Wraithfodder's Lair

I realized I've probably seen more movies this summer, than I have in the last three years (in the theater, that is)...



Super 8 - attracted by Kyle Chandler and the retro plot. It worked well. Nothing too deep, but it was fun.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 - since I missed part 1 in the theaters, I had to borrow friend's DVD so I could remember the plot. So watched that on a SAturday, and saw part 2 on a Sunday. The HP series is great. I remember when the books first came out I was like, 'eh, no thanks' but then my friends ranted on about them and I figured, hmm, I should just check it out and got hooked.

Cowboys & Aliens - basically, that's it. Cowboys vs. aliens. Nothing at all deep but whoa, Daniel Craig can rustle my cows any time. Woof! It was sorta like the old Gary Cooper movies (the ending).

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - total mindless drivel. However, both my friend and I wanted to see something that fell into that category and it fit the bill. I'd never buy the film, heck no, and it's weird to say that the new vapid girl-of-the-movie is a better actor than Meghan whatsername.

Captain America - never read the comics, but the movie was good. Nothing earthshattering, nothing deep, but it was fun.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - okay, I saw this one mainly because I wanted to see David Hewlett in it (hear that, David, I spent $8.50 to see  YOU!) And oh hey, Ty Olssen (1st Deputy Andy on Eureka) and Mike Dupod (bounty hunter on SG1) were in it. It was fun to see them, but alas none of their characters fared very well. In fact, not well at all. Ouch. The special effects with the chimps, etc. was very well done. The plot holes/ logic flaws were big enough to drive Donald Trump's ego through.


Overall, I enjoyed them all. Saw trailers for Battleship. OMG, they've made a movie out of a *board game*! I snorted, thinking, eh, it's like Transformers (probably is) but wait, it has Liam Neeson. Okay, I may check it out. The Apollo 18 film looks interesting, but.... on DVD. The Debt looks like a meaty film, but it also looks dismal. I'm undecided on watching that, despite Sam Worthington being in it. I'd be tempted to watch Brad Pitt's Moneyball because the trailer looked good, even though I couldn't give a rat's patootie about baseball. Oh yeah, there was Shark Attack 3D or something/whatever, in which stupid young people go to a remote island for the weekend (and I'm sure they have NO cellphone reception) and are promptly harrassed and devoured by an evil shark in the lake, lagoon, whatever. It's just a higher production quality SyFy flick in 3D.


I did see Unstoppable on HBO (although I will probably ditch the movie channels - too pricey now). Great flick! Makes me wonder when on earth they'll get around to make Star Trek 2. I hear they want to; just have to get the cast together. Anyway, Unstoppable was great and I really liked the one supporting character, Ned, the guy with the long blond hair, sunglasses, who helped save the day at the end. I'm surprised this film didn't get more press as it was very entertaining.


Meanwhile, my pumpkin is no more (waaah!) but the gourd vine has two gourds on it! Of course, this probably means I've cursed it. The tomato plants may be done. The bean plants are GONE. Something ate them before they could even sprout a single pod. Bummer. The zinnias, however, are growing. I have two HUGE zucchinis to eat. I can always count on squash to grow.


As for TV, let's see, Flashpoint ended its run. CBS is still undecided on more episodes while CTV will debut new season in September. I'll get copies *somehow*. Um, um, Eureka will be toast soon (sigh). Haven is okay, but better than Warehouse 13, because, alas, I'm getting tired of young geeky know-it-all females with colored hair (perhaps I've watched too much TV). I would love to see Gibbs from NCIS come in and slap DiNozzo, I mean Pete, across the head ;) Alphas hasn't warmed to me yet. Darn.


But....! A friend introduced me to the Joe Pickett novels by writer C.J. Box. I started with listening to some audiobooks, so of course I'm reading it all out of order, but it's okay. I'm now starting with the first novel (library has them all, thank you thank you!). If they ever made a movie out of one of these novels, Joe Flanigan would be *perfect* as Joe Pickett. I could see him as the game warden, with conflicts, with marital problems, kids, a friend whom the Feds want for several crimes, and of course, in blue jeans :)

Okay, a rainy day and I went "I'm going!" cuz for one thing, they moved it into a nearby theater, no hiking up the highway...

