Ben Kingsley

Without a Clue

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Without a Clue. ITC Entertainment Group, 1988.

Before watching the movie:

I used to make a point of saying why I chose a movie, but I stopped because it was often just “it was on the shelf/streaming service”. However, this one has a particularly unusual path. Several years ago, I got a CD of Halloween-themed film music. One of the tracks was “Super Sleuth, from Without A Clue”. The name didn’t fit, the music didn’t fit, the source didn’t fit, it seemed an all around poor choice. However, it directed my attention to a movie that had the potential to fit my tastes very well. I don’t think I got around to looking it up on my rental service for another few years, but whenever I added it, it’s taken until now to get to the top of the list.

Frequent readers of this blog should know that I have a particular attraction to variants of Sherlock Holmes stories. I’m intrigued by the halfway application of the literary agent hypothesis, but mostly I just want to see Michael Caine play a bad actor trying to be Holmes. Ben Kingsley seems a terrific choice to play a straight man in a double act, and Michael Caine is terrific in everything.

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AI: Artificial Intelligence

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A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Warner Brothers 2001.

Before watching the movie:

It’s not often that I come across a science fiction movie that I’m not looking forward to seeing. This film should have everything going for it. It was made recently, so should have a clean, appealing aesthetic. It’s about robots and what it means to be human. It was made by Stephen Spielberg. So why have I put this off for ten years?

I’m not looking forward to the story. It sounds too sad for me to enjoy. A child android is programmed to be completely human, but he’s still a robot in society’s eyes. Wait, that sounds like Bicentennial Man without Robin Williams. The problem I expect is that the robot in that movie was on a quest to make society understand him, but in this movie, since he is a child, I only expect harsh treatment and crying. Admittedly, that’s a little too simplistic. I fully expect this one to fall in the category of movies I liked better than I expected because my expectations were too low.

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A Sound of Thunder

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A Sound of Thunder. Franchise Pictures 2005.

Before watching the movie:

I randomly found this movie on the shelf at the library, and I was intrigued. I’m somewhat breaking my rules for selections (I try to have a minimum age of ten years), but I’m very interested in seeing how this turned out. I have read the Bradbury short story this is based on, and I’m interested in discovering how they adapted it into a feature. My guess is that the characters have to battle through the alternate world they create, but I’m hoping to be surprised. For one thing, the happy ending they’re probably going to build to makes the title meaningless.

It also features Ben Kingsley, so there’s that.

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