movies

Chris Knight's avatar

I was seven years old when Raiders of the Lost Ark first came
out.  That film more than any other impacted and steered the direction
of my life.  The day after seeing it I had volumes of encyclopedias
opened up on the floor and the family Bible along with them.  I wanted
to learn all about the Ark of the Covenant and ancient Egypt and World
War II and the Nazis.  All heady stuff for a kid in second grade!  What
can I say though: my childhood interests were pretty atypical.

I
think Dad was pretty impressed though, that a movie could stoke a
youngster’s intellect like that.  And I know that Dad was impressed with
the movie too.  When we see Jones board the seaplane that is going to
take him west to Nepal, Dad leaned toward me and told me what kind of
plane it was and that ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Thirty years ago today, I drove to Brassfield Cinema in Greensboro to catch the film adaptation of Jurassic Park on its opening day. A year and a half earlier during fall break of my high school senior year I bought a paperback copy of the novel by Michael Crichton at what used to be KC Books on Freeway Drive in Reidsville. Between getting the book and the release of the movie I read Jurassic Park six times. It was THAT good.

The cinema was packed. Lots of small children excited about seeing the dinosaurs. Some people said they were going back in to see it again after just getting out from watching it the first time.
 
I can still tell you which screen I sat down to watch it on. After nineteen months of build up, my patience was about to be rewarded.
 
The lights went down. The
...
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Chris Knight's avatar

And so help me, this is the funniest thing I’ve seen all year.

When I first heard of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story what came to mind most was “Daniel Radcliffe?!?”  But he did not phone it in at all.  Radcliffe plays Weird Al with energy and conviction and of course beaucoups of hilarity.  The rest of the casting is spot-on perfect too, especially Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento and Evan Rachel Wood portraying Madonna.

(Look for Yankovic himself playing one of the Scotti Brothers, and just wait’ll you dig that crazy pool party scene.)

I had wondered what exactly would happen with a Weird Al biopic.  Would it be a fairly serious take on Al and his illustrious career, or would it be a straight up mockery of the genre.  It is indeed a parody of that class of motion picture, albeit with enough sprinkling of facts and trivia ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Wow.  Where did the years GO to?

A few weeks ago, for whatever reason, I popped in the Blu-ray of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  It had been quite some time since I’d watched the second chapter of the saga’s prequel trilogy.  Actually, I think it might have been since before The Force Awakens premiered, and that was in late 2015.

A few minutes into it, I realized that this May marks the twentieth anniversary of the film’s release.  A week and a half before Episode II premiered, I was at Star Wars Celebration II in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Not just as an attendee but as a member of TheForce.net’s staff.  We had our own booth and everything.  We even got to attend the dinner with a lot of Star Wars notables on the night before the event’s opening (Kenny Baker, thank you for forgiving me for ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

A few years ago a movie, or whatever, started popping up in Facebook ads.  Something called The Chosen.  I looked into it.  Turns out that The Chosen is a streaming series about the life of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of the disciples.  Intriguingly, the entire show has been completely crowdfunded.  Season one aired in 2019 and this past year saw the release of season two.  More seasons are planned.  A few months ago saw the release of a Christmas special in theaters, and it apparently did quite well.

This past week, for a number of reasons, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided that it was finally time to check out The Chosen and see what the hype was about.  I finished season one last night.

What did I think?  In a word: WOWSERS!!

 

Let’s talk about the cinematography first.  The Chosen...

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the movie we didn’t know we needed right now, is better than we deserve, and blew away expectations.  It is a MAGNIFICENT tribute to the original film while standing on its own and setting the stage for more still to come.  Be sure to stick around until the end of the credits for two extra scenes.

And we had some fun with our going to see it:

Who you gonna call?

Some friends and I went to the theater wearing our finest Ghostbuster attire.  That’s my bestie since college Ed in the center.  The whole thing was his idea 🙂

Anyhoo, go see Ghostbusters: Afterlife.  It’s the perfect motion picture and quite fitting for this Thanksgiving season....

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Chris Knight's avatar

I had no idea that Raiders of the Lost Ark had returned to theaters for its fortieth anniversary until my iPhone suggested it from a list of movies playing nearby.  Whatever other plans I’d made last Sunday got dropped like a hot Sankara Stone as I headed to the big cinema the next town over.  And that’s how, for only the second time in my life, I got to behold my all time favorite film on the big screen.

 
I was far from alone.  About forty-some others had shown up too.  Including the family of four that sat in front of me.  Two little girls, maybe seven and eight.  Just how old I was when I first saw Raiders.  I could tell this movie was giving them thrills and chills, just as it did me.
 
Maybe it made some of the same impact on them that watching
...
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Chris Knight's avatar

A few days ago came the sad word that Cicely Tyson had passed away at 96.  What an amazing career she had.  Actually, what an amazing life she lived.  Tyson arose in the entertainment industry at a pivotal moment for African-Americans in the medium of movies and television.  For her devotion to her craft she won every major award in the field, and a place of fondness in the hearts of her many fans.

So in honor of her memory, I thought it worthwhile to share what is easily her best performance.  The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a made-for-television movie that premiered in 1974.  Based on the novel of the same name, it tells the century-spanning story of a young girl born into slavery, who comes to witness emancipation and Reconstruction, the rise of American industry, the world wars, and ultimately her taking part in the civil rights ...

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I think Hillbilly Elegy must have hit Netflix this week.  A friend and I were discussing it just yesterday but I had no idea it was coming out so soon.  I was about to start on The Queen’s Gambit (a series getting lots of high praise from people I trust) but I went with Hillbilly Elegy instead.

Ron Howard’s latest film hit hard.  Parts of it were like a sucker-punch to the gut.  Hillbilly Elegy slapped me hard in the face and didn’t give a damn.  So much of this movie that resonated with me, and not all of it for good reasons.

Let me be succinct about it.  I know people that are like the people in Hillbilly Elegy.  And I could see some of myself in it.  Maybe too much for the circumstances that life has put me in at the moment, but I digress…

Based on ...

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