Issue 181
News: MGM possibly going out of business: the Good and the Bad.
Well, one of the great American film studios has fallen on hard times, and because of that, it appears that there's only going to be 22 Bond films, and in addition, the film adaptation of The Hobbit will be at least put on hold, and I admit that if I gave a damn about fantasy movies in the first place, I would be galled by that. However, one other film that was more recently in the pipeline that is going to be affected by the studio's hard times is the remake of the 1984 film Red Dawn. I learned about the remake while I was setting up for a show at work, and I had a debate with my boss about whether it would be in any way plausible, and I doubted it was, and still do. In effect, the original, being about the invasion of Colorado by the Soviet army, would at least have made a little sense, perhaps it could have been seen as being a little bit plausible for anybody who grew up knowing Brezhnev as the leader of the USSR. Yes, the wisdom of one nuclear power leading an invasion of another is very suspect, especially considering that the invadee has no first-use policy, and the invader does(though nowhere near as stupid as unloading every nuclear weapon it has on a small coastal nation), but the fact that, at the time, Russia was an enemy of the USA at least gave the movie some credibility, even if, almost immediately after the film's release, things changed. However, in the remake, it's China who invades America. The problem is that making China the invader makes no sense in the current world situation, especially since, officially, China and America are neither allies nor enemies, things seem to point more strongly towards the former. To make an apt comparison, the Olympics before the original was released was in Moscow. We boycotted it. However, the most recent Olympics was in Beijing, and we didn't. I can imagine a movie like "Islamist Dawn," where Islamist militants from the Middle East manage to somehow take over the world could somehow work, even if the specifics of the invasion would almost certainly be as silly as that of the original, but the suspension of disbelief required to let Islamist militants on the other side of the world manage to be strong enough to take over is much less than that required to believe that China would actually feel the need to do it.
Film Idea of the Day: After writing a deeply insane children's book, an author of detective fiction is told to keep writing what made him famous, and his mind unravels as he writes it.
Film Review of the Day: Aisha. I was dragged into this movie yesterday. It was a Bollywood version of Jane Austen's Emma. Wow. A novel by an author I detest like a sickness in a genre I don't particularly care for. I was in for a treat. Sarcasm aside, Let me just do a capsule review.
Plot: It's just what you expect of it.
Music: Surprisingly for a genre known for its musicals, none of the music stays with you. Even the visuals for the musical numbers are utterly unremarkable.
Language: Pick a bloody language and stick with it! I can imagine using another language to "put on airs" or to communicate with someone from another country, but switching back and forth between languages at random just gets irritating. I suppose it's just annoying to me because I'm not from India, since it appears to be extremely common in Bollywood films.
Direction: Goes from being chaotic in the beginning to inept to just plain unremarkable. At several points, Rajshree Ohja tries to make montages, but especially in the shopping montage near the beginning, it seems more like she's just spiced frames out willy-nilly, or covering for damaged film stock. If this was done to disconcert the viewer (e.g. Natural Born Killers or Requiem For a Dream), this would have been Okay. However, in a musical romantic comedy for the proles of India, it makes no sense. As it turns out, the director seems to have made other films (I intend to review another film I hated, by a first time director, in the future), but, if IMDb is any indication, none of them were particularly consequential.
Quote of the Day: "Protestants
When I was watching a program (I believe on the History Channel) about Satanism, one person said basically that Catholicism represents all that the Devils is against (imagine that, Satanist might get along better with Catholics than most Protestants). [24.1]
I'm an atheist who agrees with Satanism as well, but I wouldn't tell that to my family. [24.2]
The word atheist may carry false connotations of being "immoral" or " that satanic ", and this of course is simply not true. [24.3]"
________________From the cPedia article on Satanism.
Link of the Day: C-Pedia. It's like Wikipedia, except the articles make no sense whatsoever.
Well, one of the great American film studios has fallen on hard times, and because of that, it appears that there's only going to be 22 Bond films, and in addition, the film adaptation of The Hobbit will be at least put on hold, and I admit that if I gave a damn about fantasy movies in the first place, I would be galled by that. However, one other film that was more recently in the pipeline that is going to be affected by the studio's hard times is the remake of the 1984 film Red Dawn. I learned about the remake while I was setting up for a show at work, and I had a debate with my boss about whether it would be in any way plausible, and I doubted it was, and still do. In effect, the original, being about the invasion of Colorado by the Soviet army, would at least have made a little sense, perhaps it could have been seen as being a little bit plausible for anybody who grew up knowing Brezhnev as the leader of the USSR. Yes, the wisdom of one nuclear power leading an invasion of another is very suspect, especially considering that the invadee has no first-use policy, and the invader does(though nowhere near as stupid as unloading every nuclear weapon it has on a small coastal nation), but the fact that, at the time, Russia was an enemy of the USA at least gave the movie some credibility, even if, almost immediately after the film's release, things changed. However, in the remake, it's China who invades America. The problem is that making China the invader makes no sense in the current world situation, especially since, officially, China and America are neither allies nor enemies, things seem to point more strongly towards the former. To make an apt comparison, the Olympics before the original was released was in Moscow. We boycotted it. However, the most recent Olympics was in Beijing, and we didn't. I can imagine a movie like "Islamist Dawn," where Islamist militants from the Middle East manage to somehow take over the world could somehow work, even if the specifics of the invasion would almost certainly be as silly as that of the original, but the suspension of disbelief required to let Islamist militants on the other side of the world manage to be strong enough to take over is much less than that required to believe that China would actually feel the need to do it.
Film Idea of the Day: After writing a deeply insane children's book, an author of detective fiction is told to keep writing what made him famous, and his mind unravels as he writes it.
Film Review of the Day: Aisha. I was dragged into this movie yesterday. It was a Bollywood version of Jane Austen's Emma. Wow. A novel by an author I detest like a sickness in a genre I don't particularly care for. I was in for a treat. Sarcasm aside, Let me just do a capsule review.
Plot: It's just what you expect of it.
Music: Surprisingly for a genre known for its musicals, none of the music stays with you. Even the visuals for the musical numbers are utterly unremarkable.
Language: Pick a bloody language and stick with it! I can imagine using another language to "put on airs" or to communicate with someone from another country, but switching back and forth between languages at random just gets irritating. I suppose it's just annoying to me because I'm not from India, since it appears to be extremely common in Bollywood films.
Direction: Goes from being chaotic in the beginning to inept to just plain unremarkable. At several points, Rajshree Ohja tries to make montages, but especially in the shopping montage near the beginning, it seems more like she's just spiced frames out willy-nilly, or covering for damaged film stock. If this was done to disconcert the viewer (e.g. Natural Born Killers or Requiem For a Dream), this would have been Okay. However, in a musical romantic comedy for the proles of India, it makes no sense. As it turns out, the director seems to have made other films (I intend to review another film I hated, by a first time director, in the future), but, if IMDb is any indication, none of them were particularly consequential.
Quote of the Day: "Protestants
When I was watching a program (I believe on the History Channel) about Satanism, one person said basically that Catholicism represents all that the Devils is against (imagine that, Satanist might get along better with Catholics than most Protestants). [24.1]
I'm an atheist who agrees with Satanism as well, but I wouldn't tell that to my family. [24.2]
The word atheist may carry false connotations of being "immoral" or " that satanic ", and this of course is simply not true. [24.3]"
________________From the cPedia article on Satanism.
Link of the Day: C-Pedia. It's like Wikipedia, except the articles make no sense whatsoever.
Labels: Film
posted by DerekAxe at 11:00 AM
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