FROM REEL TO REAL: A THRUMMING MOVIE REVIW

ALEX @ TIMS

TAKEN AT THE DRIVE-THRU

Over the past couple years through the TIMS take-out window, Alexander, a TIMS worker, and I have discussed science fiction movies galore. Please note, dear reader, that I am a daily TIMS London Fog consumer and, Alex, being a very familiar stranger and also a sci-fi fanatic, my last London Fog pick-up was just another opportunity to talk about the latest sci-fi movie releases.

It so happened that Alex pumped up PROJECT HAIL MARY sooo much that I decided to check it at our local IMAX that very night!

PROJECT HAIL MARY is a science-fiction space adventure about a 6^th grade science teacher, who just happens to be a former molecular biologist, Ryan Gosling, waking up as the only surviving crew member on a spaceship 11.9 light years from Earth. Slowly but surely, he remembers that he, along with his fellow crewmates of real astronauts, were sent on a mission to prevent a mysterious substance from destroying Earth’s sun. In a line, our protagonist was a on a mission to save Earth!

At the designated solar stop, our surviving spaceman is approached by an alien starship. This alien starship, of course, has a spider-looking astronaut as its captain, who happens to be on the exact same mission, a mission to save its planet! What are the odds?!

(Having such a corny plot, the odds are entertainingly high!)

RYAN AND SANDRA IN PROJECT HAIL MARY

Actors Ryan Gosling as the lone spaceman and Sandra Huller, as the authoritarian military superior who sent him into space, were perfectly cast and, I must confess, were a treat in their every scene. And the special effects throughout the movie were spectacularly stunning!

(Keep in mind that I watched this movie at an IMAX theatre. “IMAX” is short for IMAGE MAXIMUM, a high-resolution film projection on a massive screen having a brighter and bigger picture and better sound than what is normally presented at the regular theatres.)

But alas, at least for me, special effects, alone, cannot fix the corny plot of a two-and-a-half-hour snoozer movie!

Not-so-strangely, Alex has also praised BLADE RUNNER 2049, also starring Ryan Gosling (along with cameo, Harrison Ford). And, too, not-so-strangely, this sequel to the original BLADERUNNER, actually starring Harrison Ford, won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

I saw Blade Runner 2049 in the theatre, and what a disappointment it was when compared to the most perfect plot and the thoughtful and political setting of the original Blade Runner 1982! Of course, most of Ryan Gosling’s scenes were gripping-on-the-edge-of-your-seat wild and thrilling, but the convoluted plot begetting so operose for moi through the two hour and forty-three-minute movie!

But that neo-noir Blade Runner (1982) has become a sci-fi cult movie! Audience members seemed to empathize with both the protagonists and the replicant antagonists in this superbly dark and chilling cyberpunk high tech and low life classic. Yep. That first Blade Runner is one of my favorite all-time movies!

All the DUNE movies, too, are on Alex’s love list of big screen flicks! In the first DUNE (1984), the battles between Kyle Machaclan and Sting on that harsh and desert planet of Arrakis blew me away so much that I could feel the sand in my eyes! I started to watch a couple of the sequels, but like the Blade Runner sequel, the aborning plots were just pedantic and BORING, far too abstruse to tolerate during my supposedly recreational and enjoyable cinema times.

Ahhh! I love space movies! I loved the horror in first ALIEN starring Sigourney Weaver,

and I loved the dystopia in THE TERMINATOR 1984 movie with Arnie and Linda Hamilton.

  But the refurbished and redecorated sequels, not with new plots but with bedazzling high-tech special effects … MEH.

And what does any of this movie biz have to do with my busking?!

Factoid: This is the reel stuff I contemplate when thrumming! Really.

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week is my Grandpa Sid who raised me from the time I was five years old.

GRANDPA SID

Leafing through some ancient photo albums I found this, my first caricature, which I drew when I was five years old!