Month: December 2024

Homestead brings it to where you live

Okay, the Average Dude will openly admit a couple of things right out of the gate…I was really looking forward to Homestead AND the Average Dude absolutely has been preparing for the possibility of a total economic collapse. There, I said it. Not that I would consider myself a Prepper (capital P). But yeah, I looked at the social and political landscape of the past decade and felt that taking a few precautions was a responsible decision. Taking care of the Average Family is a priority.

Imagination is a two-edged sword

Coming out this Christmas is Homestead, a dark imagination of a very possible future. The latest release from Angel Studios, Homestead stars veteran actor Neal McDonough, who is a staple of many Angel Studio movies and never disappoints. McDonough plays Ian Ross, a wealthy land owner who long ago saw the writing on the wall and created a self-sustaining lifestyle tucked away in the mountains (Rockies, I think?). When the nuclear SHTF (look it up), Ian calls his family and close friends home to roost, along with a cadre of ex-military ‘security’ personnel to help him keep his loved ones safe.

You’re in my world now, soldier

The leader of the ex-mils is Jeff Eriksson (Baily Chase), who brings nearly a dozen of his select operatives (and his melded family) to Homestead. Eriksson is in his element here and finds that a part of his job is to convince Ian – who is in semi-denial – that the world everyone knew is now gone. Hard choices will need to be made if Homestead is going to survive.

Adding to Ian’s troubles is his tender-hearted wife, Jenna (Dawn Olivieri), who is of the opinion that surviving isn’t good enough if you have to let your friends (or strangers) suffer. Jenna wants Ian to open the gates of Homestead and let the refugees in. In Ian’s mind, the math just doesn’t work, the supplies and replenishable yieldage can’t take the added mouths. And Ian must protect his family…at all costs. Hard choices indeed.

Kids will be kids, even during the apocalypse

There are multiple character arcs frolicking in the end-of-days story of Homestead. Teenagers gonna be teenagers, young love and all that. Puppies make everything better. Power dynamics. Family struggles. Wrestling with spirituality. Logic vs faith. Everything exacerbated by fear of a new, dark reality. The house of cards outside the gates is falling, and all hope is centered on Homestead.

The Good and Bad, minus the Ugly

My point: Homestead does a really decent job of exploring the changing landscape of an America collapsing. It drives home, in gentle fashion, how amazingly fortunate we are in this country. Also, how much we take for granted and how incredibly unprepared we are to truly take care of ourselves and our own. However, it does so from a vantage point that almost none of us can identify with.

Homestead is the story of a very wealthy family who has prepared for a collapse that some say is inevitable. And therein is the rub… almost none of us have the resources of the Ross family. We can’t afford sprawling estates in the mountains. We don’t have the hours in a day to maintain agrigulture on those non-existing estates. We don’t have connections with private security forces to come and keep us safe. In the minds of Preppers, it’s a fantasy come to the big screen. All their forsight and plans and wisdom paying off.

For everyone else, it’s a reminder that, in a SHTF scenario, pretty much no one is prepared. And honestly, Homestead doesn’t take it far enough. Bleak as it is, Homestead doesn’t really show the brutal decent into inhumanity that a collapse like this would be for the 99.9% of America. In short, it misses the mark.

The Divinity Factor

Homestead incorporates an element of God With Us, which is a mainstay of every Angel Studios film I’ve seen. It provides the ray of hope and faith and trust that God requires of His people, albeit sort of as an afterthought. And because of that, the impact of the miraculous was somewhat muted. IMO, another missed opportunity.

In the end, I found Homestead entertaining in a way that Civil War wasn’t. Where Civil War was just bleak, Homestead brought an element of hope. And my takeaway there was that, even though I possess not even close to the level of resources as the Ross family, I can still help those in need. I can’t save them all. But that doesn’t absolve me from helping who and where I can. And I still need to trust that God will provide.

So, all things considered, The Average Dude is giving Homestead* a solid 3.7 out of 5. God save us all from such a day as this. If that’s not to be, God grant us the courage to see and give hope.

*I’ve also watched the first two episodes of Homestead: The Series, which picks up right where the movie leaves off. I’ll be excited to see this post-apolcalyptic show through to the end, however that plays out.

