Movies And An Update

Wow! It has been a good while since I wrote anything. I'm sorry. I went through a period of very dark depression. It was worse than anything you could read about by your favorite horror author. The first medication the doctors put me on was a big mistake because it just knocked me out. I slept for almost two days on it. We had to let it get out of my system and start a second medication. This one seems to be doing the trick but it's taken my body about a month and a half to adjust to it. Now it's time to get back to work here.

I have four books lined up and ready to go:

• Jason Brannon's The Cage is the first one to be read. I have a signed copy of it to giveaway as well.
• Bitternest by Alan Draven. I've tried to avoid any promotional info on this one so that I can go into the unknown and truly be surprised.
• Blaze: A Novel by Richard Bachman. I'm trying to understand why SK went with the Bachman name on this one.
  
• The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. The plot description on the dust jacket sold me.
  

If you have a Wal-Mart nearby head to the DVD section and look for the collections. There is a two disc DVD collection for sale with both Identity and Secret Window for sale. At $9 and some change it is too good a deal to pass up.

Secret Window is a great adaptation of the Stephen King story Secret Window, Secret Garden staring Johnny Depp. An author going through a divorce finds himself accused of plagiarism by a stranger. It doesn't take long for things to start going wrong for our hero.

Identity is simply a great film. Ten strangers find themselves stuck together in a hotel one night during a horrendous storm. The roads are washing out and the phone lines are going down. One by one somebody begins to murder them.

If you haven't seen either movie yet then you now know all you need to know to enjoy them. These are two great movies and finding them packaged together was a sweet deal.

The Hole

A co-worker told me I needed to see a movie that has been on Encore over the last couple of weeks, The Hole. I'm glad I took her advice. This was a great movie. It's based on the novel After The Hole by Guy Burt. I hope to read the book in the next few months. This isn't a movie for the kids and is rated R for good reasons. Will I watch it again? Oh yeah.

One of the things that made the movie memorable for me was the fact that the cast is mostly unknowns to me. With the exceptions of Embeth Davidtz as a therapist and Keira Knightley (of Pirates of The Caribbean fame) as a hot teen girl, the rest of the cast were all new faces to me. This made it easier to accept their predicament without thinking "But he/she makes _______ a film so I know nothing too bad is going to happen to the character." Quick note for my male readers: Yes, Keira does go topless in one scene. I can almost hear men running to the video store now.

The story begins with one of four missing teenagers, Liz, showing up bloody and screaming at the private school they all attend in Britain. This begins the first of two versions of the story. The first version is told from this teenager to the therapist assigned to work with her. It seems there was a school wide field trip planned. Those students that weren't going on the three day trip were being sent home to their families. The four teenagers wanted a private field trip and arranged for just such a thing. By paying Martyn, the kind of teen that can find/buy/sell anything, for his help they find themselves at the entrance to an old bomb shelter. Martyn unlocks the hatch with the promise he will return in three days to let them out. He has to lock it behind him or anybody that happens along with see something is wrong. When three days pass and Martyn doesn't return the four teens begin to realize something is wrong. It takes only a day or two for Liz to find the microphones hidden in the shelter and stage a performance that convinces Martyn to return as the four sleep and unlock the hatch.

Then the second version of the story begins. The police point out to the therapist that she hasn't told Liz she was the only one of the four found alive. Martyn is found in the Dominican Republic and returned to Britain to face charges. Martyn quickly denies being responsible and begins to tell the story of Liz (Thora Birch) and Frankie (Keira Knightly) that shows they aren't as innocent as Liz's story would have us believe. It is in this telling that the story becomes very dark and we begin to see how love can bring forth evil. Once this second version of the story begins I promise you will not want to leave your seat. Just when you think it's all over the movie has one twist left for you.

I really enjoyed this movie and believe most of you will enjoy it as well. My co-worker also recommended another movie that turned out to be pretty good: The Prestige. The Prestige is a movie that requires you to pay attention. When the plot twists start you wont want to miss any of the details. Go rent both of these movies and have fun this week. It's better than watching American Idol (yuck!).

Primeval

If you are looking for an early review of the new movie Primeval I regret to inform you that you will not find one here. You won't find a review of it here at all.

I mentioned in the Off Season review that "I hate it when a book, or movie, or anything uses artwork for promotion that doesn't match the actual product." This applies to commercials as well. The television spots for Primeval promote a "serial killer" with over 300 victims. The commercials make references to Jack the Ripper and other murderers in history. They even point out the story is based on actual events.

Here's the problem. The "serial killer" in the movie isn't a person. It's a crocodile known as Gustave. Does this mean we can call the shark from Jaws a serial killer? What about the dog from Cujo? As long as we are using labels the wrong way why don't we starting calling him "Jack the Lover" instead of Ripper?

The "actual events" the commercials hype? You can read the truth at the BBC News website.

If a movie requires misleading marketing to get people into the theaters it makes me wonder how bad the movie really is. Had the advertising been more truthful I might have gone to see it, but advertising this misleading guarantees I won't.

I just wish that The Lost was playing in theaters nation wide. Now that's a movie I want to see.