Yesterday, while everyone was hanging out with friends and family and stuffing themselves with turkey and pie, I took a day off – it was exactly what I needed. 

I started my day with a sleep in, waking up at 9:30.  Plenty of time to catch the 11 am yoga class at the gym, if it wasn’t cancelled.  What I hadn’t factored in was that the time could change, so when I called at 9:45 to make sure the class was still on, I discovered it had started at 9:15.  Bummer.  So instead of heading off to yoga, I did what I never get to do – I read the paper, the morning it was delivered!  This is big because my husband usually wakes up and leaves the house around 5 am every morning and TAKES THE PAPER WITH HIM.  So I often get the paper at night or days later (depending on when he brings it in from the car), usually after I’ve read most things online anyway.

After the paper, I chatted with my husband on the phone while making some green tea and oatmeal (I cheated and used Trader Joe’s instant cinnamon and spice – sooo good).  Then the texts and phone calls started from friends and family.  My sister, Jennifer, got me motivated to start my Christmas shopping and in a few hours I had presents for my sister Jennifer and her husband, Dave, my nephew Jack and my Dad all ordered and shipped – thank you Macy’s and Amazon!  I also picked up a few small things for my husband and one of his daughters.  Tomorrow I plan to get more serious and dive into Black Friday downtown – Nordstrom, Macy’s and Barnes and Noble are on my list.  Pike Place Market will be heaven for stocking stuffers, but for edibles, I’m waiting til a day or two before.

I started getting hungry around 1:30 and decided to try out a Shape Magazine recipe I had been eyeing – corn chowder for only 178 cal a cup.  Per my sister’s request I videotaped the experience with my Vado HD.  The soup, however, was a serious disappointment, so I won’t waste your time with video.  Thin and watery does not a chowder make.  Maybe it will thicken in the fridge and upon reheating?  Doubtful, but I’ll try that before I throw it out.  Bottom line: chowder is not supposed to be low-fat. 

As yoga hadn’t happened, a workout was in order – I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill while gaining inspiration from the fantastic shape Angelina Jolie is in, in Tomb Raider. 

Afterwards, it was nearing dinner so I tried out a recipe for Butternut Gruyère pasta – it turned out pretty well, but at 2 hours to make, it’s quite a commitment.  The pasta, coupled with Murphy-Goode’s Fume, was my Thanksgiving entree.  Followed by a truly guilty and embarrassing indulgence, Ocean Spray’s cranberry sauce (not the whole berry, the molded kind) – this has been a Thanksgiving staple in my family for years as has the running joke about how long it took us to mold it just so.  I had the pumpkin spice bars I made Weds night for dessert.  All in all a satisfying meal with a few less calories than the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

I followed dinner, with a favorite movie, The Mummy.  You may be thinking – The Mummy?  Seriously?  All I can say is men take note, Brendan Fraser’s character in The Mummy (1 and 2 only, 3 was a disaster) is the ideal man.  Strong, courageous, smart enough, and super supportive of his uber-smart woman.  If you follow his lead, you will go far.

After The Mummy, a long hot bath and then bed. 

What did I learn on my day away from the holidays?  When you think you need R&R, take it.  Also, it is next to impossible to be “alone” on a holiday.  I spent 40% of my day fielding texts and calls from friends and family.  And you know what, that’s not a bad thing

Photographed for Esquire magazine April 2004 by [searching for credit]

“I think mystery is kind of great. I don’t know anything about Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn or Ava Gardner — not really — and I like that. I love watching their movies because they’re my personal movie stars. I don’t know what they eat and who their trainer is.”

No clue where this came from; sometimes I just right-click and save things and make no effort to credit them. Super-sorry!

“Most of the time we do nothing, myself included, … I think the lesson I learned from [playing humanitarian Tessa in The Constant Gardner] is that a lot of drops make up an ocean. If people would stand up and say what they believe in maybe we can make a difference. Helping one person is better than nothing. Just do something.”

Still from The Shape of Things

“There’s not much room for eccentricity in Hollywood, and eccentricity is what’s sexy in people.”

I have heard rumors she is one of the actresses who has been approached to play Catwoman in the next Batman movie, but I’ve also heard Chris Nolan quoted saying that Catwoman isn’t going to be in it. It doesn’t matter, because that would be lame anyways. She should not be Catwoman, regardless of whether Selina Kyle pops up in the next movie (a direction which would actually disappoint me).

