Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

In many popular narratives of the period, it was the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960) who “ruined” the movies. Here’s the pretentious film snob summary of the death of Hollywood’s alleged second Golden Age, as popularized by Peter Biskind. The seventies were filled with bold, dark art and transgressive intellectualism. Then the greedy Baby Boomers – like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas – made “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T.” All of a sudden Hollywood did not want to make serious, grown-up pictures. Now it was the age of blockbusters so simple that 3-year-olds can summarize them.

It was the 1980s when Boomer Blockbuster filmmaking would arrive in the event pictures of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. We see this tendency further in the films of arch-Boomers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. For a definition of Boomer cinema just look at the output of their company Imagine Entertainment. These aren’t the New Wave-influenced pictures of Roger L. Simon’s generation.

It was the Boomers who also gave us our most strident and simpleminded cinematic leftists: Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Michael Moore. Think about these three careers. Over the past 30 years have any of them shifted an inch in their political thinking? Of course not and neither have most Boomers who are still arguing over sex, race, and the Vietnam War as though it were still 1975. (more…)

A young politician’s life changes forever when he is confronted with a new reality in the drama “The Adjustment Bureau.” Matt Damon stars as a Congressman who discovers that his life is being manipulated by a group of “adjusters” who are trying to keep the Congressman’s life on a certain track. The story’s concept is strong and could have been used to make an intriguing and thoughtful film about a man fighting for freedom from outside forces. Unfortunately, “The Adjustment Bureau” is not that film.

Damon plays David Norris, a “bad-boy Congressman” who is running for the United States Senate. He’s an up-and-coming political rock star who spends time with real-life political figures like Terry McAuliffe, Wesley Clark, and Madeleine Albright, who all have brief cameos in the film alongside commentators like Jon Stewart, Mary Matalin, and James Carville.

Norris’ campaign eventually derails when a secret from his past is revealed and he ends up losing the Senate race. However, on the night of his concession speech, he meets a young woman named Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) hiding out in the men’s bathroom.  Although the politician and the young woman have little in common, they are soon making out with each other like overeager teenagers on a Friday night. Afterward, Norris uses his concession speech to talk about how fake and poll-driven his campaign was. (more…)

So many absurd things are taking place around the world on a weekly, daily and even hourly basis that there’s simply no way to stay on top of it all.  If one man can barely keep up with the lunacy occurring in America, you can imagine what a Herculean task it is to also keep abreast of foreign follies.  But I am not one to shirk my responsibility.

For instance, in Afghanistan, the farmers recently called for a meeting with U.S. Marines in order to alert them to the fact that they will be in their fields at night harvesting opium poppies.  They wanted to make sure that the Marines didn’t take them for members of the Taliban and shoot them by mistake.  Like the farmers, I also don’t want our Marines to shoot them by mistake. (more…)