Going Off Half Cocked

Conditions: Winter Of Disco-tent

Trouble in Space

Scientists think they have figured out what is behind large bursts of radio waves from the far side of the universe, and the explanation is a doozy.

Strange bursts of radio waves from billions of light-years across the universe have puzzled astronomers for more than half a decade, making them question if the signal was even real. Now, in a paper published by the journal Science, researchers say they think they’ve figured out a potential explanation: Something cataclysmic.

What exact cataclysm is causing them, however – merging stars, dying stars, stars being eaten alive – is still up for serious debate.

- latimes.com/news/

Hmmmm. So the answer is... not really any answer at all. You know, sometimes scientific conclusions should just be kept to the scientists, because coming out and saying that there’s some kind of huge explosions going off far out on deep space, and we have no idea what’s causing them, just simply does not help the situation at all. Go pitch that shit to Hollywood and get back to us when you have some conclusions rather than wild guesses.



Film Review: The Lone Ranger

If you’re a fan of the rollicking type of Gore Verbinski action movie personified by the various Pirates of the Caribbean films, then good news! For the rest of us, here we go again. Johnny Depp this time plays Tonto, in this re-telling of the old western legend. It’s a robust and fast-paced film, depicting a bumbling ex-city lawyer who becomes the Lone Ranger after his brother is killed by an outlaw. The LR and Tonto team up to track the outlaw down, and in doing so uncover a big conspiracy to incite a war between the Indians and the settlers, all over land for the new railway being built. So in short, it’s a series of cliches and well-worn old plot points pumped up to bursting point with big-budget special effects. It’s told through a book-ending device where an aged Tonto is telling his story to some kid in a Wild-Wild west theme park, so every now and then we cut back to this kid asking questions as to what’s going on.

This, and various other choices made throughout the film, I think point to a massive misunderstanding and uncertainty by the filmmakers as to what actual kind of movie are they making. Is it supposed to be a harsh western? A fast action film? A comedy? Well in this day of $250 million plus blockbusters, you no longer have to decide. It is everything, frequently switching from one tone to another in the blink of an eye. This is disconcerting to say the least, with the tone all over the place it’s a very difficult film to engage with. You can’t really keep up with what you’re meant to be feeling as the film keeps switching around. Perhaps it’s meant to be a smorgasbord of a film, where you enjoy some bits, text through other bits, and then eventually it finishes with the standard extended wacky action sequence.

I don’t know exactly what the drive was to make this film, I don’t really see any obvious message or story arc coming through, it really seems just an opportunity taken to make a big event western blockbuster with all the cliches, and unfortunately it feels that way at many moments throughout the 2+ hour running time. It does feel earnest, I mean you want to like it, Both Armand Hammer and Johnny Depp do the best they can with their roles and the somewhat chaotic plot they are swept along in. Maybe that’s the result of the big-money blockbuster age we live in, where films end up so bloated they can’t really focus on the specifics of just telling a story. Two train decouplings out of five.



- Peace out