The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

Well, the weekend is coming to a close and I'm about to head into my last 4 days of work before summer.  All is well with the world and I am really loving the idea of those two and a half months, kicking it off with a wonderful weekend visiting my sister in Nashville, TN.  I drove down to Huntington, WV on Friday and rode with Mom the rest of the time to Gallatin (right outside of Nashville) where Miss J lives.  I haven't been to visit Miss J since she and Mr. J moved from Richmond, Va to Gallatin because they lived in a small apartment that wasn't exactly good for visitors.  But now they've rented a little condo and its big enough for all of us.  So onward we drove, getting lost only once thanks to Google directions, and we arrived at Miss J's home just after 10:30 pm central time (so my body thought it was 11:30).  Needless to say, Mom and I were pretty zonked.  We stayed up long enough to visit a bit and then we dropped off to bed. Saturday was a ...

Ok, I was supposed to make this post last night...but I got sick and didn't feel like writing.  I got one of my gallbladder problems yesterday and spent the night in a chair watching "I Love Lucy" while invisible knives twisted in my gut.  I suppose it wasn't as bad as all that, but it was horribly uncomfortable.  I didn't sleep very well last night because of it...but amazingly enough, I didn't feel all that run down today (until it was 3pm and I was falling asleep in my chair at home...weird).  Now I'm watching Soapdish, which is a great early 90s comedy that you simply must see if you haven't already.  But tonight I'm not discussing comedy, I'm talking action.  Sweaty muscled, adrenaline pumping, bullets clattering to the floor action.  Its a fun genre, full of suspense, intrigue, and fun.  That's what its all about when you're looking for an entertaining time.  Today I'm gonna give an overview of three action films I watched las...

So there's something about the Summer that really makes me want to watch high octane, macho, action/suspense films full of explosions and one-liners.  This past week I watched a grand total of 4 (5 if you count technicalities), and it just gets into your blood.  I love the rush of adrenaline, the pyrotechnics, and the enjoyable characters who we've seen in every other action film, but yet we forgive for being familiar because of our love of carnage.  Why am I saying all this?  Well, because I'll probably be discussing several films from this genre over the Summer...so if you hate action, you might want to tune me out till the Fall.  Don't go too far though, Summer also means Horror and Comedy to me...anything that entertains me and goes with popcorn.  Being a teacher, I have a lot of time off in the summer months...so I'll be blogging more and watching more films...especially since I'll have an awesome home theater set up in a few weeks.  I can't wait ...

Heading back into Prom territory after a week's hiatus, we see the ghostly side of Prom Horror.  Years after the first Prom Night took it upon itself to capitalize on the slasher craze, producer Peter Simpson decided to go back to the prom well for a sequel...however, it would be a sequel in name only.  It would seem that Prom Night 's popularity didn't necessitate a reunion of the original surviving characters or a continuation of that killer's reign of terror, and with A Nightmare on Elm Street , The Exorcist , and Carrie becoming more popular due to supernatural plot elements...Simpson decided to make his sequel more supernatural.  So get ready to talk about Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II .   It's 1957 and Mary Lou Maloney, the requisite wild girl and the easiest girl at Hamilton High, is a shoe in for prom queen.  However, when she jilts her date for another guy, her date decides to play a prank on her by dropping a stink bomb on her from above.  Ho...

In honor of the Prom season, I've decided to talk about some prom centered horror films.  Prom horror became popular with the film adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie and continued in popularity as the slasher film began to gain momentum in the multiplexes.  Holiday horror became a staple after Halloween and each year saw a new holiday or special occasion given the horror treatment from Friday the 13th to New Year's Evil ...and the prom was a natural candidate for a horror setting.  You get a bunch of teenagers all in an enclosed space at night, somewhere where they can get separated, throw in a killer, and you have a movie.  Add to the mix Jamie Lee Curtis, who was hot stuff at the time in horror...and you have a sure fire hit.  It doesn't matter if the script is good or not...people will see it.  So lets dive right in and sample one from 1980... Prom Night . Beginning several years in the past, the film shows four elementary age children playing a v...

Well, things certainly are interesting right now.  My soul is slowly being devoured by "Grease" and I feel like I barely have time to breathe.  I did a costume run this weekend, and I'm trying to get my publicity kids on the ball.  Also, it seems that everyone wants our auditorium during our production week...which makes it difficult to rehearse and build the set.  We open a week from Friday, and I'm rather proud of myself that I haven't yet started to freak out.  I think we'll be fine...well, I hope we're better than fine but right now we're sitting pretty at fine.  I expect that the kids will really pull it out by next weekend and we'll be great.  Hopefully everyone in the audience thinks so, you never know.  I've never directed a musical before and I'm finding it relatively easy...though much more choppy an experience than doing just a straight play.  You can't run everything all together until weeks into the production, which makes ...

So, its finally happened...they've remade A Nightmare on Elm Street and they've recast Freddy Krueger.  You can imagine the public outcry over this in the horror and critical community.  Cries of "How dare they?" are still echoing through the air even now as the new film is number one at the box office.  Oh, if that worries you about the state of our culture's collective pop taste...don't be too concerned, horror films typically have a large drop off in the second weekend.  Plus, Iron Man 2 opens next weekend and frankly...nothing else has a chance.  But, what we really want to know is, is the film any good.  Have they done justice to the legacy of Freddy while also bringing something new to the table?  Well, settle in for a nap and find out while I discuss A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) . The film opens in the Springwood, Diner.  A teenager named Dean is very sleep deprived and is trying to tell his friend Kris about the nightmares he is h...