Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Hill, she is a Silent, yes?
Not much going on with me at the moment, so I'll fill your eyeballs with some useless gobbledygook.
Saturday morning Ben and I went to go see Silent Hill. We've learned that it's NEVER a good idea to go see a horror movie on opening night because I always end up having to tell someone off for being an asshat in the theatre. We still do sometimes, but its usually when we make plans with friends to see it. Since it was just us, and on a whim, we opted for the first showing on Saturday when most people are sleeping in. The actual movie going experience was probably one of the better ones I've had in a LONG time. We almost came under fire at first because a group of teenage girls came and sat down in the row right behind us, but I decided to get up and move down our row where no one was behind us. This proved to be a good move because 10 minutes into the movie they were screaming and laughing out loud. But they didn't do it enough to piss me off and they did it in time with ACTUAL scares in the movie. Kudos to them.
So, Silent Hill...I've never played the video games, though I always wanted to, but just never got around to it. This being the case, I had no prior knowledge of the story other than what was offered in the trailer. That being said, the movie was pretty good. The dialogue of the characters was pretty cheesy, but thankfully the actors they got gave it the best go of it they could. The monsters were REALLY top shelf. One way to really wig me out in a movie is have bugs, and lots of them, come after the protagonist. This movie delivered that. There weren't a lot of "BOO!" type scares, which kind of annoy me anyway, so that was also a plus for the movie. It was more like..."we're walking along and then there's something weird kind of lurching at us" type of scares. The Pyramid Head monster-guy-thing was really rad and my fave of the monsters.
I had read somewhere before the movie came out that the writers had gone to the studio with the script and the studio said "there's no men" in the story. At all. So the writers wrote in Sean Bean's character (the husband and father) and the project was given the green light. Knowing this, it does seem that his scenes are a bit of an afterthought, and looking back, didn't really NEED to be in the movie to help it go along. I think this is another flaw in the movie. It was pretty long and I think the superfluous scenes with Sean Bean could have been cut and made the movie a lot better. A friend of mine also said that the dad was the main character in the video game to begin with. So why the mother was written in as the main character is another mystery to me...
But, I enjoyed the movie, visually, and though it got kind of weird at the end and Ben and I gave each other "Huh??" looks when it was over, I wasn't mad and didn't feel like I had lost 2 hours of my life. I don't know if its something I'd like to own, so I may have to watch it again to decide. I also hope I can pick up some of the video games so that the story might make a little more sense to me.
In other movie news, Ben and I also rented Beyond Re-Animator. Ok, I LOVE ALL of the Re-Animator movies and Jeffrey Combs. So, of course, I loved this movie as well. Its pretty gory, and yeah...there's a male body part that gets some special attention, but otherwise, its just what you'd expect from a Re-Animator movie. Ridiculous plot, tons of zombies and Jeffrey Combs' awesome deadpan performance as Dr. Herbert West. I think the movie was filmed in Mexico or something, because all of the actors have Hispanic names, and the main female character's voice seems to be dubbed, and rather badly. At first, Ben and I thought it was because she couldn't act or her voice was totally annoying, but then it occurred to me that she probably had a really thick Spanish accent and you couldn't understand what she was saying! (I looked her up on IMDB and see that she's in Snakes on a Plane so I'll be watching to see if she DOES indeed have a heavy accent or if she just acts like her voice is being dubbed.) Anyway, it made for a really funny thing for us to make fun of throughout the movie. So go rent all of the Re-Animator movies (I think there's only 3, c'mon!) if you enjoy totally absurd zombie humor and like a lot of gore. You'll be glad that you did.
I also watched Lady and the Tramp, which I recently bought on DVD, while I was coloring comics on Sunday. I really only bought it because its a classic Disney movie and it was "going in the vault forever", plus I want them so that I can show them to my kids one day. Because, honestly, this is one of my least favorite Disney movies. At least, that's how I remember it being. But after watching it again, I forgot how much I really like this movie. The characters are really lovable (I LOVE how Lady calls her owners Jim Dear and Darling), and the Siamese cats are just so evil you can't help but love that scene...its really strange how our tastes can change, or our perceptions of things we thought we didn't like are suddenly some of our favorite things. This is also true for movies that I remember being freaking fantastic, but upon watching them again are really lame or cheesy. Case in point: The Prophecy. Christopher Walken as Gabriel, and Viggo Mortensen, before he was anybody, playing the Devil. I LOVED this movie when I was in high school. I got it for Christmas and watched it recently and you know what? Its kind of lame...I still like it, but its not as awe inspiring as I used to think it was. Another movie: Phantasm. This movie and its sequels scared the CRAP out of me and my sister when we were kids. I rented it when I was about 19 (remember, Tony?) and I remember it being SO cheesy and weird that I can't believe it used to scare me. I bet if I watched it again now I'd probably really love it since I'm more into bad horror movies now than I was even then.
I'm hoping that THIS movie, which opens on Cinco de Mayo (and how I plan to spend the holiday this year), does a better job of scaring me. I'll keep you posted.
