WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE VIII: SUMMER 2023
Hello People of the World;
Here we are again. Thank you for taking any time to look at this one thing. Please note, we are in another COVID spike right now, so mask up and get boosted.
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 are stupid and we are doomed.
2:[ AUGUST IN-THEATER MOVIE REVIEWS:
- Oppenheimer (Saw twice)
Went and saw this again with my friend Larry. It's a good film but I still like "Barbie" better. It led to some great post-viewing conversation moments. Just a three hour movie to get to the "I feel bad about it".
I have my issues about what was left out politically and historically. I typed a bunch of things here but retracted them because you can just ask me and I'll tell ya.
Nolan's decision to have Florence Pugh's character having sex in front of Kitty Oppenheimer is a weird one. The need for her nudity still strikes me as regressive. (The new Emma Stone flick where she gets naked is getting rave reviews from dudes saying it's a better femme message than Barbie. Geez. What we have become.)
I still like "Barbie" better. I need to see that again.
RECOMMENDED
- Barbie
One-third of the Top Movie Review Team took in as part of a double feature Greta Gerwig's smash hit "Barbie". It was fun and raucous and stymying and funny and eye-opening and utterly f*cking fantastic.
Margot Robbie plays the iconic doll in a Barbie World. I recommend you just go see it. That closing shot was just the best way to top off the whole affair.
Aside; to paraphrase Trae Crowder, why are people getting mad about the Girl Power message in a Barbie movie?
I love it. It shifts my gaze and am happier for it. I will definitely see it again.
HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION
BEST of 2023
- The Meg 2: The Trench
One half of the Top Movie Review Team went to see the sequel to the much-loved "The Meg", a popular shark movie of the past couple of years. Char had a yearning to watch "The Meg" a couple of months ago after seeing the nutso trailer for this. We love our girl, so we went to see this. Still don't know if this was the best thing to follow up "Barbie" with.
It holds up as well as any cheap sequel does. They kill off a character and replace them with the latest mainland star for box office appeal in China, where this is a blockbuster.
It rehashes some of the best parts of the first, goes over the wall crazy in one or two moments, (Statham riding a skidoo over a crashing wave, spear in hand will never be awful), but the first hours could have been cut. Expository nonsense that isn't needed because all you want to see is great big sharks eating people. I'm hypocrite enough to say it was fun. It's not Heroic for Trash Curation fun, but fits into that same category I mention with "Cocaine Bear". This is the stuff we're making now. Like "Cocaine Bear" this was fun at times, funny at others, but it is just a movie in the end.
SLIGHT NOT-RECOMMENDED
- Rifftrax Live: Rad
Bonnie and I, as we are wont to do, went out to view the latest offering from the beloved RiffTrax Live events. This time it was the 80's BMX movie, "RAD", about a young small-town BMXer who qualifies to take part in the Hell Track Event put on in his home town. Of course, some big corporate sponsor wants their handpicked bikers to win to push the sales of... whatever their company sells. Bikes, maybe? It's never made clear. Just that they hired gymnast Bart Connor, of Gymkata fame, to be their ringer.
Of course, it contains college admissions advice by Lori Laughlin. There's that. And Talia Shire, whom is only in THREE SCENES, and you forgot she's in it, until the end credits and you learn SHE WAS A PRODUCER on it.
The RiffTrax crew make it enjoyable as usual. I remember watching this when it came out on home video. Yeah, I'm old now. But I honestly do not remember much about it. The face turn at the end I am sure was Connor's suggestion. There was a bike dance in the middle of it, not to mention a pair of twins doing a whole ass dance routine in this small, back water town. As Bill riffed, "Makes you think the Preacher Dad from Footloose was right after all."
Enjoyed it. I paid to their Kickstarter for this. So, I guess I got my money's worth. "You can keep you five bucks!"
RECOMMENDED
- Blue Beetle
Char and I have been looking forward to seeing this when we saw the trailer.
"Blue Beetle" is the FIRST in the now-official DCU Films. Let's face it, Zack Snyder fucked it up real good with his Randian endeavors. What a hack, and now where entrusting him with the the much-wanted Star Wars Seven Samurai film, and he misses that up too!?
According to Letterbxed: "Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab.:
Fun and cultural, respectful without being patronizing to the DC mythos (and NOT the canon), if not very memorable. Xolo Mariduena was a fantastic pick for the Spider-man stand-in that DC Movies have been wanting. He's relatable. Adriana Barraza is spectacular as Nana! Her moments were the standouts for me, being an old myself. "Now, we can cry" hit me hard.
Go see and see the start of the newer, “more fun and relatable” DC Movies.
RECOMMENDED
3:[ This Month’s Quote:
"When we look at the world, we see the commercialization of arts. People use objects in order to sell their talents. As with the nut and the flower, the nut has become less important than the flower. In this manner, the Way of Strategy, both among the teachers and among the students, has become a show of technique, out of their desire to rush the blooming of the flower. They speak about "this Dojo" or "that Dojo". They seek profit. It was once said that "undeveloped strategy is cause for grief." This saying is true."
MIYAMATO MUSHASHI, ca. 1645, Japan
The Book of Five Rings
The Earth Book, "The Way of Strategy"
This guy got it, and also, he got it over 400 years ago too.
4:[ I have finally come up with an idea for a new novel. A “post-apocalyptic” tale of a lone survivor. But from an Arapaho’s perspective.
5:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: going back to ignoring the lessons we just so grievously learned….
That is it for this month.
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
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