DrPhibes1964

I worked at a movie theater where we showed a program of Oscar nominated shorts: Documentary, Live Action, and Animation. I usually caught the animation program. It could be very hit or miss. Sometimes you find something remarkable. World of Tomorrow was an unforgettable experience. Never mind the simplistic stick-figure characters and focus on emotions. I imagine that everyone will have their own interpretation of the "meaning" but I choose to focus on the basic premise of this clone visiting her first incarnation in order to retrieve a memory which would provide comfort during a very stressful period in her time period. I've seen this film many times over the years and it never fails to move me to tears three separate times. For anyone who has lost their mother the last one will hit them hard. It's never manipulative in any way and allows you to experience these little monents. Meeting David, the boy in the tube, or the alien creature Simon, or the robots left behind to stay one step away from the darkness they have been programmed to fear. You get a lot of emotions in just 16 minutes--more than most full-length films. But it's not as depressing as it sounds and we have little Emily cheerfully walking through this strange world with a sense of wonder. It's currently available on YouTube and worth watching at least once. Perhaps it'll make you seek out other shorts by Don Hertzfeldt. He did an opening segment for The Simpsons that has been regarded as one of the best in the history of the series. I agree. It's both sad and funny simultaneously as Homer is sent into the distant future and the series is still around in a bizarre form. The short film Rejected is also worth watching.

Infidelity is a theme the "writers" of this terrible series frequently dip into. It seems like a half a dozen episodes uses this tiresome trope. It makes the lead character look like a lunatic as she discovers the truth and that she was wrong in her assumption ....over and over and over again. But the "twist" of this episode is that the young lady in question is no longer young and has put on a few pounds since she and Ricky knew one another. This comes as great relief to our psychotic heroine, who is not threatened by this plain, chubby Cuban girl and warmly welcomes her. This is a dumb series. I can just imagine the writing staff kicking around ideas for a new episode. I imagine that both Desi and Lucy had input into the stories, which makes me wonder if there isn't an element of autobiography motivating this frequency of "Ricky's cheating on me" storylines. There's something almost sadistic about how these stories play out. This is one of those series that I enjoyed as a kid but view very differently as an adult and see these characters as insufferable creeps. There's nothing particularly funny about them. Give me Morticia and Gomez Addams as the ideal married couple any day.

I routinely ignore critics and what they have to say about a film. I think in most cases they take their profession far too seriously and give the impression that if you see a movie they dislike or outright hate then you're an idiot. Some films are to be taken a degree of seriousness, while others are just a light entertainment. The Blue Lagoon falls into the latter category. It has its fair share of flaws, mostly in the casting of Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields. They're both pretty bad, especially Shields, but the film has (for me at least) a certain charm. I didn't get to read the novel until recently and it's a fairly faithful adaptation, whereas an early version starring Jean Simmons had only a passing resemblance to the novel and toned down the more "erotic" aspects of the story. I imagine the book (published in 1910) was pretty hot stuff. The 1980 version reetores these erotic elements, albeit somewhat silly. However, the story of two young people growing up on a deserted island was enough to hold my imagination. The cinematography is absolutely stunning, capturing both the lush jungle and the wonders of the ocean. Thus far I have only read the first two books of the trilogy (which I didn't even knew existed until recently). I recommend reading the first novel. It's a fun and breezy adventure. It deserved a better adaptation.