Despite All My Rage

I saw Old School today, which isn’t really much to write about – it’s funny but formulaic. Will Ferrell is great in it. It’s got a lot of very funny bits in it, but nothing that made me laugh quite as hard as the trailer for Willard.

You see, Willard is a creepy guy who lashes out at those who have wronged him by commanding an army of rats to do his evil bidding. Full stop, that’s the story – a twisted man and his evil rats. And for most of the trailer, the chorus of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” is looped as the soundtrack. “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!” Seriously. I was cracking up – they just couldn’t get more obvious and over the top. Well, I guess they could, if the lyrics were instead “despite all my rage, I am still gonna sic my army of evil rats on you!”, but thank God they chose to hold back a little bit.

I’m not dismissing the possibility that Willard may be a good movie, even though the concept seems thoroughly ridiculous. I remember the trailers for Donnie Darko being awful too; I was convinced for a very long time that it wasn’t worth seeing. There’s a very good chance that there’s a lot of intelligence in this film that isn’t coming through in the trailer, which is perfectly understandable. Still, it’s a movie about a scary unsympathetic guy and his rats. It seems like there’s only two possible ways it could turn out: a spectacular failure, or a cult classic. Since it is being released in March, a major studio dumping ground for bad films, I’m wary that it may be the former.

I am now informed that this is a remake of a film from the 70s, which really makes a lot of sense. I did not realize that the Michael Jackson song “Ben” was in fact from a soundtrack to a film about rats. It just never seemed weird to me that Michael Jackson would sing a love song to a rat, he’s a kooky guy. Thanks to Steven for the heads up.

Go Home And Die

This is absolutely necessary listening/viewing. Osymyso strikes again.

It’s barely even an exaggeration of the truth, really. That’s the most painful part of it.

Mocking The Earnest Is Unfair

“At one time, Peter might have only been remembered for his ability to transform his body tissue into an organic, steel-like substance. But after his final selfless act he was remembered as something even greater: a hero to all of mutantkind.”