Radio Show Launches Wednesday

Hey everyone!

This Wednesday will be my first official radio show in my new time slot.

Every Wednesday night from 9pm-12am tune your radio to 91.3 FM WTSR, or head over to WTSR.org and click on listen live, to hear my show.

The show will consist of the rock of the 90's and early 00's, as well a bit of entertainment discussion.

Feel free to call in the request line at 609.771.2554, or send me an IM at WTSRDJ on AIM with a comment or request.

You can always leave a comment on this site as well, about my radio show, on my radio show posts. I plan on having a few posts on here about show updates, as well as the usual music, TV, and movie news.

Here's to a great show and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Thanks,
DP

No Spiderman 4, instead Spiderman Begins!

Well here is something that no Spider-man fan expected. As of today, director Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst are out of the Spidey franchise.

Also, say goodbye to Spider-man 4, as Sony has canned that production as well.

The hype around Spider-man 4, included everything from script disputes, to difficult villain choices, to problems with the reception of Spidey 3. Raimi decided to walk away and chose not to deal with the direction that the Spider-man franchise was heading in.

Reports can be found all over the web that Raimi insisted on The Vulture as the next villain in the franchise, who the studio rejected as old and non-popular. The series had already screwed up with Venom, the most important villain in the franchise, and I had a large feeling it was dead in the water.

Spidey on the big screen is not dead for good. Sony plans to reboot the franchise with a new

director, new actors, and a new production crew. This time, it will be centered around Spider-man's angsty high school years....

Wait, this sounds all too familiar...

Noooooooooooooooo!

Sony is pitching it as dark and "gritty." They say it will be akin to Batman Begins.

The real problem here is that isn't who Spider-man is. Anyone who read the comics, or even saw the first two movies knows that Spidey has always been a funnier, comedic superhero who still

kicks major ass. To turn him into a sad Batman copy with some dark teen-angst plot line would be a severe injustice to his character.

In my mind, Tobey Maguire will always be Spider-man and unfortunatly his role attached to the terrible Spider-man 3 script. I would suggest anyone watch the first 2 Spider-man movies to see what brought superhero movies back into the mainstream.

An Interesting Take On Machines and The Essence Of Life: 9 Review

Recently, the animated movie 9 has been released on DVD. I saw the trailer for this movie last summer and I wanted to see it.

Unfortunately, it was released in what I like to call, the college grace period. I am referring to that time when we, as students, just move back into school and have a lot of other things to do besides take a trip to the movie theater.

This movie, released on 9.9.09 (ha) was right in the middle of that early September grace period.

Moving on, I really wish I would have seen this movie in the theater, as the visuals in this movie are absolutely stunning. The last animated movie that impressed me this much was Wall-E, and this movie deserves to be viewed on a huge screen to get the feel of things.

9, is the story of a scientist who creates an animatronic "brain" sometime in what looks to be the 1930's, in order to speed production of the age of machinery. Unfortunately, the military takes the brain and puts it to use making weapons. Eventually the brain decides to turn against humanity and exterminate all humans.

The scientist who created it, splits his soul into 9 different parts, and implants a piece into little dolls which now hold the key to life surviving. The dolls must now fight against what is left of these machines to preserve the soul and human life as it is known then.

Each of the 9 dolls has its own distinct personality that helps to make the movie that much more enjoyable. For example, Doll 1 is the oldest and presumed wisest of them, attempting to save the others by hiding, while Doll 7 is female, and a rouge assassin who takes down machines while wearing a bird skull as battle armor.

Doll 9 is the main character in the film, a curious doll, who finds out why they were created and what they were meant to do, all while getting into his own battles against the machines.

The cast, including actors like Elijah Wood and John C. Reilly performs great and makes the movie fun to watch.

Although the film is a little darker than most animated movies, it has to be in order to work. Some scenes show the damage of the machine apocalypse and people dead in the streets, something not found in 3D animation as we know it today.

The darker feel was executed well with help from Tim Burton, who is a producer of this film. The machine/creatures that the brain creates to attempt to destroy the 9 dolls have a very creepy feel to them. They encompass everything from a snake-like creature with a baby doll's head, to a large bird machine with a harpoon-gun tail.

