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January 16, 2008
Scary, Funny, and Wimpy
A few things, briefly noted.
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This makes me feel so very validated. Penny Curtis, a researcher at the University of Sheffield provides the money quote: "We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable." Damn right they're universally disliked! Shudder.
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BoingBoing tells us that Joel Hodgson is back with a new MST3K-like series: Cinematic Titanic. You can order the DVD of the first movie on their web site.
(Note to The Spouse: We ordered the DVD of the first movie on their web site.)
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SciFi blog Io9 complains that the new Terminator TV series "wimpifies" Sarah Connor, famously played in the movies by Linda Hamilton. WRONG! The TV show, perhaps, portrays the mother of the savior of mankind (yes, John Connor is the Jesus Christ of the post-AI world) as a little less of a Rambo-figure than the disappointing Terminator 2 did. Yet that movie wasted all that was good and interesting about the first Terminator movie (one of my all-time faves) in a desperate attempt to shore up a weak premise with explosions and special effects. The first movie didn't need "mimetic poly-alloy" liquid metal.
What made Terminator interesting (and enjoyably re-watchable) was that it took an average woman and put her in an untenable, terrifying situation. We then got to watch her react, adapt, and ultimately triumph. But it wasn't easy, it wasn't natural for her, and it was never a sure bet that she'd live to see the end of the flick.
Terminator 2 gives us an ultra-buff, weaponized, super-soldier, where in the first movie (even at its end) we had come to love a scared, sad, and uncertain waitress. The only good thing to come of T2 was that it tried to show the corrosive effect of her descent into super-hero-dom on her child -- a sullen, withdrawn, emotionally distant and distrustful pre-teen Jesus John Connor.
And so we get, in the new TV series, a sensitive Jesus (dangit) John Connor, who is so into his feelings and his sense of "can't we all just be friends?" that he turns to Mary... er, Sarah, and whines something along the lines of "I can't do this. You save the world!" And our steely-eyed slayer-of-cyborgs tells him, "Okay. I will."
And you know what? With the Bimbotron 6900 at her side, our gun-toting, fast-driving, pain-ignoring super-soldier from a Bob's Big Boy probably can do just that.
And that's just wrong.
Posted by reparent at January 16, 2008 2:02 PM
Comments
So I thought that the 1st two hours of the new Terminator series were the best two hours of Terminator story ever -- the original film included. There is a lot of potential in this show and I hope they live up to it. My only complaint: the Summer Glau Terminator acts convincingly like a human high school student right up until the point that she's outed as a skin job, then she's all roboticly awkward, and confused about how those odd humans act. Otherwise it was good stuff.
Posted by: bill simmon at January 17, 2008 10:23 AM
Well, the part about the clowns. Here in Europe a recent study showed the same. If you have the link to the original research I would be happy to recieve it!
Many thanks,
GL
The Netherlands
Posted by: geld lenen at January 18, 2008 8:21 PM