The Miracle of Rotoscoping: American Pop

Watched the rest of American Pop with Stinky McGee. Oh, the miracle of rotoscoping. It wasn't a BAD movie. Not that I'm saying it was good--because it wasn't--but it was entertaining. I pretty much liked it until the end. Then they ruined everything by seguewaying from a bad cover of "Pretty Vacant" into Bob Segar's "Night Moves" and then inexplicably into "Blue Suede Shoes." BAh. Bah, I say.

Detective Monks and a Killer Virus

The Name of the Rose is wicked good. I'd be really interested in whether the preface is fact, or just something Umberto Eco added to the story, because it is for all intents and purposes a Sherlock Holmes book. I'm sure anyone who's ever read it knows this, but I was still highly amused.
1. The detective/monk is named William of Baskerville. (Hound of the Baskervilles)
2. The tale was written down by his young assistant. (Watson)
3. Brother William has a habit of chewing on a certain root, which leads to him being manic and indefatiguable sometimes, and lethargic and misery-ridden other times. (Holmes and his coke habit)
4. Brother William likes to startle people with his remarkably astute observations. (This is just obvious)
I'm only about 40 pages in, but not only am I enjoying the plot, I'm also enjoying the "Where's Waldo" aspect of watching out for other Holmes references. In the movie, Brother William is played by Sean Connery, and I must admit I'd just love to see that. Not only that, but the story is set at the monastery of Melk, which I happened to visit on my first trip to Germany (Remember it, BackinBlack? Wasn't it the one with the terrific view where everything was coated in gold? If we DID go there, BackinBlack probably has a lot of pictures, since I believe in the week we were abroad he took eleventy-billion roles of film...)

I'm also reading The Stand again--the uncut version, which apparently has, like, a hundred more pages than the first publication. It's a lot scarier than it was the first time I read it, due to the historical/contextural lense I'm viewing it through. See, basically, the US military developed this terrifyingly contagious, extremely deadly disease for biological warfare, but there was an accident, it got out, and it wipes out something like 90% of the world's population in about a week and a half. Right now, I'm still in the first few chapters, and there's all kinds of military cover-ups and manipulations of the media. Very creepy.

"Try getting reservations at Dorsia NOW!": "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis

This is not an easy read. This is not a book for reading on a bench in the park on a sunny afternoon. This is a book that will torment you and stress you out and make you sweaty and neurotic. It is not necessarily chronological. It is gory and in places utterly revolting. You will probably not like a single one of the characters. There will be pages and pages where the narrator describes in excrutiating detail everything he eats, everything he wears, everything he uses in the shower. It is possible that you will hate the narrator.

That said, it is an amazing book and I love it. It is a bloody take on the rampant materialism and declining morality of the 1980s. It makes an excellent companion piece to 'Fight Club.'

Lord of the Rings: The Quick Version

"And we walked through a field. And then through a forest. And then to the mountains. Then through the mountains. How spooky are these mountains? Pretty spooky." -- The Bearded Prophet

The Freeway Movies

In the past two days, I watched Freeway and Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trick Baby. Freeway is a pretty good movie, I guess. It's well-made and has a lot of famous people in it. Also, seeing Brooke Shields with her brains splattered all over the place definitely gave me a little thrill. However, for pure entertainment value, I must agree with Prancing Prince that Freeway 2 wins. It has a lot of blood and vomiting and violence and female masterbation and lesbian sex and a really really scary nun. (All the ingredients for a great movie, of course.) Nevertheless, after seeing it, I am no longer going to let you mock my movie choices anymore, Prancing Prince, because it is a tragically bad film. It falls into that category inhabited by things like Army of Darkness. (Not that I don't LIKE Army of Darkness, but you can't tell me it's a "good" piece of cinema.)

Lose Yourself: 8 Mile

Oh my God. Omigod. 8 Mile? So so so so so sooooooooooo good! Dude, it fucking ROCKED! I came out of there so damned pumped I couldn't even sit still for like an hour. Eminem? SO GOOD. And SO BLOODY HOT! And that sex scene? JESUS. I won't even BEGIN to try and say how motherfucking hot THAT was. I think it was quite possibly the hottest sex scene I've seen in a movie in AGES. (Though sex in a metal pressing factory? Seems kind of dangerous--there's the possibility of getting metal shards up your ass or having a machine turn on and squish you...) Brittany Murphy was really skanky and kind of annoying, but everyone else was great. Well, and Kim Basinger was a little too pretty to be white trash--I've never seen a trailer trash chick with hair that good. But other than that? FAAAANTASTIC. You should all go see it. It was a nice bit of film. I'm going to try and convince someone to go and see it with me again.

I don't even know what do say here...: Fire Walk With Me

Spent the morning sleeping, and the afternoon watching Fire Walk With Me. I know, I know, I should have watched the show first, but the DVD just seemed to jump off the shelf at me. It's a FUCKED UP piece of film. I didn't get it. There were more loose ends then there were tied ends, everyone was a complete psycho, and I was so annoyed by Laura Palmer I couldn't WAIT for someone to kill her. Also, Chris Isaak disappeared (without any explanation) about twenty minutes into it, and Kiefer Sutherland left for Portland, never to be heard from again. They--as well as Bobby the drug dealer--were my favorite characters. Kyle MacLaughlan was creepy. Most of the other characters were completely unnecessary. Also the random white horse and gratuitous monkey. I'd still like to see the shows sometime--since they were on TV, perhaps they make a smidgen more sense.