Monday, June 29, 2009

The Great Outdoors


Ah camping, the great outdoor experience. The campfire, the lake, the homicidal maniac. What could be more fun then running for your life while a hockey mask wearing, machete wielding murderer chases you?

That's right campers! We are off to Camp Crystal Lake for drugs, alcohol, premarital sex and murder. The original Friday the 13th is so campy and gory, yet it works. It works so well that the franchise decided to do it over, and over, and over again.

The story is a simple one. If you are a bad teenager, you will be punished. If you are a good teenager, sure you will have to struggle,but you will come out alive. It's a tale as old as time. Bad people get what's coming to them and good people triumph. This is all done with big breasts, bad acting and Kevin Bacon.


So, you made it through a week at Camp Crystal Lake, outsmarted Jason and now you think you might need some R&R. How about hanging out with Bill Murray and the rest of the gang in the movie Meatballs. I remember seeing the movie poster for this and then seeing the movie and wondering why the girls in the poster looked NOTHING like the girls in the movie. Anyhoo, this is still a great film. Bill Murray plays Tripper, a camp counselor that helps an unpopular Rudy find his true self and triumph over his own fears. Sure it sounds sappy but the humor is very 12 year old and this is one of my favorite Bill Murray movies next to Stripes.

Okay, so feeling good about yourself and laughter is not your thing, how about doing a little investigation? Let's go investigate the Blair Witch! Let's go into the middle of the woods, get lost, find our friend's tooth, tell everyone how sorry we are while snot is running down our faces only to end up in the corner of an abandoned house . Oh yeah, this sounds like fun, send me back to camp at Crystal Lake! I do have to give props to this movie. It was very well done and somewhat a new concept. At the time I saw this, I was really disappointed, but the end scene kept playing over and over in my mind and I ended up scaring the hell out of myself.

So while you're getting your gear ready to head into the great outdoors, throw one of these gems into your DVD player and enjoy the possibilities that may await you at your next campsite. Wait, did you hear a sound...I think it came from over.....

3 comments:

KelseyP said...

I still can't think about the ending of Blair Witch without getting thoroughly creeped out. Too bad the whole first 3/4 of the movie was really, really slow moving.

beefranck said...

Meatballs is one of my all time favorite movies. :) Especially the "It just doesn't matter" speech.

Blair Witch creeped me out big time. I highly recommend watching it on dvd with the commentary. I found it really interesting because they went into detail about how they instructed the actors and what they used as props and sound effects. Very cool. Also, I'm a nerd. :)

Unknown said...

I agree-I really like the concept of The Blair Witch and the ideas behind it. I think the making of it is a lot more interesting then the actual movie. I think my imagination played a lot into me being freaked out.