How Do You Explain Zardoz?

I didn't see the movie Zardoz when it was first released in 1974. I was deep in to Funkology 101 and although this movie was trippy my concerns were elsewhere. It is a challenging movie to try to explain.

I've been watching reviews of the movie by under 40 years of age people. With one exception most are straight up baffled and perplexed that such a movie was made.



If you have never seen the movie this is a three minute trailer. This is about as coherent as the movie gets. Personally, I deeply enjoy a man wearing a red tie-on diaper and thigh-high boots. The chest hair is an added bonus.
 
I'm not kidding. For me, seeing Sir Sean in that outfit is like payback for all the years I was subjected to photos of Raquel Welch standing crooked in the sand and Sophia Loren coming out of the water soaking wet.

I...um..yeah.

The movie, must focus on the movie.

What is it about? Well it is set in the future when the shizz is on the other side of the fan. You got grown men worshiping a giant rock who spews out guns to kill people known as the infestation.

You have a group of elite folks that live good and have powers but do nothing to help the poor bastards getting shot because the rock tells the men folks to kill.

The rock goes into no details about the fellas not using their joysticks.

You got pillaging. You have penises forcing themselves on any stray woman that they encounter.

You have Charlotte Ramping trying to invoke a science experiment. She is trying to get Sir Sean eroticized by showing him a video of women wrestling in mud.

You got old people. You got Apothetics. You have Sean licking some dudes hand. Crystals. Naked folks. Death.

Okay. I'm not doing a good job.

You could say it is an allegory on the faith hypocrisy of human beings, saying one thing and doing another. That everything is a contradiction because there are no rules. There isn't anyone in charge. There are Apathetics in degrees of consciousness. 

You could say this was a movie designed for people in late 1974 to watch in an altered state of being. Meaning, that when people could smoke in a movie theater they would "smoke.' If you were in the balcony of certain theaters and seated with a community of like minded souls you saw a whole different movie than if you watched straight.

This is one of the few movies that viewers could benefit from a good glass of wine, hard cider or three shots of Southern Comfort. Don't waste time on the cheap stuff. You need fortification to make it to the end.

For those of you on abstinence or working a program I would say have some of you favorite foods or a good blanket to make youself comfortable. It is a mind trip but remember; this time it really is the movie.

This is not a great movie. This is not necessarily a good movie. It isn't an out and out howler of a bad movie.

It is on that precious border line just shy of an functional Edward G. Wood movie. Zardoz had money. The budget was good, the sets were believable.

The story? There had to be an original source but what was done to it I do not know. If this wasn't the author's intent then somebody got rooked.

The script?  Technically there had to be one.

I would say that if you get the opportunity to watch the movie on a cold rain soaked night in bed you should certainly do so.

I would ask that you lower your expectations. Being open to what you see but don't try to make sense of it. It is not possible. Many have tried and have wept in tears from the pain.

Me, I might see the whole thing again one day. But then again, seeing it once can last a good long while.

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Go On and Catch Some Tail for Yoda's Daddy

The man put up 93 million dollars of his own money to make an all black action movie? Or an action movie with a black cast? You can say this has my attention. In a few days, the movie Red Tails will open at the box office. A gentleman by the name of Mr. George Lucas has produced a movie that is inspired by the Tuskegee Airmen of World War 2.

As a rule, I do not like war movies, shoot em up bangs bangs or glorified murder. I do like a good story. I am 110% down with encoding our history into the collective but often forgetful memory of this nation.

This is a trailer of the movie: 



Mr. Lucus is a little concerned that if folks don't turn out for the flick than will put the kibosh on future multi-million dollar movies staring black folks with white actors in minor supporting roles.

This is a clip from the daily show where he talks about how studios told him they didn't know how to market the movie or that it would not do well internationally because other countries would not want to view "limited appeal" movie.



Dear Mr. Lucas, do not fret about blowing $93 million dollars. I think it is safe to say you are going to recoup that investment in about a 10 hours of the movie's release. Not to mention that as soon as a couple dozen grandmas get wind of the movie a couple thousand junebug grandsons are going to be dragged into the theaters.

But that isn't what the movie studios where talking about, is it? They said they didn't know how to market the movie so that white folks would want to go see it. 

Understandable myopia coming from that crowd.  Need new blood in Hollywood. Those vampire and zombie movies they keep making have drained what little sense they have about modern audiences. 

