Trying to redouble my efforts.....

I've really been failing to accomplish much at all these past few days. I've really gotta develop more willpower and really follow through with my plans. I'm already tanking on my New Year Resolutions (losing weight, saving up some cash, completing the Vault and getting some actual work done on G-Fan Central) and now I find myself getting a bit rusty at the writing gig. I'm planning on redoubling my efforts at EVERYTHING so we'll see how that goes after a few weeks.

But before I venture off to get some writing done (I plan on doing at least an hour's worth every night, just to get into the habit.) I'd like to announce that the remake of "The Hitcher" has just hit theaters. Taking Rutger Hauer's place is Sean Bean (best known as Boromir from the "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring"). The flick looks pretty decent thus far and I hope to see it on Monday while I wait for my new windsheild to be installed. If I see it, I'll write up a mini-review and post it here.

Also, in "Primeval" news: The film has thus far garnered 6.9 million after making its debut at number 8 in last week's box office. I'm sure it has made a bit more since then, but this one is tanking fast folks, so see it before it vanishes... that's if you're even interested. It's currently getting a 3.7 rank from IMDB voters, which is yet another step up for the film which was at 3.4 earlier this week. (As a further ego booster, "Primeval" has outperformed Luc Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles" which has apparently been the worst received film so far this year.) Personally, I think the entire "Serial Killer" promotional material for "Primeval" is hurting the film. I wonder how they'll promote this flick once it hits DVD?

Well that's it guys and gals, time for this lazy bitch to get his lazy ass in gear. ;-)
Blog ya later!

I have not been idle!

Over the last 36 hours, I have made potential gains toward completing my Rogue Cinema material as well as three NEW reviews at the Vault. I've shipped out my interview questions to Jim and Chris McLennan concerning the Phoenix Fear Film Festival and I've sat down, watched, and taken notes on three films that will be reviewed very soon at the Vault. Here's the lowdown on those:

THE BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN - The first of my "Dino-Western Double Feature" that was promised months ago! An American cowboy in Mexico discovers why a good number of his cattle have disappeared: They were eaten by a prehistoric dinosaur! Though the first two-thirds of the film are a struggle to get through, the payoff is worth it once the "Beast" arrives on the scene to terrorize the main characters. Though it's not the best stop-motion animated dinosaur you'll ever see, the "Beast" is nothing to smirk at! I plan on giving this oldie (but goodie) 3 out of 5 rads!

THE VALLY OF GWANGI - The second part of my "Dino-Western Double Feature" is much better known than "Beast" and featured the talents of Ray Harryhausen. Cowboys venture into a "Forbidden Valley" and discover all sorts of prehistoric beasts. They end of capturing a voracious Tyrannosaurus (or is it an Allosaurus?) and bringing it back with them to a Mexican circus. Naturally the mighty flesh-eater escapes and soon goes on a rampage. This bad boy easily gets 4 out of 5 rads!

And lastly....
SPACEMEN & GO GO GIRLS DOUBLE FEATURE - A fun indie sci-fi/comedy double feature from the fine folks at Tempe Entertainment. The first short involves aliens looking for fuel on Earth. Their search forces them to butt heads with the beautiful trio of detective/go go dancers. The second short film has the aliens and girls team up to stop an evil flesh-eating Space Bunny! (Great work by Brett Kelly and friends!) This one is teetering between 3 and 4 rads...

So that's what I'll be doing all this week, every night when I get home. I'll be pouring over my notes, writing up these three reviews, and then I'll dive into the rest of my Rogue Cinema stuff! By the end of the month, who knows, you may see yet another new review at the Vault for "The Host!" Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!

Blog ya later!

Continued Primeval coverage, new updates coming to the Vault, and other stuff!

Primeval is getting SLAMMED by the critics and has earned (so far) a 3.4 out of 10 over at the Internet Movie Database. (This is actually a step up because it was at 2.8 yesterday.) To read some reviews on the film visit MetaCritic.com and see what the high and mighty critics have to say. A handful of them found it to be a watchable time-waster of a movie, but not all were as kind to this modern nature run amok flick. Personally it's sounding like a fun little killer croc movie, so I may just check it out.

