Futuristic

After Earth (2013)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

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(Originally from Facebook – August 13, 2013)

Poor M. Night Shyamalan. He gets so much hate. But what do you do when you’re a director who peaked with his first two films?** I guess you get relegated to doing vanity projects for wealthy movie stars. I defend Shyamalan a lot, too, primarily because those first two movies are two of my favorites. I would go so far as to say that The Sixth Sense has one of the most nearly perfect narrative structures in the last 30 years of film. But also…The Happening happened. So what’s an M. Night fan to do? I just can’t defend him on this one. (Well, I will say that rumor has it that Smith stepped in to do a good portion of the direction, so I will defend him that much.) Continue reading →

Oblivion (2013)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

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(Originally from Facebook – July 31, 2013

I’m going to end this trifecta on a good note. The #3 entry is the post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, Oblivion. Let me tell you, the Church of Scientology should just replace whatever holy document they have with a picture of Tom Cruise. Then, whenever someone makes fun of it, or wants to know why they should join, they could just hold up that picture. The guy is constantly impressing me, not only with his performances, but also with things such as his stunt work. Did you SEE him running around outside that building in MI: Ghost Protocol?? It’s got to be difficult to do that because of the great heights involved, and also because it’s got to be hard to move so fluidly with the giant set of balls he must have to do it in the first place. Add to that the fact that he seems to actually be aging in reverse, and it’s hard not to be impressed. But I digress…

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