Movie Review: SAW 2

RANDY: STAB 2? Why would anyone want to do that? Sequels suck!

MICKEY: It is common fact, there have been many sequels that have succeeded their original.

CICI: Name one.

GUY: Aliens, far better than the first.

With all due respect, the problems with sequels are that they can go either way. They can either suck or surpass the original as described in the scene above from SCREAM 2. Many times, some sequels out do their predecessors from just sheer visuals alone, but with very, little substance. Many sequels suffer from overcompensation, which is usually a let down. However sequels can and sometimes go above and beyond what the original intended to be to give us a true sequel worthy of the original, if not better. SCREAM 2 was a prime example of how sequels can outwit, outshine, and flat out fuck us up in terms of what we know a horror movie could be. The SCREAM franchise reinvigorated the genre with a much-needed dose of adrenaline and some years later, we finally get another notable entry into the list: SAW 2

“Ok, let's get down to business, the way I see it, someone is out to make a sequel, you know, cash in on all of the movie murder hoopla, so it's our job to observe rules of a sequel. Number one, the body count is always bigger, number 2, the death scenes are always much more elaborate, more blood, more gore, carnage candy. Your core audience just expects it.” - Randy, SCREAM 2

Truer words have never been spoken. SAW 2 takes these rules and fucking runs away with them, holding them high up in the air and screaming like a banshee, “Take this muthafuckas!” The original SAW was a very clever, albeit at one point flawed, movie. SAW was no doubt intense and gutturally visceral. SAW 2 took that same idea and surprisingly, reached a plateau the first one didn’t. This made the original make so much, more sense. The writers went back to produce a cohesive film thread that spans two movies. SAW 2 wasn’t a rehash of the original or an attempt to take the same idea and just up the ante. This movie is a true continuation of the original story.

In classic horror movie fashion, sequels usually take place sometime after the original. SAW 2 is no different. This movie opens up with a much alive and much active Jigsaw with yet again another ingenious torture device hooked up to some schmuck. Immediately, madness ensues and for the first 5 minutes of this film I am decisively amped up. It was gory and such a great opening sequence, because it made us remember Jigsaw is no joke when it comes to elaborate schemes of self-mutilation and despair.

The next part of the movie, you’re introduced to the main protagonist Det. Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg) who is investigating the murder of his “informant”. His informant has been the latest victim of Jigsaw, but before you can blink an eye, Det. Mathews has found from evidence left at the scene where Jigsaw could be. Sure enough, Jigsaw is there and the cancer has now put him in a wheelchair and hooked to an oxygen mask. We soon find out that Jigsaw has one last game to play, and it’s currently going on in a house with 8 new victims, one of which is the detective’s son. SAW now moves at breakneck pace introducing you to the victims in a room. One of which is my dream man, Xavier (Franky G.). We then see the few people in the room and surprisingly enough, Amanda, the only woman to survive Jigsaw, was in the room enduring this nightmare again. Since she knows the scoop with Jigsaw, she immediately starts to look for the infamous tape recorder with the survival instructions. They’re task – find the antidote to the neural toxin flowing through their veins, which after 2 hours, if not found will cause blood to pour out of every orifice in their body. Creepy shit. So of course as the story progresses, they all have something in common. I won’t spoil it this time, but it’s definitely a cool connection because you realize, when the big twist comes, who the real bad guy is and it’s not Jigsaw.

All of the characters are pretty standard stuff, you don’t get into their lives like you saw of the two guys from the first movie. You know their connection, that’s about it. So when they die, it’s like okay, well we’ve got like 6 more left. Franky G. was surprisingly good. I am not saying that because he’s hot either. He played a very, different role here, which is good for him. He does psychotic survivalist very well. He might just get some more jobs after this. There were definitely great references to the first movie and you’ll love the complete 360 connection to the first film towards the end, that’ll make you go “Holy Shit!” Amidst the story and the death and the gore, the real star however, is Jigsaw (Tobin Bell)

