Some Recent Movies (He's Back!)

Hold on there partnar! Don't hit that Next Blog button or I may have to draw on ya!





Well, I've been able to watch a few videos recently, including some old but true favorites, like the Lone Ranger episodes. As some of you already know, when I was in 7th grade, my morning routine always included an episode of the Lone Ranger at 6am weekday mornings, on local Denver channel 2, before heading off to school. Now that I am in graduate school, it seems that I still find great pleasure in slipping off into a mythical Old West, where lawbreakers and other wrongdoers must answer to the only man who can stand up for the Truth, in a wild and treacherous land. I found the original pilot movie to the Lone Ranger TV series on a recent sojourn to the dollar store, and have been watching how the Cavendish Gang ambushed those valiant Texas Rangers, leaving only one, sole Lone Ranger, still living, to seek out justice and avenge those dead lawmen.

Now that I'm older, I notice a little more some of the things in the episodes; like the bad acting, the fake fighting, the six shooters that can shoot 30 bullets without reloading, Tonto's really bad English (me go now, me help kemosabe against bad men, etc.), and so on. And you know, the Texas Rangers, in reality, committed what we would today consider to be "atrocities" against the Mexican and Indian peoples of Texas, and many times really weren't the heroes that the mythology has made of them. Still though, I don't think I'd change a thing in the episodes, if I had the power to do so (although I would educate people on the "realities" vs. the "myths" of history). The "kitschyness" of how they were put together is part of what makes them so good; like in those old Buck Rogers movies, where a model space ship is "flying" by, sparks shooting out of the back. All of the peculiar qualities of the episodes is what takes me back in time, I think, to a time when I would get completely lost in a black and white, cactus-filled "Old West", for about 22 minutes, minus TV commercial time.

Another movie I watched recently was, "Finding Neverland", with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. I had heard that this movie was not so good, but that turned out to be from a person/source who turned out to be what could probably be considered to be "not so good" themselves, so I guess it's always good to consider the source when a movie gets panned by someone; it may be less movie and more person, that lends itself toward a bad review. I found this movie to be very good; a little slow at times, especially in the beginning, but a real tearjerker towards the end of the movie (not saying that I cried, the Lone Ranger doesn't cry, he just gets dust in his eyes from those dry river beds, that's all), and very imaginatively put together in telling the story of the writer of "Peter Pan", J.M. Barrie, and the family that provided to him his inspiration to write the story. I would say that although I probably would not give this one my highest rating possible, I would definitely watch it again, this time of course with my mask on, so that no one could see the dust getting into my eyes.

I have two more to watch still; "The Quiet American", based on the novel by Graham Greene, with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, about the American invovement in Vietnam before that war exploded into the tragedy that it eventually became, and "Garden State", with Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, about some goofy kids living in New Jersey, near as I can tell so far.

Coming soon, from my local library; "Mad Hot Ballroom" and "Gigli" (just kidding about "Gigli").