What Did I Do While the Rest of the World Watched the "Lost" Series Finale?

Well; since the "bring me up to date" show was 2 hours long, and the final episode was nearly 10 hours in length, I took it upon myself to grab a couple of the DVD's we have in stock here @ the homestead, sat down on the floor (where else can I go to escape while the other half watches a show he didn't care about until tonight?), put on the headset and attached it to the laptop, found a corner of our tiny little studio; propped myself up on some pillows (oh the comfort of a floor at my old age--stretch me out now please--remember the days you could fall asleep as a kid?--even on a hard floor...comfort was anywhere you could lie down--those days are long gone...but I digress)...and I watched two films that the other half had no interest in...two horror remakes (of two of my ALL TIME FAVORITE MOVIES) that I have had since we moved to LA; but have never taken the time to view. Well, first of all, we don't have a DVD player and the computer is never a great place to watch a whole movie; especially w/ two people...but again, I was alone on this excursion, while the other half sat in fascination, watching a television program we only watched a few episodes of; some 5 years ago or so. But I'm not bitter...I still plan to watch Lost on DVD at another time; if I can manage to hear nothing about it for the next several days of the news cycle. Fat effing chance!

Anyway, finally saw the remake for Day of the Dead. Pretty darn crappy. Allow me to mention the 5 items that remained from Romero's brilliant original. 1) Lead character's name is "Sarah". 2) Main army dude was named "Rhodes". 3) They escape the mayhem via a missile silo. 4) Nick Cannon (yes, Mariah's hubby) uses a machete; a la Terry Alexander's "John" in the original...and finally, 5) Their attempt at recreating "Bub" was just blasphemous. The character named "Bud" (ooh, clever) doesn't eat humans when he becomes a zombie; cuz...well, when he was alive; it is revealed that he's a vegetarian. This movie had no characters to root for...some very cheap CGI effects, and zombies capable of not only running, but climbing walls and ceilings; very much as you would see in any of The Matrix films. The entire thing reminded me of Alien vs. Predator: Requiem...and that's not a good movie. Small town taken over by some horrible epidemic...etc. It all turned out to be the product of bio-weapons gone wrong. There's an original idea. The production values; other than the stinging CGI gore effects, were not bad. Lots of crashes, extras and military vehicles. Good for you. But once again, I'm reminded of my own zombie scripts. Two brilliant ones that could bring something unique to the zombie genre. This movie wasn't horrible; it wasn't good. It was mildly entertaining; despite it's completely unoriginal story and direction. Worth mentioning, the zombie "moaning" was taken directly from Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. In addition, Tyler Bates; the man responsible for that film's score; does the same thing here...literally. But while the Dawn of the Dead score is quite good, this one didn't do anything for the film; or on it's own. Finally, Steve Miner directed. Now, I've been happy w/ some of his horror efforts in the past (Friday the 13th 2 and 3 and H2O); but everything here was uninspired. Hey studios, spend the money on my scripts and get something worthwhile! A story...put your production values here, and maybe it'll work!

Rant complete.

My viewing of Day of the Dead was followed by a look at the remake of Black Christmas (or as the box says, "Black Xmas"). Not as tragic as I would have thought. While it didn't completely work, I was intrigued by the backstory of our good friend Billy. And certainly, the woman playing his Mom was the best thing about the whole film. Kudos to you, Karin Konoval... It lacked any of the menace or atmosphere of the original, and certainly didn't have anyone you really cared about. Not a complete waste of time...but again, only worthwhile for the Billy backstory. While I enjoyed these new developments, I think the original's lack of information on Billy's origins works better. Also, I had to wonder what was the reason for the casting of the actor playing adult Agnes. Hmmm. Weird. Oh yeah, I watched the alternate endings as well. The one which played closer to the original was much, much better.

So, Lost is over. Get it out of your systems media, cuz I don't want it to be ruined when I actually get around to watching it. Must avoid all news outlets; and you; my avid readers of 0, must avoid the two films I watched tonight.

That is all.