What Rachel Weisz should do in the new Batman movies is play Talia, the daughter of Rā’s al Ghūl and love of Bruce Wayne’s life. Helloooo, she would be perfect! Talia seriously needs to once and for all get in the mainstream big screen storylines, especially considering how great the new movies Chris Nolan’s been making are: in the comics she even has Batman’s kid, for god’s sake (Damian Wayne, who is the current Robin). It’s already been set up, when, in the novelized Batman Begins, Rā’s al Ghūl refers to having a wife and daughter while he is talking to Bruce.

So, come on. Let’s finally get her in a movie, and let’s have Rachel Weisz play her. The woman is a stranger to neither action pictures (The Mummy franchise) nor comic book movies (the wildly underrated Constantine). That’s my awesome suggestion: obey!

I’m not sure exactly how many films I’ve seen in my lifetime.

It is probably over a thousand, the list below barely scratches the surface of all the films I’ve seen and it was surprisingly easy to come up with. Rather than systematically list films by era or genre I got my brother’s girlfriend Dawn to call out any films she could think of.

I thought of this idea about five minutes before I began typing and Dawn rattled off films as they came to her while I typed out brief verdicts for each one. I initially intended to create a system for rating but found it too restrictive so I just wrote a brief instinctual verdict for each one.

I have included a link to Rotten Tomatoes and the score of each film, I haven’t seen some of these movies in a very long time…

NOTE: The percentages at the end are not my scores but the percentage of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

