Not as Spooky Blog as Blogs Past... Sorry.

Sadly, there's not a lot of Halloween goofiness in my schedule this week. But, I did finally score a day off today. The crappy thing was that I woke up with a small head cold that my body has been fighting for the last couple of weeks. I thought I had it beat, but of course, on my day off, it decides to attack.

But as of now, I'm actually feeling quite better and spent the day lazing about playing some video games and watching a movie or two (scroll down for reviews).

While my fellow haunt fans are spending a weekend up north hunting deer and baking cookies out in the spooky woods (where there is pack upon pack of werewolf's!), I'll be enjoying my favorite band, Type O Negative, who are swinging back into town for a special Halloween extension of their Dead Again tour. Apparently, their set list has changed for this leg of the tour and they've changed their stage presence a bit. I'll let you all know how it goes.


As I've said before, I've seen a few more Halloween/Horror movies and will now spout off on what I thought of them, even if you don't give a dren.

1408 - Although I didn't find this movie all that spooky, I did really love the performances of John Cusak and Samuel Jackson in this paranormal thriller. I was also hooked into the story of a paranormal writer (Cusak) who finds himself locked in a horrific hotel room that not only won't let him leave, but also unleashes some serious psychological and physical terror upon his ass. A very good rental!

The Fog (2005 remake) - Why? Why try and tell an already successful, spooky as frack cinematic horror story? The original The Fog had nothing wrong with it in the first place and certainly stands the test of time in this decade by itself. Why try and re-imagine it? Perhaps because Hollywood is running out of ideas. In any case, I found this The Fog just a retelling of what was originally told, but with snazier effects and less creepiness. They've also seemed to take the original plot and characters and just mixed things up a bit. Same story, but events take place at different times. The ending was so friggin' cheesy I had to shake my head in disgust. I won't give it away, but they try and make the character that Jamie Lee Curtis originally played (now played by Maggie Grace) far more involved in the whole story line, so her fate comes off as being just plain goofy and silly rather than heartfelt and romantic as they probably intended. Don't fix what isn't broken!

Dark Water - Don't rent this thinking you're going to get a really creepy, spooky horror flick. Sure it involves a ghost and the paranormal, but it leans far more into depressing drama than anything else. I did find myself emotionally invested in Jennifer Connolly's character of a single mother trying to get through a very bitter divorce as she and her daughter movie into a crappy, run down apartment building. Of course the building is haunted to the gills by a ghost that has a fetish for water. Since I got so friggin' invested in this movie, I felt completely hosed at the ending. I won't give it away, but I will say that I felt my whole investment was all for absolutely nothing and I was actually a bit angered by the ending. Don't expect spookiness or a decent ending to the story!


On to less spooky things......

I found out some blurbs of the upcoming (don't hold your breath for it) Star Wars TV show as some juicy tid-bits did filter out over the Internet and airwaves. A lot of entertainment news shows told us what we Star Wars fans already new, that it will not revolve any of the popular characters from the movies. No Skywalkers, no Chewies, no R2s. Perhaps there may be some characters that are distently related to characters of smaller rolls from the films. It will take place between the films, Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and will explore the growing Galactic Empire. If they can do this a bit grittier than the films with writing that is on par with TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Firefly and Farscape, they're sure to have a HUGE hit on their hands!

Another sci-fi franchise that is getting a well deserved re-booting is that of Star Trek. The latest movie that is in the pipeline will introduce us to a young Kirk, Spock and McCoy in their first adventure on the Enterprise together. It's being directed by none other than geek god, J.J. Abrams. So there's a lot of hope for this project! They have Zachary Quinto (Sylar form Heroes) as Spock and Karl Urban ( from LOTR) as McCoy and frellin' Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz) as Scotty!!!. Those are three reasons right there to get excited about this project. The one thing that worries me is who is rumored to be cast as James T. Kirk. Originally, Matt Damon's name was bandied about for the role of the iconic captain of the Starship Enterprise. But, instead it looks like actor Chris Pine may be getting the role. Who the frell is Chris Pine? Good question. When I saw pictures of him, he looks more like a guy who came off of one of those MTV reality soap operas or perhaps a J. Crew ad rather than the manly captain of the Enterprise. If this is true, he'll be in, what I call, a Daniel Craig position. In other words, he'll be filling the role that is seeped in iconic mythos and better fit the part. Craig pulled off Bond beautifully. So here's hoping that Mr. Pine does the same for Kirk.


This is all I have for now. I may just go outside and have a cigar as the season is winding down very soon! So I gotta do some huffing before it gets too cold outside.

Zangz.