Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

I went into this film with zero expectations, and was still underwhelmed.  While it didn't shit all over the original trilogy they way The Force Awakens and to a lesser extent The Last Jedi did, was overly long, with very little action or story and relied heavily on retreading previous ideas and a huge amount of abrams pulling stuff out of his ass.

This is the first Star Wars film that did not follow the tradition of starting a scene in space (or at least in the sky, Attack of the Clones), which kind of showed how this film completely lacked any imagination.

The film continuously brings up new items and conditions, and relies heavily on exposition, with character explaining what a big deal the item they found or the action they are taking is.
Even worse, the film repeated attempt to substantiate itself, with the phrase "If we don't win this, we lose everything".  If that were the case it would be obvious just by watching the film!

I say abrams pulled a lot of stuff out of his ass, as he was constantly creating new force powers and weapons and rehashing old the ideas from the original trilogy or something that has already been covered in the expanded universe / Star Wars Legends novels.  Rey has a force healing power, Kylo Ren can take physical objects from other people when he is using his "force face time feature"?  And now Palpatine can take away peoples lighsabers and shoot force lighting that can selectively strike thousands of ships at a time?  With that kind of power, he never should have lost the battle at Endor.

And why is it in every Star Wars film since Jedi, people just die for NO REASON.  What is this crap with them using up their life force?  It goes along with a basic misconception about energy, that shows up in a lot of fantasy stories.  Engery is a state of matter, NOT material.  Too many times energy is represented as a physical entity.  And even worse, life force energy does not exist, so it not something that can person can be drained of.

Also, I think it would take a LOT more than a few minutes for Lando to amass a gigantic fleet, the size of which equals that of the emperor's fleet, which took him 32 years to build.

And what were those "sith troopers" doing on board the Star Destroyers for the entire 32 years.  They must have been pretty bored.  And who paid for this fleet?  Hell, how did he recruit the millions of crewmen it took to man those ships?  And ya know, just changing the color of stormtroopers and calling them "sith troopers" doesn't make them a worthy addition to the franchise.

While he attempted to avoid created a new and even bigger death star, he essentially did just that, but just had them attached to the Star Destroyers, as he couldn't come up with a story that didn't include a planet killing weapon.

And why was Rose in this film?  She didn't do a damn thing.  Oh yeah, diversity.

It's utter ridiculous to think that Luke was searching for a sith planet, but then he suddenly gave up the search and Lando decided to wait around for a few decades doing nothing. And then it is revealed that Leia had a lightsaber, but gave up her training for no apparent reason, but conveniently left the lightsaber for Rey, who apparently couldn't have made use of one Kyo Ren's saber, which he threw away.

And when Lando does reappear, he is wearing that stupid yellow outfit from the Solo movie, which is just a cheap attempt to legitimize a connection between these new films and the original trilogy.  Still not sure if that is better than him wearing Han's clothes.

Pretty stupid to believe the sith holocron"wayfinder" was able to survive the falling though the atmosphere of Endor and sit around for 30 years, still functioning in it's floating stand, waiting to be crushed easily in Kylo Ren's hand.

Are they going to go back and find Darth Vader's old lightsaber?  How about Palpetine's or Yodas?

And how come Rey resorts to putting Luke's / Anakin's old lightsaber back together with duct tape?  It's not until the end of the film, that she makes her own.
Anakin wasn't all that attached to his lighsaber anyhow.  He lost it (and built new ones) on several occasions, if I understood what he said in the prequels correctly.  And Luke made a new lightsaber pretty quick, instead of miraculously recovering the one he lost in Empire.
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And having Rey be the Emperor's grandchild is just dumb. So the Emperor had a son, and no one bothered was concerned with that for the last 3 decades?  Also, it seems like only Palatine and Skywalkers can reach. Does Palatine have some extraordinary  midi-chlorian count?  Annoying to think they are trying to limit the force to only people who have parents who have he ability to use the force.

The music was also extremely lack luster.  There were times, like during Rey and Kyo Ren's battle that I would expect an impressive score, but that scene, along with many others was mostly silent.  And when the was music to be heard, it was just themes from the original trilogy, while always good to hear, it seems this film failed to inspire John Williams.  Even the ending theme the played over the credits was an extremely odd combination of themes, and for some odd reason the opening Star Wars theme was played randomly in the middle of the credits.

