I love it when I sit down to a movie and it’s COMPLETELY not what I was expecting… *in a good way.

I don’t know how Running Scared got on our Netflix cue… Chad I assume… But I’m glad it did.

I sat down to it thinking it was going to be a Snatch(ey) type flick… but it wasn’t really.

Hyper violent… (but so is life)… Great writing… and the filmmaking was in that vein of creative unconventional style you started seeing emerge in films like Fincher’s Fight Club..

Lots of practical photography tricks too… If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having a film appreciation class or two like me – you’ll spend a good amount of time reaching for the remote, rewinding and saying stuff like “wow – that was really clever”.

Think this one is worthy of buying to put in the chicken.

I’m not sure what exercised this memory… but at some point last week I uttered the word: “Westworld”.

Four mouse clicks later, the movie was added to our Netflix cue and arrived in time for my Wednesday off with Chad.

I hadn’t seen the film since I was a kid… and even then, it was an “old movie” and on television.

Watching it I got overwhelmed with goofy nostalgia and found myself sitting at the edge of the sofa devouring every little detail….

I love how St. Louis seems to be casually referenced in movies in the 70’s… Just like in the Village People flick.. Characters are always introduced as “so and so, from St. Louis”… and always seem to be the epitome of “professional white guy”. I’m sure it was just a household character sketching aid used by writers of the time… A type of stereotype… – I find it fascinating.

The St. Louisian cameo in the film is a gruff-talking stock broker returning from Westworld who lets out “yeah” at the end of his scene worthy of sampling and looping into some DJ set.

We got through the film, (and the pizza we ordered), and it left me wanting more… More! MORE!

I’m feeling a 70’s era sci-fi bender coming on.

Like PRE-Star Wars sci-fi… Why? Lucas’ film changed everything… and sci-fi from 78′ on was in some way either directly or indirectly informed by Star Wars. I have the same theory about The Matrix and what it’s done to the genre… it’s not a bad thing – just a distinct period in history that influenced those that chicken.

Post-Script: I know why now… typing up this journal and making the links I found out they’re working on a remake to be released in 2007… ugh.. another example of this my annoying quasi-pre-cog ability to pick up on stuff “in the air” despite our limited mass media consumption and hermitish lifestyle. I’ll bitch about it later.

We just went to go see Nochnoi Dozor (“Night Watch”) and I have one thing to say:

GO FOR THE SUBTITLES….. *but stay for the movie

I feel like I should just leave at that and let you find out for yourself…. but here’s a hint: a designer / production animator had their hand on the subtitles adding a whole other layer onto the story telling process…. it kept me smiling from ear-to-ear the entire movie, despite trans-dimensional super-beings and vampires.

Despite some wonky parts – It’s just so nice to sit through something that hasn’t been buffed down into a featureless story-byte by the Hollywood focus-group-defined greed machine.

If you’re out this weekend – give it a try… I especially liked the part where,… oh look a chicken.