Check out all the Average Dude Movie Reviews and our super cool merch at www.barredlands.com

Follow us on X

Follow and Like us on Facebook

#barredlandsdotcom #AverageDudeMovieReviews #PCLoadletter64 #Homestead #NealMcDonough #HomesteadSeries #AngelStudios

Wicked is turkey and stuffing for the eyeholes

Your humble Average Dude is not ashamed to say that I like live theater.* I’ve seen many of the greats in my lifetime. The Lion King. Les Miserables. Phantom of the Opera (twice). And of course, Wicked. Seeing these amazing productions live on-stage is vastly different than seeing it on the IMAX, for many reasons, good and not as good. There is a great and terrible tension when you are sitting in your seat with live actors a frisbee throw away that could at any moment miss a cue or forget a line or trip over their own feet. You’re applause, your gasps, your laughter, are all part of the experience.

To the good: taking an award-winning stage show and adapting it to the big screen allows the special effects wizards to make it SO much easier to suspend disbelief. Flying monkeys on stage are obviously fake. Flying monkeys on the screen look real enough to be…uh…real. And Wicked takes full advantage of that.

Simpler times, I guess

For those of you who turn your brains off whenever you hear the words ‘live theater’ or ‘musical’, the story of Wicked is a retelling of the classic story The Wizard of Oz, told from the perspective of the ‘Witch’ Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo).

Wicked is, at it’s core, a commentary on socio-political structures, biases and evils. I’ve heard whispers that the 1939 MGM film made from the classic literature by L. Frank Baum was also a veiled political commentary. I’ve never cared enough to dig into whether that is true or not. I prefer to let the film be what most of us have always percieved it to be: a fanciful, magical tale of a binary battle, good vs evil.

Oh, but the times are a’changin’

Wicked (or more precisely, Wicked Part One) doesn’t even try to hide it’s moral juxtaposition. From the very first reel, we learn that Alphaba was the product of an illicit affair between a lonely Ozian ‘work widow’ and a smooth-talking travelling salesman who plied his willing conquest with an intoxicating green elixir.** That’s a little bit of a spoiler and I apologize. It was necessary to frame pretty much the entirity of the tone of the movie.

And don’t get me started on the Wizard

From the perspective of Wicked, all the people in this movie are wicked EXCEPT the witch of the west.*** Glinda (the ‘Guh’ is silent) is, at best, a shallow, entitled brat who has never been told no by her Mumsy and Popsicle. Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister is a pitiable victim of an unfair life. All the students of Shiz University are either mindless followers or vicious elitests. Even the quasi-love interest for Elphaba is a self-absorbed narcisist until he meets the transcendant one (Elphaba, not the Wizard).

For all that, Wicked is just really good

In every way you can imagine, Wicked is the anti-Wizard of Oz…except…it’s darned entertaining.

Every character is played to the utmost, which is the only way a movie like this can succeed. Glinda (the insanely talented Ariana Grande) is the epitome of entitled idol wannabe… the expect-to-be. All the students excellently play the worst kind of mindless, cowering followers. Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yo play the ruling class morally bankrupt douche-hammers perfectly in their convinction that superiority gives them license to do as they wish. Literally, the dregs of humanity covered in frosting are reflected in Ozkind. And we gobbled it up. The musical numbers were as popular as we remember and the choreography is a sure-fire Oscar win. Director Jon Chu absolutely nailed it. Bravo, sir.

I now have to consider that Almira Gulch had a good reason to snatch poor Toto

And that’s the internal conflict I have over Wicked. I am being entertained watching the worst segments of first-world society wallowing in their brokenness. I am now rooting for the icon I once considered to be the embodiment of evil (poor Toto in her basket enrages me to this day). Where once I was content with a magical story about true good truimphing over true evil, I’m now forced back into the cruel realities of adulthood…that appearances are often deceiving and that presented perceptions must always be challenged. And maybe most of all, that I have been entertained by watching it all unfold.

Even so, I’ll freely admit to being visually enthralled and intellectually entertained by Wicked and am giving it a deserved 4.2 out of 5. While it’s not as fanciful and pure of heart as last year’s Christmas juggernaut Wonka, it is none-the-less easily worth your time and corn. Enjoy it. Try not to think about it too much. Or do. Your choice.

Not for nothing

Maybe worth noting, maybe not…I counted exactly ONE little person in Munchkinland. Whoever thought THAT was a good idea?

*The Average Dude is not including the whole remote viewing of a ‘live’ performance thing. In my opinion, those are a shameless money grab that absolutely robs the remote audience of the full theater experience.

**Cue the morally outraged who will either claim the mother’s victimhood by way of neglect and roofie or the ones clutching pearls over her selfish infidelity.

