The Sci-Fi 1st Runner Up

Our Big Empty Movie Awards Sci-Fi category continues after a couple of detours.  Recall that Star Trek was somewhat panned in the previous Sci-Fi thread.  It earned that, and the attempt to boldly take the show where it had never gone before, namely the movies, didn't help matters.  The very cleverly named Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979 after Star Wars invigorated the public about where modern special effects could take our imaginations and Close Encounters of the Third Kind proved there was an appetite for Sci-Fi that wasn't about dog fights in space.  What Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought us was state of the art special effects and a very cerebral concept.  What they forgot to pack in this lunchbox though was any kind of a discernable plot.  The first time I saw it as a kid, it was playing on TV at a house we were visiting, and us youngsters found ourselves saying "I don't get this" and "what's going on" and "let's go outside" and then coming back in and saying things like "this is STILL on?" and "how did they get to this?"  I watched it again from beginning to end a few months ago for the second time and I don't have anything to add to that.  The movie was a financial success, but a massive critical failure, and it called into question whether or not the ride that we were enjoying from Star Wars and Superman was coming to an end.  Superman II and The Empire Strikes Back would answer that question with a resounding "No!", meaning that there must be something wrong with Star Trek.  

A word about Red Dawn

I just recently watched the extended Director’s Cut of Red Dawn. The prologue that was left out of the theatrical version really adds some suspense that I would have felt more strongly about had I not known what was coming next. An ominous opening where we join a foreign high command operations planning session in progress sets the stage for how the attack that almost brings America to its knees was so successful. 

Doc review: The Last Dance

 

There was something about watching The Chicago Bulls in the 1990s that looked different. That this team, the organization, the players, and the fans all knew they were the best there ever was or ever will be. They knew it before they won their first of six NBA championships and the rest was just proving it to the world that didn’t know any better. The very first time I saw how they introduced their starting lineup on the NBA on NBC (insert obligatory “YES!” From Marv Albert), I was in love. “That’s how they do this?!  Oh I’m here for this whenever the Bulls are on TV!”

Sci-Fi takes a turn in the Big Empty Spotlight

Here in the Big Empty move review series, we mentioned that this is one of the genres that has some difficulty getting respect. Some of your audience comes willing and able to suspend all disbelief. Most of it doesn’t. So you’ve gotta give the peoples a reason to buy in. If you make them feel silly, they’ll never forgive you unless you’re making Barbarella. Everything about that movie is embarrassing and cringey although it has a cult following that we here at the Big Empty doubt would exist were it not for the flesh and the wild imagination about who inhabits it. 

Star Trek tried to be a serious and socially conscious show, exploring all sorts of human concepts combined with adventure. And, it was also the show that had scenes like this.

I have no doubt there is some profound point to be made at the end of this but I’m not sticking around for it. 

Doc Review- Challenger: The Final Flight

To have it told in pop-culture today, one could easily get the impression that my generation all watched the Challenger disaster together in real time in school and were all simultaneously traumatized. It’s easy to see how that narrative would get traction when trying to boil a historical event down to the least common denominator for a nation. But that’s not how I think about that day. 

The SuperWinner award goes to:

 

So first, to recap and briefly summarize, Superhero movies in the 21st century are a mixture of sci-fi, pro-wrestling (with each character getting their own theme music playing whenever they make an appearance) and an attempt to make modern American mythology in a Greco/Roman vein.  The epilogue to the Justice League Snyder cut (the last feature film with the reimagined Superman) now hints that if there is to be a sequel, that....well look for yourself:

Superhero 1st Runner Up

 

To learn about Wonder Woman while I was growing up and not reading comic books, I had to rely on a campy TV show (starring Linda Carter), or the Superfriends cartoon on Saturday morning. To be fair, this is all I had to get to know anything about Batman during the same time period. She didn’t get a major movie in the early 80s that made a splash like Superman did. 

Right or wrong, I viewed her as a character similar to Superman in many ways, but provided girls a hero of their own. Both characters wore similar colors and had similar power sets, but WW also had some unique things to distinguish her from being another Supergirl. 

