or assorted other big releases this time around. Yes, I've seen Avatar, and yes, it made the list. Read on to find out where. You'll also see my honorable mentions, my choice for the Dog of the Year (the "Allie"), and my Blu-Ray purchases for 2009. In a separate post, I'll toss in my annual Year in Netflix Rentals. (More a confessional this year than in previous years.)

Here we go, in ascending order to No. 1:

10. DRAG ME TO HELL. Sam Raimi was back this year. No, not the superheroic Raimi; this was the bare-bones, balls-to-the-wall Raimi of his Evil Dead salad days, and what a pleasure it was to see him flex those creep-out muscles once more. The story was basically an extended Night Gallery episode about a loan officer dealing with a horrific gypsy curse, but the fun was in watching Raimi work his magic. He challenged himself to see if he could pull off a creepshow scream-a-thon on a PG-13 rating, and boy, did he deliver. I still get the chills remembering the moment when the dentures fell out.
9. UP. It's Pixar. Need I say more? Honestly, the only animation I even bother checking out in the theater has to have a Pixar label, because these guys haven't stubbed their toes yet. This time, we got an enchanting modern-day adventure story of a senior citizen who attaches a gazillion balloons to his house and floats away to South America, with an eager-beaver Boy Scout as a stowaway. The animation was bright and colorful, the story didn't talk down to anyone, and the opening no-dialogue sequence was one of the best scenes of the movie year.
8. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. Once again, Harry has made my list, and with good reason. The penultimate chapter of the series (sort of, since the last movie will be split in two) went darker than any that had come before, but there was still time for plenty of Hogwarts mischief. Once again, the cast was excellent; this time around, the casting gem was Jim Broadbent as Prof. Horace Slughorn, whose memory of Voldemort's school days provides Harry with a valuable clue.
7. SHERLOCK HOLMES. I anticipate this pick will probably raise the loudest howls, especially from Conan Doyle purists who object to director Guy Ritchie's take on the iconic detective. Robert Downey Jr., locking in his second franchise character, plays Holmes as a bare-knuckle brawler, adept with his fists as well as his brain. But his chemistry with Jude Law as Dr. Watson is undeniable; they really make the movie. The film, by the way, looks fantastic. The period detail is spot on, right down to the Tower Bridge as a construction "work in progress." The ending teleports an obvious sequel, which I hope they can make. I think Johnny Depp would make an excellent Moriarty.
6. ZOMBIELAND. Now this was a surprise. I think this is what you might get if you crossed Woody Allen with George Romero. Or maybe 28 Days Later with more laughs. Whatever the case, Zombieland was the funniest movie I saw in theaters last year, no question. Woody Harrelson (who had quite a career resurgence in 2009) plays a hardcore zombie killer who teams up with Jesse Eisenberg's slightly neurotic teenager in order to survive a zombie apocalypse. I thought Shaun of the Dead mined all the laughs that could be mined in such a premise, but Zombieland took off in a slightly different direction. It was hilarious. (And so was the year's most surprising cameo.)

I'll be back soon with the top half of my list.

A Nostalgic Love Letter to Comics

2009-07-12T16:19:00.002-04:00

I have very fond memories of reading the "Sunday Funnies" when I was a kid. Dad would bring the Sunday Pittsburgh Press in from the front porch and immediately strip the comics section and hand it to me. (Back then, the colorful Comics section worked as an eye-grabbing cover for the newspaper. Back then, the Sunday paper was a gigantic one-pound slab of newsprint, too -- but that's a sad rant for another day.)

I would collapse on the living room floor and spread the comics out in front of me. The front page of the section contained Peanuts above the fold, featuring "Good Ol' Charlie Brown," and Prince Valiant starred below the fold. In hindsight, I'm ashamed to say I usually skipped the Prince. I got the jokes of Peanuts immediately, but the lavish detail and strange, balloon-free below-the-art captions of Prince Valiant left me cold. I wish I could go back and look at all those old weekly strips of action and adventure that I missed.

DC Comics is helping me fix that mistake. They've started a 12-week experiment entitled Wednesday Comics, and it's just about the most fun I've had reading comics in a long time. The weekly issue comes packaged in the dimensions of a typical comic book, but it unfolds four times to the size of a newspaper -- 16 huge pages. Printed on newsprint, yet! Each page is a separate adventure featuring a different DC star, continued from week to week, and depending on your taste, you're bound to find something to like.

My favorites were Kamandi, with gorgeous art very reminiscent of the Prince Valiant days; a very solid Superman; a splashy, fun Metamorpho; and a Strange Adventures featuring Adam Strange that brought back the old style and appeal of Flash Gordon in a big way. There were a few minor nitpicks -- the Wonder Woman strip was way too busy and a tad hard to follow, not to mention a bit Disneyfied in its approach; and the Green Lantern strip didn't even bring on the hero until the final panel. But the rest of it was great.

It's a tough sell at $3.99 a week, but this is one comic that I think will lose something in the "graphic novel" trade paperback size. Who cares if it doesn't appreciate in value, and is likely to fade on the newsprint? That's the nostalgic point!

Fathers' Day

2009-06-21T17:44:00.003-04:00

It's Fathers' Day, and the tradition around our house is that I can do whatever I want. (The same goes for Mothers' Day and all three family birthdays.) The day started out OK; we skipped church, since the pilot light on our water heater was on the fritz, which meant no hot water for showers. I got the pilot relit, but only long enough for the three of us to clean up with fairly tepid water, so I put in a call for the plumber. Good thing I'm off for the next two months -- that could be how long we have to wait for the plumber.

Anyway, I got some nice things -- a CD of classic '60s tunes for our car trip to Maine next month, the newest John Sandford and Lee Child thrillers (standard Fathers' Day gifts for several years now), and a lifesize Gandalf the White walking staff. (John found it on the internet.) They took me to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and we were so stuffed that we brought our cheesecake home for dinner. Terri even indulged me with a browsing trip to Barnes & Noble. I considered going to a matinee with John, but the only thing playing that semi-interested me was The Hangover, which I was not about to take John to see, so we decided to crash at home. Which is how I wound up relaxing in front of the computer, enjoying life and reminiscing about my father.

