Friday, January 29, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Daily DVD

Alien: This is an excellent movie. Lots of tension, just the right amount of gross-out, and a strong female protagonist (a.k.a. Action Girl). I really prefer nuanced tension and character development in my horror/sci-fi, and this joint delivers. It also helps that I had not watched it in many years, so when this baby was next on the list, it was like visiting an old friend. Since we have actually watched the next movie (Aliens), it is difficult for me to write this little recap without comparing the two, but I will try. I love the ride Scott takes us on - we aren't really sure what we're dealing with when the alien is introduced, and I love how all the characters are just focused on getting monetarily compensated for the extra journey to check out the distress signal (there is definitely a trope for that, but I can't seem to find it). Things quickly go south, and despite a few annoying mis-steps (you know they are dead - why are you wasting precious minutes going to check on them? Yeesh - Ripley, watch some more movies!), I really enjoy the pace and the fake-outs. I believe I am in the minority when I say that I prefer this original 'Alien' to it's sequel.

Daily DVD



Alien Apocalypse: This dvd was purchased for one reason only: Bruce Campbell wielding a flame-thrower and a harpoon gun (make that two - the title added to the appeal). I mean, really - who wouldn't want to see a movie with 'The Chin' wrecking shit and killing aliens? However, once the disc was popped into the player, 'SciFi Pictures' popped onto the screen, and we knew what we were in for. Sure enough, instead of awesome action and one-liners, we got bad puns and even worse wigs. Seriously - the wigs were ABYSMAL!! I loved them. If I knew I could see this on what is now known as 'SyFy' on one of my 'just-terrible-terrible-awful-awful' movie binges, I would've saved the $7 I spent on the dvd, but it was an enjoyable, semi-campy ride.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Daily DVD


We started our DVD collection marathon again, and it has quickly become very apparent that having a baby will not allow us to make it a daily event - more of a weekly event, at best. Whatever - anyway:

Alice in Wonderland: I purchased this one because I couldn't remember if I'd ever really seen it before, and someone mentioned in passing that it was a fun movie to pop in while sick and hallucinating from a high fever. It is disturbing enough without the addition of a fever dream, but when I tried watching it while sick, I just passed out from NyQuil and remembered nothing.

The animation is amazing, and some of the images are quite iconic. The adaptation from the original work is a bit loose, but nobody really seems to mind. It's a great movie to have on dvd to watch once the beeb grows up and actually starts to understand the bright colors flashing on the screen, but the 'literary nonsense' genre doesn't do all that much for me. Classic animation and a classic story - perhaps not one of my favorites, but enjoyable nonetheless.