Superhero Awards 2nd runner up

 Character development matters here. I’m not a comic book fan looking to see a silver screen version of what I spend all of my spare time reading about. Think of me, movie maker people, as the person who isn’t a sure thing to buy a ticket even if I hate your movie. I’m the person who wants to see an interesting character and come to root for them to go to another level, and rise to a unique challenge that I can relate to. 

Superhero Rant: This is my edgy Director's Cut Version of the Previous Post (and an Easter Egg for sci-fi)

This one is coming in a little hot, and is rated only for mature audiences.

Superhero movies are looooong. And now, you can’t just watch one version, each one has a director's cut that adds at least an hour more. And what does the extra time get you? For each 1 part of character development you get 10 parts additional big booms. 

Language warning. If you don’t like raw honest profanity, stop reading here.

Superhero Awards

Can we try an interactive approach....a sort of thought experiment if you will? Take a listen to the music embedded in the video below.  I’ll wait.

Why does the world need a superhero?

Part 1: Why does a superhero need us?

We better not need one too much....for most of our problems we're going to have to rely on our faith and ourselves, with a little help from our family and friends to get through it.  And occasionally, we get an assist from an angel....some inexplicable help that showed up at a time when there was little hope.  That's the relationship that we can also have with a superhero at the movies.  

A Word About Professional Wrestling

There is no shortage of good programming about professional wrestling.  That seems a little ironic because the actual programming that professional wrestling puts out is not meant to be taken seriously.  Very serious things happen to professional wrestlers, but it only gets formally communicated to the audience if it serves the story....and there are many parts of that story that are not at all serious.  The line between fiction and reality is very blurred and so there are times when something goes horribly wrong that the audience thinks it's part of the show.  And there are times when you're told something horrible has happened, and you might even witness it happening, and it is all scripted.  In many ways, it served as a prototype for how politics looks today.  Kayfabe is the part of wrestling that is only supposed to be discussed backstage.  The audience isn't supposed to be in on anything that is kayfabe.  There is a lot of kayfabe in politics where you'll find that people who behave like mortal enemies on television are actually working together behind the scenes, but they have to sell their hatred of the other party to their home constituency.  I'm going to spend a few paragraphs pointing out how pro-wrestling isn't really any different than anything else that is respected in society, and try to explore the reason why it doesn't get any respect...at least not the typical kind.

Doc Review - Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel

 A few years ago, pre-corona, I was away from home on what we then referred to as a business trip.  That was this thing where people left their homes and offices to conduct their work in another location.  I did it so often back then that I rarely got excited about it anymore.  There were airports, security lines, shuttles and trams, rental cars, uber rides, hotels to check into and all sorts of other things that often left little time beyond work to explore much.  And now I miss it terribly.  I don't remember which trip I was on, where exactly I was, or what portion of the wait part of the hurry-up-and-wait cycle of air travel I was in when I began reading an article about L.A.'s most notorious hotel.  I can't find the article anymore.  Thanks to the documentary I'm reviewing, a Google search using the keywords I'm looking for yields literally a hay field.  That's ok.  Finding it isn't critical to this review.  

Doc Review- Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests

As I mentioned in the previous post, Persona is on my mind for 3 reasons:

1) the subject matter is a topic that I've had sincere interest in for over 20 years

2) the movie had an emotional impact on me that was deeply personal

3) it is not what I would consider a good movie, or a good use of the documentary format to deliver the kind of impact that it had so much potential to have.  

I stumbled on Persona while surfing for something to watch

I Do Love a Good Documentary, So Let's Talk About Them!

I firmly believe that the best way to tell a story that needs to be told is through a well done documentary.  If done right, the viewer leaves with not only a much better understanding of something they were at best only casually familiar with, but also an insatiable appetite to learn more about it.  Some of the greatest docs tell stories that are stranger than fiction...or put another way, if the story they told were instead a work of fiction, nobody would believe it could actually happen.  But they can also be good when you find out there is a whole other side to something you thought you knew.  

