John Wick 3

For reasons I can not explain, I actually went to a theater and paid good money to see John Wick 3. What critics are calling a great action film, I call a confused, repetitious mess with a laughably absurd premise. Basically the same fight scene over and over for what seemed like three hours. One hundred and thirty one minutes, holy christ.

It was preceded by a series of alike trailers of violent action scenes of a single theme. The only creativity, none on the stories or dialogue surely, was in new wildly creative stunts.

Keanu Reeves is a bit long of tooth to be playing an assassin/superbeing, all but immortal. With his

long stringy hair and puffy face, he looked more like a hippy gone to seed than a famous uber/killer.

Lords of the Quora Ring

I discovered a social website called Quora, conceded and operated by a few crypto fascist  computer geeks who are not slaves to the idea of freedom of thought.  For instance, it seems you must have read the Lord of the Rings and hold in the the same esteem as the Holy Grail meant to King Arthur and that crowd.  Here, I offer an example:

Do you think the "Lord of the Rings" movies adequately tell the story when compared to the novels?

John Welsh, former X Ray Tech

Answered Apr 4

Not having read the novels, I can not offer an informed opinion.

My answer, this answer you see above, was collapsed for being in violation of Quora policy of ‘’be nice, be respectful’’.  I an only conclude not having read LotRs is out of policy. It is not nice to Quora not to have not read LotRs.  

Pretty weird, I am sure you agree, but well, there it is.

You have been warned.

The Age of Vulgarity

Years ago my younger siblings enjoyed seeing the same film over and over. The musical Damn Yankees was a biggie on the playlist, and curiously, High Noon. I understand the tradition has been continued by youngsters of today. Disney animated films are always popular. These days young adults enjoy seeing the same film over and over in the form of comic superhero movies. They are all the same in story and vulgarity. The coarseness appeals to the barely educated youth of today. They are however, extremely expensive to produce. Yesterday, for the first time since its release in 1985, I saw Out of Africa. It is long, slow and beautiful to look at. It was about something. It is a true story about people who actually lived and lived interesting lives. There is an elegance about it. There is nothing elegant about superhero movies. They bring a coarseness to society. They degrade Western culture. They are a symbol of the Age of Vulgarity. And then people wonder that Donald Trump was elected president.

Spiking Oscar

After reading this morning’s post mortem analysis by the most respected columnists no one ever heard of, but are to a person (formally, a man) experts not only on the art of cinema, but the Academy Awards and the monolith that is the Academy in thought, I dialed up Roma. They assure me Roma is the best film of the year, in addition perhaps the best film ever made. The Best Film award was awarded to Green Book, they claim, as part of a racist whitewash.
 Only noted Spike Lee authority, Spike Lee, had the moral courage to give a ‘’no comment, next question’’ when asked about Green Book. Considering all of the above, I gave a look at Roma. I think I say can it is possibly the most boring film I have ever seen. During the half hour I could stay with it, it consisted largely of a lockdown camera recording the activity of a housekeeper as she goes about making life easier for her employers, a family of white people. She is clearly an Indian. I watched until she and a date ended up in a hotel room, post date. The nude boyfriend runs through a marshal arts routine while his his pecker flops up and down. Exult. 

 Spike Lee took his bad manners and angry black-man act to the ceremony, dressed as a chauffeur, complete with cap. Color purple. Apparently his head was cold as he kept the cap on throughout the entire broadcast. As you may recall Spike did not approve of Clint Eastwood making Bird, about Charlie Parker, a musician he admires. Spike thought is was just not right for a white man to make a film about a black man. Spike is not racist, at least according to him. Then there was his criticism of Flags of Our Fathers, a film about the Marines and the corpsman who raised the flag over Mt. Suribachi. It matters not to Spike none or the Marines or the sailor were black, although one of the jarheads was a Pima Indian. In Letters From Iwo Jima not one of the Japanese soldiers was black and that really pissed off Spike. Spike is untroubled by history. He is also ignorant of history. 

 Spike Lee’s status as a sawed-off little creep is for him a moral and ethical decision, not an accident of birth.