I will say flat out right now that The Devil's Rejects is by far the absolute worst movie I've ever seen. I'm barely inclined to even write about a film that is so unbelievably bad that for the first time in my entire life, I considered walking out on a movie. As far as I see it, The Devil's Rejects is the manifestation of Rob Zombie's dream to see all of his sickest fantasies crammed into one very long movie. I love dark, edgy, violent movies. I love movies like, Se7en, Saw, Dawn of the Dead, and The Silence of the Lambs, but The Devil's Rejects has absolutely none of the elements that make the previous films enjoyable. The Devil's Rejects is violence without purpose or style. It's just a bunch of sick junk pond fuck-os whom the audience (at least one would hope) isn't supposed to like, killing people for whom the audience doesn't really care, while reciting inanely immature dialogue. Here's a typical string of witty repartee:
Otis: Hey, fuck you, bitch
Baby: No, fuck you!
Otis: No, bitch, fuck you!
Brilliant, no? This is a "horror" movie in that it's full of brutal killing, but it's not at all suspenseful. It's obvious that people are going to die, it's just a matter of how and the degree of brutality. It's hard to sit through a movie in which none of the characters are likable, the dialogue is juvenile and the plot is boring AND predictable. I cannot understand all the rave reviews posted on IMdb. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe watching people die gruesome and realistic deaths for 2 solid hours for no particular reason is awesome and I just don't "get" it. Maybe, but I hope not.
I love sci-fi, but for my money, there are very few truly good modern sci-fi movies. They're either too predictable, or poorly acted, or too CG laden to have any level of believability and sometimes they take an unfortunate sappy twist. A.I. is a near perfect film until David, for no apparent reason, gets picked up by Spielberg's malevolent aliens. Sci-fi, to a certain degree, has been done to death. However, sometimes something engaging comes along to remind us that the genre of science fiction isn't quite ready for its last rights. Today, I saw The Island and it did not disappoint.
Honestly, I was pretty skeptical of The Island. I worried that it would be The Matrix with a tropical flare, or something equally ridiculous. I also rarely like the way so-called futuristic utopian societies are depicted, as they often don't feel "real". However, the reasoning behind the utopian life in which Lincoln (Ewan McGregor) finds himself at the start of the film is quite well-conceived. Lincoln lives at a special facility, under the impression that the outside world has been obliterated by some sort of contamination. In reality, though, the facility is home to generations of human clones whose true purpose is to provide wealthy people on the outside with various healthy organs and any other genetic material that might be needed. For example, if a fellow needs a new liver after years of downing single-malt whiskey, he could get a perfect match from his clone. At first, I was skeptical as to why clones would need an entire society, being that they're basically only needed for genetic material, but the film really gives a good explanation as to why the clones are up and about, rather than comatose. Their entire existence is choreographed for a purpose. The film also deftly raises interesting philosophical questions without getting bogged down by pseudo-intellectualism.
The Island is also absolutely OUTSTANDING visually. In today's world of overblown CG imagery, it's very refreshing to see stunning visual effects and cinematography that don't remind me of playing Halo. The chase scenes are particularly compelling and among some of the best I've ever seen in ANY film.
The Island is an intelligent, fast paced sci-fi film that absolutely blew me away. Seeing a film like The Island makes me realize that sci-fi is still more than XBox inspired visuals and paper-thin acting.
So, my goal for the week is to go to a movie a day. There are a bunch of movies out right now that I'd like to see on the big screen. For some reason, I really want to see The Devil's Rejects. It just looks so jaw droppingly effed up that in the very least, I'll see something I've never seen before. Sure, it's morbid curiosity, but remember, curiosity helped the cat live a long time... or something like that!
In other news Bry's mousey woman left, which means no more vexing little whisper chats. Yay!
I'm in sort of a "blah" mood. My brother's little woman's in town, which is pretty annoying on several levels. For one, she's very quiet, so they have quiet little conversations. She also likes to sit in the living-room, which's only a few feet away, but as I said, she's oh so quiet, thus if they want to converse at a distance and I'm not wearing my headphones, I have to mute whatever I'm doing whether it be iTunes or a game. I don't HAVE to, but I feel like politeness dictates such. Today they went to a baseball game, so I didn't get stuck going to the sneak preview of Must Love Dogs, so that's a plus. Still, on some level, I sometimes... envy that Brian and Nicole go for smoothies and have their quiet little chats, while I'm here playing WoW and watching You've Got Mail with my mom. It doesn't bother me all the time, just sometimes. It's petty, I'm aware. Then I feel bad for feeling "blah", when obviously, things could be far worse. Watching You've Got Mail didn't help, even though it is a delightful little movie. It's just that such movies tend to have the opposite effect on me, which's an extraordinarily cliche reaction. Yet, I can watch dark movies all day and not feel "bad", if that makes any sense. Hell, writing this is annoying me because as I read it, I realize how whiney and pathetic I come across. It's just that at almost 25, I'd like to have some kind of "adult" relationship with a nice woman who likes movies, books and good conversation. By "adult", I don't mean anything even remotely in regards to "getting bizzay", that's not really a goal of mine. I'm after something more intellectual, if THAT makes any sense. Anywho, I think I'll go read. Anybody who reads this should feel free to slap me via IM or e-mail. Gg!
