MOVIE: Wish (2023)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Wish Year: 2023 Rating: PG Length: 95 minutes / 1.58 hours For a monumental achievement of 100 years of animation, Disney unfortunately let that landmark hold too much weight when they came up with Wish (2023). What should have been an original idea that could have been of Frozen (2013) or Tangled (2010) quality ended up being bogged down with nostalgia for older eras of the animation studio. Yes, most Disney fans will probably pick out the references to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940)—with the title being a clear call-out of “When You Wish Upon a Star.” However, this is not enough to make it worth watching. The premise of Wish is so basic as to be almost completely forgettable. That it’s basically a metaphor for trickle-down economics is probably lost on most, and ironic coming from Disney as well. Other choices, like having the goat talk (even if voiced by long-time collaborator Alan Tudyk) did not make these characters...
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MOVIE: Napoleon (2023)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Napoleon Year: 2023 Rating: R Length: 158 minutes / 2.63 hours On paper, this movie had a lot going for it. Ridley Scott, partnering with Joaquin Phoenix again after the wildly successful Gladiator (2000) felt like this was a surefire entertaining film. Instead, the few scenes of military action were the only things that made this movie worth watching. Usually, when I watch a biopic about a famous individual like Napoleon Bonaparte, I’d expect something eyebrow raising that I didn’t know before. Napoleon is not that kind of film, as it is filled with history that I already knew, and I don’t consider myself a scholar of Napoleon. A lot of biopics tend to either show the genius of their titular character or cast light on their odd behavior (despite their angelic public persona). Napoleon has moments of both, each of which undercuts the effectiveness of the other. I can’t take his military success seriously when he has such peculiar bedroom habits, and I find...
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BOOK: Ulysses (1922)

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Ulysses Year: 1922 Author: James Joyce Length: 1,797 minutes / 29.95 hours OK, I’ll be the first to admit that perhaps the audiobook version of this story isn’t the best way to digest it. While I did appreciate the Irish accent of the man who read this book, there really wasn’t much of a chance to re-read sections that were quite confusing. As a result, I have no idea what this book is about or what it was supposed to convey. I had a loose understanding that it was based on Homer’s The Odyssey, which helped make a few connections here and there, but I honestly can’t say that this parallel between the plots of the two stories is obvious at all. Perhaps the weakness I perceive in this story is due to its status as one of the great pieces of modernist literature. If that’s the case, then I’ll admit that I don’t understand modernist literature at all. None of it made any sense...
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