My prayers for NIU

This blog has served as a creative outlet for my own personal opinion regarding movies and movie reviews. But today, I have a much more somber topic having nothing to do with movies, reviews, or anything theatrically related.

Yesterday, February 14, 2008, a gunman by the name of Stephen Kazmierczak opened fire on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. The massacre began around 3:05 p.m. and within minutes, was over. And five innocent lives were lost, while more than a dozen were wounded. So far, no motive has been released. However, even if there had been, and I'm guessing there will be eventually, I don't think I will ever understand what could have possibly ever driven any human being to cause such chaos, such utter terror.

I grew up in a small town called Sycamore, Illinois. It's a small agricultural town in DeKalb county, less than two minutes from the town of DeKalb and less than five minutes from NIU. I learned to drive on the NIU campus. My prom was in the building right next to Cole Hall, where the shooting took place. I have so many good memories on that campus and in that town. I applied there for college after high school, but didn't go. But a large part of my graduating class went to NIU and still attends classes there. Even some of my family members go there. The complete fear and panic that strikes through a person when things like this happen is completely unexplainable. There are no words. Thankfully, everyone that I know that I've been able to get a hold of thus far has been fine. But for the five that are dead, the many wounded, and the thousands grieving, there are no words or actions that can make it go away. It's a constant nightmare that they can't wake up from. I wasn't there, and even I am finding it hard to walk onto my college campus. If it can happen in my hometown, where I always thought that it was so safe, so secure, it can happen anywhere. Nobody knows who's going to snap or where, or even why. But it's terrifying.

Northern Illinois University, Students, friends, family, community, and all of those affected....my thoughts and prayers are with you. I'm healing with you.

"Some Thing Has Found Us"

So it hasn't officially been declared the movie of the season yet, but in my opinion it is. I'm talking about "Cloverfield," the new action flick from J.J. Abrams, the genius behind Lost.

This movie comes off as more of a documentary than an actual movie, and the acting maintains that illusion throughout most of the film. Michael Stahl-David plays Rob Hawkins, the main character. Rob's a man who, after a college crush on a longtime best friend, Beth McIntyre (played by Odette Yustman), finally got the girl, only to be forced to give her up due to a move to Japan because of work. At his surprise going away party, a monster attacks New York City. The movie centers around the survivors quest to rescue Beth from her destroyed apartment complex. And the rest, you'll see it when you see it.

The acting is entirely authentic and believable save for two occasions when it's more the writing rather than the writing. But rather than post spoilers, I'll leave it up to your discretion. Just know that one scene involves Rob's reaction to an event, and the other is the over-acting at the end. But all the actors are all extremely talented entirely believable.

The storyline, although like most monster movies, is fare fetched, it's done in an usual way. Shown through the viewpoint of survivors attempting to continue to survive instead of the stereotypical view of the military dealing with crisis.

Yahoo critics are giving this movie a B while the users are, thus far rating it a B-. I disagree. I'd rate it more of an A- to an A. My main problem with the movie being this. The beginning of the movie, a lot of "US Department of Defense" paraphernalia and labels run on the film before the movie actually begins. Yet during the course of the movie, nothing is shown that would let the audience know that the government gets a hold of the tape. That, and nothing about the monster is ever explained. Not where it came from or how it came about. But then again, it's a nice twist on events from the usual monster horror flick.

So if you haven't seen it yet, give "Cloverfield" a shot. If you're not interested, give it a chance. It's worth it.