Arthur takes an in-depth look at what the movie “Falling Down” has to say to us today.
Falling Down as an American Allegory
A good read for sure about a classic take on our society.
Category: Movie Reviews
All movie reviews
The Boys and I Give Superman (1978) a Try
Because of the new Superman movie coming out I had a showing of the 1978 Christopher Reeve version for the two younger grandsons. I was curious to see how they reacted to the somewhat slow startup to this version. After all I think half the movie is gone before Superman actually dons the suit. But from all appearances they liked it.
Now the youngest one is a very analytical viewer of science fiction and fantasy so he gave me a short lecture on why kryptonite kills Superman. Come to think of it he gave me several lectures about various esoteric aspects of the Man of Steel; how he could fly, how he got from one galaxy to another so quickly, why he could never die of old age, how he was able to handle people without killing them by accident. It was very interesting to find out he had worked out all of these theories in just the time since the beginning of the movie.
I could sense the greatest annoyance with the movie when Lois Lane was on the screen. Apparently, the love story wasn’t intensely popular with this part of the audience. But somehow, they soldiered through. By the time Superman was flying around Earth at ludicrous speed to turn back time and save Lois from death I think they were prepared for the end. I’m not sure they felt Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor and Ned Beatty as his mentally challenged henchman were sufficiently serious to be credible enemies for Superman.
But by the time the (extremely long) credits were rolling they seemed to forgive some of the weaknesses of the production and wanted to discuss viewing (at least) Superman 2. Apparently, they wanted to see the return of General Zod after I hinted that he was much more formidable a foe than Luthor. So maybe we’ll have a second Superman feature this month.
It was funny seeing this movie for the first time in forty-seven years. What struck me most was how odd Margot Kidder was as Lois. The rest of the actors and actresses came across as much more professional. Kidder seemed almost like a fish out of water. Maybe that was the vibe they were going for. Probably the worst acting and dialog was Marlon Brando as Jor-El; Superman’s Kryptonian father. All of the exposition and lecturing about his duty to help humans and his fate is a bit boring. But I guess some introduction is necessary to establish how he ends up as the man flying around in the suit.
My impression of Christopher Reeve in the movie is very positive. He brings enormous likeability to the character and he does the comedy part of the role very deftly. As far as the special effects in the film, this was 1978. All of the effects are non-CGI. To a modern audience some of them are less than overwhelming. There is a scene where Superman is causing an avalanche to stop a flooded river from washing away a town. But the scene is so obviously done with a miniature set using some sand and pebbles that it’s kind of silly. But that couldn’t be helped back then.
All in all, the boys and I gave a thumbs up to Superman (1978). Now bring on General Zod and “Planet Hooston!”
2025 Summer Movies
I’ve been listening to some of the movie reviewers about the crop of summer movies. I guess the first “tentpole” film is whatever they’re calling the latest sequel to Jurassic Park. I think the consensus is that it’s a tired derivative rehash of the original concept. It’s also making a ton of money. So, from the studio’s point of view, a success! From an actual sentient movie watcher’s point of view not so much. But as a grandfather of a dinosaur super-enthusiast, it does check a lot of the boxes as a way to bond with said enthusiast. So not a total loss.
Then there are the latest comic book superhero movies. So, they’ve given the Avengers the summer off and instead they’re taking another crack at “The Fantastic Four.” Now this has always been a sort of oddball franchise. They’re superpowers are “odd.” One is a guy who can stretch his body. Huh? Then there’s a guy who can fly and shoot fire at stuff; well, pretty good, I guess. Then there’s a girl who can become invisible and also has a force field. This is actually the most powerful superpower amongst them. And then there’s a guy who looks like he’s made of rock and is somewhat strong. None of these “heroes” is going to compete with Superman or even Thor. They’re powers kind of suck and they’re relegated to protecting Manhattan from intergalactic troublemakers like Dr. Doom, Galactus or Annihilus. So, if you have a villain that can devour planetary system how does a stretchy guy and a rock stop you? Even forcefield girl and “flame on” boy aren’t that much use. On top of all that apparently the powers that be have decided that forcefield girl will be the girl boss of the movie and there will be much female empowerment on display. Yay? Well, I guess I can skip that one for my grandsons.
