13 columns I've written about mass shootings since 1999 is 13 too many

In memory of the six senselessly lost
in another mass shooting on 3/27/23.

This post marks the ninth blog I’ve written and posted about a mass shooting in this country. 

I wrote and published two others in newspapers about the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and at Westwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas in 1999. 

In addition to those columns/blogs I've published since '99 I have two others I started writing about but have yet to finish - one about the 2018 Parkland and the other on last year’s 2022 Uvalde school shootings. 

Should I one day get to finish writing those blogs that will bring the total number of columns/posts to 13.

That’s 13 too many!

Back in January this year I asked the question on social media how long it will be before the mass murderer is a woman. For decades the profile of a mass murderer was a white male - some of whom were married with children, had current or previous relationships with significant others, and whose ages ranged from the mid-20s to early 60s before going off the deep end.

Since '99, the ages of mass shooters have been younger, and their nationalities are no longer relegated to white males. Recent mass shootings over the past few months were committed by men of African American, Asian and of Hispanic/and or Latino descent.

Now with The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian parochial school located in Nashville, Tenn, that left six dead – three of them age nine the latest mass murderer is now a woman who identified herself as transgendered. (AND NO, I WILL NOT NAME HER/HIM)!

My ominous prophecy came true on March 27, 2023, in a couple ways.

Up until the latest tragedy, I’ve always believed the safest place for parents to send their kids to is a private school. I’ve always believed mass shootings rarely occur at private schools, if ever and if they do, they rarely make national headlines due to the low body count. They’ve always happened at public schools.

If the actions of the Nashville “gunwoman” who shot her way into the glass locked doors at The Covenant School proved anything as captured by the surveillance cameras it is that it doesn’t matter how many security procedures a school district has in place to stop a mass murderer. It doesn’t matter anymore if the district hires licensed police officers or asks that all teachers and staff become registered gun owners with a license to carry a firearm.

'It's a horrible, horrible situation, and we're not going to fix it,' GOP Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett told Fox News earlier this week. “Criminals are going to be criminals. 'And my daddy fought the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese. And he told me, buddy, he said, if somebody wants to take you out and doesn't mind losing their life, there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.'”



If the person is intent on killing, they are going to find a way to do it.

I’ve had it with this crap!

I throw my arms up in complete disgust! As of March 27, a total of 131 mass shootings has happened this year.

I’m tired of reading the mini-obits and go-fund-me pages about the victims whose lives were mercilessly cut short.

I’m tired of lawmakers on the left and right politicizing these tragedies minutes after they happen when the bodies are still lying dead on the floors of churches, college campuses, grade schools, malls, movie theaters and workplaces and who have yet to be identified before law enforcement can notify the emotionally crushed parents and loved ones of the deceased.

I’m tired of being told by the powers-that-be in human resources mandating I watch an hour-long video as part of my yearly training on what to do should a disgruntled gunman or gunwoman enter my place of work spraying bullets. Chances are I’ll either throw something at the psychopath or attempt to rush them head on. I’m going to die anyway so I might as well go out fighting instead of locking myself in a bathroom stall or vacated office waiting for all clear from police.

I’m tired of engaging in social media pissing contests who argue how snuff videos like the one showing WDBJ news reporter Alison Parker, 24, and photojournalist Adam Ward, 27, being shot and killed live during a morning news segment in 2015 deserved to be seen on YouTube for world viewing. In their sick little minds, watching the two being shot to death live felt that would make viewers realize how deadly guns are. BULLSHIT! It will only inspire would be shooters to commit the same vile thing!



I’m tired of people telling me this is the new normal like COVID and this is the way things are. To them, I'm supposed to get with the program and deal with it, damnit!

But hey, what do I know! I guess any garbage spewed out by the "Hollyweird" elite glorifying gun violence like the latest "John Wick" sequel that has grossed 120 million since its release two weeks ago is too fake for viewers. They want the real deal! No doubt the ones who said the Parker/Ward video should be shown for public consumption are those same losers who say, "Die Hard" (1988) IS a Christmas movie. In their minds terrorism and mass murder IS the spirit of Christmas!

I’m tired of hearing how more gun legislation will put an end to all this gun violence.



Do you need to look at how many are killed on a weekly basis on the streets of Chicago which I now call “Chi-Raq” (the death toll is higher during the holiday weekends) to know the toughest gun laws which the “Windy City” has in place don’t work? Just because Democratic Mayor Lorie Lightfoot no longer runs the blood drenched streets of “Chi-Raq” doesn’t mean the body count will start dropping sharply in the coming months, if at all. The two incumbent mayoral candidates, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson, Chicago voters will be choosing from in April are Democrats if that tells you anything.