This DVD gets a B+ from me, as it has a very good storyline, but does not translate well to DVD due to the need for the large effects that go with most of the action sequences.

I wish I could have caught this in theaters.

Vampires seem more human than ever: Daybreakers Review

This movie wasn't the greatest vampire film of all time, but it did some justice to this genre, which has taken many hits in this era of film.

Daybreakers set in 2019 is a film that makes vampires seem more human than ever.

In most movies featuring the undead, vampires are immortal, untouchable creatures that run into relatively no problems, besides the occasional sunlight and holy water.

In Daybreakers the vampire outbreak has created a world overpopulated by vampires and the number of humans left is running thin. Basically, the vampires are running out of blood and need to find a solution fast.

In this film, when vampires do not feed on human blood, they become primitive and more bat-like creatures (see photo left). These primal vampires are mostly the poor who cannot afford blood, as it is bought and sold like food in the movie, even in coffee shops in the subway.

The main character Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke),thankfully not a Twilight reference, is a hematologist at the leading vampire blood research facility who is charged with finding an alternative to human blood.

Edward does not like being a vampire and feels sympathy for the humans, which his boss Bromley (Sam Neill) sees as weakness.

Bromley is the head of the blood research corporation and is basically the vampire equivalent of Lex Luthor, evil businessman character.

While trying to find an alternative to human blood, Edward eventually stumbles upon Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who has cured himself of his own vampirism and leads a band of humans attempting to spread the cure and stay alive.

From there the movie leads down the path of Edward dealing with this newfound cure while the vampires deal with the lack of blood as most, like Bromley, do not believe in a cure.

Edward is left with the fate of the human race within him and now must face a world full of vampires with the single cure that can end the darkness forever.

The vampires in this movie outcast their lesser, blood deprived vampires showing an almost elitist human quality. The vampires were afraid that their source of life was running out and made decisions to preserve their race, never before in a movie have vampires had to make decisions like this and seeing it was very enjoyable and interesting.

The special effects in the movie were done very well and put a primal spin on the vampire. There are also a few cool takes on vampire transportation in daylight, like cars that have cameras on the roof and sunblocks on the windshield so they can drive in the day and see where they are going.

Acting wise, Sam Neill was very convincing as the big bad business boss vampire. Ethan Hawke's performance was good as well, although I felt like he was channeling some Christian Bale in this film. Willem Dafoe's southern-like character is downright hilarious and adds some comic relief to all the gore and neck-biting vampirism.

I'm going to give this film a B.

The film's ending could have been better done and it feels like a little more could have been explained about the initial vampire outbreak. Other than that and a little overuse of ridiculous, less-than-realistic gore in some scenes (arms being ripped off, heads rolling around) this film did the, sometimes difficult, vampire genre justice.

Michael Cera's Best Performance Yet: Youth In Revolt Review

This movie had everything a smart teen comedy should. When I say smart, I mean this film has nothing in common with the endless spinoffs of American Pie being passed off as "teen comedies" today.

Michael Cera has defined his young career with this movie.

His ability to portray the split personality between the main character, Nick, and his alter-ego, Francois, is a staple in teen comedy history. Nick creates Francois while meeting the girl of his dreams, in order to be the bad-boy that she wants.

Through Francois, Nick is able to do things he would never dream of doing, like stealing his fathers' car and talking back to police officers.

Cera pulls off constant laughs as Nick, doing what he does best as the awkward, love struck loser. But, in the scenes where Francois Dillinger is on the screen, Cera transforms into an equally hilarious bad-boy with an attitude that keeps the laughs coming.

The cast of this film worked great around Cera and made this film extremely enjoyable and clever. It is arguably the best cast in a teen comedy since the original American Pie.

Portia Doubleday plays a great role as Nick's love-interest Sheeni. She is everything from mysterious to artsy and is a great character to watch while she pushes Nick to be bad.

With a touch of Zach Galifianakis as Nick's mother's deadbeat boyfriend, a sprinkle of Justin Long as Nick's love interest's stoner brother, a few scenes of Ray Liotta as a smarmy cop, a little of Steve Buschemi as Nick's father, and finally Fred Willard as the creepy neighbor makes this movie one of the best comedies of the year.