My father wasn't around much after my folks split; my brothers chose to live with him down south, while I chose to stay behind and finish high school in Pennsylvania. But I do remember Dad taking me to movies when I was little. One of my earliest movie memories -- and this predates Jason and the Argonauts -- is of Dad taking me to see Lawrence of Arabia. I didn't last long; all I remember is the motorcycle crash at the beginning, and then I fell asleep. I also remember getting to see The Sword in the Stone, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and even The Birds, which was a pretty traumatic movie for a 5-year-old to see, let me tell you. Dad took me to all of those, and he was quick to give me a dollar on Saturday afternoon whenever I wanted to go catch a matinee with my buddies. He never really objected to any of the movies I asked to see. I was 9 when I saw a double feature matinee of Bonnie and Clyde and Cool Hand Luke with my older cousin, and in hindsight, those were two pretty "adult" movies for a 9-year-old to see without his parents.

The only time I remember my father objecting to one of my movie choices was when he heard I was planning to go see Love Story with my friends from school. He didn't think that was an appropriate movie for 12-year-old boys to see. Of course, that just made us want to see it even more. This was in direct contrast to the time I wanted to see Thunderball when I was 8, and my mother hit the roof. Dad just thought it was an action picture I would like. When my mother reminded him that the last James Bond picture had a naked girl covered in gold paint, Dad just looked at me and said, "Here's a buck. Have a good time."

Dad and I were apart for years, in more ways than one. I know that he always felt bad that he could never help me with my career, like the way he gave advice and guidance to my younger brothers. I was interested in writing and journalism as a career when I went to college, and later, when I turned to teaching, Dad was even more at a loss. (We're talking about a guy whose love letter to my mother in her senior yearbook contained 7 spelling errors, including "kat." I'm serious.)

But we became closer once I was on my own in Baltimore, starting my teaching career (and a family, as well). Whenever Terri and I (and John, when he arrived) would drive to South Carolina for a visit, movies were almost always on the agenda. Dad loved to take the whole family, including all of the grandchildren, out to a movie, where he could play the host, insisting on paying for everyone's ticket and buying all the popcorn and soda. I remember the Christmas of 1997, when John was five. Dad wanted to see Titanic, but there was no way his 5-year-old grandson would sit still for three hours, so Grandma and Terri took John to see Mouse Hunt while "Pop-Pop" and I went to see Titanic. I remember watching that film with my father, the history buff. There was a moment when Dad looked puzzled and whispered to me, "The lights on that boat should have gone out by now," and an instant later, the ship's lights onscreen blinked out. Swear to God.

Then there was the time -- the last time my Dad came to Baltimore, as it turned out -- when Dad and John and I went to see a matinee of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I was eager to get his opinion on the film, and was a little disappointed when Dad said he wasn't crazy for it. His words: "Too much of that Gollum guy." Of course, I loved the movie, which I kept to myself.

My final trip to the movies with Dad was our summer 2006 visit the year before he died. Dad, my brother Jimmy, and I went to see Superman Returns while the ladies went to see The Devil Wears Prada. (John was at Scout Camp.) I remember Dad saying there was "no damn way (he) was going to see a Meryl Streep fashion movie." Dad fell asleep three times. I saw the Prada movie on Netflix a year ago, and I remember thinking that Dad called that one wrong.

Dad died in October of 2007, and we knew that my stepmother Karyn would want family around her for the holiday, so we all went down to visit that Christmas. Once again, the family (a grandmother, three sons, three spouses, and four grandchildren) gathered together and went to see a movie: National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I remember not liking the movie very much; most of us thought it was just a retread of the first movie. But, thinking back on it now, maybe Dad's absence had something to do with it, too.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

My Favorite Summer Movie

2009-06-11T16:22:00.002-04:00

Over at AintitCool.Com, they're running a blog thread about various writers' favorite summer movies. I'm not talking about this summer's best movies. I'm talking about the one movie in your life that comes to mind when you think "summer." For many people it has been Jaws, for others, it has been one of the Star Wars movies. Jaws is indeed a great "summer movie," and it would be my second choice. But my no. 1 choice for my most cherished summer movie experience harkens back to 1978, and National Lampoon's Animal House.

I chose Animal House because I saw it twice in the late summer of 1978, and the second viewing was even better than the first, which is pretty rare. Initially, I saw it with my cousin in mid-August, not long before I went back to Penn State for my junior year. (My cousin was the guy with whom I had seen the first Star Wars only the year before.) I remember we laughed -- a lot. The theater was not far from St. Vincent College, which the Pittsburgh Steelers used as a training camp site (and still do), and I'm pretty sure the last couple rows of the theater were filled with Steelers players laughing their heads off along with the rest of us.

But the second viewing is what cinched my choice for me. Less than two weeks later, I was back on campus, and about 15 to 20 of us, male and female alike, banded together after lunch one afternoon during orientation week and walked downtown to the local two-screener to catch a matinee of Animal House. The place was jammed with raucous, screaming college students. I can't remember the last time, before or since, when a theater crowd elevated my enjoyment of a film to such heights. It really felt like a shared experience; we were a community, claiming this movie for ourselves. Hell, the movie was about college students! WE WERE COLLEGE STUDENTS!!! Well, most of us weren't as depraved and disgusting in our behavior as John Belushi, but we tried. That year, we tried a lot. (Belushi -- now there's a comic actor I really miss.)

The matinee that afternoon touched off what turned out to be my favorite year of the four I spent at Penn State. There was the dance marathon (where my partner and I placed second), our Sugar Bowl bout with Alabama, my interview with the singers following a Hall and Oates concert, and my first steps into my journalism major. It was a memorable year, and it began with my all-time favorite summer movie experience.

What's yours?