It seems really odd that the emperor was able to reincarnate himself (but strangely looking exactly how he did when he died in Jedi at age 88, and after having suffered facial burns from his force lighting being reflected back at him by Mace Windu), being stuck like a puppet on a string (crane?) and was able to amass a gigantic armada but chose to hide for 32 years, and wait for the Resistance to come and blow up his whole armada in a matter of minutes.  And the concept behind this was that he had a fleet large enough to conquer the whole galaxy, which is utter ridiculous, as the number of ships necessary to conquer an entire planet would be unthinkable much less unable to be represented on screen.  And what was his plan?  To blow up every planet in the galaxy?  That would leave no one left to conquer or rule.

And as for the ending, what is Rey going to do?  Be a moisture farmer?  I don't really care, but I thought part of the end of The Last Jedi was that there were other people who could use the force, but no such person, who could have been an ally or apprentice of Rey, appeared in this film.

So for the next movie, we make Han Solo female, have black female Jedi, and have yet another planet killing weapon, and bring back Vader and Darth Maul (ooops, already did that), as well as making the stormtroopers purple.  Will that make a worthy successor to this film?

Muppet Guys Talking: Secrets Behind the Show the Whole World Watched (2017)

This was a very interesting film to watch (provided you have appreciation of the Muppets), having most of the surviving muppeteers gather together and talk (making the title of the film quite accurate) and it was great to hear how a bit about how they developed their characters, how certain scene were created and many insights into what it was like knowing and working with Jim Henson.

The only problems I have with this film is it is only 1 hour long, and I would have love to hear them go into more depth.  They could have kept talking for hours and still would have been fascinating.

Of course, it would have been amazing to have had such a film made when Jim Henson and Richard Hunt were still alive.  Their possible contributions to this film are sorely missed.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

"This isn't really about Mr Rogers"

I knew that this film had Tom Hanks in it, and also that it featured Mr Rogers.  That was enough for me to make up my mind that I wanted to watch this film.  I really don't want to know much about a film before I watch it, so that none of the suprises are given away.  That was a bit of a mistake in this case.

The film is much more about a journalist who developed a relationship with Mr Rogers, and 85 % of the movie focus on that story.

It is an impressive example of what an honest can caring person Mr Rogers really was, in real life, as well as his show.

This is a good story, but not and without the Mr Rogers connection, it could be easily overlooked.

I recommend "Won't you be my neighbor" Which I watched when it came out last year.  That gives incredible insight into Mr Rogers.

While I have never been part of the chrtsian religion, in part because all the members of it are hypocrites, and also because there are no gods, Mr Rogers embodies the ideas of the christ, and is one of only 4 individuals who adhere to that religion that set an example that is worthy to follow.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)

Here is an animated film that I was completely unaware of, that was created by the Fleischer bothers who made the incredible Gulliver's Travels and the Superman cartoons from the 1940s.

Due to the ill fated timing of this films release (It was released just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor) and tension's between the Fleischer brothers, this film did not get the recognition it deserves, and it lead to the end of Fleischer studios.

The films is very well made, well animated, but didn't blow me away story-wise.  Still, it's a pity that this film has been largely forgotten.

While making characters of bugs seems like a good idea, due to the great diversity of the insects and such, generally American's don't like bugs, so it seems like fighting an up hill battle.  I feel that for this reason, A Bug's Life doesn't have as great a fan base as other Pixar films.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Before I watched this film, I confused it with Golden Compass, and was waiting for the polar bear to appear for the entire film.

I this easily the most "confusing" film I have watched in at least a decade.  It was made up of 6 different story arcs, all with the same actors, playing different roles.  Other than that, the stories were not connected at all. 

There was a scene set in on a sailing ship in 1849, England 1936, San Francisco 1973, London 2012 (present day at the time of filming), Neo-Seoul 2144 and The Big Island of Hawaii 2321.

Also, there is a VERY loose connection with a couple of scenes of a piece of music called Cloud Atlas.  Apparently, the title of the book was taken from a piece of music created by Toshi Ichiyanagi, who was one of Yoko Ono's husbands, though I don't think his music influenced any of the music in the film.


I would say you could throw out 2 of those stories, and the films wouldn't lose anything.  The story set in 1849 and 1936 were not great stories, IHMO.

The Neo-Seoul scene has a tech-noir feel to it, which was reminiscent of Blade Runner, with the replicants being "fabricants".  But I couldn't understand the division between human and fabricant.  They seemed identical (in their capabilities), and it is confusing to think they would bother to manufacture "humans" to be fast food workers, and then a food.  That would be extremely inefficient.  It was like they mixed Logan's Run and Soylent Green together.  Another thing that struck me odd is that Hae-Joo Chang (the protagonist) suddenly became a martial arts expert and pulled of some unbelievable moves.  It seemed a bit too over the top, to me.

