Boo.

I had every intention of watching the two scary movies I'd gotten via Netflix BEFORE the 31st. This of course means that, as with everything else in my life right now, I fell behind and just watched them last night. First was The Human Centipede. I'd been reading about this movie in one of my British mags. It's a riff on the mad scientist who wants to create a monster. In this case, a mad Nazi-esque scientist who wants to make a centipede using 3 people. The gory draw is that the people are sewn to each other via their mouth and well...the behind of the person in front of them. I told you it was gory. The guy who plays the surgeon is darn creepy and I give props to the actors who spent the last third of the movie on hands and knees in a position that had to be interesting at the least. Otherwise, the movie was just sort of run of the mill. I was too busy trying to figure out how certain things were done and trying to work my way through the issues I had with the plot to really get scared. The director made the ending really dark so I guess it was more depressing than scary.

Next up was Trick 'r Treat. It came out in 2008 and was directed by the guy who wrote X-Men 2. Bryan Singer produced and there is even more X-Men connectedness with Bryan Cox and Anna Paquin appearing in the film. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It nice some really nice creepy moments. There is plenty of dark humor and some great ironic touches. The little "kid" with the sack over his head walking around in the orange footie pajamas was a nice touch. There are multiple stories that sort of loosely connect. The movie plays off of some classic Halloween motifs, but brings in some fresh blood as it were. It's a short film, only about 1:20 in length, which is perfect. Next year, plan on checking this one out...or be a rebel and watch it over Thanksgiving!

In theaters, Due Date came out this weekend. Directed by Todd Phillips (The Hangover), it stars the fab-I-want-to-have-your-child Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. Zach and Robert made a great pair. Zach as a weird, man-child sort of guy and Robert as an uptight, somewhat angry man. They don't meet under the best circumstances. Zach gets Robert tossed off a plane and put on a no fly list. Because Robert has lost his ID, he can't rent a car so he ends up having to ride with Zach across country. Robert needs to get back to L.A. in time for the birth of his first child.

While there are funny moments in this buddy/road flick, there just didn't seem to be enough of them. I will say seeing Juliet Lewis as a "pharmacist" (she sells medicinal pot out of her kitchen) was very funny. Also a high light are the bizarre conversations Robert and Zach have. Hearing Zach's character claim that the Hoover Dam was built by the pilgrims was pretty flippin' funny. I enjoyed the emotional and serious moments more. I was impressed with Zach's range and the monologue where Robert describes a traumatic childhood event was really touching. Overall the script felt sort of unfinished, almost like they were rushing it out to keep us occupied while waiting for The Hangover 2 to come out. Still, it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Hopefully this week I will get to Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds. I've read a lot about it and I'm curious to see how the director handles keeping the character and the audience in one very small space for the length of the film.

Then it's Harry Potter and the renewal of my moderately inappropriate crush on Daniel Radcliffe!