An unimaginative choice but we went back to basics yesterday and had a mini Star Wars fest. We couldn't face the ridiculousness of Jar Jar Binks so started at the actual birth of the franchise rather than at the commencement of its internal chronology.
The original Star Wars (also nowadays referred to by some completists as A New Hope but never so known in its heyday) retains its power to involve. Darth Vader is a great dramatic creation and the power of the back-story covers for some of the clunky dialogue. 8/10 though this is a slightly generous rating based upon its impact and cultural importance.
The Empire Strikes Back has always been my favourite and stands with Godfather Part II as the most frequently posited candidate for sequel which betters its progenitor. I greatly enjoyed The Force Awakens but marginally I just take The Empire Strikes Back as the better. It contains one of cinema's greatest lines and also has the venerable Yoda. 8.5/10.
Now I have to decide whether to give the emotional sloppiness of Return of the Jedi a go (I probably will) and, much harder whether to give the three prequels another chance, if only for the sake of the integrity of the saga. Life may well be too short.
Yesterday was my first time in the Gold Club at Star City - now this is the way to watch films, huge reclining seats and no bloody half-wits making a racket. Definitely worth the extra spondulicks.
Here's the good news - The Force Awakens sees the Star Wars franchise back in prime form, its best since 1980, all the way back to The Empire Strikes Back.
Themes (in fact even plot lines) are borrowed from the original films, but it is none the weaker for that. The dialogue benefits from not being penned by Georgs Lucas and the action keeps coming thick and fast. Harrison Ford reanimates Han Solo and Daisy Ridley as Rey gives us the new heroine we need. I had a great time. No spoilers - go and see it for yourself. 8/10.
I had a rather lovely Christmas Day. This of course was largely due to the Groupie's organisational and culinary skills and to the presence of almost the full Roberts clan. My job was to look ornamental and get mildly drunk. I managed the latter of these tasks.
Local holy man
The day had started with mass at Holy Trinity Sutton Coldfield conducted by the very amusing and pleasingly holy Father Michael Ho. He fled Vietnam in 1982 and he tells good jokes. He exudes a resolute happiness and has charisma.
I have been a critic of Barak Obama's pieties but I must confess you could not be other than impressed by the President's television walk on the wild side with the bonkers Bear Grylls. Grylls was gushingly in awe of Obama and it is undeniable that the President has mega charisma. Much as I might be underwhelmed by his politics he is an ornament to the American Dream - a thought which drags me back to reality and the wretched Donald Trump. May his downfall be the political story of 2016. Any other outcome is too miserable to contemplate.
The girls are taking me to see the new Star Wars later today as part of my Christmas present. Report to follow.
Alan Partridge:Alpha Papa. I seem to have been lucky so far. I'm an admirer of Steve Coogan but had my doubts that the studiedly awful Alan Partridge would survive expansion into feature length. No need to worry. The writers (including the enviably able Armando Iannucci) resisted the temptation to go all expansive and retained the parochialism that is central to the Partridge character. Made me laugh. 7/10.
I've just done a rough count and by my reckoning we will have had fifteen British productions, four American, one Danish/Swedish, one French, one sporting item, two current affairs, three children's programmes, seven comedies and eleven dramas. There is a mixture of ancient and modern with a discernible mid 70's bias.
So. Drumroll. We finish with another fond memory of adolescence. Of its period and perhaps betraying some outmoded attitudes, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is comic writing and playing of the top order. It is perhaps a tad blokeish but then I'm a bloke. James Bolam was given the gift of a great comic creation in Terry Collier and took it with both hands - a favourite line is when he is fishing solitarily and is joined dockside by a wistful Bob - gesturing to the cans by his side Terry says, "I'd offer you a beer but I've only got six." Believable and beautiful.
The co-writers, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, also wrote Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen Pet amongst others. Now that is a body of work.
I am embedding the link to the Christmas Special, not in fact the very best of the Lads but it gives you a seasonal taste of Bob and Terry.
Happy Christmas to all our readers and may your God go with you.
I had managed to go forty-five years without seeing Love Story, one of the most watched and derided films of my youth. Do you know what, it's actually rather good at what it does. It is the tragedy of Ryan O'Neal's Oliver and his father wrapped into a romance. Not overlong and it quite properly doesn't set out to answer the various questions it poses. No I didn't cry. 7/10.
Christmas has started - we've just picked up Daughter Number One from the airport, returning from a wedding in Adelaide.
Today's entry can just occasionally seem preachy and biased, certainly it is improbably wordy and erudite. However it is much more often plain inspiring and certainly the most adroitly scripted political drama ever made. This is The West Wing - an advertisement for the good possibilities of America. I know I keep banging on about him but once again I have to draw attention to the odious, immoral, intellectually bankrupt Donald Trump. Again I repeat myself, but he simply must not happen to the America I know and love - a land of contradictions and frustrations but at its heart a force in the search after truth. The clip is of Bartlett as intellect primus inter pares. God Bless America.
Once upon a time there was a lawyer called David who did nicely out of the law for twenty years before it chewed him up and spat him out. He retired and went back to university which was lovely. Then there was a lawyer called David again. Part-time. This time it lasted three years before he and the law parted by mutual consent. Now he styles himself an independent academic - which is code for retired/unemployable.
