the groundhog day project

The internet always includes a bit of backlash to any film that people love. Whether it is deserved or not. Whether more voices speak positively or not. I am here, for the third day in a row to speak against some of that backlash. Like Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times , who describes Star Wars The Force Awakens as "depressingly unimaginative and dull in long stretches" then just a sentence later says, "This isn't to say that it's not an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours." That kind of contradictory bullshit pisses me off. Does The Force Awakens hit a few too many of the same plot beats as A New Hope ? Of course it does. But, here's the thing... Or my thing, anyway--I still watch A New Hope sometimes. Those plot beats are worth hitting because they're good. In fact, I'm thinking of watching The Hidden Fortress tomorrow to see those same plot beats even earlier than Star Wars . There are only so many plots available to wrap stor...

I've got Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure --one of the two Ewok movies that showed up on television in the years after Return of the Jedi . Really, while I might have some comments on how bad this movie is (it's been a long while since I've seen it, and just a few minutes in, I'm thinking I'm going to hate this voiceover combined with lack of subtitles), this is really an excuse to continue with yesterday 's Blog Wars . That fact that Ewoks have no no movement to their faces is also going to be a little annoying as this thing keeps going. They don't even move their mouths to talk. Couldn't have hooked up some Chewbacca-style mask that actually moves? Cheap. In the meantime, while Deej (Daniel Frishman) and his kids inspect the crashed spaceship--and I think I hate both Mace (Eric Walker) and Cindel (Aubree Miller)--how about an exercise in plot holes, part two? Abamson 's #21 plot hole in The Force Awakens , is that Kylo Ren can sense "w...

I want to cheat a little bit. I will not be watching Star Wars The Force Awakens today, but this blog entry will primarily be about that film. Imagine, if you will, this is part two to yesterday 's entry (since Wesley never got the rest of his commentary to me). Really, I've got Kiss Kiss Bang Bang playing again, and I might watch TROOPS after. There will, of course, be SPOILERS. But, it's time for some blog to blog business. Namely, this blog--the Groundhog Day Project --and Seth Abramson's blog at Huffington Post . Specifically, while looking back at his recent entries, movies are not his thing, he recently posted two entries about Star Wars The Force Awakens because he apparently just became the expert on "plot holes." David R at Unreality magazine made a good point three years ago, and we we should get out of the way: There's a lot to like about the way the Internet has affected the film industry. It's given us new filmmakers, new ways to f...

Winter quarter starts next week, but I had to go to campus today to sort out some stuff. Ran into fellow TA Brian in the parking lot and then fellow TAs Wesley and Alex in the office. We hung out there for a bit--after getting that stuff sorted out. Then, we decided to go. See Star Wars The Force Awakens . Third time for me, of course (previously blogged: 1 2 ), second for Wesley, first for Alex and Brian (and Brian may not have even seen the previous films-- I know . That's just awful). Anyway, so we head off and we the film and get some dinner afterward. And, I told them all they could write something for this entry. Only Wesley took me up on that. His bit will come later. Meanwhile, Alex loved it and wondered aloud how he would keep it to himself until his brother saw it. Brian liked it and amusingly, had comment after I brought up my primary complaint with the film upon seeing it the third time: They've been flying together for like forty years, and Han has never fired Ch...

I don't figure that people are inherently bad, or inherently damaged, or inherently incomplete. I figure we start out fine and if we go bad at some point--and, for the record, "bad" is entirely subjective, defined by societal tradition and whatnot... I'm not exactly sure what I mean to say. I saw Mustang this evening. Since you probably haven't heard of it, it's a French/German/Turkish film--though the language of the film is Turkish, Mustang is France's official Oscar entry. It is about five young sisters who, after having a little too much freedom, are basically locked in their house until their uncle and their grandmother can marry them off. Since the five actresses are all pretty new to film, I'm not sure how old they actually are, but I'd say they range from around 11 to 18, and in their world--which doesn't seem all that far off from the one I live in--they are expected to remain pure and virginal until their wedding night, and that n...

