So…who do you think got a bigger bucket of money: Ed Helms (his movie) or Chevy Chase (who probably shows up for 30 seconds to give this movie some grounding)?
Why this franchise needed a reboot after “Vegas Vacation” is beyond me. A re-release would make more sense and we could watch Ed Helm do something original rather than play Chevy Jr for 90 min. And why is this about to turn into a rant about culture?
Geek culture has become a culture of sentimentality to the point it’s ignorant of the reheated cannibalism of every aspect of original culture it used to enjoy. Maybe my generation and the two following were too coddled. These are the lullabies that make us think it will all be okay. Sure, watch a new “Jurassic Park” park movie. You will feel 14 again. Candy was free then and you didn’t have a job or bills or a family you aren’t too sure you were ready to have. For those minutes in the theater you will almost forget your spouse lost her job and you aren’t sure how the mortgage will be paid. There is a velociraptor and you are culled. If art is meant to inspire and provoke thought…well, you can do that math here.
The real problem with these reboots is they make real money for the studios. These aren’t artists creating. These are professionals imitating. There are some good and original films out there, but the general public has to search too far for them because the studios won’t put money behind new ideas. When two or three theaters are showing “Ex Machina” but you have 100 screens in Utah showing “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (face it, you’ve seen this movie what, 14 times now?) there is something wrong in American culture that points to everything we say we were, but are no longer: originally innovative. Space, the industrial revolution, flight, Mark Twain, Orson Welles…now we just go to Netflix. Not a lot of risk there unless you count bed sores from binge watching “My Ass is the New Blue” or whatever it is.
Maybe because counter culture is so quickly co-opted by commercial interests before it can take root. How can you be genuine about something when everyone around you is already wearing the t-shirt? If Travis Bickle on a shirt doesn’t make your puke, you are part of the problem. Also, when you are dressing up as superheroes on the weekends as a 30-something, working adult how they hell are your kids going to rebel? They grow up to join the Ted Cruz Youth, that’s how (I am sure some of you would be fine with that). I know, it’ll all just be fun and it’s what you’re into so BACK OFF, Corey. I get it.
Maybe that’s why people 33 and over don’t look for new music anymore: they are too busy being sucked into the past and its familiar cotton-candy scent.
Well, take a good sniff of this turd.