I'm curious about this sort of movie. As far as I know this is a straight to DVD title, but it stars John Cusack and Morgan Freeman and was directed by Academy Award winner Bruce Beresford. The script was decent and the cinematography was gorgeous. Given all those ingredients you would think I'd be discussing one of the best films of 2007, but it felt like I was watching a movie of the week. What happened? I'm seeing more and more titles, even ones with bankable stars like this one, that I can't recall ever being in the theatre.

If you liked Pan's Laberinth and The Devil's Spine, then Guillermo del Toro's latest, The Orphanage, will surpass your expectations. As with PL, it is a tale of childhood lost, and as with TDS, it is a ghost story. If you are familiar with the current wave of Thai-Horror, then you should be surprisingly pleased with TO, which coalesces horror with sentimentality: fears and tears. Worth a second and third view.

AC

P.S. I saw it at an Art Theater in limited release, and I don't know if it will gain wide release. Best to catch it now.

This last Saturday I was flipping through the channels and stumbled upon a History Channel series called Monsterquest. Its really not that great a show, pretty standard stuff about bigfoot, loch ness monster and such.

The episode I stumbled on though made me stop and watch. It was about Stalin's supposed desire to breed super soldiers. An animal breeding expert in 1920s Russia was tasked with cross breeding humans and apes.

The doctor Iilya Ivanov, who had developed the first method of artificial insemination of horses, methods were um dark ages I guess would be a good description in comparison to what we know and use today. He tried first to artificially inseminate chimpanzees with human sperm, when this failed to produce any results he returned to Russia to try and use Orangatang sperm to inseminate human woman, this test never came to be due to some turmoil in the Russian government. Ivanov was then sentenced to 5 years in jail and I believe died there. Turns out the experiments where more geared to support evolution rather then create a super soldier.

The episode also showed an American Neurosurgeon (sorry I missed the name and am having no luck finding it) who in the early 70s succesfully performed a head transplant from one monkey to another. He was shutdown due to ethics issues. Disturbing yet interesting all at the same time.

I don't know why but this made me think of SIMS and marvel at how close fiction can sometimes mirror reality. (btw, the information about Dr. Ivanov's experiments only came to light in 2006).

Jut finished reading this again. I first read it about five years ago when I discovered the wonders of buying books over the internet and subsequently overdosed on FPW.
Anyway, I'd forgotten how great it was. I mean, I always liked it, but didn't rate it right up there with my other favourites... until now. Great stuff!
Except for one small detail which is niggling at me. I'm not usually the sort to point at mistakes in books, but this one really should have been seen and changed.
Can you spot it? In case you can't, here's a brief description of our protagonist: snowy white patch of hair, flamestone around the throat and yellow gold skin on his left hand.
I thought it only right that you guys could share in my annoyance as well!

There has just been a Wire in the Blood one off special in the UK.

Tony is called in to provide a profile in a murder in Texas

Not sure when it will air stateside, but look out for it

Does anyone else watch this show? I love it, and I am re-watching the first and second seasons right now. The basic plot is two brothers hunting evil and stomping it. My wife doesn't like horror/scifi, but she's been hooked on this show since the moment I turned it on. Any other fans around here?

My wife and I don't pay for cable, because we'd watch waaaaay too much TV if we had it, so we just watch our favorite shows online whenever they come on (Supernatural, Heroes, My Name is Earl, etc.).

You can watch 3 of the past month's episodes on their website http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/supernatural

I've never seen a film's distribution butchered as badly as this ones has been. According to the website it's been released yet it's not playing anywhere in the entire state of RI. It's annoying.

God help me I'm actually enjoying this show. I used to like it when I was a kid but figured I would have grown out of it. The sets are almost exactly the same as I remember them. Also it's nice to see the Hulkster has changed back into a good guy again. The little Hulkamaniacs that he let down by becoming Hollywood Hulk Hogan will be thrilled!

Down with cold. Chest a nightmare of multi-colored mucus. Feel fine....until I cough. Then Death's cold finger scratches at my heart. And it's raining.

Anyway...

Been watching my backlog of tapes and dvds. Loved the ghost story, DORM, didn't care for CARVED: The Slit Mouthed Woman (some J-Horror).

Then I popped into the dusty VCR The Passion of Ayn (pronounced I AN, not Ann) Rand, starring Helen Mirren, Peter Fonda, et al. Great cast. This movie would make a great double-feature with HENRY & JUNE (the Henry Miller story with Fred Ward). Doesn't exactly show the bright side of Ms. Rand (was there a bright side?). Won't say anything else about this movie, but those who have seen it and are Libertarians, I'd sure like your opinion.

If you would like my copy of the tape, please PM me your address and I'll ship it off as soon as Death gets off my chest (this coming week, I predict). Please, I'd prefer a Libertarian get this tape. He or she can then pass it around to the non-Libertarians after watching it and sharing an opinion of the film's accuracy.

Thanks. Stay healthy, folks. It's cold out.

AC

Spoilers for the Book and Movie


I just watched “The Keep” again. I haven’t seen it since 1983.

I didn’t remember that Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellen were in it. They were both so young especially Gabriel.

The ‘Molasar’ costume reminded me of Skelator or one of the Power Rangers Villains.
And the special effects … I thought they were more advanced back then?

I noticed that many of the little details were not there. Which really made me wonder if I hadn’t read the book would I even have any idea what was going on?
Like whole conversations between ‘Molasar’ and Professor Cuza
The dead soldiers digging up the ‘talisman’
‘Molasar’ killing the soldiers so that he has someone to dig
Changing Magda’s name to Eva
After ‘Molasar’ saves Magda from the assault all of a sudden it is morning?

Things I didn’t know previously:

Magda “Eva” Cuza was played by Alberta Watson also played the mom in SPANKING THE MONKEY. An independent film, that takes the ‘Oedipus Complex’ to a new level. Yes, she was the mom that got drunk and had sex with her teenage son.

Michael Carter who donned the ‘Molasar’ suit, previously was Bib Fortuna (Jabba The Hutt’s Assistant) in ‘Return of the Jedi’

Am I the only one to wonder if Glaeken used a Jedi mind trick to get past the Nazi roadblock?