Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Batch o’ Hatch: “I Finally Saw…”, a Slew of Horror Shows, and The Avett Brothers

Hello friends, family, Hatchlings, and fellow bloggers. How are you? How’s the gout? Anyway, thought I’d write about a few things for ya.

"I Finally Saw…"
 

I watched a Brian Dennehy-sized amount of films over the weekend. I’d never seen any of these before.

1.    Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil
2.    A Clockwork Orange
3.    Disclosure
4.    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
5.    Dial M for Murder
6.    Primal Fear
7.    Brazil

I’d love to share some thoughts on all of those, but I’m really compelled to talk about Disclosure. As you may know, it’s a mostly serious film about a sexual harassment dispute between Michael Douglas (harassee) and Demi Moore (harasser) at a big software company and the corporate intrigue that results from it. Here's the trailer in case you're interested.


There’s some odd scenes sprinkled throughout the film, including one where Donald Sutherland sexually harasses Michael Douglas (in a dream) and the gem below. Watch it and come back.


If you haven't seen the film, Michael Douglas enters that virtual reality program to find some computer files. Keep in mind, the whole movie up to this scene had been very serious in tone and mostly just featured people in board rooms yelling at each other. Then all of a sudden Michael Douglas is The Lawnmower Man or something. It was really odd and didn't fit with the rest of the film at all. I figured I'd point that out, since there's obviously some people out there that haven't seen the film, plus, anyone who has seen it probably forgot how ridiculous it was since they saw it in the nineties. What's even funnier is that the scene is glimpsed in the trailer above. Anyone watching that probably assumed Disclosure was some sort of sci-fi film.

Horror Shows

Let's talk about horror shows. There are a crazy amount of them on TV recently (damn near Brian Dennehy levels). The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Grimm – I realize that Grimm is more fantasy/fairy tale oriented but, go with me – and then you’ve got upcoming shows like Alcatraz (I think this is more of a sci-fi show) and The River (which I previously wrote about here). Not to mention SyFy shows and crap like the Vampire Diaries and True Blood (and I realize the latter isn’t crap but it’s old news).

Nick recently predicted the upcoming The Adjustment Bureau TV series (read the Joblo article talking about the actual forthcoming series here) and that, plus all the horror shows as of late made me want to talk about my idea for a TV series version of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Maybe the TV show fairy that granted Nick's wish will read this.

I think the series would lend itself nicely to TV. Think NoES #3: Dream Warriors. The series would focus on the kids at a sleep clinic/psychiatric ward and their doctors. Kids could get picked off from week to week and eventually Freddy would come into play.


The only thing would be getting the right Freddy. Jackie Earle Haley did a pretty good job in the otherwise horrible NoES remake recently, so obviously Robert Englund isn't the end all be all of Freddies.

The Avett Brothers at The Florida Theatre

Tiff alerted us that The Avett Brothers will be playing at Jacksonville’s Florida Theatre in February and I'm excited to hear them play. I was gonna check the Brothers Avett out at Orlando Calling this Saturday, but I’m pretty strapped for cash. I’ll be super rich by February, right?

One of the reasons that I like these guys so much is that they have a good balance of fun songs (check out At The Beach) and sadder, introspective songs (Murder in the City always makes me tear up).

Come on, February.

8 comments:

  1. I gotta know how you felt about Clockwork. The first time I saw it was over twenty years ago. I wish I could see it for the first time again. Nice site you got here.

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  2. Thanks, likewise!

    I thought Clockwork was great. The story structure was near perfect. I need to get through the rest of the Kubrick library.

    Alex is probably one of the more interesting characters in movie history in my opinion. I thought Malcolm McDowell was great, as I still felt sorry for Alex after all the shit he did.

    Have you ever read the book?

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  3. yes but in the end he appears to revert back to the same ole Alex. Lesson not learned and he's full circle. A departure from the novel where he does have redemption.

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  4. Yeah I'd like to read the novel because I heard that it suggests that Alex considers growing up and settling down or something. Also, it reveals the fate of the third Droog. Seems like it would be an interesting read.

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  5. WTF is up with that VR thing in Disclosure? You said it right...that is WAYYYYY out of place. I don't even think that approaches so good it's bad. I'll watch the movie, though.

    I think a Nightmare on Elm Street show might get a little stale, don't you? To be fair, I haven't put any real thought into it. Also, it would have to air on HBO or something.

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  6. @Sir Phobos - I think Disclosure is based on a Michael Crichton novel, so maybe the VR scene makes more sense in the book.

    Yeah the show could definitely get stale. If the individual episodes consisted of a good balance of the kids in the clinic in the real world and their problems, their dreams/nightmares, and maybe a central (or two) Dr. with an interesting story, then it could be decent.

    First season could be the kids with increasingly bad nightmares and maybe Freddy could be revealed as a mid-season cliffhanger. It would be kinda cool to save him for the season finale, but a whole season without Freddy would be kind of dumb.

    TV almost made a decent Terminator series, so who knows.

    Thanks for the comment!

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  7. I started watching Sarah Conner Chronicles a while ago...for no real reason I stopped mid-way through the first season. I was enjoying it, though.

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  8. I watched it every week when it started then I stopped - like you for no real reason. I randomly watched the season 2 finale and thought it was pretty good. Then it got the axe. I wonder where they would have taken it.

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