People will turn out for a good movie, period.

I got my calculator out on this one:

• Living WW2 war vets of any ethnicity $$$
• Living vets of any war who appreciate military history $$$
• Every living Tuskegee graduate $$$$$
• Military historians $$$$
• People who want to see their history on the screen $$$$$$
• Loyal Fanboys and Fangirls who want to get in on the ground floor of a possible new gaming world $ x infinity.

If it is good movie and some white folks can mentally cross that bridge then yeah, whoopie and good on ya. You have a hit.

But if it isn't then it will be okay too. The world will still turn. There are black movies being made and that will happen inside and outside of the current film industry. Looks like it will be outside because even if this is a block buster they will attribute it to Lucas skills as a filmmaker and promoter and not the film or subject matter.

The stories will be told with old tech or new tech. The days of traditional film making filters is coming to an end anyway.

So take a load off G. From the looks of it I don't think it will be flop. I stopped looking toward Hollywood for quality movies a long time ago. I might make an exception for this film but have no expectation of finding a good film to pay $12 for a long time.

Now in your next film if you could do a little something that celibates the slightly older but wiser women with some curves it would be greatly appreciated. If she happened to be driving a space ship that would be very cool too.

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Learning From Old Movies - The Animal Kingdom

I am coming up on my 1,000 post. I tend to think that I haven't don't anything a thousand times. Nonsense, we all have. We just don't think of them. Anyway, I needed an old movie fix. You rarely can go wrong with a Leslie Howard movie.

YouTube Link for The Animal Kingdom

Actually it was Ann Harding. I had seen another movie in which she scopes out a playboy with potential and decides to plot to marry him. It was a lesson on entrepreneurship in the depression. Ann's business was marriage, making her husband look good and keeping him happy. William Powell's business was to avoid marriage and responsibility.

Anyway, in The Animal Kingdom Ann and Leslie were doing the do outside of the bands of matrimony. They were the best of friends, were lovers and no strings. She goes off oversees and Leslie meets Myrna, who does love him but wants to recreate him into a proper rich dude. Which he does not want to be.

Moving on. This was a pre-code film. People talked about sex. Well, you do have to decipher quite a bit about sex in the film. Myrna used a sleeping gown to great advantage. She definitely roped the dope but you can only do that a few time before the dope gets to thinking that the rope is a harness and he doesn't want to be in one.

In other words, juicy gets em crazy but you can't keep it up. Most of the time.

The movie has a happy ending for two of the three leads. From the DVD cover you can get a clue.

When people talk about the simplicity and morality of an early time I'm not sure what time that would be. These weren't bad people. Leslie wanted his friend and his wife. His wife wanted him. His friend wanted to be left alone because she didn't want to be a homewrecker.

Life if complicated. Always has been. Always will be.

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Smoothies and Vibrators on a Thursday Afternoon

Yes there are more important things to do in the world. I have chosen to sit at my desk and drink an ice cold Strawberry smoothie.



As I peruse the Tweet stream friends are talking about that vibrator movie. I don't like the name of the movie, Hysteria, but that has more to do with the old pathology of doctors treating women as a literal bag of symptoms.







I like the idea of women going to a place where they can have therapeutic orgasms. So yeah, in theory the movie sounds okay.



As part of BlogHer 2011 swag I got two silver bullet things and a hunk of pink plastic with a disco ball at the end of it.



Thanks Eden Fantasys.com!



Not quite sure what to do with them. I'll figure out something.



Ok, yeah I know what I could do with them. It it is good to have tools in the kit. Diversify and broaden the horizons.

I think I want to put some mango, coconut water and tamarind powder in the mixer. Just to see what happens.

Watching a movie about repressed wealthy Victorian women going to the only place where their sexual needs are met under a cover of "illness" does not make me all gooey. I sure could use a good laugh though.



I remember going to the various on-line vibrator museums in the early days of the Internet. They were a hoot and not at all scuzzy.



Still clogging the tubes are:

• Good Vibrations Antique Vibrator Museum at GoodVibes.com
• The Vibrator Museum - old school web pages filled with twitching devices
  
  

I don't have enough mango left. Added it to the remaining strawberries and ice. Works just as well.

