 In preparation for my first viewing, I decided to have a trilogy party. Watching the first two films brought back lots of good memories, and I surprised myself with how much of the dialogue I actually remembered. I found myself laughing at all the great aspects from the first two films: phrases like most non-triumphant, the circular logic Bill and Ted used to decide what to do next, the conversations they had with future/past versions of themselves, the games they played as they fell down the seemingly endlessly deep hole to Hell, how Missy went from dad to dad, and of course the Grim Reaper. Death has to be one of the best comic characters ever.  So I was happy to see Death make a come back in the third film. And he’s still one of the best characters ever! Of course that means Bill and Ted go back to Hell. How else can Death come back into the story? That scene with Bill and Ted asking directions from the two goblins is just priceless. “Yeah, that’s a robot in Hell.” And speaking of robots, the robot in this film is awesome. I love how his name is Dennis, named after the ex of Rufus’s daughter! Brilliant!  While we’re on the subject of robots, what happened to the Good Robot Usses? I mean, they didn’t have to have every character from the previous films in this last one, and I’m not missing Station and his totally huge Martian butt, but what happened to Station’s creation? Did they not survive the 25 years between the second and third films? And what does that say about Station’s place the universe’s greatest scientist? And what happened to showing the prolonged drop into Hell? That was one of the funnier parts from the second film. I was disappointed to see it cut out of the third, especially given how the film shows the daughters mimicking their fathers with how they speak to each other. Speaking of which, I just couldn’t get into how the daughters kept calling each other “Dude.” I just couldn’t get into that.
 Wednesdays are my busy days this semester. It starts with a hybrid class at 8:30 in the morning at CWI in Nampa, after which I meet with students during office hours, grab a quick bite for lunch, rush over to BSU in downtown Boise for an engineering lab in the afternoon, then rush back to Nampa for a stats class followed by another math class, and then another quick bite to eat for dinner followed by my one-a-week stats class that starts at 7:00 pm. By the time that class starts I’m beat, let alone when it finishes. So when my sister and I talked about her bringing her kids by to visit and show off their Halloween costumes, we recognized the realities of my schedule on Wednesdays. I said I would text her when I got in. And I did. Since I didn’t know how long it would be before they came over, I started chomping on a jack o’ lantern pizza I had picked up on the way home and started a movie. I’ve got several choices appropriate for Halloween in my collection, but this year I decided to watch Legend, the 1985 classic cult fantasy film starring a very young Tom Cruise as well as Mia Sara (think Sloane from Ferris Bueller) and Tim Curry.  Curry does an outstanding job with whatever he does, but his portrayal of the evil character Darkness is hands down outstanding, especially buried beneath all that prosthetic for his costume. This was 1985, so no green screen or CGI at work here. His look is absolutely impressive, and when you combine it with his superb acting skills, you get a real dynamite performance. Sara also delivers a solid performance, and Cruise — well, Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise, especially in the early portion of his career. There’s a certain innocence to this performance, though, because he is awfully young. Plus it’s well before he went crazy while married to Nicole. At length, the kiddos arrived, and they looked great in their costumes, especially my almost-two-year-old niece dressed as a hippo. She was rambunctious and full of energy as always. My nephews, on the other hand, were really interested in the movie Legend. So I gave them a brief introduction, and let them watch the movie while I visited with my sister.  It wasn’t long before both of those boys became mesmerized with the movie. I can’t say I blame them. We were watching the theatrical version with the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Jon Anderson of Yes fame (one of my favorite rock groups growing up) has a style that is perfectly fit for this film. I’m sure the Jerry Goldsmith track on the director’s cut is great, too, but come on. I know it’s Jerry Goldsmith, but it just doesn’t work as well for me as Tangerine Dream. Too bad that version of the film is really hard to purchase. I don’t even own a copy; I have to watch it streaming through my Amazon Prime account.
At length, my sister needed to go, and so I offered to let her boys come back and finish watching the movie another time. They eagerly agreed and then expressed excitement for our play date tomorrow — which reminds me. I need to get to bed. It was great to have them visit and see their costumes. I’m not sure what next year will bring since I’m likely to be out of state somewhere attending grad school, but whatever the future brings, I’m not letting it stop me from enjoying the present. |
PurposeHere you can find news and announcements I want to share. In between I'll include reviews of the books I read. Find me on Goodreads.com for more book reviews. Archives
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