And then there’s another reboot of Superman coming out. Initial reviews hint at the importance of Superman’s “immigrant” status. Also, there’s been a lot of talk about “inclusion.” Well, that doesn’t bode well in my book. Worst case Superman is protecting cartel gangbangers against Trump’s ICE agents. Best case Superman will be propagandizing the kids about how great it is to be an illegal alien from Krypton. I could be wrong but I’m not seeing a Superman movie in my summer lineup.
Alright, let’s review. Stupid dinosaur sequel is my best bet. Check. You know what? I think I’ll assemble a sci-fi and fantasy film festival of my own. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll arrange a schedule and invite the grandkids over.
Let’s see; Them, Destination: Moon, The Thing from Another World, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Terminator, Blade Runner, Independence Day and The Martian. I’ll have to split it up to allow for the ages of the viewers. And then we’ll end on a fantasy note; original Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings. Okay, that’s a starting point. And think of the money I’ll save on tickets and popcorn! photog, you’re a bloody genius!
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 01JUN2025 – Future of Entertainment
There was a concept a while back of Narrowcasting (as opposed to broadcasting) where you would aim for certain smaller markets via directed media like the internet. To some degree we see this happening with youtube and tiktok. The monetization would be direct from the consumers and perhaps via pre subscription schemes.
It seems that Hollywood got the narrow part but not the monetezation part. In an analogy to the misquote of Pauline Kael they don’t know anyone that voted for Donald Trump. Their audience is boomers who grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s and are nostalgic for their college days and the protests against the Establishment. The boomers have not processed that they are now the Man. Meanwhile, Hollywood keeps churning out $200-400 million blockbusters aimed at that tiny (perhaps 5-20%) market demographic. Hollywood depends on the old 80s-2000s mix of movie theater, marketing of merchandise and resales for income. The thing is their little stunt of 2020 killed the theater, the Merch was for kids (or perhaps grand kids) which the boomers do not have, and residuals on the various streaming platforms residuals are bupkus compared to VHS/DVD sales. The big Studios are like the last of the dinosaurs standing around in a swamp in Louisiana on the day of the KT boundary impact saying “Hey Ralph whats that pretty light in the south it isn’t sunrise yet…” They’re dead they just haven’t figured it out yet, and the mammals are crouching in a variety of holes trying not to be eaten.
Comment by photog: I guess I’m waiting for the mammals. It’s a lonely vigil but, “Ya gotta keep da faith.”
reply by Tregonsee:
Indeed Photog I’m rooting for the mammals too. Like the Mammals of the Tertiary (now called Paleogene) it may take a while for the producers to get organized. In publishing the transition seems well under way. Most Authors of more plot based SciFi either are at Baen or publish independently. Even giant authors like Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Way of Kings, etc.) are tending to eschew the big 5 publishing houses.
Music has been going to self publishing too. What it takes to have a GOOD studio is probably 2 orders of magnitude
Part of it is that for visual SciFi even though special effects are easier than 20-40 years ago (e.g. I’ve heard tell of a copy of the Death Star run in star Wars done totally with effect in CGI in a couple days that is VERY close to the original that took weeks in physical models) it still takes time and money. You still need actors and good ones are expensive unless you’re doing something they want to take a chance on. And even doing minimal sets things get expensive fast, and acting to things and characters that aren’t there on green screen is really hard to pull off believably even for first rate actors. The other part is that the current media seems to fight these efforts tooth and nail.
