It's an iguana!, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm Watching:

I finally saw the other half of the Grindhouse double feature - Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof. I had started watching it before, but after 15 minutes of yak yak yak yak yak I shut it off. Upon my brother's urging I made another attempt at watching it and only TiVo'd through about 15 more minutes (if you fast-forward through something on the first setting, you can speed-read the closed-captioning and still follow the story).

I understand why Tarantino wanted us to spend so much time with the characters because one of the fatal flaws of any stalker / slasher movie is the victims are usually not very sympathetic. In this case I think Tarantino went overboard in making sure we got to know the victims before Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell, how cool is that) starts terrorizing them. When the movie gets down to business, however, all I can say is HOLY SHIT.

Then comes the second act / set of victims: the movie has some of the best damn car chase / stuntwork since the 70's movies Tarantino was trying to emulate. Zoe Bell, a Kiwi stuntwoman (Uma Thurman's stunt double in the Kill Bill movies) who basically plays herself is a hoot. All the victims during the second half are really cool and fun, actually.

Tarantino also didn't kill in children so ultimately I think I like Deathproof more than Planet Terror and I intend to try to watch it again without any fast-forwarding when I work up the intestinal fortitude to do so.

The House on Haunted Hill: Not good - I was bored and it was Sunday. The movie was based on the old William Castle movie of the same name, and the only notable goodness here was Geoffry Rush's GREAT impersonation of Vincent Price, Jeffrey Combs (but not enough - what is a horror movie with Jeffrey Combs without some of his classic ascerbic comments?), and I was amused to discover that the original screenwriter was my childhood-favorite writer Robb White. It turns out he collaborated with William Castle on a lot of dreck. I was saddened to discover the only book of White's that is still in print is Deathwatch. He also amusingly wrote a book called Our Virgin Island - it turns out he and his wife lived in the British Virgin Islands back in the 30's and 40's. But that's neither here nor there in regards to the movie. The only other notably positive thing I can say about the movie is the black guy lives.

South Park: Is showing new episodes, hooray! The Britney Spears episode was disturbing and I was glad to note that I'm not the only person in the universe that feels bad for her. The 'Major Boobage' episode, Parker and Stone's tribute to Heavy Metal is hilarious. My favorite is still the World of Warcraft episode from a few seasons back.

I tried to do a write-up of a TV show meme I found but I lost interest. I realized something while trying to come up with 5 TV characters that I would (ahem) 'do': In all of my favorite T.V. shows I tend to like the women better (I'm not wired that way so it was a losing topic). I've mentioned before how much I love X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Battlestar Galactica. I love Scully, Buffy (and Willow and Anya), and Starbuck far more than I love any of the guys. I have 2 new T.V. shows I'm loving:The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Life. Of course Sarah is my fave, and on Life, I'm appreciating Dani far more than nutbag Charlie.

The only exception to currently running shows would be Lost, but in the case of this show, none of the characters really stand out as favorites. Kate, Jack, and Sawyer are all tools. I do love Sayid, Hurley, and Desmond, however. Oh, hey: to come full circle, Zoe Bell was on Lost for a few episodes but all she did was wrap a heavy chain around herself and leap overboard from a stranded freighter. What a waste, sheesh!