Coming Soon: 31 days of Halloween

On October 1st I plan on doing something never attempted by me, releasing a new horror film review daily until Halloween. Please read daily, come back often. Comment.

Thank you.

FlashForward

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams"
- (Acts 2:17)

What would happen if you passed out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, and saw where you would be in 6 months? What kind of life could you lead if you knew what would happen in the future? Would you try to stop it or accept it as the inevitable?

Watch the first episode here.

New Stargate looks theatrical

I was hesitant to watch this, especially after how convoluted and stale both Stargate SG-1 turned out in its final season and how Stargate Atlantis fell apart halfway through it's run around the same time. But I finally saw this trailer, and was pretty impressed. The cast looks fantastic (Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ming-Na among others) and the production quality looks to be a step up from both SG-1 and Atlantis.

Depending on how the series plays itself out, I may find myself watching.

Christina Hendricks... Just because

Good luck Mad Men at the Emmy Awards!

The Jay Leno Show

This may have been NBC's smartest move in years.

The show premiered on Monday, September 14th with 17.7 million viewers, an 11 Nielsen rating (5.1 among persons 18-49**) and an 18 share. All for a series that costs less for a week's worth of shows than one scripted episode. While the ratings are obviously high the first night because it is the premiere (and "return" of Leno) - I suspect that the show will likely have ratings higher than NBC's "acceptable" ratings which fall between 1.5-1.8 in the "18-49".

While I've always found The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Leno himself to be somewhat of a mixed bag - with stretches of time where I would watch him almost religiously and then months where I wouldn't even consider tuning in, I've never had that much of a problem with him compared to so many out there. His monologues can be so-so, but I've enjoyed his interviews far more than say, some of the more combative and downright insulting late night hosts. I've never come away from the show with a bad taste in my mouth after a sour or interview gone pseudo-awry.

So, the show's on. It's practically the old show with a rebuilt set (much better than the last Tonight Show set) with no desk. I mean, where people expecting something radically different? How could they have made it different? They kept Kevin Eubanks for crying out loud - continuing the tradition of lame riffs at every other Leno joke.

I'm not sure where people are now getting the idea that this was supposed to be something other than "The Tonight Show in Primetime." That's what they were selling it as months ago. That's what they were selling it as last week. Now that it's out I've read articles where people talk about how disappointing it was. It's the same thing Jay was doing for years. If you didn't like him before, you won't like him now.

The thing is, if he did something radically different - you'd be hearing the exact opposite reaction out there. You'd be hearing screams of "This is too unfamiliar" or "We were expecting the Jay Leno from the Tonight Show not... this!"

Overall the show isn't bad. For the days where there just isn't anything worth watching at 10 PM (most nights now that Royal Pains is over for the season), there's "The Jay Leno Show."



** I'll talk about how much I don't like the 'demographic' breakdown some other time.

RIP Patrick Swayze

Swayze passed away at age 57 today in Los Angeles.

Kanye interrupts more than just Taylor Swift

In an extremely ungrateful and undignified way (but not surprising), Kanye decided that he wasn't just content with complaining about his own failures (such as trying to argue on stage that he deserves awards that are won by others), but convinced that he can "speak the truth" about perceived injustices which befall others.

Well, tonight that wonderful man decided that Beyoncé deserved the win for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards (probably one of the few days that music is performed on the network each year). So, not believing what was happening when Taylor Swift happened to win, he promptly went on stage in the middle of Swift's acceptance speech to set the record straight. He took the mic from her and went on to say that Beyoncé had "one of the best videos of all time" before shrugging and walking off stage leaving a visibly upset Swift standing there, with the audience knowing that a precious moment in that young musician's life was just crushed.

People shouldn't be surprised. This just happens to be one of numerous times that Kanye has done something along these lines. People may remember last week's presidential speech...

In other related news, Kanye loves fish sticks.

The Black Adder

The Black Adder is a 1983 British comedy series that was the starting point of the Black Adder saga (as I like to call it).

This series stars Rowan Atkinson as Prince Edmund, Tony Robinson as Baldrick, Tim McInnerny as Lord Percy Percy, Brian Blessed as King Richard IV of England, Elspet Gray as Gertrude of Flanders, and Robert East as Harry, Prince of Wales.

This iteration of the series takes place in the 15th century during the War of the Roses. The story is an alternate take on history. Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) is the son of Richard IV. Richard IV is based on the real Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York who was the brother of King Edward V of England. Both Richard and Edward disappeared after being sent to the Tower of London in their early teens after Richard III seized power. History has put the blame for this on Richard III directly or indirectly (someone in his court may have done it).

