Halloween Movies

Halloween Movies
Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween is my favorite holiday. And this year was extra special because you could have celebrated it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or all three! That’s what I did.
It’s the best time to dress up and pretend to be somebody completely different. A time to make tribute to those great movies we know and love.


This year I dedicate two Halloween nights to the every voluptuous and extremely sexy cartoon character Jessica Rabbit from the movie Who Framed Rodger Rabbit. Celebrating the year where both the movie and I were born, way back in 1988. I also got to devote another night to my small fixation of vampire shows and movies.


Aw yes…Halloween. It’s a wonderful time of year to dig out those scary classics and awake the senses. To be able to trance yourself deep down into a movie and jump from those unexpected surprises. To feel shame that even though you saw a certain movie the same time last year, you still couldn’t suppress the reaction of a small gasp or physical jolt of surprise.
Each night this weekend I picked one movie to commemorate this special time of year. Friday night I started off the three day Halloween fest with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s a classic movie that allows that sexy freak way down inside to act wild and sing along to the awesomely popular soundtrack.
Saturday night I enjoyed another childhood favorite Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. This one was always my favorite of the Halloween series because Jamie Lee Curtis kicks Michael’s ass and I ‘m up out of seat cheering her on “You go girl!” (A side note: I LOVE movies about revenge, especially when the main hero is a kick-ass woman).

And Sunday afternoon I watched a movie I hadn’t seen before, Queen of the Damned. One reason I picked this movie to watch was because I wanted to watch a movie I hadn’t seen before. Secondly, because the original story was written by Ann Rice who also wrote one of my favorite vampire movies Interview with a Vampire. There is no comparison. Interview with a Vampire simple goes way down deeper into the dark depths of the vampire world while Queen of the Damned lacked its depth in characters and their habits. The movie was overall well filmed, but lacked story depth and only had mediocre acting.

Without the mediocre movies the great movies would not be so great. It would be harder to recognize the pieces of a movie that make other movies so great. For example, besides having catchy music, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has that little sump’n special. Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s character in the movie is so wrong and yet so right. His voice and the way he delivers his lines give me goosebumps. I remember watching this movie when I was just about thirteen years old. Some might argue that thirteen is too young to watch something this mature, but I disagree. Being a young teenager already feeling insecure and freakishly weird…this movie was an inspiration. It was an extremely sexy and quite a big taboo for me. I remember I was afraid someone would walk into the living room and see me watching Susan Sarandon sing "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" to the half naked Rocky.

But this was defiantly the week to celebrate the thrill and terror one cold endure from a two hour movie. So I hope all of you have embraced the horror of old movies from your past and rekindled your childhood fears you once had long ago.

Top Ten Halloween Movies : (not in any order)
Beetle Juice
Shaun of the Dead
Casper
Hocus Pocus
The Freddy Krueger series
The Halloween series with Michael Myers
Sleepy Hollow
The Frighteners
Scream
Saw

Tata
C

Bad Indie films about Dysfunctional Families: Please Give

Please Give a Comedy? Not really, the trailer shows what I thought would be a cute funny enlightening movie, but instead the trailer shows all the funny parts so when you watch the scenes in the movie their not so funny anymore.

I’m trying to look past the fact that this movie is the typical indie movie that portrays each family member as screwed up and makes the audience want to see them get fixed. The director ripped off a bunch of other crappy dysfunctional family indie movies such as The Squid and the Whale, and Smart People and made another crappy indie about a dysfunctional family. These kinds of movies make you think you’re watching a story of a normal family but then each member gets more and more fucked up, they're not relatable anymore.

I’m sorry but The Squid and the Whale was the worst out of this bunch. If you haven’t seen it there’s apart where this kid masturbates like all the time and then deposits his semen on school lockers and library books. What the fuck? How do you relate to that? Or are these movies suppose to make us the viewers feel better about our own lives. See how lucky we are that we aren’t these people.

