Top 20 Horror Movies since 1989

Entertainment Weekly just did one of their slideshows listing their top 20 horro movies of the past 20 years. I agree with some of their picks, disagree with others. HEre’s my take.

First off, without commenting on their position on the list, here are the movies that I agree are deserving to be listed:

• Dead/Alive: Gory, funny, and even more gory.
• The Descent: THis movie really creeped me out… and it has a great “Boo” moment.
• Misery: Not really a horror movie, but it was quite horrifying. Get that sledge hammer away form me.
• Planet Terror: Cool movie. Love the attitude…
• The Sixth Sense: I was lucky enough to be in Korea when this came out so the twist wasn’t spoiled.
• Scream: Rejuvenated the slasher genre; deserves to be here.
• The Blair Witch Project: It has its haters, but I found it be quite scary.
• The Silence of the Lambs: No doubt…
• Audition: Fuck yea…

The following movies I saw but disagree with their inclusion:

• Darkman: Saw it once; didn’t impress me.
• Event Horizon: Had some creepy moments but a pretty lame movie all-together.
• SHaun of the Dead: A good movie, but seemed more like a comedy than a horror movie.
• From Hell: I have vague memories of seeing this. It was OK.
• Ring: I saw the Korean version. So-so…
• Alien 3: Not sure why this is here. The worst ALien movie…
• Drag me to Hell: Again, not sure why this qualifies as one of the best. Good movie, but…
• What Lies Beneath: I vaguely remember seeing this movie and liking it. But top 20?
• 28 Weeks Later: I liked the first one more.

The following two movies I have not seen so can’t comment:

• The Kingdom: THe Euopean one.
• Hostel: 2: Saw the first one… it was OK.

SO, I have 9 movies I agree with and 11 that I either disagree with or can’t comment on. What 11 movies would I add to complete my own top 20 list? Here goes:

• The Others: This movie provided some great scares. Loved it.
• Quarantine: Non-stop suspense… great use of the hand-held shaky-cam.
• House of a 1,000 Corpses: Rob Zombie did a better 70′s horro film than many directors in the 70′s. Great film…
• Ichi the Killer: The Japanese make good horro movies.
• Dawn of the Dead (remake): I had concerns about remaking such a classic but Zack Snyder did a really good job. He helped breathe some new life into the zombie genre.
• Cloverfield: Some might bicker with my classification of this movie as a horror movie, but I think it qualifies.
• Cabin Fever: Nothing says horror like flesh-eating bacteria.
• Slither: Sort of like Dead/Alive for a new generation. Both funny and gory.
• 28 Days Later: BTW, it’s not a zombie movie. But it’s still a good  horror movie.
• For the last two spots, I’m not quite sure. As for now, I think I’ll list Saw and The Ruins, both of which were very good.

Agree? Disagree? LEave a comment…

Final Grades

My final grades for grad school are in: an A in LEadership in Education2 and an A in LEadership and Governance in Post-secondary Education.

I finished grad school with a 3.87 GPA, which is pretty damn good, I think. If I remember correctly, I got 9 A’s, 4 A-’s, and 2 B+’s.

STanding O

EVery now and then I’ll watch some Fox news just to get an idea of what things are like on planet Red STate. I find myself watching with the same sort of curiosity I might have were I to watch a documentary on lost Borneo tribes Amazonion cannibals… freaky stuffy.

SO yesterday, they ran a new expose on why the press corps were standing up when Obama entered the room but not when Bush did the same. To demonstrate this, they cherry picked 3 clips from the Bush era and one clip from the Obama days… clearly irrefutable proof.

I don’t really care if this is true or not, I just found it interesting that with the country in such a mess that Fox NEws would devote 2 minutes of air time to discuss such a minor and trivial issue, as if all the people out there losing their jobs can’t sleep at night because the press is excessively obseqious to Obama. The damn liberal press!

But obviously, Fox NEws knows their audience and this is just the sort of story that they would eat up. For these folks, it’s much more relevant and important than, say, Obama’s efforts to shore up the economy or his progress on the diplomatic front. They would rather hear about crackpot liberal conspiracies than anything of any substance.

