arteejee

A site of satirical musings, commentary and/or rhetorical criticism of the world at large.

My Photo
Name:
Location: Southeastern, Pennsylvania, United States

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Coming Attractions – Summer 2008

Ah, once again the summer season opened with a glorious three day celebration of hamburgers, hot dogs, parades, and massive department store and automobile sales. Somehow I managed to not get near a barbecue for the entire weekend. No matter, I’ll make up for later in the summer, which (according to the calendar) doesn’t start for another three weeks. Anne Marie and I visited my Mom for Saturday and Sunday. Memorial Day itself had beautiful weather, a perfect day to spend outside doing gardening and other chores.

So, naturally, I went to the movies. (Anne Marie stayed home – not a chick film in sight at the multiplex.)

There I caught up with most of the films which will be vying for our entertainment dollars in the coming months. These included:

THE STEPBROTHERS

The next Will Ferrell release doesn’t appear to be a sports-related satire. This is the first time this has happened in about five years. I hope the film is as funny as the trailer – the two leads Ferrell and John C. Riley, posing very still as if sitting for a photo, then moving, teasing each other, and making fun of the audience in the theatre. I probably won’t see this one in the theatre, but I’m hoping they include the trailers in the DVD version.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

Hooray! Someone is finally bringing this fascinating F. Scott Fitzgerald short story to the big screen! The title character has an unusual problem: he was born an old man and gets younger every day while his loved ones grow older. Due for Christmas release, according to IMBD.

MAMMA MIA!

A big budget musical that’ll appeal to everyone, including Anne Marie! It’s bright; it’s flashy with lots of energy. This is a film with major chick appeal with themes about love and marriage. I’ll consider seeing it for the music which is by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaes...oh wait, Andersson + Ulvaes = ABBA. Well, I guess Anne Marie will be staying home for this one too.

GET SMART

America’s version of Inspector Jacques Clouseau returns to the big screen. (Remember “The Nude Bomb”? If you don’t, no problem. I didn’t see it either.) It promises to be good slapstick fun, but I feel compelled to explain one element of the Get Smart story, particularly to my readers under the age of 25. The main character, Maxwell Smart, enters and exits his corporate headquarters through a phone booth.

The phone booth was a glass and metal structure in which a person entered, closed a bi-fold door behind them, and made a call using a rather large, bulky, box-like device mounted on the back wall of the booth. The “phone” was black metal with a shiny silver border. The call was placed by placing coins in slots (also shiny silver) at the top of the device designed for this purpose. Once the call was completed, the caller would put the receiver back on a (shiny silver) hook mounted on the side of the device, open the bi-fold door and leave the booth. This enabled the caller to have privacy while making their call. Privacy is another concept unknown to those of you who have been raised in the era of the cellular phone, and will be discussed later in a future blog. I hope this helps everyone enjoy Get Smart.

Then the feature attraction:

INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LAST CRUSADE FOR THE TEMPLE OF DOOM WHERE THEY KEEP THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, BUT NOT THE LOST ARK

It is good to see Indy back in the theatre again! Granted, his adventures aren’t the greatest cinema in the world – his latest adventure blended elements from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Return of the Mummy - but anything that can make me forget high gas prices and all of my other worries for awhile is worth the measly five bucks I paid for the matinee performance.

Now I’m looking forward to the next Indiana Jones adventure – probably his greatest challenge: INDIANA JONES AND THE FOX NEWS NETWORK. The script is still in its preliminary stage, but basically it centers on Indy appearing on Hannity and Colmes to explain why he hasn’t worn an American flag pin on his lapel in all of his other adventures. As everyone knows, wearing a flag pin is the greatest problem facing America today.

Yeah, right! Happy summer everyone!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home