Return to Perfection

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Work has been crazy busy the past few weeks… yet I’m amazing at doing my jobs… dare I say the BEST!!! Although… unfortunately that’s a little like saying that I’m the best at folding envelopes… nobody really cares. I’m the LeBron of doing my many essential yet underappreciated jobs! So to get through all the BS… luckily I have my lovely ladyfriend Izzy, my amazing family, my incredible friends, even a few of my coworkers when I’m not up to my brow in all the mucky muck… so I’m incredibly thankful for them… and checks that clear on a regular basis. One may ask, “Where DOES all the money go?” The answer my friends… is blowing in the wind… and to even more BS. Sigh… such is the futility of the somewhat oppressed middle class… hopefully I’ll ditch that someday… but it takes hard work… on many jobs… that will actually pay off. More to come… until then, here are a few movies that I watched to forget about the monotony of everyday worklife.

 

First up is “Harbinger Down” starring Lance Henriksen and comes from writer/director Alec Gillis who has done makeup & special effects on a bunch of movies like “Aliens”, “AVP” & a few “Tremors” movies. This movie is about college grad students who are documenting beluga whales while aboard a crabbing ship in the Bering Sea… and then they find a piece of Soviet space wreckage. While examining the wreckage, they find the pilot… pretty well preserved… but things are not what they seem. (Dun dun duuuuuuh…) Okay, so from here… the movie basically turns into a low budget retelling of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (yes, I know it’s a remake and has since been remade… but you get the idea & he did it best & this is the most fitting version) where there’s an organism that’s able to adapt almost immediately, grow into anything it comes into contact with (or has while underwater) and now the crew is prey. The movie does have its shortcomings… but overall, I really liked it. There’s a large number of practical effects (and some CGI of course, due to budget I’m sure) and the acting is… okay. There are a few times in the movie where there are pretty obvious solutions that aren’t utilized… but you’ll know them when you see them. Basically, if you like “The Thing” then check it out. If it’s not your cup of tea… then watch something else.

  

Monday night, we watched a 1973 movie that was recommended by The Film Vault podcast called “It’s Alive” starring John Ryan. This movie is about a couple who are having a baby… but during the delivery there are… complications. Though nothing out of the ordinary was discovered in the nine months leading up to the delivery… the baby turns out to be a mutated monster who has… as the tagline says “a nasty habit of killing when it’s scared… and it’s easily scared.” Basically the child LAUNCHES out of her vagina and kills all of the doctors & nurses in the delivery room… and it’s not done yet. The movie is greatest kind of schlock that you can imagine… and I recommend checking it out with friends. They really try to act the hell out of the movie… and the use of POV and implied altercations and slow reveal of the monster is pretty well done for… I assume being done on a budget of a few hundred dollars. It’s a little cheesy… you know, like any film featuring a fully aggressive bloodthirsty killer monster ninja straight out of the womb would be… but yeah, I’d say check it out. Not bad for 40+ years old.

 

Wednesday night, Izzy & I also started to watch another TV series. Do you remember the 1990 movie “Tremors” with Kevin Bacon & Fred Ward? How about the sequels? Did you know that they just released “Tremors 5: Bloodlines” about a month ago and it was going to be the first movie reviewed on our podcast Everything I Learned From Movies? Of course you do!!! Well, did you know that in 2003 there was a TV series of “Tremors” that was on the SciFi Network? You may have guessed that it only lasted one season… seeing as you’d never heard of it AND it was on the SciFi Network… but yeah, it even starred the patron saint of the Tremors series, Michael Gross as Burt Gummer. Who else was in the series you ask? Well, “Breaking Bad” star Dean Norris as a BLM bureaucrat is in every episode… the mom from “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” (Marcia Strassman) is a regular… legend Christopher Lloyd is in a few… and the lead (poor man’s Kevin Bacon/Fred Ward) is played by Victor Browne who you probably won’t remember from anything… but he’s surprisingly charismatic & decent eye candy. What’s the story? Well… in a world where Tremors’ giant worm creatures are a reality… they’re also a protected endangered species and… you know what? You’re just going to have to wait for the first episode of the podcast my friends. There are some great thoughts there…

 

By the way, I know that the podcast is taking a long time to release… but trust me, it’ll be worth it… and we’re starting 2016 off RIGHT with our first episode… we’ve just been hella busy as this blog will attest to. Stick in there. The podcast will be free anyway… just like this blog. Coming soon!!!

 

In the meantime, big weekend coming up with the Mangria Bar Crawl on Friday… and Central Valley Con on Sunday… it’s going to be amazing… and I’ll have the pictures& stories for you shortly. Until then, have a great weekend everybody!!!