May Movie Madness: Coming Up for Air

2009-05-17T00:32:00.002-04:00

It's happening again, only worse. Three years ago, the stars were aligned in May 2006 to offer up a movie-a-week -- literally, a new movie every week that I was just dying to see. I planned it out months in advance, letting Terri know about my plans so she would be prepared with the customary eye rolls, shoulder shrugs, and what-can-I-do?-my-husband's-an-idiot looks. One after the other, I scoped MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III, POSEIDON, THE DA VINCI CODE, and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. In hindsight, of course, not the best of months. Now here comes May 2009, looking to blast May 2006 out of the Ward Record Books, and -- surprise, surprise! -- my wife is coming along for part of the ride.

Here's the rundown, only partially filled at this time: WOLVERINE, STAR TREK, ANGELS & DEMONS, TERMINATOR: SALVATION, NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN, UP, and DRAG ME TO HELL. Actually, my wife doesn't know about that last one yet, but by the time May 29th rolls around, she'll be too exhausted to care.

The verdict? WOLVERINE -- disappointing. STAR TREK -- An outstanding reboot to the franchise. ANGELS & DEMONS -- surprisingly entertaining. The rest of them -- well, I hope the best is yet to come. Although they'll have to go far to give STAR TREK a run for its money. For a change, I'm not pontificating. (Sorry to disappoint you, Chaz.) I'll wait for the May picnic meeting.

Then I'll pontificate. (Just watch 'em head for the door. Heh, heh.)

P.S. And what about Terri, might you ask? Well, she liked ANGELS & DEMONS a lot more than DA VINCI CODE, as I did. And she's the main reason NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM is on the calendar -- she laughed a lot at the first one. Plus, she wants to see UP as much as I do. Three date movies in less than a month -- it's like 1989 all over again, but with higher ticket prices.

Watchmen on DVD

2009-05-07T06:56:00.001-04:00

Hey John,

How come everything else comes out on DVD in 30 seconds and a movie like Watchmen, which didn't burn up the box office is set for a July release???? I am really jonesing for that one.

So Much For the Superhero Winning Streak

2009-05-03T19:47:00.002-04:00

2008 was a great year for comic geeks at the movies, with the success of Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and to a lesser extent, The Incredible Hulk and Wanted. But 2009, unfortunately, has not gotten off to the same flying start. Watchmen turned out to be overrated and somewhat pretentious, and now, here comes Wolverine, the Canuck with Claws, stepping away from X-Men "group mode" to fly solo. It's bits and pieces of a fun movie that don't add up to a whole heck of a lot.

Wolverine is, arguably, the most popular character in the Marvel Comics stable, so it was only natural that the powers that be would send him out on his own, sooner or later. (It helps when you give Hugh Jackman, the man with the claws, a producer's credit. Not to mention letting him film the thing in his own Australian backyard. What, did Canada decide to raise its taxes?) But the movie was such a mess, I found myself nitpicking from the get-go.

Let's start with the background detail, which takes up the first 15 minutes. I've gotten along perfectly well without Wolverine's backstory for over 30 years, thank you very much. I really didn't need to know that his real name is -- or was -- James Howlett, and as a child, he suffered the trauma of unwittingly killing his ...oh, please. If you can't fill in that blank on your own, you've already failed Screenwriting Cliches 101.

I think I knew from the comics (It's hard to say, since I haven't read Wolverine or X-Men regularly since about '95) that Wolverine has always had some sort of blood feud going with the psychotic Sabretooth. That little tidbit is given ample screen time here, with Wolverine and Sabretooth as half-brothers bouncing from one war to the next across the decades. I guess the "healing factor" that makes Wolverine a mutant also works as its own immortality drug. (Well, at the very least, it must slow the mortal part down a lot.) Wolverine/James Howlett/Logan/Who the hell knows? is recruited by Col. William Stryker for a special ops detail made up of other secretive mutants, and Sabretooth comes with him, mainly for the chance to kill lotsa folks legally. Stryker, played by the older Brian Cox in X2, is played here with equally bureaucratic smarm by Danny Huston, who I liked as the head vampire in 30 Days of Night. Knowing that Stryker has to live so he can cause all sorts of mischief in X2 kind of takes away the suspense, but that's the way it is with prequels, folks.

I have to note that I liked Liev Schreiber's portrayal of Sabretooth. Even though he looks nothing like the comic book character, Schreiber is a hell of an actor, and he chews into his role (literally) with feral glee. The movie wakes up every time he comes onscreen, which is often enough to warrant a Netflix rental down the road, I guess.

But one good performance is not enough to save this movie. There's all sorts of things going on here that really make no sense. For instance, why would Stryker spend a kazillion dollars to turn Wolverine into an adamantium-laced force of nature, then attempt to kill him when he doesn't want to play ball? Can bureaucrats be that petty? (Dumb question.) Soon after Wolverine goes on the run, he meets up with Ma and Pa Kent (or wait -- was that Uncle Ben and Aunt May?), a pair of walking homespun cliches with targets on their backs whose sole reason for being in the film is to give Wolverine another excuse for opening a mega-can of whoopass on the bad guys. (As if Jackman needed another reason, being stuck in this movie and all.)

I was waiting for something special, and kept getting stiffed. Even the CGI was lame this time around. The claws looked painted into the frame, and as for that final smackdown -- wouldja believe Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Deadpool duking it out atop the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor? No damn way that's going to look real.

I think the saddest part was waiting until after the end credits for what has now become the signature of all Marvel Comics movies: the "special surprise" extra scene. Even that was boring. I read somewhere that they actually have a couple of different "special surprise" scenes playing at the end of different prints of the film, and if you want to see them all, you have to see the film multiple times. Fat chance of that. I'll wait for the inevitable special edition Blu-Ray. Maybe.

Give Liev Schreiber 4 stars out of 10, tack on an extra 2 stars for a cool helicopter fight scene, and you've got something that's worth a rental on a rainy day. Me, I'm already counting the hours until the Star Trek premiere.

