Simple America

Whoa! 300 a great flick!

I know! I know! 300 has been out for a while, but I just never watched it before today. Super story. I have always admired the Spartans. I have some little metal Greeks that I intend to paint as Spartans someday and that might happen pretty quick after catching this flick.

But I am really not surprised by how well the story is written. Frank Miller is simply brilliant. I loved every one of his comic series that I had the chance to read. The best Daredevil comics were penned by him. My favorite story of his is Ronin, which I have stashed away in a corner hidden from harmful sun rays, children, and other ickies. I hear that they are going to adapt Ronin for the silver screen. Most of you folks know Frank Miller for his Sin City story line. Based on Sin City and 300 I think we should all be excited by the chance to catch Ronin.

I’m going to watch 300 again before we return it to the red box. Two thumbs up and all my toes.

It is that time of the year again. Halloween. Tonight little goblins are going to invade the neighborhood and steal my candy stash. Vampires will want to suck down all my punch. Must remember to find my stakes before it gets dark.

Movies really make this a fun time of year. I’m talking about the scarey films. So as part of the Halloween craziness I would like to create a tag. This is just a list of flicks that scared the bejeebers out of you. What are your ten scariest days at the movies? And you can count television too. No limits!!!

1. Zombie movies. I think the zombie movie that scared me the most was one of the first. Night of the Living Dead frightened the heck out of me as a teen. Watching it late at night with lights out. Remember the little girl chowing down on her parents. What a shocker!
2. Vampire movies. There are so many vampire flicks. As a boy I loved the old Hammer flicks with Christopher Lee. But Stephen King wrote one of the best vampire tales ever, Salem’s Lot. The televsion adaption of this was well done. Really kept me on the edge of my seat and for more than one night, since this was a miniseries.
3. Halloween, the original movie, with Jamie Lee Curtis scared the heck out of me. I watched it when I was working at the DMZ in South Korea. We were on top of a mountain in the middle of no where, so it became even spookier. This movie scared me so bad I could not watch it again or any of the seqeuls.
4. Devil’s Rain is an old movie that I caught on television when I was in high school. This was damn eerie with Ernest Borgnine playing the devil. Would like to find this and see it again. Probably will look cheesy considering all of the passage of years and better technology. I remember the people melting under this devilish rain. Gives me the shivers still.
5. The Omen, original of course, scared me a lot too. I saw this in Germany during my first tour there. This film made you scared to look at photographs. It emitted an evil feeling that lured me on to the sequels that were also good creepy flicks.
6. Carrie is another Stephen King adaption and very well done. Really had some excellent actresses working this film with Amy Irving and Sissy Spacek. You can even catch a young John Travolta playing the dumb boyfriend. This is another film I saw in Germany. The ending is quite an eye opener too. It literally brought all of us to our feet with the shock of it. If you have not seen this one, FIND IT, WATCH IT!!! Do not leave the room until the credits roll.
7. Let me throw in another Stephen King tale. The Shining is a great haunted hotel story. Stephen Kubrick directed the original with Jack Nicholson, who plays a crazy man so well. His acting makes up for a lot of the old technology. They remade this movie as a television miniseries a few years back and it followed the book more closely. Both are good, but you have to see Jack Nicholson in this role.
8. The scariest movie in my high school days is The Exorcist. After we watched this film I could never eat pea soup again and I stayed away from Ouija boards too. So damn scarey and eeeeevil!!! This was a real head spinner of a movie.
9. In recent years I have not watched a lot of scarey movies. As a writer I don’t want to taint my idea pool. But I did watch The Ring and that really freaked me out. Makes you want to be very careful with what you watch on video.
10. There is one movie that scared me more than any other film. That movie is Alien. I remember the advertising slogan, “In space no one can hear you scream.” And the music they used really pushed you to the edge of your seat. The composer based it on a heart beat and I think my heart matched pace with it. When it was not stopping from fear that is. I so thought I was gonna die. The stupid thing about this flick, is I read the comic for this movie and I did not even realize it until I went back and read it again. I wish they had done a better job with the recent Aliens versus Predator. I read the books and they were so much better than that film. The alien creature is so scarey. Whenever I have a stomach ache I wonder if one of those critters is eating its way out of me. Eeeks!