So yes, this takes place in an alternate history as anyone with a single iota of English history in their brains would know that this isn't close to what really happened. It's a pretty clever way of doing a show set in the past. Turns out that Henry Tudor 'made it all up.' Richard III dies in the Battle of Bosworth Field as he does in real life, but then Richard of Shrewsbury is crowned Richard IV (which obviously doesn't really happen). Edmund's goal is to one day become king though since he's such a bumbling fool, his plans are upset in each episode.

The best episodes of the series were "The Queen of Spain's Beard," where Edmund is arranged to be married to an unfortunate princess and "The Black Seal" journeys out to find the most cruel men in all of England to take part in a coup.

The show becomes more refined in later seasons, with Edmund's character receiving a huge face lift. For newcomers, it may be better to start off with "Black Adder II." More to come...

*** 1/2 out of *****

Virtual Nature: Everywhere You Go

I almost forgot about this video, until I recovered it off of an old VHS tape. This video clip is from the apparently forgotten "Minds Eye" spin-off, "Virtual Nature" which was released on VHS in 1993. Virtual Nature was discontinued sometime in the mid-90s.

This video is part 8 of 8, titled "Everywhere You Go" and is very similar to the original version of "Afternoon Adventure" found on the "Beyond the Minds Eye" video. Enjoy.

Big Brother has nothing on this!

The film I watched immediately after eXistenZ was a small horror film from 2002, "My Little Eye."

The plot revolves around five twenty-somethings that have won the chance to be on a game show that takes place in an isolated house in the middle of no where. The game? Stay in the house together for six months and win one million dollars. If anyone leaves, you lose.

The film is interesting in that the entire film appears to be shot entirely using hidden cameras. It gives it quite a realistic feel and fits entirely in the feeling of a 24/7 reality series. It's like "The Real World" or "The Surreal Life" - though I suspect that the "The Real World" is more scripted. However, after seeing this film, I would almost like to see some of those people get recruited to living in this secluded house.

The cast is extremely limited which adds to the claustrophobic feeling. The film stars Sean Cw Johnson as Matt; Kris Lemche as Rex, Stephen O'Reilly as Danny, Laura Regan as Emma, Jennifer Sky as Charlie, and Bradley Cooper as Travis.

A series of events unfold which being to make the housemates question whether or not what is happening to them is reality or part of the game. Things quickly take a turn for the worst when they realize that someone with them may not be exactly who they appear to be. It shares some similarities with Saw, but unlike saw, this movie should be bearable for repeat viewings (Speaking of Saw, I can't believe they are still churning out these films).

It's a decent thriller, though I think about 5 to 10 minutes could have been shaved off of the 95 minute run time to tighten up some sequences.

*** out of *****

Guy Ritchie directing "Lobo"?

Woah no. The "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" director will begin production of Lobo in early 2010.

Early reports claim the film will likely have a PG-13 rating, which would likely be his second one after "Sherlock Holmes," which debuts this December.

What is real?

"Death to the demoness Allegra Geller!"

Well this just happened to be a major coincidence when going through my queue and knocking out some movies. I watched the science fiction film eXistenZ, and immediately followed it with the horror/thriller, My Little Eye which I will review tomorrow - both which co-star Kris Lemche.

eXistenZ is a 1999 science fiction film written and directed by David Cronenberg (yes, the "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises" director).

Much to my suprise, the cast is almost entirely made up of pretty well known peopl Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe, Don McKellar (the only guy I didn't reconize from the main cast), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy on "Battlestar"), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor #9 from Doctor Who), Sarah Polley, and as a minor role, Kris Lemche.

The film takes place in the not too distant future, where a virtual reality system has become extremely popular, at least to the vast majority of the people out there. Jude Law play Ted Pikul, ordered to protect the eXistenZ game designer Allegra Geller, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh from a small but radically opposed group out to kill her.

I wasn't entirely convinced by the film, but after hearing some negative word of mouth from it, I came away less disappointed than I figured I would be. While elements are similar to The Matrix which came out soon after this film, it really doesn't resemble much of it other than questioning what is real - so don't expect that if you plan on watching.

The film delves into what is reality and what isn't. If VR is as real as reality, then how can you tell what is real and what isn't? Will you ever know if you're really in the real world?

*** out of *****