CA

I’ve had a couple people tell me lately that they didn’t read the Drag Me to Hell or Up reviews before seeing the movies to avoid spoilers. Just for the record, if I review a movie that’s come out within the last two months, there aren’t going to be spoilers at all. ESPECIALLY if I review it within a week or two of its theatrical release the only circumstance I’ll spoil anything is if I absolutely hated it and even then I’ll give massive, MASSIVE spoiler warnings in the post title that you couldn’t possibly miss.

I’m a huge movie fan that hates spoilers just as much as anyone, so I’m right there with you. I’d never spoil anything major without plenty of fair warning.

Lake Placid (1999)

Basic plot: A giant crocodile is in some lake in Maine.

Story: Nice and simple.

Something in a lake in Maine ate someone. The sheriff and fishing and game warden are responsible for finding out what. A museum sends one of its scientists to investigate. A crocodile specialist is convinced its a crocodile and goes to swim with it (?). There’s no real motive to any of it; the point is merely that a weird mixture of people are trying to figure out what is eating people in the lake. It works.

Monster Quality: Heartily approved.

Aquatic monsters terrify me. It all started with Jaws eternally scaring me away from the ocean, and now, as lame as it sounds since I actually watched Lake Placid for the first time as an adult, I don’t think I’d ever want to swim in a lake again either. Not so much because I’m afraid of thirty foot giant versions of these animals attacking so much as I’m afraid of the NORMAL sized versions of these violent flesh-eating monsters that DO exist. Humans are not made to be in giant bodies of water and that is science. If I can’t see what’s around me then, f*ck it, I’m out. Suffice to say, Lake Placid, as cheesy and stupid as it is, was able to keep me on my toes just because of how horrified I am of natural bodies of water.

The creature itself is a mixture of animatronics, compliments of Stan Winston’s creature shop, and CGI – the latter of which could look a lot worse.

Monster Quantity: Not as high as I hoped.

Honestly, you don’t get to see nearly as much of the giant crocodile as I would’ve liked. Granted, I guess you could say that they were going for the Jaws approach, but 1) 1999 is NOT 1975 so the should be able to show more with fewer excuses and 2) Jaws is one of the best movies ever made and Lake Placid is a mediocre B-movie. On the plus side, the croc looks pretty good when he’s on screen, he just spends a disappointing amount of time offscreen.

Cast: Awesome?

Billl Pullman is on my list of semi-obscure-yet-popular actors that automatically makes any movie better. In Lake Placid, he’s pretty much the hero, so the cast is already off to a good start. Oliver Platt is equally awesome as the crazy crocodile guy, and the dad from 28 Days Later works well enough as the sheriff. I wish they had gotten someone a little more attractive to be the leading lady, but Bridget Fonda is okay. At least I can believe she MIGHT be a paleontologist.

Film-Making: A solid B-movie.

Lake Placid isn’t a good movie, but for the most part, it’s well aware of that fact. What keeps the movie afloat is its biting sense of sarcasm and reliably formulaic approach to monster movie cliches. No part of the movie is particularly surprising, but who cares? There’s a giant crocodile that’s trying to kill people and occasionally succeeding. Sounds good to me.

If the DVD were enhanced for widescreen (why it isn’t, I have no clue), I’d pick up a copy in a heartbeat. I watched it twice in one day – though mainly thanks to Bill Pullman being awesome and my obsession with idolizing things that horrify me. Also because I was somewhat distracted the first time and extremely tipsy the second time.

Planning on getting some violent revenge? Three out of four professionals recommend this classic pose to let people know you mean business. Arm up in the air holding weapon? Check. One leg slightly elevated above the other? Check. Violent Revenge? Inevitable.

Thank you, Netflix.

Slumdog Millionaire is every bit as good as those 8 awards would have you believe.

Kate Winslet was long overdue and I’m glad she finally got the recognition she deserves.

I am in love with Kate Winslet.

I did really, really awful at guessing the minor awards.

Hugh Jackman’s opening song was hilarious.

The other musical bit could’ve/should’ve been left out.

Jack Black, Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Judd Apatow are incredibly funny people.

That version of Peter Gabriel’s “Down to Earth” did not sound good.

I really need to see Milk.

I can’t get over how much I love Slumdog Millionaire. If you haven’t seen it, go see it.

