Happy Mother's Day! (and other stuff)
To all the mums on my flist - especially brand new mother helianthemum - Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all have had a wonderful day.
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I suddenly and inexplicably became ill yesterday. What started as just being tired led to a nap, which led to me grabbing a blanket because I was cold, which led to me turning off all cooling agents in the house because I was feverish and shivering. I was in bed all day yesterday, which made it the perfect time for TBS to be broadcasting the LOTR trilogy. :D
Feeling a little better today - at least the fever is gone - but I seem to be breathing in snot instead of air. Grrrrr.
*******
In movie news, 28 Weeks Later is OUTSTANDING. I'm wary about sequels, especially horror sequels, but this one actually had a story to tell and didn't in the least smack of a studio just trying to squeeze more money out of an already dead (or in this case undead?) story. I think even people who don't like scary movies will like this. Like its predecessor, 28 Days Later, it feels very real, and the conflicts and twists feel very credible and unforced (which is a lot more than you can say for a lot of movies, horror or no).
Robert Carlyle has long been one of my closet crushes, and he is so great in this. He makes an unthinkable decision in the beginning of the film which, in the hands of a lesser actor, might make you lose all sympathy for him. But I felt like it was something a lot of people would do in a similar situation, even though you know he's going to get some karmic payback for it (and boy, does he!).
Basic plot - A "rage virus" has turned much of the population of London into angry, flesh-eating zombies. A small part of London has been quarantined and survivors are being brought into the area while reconstruction begins. The US Army is in the quarantined area, in case of another outbreak, and they're kind of bored because there's nothing much to do. A woman is brought to the medical headquarters and is declared to be a carrier of the virus, but there is something in her blood that has kept the virus from taking over. A doctor wants to keep her to do tests and try to find a cure, but the military thinks she should be killed, because the danger of her infecting others is too great. But before a decision can be made, the woman's husband - not knowing that her fluids are carrying the virus - kisses her and becomes infected himself. All hell breaks loose, of course, but not at all in the way you'd think.
This is not just a rehashing of old situations and characters. In fact, none of the "survivors" from the first film are even in this story, though you can imagine that they are in the midst of the crowd in quarantined London. This is a thoughtful treatment and every development seems very organic. And I love how the "zombies" in this film and the first one are FAST, not mopey and slow. They're a real threat and much scarier and angrier. And I can't remember a trip to the movies where I was plugging my fingers in my ears more - there are some SERIOUS chair-jumper scares in this thing.
I could have done without the last 30 seconds, which seemed very tacked on and the obligatory "ooooooh, here's a chance for another sequel." I mean, yeah, it's a believable setup - darned chunnel - but the movie had gone this far without having very many horror cliches at all, and this was just like taking a creme brulee and squeezing icing out of a tube to spell "happy birthday" on it. It just ruins it.
But up until then, it's near perfect.
*******
I suddenly and inexplicably became ill yesterday. What started as just being tired led to a nap, which led to me grabbing a blanket because I was cold, which led to me turning off all cooling agents in the house because I was feverish and shivering. I was in bed all day yesterday, which made it the perfect time for TBS to be broadcasting the LOTR trilogy. :D
Feeling a little better today - at least the fever is gone - but I seem to be breathing in snot instead of air. Grrrrr.
*******
In movie news, 28 Weeks Later is OUTSTANDING. I'm wary about sequels, especially horror sequels, but this one actually had a story to tell and didn't in the least smack of a studio just trying to squeeze more money out of an already dead (or in this case undead?) story. I think even people who don't like scary movies will like this. Like its predecessor, 28 Days Later, it feels very real, and the conflicts and twists feel very credible and unforced (which is a lot more than you can say for a lot of movies, horror or no).
Robert Carlyle has long been one of my closet crushes, and he is so great in this. He makes an unthinkable decision in the beginning of the film which, in the hands of a lesser actor, might make you lose all sympathy for him. But I felt like it was something a lot of people would do in a similar situation, even though you know he's going to get some karmic payback for it (and boy, does he!).
Basic plot - A "rage virus" has turned much of the population of London into angry, flesh-eating zombies. A small part of London has been quarantined and survivors are being brought into the area while reconstruction begins. The US Army is in the quarantined area, in case of another outbreak, and they're kind of bored because there's nothing much to do. A woman is brought to the medical headquarters and is declared to be a carrier of the virus, but there is something in her blood that has kept the virus from taking over. A doctor wants to keep her to do tests and try to find a cure, but the military thinks she should be killed, because the danger of her infecting others is too great. But before a decision can be made, the woman's husband - not knowing that her fluids are carrying the virus - kisses her and becomes infected himself. All hell breaks loose, of course, but not at all in the way you'd think.
This is not just a rehashing of old situations and characters. In fact, none of the "survivors" from the first film are even in this story, though you can imagine that they are in the midst of the crowd in quarantined London. This is a thoughtful treatment and every development seems very organic. And I love how the "zombies" in this film and the first one are FAST, not mopey and slow. They're a real threat and much scarier and angrier. And I can't remember a trip to the movies where I was plugging my fingers in my ears more - there are some SERIOUS chair-jumper scares in this thing.
I could have done without the last 30 seconds, which seemed very tacked on and the obligatory "ooooooh, here's a chance for another sequel." I mean, yeah, it's a believable setup - darned chunnel - but the movie had gone this far without having very many horror cliches at all, and this was just like taking a creme brulee and squeezing icing out of a tube to spell "happy birthday" on it. It just ruins it.
But up until then, it's near perfect.