Note: This is an old post from my Multiply site last June 14, 2009.
June 12, 2009. Philippine Independence Day. National Holiday. No work. Awesome. If I wake up early on a non-work day, it just means that something great is on TV. Yes sir, just like the sports weekend I had last May, I was treated to another great day for sports last Friday. The NBA Finals is at its pivotal point in Game 4 in Orlando, Florida. The Los Angeles Lakers are leading 2-1 and the Orlando Magic is trying to tie the series to give their team a chance for the golden glory. As for me, I had a feeling the series was over when LA took the commanding 2-0 lead because Orlando, even if it weaved powerful magic (pun intended) in this year’s postseason, will either have to beat the powerhouse Laker squad in all of the home games in Orlando or they have to beat them twice in the most crucial games at Tinseltown. But for the Magic to get close to that goal, they have to win this important Game 4. By 9 AM, I turned on my TV to watch history unfold in my very eyes.
The Battle of the Disney Cities was ongoing and it was a tight first quarter. I was still too lazy to eat my breakfast in between timeouts so I tuned in to other channels. Up one channel was ESPN and Major League Baseball’s most colorful rivalry was in hand. The New York Yankees are battling the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park where they will end their three-game swing in which the Red Sox have handed the Yanks their asses in all seven games in the season. It was at the top 7th inning and the score was tied at 1-1. Yankees were making their run as their top batting order was at hand. The current most hated Yankee, Alex Rodriguez, was at the plate and there was a runner in scoring position. A-Rod hammered a double, thus breaking the tie and putting the Yankees up 3-1. It gave me a sick feeling that I maybe the jinx to the Red Sox remarkable wins against their archrivals. Rain sputtered in Fenway and the innings past by with the score at 3-1.
I got to witness highly noted Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia play and he was remarkable in his first inning. Uh oh! It looks like this has a Yankee victory written all over it. Is it time for me to press the channel down button? For some strange reasons, I got caught up with this regular season baseball game more than the crucial Finals basketball game. The bottom eighth inning came and suddenly the Red Sox were making a run. They had one guy at base. Make that two. One runner in scoring position. No outs yet. JD Drew singled and Green scores. 3-2. The crowd erupted and I am suddenly reawakened. Girardi replaces his star pitcher who eventually gives away a single which loads up all the bases. No outs and bases loaded. This is awesome. Crowd is already going nuts and I am standing. Jason Bay comes into the plate and delivers the game-tying single. Go Red Sox! It suddenly felt like a postseason game to me. People normally say that baseball is boring but when the sport hits moments like this, it reaches the climax similar as end-game winning shots in basketball. The scoring changes are not quick but you know the moment when it is coming and it is long that is why it is more suspenseful.
No outs. Bases loaded. Tied game. Crowd going bonkers. Mike Lowell suddenly hits a pop-up. Oh no! All he needs to do is make it deep so that it would deliver the tiebreaker. It seemed minutes when the ball was up in the sky. It reached the fielder’s glove. He throws it towards home and unexpectedly, JD Drew scores. BAM! Red Sox lead 4-3. The pop-up was deep enough. The comeback was complete and I was celebrating in early morning. The Yankees were able to defend in the next at-bats to prevent further bleeding but the damage has been done. Even the strong top batting order that featured Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and Mark Teixeira was not sufficient for the Yankees to tie the game. Boston Red Sox completes the sweep and they are now 8-0 against their archrivals.
Awes – wait for it – some baseball game. Now it’s NBA time. The Orlando Magic are proving that they are for real by mounting a large halftime lead against the Lakers but the latter proved that they want this championship more by coming back from the big deficit. The fourth quarter featured a tight contest but in the final minutes, this looked like an Orlando victory. NBA officiating was horribly tilted toward the Magic but I was too indifferent on officiating these days (it’s always awful so why bother? Suck the terrible calls up and play on). I was rooting nicely for the Lakers these times because I wanted Kobe to get his fourth ring. Hell, it’s about time. But the Orlando Magic seemed to show why they were for real. They were leading by five with less than a minute remaining. Oh well, at least the Red Sox won earlier…
It ain’t over until the buzzer sounds and a team is leading by at least a point. That was one lesson I learned the happy way early this year (). The Lakers were doing a last push. They scored a two-point bucket and the lead was down to three. Orlando Magic possession with just thirty-something seconds remaining. Should the Lakers foul? I hope they don’t. They defended and my TV channel changed. Stupid remote control! Not at this part of the game! I switched back to BTV and I found out that Dwight Howard was fouled with just eleven seconds remaining. Man Child has been shooting remarkably in crunchtime this postseason so I had less hopes of seeing a Laker victory more than over. Dwight attempts the first. He missed. OK, he is Mr. One-of-Two anyway. He might make the second and a four-point lead with eleven seconds is still difficult to reach. Dwight shoots. Dwight misses. Laker ball. Timeout. Wow! I said to myself, “if the Lakers win this game, Dwight will have a nightmare as these missed freethrows come to haunt him.” It was one of those weird feelings that I get whenever I watch a tight game and I observe a major flaw from a team which had every reason to win. When the Cavs lost a game against the Magic early this postseason, they missed freethrows and I was having these thoughts while the game was still ongoing. Usually, this weird feeling comes true. The team which fumbled a supposed-to-be won game ends up losing.