Harper's Island

2009-04-10T01:07:00.002-04:00

I caught the premiere episode of the new CBS mystery thriller Harper's Island earlier tonight, and I was hoping someone else on the blog had seen it, too. It's a surprisingly effective take on the old And Then There Were None plot device -- if Agatha Christie had been inclined to dabble in Italian giallo, that is.

A couple of dozen invited guests are boated out to an island resort off the coast of Washington state to attend a wedding. There are the usual soap opera touches -- the from-poverty groom "isn't good enough to marry" the rich bride, the groom's childhood friend must revisit the scene of a family tragedy, ex-boyfriends show up, yadda yadda yadda. It's all set-up for what CBS is really trying to sell: a creepy, violent, 13-week serial killer show.

Because it seems that the guests are going to die, one by one. (CBS even adds a crawl inviting people to log on and vote to predict next week's victim.) The premiere episode actually offered two shocking deaths for the price of one, bookending the show. The first one (Say, have you seen Cousin Ben?) is surprisingly gruesome for network TV, and you immediately find yourself wondering just how far CBS, the home of the geezer demographic, is willing to go.

Evidently pretty damn far, if the second death is any indication. It's shocking on two levels -- the way it is filmed, and the identity of the victim. The viewer is immediately reminded of the death of Janet Leigh in Psycho, and I was left with the feeling that all bets are off. I'll be back to see it next week, and if the storyline improves, I might just last until this thing wraps in July. Which is more than I can say for most of the cast, apparently.

Last Gasp (?) of the Senator

2009-04-04T09:55:00.002-04:00

You know how people are supposed to go through all these stages of grief with the death process? Denial, anger, etc, etc. to a final acceptance? It's hard to say where the Senator Theater sits in this process, but if last night is any indication, denial is in full swing.

A couple of us -- Charlie Wittig, Dava Sentz, Gary Svehla, Gus Russo, and me -- went to the late showing of Horror of Dracula at the Senator last night, which no-longer-quite-the-owner Tom Kiefaber described as a donation from a private collector. There were many visible scratches in the print, but the color was bright and it was the Senator! This was only the second time I had ever seen a Hammer Dracula on the big screen, and if this turned out to be my final movie at this historic movie house, then Horror of Dracula certainly made just as fitting a send-off as The Godfather, which I saw last fall.

There were dozens and dozens of posters piled against the walls of the lobby, mostly selling for $20 a pop. There were also many promo t-shirts for sale -- Betts, you'll find some Star Wars shirts there -- but the hottest seller seemed to be piles and piles of the actual black aluminum marquee letters, which were going for $10 each. I was tempted to buy a couple of those, but wound up walking out with a very nice re-issue poster of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Kiefaber mentioned that there were a lot of "flea market folks" waiting at the door when the theater opened that afternoon, but what those folks didn't realize was that the best stuff wasn't coming out first, because they were putting out the most recent things, which would be on the top of the pile in their storage rooms. Kiefaber figures the oldest posters, etc. would be toward the bottom of the pile. Sure enough, when we exited the theater, the marquee letters had been re-stocked and there were fresh (well, fresher) t-shirts on the tables.

He also said they planned to show a few more movies in the next few weeks, with possibly another late feature. Senator fans (or just simply fans of movies) should take note.

The Hunt for Gollum

2009-04-02T09:44:00.005-04:00

I just found out about this and thought I'd share: http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/

An explanation of the movie, taken from the website:

The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.

It's independently funded and fan made, so they are not looking to make any money. They include this disclaimer-
The Hunt For Gollum is an unofficial non-profit film being made for private use, and is not intended for sales of any sort. No money is being made from this film, and no one was paid to make it. It is in no way sponsored or approved by Tolkien Enterprises, the Tolkien Estate, Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema or any affiliates. This work is produced solely for the personal, uncompensated enjoyment of ourselves and other Tolkien fans. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

That's called covering their asses. : )

It will be released online for free on May 3, 2009.

The thing is, the trailer actually looks good. They must have some sort of decent budget, because the orcs (in the little we see of them in the trailer) look really good. Fan-made stuff can, er, vary in quality, but this really looks like it falls on the high end of the scale. I have seen some fan shorts that make you wince, and some that make you go "YAH!!" this is one of the latter.

After watching the trailer, I am kinda looking forward to it now. It may be a good canidate for an after the meeting viewing.

Heroes and Villains

2009-03-29T18:52:00.004-04:00

Entertainment Weekly, in its far-less-than-infinite wisdom, has come out with another of their polls designed to tick people off (like me) and get them writing (also like me). This one's on the Top 20 Heroes and Villains of All Time, combining movie and television characters within the same list. Some of their choices are spot-on, others just plain flat-out insane. Here are their lists. See how many you agree with.

Top 20 Heroes:

1. James Bond
2. Indiana Jones
3. Superman
4. Harry Potter
5. Ellen Ripley (the Alien movies)
6. John McClane (Die Hard)
7. Han Solo
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9. Robin Hood
10. Spider-man
11. Mad Max
12. James T. Kirk
13. Foxy Brown
14. Will Kane (High Noon)
15. Harry Calahan
16. Jack Bauer (24)
17. Nancy Drew
18. Batman
19. Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
20. Sydney Bristow (Alias)

Top 20 Villains:

1. The Wicked Witch of the West
2. Darth Vader
3. Hannibal Lecter
4. The Joker
5. Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
6. Mr. Burns (The Simpsons)
7. Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct)
8. Voldemort (Harry Potter and..well, everything)
9. Dracula
10. Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
11. J.R. Ewing
12. Norman Bates (Psycho)
13. Frank Booth (Blue Velvet)
14. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
15. Snow White's Evil Queen
16. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
17. Michael Myers (Halloween)
18. Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
19. Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction)
20. Jack Torrance (The Shining)

On the one hand, it was nice to see older characters like Robin Hood, Atticus Finch, and the Wicked Witch represented. But on the other hand... Gordon Gekko? Mr. Burns?? Nancy Drew??!!?? Are you @#$%ing kidding me? I'll add a post later with my own choices, after I give it some thought. Hmmmmm.....

