E.R. Torre's Blog, page 93

God only knows what its doing to our children’s brains…

Rather scary article written by Rob Price and found on businessinsider.com regarding ex-Facebook president Sean Parker and some rather scary things he has to say about our social media platforms like the one that he was president of:

Billionaire ex-Facebook President Sean Parker Unloads on Mark Zuckerberg and Admits He Helped Build a Monster

The “money” quote from the article is posted on the headline above, that Mr. Price notes that these platforms were developed with the express idea of becoming addictive to its users.  This from Mr. Price:

The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?

Not all that long ago I recall watching a TV program (60 Minutes?  I’m not certain) about cellphones and social media and it was noted by the person who was being interviewed that there is a science behind many of the programs, like Facebook, that draw masses of people to them, and that the model for drawing people to them is very similar to that of…

…wait for it…

Gambling.

Mr. Parker further states:

And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.  And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.

It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.

In other words, these platforms are built to not only get you on them with their various bells and whistles, but keep you on them once you’ve tasted their wares.

I have to say, like Mr. Parker I do wonder what effect this will have on people growing up with these services.

As someone who didn’t grow up with them, there have been plenty of times I’ve forgotten to take my cellphone with me to places and the biggest inconvenience, to me, is the fact that I subsequently couldn’t make a call from my car.

My daughters, on the other hand, have their cellphones essentially attached to them.  One day, one of them forgot to take it with her to a store.  It was, to her, an incredible, mind-blowing thing to have forgotten!

Here’s the thing, though: As the science of getting people essentially “addicted” to these various platforms becomes sharper and more effective, is it possible people will no longer be able to function, at all, without their cell phones and the social platform programs?

One wonders.

Been a while….

A while since I’ve talked about one of my favorite real-world subjects: autonomous vehicles.

The following article, written by Madison Park and appearing on CNN, seems to be one of those stories that seem to be delivered by the Gods above…

Self-Driving Bus Involved in Accident on its First Day

The bus in question, which is running in Las Vegas, looks like this:

So, based on the story title, one could be forgiven for thinking that the cause of the accident was -slap your forehead- the self-driving bus and its software.

Nope.

What happened, and sorry for giving it all away, was that the driver of a truck who was backing up didn’t see the bus, which had properly stopped, and wound up scrapping its front side.  No one was hurt, the damage was minor, and the driver of the truck was ticketed for failure to notice the car while backing up.

Though one does wonder: If the bus was responsible, who would be ticketed then?!

I kid, I kid.

Still, one can’t help but shake one’s head at stories like this.  The roll out of self-driving vehicles has begun and, naturally, one the first day of use of this particular new service, of course there would be a crash.

He who will not be mentioned again…

With the revelations of sexual harassment and far, far worse by far, far too many people in power within the Hollywood movie establishment, two names in particular are especially loathsome.

There is Harvey Weinstein, of course, the man who is alleged to have sexually harassed and raped many women.

Then there’s Kevin Spacey, the up until now very respected actor who, if the allegations are to be believed, has engaged in behavior which can only be described as being… well, let’s put it this way, beyond sexual harassment and, allegedly, drifting into one of the darkest corners of sexual assault, that of a possible pedophila.

So alarming are the accusations against him -and one must emphasize that up to this moment they are just that, accusations and allegations- it appears Mr. Spacey is nonetheless rapidly becoming a persona non grata within the industry that, up to the time of these allegations, was more than happy to have him involved in their projects.

Case in point, Ridley Scott’s next film, All The Money In The World, is due to be released in six weeks.  Starring Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams, the movie also featured Kevin Spacey.

But no longer.

According to this article by Hannah Gold and found on jezebel.com…

Ridley Scott Kicked Kevin Spacey Out of His Movie

Let me emphasize this: With only six weeks to go before the movie is released, Mr. Scott and company have decided Mr. Spacey is so toxic that he’s been taken out of the film completely and all his scenes will be (hastily, I imagine), re-filmed with Christopher Plummer, who was apparently Mr. Scott’s original choice, in the role vacated by Kevin Spacey.  According to the article, the movie’s other stars are making time to rework these scenes as well.

The fact that the film is a mere six weeks from being released means it was pretty much done and I suspect whatever new scenes are filmed with Mr. Plummer will mimic almost exactly what the Kevin Spacey scenes were, so there shouldn’t be all that much work to be done, though this is complete speculation on my part.  I don’t know if any scenes require specific backgrounds or perhaps effects (the film takes place in the 1970’s).

Regardless, the movie’s listing over at IMDB still has Kevin Spacey in one of the principle roles but who knows how much screen time he occupied in the completed work, all of which will now be redone with Mr. Plummer in that role.

An incredible story, IMHO, and it goes to show just how far Mr. Spacey has fallen in recent days.

News of the not too surprising…

As tempting as it is to again dip my toe into politics (yesterday, IMHO, was a good slap against Trumpism… I hope the energy carries over for more than this election), I’ll instead focus on something that seemed a given.

