What Ho, Hollywood?

Last week - or was it the week before? - TCM showed several old Harold Lloyd silent movies. They were great.

Too bad Hollywood has lost focus on the STORIES and, instead, focuses on camera shots, special effects, gore and nudity. I am reminded of a difference I noted between the original Star Trek and the Next Generation. The original may have had hokey sets and a low budget - both time and money - but they filmed with drama, theatrics. Things even as small as the gash of light across Kirk's face in tense moments or just the colored lights in the overhead panels on the bridge; things that lend emotion to a scene. Then, along comes Next Generation - antiseptic, sterile, well-lit. Sure, the bridge on the NextGen Enterprise was probably more realistic, but it was certainly not as dramatic and never told its own story as did the original Enterprise bridge.

Where are the films like Casablanca? 12 Angry Men? The Day the Earth Stood Still (not the Keanu Reeves dreck)?

Rather than simply make a good movie, Hollywood insists on "pushing the envelope."

Of course, we, the viewing public, are also to blame; mainly for our "celebrity-worship." We go insane over the mere chance to catch a glimpse of someone whose only skill is to be able to pretend to be something one is not. These people are paid millions of dollars for playing make-believe, something any five-year old kid excels at. But, who would even get out of their seat, if they saw one of the cameramen or boom operators - assuming they were even recognized?
As a result, prices are ridiculous. I've seen maybe enough movies in over a decade to count on two hands. Last summer, the pickings were incredibly slim. The garbage that is coming out of California is beneath contempt.
So, I'll wait until something comes out on DVD or BluRay, rather than drop almost 50 bucks on something that lets me sit in a crowd without even an arm-rest to myself.

Shooting in Aurora

In an Op-Ed in Tuesday's Washington Times by Charles Hurt (An open letter to Christopher Nolan, Sean Penn and Warner Brothers), he seemingly includes those mentioned in his header as, at least, partially responsible for last weeks horrible shoooting in Aurora, Colorado. He makes this connection because of the violence and gore included in their movies.

Now, I can understand the underlying message in Hurt's Op-Ed and I am certainly no apologist for Sean Penn, but - c'mon - Nolan, Penn and WB did not commit this crime; James Holmes did.


Peckinpah movies are tremendously bloody, Tarantino seems to love bleeding head wounds. For their day, E.G. Robinson movies were horribly violent; my mother is still afraid to see a movie with him in it. Psycho, a classic and highly regarded film, terrified viewers. There was more detailed and realistic blood and dismembered bodies in Saving Private Ryan than any Batman movie invented.

I understand, but Hurt should not distract from Holmes' responsibility for this crime by diluting it with assertions of culpability by those who did not commit the act.

As for the little girl, though she by no means deserved to die, what parent with at least two brain cells to rub together would allow her to go to a Nolan interpretation of Batman in the first place, let alone a midnight showing? That was the height of irresponsibility, even had there not been yet a mild disagreement within the walls of the theater. This movie was aimed at a specific demographic that does not include a six-year old little girl.

Global Warming Report

[Insert frantic ticker-tape sound FX here]

Just in from our Dubai newsdesk...

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Brad and Angelina buy Dubai island: report

Nov 14 03:41 AM US/Eastern

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought a man-made island in the shape of Ethiopia that is part of an ambitious luxury development off the coast of Dubai, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Hollywood couple intend to use the reclaimed piece of land to showcase environmental issues and encourage people to live a greener life, the Emirates Today newspaper said.
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So, I thought global warming was going to raise sea levels and submerge low-lying areas?

Yet, these two enviro-whacks are buying an island to "showcase environmental issues and encourage people to live a greener life."

Whadda they gonna do when it sinks?

I mean, if the Goreacle is correct...