Cinematic Sunday One Hundred Twenty Five

It's about that time isn't it?

First up we have a trailer for a film based on a comic I've yet to read, but have been curious about because of the nice cover art. The Losers originates as a DC comic series, and the film adaptation is directed by Sylvain White. It feels to be something of a slight riff on The A-Team just based on the trailer, in that an elite group is betrayed and go underground to seek revenge and stay alive using the skills they've learned form their time working for the government. The film stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Idris Elba with Jason Patric as the villain masterminding things. This looks like a lot of fun, knowing that it's an over the top action flick.



Next up we have Cemetery Junction, which is written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant. Set in the 70's, it follows a group of young men working in an insurance agency, one of whom is realizing that it's time to start growing up and fooling around with his buddies. It co-stars the writer/directors themselves, as well as Ralph Fiennes and Christian Cooke as the young man in question. The trailer is covered with disclaimers about Sony copyrights, so don't be super-shocked if you try to play it and it's already been yanked, because large corporations seem to really hate free publicity from people who like their movies.



Finally we have a red band trailer (so don't click unless your job is really cool about the 'fuck' word) for the comedy She's Out Of My League, from director Jim Field Smith. This looks like fairly predictable fare of a stunning woman dating a quirky nebbish of a guy, but what kinda hooks me here is that it was written by Sean Anders and John Morris, the writing team who wrote both Sex Drive and the forthcoming Hot Tub Time Machine, one of which I've seen awhile back and was presently surprised by, and the other which I'm really looking forward to. The film stars Jay Baruchel (Just Buried) as the '5' and Alice Eve as the gorgeous '10' who inexplicably shows an interest in him, and I got a few giggles out of the trailer alone, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this.



Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Trailers, The Losers, Sylvain White, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Jason Patric, Cemetery Junction, Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant, Ralph Fiennes, Christian Cooke, Shes Out Of My League, Jim Field Smith, Sean Anders, John Morris, Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Sex Drive, Hot Tub Time Machine, Just Buried

Housebound & Loving It

We didn't leave the house today except to retrieve the newspaper from the driveway, and that was as an afterthought.

I slept poorly last night, not sure why, the heartburn wouldn't chill out, presumably I'd waited too late to eat, then might've stuffed myself a bit more than I should've. As I result, I eventually gave up on the idea of sleeping in this morning and moved to the den, where I popped in the Blu-ray of Planet Hulk that I'm meant to review for the fine folks over at (Cool) Shite. There's actually a giveaway promotion happening right now, so click over there to sign up for a chance to win a copy of the DVD or a signed poster.

The wife got up later and caught the end of the Hulk with me, then we watched a few things off the TiVo before popping in a flick called St. Trinian's that'd arrived from Netfux recently. I can't honestly recall why I added this film to the queue, but I'm sure it was in relation to being a slightly edgy teen-themed film, which was exactly what it turned out to be. A story set in a girls school populated by delinquents, it has Rupert Everett playing dual roles as both a brother dropping off his daughter at the school, as well as his sister who runs the school as the head mistress. There's lots of fast editing, cheeky Brit teen girls in short school uniforms (so what's not to love?), as well as lots of corny pop music throughout. It was a light and amusing affair, which has a sequel that I may check out eventually, just for the hell of it.

Tackling the 'to-watch' pile again, I grabbed a handful of comedies that'd accumulated in the stack of Blu-rays in the bedroom and marathoned through three films in the late afternoon and evening.

I re-watched I Love You, Beth Cooper, which I liked more than the average person, and it held up well, even knowing the bits where I would be taken out of things a bit. I mean, I don't care what age I'm at, teen or grown man, if some asshole drives a hummer onto my lawn and starts trashing my house, the cops will be involved immediately, where the poor kid in the film just scrambles around trying not to get punched.

We paused to grab a bite to eat from the kitchen, then dove into Funny People, the latest from Judd Apatow which starred Adam Sandler (who I generally try to avoid) and Seth Rogen (who I generally love) and the film lived up to everything I'd heard about it. 1st of all, it's too fucking long; I don't know why Apatow insists on making simple comedies that drag out past the 2 hour mark, it's like a 'fuck you' to the audience after a certain point. This film begins funny, then gets rather dramatic in the middle and slightly comedic again toward the end, but you don't care anymore after having a middle hour or so suck the wind from your sails. Still, enjoyable performances from numerous Apatow alums and other comedians making cameos make this a fun watch if only to see who pops up next.

The wife called it a night around 10:00 or so, though I stuck it out for another film, a re-watch of Wedding Crashers since it's been here for a good long time after I grabbed it for cheap awhile back. I still dig the film, but man it could be shortened by at least 15-20 minutes if you are being perfectly honest about the pacing of the film. This film also falls into the Apatow mold of being just over 2 hours long in the director's cut version, which is just a bit bloated for a comedy. I don't think anyone makes 90 minute films anymore and it's kinda sad to me, because that was a great length, nothing overstaying its welcome, but you didn't feel like you'd been ripped off by the running time.

I may actually try to leave the house tomorrow.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Heartburn, Insomnia, Movies, Blu-ray, Animation, Planet Hulk, Cool Shite On The Tube, St Trinians, Rupert Everett, I Love You Beth Cooper, Funny People, Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Wedding Crashers

So You Guys Wired ALL The Electrical In The Room To A Single Switch? Genius.

We had the Electrician scheduled for this afternoon, but only because I'd made a point of calling him to confirm the appointment; the wife's calls went un-returned on Wednesday.