Since '99, I’ve argued how the focus needs to be on assisting the mentally ill when it comes to curbing the gun violence. I can no longer stand behind that. Much like how added gun legislation won’t stop mass killings, spending more money to treat the mentally ill won’t fix the problem either. Charles Whitman, James Oliver Huberty, James Holmes, Steven Kazmierczak and Stephen Paddock were among the gunmen who either knew they had something mentally wrong with them, attempted to seek help and failed to get any, underwent treatment by psychiatrists and took prescribed medications only to stop taking them prior to their killing sprees.

The parents of the Nashville shooter knew she needed help and operated on the assumption their daughter got rid of all the automatic weapons she used in the shooting while being treated by a doctor for “emotional disorder.”



I am at the point now where when the next mass shooting happens (YES!!! THE NEXT ONE!!!) there will be zero need for me to do another commentary, should I even want to write one. This blog post will suffice. All I have to do is change the opening paragraph and everything else can stay the same. The only other change I’ll make is the date of the post at the top and bottom.

There is, however a very, very, very dim light at the end of the long dark tunnel that might, just might curb the daily bloodshed. That is if this Godless country of ours returns to patriotism. If parents start giving more than two shits about what their kids are doing under the roofs of their homes. If parents instill moral values in their offspring explaining to them the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, how murder is a crime and deserves to be punished and are taught to believe in God, the church and have an overall respect for human life.

In a twist of irony Monday an hour before the Nashville shootings made cable news headlines, the high-heeled, over-the-knee skirted info-babes led by newscaster Harris Faulkner on Fox’s "Outnumbered" discussed a Wall Street Journal poll that revealed how the percentage of Americans who believed in patriotism, religion, having children, community involvement and tolerance of others has dwindled from above 70 percent in 1998 to below 40 percent with religion down from 62 percent in 1998 to 39 percent in 2023.

With declining poll numbers like that how is it people have the nerve to ask why these mass shootings continue to occur on a daily/weekly occurrence versus when I attended high school in the mid-1980s.

“You know, repenting of your sins and having some sort of reform in this country seems to me ... that would be the way we're gonna have to turn this thing around because we have some very sick evil people doing some very vile things and revival seems to be the way to go,” Burchett told Fox News this week.

On May 25, 2022, the day after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed the same similar sentiments Burchett said earlier this week.

“America is failing our youngest generations from decades of rejecting good moral values and teachings," Greene said. "We don't need more gun control. We need to return to God."

As much as it pains me to quote the Georgia congresswoman whose oftentimes controversial outspoken outlandish behavior on the Republican right is as bad as the liberal Anti-American left-wing garbage spewed out by congressional members of the socialist democratic party known as “The Squad” that include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, IIhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib I have no choice but to give Greene some credit.

She’s got a point!

©3/31/23

My Personal Worst Films: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon «½
PG-13, 157m. 2011

Cast & Credits: Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky), Josh Duhamel (Lennox), John Turturro (Simmons), Tyrese Gibson (Epps), Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (Carly Spencer), Patrick Dempsey (Dylan), Francis McDormand (Mearing), Kevin Dunn (Ron Witwicky), John Malkovich (Bruce Brazos), Julie White (Judy Witwicky), Alan Tudyk (Dutch), Ken Jeong (Jerry Wang), Buzz Aldrin (Buzz Aldrin), Bill O;Reilly (Bill O’Reilly). Screenplay by Ehren Kruger. Directed by Michael Bay.

 

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" opens with Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) narrating how during the final days of the planet Cybertron in the war between the Autobots (the good toys) and the Decepticons (the bad toys) a lone ship called “The Ark” launches carrying the dying world’s only hope for salvation.

What happens next is a unique series of events that would make conspiracy theorists and alien and UFO buffs drool if the story were profiled in the monthly issue of Fortean Times. Sometime in the early 1960s, “The Ark” crash lands on the Moon which brings the attention of NASA officials who immediately alert President Kennedy. As a result JFK decides to send a manned mission to the Moon. Not because of America’s race to get there first in competition with Russia, mind you. That’s all just a cover. The real story is for the astronauts to investigate the UFO crash.

If any conspiracy theorists ever wanted to know what was going on during those 21 minutes when communications between the Apollo astronauts and NASA went dark as broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite reported, Transformers: Dark of the Moon answers the question as a piece of the alien technology from the ship is brought back to Earth.

