Removable Halo's Blog

New In Theatres:

Wedding Crashers - Two founding members of the frat pack (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) take their dog and pony show out on the screen as opportunistic friends who attend other people's nuptials with the hopes of scoring some beautiful bridesmaid booty. And the perennial bachelors seem to be having a grand ol' time of it . . . until things get complicated with Wilson falling in love with a betrothed babe at one of the events (Did we even know who Rachel McAdams was a couple of years ago?). Billed as the second coming of Old School, which I have to admit I laughed at, the flick is slightly hampered by its turn into a heartfelt romantic comedy towards the end (Owen Wilson learns the meaning of love!) but there are enough laughs for a fun Friday night.
Coming Attractions: That cute and bubbly Rachel McAdams hopes to keep a captive audience with Cillian Murphy in Red Eye, Wes Craven's new dramatic thriller. After a 5 year hiatus, this is the second of Craven's movies this year. But has it been long enough for movie-goers to forget the crappy terror of the production plagued Cursed? We'll see August 19.

Worth A Rental:

Evil Dead - Years before Sam Raimi tossed Tobey Maguire some tights and cast him as Spiderman, he tossed his good buddy and B-movie conspirator Bruce Campbell a tub full of fake blood and cast him as Ash in this classic horror movie. Sure, the special effects pale in comparison to the kind of stuff we have today (it was only 1981 after all) and it's not as lighthearted as its follow-ups (by the time we hit Army of Darkness, Campbell's character had gotten faster with the quips and the chainsaw), but it still has some creepy moments. Plus, after reading what the cast and crew had to go through to film the thing (detailed engagingly in Campbell's autobiography If Chins Could Kill), there should seriously be an award for most agonizing film shoot.

Movies Take Flight Once Again

So how long is long enough to wait before readdressing a touchy social subject in the film industry? The answer apparently is 4 years as Hollywood is preparing to launch a pair of terror-in-the-air movies later this summer - Red Eye and then, later in the fall, Flightplan (which marks Jodie Foster's first starring role since David Fincher's stylish but stilted Panic Room). But is four years enough distance after an event that shook the cultural collective to its virtual core? When the attacks first occurred, people seemed so sensitive about the idea of flying and terrorist attacks that jokes were written out of sitcoms (Friends), the opening credits of shows were changed (Sex and the City), songs that might have made people think about the tragic events of the 11th of September were banned from the radio (Alanis' Ironic) and TBS stopped showing certain films . . . as frequently (Executive Decision). We had such a strong reaction to anything even remotely related then, but what has made us soften? Is it just the passage of time? Is it the prospect of seeing steely eyed Oscar winner Foster back in front of a camera? And after the very recent echoing of the American terrorist attacks in London, is this a good time to be jumping back on the terror band wagon? It's hard to say.
On one hand, we could never address the subject of flight again, instead reverting to other forms of transportation. In fact, I have a couple of ideas:
1) It's the turn of the century (a much less violent time to begin with) and engineers build the biggest, most luxurious passenger ship to cross the Atlantic . . . Oh no, wait . . .
2) It's modern day Los Angeles and the lovable Sandra Bullock gets on a bus and . . . Crap that's no good either.
The thing about movies is that we use them to get away from the monotony of our own existences. For a couple of hours at a time so we can laugh at other people's jokes, experience other people's relationships, live other people's lives, enjoy other people's art. However, awkwardly timed the release of these movies might be, we have to be mindful of the fact that it is all fiction and we are just meant to be entertained by it, however topical the subjects might be. That said, I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether or not the tunnel bombing scenes in V is for Vendetta get left in by the sensors . . .

Sex between friends is like communism - it a good idea in theory, but in reality it's a lot more complicated.

Most people get into a sex between friends situation because they don't want to have a relationship. They're tired of the push and pull of the dating games, the demands of having a significant other. But unfortunately, they almost always encounter a problem - having a fuck buddy IS having a relationship. Sure, it doesn't come with the trappings of the traditional relationship. You don't have to sit through dinners at his or her parent's house, you don't have to watch movies you don't want to see to humour them and you kind of chill on the search for your prince or princess charming because hey, you've got something going on. But sooner or later the bloom starts to fall off the rose and feelings start to emerge, be they good or bad.

And I've been there. I had this friend, the Obscurist, who I met at a basement party one of my suburban friends threw two years ago. He was kind of cute and tall and he lived in the city where he listened to underground Islamic punk bands and went to authentic Esperanto Indie movies. Being a fan of the unusual, I was intrigued. Last year, after an unimaginably long drought, this guy proposed the idea of this kind of situation to me and tired of spending my nights alone and dreading the idea of having yet another bad date, I agreed. I mean he was nice enough to look at and we got along well. What was the harm? And in the beginning, it was fun. We would hang out a little, talk about the synth pop movement and Bruce Campbell movies and then get physical. Not a bad deal.

But then, it started to happen. No, I didn't fall for the guy (another major side effect of friends hooking up) . . . but I just started feeling kind of lousy about it. He'd blow me off when we were supposed to meet and then get mad when I didn't want to come over. We didn't really talk as much as we had when we were just friends. As time went on, we became less about us being friends having fun together and more about sex. It was this repetitive, mechanical thing and after a while, I didn't even really want to see him, because I knew if I went over to just hang out, he'd expect to get some.

And the worst part was, even though he was kind of being a jerk, I couldn't get as mad at him as I could a boyfriend because I had agreed to the terms. I said I could fool around without strings because I thought it would get me away from the crappiness of dating when really it WAS the crappiness of dating with an extra side of crap. Even though we weren't officially "dating", not only was I still having to deal with all the problems of a relationship anyway, but I was missing out on all the good relationship stuff too. He didn't send me silly little e-mails just because. He wasn't all that interested about how I'd spent my day. He was MIA for a lot of social outings. Plus, by hanging out with him, I wasn't "out there", being available and open to someone who would really get me and love me. And, despite all this shit that dating can be, I really wanted that.

After I realized what I really wanted, the Obscurist and I parted ways. We tried to be friends afterwards, but I've never been much good at regular breakups. The whole idea of casually hanging out with someone who's seen me naked doesn't really work for me, which, in a way, was a shame because I really liked talking to the guy.

So when it comes to having sex with friends, even though going in it might seem like a good idea, nine times out of 10, it won't work out and things will get complicated. Not only will you have to still "break up" when things go bad/one of you starts falling for the other/one of you becomes interested in someone else, but when you do, you'll not only be dumping a sex partner but a friend as well. When this happens, most people, even if they don't say so right away, will either feel betrayed by their friend or feel like it's kind of a lame consolation prize to go back to being friends after having done the horizontal polka, and even if the friendship doesn't completely implode right away, it will usually end up fading out. It's messy and it's unpleasant and in retrospect most people will wish they had handled things differently (I know I did) but that's how it goes.

However, if you're in that tenth percentile that thinks that they can be the Harry-Met-Sally relationship success story, I say go for it. Just realize going in, no matter how many contracts you draw up or how many promises you make to each other that things won't go bad, in six months, there is the possibility that you might not be speaking to each other.