Entertainment Overnight -- Best

One of the best, if not the best, intro to a movie ever.

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

On This Day, September 2

For whatever reason, I thought September 2nd to be a day of significance. With that in mind, I thought I'd put together a few highlights from the date, down through the ages. Partly fun, partly educational, partly historical significance. Hopefully enjoy.

490 BC - Pheidippides, Greek hero and inspiration for the modern marathon, dies

44 BC - Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt declares her son co-ruler as Ptolemy XV Caesarion.

- The first of Cicero's Philippics (oratorical attacks) on Mark Antony. He will make 14 of them over the next several months.

1649 - The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro. (I love that. Pope Innocent)

1666 - Great Fire of London begins at 2am in Pudding Lane, 80% of London is destroyed

1732 - Pope Clement XII renews anti-Jewish laws of Rome. (Don'tcha' just love those oh-so-innocent Catholics?)

1864 - Union General William T. Sherman captures and burns Atlanta during US Civil War

1894 - Forest fires destroy Hinckley Minnesota: about 600 die (I can't even fathom that one)

1901 - VP Theodore Roosevelt advises "Speak softly & carry a big stick"

1902 - "A Trip To The Moon", the first science fiction film, by film great Georges Méliès released

1919 - Communist Party of America organizes in Chicago (It didn't really catch on. Not permanently, anyway)

1936 - 1st transatlantic round-trip air flight

1942 - German troops enter Stalingrad

1944 - During WW II, George H W Bush ejects from a burning plane

1944 - Holocaust diarist Anne Frank was sent to Auschwitz

1945 - Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independence from France (National Day) (Years later, Americans would learn nothing whatever from France's loss and exit from Vietnam and instead, attack the country)

1946 - Nehru forms government in India

1957 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1962 - Stan Musial's 3,516th hit moves over Tris Speaker into 2nd place

1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

1963 - Alabama Gov George C Wallace prevents integration of Tuskegee HS

1963 - CBS & NBC expand network news from 15 to 30 minutes

1964 - Keanu Reeves birthday, Beirut, "actor"

1969 - Ralph Houk signs 3-year contract to manage Yankees at $65,000 a season (think things haven't changed a lot?)
        - The first automatic teller machine (ATM) in the United States is installed in Rockville Center, New York.

1971 - Chris Evert & Jimmy Connors win their 1st US Open tennis matches (Chris who? Jimmy who?)
         - Also his, Jimmy Connors', birthday, 1952

1972 - Rod Stewart's 1st #1 hit (You Wear it Well)

1973 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British author (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings)--as if you had to ask--dies of an ulcer at 81

1982 - Rolling Stone Keith Richard's house burns down

1987 - Donald Trump takes out a full page NY Times ad lambasting Japan

1997 - Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Montreal Canada on CHOM 97.7 FM (and we still haven't gotten rid of him)

2005 - Bob Denver, American actor (Gilligan of "Gilligan's Island"), dies of complications from treatment for cancer at 70
So now, get out there, kids, and enjoy your September 2nd.

Two of the best Roberts in one movie

How can it be anything but stellar?



Opens October 10

Recommended viewing

With the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing having been just this last week, there can be no better time than to see the still-fairly-new "Monuments Men" movie.

It's a fantastic story, beautifully shot and told and has a terrific, very full, even fun, cast to it, too. The first sight of Bill Murray is perfect, more of his tongue-in-cheek style.



This movie feels like a privilege to watch, the story is so good, so well told and so well done. I also think it tells more of the true horrors of war because, besides the war scenes, which every war movie naturally has, it shows more and better than ever before, possibly, of the horrors for the average person, the people, in this case, too, the Jews, of what exactly what they went through and the horrors. It shows, again, more personally, on the civilians' level, to the average working person, what a psychotic maniac Hitler was and the incredible damage Germany and Germans, at the time, did. It also better gives the scope of what Hitler and Hitler's Germany did.

I would go so far to say it's even an important film people need to see. It is one of those rare, terrific films you, again, feel privileged to have seen and are sorry when it ends.



Have a great weekend, y'all.

Entertainment overnight -- Groundhog Day

Two movies I believe I want to see

The first, with Denzel Washington:



And the second, with Tom Hanks:



Is it just me or do the trailers seem to resemble one another, with all the blue sky and white letter graphics?