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang again, this time with commentary--Robert Downey, Jr, Val Kilmer and Shane Black. Also, I did see The Hateful Eight today. And, I've got a love/hate relationship with its Tarantino. Not love it or hate it, but more like both at the same time. I mean, take Super Panavision 70mm, use it beautifully for a some landscape shots and a bit of the first act Stagecoach ... homage? ripoff? Then, you set most of the film in an enclosed space where the wide shot really doesn't matter that much. Take the requisite A [insert director's name] Film and turn it into the pretentious the 8th film by Quentin Tarantino and then give us chapter headings as well? Tarantino has these tics that bug the crap out of me. And he's arrogant. (Don't get me started on his tiff with the Cinerama Dome, because, yeah, they want to take Star Wars out after a week.) But, the guy can make a film. I mean, sure, The Hateful Eight hits a lot of beats we've seen before, and Ku...

Two very different movies today-- The Revenant and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang . The former: a beautiful film, visually, with minimal dialogue, bouts of serious violence and blood, and Leonardo DiCaprio trying for an award again. He should really take on roles like Tom Hardy's here. There's more nuance to it. But, I digress. The latter: one of the great Christmas stories--Shane Black writing and directing a nice Christmas yarn about a missing girl, some murders, incest, violence, and some kickass narration. You know, classic Christmas trappings. Meanwhile, you've got Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directing Leonardo DiCaprio--who despite my tone above, was awesome as real-life Mary Sue Hugh Glass--Tom Hardy, Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson (who just keeps showing up this week) acting the crap out of a script with a lot less--a lot less dialogue--than Shane Black's talkative Hollywood noir...           And then, I'm here just watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang because it...

I was prepared to make some sort of joke about Carol relating to Christmas because, you know, Christmas Carols, and then not ten minutes into the movie I realize it's actually set around Christmas and Carol (Cate Blanchett) first meets Therese (Rooney Mara), she (Therese) is wearing a Santa hat. My actual Christmas movie for today is In Bruges --it's playing now. I didn't expect to really be arguing that Carol is a Christmas film.. Note: This blog has had a few extra views of late, probably because of my one two Star Wars The Force Awakens entries. I wanted to note for new readers that I do not generally review films. If you want a review of Carol , try NPR or the International Business Times or the Boston Herald or Screen Crush or wherever you like to find movie reviews. I don't know what to call what I do. I take a movie and maybe deconstruct it, or maybe tie it to some... other thing, or link two movies ( Carol links really well to yesterday 's Brook...

So, I did get some work done today, got some stuff ready for the upcoming winter quarter. I also managed to oversleep, go for a walk, and watch... Technically, this-- Go is on right now, because I wanted a classic Christmas film--is my fifth movie in 24 hours. I watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie--which is nowhere near as good as most of the episode of that show that I have seen. I watched Steve Jobs . I watched Spectre . And, I just finished Brooklyn . The quick rundown before I (probably) get distracted by some tangent and forget all about the specific films in question: I've seen the Clone Wars thing before, as well as a lot of episodes of the series... For whatever reason, I never kept up consistently, but I've had Star Wars on my mind of late, for some weird reason. This theatrical release was a edit of a few episodes with a self-contained story, and it's pretty kid-friendly--baby Hutt nicknamed Stinky--and pretty weird--a Truman Capote-sequel...

It's 11pm as I start writing this entry. I've got an episode of That '70s Show on in the background. The house is quiet otherwise--kids are in South Carolina for a week visiting relatives. Earlier this evening, I had a nice dinner alone and then I watched Room . I'm not sure that I have much to say about the film. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are fantastic, and the film has several moments that are painful to watch. In case you don't know the film, the premise is that Ma (Larson) was kidnapped seven years ago, and has been living in a locked shed every since--the titular room. Five years ago, she had her son Jack (Tremblay) and now that he's five she finally explains to him that there's a world outside the room. And, they escape--that isn't really a SPOILER, the revelation of why they're in this room is plot point one and the escape is at the half way mark, and really, them learning to live outside the room is the point. The film has a great sense...

The voiceover at the start of Network gives us like an entire other film's worth of plot. Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has just learned that he will be off the air in two weeks after his ratings have been in consistent decline of late. Also something about a problem with alcohol. He tells Max Schumacher (William Holden) that he will kill himself on the air, then he even announces it on the air. This movie came out in 1976. In 1974, talk show host Christine Chubbock had killed herself live on the air. Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway) who heads programming, wants to air footage of a bank robbery, filmed by a SLA-like group as they performed the robbery. She might even want to make a series out of it. "The American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them." That's what a study Diana quotes says. And, I can't help but tie this into the present, the people who like Donald Trump as presidential candidate because "he says what I'm thinking....