1. Men in Black (1997) – meh (91% – seriously?!)
2. Fight Club (1999) – brilliant (80%)
3. Unforgiven (1992) – immense (96%)
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – decent (gets worse every time I watch it)
5. Memento (2001) – pretty good (93%)
6. The Departed (2006) – good (92%)
7. Aliens (1986) – the best sequel ever made (100%)
8. Reservoir Dogs (1992) – great characters and dialogue (95%)
9. American Beauty (1999) – uplifting, brilliant (the stupid bag scene apart) (89%)
10. Goodfellas (1990) – excellent (96%)
11. Predator (1987) – one of Arnie’s best (76%)
12. 12 Angry Men (1957) – captivating (100%)
13. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) – meh (78%)
14. Shawshank Redemption (1994) – really, really good (88%)
15. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – better than I expected (90%)
16. Sin City (2005) – flashy trash (78%)
17. Toy Story 2 (1999) – yep, it’s good (100%)
18. Bambi (1942) – I remember it being good (much to the amusement of Dawn and Sean, many gay jokes followed) (89%)
19. Final Destination (2000) -guff (30%)
20. Edward Scissorhands (1990) – pretentious crap (90%)
21. Stranger than Fiction (2006) – Surprisingly good (72%)
22. Shallow Grave (1995) – okay (71%)
23. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1996) – facepalm (49%)
24. Man on Fire (2004) – underwhelming (39%)
25. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – meh (81%)
26. 28 Days Later (2003) – meh (88%)
27. Casino Royale (2006) – surprisingly really good (94%)
28. Psycho (1960) – I was expecting it to be better (98%)
29. The Flintstones (1994) – Jesus wept (18%)
30. Aladdin (1992) – good (92%)
31. Jackass: The Movie (2002) – hard to class as a film really, hit and miss(48%)
32. E.T (1982) – good (98%)
33. Independence Day (1996) – a glorified B movie (61%)
34. Titanic (1997)  – Good (81%)
35. Ring (2002) – fairly decent (71%)
36. Pulp Fiction (1994) – Tarantino’s best film by a long way (97%)
37. Hot Fuzz (2007) – fun (90%)
38. Monty Python: Holy Grail (1975) – classic (94%)
39. Good Will Hunting (1997) – good (97%)
40. Heat (1995) – pretty good, not great (89%)
41. Zodiac (2007) – boring (87%)
42. Little Mermaid (1989) – decent (90%)
43. Ghost (1987) – crap (80%)
44. Dirty Dancing (1987) – utter shit – that women like this film makes me wonder if they actually deserve equal rights (67%)
45. The Terminator (1984) – the best Terminator (100%)
46. Bean (1998) – a test of mental endurance, awful (41%)
47. The Mask (1994) – rubbish (76%)
48. Frailty (2002) – ridiculous (74%)
49. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – shite
50. Donnie Darko (2001) – overrated pish (84%)
51. Apollo 13 (1995)– crap (96%)
52. Deep Impact (1998)– more crap (46%)
53. Volcano (1997) – even more crap (40%)
54. I know what you did last summer (1997)– yet more crap (36%)
55. The Matrix (1999) – first half decent rest shite (86%)
56. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (2002)– boring (96%)
57. Addams Family Values (1994) – some good moments (74%)
58. Nightmare before Christmas (1993) – overrated, largely guff (97%)
59. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) – (see earlier blog) (75%)
60. Three Men and a Baby (1987) – sickening  (78%)
61. Transformers: The Movie (1986) – decent (haven’t seen it in 10 years) (50%)
62. Cruel Intentions (1999) – trash (47%)
63. Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels (1998) – good if a little overrated (71%)
64. Clerks II (2006) – absolutely fucking diabolical (62%, seriously what the fuck?)
65. Baby’s Day Out (1994) – horrific (23%)
66. Home Alone 2 (1992) – decent (17% – that seems harsh!)
67. Liar Liar (1997) – pretty bad (84%)
68. Babe (1995) – Jesus wept (98%)
69. The Simpsons Movie (2007) – unfunny crap from a show that is a pale shadow of what it used to be (90%)
70. Mr Nanny (1993) – a holocaust of a film (7%)
71. The Thing (1980) – really tense, really good (80%)
72. Blair Witch Project (1999) – doing something different doesn’t make it good (85%)
73. Run Lola Run (1999) – see above (92%)
74. The Santa Clause (1994) – crap (Dawn: “What’s the film with Tim Allen dressed as Santa Claus?”) (79%)
75. Silence of the Lambs (1990) – they really should have just stopped at this one, a fine film (96%)
76. Matilda (1996) – another crap Dahl adaptation (89%)
77. A Bridge too Far (1977) – the quintessential war movie (67%)
78. Rocky V (1990) – laughable (21%)
79. The Sting (1973) – really good (91%)
80. The Sword in the Stone (1963) – good (73%)
81. The Witches (1990) – crap (100%, what the fuck?)
82. Starship Troopers (1997) – entertaining trash (60%)
83. Love Actually(2003)  – hated it (63%)
84. White men can’t jump (1992) – I liked it despite itself (78%)
85. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1999)– a pointless sequel (48%)
86. A Bug’s Life (1998) – meh (91%)
87. Hollow man (2000)– hollow is an appropriate adjective (but I like Bacon’s character) (27%)
88. Jaws (1975) – good but overrated (100%)
89. Jerry Maguire (1996)– oh Christ (84%)
90. Dawn of the Dead (1978)– awesome (95%)
91. Drop Dead Fred (1991)– mindless crap (still haunted by my little sister’s repeat viewing of this monstrosity) (9%)
92. Braveheart (1995) – good (it’s a movie, not a history lesson) (76%)
93. Saw II (2005) – crap (35%)
94. Mouse Hunt (1997)– hated it (really wanted the mouse to die) (44%)
95. The Mummy (1999)– didn’t like it (54%)
96. George of the Jungle (1997)– crap (53%)
97. Leon (1994) – ludicrous garbage (74%)
98. Death becomes her (1993)– had its moments (56%)
99. Meet Joe Black (1998) – meh (49%)
100. Dog Soldiers (2002) – entertaining (79%)
101. Cool Hand Luke (1967) – the best film ever (100%)

The Tomb

In 1915, MFA archaeologists spent a hot summer deep in the Egyptian countryside. They were emptying a tomb.

Strewn about the dark, airless room—sometimes smashed and broken,

sometimes miraculously intact—were hundreds of objects that captured one

man’s hopes about death and the afterlife. Four thousand years before, he had been governor of the province. His name was Djehutynakht.

As he prepared for death, Djehutynakht stocked his tomb with everything the Egyptians believed the dead needed for the next life. The tiny chamber contained a vast collection of tomb goods—arrayed around the extraordinary painted coffins that held the mummified bodies of the governor and his wife.