Hollwood: DEAD and Rotting Fast.....

2009-03-26T05:31:00.002-04:00

CLICK HERE

The Last House on the Left

2009-03-15T09:31:00.002-04:00

Yes, I went to see The Last House on the Left. Why not? I'm the guy who sees all these movies. I might have missed stuff like The Reader and Milk, but by God, I've seen My Bloody Valentine 3D and Friday the 13th. And now I've seen this remake of the Wes Craven cult film (something in my brain just prohibits me from calling it a "classic") about revenge.

I'm not even sure it's a horror film. I guess it's closer to some of those torture porn films that have been the rage for several years now, but seem to have been petering out (except for the annual Saw Halloween gasp). I can't remember ever watching the original Last House all the way through, but I understand from folks who've been there that it's a hard one to take. Quick premise (although, if you're reading this blog, chances are excellent you already know): two teenage girls out for a fun drive are waylaid by a pack of scuzzy psychos, who proceed to rape, abuse, and kill them. The psychos are forced to hole up in a house owned by the parents of one of the girls, which even Wes Craven himself admits is one of the all-time greatest ironies in movie history. When the parents realize who they've got as guests, all hell really breaks loose.

That's the original premise. I'm going to go ahead and break my cardinal spoiler rule by telling you right here that the new movie makes one huge change to the "rape, abuse, and kill" part, a character choice that plays out in the second half of the movie. Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter play the parents, and their acting chops are several cuts above what this type of film usually employs (or deserves). I actually enjoyed their performances, as well as the performance of Sara Paxton, who plays their daughter.

This movie is really big on foreshadowing. For example, the fact that Paxton's character is a champion swimmer? Hell, you just know that'll come into play later on. Then there's the moment where Dad can't seem to fix the microwave. I won't even go there.

I'm going to give this film a 6.5 out of 10. The extra half-star is just so it'll be ranked slightly ahead of Watchmen, a movie I wanted to enjoy a lot more than I did. I guess I wasn't expecting as much out of Last House, and I wound up liking it just a bit more. How's that for irony?

Quick question: Is it possible for a microwave oven to function properly with the door open? Just curious...

Watchmen

2009-03-14T20:46:00.002-04:00

Well, I had planned on attending the Watchmen Movie Event, when that morning Dad asks me to help him put together a bookcase. I had visions of my 78 year old father, who has many strengths but building things is NOT one of them, putting this together. So that's how I spent my morning. I still haven't seen it yet.

24

2009-03-09T23:51:00.002-04:00

I'm starting this blog in defiance of those anonymous folks (anonymous according to Hendo, anyway) who'd rather not talk about TV shows like 24 at club meetings because they're not genre material, or something along those lines. Hah! HAH, I say! It is to laugh, I tell you!

Because...24 has rediscovered its mojo, kids. If tonight's episode is any indication, the show has returned to the heady heights of Season 5, also known as the Year of the Ratbag President, otherwise known as the Year of You Won't Know What's Coming Next. SPOILER ALERT... 24 lost a major player tonight, and it sent the show spinning off into a frantic new direction. I think Jon Voight is going to turn out to be a megavillain on the scale of Gregory Itzin's President Logan. I can't wait to see the next episode, and I haven't been able to say that for a couple of years. (Of course, that's partially due to the Writers' Strike.)

Now I have to figure out how I'm going to watch the season finale, because I'm pretty sure it's lined up for the same night (May 18) that I'll be in DC at the Springsteen concert. I guess if anything will make me miss Jack Bauer's Season 7 finale, it'll be the Boss.

Watchmen

2009-03-09T22:21:00.006-04:00

Who watches the watchmen cakes?

And of course, some ice cream to go with them.

Shoot 'em Up

2009-03-09T00:39:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine told me the story of her and her husband watching this movie and it intrigued me enough to want to see it.

Straight out of IMDB -

Shoot 'Em Up is a 2007 action/thriller/black comedy film written and directed by Michael Davis and produced by Susan Montford, Don Murphy and Rick Benattar. It was released in September 2007.

The film follows "Mr. Smith" (Clive Owen), a drifter who appears to have an extensive military background and a fondness for carrots who wants nothing more than to be left alone.

Smith finds himself embroiled in a complex political conspiracy once he aids a pregnant woman who is going into labour while being chased by a hitman. After the woman is killed, he takes the baby and goes on the run with a lactating prostitute named Donna (Monica Bellucci).

The unlikely family is trailed by the intelligent and ruthless Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his army of thugs. A plethora of elaborate gunfights ensue, between which Smith pieces together the real story. More gunfights and car chases and more gunfire and incredible situations, escapes, rescues and more gunfights.

*edited slightly so not to give too much away

It was incredible to say the least and amazing to say the most. I would love to learn the number of gunshots fired/bullets used. I would imagine that for at least 70 of the 86 minute movie there were guns being fired.

Oh, lots of blood, lots of wild escapes, sliding across floors as they are shooting, leaping across building, crashing thru windows, surviving 50 hoods coming to get you and almost none of them surviving. Yes, there is action, some black comedy, even some mystery as things unfold. I was even reminded of Raising Arizona for a minute or two in the way things proceeded.

I suggest, if you haven't seen it already, go, go watch it soon. But be prepared.

Watchmen

2009-03-07T22:28:00.002-05:00

John and I went to see WATCHMEN at the AMC White Marsh IMAX this afternoon, and I was disappointed that more club members didn't decide to check out the 12:30 show. Mr. Diggin was in attendance (hey, Tom!) and we talked a bit about the movie afterward. I'll let Tom share his views at the March club meeting. As for me, I was a little underwhelmed.

It certainly wasn't the technical wizardry that turned me off. The movie looks great; director Zach Snyder and his crew of FX wizards have captured exactly how the most celebrated graphic novel of all time should look on the screen. Which, I think, is the big problem.