It was interesting to see the post apocalyptic world of the Big Island, with a society surviving with stone age technology and a slightly altered form of the English language, as well as a high tech society that was living separately from them.  While the existence of the character of Old Georgie was confusing, it was a role that Hugh Weaving was born to play.

The scene set in 1973 San Francisco was interesting in that it really did have a feel of the 70s.  It seems like this story was derived from the The China Syndrome.

The story set in present day London was also quite interesting, and can be taken without any of the other scenes, as there is only the remotest of connections.

And as the story set in 1849, had a very interesting scene at the end with Halle Berry playing a white woman (no one got upset).  The strange thing is Halle Berry doesn't strike me as having any black features without any make up, but in the white make up, she looks strongly mulatto to me.

This story also featured Tom Hanks in the role of a villain.  Certainly Tom Hanks appeared as types of characters I have never heard him playing before in this film, but I greatly prefer him in the likable guy roles, which he usually plays.

While I am impressed with what they were trying to do, and I think it may have made for an interesting book, it did not translate well into an entertaining nor thought provoking film.

I have also read that an Asian America group was upset the in the Neo-Korea scenes the actor wore Asian make up.  This is rather a ridiculous thing to get up set about, being that there are big name Hollywood actors, and none Asian actors of equal caliber exist in Hollywood today.  Honestly, they looked so odd, I though they were either an odd looking Eurasians, or some odd new race. While this seems like a ridiculous reason for people to get up set, it seems to me that some group could also potentially be upset for having an African American portray a Polynesian.

One thing that bothered me about this film was the .  I guess the point of this film was the death leads to reincarnation, but as that is not true, it seem to highlight suicide and death too much for me.

This is a film for everyone but ultimately no one.  The narrative jumps back and forth between the six stories.  You don't know why the characters are important.  It covers old sea faring tales, modern settings, high tech sci-fi and a post apocalyptic future.

Weathering You (2019)

I watched this at the Honolulu International Film Festival, as my roommate was working for the festival, he made me aware of this film.

It was quite nice to see Tokyo rendered so faithfully, including even tiny details, like the seams that are present on some street, though they did not show any of the elevated high ways that dominate and loom over everything.

The story stared out ordinary enough (being there were no supernatural elements), but soon verged off.

I am a bit surprised at the title, as I have heard of the term "ame no otoko" rain person, some one who people feel brings on the rain.  This is not something they do actively.

I have never heard of "hare no ko" a person who brings sunshine, so I am not sure if this was just a concept made up for the film.

It was an interesting film to watch, but I wonder if some of the elements of Japanese culture are lost on foreign audiences, like how serious it is to posses a gun in Japan, and a few other things.

Older Than America (2008)

This was an interesting film, and while it was made by and mostly featured native Americans, it focused more on the story, where other films often focus on the plight of native Americans and the living conditions on the reservations.

This film does cover an important chapter in American history that is not taught in high school.  In fact, I would considering this to be the second most important event in that all Americans should know of in American history, with the genocide of native America people being the first.

I though this film would be more about the history of the atrocities committed at the so called Indian schools, perhaps even close to a documentary.

While this film turned out to be more of a suspense film, it did a pretty decent job of covering the atrocities committed at those Indian schools.

One point that I was left unresolved was the fate of the preacher.  While the film gave the impression that he was made to pay for his evil deeds, I would have preferred it if his actual fate was shown more cleanly,such as him being arrested.

While Bradley Cooper was in this film, playing the white guy, obviously, I had no idea he had become a big name actor, or that he was one of the stars of the film, The Hangover.

Apparently this movie was rereleased at American Evil, which I think is misleading, as it gives the impression the film is a horror film, which it is not.

Dance Me Outside (1994)

This is an interesting look into the lives of native Americans living on a reservation.  It's not preachy, and there is more to the story than just their living conditions, as it shows what directions their steer their lives in, (or lack of direction) as well as how they deal with the murder of a native and the unjust punishment given to the white man who committed the crime.

I am a little surprised to see that Frank and Silas are quite aimless, and appear to put a priority on getting drunk.  I know this is common among young people, and a problems among natives, but for me it seems completely pointless.

