Tag: movies (Page 9 of 12)

Spring Break Catch Up

April 12, 2016 / DB

A lot happened while I was away from the computer last week. Not everything demands comment. But four events in particular do require a few words.

The Final Four

I didn’t watch much of any game. I was astounded by Villanova’s destruction of Oklahoma in the semifinals. I’m not good at math, but that was like a 172 point turn-around from when the teams played last December.[1] I got to see bits during the run when the Wildcats blew the game open. I said in my mini-prediction for the Final Four that ‘Nova had the feel of a team that might be destined to win it. That 23–0 run, or whatever it was, was further proof of that. OU had shots that looked pure spin out and fall right into Villanova rebounders’ hands. Then ‘Nova would throw up a shot that would clank off the rim, kiss the backboard, and crawl in. I was not surprised that ‘Nova won. But, man, to destroy a really good team like Oklahoma in that manner? That was a performance for the ages.

They followed up with one of the greatest winning shots in tournament history. I watched zero minutes of the final, and was in bed well before the final shot went in. With how it turned out, I’m bummed I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to watch the entire thing.

So much credit to Villanova. They were the best team of the tournament. Their style wasn’t always pretty, but style points don’t matter. They imposed their will on each of their opponents, taking them out of what their strengths were and forcing them into what ‘Nova wanted them to do. In a year that was a bit of a throwback, with all the excellent seniors that anchored the best teams and Ben Simmons being the only Can’t Miss One-and-Doner, Villanova was the perfect cap. They don’t have a superstar. They may not have a first round draft pick. But they were an excellent team – better than the sum of its individual talents – that played so well together. I hate that they beat KU, but I loved the way they played.

Josh Jackson Commits To KU

OK, this was last night, not over break, but since we’re speaking of Can’t Miss One-and-Doners, I should slot him in here.

For the third time in the last seven years,[2] KU has nabbed the top high school senior. For the second time in that span, it comes in a year where there’s not a super-duper-star in the class, so there is some argument about whether Jackson is/will continue to be the best player in this class. But, still, he’s ranked #1, it was a fairly intense battle to get him, and he’ll be wearing Crimson and Blue for his one year of college basketball. Which is better than him picking Arizona or Michigan State.

I’m excited Jackson is going to be a Jayhawk. I’m also a little worried. First, there’s his name. One of the other two #1 players KU got was also a Josh, and his one year at KU was a profound disappointment. Jackson has holes in his game and is ranked #1 largely on the dreaded P word (potential) and his ferocious competitiveness. I worry about his ability to shoot and whether he’s strong enough to slash/drive at this level to balance that out. I also worry that since he is so similar to Wiggins in size, people will expect him to be Wiggins version 2.

But that fiery side is promising. KU fans have long complained about how the Jayhawks’ highly-touted freshmen are often laid-back Betas[3] instead of ass-kicking Alphas. Jackson is all Alpha. Between Jackson and Devonte’ Graham, this may be the loudest KU team since Tyshawn Taylor and Thomas Robinson left. And as a number of observers have pointed out, many of Wiggins’ struggles were because his year at KU coincided with the Jayhawks not having a great point guard. Seriously, he would have been 25% better if he had played with even a flawed point like Elijah Johnson, who could throw a lob 800 times better than Naadir Tharpe. Jackson is going to play with Frank Mason and Graham. They’re going to find him behind (and above) the defense.

Jackson also fills a big hole with Wayne Selden and Brannen Greene leaving. He and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk[4] should divide up those minutes nicely, and even play together often. Jackson is a great defender and relishes shutting people down. He seems like a kid who can contribute to the final result even on nights when he can’t get it going on offense.

KU was going to be very good again next year. Jackson keeps them in the conversation for national title contenders. Hopefully he wins more tournament games than Josh Selby and Andrew Wiggins did.[5]

NBA Draft Declarations

A couple years back I wrote that college players should have the right to declare for the NBA draft as often as they like. So I’m down with the new system that allows exactly that. I think it benefits everyone. Players can get honest critiques of their games at the official combines and make decisions on their futures based on input from basketball experts instead of what their mom or cousin or summer league coach wants them to do. It’s good for the college game because some guys who want to explore their options will take their names out of the draft and return for another year of college seasoning. With so many transfers in the modern college game, just about every school will be able to plug holes left when kids wait until late in May to announce they’ve signed with an agent and are staying in the draft.

As for the KU guys, it’s been obvious since the Kentucky game that Wayne Selden was declaring. I’ve worried all year that Cheick Diallo would declare, despite barely seeing the court for most of his brief time at KU. Sometimes kids come in with a plan, not always of their creation, and have to follow it regardless of how their freshman years went. And, who knows if he would have been eligible next year after the disaster that was his initial eligibility fight. Finally, I’m shocked Brannen Greene declared. It was no secret that he would not be back at KU for his senior year. And while the kid has a beautiful shooting stroke, he is so limited otherwise that I don’t see him as an NBA guy right now. I figured he’d transfer to a D2 school where he could play immediately and light it up every night, then try to build on that for next year’s draft.

I think both Selden and Greene are D-league/Europe guys. Selden especially seems like a guy who could follow former KU great Keith Langford’s path and spend a decade being one of the best, and most highly-paid, players in Europe. Some team will take a flyer on Diallo, but he seems destined to spend a year or two in the D-League before he gets a shot. Maybe it pays off and he turns into a rotation guy at some point. But he has a long, long way to go both in how to play and getting his body strong enough before he can entertain being an NBA regular.

Oh, and John Calipari is a douche for turning this new system into yet another path for self-promotion.

