We went to see Gravity the weekend it came out (about 2 weeks ago) and attended a very nice IMAX / 3D equipped theater (at one of our favorite venues - AMC at Newport at the Levee by Cincinnati). While 3D plus IMAX inflates any movie-going experience, there were definitely mixed feelings about this one. The action was great - not much bother about plot - this film was a non-stop sprint for survival without any explanations per se. The science was suspect; much ado was made about the debris field orbiting in the wrong direction (a la Neil deGrasse Tyson) but no one seemed to notice that the shuttle fleet has been retired for two years and it certainly looked as though they were using one of the old shuttles as opposed to something that Elon Musk might have up his sleeve. So does this mean that the disaster already happened and someone is keeping it a big secret?
A $25 billion investment digitally shredded in about two scenes...
BTW - we had the unique distinction of being at Cocoa Beach (or slightly south at Patrick AFB) to film the last shuttle launch. Damn if that shuttle didn't fly right into a cloud - oh well- at least it didn't fly into the space station, we think.
Doesn't look much like a shuttle does it, Elon?
So anyway, how about that Sandra Bullock? She survived the worst husband ever only to have to escape from one exploding spacecraft after another. She certainly did a good job with the limited (and somewhat far-fetched) material given to her. But what about Putin, isn't he going to get upset after being blamed for the destruction of just about everything in near-Earth orbit? Will he jail the production team and cast if they ever tour Russia (like he did to Pussyriot?). That remains to be seen.
While we must admit this was an entertaining film, it certainly doesn't warrant becoming an Oscar contender (as is being talked about now). Although if they had inserted a plea for more NASA funding (as a way to have possibly avoided the catastrophe in space) then we might have been able to get behind a nomination.
Perhaps the saddest way to look at the film is as a metaphor for our collective ambitions for Space exploration - they all seem to have coming crashing down...
I have to admit, it was my first experience in show biz - I was a bit green perhaps. However I was determined to make my mark and being 4 years old wasn't about to stop me. I had heard that George Clooney had gotten on the show 5 times (probably because his dad was an anchor on the local TV news) and I knew I might be competing with him for shows like ER by the mid-1980's (I was a very forward thinking child). So I put on my vest and my bow tie and had my mom drive me down to Cincinnati, the entertainment capital of Southwest Ohio. The year was - well that's a bit fuzzy.
Uncle Al Lewis was the pied piper of the Tristate region for decades
Every major Television market had their own kids show it seems back in the day. We even had one in Dayton - something about a guy named Malcolm and Duffy the Dog. It seemed all too New Age to us though. Cincinnati was where it was at - Uncle Al was like the Ed Sullivan of kid's shows - at least if you didn't count Captain Kangaroo (whose show was inspired by Uncle Al) and Mr. Rogers just seemed creepy or drugged or both. Anyway, Uncle Al had some interesting characters on his show (like captain Windy); he was dressed as 1/4 of a barber shop quartet. We always wondered if Dick Van Dyke had borrowed from Al for some of his musicals during the 1960's - we wouldn't be surprised. The Uncle Al show ran from 1950 to 1985 and as far as I know, I was the only kid ever kicked off of the set and banned for life from returning.
Kids were thrown into the mosh pit with little supervision
Cincinnati is an interesting town. For those of us who live nearby we tend to have a love / hate relationship with Cincy (primarily due to the Bengals). For one thing they all eat this really weird chili and all swear it's delicious. Another bizarre aspect of Cincinnati culture is a strange fascination with Jimmy Buffet - all of his die hard fans call themselves "Parrot-heads" - this Buffet fetish has been going on for 30 years if you can believe it. We're thinking the Buffett thing can be explained by the secret desire that everyone in Ohio has to live in Key West - we're just not sure why Cincinnati is more fanatic about it than the rest of Ohio. But we digress... The Uncle Al wasn't the only show in the Cincy showbiz hub - there was the Cool Ghoul. Now we've got to give this guy credit that he came up with the best named sidekick in the history of sidekicks - Batty Hatty from Cincinnati.
We heard this show influenced Rob Zombie
Anyway back to my story. I've been told that as a child I was somewhat hyperactive - I only have hearsay evidence to substantiate those circumstantial charges. People say I started dancing and hooting during the Dueling Banjos portion of Deliverance - if so I'm not prepared to admit it. On the day we traveled to see Uncle Al I had my breakfast of sugar-frosted flakes and Coca Cola and felt quite invigorated. It was important to me that I get noticed and for those who had seen Al's show the method to achieving recognition was clear - far out dance moves (note the 70's lingo). Uncle Al was like the Soul Train for white, suburban preschoolers.
