“We feel the time is now to start shaping the next part of this.”

Really?  Am not sure what the above comment means.  Reminds me of the the character of the TV producer played by Jeff Goldblum in Annie Hall when he said:

“At the moment it’s just a Notion, but with a bit of backing I think I could turn it into a Concept, and then an Idea. “

Here it is in context re: Terminator 5.

Anyhew, who cares?  The ‘new’ Terminator picture looks awful = you can see the pitch = it’s just like Transformers!  But with more attitude.

The continuation of these pictures is decadent - in the sense of an old revered family dying out through in-breeding.  One of the great things about the original pic is that we didn’t need to know the specifics of how Skynet took over the world, how the humans started fighting back, etc. etc.  With every installment more mystery, and therefore interest, is gone.

The most relevant example of this ‘pointless mystery destruction’ in modern U.S. corporate cinema is, of course, the Star Wars films.  In the original Star Wars, released in 1977, a main character says he fought with someone in ‘the Clone Wars.’  We hear no details.  It’s wonderfully evocative.  The fact that it’s an old man telling a kid this after just saving the kid’s life is a wonderful detail - it taps into the very core of our receptivity to storytelling = getting received knowledge from an elder.

Producing, years later, animated tapestries detailing the actual ‘Clone Wars’ is unnecessary.  No animated ticky-tacky soldier can compare to what the mind can conjure up in just a couple of words.

Continuing the sad but necessary task of reflecting on the clouds that contain the silver linings.

6: 10000 BC- a genuine disaster movie
5: Sex and the City- product placement on characters who have nothing but their own personal hell to wear it in
4: Eagle Eye- A North by Northwest rip-off that ends up the most expensive audition showreel in Hollywood history
3: 21 - the only film I walked out of this year; even though I was there alone, I felt embarrassed for myself
2: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor/Journey to the Center of the Earth - see our episodes on these Brendan Fraser mega-trons for more info; or watch ‘Gods and Monsters’ and ‘Blast from the Past’ to be reminded of why he’s pretty good sometimes.

1: Wanted - an advertisement for nihilism that I had to pay to see.

Sorry to report that Sam Bottoms has gotten off the Boat.

He will be missed.

To me he always had the demeanor of someone not ‘in the film’.  He was from an outside reality - not part of the construct of the screen.  When this didn’t work, it didn’t work; but in film’s like Apocalypse Now it worked big time.

You know I didn’t believe Professor Dr. Gareth Higgins re: his Schlitz Light story in TFT 45.

A second spent on YouTube proved me wrong.

I had never seen these and I gotta tell you - there’s something very strange going on here.  What kind of establishment is James Coburn drinking in?  It’s like some sort of time-travelers convention = you just can’t place the time/place of the action.  And is that Kenneth Tobey, star of the original ‘The Thing’ as the bartender?

Watching these commercials I feel as if I’ve stumbled into another world, a secret world, kept hidden from me by secret, strange people.

While some take delight in laughing at Keanu Reeves and his acting style, I’ve really warmed to him.  He was the best part of The Day the Earth Stood Still and there’s something about his seemingly ‘idiot savant’ nature that works so well when playing parts like Siddhartha - makes you wonder - he intrigues me more and more.

He’s like a real life Chance in Being There…which begs the question, why is the [fool/the naif] seen so easily as a transcendent being? What does the archetype of the Holy Fool tell us about ourselves?

While pondering this question click on this sentence to see some Keanu in action

Review of Yes Man

Am watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Am convinced now, more than ever, that this is a seriously under appreciated film.

The image of Indiana Jones standing in front of a mushrooming atomic cloud has to be the most powerful, most iconic, thing Spielberg’s done.

And for sheer fright value - nothing comes close to the shot below - seen moments before:

I’m going to post my review of the year in several parts over the next week or so - and even though I now live in the United States, I’m still northern Irish at heart, so I’ll start with the disappointments. Here’s the first seven (of 13 - a number which seems appropriate):

13: Bolt - a computer-generated film whose end credits reveal beautiful pencil and paint images that could have made it a masterpiece. Instead, and regrettably, it looks more like an elongated version of the half-finished special features on a Pixar DVD.

12: Changeling - Clint Eastwood has an old-fashioned sense of storytelling, which makes for magnificent films when he wants to investigate parts we didn’t know about before (the guilt of the ageing killer in ‘Unforgiven’, the two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right existentialism of ‘Flags of our Fathers’ and ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’, and the tragedy of being powerful over a small place in ‘Mystic River’). But when all he has to give us is a terrible story about terrible events, the effect is like having your face squelched in mud for two hours.

11: Vicki Cristina Barcelona - Woody Allen’s decline was sadly not arrested by his apparent belief that his recent superficial scripts would be transformed into works of genius by making one of them in Spain.

10: The Incredible Hulk - A film with a brilliant opening shot that then just goes downhill; failing to recognise that the inner life of the Hulk is more interesting that genetically modified street battles, I’d rather watch the Ang Lee original instead - I mean it.

9: Get Smart - So many good actors, so much money on sets and locations, so few jokes that weren’t already in the trailer.

8: The Day the Earth Stood Still - a decently put together but cliche-ridden remake.

7: Speed Racer - My genial co-host thought this large-scale computer arcade game (with characters, narrative, and structure as subtle and nuanced as that description would lead you to expect) was a masterpiece that will change cinema. He’s probably right about the second part.

The rest of the list will follow soon….

Have four more pairs of tickets to Yes Man, for this Monday, 7pm at the Regal Green Hills to give away.  Conctact us if you want ‘em.  Due to the short notice I’ll be outside the cinema to hand them to ya before ya go in!