My God! Heath Ledger’s body isn’t even cold and the jackals on TV are falling all over themselves to get air time salivating all over the sad event. I don’t mind Dr. Sanjay Gupta talking about the hazards of sleeping pills, that at least has some validity and puts forth some serious questions and concerns. Put then media whore Dr. Drew has to leap into the spot light and smugly spew out a bunch of psychobable about destructive impulses behind the obsessive need to be a celebrity and how the narcisistic life style eventually leads to alcohol and drug abuse. Apparently in Dr Drew’s world no one becomes an actor just because they like the profession, they do it out of some deep rooted psychosis stemming from neglect in childhood. Of course the irony here is that the famous physician to the stars, who has a few TV shows under his own belt, just lumped himself in with the people and life style he was desparaging because he is constantly on TV, almost as if he was seeking attention. Of course that’s completely different, you know sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Archive for January, 2008
I am saddened by the sudden death of Heath Ledger. Dead at the young age of 28, leaving behind a wife and small child. He’s at the peak of his career and talent, having just finished The Dark Knight and working on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It had been reported that he was having trouble sleeping during the filming of The Dark Knight and may have accidentally taken too many over the counter sleeping pills. If so, that just makes the whole thing even more tragic, because that means he’s not some drugged out celeb, like Tome Sizemore or Courtney Love, it means he died from a careless accident that didn’t need to happen. My condolences go out to his family and friends right now. He will be missed.
I went and saw Cloverfield yesterday and it was really, really good. I liken it to the Blair Witch Project (1999) in that it is a horror film told from a first person perspective with video tape. And like the earlier film it deals more with the human tension than with out and out gore, though this one has some legitimate on screen terror. The best way to describe this film is it is a Godzilla movie told from the perspective of a group of ordinary people caught at ground zero.
The plot involves a man named Rob who is at a going away party, right before he leaves for a new job in Japan. Suddenly a monster attacks New York and while the military tries to destroy it, Rob tries to get to his girlfriend’s apartment to rescue her and get of the city before the military lay down a blanket bombing strife that will level the city. All the while this is being documented by Rob’s best friend, who was videotaping testimonials at the party.
The first half of the movie is excellent. You have a bit of a slow start as we meet the characters and get to know them a little. Then disaster hits, with a few subtle hints at 911, and from then on it is a thrill packed race against time, as Rob and his friends try to avoid the military, the monster, and the nasty little carnivorous parasites it knocked off it’s body by rubbing against a building.
I unfortunately learned how everything turned out second hand from The Patient One. I don’t have the strongest stomach, can’t go on roller coasters, heck, I can’t even go on ferris wheels. At about the half way mark I started to get queasy. I would close my eyes and feel a little better, open them and get immediately queasy again. Eventually even that wasn’t helping and when I felt my gorge rising I left the theater, regretting the box of Bunch Of Crunch I had gotten. Luckily I didn’t spew. After I felt a little better I went back inside just in time to catch a helicopter crash from first person perspective and immediately ran back out of the theater.
After the end credits The Patient One told me how it all turned out and how I missed the scene where you actually see the monster. After cursing my week stomach, and her ability to sit through the entire film thanks to her being acclimated to shaky cam visual thanks to countless hours playing City of Heroes, I now have to content myself to waiting for the DVD in a few months so that I can see how it all turned out. I understand it’s really good.