As a villain, Jigsaw fucks you up literally and mentally. At first glance you would think he is a methodical psychopathic killer with a penchant for torture, but he’s just a really, really fucked up therapist. Jigsaw’s main shtick is simple: if you’re squandering your life and taking things for granted then you don’t deserve the life you have. You’re then put in a fucked up situation (or a game as he calls it) and it’s up to you to get out of it. If you can’t conceive that this is all deserved. He’s a very dynamic character, because of his cancer most of what he does derives from the fact that he didn’t take his life seriously until he was diagnosed. He’s not a dream demon, he didn’t drown as a child, his head isn’t filled with pins, he doesn’t have a love for horror movies and runs around with a Ghost mask stalking his classmates, he’s not looking for revenge or his missing gold coin. He’s a man, going through an intense life, which he shitted on. That alone drove him to try to commit suicide, which left him alive, and after surviving, he knew that cancer would be the end of him. If anything Jigsaw is a mental sadist. He delves into the fragile human existence and exploits it. All of what he does is like a really fucked up reality check. He wants you to live, but if you can’t get past your sins and see life for what it is – you will die – much sooner than you expect. He’s not doing this for his enjoyment; he’s doing this for your sake. He‘s an interesting dichotomy. His motives are pure and intentional, but the execution is ingenious and deadly. Jigsaw’s a philosopher with a superior mind and one hell of a creative imagination. If you don’t know this by now, a big theme of the SAW movies is time. The time it takes to figure something out, the time it takes to live, the time it takes to see what’s wrong with you. Jig’s main claim to fame, you only have, but so much time, use it wisely.

All in all, it’s a great, scary movie. Great plot twist, just like the first one. It's fun and a popcorn muncher. I knew it was good, because every few scenes of death and carnage, I would turn my head and noticed Trav’s mouth agape. It got to him. Thus it was good. Go see this movie, if you’re a lover of the original installment and even more so, a lover of horror movies. As sequels go, this one was not greater than the original, but it was definitely a worthy contender to be the best. Go see it.

Candy and Franky

Every Halloween, I usually gorge myself with candy and scary movies. It's been a tradition since I was 11. This year is no exception. I've got a mixed bag of candy goodies at work. My absolute favorite candy are Tootsie Roll pops. Yummy. I've been watching horror movies in my collection, anything that comes on cable, since certain channels like AMC has been doing 13 Days of Horror. They've been showing classics and I'm loving them. Also every year, Hollywood releases at least one scary movie around this time of year to cash in on the ambiance of the season. Tonight, I am going to see SAW 2. SAW came out last year on Halloween, so it's only fitting that the sequel is released on the same time the following year. Not only am I going to see SAW 2, but I just recently found out that the man of my dreams has a role in this movie - Franky G, or whom Trav calls my "latest obsession".

For those of you not familiar with Franky G, it's understandable because he hasn't done much. A few movies here and there, but notably he played a rookie cop in the film Wonderland and the defunct tv series Jonny Zero on FOX earlier this year. He did have a supporting role in The Italian Job as Wrench, the super mechanic with the arms of steel, who tricked out the Minis for Mark Wahlberg. Okay, so he's not the greatest actor in the world, but he's so frikkin hot to look at. So when I found out that Franky G is in SAW 2 I got so excited. I am pretty sure he's not going to survive though. The hot jock-types usually never do in horror flicks. I am still reeling from Ryan Phillipe's death scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer. *sigh* - but I have my fingers crossed. I'll have a review for SAW 2 over the weekend, but in the meantime, enjoy the man candy.

So it's Official....

Today at 4:15PM my company was bought out Sovereign Bank in a $3.6 billion buyout. There had been rampant rumors all morning that the announcement would take place soon. The Wall Street Journal reported it first about talks that happened throughout the weekend. I first knew it was going to happen when our stock had stopped trading and was pulled off the stock market board at about lunch time. The Yahoo Financial message boards were on fire with speculation on what the stock price would sell at. So we all pretty much got our information from outside the company. If that ain't fucked up, I don't know what is. From what I understand, the announcement was supposed to happen this morning, but our buyout was contingent on other factors, such as Sovereign being purchased by a larger bank from Spain (the 9th largest bank in the world), Grupo Santander, then taking money from that to purchase us. It's out of control.

