Random thoughts in this Irish noggin of mine

This will probably end up being a crazy blog entry, showcasing how erratic my thinking patterns tend to be.

Danyell and I found this fantastic supermarket near us called Great Wall Supermarket. As you can tell, it's an Asian centric market with tons of food and drink from the far east. All I had to say was that we bought up a ton of stuff, like specialty Pocky, mock chicken, different canned foods, a bunch of drinks (some of which were abysmal, like this one coconut drink with pieces of coconut inside. It actually tasted what I think a cadaver would taste like... which reminds me, I'm a bit hungry).

Also a few weeks back I took my friend Tommy to see an advanced screening of the film Choke and I was attempting to write a review for it right away. Then a day later. Then a week later and nothing came sprouting out of my head. And the more I thought about it and also via a discussion with Tommy after we both digested the film fully and it passed through our collective colons, I realized that the film was average at best. Don't get me wrong, I love the source material to death. I'm a huge fan of Chuck Palahniuk, loving his books Survivor, Fight Club, Invisible Monsters and of course the already mentioned Choke. David Fincher's adaptation of Fight Club is still in my top 50 films of all time, even with the meathead love for it (which always amused me, due to the overtly homoerotic themes throughout the film and book).

And thinking again about Clark Gregg's adaptation of Choke, it comes across as a very mediocre, almost student film-esque quality to it, even with the fantastic performances from Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. It's just the editing, the direction, the other actors (except for Gregg himself, playing Victor's vulnerable boss Lord High Charlie), the pacing. Everything about it felt lacking. Especially the female lead, played woodenly by Kelly Macdonald, surprisingly because she was really good in No Country for Old Men. It's a film I'll have to revisit on DVD, especially since I know Danyell wanted to see it initially and for some reason this country has a thing against SEX.

Also recently seen was the horrible to high heaven remake of The Wizard of Gore. Not even a film with the likes of Crispin Glover, Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Combs and the nakedness of the Suicide Girls, could save that disaster. It just felt like it was made in a serious way, yet most of the actors weren't told that on the set, so you're getting truly hammy performances, which actually save it from being a film I'd burn alive at the stake. I can't pinpoint one reason as to why this film stinks. I'll list a top 5 reasons as to why I'd rather watch paint be poured down my urethra then see it again.

1. Wasting the likes of Jeffrey Combs in a speechless role for about 90% of the film until a big 'surprise' of a climax that makes you go, "Did I miss something important? Like a plot?"

2. Calling Brad Dourif on the set of Deadwood and piling up a ton of cash for him to play such a boring foul mouthed character just to progress the story and have his name on the box art.

3. Making me bored of naked punk girls. But only for about 5 seconds. Then I realized that instead of being bored by them, I was just bored by the movie. So Girls, I still love you.

4. Having Kip Pardue as your star. God, he fucking blows. I know he took the role pretty seriously, because he was the only one trying to come up with some character nuances, like gasping into a paper bag when excited and wearing hip clothing to show that he's a reporter really trying to get to the bottom of the shenanigans throughout the film. Just tried to hard. As opposed to Bijou Philips, who I tend to love (and was also in Choke) but she was as wooden as a board in this film, showcasing pain as if she was in remedial acting class. Shame on you Bijou.

5. And finally, this movie sucked so much, it made me think of the original film in a whole new light. I now think it's a better film than the remake (and yes, I do own the film. I had a Herschell Gordon Lewis kick a few years back.)

Other than that, I picked up a few films today, one of which I'm about to pop into my DVD player and get off my laptop to give my undivided attention to, which is the recent black and white silent film production of The Call of Cthulu. When I'm done with it, I'll be back to review it. I'm hoping it's as good as it looks.