What can I say about this movie.

Well, I only watched it because Kiefer Sutherland was the star, and he's a pretty decent actor. So, I figured, why not give it a try.

Happily, it did not dissapoint.

First: the Bad. Thinking. Thinking. Okay...here's one - the movie is a typical cliche story of demonic possession. Well, the overall premise is, at least. I suppose it uses a few tropes, like demons vs. mirrors, and mirrors as an alternate reality (pretty sure there's a trope for that).

Okay - that's really about it for the bad. Oh! Oh! Over the top acting, in a few places. I forgot about that, because the movie was overall so damn enjoyable.

So, the good. First, I'm gonna start with the end. The ending was absolutely brilliant. I mean the very very end, though, not the climactic-ending. Sort of like in Men In Black, the very end, when K opens the door, and it turns out the whole world is in a locker of some alien world. 'Course, I'm just using that to compare. I'm hardly gonna go and give the ending away.

What else. Let's see - it was a nice take on a possession story. Very non-religious. no priest came in to save the day. No holy water got rid of the evil. No praying happened...well...at all, actually. Very nice to see. The ambiance was perfect. Creepy, without being absurd. Real, without lacking in imagination. The "shock" scenes, were not lame teen-slasher style "shock" scenes, which I must say made me really happy.

This was a movie that set out to creep you out, not outright scare you. It set out to make you think "what if", and did so superbly. It avoided the "boo from behind" trope, thank goodness. There of course were a very few scenes which came *very* close to being that typical teen-slasher flic type of "shock" scene, but they added flavour, depth, and a general feeling of creepiness, as opposed to being literally all the "fright" you might find in the film.

So, I can of course do nothing short of recommend this with two thumbs up, 5 stars, whatever fancy rating system you want to use. A great film to watch alone, or with a few friends, with the lights down low on a stormy evening. Not a party film though. Basically, the best thing I can say about this movie, is that it's worth buying. I can't say it's a "watch 5 times a year" good film, but it does have replayability, because as I said, the creepiness of the film is not in a few lame shock scenes. Which is to say, that you won't lose all "scare" value simply because after seeing it once, you know when the dark guy in the mask is about to jump out and go "rawr".

I'm very pleased that I chose to watch this. I'm very glad that Mr. Sutherland did not dissapoint.

After my Bulova watch battery died yesterday, leaving me feeling naked until I'm able to go buy a new one (battery, that is), I decided that it might be time to get a new watch altogether. The Bulova was a nice purchase...a decade ago. But it is rather garish, being completely gold in colour. And the gold plating has rubbed off in many places, leaving it rather tawdry looking.

I am kind of picky about watches. I don't like cheap junk, for one. I also wanted to try and find something a bit more tasteful this time around. And I did, at least, I think so.

An "Akribos XXIV" - though, just a generic pic, not a real pic of mine, since it'll be an unknown number of weeks before I actually get it (especially given how bad the mail is here).

That beauty retails for about $950.00

I paid about $110.00

I love auctions. I really really do. I also kinda wish I had the capital to try and make some money off buying and reselling auctioned merchandise. But I don't. Oh well.

(**note: I bought a brand new one, not a used one. Pretty much everything from the auction site is remaindered and close-out merchandise)

Off note - got acupuncture today at physio. It was not like I'd expected. I couldn't feel the needles going in at all, and though I felt a very little bit of muscle reaction from the first 2 stabs, the third gave a very strange "electrical" feeling deep in the muscle. Not painful, not even a bit. Rather, like a decently strong electric charge was suffusing the muscle deep down, which felt somewhat good. I wish Tens machines felt like that - they'd be worth using if they penetrated that deep in the muscle, instead of just being a surface electrical "zap" most of the time.

So, I was browsing in London Drugs a few days back, and saw a nice quality Blue Ray DVD player, the Sony BDP-S350. I decided today that I should really upgrade sooner rather than later, and stop wasting my money on normal DVD's, when I know full well I'm just going to want to upgrade later to HD.

So I bought it. Retail was $299.00, I got the guy to give it to me for $199.00. Haven't hooked it up yet, though I did buy a couple Blue Ray DVD's to go with it. Of course, I only have a 480p LCD TV, so I'm not going to really benefit from the astounding quality of 1080p resolution. A TV upgrade is likely to cost at least $700.00 - $900.00, so it is going to have to wait. Though it certainly is on my list.

The movies: Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem and Enchanted, neither of which I own, and neither of which I've seen. Was going to grab Batman: The Dark Knight, but they didn't have it in stock. Maybe I'll pick it up Sunday after work.

On an off note, 1 - watch this video, and 2 - what the bloody hell is with Amazon.ca? It blows. It doesn't have half of the things I've tried to look up on it, whereas Amazon.com always seems to. Furthermore, Amazon.com sells mp3 singles, and Amazon.ca apparently does not. I can't even make a legit music mp3 purchase without going iTunes, which is never going to happen (Amazon.com asks for your address to sell mp3's, and won't sell them to non-American addresses). Highly unimpressive.

  It's just not right. I mean, it was bad enough the other day when they said 2cm, and we got at least double that. But this...this is patently absurd. It's like being back in Edmonton.

So. Much. Snow.

Look at this! It's everywhere! Mountains of the evil white crap!

Okay, so having lived in Edmonton for 15 years, this is really nothing in comparison. But I didn't move here for more of the same-old, same-old. I moved to Vancouver for *nice* weather.

So, here's the two centimeters of snow the radio predicted.

I think maybe they confused metric with imperial. Or perhaps I'm just being overly generous?

Then there is the view of the wonderful weather down my street.

Doesn't it just make you want to break out in song, and dance the night away?  

And last but not least, evidence that the government aliens simply *must* be controlling our weather:

The picture doesn't show it entirely well, but it's snowing like crazy, while the sky above me was quite clear and blue. Because that's perfectly normal.

p.s. - Watch the Jakarta - One Desire music video on YouTube. It's quite amusing.