Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

Buffy Season 5 Review

Season 5 is a return to glory for the series. They cleaned up the crap that had killed them in season 4 namely making the boring lesbian an interesting character who no longer annoys you to the bone. The various cast members were starting to get some more equal screen time and it wasn’t the Buffy and Boyfriend show anymore. They also added a sister to the program which at first turned me off, but they were tasteful and used her properly and wisely. The show had its bouts with depression (which I hear is what describes the next two seasons) so many episodes just kill your mood and are not as enjoyable. At this point it is official, Buffy herself is boring. She continues to have the same personal dilemma over and over, “I didn’t ask to be the slayer, why can’t I be normal?” was the mantra of every season up until now. And now its “I’m the Slayer, you can’t possibly understand my pain! Being a Slayer means I have to be pissed off and moody all the time.” Other than Buffy, this season was well crafted, there were some clever twists and moments and the characters were all improved and cleaned up. Oh, and Willow is a bad@ss witch now, be ready for some floating terror with all black pupils and deep throated Latin.

28 Days Later Review

Not as much a horror movie as I would have expected, but good nonetheless. Sadly, not enough for me to buy it, which makes me glad I rented it first. The second half of the movie detracts from the great zombie infested world thing that I loved so much from the likes of Dawn of the Dead, but this movie did for a while place me back into pondering mode, where I dream up schemes and methods on how I would survive and flourish in the Apocalypse of zombie death. The camera work was all very good, and the acting was believable which is usually all you can ask from a horror movie. I did like this one sequence at the end, which I will not ruin for you, but it was a nice spin on the zombie thing that I haven’t seen before. A definite renter, and for some of you a delightful purchase.

They Review

Wes Craven returns with another movie about sleep trouble. This time Freddy Kruger stayed home and the movie focuses on a handful of young adults who are having recurring trouble with Night Terrors which they had when they were young. The horror elements were well played even keeping within the PG-13 rating. The acting was decent from new-comer Laura Regan, Ethan Embry (Can’t Hardly Wait, Dragnet), and Mark Blucas (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer). I personally enjoyed the special effects used to create the creatures, which are quite the gangly demon things. A good horror movie, light on the blood, and thick in the atmosphere.

Personally, I want to congratulate the movie industry for these new horror movies that are scoring the PG-13’s. I had grown entirely weary of the non-scary bloodfests that were crowding the theatres for many years, and this new trend of developing an atmosphere of horror and playing with the audience’s psyche is quite refreshing and enjoyable. I think much of it comes from the Japanese take on horror which was so clearly shown in The Ring which was a straight remake of a Japanese horror hit. I hope this continues and it should because Horror movies with a lighter rating can get more in revenue since anyone older than 13 can buy a ticket, and you can’t tell me that The Ring was inferior because it didn’t get an R rating. Blood, nudity, and language are cheap filler for a horror movie, give me a mind trip and I’ll be happy.

Full Metal Jacket Review

This movie is hailed by many as the most realistic portrayal of the Vietnam War, most importantly by those who were veterans of the war. This movie is split in half, the first half being a story of these two soldiers (Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio) as they go through basic training with a hellish Drill Instructor (R. Lee Ermey, see last week’s Supporting Actor), and the second half being the story of one of those soldier’s (Modine) first time in the field. This movie is disturbing at points and makes war look like all kinds of hell, but it isn’t going for shock value, you can see everything as a true portrayal of how it was. You never think to yourself, “This is fake, people didn’t do that”. Stanley Kubrick is known for his grim portrayal of humanity, and the brilliance of how he does it is that he shows it like it is instead of heightening it to dramatize the truth. A nice comparison would be Oliver Stone, he always takes it to the next level and says “this is where we are heading” or “this exists in some way inside of all of us”, but Kubrick says “This is what we are, this is what we do”. I find that Kubrick is probably the best director at catching the darkness present in humanity, just watch Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clockwork Orange, A.I. (which would have been so much more if Spielberg didn’t clean it up and add the happy ending), and this movie to catch the full effect of his prowess. Everyone should see this movie at some point, maybe not so much for the movie, because I feel that I get the best impression of many elements of the Vietnam war from this one, versus the drugged out Apocalypse Now, the political Born on the Fourth of July, the mixed-bag Platoon, and the blissfully retarded view from Forrest Gump.