With this in mind, I was a little out of sorts as far as committing to anything I was trying to write or watch for possible review so I grabbed some lunch for the wife and I, then caught up on a few things on the DVR in the bedroom. Next thing I know, it's about 30 minutes past when the Electricians were supposed to be here, so I was planning to call them when my program was over.

Typically, about 5 minutes from credits the doorbell rings, so I let those fools in, casually mentioning that I'd almost given up on them. They set about their task of mounting two sconces on the wall. A grueling 2 hours later they're supposedly done, so I step in there to check things out and the sconces do indeed look good. I reach over to see how the newly installed knob dims the light and both the sconces and chandelier go darker, then back up when I give it another twist. The whole point of them installing the new switch was to give us options, and now these guys have crossed a wire somewhere running everything basically through a single switch.

Slightly disgusted that this project still wasn't finished, I left them to sort out what the hell had happened there and retreated to the Office to wrap up the review I'd been editing to kill some time.

The dude comes back 45 minutes later to let me know that they've finally got things hammered out for real this time, I approved all that nonsense and they went on their merry way, so I finally had the time to start getting dressed for the evening's two events.

One was a kickoff party for the annual fundraiser benefiting what is actually my favorite organization that the wife is involved in, followed by an appearance at an art opening at the Museum across town. I was still waiting on some laundry to finish, so I ended up dressing in stages, but by the time it was all over I managed to pull together a decent look and get us out the door on time. We hit our first stop for about an hour, mingled and visited with the usual suspects and had a tasty beverage. I had a couple glasses of wine, as the day had worn on me for no particular reason.

I swear to God, this stupid sconce project has taken years off my life; had we been taking down walls for a full renovation or something, I would've killed myself by now.

We hit the Museum, did the same mingling and visiting routine again, though most of the conversation there turned to the recent vandalism that'd left an old Econoline van upended on its nose against one of the buildings when persons unknown had tried to use construction equipment to lift it onto the roof sometime Thursday night. We ended up shutting that party down before it was all said and done, so I mentioned that I would be up for grabbing a bite somewhere since we were already out and about.

We headed to a restaurant downtown to see what the wait was like, but the wife decided to bail on this idea after a few short minutes. I was perfectly content to fuck around with Twitter on my phone and chat with her while we waited, but the wife was unwilling to stick it out because as near as she could tell from their little list, the people ahead of us had already been there for 30 minutes with no table in sight. We ended up picking up some Mexican food and heading home to eat and watch The Soup, which was perfectly fine by me.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Electricians, Home Repair, Annoyance, Charities, Party, Dinner, Television, The Soup

So Is He Supposed To Be A Zombie Or What?

So as anyone who read yesterday's post (once it was posted this morning) will already know, we had a bunch of oddball computer issues yesterday, again stemming from I have no fucking idea. I wish to God I actually visited a ton of sketchy websites, so I'd at least have an idea why this happened, but I honestly have no idea. All I can say is that after about an entire day of running all the different spyware programs and defragmenting the computer and all the other troubleshooting things I could think of, we seem to be back to normal. Both the wife and I have used the computer today with no issue, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

We had the Mirror/Glass people scheduled to come out this afternoon at 1:30 to re-install the mirrors in the formal dining room, which is one step closer to being done with that process, so for that I'm thankful. God willing, we'll have the Electrician out tomorrow afternoon and the sconce project will be done once and for all.

The wife had some errands that kept her out of the house most of the afternoon, then once she got back I suggested that maybe we could go and grab some Thai early for our dinner, an idea which she went for. We killed an hour waiting for the restaurant to open, then headed out shortly after 5:oo to get some grub. The restaurant was gloriously empty and we were almost finished with our meal when a family with three stair-step children (all under the age of 10) came in, which meant that the toddler would immediately launch into a screaming fit because our dinner was going too well. We got the hell out of there and headed back to the house to chill out.

I piddled around a bit with the 'to-watch' pile and sorted out a few things I want to try and breeze through this weekend if at all possible, then the wife and I sat down to watch Maniac Cop, as I'd TiVo'd the two sequels recently in an effort to push the first film into the DVD player. I have to say that the film series thus far (we watched the first 2 of 3 films tonight) is pretty interesting, though for my personal tastes they haven't given me enough information about the Maniac Cop himself. He's a cop who was wrongly imprisoned and killed by some criminals that had a grudge, but from there it gets really fuzzy about how the hell he's possibly walking around killing people 3 years later. I mean, were there supernatural elements involved, is he a zombie, what gives? That aside, it's a fun little series of films with lots of action bits and low budget fun (a guy is thrown against a prison wall that wobbles slightly), it's worth a look if you're into this type of thing.

We called it a night around 10:00 and I headed to the Office work on this.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Household Repairs, Glass People, Dinner, Movies, Maniac Cop, TiVo, Maniac Cop 2

And Then The Computer Shit The Bed Completely

So the wife had to spend the day in Dallas today, as she had a fitting for a couple dresses she's having made for the Mother In Law's wedding reception and the Kentucky Derby, which she's decided that we will be attending this year. I'm cool with that idea, as it's falls around her birthday and we'll be making a trip anyway to be around for a baby shower for her friend J From Little Rock, so we'll be doing some traveling anyway this spring.

Actually, as I type that out it occurs to me that I might look into exactly when the shower occurs versus when the Derby takes place, as I might've committed myself to a back to back whirlwind tour.

