“The early sections of my DVD collection are gonna be hard to pick from. Hardly any of those are blogged. There were about half a dozen I wanted to watch, which I then narrowed down to 2. Johnny Mnemonic would have ended just before bedtime, and it’s one that I’ve only seen once and don’t remember at all. Dreamcatcher would run a few min late, but I was excited by the thought of seeing this cast again, who I didn’t really know back in ’03. Also Stephen King. Dreamcatcher wins.
Random Dawn trivia. I’m pretty sure this is the first movie I ever went to by myself, back in high school. Now it’s a pretty common occurence, but back in high school the parents had rules about where/when I could go places. I think I just went without giving them the details, and when asked later said I went alone, which was met with an apathetic response. In other words, solo movies were now on the table. Huzzah!
I’m pretty sure this was also among my first Stephen Kings, at least as far as reading the books. And yeah, I saw the movie first then picked up the book. If I wasn’t already a believer in “”going backwards”” and watching in that order, this one coulda done it. The movie starts off with some strong character work, but then it devolves into a Hollywood alien film. The book stays with the characters much more, and is just so classic King. Also, the chapter with Beaver and the shit weasel is kinda epic in it’s own \m/ up way. The gross out factor is on par with Chuck Palahniuk’s guts. Ew.
Like I said, what made me want to watch this film today was the cast. First off, the pre-Homeland Damian Lewis. For me, he’ll always be Jonesy. Even when Homeland started taking off and he was blowing up, my thought was always “”hey it’s Jonesy””. Also at the time I had yet to discover Kevin Smith, which means that I had yet to become acquainted with Jason Lee. Watching it now, I can’t get over his dialog. LOVE. IT. The Whedon-esque made up slang laced with Debra “”\m/”” Morgan levels of profanity. I want to be him when I grow up. And we’ve also got Thomas Jane and Timothy Olyphant, both of whom are just awesome. Oh yeah Morgan Freeman too, but even back in the day I had respect for the Freeman.
But the best one of all, Donnie Wahlberg as Dudditz. He is still one of my all time favorite characters, and I often find myself singing Scooby Doo in his voice to myself. He’s such a sweetie to begin with, just melts my heart. And then, without giving spoilers, he becomes such a major player in the story and is just incredible.
The other random thing this film has carried thru for me. The phrase SSDD. I often find myself wanting to reply to the friendly “”How’s it going”” type questions with that, but I fear no one will know what it means. And then I’ll sound like a dork explaining it. Although I suppose if I did respond that way and my fellow conversationist understood, I would know I found a kindred spirit. Eh, too much social effort.
Oh ew ew ew ew. While I may have watched this on the big screen a long time ago, I was in the back of the theater. I wasn’t just a couple feed away from an HD screen like I am now. The shit weasel looks DISGUSTING. Ew ew ew. I’m gonna have nightmares now. EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW”