So... How We Doin'?

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Non-Dr. Who fans, I bid you welcome to the final week of June. What does the final week of June mean to those of us here at Bad Shakespeare, Inc. (Right now “us” at Bad Shakespeare, Inc is just me writing the blog. The Christmas parties are fun, but the Secret Santa exchange is ultimately disappointing.) For us, it means we are about halfway through our Holiest time of the year: Summer Movie Season.

                It has been a fruitful and an interesting one. Somehow a superhero with PTSD from stopping a nuclear bomb from destroying New York City was deemed less dark than an alien who crashed into a few buildings while saving the world. Jesse Eisenberg became a bigger star than Will Smith for one, brief shining moment. The twist that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Khan managed to fool three people who promptly got into trouble because they managed to stumble into a movie from their Amish commune somewhere.  Maybe the third time and a flying giraffe head was over the limit for a group of heavy drinking, hard partying friends. We got to see cars go zoom-zoom in the prequel to Fast and the Furious 7.  Leonardo DiCaprio proved that he’s unlucky in love and in not dying in yet another movie. Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and a bunch of others screened some home movies for everyone. (At least I believe that’s what it was. Who knows.) And we get to complain that there were a million remakes and sequels, but somehow pretend that Much Ado About Nothing wasn’t actually a remake of a remake of a remake of a remake based on a play written well before Madonna put out her first single.

                But me being the friend to the reader that I am, I went out and saw as many of these movies as I possibly could. I say as your friend, but we’ve already established that I actually love this time of year, and I went out and saw them because I wanted to… in the case of Man of Steel and Star Trek, I loved them twice. (Possibly a third time. My love is deep. I’m a carer.) And while I have reviewed or referenced few of these movies in past blog posts, I’m rounding up my thoughts here, mostly because I’m not done with that new Neil Gaiman book like I thought I’d be so I’m short a post for the week. Enjoy, everybody!

                Iron Man 3: Tony Stark is back in his Iron Maniest adventure yet, dealing with the PTSD involved with stopping aliens in Avengers, a ruthless Asian terrorist that speaks with a Midwestern accent for some reason, and guys that can breathe fire! It’s ok, he befriends a little kid and builds like, 900 suits to jump into. Decent movie, tried way to hard to reference The Avengers without actually saying “Avengers”. (Except once. And a cute “Superfriends” reference, thus giving more movie screen time to a Justice League movie than DC Comics ever will.)

                The Great Gatsby: Your English class comes alive in this 3-D spectacle focusing on rich and famous people doing horrible things to each other in the name of being rich and famous. Baz Lurhman directs in the best Baz Lurhmany style, ever. If only there was a way to make the material relatable, English Teachers! Easily one of the best movies of the summer

                Star Trek Into Darkness: Seriously, people? Seriously do you not know what it’s about at this point? It’s Star Trek. I did like a whole week on it. The bad guy is Khan. Someone yells it. Go see the movie.

                The Hangover, Part 3: Can you believe it’s been a full three hangovers since we first met the Wolfpack and their wacky adventures of piecing together of their even zanier adventures of the night before? Can you believe that maybe they should have stopped at one?

                Now You See Me: Like Ocean’s 11, but with only four people, and with more MAGIC! Also Jesse Eisenberg. And Woody Harrelson. It’s like the Zombieland reunion without the humor, and without the other two characters and surprise cameo from Bill Murray. Morgan Freeman is in it, and he gets some exposition, and listening to him talk is always exciting. Yay, Morgan Freeman!

                Man of Steel: I actually reviewed this one. Great story. Great action. Not as depressing as everyone seems to think it is. I kind of think this is the sort of thing where everyone was like “Hey it’s David Goyer, so it’s going to be sad” and looked for the sad and depressing, like we look for the twist in one of M. Night’s movies, but the twist never actually comes and we’re just getting sadder because he even managed to make Zooey Deschanel seem not cute for an entire movie. What was my point? Oh, yeah, great movie.

