I don't usually feel there's much of anything interesting going on in my life worth a comment on, still don't, but I thought I'd hit on just a few topics good and bad going down with me of late:
Saw the new Halloween on Thursday, caught the only midnight show going in Jersey. I was really all set to hate this movie going in because, let's face it, just about every remake ever has sucked complete balls and been all about everyone involved getting a pay day and bilking the audience. So with that in mind, but with hope that Rob Zombie could take the positive lessons learned on his last two movies and translate it into a really good horror movie....
...he knocked it out of the park.
Zombie starts off by really giving us a look at the sad childhood of Michael Myers, something Carpenter did not do. At first I was afraid Carpenter would try to play him as a sympathetic sort of creature (much as Thomas Harris began to do with Hannibal Lecter, having that culminate in Hannibal Rising), my personal feeling is you always need to try and keep a murdering psycho like Myers hateful, his crimes need to be abhorrent, or else you are simply catering to the blood and guts crowd, and you offer nothing for any intellectual thought. As the movie progresses though, little Michael is shown to be more and more evil, culminating in the murder of his sister, and his abusive bastard of a stepfather, his distraught mother must deal with the stain and the trauma of what her son has done, the love/hate conflict, and the "where did I go wrong?" until reaching her own solution. Sherri Moon Zombie is great here, nearly stealing the movie and owning every scene she's in, why the hell does this woman not get more work?
The attack on Laurie Strode and her friends comes off almost as a side dish, whereas that was the meat of the original movie. Zombie also does a much better job of explaining the continuity, so that we are clear on the family tree, something that was made pivotal in Carpenter's original two, but sadly, was not terribly fleshed out and expanded upon (much like in Empire when Vader announces himself to be Luke's father and the proof is basically presented as "you know I'm your daddy! Accept that now audience!!!). Go see it, if your a Rob Zombie fan, or a horror fan, this is an enjoyable night at the movies.
So there's a big batch of controversy in wrestling again, guys getting busted for receiving growth enhancers, which seems par for the course sadly anymore, but what really gets to me is some of the names on said list. Chavo Guerrero BURIED HIS UNCLE, buried his uncle who was like a brother to him because his Uncle Eddie continued to abuse this stuff even up to two weeks before he died. When the hell does it sink in? When the hell do you stop mortgaging your future. William Regal wrote an excellent autobiography on how he beat his demons and no longer took anything, and how he came back from major heart problems that could have killed him. Guess we need to file that book under F for fiction, and Regal himself under C for Carny, what a pathetic lier he's unmasked himself to be. Ken Kennedy, wow, how stupid can you get? Going out and playing Mr. Company Guy and how you are so pissed at the media for shitting on your business and your livelihood, and you talk about how you don't take ANYTHING, then get proven a blatant lier. Hope that bag of stupid was worth that great bit of elevation you were gonna get buddy. I'm glad some guys are going to get oppurtunity they weren't gonna get otherwise, but it's just a shame so many people have to be such total fuck ups to do it, and it's a shame the guys who are trying to do things correctly, and not take short cuts (I'm sure they're out there) will be undermined and painted with the same brush as these guys who embarrass themselves, their families, and their profession. That's life I guess.
On the reading front I've read a couple really excellent Terry Pratchett novels back to back, both Discworld, both Sam Vimes stories, you like to laugh? You like fantasy? Go pick up some of Pratchett's Discworld stuff immediately!!!
Also started a really good comics adaptation of Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" out there no doubt because of the Will Smith flick in December. Is it just me, or does it seem like people are forgetting that this will actually be the third time this story is adapted for the screen? Maybe it's just because we aren't close enough to the release yet for anybody to talk about that, yay, I'll be first now:
The first try was with the late, great, Vincent Price in the very aptly, if unimaginitively titled; "The Last Man On Earth". This version sticks pretty closely with the main story as Price plays the role of Richard Neville, a man living his nights in fear, and his days on the hunt as a plague has wiped out the human race turning them all into blood sucking vampires. Neville struggles to keep his life and his sanity in a world completely overrun by the undead. Price plays Neville as just an average joe (well, with maybe a bit more dignity since I don't think Price could ever look or play completely average) swept away in a horrifying situation, staying alive by his own ingenuity and wits. Great stuff, and you can find a DVD of this sucker really cheap, hell your local Wal-Mart might have it in the 5 dollar bin, check it out.
The second version was Charlton Heston's the Omega Man. This film obviously had a huge amount of Heston's influence as it bears only a passing resemblence to the original source material. Neville (Heston) is an army captain (who is immune thanks to a super vaccine the US Government invents, but is sadly never delivered when the chopper pilot transporting it, and Heston dies of the plague), the plague is very clearly stated as caused by germ warfare between Russia and China, no vampires here, most of the population died outright. What survived are fully intelligent and human albinos organized into a cult by a former TV reporter named Mathias, that want to kill Neville simply because he represents the old way of living, which they believe the plague was sent to wipe out. The movie is a fun watch, though it patently panders to Heston as action hero and genius (scenes of him playing chess with himself should tell you that, duh!) and it's fairly obvious Heston is pushing his Christian ideals over the fundamentalism of Mathias and his followers, even the ending has Neville re-enacting the death of Christ (though not in all it's terrible detail of course) to save the world. A fun little action movie, if you get past most of the rather odious overtones and the agenda Heston is producing. The actor who plays Mathias is truly wonderful in his role as a religious fanatic who is turning his slow death into a holy crusade. Worth a watch I think, and you can probably find it cheap, but the Price version is superior overall.
I've got the next two days off, w00t, and that's about all. Hope everybody reading this is well, and that maybe I gave you a couple entertainment options for your own free time.