Soul Train dancers took inspiration from the innovative moves displayed on Uncle Al's dance-floor
At this point it's worth mentioning Cincinnati's German heritage. Cincinnati was once known as Porkapolis - because it's where a large German immigrant community had built the nations first mega-pork industry (it later drifted up towards Chicago). So, essentially this means that accordions are really big in Cincy. And while Jimmy Hendrix had his electric guitar - Al Lewis had his accordion and it drove the kids crazy. Remember seeing that Oliver Stone biopic of Jim Morrison with Val Kilmer before he doubled in size - yeah The Doors - anyway it was like the concert scenes in that movie but without the nudity.
When I arrived on the set the tension was palpable. There were a host of kids waiting to get on the show - sort of like the stage full Broadway hopefuls in A Chorus Line except all of us were going to get picked. The key to getting famous though was clear - get close to the star. Location, Location Location - was everything. It was hard to restrain our enthusiasm - the kids didn't get be on the entire show - just certain parts. Before I knew it, the signal had been given and we darted en masse onto the stage. The music was blaring and there was Al, fingers flying across his bright red accordion. Time seemed to push into another dimension at once frozen yet somehow accelerated. I had maneuvered ever closer to the master of the vertical piano as the music reached a fever pitch - I was jumping, diving, inventing the Moonwalk and perhaps even doing the Robot. No four year had ever moved so much, so quickly and with greater purpose. Then the unthinkable - a sharp collision between my head and the bottom of Al's accordion. The red sparkly finish of the off the rack instrument was splattered crimson with my blood, sweat and tears. And that was all too much - I got sick and threw up on Al's shoes. I half expected I might suffer the same fate as Jim Morrison after the infamous Miami Concert (not for the same reasons though). Oh and did I mention, it was live TV.
The kids in Southwest Ohio got more than they expected that afternoon. Al was furious - yelling something to the effect of "get that damn kid out of here now!" (it may have been NR rated) I never realized the true power of being blacklisted by Al until many years later when my Hollywood career failed to materialize. But I don't harbor any grudges now that the years have passed. I learned a valuable lesson that day, two geniuses can never share the same stage...
The Chicken Dance is perfect for busting out an Accordion solo
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How many of you are old enough to remember the Dating Game, or the original Newlywed Game or perhaps even, the Gong Show? There was one man behind this wave of insanity that hit the airwaves starting in the 1960's - his name was Chuck Barris. In fact, most of what we now consider Reality Television was born in his twisted imagination well before it earned the title we now use to refer to it. Why do we say twisted though? Well, if you haven't seen the Gong Show you might well not have gotten a true glimpse in Mr. Barris. The program was more or less a very cruel version of American Idol - with awful acts paraded in front of merciless judges only to be Gonged off of the stage in humiliation
Chuck Barris, producer, host, professional killer
But that of course was only the beginning of Mr. Barris's strange story. That story became truly bizarre after most of his hit TV shows were cancelled in the early 1980's. Then he wrote a book titled: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and exposed his big secret - that the producer of the Gong Show was in fact a hitman for the CIA. He wrote a sequel to the book as well, providing more details about the 33 or so assassinations he allegedly performed while working as a TV Producer.
Sam Rockwell proved again in this film that he's one of the best actors in Hollywood today
In 2002, actor-producer George Clooney took the two books and combined them into a movie adaptation of Mr. Barris's strange story and named the film after the title of the first book. The movie at least seems to take the claim of Barris' double life as a professional killer somewhat seriously. To date, no one has either confirmed or denied the claims (well, the CIA did say he hadn't worked for them but then again Barris clearly states in the book and the movie that he as an independent contractor).
We missed the movie when it came out in 2003, an easy thing to do given the nature of the subject matter and lack of promotion. This movie was never destined to become a box office hit, but now that it is both on cable and Netflix it certainly is worth seeing. Why is it noteworthy? Here's our rationale:
The story is entertaining.
Clooney did a good job both as a director and one of the key players in the film (he portrays Barris' CIA handler).
The Chuck Barris story is so bizarre anyway, that even without the CIA twist it is interesting to watch - with the hitman fantasy it becomes truly fascinating.
There's a great extended cameo by Julia Roberts.
Because we've still never fully recovered from seeing the Gong Show...
Marcia Brady on the Dating Game - pop-culture cross promotion at its cheesiest
The big question you may be asking yourself is - could Chuck Barris have actually been a CIA killer? In the movie, they explain that often times on the Dating Game the contestants would be given vacations to strange locations so Barris could chaperone the couples and then steal away to conduct hits. In fact, the movie presents the idea that the CIA handler (Clooney) gave Barris the idea for the trips as a cover for his nefarious moonlighting. Who knows what really happened - most people have written off the hitman portion of the story as fantasy. Whether the story was real or imagined though, the movie is certainly entertaining. Perhaps Barris was the real James Bond?
The Raving Reviews Blog is dedicated to the convergence of popular and critical review of the motion picture art - that and taking a sometimes irreverent view of popular culture.
