50 Movies for 50 States Part 1, We're Not in Kansas Anymore

I had the idea for this well over a year ago, and I see Rotten Tomatoes has beaten me to it. Well with them, I'll just have to make my list better.

My goal is to pick one movie for each state in the US. These can't just be any ol' movie, either. I want to pick 50 movies upon which their placement in that state is a definitive factor, both for the movie and for the state itself. You might be surprised, when reading it, just how much impact a film can have upon the culture of an area, and how eager we are, as individuals and groups, to be identified with celebrity by our peers and fellow nationals.

Despite the lame Toto jokes that come about everytime I left my home state of Kansas, there was always some bit of pride, or at least interest, that everyone everywhere new a few lines from the Wizard of Oz, and its pertinence to my residence.

Anyway, it was my viewing of the Wizard of Oz approaching 2 years ago now that inspired me to begin creating this list. I figure the release of the 70th Anniversary Blu Ray was a good a time as any to start the list officially. So here it goes:

1. KANSAS- The Wizard of Oz

Well, sitting and watching the movie now, I can't help but marvel at how wonderfully silly the whole thing is. Glenda the good witch floats down in a big pink bubble, her plastic crowd covered with gaudy glittery baubles and springy-things, and singing in her chirpy voice, a cavalcade of midgets in flower-festooned Swedish clothes and clown make-up come out to begin a six-minute barrage of song and dance.

Dreadfully, dreadfully silly. I can see why the studio sweated when this was released. Even for a kid's movie, the Wizard of Oz is full of amazingly bizarre, childlike images and an unparalleled naivety. Somehow shinging through that is a lot of heart and a lot of fun that has made Oz one of the most successful family movies of all time (perhaps THE most successful, in syndication).

I have no doubt that the puzzle piece that most led audiences to allow the story to have weight, and allowed them to accept all the bizarre midget fun in good stride and spirit was the opening song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Two different institutions, The American Recording Industry and the American Endowment for the Arts, have voted it the greatest song of the 20th Century, and the American Film Institute has proclaimed it the greatest song that has ever been in a movie. Most would agree; for decades after, Judy Garland could not finish a performance without the audience demanding to hear her perform it live. It is a beautiful, lilting song, to be sure. Without it, Oz would likely have been dismissed by its audience; but its message resonated then with its small audience, and through the war years that followed with a weary, beleagured American populace awaiting the end of dark days. For years, it became a quiet anthem for Americana.

And then, BAM! Midgets dancing in your face for a full six minutes. And flying monkeys. This movie has everything.

I do have to wonder, sometimes, how long this picture will remain an American classic. Will the younger generation be able to appreciate the songs and simple fantasy, the innocence? Will they continue to love the movie for something other than watching it with Dark Side of the Moon, or to watch for suicidal midgets hanging from the set (its a bird, btw)?

I guess time will tell. Even to a stone-hearted bastard like myself, The Wizard of Oz represents childhood and better times. But then, movies and television presentations were different when I was little. Its well known that Wizard didn't do terribly well in its first theatrical run, though it did better in re-release from the strength of the soundtrack. Its real success came from television airings and, later, VHS sales. But once, it was a big event to watch Wizard of Oz. It was played once a year on the network, in a time when VCRs were still pretty scarce. Much like Ten Commandments at Easter, it was something you looked forward to. I recall dropping my Star Wars figures and running into the living room to watch Wizard with my grandma. Screw whatever else you were doing, it was Wizard of Oz night. Does anything on TV now still hold that kind of power?

Well, we can hope that generations to come will recognize the craftsmanship of Oz. The Blu Ray is the pefect showcase to bring out all of the meticulous details that cast and crew worked so hard to create. Big music numbers with hundreds of extras, intricately textured make-up, and 90-foot tall backdrop paintings and sets. The setting may seem ridiculous, but the makers of the movie didn't seem to care. There's a lot of love and hard work put into this film, skill and craft that dwarfs a lot of current films. The interior of the Emerald city is made almost entirely of blown glass. Balls, that's impressive.

If there's any film to be associated with, you could do much worse than Wizard of Oz. And the state's embraced it with pride. There are Oz museums, parades, and merchandise all across the state. In fact, there was supposed to be an Oz amusement park built as well, something to rival Disney, but the ground chosen, near the DeSoto Munitions Plant, was found to be contaminated.

