The Evil Dead remake. The thought of anyone touching any of the films from Sam Raimi's classic horror-slapstick trilogy makes me want to cringe. The first film was made on a shoe string budget that had bad acting, a terrible script and worse special effects but this added to the films charm. It was played as a straight horror film for the most part, leaving the slapstick to "Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn" and "Army Of Darkness." "Evil Dead II" was basically a remake of the first film, at least for the first act, before the uni-handed Bruce Campbell greets visitors of the demon and human persuasion. Our hero Ash, played by B film legend Bruce Campbell not only kicked ass but took names from the aforementioned demons before opening some kind of time portal that sends him back in time, with his car or course. Ash's exploits in the past is explored in "Army Of Darkness," which is chalk full of Three Stooges-style slapstick bits (see the scene army of little Ash's), multiple zombie deaths by chainsaw, an army of skeletons ala Jason & the Argonauts and some of the best (or worst) one liners ever put on film. Anyways, easily my favourite horror film series and not something that I want to be screwed with. The remake follows the script fairly closely and is produced by Raimi and Bruce themselves, making me a lot less scared of the potential butchering of a brilliant franchise.
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Messy Snipes is out of jail! We can expect a "Blade 4" (maybe that already exists) on DVD in bargain stores within the next few weeks. The star of not just crap movies (see Major League, White Men Can't Jump, Demolition Man to name a couple) has been released from a Pennsylvania jail after serving three years for felony tax fraud and conspiracy charges. A jury convicted him of willfully failing to file tax returns from 1999-2001 and even had an unsuccessful appeal to his sentence in 2011. The first thing I ever saw Wesley Snipes in was "Major League," and I thought he was hysterical as Willie 'Mays' Hayes, the smartass base stealing centre fielder from the fictitious version of the 1989 Cleveland Indians. Things got real in 1991's "New Jack City" where we saw a no nonsense Messy as a drug lord during New York City's crack epidemic. Despite his horrendous blonde hair and overalls with no shirt wardrobe, my favourite character he played was Simon Phoenix in 1993's "Demolition Man." The film was the story of two cryogenically frozen 90s style action junkies, one maverick officer John Spartan, wrongfully accused prisoner and Snipes as supercriminal Phoenix. The two get unthawed in the year 2032 and find the world significantly different than the one they had known. After an earthquake in 2010, the world rebuilt itself into a society that didn't do anything wrong. For reals… you couldn't even kiss. Phoenix and Spartan battle it out in the future amongst the new age yuppies, bringing Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) and Edgar Friendly (Denis Leary) along for the ride. Anyways, point being, if they had cryogenically frozen Wesley he could have starred in a Demolition Man reality show in 2032. Welcome home, Messy!
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New Kids On the Block won't die. But thankfully, they may be closer to breaking up. The group, which is still apparently together, hit a bump in the road when one of them (does it matter which? Ok, it was Jonathan) ran off the stage mid-performance during the horrifyingly bad ballad "Survive You" and… oh who gives a rip. Break up already, no one cares, k-thanks.
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Thomas Guiry who played nerd Scotty Smalls in "The Sandlot" recently gave an interview to promote the 20th anniversary of the film. Since it is one of the best baseball movies of all time (after "Major League," the "Slap Shot" of baseball) and its opening week why not reflect a bit on the film. I actually haven't watched it this year, which is pretty week, since it a go-to anytime during baseball season in past years. It involves friends, summer, baseball, first kiss, first time getting in trouble, and coming of age. Scotty Smalls was in awe of the kids at the sandlot, a run down old field, who play baseball all day, every day. He noted they had 8 players and figured he could be the 9th even though he doesn't know how to actually play. All the kids, except Benny, think Scotty is hopeless, which is fairly accurate. Over the course of the summer the kids get into trouble at the pool, get mockingly challenged by a local minor league team, losing a signed Babe Ruth ball that belonged to Scotty's dad and just being young. Dennis Leary and Karen Allen play Scott's stepdad and mother, with James Earl Jones as the owner of "the beast," the giant dog who ate the signed Babe Ruth ball. Check out the interview HERE.
