I needed to take a break from politics and my job frustration to share about a movie I saw recently titled, Paranormal Activity.
The movie follows a boyfriend and girlfriend as they suffer through multiple nights of a haunting.
Do not assume this is anything like The Exorcist or any other haunted house movie, it seeps into your soul and seriously messes you up.
The boyfriend, Micah, buys a camera to “capture” the events on tape. He doesn’t take things too seriously until the end of the film when the truly horrific begins to occur. He taunts the “thing” and pulls out a Ouija Board in order to talk with it.
The girlfriend, Katie, confesses to a psychic that she’s been “followed” by something since she was eight years old.
Every night that you see, something happens. It begins innocently with their bedroom door moving a few inches, followed by bangs, screams, feet stomping, and more.
I never understood why the couple didn’t just leave the house and go to a Motel 6 or something. Yes, the thing will follow her, but at least this would get them out of the craziness for a while.
The ending sets up a nice new mythos for moviegoers and horror fans and was suggested by Steven Spielberg.
It is a frightening movie. Beat out Saw VI which tells you that people enjoy the “clean” horror rather than the blood and guts of recent years.
It’s rated R for the number of times, foul language is used. And seriously, if your house was being haunted by whatever it is in this house…you’d say a few choice words too.
Do you believe in ghosts? I found this video on youtube. It’s two girls (or boys with really high voices) walking through a house that seems to be known as haunted. It has a Blairwitch Project quality to it. But these two girls open a door and see -something- that causes them to scream and run away. I couldn’t tell what it was.
Once you’ve watched the video tell me what you see. If anything at all.
One last thing, it’s okay to watch. I mean it’s not like one of those stupid videos where you’re looking close and some freaky face comes screaming at you. This is a legit youtube video.
Wow. It’s been quite a while since coming here. And that’s because I was away on vacation. I was able to get up north around Maine and other New England states. It was a very good time. A time of refreshment.
While I was there, I was able to watch television (I don’t have cable in my home). I watched the second Presidential Debate. It was supposed to be a town hall meeting format, right? All I heard was the candidate’s stump speech. It was an awful – awful experience. Do these people not believe in the rules their campaigns have created? I want a real debate; where they interact with each other. Take the notes and papers away and just go for it. Let us see who you are. These mock-up debates are nothing. It’s pathetic.
If you play those drinking games, one of the rules should include how many times Senator McCain says, “My friends”.
And did anyone see the smirks that Senator Obama had on his face every time McCain spoke? Were they smirks of superiority? They started to bother me a little bit during the final hour.
Now Senator McCain says he’s going to win the final debate and the Obama campaign is right where they want them. Sounds desperate to me.
And “it” would happen to be The Dark Knight. It broke all the records. It brought in, what, $155.3 million dollars in it’s first weekend? How many of those people will be purchasing return tickets? I’m thinking quite a few of them.
The story: A few months have passed since the situation of Batman Beginswith many of the mob running scared. Wayne Manor is in the process of being rebuilt so Bruce Wayne and his butler, Alfred have moved into a penthouse. (the lower level fills in as the Batcave)
Our first sight is of a group of bank robbers sporting clown masks. They are stealing cash which belongs to the Mob. Then things get dicey; the men in the masks start killing each other. Turns out the guy in charge of this robbery, The Joker, has informed them that the fewer people standing at the end, the more money they will share. Following a shootout, one masked man is left standing. This turns out to be The Joker himself.
Lucius Fox is now in-the-know that Bruce Wayne is The Batman and continues to assist as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises and the gadget man for Batman.
Rachel Dawes is now romantically involved with the new District Attorney of Gotham Harvey Dent and helps him crack down on the crime lords of the city.
Jim Gordon has created his own police task force after a severe infiltration and subsequent arrest of tainted police officers.
Bruce Wayne/Batman is ready to put aside his cape and mask and let Harvey take over as the heroic face of Gotham. (He also isn’t happy that Rachel is dating Dent)
But all of that isn’t what’s important about this movie right? It’s all about Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker. Ledger eats up the screen. Everything about the character is addicting. He’s a ruthless killer, but the audience can’t get enough of him. And he is more than a match for The Batman.
The Joker believes that everyone can turn evil. He doesn’t believe in innocence. He tells Harvey Dent that he is an agent of chaos. And for two and a half hours, we are privy to the manifestation of this belief as Joker carries out a series of murders and explosions.
While his main target is The Batman, The Joker sets his sights on Gotham’s White Knight hero, Harvey Dent. He believes he can transform the pure, righteous attorney into a villain just like him.
