The Men Who Stare at Goats

I had no idea what this movie was about when I saw it in the video store the other night. I had seen previews for it and all I knew was that George Clooney, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges were in one movie and I was in!

I soon learned that the movie was about the main character, played by Ewan MacGregor, who was a reporter looking to go on vacation to escape his fresh divorce. While he's on vacation he meets a man who has the most interesting war story he's ever heard. He wants to learn more and begins to follow this mystery man so he can hear all his stories.

The two men end up going on a trip halfway around the world to learn about a small division of the army devoted to protecting the United States by using peace instead of war. All of the men in this division, however, are 'special'...because they all have super powers.

The story is pretty hilarious but at some times confusing, probably because most of the characters were on LSD.

I thought the story had more to do with a goat though...

Whip It!

Directed by Drew Barrymore and featuring an all-star female cast including Ellen Page, Eve, Zoe Bell and Juliette Lewis, Whip It is a punch of girl power straight to the groin.

The movie is about a small town girl who is forced to compete in beauty pageants by her mother but she always loses. The young girl knowsshe is meant for something much bigger in life and years to break free from the norm. While in a local shop one day she sees a group of girls roller-blade in to drop off flyers. The girl picks one up to see that the flyer is advertising tryouts for the women's roller derby league. Seeing this as her big chance, she goes to the tryouts behind her parents backs.

The whole movie is super predictable. Girl tries out, girl gets the part, girl becomes the star of the league, girl faces hardship and almost loses herself and her happiness, girl makes everything work and succeeds. Total modern Cinderella story.

Although the movie is super predictable, it is really entertaining. I had so much fun watching it. I almost want to pick up a pair of roller skates and try it for myself. But oh wait...That's right. I have zero balance.

The movie is so girl power and pro-feminism that I doubt many dudes would enjoy it. But I dug it. Plus it has a killer soundtrack.

Kids say the darndest things...

This is a classic... gets me everytime.

i like turtles

Scaredy Bat

Have you ever heard of a show called Ruby Gloom? It's a kid's show that I saw on YTV one day and got hooked. There's episodes floating around Youtube which you should watch. Saturday morning cartoons are the best! and this little guy is my favourite:

I wish he was real so I could steal him for my pet.

Short and sweet

Short films are great. Check this out!

Evelyn: the Cutest Evil Dead Girl

Alice in Wonderland

There are so many things about this movie to love; it's a remake of a classic, it's 3-D, a johnnydepp-tim burton collaboration is always a great thing, it looks like it will give you one hell of a head trip without the use of any drugs. But I felt like something was missing...

When I found out that this remake was being done I was so happy because of the above list of wonderful things about the movie. Tim Burton emanates this creepy and dark image through his work. And making Alice in Wonderland dark and creepy sounded like a perfect idea. But it just wasn't creepy enough...Not Tim Burton creepy. I don't really know what I was expecting. It may be due to the fact that I'm growing up or maybe I'm just getting sick of 3-D movies. Who knows. I will have to watch it again at some point to make up my mind.

Tim Burton's last movie, Sweeney Todd, didn't really do anything for me either. That "Joanna" song was definitely the breaker of that movie for me. How annoying.

I never thought the day where I would outgrow Tim Burton movies would ever come for me. But I think it finally has. I do still love his classics though. Who couldn't love Beetlejuice?

Oh the classics...

.....They don't make them like that anymore

Just so you're fashionable for the zombie apocalypse...

I can't remember where i discovered this website...But the designers are incredible. Coolest looking zombie shirts!

Zombie Liquorice

We got a bikini in at my work that looks like a zombie hand is grabbing your boobies. I can't find a picture but I will take one at work. it will be mine! Here are some more fun swimsuits from the same company:

Bikinis!

What to do in a zombie attack

When it happens, revert to instructional video:

What to do in a zombie attack

Classics

About a year ago I bought a pack of 50 classic horror movies. We're talking older than my mother here. They're all black and white and the sound isn't the best since they haven't really been remastered (or maybe that's due to my shitty speakers on my tv). There are some definite gems though.

Like White Zombie where Bela Lugosi plays a voodoo master who resurrects the dead to transform them into labourers. A man falls in love with a woman who is about to be married to another man so he enlists the help of the voodoo master to kill the woman and bring her back to life as his own love. Of course things don't work out the way he wants them to. I'm so used to watching zombie movies where the dead chase the living and try to eat their flesh but there is none of that in White Zombie. Just monotonous drones. And of course Bela Lugosi is a treat!