I'm a huge fan of the original Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic; my son got me the ultimate hardcover edition for my birthday, and while I have been savoring it, he pretty much swallowed it whole, sort of a preparation for seeing the film. He loved the book, and liked the movie, but he agreed with my feelings. Snyder has basically recreated the novel; he's copied it, scene for scene, line for line, and in many cases, almost shot for shot. That kind of approach doesn't leave much room for inspiration. It really stifles the film, IMHO.

I think Snyder just plain lacks the vision. You can't say he was afraid of offending the author, because super-curmudgeon Alan Moore, who also created From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, had already blasted the filmmakers for daring to make the film. (He basically considers his works unfilmable.)

I can't help comparing Snyder to Peter Jackson. Jackson did something very similar -- he dared to adapt a genre legend, one that many folks felt was impossible -- but he breathed new life into a classic, insinuating his own imagination into The Lord of the Rings, extending scenes and deepening characters. By contrast, there's absolutely nothing in WATCHMEN that wasn't first done (better) in the graphic novel.

With one very important exception. I have to admit that Jackie Earle Haley did a fantastic job as Rorschach, the psychotic in the trenchcoat and inkblot mask. You could tell that was a real actor working under that mask -- something I hadn't seen since Hugo Weaving in V FOR VENDETTA (by coincidence, another Moore work.) Haley really buried himself in the role, and when he ripped his mask off to face Dr. Manhattan at the end, you could see the anguish of a scarred lifetime running across his face. It was an Oscar-caliber performance in an otherwise forgettable cast.

I'm really interested to hear what the rest of you thought of the film, and believe me, if you loved it, say so -- I loved the graphic novel, too. I guess I was just expecting a little more than a simple retread on the screen. I'd give WATCHMEN 6 out of 10 stars.

2 Reasons to Check Out Joblo.com

2009-03-07T22:15:00.002-05:00

Joblo.com has been around for quite a while, and as movie geek sites go, it has almost as much staying power (and a bit more variety) than Aint-it-Cool-News.com. However, there's something that Joblo does very well that AintitCool can't even touch, and that's its love of video clips. The site has several sidebar movie clip vaults, including "Hottie of the Day" (There ya go, Hendo my boy) and "Awful Good" (hilarious clips from bad movies), but my two favorites are "Kill of the Day" and "Money Shots."

"Kill of the Day" is exactly what it sounds like: a grisly (and often humorous) death scene from a well-known film. They're up to about 168 or so; the most recent "Kill" was the climax of "Fellowship of the Ring," in which Boromir is shafted thrice by an Uruk-hai and avenged by Aragorn with a pretty sweet beheading. Then there's "Money Shots," which is simply a classic scene from a classic modern-day film. They're up to 107. The very first one was Quint's telling of the Indianapolis story from the original "Jaws," and recent "Money Shots" have included the appearance of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from "Ghostbusters," the long bank robbery/shoot-out from "Heat," Robert DeNiro's bat-wielding talk about "baseball" from "The Untouchables," and Christopher Walken"s presentation of the watch from "Pulp Fiction." "Money Shots" is simply unbelievable; every time I click on, the scene is one of my favorites. It's like these guys at Joblo live inside my movie geek mind. You can start clicking backward through the clips and before you know it, three hours have gone by. Trust me; I've been there. If you want to gorge on the great scenes, make sure you've got a cable modem and a fast broadband download and check out Joblo.

What's in Your Netflix Queue?

2009-03-05T23:23:00.002-05:00

I was curious to see what everyone else was watching on Netflix these days -- those of us who subscribe, that is. It's fun to compare movie tastes, and often surprising to find out how varied those tastes truly are. If you're sitting there wondering, "How the hell do I know what I watch on Netflix?" -- it's easy to backtrack. Just log on to their website and click your rental history. Here's what I've been watching. There are more than a few surprises, I'm sure. If you're a Blockbuster groupie instead of a Netflixer, well---that's OK, too.

NETFLIX: THE YEAR IN JOHN'S RENTALS, 2008
SUPERBAD
THE HEARTBREAK KID
HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (The classic with Claude Rains)
DEAD RECKONING (Humphrey Bogart)
EASTERN PROMISES
BALLS OF FURY
DEATH SENTENCE
BREAKHEART PASS
COUNT DRACULA (Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom -- not that good)
THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU
THE KING OF KONG
THE SOPRANOS: SEASONS 5 AND 6
WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY
SCARFACE (1932)
THE UNDYING MONSTER
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
M (The Fritz Lang classic, with Peter Lorre in an amazing performance)
GOOD LUCK CHUCK
DIARY OF THE DEAD
THE BRAVE ONE
CHISUM
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
JOHN ADAMS (HBO Miniseries)
LET'S DO IT AGAIN
THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD
THE MACHINE GIRL
WEREWOLF SHADOW (Paul Naschy)
SEMI-PRO
JUMPER
MANDINGO
THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY (Hammer non-horror)
THE TERROR OF THE TONGS (Hammer non-horror, part 2)
TALES FROM THE CRYPT
DRILLBIT TAYLOR
THE NARROW MARGIN
THE GAME PLAN
ACROSS 110TH STREET
COMANCHE MOON (Miniseries)
DEXTER: SEASON 2
GRIZZLY RAGE
LEATHERHEADS
88 MINUTES
ILSA, HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS
YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN
WRESTLEMANIAC
THE SUBSTITUTE
RUN, FATBOY, RUN
3:10 TO YUMA (1957)
NIGHT GALLERY: SEASON 1 (This show does not hold up well.)
FRED CLAUS
THE HOUSE BUNNY
DEATH RACE
EAGLE EYE
And that's a wrap…

