Earlier today I saw Monster's University. I went in reluctantly, expecting a lower tier Pixar movie, largely because of the mixed reviews. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it.
I put it just a notch below Monster's Inc. but honestly, it was closer to the quality of the original that I had anticipated. Yeah, there weren't as many laugh-out-loud moments as the original, but there were still a lot of clever and witty moments that had me smiling. I smiled through-out the majority of this movie in fact, to the point I really left the theater in a really good mood, which is the feeling Pixar often manages to enforce. I agree with Aaron Wallace that its better than the Cars movies and Brave, but I actually enjoyed it more than a lot of the Pixar films that many claim are Pixar's best such as Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Up. In fact, the only real flaw I could find was its predictability, but since children are a big target, its not like they'll notice the similarities to Animal House.
I don't know if it'll hold up as well on repeat viewings as Monster's Inc. But for a prequel(which I was grateful for it being rather than a sequel so Boo's fate can be left ambiguous) it worked better than most. There really isn't anything about Monster's Inc. that feels diminished or fallible with this movie's existence, unless you count the original teaser from 2000.
Speaking of the original, I'm still trying to make my brain accept the fact that its been 12 years since the original Monster's Inc. instead of 5. I could accept Toy Story 3 having been released 11 years since Toy Story 2, but Monster's University being released 12 years since Monster's Inc. is just surreal.
I can still remember seeing the original Monster's Inc. in theaters on November 2nd, 2001. It was at the AMC theaters at the Woodland Hills mall in CA. My Mom used discount tickets we had from Ralphs. The screening was upstairs and when we went into the screening, the trailer for Return to Neverland was playing. Toy Story was still just about my favorite movie of all time, so I of course was ecstatic for this movie, and it did not disappoint. Afterwards, we went to the Disney store which had just opened from remodeling. I got a free Mike and Sully tattoo that lasted 4 days, as well as mouse-shaped lollipops. Monster's Inc. was pretty much all I thought about for a week (Even during the Harry Potter craze, Pixar managed to release a hilarious MI trailer before the first Potter movie so as to prevent the box office from dropping too low during the 2nd week) It still remains one of the most pleasant movie-going experiences in my life.
On Feburary 26, 1973, the American Film Institute(AFI, a non-profit organization created in 1967) established the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. The first recipient was auteur John Ford. The gala dinner was televised on March 31st, 1971 on CBS. Stars from John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart attended. The award was even presented none other by the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Due to Ford's age, he was helped to the stage by movie star and AFI president Charlton Heston.
The primary agenda of the televised ceremony was to fundraise money for the AFI. They even took time during the ceremony to solicit for donations. But looking beyond that, it was very easy to see the appeal for audiences. For one, aside from the Academy Awards, it was only way to see so many celebrities in one place. Secondly, the ceremony in and of itself was a great way to educate the masses. The presenters would list and discuss all of the movies the recipient was a part of, which would allow clips of the various movies to be shown. Keep in mind, this was before the days of not only internet streaming, Blu-Rays and DVDs, but even VHSs and cable television, so this was a great way to introduce and encourage people to check out titles people may never have heard of at their local theaters or to look out for a certain film to come on television.
