I Conquered the Blank Page

I actually managed to do some writing yesterday. It surprised the heck out of me, but I was actually able to curb my fear–my anxiety over the blank page. In fact, I was able to fill up five pages with what I hope was something decent. What I wrote–Well, I just went with a story that had been in my head for a while and went from there.

Of course, after I was done, I realized some changes I probably need to make, but that’s to be expected. Perhaps, I really should just do a story at a time and complete them all the way through Then, start on the next one and so forth.

Deathrace

It’s strange the movies you decide to check out once you have a service like Netflix. I guess not having to pay the $10 or more for a DVD has its advantage. Recently, I received the new Deathrace movie that came out in theaters last year sometime. It had Jason Statham, from the Transporter movies, in it, so I figured it had to be decent.

Before I’d even watched it, though, a guy at work, who’s more than twice my age, told me about the original film, Deathrace 2000, which had come out way back in 1975. It had starred Sylvester Stallone, and had been nothing more than a gorefest. Basically, the idea was for the racers to kill as many pedestrians as they could during a race.

However, Deathrace has a little more class–and much more validity. What if reality TV producers could do anything they wanted? What if every prison in America was run by corporate interests? Well, you’d get something like what this movie portrays, I’m sure. Think Super Mario Kart without all the cute–machine guns instead of turtle shells. That’s Deathrace.

In order to pay for their incarceration, the corporation that runs Terminal Island–one of the largest prisons in the country where only the worst of the worst are sent–has created a reality TV show involving some of their highest profile prisoners. It’s basically a race to the…death. If an inmate survives three races, he gets to go home–leave the prison behind. That is except…the evil warden doesn’t want ANYONE to leave…alive. That might hurt the ratings.

All in all, Deathrace is a fun watch. It has plenty of action, and the bad guy–or, should I say, gal?–is believable, as is the hero. I’ve killed a couple of hours before in worse ways–with worse movies. No Country for Old Men. Please, shoot ME with that air gun.

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet is a Tron meets Underworld meets The Matrix sort of film. However, unlike the latter two mentioned, it doesn’t have near enough depth–nor does it have any reason-based methodology–behind its story, which gets frustrating really quick. The story just goes on with no explanation about anything in it. About as much as you’ll understand is that there’s a virus that was created by the government in the hopes of creating super soldiers–that old chestnut–and, instead, it caused an infection that turned half the population into vampires–sort of, which is where I get the Underworld underpinning.

In fact, like Underworld, the lead character is a woman–Violet, or just “V” for short. The Ultra part comes from her vampire-like powers, though, these “powers” aren’t really in evidence, except that she’s deadly accurate with a gun…and sword. You get that. However, what you won’t get is why her clothes and the lenses of her glasses change color seemingly at random. You won’t understand until later into the film that people have the ability to conceal weapons at whim. You’ll know what I mean when you see it.

Visually, I think Ultraviolet harkins back to Tron. I mean, sure, it has all nicely rendered computer graphics. But, the feel of it is very, very Tron-like. And the physics in this world, well, they’re like they are in The Matrix–completely unrealistic, if not more so.

I wish I could say more about Ultraviolet. But, spare yourself the trouble. Go watch Underworld or The Matrix or, hell, even Tron–they’re a lot better.

Update

Well, looks like it’ll be a bit longer before power is restored. Now, they’re saying tomorrow morning! What the hell? I’m sorry but that seems a bit ridiculous. What, do they only have two crews out there? It wouldn’t surprise me.

I Almost Joined Dorothy and Toto Last Night

Never mock Mother Nature. I did last night, and it nearly cost me my life. Well, sort of.

It’d been storming in the afternoon yesterday on and off. I mean, it was just coming down in buckets at times. But, there wasn’t any indication of tornanic activity. That wasn’t until I left work at about seven. As soon as I got home the wind had picked up and there was lightning crackling in the sky. Then, the sky turned…green.

I’d seen that before–the sky turning green. Last time I saw it was probably when I was about six or seven. I remember it clearly. I still lived in Michigan at the time, which, like Ohio and the rest of the Mid-West, is known for it’s extreme weather. The tornado sirens were blaring and our house didn’t have a real basement as it was a tri-level design. The neighbors across the street, though, had a basement that was built like a bunker. So, my mom thought it a good idea to go over there.

The sky was green, then, too. There was an eerie calm as we set out across the finely cut grass of the front lawn. In the distance you could hear thunder grumbling. The strangest part about it all was the stillness of the air. I remember that plainly. However, those sirens had me moving. I can only imagine now what it must be like for civilians caught in the middle of a war. Air raid sirens blasting, the whistling of bombs falling, deafening explosions all around.

Well, going through a tornado is a bit like that. Because, you never know if you’ll survive, if your house will still be there if you do. There’s many ifs–many things could happen. I remember that day going into the neigbor’s basement, huddling in the utility closet while the wind outside howled and the rain pounded. In fact, I think I remember the house creaking and groaning overhead. In all, it lasted for about a few minutes, then the sirens went silent along with the wind. By the evening squirrels were scampering through the lawn, the sun was out. Everything was back to normal.

But, the sky turning green. That’s what I remember the most. So, you can imagine last night when the sky did just that. I was sitting there on the couch watching Jeopardy! I was tired of the weatherman breaking in over top of the show–yeah, I enjoy watching Jeopardy, so sue me The guy came on talking about how somewhere to the north–a place I’d never heard of–a tornado had been spotted. I mean, it was miles away from me–I was in the clear, right?

