Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love movie speeches. And as today is the 4th of July, I will once again be reviving Friday Favorites for today in order to feature one of my favorite all-time speeches. In fact, this was my first ever favorite speech, and my first memory of ever intentionally memorizing film dialogue. I would rewind this scene again and again just so I could get not only the text of the speech down but also the cadence, timing and delivery. And considering I make a point to watch Independence Day every July 4th, today seems as good a day as any to post this speech:
I was 12 when Independence Day came out in 1996, and it had so many things that appealed to 12 year old me. It featured alien monsters, massive cinematic destruction, stunning effects, explosions and lots of action. I imagine that if I were 12 years old today, Pacific Rim would seem to be right up my alley. It’s got alien monsters (technically transdimensional monsters), destruction and explosions and stunning effects. But, I like to think 12 year old me would have left Pacific Rim with the same sense of dissatisfaction that 29 year old me has.
Pacific Rim tells the story of humanity’s fight against Kaiju, giant Godzilla-like creatures that appear from a dimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and wreak havoc on the cities that border that body of water. Continue reading
The third CD that I ever bought was a film soundtrack (the first two were Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” and Garth Brooks’ “Greatest Hits”). It was the soundtrack to Independence Day, and I actually bought it in the hopes of it having R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” which for some reason I really wanted on CD. I was disappointed when the song was missing from the soundtrack album, but after listening to the CD I realized how much I enjoyed the score, composed by David Arnold. Thus began my obsession with film scores, and my collection of albums showcasing them.
I’ve been listening to the Jurassic Park soundtrack for the past week or so on my commute to work, and I’ve realized that there are several very big problems with the film score album as a whole in the industry. I don’t know why it’s so damn hard to put together a decent album from a film score, but I’ve come up with a list of several of the problems: Continue reading
After Earth seemingly has a lot of things going for it that would get me to buy a ticket. I love science fiction, in particular post-apocalyptic stories (which is why I continued watching Revolution, despite the downturn in quality). I’m a big fan of Will Smith; I had a poster of him from Independence Day on my wall when I was young, I still think Men in Black is one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen, and his performance in Ali is spectacular. I’m also a big M. Night Shyamalan fan, even enjoying Lady in the Water and The Village. And while I was more enthusiastic about Oblivion than I was about After Earth, I still planned on seeing both.
At this point, though, I think it’s safe to say that I no longer have any enthusiasm to see it. That’s not to say that I won’t. Continue reading
The Love Pirate 