Currently I'm working on THREE reviews for the Vault. I have everything set up and I've taken notes on one of the films thus far (namely "The Beast of Hollow Mountain"). Now I just have to sit down tonight and watch "Valley of Gwangi" and "Spacemen & Go Go Girls Double Feature" and I'll be set to go! Expect all three reviews to be popping up within the next few days.

In RC news, I'm going to begin my stuff tonight. My main goal is to get interview questions sent out to Mr. and Mrs. McKlennen tonight (for those that haven't been following, these two are the minds behind the First Annual Phoenix Fear Film Festival). Once that is out of the way, it'll be smooth sailing for me.

Finally in personal news, I'm feeling much better, though I'm going on week 3 of not seeing or spending time with my girlfriend. Life is full of challenges so I guess I'll just take mine on head first and quit bellyaching. Perhaps with extra doses of hard work, a little more discipline, and a healthier lifestyle, I'll be able to pull myself out of the rut I'm in.

So that's it folks! I'll blog ya'll again later to keep you updated on things! Cya later!

Primeval (2007)

Not much buzz has been generated by the year's first (and apparently only) killer crocodile film. Though it's being touted as a serial killer flick (bad idea), the film's alleged serial murderer is actually a 25 foot man-eating croc in Africa. A newsteam is dispatched to track down and capture the critter but things quickly get out of control and soon the team ends up between a croc and a hard place. (Ha! I kill me!) The film came out yesterday and so far there have been hardly any reviews, and next to no talk about it on the web, which is curious to say the least. (IMDB doesn't even have much information regarding this film. No reader reviews, no votes, and nothing from the world's film critics! Very strange!) "Primeval" was set to come out later this year in late Spring but was moved to January 12th because a second (and probably better) killer crocodile film called "Rogue" was hitting screens around the same time. However, "Rogue" has just been pulled from 2007's theatrical release list for reasons unknown, so the whole move was a complete waste. It looks like "Primeval" is going to die off in theaters very quickly and end up on DVD within a month or two. Oh well, guess that serves 'em right for being wusses about going head to head with a similarly themed film. I plan on seeing this flick either tomorrow night or Monday (cash flow and weather permitting) so I'll let ya'll know if it's worth seeing!

And for those that care... I feel much better than I did last night. Sorry about the super-serious and completely depressing blog post last night. But hey, it happens to the best of us, right?
Blog ya later!

2007..... not off to a good start.... :-(

As midnight struck on New Years Eve, I was excited. 2007 would provide a clean slate and nothing but good things were on the horizon. Boy was I wrong. Two weeks in and I'm in super depression mode and I can't really put my finger on just one reason why. (Oh great, my Blog has just become like all the others where people vent their frustrations at the world at large. Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later right?)

One of the major reasons is that no one leaves me the hell alone! (Including my parents. They don't approve of my lifestyle, as if they need to, and my mother, God bless her, is on some sort of quest to see that I attain some form of physical healthiness. I help pay bills when I can, bring home groceries when I can, and I help them out with just about anything that they ask me to. And yet they always use the "You never do anything around here" line when they get mad at me... simply the most hate-inducing tactic ever devised by parents.)

I need "alone time" (i.e. time to myself to relax, read, write, watch movies, play video games, and have some peace and quiet) and have since I was very young. Though I have a lot of siblings, I was generally the only kid in the house (and still am :-P) . Not surprisingly, that made me sort of a loner and pretty anti-social in my younger days (then again, I was a frequent target for bullies in my grade school, middle school, and high school years, so that sort of fed the need to be alone). Nowadays, I'm not such a loner and I do have a pretty active social life outside of work. I have some really great friends, and a loving girlfriend that may eventually become my wife... when the urge hits me of course. ;-)