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Well, a blog is for blogging about stuff, mostly inane stuff, if you look at most blogs, so I must join in this inanity. So, no Stargate Atlantis in this entry, but I think I did meet a rising star J

More incredible, fantastic coverage on the filming of the Wes Craven horror flick “25/8”! Well, no, not really, as with the exception of two things, this is all ‘after the fact’ coverage. If you’re curious, and want to see precisely WHAT was in the trash (oh, the horrors!), click on the cut ;)

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From schmaltz to sap, crass to the cream of the crop, it's that time of year and there are holiday/Christmas movies saturating the airwaves.

The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal has compiled  a nifty list of all the holiday movies, from gems like "White Christmas" to the more dubious "A Carol Christmas" with Tori Spelling and William Shatner ;) But David Hewlett's Xmas movie, in which he portrays a petty thief in Santa Claus garb, airs twice on December 3rd and 9th. Check out www.titantv.com to verify time, etc. and look for "The 2nd Day of Christmas." 

Anyway, if you like to overdose on the movies, this is probably the best compilation of them I've seen this year.

Well, I can tell you some movies to avoid

MEGA SNAKE - I watched it purely for Michael Shanks and it was pretty dreadful. But then, this was a Skiffy flick so should we expect any different? Ah, nope. Following it up with SNAKES ON A PLANE right now which is another movie composed of dumb people being bumped off by reptiles.  Oh, and saw MIMIC 3: SENTINEL earlier today on cable - had it running while doing checkbook, etc. - makes MEGA SNAKE look good! 

But, THE HOST is a great flick. Picked it up on DVD a few weeks back. It's a Korean monster film, dubbed in English, about the evils of dumping gallons upon gallons of toxic chemicals into the river, so that some-undetermined-time-down-the-road, a monstrous giant guppy-toad-fish critter the size of a Winnebago is romping around the countryside eating up people left and right. The heroes of the flick are a dysfunctional family who suffer their own losses by the time the movie ends, but it's also a veiled movie about the SARS crisis and governmental intervention, etc. Anyway, if you enjoy very well CGIed critters that devour people, this movie is right for you ;) Plus, my gawd, a scifi film NOT made in Vancouver or Bulgaria is a rarity in itself! ;)

I've never been to a movie in which Hasbro was listed in the front of the credits. The movie itself had a very simplistic plot, simplistic characters (no angst, no credit card debt, nada) and is definitely geared toward the under 15 age audience.

Transformers was a hoot! Mindless fun. That's all I wanted from the summer movie and got it. Won't spoil the plot, but being off a cartoon, you know the world won't end at the conclusion nor will there be blood all over the streets (although if you realistically counted the damge to occupied office buildings struck by transformers during their fights, and the military disaster at the beginning, the death toll could reach up toward 1,000 but hey, just needless unseen stats in a cartoonish flick).

They had some cube everybody was after, and all I could think of when I saw it was "The Borg! The Borg!" and then there was Glenn Morshower, an actor who played the Sheriff in season one of CSI: Crime scene Investigation (as well as a recurring role on 24) as a military leader at the beginning of the flick. I shallowly decided to watch the flick for a) mindless fun, and b) see how Josh Duhamel from NBC's Las Vegas did in a movie. He has more lines in Las Vegas, I think, but he looks good in uniform. Well, I did say I had shallow reasons for watching.

Favorite character? Mojo. Oh, well, you just gotta see Mojo... and second runner-up, the evil tiny Decepticon (obviously the bad guys just from that name!) that is in the same class as Salacious Crumb from Star Wars and other nasty evil litle creatures of wrongdoing. 

I hadn't read any reviews till after the flick, and they vary from 'great'  to 'awful' and some die-hard Transformers fans are having a fit. Having never seen the cartoons, just ads for them, I couldn't tell if anything was out of whack.

But if you're looking for two hours of mindless, amusing, violent fun, then this is the movie for you.

Meawhile, there was an interesting trailer for a JJ Abrams flick called Bad Robot that aired before the movie. Some folks are having fun at a going-away party and then somebody starts attacking the city (ala any of the destroy-NYC-Dean Devlin flicks like Godzilla, Independence Day, etc.) It looks promising.