NOTE: In a revival of this "classic" Friday feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Here are some movies playing this weekend...

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Finally, the 3D zombie apocalypse movie everyone has been waiting for! I watched some previews, and this movie is very stylized in blues and grays. Wait. Do movies based on video games even count as movies?

Beer rating: La Fin du Monde ("The End of the World") seems fitting, of course -- though it's way better a beer than this flick deserves.

The Virginity Hit, after the jump.

NOTE: In a revival of this "classic" Friday feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Here are some movies playing this weekend...

Going the Distance

Drew Barrymore and the smug hipster from the Apple commercials star in a comedy about a couple trying to have a relationship where one of them lives in Chicago and the other in L.A. This is probably easier for them than most because the dude most likely gets a deal on that new iPhone with the two-way camera and other nifty attachments.

Beer rating: If I want flat, stale beer I can just wait until after Labor Day and finish off what's left in the keg of PBR at my friend Tom's house.

The American, Machete, after the jump.

NOTE: In a revival of this "classic" Friday feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Here are some movies playing this weekend...

Takers

Oh, Matt Dillon, what has happened to your career? Here you are in a heist movie with a rapper who is in jail (T.I.) and a soul singer who beat his girlfriend (Chris Brown). You got your mind on your money and your money on your mind? Ouch.

Beer rating: I'm giving up drinking this week. No amount of beer could get me to see either of these movies. What a lousy summer it's been at the cinema.

The Last Exorcism, after the jump.

(NOTE: Here's to you, "A Chance in Hell." And you, Kevin. Reporter Mike Danahey's put together a zombie-themed playlist in your honor. Enjoy!)

-- Mike Danahey, Staff Writer

NOTE: In this regular feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey usually guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions usually are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Usually. Until now...

A Chance in Hell

Believe it or not, I actually went to a movie, Supporting a local artist, I headed out to the Arcada last week for a screening of Tony Wash's Nazi zombie flick. Actually, it was more like a visual proposal, the first 30 minutes of a movie Wash would like to make on a bigger budget. He claims there is interest from producers to expand his opus and make the movie in Hungary -- which is the perfect name for a country where you would make a film about famished flesh eaters.

The night featured the behind-the-scenes DVD extras, too, which is pretty weird if you think about it. We're getting insight into a movie that MIGHT be made. Trippy. We also saw trailers for some indie films made by some of Wash's buddies and a short Wash made in Pittsburgh about a Realtor who is eaten by a monster living in the basement of a house she's showing.

Onto the actual movie review, its beer rating and KEVIN, after the jump.

With vampires the monster du jour, we asked a group of folks who gather in the Fox Valley every Monday night to take part in game where they pretend they are creatures of the night a little bit about their unusual hobby.

We tell their stories in today's "Storyteller" in The Courier-News. Here's what they had to say, in their own words:

Jessica "Jessi" Quigley

I've been LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) since my freshman year of high school in 2001. We were really bored before school started, and someone happened to have the books.

My character (Lady Anne) is capped on her traits at 11's across the board in Social, Physical, and Mental, but with her social merits, it adds up to 15 for Socials.*

I enjoy the release gaming gives from the everyday norm. It's great to hang out with my friends, improvise with a set character sheet and let out the steam, then go home and know that no matter how emotionally involved the night was, we're all still just a group of friends hanging out and enjoying a game together.

(*NOTE: In the game "Vampire: The Masquerade," players take on roles using character sheets, which they use to determine how evolved their characters are along a series of traits. The higher the number, the more evolved that character is for that particular trait.)

More LARPers share their stories, after the jump.

NOTE: In a revival of this "classic" Friday feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Here are some movies playing this weekend...

Nanny McPhee

A sequel to a movie that looks like a rip-off of Mary Poppins and that brought in $100 million.

Beer rating: Bass Ale and my fuzzy slippers while I stay home for my own personal Julie Andrews film festival.


Piranha 3D, Vampires Suck, Lottery Ticket, The Switch, after the jump.

(PHOTO: The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps of Rosemont perform "Mad World" July 1 in Oswego. Courtesy of cavaliers.org.)

Last Thursday, I headed over to the AMC in South Barrington, plopped down my $18 and attended the live simulcast of the quarterfinals of the Drum Corps International World Championships taking place at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, the same place where Payton Manning makes a living.

I don't know what I found more disturbing -- the middle-aged woman in the row in front of me sitting with her legs up on a railing as if she were going to give birth OR that a good many of the bands played scary shows.

Times are tough, and it's reflected in the performances, which, for the uninitiated, can seem strange anyway.

Take, for instance, the Cavaliers of Rosemont. The theme of the group's 12-minute show was "Mad World," that Tears for Fears song remade a few years ago as a haunting ballad.

The drill team in the all-male Cavaliers was dressed in trench coats, which was way too much of a reminder of Columbine for my tastes. Actually, after looking at Cavalier pictures online, the coats also recall Billy Idol videos from the 1980s. The team bellowed military chants about their rifles as they twirled and contorted. They formed a "Mad Circle" with some props, too. And, when the corps performed the Charlie Chaplin chestnut "Smile," the members donned white masks.

I half expected Heath Ledger to return from the dead as the Joker during the performance, which also seemed like an outtake from the director's cut of the last Batman flick.

As of Thursday night, the Cavaliers were in second place, behind the Blue Devils from California.

More scarily fabulous, or fabulously scary, drum corps performances (including the corps from nearby Rockford), after the jump.

NOTE: In a revival of this "classic" Friday feature, Courier-News reporter Mike Danahey guesses how much beer (or other beverage of choice) it might take him to pay money to see a recently-released movie. His opinions are based on trailers, ads and advance hype.

Here are some movies playing this weekend...

The Expendables

By the title, I thought this movie might be about me, which would make me want to see it, because it's all about me. Then I find out it has all the middle-aged and older action heroes, plus my better looking evil twins, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bruce Willis. And it's written and directed and stars Sylvester Stallone, who seems even creepier than Mickey Rourke.

Beer rating: A six pack of Old Style Light.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Eat Pray Love, after the jump.

Oh, sure. Chicago had Lollapalooza Saturday for the wannabe hipsters. All 100,000 of them. And there was a Cubs game for those who like to drink while watching the most disappointing team in baseball. And the Boystown neighborhood regaled with Market Days, where you could shop for leather goods while being serenaded by Jon Secada.

But out here in the Fox Valley the first weekend in August means one thing -- the faeries descending on Vasa Park in South Elgin for the very best fest of the season.

The World of Faeries Festival.

Where else could you see Victoria's Secret models with wings mingle with Casual Male XL models dressed in their woodsy best (or dressed like the outfield wall at Wrigley Field)? Either way, the big boys had ivy all over them. From Michael's, the craft shop, in most cases.

That's where Jason "Maplesap" got a good deal of his garb. No, he's not a Canadian hockey player. Maplesap is Jason's make-believe name in the world of the Beneficent Order of the Greenmen. You can look them up at BogBrothers.org, which seems like it should be the website for a Celtic folk band. Instead, it's a group of guys, maybe 150 of them across the nation, who gather at Ren Fairs and other such pagan pageants to acts as bouncers of the bogs, guardians of the greenery, protectors of the plants, the fathers of the forest -- and to toss nuts at people for good luck.

More about Maplesap, other faerie fest-goers, after the jump.