Just as Kansas defined Oz's bleak grey landscape, Oz then brought new color and life to the state, a bright new identity.

...Midgets...

External Linkage

Had a review for American Werewolf in Lodon go up at BrutalasHell.com. Check it here.

This Week in Pop, 9/27/2009

A few new movies this week, and you've already got my feelings on Pandorum, which appears to be the one to see this week. The runner-up is Surrogates, a movie with a cool premise that has a way to go before I can begin to reccommend it.

SURROGATES (2009)

On paper, Surrogates works. This only makes sense, as the movie is based on a graphic novel. But stories that work in comics don't usually work on film unless certain liberties are taken with the story. Only natural, its a different medium, with its own set of conventions and pacing.

While Surrogates swapped a few elements around from its comic predecessor, becoming more grounded, believable, and in many ways palatable, it also lost all of its imagination.

Stemming from the idea that prosthetic technology will one day become advanced enough to create a full robot controlled by human brainwaves, the movie supposes that our vanity and need for anonymity would cause people to hide themselves away from the real world, and forget what it was like to be truly human. Essentially, the whole world becomes an internet chatroom. In that world, there are all kinds of questions to be answered about the nature of individuality, the need for a fleshy physical body, or 'natural state', and about the possibility of stealing a person's identity in a much more complete manner.

Despite gasps by the general populace at the originality of this premise, its nothing new to the serious movie-goer or sci-fi buff. These very ideas were brought up in 1996's Ghost in the Shell anime where people use prosthetic bodies, and the greatest crime isn't murder, but identity theft, hacking peoples' cybernetic bodies to commit crime, or erasing the memories of those you've hacked. But hey, that was thirteen years ago, who cares if the premise has been done. Technology has evolved since then, and so have our perceptions of it. Surely, there's new concepts to explore in Surrogates, right?

Nope. Despite over a decade of technological development and creative think-time, there's almost no new ideas to be found here. How odd is it, in a world supposedly populated, publicly, by a population made of 98% synthetic people, to see those people carrying cell phones or using keypads and headsets, or looking through paper filing cabinets? Surely, those would be built right into the synthetic, right? I want to make a call, so my brain jacks into the nearest wi-fi unit and makes the call for me. I need to use the internet, ditto the wi-fi, and the cup info is projected over the vision of my computer eye-balls. My work files are available with a hard-wire jack port that loads into the back of my skull. Everything should be the speed of thought.

Not only is the production not this ballsy, its just not that thought out. 98% of the world's population carries out their job at any time using a synthetic. Yet the story would have me believe that all 7+ billion surrogates are controlled by a single computer in the hands of a single fat guy in the San Francisco Bay area? In the trailer, we see every surrogate on Earth collapse simultaneously. We're led to believe this results in no deaths or injuries as, 'its all just surrogates outside' right? Except all the planes in the air on the Earth are being piloted by surrogates. Every nuclear power plant is run entirely by surrogates. All those plane crashes and potential power plant meltdowns have to result in a death somewhere, right? A plane somewhere landed on a school, or a farmhouse, or something. Its just not well thought out.

Add to that some inexplicably bad acting (if the surrogates are supposed to talk like you, and be just like you, why do all the secondary characters talk like robots? I don't think those actors quite got the synopsis), plodding and dull action sequences, and the ridiculousness of Ving Rhames in a rasta wig, and you've got a movie that can only be described as disappointing. It was done better over a decade ago.

Bruce Willis, however, always a pleasure. Except, maybe, in Hudson Hawk.

The real tragedy this weekend is that so many decidedly average and forgettable movies have been taking the spotlight, while Paranormal Activity, being described over and over again as one of the scariest movies in forever, is on like 8 screens this weekend, after being held back by the studio for almost 2 years. 2 Years! Hollywood, do you just have something against releasing good movies? PA is getting nothing but positive reviews by people who pooped their pants at film festival screenings. Hunt down a showing, if you can.

While I'm waiting for that, I'm also stoked by House of the Devil, soon to be released by my new heroes Magnet Distribution. Somehow these guys keep finding great horror and foreign gems. Ong-Bak 2 is also theirs.

