[speaker001:] yes I saw Home Alone with some friends just a couple days ago I wanted to see it uh because it was uh much recommended uh for months and months and months and it was a a genre that I wasn't in the least bit interested in and I usually when I hear about a movie that's supposed to be very good
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] even if it's in a genre I don't like I figure well I should go see it because if this is you know the best of the genre and I should know about it or something like that and I usually come away thinking no I really don't like this show
[speaker002:] yeah right uh-huh  yeah I uh I I I feel that way when movies are like blown up out of proportion you know usually people tell you how good they are and you always
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you know end up with expectations too high or whatever
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] well the the problem I had with the movie was the problem I've had with a lot of uh I guess Hollywood movies which is you know it's a formula movie and they're making the movie according to a certain formula that's a good formula but they seem to
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] fall short of of being really creative with a lot of things I mean here's the situation of this kid at home you know it's a classic slapstick situation with these bungling burglars trying to get in
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh right
[speaker001:] and yeah he did some clever things but given the size of the house and how clever the kid was it seems to me they could have done a lot more I mean you know basically basically stepping on things and yelling in pain and it seems to me they could have been a lot more creative stuff used
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I was very surprised that did do a slapstick movie because that's uh not really the way comedies are right now
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know a lot of the comedies are more like jokes and you know gags and stuff like that there's not as much slapstick anymore
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh well I guess it was a uh a very successful movie financially so we may say more slapstick
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah that well that's true it's very cheap to make a slapstick movie
[speaker001:] yeah it is it is and I guess you don't have to but you know if you look at oh have you ever seen any of the Jacques Teti Teti movies the French movies uh Teti it it
[speaker002:] excuse me no not really the last movie I saw I guess uh was uh uh the one about the the French the Frenchman that leaves and comes back and he's someone different um he's uh uh well it's about a man uh that uh leaves his home and comes back to his wife and his wife's all excited but the guy that comes back is not her original husband
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] but um Gear um I'm sure you've heard of it it was a very famous uh popular movie Norman Gray Norman Gear um
[speaker001:] no I'm not with you so far
[speaker002:] oh shoot I'm going to hit myself after I hang up I'll remember the name but uh anyway that was a French movie it was um that was the last one I saw downtown but I I live in DC well actually Falls Church Virginia outside the city
[speaker001:] uh-huh ha ha uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh so a lot of times they the the the international films downtown
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] but uh so this uh French I guess are into the slapstick I guess so they would like Jerry Lewis yeah
[speaker001:] they have they have a long yes they like Jerry Lewis much to the chagrin of sophisticated American quote unquote sophisticated American record company but they have this one guy Jacques Teti that does slapstick comedy and there's something about it
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] that's so innovative you know he'll have trouble picking up his hat or catching his umbrella blowing in the wind or something but there's something about it that just it isn't just slapstick there's something about the human character in it
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and that's what I find lacking in a lot of you know like Home Alone there was a lot of the human character when he was home alone and he was trying to be tough and they s had a lot of human character there but when it was the real slapstick moments him versus the criminals kind of thing it just sort of lost the human element became purely a caricature
[speaker002:] right um-hum right
[speaker001:] does does that make since to you
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh yeah I see what you're saying there is less character development rather just the the the funniness of the gag rather than
[speaker001:] yeah yeah did you go with kids though
[speaker002:] and how it fits with the character right
[speaker001:] did you go with kids
[speaker002:] excuse me
[speaker001:] did you take kids along
[speaker002:] no we went uh without the kids it's was a a night out
[speaker001:] ah
[speaker002:] away from the children
[speaker001:] oh I would have liked to have a kid with me I think preferably someone seven or eight just just to get a sense for you know how how it affected them
[speaker002:] oh  oh
[speaker001:] especially to come home and you know if he didn't knock real loudly and clearly I would have gotten in trouble the next day I'm sure
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah that that's true I I was thinking about that too I saw that um that's why I watched another silly movie um um with my my cousin was uh uh the one about the um the turtles
[speaker001:] oh Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles huh um-hum
[speaker002:] right yeah I saw that with my cousin just to see what you know what the kids are into
[speaker001:] um-hum and your cousin's a kid
[speaker002:] and that is yeah he's a little yeah he's anyway and that was just
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] excessively violent I was worried it's like golly if kids start imitating that
[speaker001:] yeah wasn't it amazing
[speaker002:] they'll knock each others blocks off