I’m not sure I fully understand each character’s story in this movie and they relate to one another. I’m trying to think how I would summarize this movie, you know, “what’s it about?” but it’s taking too much effort. It shouldn’t be this hard.
I just got done writing a page about each character to see if I could find an overall lining to this movie so I could like it more or take something away from it, but I can’t.

I even went to Rotten Tomatoes to see what it is I’m not getting about this movie. One critic says “A stroll with these characters is a refreshing break from the usual film exercises”. I don’t agree, but I do agree with this one, “The acting quality is strong, especially from the ever-reliable Catherine Keener as Kate, but it's almost impossible to care about her character's dilemmas."

Don’t get me wrong, I love indie movies like Garden State, Everything Is Illuminated, or Away We go, but these kinds of sad untreatable dysfunctional families that just cant seem to find happiness are the kinds of indie movies that I try to avoid.

Grease 2 Gives Sequals a Bad Name

This week I didn’t get to rent any movies or go out to the theater, instead I had to sit in a library and study. LAME! But I did catch Grease 2 on the tele which I hadn’t seen because I’m not much of a sequel fan. Even so, the movie did hold my interest because it stars the beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer and some hot Australian love interest. First of all, I love the first Grease. Great catchy music, cute story, but sequels are tricky to pull off.

A list of some movies, off the top of my head, that had good sequels are all the big Blockbuster series, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etcetera , etcetera ,etcetera. Most non- series sequels are almost never better than the original. Home Alone Two is alright, but is not better than the first one. New Moon, less sucky than Twilight but that’s because it was done by a better director who turned a crappy movie into not so bad music video.

Toy Story and Shrek had sequels all done well, but it’s always going to be harder to top that classic movie like Grease and try pulling it off with a different cast. What if Toy Story 3 was done but Tom Hanks wasn’t Woody’s voice? I would not have paid the ten bucks to go see it in 3D.

So was Grease 2 good? Nope. Maybe if I was really bored and on my period scarfing done a bug tub of Rocky Road ice-cream. My reason for not liking it is mainly because the first Grease set the bar so high, part two didn’t have enough carrying it to meet the necessary standards. Crappy music, and terrible Michelle Pfeiffer day dream sequences made the movie incredibly corny and lame.

Movies like Grease 2 keep this fellow Movie watcher hesitant form sequels.

DEXTER: killing me softly

Every Sunday night during the fall season you will find me in front of the TV watching a new episode of Dexter. An hour later I’m jumping onto Facebook blabbing about the crazy stuff that’s going on in the world of Dexter. Usually my post say something like this, “OMG! DEXTER! NOOOOOOOOOO!” or “OMG Dexter! I’m freakin out! Woohoo!”

Dexter is easily my all time favorite TV show. Why? Because Dexter checks off every box on the list of what a satisfying TV series needs.
Box one, a unique never been done story line. Dexter works for the Miami Metro Police station at a bloodstain pattern analyst who, in his spare time, kills bad guys only to satisfy the psychological monster that processes Dexter deep inside. With the help of his dead father, who appears to Dexter in needy times of guidance, Dexter can succeed living a split life of a monster living amongst the good. His father Harry, a previous cop, is the only person who knows of Dexter’s dark secrets and has constructed a code for Dexter to live by so he will never get caught. Unique storyline, check.

Box two, the urge to watch the show every week. This Peabody award-winning show has an amazing set of writers who makes sure that the show is constantly progressing every episode. Each episode satisfies either the conclusion to a problem Dexter faces or unravels a new one. The writers of this show alter their audience’s perception to see that this psychotic killer is a guy to root for. We don’t want Dexter to get caught. To be able to have the power to convince that bad is good takes extraordinary writers.
Weekly urge, check.

Box three, amazing actors. Michael C. Hall is the brilliant actor behind Dexter. He has won the award for best actor by the Golden Globes, SAG, Satellite Awards, Saturn Awards, and the Television Critics Association. After witnessing Hall’s astounding performance in season one of Dexter, I was to further my interest of Hall by renting his first TV series of Six Feet Under, my second favorite show created by the astounding Allan Ball. Not only has the story’s hero won awards, but also has the villains. This year John Lithgow won an Emmy for his role as season four’s guest actor and villain. He also won a Golden Globe as Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series.
Great actors, check.