Anyway, thi

s one's by the same crew who did the fantastic The Signal (review soon on bthroughz.com), and its a tribute to 70's horror, this time. Check out that great retro poster. Another cool one popped up on BrutalasHell.com recently.

I managed to find the trailer for embed too, and I'll close this week's entry with that. Check it. Acting is a little off, but looks creepy, well put together and genuinely LOOKS like a film from the 70's, which was my favorite time for horror. Keep an eye on these guys.

Movie Sneak Peek: Pandorum

Last night, I managed to get out to a sneak preview of the new horror film Pandorum at The Rave here in Vegas.

September, like February, is a notoriously bad month for movies. Trapped somewhere between the Summer blockbusters and the Holiday family features, Hollywood throws out the movies that haven't done as well at test screening, or are generally hard to market. Not to say there aren't some gems, however.

This week features Surrogates, a sharp looking sci-fi feature starring Bruce Willis, which wasn't screened for critics but had a big media push, meaning studios expect one big weekend driven by Willis and then a slew of negative feedback to bomb all subsequent weeks. Fame also opens, and while it might do well for those who were dying for a remake of the 80's musical, I can't say I'm part of that demographic. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men also comes out on the indie scene, a film written and directed by John Krasinski of The Office.


For myself though, the one that raised the most eyebrows (and questions, thanks to its muddy ad campaign) was...




PANDORUM (2009)


Look at that poster, doesn't it just tell you everything you need to know about a movie? The other 4 one-sheets produced do no better.


Well, sometimes it IS better to walk blind into a movie, and for those bold and curious movie-goers, they'll find a film that is generally full of good scares and jumps, but has a little too much going on for its own good. Pandorum could have been a mini-series and filled about five hours with all the concepts it tries to explore.


The film takes place in the future in about 150 years, when the human race's population has grown to about 24 billion. Not unrealistic, seeing as IRL it has doubled in the last forty years. The ensuing resource shortages inspire Earth to build a vast cargo ship and send it into space to colonize a new planet. Good thing, too, as the first words spoken in the film are a final transmission from Earth. "You are all that is left of us. Good Luck, and Godspeed." Some catastrophe has destroyed Earth, and this ship has become the new Noah's Ark.

So, of course, everything gets fucked up.

Cut to an indeterminate amount of time later, Bower (Ben Foster) wakes from a prolonged hyper-sleep to discover that the ship is in terrible shape and probably on the verge of a reactor explosion. He, guided by Payton (Dennis Quaid), a CO trapped in a computer room for most of the film, has to get into the ship's belly in order to get the power back on and stop the ensuing explosion. Unfortunately, between him and the reactor is a swarm of nasty-looking monster things that have taken to booby-trapping the ship and eating the crew.



What ensues is two hours of tributes to various other science fiction movies. The ship design and its dark interiors are akin to Alien's Nostromo. The crew, constantly running for survival from the creature hunting parties, have become a Road Warrior band of rag-clad fighters wielding fantasy blades. The creatures themselves bear no small resemblance to the Orcs of Moria. The general plot, and the eventual reveal as to the identities of the creatures, is reminiscient of Robert Heinlein's story Orphans of the Sky.


Oh, and while all of this is going on, Bowers and Payton both fear that they might be suffering from Pandorum, known to Ren and Stimpy fans as SPACE MADNESS, a condition which tricks those who suffer from it to sabotage their own ship in order to escape its confines.

Pandorum is weak in a few regards, all stemming from its writing. Technically, the film is polished and proficient, and we'll come back to that. But the writing... oh, the devil is in the details, isn't it?

First off, you have to know or be into sci-fi to keep up with this movie. For me and many other genre fans, this is no problem. But if you're trying to get a wide audience, then when the show opens with Bowers and Payton talking about warp core break-downs and particle accelerators and vector correction and blah, blah, blah you've just lost everyone who isn't into Star Trek. So, if you're looking for a good horror flick to bring a date to, this isn't the one.

Secondly, the movie has at least one concept too many. It starts simply and effectively, with a great horror element, and builds perhaps too quickly. Bowers wakes up on a derelict ship, got it. Oh shit, there are monsters, okay. Oh, and the other crew members are fighting for food. Oh, and there's space madness, here's a brief history of that. Oh and the ship is going to explode. And you have to protect this huge ark of genetic material. And there's a mystery about where the monsters come from. And one of the crew members may just be an illusion. And there's a mystery about Bowers' wife. And there's this whole thematic thing about there beign no morality in space. Here's some more crazy space-madness fighting. Hey, we're all pumped full of genetic-enhancement sauce and evolve crazy fast, weird. And no one knows how long the ship's been flying itself, there are no stars, and everyone's lost.

