skepticlysm

Tag: Movies

  • Raiders of the Lost Years

    Raiders of the Lost Years

    • At this moment, I’m sitting on the couch watching Raiders.
    • Yes, again.
    • Turned it on to give myself something to watch while I injected the antibiotics.
    • My brain runs on Raiders quotes.
    • They pop up all the time while navigating the day-to-day.
    • I wish there were more good Indy movies.
    • Two, maybe three.
    • Though I didn’t hate the latest one.
    • Got me thinking back to that article about rewatching/rereading.
    • Maybe I should make my Revisit List.
    • It’d have to be tiered.
    • Because some get rewatched a lot.
    • 1) Raiders
    • 2) Fellowship of the Ring
    • And then after that …
    • Mission: Impossible flicks
    • The Matrix
    • The Terminator
    • Die Hard (though I only watch that on Xmas Eve)
    • Random Marvel flicks, though Captain America: The Winter Soldier would be the most frequent.
    • I’m actually sitting here plotting an Indy book in my head where he goes after a scepter that would allow cultists to summon Cthulu.
    • Because he’s an expert on the occult.
    • Why all the big things he chases have to be Biblical?
    • Screenplay would be easier.
    • All these people keep trying to find the Indy magic and screwing the pooch.
    • The latest would be Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, which I didn’t hate, but wasn’t great, either.
    • John’s good. Natalie’s … not?
    • Neither is compelling enough to be an Indiana Jones.
    • Character’s the thing, man.
    • Any movie you love, no matter the epicness of the spectacle, rises to greatness on the richness of its characters.
    • Good dialogue helps, too.
    • “They call him Bellosh.”
    • I know I overshare here.
    • Still a lot I keep back.
    • Like, I’m not talking about toilet paper choices and consequences while you’re on IV antibiotics for going on six weeks …
    • I could.
    • But I won’t.
    • Ain’t nobody got time for that.
    • That scene in Raiders where they have the monkey throw the Nazi salute kills me.
    • Subtle commentary, right?
    • Maybe not so subtle.
    • Depends on how you’re watching.
    • This list is a ridealong I guess.
    • I do wonder how the fight scenes would’ve been choreographed today.
    • Those haymakers Indy throws you can see coming from a mile away.
    • Then again, professors didn’t study kung fu in the ‘40s I imagine.
    • “You can’t do this to me! I’m an American.”
    • Yeah, that didn’t age well.
    • Would it be safe as an American to sit at a table in Cairo and down a bottle of whiskey?
    • That scene where Indy and Belloq bandy insults in the bar, Indy slightly out of focus in the fore of the frame, the Frenchmen talking in focus in the back.
    • That kind of shot does not show in modern flicks, like modern filmmakers don’t know how to compose a shot.
    • And there I go again, tripping into movie criticism.
    • I’ll stop.
    • With that anyway.
    • Another confession: I have my “computer glasses” on because I’m typing this and have the movie playing, so everything on the screen looks fuzzy.
    • Are they “readers?”
    • Kinda.
    • I don’t wear glasses when I read something, but I have to have them when I’m on the computer, and definitely for anything in the distance.
    • I tried that progressive stuff a few years ago, but I move my eyes too much without turning my head, so I didn’t like them.
    • Multiple glasses to see sucks.
    • Toting them around.
    • Having to get up after I’ve sat down because I have the wrong damn pair.
    • I’m not ashamed.
    • Indy has glasses, after all.
    • My favorite bit of music from Raiders is the bit in the Map Room.
    • Epic and haunting.
    • Williams has a ton of those moments in his catalogue.
    • My second favorite would be the track during the asteroid escape sequence in The Empire Strikes Back.
    • Music can elevate a movie to another level.
    • Do not ever discount the emotional impact of great music.
    • I had a plan to write about bodies of water today.
    • Not gonna happen.
    • We’ll save it for tomorrow for after the MRI and the valium.
    • (Because I can’t do an MRI without being chemically relaxed.)
    • (I’d rather sleep through the whole thing.)
    • Don’t get me wrong, the Ark leitmotif hits me the same way as the Map Room bit.
    • So good.
    • No, I do not know how much of this is nostalgia, familiar comfort engrained in my being at this point.
    • I’m sure I give this movie too much credit.
    • I dgaf.
    • I shall not recant.
    • Also, thank you John Williams for everything.
    • Why Raiders today, on my 24th anniversary?
    • Because I woke up with “I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go” playing in my head.
    • That quote shows up daily.
    • Because it’s true.
    • Every moment of every day.
    • I know every line of dialogue by heart.
    • “Unless you are able to give me something to placate them.”
    • Well.
    • We’re probably at the outer limit of Mikey’s attention span, so we’ll stop here.
    • “I told you it would be alright!”
    • Out.
  • Catching a Sturgeon