Box Three, greatly written characters. Yes Dexter is a gory thriller, but it can be funny if you know its characters. The depth to which Dexter’s character goes is as personal as your own character. The reason behind the actions of Dexter become so understanding it’s scary. It is within his dark past that we see that all Dexter really wants in the world is to be normal. And all the other characters within Dexter’s life are there to show how he himself wants to be seen. For example, his sister sees Dexter as the good kid, the reliable, quiet, and smart brother she has always had. The people Dexter works with at the police station see him as a good guy, trusting, and always one to count on to help with a murder scene.
It is easy to connect Dexter’s character to that of Superman’s. Superman was born Superman, and alien. His disguise is the adopted son of the Kents. Clark Kent wants to be portrayed as a normal quiet farm boy, who wears a suite and glasses. Dexter was born a monster. His disguise is an adopted son of the Morgans. Dexter Morgan wants to be portrayed as a normal quiet family man, who wears khakis with a button down shirt. Dexter constantly battles with who he is and who he wants to be just like Superman.
Great characters, check.

I am proud to say that I have turned six of my friends onto Dexter. Strangely enough it was my own mother who got me watching Dexter. The biggest turn-off that I read online from people who don’t like Dexter is the bloody killing scenes and the fear of their own support of other people’s deaths. I guess people are afraid of loosing their moral stability. But once a week, for only an hour I get to question my own morals without really hurting anyone, and guess what? I enjoy it.

Tata,
C

RED: Retired and Extremely Dangerous

Retired and Extremely Dangerous is what the C.I.A. has titled Bruce Willis and the A-list cast that includes Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ernest Borgnine. It is irrelevant that the base of this story is your typical action pact thriller because the comical and brilliant twist is within its aging cast. This movie is no different from any other Bruce Willis epic shoot-em-up except for the ironic poke of the aging stars and the fact that they all still can kick some ass.

I simply loved this movie because it’s full of classic actors playing the parts they play best. The enchant the audience with the characteristics their known best for and what we as American Blockbuster viewers love.

Bruce Willis with his cool calm level-headed killer-with-an-ease je ne sais quoi,





Jon Malkovich, a colorful actor with strange and unexpected mannerisms








the ever so lovable Morgan freeman










and little miss tough cookie Helen Mirren.




Their rolls in this movie are their expected rolls from familiar rolls in the past, and I find comfort in that.

For example, we can see Bruce play the same calm kick-ass character in The Fifth Element, Unbreakable, The Whole Nine Yards. The ever so strange Malkovich, is seen as his crazy self in movies like In the Line of Fire, Con Air, and Burn After Reading. The lovable Freeman is also lovable in every movie he’s ever been in including Bruce Almighty where we see him as the best actor to play God, and it’s believable. Morgan Freeman is God. And of course the hot and fiery Mirren can also be seen as her sassy self in in Calendar Girls and The Last Station.

This delightful cast is accompanied by the cute Mary-Louise Parker the star of one of my favorite TV shows Weeds. I recently saw an interview on the TV Guide channel was executive producer and Writer Roberto Benabib described Parker’s as an actress that knows, “gear changing. She can react to you something silently and show you fifteen different emotions that are crossing her face and mind.” I think she is a great addition to the movie and is a believe love interest for Bruce’s character.

While watching this movie I had an epiphany that my favorite actors are getting old, and I almost tear up at the thought of loosing our baby booming supreme actors. It will be a very sad day when Morgan Freeman dies. And who will be the next cycle of silver screen actors? Millie Cyrus? God I hope not.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

With me being sick this week and stuck in the house I have been enabled to do nothing but watch movie after movie after movie. Although my fiancé Randy has spent most of his time this week at the school library studying and keeping as much distance from me as he could while I huff and puff a bad cough, a runny nose and a fever, he did sit down and enjoyed a movie here with me at home. Randy Herron is not only a senior majoring in Chemistry at OSU, but he and I have lived together for the last three years and is my main man when it comes to dissecting a movie. Within our long analyzing decisions about movies we’ve seen, I found Randy to be one of the most articulate and stubborn critics I know and love.


