Local Highlights

Things that make me smile

Local Highlights

Local library dvd categories 

 

Popular, Children's, Comedy, Sci-fi War And Western, and Horror & Musical

Things that make me smile

 

Love Game by Heather Ramsay

BlyeQ Hi/Bye Shoulder Bag

Movie Review - The Man From Earth

I had this movie on my queue for well over a year before I decided to try it. The plot summary made it sound like a low budget science fiction film, full of actors from canceled television shows. As it turns out, it is a low budget science fiction film, full of actors from canceled tv shows, but it's possibly the best, most engaging science fiction film I've ever seen. The entire film takes place inside one man's house and his driveway. The lead character is a college professor named John, who is leaving his job and "moving on." His friends and co-workers try to throw him a going away party, but he slips out before they can grab him. So they take all the food and booze and catch him at his house before he leaves. They're all curious about where he's going, and why he feels the need to leave. His answers start an incredibly interesting and intelligent conversation. You get pulled in and forget your watching a movie about a bunch of people talking and drinking wine.  The movie was so captivating it pulled my boyfriend out of the computer room because he didn't want to miss anything. Easily the most original science fiction film I've seen in a very long time.

The Man from Earth

Movie Review - Paranormal Activity 2 (Spoilers)

I'll admit that I havn't seen Paranormal Activity 1, primarily because I thought it looked stupid. I also thought the sequel looked stupid, and I was happily surprised, so I should give the other one a shot. What made this movie different from other recent horror movies to me was the believability. Not the concept, of demons possessing people and stalking their families, but the almost total lack of special effects. There are no cheesy shots of little girls in period clothing walking down hallways, faces appearing in windows, or blood oozing from faucets. The entire movie is built on the fear of normal, random events building into something unexplainable. With the exception of three scenes, the baby floating out of the crib, the kitchen cabinets exploding open, and the mother getting gut punched in the nursery and dragged down the stairs. The build up leading to each of those scenes is so mundane, and the filming of everything is done with home video and surveillance cameras, it makes each moment feel like it could really happen. If I ever see a copy at Half Price Books I'll buy it.
                                                                   Paranormal Activity 2
                                                                
                                                  

Rewriting the Land Before Time

I was scrolling through "Watch It Again" on Netflix when I noticed this,

And I thought, what a happy picture. Those dinosaurs don't look like they're in any danger at all! That's not the way I remember this movie. I remember death, and starvation, and being chased by a T-Rex that looked WAY bigger than that tiny dude does in the picture above.
 
So I went looking for the original poster/vhs cover art, and found this

Now THAT looks more familiar. Two volcanoes erupting in the distance. Tree suspended over a misty canyon. Tiny little dinosaur kids with giant T-Rex. And I wondered if there was more cover art cover-ups out there.

Here's An American Tail the 21st century version

 Fivel's got his sister and a friendly cat next to him, and he's standing tall on some luggage.

Here's what it looked like in 1986

Fivel's by himself, and in easy foot-smashing level, though still apparently happy to be in America.


Here's one in reverse.  The Rescuers Down Under as it was in 1990.  Dangling high above the outback, everyone seems terrified, except for the Australian kangaroo rat.

Somewhere in between they made this one

Now they're still dangling, but over water. And everyone looks like they're having fun.

And finally we have this latest version.

Nobody's dangling, they're flying. And everyone seems happy. Except Bernard who for some reason looks worried.

These are all fairly frightening children's films. Children are separated from their parents, put in life or death situations, often by truly evil bad guys (or bad cats) and people die. Thank god they haven't actually edited the films themselves to make them less frightening, but by editing the pictures they're misrepresenting the content of the movies. Modern children's movies are usually much tamer than what I grew up with, and G ratings reflect the lack of violence and danger. All three of these movies are rated G, but it's a 1980's-1990's G, not a modern G.  If you're a parent who has somehow never seen these films, you might think from the cover art that they'd be perfect for your two year old. Never guessing he could have many nightmares of evil dinosaurs, evil cats, and poachers.

Netflix (The illusive 'Recently Watched' category.)

I understand Netflix's recent push to move all their members into primarily instant watch accounts. I even agree with them up to a point. The digital disc form of media has to be be on it's way out. BluRay bought dvd's a slightly longer lifespan, since most consumers still don't have high enough bandwidth to support HD streaming. But eventually that'll change. So I'm grateful for the effort Netflix has put into building it's instant watch library. They've even partnered with major premium channels like Stars and Showtime. I don't understand their constantly changing Instant Watch interface. The newest incarnation reads more like an i-phone app than a computer or console program. It's irritating since you can no longer scrole back and see the programs on the bottom of you queue, you have to go all the way down sometimes hundreds of movies to get to the bottom. I can live with that. What I don't understand is why sometimes the category 'Recently Watched' appears conveniently next to your instant queue, and other times doesn't appear at all. It seems to have no basis on how recently I've watched something, or what I've watched. It's the Bermuda Triangle of streaming video. Sometimes it disappears for long stretches of time, only to reappear with videos long forgotten. Sometimes it gives terrifying visions of what your boyfriend's been watching in the early morning before he goes to work, like Zombie Strippers, or Zardoz.

Local Highlights

Where the elves go when they're not wanted

A few moments of dignity

I was originally going to call this post 

The Weight Wake-up Call (Or the thrilling tale of 'The Belly of Death and Destruction')

I went through all my old pictures and found what I thought was truly damning evidence of my tremendous weight gain, thirty pounds since last February. But when I put the most recent few in I realized something. I don't look fat, not in the least. I kept rewriting the tag line under the fourth picture, trying to justify it's purpose as proof that I've gained weight. And I couldn't do it. I don't look fat in it or any pictures I could find. (Cry for me right?)  Now I know I need to lose weight. None of my pants fit and since all my pudge seems to congregate around my middle, rather than dispersing evenly, I have that unfortunate pregnant-when-I'm-really-not look. But I'll admit the situation is much less dire than I thought. So instead of showing you pictures of me when I wasn't fat, but thought I was, I'll give you a few of my more dignified moments over recent years. 



This is me three years ago:

                                                                (Rock'n the forced smile)

Two years ago:

                                                           (Check out that sunburn baby)

Last year

    (My boyfriend for whatever reason thought this was hilarious. He kept asking me to step closer to the sign)

And this year....

Well there aren't any pictures of me this year. Mainly because it's still February, partly because I'm not feeling very photogenic, and ultimately because I can't find my camera. So instead I'll leave you with another gem from last year.

                                                                  (Yup, very dignified)