Monday, April 30, 2007

Random Musings

Is it me, or is time really flying lately? It feels like New Year's was just the other day, and now it's the last day of April. It'll be Christmas before we know it, and it won't be long after that that the decade is over and VH1 is doing I Love The 00s. Because it's either that or another awful Flavor of Love spinoff.

And with it being the end of April, I'm preparing to start the countdown to one of the biggest days of the year, the birthday of yours truly. The countdown starts tomorrow, and I'm expecting it to last somewhere in the neighborhood of four weeks, give or take a day or two. I'm waiting to see how things go before I start making any big plans for the big day, but I'm thinking of putting together one of those "State of the MSX" posts. I figure the best times to do those posts are around my birthday and New Year's, so I think you can expect one of those in four weeks or so.

But right now, I'm going to get back to work on my Pirates 2 review. That's it for this post.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Victory Number Nine

Hey look, we've finally hit 600 posts here at the MSX. Huzzah.

In other news, I mentioned yesterday that I was taking another shot at Resident Evil 4. I thought I was right around the first appearance of the invisible bugs, but in actuality, I was actually just before the castle's lava pit. Either way, I just beat the game. My final time was six hours, 32 minutes, and 34 seconds. I also passed the 1,000 mark in the "enemies killed" category for the first time, with 1,003 freaks sent to their death. The event was marred by four deaths. Two of them were Ashley not being able to defend herself from freaks or run away from dynamite, while the other two were me being careless. Either way, that's still victory number nine in the record books.

I've also passed the $10,000,000 mark in Leon's personal worth, with 10,061,100 in my pocket. I still have lots of treasure from the last two runs that I never sold Trader Joe, so I'm guessing that when I do that, I'll have a few million more. Not that it matters or anything, because since I already have the Chicago Typewriter, infinite rocket launcher, and the turned-up-to-eleven Handcannon, I don't need to really see Trader Joe for anything.

And having played the entire island section of the game in one two-hour sitting, I really need to get up and stretch. So here's to winning Resident Evil 4 for the ninth time, and here's to my 600th post. Cheers.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Killing Time On A Rainy Day

Holy freaking crap, today's been boring. I don't thing a whole lot of anything worth note happened today. Not helping anything is the fact that the weather was all gray and cloudy and rainy and blah, so yeah, it's been one of those days.

But I did kill some time today by jumping back into Resident Evil 4 for the ninth time. I don't remember the exact details of my location in the game right now, but I'm in the castle, and I believe I'm somewhere around the first appearance of the invisible bugs. Don't quote me on that, but I did make lots and lots of progress in the game this afternoon. Victory number nine is inevitable, folks. And after that, maybe I'll go for number ten. Sigh, Resident Evil 4 is so addictive.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A License To Print Money

So when I wasn't finishing up that Pulse review and watching Heroes, I was catching up on some reading. Specifically, "Batman: The Killing Joke" out of DC's "The Stories of Alan Moore" compilation. I absolutely love "The Killing Joke," and the more I read it, the more I start to imagine how it would look as an episode of the old Batman animated series. I was thinking about that earlier, so I hope DC Comics is reading this because I'm going to pitch them an idea.

Bruce Timm announced at Comic-Con last year that he was planning to do a direct-to-video animated adaptation of the "Death and Return of Superman" storyline. If this is a success, I'd like to see DC start doing feature-length animated versions of classic stories out of the comics. Like take "The Killing Joke" or "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", maybe even "Superman: Red Son" or "The Dark Knight Returns," do an animated movie based on it, then make a big deal out of its release. Maybe even show it on Cartoon Network or Boomerang around the time of its release as a promotional tool.

It could be something in the vein of the animated movies Marvel has done lately with Iron Man and the Avengers; maybe even DC could go as far as to release one or two animated movies a year to coincide with whatever superhero is getting a live-action theatrical film around that time. That would be something I could get behind. Of course, this is all just wishful thinking. And I'm sure that if DC did take this idea and run with it, it'd more than likely all hinge upon the success of that initial "Death of Superman" release. But here's hoping that this is something DC and the Warner Brothers animation department considers. That is, if they want great big truckfuls of cash to be delivered to their doorstep. Because it's a license to print money, folks.

