Moviemania...

It's been pretty ho-hum this past week. Nothing but the usual. However, this past weekend I was able to take in 2 great movies that I wanted to share my thoughts on.

The Happening by M. Night Shamalamadingdong. (Yeah, I'm not gonna look up the spelling.) I really enjoy most of his movies. Lady in the Water from a few years ago was a joke, but most have been pretty enjoyable. I'm sad to see this getting mediocre to bad reviews. I really loved it. About halfway through the movie, I leaned over to my friend Eddie and jokingly made a point as to what was causing all the chaos in the film. It turned out, I was right. This movie is also filled with a lot more blood and guts than his other films. I won't spoil it for anyone, but I'll just make a point here. This movie contains a lot of death. At one point, you realize there is going to be a VERY gruesome death. I kept waiting for the camera to cut away. It didn't. There were quite a few times Eddie and I exclaimed "Holy SHIT" just out the shock of what was happening. Go see this movie, and be nice to Mother Earth.

Sunday, I was off to see The Incredible Hulk. As I said in a previous post, the last Hulk movie was not really a Marvel property. After that trainwreck, Marvel got the rights back and instead of starting from scratch, sort of just went off on a tangent. They ignore the horrible origin story Ang Lee concocted. When I was a kid, I was a HUGE fan of the TV show starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. (Ferrigno's monster and Gene Simmons were the source of many nightmares when I was 5.) I loved this movie because it is very close to that and even has cameos by the 2 stars. (Even though Bixby's been dead for years.) A few people have told me they aren't too crazy about the CGI Hulk. I'm not either, but I don't get why the Hulk gets such a bad wrap when these same people will go to see X-Men, Spider-man and Transformers and not bitch about the CGI in those films. Make-up and prosthetics have come a long way since the late 70's and I think it would be very neat to see what the special effects guys could do with a big body builder today.

Speaking of special effects as a big movie fan I should mention that just as I'm typing this, I learned of the death of Stan Winston. You may not know the name, but you've seen his work. Jurassic Park, Aliens, Terminator and Edward Scissorhands all featured impossible visions brought to life by this wonderful artist. Back in the days before CGI, Stan ruled the special effects world, and collected several Oscars for his work. We've lost one of the best.

This weekend will be exciting. After performing at Scott's Grille Friday night, I'll be hanging out and carousing with some friends to celebrate my 34th birthday. I believe plans include some rock and bowling. Anyone who would like to join us, the more the merrier. Saturday, I'm double booked. (One of my FAVORITE things.) I'm honored to be performing at an 80th birthday party for a dear friend, Mr. Roy Dice. Mr. Dice was my 6th grade science teacher and we reconnected a few years ago when I discovered I've been friends with his daughter for about 10 years. Later on that night, I'll be appearing at a private business function in Camp Hill. Sunday night, a concert with the Encores band at Adams Ricci Park in Enola. I'm sure I'll have a lot of stories and maybe a few pics.