In 2009, a Belgian team retraced the original excavators’ footsteps in search of further clues. Layer by layer, the site is revealing its secrets.

The Mummy

<!–Massachusetts General Hospital’s Dr. Rajiv Gupta explains the procedures performed on the mummy.

–>Among the human remains found scattered in the burial chamber was the mummified head of one of Tomb 10A’s occupants, detached from its body by the rough treatment of tomb robbers. We still do not know whether it is Governor or Lady Djehutynakht. DNA analysis of one of the mummy’s teeth is now underway to help answer this question.

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital examined the head using medical imaging techniques. This revealed dramatic new information about Egyptian mummification practices; for example, this mummy is one of the earliest to show evidence that embalmers removed the brain through the nose, a process that later became common.

Most intriguing is the skilled removal of several bones around the cheeks. This “surgery” did not help with brain removal, so it may instead relate to the funeral ritual known as the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony. This allowed the deceased to eat, drink, and breathe in the afterlife.

Coffin of Djehutyenakth

The coffin was more than just a container for the body; it was a vessel that guaranteed the spirit passage to the afterlife. The texts and decoration are laid out from the point of view of the mummy. The mummy was placed in the coffin lying on its left side, facing east, the false door, and sacred eyes. All the inscriptions read from head to foot, with the hieroglyphic signs facing in the direction of the mummy’s head in order to make them easier for him or her to read. In this way, the coffin was complete only with the mummy inside it.

.Source.

Well.

“24″ week continues with a (hopefully) quick look at some of “24’s” Greatest Villains.

Again, spoilers lie ahead…be weary, fair traveller.

Seven: Jonas Hodges, Season 7, Redemption. (Jon Voight.)

Angelina Jolie’s biological father was born to be a “24″ villain. And the man did not disappoint. Chewing the scenery with gleeful abandon every step of the way, Jon Voight proved to be a formidable opponent for Jack Bauer – and whoever else got in his way along the way. Hodges fast became one of my favorite Big Bads in the entire series, and I had high hopes on his returning in the future to antagonize Jack over and over again. Sadly, it turned out that he actually wasn’t the dude in charge, and was just another pawn in an increasingly ridiculous operation, and he exited the series…well, kind of lamely.

Too bad…he coulda ranked a helluva lot higher! Still a fun ride while it lasted, though.

Six: Habib Marwan, Season Four. (Arnold Vosloo.)

In Season Four, Jack Bauer was menaced by the Mummy. That’s right, the Mummy.

I kid you not.

Okay, so it was just the dude who played the mummy in those horrible Brendan Frasor films, but still.

The Mummy.

I have nothing else to add here.

Five: Christopher Henderson, Season Five. (Peter Weller.)

So we had the Mummy terrorizing Los Angeles in Season Four – that’s a tough act to follow. But the producers were more than up to the challenge.

They brought in RoboCop.

Christopher Henderson was once Jack’s mentor, and that’s cool – he’s basically an older, grizzleder, meaner Jack Bauer. The perfect nemesis, in other word. Not only can he predict Jack’s methods, but Jack can predict that he can predict his methods, so he realizes that his normal methods are all but useless – forcing him to find new methods, which I guess means Henderson didn’t really predict anything at all.

Still pretty badass, though.

Four: Tony Almeida, Season Seven. (Carlos Bernard.)

If Christopher Henderson is Jack in twenty years, than Tony Almeida is Jack now – which is far more lethal. Add to that the emotional element of discovering that your best friend, partner, and really the “only man you can trust” is now your adversary, and we have the makings of the ultimate “24″ villain. Or so I thought.

The writers didn’t seem to want to commit to Tony one way or the other – they wanted him to be the bad guy but didn’t seem to want him to be, you know, evil. Key element there.

So instead we got a mostly bad Tony, but a Tony who was bad for the right reasons. It turned him into a more tragic figure than an outright villain, and while I enjoyed the more complex journey he ended up taking, part of me still really wanted to see some hardcore Bauer vs. Almeida action.

Oh well…at least they didn’t kill him off this time.

Three: Mandy, Season One, Two and Four. (Mia Kirshner.)

Here’s a character that needs to return, like yesterday. While appearing in three separate seasons, Mandy has only appeared in seven episodes. Yet she still clocks in at Number Three.

That’s pretty incredible.

