Carolee and ‘Topher may have tipped a few toddies before they came over Saturday night and thus their judgment was questionable, but she declared that the HDNet Orignals show “Nothing But Trailers” was the best show ever. Maybe not, but with the writer’s strike having a delayed impact on the film industry it is certainly one of the best shows on TV at this time.

One of the trailers we caught was for The Signal and while it was initially mundane, by the end we thought we might give it a chance. The obvious fact that it’s another American remake of an Asian horror movie warns me away, but I am a sucker for zombies in a metropolitan area.

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It is a fairly common occurence that two movies released in the same year have similar storylines — think Armageddon and Deep Impact — but I was still struck a bit by the similarities between The Signal and M Night Shyamalan’s next box office bow, The Happening.

One of the trailers we caught was for The Signal and while it was initially mundane, by the end we thought we might give it a chance. The obvious fact that it’s another American remake of an Asian horror movie warns me away, but I am a sucker for zombies in a metropolitan area.

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I am, also, a sucker for M Night even though Lady in the Water did not get my approval. This new film intrigues me.

Hi y’all.

Sorry I’ve been gone so long. The boys say hi.

Anyway, I’d just like to drop off a quick “Get out the vote” for those of us in the Super Tuesday states.

I’d also like to plant one seed when considering candidates.

As much as experience is nice and all, never underestimate the need to choose a President who can inspire us all to be better Americans. As much as plans and specifics are important, so are expressing the hopes and dreams of us as a country. Of all of us.

We’ve got a chance in 2008. A chance to re-boot, if you will. A new face in the White House won’t magically make stuff better, but never underestimate the value of vision to make hard work rewarding.

I’m hopeful going into tomorrow’s vote. I’m still registered with the GOP – the change of party didn’t go through in time, but for the first time I can remember, I can cast a primary ballot without holding my nose, and could in either party vote happily.

OK, sorry for the digression. I fixed my feed to the new one – man, y’all have been busy.

• +3:10 to Yuma – I’m actually a fan of the modern westerns, like Silverado and Open Range, so when I say that 3:10 was “meh”, it comes from a place of love. If you like westerns (or Russell Crowe or Christian Bale), you’ll like 3:10. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are adequate actors and do a fine job. The film doesn’t slip into cliché despite temptations (which is probably a testament to James Mangold’s direction). The only real highlight of the film is Ben Foster’s role as Charlie Prince — he could’ve stole the show. Oh, and (tiny spoiler alert) will Alan Tudyk spend the rest of his career doing something heroic and then immediately getting killed? Will it win an Oscar? I didn’t even really notice the music score, so for me that means it wasn’t memorable. Sound mixing was not bad, but The Bourne Ultimatum, No Country for Old Men and Transformers were all better.
• Away From Her – The evolution of the horror genre was predictably “torture porn”. What else is there to do but take the most uncomfortable moments of horror and make a movie that is almost solely that emotional attack on the viewer’s senses? Sarah Polley feels the same way about the Hallmark© genre. What else is there to do with it but take the most uncomfortable moments of loss, grief and personal sacrifice, and make a movie that is almost solely an attack on your tear ducts and outlook on life and relationships. People who defend this as a great film need to go stand with Eli Roth’s fans. Julie Christie gets a nomination and she is really good, but Gordon Pinsent is the one who makes you cry. Oscar chances? Ellen Page is better, but the Academy loves to sequester women in their place: either wearing Elizabethan corsets, or breaking hearts behind a vasoline-smeared lens so I think Christie has a chance.

I was sure that at this point I would have seen several more movies from the big 10 categories but Sarah Polley had other plans. Becky and I were so distraught after seeing Away From Her we made ‘Topher and Carolee come over and cheer us up — more on that later — Saturday night. Then on Sunday we went to see current-release material:

• How She Move – maybe I’m the wrong age group or racial demo, but I couldn’t identify with any of the characters, except the mother and father. The script was overly complicated and it didn’t really create a sense of empathy, and the decent acting/directing wasn’t enough to overcome the twisted plot. The dancing is the best I’ve seen in the stomp/dance genre, though, so you could see it for that part. You’ll see most of these actors in better roles in the future, I hope.

p.s. Something is rotten at Rotten Tomatoes. The system isn’t working as well as iMDb’s rating system. How She Move is sitting at 71% freshness while iMDb is at 3.5 stars after 2,594 votes. Maybe that’s an indication of the complexity of judging a film with a 1 dimensional system.