I initially saw this movie during a Sunday afternoon on a b+w television set in the carpeted basement of the parsonage on Friesen Ave in the 'Bach while my little sister was bugging me. Forever after I thought all Secret Agents looked like Roger Moore and combed their hair to the side. I also gave fun-houses a wide berth.
I know poor Shia LaBouef is in it but I would rate Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The rystal Skull more favourably than Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom or even Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade.
Real-world Archaeology and Indiana Jones should never meet.
Star Wars is only as good as the LEGO it inspires. And The Madalorian LEGO is way, way better.
I have the T-shirts. And I still listen to this setlist and this album -- a lot.
Much ado is made of Artificial Intelligence these days.But the person using Google Auto-Complete, or something like it, is already using AI -- "You're soaking in it!"
I know Peter T. Chattaway -- for a pro publication -- decried the "deadly blather" the franchise had descended into (free Books & Culture article here). But I would say the atomic bomb (the power of which is featured at the beginning of Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) reduced all organised religions to deadly blather. It's hardly any wonder that some people turned to "Science" and/or "New Age thinking" in this wake.
Because I watched seasons 1 & 2. And Star Wars: Rebels -- more than once.
Mennonites don't dance (it might lead to upright sex), so we're suckers for this stuff:
Why I watched this flick: I once saw John C. Maxwell at Discipleship '87 and I'm buddies with Tom Adams, a motivational speaker. And because I watched Tony Robbins on late-night television in my basement bedroom in Toronto on Athletic Avenue.
But this is probably enough Tony Robbins:
99's dancing kinda reminds me of...
I saw John Carpenter's They Live at Towne Cinema 8 on the southern end of the border of Winnipeg's Exchange District. The audience was scanty and the fight scene was loooong, and on concrete.
It was the time of Ronald Reagan's "It's morning again in America." I wanted to like the film much more than I did. I wanted to believe in aliens, but the glasses revealed some messages I actually agreed with.
When I stepped outside the mosquitoes were bad. Bring on the Malathion, baby!
It was a blast!
The newspaper ad was booooring -- the first time I watched the movie I went under duress. But I was glad I did!
Those who hadn't seen the movie probably got sick of it because the rest us could not stop talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark. I remember taking a friend from Red Rock Bible Camp to see the flick for the first time. "So what did you like about Raiders?" I asked when it was all over. He came up with a really pedestrian scene. He had already heard about all the good stuff ad nausem in lineups, in the kitchen, in the chapel, in the cabin -- you name it. It was all Raiders all the time.
But I'm sure he had a good time.
Later every Video Store had to have copies of Raiders or they did not stay in business. I lost count of how many times I saw that movie. Those were the pan-and-scan days -- lots of fun.
When Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom came out the movie was a bitter disappointment. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was almost as bad. By the time people were complaining about the refrigerator scene in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull the love affair was long over. By then we had The Terminator and Robocop. There were other movie characters to love.
Another wp link: This pretty much sums up what I think of Harrison Ford these days.
Honestly, I only ever read The Unbearable Lightness of Being and the first part of Immortality. But Milan Kundera was one of The Greats, no question.
Over behind the blue-and-white velvet rope they reminded me of a post I'd made of How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way by John Buscema & Stan Lee. You don't need to see it -- I let John Buscema do all the talking with his pictures (which I found to be quite substantial)
It actually puts me in mind of this post by Roger Ebert. Read and weep. Better yet -- draw, partner!
You know it! You love it...!
I heard Ennio Morricone's famus song as a cab driver's ringtone and took it as a sign to see the movie -- again. Caknuckle-heads of a certain age (ahem) and television-watching persuasion are familiar with The Song, and actor Lee Van Cleef, thanks to a muffler chain.
Alan Jacobs' article about Thomas Pynchon for The Hedgehog Review.
Everything IS awesome!
And the great thing about streaming is the entire Will Ferrell scene at the very end can be completely skipped.
V. was a used paperback pocketbook for sale. I shoulda bought it.
Link: a beginner's guide to Thomas Pynchon here. Frankly, I like the works of PKD better. For the shortcut watch Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Vaguely related: here is a New Yorker profile of Samuel R. Delany. Reading the library copy of Dahlgren when I was a kid really put the zap in me.
"I can take the insults. I can take the name-calling. But I can't take the losing."
I watched this movie a number of times when Stephen Harper was Prime Minister. It is just as pertinent today.
I wish Daniel Knauf had the creative rights to Carnivàle but he lost all those when he signed on with HBO.
Daniel Knauf interview here.
I'm braking yet another of my own "rules." Ever since The Game of Thrones I'm fond of telling others to wait until a series ends. But this is pretty good.
Because invading Iraq was a hell of a thing.
Ray Person: Peace sucks [heavily redacted]. War is the [redacted] answer.
