Without a doubt, Star Wars which was first released 40 years ago in 1977 is the most prolific and profitable franchise in movie history, now spanning 9 films.

Some 20 years ago the inventor of this amazing movie idea, George Lucas, decided to make 3 new movies starting in 1999, after saying for years that his Star Wars idea was only going to be a movie trilogy and he would never make another sequel. The 3 new Star Wars movies received a level of success and critical acclaim that was far less than the first 3 movies received and perhaps because of that, Lucas decided to sell the entire franchise to Disney for 4 billion dollars some years ago. Two years ago “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was released and the world now knows that there will probably be a new Star Wars movie released every December for the foreseeable future. The second movie, released in 2016, “Rogue One” was the first Star Wars movie that involved characters that were outside the original franchise, but this new one, “The Last Jedi” contains both the new characters introduced in The Force Awakens and the original characters that go back to the original movie released in 1977.

Everyone knows that a Star Wars release is virtually a guaranteed huge money maker and due to that obvious fact, very often due to the pressure to produce another film every years with so many special effects and action the screenplay takes a back seat, and in my opinion, that is the main problem with this film.

I have never been a fan of rapid-fire Michael Bay scene changes with no explanation or continuity or connecting thread as several stories move forward and then switch to another part of the story, then back again, then to another scene and before you know it, you have no idea what is going on and the entire experience becomes more annoying than entertaining. This movie plays like it was written by 5 screenwriters with so many different scenes and story lines going at the same time for over 2 hours. There are great special effects like like all of the Star Wars movies, but like I have said many times in this blog, special effects will never be a band aid for a poorly written screenplay or bad original story idea. While I don’t think The Last Jedi is by any means a bad movie, for me it was not good enough movie because of the “all over the place direction”. I expected more with this film and because of the rapid fire disconnected story telling, I was overall disappointed.

It was quite depressing to see the late Carrie Fischer in her last film role and in some ways, Mark Hamill, who looks looks much older than his 66 years. Perhaps the rapid aging of Fischer and Hamill is a reflection of the incredible highs and lows of their respective acting careers and after both of them reached such a huge highs 40 years ago, they found like so many that trying to be a Hollywood actor is an extremely difficult and precarious life choice.

See this movie for the special effects and the action scenes, but not for the great story.

This movie is both a documentary and an actual movie about another movie called “The Room” which is known as the best worst movie ever made. The story is also about something that is never talked about enough. The number of poor people in Hollywood following their remote dreams of becoming actors, directors, producers and trying to become rich and famous like so many of the rare few in the most difficult and fickle business in the world, Show Business. This film is about a little known actor, writer and director, Tommy Wiseau, played by James Franco, who after a car accident has slurred speech but still tries to make it in Hollywood after years of constant rejection. The amazing part of this story is that somehow Wiseau obtains a great deal of money (its never revealed how he got this money) and like so many before him who have failed, he tries to make his own movie that he stars in, directs and writes. What ultimately results is an extremely bad movie that over the years after 2003 when it was first released, has become a cult movie around the world, only because its so bad, its rather funny. What I found fascinating about this is where does a movie that is very bad become entertaining and actually good because its so bad? Where is this fine line between just bad and funny bad? The yearly Television phenomenon Sharknado is a good example of something that is so bad and so stupid that its actually funny and entertaining. Another movie that has the distinction of being so bad its actually funny is the movie Plan 9 from Outerspace that was released in 1959.

Like so many people with no talent who think they can sing on shows like American Idol, Tommy believes that he is great actor, even though he has no acting ability and a great writer, even though he cant write a screenplay and with 6 million dollars along with his best friend Greg, played by James Franco, he sets out to make a very bad movie that he thinks is going to be a great masterpiece. The Room cost Wiseau 6 million dollars to make and on its first weekend in 2003 in only one theater it made only 1800 dollars, but over time and all over the world because of its cult following, in the ending credits it was revealed that the movie has made most of that 6 million dollars back.

For me the best line of this entire movie was from Judd Apatow who played a cameo in this film as himself being harassed in a restaurant by Wiseau. His line, “Even if you had the talent of a Marlon Brando you’re odds of making it are still 1 million to 1”. Apatow’s other line was almost as good, “Just because you desperately want to make it, does not mean that you ever will.” For me that says it all about the realities of life in Southern California for so many well-intentioned dreamers. The harsh reality is for so many good people, it doesn’t matter if your talented and deserving, so often its just all about dumb luck. The millions of people who are destined to be always on the outside looking into a world that they see as nirvana, can only hope and pray that the lucky few who have made it, appreciate the miracle gift they have been given, but it seems that so many of them don’t. The recent myriad of sexual allegations in Hollywood certainly prove that.

As far as this movie that I thought was good or average somewhat funny story about Hollywood and its harsh realities, I was surprised at the very high marks on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB this film has received. I would give it maybe a 7 out of 10, definitely not an 8 or higher.

The movie “Last Flag Flying” is not really a war movie, but rather a story about the aftermath of war depicted in a way I have never seen before. Three friends from the Vietnam War reunite after many years, leading to a road trip where they transport the son of one of them, who was killed in the Iraq War in 2003 to his hometown to be buried.

This movie has 4 major stars, starting with Steve Carell who is the father of the solder who is killed, Brian Cranston, a local bar owner and Laurence Fishburne who is now a preacher. The story is about the transition for the father of the young solder killed, played very well by Steve Carrel from the anger he feels towards the United States at first for losing his only child to an unjust war based on lies about “weapons of mass destruction”. Towards the end, he eventually coming to terms with his new reality of not only losing his wife to breast cancer a year earlier, but now his only son. War is hell and this story about how and why his son was killed in this story are typical of the aftermath of war.

One scene that impressed me the most was when Carell’s character insisted on seeing the body of his dead son, despite knowing in advance how horribly he died. There is some humor in this story mostly during the the road trip, mainly by Cranston’s character and excellent acting by all stars. There is a scene towards the end where the three men visit the mother pf one of their fallen friends from Vietnam, played by 93 year old Cicely Tyson and the conversation leads to a dilemma that represents another tragedy of war; do you tell a surviving loved one the real truth about how their son really died? Or do you spare their feelings to protect the memories they have of their son who was killed in action? The suffering because of War’s in this world is beyond all comprehension and for those who are left behind to rationalize the loss of someone so young and to always imagine what could have been is unbearable.

I thought this movie was very well produced, directed and acted and I recommend it.