Watching those first ten maybe twenty minutes of the film made me actually hold out some hope, all be it very briefly, that this third installment in the toy franchise would actually be worth my time. Indeed, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is actually better than "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (2009). Unlike the second film which I happily awarded NO STARS to two years ago, “Dark of the Moon” is one and a half stars better, regardless of the fact that bestowing a low star rating means “below average” according to my movie rating system.

The film boasts a few humorous moments that I can count on one hand. I laughed, for example, seeing a picture of hero Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) shaking hands with President Obama, which looks a little embarrassing. I would think helping save the world in the previous two movies would land Witwicky a good paying government job by now. The college graduate, however, still can’t find a job but at least he has a new girlfriend (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) who supports him working as a promotional assistant for a rich auto racing CEO (Patrick Dempsey).

At one point during a job interview, when Witwicky tells an employer he shook hands with President Obama, the interviewer tells him their company is Republican. The best job Witwicky can land is as a mailroom clerk for an anal retentive boss (John Malkovich) who fires people on the spot when he sees the wrong colored coffee mug sitting on a person’s desk.

A couple other memorable moments include Sentinel Prime (voiced by Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy) uttering the famous phrase from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982) “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” The line is an obvious nod to Nimoy’s Mr. Spock character but I enjoyed the reference regardless. Bill O’Reilly of Fox’s "The O’Reilly Factor" has a cameo who puts former government agent Simmons (John Turturro) in the hot seat questioning his knowledge about the Decepticons and the Autobots. Former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin (yes THE Buzz Aldrin) also has a cameo appearance. I had to go to imdb.com to look at the film’s cast and credits for verification.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, on the other hand, immediately made me forget that Megan Fox was ever in the first two movies (Fox was fired or declined to star in the third film depending on which tabloid story one chooses to believe). Whiteley’s most dramatic moment comes during the climax when she tells Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving), that Sentinel Prime is going to eventually make the Decepticon leader his “bitch” once Earth is taken over and the Autobots are defeated.

Those moments along with the opening scenes add up to close to an enjoyable half hour when combined. The remaining two hours (157 minutes in all) is dedicated to lots of explosions and mass destruction as the Decepticons wreak havoc on Washington D.C. and Chicago and battle Optimus Prime and his do-gooder entourage that includes the yellow Chevrolet transforming Bumblebee.

In between all the mayhem are Witwicky’s attempts to warn government Agent “Don’t me ma’am” Mearing (Frances McDormand) of the Decepticon’s plans to use Sentinel Prime colonize Earth. Therein lies the entire plot all summarized in just one sentence.

I am going to be honest here. I am no fan of this toy movie franchise although I did like "Transformers" (2007) enough to award it the “close but no cigar” rating of two and a half stars. Yet since it’s been fifteen years since I last saw it I don’t remember why I even gave the film a marginal recommendation. I never played with Transformers as a kid, nor have I ever held such a toy in my hand. I don’t own any Star Wars Transformers toys nor do I plan to buy any. I never read the Marvel comic book nor have I seen the 1986 movie that features Orson Welles who voices one of the metallic characters. I have not seen, nor will I ever watch the current animated TV series that is on right now.

Other than Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and now as a result of this third installment, Sentinel Prime, I have no idea who the rest of these robots are that inhabit this film. Early on when Optimus Prime reveals the identity of some moving mechanical Decepticon worm, I immediately forgot the thing’s name and started asking myself if it was called “Sideshow,” “Swordfish,” or “Sideswipe.” I am sure Transformers fans will set me straight as to that particular Decepticon’s real name but I am warning you already, I don’t care. Trying to shed any real emotion as Bumblebee is about to get his mechanical transforming yellow head blown off by a Decepticon is like attempting to feel sorry for a large cockroach I see walking in the kitchen as I stomp on the germ carrying little bastard with my shoe. I have no worries about the messy remains I’ll see soon after. I shed more tears watching Owen Wilson’s character go through the pain of putting his faithful Labrador retriever to sleep in Marley & Me (2008).

Director Michael Bay has made a few movies I actually liked that include "Bad Boys" (1995), "The Rock" (1996), "Armageddon" (1998), and to a certain extent, "Pearl Harbor" (2001). Although Bay was intent on wowing audiences with the same kinds of explosive mayhem he has been providing moviegoers with this franchise since 2007, the one reason I enjoyed those movies was not so much the action and visual effects as it was the stories and the characters. The Transformers movies have very little story and no characters worth rooting for much less caring about. All those come second, if the filmmakers and screenwriters even bothered giving them any consideration to begin with.

Bay is not in the business of making the critics happy and I don’t expect him to be. Is it, however, too much to ask that he provide me with more than the consolation of watching such expensive junk movie making on one of the theater’s largest screens all alone where I don’t have to put up with the holiday crowds of annoying people sitting next to me and I got the first eight rows of seats all to myself despite the saying “Misery loves company?”

