The Fly: A Day in the Life of Brundlefly.

You may recall that time I watched the Brood and felt a bit on the nauseous side after seeing Nola lick her beastie fetus clean. Well apparently Cronenberg's true goal in life is to make me faint, vomit, and punch a baby in the face all at the same time. While he may not have accomplished this goal in its entirety- he did come pretty close--to whomever's baby I punched, I apologize.

The Fly is one of those remakes that exemplifies the art of taking a movie and making it completely your own. Gone are the melodramatic tones of Vincent Price and his brother's fly mittens, and present is Jeff Goldblum's decaying flesh- and vomit inducing puss filled fly body. While the original Fly is a classic in my mind- Cronenberg's Fly is a completely different ballgame- fusing elements of hardcore science, sexual intercourse with a Brundlefly- and the depressing and tragic truth of the inevitable outcome of the situation. Sure we may have made a frowny face when Andre (the scientist, not me silly!) gets his head smashed in the press- and the fly with Andre's head gets smushed by a rock---but here in Cronenberg's nightmare we take a step back and catch our breath.

While the plot can be summed up in one screen shot--

(Which by the way I would like on a T-shirt or poster- thanks)--the film unveils layer upon layer of simply amazing special effects, make up and drama. I'm still wowed that I was able to keep my Mexican burrito feast down. When we see Andre unveil his "fly" head we laugh and in some cases start searching Ebay looking for "Fly mittens & fly head mask" whereas when Brundlefly is revealed- albeit painfully and slowly---we want to cry.

The movie is awesome- in case you haven't caught on yet and I honestly think the gore hounds of today's horror movies could learn a few things from this movie. The finger nail scene was possibly the worst thing I have ever willingly looked at- and yes I'm counting the poop feast from Salo. Something about entire fingernails coming off has never been my strong suit and the fact that he did it with all of his fingers was....awful. Then there's of course the ear fallling off, and the Brundlefly vomit....bleck.

But then there's also this subtle air of comedy in the film- and I couldn't help but laugh at the scenes of early Brundlefly coming into his own, experimenting with gymnastics, arm wrestling till the other person's bones pop out of their arms, picking up chicks and banging them for no good reason, and the constant hyped up flow of energy that he suffered. It was like watching a poodle on steroids suffering from Jessie Spano syndrome. Yes, Yes Brundlefly was quite the excited fly wasn't he? And how could you not feel at least some remorse for the creature? It became very clear through his darkest hours that living the life of Brundlefly would be no easy task- in fact it would suck. But just because it was an awful experience, doesn't mean we can't relive some of the brighter moments....

Brundlefly has some fun.

Brundlefly remains studious.

Brundlefly learns to type.

Brundlefly readies a gift for the Tooth Fairy.

Ugh. Not you The Rock.

Brundlefly learns how to keep his ear fresh.

A moment of silence for Brundlefly please.