Who'll Stop the Rain?
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Sipowicz
I don't really feel like writing much tonight. I'm taking it easy, and there has been thunder and lightning outside all night. I fear 2005 will never produce a day of decent weather. I had a bunch of chores to take care of after work, but from 7pm on, I didn't do jack tonight except lay down and watch TV. I caught Jean-Claude Van Damme's new film--I bet you didn't even know he was still making movies, did you? It's called WAKE OF DEATH and was released directly to DVD the last week of 2004. And, like his previous film, IN HELL, Van Damme is very good in it, actually stretching his acting muscles and doing very little martial arts. WAKE is a straightforward revenge flick as J-C hunts down the Chinese mobsters who killed his wife. It's grossly overdirected by a French distributor who apparently thought he can make films that were better than the ones he was selling. WAKE is obviously directed by a neophyte who can't wait to experiment with all the neato camera and editing tricks he's been reading about in all those How To books. If he had just left the story alone to play out naturally, he would have had a film that was tighter and tougher than the too-slick mess he has. Some of the stuntwork would probably look impressive if he--his name is Philippe Martinez--had actually let us see it.

I also watched NYPD BLUE and LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, among the few TV series I watch anymore. BLUE is really just going through the paces, but the writers and cast are talented enough to craft stories that remain watchable and even occasionally engrossing. But tonight--come on, really? A serial killer who strangles women to get back at his alcoholic mother? Are we in the 21st century or was I watching a MANNIX episode from 1971? It's time we placed a moratorium on mommy-fixated psycho killers. Meanwhile, SVU remains the most potent L&O series, as well as the most lurid. Doubtlessly no TV show has ever trafficked in the suffering and abuse of children as often as SVU has, and watching each episode is like turning the pages of a grimy paperback thriller. Still, the cast is usually good (every once in awhile, someone gets a juicy scene and tends to go over the top with it) and the stories crisp and timely, and I rarely miss an episode.

Time to wrap things up with another glance at my VHS collection. Tonight, the "B" list:
Bad Ronald
Bamboo Gods & Iron Men
Bamboo House of Dolls, The
Bare Knuckles
Barnaby Jones
Batman & Robin (serial)
Batman (serial)
Battle Royale
Battle Royale II
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica: Fire in Space
Battlestar Galactica: Gun on Ice Planet Zero
Beast of the Yellow Night
Belarus File, The
Bell From Hell, A
Between God, the Devil and a Winchester
Big Doll House, The
Big Score, The
Big Valley, The
Biohazard
Bite Me
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Black Mama, White Mama
Black Mamba
Black Noon
Black Point
Black Samson
Blood Debts
Blood Money
Blood of Dracula
Blood of Ghastly Horror
Bloodsport
Bloody Birthday
Bloody Friday
Bob Newhart Show, The
Bob Newhart Show, The (reunion)
Body Chemistry 4
Body Parts
Body Snatchers
Bonnie's Kids
Born Innocent
Bosom Buddies
Brady Bunch Variety Hour, The
Brain Smasher: A Love Story
Bridge of Dragons
Broadcast News
Brotherhood of the Bell
Brown's Requiem
Buck Rogers (serial)
Bucket of Blood, A
Bucktown
Bullet for the General, A
Burke's Law
Busting
By Dawn's Early Light