Category: Movies

  • ODDS and ENDS: Dancing Bears on the Supreme Court, Well…, and Obi-Wan Kenobi

    (Guns have more Rights than Women)

    Yup, I’m pretty sick to my stomach and also really pissed off. Roe was overturned, and I know that no one is surprised by this. Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett only got on the Supreme Court to do exactly this. They were all groomed, and supported by Conservative think tanks and non-profits to reach this decision. They all lied and were coy about the idea of “weighing the case on its merits” when in reality we all knew the fix was in. This was a rigged outcome. And they know it as well. There was only one way each of them was going to get on the Court, and that was promising to deliver this when the time came. The time came, the music started, and these six dancing circus bears did their jig. Just like they had been trained to do.

    Fuck

    I watched Obi-Wan Kenobi, and I have mixed feeling about it. I liked it. I mean, it was better than The Book of Boba Fett which started strong and then just went flaccid. Obi-Wan did have one donkey of an episode, Part IV, that almost derailed me from the series. What kept pulling me back was nostalgia and Ewan McGregor. I say nostalgia because I have been thinking about this situation, Obi-Wan sitting in the desert of Tatooine looking out for Luke, since I was a kid. I had all kinds of ideas of the adventures that Obi-Wan had, protecting Luke while trying to stay in hiding, helping the Rebellion, etc.… I am old enough now to know that nothing will beat my imagination and excitement I had when I was 10 years old playing with my STAR WARS toys. But, I still like to see if someone else can come up with something new, that might inspire some wonder in me. Then there is Ewan McGregor, who has been one of my favorite actors since I first saw him in Trainspotting. I like the fact that, as an actor, he has had a career of playing so many different types of characters, moving easily between big budget movies and small independent films. When he is on screen, I want to see what his characters do. Ewan’s Obi-Wan was compelling, and I enjoyed watching the character regain his confidence and faith in himself through the story. I thought the series started strong and ended strong, but as I said before, the middle was a bit of a slog as it all felt too easy for the characters to succeed. That having been said, if they make a second season, yes, I will watch it. Cause I can’t say no to Ewan.

  • The Slap

    I will say this; We are all united in having an opinion over “The Slap.”

    Even if that opinion is “I’m still processing what just happened.”

    But whatever happens next with Chris Rock or Will Smith, the video of that incident will also be attached to them, forever. When the day comes and both of these men pass away, the clip will be played. They cannot escape it. It is done and now a part of our collective culture.

    And that does make me feel rather sad for both of them.

    I do think Chris Rock is one of the greatest comedians of all time. I see him as an artist. One who keeps testing himself and trying new things.

    Will Smith is one of the last great Hollywood actors. Not unlike Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Cary Grant. That leading man that everyone likes, and has the acting talent to back it up.

    But now, does this change the perception of them? Is one the good guy, and the other the bad guy? Are they both bad guys?

    A friend of mine, who is much more perceptive than I, has called the incident a cultural Rorschach test; Everyone will read into it what they want.

  • Not Enough Time

    I am stealing a moment to type this out. I didn’t do my homework last night. My homework being to make a meal plan for the week, a grocery list, and writing a blog to be posted this morning. What I did was binge three episodes of Ted Lasso with my wife, and then fell asleep on the couch.

    So, now I am running behind. I still have to do the aforementioned tasks, but I also have to take the kid to her dentist appointment later today. As this is titled, I don’t have enough time to get everything done.

    And I had two really great ideas for a blog. One was about showing how over the past 30 years homage, parody, and ripping-off in media have become blurred. The other was how I was completely judgmental toward guys who work out all the time at the gym. Both I thought were great ideas.

    But now I have to go.

    Maybe I’ll get to it later in the week.

  • Good Old Kurt Vonnegut

    It was a slightly strange weekend. First of all, I was a horrible father, and showed my child a movie, which I thought she would find entertaining, but actually just gave her nightmares. I speak of 1999’s The Mummy, which I thought she’d find fun, and not scary. I mean, this is the same kid that had no issues with any of the Indiana Jones movies’ and their face melting, heart removing, and weird aging/dusting thing. Nope, total miscalculation – Mummies are very scary to seven-year olds.

    So, I’m a shitty dad, or at least that’s how I felt Friday/Saturday night.

    The kid couldn’t sleep in her room alone, so I stayed up with her on the pullout sofa. I was looking for something to watch that would put the kid asleep, but still keep me engaged, and I found a documentary about Kurt Vonnegut on HULU (This is not a movie review) that fit the bill. Though Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers, I really didn’t know anything about his life other that he sold cars at one point, and got divorced.

    After watching the documentary, I had two questions I wished were answered; first, why did Vonnegut choose to move to Barnstable, MA from Schenectady, NY? I get that living on Cape Cod is cool, but did he know someone there, did he vacation in the Cape first, did he read an article about the place? I mean, what was it? Second, how did Vonnegut, who by his own admission was just getting by selling short stories at this time, afford a home on Cape Cod? I am assuming that Cape Cod has always been Cape Cod, which means it has always been in demand, but back in the 50’s, were homes really that big AND inexpensive that an infrequently published, and modestly monetarily successful writer could afford a home? Was his wife supporting him?

    I really feel these questions need to be answered, as I think this is the failure of most biographies; they never explain how an artist paid their bills when they had no money, and still found a way to create.

  • Personal Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Part 3)

    This is a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reactions to it. This might be the last part…

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie, in case you missed that from the past two days. Over the past weekend, I showed the movie to my daughter, who is now at the age that I first saw it way back in 1983/84. It clearly is very natural to want to share things with your child that you hold as important, and I also think it’s equally normal for children to want to learn about what their parents think is important. For my daughter to understand me better, she does need to know about Raiders, MST3k, and The Beatles. (Books are a completely different subject, as the kid is just now learning how to read, so we are several years from that subject.)

    As we finished Raiders on Saturday night, and after she told me the melting faces scared her, I knew that she would have questions, as she is a very curious six-year-old. What she asked me was: “What is the Ark? Why does it kill people if you open it? Why did ghosts come out of the Ark? Is it magic like the Infinity Stones? What are the Ten Commandments? Why did the Egyptians hide the Ark?” With these questions, I discovered a very glaring difference between my childhood and my daughters; at her age, I was well versed in Bible stories, and my kid has no idea what is in the Bible.

    I was raised in a VERY Catholic home, and when I was a kid, I went to Sunday school, CCD, and had my own illustrated children’s Bible. I said my prayers with my mother at night, and would even “read” Bible stories from a little red Gideon’s Bible, though I was just repeating stories I had memorized. With this background, when I first saw Raiders, I saw the Biblical implications all over the story. When my daughter watched the movie, none of that was apparent to her. It was just a magic box that you shouldn’t look at when it’s open.

    My wife and I have made a conscious choice to not raise our daughter Catholic. In both of our lives, religion has played a divisive role, didn’t necessarily prepare us for living in this world, and front loaded us with so much guilt, which we are still working through. For me, I really dislike how the Catholic Church, and most religions honestly, treat women, and I don’t want to raise my daughter in a faith tradition that makes her a second-class citizen in the eyes of God.

    I wasn’t expecting that religion would be the final conversation I would have with my kid after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I am glad that it happened. I am happy that we started talking about what different people believe, we talked about the traditions and history of Judaism, and what the Old Testament and the New Testament are. I want her to make her own decisions when it comes to religion, and they only way for that to happen is for her to ask questions.