Rather than spend time narrowing it down to a short list and doing a deep dive on the top three,

An addendum to the Biopic

We're back!  The year of Covid crawls to a close with a light at the end of the tunnel looking to be coming from somewhere around April 2021.  In the meantime, this is the first year since 1917 that Ohio State and Michigan will not play and we also have cynical power hungry politicians and their sycophants trying to make stupid people angry enough to give them their money because something something need money to stop a steal something something.  Some day there will be a documentary about these times, which will be followed with controversy about how accurately it depicted the situation, what facts are portrayed and the truthfulness of those facts, and most importantly whether or not blame is assigned to the correct people or if blame is even assigned at all.  It will probably be created and produced in another country if what is left of ours is no longer turning out quality entertainment for the hungry masses.  That's why our movie review mission is so important here at the Big Empty!!!  Future anthro-frickin-pology baby!!!!  The US wasn't always a cesspool of conspiracy, stupidity, and a population that was interested in only knowing enough to be dangerous and not one bit more.  We're here to make sure your great grandchildren know it.  Forward we go to the day when humanity figures out exactly when and where it all went wrong.  My money is on the cancellation of The Game.

Now, on to business. 

A break from a 3 year long movie review series to declare that Donald Trump Wins Re-Election with Broad Sweeping Mandate for Second Term!

Or at least that's what the headlines could have been saying.  Now if you're thinking I'm right because of all of the massive amounts of vote fraud that occurred in November of 2020, this is not the post for you.  Until your crack squad of professional dipshits can do anything besides hold press conferences where they say all the things they won't say in court, yet still never present any evidence, consider yourself out of school here.  You’ve gotten used to trying everything in the court of public opinion and muddying the waters enough to either win or soil the prize to where it isn’t worth anything anymore. You’re as annoying as the lefties who say Putin is the only reason Trump won the 2016 election. Now that your man has to go to actual court court, he doesn’t have a fucking fart in a skillet. Take that shit back to the corner of the internet where your bubble is impenetrable.  Here in the halls of the Big Empty, like the courts, facts still matter.  In God We Trust, all others; bring data.  So unless you are the Almighty Himself, your "plausible theories about what could explain the outcome that you can't fathom is possible" hold not one fucking drop of water here.  There are plenty of other sites that will eat that garbage up, but this isn't one of them.

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So, How'd we end up here in a movie review series? I've been working on the Best Documentary category, which I hope to finish soon.  My plan was to finish that up in September so that I could get to work on the Horror Category in October.  I think doing the Horror post was my plan for October of last year too now that I think of it.  Holy crap this is taking longer than I ever thought it would.  I'll finish this....I will.  I think I will.  No, I will.

Movies aren't on my mind much right now.  We are almost into month 9 of the Covid.  We just ended a very divisive election.  Every time we have one of those, we always say it was more divisive than any other previous election so saying that is somewhat stock.  But it was partly because, love him or hate him, there is no way that we can  have anything unifying where Donald Trump is involved.  He's not the cause, but rather the most glaring symptom of the rhetorical cancer that is now how government is chosen in the United States.  

As I sit here with two paragraphs written, I'm thinking to myself that I know this is going to be a long post, so I'll say what I think is the crux of the matter right at the top, and then go from there.  There are some, heck probably many many people, especially supporters of Trump that will disagree with me on this, but I truly believe there are two factors that had the greatest influence on the outcome of the election:

The Biopic Winner Is........

Well that last review was radiant eh?  Sorry.  I'll see myself out.

But first, an honorable mention and a winner.  Then I'll see myself out.

