Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween (if'n you're into that kind of thing)

Coming Distractions for Tuesday November 3rd, 2009

Eddie Izzard: Live from Wembley
Lemon Tree
I Love You, Beth Cooper
The Maiden Heist
The Marc Pease Experience
Before the Fall
Will Ferrel: You're Welcome America
Terminator Salvation: Machinima


Plus, in honor of the holiday (kinda... It's not coincidence... I swear...)
We bring you the scary truths of food production in Food, Inc.






& The even scarier truths concealed within G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra! Spoooooky.











& Since we're talking plastic dolls, don't forget to pick up your collector's edition Ladies of the 80s Barbies: Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, & Cyndia Lauper.








And Now: a Little Halloween Music for Unicef coming from Beck, Arcade Fire, Peaches, David Cross, & Thurston Moore, among others.





Don't forget that daylight saving time ends Nov. 1st! Set your clocks back an hour (unless you just rely on the time on your cell phone, in which case: don't mess with it, it probably alters itself). An extra hour of sleep ain't scary!

Saturday, October 24, 2009


Whatever Works
Orphan
Ice Age 3
Il Divo
Afterwards



Sometimes you step in some dog doo-doo, or sometimes you say something you really didn't mean to, or sometimes you get hit by a raw egg when you're walking home at night. Or sometimes you read a blog. Maybe this one?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Coming Distractions October 20th, 2009


Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Cheri
Objectified (by the maker of Helvetica)
The L Word - Final Season
Love N' Dancing (keeping the silly abbreviation/apostrophe alive since 2009!)
The Sick House


Not a ton of movies coming out this next week. I can't really discuss Transformers 2 because I've never seen it and because after Jennifer's Body I'm kinda done with Megan Fox. Has anyone else noticed that it seems she has a desperate fear of letting her lips touch her teeth? It's just sad that I think I would have found Amanda Seyfried making out with just about any other starlet hot, but it just. Wasn't.


Cheri, which I also haven't seen, but am still going to talk about, was written by the same writer as Dangerous Liaisons & Atonement & Carrington, plus, Michelle Pfeiffer looks pretty smokin' on the cover. (When did I turn into a teenage boy? So superficial. sigh) Did you know I have a death mask of Michelle Pfeiffer's actual face from What Lies Beneath in my kitchen. No joke! It's behind the mortar and pestle. Pretty sweet, I know.


Cheri was directed by Stephen Frears. It was pointed out to me recently that he is very cool for the fact that, unlike many other directors, it would be hard to watch 1o minutes of any one of his films and instantly see the mark of his style. He respects each individual film/genre. Shifting. Like a chameleon! (Like Steve Buscemi & his watery eyes! You should totally watch the season premiere of 30 Rock, if'n you haven't already) Look at Frears' variety: Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen, v. Dirty Pretty Things, High Fidelity, The Grifters.


The Grifters is a great noir. Based on a book by Jim Thompson, and his books are a lot of fun, in a really dark way. Ever read any? I suggest The Killer Inside Me as a good place to start. He really broke open the 1st person psychopath genre. (hope that wasn't a spoiler! But then... It is called The Killer Inside Me...) Quick reads, and good for the chilling of fall into winter.

Have you noticed that sometimes fall smells like burning?

And now! Local Music:

Friday, October 9, 2009

Coming Distractions especially for you by Todd!


Drag Me to Hell

The Proposal
Adoration
Every Little Step
Land of the Lost
Nightmare


With it being the spooky season, I thought I'd blog about some of my favorite scary movies to watch during October. Most people consider the 70's and 80's as the most influential years of the genre, as it gave rise to horror icons such as Leatherface, Michael, Jason and Freddy. But my favorite era of horror will always and forever be the 90's.

Scream scared the living daylights out of me as a child, and is still my all time favorite scary movie. It sparked new life into the genre in 96, and spawned a slew of knock offs (most of which appear on this list). I love to introduce this movie to people who haven't seen it just to see the look on their face during the first ten minutes.


Cashing in on the success of Scream, came I Know What You Did Last Summer. Although it hasn't aged that well over the years, it still has a fun little chase sequence with my girl Buffy.









Then we've got Urban Legend, which stars genre favorites Robert Englund and Danielle Harris. I like this movie because Rebeca Gayheart looks like she's having fun playing a psycho, and it was the first slasher movie I saw with a female killer.



And even though it's not really a horror movie, I always have to watch Hocus Pocus during this time of year. I've already watched it 4 times in the store and it's only October 10th, so I hope you're not sick of it yet.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Coming Distractions October 6th, 2009


Anvil: The Story of Anvil
Assassination of a High School President
Year One
Trick 'r Treat
My Life in Ruins
Purgatory House (written by & starring a 14 year-old girl)
Bones - 4th Season
Nip/Tuck - 5.2


Despite the silly 'r, Trick 'r Treat is actually really fun. It's got Anna Paquin & Dylan Baker, among others. It's 4 intertwined stories, in good old Tales from the Crypt fashion (but more seamless.)* I think you should watch it. And you should watch Creepshow 2, and I should rewatch it. I love the one with the couples on the raft. Even blobs of evil can't stop teen libido.


Other short story horror movies:
Tales from the Dark Side
3 Extremes
Creepshow
Creepshow 2
Twilight Zone: The Movie

Any others you can think of?

*Side note and a mild spoiler: some of the special effects in T'rT brought me straight back to Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. A ridiculous movie about Little Red Riding Hood, wherein several different ways to get from Point A (human body) to Point B (wolf body) are explored. Angela Lansbury is priceless in it as Granny. "Never trust a priest. Why do you think they call him father?"