Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Somethin's Wrong With Me!


I was watching ABC's "Castle" tonight on my DVR and thinking about how Nathan Fillion should be a bigger star than he is. He's good-looking, built like a brick you-know-what and very, very funny. Sadly, he's been bounced around in so many TV shows, he's often hard to keep track of. He was in the terrible sitcom "Two Guys and a Girl" (which didn't hurt Ryan Reynolds' career); "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (a show I enjoyed when I saw it, but never got into); "Firefly" (a show I never got the chance to get into); the regrettable "Miss Match" (a show I never saw); "Drive" (a show that aired once) and "Desperate Housewives" (as a character with very little air-time). He's also the hero in Joss Whedon's amazing and hilarious web-series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog." But I think the first time I really noticed him was in the disgusting and hysterically funny Horror/Comedy, Slither.

Written and directed by James Gunn (Dawn of the Dead), Slither concerns a small town over-run by alien slugs who turn folks into zombies and the richest guy in town into a tentacled beastie intent on taking over the planet. Fillion is Sheriff Bill Pardy, still in love with his High School Sweetheart, Starla (Elizabeth Banks). Starla is married to Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), an obnoxious creep who stumbles upon a meteorite in the woods (never a good thing). The creature in the meteor attacks and invades Grant, transforming him into something other than human. Grant, of course, is cheating on Starla with the town pump, and soon after he's infected, he impregnates said slag with a million alien slugs. Hiding in a barn and eating live animals, the slut finally bursts open (in one of the movie's funniest and grossest scenes), setting her progeny loose on the town. It's up to Bill, Jack Mac Ready (character actor Gregg Henry) and young Margaret (Jennifer Copping) to save the town - and the world - from the invading monsters.

Eventually, they track Grant down to a field and confront him, only to have this happen:



Gooey; icky; creepy and a whole lotta fun, Slither is one of those movies best enjoyed with a whole group of friends who will scream and cringe and carry-on in the way that all good Horror movies can make a group of friends react. Add a cameo by "The Office" star Jenna Fischer as bubble-brained dispatcher and a voice-over by Rob Zombie, and you have 95 minutes of pure Horror movie fun. Note: If, like my dear friend K, you have an aversion to snails, slugs and other goopey creatures, you may want to avoid this one.



And just because I love Fillion, here's an hilarious little short film he did with Gunn not too long ago, PG Porn: Nailing Your Wife:


BTW, if you haven't seen "Castle," I highly recommend it. Fillion and Co-Star Stana Katic (The Quantum of Solace) have terrific on-screen chemistry and TV legend Susan Sullivan is a hoot as Castle's actress mom.

More terrors, anon.
Prospero

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Nathan too. On Buffy he was evil and cruel but with a sense of humor.

On Castle, he is perfect and I love his mother and daughter.

Prospero said...

He is rather dreamy, isn't he?