    Catching a Sturgeon

    • I wasn’t supposed to do one of these on the weekend, but I’m up before everyone and have nothing else to do.
    • I’m becoming a morning person because of those goddamn animals.
    • Ginny, the fluffy white cat, wakes us up every day now.
    • Damn her.
    • Anyway, while walking around taking my nine meds …
    • 10?
    • (AP Style is numbers are spelled out until you get to 10, then you use the numbers. FYI.)
    • … while walking around taking all my meds, I was thinking about why I write.
    • It has to be some sort of affirmation, right?
    • Oh, guys! Look at me! Look at what I did!
    • Only there’s this part that would be doing something like this even if I did not show it to you.
    • I have journals.
    • I have shitloads of fiction I’ve never shown anyone.
    • It’s odd, is what I’m saying.
    • I have something to write about movies.
    • Because, duh.
    • There is so much shit out now.
    • I used to reference Sturgeon’s Law, which is: “90 percent of everything is crap.”
    • I feel it’s higher.
    • Or filmmakers have regressed.
    • You know, if you know me, I served as film critic/editor for Urban Tulsa Weekly for 11 years.
    • I wrote more than a million words about movies.
    • And then I wrote my Master’s thesis on film critics.
    • I’m to this point in life, based on conversations and the Internet, where I really do not share my opinions about films anymore.
    • Like I had a guy go on and on about how great The Substance was, how Demi deserved her Oscar, blah, blah, blah.
    • No.
    • No it was not. No, she did not.
    • It looked like it was shot by amateurs (and don’t get me started on that; like how in the fuck does The Wheel of Time look like a really damned expensive TV show? How is that possible? They’re literally wrecking the books and it looks like it was shot by film school students. Raiders of the Lost Ark has better cinematography than most crap I see today).
    • … it’s like movie Tourette’s.
    • I’m scared to watch the Best Picture winner this year because of this.
    • Because from the trailer, it looks awful.
    • Hopefully, I’m wrong.
    • But in any case, the bar is low now.
    • I see people complain about Marvel flicks, and while I do feel their quality has dipped a bit since Avengers: Endgame, I’ve liked a handful.
    • The Internet wants us to be tired of them, to hate them.
    • I don’t see it.
    • Judge each film on its merits.
    • But the crap I see written about movies these days is a bunch of assholes with agendas.
    • Hell, it’s probably even AI or AI-assisted.
    • I’m sorry, but if you’re a journalist and you’re using AI to “help” you with op/ed pieces, you are a giant sack of crap.
    • Which brings us back around to … stop listening to people on the Internet, including me.
    • It’s why I will not really review a movie anymore.
    • You want to chat about movies, DM me.
    • Or, fuck, I’ll start a Discord server and we can sit and talk movies all the time.
    • Lemme know.
    • What else?
    • The swelling in my face is going down.
    • I’m not talking about the zipper on my head, either.
    • I’m talking about all the swelling I had from the … infectious disease, like the stuff around my eye and in my cheek bones.
    • My head is noticeably thinner.
    • OMG the antibiotics are working.
    • Yes, I’m still dizzy.
    • Yes, I have an IV in my arm for another five weeks.
    • Yes, my jaw is probably crooked for the rest of my life
    • But … this shit may be dying in my dome.
    • Hallelujah, pass the coffee.
    • I cannot have a drink until I’m off the antibiotics.
    • I’m not an alcoholic, but I’m dying for a rye whiskey.
    • That’s a whole other conversation.
    • You kids have a good Sunday.
    • Maybe we can talk about Thunderbolts later today.
    • Hope you have a pocket full of sunshine.
    • Disclaimer: I’m not actually mad. #truth