Oh well, at any rate, the poor wife had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport for that, so when I woke at 9:00 she was already in the air. The Yorkie already had that bummed demeanor she gets when the wife is out at strange hours, so I lay in bed with her for a few, then got up to start getting ready for my errands. The computer was acting completely hinky as it booted up, which irritated me to no end, as my plan had been to submit several reviews, which quickly went out the window in favor of simply getting the computer to even boot up properly. I don't know what the issue is with the PC, but every few weeks (at least once a month lately) it seems to do its level best to go completely tits up on us. I had trouble getting into one of the two spyware programs we have on there, but it finally let me run that, which found two different malware things that it deleted. By the time it'd gone through this rigamarole I had to step into the shower and get going, so I turned everything back off, hoping that after my errands I could just pop it back on and have everything be hunky-dory, right?

I hit the post office, then got the oil changed in the Maxima before heading to the Hairdressers to get a much needed haircut, as the indigent look was getting to be a bit much. Well fed indigent, but indigent nonetheless. That reminds me, I gotta get my fat ass on the stationary bike before I die of fat this summer. Anyway...

I headed to Odessa to poke around a bit, which I've been markedly less interested in doing since Macguffin's death. Fuck, I mean there was a part of me that wanted to call him on the drive over for a split second before I remembered that he was gone.

I hit my usual spots, picked up a cheap movie (John Carpenter's flick from 1978 called Someone's Watching Me!) as well as a magazine and a cheap book. I was getting to the point of starving at this stage of the afternoon, so I got some gas and headed back home to pick up a burger as I got into town.

The Yorkie was ecstatic to see me, though she was still keeping one eye craned towards the back door, lest the wife sneak in while she wasn't looking. I ate and watched a few episodes of South Park off the TiVo, then decided I'd see what the computer had to say for itself.

Very little, as it turned out: it was still being a real See You Next Tuesday about booting up, so I babied it into my logging into my side of things and tried to run the other antivirus program that we use (Norton, for those of you who might be curious, and it seems to work about half the time - money well spent, eh?), which it started to run, but at an alarmingly slow rate.

I started a movie in the den, as I could easily see myself sitting in the Office watching the PC's progress and grinding my teeth in frustration. I had planned to watch Paul Schrader's film Hardcore, because the Gentlemen's Guide To Midnite Cinema has recently covered it and I thought it'd be fun to have it fresh in my memory when I listened to their show. It's also on the 'to-watch' pile, so why not, right? George C. Scott trolls the underbelly of the porno world in search of his runaway daughter in this one, and there's some really awesome shots of the sleazier elements of the late 70's, I really like these snapshots of a time that just doesn't really exist anymore, great stuff.

The wife got home around 8:30 in the evening, while I was still keeping an eye on the computer, so we caught up about our respective days, then eventually chilled out in the den to watch this week's episode of The Human Target, a kinda silly action show that's been on Fox recently, and I have to say that it's pretty damned fun. Well worth a peep if you have the time.

Once that was over we each retired to our normal evening post, she in the bedroom and I in the Office, still dicking around with the Norton program, which I'd updated by this time and run a second time, just to be certain there wasn't anything hanging around after a solid day of the computer being MIA. I ended up signing into the web on the laptop to get this started, and as I'm finally finishing it up on the PC, which is at long last seemingly back to normal.

That said, I'm actually thinking I may just go the hell to bed and post this in the morning when I feel a bit more like dealing with it.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Travel, Technology, Computer Trouble, Frustration, Errands, Oil Change, Hairdressers, Shopping, Movies, DVD, Someones Watching Me, John Carpenter, Television, TiVo, South Park, Hardcore, Paul Schrader, George C Scott, The Human Target

Errands And Such, Then Dinner

I was in bed early last night, finally getting a solid 8 hours of sleep, maybe even slightly more if you count some dozing whilst petting the insistent Yorkie once the alarm went off this morning.

I ran a few errands just for the hell of it in the early afternoon, making the rounds that I hadn't made in about a month, as I'd been hearing tell of a new shipment of cheap crap at Big Lots. I left there empty handed, as there were a few new things, but not the one flick I was looking for, a double feature of the Marx Brothers. The stupid things is that there's two boxsets out there that comprise basically all their stuff, but I'm nickel and dime-ing my way with this cheap two-fer disc. Old habits die hard, I suppose, collecting things is all about the thrill of the hunt, not the path of least resistance, right?

I eventually found myself at the local books, music and video outlet, where I managed to overhear a guy a few aisles over ask about "Star Wars: The Rise Of Kahn", a title which is wrong on so many nerd levels I had to thank God for not working retail anymore, because I could laugh at this guy, but the poor employee can't. I actually picked up a cheap copy of Meatballs, just to give young Bill Murray another look.

I picked up some lunch and chilled at the house with a movie off the old TiVo, a Burt Reynolds flick called White Lightning in which he plays a sweaty moonshiner in the South who turns stoolie on his fellow moonshiners after a local sheriff kills his brother, all in an effort to get out of prison to seek revenge on the crooked lawman. It's a fun flick, I even added the sequel (Gator) to the Netfux Queue to see what's up with the later adventures of the character.

The wife had been to the Mother In Law's place to sit in on a meting with her wealth management people, so she got home as I was finishing up the flick, we caught up a bit, then eventually headed out to meet the MIL and her Beau for dinner. The food and company was good, though the service seemed a bit hit or miss at times. We headed home to chill out after dinner, both of us stuffed and carrying leftovers.

We watched a weird little Canadian sex-comedy from the early 70's called Snowballin', an oddball title that I'd added to the Netfux Queue after seeing one of the female stars in The Silent Partner awhile back. She proved to be as cute and naked in this film as she was in the other one, but man, the story was amazingly uneven, supposedly about a group of ski instructors trying to get laid, but gets weirdly melancholy and serious at times for no apparent reason. Odd, that. The nudie bits help, I can assure you.

