Film, DVD, Rants, Reviews, Whiskey and Whores. A little bit of everything. We'll be talking film news, reviewing films and going off about all sorts of things.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Who is your daddy and what does he do?
There is a band that you all should know about. Austrian Death Machine. They are a metal band who base all of their songs on Arnold quotes. I'll let that soak in, I nearly blew a gasket when I found out about this. If you have a better idea for a band, I'd like to hear it.
There are quite a few songs on youtube. I would also recommend "Get to the choppa!". I am soooo buying that CD.
This was actually a featured video on Youtube today...no idea how that happened. I've never seen so much Play-Doh blood in all my life. Incredible work.
I have been pumped for this one for awhile. Ever since I heard there was a new X-Files film dropping this summer I have been giddy with anticipation. I purposely avoid anything more than the trailers I happen to catch on television and stay the fuck away from any internet articles discussing the film. I don't care what anyone has to say on the subject of this movie before I see it. Period. I have friends mentioning, "It's not getting very good reviews." I hear this MORE than a few times. None of these people have seen the movie yet either I should mention, it's not even out yet. The little lady and I clear our busy schedules and catch an early matinée Saturday morning. Let me say, we are both pretty big X-Files fans. I think there are 2 types of fans for the show. On one side you have the people who loved the underlying political plot that spanned across all seasons of the show and into the last theatrical film [I am on this side of the fence]. And you have fans who preferred the "stand alone" episodes where Mulder and Scully chased a Chupacabra around. I Want To Believe is supposed to resemble the latter in terms of how they approached this film. It's stand alone and doesn't deal with any of the old subplot stuff from the show, such as "Smoking man", etc. It's just as if they picked up the show for one last episode 10 years after the last film.
[Spoilers]
So, I enter the theater with some caution in the back of my mind, planted by all the negative things I had heard. This quickly dissolves as the intro music plays. The film opens in the very snowy backwoods of West Virginia [pause for West Virginia jokes] juxtaposing between a woman's abduction by some guys and a psychic leading the FBI to a severed arm from said abduction. Agent Whitney [Amanda Peet] who seems to have a fascination with the X-Files and particularly Mulder, attempts to track him down and bring him into the case. They are apparently unable to find him and go through Scully to do so. We see that much time has passed and Mulder is bearded and and attempting to live off the grid and Scully is in and out of a relationship with him dealing with her own problems in her medical practice. We get a couple nods to the original series and the quirks of Mulder and the film is off and running.
I feel that Chris Carter and Fox made a BIG mistake when they continued the series after the first film. I think keeping the series on TV quenched any thirst the public had for X-Files, so further films wouldn't have quite the punch they might have had otherwise. They should've stuck with the Star Trek model. If it ain't broke don't fix it. It was extremely nostalgic to see these characters together again though and the film really felt like a new episode of the show. The pacing and tone were all there. The setup was short and sweet and just as much of the main plot was the story of Scully and Mulder and what's become of them. They had incredible chemistry on the TV series and it's as if they never quit. It's almost better in some ways since they obviously have the sexual tension out of the way. Gillian Anderson looks incredible and more attractive than she ever was on the series in my opinion and Duchovny hasn't aged much either. Despite their characters appearing to be out of practice, the actors portraying them fit right back into character with no problem whatsoever.
Back to the plot. Mulder is assisting the FBI in handling a [child molesting] psychic they are using to try and find an agent who has recently gone missing. Mulder wants Scully around as he thinks she has something to offer on this case. Mulder, being reluctant to work with the FBI again quickly becomes obsessed with the case and Scully is reminded of why they quit doing this in the first place. The FBI is growing impatient with "Father Joe" [the psychic] and beginning to lose faith in him, but Mulder believes his story and is trying to piece it together for himself. They end up finding more bodies and more questions. Mulder ends up getting himself in knee-deep and needs Scully to help get him out of it. I know, it sounds just like an episode of the show, which is why it was fucking awesome. I don't want to give any more of the plot away. I will say it is up there with the Peacock Family episode in terms of how twisted it was. There's no fucking aliens, the only paranormal aspect to the film is Father Joe and what gave him his psychic ability [also twisted]. It all leads up to an awesome finale and includes an awesome cameo.
What really perplexes me is the poor reviews. There is no fucking green screen or CG luck dragons in this movie? No shit? So, I went to a couple of sites to glance at what people are saying:
Really Michelle? Ten years too late? Maybe because it was ten years ago since the last film?! And the fact you can't watch a movie with snow in the summer tells me all I need to know about how fucking retarded you are.