I know full well the Transformers movies are critic proof. I am not even sure these movies are for adults, or the parents who take their kids for that matter. These movies are for the kids who love the toys. As expected when the film ended I heard cheers from the audience. Don’t even think they were coming from the adults.

When it comes to this trilogy (though I’d be real stupid in thinking, if not hoping "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is the last installment given the film’s box office gross of $116 million July 4th weekend) I am reminded of a quote I read from Paul Newman in The Hollywood Reporter’s Book of Box Office Hits in which the Oscar winning actor says on the subject of his role in the disaster movie, "The Towering Inferno" (1974), “Hell, we all know who the real star of this movie is-that damned fire.”

I wonder if decades from now if Shia LaBeouf reaches the admirable star quality status Newman had if he will say something similar about his role in the Transformers movies in which he says the real stars were those giant lumbering talking behemoths created by Hasbro.

©3/22/23

"Taking the country by swarm!"

The picture I saw on the internet as the country went into lockdown during the first couple weeks in March 2020 was the stuff nightmares were made of.

The image of the deadly pest up close was of a “Murder Hornet”, a deadly insect that goes by the more proper name the Asian giant hornet according to Wikipedia. The black and yellow head with its pointy antennas stared straight at me like it couldn’t wait to jump out of my laptop screen to spit its venom in my face while finding a place to stick its ¼ inch long stinger in me which some have said is the equivalent of a hot rod soaring through your insides.

Up until March 2020 the United States had nothing to worry about this “asshole with wings” or “Motherfucker out of Hell” as they could be referred to according to an online meme I saw since the species have only been indigenous to Asia. I first heard about them five years ago, might have been longer, when the deadly insects were reportedly out and about during springtime attacking and killing the Asian population.

As if COVID-19 wasn’t enough for America to deal with at the time, now we had to deal with what might as well been a part of those ten plagues Moses warned Pharoah about that would come if the king didn’t let God’s people go as written in the Bible’s Book of Exodus.

With the “Murder Hornets” arrival in Washington state at the time, the question I asked myself was how long would it be before they arrive in all fifty states? 

For years it seems the Africanized bee, also known as the “killer” bees who have resided in the southern states like Texas were the ones with a foothold. I haven’t heard much about “killer” bee attacks, however, the past several years. Every now and then these other assholes with wings make the local news where someone stumbled upon a nest and wound up in the hospital with over a fifty plus stingers in addition to the first responders who battled the "killer bees" during emergency calls.

The fact is though, most of those people got stung multiple times and lived to tell about it. Between the Asian giant hornets and the Africanized bees the question begets should I stumble upon one of their nests one fateful day which of the pests I encounter would I have a fighting chance? I’d rather risk my life on the killer bees than an almost giant two-inch hornet! At least maybe I’ll live to write about the encounter – perhaps even blog about it! It almost makes me appreciate the African killer bees!

I have to give these two “assholes with wings” a little credit though. Both species hate people! They want nothing to do with us humans and animals and will do everything possible to avoid contact. Hey, people are like that too! Both pests make their nests inside dead tree trunks, abandoned homes and farming areas in hopes some two-legged human or four-legged animal will not stumble upon their buzzing secluded home and piss them off to where they have to go into attack mode.

Their reaction to humans and animals should be enough to tell us “STAY AWAY!” They don’t need a sign to spell it out for us. If they did and were that smart they’d perform the same kinds of skywriting stunts mini-aircrafts often do above the skies for us all to read from the ground.

On one side of the coin, if the “Murder Hornets” did make their way across the states, these deadly insects will be just another one of nature’s by-products and God’s creatures that we would have to live with the way we live with black widow spiders, snakes, roaches, fire-ants, rats and bed bugs. How many times has some rich Floridian resident with a swimming pool woken up in hopes of getting a morning swim before work only to find an alligator resting at the bottom of their pool?

Art does, however, have a funny, ok maybe, not some humorous way of imitating life. The one movie that came to my mind upon hearing about the “Murder Hornets” was an Irwin Allen all-star disaster film headed by Michael Caine called “The Swarm” (1978) about the invasion of the African killer bees. To my surprise when I looked up the book on which the film was based by Arthur Herzog on Amazon I found it to still be available for purchase.

Audiences avoided “The Swarm” in droves upon the film's release in 1978. Viewers still craved catastrophic films showing typed casted characters in peril. It was the laughably bad dialogue and cheap special effects audiences tired of. "The Swarm" almost succeeded in ending the 1970's disaster genre until the arrival of “Twister” and “Independence Day” in 1996 and “Titanic” (1997) that brought audiences back to the box office.

