Fun at the Movies

I saw exactly 3 films over the break; two great, one not so good. If you care to know, here's what they rate:

"Westway to the World": the authorized Clash documentary. Nothing really earth-shattering, except you get to hear almost exclusively from Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, and a very emaciated Topper Headon for 2 hours about how they met, why they became a band, and why they broke up. You'll have lots of questions after it's over, but you'll have to figger it out on your own, chum. Joe's dead, Paul and Mick haven't talked since 1983, and Topper is still busily needling himself to death. What a great film. And, the bonus footage is all old club stuff or, more, unseen, nearly destroyed footage of the NYC shows of the early '80's. I watched that first, and it's actually longer than the documentary itself. Sweeeet.

"Casino Royale" The wife and a co-worker dragged me to this one with promises of psychological depth and a lack of cheese. Well: cheese still there; depth less than two fathoms; middle third of pic is one long poker scene of incredible simplicity--almost totally insulting to audience. I fell asleep twice. The film was over 2 1/2 hours long. One other problem: if this love interest is the reason Bond is so cold in all the later films, why is he so hung up on a simpleton? I mean, (and I am completely giving away the ending, one of the rare parts I was awake for) if YOU were being blackmailed and you thought it likely you would be killed after delivering the money, would you: A: go it alone, being careful never to give the slightest hint to your darling 007, or B: tell Mr. Bond what's up, since he is (and has proven before your very eyes all through the preceding movie) to be a fucking one man army and killing machine? Seriously, I ask you.

"Loose Change, 2nd Edition": the 9/11 conspiracy movie. You can download it for free of Google Video, or give the guy $9 for a DVD copy. Or, he'll send you a pack of 100, at cost, and you can give them out to friends. I don't have any friends, so I spent the 9. This is a very cool film that revisits 9/11 and points up all the mistakes, ommissions, or forgotten elements of the coverage, as well as splicing in some anonymous interviews with eyewitnesses and some cherry-picked articles. Nonetheless, excusing for a moment its shaky grounding in reputable sources (which are...what, anyway?), the film raises compelling questions. It would appear, just from a common sense standpoint, that no plane hit the Pentagon, a plane likely did not crash in Pennsylvania, the people our government has identified as the hijackers did not actually fly any planes (and, at least 8 of them are definitely alive and well in other countries!), and so on. It's a neat little project that will certainly get you on a watch list. Where I and many others get off is at the discussion of the Shanksville flight (the United 93 flight) and the assertion that all passengers were herded to an abandoned NASA hangar at Cleveland's airport and...shot? Abducted? What? And then there's the further implication that the ~200 people from all 4 flights combined were somehow put onto that one flight, I suppose for easier extermination? Anyway, check it out. It's well worth an hour and 20 minutes of your time.