right now watching the final 3rd of Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey on tv. remarkable how Kubrick et al. were so prescient re: technology in the film. for example, I am watching the film on tv with my laptop literally on my lap and I'm struck by how the characters of the movie are watching their news while eating dinner with very similarly styled devices. or how Dr. Heywood Floyd phones his daughter from the space station with a phone card. or how Floyd watches a movie on the monitor fastened on the seat in front of him on his flight to the space station, like on most international flights.

that is no small potatoes too. since most of the costumes look so bloody mod that it reveals the times Kubrick created the movie. also, kudos must be given for the ambient soundscapes that punctuate the themes of the film. funny, but when I was a pup I couldn't get past the first 20 minutes of the movie when it was broadcast on tv. the pacing, and the soundscapes put me to sleep. these are qualities that I now adore. Kubrick was a genius, and this movie was one of his best.

unlike the movie I watched yesterday. okay, I'll admit that I'm a fan of Logan's Run. I saw it --where else? -- at the drive-in in 1976, when I was a pup. it is a fast-paced no-brainer thrill ride right off the bat. Michael York and Jenny Agutter over-emote their way to life past the mandatory cut-off birthday of age 30. when you hit that number it means you either die by a state-sponsored freakshow, or run and hope the Sandmen (get it?) , don't put you to the big sleep. anyway, I like York and Agutter, the latter in one of my favorite horror movies, John Landis's An American Werewolf in London, but the real star of the movie is the splendid Richard Jordan as York's bestest buddy-cum-antagonist. a terrific actor who barely maintained a modicum of dignity for this silly outing.

what is strange about this movie is that it was released a year before Star Wars, and I think won the f/x Oscar for 1976. yet, the movie is pure cheese in the looks dept. in fact, the film is shot in what appears to be any US shopping mall. and a super cheap one at that. at any rate, for a bit of art the producers, or writer, or director, or somebody had Peter Ustinov (playing a lost old man outside the City living in the ruins of Washington, D.C.) spouting the cat poems of T.S. Eliot to the young, impressionable York and Agutter. perhaps, somebody putting the film together thought the T.S. stands for Terribly Sexy. I'm sure if Eliot had seen this film he would demur and say the T.S. stands for Terribly Sick.

holy shit! guess what's the next movie. yep, that's right Logan's Run. must be in the air, or water, or something.