Spectre

I found three trailers on line for this one.  I chose the 2:32 trailer, first.  It should have ended at about the halfway point - way too much detail.  Then I watched the "official trailer" with a length of 1:15.  It was almost perfect. It's what a trailer should be... just enough and you barely see the villain.  Hearing the villain's voice is just enough.

And what a villain! Christoph Waltz is a perfect combination of comical and menacing.  He steals every scene he's in in Inglorious Bastards, he is perfect in Django Unchained and he's comically magnificent in The Green Hornet.  And yes, I'm still pissed off at you, Seth Rogan, for butchering one of my favourites!  I'm almost over it.

The wife said that while she likes Daniel Craig as an actor his face looks like "a bag of smashed assholes."  I'm not sure what that means and when I asked her she said, "my brothers used to say that..."  Um... okay.

I think he's a good actor but I don't like this new Bond franchise.  Bond is supposed to be rugged, suave, a lady's man, detached from true emotion - gritty with a wry sense of humour.

This new Bond doesn't cut it for me. Too much back story. Too much emotion. Bond is supposed to do the job with style and finesse - car chases and explosions. Bond gets the girl, then moves on with no pining.

Spectre: number 4 in the new franchise.  Casino Royale was okay. Quantum of Solace was the worst Bond film ever made and arguably one of the worst films of the spy genre, ever. Skyfall should have been called Cryfall, though Javier Bardem was freaking hilarious.

As I said, the short trailer for Spectre was very good, near perfect and if I have enough energy to bring back the Beerbohm Awards, it might warrant a nomination for best trailer.

So, I will see this film because of Christoph Waltz and because I suspect Craig may be close to the end of his Bond days.  How many crap scripts can a good actor deal with before he moves on?

Please note: The views of the wife do not necessarily reflect the views of Beerbohmtastic.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Last Friday night I participated in a fundraising event for a local charity.  It was a music trivia game and my team was filled with my buddies.  While our music knowledge was good enough to have us finish 29th out of 50 teams - we tanked on duets and trios and songs written after 2010 by women one-hit wonders.... yeah, I know.

One of my buddies, no, all of my buddies are movie buffs in some capacity.  Yeah, we like sports and cars and I recently got my first chainsaw, which is f**king awesome... but I digress.  During one of the breaks Kevin, who is the true Star Wars buff in the group, started talking about the new movie.  He was so excited about it. Everyone else jumped into the conversation to give insights and opinions.

First three which were the last three were better than the last three which were the first three which were prequels to the first three which were the last three because the last three were the prequels and how the first episode which was the fourth episode if you go by release date but it had "episode 1" in the title really got the first three which were the last three off to a bad start and while the consensus was that six which is really three was better than four and five which were really one and two, the last three which are the first three were not very good.

But there was a ton of buzz around episode 7 which is episode 7.  And the buzz was around everything being good again.

So, then I watched the trailer.

Carrie Fisher is back.  Mark Hamill is back. Harrison Ford is back, but 30 years after episode 6 which was release third. Man, they look old.  Man, I feel old.  Man, the trailer was kind of depressing.

I loved Star Wars 4, 5 & 6 which were released as 1, 2 & 3 very much.  But I didn't feel any excitement watching the trailer for 7 the first time.  I didn't feel any excitement the second time, either.  I'm not sure if it had something to do with my youngest son, Jack, wiping out my iPhone this morning and me not having a phone all day.

I watched it a third time and still nothing.  Looks like the dark side is riding a high but the force is mounting a comeback.  Kind of like the empire has struck back but now the Jedi are returning but in episode 7, not in 5 or 6 which were released as 2 and 3.

I didn't see Yoda.

I'll definitely watch this film because I loved 4, 5 & 6, but I'm not getting sucked into the hype.

Yeah, I know...