I decided to throw in something random after the film ended, so I went with Truck Turner for another look since I'd bought it awhile back and still hadn't re-watched. I love that movie, plain and simple. The wife is actually a fan herself, which pleases me to no end, as I don't know if this is something she'd have sought out herself, but has liked since I've shown it to her. She watched about half of it, but has another day trip to Dallas planned for tomorrow, so she headed to bed while I finished the movie, then put away some stuff in the Media Closet because I didn't want stuff to start stacking up.

And now I'm here doing this nonsense again and catching up on the web, which I avoided all day long, a rarity for me.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Shopping, Errands, DVD, Meatballs, Bill Murray, TiVo, White Lightning, Burt Reynolds, Dinner, Netflix, Snowballin, The Silent Partner

We Got It Hanging 52 Inches From The Floor

Today was a good day for the writing, as we had the Electrician and his two man crew in the house from around 9:30 this morning until close to 4:00 PM. I spent the day in the Office, trying to calm the Yorkie down, no mean feat when you consider the activity within our house as well as the neighbors next door getting a new roof put on, so all the chaos kept Bella very antsy all day.

Since we were sort of housebound, the wife has been on me about a squealing noise that the Maxima's brakes make when you back out of the garage, so she took it upon herself to make a 1:00 PM appointment to have the brakes looked at while I dealt with the Electrician. Since she'd already made the appointment, I figured what the hell and let her run to do that, she took a book with her and planned to pick up some groceries on her way home. Oh, BTW, there's nothing wrong with the Maxima's brakes, they reported that this was 'normal squealing', so when I rear end someone in a few weeks because my brakes fail, I'm gonna sue Nissan until I get my own Japanese island.

The Electrician soon comes to me with concerns about how low the chandelier that they were installing would be hung, which I (like a fool) took into consideration, since he hangs more of these things than I do, right? I called the Interior Decorator to see what was up, she promised to double check what was sent out and call me back. She soon called back, reassuring me that the item was indeed the one we'd discussed, and asked that I have them hang it on the condition that she'd come out with her boss to approve the item and make certain all was as it should be since the Electrician had opened this can of worms. She also reassured me of the length from the floor that they would normally hang a chandelier of this type, which sounded about right for what the guy was telling me, so I relayed this info to he and his workers and they started to hang that mother.

The upshot is that the chandelier looks amazing, isn't too low or anything of the kind, and looks great over the new dining table. Why the guy was sweating and fretting is beyond me, maybe he just didn't want to fuck with hanging something as large as it is? I don't know, but I had to apologize to the Interior Designer and her Boss when they showed, as the thing looks great.

Once we finally got all these fucking people out of the house I finished up the fourth review I'd done and shut the computer down, then the wife and I started making dinner, which was a chili recipe that the wife was trying out. I offered to help with the cooking, so she assembled everything, measuring etc. while I basically kept the pot stirring and made sure nothing burned or got undercooked.

The chili turned out pretty damned tasty if I do say so myself, we ate while watching a movie off Netfux Instant Watch that I'd heard quite a few good things about: World's Greatest Dad. The film is written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait and stars Robin Williams as a put-upon father of an ungrateful teenager. Williams is stuck in a job that's slipping away from him (as no one signs up for his class), his kid can barely stand to be around him, and his girlfriend may or may not be checking out another more successful teacher at their school. A tragic event suddenly thrusts Williams into the spotlight, and things begin to go his way, but there's always a downturn lurking around the corner in this dark comedy, but man this did make me laugh, even as I was wincing at times. Good film, worth a look if you don't mind the black humor.

We caught the latest Heroes afterward (yawn) and then called it a night shortly thereafter. I'm going to try to be in bed early tonight, as I've been working my way through a P.G. Wodehouse novel (the Jeeves stuff has me hooked) and I'd like to take a crack at that before I go to sleep.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Household Repairs, Electrician, Interior Decorator, Dinner, Cooking, Movies, Netflix Instant Watch, Worlds Greatest Dad, Bobcat Goldthwait, Robin Williams, Television, Heroes, Books, PG Wodehouse

Cinematic Sunday One Hundred Twenty Four

Trailers and such for the beginning of your workweek. Also, because I'm a lazy sod, most of these will consist of all the other trailers folks have been showing on their sites relating to what's playing at Sundance right now, because I live vicariously through the other film nerds.

First up this evening, from Jay and Mark Duplass is a film called Cyrus. It stars John C. Reilly as a divorced shlub who meets what could conceivably be the woman of his dreams (Marisa Tomei), who seems just perfect for him until he realizes that she's got a full grown son living with her, played by Jonah Hill. There's usually a decent amount of comedy to be had with any new male figure coming into the life of a young boy, let alone a grown man who's still inexplicably connected to his hot MILF of a parental unit, so this is something I'll be looking forward to.



Next up we have a film from Rodrigo Cortés called Buried. It stars Ryan Reynolds as a U.S. contractor who is taken captive in Iraq, then left in a desperate race against time to raise a million dollar ransom, lest he be left to suffocate in the coffin they've buried him in. I don't know much about the project beyond the star and the small teaser below, but as any reader of this blog knows, I'm a total mark for anything Reynolds is involved with (God knows I've sat through some rom-coms in recent years), so I'm sure I'll be checking this one out.