I was a bit appalled at the way had Illianna sleep with Gooch, behind her husband's back, due to his problems with infertility.  I don't know if this was just something the writer thought up, or is something culturally acceptable to native Americans.  Obviously, being a lawyer, Robert McVey, would have had access to fertility treatments, as he would have enough funds to pay for them.

It was interesting they way the the natives took Robert McVey to have him take part in a sacred native American ceremony, but I would think Robert would have suspected something, as it didn't appear they had gone to a site that was prepared for a sacred ceremony, as the site was littered with car parts and looked very make shift.  And some of the ridiculous things they said and had Robert do, should have been a give away.  Most obviously was when Silas, when speaking of his spirit animal said "I am the walrus"  That scene may have been just for entertainment value.

It's always great to see Adam Beach in a film, who was so outstanding in Smoke Signals and has created quite a career for himself, being in a large number of films, both native and Hollywood.

The Breadwinner (2017)

I have seen two other films by Cartoon Saloon, a studio that is far from the mainstream, in both the topics of it's stories and it's style of animation.  This ain't Disney.

Angelina Jolie is listed as one of the executive producers on the film, as she seems to have developed an interest in foreign cultures since working on Tomb Raider in Cambodia.  While I appreciate that Angelina Jolie has some clout which may have helped to get this film made, I am unsure why Angelina Jolie is considered a box office draw, as I don't know of any film that she has made that was outstanding.

This gives a good look into the life of living under the taliban regime, and it's is not pretty.

This is definitely an important film, but doesn't have the replyability or the enjoyment of Disney films

Atlas Shrugged (2011)

This is less about the film, and more about Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

First, I am glad that they were able to make this into a movie, as the book is infamous and daunting, both in it's length and it's philosophy, so having it in a more accessible format helps with those aspects of the material.

Still, the production appears to have been plagued with problem, as the entire cast of the film was recast with each subsequent film.  While the actresses who played Dagny Taggart do resemble each other somewhat closely, the actors of the other three (or four) main actors varied rather wildly in looks and age.

Also, when the book was written, the rail lines played more of prominent role in transportation.  While the film adaption is set in the modern age, they altered the present age to give railroads a prominent place, making air transportation and other land vehicles no longer efficient transportation methods.

I became interested / aware of Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism from playing the original Bioshock.  While the philosophy does play a role in the story of game, it is not an overwhelming one.

The problem with Ayn Rand's philosophy, is it is an extreme counterpoint to communism (as Ayn Rand was born and raised in Russia), but to an extreme that ignores reality and practicality. With the exception of Dagny, all of the other prime movers of came out with a revolutionary invention.  The concept says basically that these people should be able to take all the rewards of their inventions for themselves, but this completely overlooks that the inventors are rarely the same people as the businessmen who set up a system to make those inventions profitable.

Furthermore, in the community John Gault has set up, it is apparently made up of only these geniuses, which leads to the question of who does the manual labor of things such as laying down the roads or clearing the backed up toilets?  A genius's intellect is not put to best use doing such tasks.

If these prime movers were to disappear, as the did in Atlas Shrugged, they would be quickly replaced, as the business aspect of the world is not a scarce talent.

One other thing about this, is that the prime movers were able to completely remove their inventions from society, but once the cat is out the bag, there is not getting it back in again.  Patents were meant to protect the inventors for a limited period of time, and even if the patent were eternal, others would be able to examine those inventions and eventually create their own copies.

Pow Wow Highway (1989)

This is another native American made film, featuring a full cast of native Americans.  As if nearly required of any native American film, Graham Greene and Wes Studi both have roles.  These are two of the actor who appeared in Dance with Wolves, as well as numerous other native American films.

It is an interesting "adventure" film, but doesn't go deeply into any issues of the condition of native Americans today.

The character of Farmer has great faith in the old spiritual ways, and in this film, his faith pays off.  Unfortunately, I don't see that as a positive thing, attempting to rely on what is essentially superstition to solve your problems.

Buddy, on the other hand has abandoned the old ways, and is much more practical. While he seems to be more in control of his life and the issues that affect him, as I said it is Farmer and his spiritual ways, that save the day repeatedly.

The Brave (1997)

I was really interested in watching this movie, when I first heard about it, back in the late 90's but I was unable to track down a copy until just recently.  I found out that Johnny Depp, for whom this was his directorial debut, and also in large part financed the picture, didn't care for the early negative reviews of it in the American press, after the premiere screening, so he never released the film to theaters in the US nor has it ever been released on DVD or home video in the US.  Strangely, I was in Japan at the time of the initial release of this film, but I never saw that it was in theaters over there, nor have I seen it available on home video or in the video stores there.

