Thursday, 7 August 1997:

Contact

Grump; my comics shop's books got shipped to Minneapolis for some reason. So they still weren't in today. Apparently they're being next-day shipped and should be in tomorrow.

So in lieu of that, I went off to see the movie Contact tonight. Pretty good film. I appreciate that it was more contemplative than exploitative. I get tired of movies that are just trying to yank my chain all the time. I've heard some people say that they appreciated its serious approach to its subject matter, while others just found it boring. I fell more into the former camp.

I'm inclined to agree with a friend of mine who feels they threw a little too big a bone to religion and spirituality, but then, I'm not a particularly spiritual person. Besides, they did have Rob Lowe (remember him? The actor who got the press for video of him sleeping with a teenaged girl) playing a Ralph Reed-like leader of the "Conservative Coalition", which was pretty funny. And overall I think they took an interesting approach of balancing science with faith, and I can't fault them for aiming high and not quite making it. Their hearts were in the right place.

On a less intellectual note, Jodie Foster is gorgeous!

I don't see very many movies. I think this is the first one I've seen since renting One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest a few months back. Partly, most films don't much interest me. I mean, Julia Roberts: Enh! And I think I've seen all the action films I need to for a few years. But when I do go to see a film, I usually enjoy it. Among the films I've seen in the last year that I liked: Lone Star, Michael Collins, Shine, and The Shawshank Redemption (which is probably the best of the lot; excellent!).

I suspect I don't see many films because sometime in high school I realized that I was spending half my life watching TV - and reruns of TV, at that - and I mostly gave it up, cold turkey. So today I feel I'd rather be doing something than just sitting like a lump in front of moving pictures. Which is unfair, because there is a lot of good stuff out there, but it's just the habit I've gotten into, I guess.

All that said, yes, I am looking forward to the new Star Wars films!


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Michael Rawdon (Contact)