Pop Culture Consumption this Weekend
Given that I wasn't in the mood for gaming this weekend (thanks to a combination of PMS, lack of sleep, hangover and general uncertainty-related depression), and the Durban weather didn't encourage spending a lot of time outside, I seemed to pass the 2 days watching a lot of movies instead.
Seeing as Saturday night was Halloween I organised an impromptu Halloween DVD evening that was intended to be a zombie movie marathon. Only 1 person pitched but the evening still went ahead, with us watching Zack Snyder's director's cut of Dawn of the Dead (the 2004 remake) back-to-back with Shaun of the Dead. I'm a huge fan of both these films; the former at least until the baby scene - which is impossible to top, and after which the film becomes a lot less nerve-wracking.
After rewatching Shaun of the Dead's distinctly English take on the zombie movie genre - with our heroes fleeing to the safety of the pub as opposed to a mall - I have to wonder where is South Africa's zombie movie? We've just had our gritty sci-fi classic. Now it's time to put our population at the mercy of braindead, ultra-violent hordes. We've done the whole Apartheid commentary thing; how about a blood-soaked allegory about the local AIDS epidemic?
Sticking with horror movies, on Sunday we watched the straight-to-DVD The Devil's Tomb. Now the film was B-grade exploitation horror all the way, as the title suggests, but I'll give director Jason Connery (Sean's son) and everyone else involved (the cast includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Taryn Manning, Henry Rollins and Ron Perlman) a little credit. The film's Doom/Event Horizon/Resident Evil premise at least was interesting, with a squad of marines sent to evacuate scientists from a top secret research facility buried deep beneath the sands of the Middle East. As it turns out this laboratory is actually a containment facility designed to prevent an eons old evil from escaping. The film got very confusing from this point onwards, but it certainly lived up to its pedigree, regularly throwing blood, black goo, "shit" sprinkled dialogue and titties at the audience.
We also rewatched Jurassic Park 3, having revisited the original last weekend. While 3 is goofy it's still a lot better than #2 as far as I'm concerned. At least it brought back Sam Neill's Dr Alan Grant and (briefly) Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and there were no T-Rexes roaming the suburbs of San Diego. *shudders*
Otherwise this weekend I caught bits and pieces of several other films, including Interview with the Vampire and The Shining. I don't know why but Jack Nicholson in The Shining kept reminding me of Homer Simpson (a Treehouse of Horror episode perhaps?) and I also had to laugh at how odd-looking Shelley Duvall is as the female lead. Contemporary Hollywood, with its current obsession with MILFs, certainly doesn't seem to have a place for actresses like her anymore.
Finally there was animated film Missing Lynx, which I honestly could only get 15 minutes into. You know how you get cartoons that offer something for all viewers, whether they be children or adults? Well, Missing Lynx ISN'T one of them. It could be the overly precise English dubbing (the original film is in Spanish) but the entire project felt like it had been made to boost the environmental awareness of 4 year olds.
So, now I open the blogging comments to you. Did you do anything interesting for Halloween, or during the weekend as a whole?
Seeing as Saturday night was Halloween I organised an impromptu Halloween DVD evening that was intended to be a zombie movie marathon. Only 1 person pitched but the evening still went ahead, with us watching Zack Snyder's director's cut of Dawn of the Dead (the 2004 remake) back-to-back with Shaun of the Dead. I'm a huge fan of both these films; the former at least until the baby scene - which is impossible to top, and after which the film becomes a lot less nerve-wracking.
After rewatching Shaun of the Dead's distinctly English take on the zombie movie genre - with our heroes fleeing to the safety of the pub as opposed to a mall - I have to wonder where is South Africa's zombie movie? We've just had our gritty sci-fi classic. Now it's time to put our population at the mercy of braindead, ultra-violent hordes. We've done the whole Apartheid commentary thing; how about a blood-soaked allegory about the local AIDS epidemic?
Sticking with horror movies, on Sunday we watched the straight-to-DVD The Devil's Tomb. Now the film was B-grade exploitation horror all the way, as the title suggests, but I'll give director Jason Connery (Sean's son) and everyone else involved (the cast includes Cuba Gooding Jr, Taryn Manning, Henry Rollins and Ron Perlman) a little credit. The film's Doom/Event Horizon/Resident Evil premise at least was interesting, with a squad of marines sent to evacuate scientists from a top secret research facility buried deep beneath the sands of the Middle East. As it turns out this laboratory is actually a containment facility designed to prevent an eons old evil from escaping. The film got very confusing from this point onwards, but it certainly lived up to its pedigree, regularly throwing blood, black goo, "shit" sprinkled dialogue and titties at the audience.
We also rewatched Jurassic Park 3, having revisited the original last weekend. While 3 is goofy it's still a lot better than #2 as far as I'm concerned. At least it brought back Sam Neill's Dr Alan Grant and (briefly) Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and there were no T-Rexes roaming the suburbs of San Diego. *shudders*
Otherwise this weekend I caught bits and pieces of several other films, including Interview with the Vampire and The Shining. I don't know why but Jack Nicholson in The Shining kept reminding me of Homer Simpson (a Treehouse of Horror episode perhaps?) and I also had to laugh at how odd-looking Shelley Duvall is as the female lead. Contemporary Hollywood, with its current obsession with MILFs, certainly doesn't seem to have a place for actresses like her anymore.
Finally there was animated film Missing Lynx, which I honestly could only get 15 minutes into. You know how you get cartoons that offer something for all viewers, whether they be children or adults? Well, Missing Lynx ISN'T one of them. It could be the overly precise English dubbing (the original film is in Spanish) but the entire project felt like it had been made to boost the environmental awareness of 4 year olds.
So, now I open the blogging comments to you. Did you do anything interesting for Halloween, or during the weekend as a whole?
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