DST and DVDs

With winter in full Seattle-style swing (cold and rainy) we're finding time to catch up on movies.

There's been some ringers. I highly recommend Thank You For Smoking, Lucky Number Slevin, and Art School Confidential. I was pleasantly surprised with Ju-on, the original Japanese movie that was made into The Grudge stateside. This and Ringu have convinced me that the Japanese are far better at making creepy psychological thrillers than their American re-maker counterparts. I don't even like horror films much, but if these two movies are representative of the Japanese take on the genre, I could see getting in to them.

There's also been some stinkers. As if we needed more reasons to think little of the American movie industry, we had the displeasure of watching Wedding Crashers yesterday. Holy cow. That was truly sucktastic. And I really enjoy Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and Will Farrell, but good lord! What were they thinking? Man!

Speaking of the Japanese, I've been taking advantage of reliving my childhood memories of some Americanized anime, starting with my old favorite, Speed Racer. Funny thing about not being 10 years old: that show is awful! I mean, it's still good campy fun, but sweet lord it is dumb! So I've decided to move on to Star Blazers. I just hope that turns out to be as good as I remembered it.