Things I've Noticed: Budgetting for Summer 2012 is tricky

So here we are at the beginning of the 2012 Summer Blockbuster season, a day before The Avengers opens (and hopefully will not be considered this years Green Lantern - btw, for anyone who decided to start watching genre movies with that one, I humbly apologize) and I'm thinking exactly what we all are...


How best can I work my entertainment budget this summer?


Yup - as  parent/blogger/video-game enthusiast/reader/film buff/couch potato/Grad Student/husband, I simply cannot see every movie/book/game that comes my way.  In fact, as grad school is pretty pricy I have to cut down from the nearly ten movies I saw last year from Thor to Fright Night.  


I think I'm going to try and get down to four movie theatre trips this blockbuster season.


Yup.  Four.


That doesn't mean I won't see more than four, it does mean (B-Day movies with kids immediately comes to mind, or my BFF Mike dragging me to see Men In Black III, quietly hoping I'll forget the irreparable harm that MIB II did to me, and that I've held him responsible ever since).  It mostly just means that most of these movies will have to wait for DVD for me to check them out.


Which four do you ask?  That's actually a kind of tricky question... Tell you what I'll get back to you next week with my finalists.


Good news for my TV watching followers however, this summer is looking up for my TV-on-DVD viewing.  After enjoying The Wire with my wife last summer, I'm thinking I'm going to give a try to The Shield this summer.

Things I've Noticed: 2011 was a good year for genre

Happy New Years Everyone (a little early, but my next post would be a little late).

As we move towards the end of 2011, rather than looking forward to the new genre films and stories of 2012, I want to take a quick moment and look back at my favourite stuff from 2011.

In Fantasy, 2011 was definitely the year of Game of Thrones, from those with the cash to get HBO I heard a lot of great things about the series, but I'll have to wait until it's available on DVD to make a judgement of my own. Personally I'll always think of 2011 Fantasy as the year of Thor, whether in the comic series I read in the spring, or in the motion picture. In addition, a special mention for Bill Willingham's Peter & Max, a tie-in novel to his comic book series Fables which I loved, and surprisingly a nod to the Gallager Pub trilogy of romance novels by Nora Roberts that I read for one of my book clubs (romance is definitely not a genre of choice for me) and totally fell in love with.

In Horror, 2011 was my year to understand the remimagining of slasher films that has kept horror in the cinema for the last decade. Looking at the books I most enjoyed, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash, and a number of non-fiction works about the genre definitely stood out, and in movies my favourite two were both horror comedies, Fright Night and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Finally in Science Fiction I found a lot in comic book series that totally amazed me; Starman by James Robinson may perhaps sit as my favourite superhero comic to date, and a series I just started in December Elephantmen by Richard Starkings was a stand out as a wonderfully drawn and intriguing look at a future in which human-animal hybrids are raised to be warriors. Although they came out earlier, 2011 was the year I read The Hunger Games series and out of new stories, Stephen King's 11/22/63 was a personal favourite as well. Also Dead Space gives me hopes for the sub-genre of Zombies in Space.

So there you go, my 2011 in genre stories, television and film. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog and I'll see you all next year.

Bookmonkey

Fright Night (2011)

Full disclosure here – I did a review of this film back when it came out in August (check it out here), but as this month I’m moving back and forth through my experiences with the originals and the reimaginings, I feel I’ve got enough to say about the title for this post.

The original Fright Night was one of those rare horror comedies I loved as a kid – they had a few laughs, some great scares and were great “gateway” films for newcomers who might not necessarily like horror. Fright Night was kind of a double treat, as it worked great for newcomers but was filled with horror movie references for the long-time fans of the genre.

