FEBRUARY - EPISODE II: WINTER 2023

 WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE II: WINTER 2023

Hello People of the World;

 

Once again, I am late in posting this. This past month was a let-down. I am in between jobs as I write this. It’s crummy.

 

As always: Stay safe. Stay home.

 

 All right, let’s get going:

 

1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: that we continue to dis-value and overlook others….

 

 

2:[ EW3 MOVIE REVIEWS:

 

Fear Street 1978 (Netflix): I never saw the prequel nor the sequel but found this to be pretty fun. If it’s a reflection on the quality of the film series: kudos.

 

Moonage Daydream (Blu-ray): Took a bit to get into. I understand the notion to make your standard documentary stand out, especially when it comes to David Bowie. But, seriously, you do not have to sell Bowie. You do not have to sell us on him as some sort of artistic angel. He’s David Bowie. This mostly comes off as the director flexing using Bowie as the canvas. Good informative doc, feels a touch, a touch, exploitative.

 

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Amazon): Fantastic as everyone says it is. Great look at aging and legacy. Yeah, we are not owed a legacy.

 

Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumaina - Saw it with Char in 3D. Not bad, not the best Ant-man movie. That will always be the un-made movie not-directed by Edgar Wright.

 

Here Ant-man and a barely-there Wasp are pulled into the quantum realm that deus ex machina'd the Thanos Snap. Here, they discover Kang and his plot to take over the universe, or something. I don't know. I didn't watch the "Loki" series. Something, something, multi-verse....

 

On the other hand, I did finally watch "Ms. Marvel" and declare it the best Marvel series. Cool, Easter egg in that final 30 seconds of the series, mid-credits scene. Awesome show. Watch that instead.

 

Low Recommendation

 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Who hasn't seen this fantastic film? Based on the wuxia novel series, The Crane-Iron Pentalogy by Wang Baoxiang.

 

Starring Chow Yun-fat, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, and Michelle Yeoh, who is seeing a resurgence of late. When it first came out, the focus was on Chow Yun-fat. Now, it's deservedly Michelle.

 

What most do not understand is how different from the standard wuxia films this was. It was more emotionally open in its depictions. Something Lee is known for. Not only is the action top-notch, so are the performances, and the adaptation of the story.

 

HIGH RECOMMENDATION

 

Cocaine Bear – If there is anything that signifies this hipster, ironic trend in films, it's "Cocaine Bear". A stupid movie that was kind of fun. But more stupid, but we like garbage films now and we think we're heroes because we curate stupid movies. Some of the kills took too long, and the premise is pretty thin. But that's okay now.

 

This is also the last time we will ever see Ray Liotta on-screen and he goes out like that. When I mentioned to Char that he broke big playing a cocaine dealer, she remarked "It comes full circle."

 

The real story of the Cocaine Bear is more sad. It simply ingested a brick of coke and died instantly of a heart attack. Of course, in our stupidity as humans, we turned it into a BroHam Legend complete with backwards ball cap and sport sunglasses forever mounted on the bear's stuffed corpse.

 

Stupid movie that was kind of fun. But more stupid. But we're heroes ‘cause we like stuff like that now.

 

TIME WASTER – But a semi-fun one.

 

 

3:[ I am being laid off from my job at Truth and Documentary: I never felt as disvalued as when this happened. It is a great place to work. My fellow Producer and the Camera and Production Assistant are cool, good folks. The best I’ve worked with maybe, ever. So, now I am tasked with finding comparable employment at my age in this post-pandemic era. So, we’ll see….

 

4:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: The number of unmasked people I see makes me realize that we never thought of others as having value. Or we would mask up until this virus is annihilated. But we only care for ourselves, because we are somehow the hero of our own stories….

 

 

That is it for this month.

 

Sorry it’s so short. It was a rough one and I had little time to collect and gather my thoughts.

 

As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.

 

Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”

 

 

2023 Ernest M Whiteman III