Corey_Lazarus

The Thing - Carpenter (1982) A horror classic, and the first in Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy. The second Carpenter film with Kurt Russell following the cult hit Escape From New York, and one of the true definitions of what makes Carpenter America's best at horror pacing. Amazing special effects that still hold up today, and the complete feeling of isolation and claustrophobia that every great horror movie has. A much better version of "Who Goes There?" than the original film adaptation, The Thing From Another World, or even the novella itself (yes, a rare case of the film outdoing the novel).

It's not on the first page, and I don't feel like hunting it down if there is one, but I saw Hancock last night. It was pretty decent. Like a lot of Will Smith movies, the very end is kinda lame, but the build-up to it is pretty damn tight. If the movie had taken the time to go further into Hancock being an alcoholic, or why he feels the need to save people besides something just bluntly being said once or twice, or even develop an arch-nemesis instead of a fatal weakness, then it would have been really good. There's a few flaws keeping it from achieving a tight quality, but it's not bad like a lot of the reviews say it is. Smith does carry the movie on his back, though, so there we go.

To be fair, it's not as if you can expect somebody from another state to know, especially while apparently under the influence of something, the geography of your home state. If there's a concert tour that comes through Massachusetts, and they either go to the Worcester venues (DCU Center or the Palladium) or the Mansfield one (Comcast Center, formerly the Tweeter Center, formerly Greatwoods), those on tour will still refer to it as Boston, despite being located roughly an hour away from Boston.

Roxxi's character last name is LaVeaux.

Looks like a rental to me. I love the direction of Del Toro, fucking ADORED Pan's Labyrinth, but the first Hellboy was pretty "meh." It looked great, but the flow and the plot were just...eh.

I suppose I'm kinda racist, but mostly only towards those who fulfill their race's negative stereotypes. It's a "don't mind black people, hate niggaz" deal. Switch out "black/niggaz" with whatever race/slur you want. Re: all wealthy being white I love all the wealthy Japanese white men...

Reckless Tide - German modern thrash metal. Pretty solid stuff, though some of it is bland as hell, but the lead guitarist is a pretty attractive chick who can actually shred. Hot chicks + actual talent = win. Send More Paramedics - British "Zombiecore" monsters who recently disbanded. Not everybody's cup of tea, and some of their songs are utter shyte, but when they're good they're good. Short Sharp Shock - British thrashers. Vocally? A pain in the ass. Musically? Lovely, lovely old-school crossover style stuff. Amputated - British porngrinders. Horrible. Atrocious. But somehow a great listen. Destruction - Old-school German thrashers. Evile - New-school Brit thrashers, with shit so good it sounds like it came straight out of the Bay Area in '86. Kataklysm - Canadian death metallers who just flat-out don't know how to write a bad song. Terror Fetus - Brazilian death/thrashers who sound eerily reminiscent of OLD Sepultura.

Actually, the entire allure of Troma, at least the in-house productions, is that the idea is better than the execution. See: Toxic Avenger II and III, Troma's War, and Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD. Kaufman just started to actually understand how to make anything other than pure, unwatchable shit right around Tromeo & Juliet. But you can't tell me that Citizen Toxie and Terror Firmer are anything but pure b-movie genius. And yes, HSJ. Diary did suck.

Clerks II - Kevin Smith (2006) Smith has been one of the more important independent filmmakers of the last 15 years, and since some of his other movies have already been taken, I figured I'd take the last one that he made. In some ways, Clerks II is better than the original. The acting is flat-out better (considering that by the time the movie was made the returning cast members from the first had learned how to act, and the bigger budget meant that Smith could get actual actors as well), the story is more focused, and some of the jokes are a whole lot better than just the redundant "I'm not even supposed to be here today" comments of the original (namely the jokes about LOTR, ass-to-mouth, "Porch Monkey," and besti...inter-species erotica). It can never top the original, or even Chasing Amy, but if any other Smith flick comes close? It's Clerks II.

I remember Kids, Inc. I seem to remember a semi-decent "Ghostbusters" version done on that show, with a pretty hilarious video where those backpack vacuum cleaners were the proton packs.

Punk/Cena/Cryme Tyme -v- JBL/Edge/Rated aRmy for next week. Book it.

HAHA! GTS! 1-2-3!!! Punk wins! Punk wins! Punk wins!

And Cena is THUGGIN' with Cryme Tyme (because misspelling is K3W7).

Is it just me, or has tonight been extremely enjoyable? The opening segment started off sorta "meh," but then Punk entered the mix and it was awesome. I even liked Cena's promo (and I'm still one of the few Cena-haters here). The Women's match wasn't offensive (though Jillian sucks), the DiBiase/Rhodes -v- OK JOB Squad was decent for what it was (though Rhodes needs a much better finisher than his weak DDT, considering how solid the Million $ Dream Legsweep is) with a decent promo after (it explained why Cody turned on Holly, and why he aligned himself with DiBiase, and DiBiase perfectly hit the nail on the head with "rebellion" amongst those under 30), Noble got on my TV, Kofi/Jericho furthered Jericho's vendetta against Michaels with Jericho completely losing his shit, and Punk/JBL has some nice heat to it. ...really, this has been my favorite Raw in a while. Since maybe right after 'Mania.

