I was sorry to to hear the news that Alex Chilton, frontman for the band Big Star passed away. While they were never super huge, Chilton and Big Star influenced a generation of bands including R.E.M., Wilco, and The Replacements. I got into them after hearing Elliott Smith's cover of the song "13," featured in the video above being performed by Chilton and Big Star. He will definitely be missed, but the music will definitely live on.

I remember coming back to school from Spring Break in 1999 and everyone was buzzing about The Matrix, myself included. I had already seen it twice in the span of a week and couldn't wait to tell my friends in the dorm what I had discovered and ask them if they had seen it yet. Most of the guys already had, but some hadn't so we all went to see it the night before classes started back up. When we left the theater Phil was surprisingly quiet and when I asked him if he liked the movie, he replied that he didn't really like it as it was pretty much a ripoff of Dark City. Having not seen that movie and having just seen for the third time what I at the time thought was the greatest movie EVER, I proceeded to argue about how insane and wrong he was. Upon finally watching Dark City, I kind of saw his point. After watching the Director's Cut Blu-Ray this weekend, I regret ever saying how insane he was.

Now let me just say that I still enjoy the hell out of the action sequences in The Matrix. But for me, at the time it was released, it was the story that really captivated me. The story that I thought was so new, so original. The virtual worlds, the chosen one, all that stuff. Stuff that had all been done before in Dark City, revealed even more so in the Director's Cut, which delves even deeper into the idea of the artificial world created by aliens (machines) and the man (The One), John Murdoch, who manages to break free and bring it down. Mr. Hand (Agent Smith) attempts to track down Murdoch (addressing him as "Mr. Murdoch" more times than I can count) as Dr. Schreber helps Murodoch unleash his full potential. Seriously. I could go on and on about the similarities, but I don't want to spoil what is a very incredible movie that everyone should watch if they haven't yet. It's definitely worth a look.

We all have those movies that we're drawn to on cable when they are on, but back in the day there was another category of movies, movies that still haunt those of us of a certain generation and they are different for everyone. I'm talking about movies that were taped from TV and then watched ad nauseam. Kids these days have it lucky. We live in a world of dirt cheap DVDs, Tivo, multiple movie channels, Netflix, Instant Watch, it goes on and on. When I was a kid, there were many fewer options. There were a couple movie channels on cable that my family couldn't afford and then there was Blockbuster (or Wherehouse, or the mom and pop video store), which was pretty much a weekend only thing for us. For most of my youth, actually owning a video was pretty out of the question. VHS movies were not priced to own in their early days. I got a copy of Ghostbusters for my birthday and it cost like $75. It wasn't until Blockbuster started selling previously viewed movies and the studios started selling movies for cheaper (but still pretty pricey compared to today's cheap prices) that we actually had anything resembling a home movie library.

So where did that leave us? Well, the pay TV channels were pretty clever and they would offer free preview weeks and weekends every few months. During this time any movie fan worth their salt would stock up on blank VHS tapes and tape pretty much anything remotely watchable that came on. We would then end up with a random assortment of movies that quickly became treasures to us, even though most others wouldn't consider them so. These tapes would be pulled out on rainy days, sick days, late nights, slumber parties, long summer days, you get the picture. The movies became legend. Here are my top titles from VHS days of yore:

Troop Beverly Hills: The big one for me, my brother and I taped this off HBO and watched it so many times we could quote every Velda Plendor line. It also fueled my giant crushes for Jenny Lewis and Carla Gugino. In addition to Lewis, this movie featured Harriet from Small Wonder, Margot from Punky Brewster, and Nikki from Good Morning Miss Bliss. It was 80's sitcom supporting girl heaven!

If Looks Could Kill: In my 12 year old mind, Richard Greico was an awesome action star. I watched this recently on Netflix Instant Watch and it totally holds up. Also, I noticed that Roger freaking Daltry is in the movie. Crazy.

Toy Soldiers: It's basically Die Hard in a boarding school, and it's awesome. You can watch it for free on Hulu, and yeah, it totally holds up. An epic teaming up of Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, and Keith Coogan to kick Nikolai from Lost's ass. Can you tell I love this movie?