The Masters

I hardly watch golf anymore, but I do still enjoy watching The Masters. It’s a sign that spring has arrived, even if roughly every third year we’re watching with the furnace on here in Indy.[6]

I turned the tournament on for the first time just as Jordan Spieth was making the turn Sunday. I figured I was about to watch some history as he ran away with his second-straight green jacket.

Clearly I am a jinx.

That got ugly quick. It was shocking to see Spieth fall apart, especially on 12. I was never a good golfer – or even a mediocre one – and haven’t swung a club in years. But I think I could have played that hole better than he did.

Which is both the beauty and terror of golf. It’s so damn hard to play, even for the absolute elite.

Credit to Danny Willett for seizing the moment. It would have been easy to work so hard to fight back into the tournament and, upon seeing you were shockingly in the lead, either get flustered or let up. He closed out his round wonderfully and forced Spieth to have to play almost perfect golf to attempt to tie.

But perhaps my favorite thing about watching Sunday was the flashbacks to 1996, when Greg Norman melted down in his final round and Nick Faldo roared back to win his third Masters. I loved it because of the contrast in fashion. In those mid–90s shots, the guys all wore pleated, almost blouse-y, pants. Their shirts featured wacky, geometric designs. Clothes were generally black and white with splashes of earth tones. In the post-Tiger era, though, most golfers are super fit and wear tight pants and shirts with tailored sleeves that show off their cut arms. And many of them wear colors that harken back to the garish golf fashions of the 1970s.

Force Awakens Arrives

I never could quite find the time to get L to the movie theater to see The Force Awakens. She breezed through the original trilogy without any issues so I figured she could handle the slightly more intense latest installment. The timing just never worked out. So I pre-ordered the BluRay/DVD back when it was first announced. Of course it was set to deliver while we were in Alabama. It came with our held mail yesterday but this week is incredibly busy, so we may not get to pop it in until Friday night. Which is kind of killing L. And me.

By the way, the Rogue One trailer looks incredible. I’m fully onboard with this new, all-encompassing, Disney-led Star Wars push.

Well, 67 points. But that’s no joke. ↩
Josh Selby in 2010, Andrew Wiggins in 2013. ↩
Notably Ben McLemore and Wiggins. ↩
Assuming Svi comes back for his junior year. ↩
In Selby’s defense, he was on an Elite 8 team. But he didn’t contribute much to those three wins. ↩
New furnace being installed as I type this! ↩

Friday Link – Re:Rey

January 22, 2016 / DB

I’ll share a traditional links post over the weekend, but I wanted to devote some focused words on one link in particular.

Most of you have probably heard about the Star Wars toy controversy: that Rey is almost entirely absent from the new toys released with The Force Awakens. This article lays out much of the story.

Where’s Rey?

Some of the sources are anonymous, and thus I recognize that we may not have the whole picture.

But, still, W.T.F.?

How do you do this?

I’ve got some thoughts related to the gender aspect of the decision to leave Rey out, but there’s one big factor that overrides pretty much everything: REY IS THE FUCKING STAR OF THE MOVIE!!! Is there any precedent for releasing a huge line of toys around a movie or TV show and basically ignoring the star of the show? Based on that alone, this was an asinine decision. What the hell were those people thinking?

If you want to push Kylo Ren, that’s fine. But in no way can you argue he is the apex character of the new film, so he should not be the focus of the toy campaign. The Star Wars saga is a story of the Jedis, thus Rey is clearly a notch above Kylo Ren in the new character hierarchy.

Now let’s discuss the girl angle.

One justification for this decision is the claim that girls don’t really buy toys that are related to movies and TV shows. As a parent of three girls, I know that’s bullshit. We had at least 800 variations of Dora in our basement at some point. We have Frozen toys, My Little Pony stuff out the ass,[1] and on and on. Maybe, traditionally, girls don’t buy as many movie tie-in toys as boys, but they do buy them. And, as Frozen clearly showed, if you make a movie that connects with girls, they’ll buy the hell out of those toys.[2]

Here’s another important point my friend John N. shared: girls today are a lot different than girls were when all the execs making these decisions grew up. His 10-year-old daughter thought Rey was cool, but she was not as floored by her as we were. Why? Because she’s grown up reading stories with strong female characters her entire life. Rey was only revolutionary to us children of the 70s and 80s, when the female lead was almost always cast based on her beauty alone.

How does that translate to toys? Girls of today are comfortable with – hell expect – strong, independent female characters. They are likely more attracted to Star Wars because Rey fits what they’ve grown up with. Thus, they may be more likely to want Star Wars toys of their own, where 30 years ago girls of our generation were less enthusiastic about them.[3]

That change in gender roles goes both ways. I would imagine most boys are going to ask for Finn, Poe, or Kylo Ren toys first. But I bet a lot of them will want Rey action figures to go with them. Rey is a badass. Boys these days, who think it’s cool to wear long, pink basketball socks, will be drawn more to that badassness than worry about Rey being a girl.

OK, so now that all that’s laid out, let’s assume for a second I am profoundly wrong. Maybe girls really have no interest in buying Star Wars toys, boys won’t want Rey action figures, and any efforts to include her as a key part of the campaign would have been a mistake. The aisle in Target I walked through the other day devoted to Star Wars toys that was completely picked over would look exactly the same, except for dozens of ignored Rey toys hanging on their lonely hooks. There’s another very important angle the toy execs were forgetting: this is Star Wars. There are two generations of adult fans with disposable income who will snatch up just about anything that has the franchise’s logo stamped on it.