What happens when your life is brought to the brink of horrible choice? What if you had to choose who lives and who dies? What would you do? Who would you save?
The Dark Knight is the greatest superhero movie ever filmed. I hope the third film exceeds this one. But I have no idea how it could.
I have been quite the busy one this past weekend. My folks were visiting and this kept me from providing entries here. Today we’re back on track.
And with this track comes information about The Dark Knight. One of the most anticipated films of the summer. With this anticipation comes expectation. I saw that Rotten Tomatoes has 100% positive reviews for this film. Is this the first film to have that kind of reaction?
People are expecting this movie to be huge. They are expecting Heath Ledger to win an Academy Award for his performance as The Joker. What happens if their expectations are not met?
The anticipation has been fed by so many film clips. How many can you find out youtube? After watching every clip from the film, how will your experience be altered? Will you enjoy it as much if you had only seen the couple trailers instead of all the thirty second shots?
I enjoy being spoiled for movies like the next guy, but I’m thinking about how much I really want to enjoy this movie. I think if I keep filling myself with Dark Knight shtuff, I won’t get the full joy.
Here is some examples of some of the shtuff that I’ve heard about: **Don’t read if you want to stay clear of possible spoilers**
-Two Face is in this film
-Rachelle Dawes may be killed?
-The batmobile will be destroyed early
-anyone…ANYONE can be killed in this film
-The title is not in reference to Batman
See, now, having those in your thoughts, you’re already creating the movie you’re expecting to watch. I’ve helped in the creation of the downfall of an epic summer blockbuster.
Well, maybe it’s not that dramatic right?
I just can’t wait. When are you going to see it: 12 AM, 3 AM, 6 AM, or some time on Friday?
Many movie goers have come up short after watching M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, The Happening. They come away believing it’s one man’s sermon on Global Warming, and the evils we humans have performed at the expense of the plantlife of this planet and now it’s their turn to retaliate on us.
However, this is not the whole case. Like all of Shyamalan’s films, there are many layers of storytelling and a much deeper meaning/theme to The Happening.
Let’s first go over the plot: people begin to commit suicide in the north eastern part of the United States. They begin to talk funny, pause in their walking, walk backwards then find some way to kill themselves.
Mark Wahlberg plays high school science teacher, Elliot Moore, who becomes the main character. We also meet Moore’s teacher friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), Julian’s daughter Jess and Moore’s wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel). We follow this small group as they flee Philly (as typical found in a Shyamalan film) to escape what they believe to be an act of terrorist.
Throughout the movie, people are trying to understand what exactly they’re dealing with and what caused the event. While they come to their own conclusions, the careful movie goer will realize they have missed the true explanations.
First of all, this is not a movie about plants wanting to kill humans because of how we treat the planet. However this may be a thin layer within the real reason.
Elliot believes that the toxin which causes these mass suicides are targeting people in large groups and so they much get into smaller and smaller groups in order to escape and survive. This is also only partly true. By the end of the film, a lone woman they board up with falls victim to the toxin. And she was only one person. The true explanation is that anger and hatred trigger the effect. Moments before her death, this woman is yelling at Elliot.
Elliot and his wife are not affected by the toxin because they are peaceful and almost childlike. This comes across in their actions and dialogue. Critics have panned their acting as horrid but I believe it is all part of the show. All part of the story Shyamalan wants to tell.
The message of this movie is that we need to stop being such an angry race/culture. We need to return to being peaceful and embrace love for one another.
I came into work today and, with not much of a schedule, began surfing through some movie scores. The orchestra work behind the films. For instance, I’m listening to a few sample clips from Iron Man. I really enjoyed the movie and the music behind it gave it so much more punch. I do have one problem with it. The problem isn’t with the score itself, I really like how it sounds raw and powerful. My problem is that there are so many composers out there who have gone to school at the Hans Zimmer school of movie scores. Listen to music from Batman Begins, Gladiator, Transformers, and Iron Man – they sound very similar to each other. I’m not saying that they are low-quality composers, but I would like to see these guys create their own sound. If you were to listen to the work of Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams, these are two guys who made movie music but sounded completely different. Don’t get that confused with them sounding like other musical elements; (People have criticized Williams’ work for sounding too much like Holst’s “The Planets“) I’m saying compare them with each other.
Now that I’ve played around with the linking feature, I’m thinking about adding some pictures with these entries…I guess it will depend if it will enhance reading. If not, at least it’s fun to play around with the features.
