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SCENE IT ALL BEFORE

Should Kids Be Watching 13 Reasons Why?

4/28/2017

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I'm sure by now you have all seen 13 Reasons Why. How could you not? It feels like it's all anyone's been talking about. The show follows Clay Jensen as he listens to 13 audio tapes left behind by Hannah Baker in the wake of her suicide, each detailing a situation and related person she blames as a "reason" for her death. The format is undeniably compelling. Who else is on these tapes? What are the reasons?  Why is Clay on the list? It's a murder mystery where we already know the who — we need to know the why. 

13 Reasons Why depicts graphic scenes that can be hard to watch, most maybe harder for adults who are wondering if this really what high school is like. All I can say is I don't know anymore. I grew up with AOL Instant Messenger, which means I would talk to one person at a time. I can't imagine what it's like being a teenager and everyone seeing almost every interaction you have at all times. 

Schools across the country are warning parents about this show. The National Association of School Psychologists warns the series glorifies teenage suicide and depicts instances of assault, underage drinking, driving under the influence, and body shaming that may be too much for “vulnerable youth." They say that when death is sensationalized like this it can lead to imitation, especially for those suffering from mental health conditions. And the fact that Hannah's death occurs on-screen has some worrying the show may function as a how-to manual. But is banning a teen from watching really the answer? In most cases, it just makes them want to do it more. So what can you do when the means to see it is so accessible and literally everyone else is doing it? I think you sit your ass down right next to them and watch it with them. 

Should a school be showing a series like this? Absolutely not. In order to get the whole idea of how Hannah's experience goes from bad to worse to what felt like inescapable, you have to watch the whole thing, and I would think that schools would have something more to do than devote 13 hours to a television series. Perhaps a school could benefit from watching a select few scenes in this series and then having a discussion about the largest themes, but overall, teenage viewers of the series need close supervision. 

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Not all the kids are able to carry out what the role asks of them but Dylan Minnette is exceptional.
​This should be watched at home, and not with everyone watching it in separate rooms; I mean as a family. There is, of course, a chance your kid has already watched the show; after all, it's been out for three weeks, which is an eternity in Netflix. If that's the case, it's still worth having this discussion as soon as possible. 

Beyond the graphic nature of the show, the real concern about 13 Reasons Why is the premise itself, in that it plays as a revenge fantasy. The show does address her parents and Clay hurting in Hannah's absence but their suffering gets lost in the search for "justice," which of course can never really come. Hannah envisions the tapes as a way to get back at the people who hurt her. But even if that is her plan she would never see it come to fruition, and the show doesn't hammer that point home enough, especially for a young audience for whom, psychological studies show, the permanence of death is hard to grasp. In real life, no ghost-Hannah can appear to see her schoolmates suffer, nor ask them why they didn't do more to help her when she was alive. Nor does the show ever deal with Hannah's likely clinic depression, questions of brain chemistry or any issues of mental illness which is, in fact, the leading risk factor for suicide according to the American Psychological Association. Even if in the moment Hannah herself truly believed 13 incidents built up to make her life unlivable, the show could have helped viewers see around that line of thinking, and it definitely does not. In the last episode when Hannah goes to speak to her school counselor, the show even ends up suggesting (intentionally or not) that it's not worth trying to get help from an adult. 

The show is very dark at times, and Hannah's actual suicide is extremely graphic and difficult to watch. It would be easy to say 'Oh my God,' cover your eyes, and turn it off, or tell your kids you don't want them watching this show. But in reality that is just not how Wi-Fi and phones work. Telling them that the series is too much for them to handle is like begging them to watch it.  So the only thing left to so is to sit there for all 13 hours and make sure they're not watching it alone. These ideas are out there and aren't going away anytime soon, especially now that it looks like the series is getting a second season. Imperfectly or not, Netflix has given you an opportunity to deal with a difficult issue head on, to have a discussion that maybe you wouldn't have otherwise. I say take advantage of it.
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Will Smith Should Play The Genie In The Rebooted Aladdin

4/20/2017

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The business of live-action remakes has been a lucrative one for Disney, to say the least. So far the movie studio has made six live-action remakes, with the movies grossing over 4.6 billion dollars worldwide. And it looks like they have no intention of slowing down with 12 more remakes in the works including Mulan, The Lion King, and most recently Aladdin.  
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Guy Ritchie is set to direct and it was recently reported that Will Smith is in early talks to play The Genie in the upcoming movie. But can he match the iconic Robin Williams performance? Can he even come close?

If there is a big-name actor out there who could play this part, Will Smith may be it. We know he has a big over-the-top personality, we know he can sing, and we know he has comedic chops. Disney has already come out and said that this will be an "ambitious and non-traditional take on Aladdin," but even with all that the Internet has made their opinion known; no one but Robin Williams should ever play The Genie. 

And it's tough to argue that point considering The Genie was made specifically for Robin Williams. For a 95-minute movie, there are almost 16 hours of recorded material from Robin Williams. A lot of which will never be released from the Disney Vault because of its grown-up material. This was the first time in animated movie history that it was the animators trying to match the voice acting instead of the other way around. This must have been a nightmare considering the movie is hand-drawn. The result is undeniable. It's been 25 years and I still don't get all the impressions that Robin Williams did. But that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the film. How do you recast an actor like that?
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No actor will ever be able to recapture Williams' magic but that does that mean the role is forever untouchable?
Disney tried once before. Remember the direct-to-video sequel Return of Jafar? After Robin Williams and Disney got into a fight over a contract dispute Disney was forced to recast the role. They even got a legendary actor Dan Castellanta, the voice of Homer Simpson, to play the part. But no one remembers that movie. Aladdin was also adapted to a Broadway play, with James Monroe Iglehart winning a TONY for his performance as the Genie. (He recently left to go play the role of Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton). But the stage version is such a different medium; a movie remake won’t get as much leeway.

Some animated classics are begging to be redone; The Jungle Book was a prime example. Does anyone remember—really remember—the story to the original Jungle Book? I would imagine no because the original animated movie is garbage—it's a mess of sixties animation, wayward storytelling, jazz music, and casual racism throughout.  But the new The Jungle Book with Bill Murray (and less racism) got a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. Aladdin is different, in that they are adapting a movie that is already considered an animated classic, but Disney has shown they are more than up to that challenge. 

I had my doubts about a Beauty and the Beast remake, especially when it came to the animation style and the voice acting. After all, how could Emma Thompson ever hope to match Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts? The answer is she didn't. Angela Lansbury is still a better Mrs. Potts. In fact, I'll come right out and say that the live-action remake doesn't come anywhere near to the quality and perfection that is the original animated movie. But that didn't stop me from enjoying it any less. I still saw it twice in theaters and enjoyed myself both times. 

Robin Williams is one of the most beloved actors of his generation and The Genie is the role he may be best remembered for. No one is going to be able to recapture the brilliance of Robin Williams, but I say lean into it. A new movie won't take away my enjoyment of the original. If the story is good and the quality of computer-generated animation is there then I'm going to keep seeing these movies. Disney is going to continue to put all their resources behind these movies and they are going to be spectacles. And that's why I go to the movies— to be amazed.  
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The Top 5 Fastest And Most Furious Scenes From The Fast And The Furious

4/13/2017

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How could you turn your back on family Dom?
I was not able to see an early screening of The Fate of the Furious this week, but in honor of one of the greatest franchises in movie history, here is a look at the five fastest and most furious scenes of the series. Spoilers ahead.
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The Final Quarter-Mile Race (The Fast and The Furious)
You’ve got to have one moment from the original, and it was a toss-up between the first race - where Brian learned it doesn't matter whether you win by an inch or a mile - or the last race; for me, the last race has bigger moments. Not only does Jesse get gunned down by Johnny Tran (RIP), and a motorcycle race ensue, but we see the quarter mile race where both Dom and Brian barely avoid being hit by a train. That shot is quintessential Fast and the Furious and one that would come to be used in nearly all of their flashback scenes. Though I will say of the first race that I feel for Ja Rule when he loses and misses his chance with Monica. 

4) Han’s Death (The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift)
This chase sequence is probably the only redeemable quality about The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, and that's only because of this gut punch at the end. Han is the only good character in Tokyo Drift and they killed him but luckily for us, he’s back in the fourth movie since the timeline jumps backward. But we weren't finished with this moment, not by a longshot. At the end of Furious 6 the franchise revisits this scene and the murderer is revealed to be none other than Jason Statham. Bringing Letty back from the dead was quite a moment, but this was a masterstroke. It proved that they had a plan the entire time (they did not have a plan the whole time).
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3) Hobbs vs Shaw (Furious 7)
The Rock may be the most important thing to happen to The Fast and The Furious franchise. There are a lot of great Rock moments to discuss—his introduction in Fast Five, his fight with Dom, the fact that he is sweating at all times, including while he's doing paperwork—but the Hobbs and Deckard Shaw fight is magnificent. This is a knock-down drag-out fight through several panes of glass that would have left any man crippled. But not these two. At one point Hobbs gives Shaw a rock bottom through a glass coffee table and I went bonkers; it's as if this fight was written for me by my 12-year-old self. Hobbs ends up with a broken arm, which leads to possibly the best line of the entire franchise.

