Sequels Aren't Always The Best Idea

OMFG!!!! What is the cinematic world coming to? Why must Hollywood trowel out turkey after turkey? If I see one more of those so called "2 thumbs up" flicks that suck bo-bo, I'll shoot myself!
I've come to hate going to the video store to rent a DVD. I wander 'round the place for sometimes an hour, trying to find something decent to watch, and just when I think I've found a diamond amongst the coal, I go home, watch the disk gently slide into my DVD player, and then become horrified whence I see the shitty movie I jes' spent $5.99 to watch. I am crushed! Oh, the humanity! The earth rocks and temple veils are rent in twain! Somewhere, the gifted artists of Hollywood past are weeping!!!
Just the other day, my honey and I went out to grab some burgers and rent a couple o' flicks. What a disappointing evening. Not only were the movies gobshite, the burger joint screwed up our order too. I'm beyond irritated. Not only did the double mozza I'd ordered come to me a single, and the cheese + xtra cheese on my better half's completely forgotten about ('cept for the inflated cost still charged), the movies were horrible too.
As you've prolly guessed by the title of this lil' rant, one of these movies was a sequel to a very good movie. I'd expected better, and got shafted with a movie lacking damn near the entire cast from the first, the story line was weak and nonsensical, and the ending was a complete disaster. It was one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever seen.
The second flick we rented was a classic case of pure confusion. The movie went no where. The plot was extremely sketchy, the story line was non-existent, and the ending left you wondering what the hell was this stupid movie about anyway. I'm still confused, and I saw that schlock three days ago. What were the writers of these shitty movies thinking? They should be dragged out into the street and shot.
Needless to say, I'm very cynical 'bout the new films being steadily released today. I see a preview that touts the movie as "brilliant!", but I'm beginning to see that now a days, sometimes you can judge the book by it's cover. If it looks like shit, it'll be shit, and if it looks good, it will most likely be shit too.
So what to do? Stay in and read books for entertainment? God knows there's nothing worth watching on TV, 'cept for a lot of crap. We've got digital cable with over a 100 channels of crap to choose from. I think I'll sell my TV and dig out my old Lego blocks again! At least that's entertaining. So what if I'm in my mid-30's? I'd rather be a contented 33 yr old man who plays with Lego, than a perpetually grouchy person, cursing the movie industry for all of the money I've spent watching the shit that's coming to a theatre near you.
At least the popcorn I'll be eating at home won't cost me $6.50. And the screen fades to black!

Why, oh why do they remake old movies?

Here's the scoop, I jes' sat through the worst movie I've ever seen, and I've seen some pretty shitty movies in my day! The worst thing 'bout the whole thing was that it was a re-telling of the classic horror flick, "Halloween 2", starring Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Donald Pleasance. It's the continuation of the events occurring from the first "Halloween" movie.
The original "Halloween" came out in 1978, and the second installment came out in 1980. It continued the tale of murder and mayhem wreaked upon Haddonfield on Halloween night by Michael Meyers on his quest to kill his estranged baby sister, Laurie Strode. Jamie Lee Curtis played the part of Laurie, and even donned a wig that resembled the hair style she had in the 1978 movie. Those first two "Halloween" films were brilliant and helped Jamie Lee earn her title as "the scream queen".
Then somewhere along the line, the direction of the "Halloween" series veered of the trail with some stupid-assed Irish Halloween masks, that when worn reduced one's head to bugs and snakes when some flashing pumpkin appeared on a TV screen. Pure shite!!!
Then jes' for old time sake, they brought back 'ole Mikey Meyers for the next run of shitty films, weakly based on the original two films.
Then someone finally grabbed a brain and resurrected the proper story line and made "Halloween, H20, 20 yrs Later", with Jamie Lee reprising her role of "Laurie Strode". However, in this film, Jamie Lee's character has tried unsuccessfully to run away and forget the horror of 20yrs ago with a staged death, complete with an alias and new life as "Kari Tate", an understandably troubled headmistress of a hoity-toity private school in California, with a son and a drinking problem. She forever fears the return of her brother, who will finally succeed in finishing what he started. And voila, he finally makes his appearance. She then goes postal and strikes back, finally beheading him.
We thought the series was done. And it would've been, with a great ending to boot, but they had to squeeze one last movie out and ruin it once again.
It then seemed to have finally died, until some idiot who's name shall remain unmentioned started it all over again with his version of the story. He screwed it over royally.
The first one was bad enough, but the sequel went waayyy beyond ghastly. It was pure shit on a shingle!!! Somewhere, Jamie Lee Curtis is weeping!!!
The story was like a bad acid trip. It had such a poor story line, and totally ditched the original plot. It was butchery. The first installment of this new series blurred the story badly enough, but this one, OMG! I jes' can't put into words how horrid the second one is. I'm speechless, and that is an astounding feat, 'cuz I'm NEVER speechless!!!
I guess I should know better by now that remakes always suck, 'cause I've seen and fallen in love with the original and am HUGELY disappointed when I watch the new versions. I don't understand why these hack-writers feel the need to destroy perfect films with their horrid renditions. If it ain't broken, don't fix it!
But still, whenever another remake of one of my favorite films comes out, I'm compelled to see it, and ALWAYS walk away from the theatre disappointed. I keep hoping someone will produce a new film which compliments the original, rather than slandering it.
I suggest that before you watch a remake of a classic film, watch the original first. You'll never see another film the same way again!