My boss called my entire department into her office and let us know about the situation. Many of the women were joking about getting fired already. My boss reassured us that it's going to be business as usual even in the face of the merger/acquisition, but with the other rumor flying around that there is going to a 280 people laid off - we are all a little skeptical that our department won't have any casualities. The deal doesn't officially close until July of 06 and she let us know that we have at least 8 months to learn as much as we can about what's going to happen. She doesn't want any of us to jump ship, but that was the thought of at least 3 of us in the room; the 3 of us who are unhappy there. We are all kind of expecting a layoff to happen so that we get a severance package. It's also the youngest people of the department who's hoping this.

So I don't know where this leaves me. I mean for the most part, I know my department won't be touched, at least I hope not at first, but when mergers occur there's always rounds of layoffs. I could be working at least until december when the high profile project I am working on is done then. My boss reassured me that I'll be okay. However I am very skeptical. Say for instance she could keep me on, but if I don't get a considerable raise and a title change, then I have no choice but to leave. It's not going to be worth me staying if there's no where else for me to go. I want to leave now actually, but I am waiting for the right opportunity to come along. I am working on a few things, but they haven't panned out yet.

It's unclear how life is going to be here. This will be my 3rd company I've worked for that went through a buyout and usually by the second round. I was gone. So I'm chillin. Waiting.

At this point, just thinking about it - this week is going to be really crazy.

Movie Review: DOOM

In 1986, a phenomenon hit movie theaters. You might have heard of it, it was called Aliens, the sequel to the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien. Aliens was a modern day hit for its time. It had depth and character development, mood, charisma, innovation and a kick-ass plot and it was also the introduction of the Colonial Space Marines. Aliens was a trendsetter and set that bar exceedingly high for another sci-fi horror movie to try to come close or try to out do it. It was an awesome, awesome cinematic masterpiece. It’s also one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Everything that has came out after Aliens, which had similar themes or plots (i.e Pitch Black, Starship Troopers, etc.) will forever be compared to it. I highly doubt you'll read or hear a review that won't state this. If anything, you'll hear DOOM is the piss poor, redneck cousin to Aliens. In fact, the guys who wrote the original DOOM plot for the PC game should shake James Cameron’s cock for even letting them get that far without him suing them for intellectual property damages or just plain old theft. For DOOM, suffice to say is a great game, but not an all too great movie.

Not unlike the comic2film genre, the game2film genre has had some rough patches. Nothing has individually come close to a decent translation yet. There has been some bright spots though, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and the Resident Evil films were fun romps and watchable over and over again (at least for me). However, when you think historically of other films, like Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, House of the Dead, every Pokemon movie and the movie that had really high hopes, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, videogame movies haven’t done too well except to the people who loved them and even then – that’s a stretch.

