I've been GROUND!

The month of March continues to suck the life-blood out of my small, poor, worn out wallet as Type O Negative come to town this week. There are very few concerts I go to any more. But, Type O I make time for. They're a remarkably tight band and usually have a few surprises up their sleeves when they play live. So that'll be happening this week. I'll report on that at a later time.

Speaking of Type O Negative, here's just how much of a inattentive dumb-ass I can be. I bought their new album about a month ago, right? It's just today that I noticed that my copy came with an additional live disc of some of their music. WHATADUMBASS!!!! But it is pretty cool. It's like the Easter Bunny came one day early.


And speaking of fellow dumbasses, can you believe the stir that my favorite movie, 300, is causing amongst the liberal throngs. I consider myself to be relatively liberal most of the time. But, silliness like this makes me more and more moderate every day. I don't want my blog to become a festering dung heap of self absorbed political philosophy, but for people to call the movie a right wing propagandist film that was funded by the Bush administration is just... well... DUMBASSED!

Get a grip, people. If this movie had any real (not imagined from the minds of dumbasses) political agenda, one could just as easily see the invading Persians as the Bush administration and the evil Xerxes as George W. Bush. It can go either way if you think about. It's also based on a comic book that was written about 10 years ago, fer crissakes. On top of all of that, if any filmmaker in Hollywood ever united with the Bush administration for any reason, they'd find themselves on a blacklist and ousted from the business. Hollywood and George Bush mix as well as vinegar and wine. So stop yer whinnin' about it and enjoy the film for the full fledged butt-kickery that it is.

'Nuff said.


I guess the big deal of the last week was that I went down to my neighborhood movie theater last night (a classic old one, not one of those multiplexes) and sat down to enjoy myself a big huge helping of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse. Oh, what a wonderful action packed, splatter ozzed, eye candy filled, pulp fest it was!!!! I have to say, straight out, that this is my second favorite movie of 2007 so far (300 is first, so far). It clocks in at over three hours of crazy-assed action.

The Grindhouse films of the '70's were B-Grade, "R" rated pulp movies that were shown back-to-back in more of the seedier theaters of the time. Tarantino and Rodriguez bring that whole feel back with a double dose of schlock and shock with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror showing first and then being followed by Quintin Tarantino's Death Proof.

Planet Terror, from Robert Rodriguez, is a fast paced, unstoppable force in itself. The outrageous plot, non-stop uberviolence and immense gross-out factor smacked me upside the head... in a good way. It's a great entry into the whole Zombie genre that actually does a decent job of character development between the gushing gunshot wounds, beheadings and puss spewing. You find yourself rooting for the main leads, El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) and Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) in their huge, violent battle against the plague infected zombies. Watching Rose McGowan on the big screen certainly does a nice job on your peepers (that's "peepers" as in EYES, you pervs!), but to watch her make good use of her "special leg enhancement" is frackin' beautiful!!! This flick was my favorite of the two as it played easily to my fan-boy, geek sensibilities! Babes, blood, blow-ups and Zombies! This was a real fun ride.

Quintin Tarentino's Death Proof was a completely different ride. One thing you'll have to understand going from the blood crazed and explosive Planet Terror to the slightly more subtle Death Proof is that Tarentino loves dialog... lots and lots of dialog. He also loves a good, healthy dose of character development.... lots and lots of character development. The first part of Death Proof might seem like a bit of a radical slow down from the previous Planet Terror. But if you're a big fan of Tarentino, fear not! This is right up your alley. He gives us some great characters, great dialog, and if you can wait long enough, some pretty incredible vehicular action.

In a nutshell, this little story is about why not to take rides from strangers. No zombies here, but Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike is one formidable psychopath! This IS Kurt Russell's movie. I've always liked Kurt Russell. Hell, I've based my Star Wars RPG character of Jodz Burdoz on his BTILC character, Jack Burton. That's how geeky I am and that's how much I enjoy Kurt Russell. I guess it's partly because I've grown up watching him. I remember being a kid and going to the drive-in (remember those?) and watching a Disney double feature. One would be something like Herbie the Love Bug (pre-Lohan) and it would be followed by one of the crazy teen movies that had a young Kurt running around his high school with some form of special power that was usually a science lab mishap.

Ok, then. Enough of this Kurt Russell man-crush crap! Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike is one of his best characterizations to date. First you kind of like the guy. You want to buy him a drink in a bar. But, by the end of the movie you're rooting for him to get the livin' smack beat out of him. Even though his character isn't anywhere near as fleshed out as a lot of the others in this film, Russell does an excellent job with it. As nasty as he gets, he's fun to watch.

The set up for the real fun to start is a bit long, but worth the wait. The car chase is pretty phenomenal and I wish there was more of that in the movie! Which leads me to the only problem I had with the telling of the story: (Major Spoilage! Highlight to read!)

Tarantino spends a huge load of time building up a bunch of characters of a group of girlfriends out for a night on the town (well actually, one Austin dive bar). Their story takes up a good, solid half of Death Proof. Unfortunately it all goes to rot when, well into their story, Stuntman Mike takes them out of the picture. Then we have to start all over with more character development from a different group of girls who'll have to deal with Mike.

For me that was kind of a waste. I feel Death Proof would have been a bit more parallel and fit better with Planet Terror if Tarantino would have condensed the whole first half of Death Proof and given more time to car chases and road rage. But, I guess that's the fan-boy in me. More action, less talk. One thing Tarantino is famous for is the dialog. And he certainly delivers there. There is some really great Tarantino-esque dialog that Quintin's fans won't be disappointed with!

I can tell you this the very final shot of Death Proof had the audience roaring with laughter and applause.

Great movie(s), great cast and fun uber-violent action! Good times! Grindhouse!


Hey, Haven't done this in a while, Have I? So here's a .....

ZANGZ'S BLOG OF GEEKDOM'S WEBSITE OF THE MOMENT

TRONGUY.NET
Just when I though I was pretty frellin' geeky comes along this guy. A TRON uber-fan who isn't afraid to show his Geek-Freak flag fly high. This guy is living proof that "It's all about the suit, babe. All about the suit." Filled with pictures and media for you all to peruse. God bless you, Jay Maynard. God bless you.

Well, that's all for today kiddies, I guess I could go on and on about a email discussion I'm currently having with my friend Carlo (a Reserve serving in the Middle East) about how friggin' hot Hero's Ali Larter is and how we want her to step on us. But, I think I'll leave that for my inside voice so as to not scare up any more restraining orders.

So, I'm outta here! Come home soon, Carlo!

Zangz.