Ready Player One (2018)

While I have a lot of criticism of this film, I did enjoy it and didn’t have too many problems with it while watching it, though it did fall short in several ways.

So the main concept of the film is a blend between TRON and the Matrix, with a lot of pop culture references thrown in.  While it is an appealing scenario, and an enjoyable experience, it lacks creativity.

There is also an inconstancy with the way computers work.  The need to physically transport items or move doesn’t actually exist in a video world, but this could be a built in limitation of Oasis.

“A fanboy knows a hater”

This line was rather ironic, as it seems that a lot of the pop culture references were thrown in there to appeal to the audience, making me think the director was mere adding them for that purpose.

A number of the songs seemed like they wouldn’t be a fan boy’s first choice, as well.

It’s very odd to have a Japanese kid who wants to be a samurai, in full armor.  While that feels like an appealing stereotype in the west, its appeal in Japan is nearly non-existent.  It’s like thinking that most American’s want to play as Minute Men or Cowboys. A similar thing could be said about the Chinese boy wanting to be a ninja.  While ninja’s have a wider appeal, it is still a stereotype having that avatar belong to an Asian.

And thinking that Samantha’s birthmark would detract from Wade’s interest in her is ridiculous.  There are people who do feel their own birthmarks are a detriment, so I can see how the character might feel that way.  Still, it would more interesting to see if Wade could overcome any revulsion he may feel if Samantha was hideously ugly, or deformed, morbidly obese or even a man.

The quest themselves were too simple.

And anyone with even a little knowledge of Adventure knows what that game is most famous for.

First, a Delorean is a poor choice of car, especially if you have to drive it in reverse (as you cannot see out of the back, and looking out the window has a very limited field of view.  And did it really need to be driven in reverse, or could have just driven through the backwards course with his car facing forward?  Driving in reverse at high speed is extremely treacherous and difficult to control.

And the characters solution of shutting down the Oasis on Tuesdays and Thursdays is a ridiculous over simplification of the problem.  And what time zone would those shut downs be based on?  What about people in other time zone, or other countries?  What is someone’s schedule only allows them time to access the oasis on those days?  Or what if a person wants to log on for just an hour?  They are to be prevented from doing that, because some people have a lack of self-control?

Steven Spielberg is largely a horror director.  The majority of his films have the characters being terrorized by some kind of creature: Jaws, Jurassic Park, Gremlins.  In many of his films, the main characters end up running away from some creature, not fighting it in a brave battle, but just trying to survive, which is what happens in a horror film.  Even E.T. and other of his films had horror like situations. Many of his films I went into thinking it would be a fun movie, only to find a horrific situation unfold in the middle of the film.

The Secret of Kells (2009)

A collaboration between French, Belgian and Irish studios, I was surprised to find an Irish animated film, as this is only one of two that I know of to exist.

Stranger still, it is set in a Abbey, which doesn't seem like the kind of setting for a animated film.

It's great to see the Irish mythology come to life, as well as the music, which also captures that Irish feel.

While the animation has been praised, I felt the animation was a bit lacking as the animation style is quite simple, compared to and the CG features which are so plentiful today.

It is an interesting film to watch, but I feel that it doesn't make as big of an impression as some of the other animated films that have come out in the last decade.

Edge of America (2003)

Ad for TV program

I will watch pretty much any native American film (either made by native American, or about them),  I am guessing I stumbled upon this film after watching Dreamkeeper, which also features the actor Eddie Spears.

This is the story of a women's high school basketball team on the 3 Nations Reservation.  It shows how they went from a horrible losing streak to be coached into winners.

In this film, coach Williams refers to the people of the reservation as native Americans, but  is "corrected" by the Annie assistant coach.  I take issue with this.  While the term Indian brings up images of beautiful people in native American costumes, it's use is disingenuous.  What I mean is, that it actual refers to a culture that was has has existed in Asia for thousands of years, and using the term to refer to a different unrelated group of people belittles the original and true Indians.

DVD cover that gives you an actual idea what the movie is about.

I believe this was a TV movie.  It was based on a true story and which was covered in another film "Rocks with Wings", which I haven't yet tracked down, but appears to be on YouTube.

Unfortunately, the real coach represented in this film, Jerry Richardson, was killed in a car accident in Florida in 1996.

There were a few native American (Navajo) words used in the film, but try as I might I was unable to chat exactly what they were saying, and unable to find the terms with an internet search.  The words I was looking for appear to mean together and were used by the assistant coach when she confronts coach Williams for the first time.

Sweden: Heaven and Hell (1968)

I couldn't recall why I had added this film to my list and only discovered the reason after getting most of the way through the film.  It was only for a short musical segment.  The film features the debut of the song Mahna mahna, which is in turn the basis for arguably the best Muppet sketch ever.

