Halloween Movies: The Unnamable

Having just watched this last night, now seems the best time to write about it.

I chose this one as it is based on an H. P. Lovecraft short story of the same name.  The story itself is quite short and does not lend itself well to the big screen, so its plot has been adjusted (rather drastically) to fit the "teenagers trapped in a haunted mansion" mold in order to give the movie's creators an excuse to include nudity.  At least that is what I will assume.  The result is decently suspenseful and a bit frightening, and actually made for a pretty good movie.

Meet our hero, Randolph Carter:

In the original short story, Carter exists as a stand-in for Lovecraft himself.  He serves a similar purpose here for the first half, telling the other character that they're crazy if they think he's going into that haunted house because he knows about stuff.  Then, completely out of nowhere, he changes his mind and goes there anyway.  All while listing the reasons why the other characters are stupid.  To be fair to him, though, all of the other characters are pretty stupid.  I mean, there's some sort of horrible unicorn-devil running around a haunted house, cutting people's heads off and generally being a dick, and you think your best course of action is to constantly shout other characters' names?  Sorry, you deserve death.

I said above that the movie was pretty good, but you know what?  It probably wasn't.  The end of the movie is terrible.  The best part about the ending is that Carter saves the day via a potent combination of reading and cross-referencing.  Now, I like reading and cross-referencing as much as the next library school student (i.e. more than most people), but even I know this is a crappy way to end a horror movie.  That wasn't even the worst thing about the movie, though.  The worst part was the stupid frat boy's flashlight.  Seriously, it was like a box with light shining out of one end.  I tried to find a picture of it, but I can't.  You'll never know my pain.

Also, there's a sequel.  I think I'll have to check that out.

I almost forgot!  I mention the unicorn-devil look of the monster above and I wasn't joking:

Check out those awesome furry boots.  Looks like something out of Second Life.

Halloween Movies: Leviathan

Gaze upon its majesty and tremble.  It is Leviathan.

Two posts in two days seems like a lot, I suppose.  I certainly is when compared to the year or so I spent not posting on this thing.  I had this film in mind specifically, though, and so I feel that should probably take advantage of this initiative while it sticks around.

I had never heard of Leviathan before finding it on Netflix, and boy did I get lucky with this one.  I believe I was initially motivated by the fact that it stars RoboCop himself, Peter Weller.  RoboCop being involved is a good reason to do anything, if you ask me.  The plot summary as provided by Netflix was a bit less inspiring, mentioning deep-sea miners investigating the wreck of a Soviet ship on the sea floor.  I bet myself that everything would go smoothly and there certainly wouldn't be any dangerous, communist mutagens hidden somewhere on the ship.

They had to have pitched this movie as a deep-sea version of The Thing, and that's really what it feels like.  Crew members turn into bloodthirsty monsters (literally), though there's no mystery involved here.  Peter Weller's character is what we get instead of Kurt Ruessell's MacReady, and he does a credible job as the leading man.  The real star, though, is this film's version of Childs.

Wayne State alumnus.  Former Ghostbuster.  The one, the only.

Ernie Hudson.

Yes, apparently when Winston Zeddemore said that he'd do anything so long as a steady paycheck was involved, he wasn't joking.  In Leviathan, he's basically playing a more badass version of the Ghostbusters character and he is amazing.  He's got some of the best one-liners I've ever heard coming out of the mouth of a human being, and he is no ordinary human being.  He's a Ghostbuster.

The rest of the characters are pretty much pointless and exist only to be turned into monsters, but that's okay.  We as the audience accept that no one but Peter Weller and Ernie Hudson matter, anyway.  I think there's another character that doesn't get turned, but who cares about them, right?

The monster is, again, very similar to the monster from The Thing:

It's as though God got a little tipsy and played a game of "how many sea creatures and people parts can I sew together?"  Seriously, though, that's how they designed the monster.  The special effects aren't terrific but they're not that bad either.  I don't remember it being especially scary or suspenseful at any point; it's mostly just a fun movie.  It's the sort of movie that allows you to enjoy the Halloween spirit all year round.  If you're a drinker (and you really should be if you're watching any of these), I suggest doing plenty of that while you're watching this one.

Halloween Movies: The Sentinel

I absolutely love Halloween, and in recent years have gotten sucked into the wonderful world of "horror" films.  I place "horror" in quotes because I don't think it is an appropriate term for some of the movies which I have watched, but I feel that they should be grouped together regardless of this fact.  I have settled on the phrase "Halloween Movie" as my most preferred descriptor, and will be referring to them as such from this point on.  I will say that Netflix has played a large role in making this possible.  It's like playing roulette, though; sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you most definitely do not.

