Short's Tap Takeover at Churchkey, part 2

Well guys, I totally forgot to follow up on my first part... until now.

Short's Bloody Beer. If you’re not a fan of a Bloody Mary, avoid. Roma tomatoes, dill, peppercorn both on the aroma and taste. This was fantastic. I never thought I would enjoy a beer as savory as this one, as odd as this one, one with ingredients that are strange. Who knew?

The Magician arrived with a cloudy red body and a small white head. Aroma was pretty unremarkable, caramel notes, grain. Flavor was about the same. Grain, nuts, malts.

Mama’s Strawberry Milk poured a dark brown color, darker than I had expected for a beer which includes the words "strawberry" and "milk." Aroma was mellow strawberries, sugar, cream. Flavor was more mellow than I had hoped for, sugar notes, creamy strawberries.

Shorts Anniversary Ale was another highlight of the night. It poured a ruby orange color with a small white head. Aroma was a touch citrus, with mellow spice notes, and something familiar that I still can’t quite put my finger on while writing this - probably the blood oranges. Beer was certainly not as hot as I would have imagined based on the ABV - 10%.

I took a gamble on the next one with, The Gambler, a tobacco "inspired" brew. The aromas I got off this one were tea and "tobacco" notes. The flavor was a touch citrus, dominated by herbal teas, tobacco-like notes and other various spices.

Samaritan Ale poured a golden color with a small white head. Aroma was cider, sweet, touch of tartness. Flavor was tart apples, touch of spice - clove maybe? Certainly a change of pace.

The Black Licorice Lager poured a dark brown color, tan head. Aroma was mostly mint, though some licorice shown through. The beer was, as my friends described, like mint chocolate chip ice cream. A very unique brew to be sure and certainly one I'm looking forward to try again.

I finished that night with a few more, less remarkable beers from them, and then rounded it off with the Belgian IPA, which was awesome. Slightly hazy golden color with a perfect small foamy head was only bettered by the wonderful mild, Belgian yeast strain in an IPA, mild citrus and pine note aroma.

The night finished with the fantastic, non-Short's, Sierra Nevada Barrel Aged Life & Limb. OH MY... Brown sugar notes, caramel, chocolate notes and bourbon. Near perfection.

SAVOR was up next. And it blew my mind.

The Last Man on Earth

Vincent Price, one of the most distinct voices in the history of cinema, plays "The Last Man on Earth," fighting vampires. Most of the first act of this film is Price's character, Dr. Robert Morgan, lone survivor of the human race. Most people better know him as Robert Neville.

I think that this version is perhaps the most faithful to the original Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend, in part because Matheson himself wrote the original screenplay. Each adaptation has its faults, this one being so low-budget that it just couldn't do the script justice, and the 2007 Will Smith film failing to do the meaning behind the title of the film any justice. Ironically the original (alternate) ending to the 2007 version hit about as close as they could considering the "humans" were nothing more than pack animals with little more than base human characteristics. Later re-writes convinced Matheson to remove his name from this film, but he's still credited under the pseudonym "Logan Swanson."

This is my second favorite Vincent Price film, falling just behind "House of Wax." You may say, "Chris, Vincent Price was in a lot of bad movies!" Yep. Keep reading.

I suspect the re-writes probably had to do with slimming down the budget – in the original story, the vampires are fast, not lumbering zombies. They can run and climb. The use of a "cure" in this version of the film comes a bit too easy, perhaps something modern genetics allowed the 2007 film to be a bit more flexible with, but not poor Dr. Morgan with a crummy looking garage chemistry set. The vampires in the film, aside from their dislike of the sunlight, acted a lot more like zombies (or really really slow people). This film certainly did help inspire modern zombie films as it laid the foundation for Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

They could have also built up and strengthen the final confrontation a bit more, but as I postulated earlier, I don't think that the budget could have supported anything different.

In a likely move to save even more money, much of the beginning of the film is just a voice over, which unfortunately drones on at times. Dr. Morgan goes about his day-to-day, post-apocalyptic, activities such as cleaning up dead bodies, finding new food, and then finishing off the day with killing a few vampires in the early evening before bed. The movie does pick up a bit in the second act, when he meets Ruth and his conflict with finding a true cure to it all and his belief on whether or not any of them are truly human anymore completes the film. The film is very pessimistic – and thus so is Price’s character, who has completely given up, which ultimately leads to his downfall.

I'd like to thank my friend Matt for introducing this film to me so many years back. I first watched this one in one of those "50 films for 20 dollars" public-domain box-sets. The print was rife with problems. It was obviously produced using an inferior quality print. But I didn't care. The movie is an enjoyable B-flick.

Army of Darkness

More of a comedy than a horror film, Army of Darkness is an oddity that has polarized many of the fans of the original two Evil Dead movies. The first Evil Dead film was as close you could get to being a pure horror film. There were a few light or twisted moments of comedy, but it was a horror film. The second film was still very much a horror movie, but most of the horror had a heavy serving of tongue-in-cheek comedy. It was screwy, but funny as the “camp” factor had been turned not-quite-up to 11. Army of Darkness finally came out, five years later, it was much more of an action-adventure comedy than it was a horror film. Matter-of-fact, I didn't actually find this movie all that scary at all.

The story picks up directly after the second Evil Dead film, though there is no pressing need to watch the first two films before this one - I didn't the first time and quite a few times after that - as the film stands completely on its own.

Ash, played by Bruce Campbell, is a poor soul who has traveled back in time from the late 1980s and is now trapped in the 14th century. His only hope to return home is the book of the dead, the Necronomicon. Of course he is the only person who can go after it, and it's definitely in the most dangerous part of the entire world. After accidentally unleashing the forces of Hell, Ash must battle to save humanity and get back home.

This film is in no way historically accurate at all, and I'm not simply talking about how there is walking dead in the 14th century, but that the places and locations don't seem to fit any particular area of the world. One of the two endings of the film produces an even more confusing situation as to where the heck they're supposed to be. So I ignore it, and treat the locations much the way that I would treat one of the Conan the Barbarian films, in that it takes place in undefined "Eurasian" location.

The movie itself is fun and campy, but it does suffer a bit. Director Sam Raimi is certainly not the best director out there. The Spider-man films were schlocky, but not really in an enjoyable way after-the-fact. Decent, but one wonders how anyone could have said that those were the best comic book films ever made, especially after seeing how great they can actually be from films such as Iron Man. Raimi productions are produced with what I like to call that silly "New Zealand Camp Factor." I personally think he does best with this kind of material and Bruce Campbell certainly is one of the best actors that works with him. Campbell knows how to chew the scenery and make a production fun.

If you want a film to laugh about and enjoy, Army of Darkness is a film to check out. I prefer the directors cut of the film over the theatrical version, but both are great (though, you'll miss a great depressing ending if you go for the theatrical version).