[speaker001:] yeah those yeah it was all bloodless and the good guys can get hit all day long and they have to shake it off they don't they don't you know get epileptic fits or anything from getting hit on the head
[speaker002:] uh-huh um-hum yeah right
[speaker001:] yeah it it's a little disturbing the violence in these films partly it mean it's supposed to be a little bit more okay because it's comic book but on the other hand it makes it seem like
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I I read an article one time talking about even the quote unquote realistic movies don't have very realistic effects of the violence the violence can seem very realistic but the aftermath is usually not there
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] if you see people who are severely injured it's very very badly they lose control of body functions they thrash around they scream you know uh it's just a very very bad thing and they never present that even the movies that want to show violence as real they don't really show you what happens with that real violence
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I'm not really sure how I feel about that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh on the one hand I'd like it to be a warning on the other hand I wouldn't want people who currently get sort of enjoy their violence fixes from these movies to start thinking gee now we want to see the aftermath all the time either
[speaker002:] yeah right uh-huh yeah it's true
[speaker001:] but yeah Teenage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is sort of the same way they I guess they figured I mean they know what they're doing and they make the movies good enough I guess I'm a bit of a snob they make the movies good enough to be successful
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] and then they don't and they but they could make them better you know they could try to make I mean as far as I was concerned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could have been a classic of world theater
[speaker002:] uh-huh really
[speaker001:] it could have been you know it was it was innovative uh a completely new approach to making a movie in a lot of ways and yet it ended up not being anything particularly memorable cause the the story was stupid and and then things like that and uh they built up I remember feeling annoyed again I didn't have a kid with me and I remember feeling annoyed that they had this whole thing about the master and the passing of wisdom the from older to younger generation it was it was a classic Greek you know it's European mess going back three thousand years that they're playing with
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] um and he had to past and he told them remember remember you united you can succeed individually you will fail and then there was a big climactic fight scene and they didn't remember that
[speaker002:] yeah right oh
[speaker001:] they didn't fight together they fought individually and they failed individually and then that was it then they had to have the master beat him
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] and the master should according to the classic myth the sort of Joseph Campbell type myth the master should have died at the end because the the lesson was passed to the young generation and the older generation is not needed and is reborn to the younger generation and on and on and on and all this wonderful myth
[speaker002:] right uh-huh
[speaker001:] and it still would have been every bit as accessible a movie for the kids if they had included all this stuff that I anyway as an as intellectual adult would appreciate it wouldn't have hurt the movie to do that and it would have make it uh broadened the audience that it could have been targeted for I thought but I um I'm I'm clearly enough you know I'm I'm clearly an intellectual snob to be going to these kinds of movies I realize that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I mean to go to these movies and expect them to be you know other than just just good entertainment kind of thing
[speaker002:] right that's true yeah there's not too many that are uh that are good just on their you know that that you wouldn't want to change something and there's always something that uh
[speaker001:] yeah yeah I I I I'm very I'm very critical I I I'm actually originally from Hollywood and then then then and my father works in films and such and I tend to
[speaker002:] um-hum oh really
[speaker001:] tend to be hypercritical of these things and then perhaps perhaps it's unfair because I I I must admit I enjoy these movies um
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah right
[speaker001:] and that that's what they're for but I don't don't remember them and I think it's I think I can think of movies I have less fun during and then after the movie's over I remember it so terribly well because it it had some some meaning to me or something
[speaker002:] uh-huh right exactly yeah there there there are a couple movies that hit home like that most of the ones I always remember are the the older ones
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I always like the musicals and uh those ones uh those stick in your head
[speaker001:] yeah yeah they leave the yeah they leave they leave some songs with you they leave I don't know what it is
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but it just I mean I don't know if this is old fart talking here or something because I'm not that old I look you know those old movies seemed to have had something that uh that was memorable somehow I don't know what it was
[speaker002:] no it could be  uh-huh um okay well I guess I got to get going got to go take care of the children
[speaker001:] okay well um thanks for hearing me ramp I guess all right nice talking with you
[speaker002:] yeah nice talking with you are you calling from Texas by the way
[speaker001:] okay no I'm in California
[speaker002:] oh okay the first person I've talked to outside of Texas
[speaker001:] so they're paying the phone bill yeah there must be Texas people as near as I can tell no okay I'm from the other coast all right bye bye
[speaker002:] yeah okay well thank you very much bye bye