In the film, Cera's character Nick goes from being a vinyl listening virgin to burning down half of his town to get the girl of his dreams to love him, and along the way takes viewers on a hilarious ride full of awkward teen moments and great interactions with those adults around him.

I'm going to give this film an A-. The only real place I found problematic was the speed of the movie. There were a lot of crazy things going on in a relatively short film, compared to others out now like Sherlock Holmes and Avatar.

It is a great comedy that is extremely clever with its split-personality plot line and is 100% worth going to the movies to see.

Daybreakers and Youth In Revolt Reviews This Weekend

Two movies with great hype in two different genres are coming out this weekend and I plan on seeing both of them.

First, Youth In Revolt looks to be a hilarious teen comedy that combines great comedic actors Michael Cera, Justin Long, and Zach Galifianakis.

Cera is known for his awkward teenage characters in movies like Superbad and Juno, while Long does some of his best work in Waiting. Galifianakis is fresh off the second buzz of The Hangover which stemmed from its DVD release in the recent past.

The movie's plot sounds extremely promising with Cera playing both his usual awkward teen character as well as an alter ego which is more badass.

The second movie, Daybreakers, looks just as promising, but in the horror genre.

Daybreakers looks like it will bring prominence back to the vampire horror genre which has been absolutely made a mockery of by mainstream popular culture.

The cast of this movie looks great with Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. The storyline about vampires running out of human to harvest for blood sounds creepy enough to get most people interested in the film.

From the looks of the trailer, the vampires look promising as they are represented as these mutant-like creatures. The special effects on the vampires themselves look like they will scare most people.

I am interested to see how the few humans left on the planet avoid capture in a world filled with vampires. It is a very interesting concept, which reminds me a bit of I am Legend. If it's anything like that movie, while being original, I will enjoy it.

I am looking forward to reviewing both of these movies when this weekend.

Freddy Isn't Dead: A Nightmare On Elm Street Preview

Well, it seems that 2010 will be, yet again, a year of horror remakes.

The originality in Hollywood's horror department has really been lacking, and nothing orignial has really drawn massive hype since the first Saw film. So, we are left with remakes and revamping of classic horror films.

Michael Bay, the producer of this film, was able to somewhat successfully remake with Friday the 13th. On the popular movie critic site RottenTomatoes.com, the movie is summed up as well-constructed but unoriginal.

I see this movie going in the same direction as Friday the 13th as there is little that can be done with a franchise so ingraned in our mind as the Elm Street series is. Robert Englund, who IS the definitive Krueger will not be portraying the killer in this version, which leaves die-hard fans stunned.

Instead, Jackie Earle Haley, known for his performance as Rorschach in Watchmen will be taking over as the glove wielding psychopath. Haley's performance in the trailer looks convincing, but fans of the series will always miss the sadistic sarcasm of Englund's original Freddy.

Bay's input behind this remake makes it sure to have plenty of action, with some meaningless dialogue. After all that is what slasher films are known for and he followed suit with his remake of Friday the 13th.

The problem with Bay's horror style is that Freddy is no ordinary slasher killer. He talks, unlike Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, and has his own wit and dark humor. Wether or not Haley will be able to recreate this element of Freddy will reveal itself within the movie.

If this movie is done well I could see a complete rehashing of the entire series. Just please, no Freddy vs. Jason remake.

Werewolves Could Be Scary Again: The Wolfman Preview

Here is the latest trailer for the upcoming remake of the 1940's classic The Wolfman.

Usually horror movie remakes are either a hit or miss. They can be absolutely terrible like The House of Wax, or they can be brilliant, like Dawn of the Dead (2004).

I strongly believe this version of The Wolf Man will be a hit, largely in part to its spectacular cast. Benicio del Toro, Hugo Weaving, and Anthony Hopkins are all actors that can make a movie great alone. Combining them in a movie of this genre set in this time period will be like watching true magic.

From the looks of the trailer, the effects are very well done, and we will get to see yet another take on the werewolf transformation. This one is sure to piss on New Moon's sad excuse for werewolves.

Del Toro and The Wolf Man will lead the charge, bringing Werewolves away from making teen girls fall in love with them, to making them scream like they did in 1941.

Hopefully, the cold night of February 10th is a full moon.