All that said there are signs things are improving. A movie called Flow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(2024_film) about a black cat and an odd bunch of animals in a post apocalyptic world got the 2024 Golden Globe and Oscar for long form animation. This was published by a 6 person group out of Latvia. I love animation and even though the premise is straight up green nude eel catastrophe the story and animation rival the best of Classic Disney or Studio Ghibli
Tom’s World – 31MAY2025 – More About Movies
Of the book based Sci-Fi movies of which I’m aware, the one that was most true to the book was the original 2001. Both Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and the latest version of Dune at least try but both are handicapped by intricate and massive substrates that are almost impossible to set up and capture in the context of 2 hour +/- videos.
Although Blade Runner was barely related to it’s source material, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, by Phillip K Dick, it succeeds on it’s own as a brilliant piece of work.
Though the Star Trek movies will never be mistaken for serious or brilliant work, I still remember my disappointment when the 1st episode without the Shatner/Nimoy cast or the Picard group, offered a close to continuous series of chase scenes in lieu of a plot.
The 1st several Star Wars movies sucked as Sci-Fi but succeeded as entertainment. A decrepit and distorted Hollywood morphed the extension of that series into something bizarre.
I’m almost terrified that Hollywood will take my all time #1 favorite movie, Master and Commander and remake it as a multicultural, multi racial, LGBTQ+ crew fighting for racial equity.
But Which Story?
The previous post (“Have I Got a Story for You”) produced some stimulating comments and feedback (below in bold print):
I think it just proves there’s a ready market for good science fiction out there. Larry Niven’s Known Space; David Weber’s Honor Harrington stories; Niven and Pournelle with “Footfall” “The Mote in God’s Eye” and “Lucifer’s Hammer.” The stories are already there. But apparently the powers that be want a different kind of story but for an audience that doesn’t like science fiction!
For adults all of the below comments give ideas that should easily be translatable to cinema or television series productions. The technical problems have long ago been conquered with computer generated imagery. The only problems are lack of imagination and ideological blindness.
And the people who want the good stories are both young and old. I’d love to be able to bring my grandkids to see age-appropriate science fiction that isn’t just poorly disguised gender and racial grievance propaganda but actually tells a good story about people they can relate to.
In the spirit of selecting something I could bring my grandchildren to (and enjoy myself!) I figure I’ll throw out a couple of safe but entertaining choices.
My first choice has some problems. The story premise has become dated based on the current state of the art in computing and thinking machines. It’s Heinlein’s “Starman Jones.” Max Jones’s unusual rise through the ranks from stable boy to astrogator was predicated on his “eidetic” memory and abilities as a lightning calculator. Well, that would seem to be a kind of silly plotline today. Even the most phenomenal human mind cannot hope to compare with the speed and precision of a modern computer. So, some other skill will be needed to distinguish the young hero. The FTL process could be changed so that sensing the space warp is an individualistic skill that he happens to possess to an extreme degree. Or some other skill, whatever.
But the rest of the storyline works fine for a book or a movie concept. Max and his mentor Sam can show their qualities on some lost planet in a star system far, far away. I think it would make a billion bucks.
And even more apt Heinlein juvenile would be “Have Spacesuit Will Travel.” The protagonist Kip Russell goes through a collection of adventures that are ready made for the big screen. He’s accidentally drawn into an interstellar police action between a galaxy-spanning civilization and a race of evil predators that have invaded our solar system with the intent of conquering humanity and using them as food.
It’s got FTL space travel, time travel and high adventure. It even has humanity put on trial in front of a galactic court to determine whether they deserve to exist. What’s not to love.
And of course, the Heinlein juveniles include at least a half dozen more stories that are highly qualified to be considered for the big screen. All it would take would be a director with a decent ear for dialog and a script writer who isn’t totally woke.
So, any of you guys aware of any recent science fiction that would be appropriate for adolescents and young adults? It’s a bit more of a specialist niche but I’m sure it exists out there. All that has to be done is look.