Randy and I appreciate the same movies and can identify a good movie form a bad one. As Randy says there is a slight difference in the tolerance level within different categories of movies. Since I am female I have a higher tolerance for chick flicks and romances, and because he’s a guy he has a higher tolerance for slow male centric. Randy tends to enjoy the genre of adventure, sci-fi and anything with good characters, “And those last two categories don’t often mix, Sci-fi kinda blows at having good characters”.


Having difficulty when asked what his Top five favorite movies where, Randy went to his extremely large movie collection and wrote down at least twenty of his favorites before we were able to narrow it down. I did the same, but much quicker. Mine are: Kill Bill, American Beauty, Amelie, Moulin Rouge, Death Becomes Her, I heart Huckabee, and Joe verses the Volcano. Ok, ok, so that’s My Top eight Favorite movies not five, but it’s just too impossible to narrow it down to only five. OMG, this is taking way too long, Randy is starting to search online, probably looking at his Facebook to see what he wrote down there.

So Randy’s Top nine favorite movies of all time are: Blade Runner, The Usual Suspects, Batman Begins, Fight Club, Memento, The Matrix, Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid, Garden State, and Leon the Professional. “Take note that my list of top favorite comedies would be totally different.”


So it was Randy’s turn to pick out a movie and he chose The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, a 2009 movie staring Nicolas Cage, an actor who I personally think resembles our interviewee quite a bit. He said he had picked it out after reviewing other people’s forums that had recommended other good movies Randy and I have watched in the past. He looks for these reconditions on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and First Showing. Not only was the movie reviewed well, it was said to be a much less traditional film noir crime movie, a topic of Randy’s interest.

From the beginning of the movie Randy liked that the characters weren’t of the traditional norm. Cage and Val Kilmer are clearly bad people. According to him, traditional movies usually have the viewers rooting for the good guy, unlike this movie where the main character wasn’t a good guy at all. Yet Randy remained interested in finding out what Cage’s goals were and what his motivation was to continue to do bad things a lieutenant. Opening scene he’s taking bets with Val Kilmer to see how long it would take a prisoner to drown. That was the part where I was like “Fuck! I hate this, I don’t like Cage as a bad, sick, and twisted cop”. Maybe it I partly because he looks like my Randy. I mean, we both agree that Nicolas Cage can definitely play the roll of a calm man and the roll of a crazy freaked out person very well, and we’ve seen him as a bad guy in Face-Off, but he was a funny likable bad guy, not a serious screwed up cop.

Top 3 favorite Nicolas Cage movies
Randy: Face-Off, The Rock, and Family Man
Carley: Raising Arizona, Face-Off, and City of Angels

Overall Randy enjoyed the movie. It had a good pace, and he didn’t know what was going to happen next, or what Cage was going to decide when it came to a moral dilemma. He usually doesn’t like it when plots are derived from drugged out characters where their intentions are only drug related, but it was done well in this movie. He like how the story kept introducing the idea a different point of view. There where these random close-up shots of lizards and alligators throughout the movie so it was unclear if we were viewing the world from Cage’s eyes, or what was actually going on in the moment.

Randy was fascinated with the ending of the movie where Cage was the last one of his family to make an improvement in his life. He felt that it finally was time for him to change morally and it was at this point in the movie where the irony strikes and Cage is saved from the one and only good thing he did at the beginning, save the drowning prisoner. Randy enjoyed the ending where Cage and his prisoner are just chillen at the aquarium watching the fish and laughing about life. He liked this ending better then if Cage were to ride off into the sunset.