2) The Airplane Chase (Furious 6)
Furious 6 is my favorite movie in the series because it's the movie where they drop any pretense of making sense. Please remember that this movie is about the government commissioning California street racers to stop an international group of terrorists on the world's longest runway. Someone actually did the science behind this scene and apparently for it to work this runway would need to be 28 miles long. And don't forget about all the fighting that happens on the plane, which includes Dom giving someone a dolphin-like headbutt, Hobbs and Dom teaming up on a flying clothesline, and Dom escaping the explosion at the end by driving a car through the nose of the airplane. But this scene also packs some emotional heft as Gisele sacrifices herself to save Han—truly a crushing blow for the team and fans.

1) The Vault Heist (Fast Five)
Many consider Fast Five to be the best movie in the series because it represents the turning point of the series. It took a movie that was about street racing and it became something else. The craziest thing about the vault heist is that a majority of it was done with practical effects. This scene was filmed in Puerto Rico and everyone seemed pretty cool with them destroying all of their buildings. When Dom and the gang ran out of buildings to destroy they switched it up by wrecking a ridiculous amount of cop cars. And do not forget the way our villain is killed as Hobbs (a cop) calls an unarmed man a sumbitch and then pops two bullets in him. Did you cheer? Because I definitely cheered.

The Real #1) Brian’s Goodbye (Furious 7)
This is the best scene of the series, but it is neither fast nor furious; it's actually kind of touching. At the end of Furious 7 we had to say goodbye to Paul Walker, who died in a real-life car wreck, and the camera focuses on Brian's film family playing on the beach while the gang watches from a distance with "See You Again" in the background. As I walked out of the theater, a fellow moviegoer was hunched over a trash can because she was crying so hard. Meanwhile her boyfriend was rolling his eyes while he tried to calm her down, but the scene clearly works. In a movie series built off family and living our lives one-quarter mile at a time, this was a perfect tribute to one of the pillars of the franchise. 
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Going Where The Money Is

4/6/2017

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Going In Style Reviewed

Is it possible to have low expectations for a movie that stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin? From the previews, it looks like their new movie is not just about trying to rob a bank, but trying to rob the audience out of ninety minutes and eight bucks. 
 
Going in Style is set in New York, where Willie (Freeman), Joe (Caine), and Albert (Arkin) are retired best friends just trying to enjoy their golden years with the little pension that they have. But the steel mill that they all worked at is being sold to a corporation in Vietnam and that company is now in cahoots with the bank to liquidate the pensions and pay off their debt. So these three guys are going to get even by – you guessed it – robbing that bank.
 
There are two things that I didn't realize until after I walked out of this movie. One is that this was a remake of a 1979 movie that starred George Burns. From what I've read the 1979 original is a well-regarded movie, but I don't think that many people know about it. And since Hollywood is so big on remakes this is the perfect type of movie to re-make; one that no one can remember. 
 
The other thing I learned is that it's directed by Zach Braff. Yeah, the same Zach Braff from Garden State and Scrubs. He also did Wish I Was Here, the Kickstarter project that didn't go over too well, so I imagine he's looking for a bit of a safe play here to prove that he's still got it. And he does. He takes a movie that has no business being anything more than meh and makes a meh plus movie with some schmaltz tacked on to the end. 

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I want to have a meal with those three. I imagine that would be delightful
Most of the humor in the movie comes from Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin just being themselves and bantering back and forth.  I am convinced that each actor realized what this movie was, took the money, and tried to make the other chuckle on set. And that type of laid back sarcastic tone plays right into Alan Arkin's skill set. He's the funniest man in every scene he is in. 
 
But as I say all these things I wonder, isn’t there something more we could be doing with three Oscar winners? I enjoy people making fun of The Bachelor as much as the next person but these are the same kind of roles Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino have been playing for years. Can’t we find some other gig besides “look at the funny thing Grandpa is doing”? 
 
This isn't a great movie. But I would see these three actors in anything they did together, even a My Dinner with Andre remake (consider that my official pitch, Hollywood producers). I just wish there was something more. Going In Style is the kind of movie you can wait till it comes out on Redbox, realize the movie you actually wanted wasn't there and then pick this one instead. I can’t envision another scenario in which you would choose to see this movie. 
D+
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