I had planned on watching every film that Johnny Depp made, in the 1990s (that is when I had my plan), and I believe I have seen all but two of his films made in the 1990's, but since then I have not kept up with Johnny Depp's films.

I was primarily interested in this film because of the Native American aspect, in that it is supposedly set in a reservation type place and that the characters are themselves supposed to be native Americans, but this film captures nothing of native American life style, or culture.  While there was a single actor of native American decent in this film, and Johnny Depp who plays Raphael, does look vaguely native American, (or, he looks less like a stereotypical caucasian) no other actors are of native American decent, and a large number of them are Latinos, and even some of the music sounds Latino.  The area they are living in, on the side of, and surviving from scavenging from a trash pile, sounds nothing like a reservation or where native Americans would be living, and more like that you would find in the third world.  I didn't see any sign of native American culture in this film, from the way the people acted.  The only attempt at showing native American culture, was a odd extremely short ceremony Raphael participated in after his fight with Luis.

I felt it was very odd that Raphael and his family set up a lot of their furniture outside their house, as it made not sense, because if it were to rain, obviously everything would get ruined, such as the TV.  Also, it seemed really odd that he would waste a large portion of his money on those things, as it would have been better spent on necessities.

While my interest in this film stemmed from the native American aspect, this was clear not something the makers of this film were concerned with.  The reason the characters were created as native Americans was to the term "Brave" which could be used to describe a native American warrior, could as be used to describe how Raphael was brave to sacrifice himself for his family.

One to the things that made me hesitant to watch this film, and even stop half way through and wait a couple of weeks before finally finishing watching the film, was the "snuff" film aspect, which Raphael was supposed to participate in.  This really upsets me, as a concept, first because of the concept of killing for entertainment abhors me, and the concept of torture, equally so, but also the fact that snuff films do not actually exist.  I was perturbed that the film was going to depict the torture and killing of Raphael, as this wasn't something I wanted to see.  I spent the whole film, thinking that Raphael, had to change his mind about going through with it, that staying with his family was by far more important that that money.  I also was expecting some one in the film was going to save Raphael from this horrible deal with the devil he made.  I thought the police of FBI or some one would find out about, and close down the snuff film "studio" or perhaps the priest might stop it, or come up with the money in another way.  But, I guess the point of the film was that at the beginning, Raphael was "dead" and he only came alive again when he could finally provide for his children.  The question the film was posing was, would some really die for their family.  While I can see saving your family is a worthy reason to give up your life, I don't agree this would be a help way to do it.  I would think staying with them and providing for them through all the years of their life would be much more worth while.  I think the real question about giving up your life for your family is more like taking a bullet for them, than the method covered in this film.

At the end of the film, they showed the construction equipment coming and demolishing the housing that the people had set up, showing that Raphael's sacrifice was completely in vain.

It was amazing to see Marlon Brando appear in such a minor film, but his role was quite small (and perhaps even unnecessary), but was a big addition for marketing the film.

Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)

This is less about the actual movie, and more about the actual events that inspired the story.

I was amazed to find out that Island of the Blue Dolphin was made in to a movie, even more so, that the movie was made in 1964, so I have gone 50 years without hearing about this movie.

I read this book as a child, and I am pretty sure I was assigned to read it in school.  At the time, I didn't have a great interest in native Americans and I kind of wondered why I was reading that story.  It seemed odd, as she was trapped on the island all alone, and I expected little would happen over the course of the story, so I was waiting for her to be rescued the whole time.

The movie is a faithful adaption of the novel, as far as I remember.  I read that the actress who played Karana, Celia Kaye,  was awarded for being an upcoming actress, but it seems that her career never took off.

One thing that bothers me about this story, is that after reading up on it, while it is based on a real story, it is much like the story The Perfect Storm (the movie, not the book) where no one knew what took place at all, so the story was just a made up account of events that could have taken place.

Sadly, I read that the woman who was stranded on that island for 18 years, died of dysentery 7 weeks after being rescued.  At the time she was rescued there was no one left who could speak her language, so on one was even able to find out what her real name was.  I am kind of appalled that she died of dysentery, as it seems like the cure to that affliction is just to drink more fluids.  While other factors come into play with dysentery, it merely exists in severely impoverished counties these days.