Today was pretty slow, but not really in a bad way. My brother's girlfriend's in town for the weekend, which brings the distinct possibility that I'll get dragged to some sort of ridiculously lame movie. She won't see anything even remotely "scarey", so we usually go to some awful romantic comedy. Last time, we sat through the outstandingly bad Bewitched. At least Bewitched was short, unlike Mr. and Mrs. Smith... That movie just wouldn't stop! If a movie's going to be awful, I at least want it to be short. I'd love to see Land of the Dead one more time in the theater, but nobody else here shares my affinity toward the walking dead.
I can't help it, zombie movies intrigue me to no end. I like that zombie outbreaks bring out the both the best and worst in people; all pretenses fall away when one's goal is purely to survive. Another common theme in my favorite zombie movies, such as the recent Land of the Dead and 28 Days Later is that when society goes to Hell, no amount of money or social status matters in the grand scheme of things. As long as one has people for whom they care and vice versa, the world isn't completely fucked. It may seem simplistic, but I think that such a philosophy is fairly true. I'm admittedly socially bored quite often, so I understand that "stuff" doesn't necessarily make one happy. Anywho, my brother always says, "but the dumb thing about most zombie movies is that they never explain where the zombies came from". Obviously, Brian doesn't get the point: Zombie movies are scarey BECAUSE OF all the unknowns.
In other news, I've really been digging this song lately:
From the 22nd floor
Walking down the corridor
Looking out the picture window down
On SycamoreWhile perspective lines converge
Rows of cars and buses merge
All the sweet green trees of Atlanta burst
Like little bombs
Or little pom-poms
Shaken by a careless hand
That drives them off
And leaves againLife just kind of empties out
Less a deluge than a drought
Less a giant mushroom cloud
Than an unexploded shell
Inside a cell
Of the Lennox HotelOn the 22nd floor
Found a notice on my door
While outside, the sun is shining on
Those little bombs
Those little pom-pomsLife just kind of empties out
Less a deluge than a drought
Less a giant mushroom cloud
Than an unexploded shell
Inside a cell
Of the Lennox HotelInside a cell
Of the Lennox HotelInside a cell
Of the Lennox HotelInside a cell
Of the Lennox Hotel
Lately, I've really been well kept in visual entertainment. On Tuesday, we hit Best Buy to score a copy of Constantine on DVD, but as always, I left with more than the item for which I came. I also grabbed a film called, Requiem for a Dream. My brother said, "dude, you'd probably like this movie, it's really fucked up". Well, with a review like that, I decided to give Requiem a whirl at the low price of $10. I'm often leery of my brother's picks, as he absolutely loves films like Anchorman and even the extraordinarily unfortunate Hook, but Requiem is flat out one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's one of those movies that's sickeningly depressing, but in a good way. It's a film about addiction and how far people will sink to get their fix. The film was quite well acted, particularly Ellen Burstyn and Jennifer Connelly. Honestly, anybody who's ever even considered shooting up or pushing off should have to watch Requiem for a Dream first, it'd totally change their mind.
Then, after watching one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen, I finished watching the last volume of Texhnolyze, which as it turns out, is one of the absolute most depressing works of anime I've ever seen. When I first started watching the show, I had no idea that it would end in the way that it did. I'm going to write something more detailed on Texhnolyze, but I want to watch the entire series straight through just to have a clearer handle on things.
Today. I went to see George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, one of the greatest zombie movies I've ever seen. Some would lynch me for what I'm about to write, but I'm not a fan of Romero's most revered film, Dawn of the Dead. Visually, it doesn't stand the test of time, it's not frightening at all and I find its social commentary to be heavy handed and ridiculously absurd. However, Land of the Dead does everything right. It's scarey, it's well filmed, it's wonderfully edgy and the social commentary is funny, but not over the top. It has everything that's great about zombie movies.