I remember the commercials for Hellboy used a Dimmu Borgir song. At first I didn't think it was fitting, but now? It somewhat is. However, using "More Human Than Human" (White Zombie) for just about EVERY action flick in '96 and '97 was just wrong. The song gets its line from Blade Runner, and a lyrical breakdown (using a lot of out-there metaphors) reveals...well, that Rob Zombie loves sci-fi. Of course, it was just the slide-lead used, so whatever.

Phantasm - Don Coscarelli (1979) Madness, death, psychadelia...all can be applied to Phantasm and its sequels. A wonderful blend of chaos and classic grindhouse horror, the overall theme of death that is perpetuated in each movie may not reach the levels of Fulci (whose detest for the human body and seemingly life in general has never been equaled) but is magnificent as far as American horror goes. The acting is lame (there would be better, marginally, in the sequels), but the performance of Angus Scrimm as "The Tall Man" is as iconic a horror figure as Chucky, Michael Myers, or Pinhead. Possibly even more so, considering how bastardized and butchered those three have become over the years by their respective distributors, whereas the Tall Man and the characters of Michael, Reggie, and Jody have been all the property of Coscarelli since day one. So shoot to kill, or don't shoot at all.

I just listened to them the first time a few weeks back and was pleasantly surprised. They're...odd. They take the (now) overused formula of grind-based riffage, bad 80's fashion, and then melodic breakdowns...but the singer's voice when not growling/screaming is just so...so pretty. So Suicide Final tour is in 2 weeks...and I'm counting the days. Time's passed slow all week since I realized how close it is (MUNICIPAL WASTE, DARKEST HOUR, AT THE GATES). I read somewhere that Toxic Holocaust is opening, which'll be fucking nice since they're a good black/thrash metal band from Boston, and they've toured with Waste before. Sounds like an interesting combination.

Return of the Living Dead - Dan O'Bannon (1985) If I'm on a desert island, I want something to laugh my ass off to when thinking about the more depressing times, and nothing beats the dark, sadistic humor of Dan O'Bannon in this movie. A simultaneous riff on Romero's mythology and the entire 80's punk scene, the movie's a classic for its complete disregard of Romero's rules (which are the rules of zombie movies, ask anybody), its solid gore effects, its hilarity, and its classic punk soundtrack (featuring TSOL, The Cramps, and 45 Grave). Not to mention it being the only truly watchable film in the entire 5-flick series (all of the sequels are horrible, especially parts 4 and 5).

Check out the band iwrestledabearonce. They're fashioncore to the nth degree, but fuck...the singer is a chick who can growl deeper than most men. Not, like, uber-forced like Angela Gossow, and not just raspy-as-fuck like Wendy O Williams, I mean growl. Plus, she's kinda cute. A petite Asian scenester who can spew phlegm better than most of the well-known death/hardcore vocalists.

Yeah, but...this just means they can't show all of the violence that could with an R rating. T3 suffered mostly because of an overly rushed pace (it should have never been made without Cameron, who knows how to pace an action film) and an inferior villain (after T-1000, why should we fear any other Terminator, especially when she doesn't seem as able to blend like T-1000 could).

In the Mouth of Madness - Carpenter, 1995 The final film in Carpenter's "Apocalypse" trilogy (along with The Thing and Prince of Darkness), and considered his best work. Sam Neill gives a great performance of a man losing his sanity scene-by-scene, and Jurgen Prochnow turns in his usual greatness as purely creepy demonically-possessed author Sutter Cane. Featuring countless nods to the works of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King (a small New England town, a best-selling horror author, other-worldly beings, and the lines between fantasy/reality and sanity/insanity blurred), Carpenter creates a steady pace of mood and dread, with each scene adding more into the chaos of the universe that main character John Trent is dropped into. If I'm on a desert island, I'm going to want to watch a horror movie that, despite its lack of box office success and one that is generally forgotten, is well-made and reminds me of why I got into horror in the first place.

"And ZOMBIES?! Where the FUCK are all the zombies?!" I just know that O&A this morning is going to be all about this. Not only were they all huge fans of Carlin, I think they were also pretty good friends with him, and I know he influenced Norton more than any other comedian.

I can't recall ever saying I didn't like Pantera, at least not here (I went through a phase where I didn't care for them), so I think you're mistaken. I know I said I didn't like any of the Pantera off-shoots (Down, Superjoint Ritual, Necrophagia, and Damageplan; Rebel Meets Rebel is decent at best), so maybe that's what you're thinking of?

King Diamond...oh man. I've tried to get into him, but I just can't. I like the new single, "Give Me Your Soul," but most of it...ugh. His voice completely ruins it for me. It's fun to parody, but not much else.

Obituary is solid. BTBAM are incredibly overrated, but Obituary is pretty damn influential to heavy music. Brought a lot of the groove to death metal. Not the first DM band to show groove, but maybe the first important one to. Personally? I don't care for 'em too much, but it'd be pretty sweet to see 'em live. Now the 11th...fuck Mushroomhead. They've sucked for a while. And I hear that they're painfully boring live. But GWAR? Shit, I fucking love GWAR. I'm so there.