I have said time and again if “Hollyweird” wants to continue remaking movies that don’t NEED to be remade, they should put their million-dollar budgets redoing the bad ones. I wrote back in March 2020 during the COVID lockdown how among the things I would do if I got “the VID” (I have caught it TWICE now in two years) I’d work on is my screenwriting.

I’d order a couple copies of Herzog’s book – one for me to read and the other to adapt into my own screenplay except the star this time would be the "Murder Hornets." Now there’s a disaster horror remake audiences probably wouldn’t mind seeing get made. If nothing else the menacing subject would certainly be timely.

Too bad the “Murder Hornets” only know how to attack and kill people. Knowing someone like me would be going out of their way to write a new screenplay with them as the star perhaps the species might be a little nicer to us and appreciate my efforts.

To quote Seth Brundle, however, the ill-fated scientist Jeff Goldblum played in “The Fly” (1986) who saw himself as an insect who “dreamt he was a man and loved it” but told his journalist girlfriend (Geena Davis) that the dream was over and “the fly” was awake, “Murder Hornets” are no better than any other insect.

“Insects don’t have politics,” Brundle said. “They’re very brutal. No compassion. No compromise. We can’t trust the insect.”

What a shame these Asian giant hornets have no feelings. In the two years since their arrival in Washington state in 2020 the Entomological Society of America and the Entomological Society of Canada no longer call the insects “Murder Hornets.” They refer to them as the “Northern giant hornet.”

“I don’t want my Asian American or Pacific Islander colleagues, friends and family to have any negative connotations with invasive or pest species that might be used against them in a negative way,” ESA President Jessica Ware told CNN. “Common names are an important tool for entomologists to communicate with the public about insects and insect science. Northern giant hornet is both scientifically accurate and easy to understand, and it avoids evoking fear or discrimination.”



I can’t speak for the Murder…excuse me, “Northern giant hornet” but I suspect they’d be pissed knowing the frightening name they’ve worked so hard to keep for decades that had the Asian population cowering in fear every spring is now a part of American “cancel culture” here in the states.

Perhaps it’s a good thing the Northern giant hornets have no compassion let alone think there is such a thing as compromise.

I can’t speak for the “Murder Hornets.” If I were one though I’d be furious knowing my much feared “hornet” name is now being used by the Dodge Motor Company to promote their latest SUV in 2023 called the Dodge Hornet for consumers to buy and I’m not getting any of the shared profits out of this deal!

©3/22/23

My Personal Best: The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist ««««
R, 122m. 1973

Cast & Credits: Ellen Burstyn (Chris MacNeil), Max Von Sydow (Father Merrin), Lee J. Cobb (Lt. Kinderman), Kitty Winn (Sharon), Jack MacGowran (Burke Dennings), Jason Miller (Father Karras), Linda Blair (Regan). Screenplay by William Peter Blatty. Directed by William Friedkin.

1974 Academy Award
Nominations

Best Picture

Best Director
William Friedkin

Best Actress in a Leading 
Role - Ellen Burstyn

Best Actor in a Supporting
Role - Jason Miller

Best Actress in a a Supporting
Role - Linda Blair

Best Art-Set Decoration

Best Cinematography

Best Film Editing

Best Sound - Winner

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on
Material from Another Medium
William Peter Blatty - Winner

I don’t recall exactly why I didn’t like "The Exorcist" the first time I saw it more than ten years ago on cable other than I found the film incredibly depressing.

Where is the joy in watching a devil-possessed twelve-year-old girl, whose head not only does a 90 degree turn and looks like a scarred rotting blueberry, spew out green vomit and obscenities so shocking, but no editor in their right mind would also let me print them here unless it is to generate letters from upset readers and stir up controversy?

According to author Susan Sackett’s The Hollywood Reporter Book of Box Office Hits, some audience members who saw "The Exorcist" two days after the film opened the day after Christmas on Dec. 26, 1973, experienced symptoms of sympathetic vomiting, fainting, miscarriages, and heart attacks.

If nothing else, "The Exorcist" can be called anything but entertaining. The movie’s scares and suspense earn it a place alongside such disturbingly frightening pictures as Psycho (1960), "Jaws" (1976), "Silence of the Lambs" (1991) and "Seven" (1995). This is the kind of film one might want to experience seeing only once, if at all.

Seeing "The Exorcist" again, I finally realized why I wasn’t impressed with the film the first time around. The reason has to do with the characters we meet. They are all ordinary people like you and me who are trying to make a living.