There is a guy in S’s office. Married, in his 40s. Last fall he drove two hours to Cincinnati to go to a Toys ‘R Us that had a stock of some rare Star Wars toys that weren’t available in Indianapolis. Trust me, if the kids ignored all the Rey action figures and game sets and shirts and “biographies,” there are tens of thousands of adults who would happily buy them up.

This whole thing makes me sad. Not as a pro-feminist liberal, but rather just as a modern dude who has daughters. This decision was based on narrow, old-time, deeply flawed thinking. When we think like this, it sells our daughters short. When our girls walk through the aisles of toy stores and only see Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, Han Solo, and Luke toys, it sends them a message that Rey is less vital than the cast of men around her. Which tells our girls that they, too, are less valuable than the boys they grow up with.

Horse. Ass. Ha ha! Also, I think the MLP toys came before the shows. But to my girls, they saw the shows first and then wanted the toys. ↩
Remember the big disaster when, because Brave wasn’t as successful as hoped, Disney didn’t license enough Frozen toys? And for six months it was nearly impossible to find them anywhere as they struggled to catch up with demand? ↩
I knew plenty of girls who played with Star Wars toys in the late 1970s. ↩

Awoken

December 29, 2015 / DB

I think this is going to end up being two pieces. I had planned on writing about the Star Wars phenomena as a whole as an intro to my thoughts on The Force Awakens. But I really should have posted that first, as it seems like it could turn into a pretty long post. So, for now, just my reaction to seeing my first new Star Wars movie in a theater since 1983.

I tried damn hard to avoid spoilers over the past week. Each time I came across a review online, I closed the tab. When I came across a thread on Twitter, I scrolled past. If I walked into a discussion, I kept moving. Thus when I sat down last night to finally watch The Force Awakens I was viewing without much idea of what was going to happen. I knew that reviews had generally been positive, which gave me some relief. But that was it.

This seems a good moment to point out there are spoilers below. If you’ve not seen the movie but plan to, you might want to skip reading further.

When that first crash of cymbals and blast of trumpets hit and the familiar logo flashed on the screen, I got chills. I’ve dogged the franchise plenty over the past 15 years, but as a child of the 70s and 80s, I admit I was sucked I immediately by the standard first shot.

Speaking of immediate, two things were clear to me right away: JJ Abrams was doing a fine job of mashing up the vibe from episodes IV-VI with modern aesthetics. Every step of the way, the sets and terrains honored those of the classic trilogy, especially those of A New Hope. At the same time, everything felt fresh. Dialogue matched the quicker, caffeinated style we’re used to today. Battle scenes were amped up by better computer assisted graphics and more fit actors. It felt like an action flick made in the ’10s.

Most importantly, Abrams seemed to be working with the impression his job was to not just knock the dust off the franchise so Disney can ride it through the next 10–20 years, but also to shed most of the damage done in episodes I-III. The constant callbacks to A New Hope in particular set fans at ease and allowed him to build the base upon which the next generation of movies will spring from.

Which leads me to my only major complaint about the movie: it was too much like A New Hope. I was handling the similarities just fine until the new variant on the Death Star appeared.

Seriously?!?!

It was bad enough that Lucas went back to the Death Star well in Return of the Jedi. But after 32 years, as the franchise gets a reboot, we have to go back to the bad guys building a planet-killing space station? I know, The Weapon was huge compared to the original Death Stars, and it was carved into an actual planet rather than being built as a free-standing structure. Still, I was annoyed by that whole element of the movie, along with the X-Wing sequence to blow it up.

Beyond that notable frustration, I loved just about everything else. Having avoided spoilers, I was surprised at how big a part of the story Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Leia were. I assumed all the classic characters would make a brief appearance and then fade away. The movie is as much about closing the door on Han as it is about opening it on Rey and Finn, though. Not going to lie, I got a little emotional when Han and Chewy walked onto the Millennium Falcon again. And Han’s final scene…well nine-year-old me, who loved Han more than any character in the originals, would have had a hard time with that one.

Harrison Ford was fantastic. That was classic Solo, with just a touch of age and wisdom and humility throw in. Carrie Fisher didn’t have as much screen time, but her updated General Leia was exactly how you would have wanted Leia to age.

The stars were the new additions, though. Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn were both wonderful. Ridley is a complete badass. When I give L. the green light to watch the movie, she’s going to flip for Rey. And Boyega was just perfect as Finn. I liked the use of two unknown actors in these roles, too. And screw anyone complaining about Abrams cowing to the PC police by casting a woman and a black man as the cornerstones of the new trilogy.

Adam Driver was very good filling Kylo Ren with anger, doubt, and impatience over his personal history and his inability to fully control the Force. I enjoyed his petulant moments. He wants to be Darth Vader, but he’s clearly not mature or powerful enough. Yet.

We didn’t see a ton of Oscar Isaac, but Poe Dameron seems like Han Solo version 2 for the next couple episodes.

Despite being over two hours long, the movie felt brisk. There were tons of laugh lines, the dialogue seemed much better than Lucas’ infamously wretched efforts, and there weren’t too many setup scenes that slowed things down. In fact, there were a couple moments that seemed to pass too quickly as Abrams rushed to move the film along. Han, famously dismissive of women, seems awfully eager to accept Rey as an apprentice. And Kylo Ren’s brief capitulation to his father seemed to come with minimal reluctance, even if it was just a ruse. Minor quibbles, those.

From a visual perspective, it was stunning. The CGI battles were generally very well done. They were, at times, hard to follow because there was just so much on the screen. I really liked the little details, especially on Jakku, like the remnants of some battle between the Empire and Rebellion long ago: an Imperial walker here, an X-Wing fighter there, a crashed Star Destroyer dominating the landscape.

