Recent viewings

Being an official geek (though I may lose my membership if I can't get another job in IT. and since the industry currently thinks (stupidly) that India is the solution to everything, it looks grim), I have to watch each Star Wars film more than once. With the original three, that was no problem as they were great in each and every Ewok-free frame.

The new ones, of course, blow hot and cold, but since they're so patchy, they may as well just suck out loud completely. The whole first one is kind of a trial with only Ewan McGregor's dead-on impersonation of Obi-wan Kenobi being enjoyable. (Ok ok, Natalie Portman is very easy on the eyes, but that's like saying sunshine is bright.)

Over the course of three nights the family tried to wade through eppy 2 - "Attack of the Clones". The child bailed sometime during one of the many committee meetings that festoon the film like leaf rot. The wife remarked that it was a particularly bad soap opera, and she was right.

However, the last half-hour of the movie is nearly perfect, kinda gets the old skank back. From the time Natalie and future Darth arrive at the droid factory, the movie rocks. (The one scene where Obi-wan is escaping debris from the god-like flatulence bombs that turn asteroids into a deadly projectile sandboxes is kinda cool, too, but it's just a little too much like what we've seen before, so only that wild sound rescues the scene.)

If they were to edit together the first two movies, cutting out all the dross, leaving the last half hour or so alone, they would have one bitchin' movie.

Saw the newly restored Superman DVD on the library shelf, and snagged it for the MPC (Most Precious Child), as it is almost the perfect movie for her age. And since Superman is such an icon in American mythology (alongside "Star Trek", "Star Wars", "The Wizard of Oz", and "Gilligan's Island"), I wanted her to see it. She really liked it. I had forgotten how charming it was. And, for once, the footage they added actually improved the film.

It had some pretty good "making of" documentaries, too, better than the usual HBO/Showtime marketing campaign castoffs. The screen tests for Lois Lane were fun, especially the one with the ultra-hot Anne Archer. The discussion over the size of Superman's, uh, codpiece should make its way into every film school's texts. Oh and Cliff Claven has a bit part. He's the guy who can't turn the missle from nuking California. That alone made the revisit good enough for me.