I will begin with The Sentinel, a 1977 movie I picked based solely on its Netflix description and the fact that it stars Chris Sarandon of Fright Night fame, a movie which I will almost surely cover at a later date.  My gamble was immediately rewarded when I learned from the opening credits that the film boasts some insane star power.  John Carradine, Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, and Eli Wallach all play roles of various importance, and the film also features young versions of Jeff Goldblum, Jerry Orbach, and Christopher Walken.  Burgess Meredith in particular is great, playing his role perfectly from start to finish.  Plus, look at him!  He has a cat and a bird and he's awesome.

I'd go into more detail but I don't want to spoil things too much.  In fact, if at all possible, I'd avoid reading the Netflix description of the movie at all.  And the tagline on the poster above.  Whoops.

The Sentinel is slow at times and seems to forget, on occasion, that it is a horror film.  Thankfully, just when you think that the rest of the film is going to be boring dialogue about a skinny girl fainting a lot, it tosses you head over heels and gets downright weird.  The special effects are well-done and can be quite disturbing in places.  The ending of the movie is wonderfully creepy as well, and is reason enough to watch the whole movie.  I would definitely recommend taking the time to watch this one.

Next up: Ohmygod Leviathan.

Pokemon White

After a long absence, I have come back with the intention of making this thing about more than just MtG. A blog in truth, I suppose. You will see from this entry, though, that I have not progressed very far.

So I bought Pokemon White version today. The last Pokemon game I played was Silver, which the internet tells me came out in 2000. I bought the game solely because of nostalgia, and because I need something to do when no one comes into the restaurant where I work.

Like all pokemon games I have played, and hence all pokemon games ever, I started off by talking to some professor (Juniper, this time) who will soon start me on my quest to "catch 'em all". Despite knowing my character from birth, Professor Juniper has no idea what my name or gender are. Once these small details are out of the way, she introduced me to my best friends Boy and Girl. I find myself far less willing to take the peculiarities of the pokemon world in stride now that I'm not in middle school, I guess. At least she didn't ask me to name her son.

I was then faced with a familiar choice: Grass, Fire, or Water. I already forgot all of their names, but it doesn't matter because they all sucked anyway. The grass pokemon looks like some sort of snooty, leafy duck, the fire pokemon is a pig, the water pokemon looks like a sea otter with a panda's head and a beaver's tail. Traditionally, I have always chosen a fire pokemon to start. Charmander in Red version, despite the fact that it was impossible to beat Brock with anyone but Squirtle unless you spent one million hours training a Butterfree until it learned that one psychic attack, and Typhlosion in Silver version, despite the fact that he evolved into a weasel and the water guy turned into some sort of tiny Godzilla.

So I chose the water guy this time. It looks really stupid now, but it HAS to get better when it evolves, right? Now that I think back on it, the grass pokemon from Silver looked stupid to start and stayed that way, soo...

I guess we'll see.

I'll say now that I am going into this game blind and I kind of want it to stay that way. That was the best part of playing the first Pokemon game. You had no idea what was coming, what you'd encounter, and what your little guys would evolve into.

I want that feeling again.

I digress, though.

Boy and Girl chose grass and fire, respectively, and they of course wanted to battle immediately. Both made the classic mistake of not constantly attacking, and so I beat them both. The rest of my time in the starting town is a blur of skipped conversations and useless dialogue. Somebody's pokemon got nicknamed Pimpy (after the Squirtle my best friend traded me back in Red/Blue days), I got a pokedex and a phone, and then it was off to Route 1 to be taught how to catch pokemon (which hasn't changed, thankfully) and to be given pokeballs! This last part is great. No waiting until you get to Viridian City and having to buy pokeballs this time around, you can catch the buggers immediately. Which is what I did.

I bagged a small puppy (not joking) who was promptly named Clarence, and some sort of raccoon/rat whom I named Bandit. He looked more like Johnny Quest's dog than the dog did anyway.

The first town is named Accumulate or something stupid like that. I got shown around the Pokemon Center, which now includes the PokeMart, which is nice.

As soon as I left, though, I was confronted by TEAM PLASMA, who I can only assume is this game's Team Rocket. They said something about Pokemon Liberation. I guess this is Nintendo's response to the fact that the Pokemon games are pretty much just Cock Fighting: The Game.

These guys seem on the level right now, but I'm sure they're going to turn out to be dicks. Time will prove me right.

I got to meet my rival soon after, The Mysterious N. He's some sort of Pokemon hippie, I guess? He's got a ponytail, says pokemon talk to him, and is just a weirdo in general. He had some sort of cat. I don't want to talk about him anymore.

