Ok, this week’s entry in the “Didn’t Win. Didn’t Win. Didn’t Win” series is a bit troubling. I mean, it’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” right? Well, I don’t know about you but I remember 2001; I remember getting over the Y2K panic; I remember George W. Bush being president. You know what I DON’T remember? Finding a mysterious black monolith on the moon! Know what else I DON’T remember? A manned flight to Jupiter! What the hell is the movie trying to pull?! You know what I think? Now, hear me out, don’t just call me a conspiracy nut or anything, but I think that this whole thing . . . now, hear me out . . . was filmed on a SOUNDSTAGE IN HOLLYWOOD! By acclaimed film director Stanley Kubrick! Yeah, fine, call me crazy, sure, it all looks real, but someone is trying to fool us all here and we won’t let them get away with it! Max, Mike; Movies: delivering the truth, unvarnished and as it appears to us in our bowls of breakfast cereal! Wake up, sheeple! Give a listen! Learn the truth! The Earth isn’t round, either! It’s burrito-shaped! Hey, LISTEN to us!
Poll question: do you think the bias against genre movies like science fiction or westerns is unfair or do you think it’s right for award nominations to go mostly to so-called “real” movies?
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For Mike’s sake as editor, let’s just say that the bias against genre films is the special, special prize found at the bottom of each and every box of Bumpy Pux. If a movie is good, let it win!
Normally you would be right on target, O Lad of Fromage, but sadly we’ve had to revise the Super-Special-Awesome Prize-O-Rama(tm) that we previously offered, due to a teensy-weensy investigation by the FDA, the FTC, the NRC, and the NSA (please don’t ask why; I was assured that the half-life of the frosting on new Frosted Bumpypux had decayed to safe levels. Assured, I tell you). Thanks for listening, though!
I love 2001 and don’t find it slow, never really did. It was just too interesting and intriguing and i watch it at least once a year. The early man parts were filmed in a studio which always blows me away. The backgrounds were shot in location and they used front projection to avoid using mattes. Its why the eyes glow.
Genre films especially scifi do not get much respect even today they are considered simply escapist fun no matter how many come out that speak to more serious subjects and not matter how much they influence the culture at large. It makes my penguins, who are Babylon Five and Gattica fans very angry!
It really is mind-blowing to think that’s so much of that is studio-shot. I guess they used Nairobi more for the sweeping, establishing shots?
As for your penguins and Babylon 5, please remind them:
“Time… is infinite. You… are finite. Zathros… is finite. This… is wrong tool.”
Also, as I understand it, puffins are really into “Farscape.” I hope this doesn’t cause friction with their monochromatic cousins.
I would say, with the exception of Full Metal Jacket, you have to view Stanley Kubrick movies at least twice to get some sort of understanding of what you are watching. The top of the ‘I don’t get it’ list of movies that I did not understand the first time was Dr. Strange Love.
That’s a solid point, Tony! Of course some of Kubrick’s films I can’t make myself watch again; just too difficult (I’m looking at you, “A Clockwork Orange”!).
Or, uh, I guess you’re *not* looming at A Clockwork Orange.
Very good point, I remember a review of Eye Wide Shut that said there had not been as many initially bad reviews of a Kubrick movie since, every other Kubrick movie. Some are easier to “get” than others but multiple viewings help all of them.