The film itself turns out to be the start of the mondo series of explation films presented as a pseudo documentary.  Some of the things featured in this film are clearly staged.

I certainly cannot vouch for the accuracy of this film, but it does represent Sweden in a way that appeals to me.  They make it appear that Sweden has extremely liberal views on sex and is free from the christian sexual repression that pervades in America.  They also show that Sweden regulates liquor sales quite tightly, and that known alcoholics (and identified by some sort of black list) are banned from purchasing alcohol.

Still, I wonder if people really do eat shoe polish for the .  It seems that the cost of alcohol would be

Starring Adam West (2013)

Not the cover, but a more interesting poster.

It blows my mind that this film was made, and I had no idea such a film existed.  I only found out about this film by reading my friend's movie blog.  I am HUGE fan of the original Batman TV show and have watched and greatly enjoyed the documentaries included with DVD release of Batman.  So of course I rushed right out to see this film.






This film did a great job of covering Adam West's career, especially highlighting his great personality, which shines through every time he speaks.  It was great that it covered the highs of his career so well, and didn't dwell on the lows.  Still, I would have like to have seen some footage of the El Kini Popo Show.


Adam West has an outstanding personality, being that he always seem kind to his fans and sometimes self depreciating.  He has avoided the ego problems many stars have.  From this film, I got the impression that he feels that acting is not a profession where ability is a significant factor.  It's uncommon for any actor to actually realize that their career is pretty much completely based on luck and the whims of the producers and the perception of the public.

I don't really care for the show Family Guy.  Most of the time it is just stupid jokes, mostly with Peter doing completely nonsensical things.  They do have occasional good episodes.  Still, I really appreciate that Seth MacFarlane hired Adam West.  I am glad to hear that he is getting work and some of the appreciation he deserves.

I am also very glad to hear that Adam West was given a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.  I hope that people will see his star (even decades into the future) and take the time to find out who he is.  I really wish they would put QR code or link to IMDB, Facebook or something on those stars, so that those people who are unfamiliar with Adam West (or any other star) could easily look up their career.  Now I just hope that Walter Koeing gets a star. (After googling, I found that Walter Koeing has already gotten his star.  Yeah!)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

I had been going through all the old musicals that I was aware of, and Fiddler on the Roof was one that I had never seen.  I have heard the music many times, but never seen the film 'til now.

I have heard the songs "If I were a Rich Man" and "Matchmaker" repeatedly over the years.  And even the song Tradition sounded familiar.  Strangely, it didn't seem like there were that many other songs in the film, especially not that many that really stood out.

The film is rather long, but doesn't feel overly long, even though I feel as if the story could have been told in a much shorter time period.

The story is simple, but one that has been covered many times before in various cultural settings.  One other kind of odd thing about the film is the daughters in the film are occasionally referred to as beautiful, but they don't seem to be particularly outstandingly good looking.

For most of the story, while we are aware they live in a Jewish settlement, most of what takes place and their costumes don't stand out as being very Jewish to me.  Not that I didn't feel they were authentic, but it seems that when people mention people as being Jewish in the past, one often congers up images of orthodox Jews.

It's some what surpring how compliantly the Jews left their homes when commanded to.  But I guess they had a choice between leaving on their own or being removed.

The concept of a fiddler on the roof and the meaning are never really explained, and a source of puzzlement.

Terminator 2 (1991)

First, I am one of the only people who didn't like Terminator 2, which reeked of sequel cliches.  The film was really just an attempt to out do the scenes and catchphrase "Hasta la vista, baby." from the original film.  So, it had a lot of spectacular stunts, but the whole concept was flawed because the new terminator.  The actions of that terminator were just made to take advantage of the new computer effect of morphing, which was a new capability at the time.  It wouldn't have been logical for the the T-1000 to continually take the shape of a human, which would not necessarily be best suited for the task of killing John Connor, nor does it make any sense that it would make sense to revert back to the the same human it was in the beginning of the film, as that cover was blown. 

One of the problems with ANY robot is that there is NO reason for the designer to put vital controling components in the head of the unit.  This means that shooting it in the head would have any signifcant effect to stop or slow down the terminator.  Yet, this terminator which doesn't have any vital components in it's head, is repeatedly shot in the head.

Another problem is that while after repeatedly shooting the T-1000, it was obvious that the T-1000 was not being damaged by those shots, so that every time it was shot in the film was a waste.  Such shots were just added to look cool, and look damaging.  This is just like any other movie or cartoon battle where the fighters never take significant damage until it's time for the conclusion of the fight.

But the most problematic was that it was some type of reunitable liquid metal.  There is no reasonable theory as to what would control the metal to command it to return to the larger grouping of metal (theT-1000).