I Want A Heroes DVD Already

I just finished watching Monday night's episode of Heroes thanks to my usual not-quite-legal means, and boy, did I miss this show. I really hate it when these shows take two-month hiatuses during each season. It's like they air four or five episodes and get everybody in a good groove, then air reruns for six weeks. It's one thing to take a mid-season break in December, I can handle that. But come on. How long can it take them to film 23 episodes that, if one doesn't count the commercials, are between 40 and 45 minutes long? Even ones that are heavy on special effects like Heroes and Smallville, it shouldn't be too long, should it?

The only reason I can think of is that they take these breaks every so often in order to put some spit and polish on the shows. Maybe episodes need to be re-written to better suit the schedules of certain cast members, or even re-written to better please fans of the show. Or it could even come down to changes in how the show is made, like how Heroes's shapeshifter's morphing effect changed between this week's episode and her appearances prior to the hiatus. I guess the whole occasional hiatus thing makes sense to those that actually work on these shows, but to me, a viewer, it's frustrating because I don't have a real clue as to why these shows would take a two-month break so close to the end of the season. So if somebody from NBC wants to explain it to me, be my guest.

Now that I've got that little rant out of the way, we can move along. This week's episode, ".07%," wasn't too bad at all. It certainly wasn't "Company Man," but then again, that episode was almost too awesome. Where the episode succeeds is in answering a question or two from earlier in the season, as well as moving just about every major storyline forward in some way. I mentioned a long while back that I wished they'd do something with the whole Niki/Jessica thing, and while I'm not exactly sure where they're going with the "Linderman 'borrows' Micah" angle, at least it's something. I'm really enjoying both Malcolm McDowell as Linderman and Ali Larter as Jessica, so any reason to have either of them on the screen is a good one. Now if they'd just explain what the whole deal with Niki and Jessica's split personality thing is, I'd be a happy boy. Maybe they can have it climax like the "Clark Kent vs. Evil Superman" scene from Superman 3, where Niki and Jessica split into two people and beat the everloving crap out of each other. That'd be awesome.

And how about that ending scene, with Hiro meeting his badass samurai doppelganger from the future? Oh man, I hope they get into a swordfight next week. Then the show can pull the trigger on what they've been hinting at all season and have Hiro fight a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Put a Hiro/Hiro swordfight, Hiro slaying a dinosaur, and a Niki vs. Jessica brawl in the same episode, and it would be the greatest episode of any show since television was invented.

And just how awesome is Sylar? I mean, really, the dude is hardcore. How evil do you have to be to telekinetically stab a guy in the back of the head with a giant piece of broken glass, then pin another guy to the floor by jabbing paintbrushes through his wrists and ankles before you scalp him and eat his brain? Very, very evil. I mean, how much more evil could Sylar be? Barring the shocking revelation that his parents are Freddy Krueger and Linda Blair's character from The Exorcist, I think the answer is none. None more evil.

But yeah, Heroes is pretty rockin', and this week's episode was no exception. I'm kinda bummed that there are only four more episodes until the end of the season. And after that, I don't expect season two to start until October. And I doubt this season will be released on DVD until just before then, maybe in mid-September. Hopefully it'll be out before then, but in the event of a mid-September release date, that'll give me plenty of time to save up my pennies.

That Review's Finally Finished

I've been building it up here for a while, but I've finally got that review of Pulse done. So now I can quit talking about it and actually post it. Go check it out here, and remember, the Internet... it's EVIL.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Gosh, It's Hot

Sweet merciful crap, it's hot outside. And since Casa de Sutton's air conditioner isn't entirely functional at this point, it's like an oven in here. Maybe Al Gore and all that global warming propaganda was right after all, because Mother Nature just doesn't seem to know what to do with herself. Winter was all rain, spring is setting up to be all heat, so what's summer going to be like?

That is information that I am absolutely dreading to learn firsthand. Heat and I do not get along very well. You know that Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck find the abominable snowman, and how at the end, the snowman is all "gosh, it's hot" before he melts? Give me a fluffy little rabbit named George, and that's totally me. I'm not a very big fan of warm weather. So hopefully, the temperature will be more agreeable sooner or later.

Preferably sooner.

