Well, I'm back from taking students to France. I think, for my own two cents, that the travel highlighted course material and was enjoyable to all involved. One of the best group dynamics among the students that I have taken out of the country for travel portions of courses in recent years.
I always have trouble sleeping on an airplane when flying west. I can sleep all through a flight heading east, but for whatever reason am wide awake headed west. So, I watched three movies between Paris and Washington, DC.: Act of Valor, Argo, and The Family. My casual assessment is 6 hours of wasted space.
Argo lacked the flair that I expected given its high reviews and returns of acting and screen awards. Sorry, Ben Afflicted is still Ben Afflicted, you simply can not make a good actor out of him. Alan Arkin and John Goodman were not central enough characters with enough screen time to potentially save this film. The movie was slow, even though it was not supposed to be a fast paced action film. The film was poorly acted, again good jobs by Arkin and Goodman, but the rest of the cast was hollow and I have seen better acting in a rural high school gymnasium. The Iranians were everything that conventional expectations of Hollywood films should lead us to expect. Again, overall it just was not a good film--how the heck did it get the reviews and awards it received? Were people deaf, dumb, and blind when they watched this movie?
Act of Valor could have been made by any studio following any one of hundreds of formulaic scripts about a military mission by pick your choice of special operations groups. Sorry SEAL teams, but this was not even a good 2 hour long commercial to advertise your work, your integrity, your (insert your next word of choice here). HALO insertion over a target--seen it before in at least a few dozen other movies. Sniper takes out hostiles all over the bad guys camp--uhm, yeah check seen it before. Motor Vehicle chase to extraction point, yeah that's been done again and again. What were these scenes supposedly more realistic than others? If so, they failed to be more realistic than any other movie (ok, maybe more realistic than Rambo--Rarely Anything Marginally Believable Occurs).
The Family left me wincing in mental pain, as in why did I just waste 2 hours on this film. I really like De Niro, I think he has mastered the archetype of "wise guy". I also think De Niro got a paycheck and told the rest of the actors that he would contact them after the film was completed. No chemistry between the actors really existed. If the attempt here was to be comedic, other than a few De Niro scenes the attempt fell flat. Tommy Lee Jones also phoned in this movie (are you two broke and in need of paychecks at this point in your careers?). Hey, I really like campy, stupid, comedic movies (anyone for Dude, Where's My Car or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), but The Family was just bad.
So, I was 0 for 3 in my movie picks coming back from France. I guess I need to figure out how to sleep when flying west. Or maybe I'll get someone to pick movies for me next time.
I always have trouble sleeping on an airplane when flying west. I can sleep all through a flight heading east, but for whatever reason am wide awake headed west. So, I watched three movies between Paris and Washington, DC.: Act of Valor, Argo, and The Family. My casual assessment is 6 hours of wasted space.
Argo lacked the flair that I expected given its high reviews and returns of acting and screen awards. Sorry, Ben Afflicted is still Ben Afflicted, you simply can not make a good actor out of him. Alan Arkin and John Goodman were not central enough characters with enough screen time to potentially save this film. The movie was slow, even though it was not supposed to be a fast paced action film. The film was poorly acted, again good jobs by Arkin and Goodman, but the rest of the cast was hollow and I have seen better acting in a rural high school gymnasium. The Iranians were everything that conventional expectations of Hollywood films should lead us to expect. Again, overall it just was not a good film--how the heck did it get the reviews and awards it received? Were people deaf, dumb, and blind when they watched this movie?
Act of Valor could have been made by any studio following any one of hundreds of formulaic scripts about a military mission by pick your choice of special operations groups. Sorry SEAL teams, but this was not even a good 2 hour long commercial to advertise your work, your integrity, your (insert your next word of choice here). HALO insertion over a target--seen it before in at least a few dozen other movies. Sniper takes out hostiles all over the bad guys camp--uhm, yeah check seen it before. Motor Vehicle chase to extraction point, yeah that's been done again and again. What were these scenes supposedly more realistic than others? If so, they failed to be more realistic than any other movie (ok, maybe more realistic than Rambo--Rarely Anything Marginally Believable Occurs).
The Family left me wincing in mental pain, as in why did I just waste 2 hours on this film. I really like De Niro, I think he has mastered the archetype of "wise guy". I also think De Niro got a paycheck and told the rest of the actors that he would contact them after the film was completed. No chemistry between the actors really existed. If the attempt here was to be comedic, other than a few De Niro scenes the attempt fell flat. Tommy Lee Jones also phoned in this movie (are you two broke and in need of paychecks at this point in your careers?). Hey, I really like campy, stupid, comedic movies (anyone for Dude, Where's My Car or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure), but The Family was just bad.
So, I was 0 for 3 in my movie picks coming back from France. I guess I need to figure out how to sleep when flying west. Or maybe I'll get someone to pick movies for me next time.
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