Deborah Woehr

The best part about this film was the scene where a wife pours hot bacon grease over her husband’s head for bitching at her about a late/burned breakfast. She finished him off with a good whack of her pan. I actually hooted and clapped inside the movie theater over that one.

As for the rest of The Grudge 2, it was almost identical to the first. If you haven’t seen the first movie, the second will fill you in about how the ghost came to be and why she’s out to kill. Rent the first if you want to get to know the character of Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and why she is in the hospital in the beginning of Grudge 2.

After the movie was over, I was talking to my mother-in-law (who went with me) about how they could have expanded on the Japanese rituals for exorcism. That would have added some depth to this film. There were some other things that bugged us about the movie, but I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who want to go see it.

If I had to do it all over again, I’d think twice before paying the movie theater price and wait for it to come out on video. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it was the typical “more of the same” sequel.

Can you believe we’re going to be celebrating another Halloween? Other than taking the kids trick-or-treating, we generally don’t do anything but pass out candy to the rest of the kids. Last year, we broke our couch potato tradition by going to a party. I’m not sure what we’re going to do this year.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Halloween than watching scary movies. Here is a list of my top 5 faves.

1. The Grudge: This is the first movie that creeped me out as an adult. I’m looking forward to watching the sequel, which comes out on my youngest son’s birthday (Friday the 13th!).
2. The Shining: Not the wimpy remake, but the Stanley Kubrick classic. Heerre’s Johnny!
3. The Thing: I’ve never seen the original movie, but loved the remake with Kurt Russel and Wilford Brimley. Watching the Quaker Oatmeal guy (Brimley) have a nervous breakdown added volumes to the tension.
4. Prince of Darkness: This movie scared my husband because he believes in the Anti-Christ.
5. What Lies Beneath: This was one of the best psychological thriller/ghost stories I’ve seen in quite a while.

What are your favorites?

The hubby dragged this old movie out, which he had recorded on a cheap VHS shortly after we got married. I’m surprised the tape was still good, but it won’t be for long.

This movie is about a nuclear war, which was started by extremists. The villian isn’t the extremists, but a corrupt politician who is set on “winning the war” against the Ruskies. Although the movie is dated, I still enjoy it because it reminds me of the era I grew up in.

This is an old movie (1995) and one of my favorites. I love black comedies. The sicker it is, the better. My favorite scene is when the family is clustered around the table and babbling when Tommy (the only son) accidentally flings Mom’s turkey onto his little sister, Joanne. A big drama scene unfolds, where she narcs to Dear Old Dad about Tommy’s gay wedding. If you haven’t seen the movie, rent it. It’s hysterical.

Speaking of which, we had our own moments on Turkey Day. My three year-old nephews are obsessed with the train platform my father-in-law had built. Trying to keep them at the table was a lost cause. All of us (except for their dad) laughed as they brawled over the trains.

The real clincher was the walking, rotting corpse my mother-in-law calls Dutchess. The poor dog is 13 years old and reeks from an oozing infection, caused by rotting teeth. For reasons of her own, my mother-in-law refuses to give the dog any antibiotics or have the teeth pulled. The smell is so bad that it makes you want to throw up.

At any rate, I was very upset when she brought the dog over on Thursday because I can’t eat with that dog underfoot. She told me that the dog had suffered diarrhea the day before, and had crapped around her dining room table on a revenge kick. So that’s why she had brought her over.

Great, I thought. Now she can ruin our dinner and our brand new carpets. Wonderful! When four hours turned into seven, I begged my husband to talk to his mom, but he told me that the drama wasn’t worth it. The dog didn’t ruin our carpets, and we managed to keep her outside when we ate.

My mother-in-law has always been very close to her pets. Since my father-in-law died, they’re inseparable. She brought the dog over again the next day, along with a live Christmas wreath. Just keeping tradition, she said. The real reason she came over was because she’s having a hard time dealing with the fact that my father-in-law is no longer with us. The second year is always the hardest.

I sat across the room and breathed through my mouth while I listened. Having lost a younger brother, I know that talking things out helps. The vent didn’t last long, and I think she felt a little better when she left.

After she left, I got out the Fabreeze and sprayed it around, vacillating between selfishness and compassion. The smell left almost immediately. I think I’m going to look for a Christmas scent version because that damned dog will be over for the next holiday.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law and I decided to brave the Christmas Crunch and go out for a movie. She likes comedy and chick flicks, so we went to see Just Friends.

The movie was about this successful hotshot (Chris) who liked to womanize because he felt he’d been jilted by a girl he’d had a crush on in high school. Soon after the movie starts, we flash back to 1995, where he’s practically jacking off over the girl’s picture as he writes a confessional to her about wanting to be her boyfriend.

Flashing a bit forward, he is in her room, where she is practically falling all over him while a raging party is going on downstairs. Chris tries to tell her his feelings, but gets interrupted by the town jock and another dweeb named Dusty. Disaster strikes when the jock accidentally takes Chris’s yearbook instead of his own. I think everyone can imagine how that went.

Ten years later, he is still pining for that cheerleader and treating other women like shit. His record producer boss forces him to wow a blond psycho bimbo (Samantha James) so she’ll sign a record deal with their company. She decides to microwave her dinner with the foil on and succeeds in stranding them near his home town in New Jersey.

From there, the movie gets funny. Chris finds his sweetheart working at a bar and starts falling all over himself trying to impress her. The townsfolk won’t let up on him about his “fat” years, and he continually makes a fool of himself. When Dusty (see above) enters the picture, things really start going wrong for Chris.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It had some good messages about love and self-respect. The only thing I didn’t like was the make-up job on Chris. They made his face too fat in proportion to the rest of his body. The poor guy looked like he was suffering from a wisdom tooth extraction more than extra pounds. In the present time, they put too much eyeliner on, giving him somewhat of a cross-dresser look.

The previews looked decent, so I went. What surprised me was that the actress (Maggie Grace) who plays Shannon on Lost has a star role in this film as Elizabeth.

I won’t delve into the plot too much, as it is a very typical ghost story with equally typical horror elements and expendable characters. I will say that Elizabeth is the most intelligent and believable character in the movie. She is the one who unravels the mystery while the others either race around in hysteria, get killed in gruesome fashions, or are “just there.”

The cinematography was very good. I liked how the ghosts looked and moved. In other films (ex. Gothica), the ghost’s movements were choppy. I also liked how they made the fog a living entity, able to seep through the cracks and get the characters. But I didn’t care for the growling.

Fog is silent. Had the special effects people allowed the fog to be quiet, I think it would have kept the people unaware and added more to the terror. As a whole, The Fog is a decent B movie. What made it interesting was the backstory and Elizabeth’s part in it.