Ed Brault
I would love to see Larry Niven’s Known Space stories and novels brought to the screen. Big, sweeping arcs like Ringworld Series, The Fleet of Worlds, or the epic Man-Kzin Wars; or smaller sets like the Gil Hamilton organlegger detective stories, or the individual novels that help flesh out the Known Space Universe: Becalmed in Hell, the Coldest Place, World of Ptaavs, A Gift from Earth, and especially, Protector, and the related Peace Corben novellas. These would probably be best done like The Expanse; a multi-year episodic TV drama.
The biggest problem would be preventing the studio suits from doing a Disney on the stories. I would consider that an Organ-Bank-worthy crime!
Abraham
David Weber’s Honor Harrington series would work well, even with a woman hero.
Tregonsee314
I think Ringworld has been in development a couple times, most recently with Amazon/MGM. It is Tough to get a large audience for it (especially as you move into Ringworld Engineers and later) as it wanders into hard R territory though one COULD limit that somewhat. It also would probably push limits of even current special effects for Kzin and Puppeteers. I love Protector it has the advantage that it sticks with a couple characters across its story. It probably would want to be a limited miniseries as it is a smidge too long (at 218 PG) to make a single two-hour movie, though you could perhaps time compress some parts and maybe get there. My own favorite for a series (or maybe 2 movie pair like the recent Dune) would be Niven and Pournelle’s Footfall, if for no other reason than the final battle using Project Archangel.
TomD
Reply to Tregonsee314
It’s been decades since I read Footfall, I really would like to reread that. Niven alone
Niven and Pournelle put out so much. I still think Lucifer’s Hammer was the absolute best of the type.
Ahhh, but Ringworld made “real” and the Mote in Gods Eye—–
Ed Brault
Lucifer’s Hammer: The surfer dude riding the tidal wave would be worth the price of admission!
Tregonsee314
So many attempts and so little success. Looking for successes I think the latest incarnation of Dune, although flawed in some aspects, was probably the most successful of the 3 (4 if you count the aborted Jodorowsky attempt). I think the Jackson Lord of the Rings was very good even without certain sections (sorry Tom Bombadil, you just aren’t central to the plot). The Expanse did middling well, though I lost track of it mid-2nd season.
The failures are more plentiful. Jacksons Hobbit was a mess with unnecessary additional characters and subplots, even though the acting (Bilbo and Thorin especially) was superb. The Foundation series by Apple mangles the timeline (mostly because with the longer timeline there is no character continuity but for the shade of Hari Seldon) and adds wokish subplots all over the place. Effects were nice and Asimov having ONLY humans in Foundation/ Robots universe simplifies that. All in all, it was a disappointment and I bailed after 3-4 episodes. I think it fell flat for the public because many of its ideas seemed like retreads (E.g. Trantor as a planet covered with civilization feels like warmed over Coruscant even though Trantor predates Coruscant by 20+ years and likely inspired Lucas). And Rings of Power? Mauling the lore of Tolkien to pander to a variety of subgroups combined with puerile 4th-grade fanboy scripts produced an utter catastrophe.
Almost anything Sci-fi that Hollywood has done without a sci-fi novel or story at the heart is a mess. Hollywood seems to want to revert to the pre–Star Wars Sci-fi where all is Dystopia and nuclear hellscape. That things might work out is anathema. Even the vaunted Federation of Star Trek has been being mauled with its hidden perfidy in Discovery and Picard. Not to say dark is bad. Babylon 5 was amazing (especially given the limitations of cost and mid 1990’s special effects).
What seems to matter most is that the primary vision for converting the Sci Fi to the screen needs to LOVE the material. JMS wrote much of B5 and was its director, Peter Jackson Adored Lord of The Rings and co-wrote the script, Denis Villeneuve is a Dune/Herbert fanboi. Each loved the story in its original form and tried very hard to leave the original plot beats and characterizations in place, not bend them to tell their own story like Rings of Power or Foundation did.
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 28MAY2025 – Science Fiction Movies
So many attempts and so little success. Looking for successes I think the latest incarnation of Dune, although flawed in some aspects, was probably the most successful of the 3 (4 if you count the aborted Jodorowsky attempt). I think the Jackson Lord of the Rings was very good even without certain sections (sorry Tom Bombadil, you just aren’t central to the plot). The Expanse did middling well, though I lost track of it mid 2nd season.