One other thing is that after checking the location of the island she was trapped on, it is merely 72 miles from Los Angeles.  When I read the book, I though she was trapped on an island hundreds of miles from shore, it turns out, she was close enough the she could have potentially paddled in her canoe to the mainland (though I don't think she was aware of the location, or perhaps the existence of the mainland.

I was also a bit surprised to hear that the hunters were hunting otters, as I didn't recall that from the book.  I know there was a huge otter massacre around the time of these events, which nearly drove the otters into extinction, but I didn't know that at the time I read the book.

Stranger still, not a single otter appears in this film.

Also, I read that some one had gone back to the island and found some artifacts that were mostly likely used by the woman, though a number of those items were lost in the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906.  And her cormorant cape, which was sent to the vatican, appears to have been lost.

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)

I like the TV show Taxi, though I rarely saw it as a kid.  I went and bought the DVD set and watched every episode of it.  I had an interest in Andy Kaufman before watching Taxi, but after doing so I wanted to see more.  I had watched the movie Man in the Moon, and was amazed at the things Andy Kaufman did.  I felt like I understood Andy Kaufman and what he was doing.  He wasn't trying to be a comedian or entertain the audience, he was entertaining himself, playing with the audience, trying to see how far he could pull his charade. I once read that Matt Groening had made the Simpsons yellow, to screw with the audience to make them think the color on their TV was off, and try to adjust it to the correct color.  It's the same thing, he wanted to do that piratical joke on the whole TV audience, because it amused him.

I spent a lot of time watching the various videos of Andy Kaufman's performances that were released on DVD and other that have appeared on the internet.  He certainly did things that no one else has done, nor probably every should do.  It's hard to say if he is even entertaining, but he never set out to be an entertainer.  I think he mostly set out to evoke a reaction from the audience, though often that reaction was negative.  And often the joke was also being pulled on the other cast members, talk show hosts and producers, who it appears were rarely in on the gag.

At the beginning of this film, Jim Carey said that the really story was what was going on behind the camera, and he was right (Even though Man on the Moon is an excellent film in it's own right).  Jim seems to have channeled Andy (and Tony) during the making of this film, and is off camera antics mimicked those of Andy, and nearly repeated them in several respects, often going so far as to make his co-workers uncomfortable with him.  He even repeated the "injury" Andy suffered at the hands of Jerry Lawler and was taking away in an ambulance.  And he repeated the stunt of having Tony Clifton show up at an event, with everyone assuming it was Jim Carey, only to have Jim Carey show up several hours later while Tony was still at the same event.

When I originally watched Man on the Moon, I felt that Jim Carey played Andy so well, that I forgot it was Jim Carey, and felt like I was watching Andy Kaufman.  Johnny Depp usually does his character equally as well, so that you don't feel like you are watching Johnny Deep.  These are some of the few actors in Hollywood that can really act.  In fact, while watching Jim Carey portray Andy, he even looked so much like Andy, I would forget I wasn't actually watching Andy.

In the end,  Andy's death tragic was especially tragic, as I feel like he was about to take a new direction, making a children's show.  I read that he gave his blessing to Pee Wee Herman, who was able to make a kids TV show, which I hope is in the spirit of what Andy wanted to do. (No disrespect intended to Paul Reuben, who is a excellent energetic and creative entertainer, who needs no help from anyone.)

American Hot Wax (1978)

I had never heard of Alan Freed before watching this film, so I didn't know of his vital role in introducing Rock & Roll to America (and his coning of the term.

I guess I had heard about this film, because it was a box office bomb, and I am always interested in seeing if these bombs had something spectacular to offer, which was overlooked (as if often the case).

I was amazed at the cast, as I had never seen Jay Leno or Laraine Newman in a film before. though they each had there place on TV. Fran Drescher, know for The Nanny, nearly a decade later, also had a big role in this film, but she did appear in a few significant films before hitting it big on TV.

While this is certainly a story that needed to be told, without knowing the significance of Alan Freed, or knowing that he introduced the world to Rock & Roll, his seems like just a routine story of a DJ putting on a show.  No big surprises, or tense moments or twists.  Watching the film, without knowing any background, it seems odd that anyone was concered that the show might not go on.

Even odder, the police and the IRS have a heavy hand fighting against the show, and seem to have taken some actions which were illegal.  Again, prior to watching this film, I had no idea of the significance of the show Alan Freed had put on in Boston, and all the trouble that stirred up, though that doesn't justify the police's actions during his show in New York.

The soundtrack to this film is spectacular, crammed with classic golden oldies.  Even more amazing is the appearance of some of the actual Rock & Roll legends in this film that Alan Freed introduced to the world.