Where was I? Oh yeah. So it is 2011. It is almost okay to admit you have sex toys. But not really. It will make obtaining a new job more interesting. I'm okay at the Salt Mine for now but should I leave it this post could be problematic.



They will look at the two candidates. One will have grey hair and glasses. She'll look like some one's auntie. They run my name and "Oh, my Mr. Zlocknicledo, not her, the woman is to ... public with her opinions."



Too late. I done did it. But I have to speak out loud because women going through peri-menopause and menopause need to know there are options.



Sometimes you have a mate and sometimes you don't. Things have to be dealt with or there are consequences. You want no part of the consequences such as that energy builds up and you not only want to do the seventh fleet but afterwards you want to consign the whole ship to hell.



Intellectually you know that is wrong but intellect has no control over estrogen zipping all over the place and androgen saying "Peek a boo, baby."



You will apologize less if you take care of yourself, how ever you define it.

Me? I'm just drinking a smoothie.

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Ship of Fools on the Finally Friday Freakout

It is my weekend. I haven't seen the complete movie Ship of Fools in years. I don't even remember this scene. Looking at it now I can tell you Oskar is hot.



I like it even better that he is hot for Simone. That woman was radiant. You would be took if you had Oskar looking at you like that.

Sorry, I've used up all the intellect I had allocated for the day. Just a cinematic memory of when men were courtly even when they wanted to jump your bones.

Even if those bones had padding.

That is all.

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Metropolis (1927) on the Finally Friday Freakout

I'm branching out the Freakout to include movies I want to view, remember or are inspired by the craft of film making. I still haven't seen this movie, shame on me.

This is a restored and enhanced version of the great 1927 silent movie distributed by Kino.



This is what I call future-casting. Lemme see, wealthy upper class folks enjoying life and culture? Yep. Labor class works and is drained of individuality? Yep.

Mass revolt, destruction and creation of new world view? Sounds about right. I've got to make some time to learn about Fritz Lang. I make no connection to what is going on in the U.S. on the state level.

Y'all can go back to 1911 if you want to: Me? I like the future just fine. We don't have to worry about the end of the world. I'm just trying to make it to the end of each week.

The British Film Institute page on his work is a starting point.

Metropolis1927.com is dedicated to the film, scroll down the page for links and commentary about the film, production and how it took 83 years for the film to be seen as it was originally intended.

Er...I'm in study mode, dig you later.

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Johnny Guitar - The Film I Missed That I Shouldn't Have

This is a school of my own making by the way. Citizen Kane, Forbidden Planet Pressburger and Powell movies and just about anybody's film noir. I may have heard about the movie Johnny Guitar but if I knew that Joan Crawford was in it I would have passed it by.

Independent of her reported personal life I just don't cotton to her as a film star. She is the rough rider. Crawford is either bullet tough or spooky.

Not seeing this movie was a big mistake. Huge. This is one quirky kick-ass movie. It is not a woman's film. This is a film that has women in the lead and the men are in a subordinate character position. And yeah this is a shoot `em up western.

This is a segment of the film where the characters are introducing themselves to the audience. Check it out:



I gotta tell you this is a full flavor western. These women are playing for land, power and control. It is about the railroad, cattle ranchers and the new blood coming into the community.

Cattle ranchers don't like farmers or city folk. They don't want change. They don't want a railroad depot. What would you do to preserve in amber your way of life?

New kid in town sees the future and is getting ready for it. Nobody is going to get in her way. The railroad is the symbol of change, of money and opportunity. It is a way to obtain power and control.

The two lead actresses are fierce. Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge ain't sleep walking through this one. Each one is pitch perfect in their roles.

When you are not focusing on the story the eye notices the beautiful colors, the intensity of colors in the interior and exterior shots. The land is a bright dirt red. The sky a vibrant blue. I'm going to have to watch it again with the sound off just looking at the composition of the shots and the colors.

When we think about the 1950s and films it is brought up as the time of the happy housewife. The time when the men have the adventure and the women stay home waiting tending home and hearth. The movies of that time reflected that attitude.

Not this one. Yes, there is a love object. Sterling Hayden is a fine actor. Subtle. Sometimes he is there in the moment and sometimes he is the focal point of the scene.

I've been mulling this movie over and over again trying to understand the historical place in time, the one in the western and 1954. Much to think about and contemplate.

Anyway this is as good a start as any to Women's History Month.