The original film involved a kid named Charlie Brewster, who over the course of the movie discovers that his neighbour Jerry is a vampire. The problem? No one believes him, not his friends, family or anyone else. Eventually he goes to a late night cable TV horror host, Peter Vincent (named after Peter Cushing and Vincent Price and played amazingly by Roddy MacDowell) to help him defeat the creature before its too late. The movie mixed comedy and horror incredibly well, including one of my favourite interactions in horror movie history:

Charlie enters his living room, sees Jerry (the vampire) and is obviously startled

Charlie's Mom: Charlie, this is our next door neighbour, Jerry Dandridge

Jerry: Hello Charlie (approaches Charlie and offers his hand)

Charlie's Mom: Well Charlie, shake hands

Charlie: (Obviously shocked) What's he doing here?

Charlie's Mom: I Invited him over for a drink.

Charlie: You what!?!

Charlie's Mom: I invited him over, why?

Jerry: What's the matter Charlie? Afraid I'd never come over without being invited first?

(Jerry and Charlie's mom laugh)

Jerry: You're right, you're quite right, of course now that I've been made welcome I'll probably drop by quite a bit. In fact, any time I feel like it. (Smiling at Charlie's Mom) With your mother's kind permission, of course.

Charlie's Mom: Oh Jerry, any time.

The reimagining of the film made a few significant changes to the story: 1) The story is clearly set in a new suburban development in Las Vegas, rather than a suburb in “Anytown, USA”, 2) Jerry (the vampire) is now played by a younger actor (Colin Farrell), who plays up the dark and sexy aspect, 3) Peter Vincent is now a stage magician, rather than a late night horror host (probably because those don’t really exist anymore) and his look is largely modelled after Criss Angel, 4) The film focuses more on action and atmosphere, rather than the comedic aspects of the original.

In the end I really enjoyed the reimagining. It was a lot of fun, had a nice cameo for fans of the original and although the humour is toned down, it still functions well as a gateway film from mainstream to horror.

Movie Review: Fright Night (2011)

Hi everyone, I'm back!

Right now I've got a cast on my right arm but my fingers are free so I can type, slowly and with a lot of breaks, but I can do it!

On Saturday I went out with my youngest daughter and her friend to see the recent remake of the 1985 horror comedy film Fright Night.

Although I didn't see the original in theatres (I was nine-years-old at the time, so I had to wait to rent it), I definitely saw the film before finishing Elementary school and really liked it at the time. I guess the idea of a kid seeing monsters and having no adults believe him so he has to face the creature alone appealed to me.

Anyway, fast forward 27 years and I'm taking my 14-year-old daughter to see the new version. She had already seen the original, so we both knew what to expect overall.

Honestly - I found it to be a pretty entertaining film. Although it wasn't as graphic as the original, I liked the direction they took the film, Colin Farrell was great as the vampire and David Tennant stole the show as Peter Vincent.

I think the movie is a great gateway film to the horror genre, as it was scary, but more roller coaster-scary than get-under-your-skin-scary. It was a lot of fun and I'll definitely be adding it to my DVD collection in a few months.

My only advice? See it in 2D if you can as much of the film is set at night and the 3D glasses make the film difficult to see sometimes.

Things I’ve Noticed: The 2011 Remakes are tempting me

When it comes to genre films, reboots come with the territory. In fact, one of my favourite horror films The Thing (1982) was a remake of a 1951 movie, The Thing From Another World. This year there are not one or two, but five remakes I'm looking forward to seeing in theatres.

There are four in August; Conan The Barbarian, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Fright Night, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes and then in October a prequel for The Thing. Personally I'm a pretty big fan of the originals of all of these (except for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, which I've never seen but my BFF Mike has at least twice) so on paper the idea of remaking two films from the '70s and three films from the '80s seems a little stranger to me.

Personally I've always been a purist on classic versions of films (I'll go much deeper into this in my upcomming string of October posts - The Reimaging of Bookmonkery), so it would take a pretty big reason for me to even be considering checking these films out in theatres.

Here's why I'm probably going to check these movies out anyway:

Conan The Barbarian) I am really a huge fan of all things Conan (little known secret, my father's first choice for my name was Conan) so even though I was severely disappointed in the director's previous film Friday The Thirteenth (Which will become a post of its own in October), I honestly will have to check out the newest interpretation of my favourite barbarian.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark) is co-written by Guillermo Del Toro, author of The Strain series and director of any number of movies I love.