Now, I'm always down for a complex story. But it just seems like none of the concepts really had time to simmer, as about every concept from every space story Heinlein or Ellison ever cooked up made some sort of appearance.

Lastly, it gets kind of silly at some points. Design in the movie is generally good, but why did the ship survivors all make knives from scrap that look like Klingon war blades? Did you know that if you're a farmer or a biological egineer, and you're trapped on a ship for a few months, you develop ninja-like flipping, fighting, and rope trick powers? Its takes two hours to get down to the reactor when its going to explode, but about 30 seconds to get back to the bridge when its no longer a plot point. And, for me, the whole thing came apart when they introduced the Deus Ex Machina of The Cook. The Cook is the old black chef who as been out of hyper-sleep for years, wandering the ship. He's crazy, and speaks in rhymes and riddles (I hate when writers do that. I'm not sure which I hate more, harlequinn rhyming characters, or obligatory twins), and somehow knows everything that happened on the ship years and years and years ago, despite being a COOK and probably having no access to any sort of records. Other than why he knows everything every other character doesn't, he'll explain everything to the crew in big blocks of sing-songy exposition.

Despite my complaints, I liked Pandorum. Didn't love it, but enjoyed it. And the audience I was with did too, there were some applause during a particularly brutal fight between the ninja-farmers and a Moria Orc.

Its well directed. This is Christian Alvart's first major US release, and he's put together a very slick-looking, dark and creepy movie. Especially at the start of the movie, where atmosphere is most critical, he's done an expert job of making the ship feel cramped, dark, and uncomfortable. Bower's trip through the pipe-lines of the ship feels truly claustrophobic, even to the audience. And when the Orcs come out to play, the cuts come fast, the sound is tremendously loud and unsettling. The audience gets drawn in. Off to a great start.



You could almost play a drinking game to Pandorum, one shot every time Bowers gets knocked down or falls down. He hits the ground probably 20 times. Regardless of his time spent lying prone, Ben Foster puts in a great performance, and I'm glad to see him finally take the lead in a movie. Don't listen to the poster, this is Ben's movie, not Dennis'. After Foster's turn as the 2nd in command crazy from 3:10 to Yuma, it seemed only a matter of time before he got tested in a leading role, and he comes through admirably. Veteran Quaid does come through as well, having saved all his acting for this movie, it seems, as it was definitely missing from GI Joe.



Pandorum, ultimately, is a great looking sci-fi horror film that doesn't hold back at any point. Its gory when it needs to be, fast-paced, its sounds are intense and jarring, with a decent score. The writing could have used a bit of a tweak, or else it could have used another hour in a director's cut to really explore all of its themes. But, if you're a fan of sci-fi, and you're no stranger to the genre and its conventions, then you'll have no problem weaving your way through the complexities of this story, and undoubtedly you'll find a lot to enjoy.

MORE MARVEL MADNESS!!!

News worth every exclamation point.


First off, Christoph Waltz of Inglorious Basterds (which I saw again this week, and it still rocks balls) is getting some more than deserved attention on US screens. He's been signed as Nick Cage's replacement as the villain of the upcoming Action/Comedy remake of Green Hornet starring Seth Rogan. Not sure of the viability of a Rogan superhero movie, but its great to see Waltz utilized in a more widely commerical venture, and he's a welcome replacement for Cage.





Seriously, has Cage tried to act since The Rock? Every film its the same lack of emotion and the stupid crazy eyes.


Why has Cage left? Its all speculation, but it could have something to do with the pre-production beginning on a new Ghost Rider movie. Ugh. As if the first one wasn't shitty enough. Prep yourself for more of Cage's brilliance. A man being stung to death by bees, or mildly annoyed by a lack of whipped cream in his latte? Perhaps he's singing a jaunty tune? You decide.






In other crazy-assed news, and this is what all the exclamation points were about, more shit hits the fan in the general direction of Marvel Comics. It seems that, following the footsteps of the Siegel and Schuster families (complete with same lawyer), the decendants of Jack Kirby are trying to re-claim the copyrights he might have held on 45 key Marvel characters.


