Happy Halloween

It's October 31st, so I'm sure you know what that means. Yep, happy Halloween, folks. I hope everybody has a fun, safe evening tonight. That means that you should try avoiding those apples full of razor blades that everybody warns you about. Or avoiding apples in general today. It's a day for candy and debauchary, not for fruit. Unless it's fruit made of candy. Or even an apple with a Jolly Rancher stuck in the middle of it or something.

So go have yourself some fun doing whatever it is you've got planned tonight. Personally, I've got plans to do what I do every year: watch scary movies and have fun handing out candy. And I don't believe I'd have it any other way. Once again, happy Halloween. Is there any day - besides Christmas morning - that's more fun?

I'm Still Writing

Outside of going to see movies, I've also been doing a bit of writing about them. You may remember me mentioning that a few dozen times. I just finished up a new review a few days ago, which leaves me at four to go before my "Sutton At The Arcade" project is finally finished. So I guess you could say that it's coming along nicely. I'm hoping to have the final four done by the beginning of December at the latest, but as always, we'll have to see.

I am a little bummed, however, that I'm not going to have a new horror movie review up for Halloween this year. But I guess that's my own fault for not timing my writing schedule correctly. I did have an idea for some holiday-oriented reviews, though. Since Christmas is two months away, my idea was to review both the 1974 and 2006 versions of Black Christmas and post them on the big day. I'd review Silent Night, Deadly Night too, but that DVD is out of print and I'm currently unable to find a good download of it. Eh, there's always next year, I guess. (And if anybody suggests I review Santa's Slay... why?)

But yeah, a Black Christmas double feature this Christmas sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I'll hopefully have that for you this Christmas.

Let's Play A Game... Again

For the second weekend in a row, I decided to head out to the cinemas and check out a new horror movie in preparation for Halloween. This week's adventure into the genre was Saw IV, which I'd been looking forward to since it was announced last year. And I figure that I might as well talk about it for a little while.

I might as well come right out and say that I'm not sure if Saw IV is a sequel that needed to be made. Don't get me wrong, I love the Saw movies and I'll see a hundred Saw movies if they make them. But outside of one or two loose ends, Saw III was a pretty high note for the franchise to have gone out on. That said, I thought this fourth movie was entertaining enough. It might be a little too complex for its own good, but I thought that it was solid for the most part. The cast tries hard, the direction is fine as usual, and the traps are as creative as you'd expect. But there's something about it that makes it not as good as its predecessors. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what that something is, but right now, I'm stumped.

That's not to say I didn't like the movie, though. It's got everything one would expect from the franchise, which - depending on your personal opinion of the Saw movies - may or may not be a good thing. As a fan, I have to say that even in spite of its flaws, I did like Saw IV. And after that ending, it has me wondering just what the hell they'll do with Saw V. I guess we'll see next Halloween. But I'll give Saw IV three stars, as well as a recommendation to primarily the most diehard of fans.

Why Aquaman?

Knowing most of my regular readers, I'm sure that it's common knowledge among them that the producers of Smallville got together a while back to create a pilot for a television show based on Aquaman. Yes, Aquaman. The CW didn't pick up the show, nor did any other network, but the pilot has been available online since last summer. I finally got around to watching it just a little bit ago, and yeah, I can understand why the CW didn't pick up the show.

It's not that it was bad, but outside of one intriguing subplot that seemed like it could be a ripoff of The 4400, I really didn't see anything that would have made me want to tune in week after week. It seems like it would have ended up being just a cheap Smallville wannabe, and that isn't good. At least the cast was likable, especially Justin Hartley as Aquaman. But I think it might be for the best that the show didn't work out, because I think Hartley works better as Smallville's Green Arrow than as Aquaman.

It's almost a bummer that the CW didn't give the show at least one season, just to see where the Bermuda Triangle subplot went, but as I said, I can understand why they didn't. The truth of the matter is that this one episode was pretty underwhelming. But at least it was worth at least one watch.

Those Vampires Mean Business

With Halloween on its way, I figure that the best way to prepare for the big day is to watch lots and lots of horror movies. And that's exactly what I had in mind tonight when I headed out to catch 30 Days of Night. I'll admit that I've never read the comics that served as the flick's inspiration, but I'm sure they're great, because the movie is fantastic.

I guess I'm used to seeing the brooding, mopey, thoroughly emo Whedonesque vampires and the pseudo-raver vampires from the Blade trilogy, because I definitely wasn't expecting the violent, vicious, bloodthirsty monsters from 30 Days of Night. And I think I could get used to these vampires, to be perfectly honest. 30 Days of Night is a rare modern horror movie that presents not only something outside the norm, but something actually good for a change. The directing and music are fantastic, the cast is good, the action sequences are awesome (people in the theater were actually audibly cheering during some of them, no joke), and the whole thing put together equates to what I'd almost be willing to call the best horror movie of the year. (I say "almost" because there's a few other horror movies - namely Saw IV and P2 - coming out between now and the end of the year, and it'd be unfair to make a final judgment until then. But 30 Days of Night is definitely a contender.)