Wow. Sign me up for your newsletter, fucktard.
This movie is completely "X-Files". Wonderfully shot, wonderfully paced and has a bizarre twisted plot. It comes at a time when everything is either a big budget CG shitfest or a flick audience tested into oblivion. It's a great mystery/suspense film that happens to be an X-Files movie. If you want so see more of them, go buy a ticket and see it in the theater.
So, the other day I'm thinking about George Foreman and I wonder to myself, "When George Sr. is talking to friends and family, does he speak about his fortune in terms of 'Grillions' of dollars?" Because as far as I'm concerned, Foreman could easily be considered the only self made grillionaire in the world.
Now, that being said. I wanted to tell Danny Boyle. Hey, Danny Boy, this is the movie we wanted to see. This one right here. Who's with me?
The Dark Knight is hitting theaters this Friday. I am seriously sweating with anticipation for this damn movie. I am a Batman fiend. I am especially fond of the animated series. There are such moments of greatness in that show. I don't have enough time and space on this site to go into it. It was a great show. So, I see a commercial for this new DVD coming out called Batman Gotham Knight and that it's a PG-13 anime vision of the Batman mythos! I admit, I got a full-on robot chubby. Wait, it's an anthology? Like The Animatrix? Half chub. Kevin Conroy is voicing Batman through the entire thing? Full chub returns.
How is it? Well, it's an anthology, which by definition is a mixed bag. So, it's a mixed bag. There are six "interlocking" stories. I use the terms "interlocking" and "stories" VERY loosely. The opening short "Have I got A Story For You" is about a handful urban-street-skater kids who have had brief encounters with Batman and are telling there own exaggerated versions of their stories. I won't spend any more time on this one, it's style doesn't fit the subject matter and it's dumb. Everyone I've spoken to who's watched this disc agrees. Definitely the weakest of the bunch.
Second story is "Crossfire", which focuses on Allen and Ramirez is about Allen's distaste for Batman and his vigilante vengeance. Batman ends up saving his ass at Arkham Asylum and he changes his tune. Again...fucking boring. I hope this gets better.
Third chapter is called "Field Test" and is the first chapter to actually look like anime. Sporting a very young looking Bruce Wayne dealing with Lucius and a new device Batman can wear that deflects bullets. This came just in time as my patience with this DVD was wearing very thin. The Batman design is both different and cool. It's short and sweet and actually has some cool moments. Okay, now we're getting somewhere.
Chapter four, "In Darkness Dwells" is written by David Goyer [that tattooed fucker] and produced by anime badasses Madhouse. Why couldn't this chapter been the whole fucking disc? Batman has a BRIEF run-in with Killer Croc [like 15 seconds] that could've went on for 10 minutes in my opinion and eventually finds himself face to face with Scarecrow. This chapter abruptly ends and never really goes anywhere. I absolutely loved the look and tone and seriously wish they could've made a 90 minute flick out of this one. Oh well, just as soon as it began, it's over.
Almost done, chapter five is called "Working Through Pain". This picks up where the last chapter ended and has Batman flashing back to his earlier years when he learned to deal with pain. This is really about Bruce Wayne, but the animation is gorgeous and the little story that's there is very good. There's not much to say about this one. It looks good, they talk, there is a brief action scene and it too, just as the others, ends. Not bad though.
Final chapter. "Deadhsot", written by Alan Burnett and also produced by Madhouse. This also is one that could've easily filled the entire DVD. It has Batman protecting Commissioner Gordon from a super assassin who is attempting to kill him. This chapter is a painting come to life and ends way too soon. This sums up my opinion of the entire DVD. There are moments of greatness that disappear as quickly as they appear. I would say half the disc is not worth watching, but the other half is solid as a rock were it not for the dwarfed playtime of those chapters. It just left me feeling somewhat empty and confused. It was like a commercial for another film I will never get to see. Let me say this, I am a HUGE Batman fan and I cannot recommend purchasing this DVD. Rent, my little friends. This is not one for repeat viewings. Save that dough and spend it on a box set of one of the original animated series.
