Introduction
This is a theme I’ve wanted to create for a while. Many of my themes are weekly. Sometimes due to timeliness the need to post twice in the same category arises, and that’s what Two for Tuesday is for. I posted a music video yesterday. I feel compelled to post this from Roger Waters. It’s a live performance of “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” with a decided anti-Trump theme.
NSFW and Viewer Discretion is Advised.
Troye Sivan’s debut album Blue Neighborhood doesn’t qualify as a concept album, but it does explore a persistent theme of coming out and self-reflection on homosexuality. This one deals with a persistent unanswerable question and does feature what can be perceived as visual closure not evident in the lyrics. Enjoy!
Having not written about the original Ouija probably the only way to dissect this one is via a comparative analysis. As I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t go into a standard review with comparative analysis as one of my primary tools. I feel it is so separate and other from reviews that it is its own category on this blog.
Suffice it to say that the original film was one I disliked to such a degree that it was one of those I could describe as painful with a nearly precise degree of literalness. I was at times discomfited by my physical revulsion to the laziness, obviousness, and cliché of the so-called original venture.
Thus, going into this film I had a feeling that at best I’d end up saying after it was over: ”You know a prequel to a movie based on a board game has no business being this good,” but it went a bit beyond that, which in an of itself is quite a surprise.
The only things that really hold it back from going beyond that level are some of the over-the-top moments which I knew were there. There are just more of them but they weren’t ruinous. Some of them were how far the physical manifestations went, but most of it was about the CG.
However, even that didn’t go very far due to the fact wasn’t always subpar. Perhaps, what is most impressive is that I found myself noting that this film did little things you don’t see enough of lately. Namely:
Knowing Flanagan’s other work, namely Oculus and the short film upon which it was based, I expected the performances to be on and show some depth but it ought not be taken for granted. When all was said and done at the end of the year Lulu Wilson was nominated at the BAM Awards, and the cast as a whole is very strong.
Very pleasantly surprised though I am wondering why this proto-franchise seems like its being constructed in reverse in terms of quality.
Mind you this is not to say that this redeems the Hasbro brand on film, but what it does do is fly in the face of the notion that prequels are less-than simply for the reason that it’s painting by numbers. Yes, there may be a blueprint but effort and creativity can take you down a different path. Furthermore, to continue the paint-by-numbers analogy, art can still be made either by disregarding the prescribed color or through technique. This film does both.
Compared to some of the problems the world faces today, nuclear war induced by 99 red balloons seems innocuous. But it’s that very innocent incitement that made this anti-war anti-war anti-nuclear proliferation anthem a hit in the ’80s.
It’s worth remembering here on a Music Video Monday as it offers bilingual versions of its message (German and English) and two videos. Stepping back, even to admire heightened brooding of the 1980s (which I love) is always helpful. Enjoy!
“99 Luftballons” (Original German version)
“99 Red Balloons” (English Remake)
Much in the way that Batman v. Superman attempts to create pathos in thumbnail sketches and create drama through shorthand, I figured I’d share my disappointments in it in an equally sketchy way.
Secondly, the lack of timeliness of this posts owes itself to two things: One, I recently spoke of the film with my brother, whom had just seen it on Amazon, so some people may be discovering it in general and two, because it’s never too late to see a movie,per Edgar Wright, and as such never too late to discuss it.
Yeah, Batman apparently uses guns in this one too. Because why not make a thing that was never a thing suddenly a thing.
Eisenberg is an annoyance rather than a legitimate threat. I attended this film with two kids. When those two kids (ages 10 and a 13) insist Lex Luthor is the Joker, and you can’t blame them, maybe the interpretation of the character is off. Regardless of what the actor.
The title is pumped up nonsense that is half-pointless. The battle between the two is wholly avoidable and like many sequences far too drawn out. It’s thin on character and humor but not the unmitigated disaster 2015’s “Fantastic Four” was in terms of superhero films.
The latest run in the Batman series could learn a thing or two about how it’s OK to go away from a vocal decision mid-franchise. One of many issues with the second installation of the Narnia series is the decision to make Castilian accents double as otherworldly. I’m not for doubling down at all costs on creative decisions. It could’ve been changed.
Snyder’s equation if things go boom equals drama is in force so often that it dulls the senses. I can only 9/11 flinch so much before I can’t 9/11 flinch no more. While I appreciate that the film did build on Superman’s wanton destructiveness from the prior film the weariness of that and 9/11 exploitation is as real as superhero fatigue and this film plays into both things.
However, even if it got away with those things. It is far too drawn out. It’s an over-stuffed sausage of a film. It tries to do far too much lifting both to expand the DC cinematic universe too fast. One example is the fact that within the third act they decide to insert Doomsday, whose pursuit of and battle with Superman was a whole comic book arc, and here it’s a truncated add-on.
Are these wonderful toys?
The inconsistency in vision in cinematic-universe building is not just implicit in the deficiencies that Snyder suffers from as a filmmaker but also from having an architect in the director’s chair rather than doing as Marvel does and building from the top down and finding director’s who inherently “gets” the character they’re working with.
You can’t create a plot wormhole in building a cinematic universe. Just because Warners seems jealous of Marvel’s head-start and the fact that they had the patience, guts, and foresight to build to a phase conclusion doesn’t mean we as an audience want one sub-par origin, one immobile versus film leading into what looked like may be the best team film they’ve made, Suicide Squad (and then that too was another massive disappointment), and then the Justice League.
If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman?
Batman has never been so uninteresting, it’s hard to believe Goyer had anything to do with it.
The 2016 BAM Awards have been announced. Find the nominees here and the honorees here and here.
The OA (Netflix)
Next there are blogathon announcements!