Mysterious, deadly, and, let’s face it, hot, Mandy has been a thorn in Jack’s side long before the two even came face-to-face. She always seems to appear at the worst possible moment, shocking the viewer and messing things up for Bauer and Co. even more. Whether she’s leaping out of exploding planes or poisoning presidents with a simple handshake, she’s generally pretty awesome. She’s still alive as well, which is a rarity for “24″ characters, let alone villains, and hasn’t shown up since Season Four.

I’d say her unique brand of havoc is long overdue.

Two: Nina Meyers, Season One, Two and Three. (Sarah Clarke.)

Of all the enemies on this list, I think it’s safe to say that Nina Meyers has had the most impact on Jack. She was kind of his arch-nemesis over the course of the first three seasons, and a seemingly unstoppable one at that. She started off as Jack’s most trusted ally and friend, and ended the day by killing his wife, Teri.

Jack was never a very good judge of character.

Nina would return in Season Two and Season Three to once again tangle with Bauer, and haunt him about his wife’s death. I’ve always said that a really solid, returning antagonist would really up the ante of the shows threat level, and Nina was perfect in the role.

And then, in the third season, Jack shot her like sixty times.

One: President Charles Logan, Season Five. (Gregory Itzin.)

When it was revealed midway through Season Five that it was the President who had been behind the events of that day, no one even questioned it. It was unexpected, it was terrifying, it…didn’t make a whole lot of sense. But we bought it. Without question. Because the writing was quality, but more importantly: because Greg Itzin, who had played Logan since his introduction in Season One, was just that good.

Logan’s characteristic bumbling and poor decision making skills had been an act – and we believed it because of Itzin’s performance. He (and Jean Smart, who played his wife Martha) were unbelievable that season, treading the fine line between duplicity and outright lying to your audience. They had great chemistry; and they both knew their characters inside and out.

But never mind the acting…the mere thought of the president, the most powerful man in the world being a terrorist was just too delicious for the writers of the show to pass up. Even if Logan’s turn to the dark side hadn’t been telegraphed from the very beginning (they say it was, but I think they’re lying) it was an intriguing premise – one that led to one of the best seasons of the show, and undoubtably, the show’s best villain.

]]> http://oxcgn.com/2009/11/06/oxcgn-discusses-games-to-movies-the-new-prince-of-putrid/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:55:35 +0000 dkpatriarch http://oxcgn.com/2009/11/06/oxcgn-discusses-games-to-movies-the-new-prince-of-putrid/

by dkpatriarch

© 2009 David Hilton

Movies made from video games suck right?  Even worse than games based on movies.

I'm the Prince of Posers!

That’s the general consensus among both film critics and gamers, though I myself have enjoyed a few of the films like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Hitman and even Max Payne.

No, they weren’t paragons of classy cinema worthy of deep discussion or jaw-dropping amazement, but they were entertaining enough with at least some vague tributes to the source material they were using.

Soon we have Disney’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, based on the last-gen game of the same name, to be released May 2010.

Will this movie amaze us, mildly entertain us, or will it simply be another crappy attempt to cash in on a game’s popularity (though luckily Uwe Boll isn’t involved in this one at least)?

I’d say the fact that it is being made by Disney was already cause for concern, except that Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer also created a number of Pirates of the Caribbean adventure movies based only on a ride at Disneyland.

• Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time Movie

And the first film at least was good fun.  Of course the films have since been made into video games that were a bit less fun, but that’s another story.

Because video games don’t tend to have the narrative depth or characterisations that a good movie needs, the films based on games tend to either deviate dramatically from the source material or suffer terribly from poor storytelling and overly basic plots.

I'm the Princess to tame you young Prince

However, they are best when they replicate the sense of action and atmosphere that the games encapsulate.  This is where the Prince of Persia movie could work.

Already from the trailer we can see that filming in Morocco gives the movie the right atmosphere and there certainly seems like there will be plenty of that Prince of Persia jumping about and even a bit of the humour thrown in.  But there still needs to be plot, deeper characterisation and realistic sets and special effects.

Pirates of the Caribbean and other adventure movies like The Mummy worked because they didn’t take themselves too seriously and aspired only to be good old fashioned escapist action.  They had good dialogue and, especially in Johnny Depp, great characterisation.