Finally we have a film called The Eclipse, and finding info on it was a bit of a pain in the ass, simply because the title shares an unfortunate similarity to that damned Stephanie Meyer Twilight nonsense's 3rd film and searching for the title brings up many a site filled with the moon-faced leads from that franchise. The Eclipse is directed by Conor McPherson and stars Ciarán Hinds as a widower who begins speaking to a writer who studies the supernatural (Iben Hjejle) when he begins to see what he thinks are ghosts. Aidan Quinn co-stars a philandering suitor who doesn't care for another man showing interest in Iben. I would also note that I was very pleasantly surprised to realize exactly who Iben Hjejle is; she played the female lead in the John Cusack film High Fidelity, then dropped of my radar for about a decade. I'm quite happy to see her again, and this film looks to be right up my alley.



I'm out kids.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Trailers, Cyrus, Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, Buried, Rodrigo Cortes, Ryan Reynolds, The Eclipse, Conor McPherson, Ciaran Hinds, Iben Hjejle, Aidan Quinn, High Fidelity, John Cusack

Speaking Of A New Daddy...

Yeah, so the wife has a friend who's always caught up in the shitstorm of drama in her own life, so that the best you can do is try to not get sucked into it yourself as she goes on about it at great length.

Each time Blather (as I like to call her, as that's about all she does, blather on about her own soap opera life) blows into town, she's all about the wife dropping whatever she's doing and spending time with her, usually chauffeuring her around town because she doesn't wanna be bothered to meet her at a restaurant or whatever. The past few times she's been around, I've bowed out of the proceedings, as the wife gets fished into lunch or whatever, but I have zero interest in sitting through it. The wife got a text saying that Blather would be in town this weekend, and wanted to try and see us because there's 'someone she wants us to meet', which is code to this twice-divorced mother of two that she's met what she presumably expects to be her next victim and possibly father of child number three, financial burden the 3rd, if you will.

I agreed to join the wife because I was happy to learn that Blather had ditched the last dude she'd turned up with, who just seemed kinda like a douche anyway, and the morbidly curious side of me was wondering what the fresh meat was like. Lunch turned into a 2 hour marathon, as the women caught up a bit and Blather occasionally bad-mouthed her ex-husband (any man in her past is the worst thing to have happened to her, naturally), while I made a bit of casual conversation with the new guy. He seems like a nice enough dude (a marked improvement over the last boyfriend, who seemed like a cocky schmuck from the word go), but one has to wonder what he's in for, as the 2nd husband (who she was just dating as the wife and I started dating ourselves) seemed like a nice enough guy at first, only to have her nagging and complete lack of sex (a fact she bragged about, no less) turn him into the guy she eventually divorced.

The lunch was relatively painless, save for me biting my tongue as Blather blamed EVERY single thing wrong in her previous marriage on her ex, then we went our separate ways. The wife and I grabbed a coffee on the way home, then chilled in the den for the afternoon.

I popped in another little something off the 'to-watch' pile, a Blu-ray of Drag Me To Hell, which turned out to be slightly less engaging on a re-watch, which surprised me a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it on the second watch or anything, but perhaps I was slightly less jazzed about it this time around. I may even have to go over to the BSL and adjust my rating accordingly, as I might rate it one star lower upon a second viewing.

I spent some time re-arranging a few things in the bedroom, as the stacks of books and the like were getting out of hand, filed away a couple items in the Library, then returned to grab something else off the 'to-watch' pile, a little flick from Mondo Macabro called The Queen Of Black Magic. It's an Indonesian horror film from 1979, filled to the brim with the wild and wacky storylines and cheapjack special effects that make these films worth tracking down. A woman is thrown to her presumed death, only to be caught by the local hermit who happens to be standing under the cliff (!?), then he trains her in the black arts to allow her to seek revenge. It's silly as hell, but SO much fun. This one is well worth a look.

I made a little noodle dish for our dinner, then we sat down and watched a few episodes of The Hunger, a television show that's available in Netfux Instant Watch. The show is rather hit or miss, but I find myself coming back to it because it happens to feature writing from numerous contemporary horror authors, though some of the material is far from their best work. The hook is that each episode is usually themed around at least one broad getting her clothes off at some point, so there's that to look forward to even if the writing's possibly a bit shithouse.

We called it a night around 10:00, I headed to the Office to start this process, while the wife did some sorting and organizing in the front bedroom, which she's in the process of fashioning into her little crafting area, as we're still pretty much on the fence about it being a nursery at this point in our lives.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Friends, Annoying, Irritation, Lunch, Movies, Blu-ray, Drag Me To Hell, Mondo Macabro, The Queen Of Black Magic, DVD, Television, The Hunger, Netflix Instant Watch

Still Nothing Really Happening...

Days like this are the ones that make me wonder why I write this crap at all, as there's just not a lot happening, but I'm still on the hook of my own personal commitment to posting daily.

The only real item of interest might be that I watched Pandorum this afternoon, which wasn't all that fascinating, to be perfectly honest. I'd heard really bad things from one of the guys over at CHUD, though he's not exactly pre-disposed to enjoy horror as much as I am, he seems less forgiving if you will. The flick has an interesting Ghost Of Mars meets Event Horizon vibe to it as a group of space travelers wake from hyper sleep to find that something is aboard their ship, with all indications pointing the attackers being violent mutated crew members. I wouldn't necessarily 100% recommend tracking it down, I'd say it's an okay time-waster if you catch it on cable or something.

The wife made plans to cook dinner this evening, a recipe that she was trying out, so we invited out standard Friday friends over, Brian and JH, who both arrived between 6:00 and 6:30, respectively. The wife was wrapping up the cooking as JH got here, so we all dug into the meal, which JH quickly realized wasn't her bag at all (she evidently doesn't care for catfish), so she picked at her side items while the rest of us enjoyed out entree's. She also had plans to meet someone out for drinks, so she split shortly after the meal, which is one of my personal peeves (of which there are 1,000's), because if you already have plans, don't try to work me in: just say no if we invite you over. I kinda hate having people stop by that are constantly looking at their watch while we hang out.