Typically, I’ve had the best results in limiting myself to one blogathon a month. First, for the O Canada Blogathon (2/3) I will be profiling the work of Brendan Meyer, whom you may have seen on The OA. His credits are myriad and varied and I’ll take a look at most (if not all of them), plus Brendan has been gracious enough to grant me a brief interview, which will be included.
Next up on (3/24) I will stick with a Canadian theme and write about the infamous “Adoption” episode of You Can’t Do That on Television for the Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon.
Come back as I’m trying to keep things varied and interesting here, y’all!
One year I viewed a lot of Alice Guy films such that she was featured as a category on my favorite older films list. Being the first female director would make her notable enough, being talented has allowed her to endure.
Typically I post the best films of the year as a series of posts where I write about each individually. Since I didn’t see enough films in 2016 to make more than a top 10, and that list is reflected and discussed in the BAM Awards. I post merely a screencap of my Letterboxd list, in case anyone is curious as to the order the films appear in.
Remakes are the scourge…of the 19th Century apparently as this was the first time that a concept was remade. Here Melies remade a concept the Lumiere brothers had previously covered: playing cards. Watch them both and see who did it better!
Robert Downey, Jr. Entertainer of the Year Awards
Dwayne Johnson
To say that I never expected when he was making a name for himself in the WWE that I’d one day award Dwayne Johnson anything would be an understatement.
However, with the second season of the HBO show Ballers, Central Intelligence, and one of the bigger Gray Area films of the year, Moana.
Johnson has come a long way, but has always seemed a parallel on a higher plain than another honoree on this page.
It was a great year for him, he has three big 2017 films and has become one of the more enjoyable personalities onscreen and one of the few movie stars.
Leonardo DiCaprio
In an indicator of my 2016, both the men I chose as entertainers of the year, have additions to the Gray Area. With DiCaprio it is The Ivory Game that is in that category. His award is more a behind the scenes one, specifically in the link between The Revenant and Before the Flood which created a personal narrative in a macrocosmic view that enlightened and enlivened both.
DiCaprio is also one of a notable few (recently Emma Watson also has) speakers at the UN who are using their celebrity for some good.
Ingmar Bergman Lifetime Achievement Awards
If there was one thing that 2016 showed the world, it’s that there should not be a limitation on appreciation. While my lifetime awards want to try to award those “not on their deathbed” it’s become even clearer to all that there are not guarantees and being too premature awarding in a category like this is not the end of the world.
In that spirit I picked two this year, and may find a way to squeeze in three for 2017. Here they are:
John Williams
50 Academy Award Nominations.
5 Oscars.
Nearly all of Spielberg’s credits.
The basis upon which the scoring of Star Wars and Harry Potter scores are built by others.
3 BAM Awards (1997, 2001, and 2002).
7 BAM Award Nominations.
Countless other memorable moments. Clearly deserving and frankly overdue.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Movie stardom is a rare commodity now it seems, and Schwarzenegger definitely has always had that kind of magnetism.
However, after serving two terms as the governor of California, in 2011, as Arnold Schwarzenegger started to appear on the big screen again, I realized something: I’d missed him on-screen. 2016 was an off-year in as much as most of what he’s worked on lately will be out in 2017 and beyond, which is part of the tradition I like to follow (to have things forthcoming of note like (Triplets, The Legend of Conan, Journey to China: Mystery of the Iron Mask, Aftermath, Why We’re Killing Gunther and more) but he still managed to make people take notice:
But while that brought entertainment value to his now-too-rare, sane conservatism this is not a political trophy. Since 2011 he has returned to the Terminator franchise (in which he was far superior to the narrative of the most recent film), delivered perhaps his best performance in Maggie, not only cemented his action legacy but muscled his way into Liam Neeson’s action niche, and, of course, we all know what he was to action in the ’80s.
Walter Lantz
One series of viewings I was able to achieve was to watch my Woody Woodpecker box set this year. I always was a fan of that cast of characters, from my childhood, but I had gotten to such a removed perspective from having seen them that I thought it might’ve been mythologized nostalgia.
In finding things about Lantz, those characters (especially the secondary ones), I see that was not the case. There are more out there to find, they should not be overlooked, and I’ll be glad to see them. This man on a smaller scale made a world of characters to take note of. Not just Woody but Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Wally Walrus, Buzz Buzzard, and others.
Qusai Abtini
In a better world I never would’ve learned who Qusai Abtini was, in a better world the show he was one wouldn’t have needed to exist. However, it also shows the power of the arts as escapism, even when the comedy is very close-to-home.
Abtini starred in Um Abdou Aleppan, a sitcom started in 2014 in Aleppo’s rebel section, the first production to start as so:
A Syrian sitcom which takes place in one of the historic stone houses in the old city of Aleppo and in which all the roles are played by children has lost one of its stars this month: a tragic reality that has intruded on the innocence of the show. A 14-year-old boy Qusai Abtini, was killed when a missile struck the car he was in as he tried to escape Aleppo. Fresh-faced with a toothy grin and thick black hair, Abtini had become a local celebrity. His life and death underscored the suffering of Aleppans. Their city was once the commercial center of Syria with a thriving, unique culture. It has now been torn to pieces by fighting, with whole neighborhoods left in ruin. since the summer of 2012, when Aleppo split into rebel- and government-held districts and the two sides turned on each other, tens of thousands in the city have been killed. 14 year-old Qusai Abtini is now one of the killed.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
When I was young, in my teens most likely (based on how it looked in my mind) I daydreamed about death being no obstacle to a casting decision. Is a Ghost-Peter Cushing ready to headline a film? No, but knowing it would be there, it still had me in the first scene and I was surprised that they went there so much. It is marvelous.
Debra Paget, For Example
wins this award for exemplary for artistry of the video essay, and the best short of 2016. It was previously reviewed here.
This film is available to view on Fandor.
