Snark, Critic and Pop!

My job has recently instituted a work from home one day a week program.  at first I was excited – use less gas, less clothes for dry cleaning… but then you miss Daniel losing it while dressed as a woman, so it really isn’t worth it.

For shame Daniel, for shame.

In “news” from Vancouver, a typical bear (lazy, shiftless) hitched a ride on a garbage truck putting the bear in danger as the truck then drove through Hastings.  The bear was shot with a tranquilizer gun and is planned to be put back in the wild (it is assumed he will warn other bears to stay away from the city).  Said the bear via Twitter:

“I’d like to thank that guy for catching me when I fell down off the truck,” said a tweet from @downtown_bear. “Bears don’t bounce that well, y’know?”

I have beheld the glory that is Trollhunter, and found myself thoroughly entertained.  Is it a perfect movie? No, few movies about trolls and their hunters are.  However, of all the movies about trolls and the people who hunt them which I have seen, Trollhunter is easily my favorite.

Trollhunter is a Norwegian (and be forewarned, my illiterate friends: it is subtitled) film, presented as “found footage.”  Think the Blair Witch Project, but with some actual thought put into it and a budget for effects. (continue reading…)

Saw Super 8, the new monster movie that hit theaters this weekend.  More than a mere monster movie, this is a writer-director J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek [2009], Alias, etc.), Stephen Spielberg-esque monster movie.  So Steven Spielberg-esque is Super 8, that it’s produced by Steven Spielberg. 

The film is set in 1979, following a cast of smalltown tweens who are working on their own no-budget zombie movie with a Super 8 camera.  The kids boldly sneak out to film a scene at night, and barely survive a military train being derailed.  In the carnage, one of the boys sees something escape the train, and maybe, just maybe their camera may have caught a glimpse as well.  Pretty soon, the military is investigating, the kids are coming of age (mild sappiness alert!), dogs are running away from home, machine parts are turning up missing, and there be a monster lurking in the shadows.

I don’t want to give away too much, partly because I’m feeling lazy and partly because you need to go see this movie!  (continue reading…)

I’m as mad as heck, and I’m probably only going to take a little more of it for an indefinite period of time!  What has me so worked up, you ask? 

I just saw the 1976 monster bear movie Grizzly.  Grizzly is also known as “Claws,” in no small part because it’s a cheap knock-off designed to take advantage of the success of Jaws in 1975.  One might say that our titular bear is some manner of “Land Shark.”

In every single monster movie, the beast’s crimes are initially blamed on bears.  Monster squirrel attack in Central Park?  “Looks like the work of a bear!”  A werewolf mutilates a gypsy?  “Bear did it,” hapless authorities will speculate.  Jason Vorhees is back from the dead (again)?  “These machete marks must have been from some manner of land bear!”   Shark chomps surfer?  “This must be the work of some manner of AquaBear!” (continue reading…)