John Lennon, meet Forrest Gump
That TV/Web spot where John Lennon is used as spokesman for a program to donate laptops to the world’s poorest children is just a really bad idea on so many levels.
OK, for starters, a lot of folks just find it “creepy” to see a dead man talking about something that didn’t even exist in his lifetime, even if it is for a charity.
That doesn’t bother me as much as the producers deciding that rather than piece together a Lennon message through artful editing of clips of him really talking — even if that meant going without him actually saying the word “laptop” — it was better to write a script and have an imitator speak for Lennon. Bad precedent and really presumptuous. I can’t believe Yoko Ono actually approved it.
But the worst thing about the One Laptop Per Child spot is that it’s just really poorly done, and the fact that it’s for a good cause doesn’t excuse the cheapening of Lennon’s image. The simulated Lennon voice sounds more like Nasty from the Rutles or a Julian Lennon imitator. And the brief video bit of Lennon at the end with new lips superimposed to match what he’s supposed to be saying is really cheesy, like something out of “Forrest Gump.” Or worse, those comedy bits Conan O’Brien does with a celebrity picture where the mouth has been cut out and someone’s lips are inserted saying silly things.
And that’s my main complaint about the spot: It’s cheap-looking. Amateurish. And not worthy of Lennon.
AT THE MOVIES: I’ve mentioned before our family tradition of the past 10 years or so in which we go to see a movie on Dec. 30. Since I didn’t get home from work until quarter to 10 last night, we had to catch the late show at the local AMC multiplex, which by the way badly needs a technical upgrade. The intro to the film cut off for a couple of minutes with the lights coming back up, and once the film started it was the noisiest projector I’ve heard in many years — it took me back to what it was like to sit in the back of the classroom when we watched movies in school.
Anyway, the film we chose was worth the trouble. It was “Valkyrie,” the Tom Cruise thriller about the July 20, 1944, attempt by a bunch of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Despite us knowing going in that the plot failed, director Bryan Singer managed to build and sustain the suspense nicely. Cruise was good as the would-be assassin, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, once you got used to his decision not to even attempt a German accent, and the supporting cast, largely consisting of British actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Terence Stamp, was superb. The film did a good job of showing how these German officers were willing to commit treason, on pain of death if they failed, to try and “save” Germany from Hitler. And why others were willing to look the other way but wouldn’t lift a hand to help the conspirators.
My only real complaint about “Valkyrie” is that while we were introduced to Stauffenberg’s loving wife (terrific Dutch actress Carice van Houten of “Black Book” fame) and kids, not enough time was spent on their life together and what Cruise’s character was risking. It would have made us care about his character a bit more. (Not to mention the fact that van Houten is criminally underused in her role.)
Still, if WWII flicks are to your liking, I can recommend this one.
ON THE TUBE: So often these days the guests on the late-night talk shows focus pretty much on what they’re there to plug and don’t have much else to offer, so it’s a welcome change when someone comes on who’s a great storyteller. That was the case one recent night when Dustin Hoffman was on “Late Show With David Letterman.” Hoffman told some hilarious stories from the days when he was a struggling actor rooming with Bob Duval in New York City. But best of all was a tale CBS had to bleep slightly from when Hoffman was shooting “Tootsie” and was in drag as his character Dorothy and got on an elevator with actor Jose Ferrer, whom he’d admired since boyhood. He decided to do Dorothy and see if he could fool Ferrer, and the older actor bought it. As honey-drawling Dorothy, Hoffman buttered up Ferrer and then cooingly asked to perform an oral sex act on him. That drew a big laugh from the Letterman audience — and a terrific stunned take from bandleader Paul Shaffer — but the punch line was Ferrer’s answer after a long pause … “Not right now.” You can see the clip on Letterman’s Web site at:
THIRTY YEARS ON: We recently published the 30th anniversary issue of Beatlefan magazine and veteran Beatles fan site Webmaster Steve Marinucci asked to do an interview with me for Examiner.com. You can read it at:
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billking) wrote,
contemplative
