Take Five

By George Rose

October 30, 2009

Mayhap we as consumers have become too attached to our cell phones.

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Welcome to Take Five, your weekly list of five random movie recommendations. Most people don't have time to watch five movies in a week. Most people don't even have five minutes to take a break and relax. Take Five is here to quicken your search for reliable entertainment (or at least movies that I deem entertaining) so you can enjoy what little free time you have. And really, who reading this article doesn't want to spend their free time watching movies? It's not like you're on sports Web site.

Though for all that I knock on sports and tend to steer clear of them, I've actually been enjoying the recent baseball games on TV. Anyone who has been watching now knows that the Yankees and the Phillies are going head to head in the World Series this week. Since I live in NJ, this is a pretty big deal. I heard more than one drunken baseball fan slur, "The East coast is going to be on fire!" at the bars the last few days. While I am naturally a fan of the Red Sox – having only gained moderate interest in the sport while attending college in Boston – I am actually part of a family that supports the Phillies. My cousins, on the other hand, are Yankees fans. Yes, I fear a family rivalry is about to start, but at least it will be the result of a battle worth discussing.




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A battle much like that at the box office this past weekend: Paranormal Activity vs. Saw VI. The low budget reigning champ vs. the overblown torture porn record holder. That which inspires fun in the medium by climbing the ladder quietly vs. that which robs the medium of fun by capitalizing on it with shiny marketing ploys. You see where I'm going with this? The Gods knew that the Saw series needed to be brought down a level on the pretentious meter; not to the point of extinction but definitely to the point where even a profitable opening weekend would sound off a series of frightening alarms. $14 million is great for a movie with such a low budget, but when an $11,000 movies comes along and b*tch slaps you on the weekend you've claimed for so many years, it's pretty embarrassing. It's about as embarrassing as it will be when the Phillies spank the Hell out of the Yankees in their precious new stadium. Can you tell which team I'm rooting for? Paranormal Activity reigned victorious, so why can't the Phillies?

Really, though, at the end of the day I could care less. Fun rivalries created by sports should remain just that, fun! When things get ugly and fans start getting physical, or even verbally abusive, it just proves we haven't evolved past our ancestors, the apes. Can we really not just watch a stupid baseball game without being able to shake hands afterwards? Must we throw punches, set off riots and create enemies? All I know is that if my cousin doesn't speak to me for a week again, much like when the Red Sox wiped their butts with the Yankees after being down three games in the 2004 series, I'm going to stop watching. It really is no fun at all when you're watching a game with someone who can't be a good sport. That's why I like movies so much. A fun battle like Paranormal Activity vs. Saw VI comes along for the fans and nobody gets hurt. Even Lionsgate is still a winner here! I'm sure they aren't too worried since Saw will be back again next year to try their hand at being THE Halloween series. This time, probably on steroids (see Jason X for an example of a horror franchise getting all juiced up).


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