Death, dying, and the undead

Okay, is it me or have commercials begun to take on a decidely absolving tone lately? The discover commercial pretty much tells us we're a nation of consumers. And then it says it's okay. Is it me? Or is there some communal need in the land for big-time loaners to make us feel good about ourselves as if WE are the ones who caused this loan crisis? And a couple of other commercials seem to be aiming to make us feel we aren't all that bad. About greed, lust, gluttony, you know...the seven deadly sins.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. Now...moving on to the undead.

Was enjoying my daily dose of Final Girl, a website for horror movies. I clicked on her link to the AMC blog she writes for. Found this really nice list of the various types of vampires in the world. Ah, the undead! So many! So varied! It was a great post.

Am currently planning to see The Mummy: the Dragon Emperor. Yep. Although Black Geekdom doesn't like it much. And although Angry Asian Man guy is none too thrilled. I still want to see it. I was mightily disappointed in Scorpion King so I can imagine how bad this one will get. All bluster, no plot. But I really like Jet Li and maybe he'll be a neat villain....enough to redeem the movie for me.



Yesterday I saw Suicide Kings with Chris Walken (whom I looooove) and Jay Mohr and Henry Thomas. I had seen the tail end of it once but finally got to see it in its entirety. Bad ending and very close to what my be deemed cynical but I thought it wasn't cynicism per se...it was honest and really quite fair.

Okay, the ending is downbeat in some ways but hey I accepted it. But I kinda have a pet peeve about certain plot elements. Especially stuff that excuses characters. I just hate rationalizations and stuff where we're supposed to "accept" certain moral ideals and standards. So what is this pet peeve exactly? The idea of lovers being excused from punishment because they are lovers. Plain and simple. So I accepted the downbeat ending cause as I said it was fair and didn't rely on that old trope. Another movie that annoyed me no end with its "we're lovers and only love is important" theme was that Ralph Fiennes flick, the English patient. I mean. I'm supposed to be on the side of people who say "I don't care if the nazis are killing 6 million jews and 5 million gypsies and countless slavs and gypsies. Our love is what matters." Puhleze! A propos of nothing: a Ralph Fiennes film I really liked is a small little film called The Cormorant. If you can get a hold of it, it's quite good.

Okay, gotta get back to that novel.