i netflixed "30 days" and "hellhouse". after doing "super size me", the filmmaker had a tv show called "30 days" but i never watched it until renting the dvd. the idea is to tackle something for 30 days. i thought the entire season would be the filmmaker taking on each issue but instead he was more of a host. i can see how he can't do everything as it may not be particularly a strong concern for him so doing that issue might make the episode weak but it's a good issue to take on nonetheless. or to simply get another person's take on it.

for the first episode, the filmmaker and his girlfriend moved to a town to live off of minimum wage for one month. they wanted to show how hard it is. how you can't really afford to do anything, not even the basics. not eating, transportation, shelter, etc. they lived in a crappy place and had no furniture, no car, etc. the hard part about buying this story was that they were starting off from scratch with little money. i think that most people do have a little something. i mean, when you go out to live on your own, you probably rent a room from someone instead of a whole apartment so that room is usually furnished to some degree. or if you get your own place and there's no furniture, you usually have something from when you lived with your parents that you can take with you or something donated from a family member. or at least you grew up in the area and have a sense of where to grab things from curbs, dumpsters, or hit a yard sale. that aside, the episode was good to watch to remind you of how hard it is to live that way if you are far removed from it.

the other episodes were not as strong but still interesting for the most part. let me first talk about the 2 episodes i enjoyed the least. one man wanted to look younger and be stronger, but instead of just eating healthier and working out, he wanted to take pills and injections to make things go faster. he didn't have plastic surgery, but this is the kind of thing people do who don't want to get cut up. unfortunately, we have a lot of people in this country who want to take the short cut with their body and your body is the one thing that can't handle short cuts, in my opinion. the person doing the experiment didn't seem as concerned until the doctors talked to him about his now low sperm count after taking all this new stuff. funny how that's the one thing that really got to him. that he was willing to take risks but once it comes down to sperm, forget it. his wife was even more concerned and she really dominated to the point of becoming an overbearing mother. the last episode was about a mom who decides to drink a lot to show her daughter (underage drinker) the ill effects of drinking. all i got to say is that kid is too stupid to teach a lesson to. just put yourself in the kid's place. at that age and context, would you have listened to your parents?

the remaining 3 episodes each had their own appeal for me. (if you're counting, that's only 6 episodes. too short for a season.) a christian man from west virginia didn't understand islam and volunteered to live in a muslim community in michigan. just the fact that they were in michigan was interesting because i had no idea there was such a large islamic community there. i liked how the guy was open-minded enough to volunteer for this and learn about what other people and religions are like, though he started off as very close-minded, or so it seemed. not that anyone was perfect but this kind of stuff gives you hope that our country can overcome differences amongst each other and unite as one people who are at peace with each other. the same for the next episode in which a straight jock type goes to live in castro, arguably the gayest place on earth. the third episode i enjoyed was one in which two highly wastefully materialistic people go to live among the earth and off the grid. in this one, it didn't seem so much that the volunteers were into it. it was more like they were sent to rehab. perhaps if the volunteers had been more willing, the episode would have been more enjoyable. or perhaps the point was to show that even those who have no desire to conserve could adopt some greener habits. i never really thought about green commune type places, only the horror story of people living in cults and escaped to become fucked up actors, but this episode made me think it's not so bad. especially the one presented, which had internships so that people can come by and check it out for a bit to learn from it. it seems like something my cousin in japan would be interested in.

on to "hellhouse". i had read some good things about this movie but it was a piece of junk that was hard to get through. it's about a christian church that for halloween creates a variation on the haunted house. instead of it being about fun and passing out candy, it's about luring people in to convert them. each room in the house is a scene about a sin. when i was a kid living in japan and going to missionary school, i went to a small version of such a thing. i really enjoyed it because to me it was horror fun. there was a scene in hell that i particularly remember because my mom was horrified at the house. she did not enjoy it and complained to the group running it that it was too much for children and they should have warned them or not let kids see it at all. something like that. i just remember her being pissed while i had a good time. but their main message too was to convert people. that was the main message of every christian i met in japan and it just left me icky.

what i didn't like about this movie was not the hellhouse nor the message of converting, it was just a poorly put together documentary. perhaps the good reviews came from people who have never heard of these things or have never been to one. the hellhouse in the film was a large one and so it did call for the behind the scenes footage of putting it altogether but overall i wanted to see more of the house itself. i was so bored with the documentary that i would have returned it early on but i forced myself to at least watch it until they finished building the house.