DG and I had a pretty low-key weekend. We saw Knocked Up on Friday—great movie, destined to be a classic on par with When Harry Met Sally or There’s Something About Mary. I highly recommend it. It was a nice tonic to all the Blockbuster III movies.
We cancelled our Netflix subscription last week. The DVD skipping from scratches became way too irritating. It had been happening for weeks, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was when I missed a key scene of Slither. The odd thing is that the skipping almost always starts about two-thirds or later into the film. It’s possible my DVD player is just old (it’s from 2002, I think), but it still plays scratch-less DVDs fine, so it looks like it’s cable and On Demand for us for now.
Which is fine—I still got to take in The Cave this weekend. Which wasn’t that great, by the way. Definitely gotta give it up to The Descent when it comes to cavern-dwelling-monster movies.
I may need to re-subscribe to Netflix come September, though, because my tentative plan for this year’s Halloween Month is to review every single Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween movie (including the Rob Zombie remake).
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Eric Powell’s comic The Goon. Last week I picked up the special one-shot “Satan’s Sodomy Baby,” which is exactly as calculatedly offensive as it sounds. You think Family Guy goes too far sometimes? Powell floors the gas pedal and goes flying off the cliff, Thelma & Louise-style. I still love the comic, and I suspect even this one-shot may get nominated for an Eisner like everything else Powell does…but…man. If you’re curious, this review of the comic mirrors my opinion.
Incidentally, I posted my top five summer movies over on Ed’s blog.
I’m dying to see Knocked Up. Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow first grabbed my attention with Freaks and Geeks (worth grabbing that 1st Season DVD – BTW – although you will be sad that 21 episodes is all we get – much like Firefly). Actually, I glommed onto Apatow in the late 90’s with The Larry Sanders Show. Anyway – I’m a fan of Apatow’s writing and Rogen’s delivery. Seeing ‘Ken’ (his F&G character) as the male romantic lead just makes everything seem so right with the world.
Also – your comment on Blockbuster III couldn’t be more in tune with with what I am thinking. I was going to attempt a Pirates 3 screening this weekend (the scheduling didn’t work out) and now, the more I think of it, I’d rather catch Knocked Up in theaters and save Pirates for the Home Theater. In short, I just want to see a movie that leaves me feeling 100% satisfied when I exit the theater – and the reactions I’ve read on Pirates doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. I fear another Spidey 3 – just too much going on.
So Knocked Up it is – for my next flick!!!
And, if you do renew that NetFlix sub, definitely grab Freaks and Geeks. You will not regret it. One of the greatest, most under-appreciated television shows, in history!!!
and the reactions I?ve read on Pirates doesn?t exactly fill me with confidence. I fear another Spidey 3 – just too much going on.
There seems to be an epidemic of that going on post-LOTR. Even Peter Jackson, who managed to balance all the stuff going on in LOTR well, fell victim to the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach in King Kong (man, how long was that fight with the tyrannosaurs?).
Same goes for X-Men 3 and all the Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels—just too much crap going on. I thought the first Pirates, while great, was a half-hour too long, and they respond by making each sequel a little longer? And yet, the real problem is that, unlike the Lord of the Rings films, I just didn’t care enough about the characters in most of the aforementioned movies not to get fidgety around minute 114.