While it seems obvious that one would want to preserve ancient historical ruins to the best of one’s (or one’s nation’s) ability, the fact of the matter is that preserving ancient historical items requires money and, in these times of austerity and economic slow down, using government funds to preserve ancient ruins becomes a tricky issue. Particularly if your country, Italy, happens to be filled with ancient -and who knows how many yet to be discovered!- ancient ruins.
Here in South Florida, the closest we have to “ancient” material worth preserving are homes and buildings from the early 20th Century. Hardly “old” considering the material discussed in Italy. However, what little we have here does have its charm and specific architectural characteristics. But most of the buildings deemed “historic” are still in use and most often taken care of by the buildings’ owners. Over time, many others have been bulldozed away and exist only in old photographs and memories.
So I feel for Italy. This is a country that is rich in history and marvelous ancient structures. It’s a pity that the reality of modern economic times forces tough decisions regarding the proper care of said items.
Many years ago there appeared an interesting sub-genre of the crime film that focused on “heists”. The idea was to show a group of people plan and then execute some kind of large scale robbery and then follow those individuals after the robbery. In the more “grim” films of the genre, we inevitably see how things unwind and how the criminals eventually get caught and/or killed. Examples of those films include The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, and The Anderson Tapes. However, “lighter” takes on the heist film also started to appear, most notably the original Ocean’s 11 and the recent George Clooney/Brad Pitt remakes.
The lighter side of a heist film is again presented in 2011’s Tower Heist, a film starring, among others, Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, and Alan Alda. Directed by Brett Ratner, the film is light and breezy and if you think about certain things too hard it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (just how much weight can those elevators carry and just how far up do they go?). Nonetheless, Tower Heist is entertaining although, perhaps, ultimately forgettable.
The best thing about the film, in my opinion, is Alan Alda’s Arthur Shaw, the villain of the piece. As presented at the start of the film, Mr. Shaw’s a nice guy who our actual protagonist, Ben Stiller’s Josh Kovaks, likes and is very friendly with, to the point of playing chess with him over the internet. In the course time, however, Shaw’s arrogance and villainy are revealed, and while the movie never gets too “dark” in that respect, I found this slow reveal the best part of the film.
Now, for the elephant in the room: I know there are those who despise director Brett Ratner and, given some of the comments he’s made in interviews, I can’t entirely blame them. For what its worth, for about a nano-second back when he was in high school I knew, via my sister, Mr. Ratner. He came over to our house once or twice to hang out and seemed like a nice enough guy. Back then. Whether this makes my opinion of his work suspect is for you to decide when I say: His direction in Tower Heist is quite good. He keeps things moving and gets the most from his stars. The movie’s greatest flaw, as mentioned above, relates to some of the more…unbelievable…things that happen toward the movie’s climax.
Regardless, Tower Heist is an entertaining enough way to spend a couple of hours, should you be in the mood for a comic heist film.
Just thinking about the most famous (and recognizable) movie and TV automobiles ever created, is it possible that the 1960’s Batmobile lies atop that list? To my mind, it most certainly does…
What others might be “up there” in terms of fame? Off the top of my head, I can think of only one vehicle that approaches the level of recognition of the Batmobile: James Bond’s Aston Martin from Goldfinger and, more recently, Skyfall…
…and after those two cars, what else do we have? Doing a simple Google search of “famous movie cars images” reveals a plethora of other cars. Here are some of my favorites:
The 1968 Ford Mustang from Bullitt. In my humble opinion Bullitt is actor Steve McQueen’s all time best film and the car chase he has against a pair of hitmen remains one of the best car chases ever committed to film. Love, love, love his Mustang…
The 1977 Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit. Always loved this 70’s era muscle car.
Back to the Future’s time traveling Delorean. Another really cool vehicle!
I loved the Mad Max “Interceptor”, a 1973 Ford XB Falcon Coupe, from both Mad Max and The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2)…
Finally, a bit of whimsy. Who isn’t familiar with Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine?
Of course, there are a ton of other vehicles out there that people could mention, from the General Lee to the Ghostbuster’s ambulance to the Herbie bug to you name it. I still maintain, however, that the Batmobile from the 1960’s TV show is the most famous of the lot. Your opinions, of course, may vary.
Now, a personal anecdote…Years ago, most likely in the late 1980’s or very early 1990’s and while driving along a highway, I happened to notice a very beautiful black Trans Am in front of and on the lane to the right of me. The car, from the rear, looked like an exact duplicate of what appeared to be the K.I.T.T. vehicle from the recently (at that time) defunct TV show The Knight Rider.
Something about seeing the car from the rear raised my curiosity and I sped up a little and was soon alongside it. There was only one person in the car and he (notDavid Hasselhoff) was a fairly young guy, perhaps in his thirties, who sported shockingly white spiked bleached blond hair. Astonishingly, he lay very, very relaxed in the driver’s chair with both arms behind his head!
Yes, the man was making it look like the car alone was doing the driving!
