Snakes on a ... well... you know...

As the "Snakes on a Plane" internet phenomenon embraces the actual release of the movie, the press is having fun with it. Can a movie with this much internet hype be any good? I have no idea, as I haven't seen it yet, but hope to before the week is out. I could have gone to an early showing Thursday evening, but decided to be a grownup and not go to a movie that would get me home after midnight. It has Samuel Jackson. And snakes. On a Plane. What's not to love? (CNN loved it.)

This article from Salon (you may have to watch an ad to read it) has an intriguing interview with an actual anaconda expert (who has, in fact, transported snakes on a plane). I'm afraid of many things (dogs, spiders, bees...) but not snakes, so I found it fascinating.

My favorite bit (linked but not shown because it contains the infamous mother line not suitable for work and children) is the Harry Potter crossover icon: Harry Potter and Snakes on a Plane!

EDIT: I got out to see this on Saturday, and it was fun. Not a great movie, by any means, but a solid homage to the disaster movies of the seventies. It was funny when it meant to be, and they covered at least some details (like different venoms having different effects) that I hadn't expected. It begs to be MST3K'd, though. The matinee audience was sparse, and for once I didn't mind people commenting on the film - I was too. It was all in good fun.

I gather that SoaP hasn't made the kind of money they were hoping, despite the massive internet buzz. I'm put in mind of another movie with a lot of fan/internet support (Serenity) that didn't do nearly as well as we all thought it would. I wonder if there's something to be learned from this, perhaps that internet buzz != ticket sales. I have no idea why, though.

V for Vendetta

Um. Wow. Okay... this is an amazing movie, and I think you should go see it. Now. Okay, tomorrow will do. It resonated for me on a deep level - our freedoms are so frail, this could be our future. And yet... there's a message of hope. "People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people." I belong to the generation that stopped a war - we need to get off our middle-aged butts and do it again. Demand our individual freedoms before they steal them all away.

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

Dear Mr. Lucas (redux)

The web comic Popcorn Picnic provided the comic below. I've copied it to my server to save their bandwidth, but I encourage you to click on over there and tell them how much you enjoyed the strip. Copyright and all rights belong to Popcorn Picnic.

Sickbed Movies

I've been serving the higher purpose of providing a reproductive environment for germs for the past week, and in between mega-naps and coughing jags, I've been catching up on my trash video. To wit: Bloody Mallory. Described as "Indiana Jones meets Buffy", this French film (dubbed in English) is about as wacky as it gets. It may be the fever talking (which broke Saturday night, actually), but I enjoyed it. It has a goofy anime feel about it, with a mute telepathic child and a transvestite explosives expert, along with a kidnapped pope and a Vatican bodyguard... oh heck, let me just steal the summary from Deep Discount DVD.

Perhaps the only entry in a genre all its own, BLOODY MALLORY is a neo-B movie French actioner, with a ghoul-busting babe as its heroine, and an aesthetic designed to mimic the look of Japanese manga. A pastiche that counts BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and RESIDENT EVIL among its influences, the low-budget flick sports surprisingly strong special effects, and a soundtrack by Kenji Kawai (GHOST IN THE SHELL). Mallory (Olivia Bonamy, JEFFERSON IN PARIS) had a difficult wedding night, when she discovered her new husband was a demon and was forced to off him with an ax. He cursed her as he died, and now she is forever bound to fight the forces of evil in France. A few years later Mallory heads up a team of anti-paranormal agents, comprised of an eight-year-old mute psychic who can occupy the bodies of others, and Vena Cava, a flamboyant transvestite with expert knowledge of explosives. When a routine mission in a convent turns into mass destruction, due to the appearance of a mysterious hooded woman who makes short shrift of Mallory's team, the goblin warrior knows something big is brewing. Barely escaping with her life, Mallory soon learns that the Pope has been kidnapped by the same shadowy figure, and despite the Church's disapproval of her activities, she is the only one who can save him. Mallory must enter an alternate realm to which the ghouls have taken His Holiness, and, with the aid of Vena and Father Carras (Adria Collado)--the Pope's leather-clad bodyguard -- battle a shape-shifting succubus and a female vampire, among many other nasty demons.

If I can find it cheap, I'll probably buy it (though Amazon's $23 is more than it's worth to me). Deep Discount DVD has it for $17 - maybe if they have a sale...

On the health care front, I took wisdom from this same time last year (when I went and ran at a con anyways, and ended up with pneumonia), and cancelled all activities (including my first run of a Serenity RPG game for the club on Sunday) and concentrated on sleeping, drinking lots of fluids and trying to get better. Oddly enough, it seems to have worked, and I take some comfort in it being unlikely that I have passed this on to anyone else. Good thing I put up a lot of turkey & brown rice soup at Thanksgiving!

Next up on the viewing list: Cursed and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Shiny!

I saw Serenity 3 times this weekend, and will see it as many next weekend if I can. I still jump, startle, gasp, cry and see new things with each viewing.

This, from the online strip Legostar Galactica for Oct 02, 2005, about says it all:


Joss Whedon is My Master Now