Entertainment Binge

By Isaac White.

I’ve been experiencing a problem with too many contrasting thoughts running through my head lately. With movies and tv anyway. In the last couple of weeks there has been much more consumption of entertainment content on my part than normal. Not that that’s a bad thing. I can’t get in trouble watching a movie right?

Well, you’ve never had the experience of watching a movie with me. You never know what can happen. A bank robbery, a father and son connecting on a level they’ve never known before, a talking dragon who takes us on an adventure of unbelievable wonder. Wait, those are things I was watching recently. And I thought my life was much more interesting just now. Oh well.

One thing before I jump into the movies and tv I watched. I was looking around for things to watch. There were some action movies on, and no, I can’t even remember what they were. I do know that they were likely ones I enjoyed because I put them on to look at for a minute or two. As the special effects absolutely destroyed my ears, I kept thinking about how that really annoys the crap out of me.

Why do movies and shows have the audio set up in a way that the action sequences, the bullets, explosions, tires squealing, etc. are loud as an AC/DC concert. Not that I’ve seen them in concert, even though that would be really cool. I just imagine it’s quite the raucously loud affair at their shows.

But this has bothered me since I went to see the Fellowship Of The Ring in the theater. You know when the Nazgul, or as the Hobbits call them, the Black Riders appear on screen? That you must remember. And if you haven’t watched the LOTR movies I can’t help you until you watch them. You really should read the books first. Remember our discussion on books vs. their movie adaptations? The Lord of The Rings books are incredible. I’ve read the trilogy 4 times, and yes, the books are better. But the movies fall into the category of pictures that do great justice for the books they are based upon.

Enough of that. The point is that when you see the Black Riders on the screen, their shrieks are just about unbearable in terms of decibel pressure on your ears. Of course, my wife would tell you all that I don’t listen well and the volume should be very loud but that’s just kooky talk.

It’s almost intolerable and this happens even when you watch movies at home. We have a nice soundbar ($400 New Refurbished $130 Thank you Amazon) with a sub-woofer. You may read that and think that I’m asking for my ears to be blown out by explosions and other action movie scenes that are an act of war on my ear drums. But that’s not the case.

So, I turn up the volume to hear the dialogue, then out of nowhere here comes a surprise barrage of noise that firstly makes me jump, then secondly, really, really makes me angry. I don’t enjoy these surprise assaults on my ears. I’m just saying that I can’t be the only person this happens to, and I would love to hear if this is a problem that any of you have had or currently do.

I’m not a huge audiophile, so the excellent sound stuff doesn’t really matter to me. I just want to be able to turn up the volume for dialogue without having to wear earplugs for action sequences. Let me know what you think.

Now that I’ve went on for a bit in a manner that some would say is old-man like, I want to jump into one of the movies I watched recently. About My Father is directed by Laura Terrusso and stars standup comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. His costar is none other than one of my absolute favorite actors, Robert DeNiro. Or Bobby D as those of us who count him as a friend would say. Yeah right. I don’t know DeNiro but how cool would that be?

The movie has a fairly basic premise. Maniscalco plays a version of himself in the film. DeNiro plays a version of Maniscalco’s real life father. The son is going to propose to his Waspy girlfriend at their family fancy pants vacation home.

So yes, this has the old trope of lower class schlub marrying the upper crust woman who is cool and not at all spoiled rotten. Even though her parents buy all of her crappy artwork so she can live, I digress.

Sebastien and his father have obvious issues they need to resolve but their relationship isn’t exactly on the rocks or anything like that. As the movie progresses though, the cracks that are evident in their relationship become wider, until there is a fissure which has to be repaired.

Now, I’m not gonna lie. This movie is not good. If you’ve seen The Irishman, and you should have because I encouraged you all to do so because it’s one of my favorite films of all time, you would see Maniscalco in the movie as “Crazy” Joe Gallo. I thought he did a really good job in that movie. He can’t match up with DeNiro, Pesci, Pacino, or Harvey Keitel, but come on, who can?

He certainly held his own though. This film…not so much. He’s stiff, awkward, obviously forcing the acting. This isn’t like I’m enjoying telling you this either. I like Maniscalco’s standup, the stuff I’ve watched anyway, and I looked forward to seeing if he can carry a movie on his back. He can’t. If it wasn’t for Mr. DeNiro, this movie likely WOULD have fallen into disaster town. That much I can say with confidence.

Although I did like the acting jobs of the rich parents of Mansiscalco’s girlfriend (played by Leslie Bibb who was pretty good in this) Ellie. They were pretty dang funny in this movie. The father, played by David Rasche is truly fun to watch, right alongside the mother Tigger, played by Kim Cattrall. If you watch this movie, I think you’ll find the tennis sequence pretty good. I did anyway and there are some charming and funny moments in the movie.

There is one aspect of this movie that really touched me though. When I spoke about the volume of movies and tv earlier, I joked about it being something akin to stereotypical curmudgeon stuff. About My Father got me to connect in a major way with DeNiro’s character. Yes he’s like an 80 year-old man but he’s a father. I’m a father. I’m half his age but I’m a father.

And while this movie isn’t a masterpiece, it did surprise me that they captured how tough it is as a father to see your son grow and realize you need to make sure you don’t hold him back from pursuing his dreams. I think it’s the same for father’s and daughters in general but I don’t have a daughter. The movie was father/son and that is what I know.

That depth really redeemed the film. Enough that I would say give it a go. Don’t expect high art. Don’t expect Tommy Boy laughs. It has some serious heart though. That may get you through the rest.

On to the next one as Jay-Z would say. Have I said that before? I feel like I have.

I have loved Rocky Balboa and his movies since I watched the first one. I can’t even remember how old I was when I got to see Rocky the first time. But I loved it. And by the way, before you ask, my favorite Rocky movie is III. Clubber Lang is cool, I don’t care what anyone else says. But he did essentially kill Mickey and for that I will never forgive.

Moving on from my grudges against Mister T’s character, I will talk about Creed. The series as a whole, because I watched the third installment about a week ago. I really like these three movies, I truly do. I don’t look at them the way I would as reboot or remake because they’re really not that. Yes, it’s technically a spinoff but they crafted the films in a way that incorporates the original films, but with Adonis Creed the situation he goes through feels completely unique.

I thought the third installment was the worst of the bunch, but it’s still pretty good. As we’ve followed Adonis from his low level basically street boxing start in Mexico, to the heights of championships won, the path has been fun to follow.

The way the filmmakers integrated the old material into the Creed films was incredible. I have no memorable complaints about the way they did that. Although, it is really terrible that Stallone is not in the third Creed film. That is just unacceptable to me. I didn’t even go looking for the reasons why he wasn’t in the picture.

I just went and looked and now I’m doubly angry. It’s because one of the producers (reportedly) is not liked by Stallone, that the creator of Rocky didn’t like the creative direction of the third. Well, I already said that the third movie is the worst in the series, and to be honest it’s not even close, so I think Stallone was probably correct in his assessments. After all, the man DID create this entire world from where everything sprung.

So I’m not a huge fan of the third one. It’s still pretty good, but the first two are stellar in my eyes. Kind of like Rocky was great until Tommy Gunn. Oh man I can’t stand that movie. Rocky didn’t know when to quit in the ring, I guess he couldn’t see it for Rocky V.

Anyway, I want to give Creed it’s due. Great movies overall, excellent acting throughout, they look amazing, and they’re touching. The characters connect with the audience. Well worth your time. I’m out of time for this edition.

Thanks for reading and until next week…..