Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Mars Attacks!


I have always loved the weird and off beat and good popcorn movies. A movie doesn't have to move me with a deep message. It can but I don't require it. As a matter of fact, I ask less of a movie than I do a book. With a book if I haven't wondered what happened to a character at least once during the day then it failed me. I immerse into what I read in a way that I don't with what I watch. The world in my head is somehow more immediate than the world "out there." A movie simply has to make me laugh or cringe or say wow! I love old horror such as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting and the movie from the 60's based on it. I like to watch it every 3 to 5 years just to remind myself of what an actual horror movie can be. Of course watching it for the first time when I was around 6 or 7 years old is more than likely the reason it is so scary and embedded in my head. I also love the old sci fi stuff. The Amazing Colossal Man 1957, The 1958 Steve Mcqueen take on The Blob. The 1955 movie based on the Jack Finney novel The Body Snatchers. I also like some of the more modern stuff. I love to pop up some popcorn and watch Mars Attacks with Jack Nicholoson and a cameo by Tom Jones directed by Tim Burton. I liked Independence Day and I liked the First X Files movie. The second is a damn shame but I digress. I love the old Art Bell Coast to Coast Am and I enjoy downloading a podcast to listen to while I walk around the track. I enjoyed The Fog and also watched it with the John Carpenter commentary. The Exorcist, which to be honest wasn't that scary to me. Well, I did see the uncut version and that was scary. The part where she spider crawled freaked me out. The original Halloween and Friday the 13th are fun. I liked the Lost In Space movie of some years ago. I knew it was gonna get killed by critics when I read the first review I saw. It started out with the reviewer saying "I don't really like sci fi or horror movies." Really? Then shut up! It did what I wanted it to do. It had cool space scenes and was a little campy. I liked the original Scream and enjoyed Ringu or Ring the Japaneese horror movie. The girl coming out of the t.v. is great. I can't watch the original Alien at night because I fall asleep. It's so dark that I just never got through it. By dark I mean the lighting and background not the atmosphere of the story. But, I did watch it early one evening and finished it and liked it as much as I can like a slow building hard sci fi type movie. It is good, it's just not really my thing. I know that's like a classic rock fan saying they don't like Bruce Springsteen that much ( I Don't) but sometime it just happens. I loved the X Files and we even named our first and only child after the main character. I liked Fringe for a while but I kind of stopped watching. Might have to pick it up again. Millinuem is a really good and under-rated series that my wife and I watched. I actually get my love of horror from a strange place. My mother raised me on watching old sci fi and horror movies. We had The Rebel Drive In right in our neighborhood growing up in the sixties and early seventies. When they had a Christopher Lee or Boris Karloff or Vincent Price marathon (Dusk Till Dawn) we were there. I can still see Dracula turning to dust right on that giant full color screen before my 7 or 8 year old eyes. Vincent Price running through the rubble and chaos as The House Of Usher fall. :-) A movie called "She" and we even saw a killer Santa one holiday season. I sometime feel bad for folks this generation. They have some splendid toys that we couldn't even dream of. But, they have no idea what a 20 foot tall Christopher Lee looks like as he bites the scream queen on the neck.

 Man, I wonder if maybe I can talk Cindy into putting our 9 year old in front of the computer and shutting the door and popping in a horror movie this weekend? So sue me I love my child but he will enjoy playing a video game. His mother will get me but if I can talk her into it. Pop some popcorn and kick back and watch one of the classic ones like Soylent Green or a little more recent one like Predator. Or maybe more of a horror theme like The Fog or Creepshow. Anyway, I have a sudden urge to eat popcorn and chill out in front of a giant screen for a couple of hours this coming weekend.

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