The Lakers have a long way to go. They still need to score a three. And, they are inbounding from the backcourt? Bloody hell! Why?! It will give the Magic a lot of chance to corner the ball handler and give the inevitable foul. This play is already obvious that I was still pessimistic of the Lakers winning this game. Further on, Kobe was choking. But on some strange way the events unfolded, the Magic forgot to foul and looked like headless chickens running. Maybe they choked too much that it removed their heads in the process. Derek Fisher pulled up for a three because Jameer Nelson gave him the sufficient opening. SWISH! Tied ball game. I jumped up from my sofa because I could not believe what just happened. Didn’t Jameer Nelson watch the Lakers’ playoff battle with the Spurs some years ago? Derek Fisher is a clutch shooter. He is a has-been but he has been fantastic so far in this series. Four seconds remaining and the Orlando Magic has another chance of redeeming themselves. That never came and we were soon headed to overtime.
Overtime featured a classic clash of the titans. Both teams traded buckets and it became a down-to-the-wire battle. This time, the Lakers had more opportunity. They led by five. However, it was trimmed down to zero thanks to the biased officiating that made the refs whistle an uncertain Fisher foul after Dwight Howard obviously pushed Pau Gasol to the ground. Good job to the Lakers for maintaining their composure. If there is one reason why the Lakers will win this championship, that would be because they showed maturity and composure. Suck it up and play on. They had the ball in Black Mamba’s hands and he was soon doubled. I initially thought that there should be a foul on that double because Jameer Nelson initiated contact by being in the wrong position but Kobe swung the elbow so I just let it be. The Orlando Magic have been getting majority of the calls and the elbow was unintentional anyway. After the elbow, Kobe passed it to a wide-open Derek Fisher. KABOOM! Yes, my friends. The very same has-been who made the cold-blooded three awhile ago. This time, it was the dagger that killed the Orlando Magic. LA by three. Derek Fisher must have (or should have) been saying this, “Who’s the has-been now, biatch?!” I am not a Laker fan, although they are always my fallback team, but I was celebrating after Fish hit that three. The once rejoicing fans of Orlando fell dead silent and they were in Oh-no-Not-again-we-are-choking-in-another-Finals-game mode. Houston, the team that beat Orlando in the 90s, was proclaimed Clutch City then. Can we call Orlando Choke City?
Wait, it’s not yet over. Orlando has one last chance to tie the game. After a few seconds from the inbounds pass, Orlando made that one last chance to tie a last chance to choke. The play ended with a wide-open Pau Gasol dunking the ball and Mickael Pietrus slamming both of his fists at Pau’s back. Flagrant foul! I respected Pietrus as a player but that was a lame, unsportsmanlike act. He should be penalized for this but the NBA did not give any penalty for it. Minus 1000 Awesome Points to David Stern and Stu Jackson. I know that a suspension will sink the ratings but fine the guy at the very least. The Lakers won another tight game and the Magic completed its choke. 3-1 and I now give the Lakers a 99% chance of winning the NBA crown.
In just one morning, I watched two teams crumble and two teams prevailed under pressure. Remarkable.
The only way for Orlando to redeem themselves of the status of Choke City is to win the championship this year. It is a feat that no team has yet accomplished. I do not think they will do it against this strong and mature Laker squad. But if Orlando redeems, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson will take massive heat and LaLa Land will be called the Choke City after losing their last three NBA Finals trips.
I hope it does not happen.
