Films and Fandoms

~~~~~~~~~~~WARNING: SPOILERS!~~~~~~~~~~

Kevin Smith Talks About Prince

How a Director Stages and Blocks a Scene

5 Brilliant Moments in Film by Cinefix

#99 “TOY STORY” 1995

Director: John Lassiter Staring: Tim Allen, Tom Hanks Run Time: 1hr 21min First Time Viewing?: No

“To infinity and beyond!”

A childhood nostalgic hit to the bone, Toy Story warms anyone’s heart. With multiple subtexts and a timeless story, this film will always be a favorite of mine from childhood.

{Side Note} It’s been awhile since I have watched this, and I tell you the animation definitely feels dated. Granted this is the film that started the computer animated film genre, but I noticed a lot of animation wobble, the start/stop animation plays were noticeable, some times the animation would be slowed down in order to let the other character play out. None of this takes away the magic and wonder of this film, it just stands as a marker for where we were in film technology and how far we have come in just 21 years.

Well, I was bound to dislike ONE of these episodes. This didn’t feel like an X Files episode, it felt like a “Look, a younger Mulder and Skully-like team, would you like to have an X files with THEMMM???” sigh.

This episode’s position on Muslims was wishy-washy as well. They give us a Muslim man and then gives him pathos for us to feel for the character, starting off like “Muslims are just misunderstood,” then they decide to make him a suicide bomber. Later they poor more sympathy on it trying to spin another “misunderstood” message on it then end the episode {SPOILERS} by saving the day from them Muslims.

#100 “Ben-Hur” 1959

Director: William Wyler Starring: Charleston Heston Run Time: 3 hr 42 min (wow) First Time Viewing?: Yes

“How do you fight an idea, especially a new idea?” 

Not at all what I expected from my original inflection of the film. Run time at nearly 4 hours and I didn’t “feel” a minute of it. Excellent pacing, wonderful story, if you have an afternoon free and want to settle down for a long story, I would highly suggest this film. 

{Side Note} To my surprise, Ben-Hur is getting a remake set to come out later this year in August. Not necessarily a film that begged to be remade, but I would be defending a film that is itself a remake of Ben-Hur that came out in 1925. Who knows, it might up being good, it might also be another film to throw into the pile of remakes that seem to be pouring our of Hollywood.