The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

I caught an early screening of The Crazies last night and was not expecting too much. I figured that even if the movie sucked, I didn't have to pay a cent to see it, so in that sense, it couldn't fail. So when the screen faded to black, I smiled because it turned out to be a win-win situation; it was a free and good movie. Now, apparently the movie is a remake of a classic by horror legend, George A. Romero. I've never seen or knew that the film existed so I didn't have that same baggage going in. But I'm a horror hound so I guess I'm biased as far as that goes. The movie takes place in a small farm town called Ogden located in Iowa state. We follow the sheriff as he tries to unravel three deaths that have occurred in their humble community. All the deaths were marked with intrigue as the killers were found in a zombie-like, semi-conscious, passive state. The sheriff and his deputy discover that a plane had crashed into one of the nearby lakes which serves as...

In case you didn't know, I love bad movies. I hate bad bad movies but I love bad movies. For me, it's difficult to create a scale to weigh out movies that I like or don't. For example, I love good big budget movies but I HATE bad big budget movies. Yet at the same time, I love low budget direct-to-video movies, which in a lot of cases are worst than bad big budget movies, but their lower budget gives them an endearing quality of sorts. Are you confused yet? Let's put it this way, if you're a bad movie but you went straight to video, there's a better chance that I enjoyed you more than if you had made it to the big screen. Which brings me to The Wrong Side of Town (the name of the movie and not the place of course). This was a bad movie, but I found it wildly entertaining. I think a large part of it is because it stars two major wrestlers and as a hardcore wrestling fan, it behooves me to enjoy this tripe. The poster on the left is a bit misleading though...

After watching this movie, it made me wish that I were a black guy in the 70s. Black Dynamite is a throwback to the blaxploitation movies that were popular back in the 70s. This was such a fantastic movie! The story follows Black Dynamite as he tracks down his brother's killer. What at first appears as a low-level gangland crime becomes something more as Dynamite uncovers a giant conspiracy that leads him to none other than The Man. The movie is filled with kung-fu fighting, gun blazing action, car chases, foot chases, love-making and all that good stuff that you would expect from a blaxploitation flick. Despite its limited budget, Black Dynamite succeeds in capturing the look and feel of the 70s. The clothes, the sets and all the music take a page right out of that decade. They even play on its low production value as in some scenes you'll see the boom mic dropping into the screen and Black Dynamite just looking at it. He kills the bad guys and gets the women. Michael Jai...

Last night, FreeChurch hosted a coffeehouse to the community of downtown Toronto. It was an awesome night showcasing some the young and talented musicians of the community. Drew melting hearts on the guitar. My Living Room was in charge of preparing the whole night and it was just amazing to see it basically empty at first, but have it fully decorated and filled with people 2 hours later. We did it all from setting up the sound equipment (phew!), to throwing fabrics around, placing candles around the room and even preparing all the food and drinks. Once the music started, it felt nice taking a step back, surveying the hall, watching people have a good time. Brad's band creating an atmosphere with a post-rock style. There were some good and varying sets of music; starting with more acoustic-y and melodic tunes in the beginning, to some pastor raps, ending with two full band sets. I think there was a little something for everyone. By the way, I learned quite a few things tonight. ...

It has been quite an eye opening few weeks lately, in a positive way though. It's been amazing the way kindness has been shown to me in my life. In some ways its by new friends, in other ways by close friends and in more surprising ways, by people I don't even know. It's been a humbling experience and sometimes I have to take a step back and say "wow". I've been shown so much that sometimes it becomes confusing; why am I receiving all this kindness? I don't truly understand it but I know that God is gracious, that is certain. I was looking through the Bible earlier to find some good words on kindness and I came across this in 2 Peter 1:5-6 where it talks about how we should live our lives based on everything that God has blessed us with. Specifically it reads: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godli...

Okay, so this movie was bad, let's get that out of the way. It was a waste of time on my part, for taking time to watch it, and on their part, for taking time, money and effort in making it. Three key reasons come to mind. I think it was a mistake to show that the stepfather was a murderer from frame one. Right off the bat, we know he's a killer which takes away from a lot of the mystery that they could have built. I mean, we know from the trailers that obviously this stepfather is an evil dude, but there's no sense of suspense to it. The only "suspense" out of it are all the times the stepfather pops up in random places to scare the kids. It's not scary at all and by the third time, it comes across more as comedy to me. The second flaw, which is closely related, is the lack of motive for said stepfather. He just kills for the sake of killing, there's no rhyme or reason. He's just as mindless as Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th or the birds f...

In celebration of Avatar becoming the largest (unadjusted) grossing movie of all time, I thought I'd go back and review one of James Cameron's earlier works. It's time again to get into the wayback machine. Let's return to 1981; a time before CG in movies, before Aliens and Terminators... to a time when it was possible for James Cameron to make shitty movies. Unfathomable! I watched the original Piranha about 3 years ago and I loved it. It was the exact balance of cheekiness and horror that you'd want in a low budget horror flick. A movie trying to capitalize on the fame of Jaws except with killer piranhas, how could it be bad? It was great. This sequel? It was not. A big problem with the movie was the incoherent story. The way they cut the film made it hard to follow the main story and all the side stories of the supporting characters. On top of that, random characters are introduced, disappear and then reappear much later. As far as I can remember (yest...