I’d be more apathetic if I weren’t so lethargic.

HOUSE UPDATE

Since the events of my last post a waterlogged portion of my kitchen's drop-celing has fallen and there's water all over the floor. The bathtub on the second floor is now leaking into a bucket on top of the dryer on the first floor.

God I'm glad I moved to the ghetto.

Many of you know that I just moved into an old house In one of Parkersburgs many decaying neighborhoods. There have been problems, but for the most part it's not bad. In fact, seeing as how the house was built in 1910, it's taken less time to break it in. My friends and I have rather a low standard of living.

So anyways, after spending the day patching holes in the kitchen, I decided to take a shower. Simple plan, and damn did I need it. So I'm in the shower, I'm soaping up, and two things happen simultaneously:

1: The water quits coming out of the shower-head.
2: Something slams me in the left shin.

That something being the tub spout. So now there's a powerful stream of water firing directly from a hole in the wall like a fire hose. So I spend the rest of the shower on my knees trying to get the soap off. Once that was accomplished I set about mopping the water from the sudden burst off the floor and celing. If nothing else we have good water pressure.

So now I have a bruised shin, an inoperative shower (something else to fix), and I don't think I got all the soap off.

I'll spare you the details...

OK, I just watched "28 Days Later". It wasn't terrible. It's worth watching perhaps once, but it was a bit disappointing. Basically, it was a rip-off of "Night of the Living Dead" only not done as well.

It's cinematic qualities were interesting anyway. It was shot well, but the story takes too long to get going. It does pick up in the second act though.

You can debate as to weather the monsters were zombies or not, but what it comes don to is if it looks like a zombie, acts like a zombie, and eats human flesh like a zombie, then fuck it: it's a zombie.

Unlike "Identity" which was a much better film, the "28 Days" DVD does deliver on the alternate endings. Problem is they suck. I didn't like the original theatrical ending, the alternate theatrical ending was a little better.

Basically, like I said, it's OK. It's even better if someone else pays to rent it. But Access Hollywood's claim that it's "the most frightening film since the Exorcist" is WAY off base. If you want to sample really good work from this director, Danny Boyle, rent "Trainspotting". I give "28 Days" two stars out of four.

.............................................
I've also recently seen "Underworld", "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and The brand new "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

"Underworld was better than I was expecting. It was bloody, gory and violent, all things that I love, but it also had a decent story to it. I give it three stars.

As with most movies, I was cautious about "KIll Bill". I shouldn't have been. It was by far one of the best films I've seen in quite a while. The story was great and filled with near-pornographic levels of violence. One scene actually had to be shown in black and white to make it "Less realisticly violent" so the movie could escape an NC-17 rating, but it looks cool that way. Four stars.

Now, if you know me, you know I'm a fan of the 1974 release of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" so I was a bit worried about the new one not living up to it. I mean, lets face it, the other attempts to cash in on it sucked ass. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. The new "TCM" is surpassed only by the original. It was enough like the original without being exact to make it a really solid horror film. This one also gets four stars and my endorsement as the best romantic comedy since "Hannibal".

Check this one out.