The Week In Review

It's been a bit of a busy day, and I'm about to start my weekly mini-marathon, so I'm just gonna recap the genre movies I've seen the last week, with more full reviews coming tomorrow and throughout the week.

Last week's mini-marathon had no theme, but the films were Critters 1 & 2, and Pumpkinhead. I suppose you could say the theme was 'childhood favorites', but it turns out I hadn't seen Pumpkinhead. I thought I had, but it turns out I had just seen Pumpkinhead 2. As with the week before, most of the enjoyment this night came from the group of people and the abundance of food. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the movies. Critters 1 &2 have long been guilty pleasures. I realize they're just Gremlins knockoffs, but I still get a kick out of them. Part 2 in particular ups the ante in terms of bodycount and inventiveness in a way a lot of cheapo sequels don't. It's also quite hardcore for a PG-13 movie, with frequent nudity and quite a bit of gore. Pumpkinhead was a pretty good movie, although it never quite hit the heights it was aiming for. That was perhaps due to the weird, cartoonishly oversized fake teeth Lance Henriksen was wearing.

Although my weekly marathons tend to rely on movies we've all seen, albeit not for years, the stuff I've been watching throughout the week has been all new-to-me stuff. Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers I already wrote about, but I also continued the Harryhausen theme with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. Along with those, I rented Oliver Stone's first studio film, The Hand, which was well done but maybe a tad too self serious. And last night I caught up with the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies. The film had some seriously creepy moments scattered throughout, but never had any sense of real tension or fear.

Again, I'll write more tomorrow, but today was taken up with errands and housecleaning and now more movie watching. As much as I enjoy blogging and keeping up with this Countdown to Halloween, I'd much rather be watching scary flicks with friends.

And in case your interested, tonight's theme is "Remakes" with The Blob, The Thing, and Night of the Living Dead. I could easily have substituted Invasion Of The Body Snatchers or The Fly, but both of those are a bit long and slow for a group experience. Have fun with whatever films your catching up with tonight, I'm gonna go gorge on Chinese food and practical effects.