Nowadays, thanks to DVDs, Blu-Rays and internet-streaming, there's a good chance most people have seen the majority of films the recipients have been apart of, let alone heard of all of them, so the event really isn't all that special as it used to be(as can be demonstrated by the fact that ceremonies now broadcast on cable instead of network television like they used to) and the honor itself isn't seen by many people as anything other than another Hall Of Fame for celebrities of the film world to win. Still, the ceremony is an annual event that keeps on going largely because its a fun way to indulge in photo ops as well as a fun way to showcase interviews, montages and video-clips to audiences across the world. Not to mention allows for some unexpected surprises, such as William Shatner's toast/roast of George Lucas and Star Wars. For the record, the previous recipients have been:
1973: John Ford 2002: Tom Hanks
1974: James Cagney 2003 Robert Deniro
1975: Orson Welles 2004: Meryl Streep
1976: William Wyler 2005: George Lucas
1977: Bette Davies 2006: Sean Connery
1978: Henry Fonda 2007: Al Pacino
1979: Alfred Hitchcock 2008: Warren Beatty
1980: James Stewart 2009: Michael Douglas
1981: Fred Astaire 2010: Mike Nichols
1982: Frank Capra 2011: Morgan Freeman
1983: John Huston 2012: Shirley MacLaine
1984: Lillian Gish
1985: Gene Kelly
1986: Billy Wilder
1987: Barbara Stanwyck
1988: Jack Lemmon
1989: Gregory Peck
1990: David Lean
1991: Kirk Douglas
1992: Sidney Poitier
1993: Elizabeth Taylor
1994: Jack Nicholson
1995: Steven Spielberg
1996: Clint Eastwood
1997: Martin Scorsese
1998: Robert Wise
1999: Dustin Hoffman
2000: Harrison Ford
2001: Barbra Streisand
This year's recipient was the king of spoofs, Mel Brooks. Definitely a deserving recipient(more than any in 5 years I'd say). The ceremony itself was fine, the only problem is this: Mel Brooks is 86(87 later this month) which means that unfortunately, many of his actors, such as Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Kenneth Mars, Peter Boyle, Dom DeLuise among several others have since passed. It just isn't the same to hear Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel explaining Brook's influence on them than to see casts reunite to share stories and memories. Even Robert DeNiro got up and made fun of the fact he was there despite having no real connection to Brooks.
Brooks' contemporaries weren't completely absent however. Carl Reiner, Brook's 2000 Year Old Man partner and BFF, talked a bit about their time as writers on the Sid Caesar Show, as well deliver and one of the shows funnier one-liners. Cloris Leachman toasted Mel exclaiming that they have to face the the fact "we're old now, though not quite up there to Carl", even Gene Wilder made a rare post-retirement appearance(though only through a recorded message, strange he couldn't manage showing up while his Young Frankenstein co-star Teri Garr could in-spite of having multiple sclerosis) to give a more sentimental speech.
Some other highlights included interviews with Brooks himself describing his childhood from his short mother to his early memories of watching the films of Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, interviews with Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discussing Brooks' ability to satirize different genres, Woody Allen's take on Mel Brooks, even David Lynch got to appear on stage to thank Brooks for letting him direct The Elephant Man which Brooks produced, as well as David showing Brooks the suit that Lynch wore everyday while shooting The Elephant Man. The mere fact that Brooks was the one that pushed Lynch's career to continue after Eraserhead is reason alone Brooks deserves this honor. In fact its probably his greatest achievement.
Brooks accepted the award from Martin Scorsese. While accepting, he noted its a tradition for recipients of this award to come to next year's ceremony to introduce that year's recipient, so Brooks hilariously introduced the recipient right there and then noted he didn't "have to bother coming back next year with this tuxedo and tie". It was very easy to see Mel is as sharp and lively as he's ever been. It made you wish Brooks would continue to make at least one more film, but those days seem to be behind him now, even though Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money would be more timely now as ever.
While the tribute overall brought back many great memories, it made you a bit depressed that there really is no modern-day Mel Brooks. While there are some people capable of Brook's fearlessness, such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Brook's over-the-top wit seems to be a lost art. Heck, no one seems capable of making a funny spoof anymore. Even the once mighty Zucker-Abrahms-Zucker have fallen dramatically since their heyday of Airplane and Naked Gun(Scary Movie 5 was released earlier this year with zero fanfare).
The good news in all of this, however, is that we always have Mel Brook's films preserved to rewatch and relive.
My 2nd blogpost and I'm already back to the subject of Colorado sucking. I was hopeful my 2nd entry would instead be a movie review or dedicated to the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award to Mel Brooks, which will air this Saturday on TNT, but alas...
In case you haven't heard the news, Black Forest of Colorado Springs is having wildfires. 92 houses are gone, many more trees have burned, even the Royal Gorge has caught fire.
My parents' house is near the edge of Black Forest. You can see smoke from a distance in the back-yard, but its not like you can breathe in the smoke, or that its raining ashes or that our house has been evacuated, either voluntary or mandatory.
