Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Tomorrow I think I am going to go into New York to see a classic film from 1944 called “Laura.” I have seen it many times on television but this will be my first chance to see it on the big screen. (It is at the Film Forum which is a pretty small theater so “big” screen is only relative. The screen is maybe a third the size of an IMAX movie and only slightly larger than the tv I left behind in Denver with Brian Domingues. If you see Brian ask him how my tv is and tell him that I plan to come to get it someday.)
Why, you are probably asking yourself, would I go all the way to New York just to see a movie I have already seen? Good question. In part it is because movies are just better watched in the way they were meant to be viewed: in a theater, uncut, no commercials, on a theater screen. But another part is they just don’t make a lot of movies currently I want to see. Look at what is playing in Stamford:
• The Darkest Hour, another one of those alien attack movies where some plucky teenagers can figure out how to defeat a species which is smart enough to create faster-than-light travel but too stupid to invent antibiotics.
• We Bought a Zoo. I am not 12, so the wonder of seeing Matt Damon with a monkey will not make me laugh.
• A bunch of kids movies—The Adventures of Tintin (loved the books when I was about 14), another Chipmunks movie (do people really watch these anymore?), Arthur Christmas, The Muppets, and Hugo. I stopped going to these when Megan reached adolescence and Thank God.
• Two action movies—Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible. Both sequels of course. Seen ‘em. People ask “how were they?” They were what you expect from this sort of movie. Lots of action, confusing dialog, implausible story line, pretty girls. I liked them.
• New Year’s Eve. While I don’t mind an occasional junk-food-for-the-brain movie, junk food should at least have something good going for it. I hear this movie comes up short.
• The Descendants. People who have seen it say it is depressing. Not something I need.
• Young Adult. From the reviews that sounds like their target audience. Pass.
• The Artist. Seen it. Didn’t like it.
• War Horse. I hear it comes from the same source material as the Broadway show of the same name. I heard the best things in the show are the puppets representing the horses. The movie has no puppets.
• A Dangerous Method. I might actually go see this one about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. There is no Johnny Depp so I don’t think they turn Freud into some sort of martial arts expert who chases Jung across the rooftops of London. This one sticks to psychology, and Keira Knightly. Sounds intriguing if intense.
That makes one potential movie to go see. Entertainment Weekly wrote that movie admissions were down about five percent in 2011 and Hollywood is searching for answers, blaming the economy, cable, etc. They discount the “movies are crap” theory. I guess self-deception is big in Hollywood.
In an attempt to see some more creative entertainment I could go to a Broadway show, but even there I run into a lack of originailty. So many shows are based on movies—Billy Elliott, Mary Poppins, Sister Act, and The Lion King. Some are derivative of other media, like Spider Man, Wicked, and The Phantom of the Opera. Or they are basically just excuses to play hit songs—Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages (all of which I have seen), and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Broadway also has a large amount of revivals, good entertainment but still not a sign of much creativity, Anything Goes (which I loved), Chicago, Follies, Godspell, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (no longer starring Harry Potter but instead Blane from Glee), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (which they rewrote and now sounds kind of weird, not Rick Santorum weird, just uncomfortable enough that I will avoid it), and Porgy and Bess (which I guess they wanted to rewrite until Steven Sondheim called them out).
The most creative show on Broadway is apparently Book of Mormon, which you just can’t get tickets for at the half price booth (and seriously, have you seen the cost of full-price tickets?). There are several plays which are new and fresh, two of which I have seen, but for musicals the only other new piece is Lysistrata Jones, a modern retelling of the old Greek story where women decide not to give it up unless their men do what they want them to do. Oh wait, no originality there; I guess that is the oldest story in the world.
Why, you are probably asking yourself, would I go all the way to New York just to see a movie I have already seen? Good question. In part it is because movies are just better watched in the way they were meant to be viewed: in a theater, uncut, no commercials, on a theater screen. But another part is they just don’t make a lot of movies currently I want to see. Look at what is playing in Stamford:
• The Darkest Hour, another one of those alien attack movies where some plucky teenagers can figure out how to defeat a species which is smart enough to create faster-than-light travel but too stupid to invent antibiotics.
• We Bought a Zoo. I am not 12, so the wonder of seeing Matt Damon with a monkey will not make me laugh.
• A bunch of kids movies—The Adventures of Tintin (loved the books when I was about 14), another Chipmunks movie (do people really watch these anymore?), Arthur Christmas, The Muppets, and Hugo. I stopped going to these when Megan reached adolescence and Thank God.
• Two action movies—Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible. Both sequels of course. Seen ‘em. People ask “how were they?” They were what you expect from this sort of movie. Lots of action, confusing dialog, implausible story line, pretty girls. I liked them.
• New Year’s Eve. While I don’t mind an occasional junk-food-for-the-brain movie, junk food should at least have something good going for it. I hear this movie comes up short.
• The Descendants. People who have seen it say it is depressing. Not something I need.
• Young Adult. From the reviews that sounds like their target audience. Pass.
• The Artist. Seen it. Didn’t like it.
• War Horse. I hear it comes from the same source material as the Broadway show of the same name. I heard the best things in the show are the puppets representing the horses. The movie has no puppets.
• A Dangerous Method. I might actually go see this one about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. There is no Johnny Depp so I don’t think they turn Freud into some sort of martial arts expert who chases Jung across the rooftops of London. This one sticks to psychology, and Keira Knightly. Sounds intriguing if intense.
That makes one potential movie to go see. Entertainment Weekly wrote that movie admissions were down about five percent in 2011 and Hollywood is searching for answers, blaming the economy, cable, etc. They discount the “movies are crap” theory. I guess self-deception is big in Hollywood.
In an attempt to see some more creative entertainment I could go to a Broadway show, but even there I run into a lack of originailty. So many shows are based on movies—Billy Elliott, Mary Poppins, Sister Act, and The Lion King. Some are derivative of other media, like Spider Man, Wicked, and The Phantom of the Opera. Or they are basically just excuses to play hit songs—Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages (all of which I have seen), and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Broadway also has a large amount of revivals, good entertainment but still not a sign of much creativity, Anything Goes (which I loved), Chicago, Follies, Godspell, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (no longer starring Harry Potter but instead Blane from Glee), On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (which they rewrote and now sounds kind of weird, not Rick Santorum weird, just uncomfortable enough that I will avoid it), and Porgy and Bess (which I guess they wanted to rewrite until Steven Sondheim called them out).
The most creative show on Broadway is apparently Book of Mormon, which you just can’t get tickets for at the half price booth (and seriously, have you seen the cost of full-price tickets?). There are several plays which are new and fresh, two of which I have seen, but for musicals the only other new piece is Lysistrata Jones, a modern retelling of the old Greek story where women decide not to give it up unless their men do what they want them to do. Oh wait, no originality there; I guess that is the oldest story in the world.
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