Monday, April 23, 2007

I'm Still Sick, And It's Horrible

I'm still not feeling the best in the world today. The headache has become more of a dull annoyance, but the rest of me is feeling like crap. I barely felt like getting out of bed this morning, and I'd be perfectly fine with going back to bed. Did you ever see that one Saturday Night Live skit where Chris Farley takes this new brand of NyQuil made of horse tranquilizers or whatever, and he sleeps right through four or five different illnesses? Some of that could come in pretty handy right now.

But regardless, work on my Pulse review is coming along nicely. Quite a bit of progress has been made yesterday and today, and as I said on Friday, I'm hoping to have it done within the next week or two. Something like that. So I hope you're looking forward to that.

I'm gonna go relax. I could use it, with the way I'm feeling.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Headaches Suck

Ugh, I have had the most awful headache. Sometimes it aches just enough to bug me, other times it hurts so much that I can barely see straight. And it's been like this since Wednesday or Thursday, too. If this goes on much longer, my head's gonna explode. It'll be like that scene in Scanners. And that's the last thing I need right now.

My mom thinks it might be a hint that glasses could be in my future, since most of the pain is right around my eyes. That'll especially suck for me, since I was rather proud of the fact that I'm the only member of the immediate family that doesn't need glasses. If I'd needed glasses ten or twelve years ago, I wouldn't have been so worried about it. But I really don't feel like teaching myself any sort of new routine concerning glasses right now. So let's hope this headache is a temporary thing, something not worthy of purchasing eyewear.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pulse Progress and Future Reviews

Contrary to what I thought last night, the Pulse review isn't coming along too badly. I'm still working on it, though. I'll hopefully have it up within a week or two.

As I've said in the past, I've got quite a list of movies that I would like to review. I've started work on Pirates 2, while I actually have a review of the Amityville Horror remake that's almost done. The only thing stopping me from finishing it is that I'd like to try and draw comparisons between it and the original Amityville Horror, which I have yet to see. It's in the top ten of my Netflix queue, so hopefully I'll have reviews of both of them sometime in the coming months.

I've got anywhere from ten to fifteen other movies waiting in the wings, the number varying on whatever mood I'm in at any given time, so I certainly won't have a whole lot of time off when it comes to reviewing in the near future. Never let it be said that I'm not committed to my art.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Where Do I Begin With Pulse?

I got Pulse in the mail from Netflix in the mail yesterday, and after watching it once, I think it's going to be one of those "disappointingly bad" kind of reviews. Those are the toughest to write. Watching Pulse, I can see that it has so much potential to be a great movie. There's a very good movie inside it, desperately longing to be free. But unfortunately, what we've got isn't exactly what I'd call a good movie. I don't even know if I'd call it mediocre. It's just kinda... there. And that's terrible.

I hate writing "disappointingly bad" reviews. If I'm going to write a negative review about a movie, I'd much rather the movie be the kind of bad that makes me angry when I think about it. Not the kind of bad that makes me say, "Aw, what a wasted opportunity." That's what bugs me so much about Pulse, because it's really hard for me to pin my finger on what went wrong with it. Was it the direction? The script? The cast? A combination of things? I don't know. But what I do know is that they could have done something great with Pulse, but failed. It's like having two plus two ready to go, but not being able to come up with four.

The thing is, I want to like Pulse. I really and truly do. But I can't. And I don't really know where to begin when it comes to writing about it. I've barely gotten past the opening paragraph. Then again, nobody ever said this writing thing would be easy. I'm sure I'll come up with something. I usually do. It just might take me a little longer than usual.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

When's Stephen King Doing Cell 2?

Finished Cell about ten minutes ago, and now that I'm done, I really don't want it to end. Couldn't Stephen King have given the book one more chapter? But I guess that the ending might be the best in the long run, since it leaves the epilogue open for interpretation. Which makes sense, since you can think up any ending you want without being disappointed by what the writer came up with.

So what do I think about Cell, now that I've completed it? I loved it. A lot. I can't wait for the movie version. I mentioned in one of my early posts that the book had a very 28 Days Later/Dawn of the Dead '04 kind of vibe, but as it progressed, it switched gears and started going in the same direction as The Omega Man. With all that going on, a movie version could be awesome, and I'd totally see it.

Cell gets a thumbs-up, so quit reading this and go read that.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The MSX: Internationally Known

I've mentioned it before, and I don't want to sound like too much of a shill, but this Google Analytics thing I've got plugged into the MSX is pretty cool. The fact that I've had visitors coming in from five other continents boggles my mind. I joke that I only have three or four readers, all of whom are from the States, but the fact that I've had readers from any other country, let alone from all over the world, is very cool.