The movie is a decidedly non-traditional vampire movie, combining horror elements with what is essentially an extended action movie chase sequence, and it's done with gusto. I really can't find anything at all to complain about, outside of being unable to remember the names of any character besides the two leads. But that's an extremely minor complaint, so yeah, I'd call 30 Days of Night a pretty good horror movie. Good enough for me to give it four stars on the patent-pending Sutton Scale and my personal seal of approval. So I'm sure my readers who enjoy the genre will certainly like it.

All that's left for me to do is track down the comics, as well as a decent copy of the movie to download. Because I want to make a "Sutton At The Movies" induction out of it as soon as possible.

A Late Night At The Drive-In

Man, has it been a long night. My dad and I just got back from the drive-in theater over in Harrodsburg, and I was quite happy to get home and stretch. As much as I like drive-ins, the numb butt one gets from sitting in a car for six or seven hours is a bit much to endure. But regardless, it was a fun time.

We ended up being the first ones there, getting there right as the ticket booth opened up at 7:00. It was a little awkward to sit in this empty field for an hour by ourselves before anybody else arrived, but we managed to pass the time without getting too bored. People did eventually start showing up, I should note, but I think there were only ten or twelve other cars there total. It's probably because mid-October isn't really known for good drive-in weather. If this had been one of the summer months, the place probably would have been packed. Though in any event, it was still fun.

The two movies featured tonight were Mr. Woodcock and the remake of 3:10 To Yuma. That doesn't sound like a natural doubleheader, I'll admit, but I'm not going to argue with two movies for five bucks. First up was Mr. Woodcock, which I thought was really funny. It's better than School For Scoundrels, at least. Billy Bob Thornton and Seann William Scott are great and Ethan Suplee is funny in his minor role, and the movie as a whole is entertaining. So I'll give it a thumbs up with three and a half stars on the Sutton Scale.

After Mr. Woodcock and the trailers for the One Missed Call remake and National Treasure 2, it was time for the second half of the show, 3:10 To Yuma. I'll admit that I didn't really have a whole lot of interest in it, simply because I'm not all that big of a western enthusiast. I like Tombstone, but that's about as far as it goes. But I figured that since Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are in it, it couldn't have been too bad. Turns out that I actually liked it a lot. Everyone in the cast does a great job, with Ben Foster nearly stealing the show, the direction is solid, and the music is well done. It's definitely a movie I would have paid the full seven bucks to see in an indoor theater, for sure. I'll give 3:10 To Yuma four stars on my Sutton Scale, so go check it out if it's still playing in your neck of the woods.

And since it's so late, I think I'm going to wrap this up and head to bed. Besides, that bucket of popcorn I had at the drive-in isn't sitting too well with me. There's a reason I don't take butter on my popcorn. So anyway, good night, and remember to support your local drive-in.

Just Shooting The Breeze

The writing is coming along pretty good, thank you for asking. I finished up a new piece a few hours ago, which leaves me with four down, six to go. I'm still looking forward to doing that triple feature of House of the Dead 2, Alone in the Dark 2, and BloodRayne 2 whenever Netflix can have all three of them available. And I'm especially anticipating BloodRayne 2, just to see the guy that played Scut Farkus in A Christmas Story as a vampire Billy the Kid. That's going to be one of those, as VH1 would be wont to call it, "awesomely bad" movies, for sure.

But yeah, enough about that. I talk enough about my reviews as it is. Seems like I never really have a topic in mind when I go into these posts, when I could pick one of a million things to talk about. There's the Britney Spears train wreck, the girl from Kentucky that sued McDonald's, my take on the current television schedule, or anything just on my mind at the time. But since life is is moving at a snail's pace for yours truly, I don't really have a whole lot going on that's worth talking about. I hope to change that in the next few months if all goes well.

This reminds me... I should probably note that the MSX's sixth anniversary is next month. I feel like I should start preparing a "State of the Blog" address for the big day, but I'll more than likely play it by ear. I'm starting to really get accustomed to making things up as I go along. That should probably be made my permanent tagline, if I ever decide to ditch the revolving ones: "The Matt Sutton Experience - Making Things Up As I Go Since 2001."

Serious Work On A Project

I've finally started putting some serious work into that "Sutton At The Arcade" thing I've been hyping for forever. I've got two reviews completed, one almost done, and somewhere in the neighborhood of six or seven left. I wish I'd done a little better planning, because I've got a bunch of horror movies lined up in my Netflix list after what I've got set for "Sutton At The Arcade." If I'd thought ahead, I could have gotten them reviewed and posted them on Halloween. That could have been something neat to do, but I've already committed myself to that "Sutton At The Movies" thing. And I'm just too stubborn to drop what I'm doing.

But I guess you can be looking forward to "Sutton At The Arcade" being posted soon, hopefully within the next month or six weeks. But you'll get to read them once I get them written.