Saturday morning Ben and I went to go see Silent Hill. We've learned that it's NEVER a good idea to go see a horror movie on opening night because I always end up having to tell someone off for being an asshat in the theatre. We still do sometimes, but its usually when we make plans with friends to see it. Since it was just us, and on a whim, we opted for the first showing on Saturday when most people are sleeping in. The actual movie going experience was probably one of the better ones I've had in a LONG time. We almost came under fire at first because a group of teenage girls came and sat down in the row right behind us, but I decided to get up and move down our row where no one was behind us. This proved to be a good move because 10 minutes into the movie they were screaming and laughing out loud. But they didn't do it enough to piss me off and they did it in time with ACTUAL scares in the movie. Kudos to them.
So, Silent Hill...I've never played the video games, though I always wanted to, but just never got around to it. This being the case, I had no prior knowledge of the story other than what was offered in the trailer. That being said, the movie was pretty good. The dialogue of the characters was pretty cheesy, but thankfully the actors they got gave it the best go of it they could. The monsters were REALLY top shelf. One way to really wig me out in a movie is have bugs, and lots of them, come after the protagonist. This movie delivered that. There weren't a lot of "BOO!" type scares, which kind of annoy me anyway, so that was also a plus for the movie. It was more like..."we're walking along and then there's something weird kind of lurching at us" type of scares. The Pyramid Head monster-guy-thing was really rad and my fave of the monsters.
I had read somewhere before the movie came out that the writers had gone to the studio with the script and the studio said "there's no men" in the story. At all. So the writers wrote in Sean Bean's character (the husband and father) and the project was given the green light. Knowing this, it does seem that his scenes are a bit of an afterthought, and looking back, didn't really NEED to be in the movie to help it go along. I think this is another flaw in the movie. It was pretty long and I think the superfluous scenes with Sean Bean could have been cut and made the movie a lot better. A friend of mine also said that the dad was the main character in the video game to begin with. So why the mother was written in as the main character is another mystery to me...
But, I enjoyed the movie, visually, and though it got kind of weird at the end and Ben and I gave each other "Huh??" looks when it was over, I wasn't mad and didn't feel like I had lost 2 hours of my life. I don't know if its something I'd like to own, so I may have to watch it again to decide. I also hope I can pick up some of the video games so that the story might make a little more sense to me.
In other movie news, Ben and I also rented Beyond Re-Animator. Ok, I LOVE ALL of the Re-Animator movies and Jeffrey Combs. So, of course, I loved this movie as well. Its pretty gory, and yeah...there's a male body part that gets some special attention, but otherwise, its just what you'd expect from a Re-Animator movie. Ridiculous plot, tons of zombies and Jeffrey Combs' awesome deadpan performance as Dr. Herbert West. I think the movie was filmed in Mexico or something, because all of the actors have Hispanic names, and the main female character's voice seems to be dubbed, and rather badly. At first, Ben and I thought it was because she couldn't act or her voice was totally annoying, but then it occurred to me that she probably had a really thick Spanish accent and you couldn't understand what she was saying! (I looked her up on IMDB and see that she's in Snakes on a Plane so I'll be watching to see if she DOES indeed have a heavy accent or if she just acts like her voice is being dubbed.) Anyway, it made for a really funny thing for us to make fun of throughout the movie. So go rent all of the Re-Animator movies (I think there's only 3, c'mon!) if you enjoy totally absurd zombie humor and like a lot of gore. You'll be glad that you did.
I also watched Lady and the Tramp, which I recently bought on DVD, while I was coloring comics on Sunday. I really only bought it because its a classic Disney movie and it was "going in the vault forever", plus I want them so that I can show them to my kids one day. Because, honestly, this is one of my least favorite Disney movies. At least, that's how I remember it being. But after watching it again, I forgot how much I really like this movie. The characters are really lovable (I LOVE how Lady calls her owners Jim Dear and Darling), and the Siamese cats are just so evil you can't help but love that scene...its really strange how our tastes can change, or our perceptions of things we thought we didn't like are suddenly some of our favorite things. This is also true for movies that I remember being freaking fantastic, but upon watching them again are really lame or cheesy. Case in point: The Prophecy. Christopher Walken as Gabriel, and Viggo Mortensen, before he was anybody, playing the Devil. I LOVED this movie when I was in high school. I got it for Christmas and watched it recently and you know what? Its kind of lame...I still like it, but its not as awe inspiring as I used to think it was. Another movie: Phantasm. This movie and its sequels scared the CRAP out of me and my sister when we were kids. I rented it when I was about 19 (remember, Tony?) and I remember it being SO cheesy and weird that I can't believe it used to scare me. I bet if I watched it again now I'd probably really love it since I'm more into bad horror movies now than I was even then.
I'm hoping that THIS movie, which opens on Cinco de Mayo (and how I plan to spend the holiday this year), does a better job of scaring me. I'll keep you posted.
Archives
December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008