                This is the End: One of the funniest movies about the end of days starring celebrities as themselves who do horrible things to each other that I’ve ever seen.

                Much Ado About Nothing: I reviewed this one on Monday. You should go back and read it. Twice maybe, my view count for this month is kind of low.

                So, that’s the wrap up of what I’ve seen and done for this particular Summer Movie Season. I missed a few I wanted to check out, like After Earth and Monsters University, but the summer movie season is young, there will be plenty of chances to check them out. And there’s still many, many other movies to look forward to as the movie season moves forward! I just wish the weather was worse. It’s so much easier to justify spending more time in the theater when the weather sucks. Oh, well we all have our burdens to bear. Here’s hoping for another two good months!

F. Scott vs. Baz... Fight!

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The reviews are in for The newest adaptation of the Great Gatsby… and I have no idea what they say. I write most of these Bad Shakespeare posts like a week in advance. I had intended to see it at a midnight show so I can write about it. We’ll see if that happens. Future Michael, to the multiplex!

                I did want to write about the Great Gatsby today, mostly because… well, it’s coming out today, and it’s not just coming out in movie theaters but as one of the Big Summer Blockbusters ™ that make up Summer Movie Season. Some people are timid about a big screen, high-budget, high-profile, 3-D adventure that is directed by Baz Luhrmann, also known as that guy who let Obi-Wan Kenobi and Nicole Kidman star in a musical, and thought it a good idea for Jim Broadbent to cover Madonna.

                Real quick side note, Ewan MacGregor took the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s going to have to live with me referring to him as that from now on.

                Anyway, immediately it seemed that news of The Great Gatsby becoming the giant, over the top spectacle that resembled… well, one of Jay Gatsby’s parties… was either horror as people clutched their metaphorical pearls (or non metaphorical. I have no idea what you were reading when you read the news) and wonder in stunned horror… HORROR that someone would take F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel and turn it into a wild spectacle. The other reaction was, “wow I kind of want to see that” from everyone else. (There was also a third reaction which was, “score, now I don’t have to read the book.” Kids, no matter how much I’m about to defend this, the book is always better.)

                Let’s tackle the second reaction first, because I enjoy being confusing. I think it’s great. I’m looking forward to seeing this movie, and I hope that future Michael goes through with the plan to see the movie, and to send me lottery numbers back through time. (he hasn’t yet.) What Baz Lurhmann has done, and was able to do in Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge is taken stories that people wouldn’t normally read, pull out what makes them great, and then puts them on with lavish spectacle and reckless abandon. He has this knack for finding what makes a story great, and even though it’s something hundreds of years old, manages to say, “hey… you like this stuff. Why aren’t you watching more of it?”

                The first reaction I talked about is probably one of the more annoying I’ve come across in my time concentrating more on books. I do think some books are sacred. But they’re sacred to me. They’re sacred in a way that I want people to read them. Put a copy of The Great Gatsby in front of someone, they may not read it. Put it on the big screen with Tobey MacGuire, give it a splashy soundtrack, shoot it in 3-D, then it becomes a completely different animal. It becomes a gateway. Kids will see this. They’ll enjoy it. They’ll wonder more and more about it. It can become the perfect gateway to talking about the book. It gives kids something to visualize while they’re reading it. And it’s a reminder that even though it’s a “boring school book” that was written by some guy about the 1920’s, it’s relatable.

                I’ve always liked The Great Gatsby. I always thought the themes were way more relatable than some teachers like to point out. This is a book about a bunch of people putting on large, opulent parties, parading their wealth around, driving flashy cars, and not really caring about consequences. (until that gunshot at the end. Oh.. spoilers)

                My point is, this isn’t a fight. F. Scott Fitzgerald is not currently planning a bout against Baz Lurhmann. It’s about someone working within the system to find what we should be teaching kids, which is that great literature is consumed any way you can consume it, and just because it’s a classic doesn’t mean it can’t be awesome.

                I sincerely hope future Michael takes the chance to go see this as soon as possible!