Although Randy enjoyed the overall movie, he thought there were a couple of artificial situations that were unbelievable. For example, there is a scene where Cage and a police squad bust the drug dealing Xzibit. One minuet the room is filled with cops and then the cops all suddenly disperse. Who is left but Val Kilmer, Xzibit and Cage, and all Val Kilmer wants to do is convince Cage that they need to shoot Xzibit. A situation that could have taken place alone in a police car, but instead the writer wanted the mob of cops to conveniently walk away from the situation.

Randy believes that the use of Val Kilmer’s character could have been used better. He ended up being more evil than Cage, but in the end it just shows a contrast between him and Cage’s character who wasn’t entirely evil, but just an ass with fucked up morals and motivation. “Val Kilmer is like his evil couscous on his shoulder”. No one really address Val Kilmer in the movie, he just shows up when there’s an important decision to be made by Cage.

Leap Year - A Movie to Skip

Ok, so this week I've been keeping up with my TV shows that I had mentioned in the previous blog, and the only new movie I saw was Leap Year staring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. I had no Idea who he was until I looked him on IMDb and saw that he played the semi-bad guy Ozymandias in the 2009’s Watchman.

Was I looking forward to this movie? No. But it was on my list of semi-interesting chick flicks I had to see before I could properly judge. One of my biggest rules that I have for critiquing movies is that I have to at least watch it before I criticize it. The other rule is that I have to watch the movie more than once at different stages in my life. I feel that there is a huge influence on a viewer’s present mood and the film they watch. Moods are constantly changing and therefore so are opinions.

Anyway, back to Leap Year. Overall, I thought the story was slow and the intended “cute comedy” was silly and was nothing new to (wrong word) previous chick flick films. Small neat organized woman gets her Louis Vuitton bag stuck in mud and girl falls in mud. Har har. It’s been done. The overall basis of the story is about a girl who has not yet been proposed to by her boyfriend and gets so distraught so she decides to do it herself. It happens to be Leap Year which is significant because there is an Irish tradition that there is one day of the year a woman can respectfully ask a man to marry her. It is conveniently so that her boyfriend happens to be traveling to Dublin and so she follows him only to get delayed over and over again. In the process she falls in love with another man.

First of all, I hate the idea of building a romantic comedy off of a woman who clearly is in love enough with a man to go out of her way to propose herself, yet she falls in love with another. The writer ends the movie by making the boyfriend a sudden douchebag and therefore making it ok that she had fallen for the new love interest.

I get the idea of combining old love comedy with the modern idea of woman proposing to man and woman loving two men at once, but I think they should have hinted at the boyfriends hidden douchebagness throughout the movie, so it wasn’t such a surprise to the viewer in the end. Yeah! Then I might have been ok with her new love interest.

In comparison to other more recent romantic comedies I’ve seen, The Back-Up Plan, When in Rome, Love Happens, and Did you hear about the Morgans. I think Leap Year had unoriginal comedy and was simply unromantic.

Tata,
C

Movies

Hey Everyone!
I'm going to transition my subject of interest from photography to movies. I am a movie whore. I watch about three movies a week. Not because I'm bored, because I'm not, I have plenty of homework to being doing for school, but because I set time aside every week just to relax and watch a movie. Movie time is my time.

This last week or so I have been watching a lot of TV shows, so now and then I will be addressing TV shows as well. Right now one of my favorite TV shows Trueblood has ended but fall has brought an all new season of Dexter on Sundays, Castle on Mondays along with the continuing of Weeds, Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays, and Smallvile on Fridays. So most likely I will be talking and dissecting one of these shows and or/a movie each week.

I have also returned to some older shows, re-watching them from the very beginning. Right now I'm on the sixth season of Futurama, and the second season of Alley McBeal.I was trying to get into Entourage, but could only get through the first five episodes. I didn't like the idea of watching a show about a bunch of rich douche-bags trying to get laid by a bunch of hot and sexy woman. It just didn't do it for me.

Anyways, I will be posting a new blog about the shows and movies I am currently watching and am totally open for other people's opinions and recommendations.

Tata,
C