After reading up on Alan Freed, I realize that he has some problems, as he was playing songs that he often had a license to, which appearntly was a highly questionable and perhaps illegal at the time of his DJ days.  Consdiering his vital role in introducing the world to Rock & Roll, it is disappointing to say the least that the notation of his contributions were removed from the Rock & Roll hall of fame.  Another case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I wonder if this film was given the green light to to George Lucas success with American Graffiti and the follow up success of Happy Days.

A Man Called Horse (1970)

As a kid, I had seen the commercials for this movie on channel 56, and it sounded like it was an impressive film that you must see.  Added to that, my interest in native American culture, it's kind of amazing that I hadn't seen this film yet.

But this film, like many films, has one short scene that made a big impression on the audience, and caused people to talk about that this film, but other than those 2 or 3 minutes, the film has very little to offer.

The film stars Richard Harris, who I know from playing King Arthur in Camelot, both the musical and the film.  While in the original story, which was a book, Horse was a Spaniard, being that Harris seems to play nothing other than Englishmen, the character of Horse is an Englishman, whose name is given in the film.

It's a good film in that it shows native Americans in a good light and they are more or less the center of the story, but I feel the accuracy of the representation of the culture is dubious at best.

Even more so, the accuracy of the Vow to the Sun ceremony, which attracted so much attention to this film, is also dubious.  As far as I know, there has been no confirmed record of the activities that take place during this ceremony, and I could find no record of the chest piercing and hanging has ever been a part of this ceremony.  Real or not, I  have heard that back in the times before disinfectant, any wound could become infected and lethal, so that piercing the skin would be something that I would think would be never considered to be done on purpose.


Return of a Man Called Horse (1976)
This film adds nothing to the story (the story does not continue nor develop) and just rehashes the Vow to the Sun scene, which made such a big impression in the first film.

Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983)
This film the story does progress, and the character of the son of Horse appears that takes up the cause of justice for his tribe.  It was interesting to see Michael Beck, whom I recognized from The Warriors, and made quite a films in the 80s, but he career never took of they way he probably hoped it would.  He does look slightly native, though through this film, there doesn't appear to be a single genuine native American actor, nor in a native American language spoken.

And as the tradition with movie posters of the time, the woman portrayed in this poster wearing a bikini, never wears a bikini in this film.

Wagon Train: A Man Called Horse (1958)
This story which proceeded the movie, seemed much better put together, and the REAL name of a man called Horse is never revealed.  Even more so, the character of Horse says he named himself, where as in the films, he was called that name by the members of the tribe, which doesn't make very much sense.

Also, in this version, the Man Called Horse is an American, which makes more sense, as it would be exceptionally rare for an Englishman to be out on the Frontier.

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983)

I cannot recall what got me on a kick looking up the history of Barney Miller, and it looking to the cast a bit, but I found out that Hal Linden (Barney Miller) stared in a TV movie called Starflight: The Plane that Couldn't Land.  Because of my interest in science fiction, I though I had to check it out.

I was pretty surprised that this film and been pretty much forgotten, as it has a pretty impressive cast, including Lee Majors, who is know for the Six Million Dollar Man and Fallguy and Lauren Hutton, who I belive to be a note worthy actress, but I couldn't recall any film that she had been in.

After watching the film, I can see why it is nearly forgotten.  It is a disaster type movie, much like the Airport movies (None of which I have ever seen, but I have seen the Airport parody film Airplane! many, many times) but set in space.

While the film is anticlimactic and every one of the dangers Starflight One faces, it is even more odd that they were able to get one of the people off StarFlight One and back to earth, the same odd problem that Star Wars: The Last Jedi had, saying the crew was stranded, but people were some how able go leave the ship, so in fact they weren't stranded.

One other very odd thing about this film is that it had a space shuttle launch in hours of Starflight One getting stranded, at least twice.  While, going from months of planning to being able to launch in a few hours is utterly ridiculous, the fact the the shuttle has a LARGE CARGO BAY, which could accommodate all the passengers, means a single shuttle trip would be enough to rescue all the stranded passengers, except for the very contrived accidents which occurred in the film which prevent the passengers from boarding the shuttle, and even more strangely having the shuttle return to earth with only a single recused passenger, merely to return again a few hours latter to make another rescue attempt.

With any film, I appreciate that the look the time to make it, and see what they were attempting and I am glad to see such a wonderful cast, but unfortunately, lacking a well thought out and well written plot makes this film hardly worth tracking down.