The Best of 2008

2009-03-05T23:19:00.002-05:00

THE BEST FILMS OF 2008
10. DOOMSDAY I saw Neil Marshall's third directorial effort early in the year, and I remember thinking it was a really messy batch of homages to other films, like THE ROAD WARRIOR and EXCALIBUR. But when I watched it again on DVD, I was struck by how closely it mirrored the time-honored traditions of the grindhouse cinema: violence, gore, beautiful women, and stuff that blows up real good. Marshall filmed it all at a breakneck pace, or as fast as you can film it without resorting to jerky-cam. Thank God. DOOMSDAY was the best grindhouse movie since -- well, GRINDHOUSE.
9. THE INCREDIBLE HULK A great year for comic book films begins with this re-invention of the Big Green. (I still refuse to call it a sequel.) Edward Norton, Tim Roth, William Hurt, and even Liv Tyler imbue the flick with some excellent acting chops, but there's plenty of well-orchestrated action to go around, and the set pieces are first-rate. I had a lot of fun with this movie -- it was the film that Ang Lee's movie should have been, but wasn't.
8. ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO This was my introduction to the world of director Kevin Smith. I was warned ahead of time that Smith's movies are notorious for their heavy use of profanity, and that turned out to be true -- this movie made SCARFACE sound like TOY STORY. But at its heart was a very sweet romantic comedy about a couple of old friends and housemates who discover true love by getting into amateur porn (as a means to pay the rent. No, really.) Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks make a winning couple, and their chemistry is undeniable. Bottom line -- there was only one other movie this year that made me laugh harder. (More on that in a bit.)
7. APPALOOSA Just when I think that the western genre truly is dead, along comes a guy like Ed Harris to prove me wrong. Harris and Viggo Mortensen are perfectly cast as two old friends who make a living going from town to town as enforcers, kind of "marshals for hire." Their arrival in the town of Appaloosa is met with relief; the chicken-hearted town fathers hire Ed and Viggo to give bossman Jeremy Irons the boot (or the bullet). Renee Zellweger arrives to throw a garter belt into the festivities and screw everything up. But I liked the movie anyway. Harris, as a director, knows exactly how to film a western. The film is gorgeous and consistently interesting.
6. IRON MAN During the first half of the year, it seemed that comic geeks were waiting anxiously for a certain bat-themed movie to have its premiere, so when Jon Favreau's glorious adaptation of the Marvel comic character Iron Man arrived in early May to steal some of the bat's comic geek thunder, it was something of a shock. In hindsight, we really should have seen it coming. Robert Downey Jr.'s career was on life support, but no more: I couldn't imagine anyone else playing Tony Stark with such conviction. He was that good. Favreau treated the source material with respect, but not to the point of slavishness; the story was updated for a new millennium, and it all worked. I can't wait to see what Downey and Favreau do with the sequel.
5. DOUBT Regretfully, I had missed the original stage version of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play when it was in residence at the Hippodrome last year. (I'm even more regretful now, knowing that Cherry Jones, the Tony-winning actress who brought her part to Baltimore, will be all over the new season of 24 as the first female president.) But I was drawn to the film by the cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and rising star Amy Adams. Watching Streep and Hoffman go toe-to-toe was to watch a master acting class in session. Streep plays the principal of a New York catholic school circa 1964, and Hoffman plays the parish's much-loved priest. Adams is worried that Hoffman might be a pedophile, but she has no proof -- just suspicions and some very flimsy circumstantial evidence. When she brings her fears to Streep, the stage is set for a confrontation like no other onscreen this year. It is to writer/director Shanley's credit that the ambiguity of the play has been kept intact; I couldn't imagine another film this year bringing on more arguments after watching it.
4. TROPIC THUNDER This was the funniest film of the year, no contest. It was also a comeback of sorts for Tom Cruise, a scathing satire of the movie biz, and a balls-out attack on the prima donna attitudes so common in Hollywood. I laughed a lot -- at Ben Stiller's thick-headed action hero, at Jack Black's usual comic anarchy, at Robert Downey's take on "playing black," and especially at Cruise's profane producer, pulling the strings of Stiller's Vietnam film-within-a-film from afar. The cast is packed with funny guys: Nick Nolte as the technical advisor who doesn't know as much as people think he does, Steve Grogan as the put-upon director (who exits the movie quickly and hilariously), and Danny McBride as the tech whiz who knows how to blow stuff up. This is a movie you have to watch from the very beginning to the very end -- nuff said.
3. U2 3D/SHINE A LIGHT Here's where I'm cheating a little, squeezing 11 films into a ten-film list, but I couldn't separate these two high-energy concert films. I saw the U2 film at the Maryland Science Center last winter, in IMAX and a new process called Real3D; I was immersed in the sights and sounds of a U2 concert, and at times I felt like I was truly in the middle of it. SHINE A LIGHT was Martin Scorsese's powerful documentary of the Rolling Stones' final concerts of their 2006 tour, filmed at New York's Beacon Theater. The U2 film sticks strictly to the concert and lets the IMAX and 3D effects provide the "wow." Scorsese intercuts his concert footage with some archival interviews of the Stones when they were much younger and a little more innocent. Both films breathe new life into a genre previously thought to be deader than the western.
2. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON I respect David Fincher as a director, although I still have a hard time trying to figure out FIGHT CLUB. His earlier films, especially SE7EN and ZODIAC, showed how skillful he is at illuminating obsessions onscreen. But nothing he had done before prepared me for the wonders of BENJAMIN BUTTON. The movie's epic feel is something alien (no pun intended, Undead) to Fincher's work, but he grounds his epic in a simple romance that spans decades. I think people will compare this film needlessly to FORREST GUMP, since both films were written by Eric Roth, and they both contain some striking similarities in tone and character. But Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are perfect in the lead roles, Pitt in the title role of a man who is born old, getting younger as the years pass, and Blanchett matching him as his star-crossed love. There is important CGI work here that showcases Pitt as he regresses in age, but it's not really overly showy -- it works. I enjoyed every minute of BENJAMIN BUTTON. It's the best film David Fincher has ever made.
1. THE DARK KNIGHT I thought long and hard last night about this film's place on the list in relation to BENJAMIN BUTTON. Twice before, I had felt certain that a particular film would take my no. 1 slot, only to be dethroned on the very last day of the year (MUNICH dethroned SIN CITY, and SWEENEY TODD did likewise to GRINDHOUSE.) Not this time, folks. THE DARK KNIGHT was the movie of the year for me, a peerless spectacle of action, acting, storyline, cinematography, music, and atmosphere. By now, everyone knows about the late Heath Ledger's bravura performance as the Joker, but let's not forget Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart -- the list goes on. It's not just the greatest comic book movie ever made -- it's simply the best overall film I've seen since THE LORD OF THE RINGS. It's due to be re-released in late January, around Oscar nominating season, and into IMAX theaters, to boot. I can't wait to see it again.

