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[10 Nov 2009|10:46am] |
There's a picture of Hunter S. Thompson sitting on a chair on some beach, sipping what I believe to be rum, with a notepad on his lap and a pen in his hand. His legs are stretched out on a table in front of him. Or a chair, I can't remember. In the background you can see a building that looks like a hotel.
Every time I see this picture I have two reactions. My first reaction is profound admiration and attraction. Hunter is a fit young man, in the prime of his masculine youth. He looks intense and free. He looks inspired and invincible. I imagine him to be writing my favorite novel, The Rum Diary. I stare at the picture and fall in love with him.
My second reaction, however, is less charming. I start to struggle with a deep sense of self-loathing. He makes it look so easy-- to sit there, on a chair...to sit there and write. To sit there and write things that will one day become well-known literature. To sit there and write things that will touch a million people, things that will resonate with minds all over the world. Relevant things. Things I can only barely grasp at. Things I am unable to produce. I start to hate him and hate myself. I become bitter and I no longer want to look at the damned picture anymore.
What if I stopped my damned self-loathing and went out there, to a beach, armed with a drink and a notepad? If I went out there and made myself write. Forced myself. Grabbed my right wrist with my left hand and wrestled it into a pen-holding position, bullied it until legible marks appeared on that blank page. Would I accomplish anything then? Would I get over this paralyzing and nauseating...
(I feel like I've tried this. I've sat down at my kitchen table armed with a drink and a notebook and forced myself to...I don't know, write write write. But...it felt false, it felt fake, it felt pretentious, it felt alien, it felt silly. Nothing came of it, except more feelings of self-loathing and failure. I don't want to feel like that anymore but I don't know how not to.)
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[08 Nov 2009|06:56pm] |
Isaac Mizrahi Live Launch Party
They look really nice here.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen - Out in NYC, November 4th
    
Unsweetined Book Scans
Rare and Never Before Seen pictures from Jodie Sweetin's book. I love the one from the Full House reunion dinner.
   
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| July Reviews, Part 1 |
[07 Nov 2009|10:56pm] |
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Lady Gaga - The Fame |
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MOVIES
7/4
Independence Day (Prewatch, 1996, Roland Emmerich, Roku) - 8.0
Aliens attack the Earth, so Bill Pullman, Will Smith, and Jeff Goldblum fix it. Fun movie with some awesome action sequences. I loved the design of the aliens.
7/13
The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow, 35mm, Embarcadero) - 6.0
Jeremy Renner plays a wild bomb diffuser in Iraq who pisses off his partner (Anthony Mackie) a lot. The dynamic between Renner and Mackie (wild vs. restrained) is a bit reminiscent of another Kathryn Bigelow film, but neither actor here has anywhere near the charisma of Patrick Swayze or Keanu Reeves. They also don’t seem to be in love with each other, and they never even go skydiving. Obviously, it’s unfair to compare this film to an unmatched masterpiece such as Point Break, but honestly, I didn’t really feel any connection at all to these characters. The movie is well put together, and there are some fairly tense sequences, so I did still like it, but I had definitely hoped for more from Bigelow.
7/14
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009, David Yates, 35mm, Metreon) - 8.0
Voldemort is still wreaking havoc, but the kids continue on at Hogwarts, and mostly spend their time pining for each other. I like the HP storyline no matter what, so I was kept entertained throughout, but it did start to feel long after awhile, because it takes fucking forever to really get anywhere, and there’s not much action in it. I guess the book was like that, too, but for the movie, I needed to see more stuff happening, or at least get a better sense of constant dread and potential danger. There’s an attack on the Burrow somewhere in the middle, and it was an adequately done sequence, but I can’t say I felt any tension. Once Dumbledore and Harry finally set off on their mission, though, things picked up, and it was excellent for the remainder of the film, all the way through to the finale, which left me suitably distraught.
TV
6/25
S Club in Miami Season 1 (1999, Andrew Margetson, Youtube) - 9.0
The S Club 7 are sent by their agent to a shitty hotel in Miami. The humor, especially in the first few episodes, is remarkably similar to Spice World, which makes sense since it’s the same screenwriter, the brilliant Kim Fuller. And it’s practically as good as Spice World. Most everyone in the band is really great, but I got really upset with Paul in the episode where he was put in charge and instantly started acting like an asshole to everyone, and it took me well into the next season to finally forgive him. Alfie Wise as the hotel manager was great, and everytime he tried to describe the UK, it was amazing.