The argument against cultural relativism

I would argue that the culture that doesn’t believe firearms are an acceptable accouterment at weddings is superior to one where grooms get their head blown off in front of the bride (link is NSFW) because of AK-47 wielding members of the wedding party.

But that’s just me…

Grades are in…

It’s a little bit late, but what the hell…

For the fall quarter last year, I took a class on disabilities and special education and a class on tests and measurements. I got an A- in both.

I’m near the end of the winter quarter and should have my grades by the end of the month… next quarter is my final one.

End of an error…

From today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Today marks the end of a long personal and national nightmare: the last few hours of the George W. Bush administration.

I remember back in 2000 when I was gearing up for the election by reading about Gore and Bush. What I read about Bush scared me and I just knew that he would be a disaster for the country. I knew then what most everyone seems to know now, that Bush lacks the intellect, judgment, temperment, and political skills to be president.  That information was out there and open for everyone to see… it didn’t require visiting obscure websites or swimming through newspaper archives. 

So I told everyone I could to vote for Gore that year, and to some extent, it worked, as Gore got more votes than Bush did.  Unfortunately, in our broken system, getting more votes isn’t good enough, and through hardball politics and a bit of policial larceny, Bush’s cronies managed to steal the election for him.

Fast forward to 2004. People like me were very unhappy with the president’s performance and at the same time wanted a bit of revenge for the 2000 election theft.  So on my blog I devoted a great deal of attention to the numerous shortcomings and failure of President Bush in hopes that I could play a role in convincing people to do the right thing and not support Bush this time. Alas, for all my patriotic effort, I was lambasted and abused by commentators (all of whom have mysteriously disappeared since… I wonder if they are still defending this president at other blogs) here. But despite our collective fervor, Bush won with a bit of help from trumped up terror alerts and some funny vote counting out of Ohio.  People like me were completely crushed; how could such a poor president get re-elected?

Now, it’s January 2008 and Bush has his bags packed by the door. He’s going out the door as one of our least-liked presidents in modern history. As a memento, he’s leaving us with a shattered economy, two failing wars, an internaitonal reputation in shambles, and record deficits. Thanks, George!

SO as companies close down and people lose their jobs and AMerican soldiers die overseas, I often wonder how people could have been so blind to the obvious warning signs. It’s not like he’s been a stellar president fro most of the time and things just unraveled at the end. He was bad from the get-go, yet he was able to get enough votes in 2004 to continue his mis-rule. How is this possible?

So I sit here, fully vindicated. I was right about this president and those who voted for him were wrong. I put my country first and voted wisely, Bush voters were simply too lazy, partisan, ignorant, or uncaring to do anything other than what they did.  And frankly, given their lack of concern over Bush’s incompetence, I think they need to spend the next 8 years of President Obama with their mouths shut while the adults try to run the country. You had a chance to hold our elected eladers accountable and blew it.

I hope the history books crush this president and I hope the people who enabled him in the voting booth think long and hard abotu how they make their voting decisions. Either vote smart or don’t vote at all. No more of this “I voted for the guy I want to have a beer with bullshit.”

Bush is the worst president we have ever had. That’s a fact. Through his policies, he has damaged our economy, wasted AMerican lives, inspired terrorists around the globe, and provoked a strong, worldwide, anti-American backlash that will only make it more difficult for Obama to work with other countries.

Bye Dubya aka Halfwit Hotspur aka Chimpy. I will not miss your smirk, your arrogance, your idiocy, or your constant butchering of the English language. And I do hope you are brought up on charges in an international court for all of the lives and families you have ruined. You deserve it…

Legacy

From today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Lame “duck!”

You know, it’s easy to get all snarky about the Iraqi guy throwing his shoes at Bush during a press conference. But my immediate response is far more somber.

Just think about it. THe current American president, the “leader” of the free world, is so unpopular globally that foreign nationals are throwing shoes at him. I repeat… so unpopular that foreign nationals are throwing shoes at him. What does that say about how the world views us? Say what you want about CLinton’s shortcomings, but at least people around the world didn’t rtreat him like a carnival game.

Frankly, I was happy to see such a visceral response. I long ago grew sick and tired of seeing that clown treated with respect and defference that he didn’t deserve.