Anyway, Boy informs me that I need to beat gym leaders to be a good pokemon trainer. That hasn't changed either, I see. This should be interesting. I am done talking about this now, and we'll see if I ever do this again. I owe you nothing.

Movin'

So I'm in the process of moving from my current house to my new apartment less than a mile away. I will be posting a new deck soon, though. It's a merfolk deck which was inspired by the Lorwyn theme deck Merrow Riverways.

I'm also kind of excited about Masters Edition III. I have yet to play MtG Online, but this might get me to try it out. Legends looked like a lot of fun, and the chance to use the Homelands faeries may be too good to pass up. I also have always been intrigued by The Dark.

Anyway, more soon.

Homelands Update

I am back home for the weekend which means I had the opportunity to fill out my Homelands collection a bit. I've updated the comprehensive list here, but I figured I'd make a new post to list the cards that have been added. Besides, I didn't get a chance to talk about them when I made the list the first time, so why not?
Without further procrastination, here are the cards:

Artifacts & Lands: 3
Clockwork Gnomes
Koskun Keep
Roterothopter

Red: 6
Aliban's Tower (both versions)
Ambush Party (Joskun flavor text)
Dwarven Trader (Reveka flavor text)
Dwarven Sea Clan
Orcish Mine

Blue: 4
AEther Storm
Giant Albatross (art featuring no ship)
Labyrinth Minotaur (Zeki flavor text)
Sea Troll

Green: 2
Folk of An-Havva (Reyhan flavor text)
Leaping Lizard

Black: 1
Feast of the Unicorn (Baron Sengir flavor text)

White: 3
Aysen Highway
Rashka the Slayer
Samite Alchemist (Taysir flavor text)

Total: 19

I was happy to see a lot of new red, since I barely had any before. I also managed to get my first white non-creature spell in Aysen Highway! I think I will build a deck around that card one of these days, just to see if I can. Also, as happy as I usually am to see a white legend, Rashka just sucks. She couldn't even take on Baron Sengir or Veldrane! Anyway, that's all for now. I am tired.

Baby's First Draft

So as I mentioned previously, on the 17th me and five others did a (slightly strange) booster draft. First, there were six of us. Second, we each had 4 packs instead of 3 (all M10, though). I think it was good, though, since it was the first draft for everyone there.
I had a good time, and learned a lot (which is the most important thing). I ended up with some great cards, too.
We played one game against each other person (best of 3 would've taken too long), and I ended up going 4-1. Anyway, I'll just post the deck I ended up playing, an aggressive green deck with a splash of white:

Land (16)
3x Plains
13x Forest

Creatures (15)
1x Blinding Mage
1x Silvercoat Lion
1x Kalonian Behemoth
1x Ant Queen
1x Deadly Recluse
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Craw Wurm
1x Cudgel Troll
1x Giant Spider
2x Stampeding Rhino
2x Elvish Visionary
2x Runeclaw Bear

Other (9)
2x Divine Verdict
1x Overrun
1x Howl of the Night Pack
1x Entangling Vines
2x Giant Growth
2x Rampant Growth

My first pack had Ant Queen in it, so from the start I assumed I'd be playing green. I also grabbed a Divine Verdict and Blinding Mage early on, so white seemed to be good too. I guess I didn't follow through on it, though, since I ended up with only 4 white cards total (all 4 of which you see in my deck list). There was a lot of blue and red floating around, and I actually took some blue on purpose, such as Polymorph, Merfolk Sovereign, two Flashfreezes (both to keep others from having them and to add to WU Flyers) and a near-playset of Merfolk Looters.
I picked up both the Kalonian Behemoth and Overrun later in the rounds both times (i.e. I didn't open either of them), and was quite pleasantly surprised to see them. I later found out that the guy who opened the Overrun also opened a Garruk, and the people between us weren't playing green (it was rather late in the draft). I think that's also how I got the Behemoth.

A quick aside: In my first game, I managed to both play and lose my Behemoth. Let's just say my opponent had a Righteousness in his hand and a Rhox Pikemaster on the battlefield. I didn't even get the satisfaction of the Pikemaster dying!

Now we come to my favorite part, where I talk about all the mistakes I know I made. First of all, I didn't pick up nearly enough white. I feel better knowing that it was a popular color, but I know I could've picked it more than blue and done alright. I was surprised at how well Entangling Vines worked, and if I had known it would do that well, I would've taken more than just the one. I also wish I had taken the first Deadly Recluse I saw, and I wish I had taken that Acidic Slime. There was an early Howl of the Night Pack that I missed out on because it was early and I wasn't sure if green would be my main color.

Well, that's all for now I think. I had a lot of fun, and I hope to do this drafting thing again sometime!