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T.A.M.I. and Smokey on the Finally Friday Freakout

Let me set the scene for you. You are in a movie theater on a Saturday afternoon. After a couple of cartoons and a movie short feature and just before the main attraction you get to watch a recording of The T.A.M.I. Show.

It just so happens that every time I couldn't scrounge up fifty cents was the very time the movie house would show the flick.

Yeah, I've never seen it. I had to listen to people tell me about second hand. No VHS of it that I know of, not even bootleg.

Not that I condone that kinda thing. I don't. Really.

Just saying. No bootleg action. The real reason it took so long was to work out the rights and ownership issues. Um, this translates into who was gonna get paid and how much if anything at all. Not just the on-screen performers but the producers, backers and anybody else that had a piece of paper saying "pay me."

It took them 40+ years but they finally worked it out. This is a glorious time. The DVD is out and if you have any affection for James Brown singing Night Train or Please, Please, Please you might want to check it out.

If your bones find themselves twitching to Chuck Berry's Maybellene or even some dudes from across the creek singing Time is On My Side then you might want to pick-up on this until now impossible recording of the T.A.M.I. Show.

If you check out the Wikipedia page you can get the full line up of pop, rock, R&B and Soul acts. One of those is performers is Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.



In this particular clip folks get a chance to see Claudette Robinson match the fellas step by step in heels. It is a great example of what these performers did on the road and in theaters across the country. (Update: This clip is not from The T.A.M.I Show but an example of what people experienced when they went to places like The Apollo.)

The photo links to the Turner Movie Classics store but Amazon has it as well. On the Amazon page there is a video clip of the Beach Boys, for those of that persuasion. I don't judge, live and let live I say.

I don't get a flat nickle for plugging it either way. This is more of a public service announcement that this is a memory we want to pass along.

TGIF and pass the popcorn.

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Original Sin on the Finally Friday Freakout

I miss Music television. I miss the days when you could see little operettas of pop and rock songs. Dancers had work and got to keep most of their clothes on. Sometimes the music videos were a little too high concept or were attached to a project that just didn't work out.

In 1994 there was a movie version of The Shadow. I did go see the movie when it came out. I don't think it was a box office success in the way that Hollywood wanted it to be.

Wait, let me check. According to IMDB it cost $40 million to make and raked in $32,055,248 in U.S. movies sales. Oooby-dooby.



So in the U.S. they lost money but they made it back internationally and through ancillary sales channels, i.e. cable and DVD rentals.

Well, I liked it. Yeah it had issues. Come to think of it there were questions of continuity but it wasn't a stinker.

This is Taylor Dayne singing the theme song from the movie. Taylor helped me get through a night or two in the Salt Mine of days gone by, not to mention a broken heart or two. The name of the song is Original Sin.

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What I Learn About Love From A Touch of Mink

You have to question cultural socialization. Ok, I have to question it. It is like this, I used to stay up and watch movies. I could exist on three hours of sleep every other night and it would not phase me a bit.

Damn I miss those days!



A Cary Grant movie was like required viewing. It was a reading of how men acted, talked and could be toward women. I did not care if he was scruff or in a tux and tails. He was and shall ever be all right with me.

I didn't learn until later that he was an illusion. I don't care, he was a grand illusion. Special shout out to Houseboat and Holiday with Katherine Hepburn. Oh, and Indiscreet.

So there I am watching this movie in the 70s and the Doris character does not want to shag the Cary dude. I didn't get it.

I thought she was plum crazy. I'm thinking what is wrong with a little making out? The movie continues and I'm getting more steamed. I could hear someone driving down the street in their car with "do it, do it til your satisfied" traveling down the street. Yet this full grown woman is saying nyet to that hair, those eyes and the body in the suit.

By the end of the movie I was cussing her out. I was mad. I would have taken the one perfect night and been dang glad of it. I was so mad I voluntarily refused to watch another Doris Day movie for years.

Hindsight. I am no longer mad at Doris. It wasn't really Doris it was some of the characters that she played on screen. Miss Day is a great singer and a fine actress and no disrespect is intended.

I didn't like this sophisticated form of matrimony game playing. It was the 1962 version of "Put a ring on it."

I can now appreciate a little bit about not bonking just any old body. I even get that it is ok to say you have requirements that you don't want to wavier from for the sake of a slap dash.

