The Problem With FanBoys by Chace Ambrose

Hey kids,

When Krist first started this blog page he wasn't sure exactly what to do with it. So far its been a good place to put our shows and whatnot, but since he foolishly allowed me to have the password, I've decided to add some other content.

I WAS going to do a review of a couple of movies I watched today while home sick from work (Amusement and Behind the Mask) but in starting to write the reviews I felt it necessary to make disclaimers for the hardcore horror fan-boys, which led me on a huge tangent which was more interesting than the reviews themselves....which I'm sure I'll do on the radio show.

Anyway every genre' has fanboys. When you hear the term you usually think about sci-fi, but there are horror, anime, comic, and many other types of fan-boys. (you know the guys that go to the Green Bay Packers games in bodypaint shirts? FAN-BOYS!)

Simply BEING a fanboy is not a bad thing. Usually it means you support the subject of your fandom by buying merch. and you know quite a bit of useless information about the topic. Before I go any further I think its important to point out that I myself am a fanboy of several different things. To put it simply I have 3 Star Wars tattoos, drive a Ghostbusters car every day, and have a screen used Jason mask along with quality replicas of Michaels Meyers mask, Freddy's head and glove, and the Hellraiser box.


EVERY town has an Elm St.!

But the problem with fanboys is this. Nothing new is EVER good enough. Think about that for a minute.....NOTHING NEW IS EVER GOOD ENOUGH. Now I'm not writing this to excuse the endless remakes the Evil Hollywood Mega-Conglomerates are shoving down our throats. But as soon as some films are announced...G.I. Joe as an example, immediately the fanboys jumped on the interwebs complaining about how much its gonna suck. I mean it might...but that's just not the attitude to have GOING IN to a film. Another example is the Watchmen. There are QUITE a few things that could be done wrong in putting this masterpiece on film, but all the pics and videos look FANTASTIC! Still fanboys bash it continually.

Krist is a horror fanboy. My theory is he doesnt enjoy any new cinema because he, like most fanboys, won't let himself. See a fanboy BECOMES a fanboy (usually) by being exposed to a genre' or film at a certain age. It's magical and new. Like the first time you do black tar heroin. And like heroin you'll spend the rest of your life trying to recapture that magic feeling but you NEVER will, and eventually you'll find yourself curled up in my Aunt Edna's bathtub rocking back and forth and crying for my mommy. Wait-what? Oh yeah, when you watch something like Hatchet which I LOVED and Krist HATED, your not going to get the same feeling you did when you first watched Friday the 13th because you aren't 12 anymore.

The other part of that is that often the subject if fandom is romanticized. As stated before I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars saga. Most SW fanboys hate the prequels. Well I'll say it here and now. Episodes II and III are better movies than IV. I know its the original, but they're just better flicks. I'd even put them both ahead of Jedi...or as I like to call it, "Too Many Muppets" (Empire still rules all, and Episode I, while important, is the worst of the saga....unless you count that CGI Clone Wars cartoon movie crap)

So in closing, just try to keep an open mind when watching a new movie, a "Special Edition", or even GASP a remake!

Don't be like Steve Beaver, pictured here.
He's the one with the long red beard and the look of intolerance. Steve hasnt liked any film made after 1995...
Be like the friendly ethnic fella beside him. He's not afraid of change.

Trent Haaga went to see the 3-D remake of My Bloody Valentine (which Krist said was "O.K.") here's what Trent told me about the film, "MBV3D - They had me at 3D gore. They took it home with 3D boobies." 3D BOOBIES!!!! That's worth the price of admission RIGHT THERE!!!!!

On another semi-related topic, my friend David Atchison is doing a comic book based on the film The Warriors. MTV did an interview with David about the comic, which premires at the New York Comic-Con. You can check out the interview by cutting and pasting this stuff.

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/01/26/exclusive-preview-the-warriors-1-comes-out-to-play-writer-david-atchinson-gives-us-the-scoop/

Latah Bitches!
-Chace