The Horrific double standard

Horror, the red headed stepchild of the movie industry. Almost all horror movies contain a gargantuan killer wielding a sword/machete/hatchet/etc. slicing teens down the middle, though that is completely untrue. Don't let the Hollywood critics fool you, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours in which an explorer literally gets stuck between a rock and a hard place is not an adventure or a drama, it is a straight up horror flick. Another recent film that has garnered much attention is Black Swan. The film follows the unraveling of a sweet and innocent dancer into a reckless world that threatens to destroy her. If that doesn’t sound like a horror film, then I don’t know what does. When a drama is good it is handed a plethora of awards, but when a horror movie is good it is a complete surprise. Compare the two previous films to a recent horror film, Let Me In. It follows an 8-year-old vampire that moves to a new town and befriends the boy next door. This was a generally fantastic movie but due to the fact that it had a vampire in it (thank you Twilight for ruining my childhood) it was given a pat on the head and sent to video rental hell. It is obvious that the film industry and community does not give the horror genre the respect it deserves.

Lets examine most horror movies. If there is not a monster or a maniac in a haunted house or a spaceship in is not a horror movie. That is why 127 Hours and Black Swan are such unique entries. A great horror film sets out to unnerve and upset it’s audience both of which succeed easily. James Franco has to sacrifice a part of his body in order to save the life that he never fully appreciated. Do you know what other movie has that same exact plot…Saw! Why is one treated as a drama and the other as torture porn (not saying that saw is a good movie) it is just plain ridiculous.

Nice guys finish first, sometimes....All the time.

In life many people say that nice guys finish last, but this time the nice guy finished first. Two weeks ago was Bear Creek music festival. It is a funk/blues/reggae music festival. It takes place every year at the Suwannee national park. It is one of the best venues for a music festival. The best part was that I got a job working the festival. It turns out that one of the kids in my under graduate knows the guy that does the filming for multiple music festivals like this one. The craziest part was that all the people working were from my old class. Talk about a small world. It was great to work with all my old friends on this project. The only problem with the entire weekend was that there was one kid we were working with that I never cared for. In my old degree program this kid was kind of an asshole. Anytime you had to work with him, it was his way or the high way. Due to this he earned a rotten reputation in our class. While working at the festival the boss that we were working for fell in love with most of us working. He really liked that we all we busting our asses so we could get every band on tape. There was only one person that our boss would never have work for him again. Could you guess who it is? That’s right my boss hated that same kid. After all the music stopped on the last night. My boss invited me and a couple of others to an after party that only staff and artists could get into. On our way to the after party it was just me and the boss in a golf cart, we were going to meet the rest of our crew at the party. On our way to the party my boss was telling me that he liked working with everyone except for one kid. I immediately said the kid that no one liked, and yes it turned out my boss was talking about him. This just reconfirms that I might be in the right industry.

What's the deal with Tron

With the release of Tron Legacy just one month away you would think that the original version of Tron would be everywhere, but it is the exact opposite. I really wanted to watch the original version of Tron a few weeks ago. I first went to Best Buy to get the DVD, to my surprise they did not carry the movie. I then went to Target, again no luck. Finally I decide to go to Wal-mart, they too do not carry it. I thought this was really weird, but then I just forgot about it. I decided to look online for the movie. On Amazon the cheapest used copy of the movie is fifty-two dollars. For a brand new copy it is a ridiculous ninety dollars. On ebay the cheapest copy is going for thirty-five. That price would be reasonable if it was the blu ray, but it isn’t it is the crappy looking standard definition version. Then I decided to look on Netflix, it was listed as availability unknown. Talking to a few of my friends, they said that Tron was on Netflix just six months ago.

So what is the deal Disney, you just re-released Toy Story 1 and 2 on blu ray why not re-release Tron. There are possibly many reasons for this. When the original Tron was released in 1982 the visual effects were ahead of its time. Looking at it now the effects look terrible; the entire movie is covered in crappy looking effects. With today’s youth they would watch it and think the movie is bad just for that reason. It is better for the younger audience to go into the movie not knowing the original. Disney does not want the old movie affecting the box office return of the new one. Another reason could possibly be that if the new version is a major success, then when they do release the original on blu ray every one who hasn’t seen it will definitely want to own it. This is possibly the smartest marketing plot ever or just really dumb.

Does Whatever A Spider Can

Some big news recently out of Hollywood concerns our favorite neighborhood Spiderman. It has recently been released that one of the biggest trilogies of the 2000’s is being rebooted. When it was released that the Sam Raimi’s trilogy was no more fans and non-fans alike spawned a massive debate. First I would like to say that I thought the entire series was miscast. I never really thought that Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker was that special. Kirsten Dunst was the worst part of the movies; in the comics she was never the damsel in distress. Mary Jane Watson was a tough woman that did not need the help of Spiderman. The best parts were William Dafoe playing The Green Goblin, though he was killed off in the first movie. (The first rule of fight club is, you do not kill off a super villain.) The second fantastic part was J. Jonah Jameson played by J.K. Simmons who was Peter Parkers boss. His role was so amazing that they casted him again for the reboot. We can all agree that Spiderman 3 was terrible. The use of one of the best villains, Venom was boring and not what fans wanted at all. Gwen Stacy in the comics is a monumental character in Peter Parkers life, but if you ask the people that saw the movie most don’t even remember her character being in it.

Though I am extremely excited for the new Spiderman. The script was written by James Vanderbilt, the writer of Zodiac. It is being directed by Marc Webb, who also directed The 500 Days Of Summer. I really enjoyed that movie and am excited to see what Webb has in store for Spiderman, though I am a little concerned with the fact that Marc Webb has never directed an action sequence. The reason why this whole thing is controversial is because of ownership. Sony still owns the Spiderman franchise and name for still a few years until it goes into ownership of Marvel Studios. Marvel Studios is currently having its entire biggest superhero movies tie in together, essentially they are making a universe of superheroes. This is what is so troubling to fans, Spiderman being one of the major stars in Marvel’s lineup and a big part of The Avengers. So when you have an entire universe with all the superheroes that you like, but you can’t have your favorite one; that just plain sucks. Though I completely agree with Sony they have several more years of ownership of Spiderman. They would not be doing their jobs if they didn’t push for a new release.