- BE WARNED. SPOILERS AHEAD -

For those who don’t know, DOOM was originally a game on the PC, which helped revolutionize the FPS (first person shooter) perspective that is heavily used in the medium now. If anything, it was a trendsetter on that and nothing else. DOOM’s story was simple. There’s a science lab on Mars. An alien gate or a transportation device is found and literally it opens the gates to hell. The demons and evil nasties get out. Turns everyone in the station into demons, zombies or other ungodly creatures. A group of Marines get sent in and you get a really cool gun. End of story. Funny enough DOOM has had three games with this same story, but told slightly different in each new game. It’s wonder it was a hit at all. However, DOOM the movie does not have this plot, which you would think would work since there has been three games around it, nope, we get a rehashed genetics testing theme on the people on Mars, which causes everyone to go all filthy, Mc Nasty on us. We get your typical Marines: Sarge (The Rock), Reaper (Karl Urban), Goat, Destroyer, Portman, and the Kid and a few others are sent in to investigate the problems on Mars, but they were never briefed on what it was. Which makes these Marines invariably dumb, order following jerks that deserve to die. I didn’t like these Marines at all. We don’t get to know them. We don’t care if they live or die, because we know they will. The only one we get to know is Reaper, because his sister works in the Mars labs, and we get there issues right off the back and he’s essentially the main character. There’s nothing comparable to the Hicks/Hudson/Vasquez/Gorman dynamic we get in Aliens. These fuck heads don’t even come close to it. They suck as soldiers. From first glance, you would think this was their first mission together and that they didn't know each other prior to this. They're not tight, orderly or methodical. They go in with no knowledge of the situation. They know something is loose, but yet are not prepared. They have one gun. The flashlights they have die. You would even think Marines of that caliber would have night vision or infrared since they're going into the dimly lit corridors of a Mars science facility. Nope. Dumb. And what happened to musical scores to films? Every horror movie these days have severely over-used Metal/Rock in its commercials, trailers and in-movie soundtrack. The special effects weren’t even that great either. James Cameron had less of a budget and didn’t have the same technology as we do now and he still did a better job with Aliens. You’d think Universal would've rocked the hell out of this being that they have 20 years of technology ahead of what Cameron had. Nope. We get an okay film. The saving grace of this movie was the much touted FPS scene towards the end. It lasted only 4 minutes, but it was utterly cool, but made me want a HALO movie all that much more. I am sure they put all of their money into this scene alone. It’s truly revolutionary. However, DOOM the movie isn’t. It’s just an okay film.

After watching a movie like this, you can’t help but think that video games should stay in one medium. They don’t do well in live action, or at least have not been done correctly. The biggest issues I have with video games being made into movies is that they never stay true to the source material. The writers who do these screenplays have no love for these properties. They’re brought in and told to do a treatment and see how it goes. DOOM is a classic example of that and it can be added to the list of really bad video game movie adaptations. At this point in cinema, you’ve pretty much seen everything so they’re tapping into other things, like video games to bring something else to the screen. However, when video games are being made into movies, and much of the movies coming out now borrow very heavily from games and comics books, the end result is we get movies that are highly, redundant. So when a movie has been done so many times, telling a slightly different story, wouldn’t you want to at least bring a game to the screen that’s original or hasn’t been seen or done before?

I guess logic escapes Hollywood sometimes.

The Dildo Debacle of '05

This past week, my cousin turned 25. A week or so before, she had asked me for a bottle of her favorite perfume by Michael Kors. About a day or so before I went to go get it, she calls me up to tell me she changed her mind about her birthday gift, instead of perfume she wants a dildo. There was silence on the phone followed by an immediate thud as my phone drops out of my hand from shock of what I just heard. I was in Kinkos at the time and a woman close to me asked if there was something wrong, I apparently looked like “I just got bad news.” I told her it wasn’t bad news, but my cousin just asked me favor I couldn’t possibly do. My cousin wanted a dildo for her birthday. “Why me?”, I asked. “Because you know all the spots.”, she said. I reluctantly said I would do it, but only on one condition that she went with me. I refused to walk into a store and have a shopping list of what she wanted.

I met up with her on Sunday afternoon in the Village. She wanted to go to the Pink Pussy Cat. I told her that place hasn’t been cool since 1987, but she wanted to go anyway. Inside, there were dildos, vibrators, lube, cock rings, clit ticklers other sexy goodies. She spotted one right away and felt in love with, but she was having a problem with it being too small. I reassured her that Christopher Street would be filled of similar stores and we can look there. However, she found something else she was interested in – vibrating toys. The sales lady ran her through the “what they do” sales pitch and ultimately my cousin found a 3-toy vibrator pack, which ran me about $45. Suffice to say she was pleased, but not satisfied. She still had her heart set on a dildo. We went scouring store to store to find the perfect, 8” dildo. A few stores later, my cousin finds a suitable and inexpensive black-man molded dildo, with a suction cup. (A feature which cracks me up, because you can stick to a chair, a wall, or the shower apparently. Modern science I tell ya.) She actually claps her hands and says “Yeah!”. She was so excited. It even came with a red, velvet pouch. The dildo had VIP treatment. We then walked around for a little bit longer and grabbed a few slices of pizza. I took her to a cute little jewelry store called Nova Ice and she got a few things. She was really happy for her day. She was so happy, she even promised to buy me some porn next week. I clapped my hands and said “Yeah!” She felt bad that gay porn is so expensive, so when I found a store that had some moderately, inexpensive quality stuff - she thought I should have some. "Why deny yourself some good porn?", she tells me.

