The Force Snores

SOURCE: DISNEY

Oh, yeah. The Force snores. And snoozes.

As you may be able to guess, I saw the latest version of "Star Wars", "The Force Awakens" this evening. It was a wonderful and thoughtful and even appreciated gift from my bosses and company for the holidays but wow. What a stinker of a movie.

This movie is, without doubt the most unoriginal, predictable, repetitive, tedious, cute and cutesy--and even racist--movie you could ever want to see. What was, originally, fresh and clever has become deeply formulaic. Hence the predictability.

And while I will say all that about it---and I can back it up, certainly---I won't put any spoilers here, though the film deserves it.

Personally, I'd like the 2 hours back. 

It's nearly as though someone made 8 or 10 more versions of "The Godfather." It makes that much sense, as a film.

These two writers, responding to the New York Times review, got it right:

OpposeBadThings  United Kingdom

I watched the film last night. I am one of those who saw the original and marveled at it back in 1977. JJ Abrams has a unique talent - the ability to take a franchise, remake the base story with new special effects and modern directing but - and this is the awful truth - has no imagination whatsoever. This is nothing more than the first film re-made. The plot is so alarmingly duplicated in so many details that I felt little more than duped. This was an opportunity to take Star Wars in a new direction, but instead, as he did with Star Trek, he just steals plots and reworks them. Utterly, totally disappointing- we have fallen for the hype - in 2 years everyone will realise how had they were.

anixt999 new york

The true genius here is not in the film itself which is an almost shot by shot remake of the original, no, the true genius is in the marketing and merchandising which has been like something never seen before, it's almost akin to a national brainwashing. Some may even call it similar to Jedi mind manipulation. This full court press of marketing is the true force to be reckoned with and is happening in every corner of the globe where there is a movie theatre.

The Movie itself is the typical action show, designed for kids and the kid in all of us, kids will love it, but they also loved Avengers, and Antman and all those other action flicks, and this will quickly blend in with the rest. It will not be the iconoclastic, seminal, magical event that many of us were lucky to experience in 1977. It's a hyped-up remake that profits in comparison to the hated prequels. Like many of have already stated, the excellent novels which have been disowned to make way for this new storyline were so much better and interesting as well as thought provoking, the kind of stuff that stays with you and stimulates the imagination. This movie has none of that quality. It is an end in itself and will quickly drift away from your thoughts and dreams.

However, It's lack of originality will not be disturbing to Disney, all they care about is Money. 

May the Greed be with you.

All I can say, after the above totally fair judgments, is that JJ Abrams, though he will make millions, should be embarrassed, if not ashamed. And it will be great for Disney, certainly and millions upon millions of people, the world over will go and even enjoy the film. Sadly.

It's just further proof of the very old but also very true saying from H.L. Mencken:

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

Go. Enjoy.

You know you want to.

I'm just happy I didn't pay for it.

Link:   The Pre-Fab “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” - The New Yorker

Entertainment overnight -- Groundhog Day

Happy holidays?

From the looks of it, some of us will be getting some terrific gifts this holiday season, if even just in the way of holiday movies.

They aren't about beautiful, functioning, happy families, without doubt, but it looks like a whole lotta' great acting and cinematography going on.

First there's Meryl Streep's new movie:



She just doesn't look like the quiet, soft-spoken, beautiful, intelligent,sophisticated Meryl we know but it surely does look like some great acting, as usual, from her.  And check out that cast--besides Ms. Streep, there's Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor (who I couldn't even recognize), Sam Shepard, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis, Dermot Mulroney and more. It's loaded with talent.

Then there's the very Bruce Dern-looking, new Bruce Dern movie, "Nebraska."



I read an interview of Mr. Dern and he said he didn't like being typecast as the crazy, old coot in movies yet he chose this role and movie and pursued it doggedly.

Sorry, Mr. Dern, your sure come across very much the crazy old coot, for sure, as this seems to show.

And as for the state of Nebraska, it's as I said a week or so ago on, when I first saw the trailer for this film, it's surely not going to do anything good for their tourism, that much seems true.

I think it's interesting that both these films, so full of promise, are apparently about extremely dysfunctional families.

I wonder what that says about us?

So there you go, folks.  Some possible great movie viewing for us this Christmas.

May you have very happy holidays.

The latest "Star Trek" movie and the US

Far too many people in America, it seems, think this is either where we here in the US are now or where we're headed, very shortly, politically:

Happy birthday Bilbo and Frodo Baggins!

Quote of the day... on believing

"...I believe in the soul, ...the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days."