Shipwrecked: Taped off the Disney Channel back when it cost money. I actually saw this in the theater and nearly died with excitement when they premiered it during one of the Disney Channel free preview weekends. Gabriel Byrne is a fantastic villain. I just loved the idea of being stranded on an island, especially after reading The Cay and Island of the Blue Dolphins in school and it also has elements of Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson. A great adventure movie!

Adventures in Babysitting: One of our lower quality recordings as I think we grabbed it off of KTLA so it had commercials. This is the only one on the list others would probably consider a "classic." When younger folk ask what the big deal is with Elizabeth Shue, I just point them to this movie. Someone later pointed out to me all the racial stereotypes present in the film, but it still doesn't ruin it for me. Vincent D'Onofrio as Dawson/Thor is pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to post yours in the comments!

My two favorite Corey Haim movies are probably Lucas and Dream a Little Dream. I know folks frequently cite The Lost Boys, which I enjoy, but I think Haim showed something in those other two films that we really didn't get to see often. It's a shame he's gone.

When it got so dark I couldn't see anything and I was starting to feel better, I went to the movies and saw Shutter Island, which I thought was really great. I thought it looked fantastic and the performances really made it wonderful. On a side note, I was a little perturbed when two couples walked in the empty theater and sat in the same row as me. They had the whole theater and they chose the row I was in. I don't know what the deal was with that.

I drove home thinking there was no way they would keep the power off through the night but I was wrong. Luckily my iPhone still had a little juice left so my alarm went off this morning as I woke up to more darkness and another cold shower. Worst sick day ever.

I finished Deadwood. As much as I prepared myself, knowing it didn't get a proper end, it was still a giant bummer when it was over. Amazing show though. I'm also working my way through Heavy Rain on PS3, which is incredible. I'm resisting the temptation to go back and fix what I think were mistakes. I'm just going to play all the way through on this story and then go back. It's tough though. I haven't killed any of my characters yet, at least.

What else...

We are making some progress on the Brax book as we will be publishing our 100th strip on Friday. If it wasn't for Phil's determination I'm pretty sure we would have missed 100 deadlines by now. Instead we have missed none. The book should be ready in time for Comic-Con and we will have our first copies for sale at DWEX. Of course it will also be available online since we are going to publish it through Lulu.

Enough shameless plugging. Holy crap, LOST. Am I right?

Let me just preface this by saying that I saw an early cut of the film several months ago so there have likely been changes made since then. I might revise this post based on those changes, I might not. That being said, I enjoyed this movie a lot. Yes, yes, I am a huge Kevin Smith fan but I can honestly say from an objective standpoint, as much as I possibly can do so, that I enjoy this flick and I think many folks who might not normally enjoy Kevin's films, as well as those who do, will enjoy this movie.

I think a lot of critics who have been harsh with the film misunderstood a couple things about the movie. First, a simple IMDB search, in addition to reading any of the press attached to the movie, or, well, not living under a rock will reveal the fact that Kevin Smith did not write this film. It is NOT a "Kevin Smith film" or a View Askew film. I'm thinking some folks were expecting that. Some were expecting his regular cast of characters and his regular humor. Seeing as how he had nothing to do with the writing of the script, none of that is there. Jason Lee is in the movie though and he is pretty awesome in his brief role.

Second, I think some folks missed what this film was trying to do. I would call it a homage to the 80's buddy cop film. It's not trying to be a gritty action movie. It's not trying to be an all-out comedy. It hearkens back to the times of Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours and films like that. Perhaps some people don't remember those movies. I don't know. Cop Out takes that formula and modernizes it a bit.

The cast for me is what really made this movie great. I enjoyed Tracy Morgan the most. I think he actually dialed it down a bit from his Tracy Jordan character on 30 Rock and I think that's what makes this movie really work. He and Bruce Willis do a great job together. Bruce Willis is Bruce Willis. Another star that really shined for me was Guillermo Diaz, who plays the villain. His character in Cop Out is a tad more intense than his character in Weeds and just as enthralling.

The bottom line with Cop Out is if you're looking for an enjoyable action comedy and can appreciate what the folks who made it are trying to do, I think you'll enjoy it. For a Kevin Smith project it is a pretty "soft" R so if that's holding you back, I really wouldn't let it. I am hoping the film does well to give Kevin some momentum for his next project, Hit Somebody, which really looks promising.