That’s what the Prince of Persia movie should be aiming for.

• Prince Of Persia Sands Of Time Dev Discussion

This is what director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) could very well bring; that is if his cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) as Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton (Bond: Quantum of Solace) as Tamina, and Ben Kingsley (‘insert tons of well known fims here’) as Nizam, can bring some refreshing dialogue and depth to their roles.

All too often movies based on games feel stilted or cheap in presentation and have very little sense of drama.

Mind you, the future may see movies based on games able to go beyond the ‘action adventure’ goal. 

WETA's Distric 9 defies critics

District 9, from Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp, gave gamers a wishful thought about what a Halo movie could have been like under those two if it had gone ahead.  Could a game inspire such depth and attention to detail in the future?

Also there are the short web-films that Ubisoft are putting together for the Assassin’s Creed 2 game (see my review of the first film here).  The first one is stylistic, authentic-looking, and focuses on both plot and characterisation, even in the few minutes it lasts.  Could it have made a quality full film?  From what I saw it sure looked like it at least was heading in the right direction.

The Prince of Persia movie is focusing on the mystical dagger and time-rewind theme of the game but we will have to see if it has the style, characters and story to match.

I want to hail the movie as a prince among paupers in the game to film genre, but am worried I will instead be mocked with another Prince of Putrid.

What do you think?  Will this movie stink or smell of roses?  Comment below.

List of games made into movies:

• Super Mario Bros.: Peach-Hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (July 20, 1986)
• Super Mario Bros. (May 28, 1993)
• Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture (July 16, 1994)
• Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (August 6, 1994)
• Double Dragon (November 4, 1994)
• Street Fighter (December 23, 1994)
• Mortal Kombat (August 18, 1995)
• Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (November 21, 1997)
• Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back (July 18, 1998)
• Wing Commander (March 12, 1999)
• Pokémon: The Movie 2000 – The Power of One (July 17, 1999)
• Pokémon 3: The Movie – Spell of the Unown (July 8, 2000)
• Shenmue: The Movie (January 20, 2001)
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (June 15, 2001)
• Pokémon 4Ever – Celebi, Voice of the Forest (July 7, 2001)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (July 21, 2001)
• Resident Evil (March 15, 2002)
• Pokémon Heroes (July 13, 2002)
• Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker (July 19, 2003)
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (July 25, 2003)
• House of the Dead (October 10, 2003)
• Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (July 22, 2004)
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse (September 10, 2004)
• Alone in the Dark (January 28, 2005)
• Air (February 5, 2005)
• Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew (July 16, 2005)
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (September 14, 2005)
• Doom (October 21, 2005)
• BloodRayne (January 6, 2006)
• Forbidden Siren (February 9, 2006)
• Silent Hill (April 21, 2006)
• Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea (July 15, 2006)
• Dead or Alive (September 15, 2006)
• Dōbutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing) (December 16, 2006)
• Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai (July 14, 2007)
• Clannad (September 15, 2007)
• BloodRayne II: Deliverance (September 18, 2007)
• Resident Evil: Extinction (September 21, 2007)
• Hitman (November 21, 2007)
• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (January 11, 2008)
• OneChanbara (April 26, 2008)
• Postal (May 23, 2008)
• Like a Dragon (June 23, 2008) aka Ryū ga Gotoku Based on the first Yakuza Video Game
• Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior (July 19, 2008)
• Far Cry (October 2, 2008)
• Max Payne (October 16, 2008)
• Resident Evil: Degeneration (December 17, 2008)
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (February 27, 2009)
• Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Platinum the Movie: To the Conquering of Space-Time (July 18, 2009)

Upcoming releases

• Tekken (2009)
• The Legend of Spyro 3D (2009)
• Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (2009)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (May 28, 2010)
• The King of Fighters (2010)
• BloodRayne III: Warhammer (2010)
• Clock Tower (2010)
• Mortal Kombat: Devastation (2010)
• Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
• Dead Space (2011)
• Gears of War (2011)
• Army Of Two (2011)
• Uncharted (series) (2011)

© 2009 David Hilton

In my second look at the Universal monsters, I look at the second sequel in the Creature from the Black Lagoon series.

