2001, A Space Odyssey - Raving Classics

There are some movies we never forget; because they single-highhandedly redefine the movie-going experience. There are some movies that do even more than that - they redefine the limits of our imagination. 2001, A Space Odyssey is one of those movies and it is our Raving Classic being reviewed today.  

2001, A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, a unique time in our history as we were rushing ever-closer to reaching the moon in the Apollo program. We arrived on the moon just one year later - anything seemed possible - we had taken the giant leap from an earthbound race to space-farers. Or so it seemed. While this movie is pure Science Fiction from a genre perspective; it is a movie completely grounded in science fact and that's one of the qualities that made it so fascinating when it was released and which still intrigues us today. Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the screenplay for the movie, had a impressive track record of inventing technology breakthroughs in the context of his science fiction stories. For example, Clarke came up with the modern concept of Geo-synchronous satellites, future space colonies (which shows like Babylon 5 tried to depict) and space elevators.

We wish our gym looked like this.

Stanley Kubrick directed the movie and this film along with Dr. Strangelove and The Shining stand as some of the most profound cinema ever attempted. Kubrick had planned to follow up on the topic of Artificial Intelligence with another film, but ultimately never got a chance to finish it and the project was handed off to Stephen Spielberg who did produce it as "AI."  Kubrick approached each of those movies very differently - in 2001 he deliberately created an epic canvas. The storyline in 2001 is not so much character-driven as it is history-driven. The main character in 2001 is humanity itself and the story arc is our rendezvous with destiny. Along the way though, Kubrik treats us to some of the most spectacular imagery the world had ever seen up to that point. Even now more than 40 years after its release, the visual landscape he creates is simply awesome. The soundtrack was a groundbreaking effort as well. And it's all the more powerful because the story and presentation seems absolutely plausible.

Are you - talking to me ? 

We had no way of knowing in 1968 that President Nixon would cut the Apollo program (of course we found out the real reason why in the movie Apollo 18) and all of NASA's plans to colonize the Moon and Mars. Back then those next steps seemed only a few years away and yes NASA did actually have plans to do all of that at one point. We have at least managed to build a mini-space station, but it is nowhere nearly as cool as the one depicted in the 2001 film. So much of the imagery from this movie is iconic; it's hard to pick any one portion as being more impressive than another.

This is the original trailer for 2001, A Space Odyssey (cover your ears)

We'll try to pick out some of our favorite parts anyway. Here are the top 10 coolest or most iconic scenes from the movie:

1. The Dawn of Time monkey boys giving up on their vegan lifesyles.
2. The Bone to Shuttle transition - one of the most memorable in the history of history.
3. The Shuttle ride to the Moon Base - too bad Pan AM went out of business.
4. Landing inside the moon base - wow.
5. The Televideo call from the Space Station - at least we've still got AT&T.
6. The Blue Danube Waltz between the shuttle and space station.
7. Jogging on the Jupiter - the coolest artificial gravity ever.
8. Open the pod bay doors, Hal - while HAL was busy turning off everyone's life support.
9. Turning off HAL's brain - it just never gets old. "Daisy, Daisy..."
10. Dave's bedroom in alientown - Time flies when you're living in multiple dimensions simultaneously, right?

Welcome to the Hotel Monolith - you can check in but never check out... Didn't we see this in Tron Legacy?

2001, A Space Odyssey was crammed full of big ideas and big questions - more than 40 years later those ideas are still current and the questions haven't really been answered. Questions like:

• What's our place in the universe, are we alone? 
• What is intelligence and what makes intelligence sentient?
• What set us on our trajectory and where will that trajectory take us?

And along with being great entertainment, 2001 has had a significant impact on our popular culture as well as inspiring countless parodies and popular references. We've including one of the better examples below. 

We don't have Space Stewardess' yet - but Elon Musk is working on it.

We promised we'd take a deeper dive and explore a possible confrontation between HAL and Watson - we will publish that in a follow up post. In the meantime, we will leave you with the super-creepy chorus - "Jupiter and Beyond." For those who don't remember, not too many years ago people used to test out their new home theater systems by playing 2001 and cranking up the speakers, it was almost a cult experience.

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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Flight Product Placement Gets Grounded

In an unprecedented turn of events, producers of the movie Flight have been asked to obscure or remove images of certain types of brands of alcohol used by the high flying pilot Denzel Washington plays during the movie. Here's the news release:

"Denzel Washington's character in "Flight" drinks a lot throughout the film, but his portrayal of a highly functioning alcoholic pilot isn't going down well with brewing company Anheuser-Busch or the distributor of Stolichnaya vodka.
Anheuser-Busch said Monday that it has asked Paramount Pictures Corp. to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film, which at one point shows Washington's character drinking the beer while behind the wheel." Associated Press

We can't recall anything similar to this happening before in Hollywood and are quite frankly stunned. Why wouldn't Beer and Vodka makers not wish to be associated with a heroic pilot who can flip his plane over drunk and still land it? It boggles the mind, but then again so does the movie which we reviewed last week.

