This would be a far more effective thing to shove on cigarette packets than pictures of diseased mouths and such ...
Let’s see. Started smoking at 20. Now 49. Pack a day ...
Current price of a pack ... $10.60 ...
29 years times 365 days ... 10,585 days ...
$112,201.00
Fuck me dead. It works out to almost four grand a year.
I think I'll start making an effort ...
... Something I didn’t do with the Robert Zemeckis film from 2000, “What Lies Beneath” ... I mean, a so-called horror/suspense film starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer from the guy who gave us the interminably dreary salute to the innocent joys of cretinism that was “Forrest Gump”? Fuck off.
However ... after reading a favourable comment about it somewhere recently, I decided to check it out. After all, it was only a 3 buck rental ...
And surprisingly well worth it. The last 20 minutes or so, if one were to do a shot by shot analysis, were pure Hitchcock. There’s some beautifully filmed work in evidence ... for example, the sequence where Pfeiffer’s character flees her house is shot in the reflection of a car’s side-view mirror, and as Pfeiffer approaches the car, in the background you’ll see a chair on the verandah rock back and forth slightly. It doesn’t sound like much from this description, but it’s the type of carefully choreographed detail that shows real thought and planning. Also, Alan Silvestri’s score amps it up in these final scenes and barrels straight into Hitchcock territory quite shamelessly, paying very effective homage by blending elements and motifs from Bernard Herrmann’s scores for “Psycho”, “North By Northwest” and “Cape Fear”. Derivative for sure, but I’d say that’s precisely what Silvestri was aiming for.
The so-called “horror” elements are pure hogwash, but not so risible that they ruin the film. Regardless, well deserving of a look ...
... And toward the end of this month, I may take a rare foray into the cinema to catch a couple of films from the Spanish Film Festival, specifically “[REC]” and “The Orphanage”, about which I’ve heard very good things ... In fact, all four films under the “Cine Fantastico” banner look pretty good ...
... This, on the other hand, I reckon I can live without ...
... A “MySpace Original Feature”? ... Yech ... What next, Facebook Films? ...
... While I’m on the topic, Rob Zombie’s “re-imagining” of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is a damn fine piece of work. The last 20 minutes or so are simply a re-plod through the original elements of Carpenter’s film and have a cursory, slapped on feel to them, but for most of its length, Zombie gives the impression that he’s finally beginning to learn some lessons about narrative and character development, things that were completely absent from his first two features “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects” ...
... There’s some very nice acting work from Sheri Moon Zombie as the mother of Michael Myers as well, and it’s probably the first time she’s delivered a performance with quiet moments of subtlety, something that was certainly not on the requirements list for “Corpses” or “Rejects” ...
From 2007, “Grindhouse” Trailers
2 comments:
"Fuck me dead. It works out to almost four grand a year."
Shit, I hope no one decides to put labels like that on beer bottles.
Damien, I actually keep a record of my spending cause I'm on a tight budget - alcohol so far this year is up to 1300 bucks. It's amazing how a couple of schooners after work and a few six packs during the week add up.
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