When I first saw the "teaser" trailer sometime back in January for HANCOCK I got a little pumped. Here was a cool concept that allows for the now-traditional, multi-million dollar Will Smith July 4th blockbuster, but one with an unlikable antihero that would let Smith and Wizard Michael Mann's apprentice - director Peter Berg - just cut loose with a nasty, R-rated attempt at a dark, stylish comedy about a drunk bum of a superhero teaming up with an idealistic PR man trying to overhaul his image, but much to his chagrin, blah, blah... Yes. Great concept... Co-starring Charlize Theron in anti-MONSTER hotness... Former Wizard Michael Mann project produced by Wizard Michael Mann... Plus it has the newly resurrected Teen Wolf Too, as well. Looked like a classic in the making... How the fuck could it be any less entertaining than say, Men In Black I and II (fuck you, I like MIB II) or Bad Boys I and II levels of entertainment?
Wait a second... 90 minutes... PG-13... Shit, Akiva "I Helped Joel Schumacher Kill Batman" Goldsman is involved? Didn't see that... Rumors of a critical freezeout... Complete and total bomb... Didn't give a shit... Loved the trailer... Saw it anyway...
First off, HANCOCK is great after a couple of beers, and perhaps a shot. What better way to enjoy a movie about a whiskeybent bum with supernatural powers who leaves a drunken trail of destruction wherever he goes? It's like going to see a *ahem* "stoner comedy", er, stoned. For those who do that kind of shit. Like me. So, if there's a bar next to the theater, grab a drink. Get blunted on some shit and go. Shit, take a flask to the picture show with you. Put it in your sock. Just remember to call a cab, or your mother if you got dropped off...
When we find our anti-superhero, John Hancock, he's asleep on a park bench in downtown LA, hungover, and/or still-drunk. A small towheaded kid, who apparently is either a complete badass with either a Tec-9 in his backpack or Krav-Maga in his head and bones, either that or he has the worst parents in the world, alerts the annoyed Hancock to a phalanx of TVs broadcasting a high speed pursuit along one of LA's bullshit freeways. Hancock and the boy have words, boy calls him an asshole (Hancock's least favorite word btw in a reoccurring joke that gets hella-stale), Hancock explodes into the sky, carrying a handle of what looked like Canadian Club whiskey, which he guzzles en route to catching a carload of Asian gangsters, by the car, eventually hanging said car on the needle of the Capitol Records building while "1-900 Number" (THE GREATEST BREAK EVER) blares on the soundtrack. This scene had me out of my chair, doing the Ed Lover Dance. Recognize. It was lean, mean, and hilarious. This is everything the preview promised. Hell, this WAS the preview. Wait a second...
John Hancock eventually finds himself saving Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a ridiculously idealistic company man, and one who finds himself trapped on the railroad tracks (of life), staring into oblivion after he bombs with a ridiculously Capraesque proposal to his company. Hancock happens to stumble across his car while it's trapped by a bunch of typical dickhead LA motorists, and saves his ass from getting demolished by a train. Ray eventually becomes his PR man, and maps out a plan to put him back into favor with the general public, and help him realize his potential, destiny, fate, karma, luck - call it whatever.
Bateman is married to Mary, played by Charlize Theron, in what appears to be the thankless wife role, ends up the catalyst/perceived albatross of the movie, depending on how you look at it. Theron is the third piece that completes the movie's true intent. Her character draws the backstory from Hancock. This tonal shift, and complete 180 into a different movie altogether is what has many people cursing it, and scratching their heads until it snows. I didn't have that big of a problem with it, but it, like that entire last half of the film is too safe, too clean. Wouldn't it have been edgier had Theron been a mortal woman who commits adultery with Hancock, and robs him of his powers that way? That's the movie I had in my head when I saw the trailers.
Make no mistake about this, and I will throw down with anyone about this fact: Theron is great in it. Her reveal is genius, and not that shocking if you pay attention. As soon as she and Hancock trade glances, you know what's going on. You can see it in her eyes from the moment they meet. That is if you've ever seen a movie before in your life. Theron is intense. And hot.
So, is Theron the villain? Is that the "twist"?
No.
If there's a "twist" in HANCOCK, it was that it was a star-crossed romance disguised as a superhero film all along. Now whether this was demographic-pleasin' tampering (got to put something in there for the ladies), or if it was the original course of this long-delayed project, I don't know, but it works for me even though it makes a hard left against traffic and vanishes out of sight, leaving the audience a completely different movie standing in the dust of the first one.
