Talking Animals

Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, meet Pot.

And I ain't talkin' Pol Pot, either.

This from our fiends at Fox News, wherein they report that George Lucas calls the new Spiderman movie "silly." That "there was not much there." And finally, that "People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too. But it wasn't."

Mm. Yes.

When I want some unsilly entertainment (too frivolous a term for it, really) I dial me ups some Star Wars. (Except for the last one in the series - I find the drama and pathos of the Ewoks just too overwhelming.)

And for "not much there" - this from the man who drove Alec Guiness to plead for his own character to be killed off as soon as possible. Said Sir Al (he loved it when people called him that) : "What I didn't tell him was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo."

How prophetic.

As the films went on (or, err, chronologically speaking, went backwards,) the mumbo got more and more jumbo, until the first was unwatchable, the second was incomprehensible and the third was unfathomable.

<tangent>
Hey, he said brightly. Speaking of Jumbo, that reminds me of my most sophisticated joke ever.

Q : What is the difference between an elephant's fart and a saloon?
A : One is a bar-room...and the other is a BAROOOOM!

And speaking of elephants...by all that is holy, do NOT click here.

</tangent>

Now, I have not seen Spidey 3, (one of the bennies of being a blogger - no facts required) It may well be silly. But for Lucas to say so? And for him to (presumably) not expect us to eyeroll? That would require some serious Jedi Mind Tricking, yo.

Delivering to the Rocks in Soledad Flats

Have you seen the newest offering from our friends at the SciFi channel?

("Friends", by the way is an affected literary device. If I actually knew anyone there, I'd shake them by their lapels and ask 'Why is your definition of SciFi "crappy horror movies starring C and D-list TV actors?' Have any of you actually ever read a science fiction book? Anyone? Anyone?")

They have redeemed themselves somewhat by the creation of Sci Fi Drive-In  ... a small repository of some great old schlocky science fiction movies and serials. (Somehow I find schlock easier to forgive in films of this era - rather than anything starring Amber Benson galumphing around a haunted cave in a cast.)

(No, silly. She was wearing the cast, not the cave. I swear, you are SO literal sometimes.)

First up : The Killers from Space, featuring a pre-Mission Impossible Peter Graves as an overly earnest "atomic scientist" (as opposed to one that runs on steam or electricity, I suppose) going up against some awesome aliens, all of whom look like Marty Feldman, circa Young Frankenstein.

It's free, it streams well (unlike our friends a....t.........y....o....u.........t....u....b....e) so enjoy, enjoy. Just don't be surprised to find yourself echoing this question, posted by somebody on the site's message boards : "Why don't they put this stuff on the air? At least it's sci-fi..."

_____________

What, my word's not enough for ya?

Okay then, try and resist this :

... and in the unlikely event that aliens who look like this are not enough (just click  already!) then let me up the ante even further : they wear mittens.

Yes, you heard me. They wear mittens. Special, space alien mittens.

Come on...like you didn't beg your mom for a pair when you were a kid...