Can't Go Home Again

Conditions: Changing

Catch up 

This story is insane. It's also very depressing. Enjoy:

A US town has rejected a proposal for a solar farm following public concerns. Members of the public in Woodland, North Carolina, expressed their fear and mistrust at the proposal to allow Strata Solar Company to build a solar farm off Highway 258. During the Woodland Town Council meeting, one local man, Bobby Mann, said solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not go to Woodland, the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald reported.

Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing. Ms Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.

- independent.co.uk

Sigh.



Film Review: Point Break

Okay right from the start I want to make it clear that the original Point Break is an important film to me. And you too, for that matter. It stands as a brilliant and subversive story about the dangers of undercover cops and crossing the line. It's a definitive film of the 90's. The remake is something of an earnest attempt to escalate the story a bit, with a more globe-trotting plot and bigger scale. But, of course, in escalating everything there's always the danger that the heart of the story gets glossed over, and that's what's happened here.

Utah this time is an extreme athlete, who joins the FBI after a stunt goes wrong and his best friend gets killed. Many years later, a bunch of extreme athlete's are committing big crimes in various countries, and Utah thinks he knows why. It's got something to do with a series of challenges set up by some Zen dude years ago. Like, climb a mountain, ski down a slope, skydive, and so forth. Each challenge completed means that the person needs to then do a good thing for the earth, and these guys have decided to do things like blow up some mining trucks, and scatter a bunch of money over some impoverished towns. The FBI is all over this one and Utah is assigned to go undercover as a dude bro and see what he can find out. He subsequently runs into Bodhi and his crew who eventually allow him into their circle of extreme lawbreaking.

Eventually we get to the bit where the chief yells at Utah telling him he's gotten too close, but by then the chemistry has somehow leaked away from this thing. The stunts are fantastic, and the film looks great, but Utah's constant brooding and hanging around with Bodhi and his friends while they party and flex their awesome tattoos at each other inbetween crazy stunts just doesn't work. The original film had such a great energy to it, full of youth and zeal and anger, pure anger at the ruts we all end up living in. This film has seems to have a sad, lethargic frown instead, and while it ends on the same notes as the original, it feels more like a damp splash than a violent catharsis. There's no passion in this film at all, and adding the bit where Utah lays on his back and shoots in the air is a) unearned and b) unintentionally hilarious.  One and a half grimaces out of five.



Film Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens 

The funniest thing about Star War movies is the amount of baggage they bring with them. Every film is also every other film, and all the ways in which the films are remembered by us all. No doubt about it, JJ Abrams faced an impossible task when agreeing to helm the sequel to Return of the Jedi. And despite it all, for the most part, the son of a bitch actually pulled it off. Yes, after a disappointing Mission Impossible film, followed by ruining the Star Trek franchise, I seriously thought the new Star Wars was doomed. But they got the original cast back. That normally doesn't happen. And they got it away from Lucas who, to be fair to him, just doesn't seem to have that spark any more. And what kind of film did they make? A raucous, rollicking, fun and exciting adventure that sweeps across planets and around various cool characters. And front and centre, big as life, is Harrison Ford himself as Han Solo. Harrison is a sight for sore eyes, thankfully fully engaged and all-in as he portrays Han as older and greyer, but otherwise pretty much exactly and simply as Han again, up to his ears in dodgy deals, crazy action sequences, and that smirk.

Spoilers ahead, because why not. The story starts off on the desert planet of Jakku where we meet Rey, one of the countless many struggling scavengers who make a pittance salvaging bits out of old crashed Imperial ships. She comes across a BB-8 droid, who's on the run from the new Empire because it has a map leading to the elusive fugitive Luke Skywalker. How or why it has this is apparently irrelevant. Rey is joined by Finn, a storm trooper who has rebelled against his commanders and escaped to join the resistance. Once Rey and Finn escape the planet they literally run into Han and Chewey, and things basically snowball from there. Turns out the Empire have built another planet-sized weapon, and Han is as laconic about that as we are. "Let's just blow it up then" indeed. The one hitch is that the new Vader, Kylo Renn, is Han and Leia's son, who is very strong with the force. Kylo has been studying the dark side under some new Emperor type dude. So after a few planets are blown up, Leia sends a strike force led by Han to take out the planet weapon. She also tells Han to bring back their lost son.

Now up until the final sequence of the big finale, I was having a terrific time. The film is brilliant. Exciting, well paced, funny, classy, gritty, interesting, it's achieving the impossible. You're thinking: no way can they make a Star Wars movie in the style of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, but here it is, on the screen unfolding. And then, to put it kindly, they f**k the whole thing up. Han confronts his son, the son gets angry, then gets strangely calm, then kills Han.

Yes, Han Solo is killed. And frankly to me, the rest of the film passes mostly as a lot of explosions and pew-pew, off in the distance somewhere. Rey fights Kylo, Fin get's hurt, the rebels blow up the planet, blah-blah-blah. All I kept thinking was: they killed Han. The fools! The character that's always been the heart of the Star Wars movies. They guy we all like and can relate to. They basically ripped the heart out of the franchise. And with his death we're left with a couple of kids and Luke Skywalker (note: not actually in this film btw). No wonder Leia looks so sad. I'm pretty damn sad myself. Knocking off Han has essentially stopped the film dead, and all the rest of it is bullshit. Screw you, Abrams. Three grins out of five.

 - Peace out