The failures are more plentiful. Jacksons Hobbit was a mess with unnecessary additional characters and subplots, even though the acting (Bilbo and Thorin especially) was superb. The Foundation series by Apple mangles the timeline (mostly because with the longer timeline there is no character continuity but for the shade of Hari Seldon) and adds wokish subplots all over the place. Effects were nice and Asimov having ONLY humans in Foundation/ Robots universe simplifies that. All in all it was a disappointment and I bailed after 3-4 episodes. I think it fell flat for the public because many of its ideas seemed like retreads (E.g. Trantor as a planet covered with civilization feels like warmed over Coruscant even though Trantor predates Coruscant by 20+ years and likely inspired Lucas). And Rings of Power? Mauling the lore of Tolkien to pander to a variety of subgroups combined with puerile 4th-grade fanboy scripts produced an utter catastrophe.
Almost anything Sci-fi that Hollywood has done without a sci-fi novel or story at the heart is a mess. Hollywood seems to want to revert to the pre Star Wars Sci-fi where all is Dystopia and nuclear hellscape. That things might work out is anathema. Even the vaunted Federation of Star Trek has been being mauled with its hidden perfidy in Discovery and Picard. Not to say dark is bad. Babylon 5 was amazing (especially given the limitations of cost and mid 1990;s special effects).
What seems to matter most is that the primary vision for converting the Sci Fi to the screen needs to LOVE the material. JMS wrote much of B5 and was its director, Peter Jackson Adored Lord of The Rings and co-wrote the script, Denis Villeneuve is a Dune/Herbert fanboi. Each loved the story in its original form and tried very hard to leave the original plot beats and characterizations in place, not bend them to tell their own story like Rings of Power or Foundation did.
Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 27MAY2025 – Niven’s “Known Space” on Screen
I would love to see Larry Niven’s Known Space stories and novels brought to the screen. Big, sweeping arcs like Ringworld Series, The Fleet of Worlds, or the epic Man-Kzin Wars; or smaller sets like the Gil Hamilton organlegger detective stories, or the individual novels that help flesh out the Known Space Universe: Becalmed in Hell, the Coldest Place, World of Ptaavs, A Gift from Earth, and especially, Protector, and the related Peace Corben novellas. These would probably be best done like The Expanse; a multi-year episodic TV drama.
The biggest problem would be preventing the studio suits from doing a Disney on the stories. I would consider that an Organ-Bank-worthy crime!
Have I Got a Story for You
I’ve been so busy lately with a lot of annoying stuff so it’s been hard to concentrate on what to write my posts about. I don’t feel like talking about current events today. Let’s talk about the movies. I feel I’m unqualified to discuss the state of cinema because in the last five years I’ve gone to so few movies.
But I do think I can talk about what direction science fiction and fantasy movies should go in. I guess I’ll start with where it shouldn’t go. And that would be the way it’s currently proceeding. What we see for the most part are movies that provide a science fiction setting (interstellar civilization, advanced technology, humanoid robots) but uses it as a backdrop to play out sociological scenarios of interest to the film makers, specifically, wish fulfillment about various sexual and race grievance issues. A good example is Disney’s decision to turn their various Star Wars productions into propaganda films for why women and blacks are the only acceptable heroes in the galaxy far, far away.
This is a really dumb strategy. They took a wildly popular and lucrative franchise and tanked it in the name of race and gender equity. And this with a franchise whose primary market were white boys. Let us say this was ill-advised. So, there is the counterexample; what not to do. Now what would be popular and lucrative?
Well, it probably doesn’t take a genius to say write a story that plays to the people who like science fiction (boys and men) and make it imaginative and exciting. Look at the original Star Wars movie for a simplistic and not highly original plot that allowed the audience to get lost in the likeable characters and impressive special effects and smile along to the space opera that followed. And there are hundreds of old pulp stories from Barsoom to Dune that do exactly that. Whether it’s weird aliens or human galactic empire or some combination of the two we want to see the same story dynamic that’s been around since the Odyssey. We want to see the hero on his quest to:
- Find his way home.
