Saturday, April 24, 2010

Re: Robocop

"The point of Robocop, of course, it is a Christ story."

I'm totally stealing this line for all sorts of stuff. Just replace 'Robocop' with whatever the subject happens to be. (e.g. 'The point of John Edwards' Sex Tape, of course, it is a Christ story.')

Friday, April 23, 2010

Monday, April 19, 2010

Some Star Wars

In keeping with the name of this blog, RedLetterMedia's 9-part review of Attack of the Clones is up. It's pretty insightful (but not quite as cutting as the Phantom Menace review, which has more to do with storytelling and story structure); this one is more focused on the general incoherence of the movie within the greater Star Wars universe.

The one claim that I didn't find quite as convincing (it happens somewhere in the middle parts, between 4-6) was that Samuel L. Jackson was added to appeal to black audiences. I totally buy the idea that Jackson was added because he was a box-office draw (and it seems like Lucas and co. were truly concerned that they weren't going to make tons of money), but I just don't buy the idea that they were slicing the demographic pie so finely in an attempt to market the movie to every conceivable group. If that were the case, we'd have seen a Hispanic on the Jedi Council, or a Jewish person somewhere in the Galactic Senate.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Re: Literature

I love shit like that. It's like catnip to me.

I love it when authors claim they're changing the world and breaking new ground because you can find pretty quickly what formulas they're using and who they're cribbing from. There's also this Dan Brown Sequel Generator that's pretty fun to play with.

Also, apropos of nothing, I kind of liked Lady in the Water, and I'll watch the whole damn thing every time it comes on TV. It's the kind of story that should have worked, at least on paper, and would only get made as a movie when someone with the balls and ego and lack of awareness of M. Night Shyamalan decided to go for it. Which is just another way of saying, it's a story that really doesn't lend itself to easy categories or influences. That doesn't stop the movie from being a huge heaping pile of crap, but, hey, points for originality.