I liked HANCOCK for what it was was walking into the theater (raucous superhero comedy), and respect what it tried to be, boils and all, in the very shaky end: essentially a love triangle with two immortals locked in a 3000-year-old dillema, a mortal everyman caught in the middle, and everyone trying to do battle with their respective destinies and fates and shit. What's so hard about conveying that in 90 minutes? It's not a ridiculous premise, it's just that it feels abridged, hurried. The explanation of who Hancock and Mary truly are is a bit flimsy, but not insulting as some critics have exclaimed (take it easy, fellas). It's a simple tale of sacrifice and destiny: Hancock has lost his way in a sea of booze (and Chad's favorite: AMNESIA) from his true calling as savior/protector, and Mary wants to lay low and be a mother (performing her heroics by "saving" a widower and his son). They can't be together lest they lose their powers, and die as mortals, but together. There's a much more compelling movie in there somewhere, and I don't know what roadblocks kept it out, but as it stands for now, HANCOCK is what it is: a good, semi-adult Summer entertainment that at least tried for something fresh and different.
It has come to my attention you can watch Ghostbusters on Hulu.com. So, why are you reading this? Go watch it now! It's a fuck-load better than actually doing work at your desk.
I love video games. Mind you, the older I get the more "older" I am becoming and I am clinging to the things I know and love. I've always been an early adopter and usually had every console on the market, but I can't stand the latest batch of next-gen stuff. I admit, I am stuck somewhat in the 16-bit age, but I am primarily into niche games, such as Japanese arcade titles and shooters [shmups] which I keep a very healthy collection of. That said, one of the few games that has always kept me buying the latest consoles just to play is the Silent Hill series. It has had it's fair share of ups and downs but remains a very distinct flavor in the over crowded gaming universe. I want to take a stroll down the dark alley of Silent Hill's past and what the future for the franchise looks like.
I came into the series a little late in the PSOne's life cycle. Probably somewhere around 2000. I had a friend recommend the game to me, describing it as "scary as fuck". I had tried the Resident Evil series and outside the PC version of Quake, didn't believe a game could be frightening, especially on the shitty playstation.
Just the intro had me intrigued. Even the pre-rendered CG characters had a weirdness to them. Just in the first 5 minutes of playing you are thrust into a bizarre scenario where your car has wrecked and your daughter is missing. You get out of your car only to be surrounded by fog and to make matters worst there is some seriously messed up "things" walking around. At about 4:27 in the above video was the exact moment I realized that camera angles could be creatively used in a games and I was immediately hooked on Silent Hill. It was a long night and into the next day as I played through the game in it's entirety. I couldn't get over how incredible the game and it's bizarre narrative were. Not only that, but the tone of the entire experience while played with the volume up and the lights out left me genuinely uneasy. Never before had a game kept me in such a continuous nervous state for so long and at the same time so engaged and anxious to find out what the hell was going on.
Shoot forward to 2001. The Playstation 2 is just getting started and I see a trailer for Silent Hill 2.
This is how Silent Hill should look! I immediately buy it upon release and call in sick to work, what would become a Silent Hill release tradition. I really can't say enough about Silent Hill 2, it is often revered as the best in the series. I completely agree. Not only is it one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had, it's also one of the best narrative cinematic experiences I've ever had. It went above and beyond a game for me. It is a deeply rich and engaging experience that is also disturbing and emotional. It sticks with you. The gameplay is similar to the first chapter, but with the added horsepower of the new hardware it was now more realistic and horrifying than ever. Where Silent Hill 1 shined, Silent Hill 2 melted the paint off the walls. The sights and sounds were so bizarre and so disturbing.
SH2 introduced us to "Pyramid Head". The ultra-scary guy carrying a massive sword and wearing a kitchen sink for a hat. You run into this guy a handful of times throughout the game and he is intimidating to say the least. The story in SH2 really shines. I was left with my jaw open for at least 3 days after finishing it. It is superb on so many levels. I don't want to say any more about it, as if you've never played through it [only takes about 6 hours] then please, for the love of God, do it! You will be a better person for it. The Silent Hill series has always been known for it's multiple endings, most of which are very bizarre. UFO's, dogs and other things that make absolutely no sense are there if you dig hard enough.
