Hour 21: A Film and Interactive Media Blog

We continue with our journey through the joys of numbers with Steven Spielberg's first and only comedy. And that is the problem with 1941. This film about what would happen if a Japanese submarine appeared off the coast of Los Angeles just isn't funny. When I say not funny I mean I literally can't remember a single joke or humorous situation in the entire movie.             It really is a feat that this is stale from end to end because writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale would go on to direct and write Back to the Future. 1941 struggles to find a voice, it doesn't know if it wants to be a biting satire or ridiculous farce. As a result it's just all over the place. Maybe that was the point but it doesn't appear that way. It tries too hard to say look at all the stuff happening on screen but none of it really has any point.             What this film ultimately is, is a stop...

Diverse and distinctive, The two words that come to mind when thinking about The 100. A TV show about 100 prisoners sent to the surface of an irradiated Earth 97 years after a nuclear disaster. One of the most striking aspects of The 100 is that it moves. Meaning it does not do what most television shows do, which is stay with one main storyline throughout an entire season.             As fast as the show presents a question, it answers it just as quickly . It's almost as if the show is saying we have all this time so let's tell you a story and not make you wait for it. As a result the characters and situations seem real because they are not constrained by some writers desire to hold off on an answer to a mystery for six years. The show  is creating a world and wants its audience to live in it not wish for its end.             Yet all of this inventiveness in storytell...

This wonderful tale of a Khaki Scout and his first love is at its best when it evokes comics strips like Schultz's Peanuts or Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes. The  excitement of youth is palpable emphasized wonderfully by Wes  Anderson's trademark dry and to the point style. Take for instance this exchange that takes place over the corpse of the Scout Troops dog. Susie: "Was he a good dog?" Sam: "Who could say."     In this simple back and forth Wes Anderson and co-writer Roman Coppola emphasize the films ability to capture a child's point of view. Within these few words Susie and Sam are trying to have a meaningful conversation, which to an older person may seem pointless, but to them it is a thought-provoking examination of life and death.  Anderson and crew   turn back the clock to a time where we all are 12 years old, and we know less than we think we do or perhaps more than we are letting on. All in all this is a great film, and p...