That's it for now...
I'm considering going back to a daily blog... I know I said some fairly harsh things about daily blogging, but while reading Assassination Vacation I noticed that many historical figuress kept frequent journals. Before President Garfield met his bullet, he wrote about getting a hair-cut. Sure, writing about my hair-cuts might not seem interesting now, but wait until I'm assassinated for my contriversial political views. Then, everything I write gets kicked up to historically fascinating! While Booth made his journey toward the barn in which he'd take his bullet, he took the time to journal his displeasure at the fact that the press didn't laud him as a hero for busting a cap in Honest Abe's crown. So, I think I'll write about everything, just in case I'm martyred or otherwise rendered historically interesting.
In the meantime I'm...
Lost In SpaceA bubble drifting
Into a place
Where planets shift and
The moon's erased
Its features lift in the glare
Gone, but I don't know where...
After much toiling, I've finally finished my review of The Sims 2. For some reason, I just couldn't get into writing it. The entire process was brutally painful. It's not that it was a bad game, it's just that it's the sort of game that's simple and complex all at once. Basically, it's a game that involves constantly telling little digital people what to do; when to sleep, when to eat, when to get their freak on and so forth. That's the core of The Sims 2, but obviously, that doesn't constitute an entire review. I have to expand and elaborate on all the minute details of relitivly simple concepts. From a writer's perspective, at least in my writer's mind, such a review is spectacularly tedious to write. I think, for the time being, I'm only going to review games with a story, no more dry sims.
Aside from my troublesome writing, I've been reading a good bit. I re-read Frankenstein for the first time since my teen years. It's not exactly a light read, but it's definitely a great read. For starters, I love Mary Shelly's ornate use of language; words like "reverie", "countenance", "sophism" and "ardently". I decided to use Dashboard's dictionary widget to look up the exact definition of every unusual word I came across while reading. Needless to say, I hit F10 quite a few times.
Aside from the language, I love the story of Victor Frankenstein and his wretched creation. I don't understand how anyone could show any sympathy toward Victor. He is completely the master of his own destruction, as well as the cause of death and suffering inflicted on his loved ones. He carelessly creates a being, gives life to lifeless flesh and then casts it aside when it doesn't live up to his expectations of beauty and perfection. As human beings, we have parents, relatives and countless other people to care for us during our infancy. However, Victor's creation is simply abandoned. Victor literally sees his creation draw its first breath, suddenly becomes sickened by the sight of it and then proceeds to lock himself in his bedroom until the "wretch" quits scratching at the door. Victor's a big believer in "maybe if I don't think about it, it'll go away". He complains about how guilty he feels for ignoring his loved ones in the devotion to such a horrid enterprise, whining about robbing them of his company. Notice the arrogence, like his very presence is a valued treasure to his family. Never once does he wonder about the life he so carelessly created and then discarded. Meanwhile, the creature tries to understand the world into which he is so abruptly thrust. People react to him with abject horror and sometimes violence, but he has no idea why, so he hides.
The creature observes humanity from a far, teaching himself to speak, read and write by secretly watching the daily happenings of a particular family. He wants to be with these people whom he so greatly admires for the love that they show one another, but past experience has taught him that such a meeting could prove to be painful. However, it isn't until he sees his own reflection in a pool of water that he realizes why people spurn him so violently. He then reads the journal he had stashed in the pocket of a jacket that he took from Victor's lab in which Victor chronicles his creation. For the first time, the creature realizes the horror of his situation. He's an abomination, abandoned by his creator through no fault of his own. His entire existence is "look, but don't touch". Yet, he still sees possible solace in his secret family. If they could look past his grotesque visage and see the good in his heart and mind, maybe he need not live the rest of his life as a despised outcast. However, when he is ultimately rejected by the closest thing he's ever had to friendship and love, the creature's feelings of malevolence are replaced with hopeless rage. His creator rejects him and his "family" flees in terror at the mere sight of him. The creature feels completely alone. The creature grows to hate everything he cannot have.
Thus, in time, he decides is to make Victor suffer the way he suffers. The creature murders Victor's toddler brother only to frame an innocent friend of the family; a woman who is ultimately executed for the crime. He only set out to kidnap the child and raise him as his own, but of course, the child is terrified of the creature and crys out in horror at the creature's wretched visage. He also mentions that he's a Frankenstein, which is really the catalyst for his strangulation at the hands of his own brother's dejected creation. Yet, vengeance leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, as his wickedness is only fueled by desperation rather than inherent evil. Truly evil people never feel remorse.
