Our ward elected Layton's kid, and Ford is Toronto's new mayor. I cringe, because Ottawa just banished, (in 3rd place) their own version of Ford, (Who admitted that his term was a disaster) on this same night. I don't use many services, but I do worry about there being more homeless or if Ford tries to screw with the streetcars like he said he would. I was looking forward to boring politics and an exciting city in Toronto. Instead politics will get very 'exciting'.
I've also been watching a lot of movies of late, many on television and some online.
I saw the Barbarian Brothers, eXistenZ, The Cat and the Canary, The Toxic Avenger, Dracula, Frankenstein, Deathstalker 3, Attack of the Giant Spiders... yeesh.
eXistenZ is an action/thriller movie from 1999 about virtual realities that wasn't The Matrix. The production was a Canadian one, and it does look like a television serial instead of a movie. The effects are lousy, the acting is weak, (Jude Law MIA) and there are no sympathetic or compelling characters. The concept is cool, and I like how the game designer treats her organic/virtual reality console like her child. Also, the confusing layers of reality and conspiracies helps the whole concept. Not bad, but it could have been better.
The Toxic Avenger can be bought this movie for your iPhone. It's a Cr-App. Seriously; the sound is poorly dubbed over, the sets, lighting, filming, acting is like a crummy porn movie from the eighties. This movie is outclassed by the Jason movies. By Basket-Case even! Ick. Tasteless hardly describes it. It's like they're trying for Evil Dead-like cartoon gore, but getting something more mean spirited like Hostel --and still trying for laughs.
The main character is a 'nerd' who gets mutated into a homicidal 'hero' mutilates bad people...and not even violent ones. It's funny that this movie sees a 'nerd' as someone who is very physically and mentally retarded. Despite what the official synopsis may tell you, it's clear that his own stupidity is the cause of his mutation.
Deathstalker 3: Not as interesting as the Barbarian Brothers.
Barbarian Brothers: Wow. At first this looked bearable as a poor sword and sorcery movie where two separated brothers are trained by a too-clever-by-half villain to each kill different man in a distinctive mask. The trick being, they are released to fight each other each wearing the others target mask. (If you can't get it, the annoying narrator helps you figure out how this works) Then the movie switches gears as the stars try to 'act'.
Oh wow. They are really bad. At first this is funny, but then you notice that they're just mugging for the camera and it becomes annoying. Still, the movie has such memorably bad moments as:
The heroes dropping their weapons, then asking their friends for weapons. Of course their friends top the stupidity of the titular twins by insisting while holding weapons that they have none. After failing at an attempt to buy weapons, and adventurin' a bit, the twins are told to go get the 'sacred weapons'. Magic weapons that they knew the location of the whole time. Oh... that hurts.
Another classic is their barricading a tavern door from the outside. A door that opens inwards.
The Cat and the Canary is a silent film from 1927. It's a thriller/spooky movie that was remade with sound in 1931, (A film that no one has any copies of anymore) and in the 40s. It helped pave the way for Universal to make Dracula. The version I saw on Youtube had no sound OR score at all, but was still a fun watch. The movie is about the inheritance of an old wealthy man who ordered his will sealed for twenty years. All of the inheritors are brought on the appointed night to his old (haunted?) mansion. The will specifies a sole inheritor who must stay the night in the house and subsequently prove they are sane. The movie is clearly made to be less scary for the sensitive early movie goers, but it's creepy looking. The house is home to secret passages, a monstrous escaped killer, conspiring relatives, possible ghosts, and even the doctor is kind of terrifying. It's a good movie.
This clip actually seems to have the score
On the downside, they work in the phrase in the title way too many times in the dialogue. The old man's relatives eyed his fortune like a cat eyes a canary, the psycho kills his victims as if he were a cat and they a canary, etc... You only need to name drop a title once.
The classic Bela Lugosi Dracula is quite good. The music is haunting and frantic; almost entirely strings. Very unique for a haunting soundtrack, there is no piano.
I like how Dracula is made sympathetic, (unintentionally?) while still acting like an evil bloodsucker. Seeing Dracula rise up in his huge empty crypt and his desolate run down castle makes his life look really sad. Unlike in the 90s Bram Stoker's Dracula, he doesn't look like he enjoys living out there. He looks like the living dead. His trip to London to walk amongst the night loving crowd of London seems like he just needed to get where people were. The wolf misses being around sheep. (Also kind of reminds me of Jack the Ripper a little) Lugosi talks like an alien, but sells all of the dialogue, including the memorable "Children of the night..." line. He also has good chemistry with the cast.
The others actors are almost without exception pretty great too; especially Renfield. The sets are really great too. The abbey and castle sets look enormous. The ending is a let down though. Like they just couldn't figure how to finish in an exciting way without giving the audience the vapors. (Although the Cat and the Canary managed better)
Be Kind... Rewind was supposedly a movie about Jack Black and Mos Deff making their own versions of Hollywood blockbuster to replace their video rental store's wrecked library. Those are the best parts of the movie. The rest includes the straight man in the comedy duo (Mos Deff) acting as is he was mentally deficient; Jack Black getting cartoonishly electrocuted and exhibiting magnetic powers, (Also, magnetic urine!) until the movie remembers it's supposed to be about videos at which point it drops that; bad acting and dialogue, and a lot of fake-ass sentiment about community building through movies. Awful film that doesn't seem to know what it's doing.
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