1993 was an astonishing year in American cinema — Groundhog Day, Falling Down, Army of Darkness, Jurassic Park — oh and Schindler’s List and a bunch of other good ones too. But it seems to me the most underrated AWESOME movie that came out that year — the action film that you can still watch today with unblunted delight, is DEMOLITION MAN, which honestly just might be the greatest movie of any kind ever, ever made — the “oldies” station that’s nothing but commercial jingles, the “three seashells,” Sylvester Stallone knitting sweaters, in the future all restaurants are Taco Bell, Wesley Snipes in the most gleefully destructive role ever conceived, right down to that doctor’s eyeball at the tip of a pen... in its every wrinkle this movie is genius. So here are my Questions: 1) wtf 1993? Why so many good movies all at once? 2) wtf is with the under-appreciation? I read critics commentaries about how the actions scenes aren’t exciting enough and that a science fiction action movie shouldn’t do “social critique” (aka COMEDY) and I’m just like who are these humorless shits and why are they allowed to review films? 3) is it because Dennis Leary was in it? Yes, he sucks, but he was playing the role of a guy who was supposed to suck, so it was good casting. But I mean, this is a possibility; if Demolition Man isn’t getting the respect it so clearly deserves, is Dennis Leary 100% to blame?
My goodness, the closed off social spaces is quite an interesting topic. Back in my youth, when the Internet hadn't quite started yet one of the supposed "good things" about the Internet would be that marginalized groups that are isolated from each other, misunderstood by the community, and fact may experience risk to life and limb from the community could gather on the Internet, in a safe space, know they weren't alone, and organize to take their place in society.
Everybody was thinking of the gay and lesbian communities then expanding into transgendered etc. etc. Nobody thought of Nazis, Fascists, and white supremacists as being marginalized groups that need a safe space to meet others so they know they're not alone and to organize to take their place in society.
Holy fire truck, not only did we miss that particular pothole but we drove straight into it, broke both axles and ruined our tires.
Yes, small communities can be much less toxic than the twitters and Facebook's of the world. But I would recommend one small change. You can only participate if you sign up to be a member of the community but anybody can watch with the community does.
The counterexample to this is spaces like 4-chan and 8-chan. Repositories of hatred, bigotry and just plain unpleasant people you would not want to have over for Thanksgiving. I don't know how to resolve the conundrum. Open spaces can be cesspools enclosed spaces can be cesspools. I don't know if we know what makes an online space safe and supportive.
I seem to recall End of Days being extremely self-serious but I have admittedly not watched it in 22 years, and even then only out of an obligation to watch everything that we rented out at the video store I worked at at the time.
1993 was an astonishing year in American cinema — Groundhog Day, Falling Down, Army of Darkness, Jurassic Park — oh and Schindler’s List and a bunch of other good ones too. But it seems to me the most underrated AWESOME movie that came out that year — the action film that you can still watch today with unblunted delight, is DEMOLITION MAN, which honestly just might be the greatest movie of any kind ever, ever made — the “oldies” station that’s nothing but commercial jingles, the “three seashells,” Sylvester Stallone knitting sweaters, in the future all restaurants are Taco Bell, Wesley Snipes in the most gleefully destructive role ever conceived, right down to that doctor’s eyeball at the tip of a pen... in its every wrinkle this movie is genius. So here are my Questions: 1) wtf 1993? Why so many good movies all at once? 2) wtf is with the under-appreciation? I read critics commentaries about how the actions scenes aren’t exciting enough and that a science fiction action movie shouldn’t do “social critique” (aka COMEDY) and I’m just like who are these humorless shits and why are they allowed to review films? 3) is it because Dennis Leary was in it? Yes, he sucks, but he was playing the role of a guy who was supposed to suck, so it was good casting. But I mean, this is a possibility; if Demolition Man isn’t getting the respect it so clearly deserves, is Dennis Leary 100% to blame?
My goodness, the closed off social spaces is quite an interesting topic. Back in my youth, when the Internet hadn't quite started yet one of the supposed "good things" about the Internet would be that marginalized groups that are isolated from each other, misunderstood by the community, and fact may experience risk to life and limb from the community could gather on the Internet, in a safe space, know they weren't alone, and organize to take their place in society.
Everybody was thinking of the gay and lesbian communities then expanding into transgendered etc. etc. Nobody thought of Nazis, Fascists, and white supremacists as being marginalized groups that need a safe space to meet others so they know they're not alone and to organize to take their place in society.
Holy fire truck, not only did we miss that particular pothole but we drove straight into it, broke both axles and ruined our tires.
Yes, small communities can be much less toxic than the twitters and Facebook's of the world. But I would recommend one small change. You can only participate if you sign up to be a member of the community but anybody can watch with the community does.
The counterexample to this is spaces like 4-chan and 8-chan. Repositories of hatred, bigotry and just plain unpleasant people you would not want to have over for Thanksgiving. I don't know how to resolve the conundrum. Open spaces can be cesspools enclosed spaces can be cesspools. I don't know if we know what makes an online space safe and supportive.
I seem to recall End of Days being extremely self-serious but I have admittedly not watched it in 22 years, and even then only out of an obligation to watch everything that we rented out at the video store I worked at at the time.