Watch a trailer!

Little Shop of Horrors is another great! It's about a plant shop where one young man finds a new breed of plant. Half venus fly trap half something else, the plant turns out to be more of a handful than the young man had hoped for! After finding the plant has a taste for human blood, he must keep his talking plant happy. This movie has been remade countless times, and even once into a musical! See if you can name the uber-famous actor who appeared in the original in the clip below.

Watch a clip!

Some other wicked movies in the pack:

Nosferatu

(hey-o creepy!)

The Phantom of the Opera

(need some sleep?)

Night of the Living Dead

(my personal favourite)

One of the coolest things about watching these old horror movies is seeing the differences in technology. When these movies were made the actors, directors, make-up artists etc., had minimal supplies to work with. They made due with what they had. They didn't have CGI and other helpful tools we use for movies now. Yet they still seem to make the movies just as terrifying (if not more so) as the movies today.

Even the difference between what was scary then and what is scary now is astounding. Most movies need gore and blood to make an audience scared. But not back then. The way the movies make you use your imagination to fill in the missing holes (the way someone would look if they fell off a cliff) is so much scarier than showing you what would actually happen.

I'm slowly making my way through them all...I'll get there eventually!

Who doesn't love...

...a werewolf that dances like Michael Jackson?

Off with your head!

Maybe someone with no soul...

Food Inc.

I'm so glad I don't eat pork and beef.

I'm now rethinking my decision to eat chicken and turkey because of this movie.

The film-makers take an in-depth look at the places where our food in super markets comes from. And it's definitely not the places we think it's coming from. The fresh fruit, vegetables and meat that we think are coming from a farm are actually coming from a plant where our food is manufactured rather than grown. Animals are genetically engineered to be larger than they are naturally supposed to be. And the vegetables that we buy that are out of season are picked off the vines before they are ripe and are ripened on the way to our stores with gases and chemicals.

Probably the most shocking part of the film is what food "engineers" are doing with corn. There is an over-abundance of corn being grown and then genetically modified into cheap easy foods like chips and pop. They even show a family who goes to the grocery store to try to feed their family of four and instead of buying fresh fruits and food they have to settle for the genetically engineered food because they can't afford nutritious food.

It's crazy that it's taken someone this long to trace the footsteps of where our food has come from. But now that someone has, I wonder if it will change the way we eat. Probably not since the genetically modified foods are so delicious. It's kind of like Supersize Me where they told you all these bad things about McDonalds, yet you left the movie with a craving for french fries!

This movie is enough to turn anyone into an organics-only health nut

horrific treats!

I think a vampire may have gotten to my cupcakes...They bleed when you bite them! Yum!

Danielle and I visited the Eaton Centre just before Halloween to go see Every Time I Die, and look what we found! The gravestone was candy apple flavoured and the ghost was candy corn. They're much cuter than they tasted though.

Zombieland Update

I just realized that I had talked about how excited I was for Zombieland, but never really followed up on it. Good thing my computer crashed...

I LOVE ZOMBIELAND

Everything about it is great. It's bloody, it's funny, it's got woody harrelson and bill murray... I can't get enough of it. I don't know how many times I've watched it already, but I could watch it over and over again and not be bored at all.

Although it has nothing to do with zombies, this is probably my favourite part of the movie. (total spoiler if you haven't seen it)

click me!

On the musical side of things

two of my favourite things in one

Inside

I've been making an attempt to watch all of the films included in the Dimension Extreme list. At some point, I would have to get to Inside.

Inside is about a pregnant woman who gets into a car accident in which her husband is killed. Some time passes and the woman continues deals with her grievance and her pregnancy until we see her on Christmas Eve. She is home alone and there is a stranger outside her house. The stranger knows her name and she wants the baby inside her tummy!

I won't tell you anymore about the movie...Because no one told me about it and it's one of those movies you need to experience first hand. I will tell you, however, that it's bloody as all hell.

Definitely not meant for the weak of heart...or stomach. It's one of those movies you watch through spread fingers with your palm over your face. Do I watch? Do I look away?

...But I think you know the answer to that.

Wanna see the trailer?

action figures are not just for children...

Look at what I found while getting my daily (and completely unnecessary) update of celebrity gossip!

Let's play!

I think I should get one of each... and then have battles to the death!