But getting back to the whole depression thing, the straw that broke the camel's back and put me in a sour mood these past two weeks is the fact that my best friend from my high school years is about to tie the knot and has basically told me that I'm in his wedding. He didn't ASK me to be in it. Nope, he just assumes that I'm going to take time off from work, drive to New Jersey, rent a tux, and officially see him off to his new and prosperous life. (Note: Even if he pays for the tux, I'm still losing out on a good chunk of change that I can't afford. And I'm very proud when it comes to cash and refuse to accept financial help unless I'm pretty desperate. In this case, I'm only desperate to be elsewhere on the first weekend of June. Plus I have to go to JERSEY. Sure it's slightly better than Connecticut but still.... it's f*cking Jersey!!!!) Financial reasons aside, I no longer feel that we're close friends. We don't keep in touch too often and when he calls me (mainly because I'm terrible at keeping in touch with anyone), half the time he's drunk and obviously pining for the good ole days. As I see it, he's got his own life, I have mine, and he doesn't really figure into my life at the present. I just don't want to be involved with this wedding.

And once he's married, I doubt I'll ever see or hear from him again. In my experience, every friend I've ever had that's gotten married, has pretty much completely disappeared and (inadvertently) severed ties with myself and others. I guess that when you get married, you become part of a special "clique" and only spend time with other couples and leave everyone else in the dust. This isn't true for EVERY married couple (there are some cool ones out there) but I have seen it multiple times and it saddens me. I guess that's also why I'm depressed... that a once very good friend is moving on; that his life is sort of evolving into what people would expect for a young man with an excellent career and beautiful wife, while I'm just sort of stagnating here in the middle of nowhere and hating myself for it.

And this leads into a whole other chapter of depressing thoughts. I'm going to be 24 this year and while most of my former classmates have finished up college, gotten good jobs, new cars, hot wives.... here I am, in my parents' basement, paying debts for a "new" (used) truck and college loans for my one year of higher education at Marywood University (probably the best time of my life, next to the summer before my freshman year of high school). Even worse, I've been working in various jobs since I was 16, and all I have to show for it is a big ass DVD collection. I have no "nest egg" to fall back on if I lose my job for whatever reason, I have no savings, no plans for my future.... ::sigh::

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. I'm in a shitty mood and just want most of the world to forget that I'm here. And I'm sure that those of you that know me well are sort of shocked to read this little prelude to a midlife crisis. (LOL!) I'm generally a really positive and upbeat guy (about 95% of the time), but lately .... I dunno.... I just kind of feel lost. All I've really got to keep me going are my writing and movie collecting hobbies... the two main things that bring the most joy to my life. Sad but true. (Luckily Tara, my long-term girlfriend doesn't read my Blog. If she read that last line, she'd kick my ass. Hahaha!)

Well I just needed to get all that off my chest, I feel a bit better, but I don't know what I'm going to do with this whole wedding thing. Some of you are probably thinking that I'm being an asshole about it, but hey, that's your opinion. I have a lot of things to figure out before I can sleep easy and be myself again.... if you have any suggestions let me know.....

Oh and rest in peace Yvonne de Carlo and James Brown... you two will be sorely missed.... (two more reasons why 2007 has been sucking dick thus far...)

The Ape (1940) makes its triumphant return to the Vault archives.

After a day and a half of changing up HTML, spellchecking, and some researching and extra writing, my old review for The Ape (1940 - Starring Boris Karloff) is now uploaded at the Vault for your reading pleasure. I plan on getting three to four NEW reviews up on the site this month and perhaps one or two old ones will be put back in their rightful spots as well. Thankfully, my workload at Rogue Cinema is relatively small this month (one article, 3 movie reviews, and an interview with Chris and Jim McLennen, the folks behind the 1st Annual Phoenix Fear Film Festival!) So cross your fingers, wish me luck, and toss up a few prayers to the Almighty if you're the religious sort. Any tiny bit of help would be appreciated. ;-)

Well time for bed! Blog ya later!

Minor updates at the Vault.

Just updated the main pages of the site with some news concerning future DVD releases, put up a new poll (found at the bottom left of the main pages), changed the movie of the month, and tweaked a few things here and there on the site. The biggest chore I had was clearing out spammers from my forums. Seems like they're more interested in posting than most visitors... sigh....

Anyway, I have a trio of reviews planned for the middle of January and after that I plan on busting my hump on getting older reviews fixed up and uploaded. But I've done enough for the night, I'm going to go chill out for a few hours and play some "Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess," or watch a movie. I haven't decided yet.
Blog ya later!