Love And Rockets

"Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo. Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do." From "Counting Flowers" by The Statler Brothers

Besides football, one of the best things about the Fall is that Hollywood begins to release their Oscar worthy, adult movies. Not Adult Films, you can get those 24/7 on Pornhub, but productions geared towards people over 25 years old. More story-line. Less body-count. I have nothing against the Summer Blockbuster season, but I've had about enough of the Marvel characters: Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine. And the list goes on and on. DC Comics, too, except of course for Joker which comes out next week. But that has a plot. The last time I enjoyed a superhero movie was Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale. All three were great. It's been said that the Caped Crusader triad is to the millennials what The Godfather movies are to the Baby Boomers. You can't do better than that.

Bela Lugosi's Dead

I usually attend Tuesday matinees at Regal Cinemas with the ongoing half-price popcorn promo. Kick in the Senior Citizen discount, and you've got a bargain. Enjoy the shared experience of seeing a movie in the theater, plus, most films are supposed to be seen on the silver screen with surround sound. It doesn't matter how big your flat panel TV is, or how crisp and rich the fidelity is with your home audio system, the best way to watch a movie is in the theater. At home, my premium streaming subscription is limited to one movie channel, HBO, and that's primarily for Bill Maher. Most of the films broadcast on HBO or Showtime or Cinemax or Netflix don't interest me because I've already seen the ones I want to watch at the cinema. Sure, all those networks have some interesting original programming, but I can only watch so much scripted television. In addition, it gets expensive with multiple subscriptions. I've seen enough dragons, zombies and vampires.

Ground Control To Major Tom

This week I saw Brad Pitt in Ad Astra. I'd call it science fiction, but it's set in the near future and with the rapid evolution of technology, we'll just call it imminent fiction. If Elon Musk has his way, SpaceX Falcon rockets will be colonizing Mars next year. One reviewer described the movie as an amalgamation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Although that's an apt description, and Ad Astra is a very good movie, it's not in the same league as its predecessors. Those are all-time classics. Besides the well crafted story, it's Pitt's solid acting that makes Ad Astra a winner. He should be disappointed if he's not nominated for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role" at the Academy Awards. The last time Pitt was nominated for Best Actor was in 2011 for Moneyball and he should have won that year.

Helter Skelter

Another recent Brad Pitt role is Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. The Quentin Tarantino flick is much more uplifting than Ad Astra, that is, if a story about the Manson Family can be a mood elevator. But it isn't the usual Tarantino splatterfest. Yes, there's a few violent scenes, but not where you have to look away like you did in Reservoir Dogs. I realize it's all make believe, but gore is gore and sometimes it's hard to take. Tarentino has made a career of it. Pitt plays a down on his luck stunt man, and I'm not sure if he'd be nominated for Best Actor for his excellent performance. Leonardo DiCaprio has the lead and will probably get the nod, but they both ate up a lot of scenery. Pitt will undoubtedly have to settle for the nomination for "Best Actor in a Supporting Role". With both Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, it's a great acting year for Brad Pitt. I hope he's nominated and wins. He's long overdue, but so is Leonardo DiCaprio. Interesting decisions for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences next Oscar season.

I run hot and cold on Tarentino movies. Artistically, most of them are brilliant, but some of them are art for art's sake. Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. That's more than a career. Pulp Fiction could have won Best Picture in 1995, but was edged out by Forrest Gump. That was a good year for films. Quiz Show and The Shawshank Redemption were also nominated. No participation trophies on Oscar night. Something had to give. Although Uma Thurman is one my favorite Gen-X actors, I couldn't get into the Kill Bill series. Still don't understand why it's offensive to refer to Uma as an actress. But Martial Arts movies aren't on my wavelength. That includes Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba and Chuck Norris. When I saw Inglourious Basterds, I totally lost interest in Tarentino even though it wasn't a bad picture. I just expected more. Too much gratuitous violence. He's won me back with Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. I'll have to stream Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight if I ever go back on Netfix.

One thing I enjoy about Tarentino productions is his obsession with popular music from the 1960's and 1970's. Some of it's kitschy schmaltz, but most of it's just gold old fashioned AM Radio hits. I was weened on that music. Before 1970, there was very little FM Radio. After Album Oriented Rock (AOR) was introduced on underground FM stations, AM fizzled out, but I still listened to it on my transistor radio. Now the AM Band has been hijacked by Alt-right zealots - Deutschlandsender - the Nazi propaganda machine back in World War II. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood pays homage to one of my favorite bands from the 60's, Paul Revere and the Raiders. They were big time on American Bandstand with hits such as "Kicks", "Hungry", and "Good Thing". I'm not talking about a one hit wonder, but a string of Top 40 chart toppers. They even had their own television show "Where the Action Is". Used to watch it on Saturday afternoons when I was in elementary school. This was pre "Monkees".

Video Killed The Radio Star

If you watch video clips of Paul Revere and the Raiders, they look absolutely comical. Decked out in white tights and pastel colored satin Revolutionary War garb, I tend to look the other way. They probably looked a little ridiculous back in 1966, too, but once you get past the optics, they rock out. Have quite a collection of their singles on my iPhone. They're out of style, but what do I know. I'm sixty years old. Things are tough all over.