2003 brought Silent Hill 3. This one looked to be more of the same, but with a female protagonist this time around. I have to be honest, the first time I played through it, I was a little disappointed. It didn't feel as cerebral as SH2. It had more of an emphasis on the action and I felt the creature design was less disturbing than the last game. I will say though, that it got better with age [playing Silent Hill 4 also made me appreciate it more, A.K.A: the Batman Forever Effect] and actually is pretty great in retrospect. It also happens to have one of the BEST visualizations of crossing over into another realm/dimension/void/whatever you wanna' call it I have EVER seen:
The sound design in SH3 was also stellar, which has always been a staple of the series thanks to the brilliant Akira Yamaoka. Yamaoka is not only a producer of the series but is responsible for all the music and sound design. He is 75% of what makes Silent Hill so incredible. SH3 introduced vocals into some of the music which was new to the series and eerily sang by Mary Elisabeth McGlynn. Yamaoka's music in the series is haunting and distincly "Silent Hill" and plays an itegral role in the series' mood and vibe. It sets the tone incredibly and parts will stay with you long after you've played.
One year later, Silent Hill 4 had hit the shelves. The concept sounded incredible, and was supposedly a proper sequel to the events in SH2. I was excited, so excited that I imported a Japanese system just so I could get my hands on the game 4 months or so early. It centered around a guy who was trapped in his apartment but found a hole in his bathroom that he enters different worlds through. "Okay, let's do this! This sounds awesome!" Sadly, the game is not that great. It introduced some new things such as first-person controlled sequences while in your character's apartment and was just flat-out boring, to be honest. Thumbs down, and a somewhat-crappy chapter in a very impressive series of games. It's still better than a lot of games in the genre, it just doesn't measure up to the high standards set by the others. Thankfully, it's worth visiting if for no other reason than the music.
In 2006 Christophe Gans of Brotherhood of the Wolf fame and writer Roger Avary bring Silent Hill to the big screen. I was skeptical for a number of reasons. Most video game to movie projects never, ever work. I don't know what it is, but they always suck. They tend to be the equivalent of a bad copy or something. Most popular games are copies of some movie in some form or fashion anyway. May Payne is a bad mish-mash of John Woo films, House of the Dead was a fucking light gun game and Hitman is a similar mish-mash of assassin movie cliche's. So, it makes some sense why they have all sucked. Silent Hill, however is a somewhat unique property that is an excellent example of using the medium creatively to tell a story. Would that story translate into such a literal and linear medium as film? It definitely had the right people behind the wheel. I personally, loved the film. It wasn't without it's fair share of flaws. I did not care for the explanation of the place "Silent Hill", giving it such real and literal roots. I also didn't care for the seemingly tacked-on use of the "film damage" synonymous with the game series. It did, however, PERFECTLY capture the essence of the series. It managed to string together elements from the plots of the first 2 games and add the touch of the third by using a female protagonist. It's dark, violent and bizarre, just as it should be. It also manages to not feel like a horror movie in the traditional sense. There is a sequel in the works, but neither Avary nor Gans are involved...so, be afraid [and not in the good way].
What's next for Silent Hill? There is a 5th game in the works and is being developed by a UK company, Climax. They also made last years' Silent Hill Origins for the PSP [and PS2] which actually was pretty good and served as a prequel to the film. The next-gen sequel is looking okay, but only time will tell. Konami also released a light gun arcade game in Japan, creatively named "Silent Hill: The Arcade". My gut tells me the series peaked with Silent Hill 2 and it's just a slow ride downhill from there. I will probably end up dropping the cash on a next-gen console to try my hand at SH5 because I am a sucker for the series, so as long as they keep making them I'll keep buying them.
Come, sit on Dr. Feathermore's lap while I tell you a tale. Long ago there was a place one could go to and see wonders the likes of which nobody had ever seen. It was called "the video store". On any given day you could just walk into one of these places unannounced and be greeted by a bizarre smell of sweat and mildew and get lost in the warm glowing glow of wall after wall of video cassettes.
I spent countless hours in our local video stores from the moment I was allowed behind the wheel of a horseless carriage all by myself. I grew up in the then-tiny southern town of Waxahachie, Texas. We always had at least 2 video stores in town. On one end of town was the turbo-legendary "Video Station", which was an old gas station turned video store and on the other side of town the creatively named "The Movie Store". They both were awesome in their own way. As far as I know The Video Station stands to this day. I wanted to talk about the video stores of the late 80's to early 90's because they hold a very special place in my heart. They were also a completely unique experience that died with the creation of the internet and DVD [Blockbuster is on life support...and they suck]. I just want to stop and reminisce a little about video stores of old and why they kicked ass.
