a little late ... won't happen again (I hope)

the first "bizarre" entry in our little hit parade.  Wife had never seen this so we watched it last night and she approves of it's addition.  Killer Klown from Outer Space.

1988.  Only two "names" in this one.  The cop is played by John Vernon (whom you might know better as Dean Wormer from Animal House) and the crazy old coot is played by Royal Dano who pretty much made a career of playing crazy old coots for four decades.  From imdb: If you can't tell what Killer Klowns From Outer Space is about by the title, then this movie isn't for you. The plot is so outrageous, that you need to be a serious Midnight Movie fanatic to enjoy it.   This is one fun movie. Not particularly scary, and not very gruesome, but hugely enjoyable. I've always been a little unsettled by clowns ("It" really did them in for me), and Killer Klowns should seal the deal. I've read a lot of reviews that compare Killer Klowns to the '50s "B" movies (especially the ones from American International Pictures), and I can say that I agree. Although, I can't even see AIP coming up with the concept of alien clowns overtaking a quiet town by sealing all it's residents up in cotton candy cocoons and shooting carnivorous popcorn from ray guns!

You'll be met with blank stares if you try and explain this film to anybody whose never seen it, so do yourself a favor. Pop a big bucket of popcorn, get yourself some cotton candy and sit your friends down in front of the TV and just let them take in Killer Klowns From Outer Space. 

Creepy clowns?  check.  Hot chick?  Suzanne Snyder.  Barely check.  Masks?  Check.  Using ice cream to try to get girls to have sex?  check.

I completely re-worked the list last night.  Threw some things our, added some things.  Discussed this with some other folks.  My wife wanted some chick-flicks on the list - Hocus Pocus (NO!) and Practical Magic (a definite maybe with the BIG plus for S Bullock.)  And the Wizard of Oz, for goodnes sake.  I took out some sci-fi: Cube, ET (even though it has that cute Halloween scene in it.  I guess what I'm going for is "the best movies to watch from 10/25 through 10/31'"  Classics that fit the theme.  

And so it is that todays entry is one I can't STAND to watch it creeps me out so much.  Pure Sci-fi but scary enough to make the grade.  I'm talking of course of the 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Once you've seen Kevin McCartyh roll across the hood of your car shrieking "They're here already!  And you're next!" it's tough to turn the light out.

Much has been said about the parallels between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the "communist paranoia" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, especially as it was directed against Hollywood by the House of Un-American Activities Committee. (And how ironic that the star of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is named McCarthy?) However, there is another very interesting subtext present that isn't so often mentioned. The film can also be looked at as a philosophical exploration of personal identity. Just what does it take for people to be themselves? Is it how they look, act, the things they say? Is it not the case that people are constantly transformed into something they weren't just hours ago, or even moments ago? Among the many ways that these kinds of ideas are worked into the script is that sleep is a metaphor for unconscious physical change over time. It would be easy to analyze each scene in the film in this manner, going into detail about the various implications each plot development has on the matter of personal identity.

This movie was remade in 1978 with a  stellar cast (Leonard Nimoy, Jeffrey Goldblum, Donald Sutherland) and an appearance by Kevin McCarthy!  The '78 movie tends to skewer consumerism more than Communism and 20 years did a lot for special effects and makeup, but the chills just aren't there.  

2007 Saw the feminists take over as Nicole Kiddman took the Kevin McCarthy role.  Haven't seen it yet.  I'll report back.

Creep factor?  Check.  Cute chick?  Dana Wynter.  Check.  Difficulty turning the lights out after viewing?  Check.  Lingering dislike/distrust of eggplant?  check

I leave wuite a few topics on the bench (IMHO) or give them minimal treatment at best.  So here's my David Letterman post, found in the Comments over at newsbusters.com

"Top Ten Things About Letterman's Trysts With Staffers":

10. Learned everything he knows about interns from Bill Clinton.
9. Was jealous of A-Rod, if you know what I mean.
8. Well on the way to becoming the next ex-governor of New York.    
7. Makes Mark Sanford look like a rank amateur.
6. Because he’s a liberal, endorsement from NOW was never in jeopardy.
5. Didn’t care about the book, but wanted the movie rights to ‘The
Scarlet Letterman.’
4. Is so glad he didn’t have a ‘morals’ clause in his contract.
3. Has great story for his support group, ‘Philanderer’s Anonymous.’
2. If he had to do it over again, he’d collect cars like Jay Leno.
1. Gives company name “Worldwide Pants” a whole new meaning.

Our first "light" entry and one that probably won't make the cut next year.  Y'see, I kinda threw this list together in an hour or so from my Flickchart.com lists and some moderate tinkering.  Since then I've talked to my wife (I know - ALWAYS talk to the wife FIRST) and some others.  Have about half a dozen movies to be considered NEXT year, and I'm sure this little project will generate some good suggestions in the comments.

Anyway - Today we have Silver Bullett.  I know - with Gary Bussey and Corey Haim, how good can it be?  Well I had to get Stephan King in here somehow.  Cute chick?  Megan Follows.  Werewolf? check.  Kid in a wheelchair saving the day?  check.

Halloween fun for the whole family.

Today a small, single-serving dose of political idiocy. The info comes courtesy of former Reason intern Mike Riggs, who now blogs over at the Washington City Paper,

You know what’s got my goat this morning? Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander’s horrendous crusade against single cigar sales......

