Nothing else to say
There are a lot of things I would tell my younger self to have done differently, but one for sure is to have read more Stephen King novels. Actually, any of his novels.
Perhaps the main culprit was that I was imitated by the page count of the books (especially IT). You can disagree with him on Twitter all you want, but your just being silly if you think he is a bad writer (and this coming from someone who has yet to read one of his books).
A few hours prior to seeing Ryan Coogler’s newest feature, I was in a conversation with my co-worker Dante.
He accused me of conforming with the critics. He challenged me to supply him with films that I disagreed with the majority of the critics (and in which nostalgia could not play a factor). Well Dante, what timing you have sir, because I am here to say I am not the biggest of fans of Sinners, possibly my hottest of takes since my original view of Get Out in 2017 (note: I rewatched Get Out, and atoned for my mistake.)
In the last decade of Disney Live Action Remakes, there was a time where I thought remaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was forbidden.
The House of Mouse would not even exist today if the 1937 classic (the first of its kind) did not prevail the expectations, so naturally one would suspect that all of Disney knows that some form of respect is due it.
Call it a theory, but I am becoming more and more convinced that World War Two has been used as a backdrop for movies more than any other event in human history (perhaps because it occurred right around when movies really become a cultural phenomenon, not to mention the fact that Nazis never fail to make effective villains).
There have been so many of these movies that I have a timeline in my head (similar to the ones you would find about the MCU online) where certain stories (fictional or not) are being played, be it Dunkirk (2017), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Casablanca (1942), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), The King’s Speech (2010), Empire of the Sun (1987), Come and See (1985), JoJo Rabbit (2019), or Inglorious Basterds (2009) (the latter two being in an alternative universe). That does not even account for films about the Holocaust (which I would argue is a separate event).
“I’m sure I have missed a whole bunch of opportunities and I am going to miss others, but I caught a lot of them too. In the end it’s about how many I catch, not how many I lose.”
This quote from Francis Ford Coppola is from the film Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, a film by his late wife, Eleanor, of just over sixty years (!). If he were an MLB hitter, Coppola would be a slugger hitter. He never would be one interested in just getting on base: He is swinging for the fences…at the back of the stadium.
It’s no secret that movie trailers nowadays are prone to giving away too much of the movie* (a prime example is the remake of Speak No Evil).
Recently, I have made a personal choice to see a trailer only once or so (and very rarely do I seek out a second trailer of a film). This is one of the key reasons as to why I went into Blink Twice without knowing anything about it other than seeing the poster and possibly (I can’t remember) seeing the trailer once a few months ago.
One viewing of the trailer of Arthur the King is more than enough to see where this film is going.
When asked what movie I was going to see, I mentioned the title.
“What is that?”, I was asked.
“The Mark Wahlberg/Dog movie.”
Premise alone is not always the best way to intrigue me, but that is definitely what happen when I first saw the trailer for I.S.S.
I know I was not alone in catching up with the other Indy films before the latest would drop.
A quick overview:
Despite how you rank the films, one thing is universal: the role of Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. should only be played by Harrison Ford. To recast him would indeed seem nothing short of sacrilegious, meaning we “needed” at least one more Indy film as Ford is now an octogenarian.
There was this one moment in The Office when Dwight mentions the online game called “Second Life.” In it, he does everything he would do in his everyday life, except now he can fly.
As the titular character of Black Adam, one could say something along the same lines for Dwayne Johnson (and before you say “Wait, he doesn’t have electrical powers!”, keep in mind I grew up knowing him as the most “electrifying man in sports entertainment”.)
Nothing else to say