Movies

May 25, 2007April 18, 2020

On Star Wars – 30 years later

I remember it well. The film had been in theaters almost a year when I finally was able to see it. It was the talk of my school and several kids already had the action figures and other merchandise. We were too poor to see a movie all the time so I had to basically wait until my Mom got her tax refund. But there I sat in my seat at the old Cinema World theater just outside the Fort Findlay Mall.

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…” appeared on the screen then it fades out. Then *BLAM*

STAR
WARS

fills the screen and John Williams score fills the once empty void around me. Then the beginning crawl tells me the point in time of the story. Then the music starts to simmer down and the picture shows a star field as the camera pans down to show the horizon of Tatooine and we hear ominous music – Darth Vader’s theme I learn later – and a space ship moves from the top to the bottom of the screen.

That was cool.

Then I see the Imperial Star Destroyer as it fills the screen as it pursues the other craft…

WOW!

So began my love affair with Star Wars.

So, for better or worse, a tip of the hat goes to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – released on May 25th 1977.

Star Wars

May 8, 2007April 18, 2020

Summer movies I love

I got to see Spider-Man 3 this weekend and it was pretty good. There was a lot of “stuff” crammed into the 2 1/2 hours with many story threads. The part I liked best was several shots of Peter Parker tooling around the city on his beat-up scooter. And there were a few out loud funny bits involving J Jonah Jamison.

This weekend was Superhero weekend for me. I rented the DVD of Superman Returns which I saw last summer and I fell in love with the film all over again. I forgot I wrote a review on IMDB so here is a clip of that:

When an iconic film is remade you can go two ways – totally go down a different road and destroy what made the previous film iconic – think “Poseidon”, or you can do what Bryan Singer did and almost duplicate the feel and humanity from the previous Superman series of the late 70’s early 80’s.
This isn’t just a rehash but Singer tips his hat enough to the Donner directed films to satisfy this old fan and bring enough of current culture to satisfy new fans.
It starts with the return of the classic style for the opening credits and liberal amounts of the fantastic John Williams score. I did expect to hear some hip-hop or some bland pop music but luckily that wasn’t the case.
A Great Homage to Donner and Reeve

One of my favorite scenes is actually the first time that Superman reveals to the world that he is back and comes about 40 minutes into the film. Lois is on an airplane covering the launch of a new version of the Space Shuttle when a blackout scrambles the computers and the Shuttle can’t detach from the jet she is on. The main engines come on and sends Lois flying to the back of the plane and as she is struggling to reach an oxygen mask she happens to look out the window and *blip* sees Superman streak by to save her and all those on the plane. The look on her face and the music cue just chokes me up every time. Real tears.

The last part of the sequence is also a hoot. After Superman sets the plane down on the ground, he rips the door off and goes inside. He asks if everyone is okay and he and Lois make eye contact. Then after a bit of a pause he says, in a homage to the first Christopher Reeves film, that he hopes the emergency doesn’t put people off flying and that statistically it is the safest way to travel. He then flies off. Lois stands at the door watching him leave then she faints and falls down the emergency slide.

Here is a clip from that sequence so you can see why I love it so much:

I hope the coming summer movie season has a few more favorite scenes that I can watch 50,000 times on DVD.

November 13, 2006April 18, 2020

Louise Brooks an Icon

November 14th marks the 100th birthday of one of the most iconic actresses of the silent era. Louise Brooks was only active in films for a few years but she left an incredible mark that influences culture even today. To mark her birthday I created a tribute page on Brooks and why I like her.

Louise Brooks – An Icon

August 10, 2006April 18, 2020

Where have you gone Dexter Fletcher?

Dexter Fletcher

I was watching the TV last night as the History Channel was playing – yet again – the series “Band of Brothers”. It is the 10 episode series about the men of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne during World War II, that was first shown on HBO in 2001. It is produced my Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the series and I watch every time the History Channel shows it, but they do tend to over do it sometimes with repeats (but not near as bad as AMC or VH1). I like how they added to the realism of the battle scenes like Spielberg did in “Saving Private Ryan” as well as having episodes viewed from the POV of different characters.

So while watching it I was surfing the IMDB and Wikipedia looking at info on the series. Looking at the bios of the cast I came onto the guy who played SSgt. John Martin in the series. The name of the guy was Dexter Fletcher. The name sounded familiar so I looked at his filmography and my jaw dropped.

Fletcher played none other than Charles Highway in the film “The Rachel Papers” in 1989. It is one of my favorite movies of that time period. I had read the book and also enjoyed the film. The real reason I saw it the first time back then was it also starred Ione Syke of “Say Anything” fame and regular bad ass James Spader.

May 29, 2006April 18, 2020

Some sad news – “Breakfast Club” principal dies

Paul Gleason has died of lung cancer. He was 67. The actor, who played Principal Richard Vernon in The Breakfast Club in 1985, passed away in a Burbank, California, hospital on Saturday of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos.

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2006-05-29/#3

I never knew he was the Principal – I thought he was a teacher stuck babysitting the Saturday detention group. The guy was a big dick (in the movie) – that’s why I always thought he was just a teacher pulling detention duty – like he pissed off the admin and they put him on it. That would be very ironic given the plot of the film.