Shaun of the Dead and the Shawshank Redemption

I know I am not gay.

But I also know that I am more "guy" than I thought. I mean, I enjoy talkin' American Football, baseball with the dudes. I dig on big tool talk, and I enjoyed seeing both Sean of the Dead and the Shawshank Redemption this weekend with Christine's hubby Scott. Gosh, and we have to give props to Mr. Furley and the Dad from A Christmas Story, since you passed to the next level this weekend.

I've been given insight to why Spike TV exists and how horrifying and clever disemboweling can really be.

In addition to feeling baby Tucker dance from inside his mommy's belly and just being filled with familial and love-filled food from Marie Dragoun and other family matriarchs, I am just satisfied. The Keystone State is one of my many childhood homes.

Hell, Christine's ol' Band Dad Mr. Collins opened up the hot tub during the shower for Scott and I. And you know? Lazing in a hot tub in the middle of a stark winter in Pennsylvania under a clear sky on a gorgeous deck is a beautiful thing, man. A beautiful thing.

But I digress.

Sean of the Dead is a riot. It's Evil Dead and 40 Year Old Virgin, and Night of the Living Dead combined. You gotta appreciate the dead pan, matter of fact lines paired with walking zombies. And the cricket bat as battle axe against the soul-less harbingers of armageddon. He's just a normal guy, with a bumbling leech best friend, anal roomie, and hanging on to his relationship by a string. He's 30-something and has jack sh-- to show for it. Some might call him pathetic.

Those "some" did not survive so well when the zombies came 'round. This man, Shaun, found his gumption, wheeled it, and sorta saved his part of the world. Not bad for a lame-ass electronics store guy.

I found his girlfriend annoying.

She was not ate, however.

The film was clever, disgusting, funny. A tale for the everyman. And in days like these, I feel like the "every(wo)man".

Highly recommend. Even for you squirmy-types. I am NOT a horror film buff AT ALL. Hacking is NOT my genre, but this film takes it violence like Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Pulp Fiction. It's so ridiculous that it's laughable. I say this as a woman who has yet to get through Schindler's List or name-your-war-flick, because man's REAL inhumanity to man just BUMS ME THE HELL OUT.

Shawshank Redemption was on Spike last night. Aside from the media buys that had the same 3 damn commercials playing for the 2 hours it was on, I get why dudes are into this movie.

We have Morgan Freeman. He was the Easy Reader on the Electric Company. I loved him. He was cool. He got down and could read. An intellectual, soulful man.

Then we have Tim Robbins. He has a huge forehead. And that boyish face that makes him easy to look at, but not TOO handsome so that he's hateworthy (a la Tom Cruise). And these guys get along. (AWWW.) And they develop a friendship in a prison house that is not related to sex or rape. It's not prison Brokeback Mountain. It's a story of hope.

This sounds very Lifetime, non?

Well, so long as men are in jail gear, are engaged in vocational matters, and are surrounded by police, then it's not a bad "gay". It's male bonding. It's humanizing. Emotions can come clean and honestly because there are no women to be compared to. Tim Robbins character was the metrosexual of the crew.

I also liked how Morgan Freeman was not the "ignorant darkie" character which white guys often get paired with in films.

My heart went out to the ol' timer who was paroled and sent out into the world with a brown suit and zero dignity. Just because you're out of jail doesn't mean the world sees you in a different light. And prisons can be many things...getting out of a mental institution, getting out of treatment, gettting out of the ghetto, getting out of a bad relationship, getting out of depression... His letter to the boys back in the Big House was a bittersweet tale of how freedom can be a curse. If you haven't exercised it for the majority of your life, you can't be expected to use it. Our systems are so broken when it comes to that sh--. We need to complete the circle. We can't just open up cages and cry, "Be Free! Be Free!" and expect people to even know what that means.

Craziness.

I missed this ol' blog. I caught up on 300 emails, checked out other blogs in the blog-O-sphere, and am listening to the rain and wind outside.

Tomorrow's Mardi Gras. 40 days and nights of atonement and reflection. Yee-haw.

Peace in the Middle East, and other areas in the universe that needs it. Girlfriend needs to shine her teethies and get Proactive before headin' to bedsville!