The new pilot training program at Southjet airlines

We're wondering perhaps if the Beer and Liquor industry was incensed that Denzel needed to snort copious amounts of cocaine in order to achieve his super-piloting skills - a technique he used to counteract the effects of drinking 100 gallons of beer at one sitting. It turns out we were right because several leading Drug Lords and gangs have come out and decided to ask for their logos to be included in the movie. Look forward to seeing the Juarez Cartel logo plastered on John Goodman's jacket sometime in the next week.

Welcome to your flight - we will be flying over snowcaps on our way to paradise

So not only was this one of the dumbest movies ever made; it is likely one of the most irresponsible films ever made (for which we will have to a create a list soon). Other companies are following suit as Black and Decker and Sears have just withdrawn their support for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw.

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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A Raving Pitch - Attack of the Right Brain

Today we're going to introduce the Raving Pitch. What is a Raving Pitch you ask; it is our attempt to sell a really great film or television idea to Hollywood, Bollywood or Vancouver (we're not picky). Every Raving Pitch consists of the following elements:

• A catchy movie title
• Dramatic synopsis
• Genre designation/s
• Recommended cast
• A catchy slogan or line that can be used on the poster art
• One liners for the script
• A mash-up description (e.g. how the idea relates to other better known ideas that someone did approve and produce).  
• 5 really good reasons why someone has to make this movie
• Completely unrelated thoughts that demonstrate our creative volatility and hipness

Today's Raving Pitch is "Attack of the Right Brain."

Genre - Horror/ Sci-Fi

"I'm totally in touch with my feelings"

Dramatic Synopsis - Dr. Roger Bork was just an ordinary guy working in a college bio-weapons lab when he met Lola, the yoga instructor at the local YMCA. Their fiery passion was threatened though by the tension between her Right Brained alternative lifestyle and his Left Brained logic. Fearing he might lose her forever, Roger tracks down Timothy Leary's little known research on how to be hip without really trying and uses his weapons lab to create a super-Right brain. But it all goes horribly wrong as his transcendental harmonic convergence goes on a killing rampage at the campus.

The Peter Lorre of our Generation

Possible Theme Song - "Brains"

Cast - Steve Buscemi as Dr. Bork; J-Lo as Lola; John Goodman as General Drones

Slogan  - "Two Hearts living in one mind, gone mad"

One Liners - "Meditate on this!" , "Take two hundred aspirin and never call me again..."

Mash-Up Description:  It's like "Prometheus" meets "The Women" or "Mac versus PC"

Reasons why the movie should be made:

1. Everyone has brains and most people have both Left and Right brains.
2. Steve Buscemi is an irresistible box office draw and this movie was made for him.
3. Brains are icky, scary and make excellent monsters.
4. Kids love thinking with and about their brains - so it will appeal to the youth market.
5. Our Right brain says we should trust our instincts and share our love with the whole world and our Left Brain has lots of good ideas for product placement.
   

Completely random thought - check this out - it will blow your mind, which part we can't say though.

Hold me closer tiny dancer, and stop switching directions I'm getting really confused !

Copyright 2012 - Raving Reviews - All Rights Reserved

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Top Movies of 2010 that We Missed

The year isn't quite finished yet, so we have another list for you. The first of today's lists is the Top Movies of 2010 that we didn't see but wanted to. We conducted our analysis by going to movieweb.com and checking out the trailers of movies we didn't make it to this year. We like movieweb and all but having to listen to the plug for Oprah's new TV channel before every trailer clip nearly drove us insane - and where does she get off with an acronym like OWN (a bit pretentious if you ask us)?

Life's a bitch, then you get slapped

So our number 1 movie we missed that we wanted to see was "Bitch Slap." Here's the clip with the Oprah Channel plug to boot. BTW - this clip is rated R (for retarded) folks, no kids allowed!

OK, so we were kidding about this one - although this freak-fest
might make our worst movies of all time list next year (after we watch it).

Here's the real list (not presented in order or priority):

• Shutter Island - Leonardo Di Caprio had a banner year, although we didn't get to see all of it. This is a thriller, spooky, maybe sci-fi or horror and was made by Martin Scorsese. We can't wait to see and don't understand how we missed it.

Nothing could be scarier than a mental hospital, right?

• The Red Baron: Here's a guy who has had his story told a number of times, but this movie looks to be the one that did it right. The aerial combat / dogfights are almost fully computer animated but the cinematography looks spectacular. The cast looks good and as far as trailers go, this was the best one we've seen all year.

Knights of the Sky - the warring angels of WW1

• Entre Nos - This movie is based on the true story of an immigrant family that is left to fend for itself without a father in New York. It's an age old story yet made new again as each generation brings waves of immigrants to our shores seeking a better life.

A mother struggles to provide for her family and keep them together...

and now for something completely different...

• When You're Strange - Two weeks ago, Florida's governor decided to clear Jim Morrison's record (after 40 years). Who was Jim Morrison? This movie seems as though it may finally give us some insight into one of the most enigmatic figures of the 1960's.

This documentary appears to have incredible never before seen DOORs footage...

More of the movies we missed coming later today...


Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

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