I loved it.
It was campy throughout … playing itself, if you will … with great music, photography, all the cliff-hanging (literally) suspense one has come to expect from Indiana Jones.
Paramount pulled off a difficult feat – playing to the older audience who loves Harrison Ford, playing him as it should be – an aging professor, still capable of heroic exploits, but a little older. As he’s looking at pictures on his desk of his father and a friend no longer with him, a fellow-faculty member says, “We’re at that point in time when life no longer gives us things, but takes them away.”
I wish I had said that.
But to play to a younger audience, Paramount teamed a young Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) – you will find out who he really is – who’s a promise for another film. It’s a nice balance, and throw in Karen Allen who plays Marion Ravenwood, an old love interest, adding an interesting twist.
The bad guy, uh, girl (Cate Blanchett), is deliciously and mystically bad … the Russian soldiers are all wonderfully malevolent – a little political commentary on the crazy McCarthy era and the so-called “Red Scare” – then greed, double-crossing friends, combined with Area 51 aliens who visited South America 5 millennia ago – and, of course, the fedora and the bull whip - all the ingredients of a rip-roaring plot and delightfully entertaining film.
Great music, terrific special effects – a finely-tuned script well balanced between thoughtful commentary on aging and family and the comedic.
Great effort – thankfully, Paramount didn’t try to duplicate previous efforts, but building on the theme and feel, created a stand-alone feature.
By the way, in a large warehouse, following a car crash, you catch a brief glimpse of something hidden away a long time ago. Enough said? Enough said.
Go see it – you’ll love it!
Showing posts with label Harrison Ford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harrison Ford. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Blade Runner: Final Cut
The Landmark on Pico is awesome ... spent some good time in Barnes & Nobles, then off to see Blade Runner: Final Cut.
I saw the first (1982) and thoroughly enjoyed it, and enjoyed it again - especially the sound. Cleaned up digitally, it's impressive, although the sets and their technology seem dated, like watching an old Frankenstein film.
Who can forget Harrison Ford's wry smile and when threated, a perplexed, frightened visage? He's a gifted actor, playing the role with a sense of detached irony - "I don't wanna be here, but no choice, so I'll do it."
It's the ideas within that catch my attention: all life seeks its creator for answers, even if it's replicant-life and its creator an engineer. We're fearful of strangers. At the core of our humanness, even replicant humanness, is decency. Life is precious, and death is the inevitable enemy. We're often very alone, but who likes it? We all want to love and be loved.
In 1982, LA in the early 21st century seemed rather far away in time, but in 2007, 2019 is a short hop, but the LA envisioned in Blade Runner needs another century or so.
The sense of LA is medieval - cold, damp and brutish. No sunshine, only rain. Decrepitude on every corner, fortress-like mega-structures, off-world living, hyper technology, and the ageless issues of life: loneliness, power, hope, death, fear, kindness, courage, resignation, doubt and the ceaseless quest to understand who we are.
One of the theater attendants, with whom I was chatting prior to the screening, reminded me this version has no voice-over. I don't mind voice-over, but the film in its "final cut" doesn't need it - visually impressive with a hopeless appearance (what have we wrought?), a musical score that drives but doesn't overwhelm, superb performances by the entire cast - especially the smaller parts, played with disdain for the world in which they live, but like Deckard, who has a choice.
The tag-line for me: "Too bad she won't live, but then, who does?"
I saw the first (1982) and thoroughly enjoyed it, and enjoyed it again - especially the sound. Cleaned up digitally, it's impressive, although the sets and their technology seem dated, like watching an old Frankenstein film.
Who can forget Harrison Ford's wry smile and when threated, a perplexed, frightened visage? He's a gifted actor, playing the role with a sense of detached irony - "I don't wanna be here, but no choice, so I'll do it."
It's the ideas within that catch my attention: all life seeks its creator for answers, even if it's replicant-life and its creator an engineer. We're fearful of strangers. At the core of our humanness, even replicant humanness, is decency. Life is precious, and death is the inevitable enemy. We're often very alone, but who likes it? We all want to love and be loved.
In 1982, LA in the early 21st century seemed rather far away in time, but in 2007, 2019 is a short hop, but the LA envisioned in Blade Runner needs another century or so.
The sense of LA is medieval - cold, damp and brutish. No sunshine, only rain. Decrepitude on every corner, fortress-like mega-structures, off-world living, hyper technology, and the ageless issues of life: loneliness, power, hope, death, fear, kindness, courage, resignation, doubt and the ceaseless quest to understand who we are.
One of the theater attendants, with whom I was chatting prior to the screening, reminded me this version has no voice-over. I don't mind voice-over, but the film in its "final cut" doesn't need it - visually impressive with a hopeless appearance (what have we wrought?), a musical score that drives but doesn't overwhelm, superb performances by the entire cast - especially the smaller parts, played with disdain for the world in which they live, but like Deckard, who has a choice.
The tag-line for me: "Too bad she won't live, but then, who does?"
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