Sunday, January 11, 2015

[REC] 4: APOCALYPSE, 2015 Jaume Balagueró

I am just going to leave this here, from a fb conversation on God and man:

I think that comments like the ones you started this thread have little to do with the nature of a higher power and more to do with the nature of human beings. And let's face it, since we are all free to create our own understanding of what that higher power is, there is going to be some pretty messed up stuff put out there by a lot of unbalanced folk whose most redeeming quality is their ability to make other people do stupid stuff. Having said that, I would suggest you take some time to open yourself up to God so that he would show you His true nature by watching [REC] 4: Apocalypse, which deals with these issues in a unique and surprisingly sensitive way.

 Seriously, you need to put it at the top of  the list of important things to do soon. Even more important than fixing Timmy's kite or getting gang-banged by midgets in clown make-up. Maybe not the midgets, but you know that Timmy punk is going to grow up to be an asshole no matter how many times you fix his fucking kite. Plus, there is a literal shower of monkey guts.

Yes, I am a fan of the whole series. Each movie is a well-balanced movie-meal of good scares, great action and just the right amount of gore and humor.  As a plus, missing from the third installment, Manuela Velasco is back as Ángela Vidal, one of the most serious butt-kicking femmes in any franchise since Sigourny Weaver's Ripley.



Available on VOD from the usual suspects.


Saturday, November 1, 2014

Shocktober Round Up

Even though she doesn't like horror movies, The Doctor does like Halloween.  This is us as tour guides for a haunted house in Vergennes, Vermont. This was probably our favorite Halloween Night.

Every year, much to the Doctor's dismay, I dub October Shocktober and try to watch as many horror movies as I can.  This year I decided to share the movies I watched by posting an image from the it as my fb profile picture.


Friday, May 30, 2014

Godzilla (Gareth Edwards, 2014)

If forgotten, the sins of the past are likely to be revisited on the future. As the only nation to have nuclear weapons used against them, Japan has a duty to remember the scale of devastation Fat Man and Little Boy had on the unsuspecting cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. They commemorated these attacks by re-imagining the bombs as giant, invulnerable radioactive monsters who would devastate entire cities. It was fitting that The Doctor and I chose to honor the memory of the frightening destruction of the war by spending Memorial Day watching Gareth Edwards' thoroughly American remake of Godzilla, a creature spawned 60 years ago by the Japanese to remind us all of the monstrous effects of the most violent weapons ever unleashed on humanity.


Monday, March 31, 2014

Insomniac Theater Presents: The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, 1981)


In the 1970s, martial arts films from Hong Kong began to flood grindhouse theaters and late night television slots in America, creating a “Kung Fu Craze” that captivated action film fans. Martial arts director/star Sammo Hung, actors Lam Ching-ying and Yuen Biao made several standout films together together that not only fed the craze but also elevated the quality of film-making of the genre.  In the 1990s, my daughter and I used to watch bootleg VHS copies of these movies together.  One of her favorites was 1979’s The Prodigal Son, which was both a kung fu comedy with breathtaking action scenes and fight choreography and a warm tribute to the Peking Opera origins of the stars.


Sunday, March 16, 2014

Insomniac Theater Presents: H.P. Mendoza's I am a Ghost

I started this blog in 2010, when I became ill and couldn't sleep.  The Insomniac Theater  was a chance to dump some of the obsessive thoughts into the larger muck pond of the Internet. My daughter's cat, Olivia, would pad into  my room as I set up my laptop and put on headphones.  Tucked under my chin, she would watch the colors of on laptop screen while I explored all the movies I could get my hands on.  We were a weird pair, me with my nearly useless limbs and this scrawny, angry black cat the only two creatures awake in the house.  A perfect time for ghost stories.

 H.P. Mendoza's ghostly chiller I Am a Ghost would have been a perfect movie for those nights.