Okay there is my list. I wish I would have done this sooner. But I did not. So I want to know about what movies scared:

1. Huei
2. Sila
3. Hisham  It will be interesting to compare brother and sister. 
4. Nicole
5. Hijack Queen

Happy Halloween everyone. Look out for the little goblins when you are driving tonight.

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

I took this test the other day and I sorted out Hufflepuff. Not exactly thrilled by the selection. Hufflepuff just sounds wimpy. Please come by and beat me up for my lunch money. But then I know a couple of ladies that also sorted out to Hufflepuff, so the dormitory common rooms will have good company. I had 14 points for Hufflepuff and another 14 for Ravenclaw. Now Ravenclaw. That’s a cool name for a house. Very Pinebox, Texas too as the East Texas University has the Ravens for a mascot. As for the rest of my scores, I had 8 for Griffendor and 7 for Slitherin.

Last Friday, my family plus my son’s friend went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I did not want to risk missing this show, so for the first time ever I preordered show tickets on the internet. We were able to get five tickets for the 4:10 matinee with each ticket costing $5.50 plus a buck for the service charge.

We went early too. The thought of sitting separately or on the front row was something I wanted to avoid. In the states movie theater tickets do not include reserved seating. We arrived at 3:30 and nowadays that is not so boring as they have a lot of previews before the trailers. The theater did not get crowded so my worry was for naught.

I thought the movie was okay, but I had no expectations as I rarely read a book before I see the flick. Everybody with me thought it was better than the last couple of flicks and they read the book. Several times.

My only problem with the movie was I did not like how Harry treated Cho Chang. I wanted some better resolution there. Some forgiveness or recognition that she was not… well I don’t want to risk spoiling anything. And the kiss was a bit long for a kids flick. Thought it was going to become Horny Potter for a second. Oh wait. For those who do not know who Cho is, here she is. 

Pretty cute huh? But not as cute as him!!!

The real hero of the Harry Potter movies. Come on. I know you want to see this guy more than Harry. muahahahaha!!!

Whats next for my Harry Potter days?

I preordered this book from Borders and they sent me an email. They wrote that I can pick the book up at midnight Friday and they promise to hold the book for me all day Saturday. They better hold it for me until I pick it up. I paid for the damn thing so it better be there or give me a refund. But I won’t challenge them as my daughter won’t wait. She wants to be there at midnight. Better remember my camera so I can snap some pictures of the event. Ought to be blogworthy.

What are you doing for your Harry Potter days?

I took the kids to see this movie last weekend. Really glad I did. Been hearing from some podcasts that Fantastic Four Two is better than the first film and I must agree.

This story took me back to the late 60s. I remember going to the corner store and buying the Fantastic Four. Who was this silver dude and didn’t he know the Fantastic Four is not about to let him mess with the Earth?

I am not going to review this film as I know it is recently released. But I tell you it is definitely made for the big screen. Guys. Jessica Alba. Thats all you should need for motivation. Eh hmmm, she looks very sexy wearing glasses too. And they have the Human Torch for all you ladies, so eye candy provided for him and her.

I would rate the film a 4 out of 5. A lot better than Spiderman 3 and you won’t need to read a hundred comic books to get an idea of who and what is happening. If anybody does not understand some of the things in the flick. Drop me a line and I can try to explain. I have always loved the Marvel comics. Really anxious to see the new Hulk movie and next year’s Iron Man should really rock.

I just got through watching Lost which featured a Sun-centric episode. Sun is played by Yun Jin Kim, the South Korean actress that makes the show worth watching for me. Miss Kim is just H-O-T.  You can take Kate, Juliet and Claire. I won’t fight you for them. Just let me watch Sun work in her garden. Or but on that blue bikini again. How come they only showed her in that bikini once? Scuse my lust.

The last few episodes have been some of the best produced since the opening season. Anybody else out there a Lost fan? Fellow Lost  fans, what makes you go back for more?

And this makes positive chi for me. Note to all my chi posting friends.