Merry Christmas....

Happy Belated Birthday wishes to fedex_cub! :)

I am home from my two-day Christmas excursion to see my folks. Things are well with nearly everyone, so that's a relief in itself. We opened Christmas presents last night after dinner. My brother's fiancee made enough food to feed an entire army platoon. For my nephew's first Christmas, it was a good one. He stares at me as though I have a third eye, but then I'm not around him that much. My other local nephew (the 11-year-old) ended up with a major haul, even though he did wake his folks up at 3 AM to open them. He was forced to sleep for another four hours before he made it.

A highlight of the weekend was a call from the ever handsome and sweet susobear, who phoned from Spain to wish me a Merry Christmas. The drive home was good too, listening to David Sedaris' "Naked" on iPod. I had no idea he was so funny...

Merry Christmas to all :)

Black Christmas Remade... Poorly...

Andrea Martin Stars (Again) in Black Christmas
I made it home early enough to catch a matinee of Black Christmas remake. It's a remake of one of my favorite horror movies, so I had to see how it compared. The question of course wasn't if I'd be disappointed, but rather how much.

The story centers around a group of sorority sisters who are preparing to leave for the holiday break, not knowing that an escaped killer is now in the house with them. Unlike the original, we know the identity of the killer from the beginning and learn what made him the way he was. The movie is very fast paced, barely getting to know the girls, if at all really, before they get bumped off.

What is missing, of course, is a coherent plot. While knowing the background of the killer is interesting, there is very little interaction to learn about the girls. They are blank cardboard cutouts of stereotypical college girls who are cut to pieces. The movie lacks the original atmosphere, secondary storylines that made you question who was the killer, the infamous "the calls are coming from inside the house" shocker... basically anything that could make it scary. The movie sacrified any real scares and story for more gore. I shouldn't be surprised, the vast majority of the horror movie remakes of late have been terrible pale shades of the originals. Hollywood must be getting desperate for material these days.

The only good thing about the movie is the acting, which is better than usual, thanks to a decent cast of young actresses. The movie stars Michelle Tratchenberg of Buffy fame and Mary Elizabeth Winstead from Sky High and Final Destination 3. The film also has Andrea Martin, who starred in the original 1974 version. Still, good actors can't save a poorly constructed (or in this case reconstructed) flick. Save your money and rent the original on Netflix.

Did I enjoy it? Eh.. a little.. It was good in some places, but not many.
Would I watch it again? Probably not.
Buy the DVD? No.