As this beautiful Sunday came to a close, I grabbed a Starbucks coffee and headed to the R train. It was fun day. If all my outings with my family ended up in porn payment, I think I would like them a lot more and maybe even want to hang out with them. =P

Bored At Work/Random Shit

It's about 4:00PM and I'm pretty bored at work. My work was nearly done and I had a few emails to send out, when unexpectedly, our email servers went down. So I had some time to kill before they were back up. Most of my floor has left already, there's maybe a few of us left in my department, but then again, we're always the last to leave.

I'm pretty much tired of listening to the rain. Soothing as it is sometimes, it can be boring all the same.

My new theme song for today is playing through iTunes - Can I Have It Like That the new joint from Pharrell.

My thighs still hurt from the Step class I took today at lunch with Meki and Tosha. Now I know why guys don't take that class. It was brutal. Definitely not for beginners (which I was today). I sweated like I was running for my freedom all while the instructor laughed at me. She gave me props a few times, until we had to do a kick motion. She kept yelling at me to get my legs higher. I then said "Listen lady, I maybe gay, but not that fucking gay!" Then I rolled my eyes and kicked like I was a Rockette. LMAO. It was fun. I might do it again next week.

I keep playing that damn game Chulo showed me (Zoo Keeper) on his blog. I'm getting better, but it's still distracting.

I thought about the Riddler today. I haven't checked in on him lately. I hope he's getting better. I miss him.

Fatty Girl just came on and I'm laughing thinking of Trav dancing in the mirror at home.

I thought about that dream I had last night. It's a reoccurring dream. It usually involves my barber and a few patrons of my barbershop. It's out of control - I know.

Email's back up. Time to finish up before I go home. Meantime, enjoy the pictures of my cubicle.

My First Gay Wedding

On Saturday, a very close colleague of mine had his commitment ceremony to his partner of five years. This was my first gay wedding and I was teaming with excitement. So for weeks I went back and forth on what to wear and decided at literally the last minute to go very basic (shirt & tie) for this. I wanted to go all gay pimp with a vest, and a pocket watch, but unfortunately, every NYC suit store I tried didn’t sell vest anymore. I guess that went out in the 1920s. I finally found one, but it was too big, so I had to eighty-six the vest. Even with the wardrobe change, I was excited. It was rainy and really icky all day, but that didn’t stop the mood from my travel mates, who were a few ladies from work. We were all high with anxiety, because this was our first gay wedding.

Just from the ceremony, you can pretty much figure out that Steve and Jhon have a fairytale life and it keeps getting better for them. From the stories on how they met and how their relationship grew, to them buying their first home, nothing but good fortune has been bestowed upon them. The ceremony was a testament to it. I have never seen anything so emotional before. With normal heterosexual weddings, you’ve pretty much know how it’s going to go. There’s a certain order to the str8 marriage routine, however, when you gay it up, anything is bound to happen and that it did.

The ceremony started off as a traditional wedding. There was the procession song, the parents, and then the groom and groom. Soon to be followed by their dog, Ella, who was the ring bearer and their neighbor’s dog, Georgia, who was the flower girl. Right there, different. There was a smokey, rendition of The Man I Love by one Jhon’s cousin and then there was the traditional exchanging of the vows. At the reception, they danced with their mothers and then with each other and then added their dog to dance with them. There were just an abundance of awes from everyone. And all of this was so touching.