As for the ending, it was awfully abrupt. But I guess you had to offer up at least a glimpse of Luke Skywalker. Some have noted how The Empire Strikes Back had a cliffhanger ending. True, but it also had a sense of closure, as Luke and Leia stared off into the distance as Chewy and Lando flew away to search for Han. None of this dramatic stare-down between Luke and Rey. So it was a little weird. But it also makes me really want episode VIII to get here quick. Abrams for the win, I guess!

To wrap things up, I really liked The Force Awakens. It accomplished what I wanted from the film: make Star Wars fun and interesting again. Small issues aside, I thought it was really good. I’m debating whether L. is old enough to see it so I can take her and go see it again.[1]While Abrams is stepping back to executive produce and letting Rian Johnson take over directing and main writing duties for the next two movies, Abrams righted the ship. Filming begins on the next film next month. May 2017 can’t get here soon enough.

I think there are three or four scenes that might be a little intense for her. But I’m going to ask around, as I know some of her classmates have seen it, and get input from their parents. I did cave and finally ordered episodes IV-VI last night, so I’ll start her off with those later this week. We’ll see if the other two girls are interested at all. ↩

Weekend Wrap-Up

November 9, 2015 / DB

I’m going to try to get back in a regular schedule of posting now that baseball is over. Although S. and I are heading out-of-town Thursday, which is yet another impediment to those plans. I’ll try my best!

Let’s begin with an old style weekend round up!

It was odd not to have a stressful baseball game two watch on Friday night. Or to be covering a high school football game. Or have some kind of social engagement on the calendar. First Friday night since before the school year began I could say that.

M. has lost two of her molars in the past week. Now she’s down to just two baby teeth. Which means another visit to the orthodontist is probably going to be on her schedule for 2016.

There were some Tooth Fairy issues this time.

She lost her first tooth last Sunday. As I always do on these nights, I set a reminder for 10:30 to do the Tooth Fairy duties before I went to bed. The only problem was that was the night of game five of the World Series. The first alarm went off and I snoozed it for half an hour. Then again. And again. And so on until it was 2:30 or 2:45 or 3:00 – I’m not really sure – and stumbled upstairs. I’ve had all kinds of interesting Tooth Fairy moments since M. lost her first tooth. Stepping on toys that were lying on the floor and made noise. Unable to find the tooth. Having to feel around under a kid’s head to find the tooth. Or just forgetting to make the visit and running in before the daughter in question woke the next morning. Being pretty hammered was a new thing. Fortunately I crept in without running into any walls or tripping on anything, collected the tooth, dropped the money, and stumbled back out.

She lost another tooth Friday. She had it in a baggie and ready to go when she and C. began fighting at about 8:30. I sent them both upstairs to bed. Once I got L. settled and came back down, I saw the tooth still sitting on the couch. I decided that since M. was being a jackass, T.F. would get the night off. Which was smart, because I didn’t have enough money to pay up.

Saturday night bedtime rolled around. I was watching football and got a text from S. saying “Please tell TF that M. lost a tooth and she is putting it on her bedside table.” Solid move by M., letting me know where the tooth was.

But, again, I failed to get any money during the day. We scrounged around the house trying to find a couple more dollar bills and failed. I decided to write a note from TF saying she was swamped and all she had was one dollar. But the other two would come soon! As with the notes the girls get from Elfie in December, I wrote this one left-handed. Which really was kind of stupid, because we know that M. knows where the money comes from. And she knows that we know she knows. I could have just jotted a note. But I figured go lefty in case her sisters see it.

Sunday S. asked M. if the Tooth Fairy came. “Yes,” she said somewhat disappointedly. “But I only got one dollar! She left me a note saying she had a busy night and could only give me one for now. She better get me those two other dollars soon!” We were in the car and I could feel her little eyeballs burning holes into my head. She also told C. and L. that the Tooth Fairy’s handwriting was a lot like Elfie’s.

Before bed last night, she made the loud statement that “The Tooth Fairy better get me my money!” Apparently she’s been listening to some of my early ‘90s West Coast rap.

Sunday was our annual “Spend a whole day at the lake blowing leaves” day. Between L. playing soccer on Sundays for two months, baseball, and the Colts’ terrible start, I had pretty much completely tuned them out. So much so that I just assumed their game against the Broncos would be the Sunday night game. We got home, I ran to the grocery store, and was surprised it was completely empty. “People must already be downtown,” I thought. On the way home I switched by the radio station that normally carries the Colts and a Pacers game was on.

So wasn’t I surprised to sit down, turn on the TV, and not only find the Colts playing, but up 10–0 in the second quarter. What a moment for them to finally right the ship! They made it interesting, but made huge plays late to seal the win.[1] Andrew Luck looked fantastic, even if he again just about got knocked out for the season three or four times. The defense looked as good as they’ve looked all year. And the Colts continue to be Peyton Manning’s kryptonite. I believe that’s 3–0 against him since he went to Denver.

The Colts still have a lot of work to do. They are shockingly thin on defense, and one or two injuries could blow apart that whole unit. They have to find a way to protect Luck. And another bad loss or two could destroy the goodwill produced yesterday. But nine or maybe ten wins are back in play again. At least for now.

Saturday night we took the girls to see the Peanuts movie. They enjoyed it, and I thought it was cute. It hit all the classic tropes from the historic Peanuts comics. Which, I realized, my girls don’t get a lot of. They watch the Great Pumpkin and Christmas specials every year. But they have never read the books the way I did when I was a kid. There were a number of little moments that amused me, but went over their heads completely.