Needless to say, I was stunned by this and simply had to see what lay in the front of the car. So I sped up a little more and, once in front of the Trans Am, gazed into the rear view mirror and, lo and behold, the Trans Am had the same red scanner lights rigged up on its front as the K.I.T.T. car had in the TV show.
I drove on, never figuring out what exactly that was about, but guessed that perhaps the owner of the car was either leaving from or going to a car show (again, The Knight Rider had been cancelled a few years before so even if this vehicle was one of the originals from it they most certainly weren’t doing any filming) and had rigged the vehicle to operate solely with the use of his feet/legs.
When the first e-readers and tablets appeared, like many I wasn’t certain they could take over for “real” books and magazines. In the time since then, that thought has been turned around completely in my mind.
The first obvious sign of the changing of the times was seeing my own decreased interest in a) reading a newspaper (I could get most of the information I desired either from TV or from the internet) and b) losing interest in going to bookstores, something that I would religiously do every few days in the pre-tablet/e-book era.
The rise of the tablets and e-books (and amazon.com) is a classic case of building a better mousetrap. Before you drove out to a bookstore and maybe found something that interested you to read. Now, you just go online from the comfort of your own home and in seconds you could buy and download something that interests you and be reading it. All in the time it would normally take you to just drive to your local bookstore.
In a related note, this semester my kids are being given laptops to use in class and the actual (very heavy) textbooks appear to be on their way out. I suspect the next generations of students will increasingly use less and less of these heavy textbooks and instead will rely more and more on laptops/tablets to disseminate knowledge. Again, I view this as a positive.
BUT…
There is something undeniably sad about the fact that we may be slowly moving into an era where physical books may be relegated to memory. Reality, however, is reality.
My own personal ratio of “physical” novels sold versus “e-books” points out that the sale of e-books vastly outnumbers the sale of actual books. In part, its price: A “physical” book costs more to make and, hence, sell. You’re getting a far better bargain downloading the e-book version. Plus there is that advantage I pointed to above regarding how quickly you can get your hands on it.
So we move along, slowly discarding old technologies for (hopefully) better new ones. I still love physical books, but let’s face it…their time may have finally come.
While there have likely been thousands upon thousands of comic book characters created since approximately 1980 and thereabouts, it is my belief that only two of them have thus far stood the test of time. Sure, there are many creations that have achieved a great deal of fame and public notice. At one point The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Crow, Tank Girl, Barb Wire, and Spawn were incredibly popular characters. So popular that they all had subsequent movie adaptations, though the success of said films varied wildly.
As the years passed, however, so too did these characters’ popularity. While it certainly can be argued that The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remain well known, I suspect the other characters may not be as familiar to the general public as they used to be. So…of the thousands of characters created in the comic book format, which two do I personally feel have thus far stood the test of time? One would be Hellboy. The other is Judge Dredd.
To me, Judge Dredd remains an incredible creation: A fascistic cop in a post-apocalyptic world whose face is always hidden behind his bullet shaped helmet. He patrols the enormous streets of Mega City 1, almost all that is left of civilization and which takes up most of what’s left of the east coast of the United States. The densely populated city overflows with criminal activity, and it is Judge Dredd who, along with the other Judges, patrols this city and serves as the proverbial “judge, jury, and executioner” to any crimes he may witness and/or investigate. While the above description may suggest a grim tone to the comic book, the early stories (ie the ones I’m most familiar with) featured a hilariously tongue in cheek attitude. While there was plenty of violence and action, what the series from the many other “grim and gritty” books out there was the fact that there was such a very healthy dose of humor present in almost every story.
In fact, one of my favorite bits from all the Judge Dredd comic books I’ve read involves a relatively small sequence wherein the good Judge saves a man who is has jumped from a building in an attempt to commit suicide. As the man is falling, Dredd yells at him that “Public Littering” is a crime. Once safely in Dredd’s hands and then on the ground, Judge Dredd sentences the distraught man to 90 days in prison for being a “Public Nuisance”!
In 1995 Sylvester Stallone starred in the first film version of Judge Dredd. While the movie captured the visual “look” of Judge Dredd quite well, the movie itself was a huge disappointment. Comic book fans were incensed that within ten minutes of screen time Judge Dredd takes off his helmet and remains helmet-less throughout the bulk of the film. A very ill advised comic sidekick and a lack of a focused (or interesting) story line didn’t help matters either. The film was a flop. The years passed and the comic continued appearing.
And then, this past year and some seventeen years later, audiences were treated to a second film version of the good Judge, this one simply titled Dredd. This time around, the makers of the film treated the character with more reverence and appeared to be more keen on following the comic book. Karl Urban, who takes on the role of Judge Dredd, manages to keep his helmet on throughout most of the proceedings (you do catch a very shadowy view of the helmet-less Dredd at the start of the film but never see his actual face).
And while the Judges’ costumes are simplified a bit, the movie does use characters and situations from the comic in the telling of this new story. Sounded pretty good, right? Well, it is…for the most part. Unfortunately, that sense of humor I found so unique in the Dredd stories I was familiar with is almost no where to be found in this film.