Now, who is Jack Kirby, a few of you (like my girlfriend) may ask? While everyone knows Stan Lee, Stan the Man only put the words in the mouths of his characters and gave them shit to do (and then market the holy hell out of them), he didn't draw anything. Jack Kirby is the legendary artist and costume designer of all those amazing characters. And while Stan sold away his rights to Spider-Man, The X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Thor and all those costumed-cats years ago, Jack Kirby just never did anything with his part of the copyright, and it was forgotten. Now his family has realized that, and has come to collect.


I can't really sum it up better than the LA Times so far as the legal jargon, but I'll give it to you in brief.

-Does his family have rights to the characters? They actually have a good precident for their case, yeah. Work for hire laws were very shaky back in the 60's, and Kirby appears to have worked all those years without any sort of contract at all. Since its public knowledge that Kirby helped create the characters, the lack of paperwork might well screw Marvel. Creators have the rights to reclaim their works 56 years after acquisition by another body. The effects of these suits won't be felt for another 7-10 years.


- What characters does this affect? Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (loosely, Steve Ditko is credited with his creation, generally), Thor, X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man, The Avengers, and all of their ancillary characters and villains. Captain America was created under different circumstances, and is owned squarely by Marvel.


- How does Disney feel about this? Disney responded very cooly saying they were prepared for this. Seems Marvel knew this was a possibility and let Disney know about it ahead of time. In fact, looking at it now, its possible Marvel couldn't afford the litigation required to defend their position, or buy out the Kirby family in a loss, and NEEDED Disney's finances to protect the line. It might also explain why Disney got Marvel for so little, a fact that has some shareholders threatening to sue for mishandling of their stock properties. It seems if this buyout does become final, Disney already has a plan.

- What will happen to the Marvel Universe? If the Kirby family wins, Marvel will go on, but with a large portion of their profits going to the family. That is unless someone with deep pockets, like Disney, buys out the rights after the case. One interesting thing that could happen, is that the Kirby family could use their ownership to pull the film rights for Spider-Man and X-men back from Sony and Fox respectively, who would have otherwise held them in perpetuity, and then re-sell them back to Marvel Films/Disney, who would then be able to profit off of their own in-house movies.

In fact, one might even see this as part of some sort of larger plan...


Regardless, the comics universe is being shaken to its foundations, and I have to wonder where it'll all end.


While Marvel might greatly benefit from its new ownership, DC seems to be sweating under the reconstruction under the WB. Warner has squandered its comics treasuretrove for years, but seeing action by Disney, they seem to have noticed what kind of value their properties have. Their answer: add another layer of corporate beuracracy to the mix.


As a result, long-standing editor of DC Paul Levitz has decided to retire from his post. Rather than take his advisory position, Levitz is leaving for greener pastures where his many great decisions won't be shat upon by a corporate giant. Levitz did some great things for comics and for the industry as a whole in his time, and often fought for the rights of independent creators and small shops. His loving efforts on the part of the DC Universe will be missed.

More on Paul's story HERE.


Of course, thanks to NeilAlien and Bleeding Cool, who will probably forever scoop me on this stuff.


A final thought:

External Linkage

New articles up at BthroughZ.com. Check out my reviews for new horror titles The Collector and End of the Line.

You'll also find a few good interviews with horror starletts, articles covering everything from Alice Cooper to The Halloween Tree, and our usual snarky wit!

Its BthroughZ's lucky 13th issue!

This Week in Pop, 9/11/2009

First off, let me say, Never Forget!











*ahem * Now that that's out of the way, let's take a look at what's been happening since the last post: Final Destination 4 did moderately well thanks to the gimmick of its 3D presentation. (is 3D the way to save Hollywood? Maybe for a year or two. C'mon, Hollywood, you know how fast we get over this faddish crap. How about quality movies?) Otherwise, Halloween 2 tanked, Gamer tanked, Extract tanked.
A quick note, did anyone even know what Extract was about? Sure, Mike Judge of Office Space and there's some sex jokes, but did the trailers even imply that Mila Kunis was a con-artist trying to swindle the company? Or that Jason Bateman refuses to sleep with Mila unless his wife cheats on him first, and so goes about trying to hire a male-prostitute to seduce his wife? This is funny stuff, not even sploilers as they're pretty much the entire plot, aren't implied at all by the trailer, which tries to sell the movie entirely off of Bateman smoking a lot of dope. Marketing Fail.
I also feel bad for Gamer, as I like the genre, but overall its another Death Race, its another Crank, its another UGH!
When it comes down to it, I'd recommend seeing District 9 again this weekend. It gets better upon re-watching, now that I'm not completely taken off-guard by the protagonist's extreme douche-ness. For a rookie director on 30 Mil, its quite an enjoyable feat.
That aside, if you're dying to see something new this weekend, make it '9'. I shouldn't have to tell you why Sorority Row is only worth seeing to MST3K. Whiteout with the sexy Kate Beckinsale has an interesting premise, catching a murderer before he and his tracks are forever lost to an arctic snowstorm, but Dark Castle Entertainment has always managed to disappoint. I grant you, they're trying to step it up with good production values on Orphan, and the upcoming Ninja Assassin has already got my money, but...

9

If anything can be said about it, its that its short. I think, regrettably, that's what most people will notice first. Complete with beginning and ending credits, the film runs a meager 79 minutes.
Suddenly, I'm reminded of when my mom took me to see Land Before Time as a kid. Despite the fact that I enjoyed it, mission accomplished, Mom could do nothing but complain of the 1 hour run-time. I hadn't noticed, it seemed epic to the 7-year-old me. But for her it just wasn't enough bang for the buck.
This short running time does seem to hurt the movie. It points out how little plot there is to develop, and it doesn't give enough time to instead develop the characters or interesting creative aspects of the movie.
Don't get me wrong, the animation is gorgeous, and the creature and character designs are very imaginative. Visually, the film is a wonderful, though, I won't say ground-breaking. Its hard for action-based CG movies to compete with most video game cut-scenes these days. In fact, you need to have a lot of substance in an animated movie to appeal to the game-crazy juvenile to 30's adventure demographic.
Is that substance there? Not really. Character-wise, you've got curious hero, coward, old-miser, action-chick, bruiser, crazy guy who speak prophecies, and the twins. (Because every goddamned niche movie has to have some psychic twins, often identical, be it Matrix, Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Tomax and Xamot in GIJoe. Its not cool anymore guys, knock it off.) Everyone gives you enough characterization for you to predict their path in the movie, but not enough to really feel for anybody. Most beloved to me was #8 (Bruiser), not only for looking the most muppet-ish, but also for using a big, red, cartoony magnet stuck to his head to get high (complete with bubbly bong noises).
The story itself was nothing too new either. Man makes machines, machines become intelligent, machines turn on man, apocalypse. The doll-men themselves where the only really new invention for the film. Anybody else getting tired of science always being the villain? “Oh, our hubris has killed us!” Are we as a society still so afraid of technology? Machines here and in the Matrix and in Terminator, cloning is evil in 6th Day, The Island, and Moon. Anybody ever made a movie where cloning or intelligent machines saved the world?
Despite the lack of original story elements, there are a couple cool devices to be found. The soul-transfer machine being particularly nifty.
In the end, 9 is still everything I expect from Tim Burton (produced or directed), style over substance. He has a look to his trailers that always gets my butt in a seat, but none of his films ever leave me satisfied. There are good ideas to be found in all his movies, but to date, only Batman and Nightmare Before Christmas really feel complete.
I'm on to you, Mr. Burton.

If you feel like skipping the theater altogether this weekend, and I can't blame you, hit the rentals for some hidden gold you might have missed. I went to Blockbuster yesterday, and was completely taken off-guard by this find:

Timecrimes (Lost Cronocrimines) (2007)
Don't be fooled by the shitty-looking package, this is a fantastic movie. If it hadn't been for the glowing review from Roger Ebert on the package, I might have disregarded it entirely. Looking closer, I discovered this was released by Six-Shooter Films and Magnet Entertainment, the same group that snatched up the rights to the fantastic Let the Right One In. Seems this group is getting cheap distribution on excellent foreign films and bringing them over before the inevitable US remakes. Good work, guys. Get a new package designer.
The Spanish film takes a moment to get into. The initial set-up seems so goofy, until the first big revelation is made. A man, peering into the surrounding woods through his binoculars, sees a girl stripping in the woods. Going in for a closer look, he is attacked by a bandaged man. Frightened, he seeks shelter at a nearby lab where he stumbles upon a time machine, and gets shot back several hours into the past.
Its too big of a coincidence, until its revealed that he himself is the original bandaged assailant. This is only the beginning of his torment, though, as he must now attack his past self into order to get him into the time machine, so that only one of himself exists in the time-line. Through his inexperienced mucking about in the 4th Dimension, he's burdened with heavier and heavier tasks to perform to stop there from being a paradox in time, discovering all the while notions of non-linear time and predestination.
If you can get past the initial set-up to see why everything works out the way it does, you'll be treated to an excellent time-travel film. Reminiscent of non-linear films like Memento, Timecrimes forces you to pay attention to all the details of the dilemma, and is a very rewarding sci-fi genre film. This feels like an old-school, HG Wells short-story, exploring an ordinary man bound by the trapping of String-Theory.

House (1986)
As a kid, I really enjoyed this movie as a horror and a comedy. Now, it can only be viewed as comedy. Aside from a decent performance by Richard Moll as the tortured soul of Big Ben, there's nothing that can be taken seriously anymore.
The premise is pretty good, if a little disjointed; a Vietnam vet is haunted by the ghost of a squad-mate he left behind in the bush to be slowly tortured to death by 'Charlie'. Why the ghost chooses to haunt the house of the vet's aunt is beyond me, but he lucks out as his intended victim later moves into the house. Seems like he could have cut out the middle-man by haunting the vet directly, but I guess Apartment isn't as cool of a title.
None of the scares work anymore. Everything looks very dated and cheesy. Some of the laughs still work, and its always fun to see George Wendt on screen, but the laughs and adventure are all vastly inferior to 1987's House II: The Second Story, which has also become tame enough as a horror movie to now make a pretty acceptable kids' show.
House is worth a lark and the dollar I paid for it, just to see some old cheesy horror, but if you can, skip it and go straight for the sequel, which remains a pretty original piece of cinema, to say the least. From a simple ghost story, House II developed the namesake shelter into a series of temporal vortices, each one full of new creatures and adventures. Plus its got that one guy from Fright Night and a zombie horse. You can't lose.

On the comics front, I've been hitting old issues. Not a lot to entice me into new books, other than current Green Lantern and Flash. Good stuff, both of those. Otherwise, I've dug out my old

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles
The editions I have are from First Graphic Novels and collect the original adventures of the fab four.
Its amazing to go back and check out their quaint beginnings. Initially, all 4 turtles were really similar characters, only discernible by their weapons. Even their headbands were all the same color. Also, Leo stabs and kills Shredder in the first issue.
Its interesting to think that the turtles were created as a parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil comics. The Foot-clan is a parody of Daredevil enemy the Hand, and Splinter is a send-up of Daredevil's sensei, Stick (also seen in the Elektra movie, if you suffered through it). In fact, Matt Murdock can be seen in book #2. Though a parody themselves, the Turtles were then parodied many times over.
While the second of the four collections near and dear to my heart due to the awesome fight against the Triceratons, book four is the one worth checking out. Yes, April, Baxter Stockman, Krang and many other elements come from the earlier stories, but its book 4 that really cemented the Turtles as we know them now. By then, Kevin Eastman's art was looking much cleaner. His human faces are still kind of rough, but the turtles and their generic ninja foes looked great. The writing was also starting to cook, as Eastman started trying to differentiate the turtles, giving Raph a bit more edge, and the previously generic Donatello began to display an aptitude with machinery. This book, featuring the inexplicable resurrection of Shredder, is the basis of the original live action movie, as well as where the animated series got all of its character traits, still seen today.
From a series of violent, crudely drawn black-and-white comics to a media empire, the turtles may have passed their prime, but they've shown themselves to be an indelible force in pop culture. A new movie is on the way and, 20 years later, I look forward to taking my young cousin to it. He still enjoys the turtles from time to time.
Its really hard to find turtles back-issues these days, for one reason or another, be it from Peter Laird's desk or that of the TV producers who now hold them. If you can, hunt down the First collections or some online resource for them. Its some great reading for the kid in ya.
In fact, I think I'm going to go back and watch that first movie again...