Archive for the ‘Books, Movies, Music’ Category
Since it opened last week, James Cameron’s much-anticipated film “Avatar” has won praise from movie critics and been a juggernaut at the box office. But some who have seen the film say that it contains hidden messages that are anti-war, pro- environment, and perhaps even racist.
“Hidden” would mean that the messages are, well, hidden. There is nothing hidden about them at all.
I saw that headline and thought there was going to be vague Masonic symbolism or Satanic verses if you listened to the dialogue backwards or something. The pro-environment, anti-war (specifically the invasion of Iraq), and American Indian references are so in-your-face overt and obvious that I think they lose any real meaning. I guess I see the Indian thing a heck of a lot more than the African thing. But people tend to see what they want to see, so I’m sure some gays think the movie bashes gays and some handicapped people think it bashes them. Or women. Or Dodgers fans. Whoever.
The “hidden” anti-war messages wouldn’t have been any more obvious if one of the scientists wore a “No War for Unobtanium” T-shirt and the military leader gave a speech under a big “Mission Accomplished” banner. It also wouldn’t have been any less lame than the so-called “hidden” messages. Come on. They said they were going to use a “shock and awe” bombing campaign.
As stated earlier, I do think the good in the movie outweighs the bad. I saw it once and will see it again. I guess I’m not quite getting all the hysteria over it. It’s a Hollywood movie. Made by people with weirdly skewed perceptions about America, what it is, and what it should be. Duh. I mean, it wasn’t exactly coincidence that so many people saw Communists when they looked at Hollywood in the 50s.
Personally, though I enjoyed Avatar, I do think that the political commentary takes what I had once thought had the potential to be a great film and turns it into a cool cartoon.
UPDATE: Speaking of movies, someone has a list of the Best Movies of the Decade, but apparently it’s been hacked. If that’s the guy’s real list, it’s hilarious.
Speaking of movies that have a few issues:
Just watched Scrooged last night with the wife. I had liked it when it first came out, thought it was terribly dated and less-than-funny when I bought the DVD and watched it again, and now think it’s pretty entertaining.
The promo for The Night the Reindeer Died was hilarious all three times, though. Mrs. Claus breaking open the weapons locker. Love it.
Did that legal stuff that’s kept Six Million Dollar Man off DVD ever get settled?
Saw it yesterday (regular theater 3D version, not IMAX) and thought it was excellent. Think Dances with Wolves with aliens instead of Indians.
The animation was excellent (astounding, really) except for a couple of scenes where characters are climbing something. I don’t know what it is about CGI effects and climbing. They almost always look totally fake. Usually it seems like the climbing characters suddenly weigh one-tenth of what they normally do. Despite that, it’s worth checking out for the animation alone, IMHO.
The military tech, and there’s a lot of it, is pretty interesting. It’s all got a very ‘real’ feel to it. The tactics the troops use is straight out of Braveheart, but it makes for a good show.
The 3D was pretty good, even for Murdoc and his dodgy left eye which limits his perception of such things. Someday, and it won’t be long, I think people are going to look at movies as they exist today and wonder why we bothered watching such flat-looking stuff.
Story/plot-wise, it’s 100% predictable. Unless you’ve seen Dances with Wolves, in which case it’s 125% predictable. Not bad, though, and there are some really good moments. Just don’t go in expecting a deep, original storyline. This is an animated sci-fi movie about aliens and space soldiers on a different planet. Go in expecting a solid 2:40 of entertainment, and you shouldn’t be disappointed.
Unfortunately, Cameron apparently couldn’t resist taking a number of potshots at the invasion of Iraq. While I choose to ignore some of the elements of the basic premise as overt political statements and accept them as storytelling, a few lines of dialogue are there to make sure everyone realizes how wrong “preemptive” and “shock and awe” and a few other things are.
Fortunately, like most times when someone works hard to get those things in, it sounds like someone worked hard to get those things in. It ends up coming off like dialogue written and directed by George Lucas. ([hint] That ain’t exactly a compliment [/hint])
Anyway, go check it out. Ignore the hamfisted attempts at profound political commentary and enjoy it. We don’t go see many movies in the theater, maybe three or four per year, but I’ll be going to check this out at least one more time.
Haven’t read this book by Harold Hutchison, but thought I’d give you all the heads up: Strike Group Reagan
In Strike Group Reagan, Harold C. Hutchison takes us inside the world of war and sacrifice, loyalty and heroism, in a story that mirrors events taking place around the globe.
Lieutenant Renee Patterson is a Navy fighter pilot with one of the squadrons assigned to the carrier USS Ronald Reagan. The Reagan and its battle group, under the command of Rear Admiral Kevin Bradshaw are deployed to the Mediterranean. Renee s sister younger sister Angela is in Tunisia to study archeology, when a civil war breaks out, and American citizens need to be evacuated. As heavily armed Islamic insurgents, secretly backed by the Chinese military make initial gains, the Reagan strike group gets the call.
What is supposed to be a routine evacuation quickly becomes anything but. Things go wrong from the start, and the battle group becomes engaged in fighting a major conflict against forces Bradshaw never expected to engage. The Reagan strike group is pushed to the limits of its formidable capability, and both Patterson sisters fight for their lives using all the survival skills in their arsenals.
Released today.
Happy Thanksgiving, MO and GunPundit readers.
Not sure how much blogging I’ll do over the weekend. You all watch some football, eat some turkey, spend some time with friends and family, and have a great holiday.
Those of you on duty who can’t do any of the above because you’ve got a mission: You’ve got no idea how thankful the rest of us are that you’re doing what you do. We’re thinking of you.
Americans owe an awful lot to our veterans. So do others around the world. Thank a couple today. Murdoc will be.
Meanwhile, a little graphic I came up with a couple years back continues to get a lot of attention, bringing in tons of search engine traffic and clicks from emails. I’m taking it that it’s appreciated, so I’ll post it once again:
A lot of our allies have Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, and maybe other special days today. Though I’m understandably biased, there is no shortage of courage in the veterans of other nations, too.
And on this week of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it’s important to note that the vets who didn’t serve during a shooting war were performing the mission, too.
Thank-you all.
UPDATE: Murdoc’s been remiss about blogging the Valour-IT drive. Got a couple extra bucks? Support our guys who are doing the heavy lifting.
Also, the Smithsonian Channel has a new six-part documentary premiering tonight: Apocalypse: The Second World War
Here’s the trailer:
What even Roland Emmerich won’t destroy: an Islamic landmark
On destroying the Sistine Chapel:
“It has to kind of stand for something. One of my favorite pieces of art is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: … God … reaches out to Adam, and the crack goes through it. It’s just an interesting kind of notion.”
On destroying St. Peter’s Basillica:
“The whole Vatican kind of tips and kind of rolls over the people. It said something, because in the story, some people … believe in praying and prayer, and they pray in front of the church, and it’s probably the wrong thing, what they would do in that situation.”
On destroying Christ the Redeemer statue:
“Because I’m against organized religion.”
On NOT destroying the Kaaba in Mecca:
“But my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right.”
He said he didn’t think it was an “important element, anyway,” so he “left it out.”
It would be interesting to see the complete, actual, unedited quotes, because the way they’re presented in the story makes Emmerich look pretty bad.
The Captain Pike bit is so wrong and so funny. Via Instapundit.