- Or, save the princess.
- Or, defeat the evil sorcerer.
- Or, invent the FTL drive.
- Or, whatever! As long as it’s not boring and doesn’t involve girl bosses and racial grievances.
And it’s about time that someone put together another science fiction (or fantasy) franchise to replace the tired ones that are currently limping along. Star Wars is tapped out. The Republic, the Empire and the Rebellion have become stale and boring. Nobody cares.
As have the superhero movies. We’ve used up everybody’s interest in Marvel’s and DC’s stables of 1940’s to 1960’s spandex wearing heroes. It’s enough. Nobody is clamoring for more Captain America or black Captain America or Gay Hispanic Spiderman or She-Hulk or any of this. It’s now a bore.
And it doesn’t have to be legacy space opera. Although I wouldn’t mind a Doc Smith or a Heinlein storyline. It could be anything as long as it appeals to the male audience that enjoys this genre. It needs action, adventure and maybe a pretty girl that needs saving from some fate worse than death (like middle-management cubicle captivity). Add in some lively music and lots of cutting-edge special effects and you’ve got a billion-dollar hit.
Hey Elon Musk, if you want a trip to Mars make a movie about a trip to Mars that gets people excited about it. You’ll even make a pot of gold while doing it.
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 14MAY2025 – Review – Watchmen (2009)
So the original story is by Alan Moore. He was fairly famous in the comic book industry in the 1980’s when this was originally published. Take a moment and find a picture of Alan Moore on the internet, I’ll wait… Are you back? Given that image you will likely be unsurprised to find out he is a notorious and unrepentant anarchist and rather unhinged (even for an anarchist). Other efforts by him include V is for Vendetta and Batman: The Killing Joke. The Watchmen Series was a 12 issue mini-series from DC published in 1986-1987 set in an alternate history where the US has Dr. Manhattan (who is more overpowered than even say super man, his abilities verge on the godlike).
It was rather cutting edge for its period with its serious antihero vibe.
The movie came much later in 2009 after many years of wandering into development hell. In many ways its cinematography and dialogue come straight from the comic series art by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore’s dialogue. It does skip/compress several subplots, and change the method of the ending though not its source (Ozymandias/Veidt) nor its intent (forestall or avoid WWIII). It was one of the first R rated comic book movies (previous having limited themselves to PG-13/PG) and also one of the first to release in the late February slot to take advantage of College spring break.
As a fan of the original comics I thought it rose to slightly above meh say 6/10. It loses much of the complexity of the original, which given the size of the 12 issue series was somewhat unavoidable even with its bloated 3 hr+ run time. As Chemist notes if you don’t already know some of the plot points it is going to be a whirlwind. Heck as the original comic book doled out over a year it was confusing until the last few comics at the end where all the threads got tied together and many of the hints in the original lurk in the subplots that were excised.
There is an animated retelling done by DC Animation scripted by J. Michael Straczynski and Dave Gibbons from the original It is split into 2 90 minute subsections. It does a better job at keeping more of the necessary beats to help you see the solution and keeps to the original ending. It is maybe a 7.5/10.
Honestly, if you like comics, find a perfect bound version of the original comic books is available this is available for ~$20 the price of 4-5 fancy coffees. It is less than the $24 I paid in 1986-87 for the original comics. Do not try to go buy these at a comic book store (except for the perfect bound single volume version). They’re moderate collector items at $20-30 a each for even poorish quality copies and the first the last and (potential Spoiler) the one where they break Rorschach out of prison run for probably twice that each. As much as a crazy tinfoil hat wearing jerk as Alan Moore can be this is easily in the top 5 of comic series I have read in 50 years of reading comics and is probably better than 90% of most comic/SciFi writing.