Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Conceived as an "online miniseries event" during the 2008 writers' strike, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 42 minutes of musical romp that bears the distinctive stamp of Joss Whedon. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) plays the title character, who video-blog on his twin goals of joining the Evil League of Evil and win the right to Penny (Felicia Day of Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and in The Guild), a woman he met on site laundry. Dr. Horrible is foiled on both fronts, however, by his arch-nemesis, self-absorbed superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion, Castle and Whedon's Firefly).

Dr. Horrible was written by Whedon, his brothers Zack and Jed, and Maurissa Tancharoen, and the songs were written by Joss and Jed (who also produced, orchestrated, played, etc.), with some lyrics by Tancharoen. (Jed and Tancharoen have backup singing roles.) The offbeat, off-the-cuff humor is laugh-out-loud funny, and as Dr. Horrible wants to take over the world, the songs will take on its head: they're engaging ( "My Freeze Ray"), exciting ( "My Eyes") and sweet ( "Penny's Song"). "So They Say" is particularly evocative of Jonathan Larson's Rent, but with Joss Whedon's musical episode of Buffy, "Once More with Feeling", the influences are diverse. It is difficult to imagine a better cast. Harris, who is singing Sondheim on Broadway, is a great leader and clearly the best singer, Day is completely charming, and who better than Captain Tightpants to play the gallant hero? We could argue about the ending, and shows the independent budget, but Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a completely enjoyable romp for everyone, especially for those who like music with quirky humor. You will watch this over and over again!

If you watched or downloaded Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, there are a number of bonus features on the DVD that may interest you. There are two commentary tracks: Harris, the three Whedons, Tancharoen, Day, and Fillion have a spirited discussion of the movie, and there are also "Comment! The Musical," which ignore the movie altogether and sing about the writers' strike and each other (Fillion sings "I'm better than Neil") - the songs are not as good as the songs in Dr. Horrible, but good silly fun. A 20-minute making-of discusses the cast, the recording sessions, as the film became a phenomenon, videos, and 10 (half an hour total) were recorded by fans who want to join the Evil League of Evil.

Outlander

So, I was at the video store and I ended up picking up this movie called Outlander- thinking at the time that it would either be really good or really bad. I had never even heard of it, but it had big names like James Caviezel, John Hurt, Sophia Myles, and Ron Perlman, but so did In The Name of the King which also had Ron Perlman and boy, did that stink! Two things on the cover caught my eye: "Beowulf meets Predator" - okay, that's promising, and "BEST...MOVIE...EVER" by some critic whose name doesn't mean much to me, but strong words. So I grabbed it and another DVD to watch in case it turned out to be a stinker.

This movie was terrific! Really, the Beowulf meets Predator tagline is dead on - I'm fairly certain that's precisely what the writer had in mind when he wrote the script. "Let's do Beowulf, but this time what if ..."

Brief synopsis:
During the reign of the Vikings, Kainan (James Caviezel), a man from a distant world, crash lands on Earth, unknowingly bringing with him an alien predator known as the Moorwen. Man and monster both seeking revenge for violence committed against them. As the Moorwen rampages through the Viking world, killing everything in its path, Kainan forms an unlikely alliance with the primitive but fierce Viking warriors. Combining his advanced technology with their Iron Age weapons, the hero leads a desperate attempt to kill the monster - before it destroys them all.

So they made this movie, had a select screening, and now it's out on DVD and Blu-Ray. Why not a wide theatrical release? Or advertisements for the DVD? It was entirely happenstance that I picked this up, and I'm glad I did. If you're an action fan I strongly encourage you pick it up! Better yet, click the above cover, and buy it! You will want to own it, I promise. Don't believe me? Check out the trailer. Yeah, it's good, right?

The Changeling

Something has been bugging me for awhile now. Since the Changeling movie came out with Angelina Jolie, John Malkovitch, and Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice, I had hoped the 1980's movie with the nearly same name starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere would get some mention, but alas, these days it's all about what's NEW more so than what's GOOD.

"How did you die, Joseph...? Did you die in this house...? Why do you remain...?"

George C. Scott plays a man who loses his family in a snowy road side automobile accident. In an attempt to pick up the pieces and move on with his life, he accepts a college teaching position. The local historical society are pleased to allow him to stay in an old mansion that would otherwise fall into disrepair. Shortly after moving in, strange noises and occurrences prompt him to begin looking into the history of the home.

This is one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. It isn't bloody or gory, but will definitely have your skin crawling at parts and jumping out of your seat at others. With lighting, pacing, and subtlety they made it scarier than if entrails where strewn across the floor, and the walls were painted with blood. I showed it to a girlfriend of mine, a film snob, who loved and appreciated it on an entirely different level than I did.

JCVD

That's right. Jean-Claude Van Damme ... like you never saw before. Jean-Claude plays himself as an out-of-luck actor. He is out of money, his agent can't find him a decent production, and the judge in a custody battle is inclined to give custody of his daughter to his ex-wife. When he goes to a post office to receive a wire transfer, it is in the middle of a hostage situation. Due to an unfortunate error, the police think Van Damme is responsible for the crime. As the events are played from different perspectives, Van Damme is acting as a hero to protect the hostages and a negotiator that the alleged author.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was a familiar name for a long time. Everyone knows him for his action films, but has not really taken it seriously as an actor - until now. You may be surprised to know that JCVD has been very well received by critics, and is the first Van Damme film to be "Certified Fresh" on Rottentomatoes.com "Tomatometer" (at 84% - which is pretty Van Damme good). If you're waiting for Street Fighter 3, you will be sorely disappointed. Whether or not this will make some epic turn in Jean-Claude's film career has yet to be seen, but it shows that he (and filmmaker Mabrouka El Mechri) had a vision and made a great action / comedy film.