September 2008 Archives

About a month or so ago, I made my first (but hopefully not last) sojourn to Amoeba Music in Hollywood. While I was there, I looked through the used rock section and decided to pick up Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense."

I like the Heads, but I only know one of their albums ("Little Creatures," if you're curious); I didn't even know that I was buying a soundtrack (more or less) rather than an album. Oh well; I loved the CD anyway.

Once again, let's subvert the formula here; I'm not going to do a straight up review of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner." It's more of an interpretation of the possibilities.

But first, the story (with spoilers):

Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a retired Blade Runner, a cop/bounty hunter whose purpose is to track down Replicants, robots designed to look human. They're illegal on Earth, and humans are given free rein to 'retire' them.

I'm probably the last person in the country to see "The Dark Knight," so I figure I don't need to tell you all to go see it; if you haven't, you're missing out, but at this point, I don't think a review would change anyone's mind, one way or the other.

So, I'm going to write a different kind of review, one that comes with spoilers. You've been warned.

OK, confession time; when I first saw it, I loved Lawrence Kasdan's "Grand Canyon (1991)." And when I say love, I mean passionately, effusively, haunt-my-mind kind of love. That good feeling led me to impulse-buy the DVD a few years later when I saw it in a store.

And to my dismay, every time I watch the movie I like it less. I've only seen it three times and it just keeps getting worse and worse. What hurts me the most is that being critical of this film feels like I'm a bully, picking on the easy target, that shy kid who just wants to be liked.