I started to really get into cult and genre films when I was in high school. Other than word of mouth and Fangoria magazine, there weren't a lot of ways to find out about cult or genre films at all. Enter the video stores. Friday night, everyone is at the video stores to rent the new releases of Hudson Hawk. I was over in the corner reading the back of every horror and kung fu case in the store. I would go home and watch The Sleeping Fist and follow it up with some bizarre Full Moon video [Bad Channels]. Of course, some were bombs but that was half the fun, wondering what the HELL this movie in your hands was going to be like. There was no website to give you a review or clue you in as to what was a waste of your time or not. It didn't matter, you were able to make those decisions on your own. There was a handful of names that come to mind when you think of video stores of that time: New World Video, Vestron, Republic, Trimark, Full Moon, Troma. These were names we were all very familiar with at the time. Most stores would even group the respective companies' films into an area on the shelf. I know one of the video stores I frequented had a Full Moon and Troma section I would head straight for.
That said, I want to talk specifically about what I think made VHS and video stores so fucking awesome:
•Poor image quality. I say this as a good thing. Dr. Butcher MD or Videodrome just looked better on VHS, in the same way Led Zeppelin sounds better on Vinyl. It's science. There's something romantic about getting your hands on a 6th generation copy of the [then unheard of] Japanese laserdisc director's cut of Army of Darkness with a plain white label and handwritten title and having to squint through parts where the tracking had to adjust so you could tell what the hell was going on. Obscure cult films and weird Hong Kong gems just seemed more "cult" when they were grainy and blurry.
•Discovery. It was about staring at walls of covers and looking at the back to see what that particular film was about and wondering if it was worth $2.99 to find out. Plus, if it was awesome you could rig your two VCR's together and make a copy of it, unless it had that damn Macrovision on it. It was just way more gratifying to find a movie like The Toxic Avenger on your own while thumbing through all the bizarre films shoved into the "horror" corner of some seedy video store, rather than have it recommended to you by Netflix. Sure, it was more work, but it made finding those handfuls of truly awesome underground films all the sweeter. Not to mention, events like Sci Fi conventions and the like had table after table of vendors peddling the latest bootleg anime and horror films that weren't available on any label in the states. All you had to go on was whatever the crude Xerox copy label said and whether you wanted to drop $15 to find out if Entrails of a Virgin was awesome or not. It's this "hunt" that just doesn't exist in the same way anymore.
•Straight to video. In the same way porn was revolutionized by moving to video, the world of sci-fi and action films was also revolutionized. Now you could make B-Movies with modest budgets that didn't quite live up to a theater's standards, but could sell enough rental copies to actually turn a profit. The early 90's saw the boom of straight to video gems that created studios like Trimark and Republic pictures as well as Full Moon. This was a phenomenon that still exists today, but in a much more bastardized form. It was at it's most entertaining and purest form during the era of VHS and video stores.
•True underground. I'm not talking about your normal video stores. Your Blockbuster or Hollywood video, or even the mom and pop operations. I'm talking about those places that only a few of us were ever lucky enough to discover. Dallas, Texas had one such place called Forbidden Video. It was in a seedy part of town, nestled between bars and crime. The storefront was dark and nondescript. Upon entry you were greeted with a glass case full of weird shit, skulls and S&M paraphernalia as well as a healthy selection of books on the occult and other taboo subjects. Overhead, a handful of monitors playing any number of disturbing things, ranging from true crime documentaries to retro driver's ed scare videos. In the rear was the owner's own art gallery. In the front about 20 rows of truly underground and cult cinema. Boasting just about the entire Something Weird library of films as well as independent and import horror. Necromantik, Guinea Pig, Red, Marquis, all mixed with the smell of rotting wood and incense under low light. JB and myself would make the trek from our college town of Denton down to Dallas on frequent occasions and come away with numerous morsels that others wouldn't know about until 10 years or more later when they read about them on some website. Sadly, after the death of VHS, Forbidden also withered and died. They will be truly missed. It was the perfect example of the old underground video store at it's most perfect. I'm sure other cities had comparable places. These stores were the speak easies of the VHS age, something that exists only virtually now in sites like Revok and Cosmic Hex.
I realize the internet, on-demand cable and satellite have given independent and cult films to the masses and at the end of the day that's good for everyone. I just feel there is no replacement for the pre-digital age of renting films and hunting for bizarre and unique cinema by yourself and sharing those finds with just your friends.
