MY HOPES FOR THE NEW YEAR

Peace, love, harmony, and the DVD release of director Don Shebib's 1971 fun-film Rip-Off.

HAPPY NEW YEAR... I HOPE

I get so wrapped up in the negative shiit that I forget to wish all my wonderful, and not too discriminating, readers. A toast to you all... as soon as I find my corkscrew.

May the kazoos all call in unison at midnight, tonight.

EVEN MORE REALITY - 2010

Can you believe it? The year 2010 is just hours away. Where does the time go? My dad warned me about this; when I was a teenager, all those years ago.

At one time, "2001" was just a great movie, and "2010" was a book.

Recently I read that the first decade of this millennium is/was probably the crappiest of recent times. Not too hard to disagree.

And Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one of the crappiest movies of the early 21st century. Not too hard to disagree.

BACK TO REALITY

'Tis the season to come back to a real life. Some people I know cannot stand the "holiday season"; it certainly can be a drain and a distraction from all the pressing concerns of life -- an oasis from reality. That is a good thing.

Some notes:

* I watched The Abyss (1989) and did not like the film, feeling it is James Cameron's weakest.

* As evidenced by the job boards there is a lot of work out there, but it is hard to get a job (in my case to fill in the blanks, of which there are too many).

* Phyllis Blanc ate a pumpkin seed and something grew inside her.

* When I eventually see Cameron's Avatar, it will mean I've seen every dramatic feature of his, except... for a few years I've had a VHS copy of Piranha 2: The Spawning, but can never get past the first few minutes.

* I gotta go...

... but before I do, Hi Ashley.

NO WOMEN'S SKI JUMPING?

There will not be any women's ski-jumping at this year's Winter Olympics, to be held in Vancouver, Canada. When this issue broke a few months ago (at least it did for me) I had no idea that this sporting event was non existent -- I assumed there was one, just like the boys'.

Idiotic, that is what I say. I don't really care as I never watch the Olympics, anyway... summer or winter, but I think this whole affair is terribly unfair.

Is there 'track and field' in this upcoming Olympics?

THE HURT LOCKER?

Here come the lists... the 'top films of the year' lists. Fine, they can be eye opening if there are films listed that otherwise might get ignored; as in lack of distribution or "there's not enough special effects".

One title I am hearing bounced about a lot these past few days is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. While I think it is a good movie... one of the best of the year?... the best?

Reminds me of a few years ago when Martin Scorcese's The Aviator was up for the "Best Picture" Oscar. I saw that one at Toronto's impeccable Bloor Cinema when it hit second run, and when I walked up the theatre's aisle as the end credits rolled, I said to my chum, "it was good, but 'best picture'?". He laughed and said, "I know, that makes no sense to me".

For me, the best picture this year was Invasion U.S., eh? (You don't know that one, do you?... I knew it! There is a rumour that that was coincidentally the working title for The Hurt Locker.)

TOO MUCH BLISS - SUGAR AND SALT

Here is an interesting article in the October 27th edition of the National Post regarding our inability to say no to sugar and sodium, titled "This is why we're fat: we can't say no"...
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2149118

... I get nauseous just reading that text, and realize more and more that I have a very low "bliss point".

"I want some burgers
I need more fries
just keep them coming
and give me size."

FANBOYS - THE MOTION PICTURE

"Was William Shatner involved with this shit?"

***

Last night I took a break from my sanity to visit a world of insanity: I watched the film Fanboys.

In case you have not heard, this flick is about a bunch of Star Wars fans who decide -- or have been planning to for a while -- to break into creator George Lucas' production village "Skywalker Ranch" in order to watch Star Wars - The Phantom Menace before it actually hits the theatres. (My guess is they could not wait.)

The movie Fanboys comes up short, as far as I'm concerned. The idea was a good one, that of showing how far gone a lot of these people are in their love for what is just a series of movies, but the execution was lacking. The script was the main culprit... Tends to be that way, huh?

There was no need for the picture to be a road movie. It was a cheap device used by the filmmakers simply because they could not figure out what to do with the characters. When in doubt, put your protagonists on some sort of journey.

The cameos are fun: William Shatner, Carrie Fisher, Kevin Smith, and an actor playing Harry Knowles. (Knowles is a veritable Jabba the Hutt, in real life, and could hardly locomote the way 'he' does in Fanboys.)

Distribution was very, very limited for this one. After watching it, I was not surprised.

MATERIAL GIRLS AND BOYS

A few minutes ago I was watching, on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), a news about the appeal of online shopping in the U.S. from here in Canada -- especially during the Christmas season. The problems start with import duties and brokerage fees charged by courier companies to pull your purchases over the Canada/U.S. border.

What really struck me about the story is how materialistic many of us are. I gotta have... gotta, gotta, gotta...

ROY DISNEY (1930 - 2009)

The curse of the 'talking about someone one day and they are dead the next' just hit again.

Well, sort of: On Sunday I was telling a friend about the infamous little story where writer Harlan Ellison was hired by The Walt Disney Company for all of one day.

The uber-author was having lunch in the studio commissary on his first day on the studio's payroll when he decided to impress his work pals by imitating various Disney characters as though they were acting in a porn film.

The story goes that Roy Disney overhead these shenanigans and when Mr. Ellison showed up for work the next day his name had been painted over on his parking spot. (Harlan Ellison has said that he does a wicked Donald Duck voice.)

I understand that Roy was an even bigger prick than his famous uncle. However, his passing today is still sad news -- he wielded great might at "The Mouse House" for a long time.