It actually took me a couple extra days to get to see Notorious, the cinematic life story of Christopher Wallace, The Notorious B.I.G.. My own fault, really – naively thinking that I could just slip into the theater, in
Instead, I bought a ticket for My Bloody Valentine 3D!
The ticket came with 3-D glasses. The movie was a blast. I knew that it was going to be, even before the opening sequence, because some of the other folks who couldn’t get a ticket for Notorious spilled into the theater with me. So when the disclaimer screen appeared which read, “Please put on your 3-D glasses now,” some guy in the row behind me shouted out, “PUT ON THE GLASSES, NIGGA!”
(If Rowdy Roddy Piper had said that to Keith David in They Live, that interminable alleyway fist-fight would’ve lasted twice as long.)
Point is, My Bloody Valentine is an audience participation movie and my audience was more than willing to participate.
Look, there are many other people of taste who can explain to you what’s so fun about this movie, and whether or not it beats other psycho-killer flicks. I say, you probably already know if you’re willing to go to see a movie like this or not. So I’m not even going to bother talking about what happens in the movie, or what the story or characters are like. I will tell you that I am hardly a fan of the slasher film genre, and yet I loved watching My Bloody Valentine. It has a couple surprises, a couple inventive ideas, somewhat better acting and character development than you expect, not as many crappy bits as you expect, a bunch of pretty girls, and a little person with a shotgun (or did I hallucinate that scene?).
As for the technology, it’s well worth a look. I’m sure it tripled the fun I had with the movie. After seeing how this mid-budget horror picture looks and works in 3-D, I feel like this technology has a lot of potential. Once I got accustomed to the wearing of the glasses and all the self-consciousness that implies, I was fascinated by every frame. I can only imagine what Spielberg or Mann or Boyle or Nolan or Del Toro or Raimi – holy cow, Raimi! – could do with 3-D cameras. In the meantime, see this movie in the theaters while you can – and take a date. Or at least, your funniest friend.
After the movie ended, I had more time left to kill so I made it a double-feature and went into The Unborn. I don’t have too much bad (or much great) to say about this one, except that it served as a good come-down from the My Bloody Valentine experience. A mostly quieter kind of horror movie, The Unborn is about a college girl who comes to believe that she is being haunted by the ghost of her unborn twin. The movie is a slow build, laced with several sights of varying creepiness. Eventually it becomes an exorcism story, but at least that angle is made somewhat unique with the introduction of Jewish mythology. I don’t think it ultimately pays off, since the resolution of the movie feels rushed, and don’t let the trailers fool you – Stringer Bell and (to a lesser extent) Gary Oldman get very little screen time proportionally. So, like I said – a good chaser after a screening of My Bloody Valentine, but that’s the most I should say for it.
Next post: I actually get to see Notorious.