6/28
S Club 7: Back to the Fifties (2000, Andrew Margetson, Youtube) - 9.0
The S Club leaves Miami and heads to L.A., but on the way, they drive through a time-warp and end up in a small town in the 50’s. They meet a diner busboy who is being tormented by the local motorcycle gang, and decide to use their S Club powers to help out. It’s fucking great.
6/29
S Club 7: Boyfriends and Birthdays (2000, Andrew Margetson, Youtube) - 7.5
The S Club ends up in a trailer park, and hangs out with some family, and Rachel’s boyfriend wants her to quit the band and move back to the UK. Some funny stuff, but story wasn’t great. There was too much shit with kids.
7/6
S Club in L.A. Season 2 (2000, Andrew Margetson, Youtube) - 9.0
The S Club 7 give up on Miami and move to L.A. to find fame and fortune. I liked this season even better than the first, and I felt like I was really getting to know every character a lot better. I even forgave Paul because he was pretty funny in the episode Mr. Muscle. Linda Blair is on this season, too, as their landlord, and sometimes she was funny, but honestly, she was kinda bad a lot of the time. The movie they made in Making Movies was a really fucking good movie.
7/11
S Club 7 Go Wild! (2000, Simon Fuller, Youtube) - 6.0
I know the title sounds exciting, but this is not actually about the S Club 7 flashing their tits and dicks for the camera, censored by a just-in-time graphic of the number 7. The only nudity you see here is that of endangered animals, as S Club travels around the world to learn about them. Kinda nice to get to know the members of the band a bit, but not terribly exciting. Tina’s baby panda was really adorable.
7/12
S Club 7: Artistic Differences (2000, Jeff Jones, Youtube) - 9.0
On their big move from L.A. all the way to Hollywood, Bradley and Paul have a falling out and Bradley joins a rival boy band called Guys Incorporated. But everything works out in time for an extremely abrupt ending where the S Club manages to win the Battle of the Bands before anyone else even has a chance to play. Funny and great as always.
7/16
Party Down Season 1 (2009, Rob Thomas/John Enbom/Dan Etheridge/Paul Rudd, Roku) - 9.0
About a group of caterers, who mostly have larger ambitions. The entire cast is made up of some of my favorite comedic actors, with Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ryan Hansen (always a delight on Veronica Mars), Martin Starr, and Lizzy Caplan (whose work I don’t really know that well, but I liked her in Mean Girls and Cloverfield, and loved her in this). And always featuring exciting guest stars (mostly Veronica Mars regulars, as it’s from the same creator). I thought every episode was really great and hilarious, but my favorite was the one with Steven Weber, who had an amazing gag involving his fingers. I’m very glad this got picked up for a second season, although extremely disappointed Jane Lynch can’t come back.
BOOK
7/16
How Not to Make a Short Film: Secrets from a Sundance Programmer by Roberta Marie Munroe - 9.0
A very well-written book by an expert on short films about how to make (and how not to make) festival-ready shorts, and about the process of filmmaking in general. Incredibly useful and inspiring. My movies thus far were obviously not made for the purposes of big festivals. The most I’ve ever hoped for were some bar screenings, an online audience, and possibly an opportunity to sell a few DVDs. And the Popcorn Dangerous movies I’m working on are strictly for fun and experience. But Skimmin’, a script Doug and I have been working on for longer than I care to admit, was always something we regarded more seriously. I don’t actually know what my aspirations are in terms of the movie-making business, but it does sound fun to me to make a “real movie” with an actual experienced crew, who set things up for us and make everything look, sound, and feel legitimate. And there’s also appeal to “getting my name out there.” We always just figured we’d rally up friends for help on Skimmin’, but this book made me feel like it’s possible to arrange something a lot more professional and reliable. The budget has become an even larger issue than it already was, but once we sort that out, I think it will be an amazing time. Thanks, Roberta Munroe!
Unfortunately, though, I had Doug read the book, and rather than find it inspiring, he found it terrifying, so Skimmin’ is being delayed for awhile. I promise that it WILL (probably) still happen, though. Just don’t know when. In the meantime, we’re about ready to start shooting the second episode of Capturin’ the Freedmans.
