the groundhog day project

I should talk about the merchandising. But, 1) I don't think I'd have much to add that won't be covered by some other stuff I'll say below, and 2) I'd rather start with Artoo. Because I realized something yesterday. When Artoo gets shot at the end of the movie, when they're attacking the Death Star, it's tragic, sure. Artoo is funny... although watching the film again these past few days after not watching in a while, Threepio is funnier. "No, I don't like you either" is a great line, with fantastic delivery. And Luke clearly is attached to him, and a little too attached to Obi-Wan as well--seriously, he grieves for that old guy he met in a cave just--as far as we know the way the movie plays out--this morning, or maybe it was yesterday, more than he grieves for Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen, and maybe Uncle Owen was hard on him, but Aunt Beru seemed like a sweet woman who would always offer up a nice cold glass of (blue) bantha milk when you were t...

I intended to watch enjoyably bad movies this month. Like, aw, how cute that they tried to make a real movie and failed so hilariously. Like Troll 2 ; you watch that and you know the filmmakers thought they were making something good. It's not good. But it is entertaining. I want every movie to be entertaining. Highlander II (which I guess I'm watching the Special Edition, though Amazon does not label it) is not entertaining. Its turns are too maddening, its characters to unbelievable, and its deformation of everything I liked about the original is despicable. I didn't even notice yesterday that Ramirez doesn't mention Zeist by name in this version. I guess my memory of the original cut overshadowed this version so much, I heard something that wasn't there. But leaving it out actually makes Ramirez' vague speech and the resulting failed revolution worse; I mean, what are they fighting for? Are they even the good guys? Did Ramirez just marry himself to Connor?...

(I will probably get to another teacher movie tomorrow. But, today--the 30th anniversary of the release of Real Genius , I will be watching... well, Real Genius .) Real Genius was #7 at the box office it's first weekend. Back to the Future was #1 in its sixth weekend. Summer Rental was #2. Pee Wee's Big Adventure (which I never saw in the theater) was #3. European Vacation was #4. Fright Night , which I would see when we rented it from the Wherehouse , was #5. Weird Science , which I wouldn't see until cable, was #6. Rounding out the top ten were Cocoon , Follow that Bird and Silverado . ( Rambo: First Blood Part II was #13 in its 12th weekend, by the way.) Now, that we've got box office out of the way--and let's not even mention how it was the first instance for me of the movie not including something that was in the trailer (Chris (Val Kilmer) floating in a lawn chair dangling from balloons outside a window) but not in the movie. Speaking of which, I sa...

(This month, I'm doing things a little differently; I will be watching 10 films--each recommended by someone else, each one for three days.) For the equivalent of $5524.99 today, you can go to Roman World for the hedonism, Western World for the violence or Medieval World for... a different kind of violence I guess. This is a bunch of rich people. Let's get that out of the way up front. I mean, they're still humans, and it's easy enough to empathize with them when they are in danger. We learn pretty young to idealize the rich; it's no coincidence that so many of Disney's animated films are about princes and princesses. It goes right along with the whole protestant ethic... ...which I did not want to write about today. But it has to be said. This entire story is a fantasy. We have to identify with these rich people spending tons of money to play, and then we can fantasize about being them right alongside fantasizing about being at Delos, in one of those thr...