Around this time I am crying tears of joy, because this is a seriously emotional moment. It wasn’t only due to the fact that this was such a joyous and happy occasion and you can truly see the love these two men have for each other, and you felt it. This also reminded me of where I was about two years ago. I was discussing marriage with my partner of five years as well. We picked out the month, the outfits, how the ceremony was going to go, and most importantly where to register us for gifts. Needless to say, it didn’t work out for us. It took me back to some fond memories and I got a little teary-eyed, but I was so extremely happy that Steve and Jhon were able to celebrate like this with all their family, friends, loved-ones and co-workers.

However, it was the gayiest event I’ve been too thus far. I think half of the legendary gay disco songs played (i.e.It’s Raining Men, So Many Men, So Little Time, I Will Survive, etc.) and nearly the entire Madonna Immaculate Collection and for Jhon’s side, Salsa and Merenque. As Trav would say, the Original Cast of Gay was out in full force, twisting their heads and waving their fingers in the classic diva motion. It was definitely an experience I will always cherish, because it showed me that love is still real and can still be achieved.

Tamara, Maria, Steve the Groom and Me

The i930 Obsession

The i930. I will not rest until I have you my sweet.
Will not rest.

Boys Are Stupid! You Should Throw Rocks at Them

I met this guy a few months back. And if you’ve been keeping up, this was the same guy who canceled dates with me or just didn’t return calls. At one point told me that he couldn’t pursue anything with me for the following reasons:

1). He was really stressed over money problems
2). He hated his job and wanted a new one
3). His mother was sick and it was stressful because he just lost his dad the previous year

He really liked me apparently, but was going through a lot and didn’t want that to mess anything up between us. He isolated himself from everyone and blah, blah, blah. This resulted in taking a trip into the “friend zone”, which I didn’t mind, because I understood him or at least tried to. I should have gathered my rocks to throw at him then, but I didn’t.

So we speed up to last night, and through some weird twist of fate and a random search on a website, I found out he just recently started dating someone - as in September recent. This kid just told me he couldn’t date me back in late August! Did I miss something? When I spoke to him a few weeks ago, he hadn’t mentioned it. In fact he told me that due to a dream he had, he was worried that people were out to get him and that he was watching his back and continued to keep people away from him, while he figured out his life. Confused? Hell yeah! I then got the urge to catch him out there with this. I emailed him a “Hey how you doin?” email segue to the real question. He responded very quickly, which means he was online, but not through your standard internet protocol chatting utilities (a.k.a. Instant Messenger). Now he’s responding through his AOL email, but he’s not showing up on my Buddy List. He’s hiding. Where’s my damn rock?

I replied back to him. “I’m doing good….and when were you going to tell me you had a boyfriend?” He didn’t respond back as quickly as before. In fact a few minutes went by and he hadn’t responded to me at all. I called him. No answer (typical) and I left him message. I wasn’t mad, but I just wanted to know the deal. I wanted to know why he told me one thing and then do another? Where did liking me go? Again, my rock is no where to be found.

I am a little astonished at this. It doesn’t make me sad, but quite the opposite. I am happy I found this out ahead of time. It’s just really fucking annoying that guys can be this way. Regardless of what he was going through, he was being an asshole for not being very forthcoming with things in his life and then an even bigger asshole for not being truthful with me or at least letting me know he has a man now. Would he think I would be mad? Would he think I wouldn’t want to talk to him anymore? Why keep it a secret if you wanted to be friends? Whatever his reasons were, they’re not clear to me at this point and I am really trying not to care. I don’t have time to play games. I think I would have been better off with him, if he just said something, but he chose not to. He was being stupid - a common affliction of a gay male.

So why is this getting to me? I’ve had a string of bad luck when it comes to meeting dudes lately. I feel that it seems that you can get to a point with a person and then it just falls flat on its face. I have no idea if I am trying too hard or not trying at all. There’s always an emergence of some burgeoning emotion or a hidden fact that comes out later that would have been nice to know in the beginning. This odd, emotional exposition fucks me up three ways from Sunday. Just be clear and we’ll be fine. Define boundaries and expectations in the beginning and we’ll be cool. This eludes some people.