The New Holmes: Sherlock Holmes Review

Happy New Year everyone!

I think I will start out 2010 reviewing Sherlock Holmes, the newest take on the classic tale of the brilliant English detective.

To sum this movie up, I dissect it into three parts: The dialogue, The action, and The overall story.

First, the speaking parts in this movie are clever, but they do get old fast. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson bring the sarcasm to the tenth degree. It does get old very fast, and I expected more with the brilliance of the dialogue within the orignial Sherlock Holmes tales. One can only take so much crass sarcasm in a faux British accent.

Downey Jr's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is different from the Holmes we know from the book series. Downey Jr's Holmes is scruffier and less gentlemanly than his literature counterpart. This may turn some fans of the original book off, but I enjoyed this version of Holmes. After all, you have to get a bit dirty doing the work that Holmes does on a daily and nightly basis.

The action sequences in the movie are very entertaining. This movie introduces a slow-motion sequence where Holmes breaks down exactly what he is going to do to the villain within the fight, while performing the actions in a slow-motion. The only problem is when, directly after, the scene is replayed at normal speed. This type of action sequence highlighted Holmes' ability to quickly deduce ways to neutralize attackers with a variety of strategic hits. I felt the replay at normal speed after we had already seen what Holmes did to his opponent was unnessicary. Luckily this filming technique is only used a few times.

Finally, the overall story was one that can be a bit hard to follow. Due to its incorporation of black magic and the supernatural with Holmes' logic and scientific deduction, the plot can leave the viewer scratching their head at the end. Although there are many explanations as to how Holmes' eventually solves the mystery of Lord Blackwood's (a great villain, I may ad) powers and saves London from terror, the storyline fits together well and provides for an entertaining watch. Downey Jr. and Law clash as either could be the hero in this film, but they work well together when it counts. In the end, Watson and Holmes fight valiantly together, but once again we see Holmes taking the forefront and figuring out Blackwood's devious plot, and explaining it to Watson, as we would read in an original Holmes tale.

The story is left open with a mention of Professor Moriarty at the end of the movie, and it gave it a sort of Batman Begins feeling, where the Joker was mentioned at the end to leave room for a sequel. I would most likely see a sequel to see how Professor Moriarty would be represented, as he is one of the greatest villians in all of literature.

I'm going to give Sherlock Holmes a B+.

Clash of the Titans Trailer

Double Wow.

This movie, scheduled to come out March 26th, is a remake of the 1980's classic.

I now understand why some old movies are allowed to be remade. This movie looks absolutely epic and has a great cast.

Liam Neeson as Zeus is a great pick. Just looking at how Zeus and Hades are represented in this movie makes one word comes to mind: stunning.

Sam Worthington as the main character, Perseus, was a great choice as well. He is establishing himself as one of the premier action stars of today with his work in Avatar and Terminator Salvation.

The Kraken is another discussion entirely and I cannot wait to see more screen time of this thing. The CGI looks great in the scenes with the giant scorpion and Medusa.

I'd suggest actually watching the original movie's representation of the monsters, then watching this trailer and having the same reaction I did.

I'm not looking for an amazing plot line and great dialouge with this movie, but if I get one I will be happy.

Also for you music geeks, like me, the lead singer of Muse is doing the music, so get extra excited.

With this and Iron Man 2, spring 2010 should be a great time for movies.

Iron Man Trailer Review

Wow.

I enjoyed the first Iron Man tremendously. I would have to rank it 3rd on my all time super hero movie list, after The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2 (feel free to argue me on this one).

Iron Man 2 looks like everything you want in a superhero sequel: a bad ass new villain, a more personal plot line for the main character, a powerful new ally, and a bunch of cool new weapons and gadgets.

The acting swap of Don Cheadle for Terrance Howard as War Machine is the only real part of this movie I may need to get over. But, I am very excited for Mickey Rourke to play Whiplash, the main villian in the movie. Rourke has proven himself as an amazing character actor, and is putting on a Russian accent for the role.

Also, if you remember Wild Bill in The Green Mile, you will be reminded of Sam Rockwell's amazing performance. In Iron Man 2, Rockwell will be playing the villian Justin Hammer, and will be able to once again showcase his evil side.