For honorable mention, I was very pleasantly surprised last December when I watched a movie called The Two Popes.  It had a limited theatrical release in November of 2019, but made a bigger splash on Netflix when it debuted there the following month.  I'm convinced that Anthony Hopkins can make a discussion about the scientific principles behind the speed that paint dries interesting and compelling to watch.  As someone who is not a born Catholic, the process that brought me to this movie was very organic.  I'm still not a Roman Catholic, but there was a time when I lived about 500 steps from one of the most vibrant church communities I've ever known.  It was a small Roman Catholic parish.  There was no marble.  No elaborate statues.  No paintings on the ceiling.  The frame was wooden, the siding was aluminum, the walls were plaster, and the heart was massive.  The church was rural, far away from urban centers.  It stood in a community where less than 500 people live, less than half of them practicing Catholics.  Yet the church was filled to its 200+ capacity every week.  People traveled from other towns where they had a Catholic church of their own to attend Mass here.  There were many reasons for this, but at the core, one of the most often cited reasons was the sense of community that people felt here that didn't exist at their larger more expensive and elaborate churches.

I grew up practicing my faith in protestant churches with aging membership that were trying to find a way to stop the children and grandchildren of their membership from leaving their home church.  Some searched desperately for answers.  Christian rock bands were started.  Youth groups were started.  Contemporary services were started.  Some of this succeeded.  Most of it didn't.  St. James Catholic Church did not have this problem.  Then in 2005, the Toledo Diocese decided to close dozens of churches due to a shortage of priests.  From my perspective, a shortage of priests was a temporary problem, a shortage of active membership was a potentially fatal one.  If I could see this, why couldn't the church leaders in Toledo see that?  At this time, Pope John Paul II passed away, and he was replaced with Pope Benedict who was even less sympathetic to my point of view.  My view that the Catholic Church was being led by an out of touch hierarchy that had lost vision was cemented at this point.  I stopped listening to church leadership and didn't grant them an ounce of credibility.  Our church family continued without formal recognition from the Toledo Diocese, and without my interest in what the hierarchy would say or do.

The Two Popes is the story of what happened in the most confidential parts of the hierarchy that I had been ignoring since 2005.  It is fascinating discussion, invigorating debate, and deep deep soul searching that suggest I was wrong, very wrong in my conclusion that the Catholic hierarchy lacks self awareness.  I'll post a preview, but I really do suggest setting aside some time to just watch and ponder what took place between Pope Benedict and his successor Pope Francis prior to their transition.

__________________

Now for the shining moment you've all been waiting way too long for...so long you forgot what you were waiting for.

I'm finally back to work to deliver a Biopic category!

I just noticed that I began this project nearly a year ago...April 5th 2019 to be exact.  And, it has been ~9 months since I told you I'd be back soon to cover the biopic category.  Since that time, we've seen Halloween, the season where I wanted to cover the Horror category, come and go.  We've given thanks, watched the Buckeyes crush the Wolverines (again), celebrated Christmas, watched me turn a year older, rang in the New Year, watched me rant about the people who make and enforce the rules in a game played by college students that I take too seriously, and gone into seclusion to avoid the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

You'd think that would be a lot of time to come up with material.  But you would be wrong.  I haven't thought much about my pet movie project.  It's been one thing after another.  But now, we all have a lot more time to tap into our creative side between hand washing, hydrating, remote conference calls, and figuring out how to acquire toilet paper and bread.

So, with that, I bring you my first Gen X Movie review of 2020.

Post Loss Musings From an OSU Fan On What May Actually Kill Football

I've experienced the pain of being a Buckeye fan in the 90s.  I thought we'd exorcised those demons when Jim Tressel took over and shocked the world in 2002.  Then in 2006, I invited a crew of family and friends over to attend a beer and buffalo wing soaked coronation led by our Heisman Trophy winning superstar quarterback.  That night, Urban Meyer and his Florida Gators broke my heart into 1,000 pieces.  In 2007, I was still numb from it so that loss to LSU didn't hurt so much as it just sucked.

I didn't expect to be CFP champions in 2016 due to the lack of any consistent offensive identity that season.  But I expected the game with Clemson to be close, and that we'd have a chance to pull something out like we did against The Team Up North a few weeks earlier.  It was New Year's Eve and I was at a party.  Many of the people I was surrounded by didn't care about football or OSU nearly as much as I did.  There were a few Buckeye haters there too.  Everyone was also drunk.