I'm very grateful that I have so much as one reader, so having several from all parts of the globe is awesome. Even if the people visiting were merely passing through, I'm still glad that they visited. And if they've stuck around, I'm surprised. I'm still surprised I even have my three or four American readers. But hey, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Once Again, Victory Is Mine

As a follow-up to the Resident Evil 4 post I made earlier, I just beat the game. Oh yeah.

The final stats: 969 enemies killed and a total playing time of seven hours, 32 minutes, and 30 seconds. Not exactly my quickest time, but I got the job done for the eighth - count 'em, eighth - time. So I'm pretty stoked.

How Awesome Is Wolf Creek?

We recently subscribed to the Starz movie channel package here at Casa de Sutton, which I think was a wise move because it afforded me the opportunity to see Wolf Creek in the wee hours of the night last night. I hadn't seen it since last May, but oh man, it's just as awesome as I remembered it being.

Everything I said in my review of it still holds true nearly a year later. Wolf Creek is absolutely harrowing, an emotionally disturbing experience if you let yourself get wrapped up in it. And the balance between the beauty of the Australian Outback and the horror of the events depicted only makes the movie that much more haunting.

After the movie ended, I started flipping through the other Starz channels and landed on Silent Hill. I'd have probably watched it too, but after Wolf Creek, I didn't think I could handle much more horror. Plus it was 4:45 in the morning, and I was ready to get some sleep.

But yeah, Wolf Creek is pretty darn awesome.

Destination: Monster Island

I also jumped back into the main portion of Resident Evil 4 during this past weekend. And thanks to the heavy artilery, I'm already up to the island. I've been killed three times, but no matter, because I'm still cutting a bloody swath of dominance through the game yet again.

Ain't no game gonna hold me back.

Notes On Some Writing

And here we are. I probably could have stood to make a post or two on Saturday and Sunday, now that I think about it. I had a little daily routine and everything. But I didn't have any real material to work with over the weekend, and I didn't feel like doing any of my lame "I got nothing" posts. So yeah, I kinda forgot about the blog during the last few days.

I did, however, use the weekend to put a bit of work into my pending Pirates 2 review. It's coming along splendidly, if you ask me. On the agenda for later in the week, however, is my review of Pulse. I haven't seen it since its theatrical run back last August, but I remember it being a little less than stellar. Maybe I'll like it a little more once I see it on DVD? That's always a possibility. It happens lots of times.

My hope is that if I do give Pulse a bad review, it'll be a bad review in the vein of BloodRayne or Superman IV. Those are lots of fun to write, as opposed to the "I don't hate the movie, I'm just disappointed" kind of review. So here's hoping that if I still don't like Pulse, I'll dislike it enough to tear it a new one. We'll just have to see how that goes.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Happy Friday the 13th!

Hey, it's Friday the 13th. Awesome.

Don't really have anything planned for the weekend. I'm more than likely going to spend tonight watching a Friday the 13th movie, which will probably be my personal favorite, Part VI: Jason Lives. After that, I'm probably just going to lie around and be lazy all weekend unless something comes up. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I wanted to go see the Aqua Teen Hunger Force this weekend, but since it's a limited release, it isn't playing anywhere within fifty miles. Same goes for Hot Fuzz's release next week. Since I'm currently without transportation - or at the very least, any transportation that might be interested in seeing those movies too - I think I'll end up trying to wait until they hit Netflix or maybe make an attempt at downloading them in a few weeks. I could probably try downloading Hot Fuzz now, since it came out in England back in February. But I'd rather see it in theaters first, so I might just wait to see how things go between now and this time next week.

But I'm gonna go watch Jason Lives right now. Later.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

The Internet Is Evil... I Think?

I just finished watching Kairo - the Japanese version of Pulse - and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. I say that because I don't believe the movie made any damn sense whatsoever. It seems like it's just a compilation of scary visuals, and I think there's some kind of commentary about how the Internet shouldn't be a replacement for real-life social interaction or something like that. I don't really know and I don't really care, because the movie didn't seem like it had a point in the long run.

