The subject of the new series “Crashing” on HBO is about what a person really faces when they want to go into show business and into probably the toughest art form there is; stand-up comedy. We all see the few who succeed and make millions of dollars through TV shows, movies and stand-up specials. We all know about the Kevin Hart’s, Amy Schumer’s and Jerry Seinfeld’s who have made it big and have the life far beyond what they probably thought was ever possible. However, we don’t hear about the thousands who struggle for years and are forever poor and suffer and never make it. The show Crashing portrays some of this nightmare life but tries to make it funny which is a difficult thing to do considering what people who decide to choose this kind of life have to live through.

The story behind Crashing is about a man, played by Pete Holmes, who has the desire to do stand-up, is married and being supported by his wife. One day he catches her having an affair with another man and the marriage immediately ends and then he has to find couches to sleep on with the different people he meets while trying to make it in New York City comedy clubs. As Amy Schumer mentioned in her book, the reality of anyone starting in stand-up clubs in New York City is that you have to go out and hand out fliers and if you get a defined amount of people to attend the comedy show, maybe you can get some time on stage. This time on stage may or may not include even an audience and very often the comedy club is a very low paying flop house. This aspect of the stark reality and the paying of dues is very well done in Crashing as well as Pete Holmes almost having to beg for a couch to sleep on just about every night.

The lead actor and creator of Crashing is Pete Holmes who has been a stand up for a number of years and even has his own YOUTUBE channel. He is a good stand-up comedian, mostly unknown and he would know as well as anyone, how hard it is to make it as a comedian, and more importantly the extreme gamble you are making with your entire life, the point being is that if you are 40 and have tried to make it for 15 years, and it doesn’t work out, what do you do? What is your skill? How can you possibly make a living after 15 years of traveling the country and barely surviving?  I have always thought that this life should be the subject of a movie that shows what is really like for so many people who think they are funny and just have to try this risky life gamble.  I recommend the Amy Schumer  book “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo”, because she mentions some of the struggles she went through in stand-up comedy that included after finishing 4th on the TV show last comic standing, then going on a bus tour and bombing in 90% of her performances during that tour. Early in her career, even Schumer had to pass out fliers in the hope of maybe getting some time on stage.  On top of everything you are risking and the inevitable bad times, the bottom line is that stand-up comedy is an extremely difficult art form to master.

I highly recommend the HBO series Crashing, which will have its season finale this Sunday.

The new movie “Ghost in the Shell” tries very hard to look like the 1982 cult classic film “Blade Runner” and for the most part, it was very successful in reminding me of Blade Runner and of the dark, murky and rainy futuristic world where robots are as commonplace as human beings. Given that movie and computer technology has advanced so far since 1982, I was surprised at the just average special effects for a movie with a budget of 130 million dollars, especially with all of the scenes of the outside world in the distant future that seemed like they were slapped together or taken from another movie. What is worse than the average special effects are what amounts to a very boring story, that barely keeps your attention for even 30 minutes much less than close to 2 hours. A bad sign for me is the watch test and this movie I must have checked my watch about 25 times, waiting for it all to end as soon as possible. The acting for this film is OK, but there is not much of a story to act, unfortunately. The star is Scarlett Johansson and I suspect she is hoping there is not going to be a sequel to this movie, considering the amount of work involved in making this pretty bad science fiction film.

This film is a remake of a cartoon movie with the same title made in 1995 also entitled “The Ghost in the Shell” and given the pretty high IMDB ratings for the 1995 version (8.0), I would suggest that anyone who is interested in this story should probably see this movie and skip this bad remake.

This movie is a hard one to review, understand and even try and understand why anyone liked it, as the reviews are mostly positive, which makes no sense to me. This is another example of a low budget movie trying to be different and in the process of trying to be different, creates differences from what we are used to in terms of story or plot that are overtaken by confusion and annoying tricks and references that do nothing more than annoy and confuse the audience. This movie is about a young woman played by Kristen Stewart who has a twin brother who has the same heart abnormality that she has and he died of a heart attack at only age 27. What follows is grief caused by her brother’s death, fear of her own possible early death from the same heart problem her brother had, a murder that came out of nowhere, appearances of a ghost that we are lead to believe could be her brother, but we are never completely sure of this.

This movie has references that include ghosts, mediums, murder, an overly complex plot, nudity in several scenes that involve Kristen Stewart and an ending that you would probably need to have explained by both the screenwriter and the director. What was the point of all this? I will leave the point of this movie to whoever sees this strange and weird film to decide for themselves. I have never been a fan of movies like this because I have always been a believer of “less is more” and that when you try so hard to create scenes too fancy or complicated instead of just engaging an audience, all you have is one long annoying movie. For these main reasons, I do not recommend this very strange film.