--Character "Crash Davis", played by Kevin Costner, in the movie "Bull Durham"

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094812/

The Lincoln movie I DO want to see

Unlike that absurd "Abraham Linooln, Vampire Slayer" movie, this I want to see:



The trailer alone gave me chills.

In theaters November 16.

Links: http://www.lincolnmovie.org/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/

Coming movie: supposed to be good

Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It's supposed to be good.



A second trailer, maybe my favorite of the two:



Here's hoping they're right and it is.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/movies/cloud-atlas-and-the-master-playing-at-toronto-festival.html

Entertainment overnight, part 2

The coming election

What concerns me most about the coming November election is that both sides, if we must assume there are only two--either Democratic vs. Republican or Right Wing vs. Left Wing or whatever--seem to be predicting the same thing.

That is, both sides seem to be thinking and then saying aloud or writing publicly (on Facebook or their blog or as a comment somewhere out on the internet) that if the opponent's leader is elected (Romney or Obama), that it's somehow "the end" or that they'll leave the country or we've lost all hope or some such.

It reminds me of the quote from the movie, "The Big Chill" at the beginning, at the recently-deceased character, Alex's, funeral when the minister asks "Where did our hope go?"

Why are so many of us expecting an apocalypse?

Can we not have hope?

Can't we see any way forward?

Is that no longer possible?

Isn't this America? Are we not Americans? Can we not work together? Can we not address and solve our problems? Together?

It needn't be the end of the world as we know it.

Not unless we give up and give in, anyway.

I don't think so, for what it's worth.

The Catholic Church--and other organized religions--writ large

In the form of one Nurse Ratched (or Wretched).

Two best introductions to New York via film intros

It occurred to me yesterday what the two best movie introductions are that are wonderful homages to New York City.

Here's the first--Mike Nichols' "Working Girl":



The second, though I show it second, is, likely, the best movie intro that is a paean and tribute to New York City, ever. Here, then, is Woody Allen's "Manhattan":



Aaaahhhhh....

Why?

Just because.

Now for the flip side--a movie I very much want to see

Bill Murray as FDR?

Oh, heck yes!

Entertainment overnight

Rest in peace Nora Ephron, 1941-2012

Having just read that writer, director, producer Nora Ephron passed today, I have to say, if you haven't seen her movie "Heartburn" (1986), you owe it to yourself to check it out.
I think it was a bit of a sleeper but quite good, like so much of her work.
It was an autobiographical look at the breakup of her marriage to Carl "All the President's Men" Bernstein. Based on her book, the best-selling novel. It is a wonderful, funny, insightful, pithy film.

Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nora-ephron-prolific-author-and-screenwriter-dies-at-age-71/2012/06/26/gJQAMOtN5V_story.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001188/

I'm so old

...I know who Peter Cushing is and more than a few of the things he's been in (even before the first "Star Wars", for your hint).

Happy 99th birthday, Mr. Cushing.

Likely a funny movie coming out soon

Films that could never be remade VII

This movie, "Arthur", from 1981 is surely one of the good to great films--comedy this time--that no way could be remade. Between the pass is got at the time on the subject of alcoholism and the actors in it, it's frozen in time. With Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli and Sir John Gielgud, it is magnificent. The jokes and comedic timing are so spot-on, it just doesn't get much better than this. Such terrific one-liners. This is one of those movies that, over time, you can see again and again, I think, even though you see and hear the same jokes. Fantastic stuff, then, now and forever.

Number 2 on the list of "Films That NEED to be Redone

My call? Here it is: "The Grapes of Wrath." Man, to me, this thing is just aching to be redone. Sure, it's right out of the Great Depression, so long ago and it has Henry Fonda in it as the main character, Tom Joad, but here's the problem: that final or near-final scene in it, when Tom Joad is rather wrapping up the whole movie and their situations with his monologue is horribly, horribly preachy and heavy-handed, it just screams to be redone. Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032551/ It's ironic, too, because I"m all about the "working man" (and woman) but things need to be said without being too, horribly preachy, at least in a work of art.

Roger Ebert on a Missouri Film Festival

The extremely well-known film writer and critic Roger Ebert posts today on Facebook and his blog today about a regional film festival here in Missouri: "This event at the University of Missouri is a good example of a film festival that has defined a role for itself, and built up a loyal audience over 10 years. Why spend a fortune to go to Cannes when there may be a terrific event like this nearby? Kevin Lee is a well-known blogger and was our correspondent at True/False." Link: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120306/FILMFESTIVALS/120309991