crashed around 6AM this morning only to get up at quarter to 10 in order to hit the morning matinee of The Village. call me concerned knowing the "slo-burn" nature of the flick (thx,pAT) that i may doze off on so little sleep. twas not the case as i was completely riveted beginning to end. for a 2hr "slo-burn" it seemed more like only an hour passed. i'm not exactly sure why it was like this to me but i was moved by the overall viewing.

i found the flick enjoyable despite the not-so-new spin on a very old story/twist that had me rolling my eyes several times. it was the societal study that was most compelling and the acting was suberb, as expected from that cast... m.night's knack for framing and inducing tension from off camera continues. i think it was the characters that drew me in as opposed to the retread plot (the only downside) but at least the drama aspect made a potentially absurd tale we've already read or seen 10x over a decent big screen flick. i won't go into it any more to avoid any spoilers but i'm sure anyone w/a brain will realize the "twist" 5 minutes into it as i did. it's the process that makes it worthy viewing.

i believe there was even a Twilight Zone (or was an Outer Limits?) episode on the same subject. i was wondering how m.night would pull off his Hitchcockian appearance but he managed to slide it in which drew a chuckle from me. never mind the critics (ebert's off his meds again; he gave a big thumbs up to Little Black Book! gasp!) The Village is a worthy film that redeems m.night from that utterly dismal 3rd act of Signs.

Last night i went to see Beat Takeshi's Zatoichi w/kev who was wanting to see it almost as bad as me. yeah, i know, i have scheduled plans to see it this weekend w/Capt'n Satan & raydeen as well but i sorta had a feeling this would happen (seeing it before then). at least it's a flick i _want_ to see again. i'll leave it at that (but go see it if it's playing near you; it's entertaining as all hell).

today after The Village and picking up my Sunday carry-out from Amitabul i watched Enki Bilal's Immortel. damn, i want the DVD of this! it's a very odd feature that mixes CGI characters w/live actors. And the CGI characters are what you'd find in the latest PS2 game (it's almost like watching the cut scenes from a video game) so it's very bizarre but the story is intriguing (if not a bit convoluted) and Linda Hardy (a former Miss France) is quite the hottie in her white skin, blue tear kind of way as the character Jill. once i got over the silliness of the CGI characters the movie really turned on and got interesting. and the soundtrack is excellent.

started boxing up my toys from my display shelves tonight and forgot what an arduous pain in the ass this process is. caught the first hour of Gasper Noe's Irreversible while i was packing the toys... holy shit. now i know why Blockbuster didn't even consider stocking this flick. it's a difficult one to watch.

btw, i picked up my first CD (Sahara Hotnight's "Kiss & Tell") w/BMG's sunncomm anti-copy protection bullshit. if anyone knows a solution to this or can point me in the right direction i would be much appreciative. i'll be damned if i'm gonna install their app and digital keys which, IMO, works just like spyware. utter and complete bullshit.