Something has come to my attention that must be discussed.
This is something that is of devastatingly vital concern to one and all and could have far reaching consequences throughout the Universe as we know it.
Taika Waititi is rebooting Time Bandits one of my all time favorite movies. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
It is the only movie I’ve seen six times in one weekend – once on Friday afternoon by myself, then twice on Saturday (with friends), twice on Sunday (with other friends) and once on Monday (with my sister.)
Time Bandits is the tale of young Kevin, who longs for escape from his mundane world with his humdrum parents who are obsessed with TV and consumerism. Kevin reads about Greek warriors and battles and wishes he could do things like that.
Then one night, his wardrobe spits out six dwarves, and things just get weird(er) from there.
It was directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame and funded by George Harrison, of The Beatles fame. It has cameos from a number of top tier actors.
I love the original and think it is near perfect as a movie and story.
Anyone else trying to do it is likely to totally mess things up. Except for maybe Taika Waititi. He has an offbeat sense of humor and his take on the movie might be worth a look. He isn’t doing a straight reboot, with the same characters and situations. He is taking the base concept – there’s a map, showing all the holes in the Universe, and a group of misfits are using them to travel about and get into mischief, and putting his own twist on it.
He’s also not doing it as a self-contained movie. He’s making a TV series out of it, and it is running on Apple+ TV. Regrettably I do not have a subscription to Apple+ TV, but I am tempted to get one just to see this version of Time Bandits.
It might turn out to be a pleasant surprise. It could turn out to be something that destroys the original for me and the consequences of that could ripple out among the Cosmos with detrimental consequences. I just don’t know.
All I know is that it is best to proceed with caution.
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Alas, I do not have Apple + either. I have however, already seen 2 reviews of the show, both less than favorable. This could mean that Taika Waititi and his partner (whose name I can’t remember) swung and missed.
Or it could mean that the reviewers in question just don’t get it, which is also quite likely. I have long maintained that to be a successful movie/tv critic, one does not HAVE to be a complete idiot, but it certainly seems to help.
Or it could simply mean that the 2 reviewers are American. As I recall from 43 years ago, Time Bandits was a moderate success in Europe but a complete dud on this side of the pond. (Like a lot of complete duds in America, it has since developed a cult following. Not ALL Americans are stupid.)
Unfortunately, about the only way for me to find out is for me to sign up and fork over to the evil programmers at Apple +. Not likely.
My feeling is that the reviewers probably don’t get it. And it may very well be that Americans at large don’t usually get British (or other nationalities) humor.
I recall going to see Young Einstein (done by Yahoo Serious, from Australia) with my friend Larry. There were maybe six people total in the audience and he and I were the only ones laughing at any parts of the movie. Young Einstein is another one of my favorite movies and I’ve seen it multiple times. But America at large didn’t ‘get’ it.
Swinging a subscription to Apple+ is not an option right now, and I wouldn’t want to do it for just one series. Maybe it will hit Blu-ray at some point. I could probably pick it up cheaper than getting a subscription.