In much the same way as a friend religiously watches any crap disaster movie that's shown over the weekend (though we haven't managed to see 2012 yet), I seem to be gravitating toward the selection of terrible Sci-Fi/Horror movies available on the Freeview channels.
Recently, I started watching one of the Friday 13th movies (running as part of a 3D weekend), but gave up because it was so deathly dull (no pun intended). Last night, I watched Species: The Awakening - a straight-to-video sequel featuring none of the original cast. Ben Cross tried to bring some weight to the proceedings, but the script sadly failed him. The guy who played Malcolm in Enterprise turned up sporting a terrible Australian accent. There was a European blonde actress in the lead role, spending the first half of the movie being all prim and proper, only to be overcome by her horny alien side after a 'life-saving' transplant of human stem cells from an unwilling human donor. Naturally, she came good in the end (again, no pun intended... well, maybe), having a massive bitch-fight with the far sexier, evil brunette hybrid.
Earlier today, I watched Black Sheep, a Kiwi comedy horror about genetically-engineered zombie sheep... and weresheep... It was actually laugh-out-loud funny a couple of times (I cannot adequately express how surprised I was to find myself laughing out loud at anything lately), and a reasonably competent horror movie overall. The special effects were probably more or less on a par with Brit-flick Dog Soldiers, and it just goes to show how sinister sheep really are.
Right now, I'm watching a movie called Heatstroke, in which it seems some aliens are trying to wreck our climate from Hawaii (you know, if I ever turn into an Evil Villain, I'd probably like to have my base of operations in Hawaii, too) but, critically, sowed the seeds of their own failure by accidentally letting slip their plans many years ago... via Television... inducing nightmares in many people throughout the world.
The aliens themselves are some of the worst CGI I've yet seen in any movie - frequently not even tracking properly with their backgrounds, and coming across as skinny a crossbreed of a Predator and a velociraptor, with caustic orange breath. One of the good guys appears to have been posessed by the aliens... Somehow...
Not sure I shouldn't give up on this crap and get an early-ish night... The one thing that's kept me watching so far is the appearance of Wayne Pygrim... last seen under heavy makeup as Scorpius in FarScape.
I popped over to my folks for lunch today, after my monthly trip to the Chiropractor, for lunch and a rummage around in the remaining boxes. My main aim was to try to dig up my SAM Coupé, but it seems to have been consigned to the loft (eeek). They've offered to go looking for it, and drop me a line when it turns up. I just hope it still works...
While I was over there, my mother filled me in on the latest from my sister and her family. The baby is doing very well, but the husband is depressed - in the medical sense, rather than just 'feeling a bit down'. It seems he was quite unprepared for the shift in domestic dynamic following the arrival of the baby and, coupled with work stress and other things, he's really feeling isolated. Not good. His father, meanwhile, is even less mobile these days, following a knee problem that left him with a dose of MRSA. Antibiotics have cleared it up, but he's still not fully back on his feet, and may never be.
Makes me all the more thankful for my continued good health.
In the afternoon, I popped over to Uxbridge to pick up a Secret Santa gift for the work Christmas Party this coming Friday. While there, I also picked up Black Sheep - as mentioned earlier in this very posting - along with the new Star Trek reboot and Terminator Salvation, both of which exceeded my expectations in the cinema.
Not quite sure what I shall do with tomorrow... More laundry at the very least... Hopefully also some sketching and/or writing.
Also worth mentioning that I went to a two-day course in Animation and Design in Adobe Flash during the week, at the London College of Communication. The course itself was not too bad - the software is easier than I expected, even the programming side (not that I expect to be doing anything too impressive). The tutor was a bit scattershot in his approach, and let himself be distracted by some of his students asking about things that would be covered later... and did not endear himself to his class by turning up just over an hour late on the first day because he got the dates wrong. Nevertheless, I learnt everything I need from Flash, and more...
The college, though... Sheesh. You could smell the pretension on some of the students.
Or maybe that was pot.
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