For those of you not familar with this Universal Monster, the series chronicles the exploits of The Gill-Man, an underwater being who is part-man, part-lizard and part-fish. In the first film he is uncovered when a scientific expedition stumbles upon while journeying up the Amazon river. He attacks the boat as he tries to protect his feeding ground and captures a lovely blonde lady. The movie was basically an aquatic version of The Mummy or Frankenstein mixed with nature. The 1954 movie would inspire the creation of comicbook characters Swamp Thing and Man-Thing.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon was followed by a sequel Revenge of the Creature in 1955, which strangely featured Clint Eastwood and finally Creature Walks Among Us in 1956.

The events in “Walks” feature a scientific/hunting expedition to track down the Gill-Man and capture him for scientific study. Because every movie in this series must feature a scantily clothed blonde (Leigh Snowden), one of the scientists, who also happens to be rich, brings his wife along.

Using sonar, spearguns and a flame thrower, they track the Gill-Man into the Florida Everglades where they confront him and he attacks. The Gill-Man is flambeed and the hunters capture him but he has third-degree burns over 90% of his body. These aren’t the smartest scientists ever assembled. What is their next hunting trip, going after squirrels with a bazooka.

Barbecued Gill-Man! It tastes like chicken!

The movie seems to feature more scenes with the blonde, her overly-possessive husband (Jeff Morrow) and one of the other chisel-chested scientists (Rex Reason). There is one scene where the blonde goes diving with the team and as the team is tracks the Gill-Man the director would cut to scenes of her doing synchronized swimming. It was the dullest scene in the film and went on for hours.

1.5 out of 5

Watch the Film Features Index and Weird Wednesdays for more in the Universal Monsters series.

The LoveFilm DVDs still haven’t arrived, but because it’s been 4 working days, I’m officially allowed to complain, yay!

But I was a bit worried about watching the Mummy film (when it arrives) after reading this review: http://japancinema.net/2009/11/03/the-mummy-tomb-of-the-dragon-emperor-review/

When Brandon Fraser goes, “Here we go again”, it makes me cringe, because, well, cheesy lines like that always make me cringe. They’re just so shamelessly … cheesy!

Piqued by a reference on Bones, featuring an actual mummy and “Bones” Brennan naming the film as a childhood favorite that sparked her interest in forensic anthropology, we followed our Halloween viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! with the original The Mummy with Boris Karloff through Netflix, in glorious black and white. What a great movie, and what a fascinating fellow Karloff was! Despite some hilarious archaeological gaffs in the beginning (people handling fragments of stone and ancient scrolls of papyrus with their bare hands), the film has lots of creep factor, lots of tension, and some fairly authentic-looking reproductions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, plus a nifty Egyptian laborers’ work song that had John and me rocking out. *g* Karloff, who was tall and slim but not freakishly tall or massive, has one of those long, angular faces that lends itself to makeup and prosthesis, rather like Ron Perlman these days. Despite his many gruesome roles, in private life he was a gentle man and a gentleman, too, a hard-working actor who was forty-four when he found his breakout role as James Whale’s monster in Frankenstein, fifty-one before he became a father. I’d like to see Frankenstein now; it’s one of many films I caught bits of on broadcast tv as a child but have probably never watched all the way through.

Watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! is a yearly ritual for me, and I never get tired of those alto flute solos, or of the World War I Flying Ace’s battle with the Red Baron and his trek through the French countryside. In my memory that sequence goes on for hours, moody landscapes and the haunting flute part. I said to John that that was probably the first glimpse I had of what the shakuhachi tradition tries to do, the flute as an instrument of spirit, an embodiment of Spirit through the breath.

Our public television station favored us over the past two weekends with the Jeremy Brett version of “The Sign of Four”. I have never been a Holmes fan before, but now I’m completely enthralled with the Brett series, and also with David Suchet’s Poirot. “The Sign of Four” is a more complex story than the usual 45-minute episode, with lots of exterior shots and lots of obvious if beautiful matte paintings for backgrounds, rather like Original Trek. The final exchange of dialogue is just a killer: “What an attractive woman,” says Watson, rather wistfully. (Yes, and young enough to be your daughter, John!) Holmes, collapsed on a narrow bed with limbs sprawled out, replies, “Was she? I hadn’t noticed.” Oh, Sherlock.

