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The Film Habit #41 - March 16, 2005 Would you give your life to see The Jacket? That’s what I nearly did. Two weekends, two attempts to see it, two near death encounters. Last week, it was a Nissan totaling car wreck while en route to the theater. This week, it was a crazed redneck in a pickup truck who tried to mow my wife, myself, and a friend of ours down while we crossed a street on foot. We escaped with our lives only because we desperately flung ourselves out of the path of his oncoming fender when he swerved and accelerated in an attempt to destroy us.
In that moment, I was angrier than I think I’ve ever been in my entire life. I’d just seen the gigantic grill of a jacked up hick hotrod pass literally two inches from the head of my wife. Had he slowed down or stopped, I’d have dragged the baseball cap wearing driver from his truck and beaten him within an inch of his life. Since he didn’t, all I could do was leap to my feet and run after him screaming the infamous fuck word, pointing my middle finger at God, and looking frantically for an object, any object I could throw after him to either damage his truck, or get him to slow down enough for me to catch and kill him with my bare hands. Any reason or common sense was driven out of my head by an uncontrollable hulk-like fury.  The really galling thing about it is the thought that he and his one-toothed friends no doubt thought the entire thing was “funny”, and spent the next hour or so laughing about how they’d nearly killed a group of hapless pedestrians. Well I’m not laughing, but I’m also not in jail. Perhaps I should be thankful that he kept right on going.
Oh, we did actually see The Jacket. We marched on in to the movie theater in shock. My eyes were on fire and the ticket taker, noting my expression looked as though he was considering calling the cops. The poor, overworked slushee vender watched me warily as I tersely barked out my order. I’ve never had better service, but the movie wasn’t worth the price. Perhaps the real question is this: Is The Jacket cursed, or is it me? I think I’ll be avoiding it on DVD. me to join my redneck hunting party. Bring your own NASCAR camouflage. Lightsaber Livin  I always feel a little guilty whenever I spend any of this space talking about Star Wars. It’s such a cliché, over-discussed geek topic. I try to avoid it. It keeps sucking me back in.
To the point, the new Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith trailer debuted recently. As usual, it was brilliant. George Lucas may not be much of a writer or director, but he's a masterful marketer and knows how to cut one hell of a trailer. What irks me is not the trailer itself, but fan reaction. The number one Star Wars fan comment about the new film? "I can't wait to see all the lightsaber battles." In fact, Star Wars fandom has somewhere along the way become completely obsessed with lightsaber battles. In response, so has Star Wars. All anyone cares about is which characters can be shoehorned into convenient mano a mano battles with laser swords. When did that become the embodiment of Star Wars? When did Star Wars become Celebrity Death Match?  The first three movies contained a sum total of three lightsaber battles. They were cool, because they weren't overused. In each case, the Lucas created, operatic weapon of elegance was used as part of the emotional culmination of each movie. The battles were significant, and important. Now they're just a part of the "action pack" of stuff thrown into the new movies to make Star Wars fans drool. With the new movie potentially being rated PG-13, more than ever fans are crying "Blood blood blood!"
Star Wars didn't used to be about blood or sabering off limbs. It was something innocent, iconic. That's not to say Revenge of the Sith shouldn't be darker. Of all the Star Wars films, this is the one that should be the grittiest, the most violent, the most disturbed. I'm fine with that. I'm even fine with people being geeked out about lightsaber battles. I just wish that wasn't fandom's entire burning focus. It seems to me that with Star Wars, there used to be more to it than that. But then perhaps fans are simply grasping on to the only thing about Lucas' prequels that hasn't been an utter disappointment. No matter how bad the dialogue gets or how boring the plot, lightsabers are still cool. There's no screwing up that. me to make the Star Wars editorials stop. Come Together  My DVD collection is woefully inadequate, because I’ve just never seen the point with obsessively collecting discs. If I want to watch it I buy it, I don’t have to own it just in case at some point I have a burning desire to view it. So many DVD collectors I know have DVDs just to have them, some of them still in the wrappers, most of them never watched. I buy DVDs now and then, but only when I’m going to watch. I don’t buy them to let them sit on the shelf. With my busy life, I don’t have nearly as much time to watch as I’d like. I barely have time to sleep. So my DVD collection sits somewhere under a 100 flicks, and grows slowly by a disc or two every month in part via screeners sent to me for review and in part via purchases I make to accompany Saturday night pizza and Grey Goose Vodka (I hate beer).
Still, it’s fun to see what other people own and even better if you can trade your DVDs back and forth with your friends. Whenever I do, it somehow seems they never make it back. Well, we’ve set up a group at a great new place called MediaChest.com that lets Cinema Blend readers and writers group together, show off, and trade their DVD collections. Actually, the great thing about this place is that it isn’t just DVDs, it’s books, games, and anything else you’d care to catalog and show off. Enough with the explanation go over there and register. Set up a free account and join the Cinemablend.com group. I’m still working on cataloging all my DVDs. Jump in with me. You’ll like it. Really. Click here to register, then through the GROUPS menu join Cinemablend.com. me to for help joining our MediaChest.com group! Letters From Close Enough to the Edge to See the View But Not So Close That There is Danger of Falling Off  Guided by the spirit of the small Asian woman to your left (who I really need to replace with something more snazzy), I answer reader mail. It’s new, it’s innovative, and no doubt this idea will be ripped off by thousands of copycats, like that hack David Letterman. your comments to have them read on the… er answered here. Let’s see what you folks have to say this week: Caron: Could they REALLY do a Buffy show without Whedon? I thought he owned the rights. Josh: If Karin can be spelled without a “K” then I guess anything is possible. Cliff: The Movie Bomber. Great reviews. :-P Josh: Nice to see that for Jason Muzie, there is life after Pizza the Movie. Basil: RE: General Grevious fighting Obi-Wan - If you are talking about the part just before the wookiees jump off the tank thing and the bit after you see the planet of mussfarfar (or however you spell it) then it is grievous, as i have the trailer downloaded and im very quick at double clicking and so i can almost go through frame by frame but my computer has problems taking screenshots, and he isn't fighting him with a stick he's fist fighting him (you see obi's fists up and dodging a punch), if im sending this email to the wrong person or you think im being stupid and you meant something else please say. Josh: Who said anything about Grevious fighting Obi-Wan? My Obi-Wan edition lightsaber is still safely in the closet. Matt: I think lindsay Lohan is so cool, bright, brillant and talented. I think she deserves five stars and eventually hoply an Oscer Award for Herbie Fully Loaded in the year 2006! This is Matt Burden peace out!!!!! Josh: No, I think you’re the cool one and hope you win an Oscar for… whatever it is you’re doing right now. You’ve probably got a better chance than Lindsay. The car will win one before her. So will that dirt smuged kid who helped him go bananas about a decade ago. Retroactively. That was some fine banana throwing. Hey! Do you like writing for mildly successful movie websites with no guarantee that you’ll ever be paid? Are you over 18? You’re in luck. CinemaBlend.com is looking for writers just like you. If you think you can capture the signature Cinema Blend style as a critic and/or BNN reporter send me an with a few samples and we’ll talk. |
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