NEW WORD FOR THE DAY

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muffin-top: the roll of flesh that pokes out over the top of your pants

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NEW MOVIE COMING THIS SUMMER

(looks cool and it's not a sequel)

Stardust

http://www.stardustmovie.com/site.htm

BEST MOVIE VILLAINS FROM THE 1980’s
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There’s an article from the L.A. Times where actor Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luther on Smallville) picked his favorite villains from the 1980’s (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-spinoffs-sevens-80svillains26apr26,1,2696273.htmlstory?ctrack=2&cset=true). A great bad guy/gal makes a better movie so here’s my list of favorite villains from the 1980’s. {I decided that the villains had to be human or, at least, partially human so the Queen from Aliens, the creature from The Thing, and the ghosts from Poltergeist are not included.}

10) Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland – 1986 – Stand By Me)
9) Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver – 1988 – Working Girl)
8) Al Capone (Robert De Niro – 1987 – The Untouchables)
7) Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper – 1986 – Blue Velvet)
6) The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger – 1984 – The Terminator)
5) Alex Forrest (Glenn Close – 1987 – Fatal Attraction)
4) Khan (Ricardo Montalban – 1982 – Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan)
3) Belloq (Paul Freeman – 1981 – Raiders of the Lost Ark)
2) Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones -- 1980 – The Empire Strikes Back)
1) Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman – 1988 – Die Hard)

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I know I’ve forgotten some good ones.

THAT'S ME...

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Yep, there I am be-bopping-along as I take a week off from work. My plan is to go through my mother's belongings and household furnishings. I will save some, sell some, donate some, and trash the rest. Then I'll paint and clean. Piece of cake.

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I didn't see the sign. I didn't know what I was getting into. The house is a disaster and I've only cleaned out half of the master bedroom. Two dressers with every drawer jammed full. A full closet. Boxes packed under the bed. I have found items that belonged to every member of the family -- my mother, my father, Gary (mom's second husband, both sets of grandparents, all my aunts and uncles and a few cousins. There are old bank statements, Christmas cards, birthday cards, old speeding tickets. My mother "saved" everything. Why? Why, mom? Old plastic keychains from the Goldstrike Casino aren't worth anything. Old batteries. Flashlights (over a dozen and none with batteries.) Old, beat-up Thomas Guide roadmaps.

MOVIE STARS IN HORROR FILMS
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Once upon a midnight, horror films were movies for actors to either begin their careers in or finish their careers. A few actors such as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Bruce Campbell, and Lance Henriksen have created followings in their horror ventures. Now it appears that horror movies have become mainstream for successful actors. The Reaping starring Hillary Swank, The Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson, Dark Water with Jennifer Connelly and The Others with Nicole Kidman are a few examples.

Below are horror titles with major stars (although some weren’t when they played their role):

Kevin Bacon – Friday the 13th, Tremors, Stir of Echoes
Jennifer Connelly – Phenomena
Johnny Depp – Nightmare on Elm Street
Tom Hanks – He Knows You’re Alone
Samuel L. Jackson – Deep Blue Sea
Clint Eastwood – Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula (both roles uncredited)
Demi Moore – Parasite
Jack Nicholson – The Shining, The Terror, The Raven, Little Shop of Horrors
Kurt Russell – John Carpenter’s The Thing
Meg Ryan – Amityville 3-D
Kiefer Sutherland – The Lost Boys
Hillary Swank – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Renee Zellweger – Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

CHILDREN OF MEN
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One of the movies that opened last holiday season that I really wanted to see and didn’t get a chance to was Children of Men.

It is a science-fiction tale set on Earth and not in space. The storyline is that no human births have occurred for 18 years. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine are the stars. Alfonso Cuaron who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabon is the director and one of the screenwriters. The story was based on a novel by mystery writer P.D. James. The film received solid reviews. On the mega-critic site it averaged an 84. It was compared to the classic Blade Runner. My kind of movie.

The week it was released on DVD I picked up a copy at Blockbuster.

Now I’ve seen it. This movie sucked with the force of a hurricane. I have to wonder if the people who are raving about it saw the same film I did. I should have had a clue when there were five screenwriters listed. That is usually a bad sign. It was again. Maybe the fact that the movie has a “message” means the critics have to like it or they are unworthy. The world setting makes no sense. Info is tossed out with no explanations. The symbolism is so heavy-handed that it is laughable. Let’s see (a few examples): Owen’s character is named Theo which means, “divine gift” and the pregnant woman is named Kee which needs no explanation. Theo is wounded in the hand, foot and side. Wonder what symbolism that represents? And the final scene is so lame that it could have only been saved by having the song “Tomorrow” from Annie being sung. The imprisonment of illegal aliens is an intriguing idea but not as presented here. I could go on but there’s no point. Very few science-fiction films (not sci-fi and there is a difference) are made and this movie is one of the reasons why.

In the style of Children of Men, my review of this film would be summed up by the picture of a bull in a field and the animal is taking a dump.

REST IN PEACE

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Bob Clark, writer-director of A Christmas Story and Porky's, was killed along with his son early Wednesday morning on Pacific Coast Highway when a drunk driver verved into his lane and hit Mr. Clark's car head-on.

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Donald Hamilton, author of the hardboiled Matt Helm novels which several were made into very lame Dean Martin movies, passed away in Sweden. He was 90. Mr. Hamilton also wrote the novel, The Big Country, which became a William Wyler film starring Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston.

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Rest in peace, gentlemen.