I am rooting for the Lakers because I want Kobe to get his fourth championship ring. After all, I used to be a Kobe fan way back in his formative years in the NBA. Back when he was that eighteen year old rookie who won the slam dunk competition. I already have a fake Kobe jersey then and I cheered whenever he scores. I can still remember that as a one-time event because he was still a non-factor when I watched the first year he was in the NBA Playoffs. Of all the stars that I rooted for in their rookie year, Kobe is the most successful (LeBron will soon be but he is still a close second as of now). Kobe eventually won championship rings, was involved in a rape scandal, became cocky and hated Shaq. I lost interest in cheering for him and just considered him as ‘another star.’ I am not a die-hard Laker fan anyway. From my favorite number – 8 – Kobe changed his number to 24.He became the most polarizing basketball player of the present time. This is why Kobe Bryant is the most popular these days. I may not be hardly rooting for him as I did before but he has gained lots of interest from across the world because of his controversies.
Even his face in the NBA Finals created a buzz. He was even called Grumpy of the Seven Dwarves by his daughter. He is so focused on the goal that I had all the reason in the world to believe that they are going to win it this year. This is how Jordan did it. He was not the smiling leader who throws jokes to make his teammates smirk every now and then. He is a leader who leads by example. Kobe, like Jordan, demands a lot from his teammates because he wants them to excel. Focused, they both go for the kill. Kobe has shown that he is a ball hog at times but Jordan was as well. Kobe choked but he has finally learned to do the right thing when he dished out the ball to his open teammate – just like Jordan did. You maybe a single dominating force but basketball is a team sport so you have to trust your teammates. And that, is why Kobe and his Lakers will win this year. They could have done it last year but he and his teammates were immature. I think they have learned it this year as they have shown their poise and composure in Games 2 and 4. Kobe ain’t smiling either. He is so dead-set on the goal and I highly believe that they will get it. They have learned. Winners are losers who learned their lessons. The Los Angeles Lakers are not the underdogs but I am not rooting for the underdogs this time because I want the team that deserves it win it this year. After all, rooting for the underdog has become too cliché already.
No offense to the Orlando Magic. I think they are for real and they deserve to be in the Finals. They gave the Lakers a hell of a fight but the Magic just failed to close it out.
Speaking of clichés, I was able to watch the much hyped Drag Me To Hell movie last June 12 as well. I am a fan of horror movies that my officemates got OP when I discussed the horror movies that I loved. However, Drag Me To Hell is an overly cliché horror movie (more on that later). Do not get me wrong, the movie was entertainingly good. It gave the fright that most horror movies fail to provide. I loved the start of it. The mood was scary. It had legitimate horrific characters. That demonic being was creepy and its early manifestations were well-executed. Even the old woman had some shock factor. The movie showed a lot of promise early on. I was thinking if I should eat my popcorn or I should hold on my seats because there were numerous shocking scenes reinforced by great surround sounds. It was done non-stop that made the experience a lot of times better. A lot of girls were shrieking for a lot of parts and I was shocked (it did not elicit a scream but I was on the verge) at least once. The directors know how to scare their audience: white handkerchief, old car, rustling of leaves. It was awesome. Drag Me To Hell was money well spent on the big screen. Surely, one of the top ten, if not top five, of the most frightening horror movies of all-time
However…
Drag Me To Hell has a big difference from the scariest horror flick I’ve ever watched – The Grudge. This was primarily because of the former’s overuse of clichés. From Christine eating the ice cream during her depressed moment to the black cat. Even the title was an overused title background. According to my brother, the movie lost its credibility in the anvil scene because it seemed cartoonish after the eyes of the old woman’s ghost popped out. The movie burned all the promises it showed early on when it started hitting the climax parts. The possessed guy looked like a puppet in strings in a stage play. The graveyard scene paled in comparison to the previous scenes. The ender has to be the worst scary scene of the movie as it was too predictable and seemed rushed. The movie also lost its charm to me when there were funny dialogue moments midway.
I do not normally bash clichés because for one, these are clichés because they are effective. But the clichés in Drag Me To Hell seemed to kill the moment for me. Instead of getting scared, I could not help but laugh at some parts in the movie. It was like Scary Movie turned really scary. Aside from the ending being anti-climactic, the movie did not have the scary factor that legendary horror movies, like The Exorcist, bring to the table – Drag Me To Hell was not disturbing. I am about to bash the crappy storyline but horror movies are not meant to have great storylines either.
All in all, I will give the movie an 8/10. It had more scary moments than most movies but it failed badly in some parts. I give a high rating because most horror flicks suck anyway.
Either way, June 12 was an excellent day for entertainment for me. It is currently midnight as of now so the Game 5 of the NBA Finals is on its way later. I want the Lakers to win but I think the Magic will prevail. Lakers in six.
