In other news, I saw Detective Pikachu with the family a few days ago, and I think we all left impressed. Some strong acting and genuinely funny moments. Pikachu singing the Pokémon cartoon theme song was a highlight for me. But does Ryan Reynolds have to be in literally every movie now? That being said, he did a wonderful job. A really enjoyable and charming movie. Go see it. With your kids, of course.
I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a couple of days, and maybe if I post it I can get rid of it. It’s from The Jerk, and features Bernadette Peters, my first screen crush when I was just a little kid. That bit at the end where she pulls out the coronet still cracks me up. Still, it’s a touching scene, don’t you think? A little reminder that life can be sweet sometimes.
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie comes out this year.
Are you hyped, nostalgia boys?!
Because if you look at this poster and get hyped, I’m calling the cops. Seriously, who designed this freakish movie poster and why is he/she not in jail/hell?
Being sick on a trip is the worst. I’ve mostly been sleeping every spare moment I get. Managed to catch a pretty decent cheese ball of a movie, though. It was old school campy fun in the best way. Nicely captured the feel of old 80s schlock-horror movies like The Gate and Return of the Living Dead.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of two very special, very “eighties” movies that I happen to love. The (legitimate) Transformers The Movie, and Space Camp, which I watched for the first time only a year or so ago with the kids.
I honestly can’t remember when I first saw the Transformers movie, but it wasn’t in the theaters. I was the only one of my group of friends that caught it months, if not years later, after it came out on VHS. I had to glean the basic storyline from their broken recollections and from whatever the writers chose to reveal during season three. It seemed like the whole cartoon universe had flipped upside down. The show went overnight from a basic cowboys and indians-style conflict on earth to some dystopian robo-cyberpunk nightmare.
And as an added bonus, all your toys were dead now.
Everybody agreed the movie was momentous and mind-blowing (for my favorite Transformer, literally), but even back then I was cynical enough to sense the sinister hand of Mattel in all this. What better way to clear the decks for a brand new lineup of toys?
The actual Space Camp was kind of a legend back when I was a kid; an almost unimaginable privilege that would have been the closest any of us could ever get to setting foot on the moon. What young boy hasn’t dreamt of being an astronaut at some point in his life? I remember they used to give away seats at Space Camp on those old kids’ game shows. I think I actually spoke with my Mom about it once - about signing up - shortly after they featured it on Good Morning America. But that was more fantasy than reality to a family of limited means. Besides, if they actually put you through physical paces (what did they do at Space Camp, anyway?) I’m not sure I had “the right stuff” to handle a kid astronaut’s exercise and torture regimen.
The movie, however, is great and holds up well decades later. Despite an unbelievable and soon-forgotten plot device involving an intelligent robot, the movie delivers on all the suspense, excitement, and wonder that you could ask for. My kids loved it and it served as a great reminder of the shuttle program and the importance it once had in the national consciousness.