Fun remake. It’s definitely not fair, by the way, that zombies now move as quickly as us. I mean, c’mon, they already infect with one bite, making it very easy to create a zombie army inside of a day; now they can move like the dickens? Boo!

I cringed through the damn thing… mostly because I can’t possibly imagine why someone would go check out a noise in the dark when they know, KNOW, zombies are all around them.

A nice little bonus: the end credits are entertaining.

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The movie started out okay, except for the fact that fifteen minutes in you pretty much knew who was who, but the movie kept pretending you didn’t. That and the last twenty minutes sent it spiraling into idiocy.

They should have gone the Silence of the Lambs route, where the movie shows you the killer’s perspective, and you see what he sees, see how he leads the investigators on, how he entraps and kills. Because that’s how the first five minutes of the movie go, when they introduce the killer, and it is by far the best part of the film.

Oh, and to kill the last twenty minutes.

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Alan and Suzanne drove up to LA and spent the day with me and Sun. We hit up the Corner Place in K-town for some kalbi and bulgogi, then headed over to LACMA for some edutainment.

LACMA West had an exhibition co-sponsored by UCLA called “”Nano“”. The best part was Inner Cell. Alan and I spent what could be teenage-girlified as “”foreverrrr”" battling it out, trying to bend a wireframe ball to our wills in an effort to send it at each other’s head. We then spent a bit of time wandering in the permanent collection as well, then looked at the tar pits over at the George C. Page.

Afterward, we decided to have dessert at Sweet Lady Jane. Sun had a raspberry cheesecake to my chocolate version. Suzanne tackled a chocolate mousse that from first glance looked like a choco-taco. And Alan went for a marble cake in the exact dimensions of a brick.

The main event was The Girl Next Door over at the Arclight. Our screening sported a Q&A with the director, Luke Greenfield, and Suzanne did the honors for us by asking him a question.

The last bit was a late dinner at Roscoe’s. All in all, a full day of eating, culture, and entertainment.

Look. Go see this movie. It’s good. It’s really good.

This is NOT a teen movie. I repeat: NOT a teen movie.

Comparisons to Risky Business will always be made, but to tell you the truth, while that film can be considered much more serious and “”real”", The Girl Next Door can be considered a bit of that, mixed in with the zaniness that were the hallmark of 80s teen movies.

In fact, I enjoyed this film more than Risky Business. Some would cry blasphemy. I would cry the last words said by Eli in the film.

Heh. Now you have to see the film.

Alan, Suzanne, Sun, and I went to see it at the Arclight over the weekend. I got tickets to the showing that had a special Q&A with the director, Luke Greenfield, after the film. So here’s this guy, his only major directing credit prior to this movie being The Animal, which was a Rob Schneider vehicle more than something he was doing. And on his second film out, he gets to do the movie he’s spent years developing. Kudos to Luke Greenfield on his accomplishment: a throughly entertaining yet endearing film.

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Mom wanted a PDA, but she wanted a simple, basic one… except it had to be small and easy to sync with her PC. So I gave her my H1935 (and Melissa’s pitched some money my way to buy in), and I went ahead and upgraded to this one.

Of course, as I looked for a link to the refurbished H4155, I discovered HP in the last two days lowered the price.

Grrr.

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I’m thinking of starting up writing again. It’s been over a year since I even tried (thanks to Jo), and really, years since I tackled anything to the degree I did in college.

I suppose that means I actually have other things to do with my time than sitting in front of the computer and beating out a couple hundred pages of borderline crap. But I do miss it.

Besides, this whole car thing is expensive.

But what to write?

Everytime my mind wanders back to writing it ultimately ends up with me thinking about a third installment in the Blade universe or with rewriting Earth Shift. Frankly, I should leave these two alone and let them stand as my college triumphs… and I use ‘triumphs’ with no small amount of derision. Yet I can’t help it. I especially can’t help it since I’ve been spending my time reading Eric Flint’s Belisarius series and David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. Fantasy/sci-fi will always be my weakness, and so when I get started writing again (note the confidence in ‘when’) I will very likely write in that genre.

This still leaves the question of the story. No matter how my thoughts lead to Blade and Earth Shift, I simply cannot let it happen. Those worlds are done. I need to do something new.

But what? That, my friends, is the $25,000 question.

I think I have an idea as to setting. But the story eludes me. We’ll see. I’ll give it some more thought over the weekend.

JUST HOW MANY OF YOU PEOPLE ARE GETTING MARRIED, ANYWAY!?

It’s not exactly good that the best things about this film are the characters and side stories. It’s not exactly good because even with these characters and side stories, the main storyline was just… bleh.

Probably better off waiting for video.

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The movie was okay. I was disappointed by it, as I expected more from a Coen brothers flick. But them’s the breaks.

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Big site overhaul.

You can now comment on pretty much anything. From albums to specific photos in albums, to saying I must be an idiot for installing that part in my car.

Also, the main page is now time-based. Anything in the last 30 days, a log, review, album, story, or car modification, will be listed.