The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

 Today I want to give a shout out to one of my favorite cult films that just this week was released on DVD.  It was directed by Fred Dekker, who also directed The Monster Squad (a childhood favorite), and starred Tom Atkins who's been in everything from The Fog to Halloween III: Season of the Witch , to My Bloody Valentine 3D .  Its an amazing little film with throwbacks to 50s horror as well as affectionate send-ups of 1980s conventions, references to genre directors, and great B-movie special effects.  The movie is Night of the Creeps , released by Tri-Star Pictures in 1986.  Never heard of it you say?  I'm not surprised.  A light performer at the box office when it was first released and long forgotten on video (yet with rentals high) its one of the many 80s horror films that was easily trampled by the things released around it....I mean, how do you really survive as a sci-fi/comedy/horror film in the same year that Aliens is released? So what ...

I drove to our local library yesterday and was awestruck at the sight of these fiery trees who's branches reached out and covered the street in a canopy of red and orange. I was rather sad when I saw it actually, because I knew the leaves would eventually fade and fall off but also because I didn't have a camera on me that could capture the image. I know, I know...I sound almost over dramatic on this subject and you could even call me sappy, but I sincerely feel that fall is lovely. It just makes me feel...warm inside (I say for lack of a better word) despite the chill in the air. I understood then why certain people choose to live in small towns rather than in cities, where there aren't as many trees. Last night I revisited a new version of an old favorite. The film was Alien , but it was the director's cut.  I haven't watched the director's cut of the film since it was released to theaters in 2003 because I remembered being disappointed with it based on ...

Can I just say that I love Halloween?  I mean a lot of people say that they love Halloween, but I don't think those casual lovers really understand the fascination with the holiday.  For those people, Halloween is a chance to maybe dress up, maybe watch scary movies, and to maybe go to a party.  Its really all about maybes.  For me, it represents more than 50% of my happy childhood memories.  It represents time that was spent together as a family, watching Halloween specials on Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel (back when both were good channels), eating Halloween candy and enjoying the feeling of Fall.  The nights were colder, the leaves were changing and woodsmoke was in the air.  In a few months it would be Christmas, the thought alone was exciting in itself (I'll get more into Christmas talk as we edge closer to the month of December) and so Halloween always seemed like a 'gateway' holiday.  Sure, we didn't get off school for it, but it still...

I've done it again.  I've started a blog and written several times within the first day or two of its genesis, and then I suddenly demote it from my list of priorities.  The blog then sits there, collecting dust, and fades into obscurity.  I know the Xanga people are probably wondering if I have died.  I think I need to force myself to keep writing on here, not only so I can keep discussing films that I love, but also to keep exercising my writing muscles.  I always wanted to be a writer (most high school English teachers did at some point, Stephen King actually made it happen) and I never want to lose the dream.  A lot of people were inspired by Julie Powell and her success with the Julie/Julia project and began writing their own blogs in the hope that someone might notice or care about what they had to say.  I have no such aspirations here, mainly because I have no gimmick.  I'm just a lonely schoolteacher who sits at home spending most of his ...

Today is a rather big new release day for DVDs as far as summer releases go, because today marks the release of Transformers: Rise of the Fallen .  Not a bad film in my opinion, just loud, big and over the top.  I was in the mood for something like that when I watched it and I'm sure others were too.  Paramount hopes to sell a lot of copies of it I'm sure.  I shall not be buying anything today, as I don't get paid for another week.  Frankly, I'm much more excited about the new edition of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles that is getting released.  I've always enjoyed that film and even get a bit misty eyed at the end.  It was tragic when John Hughes left us this year and I hope that his films will continue to get the recognition that they deserve. There are several other films and TV shows being released today as well, such as Black Adder and a new edition of the complete Fawlty Towers but those make less of an impact on my mind despite their value ...

I don't know about you, viewers, but I love to love movies that critics and the majority of the public are supposed to hate.  People like to tell me that I have no taste because of this, but I think these people are missing the whole point of film and of art as a whole.  I've always felt that the point of enjoying art is to enjoy the things that make you feel something that you enjoy.   That is why they make certain films for certain audiences (aka, horror or action).  Also, it should be said that I don't simply like the maligned film for the sake of being on the outside (though I do get a special thrill from being in the minority...its almost as if I'm in my own little club of one and that I know a secret that no one else knows) but I tend to be able to view the hated film in a more positive light.  Maybe I'm just one of those people that the bad movie is made for. The bad movie I am watching tonight is Sidney Lumet's musical flop The Wiz .  I've al...

Today is a special day at the high school.  It is an inservice day, which means that the students are off and we, the faculty, are at school learning how to be better teachers.  It is a great idea, because it gives us work time and really does help us grow as educators (you don't want a dunce teaching your kids afterall) but at the same time, I wish I was home in bed still like the students.  I will say that my first seminar today on 21th Century Learning skills is very interesting, though not really going through things I haven't done before.  In fact, we are creating blogs right now.  You already know that I am a MASTER BLOGGER (imagine that spoken by Ian McKellen as if he were saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!")...and we also know that I love the parenthesis.  So I'm going to cover my first movie related post while all the other teachers are figuring out how peg A fits into hole B. This weekend I saw a film that's trailer has haunted me since I first saw i...

Hello friends. I my name is Geoff. I am 25, average in every respect, and a high school teacher in my first year on the job. I am also a film addict. I own 800 DVDs (yes...that's not a typo) and the collection will start growing again once I have the cash to support the addiction again. I also Netflix regularly and go through about 4 discs a week. This may sound like a silly and frivolus reason to start a blog, and in fact many of my teacher friends wonder how I can plan lessons, grade, and yet still have time to watch all this stuff. But I know that all you movie lovers out there understand the call of the celluloid (and now digital) medium. We can all remember when we were 5 years old and how that first memorable movie changed the way we looked at the world around us. Its always something classic and well known, like Star Wars , Raiders of the Lost Ark , or E.T. (is it odd that its almost always something by Lucas or Spielberg?). For me, it was Disney's Sleeping Beauty . ...