They are the kinds of individuals one might be able to relate to from Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), an elderly priest conducting archeological digs in Northern Iraq to Father Karras (Jason Miller), a burned-out Jesuit priest and psychologist who questions his faith and can no longer say the required words during mass without sounding like a robot.

Perhaps people can relate to the concern actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) has for her young daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), who has been hearing voices lately from someone named “Captain Howdy” and having a hard time sleeping at night.

As the first hour drew to a close, the movie suddenly got my attention. I remember all the obscenities Blair’s demonic character said back when I saw the film the first time but for some reason, seeing the picture the second time around, I was actually offended, especially by one scene in particular with what she does with a crucifix.

I couldn’t believe the colorful language coming from this sweet young girl as doctors try giving her shots to control her outbursts, which only get more bizarre as the film progresses.

I was convinced the girl tied to the bedposts in her cold, dark bedroom on the second floor of that expensive Georgetown, Maryland home was not Regan but a perverted demon (which it was) with a voice similar to Marlon Brando’s (the demonic voice was reportedly dubbed by actress Mercedes McCambridge according to Sackett’s book).

That’s what makes "The Exorcist" shocking, if not appalling. Concerned parents after viewing it would probably say the film is garbage or call it downright sacrilegious.

This is not just an unsettling horror movie with lots of sound, makeup, and visual effects (animal type noises, furniture moving on its own, and the earth shaking) and a number of startling, unforgettably haunting images (the macabre looking statue in Iraq overshadowing the sun, for example), but a psychological murder mystery. It’s also a film about having faith in God and the notion that although evil does exist in the world, good always triumphs. It’s about despair, but it’s also about hope.

The film made me forget about how Hollywood attempted to cash in the picture’s success with two dismal follow-ups ("Exorcist II: The Heretic" (1977) with Richard Burton and "The Exorcist III" (1991) with George C. Scott), both of which failed to make the combined box office total of the 1973 original ($89 million).

By the time movie was over, I felt I had been through the same exhausting, emotional roller coaster ride Chris MacNeil was on as she met with doctors and psychologists who, instead of offering definitive solutions to resolve Regan’s madness, suggested more drugs and examinations.

I hated seeing Regan go through all those painful medical procedures, which to a twelve-year-old girl (Linda Blair was 14 at the time the film was shot) would likely be frightening.

Watching her being possessed by something not of this world, I wasn’t so much happy when the demon was finally purged from her body as I was relieved to know both the movie and her horrifying ordeal was finally over.

©3/15/23

My Personal Worst Films: Fantastic Four (2015)

Fantastic Four «½
PG-13, 100m. 2015

Cast & Credits: Miles Teller (Reed Richards), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm), Kate Mara (Sue Storm), Jamie Bell (Ben Grimm/The Thing), Toby Kebbell (Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom), Reg E. Cathey (Dr. Franklin Storm), Tim Blake Nelson (Dr. Allen). Screenplay by Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg and John Trank. Directed by Josh Trank.

I heard a lot of bad press about "Fantastic Four" during its opening weekend in August 2015 from friends on Facebook who, at first, proudly posted how they were at a screening of the film only to write a few hours later that it’s pretty bad. As I listened to an oldies rock station in the car I heard the disc jockey on the radio say if one is considering seeing a movie that weekend it was recommended people avoid 'Fantastic Four.'

The day after the film’s opening on Aug. 7 director Josh Trank posted on Twitter saying, “A year ago I had a fantastic vision of this. And it would’ve received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.” That comment was followed by a story in The Hollywood Reporter that detailed the film’s production problems as both Trank and the studio executives at 20th Century Fox pointed fingers as to who was to blame for the $120 million box office failure.

My reason for ignoring all the negative press surrounding "Fantastic Four" stems from what real estate salesman Ricky Roma, played by Al Pacino, said in "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992).

“I subscribe to the law of contrary public opinion: If everyone thinks one thing, then I say, bet the other way.”

I don’t listen to the critics and I am one. When I write reviews I write them for me offering up my personal opinion of the film. I don’t write them for anyone else in hopes they agree with me. We are all old enough to form our own opinions. The first thought that came to my mind upon deciding to see Fantastic Four was the possibility the film will not be as bad as everyone says it is. On one hand, it could be bad but it could also be a “fun” bad movie; the kind that goes into the category of “Bad Movies You Love To Hate.”

I can name a few “fun” bad movies I have never tired watching over the years like David Lynch’s sci-fi misfire, "Dune" (1984), where the sandworms look like deformed penises with sharp teeth and gaping mouths. If you can get past the sick idea of an evil Irish toymaker wanting to kill off the country’s little kiddies with cursed masks in "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1982) you may find the film is full of laughs like I did.