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| #3-2 (the billboards off the highway that only you can see) |
[05 Nov 2009|09:38pm] |
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mood |
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foods i can't eat anymore |
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music |
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grizzly bear, "cheerleader" |
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HOW TO: EAT TACOS WHILE DRIVING A CAR WITH A MANUAL TRANSMISSION DOWN A FOUR-LANE ROAD WITH A SPEED LIMIT OF 45 MILES PER HOUR
With your good hand (i.e., your right hand if you’re right-handed, or left) hold the taco at the end away from you, while creating a “cup” with the palm of that hand in case the taco fillings fall out the other end as you take a bite.
Keep an eye on the road. Somehow, according to Google (up to the second set of search results), food is responsible for eighty percent of automobile accidents.
Take full advantage of red lights to apply condiments and make other adjustments as necessary.
Be sure not to drive off of the four-lane road into an area, like into one of those uppity residential areas that care about “their children at play”, as though children actually go outside to play anymore, or a shopping center that has had too many people ran over by distracted drivers already, and have put speed bumps every so many yards. Driving over one bump a little too fast will make your lap suddenly resemble a salad bar.
Bearing that last tip in mind, you should make peace with the fact that you will obviously have parts of the taco fall on your lap, on the front of your shirt, the floorboards, et cetera, and write it off as parts that you can finish off after the main part of the taco has been eating, concentrating instead on the components of the taco that you definitely do not want to spill on you: meat, sauce, sour cream, the messy stuff that will stain the front of your shirt or your pants. Eating a taco while driving a car with a manual transmission down a four-lane road with a speed limit of 45 miles an hour means that you’re going to have to pick your battles. It actually means a lot of other things.
You may have to put the taco down several times during the course of its consumption in order to properly navigate your vehicle through traffic. Try to be patient and do not feel discouraged.
Eating while driving is legal in most jurisdictions. It’s important, however, to keep one hand on the steering wheel at all times (or at least the times when you’re being watched). If the police find you with both hands on your food you may be pulled over for a violation of vehicle traffic law. No one wants to pay a fine and suffer points on their license for this, and you will never get over the embarrassment, not entirely. As long as you can remember the moment you will still look back upon it, and wince. You’ll try to laugh, and you might, a little at least, especially if someone else points it out and laughs because they think it was pretty funny, but you won’t really be laughing.
Everything is funny, ultimately, the passage of time and the different lenses for looking through at things that can unfold, but still sometimes funny like pictures of yourself from fifteen years ago.
Where you’re going isn’t necessarily where you need to be. Or where you want to be, it’s probably because something is making you. Deep inside you know this, and you don’t want to. It’s a whisper that knows your name; you hear it in the space between the finish of one song on your iPod to the beginning of another. Your heart ignores it because your mind tells it to ignore it. Or pragmatism interrupts, a bloom of synapses deep and violet, and tells you something along the lines of it’s been this way the last couple of years, my choices have been made and I have to live with them. It’s too late to turn around now. Are you going somewhere to make money? Are you going there to make somebody else happy? Or to make them not as mad at you as what they could be? Are you out of time?
Do you get the feeling that your refusal to sit inside a fast food restaurant by yourself is probably one of the very last shreds of pride that you still have, the only thing that tells you that, well, at least you’re not that lonely, that you’re not that pathetic?
Think very hard about the series of events that have brought you to this point in your life. Think about happiness. Have you compromised these things you’ve wanted out of your waking days into thinking that true and lasting happiness is unrealistic, maybe always has been, and that when you think about it now and again you decide that contentment is what you want for yourself at the end of each day, unaware of the fact that it means nothing, that it’s now stretched into something vaguer still? Ask yourself if you can even picture it, the something-beyond what you do with yourself Monday through Friday, the weekends, the bank holidays, the paid time off, everything between going to sleep and then going to sleep again.
Maybe you’re right, maybe I’m wrong, and maybe there is no other way. Eighty percent of all traffic accidents are caused by eating food, and you realize that you have no relationship or sense of community with the people in the cars all around you. And sometimes you buy a taco at one place and moments later you drive by another one of the same places where you could have bought the same exact taco, the radio playing a song you must have heard a hundred times before, you feel yourself getting older, you swear you can feel yourself atrophy, withering. It’s an afternoon, the middle of the night. You’ve driven down the same street before. You may have seen the same people in these same cars a hundred times before, but you don’t recognize any of them from the last time, and you know you never will. And the taco tastes exactly like you remember.