The movie runs for two hours, and that's way too long for a movie where nothing happens. It just moves from scene to scene without much of anything connecting them. And truth be told, I really had no clue what was going on at any given time. They'll bring something up, then forget it ever existed a few scenes later. And then there's the idea that people are either committing mass suicides or outright vanishing off the face of the earth, but you wouldn't know that from watching the beginning of the movie. Kairo's world seems quite tiny even before the trouble starts brewing, especially when you consider the movie focuses on no other characters but the three or four leads and very rarely shows anything happening in the world around them. Though I guess in a movie about an ever-mounting sense of loneliness, it's only right to have a very small amount of people in it.

But what gets me is that there doesn't really seem to be much of a story being told. As I said, there are lots of plot holes, and while it could probably be blamed on a loss in translation, I grew more and more clueless as the movie progressed. The remake might not have been all that great, but at least it had something resembling a story. But nope, not Kairo. As far as I can tell, there's no true sense of coherence to be found in Kairo, which is sad because everything else about the movie is pretty good. The acting is serviceable, the direction by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) is very good, and the music composed by Takefumi Haketa is excellent.

The thing is, I don't know exactly how I'd rate Kairo if I was asked to. I liked just about everything, but the thoroughly nonsensical plot really took me out of it, which I'm going to blame on cultural differences. I'm sure somebody understands it, and I doubt it'd be an American. However, I will give Kairo a recommendation to the most devoted of J-Horror fans and as of right now, give it a very confused thumbs-in-the-middle. I might give the movie a second look before I send it back to Netflix, but yeah, I wasn't 100% sold on Kairo. It's not an awful movie, it's just... different.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Geez, Writing Is Tough

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to compile a list of the different scenes, scenarios, and moments I wanted to use in the script I was hoping to write one day. I'm up to about 25 or 26, and I'm stuck there, so I believe that I could move forward and fill in the gaps as I go.

But the catch is, while I have a concept, I don't have a real plot. I don't want to go into this thing without a beginning, middle, and end in mind, and I don't have any of those just yet. I'll admit I'm not the most skilled writer there is, but come on, I shouldn't be completely blanking on this. Should I?

While I do an extremely vague idea about what kind of script I want to write, I'm not exactly sure how I want to write it or what direction I want to take it in. Thank God I don't do this professionally, otherwise I'd spend all my time banging my head against the wall in frustration. I don't know if I'd call it writer's block, but whatever is causing this lack of inspiration and imagination is infuriating.

The real bummer is that this is something that I thought I could do. With all the movies that come out both theatrically and direct-to-video, it seemed awfully easy. But I figure that once I get the ball rolling with that oft-mentioned New Year's resolution of mine, I can find some inspiration somewhere and really get this thing going. I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too high about it, just in case I end up having to put it on the shelf indefinitely. No, I don't want to do that, but I'm just saying.

And if worse comes to worse, I can always concentrate solely on writing for "Sutton At The Movies." Doesn't hurt to stick with what I'm good at. The reviews seem to be popular with all three of my readers, and I have boatloads of fun writing them (especially the extremely negative ones, like Uwe Boll's movies). So if this whole screenplay thing doesn't work out, I at least have that to work on. Sure, writing those reviews is first and foremost a hobby to entertain myself, but at least it's something.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Singing The Praises Of Cell

Aside from the writing, I've done a little more reading as well. I'm up to page 261 in Cell, and as I've said a zillion times in the past, but I'm really digging the book. I've got another ninety pages or so before I finish it up, but I almost don't want it to end. It's a really great book, and I wish I could discuss it deeper, but I figure that since I have some readers who may be interested in it, I don't want to give away anything major. (Though those who do want spoilers could check out the plot synopsis over at Cell's Wikipedia page.)

And though I don't want it to end, I can't wait to see how it does.

A Huge Review Backlog

Haven't made any progress on the writing yet. At least, not when it comes to that screenplay I've discussed so much in the past. I have, however, put in a little bit of work on a review of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I'm taking it slow, since even though the third Pirates movie comes out at the end of next month, I'm not setting any sort of deadlines for myself. I don't play nice with deadlines. Never have.

Besides, I'll soon have to put the Pirates review on hold for a little while, because I have another review that I plan to start working on within the next week or two. Currently on deck is a review of Pulse, a J-Horror remake from last year that stars Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars. It's currently in the top spot on my Netflix queue, and I should be getting the Japanese version of Pulse in the mail this afternoon. I figure that if I'm going to write a well-rounded review of a remake, I might as well see the source material first. Makes sense to me, anyway.