I am looking forward to this movie as a pre-summer blockbuster and expect it to do extremely well. I do not think this movie will crash as a sequel, but has the potential to be the best movie in the franchise.

Lil Wayne's Rebirth. Review.

Well, here it is. Leaked a bit early is Lil Wayne's attempt at being a rock star. The songs are all over YouTube, so check them out there if you need a listen for yourself.

It's no Appetite For Destruction, but Lil Wayne does show some artistic creativity on this rock/rap album.

The self-proclaimed "best rapper alive" picks up a guitar and possibly a bass for this crossover album. Heavily laced with auto-tune, Rebirth is an interesting album to listen to. This album provides a couple of good songs with rap lyrics in a rock style format, by that I mean Wayne is basically singing/rapping about things he would usually rap about in any of his other albums. Lil Wayne runs into some trouble when attempting to sing, and make a "ballad" but we'll talk about that later.

The album is not Lil Wayne's best work, but does provide some listenable songs to those who enjoy experimental rock/hip-hop fusions. I would suggest bypassing the already released "Prom Queen" and "Hot Revolver" for more interesting tracks like "American Star" and "Paradise." There is some decent guitar work on the album, most likely not played by Wayne himself, but fun to get into.

With this album, the best tracks are the ones in which Wayne decides to rap over some sweet beats and guiar riffs. When Wayne does this, the tracks have energy and are enjoyable. "Drop the World" which features Eminem, is a great example of his rapping ability over a rock-like track. There is little to no auto-tune on this track, just straight Wayne lyrical madness and a bit of Slim Shady.

The downside of the album has to do with the few tracks in which bad attempts at auto-tuned singing ruin some of the great rap songs. The heavy auto-tune makes some tracks difficult to understand and to listen to. Lil Wayne attempts to create ballads, something he does not do very well. The song "Die for you" is a prime example of this.

Overall, I'm going to give this album a C. The tracks which Lil Wayne raps on, are great to listen to because they bring the energy of a rock riff behind them. But, Wayne ultimatley misses on his attempts to sing on certain tracks.

May 15th..will be a Green Day..is that a pun?

Well, I've been waiting five years for a new Green Day album and here we are. A date is officially set for May 15th of this year. I am definitely looking forward to that.

I'm gonna start by saying that American Idiot came out in 2004, when I was 14, just starting high school, and looking for the foundation of my music tastes. It was through AI that I was able to dive deeper in to the gold mine that is the Green Day library. I now own all but one of their albums, and plan on buying 21st Century Breakdown the day it comes out.

Oh, what's that immediate Green Day haters? Yes, the title is 21st Century Breakdown and it is another punk-rock opera that is stuffed with love songs about living in a post George W. Bush America.

Oh, whats that? They already wrote an album about Mr. Bush? So I've heard. I also heard that it sold 12 million copies and won them a couple of Grammy's. Or is success a bad thing?

Honestly, did you really think Billie-Joe who is pushing 40 was going to to back to writing about teen angst? Don't get me wrong, I love Kerplunk and Dookie, but American Idiot and now 21st Century Breakdown show PROGRESSION! Which is what any band who wants to survive in this shit of what we call an industry today needs. And the boys of Green Day are no morons, they know not you don't fix it if it isn't broken.

I've heard some samples from this album and it leans towards American Idiot part 2.

So, I have no complaints due to the fact that I can listen to that genius album from track one to track 13. (Yes, that's all of them).

I don't mind a revamped AI as long as it shows more progression. Take a listen to the link for this leaked song before you judge anything.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.triplem.com.au%2Fsydney%2Fmusic%2Fnews%2F%2Fblog%2Fhear-green-days-new-single%2F20090304-2zbq.html&h=017458483b02834f7b459b73e0b17e71

MILK!

Alright, I just want to start off by saying that this movie is one of those, incredibly rare in our time, inspiring movies. It is not very often that I finish a movie and say to myself, "wow, this movie just made me a better person", but thankfully, Milk is one of those movies. It has everything that you want in an inspirational, and at the same time political film.

The story centers around the first openly gay man elected to public office, Harvey Milk. As we learn from the start of the movie, and is re-telling his life into a tape recorder. According to Milk, the tape is for the event of his assassination. It becomes extremely prevalent in the beginning of the film that Harvey Milk was assassinated shortly after, and this tape is his autobiography.