I will say this though (Spoiler alert): the movie is set up so Charlie Brown finally (maybe?) has a big success. The entire time I was worried he was finally going to kick the football Lucy held before the movie ended. Thank goodness that didn’t happen. That really would have pissed me off.

BTW, I looked it up just to make sure Charlie never did actually kick the football. I found this page. I suggest reading through it. Turns out he did kick it, once. However, as the page points out, Peanuts zealots have a very important reason for not counting that attempt.

But really, where did fall go? We’re going to go buy a Christmas tree in just over two weeks.

My Jayhawk brother Aqib Talib with the absolutely stupid and needless personal foul that pretty much clinched the game for the Colts. And then another brain-dead penalty by Denver kept Peyton from getting the ball back with 20 seconds or so to play. ↩

Not Quite Like A Fine Wine

September 2, 2015 / DB

As I mentioned in last week’s Friday Links, I watched Real Genius a week ago. Then, this past Sunday, I watched Fletch. As with Real Genius, it had been a long, long time since I had watched Fletch, a movie which has to be in my top five most-watched non-Christmas movies of all time list.[1]

So A), yes I’m on a bit of a classic 80s movie run. Sunday nights seem to be the most convenient to watch them right now, since the Royals generally play during the afternoon on Sundays. We’ll see if this holds once football starts. I have a couple titles in mind for my next viewing. B) I also read one of the Fletch Chronicles last month, which combined three of the original Fletch novels into a single volume.[2] More on that in my next reader’s notebook entry.

Anyway, I found my reactions to the two movies rather interesting. I loved every second of Real Genius, even the parts that did not age very well. Fletch, on the other hand, I had some issues with. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still terrifically funny and I could still quote about half of the movie or make subtle gestures as Chevy Chase made them on the screen. But there was something I couldn’t pinpoint as I watched that made it maybe 3% less enjoyable than Real Genius.[3]

After thinking about it, I think it was purely about Chevy. Back in 1985, and through the next decade or so when I watched Fletch religiously, Chevy was one of my comedy gods. Throw on Fletch, Caddyshack, Vacation, Spies Like Us, The Three Amigos, or an SNL compilation, and I’m going to love every second of Chevy. The problem is how we’ve learned over the years that Chevy is a monumental dick to most people he works with. So the whole time I was watching Fletch, I kept thinking about who he pissed off while filming it. Did Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and Geena Davis cringe each time they had to do a scene with him, knowing some sexist comment was coming? Did Tim Matheson[4] roll his eyes when Chevy talked down to him?

Maybe none of that happened, but still it was always in the back of my head.

Val Kilmer has a reputation as being a bit difficult as well. But I didn’t think of that while watching Real Genius. Perhaps because he was not yet a big star when that came out, or because it was more of an ensemble piece than a vehicle to showcase him.

I had another problem with the movie, too. The first time Fletch sleeps with Gail Stanwyck has always bugged me. So he just told her that her husband has asked Fletch to kill him, had used money she provided to finance a drug deal rather than buy the land she believed she was purchasing, and is married to someone else. And five seconds later they’re in bed together? Even by 1980s movies standards, that’s a stretch.

But, as I said, overall I still really enjoyed it. There are so many classic lines that have woven their way into our common, pop culture language. Potential off-screen issues aside, it was the peak of Chevy Chase’s big screen career. We’ll see how some of his other classic 80s movies hold up when I get to them.

“I’ll take Unwieldy Pop Culture Category Names for $400, Alex.” ↩
Hell yes I’m counting them as three separate books in my 2015 reading list! ↩
Give or take. ↩
Funny how which movie you see of an actor’s first colors how you view them. I see Matheson and I always think of him as Alan Stanwyck first. I bet most people think of him as Otter from Animal House, though. And younger folks might think of him as John Hoynes from The West Wing. ↩

Gotta Get Back In Time

July 7, 2015 / DB

A pretty solid holiday weekend, all things considered. We had good weather; it did not rain for two days, which has been unusual over the past month, nor was it blazingly hot. We had our traditional family gathering at the LVS. Not as many people as the past few years but still a decent-sized crowd. The only downer was the air conditioner deciding not to work when we were crowding 14 people into a small area to eat dinner. Fortunately it was not too uncomfortably hot and then the AC decided to kick back on the next morning.

The highlight of the weekend for me, though, actually came Monday afternoon. Thursday I read that the weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Back To The Future. On our trip to the library, I snatched up the DVD with plans to watch it with the girls over the weekend. We never got around to it at the LVS, but Monday afternoon we sat down together so the girls could learn all about Marty McFly and friends.

They loved it, and I was reminded what a great movie it is.

I don’t think I had watched it since 1990 or ’91. But I likely watched it a few dozen times between 1986 and then.[1] I was gambling a little that everything would be ok for my girls to watch. Other than the scenes where Biff attempts to force himself on Lorraine and a few assorted mild curse words, there wasn’t anything the girls haven’t seen on your average, terrible Nickelodeon teen show.

I tried not to explain too much to them as the movie progressed. I threw in a few cultural/historic tidbits in certain scenes, but tried to let them figure things out on their own as much as possible. Besides, where my generation had some basic understanding of what life was like in the 1950s thanks to Happy Days, The Hardy Boys, and Grease, I’m reasonably sure kids today are working with nearly zero knowledge of that era. It was a long freaking time ago! It’s a tough task to explain too much without stopping the movie every two minutes to talk through why the guy who runs the soda shop thinks it’s so ridiculous that Goldie Wilson wants to be mayor someday, why Marty tries to order a Tab and Pepsi Free, and why the music he plays at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance seems so outrageous.

