I'm thankful for sentences that end in prepositions, and hopeful that the Pack will trounce Detroit on Thursday. We'll be spending our holiday Griswold style, celebrating a Vegas vacation, though don't count on any damn blog posts about the damn tour, because I'm not taking the damn laptop.
Something else for which I am eternally grateful comes from a nation that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday best described by the Indefatigable Mjenks:
"...our celebration of Thanksgiving, which, of course, was a way of thanking the Natives of North America for helping the colonists through the first few years of life, thus allowing them a foothold on this distant shore and making it far easier to usurp their land. Thanks for teaching us that bury-the-dead-fish-next-to-the-corn-plant trick, Squanto. Here's a blanket encrusted with small pox! Now, how many of these brightly colored beads would you like for that island over there?"
The glory of which I speak, the thunder from down under, the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, is the Mad Max series of films. Granted, Thunderdome kind of sucks, thanks to the infliction of Hollywood-style over-the-toppedness and dropping Max Rockatansky into a film where he was never intended, but it still has some merits. As a milestone, Mad Max (the original, oft-imitated) which drew some of its own insparation from the works of Kurosawa, turns 30 this year. Mad Max and the Road Warrior epitomized coolness to me in a way I couldn't understand when I was eleven. But I love that they're films you can watch repeatedly, each time noticing something new, understanding something deeper.
But now I'm torn. Seems they're somewhere in the process of making Mad Max 4. As much as I love the Max-ness of Thunderdome, taking the Aussie out of the wasteland seemed wrong. The plus here is that it's in development by George Miller, the same gent who wrote, directed and produced the first three films. The same George Miller who sacrificed his own car to the carnage when the first film was coming in over budget.
Caution: This is not art...However, this is also the same George Miller who in recent years has given us such crash-bang action adventures as Happy Feet and Babe: Pig in the City.
I'll stay hopeful, but I still expect it to be a turkey. That way, maybe I can be thankful if it actually turns out well.
10 comments:
This might sound sarcastic, but I can't thank you enough for clipping that paragraph out of my post from last week and featuring it. Honestly, I think that's actually one of the best slices of writing that I've ever penned.
Thank you, sir. You've made my day.
With all of the retinkering of beloved movie series, I've come to go into a movie with low expectations. Usually, I come out pleased if it's even slightly above what I expected.
The new Indiana Jones did that. I expected the bottom of a cess pool, I got the top layer of the cess pool. I was pleased.
I went in expecting that Wolverine and Deadpool and Maverick and Sabretooth would make for a cool movie. I was terribly underwhelmed.
Hopefully, George Miller goes to sleep every night regretting ever putting Happy Feet together. That movie makes me want to gouge my eyes out.
Glad to have made your day. Honestly, I simply had to usurp that paragraph, I've had the phrase 'small-pox-encrusted blanket' running through my brain for the last four days. I really couldn't say it better myself, so it was only right to ensure your full credit for that depiction.
As for old George, we won't know for sure until 'Happy Feet 2' fails to emerge from theaters in our lifetime.
The truck in the post is allegedly from the working props of MM4, so I can hope for cool, but there's that little part of me that can't look at this without seeing Mater, and I never even saw 'Cars'.
"...I still expect it to be a turky."
How appropriate... ;-)
Meh - I'd still probably watch it. If only to mock it. That's how I roll.
Okay, first of all...how did I miss the day you pick a quote from "Vituosity?" I LOVE that movie...Russell Crowe....
Next, thank you for opening today's blog with a quote from the BEST THANKSGIVING MOVIE EVER..."Home for the Holidays." That reminds me...I need to watch it tonight.
Have a great Thanksgiving, my friend! I'll be in La Crosse with the in-laws. Pray for me! LOL!
LL, 'tis the season.
Calico, I'll watch it too and judge it harshly. Just need to make the judgement as to whether I watch it in the theater, on PPV or on network TV in 10 years.
Sarah, I just take it that you've been too busy to read lately, I figured you would weigh in last week with Russell Crowe in the picture. "Home for the Holidays" is a must-see for anyone dealing with relatives this Thanksgiving. I highly recommend it. It's choice.
Enjoy God's Country.
I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I haven't actually seen any of the mad max movies!! and I can't believe its the same guy who made Babe: Pig in the City....
But I'm pretty sure by the third installment you really oughtta just expect it to be a "turkey." Love it.
Carissa, these films were a rite of passage for me, and I even got to watch one for a college history class. However, never seeing them isn't the end of the world, they're still out there.
As fair trade here, I will freely admit that I've never seen, nor made the effort to see, Gone With The Wind. But I've seen a lot of weird stuff that most GWTW fans have never seen, so I don't feel guilty about that at all.
Road Warrior was on last night, as a matter of fact, and I watched a few mins of it. Still love the crazy feral kid with the Bay City Rollers hairdo.
Happy Feet wasn't a bad flick. No Mad Max, but it held up on its own ok. I also liked George's contribution to the Twilight Zone movie, reworking the old Shatner episode on the airplane. The best segment of the four by far.
Post a Comment