Brian hung around for a bit after we ate, eventually watching the new episode of The Soup off the TiVo with us before he called it a night.

The wife and I have plans to meet her annoying friend Blather for lunch tomorrow, because the twice divorced mother of 2 suddenly has a new guy that she's bringing home to meet her grandparents and for whatever reason, us. I offered to tag along on this one, as I figured it'd be easier to extricate the wife from this situation if I was there to shut down any other asinine visiting that her friend might trap her into. The wife is too nice to say "no, I'd rather go home after lunch" if asked to come over to her relatives house and visit or some shit, while I have no problem saying that we have less important things to be doing.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Blu-ray, Pandorum, Ghosts Of Mars, Event Horizon, Friends, Dinner, Television, The Soup, TiVo

And Then The Dog Threw Up...

So there's not a helluva lot going on this week, leaving me to struggle through making up shit for these entries.

The wife had a couple of meetings this afternoon and was prepping of that when I got up this morning, so I left her to do her computer-related stuff in the Office and finally watched the penultimate episode of Dollhouse off the DVR in the bedroom. I have to say, the show has managed to wrap itself up in pretty nice fashion over the past two months after getting prematurely canned by Fox. There's the final wrap up next week, but as a few other people I talk to on the web have mentioned, you could almost call it good with this most recent episode. Sad to see the show go, but I'd rather see it go out on a high note rather than limping along like Heroes has.

The wife out running errands, I picked up my own lunch at Taco Bell just because I was feeling sporting with my health, then retired to the bedroom to watch the one movie I still had on that DVR to free up space for the wife's recordings. Basic was a film I recall seeing in the theater back in the day, and maybe once since, but I recalled little save for a few of the twists that happened towards the end of the film, and when I say a few of the twists; rest assured that there are many twists throughout. I like Travolta as the snarky, scenery chewing interrogator, though you wish he and Samuel L. Jackson got more screen time together, but I guess you can't have everything, now can you? Like I said, this might suffer from a few too many twists for its own good, but it's a fun watch if you need something that;s decently acted and fairly lightweight.

I helped the wife put away groceries once she got home, we caught up on the day thus far, then I stepped out to grab myself a chocolate shake, as I wasn't exactly planning to have dinner (healthy diet, eh?) after my late lunch and wanted something sweet to tide me over.

I got back to realize that the wife had made tentative plans to go over to the Grandmother's house and visit the Uncle who was supposed to arrive today. I killed some time with a call from Anastasia Beaverhouszen, then the wife and I headed over there to see what was going on, meeting the Mother In Law there, as she was also coming over for dinner. The assembled family also included another of the wife's Uncles and his wife, who was helping Grandmother serve dinner, which neither the wife nor I was intending to partake of. No one was willing to listen to protestations that we simply weren't hungry, so I finally tried to compromise at maybe them letting us share a single helping of enchiladas, rather than both of us forcing down a full serving.

The wife has remarked in the past that her family tends to talk over one another (we spent a night out with two other couples and she nudged me in shock when it became apparent that when one person spoke, the entire table actually listened to what they had to say), and tonight was no exception: she gave me a wink from across the room when it could be easily discerned that at least three conversations were happening on top of the other. I wasn't in the middle of any of them , so I called the fat little Pomeranian over for some loving. She flopped down the two small steps into the dining area, then threw up water at my feet, as if in comment on the evening. I think the poor thing is too over-weight for her own good, it's like petting a fuzzy little ham. I quietly mopped up her water and said nothing, as I was sure that she was simply too fat and too full for the exercise of climbing or descending the two steps without some sort of incident happening.

The wife and I eventually made our way home around 8:30 or so, watched a few things that'd recorded on the TiVo (Thursday seems to be a busy night for us), then called it a night around 10:30 or so.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Television, DVR, Dollhouse, Heroes, Lunch, Movies, Basic, John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Family Dinner, Anecdote, Amusing

Please, Dear God, Let The Movie End Soon...

I got up this morning just before the alarm went off, got some coffee started and the Yorkie fed, then opened the house up for business and headed to the Office to see what was happening on the web. I got a review written for one of the sites, then knocked off to go and pick up some lunch for the wife and myself.

We watched the Netfux copy of Jennifer's Body while we ate, as I wanted to try and get it pack in the mail to them this afternoon. I think the wife may've liked it slightly more than I did, as I found the dialog just a tad grating, and while I could get past it with Juno because the kids were kinda sweet to one another, this one didn't have that luxury, as it was more about the snarky commentary and banter between the leads.

I ran that by the post office after we wrapped it up, leaving the wife to chill at the house with the pup, so when I returned I dove into the 'to-watch' pile with a little Brian De Palma flick called Snake Eyes, which I may've actually seen in the theater on its original run. It's something that I know for sure I bought forever ago when we were still living in the other house, so it's nice to have finally given it a look so it can be filed away until the next inclination strikes me.

We had this guy come to the door, he hands me a laminated permit from the city (presumably because I'd rather call the cops than talk to him), then he tells me that the city is allowing he and his partners to offer a traveling showcase or some such nonsense to people in our area, which consists of a 52 foot tractor trailer following him down the block, stopping at whichever house wants to step inside the trailer to look at bargain furniture. I told him thanks but no; he counters that they have lots of bargains. I resist the urge to tell him that a couch isn't a fucking impulse purchase, no matter how cheap it might be, instead saying that we're covered, thanks and shut the door. He and his partner idled off down the block to the next house to see if they were in need of a discount ottoman or daybed here at the dinner hour.

