KEEP 'EM GAZING AT THOSE SCREENS!

As a As a youthful fan of quirkier "movie stars" such as Gerald Mohr or Ralph Meeker, I sought out more "psychological" movie fare........Audiences were amazed, if unaware of the deeper implications of these "experimental" films.......So....jump forward a half century or so.........Practically EVERY film....and certainly every big-budget advertisement.......is screwing into our subconsious....the opening sequence in Bergman's PERSONA is a good example of Psychorama.......A TV ad for...well...just about anything....is a good example of the machinations of Big Business.......Same device.....different motive.............during a 2 hour documentary about 'serial killers'....i clocked 47 minutes of advertising.....mainly for 'mind-altering' anti-depressants and 'mood-stabilizing' drugs that viewers should 'ask their doctors about'......[Don't think 'weird' thoughts......take the fu(&^^g pills, America! ] I'm in the mood to re-watch SHOCK CORRIDOR....especially after yesterday's viewing of THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT...... Did you 'catch' the 'repeat'? Say it twice...or even more....to ensure the 'stick' into the corridors of memory and that part of our brains that 'wants the candy....and, not 'tomorrow', but 'right now'! Where's that 'Odorama' plug-in? America will watch the cop, kneeing that man......over and over and over.....then, move on to the next thrilling stimulant from the World of PsychoRAMA......(3-d glasses available, for an extra charge + shipping and handling 'fee'....)... O.K. Elon....press the button, already...and get our collective minds off all that broken glass, batons and tasers......get ready to take all this Mess to another planet!

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU........FEATURING MANY 'other' GREAT ACTORS.....YET, WHAT I REMEMBER IS:

"What a delicious surprise it was.... to see THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU.......and to see the ever-remarkable Emily Blunt dance some splendid choreography by Benoit-Swan Pouffer..... It's practically unbelievable that Emily Blunt had no previous dance experience and learned to dance...just for this performance! " She's on the edge of tomorrow, whether in Prada or carrying an assault rifle while singing a duet with her Ex, Michael Buble'....cooking with Stanley Tucci....or, as Queen Victoria, helping Rupert Friend with his 'stuttering'.....or as Mary Poppins, adding just a spoonful of sugar to help the more serious 'medicine' go down. What's 'next', Ms. Krasinski, your singing in an Opera, while accompanying yourself on cello, based on the Life of Kitty Oppenheimer, just to show your 'green thumbs'?

WHEN ONE'S OFFSPRING BEGIN THEIR OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE, EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE LIBERAL PARENTS....

 

  THE VIEWER ANTICIPATES THE FATHER, WIPING THE CAKE FROM HIS OWN BUTT....AND SMEARING IT ON HIS SON'S BLURTING MOUTH......    EVENTUALLY,  MICHAEL CHAPLIN, STILL IN REBELLION,  DECLARED THAT  HE 'Couldn't Smoke The Grass On My Father's Lawn'...THEN,  'SOLD OUT' TO PEPSI-COLA....ONE YEAR....AND TO 'MILK MARKETING'....THE NEXT......  (AREN'T ALL THE DOGS BARKING AT THE SAME SKY, AFTER ALL?     LIFE IS, IN RETROSPECT,  AN UDDER-FEEDING OF THE PAST TO THE PRESENT, ISN'T IT ?) 

The willing suspension of disbelief still thrives, as critical sensibilities are abandoned beneath the hopes for entertainment pellets, dispensed to lab rat audiences, gazing at screens.......

I sorta and regrettably watched ten minutes of the worse guns, bombs, knives and ninja-kickfighting, cellphone-obsessed, closed-space action film, from a dozen years ago......."NON-STOP"..from the too-young producer of KICKASS 2, Jeff Wadlow.....Even with great actors...in this drivel for the bucks Mall movie...... The cast: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong'o and Linus Roache should turn their "serious" acting shingles to the wall~! This junky movie makes even Marvel and D.C. Comics junk seem intellectually valid and plot-perfect......I should have taken a clue, since it was double-billed with a billion buck comic book adaptaflick, CAPTAIN AMERICA....something or another capeless men-in-lycra movie for the infantiles that have abandoned their teddy bears to the muzzles of their dogs and moved on to wanton cruelty.

ROOTIE KAZOOTIE

 

My grandfather got a Televiewing apparatus, housed in a bulky cabinet, in 1949....soon, there appeared such silly stuff as Captain Midnight, Winky Dink and Rootie Kazootie....... I still have the "magic decoder", the "magic screen" and my Rootie doll, a constant companion to the wooden modelling doll and Scarlett...yum, yum.......let's make a Kazootie Witch peanut butter, banana and jelly sandwich.

AND.....THERE WAS "WINKY DINK"..........



makes the junk on kiddy tv, now, look pretty sophisticated, doesn't it? {it was fun to draw on the screen, though...i had to remember to wipe the screen before my grandfather watched Edward R. Murrow's See It Now, however}