Not disagreeing with it and have employed it when my life required common sense approaches to human behavior.

I just didn't like the movie's implication that in order to get the rich dude you had to hold out for as long as possible and then you could trap him. No, no and no. Men are human beings. Not supposed to trap humans.

I knew that at 15 and I still believe it now.

So my lesson was actually the anti-lesson. Not to marry for the sake of sex or having a husband. Marry because you actually love the person and can live with the faults as well as the joys.

Shag him or not, it is your choice and responsibility. Unless he is Cary Grant. Then I say rug burn and be glad.

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Town Without Pity on the Finally Friday Freakout

The week ended kinda rough. People in denial of something being very wrong. People killing other people. Still more denial of what we know to be true because the lie is louder.

Maybe we are living in towns without pity. Is it all just about the me and my own?



I first heard this song on the radio. I'm sure it was playing on the "other" radio station when WDAS AM signal stopped broadcasting on Sunday evening. I really liked story songs as a teen so if the story was good I generally did not care about music genre.

I never saw Gene Pitney's perform until I found this video. I have a VHS copy of movie, The Man That Shot Liberty Valance and I was gronking on that song too. I have to find out more about his music catalog when I get the chance.

Enjoy, and catch you on the flip side.

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It's A Raggy Waltz on the Finally Friday Freakout

I am jazz ignorant. I know it. I use to try and listen to my local jazz and blues radio station but it is a little out of my broadcast area. The only other source of jazz is midnight on Sundays and I'm lucky if I can make it to 11 p.m. I know what I like but could not identify the style of jazz if you paid me.

Smooth Jazz don't cut it because it more mush of many musical forms. I don't hate it but I don't seek it out either. So it was cool to find this clip and hey, I even recognized the name of the performer.



From the 1963 movie All Night Long this is Dave Brubeck and company in a lovely scene from a movie I have never heard of or seen.

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Old Pasadena Film Festival - Summer of Staycation 4.1

Tonight is a great night for an outdoor movie or two. As part of the Old Pasadena Film Festival tonight the screenings are gems.

At 8:00pm it is the silent film Daddy Long-Legs at One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley.

This is the tale of orphans IMDB gives info on the film as a comedy/drama starring Miss Mary Pickford.

According to the website the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra will be performing the soundtrack of the recently restored silent film live.

Then at 9:00pm – move a degree closer to Kevin Bacon in Footloose, this is showing on the rooftop of the Schoolhouse Parking Garage, 33 E. Green Street.

Yes, I suspect that there will be some toe tapping, sneaker wearing and blue jeans a spooning as we travel back to a time when the beat was banned and the feet stood still.

What, you never heard of Footloose? Tsk, tsk. Let me help you out a bit. This is Kenny Loggins singing the title track and scenes from the movie, Footloose:



Should be a hoot and there are a bunch of places to grab grub. Enjoy! To keep up on events in Old Town Pasadena check the Calendar of Events.

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Cinema Studies – Would You Watch A Chick Flick?

My initial answer is usually “No.” In my head a so-called “chick flick” is fluffy, superficial and it reeks of girly-girl craziness in pursuit of beefcake. Or so I have been told. If I dig a little deeper inside of myself I think “How do I know this?” Well, movie reviewers and critics, mostly male but some female critics have passively taught me the negative confines of a chick flick. So I wonder, do women see movies differently than men?

Cinema Studies is many things from how each element in a film contributes to the creation of an movie experience to the importance of a film against the context of its time. Let me start with an movie that I was guilty of pre-judging when I saw the initial ads and reviews.

The Notebook is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.  Had no prior knowledge of Mr. Sparks work.  I might have seen the commercials for the movie and read a few of the reviews. It was enough to cause me to dismiss spending money on the film. That was a mistake. This is the trailer for the film: 

About a year ago I saw the movie on television. Loved it. I couldn’t figure out how I had missed it.  Looking back at the reviews I can see why. I was told that it was sweet, corny and well worth the risk of diabetic shock?  Yowser!

I found that the movie invited me into the past and the present with a love story involving class, wealth, loss and the endurance of love. The same qualities that I found in Casablanca, The Quiet Man and What Dreams May Come. For me, it was the story and the craftsmanship used to tell the story.  If the movie touched me in a positive way but freaked out some of the men that reviewed it does that make it a bad movie?

