Art, books, Fantasy, Media, Movies, TV, Uncategorized

Hero Cult?

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In this world of super heroes and avengers, it seems as if everyone needs to get on the band wagon. I see in the news that an actor has been named for a re-make of “He-Man”.  I didn’t realize there had even been an original movie, although I do remember the original tv cartoon series.

Apparently the first movie was a flop (or as they say in Hollywood “a commercial failure”) which leads me to wonder why anyone feels the need to try again. But then I see that the latest Avengers movie completed Sherman-tanked its way over box office records last weekend, so who am I to say that people don’t want more super hero movies.

I guess in a anxiety-filled world, imagining that there are super beings who can control a little more of their destiny is somehow comforting?

Tell me about the worst film you’ve ever seen. (Or worst book you’ve ever read.)

39 thoughts on “Hero Cult?”

      1. OK, my curiosity got the better of me. I found Plan 9 on the television. I can’t understand how something can be so bad.

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am not going to comment on movies and books; rather I will give my opinion on He-Man Master of the Universe and She-Ra. Lordy, Lordy. When my son was a toddler those were the cartoons in vogue (1982-1985). All I can say is that Sponge-Bob looks good compared to He-Man. Then there is the sagging diaper association. I used primarily cloth diapers back in the day, (Always the environmentalist.). He would stand in front of the TV, mimicking He-Man, legs far apart, hands over his head, yelling, “I am He-Man. Master of the Universe,” saggy diaper half-way to his knees.

    This phase went on and on. He loved He-Man. Then time for toilet training came and went, and he resisted. My son would never do anything for the first time until he was sure he could do it perfectly. Yes, really. So I bought a pair of He-Man underwear as an enticement, to at least TRY using the potty. The underwear were the trick. Within three weeks he mastered the entire process, better late than never, and walked off with the undies on his bottom.

    So I ask you, how, after remembering this, could I ever take a He-Man movie seriously. The plots for a 20 minute episode were thin. The character development lacking. There is little to build on. Costuming better stock up on adult diapers, because in mind mind, they are part of the experience.

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  4. I feel like I’ve answered the worst movie one recently, and I said “Gladiator” as the one movie I walked out on, for what I felt was gratuitous violence. But I’ll have to say that Husband sometimes comes home from the library (where we get some of our DVDs to watch) with some of the most god-awful stuff. The only one I can now recall by name was the Black Dahlia”, but we get to the end and I’m sitting there slack-jawed, thinking “That was two hours out of my LIFE. Some movie producer apparently thought I should spend two hours watching this. Why?”

    For worst book, I’ll have to think a bit more…

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  5. If we go is strictly the worst, then Wasp Woman, Alligator People and Cat People are definitely on my list. Interesting at all three deal with humans turning into assorted animals.

    But then there are movies that for me we’re just on the edge of “meh” that I doubt I will ever watch again — Star Trek The Motion Picture, Gremlins, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Wild Wild West.

    Then I have a third category of movies that I will NEVER see again because they evoked a seriously intense reaction that I don’t want to experience again Jagged Edge, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Toy Story 3, The Way We Were.

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    2. I dislike repeating myself, but I recently hated two movies I find more contemptible than the ones others mention. I was surprised at how angry I got when I recently viewed Gone With the Wind. It was a seductive telling of many dangerous lies: it’s okay to rape your wife and she will wake up smiling; darkies had a good time before that danged war; the South was romantic and noble even though the Yankees invaded their land.

      But I recently saw a movie I disliked even more. John Wick comes from a new cesspool in Hollywood. It is a revenge flick with a horrific body count and not one redeeming value. It is bleak and violent and self-satisfied in a way I find loathsome.

      Yeah, vs, I bawled at Toy Story 3. About as badly as I bawled at Whale Rider. Don’t wanna go there again.

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      1. I cannot watch any movies involving animals in which the animals may be in any peril or danger. I will weep and cannot bear to watch, even if I know it will have a happy ending.

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      1. Bing says it’s called a Ruff. A medium-sized waiting bird that breeds in marshes and what metals across Northern Eurasia.

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  7. The most recent book I couldn’t stand was The Moor by Laurie R. King. I couldn’t finish it.

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    1. That’s the thing about bad books, or bad movies for that matter. It doesn’t take long to realize they’re not worthy.

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      1. I had enjoyed, to varying degrees, the previous books in the series, and the entire series had been highly recommended to me, so I struggled on with this one for longer than I usually do with books I dislike. Finally I realized that even if it got better later in the book, I wasn’t going to like having to get to that point, so I gave it up. Then I tried the next book in the series. Same thing. Didn’t care for it at all. And I realized that although I had started out liking the main character in the other books, I no longer liked her. So I’m done with that series.

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        1. One book. that I disliked from the get-go was “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Seemed lived everybody else in the universe loved it, so how could I not? I lasted about twenty pages before I decided I had had enough of that woman’s company.

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      2. There are books you know you are not interested in and there are some you are willing to try, but it’s apparent that you don’t like the protagonist or the author’s voice and so you quit them, but there are a few that you don’t like but you go on reading. Why is that? I know there are a few books that I read all the way through but that I hated. I can’t explain why I did that to myself. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, for example, is one.

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  8. Husband has a knack of finding the most fascinating books in our college library. His most recent is a very well translated (from German), lavishly illustrated biography of Goya. On the other hand, he bought this enormous tome titled “The History of the Whig Party” and has yet to slog through it. I won’t go near it.

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  9. I can’t abide reading Dickens. Edwin Boring’s “History of Experimental Psychology” is no picnic, either.

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    1. Why don’t you like, Dickens, Renee? I’ll grant you it has been over sixty-five years since I did, but I recall liking it when I did.

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  10. I’ve known for a long time what “immaculate conception” was. Not that I had any particular affinity for it myself, being more experienced with the old fashioned method. Be that as it may, today I learned some new concepts.

    “Macular edema” and “retinal vein occlusion” were foreign to me prior to my appointment today with an ophthalmologist who specializes in retinas. I spent about ten minutes watching videos that explain various diseases of the eye and how they are treated, and though it was all very informative, I didn’t find them entertaining. The idea of someone poking a needle into my eyeball or cutting it with a laser is just plain old scary.

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      1. That’s what I’m hoping, Linda. In the overall scheme of things, this is minor, and I know it. But it is MY eyes, and for that reason I’m paying close attention.

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  11. A movie I remember without fondness is Eastern Promises. Maybe not a truly bad movie, but violent. I watched it all the wa through, but it would have been better to bail before the bloody parts.

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  12. As someone who doesn’t see many movies and is selective about the ones I do see, it’s easy to avoid the violent ones and the tawdry, distasteful and unsavory ones but nothing prepares you for something like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

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