I've got a few more reviews lined up in the future, too. I've got my eye on about nine or ten movies near the top of my Netflix queue that I'd like to write about, and I still need to get off my lazy butt and write that Jackie Brown review I've been talking about for a year now.

I'll get to it eventually, I'm sure, but it's all just a matter of time.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Weather's Gone Crazy

Talking about the weather has become something of a running theme, I guess, but I don't even know what to say about it anymore. The temperature was up in the 80s a week or two ago, there were thunderstorms on Tuesday, and now the temperature is cold, somewhere in the neighborhood of the 30s or 40s. It's like early winter weather. Isn't April supposed to be spring? Because that's what I was thinking, and what we're getting now isn't exactly spring weather.

It even snowed yesterday. I know, right? It didn't stick, so we didn't get any gigantic snowdrifts like it seems every other state in the country gets. But still, snow in April? I don't know how it is for other parts of the United States, but snow in April here is downright crazy.

You know, if this is how spring is going to be, I'm absolutely dreading summer.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Victory Is Mine

I mentioned yesterday that I was making an attempt at beating Resident Evil 2 again. Well, I'm not trying anymore, since I just claimed victory. So I'm pretty happy with myself. :)

So I've absolutely kicked the everloving crap out of all the Resident Evil games I own. I could probably beat the first game again and unlock the rocket launcher with infinite ammo, but I'd have to beat the game in something like three hours or less. And folks, I'm not that good of a gamer. I'll probably end up buying a GameShark or something and unlock that game without even trying. I believe I've earned it.

And to revel in my victory, I'm gonna go watch Army of Darkness on AMC. Which reminds me... AMC is supposed to be "American Movie Classics," right? If that's the case, where do they get off showing Catwoman and Blues Brothers 2000? In what screwed-up society are those two movies considered classics? Bizarro World?

Two For The Price Of One

I'm sure everybody has seen the advertisements for Grindhouse by now. You know the ones, where Rose McGowan's got a machine gun for a leg. Yeah, those. For the uninitiated, the idea behind Grindhouse is that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez each directed a movie in the style of '70s exploitation movies and put them together with some fake advertisements as a double feature. I caught it today, and I have to say that I was satisfied.

The first half of the bill, Rodriguez's zombie movie Planet Terror, was boatloads of fun. I'd have gone to see Planet Terror even without the whole grindhouse concept, but the gimmick only makes it that much more entertaining. The acting is engaging, the effects are disgustingly wonderful, and Rodriguez's direction is well-done, so I'll give Planet Terror a thumbs-up.

However, I don't know if I can say that I had the same enthusiasm when it came to Tarantino's Death Proof. Maybe it's because all my energy had been spent on Planet Terror and the mock trailers, but I thought the majority of Death Proof was kinda boring. I mean, there are good things about it. Tarantino's direction was great, and Kurt Russell was awesome, to the extent that whenever he isn't on the screen, everything else seems like it's lacking. I guess I went in expecting people getting run over in every scene, and got a 45-minute car chase and Rosario Dawson and some other actresses sitting around talking about their love lives and some random car chase movie only Tarantino has heard of. Death Proof does have some very exciting stunts, I'll give it that. But I'll also give it a thumbs-in-the-middle. I might end up liking it more when I get the chance to watch it by itself on DVD in a few months, but right now, I putting it as the lesser of the two movies.

And let's not forget those mock trailers. With Rodriguez's Machete at the beginning and Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the S.S., Edgar Wright's Don't, and Eli Roth's Thanksgiving during the intermission, the trailers just might be the best parts of the movie as a whole. And I know they're not for real movies, but I hope they all do get made eventually. Maybe if there's a Grindhouse 2 and Grindhouse 3?