I'm thinking that's somehow no accident.

Anyway, thoughts on the 2nd film:

First, Halle Barry could not possibly be more physically beautiful, I'm convinced.

Second, it looks like the "Boomers" are considering life, death, the possible afterlife and all that entails again (ala' "The Big Chill", etc.) from the looks of this film. It looks like Shirley McClaine created a movie with Ridley Scott or something, given all the "before lives" "and after lives" and space ships, etc., suggested in the trailer. We'll see.

With all the "Life", "Death" and "Rebirth" and "Everything's Connected", it looks like somebody smoked some serious stuff in the 2nd one, too.

Stay tuned.

Watch the extended, 6 minute "Cloud Atlas" trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgI6EeYbV84&list=UUzPAlRRUqh-PUYL5h9-PO8w&feature=player_detailpage

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

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

Bill Murray as FDR?

Oh, heck yes!

Entertainment overnight

Likely a funny movie coming out soon

A laugh riot?

I have to say, having seen just this trailer, this looks pretty funny. What needs lampooning more than Middle Eastern dictators? Not only that, but it makes fun of them and America and Americans, all in one movie. That takes guts.

The next big thing: "Hipster Games"

It'll be huge.

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.

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

Films that could never be remade VII

Back to my original them again. My final--I think--Stanley Kubrick film that can never be remade--"A Clockwork Orange." Talk about a unique film. And while it is both a beautiful film and a probing one--asking questions about what kind of a society we want to be and how do we treat criminals--it's so creative in its look, at the same time. And then there's that music--such great treatment of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. There's nothing like it which, ultimately, was the way all Kubrick's films were. And while it could never be redone, this is one that I also think shouldn't be redone because it's just too gruesome. At least it is for me and some of us out here. Links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/

Films that could never be remade VI

Here we go again, a Stanley Kubrick film, no surprise. This one, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is so magnificent. In the first place, it couldn't--and shouldn't--ever be redone because of the time frame in which it came out, being in the midst of the "Cold War" and all. Second, it couldn't be redone because of this cast--Peter Sellers, George Scott and Slim Pickens, most of all. It's so good in so many ways. This scene, above is one of my favorites. That said, I can't leave here without putting up that ending, too: Just brilliant. Extemely funny but so poignant, too. Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/

Please allow me to gush

Indeed, please allow me to gush here a bit on the incredible film and incredible film-maker that is "2001: A Space Odyssey" and Stanley Kubrick. I know I wrote of this recently but I just watched it again Friday evening for a bit as it was on TV. Once again, it just stunned me. Not only does it still resonate but I had to check to see when, exactly it was made--what year--because not only is the story intriguing and engaging but the visuals are just simply extraordinary. From the scenes in space to the shots on distant planets, it all works so well, creates magnificent tension and yet is so stunningly beautiful. It left me wondering, if Mr. Kubrick were still alive today, what with all the CGI and other technologies available for creating movies, what would he have yet created for us and our enjoyment and fascination.

We need to see this movie

Seems The Beatles were correct. All we need is love. "The truth of who we are is that we are because we belong." --Bishop Desmond Tutu. Link: http://www.iamthedoc.com/

The irony of "Captain America" coming out now



I can barely get over the irony of the movie "Captain America" coming out right now.

I confirmed, in researching, that this comic was begun in the 1940's, during the Great Depression.

That it would come back out now, in our "Second Great Depression" or the "Mancession" or whatever you want to call it, since it's the worst economic times since then, over the last 80 years, is just too great.  A subtle comparison it's not, but still, there it is.

And sure, we have far better technology now and it's been wholly refreshed and it's great for, what?  15-year-old boys or some such but, come on, the timing of this is just too rich to pass on.

The thing that gets me most about it is the whole "bringing back the America we once knew" aspect of it.  Clearly, we'd like to pretend we live in a bygone era but we can't go back to when it was all white people and no global warming or pollution or Mexicans coming into the country or Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown, etc., etc.

Besides blowing great wads of money, I think our civilization--the US--will also, one day, be known for not learning (e.g., Vietnam, housing booms and busts, Afghanistan, etc.), ignorant, obnoxious bravado (Geo. W. Bush, the Iraq War, etc.) and sticking our collective heads in sand, at minimum.

Pass the popcorn.

Links:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_america
http://captainamerica.marvel.com/