Movies
I watched a bad movie this week. Not that I should expect anything but bad
from a movie titled “All Superheroes Must Die”.
But I went into it think it may be some fun silliness. After all, there’s nothing quite like a good
bad movie. Those movies that you know
from the start are badly acted with massive holes in the plot but that certain
level of camp that keeps you into it non-the-less.
A few examples of good bad…
Troll 2.
A movie with laughable dialogue, horrid acting, nary a Troll
and absolutely no relation to the original Troll. But it’s wonderful to watch… especially with
a crowd of people. Laughs throughout and
even mistakes to leave you searching for the next one in a Where’s Waldo sense
of things.
Over the Top.
Arm wrestling truck drivers.
One of which drinks motor oil before his match. The high class boy meeting his low key, down
and out father… and coming together on the road as Kenny Loggins sings us along
the way.
Rocky 4.
The Soviets are bad.
America is good. Drago kills Apollo
after James Brown welcomes the Russian Bull to “America”. Bridget Nielson brings the venom and good ol’
Rock trains for his Christmas Day Moscow fight in the middle of frozen Siberia. Who knew that fifteen rounds of boxing could
turn the most hostile crowd of communists in the world into Rocky capitalist
believers? But it all happens in good
mood cheesiness.
All Superheroes Must Die is just plain bad. It’s as if a high school project for theatre
class somehow made it’s way into the public eye. Just bad.
Really bad.
Some movies are given unfair advantages over others. They gain greater promotion and have more
marketing dollars to spend. My number
one example of this comes with two Canadian films from little more than ten
years ago. In the fall of 2001, Rare
Birds gained limited release. In the
winter of 2002, Men With Brooms was launched nationwide. Most anyone you would talk to has never heard
of Rare Birds. While Men With Brooms is
seen again and again on TV, at least hitting the airwaves once a winter.
Rare Birds is original.
It’s filled with Quirkiness. Has
incredible scenery. Brings Andy Jones
comedy out for all to see and develops a sweet love story between William Hurt
and Molly Parker.
Men With Brooms is painful.
Paul Gross and Leslie Nielsen ham it up in an unrealistic world of
curling. Ironically, Molly Parker is
also in this one. She even won a Genie
award for her role in it. And even
though Rare Birds gained more award nominations and wins, it’s Men With Brooms
that everyone knows.
In a movie, Subtitles are always better than dubbed
language. I tried watching Life is
Beautiful in English and couldn’t finish it.
It left me longing for Roberto Benigni’s natural tongue as only he could
make a Nazi concentration camp into some whimsical world of games… all for the
sake of sheltering his son’s innocence.
Benigni is also brilliant in Night on Earth. This is another of my favourite movies. Telling five stories of cab drivers from
around the world, all on the same night.
LA, New York, Rome, Paris, and Helsinki are all represented. Benigni’s adventure driving around a priest
is hilarious. But it is always the last
story… that of Helsinki… that sticks with me the most.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is another subtitled movie
that wowed me. I remember sitting in the
cinema, shaking my head in amazement as I watched sword fighters running
through the tops of bamboo trees. It’s
an unrealistic moment in film. Much as
Men With Brooms shows unrealistic curling.
But here, it works. And that
scene has stayed with me ever since.
There are many scenes within movies that leave you wanting
more. I suppose this is why clip shows
and movie montages are so popular.
Sometimes it’s the dialogue of the moment that creates the scene. Sometimes it’s the actions going on at the
moment. And other times, it’s the
cinematography that steals the show.
Unforgiven’s scene is when Clint Eastwood finds out that
Morgan Freeman’s character has been killed.
The whole scene leading up to and carrying through that moment does
it. For him to so simply sum up the idea
that “It’s a hell of a thing to kill a man”.
To see the upstart “kid” lose all his swagger and show his true
self. And to finally see Eastwood taking
the whisky bottle (the bottle he’s refused on countless occasions prior to this
one) and giving in to that dark soul he has constantly tried to say he’s no
longer like.
Shawshank Redemption’s scene is the final scene of the
movie. With Morgan Freeman’s dialogue
explaining the thoughts going through ones mind as he comes to the end of a
journey, hopeful of once again seeing his friend.
Where Shawshank Redemption’s magic is at the end of the
movie, Star Wars’ comes at the very beginning.
The orchestral music blaring out through the cosmos as we first see a
small ship hurrying away, blasting lasers in desperation. Followed by the mass of a Star Destroyer… as
it engulfs the screen from above us.
That moment alone tells you “You’re in for a ride like nothing you’ve
ever been on before.”
Many scenes are known by the dialogue of that moment.
There is Jaws’ “You’re going to need a bigger boat”.
No Country For Old Men’s “Friendo”
Goldfinger’s “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”
Braveheart’s bellow of “Freedom”
And Titanic’s “I’m the King of the World”.
Movies take up a large part of our lives. Virtually everybody loves movies. I know only one person who seems to care less
about movies. All other people enjoy a
good movie or, in some cases, a good bad movie.
We discuss favourite actors and actresses. We debate the greatest movies ever made. And we pull for certain ones to win at the
award shows while we curse others that gain, what we see as, unwarranted
acclaim.
We have favourite movies to watch over the holidays. Others that we put on to cheer us up. While others still are as a warm blanket
after a long hard day.
Even the name of my blog comes from the movies. Coming to be from a moment’s dialogue by John
Cleese in The Life of Brian. When he
belittles the horribly inadequate prophet that is Brian as he meanders through
a story simply in the hopes of blending in and avoiding Roman detection. Cleese’s character disgustedly exclaims how
“he’s making it up as he goes along!”
So, not withstanding the horribleness of All Superheroes
Must Die and the stupidity of Men With Brooms, let’s be thankful for the world
of movies.
FRIDAY…
--- Two hour meeting at work. It goes pretty good over all. We’ll see how it plays out as far as the
running of the section in the coming months.
SATURDAY…
--- Pretty regular shift at work.
SUNDAY…
--- Ball is a loss.
First round of the playoffs doesn’t go great… a bit sloppy in the field
as a team. Oh well.
--- Night shift goes fine.
MONDAY…
--- Stomach is a little off at work. Not sure what it was that I ate but much of
the evening is filled with lead belly.
TUESDAY…
--- Lazy house day.
Too bad, cause it’s pretty nice out… but I’m tired after the block of
work and just lay low.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Half hour walk.
The snow is getting pretty granular.
So the walking is often slip sliding in its manner.
--- Take a half hour after the walk to widen the
driveway. Chip out some ice that’s left
and add about six inches of width.
THURSDAY…
--- Groceries and around the house. Getting colder again and windy… so not
wanting to do a walk.
--- Get the call from work.
No day shifts for me this coming block.
I’ll work nights three days in a row before taking some time off with he
folks coming to visit Tuesday.
FRIDAY…
--- Movies. Brassed
Off is an old favourite that I hadn’t seen in a while but come across on TV
five minutes in. So I’m stuck right
there for that one. And, after it’s
over, I catch the final twenty minutes of Friday Night Lights as well. My favourite anything of Tim McGraw is the
job he does in that movie.
