The first trailer for The Losers the new film starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Chris Evans and Zoe Saldana and based on the amazing Vertigo series by Andy Diggle & Jock has hit the web, and frankly, I am impressed. The filmmakers seem to have taken the smart yet difficult path of staying true to the spirit of the story while not being rigidly bound to the structure ala Watchmen , all the while keeping key moments from the series intact for long time fans. I’m definitely going to be there for this opening weekend.
I haven’t watched a State of the Union address in 6 years. There are two reasons for this: I don’t like listening to George W Bush speak and even more so I can’t stand all the applause. Every other word gets an applause. I bet you the speech vs applause time ratio is probably 50:50. It’s mind-numbing.
So am I watching tonight?
No.
Well the applause will still be there, which is most definitely a major negative. That, however, is not why I’m not planning on watching. I’m not going to watch because I don’t have the heart to be disappointed again. He can talk about spending freezes, bank taxes, Afghanistan, and whatever else he wants. Great. Good for you, Mr. President. But unless you deal with the giant healthcare elephant in the room, whatever you say to my mind is meaningless. Even with your massive majorities you failed to push through your number one initiative. So why should I think you will push through anything you talk about?
Healthcare reform (or the lack thereof) is making the Democrats look impotent.
This makes me not want to participate or work for them. More so it makes me feel like our government is currently broken. One side we have the Republicans who are conservative in name only, and are more a party of crony-ism, negativity, and no ideas to either support or disagree with. On the other side we have the Democrats, who have shown a massive failure of leadership since the 2008 elections.
Governing requires both a long game and a short game. I can’t grade Obama on the long game, but on the short game he has made none of the bold movers that suggest the change his supporters hoped of him. The short game is as much about illusion as it is about reality. The governing party must present the illusion of action if not real action (trust me, I’d prefer the latter), and Obama and his party have done neither. He has not closed Guantanamo, he has not passed Healthcare reform (I don’t care if it’s not a perfect bill just pass the damn thing), he hasn’t reversed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, he hasn’t created a public works program. The Stimulus Act, for all the good it might have done to save the country from a depression, did not improve the lives of the middle class, and had the immediate effect of creating the public image that it helped those who needed help the least. This is not good governing, good leadership or good politics. It’s his apparent failure to make changes that are visible in the day to day that make the Democrats look weak; that make his supporters lose hope; that make Americans disillusioned and angry.
I’m sure tonight Obama will list his accomplishments and his goals. I honestly don’t care. I want action. I want to have something to believe in.
“And [Obama’s failure to close Guantanamo] is a function of three things: the chaotic state the Bush-Cheney crew left the paperwork in; the nihilism and fear-mongering of the GOP; and the usual lack of nerve among Democrats. The Bush inheritance, GOP cynicism and Democratic cowardice: three things that dominated Obama’s first year.”
Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Dish
Agreed.
2) On the Jets:
”[Shonn] [Greene was shelved after suffering a rib injury, and the absence of the rookie running back was a killer for the Jets.”
Mark Hale - The NY Post
Agreed.
3) On producing films:
“If you are going to spend a minimum of two years or more of your life cheerleading and fighting for a story you had better believe it is something you would actually pay $12 to see yourself.”
Lynnette Howell at the Sundance Producer’s Brunch
I Can’t Believe I Watched That
(A continuing series on films from my childhood that I (re)discovered on Netflix Watch Now)
(Spoilers abound - you’ve been warned)
Hudson Hawk
Directed by Michael Lehmann
In which: Hudson Hawk, the world’s greatest cat burglar (Bruce Willis) gets blackmailed by the world’s richest couple (Richard E. Grant & Sandra Bernhard) into stealing the world’s most famous art treasures (which secretly contain pieces of a mythical, lost machine created by Leonardo Da Vinci to turn lead into gold).
I Can’t Believe They Made That! There are good movies, there are bad movies, there are movies that are so bad they’re good, and then there’s Hudson Hawk. This is a movie so terribly idiotic that I cannot comprehend how anyone behind it, wither director, producer, actor, writer, etc, thought that they could make even a passably bad movie out of it. Case in point.
The plot is inane.
Example: Why on earth would the villainous couple hire Hudson Hawk to steal a piece of art only to easily purchase a duplicate of said art the next day at an auction? And then on top of that why would they cause the duplicate to explode right after they bid on it?
The supporting characters are ill-defined.
Examples:
James Coburn plays a rogue CIA operative leading a team named after candy bars (Kit Kat, Snickers, Butterfinger, etc) whose only goal seems to double-cross people and be double-crossed.
Andy MacDowell plays a nun who makes out with Hawk, let’s the villains blow up the above mentioned duplicate, and works with the CIA, then tries to double-cross them when she learns that they are trying to double-cross her, but they might not be really trying to double-cross her, so who really knows.
Danny Aiello plays Hawk’s best friend who initially sells his best friend out to the villains for the money because he’s not making enough money from his uber-sucessfull yuppy club.
David Caruso plays one of the candy bars whose sole role is imitate the people around him and get killed before he can do anything.
Frank Stallone… well, Frank Stallone. ‘Nuff Said.
The action is idiotic.
Example: Danny Aiello drives off a 1000 ft cliff in a limo that gets shot by a rocket launcher and explodes mid-fall, and he survives due to airbags and a sprinkler system.
This leads to a theory:
They decided to make a bad movie.
Not cheap bad or low quality bad or reaching for the stars bad - just simply a bad movie. And in the process have a shit-load of fun. Cause, honestly the movie is pretty damn fun. Yeah, nothing makes sense, but everyone seems to be having such a good time that in the end so even though I might have snarfed when Willis asks his McDowell to “play Nintendo with him,” I knew WIllis and McDowell were snarfing with me.
What does all this mean in the end? Should you give up 90 minutes of your time to see this movie? No. But if one day you’re lying on your couch, sick from disease or man-made causes, you might want to trade those 90 minutes for some time with Hawk and his “friends.” Of course in full disclosure you will have “Swinging from the Stars” stuck in your head for at least the next 48 hours.
What the critics said then:
’‘Now and then, a Hollywood megabomb explodes with so much force that it actually sheds some light. “Hudson Hawk,” a colossally sour and ill-conceived misfire, is at least a film from which someone may learn something, if only the hard way.
A star (Bruce Willis) out of touch with the qualities that have made him popular. A relatively new director (Michael Lehmann, who made “Heathers”) who is in way over his head. And a producer (Joel Silver) who’s known for vulgar hits (“48 Hours,” “Die Hard” “Lethal Weapon”) but this time delivers only vulgarity. These are contributing factors to the “Hudson Hawk” debacle, which is one of the very special ones, the kind that will be spoken of in the same breath with “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “Howard the Duck.” Smirky, mean-spirited cynicism is the spirit that unites all three.
- Janet Maslin, NY Times
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