I threw in a film next that I wasn't looking forward to, something that I signed up to review based on the title and the image of an Asian looking girl on the cover. This was a film called Warning! Pedophile Released, which I was thinking was probably some oddball Japanese flick similar to those that Pink Eiga puts out. What it turned out to be was the latest from the creator of the Amateur Porn Star Killer, Shane Ryan. I'd seen APSK a few years ago, and I was barely able to sit through it, as the pacing is so monotonous, the 'plot' is that a guy picks up a girl, takes her to a hotel, spends the next hour trying to talk her into letting him film her fucking, then they fuck and he kills her, end of film. It's tedious and hard to sit through, so when I saw his name on this movie tonight, my heart fucking sank. The plot of Warning! Pedophile Released is that an 18 yr old guy is in love with a 12 yr old, though they claim to have never even kissed. The guy is sent to jail, the girl waits 6 years for him and is kicked out of her home because her father thinks that she's sleeping around, even though the reality is that she was raped (by persons unknown) and never told anyone. The next hour or so of the film is this girl walking around various areas, looking despondent and maybe eating a meal or what have you. The film is about 45 minutes of actual plot and dialog stretched to an unGodly long 1 hour and 57 minutes, and the film is worse for it. There's ultimately not a lot to be gleaned from this experience, the film isn't as shocking as it might want to be, and the actors just aren't able to muster any real emotion even towards the end, where they shout at one another a lot to indicate anger, but they never actually sound all that mad, more annoyed than anything.

In an effort to get that taste out of our mouths, the wife and I watched the TiVo'd Ghost Hunters International episode that aired while we were slogging our way through that movie, then we called it a night.

I may need to get out of the house and do some running around soon, as these blog posts get increasingly dull the more time I spend around the house.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Netflix, Blu-ray, Jennifers Body, Snake Eyes, Brian De Palma, Warning Pedophile Released, Shane Ryan, Amateur Porn Star Killer, Television, Ghost Hunters International

Media Marathon Afternoon

Today we had the Maid scheduled, plus the glass people were gonna come by and take down the mirrors in the formal dining area, so with that in mind I turned the alarm off and went the fuck back to sleep this morning. The ringing of the doorbell finally woke me when the Maid arrived, so I drug myself from bed just as the wife wrapped up what she'd been working on in the Office. I forced myself to start revising a couple of reviews so that they could be submitted and done with once and for all.

The glass guys arrived and got started on their project, of course breaking one of the two pieces that they took down, which was unfortunately sort of what we'd expected would happen, but at least we know what we'll need to replace. Once the glass dudes split I wrapped up my computer nonsense and took the wife's order for lunch, then headed out to pick up food for us, listening to last week's episode of the Dead Lantern Splattercast on the drive.

The wife and I ate in the den while watching some TiVo suggested Adult Swim stuff, then the Maid split and my early rising wife decided to catch a nap, so I fired up the Netfux Instant Watch and scrolled through my options. I ended up going with a flick called Pin, which was something that'd been in the queue forever.

Pin actually stars John Locke himself of Lost, Terry O'Quinn in a small role as a doctor who (for reasons unknown) uses ventriloquism when speaking to his children, his 'dummy' being the life-sized medical doll called Pin that resides in his examination room. This is in and of itself creepy and unnerving as hell; his son even catches dad speaking conversationally with the damned thing! It should come as absolutely no surprise that the son takes up the role of the ventriloquist soon enough, and completely fractures when the parents die in a car wreck, dressing Pin in the dead father's clothes and dragging him downstairs to have dinner with he and his sister. This is good for absolutely no one involved and gets as violent as you might expect. I'd always heard this film mentioned when people talked about overlooked films, so it was nice to give it a spin and see what it was all about, there will be a review forthcoming in the next week or so.

I hit the 'to-watch' pile next, re-watching Plan 9 From Outer Space with the Mike Nelson (of MST3K fame) commentary, so that was a pretty fun watch. I'd picked it up a few months back at Big Lots, so I'm happy to have given it a look sooner than later. It also made me want to drag out Ed Wood by Tim Burton just to give it another spin as well, but I'm trying to focus on stuff I haven't watched since I purchased them, so I decided to hold off.

The wife had an evening meeting, so she split for that and I watched something else off the Netfux Instant Queue that'd been on there for quite some time, an anime film called Dead Leaves. It wasn't subtitled, which at first annoyed me, but as the action got going I started to appreciate the English dubbing, as the action was moving so fast and furious that I can't imagine trying to read the subtitles and be able to keep up with ANY of the visual action, as the animation was just too stylized and fast-paced.

Once that ended and the wife still wasn't home, I decided to pop in another item from the 'to-watch' pile, choosing a little gem called John Waters: This Filthy World, which I'd watched some time ago, and more recently found on sale at some website for fairly cheap, so I grabbed myself a copy. Waters is flat out hilarious, I'm really happy to have this to re-watch at my leisure. The wife came home midway through it and we watched the special features (which amounted to another 35+ minutes of material) together, then called it a night, as it'd crept past 10:00 without either one of us really noticing.

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Maid, Repairmen, Podcasts, Dead Lantern Splattercast, Television, Adult Swim, Lunch, Movies, Netflix Instant Watch, Pin, Terry Oquinn, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Ed Wood, Mike Nelson, Tim Burton, Anime, Dead Leaves, John Waters, This Filthy World

The First Of Several Repairmen For The Week...