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| Linda Blair Reviews, Part 2 |
[04 Nov 2009|09:41pm] |
6/20
A Woman Obsessed (1989, Chuck Vincent, VHS) - 9.5
A man who doesn’t know he was adopted happens upon a painting that seems to be of himself, and it turns out to be a portrait of his biological father, painted by his long-lost mother. He reconnects with her, and goes out to her mansion with his wife Linda Blair. All seems to go well at first, but then it turns out the mother is fucking insane, and is unable to distinguish her son from her late husband, and I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say that that plot detail is taken as far as it can possibly go, and I was actually shocked by it. There are some weird moments here, like two extended monologue sequences where the non-speaking actors look really uncomfortable and unsure what to do with themselves, which may be awkward to watch, but I actually found it to be realistic and possibly inspired. For the most part, it’s a brilliant thriller, that delightfully takes things way farther than expected, with an incredible and intense performance from Georgina Spelvin as the mother. I think it’d make a great double feature with Night Warning.
6/21
imps* (The Immoral Minority Picture Show) (1980's/2009, Scott Mansfield, DVD) - 6.0
Lost comedy skit film that was made in the 80’s, but never released until now. It was mostly bad, and not funny, but it wasn’t too painful. There was some ok stuff in it.
6/24
Grotesque (1988, Joe Tornatore, Download) - 8.0
Linda Blair takes her friend to her parents’ cabin in the mountains, and her dad is a special effects guy, and keeps trying to scare them with all his masks, and then a gang of punks breaks in and kills them all, except Linda Blair who escapes, at least for awhile. Some of the punks are then killed by a mutant, who the police assume had done all of the killing, despite Tab Hunter’s insistence that the mutant is innocent, and this all leads up to an aburd, and amazing, ending. Pretty ridiculous movie, but a good one.
6/26
Dead Sleep (1990, Alec Mills, DVD) - 7.5
Linda Blair is a nurse at a hospital, and she becomes suspicious of the main doctor’s methods, and the high death count of his patients who undergo his experimental treatment. It’s not an especially effective thriller, but I don’t know, I liked it.
6/29
Monster Makers (2003, David S. Cass Sr., DVD) - 6.5
A kid who likes horror movies finds a print of an old never-released monster movie, and as he’s watching it on Halloween, there’s a lightning storm, and the monsters end up coming out of the screen to terrorize the town. The plot is surprisingly smart and rarely annoying for a made-for-Hallmark kids movie. There are subtle things, like when the kid and his friend decide to go to the police, he’s like “Ok, but we can’t tell them they’re monsters or they won’t believe us, we have to say that some big guys broke in to the house.” which I thought was clever. I thought it had a lot of potential to be really good, but ultimately, it’s just too fucking innocent.
6/30
The Chilling (1989, Jack A. Sunseri & Deland Nuse, DVD) - 7.0
The power goes out at a cryogenics lab, so security guard Dan Haggerty moves all the bodies outside in the rain to keep them cold, but then the containers get hit by lightning and turns them all into zombies. Linda Blair helps out to fight them off. A bit forgettable, but basically a good movie.
7/1
Gang Boys (1994, Wings Hauser, VHS) - 9.5
Linda Blair's gay son gets raped by Nazis, so she tracks down the father, played by Wings Hauser, and helps him deal with his alcoholism, and eventually they kind of fight back. It's fucking amazing.
7/3
Prey of the Jaguar (1996, David DeCoteau, DVD) - 7.0
Maxwell Caulfield’s family is killed by a man who he had put in prison (or, more specifically, a secret underground prison, or at least I think so, I didn’t really get that part). So Caulfield becomes a superhero, inspired by some drawings his son had made, and seeks revenge. It was a decent, fun story, but not nearly gay enough for a DeCoteau movie.
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| June Reviews, Part 3 |
[01 Nov 2009|01:42pm] |
6/15
Cat Piss (Short, 2007, Giuseppe Andrews, Download) - 8.5
An older gentlemen has issues with his plumbing, so Giuseppe Andrews helps him out. I liked this one a lot. The neighbor who wore pantyhose over his face with sunglasses over it was amazing.
