stuff
You know, you'd think that being unemployed would give me more time to write.
Quite the opposite. Between writing resumes (much more challenging than I had thought), job hunting, housework, and catching up on school stuff I had been blowing off for my ex-employer, I can barely find time to drink a case of beer a night.
So, some quick notes:
Deadwood is good stuff. Put it on your Netflix list.
Scarecrow is not such good stuff. We rented it hoping for a good cheesy horror flick; this one is bad beyond expectations. It isn't really even good for a laugh. Plot synopsis: standard high-school dork gets picked on a lot at school then killed by some bad redneck parody that had a few minutes earlier been fucking his mom. After his death, he unexplicably either becomes a scarecrow or merges with a scarecrow; along the way he picks up some super ninja skills and a desire to kill characters that have nothing whatsoever to do with either his death or the plot.
The first half of the movie is a total waste. The acting is quite possibly the worst I have ever seen. The guy cast as the high school dork is at least 30 years old; I got the most entertainment out of the shots showing his bald spot. In fact, none of the high schollers are anywhere close to high school age; I don't know why but for some reason they couldn't find bad actors in their early twenties and had to settle for worse actors in their thirties.
Every character in the movie is a (poorly acted) sterotype, from his white trash mom and her fuck-of-the-moment to "the only girl in school that gives a shit about the dork".
After his death/resurrection, the movie gets marginally better. But still, the scarecrow insists on a bad pun before each kill, the kills are neither particularly gory nor interesting, and there is no further plot development. Literally, the plot stops after the incredibly bad first half.
Between every scene is a seemingly endless bit of stock film of corn and moon or flashbacks to earlier scenes. It was so monumentally boring I was practically begging to get it over with already. Starting with the opening credits, which were the same five shots repeated over and over for at least two days, the director for some reason felt the need to insert the same boring shit in every scene change. By the 75th shot of a scene I had already seen and a Winnebago, I wanted to shoot my tv.
There is no worthwhile explination why or how this dead guy suddenly became a ninja-scarecrow. There are at least three endings offered, none of which are any good. Alot of stuff appears out of nowhere (the killer has weapons he didn't have before, characters pop out of the woodwork, etc). The script sucks so bad it makes me want to puke that someone got paid to write that drivel; the acting is absolute bottom barrell; the direction is so bad it makes my high school videos look like fucking Hitchcock.
Redeeming values (they are very few, but): the scarecrow getup was pretty good; cheesy but spooky, would've worked great in another movie.
The guy that played the scarecrow also designed the costume, which is apparently his regular deal, so props to him.
The girl that played the dork-friendly eventual hero (or villian? who fucking knows?) did pretty well with a for-shit script and a part not even remotely suited to her.
Other than that, it's all crap. I can't even reccommend it for something to laugh at due to the pure boredom of so very many scenes. Pure crap, stay away.
Best review,
another good review.
In other news, I just discovered a Monty Python disk that wasn't stolen with the rest of my cd's; part of their "
Final Ripoff". Great stuff.
Also good, for those who like chick-rock that isn't too fucking girl-power:
Poe. Great stuff; slightly techno, occasionally personal, overall fuckin' rocks.
Another chick rocker, while I'm at it:
Mary Prankster. Very clever, folksy style. Has a way with words that is unsurpassed, but isn't fucking obnoxious about it like some girl singers I could name.
Also, neither of the two above has received the recognition they deserve. They are much better than some of their more famous counterparts, check them out.
I actually went to a Mary Prankster concert once, years ago, on a night that is better left forgotten. She was playing acoustic that night, no band backup, and I was still very impressed. I bought one of her cd's that night and got a picture taken with her afterward (the birth of me doing the stupid "Rock and roll will never die" thing in every fuckin photograph). Good time, despite the company; she can connect with the crowd in a rare way. Which is to say, she has a smart way with her words, and the lyrics of her music reflect it.
Finally, Mary is stupid hot. I just thought I'd throw that in. I understand the band has actually broken up, but I'm too fucking lazy to look up the details right now; check out the stuff at that link. You won't be disappointed.
On another note, Harp Lager is Guinness for pussies. Excellent beer, actually, good for nights you feel like an Irish but don't feel like drinking something you have to chew first. Just don't drink it in public, or else people like me will make fun of you for not having the balls to buy a real beer.
Apparently, the people at Guiness are too lazy to put together a Harp homepage. I respect that sort of aggressive laziness, so no link.
I am sick and fucking tired of service interruptions on
my internet cable. Once every few months was annoying but understandable; two or three times a week is fucking ridiculous. And I wish they would hire someone in tech support with an IQ in the double digits that could perhaps (imagine this!?!) answer my basic questions. I know they have to treat every caller like an idiot due to the high occurrence of moronic callers, but they should be able to handle people that know where the power button is on their computer as well.
Hm. No politics on this one; political shit has been pissing me off even more than usual lately. Go figure.