The wife was up and running errands today by the time I woke up, so I got the Yorkie fed, got the house opened up for business, then hopped online and did a bit of writing on two reviews for the various sites. The wife texted to mention that the Interior Decorator was supposed to be meeting a glass installation guy here at 1:30, because we're still in the middle of trying to have 2 sconces installed on a wall that is covered in floor to ceiling mirror and the electrician is unwilling to work with the mirrors himself. The idea that we've now hammered out is that the glass folks will remove the mirrors, the electrician will come and put in the wiring, then glass folks will double check the measurements before the start drilling holes into the mirrors. Then, six or eight months from now, in some far-flung future, we'll finally have the Goddamned sconces installed and I will presumably die a few days later, satisfied that I've accomplished at least this one thing in my life and that the formal dining area is now lit with a warm glow.

The wife and I met with the Interior Decorator's assistant and glass guy, then decided to go and run a few errands, including dropping in on the Mother In Law to go over some details on the dress she's having made for her impending nuptials. The wife and I went for a late Thai lunch afterward, then dropped off a replaced crock pot at the Salvation Army before heading back to the house. The wife fielded a few calls, one of which indicated that we'd soon have company.

The tankless water heater that was installed to service the front portion of the house, including the kitchen, front bathroom and all three bathrooms on the far side of the house suddenly stopped doing its thing this past Friday, spewing forth only tepid water where it used to nearly scald the hell out of you if you weren't careful. We ignored it over the weekend, as the 2nd water heater that serves the laundry and master bath was still working like a charm, then got a call in this afternoon to the company that installed it. They were surprisingly able to get out within the hour and got things sorted out, indicating that when they installed it they'd forgotten to do something when they put it in 8 months ago. I'll be sure to remind them of this is should ANY bill whatsoever turn up in the post for their visit today.

I popped in a flick I have for review, an early Robert Altman film called Streamers. It's based on a play about a small group of Army recruits on the verge of shipping out to Viet Nam and the tensions that come to the fore when sexual orientation and race relations start to become a subject of heavy discussion. The film is really good, though it does sort of feel stage-bound as far as settings go (we rarely creep outside the barracks) but the characters ring true enough, even if the two sergeants struck me as a bit cartoonish at times.

The wife had a quick evening meeting, so while she did that I retired to the den to watch one of the first things that had recorded on the new HD TiVo, a film from the later years of Lana Turner's career called The Big Cube. Turner marries a wealthy man who dies in a boating accident shortly after their marriage, leaving her with a step-daughter who's already slightly distrustful of her. The step-daughter and her acid-dealing boyfriend hatch a plan (well, he hatches it, she's just dumb enough to go along with it) in which they will dose Turner time and again with acid, then try to drive her mad while she's tripping, so that she can be committed and the daughter receive the full inheritance. It's an interesting flick, full of 60's slang and some over the top acid trip footage, fun stuff.

The wife came in about halfway through this, so we finished that movie together, then watched a comedy special with Aziz Ansari, which was very amusing. I had no idea that guy was so hilarious in his stand-up, as I've only been aware of him on a couple different television shows.

We wrapped the evening with the latest episode of Heroes, which I've pretty much forgotten about three hours after I deleted it from the TiVo, which isn't exactly a glowing endorsement for this season. I've read with dismay that there's a 'good chance' that the show will somehow possibly be renewed for a fifth season, because why the fuck not, right?

I'm out kids, we have more activity tomorrow, including the return of the glass guys to actually remove the mirrors, as well as the Maid and who knows what else?

Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Interior Decorator, Repairmen, Household Repairs, Errands, Lunch, Movies, DVD, Streamers, Robert Altman, HD TiVo, The Big Cube, Lana Turner, Comedy, , Television, Heroes

Cinematic Sunday One Hundred Twenty Three

It's Sunday, it must be time for some trailers, so let's get down to business and then on with the rest of our lives, eh?

First up we have a film from Atom Egoyan, the story of a charming little escort named Chloe, played by Amanda Seyfried. She's approached by Julianne Moore in a bar, who has the brilliant idea to hire her to try and sleep with her husband Liam Neeson, who she suspects of cheating on her. Her first big clue in the trailer is the 'thanks for last nite!' pic of he and another woman. The idea is that Chloe will approach him and see what happens, but when the overachieving escort actually starts sleeping with hubby, Julianne is left wondering if a private detective might not have been the way to go. Seriously, what does a hooker cost versus hiring a dude in an overcoat to trail the husband for a few weeks? I don't imagine escorts work cheap, y'know? Can any of my whore-mongering readers give me an idea of the price-plans? Give it a look, and be warned, there's a few seconds of bare ass or nipple in there somewhere, so don't watch this in the local synagogue. The film opens in March.



Next we have In Their Sleep, from directors Caroline and Eric du Potet. The film stars Anne Parillaud as a woman who has lost her son, only to accidentally hit a boy roughly the same age as he bolts from the forest as she's driving late one night. She takes him in, as he's wounded and on the run from a man he claims was burglarizing his home when he surprised him. Pursued by the murderous burglar, they retreat to Anne's home, but according to what I'm reading there are more surprises in store. I tend to skew towards a positive reaction to most French horror/thrillers, so this appears to be right up my alley. The following is just a clip, I wasn't able to track down a full trailer, though this seems to capture what I'd expect is the general feel of things, sans subtitles tho.

Finally we have a trailer for a Thai film called Die A Violent Death, about which I know absolutely nothing, because there's no subtitling happening here, and the two sites I tracked the film down on didn't really offer any insight about it, nor does the IMDB, which in my mind indicates that this film may very well not exist, in spite of the trailer full of gore and violence.



Be seeing you.

Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Movies, Trailers, Chloe, Atom Egoyan, Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, In Their Sleep, Caroline du Potet, Eric du Potet, Anne Parillaud, Die A Violent Death