Are Humans Becoming Obsolete?

It occurred to me today that we humans are becoming more and more unnecessary for each day that passes, and it's getting a little disturbing. We interact with one another less and less as time progresses thanks to voice mail, answering machines, auto dial, atms, etc, etc, etc. We may not realize this, but it's happening. Every day in fact.
I myself work in call centre, and have actually had people ask if I was a computer. I don't think I sound like one, but really, how often does it happen when you don't get a computer voiced call or have the annoying occasion of dealing with those damned computerized relay systems, "press 1 to access this option, press 2 for this option", blah, blah, blah. Where in the hell is the digit I push to speak to a bloody human being?
It's everywhere, from banks to department stores and so on. We no longer communicate on a personal level. It's a machine to machine world. I personally haven't seen a bank teller for months, I don't speak to a receptionist to make doctor's appointments, hell, you can even order a bloody pizza over the Internet!
Now the latest thing is self-serve checkouts in grocery stores. It seems we don't have to deal with another single human being to conduct out daily affairs. We don't even manufacture anything by human hand anymore.
I remember back when I was a kid and the first completely robotic produced automobiles were made. Some thought it was an abomination, others thought it was the cat's ass. I really couldn't have given a rat's ass, 'cause I was only 8 or 9 yrs old. Well, the auto industry embraced this new technology, and boom! Thousands of auto workers laid off. Who needs people when computers can do the job? You don't hafta pay a robot! Even before then, machines have taken over pretty much everything humans used to do. Food stuffs, furniture, some forms of clothing, musical instruments and even gas pumps. Self serve combined with pay-at-the-pump means you don't even hafta go into the store to pay for the gas you've jes' filled up with. We jes' seem to be less and less necessary.
Now, they say that the automated world we live in was created for greater ease in regards to manufacturing. It's much more efficient and cost effective. Why pay for a 100 workers to labour for 8 hrs. when you can automate your business and run it with 10 people instead? Who cares about the rampant, high unemployment rate or number of people dependent on social assistance? Large manufacturers don't.
So what do we do? What can we do? The answer unfortunately, is nothing. We little folk can't change the way our world has become, no matter how sick and tired we are of being on the phone with the bank for and hour, trying in vain to speak to an actual human being. And besides, do we really wanna wait more than 10 seconds for that bottle of coke to come whizzing down the assembly line or speak to the snotty bank teller with far to much lipstick on her teeth and reeking of cheap perfume? Prolly not.
So, I guess we jes' suck it up and carry on. Hopefully we'll be useful again some day, but until then, press 9 to speak to a computer.

Another Brick in the Wall

Ah, another day, another $1.00, well .68 cents after taxes. I often wonder why we humans work our asses off in order for the government to take a hefty chunk of change off our wages. They say it's to help fund social programs, heath care, education, help build the economy, and basically ensure than we have our asses covered in event of a crisis. My opinions on that...BULLSHIT!!!!
If the money carved off of every one's pay cheques went for such things, we shouldn't have to pay for visits to the dentist or the optometrist, ambulance rides to the hospital, or worry about how we're gonna pay off student loans for post-secondary education. Hell, we shouldn't even hafta plug the parking meter every damn time we go to park the car. But alas, we do. Again and again, we plunk down our hard earned dollars every time we need new glasses, have a cavity filled, or try and educate ourselves.
So, where are our hard earned dollars going? Certainly not into any kind of social fund or any other program that provides anything to the common man. It goes directly into the government coffers (which the public never sees again) and into the pockets of the bastards we were stupid enough to vote into power for in the first place. Healthy pensions and salary increases for cabinet ministers and mp's. New wallpaper for the pm's 70ft. drawing room and those fancy brooches the governor general wears on her satin sash. It goes to fat cat businesses and tax cuts for the rich. To hell with the little guy. He can't afford to buy the merchandise that feeds the fires of retail profit. Screw the charities trying so desperately trying to help out those who need assistance. In the world of income tax, it's all for healthy additions to government toy boxes and big business cut backs. And whatever big business wants, the government will readily supply in lieu of their votes to keep them in power and therefore, lining their wallets, milking it for all we're worth.
But what can we do? We're just the poor schmucks on the streets trying to eke out a living. We don't count. But the money snatched off our pay cheques sure does. It seems we just don't matter. We're just another brick in the wall.