Monthly Archives: September 2011

Cottage1

 

Maybe the bar has been set so low for horror-comedies that I no longer expect much from them, but heaven help me, I liked The Cottage.  I liked it more than the Scream movies, which are often too cute for their own good.  I liked it more than the camp classic Motel Hell, which doesn’t live up to its reputation.

The Cottage is engaging mostly because of its characters.  When teens take a pickaxe in the skull in most horror spoofs, I tend to silently cheer.  But in this film, I actually wanted the people to survive the inevitable carnage.  (I won’t say whether or not they do.)

Bug-eyed Andy Serkis, who’s made a name for himself acting in motion-capture roles (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Gollum in The Lord of the Rings), plays it straight as one of two bumbling brothers who make the mistake of kidnapping the foul-mouthed daughter (Jennifer Ellison) of a mobster.  Reece Shearsmith, as the other brother, and Steven O’Donnell, as the mobster’s son, complete this Three Stooges redux.

 

Cottage2

 

The Cottage is a strange hybrid of genres.  The first half of the story is a kidnapping caper; the second half is a bloody, stupid, and funny send-up of horror favorites like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho.  The last half of the movie, nonsensical as it is (how in hell does the story go from crime thriller to slasher flick?), is nevertheless the most effective.  The killer, a deformed farmer, looks like he’s wearing a rubber mask and makes noises that seem filtered through … a rubber mask.  If that sounds ridiculous, rest assured, it is.

But I liked the characters, I dug the tongue-in-cheek tone, and there were just enough creepy scenarios and amusing one-liners to keep me hooked.  Says one bumbling brother to the uncooperative kidnap victim as they flee the deranged farmer:  “This is the worst night of my life.  Not only have I met you, I’ve stumbled into the only house in the country with someone worse than you.”      Grade:  B

 

Cottage3 Cottage4

Cottage5 Cottage6

 
DirectorPaul Andrew Williams  Cast:  Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith, Steven O’Donnell, Jennifer Ellison, Logan Wong, Jonathan Chan-Pensley, Dave Legeno  Release:  2008

 

Cottage7 Cottage8

 

                                               Watch Trailers (click here)

 

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 Twin1

 

I’m no conspiracy buff and certainly no structural engineer, but it still seems odd to me — counterintuitive — that an airplane crashing into the upper floors of a skyscraper could bring the thing to the ground.

 

Twin2

 

*****

 

Morgan3

 

“He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders, quite literally.”  —  Piers Morgan, talking about Obama and proving that even the English don’t understand English.

 

*****

 

There is a TV ad for something called Micro Plus, a hearing-aid thing that supposedly lets you overhear conversations taking place at a distance.  In the ad, a bikinied babe walks past two other women and knowingly smirks as one of the women says, “She has an amazing body!”

This gadget seems like a good thing, but what if you wear it, walk down the street, and hear:  “Look at the pot belly on that loser!” or  “Look — that guy has a brown spot on the seat of his pants!”?

 

*****

 

Vick

 

Dear Grouchy,

The Philadelphia Eagles have made dog-lover Michael Vick fabulously rich with a $100 million contract.  Don’t you agree that it’s good to give people a second chance?

T. Woods

Florida

 

Grouch4 - Copy   Dear T. Woods:

Everyone is in favor of giving people a second chance.  But that isn’t the issue with Vick.  The issue is awarding “second chances” that are lucrative beyond belief.  There is a difference between being allowed to earn a living, and being handed the keys to paradise.

Grouchy

 

*****

 

I recently bashed Entertainment Weekly (again) for its politically correct agenda.  Also recently, I championed the U.S. Postal Service, which is in danger of extinction.  So what happens this week?  You guessed it:  My issue of EW got lost in the mail.

 

*****

 

ONeal

 

So Oprah’s celebrity interviews are disingenuous?  Why am I not surprised?

 

*****

 

Hell

 

Funniest show you never heard of:  Hell Date.  You haven’t seen it because 1) it’s on BET, and you’re white; 2) it went off the air in 2008.  But hey, you can still catch reruns or see it on the Web.  It’s funny.  Unless it’s fake.  I’ll have to ask  Ryan O’Neal.

 

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Clint

Most movies have a scene or two that stick in the memory.  What I enjoy recalling about 1993’s In the Line of Fire is the sight of poor Clint Eastwood, 62 and not so spry, sprinting after the bad guy (John Malkovich) – huffing, puffing, running his old heart out.  I must be a sadist.  But this thriller about a Secret Service agent (Eastwood) racing to halt a presidential assassination is mindless good fun.  Click here to watch it for free.

 

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Men Behaving (and Dressing) Badly

 

Bruce 

 

Poor Bruce Jenner.  We all know that his wife, Kris, wears the pants in the Kardashian-Jenner household, but this item in my local paper about daughter Kim’s wedding was simply too much:

 

Gown

 

I saw nothing about whether or not Wang also designed Bruce’s earrings.

 

*****

 

Gawker

 

Gawker and The Huffington Post inform us that Fox’s Bill O’Reilly is just another aging cuckold.  According to Gawker, O’Reilly was unable to satisfy trophy wife Maureen McPhilmy, who sought solace in the arms of a Long Island cop.  Big Bill allegedly then pulled strings in an attempt to damage the cop’s career.

If you get your news from Fox, don’t hold your breath waiting for the all-spin network to weigh in on this story.

 

*****

 

Dear Grouchy:

Whatever happened to that story you promised about Arnold Schwarzenegger and a Japanese schoolgirl?

M. Shriver, Los Angeles  CA

 

Grouch4 - Copy   Dear M. Shriver:

Never let it be said that we here at The Grouchy Editor are slothful researchers.  In our May 22 review, we incorrectly reported that embattled movie star/governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had once been photographed fondling an underage girl.  Maybe that assertion was the result of, ahem, someone’s early-onset Alzheimer’s, or perhaps it was simply a case of overzealous journalism, but whatever the case, we’ve since located the photograph in question … and it is not of the former governor.

It’s an image of  fellow action star Steven Seagal, who is captured getting his jollies at a smiling lass’s expense (the caption reads:  “Feeling up a Nipponese schoolgirl!”).  The photo was published in a 1995 edition of Celebrity Sleuth, and here it is.  Our apologies to Arnold.

 

Seagal

 

*****

 

Crowley Romer

 

I was channel surfing and landed on two hefty, middle-aged women discussing the economy — and it was so refreshing.  No kidding.  CNN anchor Candy Crowley (above left) and economist Christina Romer (above right) might not be typical TV eye candy (pun intended), but somehow I put a lot more weight (pun intended) into what these two were saying than I do when I’m forced to listen to the usual gang of pretty bubbleheads.  You go, fat girls!

 

*****

 

So Obama caves, again, and bumps his Big Speech back a day to Thursday evening.  This guy is like the smart kid who sits in class and has all of the right answers — but who then gets beat up by bullies and has his lunch stolen.  Those of us who voted for him thought we were getting a guy with some balls, but we picked the wrong kid; we should have voted for the woman with balls.

 

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