Tusk and DVD releases

Last week was a phenomenal week for DVD releases. Season 2 of Hannibal. The first season of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. Season 2 of The Equalizer (with the late, great, Edward Woodward from the original Wicker Man). You should all imbibe. But one of the movies I bought right away was the Ford Brothers' The Dead 2. It's the sequel to the original Dead filmed in Africa, and these fledgling filmmakers went through the ringer to make their own zombie movie a few years back. Among other things, filming equipment being confiscated and then extorted by customs officials. The lead actor getting sick from malaria. Damn.

The Dead 2 is also a great horror flick from the Brothers Ford, and all those involved obviously worked very hard. I enjoyed it, but the story is a little linear and too Resident Evil for my liking this time around. Character finds a building, kills zombies, finds a mode of transportation. Wash, rinse, repeat. Good, but my final verdict is optional.

Then a friend told me about Kevin Smith's Tusk. "I feel I have a hard time recommending this movie to people," he told me. "But I need to. The more I dwelled on it, the more I found that I really enjoyed it."

And after seeing it, I feel very much the same way. The less I say about Tusk, the better. But I will say at the film's conclusion I was cosmically stupefied. Tusk has a lot of character dialogue, backstory, and academia through detective work. Tusk is "The Call of Cthulhu" of the horror movie world. A well-known actor makes an appearance as a police detective in what I call "The Inspector Legrasse Segment".

Tusk really isn't that graphic, just disturbing. Yep, it involves a poor sap that gets turned into a walrus through surgery by a backwoods psycho (Michael Parks, who is just as creepy as he was in Red State). But that's all I'm going to say.

In conclusion...

Hannibal Season 2: not optional.
From Dusk Till Dawn Season 1: not optional.
The Equalizer Season 2: not optional.
The Dead 2: optional.
Tusk: I just don't know, man. I just really don't know.

More Movie Odds and Ends

What movie viewing would be complete without the snacks? I mean, we all don't sit and watch movies just for the sake of watching movies, right? We've got to get our snacking on so years down the road, we run the risk of rotten teeth, obesity, Type II diabetes, and strokes. Or at least that's what some lady on Health Day told me. But forget her. What does she know? If I'm not going to live forever, why miss the Fountain of Youth by mere inches?

 

First off, CANDY CORN. 'Tis the season! I love candy corn. And a dear colleague, Joe Penna, told me that Brach's was making candy corn in Caramel Coffee flavors. Then he turned into an awesome human being when he let me try some from his own stash. Thanks Joe! Upon further investigation I found both that flavor and S'MORES flavored candy corn. In the picture, you'll observe that my fat ass has ate the bag already.

Also, try Wonka Randoms. Good gummy candies with random flavors and shapes. Cassette tapes! Roller skates! Pawprints! Random numbers and letters! I would advise against eating a whole bag on your own; share them with friends.

Secondly, there's some movies that you need to see immediately. First, Torment, which turns the slasher/home invasion horror genre on its head with some sick plot twists and decent scares. Plus, the heroine is played by none other than Katherine Isabelle, who was just in Season 2 of Hannibal and also happens to be a total hottie. For that reason alone you should all check it out.

 





Also, check out Primer. It's a low-budget science-fiction drama. The story is pretty simple: a group of engineers attempt to build an anti-gravity device, but accidentally construct a crude time machine instead. They make their small prototype into a human-sized working box, and that's when the many levels of craziness truly kick off. I haven't seen Carruth's other movie, Upstream Color, but Primer makes me want to all the more.

 

Also, if you're a fan of post-apocalyptic cinema, as I am, hunt down and find a book called World Gone Wild. It's basically the Encyclopedia Britannica of the post-apocalypse genre. Just found an entry on a movie I was looking for the other day!

 

All photos of stuff are taken on top of my Mahora University man-purse that's sitting on my bed, adorned with Lego minifig pins I made myself. Just in case you were wondering. And I don't care if you weren't. Also, my Nintendo 3DS just got approved by Melmac customs officers. Until next time, keep an eye on your neighborhood cats.