movies

Chris Knight's avatar

To be honest, it’s not a notion that I’ve given any real thought to, now almost four and a half decades since first seeing E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  It’s the suggestion that maybe, just maybe, E.T. and Elliott had a happy reunion many years later, when Elliott was all grown up.  Might the heart-burning alien who found his way everywhere in 1982 (or at least all over your own house especially when you had small children… and let’s not forget the Atari game!) have made a return to Earth?

It’s a question that Steven Spielberg himself has now addressed.  Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to discuss his new movie Disclosure Day (a friend said it’s worth seeing especially for John Wiliams’s score), Spielberg shares about whether Elliott and his pal had a reunion…

“No, never saw him again,” he said.  “But he did dream about him.  So

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Chris Knight's avatar

I rarely go to the theater to watch a new movie anymore.  Mark it up to being so busy with trying to be busy (if that makes sense) and also it’s gotten so gosh-darned expensive.  Tickets used to be just a few dollars.  This time I paid more than 14.  I feel sorry for those people with children who might want to see a new animated feature, especially in this economy.

But last night something came out that I have been hoping to see for a very long time. And yeah there is the 1987 film adaptation and it definitely has heart, but in terms of faithfulness to the basic material it lacked a lot.  1987’s Masters of the Universe has been called a very good Jack Kirby-inspired movie though, so it’s got that going for it, and I can agree with that.

So a more accurate (??) adaptation ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

The very sad news came in the past few days that Marcia Lucas, the incredibly talented film editor who made her mark with the original Star Wars and many other movies, has passed away at the age of 80.

 

From what I’ve heard over the years, Marcia came into the production of Star Wars after her then-husband George Lucas had shown a cut of the movie to his friends.  The near unanimous verdict (Steven Spielberg was the only one in the room who said he liked it) was that George had a disaster on his hands.  That first cut was a narrative nightmare.
And then Marcia swooped in and said that she would fix it.
And she did.
Among other things she made it so that Princess Leia was much more action-oriented than she had been first perceived to be.  That was a huge thing that made a
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Chris Knight's avatar

I’ve been arguing for over five years now, since we started going back to the cinema in the wake of COVID, that movies must spend some time in the theaters before going onto streaming video or some other digital delivery service.  A film represents more than just casual entertainment.  It is the result of the efforts of a lot of people who collaborated together to produce something that, ideally, has not been seen before.  Those people deserve appreciation, and acknowledgement.  Their labors merit watching in as big a venue as is feasible.

When movies come out in the theaters, they can take on a life of their own.  A good movie without much fanfare can become a “sleeper hit” that finds success by word of mouth (two examples of good sleepers are The Artist and My Big Fat Greek Wedding).  Movies get talked about, and vigorously discussed.  It’s
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Chris Knight's avatar

Masters of the Universe is officially the movie I most want to see this summer.  It looks like it’s going to be all kinds of bonkers good time!  It comes across as every Masters toy I had as a kid put into a big box and shaken around and then poured out on the carpet.  The design, the color palette, the voices…

This is going to be a supremely big dumb fun movie.  The perfect two-hour getaway from the craziness of the real world.
Here’s the new trailer that dropped yesterday.  Lots of stuff in this one, including our first look at Jared Leto’s Skeletor as he delivers some dialogue.

I think that there should be a collector’s popcorn bucket and that it look like Man-At-Arms’s helmet.  Practical and fashionable.

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Chris Knight's avatar

It was about 6:30 a.m. local time in the desert of Tunisia, on March 22, 1976, that the first scenes for George Lucas’s film Star Wars were filmed.  Shot that day: the Jawas “droid auction” and the scene between Luke and Threepio as they are standing outside the homestead looking for Artoo.

Here is Mark Hamill in costume, in the first behind-the-scenes pic from the production of a Star Wars movie:

One has to wonder, what were the cast and crew thinking as that first torturous day unfolded (the Artoo-Detoo’s front leg refused to deploy, and Anthony Daniels’s Threepio costume didn’t fit).  Did they have any notion at all just how special their project would become to not only millions but arguably billions of people over the course of the next half-century?  How it would be endlessly discussed and debated, and so beloved even five full decades later?

It all ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

 

This is great!!  One of my favorite movies of all time.  In fact, I watched it this past weekend as the ice was beginning to fall.  It’s a tradition I have whenever there’s a winter storm that’s trapping me inside the house.  This film is such a favorite of mine, that it’s one of a few that I always keep loaded on my iPad.

John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing is one of the new inductees on the National Film Registry.  This year’s class also includes Inception, The Karate Kid, Glory, and The Incredibles.  The Truman Show and White Christmas made the list too.

In adding The Thing to the registry, the Library of Congress said this of the movie: “Moody, stark, often funny and always chilling, this science fiction horror classic follows Antarctic scientists who uncover a long-dormant, malevolent extraterrestrial presence. ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Hot dang!  I have to see this when it comes out.  Masters of the Universe looks to be the most funnest movie that I would have beheld in a theater in too long a time.  And I will see this in a theater, Lord willing.  It’s just… awwww man this is simply awesome!  It’s like the Masters of the Universe figures that I had all together in a box, taken out and brought to glorious life.  Not sure about the “Earth angle” though, but I’m going to be more than willing to give this a chance.  Right now I want nothing more than the distilled essence of this trailer shot into my veins and giving me a hearty boost of magnificent.

Awright well enough of me blabbering on, here is the first trailer for Masters of the Universe: a film that dares to be better than we ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

It was on this day ten years ago that Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released in theaters.

I caught the first show of it on opening night, at a theater in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Chad, my best friend since childhood, and his wife and I saw it together.  And it truly was a very special night.  It was the first time in all our history together that Chad and I had seen a new Star Wars movie with each other in the theater.  It was like God was winking at our shared childhood.  Made all the more poignant because a few months later Chad and his wife became parents to a beautiful little girl.

Yes, I’m aware of the reputation that the Star Wars sequel trilogy has come to have.  I would be a fool to not acknowledge that particular gundark in the room.  I have shared ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Nine years ago tonight I was in a movie theater in San Diego, California.  I was about to do something I’d never done before in my entire life: watch a Star Wars movie in the theater without anyone to share the experience with.

It was still Tammy the Pup and me, a boy and his dog across America, a very long way from where we had started six months before.  I was stuck between wanting to see a new Star Wars film so very much, but also having to face that there would be no friend or family to enjoy it with.  That’s how I went in to see Rogue One.

But maybe God provided.  I wound up sitting with some high school kids who were very excited about the movie, and we talked a little bit.  We’d become rather acquainted by the time the lights went down and ...

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