An Hour (or Two) of Darkness

I watched The Darkest Hour over the weekend. I know it's not the greatest thing to say, but I really was not a fan of this film. I enjoyed the concept of pure energy invading Earth. And I was even with it when they started to use the aliens' own energy against them. But something in the movie turned me off.

The Indestructible Blob

Whoa... Looks like I have a little pickup to play. I'll try to post a few things tonight before posting anything tomorrow. What do I need to get all caught up? It looks Like I will need a short stories post and one more after this one. Anyways...

I finished watching The Blob recently. It's a very campy sci-fi movie from the late 1950's, but it's still a lot of fun to watch.

Basically, a meteor, which carried the blob, falls to the Earth and begins to terrorize a small town. The only people to notice it at first, besides those who are taken by the blob, are hometown hero Steve and his girlfriend, the lovable Jane. They try to warn the townspeople, first going to the police as soon as they find suspicious activity at Doctor Hallen's house. Marking it up as a case of "kids being kids," the police don't believe them at first. It takes a little persistence on the part of Steve and Jane, but they talk a few of their friends into helping them. The kids end up waking up the entire town. At first the police feel that it's a case of "Peter calling 'wolf,'" but they soon learn that the threat is very real. It takes them a couple of tries but they finally discover that it doesn't like the cold. The police lead the rest of the town in freezing the blob and sending it off to the arctic, with a questionable ending to the movie.

While watching this, I thought it would be kind of cool to write a short from the blob's point of view. You know, what would it be like if the blob was only swallowing people in order to gain a collective knowledge of its new planet? What if the blob became those it swallowed What if it wanted to be peaceful? The peace would certainly not have lasted long. Especially with most people's initial reaction to it: "Kill it!"

I still might write that story sometime. If I ever find a little time and have enough energy, I might sit down and write that out.

Get Your Hands Off Me, You Damn, Dirty Ape!

You want to know what that idea I had to save for a rainy day? Well, here it is. A couple of weeks ago, I watched Planet of the Apes. Not the newer version with Mark Wahlberg. No, the original movie. The one starring Charlton Heston. Now, I'll grant that the movie is a little dated with its sets and dialogue, but otherwise it's a great movie.

Another Extraterrestrial

Shucks... I wasn't able to finish a book this week. Well, that's okay. I might have something better right now anyways. I got a visit from my brother, and as always, I felt it better to spend some time with him than all by myself, curled up with a book. So I watched a couple of movies with him. One of them I'll talk about tonight, and the other one I'll save for a rainy day.

What's the movie of the night then, you ask? And why might it be better than a book?
The movie of the night is Alien. To be honest, I don't know if it's necessarily better than a book, but many people feel that the movie is a good primer for Ridley Scott's upcoming film, Prometheus. I can't tell you how much of a primer it is without seeing the new movie, but it's still fun to go back and watch the classics anyways. This was my second time watching this movie, and I feel like I caught a lot that I didn't in my first viewing.

A Couple More Movies Watched

Okay, I know I said that I wanted to catch up on some of my reading this week, however, I've been a little busy. However, I did have enough time to watch Casino and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Both are pretty good movies, and, again, I am surprised that I have never seen them. Perhaps it's better that I'm watching now when I can better pick up on some of the nuances in them.

Come back again next week. I'll try to have finished a book for you by then. I won't make any promises though. It's going to be a busy week, so my reading list might end up on the back burner for a little while. Don't worry though. I'll get some more for you.

Catching Up On Some Old Movies This Week

I've been slacking off on some of the reading I should be doing instead. But that's okay. In the meantime, I've been catching up with some classic crime movies. So far, I've watched Dirty Harry, Scarface, and The Godfather (I'm actually viewing The Godfather as I type this up).

Now, what I don't understand is how I've never gotten around to watching any of these before. I'm currently in my mid-twenties, and have only lately started to view these. Better later than never I suppose you could say, right?

I have some other movies lined up for later, but I want to get back to checking some of these books off my reading list. I'll be back next week with a book to tell you all about again. And be sure to come back for some links to a couple of short stories on Friday. I'll try to have some fun ones lined up again for you.