You're acting like a bunch of rabid dogs.

That line was the first line of dialog in Underworld (voiceovers don't count.) The great thing is it comes about 15 minutes into the movie, and most of those 15 minutes are action scenes.

This movie overall is kind of silly. But I enjoyed myself. It's ultra-sylized and draws from some good Vampire and Wherewolf lore - which is really what it's about. My favorite is they sold the idea that the elders of each were much more powerful then the non-elders. This is a huge theme in the white wolf lore for these species and this movie obviously borrow heavily from that (so much so that White Wolf sued them...)

My real problem with it is Kate Beckinsdale, while being cute, isn't much of an action star. She looks out of place when she's running around shooting and for the most part doesn't sell it. It's hard for me to buy the hero standing still shooting at 6 guys with a pistol while they fire back with automatic rifles. Every now and then an actor can sell this with their incredible bad-assness, but Kate couldn't. Her style needed to be a bit more active - where she actually took an active role in all the bad guys missing her with the huge numbers of rounds they fired. And of course the inevitable end fight had a laughably bad conclusion. I wasn't the only one in the theater straight laughing out loud.

The weird thing is for a movie with this little dialog there's a lot going on in the story. Romeo and Juliet are just the base. There's this whole other theme of a class struggle (Vampires are the aristocrats, Wherewolves are the oppressed poor.) This actually jives with the storyline and adds to the movie. Of course it's a bit confusing and you have to pay attention to the jumbled and poorly presented flashbacks. But eventually it all becomes clear.

Lastly, I gotta give a shout out to the two hard core goth girls who sat in front of me. They were wearing some revealing clothing and had to suffer through getting hit on by the two guys that sat down next to them. The really unfortunate part was the guys were hitting on them DURING the movie. Seriously, at least you can save your bad pick up lines for a time when she'll not distracted by, well, you know, watching the movie she paid to see. Some guys...

Ray Liota: Hey, you got a name?
Amanda Peet (playing a hooker): Paris.
Ray: Paris huh, I've never been.
Amanda: Yeah, and you're not going tonight.

I haven't been watching too many movies lately. I'm not really sure why. I've been busy, and the weather had been nice, so I figure that's part of it. But it's more then that. I've sat down to watch a few movies and have just lost interest. But then yesterday the weather changed. It got all rainy and gloomy, so I decided to watch a movie that takes place in a big storm.

Identity is a horror movie. Now I normally don't like horror movies too much. They just tend to seem silly. But what I read of this one made it sound like it was way above average - and it was. It was smart, well made, and original in the way it did things. Granted, there were a couple of scenes of excess gore, but it was on par with most horror movies.

I also continue to enjoy watching West Wing episodes. It's so great to be able to watch the series from start to finish. This week they did a lot with Joey going to school. And they have her Secret Serice agent Gina going around with her. It's side characters like Gina that really give the show charm. The only trouble is they get swapped in and out incredibly quickly. It's just part of Aaron Sorkin's writing style. If he didn't move them out there would be even more characters and insanity to keep track of then there already are. I'm sad that Aaron left the show (he's my favorite writer for movies/tv) and I nervously awaiting the season premier in two weeks.

But I guess this means he'll go off an start a new project. Which I'm sure I'll really enjoy.

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