Choque (Short, 2005, Nacho Vigalondo, Download) - 9.0
Nacho Vigalondo goes on some bumper cars with his girlfriend, and when he feels some teenage punks are being too aggressive, he challenges them to some more bumper car madness. It’s pretty hilarious.
The Baseball Card Movie (Short, 2009, Casimir Nozkowski, Youtube) - 7.0
Short documentary about modern baseball card collecting, focused on a specific shop in New York. I collected obsessively when I was a kid (I didn’t actually watch baseball, I just liked the process of collection), so it was interesting to see how much it’s changed.
House Hunting (Short, 2003, Amy Lippman, Download) - 6.0
Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel are looking for a new apartment, and they test one out by having sex on the bed, and Paul Rudd shows off his ass, and then there’s something wrong with the realtor. It was ok.
6/18
Salome (Short, 1978, Pedro Almodovar, Download) - 7.5
Early Almodovar short about Salome, who dances around and demands that John the Baptist is beheaded. Pretty good.
6/20
Pulp Fiction (Rewatch, 1994, Quentin Tarantino, 35mm, Clay) - 9.5
John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are hitmen who go to retrieve a mysterious suitcase stolen from their boss, Ving Rhames, who has paid the boxer Bruce Willis to throw a fight, but Bruce Willis kills the opponent instead, and also a couple robs a diner where the hitmen are eating, and all the stories meet up with each other, and a ton of other stuff happens. It’s really fucking great, and mostly perfect, with amazing dialogue that is amazing for reasons I don’t even understand. I hadn’t seen it in years, and it fucking holds up.
6/22
Martyrs (2009, Pascal Laugier, DVD) - 8.0
A girl is traumatized from having been held captive and had horrible things done to her as a child, and now she’s haunted by some kind of creature, and she tries to hunt down the people who did it. This movie is all over the place, and the plot seems to drastically change like three times, but somehow it works. I was expecting something disturbing from what I’d been hearing about it, but when the final twist comes, revealing why the girl was tortured, it’s more just kinda weird than anything else. It’s original at least, if not especially mind-blowing. I don’t know what exactly people claim is difficult to watch, but there’s an extended torture montage where a girl just gets punched in the face all the time that could be what people mean. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the Saw series and other “torture porn” films because I consider them to be very similar to all the great slashers, in that they celebrate innovative ways to kill someone. So for me, the torture scenes in Martyrs were kiiiiiind of fucking boring. But aside from that, some of the violence is really great, and when they show the actual devices of torture, it’s really good, and the sequence where the girl busts in on a family is fucking incredible.
Tetro (2009, Francis Ford Coppola, 35mm, Embarcadero) - 5.0
This guy goes to Argentina where his older brother Vincent Gallo is, and he tries to get him to open up about his past or something, and he finds some shit he’s written, but it’s in code, so he tries to decipher it, and then writes a play based on it, and it’s a success. I wanted to like it, but it was pretty much boring, and I couldn’t get engaged in the story. I was also distracted by the cinematography. It was shot on digital, which I don’t have any problem with, but I think at this time, digital can only look so good. It’s shot and lighted very similarly to Rumble Fish, which is a fucking gorgeous-looking film. Coppola was obviously trying for the same effect here, and it’s possible I was just thinking about it too much because of an obsession with film, but I found that it looked really flat and boring. Flat and boring is how I would describe the story too, though, so I guess it actually matches up. And I don’t know, maybe it’ll look better on Blu-ray.
6/27
Sin Nombre (2009, Cary Fukunaga, 35mm, Red Vic) - 8.0
A Mexican gang member ends up killing his gang leader, and he goes on the run, and befriends a girl who is trying to cross the border. Some of the gang members are pretty frightening, and the story doesn’t hold back in portraying gang life. It’s really good.
6/28
Duplicity (2009, Tony Gilroy, 35mm, Red Vic) - 5.0
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are both corporate spies, and they sleep together, and they connive to scam each of their corporations, but they might be double-crossing each other. It was either really confusing or just really dumb. Probably both, I guess. But watchable enough.