Over at i09 comes this article by Charles Pulliam-Moore which states:

Universal’s Shared Monster Universe Has Been Put On Hold

As I said above, this was an announcement I expected given the first film in this series, the Tom Cruise starring The Mummy, had a relatively weak box office take.

That movie, which I will note I have yet to see, received middling at best reviews and, even more importantly, audiences weren’t thrilled enough to make it a bigger blockbuster. Had the movie received superb reviews yet still failed to make the type of money Universal wanted, they likely would have put the brakes on anyway.

Perhaps Universal put the cart before the horse by announcing a “universe” of films before the first one proved successful, but had The Mummy been a bigger hit, even if it had the same reviews/quality, there’s no doubt the studio would proceed with their next monster universe movie.

Ah well!

Dracula and that strange light dimmer….

We’ve been through too much negative stuff of late and it’s time to look at something light and… funny?

From Cinemassacre, here is an examination of a curious piece of cardboard attached to a night light in the famous Bela Lugosi film Dracula…

Now, I will critique the video a tiny little bit here and say that while the video is a blast for someone who is as into cinema as I am to watch…

…the conclusion, well:

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

The video starts out by presenting this cardboard piece and its inclusion in several scenes within Dracula as being a source of controversy and/or mystery.  In other words, that people out there aren’t certain why its there and wonder whether it is a flub/mistake or if its inclusion is purposeful within the film itself.

By the end of the clip, however, one comes away with the clear idea that this (admittedly cheesy) cardboard piece was indeed a part of the story -a silly, unnecessary part, I grant you- and that its inclusion is even hinted in the screenplay.

Still, this one minor quibble doesn’t take away from the fact that its a fascinating subject matter.  Further, I was just as surprised as the narrator when I saw this video: I’ve seen Dracula many, many times before and for the life of me never noted that silly piece of cardboard attached to the lamp.

Kudos also to the realization that the first encounter with Dracula is actually a scene which likely was meant to fall later in the film.

Love, love, love this type of stuff!

This gun fascination we have…

I don’t get this fascination with guns.

I’ve said it before.  There are violent films and video games I’ve both enjoyed and enjoy.

But these things are fantasy.

In “real life” I find guns, especially some of the military grade ones out there, incredibly scary.  I’ve fired real guns before -target practice no more- but never felt the thrill many others seem to have with such things.

I’m also not a hunter nor do I live in the rough where I may need such a weapon to protect myself from predatory animals.

The politicians, predictably, are once again doing their “prayers and thoughts” statements to those who lost loved ones.  Donald Trump, predictably, brushes off any notion that this is a gun issue, instead stating this is a mental health issue… which would be fine except it conveniently ignores the fact that this shooter, and too many before him, had access to weapons that by all rights should only be in military hands.

History repeats itself and one wonders when the next one will happen.

Such bullshit.

Brett Ratner

It may come as a surprise to many, but I knew director and producer waaaay back when, long before he became a power player in Hollywood and while he was a student at the Miami Beach Senior High School and shared classes with my youngest sister.

He was, I took it from her, infatuated with her but my sister was quick to dismiss that, or any romance between the two, stating he was infatuated with just about every woman he was in contact around those school halls.  Given his age at the time and the hormones raging throughout both women and men of similar ages, this isn’t all that surprising.

The Gods know how many times I “fell in love” with women in my classes!

The clearest memory I have of him was one day he came over to our house and we talked a bit about comic books.  If I recall correctly, he was a fan of the X-Men (he would go on to direct the third X-Men film, X-Men: The Last Stand) and, truth be told and looking over his IMDB credits, I suspect he and I shared a lot more in common than that one brief conversation tapped into.

Yesterday, Brett Ratner became embroiled in the current news cycle regarding men in the movie business and the alleged sexual abused/mistreatment of women (and, in one particular case, young men) working with them.

Later in the day yesterday, it was announced that Mr. Ratner and Warner Brothers, who he worked for up until then, have severed ties.  According to Mr. Ratner’s spokespeople, he voluntarily stepped down from his job while there were whispers that it was either he do that or be fired.

Now, I didn’t know Mr. Ratner well enough even back then, and certainly haven’t had any contact with him since that day some thirty plus years (yikes!) ago, to be able to offer any sort of conclusions regarding the accusations against him.

Like most everyone else, I take the accusations at face value and cannot believe the people making those statements had/have much of an axe to grind.  In fact, and I hate to say it, I could see where someone in such a powerful position and surrounded by very attractive women/men could be tempted to step over the line.  Of course, giving in to those base instincts and doing so even one time is one time too many.

We live in interesting times, to say the least.  Not quite a year ago we elected a President who, it should be noted, has more than ten women accusing him of the very thing that is now getting many of these Hollywood power brokers in serious trouble.