I want to congratulate Sean Penn on his Oscar win for best actor. Although I was pulling for Mickey Rourke, Penn is a logical choice after watching the performance of his career in Milk. He portrays the politician and gay activist perfectly and respectfully. The movie chronicles the rise of Harvey Milk from his movie to gay haven San Fransisco, to his first public speech on top of a soap box, to his last public speech on the steps of city hall. The reoccurring first line of every one of Milk's speeches, "I'm Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you." echos as a signature of a man who lived his life to protect the inalienable rights of all men, and truly believed that all men are created equal.

Milk's perseverance is perfectly portrayed in this movie, shown by his constant loss in his first few attempts to run for office. Milk eventually wins the community advisor position and is faced with the recently drafted proposition 6, which attempts to strip civil rights from open homosexuals. It's Harvey Milk to the rescue when he rallies the gay community against the bigoted California senator and proposition 6. Not to mention falling in love with James Franco, who played an amazing part as Milk's lover. Franco is obviously a tremendous talent and is able to switch from the pot dealing Saul in Pineapple Express to a homosexual character.

I am going to give this Movie an A. It lives up to all expectations and could bring a tear to the eye of even the most ardent anti-homosexual. Sean Penn once again gives the performance of his career and deserves his academy award. I highly recommend this movie, and it has become one of my all time favorites.

Note: Yes, I watch other movies besides horror.

Quarantine..NOT a zombie movie!

Okay here's how I'm gonna start this one off. I'm a classic kind of horror guy. I enjoy zombie movies, and I do not enjoy these new variations on viruses. I'm talking about 28 days later, resident evil, kind of stuff. So, when i picked up Quarantine and checked out the description I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that it was again, a virus, and not a zombie movie. But, I decided to give it a shot.

The movie starts out incredibly boring. It's shot from the point of view of a camera man and anchorwoman making a documentary about firemen. It is akin to Cloverfield and Diary of the Dead. This is the first 20 minutes of the movie. It is incredibly boring and I was almost tempted to fast forward through it. If I wanted to see something about firemen I would have rented Rescue Me. The action kicks in when the firemen are called to a building, with the cameraman and anchorwoman right with them.

Basically, the movie centers around a group of tenants, 2 cops, 2 firefighters, the cameraman, and the anchorwoman trapped inside a building which has been, you guessed it, quarantined due to a virus breakout in the building. This virus looks a lot like rabies, not trying to give it away...but the symptoms include foaming at the mouth, red eyes, and a nasty appetite for biting other people. Plus, the dogs in the building are acting rabid, so conclusions can easily be drawn without the veterinarian character letting all of us know that it is in fact human rabies.

The movie has its share of suspense and gore. The creepiest parts come when a little girl gets infected and goes running around in the dark, attacking people. The sheer thought of being trapped in a building with rabid people, who are disappointingly not zombies although some sustain wounds that would definitely kill them before becoming "rabid", is enough to get some scares out of you. Also, the creep level rises a significant amount when the government thinks its a good idea to shut down electricity to the building. Not to mention the fact that they are sniping residents who are not yet infected, but attempting to climb out of the window. In essence you have to assume about 3/4 of the way into the movie that no one is getting out alive.

The ending of the move is a bit disappointing due to the fact that it is extremely predictable. If you have seen the movie you will understand where I am coming from. The movie overall lacks surprise in the plot. If for example one of the members had survived due to some form of a mutated gene which saves them from the virus, I would have enjoyed it a bit more. But, not this time. The writers decided to kill everyone off, how original.

Overall I'm going to give this movie a C-. The whole 20 minute fireman documentary was totally unnecessary and could have been done in 5 minutes. If you want to skip over parts of a movie, it is poorly made. True it is scary, but the plot is totally predictable, and the fact that the way the people become infected is truly a scatterbrained idea. Zombies would have made much more sense. I mean, does the rabies virus make you invincible to harm. An old woman gets shot 5 times and still seems to be able to attack uninfected people. Is a rabid dog invincible? I think not. If you shoot a rabid dog, or it sustains life threatening injuries, it dies. It does not revive and continue attacking. So, making the "infected" non-undead, this movie just does not make sense to me.