Not EVERYONE listened to the negative commentary surrounding "Fantastic Four" because if they did I would have been the ONLY one in the theater when I saw it late afternoon on Sept. 9. Five others showed up for the same screening. When I texted a friend of mine, Bryan Witkowski, in Chicago, saying I am not the only one in the theater he texted me back saying, “They are all bored. Like you they don’t want to go home.”

The first 45 minutes of "Fantastic Four" actually had my attention to the point I not only began saying to myself that the critics as usual were wrong but also started wondering if audiences and the so-called reviewers saw the same movie I was watching. Whereas directors Christopher Nolan and Zach Snyder want to take the fun out of their adaptations of the Batman (The Dark Knight trilogy - 2005-2012) and Superman movies ("Man of Steel" – 2013) incorporating real life events into the stories and Disney’s Marvel seems intent on boring me with slow motion battle sequences where superheroes from The Avengers films battle alien robots from another world, Fantastic Four incorporates none of this.

Director Josh Trank, who doubles as the film’s co-screenwriter along with Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg, opted to explore the more serious side in which scientists Reed Richards (Miles Teller), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) struggle with their new found powers after teleporting to another world tragically alters their physical appearances.

Much like the superhero mutants from the X-Men movies who have been given powers society will not accept, Reed is blessed with being the ultimate contortionist as he expands his body in ways to avoid being shot by soldiers. Johnny becomes the flying Human Torch who can knock out drones. Sue can become invisible at random while Ben Grimm is turned into The Thing, a giant gentle talking rock formation the armed forces uses for battle.

It’s when the characters teleport to that other world known as Planet Zero that not only do things fall apart for the heroes but the film as well. The moment Reed, Johnny, Ben and Sue do battle with Victor Doom on that planet I couldn’t help but be reminded of the visual effects from the Star Trek movies back in the late 80s. Everywhere the characters step on that planet the ground oozes some green liquid that reminded me how the Genesis planet in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" (1984) spewed out fire and lava as the man-made world broke apart.

When the Fantastic Four” meet Dr. Doom, the metallic villain resides within some altar surrounded by tall rock formations that resemble England’s Stonehenge. In the center of the altar, a blinding blue light emanates into the dark sky. It reminded me how Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy were greeted by “God” on that planet in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989).

Then there is Toby Kebbell’s Dr. Doom himself who may be the most misunderstood or most underused villain who has no style or substance unless you consider his metallic armor and hooded cape style. As for substance it’s one thing when the screenwriters create a villain who wants to destroy the world. There has to be more as to what can be gained as a result. The reason Gene Hackman’s and Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor in the Superman movies wanted to destroy California and other countries was to sell real estate. When I hear about NASA discovering new planets that may be hospitable I would love to have my own planet to rule over. What good, however, is ruling over a world if you have nothing but mountainous rocky landscapes that oozes out green liquid wherever you step as in Dr. Doom’s case?

"Fantastic Four" is the equivalent of a rough first draft where a group of screenwriters got together and brainstormed some good ideas as to what they wanted to see done on film but it’s never fully developed into a final product. It reminds me of that opening scene when young Reed Richards in grade school tells the class how he will one day create a machine that can send people to another dimension and the teacher tells Reed the purpose of the assignment was to talk about something that can actually be done and tells him to redo it.

©3/8/23

My Personal Best Films: The Passion of the Christ (2004)

The Passion of the Christ ««««
R, 126m. 2004

Cast & Credits: James Caviezel (Jesus), Maia Morgenstern (Mary), Christo Jivkov (John), Francesco De Vito (Peter), Monica Bellucci (Mary Magdeline), Mattia Sbragia (Caiphas), Toni Bertorelli (Annas), Luca Lionello (Judas), Hristo Shopov (Pontius Pilate). Screenplay by Benedict Fitzgerald and Mel Gibson. Directed by Mel Gibson.

2005 Academy Award
Nominations

Best Achievement 
in Cinematography

Best Achievement 
in Makeup

Best Achievement in
Music Written for
Motion Pictures - 
John Debney

The key to embracing Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" will have to depend on whether or not you will be able to see past the much talked about graphic scenes of torture and bloodletting, problems with the storyline and undeveloped lead character. You will have to rely on, as I did, your own personal beliefs about forgiveness and sacrifice, Heaven and Hell, the battle between good and evil, and whether or not when we do leave this world if death is really the end. That’s the only reason I award "The Passion of the Christ" the highest rating, four stars, versus a lower rating it really deserves.