***a very purposeful choice of words.

Check out all the Average Dude Movie Reviews and our super cool merch at www.barredlands.com

Follow us on X

Follow and Like us on Facebook

#barredlandsdotcom #AverageDudeMovieReviews #PCLoadletter64 #Wicked #ArianaGrande #CynthiaErivo #JeffGoldblum

Gladiator 2  Second verse, same as the first

I think that reviewers have long held a sort of de facto distain for sequels and that’s not without merit. We can all point to numerous second acts that were downright awful. Certainly, that list is much, much longer than the very short list of sequels that were better than the first.* But that might be a tad unfair, too. Some sequels, while paling next to the movie that gave them life, can certainly stand on their own. Die Hard 2 is a great example. Beverly Hills Cop 2 is another. And Gladiator 2 falls into that catagory also.

The devil you know or the devils you don’t?

Gladiator 2 picks up the story of Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius 16 years after his death. The dream that was Rome has not only failed after Maxumus’ sacrifice, it has fallen to even greather depths of depravity. The Empire is now ruled by Emperors Geta an Caracalla, twins, during a period of great unrest and instability.

And, as is the norm with sequels, the ante is always upped. Geta and Caracalla are even more decadent and unhinged than their predecesor Commodus (played magnificently by Joquin Phoenix). One seeks to amass more wealth to pay for their extravagances by way of war (I guess just taxing the populus didn’t cover expenses). The other one was just bat-shite crazy, assumedly by way of syphilis.

They say you can crush a man’s head

As in the original, the moral center of the movie and the Empire was the leader of the Roman Legions, General Acacius. While dutifully carrying out the orders of Emperor Geta, Acacius (played by over-rated but also wasted in this role Pedro Pascal) limply laments the fallen state of the once great Roman empire. In a true Roman twist of fate, his armies attacked a city where lived a young husband, fisher and part-time soldier named Hanno (Paul Mescal). Only after the city was sacked, his wife killed (by Acacius, of course) and he taken as a slave, did Hanno learn that he was indeed, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen reprising her role) and Maximus, Lucius Verus.

Also akin to the original, opportunist and purveyor of human colosseum-foder Macrinus (Denzel Washington) sees the seething rage of Hanno and plans to harness that elemental force to make him a champion. It was only later (and in a very murky fashion) that we learned Macrinus’ true aim was to gain control of the whole of Rome.

Don’t forget about Legend

Director Ridley Scott is almost as famous for his monumental duds as he is for his unforgetable truimphs, and lately he has had more of the former than the latter. Napoleon, House of Gucci and now Gladiator 2, all fall very short of the incredibly high bar he has set for himself (The Martian, Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner, to name a few). The good still far outshine the bad, IMO.

Did Gladiator 2 jump the shark?

The special effects were especially on point in Gladiator 2. The fight sequences were very well done and suitably gorey. I was suprised to learn that there were in fact, naval battles (called naumachiae) reenacted in the colosseum. Whatever else you might say about the ancient Romans, they were ingenius. And while hungry sharks might have been Hollywood upping that ante, the Average Dude abides.

In the end, I’m giving Gladiator 2 a decent 3.2 out of 5. It absolutely suffers by comparison to the original, which won Best Picture in 2000. But I think that, if it were not living in that shadow, it would have been a suitably entertaining sword and sandal flick. Let the mainstream movie philosophers debate its very obvious similarities to the first and glaring flaws in the town square. We will feel free to enjoy it for its own sake.

Not that I don’t wish there were…

Oh and not for nothing…I saw an advertisement for this movie during football this week, claiming that ‘Gladiator 2 was the biggest hit of the year’. Ummm, did they all just forget about Deadpool and Wolverine? Heck, it wasn’t even the biggest SEQUEL of the year. There were twelve sequels that ranked higher than Gladiator 2  (17th). See, this is why you need The Average Dude…someone like you who will tell you straight up and simply if a movie will be worth your time and try to find something positive if at all possible. I’m not trying to justify a payday. There is no payday here. Just the honest truth.

What can I say except You’re Welcome!

Check out all the Average Dude Movie Reviews and our super cool merch at www.barredlands.com

Follow us on X

Follow and Like us on Facebook

#barredlandsdotcom #AverageDudeMovieReviews #PCLoadletter64 #Gladiator 2 #RidleyScott #Denzel Washington #PaulMescal