I think they got it, though. They laughed at all the right parts, loved Marty evading Biff and his cronies on his improvised skateboard, and cringed at any romantic scenes. Best of all, when I asked “So why was Marty’s family so different when he came back to 1985?” they all quickly answered some variation of “Because he changed history!”[2]

L. had the observation of the day, though. When Marty returns to the mall parking lot and watches the Libyans try to kill Doc, she said, “Hey, that sign says ‘Lone Pine’!” After I explained to her sisters what she was talking about, they were pretty impressed. As was I. I honestly don’t remember if I ever noticed the change in the mall’s name from beginning of the movie to the end. But it has been 24–25 years since I watched it, too.

I have to say I really enjoyed the movie as well. I kind of forgot how fantastic a flick it is. Family-friendly (mostly). Great story and writing. Fine mix of humor, drama, romance, and action. Terrific performances from the entire cast. And a hell of a last 20 minutes.

Re-watching after all these years, I was especially struck by how good Christopher Lloyd was. Doc is just a great character, and it’s all because of Lloyd’s particular brand of physical madness. And I really love the way he plays the moments after Marty returns and he rises to reveal he had indeed kept and read the letter Marty left for him. There’s a very subtle tenderness in those moments that is just wonderful.

So the girls loved the movie and the moment the credits rolled, yelled how they want to watch parts two and three. Looks like I’ve already got my parenting win for the week in the books!

Like a lot of movies of my youth, I didn’t see it until a year after it was released in theaters. I’m 95% certain it was the first movie we ever rented after we bought our first VCR. ↩

Teen Beach Movie 2 may have helped them here, since time travel changed history in it as well. And they’ve watched that movie like 95 times in the last couple weeks. ↩

Early December Notes

December 4, 2014 / DB

Man, have we had trouble getting the girls to put Christmas lists together this year. In years past, we normally had detailed lists from all three well before Thanksgiving. Followed by daily updates.

This year, though, has been much harder. L. gave us a list about a week ago. C. and M. both started lists, but they kept disappearing or were never handed over. One day last week, when I asked the girls if they had their lists ready, M. snapped at me, “Why do you need to see it?”

She might know what’s up, but she sure ain’t rocking the boat and risking losing out on gifts.

I think part of the problem is that we have received almost no toy catalogs in the mail this year. It seems like Target usually sends out a big toy catalog the weekend after Halloween, and the girls spend the next couple days fighting over it as they mark the things they want. That catalog never came this year.

An unlikely helper finally got the girls in gear. All three girls took a liking to the Brookstone catalog that came over Thanksgiving break. By Sunday night we had lists from all three girls. Or, rather, all three girls handed me sealed envelopes addressed to Santa at the North Pole that I was supposed to put in the mailbox Monday morning.

When we looked at the lists that night, we cracked up. C. listed out 13 things, all from Brookstone. She was very precise in providing us with names. She wants a Crosley ® CD Jukebox. And an Aqua-Jet® Foot Spa. And several other items that she listed the brand name, followed by the ® sign. We thought that was all kinds of awesome.

M. was giving us problems because she kept asking for exactly three things, and none of them all that fun. Which bums me out a little. She might be down with Santa publicly, but I hate that she’s beginning to ask for practical gifts rather than “kid” things. We’ll see if and how this changes over the next couple weeks.

Each year I put together a picture calendar for us and that we give as a gift to the grandparents. It’s always fun to review all the pictures we took over the past year. I do notice that I’m taking fewer pictures than I used to. And I take almost no videos any more.

What I like the most is putting together the December page. I try to slap as many pictures from Christmases past as will fit. I love watching the girls change in 12-month increments on that page.

Finally, I let the girls watch Home Alone last night. Believe it or not, I had never seen it before, either. Since it came out when I was in college, I’m pretty sure I thought it was stupid at the time, and hated how it dominated pop culture for so long and made Macaulay Culkin a star.

So what did I think? I was a little surprised. I always had it in my mind that the entire movie was Culkin trying to keep Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern out of his home. So it was weird to me that all that was only a 15-20 minute stretch at the end.

A lot of the acting was poor. The first half draaaaaags. Culkin grated on me rather than charmed.

But the girls liked it, which I guess is the most important thing.

I was reading up on Home Alone today and it serves as another reminder of how much pop culture has changed in the last quarter-century. It was the #1 movie for 12 straight weeks, which rarely happens anymore. What is really crazy, though, is that it stayed in the top ten into April of 1991, and popped back into the top ten two more times that summer. So a movie that was released before Thanksgiving was still in theaters deep into the following summer. These days it would have been out on DVD and streaming video before Easter.

Thanksgiving Notes

December 1, 2014 / DB

So, I’m putting this together beginning at 10:40 Sunday night. Christmas Vacation is on TV. The tree is lit. A Bell’s Christmas Ale is at my side. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year.

Man, the holiday weekend went by fast. It seems like minutes ago we were out to eat on Wednesday night, watching basketball on the big screens, and thinking of all that the four days ahead held. Allow me to catch you up.

As my Facebook friends know, we made some controversial decisions Wednesday night. On our way home from dinner, M. said to her sisters, “We’ll get our tree on Friday and order pizza. It’s Dad’s Christmas tradition.”

A few minutes later, she asked if we could watch a Christmas movie when we got home. I reminded her that it was also my tradition not to watch Christmas movies, or listen to Christmas music, until after Thanksgiving.

“Most of your traditions are good, but that one is dumb, Dad,” she shot back.