If I were to agree with more than half the critics who responded negatively to the film commenting how excruciating it was to sit through (The New Yorker’s David Denby in their March 1, 2004 issue called it “a sickening death trip”), then judging by what they’ve written or said, I should award it two and a half stars because on certain levels, I do see their point.

"The Passion of the Christ", while being the most graphic, is by far not the best film adaptation about Jesus to date. When the film opens with Christ (James Caviezel) alone in the Garden of Gethsemane asking for God’s help shortly before he is betrayed by Judas, it’s like walking into the third act of a play without having seen the first two parts. It’s an R rated version of the Stations of the Cross that lasts 126 minutes.

I found it hard to feel sorry for Caviezel’s Jesus, whose life story is told briefly in flashbacks while on that treacherous final journey to his fate, as opposed to some of the big screen biblical epics of decade’s past. In movies like "King of Kings" (1961), "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), and Franco Zeffirelli’s television mini-series event, "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977), Christ’s death and resurrection was not the main part of the story.

Because Gibson’s version is based on the last twelve hours of Jesus’ life, we are forced to rely on what we’ve read about him in the scriptures or have been taught in either Sunday school or religion classes.

It’s easy to see how such torture scenes in "The Passion of the Christ" would probably make one wince, or be so sickened by the sheer brutality that he or she walks out of the theater during the film (one woman suffered a heart attack and died while viewing it opening week). Such scenes are effectively heightened by showing the horror in slow motion as when the long steel nails are hammered into Christ’s hands; drops of blood spattering out among the dirt and rocks. All Gibson has done is show us exactly how it happened, or as Pope John Paul II was quoted saying recently and whom Vatican officials later recanted, “It is as it was.”

Those scenes, to be honest, never got to me. I have seen so much violence and death in movies and on the evening news for the past thirty years that it’s gotten to the point I am now numbed by it.

The problem with such sequences in "The Passion of the Christ" is although one might feel pity for seeing Christ go through such painfully agonizing moments, the screenplay written by Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald doesn’t give us a chance to fully get to know the man. It’s like seeing a condemned person being put in the electric chair where the execution takes an unexpectedly gruesome turn and the wretched soul becomes a sitting pile of flames. I won’t deny seeing someone horrifically executed like that would be enough to make one be against the death penalty. But how do you shed a tear for someone you don’t even know?

Ironically the characters with the most depth happen to be the most flawed like Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov) who, despite being known as the Roman leader most responsible for putting thousands of Jews to death, comes off as someone who tries his best to keep Christ from being executed. Even Judas, who is hounded by black furred, glow-eyed monsters and demonic children to the point he hangs himself above a rotting, fly infested animal, is briefly portrayed as a betrayer with a conscience. While the most hated are the high priests, in particular Caiphas (Matio Sbragia), who can’t come up with any justifiable reason for condemning Christ other than seeing him as a threat to their teachings and way of life.

It wasn’t until near the end that I realized the point Gibson was trying to get across. His hope was that audiences who see the film would react emotionally to it based on their personal beliefs and being able to relate to various scenes of religious symbolism. Where some critics might call it ghastly, seeing a black crow pecking out the eyes of an unrepentant criminal dying on the cross, I see it as a warning to those who reject Christ.

The most hauntingly powerful sequences are of Jesus being taunted by Satan (Rosalinda Celentano), who is seen as both an enticing combination of male and female. The best scene symbolizing Jesus’ resistance to evil is when he looks at Satan, posing as a snake, with disdain stepping on it with a pounding thump. That early scene alone just five minutes into the film drew some gasps among the audience. Are such scenes memorable because evil is, in many ways, more seductive?

The film didn’t get to me emotionally until near the end. I don’t know if it’s because at the time I saw it I recently lost a loved one, but I compared Jesus’ ordeal on the big screen to that of watching a relative, whose body has been ravaged with cancer, go through severe pain in their final hours.

You are so numbed by the horror you are seeing wishing the person lying on the death bed wasn’t racked with such pain that the grief of it all doesn’t hit until the final moments.

The flashback scenes, for example, of Jesus telling his apostles at the last supper to love one another as they have loved him could not be just a look back on Christ’s life. It could also be a dying relative’s last wish to their loved ones, as well as a message, that if he or she lives their life the way God wants, then death isn’t necessarily the end. That’s the point behind "The Passion of the Christ."

It just depends on how you look at it. If the film gets to you emotionally in some way as was seen by the 2004's media’s coverage of audience members walking out with red eyes and Kleenex in their eyes, then "The Passion of the Christ" did its job.

It took time but the movie eventually got to me. It’s that powerful.

©3/1/23