I think I love zombie movies too much.

Pumpkinhead..a bit of a classic.

Due to the fact that I am now home on spring break, I'll have a chance to do some more movie reviews. So, I took a quick trip down to my local blockbuster to see what I could dig up, and after around 20 minutes of searching I had found my choice: Pumpkinhead.

The cover art on the box looked promising enough. I mean, alien like hands clutching a pumpkin, looks pretty promising to me. I had actually passed over this movie on a whole bunch of previous trips due to its chuckle inciting name. Anyway, this time Pumpkinhead would not get away.

As I went to the checkout counter, the girl who scanned the movie took one look at the box and said, "Wow, Pumpkinhead, this was my favorite as a kid." She looked around 26, and the movie came out in 1988, so I trusted her judgement. After calling it a bit funny, as most horror movies are made in that era, she told me that I was going to enjoy it.

So, here's the basic outline of the plot. Irresponsible teens accidentally kill farmer's son, farmer goes to see a witch to resurrect the demon Pumpkinhead, whose job it is to get revenge on the teens for the son's death, farmer realizes hes let loose something out of his control, and let the killing begin.

Pumpkinhead is everything that I expected it to be. True, it is a bit cheesy due to the alien like look of the creature (google it if you are curious). But the effects are great and worthy enough to get a scare out of any kid, and most likely your girlfriend. The plot itself isn't too bad, due to the fact that it is a bit folk tale like. It is overall enjoyable to see the creature wreak havoc on the teens while they try everything to kill it (guns, knives, etc.)

Interestingly enough the creature was designed by the visual effects director on Aliens, which is why it looks so familiar. Anyone who has seen any of the Aliens movies will be able to make a distinct connection right away.

There are a few sequals to the movie, but they probably aren't worth seeing due to some quick research and the discovery that most were straight to television.

Overall, I'm going to give this movie a B. It has its moments where you cringe a bit, and the creature is genuinely creepy and something like that in real life would be very scary. I'll recommend it as one of those movies where you would like someone to be holding on to your arm pretty tightly, and shutting their eyes every time Pumpkinhead is on screen.

"Doing Nothing"

Recently I have realized that Time is a very valuable thing, and maybe it's because I dont have enough of it anymore. I used to have enough time to do anything I wanted, and I really enjoyed what I liked to call "Doing Nothing" See, "Doing Nothing" is a state of mind. It's a way of life for those of us who love to just sit and chill out. Whether it was jamming out with my boys on guitar or just relaxing with a pretty girl, "Doing Nothing" was awesome.

As life goes on i realize that those times get smaller and smaller. You take on more responsibility and you have less time to do what you want to do. I also realize how much I appreciated just sitting around and shooting the breeze with a few friends. At this point in my life, there is just no time for that.

I assume the older I get, the less likely I will be "Doing Nothing".

Halloween II? New Rob Zombie album?

Alright, if someone asked you which you would rather have a new CD or a new movie, which one would you pick. That's basically the dilemma I have with Rob Zombie's current situation. Luckily, with some patience, we can have both.

Rob has clearly been working his ass off for the past year, releasing Zombie Live (his first solo live album) and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (the end all collection of White Zombie material). ON top of that, Zombie has reportedly finished recording his new album and it is ready to go. There is just one problem: Halloween II.

As most horror fans know, Zombie was recruited to work on the new revamping of the Halloween franchise. In my opinion, I enjoy Zombie's original work (Devils' Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses) much better. Although the movie was a remake, it lived up to my expectations. It was not bad at all and was actually very enjoyable. Zombie's decision to take a closer look into the early life of Michael Meyers was a genius move, clearly the idea of a horror veteran. Zombie clearly knows his genre well and should take Halloween II, a notoriously grizzlier movie than the first, and out his own special touch on it. As always, I look for a familiar cast that Zombie uses with Sid Haig and Bill Mosley. Although his real life wife Sheri Moon's character, Michael's mother, killed herself in the first Halloween, I could see a potential place for Mrs. Meyers in the second.

