I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I have not seen Avatar yet, but I will, probably after the holidays. I have little fear it will disappear from theaters anytime soon. I am a little disconcerted by the unanimous praise it is getting. Roger Ebert compared it to seeing Star Wars on it’s first release back in the seventies. High praise, but even more unsettling to me is that the Golden Globes nominated it for best picture of the year, before it had even been released. Is that too much? Is the film being set up with such high expectations that no matter how good it is, will be impossible to meet? Will Avatar be a game changer? We will have to wait and see.
Was surfing channels last night and came upon Rio Bravo on AMC. As happens when you see a really good movie, I stopped and got sucked in to the story, not even minding the commercial breaks. After it was over I was struck by how much I miss the old AMC, when it was American Movie Classics. It was a great place to go to watch old movies, without commercial interruptions. I still remember when they used to have Charlie Chan and Jungle Jim marathons back in the nineties, and their annual Monsterfest in October where they would show great classic Universal horror films. Of course those days are now gone as they show more modern films like The Rookie and Last of the Dogmen, and original TV shows like Mad Men. I know that times change and cable channels need to make a profit, but it was nice to see them show a true classic film now and then.