So we watched Elf.

When we got to the part where Buddy moves in with the Hobbs family and he decorates their entire house, C. disappeared upstairs. A few minutes later she returned with a stack of paper and scissors. Soon she had a bunch of paper snowflakes and paper rings, just like Buddy. More confirmation that Buddy the Elf is just a giant eight-year-old.

Later that evening, I threw caution to the wind and decided to watch the Thanksgiving Orphans episode of Cheers the night before Thanksgiving, rather than on Thanksgiving night itself. Which makes sense. Watch it in preparation for the big day, rather than as a wrap-up.

Although, and this is crazy, the original episode aired on Thanksgiving night, 1986. I remember ER used to have big Thanksgiving episodes. Isn’t everything either football, a holiday special, or a rerun these days?

Thanksgiving was a fine day. Excellent food. Good company. No arguments amongst the family! As always, the girls began the day watching the Macy’s parade. I was busy in the kitchen most of the time, but if I can hazard a guess, M. was explaining everything to her sisters, C. was making observations that M. immediately shot down, and L. was cheering for Spider Man.

A big Thanksgiving tradition is for Elfie, our Elf on the Shelf, to show up. And he did, right on schedule, and the girls were very excited to receive him. C. wrote him a note over the weekend that said:

Dear Elfie. Do you now (sic) how to read and right (sic)? Do you want to be my pen pal?¹

So, like a good dad, I wrote her a note back, left-handed of course. After she read it, C. to S., “Mom, Elfie has bad handwriting!”

Today I found a note from M. asking if he would be her pen pal too. L. needs to get on it.

Friday we went out not-so-bright and early to get our tree. Not-so-bright because it was cold with heavy, snowy clouds blocking the sun. We went to our usual spot, picked out our usual Fraser Fir, and only deviated from our routine when it came time to load the tree. For the past seven years, we’ve thrown it inside the minivan to bring it home. No van this year means it went on top of the SUV. Which really isn’t that big of a deal, but the girls thought it was pretty great.

We got the tree up and most of the decorations in place by that evening. The new outside decorations worked as planned, and made the girls happy. We still have a couple things to get set up but, for the most part, the decorating is complete.

Watched a lot of football and basketball. I watched every KU basketball game on delay, usually making generous use of the fast forward button during breaks. A solid weekend. The kids are growing up, but they still have a ways to go.

The capper to the weekend came on Sunday, when S. and I were the beneficiaries of some corporate largesse and attended the Colts game for free. In a suite!

I can’t think of a better game to go to. Some early worries, a big rebound, and tons of big plays. Much better than the last Colts game I went to, the final game of the Peyton Manning era.

One thing I thought was incredible was how loud Andrew Luck is barking out the snap count. We were about a third of the way up in the stands, straight up from the goal line. Even when the Colts were on the opposite 20, if they were facing us, we could hear Luck yelling out to his linemen. He’s pretty good throwing the ball, too. Although my step-dad told me he was overrated and terrible on Thanksgiving.

Hopefully each of you had fine weekends, too, and are now basking in the glory of the Christmas music season.

Spelling errors left because they are still charming. ↩

Bond – Skyfall

May 15, 2014 / DB

Finally! I not only watched a Bond movie for the first time in ages, but I knocked out the most recent one. The same movie I nearly saw in the theaters upon its initial release 18 months ago. The same movie I nearly bought the day it was released on disk. The same movie that has been in my Netflix queue for months.

Better late than never, right?

I forget how I did these in the past, so forgive me if I’ve strayed from the format I’ve used before, or if it’s extra disjointed. I’m out of practice.

So to quickly reset, Daniel Craig took over the role in Casino Royale and, as the kids say, ripped shit up. It was a stunning introduction to the newest Bond. Craig’s next movie, Quantum Of Solace suffered due to a writers strike, but wasn’t terrible.

From moment one of Skyfall, we’re reminded of exactly how Craig has made Bond his own. He strides into a room, jaw clenched, pistol ready, menace radiating from his body. That continues throughout. Never, for a moment, is there any confusion as to which Bond we are seeing. And even now, in his third movie, it is remarkable.

A persistent theme of Skyfall is age. People grow older, skills diminish, old ways are found to be inefficient. Technology, meanwhile, advances, making the impossible accessible; easy, even. That theme is addressed directly at times, notably in how Bond isn’t getting any younger.

But I especially enjoyed the subtle comparison to the old days in the moments when MI6 and Q are able to track Bond’s every movement in real-time. Long gone are the days when Bond flies off to some tropical locale for a mission while the higher ups in London sit back and hope for the best until word of success or failure arrives. Now, he is never off the grid. Unless he turns back the clock and chooses to be, of course…

I remember hearing, when Skyfall was released, how it wasn’t just a great Bond movie, but it was flat out a great movie. It’s certainly not Best Film Oscar material, but that assessment fits. It isn’t just about the story or acting, though. This is a wonderfully directed movie. It is gorgeous to watch. Sam Mendes takes the innate colors of the cities the story rolls through and makes them integral to the picture. Dreary, gray (or grey in this case) London is suddenly made cool by sexy black cars and stylish, athletic people dressed in blueish hues. Shanghai is lit up in glorious Asian pastels. There is a thickness to the scenes shot in the London Underground.

It’s not just color that makes this movie look gorgeous, though. Two scenes in particular, both on trains coincidentally, are fantastically shot. In the opening battle on top of a train, the cameras are kept away from the action. We view the fight through trees and passing landscape. Rarely are the fighters in clear, high definition view, adding to the drama. When Bond is pursuing Silva through a London tube train, the view is compact and crowded, mimicking the feel of being on a rush hour train. These are simple things, but both well done.