In fact Dredd is a “grim and gritty” action film, period. Yes, there are some humorous bits littered here and there, but this film was primarily crafted as a “R” rated violent affair. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The plot of the film is quite simple: Judge Dredd is asked to watch over a potential Judge by the name of Anderson (Olivia Thirlby, who is quite terrific) for a day and see if despite failing the initiation test -by a whole 3 points- she might still be Judge material. Why? Because like the comic book character, Anderson is a psychic and the head Judges are intrigued with having someone on the force with genuine psychic ability.
The movie then moves to the main plot: In one of Mega City 1’s massive high rises, the drug dealing Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) has ordered the deaths of three rival drug dealers as a message to her rivals. Judge Dredd and the rookie Anderson come to the high rise to investigate and manage to capture the man who actually killed the three rivals to Ma-Ma. The fact that he’s captured alive and can thus become an informant against Ma-Ma’s drug empire forces her to act. She seals off the building before the Judges and their prisoner can get out and sets her men after them.
So, bottom line: Is this film worth watching? Yes, I would certainly recommend it. However, if you’re like me and were looking to see crazy humor mixed in with the action, tone that particular expectation down. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the ride.
Just the other day I posted a link and embedded video of “dashcam” footage of New York circa 1926 (you can read about it here). I noted that while the website claimed the video from 1926 might be the oldest dashcam footage ever, I found that doubtful. I recalled silent films from that era and before that also featured dashcam footage, so while old and unquestionably fascinating, I was reasonably certain the 1926 footage was not the “first” of its kind.
Well, to the website’s credit they have found and posted an even older dashcam footage. Considerably older.
The footage below is from 1907 Vancouver! Given the year, the footage presented isn’t from an automobile, rather was made via streetcar. Still, incredibly fascinating to watch:
For more information on the footage, plus equally fascinating information on the man who filmed it (and died a mere five years later in one of the most famous maritime disasters of all time), click on the following link:
Excellent news: David Bowie has just released the first single from his new album, “Where Are We Now?”:
The single is currently available at iTunes and the album itself will appear by March of this year. This is Mr. Bowie’s first new work in (gasp!) ten long years. For a while there, it appeared he might be retiring but I’m glad we’re getting at least one more taste of his (to my ears) very unique and compelling work.
UPDATE: All right, I’ve given the above song a few listens and I have to say I’m very impressed. The song is haunting, introspective piece that grows on you with each listen. Certainly fills me with optimism and curiosity regarding the entire album. The album, titled “The Next Day”, has 17 (!) tracks on the iTunes “Deluxe” edition.
Follow this fascinating link to find footage from the archives of the Fire Department of New York which show a car transporting Fire Chief John Kenlon from the Brooklyn Fire Department to a storage warehouse fire on East 123rd Street.
If you’re not interested in reading the entire article, you can see the actual dashcam footage here:
Now, I suspect this is not the earliest “dashcam” type footage out there. I seem to recall seeing plenty of silent films that featured vehicular adventures and footage from the front seat. Further, there is an interesting bit of…I wouldn’t quite call it controversy but rather “questions” regarding the exact date this footage was filmed. The date of the video is listed as April 24, 1926. But, according to Ian, one clever poster for the article, records indicated that day in NY was actually quite warm. Perhaps the footage was filmed at an earlier (snowier) date rather than the late spring date given?
Regardless, fascinating stuff and an extended look at what the streets of New York looked like nearly one hundred years ago. My only wish is that they could slow down and correct the rate the footage is presented. Things are a little too “sped up”.
Consider me one of those people who are fascinated by Disney’s 1946 animated/live action film Song of the South. To this day, it is the only film that the Disney company refuses to release, despite the fact that it features one of their more famous songs (“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”) and the additional fact that the Disney parks have a ride based on the film (Splash Mountain).
However, the film has not been re-released for obvious (racial) reasons. For years I accepted the contention made by others that the movie was a “product of its time”. Turns out I should have been more skeptical of those claims.
Check out this paragraph from the book’s review:
(Jason Sperb) first punctures the myth that the racial caricatures in Song of the South were “a product of its time.” This is an argument that the film’s defenders trot out reliably, when, in fact, Disney took uncharacteristic pains to undercut the Harris tales’ potential offensiveness. As Neal Gabler’s biography reveals, Disney hired a leftist screenwriter, Mauric Rapf, to modify the original script by southerner Dalton Reymond; Disney Company reps met with producers of the racially controversial 1943 film Stormy Weather to hear about their marketing experiences; and Disney publicists warned management of potential racially charged blowback. Walt Disney himself even invited NAACP president Walter White to California to oversee script revisions, though the meeting never occurred.
It is stuff like this that really intrigues me. I may just have to give this book a look.
When I first stumbled upon the “Brands that Will Disappear” kind of lists, I was genuinely shocked to find the giant bookseller Borders on the list. That list, which appeared a couple of years ago, proved accurate as in 2011 the chain of stores officially ended their run.
What brands are in danger today? Follow the link to the Daily Finance page and you shall find your answers!