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It has been 19 years since Kurt Cobain shot himself at his home in Seattle. Not that I like writing about things that are depressing and such, it should be touched upon since the guy was awesome. I listened to him since I was a younging, broke it off for a while because.. you know, grade 11, punk rock politics etc.. and got back on board a good ten years ago, and they are truly one of my favourite bands. Nirvana formed in 1985 and went into the studio in December of 1988 to record their debut album "Bleach." The album was their angriest offering, which is often the case with hard rock bands but showed the poppy hooks that were littered all over their subsequent releases. "About a Girl" is about as a Beatles of a song as you will find in their catalog, Cobain always being a colossal fan of John Lennon. After demo session in April 1990 with producer Butch Vig, the band became disenchanted with original drummer Chad Channing's drumming and were introduced to Dave Grohl of Washington punk band Scream. Within minutes of auditioning, bassist Krist Novoselic said "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer." The band signed with Geffen Records in 1990 and begun recording their sophomore album "Nevermind," the album that changed everything. It actually is probably my least favourite of their three proper studio full lengths (possibly because of listening to them too much) but I can't deny how good most of the songs are on the record. "On a Plain," "Lithium," "Lounge Act," "Territorial Pissings," "Drain You" all rank up with their best work, and if you add in "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "In Bloom," and "Come As You Are" you do have a near perfect record so long as you haven't heard the singles ten million times. The band cranked it up a notch in what would be their swan song, 1993's "In Utero," enlisting indie elitist producer Steve Albini to do the album. The drums sounded like thunder, and Kurt never sounded more angry or melancholic. Definitely my favourite Nirvana record and why not? "Serve the Servants," "Scentless Apprentice," "Frances Farmer…," "Milk It," "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter," it is hard to pick a favourite song from the album. 
In a strange twist, also on April 5 but just eleven years ago another Seattle star died in a drug related death. Layne Staley formed Alice In Chains with Jerry Cantrell in 1987, the band had much more heavy metal roots than Nirvana despite eventually being lumped into the grunge category with them. Their first album came out in August 1990 but the band didn't really take off until the release of the "Singles" soundtrack in 1992, which showcased many Seattle area bands, and included Alice's song "Would?" which would appear as the closing track on their second album "Dirt." The album is the bands best record and I would recommend it to anyone, despite the fact is definitely feels more dated than Nirvana's material. I think its because sometimes they sound too much like a vowel vocal band ala Pearl Jam. The album contained "Them Bones," "Down In a Hole," "Junkhead," "Angry Chair," "Rooster" and "Dam the River" and showcases the band are their sharpest, despite their potentially cloudy state of mind. Layne died in 2002 after years of battling cocaine and heroin addiction.
While I'm in obituary mode, here's to Roger Ebert, one of the only critics who consistently got it right. He and his writing will be missed.
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| Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert |
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Current Red Sox and former Blue Jay manager John Farrell is back in Toronto for the first time since leaving the club during the offseason. He was welcomed by players who were excited to see his former skip but that more than you can say for the fans who serenaded him with boos right from the get-go at the lineup exchange overshadowing Josh Johnson's first start for the Blue Jays. It was a back and for match with the Red Sox rushing out to a 4-1 lead before the Blue Jays tied it up only to see the Sox tag on two more runs and their closer Jack Hanarhan sealing the 6-4 victory as Farrell got the last laugh. Game two, just finished, and since I was doing this blog during the game and was only looking up periodically I noticed that other than Jacoby Ellsbury's lead off double the Red Sox had absolute zip going on at the plate. Boston starter John Lackey left the game after a brutal looking pitching motion, where the hurler grabbed his bicep in obvious discomfort. Lackey missed all of 2012 because of Tommy John surgery and looked sharp other than the 2-run jack surrendered to J.P. Arencebia and it looks like he may miss some time (strained right bicep), which hurts the Red Sox since the have a tough April schedule with just 2 days off before the end of the month. The Jays shut out the Red Sox with a 5-0 one hitter. The teams play the rubber match tomorrow at the Rogers Centre with staff aces John Lester (1-0) and R.A. Dickey (0-1) locking horns.
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Norma Jean are funny. Here's a lyrics video to "their 6 second opus, 'Shark Bite'" Funny guys…
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