Villain

Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva

Sometimes Bond villains are so silly you can’t take them seriously. This one, though, is spot on, as a Brit would say. There is the perfect motivation for his evil. He has the perfect plan of attack, a clever, technology-based thrust aimed right at MI6 and M rather than at the broader world. And Bardem is fantastic. Silva is an odd fucking duck, to put it crudely. But not in a cartoony way. You can sense both his original brilliance and his current madness in every scene. He’s an unsettling man to watch. And his entry speech is one of the better introductions to a Bond villain in the series’ history.

Bond Girls

Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine.

A thoroughly delightful companion for Silva. Creepy and odd, but crazy sexy at the same time. I approve.

Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny.

Nothing wrong with a British sister kicking some ass. And that accent! Whoo! A bit underused, but it all comes together at the end. She’s Moneypenny! While the original Moneypenny could never have been a field agent, it’s fun to think that her competency and strength were born in field duty rather than just good, old fashioned British fortitude. A lovely way to set up the next few movies. Oh, and that shaving scene was special.

Theme

Choosing Adele to sing the title song for a Bond movie made in 2012 was a no-brainer. Like using Sheena Easton in 1981, it was perfect for the time. The song? Not bad. Not bad at all. But given her ubiquity in the two-plus years leading up to the movie, I don’t know that the song is particularly memorable.

Quotes

Several good quotes I jotted down.

“Gun and radio…”
“Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don’t really go for that anymore.”

A nice bit in the first encounter between Bond and the new, shockingly young, Q. Another sign that these are better movies that those of the past eras. They don’t need gimmick weapons to grab your interest.

“What makes you think this is my first time?”

Brilliant line by Bond when Silva caresses him in a rather suggestive, sexual manner. What made it brilliant wasn’t that you couldn’t imagine Connery or Moore saying it. Times were different, and if they said it, they would be sure to say so with a grin just to make sure everyone knew they had never even thought about having a gay experience. But Craig says it so matter-of-factly that, given the rest of his Bond’s personality, you think, “Yeah, I can see him doing that if it meant success in a mission.”

“That’s a waste of good scotch”

Bond after Silva kills Sévérine when attempting to shoot a shot glass of scotch off her head. A weeeeee bit tasteless, but also shows the cold heartedness of this Bond perfectly.

“How safe do you feel?”

M to the parliament council questioning her. A very interesting, if subtle, point made during our Age of Intelligence Gathering, for lack of a better phrase. Do you want MI6 (and the NSA) snooping, or do you want another 9/11 seems to be her argument. A question that will continue to be addressed for a long time.

Other Tidbits

Lovely to see the Aston-Martin DB5 return. That is a dead sexy car. And perfect placement, as Bond and M go off-the-grid, and leave behind the modern trappings. A terrific little retro-Bond music as they cruise away from London. And then the subtle dig by M, “It’s not very comfortable, is it?”

Speaking of M, I like that they killed off Judi Dench’s M rather than just brought in a new M, unexplained, in the next movie. And the introduction of Ralph Fiennes as the new M was perfect. He begins as a know-nothing, bureaucratic antagonist, proves himself in the line of fire – with a combat record to boot – and then slides as the new M. Well done one both ends.

People were right. This is a fantastic movie. It is Bond for smart people. Yes, there is violence and action. But there’s also an intelligent story that limits the ridiculous, completely implausible twists. Other than the standard hero beating the odds stuff, most of the movie you think, “That could happen…”

The story is less about brute force than about learning to combine old tools and new to solve cases before too many people are harmed. It’s almost a techno-thriller And rather than the old “ends justify the means” attitude, it addresses the times we live in and how we operate spy programs when we’re not sure who the bad guys are.

And they finish it off with a glorious orgy of ridiculous, over-the-top, military violence. Hey, it’s not perfect.

But it is very good. Certainly one of the Best Bond movies ever.

When Trent, Mikey, Rob, & Sue Were Our Heroes

January 23, 2014 / DB

Sadly, all this cold has sapped my brain of writing inspirations. So yet another link for you. This is a good one, though.

Grantland offers up the oral history of all oral histories: an insiders’ tale of the making of the movie Swingers. It’s great, although not nearly long enough for extreme devotees of the flick. Still, plenty of great tidbits, including this story about the inspiration for the closing scene of the movie.

Vaughn: I went back to Chicago to see my parents before I started filming Swingers and I was at the airport, waiting to fly back to Los Angeles, sitting down, waiting. And there was a gentleman in line to get his boarding pass. But it appeared to me that he kept waving at me and smiling at me and giggling and it made me uncomfortable. At first I thought, How do I know this guy? But he’s doing it in a very kind of babyish way, it feels a little weird. And he just was very confident the way that he did it. And he kept moving through the line very slowly, and so I tried to look at him like You’re crazy, or laugh, like Ohhhhh. But nothing like this seemed to deter him from wanting to engage me in this kind of a flirtatious, little-kid way. So when he finally got his ticket, he began to walk toward me. And I’m like, Oh jeez, this guy is really coming over here. And then he stopped and he picked up a baby that was sitting in a chair that I couldn’t see from my vantage point.

Love it!

As I told some folks today, I’ve probably watched Swingers more than any non-holiday movie in my life. Fletch might be close, but Swingers was the go-to movie when we stumbled home after last call in the late-90s and early-00s. It was the get in the mood movie before going out. And I often just put it on as I did other things around my apartment, almost like background music. It’s been years since I’ve watched it, though. That may need to change this week.

So Money