Grease Live!
Aired on Fox last night. That worked out better than anyone expected! (And diversity, too!)
Trump!
Let's all get used to the phrase "American President Donald Trump!" Honestly, I still can't believe he's gotten this far and really, I still can't imagine a world in which he's the Republican nominee, let alone president. Still....
Iowa's caucuses are today. I'll be watching. I still think it'll come down to Hillary (on the Dem's side) and Rubio (for the Republicans). Perhaps I'm just in denial. I'll be watching coverage today! A nice gift before I leave for Hawaii! Sure.....
Speaking of Donald Trump....
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
How have I not seen this before? I just watched this 25-year old movie. I am open to arguments that it is both a work of genius or a deeply cynical piece of crap. I enjoyed it. I like that after the set up and moving all the characters into place, it just abandons narrative completely for something over the top crazy.
If you haven't seen the first one, (which I was a bit too young for--it was a bit intense for young Teza), it is essentially, a monster movie. If I remember correctly, a kid gets this cute pet as a gift that comes with three rules: no bright light, don't get it wet, don't feed it after midnight. So, it hates bright light (kills it), it reproduces if it gets wet (other gremlins pop out of its back) and if any of the gremlins eat after midnight, they transform from cute furry things to scaly frightening, malevolent monsters.
So, in the first movie, all the rules get violated, the town gets destroyed, more or less, by the gremlins, the gremlins get defeated, and only the cute good original gremlin survives for the sequel, along with the main character (the boy), his girlfriend and some other townspeople. Now, you're caught up.
Spoilers for Gremlins 2 after the jump. It's 25 years old, for Pete's sake!!
The sequel takes place in New York of 1990, (or is it 1989?) and the main character now works in New York City in the Clamp Tower, owned by real estate developer and billionaire, Daniel Clamp, who is a thinly disguised parody of a real life real estate developer who is currently running for president.... Oddly, in today's environment, Daniel Clamp seems less fictional than Trump....
Anyway, there are a whole bunch of new evil gremlins, and due to "plot" contrivances, they have distinct personalities, unlike the first one. Due to drinking weird potions, one develops the ability to talk (the brainy one), one becomes a bat-like flying one and one becomes an electric current one...
It makes no sense! It's batshit crazy! It suddenly becomes a pastiche of parodies and homages. There's one to King Kong, one to Batman, etc.
Then, the movie breaks the fourth wall! First, there's a scene in which characters in the film start pointing out how non-sensical the rules are. (What if he eats before midnight, but something gets stuck in his teeth, like a sesame seed, and then after midnight, he swallows the seed? Did he eat? What if he's in a plane and changes time zones?). Then, film critic Leonard Maltin reviews the first Gremlins movie (available on VHS at the time) and gets killed by the evil gremlins for trashing the movie!
Here's the best part: the gremlins break into the theatre where you are watching the movie, destroy the film reel, and only the intervention of Hulk Hogan gets the movie going again. Here's the scene:
I wish I had seen this in the theatre and didn't know about that scene.
I found out yesterday, for VHS home release, the scene was changed to be more appropriate for home video. It involves the gremlins changing channels, and John Wayne ends up saving the day. Here's the altered scene:
The movie ends in a way that makes no sense, really, but is appropriate for the film. It involves the electric gremlin in a way that, unless I missed something, the main character would have had no idea would work. I don't know. Who cares by that point?
I read somewhere that Joe Dante was given a bunch of money to make the sequel and the studio gave him licence to do whatever he wanted. He had been reluctant to make a sequel and decided he would make something showing why a sequel was unnecessary.
It's an odd movie. Fun! I'll even forgive the slightly racist needless Japanese tourist who keeps taking photos, even when the world is falling apart (because Asian people like taking photos. Get it? Oh, ethnic humour is hilarious!) I was thankful that at least the character didn't do "The Accent" (TM).
Good silly, in my opinion. I liked it, but I get it won't be to everyone's taste.
Me = Grandpa Simpson
 |
| I've turned into this guy. |
I'm on leave from work, so with the extra time, I ended up writing a 3-page letter to Cineplex telling them everything that's wrong with their business right now. I have no idea why I did it. I just suddenly found myself typing a letter and last Friday, I sent my letter to six executives. We'll see what happens....
Hawaii
As I said, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'll update this blog with pictures and thoughts as best I can. There may be times when I'm too busy, but we'll see.
I'm curious to see what a society without an ethnic majority (you can look it up!) looks like. Plus, beaches and mountains.....
We'll talk soon....