I don’t even know if a friendship with him is possible at this point, I thought about it briefly, but I think it would be best if I just left it alone. In fact, after all of this it makes him look really bad and he was nice too. I let my guard down when I really should have followed him one day and thrown rocks at him from behind some bushes. It may seem childish, but he was a knucklehead.

Another lesson learned.

Movie Review: Serenity

First off let me say that I am not the biggest Joss Whedon fan, but I am a fan nonetheless. I loved the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, but moderately enjoyed the movie. I loved Angel with everything I had and equally loved the first hour of Alien Resurrection. Even some of his other notable screenplay works which include the now classic Toy Story, Titan A.E., and his assistance in making Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the best damn hand drawn movie they’ve done since the very first Aladdin. That was all Joss Whedon. So okay, I’ll take that back, I am Joss Whedon nut. However, when it came to Firefly, I didn’t watch it. It’s not like I didn’t want to, but the corporate executives at Fox put the show on Friday nights, which is really my night to party, so it’s completely my fault that I missed out on such a great show (or so I’ve heard, because I have still not actually seen an episode of Firefly yet, even though the entire series is out on DVD.) So why did I go see Serenity without all of the back-story of the series? I have no idea, but it was probably one of the worst decisions ever.

For those of you who don’t know, Firefly was the short-lived sci-fi/western series Joss did before Buffy and Angel went off the air a few years back. It was a different foray for him, given that he stayed mostly in the supernatural. I think that’s what also did him in. Many of his fans, from what I read, couldn’t get into a sci-fi grounded show, set in a wild-west atmosphere. I guess geeks don’t like genre-blending. It sucks because if a crappy show like Mutant X or Relic Hunter can go into syndication with a few seasons under them, then Firefly should have gotten a better chance to succeed. Everyone expected it to be a hit like Buffy or Angel, but if you remember, Buffy wasn’t an immediate success either. Greatness takes time to develop. Needless to say, the show didn’t catch on and Firefly met an untimely demise with only 12 episodes under its belt. Even more so, it was canceled before its first season was done. There were plot threads left un-solved and Joss didn’t get to do a proper send off for it, so the show was literally left in space. However, a year after the show was off the air, Joss said that he was planning a movie; flesh out the characters more and to finish off the series correctly and armed with only that knowledge, I sunk into Serenity and it was good.

I didn’t have much of an expectation for this film. I went in thinking that it was a Joss Whedon creation so there’s a strong possibility that I would like it. There was also odd feeling going in, because I didn’t see Firefly. I was afraid I wouldn’t love the characters or know them as I should prior to viewing Serenity, but alas Mr. Whedon wrote it so that if you were seeing this for the first time out, you didn’t need back story, all you needed was to know that this was a new story and nothing prior to this mattered. You were given your basic arch-type crew elements. There was the captain, the lovable brute, the doctor, the mechanic, the pilot and his freedom fighter wife and their ship Serenity. Throw in the on-the run, bio-weapon, butt-kicking girl, River with a bunch of secrets and you’ve got yourself a plot. The movie itself is a gem. From the direction to the cast of characters and the special effects, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, my only nag was that I was stupid not to marathon the series before seeing it. I think I would have enjoyed this movie immensely more. However, Joss wrote a masterpiece of a movie.

It was all about the story. This showed that he is a master storyteller. From the very moment the movie started, it drew you in and pulled you like a roller coaster. From what I understand, the series pitted the crew against impossible odds and they all somehow got through it. Joss Whedon pulls no punches with this mission. It’s more dangerous than anything they’ve had to face, but amidst how scary the story progresses for them and the huge threats that are looming for the crew of Serenity, they still go on, even though death is a strong possibility. In the end, they’re soldiers trying to hold on to their freedom and are willing to do it any cost.

As I type this I realize my movie review has turned into a Joss Whedon ass-kissing article. But he’s good at what he does. He takes you places you don’t want to go with characters, but you will anyway, because you believe. You have an affinity for them, you like them, you could possibly identify with them. You want to see where they go. Yet, somehow he makes you love them and you’re there when they’re at their strongest and weakest. This was absolutely true in the Buffy-verse. Characters were introduced and loved for years, but yet Joss would kill someone off if there were a need to progress the story and most importantly the character. So expect to have a few near deaths and a few deaths of the main cast and supporting character in Serenity universe.