June 12, 2009. Philippine Independence Day. National Holiday. No work. Awesome. If I wake up early on a non-work day, it just means that something great is on TV. Yes sir, just like the sports weekend I had last May, I was treated to another great day for sports last Friday. The NBA Finals is at its pivotal point in Game 4 in Orlando, Florida. The Los Angeles Lakers are leading 2-1 and the Orlando Magic is trying to tie the series to give their team a chance for the golden glory. As for me, I had a feeling the series was over when LA took the commanding 2-0 lead because Orlando, even if it weaved powerful magic (pun intended) in this year’s postseason, will either have to beat the powerhouse Laker squad in all of the home games in Orlando or they have to beat them twice in the most crucial games at Tinseltown. But for the Magic to get close to that goal, they have to win this important Game 4. By 9 AM, I turned on my TV to watch history unfold in my very eyes.
The Battle of the Disney Cities was ongoing and it was a tight first quarter. I was still too lazy to eat my breakfast in between timeouts so I tuned in to other channels. Up one channel was ESPN and Major League Baseball’s most colorful rivalry was in hand. The New York Yankees are battling the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park where they will end their three-game swing in which the Red Sox have handed the Yanks their asses in all seven games in the season. It was at the top 7th inning and the score was tied at 1-1. Yankees were making their run as their top batting order was at hand. The current most hated Yankee, Alex Rodriguez, was at the plate and there was a runner in scoring position. A-Rod hammered a double, thus breaking the tie and putting the Yankees up 3-1. It gave me a sick feeling that I maybe the jinx to the Red Sox remarkable wins against their archrivals. Rain sputtered in Fenway and the innings past by with the score at 3-1.
I got to witness highly noted Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia play and he was remarkable in his first inning. Uh oh! It looks like this has a Yankee victory written all over it. Is it time for me to press the channel down button? For some strange reasons, I got caught up with this regular season baseball game more than the crucial Finals basketball game. The bottom eighth inning came and suddenly the Red Sox were making a run. They had one guy at base. Make that two. One runner in scoring position. No outs yet. JD Drew singled and Green scores. 3-2. The crowd erupted and I am suddenly reawakened. Girardi replaces his star pitcher who eventually gives away a single which loads up all the bases. No outs and bases loaded. This is awesome. Crowd is already going nuts and I am standing. Jason Bay comes into the plate and delivers the game-tying single. Go Red Sox! It suddenly felt like a postseason game to me. People normally say that baseball is boring but when the sport hits moments like this, it reaches the climax similar as end-game winning shots in basketball. The scoring changes are not quick but you know the moment when it is coming and it is long that is why it is more suspenseful.
No outs. Bases loaded. Tied game. Crowd going bonkers. Mike Lowell suddenly hits a pop-up. Oh no! All he needs to do is make it deep so that it would deliver the tiebreaker. It seemed minutes when the ball was up in the sky. It reached the fielder’s glove. He throws it towards home and unexpectedly, JD Drew scores. BAM! Red Sox lead 4-3. The pop-up was deep enough. The comeback was complete and I was celebrating in early morning. The Yankees were able to defend in the next at-bats to prevent further bleeding but the damage has been done. Even the strong top batting order that featured Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and Mark Teixeira was not sufficient for the Yankees to tie the game. Boston Red Sox completes the sweep and they are now 8-0 against their archrivals.
Awes – wait for it – some baseball game. Now it’s NBA time. The Orlando Magic are proving that they are for real by mounting a large halftime lead against the Lakers but the latter proved that they want this championship more by coming back from the big deficit. The fourth quarter featured a tight contest but in the final minutes, this looked like an Orlando victory. NBA officiating was horribly tilted toward the Magic but I was too indifferent on officiating these days (it’s always awful so why bother? Suck the terrible calls up and play on). I was rooting nicely for the Lakers these times because I wanted Kobe to get his fourth ring. Hell, it’s about time. But the Orlando Magic seemed to show why they were for real. They were leading by five with less than a minute remaining. Oh well, at least the Red Sox won earlier…
It ain’t over until the buzzer sounds and a team is leading by at least a point. That was one lesson I learned the happy way early this year (). The Lakers were doing a last push. They scored a two-point bucket and the lead was down to three. Orlando Magic possession with just thirty-something seconds remaining. Should the Lakers foul? I hope they don’t. They defended and my TV channel changed. Stupid remote control! Not at this part of the game! I switched back to BTV and I found out that Dwight Howard was fouled with just eleven seconds remaining. Man Child has been shooting remarkably in crunchtime this postseason so I had less hopes of seeing a Laker victory more than over. Dwight attempts the first. He missed. OK, he is Mr. One-of-Two anyway. He might make the second and a four-point lead with eleven seconds is still difficult to reach. Dwight shoots. Dwight misses. Laker ball. Timeout. Wow! I said to myself, “if the Lakers win this game, Dwight will have a nightmare as these missed freethrows come to haunt him.” It was one of those weird feelings that I get whenever I watch a tight game and I observe a major flaw from a team which had every reason to win. When the Cavs lost a game against the Magic early this postseason, they missed freethrows and I was having these thoughts while the game was still ongoing. Usually, this weird feeling comes true. The team which fumbled a supposed-to-be won game ends up losing.