Fright Night) David Tennant is going to co-star, and darn it I loved him in Doctor Who.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes) looks really, really cool. Also after seeing pretty much every film starring James Franco from Freaks and Geeks forward, I'm interested to see how he does in a Science Fiction film.

The Thing) Honstly, when it comes to The Thing, it was already a remake, so a prequel is just continuing in the tradition of the 1982 film, and who am I to argue with tradition?

Bookmonkey's Top 5 Films to see in Summer 2011

Superheroes. This summer sure can’t seem to get enough of them and I’ve got to admit I’m feeling in the mood for some super-heroic films myself, hopefully I’ll try not to limit myself to only one sub-genre, but let’s see what’s coming out.

As with previous lists I’m trying to avoid listing the films I’ll probably see due to my kids, like the final Harry Potter Film or possibly Spy Kids 4 (oh, who am I kidding, I’m a big Robert Rodriguez fan at heart) or my BFF Mike (I think if I skipped Green Lantern it may irreparably damage our friendship) or the ones I’ll see but only if they are playing nearby (like August’s Don’t be afraid of the Dark, co-written and produced by Guillermo Del Toro).

Here they are, in order of release, my top five must list for theatre viewing this summer:

Thor: Here’s the thing about Thor, I started out wanting to see this movie simply because it’s directed by Kenneth Brannagh. Then I actually checked out some Thor comics (the ‘80s stuff by Simonson and the more recent run by Straczynski), and you know what, this movie just looks really fun. I’m hoping I won’t have to eat my words in a couple weeks, but for right now, I’m really excited about this movie.

Super 8: After seeing the first actual trailer, this movie looks like a nice throw-back to Close Encounters, but made by the guy who did the recent Star Trek reboot I liked so much. It looks like exactly the kind of alien-related fun I’m into.

X-Men: First Class: Here’s the thing, I just spent my last few months watching The Avengers, and one of the things that The Avengers helped influence was the Hellfire Club and specifically Emma Frost in the X-Men universe, both things that are going to be in the next film, add to that the movie has Nicolas Hoult, who I liked a lot in About a Boy and was really impressed by in Skins, and you’ve got a movie I’m going to be checking out.

Captain America: The First Avenger: I love the idea of setting a superhero movie in the Second World War. One of my favourite sub-genres of speculative fiction is alternate histories, so the idea of adding superheroes to a war movie seems like a really great cross-genre idea for me.

Fright Night: I loved the original of this, and in a way that makes me both excited and in fear for how this movie is going to go down. The original was both funny and scary, and the fact that this film will have previous Doctor Who David Tennant in it (doing the Roddy McDowall role from the original) has got me pretty intrigued into what this film will end up looking like.

Things I've Noticed: Cheesy horror is some of my favourite horror

For the last few months I've been revisiting old horror movies with my youngest daughter, a couple years ago we watched all the old Universal Horror movies from the 30s and 40s in preparation for Van Helsing, and then she decided to check out a newer horror film.

Against my wife's common sense, I picked Jaws, and after two weeks of nightmares (hers, not mine - I didn't get much sleep those weeks), my daughter decided to take a four year break from horror films.

Recently she's decided that as a junior high school student, she should take another look at the genre, so this time I've decided to focus on Horror comedies, and to let my wife veto any film she thinks our youngest might have difficulty handling.

So far we've checked out The Lost Boys, Fright Night, An American Werewolf in London, Alien, and a Kung Fu movie called Mr. Vampire - now I know that Alien is not a horror comedy in the strictest sense (or in any sense really, because if you found that film funny, I'd like you to stand waaaaaaaaay over there), but otherwise we've stayed with films that have more chuckles than scares.

And you know what - I'm really loving these movies! In most cases I haven't watched these movies since I was a kid, and I've got to say they are pretty amazing, good stories, good fun, and a wonderful amount of cheese.