Anyone ever seen one of those cats with thumbs? Man, they're weird. We got one recently, and I keep bolting awake at night, hearing someone (or something) trying to open my door. Upon inspection, it's just the cat, but believe you me...I've got my eye on him.
Maybe I'm just a little jumpy after seeing 28 Days Later... twice.
What a great flick. Now, I love me some Danny Boyle -- well, that's not entirely true, I guess. I love SOME Danny Boyle. Shallow Grave? Sweet. Trainspotting? An ATF (all-time favorite), to be sure.
But A Life Less Ordinary? The Beach? Biscuit.
What really chaps me is The Beach, and how good that could have been. What a great book by one Mr. Alex Garland.
Now, my friend Dave will tell you all sorts of things about me and The Beach -- how I read it every time I come over, how I sit there and coo at it like it's "the one true book" (tm Dave)...all that's well and good (and possibly true), but my God, that movie sucks. A total injustice to good source material everywhere.
I can just imagine evil movie execs hunched over the book with red pens (red right hands?), slashing out entire parts. "OK, first all, he's English. Well, now he's American. And it says here that the beautiful girl never hooks up with him. Well, scratch that too. She does."
Not to mention the end. Whereas the book descends into a hellish, bloody end that showcases the darker sides of human nature, the movie ends with fake video games and people emailing pictures to each other, like it was the best Spring Break Ever! Total shat.
So naturally, I was apprehensive when I saw that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland had again joined forces to make a movie, not to mention the fact that it looked to be a tired crack at a worn-out genre (the zombie flick).
But man, was I wrong. And I'm glad I was.
The movie is simply fantastic. Sure, they're not really zombies (they're infected with RAGE! GASP!), and the ending seems a bit tacked on ("We're saved!"), but other than that, I seriously dug this movie.
The first time I saw it, I was literally fidgeting, twisting, and nervously gripping my seat. It was that intense and suspenseful for me. And violence onscreen doesn't bug me at all. My favorite movie is A Clockwork Orange, followed closely by GoodFellas, for God's sake.
No, it was the suspense that was killing me. And the only thing that can bring that much suspense to a movie is a killer script and top-notch direction. The opening scenes build masterfully, and never let you off the hook.
Boyle also has the wherewithal to throw a sop or two to the George Romero zombie flicks (the grocery scene, the tunnel scene, and so forth) to placate the real zombie flick fans. But the movie is by no means a retread. It's just...well, great.
How many times do I have to say it? Chekc out Rotten Tomatoes if you don't believe me.