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On A Lighter Note
Dec. 19th, 2012 10:10 amTaking a break from this blog's recent focus on guns, gun laws and mental illness, I thought I'd at least mention a few recent movies that I had seen. Basically, I discovered Comcast's listing of all on-demand movie titles, and decided to wade through the clumsy interface and screen a few titles that had been discussed in other forums.
The first such title was White Zombie, a 1932 film that was discussed at a recent Windycon. It's more of interest as a historical artifact then a good movie. At only 66 minutes, it's short, and the only star in it that I'd heard of was Bela Lugosi. The basic plot is that Lugosi is a white guy living in Haiti and using zombies to run his sugar mill. He's hired by a plantation owner to zombify a young woman for the owner to possess. Things go wrong, as they usually do, and (poorly-acted, semi-audible and not very logical) hilarity ensues. Like I said, it's basically of interest as a historical document of how most Americans came to hear of zombies.
Staying on the speculative fiction end of things, I had attempted to screen the 1985 movie Lifeforce, but Comcast didn't have it. They did have Logan's Run, which I had only seen years ago in a heavily-edited TV version. So, I selected Logan. Great googly moogly - the special effects were horrible! Every shot of the city looked like a cheap model, and the laser-blasts from their guns looked like kid's sparklers. Poor Jenny Agutter almost got a costume, and the crew must have gotten several eyefuls of her. Having said all of that, I found the movie entertaining but not particularly profound.
Lastly, I went with a modern release, the 2012 movie Lawless, which I had intended to see in theater. The movie is based on a historical novel which is based on true events regarding moonshining during Prohibition in rural Virginia. I really enjoyed it, especially seeing Shia LaBeouf's character grow from kid to man. Recommended.
The first such title was White Zombie, a 1932 film that was discussed at a recent Windycon. It's more of interest as a historical artifact then a good movie. At only 66 minutes, it's short, and the only star in it that I'd heard of was Bela Lugosi. The basic plot is that Lugosi is a white guy living in Haiti and using zombies to run his sugar mill. He's hired by a plantation owner to zombify a young woman for the owner to possess. Things go wrong, as they usually do, and (poorly-acted, semi-audible and not very logical) hilarity ensues. Like I said, it's basically of interest as a historical document of how most Americans came to hear of zombies.
Staying on the speculative fiction end of things, I had attempted to screen the 1985 movie Lifeforce, but Comcast didn't have it. They did have Logan's Run, which I had only seen years ago in a heavily-edited TV version. So, I selected Logan. Great googly moogly - the special effects were horrible! Every shot of the city looked like a cheap model, and the laser-blasts from their guns looked like kid's sparklers. Poor Jenny Agutter almost got a costume, and the crew must have gotten several eyefuls of her. Having said all of that, I found the movie entertaining but not particularly profound.
Lastly, I went with a modern release, the 2012 movie Lawless, which I had intended to see in theater. The movie is based on a historical novel which is based on true events regarding moonshining during Prohibition in rural Virginia. I really enjoyed it, especially seeing Shia LaBeouf's character grow from kid to man. Recommended.
