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Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Here We Go Again
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 135 min

Now is not the time for a full review and dissection of the 7th Star Wars movie ever put into existence.  Today is for initial thoughts only, and so here we go – my initial thoughts of Episode VII – The Force Awakens

• this movie won’t change your life.  it won’t surpass your love of IV thru VI, BUT it succeeds where Indiana Jones IV failed
• it’s better than anything the prequels were. it’s less cluttered, CGI-y, pretty, cute, kidsy, dumb. it’s grimy and dark and evil, as it should be
• George Lucas could have never made a satisfying Episode VII.  I truly believe it would have looked like this.  poor Lucas – he tarnished his own legacy, but without him, we’d have nothing to complain about, or love.  but kudos for him for letting go and letting someone else give it a go
• only JJ Abrams could have made a new Star Wars movie work, and let us all move forward in the Star Wars world in this day and age.  he could probably make Citizen Kane 2 something passable.  looking forward to seeing what others can do with Star Wars.  we shall see, but probably we’ll see way too much Star Wars in the decades to come
• the movie is funny, in a good way.  has a lot more fun with itself than previous installments, while remaining very serious
• the new characters are awesome (even though I guessed them all wrong).  I LOVE Rey.  like, SUPER LOVE REY!!! Dog bless Daisy Ridley. I LOVE Finn.  He’s great.  Didn’t get too much of a handle on Poe Dameron, but he will probably be super cool in due time, but hey, aren’t these three newbies juss assuming the same roles that others had in IV – VI????
• Adam Driver was really really really good, and angry.  anger is what Star Wars needs. there was anger in the prequels, but it was dumb anger
• it was AMAZING to see our old favs – Han, Chewie, Leia and a guy who looked like Admiral Ackbar.  it’s kinda sad to see how old our heroes have become – on screen and in life, but I’ll take this over not seeing them at all
• this guy/girl/whatever wasn’t as awful as I thought he/she/it would have been
• I know he’s JJ’s pal and all, but Greg Grunberg doesn’t deserve to be in this movie (unless he happens to be the kin of Jek Porkins)
• the only thing I HATED was that Lord Voldemort is in it
• the movie is grand, but not really full.  the characters are rich, but the story isn’t.  and the plot is kinda, sorta, almos all too familiar.  and the final battle at the end didn’t give off the same kinda UMPPPPPPPPHHH that the old ones did. will something big will blow up at the end?  biggest non-shocker of the year
• not sure how the movie could be anything different or better than what it is.  it had to embrace the past and set up a new future.  it did that, very well, and for that, we all should be grateful, and grateful that the movie didn’t suck

More thoughts to come, after my 2nd, 3rd and 129129129th viewing

Verdictgo: a HUGE Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Force is to be reckoned with, at a theater near jews

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

the day is finally here!!!

President Obama is now Jedi Obama!!!!!!!!!

Son of Saul (Saul Fia)
Better Culled Saul
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 107 min

And the würst date movie of 2015 is the László Nemes‘ Holocaust drama Son of Saul.  Oh what, you’ve had enough of Holocaust movies?  I kind feel that way (I can say that cause I’m Jewish), but this Holocaust film is unlike any I’ve seen before.  It’s about a Auschwitz death camp prisoner name Saul (Géza Röhrig, who looks like a Hungarian Mark Ruffalo), who is forced to work in a Sonderkommando work unit.  The job comes with zero perks (besides being alive… for the time being), and a zillion yards of pain.  These Sonderkommando workers are tasked with cleaning up all the dead bodies after they’ve been put through the gas chambers.  Yes, the movie is filled with horror, endless horror, but that’s not the main point

After one gassing, Saul finds the body of a boy and decides that it should have a proper Jewish burial.  He adopts this lifeless boy as his own ‘son’, and treats it as such.  While Saul has been stripped of his humanity, he still feels the need to maintain his identity, and his people’s.  The entire film and camera is always focused on Saul – pointing at him, and showing his point of view.  There’s a lot of intimacy with Saul, while there is a lot of horror going on in the background – and while the horror is in the actual background, it is always present.  For most of the film – Saul seeks out any imprisoned Rabbi who can help him achieve his goal of properly burying the boy, while his co-workers are focused on trying to rebel against their captors.  Eventually, it all comes to a head, and this is the Holocaust, so you know it aint ending with peaches and cream

Son of Saul is essential viewing, even if you have to take a date to go and see it

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Saul braves NY and LA this Friday and elsewhen in 2016

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…