First Friday at home in a loooong ass time..

I realize that most of the people I associate find the idea of New Years resolutions complete and utter bullshit, but a great deal of us still make them in secret. Hell, I'll be the first person to tell you that they only work for me for so long, but I still make the attempt. One of the promises I made to myself as soon as 2009 started was to stop going out to the bar so much. i have other hobbies that I should really be focusing on rather than looking down into an empty can of PBR wondering why it's 2 AM and I'm still sitting on a bar stool. I have plenty of movies to watch, and plenty of time to do it. And, truth be told, it's a helluva lot cheaper and less dangerous to my health. Yes, I am single and there really aren't members of the opposite sex randomly popping in my room for a drink, but based on the last couple of times I've met girls in bars, I am pretty close to saying "all set wit dat".

To get back to the reason I created this blog..movies. Last night I watched several in between naps and interwebby addiction. Let me go down the list with a brief summary for each.

Garo: hyper midnight action drama. Pretty much live action anime. From what I've read, this was actually a televsion series in Japan aimed towards a young adult crowd. I would hope so, considering the special I saw was full of death, blood, and sexual innuendo. Not that I'm trying to sound like a crabby old man, but young people should only be seeing this behind there parent's back. Modern-day super knights fighting demons. I can't believe they even brought out the Final Fantasy-style giant sword. It was quite amazing. The CGI wasn't exactly cutting edge, but when you mix it with the wire-fu and wholesale slaughter, it's a fuckin' blast.

Black Samson: I'm a huge fan of blaxploitation. Give me something with Pam Grier or Fred Williamson any day and you will see a very happy man. This movie didn't make me that happy. This was one of those many of cheaply made movies where the neighborhood hero spends the entire time pushing out the racist, mafia honkeys trying to take control of the black community by pushing junk in and harassing local business. Black Gestapo was much more entertaining and followed the same basic premise. Although Samson did have a pet lion and a bad ass staff, I new how the story was going to end. It is worth watching all through, especially during the ending action sequences.

Rock All Night: It's no secret I love Roger Corman's movies. Especially those starring Dick Miller. In this 1957 classic, Dick Miller plays a small fry with a napolean complex the size of mainland China. While hanging out in his local rock bar, he steps on the toes of most of the patrons coming in, even the gun-weilding killers who take the bar hostage midway through the movie. Even though Corman was the master of the low budget movie, this, and many others, has a good story and fun dialogue, at least from Dick Millers character. Plus performances from the Platters and the Blockbusters.

Lone Wolf and Cub:Sword of Vengeance:The coup de grace of my evening. I love japanese cinema, bar none. Especially the early seventies shit with all kinds of katana-play ending in decapitations and other dismemberments on a lager-than-life scale. When I get into to watching a Pinky Violence movie, and other exploitation from this era, you can be sure I'm not getting up, even for a piss break. this is the first installment of several movies based on the early manga comic of the same name. The former executioner for the Tokagawa Shogunate, now ronin samurai, travels the countryside pushing a baby carriage carrying his motherless child and taking jobs that require his expertise unitl the day he can avenge his family. Fairly basic revenge shit, like any good martial arts movie, with great direction,camera work and effects for the time. Iw ill be getting more into this series of movies over the next couple of days, since I plan on watching them all by next week. What a great end to the evening, I tell you.