The Lakers have a long way to go. They still need to score a three. And, they are inbounding from the backcourt? Bloody hell! Why?! It will give the Magic a lot of chance to corner the ball handler and give the inevitable foul. This play is already obvious that I was still pessimistic of the Lakers winning this game. Further on, Kobe was choking. But on some strange way the events unfolded, the Magic forgot to foul and looked like headless chickens running. Maybe they choked too much that it removed their heads in the process. Derek Fisher pulled up for a three because Jameer Nelson gave him the sufficient opening. SWISH! Tied ball game. I jumped up from my sofa because I could not believe what just happened. Didn’t Jameer Nelson watch the Lakers’ playoff battle with the Spurs some years ago? Derek Fisher is a clutch shooter. He is a has-been but he has been fantastic so far in this series. Four seconds remaining and the Orlando Magic has another chance of redeeming themselves. That never came and we were soon headed to overtime.
Overtime featured a classic clash of the titans. Both teams traded buckets and it became a down-to-the-wire battle. This time, the Lakers had more opportunity. They led by five. However, it was trimmed down to zero thanks to the biased officiating that made the refs whistle an uncertain Fisher foul after Dwight Howard obviously pushed Pau Gasol to the ground. Good job to the Lakers for maintaining their composure. If there is one reason why the Lakers will win this championship, that would be because they showed maturity and composure. Suck it up and play on. They had the ball in Black Mamba’s hands and he was soon doubled. I initially thought that there should be a foul on that double because Jameer Nelson initiated contact by being in the wrong position but Kobe swung the elbow so I just let it be. The Orlando Magic have been getting majority of the calls and the elbow was unintentional anyway. After the elbow, Kobe passed it to a wide-open Derek Fisher. KABOOM! Yes, my friends. The very same has-been who made the cold-blooded three awhile ago. This time, it was the dagger that killed the Orlando Magic. LA by three. Derek Fisher must have (or should have) been saying this, “Who’s the has-been now, biatch?!” I am not a Laker fan, although they are always my fallback team, but I was celebrating after Fish hit that three. The once rejoicing fans of Orlando fell dead silent and they were in Oh-no-Not-again-we-are-choking-in-another-Finals-game mode. Houston, the team that beat Orlando in the 90s, was proclaimed Clutch City then. Can we call Orlando Choke City?
Wait, it’s not yet over. Orlando has one last chance to tie the game. After a few seconds from the inbounds pass, Orlando made that one last chance to tie a last chance to choke. The play ended with a wide-open Pau Gasol dunking the ball and Mickael Pietrus slamming both of his fists at Pau’s back. Flagrant foul! I respected Pietrus as a player but that was a lame, unsportsmanlike act. He should be penalized for this but the NBA did not give any penalty for it. Minus 1000 Awesome Points to David Stern and Stu Jackson. I know that a suspension will sink the ratings but fine the guy at the very least. The Lakers won another tight game and the Magic completed its choke. 3-1 and I now give the Lakers a 99% chance of winning the NBA crown.
In just one morning, I watched two teams crumble and two teams prevailed under pressure. Remarkable.
The only way for Orlando to redeem themselves of the status of Choke City is to win the championship this year. It is a feat that no team has yet accomplished. I do not think they will do it against this strong and mature Laker squad. But if Orlando redeems, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson will take massive heat and LaLa Land will be called the Choke City after losing their last three NBA Finals trips.
I hope it does not happen.