“Ohhhh,” I mocked, “a big bad storm.” Yeah, the big bad storm. A few minutes later I’d wished I’d never said a thing. Because, the wind went crazy, rain was hammering the house sideways. Then, the power went out–as predictable as ever. The weird thing was: The new Cheeto commercial with the couple sitting on the couch where the power goes out and he’s caught with Cheeto hands had just come on, and bamo, no power. Bastards! I’m suing Frito-Lay over that one Their stupid commercial…

OK. So, this was about the time when I realized it was probably a good idea to seek shelter. As I was making my way to the closet in my bathroom–the only place that made sense because it has only a door and no windows. My brother, of course, went with me as he was home. No jokes, please. Then, my dad called my bro’s cell phone. He was in a panic, telling us to go somewhere safe. I found out later they had crammed into the shower stall together. How romantic…Seriously, down here, very few people have basements.

I think the strangest part of it all was hearing the rain hit the front door. The way door is situated, it’s fairly sheltered–up against the garage that juts out and beneath a decent-sized porch. I’ve never heard wind like that before, either. The wind was howling like…well, a freight train. It’s true. That’s really a good analogy. And I’ve never lived in a trailer park! And I have all my teeth, too.

This went on–the extreme blasts of wind and rain–for about five or so minutes. Then, it died down. It was over. But, the power was still out. Later, I learned a tornado had passed right over our area. In fact, only a mile away at the Jockey Lot, an eyewitness had actually seen a funnel go over. I mean, I’m not certain if it had gone over my house after that–but, it sure seemed like it.

After all was said and done by about eight ten, my bro called the power company to report the outage. And, the estimated time was…eleven AM the next day. Damn. I just had to live without it for the night, right? Think again. Because, when he called this morning they didn’t even have an answer to when it might be back on And I haven’t seen any linemen in the area, either. Probably my biggest concern, though, when I got up this morning was the, no doubt, thawing food in the freezer. In fact, I’d had nightmares about it–ice cream oozing from its container (which did happen, by the way), the freezer flooded from melted ice cubes. Luckily, my parents power didn’t go out. I guess all the underground power lines in their condominium complex stopped that from happening. So, I was able to take my frozen stuff over there for safekeeping until the power comes back on.

Last night, by the dim light of a kinetic-powered flashlight, I tried to read some of the latest Dresden Files book, Turn Coat. It was good as always, but the light made it too hard to read. So, at about ten o’clock I went to bed. The funny thing was that when I got up I was sure it was about eleven. Nope. I swear time slows down when the power goes out, because it was only eight thirty.

By the way, next time the weatherman interrupts a show I’m watching, I’ll be sure to listen. And I won’t be mocking Mother Nature. Damn. I wonder what she’s like in bed?

Cloverfield

I’d heard good and bad about this movie. But, with Netflix, I thought, what the hey. So, I put it in the queue with some hope I wouldn’t be let down. I mean, after all, Cloverfield was written and produced by J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company–the ones behind the hit TV shows Alias and LOST, which are two of my favorites. So, I had a right to be hopeful, right?

Well, the reviewers (both positive and negative in their comments) hadn’t missed a beat, because Cloverfield is everything they said–and more. Being a fan of Abrams’ work I wasn’t disappointed. However, I wasn’t fully satisfied, either. Cloverfield, for what it’s worth, is more of a high-concept piece. Yet, with that said, there is a story here.

Cloverfield is, yes, at it’s core, a monster flick–in the same vein as Godzilla or King Kong. Monster wreaking havoc in big city, check. Group of survivors trying to get away from said monster, check. Hot babes and death, check. So, that’s all there.

The high-concept part of it, of course, is how the story is told. In this modern YouTube culture we live in today, well, it was only a matter of time…Cloverfield is from a camcorder’s point of view. Yep, you heard right. One of the main characters in the movie is documenting what’s going on with a home video camera.

It’s like “watching it through a soda straw”, as one of the producers at Bad Robot put it on one of the DVD’s behind-the-scenes featurettes. And I guess that’s the best way to explain it. Essentially that’s what you get. It’s as if you had logged onto YouTube and sat down to watch a home-made movie. Is this bad?

It really depends how you look at it. I, for one, really enjoyed it. I was surprised. I thought this style would hurt my eyes, or be really confusing. But, it turned out to work really well, I think. True enough, though, if you suffer from motionsickness, you probably would get sick. It’s not as bad as Blair Witch. But, there are some herky-jerky moments of footage that do invoke slight feelings of vertigo.

Honestly, my only true beaf with the film: It’s too short and the monster’s not involved enough. The monster actually has no value to the story–other than creating havoc that our survivors must escape if they’re to live. And, here’s the kicker: Nobody lives. None of our survivors, anyway. They all die! Also, Cloverfield seems to just get going when the credits roll. It’s a real shame, because I’d like to know more. Where did the monster come from? What happened to New York city? Was the monster finally killed? We’ll never know, because the writers didn’t take us that far.

Cloverfield’s best parts are really the sense of frenzied panic, the loss and the utter desperation the actors bring to it–the realism that’s there is striking–and the visual effects are well-executed–to the point where things blend together seamlessly, like they should.

Once you get past Cloverfield’s faults, you’ll begin to appreciate it more. While not perfect, Cloverfield is far from a terrible movie. For high-concept film-making, it’s pretty damn good. If you like action-suspense, I’d recommend checking it out.