Viewed: DVD

Most of the movies I watch are decidedly “guy movies.” Even “geeky guy movies.” And then, occasionally, Cowgrit gets me to watch something more “mature.” The Bucket List is one such mature movie.

Two old guys, dying of cancer (months to live), make a list of things they want to do before kicking the bucket. But there’s much more to the story than just following them on various escapades.

Both Nicholson and Freeman are known to be great actors, and in this movie they live up to their reputations. Even all the secondary characters have great actors.

The story and dialog are well written. Many scenes are beautiful, even though I think there’s a lot of computer generated stuff in the backgrounds.

Like most “mature” movies, the story is not always happy — but at least it never gets really depressingly sad. The ending is sweet. It is a good movie, but I still prefer my guy movies. Every movie would be better if something blew up.

One thing that I kept noticing, though, throughout the film, was some minor errors. At one point during a conversation, Morgan Freeman’s eyeglasses were off, then on, then off, then on, depending on the camera angle. Another time when Morgan Freeman was in the bath tub, the bubbles around him kept changing between cuts. It didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the movie, but it’s a sign of poor attention to detail by someone — director, editor, ?

Bullgrit

I so loved the Transformers movie that I bought it on DVD as soon as it was available. I don’t do that often. I own less than two dozen movies, and half of them are on VHS.

So I pulled it out the other day and watched the movie again. I saw it three times in the theater, and once at home (right after I originally bought the DVD). I loved it all those times, and this fifth time, too. But this time, I saw the plot holes big enough to drive Optimus Prime through.

I still absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but this feeling confuses me. Normally when I see seriously stupid plot items, I’m jolted out of the in-movie world. And once a movie has jarred my willing suspension of disbelief out of alignment, it’s hard to get back into it.

For instance, when Megatron awakens, the humans decide to take the All Spark out of the heavily protected Hoover Dam and out into the open in a city filled with civilians. This is DUMB. Absolutely stupid. It’s a huge plot problem. But why did I not care the first four times I watched the movie?

Is it that the coolness of giant, transforming robots fighting just overwhelmed my little geek brain to the point where I just missed plot problems? Quite probably. Does this mean I can be “bought off” of plot problems by cool action? But I’ve noticed plot problems in other movies with cool action.

Maybe it’s just that my price tag for plot bribery is giant, transforming robots?

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Viewed: theater

Since I’ve suddenly found myself with more free time than usual during the weekdays, I checked out the local movie listings for something to enjoy in the middle of the day when I would normally be at the office. The name “Zucker” got my attention on An American Carol.

I’ve always loved movies by the Zucker brothers — Airplane, Naked Gun, etc. In fact, my very first movie review on this site was of a Zucker movie: The Kentucky Fried Movie. So I figured I really should see this new production.

Unfortunately, having experience with the earlier Zucker works seems to weaken the humor of seeing the later work. Many of the gags, I’ve seen before. Many of the jokes are repeats with contemporary references. I didn’t laugh as continuously with this movie as I did when I first saw Airplane and Naked Gun.

But there are still a lot of really funny, laugh out loud moments in An American Carol. Even some of the rehashed humor got a chuckle out of me. It’s just that my “seen that, laughed then” experience with Zucker humor meant I wasn’t laughing through everything, like I did when I originally saw the earlier Zucker films.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable film for a matinee, or a DVD rental. But it just didn’t make me laugh till I cried like the old classic Zucker masterpieces did.

There’s nothing to see after the credits finish.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I “discovered” something the other day that made me stop and think. Smokey and the Bandit and Star Wars came out in the same year — 1977. I love Smokey and the Bandit; I’ve seen it probably half a dozen times. I used to could quote dialog from it almost as well as I could Star Wars lines. Let’s see. . .

“What’s the —damn Germans got to do with it?”

“What we got to do, kidnap the pope?”

“I’m gonna need a fast car. Faster than that.”

“That was an attention getter.”

“I take my hat off for one thing, and one thing only.”

“Hold on to your head, Fred.”

“She was wearin’ a wedding dress.” “What’s she wearin’ now?”

. . . that’s all off the top of my head.

I was 10 years old in 1977 but I remember seeing SatB in the theater just like I remember seeing SW in the theater. SatB was a cultural hit, spawning at least 2 sequel movies, at least 1 other similar-themed movie (Convoy), and at least 1 similar-themed TV show (BJ and the Bear). But the CB/trucker craze fizzled out by the 80s.

SW, on the other hand, became a cultural phenomenon that has lasted 30 years so far, spawning uncountably numerous similar media. When I think of SW, I think of it as more of an event than as a simple movie. But really, it was just a movie, just like SatB. I don’t know the exact dates they were released, but it’s quite possible that I might have seen them one week after the other.

They are such completely different pieces of entertainment, it’s hard to think of them as from the same time period and culture. I mean, if you showed these two movies to someone who knew nothing about them, would they believe they came out in the same year, in the same country?

This idea just came to me: Can we map the characters from Smokey and the Bandit with the characters from Star Wars?

Bandit = Luke Skywalker
Snowman = Han Solo
Fred = Chewbacca
Frog = Princess Leia
? = Ben Kenobi

Sheriff Buford T. Justice = Darth Vader
Junior Justice = ?
? = Grand Moff Tarkin

Big Enos = ?
Little Enos = ?

Hmm. Needs a little more thought to make it all work.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com