Movies

Today, all over the country, we will see a final chapter, of sorts, in one branch of nerd history.

The final Star Wars is here, and geeks all over the country are converging on theatres with a sort of weepy glee.

Be kind to your resident nerf-herder- the finality of it all will soon settle in with them…

It’s Here!!!!Post + Comments (1)

I watched Tasagore Seibei, the Twilight Samurai, tonight (IMDB here), and it may be one of the best films I have seen in years.

It may be too slow for a lot of people, but I found it to be worthwhile.

BTW- I just love movies. A good story is hard to beat.

Twilight SamuraiPost + Comments (1)

Since I have already sealed the deal on my geekdom, let me just chalk up what I consider to be George Lucas’s only real sin:

Han fired first.

More Star WarsPost + Comments (8)

I feel like I am in a wayback machine, because I think the Instapundit got confused on this one– the new movie is Episode III, not Episode II.

At any rate, I am sick and tired of people injecting politics into the damned movie series.

I am going to say something really daring and really uncool here.

I liked the Star Wars movies. All five of them. I bet I will like the new one coming out this week.

I liked Han Solo’s cheesy lines, Ray Park’s double-bladed lightsaber, Princess Leia’s bad hair, Natalie Portman’s mole, Chewbacca’s grunts, C3PO’s dry humor as the straight man, and Samuel Jackson’s purple light saber. I thought Boba Fett ruled, and we all wanted to be him when I was a kid. I know I have been insulted if you tell me I am ‘bantha fodder.’ I like the story line, the soundtrack, the over-inflated sense of cosmic importance to the whole thing, and I like that the good guys mostly win.

I liked the Star Wars board games, books and action figures when I was a kid, and I liked the two Knights of the Old Republic RPG’s as an adult. I liked Republic Commados, even if the ending pissed me off. I even like all the fan flicks- they make me laugh.

So everyone lay off Star Wars for a little bit. Lucas isn’t the source of all evil in the galaxy, even if I would like Jar Jar Binks to be killed by an Ewok that spontaneously combusted.

Star Wars has gone a long way to make my life a lot happier- much more than I can say for a lot of other Hollywood endeavors. In fact, I might just pop in the Empire Strikes Back in tonight.

So everybody just lighten up. This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats or George Bush or the United Nations. It is about millions of people like me who are going to go out and watch the last installment of a movie series that has been making them happy since they were kids.

Quit trying to spoil it.

And someone tell Prof. Bainbridge that Episode III comes before Episodes 4-6, so it is entirely possible for Obi-Wan to reject black and white logic in Episode III, and then come to embrace it later on. An encounter with Darth Vader, your former pupil, and the destruction of the Republic might just do that.

In fact, it not only ruins the story line, but enhances the innocence and purity of Luke Skywalker, who rejects the binary thinking of both his masters and the Sith. I guess it would be snide and condescending to point out that the original movie was Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Luke Skywalker was the new hope.

At this point, my uber-geek cover is blown, but I must ask- would it also be too much for me to point out to Bainbridge and others that the New Hope, in the form of Luke, was right to reject black and white logic. Do you forget who turned to his son and threw the Dark Lord to his demise? The force is weak in Prof. Bainbridge.

But anyway, I digress. Quit messing with my Star Wars, or I will have harsh words for you.

And one last thing. Bitching about bad dialog in Star Wars is like getting pissed off because Heidi Klum has a German accent. It is simply the nature of the beast.

What the???Post + Comments (18)

Compare Dr. Frank:

Have you seen this movie, Kingdom of Heaven? I’ll admit, it’s no Troy, but it’s still a hoot.

Kingdom of Heaven asks a question that has plagued historians for decades: what would happen if a late 20th-century, secular, agnostic, multiculturalist, progressive, sensitive Hollywood type were to be transported back in time to participate in one of history’s grandest spectacles? Could one of the most embarrassingly culturally insensitive chapters of our history be rewritten or perhaps even avoided altogether, through the efforts of one determined, sensitive man who is as open-minded about stuff as we are?

It’s a neat idea, and it is arguably needed now more than ever. So Ridley Scott, himself a knight like Walter Scott before him, sets the Wayback for the late 12th Century, and sends a former elf named Legolas back to medieval Jerusalem, just to see if he can single-handedly make the Crusades more palatable to modern sensibilities by forging a caring, mutually-fulfilling Christian-Saracen support network in the Crusader Kingdom.

With Roger Ebert:

The first thing to be said for Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” is that Scott knows how to direct a historical epic. I might have been kinder to his “Gladiator” had I known that “Troy” and “Alexander” were in my future, but “Kingdom of Heaven” is better than “Gladiator” — deeper, more thoughtful, more about human motivation and less about action.

The second thing is that Scott is a brave man to release a movie at this time about the wars between Christians and Muslims for control of Jerusalem. Few people will be capable of looking at “Kingdom of Heaven” objectively. I have been invited by both Muslims and Christians to view the movie with them so they can point out its shortcomings. When you’ve made both sides angry, you may have done something right. The Muslim scholar Hamid Dabashi, however, after being asked to consult on the movie, writes in the new issue of Sight & Sound: “It was neither pro- nor anti-Islamic, neither pro- nor anti-Christian. It was, in fact, not even about the ‘Crusades.'” And yet I consider the film to be a profound act of faith.” It is an act of faith, he thinks, because for its hero Balian (Orlando Bloom), who is a non-believer, “All religious affiliations fade in the light of his melancholic quest to find a noble purpose in life.”

Which reviewer do you think gives you a pretty accurate description of what you will get for ten dollars- Doktor Franks, or the several hundred word exercise in fawning praise and sycophantic genuflection offered by Ebert?

I know what my choice is…

Why I Read BlogsPost + Comments (14)

Sounds ot me like Kingdom of Heaven is a real clunker.

*** Update ***

Ebert seems to like it.

On a related note, has Orlando Bloom ever been in a movie where he is not wielding a sword?

A Real ClunkerPost + Comments (14)

I was watching Bedazzled, and I remembered how much I really liked Brendan Fraser in that role when I generally hold him in pretty low regard.

What actors/actresses can you think of that you generally dislike, but who played in a specific role and you loved him/her?

Here is another:

George Clooney in O Brother Where Art Thou?

Actors and Their RolesPost + Comments (29)