6/29
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009, Michael Bay, 35mm, Kabuki) - 8.0
Shia LaBeouf is off to college, but first he accidentally touches a remaining shard from that black thing from the first movie, and after a brief showdown with Transformer Gremlins, he takes off to leave, but Decepticons are still around, so the Transformers need his help, and a ton of other shit happens, including Shia almost cheating on Megan Fox with a crazy stalker/rapist girl who I could’ve sworn was also Megan Fox in a blond wig. Shia is hilarious and charming, in fucking top form here, and Julie White as his mom was also fucking great. The entire first half of the movie I thought was incredible, but eventually it does start to feel real fucking long, and the final battle especially goes on forever. And without being obsessed enough with Transformers to tell any of them apart, the action isn’t very exciting. It’s far from Bay’s best work, but it’s not the piece of shit everyone says it is, either. Well, in a way it is, but I’ll get back to that.
After I saw it, I was dying to know what race the "racist" twins were supposed to be. Can it really be considered racist if I honestly could not fucking figure it out? They were like Asians imitating black people, mixed with hillbillies. So all I can figure is that people are mad because they left out Mexicans? Nobody would answer me on Twitter or FaceBook, and I genuinely wanted to know the answer. Everywhere I looked to research the matter didn’t bother to specify, as if it’s so obvious, there’s no need to. My best educated guess is that they’re supposed to be Black, but seriously, I couldn’t tell. They’re supposed to have formed their personalities based on an amalgamation of pop cultures consumed from the internet, and that is exactly how it comes across.
But anyway, here’s the thing about this movie. Everything that people have said about the plot not making any sense, is entirely correct. I don’t follow movies very well myself, especially if I’m distracted by shit blowing up, so I didn’t actually notice. But from what I’ve read about the plotholes and various inconsistencies, it seems the movie was definitely problematic. My favorite article on the subject would be this one. It’s not only a hilarious read, but it actually answered my fucking question about the “racist” robots. And to be honest, I can’t figure out if reading about all the movie’s problems actually makes me like it even more or not. I'm pretty sure it does.
6/30
Public Enemies (2009, Michael Mann, 35mm, Balboa) - 7.0
Johnny Depp is John Dillinger and he’s a bank robber, and Christian Bale is fed up with it. I was never bored during its 2+ hour running time, but there was never a moment when I was thrilled or excited, either. It’s a thoroughly good movie, without ever being great. Nice to see Stephen Dorff getting work.
June Top 10
1. Drag Me to Hell
2. A Woman Obsessed
3. Megaforce
4. The Hangover
5. Airport 1975
6. Up
7. Bedroom Eyes
8. S Club 7: Back to the Fifties
9. Choque (short)
10. Land of the Lost
Bottom 5
1. The Blind Waiter (short)
2. Lola Montes
3. Six Months to Live (short)
4. Victory at Entebbe
5. Duplicity
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[01 Nov 2009|11:06am] |
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Breanne & Shannon 1983
At Kansas City Zoo, September 1983 |
Breanne & Shannon 2009
At Disneyland, May 2009 |
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| New images |
[30 Oct 2009|06:09pm] |
Union Square Olsenboye Promotion
   
View the full: MQ Gallery
First Beastly Promo Still!
and another of Vanessa.
 
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| It's Halloween Weekend, Go See This Movie! |
[30 Oct 2009|02:55pm] |
9/24
Paranormal Activity (2009, Oren Peli, DLP, Castro) - 9.0
A young couple is haunted by a ghost or demon, so the skeptical boyfriend begins to film themselves sleeping every night, with increasingly disturbing results. It has a great concept behind it, because instead of the typical house haunting, the ghost is actually haunting the girl herself, and has followed her around most of her life, so there’s no way for her to escape. The whole movie is told through the boyfriend’s camera, which is rapidly becoming a very familiar tactic at this point, but I still find it hugely effective. This movie reminded me most of Christopher Denham’s Home Movie, about creepy kids, which overall I liked a little more, but Paranormal Activity is definitely a lot scarier.
And on that point, a lot is being made of how the film doesn’t rely on gore or violence, and instead things are left to your imagination. That’s being used as a selling point, as if that alone makes it superior to those horror films that do rely on such methods. Since I happen to adore gore and violence, I wanted to take a different approach. Horror is, without a doubt, my favorite genre of film. I watch as many horror movies as I can possibly consume, and I love it in all of it’s varied forms. But I don’t find them scary. Like, ever. Apparently, I simply don’t have an imagination, because suspense is frequently lost on me. Whenever something happens offscreen, and I’m left to create what happened inside my own head, it’s not my imagination that runs wild, but frustration. So if I’m watching a monster movie, I want to see the fucking monster. And if I’m watching a slasher, I want extreme fucking close-ups of every last graphic detail of what the killer is inflicting on his victims. I don’t need gore to enjoy horror, there are plenty of other reasons I love the genre, but I definitely consider it an enhancement to any film. I like it when movies can scare me as well, but it just happens too rarely for me to judge a movie if it doesn’t.
