XDA

Went to see the new Harry Potter which was pretty good and the fourth version of Bruce Willis as John McClane, Live Free or Die Hard, which was OK. These are both right wing movies. Let's go with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix first.

This was based on the the fifth of the septology and the book was long, convoluted and eminently forgettable, for me. It was as if the words went into my brain through my eyes and then just evaporated. All I could recall was there was a series of fights in the Ministry of Magic and someone important got killed. But the movie pared down the lengthy mess into a long but not tedious movie--straightforward, easy to access and quite good fun. Well done, director David Yates whose only other work I've seen is made for TV (HBO) The Girl in the Cafe which was OK. And I'm OK with the fact that Yates in in pre-production of the next, penultimate Potter book, Half Blood Prince. That was another book that I devoured but remembered little except someone important gets killed, by Snape of all people.

The political resonance of the story for me came from the dream casting of Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge. She was so good, it is impossible now to imagine anyone else playing the role. Umbridge is a bureaucrat toady as nanny a lefty in charge as could exist. The ministry she works for is in denial about the return of he who is not to be named, and she sinks lower and lower in ethical behavior all for the proper education of the children, including, real torture, a network of informers and civil rights violations (like in the Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany). Oh, and the the ever multiplying prohibitions. The more law the less justice, I always say. It is with real justice that she is overthrown in the end.

Harry actually does some acting, as he has to. The story is wholly about his inner struggle--why is life so unfair, am I a good person, will I stay one, what is it about smokin' hot Asian women? are all questions Harry is struggling with and it would take too long to show his struggle any other way than by his showing his emotional turmoil in his face and voice. He does some good stuff, and the other children turned young men and women who have inherited an early gravy train seem to rise to the occasion.

Of course it all turns out well, with a good new female character or two and the next two (at least) installments already in the pipeline. And a good time was had by all.

Not quite so much with Live Free or Die Hard, which I mightily wanted to like. Cyber terror. Not really that scary to me. I'm sure it's my generation's notorious inability to use computers. There were some scary operatives, drop outs from Montreal's Cirque de Soleil no doubt, but they were horrible shots, yet again, with no fire control or ability effectively to use full auto weapons, few of which I recognized, I'm sorry to say. Let's recount a few examples. The likable dweeb from Galaxy Quest and Dodgeball is the sidekick here. He has failed to blow himself up, so the acrobat assassin has a full auto weapon with suppressor and telescopic sight across the street on the chest high parapet. An easy shot, no more than 50 yards away, if that. So what does he do? He puts the first shot high and right by about 6 inches. That's some shootin' Tex. Then he and the other furiner hose down the city with clip after clip after clip (oh, sorry, magazine--pretend I said magazine) and not a single round hits home. Please. I've never shot full auto but I promise you , if I did, one of my shots will score from a 30 round mag from 50 yards. I actually think it would be difficult to miss with every single shot.

Then there's McClane and his invulnerability. I can forgive the baling out of the car at 5o. I can forgive the completely shrug it off asskicking he takes from yet another smoking hot Asian. I can even forgive that one second he's dying from a sucking chest wound and then, after taking another point blank to the high right, lung, he's smoking a cigarette, sitting up in the back of an ambulance in absolutely no hurry to get to the hospital. Iron man is putting it mildly (I was kidding about the cigarette--he has no visible vices and there is not the hint of a whisper of the scent of a love interest for him). But I can't take it that he takes on an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter while driving a big rig and takes out the plane unscathed. Yeah, that's highly likely.

Len Wiseman is the director and he did the Kate Beckensale vehicle Underworld movies, and nothing else before this. It's exciting if implausible action, usually involving a flying threat which is no threat because the door gunner wasn't in country 40 years ago, if you know what I mean.

This has to be the last of them. It's fun, but the series ran out of gas at the end of the third one (like with James Cameron sequels) and without a major shift in emphasis, anything after this would necessarily suck. Which this one didn't completely.

Kevin Smith is self deprecating comic relief. Willis' all grown up daughter is OK, but not great.

The F-35 Willis destroyed had two 25 mm automatic cannons. Right. The last time one of our planes had more than one gun was over Korea half a century ago. Lot of good the extra gun did the pilot here. And what was with the externally mounted missiles. Stealth! All the missiles are inside. Do they think we don't know about these things?

So what's so right wing about it?--being committed to doing the right thing no matter what the cost, or even likelihood of success. That's conservative values. I liked that part a lot. Oh and that Willis grunted with satisfaction when he killed one of the bad guys. Right wing all the way.

Labels: Harry Potter movie; Bruce Willis movie