We talked to a source who confirmed the fire coming close enough for all of us to be evacuated is extremely doubtful. Nevertheless, we have a box of our birth certificates, social security cards, bonds, other important papers as well as photos in case an emergency happened.
Its been only one year since our last forest fire, up in Waldo Canyon. My mom's friend who lived in that area stayed at our house until the fire cleared. When being to told to evacuate, she jam-packed her car with clothes, school supplies(she worked as a teacher) family photos, books, plants, food, basically if she could fit it in her car she took it.
It neve occurred to me watching her unload her stuff that I would be at risk at being in the same position just a year late, let alone wonder what bare essentials I would take.
So what exactly would I take if worse came to worse? I would take my Walt Disney Classic Collection, Callie(my movie star), my ever-growing autograph collection, my family videos, my computer, my iPad...and to my surprise that's really it. Sure, I'd hate to see my big DVD/Blu-Ray collection go, but aside from the home movies, all of them are replaceable(unfortunately, some would argue physical home-video is on its way toward extinction thanks to streaming sites like Netflix). I have plenty of stuffed animals, but I really only need a couple of them. My books are pretty replaceable, my comics would be a big loss financially, there are only so many boxes I can take and there's too much junk like my various toys, games and junk in general for me to sort our in a pile and decide what I view valuable and what I could live without. I guess the fact this isn't a huger scare for me is the part of me that has grown-up.
While my stuff appears to be safe for the foreseeable future, research has made me realize other aren't so lucky. I found out on Twitter today that a teacher I had for high-school lost his house. Other friends have since evacuated and are waiting to see the fate of their home. My heart really goes out to them.
Frankly, I've always thought living in the forest was a horrible idea. There are no cities nearby, no big buildings, too many trees and wildlife, an is in complete isolation. (CO really seems to attract more isolationists than in any other state, CO is the place that inspired The Shining after-all). The fact its more prone to wildfires is just another reason in a very long list why no one should be living in Colorado.
Time will tell is the fire is the result of climate change or kids playing with matches. Still, I can't help but dread the fact how it rains literally every single day during the summer in Colorado, except for that one week wildfires appear.
This year: 2013, marks the 10th anniversary that I discovered the vast and ever-growing universe known as the "internet". I was using it through the family computer, which then was the iMac G4 or the "Sunflower"(remember those?) Having discovered it through school and using it mostly at home during my spare time, I became addicted. Sure I "used it to research school projects" but I primarily used it to research the topics I was interested in, which in those days consisted primarily of Hollywood projects and theme parks(my interests have expanded since, though only slightly) as well as playing the occasional game. I knew I was addicted to it then, though I couldn't tell you the extent of my addiction a decade later.
Today I use the social network sites Facebook and Twitter daily, have two email accounts, have an Amazon account(which I use) an eBay account(which I don't) and a YouTube account(which I use seldomly) use iTunes, Netflix and have left literally thousands of posts on various message boards(under different names) oh yeah and visit many internet pages and watch several live-streamed shows(I once watched two streamed shows at once while watching tv, living the Back To The Future Part II fantasy). The one thing on the internet that I've pretty much left to do(beside start a podcast) is start a blog. I've thought about it many times, but decided against it lamenting my own insignificance. It wasn't until on of my very few Twitter followers, BumpyGrumpy, encouraged me with a tweet stating "Do it anyway. Even just to amuse yourself".
Let the amusement begin!
My blog's title, "The Rambling Rock" comes from my disdain for my current location, Colorado, the nation's centennial state. I exclaim in public how Colorado is so pathetic, the highest rated tourist attractions is literally a pile of rocks! So in a way, this blog will give me the chance beyond Facebook and Twitter for me to rant about...stuff.
But not just that. I hope to share my thoughts on the news, current events, history and certain things going in my life. Hopefully some of it will be optimistic. I'm determined to make you laugh, cry and be completely confused. If I do a good enough job, some of you will be filled with contempt and disgust, as those are the readers who always insist on returning. For now, I bid you adieu, but I shall return!