I am rooting for the Lakers because I want Kobe to get his fourth championship ring. After all, I used to be a Kobe fan way back in his formative years in the NBA. Back when he was that eighteen year old rookie who won the slam dunk competition. I already have a fake Kobe jersey then and I cheered whenever he scores. I can still remember that as a one-time event because he was still a non-factor when I watched the first year he was in the NBA Playoffs. Of all the stars that I rooted for in their rookie year, Kobe is the most successful (LeBron will soon be but he is still a close second as of now). Kobe eventually won championship rings, was involved in a rape scandal, became cocky and hated Shaq. I lost interest in cheering for him and just considered him as ‘another star.’ I am not a die-hard Laker fan anyway. From my favorite number – 8 – Kobe changed his number to 24.He became the most polarizing basketball player of the present time. This is why Kobe Bryant is the most popular these days. I may not be hardly rooting for him as I did before but he has gained lots of interest from across the world because of his controversies.
Even his face in the NBA Finals created a buzz. He was even called Grumpy of the Seven Dwarves by his daughter. He is so focused on the goal that I had all the reason in the world to believe that they are going to win it this year. This is how Jordan did it. He was not the smiling leader who throws jokes to make his teammates smirk every now and then. He is a leader who leads by example. Kobe, like Jordan, demands a lot from his teammates because he wants them to excel. Focused, they both go for the kill. Kobe has shown that he is a ball hog at times but Jordan was as well. Kobe choked but he has finally learned to do the right thing when he dished out the ball to his open teammate – just like Jordan did. You maybe a single dominating force but basketball is a team sport so you have to trust your teammates. And that, is why Kobe and his Lakers will win this year. They could have done it last year but he and his teammates were immature. I think they have learned it this year as they have shown their poise and composure in Games 2 and 4. Kobe ain’t smiling either. He is so dead-set on the goal and I highly believe that they will get it. They have learned. Winners are losers who learned their lessons. The Los Angeles Lakers are not the underdogs but I am not rooting for the underdogs this time because I want the team that deserves it win it this year. After all, rooting for the underdog has become too cliché already.
No offense to the Orlando Magic. I think they are for real and they deserve to be in the Finals. They gave the Lakers a hell of a fight but the Magic just failed to close it out.
Speaking of clichés, I was able to watch the much hyped Drag Me To Hell movie last June 12 as well. I am a fan of horror movies that my officemates got OP when I discussed the horror movies that I loved. However, Drag Me To Hell is an overly cliché horror movie (more on that later). Do not get me wrong, the movie was entertainingly good. It gave the fright that most horror movies fail to provide. I loved the start of it. The mood was scary. It had legitimate horrific characters. That demonic being was creepy and its early manifestations were well-executed. Even the old woman had some shock factor. The movie showed a lot of promise early on. I was thinking if I should eat my popcorn or I should hold on my seats because there were numerous shocking scenes reinforced by great surround sounds. It was done non-stop that made the experience a lot of times better. A lot of girls were shrieking for a lot of parts and I was shocked (it did not elicit a scream but I was on the verge) at least once. The directors know how to scare their audience: white handkerchief, old car, rustling of leaves. It was awesome. Drag Me To Hell was money well spent on the big screen. Surely, one of the top ten, if not top five, of the most frightening horror movies of all-time
However…
Drag Me To Hell has a big difference from the scariest horror flick I’ve ever watched – The Grudge. This was primarily because of the former’s overuse of clichés. From Christine eating the ice cream during her depressed moment to the black cat. Even the title was an overused title background. According to my brother, the movie lost its credibility in the anvil scene because it seemed cartoonish after the eyes of the old woman’s ghost popped out. The movie burned all the promises it showed early on when it started hitting the climax parts. The possessed guy looked like a puppet in strings in a stage play. The graveyard scene paled in comparison to the previous scenes. The ender has to be the worst scary scene of the movie as it was too predictable and seemed rushed. The movie also lost its charm to me when there were funny dialogue moments midway.
I do not normally bash clichés because for one, these are clichés because they are effective. But the clichés in Drag Me To Hell seemed to kill the moment for me. Instead of getting scared, I could not help but laugh at some parts in the movie. It was like Scary Movie turned really scary. Aside from the ending being anti-climactic, the movie did not have the scary factor that legendary horror movies, like The Exorcist, bring to the table – Drag Me To Hell was not disturbing. I am about to bash the crappy storyline but horror movies are not meant to have great storylines either.
All in all, I will give the movie an 8/10. It had more scary moments than most movies but it failed badly in some parts. I give a high rating because most horror flicks suck anyway.
Either way, June 12 was an excellent day for entertainment for me. It is currently midnight as of now so the Game 5 of the NBA Finals is on its way later. I want the Lakers to win but I think the Magic will prevail. Lakers in six.
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