I can't let this year's top ten list pass without acknowledging the second best time I had at the movies in 2008 -- the night I introduced No. 1 Son to the pleasures of THE GODFATHER. We were lucky enough to see a newly-struck remastered print at the Senator, and it was one of the highlights of the year for me. For my son, too. Being a stickler for the rules, though, I decided to leave it off my list. I'm such a wuss.

HONORABLE MENTION There were a number of films that I really liked last year, but they just missed making the top ten. Special "Eleventh Place" awards go out to THE RUINS, KUNG FU PANDA, WANTED, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, STEP BROTHERS, ROLE MODELS, and MARLEY AND ME.

THE BIG DISAPPOINTMENTS There were a few movies that I enjoyed on first look, but after thinking about it, it became clear what I enjoyed was the reputation -- the fun of seeing one of my past favorites brought back to the screen. In every case, I left feeling let down. The following films really left me feeling nostalgic for the old days: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, GET SMART, THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, SAW V, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and especially THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.

THE "ALLIE" But those films mentioned in the previous paragraph still had craft. (Yes, even SAW V.) There was one film I saw last year that not only disappointed me for expecting so much more, it also was just plain bad. As in sloppy bad. Sloppy acting, sloppy story, sloppy editing, just plain dumb. I'm speaking, of course, of RIGHTEOUS KILL, the long-anticipated reunion of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. What an unmitigated piece of crapola. It's two hours of my life I wish I could have back.

THE BEST DVDs OF THE YEAR
CLINT EASTWOOD: DIRTY HARRY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: THE COMPLETE THIRD AND FOURTH SEASONS
THE DARK KNIGHT: BLU-RAY (2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION)
THE MIST: 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION
BONNIE AND CLYDE: 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION

Why bother?

2009-03-03T10:34:00.003-05:00

I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and have watched a variety of movies based on the Great Detective. Some are well done, and some are "WTH?". Oftimes I find ones where I wonder, "Why bother making it a Sherlock Holmes movie? It discards most of the source material, and you could name the detective Ormond Sacker and it would not matter one whit". I recently caught a SH movie called "Case of Evil". Ugh. Holmes is a womanizer(!), Moriarity is a drug dealer (cocaine) and Watson is the police medical examiner. It's like, the names are the same, but the story is totally unrelated to anything Holmesian.

Which leads me to ask, "Why bother?".

Rondo awards

2009-03-02T16:30:00.007-05:00

A good friend Marty Gear sent this site to me. It is a Rondo Award time he said. I had no idea what that meant but as I looked over the ballot, I realized it is a ballot ripe for other ICSers.

http://www.rondoaward.com/

I would like to suggest that for Category 18 - Best Horror Host of 2008 - you vote for my friends Gravely MacCabre and Grizelda. Friend Marty is part of their troupe so any votes are appreciated.

The ballot is one that I haven't heard of before, but would not be surprised to learn that many ICSers do know about it. Choose the best of Horror, Science fiction in all the formats - film, tv, magazine, books, conventions, even the best collectible figure. My vote is for "The Birds Barbie" seen to the right here. There is alot to view and choose from.

The list is worth looking at even if you don't vote, just for the choices and information that is there. However, if you want to vote, it is easy. Just copy the ballot, paste it into an email and make your selections. I made my selections by cutting out everything else in that catagory that I didn't want to vote for. It made it easier for me to keep track.

Nice and Loose

2009-03-02T11:21:00.002-05:00

The blog site is pretty cool. No topics, no formats, just post your thoughts. All freeform.

Thanks for making it look good Bets.

Road trip, fanboy style!

2009-03-01T20:54:00.001-05:00

Post # 2 Movie review from Betsy ------

Fanboys a movie for Star Wars fans. No Trekkies allowed!

I went to see Fanboys this afternoon and I give it a big thumbs up. As a Star Wars fan I was trepidious about viewing this movie. It had taken them longer then originally thought to get it out to on the screen.

The plot is fairly simple and touches most of us fans of any ICS genre movie.Fans so focused on the movie and characters that all else is pale. Fans must make a journey, cross many mountains and overcome difficulties to reach the end of the rainbow - Skywalker Ranch.

The movie had lots of little 'in' jokes that Star Wars fans got, many that non fans would get and even some that Star Trek fans might get. There was good comedy, some romance, just a small touch of drama and it all tied together well.

Without giving too much away, it's 1998 and the fanboys five are waiting for the newest Star Wars movie - coming out in just 6 months. It is revealed that one of their group is dying of cancer and as such they decide to storm the castle. Skywalker Ranch that is.

The producers filmed it, then the studio decided that the five minutes of quiet 'cancer' time when people weren't laughing, would be too much so they cut that out of the plot. Many of the actors and a lot of the fans said 'no.' A ruckus was raised because this changed the whole plot from being a noble cause of guys on a mission into just a bunch of guys causing mayhem. The studio finally decided to reinstate the plot line and it works.

Fun movie, but seriously, if you don't speak Wookie, wait to see it on netflix.

The Board meeting

2009-02-28T16:31:00.000-05:00

We are now at the Board meeting for the ICS and are talking about using a Blog to talk about club business.