Idea for a movie.

It is a heartwarming tale of an Indiana father struggling to keep his family together after the sudden death of his beloved wife. The story follows the daily struggles of a single father trying to juggle his job and day care, while welfare threatens to break up his family by taking away his two children. It will be titled Hoosier Daddy.

Quentin Tarantino doesn't get enough credit for stealing from John Boorman

Tarantino might be Hollywood's most successful rapper. His movies spout endless words about nothing, and he samples from all his favorite movies. Pulp Fiction, his hip hop masterpiece, samples from so many sources it is probably impossible to identify them all. One moment deserving far more attention is his urban version of the anal rape scene from Deliverance. You might think this is a bit of a stretch, but Tarantino does throw in a little clue. One of his hillbilly rapists is named Zed. Why would Tarantino pick such an unlikely name? No, it has nothing to do with Deliverance, but it does relate to another Boorman film. Zed is the name of the protagonist played by Sean Connery in Zardoz. Coincidence? Of course not.

Queen Borat

I'm sure many Queen fans are horrified by the casting of Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury, but I am equally horrified that Queen has so many fans. Is Queen music really classic rock, or is it show tunes with guitars? Cohen is probably as close to the right type as anyone will find, and he can certainly project the right flamboyance. Now there is reason to endure a biopic of one of the most consistently annoying bands in rock history.

What the hell did anyone really like about Avatar?

Two-and-a-half plus hours of giant Smurfs frolicking in a cartoon forest is not my idea of entertainment. How this dreadful mess of a movie became the most successful in history is a mystery that reduces the JFK assassination to the level of a Murder She Wrote episode. Obviously technology is at the core of its success, but it wasn't that special. Nothing in this mega-budget monstrosity can top the speargun in Friday the 13th Part 3. James Cameron was so preoccupied with depth of field he neglected to add a little depth of intelligence. The plot has been called simplistic, but I think dimwitted would be more apt. Was anyone else rooting for the marines? On the plus side Avatar does offer the most spectacular battle with a tree ever "filmed".  I never thought I would say this, but I prefer Titanic, and I hate Titanic. The Terminator remains Cameron's one great cinematic achievement. I predict he will never top it.

DVD curiosity

Many movies are available in both widescreen and fullscreen on DVD, but the fullscreen version is often labeled "standard version". Why is the butchered version considered to be standard?

Welcome to my first blog.

I don't know much about blogs. I never read them so I don't know the rules, if there are any. Hopefully my ignorance will keep this thing fresh and unique. If I make mistakes be nice in your responses. I am very sensitive. I am a professional writer with moderate to mediocre success. My first book, The Films of the Seventies, was published by McFarland and Co. in 1984, and miraculously it is still in print. I even sold two copies during the last pay period. You can buy it at Amazon.com. I also wrote reviews for one of those local weekly alternative papers, but I was dumped due to budget cuts. That was the same reason my ex-wife gave. Being an attention whore I was becoming frustrated with so few outlets for my glorious words, so I finally decided to convert from professional writer to blogger. I really hate that label, which is why I took so long to try this.

Movie Otter will cover any topics relating to movies, from reviews and essays to practical advice and sarcastic commentary. I won't be limited by subjects or genres, and I can appreciate films from a wide array of filmmakers from Alain Resnais to Ray Dennis Steckler. I'll also throw in odd trivia, strange bits of humor and some of my own special and hard to answer quizzes. And yes the name of this blog does have a somewhat twisted meaning, but I will let everyone ponder it for awhile.