After his first crimes, the creature seeks Victor and begs him to create a companion, particularly female, with whom he might share company. If Victor declines, the creature vows to make him suffer. Now, as I see it, Victor has a few options for some sort of absolution; He could try to befriend his creation, personally providing the sad creature solace. He could do exactly as the creature says, trusting that the two will live in solitude, never to harm another human being. He could also lie to the creature, luring him into his confidence only to kill the wretch, thus putting it out of its misery and protecting further innocents from wrath. The latter requires a great deal of rationalization, but at least it ends things one way or another. If Victor dies in the process, at least he can take comfort in the great beyond, knowing that he at least tried to do something to spare his family from further torment. Unfortunately, Victor isn't decisive enough to deal with the situation. He reluctantly agrees to create a female being, as long as the creature promises to follow through on his vow.
Of course, rather than getting right to work, Victor spends months, languishing in his melancholy reveries, despite the creature's threats. As I said, he's a big believer in "maybe if I don't think about the problem, it will just go away." He actually hopes that MAYBE the creature might be felled in some sort of accident and simply won't return to collect his prize. Eventually, though, Victor does get to the task at hand, despite his repulsion. However, it is said repulsion mixed with Victor's arrogance that leads to utter catastrophe. Upon receiving a visit from the creature, wanting to check on the progress of his companion, Victor decides to grow a spine. He rips the unfinished creation apart with his bare hands, making a stand against that which he perceives as wicked and unnatural. The creature is obviously quite upset about witnessing the destruction of the thing to which his every hope clung, thus he makes the chilling promise to see Victor on his wedding night. Then, just for kicks, the creature travels a town over to strangle Victor's dearest friend. Clearly, this isn't necessarily the best way for one to handle disappointment, but the creature literally feels that any chance for happiness is completely gone.
So, what's next for Victor? Does he tell his surviving loved ones the entire tale, providing his lab notes as proof of his unholy work, allowing them to prepare for any sort of attack? Does he run away, protecting his loved ones through his absence? Does he hire a small band of mercenaries to hunt down and kill his tormentor? No, of course not. After some months of stress induced illness, Victor goes on to wed his beloved Catherine. This is why I despise Victor. He's so arrogant, so utterly incapable of seeing beyond himself that he actually believes that the creature will confront him on his wedding night and they'll battle it out to one end or another. Victor thinks that by getting married, it will at the very least hasten his death and put an end to his suffering. He's so self-absorbed that he doesn't realize that the creature has no desire to end his life. The creature simply wants to make Victor's life as miserable and desolate as his own. Needless to say, Victor's wedding night ends worse for Catherine than it does for Victor.
The creature's evil acts are mainly the product of Victor's irresponsibility and apathy. Granted, the creature made his own choices and thus is not free from blame, but Victor is the sole creator of the situation that drove the creature's actions. The creature didn't choose to awaken to a world in which his very existence is considered wrong.
Whew, that was a lot about Frankenstein! I actually started this losery essay about a week ago, but kept stopping its writing. I wanted to really cover all my thoughts on the book, but I didn't want to cut things short because I didn't feel like banging it out in one sitting. So, I only wrote when I really felt like writing. I know it's lame, but this faux-essay is a good writing exercise.
Anyway, tonight I'll finish reading Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I don't usually go for non-fiction, but Assassination Vacation is flat out awesome. Sarah Vowell's sardonic wit, morbid sense of humor and truly zealous love of American history make for a fantastic read. I mean, we all know that Booth shot Lincoln during a play at Ford's Theater, but there's so much more to the story. Little details like the fact that Booth timed his shot to coincide with one of said play's jokes. She actually makes it fun to read about presidential assassinations, as sick as that may seem. The chapter on President Garfield's assassination is worth the entire book. Vowell's telling of Charles Guiteau, Garfield's killer, is fascinating and hysterical.
Anyway, it's time to put this post down.
Today's the fourth of July another June has gone by and when they light up our town I just think what a waste of gunpowder and skyI'm certain I am alone
In harboring thoughts of our home
its one of my faults that I can't quell my past
I ought to have gotten it goneOh Baby,
I wonder if when you are older, someday
you'll wake up and say "My God, I should have told her
what will it take
but now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her"So that's today's memory lane
with all the pathos and pain
another chapter in a book where the chapters are endless
and they're always the same
a verse and a verse,
and refrainOh Baby,
I wonder if when you are older, someday
you'll wake up and say "My God I should have told her
what will it take
but now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her"
now she's got the river down which I sold her