At just over three hours long, Grindhouse is going to be a taxing experience if you don't like sitting in a theater for a long period of time, or if you just don't like (or get) the concept. And though I was worn out after just one movie, I still had a lot of fun with both movies and the experience as a whole. So I'm going to give Grindhouse four stars and a recommendation to those who are in the movie's target audience. And it's a definite DVD purchase for me, for sure.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

A Few Survival Horror Notes

I talk a lot about Resident Evil 4 here at the MSX, primarily because it's such an awesome game. And after hearing some recent news, I have even more reason to go buy a Wii. Why? Because Capcom is releasing the budget-priced Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Playing the game with Wii-ified controls sounds awesome, but my favorite part of the story is this: featured on the game will be the previously PS2-exclusive "Separate Ways" sub-game and a trailer for the upcoming Wii-exclusive Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. I'm really looking forward to anything related to Umbrella Chronicles at this point, but most of all, I'm enthused about "Separate Ways." Since it wasn't in the Gamecube version, getting the chance to play it is enough for me to go buy a Wii and re-buy Resident Evil 4. And I'm probably going to end up buying an X-Box 360 to get Resident Evil 5, barring Capcom going crazy and putting it on the Wii too.

I've also picked Resident Evil 2 back up lately. Man, this, Nemesis, and Code Veronica really could have stood an update in graphics when they were ported to the Gamecube. I mean, I'm glad to even have the games on a console I own, but playing games with PS1 graphics when the other games in the series are so gorgeous is a real bummer. Plus it doesn't help that the scripts are awful and the voice acting is lame beyond words. I think if Capcom really wanted to make truckloads of money, they could remake the other five games in the core franchise in the same style as Resident Evil 4. I'd totally buy them all.

Anyway, I'm getting back into Resident Evil 2. I've already beaten it once with Leon Kennedy, who you may recognize as the hero of RE4, and I'm playing through it again with the other character, Claire Redfield. I last left off maybe halfway through Claire's half of the story, and I've made lots of progress since I picked it back up. Of course, it helps that since I'm playing it on super-easy, I've got a grenade launcher, rocket launcher, two different machine guns, and a crossbow, all with infinite ammunition. I believe I'm only two or three bosses away from a victory, so it shouldn't be long if I stick with it.

And stick with it I shall. Victory, I'm coming for you.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

From Blah Places To Not-So-Blah Places

Sometimes I wonder what I was put on this planet for. I'm sure everybody has moments like that, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I'm not exactly sure why.

Maybe it's because I'm heading towards a transitional period. I probably should have taken care of that years ago, but I guess I'm a late bloomer. That has to be the only excuse, because I just can't think of any other reason for me to have waited so long to really start doing anything with my life. If I'd had this sort of initiative around 1999 or so, I probably wouldn't be worrying about this right now.

It really does bother me, though, that I'm getting such a late start in the game. I know I talked about this in a post a couple of weeks ago, but this sort of thing has a habit of really sticking with a person. But I figure that I'll get it sorted out with some time and effort. At least, I hope I do.

I just took a look at the clock, and noticed that it's 10:45. I started writing this thing an hour and fifteen minutes ago, and I've spent the last thirty of it wondering what else I wanted to say about what was troubling me. I was in kind of a blah place when I started, since thinking about this sort of thing really brings me down. But now that I've gotten even so much as that said, I kind of feel like I've started getting out of that place for tonight. You know, I really should start using this thing to vent more often. I'm shy when it comes to my problems, mainly because I don't want people thinking I'm trolling for sympathy with sob stories when I go off on a rant about what's bugging me. But I might have to start talking about things more often. It makes me feel better.

I don't plan on making it too much of a habit, since I'd like to keep up with the regular jovial yet sarcasm-tinged festivities you, all three members of my audience, have come to know and love about The Matt Sutton Experience. But since I've got this blog going, I might as well use it for a little bit of everything. Besides, it'd be false advertising if I call this thing "The Matt Sutton Experience" and don't give you the full Matt Sutton experience. Am I right? Of course I am.

I always am.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

I Loves Me Some WWE-Produced DVDs

It's still raining outside. It's not as hard as it was a few hours ago, so I think it's about to let up. There's a few-and-far-between instances of lightning, but not enough to really amount to anything. So yeah, I think the thunderstorm has, for the most part, passed.

Anyway, I was going through the wrestling DVDs in my collection earlier, and I got to thinking about a post I made back in January. And upon reflection, I really wish I could have free reign in WWE's tape library for maybe a week. WWE has so much footage, I figure they could start their own full-fledged network, and run through every hour of it and not have to worry about repeating anything for about a decade. They could start the WWE Network and make it a premium channel like HBO or Cinemax, and I'd definitely subscribe to it, mainly because I don't get that "WWE 24/7" video-on-demand thing. And really, isn't video-on-demand be the same thing as pay-per-view? Because it sure sounds like it.