Sadly, Zombie's new album, which was scheduled for release, has been pushed back. As an avid White and Rob Zombie fan, I am incredibly disappointed that we will not see the album until filming on Halloween II is finished. According to Zombie, "The record’s done and sitting on the shelf waiting to come out, but I don’t want to put it out while I’m shooting Halloween II because I can’t deal with it too much."

Although the album has been pushed back, the movie is slated to be released in August of 2009. So, filming for the movie should not take too long. I would like to see the album in late spring or early summer of this year. Imagine the months when we have a new Zombie record, a new Zombie movie, and possibly a summer Zombie tour? The Halloween II Tour? Ha ha I would personally love to see that.

I'm sure every horror fan, as well as Rob Zombie fan is looking forward to what Rob Zombie will do with Halloween II, as well as Zombie's upcoming new CD...and hopefully a tour.

Thoughts on The Oscars

I watched basically all of the Oscars last night. I was really focused on two categories. Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor. I also kept an eye on Best Picture, as that is the most important category of the night.

First, I, as well as most people who saw The Dark Knight, thought Heath Ledger deserved an Oscar for his amazing performance as the joker. Since the minute I stepped out of the studio back in July I was waiting for the moment that his family could step on the stage and accept the award for their sons' amazing work. Ledger completely revamped the character and in my opinion has left a mark on the character that will be remembered for all time. He is now the standard that future Jokers, Batman villains, and supervillains will have to live up to in the rest of the history of cinema. I'm extremely glad that the Academy decided to make the right move here and give the actor his last respects, so to speak.

Also, I was pulling for Mickey Rourke and his performance as Randy the Ram in The Wrestler. I thought his "comeback" performance was definitely deserving of an Oscar. The Oscar went to Sean Penn for his portrayal of gay politician, Harvey Milk. I thought that Penn's performance was amazing, but I thought Rourke did a better job on his character. Also, I would have liked to see Frank Langella win, if not Rourke, for his portrayal of Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.

I would have liked to see a win for Frost/Nixon in the best picture category, but as the night went on, it was quite obvious that Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner. I haven't seen it yet, but it seems to be great as it won best picture, best original song, and best director. It is definitely worth a watching.

Friday the 13th..again?

Hello World,

Do you enjoy movies that make your girlfriend cling to your arm in terror? Do you also enjoy nudity, sex, violence, drinking, and recreational drug use? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then congratulations, you are most likely the average horror movie fan. If so, you should probably check out the remake of the classic series Friday the 13th.

The movie was actually quite entertaining. Of course, like any other Friday the 13th, this movie was basically kids being murdered near good ol' Camp Crystal Lake. Unlike the original Friday the 13th, Jason's Mother is not the killer in this movie. Its a welcome change, due to the fact that the name Friday the 13th is synonymous with the big guy in the hockey mask, not an old woman with a knife. Although not the primary killer, Mrs. Vorhees does make an appearance in the beginning of the movie, in a flashback like scene. Jason is then seen witnessing his mother's decapitation by a lucky teenage girl who escaped the wrath of Jason's mother. Mrs. Vorhees' voice is heard urging her son to get revenge on all teenagers who venture onto the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake, and let the killing begin.

Getting right down to it, the movie's strong points lie exactly where I thought they would, with Jason. Sure the good looking actors/actresses having sex and partying, clearly straight out of a cliche horror flick did the film justice, but when you see a Friday the 13th film, you go to see Jason. Derek Mears, a horror movie veteran, did a great job portraying the classic teen killer. Mears' Jason was a revamped psychopath, who easily disposed of the supporting cast in ways that would have made past Jason's jealous. The most entertaining of which would be Jason shooting a unsuspecting teen driving a speedboat, through the head with a bow and arrow. Also note new Jason's ability to run after his victims, unlike previous Jason's, as well as other psychopaths (Michael Myers) who walk slowly like zombies. This Jason is not very agile, but he can move when he needs to, adding to the terror factor and doing away with the old, "he doesn't need to run because he will get you anyway" theory. A murderer running at me is much more realistic and terrifying than some lumbering sloth just walking.

Overall i would give the movie an 8 out of 10. Defiantly the best horror remake I have ever seen. It is really worth checking out if you gave the Halloween remake a chance, as this movie blows that one away. With A Nightmare On Elm Street soon to be remade also, I have my hopes up.