My friend Mike Hecht has started a blog. It’s kind of like a flip on Bullshish in that the majority of his posts will likely be about whatever the hell he feels like talking about (ala SuperBull) with the occasional movie-related post (ala CA – but not the state). Either way, I’m sure it’ll be awesome. Our other friend Chris Henderson might even make the occasional post there to add his own insight on things.

Without further adieu:

Popcorn Martini.

Edit: You may also notice that I’ve changed the style of my own site a bit since I felt like Popcorn Martini’s fancy-awesome banner was showing me up. Sorting through code isn’t very fun, but I finally figured everything out and got it tweaked to look a little slicker and make the black and red theme a little more coordinated.

My favorite original Christmas song. Ignore the unfortunately emo sounding freezeframe. The song is actually quite optimistic.

It was an excellent Christmas indeed.

Here’s my DVD haul and, subsequently, a breakdown of what to expect reviews for at some point over the next month or two:

1. Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection (14 movie set: Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, Shadow of a Doubt, Family Plot, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, Rope, Saboteur, Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Trouble with Harry)
2. The Dark Knight (2-Disc)
3. WALL-E (3-Disc)
4. Prince Caspian (3-disc)
5. Hellboy 2 (3-Disc)
6. Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition
7. Peter Pan: Platinum Edition
8. Crash (2-disc)
9. The Blair Witch Project
10. Uncle Buck
11. Rain Man
12. National Treasure 2 (2-disc)

Fun bonus fact: Four copies of The Dark Knight were exchanged among my family this year. My dad, both of my brothers, and I all received copies. That’s how awesome that movie is.

And with that, the blog will be back after the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

That’s right, I’m not going to celebrate Thanksgiving on the internet, but Black Friday is an entirely different topic. I love Christmas (next month is going to be like the Christmas version of Horrorfest), and love cheap DVD’s, and Black Friday is like the official first day of Christmas season with insane DVD sales. While I did pick up a few gifts for other people I mainly took advantage of the opportunity to stock up my collection on a few titles I knew my family would NOT get me (R-rated movies and South Park aren’t my parents’ favorite things), plus a couple I’d hate to miss out on.

So here’s my haul, not including the stuff I got for gifts for my family.

• South Park Season 2 ($10)
• South Park Season 3 ($10)
• South Park Season 4 ($10)
• Boiler Room ($2)
• Spaceballs: 2-Disc Special Edition ($2)
• The Pelican Brief ($2)
• Interview with a Vampire ($2)
• Rocky Balboa ($2)
• Wedding Crashers ($2)
• Borat ($3)
• Friday the 13th ($3)

8 Movies, 3 TV Season Box Sets

Total spent: $48.00 + tax

The South Park seasons by themselves are worth about $90. So yeah. Black Friday rules. America rules.

http://somethingincyberspace.wordpress.com/

My friend Brian and a few of his friends have recently started a group-effort blog called Something in Cyberspace. The blog was pitched to me as a blog for the ADD-inclined internet reader, occasionally linking to quick and obscure points of interest.

I was asked to contribute articles from time to time, so I’ll be occasionally donating mini-bits about movie-related memorabilia, indie films, or foreign films as something of a cross-promotional effort for Bullshish (particularly CA, but Superbull and DD by association).

It’s still in the very early stages of creation right now, but if you’ve got thirty seconds to spare every now and then, check it out. A link will always be under the “More Bullshish” section of my Blogroll on the right.

Horrorfest was awesome, but really tiring. This month is going to be a bit more relaxed and posts may cut down to being every other day or so, depending on how I feel. It may not seem like making a specific point to watch at least one movie per day AND write about it would be that exhausting, but you’d be surprised.

I’ve finally signed up for Netflix, so most of the time I do write this month it’ll be me playing catch-up one by one working my way through the movies by great directors that I never got around to seeing. Spielberg is top priority, so that will likely be a hot topic.

The closest I’m getting to a theme this month is going to be “Nightmares for November” (because alliteration is awesome when you can’t think of a more sensible theme). I got the box set of Nightmare on Elm Street in the mail last week, but since Horrorfest was already completely planned, I held off on them. This month, I’ll be watching them every weekend and posting my thoughts. There are seven movies total.

I’m going to catch up on Horrorfest tomorrow ( or technically today, I guess) after I wake up.

I went in at 11 this morning to work as an extra and didn’t get home until after 1AM. Look for the next installment of Horrorfest around lunchtime. For now, I need to sleep.