Shazam (2019) (minor spoilers)

First off, this superhero's name is Captain Marvel.  While I realize that in the 70s Marvel comics made another superhero with the same name, he was not noteworthy, nor very popular.  And as you may know Marvel released a movie called Captain Marvel, with the superhero in the story being female.  While I don't have a big problem with the superhero having their sex changed, as I noted above the Marvel superhero Captain Marvel is not noteworthy enough to have been made into a movie.  I haven't seen the movie Captain Marvel and have no great motivation to do so.

So, as mentioned, the name of this film is Shazam, and DC has changed the name of the character to Shazam in the comics and no longer attempts to use the name Captain Marvel.  This actually worked well in the film, as Freddie and Billy come up with a slew of ever changing ridiculous names for Billy's new found superhero identity.

First, this film Shazam was a greatly enjoyable film.  It hit most of the bases of the original story, from the comics, with a few changes going in a different direction, and having a lot of fun with the concept of a kid becoming a superhero.

Strangely, Captain Marvel only utters his catch phrase once with "Holly Moley", which was a nice touch, but I guess if he had done it repeatedly, it would have seemed a bit too much.

The costume for Captain America is great, with non of that ridiculous plastic, showing off way too much definition abs and such.  Zachary Levi fill out the costume impressively, showing us just how strong Captain Marvel is, just standing still.

Many of the DC films have protracted battles, which are completely pointless, but fortunately, this film avoided such fights.

The film plays out like a combination of Captain Marvel and the Greatest American Hero.  Captain Marvel has to figure out what his power are,just like Ralph, as he was given no instruction.  This leads to many hilarious scene, and he tries out his new abilities, and lack their off. I find the poster reminiscent of the publicity shots of the Greatest American Hero.

I have always hoped that we would get a Greatest American Hero movie, with great special effects (which were sorely missing form the TV show), but I think Shazam maybe as close as we ever get to that, with the passing of GAH creator Stephen J. Cannell, and Robert Culp.

One problem with the film, much like many of the episodes of Smallville, is that Captain Marvel abuses his powers, which is something he never did in the comics, TV series, or animated series.  In fact, in some versions, such as his appearance in Justice League, he berates Superman for compromising his morals.  So, while it was entertaining (and catering to millennials) to have him steal, use his powers for revenge and soliciting money, those are things that are completely untrue to the character.

This film is very odd in it's choice of taking Dr Sivana and basically making him into Black Adam.  Dr Sivana, much like Lex Luthor never had any superpowers and battled Captain Marvel by using brain to come up with inventions to thwart Captain Marvel.  Black Adam, who was referenced briefly, but not by name, in the film, did have the same powers as Captain Marvel, so they could engage in physical conflict.

Also, there have been several characters that never explored an orphan's absent parents.  The other who comes to mind is Peter Parker (thought they began go into that in the aborted story of the films The Amazing Spiderman 1 &2) As this movie goes into Billy's search for his mother, this whole story arch was depressing and unnecessary.  I believe it was done to give Billy a new concept of what family is, but I believe the original creators designed the character without parents to avoid clashes that would result with a child constantly disappearing to take on his super heroic duties.

As far as the Marvel family of superheros goes, I was only aware of Mary Marvel and Freddy, so I was expecting them to eventually get superpowers, but I was wondering while watching the film what about the other three members of Billy Batson's foster family.  Little did I know, at some point DC revised the marvel family to include all of the members of the foster family.  I am wondering if they will introduce Uncle Dudley or Mr Tawney at some point. I am being a bit factious by suggesting that, as both of those characters are too corny to be added.  While a foster home is a good opportunity to add some ethnic diversity, which seems to be mandatory these days, I take question with making the wizard Shazam black.  He was white in all previous depictions, and historically I find it hard to believe that a black wizard existed thousand of years ago.  Also, having him be black adds nothing to the story.

This film did cover a lot of ground, and while didn't didn't feel over-packed, there were some things that could have been saved for other films, like introducing the Marvel Family.

I was glad to see John Glover portray Dr (I guess he wasn't a doctor in this film) Sivana's father.  He was one of three actors who made Smallville a great series (until they all left, the other two being Michael Rosenbaum and John Schneider.

I would have LOVED to have seem a cameo by Jackson Bostwick, but unfortunately, there were no cameos at all in this film.  It would have been amazing to see Henry Cavill show his face, during Superman's appearance.

One other thing, the "animated" scenes during the closing credits were not to be missed!