Finally, it’s a fantastic piece of work. It’s a space opera if you will and it will have you laughing, crying and excited all in the same sitting. Who knows, Serenity could spin-off into a movie franchise doing much better than a serial counter-part. It’s worked for the Star Trek series all these years, why not for this one?

Like I said, do yourself a favor and go out and get Firefly on DVD, watch it first then go see Serenity. You’ll be better off if you do.

My Sister's Birthday

This week my was my little sister's 21st birthday. So to kick off her fun weekend, I took her and some friends of hers to their first gay club. I took my lil' sis to Krash. She had heard about it before hand and heard it was like the club Babylon from Queer as Folk. Though there are several similarities, I had to tell her that it wasn't like that at all, no glitter and men hanging from the ceilings, but I did reassure her that there would be a dozen or so exceptional men on the premises. She was very excited, because my sister is the type that falls for gay guys all the time, I knew this was going to be one big crush after the next. She had the hots from just what she saw on the line waiting to get in. Not unlike her older brother.

I met them at 11:30 because, like the cheap bastard I am, I wanted to get in before 12 when it's free, but the line was so long, it took 25 minutes just to get in. So we missed that. Luckily, the checking the IDs saw that it was my sister's birthday and gave her a ticket for a free bottle of house Champaign with a little tip. We were like cool and plus she got a reduced price as well, because my sister was wearing a very revealing top. Not unlike her older brother. We get inside and she automatically realizes she wants to dance, but she also had on heels. I told her that she would have some issues dancing in those unless she was Beyonce. "Don't worry bro. I got it covered.", she tells me. My sister, the resourceful girl that she is, reaches into her bag and produces a pair of sandals and proceeds to grab the first gay guy she saw to dance with. Hefty Smurf met us shortly after that. He loves my sister and wanted to share her first gay club experience as well.

Her good friend Summer, who reminds me of Mya, if she had eaten, was utterly excited, because it was her first gay club experience as well. Needless to say she was overwhelmed when she got in there. My sister and the other two girls were just the same. They were frozen and didn't know what to do. After a while they loosened up and danced. She kept saying all night "There are too many hot guys here!" and fell in love with the first go-go boy she saw. Not unlike her older brother. My sister and her friends danced to their little hearts content and snapped pictures of the dancers as they did it. They all had a really good time. The hours pass and my sister and her friends have sweated out their hair stylings and decided to leave. It's about a little before 3:00am then, Hefty Smurf and I wanted to stay longer, so we walked them to door, said our good-byes and we chilled some more.

I ran into people I knew. I saw Danny Rivera, an old acquaintances from my La Mancha days. Yamil is still a ragging thug bottom and I saw my favorite Gotti Boy-esque friend of many years, Frankie, with some Rentboy.com model. How do I know he was a Rentboy.com model? Maybe it was the shirt that said "I'm on Rentboy.com" that confirmed it. Go figure. But Frankie was so drunk he couldn't remember his name, which was hysterical and I didn't take the time out to learn it either. And the shirt was killin' me so I had to ask, "Frankie, did you pay for him?". "No way!", he replied. "He's so ugly, he couldn't be on Rentboy.com, if they paid him to." Then with that, I cracked up, Frankie hugged me and then he found some guy to flirt with.

So Hefty Smurf and I continued to scam on boys, dance with boys, grind on boys and sweat with boys. I was in rare form and met some cuties. And a hot, Dominican Lesbian with a tiara, rubbed my chest. I went off on the dance floor especially when Missy Elliot's Loose Control came on. That's my favorite song, it's so 80's break dance music and I got into it so hard, as Trav would put it, it looked like I was auditioning for the second season of "So You Think You Can Dance". It was awesome and we had a blast. Afterwards, we left went to a 24 hour diner and I walked in my house at 5:20am. I slept like a log after that.