They've already done DVDs about ECW and the AWA, which are both awesome, and DVDs about quite a few individual wrestlers that I still need to get around to buying. (Why I don't already own most of them, I have no idea.) But there's still quite a lot they can do with the library. Take, for example, the box sets they've done for all the WrestleManias and the Royal Rumbles. I'm sure they'll get around to doing SummerSlam and Survivor Series box sets too, but what I'd really like to see is something similar to what they did with WrestleMania 3. Just take a single classic pay-per-view event from any of the promotions they own and do a fancy release for it. Even a bare-bones release would suffice, like the DVD of Barely Legal that they included with last year's One Night Stand.

They could also reprise the idea behind the cage match compilation and do compilations of certain gimmick matches. Don't tell me you wouldn't by a DVD featuring nothing but War Games matches. (Though if they did do a War Games DVD, I wouldn't expect them to include the one match WCW billed as "War Games 2000: Russo's Revenge," where they used the three-tiered cage from Ready To Rumble. I'll also admit that I'd really like to see WWE use that gimmick sometime.) I hear rumors that they're doing a ladder match compilation, so I don't think there's anything stopping them from doing a DVD of casket matches or even just one of any random gimmick match they could put together. Like they could segue from a street fight to a cage match, then to an I Quit match before going to a barbed wire match.

But those are just ideas. I really don't expect WWE's home video department to ever read this and use my suggestions, but there's no harm in a little wishful thinking. Besides, WWE is doing a great job with their releases as it is. They've got so many out there that I want, I'm almost glad I'm perpetually broke. Because if I did have money to burn, I'd go back to being broke because I'd be buying DVDs like crazy. But I guess that's the circle of life.

Or something like that.

Mother Nature: Party Pooper

Man, yesterday was so pretty, and today started out that way too. But then Mother Nature had to go and lose her damn mind by deciding that we'd had enough of that. I say that because it's raining like it's nobody's business right now. Like a full-blown thunderstorm. I might have to go build an ark and fetch me some animals soon.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Posting On A Lazy Monday

It's such a beautiful day today, I should probably be out there enjoying all this fresh air and sunshine instead of sitting in front of this blasted computer writing what you're currently reading. But you're here and I'm here, so let's enjoy ourselves, shall we?

The thing is, I'm afraid this is going to end up being another "I've got nothing" posts. I don't really have any particular topic I felt like discussing at the moment. Not that there's anything wrong with posting for the sake of posting, but I like my work to have a little more substance. I like to think I can do a little better than some of those short, quite unmemorable posts I wrote for the first few years of the Experience's existence. Know what I mean? Of course you do.

But yeah, I've got nothing. At least I managed to kill a little time on this lazy Monday. And there's no harm in that, is there? I think not.

State of the Screenplay

Welcome to the month of April, everybody. Glad to see you could make it.

So not a whole lot happened over the course of this past weekend. I read a wee bit of Cell, which I really need to jump deeper into since I just came across a very intriguing plot twist. I last left off on page 205, just a little over halfway through, and I can't wait to see what the next 145 pages have to offer.

I've also done some pre-planning on the script idea I mentioned in my last post. I'm in the process of writing down all my favorite memories from my college days, or at least the ones that I think would make good scenes in a movie (I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty, I think, so far), and I'm preparing to start working on a list of character names. Like I said, I don't plan on using any real names just in case somebody gets a bee in their bonnet and sues me. But I did know some people with some pretty interesting nicknames that I might have to take inspiration from when I start writing. Like I'm not gonna name a character "Disco" or "The Rage."

Once I get all that taken care of, I can start working on the story. I still don't know what kind of story I want to tell, though I am leaning toward doing something in the vein of the "prospective student learning the ropes" thing from PCU. I don't consider myself to be a very good storyteller, so I'll definitely have to work on how I'm going to write this thing. I can think up all the concepts in the world, but coming up with a beginning, middle, and end is the important part. That's going to be the really big phase of my pre-planning, naturally.

Anyway, that's where things stand with the writing. I do appreciate the support from all three of my readers so far, and you guys can feel free to pitch in with any suggestions or comments or anything like that. Be my guest. I'm just happy this script thing seems like it's really starting to move forward. Seems like that's becoming a theme.