Quarantine

This was one of the trailers shown in front of "The Strangers". I feel this film has a lot of potential, but it looks to be a little too Cloverfield for me. I'm sick of people "finding" videotape. We're really starting to beat a dead horse with that. I feel that they should just follow the crew in and go from there. Well either way let me know what you think!

The Strangers

I really ate my words today after watching this film. When I first started seeing trailers for this film I thought that it had potential, but I just didn't like Scott Speedman. This film was genius. I don't say that a lot about films, I am a really harsh critic, but "The Strangers" really did scare the hell out of me.

Based on true events, "The Strangers" follows two characters Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman). James and Kristen were at a friend's wedding reception, when they ran into some relationship problems. They are staying at the family cottage and start to make amends when there is a forceful knock at the door. There is a young woman asking for Tamera.

After sending her on her way, we are back to the doom and gloom of their relationship. James goes for a drive to get Kristen some cigarettes, and that is when the fun begins. Eerie placement of the strangers through the house, and incredible attention to natural sound bring so many terrors to this film I wish that I had a safety blanket.

The film is based on true events, and those events are from the writer/director Bryan Bertino's childhood, and also the events that took place at Cabin #28 at Keddie Resort. I look forward to seeing more work from Bryan, and highly recommend this film to all who are looking to lose a nights sleep.

The Machine Girl

As I walked the aisles of Wal-Mart's electronics section I stumbled across this film "The Machine Girl". What a diamond in the rough this is. Though it is an Asian film, it was made specially for the American audiences, never aired in Japan.

The story has a very common theme in Asian cinema...revenge. Ami is a normal school girl who has been taking care of her younger brother since her parent's committed suicide. Things seem to be going well in their lives until her brother, Yu, gets caught up with the Yakuza and gets himself killed.

Distraught, Ami decides to take vengeance upon the Yakuza family that killed her brother, the Hanzo family. Yes, that's right, Hitori Hanzo. Ami storms the families house and fights several henchmen before she is caught and tortured. The loss of her arm leaves her in pain and on the brink of death. Luckily she manages to stumble upon the doorstep of Yu's friend, who also died by the hands of the Hanzo.

After a little home suturing and some mechanical know-how, shes back to fighting, and now with a machine gun arm. She teams up with a mother of Yu's friend who was also killed by the Hanzo clan. After several ridiculous battles involving ninjas, and also an angry group of mourning parents, Ami and her partner descend on the Hanzo family temple with all the power that they have.

This film is riddled with excellent visuals, and very inventive weapons i.e. the drill bra, the flying guillotine, a suiroken sword, and also an arm that has been fried like tempura. It also is an homage to, I'm sure, some of the writer/director's favorite movies. Kill Bill, Army of Darkness, and Planet Terror to name a few.

I highly recommend this film to all.

Stan Romaneck

I will make this quick because I don't know how long that this video will be posted on Youtube. If you've been living under a rock then you haven't heard about Stan Romaneck. Long story short, he videotaped and "alien" peering into his window. This video is getting shut down quick so I hope it is still up for viewing when you read this. Let me know your thoughts. Take into consideration that this video does have timecode and it does have a reflection of the opposite wall in the background. The "alien" is definitely on the outside of the window. Look at how fluid the motions it makes are, and how it blinks. You opinions?

Let's Keep The Fantasy Out Of Sports.

Something I noticed a lot in school, and my brief stint in the office environment of a company was people's love for sports. I am not a huge sports person, sure I enjoy going to events, but that is mostly for the food. I have been known to watch a Chicago Bears football game every now and again, or event a golf tournament with my dad. I'll never understand the craze for "fantasy" sports though.

To clarify, there is no fantasy involved at all. It is when a group of men, who are either too terrible at sports in real life, or were the sports "all stars" in high school, gather together and pick players from sports teams to build a giant mega team. Now, I haven't done much research into this type of fad (mostly because I got a headache trying to figure batting averages, and then fell asleep when I was reading the names of these players.) but it appears that you watch the event your "players" are in, and you are assigned points per "awesome feat" that the player does per game. Then, I assume the winner is the person with the most points at the end of the season.

Where is the fantasy involved in that? Unless Gandalf is running the bases with his sword in hand, or Frodo is dodging tackles left and right only to spike the one ring down into the end zone fires of Mt. Doom, it isn't fantasy.

Though, as I read what I have written about fantasy sports it does really sound like an RPG does it not? How come nobody ever made fun of them in high school, yet the D&D kids were outcasts? Everyone is a nerd...put that in your pipe sports stars.

So I tell you what, lets make a compromise. Start a petition for a live action Dragonlance film, check Perezhilton.com daily, watch The Soup, and listen to Lingo weekly.