Meanwhile, we have finished season four of Deep Space Nine, with Odo’s shocking punishment by his people and Salome Jens’ amazing authority and confidence as the female Founder, and have season five on tap and the first season of the animated series Batman Beyond. We also viewed Mask of the Phantasm again, and yes, I still think it’s an enormously better movie than either of those with Christian Bale, and it’s also the only movie to give Bruce Wayne a compelling love interest–a smart, sexy redhead with some martial arts training. Bruce likes a woman who can trip him over her hip. *g*

So it’s Friday morning, and I go downstairs for some breakfast. As I’m pouring milk over my supermarket ownbrand ‘multigrain hoops’, I do the usual, which is to scour the table for post. What am I expecting? A red bulging square that holds two DVDs, sent with love from LoveFilm. But there was nothing, zero, zilch.

I sent these DVDs off on Sunday, so they must have been picked up straight away in the morning on Monday. And must I add that this is all done by First Class post? Somethings up, and we didn’t even have the random postal strike in the middle.

There is a big pallaver going on witht he Postal Service. And I’m not entirely sure what my opinion is on it, and what the union actuaklly wanted when they did the strike.

For me, what matters at this current hour is that tonight I have nothing to watch, when I was so hoping to watch either ‘I Spy’ or ‘The Mummy 3′…

I know, I know, very questionable film taste. I’m starting to regret not removing those movies from my list. I Spy, is going to be for a younger audience, probably with slap stick humour. The Mummy 3 is going to be a very cheesy, kids orientated action movie. But I feel compelled to watch it, as I’ve seen both others (though it won’t be as scary as it was when I was younger), it shall be a salute to the days when I wanted to be an Egyptologist. So wish me luck with not vomiting!

I will probably resort to watching them in my room on my laptop, that way, I won’t have to suffer the embrassment of watching these movies, even in front  of my Papa.

As I have grown up I have begun to realize how increasingly unimportant the prescience of a mummy is during the Halloween season. When I was little, mummies were everywhere.  There were mummy tombs in my neighbor’s front yards, dogs wrapped in tissue paper, and plastic Mcnugget buddies Happy Meal toys with clip on bandages.

Maybe the fad has died out; the last decent mummy movie was, in fact, The Mummy (1999) starring Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz.  It is time for us to relive the terror of the linen cloaked corpse.

How do I propose we re-introduce ourselves to the horror? By introducing ourselves to the laughter.  The first mummy I knew and loved was Klaris, from Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). Klaris kicked it old school, he wasn’t computer animated like mummies would be today, Klaris was a real human, stuntman Eddie Parker, wrapped in real linen, with a real clue hidden inside his sarcophagus.  Klaris was so chill, after his re-death in the movie both Abbott and Costello adopt his linen.

Klaris and friends, I miss your aged strips of cloth, your hunger for revenge and your everlasting quests to find your internal organs.

Mummies, I miss your face- Shassie

Fun Fact: In the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, the title characters are actually named Peter and Freddie, but throughout the movie they refer to each other as their real names Abbott and Costello.

Each morning I try to check this blog to make sure it’s actually there. You never know when someone will forget to post. Happens to the best of us. Today that best was me!

I have an excuse. I missed CASTLE last night because I was watching Tivoed Dancing with the Stars. (I missed Dancing because I watched Tivoed Gran Torino. LOVED IT!)

So when Jaci Burton said last night’s was the best Castle ever, I had to go to ABC.com and watch it. (Found out I could do that on FACEBOOK. TG for FB!)

Castle was a spooky show with a Halloween theme. Natch. So I got to wondering what other people’s favorite spooky movies are.

Personally, I like the classics. The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, 13 Ghosts (the original!), and The Mummy.

I don’t know if they’re really that good or if I love them because I discovered them when I was a kid, going to the movies on Saturday afternoon with my sister and whatever cousins and/or friends happened along.  

So what are your favorite Halloween movies? And have you seen the original 13 Ghosts? It’s wonderful!

I first noticed this Israeli born hottie back in the late 90’s in The Mummy. Then I remember him for his brutal role as Faris al-Farik in Sleep Cell. He played a major part in the Resident Evil Franchise, and his biggest role has been in my fantasies. Ow! He’s way to sexy for words with those smoldering good looks and piercing eyes. Umm…what a nice Thursday morsel! Take a bite.