It could be that, to a professional movie reviewer who has seen a lot of movies, this was a paint by the numbers job. For myself who spent umpteen years watching the Late, Late Show and knows a turkey movie when I see one, I don’t think this was the case. How many good films might have been ignored because they didn’t resonate with the perceptions of the predominately male reviewers? I don’t know. I don’t even know if it is a fair question.

If, on the other hand, watching the movie makes you feel bad about your love life (or lack thereof) is it a good movie because it re-enforces cultural memes about finding true, everlasting love? Shannon at Three Girls Grown Up pulled a double whammy on herself. She read the book and viewed the movie.

So there is the subjective way to view film and an objective way to see a film. For students learning filmmaking there is process you can employ to really understand how the film was crafted. Tendrape at the Communications and Culture Blog reviewed the film looking at how certain decisions were made to invoke mood and experience.  She also looked at how certain mythologies are conveyed in the film:

This movie reinforces attitudes that go along with other popular films today like encouragement for the underdog and living the American Dream. Even though Noah is not working to become a millionaire or something with money which most often is associated with the American Dream, he doesn’t stop trying to get Allie back and eventually all his enduring efforts paid off similar to the dreams goals panning out in the end.

Women who love film/cinema/movies might bring a different perspective on what the see in a movie. They can also shine a light on forgotten or ignored film history. Here are some examples.

Other Cinema Blogs That Inform

Stacia at She Blogged By Night gives a review and critique of BorderTown. Stacia intertwines a synopsis of the movie with how Bette Davis performance in the film enhances or detracts from the presentation.  There is also a mention of the racism directed toward Latinos in the 1930s in the film. Raquelle from Out Of The Past, A Classic Film Blog uses the 1961 movie, The Young Savages to focus in on how Puerto Ricans are portrayed in New York City, 30 years away from BorderTown.

Raquelle has another great post about the dilemma of just focusing on the film or performance or do you allow the actor’s real life to influence your appreciation of the film:

I am far too nosy and inquisitive to not learn about the lives of classic film stars yet is it right for me to dig up the dirt? Should I honor their legendary careers by avoiding their personal lives? If so, why should I? If they did bad things, why should I overlook them? What about those stars who were genuinely good people? Should we avoid them too?

Campaspe at Self-Style Siren evaluates the screen relationships between two great character actors, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. She point out an interesting aspect of one of their scenes in The Maltese Falcon:

How well these two always managed to flesh out relationships that were somewhat superficial on paper. In The Maltese Falcon their more-than-business association is startlingly plain, but it's all in the playing. When Lorre attacks Greenstreet, yelling "You, you imbecile! You bloated idiot! You stupid fathead!" we hear not just a criminal sidekick but also a frustrated ex-lover.

Lolita’s Classics features a tribute to Animator Lottie Reiniger. Reiniger used black paper and scissors to create her animations and the work is stunning. You can view some of Lottie’s wonderful videos at Lolita’s blog. As Lolita points out:

Even though many people think that the first feature-length animated film was Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Adventures of Prince Achmed really is the oldest surviving animated feature film.

Bunny Fontaine loves B-Movies and writes about them at The B-Movie Buffet. But Bunny also grooves on retro movie fashions at her blog The Jaded Pussycat. Check out the 1960s fashions from the Dean Martin film The Silencers and then wonder about the so-called good old days when things were more “innocent.”

Sometimes a film can inspire folks to create their own works of art. Diane at Whidbey Island pays tribute to Hollywood fashion via reconstructing costumes from movies. The  costumes are scaled to doll size. You can see costumes from Imitation of Life, Funny Face and Rear Window.

I end with Norma Desmond’s The Flick Chick review of a contemporary movie, My Life in Ruins.  From what I’ve read this may indeed be a chick flick and not a good one at that:

I can’t remember the last time I saw a film where the plot machinery was so clearly visible and where everyone involved seemed to be proceeding with a “let’s just get this over with” attitude. I wasn’t even expecting that much from this, just light, fluffy summer entertainment but I find it difficult to be entertained by things that never aspire to more than the lowest common denominator.

I think the difference for me is that the plot and structure of the movie is being judged and not the fact that it doesn’t have bombs, gore or transforming robots as an instant negative.

This post originally appeared on BlogHer, where I am a Contributing Editor.

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