Tag Archives: woke

Review of the Movie: “Demolition Man” (1993)

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Poster for the 1993 film “Demolition Man”

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Last night I finally got around to watching the 1993 film Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone as Detective John Spartan (some of these made up names are lame) and Wesley Snipes as Simon Phoenix. This is an action/adventure science fiction film with some unique insights on the future, but I’ll get to that.

The story opens in 1996 Los Angeles. Spartan is in a helicopter with two other cops (the pilot Zachary Lamb is played by Grand L. Bush, who played “Little Johnson” in the 1988 classic Die Hard).

Spartan is closing in on his nemesis, the notorious criminal Simon Phoenix, who is holding hostages taken from a commercial aircraft. This L.A. is even more brutal and lawless than the actual Los Angeles in the 1990s, already establishing a break between the film and the reality of the audience.

In typical “Rambo” style, Spartan breaks into the bad guy headquarters and caps off all of the baddies before confronting Phoenix. A heat scan didn’t show any signs of the hostages and Spartan and Phoenix fight over where they are. But Phoenix has rigged enough gasoline and C4 to blow the building into orbit.

Spartan drags Phoenix outside just in time before the whole building goes up (there’s a reason Spartan is called “The Demolition Man”). Turns out the hostages were in the building all along. Phoenix said that Spartan knew that and didn’t care. I guess L.A. coroners in this movie are dumb because they should have figured out Phoenix killed the hostages (no heat signatures) well before Spartan’s arrival.

Both Phoenix and Spartan are convicted of their crimes. Spartan is sentenced to 70 years cyrofreeze. While he’s under, his brain will be reorganized to give him more productive behaviors upon thawing. So both of these men undergo a deep freeze.

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The Old Shoe

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PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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Alan sat in the laundry contemplating the last moments of his life. It was cold outside, and not just because of the weather.

You see things differently sitting on the floor. All these different types of footwear, all for different occasions and seasons.

They cut off his job, his finances, his friends, family, even his electric car. The people of diversity and acceptance were going to kill him because he didn’t fit in with their politics and dogma.

The door from outside opened. It was Brevoort. “Still time to join us before the end.”

Alan threw a shoe at him.

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Caught in the Time Loop of Science Fiction Fandom

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Scene from the 1951 film “The Thing From Another World.”

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There seems to be an ongoing war debate on social media about whether or not science fiction is inherently liberal/progressive or conservative.

I should say that “woke” is the more common word used for “liberal” or “progressive” although the two terms are not exactly synonyms. Since, in certain circles, “woke” is used as a pejorative, I’ll be using “progressive” in the body of this wee article.

It is (mostly) conceded that across the history of science fiction (and the length of that history is also under dispute) that SciFi has tended to be progressive relative to the era in which it was created.

I bolded that statement because depending on when the piece of science fiction was created, the definition of “progressive” might not fit what it is considered to be in 2023.

Side Note: I took the image above from the movie The Thing from Another World (1951). The military people tend to be conservative and the scientists liberals. The Air Force people end up destroying the monster while one scientist almost gets them killed trying to communicate with the superior, intelligent (and extremely violent) alien.

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Review of Quantum Leap S2E4 “The Lonely Hearts Club”

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Raymond Lee (L) and Tim Matheson (R) in the Quantum Leap episode “The Lonely Hearts Club”

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Every day when you wake up, there is an adventure to be had. Some are fun, some are scary, some are flat-out stupid. No matter how you slice it, life is meant to be lived. -Neal Russell (Tim Matheson)

That was one of the better things that came out of Quantum Leap Season 2, episode 4 The Lonely Hearts Club.

Yes, it’s as schmaltzy as it sounds and I almost didn’t watch it. In fact, I really had a tough time working up the motivation to watch the episode. What finally pulled me though was the main guest star being Tim Matheson.

I was ten years old during the original run of Jonny Quest. Tim voiced the title character (I own the series on DVD). Also, who isn’t thrilled watching the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House, in which Tim plays “Otter?”

So yes, just to see Tim, I watched it.

Usually, I go into way too much detail so I’ll try to curb that.

Oh, in case you haven’t watched it yet…spoilers.

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Lovecraft Country First Season

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© James Pyles

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This afternoon, I was at my local branch of the public library and I found the first season of Lovecraft Country on DVD. As some of you may know, I was critical of the timing of the premiere of this series during certain (ahem) events.

However, when I mentioned this in social media, I was told the series was being developed well before all of that happened, so I stand corrected. I also can’t miss the fact that since writer H.P. Lovecraft has been identified as a white supremacist, the title for the series has a double meaning.

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Lovecraft Country, Tarzan of the Apes, and What is and isn’t Racism?

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Promotional image for the HBO series “Lovecraft Country”

Every once in a while, I visit Mike Glyer’s File 770 SciFi fanzine. I used to follow them and get email updates of new posts, but either due to an accidental technical glitch or me being deliberately booted off for being an “undesirable,” those notices stopped.

Anyway, I was scrolling through Pixel Scroll 8/15/20 To Clickfinity And Beyond! and came across a link to HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ Brings Viewers To A World Of Monsters, Magic and Racism.

I didn’t learn about famed horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s racism until this last round of Hugos when he was denounced along with a lot of other dead white men.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Lovecraft’s monsters and his racism have both been twisted into a show set in the 1950s which features both:

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A Sequel…Why Did It Have to Be a Sequel?

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From the teaser/trailer to “Ghostbusters 3”

Oh, good grief. I mean “Ghostbusters 3?”

Okay, I’m a huge fan of the original 1984 Ghostbusters starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and directed by Ivan Reitman. Every Halloween, I close up all of the blinds on the front of my house, hide from trick or treaters, and watch this comedy classic. It’s a beautiful movie that never gets old.

I’ve watched the 1989 sequel exactly once, hated it, and have never viewed it since.

I read extensively about the gender-flipped 2016 Ghostbuster’s remake and decided to avoid it altogether. Yes, that probably leaves me vulnerable to being called “sexist” and “misogynistic” since a “woke” man would have not only watched the film but loved it for being pro-woman and progressive (however, as Paul Bois at The Daily Wire quipped, “Get woke, go broke”)…

…or maybe it was just a bad movie banking on using an established and beloved franchise to push an ideology in the most shallow and blatantly obvious way possible.

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