Films Reviewed This Week: Indiana Jones and Temple of the Crystal Skull / Ryan’s Daughter

Other Topics of Interest in the Conversation: Sydney Pollack, Contact, 2010, Forbin - the Colossus Project, Leo McKern, Zodiac, Starman, the Socratic Dialog, Carl Sagan, Helen Mirran, 70mm, CGI, Trevor Howard.

The Film Talk - Part 21 - Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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In which Jett Loe spits up coffee all over this print, Gareth Higgins is bored out of his mind, Speed Racer and Imax are discussed at length and a contest is proposed. 

The Film Talk - Part 20 - Speed Racer!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

a post from gareth

so - i’ve spent the past week or so recovering from the horror that is captain jack’s last stand (or at least i hope it is) - it’s possible that never have so much effort and resources been put to so little use.  ‘pirates of the carribean: at world’s end’ may be seen in the future as the definition of less than the sum of its parts.

in an attempt at putting the orlando knightley past behind us, your gallant film talk co-hosts sat down in front of ‘2001: a space odyssey’ - in the hope that kubrick/clarke’s masterpiece would serve as a healing balm to our cinematically-abused souls.

BUT! - to my increasing horror, i discovered that there are more than a few passing similarities between the 1968 sci-fi future of the human race/evolution of violence/peace on earth epic and 2007’s johnny depp pension-machine.

here they are:

1- both films are very long indeed

2- they have a central character who turns into a massive, god-sized version of themselves, and the audience is quite confused about their purpose

3- is the central character dead or alive at the end?  i’ll walk the plank if anyone can tell me for sure

4- one has a lot of monkeys, the other fires a monkey out of a cannon

5-both feature an incomprehensible plot

there are more similarities, but i’ll leave it at this for now - if anyone else notices points of commonality between potc and 2001, let us know.  of course, the key difference is that 2001 is a magnificent work of art that will last forever, while the only person who will remember potc in ten years will be jerry bruckheimer’s accountant.

The more I think about the film the more one thing occurs to me - this film, this mess, this thing…resembles to me more than anything else a ‘Works Program’ - some sort of subsided project that employs people - like building a dam…no, not a dam - something more along the lines of those failed U.K. Millennium Projects - like the Dome and its contents.  A huge of amount of money spent - no vision - everything cobbled together - no purpose - no theme - no reason to actually be.

Why do people go and see these pictures?  I’ve been talking to folks in my ’social circle’ here in Belfast - everyone’s going to see it. 

Why? 

Maybe these huge blockbusters don’t so much resemble Western tax-funded cultural projects as they do Eastern ones; those massive North Korean crowd displays for instance.  Perhaps this is an another indicator of ‘late-capitalism’ - people feel obligated to go; "You have to see it".  We all have to have a copy of the Red Book, or say the Great Leader is Divine. Or attend the rally.  Or watch this crap.

Jett finds himself in a Zen-like trance and Dr. Higgins sings us a few
songs as Pirates of the Caribbean - At World’s End is reviewed.

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