Wanderlust: I Believe I Can Fly

Official Site: wanderlust-movie.com
Director(s): David Wain 
Writer(s): Ken Marino, David Wain
Producer(s): Judd Apatho, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, David Wain
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Malin Akerman, Ken Marino, Justin Theroux


George( Rudd) and Linda (Aniston) are ambitious and determined to make it in New York, but their determination in achieving success is thwarted when George loses his job after law enforcement raided the company building and confiscated some of the assets. George is unemployed, along with his wife whose penguin documentary was rejected,  after HBO bluntly  told her it is depressing and simply not sexy " Fuck the penguins." 

Making matters worse, they recently purchased a very expensive "micro-loft", but  really it's a studio with a bed that pulls down from the wall.  Out of desperation they tried selling the the studio, I mean "micro-loft", but since the housing market truly despises appreciation, the value of the property decreased only weeks after the purchase. Having lost everything, George and  Linda reluctantly  traveled to Georgia to live with Rick, George's brother. 

On the way to Georgia,  looking for a hotel, the dead broke couple drove into a narrow somewhat muddy road surrounded by trees only to have their headlights spot  a naked thick-assed middle aged man who struck them as insane.That was George and Linda's introduction to the Elysium, a commune for hippies, the antithesis of  what they were striving to be in New York, or was it?    

Linda was hesitant in  becoming a member of the commune, but she eventually assimilated well. Feeling alive and happy, immersing herself into the zeitgeist of free love, vegetarianism, and asceticism, she discovered a passion for life that city culture was not proving. Having many passions from one year to the next was part of Linda's character, living in a commune was one of them. George, enthusiastic initially, was later angered by not having privacy. There were no doors to the bathrooms, and bedrooms. He did not like the food. Veganism was not for George. He wanted meat.


Finding a lifestyle hybrid in which there is bearable compromise between urban, and simple life, came to mind as I watched this  movie. Ascetic living offers a life not hampered by stuff, and the pressure to succeed. An urban life supported by the architecture of simplicity found in asceticism is achievable, by not living beyond one's means; a valuable lesson George and Linda learned.      

Lord Voldemort's Figure

Robocop

With current special effects, I wonder what Robocop will look like. I was hoping Michael Fassbender would get the part. The relatively  unknown Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman will be playing the cybernetic crime fighter. With mega actors Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson as a supporting cast, this upcoming 2013 release seems serious. As a child, seeing the  1987 release, I thought it would be cool to have  machines enforce the law so  biological officers would not risk their lives. Integrating machines with the human physiology elevates mortal crime  fighters into superhumans who are capable of much more than their flesh and bone colleagues. 

As amazing as this seems, robotic or cybernetic law enforcers will be operating without human sensibilities, unless they are programmed to do so. Still if a cybernetic police officer has to use force, would this yield the same emotional response as a human officer trying to use force?           

Maniac!

Insidious

This movie was so promising at first. The suspense was there. The story was there, and the acting was there. The most upsetting part about this film was being guided along with the promise of something great, in that,the grand reveal was going to be  frightening and stimulating. With so much suspense being the strength of the movie, and the antagonist, being so other worldly, the ending of the film, was obligated to a consummation, that  was suppose to bring the elements of  the film together cohesively, and it did so, but in a sophomoric fashion. The production at the end transformed a film that was so ominous in tone, into a carnival that could be described as a Charles Mason collage of  haphazard statements intended to be axiomatic, but ended up being weird explosive film-salad.