Paranormal Activity is one out of a midget’s handful of films that actually fucking terrified me. There are quite a few scenes that completely creeped me the fuck out, and I happily give it due credit for pulling that off. The simplicity of some of the things that occur, often done without any effects, are exactly what makes the film seem so plausible. It’s not hard to picture the exact same events taking place in my own home.
It’s so effectively scary, however, that I was a bit disappointed when it all ends with a cheap jump scare (I hope no one considers that a spoiler, I apologize if you do). Now I love cheap jump scares. LOVE them. Especially at the very end of a movie right before the credits start. But here, it felt too incongruous to the rest of the movie, none of which could be considered “cheap”. Apparently, multiple endings were shot, and there’s even a different ending on the screener copy that’s been floating around the last couple years. I caught one of the advance screenings last month before it’s wide release, so for all I know, I’ve seen a different one as well. And it’s a minor issue, anyway, so please ignore that I even brought it up.
In short, Paranormal Activity is an incredible horror film, in spite of the fact that it does not embrace gore or violence.
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| "Mary-Kate Olsen's $900 Million Fortune At Stake" |
[26 Oct 2009|11:37pm] |
There's an article in the National Enquirer that says MK is going to marry Nate Lowman once they hammer out the details of a pre-nup. I don't have a scanner so I typed it up. The tabs keep saying that MK and Ash are both about to get married.
Mary-Kate Olsen and boyfriend Nate Lowman are about to face off over a staggering $900 million prenuptial agreement before their wedding, say sources.
The 23-year-old star, who has amassed an astounding billion-dollar fortune with her twin Ashley, thinks artist Nate is the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with - and her legal team will make sure her massive bank account is protected before the couple walks down the aisle, says pals.
Mary-Kate began dating the handsome 30-year-old in early 2008 after they were introduced by friends. Although she was dating other men at the time, Mary-Kate quickly realized there was something special between her and Nate, and decided that she wanted to see him exclusively, says a close source.
"Since then, their love has grown to the point where it's time to take the next step in their relationship. Because many millions are at stake, there's no question that Mary-Kate's legal advisers will make sure a prenup is ironed out, and Nate's signature is ironed out, and Nate's signature is on the dotted line," said the source.
Mary-Kate is determined to be a mother by the time she's 25, say pals - and she believes Nate will make a great father. Mary-Kate has all of the nurturing qualities it takes to be a great mom. "There were plenty of guys who came before him who were wealthier," said the source. "But she knows, because of her tremendous wealth, her son or daughter will never want for money. She is in a place in her life where she wants to move on to what really counts - getting married and having children."
While Mary-Kate's rep insists "there's absolutely no truth to any of this," sources tell The Enquirer that Nate can definitely see himself married to Mary-Kate, and expects the prenup will be hammered out in the near future. He's fully aware that Mary-Kate has a fortune to protect and understands why an agreement is necessary.
While some of the artist's friends believe Nate should agree to whatever Mary-Kate's legal team draws up, "others think he shouldn't sign it too quickly - that if they do marry and it ends in divorce, he should be in a position to walk away with a big chunk of change," said a close pal of the artist.
"What's a payout of even $50 million to someone who has an empire worth $900 million?"
Mary-Kate and Ashley are partners of Dualstar Entertainment Group. Ashley will probably encourage a prenup to make sure there's no threat to the business they worked so hard to build.
"Ashley is deeply invested in their success and loves Mary-Kate will all her heart. She would never let anyone take advantage of her sister," said an Olsen family insider." said an Olsen family insider. "She knows a prenup is important to protect their vast fortune, and she certainly would look down on Nate if he contests it."
Thoughts anyone? I think MK is more serious about this guy than anyone she's been with in awhile. They are together all the time. But she doesn't strike me as the kind of girl to marry and settle down with kids young. She's a wild child and has so much money too protect, too. And this is the National Enquirer.
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