There is no strong conclusion to be offered nor a wise quip.  There are real people out there who were damaged by the power plays -sexual or otherwise- of others.  There are also those who enjoyed a lofty place in the entertainment industry who are now looking at exile from their business and, I suspect from some, legal peril.  And, in those cases, it is deserved.

There are few winners here, but if there’s anything at all to be optimistic about, perhaps it is that from here on predatory instincts will be shunted by those in power.  Further, I hope the potential targets of these predators will no longer hide in the shadows and, instead, stand up and speak out whenever they encounter any such abysmal behavior.

At least one hopes.

Yesterday’s news…

So Bob Mueller, the special counsel investigating the Trump administration’s ties to Russians during the election, indicted and arrested two former Trump officials, the biggest naming being one time campaign head Paul Manifort, while revealing another, “smaller” name in this affair, George Papadopoulos, had pled guilty and was cooperating with the special counsel for some time now.

Which makes one wonder if, perhaps, he might have been used by the special counsel since his arrest to record some conversations…

Speculation, for sure, but…

Whew.

Things must be pretty scary for some in the White House… and it has nothing to do with Halloween.

Sketchin’ 35 – Halloween Edition!

Today’s subject is actor Margaret Hamilton, who had a very long, productive career yet will always be best known for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

[image error]I read somewhere that the plot/story of The Wizard of Oz was incredibly influential to many other films.

The person who noted this -someone far more astute than I!- went on to note that the original 1977 Star Wars’ story was, essentially, a sci-fi version of The Wizard of Oz!

While many note Star Wars is a pastiche of many films, including taking many elements from the Akira Kurosawa directed film The Hidden Fortress, I was surprised by that analysis… more so when I thought about it and realized that analysis was dead accurate.

So, have a Happy Halloween!

Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (1990), a (scarily) belated review

Back in 1982 legendary horror director , best known for his deservedly famous zombie films, united with equally renowned horror author to create Creepshow, an horror movie featuring several individual horror stories and presented in the vein of the E.C. comic books of the 1950’s…

The movie was a success and Romero and company wanted to make a TV series out of it.  However, because of issues regarding rights and, I’m quite certain, money, it was decided to make a TV series in the vein of Creepshow but which had nothing to do with it… other than having some of the same creative talent behind it.  The TV series Tales From The Darkside debuted in 1983 and finished off its run in 1988.

The series did well and, in the meantime and in 1987, Creepshow 2 was released.  There was interest in continuing the Creepshow brand but, again due to those pesky contracts and rights, Creepshow 3 would never be made.

The project, however, morphed into something else and thus, in 1990, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie was released.

Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (let’s refer to it as TFD from here on in) featured a trio of stories tied into a framing story.

The framing story featured singer/actress  as a seemingly normal suburban housewife who happens to have a young child locked in her home and whom she intends to cook.  The child () manages to hold her off by telling her the trio of stories which make up the film’s run time.

The first story, Lot 249, was based on a story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes) and features , , and, in her motion picture debut,  in a tale concerning a mummy which is, eventually, brought to vengeful life.

The second story, Cat From Hell, is based on a tale by Stephen King and concerns and ornery millionaire () who hires a hit man () to take out a black cat the millionaire is certain is a vengeful spirit.

The last tale, Lover’s Vow, involves a struggling artist (James Remar) who witnesses a bloody, supernatural murder and subsequently finds everything he desires, including true love and artistic success, when he bumps into  Carola.

It is after the telling of the third tale that we get resolution in the framing story involving Deborah Harry’s curious evening meal.

TFD is not a bad film but, I would quickly add, it didn’t exactly fill me with awe.  The first story, involving the vengeful mummy, was probably the best of the four (including the framing device) yet it wasn’t without its problems.  Still, it was fun to watch a trio of well established actors in their youth doing their thing.  Christian Slater was quite fun as the clever, but not clever enough, college student out to do the right thing.  Julianne Moore gets a chance to play the vamp and Steve Buscemi was fun as a nerdy student who seeks rightful vengeance from those who put him down.

I’d probably put Cat From Hell and the framing story in second place and, again, these weren’t bad but neither did they wow me.  Actor/singer David Johansen was good as the hitman and Deborah Harry was fun as what amounts to a witch straight out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.

The final, and longest segment, Lover’s Vow, was clearly intended to be the showcase piece of the movie but, alas, winds up being the least of the tales presented.  And this despite some good acting by James Remar and Rae Dawn Chong and the goriest, though by today’s standards pretty tame, effects.  The main problem is that the story presented is way too obvious and never terribly gripping.

Ah well.

Still, TFD isn’t a total bust.  It is far from the worst horror film I’ve seen involving multiple horror stories.

Having said that, one can understand why this movie isn’t as well remembered as the original Creepshow.  Hell, even Creepshow 2, IMHO a far lesser film than the original, nonetheless has fans of at least one of their segments (The Raft).

With that in mind, I offer a mild recommendation for TFD but this is directed to those who want to see some very familiar actors in their formative years.