Alphabetical Movie – The Karate Kid
I’ve always enjoyed the song “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama.
I would imagine that is the reason that I’ve had fond memories of the Karate Kid soundtrack. With “Cruel Summer” on there, the whole thing must be golden, right?
It’s been a while since I watched the film. I watched it a lot in the 80’s and 90’s and I remember every dramatic beat in the movie. I can recite huge sections of the film from memory and not just the parts about the Crane Technique. I know the film pretty darn well.
I Wrote Something “Funny”
I’m still contributing content to the Vilification Tennis website on a pseudo regular basis. For those unaware, I write columns as The Movie Dick approximately every other week.
This week, I wrote an article about the movie Flight. The idea came to me in the shower yesterday morning. I’m not sure if that will make it more or less likely anyone will read the article.
Alphabetical Movie – Just Like Heaven
Anybody remember Terri Schaivo?
I bring her up because Just Like Heaven came out right around the time Schaivo’s name was a big deal on the political scene. In fact, it came out about six months after she finally passed away.
While it is probably just an amazing coincidence, I find it striking every time I watch this film, which involves someone who is in a coma and a doctor who is pressuring her family to pull the plug. While it is just a cute romantic comedy, it feels like there is a deeper message at play.
Geeks Without God is all New!
Another Tuesday morning means another Geeks Without God podcast! This week we talk about The Contender, a fine political film that happens to feature an atheist protagonist.
The film led us to a conversation about all sorts of topics including, at times, the actual movie. I really enjoy the in-depth movie episodes because it involves watching good movies and then seeing where the film takes us.
You can listen to it here.
Alphabetical Movie – Jurassic Park
Life finds a way.
So we are told by Dr. Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park.
We will ignore the problems with the fashion in which this happens in Jurassic Park – it is Science Fiction after all – because I’m really intrigued by the concept that life finds a way.
Alphabetical Movie – The Jungle Book
When I was young, there was no such thing as home video. If you wanted to watch a Disney animated film, you went to see what was in the theatre or watched edited chunks of them on “The Wonderful World of Disney.”
What we did have was record albums of the movies. Specifically, I remember a recording of The Jungle Book that I listened to repeatedly to the point that I knew every sound in The Jungle Book. Literally every sound. It was not a record of the songs from the film. It was a record that was literally the entire film.
Alphabetical Movie – Juno and the Paycock
Around Christmas last year, there was a good deal on a collection of all of Alfred Hitchcock’s British films. I’m a big fan of his work but his British period was pretty much a blank slate for me. Aside from The 39 Steps, I’m pretty ignorant of his developmental period.
I don’t remember the exact price but it was less than $2.00 per movie. As far as I was concerned, it was a great deal if all I’d gotten was The 39 Steps and The Lodger.
Decisions like that are one of the reasons I’m doing the Alphabetical Movie project. I have something like twenty Hitchcock films on four discs. Left to my own devices, I would probably watch one or two in the next five years.
New Silliness over at Vilification Tennis
I’ve haven’t been feeling The Movie Dick column for the last six weeks or so, which is a bad thing. If there is one important lesson about writing, it’s that you just need to write.
So this weekend I just sat down and wrote an article about Sinister. Reading it again this morning, it’s not that bad. You can read it yourself if you like!
There’s also some other new content over at Vilification Tennis written by my comedy compadres. Read and enjoy!
Alphabetical Movie – Journey to the Center of the Earth
Brendan Fraser’s career is by no means dead but I can’t help but wonder if he actually reads scripts before he accepts a role. It seems like he so enjoys acting that he doesn’t much care about the movies he’s making. How else do explain how the guy makes movies like The Quiet American and Crash while also starring in films like…well…Journey to the Center of the Earth.
As an actor, I like Fraser a lot. Yeah, Rachel Weisz was definitely a discovery in The Mummy but without Fraser, the movie wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. He’s someone who can manage to make a bad movie better by his presence. He can’t save Journey to the Center of the Earth but I don’t think anybody can.
Problem is, he keeps choosing to take on films like Furry Vengeance and it gets hard to know if the next movie will be a good Brendan Fraser movie or a bad Brendan Fraser movie. I mean, I suppose that every actor has that problem but there are a lot of actors who seem to be trying to make good movies every time. Fraser doesn’t seem to be one of them.
2012 Omegacon Movie Room Schedule
About a year ago, I started this blog with a post about the upcoming Omegacon movie room schedule. While not the actual one year anniversary, this post qualifies as my topical anniversary.
The one thing to remember about the Omegacon Movie room is that I schedule movies that I either like or want to watch. Half the time, I’m one of three people in the room so I might as well want to be there.
Usually I cook up the theme for the room way early but this year I wasn’t inspired until just a few weeks ago. The theme for the movie room is “Wrath of God” and it all keys off of the first movie I’m showing.
So here’s the list along with lengthy and pointless commentary:
Grail Diary 