And the worst thing about Alexander’s crusade–the worst!–isn’t her nanny instincts, but this horrible, off-the-cuff lie:

“I believe the major source of income at a gas station should be gasoline and the major source of income at a corner store should be nonperishable food items, so I wonder what kind of business they’re really in.”

Newsflash, councilmember: Despite what you “believe,” gas stations DO NOT MAKE MOST OF THEIR MONEY ON GAS. 

But don't worry, the Dem's'll do FINE with Health Care.

GARRISON KEILLOR: KILL ALL THE REPUBLICANS. ““Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order.”

But I thought the GOP was the nasty rich people that we were supposed to be taxing to pay off the defecit?  Oh, right - we'll get it in DEATH taxes!  Just remember, you can sheer a sheep dozens of times, you can only slaughter it once.

I haven't touted a movie lately but stumbled across a REAL hidden gem this morning - the Kirk Douglas vehicled Lonely Are the Brave from 1962. 

I'm usually not  a big fan of Anti-Hero movies but this one's an odd bird that hooked me from the opening scene: black and white,  campfire,pan to cowboy boots, up jeans to cowboy asleep on his saddle, trusty horse nearby.  1870's?  1920's?  Nope.  Next scene is three Air Force jetsflying in formation.  And we're off.

Talk about a CAST:  a young Gena Rowlands at her most beautiful, playing an everyday western housewife.  Walter Mathau in an understated role as the rural County Sherrif.  His "scenes" with the local stray dog are priceless.    Carrol O'Connor in a bit (yet important) role as a truck driver.  William Schallert is a HOOT as the radio operator.   Geroge Kennedy is the token "good ol' boy" cop and plays it clean and honest.  Karl Swenson and William Mims aren't exactly household names but you'll recognize them the minute they hit the screen.  And throw in Bill Bixby in an uncredited roll as a helicopter pilot.  Dalton Trumbo screenplay.

Douglas makes us care, even though he's wrong.  He plays the discarded hero without slipping into pathos.   He doesn't paint his situation as somebody ELSE's fault.  It all was his choice.  And maybe THAT's why I like THIS anti-hero flick.  This isn't an "entertaining" movie and it's not a "message" movie.  But it's a GREAT movie made the way great movies SHOULD be made.  A great script.  Great actors.  Deft direction.  Great camara work.  Grab a beverage, set aside 1:45 and enjoy this hidden gem of the film makers craft.

I GOT this idea from The Sexy Witch .... more on where SHE picked up on this in the future.  And LOTS of leads.  In the meantime it's time for MY post.  And today's movie is The Amityville Horror, that's the original version, not the 2005 remake. which wasn't bad, is just not as good.  There's also II: The Possession, 3-D, Dollhouse, A New Generation, 1992: It's About Time, Curse and On Location, along with a couple of TV specials. 

Haunted House?  Check.  Masks?  Not really but who needs 'em when you've got the "gehttttt ouuuuuut" voice?  Sexy chick?  Margot Kidder.  Check.  

This one MIGHT have been just another haunted house flick  if it weren't for the fact that a real massacre happened there back in 1974. Young 23 year-old Ronald "Butch" DeFeo quietly went berserk as he calmly took a shotgun and shot to death his entire family, six persons, some time after 3:15AM in the early morning of November 13, 1974. The movie isn't really that much based on the DeFeo killings but on the George Lutz family who moved into the Defeo home a year later. George and his wife Kathy  and their three children lived in the Amityville "Horror" house for just three weeks and then left, taking their pet dog Larry with them, leaving everything behind but the clothes on their back and the van that they drove out of there with and, in the movie at least, were never seen or heard from again. The movie and book on the Lutz's experience at that house was so effective that Ronald DeFeo's lawyer tried to use the unprecedented defense that his client was demoniacally possessed to get DeFeo off by using an insanity defense.

and not only does the left not give a puck, but their hockey stick is broken as well. 

For those of you who don't get it - the famous"hockey stick" slide/graph in Algore's Inconvinient Truth seems to based on some faulty math.  Instead f using ALL the data they had our intrepid "scientists"only used about 10% of it ... and the most"harmful" 10% at that. 

Remember back whe the left was constantly accusing the Bush administration of trying to "politicize" science?  Guess the shoe was really on the other foot.

To get a better grip on the story try reading

More Yamal tree ring temperature data: this data is flat as roadkill 

or

YAD06 – the Most Influential Tree in the World 

 and finally

Response from Briffa on the Yamal tree ring affair – plus rebuttal 

then hit the ice!

OK...several other sites have taken to doing this every October so I thought I'd "take a stab" at it .... Halloween movies!  One every day, leading up to my favorite.  Keep in mind I am NOT a fan of the zombie/slasher/chainsaw genre so while a FEW of those make an appearence they'll be few and far between.
Also made some other "decisions" ... some "movies" are actually a group of movies - you'll see because I'm being intelectually lazy and didn't really wanna sort .... and a movie gets BONUS points for being set on Halloween, involving a haunted house or wearing a mask, having a sexy babe.

We begin our countdown with what many consider to be a real stinker but I kinda like.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch ... no relation to THE series, other than the name.  Stacey Nelkin gives a nice turn as the cute chick (with all of the trinkets that an early 80's cute chick could sport.)  Some nice creepy moments, SET on Halloween.  #30.

Think I might have missed one?  Let me know.